What I Cooked Last Week – August 12

Yet another short week of cooking – took off for Salt Lake City on Wednesday for a work trip. Kept it (mostly) light in anticipation of the eating and drinking associated with conferences. Tuesday includes another zucchini recipe to add to your repertoire, and a perfect no-cook one at that for the hottest days of summer (and smokiest, if you’re in pretty much any of the PNW).

Sunday

Baked my Gâteau aux Pommes again to get some updated blog pictures. I always forget how good this cake is, and how surprisingly easy it is to throw together. Don’t let the French name scare you away! Also, leftovers make great breakfast – it has apples, so it’s fine, right?

Ended up making the Mushroom and Chive Fettuccine Alfredo that I’d originally planned to make last Saturday before life happened. It was still a bit cooler than it has been outside, so it was the perfect comfort food. I’ll have a recipe up for that in the near future!

Monday

I got a pound of purple carrots in the CSA this week, and felt inspired to make a recipe that I’ve been eyeing for a while – Smitten Kitchen’s Roasted Carrots with Avocado and Yogurt. It’s simple to prepare with a complex flavor payoff, and won’t make you feel guilty if you follow it up with some ice cream. This one is pictured as the title image for the post.

Tuesday

Had to pack for my work trip so I scheduled the most hands-off meal for Tuesday – a sous-vide sirloin steak (throw in the sous vide and wait) and a simple Zucchini Carpaccio Salad to make use of some more delicious CSA summer squash. I actually wrote most of this blog post while I was waiting for the food to mostly prepare itself!

What I Cooked Last Week – August 5

Last week’s lineup includes two small dinner party menus, some leftover suggestions, and a bit of unexpected comfort food in mid-August. Without further ado…

Sunday

Dinner party one of two. Wanted to bake something with cream cheese (I had, and still have, a bunch in my fridge), and Smitten Kitchen’s berry filled Cheesecake Galette seemed to fit the bill, especially with the galette kick I’ve been on the past few weeks. Hers calls for blackberries and lime, but raspberries were cheaper, so I used them and lemon instead (lemon complements raspberries a bit better than lime, in my opinion). It turned out great – can’t wait until it’s full-on blackberry season and I can try the recipe as written!

For the main course, I made lamb koftë sandwiches with grilled zucchini and tzatziki. I’ll have a recipe up for that later this week! They turned out really well and worked as a great summer dinner party item – I could hang outside at the grill and talk to my friends while I worked. They also gave me a starting point for a bunch of good leftovers-based lunches later in the week.

Monday

Lunch was leftovers round one – two of the lamb patties on a pile of spring greens mix, drizzled with tzatziki. Satisfying yet light.

This was the evening of dinner party round two. I decided on the fish sandwiches from Cravings by Chrissy Teigan. They’re… awesome. The tartar sauce the sandwiches call for is amazing, but I was feeling a second round of the sauce from Mike’s Fish Tacos. It was a great substitute. I paired them with the zucchini fries from her books, like she suggests. You can find a link to a write-up of that recipe in my Zucchini Remix roundup.

Didn’t make dessert on Monday, but my friend brought along some loganberry ice cream her mom had made and it was the perfect meal-ender.

Tuesday

I’d planned on just making a bunch of sautéed vegetables on Tuesday night as a fridge clear-out, but then, as per usual, I got a little carried away and ended up with a massive frittata instead. It was delicious and fit the bill perfectly – used up a bunch of amazing produce and eggs from our Spoonfull Farm CSA. I hate letting any of that stuff go to waste, so using up a whole dozen (!!!!) eggs in one swoop along with a large zucchini, a head of kale, and some beautiful red scallions felt great. I topped it with a dill-chive sour cream.

For Wednesday lunch, I topped a wedge of the frittata with a crumbled lamb patty and yet another drizzle of tzatziki. Yum!

Saturday

The weather interlude gave me the opportunity to take a bit of a break from summer produce (will I regret this when I’m eating exclusively root vegetables in a few months? maybe) and get cozy with mushroom and chive fettuccine alfredo. Recipe to come for that one, and I’m also planning on writing a post about the _whys_ behind a couple of pasta-water techniques, namely salting the water and reserving some for tossing with sauce before serving.

Have a great week everyone!

What I Cooked Last Week (7/29)

A veryyyyy welcome week back in the kitchen, giving my stomach a break from all of the delicious food and alcohol we had in Vancouver last weekend. Got some beautiful cabbage, lemon basil, and zucchini from my CSA last week that all got put to excellent and delicious use.

