Knit Think

Friday food

When it comes to cooking, one thing I am most emphatically *not* good at is making up my own recipes. Occasionally I can throw some pasta sauce together, and I do a mean job of mixing things into scrambled eggs, but attempt a recipe on my own? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen.

So I felt it was quite brave of me this week when I attempted to create my own enchilada filling. (Yes, I'm aware it's not a big step from pasta sauce to enchilada filling. Work with me here.) I had some delicata squash I wanted to use up, and I wondered--hmm, how would that taste in an enchilada?

This of course led to additional work, because to the males at Casa Knit Think, enchiladas mean animal protein and cheese, and nothing else, thankyouverymuch. So I'd have to have two fillings, one an old standby, and one just for me.

How luxurious, to create a filling just for me.

First I roasted the squash.

This was one of the best discoveries of the summer. I think delicata might be my favorite of the squashes. By the time it was roasted, I was rethinking the enchilada thing and considering just eating the squash. But no. I persevered.

I sauteed some onions and sweet bell peppers. Yeah, I could have roasted them. If I'd thought of it before I took the squash out of the oven. Oh well.

I mixed my chopped veggies with a can of black beans, some pico de gallo, cilantro, and brown rice. Yummy

And then I folded it into tortillas, poured enchilada sauce over the top, added a bit--OK, a lot--of Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses, and baked.

Oh. My.

This was so good. The sweetness of the squash and peppers were a wonderful contrast against the spicy pico de gallo. I added a little--really, I mean it this time--sour cream to the top. Perfect.

And there was leftover filling, and guess what?

It's really good with a poached egg on top.

Dishcloths and blocking

After the monstrously long time it took me to complete the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, I needed some quick and easy projects. Fortunately, some months ago Debra had asked if I'd be willing to participate in the Cups of Kindness event again this year, which solicits handmade items and artwork to be put on sale to raise money for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. (If you keep an eye on the Cups of Kindness site, I believe some of the pieces will be posted there and available for sale soon.)

So! Dishcloths. Festive holiday dishcloths. Quick to knit--even for a slowpoke like me--and quick to block.

I have a love/hate relationship with blocking. In some ways, it's a soothing pastime, kind of quietly mindless. On the other hand, it's dull. Boring. A giant snore.

Which is maybe why I haven't blocked Diamond Fantasy yet. I have blocking wires, but have never used them. Will they make my life easier? Any tips to using them? Because, after all, poor Diamond Fantasy's been off the needles for a while now and is destined to be put in a box under the Christmas tree. Clock's tickin'.

Friday food

A couple of times during Iron Chefettes I mentioned that beets are one of those vegetables I have a hard time feeling any love for. Last time, Rudee described an interesting sounding dish in the comments, and several others seconded her vote. What choice did I have but to try it? Especially since I had a few beets still cluttering up my veggie drawer. Nothing to lose, right?

The first step involved roasting the beets. I had done this with the last IC, and found plain roasted beets to be better than, say, boiled beets, but nowhere near approaching the nirvana of bacon. However, this had a few more steps, and they looked promising.

While the beets cooled, I took some quite nice balsamic vinegar and boiled it down to a syrup. The kitchen smelled lovely at this point.

Finally, I sliced the beets, layered them with a good-quality goat cheese, and swirled my balsamic vinegary goodness all over it. Pretty, isn't it? Even I, who have zero presentation skills, would not have been too embarrassed to serve this to guests.

But.

It still tasted like beets.

Beets with alternating bites of great goat cheese and lovely balsamic syrup.

But the beets dominated.

It would have been better to have goat cheese drizzled with syrup. And some nice bread.

And no beets.

Sorry, Rudee.

Oh, and blogless Don? Your suggestion of making beet vodka? Because that would use up even more beets--and taste like beets. So, um...no. Thanks. But no.

If this isn't horror enough for you, I give you: Teen 2, dressed for Halloween.

In case you're not clear on what he is, he's a douchebag.

Enjoy pondering that, and happy Halloween!

The Iron Chefettes, CSA Edition: Grand Finale

Oh dear. It's finally arrived. That dreaded day--the day the CSA boxes stopped coming. Y'all know me, I'm a staunch lover of winter and snow and rain and all that, but it is a most serious downside to our weather cycle when it causes the CSA boxes to stop coming. Makes me almost re-evaluate being a Minnesotan.

