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.

Salmon- It's what's for dinner

Slightly overcooked Alaskan Salmon, sprinkled with garlic powder/dried parsley/salt/pepper/oregano/ and lemon, served with zucchini, tomatoes, and focaccia.

Another year, another Bastille Day with Mussels!

Instead of posting a new recipe, tonight we are going to repeat last years moules mariniere feast! So delicious, it deserves another year! So turn up your Carla Bruni tunes, drink some French wine, and enjoy the evening!

I added the following alterations in tonight's sauce--
1. Juice from two lemons. We have a bag of lemons needing to be used.
2. Less wine/more veggie broth. We didn't have enough wine for dinner.
3. 1 tb of herbes de provence instead of the thyme. My parents just returned from Paris with a sack of the mixture to refill my supply, and I thought, Why not?

Click here for last year's recipe.

Linguine with Clams, Arugula, and Tomatoes

Growing up, I knew there was only one reliable Italian restaurant in the DC area. Yes, there were many trendy Italian restaurants and tons of family restaurants, but Landini Brothers in Old Town was the closest to my Grandmother Serafina's cooking that I tasted (click for a Washington Post review here). Once a month, my family drove down King Street and showed up for our special menu. The Landini Brothers, taking a quick look at my sister and I, would squeeze our cheeks and seat us at our corner table. We would get an onslaught of questions, terms of endearment, and all sorts of reassurances that we were accepted into their family.

Another way we found the way into the Landini family is ordering off-menu. Despite the fact that my favorite menu item has not been around since the late 80's, I still order a special Linguine with  Clams and Arugula. Unfortunately, replicating it in my kitchen didn't seem to work. In particular, steaming the clams, picking the meat out, and then cooking them with pasta always made the entire dish an ordeal. In result, I considered those cans of clam sauce. I was super scared of clams in a can, but I finally decided that it was probably safe. Additionally, there are types that are all natural and preservative free, especially by the olive oil company Colavita. After careful inspection I gave it a try, and it was actually a decent weeknight meal.

Linguine with Clams, Arugula, and Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 1 tb olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of grape tomatoes halved
• 1/2 lb linguine (whole wheat or spinach)
• 1 can of Colativa Clam Sauce
• 4 cups of arugula
• 1 tb red pepper flake
• 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, saute garlic and olive oil, then add the grape tomatoes for 3 minutes

2. Meanwhile, boil water, and add in linguine
3. In the saute mixture, pour the clam sauce over the tomatoes, add in arugula, red pepper flake, and lemon juice.
4. Let the arugula wilt, and mix the ingredients together.

5. Drain and add the linguine into the clam mixture.
6. Add salt and pepper, and serve.*

Notice the steam over this picture! We used spinach linguine, but honestly I think the whole wheat Barilla or the regular DeCecco would have been better. Sometimes, you use what you have, and that is wonderful.


* some people would add cheese on top, but because it is fish, Italians usually don't top with cheese.

Fish, Oil and the Gulf Coast Economy

Sometimes, news coverage can be obtuse and frustrating to watch or read, and in those circumstances I turn off the monitor and walk away. I find the BP oil crisis to be absolutely difficult to watch because there is very little I can do as an individual, the oil keeps oozing as human technology flounders. As I stand at a fish counter, I think about where it is from and if I should purchase Gulf fish or avoid it. Am I hurting the economy or hurting my family? How can I make an educated decision about the overwhelming crisis, as well as what is safe to still eat. However, the recent story about buying fish in the Gulf Coast found in the Washington Post revealed a fascinating path fish make on their way to Whole Foods. It explains the expensive prices, decisions made along the way, and how it lands on your table. It is worth a quick read!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070905598.html

A little Tuna Spread

Sometimes, we try and stretch the dollar, and push our pantry until it is empty. For this very reason, I always keep a can of tunafish and some mayo on hand. You can always use up your veggie drawer with some tuna spread. The other day, AAM and I were stocking up, and I told him I am always thoroughly confused in the tuna section. A child of the eighties, my concern for dolphin safety interferes with just grabbing a can off the rack. I told him that it was getting harder and harder to figure out if a company does dolphin-safe fishing. He looked at me floored, and readers might be seeing a trend in this interaction, and explained that all tuna is basically dolphin safe now. Honestly, he shouldn't be shocked, I am so stuck in the eighties that I refer to CVS as Peoples, Blockbuster as Erols, and Whole Foods as Fresh Fields. One would think we were rockin' it in 1985 DC by the way I refer to the world.

