Food, mostly
Nov. 16th, 2007 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidBut first, a few quick commute notes: The turkey was out this morning, hanging around under an underhang to be out of the rain. Also, earlier this week they finally installed a sculpture in that area outside 1 Hampshire St., a tall metal spike with stuff high up that makes me think a bit of a planet with rings.
This week cooking for Shabbat was more of a challenge than usual: I need food for myself on Shabbat (which starts around 4 these days), plus I'm hosting a large dinner not long after Shabbat, so most of the food needed to be prepped before 4 today. The other factors included wanting to get through a bunch of the veggies already inundating my house before this afternoon's wintershare pickup, and something the guest of honor tomorrow would like.
I hadn't finalized the menu until after getting this week's Boston Organics delivery, though in the end, cooking for 10 meant quantities larger than what I got in the box. I started with the idea of turkey meatloaf, since the aforementioned guest likes it, it's relatively easy to assemble in large enough quantity, and reheats well. Plus, most people like meatloaf, even if it's not a wonderful culinary adventure :-).
I still had farm veggies in quantity, some from the bulk order, including onions, carrots, sweet potato, and squash, plus a growing quantity of citrus from Boston Organics, which lead to the rest of the menu (using that stuff and other, not-orange things, to balance the meal).
So last night I started cooking. I put a tray of sweet potatoes* in the oven, then sliced up two leeks* to sautee. Since the oven was already on, I roasted a tray of zukes^ and onions*/ Brussels sprouts* and carrots* with salt, pepper, and olive oil. I smashed a couple of cloves of garlic*, then added oranges^ (well, juice and zest), and a lot of carrots* sliced fairly thinly. I'm not sure why the garlic as well as the orange, other than keeping it from being too sweet.
Once the sweet potatoes and other veggies were done, I swapped out the oven stuff, putting in a tray of Hubbard squash^ and butternut squash* to bake. And I tasted the batch of red sauerkraut* I started a couple of weeks ago, to make sure it was ok to serve (I had a sauerkraut disaster a couple of years back, which made this more nerve-wracking for me than it otherwise would have been.), and it seems fine. *happy dance* Not only did I make it, it meant one less thing to have to make now :-).
Which made things a bit easier at Trader Joe's. I was surprised to find that they don't carry hazelnuts, since they seem to have every other kind of nut, so decided to try macadamias (*insert ob. Bulbous Bouffant reference here*) instead. It's so much easier to spring for the pricier ingredients when it's for guests!
I didn't get much more cooking done after getting groceries. I'd lost momentum, and sitting down to eat dinner made whatever was left go *poof!*
So I got up early this morning to get more done. I peeled most of the sweet potatoes, and mashed them with some soy milk, nutmeg, cloves, molasses, and brown sugar. Sweet potato pie filling accomplished; it will be easy to toss into a pie crust and bake as we eat.
There weren't enough white potatoes to feed everyone, which made it easy to decide to make mashed potatoes for just me. I started the cubed potatoes baking while I turned a bunch of bread slices (the Trader Joe's six grain and pumpkin seed bread that isn't as good as the When Pigs Fly version) into bread crumbs, for meatloaf later. Once the potatoes were done, I mashed them with some caramelized onions* (made Wednesday), the end of the soy milk, olive oil, and salt.
Boston Organics has sent a pineapple, and I was inspired to roast pieces of it with vanilla and rum (only for about 15, 20 minutes), for dessert on Shabbat. I tasted some, and I definitely want to do this again.
I peeled the squash while the pineapple was in the oven, and realized it hadn't gotten as cooked as I'd wanted. Hrm. Twice-baked squash it was! I mashed the squash with powdered sage (Trader Joe's failed me in not having packages of fresh sage leaves), most of the frizzled leeks, and a bunch of chopped macadamias. I put the rest of the leeks on top, and put that in on time bake.
The plan for the rest of the day: assemble and bake two meatloaves (one large, one small), then retrieve the wintershare veggies. Make a bunch of cranberry orange relish before Shabbat. After Shabbat, roast polenta bits with lemon pepper to put in a green salad with cucumber, reheat everything that needs reheating, then have the pies ready to put in the oven when everything else comes out, to bake while we eat. I think it's all feasible...
* local, organic
^ non-local, organic
So, the menus.
For Shabbat
For Saturday night
It's a lot of orange, more than I'd really like without more green, though at least the reds are really intense magenta-like ones. It helps a little that dessert will likely be later, so it won't be as obvious that there are three orange foods...
This week cooking for Shabbat was more of a challenge than usual: I need food for myself on Shabbat (which starts around 4 these days), plus I'm hosting a large dinner not long after Shabbat, so most of the food needed to be prepped before 4 today. The other factors included wanting to get through a bunch of the veggies already inundating my house before this afternoon's wintershare pickup, and something the guest of honor tomorrow would like.
I hadn't finalized the menu until after getting this week's Boston Organics delivery, though in the end, cooking for 10 meant quantities larger than what I got in the box. I started with the idea of turkey meatloaf, since the aforementioned guest likes it, it's relatively easy to assemble in large enough quantity, and reheats well. Plus, most people like meatloaf, even if it's not a wonderful culinary adventure :-).
I still had farm veggies in quantity, some from the bulk order, including onions, carrots, sweet potato, and squash, plus a growing quantity of citrus from Boston Organics, which lead to the rest of the menu (using that stuff and other, not-orange things, to balance the meal).
