Food Friday - What's for Dinner?

from Kris B.

I don't like the heat that Texas summer's bring, but I do like the abundance of fresh veggies.  I feel like I eat a little better during the summer months because of all this freshness.  Unfortunately, I don't care much for canned and frozen vegetables, so the winter months for me are marked by a lot of squash!  I love squash, but I do get tired of it after awhile.

As far as leafy greens, spinach is by far my

 favorite.  I'll add it to almost anything.  Asparagus is one of those things that I have leaned to appreciate as an adult.  I never wanted it on my childhood plate!  I don't know if that is because my mom served it from a can or if it was fresh and seriously over cooked.  Whatever the case, I always thought it was mushy and smelled bad.  Lol!

This dish is an adaptation of a couple different recipes and is a summertime favorite at our house.  If you are not an asparagus fan or have greens other than spinach, substitute away, just about anything will work here...even squash!

INGREDIENTS
12 oz. store bought gnocchi
8 oz. spinach
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 Cup parmesan cheese and extra for garnish
2 TBS toasted almonds
6 spears of asparagus
3 TBS butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat  olive oil over medium high in a large pan.  Add the spinach and sauté until bright green and wilted.  Remove to a cutting board and allow it to cool.

Cook the gnocchi by adding it to a pot of boiling water.  Cook for three minutes.  the pieces should rise to the top.  Reserve about 1/2 cup of the water in which you cooked the gnocchi.  Drain the gnocchi.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, garlic, almonds, a 1/4 of parmesan cheese.  Mix and mash the ingredients together.  It will look like green paste.  It may not look appetizing at this point, but it will taste good in the end!

Trim the asparagus and cut it into bite-seized pieces, about 1 inch.  In the same pan you used to cook the spinach, melt the butter.  Add the cooked gnocchi and the asparagas.  Sauté until the gnocchi is golden brown and the asparagus is soft but not much.  Lol!   I know what you're thinking.  Butter???Butter gets a bad rap. We all need a little fat in our diets, it helps the gnocchi and asparagus brown just a little, and, admit it, it tastes good!  Once cooked, add the gnocchi and asparagas to the spinach mixture.  If it seems to dry, add a little of the reserved gnocchi water a tablespoon at a time until it seems moist enough.  You do not want standing liquid in the bowl, just nicely coated gnocchi!  Season with salt and pepper and garniush with additional parmesan cheese, if desired.

I usually serve this warm, but my daughter prefers it cold.  So, I guess anything goes!

Makes 2-3 servings

Nutrition information: per serving; 377 calories; 18.8g fat; 43.9g carbohydrates; 13.3g protein; 6.1g fiber; 800mg sodium

The Bean Thing - that's the actual name, not just something we called it because we couldn't remember the name, and I've always loved it! The minute I take a bite of this salad I am a kid again. It's not sweet at all like most bean salads and that's what drew my mom to the recipe, it was different from most bean "salad" recipes out there. My mom made this often for "special occasions"  - meaning  mostly those things where you need a dish to pass. This couldn't be any easier and it's a powerhouse of good the stuff that beans have to offer. Now, my mom mostly served it as a side dish. And I have too, but for me it's a 50/50 mix of making it to go with something and making because this is the something that I want! I love to use it as a light lunch in the summer (winter too because it uses canned beans and corn - I've also used frozen corn for this too and it works just as well) and I've been known to have it for dinner with some nice bread, lol. In fact, it was my lunch today!

The original recipe is fine as it is, it uses heart healthy olive oil as the oil for the dressing. I have taken it a bit further and played with the amount of oil that goes in and I've come to the conclusion that you can cut it back to a little over a 1/4 cup and it still tastes pretty darn good! I've lessened the sodium as well, even though I pretty much exclusively use kosher salt, less salt is less salt. Kosher salt is great due to the flat nature of the crystals, you get big salt taste for a lot less of the stuff!  But this recipe is from the late 60's early 70's and at that time it was salt salt salt! I imagine you could skip it entirely and just salt your own portion. It also helps to use lower-sodium canned beans & corn to help reduce it as well. The original recipe calls for green pepper to be added, but Jeremy, my husband is not a big green pepper fan, so I omit it. And that's just fine - this does well without it. Another thing it does well without are the chickpeas - I love them, Jeremy does not, so, I used cannellini beans and all is well. Versatile recipes that you can swap without losing the integrity of the dish are hands-down my favorite kind! I hate not being able to make something because I'm lacking one ingredient, that drives me crazy! I love to use whatever I have on hand and have it be just as good as if I had everything right down to the letter. That makes me a pretty happy girl!  

I believe my mom cut this out of a newspaper or something, but it was actually a recipe written for red wine - not sure anymore it was a particular kind/brand etc because the original recipe has been long gone for quite awhile now, in fact, I don't think I've ever actually seen the original clipping!

