Experiment: Spanish chickpea stew with soyriso

 The experiment went PRETTY well, and was promising enough I'd want to try it again.

Here's what we want to do NEXT time:

- Cook 1 cup dried chickpeas the way we usually do a slow cooker (or pressure cooker).

- in 2 Tbsp oil, cook 1 med onion + 1 med carrot + 2 cloves garlic, all minced.  After 5-8 min (soft but not brown), add 2 chopped tomato (or maybe tomato paste or both) and cook 5 more minutes.  Add 1 tsp smoked paprika and a few seconds later dump in chick peas + cooking liquid.  Simmer for 15-20 min.

Meanwhile: make soyriso meatballs.

Combine 2 eggs, 1/2 cup panko crumbs, 1/2 tsp sweet paprika, and make hand-shaped patties.  Brown on both sides, then cut into more bit-sized pieces and add to the soup in the last 10 minutes.

Combine 2 minced garlic cloves + 3 Tbsp finely chopped parsley and a bit of salt in the mortar and pestle.  Add to soup at the very end and let sit 5 minutes.  Then serve.

Chinese Scallion Bread

 We have been trying to get this bread right for a while and think we know how to perfect it for next time. This round turned out almost perfect aside from the bland flavor (add more salt) and burned one side (start with a lower temp). Otherwise we really like the rolled shape and the bread was nice and fluffy!

Start here: https://redhousespice.com/spring-onion-flatbread-leavened/

Modifications:

• This is a half recipe, which was perfect for the 2.5 of us
• Increased the salt because we found the original recipe much too bland, this is a guessed amount.
• Made special notes to start the pan VERY low when placing the bread to avoid scorching. Scorching is the problem we have had every time making this bread and we think starting with a very low heat will be key to fixing it, and to giving us better control.

[ update: tried it again but this time started the pan from cold on 2nd to lowest setting on our burner (with oil).  STILL burned.  New idea: do it from cold on the SMALLEST burner, all else the same?  maybe try with no oil (since we saw a recipe that did that?) ]

INGREDIENTS

For the dough

• 250 g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp dried instant yeast
• 130 ml lukewarm water (~1/2 cup)

For the bread

• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 stalk scallions, finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

For cooking

• 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil or similar

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the dough

In a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix flour, yeast, sugar and water on low/low-medium for ~8 minutes until dough has formed. If it's looking a little dry and not coming together, add another splash of water. Dough should not be very wet.

The first rise

Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until double in size. It will take about 40 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the room temperature. We did this in December and it did need 1-1.5 hours.

Shape the bread

Take the dough out. Knead on a floured work surface until the dough goes back to its original size.

With a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangle shape. Roll it as thin as you can. I did not need to dust with any flour to avoid sticking, it was a very easy to work with dough, but you can add if needed.

Brush oil on the dough. Sprinkle salt and scallions on top.

Roll the dough into a rope. Coil it to form a flat circle. Then roll the circle out into a ~6-7 inch disk.

Wet the disk with a little water. Sprinkle with sesame seeds then press them down gently.

The second rise

Cover the bread loosely with damp cloth. Leave to rise for around 20 minutes (we did 30 for cooler kitchen in winter).

Cook the bread

Barely heat a small cast-iron pan over low heat. You can always turn up the heat later, but start very low to avoid scorching the bread too quickly.

Place the bread in (the side with sesame seeds facing down) then cover with a lid to steam cook the bread.

Cook until the first side is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Trust your nose, if it's burning turn the heat way down and flip. Flip over and cook with the lid on until the second side is done, another 10 minutes.

Turn the bread over again to crisp the first side for a few seconds if needed.

Serve

Transfer the bread onto a chopping board. Leave to cool for a short while then cut into wedges. Serve warm.

Chinese Corn Egg Drop Soup

 I forget which of these two we used, but they're basically the same:

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/corn-egg-drop-soup/

https://omnivorescookbook.com/chinese-corn-soup/

It was VERY fast and pretty delicious!  My only note was I added I think 2-3 Tbsp of the canned corn water which was just the right amount of corn flavor for the stock.  (the rest was homemade Chinese chicken stock)

Home Made Chicken Udon Soup

 Very good!

Recipe:  https://omnivorescookbook.com/chicken-udon-soup/

I would probably skip the actual chicken and use tofu or prep chicken in a different way.  The actual soup base was delicious, though.  We used home made Chinese chicken stock.  I put in some sliced mushroom and broccoli.

