Butter Chicken, or A Good Way to Start the New Year

We got an Instant Pot around Cyber Monday and have been loving it. 

(It helps to go in with super low expectations, like it's just* an electric pressure cooker. It will not make dinner for you or, sadly, wash the dishes afterwards.)

(*Alex: "It's just chicken and rice.")

David christened our IP with this Butter Chicken recipe. Then, for Friendsgivingmas, I tweaked the recipe and made it vegetarian. It was a huge hit and a couple of friends have since asked for the recipe so I'm posting it here with all my modifications. 

Instant Pot Butter Chicken (or Butter Vegetables)
adapted from Jo Cooks

6 tbsp butter
12-16 cloves garlic minced (1 to 1.5 heads) (see Note below)
5 T ginger minced (again, see Note)

4 tbsp tomato paste

1 28-oz can whole tomatoes, blended (yes, in your blender #sorrynotsorry) with liquid

2 t salt

2 T garam masala
2 T ground coriander 

2 T paprika, smoked if you have it.

2 t ground cumin 

2 t turmeric
3 lbs boneless and skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1.5 inch pieces OR equivalent amount vegetables (my favorite is a head of cauliflower, ~3 yukon gold potatoes, and a 10-oz package of frozen peas and carrots)
2 cups heavy cream (oh yeah, baby)
1 bunch cilantro, roughly minced

Note: Because of the large amount of garlic and ginger, I recommend using a food processor to grind together the ginger and garlic. First, peel the ginger and chop into smaller pieces, then add to processor. Slightly smash garlic cloves to remove peels, then add cloves to food processor. Process until you have a paste, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Turn on Instant Pot to saute setting. Add butter to pot. When melted, add ginger-garlic puree and saute for a few minutes until fragrant. 

Add tomato paste and saute together with ginger-garlic to impart a deeper flavor into the sauce. Then add blended tomatoes, salt, and spices. 

At this point, if you are making the chicken version, add chicken pieces, close and seal the pot and cook for 5 minutes on Poultry seasoning. Do 10 minutes of natural release, and then complete with a Quick Release. Stir in heavy cream and use the Saute mode to keep the sauce simmering. Stir in chopped cilantro before serving.

If you are making the vegetarian version, add cubed potatoes (large-ish chunks?) and cook on a pressure setting (like Meat/Stew? I'm still learning the IP, but I believe all the auto settings besides rice use the same high pressure setting) for 5 minutes. Do 10 minutes of natural release, then complete with a Quick Release. Switch to saute mode and add cauliflower cut into florets, and bag of frozen peas and carrots. Cook until tender. Then stir in heavy cream and chopped cilantro.

Serve over rice and/or naan. 

P.S. Don't forget my friend Kayla's tip to save leftover tomato paste. Scoop it into tablespoons onto a small sheet of parchment paper and freeze. When it's frozen (or at least par-frozen), add them to a little baggie and throw it in your freezer. Label the bag - you think you will remember what it was but you won't. The dollops come in so handy when you just need a tablespoon or two. 

Black bean not-burgers

Inspired by the cilantro-turmeric salmon patties I wrote about a couple weeks ago, I set out to make a black bean burger that I'd actually like. I think the key is to not try to make a burger per se, or to think that, when you are eating one, that it is supposed to be anything like a burger. You will just be disappointed, like I always am.

But when I packed these with chopped cilantro and quinoa, the whole concept changed for me. It didn't hurt that I fried them in that morning's bacon grease.

I served these with buns for those who wished, but just having it with tomato, avocado, and onion - similar to the salmon patties with salad concept - was, imho, perfect.

Black Bean not-Burgers (patties? fritters?)
inspired by these salmon patties

I made my first and only batch so far* with egg because we were challenging eggs last week, but the mixture was very wet (maybe I didn't drain my beans too well, either) and I had to add in gluten-free flour to dry it up. So I'd probably just skip the egg, and add flour only as needed to make a slightly thick batter.

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg (optional, see note above)

Throw everything in the food processor and blend together. Add a little flour if it looks way too watery. It's not going to be firm because we're not making burgers, but you do want it to hold some shape. Start with 1/4 cup flour and go from there. Too much flour makes it bready and dilutes the impact of the flavor you're going for here.

