Made at home

Made at home

Everything gets roasted Wednesday!

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Wednesday is clean out the produce day before tomorrow/tonight’s produce delivery.  And magically was inspired by an email from Bon Appetit today: Surprising roasted vegetables

What does the cabbage say?  “Roast me!”  

(I promise that I’ve only had one beer…)   
Leek, tomatoe, squash, broccoli, fennel and tomato…everything with its own penzey spice—curry for the squash, sea salt for fennel, tarragon for broccoli, roasted garlic on the tomato, and mural of flavor for the leek

 
I bought a case of these in my Amazon subscription this month so thought I’d roast them like I do garbanzos and cannelini 

   
Look good…olive oil and penzeys rogan josh blend

 
Fail!    They exploded in about five minutes so they got added to the original blight tomato sauce I was simmering with the San Marizanos below that Amazon sent instead of my subscription garbanzos today

  

The sauce tastes better with the addition of the beans …just not as attractive

Midway through:   
 

Almost final

   
I removed the broccoli and leaks, flipped the fennel and squash and gave the tomatoes a hint of Asiago/parm 

  This is how they looked on the platter (need to

Keep them heated for when Jim best home)  
Plated 

 

This was better than I dreamed!

The sweet dumpling squash was perfect with curry and the fennel was excellent with just the sea salt.  The cabbage was also good and would be perfect with some roasted apple (and sausage if I was being flexitarian :-))….frankly it was all good…..when I was 14 I thought I was cutting edge because I broiled everything—tomatoes, grapefruit…now I realize I was just on the verge of becoming a roasting fan.  I’m serious that roasting may be better than grilling…so I’m guessing that I need to start trying to grill my veggies low and slow..

Worry not friends…roasted turkey will not replace my  grilled bird for tday!

Made at home, Uncategorized

Game of thrones risk and snacks…gluten free vegetarian finger sandwiches I might add.

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Friends coming for Game of Thrones Risk!  Snacks needed!  So obviously I chose to try out gluten free finger sandwiches…duh

It’s been years since I slaves over finger sandwiches slowly to ensure perfect shapes and filling and slicing without glopping, etc

Not Saturday…this was all about efficiency and flavor…not beauty (I and I swear I’m missing pics..,)   
The sandwiches picture here were made using 1 loaf of Udi’a bread (the small 6 dollar loaf not the big 12 dollar loaf)…but the bread has a very uneven top crust making cutting the sandwiches without too much waste difficult so the shapes are not uniform.

Above is pictured the grated carrot, curry, and some hot Indian spices…I loved it!
   
Also involved was cucumber dill, and my favorite-olive.  The loaf of Udi’s made precisely 6 sandwiches…two of each type which were cut into thirds

    
The typical veggie tray with an appearance by some Tokyo turnips

 

Creamy peppercorn dressing with penzeys spice base…and some cream cheese stuffed celery with a penzeys chipotle sprinkle
   
Yup…an attempt at pinwheels with Mission gluten free tortillas….garlic spinach cream cheese, and avocado/onion sprout/cream cheese…

    
Maria and Ryan brought a nice Espelon blanco tequila and Bloody Mary mix for a nice bloody Maria 

 

Sometime in the middle I broke free of the bloody Maria and Ryan and I shared my Stone vertical epic 12-12-12 that I have been clutching.
   

Jim and Maria were well and truly into the game even though Jim won..
 

Ryan was the first man out and spent time with his secret Ryan notebook.

Made at home

Breakfast for dinner

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Home alone tonight so I made the perfect dinner (since no one was here to share it)…meatless sausage, 4 potato fries potatoes, gluten free biscuits and perfectly fried eggs.   
  Hmmm…my biscuits look over town in the pic but nicely light brown at home.  
I remembered I had some gluten free fake meat at home so decided to make it into sausage

 
I added two eggs (should have been one egg and a little water), a little tvp to stretch it (wasn’t a ton left in the bag), fresh sage, Penzeys mural of flavor, marjoram and let it rest. Patties it became!

   
The egg kinda yellowed at the top so I flipped them and cooked the other sized then flipped again and the top was far less yellow

 
The original idea had been to make waffles so I had the last of the better batter mix out when I shifted gears to biscuits

   
So they are slightly dry for drop biscuits but I’m still not too skilled with gluten free baking so I rolled with it since I used more liquid than the directions said to

 
I threw in some shredded cheese and Penzeys mural of flavor

   
Next my four potato fries potatoes

Purple yam

Yam 

White

And a German butterball
    
    
I have never made fired potatoes that didn’t stick before!  Low and slow…I finally get it

 

The eggs were just like I love them…white was cooked and yoke was runny with the base slightly thickened
   
 

Made at home

Halloween dinner

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

todays finds combined with the farm fresh to you box became…

   
What starts as a simple orange, olive and fennel salad evolved into this covered in orange juice and olive oil.

    
Gnocchi, oyster mushrooms, elephant garlic, pesto and parsley

My Halloween helper wookie    
 

The finished gnocchi
   
The cider../very hoppy and very un appricot
Our trick or treaters

    
 

See the hot dog boy?
   
This is the hot dog boys “hot dog!”

🙂

    
Concerned cats

 

Made at home

Lacto fermentation ?!?

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

okay…and we are off to lacto fermentation experiment number 1

I’ve made canned pickles like nobodies business but this lacto business is a whole new deal.   I’m trying it out with the help of Phat beets youth pickle company and their kit

  
I found these beautiful pickling cucumbers at Sprouts.

  
Pickling spice on the bottom and bay leaf (the recipe said to use and oak leaf or grape leaf for the tannins to help keep them crisp…I’m hoping the bay leaves work:-/?!  
I found this sea salt hanging about and I needed a NON iodized salt   
Hers the finished product (well finished for now)…I filled it with dasani as that was the only still water I had about.  Notice the bubbler air trap thingy in the lid.  That is filled with water as a trap for badness coming into my fermenting cucs.

