rhubarb pie

now, i'm not one to go BUYING strange, red celery with poisonous leaves (seriously-- don't. eat. the. leaves.) but we got my parents' csa share this week and i definitely AM one to freeze up when i'm doing something new and refuse to deviate, so... the rhubarb came home with us. what do you DO with rhubarb, i asked myself, and then i remembered little house on the prairie -- only the actual story probably came from the first four years or those happy golden years -- and bought a prefab pie crust.

ingredients:

• frozen pie crust
• 4 cups (a regular bunch that you'd see at a store) rhubarb, cubed
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup flour

prep:

• preheat oven to 450*
• defrost pie crust (or make your own... whatever)
• cube rhubarb (which the joy of cooking only BARELY deigns to call "fruit")

actual cooking:

• unroll first crust into pie plate, perforate with a fork
• combine sugar, flour and rhubarb in a bowl
• pour filling mixture into pie shell
• unroll top crust over filling, crimp & perforate
• bake (on a cookie sheet-- preferably rimmed) at 450* for 10 minutes
• decrease heat to 350* and continue baking 35-40 minutes

it's tastes like cherry pie-- honest! sugary and tart and pretty delicious.

monkey bread

i bet there's a better way to make monkey bread, but this one was SO EASY (especially since i had some slave labor to roll the dough into balls and coat it in cinnamon sugar) that i need to the the interwebs about it.

ingredients:

• 3 cans of buttermilk biscuits
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 tbs cinnamon

prep:

• grease a bundt pan
• preheat oven to 350*

actual cooking:

• mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in a bowl
• melt butter, add brown sugar and bring to a boil (keep warm)
• cut (or tear) each biscuit into quarters
• in small batches, lightly shape the pieces into balls, roll in sugar mixture and add to the pan (next time, i would drizzle some of the butter mixture and some more cinnamon sugar on each layer)
• cover with butter mixture
• bake for 35-40 minutes
• let cool for 10-20 minutes

this was a roaring success. which is good, because the cheesecake i made that night had the texture of tapioca pudding... and i'm not sure why. whoops.

hearty banana muffins

this is a huge cheat of a recipe since the main ingredient is a banana bread mix. but, LO! some lady made a damn fortune writing books about making box cakes, so bear with me, k?

ingredients:

• banana bread mix (mine was trader joe's, naturally)
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup egg whites OR 2 large eggs

prep:

• none, this recipe takes ten minutes
• oh, and preheat to 325*

actual cooking:

• combine ingredients in a bowl
• spoon into lined muffin tin (i did 12 regular-sized muffins)
• bake for 30 minutes

the recipe on the box (with eggs & oil) makes nine servings at something like 370 calories each. my recipe make 12 at 175 each. good deal, right? plus, mine have way more fiber since neither eggs nor oil have fiber, but applesauce and oat sure do. but i didn't do that math.

recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one pound of sausage

this week's dinners are: flatbread pizza with sausage, onion & brussels sprouts, sausage sandwiches with provolone & wilted spinach, macaronis with sausage & cheese served with sauteed zucchini & creamy tomato florentine soup with sausage.

ingredients:

• 1 pound sausage (cheating. my dad makes it, so i have no clue how much a pound of sausage costs. sorry.)
• 2 1/2 cups flour (pantry staple)
• 2 tbs psyllium husk* (negligible, but a canister of psyllium ran me ~$5)
• water
• provolone cheese (i'm not sure how much by weight cost us ~$4, but only about 5 slices will be used for dinners, so maybe $2 worth?)
• tomato gravy/pizza sauce (~$1)
• brussels sprouts (i paid $2.30)
• onion (i don't know, $0.50?)
• 4 slices good bread (we buy this anyway for bill's lunches, but maybe a third of a loaf will be used for dinners, so ~$1?)
• baby spinach ($2)
• 1/2 pound short, curly pasta like shells (~$0.50)
• scratch cheese (pantry staple)
• zucchini (i paid $2.30)
• veggie broth ($2)
• mirepoix ($3, but i'm using the some left from last week's soup)
• canned whole tomatoes ($2, but also leftover from last week's soup)
• butter (pantry staple)
• 1/2 pound ditalini ($0.50, also leftover from last week's soup)

i'm using more and more pantry staples, so the things i actually had to buy this week ran about $15. of course, i didn't buy sausage, so that could add, what, $5? $8? i really don't know.

