cooking happens too: summer squash bake

(Accidentally and optionally Vegan) Summer Squash Bake with Salsa Verde
Adapted from http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2014/07/summer-squash-gratin-with-salsa-verde/ who adapted it from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

This was a kitchen sink recipe to use up a pile of fresh herbs and early summer delights from our CSA box (join here: http://www.eatwell.com/#whats-a-csa). I improvised pretty wildly from the original because I didn't feel like going to the grocery store, and had high quality-if different- ingredients on hand. The recipe can take it. 

Serves 4 to 6? 

Gratin
2 pounds summer squash
Salt
1 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs (from nick's pizza crusts decadentttt)
3 tablespoons butter
1-2 quartered spring onions - just the white part - save the greens for garnish
[1 cup grated gruyere cheese] -i axed that as I only had cheddar and feta onhand. cheddar is too kiddie, and feta too salty to mix with the brine of the salsa verde. i
1/4 cup salsa verde (below)
Freshly ground black pepper

optional: 1 bunch chard, chopped into ribbons

Salsa verde
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
1 teaspoon oregano leaves (or half, if dried)
a few basil leaves
1 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
3-4 teeny cloves fresh (undried) garlic
i subbed 6 lemon-rosemary marinated olives for:1 salt-packed anchovy, 1 tablespoon capers, and 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

Cut the squash into thin coins. Toss with salt and set aside for at least 10 minutes. Do it n a colander so it can drain easily. I used this time to play a game with my kid. 

direct from smitten (buy her cookbook): Meanwhile, place breadcrumbs in a small bowl. In a small skillet or saucepan, melt butter and keep cooking it over medium heat until it browns and smells nutty. Carefully pour (in a small drizzle at first) over breadcrumbs and be sure to scrape out any brown bits from the pot. Toss crumbs to evenly coat.

Make the salsa verde by blending the herbsand olives in a food processor or blender. With the machine running, stream in the olive oil in a drizzle. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add shallots, [gruyere] half the breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup salsa verde (about half; you can use the rest to dress eggs or any roasted meat) and some freshly ground black pepper to the bowl with the summer squash and toss. Transfer to a 9×9-inch (or equivalent; I used a 9-inch round cast-iron skillet) baking dish. Scatter remaining breadcrumbs over the top and bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the squash is tender and the crumbs are crisp.

Rebecca's version to finish:

Add chopped chard as squash is cooling- the steam will wilt it just enough to provide a fresh herby texture. 

Garnish with chives and grated cheese. 

yum. do you have a great plum recipe to share?

xo bex

2 things i learned today

1) i watched my teacher stick to her midline core center when her students were all over the place. i could see her tailoring her class to one side or the other, and losing half of us...but she stuck to her plan her self her source, and we all learned together. i should go into that more as a life/teaching lesson, but i'm busy enjoying the fruits of...

2) beans and greens soup! mustard greens + kale + beet greens + leek scallion garlic and carrots. so simple. so delicious.

please pray for my health, mang. I hung out with two semicontagious besties this weekend and the effects are all up in my sinuses....sniff sniff.

see ya soon
xo
bex

tollhouse cookie failures

Q for you: do your tollhouse cookies work? mine are always flat. delicious, but never ever even the slightest bit chewy or cakey. wtf? I made two batches for the family in the past week, and they were both the same in spite of my best efforts. i had to face facts: it's me. when my bf makes the same recipe in the same kitchen, they are perfect martha stewart masterpieces..

have you had this problem? what am i doing wrong? OR, if yours are dope, how do you do it?

SIGH. Please do help! xo bex

math is hard: undies and time

please forgive the inordinate use of the word SO in this post. my editor (LOL) is on vacation and that is how it is!

