Cilantro Mashed Potatoes, Jalapeno Gravy, and Seitan Sausage

Tonight's dinner was awesome.  And I can say this without bragging, because I didn't do a single thing.  My wonderful husband, whose culinary repertoire to this point consisted of grilled cheese and english muffin pizzas, decided to make dinner for me tonight.  I teach until 10 pm, so by the time I get home I am totally exhausted and starving and not feeling like making dinner.  But!  Tonight!  I didn't have to do a thing but sit on the couch and play with our daughter while P was cooking up a storm.  I wasn't even allowed in the kitchen!

He made cilantro mashed potatoes with a white jalapeno gravy that was spicy and creamy and delicious.  He also made a mixture of chard, corn, jalapenos, onions, garlic, plus some tomato-coriander seitan sausages I made last week.  The mixture was cooked up with a base made from jalapenos and cilantro; it was pretty spicy, but the sweetness of the corn really balanced it out.  All of the vegetables are either from our CSA or the farmers' market, and the whole thing was delicious!  I was amazed by how fantastic everything tasted and how well it worked together -- and extra-thrilled that I didn't have to do a damn thing!

P had his in layers -- corn tortilla, potatoes, gravy, and the sausage mixture on top.  I made myself a taco, with a pile of mashed potatoes and gravy on the side.  We both had seconds . . . and I might've had thirds if there'd been anything left.  

He says he intends to cook like this once a week from now on.  I am totally excited -- and will be sure to post P's contributions to our seasons of Karen.

Kale Pesto

The other day, as I stared at a huge bunch of kale from our CSA, a thought occurred to me. I love basil pesto; I've heard of spinach pesto; why not kale pesto? We had two small sprigs of basil this week, so they were recruited -- along with said huge bunch of kale -- into pesto!

There wasn't anything fancy about the recipe itself -- it was a very standard pesto recipe, but with kale stepping in for the bulk of the greenery. It's extremely easy to make pesto; just put everything in the food processor and process the food until it has a nice smooth texture. This pesto was made of pine nuts, rice-parmesan, olive oil, garlic, kale -- with the stems removed and coarsely chopped, basil leaves, and a little salt and pepper.

It took just as long to wash and chop the kale, assemble the other ingredients, and prepare the pesto in the food processor as it took for my pot of water to boil and the pasta to cook. Quick and easy! And, to make it even easier next time, this recipe made three times as much pesto as I needed for tonight's dinner -- so I froze two individual servings of pesto for the next couple of times!

As easy as tonight's dinner was, I didn't have the energy even for this much work last night after I got back from doing work at school. I present you with a bonus photo of last night's dinner -- roasted CSA broccoli and farmers' market potatoes plus salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper.

I love roasting -- you just throw your vegetables in the oven and forget about them, then -- BAM! -- dinner's ready! Despite my intense love for both roasting and broccoli, I'd actually never had roasted broccoli before -- but this will certainly not be the last time. Roasting the broccoli gave it a fantastically nutty flavor; I may have just found my new favorite way to prepare my favorite vegetable.

Indian Potato-n-Kale Stuffed Peppers

We got some tasty-looking green bell peppers at the farmers' market last week, but I wasn't sure what to do with them -- maybe stuffed peppers? -- and then inspiration struck. With some red-skin potatoes (also from the farmers' market) and a bunch of kale (from our CSA), I would make an Indian-flavored, spicy mashed potato and sauteed kale mixture to stuff the peppers with.

P chopped up the kale nice and small so that there would not be big chunks mixed in with the smoother texture of the potato, while I chopped and boiled the potatoes until they were soft enough to mash and got the peppers ready -- cutting off the tops and scooping out the seeds inside. I sauteed the kale in a bit of olive oil and some Indian spices, including the hot curry paste I use for just about everything. Once the kale was cooked and the potatoes were mashed, I mixed it all up together -- it already tasted delicious, but I managed to get (most of) the mixture into the peppers anyway.

Once stuffed, I stuck the peppers in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes, until the peppers were nice and soft -- but not too soft! The texture of the peppers was perfectly balanced between tenderness and crispness, and the top of the stuffing peeking out the top got delightfully crunchy from being uncovered in the oven. Fabulous!

We have one pepper left, and you can bet that we are going to be fighting over it for lunch tomorrow!

Curried Chick Peas & Kale on Potato Pancakes

One of our classic family favorites is curried chick peas and some kind of green vegetable -- with some potatoes thrown in if I have them. I've posted about it before, because we really do have it all the time! Last night, however, I made a slight variation on the classic garbanzo'n'green extravaganza.

The chick peas and chard were prepared as usual, but -- instead of having potatoes as part of the curried mixture -- it was served on top of potato pancakes. It was delicious -- and a fun twist on one of our standard dishes!

Despite the fact that the chick peas were quite spicy, Zelda ate a million of them -- and refused to eat any of the potato pancake. In the background, you can see a glass of homemade limeade that we had with the meal. Zelda was watching Yo Gabba Gabba -- and Plex taught us how to make lemonade (squeeze lemons, add water, add honey, stir). We didn't have any lemons, but we did have a couple of limes -- so we made our limeade with agave nectar. Yum!

