Weekend Cookbook Challenge is being hosted by La Mia Cucina this month and the theme is…pressure cookers (which I am scared of), crockpots (which I love) and Dutch ovens (which I also love, but I use pretty frequently already).

So, crockpot it is! And the cookbook I used was Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. This is also the only crockpot cookbook that I have. Typically, I just get crockpot recipes off that Internet thing.

Oh and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day — now, here’s a Mexican recipe!

Pinto Picadillio
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
3 cups slow-cooked* or two 15.5-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
One 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cooked long-grain white or brown rice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sliced black olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (originally it called for parsley)
handful of chopped green onions
2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and cumin. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables to a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker. Add the garlic, beans, tomatoes, chiles, apples, and stock; season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

About 10 minutes before serving, stir in the rice, raisins, olives, cilantro, green onions and almonds. In addition to a dinner right out of the crockpot, this makes a great lunch. Add some cheese, sour cream and chips. You know you want to…

* Cooking dried beans in your crockpot is easy! And fun. But kind of boring. Anyway, soak your beans overnight, then, drain put into your crockpot and cover with water (I covered by about 3 inches). Add an onion, halved and a few cloves of garlic, cracked open.

Cook on low for about 8 hours. Mmmm….beans. And, the nice thing is, I just drained out my beans, measured 3 cups out and then just used the crockpot to cook the Pinto Picadillio.

Thanks again to La Mia Cucina for hosting!

I came across a recipe by Michael Chiarello for white bean waffles a while ago and was very intrigued. So much so that I completely changed the recipe to be black bean waffles. Recently I had some time, a can of black beans and a waffle maker. Here’s what happened…

Black Bean Waffles
For the beans:
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 dash tabasco
1 handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the waffles:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cups milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat your waffle device of choice. In a small pot combine the beans, chili powder, cumin, tabasco, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and teaspoon salt.

Add the beans, their cooking liquid and the cilantro to a food processor and pulse to puree. Add the eggs, milk, and olive oil to the bean mixture and puree until smooth. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry slowly to avoid any lumps. Let the batter rest briefly and griddle the waffles according manufacturer’s instructions.

Now, what can you do with these little snacks? Well, the first night we had a couple of wedges on the side with some grilled turkey breast tenders. Very good.

The next day (a Saturday), two waffle wedges each were re-toasted, stacked with spinach leaves, avocado, poached eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa and served as a kind of faux, mexican eggs benedict. I completely recommend this option.

To poach an egg quite easily –

1. Fill a large skillet with a few inches of water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar and some salt. Put on a lid and bring to a boil.

2. Crack your eggs into ramekins.

3. When the water is boiling, gently pour each egg from the ramekin into the water.

4. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and poach for 2.5 - 4 minutes, depending if you like runny yolks or not. I did about 2.5 - 3 minutes for medium runny yolks.

5. Scoop eggs out with a slotted spoon, briefly draining on a towel-covered saucer if you want. This can get tricky, though, as you still have to lift the poached eggs from the towel to the plate.

Stack everything together and you have a wonderful morning treat. Top with chopped cilantro and green onions if you have any.

Keep the rest of the waffles in the fridge and heat up in a toaster for a quick snack.

Oh, next week there will be Beef Wellington. But this week, it’s a lovely Russian Carrot Pie from the new edition of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. And how fitting that January’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about the healthy vegetables. Perfect timing! And, I’m even early. Hooray!

I’m not quite sure what makes this Russian…the dill? The carrots? I dunno, but we liked it. It’s the prefect meal to make before or after something really beefy. Or, you know, if you are a vegetarian, this is just a good everyday meal.

Actually, this used to be my favorite cookbook when I was a vegetarian. I had the older edition and then lost it sometime around when I moved to Arizona. But, I remember living in Indiana during grad school and making a lot of the recipes out of this cookbook with my friend Christy, who now has her hands full with, uh, Hadley.

Great…time for a recipe!

Russian Carrot Pie
1 tbsp butter
1 cup finely minced onion
1 lb carrots, thinly chopped (I used an extra 1 lb bag of baby carrots leftover from holiday snacking)
1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 tbsp AP flour
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1 egg
3 tbsp fine bread crumbs
black pepper
3 tbsp minced dill
2 tbsp minced mint
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Nut Pie Crust (below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the onion and garlic and cook about 3-5 minutes. Next, add the carrots, salt and lemon juice. Cook until the carrots are soft but not mushy — about 8 more minutes. Sprinkle with the flour, mix well, and cook for about 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg with the cottage cheese in a large bowl. Stir in the herbs, some black pepper and the breadcrumbs. Add the carrot mixture (it’s okay if it’s still hot) and combine well.