I have been wanting to make unders forever. and t shirts...but my first renfrew was pretty awful and the second wasn't enough better to entice me back.

so i signed up for this class. the patterns are cool, the teacher is LONG WINDED. the intro is like 2 hours long, LITERALLY. she is not a city girl like some other teachers whose style i jive with a little more, though the content is hella solid and I learned a fair amount in that two hours. i said jive with - shoot me!

ok so anyway. i made a t shirt! it took like 5 weeks between the school and student teaching and maintaining a household and freelancing and oh yeah raising a kid, so. tonight i will bind the neck. i made a cool yokey design choice based on accidentally (?) or maybe frugal fanny-ly? buying an insanely small amount of fabric. i sacrificed a t shirt from my bestie's dance co (check em out! dope!) to make a cool contrast yoke. i lURVE it.

i'll use another hunk of that t (thick, late 90s weight 1x1 rib knit? who knows) for the crotch in my new undies...but that's where we get to the math part.

i was so excited to see amy's fabulous style rendered in these hot --but ass-covering-- undies.  Now that I spend a fair amount of time around teens and tweens, i prefer to cover my cheeks. weird? they (my cheeks) are under my pants/dress anyway, but i feel like a generous dash of modesty won't hurt.

SO this happened. amazeballs, right? right. but the bf's computer/printer is a mac style, which apparently prints whatever size it wants. i printed, & taped & cut a 6 (exactly my measurements oh happy day) and made it up in some leftover mesh. it was pretty skimpy, esp in the crack, but also a little saggy. so, ok, maybe size down and that will raise the back up? (from the pattern it made sense.) when i printed the sections i needed to size down, they were WAY BIGGER than the first printout. what the hell size is my meshmuslin? i have no clue.

sigh

i hate it mostly, that my sewing time is so fractured and grab here and there, so the minor frustration of this confusion sets me back to square one, and i may not get to it for a week or three. i started today hoping for hot unders in the drawer at bedtime. instead i have pages of recycling, a strange pair of mesh ladyshorts, a good relationship, a yummy tomato sauce, a happy child, and chocolate zucchini bread.

not so bad, i suppose. except for the underpants. ;) and please, if you have one, what's your best panty pattern???

xo yalls
bex

quick cooks: leeks and brussels sprouts

slice 1 fat leek - include some green! and 5 fresh, tender 1.5-2" brussels sprouts in the food processor. they'll be ribonned prettily. leave them to rest for 4-5 hours while you cut fabric and listen to an audiobook (optional).

then, chuck em in the cast iron skillet with a drizzle of olive oil, dash of heirloom tomato salt (tomorrow's recipe may be "fresh compost with heirloom tomato salt" because that stuff makes everything spectacular), dash of red pepper flakes. stir. eat. marvel at the fact that you purchased and cooked brussel sprouts without being coerced.

today's post was inspired by farmerbrown's bs+kale mash, on which they rest their catfish. i <3 u, farmerbrown!

Smitten Knows: BEST COOKIES EVER

i am a chocolate chip cookie aficionado, but maybe i mean addict. i get nervous when there are not cookies around, and yet i will completely ignore substandard cookies that are right in front of me. I have discovered this best recipe ever and i want you to know where it is.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/

Replace the raisins with chocolate chips because DUH. good oatmeal raisin cookies are better than bad chocolate chip cookies, but when i'm in charge, it's oatmeal chocolate chip for the ultimate win. this time, i also added coconut in place of walnuts, because one was here and one was not. i am equally likely to do it the other way around.

i once substituted apricot applesauce for the egg in this recipe and it sucked. do not make that mistake. do it right! enjoy, loves.

thanksgiving recipes

i meant to blow off Thanksgiving. Instead I cooked a feast over 4 days. I love having all of this Real food in the house, and wish i had more opportunities and inspiration to keep it up!

so- new recipe to kill pumpkin pie forever. holy crap http://www.indianfoodrocks.com/2007/11/curry-that-pumpkin.html

Pumpkin and potato curry [adapted for the white girl]

Bengali Kumror Chakka

1 small pie pumpkin, chopped into small cubes (or any old squash. i used kabocha, and i baked it in the oven beforehand. that may not have been necessary, but it turned out delicious.)

