Greek salad and hummus

We eat a lot of salad in this house, often as a side dish, but tonight I made a big Greek salad as a main dish. I started with baby spinach (much preferred to lettuce in terms of taste and healthfulness) and topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, olives, avocado, walnuts, Feta and balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was delicious.

To go with the salad, I made some homemade hummus, a super easy process using the food processor. I combined a can of chickpeas, ~1/3 cup tahini, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of a lemon and processed until smooth. I added a little water to get it to the right consistency. I served it with some whole wheat pita I bought and warmed up. The hummus turned out ok, a little bitter, but with good flavor (too bad I can't figure out how to make it just like Sabra). I must admit that this was the one dish so far that Alex refused to try due to his strong hatred of hummus.

Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles are kind of like breakfast nachos. I discovered this traditional Mexican dish at some brunch spots in Chicago and tried my own version today. First I cut up some corn tortillas into triangles and fried them in 1/2 cup canola oil for ~3-5 minutes until golden brown, flipping them over several times. After cooking the tortillas, I poured off most of the oil, beat 4 eggs with 2 tbsp milk and added to the pan. I also added some chopped green onions and some prepared salsa (I didn't measure but I guess about 1/3 cup) and cooked for a few minutes. Then I added the tortillas to the pan and continued to cook until the eggs were done. I served with a little cheddar cheese and a few slices of avocado.

Pierogies

Pierogies are Polish dumplings which can be filled with a variety of things but in our house, it's always potatoes. I used Mom Mom D's recipe:
DOUGH
2 ½ CUPS FLOUR
1 Egg
SALT
¾ CUP MILK

FILLING
4 LARGE POTATOES, PEELED AND CUT UP
1 MEDIUM ONION, DICED AND SAUTEED
1 LB COTTAGE CHEESE
3 OZ CREAM CHEESE

To make the filling, I boiled the potatoes and then combined them in the Kitchen Aid with the sauteed onions, cottage cheese and cream cheese. I actually made double the filling, but it was way too much! I made the dough in the food processor and then rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Then I used a glass to cut out small circles. I rolled these out further so the dough was as thin as possible but could still hold up after being filled. I filled each dough round with a heaping spoonful of filling. I made a "paste" of flour and milk and spread it around the edges of the dough and then folded into a dumpling like this:
To cook the pierogies, I first boil them in salted water and then pan fry them in butter and onions. Today, I had intended to make these pierogies for lunch, but I got busy and made them later. So, I just boiled them and froze them to cook another day.SUNDAY UPDATE (as requested by Kelly): Since I made too much filling, I decided to make some of it into potato pancakes for dinner. I simply formed the filling into a pancake and dipped in a little bit of beaten egg to help hold it together and cooked in some butter. Yum!

Birthday Cake

Now, I know that birthday cake does not really constitute a meal, but today was a busy day and I knew I wasn't going to have time to cook. So I did a lot of prep work last night and put together this Triple-Layer Lemon Cake for my co-worker Karine's birthday. The recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book.

Triple-Layer Lemon Cake
2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp lemon peel
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon peel and lemon juice. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Add flour mix and buttermilk alternately beating until combined. Pour into 3 9inch circular cake pans. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes and cooled cakes on wire racks.

While the cake was cooling I made the lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting.

Lemon Curd
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup butter
2 beaten eggs

In saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add peel, juice and butter. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir half lemon mixture into eggs, then pour back into pan. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Cover with waxed paper to cool.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp lemon juice
4 1/2-4 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon peel

Beat cream cheese, butter and lemon juice until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency. Stir in lemon peel.

To assemble the cake, placed first layer on plate and spread half of lemon curd on top. Topped with second cake layer and spread remaining lemon curd on top. Topped with the third layer and frosted top and sides with lemon cream cheese frosting.

A really good sandwich

Tonight was kind of leftover night, where we used some previously made components for our dinner. Alex had some leftover fried rice and I had some gratin and I used the pesto I made to make a delicious portabello mushroom sandwich. I realize this was the first sandwich I've made this month and it was really good! I just sliced two portabello caps into ~1/2 inch sliced and brushed them with olive oil and garlic and roasted in a 400F oven for 8-10 minutes on each side. To assemble the sandwich, I toasted some leftover Italian bread with pesto and a sprinkle of mozzarella and feta cheeses. Then I added the mushrooms, some sliced tomato and baby spinach. It was really a easy, tasty and good-looking sandwich (as you can see from the shots below).

A big pot of chili

Tonight I made a great winter meal, vegetarian chili. I've made this recipe from Joy of Cooking numerous times and it never disappoints. I actually doubled the recipe, yielding an abundance of chili to share with friends on game night as well as to freeze for later consumption.

Vegetarian Chili (8 servings)
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large saucepan (or stockpot if doubling) over medium heat.
Add:
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped red bell peppers (I used half red, half yellow)
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
Cook, stirring, until onions are golden (~15 min) then add:
1-2 finely chopped fresh green chiles (to taste)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
Cook, stirring, ~2 min then add:
1 28oz can plum tomatoes with juice (chopped)
1 160z can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 16oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 160z can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup tomato juice
Salt to taste
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for ~45 minutes adding more tomato juice or water as needed.

I also made corn bread muffins to go with the chili (half plain, half with jalapeno and cheddar per Mike's request) and we had sour cream, cheese, jalapenos and onions as chili toppings.

Northern Corn Bread (also from Joy of Cooking)
1 1/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
1-4 tbsp sugar (I used only one)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup buttermilk
2-3 tbsp melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine in a separate bowl eggs and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Fold in melted butter and pour batter in greased muffin pan. Bake 10-15 minutes at 425F. (For cheddar jalapeno corn muffins, simply add chopped jalapeno to the batter and sprinkle cheddar on top before baking.)

Despite a house full of guests, my freezer is literally overflowing with leftover chili (surely enough to get me through the winter).

Pasta with Cauliflower and Pesto

I picked up a big bunch of basil, so I decided to use it to make pesto. I simply placed the pesto, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 clove garlic and 2 tbsp walnuts in the food processor and processed until smooth. I would have used pine nuts, but I forgot to pick them up at the store. Luckily walnuts work just fine. I used the pesto to compliment a pasta with cauliflower dish I found in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." A word about this cookbook... I've been using it a lot this month. It is set up really well where there are simple recipes with tons of suggestions for modifications. If you have an ingredient on hand, you can just look it up and find lots of options for dishes that can be made with what you have in the pantry. They aren't the kind of recipes you have to follow strictly, they really help me get creative. Like this pasta dish...I had some uncooked cauliflower that wasn't used in Saturday's gratin so I found a way to incorporate it with pasta and the fresh pesto I made. First, I boiled the cauliflower in water for 5-6 minutes. Then a transferred it to a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil, a little crushed red pepper and some minced garlic. I cooked and smashed the cauliflower over medium heat while boiling pasta in the leftover cauliflower water. Once the pasta was ready, I combined it with the cauliflower in the skillet with some pesto. I topped the pasta with a little more pesto and a sprinkle of parmesan. I'm excited to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow with a little of the tomato sauce I made on Sunday!