Meatless March

I have previously shared my recipe for " Never-Fail Pastry ," and I'm afraid I have discovered the limitations of this recipe: it only succeeds when you actually follow it. Finding myself short on flour, I decided to halve the recipe, and proceeded to add half of all the ingredients...except the water. I added all the water. I am such a geek-dork. Anyway, I soldiered on, because people needed to eat, right, and actually it turned out okay. I took my soggy pastry and patted up up the sides of my mini ramekins, and then I put them in the oven at 350 for ten minutes or so, to pre-cook and hopefully dry them out. Then I filled them with a vegan mushroom filling.  The mushroom filling was from a recipe called " Vegan Mushroom Pot Pie with Sweet Potato Crust ," and you know what? I screwed that up too! But again, no sweat. All I actually screwed up was omitting the beans because I thought I had beans, but I had no beans. It would have been better wi...

I always jump at the chance to make a dish that contains carbs, veggies, and protein all in one package, and " Spaghetti With Cauliflower, Almonds, Tomatoes and Chickpeas " (NYT Cooking; subscription required) fit the bill. There are still big, deep red, lusciously juicy tomatoes available from the farmers market, so I used two large fresh ones rather than canned, and it turned out perfectly. I used orange cauliflower just for kicks, and I bought my almonds pre-blanched and -skinned, which I highly recommend. The whole dog-and-pony show, including chopping, and heating water, took about 40 minutes - doable on a weeknight for me. With it being Vegan Vednesday, I ate mine with a sprinkling of salt rather than cheese. Tomatoes and garlic Finished product. I used tricolor pasta rather than spaghetti. Vegan Vednesday went well yesterday. I have honed my slow-cooker overnight oatmeal recipe to the point that Emma asked for seconds: Overnight Steel-Cut Oatme...

During Meatless March, I was itching to make one of my favorite recipes, " Classic Tomato Pie " (A Garden For The House blog), but alas, it demands luscious ripe tomatoes, a laughable idea in March. But now it is July! And those farmers market tomatoes are things of great beauty. Actually all the produce for tonight's dinner came from the market. I always use my longtime trusty pastry crust recipe, "Never-Fail Pastry" (see  https://gomeatlessmarch.blogspot.com/2019/03/mushroom-parmesan-tart.html ), rather than the biscuits called for in the recipe. And rather than a cup of mayo, I do a spoonful of mayo and make up the rest with non-fat plain Greek yogurt. Healthier and, dare I say it, tastier! I don't know how other people seed tomatoes, but I slice them in half and then scoop out the seeds into the sink, and proceed. And I leave the slices in a strainer over a bowl for a while, so they relinquish a little of their juices before I stick them in the pie....

Before I even say a word about this tart, I'm going to make a confession: I did not make the tart today. I made it way back on February 12, and I thought to myself, "You are going to have days in March when you order a cheese pizza and call it a night, and on those days, you will wish you had something more inspiring to share with your legions of followers." Despite my mid-February optimism about Meatless March going viral, I still have only 27  followers on Instagram, so maybe not the "legions" I envisioned, but I digress. This NYT Mushroom-Parmesan Tart recipe (subscription required) is very delicious, but it took me a darned long time to make. In fact, it took me a darned long time even to start making it, because I was almost out of Parmigiano Reggiano, and since I am a parmesan snob, I had to wait until I got around to a trip to Whole Foods before I would attempt it. Once armed with the proper parm, I was all set to make it one night, until I real...