Cooking day 2 and Tuesday Tip

I'm making another change -- instead of doing the carrots today, I'll do them tomorrow, post-CSA pickup (where I will get carrots).  Logical, right?

Today's recipe comes from a site I signed up for called The Fresh 20. There was a groupon for it a little while ago (groupons are gonna be the death of me, clearly), and I thought, eh, why not.  The site gives you 5 new recipes each week, along with step-by-step instructions and an organized shopping list.  Each meal is meant for about 4, which is perfect for us -- dinner and lunch the next day!  I signed up for the vegetarian version, of course, but there's also classic and gluten-free.  I haven't decided to cook an entire week of their recipes yet, but I may do that one of the next April weeks -- thus far, I've just picked out a bunch that I like and will try several of them for mushroom week.

Anyways, before I get to the recipe for today, have a Tuesday Tip. :)  We've been trying to figure out how to eat more salad and more fruit (though not necessarily together).  Having greens in the house doesn't always help -- we just don't do anything with them.  Some fruit is easier, such as apples (for me) or blueberries (for Mu).  For whatever reason, though, most other things fall by the wayside.  In experimenting, we've discovered a few things.  One, single-size portions help.  Two, variety really helps.  This is a little counter-intuitive -- if we have trouble going through a thing of berries, say, why would I get berries and mangos?  But actually, the variety, in combination with packing, gets us to eat more fruit!  Last night, for example, I packed a bunch of tupperwares with a few mango slices, a handful of raspberries, and a few strawberries -- and we've already started eating them.  Similarly, a salad with smaller amounts of more ingredients makes us eat salad.  Oh, and having small tupperwares of dressing to take along is great, too.  That way, the greens don't get soggy, and I also don't have to eat an undressed salad.  The only downside to this strategy is that it uses a large amount of tupperwares, but that's a minor issue to have.

Salad and fruit and dressing!

And with that, on to the recipe for today.  As I mentioned, this was from the Fresh 20 website.

Mushroom Pearl Barley Risotto
Ingredients
2 portobellos
1 cup dry pearl barley
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 cups veggie stock
1-2 cups water, if needed later
1/4 cup grated parmesan (I used more, probably about half a cup)
salt and pepper
thyme (I used pasta sprinkle, which has thyme and garlic and basil and oregano)
olive oil

Dice the portobellos.  They'll look pretty big, but they cook down a lot.  The recipe didn't say to remove the gills, so I didn't, but in retrospect, I probably should've.  It was nevertheless fine.  Saute the mushrooms in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, then add the barley and salt and thyme.  Saute for another 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid evaporates.  Stir in the stock in 1-cup increment, cooking until each batch evaporates.  If the barley still isn't cooked through when the stock is done, add water (I ended up adding about 1.5 more cups).  Once barley is ready, fold in parmesan and season with black pepper.

Recipe summary
Time: 1.5 hours, almost all hands-on.  Despite what the Fresh 20 thinks, this really isn't a weeknight recipe.  This made me kind of unhappy.
Serves: Theoretically, 4.  I think it'll be about 5 or 6 servings for us, though.

Oops, smear on the plate

Highlights/thoughts: I should've known that risotto takes a long time, but the recipe didn't have a time estimate, and given that it was meant to be a weeknight recipe, I was surprised at how long it took.  Also, the suggestion is to serve it with carrots, which would help the presentation -- it's very brown otherwise.  However, I can't imagine this serving 4 with a side!  I'm going to have to reconsider following their recipes exactly, since it looks like their portions are huge.  Also, watch the salt on this one.  My stock (which wasn't homemade) was pretty salty, and as it cooked down, I realized I should've added less salt at the beginning.
Would I make this again? Probably, or at least some variation of it.  It was really very easy, if long, and tastes creamy and rich without actually being too much so.

Month of cooking, day 1 (greens and mushrooms with spaghetti squash)

Slight change of plans already to the proposed menu -- Passover starts on Friday, which means I can't do polenta on Saturday.  Also, we'll be doing seders with friends both nights, so it probably doesn't make sense to cook a separate meal for us, especially on Saturday.  Since I offered to do soup for the Saturday seder, that'll be my recipe for the day.  It's not mushrooms, but hey, the theme isn't a hard and fast rule.

Also, I realized that I'm doing all brand-new recipes this week, and I really don't need to -- the goal is to do lots of new stuff, of course, but really, it's to do something different every day.  I won't change anything else for this week, I don't think, but I'll have to remember for next week.

