Still Spring Soup

April is almost over, and I’m not sure it feels like spring yet. It seems like for the past two weeks, it’s been both rainy and stormy every day. And it’s been cold. So I took the opportunity to make soup. I considered making cookies, but soup won out.

I pieced together a few recipes for minestrone, and of course I did not measure. But this soup was perfectly delicious. Besides all the goodies in it, I think it’s the broth (Better Than Bouillon and pesto). This soup is made of:

• Onion, Carrot, and Celery
• Potatoes
• Green beans
• Cannellini beans
• Spinach
• Macaroni
• Diced tomatoes in sauce
• Better than Bouillon
• Amore Pesto Paste
• Maybe some other stuff I forgot to mention

Part of what I’ve been doing lately is kind of a pantry challenge, using up stuff I’ve had on hand for way too long. Sometimes those are interesting to read about, but mine seems a little scary.

The green beans were the last of a bag of frozen beans I’ve had a while, and I think the pesto paste was a Christmas gift year before last. Thanks to blog, I can tell you the macaroni was left over from November when I made mac and cheeze. I have been eating this soup for a week and I haven’t been sick. I think I have pretty good judgment when it comes to expired food.

I’m in spring cleaning mode – I’m also clearing out my closets. Cleaning out the pantry is more fun, though. I am too young to have so much junk I don’t want to think about. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Kitchen Cabinet and Freezer Soup

I promise I’ll get a little more excited about MoFo next week.

For now, I’m keeping up by doing two things I normally wouldn’t do: I’m telling you I’m not feeling well, and I’m posting on a day I might normally skip. I only mention that I’m not feeling well because it is very relevant to tonight’s supper.

I wanted soup, but I still don’t have much food on hand and wasn’t feeling up to shopping. So this is what I made with stuff I have on hand. This soup requires zero work and is already making me feel better. Or maybe relaxing for the first night in more than a week is helping me feel better.

After lunch, I tossed everything in my slow cooker. I used a large can of plum tomatoes, frozen cannellini beans, frozen chopped green bell peppers, an onion, a shallot, some garlic, a bouillon cube, some tomato paste, and some orzo tossed in near the end. I also used some red and black pepper, dried oregano, and some pesto paste squeezed across the top and then mixed right in.

I served this up in a big bowl wrapped in a kitchen towel and ate on the couch, while watching a movie. I think after some rest tonight and this good soup I should be feeling better soon. Want to know a secret? The frozen green peppers are coming full circle, because they were originally purchased to be an ice pack.

Normally I would say have a great weekend, but instead – see you tomorrow!

The Gigantic Zucchini

I mentioned before that my father gave me a gigantic zucchini. I know that some vegetables lose their flavor the larger they become, and my father seemed to be thinking along the same lines when he asked if the zucchini tasted okay. The answer? A resounding YES.

I did a quick Google search for gigantic zucchini and found many, many images and recipes for zucchinis larger than mine, but this one is still five times bigger than any I’ve seen in the store. I cooked this up yesterday in two recipes, thankfully using only ingredients I had on hand as I haven't been shopping since my return from my trip.

The gigantic zucchini in a 13x9 pan. I need to ask how much it cost.

This is half the zucchini in a 13x9 pan. I used the other half to make spelt zucchini bread from Vegan Brunch, a great success I’ve already told you about. Yes, this zucchini made two full recipes.

Prior to my trip, I’d been perusing Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, a cookbook my mom gave my for Christmas (along with a slow cooker!). I figured slow-cooking was perfect for summer as a way to cook with little energy and not to heat up the kitchen. Plus, I was hoping to find some recipes that I could prepare ahead of time so I didn’t have to bother with cooking supper after work. This stuffed zucchini recipe had already caught my eye. One of the things I love most about cooking more is getting a feel for what flavors I like most and what recipes are likely to turn out well.

This recipe turned out really well. So, so good. How can I tell? I ate the leftovers for lunch, and I’d be ready to eat another helping now. Seriously. We divided the giant zucchini in to thirds and each had a third for supper, plus my third for lunch today. And if there was another piece, I can guarantee it would be gone now that I’m hungry once again.

This is a hollowed zucchini stuffed with onions, garlic, cannellini beans, diced tomato, the zucchini I scooped out, basil, and pine nuts. Plus salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil. I baked this in the oven while my zucchini bread baked and served with a side of whole wheat penne with jarred Newman’s sauce and Upton’s Naturals Italian-sausage style seitan.

My only complaint is really my fault: because this was a slow cooker recipe, some of the beans dried out in the oven. Maybe next time I’ll make a real pesto from the basil and pine nuts to add some moisture, or if my zucchini are smaller, I’ll throw all this in the slow cooker. I know that’s a really energy-efficient way to cook, so I hope to do more of that soon.

Peperonata and Panini

Why peperonata?

I was perusing menus online, trying to decide where we can go for a nice meal out for our anniversary. Maybe I’m just not sophisticated, but I see a lot of unfamiliar words on menus these days I like to figure out what they mean. Maybe you’re smarter than I am, but which of these would you eat: peperonata, chorizo, calabaza, asadero, haloumi, porcini, pappardelle, cotija, chayote, sultanas. You know it’s confusing to review a menu when you’re trying to be careful, but not trying to be un-adventurous.

