I’ve been told many times over the years that my approach to cooking is weird. Namely, I view recipes the way the Pirate’s Code is viewed in Pirates of the Caribbean — I think of it more as a set of guidelines. When I’m in the mood to make something new, my method is to look up as many different variations on that recipe I can find, pick and choose the ones I like, and make the rest up. Consequently, I don’t actually have solid recipes so much as basic concepts I re-use and tweak based on what’s in my refrigerator and what I feel like eating that day. I have tried submitting these as recipes with notes like “improvise here!” and “change this for this new form of the same thing!”, but I have been roundly told that that is not how recipes work. Which, as far as I’m concerned, sucks.

One of my favorite bases is something I found online that was called “bread pudding muffins.” The idea was that you took a cupcake liner, filled it with stale bread and half an egg, and baked it. And that’s a cool enough idea, but it’s super boring and clearly demands improvisation. But after two years of using this idea as a base, it has become my favorite thing ever. I eagerly await us having enough stale bread to make this. I’ve tried every variation under the sun. Sometimes I make it in cupcake tins. Sometimes I make it in a pan as a bake. I’ll add veggies, fruits, beans, spices, bacon, or pretty much whatever I can find hiding in my refrigerator. You can do anything with this. The sky is your limit. These two years of bread pudding experimentation have been delicious ones, and I have desperately wanted to write about this, only to realize that “get bread, eggs, and improvise!” did not pass muster as a recipe. And so I held off until I found one variation on it I loved enough to post.

I am proud to announce that I have found that variation.

Julia’s French Toast Pudding

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• ½ loaf of bread, cut in bite-sized cubes
• 7 eggs
• 1 heaping cup of strawberries, diced
• ½ cup raisins
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F.
2. Mix the bread, strawberries, and raisins together in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Hint: use actual maple syrup. I was, as a born and raised New Englander, distressed to learn that when most people say “maple syrup,” they mean “corn syrup that is flavored in a maple-like fashion.” Don’t subject yourself to such indignities. Go for the real stuff. Life is too short for fake maple syrup.
4. Pour the egg mixture over your dry ingredients, mix with a spoon until the egg has coated all the bread bits.
5. Grease a 12″x12″ pan. Do not go lightly on the grease (I’ve found that canola oil works best, but Crisco will do). Eggs are sticky. You’ll thank me later.
6. Pour your egg and bread mixture into the greased pan, spread evenly.
7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the egg mixture is solid and no liquid runs if you tilt the pan.

Suggestions: While this is good at any time, and I did eat it for basically every meal of my day, it’s best for breakfast and it’s best fresh. The bulk of prep time comes from cutting the bread and strawberries, so do that the night before and throw the rest together in the morning.

Paula Deen told Today that she doesn’t plan on changing the way she does her show just because she has Type 2 diabetes, and I for one applaud that.

I don’t watch any of Deen’s shows to find out how I can lose weight and look like a Men’s Health cover model. I tune in to see how she cooks rich foods. I could stand to lose a few pounds and I take high blood pressure medication, but eating some of what Paula Deen cooks on her TV shows isn’t going to harm me unless I eat them all of the time.

Did Deen preach “moderation” like she’s been saying in recent interviews? I don’t know. I didn’t watch her show that closely and I’m not going to do a Lexis-Nexus search for the keywords “Paula Deen” and “moderation.” But I am sure she didn’t say “eat this stuff for every single day of your life.” I think that television creates this illusion of steadiness and consistency that really doesn’t exist. Meaning, because Deen is on our televisions every single day that means that she eats this stuff every single day and she’s hoping we do too. But if she had a monthly show or quarterly specials we probably wouldn’t say that she’s “pushing” this lifestyle and this type of diet.

I can’t say that the food that Deen cooks on the show didn’t contribute to her diabetes, but no one can honestly say that she ate the stuff morning, noon, and night and that’s why she’s overweight and that’s why she has diabetes, no doubt whatsoever. Diabetes is a complex thing, and heredity and a sedentary lifestyle contribute to it just as much as being overweight (good thing Wikipedia is back so I can look this stuff up!). I know three people with Type 2 diabetes, and all three of them are skinnier and in better shape than I am. I know about a dozen really, really fat people, and none of them have diabetes and their blood pressure is fine. Anecdotal evidence? Maybe. But like I said, diabetes is a complex thing.

Anthony Bourdain has been on Deen’s case way before her diabetes reveal, calling her “the most dangerous woman in America” because of the way she cooks. I could name 37 females on reality TV that are more dangerous, but that’s beside the point. A lot has been made of the infamous episode where Deen put a burger between two glazed doughnuts. Yes, she was saying that you should eat this every single day. People are so stupid.

I contend that if you hate the way that Paula Deen cooks, in a way you hate America.

Being preached a healthy life style from someone who goes around the world eating warthog rectums and sheep testicles is something I never thought I’d experience. Bourdain is making a cottage industry out of insulting other people who cook stuff he doesn’t approve of. First Rachael Ray, then Sandra Lee, now Deen (he insulted Emeril Lagasse and Guy Fieri somewhere along the way too, so you can’t say he’s a sexist). I’d rather eat at the home of either Lee or Deen than Bourdain’s home (though he’s a better writer than either of them). As the old saying goes, diabetes is better for you than sheep testicles.

I mean, does the guy even cook anymore?

If Paula Deen wants to use the word moderation more and tweak her show a little bit to make things healthier, that’s great. If her sons want to come out with cookbooks that preach a healthy lifestyle, that’s great too. If she wants to take a diabetes medication and exercise more, no one’s going to say that’s a bad thing. But to say that she’s a hypocrite or scheming if she continues to make high-fat meals on her show and at the same time push a diabetes drug just doesn’t make any sense. And the fact that she waited three years to reveal it to her fans doesn’t bother me a bit. A lot of people have secrets in their lives that they hold on to tightly because they’re not ready to reveal it, for personal and yes (gasp!) professional reasons. I don’t know if she didn’t tell anyone because it would somehow interfere with her career, but even if she did, so what? It would be weird if she didn’t keep it secret, wouldn’t it?

Should an alcoholic be barred from being a bartender? Maybe for his personal physical and mental health, but just because an alcoholic is a bartender doesn’t mean he’s preaching alcoholism or even potential alcoholism to the customers who come into the bar. That’s up to them (and this is where people accuse me of comparing alcoholism with diabetes, which both misses and confuses the point all at the same time — congratulations!).

