Mendolonium

A couple of years ago Jeff and I were in the elevator at Whole Foods (yes, we a have two story Whole Foods – it’s like the Disneyland of natural food stores) when he noticed a sign listing the top ten healthiest fruits and vegetables.  Kale was at the top of the list.  Jeff observed, “I don’t know what kale is, but we’ve got to try it.”  So we picked up a bunch, Jeff looked up recipes online, and he put together a fantastic kale salad that he now makes us every other week or so. There’s kale growing out in the garden now; started at different times so that it ranges from wee little sprouts to almost ready to eat size.  I am not generally a big fan of eating leaves (probably a side effect of growing up in the Midwest exposed to nothing leafy but iceberg lettuce), but I love kale.  It is perfect cold in salads; unlike lettuce it stays firm overnight after being doused with dressing.  I love it chopped into ribbons and sauteed into a pasta sauce.  One of the more odd sounding but delicious dishes we like to use it in is kale pie.

One my all-time favorite things Jeff has ever said to me is, “You use a recipe like most people use a compass – it just points you in the right direction.”  I pretty much never make a recipe exactly as it is printed.  I found the original recipe for kale pie in one of my favorite cookbooks:  Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian”.  The recipe I give you below doesn’t look much like Mark’s but Mark’s recipe didn’t include any cheese.  I had to add cheese…and once I did that the changes just kept coming.

Gina’s Kale Pie

Ingredients:

• olive oil for sauteing
• one large bunch kale, chopped into strips with the hard center stalk removed (you may also use Swiss Chard)
• 2 large leeks, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 ounces good cheese (feta, Gouda, drunken goat cheese), grated or crumbled
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup plain full-fat yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly butter a 9 inch square casserole dish.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.
4. Saute the kale, leeks, and garlic until soft.  Let cool to room temperature.
5. Mix kale, leeks, garlic, salt, pepper, cheese, and 3 eggs in a large bowl.
6. Mix remaining 3 eggs, yogurt, baking powder, and flour in a second large bowl.
7. Spread one half of the flour mixture in the bottom of the casserole dish.
8. Top the flour mixture with the kale mixture.
9. Then top with dollops of the remaining flour mixture.
10. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.  The top crust will be shiny and golden brown.
11. Let cool for 15 minutes and then serve.

I was singing the praises of kale last week to my friend and colleague, Karen.  She appeared at my office door today and said, “I bought a bunch of kale.  Now you need to tell me how to use it!”  Now go forth and try kale – you’ll like it.

I think one of the best parts of summer is the explosion of seasonal food: dinner parties with fresh tomato bruschetta, BBQs with cucumber salad, potlucks with cherry pie for dessert. I gave up meat when I was thirteen years old and summer is truly a fabulous time to be vegetarian. That said, sometimes I just want a burger. Not so much for the flavor of the meat, but for the burger experience: a thick patty covered with melted cheese, crisp lettuce, juicy tomato, slathered with ketchup and mustard. There are, of course, the ubiquitous “veggie burgers” that one can find in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I can’t say I’ve ever been terribly fond of the mass-market burgers. In my opinion, despite having ingredient lists a paragraph long, they try too hard to be meat (and fail miserably) – ending up tasting like nothing much at all. A couple of summers ago I set out on a mission to create the perfect homemade veggie burger. One of the recipes resulted in a tasty but crumbling mess of beans; another left us with what looked like a steaming pile of bean poo. None of them were fit to put in any cookbook. But after subjecting my family to one culinary disaster after another I finally came up with a bean and vegetable patty worthy of the name burger.

Ingredients:

• ½ of a medium onion

• 2 ribs celery

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1.5 cups kidney beans, canned or dried and then cooked

• 1 large egg

• ¾ cup rolled oats, uncooked

• ½ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) Note: to make the burgers gluten-free use gluten-free breadcrumbs or crushed corn tortilla chips

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• ¼ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp liquid smoke, (look for it in the grocery store near BBQ sauce)

Directions:

1.  Chop the onion, celery, and coarsely. I like to use a food processor for this.

2.  Add the egg, beans, oats, breadcrumbs, and spices and mash by hand or pulse in a food processor until the mixture is well moistened and comes together.

3.  Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.

4.  Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Note: you can also cook on the grill using a sheet of aluminum foil underneath the patties.

5.  Form the mixture into five equal sized balls.

6.  Press the balls into patties on a the baking sheet.

7.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown on top and

cooked, but still moist, throughout.

