Week of Dec 30 - Jan 5

Saturday: in New Hampshire

• Homemade pizzas
• Salad
• Ben: We found a nice addition to the sauce repertoire -- a spicy pepper-based sauce (apparently a Yugoslav favorite, though the brand we found in the Littleton grocery store was Turkish) called Ajvar.

Sunday: in New Hampshire

• Cheese Fondue

Monday: in New Hampshire

• dinner at Indian restaurant in North Conway

Tuesday: return to Saint Paul (late)

• takeout from the Italian Pie Shoppe

Wednesday:

• Indian burgers
• Salad with Chipotle Ranch dressing
• Ben: More from the stash of Indian veggie burgers I made last month, served on buns with our Ajvar sauce imported from New Hampshire.
  

Thursday:

• Fried tofu cutlets with Patak brand "Hot Rogan Josh" sauce, served over rice
• Green beans with ghee
• Ben: The Rogan Josh sauce (a creamy tomato & cardomom) was not remotely hot -- in fact I really can't fathom what the "Mild" variety might taste like -- but it was good.
  

Friday:

• Ultimate Chickpea Noodle Soup, www.101cookbooks.com
  
• Campo de Montalban cheese with crispbread crackers
• Ben: A tasty soup, and a nice paring with the cheese, which was distinctive without being overpowering. The fried noodles used as a garnish were fun to make and added a crispy texture that I enjoyed.
  

All-time Favorites

Here's a list of the dishes that we found to be extraordinarily good. We'll update and add to this periodically.

• Tomato Sauce III, Classic Italian, p. 95
• Simplicity itself: tomatoes, butter, an onion cut in half (discarded before serving), a bit of salt, a bit of sugar, simmer for 45 minutes. Divine! This is our all-time favorite pasta sauce.
  
  Why so good? As Anthony Bourdain says, (paraphrasing) "The difference between your sauces and my sauces (the sauces made in restaurants) is... butter. Lots and lots of butter." Case in point: this recipe calls for a stick of butter (1/4 lb.) for 2 lbs. fresh - or 2 cups canned - tomatoes. And I am facinated by the use of an onion just in the simmering of this sauce. It imparts its flavor and then discarded, leaving a vibrant red sauce for any occasion.
  
  
• Rebaked Potatoes, Enchanted Broccoli Forest, p. 227
• Easy, yummy comfort food for cold winter days. We make these twice-baked potatoes regularly and they are fairly quick, as long as you remember to do the 1st baking earlier. We usually will bake the potatoes in our toaster oven the night before while we are preparing (or eating) other things.
  

Week of Dec. 23 - 29

Saturday: in Davenport

• Sweet potato and roasted corn chowder (Southwestern)
• Corn muffins
• Salad
  

Sunday: return to Saint Paul (late)

Monday: Christmas at home!

• Raclette
  
• Salad
  

Tuesday: Travel to New Hampshire

Wednesday: in New Hampshire

Thursday: in New Hampshire

• Potato Patties with Roasted Peanuts, Lord Krishna's Cuisine p. 550
• Spiced Creamed Spinach, Lord Krishna's Cuisine p. 258
• Hamburgers
• Cuban Black Bean Soup, Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook p.25 (from the Harman cookbook collection)
• Ben: My mother and Doug gave me "Lord Krishna's Cuisine" for Christmas, so we decided to try out some of the recipes. The potato patties were excellent, though perhaps too soft to work well as veggie burgers. I also need to work on my frying technique, to avoid making such a mess and avoid burning myself! The spinach recipe was outstanding -- rich and flavorful. We paired these recipes with burgers (for the carnivorous crowd) and a nice soup recipe from one of my mother's cookbooks.
  

Friday: in New Hampshire

• Roasted garlic and walnut pasta, New Basics p. 148
• Roasted Vegetables, Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook p. 197 (from the Harman cookbook collection)
• Ben: Lots of garlic fans here, so we thought this recipe would get a good reception. The roasted vegetables made a filling and flavorful accompaniment.
  

Week of Dec. 16 - 22

Saturday:

• Marinated artichoke quiche (Enchanted, p. 129) with pre-made frozen crust
• Salad
  

Sunday:

• Soupe à la Victorine, Mastering Vol. 2, p. 22
• Braised carrots with herbs, Mastering Vol. 1, p. 477
  
• French bread
  

Monday:

• Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas, AllRecipes.com
• Frozen corn
  

Tuesday:

• Macaroni Smothered with Onions, Everyone p. 461
• Spinach
  

Wednesday:

• Leftovers!
  

Thursday: Travel to Davenport

Friday: Travel to Davenport

Week of Dec. 9 - 15

Saturday:

• Indian veggie burgers (served on hamburger buns with fixings)
• Spinach with ghee
• Ben: These were some of the veggie burgers I made a huge batch of a couple of weeks ago. For that first dinner, we prepared them as part of an Indian menu, but tonight we heated them up in the toaster oven and tried them out in place of the store-bought black bean burgers we usually have on "Burger Night". They're more substantial and also a bit spicier, but I think they worked quite well.
  