Today, I got lucky with my choice of recipes. I hadn't actually had time to go grocery shopping, despite my best intentions, but I had all the ingredients I needed already in the fridge.  In top of that, some of the prep work was already done -- Mu had peeled all my garlic for me last week and it was sitting in a ziplock, waiting, and the spaghetti squash was left over from 2 weeks ago and just needed some frying.  That said, I'm gonna have to be better about planning in the future.  I need to set aside time for prep work, and I'm not always good at remembering that.  But today, I got a quick and yummy meal!

Braised greens and mushrooms with spaghetti squash
Ingredients
Baked spaghetti squash (recipe here but I used less garlic this time because I added some to the greens separately)
1 bunch of chard (collards or mustard greens would be fine here)
1 small red cabbage (or some other green if you'd like)
dozen shitakes
handful (say, 10?) oyster mushrooms
garlic for the greens (maybe half a head?)
Neutral oil
Salt and pepper
A couple of slices of lemon or some lemon juice

If you don't already have baked spaghetti squash, bake it now.  It should be scooped out and ready to cook with garlic and butter by the time you start the rest of the recipe.  Wash and roughly chop the greens.  Carefully clean the mushrooms and de-stem the shitakes.  Slice or chop into bite-size pieces.  On high medium heat, heat some neutral oil in a large pan and toss the greens in.  Saute for a few minutes until they begin to cook down.  Add the mushrooms and salt and pepper.  Chop up and add the garlic.  Saute for another few minutes.  Add about a cup of water, turn the heat to low medium, cover and cook until everything softens, about 7 minutes.  In the meantime, take your baked squash and cook it with garlic and butter as per the previous recipe.  When the greens and mushrooms are soft, uncover and cook until most of the liquid is gone.  If your greens are a little bitter, like mine were, add a splash of lemon juice at this point.  Add the squash, adjust seasonings as needed, and cook for another 2-3 minutes to meld the flavors together.  Serve hot!

Aren't the colors pretty?

Recipe summary
Time: It's hard to say, because I had so much done ahead.  With the squash already baked and the garlic peeled (which takes me forever!), it took about 40 minutes, start to finish, though most was hands-on this time.
Serves: 6 as a lunch dish, probably 4 if you want a bigger meal.
Highlights/thoughts: You could use any mushrooms here, but I like the flavor and texture of the shitakes.  The oyster mushrooms don't have a strong flavor, but the texture is nice because it feels meaty and satisfying.  I also liked using the red cabbage for the bit of color.  Oh, and I love how lemon juice takes the edge off bitter greens!  I learned that from someone at the CSA and I use this trick a lot!
Would I make this again?  For sure, in some variation.  We get a ton of greens, and mushrooms go well with them.

I finally went grocery shopping after cooking this, so I'm ready (I think!) for the rest of the week!

Tentative menu plan for the week of April 1st

Given that I will be busy tomorrow, today is my day to menu-plan and grocery shop for the week.  I'm not going to put entire recipes here, since these are things I haven't made yet.  Instead, here's a list of things I plan to make.  I will update as I go through the week.  The theme this week is mushrooms.

Sunday: Probably nothing, but if I have time, I'll start on some prep work
Monday: Braised greens and shitakes over spaghetti squash
Tuesday: Mushroom pearl barley risotto with butter-glazed carrots (I haven't actually made carrots like this before, so this will be 2 recipes to make up for Sunday)
Wednesday: Portobello steaks with (maybe) pistou
Thursday: Mushroom stroganoff with pasta
Friday: Portobello panini
Saturday: Mushroom polenta


I will also have to think of some sides for these things, but I don't really want to count those as individual recipes, so I'm not sure what I'll do with that.  Maybe make enough carrots to be sides for everything. :)  Or throw together a salad, that's pretty easy.  We'll see how it goes.

Friday link dump and a technical question

OK, this week was better with the blogging, minus last night. I have high hopes for April!  It's unlikely that I will cook or blog on Sunday, but I will go into it in earnest come Monday. I even have time in the calendar tomorrow to menu-plan!

Technical question: When I respond to your comments on my blog, do you get an email?  And if so, how did you make that happen?  When I comment on other people's blogs, I never know if they've responded or not, and I usually forget to check!

