Vodka Cabbage Lasagna (leftover cabbage)

Nope, it's not a new way to get your teenagers to eat their veggies. We just used a traditional (if there is such a thing) penne ala vodka sauce to punch up a veggie  lasagna. And as usual, the types of vegetables or cheeses you use can be tailored to whatever you have in your fridge.

Vodka Cabbage Lasagna

1 small head of cabbage, sliced and with the core removed
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
4 ounces brick mozzarella cheese, grated
2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup half & half
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
4 tablespoons vodka
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
olive oil
canola oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the sweet potato chunks with a tablespoon or so of oil and some salt. Spread them evenly on a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes, tossing every five minutes or so. Remove them from the oven when they are cooked through and starting to brown. Set the sweet potatoes aside.
2. To make the vodka sauce, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. When it is hot, add the chopped garlic and cook until it is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the tomato sauce, and then the vodka. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the butter. When it has melted, start to add the grated romano a bit at a time. Stir well after each addition of cheese to ensure it melts.
5. When all the cheese has been incorporated, turn the heat back down to low. Add the red pepper flakes and the half and half. Simmer for about five minutes, and then simply keep the sauce warm until you are ready to use it.
6. Meanwhile, in a wide, shallow skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage and a pinch of salt. Cook until the cabbage is nicely wilted, cooked through, and just beginning to brown. Set the cabbage aside.
7. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
8. Assemble the lasagna in a 9-inch square casserole pan. First, smear some sauce in the bottom of the pan. Spread one third of the cabbage mixture over the sauce. Top the cabbage with one half of the sweet potatoes, and then top the sweet potatoes with some sauce and one third of the mozzarella. Spread a second third of the cabbage over the mozzarella. Top the cabbage with the other half of the sweet potatoes, then top them with more sauce and another third of the mozzarella. Spread the final third of the cabbage over the mozzarella, and top that with more sauce and the final third of the mozzarella.
9. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the cheese on top has melted and browned, and the lasagna is bubbling. Keep an eye on it and be ready to tent it with tin foil to prevent the top from burning.
10. Let the lasagna rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting into it. Serve topped with a bit more grated romano cheese.

Arabian-Spiced Vegetable Barley Salad (any type of leftover vegetables)

The thing about vegetables is that the supermarket tells you when they're in season. By having a sale. Which is why we typically only buy what's on sale. (Although the  copious amounts of fresh vegetables showing up right now have more to do with what's in season in Chile.)In any case, this methodology led to our having half a cauliflower and a pound of string beans sitting around in the refrigerator. But you could use almost any vegetable you have (cooked or otherwise) for this salad.

Arabian-spiced barley salad with string beans and cauliflower

1/2 head of cauliflower, roughly separated into florets and then sliced
1 pound of string beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 cups barley (yes that's what's probably left in that old bag of barley sitting in your pantry)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 cloves of garlic (pureed or blasted through a garlic press)
1/2 cup greek yogurt
2-3 teaspoons baharat (see link for basic recipe)
extra virgin olive oil
fig vinegar (balsamic would substitute well. In fact, you can use any vinegar mixed with a small amount of sugar, except white, which is best when mixed with water and used to clean windows)

(We really like baharat so we mix our own and keep it around to have on hand. If you're not up for that sort of pageantry, you can buy it online or simply use any type of spicing and flavoring that you enjoy.)

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the barley and cook until tender. This will take about 45 minutes. Remove, drain and allow to cool.
2. Meanwhile, steam cauliflower until tender and set aside.
3. Steam green beans until cooked through and set aside.
4. Heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. When it is hot, add half the pureed garlic and stir. Cook the garlic for about 15 seconds, then add the baharat, give it one more stir, and take the pan off the heat immediately. Let the oil cool.
5. Pour the vinegar into a mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil until a nice vinaigrette has formed.
6. When the barley has cooked through and has a good texture, drain it in a colander and set aside.
7. Chop the hard-boiled eggs into chunks. (Needless to say, you don't have to do all this stuff one thing after another. You can do most of it at the same time.)
8. Mix the remaining pureed garlic with the yogurt. Thin with water to make a pourable sauce, and season with a small amount of salt.
9. Mix the barley with the cauliflower and green beans. You might have more barley than you need.
10. Sauce the barley and vegetable mixture with the baharat vinaigrette. Depending on the amounts that you have, you might need to add a bit more oil or vinegar. Season with salt to taste.
11. Serve barley salad garnished with hard-boiled eggs, feta cheese, and parsley, and with the garlic yogurt sauce drizzled on top.

Super-Quick Tikka Masala (leftover....just about anything)

The best fast tikka masala recipe we have encountered was in Cook's Illustrated several years ago. (The best actual tikka masala we've encountered was in, of all places, Darbar restaurant in Branford, CT). This is an adaptation of that recipe, a little healthier, a little punchier. The beauty of this sauce is that you could throw literally whatever you have sitting around in it.

