Cedar Plank Grilling!

It's officially no longer summer weather in Seattle, having gone from 90 to 60 overnight... meaning that clearly, tonight was the best night to expand our grilling skills. :)  Tonight we tackled a recipe from the vegetarian section of the most recent Cooking Light Magazine.  It called for cedar planks, which I was excited to go out and purchase, if only because using them made me feel pretty big-time in the kitchen (or on the grill, as it were).  Turns out you're supposed to soak the planks in water for a good chunk of time (anywhere between 1-24 hours, depending on if you believe Williams & Sonoma's packaging or the recipe), so we soaked them in the bathtub for as long as we could stand before it was time to grill.  The other three are still soaking now, making our bathroom and most of our house smell deliciously like cedar. (Even Kobe's absorbed the smell in his fur!)   Making the stuffing turned out to be easy and it worked out perfectly for me to do that while Derek shelled out the zucchini.  We were both on hand to watch the plank and make sure we didn't burn our house down in the process.  (That area by the window in particular carries some pretty awful luck for us this year, no?).

When they finally made it to our plates, they were absolutely delicious!  The flavoring was perfect and you could really taste the smokiness from the cedar planks.  We were more than full after eating two each.  Definitely a repeatable dish - and one to add to our menu for the next cookout we host!

Plank-Grilled Zucchini with Couscous, Spinach, and Feta Stuffing

Cedar planks lend this dish a pleasant smokiness.  If you don't have planks, cook the zucchini halves directly on the frill.  Use zucchini with some heft; if it's too thin, it may get too soft. 

2 (15x6.5x3/8inch) cedar grilling planks

2 1/4 c organic vegetable broth

1/2 c chopped shallots (about 1 large)

1 (10oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained  (we used farm fresh!)

3/4 c uncooked couscous

1/2 c (2oz) diced feta cheese

1/4 c chopped fresh mint

2 tsp grated lemon rind

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 medium zucchini (about 2 lbs)  (we used 4 and will easily get 2 meals out of it for each of us)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1.  Soak planks in water 1 hour; drain

2. Preheat grill to medium-high heat

3.  Place broth in a large skillet over med-high heat; bring to a boil.  Add shallots and spinach; cook 5 minutes.  Stir in couscous.  Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in cheese and next 5 ingredients (through pepper). 

4.  Cut each zucchini in half length-wise; scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4 in thick shell.  Sprinkle salt evenly over zucchini.  Spoon about 2/3c stuffing into each zucchini half. 

5.  Place planks on grill rack; grill 3 minutes or until lightly charred.  Turn planks over; place zucchini on charred sides of planks.  Cover; grill 12 minutes or until tender.  

Yield: 6 servings (serving size - 2 stuffed zucchini halves).  

*Note: We used all the ingredients as stated except just 4 zucchini and there was just enough stuffing... I would suggest doubling the stuffing ingredients if making more than 4 servings* 

Also, bread update:  It's edible!  A bit dry, but we'll work on that! We'll see if it stands the sandwich test over the camping weekend with M&J.

My new food journey...

It started with finally getting around to one of the books that had been on my goodreads to-read shelf for a while - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.  I was completely inspired and then began a slew of non-fiction summer reading, greatly surrounding the topic of eating a healthier, local diet.  Now that summer's ending, I'm back at home making a commitment to shop and eat more locally and seasonally, taking more joy in the cooking process and concerning food in general.  It's working well so far, thanks to Derek's compliance and Michal's encouragement and partnership-in-crime.  Here are the first steps we've taken:

1.  Find some new restaurants to add to our repertoire.  

 We won't ever stop eating at our favorite places or restrict ourselves when we're out to eat, but I went looking for some restaurants that would complement our efforts.  Thanks to a teacher friend, Stacy, (who recommended it on her amazing blog) we headed to Emmer & Rye for an end of summer catch-up dinner with the Friesens.   E&R's slogan is, "seasonally inspired, locally derived," and the food was de-li-cious.  We ordered four appetizer plates and three half portions of a main course, so we really got a sampling for what they offer.  There wasn't a single thing I didn't wish I could go back for every night.  We will definitely add this delicious place to our regular rotation.


