4/6 spring vegetable ragout

A veritable spring bounty that included sugar snap peas, asparagus, leeks, and spinach arrived in my Eatwell box last week. This is sort of a "fancy" dinner that made use of some leftover polenta. In addition to my CSA Box veggies, I also got fava beans, oyster mushrooms and tiny baby carrots from the regular grocery store. Besides prepping all the veg, it was actually quite easy to put together. Ragout is a one-pot dish where the veggies that take the longest to cook are added first. The "sauce" is simply water and the juices of the veggies plus lots of butter and a nice handful of herbs. The flavors were great - everything tasted fresh and green.

3/26 starch and veg improvisation

One of my favorite basic and yummy recipes involves sautéed carrots, celery, and spinach (or another soft dark green leafy, like chard) tossed with hearty noodles (either buckwheat or whole wheat) and french lentils. I had umbrian lentils in my pantry, already cooked whole wheat noodles, and leftover boiled potatoes, which I added to the mix. Blending starches can be fun! I spiked the sauce with a good dollop of creme fraiche (Tom's "secret ingredient") and topped with parmesan cheese. The results were yummy and used up leftover ingredients - a win-win!

3/24 Shepherd's Pie

So what happens when you cook a 5lb+ leg of lamb for 3 people? Well you have leftovers of course! And what do you do with slow cooked leg of lamb?!? Well, you already read the title above, so yes, you make shepherd's pie.

Now, I'm pretty sure a lot of you have already heard my rant about shepherd's pie. If not, here it goes: IF A RESTAURANT TRIES TO SELL YOU SHEPHERD'S PIE COOKED WITH BEEF, RUN AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE TOWARDS THE NEAREST EXIT. It's really quite simple... Shepherds care for sheep. Sheep in turn provide wool, milk and meat among other things. Cowherds care for cows. Cows and sheep are different. If you want a Cowherd's Pie, by all means order one, I'm sure they're tasty. But if you order a shepherd's pie - at the very least, you should expect to be eating lamb soon thereafter...

So anyway, I cooked the lamb with diced onion, chopped garlic, quartered cremini mushrooms, frozen peas, white wine, tomato sauce, fresh thyme and salt/pepper while I prepared some mashed potatoes (2 russets did the trick). Once both were done, I topped the lamb ragu with mashed potatoes and cheese and baked the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Now I used Gruyeres instead of some sort of lame British cheese and I used homemade tomato sauce in my "ragu" whereas traditionally you would just use stock... Thus my pie is not quite a real shepherd's pie, but at least I DIDN'T USE BEEF DAMN IT!!

So there you go. This wasn't as good as yesterday's lamb & flageolets dinner, but it wasn't far off and it's a great example of how you can turn leftovers into something quite tasty.

Oh, one last thing. If, for some dumb reason, you drop your chef knife -- don't try to catch it with your leg. The results will tend to fall somewhere between less-than-ideal and horrific. Additionally, this can, and probably will, delay the enjoyment of your dinner.

11/26 leek, olive, and duck tart

The photo here is of a half-eaten tart. You should take that as a fair indication of the results from this relatively easy recipe. I made a yeasted tart dough in advance (Sunday) and stuck in in the freezer, so the only thing that needed to be prepared night of was sauteing leeks, chopping olives and herbs, grating parmesan, and whisking eggs and cream.

PLUS chopping leftover duck. I picked this recipe precisely because it seemed it would take to duck leftovers so well - and this time, instincts did not disappoint. I think I could have eaten the whole thing if I was properly motivated (although I'm sure I would have regretted it).

10/18 Breakfast: black eyed peas and brown rice

I have this thing for savory/spicy breakfast foods. Waking up to a cold bowl of sugary flakes and milk does nothing for me - I like a nice hot bowl of ramen noodles with a poached egg, or pho, or grits and grilled veggies.

Before embarking on an epic drive up to Sacramento for "state business", I needed some fuel for the fire. Leftover spicey black eyed peas and brown rice with red kale did just the trick.