Friday Night Fights

Friday night was my group's final dinner at school, and everything turned out great. Our seasonal, Eastern European-themed menu went over wonderfully with the diners, and, though we had our share of conflicts and panic moments, I think everybody left feeling positive and accomplished (albeit tired and achy). Photos and menu below.

Up again Saturday to do the marketing:
1 bag onions
5 lbs. carrots
1/2 lb. arugula
1 bunch mustard greens
1/2 lb. oyster mushrooms
4 Empire apples
Total spent: $22.50


Friday Night Menu:
Appetizer - tasting trio
Brussels sprout salad with Meyer lemon vinaigrette
Lima bean puree with rye cracker
Fig-onion compote

Soup
Dilled beet borscht with roasted garlic cream

Entree
Beer-braised seitan-stuffed cabbage with porcini sauce
Winter vegetable latke with arame caviar, kabocha mash


Dessert
Pear trifle with vanilla maple cashew cream
Cranberry-red wine reduction, almond lace cookie














Our dinner prep started Wednesday evening, when we made the brown stock for the borscht (which recipe I still haven't posted as promised, will do that soon), the seitan for the cabbage rolls, and the mushroom stock for the sauce.

For six hours Thursday, we got the majority of our prep done, saving only the cabbage roll assembly, latkes, brussels sprout salad, and trifle assembly for Friday afternoon. Progress was mostly smooth, though we had to do some last-minute cooking due to underestimated dessert quantities, and the entree was a real bear to plate. Everything was delicious. I'm so glad it's over.

No rest for the wicked, though - Tuesday is my final practical cooking exam, and Thursday and Friday I'm doing prep for my classmates' Friday Night Dinner to fulfil my last graduation requirement. So it will be another hectic week.

Tonight I'll practice my planned entree for the final: deconstructed tempeh curry (basically: pan-fried tempeh with coconut curry sauce), served with cinnamon/cardamom rice, kale with cumin and caramelized onions, roasted sweet potato garnish, and lemon-ginger pickled carrot garnish.

Dinner update

It was awesome. I want to make four-course meals every night!!

Beautiful morning, productive day

Photos later, once the boy and his iPhone return from errands. The Saturday scramble to get things made has become a weekly occurrence...

Kind of scattered, but the variety's decent:
1 bunch beets with greens
1 bunch Swiss chard
2 lbs. German butterball potatoes
1 butternut squash
3 lbs. onions
1 bunch celery
3 lbs. cooking carrots
1 1/2 lbs. eating carrots
4 lbs. yellow heirloom tomato "seconds"
1 1/2 lbs. Brussels sprouts
1 bunch parsley
1 lb. crimini mushrooms
1 lb. Lakemont seedless grapes

Total spent: $58

I plan on making an omelette with the sauteed mushrooms and cheese, and serving it with garlicky beet greens. We'll start the meal with leftover borscht.

This week was so hectic and rushed, dinner at home and homemade lunches weren't possible most days - hopefully now that we've both got our offices moved (and within walking distance of home!) things will settle down.

A day of varying priorities

These are the three prettiest things I bought at the Greenmarket today. Sorry, potatoes, you just can't compete with the butter-soft, naturally-dyed Catskills merino yarn I finally succumbed to this week.

I bought a lot of other things, but these are the vegetables:
2 lbs. Carola potatoes ("the potato lover's potato - how could I resist?)
I bag spinach
1 lb. Brussels sprouts
1 bunch carrots
1 Carnival squash
4 Poblano peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
5 Anaheim peppers
Total spent (on produce): $22

Among the non-produce items purchased were the above-pictured yarn (it is so unbelievably soft!), a container of rice pudding from Ronnybrook Dairy, 1 log of goat cheese and a container of chocolate chevre truffles (they are unreal, like tiny chocolate cheesecakes, but better) from Lynnhaven Farms, and 1 dozen eggs from Knoll Crest.

This time of year, buying a passel of peppers can only mean chili, and I'm looking forward to making my first batch of the season this week. I'm also very excited to try my hand at latkes. I'm thinking this recipe will be a good guideline.

And speaking of delicious wintertime meals, last night's dinner with three of my favorite ladies went wonderfully. I served the tawny borscht I made the previous night, which went over like gangbusters, as well as homemade macaroni and cheese, using a recipe I got from my friend Sohrab (it was amazing!), with my favorite Brussels sprouts on the side, and two types of homemade cookies for dessert. This was one of the best meals I've cooked or eaten in a long time (a large part of this was undoubtedly due to stellar company!).

Ho-hum (not the veggies, but me)

It was a tough week at work, which unfortunately translated into kind of a downer Saturday. While I had pledged that I would buy less at the USG this week since my photo assistant is going away for the week, and therefore I only need food for one, I didn't quite manage...and spent almost the same as any other week.

So much green, so little time:

1 bunch peppermint
1 bunch tarragon
1 bunch Italian parsley
1 bunch Russian kale
3 small heads bok choy
3 zucchini
1 bunch (3) white onions
1 bunch leeks
1 lb. shell peas
4 white peaches
3 nectarines
4 apricots
2 yellow ("low-acid") tomatoes
1 pint orange Sungold cherry tomatoes
Total spent: $35

The tarragon is an experiment - I'm trying to get myself out of my fresh herbs comfort zone, which is made up entirely of basil, oregano, and parsley, though I've yet to find my tarragon recipe. I bought the mint to make this facial scrub from Urban Vegan, which actually calls for dried mint, though it worked wonderfully with the fresh herb. (My face felt amazing, but it was annoying to have to prevent the oats from going down the drain. I will make it again, though.)

Tonight's dinner was risotto with leeks, chard, and peas; Tofurkey sausage; and sliced Sungold tomatoes with parsley. The tomatoes were perfect - little sweet globes of warmth and light. I'd been planning to make a green risotto with the chard for the past few days, but when I saw leeks at the greenmarket, I realized their more-vegetal oniony flavor would suit the chard better than the shallots I had originally bought for the purpose. It turned out terrific.

I don't have solid plans for anything else I've bought this week, though I did recently make a new pot of black beans (with the poblano and jalapeno chiles I bought last week and didn't write about because I was in Baltimore to see friends at Virgin Fest), so the kale will probably end up in burritos, or with the beans over rice. We'll see what happens with the tarragon...and I've also got a ton of fresh mind leftover to find a use for.

Update: dinner!

While I had planned to make the pan-roasted asparagus recipe from Cook's Illustrated with the bunch I picked up at the greenmarket, my discovery that there were lots of tiny spears changed my mind. Instead, I divided the asparagus spears into three separate piles based on size, and sauteed them in a bit of olive oil - first the thick pile, then the medium pile a minute later, then the tinies a minute later. They turned out perfect! This (blurry) photo is of the three cute asparagus piles - I just liked the way they looked against my new red cutting board (it's the kind with grippers on the back so it doesn't slide while you're cutting):



I also took a photo of the delicious second incarnation of risotto with ramps - though it turned out a bit odd in the kitchen lighting. The only thing that could have made this dinner more perfect is fresh fruit for dessert...