Ice cream in February? Indeed!

In the past month or so we’ve made 3 different frozen concoctions…orange sherbet, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and meyer lemon sorbet. They were all mighty tasty but I have to say that the orange sherbet was my favorite. We used some big juicy organic navel oranges from the farmers market and I used this recipe. It tasted like a creamsicle and it was the perfect summery escape during the cold days we’ve had in January and February. The ice cream attachment for my kitchen aid mixer has worked pretty well so far and the best thing about having an ice cream maker is that you can create fun and crazy flavors, and control what goes in (fat content, amount of sugar, organic ingredients, etc). I can’t wait to experiment some more, but I might wait until Spring comes. What ideas for ice cream/sorbet/froyo flavors do you have?

I heart homemade pizza

For Valentine's Day MO and I made pizza... heart-shaped pizza! MO made the dough (per Fat Boy's scribbled notes) and I prepped the toppings. We made cheese pizza with mushrooms (MO's favorite) and white pizza with red onions and rosemary (my favorite), pictured here. And since it was Valentine's Day, we shared. :)

Adventures in Argentina

When we told people about our recent travel plans, I was asked, “Why Argentina??? You don’t eat meat and you don’t speak Spanish!” I’m here to tell you that there is much much more to Argentine cuisine than beef (and not speaking Spanish only added to the adventure)!

Our Argentine adventures included exploring, site-seeing, museum-going, hiking, glacier trekking, sunbathing, and – of course – lots and lots of eating and drinking.

this vegetarian's favorite foods of Argentina:

Empanadas. These delicious stuffed pastries are everywhere. Although ground beef may be the most traditional filling, we found many delicious vegetarian varieties including cebolla y queso (onion and cheese), verdura (usually a spinach mixture), choclo (corn), and caprese. Our favorites were the cebolla y queso empanadas at a little bakery in El Chalten in Patagonia.

Ice Cream. Argentines love their ice cream, especially in BA. There is literally a helados store on every corner. In addition to the 10 different takes on the dulce de leche flavor, fruit flavors are common as well. Our favorite combo – lemon mousse and strawberry - was discovered by mistake when MO’s pronunciation of vainilla (vanilla) was mistaken for frutilla (strawberry).

Wine. Ok, wine is not a food, but it is plentiful, good and very inexpensive in Argentina. Even in restaurants it is typical to find many good wines priced under $12 us per bottle. Needless to say we tried a lot of wine. I enjoyed lots of delicious Malbecs and Cabernet Sauvignons, but I also discovered a new varietal that is perfect for the hot summer days we had there: torrontes. Torrontes is a fruity floral white wine, crisp but not overly acidic.

Oh yeah, MO said the beef was excellent, too. :)

Soup's on!

It's that time of year again when I can't get enough soup. Nothing is better on a damp wintery (wintry?) night than a steaming bowl of hot homemade soup. I've already blogged about some of my favorite soups: Butternut, Tortellini so this year I am going to expand my horizons a bit. On my list of soups to make this year: cauliflower, potato leek, carrot ginger, tomato...what are your favorite soups?

One that I've always secretly loved is Tortilla Soup, but have never had a vegetarian version so I decided to craft my own. It's sort of a vegetarian blend of my favorite parts of tortilla soup (large chunks of veggies, shredded cheese, crunchy tortilla strips) and posole (hominy, lime), with the addition of chipotle flavors just because. You can make it as spicy as you'd like with the addition of more chipotles or hot sauce and it is vegan without the topping of cheese.

Tortilla Soup with Hominy and Chipotle (vegetarian)

Serves 4-6 as main course

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
6 cups vegetable broth or water
1 can hominy
3 carrots, chopped into ½ inch pieces
¼ of a small green cabbage, chopped into 1-2 inch strips
6 small corn tortillas
1-2 tsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
Toppings: shredded cheese, avocado, lime, cilantro, diced tomatoes, sour cream, hot sauce

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, garlic, cumin, and chili powder and cook 5-10 minutes, until onions are tender. Add the tomatoes and chipotle peppers and stir to combine. Add broth/water, hominy, carrots and cabbage, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15-20 minutes.

