A quick Google tells me that vegetarian shepherd's pie is called "shepherdess pie." That upsets me. I don't understand the feminization of healthier foods. Men eat meat, women eat vegetables. It reminds me of this ad for a masculine version of diet soda.

I started this story last week, with my vegan garlic mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes without butter and milk are pretty easy; you use stock instead. This dish has been called "Swanson Mashed Potatoes," so I'm guessing it was Swanson chicken broth's idea. Or they popularized it. But you can do it with vegetable stock* too. I added roasted garlic to make it a bit richer.

Let's imagine we all cooked together and you've got some taters to start with. Next, clean out your fridge. I was inspired to do this when I thought my fridge had stopped working, and I found homes for my dairy and whatnot, but there wasn't enough space for the veg. I rescued my foods in order of cost. So I had carrots and turnips and mushrooms in the fridge, and also potatoes and onions. Shepherd's pie. I made a meat version 8 months ago, burned it, and I offer this link only for a laugh.



I started with my carrots and turnips.



I cut the carrots into rounds, and cut the thicker rounds in half. Then I diced my turnips fairly large.



Luckily, I was only about halfway through the first turnip when I realized they needed to be peeled. That's the drag about cooking seasonally... I haven't seen a turnip in a long time, and I think I forgot how they work. Turnips do not lend themselves to vegetable peelers. You need to use a knife.



I turned my oven to 400 and set my veg to roast. First, I spritzed them with a bit of olive oil.

 They were going to be a while, so I took this time to make the gravy.

Onions.

Only three of these made it in (one was scary) and that was plenty of onion. Diced up.



I cut some mushrooms into various sizes. I wanted some to almost melt into the gravy and others to provide a bit of texture. I used about two and a half cups of cut-up mushrooms.

I got the onions going in a tablespoon of oil, and when they were translucent I added the mushrooms. I gave them just a few minutes to toss around in the heat on medium and then added stock and wine and black pepper. A cup of stock, a quarter cup of red wine, and a lot of black pepper.



I dialed that up to a constant bubble but not really a boil, to reduce and thicken, and let it go for half an hour while the vegetables roasted. When it was thicker but not quite thick enough, I added some flour and stirred vigorously. I'd have whisked if there weren't mushrooms in the way.

The veg were done after they'd been in for about 40 minutes. They were wrinkly and getting crisp around the edges. A creative person would do something with the fond here on the bottom of the pan. I did not.

Instead, I added some fresh thyme.



And mixed that with the roasted veg. I actually transferred it to a larger pan at this point, too.

I poured the mushroom/onion/gravy mix overtop and mixed that together.



Then I got out my potatoes. I had mashed up four smallish potatoes and had about four cups. "Recipe" here. I tossed all of that on top of the "stew."

And spread it around with a spatula.

Everything was cooked at this point, so we just needed to get it warmed up together and get those potatoes just a little toasty on top. 10 minutes at 350.

When it was done, it was just golden along the tops of the peaks.

There was a decent stew-to-potato ratio, but that isn't obvious in the later pictures. On a plate it looks like mashed potatoes that were exposed to some vegetable stew.

It looked a bit of a mess on a plate, but was hearty and flavorful. The carrots were just sweet and the gravy was rich and mushroom-y.

It doesn't cut cleanly, it's stew, with potatoes on top.

I had to rush home from a South Philly Food Co-op member meeting to get this post together. It was really inspirational to see a room full of the founding membership and some potential members.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

*Just a note - my homemade veg stock has no salt, so if you're using something not-homemade, use less salt in the recipe. Or none.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups mushrooms (baby bella, white, etc)

 

• 3 large carrots (sliced)

 

• 3 medium onions, diced

 

• 2 turnips

 

• 1 cup vegetable stock (no salt)

 

• 1/4 cup red wine

 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons white flour

 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

 

• black pepper, plenty - to taste

 

• salt, to taste

 

• 10 sprigs thyme (optional)

 

• 4 cups vegan mashed potatoes

Instructions

• Peel and dice turnips, slice carrots, spritz with olive oil and place in preheated 400 degree oven in a baking dish. Leave for 40 minutes while you do other things.

 

• Put 1 tbsp of oil in a saute pan and heat to medium. Add onions and saute until translucent and fragrant.

 

• Add mushrooms to pan and toss for a minute or so before adding stock and wine.

 

• Simmer pretty high, not quite boiling to reduce and thicken.

 

• When carrots and turnips are crisp at edges and wrinkly all over, sprinkle flour over mushroom/onion gravy and stir vigorously.

 

• Add mushroom/onion gravy to roasted vegetables, with optional thyme. Arrange in large baking dish.

