Homemade Scallion Pancakes

I'm not sure when it happened, but we recently became obsessed with scallion pancakes. What's not to like about crispy, flaky fried dough, mild onion flavor, and a savory dipping sauce? Every time we see them on a menu, whether served traditionally or in sandwich form, we have to order them. Nick and I finally decided to research how to make them at home, and one of Boston's favorites, Joanne Chang, has a recipe online that is not too difficult to follow - perfect!

Scallion Pancakes

Sweet Potato and Kale Pizza

Sometimes I find a bunch of random things in my kitchen, and the best thing to make them come together is pizza!  Tonight was one of those nights: we had kale, onions, brussel sprouts, and sweet potatoes on hand.  Through in some dough and cheese and you have a pretty hearty and flavorful dish.

Pizza!

Preparation was pretty easy for this pizza.  I first sliced the sweet potatoes and onions and tossed them with salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil to prep them for roasting.

An attempt at brussel sprouts...

Brussel sprouts are one of the foods that I believe to be an acquired taste.  It was something I never had growing up because my mother hates them.  Nick, however, loves brussel sprouts - seriously, one of his favorites.  The first time I tried them was at Craigie on Main.  There, the brussel sprouts were roasted in duck fat - I mean, if there was ever a time to try them, it was there.  Sure enough they were super tasty.  My favorite?  No, but definitely something I would have again.

Trying to be the good fiance that all significant others strive for, I decided to attempt brussel sprouts at home as a nice side to some the frozen pre-seasoned fish from Whole Foods that I love so much.  Lets just say, I did not enjoy these as much as I hoped.  They were good, but I just need more crunch to my brussel sprouts.  Maybe roasting is a better option.

Roasted Veggie Salad with Lime Tahini Dressing

Like a lot of people, when it's time to cook dinner we often have a few ingredients on hand that will determine the direction of the meal.  As an example, I recently had some sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts at home, and using Gojee I found delicious inspiration for a modified salad that would be perfect for dinner.

Roasted Veggie Salad

Roasted Veggie Salad - The Necessities (adapted from Bitchin' Camero)

Mexican Pizza!

Sometimes I am not sure where inspiration comes from.  This recipe, however, started because I thought it would be a great idea to buy some pizza dough from Russo's in Watertown, which by the way is the most amazing place ever!  We rarely cook pizza at home, but we had recently visited Nick's grandfather, who is famous for his pizza, and I guess it got me thinking about attempting it at home myself.

The Ingredients

Wanting to switch things up a bit, I used the black beans we had in our cupboard and decided to try a Mexican Pizza.

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry

After the Maldivian Cooking Class, I was excited to put what I learned to good use and give a good curry dish a go.  Williams-Sonoma has great recipes (and needless to say I have been there quite a bit doing some registry close out!), and after a bit of searching I found this Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry that more than fit the bill.

My First Curry Dish

Recipe Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Attempt #2 at Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts are not something I had growing up because my mom was not a fan.  However, Nick is a BIG fan of brussel sprouts so I have been trying to figure out a way to cook them at home where we both enjoy them.  My first attempt at brussel sprouts was not super successful in my book - Nick liked them though, which counts for something!  So after getting some great feedback in the comments of that blog post, I now have a little treasure trove of tricks and recipes to play with.

While out shopping at Whole Foods I saw brussel sprouts that they were selling straight from the stalk!  I had never thought about where they come from before, and it seemed a bit odd but did make sense.  Next to the big stalk were bundles of brussel sprouts that were a bit smaller in size, a bit more manageable and, in my opinion, the perfect size for my next attempt at brussel sprouts.

Smaller Brussel Sprouts!

A Rustic Potato and Onion Tartlet

Like I said, we have been getting tons of potatoes in our CSA, and rather than just making mashed potatoes over and over again (even though they are so good!) we have been trying to be creative.  When Nick said he found a recipe for a Rustic Potato and Caramelized Onion Tart I was completely sold and could not wait for dinner!

Dinner is served!

This recipe had a lot of moving parts going on...

