vegetarian

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

  

  

Ingredients

Today’s food finds

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Fall has encroached upon us and wreaked havoc on my food seeking adventures…and has left me feeling kinda unenthused about cooking.

I started my Saturday with Starbucks on the way to the  Santa Monica farmers market Saturday….upon arrival I notice there isn’t a single avocado anywhere which is sad for me who eats one daily if we are home

Lots of green this time of year….herbs chards Bok choi broccoli….a splash of color with the purple basil here…and the asparagus is now arriving  
   

   I did get some baby romaines but no baby butter
  Look!  Baby eggplants!!!  
It’s also squash season and I’m sure I already have more squash than Jim can handle

  Delicious dates   
Yep…I did restock on the raw goat feta and mozzarella

    

Jims favorite berries are way out of season but it appears that they have been preserved to sustain him through the winter months
 

From there we went to Penzeys Santa Monica store where I had two coupons for free cocoa and free curry plus they had a sale that you got free smoked paprika or chili 3000 if you spent 25 dollars…

  
My finds were:

   
 
The bags were to replenish my supply for things I know I love, of course the three free jars, then I usually try things out with the small jar, if I like it, I buy the big jar, then if we use it a lot I upgrade to the bag.

Made a trip by the Santa Monica whole foods and look what’s in season:

  
My mood wasn’t great today so I didn’t buy one but these guys were perfect. Perfectly small sprouts:-)

I’m gearing myself for a long boring food winter…

Tomorrow is my nutty mushroom loaf:-)

Ingredients

Farm fresh to you

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

its Thursday so my box greeted me at the door when I awoke…

  
Inside is the weekly bounty (fully customized by me…the standard box gets modified for my needs and tastes).

  
 
This week we had free range eggs, omnivore salt, horseradish mustard, watercress, kale, radishes, tomatoes, carrots, hothouse lettuce, oyster mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, butternut squash, fennel, cilantro, tarragon, chard, green onions, sweet dumpling squash , white turnips, and three trial apples: northern spy, spite burg, and golden russet

I’ll show you what I make!

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….

Restaurants

Anniversary lunch at Garden Wok

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

  
Chinese vegetarian with all faux meats.  We’ve been looking at this place for quite some time and came here today after the other veg Chinese place we wanted to try was closed permanently (owners retired and left a sign).

Some of the “meats” are made with gluten but the serve cook owner was very knowledgeable about what and how and what could be substituted

   
Yup…no liquor license:-(

 
Fresh seasoned cucumbers

   
“Chicken” with lemon sauce 

 
“Pork” with pickled Napa 

   
Flat rice noodles and veggies

 
Everything was good and for a change we were able to have Chinese which is really rare since the gluten sesame situation kicked in.

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

   

Shiitake jerky round one

Posted on by Brian and Jim

so shitake jerky is like 8.50 plus shipping for two ounces so I’m trying to make my own

These guys turned out nicely chewy but not as flavorful as I’d like.   
Marinating in Tamari and chipotle with a hint of smoke and Worcestershire 

  Drying in 200 degree oven 
Finished

The flavored needs built up…more garlic and more salt (since it was low sodium Tamari)

They are still good 🙂

Spinach with eggs

Posted on by Brian and Jim

Well…it worked but not as planned..

  

  
That’s the end result above…

I started with an idea from Bon appetite or somewhere with spinach and eggs and cheese

So today I bought spinach

  
Looked okay but envisioned tomato…but I felt not enough spinach so I added zucchini

  
Then simmered covered

Prepped cheese

  
Preheated over for bread

  
So everything simmered down to much and I had little  

 
So I threw in lettuce and let it wilt

Then added the cannellini

Added in eggs and covered again

  
Served it up with the cheese on top

  
Next time I’ll try with mostly spinach…just a lot more!