Sunday

In my attempt to get back to baking at least once a week, I made a raspberry cobbler and FINALLY nailed a recipe I’ve had in the works for a few months. Eat it with ice cream. Eat it with whipped cream. Eat it for breakfast. It does it all, folks.

Dinner was a remake of Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini and Ricotta Galette, with a twist – I’m meh on ricotta in most things, and when I had some amazing butternut and mascarpone ravioli in Vancouver, I realized I needed to try this galette with at least some of the ricotta replaced by mascarpone. It turned out… very very well. I made a some other tweaks too, which may finally move my version into a separate recipe that I will post here in the next few weeks.

Monday

I made Mike’s Fish Tacos, so named because I got the blackening seasoning and sauce recipes from Kyle’s dad after he made fish tacos for us one time. Add this sauce to the list of sauces I would happily eat with a spoon and put on almost anything. Next time I make fried halibut sandwiches, I’m using that sauce instead of tartar.

I alsoooo, inspired by the many cocktails I had on vacation, and the beautiful bunch of lemon basil from the CSA, made some Lemon Basil Vodka Spritzes. Light and refreshing, they’re a step up from a glass of wine at the end of the day, and you can convince yourself that you’re hydrating.

Tuesday

I whipped up a soy-sauce based marinade that I thought would be tasty – and it was! Extremely tasty. Recipe will be coming next week, so that you can make it too. Only you won’t be surprised that it tastes exactly like teriyaki, like I was. I served it with some grilled bok choy and with a sauce of the boiled-down marinade and it was exactly what I needed on a Tuesday evening.

Wednesday

Repeat of Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Ribbons with Pesto and White Beans, which is rapidly becoming my favorite go-to summer recipe. It’s quick! It’s easy! It’s healthy! It’s 100% on the grill! I used Basil-Almond pesto this time (recipe also coming next week), and served it with grilled bread, because I’m pretty sure that’s a legal requirement with this dish.

Thursday

I had about half a cup of pesto-coated beans left over from Wednesday night, so I mashed them up with a splash of red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt, pan-fried a thick slice of bread in olive oil, spread some extra pesto on it, and topped that with the mashed bean mixture and a few shavings of parmesan. It hit the spot and took about 5 minutes, which is exactly what I’m looking for on nights when I’m only feeding myself. Makes me want to do some sort of “leftovers toast” recipe series, since I do something along those lines at least once a week. You can check it out in the main post image.

So I guess it wasn’t quite a full week of cooking, but it’s the summer and weekends get booked, so what can you do. This week I have TWO (2) dinners that I am hosting and a couple other evenings of cooking that I get to squeeze in, so wish me luck.

What I Cooked Last Week (7/22)

Decided that these posts make more sense as a retrospective – I can share what I cooked, what did and did not work, and let you know if I made any adjustments. It’s also, unsurprisingly, a lot easier to add pictures this way!

Last week was a very short one cooking-wise – my birthday was Wednesday and I let someone else (my mom) cook for me, although I did make myself a second birthday cake and have no regrets. Then, on Thursday, Kyle and I headed up to Vancouver, B.C. for the weekend and proceeded to eat and drink our way through the city. Everything was SO GOOD. Question for you all: would you be interested in city food guides/recs for places I’ve been?

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the roundup for last week!

Monday

I can’t and won’t stop cooking with primarily zucchini and summer squash these days, so Monday I tried out Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Fritters. She describes them as “zucchini latkes” and it’s spot-on. If you use a food processor to grate the zucchini (I use a slightly older version of this one from Cuisinart) it’s amazingly quick and easy, neither of which are words I typically associate with traditional latkes. I punched up the sour cream sauce she recommends serving atop the fritters with a bit of extra garlic, and am considering making a bit of a sour cream aioli in future renditions.

I also whipped up a batch of basil almond pesto and stuck it in the freezer, recipe in the works!

Tuesday

Had a gluten-free friend over for dinner on Tuesday, so I made my fave Weeknight Rice Noodles with Meatballs and subbed Tamari for the normal soy sauce. My friend had gone blueberry picking earlier in the day and brought a bunch of berries and whipped cream for dessert, which was *chef’s kiss*.