Heat up olive oil (or bacon grease!) on medium-high, and fry patties in batches. Serve on buns and/or with salad ingredients

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* Yes, it was on the menu for last week but we didn't get to it.

And here's this week's meal plan, while we're talking about it:

Challenging soy, hence the tofu and soy-sauced based recipes. Also, changed the structure to put Sat and Sun at the end because it's stressful to have to plan Sunday's meal on Saturday night without groceries when there is church on Sunday morning.

A pumpkin round-up: savory and sweet

Before November is over, let's talk about pumpkin for a little bit because YES PLEASE.

1. Pumpkin chili

This chili is decidedly savory and (big surprise) I love it. It is vegetarian as written but I think it'd go great with meat, which is how I'm going to make it today. Kayla - who brought us the tomato paste freezing tip in a previous post - blends the canned tomatoes before adding them, which definitely takes it to the next level.

I highly recommend doubling the recipe and making jalepeno cheese cornbread muffins to go alongside!

2a. Roasted kabocha salad

Trying out another recipe from Vegetarian that I have had bookmarked (literally, ha) for a while. I always steal the kabocha from the tempura pile; it's absolutely my favorite pumpkin (so starchy!).

2b. Oh wait, this is my favorite pumpkin:

Sweet, savory, and tangy.

4. Pumpkin bread

Kathy loves to reminisce about the pumpkin bread I made six years ago when Kenny helped me cut and roast sugar pumpkins and we made the bread from homemade puree.

(It also didn't hurt that I put chocolate chips in the batter.)

We love using this Orangette recipe, but we cut the sugar in half so we can enjoy putting the (optional?!) chocolate in it. I've written it as a doubled recipe (so you can use up a can of pumpkin, or if not you can make the pumpkin chili, see point number 1 above) so you can do one loaf plain (which a lot of our family loves) and the other with chocolate and/or walnuts. We decided we like chocolate best, no walnuts.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
adapted from Orangette

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1 t ginger
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves

2/3 c water
1 t vanilla

12 T unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/4 c sugar {this is halved from Orangette's recipe}

4 large eggs, room temp
2 cup pumpkin puree (if making homemade puree that is thinner in texture than canned pumpkin, you can reduce the water above)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans.

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds, then add sugar and blend until lightened in color, abut 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Add pumpkin puree, and beat on low speed until just blended.

Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the water-vanilla mixture in two parts, beating on low until smooth and just combined.

Fold in chocolate and pour into pans.

Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for five or ten minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.

Shakshuka baby

I have not a single picture of the shakshuka we made last night because it was all devoured.

However, allow me to present to you Shakshuka Baby:

After my new friend Kayla and I decided to make shakshuka for dinner, her girls couldn't stop saying "shakshuka" over and over (who could blame them?) and then all of a sudden, Emilyn became "Shakshuka Baby." 

We think their future band could be named Rosie, Eleanor and the Shakshuka Baby. Pretty catchy, eh?

Shakshuka is pretty easy to make, especially when you have a baby to hold and then you can make your friend do all the work. I first made it from Smitten Kitchen's recipe but yesterday we followed the NYTimes. I hardly think it matters which you do as long as there's feta involved. Yesterday we used red bell peppers in place of chile peppers, which definitely makes it more kid friendly. And unlike Deb we are not cilantro-adverse, so we used that and I think it pairs so wonderfully with the feta so I like that change from parsley. 

Kayla brought everything for an awesome salad so between that and her practically making the main dish I was set. I was already into our growing friendship but that pretty much sealed the deal.

But, if you don't have a Kayla (slash momcrush), here's how you can make it for yourself:

Shakshuka Baby, hold the baby

inspired by Smitten Kitchen and The NYTimes

Saute 1 onion, sliced with 1-2 red bell peppers, sliced, about 10 minutes. Add 3 cloves garlic, sliced. Add 1 t each of cumin and paprika and 1/8 t cayenne (possibly omit for kids). Dump 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Simmer until thickened. Gently crack 6 eggs spread across the surface of the sauce. Cover the pan and let eggs cook until they are soft-set, maybe about 5 minutes. Gently spoon some sauce over eggs. Sprinkle crumbled feta and minced cilantro over all and serve.

Need more shakshuka, baby? 