 

• Top with mashed potatoes (I used 4 potatoes, skin on, 3/4 cup stock and one head roasted garlic). Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until potatoes are slightly browned at peaks.

Details

• Prep time: 10 mins

 

• Cook time: 1 hour

 

• Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

 

• Yield: 6 servings

 

I'm a sucker for rich breads. Somehow, croissants, challah and brioche are excluded from my general disdain for pastry and such. The line has to fall somewhere. So, I got it in my head that I was going to make brioche. I had a sandwich in mind. Brioche is tender and barely sweet, and full of butter, eggs and milk. So, I got to Googling. Julia Child's recipe has 12 tablespoons of butter and four eggs... King Arthur Flour is great for bread recipes. But wow... ten tablespoons of butter and three eggs... Epicurious uses just eight tablespoons of butter... All of a sudden it was time to re-think. I'd make something brioche-ish (say that three times fast!). So I Googled a bit harder. There was a less-rich recipe that had gotten around a bit. NYT had published a light brioche sandwich roll. Smitten Kitchen recreated it. This was it. Not only did I have a *much* lighter recipe, but of course it was going to work, because it got passed around and there were pictures. Any fool (read: me) can post a recipe up on the Internet, but that doesn't mean it's going to work. I felt good about this one. So we start like we start, with yeast foaming up.So this is yeast, warm water, milk, and honey (my adaptation). And in a large bowl, bread flour, AP flour and salt. Whisked. Per the recipe, I took my very softened butter and worked it into the flour. I used a scant bit more butter than the original recipe, because I used skim milk rather than whole. The flour to butter ratio didn't make a lot of sense to me for this technique. This is what we do with crackers and pie crusts and I'm just used to there being more butter. So the butter was gone and a lot of unbuttered flour remained, but I did my best. I added the bubbly yeast to the flour/butter mix. And a beaten egg. And stirred until it started to get dough-like. So, the next line in the recipe is this: "Scrape dough onto clean, unfloured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes." But I have a nice mixer, I don't do that sort of thing by hand anymore. So I dumped it into my mixer and set it to knead. Plenty of the other recipes I read said to use a mixer, and the King Arthur recipe and the Julia Child one kind of say you can't do it without a mixer. So after 10 minutes I had a near-liquid. I figured I had to dump it only an unfloured counter and move on as instructed. Unfloured, wow, that's bold. Hm. So scoop it up and slap it down? How about just spend the time scraping it off my hands? The dough was incredibly sticky. I tried to work it. I tried hard. But finally, I had to bust out the flour. Actually, look at my hands, finally I had to yell for Sous Chef Brian to open the flour and just dump it into my "workspace." It was rainy out. Maybe that was part of it. Either way, I added a quarter cup of additional bread flour at this point. I worked it into something kind of like a ball and put it in a bowl to rise. I was fairly certain things weren't working out at this point. Two hours later, the dough had really risen. Like, risen, formed a skin and deflated. So when I turned it out onto my board, it was like this. Oh, that's perfect. Now I'll just hit that with the bench scraper to cut it into eighths, and we'll be all set. I was absolutely certain things weren't working out at this point. With the help of quite a bit more flour, I managed to get eight lumpy balls. It was an ordeal. So those balls rose for about half an hour - the recipe said one to two hours, but despite the cool, rainy weather, something in this dough was set to rise quickly. Now egg wash. I really don't like to do egg washes when I'm just cooking for the two of us. I don't see the point in making it shiny and brown, and I don't like the waste, but things had gone poorly enough that I wanted to go by the book. All this leftover egg/water mix got trashed. My shiny rolls were ready to go into the oven. But the oven needed to preheat for a few more minutes, so they sat on the counter. Notice how my pictures are dark and shadowy? Yeah, that's because I got a new lamp. It's the wrong lamp. But I didn't realize how wrong until it fell down and landed on my ready-for-the-oven-brioche. Yeah. At this point, the brioche were obviously disappointed in me. But hey, the oven was at 400. So I put them in, sad faces and all, with a pan of water. Seven minutes, turn, ten minutes (recipe says 15 total).  And they looked like rolls. Pretty rolls, even. And they cut like rolls. And they tasted awesome. Not like a guilt-ridden pastry, but like an awesome sandwich roll. Soft and light, a little bit sweet. Just a little bit. This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.  Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour, divided
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons skim milk
• 2 2/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs, beaten, divided
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions

• Warm the water and milk to body temperature or just above, mix in honey. Sprinkle in yeast and set aside to get foamy.
• Whisk together all purpose flour and 3 cups of the bread flour with the salt.
• Beat one egg.
• Add foamy yeast mix and beaten egg to flour/salt mixture.
• Stir to combine and form a dough.
• Work the dough until smooth and elastic - I had difficulty with the mixer and chose to go by hand. Use extra flour if necessary.
• Set dough in a covered bowl to rise until doubled in size.
• Divide risen dough into eight equal pieces. Roll into balls (I needed extra flour to do this) and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled again.
• Preheat oven to 400 and set a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack.
• Brush remaining beaten egg over rolls and bake 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown on top. Turn sheet once during baking.