Every single cook on television, from Julia Child to Graham Kerr to Guy Fieri, has cooked food that one could call “unhealthy.” But I contend that they’re aren’t any “unhealthy” foods if you don’t eat them all the time.

Except warthog rectums. That stuff will kill you.

I have a vendetta against restaurants. It’s a thing.

First of all, the word “restaurant” is just really irritating to spell. That u always evades me. Where does it go? Why does it look wrong no matter where I put it? I also have a phobia of restaurants that stems from a childhood bout of food poisoning in one, which doesn’t help matters. But most of all, I really hate “quality” restaurant menus. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I feel like I’ve been set up on an awkward blind date with the menu. It’s a perfectly nice menu, but it’s like the kind of menu that’s never gotten laid and is trying way too hard to impress me by appearing more worldly and cultured. I am never attracted to that person/menu. I usually end up sleeping with the Kid’s Menu, their much sexier younger sibling, and the waiters all judge me for it. “The kid’s menu?” They ask, like I’m one of those middle-aged men who refuse to date anyone over the age of thirty. “I mean, I guess you could order from that if you want…”

Yes, yes I do want.

Here’s the thing, pretentious grown-up menu; I’m not going to sleep with you. I’m never going to sleep with you. This means you need to stop doing a few things. For one, stop trying to make what you’re offering sound sexier than it is. A hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger. So let’s make a deal; you don’t describe it as a like “a juicy quarter-pound succulent patty” and I, in turn, won’t be an awful person and say something like “yes, I’d like that slab of dubiously cooked ground-up dead cow meat.”

I came across this problem recently on a family trip when we were eating out – which is something I normally never do or enjoy doing. The first night out, I ordered grilled chicken breast stuffed with brie, caramelized onions, and basil. (I apologize. I know I’m railing against pretentious food, but I’m pretty sure stuffed chicken isn’t actually that pretentious.) With it they advertized “a light potato and horseradish fondu”. I had no idea what the fuck that meant. Would my chicken come in cubes and I’d have to dip it? Did fondue become classier when you dropped the e? What on earth was going on? It turns on that what they meant by that mess of gourmet jibber-jabber was finely mashed potatoes with horseradish.

It drives me crazy that restaurants always take a perfectly good regular dish and try to add something crazy to it to make it “classier”. You don’t need to add sage to mac and cheese. If I order a salad, I don’t want half an orchard and maybe goat cheese in there as well. (My parents and sister love this trend. I don’t get it. I also don’t get why putting vinegar on it suddenly makes it delicious, or whatever.) And for the love of God, can we all just get together and stop trying to make arugula happen? It’s never going to happen. (This also came with my chicken. I ignored it as garnish.)

Let’s be honest – arugula tastes like dirt and poo. It’s not like spinach or kale or a nice dark leafy green that if sauteed properly with garlic, becomes delectable. It always tastes like dirt and poo, no matter what you do to it. Also, for some reason, you can never cook arugula, it always must be “lightly wilted”, which brings me back to my first point. I understand there are people who like arugula, but to me they are roughly as crazy as people who voluntarily tune in for Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

I fundamentally do not believe anyone likes arugula the same way I fundamentally do not believe that people enjoy going to movies where everyone dies at the end because it’s “great art that tells you about the human condition”. I believe that these are the sorts of things people pretend to like because it makes them seem cultured, when in reality we’re all just giant kids who want happy endings and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And until you realize that, I’m sorry, but I’m going to order of the kid’s menu, and yes, I am 22, and no, I don’t care how patronizing your face is. Because I will never like portobello mushrooms or capers. I’m just not that kind of girl. And maybe, if you can’t realize that, we’d just be better seeing other people.

Something really, really bad happened this week. Let me start at the beginning. Years ago, while vacationing in New Hampshire, we came upon the quaintest little health food store you ever did see. It was there that we discovered carob mint coated rice cakes, health food’s answer to the perfect dessert. Every year when we went back, we indulged in the precious snack that tastes so sinful yet has absolutely nothing bad in it.

We haven’t had them in years, and to make a very long story — one that has something to do with ordering Easter candy for our no-sugar kid — short, we found some online and ordered them, devoured them and found some more at a local health food store (who knew?!) only to begin devouring those. It’s become a carob-coated rice cake festival round here. My favorite are the mint, but we’ve since branched out to the almond butter flavored ones as well.

Another long story about Keith, weight loss and the Lose It! iPhone app brought us to the very, very bad thing: the evil, Satan-created carob mint coated rice cakes have 200 calories each! Yeah, you read that right. You tell me how it is even remotely possible to take a 30 calorie snack and wrap 170 calories around it. For days now, devastation has permeated the usually upbeat mood of our household. Keith and I will pass each other in a room, glance up at one another and mumble, “Two-hundred calories….” and just keep right on walking. I don’t know if the disbelief outweighs the sadness … it’s a crapshoot.

I’ll get to the point: we’re looking for alternatives and I found this recipe for carob mint candy that has so much honey and coconut in it that you know it probably has more than 200 calories but I still feel compelled to make it, for the sheer principle of the thing.

Or maybe these layered carob mint candies, which still likely have calories and are probably impossible to make (I believe that you can blend shredded coconut into the consistency of butter about as much as I believe carob-coated rice cakes have 200 calories).

I’m desperate. I’m not a calorie counter by nature, by will or by any standards whatsoever, but to find out something that I’ve been eating with wild abandon actually has a caloric content about four times as large as I would have guessed has thrown me, people. The universe is not benevolent. Am I supposed to cut them in half? In quarters? Save some for later? I’ve never felt so indecisive. Oh, the drama!

When push comes to shove, you know I’ll be eating the carob mint coated rice cakes the same as before I knew how many calories were in them — maybe slightly less often. And probably I’ll still try making the candy recipes I found someday. Has anyone else ever had such a total food shocker that they couldn’t believe what they learned was true?

Just like last year, Keith and I celebrated New Year’s Eve at around 7:00, with a fancy dining room table meal with the now 6-year-old. We decided to fancy up last year’s rack of lamb (the pre-seasoned Trader Joe’s version) and make this recipe for roast lamb with lamb sausage crust and grape pan sauce from Epicurious instead.

Words cannot describe how worth it making this recipe was. It was a lot more work than Trader Joe’s, but every bite was heaven. Although I kept thinking that this meal probably would have killed Kona. …

We served the lamb and sauce with rice cooker drunken risotto and haricots verts with fresh sage and pancetta (which admittedly were leftovers that Bob made for our Christmas celebration the night before).

