Hummus-avocado open-faced sandwich

Things have definitely been quiet on the kitchen front.  I mostly go in to fix quickish, routine meals these days.  I am a woman of many passions and don't have enough time and/or energy to juggle all of them at once.  Well that, and it's not in my nature.  I abandoned thinking of multi-tasking as a good thing a long time ago and have never looked back.

I was happy to see that one of my avocados was ripe today.  (Locals, organic avocados on sale at Whole Foods...a bag of four for $4!)

My body has been insistent on being fed protein lately, so rather than my usual avocado on toast with mayo, I decided to swap some hummus in for the mayo.  (My hummus of choice is the Whole Foods house hummus in the "original" flavor.)

I shook on some salt pepper and drizzled the delectable Falconero olive oil over the whole thing.

Oh.  My.  Freaking.  God.  Soooooo good.

I tried not to moan too loudly as I ate since GFCF Kid was sitting across from me enjoying his lunch of something else (he thinks avocados are gross.)

With a couple of bites left, I came somewhat back to earth and thought I'd take a picture.  For you :-)

Now, I know this is not an original sandwich.  And, it's quite likely I've had this combo before.  But, when you're ADDish like me, it is a pleasure of life that wonderful experiences feel completely new because past experiences have been forgotten.

So I present to you, the new-for-me-today: hummus-avocado open-faced sandwich.  Use your most delicious olive oil for this.  It can really make the sandwich sing.

Baked pasta

Cells are shivering and bouncing and rubbing up against each other.

I remember baked pasta dishes very fondly. Especially lasagna and baked ziti, my mom's go to Italian fare (in addition to spaghetti) when I was growing up.

When GFCF Kid was diagnosed with his food allergies/intolerances, all thoughts of baked pasta flew out the window. And, for the most part, I've never looked back.

I do occasionally order lasagna when eating out, and enjoy it thoroughly. But, when I'm GFCF, I've gone without. Mainly because GFCF Kid has no interest in, or taste for, things "cheesy". The other reason is that there has not been a tasty CF cheese on the market that melted like the real thing.

But, now there is: Daiya cheese. I had a bag of rotini that's been residing in the pantry for a few months so I picked up some ground turkey, a jar of Newman's marinara sauce, and a bag of Daiya cheese. I had peas in the freezer so added those for color and "vegetableness".

While I cooked the rotini in salted water, I sauteed and seasoned the ground turkey in a bit of oil. When the turkey was cooked, I added the tomato sauce to the turkey. I defrosted the peas in a colander.

Once the pasta was done, I drained it and put it into a baking dish. I added the meat sauce and peas and cheese. I covered the dish with foil and baked it at 350º for about 25 minutes. I uncovered it and baked it for 5 more minutes.

(I added a dollop of homemade basil-pine nut pesto to my bowl...yum!)

Simple, old school, not totally from scratch, baked rotini. GFCF Kid wouldn't touch it, The Omnivore couldn't tolerate the rotini shape, I relived my past and loved it :-)

(Good thing Red Sox Daddy is coming home tomorrow, he'll help me finish the pan. Next time I'm making it meatless!)

Sloppy lentils

Once a month, my friend, E, hosts Sacred Singing at her house. It is a wonderful gathering to sing sacred songs and to break bread together. It was at Sacred Singing that I was introduced to E's Sloppy Lentils.

I have very fond childhood memories of Mrs. Kasuga's Sloppy Joe's. I don't remember anyone else ever making them for me...maybe my mom once or twice. If I close my eyes, the memory of her Sloppy Joe's are multi-sensory. I loved them.

I think my kids would probably like Sloppy Joe's. They love the meat sauce I make for spaghetti, which is made with ground meat. But, because I have yet to venture into baking burger buns, Sloppy Joe's hadn't entered my mind.

These Sloppy Lentils are so good, they have me seriously pursuing the baking of burger buns. I came close to making them today, but I'm in the midst of a lot of cooking and just didn't have the energy and time.