Banh Mi

 These were pretty straightforward and very delicious!

Recipe here:  https://thewoksoflife.com/chicken-banh-mi/

I marinated the chicken for 24 hours.  It was fine.  I also stabbed the chicken a bunch of times to facilitate greater marination; not sure if it made a difference.  The lemongrass flavor was definitely present, but not super strong.

The pickled daikon & carrot were great.  Would be nice with cucumber as well.

We got fresh bread from lion.  Overall, a great success!

Yogurt and Mint Marinated Chicken Thigh Curry

 We made this recipe earlier in the summer, but the marinade was so delicious that I hated the idea of throwing it all away. So we tried it again yesterday but tried to cook it curry style and it turned out great. We do not make the pickled nectarines.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2020/08/yogurt-marinated-chicken-thighs-pickled-nectarines.html

Ingredients:

• 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (1 3/4 pounds; 800g) - I cubed them
• 1 1/2 cups (13 1/2 ounces; 380g) plain unsweetened yogurt - I reduced to 1 cup and would even go down to 1/2 cup for a less watery sauce next time
• 6-7 scallions (3 1/2 ounces; 100g), root ends trimmed and discarded
• 1 packed cup mint leaves and stems (3/4 ounce; 20g)
• 12 whole black peppercorns
• 4 medium garlic cloves (1/2 ounce; 15g), peeled
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce; 30g) grated fresh ginger
• 1 small fresh green chile, such as Serrano or Thai chile - This would probably be good, we omit to make it as Nadia friendly as possible.
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt; if using table salt, use half as much by volume
• Lemon or lime wedges, for serving

Directions:

• Marinate the Chicken: 
• In a blender, combine yogurt, scallions, mint, peppercorns, garlic, ginger, chile, turmeric, and salt. Pulse until very smooth. Place the chicken in a baking dish, ziptop bag, or a food-safe storage container with a lid and pour the yogurt mixture all over the chicken, then gently toss to coat well. Cover the container or seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
• Cook:
• Heat 1-2 tablespoons of your preferred cooking oil in a large pan or medium pot. Add the chicken and all of its marinade and cook until the chicken is cooked through (should have checked how long this took, 15 minutes at most?) stirring occasionally.
• Eat:
• Serve with roti, naan, rice or other starch of choice. Squeeze lime over it if you like.

 Nadia's and Grandma's cupcake recipe

Ingredients: (all pretend)

Flour, 2 cups

Milk, 1 cup

Sugar, l cup

Eggs, 5

Vanilla, a little spoonful

honey, a dribble

raisins, dates, chocolate chips, cranberry raisins

Utensils: (real--from kitchen or toys, or both)

cupcake papers, pan, mixing bowl, spoon to stir with, cup to scoop and pour with, little spoon to measure with, and timer.

Directions

Measure the first three ingredients and stir a lot with spoon. add eggs, vanilla and honey. |Mix with spoon again. Add handfuls of the last ingredients. mix again. Put cupcake papers in the pan, spoon cupcake batter into the papers. Lift carefully and put pan in pretend oven. Set timer. Clean up work space. Check the cupcakes when the timer says they are ready. You can add frosting and sprinkles, of course!!

 

Good 'Ole Standby pasta sauce with whole grain linguine

Cooking My Way Through Co-Vid Lockdown while trying to find Med-diet-ish food your husband will eat. 

In an effort to find something more in line with the diet recommended for Mark's arthritis, we tried fresh linguine made with cauliflower flour and chickpea flour. Both were fine, but the chickpea was better. 

We use any jar of tomato pasta sauce with no sugar, hopefully organic (for the farm workers, not we two consumers). I usually saute some mushrooms, cooked artichoke heart if it is handy, a relatively small amount of chicken or turkey sausage if it is around, sometimes a can of diced tomatoes. Combine in whatever ratio one prefers, taste and adjust with a little garlic or herbs or whatever. Put fresh parm on top, put some green vegetable on the side and that's it!

For dessert, cherry and blueberry pie or crisp or plain with cream sprayed on it. The fruit is supposed to be high in antioxidents, which we try to get in the daily diet.

 Roasted Grape Tomatoes with Tangled Noodles-Make the revised version, not the one below the picture

Original recipe cut and pasted from Food Network. One star as is: I picked this because I had some really extraordinarily flavorful tomatoes and also hoped to make this a no-muss-no-fuss one pot cleanup. I also liked the idea of flavoring the noodles with broth. Sadly enough, it  turned out sticky and not flavorful enough to fix.  I used reg mozzarella instead of smoked because this Cooking My  Way Through The Time of the Co-Vid Lockdown and I had regular on hand.

