If you don’t like chopping vegetables, this dish is not for you.  Unfortunately, there’s just not very many shortcuts that I could tell you about other than using bottled minced garlic instead of slicing fresh and  bread crumbs instead of crackers.  That’s about it.

That said, this is the PERFECT summer dinner, primarily if you can make it to your local farmer’s market.  It’s a veritable bounty of summer vegetables.  It’s tasty, flavorful, filling and makes you feel like you’re tasting summer.  I’ve made this dish before a few times last summer, even though it is only vegetables, it’s very  hearty.  It’s good.

Make sure to use your absolute LARGEST pan that you have.  If you don’t have an extra large skillet or risotto pan (which is what I have), use a large stock pot.  There are a lot of vegetables.

Ingredients

• 3 medium  zucchini, thinly sliced (4 cups)
• 2 large  red sweet peppers, coarsely chopped (2 cups)
• 2 medium  onions, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
• 1 medium  eggplant peeled and coarsely chopped (5 cups)
• 2 cloves  garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp.  olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup  light mayonnaise
• 4 oz.  hard cheese (Parmesan or fontina or romano), grated (1 cup)
• 8 oz.  shredded mozzarella cheese (2 cups)
• bread crumbs (about 1 cup)

From BHG

Random tidbit of information about me, I can’t for the life of me pronounce “Szechuan”.  It just comes out as one big slur for me.

At any rate, I’ve made this dish before and liked it so much that I gave it another whirl.  It comes together so well and it’s really flavorful.  The tofu crisps up nicely under the broiler and balances out the textures.  The hubs refuses to EVER eat mushrooms (much to my sadness) so I use frozen artichoke hearts.  Yum.  I also, if you can imagine, increased the chile garlic paste in the recipe to 2 tablespoons.  I’m sure you’re shocked.

It’s pretty hard to vary a recipe when it only has 5 ingredients.  Irregardlessly (I know, I know, that’s not a real word, but it makes me laugh), I found this to be tasty, quick and satisfying.  I found some precooked wild rice at Trader Joe’s this weekend, so that knocked like 50 minutes of cooking off of this recipe.  The pork cooks up quick and juicy (make sure to use enough salt and pepper on it).  The mango chutney (I found it in the international aisle at TJ’s) is a really interesting flavor.  Overall, this is the perfect weeknight meal.  I recommend.

Mango Pork with Wild Rice Pilaf

The problem with having 14 different recipes for peanut noodles is you never remember which recipe is the good one.  One recipe I have makes the noodles sticky, one’s not flavorful enough, another is too salty, one is a lot of effort, and one, one of them is perfect!  If only I can remember which one it is.  When I find it, I’ll let you know.   This one is the way too much effort one.  I used all my stove burners and still needed like two extra bowels.

I wanted to use up the veggies I had in the fridge, so  I varied the recipe to suit what I had, which was red and orange bell peppers, only a handful of snow peas and a shallot.  Very colorful!

I also added a lot more of the chile garlic sauce than the recipe called for because, as previously mentioned, I love spicy food.  Instead of linguine, I used bowties.  Use whatever you have.  Peanut noodles is pretty hard to screw up.  Serve with cooked chicken, pork, shrimp or tofu should you desire.

Oh!  Make sure you have a LARGE bowl to mix everything in when you’re ready to combine, otherwise, you’ll end up with a less than glamorous final product (like mine) or food all over your counters.

Peanutty Noodles

I didn’t know what I felt like eating tonight.  I also definitely didn’t feel like going to the store to get an ingredient I didn’t have.  I was rooting around, going through recipes and came across a quiche recipe.  Quiche sounded good.  I had the ingredients for quiche.  Done!

This came together nicely!  Light and fluffy and actually held together.  Supa!

Feeling lazy?  Want something healthy?  Want something satisfying?  This is the dish for you!

I made this a few times before in March, and in the time it takes you to boil and cook frozen ravioli, you have a hot, colorful, nutritious yummy dinner.

This recipe makes it very easy to put different veggies in, should you choose.  Red peppers would work well, as would broccoli, peas, matchstick carrots, mushrooms or anything else that looks good to you that week at the store.  If you do use tomatoes, I think 3 romas would work better and use a fine dice when you chop them.