Details

• Prep time: 1 hour
• Cook time: 15 mins
• Total time: 3 hour 15 mins
• Yield: 8 rolls

I'm a sucker for rich breads. Somehow, croissants, challah and brioche are excluded from my general disdain for pastry and such. The line has to fall somewhere. So, I got it in my head that I was going to make brioche. I had a sandwich in mind. Brioche is tender and barely sweet, and full of butter, eggs and milk. So, I got to Googling.

Julia Child's recipe has 12 tablespoons of butter and four eggs...

King Arthur Flour is great for bread recipes. But wow... ten tablespoons of butter and three eggs...

Epicurious uses just eight tablespoons of butter...

All of a sudden it was time to re-think. I'd make something brioche-ish (say that three times fast!).

So I Googled a bit harder. There was a less-rich recipe that had gotten around a bit. NYT had published a light brioche sandwich roll. Smitten Kitchen recreated it. This was it. Not only did I have a *much* lighter recipe, but of course it was going to work, because it got passed around and there were pictures. Any fool (read: me) can post a recipe up on the Internet, but that doesn't mean it's going to work. I felt good about this one.

So we start like we start, with yeast foaming up.So this is yeast, warm water, milk, and honey (my adaptation).

And in a large bowl, bread flour, AP flour and salt. Whisked.

Per the recipe, I took my very softened butter and worked it into the flour. I used a scant bit more butter than the original recipe, because I used skim milk rather than whole.

The flour to butter ratio didn't make a lot of sense to me for this technique. This is what we do with crackers and pie crusts and I'm just used to there being more butter. So the butter was gone and a lot of unbuttered flour remained, but I did my best.

I added the bubbly yeast to the flour/butter mix.

And a beaten egg.

And stirred until it started to get dough-like.

So, the next line in the recipe is this: "Scrape dough onto clean, unfloured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes."

But I have a nice mixer, I don't do that sort of thing by hand anymore. So I dumped it into my mixer and set it to knead. Plenty of the other recipes I read said to use a mixer, and the King Arthur recipe and the Julia Child one kind of say you can't do it without a mixer.

So after 10 minutes I had a near-liquid.

I figured I had to dump it only an unfloured counter and move on as instructed. Unfloured, wow, that's bold. Hm.

So scoop it up and slap it down?

How about just spend the time scraping it off my hands? The dough was incredibly sticky. I tried to work it. I tried hard. But finally, I had to bust out the flour. Actually, look at my hands, finally I had to yell for Sous Chef Brian to open the flour and just dump it into my "workspace."

It was rainy out. Maybe that was part of it. Either way, I added a quarter cup of additional bread flour at this point. I worked it into something kind of like a ball and put it in a bowl to rise.

I was fairly certain things weren't working out at this point.

Two hours later, the dough had really risen. Like, risen, formed a skin and deflated.

So when I turned it out onto my board, it was like this.

Oh, that's perfect. Now I'll just hit that with the bench scraper to cut it into eighths, and we'll be all set.

I was absolutely certain things weren't working out at this point.

With the help of quite a bit more flour, I managed to get eight lumpy balls.

It was an ordeal.

So those balls rose for about half an hour - the recipe said one to two hours, but despite the cool, rainy weather, something in this dough was set to rise quickly.

Now egg wash. I really don't like to do egg washes when I'm just cooking for the two of us. I don't see the point in making it shiny and brown, and I don't like the waste, but things had gone poorly enough that I wanted to go by the book.

All this leftover egg/water mix got trashed.

My shiny rolls were ready to go into the oven.

But the oven needed to preheat for a few more minutes, so they sat on the counter.

Notice how my pictures are dark and shadowy? Yeah, that's because I got a new lamp. It's the wrong lamp. But I didn't realize how wrong until it fell down and landed on my ready-for-the-oven-brioche.

Yeah. At this point, the brioche were obviously disappointed in me.

But hey, the oven was at 400. So I put them in, sad faces and all, with a pan of water. Seven minutes, turn, ten minutes (recipe says 15 total).

 And they looked like rolls. Pretty rolls, even.

And they cut like rolls.

