Happy Side Dishes Day

I always did like the side dishes better. Potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberries. These are a lot of my favorite things. I wouldn’t want them all the time, but if you’re going to do it, do it big, right? Maybe that’s just me.

So Jeff took pictures of me periodically from about 1 pm when I started until about 6:30 when it ended. Yes. I cooked for 5.5 hours. And it was SO MUCH FUN. This was about 2 pm when I was chopping butternut squash.

It was a Food Network meal. I made Emerilized Green Bean Casserole (the kind where you use fresh green beans from Jennifer’s garden) and make your own french onions and wild mushroom mushroom soup. Except I used Alton’s baked onion rings from his casserole instead of Emeril’s fried ones.  This is me about 3:30 chopping the last of the veggies – garlic. The squash had finished roasting.

Then I made Roasted Butternut Squah & Maple Soup, also from Emeril, with tarragon oil – fabulous, by the way. Plus I made Michael Chiarello’s Definitive Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, which are TOTALLY OMG AWESOME. I also made a Celebration Roast (veggie roast) with butternut squash, mushroom and apple stuffing, which I think is better than tofurkey. Oh, and gravy! This was around 5 pm and the food prep was done and things were cooking. Jennifer was pureeing garlic for the potatoes. I had gained an apron. This was Intense Cooking Time.

Did I mention there are two pies? Oh dear, I don’t know how I’m going to eat them. I’m writing this in a lull between food eating and pie. The goal is to stay awake. Seriously. You know what I mean. Don’t lie. This is about 5:30 pm, and Jennifer and I are surprised here by Jeff. The soups are done, the potatoes cooked, the green beans blanched. I’ve used four dutch ovens to cook dinner and 7 bowls, and 3 saucepans, not to mention two baking dishes.

The day was not without injury. I sliced off a bit of my left index finger and grabbed a hot pan. Burns are normal for me, but slicing not so much. Luckily, the finger slice didn’t hurt. I lost feeling in my thumb and first two fingers of my left hand when I had spinal surgery, so it just bled and I went on. You see Wesley is interested in what’s going on. This is around 6:30 pm. There are things in the oven now, and everything’s nearly complete. This is me and MIL in her kitchen.

7 pm. Wrapping up, cleaning up. I’m cooking the garlic puree to put in the potatoes. The soup’s warming. The green bean casserole’s cooking.  The herbs that have been in the foreground all day are finally in the pots. The baked onions are out on the right.

FINALLY DINNER. TASTY.

Hope y’all had a lovely, food-stuffed time with your loved ones. TTFN. I’m going to go have pie.

Kitchen With (Lots of) Stuff

I swear that you can cook in 4′ by 9′ of kitchen. Remember my plan? Here it is.

I do believe NO ONE has ever fit more kitchen stuff into a space this small ever before. Well, perhaps they have, but holy moly, there’s stuff in every square inch of this kitchen. You can’t even see the stuff under the sink. But everything is easily within reach while cooking. I’ve got spices and pans and spoons and bowls and everything. It’s truly excellent. I tried to make it look decent too.

I was cooking black bean tacos here. The main issue with this kitchen is not the space, actually, it’s that TERRIBLE STOVE. The top of it tends to slide around. You know, completely OFF. Which is not optimal when cooking. And three out of four of the burners won’t lie flat enough to cook on, even with water in the pan weighting it down. We’re discussing this with the landlord. A repairman came and took a look and said it looks like I need a new one. I agree.

Anyway, if you think I can’t cook a five-course dinner in here, you’re wrong. I would. Just for the challenge. To see if I could.

Here’s some more pictures. I was having fun taking them. By the way, if you’re reading this via email, you can’t see the slideshow via email, you’ll have to visit my website to see them.

In which I experiment with tempeh

There comes a time in every newbie vegetarian’s life when they must break out of the standard ingredients they once knew and experiment with such things as tofu and tempeh and miso and other things that are not standard in the average American diet. Should you be familiar with non-Americanized Asian food then this process is somewhat easier, however most Chinese places where I grew up featured a lot more sweet-and-sour fried chicken than they did tofu.

I have had rather a lot of fun with this experimentation, actually, and I thought I’d share one such recipe I made up for the folks that aren’t so familiar with some of these ingredients. This is a tempeh version of chicken salad. My simple recipe is in fact vegan and extraordinarily good for you – although that actually wasn’t my intent, and I always end up adding cheese and messing up the super-healthy aspect. My intent was for it to be extremely tasty, which it is. It’s also super simple and non-messy to make.

Ingredients – Tempeh Salad:

• 1 8 oz package tempeh (I like the 3 grain tempeh from Lightlife pictured here). Dice into small cubes.
• 1/2 crisp apple, finely diced
• 1 stalk celery, finely diced
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard
• 3 tbsp Miso Mayo, garlic and dill flavor (or regular mayo)
• 1 tbsp yellow curry powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• salt and pepper

Diced tempeh, above, kind of looks like you’ve just diced a fish filet with the skin on. The fermentation process leaves gray and white marks on the surface, but it’s normal. It’s chewy and grain-ey and this flavor, at least, has a slightly nutty taste.

A note on ingredients:

I use two things here that aren’t standard grocery store fare, but usually can be found in the “health food” section of stores (having a “health” food section always makes me wonder what the other food in the store is supposed to do for you). Tempeh is a fermented soy product involving the whole bean originating in Indonesia. It’s protein rich, which is something vegetarians have to make sure to get enough of. The Miso Mayo I use is one of my many attempts to curtail the fat in my diet – I love mayonnaise, but I do not love what it does to my pants size. This stuff is ridiculously healthy, and made of canola and miso and some other stuff. But I probably still wouldn’t bother with it if it weren’t so very tasty I don’t care whether I have mayonnaise anymore. I swear, it’s good.

Directions:

Place diced tempeh into a nonstick pan with a tablespoon or two of oil (it doesn’t have any oil, so without oil + nonstick it will stick to your pan). Add the spices – curry powder, garlic and onion powder, turmeric, salt and pepper. Mix well. On medium heat, cook the tempeh until it’s getting browned and crispy. Watch to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Add cooked tempeh, diced apple and diced celery to a medium sized bowl. Add the Miso Mayo and mustard. Mix well. The tempeh/apple/celery should be coated. If they are not, add more mayo. It will still be loose, it doesn’t all clump together quite like standard chicken salad.

That’s it. It’s very simple to make. Now I recommend placing a few spoonfuls on some greens, or placing some on a sandwich and melting some swiss cheese on top. Either way, yum!

That’s my lunch tomorrow, btw.