Pasta and Kidney Bean Soup

Recipe: Pasta & Kidney Bean Soup // Serious Eats
Rating:

I wasn't convinced that it was going to be any good -- the recipe seemed like one of those where you throw a bunch of cans into a pot and called it soup. But it was great! We made it with turkey sausage and added a parmesan rind. Not exactly kosher, but we're working on it. I only had one can of red kidney beans, so I used a can of cannellini beans as well.

Ultimate Night Garden Salad

Recipe: Imagined!

Rating:

We play ultimate once a week in an indoor league. The games start at 8:30pm, and we play two 45-minute games back-to-back. The first night of league, we went with a group of friends to all-you-can-eat sushi. It was a mistake. Now we try to think of light meals that are ready around 6pm.

The only creative part of this was the croutons. We used homemade bread and toasted it in the oven. The rest was just salad ingredients, but it was tasty!

Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms & Walnuts

Recipe: Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms & Walnuts // Oh My Veggies
Rating: 

This was a side dish we made to go with orzo dinner tonight. I liked the flavors -- the walnuts added a great nutty sweetness. However, our green beans were a little tough. I would remedy this in the future by using more tender green beans and roasting them a little longer. All in all, a nice veggie side.

Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas

Recipe: Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas // Slow Cooker Revolution (pg 176)
To Drink: Villard Blanc // Goose Watch Winery

Rating: 

This was great! The recipe called for dried garbanzo beans, and I was amazed the improved texture and flavor compared to canned. I'm not sure I've had garbanzo beans except from a can; these were much better.

Like most recipes from this cookbook (which Seth bought me for Hanukkah), it required some browning on the stove, but the end result was worth it. I used chicken broth that we had open in the fridge, so ours wasn't technically vegetarian. We paired it with a lovely finger lakes white wine and some leftover Italian semolina bread. I will make this again!

Stuffed Peppers with Goat Cheese and Couscous

Recipe: Stuffed Peppers with Couscous and Goat Cheese // How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (pg 399)
Side Recipe: Blumenthal's Roast Potatoes // Serious Eats

Rating: 

This was a tasty vegetarian entree. The peppers, goat cheese, and couscous blend well together. We roasted the peppers over our gas stovetop before stuffing them; we set them over a low flame and let the skin soften and blacken. The original recipe calls for quinoa, but we had couscous on hand, so that's what we used.

My favorite was the roasted potatoes. We liked them better than our homemade fries. The recipe called for peeled potatoes, but I like potato skins, so I left them on. They were great.

Chicken Kiev & Roasted Broccoli

Recipe: Chicken Kiev // Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
Side Recipe: Roasted Broccoli // Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
Kiev Rating:  
Broccoli Rating: 

I didn't have faith that the Kiev was going to hold together, but it did! It was pretty simple to put together overall, although I would have liked more filling in the piece I ate. Perhaps I didn't put enough of the butter mixture in each chicken piece. The mustard added to the dipping egg added a nice, subtle flavor. We used store-bought breadcrumbs; they turned out just fine. I gave this an rating of 3 because it's a solid chicken recipe, but nothing that blew me away.

The broccoli was awesome, though! Four kitties! Cooks Illustrated has a variation in their cookbook that calls for shallots rather than garlic--I copied it down before returning the book to the library. It's basically the same recipe linked above; just omit the garlic and when the broccoli finishes roasting, add shallots cooked in oil and parmesan cheese.