I’ve been travelling pretty much constantly for the last two months. I haven’t been home for even 48 hours at a time since mid January. Needless to say, I haven’t been cooking much.

It can be hard to eat vegetables on the road. Not to say that I’m limited to fast food places, no I’m not driving around, but flying. As a *shudder* “foodie” I take the opportunity to eat at highly rated restaurants like Lupa in New York (wow, best tortellini ever by the way) and end up scarfing down the complimentary foccacia and ordering dishes heavy with cheese when all I really need is a nice raw green salad.

The other problem with eating out in general of course is the portions, especially in cities that serve “American” sized portions. At home, I generally eat about a fifth of the amount of food that is served on a typical restaurant entree plate. Eating out in San Francisco, I don’t generally run into this problem as not many restaurants here have such heavy servings, and the ones that do - well, I can always take home leftovers. Not so much when traveling.

So when planning dinner for my first meal at home in weeks I wanted something simple and light. Digging through the “to try” recipes I pulled out Heidi Swanson’s Caramelized Tofu with Brussels Sprouts recipe.

Initially I intended to serve the dish with some purple rice, but after a heavy breakfast of near perfect Huevos Rancheros at the Fire Sign Cafe in Tahoe City (highly recommended, best breakfast we’ve had in Tahoe so far this season), I decided to keep it light and when I saw what 1/2lb of brussels sprouts looks like at the grocer I decided to double the recipe.

My cilantro allergy & aversion to using much sugar in my cooking led to a couple of other modifications. I didn’t find my adapted version very satisfying for dinner and initially tossed the recipe. However, I just had the leftovers cold for lunch and wow, this is a delicious simple dish when the flavors are given a chance to meld.

(more…)

It’s amazing to me that I can deal so well with an abundance of squash considering that just three years ago I was convinced it was poison. I have an aversion to nightshades, I managed to get over it with squash, now I aspire to be able to eat eggplant. Back to abundance though, if you’re only feeding two, even a medium butternut squash can be enough for 2-4 different recipes.

I used half of one in this Butternut Squash Galette inspired by Julie’s sweet potato version. I’d been wanting to try Julie’s recipe for quite awhile, but I just recently finally bought myself a cast iron skillet. With the fontina cheese, this is a perfectly rich autumn dish.

(more…)

A few weeks ago I made the Crisp Polenta Cake with Spicy Greens from Joyce Goldstein’s Antipasti. I was really disappointed with the results, the greens weren’t particularly delicious and the texture of the polenta was a bit difficult to swallow. The recipe is meant to serve 8-12 people (and I halved it), but the two of us finished off all the greens and had tons of the polenta cake leftover

The next day I dug around in the fridge and came up with some left over garlic scape pesto and a wedge of Parmesan. The oils from the pesto seeped into the top layer of the polenta, and the second baking made the polenta just that much crisper. Topped with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan, the leftovers were much easier to swallow.

(more…)

I saw these gorgeous purple speckled beans at the farmer’s market last week and had to try them. The vendor said they were Dragon Tongue beans and that just made them even more appealing. I bought a pound and researched them when I got home, not much came up - I learned that they taste like a spicier version of the more common green bean, and I was disappointed to read that they lose their purple flecks when cooked.

I decided to make a crunchy butter to cook them in with ingredients I had on hand - a shallot, a handful of almonds, and a bit of lemon juice.

The citrus kept the taste light and allowed the subtle spiciness of the beans to come through. I was pleasantly surprised to see that while the pods did in fact lose their unique color with cooking, the individual beans remained purple, making a visually unique and delicious side dish..

(more…)

I have four recipe binders, two of new, untested recipes that are always being added to. While many of the new recipes I try are “keepers”, I hardly ever make them since there are so many new recipes to try! Not so with this chard dish that I’ve adapted from a recipe on epicurious. This versatile side is my go to dish for any entree that is just a little to plain on it’s own. This is also a great way to use up chard stems from dishes that only call for the leaves.

(more…)