This wonderful blog directed me to purchase an equally wonderful cookbook called Plenty. It was written by a chef from London - a fellow opportunistic vegetarian.

Nathan and I have been drooling over many of the recipes, with me leaning extra-hard toward the section enticingly titled "The Mighty Eggplant". We've made a few of his dishes so far and have nothing but good things to say about them. Really, more of "nothing but good things to mumble about them" because our mouths are full of delicious vegetables.

Here's what we've been able to check off the list so far:

Brussels Sprouts with Tofu

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the-one-where-i-get-sentimental-about-vegetables-fidhwJqztqaCasoyHiih.zip (11.4 MB)

Lentils with Tomatoes and Gorgonzola

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the-one-where-i-get-sentimental-about-vegetables-cqyEoAxxIfwhkGCuyyuA.zip (24.84 MB)

Broccolini and Sweet Sesame Salad

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the-one-where-i-get-sentimental-about-vegetables-JItvIehaFptinzrvgvqo.zip (11.61 MB)

Stuffed Onions - this recipe is reason enough to buy the cookbook.

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the-one-where-i-get-sentimental-about-vegetables-mespsDaelEgnpcmqFmfl.zip (22.74 MB)

 

If you're feeling extra sentimental, I suggest this fiction piece about a new Russian imigrant's journey to realize her vegetable-cooking passion (starts at about 18:56): http://www.wnyc.org/shows/shorts/2011/dec/11/

Miles, on the other hand, does not get as excited for vegetables as he does for bugs (and true bugs, at that):

 

Last week we lost our menu plan. We were able to recreate most of it based on some conspicuous vegetables in the fridge - you don't just "forget" what you bought a beautiful brocollini for -  but I cannot for the life of me recall what the bunch of fresh tarragon is for. It just sits on the shelf in the fridge, looking at me with it's lovely little yellow flowers and daring me to recall it's purpose.

To avoid future herb-use-amnesia (that sounds like a thinly veiled reference, it's not), Nathan suggested we keep notes on Posterous. Afterall, many of our recipes come from food blogs whose links you need to hunt for come cooking time. Plus, we go kind of crazy taking pictures with our snazzy new camera and I'd like an excuse to throw a non-food snap up every now and then.

Coming up next week:

Thai red curry with root vegetables

Almost cheeseless pasta casserole

Baked gnocchi alla puttanesca

Hasselback potatoes

And some non-food photos from my trip to the UK from the Biology of Spermatozoa Meeting:

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backing-up-to-the-food-cloud-bFxrndcCccttbvbajycx.zip (6.39 MB)

Things you should know about the above:

1) Yeah, the English countryside really is that pastoral

2) Those genteel gardens are at Haddon Hall, where the 1996 film version of Jane Eyre was filmed. I discovered this not while at said gardens, but about 2/3 of the way through the film after Nathan got tired of me saying "I feel like I've been there before..." and insisted we Wikipoodle it.

3) As biologists, we were excited by the evidence of the mallards breeding with domestic ducks - check out that hybrid plumage!

Everytime we have a party at our house - which happens all too infrequently - I think to myself, "there is no way we can fit that many people (that many being any number over two) in our apartment" and everytime I am proven wrong. Along the same lines, we rarely invite people over for dinner for concern over the fully expanded table taking up the majority of our office / dining room / additional kitchen imlement storage area. This January we decided to be bold and make dinner for two friends.

Slightly inspired by Spoons' farmers market salad (ah, Spoons - the best casual-quick soup and salad restaraunt), we started with a harvest salad that used up the tail-end of our CSA winter squash. I'll miss seeing those gorgeous squash in our fruit basket, but they were quite tasty when roasted and dusted with chipotle powder.

A gift subscription to Fine Cooking inspired the main course whole roast chicken with root vegetables- which only set off the smoke alarm twice and had to be returned to the oven once after our ever imprecise meat thermometer led us astray on "doneness". The remarkably straight forward recipe came from Thomas Keller and currently has 523 (!) rave reviews on epicurious. 

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of-dinner-parties-and-chickens-wdIlBICjvfHBepHruwqJ.zip (17.03 MB)

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of-dinner-parties-and-chickens-GcDBiaethzAasgbqnkhi.zip (12.86 MB)

I've not been one to make New Year's Resolutions, but were I to change that practice, I would include more cooking for friends for 2012. So far Miles (the cat) is in- especially if it includes more chicken.

As part of my quest to attain "work-life balance", Nathan and I started cooking Sunday night dinners. I very much enjoy making multi-course meals (don't be too impressed, n = 2 courses qualifies for multi-course in my mind), but I rarely summon the cognitive energy to determine what should be prepped / cooked / rested / etc. at what time to ensure all dishes are ready at one time. Similarly, I'm frequently disinclined to pick recipes that take longer than 45 minutes to cook on any night of the week.

Enter Sunday Dinner.

