sweet potato macaroni and cheese

I didn't get a photo of this dish since we made it at night and mac and cheese does not photograph well... However, it is worth posting the recipe because of how easy it was, and good. The leftovers also re-heated well. The recipe is adapted from Eating Well, Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese. I found their recipe made way too much sauce, so we ended up making an extra cup of noodles, which evened things out. The recipe below is adjusted for that. If you want to make a smaller batch, you could make 2 cups of the pasta, and reduce milk to 1 cup. Eating Well notes that the "bright orange color tricks your eyes into thinking this healthy macaroni and cheese recipe is loaded with cheese, but there’s actually only about half as much cheese as compared to a traditional recipe." So there you go, healthy, and winter comfort. And most macaroni dishes require baking the whole dish to set, but this one you just pop under the broiler. And it was creamy and delicious. If you have a baked sweet potato already, this comes together in under 30 minutes.

photo from Eating Well

ingredients: 
3 cups whole-wheat elbow noodles
1-2 medium sweet potatoes (depending on how large - there's room for error here)

2 cups milk (nonfat or 2%, whatever you have on hand)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs (homemade are best*)
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

(optional: 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed)

*Jessica taught me how to make breadcrumbs with the days-old bread rinds: pulse in food processor and store in freezer. 

get ready:

cookie sheet with foil

big pot for boiling noodles

saucepan for making cheese sauce

greased lasagne pan

1. Roast the sweet potatoes in the oven (wrapped in foil or on foil sheet, at 400 for about 45 mins) until soft when pierced through. (While you're doing this, you might want to make a few for the rest of the week.) This can be done in advance. 

2. Cook noodles according to package directions, about 7-9 minutes, and then drain and set aside. 

3. Whisk flour, milk, garlic in a saucepan. Heat until steaming but don't let it burn or boil. When sweet potato is cool, scoop out and add to milk mixture and puree using an immersion blender (or do it all in the blender). Be careful because it's a bit thick and splashes. Add cheese, mustard, salt and pepper and stir until combined. (And add peas if you wish.) Combine with the noodles, mix everything, and then pour into a greased lasagne-sized glass baking dish. 

4. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs and olive oil, and mix. Sprinkle on top of macaroni. Put under the broiler until crispy, 1-2 minutes. (Always watch the broiler!)

Brown Market Shares: Week 1 (+ recipe for penne with kale pesto)

Michael and I signed up for a weekly share of vegetables through a program at Brown called "Market Shares." It's like a CSA, but they work with multiple farms instead of just one. The program is only open to Brown students, faculty and staff and the pick-up is conveniently on campus. I was also super excited that they also had an option to sign up for a dairy and bread share. So we will be getting a loaf of bread each week from Seven Stars Bakery (as close as I will come to Ann Arbor's Zingermann's here), and cheese and yogurt from local Narragansett Creamery. This is this week's installment:  kale, leeks, collard greens, scallions, patty-pan squash, pea greens, apples, garlic. Yum yum. It's a lot of greens. Kale pesto pasta for dinner... (nothing fancy...just a quick and easy weeknight dinner...)


PENNE WITH KALE PESTO

ingredients:
1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
olive oil
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup, or more to your taste)

1. Pasta: Make pasta according to package directions for al dente (I used a whole wheat penne and it was about 9 minutes). When you drain, make sure to save about 1 cup of the liquid. 

2. Pesto: Remove the stems from the kale (trick: fold in half, hold on to leaves and rip step out with your other hand. This way you get all the tough fibers out and it's faster than using a knife). Chop roughly. In a blender or food processor, pulse garlic and pine nuts, then pulse in about 2/3 of kale and add some olive oil, maybe about 2-4 T total, depending on what you need to get it smooth. (I was using a blender, and so I also had to add in some of the pasta liquid to get it to puree nicely. A food processor would work better.) You should get a nice green mush.

When the pasta has about 1 more minute, drain the water and keep about 1 cup of it (I used some of this to blend the pesto). Add the noodles back in the pot, add the pesto plus the 1/3 of chopped kale. Add a bit more water if it's dry looking. Stir. Grate the cheese and stir into the pasta. If you let it sit a minute it will absorb some of the extra sauce and the chopped kale will wilt nicely into the penne.

Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with a little extra cheese. I like a little spice on my pasta, so I added in a sprinkle of red pepper flakes as well.

cheesy baked orzo with leeks, asparagus, eggplant and oregano

My somewhat crazy summer begins this week, as I head to Minnesota for a month. I get to see my friend Sarah get married in Duluth, take care of my parents' dog while they're on a trip, run Grandma's marathon with Michael and see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in Minneapolis. And spend the Fourth of July with the extended family. I'm really looking forward to some time at home. And after that I'm off to Germany, and then soon thereafter Providence, with a brief trip to North Carolina for Michael's family reunion. Quite a lot ahead - and somehow I have to be working along the way...

So last night I had a little potluck gathering to get friends together before I head out of town. Potlucks are my favorite. Especially when you have friends who are super talented cooks. Although it was a bit last-minute, people showed up and brought delicious food: a spicy vegetarian vindaloo, a rice pilaf, thai coleslaw, dulce de leche and a citrus champagne punch... It was really wonderful. Good food and good friends.

