moroccan-style quinoa with chickpeas and chard

This seemed like a good make-after-breakfast-and-bring-for-lunch salad...however, it's very very hot today. So I will now need to go for a swim before heading to the office for the day. Literally sweating over a hot stove, as the expression goes. I need to get more no-cook recipes to survive the end of August (oops - that's coming up pretty quickly... I mean the end-of-summer heat, which looks like it's extending into September).

ingredients:
oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
1-2 carrots, peeled and cut in small dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/ tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-1 cup quinoa, rinsed (depending if you want this to be slightly larger)
1 1/2 cups broth (or water)*
3/4 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed (or whole can)
2 T golden raisins
salt and pepper
6 ounces kale, stemmed and chopped (or chard)
2 T pine nuts, toasted
1/4 tsp lemon zest plus 1 tsp juice
2 T crumbled feta cheese (which I didn't have...but would be delicious!)
fresh herbs to garnish (mint, cilantro, and/or thyme)

*use slightly less liquid if using chard (releases more water), and err on the conservative side. it's easy to add a bit more water while cooking, but a bit of a mess if you end up with too much water

instructions:
1. Heat oil in a saucepan over med-high, add onion and carrot, cook 5 minutes (until onion softens). Add garlic, coriander, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant (30 seconds). Add quinoa and cook, stirring, until toasted and aromatic, about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in water/broth, chickpeas, raisins, and 1/8 tsp salt. Place kale on top, and bring to simmer, cover, reduce to low, and simmer until quinoa is cooked (about 15 minutes). Off heat, gently stir in pine nuts, lemon zest, and juice, and sprinkle with feta, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.  I also garnished with a bit of fresh mint and thyme.

recipe from Cooking for Two, from Cook's Illustrated

chicken with roasted tomatoes

Ooh, this is a good one. Very easy, 30-40 min prep/cooking time, and amazing flavors. It's the end of summer tomato season! Celebrate it! :)

ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds cherry tomatoes
olive oil
2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
salt and pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or red wine
herbs to garnish

1. Tomatoes: Heat oven to 450 F. Cut tomatoes in half and combine with 2 T olive oil and herbes de Provence in a bowl, salt and pepper, toss, and lay out on a cookie sheet in the oven to roast. They will soften and start to brown and caramelize (about 20-25 minutes).

2. Chicken: Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat 2 T oil in an ovenproof skillet. Brown the chicken on both sides, about 6-8 minutes, over med-high heat. Then put in oven and cook 8-10 minutes. Remove to a plate or cutting board and let rest, covered in foil, at least 5 minutes.

3. Sauce: In the chicken skillet, add 1 T more oil, then add shallot and garlic. Stir 1 minute, then deglaze the pan with some red wine or red wine vinegar. Add the tomatoes in at this point and stir the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chicken in slices with the tomato sauce on top and a nice green salad on the side.

inspired by a recipe from Bon Appetit: Chicken with Herb-Roasted Tomatoes

summer vegetable pie with cornbread topping

I'm back in Ann Arbor just for a week, working during the new student orientation and getting some of my work in order. While I'm here I'm staying with two good friends of mine who are also great cooking companions (I've mentioned them a few times...). And they have a great summer CSA share, which is a plus. :) We got home from the airport and the fridge was stocked with veggies waiting to be transformed. We made this vegetable pie with lots of summer vegetables they had on hand. It would work with many other combinations though. Just be careful with the spice - if you add in hot peppers don't add in much other spiciness.

filling:
1 T olive oil
1 pepper (or poblano chile)
1 hot pepper (like jalapeno, if not using poblano)
1/2 red onion (or shallot)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 med yellow summer squash (or zucchini)
1 small eggplant
2 fresh tomatoes, cubed (or can diced)
1 tsp chili powder (if not using hot pepper)

other ideas: 1 ear corn, kernels cut from cob, fresh cilantro

cornbread topping*: 

1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 T sugar (or 2 T honey)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 T unsalted butter
*may want to double, especially if using 10-inch skillet

1. Preheat oven to 450. In an ovenproof skillet (8 or 10 inch), saute the onion and peppers, then add garlic and cook until soft. Add the rest of the vegetables and cook until they cook down  and get soft. I covered them for a while and checked them occasionally while prepping the cornbread. Salt and pepper to taste, watch the spice level.