Spread into the crust and sprinkle with paprika and Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, then turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Nut Crust
6 tbsp cold butter
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup finely minced nuts (I used walnuts)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3-6 tbsp cold water

Use a pastry cutter or a food processor to cut the butter into the flours, salt, nuts and chives. The mixture should get to the point where it resembles course cornmeal.

Add the liquid a little at the time until the dough comes together. I used all 6 tablespoons, but you never know.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap for storage in the fridge. After about an hour or so, roll it out using flour and place into a 9-10 inch pie plate, forming a crust with an edge.

I chose to par-bake my crust — 20 minutes at 375. I used some parchment and dry beans to weight the crust down. After 20 minutes, remove the crust, take out the weights (beans, beads, whatever) and fill with the carrot mixture and proceed.

Thanks again to Sara for a great (and healthy!) Weekend Cookbook Challenge.

Okay, I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to try really, really hard to get back into posting at least 3 times per week. Really!

Here’s a super-good pasta recipe. When we were in Ashland last October, I caught some of Lidia’s Family Table on PBS and fell in love with the recipe. I made it almost immediately when we got back. I loved it. jwa thought the flavors were a little strong, but still liked it. So, this is one of those recipes where half the people think it’s the cat’s pajamas and the other half thing it’s good but not pajama-worthy. Of course, this was a sample size of two, so you know…ymmv.

Linguine with Black Olives, Pine Nuts and Raisins
Recipe from From Lidia’s Family Table,’ by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
1 pound uncooked capellini OR other thin dry pasta such as spaghettini or linguine (I used wheat linguine)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 plump garlic cloves, sliced (about 1/3 cup)
1 1/2 cups oil-cured black olives, pitted and chopped into 1/3-inch pieces
1/2 cup golden raisins
3 tbsp fine long threads of orange zest
2/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 cup pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan
Hot water from pasta cooking pot
Salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
Optional: chopped arugula for a garnish — my addition

Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling. Five minutes before starting sauce, plunge pasta into boiling water. Pour 1/3 cup olive oil into a large skillet, add garlic slices and place over medium-high heat. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes, shaking pan, until garlic starts to color.

Add olives and stir with garlic. Cook another 1 1/2 minutes, shaking pan occasionally, as olives sizzle and caramelize. Add raisins and cook, stirring, 1/2 minute. Stir in orange zest, and cook, stirring, 30 seconds or more, until sizzling.

Carefully pour in orange juice (it will sizzle). Stir to moisten everything. After 20 seconds or so, stir in toasted pine nuts; stir to moisten. When orange juice has nearly evaporated, ladle in 2 cups boiling pasta water. Boil and stir sauce 3 minutes or more (while pasta is cooking). When sauce is reduced by half, stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Taste; add more salt if necessary. Stir in another tablespoon olive oil. Reduce heat to keep sauce hot until pasta is ready.

When the pasta is just shy of done, pull it out and add it to the pan with the sauce. Finish the sauce and pasta together in skillet, adding a little more pasta water or reducing it as necessary. Stir in parsley. Remove from heat; toss in a final tablespoon of olive oil. Makes 3 to 4 servings. Top with a little arugula if desired. I liked the green color on top and thought the greens helped lighten the flavor up a bit.

Okay. Coming up next week: Fruitcake update, December’s WCC post and lima bean-tarragon soup.

I recently got the cookbook, Talk with your Mouth Full by Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh and I absolutely love it. So many pages turned down of recipes that I want to make. This first one I thought would be perfect for the Halloween theme I chose for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, which I am super excited to be guest-hosting.

Now, the recipe itself isn’t particularly “Halloweeny” but it is when you add bat and black cat shaped Parmesan croutons and serve it in a big pumpkin soup tureen! Although, every year when jwa and I carve pumpkins, we do use parsnips for the noses, so there you go.

Roasted Honey Parsnip Bisque
2 pounds parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I subbed olive oil)
3 tsp salt, divided
6 tbsp honey, divided
6 cups water
1 bunch parsley
1 carrot, cut in 1/2
1 small onion
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp white pepper (I used regular, freshly ground black pepper)
3 cups heavy cream (here, I used about 1.5 cups half and half)
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Toss the parsnips with the oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and drizzle with 3 tablespoons honey. Place on a baking sheet and put into the top half of the oven. Roast 30 minutes, or until the parsnips are a deep golden brown; they tend to burn easily so make sure to toss often while roasting.

Meanwhile, put the water into a large pot and place over high heat. Lay a double layer of cheesecloth on a flat surface and place the carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in the center. When I did this, I couldn’t find my kitchen twine, so I just tied the cheesecloth up around everything. Then I realized I forgot my carrots. So, I just added those to the pot, figuring I would fish them out later. Oh and I threw in a garlic clove too.