*about psyllium. ummm, it's a milled seed thing... that turns into this gelatinous mass with water... it's the main ingredient in most fiber supplements... and also an egg replaces/stabilizer thing. i THINK that you could sub 2 eggs in the flatbread recipe, and obviously use less (or maybe no?) water. but no promises. yet.

prep:

• put 1/2 pound sausage in the freezer for 30 minutes
• remove it and slice it into thin rounds, remove the casing if you're weird like us
• chop mirepoix if you need to

actual cooking (meal 1):

• preheat oven to 400*
• combine 2 cups flour, psyllium, salt & fresh or dried herbs to taste & 1.5 cups water
• allow to sit for about 5 minutes
• with damp or greased fingers, press out the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet to desired thickness
• bake for about 20 minutes (see? easiest pizza crust ever.)
• while shell bakes, quickly cook sliced sausage on an ungreased frying pan (use only half for the pizza! refrigerate the other half), chop some onion, slice brussels sprouts & shred 3 or four slices of provolone
• top pizza shell with pizza sauce (or leave it white if tomato gravy isn't a staple in your pantry), cheese, sausage, onions & brussels sprouts (eta: i used wilted spinach. brussels sprouts are going in the pasta.)
• bake until cheese melts and bubbles lightly

actual cooking (meal 2):

• preheat oven to 300*
• quickly saute some (up to half) of the baby spinach in olive oil until just wilted (it will shrink when you cook it!)
• on 2 slices of bread, layer cold sausage slices, wilted spinach & a slice of provolone (eta: i added a bit of thinly sliced onion on mine. fab)
• toast all 4 slices
• make sandwiches.
• (eta: i also made some fries: cut 1 potato per person into 1/2 inch sticks, arrange on an oil-spritzed baking sheet, spritz with oil, season with salt, pepper & garlic powder, bake 20-25 minutes at 400*. and yes, i'm going to wait until AFTER i cook the meals to post them from now on.)

actual cooking (meal 3):

• boil water for pasta
• roast brussels sprouts, sliced or chopped as you prefer, with olive oil
• in a medium frying pan, out of it's casing, saute the rest of the sausage
• set half aside to drain
• add cooked pasta & brussels sprouts to the other half and remove from heat
• liberally add scratch cheese

actual cooking (meal 4):

• do the regular mirepoix thing, i don't have to spell it all out anymore, do i?
• add broth
• add drained sausage, spinach, ditalini & tomatoes with their juices (chopped up)
• while ditalini is cooking, make a roux (melt 4 tbs butter in a saucepan, quickly whisk in 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup milk)
• add roux to soup once the ditalini is cooked
• top with scratch cheese

the soup might need to be altered... check back in about 5 days once i've made it.

bill's awesome procuitto & asparagus pizza

i'm not going to lie, my husband is a pizza-and-beer guy. just, you know, a GOURMET pizza and beer guy. on a recent trip to visit family, he invented this insanely easy pizza. i wanted him to guest blog, but, alas, he thinks you'll miss my dumb jokes. or something.

ingredients:

• pizza shell (pre-made crust)
• tomato sauce
• one of those mozzarella/prosciutto/basil roll-ups
• about a half-pound of asparagus

optional ingredients:

• scratch cheese (which, btw, means your choice of those grated aged cheese combinations, like peccorino-romano and shit)
• crushed garlic/garlic powder
• olive oil spray
• oregano (et cetera)

prep:

• chop asparagus into about one inch chunks, steam or blanch
• slice cheese roll thinly

actual cooking:

• (spray crust with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs, spices and scratch cheese)
• spread tomato sauce VERY THINLY over the shell, almost to the edge
• spread out your sliced cheese roll to cover sauce (a little space between is fine, it will melt)
• add asparagus on top
• bake (about 350?) until ooey-gooey and delicious-looking

ohmygod, so good. i'm starting to think i should make him cook more often.

falafel & israeli cous cous

tonight we had falafel & israeli cous cous for dinner. SO yummy. and EASY. possibly because i cheated.

ingredients:

• falafel mix (this is the cheating part... available in your grocer's "ethnic" section)
• olive oil
• water
• israeli cous cous (different from regular cous cous)

prep:

• combine falafel mix with water as directed (manichevitz brand wants 1/2 cup water to one packet mix)
• let stand ten minutes

actual cooking:

• in a small sauce pan lightly brown 2/3 cups cous cous in a tablespoon of olive oil, stirring frequently for about five minutes
• add about 1 cup (a smidge less) water, bring to boil, turn way down and cover (check occasionally so you don't burn it!)
• set about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan to heat
• roll falafel mix into one inch balls
• fry falafel in oil until browned (you'll have to turn them once and maybe roll them around a bit if you went light on the oil like i did which is kinda pointless since you're DEEP FRYING for christsakes!)
• remove falafel and drain on paper towels

SO GOOD. seriously. but israeli cous cous has NO TASTE. a tiny sprinkle of sea salt made it perfect, since the falafel was kinda spicy. if you thought ahead about this meal, you might want it to have, oh, i dunno, a vegetable? or something? i think wilted baby spinach would be perfect. you could dump your falafel oil, not clean the pan, and toss in the spinach while the falafel drains. yum!

(spell check HATES this recipe.)

serves 2 or 3, depending on your eaters.