For dessert we tried La Tartine Gourmande’s baked lime custards with raspberries. The flavor combination of lime, ginger, coconut milk and raspberries is so perfect and the texture so light that I didn’t even mourn the fact that my dessert wasn’t chocolate. This will be the next dessert we serve for guests.

You may be out partying, but I’m about to go to the fridge for a second lime custard. I wouldn’t trade places with you for all of the champagne in the world. Although if you offered me lime custard, I might be in a bit of a quandary.

I’m at a real disadvantage this year … my cookie swap partners have abandoned me! Two are dieting and another has developed multiple food allergies so I’m baking by my lonesome. During the holidays, I like to bring a cookie tray with me to every gathering, so that I know Owen has a dessert he can eat. These are a few of the cookies and bars that have made it to my tray this year:

I make these chewy ginger cookies every year. I really want to make my friend Michelle’s (former cookie swapper extraordinaire) ginger cookies, but I’ve written about her before … she’s the one who clearly leaves out ingredients (or adds ones she doesn’t tell us about) to make us all beg her to bake for us. It’s a cruel trick — nothing ever comes out as good as when Michelle bakes it.

I’ve made these chewy chocolate cinnamon cookies before, but I wish I had made a few notes when last I baked them. I used agave instead of the corn syrup and palm sugar instead of refined sugar, but I really, really needed to cut back the amount. These are far too sweet for my tastes (but I bet most people with a sweet tooth would devour them). I like a cookie heavy on the chocolate and light on the sweet … these do not fit the bill. I did remember that they weren’t cinnamon-y enough for me last time, so I added 1/2 teaspoon to the batter as well as to the rolling sugar (turbinado — look how big and sparkly it is). I’ll try these again next year because the texture is fantastic … but I’ll make them for my tastes instead!

You’re also going to want to cut back the sugar in these triple chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies, but you do want to bake them (and you do want to use the parchment paper … it’s magic). They taste even better than they sound, if that’s at all possible. Somehow I’m always lazy and I skip the white chocolate drizzle part; this year, I froze them before that step, so we’ll see if I do it after the thaw. I’m betting laziness takes over.

I made these chocolate raspberry crumb bars in all of their evil goodness. They are perfect just the way they are … if you want to spike your blood sugar, overload your mucus membranes with dairy and get a wicked headache from the wheat. What do you mean, that’s just me? I found a few substitutions that worked fabulously in a very similar recipe …

… for chocolate mint bars. These are getting rave reviews from all who try them. I made the basic dough with spelt flour and palm sugar, and instead of sweetened condensed milk, I used agave syrup and coconut milk. Ghiradelli chocolate chips and mint extract made the minty part. And I left out the walnuts to satisfy the multiple food allergy people in my life. It’s all good.

These chocolate crinkles I didn’t make (yet!), but I’m a sucker for chocolate and a sucker for a crinkle. This recipe calls for a holy load of sugar though, and I know they’d be too sweet for me. When I make these, I’ll cut the sugar way back and probably roll the dough in a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Because more chocolate can never be a bad thing.

You know it wouldn’t be a post from me without a perfectly healthy dessert option — these cookie cutter cookies are it. No, I’m not making them, but it’s not because I don’t think they’d be tasty … I’m simply a drop-cookie gal. Yep, it’s because I’m lazy.

I had every intention of making Heidi Swanson’s recipe for a turnip green tart for dinner this week. Wait for it….

OK, not exactly, because I had chard in the house, not turnip greens. The rest was going to be exactly the same. Except….

Heidi’s recipe makes two tarts worth of dough, which I didn’t want to do but I just wasn’t in the mood to figure out how to make half of an egg yolk, so I found another cornmeal tart crust that didn’t have egg in it. And I used all spelt flour and cornmeal, no regular flour. One problem solved. But….

I was too lazy to use two large eggs and one egg yolk, so I just tossed in three extra-large eggs and hoped for the best. You’d think that was all….

There’s just never any cream in our house; heavy, light, half-and-half — nothing. So I used plain goat’s milk yogurt instead.

And I didn’t measure my chard, I just threw in what I had.

And I had no vegetable broth, so I used chicken broth. No Dijon mustard, so whole grain went into my concoction.

Gruyere cheese? Nope. My tart had shredded goat cheddar and pecorino romano.

I guess I used one clove of garlic and herbs de Provence like Heidi did….

When a chill in the air rears its ugly head, I crave soup. I’m not a big fan of winter, but I adore the fall and I’ll tell you that by the end of summer, I’m getting a little sick of grilled meals … I long for the comfort foods that sustain me through the cold months here in New England.

You knew Heidi Swanson was going to show up on this list sooner or later, so we might as well get it out of the way with her dried fava bean soup with mint and guajillo chiles. Wow, does this sound unique and hearty and interesting and complex. I’m anxious to try this one.

The opposite of that gorgeous, complex soup above has got to be this gluten-free black bean soup with chorizo. I’m not one to criticize a soup with only five ingredients (anyone smell a lie?), but I just can’t imagine this time-saver is worth my time … though there is that argument that almost anything with chorizo in it is worth eating. What do you think?

Now that I’ve got chorizo on the brain, this sweet potato chorizo soup recipe may be just thing to make me forget about that bizarre recipe above.

Lately, when I think of soup, I admit that my egomaniacal self thinks of my very own minestrone my way. We all love this soup so much in my house that it’s one I make often, and thanks to the glut of veggies from our farm this summer, we’ve got some frozen for those lazy winter days too.

Molly makes her rustic cabbage and white bean soup in a pressure cooker, a tool I lately reserve for cooking corn on the cob. Really, when I used to make complex stews in it, I’m not sure how it got relegated to corn status … maybe it’s time I give this soup a try because I love just about anything with cabbage in it.

Cate says she makes the best vegetable soup you’ll ever have — could she possibly be right? Her recipe is very similar to me minestrone recipe, but I like the way she leaves it open to trying different vegetables in the recipe, and I love the way she includes cabbage — brilliant.

Before my minestrone my way, there was easy lentil and vegetable soup, my go-to recipe. Now I have to go back and forth between the two and it’s always such a hard decision to choose which one to make. This one’s got corn, a big it with the kid….

Cate makes some serious soups and her pasta e fagioli, though she says it’s very nontraditional, is no exception. Pasta, beans and veggies? Yes, please!