2. Renew our subscription to our long-abandoned CSA

We belonged to Full Circle Farm's CSA a few years ago but quit because we just didn't feel able to use all the ingredients... chalk it up partly to laziness, partly to our inferior culinary skills, and partly to forgetfulness to pick up our box at the designated pick-up spot.  Fortunately, we're more committed, (slightly) more culinarily advanced, and FCF now delivers to our doorstop.   I made sure to be more intentional when reviewing our upcoming box contents on the website, making sure to request substitutions for a few items I know we wouldn't use with a few items I would have had to shop for anyway... provided they were from FCF itself or the Pacific Northwest (they offer items from elsewhere that I won't select).  Another exciting aspect, though, is that they have greatly expanded their selection of green grocery items you can add to your order.  We got all the produce shown above in our (standard sized) box as well as various green grocery items: whole pasture raised chicken, butter, eggs, cheese, tofu, yogurt, pistachios, and sausages... all local and organic!!!  The chicken went right to the freezer for a time when we get up the strength to take out the innards on our own (good-bye, days of handy little Butterball packages), and I've planned out uses for every single piece of produce in the next week so we won't have lots of guilt over spoiled food.


3.  Buy produce at the height of the summer season from local farmers and freeze it for meals during the winter. 

We spent a day researching different chest freezers to put in our garage and are close to finding the right one for us - just need to check and see if any local stores carry a good, affordable 7.0 cu freezer before looking to the bigger stores.  We decided 7.0 cu was the right size since we don't want it to be so big it will go unfilled, can't afford to spend too much money, and think, from looking at a floor model in Lowes, that a 5.0 would just be too small.  When headed back from Madison Park beach the other day, the peach guy was parked on the side of the road, offering deliciously succulent peaches for sale.  I was in my bathing suit so I sent Derek out to get some and he came back with nine pounds.  We don't have the freezer yet, so we're working hard to eat peaches morning, noon and night... and we're not complaining.  They are so sweet and juicy!  (shown here a few days after purchasing, with the farm apricots mixed in).


4.  Cook more.  Eat (real) food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

Thanks to Sherrie, I'm now in possession of the hilariously entertaining and so-far-so-good culinarily inspirational cookbook, Eat, Shrink and be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski.  (She sold me on it once we sat down to eat a yummy pad-thai recipe we made from the book... more on that later).  It helped us make a new favorite we'll be adding to our rotation, "Parma Chameleon," which is essentially an easy tofu parm.  I haven't tackled the task of making pasta sauce yet, but that's coming!  We also made Savory Sauteed Kale which was a recipe I got from Full Circle Farm's newsletter archives.  After coordinating with Michal, I have a full menu planned for our upcoming camping trip this weekend, all which looks to be healthy, delicious, and free of processed foods (stay tuned for upcoming posts). 

And, finally, I tried my hand at making bread tonight!  That meant locating and dusting off the bread maker and doing an extensive internet search to find the owner's manual (the original of which has long since been discarded).  It's a funny shape because that's the way the pan is, but I'm hoping my first attempt at whole wheat bread is at least edible.  Kobe would clearly take a stab at taste testing if I'd let him, as he's proving in this last shot, but it's bedtime, so we'll let it cool overnight before slicing.



... and, that's where I'm at in my new culinary journey.  I'm excited to see where we go from here!  Wish us luck!



*Michael Pollan's  Omnivore's Dillema (too technical), Food Rules (excellent and concise), In Defense of Food (essentially Food Rules, expanded slightly further), etc.  (The quote in #4 is from Food Rules).  Next up will be: What to Eat by Marion Nestle.

Photo-worthy Meals Re-cap (Jan-June 2010)

There is no way I'll ever be able to catch up on the meals we've already cooked this spring/winter blog-wise, so I'll just complete this entry, going heavy on photos of random meals we've photographed, linking to all the recipes I can find online, and then start documenting our new discoveries more closely when I'm back home again for the summer and cooking, sometime mid-August.  

One of our biggest challenges is remembering what we're capable of cooking and what ideas are out there that we already know, so we don't have to spend hours "meal planning" (aka: flipping through previously flagged pages of our ten billion Everyday Food magazines / scouring cookbooks and recipe websites, deciding nothing.looks. good.because.I'm.just.too.hungry.and.need.food.now....and eventually making to-buy lists for recipes we won't want to deal with later in the week and will ultimately skip, favoring a dinner invite from a friend over cooking so-planned meals).  Hopefully, this little cornucopia of photos and links will help us visualize what we've eaten and provide reference in the future.

I've included *s by our favorite meals that are now tried-and-true and bear lots of repetition in the future... and have possibly seen repetition in our kitchen so far (though they are all repeatable, unless otherwise stated).