Emilyn is:

• 5 months. Can't believe it. (22 weeks and 1 day to be exact.)
• still only rolling back to tummy, over her left side.
• most definitely teething. 
• on two naps (seemed early to me but it's really working) and bedtime is slowly and more consistently becoming around 7:15 p.m. 

Theo:

• surprised us with how well he transitioned to the toddler bed this past week. This toddler clock helps a ton, which we put in his crib well before the transition.
• loves a new book we picked up at Half Price the other day called Digger, Dozer, Dumper. I love seeing him bring books into his bed during IP. 
• came up to us and told us "I go nap" when some friends were over after church and it actually was getting close to his naptime. Our extroverted guy telling us he needed to be excused from the party. Heart melted. 

This is how he looked at me when I said, "Theo, sit there so I can take more pictures of you in this glorious light."

And today's closing randomness is brought to you by Chinese American potlucks of the 1990s. Almond jello for the win!

In which I tell you to read Francis Lam

Last week I acquired a box of "seconds" at the produce stand which included a ton of onions, chayote, and tomatoes, all for $3. I made the kids' favorite Vietnamese soup with the chayote and one onion but it still left me with a bunch of onions. Somehow my mind remembered koshary and I looked up the amazing Francis Lam's recipe and got to work. 

With all due respect because he is awesome at everything he does (his ratatouille is the best, and he's introduced the world to a Cantonese classic, ginger scallion sauce), I'm a little surprised that he tells you to use only two onions, and even then only if you love onions. I think that for this recipe three is a minimum, because if you're going to do the work of caramelizing them you may as well do a lot at once.

My three onions cooked down to fit into this Corelle cereal bowl.

I had many more onions that needed to be used up and could have done more but when I looked at my pile I thought, eh, that's enough. It wasn't. Trust me: don't lose heart as you're chopping. You're going to want more than two. The onions are the thesis to the dish.

I won't write much more about the recipe here because he does a much better job at it.

Once again, I'm writing about a not very photogenic dish. But this is why you need to read his recipe. Francis Lam's writing > picture of koshary. 

If, after reading the recipe, you still need some convincing to try the recipe, I invite you to study this lovely picture of pasta that has been fried a bit until it's crusty and chewy. #cornerpieceloversunite

With that, I commend this peasant-y dish to you. I also recommend pairing it with a cold, crisp green salad with a garlicky vinaigrette.

The recipe link one more time, for the lazy.

And now for a little update on the littles. 

Emilyn

• turns 19 weeks today.
• rolled over for the first time yesterday! I hadn't been pushing it at all (I think with second children you don't want them to go anywhere too quickly ;)). But after some recent pressure from some people (not naming anyone), I gave her some practice on Monday and then on Tuesday - like a ninja - she just did it without any fanfare. She's my lovely girl.
• is solidly down to three naps. I bit the bullet and I'm glad we did. We've also had three nights this week where she fell asleep for bedtime before 9pm. Hallelujah! Here's to the end of witching hour and to finally getting David through season 1 of FNL! (Stephie, you can do it!)

Theo

• is 123 weeks old. Oh, you're one of those people who doesn't like when people tell you how old their kids are in months once they are past the first year because it's so hard to divide by 12? Yeah, he's 28 months, or 2 years and 4 months old. 
• says the funniest things. If Netflix is taking a while on the Kindle fire, he'll quickly ask, "iPad work?" He corrects my naming of large construction machinery. Mama that's a "backhoe loader," not just any old excavator.
• loves his sister. He calls her "Emi baby" and almost every day goes up to her and snuggles next to her and says "Oppa, oppa!" I won't be surprised if that becomes her first word. :D

Everything I dreamed

I realize I haven't posted a recipe in quite some time. Obviously, we've still been eating. But I have to admit that cooking has somewhat slowed down what with having a baby, being fed recently by parents and in-laws, and getting a deep freezer.

But then the other day I discovered these magical (green) beans that I knew I needed to share.

When I first saw the recipe in February's Southern Living, I thought that it looked good enough to be clipped: simple, unique, and flavorful - exactly the kind of food I love to cook, and, of course, eat.



They turned out to be everything I dreamed they would be and more: crispy, salty, lemony, herby, addicting. Oddly enough, they reminded me of Chinese green beans - the kind that are fried until they are wrinkly - salty with soy sauce and slick with oil, in a good way. But these beans weren't greasy and they didn't have soy sauce; in fact, part of the appeal is that I can't quite put my finger why they taste the way they do.

