Veggie Pizza

Shiitake mushroom and asparagus pizza on whole wheat dough, with a sprinkling of truffle salt.

Mini Quiches

Mini quiches with proscuitto cups I made for a holiday party this year. I got the idea from this recipe on Epicurious, but improv'd the quiche filling itself because I was in a rush. Chive and asiago, anyone?

Artichoke Dip

So Sunday night during the Oscars, I had this hot artichoke dip simply because I needed a reason to finish up those baby artichokes from last week. And like all my recipes, I just eyeball everything and adjust according to taste and ingredients on hand (and sudden whims).

Prep and steam (or grill, or sautee) the artichokes until cooked, then set aside to cool. Meanwhile, roughly 1 cup of light cream cheese gets mixed with a tablespoon of mayo, handfuls of grated parmesan and romano cheese, some finely chopped green onion, a big dab of dijon mustard, a dash of Worchestershire sauce, grated garlic, salt, pepper and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Chop up the artichoke and add it to the mix. Spoon the mixture into a ramekin (did I mention the oven should be at 400F?), top off with powdered parmesan cheese (for texture, and also because I keep it around for making cheesy croutons) and bake until brown and bubbly! Sometimes I add some bell pepper to this and if you have crabmeat around, this could easily become a great Crab & Artichoke Dip. In any case, you need to serve with homemade pita chips or Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips, because those tasty mofos are the crispiest beeyotches you have ever had. Trust me.

Classic Lunch to Dinner

Speaking of sandwiches, one of my favorite comfort lunches a classic grilled cheese sandwich with a good tomato soup that's not too creamy, not too runny, and not too spicy. With some tweaks and the addition of a simple salad, I turned it into Tuesday night's dinner. First, I used the adapted tomato soup recipe from Lottie and Doof, cutting back on the cream and adding a teaspoon of smoked paprika along with a generous pinch of cayenne pepper. During roasting, I also threw in a bunch of on-the-vine cherry tomatoes that were way overripe--better to use it in a soup than to toss it in the garbage can tomorrow. A generous bowl of the soup served with a dollop of sour cream and snipped chives.

As for the grilled cheese, a couple of slices of cheese bread (from Mediterranean Bakery) rubbed with a clove of garlic over both sides after toasting, are topped off with slices of emmental and grated romano (although gruyere would've been better). Pop them into a toaster oven until the cheese bubbles over and starts crusting. Of course, the bread gets dunked into the soup--is there any other way to eat it?

With a side of a plain arugula salad dressed with a basic vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and in this case, some honey too) and it was a very satisfying weeknight meal.

Eggs, again

Hooray for these extra long weekends, because I can't stop. Especially when it comes to making full use of the ingredients I have on hand. Today, I layered asparagus stems along the bottom with proscuitto and parmesan, saving the spears to partially fence the outer rim. More parmesan on top. The possibilities are endless--I'm already looking forward to next weekend, when I can throw in some mushrooms and cream, or salami and basil!

Strawberry Salad

I've had a few heavy suppers the last week, so I thought it was time for a light summery salad. I threw together an impromptu mish-mash of sharp, peppery greens (arugula, watercress, baby spinach, chervil) plus toasted walnuts, sliced strawberries, soft goat cheese and a berry vinaigrette.

Mini Burgers Pt. II

Ok, I'm obsessed. I made them again last night, this time with more coriander in the lamb patties. I paired the burgers this time with some Irish Porter cheese instead of swiss, but I think I prefer the swiss after all. I also tossed together a light herb salad with baby spinach, baby arugula, rosemary and pea shoots in a basic vinaigrette. I think the spiciness of the pea shoots and rosemary complimented the lamb burgers better. I also think I'm just trying to evoke summertime when right now, the long-range weather forecast for Vancouver says rain and below-average temperatures until at least mid-June. Le sigh.

Mini Burgers

May was a particularly bad month for cooking...too many birthday meals out, too many late nights at work spent scarfing down microwaveables. Ugh.

Last night I had some company over and finally made a meal that wasn't a one-pot dish. Mini lamb burgers with a pear & goat cheese salad, along with shoestring fries and lemon garlic aioli dip.

For the mini burgers, I picked up some of Safeway's artisan dinner rolls and cut out the middle when slicing to remove extraneous bread. Ground lamb spiced with cumin (I love cumin), coriander, turmeric, salt and pepper. I was too cautious with the coriander this time; next time I'll be more generous with the spices. Oh, and breadcrumbs of course. Fried the mini-patties with olive oil, top with tomato, swiss cheese, baby lettuce, mustard. The side salads were boxed greens with buttery Packham pears, Saltspring Island truffled goat cheese, and a basic vinaigrette.

The fries were McCain's frozen "Xtracrispy" shoestring fries. Yes, I know! All my previous attempts at frying/roasting fries from scratch yielded mix results, so I figured this would save me some time and grief that night. Well shiver me timers, these were actually very good and very crispy. It was also the only frozen kind that I could find without any hydrogenated oils.

As for the lemon garlic aioli, it's one of those super easy dips that anyone can make in 5 minutes. Mayo, clove of garlic, chopped fresh parsley and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. I personally never use a garlic press; I have a little ceramic grater that I use for garlic and ginger. This dip is impossible to mess up, and it's so good I always tend to make extra so I can dip veggies and pita chips for snacking.

Asparagus & Egg

Tonight's light dinner: roast spring asparagus and egg. I've seen versions of this dish everywhere lately and I love asparagus, so this was a no brainer. Snap off the tough ends of asparagus, drizzle in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, my egg poaching skills aren't up to snuff yet, so I just fried an egg. Toss the roasted asparagus in some breadcrumbs, slide the egg on top with some mozzarella shavings (next time I'll probably get some asiago), some dill and paprika and a bowl of roasted red pepper soup on the side. I'll try my hand at poaching again with eggs florentine sometime, but tonight's minimum fuss dinner just tides me over the grief of Jesse L. Martin's departure from L&O last night. Sigh.