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So, I’m thinking about making this food blog… not entirely a food blog. I’ve missed writing so much. Now that I’ve started doing it again, so many other things I want to say are cropping up. More on that front later.

Last night I turned Orangette’s recipe for Chana Masala into one of my favorite Indian dishes – Bhindi Masala. Bhindi Masala is something we happened onto by total accident; saying “Oh let’s get some vegetables” on day when we were having Indian for dinner. Okra has long been a favorite veg of mine and L.’s and Bhindi Masala is actually the perfect blend of spice and tartness.

When I made chana masala last time, the sauce reminded me very much of bhindi masala, so I was determined to try out the dish. Looking up the recipe on the internet, most of the ingredients were the same, with the exception of amchoor powder, which is dried mango powder. With that in mind, I decided to prep the dish in the same way as I had the Chana Masala, but just adding in okra instead of chickpeas.

Overall, the dish was delicious. We served it with some whole-wheat Naan and topped it with queso blanco, which does taste just like paneer. However, the dish still lacked something. It didn’t seem as well bound together as the chana masala was. It tasted great, but it still needs work.

Going back to the recipe I found online, there seems to be more vegetables in general. The chana only uses one onion and their’s calls for two. Plus it calls for two whole tomatoes, rather than the ones from a can that the chana uses. I think what I need to do is find a blending between the two. Regardless, the dish and leftovers were delicious.

We enjoyed our bhindi masala with a glass of Urban Uco 2005 Tempranillo. Tempranillo has to be my favorite of all red wines and this one is delicious. It’s dry and crisp, which are by far my favorite things in a wine. It’s full-bodied, but still light and doesn’t hang around on the tongue forever. There’s an element of fruit taste, but it doesn’t mess with my wine. I think what I love most about it is it It really went well with the spice of the meal.

Overall, Monday – Thursday stayed the same. The steak for Friday got bumped to Saturday. On Sunday I went to the movies and wound up going to Johnny Rockets. This week, I’m planning to reuse some of the few ingredients that didn’t make it into the mix.

Monday: Meatless Monday! Bhindi Masala with Queso Blanco, using Orangette’s Channa Masala as a base, naan and fresh tomatoes.

Tuesday: Asian flavored pork chops over <a href="soba noodles.

Wednesday:Lemon Olive Chicken with Cous Cous.

Thursday: Dinner out at Perilla. Hooray Restaurant week!

Friday: Farmers’ Market Free for All! Newman’s Own Uncured Pepperoni Pizza and fresh farmer’s market salad.

Saturday: Cubano Quesadillas with home-made pickles.

Sunday: Whole Roasted Chicken, grilled veg and corn pudding.

Look at that beautiful jar of crisp green cucumbers, just waiting to soak up their brine and turn into delicious pickles. I did that!

I followed Shauna’s recipe to a tee and it all smelled and looked delicious. Right now all the jars are in my fridge and it’s KILLING me having to wait for them to be pickled. I’m hoping they’ll be ready for a recipe I have planned for later in the week.

The farmers’ market this week was both quite a joy and a bit of a disappointment.

I wanted to buy dill, but they didn’t have any at the stands. I had to settle for supermarket dill.

I meant to get garlic from one of the farm stands and completely forgot.

All in all, I’m excited about what I got. My haul included: four ears of corn, three fresh onions, a medium eggplant, one zucchini, three carrots, a bunch of baby beets, six juicy peaches and five pickling cucumbers.

There are so many possibilities of what to do with my veggies. Tomorrow I was supposed to make pasta puttanesca but instead I’m planning to make Grilled Eggplant Parmesan. It should be delicious.

However, since then I’ve lost my french toast recipe. I tried winging it last night but it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted. The french toast I made last night was really dry. I think part of the problem is I am now using a really dense wheat bread and it needs a lot more flavoring.

I did make a rocking fruit compote to go with it. It came out slightly sweet, but I can easily adjust it for next time.

French Toast notes
1. Use this recipe for French Toast base.
2. Soak bread for longer and let it absorb more egg mixture.
3. Cut the sugar in the fruit compote and use it as topping, not filling.

However, despite the French Toast Fail, I turned the leftovers into a delicious little Croque Monsieur type sandwich for lunch.

L. and I have been trying to embrace this whole Meatless Monday movement. In general we’re fans of vegetarian food, but don’t think about incorporating it into our menu often enough.

Last night I made Orangette’s Chana Masala. It was so divine and delicious. Even as I was cooking and tasting it, I could tell the pay off was going to be huge. The dish was well-spiced, but not hot, full of tomato and onion flavors. It was incredible and I had to fight not to consume the entire bowl right then and there.

I followed Orangette’s recipe to a tee, with the following exceptions:

- I topped ours with a serving of tofu, to balance the carbs and protein ratio. In general, I would have preferred the protein to come from paneer but our local market didn’t have any. Apparently you can use Queso Blanco for a substitute but I know paneer is super easy to make at home. My co-worker Seema is always talking about how she makes it in the morning before work. Maybe I’ll give that a try.

- We didn’t have any garam masala on hand. Garam Masala is actually a spice blend and I was able to find the right combo of spices on the internet. The combo we used was the second one listed here. To be honest though, we did not mix up a whole 1/4 cup. I just tossed in a little bit of each with the spices.