Tie the cheesecloth up and around the vegetable and herb mix and drop it into the water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the parsnips from the oven and place them immediately into the stock. Add the remaining honey and salt and white pepper; simmer for about 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender.

Return to the saucepan and add the cream (or half and half) and pepper. I found when I did this that a cup and a half made it super creamy so I just stopped there. Feel free to add the whole 3 cups. Stir well to combine and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

For a holiday garnish, cut shapes from sourdough bread using cookie cutters, brush on some olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Toast in the oven and serve with the bisque. Speaking of the bisque, it was so good and creamy — even subbing the half and half for the cream.

So, everyone get your cookbooks out (or even a food magazine) and find a recipe that could fit a Halloween theme, make it, post about it, and send me the link to your post by Monday Sunday, October 21st — you still have 6 days! I’ll round them all up here shortly after the due date.

Here we are with another Weekend Cookbook Challenge. WCC 18th’s theme is Red & White. For this theme, I chose to use my newest cookbook, Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, which I recently picked up after being a fan of her blog for the past year. The fact that I am posting about one of her recipes from her new cookbook on my food blog is amusing to me. I am easily amused.

I made the Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup, which is quite red and drizzled it with plain yogurt, which is white. Hooray! It had a really great taste and the smoky paprika added a great depth of flavor. My only changes are that I threw in a sprig of rosemary and I used a yellow bell pepper instead of a red one.

Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup
5 tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
3 small yellow onions, quartered
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 cups vegetable stock
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 sprig rosemary
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil
Optional: plain yogurt for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and rub two rimmed baking sheets with a little olive oil.

Arrange the tomatoes, skin side down, on one of the baking sheets. Coat the pepper and onions with oil and place them on the other sheet along with the garlic. Add the sprig of rosemary to the onion/pepepr sheet.

Give both sheets a sprinkling of salt and pepper and then bake until the tomatoes start to collapse and the onions begin to brown and caramelize — about 45 minutes. Remove the garlic or turn the onions if either gets too dark.

Peel the garlic and dump all of the vegetables into a big bowl. Discard the rosemary sprig, allowing any loose leaves to go with the vegetables into the bowl. Add the stock (start with two cups and add more to your desired thickness) and puree with a handheld blender. You could also use a food processor or regular blender. Add the paprika and taste. Adjust the salt and pepepr as needed. When serving, drizzle with the yogurt if desired.

I found it very helpful to roast the vegetables in the AM, while it was still cool out and in the house. I made the soup early, refrigerated it and then the flavors got to come together a little more than they would have if I made it right before serving. Also, I didn’t have my oven on while it was super hot out! Just before serving, you can reheat. Or, just serve cold or room temperature.

Thanks again to Sara for hosting another great Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

We had a nice stretch of cool, 60’s to 70’s weather recently. That appears to be over. Hello, gazpacho! I recently got the new La Cucina Italiana magazine and found quite a few recipes in there that I wanted to try out. This is the first one. I think the second one will be fig and cocoa smoothie.

Anyway, back to the gazpacho — I really liked it. So did jwa. I have another recipe for a peach and tomato gazpacho and also a lima bean gazpacho. So there hot weather, I am ready for you.

Zucchini Gazpacho
1 big zucchini
2 yellow tomatoes
1/2 green bell pepper
1 small sweet onion, chopped into quarters
2 cloves garlic
2 slices white bread, crusts removed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Tabasco
salt
pepper
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 an orange
extra olive oil for drizzling

Blend the zucchini, tomatoes, onion quarters, bell pepper, olive oil and garlic in a food processor. Get it a bit combined and then add the bread, a bit of Tabasco, parsley and orange juice. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve into individual bowls and drizzle with the olive oil. You’re done. Go eat. Or, you know, just go out to eat…

Carlyle Restaurant
1632 NW Thurman Street
Portland, Oregon 97209

The other night (the night after the tasty gazpacho) we went to Carlyle Restaurant in NW Portland. So awesome. And, since I didn’t have many gazpacho images for my post, I will taunt you with Carlyle pictures. Ha!

My French Lemonade (Aviation gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon juice, tonic water and a float of Chartreuse liqueur, served tall) and jwa’s Caneberry cooler (House infused Raspberry and Blackberry vodka, simple syrup, lemon juice and club soda, served in a tall glass ).

Duck Cannaloni (Slow cooked duck confit, crepes, morel mushrooms, leek fondue and truffle oil). I love duck, jwa is so-so on duck. jwa loved this duck.

I had the Spring Chinook Salmon — grilled salmon, baby fava bean risotto, ramps, preserved lemon and cantal cheese with sweet pea coulis. Mmmmmm.

