One great joy of summer vacation is that I get to work through my back log of saved recipes from the school year. I tried a great salad the other day that combined about three different recipes and was just about perfect. (Will post later) Last night I tried another NY Times recipe  – this time for a vegetarian empada.  

This starts out with a simple red onion and garlic dice. I fully admit to using way more garlic than the recipe calls for (I used three cloves) but this was the right call. These little dears may have a puffed pastry shell, but they are filled with veggies – eggplant, zuccchini, tomato, squash.  

 Getting everything cooked together isn’t hard – it does take time, but once its all chopped up, its pretty easy. To save time I chopped the squashes and eggplant while the onions and garlic cooked then chopped the tomato and herbs while the squash cooked.  

 The biggest pain portion of making these was the dough. Yes, I used store bought puffed pastry, but cutting, rolling and closing these is not the easiest thing in the world. I am pretty bad at making food look perfect (or even really good sometimes) but I didn’t do too bad on these. The original recipe called for making six, but I didn’t have a six cup  muffin pan – I have twelve. So I cut a little extra dough, made each a little smaller and thinner, and made nine  little empadas.

  Because I made these smaller than the recipe calls for, I reduced the cooking time to about 20 minutes.  I could have gone a little less I think, but I wanted to make sure the filling was hot since I made them ahead of time and kept them in the fridge until it was time to cook them.  

 Not bad, right? They look like little muffins  and I even managed to remove them from the pan without breaking any.  

 The verdict? Good. Very good. A make again good, but I may need to change the recipe just a little more. As much as I hate to admit it (because I really like this no meat cooking thing) I think I may use beef broth  to mix with the flour next time. Bob thought they needed a little something and I do agree. If I liked mushrooms, those could work too, but I wanted something with a deeper flavor to truly love these.   So overall a good  experiment and fairly successful.  

Every year Val taunts me with texts of mango. Fresh, right from the trees mango. Boxes and bags of ripe, fresh mango. But, once a year we try to do mangopalooza, mango madness or some such mango themed party. This year it was Mangofest. So, what can you do with mango?  

Obviously fresh mango have to be a part of this. These are not your grocery store mango. These are edible sunshine. It is a shame mango season is so short, but we gorge while we can. There was also dried mango which may sound weird, but all the concentrated sugars make them highly addictive. We went through Val’s entire stockpile of dried mango. The entire thing.  

 There was mango-kale salad. This was not as good as the magic kale salad, but it was darn good and fit the mango theme. Kale, quinoa, chickpeas, mango, red pepper, almonds and a light dressing. It worked pretty well.  

 Not nearly as pretty, but just as tasty (or so the boys told me) was the mango chicken. Val started a mango BBQ base and had me finish the seasoning since I like BBQ sauce and she doesn’t. Chipotle peppers, mustard, salt and pepper … it wasn’t bad, but I thought it needed an earthy note. No one complained so we will count it as a minor success.  

 The star of the show was the mango salsa. Mango, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, salt and lime juice. This went on the pork for mango pork tacos and was eaten plain with chips. Once we tasted it, Val made a second batch and by the end of the night, it was totally gone. I plan to make this myself this week. It really was that good.  

 Mango season will be over before we know it and the magic will be gone for another year. Thankfully Val sent me home with a bag of mango so I can make a few dishes myself this week. Bob may get very tired of mango, but then he won’t have to eat it for another year since I just cannot bring myself yo buy grocery store mangos. They are just not the same. It’s like the Jeresy tomatoes – once you have them fresh, nothing else will ever do. 

I’m not sure how many people are aware of my seemingly never ending battle to make icing. It started a few decades ago trying to make Grandmom’s mocha icing for the coffee chiffon cake. It crept into buttercream icing and glazes. No matter what I tried, which recipes I followed or how many times I tried, icing eluded me. Until recently. Two Christmases ago I mastered the mocha icing for the chiffon cake and now … Cream cheese icing! Ok, it’s not a full buttercream, but when your husband pronounces it perfect and the comment from totally impartial work colleague is “superb,” I think it’s safe to say it is a winner.  

 After making a roasted butternut squash salad with a lemon tahini vinegrette for dinner (also particularly good) I decided I wanted cupcakes.  Really I wanted cake, but cupcakes are cake. So I went with it. I found a recipe and went for it. I separated eggs, whipped butter and sugar, whisked egg whites and gently folded everything together.  

I used real vanilla beans, scraping the inside of the bean. This was more than a ‘quality ingredient’ thing – I didn’t have any vanilla extract in the house. I zest end a lemon and carefully filled my tins. While the cup cakes cooked, I worked on the icing. I made half the recipe for each of these, so there is more vanilla and lemon than the original calls for. I used a little less butter than the icing recipe calls for and again used the vanilla bean. I didn’t like the consistency of the icing as I was making it, so I used a lot more confectioners sugar – probably twice the amount. The result, however was a little questionable until I fasted it – it was good. Really good.  

