the arugula files

No Mix Banana Bread at 5:15 am, Plus Pillow Talk

A few days ago my little Josie woke up at 5:00 am ready to embrace the day, which basically meant that I had to face the day.  So we had a little milk, chatted for awhile, and then, exausted by her robust schedule, she fell asleep in her swing at 6:30 am.  That left me without much to do until I noticed three bananas aging rapidly in my fruit bowl.  I did a quick search on my iPad for a recipe, and wasn't suprised to find that Elise, from Simply Recipes, has banana bread covered.  The most important thing about this recipe?  No mixer required.  One bowl.  Very little mess. Voila! I'm a domestic goddess who feeds her little one, makes banana bread in the morning for husband's co-worker, and then goes to work.  ZZZZZamaZZZZing.  I'm falling asleep thinking about how awesome I am.

Pillow talk after the jump.

Blueberry Pancakes (Plus, Can you Make Pancakes with a Stainless Steel Pan?)

After poring through a dozen recipes for blueberry pancakes, it all comes down to the million dollar question: can you use a stainless steel pan to make pancakes?  Every recipe I read called for a nonstick pan.  The problem for me is that I don't own a nonstick pan.  My husband, Marcus, thinks we will all die slowly of cancer if we use them.  This morning I set out to find out if stainless steel pans work (not if we would slowly die of cancer from using nonstick, a debatable topic in my house).  My conclusion: yes, you can in fact make pancakes with a stainless steel pan.  It all comes down to the fact that stainless steel pans eventually become "nonstick" if they get hot enough.  You just have to be patient and wait for the pan to "release" the pancakes from it's hold.  Of course, this means you have to use oil, but I think oil is necessary anyway for browned edges that give pancakes flavor and texture.  You end up with a crispy shell and soft pillow cake inside.

Moroccan Chicken Soup with Lemon-Apricot Couscous (Plus Are Frozen Artichokes better than Canned?)

This weather is killing me.  I refuse to recognize the wet drizzle, hail(!), and snow.  Yes, I'm the one admiring the cherry blossoms in capri pants and a light sweater--shivering.  A hopeful tourist who packed the wrong clothes? Nope, a stubborn Washingtonian who already packed away her winter jacket, has only linty black tights remaining, refuses to buy new ones, and expects pretty flowers to mean good weather.

There is no way I'm wearing North Face again this season.  No way.  

But I will give way to a pot of hot soup. This recipe is from Cuisine at Home.  The bold ingredients caught my eye, plus I couldn't resist the "promise of traveling to an exotic land without leaving your kitchen or renewing your passport."  (I love absurdly bad copy).

All snarky comments aside, this soup is brimming with flavor (like a trip to North Africa!), and the lemon-apricot couscous made sure it was a satisfying meal, perfect for these hard, cold days of spring in Washington.  I made one slight change to the recipe.  I used dry beans instead of canned beans. 

My only critique is that the canned artichoke hearts didn't add much flavor.  Which brings me to a million dollar question that I'm hoping someone out there can answer.  Are frozen artichokes better than canned ones?  Say the word, and I'll make the switch.

Kale, Sausage, and Cannellini Soup

 

Last winter I began an everlasting love affair with kale.  It continues with this Bon Appetit-inspired soup.  A simple Sunday supper, this soup comes together quickly.  The best part: you can pack up the leftovers and eat it for lunch the next day, when it tastes even better. The creamy beans and bright lemony broth go well with hearty kale leaves and the robust flavor of the sundried tomatoes.  Bon appetit!

p.s., This soup is just as tasty vegetarian, so if that's the way you roll, omit the sausage and up the amount of beans and sundried tomatoes. 

Corn Chowder (Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall)

This is my last corn recipe for the summer.  It's fitting, I think, for the end of the season.  Hot soup featuring summer ingredients is a perfect cross walk. 

I'm sad to see summer go, but I'm looking forward to all things fall, most importantly: sweater weather.  Nothing beats it.  In fact, as much as I like tomatoes and corn and the beach, I think fall is my favorite season.  I love apple picking and brussels sprouts and braising cabbage for hours.  I like going shopping for new school clothes, even though I don't go to school.  And hikes.  Fall hikes are the best.

Here's a quote that sums it up:

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.  So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (one of my least favorite authors)

Let's get in the mood: what's your favorite thing about fall?

Peach and Cheddar Sandwich with Arugula, Actually Grilled ("Real Grilled Cheese"?)

I love me some grilled cheese.  So when Mark Bittman boasted to the rest of the internets that he was actually making real grilled cheese, I felt intrigued, goaded, and hypnotized at the same time.  Real grilled cheese?  Yes, I want some.  I will make some.  Today.  

Instead of using a frying pan or griddle, Bittman actually cooked his grilled cheese on a grill.  Sounds good, right?  Although I love grilled cheese, I don't eat it often, mostly because of the high fat content.  So, the idea that "it was not frying in a lot of grease," as Bittman points out in this video, was quite appealing. 

Working to turn convention totally up side down, I substituted peaches for tomatoes.  See you later, boring old tomatoes and cheese, I'm making peaches and cheese (and arugula).  For the bookends I used my favorite: olive bread from Atwater's.

Corn Quesadillas

Summer is just about over.  Actually, I hate to break it to you, it is over.  Done. Finished.  Kaput.   While I'm pleased that the weather is starting to cool down, I will be sad to see a few quintessential signs of summer disappear, most notably fresh corn. Nothing beats an ear of sweet corn, slathered with butter and liberally sprinkled with salt.  I would go so far to say that the experience of chomping on an ear of corn is well worth the nuisance of picking your teeth for hours after dinner. 

While I've certainly had my share of corn this summer, I'm not ready to say goodbye.  And taste is not the only reason: you can easily make an affordable meal out of a few ears.  This week my supermarket, the Soviet Safeway ("long lines and empty shelves"), had local corn on sale: eight ears for 88 cents.  Score! I placed eight in my basket, not sure what I would do with them when I got home.   Turns out I had tortillas in my refrigerator.  So I decided it was time for corn quesadillas.

Fresh-Tasting Tomato Soup (Out of a Jar)

Last week, in the middle of the day, my friend Jen and I took a field trip to A. Litteri Inc. a reasonably priced, old-school Italian grocer in DC.  A. Litterari is a small space crammed with cold pressed olive oil, dry wine, capers the size of olives, fresh pasta, and every other Italian ingredient you could imagine.  I could spend hours in those narrow aisles, reading labels, dreaming up recipes, chatting with the deli clerk.  Of course, I didn't have hours (it was, after all, the middle of a work day), so I settled quickly on a few things, one being a jar of San Marzano Marinara Sauce.

San Marzano tomatoes come from a small town of the same name located near Naples, where they were originally grown in the volcanic soil of Mount Vesuvius. I've heard things about San Marzano tomatoes.  How good they are.  How you will never make sauce with another tomato after you have tasted San Marzanos.  Life changing tomatoes is what they are made out to be.  And after I tasted the sauce that came out of this jar, I thought, yup, these tomatoes are seriously delicious.  So instead of making boring old pasta, I made tomato soup.  Let me distill the recipe in one simple word: pour.