Corn and Potato Chowder

For a while in our CSA we were getting more corn and potatoes than we knew what to do with!  I know I shouldn't complain, but when you have 8 ears of corn and 15 potatoes and only 2 people, something needs to be done.  So turning to Gojee, I plugged in the vegetables I had on hand and stumbled upon this corn and potato chowder that looked relatively light and pretty simple to make.

Potato and Corn Chowder

I set out all of ingredients and hoped it would all turn out OK.  While it was not too difficult, there were quite a few ingredients involved.

The Ingredients

Over-Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Another Meatless Monday meant having to come up with something creative for dinner.  I had four large portabello mushrooms on hand and Nick had ripped a Cheese-Stuffed Portobello recipe out of an old issue of Food Network Magazine - perfect!  Based on some of the CSA veggies we had on hand, I adapted the recipe a bit.

The Ingredients

Fresh Mozzarella and Roasted Kohlrabi Crostini

We have been getting our CSA share for three weeks now, and each week we have gotten kohlrabi (German turnip).  Having never seen this veggie before both Nick and I were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it!  While we have read that you can eat it raw (and tried it, in coleslaw) we wanted to do something a bit more with it.  Nick looked around on Gojee and found a recipe that sounded too good not to try!

Kohlrabi - so Bizarre!

Ina's Szechuan Noodles with Snap Peas

Another meatless Monday means attempting to come up with a tasty meal to make us forget that it is indeed meatless!  This time Nick was in charge and he naturally went to Ina Garten for help and found Szechuan Noodles.  Sounding delicious, he went for it.  It involved a lot of ingredients but luckily we had a lot of them on hand, and the recipe couldn't have been easier to pull together.

The Necessities....

• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup good soy sauce
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil
• 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned - since I hate peppers Nick swapped this one out for peas
• 1 yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 4 scallions, sliced diagonally (white and green parts)

The Ingredients

"Panzanella" Salad - a great weekday go-to for any season

Panzanella Salad is something that Nick got me into when he and I started dating.  When we would make a salad to go with dinner at home, every time the meal ended and we were just sitting and talking we always picked around the lettuce and went straight for the croutons, carrots and cucumbers (who needs dessert?!)  After awhile, Nick enlightened me by introducing me to salads made without lettuce - who knew?  Turns out, he was well versed in the Panzanella salad universe because he made these quite a bit in college.  Overtime, this has become one of our go-to dishes when we want a light but satisfying meal.

Almost Ready!

Traditional Panzanella salad has stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper - if the Italians were feeling crazy they would add onions and basil.  I've also seen recipes with raw bell peppers.  Not being a fan of a lot of these ingredients, we just basically took the idea of stale bread and a lettuce-free salad and ran with it!

Ricotta-Spinach Tacos - A Taco of a Different Color

Marathon Meatless Monday was upon us, and since I unfortunately do not get the day off, Nick was willing to step in and find a new recipe, shop and cook all on his day off - I am a lucky girl!  Meatless Mondays can be tough just because it really does force you to look outside your comfort zone for meals.  Not really having a go-to meat or fish protein to serve as the base of your meal makes it difficult to narrow down where to even start!  Luckily, Nick keeps a giant binder of recipes that he's either printed out online or found in old magazines.  Inside, he found a recipe for Ricotta Spinach Tacos from an old Food Network Magazine, so we were good to go.

The Necessities...

• 8 ounces of ricotta
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 white onion sliced into 1/2 inch thick rings
• 2 4-ounce cans sliced green chile peppers, drained
• 2 bunches of fresh spinach (about 1 pound) stemmed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 8-12 corn tortillas
• Kosher Salt
• Salsa Verde for serving

First step (as always in the In and Around Town household), the ingredients were prepped.

Sliced onion

An experiment with quinoa...

We're always looking for vegetarian inspiration: pasta and other "staples" can get a bit boring.  When I saw the recipe for quinoa veggie-balls on the Small Boston Kitchen (if you are not following it, you should be!) I bookmarked it for later, and later happened to be the most recent Meatless Monday!

