weekend cooking – Page 7 – Peaceful Reader

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

What a catchy title for a recipe! My in-laws are in town to see Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I love having them here. My mother-in-law, Phyllis, is a reader, knitter, master quilter, makes wonderful meals, drinks wine with me and is lovely with my children. My father-in-law is very, very smart, loves to talk politics, and loves his son, my husband, deeply. I scored well in this regard.

Having them come to town is a good time to try new recipes. My husband’s family spent time in Malaysia and Sierra Leone as part of the Peace Corps. so they enjoy a wide variety of cuisines and are happy to eat vegetarian. A few years ago, Phyllis, gave me Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker; 200 recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are by Robin Robertson. I’ve made several recipes from this book and they’ve all been easy and tasty.

This one is my second favorite from this book. My fav. is a sweet potato chili.

No Hurry Vegetarian Curry

1 T peanut oil
2 large carrots, sliced diagonal
1 med.-size yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
8 ozs green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1-in. pieces
1 1/2 cups slow cooked or one 15.5-ozs can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
One 14.5 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
Salt

1. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, and cayenne, stirring to coat.

2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a 3 1/2 -to 4-quart slow cooker. Add the potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, and stock; cover and cook on Low for 6-8 hours.

3. Just before serving, stir in the peas and coconut milk and season with salt. Taste to adjust the seasonings.

I used small potatoes from my mother’s garden, cut into fourths and I didn’t peel them. I added a second can of chickpeas because we love them. I served it over Jasmine rice with sprinkles of cilantro on top. It was yummy-everyone loved it, even the teenage son!

Check it out; the author has a food blog, Vegan Planet. Right now she is hosting a giveaway of cookbooks!

I hope everyone is having a peaceful Saturday…it is 80 degrees here and I’m going outside to either read or knit!

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads…pop over and see what other delicious food-related posts she has listed.

I love potatoes

and potatoes added to leeks make a delicious soup, especially once you add cream and buttermilk! You really can’t go wrong with that combination. Leeks from the farmer’s market and fresh dug potatoes from my mother’s garden were the inspiration for making soup. I couldn’t find the recipe I had used previously so I googled and found this great recipe featured on the food network’s Alton Brown. I’ve made other internet recipes of his so I felt confident that it would be great and because his recipe is online-I’m directing you there instead of typing it out…I hope you click and check it out though because this soup, plus a loaf of fresh bread and maybe a small salad, is a perfect Fall meal.

After you add the vegetables and the veggie broth in the recipe you use an immersion blender to blend it all together (making it a smooth soup). One of the last gifts my grandmother purchased for me was an immersion blender and what a useful tool it is! Because of this great tool it took me only about 25 minutes to finish this soup. Thank you Grandma B.!

I am out-of-town for the night, attending a local BBQ, Blues and Brews festival, sponsored by Peace Tree Brewery. We’ve been looking forward to this trip for a few weeks even though it is only one overnight. My mom is hanging with my children and they will be enjoying the leek soup tonight for dinner. I’m excited to check out this brewery but am a little nervous about dinner-BBQ-doesn’t leave a lot of yumminess for vegetarians or locavores. My husband will scarf up whatever, as his standards are lower than mine, and he believes in being really “flexible.” So we shall see what’s on the menu. He graciously has offered to take me someplace else for dinner but I’m sure I can survive with baked beans and (hopefully) some sweet corn-after all we are still in Iowa!!

Happy eating and reading this weekend!
This post is part of Weekend Cooking hosted by the great Beth Fish Reads reading spot. Check out her post about a helpful harvest cookbook.

A Busy Week in Review

I’ve been trying to spruce up my blog the last few weeks by changing colors and backgrounds but nothing seemed to fit. While jogging from one blog to another one day I discovered The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective blog and my eye caught a little blurb about button-making and viola, after lots of magic wand waving, she created a beautiful banner for me! Doesn’t it look lovely! Beyond that I’m pretty happy with my white background and varied color scheme as I’m not a fancy girl. Tell me what you think!

I finished Shiver last night and loved it-it made me ache for young love and for all those moments I see my husband doing his quirky things that make me so giddy. For instance recently he’s been needing cheater glasses to read-he hates this-but I ADORE it as he reads next to me at night. Something about those glasses makes me happy and Shiver brought out tons of good raw emotion. More on that later when I review it and now I need to find me a copy of Linger-second in the Mercy Falls series. I still need to write about One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, which was really good, and several new picture books burning a hole in my library bag.

I am reading hippie chick by Joseph Monninger while I wait for teenage son to finish Mockingjay-but I agree with JuJu of Tales of Whimsy who left me a comment acknowledging that starting it means ending it so I’m not racing to read it but am aware of its presence in the bedroom next door, right on the nightstand, sitting closed. It will call to me soon enough.

I did make the Cheeca Sauce I posted about yesterday but otherwise did not cook much this weekend. We had a wedding reception to attend and I had a ton of homework to do after my first week of school. I’ve finished my lesson plans for the week and some charts for positive behavior-I’m ready to roll for my second full week of teaching.

What about you…what made your week exciting? Mine is having that new banner to enjoy! Thank you to The Golden Eagle at Eagle’s Aerial Perspective. Happy Monday everyone…

Eating and Reading

This looks exactly like the mix of tomatoes I used for the Cheeca Sauce.

I got my copy of Mockingjay on Thursday and even though I’m happy to have it in my hand it wasn’t as exciting as (the old days) getting the new Harry Potter in the late post on the same day. Those were some thrilling days, waiting in the driveway for the UPS man to hand deliver it in its brown wrapper. My son is taking his turn first since I am still enjoying Shiver. I have the third book in the Millenium series to read but maybe I’ll tuck Mockingjay inbetween.

In other household news I have gazillions of tomatoes in every size including tons of cherry tomatoes and these tiny, yellow pear-shaped ones so tonight I boiled water, made pasta and whipped up this so easy sauce from my food goddess, Giada.

Checca Saucee

Giada De Laurentis’s everyday italian

12 ounces of cherry tomatoes, halved

3 scallions (white and pale parts only), coarsely chopped

3 garlic cloves

1 ounce parmesan cheese, coarsely chopped

8 fresh basil leaves

3 T. olive oil

4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

In the bowl of food processor, pulse the first six ingredients just until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Transfer the sauce to pasta bowl and stir in the mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper. Toss freshly cooked and drained pasta into sauce and season with more salt and pepper, if needed.

I scrapped more Parmesan on to individual servings as well. I love this sauce because it’s raw and so easy!

I did make the pickles last weekend and they worked. We are letting them sit for two weeks but we had extra so we’ve been eating them like an appetizer. It was a great family project and we are going to repeat it this week sometime with 5 lbs of cucumbers from a friend’s garden.

What are you reading and eating this weekend?

This post is part of Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.