Vegetable Tikka Masala

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped (or tofu, chicken, or many other htings)
1 10-oz package of button mushrooms (or other vegetable)
3 tablespoons butter
1 generous tablespoon of ginger-garlic pasta (an excellent timesaver for weeknight meals, available at Indian groceries--or use 2 tsp chopped ginger, 2 tsp pureed garlic)
1-2 tablespoons garam masala, or more according to your taste
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
canola oil
milk

1. Clean mushrooms, trim the bottom of the stems, and chop. Coat a wide, deep skillet with about two tablespoons of the canola oil and cook them with a pinch of salt over medium-high heat. Remove from the pan when they are nicely browned and are not giving off any more water. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel.
2. Add two more tablespoons of oil to the pan and cook the cauliflower with a pinch of salt until it is approaching tender and is starting to brown. Remove from the pan and wipe it out again.
3. Reduce heat to medium and melt the butter in the same pan.
4. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for a few moments until it is fragrant.
5. Add garam masala and stir, letting it cook for a few moments.
6. Add tomato sauce and cooked mushrooms and cauliflower. Bring it to a very gentle simmer and let it cook for about half an hour.
7. Just before serving, add enough milk to give it a bit of creaminess. Heat through and check seasonings.

Serve with besan pancakes and bok choy raita (or rice if you're fresh out of besan and bok choy).

Bok Choy Raita

1 stalk baby bok choy, minced and with the leafy tops separated from the thicker bottoms
1 scallion, minced
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1 garlic clove, pureed
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt (Ok, great but hard to find, unless you make your own. Use any yogurt)
canola oil
salt

1. In a small saute pan, heat 2 teaspoons of oil over medium heat. Add the minced bottoms of the bok choy with a pinch of salt and cook until they are tender.
2. Add the minced tops of the bok choy and cook until dark green and wilted.
3. Add the scallion and cook until fragrant.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat and drain it in a bowl lined with a paper towel. Let it drain for a few minutes and remove the greens.
5. Mix the greens with the sour cream, the yogurt, and the garlic. Add a few drops of water at a time until the sauce looks "pourable", but is not watery. Season with salt and let it sit for 15 minutes or so before using it to top the vegetable tikka masala.

Spinach Pasta (leftover pureed spinach baby food)

Babyfood. Last thing you'd think would make good leftover grub. But our 2.74 year old has proved a remarkably tough critic. According to her, we are quite possibly the worst cooks on earth. (A certain Chef Boyardee sets a standard we could never hope to equal.) This has left us with a wide range of pureed products to fashion into something edible. The class of these so far is this simple frozen spinach pasta.

Spinach Pasta

1 lb defrosted frozen spinach
6 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
3-4 tablespoons dried Italian spices (Any Italian seasoning works, as does even amounts of dried oregano and basil, with a generous pinch of garlic powder.)
pasta (Rotini is perfect for this)
olive oil

1. Puree spinach in a food processor. You might need to add a touch more water to get a smooth puree. Remove from processor. (Do not substitue commercial spinach baby food. It costs a fortune and tastes awful.)
2. Now put the cream cheese and about a half a cup of water into the food processor. Let it go. Add additional water, as needed, to make a creamy mixture. Remove from processor and keep separate from pureed spinach.
3. Toast pine nuts in a warm pan (low medium heat, tossing frequently until lightly browned) and set aside.
4. Cook pasta. Before draining, reserve about a cup of cooking water.
5. While pasta is cooking, heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a shallow, deep skillet. Add spice mixture and stir to toast for about 15 seconds.
6. Add pureed spinach and a sprinkle of salt and cook for a few minutes, until it loses its bright green color.
7. Add cream cheese mixture. Stir to combine and cook for a few minutes.
8. Add pine nuts and then cooked pasta to skillet, along with as much of the pasta cooking water as is needed, until the sauce-to-pasta ratio is correct (in other words, how you like it.)
9. Adjust for seasoning and serve with grated cheese.

Roast Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup

Fall is here and winter squash has appeared in the farm markets. Our favorite is a big rural stand that works on the honor system. You select, bag, and weigh your own produce, calculate your total using a pad and golf pencil, and then place your money in a rusty iron box. A sign asks you not to peel the corn before buying it (this is a very stupid thing to do, btw.). If you get a bad ear, take a free one next time.

Butternut squash and sweet potatoes both love chipotles, so here's an easy, tasty soup that goes terrific with cornbread.