• 5-6 medium potatoes, cubed to same size as the pumpkin - (or much smaller, and nuked 5 minutes, to catch them up with baked pumpkin)
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp panch phoran - didn't have this. used cumin seeds and mustard seeds. find the other seeds and be better than i am!
• a pinch of hing - ditto, used extra garlic
• 1 dried red chilli, broken into two pieces
• 1 tejpatta (=BAY LEAF)
• 2 inch knob of ginger
• 2 medium size cloves of garlic (OR 5)
• 2 green chillies, sliced vertically and seeds discarded (HOLY CRAP 1 IS ENOUGH)
• 1.5 tsp jeera powder (=CUMIN)
• 1.5 tsp coriander powder (sup dawg)
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala (or whatever blend is around)
• 1 tsp amchur powder (there is no substitute for this. find it!)
• salt to taste
• 1 can coconut milk- i used light, it worked.
• some chopped cilantro, for garnish

1. Pound the green chillies, ginger and garlic in a mortar and pestle into a corase mixture. food processor
2. Heat oil in the pan of your pressure cooker. soup pot.
3. Add the panch phoran and when it splutters, add hing, then red chilli pieces and then tejpatta.
4. Then add the pounded mixture of green chillies, ginger and garlic.
5. Add the potatoes and the pumpkin and stir.
6. Mix all the dry spices except for the amchur powder with a few teaspoons of water to make a paste.
7. Add this to the pan and stir well. Cook for a few minutes till you can smell the fragrance of the masalas start to waft through. About 3-4 minutes.
8. Add 2 and half cups of water can of coconut milk and cook under pressure until the first whistle or its equivalent. for a while, til the pot makes a mess or the potatoes are soft.
9. Allow to cool till you can open the pressure cooker without hurting yourself. Add the amchur powder and mix well (doh). Then add chopped cilantro leaves and serve with naan or roti or paratha. dal and brown rice.

Notes (from the original recipe author):

• If you don't have panch phoran, don't fret. Take 2 pinches each of mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds and fennel seeds.
• Be careful while cutting that pumpkin! Cut your pumpkin first and then figure out how many potatoes you will need. You want as much pumpkin as potatoes.

also amazing http://www.sugarlaws.com/flourless-chocolate-hazelnut-cake

finally: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/persimmon_pomegranate_fruit_salad/

add brown rice, dobkin dal makhani, winter vegetable soup (from soup love, a really cute and disappointing book), and the best baked spinach, and you've got a happy family of bellies. oh, and a bag of movie popcorn with Real Butter. I am thankful for time off, Eatwell Farm, my stoneware casserole dishes, The Muppets, my people, and my darling son.

just an excellent day

i slept in. i slept in so sweetly in a dream i didn't want to leave, in a soft fluffy bed with a phone turned off.

i didn't make it to yoga (there was a sub).

i went through the bills pile and cleaned it out. i did a load of strange laundry and hung it out to dry. i ate a breakfast of champions: coffee, cake, and prozac. it was perfect.

deposited a check, bought quickie sushi, sang songs and told stories on the way to breathe deep in the clean air, eat melons, tomatoes, peppers straight from the vine. art and love and therapy talk with a friend who's heading towards "old friend" and how sweet is watching friends turn from silver to gold? so sweet.

also sweet- pasta sauce* with no added liquid, which starts as a full pot and boils down to half that, bursting with fresh tomato brightness! shared beers in the hot summer sun and bean chili** with home garden zucchini and tj's carrots. yum. yum yum.

and then! after a stunning sunset and well deserved yawn, a fresh coat of lipstick and toenail polish (over the farm grime, with some body spray because HA!) out for another round of lovely and deep conversations about compromising at work and not killing ourselves for meaninglessness and laughing so hard my sides hurt.

because the neighbors thought her dog's name was "pimpin"

because my kid learned at day care to say "black is beautiful"

because our neighborhood's real life drama is too racist for TV

it's a beautiful day and i'm a lucky mama, even without my little man next to me.

