I'm becoming a real live cook!

I'm pretty proud of last night's dinner! I had planned on using all of the yellow summer squash and the green patty pan squash collected from CSAs and friendly coworkers (as I'd finished off the zucchini and yellow patty pans the night previous -and promptly had the zucchinis replenished). I also determined that I need to use up the many, many cherry tomatoes I'd acquired.


So good they're emitting light!

As I was looking over my grains, millet fresh on my mind, quinoa protested by the household, tired of the rice, out of barley, not feeling the bulgur, I spied my long-neglected jar of corn meal. I've had the first Savvy Abby post I'd read on my mind for some time and dinner immediately came together:

Cumin Chili Squash over Corn Bread topped with Fresh Gazpacho Salsa Dressing!

The above post was about hot water cornbread. I'm not giving away any secrets when I say that this is essentially cornmeal and hot water mixed, formed into cakes, and fried.

For mine, I used two cups of cornmeal, 3 diced jalapenos, a big pinch of sugar (will probably go for more next time), some granulated garlic, and enough water, added slowly, to form a paste.



Before I fried those up, I sautéed the squash in oil, waiting until they were tender to add cumin, chili powder, and salt. Once they were removed from the cast iron skillet, I added more oil and fried the corn cakes without washing. Cross-contamination can be your friend.

The Fresh Gazpacho Salsa Dressing is one of my favorite recipes, but sadly it is not my own. It comes from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan!. The only adaptation I made was replacing the chopped tomatoes with halved cherry tomatoes. This Gazpacho is a cool, and refreshing all-purpose topping and I'm glad I own the book for it. (However, it's not my favorite from Viva Vegan! - my heart belongs to Yuca with Cuban Garlic-Lime-Mojo Sauce).

There is one more component that I left out of my already uncreative title: black beans and corn. I lazily tossed them with lime juice before assembling my meal.



All in all, an easy meal to make and lots of complimentary flavors and textures to enjoy. It's also perfect as lunch the next day! I'm proud because it used up a lot of ingredients I had around that needed using, it's delicious, it's filling, and I didn't have to think very hard to do it. It was a very intuitive cooking session. This leads me to believe that my recent experiments are helping me to become the kind of cook I want to be!

Oven Night!

Oven Night is a product of my love of efficiency and environmental efforts. Sadly, ovens are inefficient little beasts and so consequently, part of my meal planning involves oven use. When I choose my meals and desserts, I try to double up on anything that's going to be using the oven. This means my oven only has to heat up once, my air conditioning only has to battle it for one evening, during which I adjust it to a higher temp, and I don't have to work in a hot kitchen for more than one night.

So last night's menu was:
Green Mashed Potatoes
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Chocolate Chip Cookies (double batch)

I had planned on Lavender Tea Cookies as well, but the dough did not firm up in time, so it's stowed in the freezer until the next Oven Night.

Moving on, last night's haul from the CSA was oddly bereft of greens. All that I got was one bug-nibbled bunch of ... something. I don't actually know what this is:



But it, along with a bunch of kale, fulfilled its destiny in the Green Mashed Potatos I mentioned awhile back.

The shopping ban has been lifted, by the way, but I still haven't done a big shopping trip. I picked a few staples at MOM when I picked up my box, and already obtained potatoes from the Farmer's Market.

In addition to the mystery green, I got another bunch of carrots, some Japanese eggplants, and a variety of squash.



Last week also brought a tiny bunch of carrots, but they were quite limp by the time I got to using them. They perked right up after a short soak in a bowl of ice water, however.



In addition to all of this fun, there was still an acorn squash from Mr. Miller's garden that needed cooking. The first one I did simply by roasting it after coating the inside with Earth Balance, brown sugar and maple syrup, but I wanted to stuff this one.

For this task I turned to Coleen Patrick-Goudreau's Vegan Table. This seasonal cookbook suggested a harvest-stuffed acorn squash, assuming fall availability, and used many ingredients I did not have, but I knew that going in and was ready to improvise.

First of all, I had scored two purple peppers at the Farmer's Market and wanted them to be a part of it. I had also pre-soaked and cooked some black-eyed peas, so they were part of the mix.



When it came time to measure out the spices, I realized I did not want the sweetish mix of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg going over my peppers. I love that mix, but this called for a different combination.

Consulting The Flavor Bible. I settled on Basil and Coriander. This is when I realized that my recipe was similar to Goudreau's only in baking directions, and even then, I might go a little less the next time around.



The final result was stellar. I made way too much filling for one squash, but I ended up eating a lot of it out of the bowl anyway and then for lunch today. I'll probably tweak it a bit in the future, but I've included my recipe below anyway.

And I've obviously switched from iPhone to real camera for the most part, but I'm still learning what makes a good photo, so bear with me!

I still don't know what this is.