We had such a nice break. The boys had two weeks off school. Paul managed to take the whole time off too. I lined up activities and pals to play with for every minute of it, and then on approximately the first second of vacation Desmond came down with a cold. And then the next day, of course, so did Felix. So I called the pals. Cancelled plans. And it was just the four of us.
Here in the Jaconi Biery household, we most definitely subscribe to the superstitious tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. While this has not, thus far, brought us overwhelming prosperity, it does provide a nice healthy kick-start to the year. I consider our New Year's Day feast of smoky black-eyed peas and zesty greens and brown rice and corn bread to be a goodbye to the ridiculous excess (Frozen Christmas cookies for breakfast. I definitely did not feed my children that. Don't tell their father.) of the previous weeks and a hello to the abundance of good intentions that a new year brings.
How about you? What do you eat on New Year's Day?
Take a couple cups of leftover roasted vegetables. Ours were an amalgam of onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, delicata squash, and kale from several roasts I made in the days and weeks approaching Thanksgiving. I had 8 roasts and their surrounding vegetables in my fridge and freezer at one point. Toss your vegetables in the food processor with a few slices of your leftover untofurkey, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of chipotle powder (or smoked paprika if you're hoping children will eat this), and a teaspoon of oregano. Process until chunky smooth. Cover a small skillet with a slick of canola oil. Wrap a dozen corn tortillas in a wet dish cloth, and heat in the microwave for a 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the tortillas are soft and pliant. Spoon a generous tablespoon of leftovers into each tortilla, tightly roll, and pan fry seam side down, flip, fry some more, and serve with gaucamole or if it's really all leftovers all the time, then in tapatillo-spiked cranberry sauce. (Yeah, that's the level we've sunk to in this house. Man, am I done with Thanksgiving.)
To recap, for Thanksgiving 2011, so far we have made a 2-pound hunk of seitan that will become your Thanksgiving roast and, more importantly, the protein bit in your post-Thanksgiving sandwich. At the same time, we made about 6 cups of tasty broth to use in your stuffing and gravy. We made the gravy - cashew mushroom to be precise, and it's delicious. Now, with Thanksgiving just two days away, it's time to talk about how you're going to serve the seitan.
Just like a tofurky from the store, you can surround it with any vegetables that you like roasted for an hour. The roots are classics here. You could not go wrong with a combination of potatoes, onions, parsnips, and carrots. But if you're having mashed potatoes as well (and you are, aren't you?), well then this classic combo might feel a bit redundant.
I wanted something green and bright, but that could withstand all that cooking.
I turned to my old pal, kale, and he did not let me down.
Continue reading "Roasted Kale and How to Dress Your Seitan" »
Did I tell you that on our first date, I invited Paul up to my apartment at three in the morning and made him dinner? I was so young and naive, but fortunately so was he.
That night, almost 16(!) years ago, in my very first kitchen, I made pasta with bell peppers and tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. (I didn't ditch the cheese until a couple years later.)
This pasta here is just the sort of dish that you could casually whip up at three in the morning with what you probably have on hand, all while sipping a glass of wine, shooing away your college roommate, and looking like a domestic goddess.
Incidentally, it is also a perfect lunch to prepare for two hungry children under the age of five because you need to go grocery shopping and you're out of bread and this will only take about 3 more minutes than pb&j anyway and you're still wearing your sweaty gym clothes from your visit to the Y fives hours previous.
But also, I was thinking we're all going to need some almost instant dinners in our arsenal as the days get shorter and the back-to-school schedules get more harried.
This pasta is perfect for all those scenarios. It's flexible. I used spinach because it's what I had (and of course it cooks quickly) but you can use whatever vegetable odds and ends you have in the house. Mushrooms or broccoli or kale would all be delicious.
Almost Instant Semi-Fancy Pasta
makes: 3 grown-up servings
takes: about 12 minutes
About 5 minutes before your pasta is done cooking, heat the olive oil and garlic in a big skillet over medium-low heat. When the oil is hot and the garlic smells wonderful, add the spinach and a pinch of salt to the pan. Toss it around with the oil and garlic until wilted. Add the tomatoes with their oil. It's probably time to scoop the pasta out of the water and into the pan with the vegetables - if you don't have a big slotted spoon called a spider, well you should probably get one - they're cheap and useful - but if you don't have one, drain your pasta, but reserve about a cup of the pasta water for the sauce. Add the parmesan to the pan and stir it around to coat the pasta. Drizzle in enough pasta water to give it a creamy consistency. Stir. Taste for salt.
Serve (grown-up portions) with a few cracks of black pepper.
Notes on kid-friendliness: No, neither of my kids ate the sun-dried tomatoes, but the oil they're packed in gives this dish a nice flavor and the tomatoes are easily avoided and saved for me. Felix ate around the spinach, sigh, but Desmond ate it. If I had had more time I would have chopped it finely - that will sometimes work with the 2-year-old.