Anyways, here are some links I've been enjoying this week.  I have some older ones to get to, as well, so there may be a longer link dump in the future, but it is not this link dump. That link dump will come?  Right.

A good idea for a light but satisfying dessert.

A cookbook that contains a recipe to turn itself into a lasagna!

Fascinating -- you can bake eggs instead of boiling them to get the hard-cooked effect!

Another egg-themed one (I guess since Easter is coming up) -- tips for freezing leftover yolks and whites.

And for Passover, a list of grain-free meal ideas.

Neat: Small study shows that when things smell stronger, we might eat less.

A list of non-alcoholic drink ideas that are still fancy.

An utterly ridiculous little video about (vegetables) eating vegetables.

Happy weekend, happy beginning of April, see you next week!

Mug Cake!

Ok, so I've been talking about this for a while now and it's time to share the recipe.  That's right, it's the infamous mug cake (insert evil laugh here?)!  I'm reproducing this recipe almost verbatim from the 3rd issue of Lucky Peach magazine, which I've been enjoying greatly.  They've adapted the recipe from a number of previous recipes, apparently.  Here it is, and then I'll tell you what I love about this cake.

Two-minute chocolate mug cake
Ingredients:
1 egg
3 T milk
3 T neutral oil (I use grapeseed)
3 T flour
4 T sugar
2 T cocoa powder (I love the Dutch cocoa powder from Penzeys, myself)
3 T semi-sweet chocolate chips
small splash vanilla extract (I just noticed that my recipe actually says "spash" instead of "splash")
coffee mug (medium to large works best for me)

Add wet ingredients (including egg) to the mug and mix well.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Add chocolate chips and vanilla and mix some more.  Put your mug into a 1000-watt microwave for 2 minutes.  The cake will rise over the top, but don't be alarmed (this is actually what the recipe says!).  Allow to cool, tip out onto a plate if desired, and eat! Why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world (this, again, is what the recipe actually says)? Because now we are only 2 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

sorry about the flash

Recipe summary
Time: about 5 minutes total!
Serves: it's meant for 1, but this is seriously rich, so you can easily share.
Highlights/thoughts:Love love love!  It really is that simple, it takes almost no time, and it tastes great, especially if you have good quality chocolate chips.  The cake comes out drier on top and quite moist in the middle, so it's a nice combo of textures.  You do have to make sure you mix the dry ingredients super well to avoid clumps.  The mugs above actually weren't ideal, since they slope inward.  I'd recommend a wide, uniform mug.
Would I make this again? Yes!  We've already made it twice. I first tried it when I was sick and needed something quick and easy, and since then Mu has made it for me when I was cranky and needed a chocolate fix.  I foresee more chocolate cake in the future.

Tuesday Tip (request) and more fanart!

Cindy has drawn me more fanart!  The backstory here is that when she and I were talking about spaghetti squash recipes, I suddenly remembered that I didn't just have one squash, I had a second, smaller squash hiding in the fridge.  Cindy declared that it must be evil (because it was hiding?  I'm not sure now), I agreed, and now we have this:

It's laughing at unsuspecting kale and beet greens

In other news, I'm trying to get myself organized for my upcoming month of cooking.  I do a lot of recipe reading, on blogs but also offline, in cookbooks and magazines, so I'm going to need to compile a list of things I'd like to try.  I've set aside some time over this week to do so, because I'm afraid that if I don't do it ahead of time, it'll feel overwhelming when I actually get into April and have to think of things to cook daily.  I'm also trying to have a few themes so that I can maximize ingredient usage.  So far, the themes are mushrooms, Indian (I'm thinking of changing this to Asian, though, since I don't think I want to eat Indian every day for a week), and (maybe) molecular gastronomy, though I suspect a full week of that will get old.  Passover is in April, too, so I'll have 10 days of gluten-free stuff by default.  I'm excited about this endeavor!

Today's Tuesday Tip is actually a tip request.  What do you make when your "cooking mojo" is off? I've had a couple of recipes not turn out the way I want, and I'm trying to ease myself back in before April hits.  Any suggestions for something that would be easy and relatively fail-proof?

I am not a wizard

As you may have noticed, the blogging didn't happen last week.  It was one of those weeks where I'm really not feeling much like a wizard, or even an elephant. :)  I did cook some, but even that didn't turn out as well as I had wished.  And then it was my birthday (weeee!), and I didn't feel like stressing out further about the blog.  So, there we are. 