So the first recipe that comes up when I searched for peperonata is from Epicurious. I was drawn to this because I’d heard a story on The Splendid Table about how people search for recipes and get bad ones, or incomplete ones, or unclear ones, when they search the web, and meanwhile the trustworthy ones were further down the page. Well, I decided to trust Epicurious and not just read about what peperonata is, but rather to make it for myself.

Peperonata is slow cooked bell peppers with onion. It can include garlic, tomatoes, or spices – or not – and is finished with vinegar, either red wine or balsamic.

I got a three pack of bell peppers: orange, red, and yellow, and a sweet onion. I don’t like cooked green peppers. I sliced those not-too-thinly and cooked them in a little oil with a little salt for about an hour in a skillet over very low heat. I had mine in a sandwich. Alex had some in a quesadilla.

I also grilled an eggplant on my grill pan, sliced long ways, and then packed peppers, eggplant, and mozzarella into a sandwich with some extra balsamic and some basil pesto. I pressed the sandwich with a cast iron skillet and it came out with the ridges from the grill pan and was super duper yummy. I have considered getting a panini maker, but I just don’t have room in the kitchen. I don’t think I need one, anyway, when I can do this!

Homemade pizza!

When Alex and I first met, we made pizza pretty frequently. Actually, I think our second or third date was making pizza in my apartment. We actually got better and better at homemade pizza as we learned what ingredients made it too wet, how much sauce to use, and so forth. But, sadly, we haven't made pizzas at home since we moved to Cincinnati. At all.

There are two reasons for this: first, we've got more good pizzas than we need here. There's Dewey's, Mio's, and sometimes we get the delicious thin-crust Tuscan six-cheese from Papa John's. We've also been eating frozen pizza from time to time, too. Second, back in Philly I would buy really good pizza crusts from a nearby Italian market. I might be able to search for a good pizza crust here, but so far haven't had any luck.


So tonight, I decided to try making my own dough. My first project was to find a dough recipe that didn't tell me how to use my mixer and dough whip attachment. Don't have that. So I used this recipe from Mario Batali and did it all by hand. It wasn't too difficult at all. I substituted 2 cups of whole-wheat flour and used 1 cup of all-purpose, and I was a little worried after I let it rise, but it rolled out nicely. I couldn't have been happier, especially since I don't have a rolling pin and used a drinking glass instead! I also used half as much yeast as the recipe called for, only because I bought yeast at the store and didn't pay attention ahead of time to how much it required. I used all I bought.

I split the dough in half and made two pizzas. One had pesto, red and green bell peppers, thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, and red onions. The other had tomato sauce (from a jar), shredded Italian blend cheese, mushrooms, and fake pepperoni. Both were really, really, really good. The pizza crusts were great, especially the one I rolled out most thinly. I used some pinot noir I already had open and honey, and it was slightly sweet and really complemented the wheat. Yum, yum, yum. This was time-consuming, but not too difficult and really worth it.

Vegan pesto and pepper pizza

Cheese and fake pepperoni pizza

Experimentation Sunday: Hawaiian Pesto and Tofu

I've gained a little confidence in my ability to cook tofu, now, after I've learned the secret of freezing it. For this recipe, I froze and thawed a block of firm tofu, sliced it into thirds, and marinated it all afternoon. I got the recipe from a cookbook Alex gave me for Christmas from one of our favorite restaurants, Horizons, an all-vegan foodie restaurant in Philadelphia. They have two cookbooks with recipes from their restaurant and other tasty, flavorful vegan dishes.

Honestly, when I was first presented with the cookbook I was a little disappointed. First of all, I didn't like the implication of being asked to cook. On top of that, the recipes are really difficult and include ingredients I don't normally have on hand and are sometimes difficult to find. To cook from this book, I've purchased agave syrup, tamari soy sauce, coconut milk, and all kinds of spices. At first this seemed like a major hurdle, but now it's just part of my pantry. I've even made a jar of the Latin spice blend that's in several recipes.

In the cookbook, this recipe is Oven-Roasted Tofu with Hawaiian Pesto. I used a grill pan to grill the tofu. Alex wanted to be sure that I wrote that there were no leftovers to this meal! We ate the tofu and pesto with skillet fried potatoes and steamed broccoli. The only thing I'll do differently in the future is to use less salt in the spice blend; the marinade was almost like a rub and it was very, very salty.



Marinade Ingredients:
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
3 tablespoons Latin spice blend (3 parts paprika; 2 parts: cumin, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, and chili powder or dried chile; 1 part: thyme and oregano)
1/4 cup canola oil

I mixed this in the same zipper bag that I used to freeze and thaw the tofu. The book recommends at least and hour, if not overnight, for the marinade. I think mine was in this for about 4-5 hours.

Grill the tofu for 4 minutes per side.

Pesto Ingredients:
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
1/4 cup water

Puree all ingredients in a food processor. Use additional nuts for garnish. I really found the chopped nut texture pleasant with the pesto and tofu.

This recipe would certainly have been difficult nine months ago when I didn't know how to cook tofu and didn't have many of these ingredients on hand. However, I am growing my own basil and have many of these ingredients from previous recipes. I still had ginger in the fridge from my Thai soup -- just in time for its three-month holdover. I still had cilantro from my Mango Couscous. In a way, it's nice to re-use these ingredients in new a flavor combination, even if I only spent $.43 on the ginger.