Onion goo

You know how sometimes you go somewhere new, and unexpectedly you end up eating something that blows your mind?  And then you spend months, even years, coming back to that memory, in odd moments, in the shower or on the bus?  And then you think, "God, I have to go on a desperate search for this thing RIGHT. NOW." but you can't find it anywhere?  And then you start wondering if it'd even be as good as you remembered, because time and memory have a tendency to drop rose-tinted veils over your senses?  And so this mythical dish lives on in your mind, floating in and out of your consciousness, causing moments of wistfulness for years on end?

Yeah.

This is the story of Zoe and the "onion goo."  Spoiler alert: it has a happy ending.

Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Long overdue, I am sorry!  You know how Amherst finals are.  Here is the delicious sweet potato recipe Zach and I prepared for our Thanksgiving this year.  We modified a recipe from smittenkitchen.com pretty significantly and ... well, I'm biased, but I'm thinking ours was better.  The recipe after the jump serves about three; we tripled the recipe for a Thanksgiving of seven and there were leftovers (tasty, tasty leftovers!)  
Happy Holidays to all!  Looking forward to seeing some more holiday recipes.

Grilled Eggplant and Smoked Gouda Bruschetta

I know, the title alone makes it sound delicious, right?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been trying to cook at least one vegetarian meal a week. I've also been trying to use more seasonal ingredients. This recipe, which centers around eggplant, tomatoes, and the grill, fit the bill perfectly.

It doesn't hurt that these open-faced sandwiches are pretty damned delicious. My dad always hems and haws a bit when I announce that it is vegetarian day, but even he wolfed this down and gave me compliments. The components for this recipe are relatively straightforward and easy to assemble, but once you've sampled the gooey melted cheese together with the tender grilled eggplants and the tomato-parsley salsa, you'll wonder why you never thought to combine them before.

You might not think this is enough for a meal -- "bruschetta" usually calls to mind fancy little hors d'œuve toasts -- but believe me, the combination of the ingredients makes this dish surprisingly filling. If my dad is any indication, it's a pretty great main course option for herbivores and omnivores alike.

Aunt Ruthie's summer pasta with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil

This week's entry is a bit different from last week's Ribfest meat extravaganza. Three weeks ago when the summer was in its final and most pleasant stages, I (Pat) took advantage of a pot-luck picnic and the cheap bulk tomatoes bursting off the vines to make a big batch of another one of our favourite foods in the world: summer pasta with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.

This was the dish that turned me from a tomato-hater into a tomato-fiend a few years ago, thanks to my Aunt Ruthie's recipe and her fresh homegrown tomatoes. It has one of the highest deliciousness:preparation-time ratios I know of, and is the kind of vegetarian dish that has just as intense flavours and textures as any meat dish.

I've provided a sort of recipe as best I can remember, but it's more like rules of thumb to apply to your proportions. The photo shows all the ingredients I used to make a giant batch that supplied the pot-luck as well as several lunches/dinners for a couple of days (although, unfortunately, it's not quite the same as left-overs and doesn't keep more than a couple of days). 

Pesto by hand

My boyfriend loves gadgets. He is by far one of the most gadgety people I've ever met. Going to Target with him is a dangerous proposition: he will happily spend an entire afternoon wandering the aisles of the electronics department in a gleeful daze, coming to life only occasionally to pull something off the shelf and announce, "I'm getting this." Grocery shopping is just as hazardous, because every grocery store I've been to with him has a cookware section. If it slices, dices, pulverizes, or serves food in a visually arresting manner, he is drawn inexorably to it like a moth to a ceiling lamp.

And yet, he doesn't own a food processor.

This became an issue one recent Saturday as we prepared to go shopping for dinner ingredients. I wanted pesto. I craved pesto. I was horrified by the thought of buying premade pesto for dinner, when it's so easy and satisfying to make at home. But I'd never made pesto without a food processor before. So I turned to the Internets to see if you could, in fact, make pesto entirely by hand.

Relaxing rice yoga...aka risotto

Today I was frustrated. I was tired, I was cranky and I was annoyed....with everything.

I had too much work to do, my feet had forgotten how to deal with shoes and had erupted in angry red blisters, the mosquito bite on my calf was most itchy and my evening's date got canceled.

So as I sat in my cafe stewing over my irritations and annoyances I decided, come hell or high water, tonight I'm making risotto.

Why risotto, you ask? Excellent question. At  a first glance risotto doesn't seem to be the first choice for synapse soothing but I promise it can be. There is something very zen about the art of risotto making, the slow stirring and systematic additions of broth...the add, stir, repeat cycle itself makes me breath and relax, and of course it doesn't hurt that I'm breathing in delicious smells. It's like yoga, in rice form...

This ended up being a BEAUTIFUL risotto and my realization of the day is a. shoes suck and b. risotto is all about the right wine and the right cheese. Read on after the jump!