End of Summer Minestrone

Don't focus on the "End of Summer" part of this blog title.  It's just going to make us both sad and it's not even worth it.  Time is time and no matter how much I pout, the cold and snow are going to come.  So, let's not talk about that.  I'm sure I'll complain more than enough once the winter storms start.

Instead, let's focus on the minestrone part.  This soup that was so thick with fresh vegetables, honestly we should be calling it a stew.  There were handfuls upon handfuls of green beans, juicy tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions, zucchini and summer squash.  Plus, just to fill it out, and to put to ease any boyfriends that are concerned about the lack of meat, some canned kidney beans.

This was fantastic.  It was filling, hearty and comforting, and one of the best things to sop up with a warm, crusty hunk of bread.  Plus, there was so much chopping!!  Maybe this isn't a plus for you, but a little slow, methodical chop-chop, dice-dice?  One of the best de-stressing techniques there are.  And with the start of cold, short days, who isn't a little stressed?  So, if we can't stop the end of summer, let's make soup to soak up ever last ounce of it we have left.

End of Summer Minestrone
Adapted from The Little Red House

This froze beautifully.  I froze the leftovers in individual portions and just last night pulled it out and left it to thaw in the fridge.  It had thawed by lunch time and microwaved like a dream.

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
3 carrots, chopped
5-6 baby Yukon gold potatoes, chopped
2 small onions, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 c. chicken stock
2 c. vegetable stock
2 cans kidney beans
2 c. green beans, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, shredded
1 c. whole wheat ditali pasta
1 zucchini, sliced in half moons
1 summer squash, sliced in half moons
Feta, to garnish

Chop up carrots and potatoes.  Dice onion.  In a large dutch oven over medium heat olive oil.  Add carrots, potatoes and onions and saute for 4-5 minutes until onions are soft and potatoes are starting to cook through.  Add garlic and diced tomatoes and continue to saute a few more minutes.

Add stocks and beans and bring soup to a boil.  Add green beans, bay leaves, oregano and basil.  Simmer until 15 minutes before serving.  Add pasta and squashes and cook until pasta is al dente, about 10-15 minutes.   Ladle into bowls and garnish with feta.  Serve with crusty bread.

White Bean and Cabbage Hash

I'm a little bummed.  You see, Deb, my kitchen-crush Deb, just released her book tour schedule.  This should have been a happy day for me, right?  She's even coming to the lovely suburbs of Chicago, close enough that I could even drag Ben along!  But now, this glee, this happy, excited, can't wait to just get my hands on the darn book and now may, just maybe I could get it signed too feeling, it's gone.  Cause I won't be here.  That's right.  Deb is making her way to the Midwest, and I won't even be here.  Needless to say, I am bummed.  I love Deb, you all know that.  It's weird and strange, and don't you dare go insulting my cooking superhero, because I will fight you.  And this chance I get to meet her?  Not there anymore.  My bottom lip is sticking out so far right now, I could balance a pencil on it.

Excuse me while I go and sit and pout for the next 12 minutes.  Hmmpphh.




 

Truth be told, the first cooking blog that I discovered wasn't Smitten Kitchen at all.  That actually didn't come till a few years later.  The first cooking blog I discovered was Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks.  And even though my heart and spatula belong to Deb, Heidi is pretty balling too.  Balling enough to come up with things like summer linguini, and a small stack of cookie recipes that one day I will eventually get to.

I gave my Mom Heidi's cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, for a birthday present a year or two ago.  Because I'm a needy daughter, mere hours after she had opened it, I flipped through the pages, earmarking all the ones that I needed to try as well.  This white bean and cabbage hash has been on the list since day 1, hour zero. 

I find it a little funny that I had wanted to make this recipe for over a year, and it only took my to the night before actually making the recipe to realize that it has a potato in it.  Which is good, because something needed to distinguish it from the other cabbage and bean saute recipe on this site.  I threw in some purple cabbage, mostly for you, for color, so it wasn't just mounds of pale cabbage and potatoes and white beans.  A bundle of leftover fresh thyme that I had, in an effort to minimize waste and at the suggestion of steamykitchen.com.  Head on over there, because those pictures are gorgeous.   I am still in awe that photos of cabbage could look so yummy.  And this is why my blog-love list is continuously growing...

White Bean and Cabbage Hash

Adapted from Steamy Kitchen, who adapted from Super Natural Every Day

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 

1 potato, medium size 

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, bundled

1/2 red onion, diced 

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained 

3 cups heaping green and red cabbage 

kosher salt

Parmesan cheese

Scrub potato well.  Cut into a small dice, about 1/2 inch cubes.  Heat cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil and heat until it begins to shimmer.  Spread potatoes evenly and brown, scrapping and tossing occasionally to get a golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. 

Add onion and cannellini beans.  Spread over bottom of pan and let onions cook down and beans brown.  Add bundled of thyme.  Toss occasionally, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan, browning beans on both sides.  

