Curried Vegetable + Chickpea Stew

Another soup? Yes, I am an inveterate soup eater, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I've even been known to eat soup in the heat of summer. You can ask my friends. But especially during the winter months, I crave the comfort of warm soup. The Kitchn (adapted from Cooking Light) is responsible for this crockpot recipe for curried vegetable and chickpea soup, and I absolutely love it. (Thanks to the Daleys again for giving me their old crockpot. It's well-used and well-loved.)

I've been eating this all week, and I'm still not sick of it. I left out the coconut milk and substituted kale for spinach because I have a ginormous bag of it in the freezer from Costco. What else? I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, but if I had, I definitely would've added it.

Indian Dinner

Saag paneer

I used the saag paneer recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. Since I ran out of spinach from the garden, I substituted kale, which was surprisingly good. I might use it instead in the future. Also, I omitted the heavy cream because it didn't seem necessary.

Saag Paneer
serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1-in. cube of ginger (peeled and coarsely chopped)
3-6 garlic cloves
1/2 to 1 hot green chili, sliced roughly
paneer
salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/8 tsp. cayenne
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1.5 lbs. spinach
3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Keeling over for Kielbasa

Awhile back, I had some fresh kielbasa sausages from the Willy St. Co-op in the freezer. They were meant for someone else, but I decided to make them for myself. I used the recipe for Escarole with Italian Sausage and White Beans from Epicurious. (See my swaps and substitutions below the recipe.)

Seared sausages

3 tablespoons olive oil

12 Italian sausages (about 3 pounds), casings removed

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped prosciutto (about 2 ounces)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 large head escarole, chopped (about 10 cups)

3/4 cup dry white wine

4 15-ounce cans Great Northern beans, rinsed, drained

1 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sauté sausage until cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 6 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to bowl, leaving drippings in pot. Reduce heat to medium; add onion to pot and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add prosciutto and sauté 1 minute. Mix in garlic and crushed red pepper. Add escarole and sauté until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook 2 minutes. Add beans, stock and sausage and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl. Top with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Break(fast) Dancing

Just a simple little shot of a breakfast (almond butter on an English muffin and topped with sliced strawberries; espresso) I constructed at work one morning.

And this dish (scrambled eggs with mushrooms and kale) paired with coffee to provide us with a leisurely weekend breakfast at home.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies + Lentil Soup

I found a divine lentil soup recipe to use up the remainder of the massive quantities of kale that Crystal and Jason generously gave me from their garden.

Onions and kale

Broth and lentils

As most of you know, I'm not much of a baker. For some odd reason, I had a hankering for cookies recently, so I made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I think they turned out well, although J. mocked me because I didn't eat any of them for several weeks. In fact, a large plastic bag of them is still living in my freezer. I guess I just wanted to make them.

batter

Canning Tomatoes

Several weeks ago, Jason and Crystal kindly invite me to their house to can tomatoes. I am now the proud owner of seven quarts of tomatoes. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to make dill pickles, but Jason generously shared six pints that he made later. (They were also sweet enough to bestow kale, potatoes, pears, and peppers on me; for awhile, I was absolutely swimming in produce.) We ended the evening with a marvelous eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Thanks to the Daleys for re-introducing me to canning--I hadn't done it since childhood--and recommending Ball's Blue Book Guide to Preserving. (Jason L. got me a copy for my birthday, so now I'm ready to preserve at the least provocation. ;))

Heating the tomatoes to loosen the skins

 

The tomatoes are plunged into an ice bath after being heated to faciliate removing the skins

Mr. Daley preventing air bubbles

The ebot monitoring the processing

The finished tomatoes put up in my cupboards