Sigh...my dusty stovetop....

I have NOT been cooking. I've eaten a lot of grapes. I've eaten at restaurants--many of them not so great. If I visit my mother in Queens it can be a treat. Last weekend I was there and I ate a whole papaya, half an avocado, and a bean dish that she made with string beans. That was very nice.

Today I had a lot of almonds, red grapes, green grapes, and a few cookies.

A week or two ago I went to a really good Thai restaurant here on Staten Island. I've been to many Thai restaurants, but this one had a menu that was meticulously creative, while still being traditional. My dining companion, who has been to Thailand, ordered vegetable pad thai noodles. I've been to Thai restaurants with him before and this was the first time he said that his meal was just like what he had in Thailand. Everything was really pretty good. I had a mock duck salad. The mock duck was really good, but I wish there had been more lettuce in proportion to the mock duck.

Food? Who me?

I guess I cooked something yesterday. I just haven't been eating a lot lately. I always go into involuntary fasting mode during the summer, it seems.

Yesterday I had to use up some tomatoes and spinach. I decided to cook some brown rice rotini. I have to say...I've become a huge fan of this alternative pasta. I never liked whole wheat pasta. I just don't like it. I've tried lentil pasta and quinoa pasta. ...just not good. Maybe I've tried corn pasta, too. I love artichoke pasta a lot, but it just doesn't offer the same "health kick" in the pants that high protein or whole grain pastas do. I love nutrient-dense foods. It's nice when they taste good, too.

I cooked the pasta al dente in salted water with a nice amount of oil, because I hate when pasta gets sticky. I drained it, let it cool down a bit to stop the cooking process (I'm not a big fan of the cold water on hot pasta technique unless it's an emergency.), and put it in a glass serving bowl.

Anyway, I smashed up some tomatoes in a pot with some sea salt, dried basil, dried oregano, black pepper, and some good canola oil. I don't like canola oil, but that's what Michael brought me. I let things somewhat violently soften, sizzle, and stick in there as I added more oil and some water when I wanted to deglaze the "little brown bits" stuck to the bottom of the pot. I smashed up about eight garlic cloves and threw them in...I wish I'd roasted them in a separate little pan so that they browned a bit, but at least they cooked all the way through...they just didn't mellow in flavor as much as I would have liked.

I washed the "adult" spinach by dunking it a large bowl full of water a couple of times. This is the preferred method for washing green leafy vegetables. Fill up a large bowl with water and put the leaves in; dunk them in the water and swoosh them all around gently with your fingers. The unwanted sediment will float off and sink to the bottom of the bowl. You can let the leaves sit in the water, too, if you want. Anyway, at the end, when the smashed tomatoes were nice and soft I added a touch more water to the pot, and threw the spinach in there. I put the lid back on the pot. About a minute and a half later it was done.

I used a large slotted spoon kind of utensil to take the tomatoes and spinach out of the pot. I put the vegetables on top of the pasta.

With the remaining thin, but savory, liquid that had remained I decided to make a bit of a sauce. I had some kuzu starch...took about 1/4 t. of it, dissolved it in some cold water, then threw it in with the deglazed juices left over in the pot. I put the heat on, started to stir and deglaze and stir and deglaze and the liquid started to bubble and thicken right there, baby! Anyway, it got to the consistency of a tomato soup. I only had about 6 ozs. of it, but it was perfect. I poured it over the pasta which had the beautiful red and green yumminess on top and I ate...I ate a meal.

Now I feel fat.

Curried Carrot (and Tomato Soup) and Scalloped Potatoes

The kitchen was a mess for about a week during the Kitchen-painting Project. (The name of the color is "Lady Liberty"!) I don't think I did any decent cooking (other than grilled cheese or other non-worth-mentioning items) for a couple of weeks until I got the kitchen functional again.

I made this soup on Saturday, I think, but I don't have a picture of this one. Just imagine a nice creamy bright carrot soup. I added too much curry seasoning and wanted a fast way to make it less spicy so, instead of boiling and pureeing more carrots (which is really what I should have done) I pureed two fresh tomatoes and added that to the soup. It was still too spicy so I pureed two more tomatoes and added those. That definitely made the soup tolerably spicy for me, but it now just tasted too much like tomato to call this a curried carrot soup, so I guess what I ended up making is a curried carrot and tomato soup.