Toss in cabbage and cook another few minutes until cabbage is cooked down.  Remove thyme bundle.  Sprinkle salt over top to taste.  Top with Parmesan cheese. 

Garlicky Baked Fries

I kind of love having things to blog about during the week without the stress of trying to orchestrate exciting dinners, take pictures before the sun disappears, be witty and blog and still eat at a decent hour.  All this while trying to maintain an early than the average bear bedtime.  I know cooking dinner isn't supposed to be stressful, but, you know, the opposite.  But unfortunately, these last few weeks, it has been, for whatever reason.  And while I'm trying to get out of my slump, there can't be too much harm in enjoying the non-cooking for one more day, right?

Or, you know, there's always cheating.  Writing bits and pieces of entries whenever I am feeling particularly articulate and clever.  Cooking a new dinner tonight, but not even bothering to think about when I will actually blog about it, although I did smartly take pictures.  Trying to see this more as an enjoyment of my post-work free time rather than a chore.

Isn't it crazy how all of a sudden things become a chore, simply because you have to do them?  I think that's what happened with this here, already, only 40 some-odd posts in.  But now that I actually have two, count it 1-2!, recipes stored up in my backlog, it's as if the weight of the blogosphere has been lifted from my shoulders.  Ok, maybe I exaggerate just a teensy bit, but maybe you also kinda know how I feel too.  When you don't have to cook a new meal each night, suddenly you can't think of wanting to do anything more. 

Anywho, I greatly digress.  But be proud of me.  I only told you about these fries on Sunday and I am already talking about them (sort of...) on Tuesday night!  The fries were good, but as my fair warning, you must love garlic to like these fries.  If you don't mind garlic odors seeping from your pores all night and into the next morning, as Ben so kindly pointed out to me on Saturday morning, you may need to steer clear.  Or at least warn your significant other.  But I liked them.  They hit that spot in your stomach that only a warm potato, be it mashed, fried or baked, can hit.  Being oven fries, they did lack the crispiness that their deep fried cousins sport, but you'll only miss it a little.  And they truly were wonderfully garlicky, a bit spiced from the added cayenne and the leftovers made a wonderful hash brown sort of deal when fried up for Sunday morning breakfast.  All in all, not a bad deal.  But don't say I didn't warn you if your dearest tries his best to leave in the morning and not to kiss you good bye!

Garlicky Baked Fries
Inspired by Bon Appetit August 2011's San Francisco Garlic Fries

2-3 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes
3 1/2 Tbsp. Canola Oil, divided
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper (depending on your heat level)
4 cloves garlic, minced well

Preheat oven to 450°. Coat a large rimmed baking sheet or casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Slice Potatoes into fry length, being consistant with size.  A mandolin will help with this, just, as always, be careful around the sharp blade.  Toss potato slices with 2 and 1/2 tablespoons oil in a large bowl and season with salt and cayenne. Arrange in a single layer on prepared baking sheet/dish.

 

Roast potatoes, turning occasionally, for 30 minutes, until fork tendered and brown. Set oven to broil.  Broil potatoes for 2-3 minutes, turn potatoes than broil a few minutes more.  Combine remaining tablespoon of oil and garlic in large bowl.  Add hot fries and toss to coat.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

 

Work lately has been grand.  Word has gotten around that I'm a big fan of fresh produce and lots of the guys are using that as an excuse to pawn off their garden excess.  I have as of late found myself with bags brimming with squash, cucumbers and on one very lucky occasion, beautiful, big blackberries.  But, and I am sorry but there is no other way to say this, it is both a blessing and a curse.  There are only so many things you can do with summer squash.  And disguising them in tortes, hidden between layers of yukon gold potatoes so your boyfriend doesn't notice you're feeding him vegetables, is one of them.

It should come as no surprise that when I went hunting online for recipes to use up my free harvest, my first stop was at the smitten kitchen.  And while I really do promise that I look elsewhere for cooking inspiration, my blog crush has saved me several times when I needed kitchen help.  It makes sense that it is my first stop on any recipe scavenger hunt.  And wouldn't you know it, but my first search resulted in a recipe that was actually already on my "recipes to try" list.  

All I needed was some potatoes and fresh thyme.  

Only I kind of really hate buying a bunch of fresh herbs at $3 a pop, using 2 springs and never being able to use the rest before it goes bad and then laying them to rest in my garbage can.  So I made the executive decision to use dried instead.  It's economical, less wasteful and surely I had some dried thyme in my spice cupboard I told myself.  And then I got home.  Well, actually a few hours later at 8 pm when I started to throw together dinner, I realized that last bit was more or less false.  Dried thyme was no where to be found.  I pulled out a few that I thought could be viable alternatives: oregano, rosemary, basil, but none of them really seemed to be agreeable to me at that moment.  And then there was my mason jar full of herbs de Provence, still hanging around from my trip to Seattle and Pike's Market.  One of the more underused herbs I have, I still love herbs de Provence every time I use it.  Some of that love is definitely for the pretty dried purple lavender flowers nestled among the herbs, which - hey, wouldn't you know it - included thyme.  I found my substitution.