Roast Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup

1 large butternut squash, cored, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
½ chipotle pepper and extra adobo sauce
Stock (chicken/vegetable)
Parsley for garnish
Olive oil

1. Heat oven to 400. Put butternut squash on a sheet pan and toss with enough olive oil to coat
2. Bake about 20 minutes, flipping occasionally. Do not burn. It's done when it's soft.
3. Fry onions in oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring often for about two minutes or so.
4. Turn down the heat and add a pinch of sugar, continuing to stir until lightly carmelized.
5. Add the roast squash, chipotles and adobo, some salt, and cover with stock and water (about half and half. For a more delicate soup, you could just use water).
6. Cook about 20 minutes.
7. Puree and adjust seasoning (that means to add more salt if it needs it).
8. Serve garnished with parsley. If you're looking to make friends and impress people, you could puree your parsley with sour cream and water, and drizzle their initials on the soup. But a nice hunk of coarsely chopped parsley tastes good too.

Pasta with Celery Sauce

Throughout pregnancy, she had only two cravings. One was celery. The other was French fries topped with canned gravy and American cheese. No comment.

Back to the celery. It's really out of favor among the food elite. A few years ago, an article appeared in Ars Culinaire or one of those high-end food magazines, opining that over the years celery must have become more bitter. It explained this by saying that more and more chefs were using less and less of it, even for the classic French mirapoix. We'll leave that discussion to the experts.

Of course, celery flavor is not going out of style. Celery root has made such a lightning ascent that celeriac salad is now on the menu of every Food Network star. (Why is the Food Network the only place outside of the porn industry where everyone is a star? We must stop digressing.)

So let's embrace it. This celery pasta is cheap, dead simple like all good Italian food, and, if you've got good, minty basil to go along with it, really tasty.

Pasta with Celery Sauce
1 large can tomatoes
2 stalks celery plus some celery heart, cut in very large pieces (you're going to remove them)
1 medium onion, quartered
Basil
Salt
2 tbsp butter
3tbsp cream cheese
Parmesan (lots)
Pasta

1. Place tomatoes, celery, 1 tsp salt, and onion in a pot.
2. Simmer for 40 minutes, adding H20 as necessary.
3. Allow to cool. Pull out the celery and onions and squeeze them over the pot to get out all the juice.
4. Add butter and bring back to a simmer.
5. Add cream cheese and stir until it dissolves
6. Add grated parmesan slowly while stirring until it tastes great. (a good handful or so)
7. Cook pasta, toss with sauce and basil to taste.

Zucchini Bruchetta with Poached Eggs

(apologies for the photo, it's a new lens that we apparently don't have the hang of)

Sorry for the absence. There's no point in going for grace under pressure with a constantly crying baby. Of course, it might have made an excellent story if we had offered "gourmet solutions" for parents of colicky children. Somebody might even have read our ideas—perhaps we'd have won another award (Top 25 Food Blogs for Exhausted Parents of Miserable Babies).

Instead, we survived largely on bologna sandwiches—which are quite good in their way. First we had them with mustard, then with mayonnaise, and finally, when our creativity reached its crying-baby apex, we had them with mustard and mayonnaise at the same time.

At last, our child began sleeping and we could again think of food. This was a riff on a piperade, a Basque dish we first encountered in Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking. We mention her because An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is really a fun book. (To ruin one of the best essays, she advises learning to cook with whiskey instead of brandy. The reason is that most people drink the cooking cognac and forget to replace it, while no one ever forgets to replenish their vital stock of whiskey.)

Zucchini Bruchetta with Poached Eggs

One bit of advice. When poaching eggs for this, it's a good idea to leave them slightly underdone. Then, when plating, do not attempt the silly, aesthetic effect shown in the wretched photograph above. Put the egg down first, and pour the hot sauce over, letting it finish the cooking.

3 zucchinis, sliced in thin rounds
1 large onion, sliced
1 ½ cup tomato sauce
4 eggs
1 loaf Italian bread
One clove garlic, skin on, cut in half
1 tbsp cider vinegar
Olive oil

1. Place the onions and zukes, with a generous amount of olive oil, in a large frying pan. Sprinkle with salt, and cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally for about an hour, until the mixture is browned and reduced.
2. Heat oven to 425. Fill large saucepan halfway with water, place over high heat.
3. Add tomato sauce to the zuke mixture, cook again over low heat for 20 minutes, adding water as necessary.
4. To make the bruchetta. Slice the bread, brush one side with olive oil. Place in oven. When browned, remove and scrape with the cut side of the garlic.
5. To poach the eggs: When water is boiling, add vinegar. Shut heat off or down, until the water temp drops below boiling. Crack eggs one at a time into a cup, slowly submerge in water. Cook each egg approximately 3 minutes: do not allow them to boil. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry using an extra slice of bread.
6. Place egg in bowl. Spoon over sauce. Enjoy with the bread.

Egg and Pea Curry (Imperial Palace, Macao)

(apologies for the dark photo. Newborns sap photographic energy)

A friend of ours has recently fallen under the spell of a famous doctor who counsels on diet. This poor man used to feast nightly on lamb shanks, pork ribs, and steak, but he now faces a small number of acceptable foods and an encyclopedic list of unacceptable ones. He asked us for something tasty and easy to prepare that fit his narrow requirements.

