The calm after church and before tomorrow’s feast. :) Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!
:)
Vegetarian “Beef” Pizza With Salad.
Friends, I apologize for my radio silence over the past few days! The holiday season is moving fast and furiously now, and the watchword of this month has been Flexibility. We’ve had lots of parties to attend (and host), lots of fun traditions to uphold – to say nothing of our day jobs, which continue apace! The combination has left me very little time to blog, and I do apologize for that.
I knew tonight was going to be a laid-back evening, so last night I put together a batch of pizza dough for just such an occasion. When LeeLee called to say he was on his way home from the office, I flattened the dough into a pizza pan and baked it for about 12 minutes, then topped it with sauce, mozzarella cheese, chopped veggie burgers, and sliced mushrooms. I baked the pizza for another 14 minutes, let it rest for a minute or two after the fact, and then sliced it up!
In the meantime, we tossed a premixed salad teeming with kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and more; the combination of the fresh greens with the hearty pizza made a wonderfully complementary dish!
LeeLee and I have been packing meals away with a little more gusto than usual of late – tis the season and whatnot – so tonight we each only had a couple of slices of pizza, leaving us plenty for lunch tomorrow. Which works out really nicely, because for all the Christmas planning I’ve been doing, I didn’t have a thing worked out for our lunch! Pizza to the rescue – as always.
:)
Scrambled Tofu Nachos With Grits.
This holiday season is FLYING by! We’ve been having Big Fun, attending this gathering and that (along with enjoying our annual viewing of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), but I have yet to put pen to paper for even one single Christmas card, and the candy supplies remain untouched, just waiting to be baked. I know the holidays zoom by each and every year, but each time I just want to grab hold of a mid-December day by the antlers and shout, “HOLD UP A MINUTE!” I love the holidays, love the excitement of them, the promise, the good will. I just wish they could be longer! Sigh. I suppose that’s what makes them so wonderful to begin with.
Anyway. Tonight was a late night at work – I’ve got a big project that’s coming due – and so by the time I got home, I was in No Mood for a lot of nonsense. So I perused the fridge and cabinets and came up with one of our favorites – scrambled tofu! This time, served atop tortilla chips, with some grits on the side. Heaven!
We both ate our fill with our plates perched atop TV trays – a casual night at home, and much-needed, too, after a long day for us both. LeeLee even encouraged me to watch an episode of “General Hospital” to unwind. What a way to end the day! The cards and candies may have to wait until tomorrow, but that’s OK. There’s still plenty of holiday season left after all!
:)
Sunday Cook-In: Vegetarian Steak Tacos With Rice.
Tis the season, friends: Tonight I had a holiday event right smack-dab in the middle of my normal cookout time, and to start the smoker either before or after said event would have been folly. Either the food would have burned to a crisp or still be cooking as I type this – neither of which is a suitable option!
So I placed my cookout goodies on hold for the week and got on with the business of making tacos instead as soon as I got home from the party. I put a pot of rice in the rice cooker along with a packet of saffron seasoning, and while it cooked, I heated up a package of Gardein “beef” tips in one pan and some refried beans in a pot. Next, I put four flour tortillas in a foil packet and baked them at 375 for about 10 minutes, leaving them in the oven after the fact.
We really made this meal for only one reason: Yesterday at the farmers’ market, LeeLee and I stopped by our good friends over at No. 1 Sons for a sauerkraut resupply mission. We never leave empty-handed, and on this particular day we decided to branch out and try something new: Molotov Kraut! Spicy and tangy, we knew it would go with just about anything we served up. And thus came the idea for tonight’s dinner! Who wouldn’t love a heaping helping of kraut on their tacos?
When the rice was ready, so were the beef tips and refried beans, so we loaded everything into our tortillas, topped them with lettuce, tomato, olives, cheese, homemade salsa, and, yes, lots of sauerkraut! Then we dug in and nearly made ourselves sick from eating so much. But we couldn’t stop ourselves – it was all just so good!
And we’ve still got plenty of fillings left for lunch tomorrow. Yes, yes, the beef tips are gone. But the beans, rice, tortillas, and add-ons remain! I can hardly wait.
:)
Castilian Chik’n With Rice Pilaf and Mixed Vegetables.
I can’t remember the last time we made Castilian chik’n! Well, actually, I can, thanks to the magic of this blog: It was early on in the blog’s existence, in fact it was the very first post, and I believe LeeLee was at the helm for this meal. Tonight, I put on the chef’s hat instead and did my best rendition of a meal that is usually LeeLee’s domain. I think/hope I did an OK job! He gave it a good review, so I must not have been too far off the mark.