We decided to do something completely different, unconventional, and downright revolutionary this past Thanksgiving and it turned out so well, I think we might make it a tradition.  The crazy thing that we did was to celebrate Thanksgiving by taking the day “off” on Thursday and eating our feast on Friday.  Rather than slaving away in the kitchen all night long and waking early on Thursday morning we prepped food for our feast  and baked pies for the Union Station shelter on Wednesday evening at a relaxed pace.  We slept until the kids woke up on Thursday morning and then I even let Jeff sleep in another two hours.  After dropping off the pies my sister joined us for a morning hike to the waterfall at Eaton Canyon.  Apparently we are not the only unconventional folks and found families, couples, runners, and many dogs on the hike as well.  I particularly enjoyed watching the dogs cavort in and out of the cold stream – they were clearly having the time of their life and I couldn’t help but smile at them.  It was a perfect hike.  The sky was gloriously clean and clear, the stream and the waterfall were running swiftly, and the kids were as comfortable as the dogs in the great outdoors.  Thomas especially impressed me; he navigated most of the dozen stream crossings himself; deftly maneuvering from stone to stone and when he fell a time or two he merely scowled, dusted off his hands, and forged onward insisting on being “the leader”.  Theo, strapped safely against me, murmured happy noises for the hike in and curled up like a puppy into Jeff’s jacket and fell asleep for the hike out. We spent the remainder of the day raking leaves, reading by a roaring fire, prepping more food for Friday, and then making s’mores over said fire; thankful for the respite that the day gave us from our busy lives.

On Friday we had the traditional, albeit turkey-less, feast.  And with plenty of time to prepare the feast was a relaxed affair; I didn’t even fully set the menu beforehand, instead waiting to see what produce was ready in our garden.  In the end, we had butternut squash to use and so I created a vegetarian main dish that pleased nearly everyone at the table.  These little triangles of goodness will make you forget that the turkey is missing.

Thankful Squash Triangles

Ingredients:

• 1 package (2 sheets total) frozen puff pastry (I use the Pepperidge Farm brand)
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeds, removed, and cut into 1 inch chunks (about 3 cups once all is said and done)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large leek, diced (white and pale green parts only)
• 1/4 cup diced shallots
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled into chunks
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped finely
• salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. If frozen, de-thaw the puff pastry sheets in the refrigerator the night before using.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Place the squash in a microwave safe container with lid and microwave, covered, for approximately 10 minutes until squash is fork tender.
4. Meanwhile, saute the leeks, shallots, and garlic in the olive oil until translucent and softened.  Remove from heat.
5. Coarsely mash the butternut squash with a potato masher or a fork.
6. Stir the mashed squash, the leek mixture, the cheeses, the parsley, the salt, and the pepper  together.
7. Unroll one puff pastry sheet and cut it into four equally sized squares.
8. Place approximately 1/4 cup of the squash mixture in the center of each pastry square.
9. Fold each pastry square over to make a triangle.
10. Firmly press the edges of each triangle together to seal the pastry.
11. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry and the remaining squash mixture  (Note:  if you have any leftover squash mixture you can use it to toss with pasta.)
12. Place the finished triangles (you should have eight total) on a lightly greased baking sheet.
    Note:  at this step you can cover (With plastic wrap or aluminum foil) the triangles and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking.
13. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 30 minutes – until pastry has “puffed” and is golden brown.

Source: Gina Mendolo

Ingredients:

* 2 T olive oil
* 2 medium leeks, diced (Alternative: if you can’t find leeks use one medium onion.)
* 1 large bell pepper, diced
* 1 cup corn (Fresh or frozen work fine. If frozen, no need to dethaw.)
* 1.5 cups or 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
* 1/4 c fresh cilantro, chopped
* 12 small to medium size corn tortillas
* 2 cups enchilada sauce (recipe follows)
* 1.5 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack, and pepper jack all work well)

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.
2. Saute the leeks, peppers, and corn in the skillet until just tender, about 3 – 5 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat and stir in the black beans and cilantro.
4. Spread 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish.
Place four tortillas on the bottom of the casserole dish. (More or less depending on the size and shape of your casserole dish. You may have to cut the tortillas to fit.)
5. Scoop out 1/2 of the vegetable and black bean mixture and spread it over the tortillas.
6. Top with 1/2 cup cheese.
7. Top with 1/2 cup enchilada sauce.
8. Repeat: tortillas, remaining veggie and bean mixture, 1/2 cup cheese, 1/2 cup sauce.
9. Top with remaining four tortillas, followed by remaining enchilada sauce, and finally remaining cheese.
10. Cover and bake a 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
11. Serve with fresh guacamole and sour cream.