Usually when I read a recipe, I imagine the taste in my mouth, adding layer by layer of flavor as I read through the steps and as each ingredient is added to the pot / pan / whatever. But this didn't taste like what I imagined it would and I still can't exactly explain how the science of this recipe makes for its outcome.

Anyway, all that to say... You should make these. They are like green bean fries. Kenny likes to pop them into his mouth and pretend he is showing off to his friends that he is eating a hot pepper, whole.

Fiery Green Beans
adapted from Southern Living

1 lb fresh green beans or haricot verts*
2 T olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T chopped parsley
1 T chopped cilantro
1 green onion, sliced thinly
1 t dried crushed red pepper
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Arrange green beans on single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet (I used my Silpat). Drizzle with olive oil; toss. Bake 10 minutes.

While beans are in the oven, mix together lemon juice with herbs and crushed pepper.

After 10 minutes of baking, increase oven temperature to broil, and raise the oven rack to the highest setting. Broil for 5-7 minutes until browned in spots. (SL says they will be "crisp-tender.")

Remove the beans and combine with lemon herb mixture. Season with salt and pepper and an additional drizzle of olive oil.

We served it with salmon (baked with marinated artichokes, red peppers, lemon, tomato, and green olives).


Aaaand, randoms:

• An article and comic on the "Seattle Freeze." Kinda sad I didn't know this before we moved here. 
• Did you know you can make popcorn in the microwave in a regular brown paper lunch bag? Apparently I am at least five years behind the times because this was written in 2010. Mind blown. 
• Our deep freezer has inspired me to do a better job with fridge and freezer inventories. (Elizabeth, I'm growing up! I'm learning to embrace leftovers!) I've started to work my own template which I can share if anyone is interested, but this cute drawing was too fun not to share.
• Before I found this recipe, this is how I used to make green beans. (Woah, when did NYTimes recipes change their look? I can't say I'm a fan.)

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* Costco is a lovely place to get a 2 lb bag of haricot verts for a great price. I promise if you do this, you will make the first pound and then make the next pound the very next day. Or hour. 

Safely say

We really did it: a whole week of Mexican food. Caldo de pollo, carne asada tacos, lots of beans and tortillas. 

I even did a copycat of my favorite dish from a local Mexican restaurant. I'm not sure I should call it my favorite dish, because technically, I've never actually ordered it before. As I reached over to pick off of my sister-in-law's plate (on my birthday, I should add), I told my friend Coleen, "This is a dish I feel too guilty ordering, but not too guilty stealing off of someone else's plate."

Pollo ala crema

But aside from all those yummies, I was most surprised and delighted by a simple recipe from Liana Krisoff's Vegetarian for a New Generation. Her chipotle potato tacos were easy to make, full of flavor, and very satisfying (to the belly and the wallet as well).

Purple potatoes from our CSA box

It's actually very economical to eat one type of cuisine for a whole week because you don't waste ingredients. In the past we have thrown away bags of tortillas, wilted (let's be honest, rotted) cilantro (it's the worst), and other such odds and ends. But this week, nothing was for naught. Our Mexican week ended (or has it? Kenny wonders) with homemade tostadas and refried beans.

I can safely say we consumed almost 100 corn tortillas this week.

Can I blame Theo? Actually, this picture was from the summer, when Kathy made flour tortillas from scratch. The recipe is a good one.

At some point I want to tell you about the BEST SHREDDED BEEF TACOS EVER but I think that will have to be a post of its own. So for now, you'll have to be content with potato tacos. (Carbs on carbs is always a good thing.)



Chipotle Potato Tacos
adapated from Liana Krissoff's Vegetarian

I kept calling these "chorizo potato tacos" because "chipotle" and "potato" was such a tongue twister for me. But of course David laughed when I started to tell him, "I really want to make this recipe from the Vegetarian cookbook, these chorizo potato tacos..."

2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 T oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 t ground cumin
1/2 t Mexican oregano
2-3 T minced canned chipotle peppers*
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
sour cream, for garnish
optional garnishes: cherry tomatoes, queso fresco, limes
corn tortillas

Par-boil potato chunks: cover potatoes with cold water (I added salt) and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, until just tender.

