Please make this and let me know if it's really wonderful (looks amazing)

That was the subject line of an email sent to me by my mother. I can always count on getting at least one email from her a month asking to make a new dish that she found. She sent me this recipe for cauliflower pizza right around the time the CSA started, and I knew I had to save it until cauliflower was available at the market. I used that recipe to make the crust but added my own toppings - mozzarella cheese and mushrooms.

Cauliflower pizza is popular on Pinterest, and it seemed easy enough...but was it? Here's how it turned out, fresh from the oven:

Looks pretty good right? Here's another close up:

And now, here's one slice:

So, did it taste like pizza? Yes and no. The crust didn't really crisp and was on the mushy side. That's probably chef error (didn't read the recipe all the way and forgot to parbake the crust first). It tasted good and had all the flavors of pizza (tomato, cheese, and basil), but it was just kind of a big ball of cauliflower, tomato sauce, cheese, and mushroom glop. Overall, the cauliflower pizza wasn't so pretty, but it still tasted good. I would definitely try this recipe again, but first I would read the recipe all the way through before I start cooking. 

Spring Onion Soup

When handed a bunch of spring onions, what would you do with them? Sure, they make a pretty garnish and add a nice fresh crunch when used as a topping, and they add a nice subtle onion flavor when sautéed. But how do you use up a whole bunch of spring onions in one fell swoop?

That's where the Internet comes in, as always, and saves the day! I found this recipe for spring onion soup - it did not take long to make, used few ingredients, and seemed to be an easy way to use my bunch of spring onions. And it was! The soup was savory and a bit oniony. Definitely not as strong as French onion soup. The only thing that would have made this soup a little better would have been some crusty, cheesy bread to dip in it.

Eat Your Spinach!

I am not sure where this recipe came from, but it is (as usual) a quick and easy side dish. Spinach with garlic and raisins is a nice way to change up sauteed spinach, and the raisins are a nice complement to the garlic and the bitterness of the spinach.

Spinach with Garlic and Raisins

1. Saute 1lb spinach in pan that has been heated with olive oil over low-medium heat. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Cook 3-5 minutes, until spinach begins to wilt.

2. Add in chopped garlic (as many cloves as you prefer - I usually do one big or two small cloves) and 1/4 cup raisins. The raisins will begin to expand. Cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve as a side dish.

Sautéed Zucchini

Zucchini has turned into one of my favorite summer vegetables. It is quick and easy to make, and it pretty much complements any meal. Here's one of the ways I most frequently make zucchini.

Sautéed Zucchini

1. Uniformly slice zucchini - you want all the pieces to be the same thickness so that they will cook at the same time. This is easily achieved by using a mandoline (thanks, Mom!) or some very good knife skills.

2. Heat 2 Tbl olive oil in a large pan over low-medium heat. Use a pan larger than you think you need, since you do not want to overcrowd the pan. This will result in uneven cooking of the zucchini.

3. When the pan is hot, throw in the zucchini. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté zucchini for about 7-10 minutes, until they begin to soften and turn translucent.

4. Serve on its own as a side dish, or mix with chickpeas or beans as a salad, use it as a topping on pizza, or add it to vegetable pasta. 

This is my go-to way of preparing zucchini, but I've also made zucchini fries, lasagna with poblano peppers and zucchini, summer vegetable tart, and zucchini pizza. Next time there is zucchini, I want to try zucchini chips!

What are your favorite ways to prepare zucchini? Do you have any other ideas about what to do with zucchini?

Spaghetti Squash Primavera

I cheated on my CSA. That was a lot harder to admit than I thought it would be! But it was totally worth it - is it bad I feel that way? Hear me out...

