A pictureless summary

While I'm waiting for my official photographer to send me our Thanksgiving photos, I thought I'd share some notes on recipes that I haven't gotten around to posting about.  I've got a few posts started for recipes that I never photographed - since the main point of my blog is to post about the food I make and to avoid making the same mistakes twice, I'm going to share them quickly all at once, instead of dedicating a separate post to each.  Tune in later this weekend for our Thanksgiving post and for some Italy pictures!


Coconut Granola Bars
The coconut granola bars, from NY Times Recipes for Health, were a tasty treat on our vacation.  We snacked on them at the airport and on the plane, crumbled some into yogurt at the continental breakfast, and left a few for Deanna's roommates too.  They were super easy and very crunchy.  If you like those Nature Valley crunchy oats and honey granola bars, you'll like these, and you'll be eating a home-cooked, less-processed (and therefore BETTER) version of them.

Napa Cabbage Salad with Peanuts and Cilantro

I found the recipe for this salad in Deborah Madison's book, Local Flavors.   I made a number of changes to this based on what I had on hand. (It was good, but I thought it would be even better as written.) I didn't have any lettuce, so I used entirely cabbage, and a bit more than called for, a change I think was great! I omitted the scallions because I didn't have any, so I added in a shallot with the dressing. I made the dressing in the blender, and I also added the cilantro to the dressing instead of the salad. I skipped the basil and mint because I didn't have any. Next time I would add extra carrots too!

Fire-Roasted Tomato Stew with Eggplant, Bulgur, and Chickpeas
This one comes from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.  It's been a while since I made it (eggplant season), but it was good.  I stuck a bit in the freezer for lunches.  The chickpeas are an optional addition, but I think it's always better to toss in some vegetable-based protein when you have the opportunity.  I used bulgur instead of farro, because it's cheaper and I wasn't sure how this would turn out, and also because I thought it would go better with the other flavors.  I was a fan of the golden raisins - if I remember correctly the recipe called for regular dark raisins, but I prefer the golden ones, and I thought they gave the stew an interesting dimension of flavor.

Slow-Cooker Black Bean Mushroom Chili
I made this chili recipe in the slow cooker I got for my birthday.  My old slow cooker is very temperamental and the temperatures seem to be off (thanks to the internet, I've found that this is a very common complaint with that particular brand and model).  My new one lets you set the time by the half hour, and you can jump straight to warm if that's what you want.  This chili recipe uses dried beans, which cooked very well in the 8 hours in the slow cooker.  One complaint is the fresh tomatillos I used - I don't think we scrubbed them well enough and their sticky coating lent a slightly bitter taste to the chili.  The mushrooms gave it a nice meaty element and the spices were a little unusual and interesting.  I would try this one again, maybe with the tomatillos I canned several weeks ago in place of fresh ones.

Moroccan Eggplant and Couscous Salad

Something struck me about this Moroccan-inspired eggplant recipe, but I wasn't sure what it was.  I knew I wanted to eat it but I didn't know why.  When I tasted it, though, it all made sense!  It was delicious.  I was skeptical, especially because instead of amounts of seasoning it's "go with what smells good," but it turned out good.

This is made of several components: roasted eggplant cubes, roasted chickpeas (roasted separately from the eggplant), couscous, and a dressing with white balsamic and cilantro.  The spices (cumin and cinnamon) are key.  I left out the golden raisins, because I didn't see them at the store, and I also hate raisins, but when I made it a second time I added some currants - yum!  I also left out the chickpeas the second time around, as we didn't really like them.  They did not get crunchy at all!  So sad.  Luckily it's just as delicious without them, and the leftovers are fantastic too.  This would still be fine at room temperature so it could make a great picnic food or packed in a lunch.

Hummus

I am constantly reading my cookbooks, so when I found the hummus recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian I was basically ready to try it immediately. Lucky for me, it couldn't be easier. With minimal ingredients and a ton of possible variations, this is something everyone should be making at home. I have been carefully checking ingredients lists lately, and preservatives and chemicals are NOT things that I want to eat. Unfortunately, my (former) favorite hummus brand (Sabra) is not present at Whole Foods*, which is a kind of lazy trick I use to decide whether I want to eat something. The reason it is my favorite is because of the big pile of seasonings and whole chickpeas and other random good tasting stuff in the middle. But if I make my own... I can just add that in myself.

For this particular batch of hummus I used organic canned chickpeas, and chose paprika as my spice (Mark Bittman offers cumin as the other option in the basic recipe). I also used extra garlic and extra lemon. One caution is that it comes out very very thick - that is why he has you add water, to thin it out. However, keep in mind that it will thicken up in the fridge, so you should make it thinner than you want to initially.

This hummus is something that I will definitely be making again and would be a great option to bring to a party or picnic. The picture may not be that easy to identify, but it is me holding a pita chip with some hummus on it.

*I don't buy everything at Whole Foods... I don't even make it there very often. But when I do go, I spend a LOT of time there and I really pay attention to what is around me. I can trust them to have "foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats"(according to their website). So I pay attention to things I see there and if I see them at a conventional grocery store, I feel much better about picking them up without thoroughly examining the ingredient list.

Cherry Tomato Couscous

Ken's mom gave us a whole big bag of produce this weekend, and when she said "cherry tomatoes" I instantly thought of the latest recipe on 101 Cookbooks - Cherry Tomato Couscous. I knew I had to try it and decided to do so on my trip to the beach with Heather.

The directions for making couscous didn't really seem like they were going to cook it at all, but it worked perfectly. Apparently, couscous is already precooked and it just has to "steam" or something. It turned out very nice and so we left it to cool to room temperature while we went to buy groceries.

When we came back we sliced everything up and mixed it together. I ended up using 1 1/2 limes and 1 1/2 lemons. I didn't measure anything really. For the feta I just dumped in the whole container.


This recipe was ridiculously easy to make. Anyone who can cut up stuff can make this. The couscous practically makes itself and the rest is just mixing in a big bowl. We particularly liked that the salad was room temperature. I think it would probably be good warm or cold too, but room temperature was definitely an important aspect of the dish. Deanna even liked the chickpeas! I will definitely be making this again since it is so incredibly easy.