Heat up 2 T oil in a pan, then add onions and a pinch of salt. Saute until onion is nicely browned. Then add cumin, oregano, garlic, potatoes and last tablespoon of oil. Cook until they are hot and as crispy as you would like them. Finally, stir in chipotle and taste for salt.

Garnish with lots of cilantro and serve with tortillas and sour cream


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* Liana's trick to pre-mince a whole can of those chipotle peppers at once and store them in a glass jar in your fridge is brilliant. Can you imagine how delicious they would be on eggs for breakfast?

Blame the food

As promised, I'm here to tell you about ratatouille.

It's terrible, I know, that I don't have a picture of the final product, but that's mostly because it doesn't last very long on the table.

I'm blaming the ratatouille.

I'm not even going to post the recipe here, because the original is perfect as written. Francis Lam (it's Lam, right?) is a hilarious recipe writer. I once heard someone say that it's like he's standing right there in the kitchen with you.

(Wouldn't we all like our moms to be there while we cook? "How much of [ingredient of choice] should I use-- like, is this enough?)

So check it out.

However, if I were to dare add anything to his perfect recipe, I would say that if you can get your hands on Chinese eggplant, use that instead. 

I also dared to say I would make it with eggplant only-- "I don't care for zucchini or summer squash," I said at the dining table, but then I got a look from one of our guests. I'm an anomaly, I guess, but, if you are weird like me, too, just know that everything - even zucchini - gets an amazing lift when roasted at 450 degrees. 

Yes, I ate a few of them right off the roasting pan, like chips. But in my defense, they do shrink a lot when roasted. (All that evaporation is what concentrates that delicious flavor.) 

That's my excuse, at least. 'Cause it's so much easier to blame food than to take responsibility.

Do we do anything around here other than eat?

Nope. Now, stay away from my bottle.

An aside in itself

I'm writing this post as I finish the rest of the meal and as the dishes are still sprawled on the table from dinner. That's how important this is.

Yes, that's a Subway napkin.

The thing I want to tell you about today is ludicrous, actually. It's really an aside in itself and should be relegated to an extremely long "Lisa footnote."* Because I'm not sure you would actually want to make the thing I'm going to spend most of this post talking about. I promise that at the end I will tell you about something you should make, but because I love to tell ridiculous stories, I'm going to make you sit through this first.

*   *   *

My brain is always asking questions and generating weird ideas. (Strengthsfinder says that I'm "ideation." And "input." Gahh!) Often when I come up with what I think might be an original idea, I check the internetz to see if anyone else has thought of it before, and if so, whether it works. (These ideas could run the gamut of how to keep kitchen towels clean, has anyone ever cut holes out of a sleep sack to make it footed, how do you implement GTD as a homemaker--possibly using Excel. I would show you a screenshot of my search history, but that could be embarrassing.)

If I don't see my idea after a couple of Google searches, I assume that either (a) it's a very dumb idea, or (b) I'm an absolute genius. I'm not sure there are any other possible logical conclusions.

Today, among other things, I wanted to know if anyone has ever made chicken biryani in a rice cooker - without frying any part of it. Here are the permutations I searched:

"chicken biryani in rice cooker"

"chicken biryani in rice cooker no stovetop"

"no-fry chicken biryani"

"raw chicken in rice cooker"

"make chicken biryani without frying"

Alas, I found no meaningful results to my searches, so it was time put the idea - and me - to the test. I mean, if an amazing dish could be made decently well without very much work, wouldn't someone else have already made it??

Anyway, so whenever I'm trying to figure out if a "cheater" method works, I purposely do every step the laziest way possible. Because if I were to do one thing un-lazy - such as to sear the chicken first - and the rest of it the lazy way, I wouldn't be able to tell what caused the dish to work or not work. So in the name of the Scientific Method, I do everything like a bachelor. In this case, everything was thrown into the rice cooker - no stove time, and hardly any chopping.

I still used my brain, though, and marinated the chicken with salt and curry powder hours before I wanted to "set it and forget it."