You’ll like this dish, I promise.

Ravioli Toss

Ingredients

• 2  (9-ounce) packages refrigerated whole-wheat four-cheese ravioli
• 2  cups  (2-inch) cut green beans (about 1/2 pound)
• 1/2  cup  thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes, packed without oil (about 6)
• 2  tablespoons  olive oil
• 2  tablespoons  red wine vinegar
• 3  plum tomatoes, chopped (about 1 pound)
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4  cup  (1 ounce)  fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Bacon? Clams? Risotto?  What’s not to like?

This is another recipe I found on tastebook.com.  The flavors sounded really interesting.  Overall, this dish came together nicely.  It tasted really good.

When making risotto…never take your eyes off of it!  Take your time.  The more more effort you put into it, the better it will turn out.  Patience is a virtue.

I couldn’t find fresh clams at my market this weekend, so I used canned clams.  Perhaps this was a wrong move, or perhaps it was the bottled clam juice, but my house reeks of fish right now and I’m not so thrilled with that.  Ew.

Clam Risotto with Bacon and Chives

For the amount of work I put into this, 1000 Layer Lasagna was phenomenal!

My friend, Small K, told me about this super awesome site called tastebook.com, you should totally check it out.  You can collect recipes and share them with friends and you can even make a hard cookbook from the recipes there as a gift.  It’s really a very clever site.

This is where I saw the recipe for 1000 Layer Lasagna.  I made some changes to the original recipe, but it is soooo….easy and soooo… good and makes awesome leftovers.  This is the perfect weeknight lasagna should you feel the urge.

1000 Layer Lasagna

1 box of no boil lasagna noodles
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (less if you like)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28-ounce can crushed organic tomatoes
zest of one lemon
3 4-ounce balls of fresh mozzarella, torn up into little pieces
15-20 leaves of fresh basil
a handful of slivered basil (optional)
freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375.

Make the sauce: Place the olive oil, salt, pepper flakes, and garlic in a pan. Saute for a minute over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and slowly bring to a simmer as well. Remove from heat, stir in the lemon zest and taste for seasoning.
Butter a deep, square baking dish. I used a 9×9 and 2 1/2-inches deep dish.

Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Cover the bottom with a layer of pasta sheets. Next, add a thin layer of sauce and a bit of cheese. Add another layer of pasta, half of the basil leaves, sauce,then pasta again, then sauce, basil and cheese. Keep going until you’ve used up all the sauce and pasta. Top with the last of the sauce and the very last of the cheese so you have a nice cheesy top. Bake until everything is melted and fragrant, 35 minutes or so. Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving, so everything has a chance to set up a bit. Top with parmesan and a bit of slivered basil.

Serves 4 nicely.

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

I love the idea of crinkle cookies so much.  I’ve also been dying to try a cookie made with creme de menthe.    These two ideas fit together pretty ok.  When I dreamed up this cookie, I was terrified that it would be this horrible green/brown color.  Thankfully that was not the case.  Just the first step came out scary green, lol.

I thought these cookies were good, but unfortunately, they aren’t “knock your socks off” good.

Grasshopper Crinkle Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup hazelnuts,  chopped
1/2 cup creme de menthe liqueur
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

Lightly whisk together eggs, hazelnuts, creme de menthe, and granulated sugar in a large bowl.

Melt chocolate with butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until often until smooth. Remove from heat.

Stir in the flour mixture and chocolate. Refrigerate, covered until firm, about 2 hours.

Bake, changing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are puffed and cracked but centers are still a bit soft. 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool.

I made this one on Wednesday night, and I just haven’t found the inspiration to say much about it.  As G said, “It’s really good, but it’s not delicious.”  I really enjoyed the spicy/pickley taste of the peperocini.  I also really enjoyed how colorful it was.  It was good, but I don’t think I’d go out of the way for this again.

Capellini with Shrimp, Peppers, and Salami

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 mixed bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 pound frozen large shrimp (peeled and deveined), thawed
• 2 ounces thinly sliced Genoa salami, cut into strips (1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup peperocini, stems removed, thinly sliced crosswise
• 8 ounces capellini pasta (angel-hair) (I used the Barilla Plus pasta again)

From Everyday Foods, 2007