However! Five Star version: I tried making the noodles again with (! think|) 1 1/2 cups of broth and about 4 ounces of angel hair (2 servings), cooked it by watching and separating the noodles a lot as they got ready, 9 to 11 minutes. I poured in colander, then back into pan, added a little olive oil to loosen it up, and on top added some slow roasted salmon with oil from the day before--about half a pound of unpresentable shreds. They have a lot of flavor, though, and it worked out great for two. A little squeeze of lemon juice and fresh pepper is important--I ran out of lemon and it dropped to 3 stars on that part. 

Next version: I peeled a broccoli stalk, chopped and roasted it alongside the tomatoes. The pieces tasted great.

This probably wouldn't work as well with other pasta shapes--the angel hair and broth ratio just works out to soak up flavor but not get sticky like the previous recipe. I used about twice the broth to angel hair to get the result I wanted.

First Version Ingredients--didn't work for me

3 tablespoons garlic-infused virgin olive oil

4 cups sweet grape tomatoes

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

3 cups low-sodium chicken stock

1 pound angel hair pasta or extra-thin egg noodles

4 ounces smoked mozzarella, roughly chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Drizzle the olive oil over the grape tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Place the tomatoes on the baking sheet and cook until skins turn a rich golden brown, about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock over low heat. Add the noodles to a large skillet over medium heat, and pour in 1 ladleful of hot stock. Stir to prevent the noodles from sticking together as the stock cooks off. Once the noodles have absorbed all of the stock, add another 1 cup stock. Continue to stir and add the remaining stock 1 cup at a time, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more. Once all the stock has been absorbed, stir in the cheese and toss with the roasted tomatoes and their pan drippings. Serve hot.

Cook’s Note

Toss in some torn fresh basil leaves, fresh oregano, thyme or even lemon basil leaves for a nice surprising twist!

Quick One Pot Mac and Cheese with Peas (maybe tuna)

Quick One Pot Mac and Cheese with Peas

Take  a box of prepared mix (We use Amy's Organic, which has extra-small elbow noodles--they cook in 6 to 8 minutes). Measure out a cup of frozen green peas. When you pour the noodles in the boiling water set the timer for 3 minutes. Pour the frozen peas in and set the timer for 3 minutes. Check the noodles and peas. If not done, keep checking every minute until ready. Pour into collender, make the sauce in the pan, mix everything togetherr et voila! C'est fini. Mark loves this dish. 

Other News You Can USe about this dish:  You can make it without butter to get calories down. Giving it a few grinds of fresh pepper helps with the flavor. The peas give it some vegetable and protein. Some hostess in a 1980s cookbook swears that she takes boxed mac and cheese with light tuna stirred in to potlucks and people polish it off. I haven't tried it and am not sure whether it would work for 2020 tastebuds. But. It is what it is.  :-)

 Dave's Frittata

Recipe in Dave and Maria's Cookbook. I've made it a lot of times, most recently to use up leftover roasted little potatoes and other vegetale odds and ends. tty much unbeatable and although much better right out of oven the first time it heats in microwave nicely. I gave this one a dash of marinara on second re-heating. In normal times I would put some fresh salsa on top. 

This recipe has served lots of family brunches and I miss having those family times. Two people sharing the recipe isn't the same.-- especially when one of them isn't very interested in food, anyway and would be just as happy with cold cereal for breakfast. Well, with the occasional blueberry pancake tossed in!

Mexican Casserole

This is really made up from scratch to get dinner together from food on hand—including a can of refried beans Safeway gave us by mistake. This is the second bean dish Mark said he likes!

. 

Ingredients

3 or 4 whole wheat tortillas

About one cup cooked brown rice

About one cup beef substitute mixed with real ground beef, cookbed

Enchelada sauce**,about 1cup,

About one cup grated cheese (I used mozarella and a other white cheese because i had it, but cheddar would taste better)

About 1/2 of 14-ounce can refried beans, mildly spiced

Garlic, olive oil, taco seasoning, or if you don't have that a little red pepper, paprika and garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Put cooked meat in a small saucepan and spices with water to just cover. Simmer about 10 minutes.  Add rice.  Keep warm

Oil the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish and put tortilla in. Add meat and rice layer. Put about 1/3 of sauce. Add second tortilla put refried beans and 1/2 of cheese. Add sauce.  Put last tortilla, sauce and last of cheese, and cook in microwave on “reheat casserole” setting.  

