Pinenut Creamed Spinach (w/ Orzo)

Sometimes, I get a thrill out of emptying the freezer or pantry. Maybe this comes from us living a pretty full lifestyle in the rest of the house, where I am constantly finding creative ways to hide my graduate research books and sewing supplies. Whenever my freezer gets near empty, I challenge myself to make meals that will purge the kitchen, and tonight is one of those nights. I grabbed a package of frozen spinach and the pine nuts sitting next to it, and came up with creamed spinach with orzo. Now, this recipe can be made without orzo, but if you want to make it more of a meal, boil up a batch of orzo and mix it in.


Pinenut Creamed Spinach with Orzo

Ingredients:

• 2 tb of butter
• 1 shallot diced
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 package of frozen Spinach- defrosted
• 1/2 cup of pinenuts
• 1 cup of cream
• 1/2 cup of Pecorino Romano Cheese. 
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 cup of Orzo

1. Boil a pot of water, and cook Orzo for 9 minutes or as the directions on the box dictate
2. Meanwhile heat your pan with the butter over medium, then toss in the shallot and cloves. Let simmer for a minute or two. Do not let the garlic burn.
3. Throw in the defrosted spinach and pinenuts. Let it cook for another two minutes
4. Lower the heat, and add in the milk and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Mix in the orzo, and serve.

Guest Blogger: James Nankervis

This entry is the first in a series of guest blogging, where my family members will be sharing their favorite recipes and ideas about food. As I have previously mentioned, we have some wonderful novice cooks, but the first guest blogger is our only professional chef. A veteran of the war in Iraq, he followed his passions into the kitchen, and we are all extremely proud of him. Trained by culinary school, Jimmy also cooked in various wonderful restaurants from Edo's Squid in Richmond, where AAM and I got engaged, to the very high-end 2941 in the DC area. Presently, he is in New York at Mario Batali's restaurant Del Posto. Despite his experience and talent, Jimmy is always a humble, but very enthusiastic, guy and he will entertain our very basic cooking questions. Jimmy emphasizes simple cooking, with fantastic ingredients. Here is a great fail safe that he rattled off very quickly to me within seconds of my request.

Jimmy says "Simplicity is key when creating good food."


Olive Oil Poached Salmon, with Wilted Greens, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Salmon skin off
• random greens Frisee, spinach, nasturtium, any lettuces.
• red wine vinegar
• shallots
• Fingerling potatoes or any kind will work
• salt and pepper, a must have

Directions:

1. heat the oil on the stove to 160 degrees.
2. cut shallots to the same size as the potatoes
3. place potatoes and shallots in the oven at 400 degrees until tender and sweet, of course these were tossed with olive oil S&P.
4. Wilt the greens in a saute pan with olive oil S&P low heat add 1 t. red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan.
5. Place salmon seasoned in oil for 9 minutes. Check to see if it is cooked to your preference (Maureen adds, quickly flaking with a fork to see if the fillet separates, it is OK if there is still some juice. Many people tend to overcook salmon. )

plate and eat

Guess what we are having this week!

So the electricity might go out....

Because I sometimes cook as if we were a house of 10, I prepared for the snowstorm as any sane person in a commune would, I made a giant batch of Barley stew. Edible cold, this stuff is packed with all the nutrients you would need if a snowpocolypse comes your way. Plus, it is made of regular pantry ingredients. When cooking this, keep in mind that I make enough to eat, have for lunch, and still store the leftovers in the freezer.

Ingredients

• 2 tb of olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cups of barley
• 3 box containers of veggie broth, low sodium
• 2 cans of garbanzo beans
• 1 package of frozen spinach
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (the larger size)
• 1-2 tb of herbs de provence
• 2 bay leaves

1. Saute the onions in olive oil in your stockpot, until they are translucent.
2. Add the rest of your ingredients
3. Let simmer on low for at least one hour, and stir occasionally.
4. Serve with Romano on top, if you like.

I know. Very complicated. If you want this to be less stew-like and more meal-like, let the mixture continue to simmer until the barley absorbs all the liquid. That is what I did this time, and it will be easy to defrost later. I portion this off into small containers for work because it is a fast, but filling, meal, and teachers don't get lunchtime.

Please, no chicken, bacon, cream dressing, or ham.

Going to restaurants, I often need to rearrange the salads. "I would like the BBQ Chicken Salad, please. But, can you remove the chicken, add more tomatoes, and put the dressing on the side?" Ugh, I sound like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. However, salads in restaurants do not contain enough vegetable ingredients, so when the meat is removed you usually only have lettuce and carrots. I knew it was bad last summer when the waitress at Cap City knew me just by my odd order. Last night, in an effort to recover from the gluttony of a vacation in Mexico, I made the following salad. Restaurants should follow suite.

The Right Restaurant Salad.

• 1 cup of edamame
• 2 slices of a purple cabbage chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup of arugula
• 1 cup of carrots shaved
• 1 cup of bean sprouts
• 1 cup of green onions chopped
• 1 red bell pepper sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 orange segmented
• 1 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 2 tb soy sauce
• 2 tb of chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tp of honey

1. Mix edamame, cabbage, arugula, carrots, bean sprouts, green onions, red pepper and almonds. Plate the salad mixture, add orange pieces on top.
2. In a small bowl, whisk rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and ginger.
3. Pour vinaigrette over salad.

This serves two, but if you chop up more ingredients, and put them in storage containers, you can have this for lunch the next day like I will . Creating a good salad is actually easy, if you make sure you chop the ingredients ahead of time. Assemble the dry ingredients in a Tupperware, and the wet ingredients, including dressing, in a Ziploc bag-- voila a healthy lunch. As someone who allows herself only 20 minutes to get ready at 6 in the morning for work, I can say there is no excuse for not packing yourself a healthy lunch.