Well, let's go out with a bang, shall we, and no more whimpering? Here's the last Chairman of the season:

There's been much wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth this week--not by me, natch--about the premature arrival of winter. Suck it up, folks! This is Minnesota! Except for that CSA thing...

This week's box o'goodness had: potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, cauliflower, celery root, acorn and delicata squash, spinach, onions, garlic, leeks, tomatoes, carrots, beets, and red cabbage. I have no idea what Miss T.'s been up to, but I do know I scored one over her on the cabbage. See, the boxes were packed so full that we were supposed to pick up a cabbage and take it with us, on top of our boxes. I did that. Miss T. didn't. So much for the cabbage challenge! I win!

I give you--Warm Red Cabbage Salad, from Deborah Madison's The Greens Cookbook. Lightly sauteed red cabbage with garlic and red onions, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, then tossed with toasted walnuts, herbs, goat cheese, and chopped apples. Very, very yummy.

I have to admit beets fall in that category of "boy, there is just no way I like those things." Yet I'm determined to find a way to change that. The chocolate cake some time ago was fine, but felt like cheating. I decided to roast them, along with some of the potatoes and the leeks. Loved the potatoes and the leeks. The beets were--OK. I think they're just too sweet for me. I did splash a little white wine vinegar on them to cut back the sweetness a bit, and that helped.

This got decidedly mixed reviews: sweet roasted butternut squash and greens over bow-tie pasta. I really liked it, Teen 1 kind of liked it, DH wasn't wild about it, and Teen 2 wouldn't eat it--Teen 2, the kid who eats everything, especially when pasta is involved. It probably didn't help that I over-roasted the greens. I'd make it again. For me.

 

Here's a unanimous success: Ribs with homemade bbq sauce in the clay pot, using onions and celery root. Yeah, baby.

This was a hit too: pasta e fagioli. So simple, so yummy, such excellent leftovers. This took up some of my onion, celery root, and carrot.

Another excellent use of carrots, onions, and celery root is my three-bean soup.

Come to think of it, the loss of my CSA box is somewhat compensated by the arrival of comfort food season.

Speaking of comfort food, you didn't think I'd skip eggs this time, did you? Of course not.

Scrambled eggs with onion, sweet pepper, and spinach. Oh, eggs are so wonderful. So incredibly versatile. Why, they're darn near as versatile as chicken.

So.........which came first, the versatility of the chicken or the versatility of the egg?

What started out before cooking to be purple broccoli and purple cauliflower turned, once steamed, into green broccoli and purple cauliflower. For shame, broccoli--changing your looks to appear like all the other broccoli. Oh, the conformity, it hurts my heart. You go, purple cauliflower.

 
Finally, my first-ever attempt at cooking delicata squash. I used Crescent Dragonwagon's stuffed delicata squash recipe from Passionate Vegetarian. The squash is stuffed with a mixture of sauteed onions and apples with apple juice concentrate and soy sauce, chopped partially cooked squash, raisins, toasted cashews, paprika, and cornflake crumbs. The result is quite tasty. Kind of like when I make squash the old-fashioned way, with butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows, but a whole lot healthier.

So, that's it. An entire season of Iron Chefettes: CSA Edition comes to an end. No clear winner, I think. And how about all those guest Chairmen! Anonymous bartenders. Secret weapons. Eva Peron. And, of course, my ever-beloved and ne'er forgotten Billie Joe {swoon}.

What a season it's been. And I'm so glad to have entertained myself so thoroughly. Hopefully you were entertained at least some of the time too.

Friday food

But first, check out Miss T.'s post today--she has an interview with Deborah Madison!!!

Summer, segueing into fall. What to do with that varietal of summer squash known as zucchini?

How about playing a rousing game of "trick your family into thinking they're eating apple crisp when they're really eating zucchini crisp"? 

Very successful, both in the eating and the tricking. Only Teen 1 noted that the apples tasted "different." I followed the recommendations of the some of the commenters and cut down the lemon juice and increase the cinnamon. Pretty tasty all around.

Diamond Fantasy

...is a fantasy no longer.