Last weekend, my husband and I took a nice little trip to the beach. It was filled with sun, crabs and Old Bay (this is Maryland, after all!), and relaxation. The Eastern Shore of Maryland is full of farms, so many of the farmers set up produce stands on the side of the road to sell their fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. On our way home, we stopped off at one to pick up some fruit - plums and nectarines - and checked out some of the other produce, canned sauces, and pickled items. My husband spotted a display full of different varieties of squash, so we picked out the best looking spaghetti squash, headed to the counter, and purchased it along with our fruit. Because our CSA is mostly vegetables, the only items I buy at the grocery store each week are fruit, dairy, bread, and meat. I don't want to waste anything that is included in the share, so I deliberately choose items that I know we will eat within the week and only buy a few additional items at the grocery store. Buying this lone spaghetti squash felt wrong!

Now, I am no idiot. Spaghetti squash is obviously NOT something that is harvested in the summer. It is a winter squash, and like other hard squash varieties, such as pumpkins, butternut, acorn, and delicata, is usually harvested and eaten during the late summer, autumn, and winter months. However, it just seemed right to buy it, and I knew we would eat it quickly. And besides, the CSA didn't even have spaghetti squash last year...so that makes it OK to get it from somewhere else, right? Anyway, we put that spaghetti squash to good use in spaghetti squash primavera!

This is another simple recipe:

1. Prepare the spaghetti squash in the microwave by slicing it in half, scooping out the seeds, and placing in a microwave safe bowl (cut side up) with 1/4 cup of water and covered with plastic wrap. Microwave on high 7-8 minutes until the squash is soft and the insides can be pulled with a fork into strands that resemble spaghetti.

2. Meanwhile, chop celery, carrots, and onions. Saute the mirepoix (fancy French term for the combination of these three ingredients) over medium heat in a large pan with olive oil for 10 minutes, or until soft. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste.


3. While these vegetables are cooking, thinly slice yellow squash and sundried tomatoes. Add to the pan once the mirepoix has softened. Continue cooking about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. When the spaghetti squash is ready and has slightly cooled, use a fork to pull the insides out. Place spaghetti squash strands into the pan and combine with cooked vegetables. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Roasted Asparagus

Nothing fancy here! Just a quick and easy recipe for roasted asparagus:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the asparagus and snap or cut off the woody end (about the bottom inch of the stalk). On a foil covered baking sheet, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. I like to add garlic or parmesan cheese.

We had our asparagus with some leftover pasta (with a delicious Tuscan pumpkin sauce) and breaded chicken. Delicious, as always!

Hibernation

That's my excuse for why I haven't posted in over a month! It was much harder than I thought to finish up posting food from the CSA...even there are only two meals left! Sometimes, when I get closer to the end of completing a task, I get a little lazy finishing it up. Does that ever happen to you? It's like now that I can actually see the end of a project in the near future, I can relax a little...to the point where I stop working. Oops. Don't worry, though, the last 2 meals will be posted very shortly!

Will an adorable picture of Winnie make you forget about how long it's been since the last blog post?

For the past few years, February has been "Vegetarian Month" in our home. This all started while I was in graduate school. I was taking a class about drug addiction, and one of our assignments was to give something up for a month and journal about it. While some of my peers gave up sugar, alcohol, and caffeine, I decided to give up meat. And because I have such a wonderful husband, he agreed to do it with me! Talk about a supportive spouse! It was much harder than I anticipated it to be - we had to be more creative when planning our weekly menus by trying new meals and foods. It was also a challenge attending social functions, like going out to dinner with friends or going to a Super Bowl party, where everyone else was eating meat. Somehow, we survived and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to continue the tradition every year!

This year, however, we decided to challenge ourselves a bit more and go vegan...before 6. A while ago I posted about Mark Bittman's idea of going vegan before 6 pm, where you eat vegan meals for breakfast and lunch and then whatever you want for dinner. It's more of a lifestyle than it is a diet, and it takes a lot of preparation and awareness of what you are eating for you to do it properly. We decided to incorporate this idea of going vegan before 6 into vegetarian month - we're going vegan before 6 and then vegetarian after 6 (so we can eat dairy at dinner). One day in and it's not so bad so far!

Breakfast: coffee with almond milk; cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter; avocado toast
Lunch: smashed chickpea and avocado sandwich
Dinner: roasted vegetable sandwiches and salad

Stay tuned for more vegan and vegetarian meals this month!