I have not had or cooked with quinoa yet, so I was excited to see what all the hype was about.  I mean, nutritiously-speaking, it puts other grains to shame.  I was hoping I was going to really like this!

The Necessities...

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 6 large button mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• 1/2 bag of fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
• 1/4 cup onions, diced
• 2 teaspoon pine nuts
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Ingredients...

Baked Black Bean Buritto - healthy with a kick

Most of the time I find it hard enough to cook on Monday nights, but coming up with a new and creative meatless recipe can make a Monday meal even more difficult! Lucky for me, this was another edition of Nick Cooks!

Nick found a burrito recipe that actually looked quick and healthy and seemed to have some good heat - even better.

The Necessities...

• 1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
• 1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
• 4 (8-inch) flour tortillas
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup bottled salsa
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

The Ingredients

Lemon Pasta

Another Meatless Monday means another Monday spent trying to find a somewhat creative recipe.  Just when I thought I was going to have to dig around a bit, I remembered my neighbor had passed along a nice recipe a while back for Lemon Angel Hair Pasta, so I went for it.

Another Successful Meatless Monday

Burgers for Meatless Monday?!?

While Meatless Monday this week is being sacrificed in the name of St. Valentine, I have a bit of a back log, so last week's Meatless Monday adventure works for me!

Once again, Yum Sugar has proven to be super helpful in finding creative meals for Meatless Monday, fit even for the cold winter evenings we have been having.  Being a huge fan of "real-deal" meaty burgers, I generally avoid imitations - they're just NOT real burgers!  In an effort to stay true to my reasons behind Meatless Monday, I decided it was about time to see what these "burgers" were all about and decided on this Black Bean Burger, which was adapted from Gourmet.  I went for this recipe because it seemed to have a juicy, hearty look to it, and I wanted something with a good bite (also, I'm a sucker for a good recipe picture.)

Black Bean Burger

The Necessities...

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 (14-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup plain dry bread crumbs
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 soft hamburger buns
sour cream, salsa, guacamole, lettuce, for serving

Upon reading the reviews of this dish I learned that the key to having the ingredients stick together was to make sure the beans were washed and dried thoroughly - otherwise, you are left with a crumbled mess.  I must say, this was really helpful because I think I would have just washed and added the beans.  Having read up on this, I washed the beans and let them sit for awhile then I took a couple of paper towels and patted them dry.  While I did not compare dry to wet beans, my burgers stuck together, so something worked!  Another note about the beans: while I bought BLACK beans (the cans were clearly labeled as such - Nick even verified!), what came out definitely looked like red beans. I am not sure how this happened but I still went for it.

"Black" Beans

While the beans were drying, I chopped up the onion, cilantro, and jalapeno.  I first allowed the onion to saute in olive oil for about 5 minutes, and then added the jalapeno and allowed the mixture to cook for another couple of minutes.  Finally, I added a bit of the already prepared minced garlic and stirred and sauteed for another 2 minutes. 

In a larger mixing bowl, I combined the bread crumbs, spices, and cilantro.  While the recipe did not indicate either way, I used Panko breadcrumbs because the only regular ones I had on hand were Italian seasoned, which wouldn't have been the right flavor for this dish.  This dish had a surprising number of spices, which I figured would provide a lot of much-needed flavor.  Obviously I was worried about what these "burgers" would taste like!   

Dry Ingredients

I added the dried beans to the dry ingredients and also added the sauteed onions, jalapenos and garlic to the bowl.

All the components

The next step was fun: mashing it all together.  While the recipe said to use your hands, I tried using a pastry blender, but realized that it was not really helping.  It turns out my hands really were the best tool!  I mashed the components together until it formed more of paste, then broke it up into 4 equal parts that resulted in 1/2 inch thick patties. 

"Burger" Patties

In a saute pan with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil I cooked the burgers - about 3 minutes per side.  The recipe said to cook for a total of 5 minutes or until the outsides were crisp and a light brown, but I will tell you it was really hard to tell!  I ended up cooking them for an extra couple of minutes.  Also, these things sucked up the oil really quickly - be careful not to burn them.