I had four potatoes I needed to use. I just sliced them up, "scallop" style, tossed the slices in some margarine and a dried herb-and-spice blend, and laid them out in three different pieces of cookware in a single layer. I put the oven on 400 degrees F for 30 minutes and they weren't as browned as I wanted, but I was dying to eat, so I served them as they were and they were really yummy.

Quinoa and Tempeh Stew

Yesterday I threw together a quick stew for lunch. It was a quinoa and tempeh stew. I was rather disappointed with it for two reasons. It could have been really delicious. One reason was my fault, the other reason was not my fault.

1-I undercooked the quinoa. I had the heat on too high for too long, and the liquid from the can of stewed tomatoes evaporated too quickly before the quinoa had a chance to be correctly cooked through. The quinoa was still edible (and Charles loved it) but I knew better. ...after all, I am a culinary school drop-out.

2-The can of whole tomatoes (365 brand from Whole Foods Market which Charles brought me...I hate shopping at Whole Foods Market...I'll always choose to shop at my local natural foods store or any other non-corporate natural foods store) had WAY too much citric acid in it! The tomatoes were plum tomatoes, which I love, but either they were just way too acidic and tart to begin with, or there was just too much citric acid added to them. It ruined the whole dish for me, which otherwise I would have been proud of, especially if the quinoa had been fully cooked.

I cut half a slab of tempeh into small cubes and browned it in some safflower oil in my beloved All-Clad saute pan. I also chopped up about three carrots (I have a ton of carrots, so I'm putting it in everything lately), two celery stalks, and about five small cloves of garlic. Everything cooked together (the tempeh was quite tasty), before I added a 28-oz. (?) can of the stewed tomatoes. I brought that to a boil, then threw in a cup of quinoa.

I stirred it up and then we ate.

13 Bean Soup with Kale and Roasted Garlic

Today for lunch I made a 13 Bean Soup with Kale and Roasted Garlic.

Kale*--I had some kale I needed to use. I was going to braise it...

Beans--...but yesterday I had put two cups of Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix to soak overnight, and I had already planned to make soup today, so I just decided to put the kale in there. I've been liking kale a lot lately.

Tomato Juice--Yesterday I bought a bottle of Campbell's Tomato Juice. I was out and really needed something to drink and really wasn't in the mood for any else at the bodega like beer or soda, so I got this really salty brand of tomato juice from concentrate. I only drank about half of it. Since I didn't have any fresh tomatoes to add to my soup today, I just put the leftover tomato juice in there. I always prefer fresh tomatoes...this was just some kitchen improvisation.

Fresh Parsley--I had also had one remaining bunch of fresh parsley I really needed to use or lose, so that went in the soup...no problem. I don't know why people chop herbs into shreds for cooking. I have never minded, and maybe even preferred, larger pieces or whole leaves of fresh herbs in my food. I think it looks nice, too...nice and rustic.

Salt--I have garbage Red Cross salt...I'm holding out for some beautiful pink Himalayan Salt that I saw at my local natural foods store that comes with its own ceramic salt grinder. It's $20.00. So, I put some garbage salt in there.

Carrots*--I have a ton of carrots. I peeled and cut up three large carrots using the "roll cut" technique which is great to use for carrots if you are using them in soups, stews, or roasting them. It's such a cute and quirky cut.

Dried Herbs and Spices*--I have a bottle of Frontier "Salad Sprinkle" which I bought last week and have been using in almost everything savory lately. It has no salt, but has things in it like chervil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and green bell pepper flakes...it's just so delicious. I'm generally against using herb or spice mixes...even curry powder (I just like seasoning food from scratch and feel too lazy or mediocre using someone else's ideas of what good seasoning combinations are), but I just really love this one...it's so versatile. I wasn't thrilled with having sesame seeds in my bean soup, but I thought it wouldn't be the most unspeakable culinary faux pas there ever was, so I just put two tablespoons of that in my soup.

Celery*--I chopped two celery stalks and put that in the soup. I'm not a big fan of celery in soup, but I love the flavor and the aroma of celery.

Olive Oil--I added about 1/4 cup of olive oil to the 2 quarts of soup that was already done after simmering for about 1 1/2 hours.

Garlic*--Lastly, I peeled about 10 cloves of one small head of garlic. I sliced the cloves in half lengthwise, and roasted them in some safflower oil (my multi-purpose oil of choice...I love descented coconut oil, but it's so expensive) in a small cast iron pan for about 20 minutes until they were soft and brown.

I'd taken my pot of soup off the burner to cool off and thicken a bit. I stirred in the roasted garlic and served myself a bowl of soup. It's really tasty.

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* organic