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

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.

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."

lamb recipe

that lamb was so durn good i'm writing down the recipe

buy 1/2 or one whole lamb from sierra farms. enjoy the experience of picking it up, then jam the lamb...in the freezer.

when you want to have a lot of lamb, because you only cook every two weeks, or because you're having guests, or you want to share with your neighbor, defrost the ROAST.

preheat the oven to 375
have some vegetables on hand

rinse the LAMB, trim any giantly offensive hunks of fat (but no more), then salt and pepper it all around. grab some rosemary sprigs off the porch or out of your herb dish and rub them in too. jam some sprigs into the sides of the roast, where it was cut from the rest of the little lamby body. while you're at it, jam some crushed garlic in there too. a clove or 3 is enough.

stick the roast in a casserole dish.
throw some vegetables all around to soak up the delicious lamb juices. i used a whole small cabbage, a few carrots, little potatoes in white and purple, and big hunks of squash. throw a few more cloves of garlic in with the veggies. why not? it's cold and flu season and garlic keeps sickness and vampires away.

cover the dish with aluminum foil. if you have a better-equipped kitchen than i do, i suppose you could use a fancy dish/lid combo.

let the thing cook about 30 minutes per estimated pound. after the first half to one hour, turn the temperature down to 325.

when you think it might be close to being done, turn off the oven and go to bed.*

in the morning, put it in the fridge. you can have a nice lamb sandwich for dinner!

*OK it would probably be fine to just take the lamby out and let it cool, then serve it up to your eager guests. the vegetables are also delicious. if you want to turn it into baby food, just grind it up.

there you go. happy house in a dish. i love you! R

bad mom

eating rice and oatmeal
Originally uploaded by the littlest raptor

that's gotta be google's top search term. my god, everything i do could send me down that road.

but nope. i have the faith.

i started feeding the monkey again- this time with avocado. that's a recommended first food! good work, mom. Then i moved on to sweet potato. zomg! that's recommended too! then i added carrots- but they were kinda chunky for such a little guy...and then i started feeding him yogurt every chance i got.

some docs say wait til the 1 year mark for the yogurt. suck it, doctors! this is Straus!

that's right, baby's a locavore.

they also recommend starting with bananas. but this sugar-addicted mommy is trying to teach her little man to eat better...and i hear you can train their taste buds with the right program. so no bananas for you, tiny guy!

there's not much local left in the fridge, so for dinner tonight he's eating blueberries and oatmeal. blueberries aren't on any list i've found. take that! i think it's going to be great. because i love blueberries and oatmeal and EVERYONE likes breakfast for dinner.

i can't believe i ate the whole thing!

i eat a lot of chocolate.

i eat my vegetables, and i eat local, fresh, organic, and i eat chocolate every day. it used to be dark (there's a whole post drafted about my connoisseur-ship of it), but since that baby came along, I'm back on milk. have you had Milka? my stepmom used to bring it back from Germany and it was this amazing treat they kept in the "outside fridge" because we lived in Texas and everyone needed extra cold food storage. or a place to hide the naughty things, maybe. ah, Texas. anyway now you can buy "Milka" in the US and it is not the real thing.

so today is California and I needed to blow off a little work steam. lizmarie and I took a walk to the market and while she told me about a colleague in Switzerland who gained 30 pounds eating chocolate, I picked up a Lindor Truffle bar.

I came back to the office, heated up my healthy lunch, and then tore into the chocolate. I think there are maybe three squares left. I should probably just start coffee.

back at work- blog rec

i LOVE this blog

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/

that's what i'm doing, between pumping and email.

my life in status messages

rebecca g...

drinks chocolate milk like it's water. thank god star6ucks has hormone free milk.

is wondering if she has to cancel her facebook account now that she's gone suburban?

invites you to her New Home! Which is beautiful and warm and only slightly over-occupied right now.

is happy that tonight is the last night of monday evening rehearsal. 6-10pm, you are too long and late for a pregnant lady!

there just aren't enough status forums in my world. unless i start tw1tte3ring. i can't. i just can't.

Let's apply all this knowledge

Things I need to work on:

1) Photograph better (learn some good poses. make those faces a lot.)
2) Eat better> Ok, just eat less.
3) more exercise
4) less driving
5) More creative pursuits
6) Less telling other people what to do
7) Winking


Things I'm okay with for now: Either they're in fine shape or I'm not going to overwhelm myself with taking on more. This is known as "knowing my limits."
1) level of meditation (but don't slip!)/prayer
2) smoking
3) sex
4) relationships

Things I'm really happy about now:
Eating local/home grown veggies
my new room design & cleaning (photos to come)
brazilian! (um i'll spare you)
best friends ever! (see right! plus the ones who are unphoto'd!)
and my new friend Tala. Which means "baby palm tree."

love R