Chicken Romano

This chilly weather has got me thinking in layers- sweater, scarf, coat, chicken, cheese, sauce. This is a take on pretty straight forward chicken parmesan, except I used romano cheese and layered in a few sauteed veggies. All we had in the kitchen for breading were whole-wheat panko flakes and which had more of a consistency like Grape Nuts. So I pounded them down a bit and added dried herbs- basil, oregano, parsley. We had homemade marinara still frozen from last summer, and which had roasted-red peppers blended in. I smothered the top of the breaded chicken breasts with sauteed onions and swiss chard, and then covered the whole lot with more sauce, mozzarella, and romano.

Arugula, Cuc, Radish and Tomato Salad

Hey it's 13° outside today! Let's celebrate with a summery salad! We found these cute little blushy radishes at the winter farmer's market, along with some hothouse tomatoes and arugula. I topped it off with shavings of parmesan and for the dressing I used e.v.o.o., fig-infused balsamic, lemon juice, salt and fresh ground pepper. We had this with pasta and the last of the lamb meatballs and marinara we froze last month. Oh, and did I mention that its 13° outside today?

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

We saw this recipe on Ina's show, but when I googled it there were several variations online. For a creepy and cozy Halloween dinner, what could be more perfect? The garlic gets sweet and deep, the longer it cooks. The cous-cous was tossed with lemon zest, currants, and cashews and was a great sauce-soaker to the chicken. Lovely table decorations by Beth!

Seitan Scramble

Quick weekend breakfast scramble with seitan, onion, garlic, tomato, spinach, and egg.

Sweet Potato and Ricotta Soup

This sweet potato soup is spicy, herby, sweet, and creamy. It starts with a combination of white onion and shallots sauteed in olive oil until soft, to which I added the cubed (and peeled) sweet potatoes (about 2 large ones). When the potatoes were a little seared, I added the spices and herbs: nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme and sage. Then I poured in 5 cans of low-sodium chicken stock and brought it up to a simmer. When the potatoes were very soft, I then pureed it with the emersion blender. When it was nice and evenly smooth, I added a pint container of low-fat ricotta cheese and 1/3 cup of grated parmesan. Then I blended to soup again to break up the cheese solids. Here it's served with a little arugula salad and a chunk of french walnut bread from out favorite farmers market vendor. Very autumnumnumnal!

Soup, Salad, Apple Crisp

Salad: Pear, Red Onion and Parmesan with a Maple-shallot Vinaigrette

Soup: Butternut Squash Minestrone

Dessert: Apple Crisp (thanks Sarah!)

Pappardelle alla romanesco

T and I have been eyeing these weird little green fractal things at the farmers market for the past few weeks and discovered they are called romanesco, ancient relatives to cauliflower. After a little online research, we decided to just steam them and drizzle with olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. They have a nutty flavor, much deeper and sweeter than I expected. They were a perfect 'meaty' accompaniment with this dish of spelt flour pappardelle (Trader Joe's) with chopped salami, garlic and olive oil.

Great description of romanesco here at Almost a Chef:
http://www.almostachef.com/2008/04/romanesco-cauliflower/

Family-Style Nummy Italiano

Last night we had dinner for twelve at the N3 kitchen. It was a tight squeeze, but we love an excuse to put the leaf in the dining room table and break out the extra long linen. In the hustle and bustle of service, it was hard to get images of all the menu items. Everything was served in big bowls and platters, family-style. Here is the full menu along with the cannoli filling recipe.

Antipasto: Prosciutto, salami, sopressa, olives, roasted peppers and pepperoncini, figs, radish, provolone, and mozzarella.

