“This is the best lunch ever, Mom, the King of All Lunches,” says Leandro, The King of All Understatements.
The source of his enthusiasm was Shrimp Scampi (kind of an Americanized misnomer for an Italian recipe: read here). And if it wasn’t the best lunch ever (he has fewer lunches to compare with than I do) it was pretty damn good.
Simmering off the wine
Adriana and I love to cook together, but this time she gets sole credit for this intoxicating Moroccan Spice Rub and the juicy roast she marinaded it with.
Pork Roast with Moroccan Spice Rub
From the moment she waved the deep brick brown paste under my nose when Leandro and I arrived at her home for a sleepover, I was hooked and dabbing the sides of my mouth. And not because it looked a lot like hashish, because of course I do not know what a hunk of hashish looks like, do I? Continue reading
I had a butternut squash from way back in the fall and a desire for real arroz con habichuelas (Puerto Rican pink beans and rice), which may seem not to have anything to do with butternut squash soup, but after I boiled the squash, I realized I had about twice as much as I needed!
Waste not want not is my motto (as much by necessity as by design), so I thought it would be nice to simmer up a warm soup.
A bit of home-made sofrito (substitutes included in recipe!)
Thus, this ever so simple butternut squash soup, vegan (unless you swirl in some yogurt or sour cream at the end), and rich without being fatty. I used some sofrito I made the other day, but give instructions for store-bought or home-made substitutes.
squash and seasonings simmering
Easy Butternut Squash Soup
2 Cups butternut squash, peeled and boiled until soft in vegetable broth. RESERVE broth
1 tsp olive oil
2 Tbs sofrito (homemade or Goya. May be substituted with a tablespoon of finely minced onion and a tablespoon of finely minced green cooking pepper like cubanelle, in which case you need to saute a bit longer until tender)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp mild curry powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
(dab of pesto, hot sauce or –if you aren’t vegan – yogurt or sour cream to finish, optional)
In a medium soup pot, heat oil at high until fragrant. Lower to medium, add sofrito and garlic and sauté until fragrant and getting dry. Add curry powder and cumin and toast until slightly fragrant. Add broth and squash, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until very, very soft. Use an immersion blender or food processor or blender to liquefy. Season to taste and serve with optional toppings.
Arroz con habichuelas (click for basic recipe!)
Or click for another MORE basic recipe!
Let’s face it, if you are eating a salad (again) and your son is across the table chowing down on spinach and cheese ravioli coated in real parmigiano and a schmutz of butter…you are secretly hoping he doesn’t finish so you can have just a little, just a taste…
Marinating in oil and lemon
So I am very much looking for more dishes we can eat together and that don’t tempt me into carbohydrate sin while I am trying to work on those troglodytes, I mean, triglycerides that my doctor says I need to reduce. And really, I want to reduce the number of dishes I prepare and have to wash up after! Continue reading
It’s a sad irony that I finally have perfected Latin white rice (thanks to my dad’s technique) and the doctor tells me that I have to reduce carbs for my triglycerides or somesuch! Terrible.
But Leandro received no such warning, so he gets to enjoy my now fantastic rice with any number of dishes.
Here’s franks and beans with an ever-so-slightly Latin flavor. Goya’s Latin-style tomato sauce and cilantro and culantro put a little spring in the step of this easy, kid-friendly dish. My parents used to make us something similar when we were kids, so it was fun to try and recreate them. They have very little in common with the sweet gooey canned Franks and Beans you find. This are actually grown-up worthy too!
Beans and Franks
I use Applegate Farms Organic Beef Hotdogs. I prefer organic meats as a rule. These also don’t use synthetic nitrites, but it isn’t clear from what I have read that natural nitrites are any better than synthetic. They are more expensive than your standard supermarket dogs, but I feel that they are worth it.
Leandro loves these, and they reheat very well for his lunch thermos the next day. (In the morning, when I am boiling water for tea, I boil extra to pour in the Thermos to warm it up. Then I dump the water, put in the hot food, and it is still warm a few hours later for his lunch ).
Frankenbeanie!
Frankenbeans
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
½ Cup onion, minced
1 tsp garlic, chopped
3 hot dogs, sliced into ½ inch rounds
1 Tbs fresh cilantro chopped
1 tsp fresh culantro (recao; sawtooth coriander) or other green herb of your choice, chopped, optional
8 oz can Goya Latin Style Tomato Sauce
2 pinches salt
2 pinches hot red pepper flakes
½ tsp ketchup
1 Cup pink beans (soaked or from a can)
In a large skillet, heat oil on medium high and add onions, Stir to coat, lower heat, and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and cook an additional minute or two, until the house smells good and the vegetables are wilted. Add hot dogs and stir, then add cilantro and culantro or other herbs. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, then add tomato sauce, salt, red pepper, and ketchup to taste. Add beans. You will probably want to add about ¼ Cup water to thin. Simmer for 10 minutes r more and serve with Latin-style white rice.
