Mim’s blog

Roast beets in the oven until soft. I used a 350F oven for maybe 60 min. While roasting, chop up 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pecans (you could use almonds or cashews, too) When beets soft, cut up into the chopped nuts and process, adding a trickle of olive oil until the mixture is smooth. Salt if you want to, but it's tasty without any additional seasonings for me. Serve with crackers or pita bread. This is something that I first tasted at the home of some colleagues, who were from the Republic of Georgia. You can make a boursin cheese spread to serve at the same time. The white and red spreads will look cool together. Come to think of it, you can add a third spread, an olive tapenade. Wow! Won't that look nice on a holiday table? Let me know how you like this.

Tonight I created a dinner that was perfect for a chilly, rainy night. I call it Veggie Melange (French for mixture!)

I used onions, garlic, basil, olive oil, butter, potatoes, frozen vegetables, veggie sausages, diced tomatoes, hot sauce, Spike seasoning.  I'd cooked up some red skinned potatoes in the morning so they were ready to be used. I defrosted the frozen veggies in the microwave but you can do it stove top. I used what I had, broccoli, squash, corn, but any kind will do.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet and brown diced onions until softened then add minced garlic and 1/2 t or more of dried basil. While they are cooking, cut up potatoes into smallish pieces. Add to the onions along with 2 T butter. Season with Spike (or other seasoning mix that you like.) This really makes the mixture rich and good tasting. Mix and continue cooking on medium heat. Cut up the vegetables into small pieces and add to potatoes along with a cup of diced tomatoes with liquid and Texas Pete, or other hot sauce to taste. Continue cooking until all warm and combined looking. While this is going on, cut the sausages into 1/2" rounds. Remove potato mixture from skillet into a big bowl. Cover to keep warm. Add a bit more olive oil into skillet and heat. Brown sausage rounds. Place on top of the potato mixture and serve.

I was reminded of this recipe in a post on French word a day by Kristin Espinasse. My mother used to make this when I was a child and I didn't care for it very much. Now, as an adult, I wish I'd watched closely and copied down the recipe. This recipe is from a cookbook by Joan Nathan, and is close to the one that I remember.

1 large eggplant (about a pound)
1 clove garlic, mashed
3 scallions, diced (mom used regular onions)
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
3 Tablespoons olive oil (I think mom used a simple vegetable oil)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of dried mint (I don't remember mom using mint, I think she added parsley) Salt to taste and add a dash of cayenne, if you like.

Prick eggplant and roast in oven until extremely soft inside (extremely soft!) Mix the rest of the ingredients in a glass or ceramic bowl (not metal.) Peel the eggplant (hard to do so I just scoop the insides out) and place in a strainer. Press out the liquid. Chop the pulp into chunks and mix with the other ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Photo of Eggplants by: Mim (me)

While waiting for our JetBlue flight to take off from JFK last July, we had a delicious snack, which I was able to reproduce at home. I'm now seriously addicted to these chickpeas.

Two cans of chickpeas, drained & rinsed.
Olive oil
smoked paprika
sweet paprika
salt
dried parsley flakes

In a big mixing bowl, add about 1 or 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to the chickpeas. Toss with lots of the paprika using more of the smoked than the sweet. Salt to taste. Parsley flakes are just for some green color, which looks nice with the redness of the paprika. Experiment with the amounts to suite your taste. Be sure to use enough salt, which really sweetens the whole thing. Really quite a nice side dish, or tossed in a salad or just as a snack by themselves. Let me know what you think of this recipe and where you think it originated. I'm curious.

Here's the recipe I made the other day, using The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, edited by Nicola Graimes.

I made the following changes

because a) I either didn't have the

ingredient or b) didn't like the ingredient (ha ha ha)

 

I used "red beans" in place of the kidney beans.

I did not use any tomato paste. I thought I had some and I didn't.

I did not use ketchup on principle.

I did not use coriander as Chuck thinks it tastes like dirt.

I left out the hot chili powder and used red pepper flakes 

I used some organic red and orange bell peppers because I

like the way they look.

NO cilantro. Chuck thinks it tastes like dirt.

I used basmati rice because I love the way it tastes.

 

It really turned out quite delicious.    

 

I decided that, even though the temperature went down and it was chilly today, I wanted to make a summery pie. Shirley's Lime and Sour Cream Pie is a recipe that I've been using since I cut it out of a Bon Appetit magazine in June of 1983! I used a ready made graham cracker crust, which ended up being a bit crumbly so I didn't end up with attractive slices. The taste: as good as always.

SHIRLEY'S LIME AND SOUR CREAM PIE

3/4 C of sugar                  2 T cornstarch (or potato starch)
freshly grated peel of 2 limes, about 2.5 teaspoons
1/3 C of fresh lime juice
1 C half and half
1/4 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C sour cream

1 baked 9" pie shell or a graham cracker crumb shell

Topping: 1 C whipping cream   1 to 2 T sugar (this is optional as far as I'm concerned)

Combine the 3/4 C of sugar with the corn starch and lime peel in a saucepan.
Mix Well.
Add lime juice and stir until smooth. Blend in the half & half and the butter.
Place over medium heat and stir until it starts to boil. (10 to 12 minutes)
Remove from Heat and cool.
Stir occasionally. When cool, fold in sour cream.
Pour into the pie shell and chill.

  Pour whipping cream in a bowl with the
sugar (or no sugar) and whiop up into soft peaks.
Spread on top of pie and serve.

Don't be afraid of the calories, don't count them.
 Enjoy a little piece of pie once in awhile.
Invite some friends in to eat this with you.

Bon appetit!

Black Bean Soup       

Adapted from a recipe in the CSMonitor March 2009

2 T olive oil
½ cup diced onion
½ diced red (or yellow) bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
1 rib of celery chopped
½ t cumin powder
a sprinkling of dried red pepper flakes
(to taste)
½ C chopped, canned tomatoes
2 cans organic black beans
4 ½ C vegetable stock
juice of half a lemon

garnish: sour cream

heat the oil in a large, heavy pot until hot. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, celery, carrot, pepper flakes and cumin. Sauté over medium/low heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, stock and lemon juice. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Partially cover and continue simmering until beans are soft, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Add additional stock If necessary. This is a thin soup. Adjust seasoning, adding salt and pepper and more red pepper flakes as desired.  Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream.  Serves 4  I made some rice and added that to the soup as I served it.

The terrific black bean photo is by Declan Zimmerman (thanks for letting me use it.) You can learn more about him, and hear his very cool music, at http://www.myspace.com/declanzimmerman

These are some images from my Mail Art workshop. I'd donated the workshop to the Richmond Peace Education Center's fall fundraising auction and this past Saturday, four participants at a private home had the opportunity to be led, by me, through three experiences of collage making in postcard format  They had a good time, and I did, too. You can see a few more images here.

blossoms


Originally uploaded by mimmyg

See those lovely French radishes? They were grown by Charlie of Victory Farms of Hanover county Virginia. USA. I saw the same type of radishes the other day at the market in Paris!

Here's my favorite radish recipe. Great for a holiday gathering.

Cut the greens off of a bunch of radishes and save for stir frying with some other greens.

Put the radishes in a food processor, or hand held chopper, and process until chunky bits. Add 4 ounces of butter and 4 oz of cream cheese (sorry I don't have the metric converter handy) to the radishes and process until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, a bit of prepared horse radish, and maybe some crushed garlic if you like. You can adjust the amounts....add more butter, or more cream cheese. This is a very flexible recipe, but no matter how you do it. People will love spreading it on crackers or bits of baguette.