Wednesday

My 26th birthday! Like I said, I let my mom handle the dinner cooking, but I couldn’t resist making myself Smitten Kitchen’s Tres Leches Cake. I, of course, added the optional rum to the milks mixture. I’d been planning on making this for Kyle’s birthday back in April, but it’s a two-day process, and we got busy, and… never happened. So glad I finally got around to it, because it’s delicious. I served it with sliced strawberries.

I have a full week of cooking coming up (desperately needed after previously mentioned food tour of Vancouver), so look for a lot of zucchini dishes and a couple new recipes in next week’s post!

Zucchini Remix

I’m of the firm opinion that you can never have “too much” zucchini, because I love cooking with it. But it’s true that the sheer volume of zucchini and summer squash in general can get a little overwhelming for even the most ardent zucchini-lover this time of year. I’ve thrown together a list of some of my favorite recipes involving zucchini and summer squash to help you make the most of summer’s abundance – and if you’re a Spoonfull Farm fan or CSA member, this should get you even more excited about what’s on tap, produce-wise. Summer squash/zucchini are more or less interchangeable for all of these recipes – my fave is a combo so that you get all the nice yellows and greens together.

• Ratatouille – I still need to write up my own recipe for this classic French dish, but this one is reasonably similar. If you can start with a base of homemade pasta sauce or home-seasoned tomato purée, that’s ideal, but store-bought will work in a pinch. Serve over polenta, with crusty French bread, with rice – lots of options to keep this one feeling fresh.
• Summer Fridge Frittata – A multi-veggie whammy – use up Kale, Zucchini, and scallions, and a whole dozen eggs if you’re also blessed with farm fresh eggs this time of year.

• Zucchini Carpaccio Salad – It’s easy to use up a whole bundle of zucchini when you make them the star of a salad! Zucchini ribbons with a little arugula, a lemon-y vinaigrette, and some parmesan make a perfect side or hot-weather entree.
• Grilled Zucchini Ribbons with Pesto and White Beans – I made this last week and already desperately want to make it again. So simple and quick, and delicious with a side of grilled bread. This would also definitely work with any type of pesto – I used a garlic scape one the last time around, but next time will likely use a basil-based or carrot greens variety. Did you know pesto freezes pretty well too, for up to a month or two? Just something to think about.

• Zucchini Bread – On the sweeter side of things, there’s always the go-to of zucchini bread. Loaves freeze well, so you can make a bunch now and be enjoying it way after peak zucchini season. I’d recommend topping your loaf with some cinnamon sugar for an extra-crunchy lid.
• Zucchini and Ricotta Galette – Don’t be intimidated by pastry dough. It’s not out to get you, and people are really impressed when you make something with it. I’m very pro-galette, and this summery one has already been on my table this month. A fun variation on this might be swapping half of the ricotta called for with plain or herbed goat cheese, especially if you aren’t a huge ricotta fan – I’m definitely doing that next time I serve this up. (I ended up making a modified version of this with mascarpone, which I personally much prefer – check it out!)

• Herbed Summer Squash Pasta Bake – I add lots of lemon to this, more than called for, and love love love it. Usually on heavy rotation through the summer months. Also freezes quite well.
• Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti with Avocado Sauce – If you have a spiralizer lurking in a kitchen cabinet somewhere, this is a great way to get some use out of it. I’m not big on swapping veggies for pasta, but in this recipe it works great and is a fantastic way to eat an entire bowl of vegetables for dinner if you’ve been feeling like your diet mostly consists of rosé and grilled pizza these days (not that I’m familiar with that feeling, ahem).
• Baked Zucchini Parmesan – You can follow the linked recipe, or just use zucchini in place of eggplant in your favorite eggplant parmesan preparation. Or even a zucchini parmesan sub sandwich. Mmmmmm. Welp, guess I know one thing I’m making next week.
• Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte – Incredibly easy and hands-off. Just slice up the potatoes and squash (sooo easy with a mandoline!) and bake for a long time. I recommend the cast-iron pan method, which seems even less fussy than the normal preparation. This would be great with a blanket of shredded cheddar between the layers during the colder months.
• Zucchini Fritters – These come together really quickly, and are great after a long day when you don’t really know what you want to eat, and don’t really want to cook, but you would rather avoid takeout. These could also make a great appetizer for a dinner party if you made them a tiny bit smaller.
• Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries – I’ve made these fries from Chrissy Teigen’s book, Cravings (which deserves a whole post of its own one of these days, maybe in honor of her second book release), and they’re amazing. I’ve served them alongside her fried halibut sandwiches, but they’re a great sub for fries with any dish. I’m partial to dipping them in ranch.