Then, an hour and a half before dinnertime, I threw the following into the rice cooker: 3 cups Jasmine rice (unwashed, don't tell my mom!); water/chicken broth (to just under the correct level on the cooker; I'm not Asian enough to do the knuckle method, but you could definitely do that-- note: I add the water before the rest of the ingredients); 2.5 lbs chicken thighs/drums, marinated; a few slices of onion; 1 green chile, sliced in half lengthwise; 1 t each, ginger and garlic, minced; a bunch of turmeric (maybe 1-2 t?); 3 cloves; 3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed; 1/2 t whole black peppercorns; 1 t salt (if using water or unsalted broth).

I even threw in cilantro stems to "scent" the rice. So fancy.

And then I hit "start."

It turned out surprisingly well. The chicken was moist and the rice was flavorful, spicy. The only thing I would change is to use just slightly less water (it was a little sticky) because the other ingredients let out water, and to serve it with raita.

Verdict: Tasty, but I'm not sure I would call it biryani, lest your Indian great-grandmother roll over in her grave. But for a bachelor dinner that was ten times more delicious than it should have been, considering the work that went into it, A-plus.

I'm not posting a picture because biryani is not photogenic. (Even when it's made the real way.)

*   *   *

Anyway, so like I said at the beginning of the post, I'm not sure this is worth your making, easy as it is. But for the morbidly curious, I had to tell you the results of my experiment. Now that you've read my long story, here's what you should make.

I have long loved the Five-minute Indian-style cabbage dish I wrote about once here. But today I had some wax and green beans from our CSA so I decided to sub them in. And I think they turned out even better than the cabbage version.

This rendition was of my own devising. It wasn't already on Google, so it must mean I'm brilliant.

Five-minute Indian spiced green beans

inspired by Herbivoracious 

1 lb green beans, trimmed, and cut into 1.5 inch lengths (I had a mixture of wax and green, from our CSA)

1 T black mustard seeds

1/2 t each, turmeric and cumin

a touch of cayenne if you're not serving a baby, too

3/4 t salt

Heat oil in a pan over high heat. Add mustard seeds and turn heat down to medium-high. As they pop, add spices and saute for 30 seconds. Then add beans and salt, and saute 1 minute, then add 1-2 T water/broth, and saute another 3-4 minutes until crisp-tender. 

P.S. Aaand the obligatory baby picture:

Blogger, why you gotta be so obnoxious? I hate when the photos don't turn. (David says, "Theo turns heads, so it's okay.")

P.P.S. A few randoms I have been saving for a post. I have been saving up to be thematic, but I guess that would be not-the-point of randoms.

• Have celery languishing in the fridge? Make this celery stir-fry. (I definitely think the word "languishing" was invented for celery. It's like the only thing it does. Languishes.)
• An article on decluttering. 
• Mexican polenta pie. Was maybe gonna blog about it... The filling as written was meh, but the concept of polenta and cheese melted over was worth sharing. 
• Making plans is difficult nowadays. Excuse the minor (albeit censored) profanity. My favorite line: "I wasn't expecting all this predictable rush hour traffic."
• Baked spaghetti. Do it. Way more than the sum of its parts. Definitely better made with refrigerated spaghetti (just like fried rice is). Throw in tomato bisque if your husband obtains you a free lunch at the hospital and you manage to have leftover soup.

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* I just named this a "Lisa footnote." In case you hadn't figured it out already.

Into our stomachs

We have been extremely busy in the last few weeks, but one thing we pretty much always manage to do is put food on the table. Or at least into our stomachs.

Sometimes - more rarely, nowadays - I have the wherewithal to "think ahea" and make something that needs to be started two hours before dinner, like this braised cabbage.

Adding CSA leeks and potatoes to the braised dish worked well. (I also wrote about this once on the food blog.)

Other times, we whip up something from only the most beautiful cookbook ever.

Congliglie with yogurt, peas, basil, and feta. We made it with whole wheat shells, and pastina for the baby. (Also, whirled peas anyone?) ((That was for you, David!))

But most of the times, it's something really simple - a meal that takes little forethought, little prep, and little clean-up.*

Pasta with hashed brussels sprouts and pine nuts

And when times are desperate, we just run down to Costco to pick up a pizza, which we then proceed to double-bake in our toaster oven for extra crispiness.

Chomples! (Again. Always.)

Obviously, at the heart of our family is a love for food and hospitality. And we hope we never lose that despite any craziness that happens around us.

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*That's why I heart Molly Orangette. (If you didn't notice, all the recipe links today are from her.)