Category: Cooking

Dani’s Spinach and Zucchini Lasagna

This was the best lasagna ever:

Ingredients

About 9 Pasta sheets (make your own or use fresh pasta from Whole Foods)
1 15oz package of part skim ricotta cheese
3/4 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup parmesan
1 egg
Approximately 4 cups of fresh spinach
2 or 3 cloves of fresh garlic, sliced thin
2 zucchini, peeled and sliced thin
1 onion, chopped and browned
olive oil
Italian seasoning (oregano, sweet basil, marjoram, thyme, and rosemary) to taste
about 1 1/2 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce

Preparation

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium sauce pan, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion and sauté until brown, stirring occasionally.

In another medium sauce pan, heat another tablespoon of olive oil. Add garlic and sauté until garlic begins to brown, then add spinach and quickly sauté until reduced in volume.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl combine the ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of mozzarella, egg, and Italian seasoning. After the spinach is done sautéing, add the spinach/garlic mixture to the mixing bowl and stir.

Spray a 9×9 inch pan lightly with cooking spray (I used grapeseed oil). Add a small amount of tomato sauce to the bottom, then line the bottom with a layer of pasta (about three sheets).

Spread half the ricotta mixture on top of the pasta. Next add a layer of sautéd onions, then lay out the thinly sliced zucchini into a third layer. Cover with a layer of tomato sauce.

Repeat: pasta, ricotta mixture, onions, zucchini, and more sauce.

Top with a layer of pasta. Add a bit more sauce to keep the top moist during cooking. Then add the remaining 1/4 mozzarella and parmesan to the top.

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, checking occasionally. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Roasted Cauliflower Pizza

Dani and I decided to try to duplicate the roasted cauliflower pizza from Anthony’s in Orlando, and we came darned close. We started with some pizza dough from Whole Foods, which I rolled out repeatedly, really thin, and then baked in olive oil at 450 degrees. Meanwhile we roasted some cauliflower with olive oil, Italian herbs, and maple garlic seasoning from The Spice House. Dani caramelized some onions. Then we layered the crust with mozzarella, added the cauliflower and onions and baked for at least 20 minutes. Sprinkle on grated Parmesan, and voila. The result was thinner and crisper than Anthony’s but otherwise very similar.

5-Spice Apples

I invented this simple recipe to use up ingredients before leaving town. It turned out delicious.

Ingredients

2 apples
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp Chinese 5-spice

Preparation

Peel and chop up apples.

Dump in a covered casserole dish, add brown sugar and 5-spice.

Bake for 30-45 minutes.

The apples will be soft but not mushy, and the 5-spice gives them a much more exotic flavor than simple cinnamon. Would also be great over vanilla ice cream.

Pan-Seared Chicken with Balsamic Fruit Glaze

I fiddled with this recipe so much I’m calling it my own. This is a really good way to cook boneless, skinless chicken; it ends up crisp yet moist. And the glaze can be prepared in a leisurely fashion while the chicken cooks. The result was something I’d have been happy to get in a restaurant.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp grape seed oil
4-6 Skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots or onions
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup red wine
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp black raspberry seedless jam (or other)
1/2 lb fresh cherries
2 Tbsp pistachios, whole or crushed, toasted or raw
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees with a glass baking dish in it.

Salt and pepper chicken. Heat olive oil in pan on medium high and brown chicken in it for ten minutes, face down. Transfer chicken, face up to baking dish in oven and bake for 15-30 minutes (until done).

While chicken is baking, saute shallots or onions in the pan the chicken was cooked in, then add wine, balsamic and jam. Reduce. Stir in cherries.

Plate chicken, spoon sauce over top. Garnish with pistachios.

It won’t be nearly as sweet as you expect. Yum!