Sunday:

• Tamales
• Salad
• Ben: The tamales were delicious, as they've been each time Carrie has made them, and the search for dried corn husks brought us to El Burrito Mercado in the neighborhood across from downtown Saint Paul for the first time, which was well worth the visit.
• Carrie: I tried something a little different with the tamales. Instead of using shredded cheese and mixing it in with the chiles and onion filling mix, I used cubed queso blanco and kept it separate. Then, I assembled the tamales: spread masa base, add scoop of chiles filling, then add 3 cubes of cheese; spread a dab more of masa on top and fold up the corn husk (hojas de maiz, in Spanish). The tamales probably should have cooked a bit longer, but they tasted as good as always!
  

Monday:

• Potato Leek & Fennel Soup, Vegetarian Times Nov/Dec p.
  
• French bread
• Brie
• Olives
• Ben: The soup was simple to prepare and, while not spectacular, served nicely as one component of a varied menu.
• Carrie: Yummy and lots for left-overs!
  

Tuesday:

• Roasted garlic and walnut pasta, New Basics p. 148
• Grilled Asparagus
• Ben: Four heads of roasted garlic! It would be have been hard to go wrong from there, but the walnuts made it even better.
• Carrie: So good, I added it to our Allrecipes private recipe box to have it easily accessible! Very hearty without leaving you feeling over-stuffed. A great winter dinner!
  

Wednesday:

• Tofu Tikka Masala over rice
• Steamed green beans with ghee
• Ben: We bought the Tikka Masala (Sharwood's) back when I'd made the Indian veggie burgers, thinking we might use it as the accompanying sauce, though I'd ended up making a tomato sauce from scratch. So tonight we just used the "Chicken Tikka Masala" recipe from the label, substituting tofu "cutlets" for the chicken breasts. It doesn't really fit with our "cook from scratch" approach to buy jarred sauces, but if we do it again I'd certainly go for this one -- very tasty.
• Carrie: This was a great recipe for mid-week! So easy and flavorful!
  

Thursday:

• Spinach Quesadillas, Veg Suppers p. 190
• Salsa Cruda with Avocado, Veg Suppers p. 118
• Spicy black beans
• Carrie: Although this recipe required quite a bit of chopping, the final assembly was quick and easy. I heated the tortillas two at a time, one on one skillet, one on another (as suggested by Debra M.), added the cheese to one, let the cheese melt some, then added the spinach filling and put the second tortilla on top. Then I cut them and kept the quesadillas warm in the toaster oven as I assembled the rest. Ben assembled the Salsa Cruda in the meantime. It all came together so well! We added chopped onion, some adobo sauce, and a little beer to the beans. Yum!
  

Friday:

• Couscous with peas, lettuce and mint (Mediterranean Vegan p.99)
• Brocco-flower with garlic butter
• Tunisian olive mix (Kowalski's olive bar(
  
• Carrie: The couscous turned out nicely and had quite a mild flavor. It seemed a bit bland to me, but was nice accompanied by the more flavorful sides. The brocco-flower (hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower we found at Kowalski's) was wonderful with the garlic butter! The olives had a spicy kick since they came mixed with red chiles - yum!
  

Week of Dec. 2 - 8

Saturday:

• Breton Galettes with Pont-l'Évêque cheese
• Grilled asparagus
• Pommeau!
  

Sunday:

• Tunisian Chickpea Soup, Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p. 52
• French bread
• Peppered chevre (goat cheese)
  

Monday:

• Burger night
• Green Beans
  

Tuesday:

• Ditali with Cauliflower, Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p.102

Wednesday:

• Provençal Zucchini-Rice Soup with Winter Pistou, Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p.63

Thursday:

• Fettucine with Green Beans and Tomatoes, Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p.104

Friday: Dinner at 20-21 and the British Advertising Awards at the Walker

Ideas & Possibilities:

Week of Nov. 25 - Dec. 1

Saturday:

• Winter Vegetable Stew Baked in a Clay Pot, Savory p. 134
  
• French bread
  
• Pecan-Coffee Tart, Savory p. 368
• Ben: The inaugural dish using the Romertopf (Roman Clay Pot) that I got for my birthday turned out superbly: the veggies had a nice roasted flavor and the gravy prepared from the veggie liquid was superb.
  

Sunday:

• Provencal Pizza (Pissaladière), Cook's Illustrated recipe
  
• Herb Salad with Red Pepper Vinaigrette
• Ben: This was a very tasty recipe -- no cheese, just carmelized onions, niçoise olives and capers (substituting for anchovies) along with some spices, of which fennel was the most prominent in the result. And, as it turns out, this was the swan song for our old Tappan range, which had a carbon monoxide problem that we hadn't noticed until getting insulation blown into the outside walls. Our new range (and microwave and refrigerator) are on order, but in the meantime we can use only the stove.
  

Monday:

• Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p. 112
  

Tuesday:

• Egyptian-Style Lentil Soup, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen p. 53
• French Bread
  

Wednesday:

• Leftovers!
  

Thursday:

• Indian night!
  

Friday:

• Indian Vegetable Burgers, The Vegetarian Table: India p. 118
• Ben: This recipe took awhile to prepare, but was worth the effort. As promised, and despite various estimated amounts, omissions and substitutions, it made 24 burgers on the button, of which only 5 were consumed tonight. The rest are in the freezer to provision future dinners (possibly future burger nights), but these we prepared with the suggested Indian accompaniments: gingered tomato sauce and wilted greens. The result was spicy, but -- unlike most of my forays into Indian cooking -- not too hot.
  

Ideas & Possibilities: