Posted in Barefoot Contessa, Food and cooking, postaday, tagged Barefoot Contessa, cooking, food, ina garten, postaday, vegetables on August 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa Parties cookbook and can be found here. Asparagus and sugar snap peas aren’t vegetables I buy often but we enjoyed this dish. I liked that it took 10-15 minutes to prepare from start to finish and the chili flakes gave it some zing. I served the veggies alongside fusilli pasta tossed with grape tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Here’s a pic of the veggies before I added the pasta:
Posted in Food and cooking, postaday2011, tagged cooking, food, opo squash, postaday2011, squash, vegetables on November 27, 2011| 2 Comments »
I’m running out of options for trying out new squash – there are less and less at my supermarket… The spaghetti squash I bought over a week ago ended up going bad on my counter so I’ll buy another one next week. The only other squash available at my supermarket that I hadn’t yet tried was the Opo (also known as a bottle gourd, long melon, calabash and a myriad of other names, none of which I had heard before).
It’s about a foot long, has white flesh inside, resembles a zucchini or cucumber. I made sure there was a product sticker on it because surely the cashier wouldn’t know what it was… lol
I Googled recipes for it and found several for soups and stews, but others just said to stirfry it, which is what I did. Sliced it lengthwise, seeded it like a cucumber, then cut into chunks. Tossed it in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper and sauteed until softened.
It wasn’t very impressive…rather bland really. After a few bites, both Chris and I gave up and left the rest on our plates. Maybe that’s why most recipes put it in soups…? Oh well, can’t win them all.
So, the last one I’ll be making (unless my supermarket receives a new batch) will be spaghetti squash. I already have a recipe lined up for a butter and herb sauce, kind of like a mock fettucini alfredo. Looking forward to that one.
Also – I so enjoyed trying all the different types of squash that I’ve been looking for ideas for the next “palooza”. I’ll be going through different varieties of another food and you’ll be happy to learn that the next festival in my kitchen will be chilipepper-palooza. I’ll be trying all the different peppers and chilis that my supermarket stocks and based on yesterday’s visit, there are tons.
Excited.
Posted in Food and cooking, postaday2011, tagged buttercup squash, cooking, food, postaday2011, side dishes, squash, vegetables on November 25, 2011| 1 Comment »
Other posts in the Squashapalooza series can be found here.
This time I made buttercup squash. I sliced it in half, discarded the seeds, and baked it in the oven, then scooped out the flesh and mashed it with salt, pepper, a bit of maple syrup and brown sugar. It wasn’t great…my least favourite so far.
Next up: Spaghetti squash!
Posted in Food and cooking, postaday2011, tagged cooking, food, postaday2011, produce, pumpkin, squash, vegetables on October 9, 2011| 2 Comments »
My family didn’t eat squash. Yes, we bought the customary pumpkins for Halloween, perhaps some mini squash for decorative purposes but I can’t recall ever actually eating any growing up. So, as an adult, I’m embarrassed to admit that other than butternut squash, which I’ve roasted and eaten a few times either as is or pureed into soup (all of which were very tasty), the world of squash has been a decidedly grey area in my vegetable repertoire. And they’re actually quite beautiful to look at and just scream “Fall is here!!” once October rolls around. The oranges, greens and yellows as well as the odd shapes and sizes, offer an eye-catching source of inspiration. But, before now, they’ve been intimidating: How do you cook it? Do you eat the skin? Just how do you serve spaghetti squash anyway??
So, this fall/winter I am determined to cook and eat as many different types of squash (squashes?) available at my grocery store. Which, based on last Friday’s trip, included at least five that I could see.
Luckily, Real Simple magazine has come to the rescue with a timely article all about winter squash. The article describes the different varieties, how to prepare them, what to eat (skin, no skin), and includes lots of recipes and guidelines about flavours and textures. They list several varieties including acorn, butternut, calabaza, delicata, hubbard, kabocha, pumpkin and spaghetti. I’m familiar with most of them and have seen them in the supermarket – some I simply didn’t know what they were called.
Stay tuned for Squashapalooza in Val’s kitchen. 🙂
Never a dull moment.
Posted in Barefoot Contessa, Food and cooking, postaday2011, tagged Barefoot Contessa, cooking, food, ina garten, postaday2011, side dishes, supper, vegetables on August 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »
For dinner tonight I grilled some salmon and as a side made French String Beans from the Barefoot in Paris cookbook. Anytime a recipe includes roasted vegetables, you can bet it’ll be tasty and this recipe was no exception. The sweetness of the onions and peppers really complimented the crisp beans. Very summer. The recipe can be found here.
The red onion, red pepper and yellow peppers roasted in the oven for 15 minutes (tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper). In the meantime I grilled the salmon and blanched the green beans. Tossed the veggies together, and voila:
Posted in Gardening, postaday2011, tagged container garden, food, Garden, gardening, postaday2011, vegetables on August 6, 2011| 7 Comments »
Well, I can really say it’s the *first* bounty since I’ve been snipping the basil and parsley for a few weeks now. That being said, this morning I picked the first veggies. Behold the bounty of our first mini pepper and mini cucumber. And they were delicious!!! I thought I might have picked the cuke a bot early (I was testing it out to know when to pick the rest) but it was sweet and fresh and yummy. The pepper was crisp and fresh too. So excited to eat more!
Here are more pictures of my container garden. I originally had plants on either side of the patio door but noticed that the ones on the side that got more sun were getting a bit parched – you’ll see them in the pic of the entire garden – they’re lighter in color and smaller. I moved them all over to the far left this morning – hopefully they’ll be happier there.
Basil and parsley In their new home
The garden!
Pretty soon we’ll have too many veggies to know what to do with. 🙂 And I can’t wait!
Posted in Food and cooking, Gardening, postaday2011, tagged basil, container garden, food, Garden, gardening, parsley, peppers, postaday2011, tomatoes, vegetables on July 22, 2011| 3 Comments »
This heat wave is really getting old. Yesterday was 38 (49 with the humidity). For the Farenheit folks out there, that’s 100 (120 with the humidity). Hello..??? We’re in Canada. That’s too hot. But – I’m still not craving ice and snowmen. So, I’ve been staying inside with the AC on, or in the pool. Life is hard. 🙂
I’ve been keeping an eye on my garden – for the past two days, I’ve come home from work to find them sad and wilted but a good watering perks them right up again. The basil and parsley are doing very well – used basil in some meals this week. And I’m finally seeing tomatoes and peppers! Not sure what’s up with the cukes though – lots of flowers, but nothing growing yet.
I see tomatoes!
Pepper!
More tomatoes
Parsley and basil (Thai basil and Cinnamon basil)
Posted in Food and cooking, Gardening, postaday2011, tagged container garden, gardening, plants, postaday2011, vegetables on July 10, 2011| 2 Comments »
They’re aliiiive!
Although things started slowly, they’re finally getting there and starting to bloom.
The middle one with yellow flowers are mini cucumbers. The larger green one to the left is a tomato plant. The four other large ones are mini bell peppers – they just started to flower. The two white pots in th 2nd row are parsleys – they finally kicked in about a week ago. And the front row is all basil (three Thai basils and one cinnamon basil).
The other batch includes tomato plants (the large ones) just about to flower. The two in light green pots are more mini bell peppers.
I transplanted one tomato plant, the peppers and the basil into larger pots this morning, gave them a good watering and now they’re settling down in the sun. 🙂
I like to write. About everything. Lately my passions are houseplants, gardening, growing our own food, cooking and working on my Life List. Not necessarily in that order.
Val City Gal 