And they tasted awesome. Not like a guilt-ridden pastry, but like an awesome sandwich roll. Soft and light, a little bit sweet. Just a little bit.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour, divided


• 1/3 cup all purpose flour


• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt


• 1 cup warm water


• 3 tablespoons skim milk


• 2 2/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened


• 2 eggs, beaten, divided


• 2 tablespoons honey


• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions

• Warm the water and milk to body temperature or just above, mix in honey. Sprinkle in yeast and set aside to get foamy.


• Whisk together all purpose flour and 3 cups of the bread flour with the salt.


• Beat one egg.


• Add foamy yeast mix and beaten egg to flour/salt mixture.


• Stir to combine and form a dough.


• Work the dough until smooth and elastic - I had difficulty with the mixer and chose to go by hand. Use extra flour if necessary.


• Set dough in a covered bowl to rise until doubled in size.


• Divide risen dough into eight equal pieces. Roll into balls (I needed extra flour to do this) and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled again.


• Preheat oven to 400 and set a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack.


• Brush remaining beaten egg over rolls and bake 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown on top. Turn sheet once during baking.

Details

• Prep time: 1 hour


• Cook time: 15 mins


• Total time: 3 hour 15 mins


• Yield: 8 rolls

Yay, Autumn! I don't know about you, but while I'll miss zucchini and tomatoes, I'm alright with summer's passing. Not being outdoorsy, or in school, or wealthy, I just don't get it when people ask me, "How was your summer?" No one checks in during March and asks how winter went. We don't summer in the Hamptons, and I haven't had a summer "off" since before 12th grade. Summer's just a lot of sweating, and mosquito bites, and air conditioning, and trying to find a way to work around the heat (salted radishes for dinner). But then there's autumn! Autumn with it's crispness and calmness and leaves changing color and chasing each other down the street in the wind. Autumn. Skirts with sweaters! And autumn is apples and squash and cabbages and greens. We got our first load of autumnal fruit in the CSA two weeks ago. And somehow, didn't jump into high gear eating apples and pears every day. Time to make sauce. Apple-pear sauce is exactly the same thing as applesauce, only pear-ier. It's a little bit less crisp and somewhat more earthy. If you can call pears earthy. I mean, they're not root vegetables. Rarely do I post a recipe where there are required tools. Typically it's like, "mix this using whatcha got," but a wire mesh strainer is key here. Or a food mill, but I don't have that. Gather your fruit. With a paring knife (or an apple corer, or whatever), core your fruit. Toss out any bruised or ugly spots. We'd had these fruit for nearly two weeks, so I lost about a pears-worth in the process. I started with a pound of pears and two pounds of apples, pre-coring and cleaning. Four pears, five apples. No idea what kind of apples they are, something from somewhere around here. Toss the fruit into a pot, skins and all. And add the juice of a lemon. Add enough water to just about come up to the top of the fruit and simmer, medium, no boil, for 20 minutes or so. When the fruit is soft - and think like, boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes soft - turn off the heat and get your strainer set up over a large bowl. Scoop your fruit out of the water and into the strainer - hold on to the water. Smush through the strainer with a wooden spoon. Remove peels from the strainer as you go, just to make it easier for the fruit to pass through the mesh. Just keep working it with the back of the spoon.  After it's all passed through the strainer, I like to give it a second pass, so scrape out the skins and what didn't go through, give a rinse and dump the sauce back into the strainer for round two. If you like it thicker, stop here and don't give it a second strain. After two passes, I add back some of the liquid from cooking, just enough to get the texture I want. I like it pretty fine. Sure, you can add sugar and cinnamon and all, but depending on the apples you have, it might be pretty awesome just like this. You can always reheat it and simmer it with spices before serving, but natural, unsweetened, unflavored sauce is delicious straight up or for baking.  This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.  You don't so much need a recipe, but this is a great way to use the apples and pears that are coming in this season. Ignore the measurements and use what you have. Ingredients

• 2 pounds apples
• 1 pound pears
• 2 cups water
• 1 lemon

Instructions

• Core the fruit and place it in a large pot.
• Add water almost to the top of the fruit.
• Add the juice of one lemon.
• Simmer medium low, avoiding boiling, until fruit is tender.
• Work fruit through a metal sieve with a wooden spoon.
• For finer sauce, take two passes through the sieve and add some reserved cooking water until you have the texture you want.

Details

• Prep time: 15 mins
• Cook time: 20 mins
• Total time: 35 mins
• Yield: 6 servings

Yay, Autumn!

I don't know about you, but while I'll miss zucchini and tomatoes, I'm alright with summer's passing. Not being outdoorsy, or in school, or wealthy, I just don't get it when people ask me, "How was your summer?" No one checks in during March and asks how winter went. We don't summer in the Hamptons, and I haven't had a summer "off" since before 12th grade. Summer's just a lot of sweating, and mosquito bites, and air conditioning, and trying to find a way to work around the heat (salted radishes for dinner).