We offered up our adaptation of a great dish we had at a casino in Macao. The use of hard boiled eggs (somehow eggs escaped his hit list) in curry is very very good. You can use any compatible vegetables. Cauliflower and asparagus are especially nice, as are mushrooms.

Good variants of this dish involve lowering the heat at the end and stirring in yogurt (not permitted by the doctor), tempering in an egg (adds too much complexity), using coconut milk instead of flour and stock (absolutely forbidden), or serving it over spicy potatoes (these too are evil).

Curry with Eggs and Peas

4 hardboiled eggs
1 large onion, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1-2 tbsp Madras Curry Powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp flour
¾ cup chicken broth
2 tsp Garam Masala
Water
Salt
Canola oil

1. Place 1 tbsp canola oil (or some evil ghee) in a hot frying pan
2. Add onions and fry vigorously, stirring often, for about 8 minutes until they begin to brown. Do not allow to blacken.
3. Reduce heat. Add flour, curry powder and cayenne. Stir and cook for about 1-2 minutes until flour smell disappears.
4. Add stock and stir vigorously until roux is dissolved.
5. Add water until desired thickness is reached.
6. Cook for about five minutes until flavors are incorporated. Add more water, as necessary.
7. Salt to taste.
8. Add peas and eggs, and cook for several minutes, ensuring that the egg yolk is well-penetrated by the sauce.
9. Finish with garam masala to taste.
10. Serve with rice.

Rarebit to the Rescue (Welsh Rarebit)

Last night, in the middle of baking a loaf of all-wheat bread, our baby daughter decided to interrupt. We remembered the bread 20 minutes too late.

What to do with dry, overcooked bread? If it was white bread, it would have joined our pile of bread crumbs. But all wheat's a different problem.

Our thoughts soon turned to something forbidden during pregnancy: a beer and cheese sauce. By toasting the bread crisp and drenching it in yummy Welsh rarebit, we saved our loaf. This recipe, by the way, is no different from any other you'll find. If you're looking for a way to save cash, don't go crazy on the beer. You can make a perfectly acceptable rarebit with a can of Budweiser.

Welsh Rarebit

2 tbsp butter
2 cups cheddar cheese
½ bottle dark beer
½ cup milk or cream
1 tsp dry mustard (more to taste)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp flour
Four slices thick wheat bread
Parsley and chives to garnish

1. Heat broiler. (this step is optional)
2. Melt 1 ½ tbsp butter in saucepan, stir in flour, mustard, and cayenne.
3. Allow to cook about 1 minute, or until the flour smell is gone.
4. Whisk in milk and continue whisking until lumps are gone and sauce is thick.
5. Whisk in beer, and allow to cook for a few minutes to remove excess alcohol.
6. Stir in most of the cheese to make a thick sauce.
7. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste.
8. Stir in remaining butter.
9. Toast bread until fairly hard.
10. Top bread with some sauce.
11. Optional: Take this sauced bread, top with cheese and place under broiler.
12. Check at 30 second intervals until the cheese is browned.
13. Serve garnished with herbs, sprinkled with Worcestershire sauce, accompanied by a bowl of the remaining sauce.

Fattoush (Leftover Pita Bread Salad)

One of the most photogenic of all foods, fattoush is a classic leftover dish: a Lebanese grandma's way to get rid of stale pita and uneaten veg. The idea is to toast (or fry) the pita, and toss it with herbs, a vinaigrette, and whatever you've got lying around. It sounded simple—until we consulted Chef Google.

From him, we learned that authentic fattoush is a very daunting undertaking. It requires barrel-aged feta, salt-cured olives, Arabic bread, pomegranate seeds, purslane, sumac, brined pickles, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes (is there another kind?), seedless English cucumbers, and French breakfast radishes (as opposed to French dinner radishes, which are equally common in our supermarket).

Then we stopped. It can't be authentic to turn a simple leftover dish into a $20/plate rare vegetable treasure hunt. Our advice is to concentrate on the pita, and empty out your produce drawer.


Fattoush

2 stale pitas, cut into triangles (Making your own works best, and it's really not hard.)
¼ cup olive oil (the yummy stuff)
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2-cups vegetables (in our case, hot cooked corn tossed with raw spinach)
Herbs (we used 2 tbsp of chopped parsley and mint)
10 or so kalamata olives, pitted
10 grape tomatoes
10 bite sized hunks of goat cheese
1-2 cups cucumber cubed

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Heat oil and garlic together.
3. Toss pitas through the garlic oil, then spread on a sheet pan.
4. Bake until almost hard through.
5. Mix vegetables, herbs, olives, cucumbers and tomatoes.
6. Toss together with pita toasts.
7. Top with dressing (see below)

Sumac-buttermilk dressing

Before your head explodes, remember that cultured buttermilk is not leftover churned butter; it's similar to yogurt.