Almost a "Burger"

I bought some bakery-style burger buns and toasted them in the oven while the burgers were cooking, trying to give the authentic burger feel.  For toppings I used salsa, guacamole and sour cream - or, I should say, Nick used the sour cream as that falls into my "ewww" category.

The Black Bean Burger

I was pretty impressed with the results.  In my opinion, this is in no way a replacement for my beloved beef burgers, but definitely a great dish - even with suspect "black" beans.  The burger had loads of flavor and stuck together really well.  It did satisfy that burger urge while really skimping on the calories.  I should have gone for a smaller bun as these were a little overwhelming, but still good.  The toppings made everything come together and left me completely satisfied.  This is an easy weeknight dish with components you generally have on hand, and one that I would totally recommend.

Martha's Mac and Cheese, Take 2

Last night, in the middle of yet another snow storm, I wanted to come home and have easy comfort food, and I had the perfect dish in mind - Mac and Cheese.  This is not any old mac and cheese, but rather, Martha's favorite Mac and Cheese.  Even more, I attempted to make this for Nick the second time I made dinner for him when we first started dating, and lets just say it was not a complete success.  I had a number of issues, the main one being that I did not have a pan large enough for the cheese sauce, which resulted in my having to use two pans and the sauce never thickening.  Luckily it was mac and cheese, and as long as you have noodles and cheese it will come out of the oven tasting OK.  So, I was ready to give this recipe a go again.  This time was way better!

Good enough to eat!

The necessities...

Vegan Peanut Noodles - and they are GOOD

In our second week of Meatless Monday I had Nick take over.  As I have said before, part of the reason I actually started to work on my culinary skills is because Nick actually has major skills in the kitchen and exercises them often.  This was actually one the first dishes he made for me when we started dating. 

One of his good friends used to be vegan and passed along this recipe.  When he told me about it I was skeptical because I really wondered how something vegan could be good, but this really was!  In honor of Meatless Monday I thought it would be worth going above and beyond and have a VEGAN Meatless Monday, which in turn leads us to the first edition of Nick Cooks - he even took pictures!

The necessities...

1 cup of peanut butter
1 -1/2 cup of coconut oil (or a 14 oz can works too)
1 teaspoon cooking oil (veggie oil)
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1 teaspoon grated/finely chopped ginger root
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
Zest of 2 limes (not required by recommended)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
Hot sauce to taste - 12 dashes
Fresh scallions and peanuts to garnish
Pasta
Broccoli
Snap Peas

The Ingredients

A couple of notes about some of the ingredients: the actuall recipe calls for natural peanut butter, but since Nick thinks it oily - or to use his terms "oily and gross" - he used normal peanut butter.  Also, you can use any type of pasta you prefer, but you want something longer and flatter that holds the sauce better than other types of pastas. 

Nick also knows I am crazy so he went ahead and cut everything up and took a lovely picture.

All chopped up!

Now that the garlic was chopped and ready to go, it gets sauteed for about 1 minute.  He then grated in the ginger root and stirred it together for about 3-5 minutes. 


Ready for the good stuff

At this point, the peanut butter and coconut milk is added to the saute pan and combined.  The main note here is DO NOT LET THE MIX BOIL!  After the components are all combined, he added the sugar (Nick did not add the full amount), the hot sauce, the lime juice and cilantro.  We are a household that loves things extra spicy, so maybe 12 dashes might be a bit more than what some may like.

The Peanut Sauce

Once it was all blended the sauce came off the heat.  While all of this was going on, Nick boiled the pasta, and during the last 2 minutes of cooking time tossed in the broccoli and snap peas to slightly cook them.  The recipe doesn't call for anything besides pasta and the peanut sauce, but we added the veggies to the dish to give it an extra added umph - that and we wouldn't need a side dish.  The chopped peanuts add a nice garnish to the top.

Served Up!

This dish is actually very hearty and filling for something that is vegan.  Meatless Monday was just a great excuse to ask him to make it again.  So another successful edition of Meatless Monday and Nick Cooks all in one!