OT: Whatcha cookin'?

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Could you try bottled? I know Mr. D has some sort of garlic that adds the flavor without so much of the substance itself. I'll see if I can dig up the brand.

[sockii]

This is my fave vegetarian pasta dish...I never get any complaints from vespa when I make it and the nice thing is it's awesome the next day too for a cold pasta salad (that is if there's any leftover). When I have time I use dried chick peas cooked the day before in the crockpot because they're more flavorful. Even though it uses a lot of garlic I never get a reaction to it (the cooking kills the nasty garlic oils).

1 pound uncooked pasta (mini-penne works the best, fusilli is good too)
6 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 garlic clove(s), minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy, like I do
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped or 1 tsp dried rosemary
2 Tbsp fresh parsley
14 oz canned chick peas, drained and rinsed
salt & black pepper to taste

Bring pasta water to a boil and add noodles. While pasta is cooking, heat oil, garlic, rosemary and red pepper flakes in a pan until they come to a nice sizzle, about 1-2 minutes. Add chick peas, salt & pepper, and heat through, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, toss in pan with sauce and add parsley. Serves 4.

It's from this book, which is my pasta bible - there are a lot of great veggie-only as well as meat & seafood pasta sauces in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Every-Way-D ... 789465485/

[sockii]

Could you try bottled? I know Mr. D has some sort of garlic that adds the flavor without so much of the substance itself. I'll see if I can dig up the brand.

No, bottled is 100x worse for me. Too much concentrated allicin. I'm lucky that I'm fine if the garlic is browned/well-sauteed, but I can't even do roasted garlic because it's not a high enough heat to break down the oils. Oddly enough a friend has some unusual purple-skinned garlic from Sicily he grows every year and that's mostly what I use when I can get it from him. For some reason it seems milder so I can get away with it a little more when cooking.

[GinaSuperCat]

I have a ton of recipes, Dive and I'm just about done with the term to be in a position to start digging them out and cooking all our meals once again.

When things are busy I swear by Amy's vegetarian dinners--they are delish, healthy, and are packaged in paper (not plastic trays. They are spendy, is all unless you catch a good sale (stock up!)

For burrito-less dining out: my faves usually involve pizza (always!), Thai, Indian, and breakfast all day joints (coffee shops, diners, etc.).

One thing I've been able to do while the semester is in full swing is cook for the week on Sundays. I will cook up a few vegetables (lima beans simmered in broth, green beans sauteed with almond slivers and olive oil, carrot puree, oven roasted seasoned cauliflower, zucchini and summer squash simmered in a can of diced tomatoes with onions and curry powder, etc.). That way we have all the sides done and we just have to cook up an accompanying protein (quorn, seitan, tvp, soy, etc.).

Sockii: since the basil is optional, I bet you could make the avocado pasta with no garlic at all. Or roast it before pureeing. Or carmelize some cioppoline onions and puree.

[sockii]

Sockii: since the basil is optional, I bet you could make the avocado pasta with no garlic at all. Or roast it before pureeing. Or carmelize some cioppoline onions and puree.

Roasting doesn't work for me (not high enough heat to break down the bad stuff) - only high heat saute. That said I might give it a try that way, it's how I make hummus, by frying the shit out of the garlic first. I do love avocado in just about anything!

[Lynne]

[quote="empty"]Vegan or not this is just plain delicious!
Avocados and pasta???? Yes.

http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/31/15-min ... ado-pasta/[/quote]

YUM. That looks like a version of what Nigella Lawson calls her "Italianified guacamole", which has become something of a house specialty for the Kinetic Spouse. I love how versatile it is in the meat/veg/vegan landscape; you can add meat or parmesan or not as you choose. The lemon is a key ingredient, which makes the flavor very bright, and the avocado just gets all gushy and yummy. The Kinetic Spouse has been leaving out the garlic and its still yummy, so it may still work for sockii.

Even though I eat low carb, I'll probably have pasta 1-2x/week for dinner, and I use the Barilla Plus pasta with the ground flax etc. in it to slow down the blood sugar hit and to increase the protein and fiber content.

[DirtyMartini]

Thanks for that link, Meg!

Would garlic-infused olive oil or granulated garlic improve things at all, sock?

Like Gina said, though, you could easily do it with sauteed garlic, or without the garlic, or with onions as a substitute and still get good results. Unless there's baking chemistry involved, recipes are just guidelines/suggestions anyway. I've never met a recipe I haven't changed!

[Lynne]

[quote="GinaSuperCat"]Coconut oil ftw--I feel great since we've been using it for certain things.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhulOmHr3Kc[/quote]

Gina, when you have a moment, I'd love to hear some of the ways that you use coconut oil; I've been wanting to play around with it.

