Fun with Polenta

Feeling a bit whimsical (I have no idea why this hit--I usually feel more "stoic" or "morose," but whatever, I went with it), I came up with a fun dish that would delight any seven-year old. Since there is only one twenty seven-year old and one twenty eight-year old in this house, we found delight in said dish instead. But I bet my nephews, ages 9 and 11 months, respectively, would've loved it.
I started by preparing the polenta. I'm aware there's another longer, much more complicated method of preparing polenta, which involved lots of babysitting and stirring and infinite amounts of patience. Bah! Bah! I say. My method works just fine, and it comes together in about 3 minutes. I boil two cups of water, then add enough cornmeal until it starts to bubble and thicken. I then dump it into a shaped receptacle, which I have thoroughly grease beforehand, and let it set. After about 2 minutes, it's ready. If your receptacle happens to be a shallow rectangle, your polenta will look like this:

Then came the fun part: the shapes! I found my best "fall-themed" cookie cutters, which were a ghost and a half-moon. Voila! Polenta shapes! See?

I served mine with some zucchini "noodles" I made by simply shaving long strands of zucchini with a vegetable peeler. I put them all in a small saucepan with a bit of water and steamed until all the water evaporated, then sauteed for just a bit.Dressed with S&P and some parmesan cheese, they were really tender and tasty!

I topped the polenta with some marinara sauce and a few cubes of goat cheese.
Here is Cookie Monster's plate: a serving of whimsical polenta befitting for a child alongside extremely phallic-shaped meat. Ah, the inappropriate dichotomy.

And my plate. I also had some leftover roasted eggplant topped with a bit more marinara sauce and a Tofurky. It looks like I have served myself so much more food; really, it's that Cookie Monster doesn't like the vegetables I made.

Oh well! More vegetables for me!

Zucchini Balls! (And yes, I am alive)

Tee hee! Balls!

Ok, now that I have that out of my system...

I found these adorable 8-ball zucchini at the farmers' market. Mostly I had to try one because... well, it's a freakin' ball o' zucchini.

I started by cutting each in half and hollowing out with a spoon, but not digging out too much that they lost their shape.



Then I sauteed the innnards with some onions and garlic. When they were mostly soft, I cut up half a Tofurkey sausage into bite-sized chunks and threw that in too. I threw in some tomato sauce to complete the stuffing and spooned some into each baby zuke.

Then I sprinkled parmesan cheese over the top. Because you cannot have Italian-type cuisine without cheese. Really. It's a law in Italia. When Italians are feeling especially patriotic, you can hear shouts of Formiggi Sempre! walking down the street.

I baked it in the toaster oven 'til the flesh of the ball (giggle! ok, so not completely out of the system) was tender but not soft.

Since I had only used half of the Tofurkey, I just ate the other half alongside the zuke.


Stuffed Zucchini 8-ball! A hole-in-one!



(Wait a minute. That's the wrong sport!)

Zucchini Sticks and Pasta with Herb Sauce

Here we have a lovely zucchini straight from ChezVCK garden! Those snap peas are also from the garden!

Watch out, zucchini. I'm gonna eat you!

Here is the zucchini stick-making assembly line. Fried zucchini is a very delicious food that I would love to consume. However, eating fried food makes my pants very angry. In protest, they refuse to fit me anymore. So, I have adapted fried zucchini in a different way, making it taste like fried zucchini without actually frying it. (Ssshh... don't tell my pants.)

Instead of dredging the zuke slices in egg, as is typical, I just used a bit of vegetable stock to make sure the breading adhered. This saves some calories too!

After I dredged the zuke sticks in the veggie stock, I dipped them in a mixture of Italian bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese.

See?
Then I put them all into neat little rows on a cookie sheet sprayed with a little cooking spray, so they won't stick.

And this is how they turned out after a short stint in a hot oven. I think it was about 15 minutes at 400 or so.
I served the zucchini sticks alongside some whole wheat pasta and a tofurkey dog. For the pasta, I made a simple pesto-like sauce. I grabbed some fresh herbs from my garden--chives, basil and oregano--and buzzed it all together in the food processor with some olive oil, veggie stock and good ol' S&P. It was really simple and really tasty. Finished with more parmesan cheese, it was done!