Today is feeling like the start of a better week, and since April is only a week away, I'm hoping that I will get both the cooking and the blogging mojo back.  I still intend to share the mug cake recipe/experience, since that was awesome, but it requires to actually find the recipe, since it's pretty precise.  In the meantime, here's a brief recipe for spaghetti squash to tide you over!

This recipe is thanks to Cindy and the various recipes she linked me to when I told her, in a slight panic, that I had not one, but two spaghetti squashes living in the fridge.  This is the simplest recipe possible -- there are many other ways of dealing with these things, but this one was the easiest.

Spaghetti Squash with Garlic
Ingredients
Squash (however many you happen to have)
Garlic (lots)
Butter (say, half a stick?)
Parmesan if you like

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Wash squash and put it on a baking sheet into the oven (just like that, no need to cut if you don't want to).  Pierce squash a few times with a sharp knife to let out steam. Bake for at least an hour, turning once midway through cooking, though it depends on the size of the squash.  Mine were large, so it took about 2 hours.  It's ready when you can pierce it reasonably easily with a fork.  In the meantime, peel and cut garlic.  When squash is done, let it cool, then cut it in half.  Scoop out the seeds and the slimy top layer (and discard), then scoop out the rest of the innards to cook with.  In a large skillet, heat some butter, then add about half the garlic.  Fry for a few minutes 'till it's soft, then add the squash, the rest of the butter, and the rest of the garlic.  Saute for 5-10 minutes.  Add cheese if you're using it and cook for another few minutes.  You can also add the cheese on top.  Serve warm.

Recipe summary
Time: 2.5 hours for two large squashes, almost entirely unattended
Serves: varies quite a bit, I'd say one large squash is probably enough for 4.
Highlights/thoughts: It turns out that I really don't like the smell of baked squash.  The whole time I was scooping it out, I kept asking Mu, "is this what it's supposed to smell like?"  It went much better after I started cooking it with garlic and butter, but then again, doesn't everything?  At least this recipe is pretty impossible to screw up.
Would I make this again? If I were stuck with another squash, probably.  As it is, I have a bunch of uncooked squash left over to do something with this week.  I think it'll take some miracle for me to willingly purchase one, though.

Comfort food while sick (no Tuesday Tip this week)

As I mentioned the other day, I've been sick pretty much the whole past week.  It hasn't been as bad as it might be (knock on wood!) in that I haven't had a fever or many symptoms, but the ones I have had have been rather annoying and have prevented me from doing much.  We've been eating out, or leftovers, or frozen food, but Saturday night, I really wanted to actually make something. 

Because I had these dueling desires (make something vs. expend as little effort as possible), we decided that what we really wanted was a baked potato bar!  It was so easy, and it made me feel as if I actually produced food in some fashion beyond simple microwaving.  I mean, I even grated cheese and all! This is a very simple recipe and you can substitute whatever toppings you want.

Salt-crusted baked potato with toppings
Ingredients
Baking potato (or 2, in our case)
olive oil
salt
toppings (we used scallions, tomatoes, cheddar, cottage cheese, and butter)

Preheat oven to 425.  Wash potatoes really well.  Rub potatoes in enough olive oil for a thin coat (about a teaspoon each), then salt generously so that there's essentially a thin salt crust.  Pierce a few times with a fork or skewer.  Bake potatoes for about an hour, or until they're soft enough to pierce easily.

In the meantime, prepare your toppings.  Cut up whatever veggies you're using.  Grate cheese if you're using hard cheese.  When the potatoes are done, cut in half, add toppings, mash together if you'd like (we do), and eat!

Those teacups are deceptive -- they contain gin and tonic!

Recipe summary (I'm trying a slightly different format here):
Time: about an hour, largely unattended
Serves: As many people as you have potatoes
Highlights/thoughts: I love baked potatoes, they feel like comfort food.  This recipe gave the potato a lovely crust, so that was a nice bonus.  And we then sat down to watch Big Bang Theory and drink gin and tonics!  All-around success.
Would I make this again? Of course!  All this really requires is enough advance planning so that I can wait an hour without feeling super hungry.

Tomorrow, the other part of my comfort food meal: chocolate mug cake!

