Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts

April 15, 2008

April showers bring cauliflowers


I saw the pretty cauliflowers at the market on Saturday and wanted to try making something with one. My first idea was a recipe called cauliflower cheese. Turns out it's just cauliflower and cheese, not exactly a well-rounded meal. Luckily Debbie (Deborah Madison, cookbook author) had a great recipe for pasta salad with cauliflower, sundried tomatoes, and a shallot-mustard vinaigrette. We decided to add in some leftover watercress and spinach and blue cheese crumbles. It was great as dinner and in cold lunch. The pasta was whole wheat, but with all that yummy stuff on it, I couldn't even tell.





Tonight we used our cheese, leek, and potatoes from the market, as well as these great brown eggs that someone sells at work to make a stellar fritatta. Our fritatta secret is this silicone quiche pan that you bake in the oven. We used to do fritattas in a frying pan, but none of our pans were broiler-safe and they would cook unevenly. Nothing worse than sitting down to a meal when you are still swearing about it. Now, all is happy in Fritatta Land.

While preparing dinner tonight, we found our forgotten broccoli rabe. Time has not been kind to it. Oops. Watch this space for what we end up doing with the stuff.

April 6, 2008

Mmmm... Rutabaga


I never ate rutabaga on purpose until the last few winters in Oregon when I tried to find local produce. Turns out it adds a delicious special something to a basic vegetable soup. Last night Max made a wonderful soup with homemade stock. We stockpile leek tops, parsley stems and other edible trimmings in the freezer until it's time to make soup again. (I don't suppose that's the origin of the word stockpile?)

The soup turned out great with all our market ingredients: potatoes, onions, carrots, kale, leeks, and of course the rutabagas. Homemade stock makes all the difference. Add a little bread and it makes a great meal.

This morning we used up some of last year's frozen strawberry mash on waffles with Nancy's yogurt. I was too lazy to make jam that summer, so I just smushed the berries up with a little sugar and froze them in jam jars. The flavor is still very summery.