So last night I started cooking. I put a tray of sweet potatoes* in the oven, then sliced up two leeks* to sautee. Since the oven was already on, I roasted a tray of zukes^ and onions*/ Brussels sprouts* and carrots* with salt, pepper, and olive oil. I smashed a couple of cloves of garlic*, then added oranges^ (well, juice and zest), and a lot of carrots* sliced fairly thinly. I'm not sure why the garlic as well as the orange, other than keeping it from being too sweet.
Once the sweet potatoes and other veggies were done, I swapped out the oven stuff, putting in a tray of Hubbard squash^ and butternut squash* to bake. And I tasted the batch of red sauerkraut* I started a couple of weeks ago, to make sure it was ok to serve (I had a sauerkraut disaster a couple of years back, which made this more nerve-wracking for me than it otherwise would have been.), and it seems fine. *happy dance* Not only did I make it, it meant one less thing to have to make now :-).
Which made things a bit easier at Trader Joe's. I was surprised to find that they don't carry hazelnuts, since they seem to have every other kind of nut, so decided to try macadamias (*insert ob. Bulbous Bouffant reference here*) instead. It's so much easier to spring for the pricier ingredients when it's for guests!
I didn't get much more cooking done after getting groceries. I'd lost momentum, and sitting down to eat dinner made whatever was left go *poof!*
So I got up early this morning to get more done. I peeled most of the sweet potatoes, and mashed them with some soy milk, nutmeg, cloves, molasses, and brown sugar. Sweet potato pie filling accomplished; it will be easy to toss into a pie crust and bake as we eat.
There weren't enough white potatoes to feed everyone, which made it easy to decide to make mashed potatoes for just me. I started the cubed potatoes baking while I turned a bunch of bread slices (the Trader Joe's six grain and pumpkin seed bread that isn't as good as the When Pigs Fly version) into bread crumbs, for meatloaf later. Once the potatoes were done, I mashed them with some caramelized onions* (made Wednesday), the end of the soy milk, olive oil, and salt.
Boston Organics has sent a pineapple, and I was inspired to roast pieces of it with vanilla and rum (only for about 15, 20 minutes), for dessert on Shabbat. I tasted some, and I definitely want to do this again.
I peeled the squash while the pineapple was in the oven, and realized it hadn't gotten as cooked as I'd wanted. Hrm. Twice-baked squash it was! I mashed the squash with powdered sage (Trader Joe's failed me in not having packages of fresh sage leaves), most of the frizzled leeks, and a bunch of chopped macadamias. I put the rest of the leeks on top, and put that in on time bake.
The plan for the rest of the day: assemble and bake two meatloaves (one large, one small), then retrieve the wintershare veggies. Make a bunch of cranberry orange relish before Shabbat. After Shabbat, roast polenta bits with lemon pepper to put in a green salad with cucumber, reheat everything that needs reheating, then have the pies ready to put in the oven when everything else comes out, to bake while we eat. I think it's all feasible...
* local, organic
^ non-local, organic
So, the menus.
For Shabbat
- wine and rolls
- hummus (if I'm so inclined)
- turkey meatloaf (ground turkey, fancy bread crumbs, caramelized onions, eggplant garlic spread, ketchup)
- mashed potatoes with caramelized onions
- roasted carrots and Brussels sprouts, also zucchini and onions
- pineapple roasted with vanilla and rum
For Saturday night
- bread and hummus, olives, possibly za'atar
- green salad with cucumbers and lemon-pepper polenta (and probably something else, but I haven't figured out what yet)
- turkey meatloaf (as above, perhaps with fun ketchup squiggles on top)
- orange-garlic carrots
- red sauerkraut
- hubbard and butternut squash baked with sage, black pepper, leeks, and macadamias
- cranberry pie
- sweet potato pie
- applesauce (if someone wants a sugar-free option; made earlier this year from the rest of the pre-Rosh Hashanah orchard excursion apples)
It's a lot of orange, more than I'd really like without more green, though at least the reds are really intense magenta-like ones. It helps a little that dessert will likely be later, so it won't be as obvious that there are three orange foods...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 05:17 pm (UTC):-)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-16 07:20 pm (UTC)(That's an organic giggle, too ;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-18 04:54 am (UTC)Shavua tov.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-19 02:43 pm (UTC)And shavua tov to you. Happy turkey week :-)
notes
Date: 2007-11-19 02:53 pm (UTC)The polenta in the green salad worked pretty well. In addition to the listed things, I put in slivers of daikon, which added more crunch.
The red sauerkraut is pretty good, and I'm not a huge kraut fan. Yay.
I should've cooked the squash longer the first time, to avoid lumps, but otherwise, the squash worked.
I served the cranberries as relish, then turned the rest into pie (decorated with hearts instead of a full top crust).
Re: notes
Date: 2007-11-19 07:09 pm (UTC)The cranberry pie with the decorative crust sounds so pretty!
Re: notes
Date: 2007-11-19 07:53 pm (UTC)And it looks like bright magenta shreds of cabbage; the brining makes it a bit less purple, somehow, turning it close to beet or cranberry color.
Years ago I bought some canape cutters, and it's fun to use them to cut out crust bits in pretty shapes :-)