Bell Pepper Shakshuka with Feta and Za’atar

One of the pitfalls of being a food blogger is that there aren’t really many family favorite meals in our house. I don’t mean to say we don’t have favorite meals—just that I don’t make repeats very often. Our “favorite” meals tend to roll around once every three years rather than once every three weeks.

There is much less room for food ruts when the chef is constantly looking for new dishes to blog about.

But this shakshuka is seriously going to grace our table several times every summer from now until Kingdom come, because wow is it delicious and it is so easy to make! I love laid back meals, don’t you?

Shakshuka is a North African dish typically comprised of eggs poached in a rich tomato sauce. This version is a little different because it adds brightly colored bell peppers for a little more heartiness and texture. It will make your house smell amazing. It will make your mouth water. It will basically be the best use of summer bell peppers you will ever find, and you will mourn when your farmer’s market shuts down in the fall!

Couscous-Stuffed Eggplant with Tahini Sauce

Can I please just riff for a moment about things going wrong? Because you know that happens to you when you are making dinner, too.

Like…sometimes I get all set and purchase all the ingredients I need to make a delicious gluten-free, vegan meal with my mom…and then when I open the pantry, my chickpeas are mysteriously not there. And I’m forced to use black beans. (Deep breath. It’s okay. Beans are beans, right? So what if the meal no longer seems like a fun play on hummus. It’ll still be delicious.)

Like…I whip my tahini sauce into a pale, thick, delicious frenzy. And then instead of being able to drizzle it elegantly over my pretty eggplants, it falls off my spoon in horrifying globs. (Deep breath. Globby-looking sauces aren’t the end of the world.)

But then. My son. Has some kind of allergic reaction to eggplant. While he is happily eating something that is not grilled cheese for the first time in a week. AUUUGHHHH! (Don’t worry, he was fine! I don’t think he even noticed his golf-ball lip or rash. It just made for a stressed-out mommy.)

You may be wondering why I am even bothering to share this meal with you. But seriously, it was so good. And so easy to make! You really should try it. And just remember to take deep breaths! And maybe stock some Benadryl for the under-3 set. You know. Just in case.

Vietnamese Noodle Bowl

This year I got to host my mom’s birthday celebration again.

Of course, the most important part of any real birthday celebration is the cake. But the meal is also a big deal, especially for someone who can’t eat dairy or wheat but still wants to share something special.

My mom pretty much gives me free reign to try new foods when she comes to visit, but for this particular meal with all its importance, I was just stumped. Then, my darling husband suggested Vietnamese, and I instantly conjured up a mental mouthful of rice noodles, grilled shrimp, and crushed peanuts, accented by a mouthwatering sour-spicy sauce.

So we had noodle bowls. And they were delicious!

You should have noodle bowls, too. This is like a great, big, noodle salad. It involves very little cooking (except, of course, the shrimp and the noodles), and you can serve everything warm or cold, which is perfect for unpredictable situations like having company! And, bonus, each eater can customize their bowl to their liking. A perfect, simple meal for guests!

CSA Week 14: Sweet Corn Risotto

My computer recently decided that its SD card reader didn’t exist. When you add that to the fact that two of the three USB ports had already abandoned ship, and that Word recently glitched and erased a whole day’s work on an editing project I was doing, you probably arrive at the conclusion that I was not happy.

Not. Happy. At. All.

So, sorry for not writing about my delicious week until now…there were fresh salads and eggs with home fries and pizza (go figure) and biscotti. Oh, and this risotto!

I have always been a little wary of risotto. The first one I ever made was insanely delicious, but I had not yet really grasped the concept of cooking with low heat, so the center of the rice wasn’t cooked fully by the time water was absorbed. Oops. And ever since, in an effort to correct that mistake, I end up overcooking the rice (um, and worse, adding extra water sometimes), and the risottos come out gummy instead of creamy.

If you’ve ever made a great risotto, you are probably thinking those are rookie mistakes, and maybe you’re right. But I think I’ve finally gotten it right, and boy do I feel excited!

This risotto is savory and creamy and perfect. I fully credit the clear directions rather than anything I did especially well, so I think you will have an easy time of it when you make this yourself!

Veggie Fried Rice

I regularly find myself standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out what to do with all the little leftover odds and ends in my crisper. Halves of bell peppers, lonely carrots, three baby bellas that didn’t make it into a salad earlier in the week…

Inspiration finally struck as I was struggling to find a way to use up two cups of leftover jasmine rice pilaf. I am not really a rice person; I am not even the kind of person who thinks every meal should include a starch. So that Tupperware container of rice had been staring at me for almost two weeks.