*(recipe: one small onion, 3 cloves garlic, one half poblano, salt, fresh ground pepper, 3 bell peppers diced, fill the pot with peeled and coarsely chopped tomatoes, cook til thick)

** (recipe: one large onion, 6 cloves garlic, one large poblano, 2 carrots- disc'ed, 3 large tomatoes, 4 c pinto beans. not so much water, maybe an inch to cover. chili powder, salt, fresh ground pepper, 2 bay leaves. bring to boil, cover, simmer til beans turn the whole pot brown. eat with gayfritos, cheese! and cherry tomatoes.)

cooking with kids is a moving target: cold sesame noodle / salad

the little monkey used to help me make granola. it was really sweet, and fun for me because i ended up with granola AND a nice together activity.

today he wanted to "help with the noodles" so i enlisted him to stir up some sesame sauce. he's a pro at holding a measuring spoon, and dumping it out on command (ok, he sometimes jumps the gun, wha-ev).

it did not work. he got frustrated at some point - with a toddler, it could have been a cool breeze on his nose - and had a little spazzz which led him to pick up the sauce. as I watched him do that, I also watched the impulse go out of control and the tahini, rice vinegar, sriracha garlic MESS was all over the kitchen as he threw it to the ground.

i improvised another sauce which turned out great, but that was after i hosed down the rug outside and cleaned a goopy gloppy mess from my cabinet and counter, and had a good talk about when it's ok to throw things and when it's not (throwing shoes in the kitchen, for instance, is on the buzzkill list).

he even helped clean up, once we had calmed down.

So! here's the sauce. dress some noodles with it and eat it cold thank god!

1/4 c tahini
2T soy sauce
2T fish sauce
2T rice vinegar (i used the last of this in the first batch, so i omitted it from the one i actually tasted. i didn't miss it?)
generous dash of powdered ginger. fresh would be good of course.
chopped garlic clove
1T (or less) sriracha

1) i used a bag of brown rice spaghetti instead of the fettuccine Cook's Illustrated suggested, and dressed it with a splash of sesame oil while the noodles cooled.

ooh! here's a tofu lesson!

2) drain the tofu, cut it up, put it in a sandwich of paper towels, and let it get strained for a few minutes (or an hour?) then put it in a pan with hot hot oil and just leave it there for a while. a few minutes or whatever. the recipe said 8-10 minutes, but i think mine cooked for a half hour! who can tell though, when you're going up and down the stairs trying to fold the laundry and lure the kid inside. it took a while. i kept thinking of Julie & Julia, "don't crowd the mushrooms", just leaving it be and trying not to overflip.

omg i got crisp, browned tofu cubes, with creamy delicious interiors, instead of the mess of crappy tofu crumble i used to get before i gave up on the Curd [almost] altogether. (did everyone else know this? how was this information not in my "welcome to Oregon" vegan starter kit???)

3) mix the sauce into the noodles, with a little bit of noodle water (or plain water if you dump the noodle water down the drain)!

4) add in some vegetables, preferably semi-julienned and semi-cooked, and brightly colored because otherwise everything is beige and ew! (garden-picked zucchini, lettuce, and arugula did the trick tonight) the recipe calls for scallions for just this purpose.

on second thought: use greens! it's so much nicer to have a salad with some noodles in it than a bunch of noodles with a rare veggie. ignore this note if you're taking it to a party, greens don't keep.

Enjoy with white wine and later a bunch of cookies. <3 r

good job, mom: indian dinner (from space)

Kohlrabi is this winter's New Vegetable. How have I never eaten it before? It's right there in the middle of the January wedge of my food wheel (buy one for yourself!). It is a space alien vegetable and I ate the greens last week with eggs. Normal, greens. Whatevs.

