Thursday 30 August 2012

Tomato, Zucchini, and Eggplant Tian

 As other posts will tell you, we get a box of fruit and vegetables once a week from Boston Organics. This box contained eggplant, thus this recipe was followed and altered a bit.

Ingredients:
  • 2 pounds round tomatoes, about 4, sliced thin
  • 1 red onion, sliced thin
  • 1/2 pounds zucchini, about 2, sliced thin
  • 1 eggplant, sliced thin
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp basil leaves
  • 1/4 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp parsley
  • 1/2 tsp dill
  • 1/2 oregano
Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
2) Arrange the vegetables in rows in the baking dish in the order of: tomato, eggplant, tomato, zucchini, onion, repeat. If there is extra place it in the middle or around the edges.
3) Season with salt and pepper






4) Mix the herbs and additional salt and pepper into the olive oil.
5) Poor the olive oil over the vegetables in the dish.







6) Place tinfoil over the vegetables and bake for 1 hour.








7) Remove the tinfoil and bake for another 1/2 hour.





Mashed Potatoes with Cheddar and Chives

 As my last post will tell you, we get a box of fruit and vegetables once a week from Boston Organics. This box contained chives, thus this recipe was followed and altered a bit.

These do not turn into potato pancakes well. I think it is the cheeses and cream.

Ingredients:
  • 4 lb baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-in chunks
  • 10 oz sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 1/2 cup low fat sour cream
  • 1/3 cup low fat cream cheese
  • 3 TBSP butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
Directions:
1) Boil potatoes in a large pot in water for about 20 minutes, or until tender when stuck with a fork.
2) Scoop off 1 cup cooking water and reserve.
3) Drain.






4) Return potatoes to the pot and add the water and the rest of the ingredients.
5) Mash.




Apple Cobbler

I'm staying with friends in Boston right now, and they signed up for Boston Organics meaning that every Tuesday they get a box of veggies and fruit delivered that is all organic and from the Boston area, but some are from NY or as far as CA so you can get different types of stuff that normally doesn't grow in your area.

Anyway, one of the things we got this week was apples. The package also comes with some recipes that you can make with the items in the basket. I was just going to make apple pie, but my friend has the mini baking tins so we decided this was better (since the tins had never been used before).

This dish can be served warm or cold and with or without ice cream. If you want to reheat it (as I will be doing), preheat the oven to 350F/175C again and then heat the bowls for 5-10 minutes.

Ingredients:
  • 4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into large pieces
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp apple pie seasoning (you can leave this out if you don't have it, the original recipe didn't call for this or cinnamon, but I figure it always makes it better)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
2) Toss apples, sugar, salt, cinnamon and apple pie seasoning together.







3) Divide equally among 4 individual oven proof bowls.









4) Combine butter and flour with fingertips until mixture has the texture of oatmeal (I used the same bowl without washing it out).
5) Add brown sugar and mix in a bit, allowing for the mixture to be lumpy.





6) Distribute evenly over apples.









7) Bake for 30 minutes. I placed them on one tray so putting them in and taking them out would be easy.



Sweet & Sour Stir Fry

Budget Bytes was right, this is super quick when you don't have a lot of time to cook...or you had a really late lunch and just moved to a new place and thus don't have any food and need to get something quick at the store before it's too late. I made a few changes based on what we had around (i.e. no corn starch, so I left out the water too, as the corn starch would thicken and reduce the water).

Ingredients:
  • Frozen stir fry vegetables (I just found a package that I liked, because there were none labeled 'stir fry' at the Stop and Shop by me) (contained broccoli, carrots and red and orange peppers)
  • 1 TBSP vegetable oil
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder (I really like garlic...)
  • 2 TBSP brown sugar
  • 1 TBSP ketchup
  • 1 TBSP soy sauce
  • 1/2 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
Directions:
1) Combine the brown sugar though the ginger adding a bit of vegetable oil (I used 1 extra TBSP) to make it smooth.
2) Place the vegetable oil and garlic powder in a pan and warm.






3) Add the frozen vegetables and saute until warmed though.