Pumpkin Cutlets & Solstice Dinner

At the end of last week, I revisited my squash nuggets recipe -- this time, making cutlets instead of nuggets! I also didn't have any squash handy, so I used a 15 oz can of pureed pumpkin instead of the mashed squash. I used thyme, oregano, sage, marjoram, garlic powder, and a bit of salt to season them. They were superterrific this way! We ate them with brown gravy and cranberry relish, with some lovely green beans in a dijon vinaigrette made by our friend Jimmy on the side.

Then on Tuesday night, we had dinner with my dad and brother to celebrate winter solstice! This picture is a bit dark because we were dining by candlelight, but the meal was amazing. We had a celebration roast with a pomegranate glaze and extra pomegranate jelly on the side, some roasted root vegetables, a lovely salad with chunks of oranges and an orange vinaigrette, and rolls like my dad's grandmother used to make for the holidays. Delicious! The pomegranate glaze and jelly were made from squeezing the juice from pomegranate seeds, whisking that together with a bit of cornstarch and a bit of agave nectar, and then continuing to whisk as it heated and thickened! P did all the juice squeezing, so he really did all the hard work -- and the end result tasted amazing.

For dessert, there were chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, an eggnog cake, and plenty of soy eggnog. Zelda chowed down on the pomegranate jelly, the rolls, and some cake for dessert; based on her reactions, I'd say her first solstice was a success!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the big holiday in our family, so I spent most of the week getting ready for the big day. And here's what we had!

Yes, that is two kinds of stuffing on the plate there -- cornbread stuffing at the bottom and sausage stuffing at the top. All of the produce (yams, potatoes, chard, cranberries) came from the farmer's market. That delicious slab of protein in the middle there is Field Roast's hazelnut cranberry roast en croute.

Not pictured: pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, apple-cranberry pie, macademia creme, vanilla coconut milk ice cream. The apple-cranberry pie (made by my friend Sarah) was one of the very best apple pies I have ever eaten -- and certainly the best apple cranberry pie I'd ever had. Yum! In fact, the only apple pie to rival this one is the apple pie that my Aunt Karen (for whom the blog is named!) would make every year at Thanksgiving. If I can't have that one . . . well, this cranapple pie is a delightful substitute!

Vegan Omelette with Jalapenos, Potatoes, & Pepper Jack 'Cheese'

I am closing in on the perfect vegan omelette. I swear. I'm not quite there yet, but it is slow and steady progress from the last attempt at a vegan omelette. Last time, the outcome was a little too fluffy; this time, not quite fluffy enough. The taste is there -- the kala namak and chickpea flour combination are definitely where it's at! --, but the texture needs to be just right.

It's getting close though; so close I can almost taste it! I am definitely going to make another attempt this week, so hopefully I'll have an actual factual recipe to post soon instead of being a tease with only pictures.


Pretty though, isn't it? It's stuffed with home fried potatoes, a red jalepeno, a green jalepeno, and pepper jack style almond cheese. The home fries were cooked with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and a little sea salt; the cayenne pepper gave them a nice little kick! The red jalepeno was nice and sweet, with just a hint of spice to it; the green jalepeno lacked that sweetness but was a bit hotter than the red, giving a different layer of heat to the overall flavor. Finally, the almond cheese bound all of the filling together and gave the oozy cheesiness that I look for in an omelette. Totally delicious.


(Full disclosure: I probably wouldn't have posted another recipeless post about the vegan omelette, but I am compensating for the fact that I forgot to take a picture of a meal I wanted to post earlier this week! The missing meal was a lime basil pesto -- yummy pesto goodness with a hint of citrus! -- over rotini. If we get more basil at the CSA this week, I will try again! Pinky swear!)

Curried Chick Peas, Chard, & Potatoes

One of our family favorites -- you know, the standard meals that we have a million times a year, the one you whip up quickly when you have no time to cook -- is curried chick peas and green peas. Sometimes I throw potatoes in there too, or chik'n pieces . . . however the mood strikes that particular night. Well, we didn't have any peas in our CSA this week, but we did have a bunch of delicious-looking chard -- and some potatoes from the farmers' market. The chard looked super fresh and awesome, and was just begging to be devoured -- so I decided to mix up the ol'favorite with some chard.


The potatoes get diced and cooked first, in a little olive oil and a good-sized amount of curry paste. While P and I use a fairly hot curry paste, you can use whatever level of spice fits your personal taste. After sauteeing a little bit so the outsides of the potatoes are heading down the road into crispy territory (and are well-covered in curry paste), I put the lid on the pan to steam the potatoes for a bit so they can get nice and soft. While the potatoes are cooking, I wash and chop the chard, then open a can of chick peas. The chick peas -- and any stem bits of chard -- get added to the potatoes first, stirred up so they get their own nice thin coating of curry paste. Finally, the leafy chard gets added last, since it doesn't need to cook very long before serving. The whole meal comes together quickly, and is one of my favorites!