This recipe is inspired by the baked orzo from Yottam Ottolenghi (via the Guardian). I changed the veggies slightly to make it more seasonal (asparagus and leeks). It takes a while to do all the vegetable prep, but the flavors are great and it's both fresh and comforting.  I also made these sesame noodles (pictured above left) and an apple cake, which I will post later. I shouldn't even be taking the time to post this one right now... but blogging is so much more fun than packing for a month, cleaning my room, and organizing my office! :)

orzo salad with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and pine nuts

This salad transports well and is good for lunches and/or picnics.  It's also full of veggies and has lots of options for variation. Make the orzo according to package directions (about 1 cup dry). While it's cooking, sautee the mushrooms and toast the pine nuts. Either add onions/shallots in raw, or cook them with the mushrooms. Cut tomatoes in half. Roughly chop the spinach, add some lemon zest and mix everything together.

ingredients: whole wheat orzo pasta / shallots or red onion / mushrooms / spinach / pine nuts / cherry tomatoes / lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice
vinaigrette: dijon, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper
other options:  feta cheese / chopped olives / fresh basil / fresh tarragon

variations on a theme: spring pasta with peas and asparagus

I just made a pasta with peas recently, but this is a lighter version. No cream sauce - but added asparagus, mushrooms, parsley, pine nuts... It tastes so fresh and spring-like. And I loved how the conchiglie pasta held the pine nuts and peas inside. Yum. I think it would also be good cold as a pasta salad for lunch. Don't skip the toasted pine nuts, and don't skip toasting them. It's an extra pan and an extra step, but they are soo good!

for two hearty portions:
1/3 lb conchiglie pasta - or shells - you want it to catch the peas and pine nuts.
2 shallots
1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends snapped off and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup mushrooms, cut into quarters or slices
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/3 cup parmesan
1 tsp lemon zest
chopped parsley (and/or other herbs you have around: mint, tarragon, chives)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, minus 2 minutes. Drain and reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water.
Saute the shallots, then add garlic, and asparagus, then mushrooms, and frozen peas - waiting a few minutes between each addition. Then add all this into the pot with the drained pasta, plus 1/2 cup pasta liquid. Add lemon zest, herbs, toasted pine nuts, red pepper flakes. Cook everything together. Garnish with a heap of parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil if you like.

spring pea pasta with pancetta, spinach and shallots

This was dinner from my regular St. Olaf friends gathering. It's finals, the end of the semester, so we wanted a quicker, easier recipe. This one is delicious, and comes together quickly. Nicole brought an awesome salad and a grapefruit cake with candied violets on top. So pretty stellar for an "easy" mid-week meal, although a bit rich and indulgent. :)  It's easily made vegetarian by omitting the pancetta.

ingedients: shell pasta, peas (we had to use frozen rather than fresh because of this cold cold spring), spinach, pancetta, shallots, lemon, parmesan, half/half, mint or parsley. 

Boil the salted pasta water, add pasta (about 1/2 lb for 3 servings). When the pasta is done, strain and set aside.

While pasta is cooking, chop shallots, pancetta. Cook pancetta till near-crispy in a separate pan, then add the shallot to soften.

Zest 1/2 lemon and 1 c parmesan.  Roughly chop spinach leaves and mint or parsley for garnish.


Melt some butter in the (emptied) pasta pot, then add 1 cup half/half (or cream). Let it simmer and reduce a bit. Add peas to let them cook. Then add shells back in, plus zest, parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix together, add pancetta and shallots back in, with spinach, just to get it wilted. Top with mint and an extra shaving of cheese. 

Garlicky Sage-Parsley Chickpeas and Pasta with Gruyere

The combination of chickpeas and pasta sounded weird to me at first, but the fresh herbs, red pepper flakes, garlic and a bit of gruyère cheese make this a really delicious - and super quick - lunch. If you haven't yet, listen to the latest show of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me while you cook. It has a food theme and has some really amusing moments. We especially enjoyed the White House Chef Sam Kass (apparently the President has to pay for his own groceries?), and skipped over Paula Deen ("no honey, i just wanted to be a wife and a mama")...

frohes Neues! happy new year!

I have decided to start the new year off with -- like so many of us -- some new goals and the best of intentions of keeping them. Cooking is one of my true joys in life, bringing balance to my life and making me healthier and happier. So why not start documenting some of the meals worth documenting?

I got several new cookbooks for Christmas and can't wait to cook my way through them. I'm mostly a follow-the-recipe cook, inspired by some of my favorite cookbook authors and bloggers (see the list in the sidebar). I try to incorporate seasonal and local ingredients, and am a member of a CSA, which forces me to eat more vegetables.

Oh, and the name of the blog? Zweites Frühstück. In Germany after your early "first breakfast" there is sometimes a second...what we might call a "mid-morning snack." It's for people who get up early and are so productive they're hungry before lunch. :) I love how some cultures have these other meal traditions...in Germany it's not only the second breakfast but also the mid-afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen, one of my favorite things about that country which has become a second home to me. So aside from the cookbooks I read like novels before bed, and the recipes I find online or from friends, my cooking is also inspired by my time spent abroad and the meals I've had there.

I hope you enjoy!

K.