I must say that not too much cookin' has gone down in the intervening days. I was out of town almost every weekend in May and the first weekend in June, leaving me gasping for normalcy during the weeks. Apart from that, I seem to have fallen into a weekday austerity/weekend gluttony cycle that is best served by soups, sandwiches and salads (austere) and pizzas, Thai food and wings (gluttonous), which are, respectively, prepared with little fanfare or ordered out.
The things I did make, I photographed. Herewith, a collection of some things that I have made and consumed as of late:
Roasted vegetable sandwiches with mozzarella and balsamic dressing
"Mmmmm. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm... mmmm!" - Bob WileyThe first time I made these I stupidly wasted time trying to 'grill' the vegetables on a indoor electric grill that probably couldn't melt a drinking straw. This time I fired up the old brain cells and decided to use the broiler. First, the red and yellow peppers get the de-skinning treatment: broil until skin is a good deal charred. Place peppers in tightly sealed zip-top bag for 15 minutes; the condensation will help the skin loosen and after that you should be able to peel it off easily. Lesson learned: err on the 'more broiling' side for the best chance of easy skin removal.
Had to re-broil these, sheesh.
You could use any sort of watery veg you want for this; I used red and yellow bell peppers, green zucchini and baby eggplant. Cut the zucchini and eggplant lengthwise, in slices about 1/2 inch thick. Lay them out on your broiler pan and give them 3-4 minutes a side, checking after the first go-around to make sure they're cooked to your liking. I like them quite limp. The sweet, watery taste of broiled zucchini is something special.
To assemble, I splashed a bit of balsamic vinegar on lightly toasted polish rye; layered a mix of vegetables and a couple of slices of fresh mozzarella on top. I microwaved this for about 30-45 seconds to melt the cheese. If you're fancier than me (I suspect most people aren't), you could stick it in a low oven for about 10 minutes, or even better, a toaster oven on 'melt this delicious cheese' setting!
I think I also threw some baby spinach on there for crunch. Arugula or any other flavorful green would work great.
In less successful attempts, I found myself with a surplus of grape tomatoes that were about to turn. Various people on Chowhound recommended making 'oven-dried tomatoes' - cut the GTs in half lengthwise, spread evenly on a cookie sheet, and cook in a low oven (200F) for at least two hours, until the tomatoes are wrinkly, but not burned.
I might have had the oven up too high, or just forgot about them (how could that have happened? The smell of slow-roasting tomatoes [and garlic, of which I also threw some in to roast - seize the opportunity to make roasted garlic, I say] filled the house and it was absolutely seductive) but about half the tomatoes turned out dry and brown. The ones that didn't were very, very tasty and I would recommend this to anyone who likes sun-dried tomatoes, has too many tomatoes, or enjoys intoxicating food smells.
Finally, my friends, I made a lasagna this past weekend. My go-to is my mom's pesto lasagna, but this was being made based on a special request - that request specifying MEAT lasagna - and so I took to the Internet in search of a meaty recipe. I settled on this Turkey Sausage-Spinach Lasagna with Spicy Tomato Sauce from Bon Appétit. It was quite good, though time-intensive, as it calls for making the sauce from scratch (a 90-minute process). I used regular beef/pork Italian sausage. The meat itself turned out dry, which was surprising as there was enough liquid in this lasagna to quench a powerful thirst - in fact, you don't even need to pre-boil the noodles - there's so much liquid they cook inside the lasagna! Maybe they hogged the tomato liquid and absorbed the sausage liquid as well - parasitic noodles. Ah well. Lasagna, like pizza, is never truly bad, only less good.
Is there a more glorious sight in this world than the browned edge of a lasagna?