But then there's autumn! Autumn with it's crispness and calmness and leaves changing color and chasing each other down the street in the wind. Autumn. Skirts with sweaters! And autumn is apples and squash and cabbages and greens.

We got our first load of autumnal fruit in the CSA two weeks ago. And somehow, didn't jump into high gear eating apples and pears every day. Time to make sauce.

Apple-pear sauce is exactly the same thing as applesauce, only pear-ier. It's a little bit less crisp and somewhat more earthy. If you can call pears earthy. I mean, they're not root vegetables.

Rarely do I post a recipe where there are required tools. Typically it's like, "mix this using whatcha got," but a wire mesh strainer is key here. Or a food mill, but I don't have that.

Gather your fruit.

With a paring knife (or an apple corer, or whatever), core your fruit. Toss out any bruised or ugly spots. We'd had these fruit for nearly two weeks, so I lost about a pears-worth in the process. I started with a pound of pears and two pounds of apples, pre-coring and cleaning. Four pears, five apples. No idea what kind of apples they are, something from somewhere around here.

Toss the fruit into a pot, skins and all.

And add the juice of a lemon.

Add enough water to just about come up to the top of the fruit and simmer, medium, no boil, for 20 minutes or so.

When the fruit is soft - and think like, boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes soft - turn off the heat and get your strainer set up over a large bowl.

Scoop your fruit out of the water and into the strainer - hold on to the water. Smush through the strainer with a wooden spoon.

Remove peels from the strainer as you go, just to make it easier for the fruit to pass through the mesh. Just keep working it with the back of the spoon.

 After it's all passed through the strainer, I like to give it a second pass, so scrape out the skins and what didn't go through, give a rinse and dump the sauce back into the strainer for round two. If you like it thicker, stop here and don't give it a second strain.

After two passes, I add back some of the liquid from cooking, just enough to get the texture I want. I like it pretty fine.

Sure, you can add sugar and cinnamon and all, but depending on the apples you have, it might be pretty awesome just like this. You can always reheat it and simmer it with spices before serving, but natural, unsweetened, unflavored sauce is delicious straight up or for baking.

 This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

You don't so much need a recipe, but this is a great way to use the apples and pears that are coming in this season. Ignore the measurements and use what you have.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds apples


• 1 pound pears


• 2 cups water


• 1 lemon

Instructions

• Core the fruit and place it in a large pot.


• Add water almost to the top of the fruit.


• Add the juice of one lemon.


• Simmer medium low, avoiding boiling, until fruit is tender.


• Work fruit through a metal sieve with a wooden spoon.


• For finer sauce, take two passes through the sieve and add some reserved cooking water until you have the texture you want.

Details

• Prep time: 15 mins


• Cook time: 20 mins


• Total time: 35 mins


• Yield: 6 servings

Chard is the new spinach. Didn't you hear? Nutritionally they're very similar - actually, spinach has slight advantages. Slight. And chard is so easy. I get it locally, six months out of the year, and it just goes with everything. That said, you could totally use spinach here, or another leafy green. I've been using chard more and more in "Mexican"-style foods. A little chard in your black bean egg roll? Sure. In your quesadilla, of course. And in my Italian and Thai foods too. Chard plays well with others. So we're thinking about dinner, and Sous Chef Brian says, "Mexican," and I say, "We don't have any beans ready, we don't have meat...." So butternut squash and chard it is. I had leftover butternut squash from one of those secret recipes, so I had frozen it in cubes. Once I figured out what was going in it, dinner came together in minutes. Wash a head of chard and chop it roughly (this photo is unchopped chard). Find some peppers. Not necessary, but nice. I had these little sweet cherry peppers and one serrano.  You could use a jalepeno and some bell pepper. Chop them up and add them and your chard to a frying pan with a bit of oil. I used avocado oil, but go with what you like. Saute until wilted and remove from heat. Meanwhile, get your squash set. In fact, if you're starting from fresh, you need to do this first. Steam or bake your squash, skin it and cube it. Let's imagine everyone has a freezer full of veg like I do. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Please ignore my freezer burn."][/caption] Take a cup and a half of cubed, cooked, frozen squash and defrost it. Microwave works, or an oven on 300. Once it's warm and defrosted, mash it with a fork.  At this point, we faced a minor setback. We discovered our flour tortillas in the fridge had turned. I sent Brian to the corner store for "more tortillas." That's what I said, "more tortillas." We have flour tortillas on hand all the time, for quick sandwiches, and quesadillas and we use them for tacos too. I have no idea why we use them for tacos, but we do. We always have. So when Brian came back with (local!) blue corn tortillas, I was disappointed. Then I realized that everyone else uses corn. We're the only fools making tacos in flour tortillas. So there's been a little bit of a taco revolution at Saturday's Mouse HQ. A spritz of oil in a frying pan, high heat, and a corn tortilla. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Ok, pre-cooked, these things looked (and felt) a bit too much like stonewashed denim."][/caption] 30 seconds, until they start to bubble a bit and get a few brown spots. Flip and do it again. We also cut up some scallions. Mix the chard and squash, taste - we were surprised, we didn't season them at this point. We also knew we were adding cheese. If you weren't going to use cheese, maybe a pinch of salt. Cheese is optional, I'm calling this vegan. Put that on a taco and you're all set. Silly me, I thought of restaurant orders of tacos on corn tortillas and put three on a plate. Three is quite a lot of taco. I'm going to say this recipe serves three, with two tacos each. I had some Hillacres Pride chipotle smoked cheddar, which was awesome, but another cheese would work here. A dash of hot sauce and you're set.  This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.  Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butternut Squash (cooked and cubed)
• 1 head chard (cleaned and chopped)
• 6 corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup cheese (optional)
• 1.5 tbsp oil (avocado or whatever)
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 cup scallions, chopped
• 1 serrano pepper, diced (or jalepeno)
• 1/4 cup sweet pepper, diced (cherry or bell)