This easy vindaloo squash soup has very few ingredients. It’s basically an acorn squash soup highlighted with some vindaloo spices to make it different. Love it!

Bob has made Tyler Florence’s clam chowder several times, and I’ve been the recipient of a bowl or two. He mixes it up a bit my using sweet potatoes and white potatoes, but this is a really great recipe.

How interesting does apple mulligatawny soup with chicken sound? Apples, winter squash, curry, coconut, fresh ginger … I’m all over this, and the fact that I have every ingredient for this soup in my house right now if both exciting and scary at the same time. You totally want to be here when a natural or man-made disaster strikes. We could eat for years.

Something about this very simple broccoli soup appeals to me. I’d definitely use plain yogurt instead of heavy cream, and I’d probably leave out the flour. But I’ve been craving broccoli (not a vegetable we got a lot of from our CSA farm this summer) and this just sounded so perfectly lovely to me.

I give the credit to Keith for this one, because I would have just done takeout after this busy week. But seeing as he was willing to make this ribeye steak with sauteed grape tomatoes and brie, the least I could do was something beside steamed green beans.

After blanching the green beans, I sauteed them with garlic, sliced scallions, chopped Roma tomatoes and chopped Kalamata olives. When done, I sprinkled with a bit of fresh parley and some freshly grated pecorino romano cheese.

We rounded out the meal with half a butternut squash, simply baked at 400 degrees until tender, with a bit of olive oil.

Simple, but with just a few special touches to make our meal feel more like a weekend feast than a weeknight necessity eat.

Cooper just turned two, so it stands to reason that he’s obsessed with Elmo. Elmo, after all, is the Muppet equivalent of Cheerios, AKA “baby crack.” There’s something primal about babies’ love for both of these things that I simply do not understand (although I do think that Elmo’s World is a perfect example of absurdist humor, but that’s a different post for a different time). So when it was time to figure out Cooper’s birthday cake, Elmo immediately came to mind.

This was going to be for the big party; the one to which we invited all of the kids from his daycare, so naturally I wanted to do something special. I decorated my first cake for his birthday last year, and was quite happy with the way it turned out. However, I’m certainly not an artist, so I needed to find something that was basically “cake decorating for dummies.”

I searched online and came across this design for Elmo cupcakes on amazingmoms.com. Amazing mom? That’s what I want to be! It seemed pretty simple: red frosting, white Necco wafers, black icing, and orange gumdrops. They say to use a licorice strand for the mouth, but I decided to just use the black decorator icing that I was already using for the eyes. Plus, I couldn’t find orange gumdrops that weren’t gigantic, so I used orange jelly beans instead. The recipe does mention using gel food coloring in order to get a true red, so I made sure to get some.

Unfortunately, that’s where the train went off the track. My friend Elizabeth came over to help me out, as she knows that I tend to melt down when faced with artistic baking endeavors. In addition to some wine (a key ingredient when trying anything new), she brought over some decorating bags, tips, and some Wilton food coloring gel. Here’s the thing though: that business did not turn red. Instead, the icing turned a crazy Barbie hot pink. We added more and it just became darker pink. We added blue, and it just turned a lovely shade of mauve. WE CAN’T HAVE MAUVE ELMOS!

After spending close to an hour playing food-coloring alchemists, I made a last minute late-night run to the grocery store. I returned with red decorating icing– the kind that comes in a can and has a few different decorating tips. It looked kind of gross, but it was 11:00 and I was desperate. The plus side: It was red. Unfortunately, I was only able to get 11 cupcakes out of it.

The end result, at nearly 1 AM and after several glasses of wine between the two of us, was 11 red Elmos, 1 sad mauve Elmo, and two dozen lame mauve cupcakes. Some would call this a failure, but the next morning, when Cooper was sitting on my lap as I loaded the photos onto my computer, he saw the pictures and squealed, “Elmo!” And that, my friends, is a big win.

Martha Stewart I’m not…. In between being Owen’s mom, Keith’s wife, teaching, writing for CliqueClack and trying to keep house, well, one of those gets sorely neglected. Honestly, I think it’s the right one because I’m pretty sure that I won’t look back on life in 20 years wishing I had cleaned and organized my house more often and I’m definitely sure that on the worst of nights, my family is better-fed than most American families.

Still, whipping up this almond and basil crusted salmon and a layered potato and goat cheese thingy (which I will definitely name better if I decide to post the recipe) with some fresh green beans made me feel better about myself. With five ingredients, you can’t go wrong with this crust.

Almond and Basil Crusted Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons capers
• salmon fillets

Pulse the first five ingredients in a mini food processor. If you want it to be more paste-like, you can add some olive oil as well and puree it to a smoother texture.

Spread the mixture on top of the salmon fillets and bake at 400 degrees until done, which is not very long, about 15 minutes give or take, but pull it out and check it at about 10 minutes, just in case. Don’t overcook your salmon; that’s just wrong in every way.

Serve with your choice of a side dish and enjoy the ease of this meal while feeling a little like Martha Stewart for a night.

Nothing makes me happier than a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes sitting on my kitchen island. Believe me, between our CSA farm harvest and the plants we have in our own yard, it’s a lot of cherry tomatoes. With the tomato blight last season, I’m not really used to the abundance of tomatoes, though. I’m not complaining, but I am looking for more things to do with the cherry tomatoes beyond munching a few every time I pass the bowl.

My brainstorming and an exhaustive internet search (with a big thanks to ChowHound’s cherry tomato topic page) has found a use for every cherry tomato in my bowl, and then some.

1. We cooked this wonderful recipe for slow baked cherry tomatoes with garlic and mint which made amazing sound like an understatement.
2. I’ve also made a great appetizer in the past, cherry tomatoes stuffed with marinated feta.
3. Halve cherry tomatoes and toss them into some quinoa tabouleh.
4. Make this tomato caramelized onion tart. Only three ingredients plus a tart shell, but I’d add some garlic too.
5. Epicurious has a super-easy (five ingredients and a little olive oil) recipe for chicken breasts with yellow grape tomatoes, but you could use any cherry tomato. I’ve made this, and the earth moved.
6. Or this recipe for spicy roast chicken with tomatoes and marjoram might do the trick.
7. I can’t click away from Epicurious … and why should I when they offer up recipes like this pasta with Kalamata olives and roasted cherry tomato sauce? Made this one too … so good that Keith even ate olives!

What have you been making with your cherry tomatoes?