This is an old family favorite of ours – a meal LeeLee brought to the relationship and made with great success when he worked days and I worked nights back when we lived in Florida. Though we haven’t eaten it in years, the first bite tonight brought back so many memories of those old days in the early 2000s, when I would come home mid-evening for my dinner break to find Castilian chik’n waiting on the table! This recipe never let either of us down.
You can search the Web for any manner of renditions, but ours goes like so: Thinly dice a red bell pepper, add it into a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil, three tablespoons of soy sauce, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of cumin, and a dusting of basil or oregano. LeeLee swears we used to add a shallot, too, though I can’t confirm nor deny it. (We didn’t do so tonight, I can assure you.) At any rate, mix all of these items up, then place them evenly atop each of four chik’n patties or cutlets. Then bake according to the package instructions and serve alongside your favorite carbs and veggies! (You can never go wrong with rice pilaf and mixed vegetables, if you ask me.)
We chowed down with gusto, as per usual, and have two cutlets left over for tomorrow’s lunch. I’ll probably serve mine atop a sourdough roll, which have held up so very nicely following Sunday’s cookout! Who knows what LeeLee will do. He’s always full of surprises!
:)
Quiche Monday.
Instead of Crock-Pot Monday this week, tonight we enjoyed Quiche Monday instead. Last night, I whipped up a quiche to freeze and give to a couple of our friends who are about to have a baby (to stock the freezer, you know, when their hands are full!), and as my trusty quiche recipe makes two pies, we fell on the sword and kept the other one socked away for a rainy day. As it happened, that rainy day was tonight, when both LeeLee and I had appointments after work that left us running quite late for dinner!
I got home a few minutes before LeeLee did, so I unwrapped the quiche from its freezer wrapping and put it in the oven, baking it at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. LeeLee has a knack for always hearing the dinner bell, so he came dragging in with about 5 minutes to spare. I poured a bag of premixed salad into a bowl, tossed it with some vegan bacon bits and cheese, and pronounced dinner ready to eat!
We ate a bit informally tonight – LeeLee took his meal upstairs to finish the day’s work, and I sacked out on the sofa and watched an episode of “Designing Women.” (True story.) But that’s what Mondays are all about sometimes, you know? And on those days, quiche always comes to the rescue.
:)
Sunday Cookout: Chik’n-and-Onion Melts on Sourdough With Baked Potatoes and Peas.
Now, friends, tonight’s meal represented several firsts!
It was the first time I’ve ever made sourdough sandwich rolls – and from my own beloved sourdough starter, at that!
It was the first time I tried my hand at making a more steaky-tasting chik’n dish on the smoker – I coated the soy strips and half-moon onion slices in vegetable oil, flour, cayenne, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes to give it some extra oomph.
For the first time, I baked potatoes on the smoker! Two hours in and they were just simply divine. (And yes, these are more of the potatoes we picked in the summertime. They’re still hale and hearty in their cave under the kitchen cabinets!)
And furthermore, for the first time, I sliced into my homemade rolls, added my inaugural chik’n-fried soy strips, placed two slices of Swiss on each sandwich, and finished them off in the oven for about 10 minutes!
Everything couldn’t have turned out one iota better than it did. The sourdough loaves were crispy on the outside and soft in the inside – perfect for a sandwich! – and the baked potatoes were wonderfully tender. And though Safeway has quit carrying my favorite LeSeur peas presently (we’re in talks about that!), their store brand was a worthy substitute tonight.
I can’t think of a better set of firsts to close out one week and welcome another in. And leftovers, too – an even better start to the week!
:)
Breakfast for Dinner.
To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t planned on making breakfast for dinner tonight. No, rather, I have several perfectly good meals on the menu plan for the week that I purchased ingredients for and all! But on my way home, as the windshield wipers beat back and forth like little metronomes and I could feel the damp chill through the closed car window, I knew that neither of my preplanned meals would scratch the itch, so to speak. No, what tonight required was breakfast for dinner. Plain and simple.
LeeLee smiled when I told him of the last-minute menu change – I think he’d been expecting it. So with the formalities out of the way, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work in the kitchen.
I haven’t mentioned much on the blog about my new sourdough starter – it’s been all the rage on Instagram, though! – so perhaps you weren’t expecting me to use it in tonight’s biscuits. In fact, I did not, opting instead to go the Bisquik route instead in the interest of time. But a friend of mine made the sourdough biscuits just last weekend to rave reviews, and I know my time is coming!
