Category Archives: Food

New flavor

A couple of weeks ago, I made my inaugural visit to Penzeys Spices, a chain that happens to have a location here in St. Louis.  I prefer to buy most of my spices and herbs at Golden Grocer, a small, locally owned, natural foods store that sells a variety of spices and herbs in bulk.

I favor this option because 1) bulk containers mean I can bring my own bags (plastic, yes, but I’m reusing them) and then fill my glass spice jars at home; 2) I can buy a 2-3 month supply and avoid buying a too-large amount of some obscure seasoning that turn to sawdust long before I use it; and 3) I haven’t done any official price comparisons, but I’m pretty sure I come out ahead financially with this option compared to buying prepackaged jars in a regular store.

Anyway, over the past couple of years, we’ve heard good things about,  and seen some interesting recipes featuring, smoked paprika (which Golden Grocer does not carry).  When we found ourselves in the neighborhood of Penzeys after a visit to the Maplewood Winter Market, we walked on over to investigate.  We came out with smoked paprika, szechuan peppercorns, and one other item that I don’t remember right now.

Sadly, Penzeys does not have bulk containers that you can use to fill your own bags, so we left with some unnecessary packaging.  We asked the cashier if they had ever considered offering bulk jars, and she acted like it would be nigh unto impossible.  Sigh.

Anyhow, we put the Szechuan pepper to use as soon as we got home, incorporating it into our lunch stir-fry.  We were enjoying the flavor, until, a few bites into our meal, we noticed that we couldn’t really feel our tongues.  It wasn’t that it was spicy hot, it just had this disconcerting effect.  Apparently this is a “normal” effect of this pepper.  We ended up picking out most of the peppercorns because the tingly numbness was just weird and made the dish less enjoyable.  I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing with the remaining 4 oz. of the pepper.

Later that same week, I experimented with the smoked paprika.  I made a super simple smoked paprika cream sauce as a topping for polenta with sauteed mushrooms and asparagus.

To make the cream sauce, I toasted the smoked paprika (~2 t.) in a bit of olive oil on the stove top — about 5 minutes on low heat.  Then I whisked in a half cup of cream and left it on the heat until just warmed.  I added salt to taste.

The result?  Delicious!  I resisted the temptation to eat the smoked paprika cream sauce by the spoonful (well, mostly resisted), because it went fabulously with the mushrooms and polenta.  This sauce would taste good on a variety of things — pasta, scrambled eggs, other veggies — let the experimenting begin!

The photo evidence of my creation suffered from poor light conditions — I’m sharing anyway, but be forewarned, the photo does NOT do justice to the deliciousness.


Retrospective menu

I fell off the cooking wagon for a couple of weeks, but I got back in the swing of things last Thursday night with — hmm, now I can’t quite remember.  Ah, right, lentil sloppy joes.  And I roasted some broccoli and cauliflower for a side dish — delicious fresh out of the oven, but not so great as leftovers.

I opened a jar of our canned tomatoes for the sloppy joes.  I saved some of the tomatoes and used them to make County Vegetable Soup with Pasta on Friday night.  This recipe comes pretty close to what I made — the main difference is that my recipe calls for pesto as a garnish.  Also, I used whole wheat shells for the pasta, which I cooked separately and added to the bowls when serving to keep them from getting mushy.

I love sitting down to dinner and doing a tally of all the garden and local produce in the meal.  The soup was a great one for this: the leeks, carrots, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, and basil for the pesto came from our garden, and the cabbage was locally grown (we didn’t have much luck growing cabbage this fall).  This is a wonderful soup — really hearty and flavorful — perfect for these frigid days.

On Saturday night, I found my cheesy side with a baked macaroni and cheese dish (recipe from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes, our go-to cookbook).  On the side, a serving of steamed, grated beets with butter and salt, as well as a small roasted beet salad.

I finished my cooking spree with Swiss Chard risotto on Sunday night.  Instead of arborio rice, I used oat groats.  Instead of the normal time-intensive risotto procedure of adding small amounts of broth at a time while stirring almost continuously for an hour, I added the liquid in two installments and simmered it with minimal stirring.  The oat groats produced a creamy, hearty risotto, which I paired with roasted root vegetables (garden potatoes and beets, plus local sweet potatoes).  Risotto recipe coming soon, once I get it out of my head and into the computer — which I hope occurs before I forget what I did 😉

Y not?

So, after hem hawing around for a couple of weeks, or more like a month, given the date on this post, I finally bit the bullet and [re]joined the Y yesterday.  This involved some serious bundling before the 3/4 mile trek from my apartment.  The conditions were about as blizzard-like as things can get with only an inch of snow — the wind was doing its best given the paltry amount of precipitation available.

Properly dressed, the walk wasn’t bad at all, and I probably spent less time outside than some people spent scraping their cars.

I made immediate use of my new membership with about an hour of weights, upper and lower body.  My goal is to hit the gym three days a week — Fridays, Sundays, and one weekday evening.

I returned home to lunch #2 (I ate a small snack, AKA lunch #1, before the gym), leftovers of a fabulous soup that I made on Friday night.  After a bit of a cooking hiatus, I’m back in the swing in the kitchen — more details to come, including a recipe or two.

Sprouted

We didn’t grow spaghetti squash this year, so I bought a couple of small ones at the farmers’ market several weeks ago.  They’ve been sitting on the counter, waiting to be used.

I’ve been eating A LOT of pasta lately, so in an effort to mix things up a bit, I decided to prepare a spaghetti squash.  I cut into it, and was surprised to see that the seeds had sprouted.

Since many types of sprouts are quite tasty, I tried one — ick!  Very bitter.  Fortunately, the squash itself was fine.  I just scraped out the sprouts along with the seeds, and proceeded with the prep:

  • Cut in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
  • Place cut side down in a glass dish with about an inch of water.
  • Microwave for 10-12 minutes, or until squash is tender.
  • Let cool slightly, then use a fork to scrape out the spaghetti-like strands.
  • Season to taste with olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs of your choice.
  • Also good topped with olives or capers.

No tofurky? No problem.

I have never purchased a tofurky, but I have sampled this interesting creation at potlucks, and I did make a homemade “tofu turkey” a few years ago.  It was rather delicious, but it also required quite a bit of work, and with so many other delicious vegetarian options out there, I have not attempted to recreate it.

Whether you’re celebrating a meat-free meal this year, or just need inspiration for some healthy, tasty side dishes, check out this tantalizing plethora of recipes at Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving.  Treehugger has some additional offerings here.

If you are doing the turkey thing (or any kind of meat), look for locally raised, pastured birds.  In St. Louis, I know of two sources: Local Harvest Grocery and Fresh Gatherings Cafe.  While it is probably too late to preorder a bird for this Thursday, there’s always Christmas and next year to consider.