Grilled Zucchini with Pesto

These turned out great. I used much more garlic and twice the pine nuts the original recipe suggested. I don’t see how you could stretch it to recommended six zucchini, though. I used more than half the pesto on one large one. Of course, I eliminated the Parmesan cheese they called for, too. And I substituted grapeseed oil for olive oil. Hey, I guess this is now my recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup fresh basil leaves
several garlic cloves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 zucchini

Preparation

Combine basil leaves, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor; pulse until well-blended.

Gradually pour in 1/4 cup oil; pulse again. The pesto should be very thick.

Thinly slice zucchini lengthwise; brush lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle lightly with salt and black pepper.

Grill until marked on both sides and tender (a few minutes per side); remove and cool.

Spread about 1 teaspoon of pesto on 1 side of each grilled zucchini slice; roll up and secure with a toothpick.

Garden Lasagna

Last night I made a vegetarian lasagna. I was skeptical because of the large amount of skim milk in the recipe, but it worked great. I left out the corn the recipe called for, and used ricotta cheese rather than the cottage cheese(!) called for. It was delicious, fairly low in calories, and we have lots of leftovers.

I would definitely make this recipe again, but in a smaller pan. Mine was about twice the size they called for, so the veggies and sauce were thinner than I would have chosen.

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups (1 pound) chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup low ricotta cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Cooking spray
9 (about 5 ounces) no-boil lasagna noodles
1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, onion, and carrot; sauté 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from heat; stir in corn, basil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

3. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a large saucepan; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cottage cheese, Parmesan, nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

4. Spread 1/2 cup white sauce in bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over sauce; top with half the vegetable mixture (about 2 cups) and one-third of the remaining white sauce (about 1 cup). Top with 3 noodles, remaining vegetable mixture, half the remaining sauce, and 3 more noodles. Spread the remaining white sauce over noodles. Cover with foil and bake at 400° for 25 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with mozzarella, and bake an additional 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 15 minutes.

I made a salad with pear and strawberry to accompany it using Bella’s Blackberry & Fig Balsamic dressing from Whole Foods, which has almost no calories, and is very tasty.

 

Farmers’ Market

On Saturday mornings Evanston has a farmers’ market behind the Hilton Garden Inn. Unlike many farmers’ markets I’ve been to, this one is actually a market of farmers. Nearly every booth has fresh picked (or sometimes potted) herbs and vegetables from farms around the area.

We browsed for an hour, buying kohlrabi, purple carrots, heirloom radishes, garlic scapes, some interesting looking onions, peaches and some tomatoes on the vine. The tomatoes were the best I’ve had since I was a little kid, and tonight Dani is making the rest of the stuff into a stir fry with a peach reduction.

The stir fry Dani made was great. It had bock choi, zucchini, garlic scape, yellow squash, green onions, kohlrabi, purple carrots and orange, red and green peppers. It was served on Jasmine rice with an incredible sauce made from peaches, fresh ginger root, hoisin sauce and brown sugar. The sauce was spicy from the ginger without being overly sweet. Delicious!

Green Beans and Bacon

This is a dish we used to have all the time, but had forgotten about. Maybe if I put it here it will remind me to fix it more often, as it is extremely succulent.

Ingredients

3/4 lb Green Beans
5 strips of Bacon cut into squares
1 Medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/8 cup Rice Wine Vinegar

Preparation

Cook the bacon until crispy. Remove to another dish with a slotted spoon.
Saute onion in bacon fat until lightly brown.
Add both vinegars, cover and steam for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with crisp bacon on top.

 

 

Lemony Hummus

This recipe comes from Scott Joesph’s blog.

Make 2 cups

15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon paprika, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth, scraping sides of bowl.

Transfer to a bowl and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika. Cover and refrigerate up to a week.

Three Bean Chili

I know there’s a big disagreement over whether chili should have beans in it, but to me it’s all about the beans, and to heck with the meat. This is a new recipe Linda got from a co-worker at a pot luck lunch. It uses cocoa powder, cumin and oregano to add a rich Indian-like character to the chili powder base. Delicious!

