Saffron scented Potatoes au Gratin with Asparagus

This au gratin dish is from a vegan cooking class at Spork Foods I took with a vegan-friend several years ago. I have made it many times, and usually stick to the recipe because I typically have soy milk and fake-butter on hand. This time, I just felt like making it full-fat, full animal version. And I was inspired because my coworker just gave me some Saffron that she recently brought back from a trip to Dubai. My husband has also been pretty fired up lately about Steak Friday, and of course, potatoes and steak are such a great pair!

 

They turned out great, but I was wondering what they would taste like if I had used a waxy potato instead of a russet (which is what the recipe called for). A quick google search shows that most recipes call for russets, but there are a few for red potatoes, or unspecified ones. No complaints from the husband or our company about the final product. In fact, our friend commented that he would not change a thing because they were perfect. So for next time, I guess I can use whatever looks best at the market and make my decision then.

Steak Friday

The stars aligned last Friday, when I used a little know-how and a lot of luck in making Steak Friday a success! I used the cast iron skillet to sear both sides of the steak, then threw the whole thing into a hot oven, for a few minutes (I shaved off a couple minutes, remembering that during its rest, it would continue to cook). Meanwhile, I par-cooked potatoes and green beans, then sauteed them separately in butter and herbs to finish. It all came together so nicely! It is so wonderful when it all works out.

Kale, Sausage and Potato Soup

Damn I love soup! I got this recipe from the farmer at Farmstand 59 (originally from Sunset magazine). I modified as needed per what I had on hand, and it was fantastic. In fact, still eating it days later.

Cider Pork Roast with Apple-Thyme Gravy

with cheesy mashed red potatoes. Made in the crock pot, easy and delicious. And bonus, now I have Calvados in my cabinet for future use. This recipe is from MyRecipes.com.

Springtime

Organ cactus flower from my yard
This cactus only blooms once a year. Good thing we chopped down
some plants in front of it to reveal this gorgeous creature

Spring has sprung! Last weekend, we cleaned up all the winter weeds and grasses in the yard, trimmed back some aloes and agaves, cleared off the patio, made it ready for our first impromptu BBQ of the year! It was a glorious weekend, weather-wise, and getting outside in the sunlight did wonders for my mood and too-low vitamin D level.


AND we found a kitten!! It sounded like a bird chirping at 3 second intervals, so we followed the sound, and found the little guy between our yard and the neighbor's, tucked in between some plywood. Poor little guy. Only one eye open, fuzzy, grey and small. My husband was the brave one that poked around and found him. I contributed by having the bright idea of just walking down the street until we found his mama. And, strangely, that plan worked. I had already started thinking of names for him, completely ignoring the fact that I'm allergic to cats, and shouldn't even think about naming him. her? who knows with cats.


Also- I made a couple new and super easy dishes to go with grilled hamburgers that night: roasted lemony rosemary potatoes and steakhouse wedge salad. Flying by the seat of my pants on both dishes, they turned out really well. Hooray for somewhat effortless, successful pursuits!

Potato Leek Soup

This recipe came from the Moosewood Cookbook, which I do not own. But when I lived in Santa Cruz, everyone had it. It turned out being pretty easy and tasty. Though I didn't follow the recipe to a T because I just wasn't in the mood for kale. I would make it again, though one criticism: recipes that require tiny amounts of an ingredient, or leave you with half a can of something you don't know what to do with really irritate me! One example in this recipe is the teaspoon of minced celery that it calls for. Now if I loved celery and always had it on hand, chopping up a quarter of a stock of celery wouldn't be a big deal. But I don't, so now I've got a whole lot of celery to use up. It shouldn't be that difficult, a little in salad, mirepoix for soup, or cut up with carrots and olives for a nice crudités on New Year's Eve. Not a biggie, just makes me wonder if anyone tested or edited this recipe.

accomplished

Well, I successfully made all but one of the above list. It was many hours of cooking, but kind of nice on a Sunday to start up a pot of beans for example, then have a seat, watch a little football. Get up and turn on the oven, make a marinade, throw veggies into the oven, then watch a little football until the timer goes off, etc. So, hours went by, but I had all elements of dinner ready by the time we were ready to eat. The one dish that didn't photograph too well, but still tasted pretty good was the Pinto Bean/Plantain Stew. I'm not sure I understand how you call this stew, unless I didn't do it right. Regardless, I will throw it over rice throughout the week, and it will be a new spin on my ol' favorite Rice and Beans. Funny, this recipe is from a cookbook called Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Another dish I made from that cookbook a couple years ago had a really snappy name: Seitanic Red and White Beans Jambalaya. It too had the same mush/mash consistency. Maybe that's what they're going for. Anyway, here are some pics...

Kale and Farro salad with sesame oil

Lemony roasted potatoes

Roasted portobello mushroom over
spicy mustard vinaigrette-dressed greens

Plantain and pinto stew

Big plans

Here are a couple of dishes I plan on making in the next couple of days:
Roasted portobello mushrooms over spicy mustard vinaigrette-dressed greens
Lemony roasted potatoes
Plantain and pinto stew
Marinated lentil salad
Kale and farro salad with toasted coconut and sesame oil
Steel cut Irish oatmeal sweetened with apple juice, topped with walnuts
A cocktail

Wish me luck

Potato Gratin with Asparagus and Saffron

...vegan style, with soy milk. this photo is before the oven. too hungry to snap a photo afterward..

Something old/Something new

I just spent way too long writing and rewriting a post about two dishes that I made over the weekend, which did not turn out quite the way I had wanted. It happens. I've decided that all I really need to write about these is two lines for next time, to be noted on the recipes themselves:

Saffron Scented Potato Gratin with Asparagus: must cook until finished (no day-before partial cooking unless you want still-crunchy potatoes)

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies:  watch oven temperature carefully, adjust timing as needed, do not overcook.

Now - on to my huge success of the weekend: GUMBO! Damn was it good! The recipe is from Mr. B's cookbook for Gumbo Ya-Ya. I did "ya-ya" whilst constantly stirring the roux, you have to do something. I talked to my brother, my husband, my dog, checked facebook, and listened to a podcast during the 1.5 hours it took to achieve the right darkish-mahogany color. The end result was soooo worth all that stirring and attention to detail up front. The only thing I changed from the recipe was that I threw in shrimp instead of chicken because I just wasn't in the mood for bird. I used raw frozen shrimp, thawed in the fridge for a couple hours, thrown in during the last 5 minutes of simmering. Here are some pictures:

Preparations

Plated

I bought French bread at lunch today for dipping, and I cannot wait to get home for leftovers tonight!