Friday link dump

I'm sorry about the shortage of posts and recipes this week -- being out of town, combined with being sick the last few days (sore throat, ick) has made it hard for me to do much of anything, especially cook (or write, apparently).  I will hopefully feel sufficiently better to do so in the next few days.  In the meantime, have some links!

How to make homemade paneer.  I'm going to have to try this in April, for sure.

A map of online food resources/blogs.  So much food for thought, as it were!

Some thoughts about urban farming, and how it might be made to be profitable.

A list of recipes featuring kale.  This is useful for winter CSA shares, though probably the kale will drop off over the next few weeks.

Yummy-sounding recipe for an egg bake, plus some general instructions on how to assemble one's own.  Is this what I should've called my crustless quiche?

Great (long-ish) article by someone who's a ghostwriter for cookbooks.

Love this idea for having a range of foods when you're eating lunch by yourself!

Tuesday Tip and a few updates

I meant to post yesterday, but since I'm not home, my schedule has been a little strange.  I do have a crust-less quiche recipe/adventure to share with you all, but that will have to wait for a day or two until I settle back down in Tucson.

I also keep meaning to post about my April plans, since I've been telling people about them vaguely.  I don't have all the details figured out, but have a tentative outline. :)  So, originally, the plan was to cook every day for a month and to structure it as a fundraiser to raise money for a local food pantry.  However, the more I think about it, the more I remember how much of a wimp I am about fundraising, especially when it's something so self-driven (rather than for school or another organization).  I had some (well, many) ideas on how to do it, but it was all feeling more and more aversive.  So, I've decided to nix the fundraising aspect of the thing for now.  I may decide to try it further down the road, but not on this particular venture.

So, now that you know what I'm not going to do, what am I actually going to do?  Well, the current plan is that in the month of April, I will cook a different recipe every day and document them on the blog.  There will be days that I probably won't be able to do this, but I'll try to anticipate those and make 2 things the day before, or something like that.  Since the goal of this is to cook new things, I'm going to try for at least half new recipes that I haven't made before.  The more new stuff the better, of course, but I also know that there will be times when all I want to do is throw together a pasta sauce, say, and I want to allow for that.  I'm also going to try to have a theme each week. I already know that one theme will be Indian food and one will be mushrooms, so there are two more to choose.  I'm also starting to collect recipes to try, so if you have any ideas for themes or recipes (vegetarian, please, since I'd like Mu to be able to eat what I make!), let me know.  I also know I want to try making my own stock, which sort of isn't a whole recipe on its own, but I'm going to count it as such. :)

Since I know that there will be times that I just can't handle the cooking, I'm going to give myself 2 guilt-free no-cook days.  The first will probably actually be April 1st, since that's a Sunday and Mu and I have plans to go to Ren Faire (and hence be gone the whole day).  Thus, my official starting day will be April 2nd.  I'm also going to try to do prep work all in one day, as much as possible, so that the cooking time is shortened on each individual day.  We'll see how well that works.  I'll be posting a tentative menu plan each week, and then documenting (hopefully with pictures!) as I go. 

Questions or suggestions?  Or just general thoughts?  I'm happy to hear feedback!

And now for the Tuesday Tip!  I was talking with friends about the difficulties of cooking more than one (or maybe 2) dishes at a time, and how none of us are good enough cooks to have the timing for that kind of thing down pat.  One thing that came up as a helpful strategy is writing out a list of steps, in the approximate order that one plans to do them in, with the approximate times, and having that in front of you (on the counter can get in the way, but attached with a magnet to the fridge can work!) in order to stay on track.  I've tried this a couple of times now, and while I still need a lot of work to make cooking multiple things run smoothly, it really did help to have a plan of action to refer back to.  I was off on my times, but at least nothing got forgotten in the chaos!

And there we are!  Tomorrow, either the quiche or CSA-related recipes.

We have fan art!

I don't have a whole lot to talk about today -- we're leaving for the weekend, so I haven't cooked.  But yesterday, Cin sent me this adorable picture, so I just had to share it!  It's an elephant wizard campaigning for beet greens!  I'm very excited, if you couldn't tell.  It's so cute!  I want it on a shirt. :) 

I do have plans to cook this weekend, at least a little.  I'll be making a crustless spinach and mushroom quiche for my mom.  I don't want to buy a crust, it seems like cheating, but I also have no desire to make my own.  Oh, and I need to figure out what to do with a spaghetti squash!  We got 2 from the CSA, which means I'll have to do something with them when we return.  I've never had spaghetti squash, much less cooked with one!  Tips, anyone?