While the biscuits baked, I scrambled four eggs, procured by the dozen at the Del Ray Farmer’s Market in Alexandria on Saturday (the same day I learned that our friend Jen had baked the sourdough biscuits – and shortly after both couples had enjoyed breakfast together at Stomping Ground, eating … biscuits! Of all things!). And shortly before the biscuits were ready, I unveiled four veggie sausage links ready for eating.
LeeLee had to work through dinner tonight, but I delivered the meal up to his home office, complete with Cajun seasoning and hot sauce. I like to think it kept him from certain death while hammering out the last of his daily assignments! As for me, I’ll never turn away from a biscuit, especially when it’s surrounded by scrambled eggs and sausage. Breakfast for dinner is always a hit!
:)
Crock-Pot Monday: Vegan Tom Kha Gai.
RayRay, this one’s for you!
Once a month or so, for the past 5 years, my friend RayRay and I get lunch together – a proper, sit-down lunch, where we can take an hour or so to catch up on old times. We usually hit up one of our favorite Thai restaurants in town, and often, especially in the cooler months, RayRay orders their version of tom kha gai – that is, Thai coconut chicken soup.
Well, the days have gotten colder again, and I’ve been craving a vegetarian version of this delicacy myself. So today, I put a new-to-me recipe to use and got straight to work!
This is one of those wonderful recipes that requires exactly one step to get right – add almost everything to the slow cooker in the morning, then come home in the evening and add the rest (namely, peas and lime juice). Make a little rice to go alongside, and you’re on Easy Street!
Admittedly, sometimes I’m skeptical of these kinds of recipes. Will they really turn out as a restaurant-quality dish? Will they work as well as the versions I’m used to? But in this case, at least, the answer is a definitive Yes. By the time I got home from work, the vegan chik’n had cooked through and the coconut-milk-and-broth blend had warmed to perfection. The onions and bell pepper were softened, and by the time the rice was finished, so were the peas I added at the 11th hour (almost literally).
I cooked a cup of rice in the rice cooker, and then we were ready to feast! We each ladled the soup over the rice and dug in with gusto. And wow, what a taste! The red pepper paste and peanut butter conspired with the coconut milk and broth to bring a richness to the dish, a complexity that was only improved by some Sriracha at the table. The chik’n was soft and had taken on a great deal of the soup’s flavor, and the vegetables were crisp-tender – easy to eat, but not yielding to the broth. The rice proved a perfect complement, and LeeLee and I both found ourselves going back for seconds. One or both of us may have even dipped the ladle back in once more for a last spoonful before calling it a night. Who’s to say?
It’s safe to say that I’m thrilled that we have plenty left for lunch tomorrow. This is a meal we’d fight over, that’s for sure! And we’ll definitely make it again. Maybe RayRay will, too!
:)
Sunday Cookout: Buffalo Tofu in Lettuce Wraps With Acorn Squash and Mixed Vegetables.
A little rain won’t keep us out of service on Sunday Cookout night!
The weather’s been sort of weird all day – drizzling off and on, with temperatures hovering in the not-quite-cold but not-quite-warm range – and by the time we were ready to put our food on the smoker tonight, the rain kept trickling down out of the sky. But who cares? The smoker has a dome, after all, and a little water is no match for my lighter fuel. So we marched on with our cookout plans, and I’m so glad we did!
As the smoker heated up, I sliced an acorn squash (one of our final quarries from this year’s Great Country Farms shipments!) lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, and greased each cut side with butter. Then I wrapped both halves in foil, poked a few holes to vent, and set them aside while I got the tofu in order.
Earlier in the afternoon, before we went to get our Christmas tree, I cut a block of tofu into six slices and then marinated said slices in Buffalo sauce in a zip-top bag until Go Time. So when the time had come, I pulled the slices out and arranged them atop a hickory plank, where they looked so good. Good enough to eat, in fact!
I put the squash on the lower grill rack and the plank o’ tofu on the upper rack, closed the smoker, and let everything cook for about two hours on medium heat. When we were too hungry to wait anymore, I heated up a bag of steamed vegetables inside, then pulled everything off the smoker.
Now, we’ve been eating pretty heavy this week – who hasn’t? – so we decided to eschew the typical bun for lettuce wraps instead. It worked like a champ! We didn’t miss the carbs and were still able to enjoy every morsel of tofu. And we had more room for the veggies and squash, so that’s a bonus too.
I know that in short order, we’ll be battling the snow out by the smoker, but this was pretty good practice today! We’ll see how we handle the next curveball from Ma Nature whenever she chooses to throw it.
:)
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