Meatless Side Dishes – Page 5

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Did Your Garden Grow?

Screen Shot 2019-09-28 at 2.13.14 PM — Next year I’m trying the heirloom Black Cherry Tomatoes, although the gold SunSugar seems to be a new favorite.

I just read and loved The Primal Thrill of a Cherry Tomato,” written by Jennifer Weiner for the NYTimes. After blogging about the importance of special little things in our lives, I was suddenly sorry I hadn’t included cherry tomatoes. But, to be honest, I liked the piece for its philosophizing about life more than I did for the gardening part. I know about the pleasures of gardening, but I’m still trying to figure life out.

Another recent Times article which fits right into our blogging is this beautifully photographed “Weeknight Dinner Around the World,” a compilation of 18 families from far and wide at their dinner tables. It reminds me of the importance of kitchen tables and another recent blog. Food-wise, I think I’d most like to sit at the table with the Sokohs from Lagos, Nigeria. I’ve got to try making that suya spice blend and a chicken suya to go with it. And I’d like to be with the Terzi family from Istanbul too…kofte, lentil soup, pilaf – and that dessert – a rice pudding called sutlac and pumpkin with tahini and walnuts. Sounds so delish.

Screen Shot 2019-09-28 at 2.23.56 PM — Rose-infused Sutlac recipe from Food52

We’ve experimented this past year with bringing more folks to our kitchen table with casual little dinner parties we call “Dining Ins.” In case you’ve forgotten about them – or never knew – here’s our blog. For our last Dining In we had a lively group of Andy’s cyclist friends and their spouses. The theme was “Tri Tip, Tomatoes, and Trivia” and focused on fresh-from-the garden tomatoes, green beans and corn and fresh-from-the orchard nectarines. The “trivia” part of the evening was a spirited match of Trivial Pursuit.

Screen Shot 2019-10-01 at 2.51.56 PM — No one got the correct answer to “WC (Wild Card) – Orange. Can you? Answer at the end of this blog

Our final Dining In of the year will be “Pool, Pinball, and Pot.” You’ll just have to stay tuned to see what we have in mind. But it does involve food! 🙂

Before turning to our Dining In menu and recipes, I should mention that today’s Andy’s Corner has nothing to do with food and gardening but is weirdly connected to the Trivial Pursuit answer. A hint: it addresses a little problem with the name of a local cafe, The Basque Boulangerie.

Dining In – Tri Tip, Tomatoes, and Trivia:

Diane and Grandma’s Tomato Tart (see below)
Sara’s Grilled Tri Tip with Asian Chimichurri Sauce (see below)
NYTimes Green Beans with Ginger and Garlic (see below)
Tacolicious’ Corn Tomato Salsa Salad
Ann’s Brown Butter Nectarine Crumble (see below)

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Cooking with Cat

April 23, 2019 / 6 Comments

Re this blog’s title: we are talking about a cat beside us, not a cat in the cooking pot, so don’t get huffy.

Because of the incredible popularity of our blog about our cat Ono and because we just discovered the YouTube Series “Cooking with Dog” (only 11 years after it premiered), Andy and I are seriously considering introducing a YouTube series, affectionately named “Cooking with Cat.” The cat, obviously, is Ono. Andy always hopes something we do or say or write will go viral. This may be it.

I discovered “Cooking with Dog” when we were researching recipes for our Deseran Dining In Dinner – It’s “Big in Japan” (thanks, Tom Waits!). If you haven’t ever seen Cooking with Dog, give it a watch – at least one episode…and way more if you have an interest in developing your Japanese cooking skills. The episode on preparing “Japanese Souffle Cheesecake” is a definite go-to if you want to bake our grandson Moss’s Japanese Cheesecake. Though Moss’s recipe isn’t quite the same, the technique needed is. And that cheesecake is amazing. So delicious.

The unnamed Chef in the video is impressive. The New Yorker did a nice write up on the show back in 2017, as well as providing a link to the very funny introduction. Chef and her dog still produce the videos every month or so. Unfortunately, Francis, the poodle, who stars as the narrator of the series, has passed away. All that remains today is a fluffy stuffed toy replica. And Chef is clearly aging (don’t we all). But the show must go on.

I have one comment: GET ANOTHER – live – DOG, CHEF!

As for me and Ono and YouTube, it ain’t gonna happen. I was just kiddin’. Ono has no interest in being a YouTube star (though I still aspire to do a Madhur Jaffrey-type rap).

Should you be interested in more thoughts on dogs and cats, I highly recommend this article on pet ownership and happiness. It’s a good thing we have Oakley, our dog, to even out having our two cats, Ono and Choco. Those who only have cats are pretty unhappy folks! 🙂

Screen Shot 2019-02-26 at 12.19.53 PM — Choco, Oakley, and Ono – in a rare appearance together

And as for our Japanese-themed “Dining In” – in our minds it was great. However, Andy (in Andy’s Corner) has been researching military Dining Ins, since that’s where we got the idea. And it’s pretty clear we’re not living up to the expectations. Toasts were non-existent. There was no diagram explaining where to sit. Foul language? Mmmmm, let me think. Even military aside, we didn’t do so well according to these two recent NYTimes articles on dinner parties:

How to Throw an Intimate Dinner Party With Your Neighbor

How to Throw a Casual, but Considered, Dinner Party at Home.

Screen Shot 2019-04-22 at 1.11.13 PM — Definitely NOT at our Dining In: homemade parting gifts of thyme-infused olive oil and bundles of fresh herbs with palo santo wood

But even if we didn’t send each guest home with “homemade parting gifts of thyme-infused olive oil and bundles of fresh herbs with palo santo wood,” and we didn’t have a chef, and I didn’t forage the neighborhood to find beautiful branches or use fresh herbs for the table setting, we’re really enjoying these “not pot”-luck, get-to-know-new-folks and try-new-recipe evenings. We learned about cute baby skunks found in chicken nests, how to rehabilitate vintage cast iron pans, how to properly pronounce “okonomiyaki” and about our families’ immigration to America. Everybody pitched in with the cooking (who needs a chef?!) – and here’s what we ate:

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