 
Now we wait five days.

  
Day two: I’m not pleased that everything has floated up a bit … I think it’s supposed to stay submerged…I shook it but hey didn’t sink

So I opened it and shoved them down with a spoon

  

Next day

  
Tasted one.  Still crunchy. Extremely salty…not sure I can taste lactic acid pickle or just salt at this point.  Plus I kinda killed it with pickling spice.

Day three

  
Kids…the coriander is way over the top and a tad too much….but the saltiness is still high but oddly mellowed since yesterday.  I’m thinking tomorrow is when I will slow fermentation by adding them to the fridge…but we will see

  
Done!

A little scum today that I swept off….an interesting first try  

 
This arrived today to supplement the next attempts:-)

Made at home

Watercress salad,black bean burgers on gluten free bread with sweet potato fries

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I don’t think I’ve ever made watercress in any form other than soup.   This was a hefty batch that I decided to leave as greens with a creamy dressing.

  
(I cut off a lot of stem…was I supposed to trim off more?)

I threw in some cheese cubes, tomato, red onion, zucchini and avocado. And dressed it with penzeys creamy peppercorn

  
The burgers were

   
 And sweet potato fries

  
Yep…I always cut them big which means a year to cook

   
    
 
And a gluten free beer for Jim in a Tom

Of Finland chilled glass;-)

Made at home

Mushroom Nut Loaf

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

  
I’ve been making this yummy loaf for years.  I followed a recipe once and have winged it since.   It’s mushrooms (I used a mixture of whatever is managers special because they are getting chopped so they don’t need to be pretty) and nuts (I use what’s handy… This time was sunflower seeds and hazelnuts) chopped up (this was the first try in the vitamin so it’s less chunky then normal).

I threw a small onion and a few dried tomatoes in with the nuts and mushrooms   
Add like a cup Of breadcrumbs

  A cup of grated cheese, one egg and seasonings of choice.  Tonight I added penzeys mural of flavor, roasted garlic and Italian herb blend

  
Slap it in a loaf pan (ps…I don’t like this silicone one…the sides bow out if you fill it full and cooked in grease never comes off so it doesn’t look pretty) that is oiled and bake at 3:50 until it’s done.

 

About 1 hour and 15 minutes it was firm enough that I knew the inside wasn’t mushy and I pulled it out

 

Flip it out

   
I usually do a tomato topping like meatloaf but I’m gonna try out this gluten free gravy mix that I picked up at Sprouts

  

  
My inspiration recipe came from here

  

  

Made at home

Cleaning out the fridge…

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Being out of town left me with a surplus of veggies to consume before they go bad and they need gone before I need the shelf space for a new batch so I’m doing veggie overload meals

 Tonight is a potato/squash/leak mini casserole with salad and orzo/cannellini 

    
Last night was intended to be a stack but didn’t end up that way…a potato party topped with roasted squash, a portobello with greens and some roasted carrots

 

Pretty basic 

 
The salad ended up dressed with penzeys Greek seasoning which always makes the most fantastic dressing…on the side is a little of the giant beans imported from Greece I bought marinated in tomato

  
Carrots and zucchini roasted with an olive oil spray   
The potato patties were leftover mashed potatoes I mixed with two eggs and fries in olive oil

 
The greens were leftovers too…just chard and kale sautéed with some elephant garlic and pepper.

Tonight is more complex (especially since I forgot to turn on the oven)

   
The mini casseroles are zucchini, German butterball, and leak topped with egg and cream and another layer of zucchini and 3yr aged cheddar ( the photo is mid build) with some penzeys Italian herbs…

 
The orzo is mail order and I’ve never tried it before

  

The stuff surely is full of starch because the water becomes thick as syrup…and the box says to rinse AFTER cooking

    
The orzo was combined with my favorite beans and a jarred tapenade 

  

  
I loved my mini casseroles and the orzo so those will be made again!

 

Made at home

Winter squash time has come

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I’ve never been big on winter squash except for butternut which I grew more than I could handle last year.  Thanks to my farm fresh to you subscription, I owned a Hubbard … I have never cooked a Hubbard before.  But I have now.  I also included a new (to me) try at a butternut that I made tonight.

  
So I looked online and found that the “best way” to eat a Hubbard is roasted and I followed that recipe until:

  
I peaked and it looked like this.  So I went to plan b.  Mashed!

  
While it was still warm I added some shredded 3 year aged cheddar and cumin…paired it with mashed potatoes and some white bean burger patties topped with tomato/shiitake sauce.

Tonight was a butternut.   I read that I’ve been struggling too much to peel it. Slice off the ends, then use a peeler on the whole thing, cut in half width wise right where the skinny and fat parts meet, cut the ends lengthwise and sees them and then cube

I used the kale and butternut recipes I say online and used the collards I had on hand

  
Plus a can of garbanzos for protein…seasoned with chipotle and penzeys mural of flavor

  
I have a kabocha and a butternut waiting to be cooked next….

Potato and chard burrito with cannellini refrained beans

Posted on by Brian and Jim

  
Today I found hatch chills for .99 a pound and a new brand of gluten free tortillas and I have farmers market salsa to use (I usually give it until Thursday..)

  
My beans.   They have a touch of olive oil and salsa…they lacked umami so I added a splash or worstershire Tamari and garlic powder…and a few dices of jalapeño and onion.

The hatch chills got stuffed with remnants of my smoked jack

   
 
The potatoes and chard simmered in a different kind of salsa

  
Until wilted and reduced

Tortillas got burner flamed

  

  What was planned to be soft taco became burrito at the last minute