Meatless March

A few friends came around tonight, and we munched on some vegetarian appetizers while we talked about literature and life. I sought the recipe for " Hot Cheese Olives " with exactly one goal in mind: a bite-sized appetizer to be served with a toothpick, so that I could use my adorable, tiny, octopus serving tray (purchased locally at Kitchen a la Mode ). Ideally, I'd have taken a photo of this when it was full of fresh-from-the-oven appetizers. But I forgot, which is a good sign that I was having fun. As suggested by one of the people who reviewed this recipe on the NYT Cooking website (subscription required), I rolled the dough into a long log and then cut off disks, flattened them in my hands (again, I offer you an oddly intimate view of my thumbs), and then molded them around the olives. I guess I made the disks slightly too thick, because I only got enough to cover 41 olives, not 50. As always, I screwed something up in this recipe: I added the dry ingr...

St. Patrick's Day is right around the o'corner! Are you ready? With your Guiness and your green-vegetable-based culinary offerings? If not, rest assured that I am Irish by marriage, and I've got your back. This person is genuinely Irish by heritage, unlike me First up, we have Creamy Spinach Soup , from the BBC's "Good Food" website. If you live in Ireland, it is all well and good that the measurements for this recipe are in metric. For Americans, though, I have converted it all into, ummmm, whatever the non-metric measurements are called. Here is the whole recipe. Creamy Spinach Soup Serves 4+ Ingredients 3 tbsp butter 1 medium onion, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 medium potato, peeled and chopped into chunks 15oz (2 cups) vegetable stock 2.5c milk 1lb fresh spinach, washed if necessary and roughly chopped finely grated zest of half a lemon freshly grated nutmeg, to taste 3 tbsp double cream, to serve  Method Melt the butter...

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...

I made some minor modifications to this " Skinny Cauliflower Mac and Cheese, " from the "Damn Delicious" blog, only because of what was in my fridge/cupboard. I used medium shells rather than cavatappi. I didn't have half-and-half (I have always been a little fuzzy on what half-and-half is, actually) so I did half cream, half skim milk. I added maybe half a cup of frozen peas to the boiling pasta along with the cauliflower, because Emma loves peas. And I substituted Gruyure for the cheddar because GRU-YES, amIright? It is very hard to take a picture of yourself grating cheese, as it turns out. These were my best efforts. I feel somehow squeamish about the larger-than-life image of my thumb. It seems weirdly personal. The finished product was terrific, and having made it several times before, I can assure you that it is also terrific when made precisely according to the recipe.

Tonight's recipe for " 15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta " comes to us from the "Oh She Glows" blog, and I have made it several times before. It is a winner. This was the first time I made this vegan recipe in my new, enormous food processor that I got for Christmas to replace my old, less-enormous food processor whose cracked bowl proved irreplaceable. It turns out that the bowl on the new machine is so big that it didn't really blend all the ingredients the way my old machine did, but Pat said he actually liked it better this way, with bits of basil and whatnot. So either way: all good. Before processing the garlic and basil I served the pasta with boring green beans. Emma ate every bite and accepted seconds, noting she did not *like* it, she *loved* it. Even this bloodthirsty hunter has embraced vegetarianism Since I'm posing as a foodie this month, I will also note that we tried this bottle of Zinfandel for the first time and I...

Tonight's recipe is one I have made many times. It is easy and delicious, and even vaguely healthy.  It is " Broccoli Cheddar Twice-Baked Potatoes ,"* from Kelly Toups, whose blog inexplicably lacks a catchy bloggy name. C'mon, Kelly.... how about ToupsAndSoups.com? ToupsOfTheMorningToYou.com? TastyToupsy.com? I could go on all day. Chopped broccoli, and cooked potatoes waiting to be sliced and reconstructed Ready to go into the oven Potatoes in the toaster oven W hat's missing from this picture? Oh that's right....I put the fourth one in the freezer for cooking on another day. The fourth potato: "Thaw then bake 400 degrees 20 min" I bought a yellow sharp cheddar for the recipe, but then realized I had some white sharp cheddar already in the fridge. "But if I use the white cheddar, my people will assume there is less cheese in it than usual," I thought, and then I thought, "That's silly, there will...

There are a lot of winners--both meatless and meaty--in the cookbook "Pasta Sauces," by Christine McFadden (Parragon Publishing, 2004). Tonight I made the Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese sauce, and served it on penne. It was yummy, and easy. I forgot to add the basil at the end, but still delicious.  I served the pasta with Carrots du Amour, which is our slight variation on a recipe by Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Julie does not call it Carrots du Amour. We started calling it that years ago when a friend solicited recipes to impress a date for whom he was cooking dinner, and we recommended this one: Carrots du Amour (about 4 servings) 1.5 lb carrots 1 c water (note that if you increase the amount of carrots, do NOT increase the water proportionately! Stick with one cup) 2T sugar 1.5T butter Salt Peel the carrots and cut them into 2-3" chunks. Put carrot pieces in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan with wa...

I treated myself and the fam this morning to French toast slathered in kaya, a custardy spread. I had brought a jar of the stuff back from Singapore, after savoring it in the mornings at the Good Good Eating House with a cup of kopi (coffee). Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Come dinnertime, I was ready to try something from the "Pinch of Yum" blog, to which I was pointed by a friend who had received a cryptic message about it from her mother, referencing meatless meatballs. I seized the day, and gave " 30-minute Vegetarian Meatballs " a shot. My back-up dancer Emma is getting fairly good at beating eggs. First note about this recipe: 30 minutes? Bwaaaa ha ha ha ha ha! No. I mean, maybe it takes closer to 30 minutes if you have cooked rice/quinoa already on hand, and if you don't cook what turns out to be two cups of quinoa when the recipe calls for three such that you have to go back into your cupboard and also cook a cup of brown rice to make up the difference...

As a little kid, I categorically did not eat green things. By my 20s, I had perfected this dinner party trick: when a salad was placed in front of me, I would subtly push the leaves around on my plate with my fork, occasionally putting a crouton or a walnut or some other non-green element into my mouth, thus giving the impression of eating the salad. But I was absolutely not eating that loathsome salad. At some point in my adulthood, it belatedly dawned on me that people need green things to stay alive. I remember the first time I made myself a salad, with no real idea what a salad should be. I put baby spinach leaves in a bowl, and placed chopped tomato on top. I ate that sad pile of vegetation, and could not picture myself ever doing so again. A friend was horrified when I described this experience, and pointed me toward salad dressing, a revelation. I persevered, and it got easier. It turns out that repeated, positive exposure to basically any food can turn you into a fan (...

You remember how there were no butternut squashes at Whole Foods yesterday? Of course you do - and I appreciate your righteous indignation on my behalf. Well today I tried my luck at Trader Joe's, and guess what?! Yeah, that's right: NO BUTTERNUT SQUASHES. Dizzy with visions of a squash conspiracy, I plunged into the produce section of Stop-and-Shop, and thank the merciful heavens, they had a whole bin of them. It almost seemed a pity to purchase only one. Tonight's recipe was based on Roasted Butternut Squash Panini from the "Oh My Veggies" blog, but I altered it enough that I'm going to give you my version below. In short, I felt the sandwiches needed more crunch and tang than the original recipe suggested. Incidentally, having tried pine nuts in my own version tonight, I feel they actually weren't crunchy enough, and would suggest trying sunflower seeds instead. Let me know if that works for you! Despite still needing more crunch, the sandwic...