roasted…cauliflower
…carrots
…brussels sprouts
…broccoli
…rutabaga
…sweet potatoes
…mushrooms

mashed potatoes

malbec.

I’m making this dinner primarily for tomorrow’s roasted salad toppings.

Today at lunch, I ate the most DELICIOUS salad, and this is JANUARY. I just made the same salad for lunch tomorrow and I’m filled with self-doubt. I’m worried that I ran out of Brussels sprouts, and that I’ll forget the dressing, and that tomorrow’s salad will be a boring fibrous chore instead of the delicious experience that caused me to declare to my intern, “I JUST ACHIEVED SALAD NIRVANA.”

Behold the ingredients of the most delicious salad ever. Try to recreate it and tell me if it works! The picture shows roasted red pepper, which I put in my dinner salad tonight, and I don’t think it was a good idea (better to stick with this).

lettuce
avocado
chickpeas
sliced paper-thin on the mandoline:
red onion
carrot
watermelon radish
chiogga beet
shredded on the mandoline:
red beet
hakurei turnip
roasted:
cauliflower
Brussels sprouts
sweet potato

Dressing:
makes enough for a few salads

Puree with an immersion blender or food processor:

1 clove garlic
1 squirt Dijon mustard
juice of one lemon

With the blender running, slowly add olive oil (1/2 cup?). Add salt and pepper.

Salad
lettuce
red beet
chiogga beet
carrot
red onion
hakurei turnip
watermelon radish

Roasted
brussels sprouts
cauliflower
sweet potato

I used the recipe in the Pomona’s Pectin box, with 3 cups of sugar for 1.5 batches (precise notes here so that I can refer to this post next time I make it). Now’s a good time to mention a terrific new book I bought recently: Food In Jars, by Marisa McClellan, the author of the blog of the same name. Because I had Pomona’s on hand, I didn’t follow Marisa’s recipe for blueberry jam, which calls for liquid pectin. But there are tons of recipes in the book that I have dog-eared and can’t wait to try this summer: pickled jalapeños, pickled red onions, another attempt at bread & butter pickles, and marinara sauce (canned in a hot water bath!), among others.

In other exciting news, this jam is canned in Kerr wide-mouth half-pint jars. I’ve found a few at tag sales this summer, and carried a full case back from my trip to LA in February. You can’t buy these jars on the east coast, so it was worth wrapping them up in my dirty laundry.

Tomorrow or perhaps next weekend, I’m heading up to the farm with my 6-quart storage containers for my first day of picking…likely my first of several.

Oatmeal Pancakes
adapted from Marion Cunningham
serves 2

1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 small/medium egg, beaten
1 tablespoons brown sugar
.75 oz. all-purpose flour
.75 oz. whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Heat up the milk and add to the oats (I heat it in the microwave in a Pyrex cup and add the oats right to it). Let sit for 15 minutes or until the oats soak up most of the milk.

Add oats/milk to the yogurt, and add the egg. Add everything else except the butter and stir until combined.

Heat a skillet, then add the butter. Once it melts, pour the butter into the batter and stir (leaving a lightly greased skillet). Cook your pancakes and eat with something delicious (or three delicious things–strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream).

I use the mandoline to shave off strings on four sides of the zucchini, leaving the seedy core behind to be composted.

Favorite zucchini pasta
Inspired by Smitten Kitchen
Makes two big servings

1/2 lb. spaghetti
3 medium zucchini or summer squash, or combination, sliced into strings (see note above)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons pesto
salt, pepper, parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta.

In a frying pan, saute the garlic in the olive oil for a minute, then add zucchini and cook until slightly softened (just a minute or two). Then mix in the pesto, and then mix in the drained pasta. Season with salt (you’ll need more than you think) and pepper, and garnish with lots of shredded parmesan.

I have a total lack of confidence when it comes to stir frying. The CSA season just began so now is the time to learn!

Tonight’s worked out pretty well:

Dry fried tofu
Sauce: 4 parts tamari, 3 parts fresh lemon juice, 1 part toasted sesame oil
Vegetables: Broccoli, red peppers from the freezer, savoy cabbage, kale, komatsuna and garlic scapes!

I sprinkled it with a large amount of toasted sesame seeds and we ate it with rice.

Our old kitchen was pretty big–something like 15×13–but the layout was terrible. The new kitchen, because it includes that large empty dining area, is significantly smaller, but of course will be laid out thoughtfully. It’s going to be strange to cook in a smaller space, but to have the sink RIGHT THERE instead of having to take 8-10 steps across the room.

Yesterday a big cement truck came to add some additional stability and height to the foundation (our old kitchen was a 6″ step down from the rest of the house). Today, lumber is being delivered and building will begin!