Green Salad with cucumber, red onion, and tomato and a fig balsamic vinaigrette

Polenta

Lamb and Beef Meatballs with Marinara

Italian Sausage with Onions and Peppers

Baked Butternut Squash Parmesan

Roasted Golden Beets

Sauteed Kale, Spinach and Swiss Chard with Garlic and Olive Oil

Cannoli

Filling: Two small containers of skim ricotta; 1 pint heavy cream, whipped; 1/2c. powdered sugar; 1 tbsp. Cointreau; 1/2c. chocolate chips; 3/4c. dried apricots and rind of 2 lemons pulsed in Cuisinart until minced;1tbsp. lemon juice; 1tsp. cinnamon

Fold all ingredients together with a spatula and chill. Fill cannoli shells just before serving and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

5 Spice Baked Tofu and Acorn Squash

The secret to deeply flavored tofu is in the pressing, prior to the marinating. We always get the extra firm style for baking or broiling cutlets like these. After you open the package, rinse the tofu block and then layer between paper towels and two plates. Weight the top plate with a heavy cookbook and let it press for about 20 minutes. After most of the water is expelled, then slice and marinate. Here we used sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce, black pepper, chili oil, and Chinese 5 spice. I marinated in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then baked them off at 450° for 25 minutes or so.

We served the tofu along with slices of steamed and braised acorn squash, rice, and arugula with a sesame, garlic, and rice vinegar dressing.

Tart and Tangy Udon Noodle Salad

This fast and easy udon noodle salad (15 minutes start to finish)is a real party on the lips. While the noodles are cooking chop mizuna greens, tomato, and firm tofu, along with a few sheets of dried nori (I like to use kitchen scissors to cut the nori into strips). When the noodles are finished, drain them and rinse in luke-warm water, shake off most of the water, then toss into the other ingredients. To dress: sesame oil, fig vinegar and rice vinegar (umbeboshi would work too), a few shakes of chili oil, hot sauce, black pepper, and black sesame seeds.Yumbo deluxe.

Rustic Marinara

The evening of my flight home from San Anton, TPY surprised me with this tasty rustic marinara. He oven roasted the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers and then gave them a light pulse with the hand-held blender. I think he then added a little wine, garlic, basil, and olive oil and simmered them a bit in a shallow saucepan.

Texas Breakfast

Ok, so hot on the heels of my calorie-counting pontificating I had the chance to belly up to a first rate Texas-size breakfast. What's a girl to do? Thanks to my sweet pals Joey and Riley for working the griddle!

Operation Deflation Salad Days

It's no secret that the past few months of traveling, business, and general kookiness has added on a few nummy pounds. So since I got back on my home schedule, I've been on Operation Deflation. The OD is generally a calorie management thing, where I try to manage not to inhale everything that comes within orbit of my face. (You can still watch Paula and Ina on the Food Network, you just can't put that pound of butter on your morning fried-egg-chocolate-chip-sandwich-scone anymore. At least for awhile.)

So, I've turned my attention to the elegant world of frozen veggie cutlets, which I've discovered to be the perfect hearty addition to a fresh salad. This one is drizzled with a homeade dressing of dijon, fig infused balsamic, tabasco, and a swiggle of olive oil- just enough to taste, but not enough to thwart the efforts of those of us trying to keep out BMI's in the green zone.

Contemporary Quinoa Salad Art

We took a weekend trip to the Windy City for art, shopping, and numnumnums. While checking out the Jeff Koons show at the MCA we had a delightful lunch at the Wolfgang Puck cafe. The presentation of the dishes we ordered lived up to the context of the location. This sculptural quinoa salad was surrounded by a little moat of a mint-laced vinaigrette. Eating it was akin to an archaeological dig, uncovering layers of micro-greens, marinated mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and purple potatoes.

We also had a great experience at this tapas bar: http://www.mercatchicago.com/

PB&J... &Basil

Trust me. Num. Num. Num.

Oven Roasted Summer Veggies and Salmon

The marinade for our roasted veggie mix started with lots of fresh ginger along with sesame oil, mirin, soy, rice vinegar and chopped garlic. We tossed it with baby bok choy, summer squash, and a variety of eggplant. We reserved some to also marinate the salmon. The veggies were roasted in a 450° oven for about 20-25 minutes, followed by the salmon for about 15.

