We cooked some crazy stuff this week! First, on Monday we had sausages, zucchini and walnut-parsley pesto! The sausages are a staple in our diet - spicy chicken sausage from a local butcher. Zucchini is also a staple. We just cook it into butter until the edges/faces of the zucchini are nicely browned/caramelized. The pesto was AWESOME! George toasted the walnut pieces and whole, unpeeled garlic cloves on the stove top.
He then blended the nuts, garlic, olive oil, parsley, and parmesan cheese to make the pesto. It was so different from normal pesto, but I really liked it! It came from one of my go-to cookbooks - the Cook's Illustrated notebook cookbook. It is where a lot of our classics come from, including my ranch dressing and George's skillet cornbread. I'm sure they'll end up on the classics page!
Do you and Mama have this? It is a must-have when you move! Maybe I'll get it for you as a housewarming gift!
Tuesday night we got even crazier. Well, I did. We get broccoli in our veggie box most weeks (I have to remember to take a picture of our veggie box this week! We get it every Monday!), and I get tired of figuring out what to do with broccoli; I'm always looking for new things to do with it. I worked from home on Tuesday, so I had time to come up with something inventive.
First, we had two sweet potatoes to get rid of. I found a recipe for them in my "fresh and fast" cook book:
Toss sliced sweet potatoes with olive oil and garlic. Roast them for ~ 30 minutes. Toss them with parsley and one big piece of orange zest and roast them for 10 minutes more. They were good! The parsley didn't really wilt in the 10 minutes - it just got really crispy and delicate! Not as much orange flavor as I expected, but good nonetheless.
Then, I sauteed onions and mushrooms to use as a topping on the T-bone steak I made George cook.
Then, I whipped broccoli!! This recipe was bizarre and from one of my favorite vegetable cookbooks: Nika Hazleton's Way With Vegetables. Boil broccoli - florets and peeled stalks - until very soft. Drain and reserve liquid. Blend with minimal cooking liquid in a blender. Strain blended green puree with a sieve. Put back in pot and evaporate as much liquid as possible.
Stir in a couple pads of butter, a little cream, and a pinch of nutmeg. GOOD! The broccoli was so light and fluffy in our mouth and the nutmeg was the perfect complementary spice.
Our tiny, tiny tiny, tiny stove. Cause of much of George's sighing.
George says you won't like this picture because the food is touching. La la la!
He's in the kitchen right now making biscuits for breakfast! I think he's just now realizing we don't have enough buttermilk. La la la! Better go in to help!
I'll take more pictures. I'm sure we'll get up to some cooking this weekend. I love you, Biddy!
Claire
Biddy!
ReplyDeleteI love the sweet potatoes idea! I get tired of eating plain sweet potatoes. The orange flavor seems like it would be awesome with them. I am super envious of George's nontraditional pesto! I've seen recipes for weird pestos before but have never tried them. I am inspired! Mama and I will make one this week (maybe on a night when papa has burns club ha). I don't have the test kitchen family cookbook. I have the huge cooks illustrated book that mama gave everyone but I don't have that red book.
I am intrigued by the broccoli but I'm generally wary of nutmeg in savory dishes. I think it is because of the norwegian meatballs that mama makes every once in a while that have nutmeg in them. I gag and die when I smell them and especially when I have to eat them and pretend to like them.
I cannot believe that George knows I don't like it when my foods touch. I really don't like it but I can tolerate it in pictures.
If you need a buttermilk substitute, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or some people say vinegar) to just shy of 1 cup of regular milk and let it sit for 10 minutes. I'm sure you already know that! I have to do it all the time because I never have buttermilk around.
Going to write a new post!
LTB!