Thinking outside the salad bowl

This summer of Giada De Lairentiis has been quite insightful so far. I'd even have to say that she is making me re-revaluate the potential of bake-ability  of everything in my frig and in my pantry. All this over one dish. A dish that, of all things, cooks lettuce.

Now, I know that spinach is tasty cooked, as is Kale and every other dark leafy green like it, but for some reason, my American upbringing never allowed my brain the luxury of contemplating lettuce in anything but a bowl with dressing and sliced raw veggies. Maybe croutons if I'm feeling feisty.

No more. I have seen the light and it came shining from a Giada Cookbook.

Penne with Treviso and Goat Cheese

I'm not going to give the full recipe now as it can be found here. What I will give is my own substitutions. I vegetarianized this mostly vegetarian meal by replacing the meat stock with veggie broth. I could not find treviso in Cleveland (go figure), so I decided on the equally acceptable raddicchio option. Of course, I didn't find a head of raddicchio by its lonesome, only in a bag mixed with romaine. I decided: what the heck? So my own meal pictured is really Penne with Raddicchio-Romaine and Goat Cheese.

I will also warn you that when it comes time to add the cheese, do so very carefully and exactly as she instructs or you might end up pulling apart mounds of molded together stringy melted cheese to salvage your dinner. And we don't want that do we?

Other than the cheese fiasco, this meal went off without a hitch (though this farming cliche is vaguely lost on my suburban mindset). My son was at his fathers the week before we made this and it was his welcome home dinner. He made quite a fuss, even though we assured him that he quite likes lettuce. Then he tasted it, and we had no more complaints. It's delicious. I'm not sure I've ever before tried balsamic vinegar in any form that wasn't sold in a salad dressing bottle with fruit mixed in. I have now, and there's no going back. Balsamic vinegar is heaven in a bottle. It's worth its weight in gold... which is probably why it's so darn expensive at the supermarket.

Cooked lettuce, I might add, is divine.

In other news, the garden has begun whipping out veggies in mass quantities. Look, we even have our first eggplant of the season! There's two more Japanese eggplanis on the bush, growing nicely, and one half-grown globe eggplant. Things have been cooking up in my kitchen, to say the least.

Mom's Mac N Cheese

My maternal grandmother was a great many things. Foremost of those was a homebody. Until dementia took her fear away, she was uneasy to leave the confines of her own yard, and she was content there (mostly) raising 14 children. I remember her most for the way in which she froze her Cool Whip and then allowed us to eat it like ice cream, but Cool Whip, for her, was a modern invention. She raised 5 children right through the depression and into the second world war, when more would come. At one time, there were 11 children, plus two adults, living in their two bedroom house. At the time, it had an outdoor toilet.

She was a resourceful lady. She made a lot with a little and she did it cheaply. In honor of that idea, one of her classic dishes, passed down to my mother and then, on to me, is her version of homemade macaroni and cheese. I've never had any that came close.

While we were in Michigan this weekend, mom made enough for all of us to share a less frequent family meal. It works well for blogging purposes, as the last time I made it has yet to be blogged.

Mom's Mac N Cheese
(Tried and true recipe for generations)
serves 4-6

1 8 oz. box macaroni (I--the health-conscious veggie of the family--use wheat mac)
3 T margarine/butter
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 c milk
1/2 lbs grated cheese

1. Place butter in a skillet. When melted, add flour and salt. Stir until blended. Add milk to flour mix, stirring constantly until well blended. Cook until cheese melts. How, here's my favorite part of the recipe, word for word: "By making the sauce first, you have a much more delicious concoction."

2. Grease casserole dish (or dishes. as the case may be) and place macaroni in dish. Put cheese sauce over macaroni. And cook in pre-heated oven, set for 350 degrees, for one hour.

Whenever mom busts out the mac n cheese recipe, I'm a kid again. There's a perfection in the imperfectness of the consistency, the way it globs together on a fork, that just can't be matched by the neon orange boxed varieties, try as they may.

When I made this recipe myself in the confines of my Cleveland apartment's kitchen, I paired it with a side of Toasti, just to add a bit of vegetables to this nonvegetable vegetarian feast, pairing a new favorite with an old for a nice mix of flavors and colors and textures.

I'm sure everyone has at least one childhood dish they couldn't give up. This is mine. What's yours?

Using up my fresh garden veggies

The garden explosion is on. The zucchini have hit a lull, though any minute now, they look like they could just burst forth another brood of offspring. Eggplant are weighing down the eggplant vine to the dirty ground. Tomatoes abound. And the Kale...

My frig is stockpiled and all I can think is: I need some new recipes stat. On google, I typed "tomato and eggplant recipes" into the engine. Lo and behold, I happen upon a bounty of recipes, but one it particular seemed the order of the day.

Whole Wheat Penne w/ Eggplant, Zucchini, Kale, and Tomatoes. It seemed the recipe created specifically for my August garden. 

What you need:

2 T olive oil

onion

2 med eggplants, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 med. zucchini, diced

1 c. Kale

1 c. tomato (about one large one)

3T parmesan

salt and pepper

2 portions whole wheat penne

1. Boil the pasta.That's easy enough...

2. Heat large skillet over med. heat. Add oil and onion and saute 2 minutes. Not having 2 medium eggplants, dice up an assortment of mini fairytales and another non-globe variety. Realize you didn't cut up enough eggplant. Worry that you are running out of time and the oil is still sizzling. Enlist a kitchen helper (by way of handy cooking pseudo house husband) to help in the dicing. Manage to get all necessary eggplant. Add eggplant, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt. This will make for an oddly pretty mix of light brown with edges of purple ranging from lavender to aubergine and spots of red and dark brown. Cook until eggplant is browned, stirring, 6-8 minutes.

3. Realize you only have a tiny zucchini left from the garden's first zucchini onslaught. Dice it up anyway, aware that your meal will be light on the zucchini. Add zucchini and cook another 2 minutes. Add kale and cook one minute more. Add tomato, freshly plucked.

4. Stir and simmer about 1 to 2 more minutes. Add pasta water as needed so that the pan doesn't get too dry and the vegetables don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add pasta to skillet. Add parmesan (The recipe originally calls for goat cheese. Who just keeps goat cheese lying around the refrigerator anyway?). Toss. Serve in bowls with an extra sprinkle of shredded cheese if desired.

The end result was very picture worthy, but very bland. I'm sure a few more spices could give it that needed pick-me-up. In my case, I hadn't had a lot of protein that day anyway, so I cooked up some fake sausage, cut it up, and added it to my bowl. Then there was plenty of spice to go around.

 

Even with the additions, I'm not sure I'd make this one again. There are so many great recipes out there to waste a re-do on mediocrity. Even so, I suppose it is a handy way to use the fresh veggies from the garden and that stockpile of pasta noodles we have in the pantry. I might just Kate-ify this one yet. I'll keep you posted.