Serve with grated zucchini sauteed with oil and garlic and a salad with tomatoes and avocados.

** the green sauce I planned to use was past its freshness date so i made one using butter and flour roux, 3/4 cup flavorful vegetable bouillon and some taco sauce shaken in.

Tuscan White Bean and Pasta

• 
  This is the first bean recipe Mark actually likes. (He tolerates pinto bean and beef chili but black beans will not cross his lips). The substitutions are to use up what is on hand. The original undoubtedly tastes great also.
• 
  
• 8 oz. linguine or fettuccine ($0.63)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
• 1 Tbsp butter ($0.13)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced ($0.24)
• 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes ($1.99)
• 10 cranks freshly ground pepper ($0.03)
• 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
• 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
• 1 15oz. can cannellini beans ($0.69)
• 4 oz. baby spinach ($0.65)
• 3 oz. shredded parmesan ($1.89)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Fill a large pot with water and place over high heat to bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions (boil for 7-10 minutes). Drain the pasta in a colander.
• While you’re waiting for the water to boil, mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about a minute, or until it has softened and become very fragrant.
• Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil. Sauté the tomatoes until the skins burst and the tomatoes begin to release their juices. It's important to not have the heat under the skillet too high here or the garlic may burn before the tomatoes break down. You want the garlic to brown and caramelize a bit, but not burn.
• Once the tomatoes begin to break down, add the spinach and stir it into the tomatoes until it is about half way wilted. 
• Rinse and drain the can of cannellini beans. Add the beans to the skillet and stir until they are heated through. The tomato juices will have created a thick sauce-like mixture on the bottom of the skillet at this point. Taste the mixture and add a bit more salt if needed. It should be slightly on the salty side in order to properly flavor the pasta.
• Add the cooked and drained pasta to the skillet. Toss until the pasta is coated in the sticky sauce and everything is combined. Top with shredded parmesan

Iranian Lamb Pilaf

This was easy, made a lot, and is VERY savory and good.  Would be nicer in the winter.

Here's the recipe:

And here's a hastily taken picture of the result!

Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart

Such a light and delicious tart!  We chose it because we had a lot of cherry tomatoes from our garden (!!)

Recipe is here:  https://www.fromachefskitchen.com/herbed-ricotta-roasted-cherry-tomato-tart/

We didn't have parsley or green onion so we just left them out but it was still delicious!  The lemon zest is really key.

Next time we'd figure out a way to halve the cherry tomatoes for greater coverage, and also chop the basil which goes in the ricotta.

Three Cup Chicken

This was easy and delicious!  A perfect weeknight Chinese dinner.

We used the NYT recipe:   https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017456-three-cup-chicken unaltered except that we added some cubed zucchini because we have a zillion and we like vegetables in our food.

(it made a lot more than this)

Chinese-style stir fried zucchini

Our quest to use our zucchini continues!  This was quite good, though.

I minced 3 cloves garlic and made ~ 6 ginger disks.

In 1 Tbsp oil I added the aromatics, and then sauteed about 1/4 lb ground beef.  When close to done, I added roughly 2 Cups zuchhini in quarter disks 3/4" thick.

After stir frying for awhile I added the sauce and cornstarch slurry to thicken.

Sauce was:

1/4 C fresh-made chinese-style chicken stock
1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce (we use lee kum kee)
1 heaping Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce

It was really great!

Chinese fish in wine sauce (attempt #1)

This was one of those learning experiences.  The result:

Flavor - good
Texture - not good

Also, not enough sauce for what we were trying to achieve.  I used a kind of hybrid recipe between a Martin Yan recipe in a book I have and this one:  https://hoohla.cooking/fish-in-wine-sauce

I had ~1 lb TJ frozen cod.  I dethawed, cut in half lengthwise so pieces were ~1/2" thick, and cut into roughly 1" by 2" pieces.

I marinated for 10 min with a sprinkle of salt, 1/8 tsp white pepper, 1 Tbsp corn starch and 1 whisked egg white.

Then I tried to pan fry in 2 Tbsp oil, but it stuck to the pan and everything went to hell.

SO, one option is cut the fillets larger, use a smaller non-stick pan with more oil.  A different option would be to flash deep fry them as many youtube recipes show (which is probably more restaurant style, but is a pain).