Taking advantage of the last days of cold with a soup recipe

I know I said I'd have a soup recipe yesterday, but then there was the Tuesday Tip thing...and here we are. :)  But a day late is better than never, right?

So, to use up the aforementioned beet greens, as well as lots of other veggies, I decided to make a minestrone-style soup, adapted from a recipe in my Cooking Everything Vegetarian book.  I've made it several times now, and the thing I really love about this recipe is that it's designed to be flexible.  You use a few constant things (carrot, onion, tomatoes, veggie stock), some hard vegetables of your choosing, and some soft vegetables of your choosing.  The process is the same every time, but the flavors vary based on what you use, so it's never quite the same.  Hard vegetables are things like potatoes or turnips, and soft vegetables are things like zucchini or greens.  Minestrone typically includes beans, as well, but this recipe doesn't, and I don't like them enough to go out of my way to get them.  Also, the recipe calls for celery along with carrot and onion, but since I'm really not a fan of celery, I just leave it out. 

Minestrone-style soup
Ingredients
6-8 cups veggie stock
1 biggish onion
2-3 carrots
celery if you like it (I don't know how much)
1 can stewed tomatoes, with juice
1-2 cups hard vegetables, chopped
1-2 cups soft vegetables, chopped (or more if you'd like, I prefer this soup a little thick, for some reason)
small bunch of parsley (optional, I've also used dill)
parmesan (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions
Coarsely chop the onion and carrot and saute over medium-high heat in the olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes.  One way to save time on this step is to saute a large batch of chopped onions and carrots all at once, then freeze them in recipe-sized portions.  Salt and pepper, then toss in the hard vegetables.  I used turnips this time, since that's what I had on hand.  Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.  Add stock and tomatoes, bring to a boil.  If you have some old parmesan around, chop up the rinds and add them at this point - they turn soft and chewy and delicious in the soup!  Turn the heat down and allow the whole thing to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the tomatoes have broken down and the hard vegetables are pretty soft.  Add the soft vegetables and the parsley if you're using it.  This time, I used the now-infamous beet greens, some turnip greens, and some mustard greens.  I also used dill instead of the parsley.  Adjust seasonings to taste and bring the whole thing back up to a simmer.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until everything is soft -- probably another 20 minutes.  If you're cooking other things at the same time, this can simmer for a while and it only gets better.  Serve with more parm, if you'd like. 

This ends up being a lot of soup -- we got about 8 servings.  It tastes even better after it's sat overnight, though!

Tip for the recipe:  Using pre-made onion-carrot mixture is a big time saver, and is a nice way to use up some CSA carrots!  When I make big batches of the stuff, I usually just the food processor to chop up the carrots and onions to save time. Generally, I use a ration of 2-3 medium carrots to 1 large onion.

Friday link dump

A lot of blogs I read have a Friday or weekend link round-up.  I've always liked this idea, but I've never had a blog that seemed like a good venue for this...until now!  So, here are a few food-related links that I've enjoyed this week.

A kohlrabi risotto to try making next time the CSA hands me those weird little vegetables.

Instant (and single-serving!) home-made oatmeal.

A flow chart (download the PDF to actually see it) of breakfast ideas.

An interesting post about how more people are finding food information through blogs and social networks.

Great (but short) read about a cruise-ship kitchen.

This one turned out a little short, but I'll collect more for next week!

Tuesday Tip

I'm trying to figure out what format will work best for me and this blog, so you'll probably be seeing a variety of things as I settle in.  I promise I'll have photos with the next batch of cooking, too!  In the spirit of experimenting, I'm starting a (hopefully) weekly feature called Tuesday Tip!

A little bit of background is in order.  Neither I nor Mu are wizards.  If that phrase makes no sense, go to the link and read the post, it's rather hilarious.  For the lazy, it's a comic about how being an adult is, for some of us, a lot of effort!  Sometimes it really does feel like doing daily or even weekly chores consistently requires magic.  So, since neither of us have those magic powers, we've been trying to find ways to make all this stuff work better.  We simplify where possible, we try to get into routines, and so on.  In short, we're always trying to come up with tricks for making adult life manageable. :)  This isn't to say that we've got it all figured out. A little while ago, Mu said something like, "Well, we're getting better, maybe we're becoming wizards?" This seemed so far from the truth to me that I said, "Dude, we're so far from being wizards, you might as well have said that we're becoming elephants!"  Of course, now, elephants are a constant joke in our household. But in any case, elephant wizards or not, I figured I could share some of the things that have been working for us, and see what others have been doing.

