corn bread

Well, that okra which my neighbors so kindly gave me caused a chain reaction.  I don't usually have okra, but since I did, I wanted cornmeal.  I got the cornmeal to fry up the okra in, but then I had a lot of extra cornmeal.  It was just sitting there.  So I bought some flour, baking powder, and eggs so that I could use the cornmeal to make bread.  It came out good.

broccoli

I like cooking broccoli the same way I cooked the cabbage -- with just enough water that it is gone when the broccoli is cooked.   Here it is raw and cooked.

 

curried lentils with onions

I guess this is a variant of a recipe from Jane Brody's good food book that I used a long time ago.  Anyway, I was really feeling like lentils, so this is what I cooked.

Here are the lentils dry and then after their 1 hour soak in initially boiling water.

 

To save time, I drained the lentils and got them cooking so they could simmer while I prepared the onions.

 

After the onions are starting to brown, I add the curry powder, or in this case, cumin and corriander since I realized I do not have "curry powder" here in NC.

 

I add a little water to pull up the fond off of the bottom of the pot, and then I ad a little cayenne.

 

then I add the lentils to the onion soup, stir, add salt and pepper, and serve.

 

cabbage

I like cooking cabbage like this -- in a covered pan with a little salt and pepper and with just enough water that the cabbage is right when the water is boiled away.  If I pay close attention, I can avoid scorching the the bottom of the pan.

Ribollita!!

This was my big christmas cook and a continuation of the kale excitement.  Of course, I've been reading about kale and related things on wikipedia a lot lately, and I came across a famous stew of Tuscany that I had never heard of before -- ribollita.  It usually contains cavolo nero, so that is how I stumbled on it.  I had never heard of it before, but now I seem to hear of it all the time.  I just heard Rachel Ray mention it while discussing what to do with stale bread.  (yes.  so far, this means it is a stew containing cavolo nero and stale bread.  I'll get to the other ingredients soon.)

There seems to be a variety of ideas about what ribollita is.  There is agreement that ribollita means reboiled.  There is agreement that it is a leftover stew containing vegetables, beans, and old bread stew.  There is also agreement that you can put in whatever you want.  This is pretty cool given that the dish comes form a fancy food culture.

I'll just start with a picture of my pig pot because I like it so much.

Here are some early stages.

 

Just keep making regular bean and vegetable stew, and you get something like this:

Get out your old bread and make medium-small pieces:

 

Throw them into the stew, and stir.

 
Serve with Parmesan  (maybe.  people don't agree about adding parmesan)

oatmeal peanut butter cookies

These came out really good.  I just took an oatmeal cookie recipe and replaced the butter with peanut butter.  Alex ate 7 in 5 minutes.

just enjoying the season -- the color came out really nice

 

 

kale excitement!

well, chick fil a sued eatmorekale.com, and this has breathed a whole lot of nutrition and conviction into my diet.

I've been leaning toward the tuscan variety -- cavolo nero.

We had some leftover pancetta bits from our pizza night, so I actually cooked my greens with real pancetta.

 

Voila!  Eat More Cavolo Nero!  Now chick fil a can sue me too!  Go Team Kale!

peppers and onions

I think of peppers and onions so often, but have trouble preventing myself from embellishing this simple dish with meat or beans or cauliflower.  But this time I was able to restrain myself and cook up this simple dish.

 

naftavore

I have been shopping and eating and I think I may need to scale back on some of my goals.  Locavorism is seeming really difficult.  I think I will settle for food from North America.  Here is the sneaky import that broke my locavore spirit.

I got this at the Harris Teeter in North Carolina in November.  Beautiful, nutritious, seasonal produce, right?  Watch out!!

Oh, the sadness!  I was tricked!  I didn't even think to look!
But Mexico isn't so far away.  It's not Chile or South Africa.  This squash could have even come from closer than my California oranges or my organic apples grown in the USA which could have come from Washington.
So maybe I'll be a naftavore.  They grow a lot of good food in Canada too!