Chorizo on toast
If you are getting ready for a Super Bowl party, I’ve got some styling, kickin’ tapas ideas for you! Just click on the picture for the recipe…they are all pretty easy (with the exception of the tortillas, which require a bit of derring-do, but are well worth it). They are also portable! Have a great Game Day…I’ll be back with more ideas soon!
¡Ole! ¡Fantástico!
Mussels vinaigrette (make em the night before)
Tortilla Torcal
Great Super Bowl party buffet idea!
The other day I posted my recipe for fancy-cheesy meatballs. Here now, as promised, the basic meatballs that I did just in case we had a child who wanted something more simple (we did not). Baked and basic, you can add any seasonings or sauces to them to make them suit your mood. (Try Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce)
(You can also try my albóndigas variation which is pretty easy and includes Old Bay, or Pedro’s pan-fried albóndigas, or Ham & Cheese meatballs in the oven. I do like my meatballs!)
I now have a bunch of basics in the freezer, and will very likely pull them out for Super Bowl…and serve them with toothpicks. If I can find the right passionfruit juice, I will soon post a passionfruit sauce recipe that my friend Mayra used to do in PR. I just found the recipe among some old papers and I am eager to try it.
Otherwise, any BBQ-type thick dipping sauce will do!
Basic Baked Meatballs
Basic Baked Meatballs
1 egg
1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped (or 2 tsp dry)
1 Tbs grated onion
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp Adobo powder
1 grating black pepper
1 lb. ground beef (can include ¼ lb. ground pork)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix all ingredients except meat until combined. Add meat in chunks. Mix lightly until well combined and roll into 1.5” balls. Place on a foil-covered rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into one reaches 160°F. Serve as cocktail meatballs with your favorite sauce, add to pasta sauce, or make into sandwiches. They will adapt to just about any flavor palette.
(Three hundredth post!!!!)
Cooking a nice meal for both parents and kids does not have to involve making two separate dinners.Well, not exactly, anyway.
I confess to getting cold feet halfway through my prep and making myself a safety net, so let’s say this time I made one-and-a-half meals, but in the process, I really stocked the freezer for the new semester.
The juicy, savory, binding
I made some “fancy” meatballs and some basic ones (that recipe later in the week) for a Single Mothers By Choice-three-family dinner here at home last weekend…pasta, meatballs and red sauce…can you really go wrong? My friend, Pam, brought the salad fixings, and Kim brought a sinful dessert (which one pretends is for the kids, but is really just as much for the growns) and everything went swimmingly! And everyone liked both fancy and plain.
On their way to the oven
If I had known how good these mushrooms in garlic were going to turn out, I would have been more careful about the pictures!
Mushy focus!
This is a wonderful variation on the classic stove-top champiñones al ajillo or mushrooms in garlic sauce, that is a staple of Spanish tapas places and that I have posted before (with butter or with olive oil)My friend, Marianne and I made them as sort of an afterthought as we were packing the oven with roasted vegetables for our New Year of Eating Right. Why not throw these in too, since we have some space?
Genius.
Get the crusty bread ready, because you are going to want to mop up every bit of sauce.
Blurry photo, clearly delicious
Oven-roasted mushrooms in garlic (Champiñones al ajillo, al horno)
10 oz. button or baby bella mushrooms
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs chopped parsley, optional
Salt to taste
Preheat oven to 400°F. Wipe mushrooms clean. Trim off woody stem bits and cut into ¼” slices. Mix mushrooms, garlic , and oil in an ovenproof dish and roast, turning once, for about 30 minutes or until mushrooms are shiny, opaque and dark brown. Sprinkle parsley over, salt to taste and serve with toothpicks as a tapas dish or mix with warm pasta for a light primo piatto (first dish/appetizer).
So Marianne and I continue preparing food that encourages healthy eating and healthy weight for the new year. I like to make one meal a day a salad; as crunchy and varied as possible. Unless my mom is home making the powdered Italian stuff in the cruet (which I freely admit I love), I generally make my own, simple vinaigrettes or tahini-based dressings, but clearly it is time to branch out.
Do pack the tablespoon with the herbs; it is very hard to get an accurate measure of this, isn’t it?
Marianne’s brother, Peter, is famous for his Green Goddess dressing (and his pecan pie, but that’s for another day when I get his recipe!) and although I’d never had it before (see dressing history, below) , I happened upon a Green Goddess recipe in Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook (a personal favorite that Marianne’s boys gave me a few years ago, as it happens) and well…game on! Continue reading
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