So, with no further ado, the first Tuesday Tip!

My pink cherry lunch bag that I actually made!

This Tuesday Tip is for those of you who, like me, have a hard time getting things together in the morning.  I'm not good at getting up early enough to do anything more than get dressed, (maybe) have a very quick breakfast, and run.  This, as you may have noticed, doesn't leave time for putting together a lunch.  The normal adult response to this is to pack lunch the night before, but generally, by the time this thought occurs to me, it's after midnight and I'm in bed.  What to do?  So, what Mu and I have been trying (with success, I'm happy to say!) in the last few weeks is packing our food into single-serve portions right after cooking.  Instead of sticking the whole pot in the fridge, or transferring the meal into a gigantic tupperware, we split it into 5 or 6 (or however many) smaller tupperwares.  That way, when I'm running around in the morning, I can grab a tupperware or 2, pop it into my lunch bag along with an apple and a spoon, and be ready to go!  It does mean that  there are more tupperwares to wash, but we've figured out a good dishwashing system (next Tuesday Tip!) that makes it far easier to just do it this way.  Plus, this way, I'm sure not to have to buy lunch, which is far cheaper and probably healthier.

What do you do to make sure your lunch comes from home when you're at work or such?

Two of the promised recipes!

Turns out, I lied about the salad -- still haven't done it.  Ah, well. :)  The lettuce is the crisper and should keep a little longer. Let me tell you about the two of the things I did accomplish, instead.  I should tell you, I don't do very precise directions.  I can tell you approximately what I did and how it turned out, though.

Roasted Beets and Carrots (inspired by Cin's comment on my first post)

Ingredients:
Large bunch of carrots (probably a dozen and a half small to medium carrots)
Beets (I had a pretty small bunch, 4 medium ones.  Could have used double that, really)
Garlic (I used 6 heads of green garlic, which is probably equivalent to half a head of older garlic)
olive oil to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F.  Peel carrots and chop into bite-size chunks (those turned out better than the few thinner bits I had).  Peel beets (save the greens!) and chop into bite size chunks (if your beets are really small, quarters are probably fine.  Mine were larger).  If using green garlic, peel the top layer of skin and chop off the green ends (save them!).  Chop the garlic into biggish chunks -- they'll taste better that way. Toss everything with salt, pepper, and enough olive oil to coat the lot.  Spread on a baking sheet, in a single layer if possible.  Roast for about an hour, turning over at the 30 minute mark.  Serve immediately, makes a great snack!

I'm not sure how many servings this is -- it's really a side dish or snack, though Mu and I ate pretty much all of it as dinner. 

Tip of the recipe: save the beet greens, they can come in handy later!

Polenta with Zucchini, Tomato, and Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients:
Sauce:
2 medium zucchini
6-8 tomatoes (you can probably use canned tomatoes here with no real difference.  I'd guess 2 cans would do it)
1-1.5 pounds of common mushrooms (I used brown, you can use white, too)
a handful of dried porcini (this is optional, but even a small amount of dried porcini makes everything taste a little like porcini)
onion/green onion/green garlic greens (I used the latter, given my CSA share, but any of these will work for a little extra flavor)
1 can olives (optional, but I love them.  I just used a can of plain black olives, I don't think the fancy ones are necessary since it's all cooked)
olive oil, salt, red pepper to taste
white wine to taste (for sauce, obviously, though I like to sip as I go :) )

Polenta (from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" book)
1/2 cup milk (whole is best, but anything will do)
2 cups water
1 cup coarse cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse your dried porcinis, put them in a small bowl of boiling water (enough to cover them), and let them soak for about 30 minutes.  In the meantime, trim and slice the zucchini (I like to do half circle slices for smaller zucchinis, or quarter circles for larger ones).  Core and quarter the tomatoes.  Carefully wash and pat dry the mushrooms, then slice them.  You can slice the stems, as well, though if they're very long, I usually chop the long bit off.  Chop your onion/whatever you're using. :)  In a reasonably large saute pan over medium high heat, heat some olive oil, then saute the onion until it's gotten softer, about 2-3 minutes. Add zucchini and mushrooms and cook for a minute or 2, 'till it cooks down.  Drain and add the porcinis and the tomatoes.  Salt and pepper, add a splash of wine and a little water, then turn heat to medium low and cover.