¼ cup buttermilk
1 tbsp olive oil
2tsp lemon juice
dash salt
1 tsp pureed garlic
1 tbsp sumac (ok, so we broke down, it is really nice)
1 tbsp of dill and parsley chopped.

1. Add lemon juice, garlic and salt to a small bowl.
2. Whisk vigorously while pouring in oil in a thin stream.
3. Add buttermilk and whisk.
4. Add sumac, dill, and parsley.
5. Taste and adjust.

Spinach Flatbread

When we finished making our papas rellenas, we found we had a half cup or so of stuffing left. The next day, we decided to turn it into a quick appetizer using some pizza dough we had in the refrigerator. If you've never done it before, it may seem strange to cook dough in a bath of water and oil, but it produces a crispy crust that's hard to beat.

We did have one problem making this: The spinach filling was wet and it made the middle of our dough soggy after cooking. We solved the problem by sliding the flatbread into a non-stick pan and turning up the heat for a few minutes. That made it almost cracker-crisp. We don't really care how we get there, so long as the results are good.

Spinach Flatbread

½ cup spinach stuffing, walnuts reserved (see this recipe)
¼ cup mozzarella or other melting cheese
1 small ball of pizza dough
Olive oil

1. Heat oven to 450.
2. Flatten dough into a small square, either with your fingers or a rolling pin.
3. Transfer to a lightly greased sheet pan.
4. Top with shredded cheese.
1. Mix 1/3 cup oil with1/2 cup water. Then pour into sheet pan around the dough.
2. Place dough in oven and bake for about 12 minutes, until sides are crispy. During the last minute of cooking, add reserved walnuts.
3. Remove to a hot, nonstick frying pan and continue to toast until bottom is crisp (optional).
4. Serve garnished with sea salt.

Papas Rellenas with Spinach and Dill Onion Gravy

The Polish side of our family gets together periodically and puts away several tons of borscht and spiral cut ham and store bought pierogis. At one point, we offered to make homemade pierogis, but ran out of time. Big mistake. We were left with a big bag of potato-cheese stuffing, which we stuffed in the freezer for a better day.

We got sick of looking at the bag just as we were wondering what to do with our big pile of spinach. The result is a play on "papas rellenas," or stuffed potatoes, a South American staple. This recipe is a bit involved, and it takes a little practice. But once you get the hang of it, stuffed mashed potatoes a great platform for getting rid of all kinds of things: leftover chili, pot roast—you name it.

Oh, yes, health foodies: this recipe does not involve enriching your potatoes with lots of butter and cream before frying them. We're not animals, after all.

Papas Rellenas with Spinach and Dill Onion Gravy

The Stuffing

About 2 cups spinach, chopped and divided between stems and leaves
2 tsp chopped garlic
2-3 tbsp chopped walnuts
Salt
1 tsp lemon juice
Olive oil

1. Add oil to a hot frying pan.
2. Add garlic and spinach stems and stir fry for about a minute until stems are tender.
3. Add the leaves and stir until they are partially broken down.
4. Add walnuts (or toast them beforehand)
5. Sprinkle with lemon juice to taste.
6. Finish cooking.
7. Remove from pan to a cutting board.
8. Chop spinach with walnuts together.
9. Add salt to taste.

Papas Rellenas

The stuffing
1 lb potatoes
2 scallions chopped
½ cup cheese (parmesan or cheddar)
Flour
Rice flour (optional)
Salt

If these instructions are difficult to understand, there are plenty of videos on YouTube.

1. Boil potatoes in salted water and remove.
2. Pass through a ricer or food mill.
3. Salt to taste.
4. Allow to cool or spread out on a board to cool.
5. Add cheese and scallions, and pepper if desired.
6. Add about 2 tbsp flour and begin to knead for 1 minute. The "dough" should be slightly sticky and hold together.
7. Spread rice flour out on a board.
8. Using clean, wet hands, flatten out a small disk or potato in your hand. Fill with stuffing, then close the ends over and roll into a small football shape. Roll in the rice flour when done.
9. Repeat for rest of potatoes.
10. Heat oil in a pan and fry on one side. When browned, tip over to the next. If you're gentle (you can use your fingers), the results should be neat and square when finished.
11. When browned on all sides, remove and serve with gravy.

Dill Onion Gravy

1 large onion
2 tbsp chopped dill
Butter
Oil
Flour
Milk

1. In a 3 quart saucepan, begin frying the onions in butter and oil
2. As a fond develops on the bottom of the pan, add water and clean.
3. Continue until onions are slightly browned.
4. Add 1 more tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp flour.
5. Add one cup milk and bring to a simmer, stirring vigorously
6. Add more milk to reach desired thickness. Add salt and pepper as desired.
7. Stir in dill and remove from heat.

