I’ve been lazy this last week. Not lazy in the cooking experiment department, but lazy in the posting them realm. I did make a few new things, most of which were fairly successful. Why was I lazy about posting? Part is the end of summer blues (yes, I’m ready to be back at work, but there is also something about knowing vacation is almost over that is a little melancholy inducing) and part is that the app is still crashing if I try to add photos, so I have to use my computer to post. I prefer the tablet – it is way more convenient so I post more frequently when it works right.

But the experiments …

I started with a watermelon quinoa salad with melted cheese. Yes, it sounds weird, but it kind of worked. Not a put in the rotation worked, but kind of worked. Tomato, watermelon, quinoa, basil, cheese and a red wine vinaigrette.  Good, but not great.

Way better was the Chopped Asian Salad from the NY Times cooking app. This one was incredible. This is a make again on a regular basis good. The marinade, which then becomes part of the dressing for the salad was just about perfect. Baking the tofu (and I really only used about 1/3 of a package of tofu instead of the whole thing, but I keep to the rest of the recipe) was easy, although I do like the crispy crust that frying gets it.

The squash cakes I made were also good. I was able to use up the rest of the Greek yogurt from the Chopped Salad to make a dressing. I like these and they were fairly light, and I’ve made them before but they are not a regular feature on our dinner table.

I had really high hopes for the bugler and squash kefta. Such high hopes. I love bugler, I love squash but this was only ok. This needed something else, another element to add some oomph, but neither Bob nor I could figure out exactly what it needed.  So ok, but not a make again dish.

Chickpea Fritters. I was a little nervous about this recipe, but I love fritters, I love ratatouille and it was a fairly fast dish, so I went for it. This was the winner for the week. The red wine vinegar in the ratatouille was a surprise, but it really worked and added something to the vegetables. I used a Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan, but this worked. The fritters were light and flavorful at the same time, the ratatouille was so good and basil on top kept it light and fresh. Bob suggested this be a more frequent dinner, which is pretty high praise from him. I have to agree; I really liked this.

And we have the requisite cute kitty picture. I looks like they actually like each other, doesn’t it?