2. While soup is simmering, prepare the tortilla strips. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut tortillas in half and then into ¼ inch thin strips. Toss in bowl with 1-2 tsp. oil, just until coated but not “soaked”. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, stirring at least once so that the strips cook evenly. When strips are golden brown, remove from oven and sprinkle with salt.

3. Serve hot with small bowls of toppings.

Move over butternut!

Move over butternut, there’s a new squash in town! I love winter squash, in every shape and every form and my latest discovery is delicata squash – its delicious and sweet and small, which makes it easy to cut, clean and you can even eat the skin!

This dish integrates squash with one of my favorite cozy hearty combos – white beans and greens. I cooked the white beans in my pressure cooker but canned would work great. Feel free to change up the type of squash, too (any winter squash would work), and the greens (chard, spinach, collards). This dish is gluten free and vegetarian, and could be vegan by simply leaving out the parmesan cheese.

Delicata Squash Stuffed with White Beans and Kale
Serves 4-6 as main dish, depending on the size of the squash.
Takes about 50 minutes from start to finish

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup onions, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bunch or 4 cups kale, chopped
2 cups white beans, canned or previously cooked
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)
1/2 tsp sage, dried

1/2 tsp thyme, dried
S&P

Preheat oven to 375. Carefully cut delicata in half lengthwise, season with S&P and place in deep baking dish. Pour 1/4 cup of water in dish and cover with tin foil. Roast in oven for 20-25 minutes while preparing filling. In large saucepan saute chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until soft. Add chopped kale and 1/4 cup of broth. Cover and cook until kale is tender, about 10 minutes. Add beans and remaining 1/4 cup broth to kale mixture. Cook over low heat to warm the beans and stir to desired consistency (I like the beans to be broken up a bit). Add sage and thyme and season with S&P. Add 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese (optional) and stir to combine. Remove squash halves from oven, pile the kale and bean mixture in and top with a pinch of parmesan cheese. Return to oven (don't cover it this time) and cook stuffed squash for 10 more minutes, or until parmesan cheese is golden.

Roasted Tomatoes

I love fresh garden tomatoes, so it was hard for me to admit that we had more fresh tomatoes than we could eat fresh (although we have definitely eaten our share of salads, bruschetta, and salsa lately). I made 2 really big pots of sauce (which I then put in the freezer), but still had tomatoes left over, including lots of romas. I decided to roast them and was not sorry when I piled a pastry crust with tons of roasted tomatoes, a few onions, and some cheddar cheese. I don't have a photo, but believe me this dish was gorgeous and delish!

Roasted Tomatoes
Slice roma tomatoes in half lengthwise, then toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Arrange on baking sheet and bake for 45 min to 1 hour at 400 degrees.

Roasting tomatoes dries them out a bit and really deepens the flavor. They are great on pizzas and tarts, tossed in salads or on a roasted veggie sandwich. These are some recipes using roasted tomatoes that I'm thinking of trying:
Corn Fritters with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic Aoili
White Beans with Roasted Tomatoes
Fussili Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and "Hidden" Zucchini
Slow-Roasted Tomato Bruschetta

Glorious garden

Upon returning from a week away, MO and I were greeted with about 10 pounds of gorgeous garden tomatoes! In my opinion there is nothing more delicious than a fresh-picked garden tomato...

We also had 2 obscenely large zucchinis, about 10 cucumbers, 4 eggplants, and lots of green and purple string beans. So, needless to say, we've been eating a lot of veggies this week. We've made:

• the beautiful caprese salad pictured above


• fresh salsa with tomatoes, jalapeno, and cilantro from the garden


• Spicy Summer Pasta Sauce (with fresh garden tomatoes instead of canned)


• a Thai-style eggplant and tofu stir-fry


• Zucchini-Walnut Muffins (I'm still perfecting the recipe, but will post it soon)


• Dill Refrigerator Pickle Spears

I still have zucchini and eggplant to use up, so I'd better get cooking!