Ingredients

  • 1 can beef broth
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp seasoning salt
  • 4 tsp ground cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 4 tbsp ground chile powder
  • 2 tsp ground oregano
  • 1 large can tomato sauce
  • 1 small can tomato paste
  • 1 can pinto beans, drained
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 2 cans kidney beans, drained
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
  • flour (optional)

Preparation

Brown beef and drain. Saute onion and garlic. Combine all ingredients. Simmer 30-40 minutes. Thicken with a little flour if desired. Or puree 1/4 of mixture and add back in.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, onions, shredded cheddar cheese.

Thai Beef Salad

This is my favorite salad recipe. We originally got it from Standolyn Robertson, Jamie Robertson’s wife. She served it at a dinner that was memorable because it was the night, twenty years ago, that a micro burst blew down our screen room. It was originally a recipe for Thai Papaya Shrimp Salad, so as you can see, it’s gone through a few revisions since we got it!

Meat

  • 6-8 ounces rare filet mignon, chilled, cut into thin strips

Salad

  • 5-8 ounces of spinach
  • 8 ounces diced cantaloupe
  • ½ hothouse cucumber, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, julienned
  • 1 handful of cilantro, minced

Dressing

  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
  • 2 tablespoons thai fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon vietnamese hot sauce
  • 1 green onion, finely minced

Mix dressing ingredients in a cruet, shake. Toss salad ingredients with most of dressing, layer beef on top, and drizzle remaining dressing over the top. Add some cracked pepper and serve.

Serves 2 as an entree, 4 as a side

Stuffing Meat Loaf

Linda made a new meat loaf recipe last night that’s the best I’ve tasted. Rather than bread or cracker crumbs, it uses Stove Top Stuffing mix:

  • 2 lbs ground round
  • 1 package Stove Top Stuffing mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 medium finely chopped onion
  • 2 or 3 finely chopped celery stalks
  • Ragu Chunky Marinara
  • 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsps brown mustard
  • Cavendar’s seasoning
  • Top with bacon and ketchup

Bake one hour at 400 degrees.

 

Lemon-Free Hummus

Because Dani’s roommate is allergic to citrus (and several hundred other things) they’ve discovered some interesting alternative recipes. Today she made this, which I think I like better than regular hummus.

Recipe

19 oz can of chick peas
3-4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
7 or 8 shakes of Moroccan Road (or cumin)
1/2 tsp organic garlic
1 or 2 shakes of garlic powder

1. Drain and rinse chick peas.
2. Place in medium microwave safe bowl with lid
3. Add a drizzle of olive oil and stir chick peas
4. Microwave for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally
5. While chick peas are still hot, add at least two tablespoons of olive oil to begin and blend using immersion blender
6. Add balsamic, garlic, garlic powder, and cumin to taste
7. Finish blending
8. Chill before serving

Hummus made from the above ratios is thicker than traditional hummus, more like a spread.

Fourth of July in Evanston

We decided to avoid the traffic and stay in Evanston for the Fourth of July. Dani made her traditional berry and jello flag cake, I grilled some steaks, Linda made Julia Child’s sauteed pearl onions, and we watched the spectacular Evanston beach fireworks show from the balcony.

Julia Child’s Sauteed Pearl Onions

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with one and one-half tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet.

Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.

Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated.

 

Broccoli and Cauliflower and Carrots, Oh My

For dinner I fixed Tiger Butter curry chicken along with two new side dishes. THey both turned out pretty good. Another ten servings to add to Dani’s freezer.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Casserole

Ingredients

  • white rice
  • broccoli florets
  • cauliflower florets
  • olive oil
  • onion, chopped
  • cheese, cubed
  • can condensed cream of chicken soup
  • bacon
  • crushed Club crackers
  • fresh tarragon
  • allspice

Directions

Cook rice. Steam broccoli and cauliflower.

In a large saucepan, saute onion in oil. Add other ingredients. Transfer the entire mixture to a 9×13 inch baking dish and sprinkle the crackers on top.

Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 minutes.