The smell of the potatoes browning in the oven layered with Parmesan cheese and herbs de Provence was mesmerizing.  It was about 30 minutes of an apartment filled with yummy, homey, fresh baked aromas.  It was Ben's first comment as he walked through the door.  A few minutes later it was out of the oven and on our plates.  While Ben wasn't overwhelmed with the torte, I kept finding myself going back for seconds and thirds.  I wasn't blown away by the first bite, but I ate till I was full.  And I am really looking forward to my leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  I could definitely try this again.  I imagine with some zucchini would be good and maybe even some yummy mascarpone smeared in between the layers.  And I may just have to try this again, my produce drawer is more than heavy in the squash department.    

Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

Inspired by the great Smitten Kitchen

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced and divided

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. flour

1/2 Tbsp. Herbs de Provence

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, about 3 medium sized

6 oz. yellow crookneck squash, 1 medium sized (zucchini may be delicious as well)

3 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Butter an 8-inch bake pan.  (If using a glass dish, reduce by 25 degrees and preheat to 350)

Slice potatoes and squash into 1/8 inch rounds.  (I suggest using a mandolin.  But be careful.  Sliced my finger something bad while cleaning the thing.  It's a love hate relationship).  Set aside 2 tablespoons of green onions.  Mix remaining onions and next 5 ingredients, through pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

In prepared pan, layered 1/3 of sliced potatoes in concentric circles, overlapping slightly.  Layer 1/2 of squash slices on top.  Drizzle with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with 1/3 of onion/cheese mixture.  Press layers down slightly.  Repeat: potatoes, squash, oil, cheese, potatoes, oil, cheese.  Press gently to flatten.

Cover pan with foil and bake until potatoes are almost tender, about 40 minutes.  Remove foil from torte and continue baking until it is browned and potatoes are tender, about 20-25 minutes longer.   Remove from onion and sprinkle with leftover green onions.  Slice into wedges and serve. 

German Potato Salad

Oh, what to do on a sunny, cloudless 80 degree day in Southern Carolina?  With a sky super blue and a whole afternoon full of nothing to do?  Why, silly, you bar-b-que!  I do love it when I accidentally rhyme.  Ok, I admit, that last one was somewhat forced.  I just couldn't resist.

Speaking of not being able to resist, may I introduce you German Potato Salad?  After volunteering at an outside work event this morning, us in the younger crowd decided to host our own celebratory cookout with a significantly smaller beer line and a few games of cornhole.

And what this event afforded me was the first opportunity of the summer to make a recipe that's been in my big green cookbook since the very first day.  A recipe that I love to bring to cookouts and picnics.  That is great because just when you think it looks and will taste just like normal potato salad, that is when the vinegar and the mustard hit you.  That's right, a potato salad with no mayonnaise.  Another reason why it's perfect for cookouts and picnics.

I discovered this the summer I lived in Providence and made it for a fourth of July party, where might I say, it was devoured with rave reviews.  And it really isn't that much of a hassle, probably because I cheat in several places.  The recipe calls for brown mustard seeds and I'm too lazy to do a special shopping trip for another new bottle of spice.  The recipe calls to peel the potatoes after you boil them, I cut them up and if the skins fall off, they fall off.  And if not, they go into the bowl.  I tell myself they add some much needed color.  And today, laziness of all lazinesses, I used Costco bacon bits instead of making crumbles from fresh bacon.  In my defense, they are shockingly yummy and are made from "100% Real Bacon" that's been "Naturally Smoked".  Can you blame me?

It was a cookout with some amazing burgers (thank you Mark), corn on the cob, German Potato Salad and lots of sun.  And all that equals a full, happy stomach and a nice little tan.  Happy Summer Ya'll!

German Potato Salad

From My Big Green Cookbook

2 1/2 lbs. red potatoes
1/4 lb. bacon, cut into small pieces (I used a little less than a cup of my crumbled goodness...)
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 c. cider vinegar
1/4 c. water
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. brown mustard seeds
1 tsp. mustard (I just doubled this and dumped the seeds)
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped (opps, I dumped this too!!)
Paprika, to taste

Place potatoes in large saucepan.  If some are much larger, cut so all are similarly sized.  Add enough water to boil.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce hear and simmer, uncovered, 20 to 30 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender (don't over cook).  Drain completely and let potatoes cool.  Peel potatoes (hehe...) and cut into 1/4-inch pieces.

While potatoes are cooking, cook bacon in medium skillet over medium heat until crisp.  Remove from pan with slotted spoon.  Crumble and set aside.

In same pan, add onion and cook in bacon drippings until tender.

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, mustard seeds and mustard and whisk together.  Put potatoes, bacon, onion in large bowl.  Pour dressing over and toss until well coated.  Garnish with parsley and sprinkle with paprika.  Serve hot or cold (yum... warm...)