 Bob called this the best cupcake I have ever made. He asked that I not take the batch to work, but I had to bring one in for one of my bosses; the man has given me enough candy and cookies on stressful days that I owed him one. And who can resist a cupcake?

So after trying to make icing, unsuccessfully, for the better part of two or three decades, I am finally mastering it. I may not be able to grow more than rosemary in Florida, but apparently I can make icing. 

Since I started cooking way less meat our grill has not gotten nearly the use it did when Bob wanted to eliminate grains. I do love a good BBQ, and really love good BBQ sauce so I miss grilling, especially this time of year. But last weekend, as I was perusing recipes, I came across one for BBQ tofu. This one something I had to try. 

 The recipe didn’t give any direction for cooking the tofu, other than to grill it, so I just went with how I would do chicken on the grill. I cut and dried the tofu, then brushed the BBQ sauce onto it while the grill heated. Once it was heated, I got the tofu on the grill and estimated. It looked pretty when it came off the grill, but didn’t have the sear I was looking for.  

 This, of course, led me to scouting the web for how to sear tofu. I now have a few methods to try, one of which looks particularly promising. Hopefully I will get to that experiment in short order.

But the dish. BBQ tofu a definite go. I did keep the extra sauce and next time we have Mom and Dad over I plan to use it on some chicken. I did pair this with the Brussels Sprout salad that has become a favorite around here for a lovely little dinner.  

It can be slightly dangerous when I spend an entire morning reading recipes. It is especially dangerous when we don’t have a Hello Fresh box coming for the week. (I didn’t like the selections this week, so I skipped it, hence the need to figure out dinners for the week.) For most of Saturday I spent way too much time with the NY Times Cooking app.   One recipe I found, that was great for a Sunday so there are leftovers for a few days, was the shells. Spinach, chive and ricotta shells to be exact. They weren’t hard either. The original recipe called for a pound of spinach, but I only had about two or three cups, so that is what I used. The rest of the recipe I followed pretty much as is. So here is my version:

• 2-3 cups baby spinach
• 3 cloves garlic
• 10 ounces ricotta
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan 
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• Giant shells
• Tomato sauce
• Salt & Pepper to taste

  
 I have to say, I was a little skeptical but they turned out really well. They have a nice balance of flavors, and the spinach and chives complimented each other well. Add a nice glass of wine, and it was a lovely little repast.

If you work in a school, this is the time of year that is nuts. Kids are done, even though they are not done, teachers are trying to get through the last few units, parents start panicking about the grades and everyone is counting down until summer vacation. Given that, I haven’t been as creative in the cooking department as I wanted to be, but I used Mother’s Day (and Bob’s birthday) to be a little creative. 

  I started with ribs. I accidentally picked up boneless ribs, but they can still work. I marinaded them overnight in a mixture of soy sauce, orange juice, brown sugar and ginger. This morning I braised them at 275 for two and a half hours. I think I should have done 250 for two hours – they were a little dry and not my best. I did add an Asian BBQ sauce that I had in the fridge and basted them with that while we grilled them, just for a few minutes, to crisp them up.  

  To go with the ribs, I made a pesto pasta. I had made this dish a week ago as a main course fir Bob and I, but I had extra led to and extra pasta, so I went with it. I read several jake pesto recipes and ended up mixing a few together. My version was:

• 2 cups chopped kale, packed
• 2/3 cup pistachios, shelled
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
• ~1/3 – 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste

Mid everything together except the olive oil in a blender and pulse a few times to combine. Slowly drizzle the olive oil in until you have a nice paste. It should retain some of the crunch from the nuts, but not be very course. 

 For a salad, I went with a version of an Asian Slaw. 

• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 1yellow pepper, sliced thin
• Whites of 2 scallions, chopped
• A few cups of shredded cabbage
• 1/4 cup soy sauce 
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

I put all the vegetables, including the scallions into a bowl and mixed. About 20 minutes before serving, I added the dressing (the rest of the ingredients mixed together) and mixed it well then tossed on a few sesame seeds and greens of the scallions to the top. I also added the sesame seeds and scallion greens to the grilled and glazed ribs. 

  The final bit for lunch was a caprese salad. Louise included a cream filled mozzarella in our box this month and it was incredible. Light, but with a ton of flavor. Mom brought me a few tomatoes and I sliced those down and layered the cheese, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar between the slices. I forgot to take a picture of the whole plate, but you can see it in the final plate.  

 For a meal that was not planned with great detail, it came out fairly well. I was a little disappointed with the ribs, but overall, it was a lovely lunch.