Spinach and Pine Nut Crackers

You can find a big bag pine nuts at Trader Joes for $7, but at the local supermarket, a miniature jar of "Pignoli Nuts" goes for the same amount. The reason is that—unlike Americans—not all pine nuts are created equal. The ones in TJ's are likely from China, raised under a thick cloud of industrial smog; while the others are an organic varietal from Italy prized for their nuttiness.

Let's hear it for China. We usually keep a bag of them in the back of our fridge, along with bags of walnuts and almonds. They keep forever so long as they're tightly sealed.

This was an easy appetizer that also got rid of some crackers we had lying around.

Spinach and Pine Nut Crackers

10 flavored crackers
About 2 cups spinach, chopped and divided between stems and leaves
2 tsp chopped garlic
2-3 tbsp pine nuts (3 tbsp if you're going to snack on them while cooking, 2 if you're not)
Sea salt
Balsamic vinegar (or sherry vinegar)
Olive oil (the stuff you hide when people you don't like come over)
Cream cheese

1. Toast pine nuts in a dry pan until lightly browned and remove.
2. Add oil to a hot frying pan.
3. Add garlic and spinach stems and stir fry for about a minute until stems are tender.
4. Add the leaves and stir until they are partially broken down.
5. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar to taste.
6. Finish cooking.
7. Remove from pan to a cutting board.
8. Chop spinach with pine nuts together.
9. Add sea salt to taste.
10. Spread crackers with cream cheese and top with spinach mixture.

Green Bean and Potato Pie

We understand that green beans vastly prefer being called haricots verts, and while we don't blame them, we're going to stick with what we know. There is a classic Genovese recipe that involves mashing them with potatoes, adding some eggs and cheese, and baking them off. It's good, but we wanted to enhance it to make a good vegetarian main dish. The results, this pie, were delicious. And yes, if you want to serve it to foodie friends, it's ok to call this a "tarte de pommes de terre et haricots verts."

Green Bean and Potato Pie

½ lb green beans, preferably a thin varietal
5-6 medium red potatoes, quartered
1 medium red onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, cut into tiny cubes
1 ½ cups milk
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
Brie cheese (3 oz or so, optional))
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp flour
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs or crumbled Ritz crackers
Salted creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's)

1. Bring a stockpot full of salted water to boil. Add the green beans and cook until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain.
2. Preheat your oven to 350.
3. Quarter the potatoes and add them to the stock pot. Cook until tender.
4. Put the green beans through a food mill. If some doesn't go through, don't worry, you just want them nice and mashed.
5. Put the potatoes through the food mill and toss with green beans.
6. Add the carrots to the bowl and toss.
7. Add creole seasoning to taste.
8. In a frying pan, melt the butter, add the flour, then add the milk while whisking to create a loose béchamel sauce.
9. Add the shredded cheese slowly and stir to melt. (French cooks would refer to this a sauce Mornay.)
10. Add the onions and allow them to infuse the sauce-it should be loose , but not watery. (French cooks would not refer to this as a sauce Mornay.)
11. Beat the eggs together in a bowl with a little water. Add a tablespoon of the hot sauce, and mix to combine. Repeat this step until the eggs are warm and well incorporated with cheese sauce. Then add the egg mixture to the rest of the hot sauce and stir to incorporate. This process is known as tempering, and it keeps you from scrambling the eggs.
12. Add creole seasoning to taste.
13. Pour one third of the sauce in with the potatoes and green beans and mix.
14. Grease a casserole dish. Add one half of the potato mixture and spread into an even layer.
15. Place slices of brie over the layer to cover.
16. Pour over one half of the remaining sauce.
17. Add the rest of the potatoes and smooth over to cover.
18. Add the remainder of the cheese sauce. Top with bread crumbs.
19. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven. If the top starts to brown, cover with aluminum foil.
20. Remove and allow to rest five minutes before serving.

Stuffed Bread (more leftover marinara sauce)

What's not to love about stuffed bread, except that you don't have any dough? There's ways around that: Most supermarkets these days have frozen or refrigerated pizza dough for sale.

Or you can be a martyr and learn to make your own. Actually, it's not that hard. These days, the web is your baking school, and in particular, King Arthur Flour's website has plenty of terrific recipes and instructions, including this one for pizza dough. It would work great for stuffed bread.