Anyway, I removed them from the pan, and then added ~ 8 ginger disks to more oil, and stir fried the 6 wood ear mushrooms cut into strips.  Then I added the sauce (see below) and the thickener and the fish, let it thicken and that was it.

For the sauce I used:
1/2 fresh made chinese-style chicken stock
2 Tbsp rice wine
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Zucchini Boat part 2 (tex mex style)

Here was our first zucchini boat attempt:  https://dobiekitchenlog.blogspot.com/2020/07/zuccini-boats-take-1-caprese-with.html

This time we:

Brushed boats with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.  Cooked ~10 min @ 400.

While that's happening:
In 1 Tbsp oil, saute:

1/2 C minced white onion
1/3 lb ground beef
... added 1/2 the zucchini innards (chopped), 1 jar "cowboy caviar" from TJ, and simmered for a few minutes.  I stirred in 1/3 C panko at the end.

After removing shells fill with inside mixture.  Top with cheddar cheese and broil until cheese browns.

It was very delicious!  Next time we might try it with minced mushrooms instead of ground beef, and only do 1/2 jar of cowboy caviar.  Might add more black beans as well.  (there's only a few in the cowboy caviar).

A good, solid chicken

5

Prepared according to Dave and Maria’s cookbook, with accompanying,lemon and caper sauce per their recipe.  On brown basmati rice. With salad on the side.  And a glass of wine, just like the book says. This is the second Day for this and chicken is still tender. Amazing! It is skinless breast and didn’t give it a brine bath or anything. 

Spanish Tumbet (Ridiculous layered vegetable casserole)

From:  "The New Spanish Table" by  Anya von Bremzen

So, this took A LONG TIME but was also very delicious!

The idea is that you slice a bunch of vegetables very thin, and then fry them in small batches.
Each layer alternates with a tomato/red/yellow-pepper compote.

Recipe for the compote:  In 1 T olive oil, saute 2/3 white chopped onion on med-low for 5 minutes until soft (not brown at all).  Add 1 clove chopped garlic for 30 seconds.  Add 2 lb very ripe tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used a 28 oz can chopped tomato, drained).  Cook med-high for 3-4 minutes until liquid is released.  Add a pinch of sugar and 1/4 C white wine.  Cook 5 min more.  If too liquid, heat on high 1-2 minutes to reduce.

Chop 2 red bell pepper and 1 yellow.  In 2 Tbsp olive oil, heat on med-high until soft.  Then cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.  Season with salt.  Uncovered on high reduce liquid for 1-2 minutes if necessary.

Combine with the tomato.

----

For the vegetables:  Cut the following into thin slices

3 yukon gold potato into 1/8" slices
2 medium sized zucchini, cut in half crosswise, then lengthwise into 1/4"
2 med firm purple eggplant, cut into 1/3" inch slices.

Generously salt the eggplant slices and let sit in colander for 30 minutes.  Rinse and pat very dry with paper towel.  The reason is because when you fry it you want all the moisture out.

In small batches in a large pan, fry the following in 6 Tbsp olive oil (adding more as necessary):
- potato for 4-min per side
- eggplant for 3-min per side
- zucchini for 2-3 min per side

Pat each batch dry on paper towels.

Layer into 9-12" dish in the following order:  Potato, a little salt, dabs of compote, zucchini, a little salt, dabs of compote, eggplant, a little salt, the rest of the compote.  We added some Parmesan on top.

***************

I would do this for a special occasion, but if I was going to do it again for just us I would:
- figure out how to roast in the oven instead of small-batch frying
- Add a layer of mushrooms =)

Author recommends:  parboil the potatoes.  Eggplant and zucchini can be brushed with oil and broiled.  Peppers can be roasted at 425 brushed with olive oil for 35 min.  Let them stand 15 min, peel and then chop.  OR broiler about 3" from heat for 15-20 min.

Raw potato

Chopped onion

Frying the potato in batches

Frying eggplant

Fried potato slices

Starting to do the layers

Zucchini layer...

More layers!

Ta da!

And here we are eating it!

Zuccini Boats (take 1) - Caprese with sausage

So we've got all these zucchini, and zucchini boats seem like a good solution.

I seem to have lost the recipe we sort-of followed, but more or less here it is:

- 2 zucchini, cut in halves with ends cut off and hollowed out with a spoon.

Brush with oil, lightly season with salt and cook @ 400F for 10 min.