2. Make the cornbread. Mix the wet and dry separately, (not butter yet), then add wet to the dry, and stir in melted butter last.

3. Pour the cornbread mixture over the top of the vegetables and put in the oven 12-15 minutes. The cornbread will brown slightly.

inspired by a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, Cooking for Two

barley salad with cherries, pecans, blue cheese and greens

I have been really excited to organize my new pantry, and put everything neatly in jars and start building up my bulk foods pantry. I really like making whole grain salads, and so I like having things like farro, barley, quinoa on hand. I made this for lunch the other day and Michael was raving about it. It's a really good combination of flavors and textures. It also keeps really well. Keep the salad greens separate, and then you can just mix the barley mixture with the fresh greens when you're ready to eat so they don't get soggy.

2 cups cooked pearl barley
1/2 lemon, squeezed
1/4 cup roughly chopped toasted pecans
2 cups salad greens (mixed or arugula)
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped red onion (or shallot), rinse if you don't want a strong onion taste
2 tablespoons blue cheese crumbles

This recipe is from Whole Foods, Lunch-in-a-Jar

Providence Farmer's Market at Lippitt Park

Saturday Michael and I checked out the nearest Providence Farmer's Market, on Hope St at Lippitt Park (Sat 9-1, Wed 3-6). It is in a nice park with a fountain and there were lots of people. The weather was also perfect for lounging around, walking through the stands and getting some lunch.

I have to say I have been very, very spoiled in Ann Arbor as far as markets are concerned. The Ann Arbor farmer's market is really a community meeting place, and lots of people bike or walk there because it is so centrally located. Providence is maybe a little too big to have that same community feeling. Ann Arbor is also much smaller and denser, with many students and faculty living in a 2-mile radius of the (relatively flat) city. In Providence there is Downtown (which they call "downcity"), and there is College Hill, where Brown's campus is (separated from downtown by a very large, steep hill), and the East Side, and a river and then East Providence...so the city has very distinct neighborhoods. We don't even venture over to the West Side or Federal Hill (on the other side of downtown) very often. Which we should do this year...

Anyways, the nearest market is about a two mile bike ride. The weather was great Saturday morning and we went around noon, so we could get some lunch there as well. We got amazing tacos from one of the stands. from Tallulah's Tacos (they have a store on Thames in Newport, RI). I was a little disappointed by the produce selection at the market in general. But there were lots of fruits and tomatoes, and things that you don't find in the midwest like fish and shellfish. Just not the best looking greens, and I didn't see any herbs or plants. I will have to go back again, and see what they have when the weather starts to get cooler, too.

Just saw that this upcoming week is "bike to the market week". I liked their logo. :)

bagel bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella

This morning Michael and I went on a 36-mile bike ride down the East Bay Bike Path, from Providence to Bristol, Rhode Island. It's one of those rails-to-trails paths, so it's very flat and easy, with little cross traffic. The scenery was gorgeous: salt marshes, forest, harbors full of boats, mansions along the coast... On the way back we stopped in the cute little town of Warren, RI for a lobster roll. But we were still hungry when we got home and needed a fresh, summery snack. This tomato salad would be good on its own as well, especially with some fresh basil (which I unfortunately didn't have on-hand). 

Instructions: Toast bagels and rub the toasted side with a (peeled) clove of garlic. Top with tomato-mozzarella salad.

Tomato-mozzarella salad: dice a few tomatoes of different colors, squeeze with half a lemon, drizzle some olive oil, and add a little salt and pepper. would also be good with fresh basil. 