Top row: (l-r)  *Burritos with Squash & Goat Cheese (a staple in our household);  French Dip crockpot Sandwiches; Whole Foods veggie skewers, quinoa/sweet potato cakes (store-bought but yum, yum, yum!), and *homemade spinach-cranberry-tomato-mushroom-candied walnut salad with Trader Joes' Champagne Pear Vinagrette dressing

2nd row: (l-r), *repeated quinoa salad & tilapia dinner with asparagus; Cooking Day with Mitra results (Mitra's lentil soup, vegetarian chili, and *sweet potato / chard / tofu scramble); and Valentine's Day sushi dinner (baja shrimp rolls, spicy tuna rolls, ebi, sake and tuna nigiri).

3rd row: (l-r) homemade pizza using Trader Joe's basil & herb pizza crust, mozzarella cheese, onions, tomatoes and pepperoni (sometimes we add portobello mushrooms instead); cheese fondue with bread & apples; ham and cheese panini & salad  (thanks for the panini press, Rob!)

4th row:  (l-r) *Mussels in a White Wine Sauce  with lemon pasta from Pike Place Market (from NYtimes 101 meals, #5); *Couscous Salad with Black Beans, Mushrooms & Corn along with shrimp skewers marinated with lemon-garlic bottled marinade; Emeril's Chicken-Patty Pitas with corn-on-the-cob  (will be even more delicious if we cook the meat a little longer).

5th row of not-particularly-repeatables:  (l-r)  Julia's tandori yogurt chicken (I think I need to re-check with her on the spicing) with our now-standard house salad; salmon burger from TJ's with salad (repeatable if we buy proper buns); and tomato-covered chicken with roasted veggies (veggies = good; chicken = meh).

Also, in the interest of meal documentation catch-up... other recipes / meals we liked and cooked (pretty much exclusively from our Martha Stewart Every Day Food Maganizes) include:

Roast Beef with Oven-Baked Veggies
*Israeli Couscous, Mushroom & Cranberry Salad (step 3)
*Ham-and-Sage Stuffed Chicken  (Derek's favorite, go-to meal to cook)
Broiled Eggplant Slices (#20)
Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes  (good to freeze extra portions of)
Spinach Salad with Salmon
Dutch Baby Pancakes (mmm, mmm, mmm... great weekend breakfast treat! Just make sure not to touch the pan... even after your spouse tells you not to touch the pan because they just burned themselves by touching it...)
Parmesan-Carrot Risotto (not our absolute favorite, but decent enough)
Easiest Indian Stew (not my favorite b/c of canned chickpeas, but Derek likes it)
*Kielbasa & Kidney Beans (easy, yummy one-pot meal)
Slow-Cooker Moroccan-Style Chicken & Potato Stew (easy crock-pot meal)
Grilled sausages from Whole Foods with sweet potato fries and/or a side salad
Vegetable Lasagna (using the Barilla pre-cooked lasagna noodles and substituting veggies for the meat included on the recipe on the box)
Derek's Peanut-Sauce Veggie Stir-Fry
Deviled Eggs (not a dinner, but I <3 this recipe and just want to include it while I'm listing all of this)



/ end random glimpse into our at-home eating recipes for the first half of 2010

Now... friends: your turn to share your favorite (easy, weeknight meal) recipes with us!   We've tried the recipe exchange thing and none of you participated, so now it's time for you to just downright type them out and email / comment on this post or search for it on the internet and send us the link.   We'll need more come fall!

In Need of Professional Help

So, the three hour bobbin-winding adventure led me to believe I needed some professional help.  (Hold your jokes, Dad...)  I headed to Jo-Ann Fabrics for their Sewing 101 class and had many ohhhhhhh moments throughout the three hour class.  The instructor was a sweet, middle-aged woman with two first names who makes her own clothes and seemed like she belonged on a country homestead somewhere.  She was great and very patient! :)  We stitched together a small nine-block, so I even got my first taste of quilting.  After I got over my initial bewilderment of how things are actually sewn together (I am definitely not a spatial learner), it all came together... albeit a little wonkily.

My next class was at this cute little boutique store nearby called Stitches.  My mission: sew pajama pants from a pattern.   The instructor was a young, hip, professional costumer for a theater group and he was on.top.of.us. making sure we did everything exactly -- which was a good thing, since he assured us, as "home sewers," we would take many shortcuts in the future, so we mind as well learn properly.  It made me even more nervous for a bit, but in the end I was appreciative of his guidance.  I ran out of time to purchase fabric and a pattern, so I picked them up just before class started, which meant I didn't get to pre-wash the fabric.  Oops... lesson learned!  But the instructor assured me it would be fine, especially since "the patterns you'll be able to sew at first, and... most patterns... are equivalent to shopping at Wal-mart for clothing."  Aka: big and bulky.  It ended up being true, although his attitude towards "home sewers" amused me.

