may greens ii

The next greens recipe is a bit simpler and comes from the Moosewood Cookbook (the original, if I’m not mistaken). Start by rinsing and chopping your greens just as in the previous recipe…

for starters…

may greens i

Oh look, it’s the end of May suddenly.

Lately I have been away comprehensive examing (there should be an ism mafʿul for that, you know what I mean?), conference paper presenting, final paper writing, birthday & graduation logistics coordinating, etc.

But I am back now, and in my old familiar test kitchen in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. I have a few great recipes for greens and a chutney that I’ll be posting over the next few days…only here’s the thing: I can’t remember exactly which greens they were (chard and ?) and I left the necessary cookbooks back home. But there are photos and there is memory and I’m going to do my best. That is the most we can do anyway, now, isn’t it?

two fabulous cookbooks: chez panisse pasta pizza & calzones and the original moosewood cookbook

for those of you more literate in greens than i, and that is pretty much anyone, some help with identifying these? anyone?

when life gives you leftovers, make sandwiches

I love sandwiches. Sandwiches are great for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My favorite sandwich of late arose, like a beautiful sandwich-shaped phoenix, from the ashes of a dinner party and an overzealous trip to the farmer’s market that left me with lots of leftover Moroccan chicken, blackberry & lemon thyme jam, and fresh spicy arugula. Perfect.

you guessed it.

still here

Woah. Woah. I don’t even know what happened but summer is here. Along the way there was a spring cleaning overhaul of the apartment, a major Arabic proficiency exam, trips out of town and visits in town and was also a bit of writing papers till 4 in the morning so that I could attend all my brother’s college graduation festivities, which were of course all totally worth it. UNC Chapel Hill is simply gorgeous in May and I couldn’t be prouder of my brother who graduated with honors and also had far and away the most interesting bio of all his policy major classmates (because theirs read like a resume and his was about his love of homebrewing, score). Also I got a corner piece of the cake at the reception (double score).

I have been cooking amidst it all, believe it or not, just gotten a little lazy about the blogging part…so hopefully I’ll start to catch up a little. I’m heading back to Morocco in a month or so, so there will [inchallah] be more Moroccan recipes and food notes and photos and thoughts, but in the meantime I am enjoying a more relaxed schedule and cooking almost every day (also taking a stab at container gardening, so hopefully that will yield some yummy results before long)…

A few recipes are lined up and getting ready to go but in the meantime thought I’d share a few menus using the latest tasty elements gleaned from my CSA box:

best time for a summer meal: after the rain, before the sunset; best place: out on the balcony

Here you see roasted asparagus (simpler is better: bake with olive oil, salt and pepper at 375 degrees for 10 minutes and eat with your fingers) and new potatoes (cut in quarters, parboil till soft then fry till crispy with rosemary and salt and oil) and my favorite new salad: arugula or your fresh greens of choice with apples or strawberries (whichever are handiest), dollops of goat cheese, lavender salt, and instead of a mixed vinaigrette, keep it summer-simple by drizzling it with good olive oil and an exciting balsamic or other vinegar (my favorites are basil vinegar and dark chocolate vinaigrette, which is especially tasty with the fruit).

my creativity got lost in the mix for a while but it is back like a phoenix with this, the greatest summer appetizer i have ever created

All you need is sliced crisp apples (Pink Lady are my favorite) with a piece of earthy peppery arugula, dolce de leche, dark chocolate balsamic vinaigrette (or a thin syrup or shaved dark chocolate, if you don’t have chocolate balsamic), and – best of all – bacon-flavored toothpicks (bacon flavor optional). Like a very small but eclectic party in your mouth.

time for my closeup

beautiful disaster (that's right, I have also been listening to a ton of 90's alternative rock throwback music lately)

Oh dear, I attempted this fabulous recipe and well, as they say, things fall apart. Literally. Fortunately with strawberries, cream, and chocolate, you can’t really go wrong, even if things aren’t especially pretty. This is just the time of year for these three elements to be enjoyed in perfect harmony with a tasty Vinho Verde (or a fresh mint julep, pictured above) outdoors somewhere…

 

salads that sizzle

So you’re staring at your dinner party menu and trying to figure out a way to make the salad more interesting. Or you’ve decided to make it a light dinner with an extra-healthy salad as the entree. And all you can think of is boring.

yeah yeah tell me something i haven't heard

So here’s an easy way to dress up a salad with some extra smells & sounds that make any meal just a touch more interesting. And as an added bonus, almost all the ingredients in this week’s recipe are from my new CSA, so they’re all fresh, local, and organic. Yum…

and now for something completely different: veggies falling into winter

Sadly this week was the last week my local farmstand is open till spring…pretty soon I’ll have to go much farther afield for fresh produce and get a little creative. I’ve already begun the task of making and freezing plenty of soups & sauces using vegetables that are about to slip out of season, so we’ll see how long I can make them last into the long winter. In the meantime, a last shot of vegetables slowly fading into muted autumn tones:

last look

fall colors & pumpkin pie soup

farmstand = lifesaver

The air smells like knowledge and sweaters and Woody Guthrie, for some reason.

Inspired by a recent dinner party that prominently featured the best pumpkin pie I think I’ve ever tasted, I set myself the task of making a pumpkin pie-inspired soup so I could have pumpkin pie for dinner every night without suffering the consequences of eating too much dessert. Last week squash were the most prominent feature of the local farmstand (you know it’s almost Halloween when…) so I used a butternut squash as the base of this soup. But you could definitely use pumpkin if you’ve got one lying around. I’m pretty sure this soup will be tasty no matter what. Just as long as whatever you use doesn’t come out of a can.

the last soup of summer/the first soup of fall

squash and red bell peppers: meant to be together, but sadly not for long

Before you say Anny, get your eyes checked because nothing is in focus, let me tell you that due to poor planning I’ve been shooting food only under compact fluorescent lights and very late at night, so for the sake of color I’ve been taking blurry photos and calling it artistic (and before you ask, yes I have a tripod and no it is not in the same state as my camera right now). All this will change soon, honestly. For now just relax and think of it as Impressionism-food-portraiture.

This soup is the kind of thing you can only make one or two weeks out of the year – when the butternut squash starts showing up at the market and before the red peppers leave the scene (or retire to the $3 a pepper bin at the fiscally unrealistic menu choices section of the grocery store’s produce department). The peppers make it sweet and the squash keeps it smooth, and it’s complex without being too rich. I made a ton of it and have frozen most of it to eat on winter nights when I need a summer soup to warm me up again.

Squash & Pepper Soup

a farmer’s market diary

For the past month or so I’ve been enjoying a lot of local produce, thanks to DC’s many farmer’s markets (so far my favorite is a small farmstand by my building, near the intersection of Massachusetts & Wisconsin, but the Foggy Bottom one is pretty swanky. Gorgeous heirloom tomatoes…gorgeous and expensive). Below are a few dishes I’ve been making with what’s out there right now (think tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and some delicious early apples).

red & green, late summer days

First of all, a new approach to cucumbers: Almost-Pickles

I got the idea for these from a small cafe near Harper’s Ferry (whose name I don’t know! If you do please tell me). I don’t really like pickles, but the green accoutrements served with their sandwiches looked like they hadn’t deviated too far from the state of nature. I asked how they made them, and was told that they’re pickled – but only for an hour or so. They have all the best parts of pickles and the best parts of raw cucumbers, plus you don’t have to think very far in advance to make them!

Take 1 cucumber, sliced in medallions which are then quartered or halved.

Soak in vinegar, sugar, salt, and allspice for about an hour.

Serve with sandwiches or as a tart & delicious appetizer!