Stuffed Marinara Bread

½ pound dough
Leftover tomato sauce
1 small handful grated cheese (mozzarella)
Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Flatten the dough on your board and roll out to a 10" x 6" piece.
3. Place dough on a sheet pan.
4. Spread sauce over dough, leaving at least 1/2" from the edge.
5. Sprinkle with cheese and grated parmesan.
6. Fold dough over so that one edge now meets the middle of the dough.
7. Fold again to completely enclose the filling.
8. Tightly pinch the seams.
9. Tightly pinch the seams again. You get the picture.
10. Roll dough over so the seam-side is down.
11. Pierce the dough with a sharp paring knife in several places
12. Beat egg together with 1tsp water to create an egg wash. Brush over dough.
13. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Chances are, your dough will explode somewhere and leak cheese on your sheet pan. Don't panic. Just stay the course and be sure to scrape up the slightly charred sauce and cheese. It's quite tasty.
15. Serve with extra heated marinara.

Roast Brussels Sprouts Pasta (from leftover marinara sauce)

The humble, unloved Brussels sprout often finds its way to our kitchen. The bulk of the latest batch went to a potato gratin that was too blah to post. A few sprouts remained, however, and we used them to spike up some leftover marinara sauce. There's something about the slight bitterness of the spouts and the sweetness of the tomatoes that we really liked.

Our favorite marinaras come from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a book we and, more importantly, all major food authorities recommend. The tomato sauce with butter and onion is particularly good.

Roast Brussels Sprouts Pasta

2 cups leftover marinara sauce (hopefully sweet)
10 or so Brussels sprouts
Grated fresh mozzarella, or similar cheese
Salt
Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Quarter the sprouts, place on a sheet pan and toss with olive oil and salt.
3. Roast for about 5-8 minutes, until sprouts are browned. Remove and discard any burnt leaves.
4. Heat leftover marinara sauce to a simmer, add sprouts. Simmer for a minute or so, and leave sprouts to infuse the warm sauce (overcooking sprouts makes them taste like your mom's).
5. Cook the pasta al dente and drain.
6. Combine the two, heat them through, and drizzle with olive oil and stir.
7. Serve garnished with mozzarella.

Spain On the Road Again: Beet Puree and Shrimp Pancakes

Anyone seen an episode of Spain On the Road Again? Probably not. In spite of having Mark Bittman, Gweneth Paltrow, and Mario Batali in Spain, it's a snooze fest. Four people eating and talking with very little editing. There may be four people who are witty and intelligent enough to make that work, but those guys should know their limitations.

Still, Mario's a great cook and Bittman a terrific recipe writer, so there's good stuff on the website. So far we've tried two recipes, one for a beetroot and walnut puree and another for chickpea pancakes. Here's our thoughts.

Beet Puree

The recipe is here, and it's good as is. The idea is to take some beets and walnuts and mix 'em with tahini and oil. Our tweaks include the following:

1. Roast the walnuts first and place them in the processor warm.
2. Add more tahini and less oil.
3. Withhold some of the salt and add some parmesan cheese (sounds weird, but it's good).
4. Add or garnish with fresh dill.


Shrimp Pancakes

This recipe is also great. You can find it and a useful video here.

We're old hands at making pancakes with besan, or chickpea flour, which you can find at any Indian grocery. (You can also find it at a Spanish grocery or gourmet store, but you will pay an absurd price for it.) We normally mix it with a lot of water, add cumin seeds, coriander, peppers, onions, or whatever we have lying around. And if you're fat conscious, you can cook them in a dry nonstick pan, believe it or not. They will separate from the pan.

The Spanish version involves cut up shrimp, herbs and lots of pepper. That said, we like ours a little crisper, so we use twice as much besan as white flour (something Bittman mentions). If you want it really crispy, eliminate the white flour and baking powder altogether.

Smoky Mac-n-Cheese

After crisscrossing the world looking for cephalopod recipes, it's nice to come back to a good old mac-n-cheese. There's nothing like it for providing comfort if you need it, and tasting great if you don't. It also helps use up all of the scraps in your cheese drawer.

Every mac and cheese recipe has to fit in your roasting pan nicely. That makes writing a recipe a little bit of an exercise in guess work. We usually test the amount of pasta we'llneed by filling up the pan we're going to use. The amount of cooked pasta should be about ¾ to the top of the pot. Then we remove that to a bowl, make a little extra sauce, and combine the right amount to cover it.

Smoky Mac-n-Cheese

1 pound pasta, cooked to a hard al dente
2-3 cups grated scrap cheese, cheddar, monterrey jack, etc.
3 oz Velveeta (yes, that stuff, it adds a nice texture)
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp flour
1 ½ cups milk (or so)
2 tbsp butter
½ cup frozen peas
Salt
½ cup bread crumbs or crumbled Ritz crackers

1. Heat oven to 400
2. Fry the onions briskly over medium high heat until yellow
3. Lower heat, add butter, and flour and stir to combine.
4. Add spices and cook briefly
5. Add milk, stirring vigorously. Bring temp up.
6. Add butter, and melt
7. Add Velveeta and dissolve
8. Slowly add cheese a little at a time, making sure it dissolves. Sauce should be thickened but still a little watery (the pasta will thicken it further)
9. Add peas to thaw
10. Taste and season
11. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, then pour into baking dish.
12. Cover with bread crumbs, dab with butter, put in oven
13. Bake about 20 minutes. If the top starts to brown too much, cover with foil
14. Allow to rest five minutes before serving.