And jwa seemed completely delighted and bedazzled by his Filet Mignon — grilled Cascade Beef tenderloin, Pleasant Ridge Reserve potato gratin, ramp butter, foie gras bordelaise and Tempura Tiger prawn.

How to end all of this? Tiramisu, of course!

Needless to say, it was a wonderful dinner. We even got a quick tour of the big barnwood kitchen table and the private garden seating area before we left. It was all so good, I didn’t even mind the napkin-refolding. Bring me more duck, salmon and sweet pea coulis and you may do whatever you wish to my napkin if I get up to use the restroom.

Carlyle definitely gets four swanky cocktails out of four swanky cocktails.

This makes a great side dish. We just had it recently, if I remember correctly, with some chicken. See — that’s how good it was, I can’t even remember what we had it with!

The original recipe layered individual servings with the mint, olive oil and lemon. I just tossed everything in a bowl. You do what you need to do.

Zucchini Carpaccio Salad
Recipe based on one from Gourmet magazine
4 small zucchini (1 lb total)
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup pine nuts (1 oz)
1 /4 shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Cut the zucchini into thin slices. You can use a mandoline (not the instrument!) or the slicer part of a box grater. I used the grater — worked well. Put zucchini in a large bowl, one that will give you enough room to toss everything.

Make stacks of mint leaves and cut crosswise into very thin slivers, then sprinkle over zucchini. Whisk together oil and lemon juice in a small bowl, then drizzle over zucchini. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper to taste, and pine nuts. Let stand 10-15 minutes to soften zucchini and allow flavors to develop.

Just before serving, sprinkle the shaved cheese over the zucchini. A few extra grinds of pepper never hurt anyone, either.

***

Meeting with a wedding photographer tomorrow. Yay!

Mmmm, I love the asparagus. And this is an excellent asparagus soup recipe, based on one from Sara Moulton. Originally, the creaminess/thickening came from eggs — I used tofu instead. Again, tofu is the best thing ever for making soups creamy.

Huh, I think that’s all I have to say about the soup. Just make some and you too will know how good it is. On an unrelated note, I will add that aside from asparagus, I also love sleep.

Asparagus-Dill-Lemon Soup
1.5 lb asparagus
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium leek, white part coarsely chopped and washed well
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp fresh dill, minced
1/2 cup soft tofu
Optionoal: more fresh dill and some lemon zest for garnish

Trim the ends off the asparagus but reserve the ends. In a saucepan combine the asparagus trimmings with the chicken stock, bring to a boil, remove from heat and allow stock to infuse for 15 minutes. Strain stock and reserve.

Cut the trimmed asparagus into 1-inch pieces.

Heat the oil in a soup pot over moderate heat and cook the leeks, onion and celery, seasoned with salt and pepper, until softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the 1-inch asparagus pieces and stir to combine. Add the infused stock and bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 8 to 10 minutes until asparagus is tender.

In a blender puree the soup, in batches, until smooth. Add the tofu, lemon and dill into the batches of the soup as you blend.

Return pureed soup to large pot and reheat. Taste and adjust any seasonings. You can actually serve hot, room temperature or cold — so many delicious possibilities. Garnish with a sprig of dill and a strip of lemon zest.

***
I spent a few hours Saturday night perfecting the Save-the-Date card plan. It took a while but I think I finally have a design I really like. Now, we just need to decide on a location after next weekend’s field trip to Astoria and Ilwaco/Seaview. Then I can actually sit down and hammer them all out.

So, starting back slowly, I am. This is a salad / side type item we had last week when it was fairly warm out. Not any longer. Rainy and cold now. Anyway, the recipe is originally from Tyler Florence and I really loved the lemony-garlicky flavor. Make some for yourself and see. Oh! I was just thinking, some crumbled feta on this right before serving would probably be amazing.

Very easy and tastes great. I’m sure we’ll have this many more times this Spring and Summer. Oh, I used button mushrooms but I bet this would be awesome with cremini. I also liked the fact that the mushrooms were cooked a bit before marinating them.

Marinated Mushrooms
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
1 pound cremini or button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small bunch fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch red pepper flakes

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and bay leaf and cook for about 3 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice, garlic, red pepper flakes and thyme. Pour the remaining olive oil in with the mushrooms and season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Let cool and serve at room temperature or refrigerate for a few hours and serve cool. I broght mine to room temp and then stored in the fridge for about 2 hours and that seemed to work quite well.

***
The rest of the week there’ll be a post about our wonderful and delicious Easter Brunch at Heceta Head Lighthouse, a chicken-fauxmale casserole and more. Possibly a new broccoli soup and a spinach salad with grilled shrimp and a Meyer lemon vinaigrette. Whoo!