Orange Glazed Carrots

Ingredients

  • 1 pound baby carrots
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tsp of five spice

Directions

Place carrots in a shallow saucepan, and cover with water. Boil until tender. Drain, and return carrots to pan.

Pour orange juice over carrots, and mix well. Simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, butter, and salt. Heat until butter and sugar melt.

Basil Chicken, Sweet Potato Casserole, Brussels Sprouts

Basil Chicken

I thought I had memorialized Linda’s Basil Chicken recipe on this blog, but apparently not, so here’s my version:

Ingredients

  • Boneless chicken breasts
  • Onion
  • Lemon
  • Basil leaves
  • White Wine
  • Milk
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper or Poultry Seasoning

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts. Sauté the onions in oil, add chicken breasts and sauté until brown. Remove breasts, place basil leaves on them. Deglaze the pan, add white wine, lemon juice and a dash of milk, and reduce. Pour over breasts and basil.

To accompany it, I made a…

Sweet Potato Casserole

This turns out fluffy enough that it’s almost a souffle with a topping:

Ingredients

  • 4 cups sweet potato
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Five spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • Five spice

Directions

Boil chunked potatoes and mash. Add sugar, beaten eggs, vanilla extract and five spice. Some recipes add milk or butter but I didn’t. Mix and place in baking dish.

For topping, mix brown sugar, flour, butter and pecans. Layer on top of sweet potatoes.

May be refrigerated until time for dinner.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, or until brown.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients

  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Olive Oil
  • Balsamic Vinegar
  • Salt and Pepper

Cut brussels sprouts in half, toss ingredients together.

Roast at 375°F, cut side down, 15 minutes, flip, roast ten minutes more.

Cleaning House

In other news, today I had Dial-a-Maid come for four hours and unearth the condo. The sink is now white again.

Lock & Lock Korma

One of my missions this year in Evanston is to make lots of one-serving meals for Dani’s freezer. I ran errands to Ace Hardware and Whole Foods, returning with about 50 pounds of stuff in the poor shopping basket cart. After restocking the fridge I set out to make Lamb Korma with Moroccan basmati raisin rice, sweet potatoes and Caesar salad.

I boxed the leftover rice and korma into some nifty containers I got on Amazon. They’re called Lock & Lock (not a great name, I know) and are very durable, microwave and freezer safe, and they have a gasket that seals them completely with locks on all four sides. I bought them because of the good reviews on Amazon, without completely understanding what they were, but they’ve worked out perfectly. The ones I got are fairly small, about 3x5x2 inches, so just right for one entree serving. Five down, about a zillion to go.

Mussels!

When I was at Publix I spotted these frozen mussels and thought I’d take a leap of faith. Wow! Linda fixed them on some scampi flavored pasta and they were delicious, as good as at a restaurant. They’re made by Bantry Bay. Two servings for $8, what a deal.

They went great with the Burgan’s Albarino from Spain. $14 from B-21 and rated 90 by Wine Advocate.

As a side we had a vegetable souffle from Garden Lites. This is also a delicious dish, and turns out with a nice crust, even when microwaved.

I’ll classify this blog entry as “cooking” but it’s more like heat and serve!

Asparagus with Balsamic

This turned out pretty good, but I’ve reduced the cooking time from 25 to 15 minutes because it was overdone.

Ingredients

Fresh asparagus
Spray grapeseed oil
Seasoning

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the tough ends of the asparagus, spread on a baking sheet, spray with oil, season.

Roast for 15 minutes, until tender but still crisp.

Melt butter in microwave, stir in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Pour over the asparagus to serve.

 

Zucchini Casserole

A Somewhat different version than the one I usually make, this one has no marinara, just fresh tomatoes.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. zucchini
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 lb. tomatoes, chopped
  • seasoning
  • 1 cup Italian cheese

    Preparation:

    Heat oven to 400° F.

    1) Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Sauté the onion in the oil for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another 30 to 60 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant. Cut tomatoes in 3 to 5 pieces, and add, along with the herbs and spices.

