food lately

I've had lots of visitors lately and was busy at work so didn't have much time to post about food.  One of my visitors liked my food and asked me to post the recipes.  I didn't use any recipes,  or write down what I did, but I did snap a few photos.  So hopefully I can re-create them from the photos.  It was more of a method than a recipe which I can describe here.

The meals lately usually consist of beans, greens, salads, and corn on the cob, pretty much all locally grown.  and fruit for dessert (not so much local).    The beans are prepared on the weekend and frozen into daily containers.  Right now I have two batches in the freezer.  One is made with "runner cannellini" beans from rancho gordo.  This is what they looked like after soaking--gigantic!

 I cooked them up with mushrooms and onions.  They are creamy and yummy.   The other batch of beans I made with yellow-eyed beans (I don't see them listed right now on the rancho gordo site), and carrot juice, onions, mushrooms, and a little unhulled barley and black rice--really good!  I describe how to cook this up here.

That's the beans.  Then for the most of the veggies, I've been using kale, collards and herbs from the garden (basil, rosemary, chives, dill, cilantro--no rhyme or reason to this besides it grows well), and local produce from the co-op or garden which lately has been summer squash and zucchini and eggplant.  If I use the white beans, I add tomatoes from the garden.  I cook up the veggies in the pressure cooker while the corn on the cob is prepped and boiled.    After the veggies are done, add the beans and 1-2 Tbsp of seed mixture.

Here are some beans & greens:

Here's another batch served up with our usual corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes:

Salads consist of lettuce, maybe some cabbage because the local cabbage is real sweet right now, fresh garden tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, bell pepper, occasionally broccoli from the garden, maybe peas or edamame, and dressing made from a little fresh squeezed orange juice (optional), vinegar (d'angou pear, riesling raisin or a good balsamic) and seed mixture.  Here's today's salad (with cabbage and spinach, forgot to buy lettuce):

We often add some Penzey's no-salt seasonings to the veggies, salads, corn and tomatoes.   Our favorite is mural of flavors, but we also have been trying out sunny paris.

Sometimes instead of greens and beans, we'll have fresh green beans from the garden and salad and corn.  I'll combine the green beans with potatoes and herbs for housemate and guests.

Here's something I made up one night when I was concerned that my guest might be tired of greens and beans.  This was a vegetable curry:

I didn't have much in the fridge so the vegetables were summer squash and cabbage, onion, mushroom and frozen peas.  It looks like there's a potato in there too.  I don't usually make potatoes for myself but I probably thought the guest would like it.   Eggplant would have been good too.  Now I know from experience that curry without salt and sugar tastes bitter and bland.  Since I don't use salt, I needed a sweetener.  I had banana and frozen mangos which I thawed.  I cooked up the squash, cabbage, onion, mushroom, and potato in the pressure cooker with about, 1 tsp of curry powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala.   Then added the peas to cook in the hot veggies as they cooled.  I blended up the water that the veggies cooked in with 1/2 banana and some seed mixture (1-2 Tbsp).   Then pulsed it with about 1/2 cup mango.  Added that back to the veggies.   As usual, we had this with corn on the cob.  This recipe was a big hit, which is funny because I just made it up spur of the moment.

I think that describes everything except my latest yummy breakfast which I'll describe in my next post.  I also like to eat raw veggies:  carrots, kohlrabi, and sugar snap peas.  Today I added some lime and cilantro but I don't think it's worth the bother. They are great all by themselves.

For fruit, I usually buy what's in season and on special (discounted that is).  Lately it's been delicious organic cherries, both from Washington state and our own Door County.  Blueberries have been on special too.  And grapes occasionally.  Earlier we had a fabulous strawberry and raspberry season.  They are both still good, just no longer on special.    Local watermelons and muskmelons are in season now.  Fresh figs are available (from California).    We are getting peaches from Door County which are wonderful.  I'm sure I'm missing something. There's so much to choose from right now.  It's a great time of year.  I think the cherries are my favorite though---they are really good right now.