Summer Mix

Since we've been back in town and getting up to speed for fall, dinners have been small easy dishes of this and that. Here is a salad of mixed greens with fat slices of an heirloom tomato that had been holding court on our kitchen counter for the past week. It was dressed with a little balsamic and lemon juice. Next is sticky rice with baked tofu slices, and in the background are potstickers that TPY picked up at CostCo. (Gasp! I know! We have a total transparency policy here at N3 about the store-bought nums we occcccasionally put on the table. And we have to admit that Trader Joe's is currently rockin' our world).

We are also both currently on "Operation Deflation"- so stay tuned for lots of low-calorie, high-nutrition, numnumnum posts in the coming weeks!

Chinatown, Boston

Here are another round of shots from a fantastic, memorable meal we had this summer.

Koreana

These shots have been sitting on my desk top for the past 3 months and are from one of our favorite meals this summer at Koreana in Cambridge. I believe I ate so much that my eyes even gained weight. Num!

http://www.www.koreanaboston.com/

Simple Nummy Vegs

Numnumnum is one year old this month! We're celebrating with a few simple veggie dishes. Num-number one is pea sprouts sautéed with garlic and red bell pepper. Num-number two is steamed baby bok choy and yellow squash tossed with nori strips and tamari.

Marinara Rustico

We threw this together on our recent road trip around Iceland. Easy and quick-- a little olive oil, onion, canned crushed tomato, basil, oregano, and red chile. The black olives and hard boiled eggs get added for the final 15 minute simmer. Tossed here with arugula, salt and pepper.

Pork Chop with Mango Compote

We've been out of contact for a bit, but still numming it up. Check back for regular posts on recent meals home and abroad!

French Toast Chicago-Style

On a recent trip to Chicago, this french toast was so nummy my friend ordered two days in a row!

Fettucine with Ramps and Oyster Mushrooms

The farmer's market opened a few weeks ago and they've had ramps, ramps everywhere! Here we tossed them with oyster mushrooms in a little butter cream sauce over fettuccine.

Chicken Green Curry

We found this tasty curry paste at Woodman's of all places. We tried it out in a chicken curry with sweet potato, carrot, celery, and onion. Super!

Warm Lentil Salad

This tasty salad is topped with a sauté of lentils, red onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes, cumin, olive oil, lemon juice, and a little balsamic.

Double Chocolate Pudding Parfait

Parfait. Parfait. Parfait. What more can one say?

We tried this recipe from the "Quick" section of February's Gourmet Magazine for a small dinner party we had a few weeks ago. It was indeed a fast prep. We made the pudding ahead of time, but waited to whip the cream and invited our guest to help layer the parfait just before serving. We also added a tablespoon of Cointreau to the whipping cream. Thumbs up all around!

Seared Scallops with Bucatini

This past week we improvised a roasted onion cream sauce to go with this scallop dish. First we roasted small yellow onions (whole, skin on, one cut side down) and garlic cloves. After they were finished and cooled slightly, they were de-skinned and lightly chopped, and added to a medium-hot skillet with two tablespoons of butter. Then we added about one cup of white wine and cooked that a bit, then a small container of skim ricotta. We brought that to a low simmer, added a little water to thin and spiced with cayenne, nutmeg, parmesan, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Panko-Breaded Snapper

We're optimistically welcoming the first signs of spring with one less layer of socks and a shake of Panko flakes. This Sunday's dinner included baked red snapper marinated in ginger, lemon and garlic, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli rabe.

Chicken Bean Chili and Cornbread

Spicy. Corny. Nummy.

Miso-Grilled Tempeh and Kale

This simple nummy combo is both healthy and macro-licious. The tempeh was marinated in a paste of sweet white miso, tamari, sesame oil, white pepper, and rice vinegar- then broiled for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so. On the side, we served spicy, steamed kale and brown rice, the prince of grains.

Hot Mess Curry Noodle Soup

This party in a pot started with a little sesame oil, onion, bok choy, green beans, garlic, ginger, and mushroom. Then we added the chopped tempeh and sauteed a few more minutes on high-ish heat. Next came four cans of chicken stock, one can of lite coconut milk, half a can each of chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, a few dashes of Sriracha chili sauce, curry powder, tamari, and a little brown sugar. After bringing it to a simmer we added the rice noodles and cooked for another ten minutes. This definitely keeps the cold out.