The class was two nights long and I worked hard, asking questions and having to re-do things as I went along.  I was definitely glad to have guidance... and am not sure I can successfully do this again with a new pair yet (although I'm sure I could fumble my way through it).  But, I did come to a much better understanding of how pants are put together... something that truly baffled me when having to think about before.  (Have I mentioned I'm not a spatially aware person yet?).  I had to finish the pants at home... didn't quite get to the hemming part in class... and was a little disappointed by that, but it ended up being okay in the end.  Sewing properly takes patience... a good lesson for me. (Typically, I want things done NOW... in case you didn't know that about me.) (My husband will be shaking his head up and down vigorously as he reads that I'm sure.  In fact, I'm fairly certain he is getting a certain level of enjoyment out of watching me have to be exacting, neat, and careful). 

I wish I took more photos of the process!  I did rush right out to the Pacific Fabrics Outlet store with Derek in tow to pick out a fabric for his very own pajama pants, but I have yet to tackle that project.  The pants, which were an extra small size on the pattern, were big from the waist to the crotch, so I have to fold them over at the top several times, but the legs fit well.  I hope when I'm more competent and confident enough to tackle these again, I'll be able to adjust more as I go and make them fit properly.... and tackle a drawstring waist instead of an elastic one, because seriously, those are just so much cuter.  (He said we weren't ready for that yet).   Despite their slight bagginess, they're comfy (and softened up as well as thankfully shrunk a bit when I washed them) and I've been wearing them regularly.... especially since my previous pj pants split in the back and my attempts at using the machine to fix them (again... death to hand sewing!) were nowhere close to successful. :)

Here's the final product.  Yay!  Something actually wearable!  I felt so accomplished!

I wore them twice to two pajama days at school as per my kids' request.  Their faces when I showed them were super cute and heartwarming -- they were in shock and awe that I actually made that!  So, basically, I'll just keep showing my sewing projects to ten year-olds and impress them instead of actual sewers and I'll feel great about myself.  Sounds like a plan!

Tilapia and Quinoa with feta & cucumber salad

This was the first (and only) post I wrote for a failed attempt at a food blog back in April....

Delicious (and healthy!) dinner tonight from this month's Everyday Food. The heading says "Protein will keep you full longer, and this recipe has two lean sources of it." We really like quinoa and, as it turns out, also enjoy tilapia. We bought fresh tilapia from Pike Place Market and were glad we did! The meal was quick and easy to cook - only a few ingredients and truly a 30 minute recipe (unlike some of the other ones we try that end up being much longer). We didn't have dill or lemon and Derek didn't find the cayenne pepper, so it could be a bit more flavorful next time, but we enjoyed the simple tastes nonetheless. This is definitely a repeatable weeknight dinner.


Martha Stuart, Everyday Food, April 2010, page 69.

Ingredients:

• 1 c quinoa
• coarse salt & ground pepper
• 2.5 tsp EVOO
• 1 lb boneless, skinless tilapia fillets, divided into 8 pieces
• 3/4 tsp paprika
• 1 c English cucumber (6 oz), diced small
• 1/2 c roughly chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 c fetal (1.5 oz), crumbled
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1. In a small saucepan, bring quinoa, 2c water, and 1 tsp salt to a boil over high. Reduce to a medium simmer and cook until water evaporates, about 15 minutes. Transfer quinoa to a medium bowl and let cool 5 minutes.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1.5 tsp oil over medium-high. Pat fish dry and season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with paprika. Cook fillets until opaque throughout, about 4 minutes, flipping halfway through. Stir cucumber, dill, feta, 1 tsp oil, and lemon juice into quinoa. Season with salt and pepper. Divide quinoa among four plates and top with fish.

Stage One: Ummm.... cool stuff. Now what?!