Instructions

• Saute chard and peppers in 1 tbsp of oil until wilted.
• Mash cooked squash with a fork. Combine with chard and peppers.
• Heat a spritz of oil in a frying pan, add a corn tortilla, heat until bubbles form, flip, heat another 30 seconds, set aside, repeat.
• Fill tacos with chard and squash mixture, top with scallions and cheese (optional).

Details

• Prep time: 5 mins
• Cook time: 15 mins
• Total time: 20 mins
• Yield: 3 servings

Chard is the new spinach. Didn't you hear? Nutritionally they're very similar - actually, spinach has slight advantages. Slight. And chard is so easy. I get it locally, six months out of the year, and it just goes with everything. That said, you could totally use spinach here, or another leafy green.

I've been using chard more and more in "Mexican"-style foods. A little chard in your black bean egg roll? Sure. In your quesadilla, of course. And in my Italian and Thai foods too. Chard plays well with others.

So we're thinking about dinner, and Sous Chef Brian says, "Mexican," and I say, "We don't have any beans ready, we don't have meat...." So butternut squash and chard it is.

I had leftover butternut squash from one of those secret recipes, so I had frozen it in cubes. Once I figured out what was going in it, dinner came together in minutes.

Wash a head of chard and chop it roughly (this photo is unchopped chard).



Find some peppers. Not necessary, but nice. I had these little sweet cherry peppers and one serrano.  You could use a jalepeno and some bell pepper.



Chop them up and add them and your chard to a frying pan with a bit of oil. I used avocado oil, but go with what you like. Saute until wilted and remove from heat.

Meanwhile, get your squash set. In fact, if you're starting from fresh, you need to do this first. Steam or bake your squash, skin it and cube it. Let's imagine everyone has a freezer full of veg like I do.

Take a cup and a half of cubed, cooked, frozen squash and defrost it. Microwave works, or an oven on 300. Once it's warm and defrosted, mash it with a fork.

 At this point, we faced a minor setback. We discovered our flour tortillas in the fridge had turned. I sent Brian to the corner store for "more tortillas." That's what I said, "more tortillas." We have flour tortillas on hand all the time, for quick sandwiches, and quesadillas and we use them for tacos too. I have no idea why we use them for tacos, but we do. We always have. So when Brian came back with (local!) blue corn tortillas, I was disappointed. Then I realized that everyone else uses corn. We're the only fools making tacos in flour tortillas. So there's been a little bit of a taco revolution at Saturday's Mouse HQ.

A spritz of oil in a frying pan, high heat, and a corn tortilla.

30 seconds, until they start to bubble a bit and get a few brown spots.



Flip and do it again.

We also cut up some scallions.



Mix the chard and squash, taste - we were surprised, we didn't season them at this point. We also knew we were adding cheese. If you weren't going to use cheese, maybe a pinch of salt. Cheese is optional, I'm calling this vegan.

Put that on a taco and you're all set. Silly me, I thought of restaurant orders of tacos on corn tortillas and put three on a plate. Three is quite a lot of taco. I'm going to say this recipe serves three, with two tacos each.

I had some Hillacres Pride chipotle smoked cheddar, which was awesome, but another cheese would work here. A dash of hot sauce and you're set.

