Cookies at Christmas are not typically something difficult for me. There are your cut-out and decorated shortbread cookies,
Vegetarian
Squash-Parsnip Soup with Tarragon Sour Cream or Parmesan and Toasted Almonds
My friend Mary Pat’s September birthday is always a reason for celebration. I often cook her a birthday dinner and find it a happy excuse to make a fallish meal after a long, long summer. (Is it fall YET? The garden’s dying, but it’s still in the 80’s. We sat out last night on the deck at 8 o’clock with a drink watching the blood moon.)
below: my front walk milkweed grown for the monarch butterflies
Here’s the menu that included her favorite dessert (after Cherries Jubilee, Baked Alaska, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie):
I like six people for dinner, eight at the most, so that I can truly pay attention to and hear each person. Otherwise, it’s a party–cacophony– and I approach it very differently. I also like to cook a lot of recipes that only serve eight.
Continue readingPam’s Sage Pasta with Grilled Summer Squash and Portobello Mushrooms
NEW BAKING CLASS: Make Your Pie and Eat It, Too! Basics of American pie baking just in time for Thanksgiving. Given two Saturdays in November: November 7 and November 14, 1 – 4 pm. 6 openings for each date. $55. per student includes pie making ingredients/instruction, dessert, coffee, and digestif (after dinner drink), if desired. See CURRENT CLASSES above right.
My good friend Pam is a marvelous alto. She’s a fine cook, too. I know this because she and her husband are in our wine group and I get to sample her tasty fare fairly often. Here she is looking gorgeous and cooking at a house we rented near the Paso Robles wine country a couple of years ago.
This summer I discovered another talent of Pam’s; she, along with her husband, is an avid, generous gardener. Arriving last week at our house for a laid-back deck burger fest complete with homemade ice cream, she walked in brandishing a bouquet of sumptuous late summer herbs and two bright-as-sunshine summer (yellow) squash. Several very busy days went by and while I had pulled some herbs out for a dish or two, I hadn’t touched the summer squash. I’ve been on a serious diet for months and hadn’t had a bite of pasta all summer long. When I DO make pasta, it’s usually a good-quality whole-wheat variety and rarely white pasta. But yesterday it was time for a treat; I pulled out the Cipriani’s pappardelle and began grilling the squash with some big Portobello mushrooms. Try this easily-made-vegan dish for your end-of-summer grilled supper:
PAM’S SAGE PASTA WITH GRILLED SUMMER SQUASH AND PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS
serves 4
No grill? Cook the squash and mushrooms in a skillet or roasted in the oven.
For vegan version, follow green instructions/ingredients. The large mushroom and squash pieces give this dish a really “meaty” feel. For a vegetarian version, simply leave out the bacon.
- 3 pieces thick bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled (Skip for vegan version)
- 2 summer (yellow) squash, sliced thinly lengthwise
- 2 medium zucchini, sliced thinly lengthwise
- 3 Large Portobello mushrooms
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
- 1 each tablespoon butter or olive oil (2 tablespoons olive oil for vegan version)
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- Crushed red pepper
- 4 tablespoons minced fresh sage (Reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish.)*
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 2 large tomatoes, small dice (Reserve 1/3 cup for garnish.)
- 1 cup heavy cream (1 cup rice or nut milk for vegan version)
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Sub with a garnish of toasted bread crumbs for vegan version)
- 1 pound cooked and drained Pappardelle pasta–Cipriani’s is my favorite (Vegan pasta for vegan version.)
- Set cooked and crumbled bacon aside, if using.
- Heat grill to medium high. Toss squash and mushrooms with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and black pepper. Grill, turning midway, until grill marks are quite dark and the squash is tender. Remove and set aside. Slice mushrooms into 1/4-inch pieces. If grilling indoors on the stovetop in a grill pan, you may have to grill in batches. (Cook pasta now if you haven’t done so already.)
- In the meantime, heat butter/oil in a large sauté pan or skillet over medium flame and cook onions until quite soft. Add garlic, a good pinch each of crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper, 2 tablespoons minced sage, spinach, and all but 1/3 cup diced tomatoes. Cook another minute or two, stirring, or until spinach begins to wilt.
- Stir in cream or rice/nut milk along with Parmesan cheese, if using. Lower heat and simmer 2-3 minutes. Add grilled mushrooms and chopped, cooked bacon, if using. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Gently add the cooked pasta to the sauce and stir. Taste again and adjust seasonings as needed.
- To serve, divide pasta between four bowls adding reserved grilled squash along side, on top, or around. Garnish with the reserved tomatoes and minced sage. Top with toasted bread crumbs for vegan version.
*Fresh sage is usually available in grocery stores, but if you can’t locate it, stir in 1/4 teaspoon dried, rubbed sage. Taste and add more if you like. Skip the sage garnish, perhaps substituting chopped fresh parsley instead.
WINE: White Burgundy or Chardonnay.