 I was bound and determined to teach myself to sew, so my first stop was Amazon to scour reviews for an easy and fun book for beginners.  I ended up with a wide array of books:  S.E.W. Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, Teach Yourself Visually: Sewing by Debbie Colgrove  (honoring one of my learning styles in true educator fashion), Teach Yourself Visually: Quilting by Sonja Hakala and The Quilter's Ultimate Visual Guide from A-Z by Ellen Paul.  I may or may not have bought a few other titles when I went on my second stop, Joann Fabrics, for my Sewing Shopping Extravaganza.  (Hey... I anticipated needing a LOT of help here).  I spent about three hours wandering the rows, trying to figure out what on earth half of these items on the list I had dubiously compiled from reading S.E.W. Everything were.  Turns out it was a great weekend to go - almost everything I needed was on Super Sewing Sale, and although that meant there were approximately one million people there, it saved me money (in addition to the 15% teacher discount I was introduced to and was able to receive after much scuffling and finally, my brilliant move of showing my teacher website with the current year stated on my iphone).  It took me about two hours to get up the courage to ask a salesperson a question (thankfully, less people were still around at that point), and once I did, I was on my way.  A couple hundred dollars later, I was well-equipped and headed home to organize it all.

After the addition of a five-drawer cart and three wicker baskets underneath my desk, it all fit in my new sewing corner.  Satisfied with myself for a few days or so, I just looked at all my pretty new things, dreaming of what an excellent craftswoman I would become simply by possessing them.  It was much fun to own cool new things!  Although finally, I got up the courage to make good on this effort and Learn.To.Sew.  Derek was out of town, so I read through the entire S.E.W. Everything Workshop book, opened up my sewing machine manual, and set to work trying to thread the machine.

Although... it didn't make any sense.  I couldn't get the bobbin to come up and meet the thread.  I barely knew what a bobbin was!  My manual was unclear on one teeny step in the process and the book was too generic, so, after about an hour of going through the Nine Stages of I Can't Do This Frustration and a little positive self-talk ("You cannot quit or else your husband will make you take back all this pretty stuff."), I brilliantly decided to YouTube it.  10 videos and another hour later, I had a completely threaded machine! Yahoo!   Time to practice making some stitches and seeing if I can get this thing to go straight.  Ohhh... so that's how pockets and bags work!  See above.  (Yes, I properly labeled and documented these important historical artifacts and tucked them safely away in my new 5-drawer organizer.)

Exhausted but feeling accomplished, I headed to bed, convinced I was on my way to becoming a Sewing Superstar.  The next day, I tackled my first project: a pin-cushion! (the one rated the easiest - least amount of spools of thread - in the book).  How... practical!  And much cooler looking than that stupid tomato one they sell at the stores... I mean, what is up with that ugly thing?  I bought a blue and green tomato just to be different, but I still hates it. Anyway...  I cut the pieces entirely too big so it's perhaps double the size of what it should be, but I figure that just makes more more pin-holding and less finger-pinching.  The challenge became the part where I had to HAND SEW a part of it together.  Um... what?! I didn't sign up for this!  I have a nice, fancy machine to do that for me, right?!  Turns out that being in all those smart people enrichment classes and getting to forgo actual domestic classes such as sewing, cooking, etc., wasn't as cool in the long-term as I thought it was back then.  (But, hey... I can produce you a TV show with 1990s basic equipment and write interview questions for local non-celebrities like a rockstar - thank-you, EOP).  Anyway, Derek was back home by now, so I frantically asked for his help  (allegedly, his middle school didn't offer all those "smart people classes.").  He's sewn plenty of Kobe's toys back together, so this wasn't a big deal -- but he did make sure to mock me well for my inability to learn to hand sew.  (I have still since avoided this... hand sewing = the bane of my existence).   The finished product turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!  Hurrah -- I can pick cute fabric!  Unfortunately, I didn't have the right filling (used quilter's batting instead) so the pins can actually poke you from the underside if you push them far enough in, but... I just avoid that and we're all good. :)  But did you notice how CUTE it is?

/end first sewing adventures

Statement of Intent

My twenty year-old self (or even my twenty five year-old self) would laugh if they saw this blog existed.  Somehow, I've decided to start sewing and quilting and become Crafty.  I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, and, after making sure I hadn't bumped my head, my parents and husband promptly provided everything I needed to turn my ill-used desk into a crafting corner that I am determined to make good use of. There is no natural talent here, that's assured, but somehow I'm interested in seeing where this adventure takes me.

Also, we are undergoing a continual quest to eat at home more often and effectively use all of our nice, shiny new kitchen gadgets we received as wedding gifts / decrease our poor eating out habits (for both fiscal and health reasons). I've been taking photos of the dishes we make on a regular basis and needed a space to organize and comment on them - a place for us to keep track of what we're making; what we want to repeat again, what we'd change if we made something again, where the recipe is, etc.

So, merging my love for photographic documentation and my need to prove to both myself and the people in my life that yes, this is actually happening (I have gone crazy and turned against all natural instincts), this blog is born.  Let's see how it turns out, shall we?