And if anyone can figure out why my quotes don't format when I hit the "quote" button on the post, I'd be grateful for that too!

[sockii]

Would garlic-infused olive oil or granulated garlic improve things at all, sock?

A very small amount of garlic powder is usually ok with me. But not the garlic olive oil because it tends to have too much of the garlic oils in it. *Sigh* Trust me it is a pain in the ass and why it took me until I was in my mid-30s to realize I had the sensitivity. But enough bitching from me, I just get annoyed and jealous when I can't enjoy garlicky things that I used to unless I want to pay for it badly afterward!

[GinaSuperCat]

Already ate the avocado pasta for dinner (PapaCat rocks!) and with the fresh basil it comes out like an amazing, creamy pesto. Can totally stand without garlic (or with heavily sauteed garlic), only suggestion in that case would be to cut back on the lemon juice a bit.

Lynne: we use coconut oil for the egg whites or egg beaters in the morning. Also to cook up sandwiches in the skillet (egg and cheese, grilled cheese, etc.). It has a rich and buttery texture and the flavor can range from mild to fairly distinctly coconutty (just like olive oil--the less refined aka virgin, the stronger, etc.) It's amazing for baking (a favorite for vegan cupcakes and cookies and icing since its solid at room temperature without hydrogenation). Making home fried potatoes in cast iron with onions and coconut oil--a most divine use for the occasional treat. I've fed hordes of hungry music festival campers at our campsite with this one, since the ingredients are most travel-hardy.

While I'm at it, I'll list a few of my fave staple ingredients in case anyone else might be interested:

--Rudi's Organic Double Fiber Bread (2 slices: 180 cal. 12g fiber 10g protein) Whole Foods, Earth Fare, etc.

--FiberGourmet Pasta (2 oz: 130 cal. 18g fiber, 6g protein) This I order online, regularly.

--Vitamin Shoppe Soy Free Vegetable Protein Powder (2 scoops: 100 cal, 1g fiber, 22g protein). We add this to the green smoothies made with kale, collards, or spinach and fruit; it doesn't stand on its own like other protein powders that can be used directly as shakes. Nonetheless, it's vegan, no sugar added, and good as a supplement.

[sockii]

Gina - thanks for the feedback on the recipe (and the tips on the lemon). I've got three different varieties of basil started for my garden right now, so as soon as I get a good crop going I'm going to try this and report back on a sans-garlic version

My current obsession is pork shoulder steaks. With this last pig from mom's farm, I told the butcher I didn't want as much stew & ground meat as I still had a lot leftover from our fall pig, could he do us up some other cuts or roasts? He suggested shoulder steaks, which I've never cooked (or even heard of) before. We ended up with, um. About 40 pounds of them! Damn, guess I'd better start learning some new recipes...

So, I first tried Guy Fieri's recipe for Spanish-Style Pork Shoulder Steaks http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy- ... index.html (don't laugh, I actually find a lot of his meat dishes very excellent, even if he does sometimes come across like a tool on Food Network.) This had awesome flavor, but the steaks still came out too tough. 4 hour marinade + grill = not enough time to break down this flavorful yet tough cut of pork. However, the crema sauce with lime and cilantro was THE BOMB. I am going to find other ways to use that, maybe in soft tacos.



So, then I tried this recipe when I was short on some ingredients beyond my cupboard/fridge staples, even though it sounded a little, well, perhaps tacky and old-school: Tangy Sweet and Sour Pork Shoulder Steak Bake http://www.food.com/recipe/tangy-sweet- ... ake-151215



Holy freakin' gong, these were good. Soooooo good. Fall off the bone tender meat in about 2 hours time. Like a slow-cook BBQ flavor. No leftovers whatsoever and a high-five from vespapod which I know means the recipe is a keeper.

Anyway, that's what I'm fixated on cooking at the moment...

[sockii]

Jersey asparagus is in!!!! (And so are first pick strawberries OM NOM NOM NOM.)

However I'm looking for some new ideas for asparagus. Any suggestions? I usually do a Japanese-style marinated salad with sugar, rice wine vinegar and sesame seeds but need to change it up a bit.

[GinaSuperCat]

This is $$ (just disregard the "Cuisinart Soup Maker" and do it as you would a cooked then blended soup:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/a ... -eggs.html

[TheEqualizer]

You gotta be careful going vegetarian. How many times do you see someone decide to go vegetarian in college and then start to live on Diet Coke and Doritos? Not exactly making a healthy change:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/go ... 53959.html

[sockii]

This is $$ (just disregard the "Cuisinart Soup Maker" and do it as you would a cooked then blended soup:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/a ... -eggs.html

Mmmmm...bookmarking this, thanks! Sounds divine, and I have a ton of eggs to use up from the farm as well.