I wanted to do something more interesting with the bulb/tuber of the thing. Somehow I knew India/Pakistan had the answer. The recipe site format is completely annoying, but visit nonetheless because this recipe is tight. (Tight?? Who said that?)

notes: if you don't have asafoetida, use two cloves of garlic. if you are gringalicious and don't have cardamom pods, leave them out. if, for the same reason, you fear the amount of red pepper called for, reduce at will. I didn't have a pre-mixed garam masala, so i substituted some tandoori mix. oops, shoulda used the curry powder! (on a cardamom note, did you know Bombay Creamery closed?!? I just learned that this weekend. no more rose/cardamom ice cream sundaes. sadness.)

Back to dinner: delicious. Trim the kohlrabi well or it gets stringy and yucks. If you burn the everliving shit out of half of it (like i did!), trim the burned parts and keep going. The vegetable was headed to the compost bin anyway, so whatever makes it into the gravy is how do you say? gravy. 

Serve with lentils and yogurt if you happen to have them around. or soak up the gravy with any old bread. YUMMEH.

success

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/new-york-cheesecake/

EAT IT

graham "crackers"

yummy! 

i made a mess of these, spilling the sugar/butter/egg mixture around the kitchen (and myself), so then i just added ingredients willy nilly. it turned out well! The boy ate all the batter left in the bowl, commenting "loooks like peanut butter". he's right. I didn't roll it out quite enough because there was so much darn batter and it was almost naptime, so the baking time was longer and they're not so much crackers as thin cakes. whatever!

next time: follow the recipe. substitute agave & barley malt for the 6T sugar, and find a honey that's less than $12/lb for the honey portion. 

the boy has cookies. amen.

weird, and yummy

Persimmons* are delicious. I learned this year that they're even better peeled! This way that thick thick skin doesn't interfere with your experience of their sweet cinnamon-y flesh.

but i had 4 in the fruit bowl, and only one day to eat them. Enter the recipe!

Persimmon, Spinach and Almond Couscous

Adapted from Denise's Kitchen

Makes: 4 – 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 chopped leek
1 cup spinach
1 or 2 small Fuyu persimmons, peeled and chopped into cubes
1/2 cup chopped unsalted raw or roasted almonds
dash nutmeg
accidental dash of cumin seeds (these might be better omitted)
1.5 cup whole wheat couscous
1.5 cup hot water, chicken broth or vegetable broth
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Chop leeks, spinach and persimmons and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan and add leek.
3. Cook leek until tender, add spinach and cook a minute or two more (until leeks are translucent).
4. Add persimmons, salt, almonds, and spices (this would be good with thyme, but somehow i don't have any) and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Stir in couscous and then add hot water or broth along with a little salt to taste.
6. Turn off heat, cover, and let sit for five minutes.
7. Add in parsley, fluff the couscous with a fork and then serve.

(*fuyus! hachiyas are just scary)

amazing week of soup

My soup pot's been on the stove all week. Outstanding! 

On Monday, i made split pea, which worked nicely to feed my "cleansing" babysitter. I made it up- soak a 99 cent bag of split peas with lemon juice overnight, rinse well, then saute whatever allium is in the fridge with a bunch of cumin, a dash of red pepper and chili powder (why not?), salt, pepper, add the peas, equal parts broth and water (or whatever) and simmer til soft. Delish. Didn't even freeze any, we just ate the whole pot. 

Wednesday I finally put all of the mushroom ingredients that had been waiting in the fridge for a week into the Roasted Mushroom recipe from Soup Love. It's really rich. It probably would have been better with actual wine, rather than that year-old bottle of $2 chuck, and omitting the carrots was not the best choice...but I froze a jar for Mom's visit, and am finishing the last fresh bowl now. It's a solid recipe. Yay! I stalked this little book in the local earthy boutiques before my sweet friends gave it to me for my birthday. Thanks, guys!