DESSERT: Sliced fresh peaches with a drizzle of Amaretto or apples with cheese.
Sing a new song,
Alyce
Colorado Two-Potato Stew with Roasted Chiles and Cheese
In late summer in Colorado and New Mexico, there are chile roasters on busy street corners and if you haven’t the time or inclination to buy and roast your own chiles, this is the place you stop for our homegrown goodness. The aromas wafting around the intersections will call you even if you haven’t seen a roaster in years. Can’t eat them all right away–just warmed and layered with cheese, eaten with tortillas or tortilla chips? Then it’s time to gently tuck the chiles into small or large containers and freeze them for winter cooking.
Come cold weather, I like to pile up a big slow cooker full of sliced fresh salted and peppered pork loin, chopped onions and garlic, sliced or canned tomatoes, and the thawed or still frozen roasted chiles. At the end of a snowy day, we hit a fresh tortilla place on the way home and walk into the house full of blasting hot southwest aromas hitting us in the face. Tortillas go in the oven and a big bowl of pork and chiles is ladled out for each person. Time to sit down to summer complete with a cold beer. Meanwhile, we watch the wind whip down out of the mountains, screaming cold, cold, cold. Yes, it’s rather heavenly-sounding, isn’t it? Continue reading
Tapenade Salad with Hot Tomatoes and Goat Cheese Crostini
If you follow my blog, you could know I cooked a 50th birthday dinner for my next-door neighbor Mike a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe you made the Blueberry-Strawberry Pie I made him in lieu of cake; Mike is a pie-boy!
Quick Provençal Summer Vegetables on Rosemary Couscous
I try to eat as many meatless meals as I can. It’s hard; I love meat. My husband Dave is perhaps even more of a carnivore, but snarfed this down as fast as he could the other night out on the deck. In Colorado, our al fresco dinners are numbered. Within a couple of weeks, lunches outdoors will work wonderfully, but dinners will simply be too cold. In the meantime, we’re loving every meal we can get at the patio table with something fun on Pandora going and the dogs running around enjoying the breeze.
Grilled Eggplant Lasagna
So you love summer grilling but are getting a little bit tired of it all. That pot of chili simmering on the back burner or a chicken casserole in the oven is beginning to sound like something you want. (Smells, good, huh?) Salads truly make you a happy camper, but your mouth is just a wee bit sick of chewing…chewing…chewing. Welcome a new girl on your cooking block: grilled eggplant lasagna. You might rather think of it as Eggplant Parmesan Stacks or just Eggplant Parmesan–and you can– but as I recently realized: there’s mozzarella in this gorgeous and quick summer dinner. Which makes it more like lasagna, right? You call it whatever you like, but make it.
This meal looks and feels like pasta, but there’s no pasta in sight, making it perfect for a gluten-free meal. Seems a bit like meat, but the meat stayed at the store while the vegetables came home to play. (Scroll down for notes for both G-F and vegan.) There’s little to it but grilling the eggplant and zucchini, topping the eggplant with fresh mozzarella, then layering it all on the plate with warm marinara and shaved Parmesan. A few flakes of crushed red pepper add zing, if you like, and a plate lined with greens tidies the whole thing up and makes it both beautiful and healthful. Try this, even if you’re unsure about eggplant: Continue reading
Peach-Avocado Salad with Basil
My larder at any time of the year includes a good number of fruits and vegetables in a basket or on the counter to the right of my range. (As one cooking friend admits, “I’ll forget about them if they’re not out there in plain sight.”) An embarrassment of riches sometimes produces a meal I hadn’t expected or thought of before –especially in the summer — and that’s exactly how we ended up with this eye-candy salad. My original thought was a sort of bastard caprese as I had beaucoup fresh mozzarella as well as a big bag of avocados and a box of ripe peaches. I’m a rich girl. But somehow in the making of the dish — I was racing Dave, who was grilling meat — I just forgot the cheese. Add it if you have some or covet protein or calcium. I’m sure it would be great, but this is a stunning plateful without any additions. While I’m a committed carnivore, the meat was nearly superfluous. Try this:
PEACH-AVOCADO SALAD WITH BASIL
makes 2 generous servings
If you’d rather have this for dessert, try a drizzle of local honey in place of the olive oil.
- 2 handfuls of fresh greens–I used spinach
- 1 large ripe peach (Of course I prefer Colorado western slope peaches!), pitted and sliced
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
- 12 large fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh ground black pepper
- Handful of fresh grapes
Line a small serving platter or dinner plate with the greens and alternate all of the slices of peach and avocado. Add a leaf of fresh basil every other pairing or so. Drizzle with orange juice and olive oil; sprinkle with pepper. Garnish with grapes. Serve immediately.
