July 2008 Archives

We have some seriously huge zucchini. It's amazing how fast they grow. The one I used for this recipe could have fed 8-10 people. I only used half of it.

As I was cutting into the huge squash the idea for zucchini parmesan came to me. We had all the necessary ingredients so why not? It turned out pretty good (how could it not with marinara and fresh mozzarella?), but I don't think I baked it long enough. The zucchini was still a little crunchy. Matt said he liked it like that, but I would have liked it a bit softer.

If I were to make this again I would probably forgo the breading and instead brush the zucchini with olive oil, seaon with salt and pepper, and roast it until tender. Then I would layer it with sauce and cheese and bake until the cheese melts. Or, if I wanted to use less fat I would just layer the raw zucchini (seasoned with salt and pepper) with sauce and bake until it's tender, then serve it with grated parmesan.


» Recipe for Zucchini Parmesan

This vacation has been full of meat, junk food, and ice cream, and a bit lacking on the vegetables, so when we went food shopping yesterday my focus was on something healthy, meatless and easy. I found this in the soup isle and it was exactly what I needed. We got vegetable base to replace the beef broth to make it vegetarian. As we were making this my dad kept suggesting we add sausage. He obviously doesn't understand me.

This mix contains a nice variety of beans and lentils, and the tiniest bow-tie pasta I've ever seen. I really like the Better Than Bouillon vegetable base we got. Very flavorful.

The thing I love most about homemade pizza is that you can top it with just about anything. I made this to clean out the fridge a bit. The pizza dough was already made (made a double batch last timelast time), there was a lonely tomato hanging out on the table, the zucchini was picked from the garden this morning, and the ball of fresh mozzarella needed to be used before I go away. For some reason I still asked Matt what he wanted for dinner. Like he had a choice!


» Recipe for Roasted Zucchini Pizza With Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella

We've been living off of zucchini for the past week or so. It was only a matter of time before I made a version of zucchini bread. I was hoping to use more than one zucchini, but that's all I needed for this recipe. From the looks of it, you could probably add another cup (or two) and it would still turn out fine.

This bread is very moist, and I love the addition of dried cranberries. Dried cherries would also work well, but you could replace them with walnuts, chocolate chips, or leave them out entirely.


» Recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread With Dried Cranberries

This is the first time I ever had fresh parsley available when I made hummus, so I threw some right into the food processor instead of just using it as a garnish. Also, I was out of fresh garlic (and I'm not buying more until we get back from vacation) so I used some canned minced garlic that's been in the fridge. I'm not sure who bought that. One of Matt's old roommates probably. It's less pungent than fresh garlic so I used a bit more.

Also, since I never seem to finish a whole batch of homemade hummus, I put half of it in the freezer.


» Recipe for Hummus

I think this will become a summer staple. It would also be delicious without the chicken for a vegetarian option. I made quite a few changes from the original recipe. I cut down on the oil in the dressing, added zucchini because it's plentiful around here at the moment, and added pine nuts and feta cheese. I left out the currents and the olives, although I had planned on adding the olives (to my portion anyway, Matt doesn't like them). I just changed my mind at the last minute. There were already plenty of complimentary flavors in this. It could have used a little more dressing, and next time I might double the artichoke hearts (I really love them), but other than that it was wonderful.

This recipe is one I could easily adapt for the vegan/gluten-free diet. Leave out the chicken and feta, and replace the orzo with some kind of gluten-free grain (quinoa, rice) or rice pasta. White beans might also work well in this.


» Recipe for Mediterranean Chicken Salad

Making this pizza was so exhausting that it drained all my energy and I didn't have enough left after dinner to write it up. What a pain in the ass. Its only redeeming quality (and, I suppose, the most important one) was that it did taste incredible. Juicy grilled pineapple, sweet caramelized onions, crisp and salty pancetta, finished off with spots of buttery-soft Camembert cheese.

I figured that cooking the pizza on the grill would be better than heating up the house by baking it in the oven, but after wrestling with the dough over the hot grill I decided I was wrong. I would have gladly taken a hot kitchen over the nearly-disastrous juggling act that took place on the patio.

The source of this recipe is probably the last place I would go for cooking tips. Let's just say it's from a certain magazine that some men claim to "read" just for the articles. Um. Right. It was given to me by one of my regular bar guests after I had told him about my last pizza-grilling mishap (if anyone else had offered up a magazine clipping with a scantily-clad woman on one side I would have been thoroughly weirded out, but I'm used to this guy and quite frankly, I wouldn't expect any less from him).

The fact that this recipe originally came from an actual cookbook convinced me that it might be worth a try. The technique is nothing new. Grill the dough on one side, flip it over, add toppings, then grill the other side. Sounds simple enough, right? The reason I never tried this method before is that I was afraid that the toppings wouldn't stay put (I prefer when the toppings bake into the dough, becoming one with the pizza, if you will). Little did I know this would be the least of my worries. In fact, getting the finished pizza off the grill in (almost) one piece felt like a remarkable feat.

This experience would have benefited from better planning, for one, and a lot more prep area outside. The pineapple should have been sliced thinner also. Half inch slices, like the recipe states, are way too thick for this thin pizza, although thin slices would have been more difficult to grill without falling apart. The best solution would have been to chop up all the toppings so the pizza would be easier to eat. Less photogenic, but sometimes that's the price you have to pay.

I love recipes like this because they're so simple, adaptable, and best of all, delicious. You don't really have to measure anything and you can use whatever amounts of vegetables that you like. The recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit (June 2008), but of course I didn't follow it exactly. This amount of vegetables fed three people with a little left over. I grilled extra chicken which I'm going to use to make this salad.


» Recipe for Grilled Chicken and Ratatouille

This is the recipe I've been usingbeen using for banana bread, but I feel like it's still lacking something. I even let it sit wrapped up on the counter for 2 days which is supposed to improve the flavor.

I baked this in one of my Chigaco Metallic loaf pans, which was about 8"x4" (instead of the recommended 9"x5" pan) and not nonstick. It turned out fine (I think - not sure what the middle looks like yet), but I had to bake it a little longer (about 1 hour). Even then, the middle still seemed kind of gooey when I took it out. Pictured are two consecutive slices from the end and the top one is noticeably darker than the bottom one. Maybe I should stick to the bigger pan so it doesn't have to bake as long.

I think I'll go back to my banana spice cake recipe, which is fantastic even though it doesn't have any butter or oil. It does have slightly more sugar though, which I can probably cut down on to make it more of a bread than a cake.


» Recipe for Banana Bread

I got a Crock-Pot two Christmases ago and before today I'd yet to cook anything in it. I'm not really sure why I thought I'd use it back then, living by myself and not even cooking all that much. When I did I mostly made single portions of things. I guess it was just my need to own all things kitchen-related (I also got a food processor that year and I've used that countless times).

Now that I have someone else to cook for I'm glad I have it, because there's nothing better than coming home from work to a meal that's already cooked. I imagine I'll use it a lot this winter. We'll have all kinds of chilis and stews to look forward to.

I served these ribs with brown rice that I cooked with green onions then added some cilantro, and broccoli that I stir-fried with some of the rib cooking liquid and garnished with sesame seeds. Delicious. The meat was so tender it literally fell off the bone. The leftovers will be great as a pulled pork sandwich.


» Recipe for Slow-cooked Soy-ginger Country Style Ribs