Yesterday emls and I whipped up a pot of this Butternut Soup with Bacon for the potluck Thanksgiving orphan dinner. What an excellent tradition. I kind of like going to these random events and celebrating a big holiday with (mostly) strangers. Arty, intellectual strangers. It reminds me why I love it here. Anyway, this recipe is so easy. You can fudge whatever you want on it (we tripled the garlic and eyeballed the cream, and have no idea how the amount of squash we used compares to the recipe) and it still works. Take it to a potluck (without vegetarians) and make yourself popular.

theni tried this "best granola ever"

this stuff smelled amazing when it was cooking...but the results are still out

I cooked again!

last week was kind of epic, what with the giant chard and the quiche for the mountains, and then the delicious vegetable stew i conjured from a bag of raw vegetables, a steak knife, and a camp stove. so when i came back i was lethargic about food. i wanted to be in the mountains, harvesting chestnuts and watching the clouds.

So the girls cam over and made this confusing but yummy Tourte de Blettes, (which includes a crust with no butter- whoa - and was totally good??) The kitchen was a wreck and the one leftover slice of dessert-for-dinner wasn't calling to me.

But I finished the last of my homemade granola early in the week when I couldn't be bothered to cook anything for dinner...and then the potato chips (please don't tell) and cheese and hummus were holding out, and then omg did you know you can buy pasta sauce in a jar and it is SO MUCH BETTER than what you (I) make at home? so yes, i caved. this afternoon i stuck apple slices in a grilled cheese, dunked it in leftover pasta sauce and pretended it was a gourmet lunch.

and then i lounged around reading my book all afternoon and didn't even make it to yoga. the odds of the kitchen turning back on looked slim.

BUT I DID IT.

scallions, garlic, canola and sesame oils. half a bag of brown mushrooms, 2 fillets of salmon, some tamari sauce, and sweet red pepper. added bok choy ribs toward the end, leaves even later. put it on a bed of lettuce, and not only am i cooking, I'm eating vegetables again! shoulda bought ginger, but the GroceOut doesn't stock it.

while that was sauteing, i baked brownies. BOOM!

let's hope the boy eats some of it. i think i'll get him to help me with granola in the morning regardless. phew. real food feels so much better than potato chips.

pumpkin pie and a technique to keep your house warm for an afternoon

With all of the boiling and baking in this recipe, it's perfect for the first cold day of the rainy season. It coincided nicely with the first pumpkin in our veggie box. 

Take one small pumpkin (about this size or a little smaller)

From Fall 2010

, chop it up. Roast the seeds, well salted, at 200 degrees for about an hour.

Steam the pumpkin chunks in a steamer basket - about 30-40 mins

Mix these things in a bowl:

mushed pumpkin ~ 1.5 cups

3-4 heaping tablespoons crystallized honey (you know you have some hiding in the cupboard)

1/4 - 1/3 c. agave nectar or similar agave/maple blend

1 14oz can coconut milk 

2 eggs

if you have a toddler, let him help with:

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 tsp powdered cloves (we may have gone a little light on the cloves)

mix it up, bake it in a pie shell at 425 for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 and bake another 40-ish minutes. it bakes a LONG time because of all of that liquid. it will be gooey, and delicious. 

for Maggie: Roasted Chile Soup

Here's the soup! Modified from Roasted Poblano Soup, which my favorite Eatwell Farm sent me.

I modified it by adding every pepper-related fruit in my kitchen, which on this day included (roasted) tomatillos and (pureed) sweet red peppers. Oh and I didn't have nutmeg, so I substituted cinnamon.