 

Diamond Fantasy Shawl, off the needles, ends woven in, awaiting blocking. I've never blocked something like this before, so that should be good for some giggles.

Two Christmas gifts (almost) done, four (small ones) to go...how's your holiday knitting coming along?

The Iron Chefettes, CSA Edition

Here we are for round 8, and what's this? I have no Chairman? NO CHAIRMAN?

Sigh.

I guess I've been just too busy cooking and eating in gluttonous joy to think about a Chairman. So, this week, obviously Miss T. Chairman trumps mine, since any Chairman is better than nothing.

But the food--yes, it was a good week. The haul: Blue potatoes, Romaine, hot and sweet peppers, muskmelon, broccoli, cipollini onions, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, basil, eggplant, and fennel. Plus we each bought some greens.

 Blue potatoes! Aren't they fun? I admit the family was decidedly skeptical when I steamed these and plopped them on the table. But everyone liked them, because, of course, they're potatoes. What's not to like?

There were only a couple of little pieces left over, so I chopped them up with some of the onion the next morning and--sorry, Rudee--sauted them and scrambled eggs with them.

Very tasty. Well, unless you don't like eggs. Like Rudee. Hang in there, Rudee, there's one more egg shot to come, but there's also lamb--and I know you like lamb.

Speaking of things that drew strange looks from my family, this was another additional purchase Miss T. and I each made.

Romanesco. That is pretty darn funky, don't you think? It's a cross-breed of cauliflower and broccoli. I simply steamed it and tossed it with butter. It was SO good--kind of like a nuttier cauliflower. Very flavorful, and charming on the plate:

Served with Tamarind-Basil Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Mahogany Glazed Onions. A meal fit for a Chairman. If I had one.

I also made soup.

Zuppa per Settembre (September Soup), from our CSA newsletter. Roasted tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic, tossed with herbs and oil, then pureed and mixed with cream and broth. It was quite good, but my only quibble was that maybe I used too many peppers. I like roasted peppers, but they kind of drowned out the roasted tomatoes, and that was the flavor I most wanted to taste. I'd make it again, balancing the tomatoes more heavily.

Black bean and hominy stew. This used onions and carrots from my box. Household reviews were mixed; DH and Teen 2 thought it too spicy, Teen 1 thought the spiciness "redeemed" it (his words), and I just plain liked it. Fortunately, this seems like something that would freeze well in small portions for me to eat for lunch.

Colcannon! One of my favorite uses of kale! Dang, this stuff is good. And it makes fabulous leftovers.

But I saved a little of the kale for another use. Remember last week, when I made eggs poached in tomatoes after reading about it on Twitter? Well, this week someone else Twittered--can you see why I like Twitter?--about eating poached eggs atop sauteed kale.

Wowza. I sauteed the kale in a bit of olive oil with some garlic. When it was done, I topped with eggs, and --yes. It was delightful. Not for everyone, I know, but such a flavorful, wonderfully satisfying way to start a day. Or to have mid-day. Or end a day. That incredible, edible egg.

Another delightful, fully-family-approved dinner: Lamb and Cabbage Stew with Fresh Shell Beans. For this I used carrots and garlic, and canned beans, not being able to get my hands on any fresh. But oh, if ever a combination was made in heaven, it would be lamb, garlic, beans, and carrots.

One more box left...

More knitting projects

A while ago, Cindy modestly reported having a new book of sock knitting patterns being published. I thought I might need to take a look at it.

A Cuff Above. I'm not exactly sure why Cindy is being modest about this. I think she should be whooping and hollering, because it's a lovely book, full of patterns that I, who have finally "gotten" sock knitting, want to make.

Like this:

The Lucy Anklet.

Or this:

Slipper Socks!

Or this:

 Stacy Socks.

Where to begin, which one to choose...

Congrats, Cindy!!!

Friday food

--and the Iron Chefettes are back, baby! On a sad note--can you believe summer is almost over, and the market will soon (sob) close for the season? Miss T. and I have been commiserating--and plotting. We have two more CSA boxes this year--but come January, the Chefettes will be back with a slightly changed format to tide us all over until next year's CSA kicks in.

Anyway. Another stellar box: sweet and hot peppers, onion, broccoli, green beans, garlic, tomatoes, and carrots. Much fun to be had, yes?