The Bean Thing

serves about 8 officially

1 can red kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can chickpeas or cannellini beans

1 can sweet corn

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 green pepper chopped

Dressing:

3/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp vinegar

3 tbsp red wine

1 clove garlic crushed (or I use my microplane grater instead of my press sometimes!)

2 tsp salt (less is fine)

black pepper to taste

Combine beans and corn in a colander. Rinse under cold water and drain well. Place in a serving bowl, add green pepper and green onion. In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients and mix well. Pour over bean and vegetable mixture. Toss to coat and refrigerate until serving time. This is always better the longer it gets the chance to sit and marinate.

Food Friday - Veggies, Please!

from Tracey G.

This week the snow is finally starting to melt and I'm starting to want more fair weather foods - or at least things that remind me that summer and lovely weather isn't too far away! This salad is one of my favorites and it's so super simple it ought to be a crime! Not even sure anymore where I found the original recipe, but I do know that I have added and subtracted here and there to suit my taste. It's like a super quick refrigerator pickle in way, but very lightly pickled so that it's still a salad and not an actual pickle! Whenever I make anything with Buffalo Sauce (like my favorite chicken cutlets), this salad goes on the side, it tempers the spicy heat nicely!

I use English cucumbers because I love the little to no seed aspect, and you don't need to peel them, thus saving time. Not to mention, just a quick rinse is all that's needed, since they are usually individually wrapped in the grocery. 

This salad also comes together super quick, another thing I absolutely love about it, plus you could add things if you like - green or any kind of onion sliced thin would be nice, I think. Simple and yummy - what else could you ask for?

Cucumber Salad

(about 4-5 servings)

4 cups thinly sliced, quartered cucumber

2  tsp minced fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried parsley

Dressing:

1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depends on your taste, I use 1/2 usually)

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

4 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

Combine dressing ingredients in serving bowl, whisk well until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumbers and parsley, toss to coat. Let stand for awhile or serve immediately. Serve with a slotted spoon. 

from Kris B.

Pizza  is often one of those dinner suggestions made at the end of a long day or week and it usually involves a phone call to the local pizza delivery shop, not a trip to the kitchen.  As much as I like someone else to do the cooking on such evenings, homemade pizza is so much better than that which is commercially made.  The problem with wanting homemade pizza at the last minute is the crust.  There is no getting around the fact that making pizza crust takes time.

The truth is that the recipe that I am sharing this week isn't really about the pizza crust, but about the toppings. Though if you are interested, I use the recipe from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  If, like me, you are a bread lover, their method is a great way to enjoy homemade bread every day without spending a great deal of time every day in its preparation.  If pizza dough making is not your thing, just buy a pre-made crust at the grocery store.  It will work just fine.  Like I said, this is about the toppings.

In addition to bread, I do like vegetables.  I just don't care for the mixture of veggies that are offered on commercially made veggie pizzas, especially olives.  There are lots of foods that I "don't care for," but will eat and there are a very few that I just can't eat under any circumstances.  Olives, black or green, fall into the latter group  By the time you remove the olives and then the mushrooms, which fall into the don't care for category but will eat in a pinch, most veggie pizzas are then left with only peppers and onions.  Those two alone don't really constitute a "veggie" pizza.  It is my quirky pizza veggie preferences that led me to experiment with other vegetables as pizza toppings.

This combination is one of my favorites - traditional white pizza with shaved asparagus.  Because my pizza stone is rectangular, so are my pizzas, more or less.  Lol! They usually end up being about 12'x14'.

INGREDIENTS
Pizza crust of your choice
Olive oil

For the white pizza sauce:
   2 cups ricotta cheese
   2-3 cloves garlic, minced
   1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
   red onion, thinly sliced (about half of a medium onion)
   shaved asparagus (8 stalks give or take)
   mozzarella cheese
   red pepper flakes, optional

Slice the onion.  For the shaved asparagus, wash and then trim the ends.  Using a vegetable peeler, "peel" the asparagus just like you would a carrot.  Peel from all sides of the stalk.

Heat oven to 500 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven as well.  If not, you can bake your pizza on a sheet pan.  Once your dough is ready to go, place it on an appropriately sized pan or a pizza peel generously covered with corn meal.  (This helps it to slide from the peel onto the oven stone.)  Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil.

Mix together the ricotta cheese, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese, and salt an pepper to create the white sauce.  Spread this evenly over your dough leaving about an inch of dough exposed around the edges.

Top the white sauce with a layer of mozzarella cheese then the asparagus, onions, and ref pepper flakes.  Finish with another layer of the mozzarella cheese.

Bake until the cheese is melted and is a bubbly golden brown.  Baking time will vary with ovens and the type of crust you use.

Make this your own pizza!  Amounts of all ingredients can most certainly be adjusted for personal preferences.  Add the mushrooms and olives if they make you happy!  Yes, we all need food to nourish our bodies, but what we eat and those with whom we eat our meals should also make us happy!  Take time to enjoy your food.