Kitchen Montage: Steaks, Soups, Sautes, Pizzas and Sundaes!

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!  Phil didn't see his shadow, so spring is coming soon!   In the meantime, I wanted to share some wintery things I've been making lately.

Dawn's Philly 'Shroom Steak with Caramelized Onions, Garlicky Spinach and Roasted Beets.  Rosemary Sweet Potato Fries. 

The Cayenne Kicker: organic cayenne, freshly grated ginger, fresh squeezed organic lemon juice, and organic apple juice.  This drink effectively got rid of a cold I wasn't trying to catch!

T

Thai Curried Chickpeas and Broccoli (I served it with Coconut Lime Rice).  I can't find my recipe notes for this anywhere...boo! It was SO good. I know I used freshly grated ginger and garlic, some spices, olive oil, etc. just not really sure how I did it.  Oh well.

Quick Matzo Ball Soup. 

There was also a great Pea Soup, very simple and delicious. 

Oh, I made some rosemary fries to go with the soup! :-)

And an amazing Spinach Linguini with Artichoke Tomato Pesto :

You can see the my CSA pesto (I used a few cubes) swirled into our CSA jarred tomato sauce which I sauteed with lots of garlic and olive oil.  

Then, I had a craving for my Lemon Garlic Eggplant and I actually found organic eggplants at Wegmans last week!

Also had me a craving for homemade vegan pepperoni, so I made me a batch o' that...almost to the exact day of last year's pepperoni making! 

And what better thing to put Vepperoni and Eggplant on than Toaster Oven Pizzas??

Toaster Oven Pizza with CSA Marinara, Lemon Garlic Eggplant, Homemade Vegan Pepperoni and I think Follow Your Heart Mozz under there.

While I was making the pepperoni and the eggplant, we had to eat something! 

(Yves Pepperoni, FYH Mozz, spices, and CSA Marinara).

And you gotta have dessert, right??

 Blueberry "cupcakes" with Vanilla Glaze 

I used a muffin recipe but don't tell my son!

Vanilla "cupcake" with Chocolate Ganache 

We had an Almost Spring Sundae Party when it was near 70 degrees here on Wednesday:

SoDelicious Vanilla Ice Cream with Soyatoo Whipped topping and Organic Chocolate Sauce and Chocolate Sprinkles!

TJ's SoyCreamy Vanilla Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries, Soyatoo Whipped Cream and Rainbow Sprinkles.  OMG.

Tonight I made a nice batch of seitan steaks (Tami's recipe from AVK, it's amazing!) and my Crispy Chipotle Seitan Gorditas.  They'd be great for a Superbowl party or a Wow it's Sure Quiet and this Store is Sure Empty, Everyone Must be Watching the Superbowl Party.  I'm also craving something like tofu "wingz" so I might make those tomorrow and maybe some nachos, too...

Hope you guys are having a great weekend!  It's snowing here right now. 

What the heck, Phil?

XOXO

Summer Surprises: Snakes and Shakes!

Surprise!

Pa can still dive, he's seventy five! Go Pa!

What's that in the tree?

Surprise! It's Shady the Scare Snake protecting our figs from birds (it worked, at least for a while!).

Surprise! Our CSA farm was open for picking on Labor Day! Oh yes!

Those beans were delish! Aren't the purple ones pretty?

Hey, ever think those blog giveaways are rigged? I used to, until...

 Surprise! I won TWO giveaways this summer!  Nava's new book AND Dreena's new book, YES.

It was too hot to cook anything from the books, so...

 Spinach Mango Blend, inspired by Nava.  

 Strawberry Hemp Blend, inspired by Dreena! 

I learned that hemp seeds are great in blended drinks, they aren't "seedy" at all.

I'll get to some cookin' from those awesome books in the fall! Thanks, ladies for the wonderful giveaways!!

 CSA Week #13 (8/22/12): Three lovely eggplants, including a beautiful ghost eggplant! hmmm...

Surprise!

I love eggplant (I never really LOVED it before the CSA eggplant, it was AMAZING).  And, surprise! I didn't have to skin it, salt it or drain it, it was so sweet and yummy just sauteed right up in lemon, garlic, olive oil and salt.  SO GOOD.

Surprise!

 You thought I forgot to post these, right? Nope, here they are.  

CSA Week #14 (8/29/12): Lots of tomatoes!  

 CSA Week #15 (9/5/12):  Lots of greens, including kale (my favorite!), and all the tomatoes pictured below!

Lots of beautiful tomatoes two weeks in a row meant only one thing.  We had to learn to can!

 Surprise! My first canned tomatoes.  

And homemade raspberry jam (from local, organic raspberries!)

 Summer's almost over!!  Learn to put em' up, folks!  Don't forget to dry those herbs and freeze that pesto!  There's LOTS more awesome produce to be had for these last few days of summer and first crisp days of autumn.

Have you all had any surprises this summer?

Zuzu Ghanoush (Baba Ghanoush with Zucchini!)

Overabundance of zucchini? Try "Zuzu" Ghanoush, it uses THREE medium to large zucchinis!  That's better than zucchini bread which only uses like one zucchini, sigh.  If you have too many eggplants, of course you can use one large or two medium eggplant instead!

Zuzu Ghanoush

This is my absolute favorite recipe for Zuzu (or Baba!) Ghanoush.  It is smoky, tangy, and just the right amount of garlicky. Thanks to our friends A&A for their patient explanation of technique and baba recipe structure last summer!  My husband thought of making it using zucchini since we had so much, and I'm so glad he did! If you want to make Baba ghanoush, substitute one very large or two medium eggplants for the zucchini.

You can double this recipe easily if you like.  

3 Medium Zucchinis (about 8 inches long) charred on the grill or in the oven

1/2 cup best Tahini *

*This time I used a brand called "Beirut" and is imported from Lebanon.  Got it from a local Middle Eastern restaurant with an attached store, it is what they use in their hummus and ghanoush.  I've had success with many Tahinis, but the better the Tahini, the better the ghanoush!*

Juice of 2-3 Lemons (yup, it's a lot of lemon juice!)

1-2 tsp Kosher salt

2 Tbs to 1/4 cup ice water (depending on how thick your Tahini is)

2 cloves of garlic

Method:

You need a hot fire in your grill or a hot oven (your house will get smokey, so I suggest using the grill, but you can bake it in a hot oven right on the rack, cover the bottom of your oven with foil to catch juices!)  Choose your weapon!  Poke your zucchini (or eggplant) with a few holes and grill, turning occasionally, until black on all sides and very, very soft in the middle.  

Let cool then scoop the flesh out and drain it in a colander.  For zucchini, we found you could easily just peel off the skin rather than "scooping" out the flesh.  For eggplant, you definitely want to scoop.  Allow some of the grilled "char" or black parts make it into the mix as it adds a delightful smokiness that is unmatched!

While the zucchini is draining in the colander, take out a big bowl or in the bowl of a food processor, add your lemon juice, tahini, salt and garlic and process (or whisk) adding the ice water gradually until your mixture is runny and not too thick.  This will depend largely on the kind of tahini you use, some are thicker than others.  The tahini will turn lighter in color, almost white.  

Now, chop your zucchini into a baby-food like texture and add it to the mixing bowl or food processor.  Pulse or whisk until well combined, but not totally smooth.  Taste for salt and lemon, add more if needed.  

Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.  It only lasts about 24 hours in my house, but I'm sure it will last for several days if no one is home to eat it!

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, fresh pita bread, olives, cilantro salad (yummmmm!), or in wraps, sandwiches, on bagels, or whatever you like.

Enjoy!