While the sauce is simmering, start the polenta. Combine milk and water in small saucepan over medium heat and bring almost to a boil.  Slowly, whisk or stir in cornmeal.  Salt and pepper, but not too much.  Bring heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.  Polenta should be reasonably thick at the end.

While polenta is cooking, check on the sauce.  When zucchini and mushrooms are tender and tomatoes have broken down, uncover.  Add olives and saute until liquid reduces (if you want more of a wine taste, you can add another splash). I like to add crushed red pepper for some spice at this point.  When it's almost gone, add polenta (if you want, you can also just finish it off and serve it over the polenta).  Cook for another few minutes, stirring to coat the polenta evenly.  Adjust seasonings as needed and serve!

This yielded us 6 servings, I believe.

Tip of the recipe: dried mushrooms are awesome!  I got a pound of Asian Porcini, and while they're a little pricy, they also last forever.  A handful goes a long way towards adding flavor, so I feel like they're a pretty good deal overall. 

Tomorrow, minestrone-type soup!

An unexpected benefit of a CSA membership, and things Elaine cooked from the last CSA harvest.

I really don't think of myself as a good cook most of the time, and certainly not as an experienced one.  However, with our CSA subscription, I've been forced to invent, look up, or otherwise figure out recipes for cooking a variety of vegetables I'd never have chosen for myself: cauliflower (yes, it's tasty, but somehow it's just not an ingredient I pick up of my own accord), beets (same), kohlrabi (not only is the name weird, but the vegetable looks like a little alien spacecraft!), daikon (it's the radish god!), and many others.  I still refuse to cook with fennel (tastes like black licorice) or collard greens (just...no) or a few other greens that I just don't much like, but on the whole, I feel like I've become a better cook simply by trying to use up my CSA share every week.

So, on that note, I figure I should probably actually talk about cooking!  We got weekly share Wednesday, but since we were going to a play (turns out The Great Gatsby is far less terrible when it's not being forced on you), I didn't end up cooking 'till Thursday.  The share consisted of a nice variety of things: carrots (as mentioned in the last post), beets, turnips, mustard greens, green garlic, collard greens (which we traded for extra garlic), fennel (which we simply left as a donation to the CSA), and romaine lettuce. I also had some a bunch of leftover veggies from before, as well as some stuff that we got over the weekend (mushrooms and tomatoes), knowing that I'd cook with them later in the week.  I've also been trying to keep something of a pantry, with staples like onion and garlic and such.

My goal for this week was to use up as much of the produce as possible in a few different dishes so that we'd have some variety for the coming week.  My challenge often is to use up veggies before they go bad -- if I don't cook them all in one go, it can be hard to remember/get the push to find something to do with the rest.  Plus, I find that it's much easier to motivate myself to cook once for several hours than to spread it out over a few days.  Thus, the plan was to make a polenta sauce (well, and a polenta, but that's easy), a minestrone-style soup, and a fresh salad.  Oh, and some roasted beets and carrots!  The goal was ambitious, but I mostly stuck to it!  The only thing that didn't happen (and hasn't yet happened, despite it being Sunday), was the fresh salad.  I'll probably throw one together today or tomorrow. 

So, a successful week of cooking!  I'll post my recipes in a separate post, I think, since this one has gotten long.  I'll also try to get photos next time, so it's not just a wall of text here!  Also, stay tuned for more details about my fundraiser next month!

Kicking off a new blog!

Now that I've wrapped up posting about Mu's and my grand adventure (over on our other blog), I feel like I can start this new project that I've been thinking about for a while. I've been trying to get into cooking more regularly, as well as trying a wider variety of recipes. Some of that has been happening naturally, as I cook with new and weird CSA veggies, but I also feel like I need to push myself a bit somehow. So, to that end, I'll be writing in this blog to document my cooking endeavors, as well as doing a fundraiser for a hunger relief charity next month. I'll have more details on that over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, does anyone have any recipe recs for carrots? It's starting to be carrot season, which means the CSA will probably be giving us bunches every week. I use them in soups and stir frys, but I realized that I haven't done anything that specifically highlights the carrot.

Anyways, welcome to the new blog! More content coming soon!