    2) Cook over medium heat until the liquid is mostly gone (but not dry), stirring occasionally — it should end up being about a cup. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes.

    3) Meanwhile, cut the zucchini into slices approximately ¼ inch thick. Take the largest slices and line the bottom of a 9 X 9″ or 8 X 8″ pan.

    4) Spread about ¼ of the tomato mixture on the zucchini (don’t even try to spread evenly; it won’t work), followed by ¼ cup of the cheese.

    5) Continue layering. It should come out to four layers, but if it only makes three, just try to divide things relatively evenly. Don’t put the final layer of cheese on yet.

    6) Bake for 20 minutes. Top with the rest of the cheese, and lower the temperature to 375 F. Bake for about 20 more minutes, or until cheese is golden brown.

    Makes 6 servings.

    Dijon Salad Dressing with Roquette

    • Two handfuls roquette (arugula)
    • 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • 4 fl oz olive oil
    • 4 fl oz vinegar
    • croutons
    • seasoning
    • lemon juice
    • pinch sugar

    Linda’s Gazpacho

    Linda made some delicious gazpacho last night. She started with a recipe from Food Network and modified it.

    Ingredients

    • 2 cucumbers, diced
    • 3 large tomatoes, diced
    • 1 red pepper, chopped
    • 1 green pepper, chopped
    • 1 red onion, chopped
    • 3 garlic cloves, minced
    • 2 stalks celery, chopped
    • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
    • 2 1/2 cups V8 juice
    • Salt
    • Lemon Pepper
    • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
    • Juice of 1 lime
    • Tabasco and Tapatio hot sauces

    Directions

    In large glass bowl combine vegetables. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Add half the mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth. Combine puree with original mixture. Chill for 4 hours and serve.

     

    Crepes

    Linda fixed crepes tonight, what a creative use of frozen leftovers! Spinach Souffle, curry chicken, and ratatouille. Accompanied by two different Adobe Road zinfandels that happened to arrive today, and a BV chardonnay.

    Ratatouille

    The dish, not the movie.

    Sauté zucchini in organic garlic and grapseed oil spray.
    Add onions, variety of bell, red and yellow peppers, green onions, fire roasted diced tomatoes, dash of hot sauce, seasoning salt, fresh terragon. Simmer for 20 minutes.

    Pretty tasty, and it freezes.

    Tilapia with Caramelized Apples

    This was a weird idea that turned out well.

    Ingredients:

    Tilapia filet
    Apple, sliced
    Onion, chopped
    Cup of white wine
    Splash of milk
    Seasoning salt
    Grapeseed oil spray

    Caramelize the apples and onions, add white wine and milk, reduce, set aside. Sauté the Tilapia. Dump the apples and onions on top.

    Tasty!

    Christmas 2010

    We had a lovely Christmas, leisurely opening our packages all day.  The best gifts were homemade. Dani wrapped up a LOST-themed Dharma pillow in DHARMA “Standard Wrapping Paper” that she made herself, and she also gave us a world map she framed herself and inserted push pins into, marking 100 places we’ve traveled to. We had our traditional breakfast burritos for lunch, and then Martin and Nicole came over for Christmas dinner.

    Gingerbread House

    Dani’s annual tradition of making a gingerbread house got a bit more complicated this year, as she baked the gingerbread herself. We were all a bit skeptical of whether it would hold together for final assembly, but we shouldn’t have doubted. What a lovely job of decorating it!

    Delish New York Bakery

    For dinner I made Bacon Wrapped Scallops and Cilantro Lime Rice. That meant a trip to Whole Foods for wild caught sea scallops and uncured hikory smoked bacon. Whenever I go to Whole Foods I like to stop in at Delish New York Bakery for a cup of coffee. (I do this partly because Barnie’s is next door, and I loathe chain store coffee.) The baker here is a true artisan; she showed me photos of some of the fabulous cakes she’s made, including one that looked just like a Louis Vuitton purse—she had to paint on the frosting. Today she was getting ready for Christmas, making samples including this cute little Christmas tree cake that is $4.99. There’s a little Hanukkah cake behind her, too. It’s really great that there are still a few small businesses like this; I should work harder to patronize them.

