Summer Salad

I love seasonal eating, and it's never easier than in the summer. It also helps when you have neighbors who are going away for a couple of weeks and need to clean your fridge...the combination can be quite tasty.

Mediterranean inspired salad:

-lettuce from the garden
-cherry tomatoes from the garden/farmers' market
-cukes (from the store, but the garden ones are coming along nicely!)
-olives & some amazing turkish farmer's cheese from the neighbors

Chop it all up and add a dressing made from balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil & a dash of salt & pepper.

It also helps when your fellow potluckers make a delicious meal that suits your salad perfectly.

A delicious cilantro infused slaw, savory bread pudding & roasted chicken. We had the requisite ice cream for dessert. Yum and Yum.

Go To Grub

I have a stash of meals that I call my "go to's" and pull them out when I'm feeling food-lazy, uninspired or bored. The stash includes a favorite soup (tortilla!), pasta dish and paninis. However, lately I've found myself making variations on this dish, earning it a slot in my go-to list.

BBQ Tofu with sweet potatoes and a veg.

It meets all the requirements: easy, tasty and healthy.

BBQ Tofu

The BBQ tofu is pretty simple. I press a brick of tofu (we use a delicious brand made somewhat locally) for a 1/2 an hour before slicing it and marinating it in our favorite store bought BBQ sauce. Bake for 20 minutes at 350, flip the slices and bake another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, prep your sweet potatoes. Sometimes I'll cut them in shoe strings and we'll have oven fries, but the other night I sliced them thin with my mandolin and baked them for 5-10 minutes on each side at 450.

As for the veggie - I use whatever is in season or what I'm in the mood for. I had some string beans in the fridge, and steamed them with a touch of salt and lemon juice.

While it may take a while for everything to cook, there's very little hands on work, and the results are incredibly delicious for very little effort, and so far it seems nobody has minded that it's been showing up on their plates at least once a week around here!

(I know I missed a Monday Night post, but due to a weekend away and an icky cold, we sadly skipped out on potluck this week.)

Low Key

Monday night was a simple affair this week, both in terms of potluck and the food that we ate. It looked like it was going to be another missed week, with a couple families still under the weather, but fortunately, at the last minute a few families got it together and we managed to eat our shared meal.

With only a few families, the atmosphere was a bit more low key than usual and the food seemed to follow suit. However, don't let the phrase "low key" fool you - it was still absolutely delicious. There was roasted chicken, brown rice, salad, hummus & veggies and baby zucchini.

And there may have even been salted chocolate cookies for dessert.

In continuing with my theme (or mantra, really...) of "spring is almost here, spring is almost here," I whipped up some garlicky baby squash. The squash was too cut to pass up and the way I prepared them couldn't have been easier.

I started by heating up a couple of smashed cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.

Once the oil had hung out with the garlic, I added the baby zucchinis (which I had sliced in half, lengthwise).

A sprinkle of salt, pepper, and oregano got added to the zucchini and I let them cook in the oil for a moment, before transferring them to a 425* oven. I roasted them for less than ten minutes, checking on them occasionally to see how they were doing. Once they were lightly browned, I took them out.

I have to say that while the garlic infusion was perfect, the actual baby zucchinis lacked substantial flavor...but I guess that's what you get when you force the fruits of a season that's just not quite here yet!

Forcing Springtime

I really do my best to eat in season...meaning that I walk right by the peaches, plums and cherries that are currently at the end cap of the produce section at the big chain grocery store. That means that I get my fill of butternut squash dishes in the fall and wintertime and it means that I usually wait until Spring hits for that first farm-fresh, local asparagus.

But...I failed. I just couldn't do it.

Blame it on the week of school vacation my son had (while my husband continued to go to work as usual).

Blame it on the frigid temps and grey skies.

Or blame it on the snow and ice we just got today.

Around 4PM as cotton ball like snow fell

Regardless of the reason, all willpower was set aside as I grabbed the prettiest bunch of asparagus at the store the other day.

See? Can you blame me? I know it wasn't local or even organic, but it was calling to me. It was reminding me that soon little shoots will be making their way through the frozen ground and the sun will be shining longer and warmer...no matter how impossible that seems now.

I then took that beautiful asparagus and turned it into a meal fit for the Equinox. Using Eating Well's Lemony Asparagus Pasta as a template, I made a dinner rich in flavor that helped to remind me that (hopefully) Spring is right around the corner, no matter what the forecast says.

Ingredients:

1 box penne pasta

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces

3/4 cup milk (I used 1% and it still came out creamy!)

1 teaspoon brown mustard

2 teaspoons flour (oops, forgot to include that in the pix!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

a few grinds of pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

Juice of 1 medium lemon

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preparation:

Bring a pot of water to boil and add pasta. Cook for 6 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 3 more minutes. Drain water and set aside.

Pasta & asparagus cooking together harmoniously

In a bowl, whisk together milk, flour, mustard, salt & pepper and set aside.

It helps to have your sous chef on hand

Heat oil in a small saucepan and saute up the garlic until lightly browned. Add in milk mixture, whisking the entire time. Bring to a simmer and continue to stir until it thickens. Add lemon zest, juice and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and stir to combine.

Add sauce to pasta and asparagus, and mix well. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan cheese in, right before serving.

nom.