Easy Friday Night Dinner

This is a simple dinner with minimal preparation. There's nothing to chop, you cook everything in the oven, and relax while it bakes.

Menu
Salmon
Asparagus
Baked Potatoes
Gingersnaps and vanilla ice cream

Preparation Schedule
1. Scrub potatoes in the morning and let air dry all day
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
3. Start baking the potatoes and set a timer for 40 minutes
4. After 40 minutes, prep the asparagus and the fish, put in the oven and time 15mins or until fish flakes easily
5. Let stand 5 minutes then serve

Baked Potatoes
4 russet potatoes
olive oil
salt
(butter, sour cream, yogurt to serve)

Scrub potatoes and let air dry (do this early in the day). Set the oven to 350. Prick each potato 8 - 10 times with a fork. Rub with oil, sprinkle with salt, and put on a cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour.

Salmon
1 1/2 lbs salmon filets or side with skin
olive oil
salt
pepper
lemon wedges

Rub salmon on both sides with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve with lemon wedges.

Upgrade: add some fresh herbs, grill seasoning, or creole seasoning to the rub


Asparagus
1 lb asparagus, pencil thin
olive oil
salt
pepper
lemon zest
crushed garlic (bottled is fine)

cut the ends off of the asparagus near the bottom rubber band, wash and pat dry. Place in a sheet pan drizzle with olive oil, salt, lemon zest and pepper, and shake pan to coat (or use your hands to roll the asparagus. sprinkle with crushed garlic and bake x15 minutes.

Maple Baked Apples and Pears

Bake this while you bake the squash for Buttercup Cavatappi. Serve warm with ice cream for dessert. Even better: refrigerate overnight and have it for breakfast with maple vanilla yogurt.

Maple Walnut Baked Apples and Pears
apples
pears
maple syrup
walnuts

Core fruit from the blossom end, using a melon baller. Stuff with walnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Buttercup Squash with Cavatappi

It's been awhile. After moving, it's taken some time to get readjusted to the new kitchen (built for Elves, not hobbitses). It is an excellent kitchen though, with a gas stove and a DISHWASHER. Sigh. Talk about a life of luxury.

This week, we had this for dinner. I baked the squash ahead of time.



Buttercup Squash with Cavatappi

1 buttercup squash, approximately 1 1/2 lbs
1 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 C water
pinch of sage leaves
salt
black pepper
3 packets of condensed chicken broth (Trader Joe's)
3 - 4 C pasta cooking liquid
1 lemon, juice and zest
1 T butter
1 lb. Cavatappi
Old Amsterdam cheese, grated

Cut the squash in half, seed and place in a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Since you have the oven on, make Maple Walnut Baked Apples and Pears. Let the squash cool, then scoop out the squash flesh and dice the bits that are large. You may refrigerate it and make the dish up to 4 days later.

Start heating water to cook the cavatappi.

Heat a large pot or dutch oven, and add oil. When the oil is hot, add onion and a pinch of salt and saute slowly until it is starting to caramelize. Add 1/2 C of water to deglaze the pan, then add squash. Gradually add pasta water, one cup at a time, cooking and stirring the squash to break up large chunks. Add broth, salt (if needed), pepper, lemon juice, zest and butter. Stir until the butter melts, then add pasta. Serve with grated cheese.

Stoned Summer Betty

It has been brutally hot and humid for about a week. I have not been inspired to cook anything but salads. Very boring.

I have plenty of plums and peaches from last week's share. I considered making a tart, crostata or pie, but that requires and oven. I considered poaching the fruit with dumplings on the stove top, still too much heat.

Remember Apple Brown Betty from home economics class? Here's my version, made on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and it doesnt require an oven.

Stoned Summer Betty
10 peaches and plums, stoned and cut up anyway you like
1/2 C brown sugar
4 T butter
1 C dry breadcrumbs
1 t almond extract
vanilla ice cream (for dessert)
vanilla yogurt (for breakfast)
toasted almonds (optional

Macerate fruit with sugar overnight (at least several hours).
In the morning, melt butter in a small pan, then add breadcrumbs and extract, stir to combine.

Sprinkle 1/3 of crumbs on the bottom of an 8" square pan or 1 - 1/2 qt bowl. Using a slotted spoon, top with 1/2 of the fruit. Repeat, top with a final layer of crumbs, then pour the juices over the top. Cover and refrigerate for several hours.

Rot Report

Yikes. I've been slacking. Today, mizuna, cucumber salad, and a few peaches got by. Oh well.

Upside Down Cauliflower Au Gratin

There was a beautiful head of cauliflower in last week's share. I planned to roast it with olive oil, lemon and salt, then dust with parmesan before serving, but the weather was uncooperative. I simply refuse to turn on the oven on a blistering hot day. What to do? Use the rice cooker, my loyal kitchen companion.....

butter
1 clove garlic, peeled, smashed and chopped
1 cauliflower, cut in small pieces
1/4 C water
4 T cream
2 oz gruyere, grated (Roth Kase Private Reserve)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter in the pot of the cooker. Add garlic, and let cook while you cut the cauliflower into small pieces. Add cauliflower, stirring to coat with butter and garlic. Add a pinch of salt. Let saute a few minutes, then add water and cover. Let steam a few minutes, checking for tenderness of the cauliflower. When it is still a bit al dente, add the cream, stirring. Let cook a moment while you grate the cheese, then add to the pot. Set the lid ajar, to let some moisture escape, and cook until the pot shuts off on its own. You will be surprised to find it nicely browned on the bottom. As you serve it, try to turn it over to show off the golden brown deliciousness....

No Use Crying Over Rotten Veggies (aka the Rot Report)

July was a very busy month. The past week was a whirlwind of visitors and swirling chaos of paperwork involved in the purchase of an apartment. As a result, out of sheer exhaustion, we ordered pizza and ate out a couple of times. The consequence: 1 small head romaine, 1 small head red leaf lettuce, 2 cucumbers, and 1 batch of veggie slaw were laid to rest.

In the past, when I've let a veggie from SuperMarket go to rot, it was a shrug at the waste and a toss in the trash. Now there's this sense of not living up to my part of the bargain, my link in the chain. From the seed, the soil, the earth, the rain, the sun, the moon, the farmer, the farmhands, the truck driver and the CSA members who work together to purchase and distribute each vegetable, a great deal of effort is expended. Not that this is any less than the energy expended by an AgribusinessFarm but I don't have faces for the links of that chain.

And so it goes.