Some Good Vegetarian Options

We have a vegetarian house guest coming this summer.  I know what she likes (no eggplant, no mushrooms) and over the years I've found these main dishes to be hits with the whole family.

Home made pizza
Black Bean Tacos
Potato Pancakes
Asparagus & Farfalle
Tortilla Soup
Pasta with tomatoes, spinach and cheese
Grilled  zucchini, corn and peppers with black beans
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Spicy Basmati Fried Rice
World's Best Marcaroni and Cheese
Lentil Soup with Homemade Naan
Southwest Potatoes (potato, corn, beans and cheese)
Stuffed Peppers
Spinach Souffle

That's two weeks worth of menus.  We go out for Indian and Italian food, too.   You can "Google" to get the recipes.  We usually "repeat" the pizza and tacos.

Home Made Naan on the Grill

Grapeshot  

Spinach Souffle - Olé

Spinach Souffle Just out of the Oven

We stopped at a farm stand on Long Island's North Fork on Saturday, and the spinach was to die for and cheap to boot.  We had spinach with shallot and mushrooms last night.  Tonight, a spinach souffle took center stage.  I have enough left for the veggie course tomorrow.  This was so easy to prepare with common ingredients.  We loved it and will finish the leftovers for breakfast.  Spinach Souffle Recipe

Here is another photo.  Doesn't it look scrumptious?  Looks aside, the frugality and ease of making the souffle are paramount. 

Yes! 

Christmas Dinner Revisted: Roast Beef, Spinach Souffle and the Accoutrements

Ready to dig in.  Lovely table, lovely meal!

The Roast Beef with onions and two fab sauces

A small portion of the roast with a great carver!

There were so many taking photos of the Christmas dinner that they had to be herded to the table like cats!!  The menu was extraordinary, and two cooks were not too many, in fact just about right.

We did the Roast Beef Dinner from Bon Appetit with  a salad from the Food Network and an old New York Times dessert that was remixed from pears and cranberries to apples and cranberries.  No more text is needed, so here is the feast forthwith.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Note individual spinach souffles.

Two Cooks, Cooking

The salad was of sugar snap peas, Persian cucumbers and cherry and grape tomatoes garnished with dill in a light dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and lemon rind.  So Christmasy looking and light to go with the heavier beef.  We also served yesterday's boiled potatoes cooked briefly in the oven in the beef fat.  It was an inspired "remix."

Yesterday morning, I grabbed some leftover beef and a few cookies and we took off.  The beef made superb sandwiches.  I'm baking up some more rugelah cookies today.  The snow is heavy and we ain't goin' nowhere.

Cheers!

Grapeshot

Holiday Dinner. a Winner

The Christmas Dinner Menu has been finalized, mostly from the December Bon Appetit with a Food Network Salad and an old New York Times remixed dessert:


Guy Fieri always chants:  "Winner, winner, chicken dinner!"
This menu sounds like a winner to me!  I never want turkey twice in such a short period of time.  Ham is for New Year's Day.
My friend Karin and I have cooked together for ages, beginning with an entire Gourmet Thanksgiving menu that involved two pounds of butter.  And fresh chestnuts (never again!) And pumpkin  soup (a surprising winner).  And creme brulee back when nobody knew what it was.  God, was that trip under the broiler nervewracking.  By then the kids had fallen asleep and the host was tipsy.  Back in the day. Way back in the day.