So, tonight, we will enjoy the lentils over rice. This batch came out quite salty. I'm not sure why, though I am certain the fault lies with me and my 'eyeballing' style of cooking :-)

E's Sloppy Lentils

(...as modified from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook...with some tweaks by me)

2 Tbsp safflower oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 cups dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes (I prefer Muir Glen fire roasted
tomatoes for the extra smokiness)
5 cups water
2 Tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1 Tbsp light brown sugar
3-4 Tbsp honey mustard (if I don't have any around, I just put in 2
Tbsp honey and 2 additional Tbsp prepared mustard)
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet (I use the saucier, but sometimes
resort to a soup pot) over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and
cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, stirring
to coat.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients, turn up the heat until it comes to
a boil, then turn it down to a lively simmer and cover it. It takes a
solid two hours to cook, sometimes longer. Check it every half hour
to stir and make sure it has enough water.


I've adjusted the amount of cooking time and water to make this with
navy beans or kidney beans, too -- not quite as perfect to pile into a
crusty roll when I use the larger beans, but still quite tasty. With
the beans it takes at least an extra hour cooking time, and additions
of water for the last hour or hour and a half.

Namaste spice cake mix

We had two birthday celebrations to attend this weekend and I was looking for a time saver. I pulled out the bag of Namaste Spice Cake Mix I had picked up at Nature's Pavilion a couple of weeks ago (for nostalgia's sake...GFCF Kid used to love this cake before Red Sox Daddy and I became more adept at baking GFCF cakes).

GFCF Kid okayed bringing along Spice Cake cupcakes to the shindigs as an alternative to birthday cake.

The cupcakes were incredibly flavorful and tasty though, for me, they border on too sweet. He didn't want frosting so we skipped that.

My sister called the next night singing the cupcakes' praises wanting to know which mix we had used. She has plans to add in nuts, coconut and maybe raisins. The mix can be converted to make carrot cake, as well. It's versatile.

Pesto

yum.

Pesto is up there with avocado as one of my absolute favorite foods.

My love of pesto is simple.  But, my relationship with it has taken time.

In the beginning, I only ate it restaurants.  When my infatuation turned to love, I began asking for it at restaurants if I didn't see it on the menu (I can't remember a time when the kitchen couldn't oblige me my request).

This continued for years until one day I realized I could buy pesto at the supermarket.  This was back in the days when I didn't cook much other than scrambled eggs.  I was perpetually dissatisfied with the pesto from the supermarket.  It never had the depth of flavor of the pesto I'd be served when eating out.

Because I didn't love it, I would toss the container into the freezer and then forget about it.  It was wasteful in more ways than one.

During the supermarket pesto years, which continued through a few years ago, I went through periods of not being able to eat it because I was off of dairy and store bought pesto inevitably had cheese in it.

While I was living in Sacramento, I gave myself a Mother's Day present one year.  The gift of three books.  I spent a leisurely and lovely afternoon in (the now defunct) Tower Books.  I bought Peter Berley's The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen that day, in large part because it had two pesto recipes in it that caught my eye: neither called for cheese.  (The other two books were Case Histories by Kate Atkinson which I loved and led to my reading and loving some of her other books, and The Stones of Summer, which I have yet to read, but still sits on a shelf here in NJ.)

You know, when it comes to ideas and thoughts, I am someone who finds it very easy to think outside the box.  But, when it comes to approaching something fairly finitely prescribed, like a cooking recipe or knitting pattern, I become very focused on the box and it doesn't occur to me to take even a glance outside of it.  (I think this has changed somewhat with growing age and experience, yes development and learning continues to happen for us grown ups!)

So, crazy as it sounds, it never occurred to me that pesto could taste like pesto without the cheese.

Wow, this post has gotten long.  So, fast forward this last bit.  When Vanessa arrived in mid-January, I had a rare off-season pesto in the fridge.  (I considered my homemade vegan pesto a summer seasonal treat to be made with my homegrown basil.)  Spaghetti is a staple meal in our home and we make it with a marinara sauce using ground dark meat turkey.  I was in a non-meat phase and so had made the pesto to have with my pasta.

As it turned out, Vanessa loves pesto, too.  And as I quickly fell in love with her, I made more pesto whenever we ran out.  She and I had a lot of pesto during her month with us.  And since she left, I have found myself continuing to make it.  It reminds me of her.