 This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butternut Squash (cooked and cubed)

 

• 1 head chard (cleaned and chopped)

 

• 6 corn tortillas

 

• 1/2 cup cheese (optional)

 

• 1.5 tbsp oil (avocado or whatever)

 

• Salt to taste

 

• 1/2 cup scallions, chopped

 

• 1 serrano pepper, diced (or jalepeno)

 

• 1/4 cup sweet pepper, diced (cherry or bell)

Instructions

• Saute chard and peppers in 1 tbsp of oil until wilted.

 

• Mash cooked squash with a fork. Combine with chard and peppers.

 

• Heat a spritz of oil in a frying pan, add a corn tortilla, heat until bubbles form, flip, heat another 30 seconds, set aside, repeat.

 

• Fill tacos with chard and squash mixture, top with scallions and cheese (optional).

Details

• Prep time: 5 mins

 

• Cook time: 15 mins

 

• Total time: 20 mins

 

• Yield: 3 servings

 

I had a lot of tomatoes. Not like, a lot of tomatoes, but several. Enough that I needed to take action before they went to waste, but not so many that I wanted to blanch and seed them and spend serious time fussing over them. I had like a pound and half of all sorts of tomatoes. I also had time. We had a bit of a storm here, you may have heard, and had prepared to not have power or water on Sunday. But we had power and water, and I had done all of the laundry and cleaned out the fridge and everything in advance of the storm so once it passed, I had nothing but time. Slow roasted tomato time. Slow roasted tomato sauce is rich and a little bit smoky. The vegetables caramelize a bit. It's a great sauce to freeze up for winter or a rainy fall day. Or the day after a hurricane. I use pretty much the same ingredients as I do for regular sauce, but in the oven, mostly. I dialed my oven up to 300 and spritzed a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Then I laid out my tomatoes. I had all sorts. Plums and cherries and grapes and funky looking heirlooms and such. The bigger ones got sliced, the smaller ones got halved. Skin on. Seeds in.  And I gathered the other stuff I add to sauce. Carrots, onions, garlic. Two onions, about one carrot (my carrots were illegitimate), and five cloves of garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Into the oven at 300 for a while. Like, definitely go do other things. Two hours? Three? Until things start to turn black around the edges. Then I put them into the blender with some water. How much water? How much do you need? Start with a little, and if it's too thick, keep going. I might have had a cup and a half of roasted veggies and used a quarter cup of water. Aim for fairly thick, this is a nice hearty sauce and it coats well. Put it in a saucepan to simmer for about as long as it takes to boil water and make pasta. I added the things I add to other sauces. Basil and a cheese rind.* Oregano and a little less than a quarter cup of Zinfandel. Stir together and simmer on low until the pasta is ready. Remove the cheese rind and you're all set. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Yeah, I don't separate rotini and penne in my jar of rotini and penne. So you get one, you get the other."][/caption] My pan of tomatoes made four hearty servings of sauce. Excellent on pizza or as a dipping sauce! *you know, the edge of the cheese that you cut off and save in a baggie in your freezer.  This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.  Stay tuned - tomorrow I'll post outtakes from today's recipe. Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds tomatoes, mixed
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 carrots, chunked or sliced
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 cheese rind (optional)
• 2 tablespoons basil
• 1 tablespoon oregano

Instructions

• Cut tomatoes. For big ones, into thick slices (1/2 inch) and for cherries and grapes, just cut in half.
• Heat oven to 300. Spritz or drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil (1 tbsp max)
• Arrange tomatoes on baking sheet in a single layer (or close). Top with sliced onion and wedge in garlic and carrot here and there.
• Drizzle or spritz top with olive oil, and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
• Cook in 300 degree oven 2-3 hours or until edges begin to blacken.
• Puree roasted vegetables (I used a stick blender, but you can use a regular blender or food processor) adding enough water to get the desired consistency. Go for thick sauce. Maybe 1/4 cup water?
• Put sauce in a saucepan with basil, oregano, wine and cheese rind (optional). Simmer low, 10-30 minutes, until ready to eat.

Details

• Prep time: 10 mins
• Cook time: 3 hour 20 mins
• Total time: 3 hour 30 mins
• Yield: 4 servings

I had a lot of tomatoes. Not like, a lot of tomatoes, but several. Enough that I needed to take action before they went to waste, but not so many that I wanted to blanch and seed them and spend serious time fussing over them. I had like a pound and half of all sorts of tomatoes.

I also had time. We had a bit of a storm here, you may have heard, and had prepared to not have power or water on Sunday. But we had power and water, and I had done all of the laundry and cleaned out the fridge and everything in advance of the storm so once it passed, I had nothing but time.

Slow roasted tomato time.

Slow roasted tomato sauce is rich and a little bit smoky. The vegetables caramelize a bit. It's a great sauce to freeze up for winter or a rainy fall day. Or the day after a hurricane. I use pretty much the same ingredients as I do for regular sauce, but in the oven, mostly.