Last year during "crawfish season" Wegman's handed out recipes for crawfish etouffee next to a small tank of the aforementioned crustaceans. I've been looking at that recipe and longing for cajun food and Queen Ida's summer concerts at the Arvada Center ever since. Since it's not currently "crawfish season" - which I'm guessing may have more to do with being close to Mardi Gras rather than any crawfish breeding patterns - we picked up a package of frozen tails, looked up Queen Ida and her Zydeco Band on Spotify and got to cooking.

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sunday-dinner-with-queen-ida-gmuBdoiapfnaApejkdBE.zip (12.79 MB)

We ate our etouffee with Red Stripe - hey, it's made South of the Mason-Dixon line - and finished our meal off with light bread pudding. The Red Stripe was good as usual, the bread pudding... well, some things should just stay full fat.

First off, much thanks to all of our family in enabling our cooking / photographing habit. Also thanks to Nathan for his exhaustive research in selecting the *perfect* digital SLR for documenting all of life's little events (you know, yawning cats, vegetables that have graced our kitchen counter...)

As that suggests: we got a Canon digital SLR for Christmas- it is stupendous! Sadly, our old point-and-shoot digital camera was falling behind the technology curve for years and after it's screen met an unfortunate end in a NYC diner, Nathan finally convinced me it was time for an upgrade.

What better way to ring in the New Year (and break in the new camera) than sharing a few snaps of a beautiful Thai-ish/Indian-ish Coconut Red Lentil Soup, courtesy of 101cookbooks. Aside from the title ingredients, this soup includes carrot, ginger, scallions, a hefty amount of curry powder, and golden rasins. I can tell you it smells heavenly when cooking and tastes great over quinoa.

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new-year-new-camera-new-soup-ixptqofHDerGyzmeAeBH.zip (18.07 MB)

I just re-read my last post and noticed that three months ago I was prognosticating a winter filled with lentils. Funny that.

This has been an awfully good and awfully busy year. So busy that I've been collecting pictures of delicious foods and doing nothing with them, outside of gazing at them longingly when randomly thumbing through the year's snaps. Here's what I've been eating (and what I've been up to) in the last few months:

I studied maniacally for my qualifying exams, forgoing food until April. At least that's what the photographic record suggests. When cooking recommenced we made this Seared Mushroom Salad with toasted hazelnuts over a bed of arugula from the May 2011 issue of Esquire. I will never think of mushrooms the same way again:

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We got really into tacos this spring and summer. That might sound like a mundane thing to say, but these black bean tacos with spanish rice, avocado, grilled peppers and greek yogurt were better than tacos have a right to be:

Warm weather meant analyzing data on the front porch by day (complete with visits from wandering woodchucks) and grilling dinner by night. Nathan honed his chicken wing cooking skills and we tweaked a favorite Peach Barbecue Sauce recipe from Tyler's Ultimate to top these off- as it often is, the answer was "more chipotle". Want to try it yourself? This recipe is close: just add 1 cup peach preserves and chipotle chili powder to taste.

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october-already-fnCCwqacjxyJrgnujDry.zip (1.59 MB)

Between data (re)reanalysis and trips to Massachusetts and Colorado we took to grilling pizza. Thanks to beautiful tomatoes from our CSA we tried many versions, though this one with pesto, bocconcini, tomato slices and prosciutto was my favorite.

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october-already-dkyFdmfmGHFkvAycsEyd.zip (2.24 MB)

And now? After all that grilled summer goodness fortified me through playing with data, wrangling beetles and writing up drafts, I can say I've submitted my first manuscript. I'm looking forward to making lentils (!) until we hear back from reviewers.

Like I said, it's been an awfully good year.

Syracuse without any class-teaching or taking requirements has been splendid.  Time in the lab has been restricted to beetle care and sorting (they look positively otherwolrdly under a fluorescent microscope) to the benefit of time for reading, thinking and cooking from home.  And playing Grand Theft Auto IV.

So.  Here we are, 45 minutes into the two hours required for chicken livers to adequately absorb the delight of their port marinade.  Following that I have a bit of cooking up the livers with shallots, garlic and thyme, an additional round of chilling, and a final sealing with butter.  The week-long snow storm has not made trips to the grocery store desirable or expeditious, so by the time we made it to Wegman's and back tonight I am left with another two hours of pâté making activities at 10pm on a school night.

We also have a cheese fondue and cranberry upside down cake on deck for the party.  It's going to be epically rich. 

Earlier this summer, Nathan and I contemplated the best way to celebrate two wonderful years.  Relax at a B & B in the Finger Lakes?  Take a cooking class at the New York Wine and Culinary Center (admittedly, my idea)?  Paris?  Alright, so Paris was never on the list, but a girl can dream.  

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liz-and-nathan-s-first-biennial-wyieFtEnqGwnHapBluxD.zip (1.6 MB)

...make kale chips,"  a famous adage known second only to, "When life gives you kale, life is going pretty damn well".  That or some proverb about lemons.