    Mission Acomplished!

    Dani took her chemistry final this morning. While she was away I put up the banner Jackie made for her. She was very surprised when she arrived home to find that, and my lame excuse at cake decorating.

    In all fairness, the cake is only about four inches across.

    NU Library

    Today was my last day to walk around, so I wandered up through the Northwestern campus and visited the library, which is really, really large. And confusing. The three towers are linked in a very unintuitive way on all but the ground floor. Most of them house stacks that are arranged in a circle, with the shelves of books spreading out radially. So once you find your way to the core it’s a puzzle to figure out what direction you entered from. Fortunately, there are signs. I leafed through a random assortment of the books I stumbled upon, including treatises about California archaeological digs and bound SMPTE proceedings back issues.

    I walked back through the park that runs along the beach south of campus. I hadn’t been that close to the water before. There were colorful sailboats enjoying the sunny day, a nice concession building, and an oval pond that looks like it makes a good skating rink for part of the year.

    I picked up lunch at Thai Sookdee (wow that place is awful except for their weird pad thai) and brought it home to Dani after her last chemistry class.

    For dinner it was clean the refrigerator night. I’m pretty proud of how empty the fridge is, and how full the freezer is, stuffed with leftovers divided into protions for two. Tonight’s carrot souffle turned out well:

    Carrot Souffle

    Ingredients

    • 2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
    • 1 cup brown sugar
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • 3 eggs, beaten
    • 1/2 cup butter, softened
    • 2 teaspoons 5 spice

    Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
    2. Boil carrots until very tender (takes about an hour). Drain.
    3. Beat eggs. Combine all ingredients. Beat until smooth.
    4. Bake 1 hour or until top is golden brown.

    Winding Down

    This week I’m beginning to get ready for the return to Orlando. I have mixed feelings, as I’ve loved spending the summer with Dani in Evanston, but it will be nice to see Linda again, and I’m sure we’ll all have a good time in London and on our upcoming cruise.

    I’ve installed aqua globes in a (probably hopeless) attempt to keep the flowers alive until Dani returns in a month. The idea is that the globes leak water when the soil dries. Indeed, since I’ve been keeping the soil wet, the globes aren’t leaking at all. My fear is that by the time the soil gets dry enough for the globes to leak, the flowers will be dead. Plus, altogether they hold about as much water as I’ve been giving the flowers every day! Since this is an “As Seen On TV” product, I assume it doesn’t work, but I got these on woot.com at four for $2.99. By the way, as you can see, the “flowers” I planted at the start of the summer are turning into heads of romaine, but no sign of petals yet.

    In the background you can see why they were surveying the street. I think it’s part of the water pipe re-lining effort, but they might just be looking for Jimmy Hoffa.

    I already packed up heavy things like books and shipped them back, and have been working on depleting the kitchen of food. Now I’m on to tidying up. Yesterday I dusted and (after repairing the wretched Dirt Devil canister) vacuumed. In the process, I discovered that the AC’s air handler didn’t have a filter in it. No wonder things get so dusty. It’s a weird setup, with the air handler in the laundry room, and the return air coming into the bottom of the unit, where the filter should be. That’s why the bedroom doors slam when the AC is on — there’s no return venting! Anyway, this morning  I walked down to Ace Hardware and bought a couple air filters, and the air already smells cleaner.

    Before lunch I walked back up to Al’s Deli and bought a couple of sandwich and soup combos to share with Dani, who is staying late to class to talk with her professor before her tutor comes.

    For dinner I’m fixing breaded tilapia and sauteed zucchini and yellow squash. I previously mentioned the Galeos miso salad dressing that we love. Our least favorite is the sesame, but I’ve discovered that by adding ketchup, lemon juice and pickle relish I can turn it into a delicious low calorie thousand island.