This was a recipe in our CSA newsletter--a garlicky sesame broccoli salad. Very simple. Mix red wine vinegar with kosher salt, toss with broccoli. Then heat some olive oil, add garlic and cumin, cook for a minute, and add sesame oil and pepper flakes. Pour over broccoli and let sit for at least an hour. This was, surprisingly, a hit with everyone in the house; I was anticipating some rejection from the Teens, but they were agreeable too.

I've had a hankering for Indian food, ever since I attended the opening of Raghavan Iyer's restaurant OM. So, of course, I dug out his book 660 Curries and made Lilva Nu Shaak--Green Beans with Tomato. And mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cayenne, turmeric, and asafetida. Nummy. Well, except to the finicky Teens. They like their spicy food to involve animal protein.

Comfort food! Cabbage rolls! Stuffed with brown rice, onions, garlic, and ground chicken! Topped with tomatoes and broth! This is something I make every year--but this year, the Teens actually ate it. AND--Teen 1 ate the cabbage, not just the stuffing. Culinary progress is being made.

I had a blast with tomatoes this time. To be honest, I blew through the tomatoes in my box so fast that I ended up buying more from a local farmstand. So I don't know which of these dishes had CSA tomatoes and which had farmstand tomatoes. Does it matter? I didn't think so. I made some splendid tomato discoveries. Like this:

Someone Twittered about making this, and I snatched the idea and ran with it. Oh so simple: chop a big tomato, put it in a small skillet, heat it until it's releasing its juices and bubbling, then--ready? Ready??--crack an egg into the juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover and poach. Serve over polenta.

This. Is. So. Good. I may have had this multiple times recently. Breakfast, lunch. Who cares? It's fast, it's nutritious, and with good tomatoes like these? Out of this world, flavor-wise.

But then I read about this.

Looks boring, I know. But far from it. You just need some good, sturdy, chewy bread, bread that doesn't have a soft center. Slice it thick and grill the bread, just until it begins to look grilled. Then, quick as a wink, rub each piece with a cut piece of garlic, followed by a cut piece of tomato, drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt--and once again? Moan-worthy. This too has made an appearance on more than one occasion recently.

But Ms. Knit Think, you might be saying, what about a Chairman? Oh! Silly me. Of course there's a Chairman.

Because this was the box where not only did I play with tomatoes, I played with tomatoes--and alkeehol.

Gorgeous! Except, um, for the flavor. I made Heirloom Tomatoes with Gin, Juniper, Basil, and Black Bread. Good in theory, but I used Tangueray gin, and you know what? Not a good choice. Much too strong, and bitter. A milder gin might have helped it.

I kept that in mind when I made this.

Tomato-Gin Soup. I used New Amsterdam gin, a much quieter choice, and this was pretty good too. I pureed it, so the Teens wouldn't pick out the veggie pieces. They ate it, but noted--loudly--that they prefer Campbell's.

Finally, I give you--the winner of the alcohol-laced tomato dishes.

Forgive the ugly picture. This is Vodka-Spiked Cherry Tomatoes with Pepper Salt. So easy--blanch the tomatoes just briefly, peel them and put them in a bowl. Then mix together vodka, white-wine vinegar, superfine sugar, and lemon zest, and pour over the tomatoes, letting sit for 30-60 minutes. Mix together some kosher salt and coarse-ground black pepper, and dip the tomatoes in the salt mix--and eat. Yum. What a great appetizer this is.

All in all, another happy week at Chez Knit Think. What's cookin' in your kitchen?

Diamond Fantasy

I almost have one.

Getting closer. Slow and steady wins the race, and all that. Putt putt putt. The little engine that could. 

So I have a 700-yard skein of Fleece Artist, and the pattern calls for either 500 or 900 yards, with 6 and 10 pattern repeats respectively. Obviously I might as well do 8, since I'm nearly done with the 7th and still have a good chunk of yarn left. I've mostly enjoyed this project, but confess that I'm getting that old burned-out feeling of "dang am I really not done with this yet???" But I'm close enough to the end that I won't quit now. It's a Christmas gift, but I'm safe posting it here, as the recipient doesn't read my blog. Or any blog. Or any website. Or own a computer. So, yeah, safety factor's pretty high on that.

Dreaming of getting back to my second Monkey...