Speaking of childhood, here is my homemade tuna spread that we grew up on and adore. It goes really nicely on sandwiches or with a plate of crackers, Kerrygold reserved cheddar cheese*, quartered salt and peppered tomatoes, half a boiled egg, and romaine. In my family, that is called "Mom's lunch," for obvious reasons: it is what she eats for lunch everyday. Don't be afraid to add any sort of veggie to your plate, it goes with everything. In fact this tuna spread, goes really well with tomatoes, so for those previously mentioned tomato wrinkling issues, this is a great method of giving your meal some lycopene. Some people might already do this, but for many it is a shock when I make it in front of them. By mixing the typical ingredients put with tuna in a Cuisinart, you get a wonderfully creamy texture. I abhor the gross textured dryness of canned tuna, so this is a great solution. This recipe can make sandwiches for a week, which makes packing lunch easy!

Tuna Spread Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 1 large can of chunk light tuna (or 2 smaller cans)
• 3 celery stalks
• generous serving of ground pepper
• sprinkle of salt
• 2.5 tb of mayo
• 2 slices of tomato
• 2 slices of Kerrygold Reserved Cheddar*
• Lettuce
• Two pieces of Whole Wheat toast

1. Put the celery in a a Cuisinart or blender, and pulse.

2. Next, throw in the tuna, pepper, salt, and mayo on top. 
2. Pulse several times, until the tuna reaches a creamy texture

2. Spread on a sandwich, and serve with tomato, lettuce, cheese on whole wheat. In this picture I used iceberg, which I normally don't buy, but it was left over from a bbq my parents had. A good crunchy romaine is perfect for this sandwich.

*I like the sharpness and richness of Kerrygold, plus it supports the Irish economy. Although I try to buy local when possible, as a dual citizen, I also like to support my family's homeland as well. The Irish economy took a phenomenal dive last year, much worse than here, which is sad considering the Celtic Tiger was turning around history. When we visited last Spring, by the giant open arms every restaurateur and hotelier held towards us, we realized any little effort we make might help. So we try and buy Irish if we see it available.  Kerrygold is at the local market, and supports various dairies around Ireland.

Farmer's Market Pasta Salad.

As food is always attached to memory, nothing says 4th of July like my mom's baked beans and her pasta salad. Last year, I posted the baked bean recipe, which I have updated and improved here. The pasta salad is simple, and to be so 2010, can be used with local produce found at the Farmer's Market. The secret to this salad is the more raw veggies, the yummier it seems to be. It can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge




Farmer's Market Pasta Salad

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 lb of elbow pasta
• 1 cup of sliced baby carrots
• 1 cup of diced red and yellow pepper
• 1 cup of diced yellow onion
• 1 cup of diced radishes
• Juice from half a lemon
• 2 tb of mayo
• 1 tb of chopped flat leaf parsley (you can use dried, in the pictures I did half and half)
• 1 tb of paprika

1. Boil water and cook the pasta in a large pot.
2. Meanwhile, chop the carrots, red pepper, onion, radishes. Mix them in a bowl.

2. Once the pasta is drained and cooled, mix in the mayo, lemon, 1/2 the paprika and 1/2 the parsley thoroughly.
3. Fold in the veggies to the pasta.
4. Serve chilled.

Your favorite cookbook?

So, I have a gift certificate to an online bookstore. I am not particularly interested in buying a novel or a book that I might read only once. I recently bought a few books for Serafina, so I want to hold off on getting her more, since I do believe she has a lifetime to acquire the books she needs or desires. I looked at sewing books, but I have three that are full of projects I want to attempt, and no time. So, this leaves me to a cook book, the book that continues to give and give. I have many classics, kitchen staples and vegetarian ones, but I am sure there are many gems I have not discovered. It is so hard to pick one out because you do not know if the recipes will work or if the ingredients are too complicated. After searching online for a week, I gave up. This led me to ask YOU.


What is your favorite cookbook and why?

Please post in the comments section for all to see!

Community Gardens

A benefit of living in Arlington, as opposed to our surrounding Northern Virginia cities, is that there is an abundance of community gardens. Because South Arlington is mostly apartments and smaller homes, decades ago the county put aside land for collective urban farming. Last year, I jumped at the opportunity to co-garden with a fellow Kenyon alumn, and now a fellow co-worker. She had a baby and started a new job at my school, and the thought of gardening was too overwhelming. Whereas, I had my summer of no job or grad school, and I was dreaming about my future baby, so I needed a constructive distraction. However, I didn't know the first thing about veggie gardens, and I have been known to kill flowering plants in a day. Aided by my mother, a fantastic gardener, and friends who already had plots there, I worked three days a week to get a plot the size of my living room into shape. I planted a large variety of greens, a plethora of herbs, two beds of tomatoes, a range of peppers, squash, melons, and two pumpkins in time for Halloween. I really enjoyed all the sweat and labor that went into making my own fresh food. Gardening became my therapy where I dug out my frustrations and relaxed smelling my knock-out roses.