De-lish!

Vegetable Risotto

I like to change things up every now and again. We don't have risotto too often here in Chez Stadium, but it's on the menu from time to time. Risotto is one of those things that people order in restaurants but hardly ever make at home because they think it's hard. It's not really, it just takes a little time and patience (something I usually lack in vast quantities. I am quite possibly the most impatient person on Earth, except when it comes to cooking. I have no idea why. Anyone care to psychoanalyze me? On second thought... don't.).

For this risotto, I started off by sauteeing some zucchini and onions together, 'til they were mostly soft.

Then I added some garlic and a bunch of halved heirloom cherry tomatoes. Oooohhh, look at all the pretty colors!


That's when you start adding the stock. You can use chicken, vegetable (which is what I used), beef, turkey, pork, tofu (ok, that doesn't really exist), shrimp, lobster, halibut, capybara, emu or fruit bat stock. Whatever you choose--no judgment here. Except if you use porcupine stock. Then I'll judge you. That's just gross.

So you add your stock one ladle-ful at a time, and stir it around until the rice absorbs all the liquid, then add some more. This is where the patience comes in handy. It takes about 20-25 minutes for the rice to become tender, and you have to do it very slowly.

Once it was mostly cooked, I added some pesto and some goat cheese to add lots of flavor. Mmmmm... flavor.

And here is the finished product. The pesto added this awesome basil-y pesto-y flavor in the background, but it was not overwhelming. So yummy!
I served the risotto alongside some tofurkey with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. It is not a pile of meat with blood on top, which is what I first thought it was after looking at this photo after a period of a few weeks. But that's stupid. Why on Earth would I serve myself a pile of cow with bloody sauce? So, rest assured, it's tofu.

Damn, my photography really sucks.

Sigh.

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa

I love vegetables. This is very convenient, as I do not love most meat. There are very few veggies I don't like: fennel is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. So, when Cookie Monster was gone a few evenings ago, I planned to make a whole lotta things he doesn't like, simply because I could. I had a butternut squash that had been sitting forlornly atop the microwave. Its call of "Eat me! Eat me!" I finally answered. It probably didn't appreciate the carnage that resulted:I peeled, seeded and chopped said butternut squash, then roasted it in a 400 degree oven alongside green beans, carrots and onions. I also peeled a few garlic cloves and tossed them in there too. Mmm...roasted garlic! I tossed all of these in olive oil and S&P and roasted 'til tender.

I don't know what the big fuss is all about when it comes to cooking squash. I find it relatively simple. This is the first time I have peeled the squash before roasting it, and it wasn't difficult at all. I used my crap-tastic vegetable peeler and it was easy. So: people. Don't let the squash be victorious. You take that squash and show it who's boss! Like I did. Ha! Suck it, squash! I'm gonna eat you, and there's nothing you can do about it!



To go with all those tasty roasted vegetables, I cooked up some quinoa. This is an ancient super-grain that's supposed to be really good for you. Since it was just moi, I only used 1/4 cup; it cooks up to be more than that. When it was done, I tossed in all the roasted vegetables, as well as a few cherry tomatoes and some bleu cheese. It was really, really tasty. And I didn't have to share with anyone!

For my protein, I cooked up a Trader Joe's sun-dried tomato and basil Tofurkey sausage. These things are awesome. I sometimes prepare them with tomato sauce and cheese, but today I just paired mine with some bar-be-que sauce.


Chez VCK's Roasted Vegetable Quinoa

Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped (this is not hard. Really. Don't be intimidated by the squash!)
Onions, peeled and cut into small-ish pieces
Green beans
Baby carrots
Cloves of garlic, peeled
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Bleu cheese

1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly (you want to do this so it doesn't taste like soap. Trust me on this).
1/2 cup water or stock

Toss all vegetables in olive oil and S&P. Roast in 400 degree oven 'til a fork goes in easily. Meanwhile, bring quinoa and water/stock to a boil, then reduce heat and cover 'til quinoa is tender, about 10 minutes or so. Stir quinoa to fluff, then toss in roasted vegetables. Add tomatoes and cheese, and stir 'til cheese melts a little. Inhale this delicious, nutritious dinner while watching smutty TV shows your husband would mock you mercilessly for watching.