I may not be writing much these days, but our CSA farm’s harvest has been so plentiful this season that I’ve been busy blanching and freezing green and yellow beans, making salsa from the Roma tomatoes and making and freezing fresh tomato sauce for this winter. Oh, there have been some batches of my easy lentil vegetable soup in there as well, and now I’ve got a new recipe for minestrone soup to share with you.

My friend Laura and I have mastered the art of the “found” lunch. Every so often we have a lunch playdate and we each just bring what we’ve got and we end up with a spread fit for a king — or at least two five-year-olds and their moms. Homemade hummus, veggies sticks, fresh fruit, homemade bread and raw seed wafers are often on the menu, and last week when we met at Laura’s house, she had some fresh, homemade minestrone soup to share with us — made from her CSA farm harvest.

When we got back from the farm this weekend, we were quite overwhelmed by the amount of food we had. I was prepared to cook up a huge batch of my favorite lentil soup (again) when Keith asked me if there was a green bean soup recipe we could do. I immediately thought of Laura’s minestrone, chock-full of green beans, and thought I’d take a stab at my own version of minestrone — a soup I’d never made before.

I popped by Food Network’s website to see when to add the pasta and one other little tip caught my eye: In their version of minestrone soup, they mash half of the kidney beans to make a thicker, more flavorful broth. Yes please! So I stole that idea and gleefully mashed my kidney beans. The rest is all me — I swear!

Minestrone My Way

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, diced
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 zucchini, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3-4 cups green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
• 4 tomatoes, diced
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained, and mash half the beans
• 8 cups water
• 2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon veggie base (or thereabouts)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound pasta (I used brown rice penne)
• about 4-6 kale leaves, chopped into 1/4 – 1/2 inch sections
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated

Heat some olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic until fragrant, about one minute. Add the carrots and zucchini and cook until tender, about five minutes.

Next, add water, Better than Bouillon, tomatoes and green beans and bring to a simmer. Add the pasta and simmer for about 10 minutes. Toss in herbs and seasoning, kidney beans (mashed and whole) and kale and cook until heated through. Add parsley and remove from heat.

This soup is designed to be served with lots of freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese. If you plan to veganize it — gasp! — you might want to add a bit more of the Better than Bouillon to compensate for the lack of salty cheesy goodness.

When in graduate school a couple years ago, I spent most of my paid time crushing undergraduate dreams and my free time cooking\baking everything from fried twinkies to fresh eclairs to homemade pizzas. Upon returning to the real world and discovering that outside the hallowed halls of academia — with working almost 9-10 hours a day, sleeping for barely 8, and spending 3 getting ready for work, contemplating exercising, and not finishing the dissertation, allotting my remaining three hours of free time to daily cooking did not seem wise. However, since returning to the East Coast, I finally decided to return to the world of human food consumption. Surprisingly, my local Chinatown helped. Why?

Three reasons:

Reason 1: Fresh, cheap produce. For $4.92 two weeks ago, I purchased cilantro, bok choy, spinach, tomatoes, and scallions.

Reason 2: This relates to reason 1. You can easily use the fresh vegetables to spice up a pre-made dish. I tend to purchase Udon noodle packages for a buck from the grocery store. In the morning, I chop enough vegetables for a small Tupperware container. When I arrive at work, I combine the udon and vegetables together in the same bowl, microwave them with water for about two-three minutes, and then add the broth’s seasoning package. If I have extra time, I’ll add chili sauce, lemon juice, cilantro, minced garlic, and/or scallions to create a flavorful broth. You can use ramen noodles. However, Udon noodles only contain 1-3 grams of fat per serving and typically cost only $1-1.72. If you want to feel uber-healthy, certain companies make buckwheat noodles, but those are typically dried and do not come with seasoning. If I’m in a fancy mood I’ll add a store bought package of Pad Thai to the vegetables and serve inside a porcelain bowl.

Reason 3: Food whimsy, experimentation, and remembrance. During my pre-adolescent summer years, my mother typically purchased a dozen seasoned pre-cooked crabs from the local seafood market. Upon discovering Chinatown distributors actually sold bushels of live crabs, I purchased 6 for $3.50. Admittedly, upon returning home and watching their snappish sauciness, I felt guilty using them for consumptive purposes. But, since I had had two different conversations with acquaintances from different perspectives (one, a vegetarian and another, a carnivore) who both believed carnivores should experience um, ‘preparing’ their own food at least once in their lives, I bucked up and contemplated the most humane possibility. After placing them in the refrigerator for half an hour and then in the freezer for another hour (or two) to instate dormancy, I slowly dropped them in (while trying to avoid analogizing myself with Jack the Ripper). With the deed done, but the guilt remaining, I tried to re-invoke my childhood by serving them with a seafood spice packet (received free from a local grocery store).

So, if you haven’t had time yet, do explore the ethnic food markets in your area. I not only found apple soda for my friend’s wife, but actually tried dried sweet potato as another dried fruit alternative. Even if your store’s pricing does not mimic the Chinatown in my area, they can offer a bit of whimsy, experimentation, and remembrance.

There’s a great article in the September issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Scott Peacock and Kim Severson discuss the return to the kitchen movement, that all across America home chefs are embracing their kitchen time and using fresh, wholesome ingredients that taste good and are good for you. And they’re enjoying it. Because of this, classic American cooking looks a bit different these days.

It was a really inspiring read and I couldn’t wait to try Peacock’s recipe for slow baked tomatoes with garlic and mint. It’s so simple (really only four main ingredients) that I almost didn’t believe it would turn out to be so spectacular, but it’s truly amazing. Tons of roasted garlic and mint infused into the olive oil that the tomatoes baked in for an hour. In the recipe online, they suggest serving on bread with goat cheese, but in the magazine they also mentioned over pasta would work.

I cooked up some penne and prepared Peacock’s recipe as-is — I know, it’s like I was possessed or something, but I swear I didn’t change a thing. Until I served it.

Keith grilled up some eggplant because I thought it would go wonderfully with the tomatoes and mint and we tossed that into the pasta, along with giant globs of goat cheese and Kalamata olives (well, none for Keith). I also made some turkey meatballs, which I’ll write about in another post, because vegetarian dishes aren’t really a meal for the carnivores I cook for.

We all yummed throughout the whole meal and I’d cook this up again in a heartbeat. The next time, I think I would try it on the bread as suggested, simply because there’s a lovely amount of infused olive oil left and some thick, crusty bread would soak it up to perfection. Although now I’m thinking this would be divine served over polenta….