Well, this year, my co-gardener and I were stripped of our garden, because the community isn't so much of a community. Now, granted, we handed in our fee a little late-- and I am completely comfortable with the consequences of that. However, what I did not enjoy last year was the extreme pressure put on by the garden regulars. These were a handful of people who looked at rules rigidly, and treated others with an insider/outsider approach. Additionally, your plot got graded weekly, and if there were a little too many weeds, you got an infraction. I had several, some deserved and some not deserved. I would have to run to the garden and weed as much as possible. And because our plot was at the entrance, I lived in fear of being judged. I could write my entire dissertation on the power and politics of community gardening. In summary, it wasn't a particularly relaxing way to spend my summer; the entire thing became such a headache.  I was grateful for the opportunity, but I was actually relieved when I found out the bad news. I don't want to feel that way about making my own food. I want to enjoy it and let it flow with my life, not become the obsessive center.


Right now, I am reading  Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer and I love it. The memoir highlights Novella Carpenter's move to Oakland and how she built a large garden on top of an abandoned lot on her street. Now, the major plot of the book is how she raised chickens, ducks, and turkeys to later serve for dinner, but I ignore that portion. Instead, I am so interested in how Novella falls into her garden and builds a community around it. Her community does not have rules and regulations. In fact, she lets people go into the garden and pick what they please. She finds pleasure in the experience and the sharing, and that is what I hope to do someday.

This summer, I went back to container gardening, so much easier with Serafina around. I mentioned that on Mother's Day we started a new family tradition: we planted. Our mini-community garden now has Basil, Tomatoes, Peppers, Rosemary, Thyme, and Italian Parsley on our back balcony. We are supplied with the essentials in cooking, and the ones I know I can keep alive.  Some day, when we get a house with a backyard, I plan on making a small portion of it to be our own vegetable garden-- for the kids to build community around good food. And well, I am so much better at not killing plants when they are food.

On my way to a casserole...

We are learning how to make our days busy over here. This morning, we went to our bi-weekly yoga class, at Pure Prana in Old Town. Over the last two months, I have developed quite a love for this class, and Serafina is learning to smile and coo at her new baby friends. After class, we met a friend for lunch, and then the three of us walked King Street and enjoying the beautiful weather. I was so lost in thought when we got home, that while Serafina took her nap, I spent an hour on the internet looking for quilting patterns for a quilt I want to make Serafina. Because I want this to be heirloom quality, I seem to be obsessing over the details of the construction, color, and quality. Thus, I spent very little time looking up recipes or planning dinner.

So, about a half an hour before AAM came home, I looked at my fridge and found kale, zucchini, and stale white bread which my mom bought at the Alexandria farmers market.
I decided to make a casserole. I started by taking the bread and throwing it into the Cuisinart. Serafina, sitting in her bouncy chair, looked up at me with glee when the noise of bread shredding permeated the kitchen. I am often shocked that she is not scared of our coffee grinder, and tonight was the first moment she got to hear the Cuisinart. I love my Cuisinart, and the very idea makes me so excited to chop up food. However, we don't have much counter space, so it spends much of its time on the top shelf above the stove. However, lately I developed cooking goals, which makes me tote out machinery to make little things like breadcrumbs. I made two batches, and filled a freezer bag, then labeled the bag. I chopped my onions, and just about the moment I developed tears in my eyes, Serafina started crying too-- except for her bottle. So, I quickly fed her and then we rushed to meet AAM at the bus stop. We love surprising him, and even Serafina seems to figure out that this is a surprise, as she giggled and cooed the entire way over.  She has discovered the world, and watches in glee as we walk in her Lovely Duds wrap. We nearly missed him, but AAM came around the corner smiling. After announcing that I was creating a bizarre concoction, he kindly and happily reminded me that he had to go to a lacrosse game. So, I realized the abstract casserole was going to be too complicated before his game, and we ordered pizza.

So, the supplies were put away for Saturday night, and the pizza ordered. I have set the groundwork for a casserole, but it sometimes takes the perfect timing to create a new dish. Because life does not go as planned, but it helps to be prepared.