We saved the extra dressing from the bottom of the bowl to make salad dressing. It's a beautiful tomato-lemon-olive oil mixture. 

couscous with broccolini and spiced chicken sausage

This recipe is proof we are up and running in the new apartment - the gas stove and all. I made this dinner by first cooking and browning the chicken sausage, then making the couscous, throwing the broccolini in at the end to steam the last few minutes, and mixing it all together. Pretty quick and easy and lots of good flavors, which mostly came from the really good sausage. I got the chicken sausages from the meat counter at Whole Foods, one garlic and herb, and one spicy italian. They were uncooked, so I first cooked them, then removed them from the pan to the cutting board, sliced them and put them back in the pan to brown.

2 chicken sausages (uncooked or cooked), use 1 spicy and 1 milder
1 bunch broccolini
1 cup Israeli couscous (I used a blend, like the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend, which has quinoa and orzo mixed in)
season with a bit more salt and pepper

I thought the recipe would be good with some tomatoes mixed in, too. If it's summer, use fresh, or maybe even a can of diced tomatoes.

a very green no-cook meal for your first meal in a new apartment

Yesterday we moved into our new apartment in Providence. It was a lot of work, first moving down from a second-story apartment with very narrow, steep stairs, into a third-floor apartment. Every muscle in my body is aching today... People really should just offer to help random strangers move instead of going to the gym. :) Luckily we had the help of a friend, which made things go much faster.

So anyways, we did eventually get hungry, in the middle of our afternoon/evening of unpacking and organizing. One great thing about this apartment is that it's 2-3 blocks from the grocery store, so it's really easy to run out and get something. I was going to make a warm meal, but it turns out that our gas is not turned on yet. I went and knocked on some doors in the building to make sure we were doing it right...and got to meet a super friendly man who lives downstairs. He brought up matches and confirmed what we already thought: no gas flow yet. So... it had to be a cold meal. I ran out and got a good loaf of bread, avocado, and the ingredients for a simple green salad. I threw dinner together while Michael put the table together so we could sit down and eat.

It ended up being a very green meal and was just the thing for a hot summer night. We ate the salad with olive bread from Seven Stars Bakery in Providence, with avocado slices and a sprinkling of Maldon salt. (This is one of my easy favorites.) Oh, and full disclosure: to keep things super classy I got some chicken wings from the hot bar at Whole Foods to have with our healthy dinner. :)

Green Salad with Mango and Mozzarella
salad greens
mango, diced
fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces or cubed
squeeze of lemon
dash of extra virgin olive oil
grind of fresh pepper

ode to produce: radishes

I took this photo in Neuf-Brisach, France at the market in July. I thought these (what we call) French breakfast radishes looked so beautiful. I don't have much time to cook or post recipes at the moment (just drove 800+ miles from Ann Arbor to Providence yesterday, and heading to Charlotte, NC for a family reunion today), but I thought I would post some photos and links. This one is dedicated to the radish. When I was in Freiburg with my mom this summer, we had a drink at the Feierling Biergarten a few nights. The first night, we had already eaten and were just there for a beer/wine, we saw a plate come out of the kitchen with thinly-shaved radishes that looked like flowers. It was so beautiful. They were cut so they twirled and unfolded on top of each other in a pile, and were served with buttered bread (Radi mit Butterbrot). Yum. A few nights later, when we returned and tried to order this, they were out. My only regret of the trip.

I found a site online where it says (especially Bavarian) Biergartens have a special tool to cut them into spirals. Here is a link to a photo, but it's a white radish, and the one we saw had a gorgeous red-pink border. And here's a link to the special tool they use to do it...which does, admittedly, take the magic out, but I just had  to find out how they do it!

a radish recipe from this blog:  Radish and Pecan Farro Salad

and from another favorite from 101 cookbooks (I love the garlic in this one...):
Buttermilk Farro Salad

A radish salad I would like to try from My New Roots:
Triple Radish Noodle Salad

Anyone else a fan of radishes? Any favorite recipes?

for dinner: turkey-arugula sliders with three sisters succotash

These are some more recipes I ripped out of my magazines while traveling last month... and my second night of cooking in a row! woo-hoo! :) Feels good. Except I put in a long day at the office, and by the time I got groceries, came home and started cooking dinner, I just had to have a bagel with lots of avocado on top before cooking... nearly spoiling my appetite for this veggie goodness. Oh well. I'm on the right track...