And finally, as I was trying to plan a meal to make with my mom, who can’t have wheat or dairy, a light bulb clicked on over my head. Fried rice!

You can use any kind of cooked rice and any vegetables you want when you are making fried rice. So why not jasmine rice baked in veggie broth with a few shallots already tossed in? And all those veggies hiding in my refrigerator drawers were a perfect match.

This one-pot meal came out so delicious that my husband ate about four servings of it. I won’t stress about how much white rice he consumed in one sitting…I will just use brown rice next time and rejoice that I’ve finally found a simple Asian dish I can make at home for him!

Let’s make a meal out of all our leftovers!

Shrimp Creole

My mom’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and I got to host her dinner for the first time ever!

Making meals for my mom can be a challenge because of her food allergies: no dairy or wheat allowed. In fact, when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal, she sadly replied that she didn’t really have a favorite meal anymore, since many of the foods she has loved her whole life are now off-limits.

After a bit of thought, she requested Shrimp Creole, which I had never had before. Shrimp Creole is basically a bowl of rice topped by a spicy, flavorful tomato sauce full of veggies and, of course, shrimp!

I did a bit of research on the dish and found that creole dishes classically include onions, green peppers, and celery, and that most of the recipes around really leave the combination and amount of spices up to the cook. How challenging for someone who’s never made creole food before! I almost had no idea where to begin.

In the end, I decided to use Virginia Willis’s recipe from Bon Appetit, Y’all  as a base and to wing it with the spices (with a little help from suggestions I read in many other recipe reviews). And it turned out delicious! Just a bit of heat (okay, enough to make my nose run a little) without being overwhelming, and great Cajun flavors. I wrote down what I did, so now, finally, I can bring you a recipe for Shrimp Creole that comes with the complete spice profile.

You will love this dish! So easy to make—you can forget it on the stove for as long as you need—and it’s a great alternative to the same old pot of chili you make every year. The Cajun flair will seal the deal!

Vanilla Bean Risotto Pudding

Guess what?

I joined a club. The Secret Recipe Club!

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

Basically how this works (er…a fanciful version of how this works, anyway) is that every month, every blogger in the club draws a different blog out of a hat and then makes a recipe from that blog. It’s like finding a new friend to share your recipes with, and a resource for good food you may not have stumbled across on your own.

Cool, right?

So this month, I am making a rice pudding using risotto rice from my new blog friend Erin over at Easy Everyday Eats.

I had very few associations with rice pudding before making this recipe. When I was growing up, just the name sounded a little gross to me…I mean what kind of a nut would put rice in pudding, anyway? And doesn’t most rice pudding include raisins? Blech. But now that my list of favorite foods includes Thai sticky rice, I figured I’d better take a closer look at rice pudding, too.

I love that this recipe uses arborio rice, which is normally used to make risotto. When I read that, my brain immediately conjured up an idea about how creamy and soft this pudding would be. And let me assure you, in case you are used to rice pudding made with regular white rice, arborio rice is perfect for a rich and creamy dessert!

Thai Red Curry with Tempeh

How high is your spicy tolerance?

Mine is apparently a lot lower than I thought…and more surprisingly, so is Dave’s! Despite this, I think that Thai curry is going to become one of our go-to meals. And don’t worry, I will share with you what I learned about the right proportions of curry paste to coconut milk so that you do not set your tongue and lips ablaze when making this for yourself!

The beautiful thing about stir-fry meals is that they are endlessly adaptable. Your ingredients can change with the seasons! It’s a cinch to transition from serving 4 to serving 8—all you have to do is chop some extra veggies and cook up some extra rice. And what makes this all possible? Tins of prepared curry paste, which you can buy in most supermarkets (or, at your local Lotte/GrandMart/HMart).

I know, I know, normally I do not go in for many things that come prepared. I prefer to make my food the hard way 🙂 But I promise you, the only way to make great Thai food in your own kitchen without buying at least 20 ingredients you aren’t sure how to use except in the dish you bought them for, and without spending 4 hours chopping and sautéeing to make a meal for 2, is to buy a tin of Maesri.

As a side note, this meal also works really well for non-vegetarians. Just substitute thinly sliced chicken or pork for the tempeh. But…I definitely recommend being brave and trying tempeh if you never have! Made from whole soybeans, it is high in protein and fiber, and it is much more similar to the texture of meat than tofu (which I personally hate), and it has some of the umami savory taste of meat. Try it! I bet you’ll like it.