- We had ground cardamom and not cardamom pods, so we substituted 1 tsp per pod. The actual ratio is 1/6 tsp per pod, so we were probably a touch heavy on the cardamom.

Next week I plan to use Orangette’s recipe as a base, but substitute okra for the chickpeas, making one of my favorites: bhindi masala! I’m also going to make some Naan because the dish was crying out for some yummy bread to scoop up the sauce.

I’m definitely on the prowl for less prep-heavy dishes this week. My meal extravaganza on Saturday involved a lot of chopping and dicing and so forth. L. made a comment yesterday that I can’t use any more dishes – because all of them are already in the dishwasher! I also want to use up some of the stuff we have laying about in the house

Monday: Meatless Monday! Orangette’s Channa Masala and fresh tomato salad.

Tuesday: Whole-Wheat French Toast with Turkey Bacon.

Wednesday: Turkey Bacon BLTs. (L. loves BLTS) with salt and vinegar grilled fries and veggie salad.

Thursday: Neil Sedaka’s chicken prepped the day before and leftover veggie salad.

Friday: Farmers’ Market Free for All! Balsamic Steak with Fresh Veggies.

Saturday: Orangette’s Soba with Peanut Citrus Sauce and Farmers Market Veg.

Sunday: Pasta Puttanesca and Salad.

For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie.

Eric and I were talking about cooks vs. bakers. He is more of a baker, while I like to futz and experiment, which baking does not allow. Currently, he’s reading this cookbook called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. The book is all about how the basis of cooking is combining things in the right parts. I am thinking about getting it because apparently they have good bread recipes in there. I honestly long to make bread. I remember making it in a cooking class in elementary school and loving it.

Speaking of cooking classes, I need to plan out what’s going to happen in my school’s Good Eats club this coming year. I feel like a lot of the time last year, we wound up planning what we were going to make the Thursday before the club happened. Anyone have any kid friendly recipes? We have a toaster oven and I’m thinking about getting a hot plate.

One project I want to work on in the very near future is pickling. Orangette and Gluten-Free Girl have some delicious sounding pickling recipes. Orangette’s is a bit more about pickling vegetables and onions whereas Gluten-Free Girl is all about pickled cucumbers. I could eat pickles by the bucket-full, so I am definitely going to try this out. The dill from the farmers’ market is lovely and they always have cucumbers on sale. Yum!

Also, let it be said that for all my fanciful lovings, I quite enjoy McDonald’s iced coffee.

Yesterday I made an epically yummy meal. I was telling my mother about it before and explained that my rationale behind it was “Hey, let me put together a bunch of stuff that I enjoy eating.” At the farmer’s market, I was mentally throwing dishes together, but not everything clicked until I got home.

What I made was as follows: Balsamic Basil Chicken with Bruschetta topping, grilled veggies (red onion, zucchini, squash), Corn and Vegetable Salad and Beets with Dill.

The chicken was great – I threw it in some balsamic and oil with basil and garlic and let that marinate over night. I grilled it on my Le Cruset pan then and the smell of the garlic bits roasting along with it was lovely. I let it sit a bit when done and then topped it with a kind of bruschetta: halved cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, parsley, basil, balsamic, oil, salt and pepper. Then I put it in the oven to get the cheese all melty. It was divine!

Everything else I did sort of just got thrown together, tasting as I went. I don’t much care for corn but the corn salad was AMAZING. I am in love. It was very sweet, crisp and just delightfully refreshing and cool. The beets were just perfection – the sweetness and saltiness, mixed together to really elevate the way the beets tasted. It was heavenly.

Corn and Vegetable Salad
Inspiration from PJ’s Fresh Corn Salad

4 fresh ears of corn
1 half medium zucchini
1 medium red onion
1 half large green pepper
Olive Oil
Balsamic
Sirracha
Salt
Pepper

Cut all the corn off the ears by standing them up vertically in a bowl and running your knife top to bottom. When all corn is removed, scrape the cob and add in any of the starchy pulp that comes out. It helps bind the salad.

Using the size of the corn as your guide, dice the remaining vegetables into similarly sized chunks. Overall the whole salad should be uniform in size. Add the diced veggies to your corn.

For dressing – you don’t want to overwhelm the veggies, so add just enough olive oil and balsamic to lightly coat. I added a drop of sirracha for spice. Salt and pepper to taste, then mix everything together.

Beets with Dill

6 small roasted beets
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 bunch dill

Canned beets would work for this recipes, but I’ve gotten some lovely ones from the farmers’ market, so I decided to use those. To roast them, I clipped everything about about 2″ from the top of the beet roots. I sprayed them with cooking spray, topped them with lemon juice, salt and pepper, then wrapped dill around them, putting the whole thing in foil. I put them in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour. The bigger beets took about 1 1/2 hours.

Cut the beets up into small chunks. You could leave them as slices, but it’s harder to dress them.

Put the beets in a bowl and pour the lemon juice over them.

Using a knife, scrape the fronds off the dill, leaving the stems behind. Put the dill on top of the beets.

Mix the beets to combine.

Top with salt and pepper. Kosher salt is amazing on this.