I dialed my oven up to 300 and spritzed a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Then I laid out my tomatoes.



I had all sorts. Plums and cherries and grapes and funky looking heirlooms and such. The bigger ones got sliced, the smaller ones got halved. Skin on. Seeds in.

 And I gathered the other stuff I add to sauce. Carrots, onions, garlic.



Two onions, about one carrot (my carrots were illegitimate), and five cloves of garlic.



Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Into the oven at 300 for a while. Like, definitely go do other things. Two hours? Three? Until things start to turn black around the edges.





Then I put them into the blender with some water. How much water? How much do you need? Start with a little, and if it's too thick, keep going. I might have had a cup and a half of roasted veggies and used a quarter cup of water. Aim for fairly thick, this is a nice hearty sauce and it coats well.



Put it in a saucepan to simmer for about as long as it takes to boil water and make pasta. I added the things I add to other sauces. Basil and a cheese rind.*



Oregano and a little less than a quarter cup of Zinfandel.

Stir together and simmer on low until the pasta is ready. Remove the cheese rind and you're all set.

My pan of tomatoes made four hearty servings of sauce. Excellent on pizza or as a dipping sauce!

*you know, the edge of the cheese that you cut off and save in a baggie in your freezer.

 This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.  Stay tuned - tomorrow I'll post outtakes from today's recipe.

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds tomatoes, mixed

 

• 2 onions, sliced

 

• 1 carrots, chunked or sliced

 

• 5 garlic cloves

 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

 

• salt to taste

 

• black pepper to taste

 

• 1/4 cup red wine

 

• 1 cheese rind (optional)

 

• 2 tablespoons basil

 

• 1 tablespoon oregano

Instructions

• Cut tomatoes. For big ones, into thick slices (1/2 inch) and for cherries and grapes, just cut in half.

 

• Heat oven to 300. Spritz or drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil (1 tbsp max)

 

• Arrange tomatoes on baking sheet in a single layer (or close). Top with sliced onion and wedge in garlic and carrot here and there.

 

• Drizzle or spritz top with olive oil, and sprinkle on salt and pepper.

 

• Cook in 300 degree oven 2-3 hours or until edges begin to blacken.

 

• Puree roasted vegetables (I used a stick blender, but you can use a regular blender or food processor) adding enough water to get the desired consistency. Go for thick sauce. Maybe 1/4 cup water?

 

• Put sauce in a saucepan with basil, oregano, wine and cheese rind (optional). Simmer low, 10-30 minutes, until ready to eat.

Details

• Prep time: 10 mins

 

• Cook time: 3 hour 20 mins

 

• Total time: 3 hour 30 mins

 

• Yield: 4 servings

 

It has been a while since I shared a Mark Bittman piece on this blog. It's not that they haven't been worth sharing but I wanted to avoid the trap of simply linking every week to the inestimable Mr. Bittman. Come to think of it, might not be a bad idea. His latest is a piece about a new organization under the arm of the AmeriCorps program called the FoodCorps:

50 new foot soldiers in the war against ignorance in food. The service members, most of them in their 20s, just went to work at 41 sites in 10 states, from Maine to Oregon and Michigan to Mississippi. (FoodCorps concentrates on communities with high rates of childhood obesity or limited access to healthy food, though these days every state has communities like that.)

For a total budget of less than $2 million (mostly from foundations), this crew will be out there teaching kids about nutrition, showing them how to create gardens and generally connecting them with their food so that maybe they start think of food as something that comes from the ground, not from a box. It's a great program considering how moribund and underfunded nutrition education is AND how much cash is poured into anti-nutritious marketing. ($2 million is what McDonald's probably pays for one spot during the NFL's big game.) So where could a co-op fit into this? Time to engage in the "vision" thing for a second. But first, this would be a good time to remind ourselves of the mission of the South Philly Food Co-op:

To open a member-owned cooperative grocery store that provides nutritious food to all residents of South Philadelphia while empowering the local community through sustainable practices, food-centric education, outreach, and community building.

That's the difference with a cooperatively owned grocery store. When the profits stay in the community, the member-owners can decide to put some it towards, say, "adopt a Food Corps" and helping to subsidize part of their $15k annual salary. In exchange, the Co-op would be the base of operations for this foot foot soldier (or squad of them) and become a working classroom where parents and children learn how to find the best food at the fairest prices and what to do with it once they get home. End result: a healthier, fitter community; healthy, active kids whose brains are on full power. Together, we will own not just a food store but a social club, a place to learn, and the best kind of health care facility: one that helps prevent bad health from happening in the first place. Oh yeah... and buy your Garden Tour tickets.