Give Beets a Chance: Beet Goat Cheese Ravioli

I try to be open-minded about what I eat, and, with the exception of eggplant (which makes me ill) and meat (obviously), there isn’t really anything I won’t eat.  However, there are a lot of foods that I don’t eat, either because I’m not familiar with them (what do you do with  dragon fruit?), or because “everyone” hates them (brussels sprouts).  I’m trying to broaden my food-tastes, and since a friend keeps bringing up how delicious beets are, I decided to start with them.

Remember How the World Didn’t End? Pumpkin Manicotti

The world was supposed to end on December 21, 2012. (Or possibly the following week… or at the end of the year… or in a few billion years…whatever).  Old news, right?   Well, like many of you, I went to an end of the world party (themed potluck!), and I really liked the dish I made, so I’m going to write about it – chances are someone has predicted the world will end this month, so really it’s still relevant.

Approximate Foods: Eggs Florentine (Kinda)

When I first moved to the house of the enormous pantry, I didn’t do much grocery shopping. It just seemed wasteful – we already had so much food.  This led to some forays into uncharted food territory, but mostly I ended up making a lot of substitutions in recipes that I already used.  No sweet potatoes – I have carrots.  No cinnamon – I have cardamom.  No rice – I have tiny pasta.  No spinach – I have kale.

Cozy Hibernation Foods: Sweet Onion Pasta

Much like bears, and some of the more awesome frogs, I occasionally go into hibernation due to holiday stress, lack of daylight, and broken cameras.  But with the holidays past, light returning to the northern hemisphere, and a replacement camera in the mail it is time to emerge from my den and start posting some of my back-log.

Spinach Goat Cheese Thing that Everyone Likes: Tossed Spinach Lasagna

As you may have guessed, this dish contains spinach and goat cheese, and everyone likes it – it has become a much-requested birthday food.  This is another recipe adapted from Deborah, as I’ve said, I just love her.

Taking Advantage of my Pantry: Tortilla Soup

My housemate’s mom likes to clip coupons. A lot. So much so that she has too much food for her own house, and sends the overflow to us. This has been challenging for me, because there is a ton of food to eat, but not much variety, and not things that I am necessarily used to cooking with.

Disappearing Party Food: Onion Fig Tartlets

Is there anything better than caramelized onions?  The melt in your mouth texture, the sweet/savory flavor—I just love them.  A few years ago I was looking for an appetizer using caramelized onions for a Christmas party; and when I couldn’t find one that suited me, I cobbled one together.  I found one recipe that used figs, another that used Gruyere cheese, and a third that made the onions into small tartlets.  I took these elements and used my go-to pie-crust recipe to make these tartlets using a standard muffin-tin.

Heaven and Hell Party: Shepherdess Pie

From top left: 7 Sins Chili, Angel-Hair in Devil Sauce, Barbeque Chips, Fire Roasted Peppers, and Spicy Jalapeño Cornbread.

A friend of mine likes to throw potlucks.  But not ordinary potlucks – themed potlucks – like Bad Puns where people brought “Brownie Points”  or  (Non)Traditional 7 Course Meal where the person assigned to the fish course brought fish sticks.  Recently he had a “Heaven and Hell” potluck.  Pre-potluck recon indicated that there would be a lot of Hell dishes coming but not much on the Heaven side, so I wanted to bring a Heaven dish.  Problem is, Hell dishes are a lot easier to come up with – anything spicy and/or fiery can be said to be devilish, whereas for Heaven you have angel-food, angel-hair and ambrosia salad.

Ode to Deborah: Cabbage-Mushroom Galette

I want to introduce you all to a friend of mine.  She’s the kind of friend who’s always there for you with helpful tips and suggestions when you’re stressed out.  The kind of friend who is full of useful information.  The kind of friend who inspires you.  Her name is Deborah Madison, and she wrote Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Save the Spinach: Wilted Spinach Salad

So, you know when you buy a bag of spinach at the store with the full intention of harnessing all of its super-powers?  You bring it home, and then life happens, and all your spinach-related cooking plans go out the window.  Or it just gets lost in the fridge.  And then a few days later you return to your spinach, and its no longer full of bright green promises.  Instead, it’s wilty, or maybe even a touch slimy. The texture goes before the taste, but who wants to eat limp spinach?