3 Poblano peppers 1 cup milk
3 Gypsy or red bell peppers 1 cup cream or half-and-half
1 onion 3 Tbsp. butter
4-5 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 tomatoes, chopped with juices 2 ears-worth of corn, kernels sliced off (optional)
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth cilantro
salt and pepper to taste tortilla chips
½ tsp. ground nutmeg sour cream

Preheat oven to broil. Place Poblanos on a cookie sheet and place in oven. Allow skin to blacken and blister, turning the chile peppers until all sides are done. You can also place the peppers directly over the flame on top of your stove if you have a gas burner. When they are done, place them in a bowl and cover with a lid, plate, or Saran Wrap. In about 15 to 20 mins, take them out and peel the skin off each one under running water. Remove the stems and seeds and dice. In a pan sauté the onions and garlic. Add your peppers (diced) and cook for about 5 min. Add tomatoes, broth and nutmeg. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor (be careful, the mixture will be hot and will want to jump right out of the blender. Best to do in small batches). Blend until smooth. If soup is too thick for your liking, add more broth or water to the blender until it reaches desired consistency (remembering also that you will be adding 2 more cups of liquid with the milk and cream).

In a small saucepan over med. heat, warm the milk and the cream or half-and-half and set aside. In another saucepan over med. heat, melt the butter or margarine, add the flour and stir well. Add the warmed milk and stir until well blended. Add the chile pepper mixture and mix well. Add corn, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 mins. Add cilantro sprigs, tortilla chips or yogurt/sour cream to garnish.

delicious raspberry crumble

yum! we modified this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen -- which is supposed to be a huge winner -- to reduce the wheat and refined sugar. Grammy says flour "just sits" in her belly, so we kept it light. <3

preheat oven to 375

for the crumble

1 c. whole wheat flour (which i now keep in the fridge after the WAPF people made me scared about rotten grains)

2 c. oats (we bought 110 servings of oats at Costco, so we're into em!)

1/2 c. almond flour. this was a last minute addition, but i think it added some nice heft to the crust

1/2 c. agave nectar

1/4 c. brown sugar

2 sticks butter (+ 1T for the pan)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg

for the filling

4 c. fresh raspberries

2 T lemon juice (zest would be nice too, but we didn't have any)

1/2 c. agave nectar

4 tsp corn starch (i keep this in the bathroom because it's usually a beauty product. that's for another post)

i threw some chopped almonds in here too, which didn't turn out as bad as we expected

mix the crust, put 1/2 - 2/3 in the bottom of your big stoneware lasagna pan (9x13)

pour the berries over

crumble the rest of the crust atop that berry mixture

bake 45 mins (or slightly less) until delicious and brown.

EAT! Would be great with a frozen vanilla treat of your choice, or for breakfast, or all the time. Even though I usually don't get all that excited about raspberries OR about fruit desserts, this was a great dessert. We froze a bunch too, so don't be afraid if I offer you some when you come and visit!

xoxoxo

MIA helped me cook Thai food

oh my GOD i was bored with butternut squash. i love squash but sweet squash is a key baby food and i feel like i've been steaming squash non stop for the past year-even the munchkin was spitting it out-BLEH.

so when a coworker gave me some of her curry with acorn squash in it, i rejoiced. for serious.

SING THIS WHILE YOU COOK - you'll understand soon...


i found a recipe. i like how flexible she is with the ingredients, and that it doesn't include "curry paste". you know the thai ladies aren't buying jars of curry paste, why should i? anyway, i also took the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of bay area markets and learn about kaffir lime leaves and galanga. there was some old lemongrass in the fridge, too...

things i changed: sub 325 degrees, use one .5 lb fillet of cod (not farmed, not endangered). round two included turnips, carrots, broccoli. i have no idea how long i cooked it, whoops. i put it in a pie dish because i need a casserole dish :/

it's delicious. baby likes it too. but i forgot the butternut. whoops. so after i cooked everything, i pulled out the chunks and replaced them with slivered butternut (the thinner the slice the easier the knife goes through?!discoveries!). baked for approx 20 minutes at 375.

TO MAKE THIS EASIER-

there's no reason ( i don't think?) that you couldn't make a ton of this stuff and freeze jars of sauce for the next time. one day i'll try that.

And for more homework- GROW YOUR OWN
thaitable says "If you live in a nice and warm place with no frost try grow galangal in your yard. It has beautiful flowers that resemble orchids."