UPDATE: My new favorite way to eat this recipe is as Kona suggested — over quinoa, with some chick peas added for extra protein. Yes, I got my boys to eat a vegetarian meal … alert the press. I save the polenta for the roasted green tomatoes, which is a perfect match.

My father basically sold me to a restaurant when I was 14. That may be exaggerating slightly, but the end result was that I spent every Saturday morning of my freshman through junior years of high school waiting tables for the breakfast and lunch shift of a busy local diner. After that, I spent a horrible summer as a hostess at an Outback, and just a couple of years ago, I briefly waited tables at a Polish diner in New York City. The point is, I am highly sympathetic to people who work in restaurants.

Of course, I’m human, so if the service is slow, or the waiter doesn’t refill my drink, or the food is bad, I of course don’t like that — but I rarely say or do anything about it. I naturally avoid confrontation to begin with, but after years of having people yell at me over eggs, I have no desire to even approach doing that to someone else. The few times I’ve ever sent something back, it’s been because I completely cannot eat it. i.e. there’s meat in it, or a hair. Other than that, I’ll just take what I’m given.

So I found myself in quite the quandary recently. Luke and I went to a restaurant whose service was so bad, that we were faced with the immortal question: should we just leave? This is how things went down:

7:05: We arrive at a new Italian restaurant in town. A man in a suit is at the door, and he shows us to a table upstairs.

7:10: We’re still sitting at the table, with no menus, water, or sign of anyone paying attention to us. The restaurant is busy, but not packed. they have a fair amount of business, but I notice that several tables are near the end of their meal. In other words, there has not been a recent influx of customers.

7:15: A busboy/back-waiter comes and fills our water glasses. He does not give us menus or speak to us at all.

7:20: Finally, our waiter arrives. He introduces himself, looks down at our table and says,” You don’t have menus.” He retrieves a couple, and proceeds to tell us about the specials. He gives us a wine list and tells us he’ll be back in a few minutes. This is a lie.

7:25: We’ve decided what we’d like to order.

7:30: Still no sign of our waiter.

735: We’re chatting, but we’re both distracted, because we’re looking around, trying to see if someone will notice us.

7:40: No one has noticed us.

7:45: We’re kind of getting pissed. We’ve been here the better part of an hour, and haven’t even had our drink order taken yet. We debate what to do. Do we tell someone? Do we leave? We don’t want to be assholes, but at this point, I don’t want to spend money at this place, because I know I’m just going to be pissed off when we get the bill. We decide to give them five more minutes, fully expecting someone to show up any second.

7:50: They don’t. It’s been almost an hour, and no one has shown any interest in serving us. We start thinking of all the better restaurants that are within a block of where we are, and how we’re starving. We decide to leave. We get up, look around, still see no sign of anyone, and head downstairs. I expect someone to stop us, and I have a crazy feeling that we’re going to get in trouble or something. We make our way outside without anyone noticing us.

7:55 We to another restaurant, sit on the patio, listen to live music, and have the most amazing dinner we’ve had in a long time. The night ends successfully.

I felt like a jerk, but it had been almost an hour. I’ve never walked out of a restaurant before, but we just crossed a point where I knew that any money I spent there was going to feel like money lost. Did we make the right move, or should we have found someone to speak to? What would you have done in this situation?

There they were, sitting right next to the watermelon … calling out to me. Plump, juicy, close by … irresistible. So four of those fresh figs found their way into my cart faster than my five-year-old could load it up with corn chips and hot dogs. I cook with dried figs often, but fresh figs are hard to come by in my area so I consider them to be something special.

I’m thinking of just stuffing them with some Gorgonzola and being done with it, because I’m not sure I can keep them away from my mouth long enough to actually use them in a recipe, or even a mildly creative way. That said, I’ve done a little searching and thought these recipes might be contenders.

Is it a waste to use them on a simple sandwich, because this prosciutto, goat cheese and fig sandwich sounds amazing. It’s got arugula!

I kind of like the salsa and the pork and fig kebabs on this site, and I suppose the citrus salad too, but I just can’t imagine making a big deal out of my figs … they are just so good on their own.

Fresh figs with goat cheese and peppered honey sounds just my style — four ingredients and nearly-instant gratification.

I really think I’m off to make that last one pretty much now … what would you do with your fresh figs?

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. Hopefully the weather will stick around long after September first, the day Owen starts kindergarten. I’m not fretting too much about it, since he’s only going for a half day — one that’s shorter than his preschool day. That’s right, folks — my son will be released for the day at 11:05.

Even though he doesn’t have to bring a lunch yet, I’m always looking for fun lunches to keep him eating colorful and nutritious foods. I’ve hit the jackpot this week, because Parenting magazine knows what’s hot — bento box lunches.

Mother of God, this is lunch on steroids. Once I got past the fact that it’s probably not as easy as tossing an almond butter and jelly sandwich together, I realized that they really would be fairly quick and simple to do, especially because the creativity part is taken care of if I use Parenting‘s ideas. I can chop, right?

Some ideas I will definitely steal — I’ve got to remember how sticking anything on a toothpick makes it taste better. Well, it does when you’re five years old. The edamame stacked on a toothpick looks so damn cute. If I ever pack him chicken nuggets, hot dogs or the like, I’ll stick the ketchup right inside of it — that’s handy. And I can’t credit Parenting with this one, but I’m on that hot dog octopus pictured above like white on rice.

What seems easy — I can definitely cut lunch meat into strips and loop it to look pretty, like they did in almost every box, and I can even get a few cute cookie cutters to make shapes out of veggies. And I can chop — did I mention that already? And, my kid already likes homemade sushi, so I can do a traditional bento box for him too.

Problems — Some of the fancy folded sandwich pieces, like the bunny’s ears and the flower petals, won’t work with the sprouted bread we use, which is more crumbly than bread made from wheat flour. Yeah, that darned gluten is good for some things, I guess. I’m also thinking that using rice and quinoa, although adorable, just wouldn’t get eaten. If my kid has 15 minutes to eat with a gaggle of friends and needs to use a fork, it ain’t happening.

I can definitely work with these ideas to make fun lunches. I’m inspired — how about you?