At this point in my relationship with pesto, I don't follow a written recipe.  My feeling is that I can't go wrong with fresh basil, fresh garlic, pine nuts, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  If you've never made it before, I'll give you my rough amounts, but you may also want to google a recipe and mix and match (for example, you can use walnuts or almonds rather than pine nuts).  But, trust me when I say you don't need the cheese.  You absolutely don't.

3 generous handfuls of rinsed and dried fresh basil leaves

1/3 cup pine nuts (store your pine nuts in a tightly sealed container in the fridge to keep fresh)

5 cloves of garlic (I love garlic, use your judgment for yourself)

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup olive oil

makes about 1 1/2 cups of pesto, I think (I didn't measure it)

Place all ingredients into food processor (I use my mini-food processor which I bought expressly for making pesto though it comes in handy for making flax meal, too.)  Process till smooth.  Taste and add seasoning as desired.

Store in a container with a tight seal.  Drizzle the top with olive oil to prevent discoloration (the lovely green will turn a murky dark color.)

My pesto usually keeps in the fridge for about a week.  I put it on pasta, eggs, and sandwiches (it's great with mayo :-)  I often eat it every day when I have it and it's gone in a week. 

If you will not be using it as frequently as me, then you may want to store it in smaller containers and freeze it.  Some people like to freeze them in ice cube trays.  Once they are frozen you can store them in a freezer bag in the freezer to free your ice cube tray up.

Spreadin' the pesto love, one blog post at a time :-)

Braised cabbage

Braised cabbage makes me think of my dad and maternal grandmother.  My dad loves it and I remember my grandmother making it with cabbage from her garden.  I didn't come to appreciate cabbage until pretty recently...sometime in the last 5 years or so.

One of the four things that factored into my sudden love for cabbage: learning how to make my own stock and realizing how perfectly suited stock and cabbage are.  (The other three things: Jamie's mom's Cole slaw recipe, how inexpensive cabbage is, and how faithfully fresh it will remain in the crisper for a long time.)

Today's version is made with a red cabbage I bought last week, intended for a dish that did not get made.  I have a slight preference for green cabbage (and do like Savoy cabbage, too, though I think of that as a special occasion cabbage :-) and my family associations are with the green stuff.

Today's beef "stock" is not a true stock.  It's the braising liquid from a short ribs meal I made ages ago.  The braising liquid has lots of beef essence, garlic and ginger in it.  And it's been waiting patiently in the freezer for a very long time to be loved and appreciated.

Heat oil in sautéish pan.  My pan is not a sauté pan, I don't know what you'd call it.  It's wide and flat and has sides that come straight up a few inches.  And two fat handles.  I bought it at TJ Maxx or Marshall's a long time ago, before I knew what I was doing, really, but knew that I wanted to begin the journey of slowly replacing our non-stick pans with stainless that did not have non-stick coating on them.  This pan came with a lid which comes in handy.  I love this pan.  (I think it's All-Clad.)

Also, I used safflower oil.  But, you should use whatever oil you want and see how it tastes.  Safflower is good for high heat and being on the more flavorless side.  (I'm not sold on canola oil.)

Add an onion to the heated oil/pan.  I like to slice mine thinly, in "half moons" (halve the onion and then slice lengthwise).

Remove the outermost leaves and chop up the cabbage.  I used just about the whole head today.  See how much room you have in your pan.  Keep in mind that the cabbage will cook down somewhat.

Add the cabbage to the onions which should be quite soft by now.  Stir and stir.  Let cook for a few minutes on medium-high heat.

Add the stock.  Beef, chicken, veggie, whatever you have.  Even water (if I were using water I would season the cabbage with salt and pepper).  Fill the pan so there's an inch or two of liquid.

Clearly, this is not an exact measurement type of recipe :-)

Turn up heat to get the braising liquid bubbling.  Cover loosely, turn heat down to medium-low and cook at a low bubbling for 10 minutes or so.  

Periodically check to make sure the liquid doesn't evaporate during cooking.  Check the texture or "bite" of the cabbage.  If you want it crunchier, you want less time, if you want it softer, increase the time.

To slow down the cooking towards the end to better fine tune the "bite" of the cabbage, turn heat down further, or better yet, "loosen" the lid even more so more steam gets out.

This dish is good hot, warm, at room temperature, or cold.  It's all about your taste and mood.  I've had it as a side, with rice and on toast with, everyone all together now, mayo.  :-)