4) Add the sauce to the hot pan and allow it to come to a simmer so you're sure the sauce is warm through too.
5) Serve with rice or on it's own (a friend was making rice but it was not done in time and I used a scoop of rice to eat my leftover sauce with).




Monday 27 August 2012

Tomato Soup

Last tomato recipe for awhile....as I have moved and no longer have access to 100,000 tomatoes.

Recipe taken from here with some changes.

Ingredients:
  • 3 lb tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup celery
  • 1/2 cup onion
  • 1 1/2 TBSP flour
  • 6 leaves of basil
  • 1/4 cup hot pepper
  • 1 cup milk
Directions:
1) Chop the tomatoes and place in 1 cup of water  on a stove top for 30 minutes.
2) Strain the tomatoes into a bowl, so as to reserve the liquid and throw out the mushy chunks, seeds and skin.









3) Place back on the stove and add the celery, onion, flour, basil and pepper.
4) Cook until you reach the desired consistency, which was about 40 minutes for me.






5) Add the milk and let cook for about 10 more minutes.
6) You may put it in a blender at this point to get rid of any chunks. I think my brother did this, as the soup was for him.

Gazpacho

So many tomatoes....

And I can't find the recipe I used again so I have to remember it using the pictures...pretty simple recipe though

Ingredients:
  • 6 tomatoes, or what you think would be the equilivent of 6, if some are very very large
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 piece of bread (and more to eat with if desired)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • dash of vinegar
  • handful of basil
  • a few hot peppers (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste
 Directions:
1) Chop all the veg and rip the bread









2) Add the tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, bread, oil and vinegar to a food processor (this may need to be done in batches, as mine was)
3)  Add the basil, hot peppers and salt and pepper to taste.


Before basil and hot peppers....
 ...After basil and hot peppers


Tuesday 21 August 2012

Cosmo

I was given some tequila last week and made margaritas by buying a bottle of triple sec (and didn't take pictures, thus no blog post) and didn't know what else to do with it...until I googled and found out that cosmos have triple sec in them (only seen on menus, never made one before).

Ingredients:
  • 2 parts vodka
  • 1 part triple sec
  • 1 part cranbrerry
  • 1 part lime juice
  • ice
Directions:
1) Combine the ingredients.

Bruschetta Pasta

I saw the recipe for this on the Food Network in Zambia and have never bothered to look for it online because it is so simple!

Ingredients:
  • Cooked pasta
  • Mozerella
  • Cherry Tomato
  • Basil
    • all of these can be in whatever ratio you prefer them in
Directions:
1) Cook the pasta.
2) Cut the mozerella into cubs, the tomato in half and the basil into slices.
3) Toss the pasta with the mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil.



Baked Onion Rings

 My nephew saw me using onions the other day and told me that he loves onion rings! Turns out he only likes the kind that are covered in oil and fried...more for me!

Ingredients:
  • yellow onion (it's what I use in general for cooking, unless told otherwise)
  • garlic breadcrumbs (because who does not like garlic) with the following added
    • basil
    • salt
    • pepper
    • cumin
  • flour
  • egg
Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 400F.
2) Set up a station just like in the Fried Green Tomatoes.
3) Cut the onion into thin slices, about 1/3 of an inch thick
4) Cover with egg, flour, egg, breadcrumbs and place on a tinfoil lined baking tray.






5) Bake for 15 minutes (or until crispy).












Wednesday 15 August 2012

Fried Green Tomatoes

Another garden post! A tomato fell off early and I was told to do something with it. Not sure what to do besides fried green tomatoes!

Ingredients:
  • Green tomato
  • 2 eggs, mixed together
  • flour
  • whatever breadcrumbs you like
  • vegetable or canola oil
Directions:
1) Slice the tomato pretty thin.
2) Set up bowls with the eggs in the middle and the breadcrumbs on the side closest to the pan of oil.
3) Being heating the oil on medium heat.
4) Cover the slices of tomato in this order: egg, flour, egg, breadcrumbs




5) Place in the pan and let cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until browned.
6) Place on a paper towel to get the excess oil off, again flipping after a few minutes.





7) Move to a plate to allow them to cool more.





 I added mine to a veggie burger with onions sauteed with old bay seasoning and parsley.
 The onions with the old bay and parsley.