Sing a new song,
Alyce
Mozzarella French Toast Sandwiches with Marinara Dip and Asparagus-Fennel Soup with Pistachio Pesto
This week’s cooking class, SPRING BRUNCH, still has an opening for Wednesday, 4/29, 5-8pm; let me know! Make any quiche, then make your own favorite breakfast sausage. Top it off with Bananas Foster Bread pudding with Caramel Sauce. List of upcoming classes and registration info located at the top, right corner of blog under CURRENT CLASSES. Can’t wait to cook with you.
When the rest of the country appears to be celebrating spring, we in the beautiful state of Colorado experience snow, hail, rain, thunder, and more all in one day. The day before it was sunny and 65, but that didn’t mean peas were blooming or asparagus was ready; it just meant the tumbleweeds weren’t dry and blowing yet and the small pot of hopeful pansies was being very faithful indeed.
I don’t think we get depressed about it because, after all, we probably have the best weather overall in the country. We have temperate winters, rare rainy days, cool summer nights, and a continually changing western view as the clouds decide what they’re going to do with the mountains at any given time. But we may need to occasionally think like spring. And when we do, we make comforting skillets full of warming goodness because spring can be damned cold here. A wet 45 is colder than a dry 10. Last Thursday night when I came out of work after teaching the FRENCH NIGHT AT HOME class, I had to clean off inches of snow from the car and ruined my shoes in the wet frozen slush. Life has loveliness to sell, as Sara Teasdale says. We’re thankful for the moisture because we live in fire country… Continue reading
Curried Broccoli-Almond Brown Rice Salad–Gluten Free and Vegan for Thanksgiving
I’ve been dreaming about a gluten-free and vegan Thanksgiving dinner for the blog. Not that I truly follow either diet totally (thought I eat vegan quite a bit for health reasons); I simply want the challenge. Either direction is simpler than both together, as anyone who’s tried to make both vegan and gluten-free bread will tell you. While I’ve got several recipes in-process, I thought it might be fun to have more than one entree or main dish. As it was Dinner on the Grounds at First Congregational Church in Colorado Springs — the time when we celebrate our congregation’s giving and commitments — I made this quick brown rice and broccoli dish for the meal. While it might feel like a salad, and perhaps it technically is, I think it’s hefty enough to fill you up for days and feels more like a casserole! This recipe makes a big bowlful and is enough for 12 side servings or maybe 8 as a main dish. Even if you don’t eat gluten free or vegan, you’ll like this healthy and tasty dish. I was very sad to see there was none left to take home.
how you might change it up……
I used currants in the dish, but feel free to substitute dried cranberries for a more festive Thanksgiving table. Raisins or chopped figs or dates would be fine, too; I just like the tiny sweetness of the currants myself. There’s no garlic, though you might add some –no more than a single finely minced single clove unless you cook it with the rice. Minced celery could be an addition to increase the crunch factor. Walnuts or pecans could replace the sliced almonds; toast them in a dry skillet over low flame for 6 or 7 minutes. Could you use white rice? Sure; brown rice has more protein, though, which is a big consideration for a vegan dish. Wild rice would be glorious, I’d think. Carnivores: Throw in a couple of cups chopped chicken or leftover turkey.
This morning I’m cooking a big pot of beef-vegetable soup for Inter-Faith Hospitality Network (IHN), which is a group of local churches that houses and feeds homeless families, as well as helps them find jobs and permanent homes. I’ve been cooking these meals for many years now and not much feels better when you love to be in the kitchen like I do. Dave will go with me and we’re working with the folks from Temple Shalom. This time we have a companion dog, too; I get to bring dog treats!
Try this:
CURRIED BROCCOLI-ALMOND BROWN RICE SALAD
12 side servings or 6-8 main dish servings
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 2 cups brown rice
- Extra-virgin olive oil –can sub canola oil
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 10 scallions, minced – white and green parts
- 1 1/2 – 2 pounds cooked broccoli florets
- 1 cup sliced almonds, plus extra for garnish
- Red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup dried black currants or 1/2 cup dried cranberries, plus extra for garnish
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- Kosher salt
In a medium pot, heat water to boiling; add rice with a drizzle of olive oil and a few grinds of pepper. Lower heat to simmer, cover, and cook 45 minutes or until tender. While still hot, add 1/4 cup olive oil, the cooked broccoli, and almonds. Stir well and drizzle with 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar.
Stir in currants, curry powder (start with 1/2 teaspoon, adding more to taste), crushed red pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Mix well. Taste and readjust seasonings, including curry powder. Add an extra drizzle or two of vinegar and/or oil to moisten and season if needed. You might also want to add more almonds or currants to taste; I liked the dish garnished with extra for looks and flavor.
Serve immediately at room temperature. You can also cover the dish well, refrigerate overnight, bring to room temperature, and serve the next day. If the rice seems dry, moisten using a tablespoon or two of olive oil and stir well.
(Below: Rosie and Tucker taking a nap while I made the beef stock this morning and granddaughter Piper doing a little dance to her own beat.)
Sing a new song,
Alyce