Meanwhile combine half the zucchini inside (roughly chopped) with ~1/4 C shallot or red onion, ~1/2 C bread crumbs, bulk Italian sausage (we used 1 sausage with casing removed and sauteed in a pan).  1-2 chopped tomato, 1/2 ball mozzarella chopped into bits with some reserved for adding on the top, and ~1/2 C loosely packed basil leaves.

I sauteed the foregoing except cheese and basil in 1 T oil for a bit.  Then combined it with the cheese and basil, spooned it into the shells, put it back in, sprinkling additional cheese on top. and baked for ~15 min.  If you want, give it an extra blast at the end to brown the cheese.  Might be nice with some Parmesan in addition to mozzarella.

Tapas - Potato with Caper and Dill

From the book "Tapas" by Penelope Casas (pg 73).

Really nice light and refreshing take on potato salad.  Worked great as an accompaniment to the seafood and lamb meatballs we served it with. Next time I might consider chopping half the capers and leaving the other half whole.  Also, it's essential to salt to potato boiling water.

Tapas - Shrimp and mushrooms in Almond Sauce

Really really great!  Definitely restaurant quality.

Notes:
- Recipe says start a day ahead to marinate overnight.  I marinated for 6 hours and it was fine.
- I used home made fish stock, but I think it would have been totally fine with the clam juice.
- I quartered 4 regular-size mushrooms
- VERY important to use good shrimp that you like the taste of.  (We use TJ Argentinian Red Shrimp ).

Tapas - Lamb Meatballs with Olives and Almonds

We followed this recipe:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8_lQNiOonM

Exceptionally good!

Notes:
- Used cookie scoop for ~2 in meatballs.  1 lb of meat made ~20
- Used 1/4 C diced green olives (from some random greek olive thing I had lying around)
- Used only 1 Tbsp oil because meatballs release their rendered fat
- Browned at medium-low, rotating every few minutes.
- There was no danger of meatballs falling apart, so next time I could leave almond bits a little larger

Aeoli recipe

I used 1/2 C mayonnaise, 4 cloves garlic crushed, juice from 1 lemon and a little salt.

Maria thought it was too much kick from the garlic.  So we next time maybe 2 cloves and lemon to taste.  Start with 1/2 lemon and a little more until it tastes balanced.

Mushrooom black-eyed pea curry

This came out really well!

1.  Cook 1C dry black-eyed peas in pressure cooker with 1/2 tsp salt.  Drain.
2.  Finely chop mushrooms (~ 2 C or 2.6 oz) and saute in 1 T oil for 4 min over med heat.  Reserve.
3.  In 3T oil add:
  - 1 tsp cumin seeds
  - 1 bay leaf

4.  After 30 sec - 1 min add onion/garlic/ginger.  ~ 1/4 onion chopped (~1/2 C), 1 T ginger, 3 clove garlic.  Cook on medium for 5 min.

5.  Add 2 chopped tomatoes, cook ~3 min more on med-high until most of the water is gone.
6.  Add the following:
  - 2 tsp coriander powder
  - 1/4 tsp cayenne (or 1 tsp chili powder)
  - 1/2 tsp turmric
  - 1/2 tsp salt
  - 1 tsp curry powder
  - 1/2 C water

Let cook 5 min.  Then add beans + mushrooms back in.  Cook on low for 7-8 minutes.

7.  Add 1/2-3/4 C cream or half-and-half (we used half-and-half).  Add 1/4 tsp garam.  Let cook another 5 min or so. 

Garnish with cilantro.

Delicious chopped summer salad

Maria made this from smitten but changed most of the actual ingredients.

Really good!

https://smittenkitchen.com/2012/06/chopped-salad-with-feta-lime-and-mint/

It looks like she did corn (from frozen), cucumber, carrot ...

Our photo:

Nadiya's peanut chicken curry traybake

We decided to try this one from Great British Bakeoff's Nadiya:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/one-tray_peanut_chicken_19540

We halved the recipe and made a few changes.

Instead of making your own peanut butter, we used TJ unsalted smooth peanut butter.
We also added roughly twice the gnocci in the recipe (which seems like a good ratio).

after eating:  Pretty good, but not amazing.  In the world of peanut+curry things it's not as good as thai chicken curry tacos, for example.

We'd do twice as much broccoli and maybe twice as much gnocci (or serve it with rice).  The onions didn't really cook enough iohm, so we'd replace the red onion with 1 chopped shallot.

Here's a picture!