Leftover Stuff : Lentil Falafel and Spicy Tabouleh

This looks kind of like a combo appetizer plate at a Greek diner: falafel, tabouleh, pitas, and hummus. But it's mostly leftovers from the last few nights tossed together. One of us made everything you see (including the bread) in about 40 not-terribly-rushed minutes. Rachel Ray would be proud. Or perhaps jealous. Though she makes $6 million per year, so it's unlikely.

We drew our inspiration (if you want to call it that) from the old couscous from the Moroccan stew, which had a great texture, even though it tasted like cardboard. And we found a bag of lentils that we've had since the Clinton administration.

For the pitas, we had reserved half the dough from the other night, rolled it into balls, put them into plastic wrap (oiled) and stuck them in the fridge. Dough keeps for days that way. You merely have to take them out an hour before you need them.

For the hummus, we had plenty left from the other night. It dried out a bit, but sprang back with a little water and oil.

Now for the new stuff.

Spicy Tabouleh

1 cup leftover couscous (bland and tasting like sawdust, if you can find it. Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous really fits that bill.)
½ - ¾ cup chopped parsley
¼ tbsp pureed garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp harissa
Splash of kalamata olive oil (or any olive oil)
Salt and Pepper

1. Mix.
2. Taste.
3. Adjust.
4. Repeat.

Lentil "Falafel"

1 cup old lentils you need to get rid of
3 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp pureed garlic
1 medium onion, grated
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
4-5 cardamom seeds (optional)
Flour
Rice flour (optional, but cheap and available at any Asian or Indian grocery)
Salt and pepper


1. Rinse the lentils thoroughly and soak for several hours.
2. Put them in a pan with ample water, bring to a boil and cook five minutes or until they are al dente
3. Meanwhile, heat a dry pan, add the cumin and coriander. When they begin to smell nice, remove them.
4. Grind cumin, coriander, and cardamom in a mortar and pestle.
5. Drain the lentils, transfer to a bowl and mash with a potato masher until pasty (some can still be whole).
6. Add the onion, garlic, parsley, and spices. Toss to combine.
7. Now's the best time to taste and make adjustments.
8. When you're happy with the flavor, add 1 tbsp flour and knead slightly. Continue adding flour until the lentils are able to be formed into balls.
9. Pour rice flour out on to a sheet pan or cutting board. You can leave the rice flour out, but it makes a nice and completely unauthentic crust.
10. Roll the mash into golf ball sized pieces. You may need to wash your hands from time to time to remove the excess. Don't worry about waste, you're working with about $ .10 of ingredients here.
11. When each one is finished, flatten it into a disk, and toss it in the rice flour and set aside. (If deep frying, leave them round.)
12. Heat ¼ inch of oil in a frying pan. Cook until brown.

This recipe can also be used to make a veggie burger.

Real Hummus and Homemade Pita

In the past few years, hummus has become an industry. Factories now crank out more flavors of hydrogenated chickpea fluff than you can count. Confession: we haven't found any we like. If we have come over to your house and raved about the one you served us, we were simply showing our good breeding.

Real hummus is a simple and delicious thing that asks for almost no adornment. To make it is easy but it takes a while. The key is to flavor it exactly how you like.

Hummus

2 cups dried Indian chickpeas (accept no substitute)
Garlic cloves (we use one)
Tahini (we start with about 3 tbsp)
Olive oil (no more than half the amount of tahini)
Lemon juice
Salt

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight or for 24 hours.
2. Place them in a large sauce pan with two quarts of water.
3. Cook for about 45 minutes, until chickpeas are coming apart. Drain.
4. Chop the garlic and put into a food processor.
5. Put the chickpeas into food processor and process until smooth. (Hold off on the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise it won't be as smooth).
6. Add tahini, oil, salt, and lemon juice. Pulse and taste until you like the flavor.
7. Then blitz the processor on, and drizzle water in until you get the fluffiness you desire.
8. Serve with a nice splash of your most pretentious olive oil.

Pitas

Homemade pitas are also delicious and easy to make—the recipe we use comes from King Arthur Flour. One note on that: they suggest dough improver, which makes the dough easier to roll out. You don't need that. Follow these steps instead.

1. Simply roll it out the best you can.
2. If it's not thin enough and keep snapping back, don't fight it. The dough will win every time.
3. Instead, use guile.
4. Cover the partially flattened disk with plastic wrap.
5. Walk away.
6. Enjoy half of a glass of wine.
7. Return to your dough. You will now find it cooperative.
8. Roll it out to the desired size.


You'll see we also enjoyed ours with some of the extra harissa and cooked cauliflower from the other night.