Sometimes I throw random foods in a bowl and call it dinner.

Thanks to the bounty that is other peoples gardens (hi friends, hi pseudoMIL!), I have veggies coming out of my ears. Zucchini the size of whiffle ball bats, and tomatoes the size of the coordinating whiffle balls (side note, wtf is a whiffle?). Over achieving basil plants. So I concocted this dish to use up some of them. It’s really not terribly exciting, but it tasted good, and it used up some of these veggies, and it tasted good.

Orzo with Assorted Delicious Things

Roasted veggies (this time I used tomatoes, squash and zucchini)

Orzo, about a cup or so

Shrimp; 10ish small ones. I keep a bag of the frozen kind in my freezer. Yes, fresh would be better, but these work fine.

Feta (those little baby mozzarella balls would be tasty as well. I just have a mild feta addiction)

Roast whatever veggies you want to be using. I just tossed mine with some olive oil and salt, then stuck them in the oven at 400 until they were soft. My tomatoes got squishy, but I just used them as a kind of sauce, so it worked out.  Saute your shrimp until done and delightfully pink. Toss veggies, shrimp, and orzo together. Stir in some feta, oregano, and some fresh basil if you have some kicking around, or whatever spices make you say whee. I made a TON of roasted veggies, and what I don’t use tonight I’m going to throw on pizza, and then probably put the rest in some tomato sauce to use later. There may be attempts to can. Depends on how adventurous I feel this weekend.

Soup and Wool

 I made this black bean soup the other night and it was SO GOOD. I've been on a quest for a good black been soup for awhile now and have been disappointed. This one was perfect though. It's a Dave Lieberman recipe, and I honestly did absolutely no tweaking, and don't think there is anything I would change.

10 slices bacon, finely chopped
2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
6 garlic cloves, pressed
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth (if you want more broth, up this, it's very little)
1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes (I used the kind with chilies)
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed (I've mentioned this before, but I cook and freeze my own, and therefore I think I used about four cups cooked dried beans)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch cilantro (okay I left this out cause I didn't have any)
juice of 1/2 lime
Thinly sliced scallions, for garnish
Sour cream, for garnish
Grated cheddar, for garnish

Put the bacon into a large heavy pot and place it over medium heat. Cook until it starts to give up its fat, about 4 minutes (I lied. One thing I would change? Cook the bacon longer. I don't like chewy fat, so I ended up picking out some. Sean thought it was fine though). Stir in the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 1 minute. Add the broth, tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire, and chili powder. Stir in the beans, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the soup is bubbling gently and cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, pick off all the thick stems from the cilantro. Wash it and shake dry. Chop the cilantro coarsely and stir it into the soup when it has been simmering 10 minutes. Cook until the soup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice. Serve with the garnishes.

On the knitting front, I've been cranking. The Christmas gift list ended up at: 3 scarves, 2 shawl/wraps, and a bag. All in about a month. I think I slept somewhere in there. Maybe. I just posted a bunch of knitting pictures on facebook, so I won't bore you with that redundancy. Currently I'm working on a Clapotis for my pseudo-SIL's birthday. Just using some Simply Soft, but it's coming out quite pretty. Definitely on the list of things to make for myself soon. I'm thinking of making mine in some Noro Silk Garden, because I love what the colors do.  My LYS is having a sale right now, I'm thinking it might be a good time.

Comfort food

We've had a spate of cold weather (and the annual fall colds) around here, so comfort food has been a pretty high priority. After consuming more cup o'noodles than was probably healthy, I've started in on some of my favorite fall recipes.  The first one may possibly be one of my favorite foods of all time: Chicken with Forty Cloves. My mom used to make this sometimes, and I would eat my weight in it.  The recipe is more or less attributed to James Beard, but I don't always do it his way. Because following recipes to the letter is no fun doncha know.

The Cast of Characters:

3 or 4 stalks of celery chopped up small

an onion, likewise diced up fine (sometimes I leave out the onion. It honestly depends on how much chopping I feel like doing)

some chicken thighs and legs. I use 4-6, but I eat the mush more than the chicken, so basically use a piece or two for each person

2/3 c or so olive oil

1/2 dry vermouth

2 1/2 tsp salt. I usually add about half this and salt the finished product to taste

good amount black pepper

40 cloves of garlic. Yeah. 40. That's about 3 or so heads.
some good crusty bread for serving

parsley 

tarragon

Preheat the oven to 375. Peel the garlic. James Beard doesn't but I think it is easier in the long run. Yes if you want to use the pre-peeled garlic go ahead, but it's out the ass expensive, and doesn't taste as good. But no judgment.  Chop up that which must be chopped.  Put the onion and celery in the bottom of some oven safe dish, something with a lid.  Sprinkle on a good amount of parsley and tarragon. Coat the chicken in the oil and put it in the dish. Chuck in all the garlic, pour the remaining oil and the vermouth over top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the lid on and bake for roughly 80 minutes. JB wants you to do some crazy shit with flour paste and tinfoil and the lid, and whateverthefuckelse, but I just use the lid and it comes out fine. You want your chicken cooked and your garlic smushy.  I also do this in my crock pot a lot, and might even prefer it that way. Use the bread to soak up all the awesome garlic mush from the bottom of the pan. And before you ask, no you cannot cut the garlic. God will smite you.  Not really, but do remember that roasted garlic is super mild, without the bite of raw garlic. Promise. Although you will have garlic breath. Embrace it. Then go get seconds.

Roasted tomatoes with feta and shrimp

So I made a positively delicious dinner tonight, so I figured I would share. I used the last couple of tomatoes from my pseudo-MIL's garden that were starting to get a little soft, since they would only get more so in the oven. Shrimp and feta are two of my absolute favorite foods, and this dish combined them quite well.  I imagine this would be fairly healthy as well.

Go rummage around in your kitchen and find the following items:
tomatoes
garlic
shrimp
olive oil
salt/pepper
some sort of grain. I used couscous, but it would be equally good with pasta, rice, or orzo.
feta
lemon juice

So you preheat your oven to 450. Hack up your tomatoes into eighths or so. Chop up some garlic. I used four or five cloves, but we love our garlic around here.  Throw in some salt and pepper. Toss it around so it's good and coated.  Put in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Add in your shrimp, cup or so of feta, and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice.  Bake for 10 or so minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through.  Serve with whatever grain you are using.  I had a fair amount of liquid in the bottom of my pan, and ladled some of it on the couscous, and zomg nom. This will definitely be going into the dinner rotation.  Throwing in some spinach would be a nice addition.