Veggie Side Dish Dinner September 5, 2013

Being an Omnivore, every once in awhile I have crazy cravings for just vegetables. The plan was to go to the Farmer’s Market to pick up some seasonal veggies and just cook them up. All in all I was shooting for a veggie side dish dinner. Unfortunately, we were not able to make it to the Farmer’s Market because I worked a late shift the night before and needed some sleep. It is next to impossible to sleep in because I have 2 daughters (2 years old and 4 months old). So I am usually tired in general.

Our garden finally produced some vegetables in the form of an insane amount of green beans and peppers. Granted we could have had tomatoes but the squirrels have decided to have parties in our yard and eat all of them, right before harvest (sad face). Mike pickled the jalapeños and I sautéed the green beans up with some mushrooms, garlic, and white wine. I did run to the store to pick up some red cabbage and apples because I was craving the red cabbage we had in Germany.

I made some modifications to the recipe in Joy of Cooking to the Braised Red Cabbage and Apples. Most notably I did not use bacon fat, instead I sautéed everything up with olive oil. I also replaced the honey in the recipe with maple syrup. I am sure you could also replace the honey with agave syrup.
This weekend we are definitely going to the Farmers Market, so I will remember to take pictures of all the lovely produce.

French Fridays With Dorie: Potato Gratin & Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux November 26, 2010

Again, I apologize for being a horrible slacker.  I actually made both of these November 11th for my anniversary, so as I have stated before, GIANT PROCRASTINATOR.

The Roasted Chicken and the vegetables were awesome.  It was extremely simple to make and right now that is all I can ask for.  At work we are in the middle of holiday rush, I guess that is what happens in the retail industry 🙂  The Potato Gratin was extra yummy.  I decided to only make half a batch of that because I knew it was going to be extra rich.

Both the Roasted Chicken and the Potato Gratin can be found in  Dorie’s newest book, Around My French Table pages 200 and 260 (respectively).

Cinco de Mayo – 2 days late May 7, 2009

I was actually unable to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year because I was working that night 😦

For the past couple of years I have celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making Chicken Tortilla Soup, Refried Beans, Mexican Rice, and Homemade Tortillas.  This year I celebrated it on the 6th and made a completely different assortment of food.  Well, except for the tortillas.  I can’t stand store bought, so I always cave and make my own.

My Thanksgiving Feast December 4, 2008

This year was my first year to make Thanksgiving.  I ended up making so much food that I baked some in smaller dishes so that I could give it to some friends.  I was so behind on figuring out what I wanted to make for Thanksgiving that I planned the meal less than a week before Thanksgiving and the night before I stayed up until 2am writing out a timeline so that I would know when I needed to put everything in the oven.  It doesn’t help that I only have one oven and could only use one shelf in it.  So to make multiples of most of the dishes I had to wake up extra early at 730am to start prepping and start baking at 8am.

Vegan Adventure #22 and VeganMofo #7 October 15, 2008

There was a miracle somewhere and I made a full vegan dinner.  Who would have thought it was possible?  Funny thing is it was very easy.  Another weird thing has occurred.  For about 4 days or so I actually could have been considered a Vegetarian.  I ate absolutely no meat, and it was completely by accident.  Since I have been cooking a lot of vegan food, that is what I have been eating, but it didn’t stay strictly vegan since I had some sweets that happened to have dairy and eggs in them, opps.

Vegan Adventure #11 September 15, 2008

WOW!!!

After all of the cupcakes I have been making, I needed to slide in a few savory dishes. For the first one I decided to make the Fresh Mango Summer Rolls in Vegan with a Vengeance. Problem is sometimes I like mangos and other times, not so much. But I do love me some avocado, yummy. So I decided for the recipe that I would sub avocado for the mango and it turned out fantastic. Since this recipe makes 20 rolls and I wasn’t about to sit down and eat 20, I decided to make some non-vegan rolls to satisfy my omni friends too. For half of the rolls I added 1.5 sliced of shrimp. They were nice, but the vegan ones were very tasty.

Fresh and locally grown July 16, 2008

The squash and the onions that I recently purchased at the Berry Farm Market have been disposed of.

I mean to say: I made my Nanny’s Sautéed Squash.

This recipe is so simple, but it is so yummy to me. I can eat loads of this even though I shouldn’t since squash you know makes you….yeah. But it is that yummy that you can’t help yourself. I made a batch up and pretty much ate half of it for dinner. Every time I eat it I am reminded of my Nanny and my mom. Mom used to make it all the time when we (my brother and I) were growing up. My brother really didn’t care for it, but I loved it. I loved it so much that I would watch mom make it and that is how I picked it up. Actually that is how I picked up a lot of recipes, just by hanging out in the kitchen with my mom or dad. Back then it was usually Dad cooking, but Mom popped in the kitchen every once in awhile and made something good.