Get an eyeful of the tomato harvest from this week’s CSA farm visit. Every time I walk by our kitchen island, I pause, wondering if I’ll be ruining the stunning centerpiece by stealing a tomato or two for a snack. I don’t pause long, though, because those orange cherry tomatoes are so sweet and juicy that it’s nearly impossible to pass by and not pop one into my mouth.

Incidentally, this bowl is next to the one overflowing with Roma tomatoes from our own garden … we’re swimming in tomatoes, which more than makes up for last year’s blight.

I don’t know about you, but our CSA farm has us up to our eyeballs in green beans (and yellow beans … Owen thinks the yellow are better but they’re all the same to me). I’ve been trying not to blanch and freeze them, and I’m scared to pickle or lacto-ferment them (botulism waiting to happen….), so we’ve been looking for ways to eat them fresh and not feel like we’re eating the same beans every night.

1. Toss your green beans into a potato salad. Yeah, we’re swimming in potatoes too.
2. Saute green beans with summer squash or zucchini, tomato, onion and garlic. Toss in some fresh herbs after you remove the veggies from the heat.
3. Lemon green bean and celery salad sounds so summery and fresh, and shallots and fresh parsley round out the flavors.
4. I’d eat almost anything if it had blue cheese on it, and these green beans with blue cheese and walnuts are no exception.
5. This Asian green bean stir fry is so easy — just dump in a bunch of stir-fry veggies and some black bean sauce and you’re done.
6. You know it’s a Paula Deen recipe because there’s butter and bacon, but these fancy green beans with teriyaki sauce, honey and cashews sounds good enough to eat.
7. Steam green beans and toss with some lemon juice and stone ground mustard.
8. Steam some green beans again, and toss with some butter and salt-free seasoning blend.
9. Green beans with tomatoes and feta uses frozen green beans, but use your fresh ones (you could use your fresh tomatoes too) and enjoy your harvest.
10. Vibrant tasty green beans is basically just green beans with leeks and dill, but that can’t be bad, right?
11. Add some green beans to a rice salad or quinoa salad.
12. Make a salad nicoise.
13. Serve steamed green beans with pesto.
14. Saute green beans with garlic, then toss with lemon juice and capers.
15. Yummy, spicy Szechuan green beans with ginger, garlic, scallions, chili paste and soy sauce uses a special cooking technique to keep the beans tender but not mushy.
16. Toasted almond green bean salad is so simple, but with the sesame oil and sesame seeds accenting the almonds, it’s got to be wonderful.
17. Green beans a la Bob — just shake some crushed red pepper over them.
18. Toss cooked green beans with the fresh herbs of your choice, something crunchy (think nuts or seeds) and something tangy (balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt).
19. The answer to my fear of pickling (really a fear of canning) might just be this cheat recipe for quick pickled green beans.
20. Green beans with roasted nuts and cranberries has the bean, the crunch and the sweet-tart … oh yeah.
21. How can some of my favorite things all be combined in one green bean dish? Because someone has the brilliance to invent green beans with walnuts, fennel, and goat cheese — and they threw in mustard.

It would be fairly easy to think of 21 more things since green beans are so versatile … and delicious. What’s your favorite thing to do with green beans?

When this time of year rolls around, I make quinoa tabbouleh, pretty much a different way every time. I did a few funky things this time, so I wrote it down, lest I become like my father who’s famous for making wonderful dishes … once. Because he never writes down the recipe, therefore we never get it again.

Wow, huge digression. The reason I make quinoa tabbouleh in late summer is because I have many of the ingredients growing right here in my own yard: flat-leaf parsley, mint, roma tomatoes, cucumber and chives (though I used scallions in this recipe).

I made it this time because on vacation last week, I had an amazing red quinoa tabbouleh with some seared yellowfin tuna and a tahini yogurt sauce. It was perfection in every way and so I had better-than-average tabbouleh on the brain. While I didn’t make it to the store to get red quinoa (which is definitely on my list) and I didn’t really set out to duplicate the Ocean House’s tabbouleh, I ended up with one that Keith and I couldn’t stop snitching before the meal was even served, so I did something right.

Quinoa Tabouleh

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1-2 teaspoons miso (depending on how subtle you want it)
• 1-2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
• 8 medium roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup diced cucumber

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a dash or two of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted cumin seed, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the quinoa, water and miso in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, do all the chopping, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, remove them, then use the same pan to toast the almonds. One less dirty pan — score!

Next, you can whisk together the dressing ingredients.

After quinoa has cooled, toss everything together, again with the dressing and serve at room temperature.

We served this tabouleh with Ellie Krieger’s rubbed pork tenderloin, only we grilled it instead of pan searing and baking it. It was delicious!

I’ve been planning this post for a while, but a couple of things have spurred me on. First of all, we have been getting the most amazingly delicious cabbage from our CSA farm. While I adore garlicky Asian cabbage, cabbage and chick pea salad and sweet and sour cabbage wedges, I really enjoy a good, mayonnaise-free coleslaw.

The other reason — I’ve committed to bringing a coleslaw to a Labor Day weekend cookout, and you can be darned sure it’s going to be one that I will eat. Besides, I feel as though it’s my duty to expose the brainwashed masses to mayonnaise-free potato salads and coleslaws to open their minds and refine their taste buds. I mean really, people, why would you want to eat something that makes you gag? What do you mean mayonnaise doesn’t make you gag? No matter….

This snappy, crunchy vegan coleslaw is gluten-free (probably most of them will be) and bursting with flavor. Cumin, dill, caraway seeds and golden raisins are highlighted by a champagne vinegar and agave dressing. Oh yeah, there’s cabbage too.

Clever, clever, clever … this multicolored coleslaw recipe gives you the choice of three different dressings. Depending on your main dish, you can choose a balsamic dressing, and Asian-inspired one or a Mexican fiesta.

This mayonnaise-free coleslaw reminds me of a Waldorf salad with cabbage — it’s got walnuts, apples, celery and radish and a simple rice vinegar dressing.

Citrus-spiked jicama and carrot slaw is definitely a new twist on tradition, but with a simple citrus dressing and some chopped fresh cilantro, less is more. Or maybe my very own mango coleslaw has the pizazz you’re looking for, with almond butter and ginger in the dressing.

Maybe a traditional Carolina coleslaw suits your fancy more … it’s got celery seed, dry mustard, green pepper and onions. Very, very basic, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Emeril’s delta coleslaw is a souped-up version of this.

Now we’re talking different again, but this recipe for mayo-free coleslaw is really interesting. Mandarin oranges, pears, raw garlic, tamari sunflower seeds, cumin seeds and lemon juice jazz up cabbage in an intriguing way.