Three Sisters Succotash (green beans, corn, summer squash)
12 oz green beans, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
2 large ears corn, husked
2 T olive oil

1 T butter*
2 small summer squash or zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
fresh ground pepper
2 scallions, finely chopped (or shallot, or onion)
*vegan if you sub oil for butter

1. Place beans in a large saucepan, add water to cover, salt, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook 10-15 minutes until firm but starting to get tender. D

2. While beans are cooking, cut corn kernels from the cobs. Place an ear in a bowl and use a small sharp knife to cut off the kernels. Then scrape the cob with the back of the knife, scraping the corn "milk" into the bowl.

3. When beans are done, drain off water, saving some of the liquid (about 2 T). Add the corn and squash/zucchini to pot, with a little butter. (If using shallot or onions, add them at this point, too). Cook until the corn and squash are tender, 8-12 minutes. Cover if you need to, or add a bit more liquid. Season with salt and pepper, top with scallions.

From a recipe by Ronni Lundy in Eating Well (author of Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens )

produce from the Ann Arbor Wednesday farmer's market!

These Turkey Sliders are nothing special, but it rounded out the meal in a good way, adding a little protein. I ate them like meatballs without the bread, but Bon Appetit suggests serving them with little buns and red onion.

1/4 bunch flat-leaf spinach (I used arugula), chopped, about 2 cups
4 scallions, thinly sliced (or shallot or onion)
1-2 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic...)
1/2 lb ground turkey
3/4 tsp cumin
salt, pepper
oil, for frying

Combine spinach/arugula, scallions/onion, garlic, turkey, cumin in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Using a fork, mix gently just to combine. Form into 6-8 patties about 1/2 inch thick. Heat oil in a large skillet, cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. These would also be good served with guacamole.

fresh summer farro with peaches, cucumber and arugula

I hate to start all these posts with apologies... Summer is just not my time for blogging. Since the chocolate cake only a week has gone by, and I've been up through all of Michigan, via the UP to Duluth for a cousin's wedding and a triathlon, to Minneapolis for a Twin's game and some sister time, and back to Ann Arbor through Madison and Chicago. Whew. All in the company of two good friends. But still - the road tripping gets a bit old. Yesterday we were in the car over 12 hours, and the total over the last five days probably comes closer to 30 hours...so I couldn't wait to be "home" (one of many at the moment...) and cook, even if it's just for a week before the next leg of my crazy summer starts up.

This recipe does just the trick...it felt like a cleanse after some eating on the road and lots of eating out the last week. It's very fresh and summery tasting because of the lemon-ginger-mint dressing, and the water-packed cucumbers and peaches. Yum yum.

ingredients:
1 medium cucumber, diced
1 cup farro (uncooked)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 T olive oil
1 T grated fresh ginger
3 firm but ripe peaches (or nectarines), diced
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chopped mint
3 cups arugula, coarsely chopped

1. Toss diced cucumber in a bowl with some salt, let stand at room temp 1 hour. Rinse, then drain in a sieve.
2. Combine 2 cups water with farro, bring to a boil then simmer 15 mins. (Keep an eye on it - all sorts tend to cook at varying rates and you don't want it too mushy). Fluff and spread out on a plate or a baking sheet to let it cool.
3. Whisk lemon juice, oil, ginger, 1/4 tsp salt in a bowl. Add cucumber, farro, peaches, sunflower seeds, mint, mix well. Refrigerate about 30 minutes (up to 1 day) to let flavors develop.
4. Before serving, add arugula and toss.

based on a recipe from eating well magazine (Red Rice Salad with Peaches and Cucumber)