I just realized, in looking at this recipe for spicy no mayo coleslaw, that I’ve never had a spicy coleslaw before. It might just be time to remedy that, however I’d probably use some peppers a little milder than habeneros!

This recipe for mayo-free cabbage salad combines a few of the ideas here into one salad — some citrus, some carrots and apple, agave syrup and a new ingredient: sesame seeds. This one sounds really good to me.

As does this parsnip and apple coleslaw … there’s still cabbage, but a honey-laden dressing, parsley leaves and walnuts mae this one special. Plus, I can really appreciate how this blogger goes on about the indignity of mayonnaise. And now we’ve come full circle, and I’ve got a new mayonnaise-hating friend.

I’ll be the first one to admit that not every gluten-free dessert is a taste sensation. Oftentimes, they are dry and crumbly, bland and blah. That was not the case with the raspberry almond torte I baked tonight, though.

We cooked for my parents today, mostly just because but also because they took such good care of the cat while we spent a few days at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was a really wonderful meal that we kept simple so that we could just enjoy being together and not spend the whole day in the kitchen (the grill … oh, how I love a grill meal).

I finally made the crushed pea spread that I’ve been drooling over for weeks and I was right to drool so shamelessly — the combination of sweet peas, goat cheese, tahini, lemon juice, fresh mint and scallions was perfection. I served it with baguette and fresh radish slices and shaved pecorino romano cheese.

For dinner, we marinated a black angus flank steak in an orange soy marinade, grilled some romaine hearts and red potato slices and served some green and yellow beans with poppy seed dressing alongside the grilled mishmash.

Instead of making my go-to zucchini chocolate chip cookies, I was torn between the orange almond flan and the raspberry almond torte for dessert. So you’ve read the title of this post and know which dessert came out the winner, but what I haven’t yet told you was just how delicious it was. We served it with some homemade vanilla coconut milk ice cream with a good portion of Greek yogurt blended in … divine. Here’s the clincher — my dad, my very hard-to-please, dessert-hating chef of a dad said that he could have eaten the entire half of the torte that was left over. That, my friends, is better than the five-year-old seal of approval (which, by the way, I also got in spades).

Now don’t go reading anything Freudian into this. If any of you know me (including my dad who’s probably reading this only because my mother forwarded to him), you know that seeking my father’s approval has never been a big priority for me. I was the fresh, defiant kid (I know, hard to believe) who would go toe-to-toe with my hot-tempered dad when the other siblings would run for the hills to avoid the frothing spittle spewing from his lips. Thankfully, he’s mellowed a lot since then and so have I, and although I’m happy my dad enjoyed the torte, I would love it no matter what.

It was very easy to make, it’s gluten-free and has very little sugar in it (and even then it’s unrefined sugar and maple syrup) and it’s almost pretty. Sure, it could have done with a layer of chocolate (couldn’t everything?) but it was a relatively awesome dessert that topped off this summer meal perfectly. Don’t hold its gluten-free vegan-ness against it — it’s a wonderful torte.

We’re right in the midst of the CSA Farm season, and I love it for oh-so-many reasons. Yes, the fresh food is great. Sure, I love showing my kid where vegetables come from and I delight in him picking the veggies and eating them right from the plant, as if it’s the most amazing forbidden treasure (it is!).  But I mostly love having to think outside the box to create meals. In the wintertime (most of the time), I plan a menu based on recipes and shop for the ingredients. When I’ve got a fridge full of the freshest veggies around and I get to create meals using my creativity, it’s an exciting challenge. I know they’re going to be healthy so all I have to think about is what tastes good.

Radicchio and figs taste fabulous together. I know I’ve created a leeky, Greek-y pasta with figs and radicchio before, but this one is really completely different. I don’t often do this, but technique plays a big part in the taste of this dish, so be sure to read and follow the directions carefully.

Pasta with Figs, Radicchio and Chick Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups mission figs, reconstituted and halved
• 1 can chick peas
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups green or yellow beans, cut in 2-inch pieces
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup raw slivered almonds
• balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cups radicchio, chopped
• 1 cup packed fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• goat cheese
• 1/2 pound pasta, cooked (I used brown rice rotini)

Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan. Add the onion and green beans and saute for a minute or two, then add the garlic and almonds and cook until everything is tender, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle just a little balsamic vinegar to de-glaze the pan and get everything all rich and brown and syrupy. Add the chick peas, figs and radicchio and cook through, then de-glaze the pan again with another sprinkle of balsamic vinegar, this time to wilt the radicchio.

Remove from heat and stir in the basil and rosemary and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil, stir the pasta into the pan with the chick pea mixture, toss all with the olive oil/lemon juice, spoon onto plates and top with some goat cheese.

We served this with grilled chicken thighs blackened with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano and basil. You can keep it a vegetarian dish if you like — there’s plenty of protein with the chick peas.

I like it tart, with the lemon juice and the goat cheese, but if you want to mix in some of the water that the figs soaked in, it would definitely add an extra dose of sweetness.

A little bit of this and that today … you can’t know the relief of writing up these recipes that I don’t want to forget about. Now I know where to find them and I can close the tabs on my browser. I know, it’s a sickness and I won’t even tell you how many tabs I have open to remind me to do things. I get that there’s a nifty feature called “bookmarks,” but out of sight is out of mind and I really love these recipes!

I’m kind of intrigued by this portobella mushroom bake. I don’t do vegetarian meals very often because of my complainers who insist that it isn’t a meal without a hunk of meat, but this one sounds hearty enough to please the men in my house. I think I could make it more appealing if I sprinkled a bunch of cheese over the top, but the onions, soy sauce, garlic and herbs do a pretty fine job on their own.

You already know that I’m insane about mayonnaise-free potato salads. Add bacon and they become even better. Add pancetta and you’re looking at a taste sensation, for crying out loud. That’s why this potato salad with pancetta, rosemary and lemon caught my eye and held it in its greedy little grasp for a good long while. Fresh rosemary and parsley, a lemon dressing and lots of garlic make this irresistible.

One of our favorite sauces for pork (or other meats) is this rhubarb chipotle sauce. So when I saw this recipe for chipotle cherry barbeque sauce, you can imagine how I started to salivate embarrassingly. The recipe’s similar but much, much easier and I’m anxious to try it with some ribs we’ve got frozen, just waiting for the grill and this sauce.