Fattoush (Lebanese salad)

**I usually double this--this version is cut down for 2-4 people or for a meal where lots of other things are being served.

1 head romaine lettuce
1 cucumber, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
pita bread, cut into bite-sized squares, toasted or fried (add just before serving)


Dressing:
2 t. chopped dried mint
2 t. chopped dried parsley
1/8 c. olive oil
1/8 c. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 ½ t. sumac powder
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper

Masala Channa

1 ½ cans chickpeas
1 T. tamarind concentrate
3 T. oil
½ t. cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 in. fresh ginger root, grated
1 fresh green chili, finely chopped
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. ground coriander
¼ t. ground turmeric
½ t. salt
8 oz tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped (I use canned)
½ t. garam masala

1. Heat oil in wok and fry cumin seeds until they begin to splutter (2 min.) Add chopped onion, garlic, ginger, chili and fry for 5 minutes.
2. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes and tamarind. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add chickpeas and garam masala, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
   
   Note: original recipe calls for dried chickpeas and tamarind pulp; I used canned chickpeas and tamarind concentrate to save time. I use all the tomato juice.

Whipped sweet potatoes

Oooh, I just LOVE sweet potatoes. They're so redolent of the holidays! But I hate them with marshmallows on top, because I want to feel justified in eating them all the time (plus I really only like marshmallows in s'mores).

The recipe below is one I found in MS Living. I usually make it without the cream and with about 1/3 stick of butter rather than half a stick, and I add a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of nutmeg. Sometimes I just leave out the butter entirely. I also usually don't do the apple topping (because I like it to be a make-ahead thing that doesn't need attention while it's cooking). In the past I've cooked it without a topping entirely, or with a little bit of brown sugar sprinkled under flaked coconut, or with brown sugar underneath very thin sliced rings of apple. All are equally delicious. Whatever you do, just don't leave out the ginger--that's what elevates this to something really tasty and a little bit surprising (in a good way).

Anyway, here you go!

Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Carmelized Apples
from November 2006 Martha Stewart Living. Serves 6.

4 large sweet potatoes (yams), pierced with the tines of a fork
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 T. heavy cream
1/2 c. applesauce, preferably homemade
2 t. grated fresh peeled ginger
1 t. coarse salt freshly ground pepper

2 apples (1 lb) peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 T. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Arrange potatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment (I use tin foil, but make sure you do this so you avoid sticky goo all over the oven).Bake until tender, 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand until cool enough to handle.

2) Cut each potato lengthwise. Scoop flesh into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; discard skins. Add 2 T. butter and the cream; mix on medium speed until smooth. Mix in applesauce and ginger, season with salt and pepper.

3) Transfer potato mixture to an oven-proof dish. Bake until heated through, about 10 minutes.

4) Meanwhile, toss apples with sugar in a bowl. Melt remaining 2 T. butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are golden and carmelized, about 10 minutes. (I ended up adding about 2 t. brown sugar while the apples were cooking.)

5) Remove potato mixture from oven, top with carmelized apples, and serve.

Oven Fries

I love fries. Oh, how I love them. So does Abigail. So when I found this recipe in Cook's Illustrated (which btw is amazing--someday I'll get a subscription!!!) two years ago...oh joy. And seriously, these are amazing. Perfectly crisp on the outside, perfectly melt-in-your-mouth on the inside. And not nearly as much cruddy fat as you're going to get at a fast-food joint, especially because there's no deep fryer and you're only putting 5 T. of oil in for the whole thing (I generally use even less).

I've found the most important component to getting these just right is to use a baking sheet that is uniformly flat. In other words, one that you don't use much. If I use my regular cookie sheets, which have become somewhat bowed in the middle from years of use, the fries cook unevenly. If, however, I use a metal 9x13 pan (which I never use because I prefer glass)...you get perfection.

Oven Fries

3 russet potatoes (8 oz each), peeled, each potato cut lengthwise into 10-12 evenly sized wedges
5 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil (don’t substitute olive oil)
Salt and ground black pepper

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat to 475. Place potatoes in large bowl and cover with hot tap water; soak 10 minutes. (Don't be tempted to skip soaking, as this is what will give you the crisp crust and soft innards.) Meanwhile, coat 18 x 12 heavy-duty baking sheet with 4 T oil and sprinkle evening with ¾ t. salt and ¼ t. pepper.

Drain potatoes and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Toss potatoes in dry bowl with 1 T oil. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet, cover tightly with foil (I just use a cookie sheet) and bake 5 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to bake until bottoms of potatoes are spotty golden brown (15-20 min), rotating the pan in the oven after 10 minutes. Using metal spatula and tongs, flip potatoes to other side, keeping in single layer. Continue baking another 5-15 minutes until fries are golden and crisp, rotating pan as needed for even browning.

Make-a-Meal-Out-of-It Spaghetti

I don't know about you, but I really like spaghetti. For instance, I used to ask for it on my birthday. And when we did "spotlight books" in Primary, they glued dried strands of spaghetti in mine on the "favorite foods" page. In fact, I like spaghetti so much that I secretly ate all the dried pieces of spaghetti after carefully peeling them off the glue.

Now, you don't have to be a spaghetti fiend like I am to like this recipe, but my gripe with spaghetti is that it seems to be a last-minute "I'm really tired and it's late...let's just have spaghetti" kind of dish. So you get out your canned sauce (which if you're cheap like I am probably isn't anything too special, and it's full of preservatives, which I personally have no problem with but I'll complain about to strengthen my case, even though I like my food to last until I want to eat it) and you dump some spaghetti in some water and in ten minutes you have dinner. It sort of fills you up, but hey, at least you ate something.

Those noodles deserve something more. They deserve a real sauce that requires a bit of chewing. And they also deserve a bit more healthiness themselves, so give whole wheat spaghetti a try. I think you'll be surprised at how yummy it is.

This isn't a dish that I typically buy special ingredients for--I just use what I have on hand. Of course, it also depends what you typically have kicking around. I'm fortunate enough to have most of what I need growing in my garden, so you may need to add a few items to your shopping list.

Here's the lineup:


Whole wheat spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, green pepper, carrots, celery, onions, garlic (I buy the pre-minced kind), fresh roma tomatoes (you could probably use canned diced tomatoes without losing much flavor), sun-dried tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce or tomato paste (depending on how thick you like your sauce) extra virgin olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, oregano, and rosemary. I'm not giving measurements because this is really a to-taste thing and also depends on ingredient quantities and the number of people you're cooking for. Sorry, you'll just have to eyeball it!

Start off with everything chopped--it'll take a bit, but this cooks pretty quickly once you get going.

Before you begin chopping, you'll need to reconstitute your sun-dried tomatoes if they're fully dried (if they're oil-packed, you can just go ahead and chop them up).

Put your tomatoes in a small bowl, just barely cover them with very hot water, put a lid on the bowl, and let them sit for about twenty minutes. Save the water afterwards to add to your sauce later.

When you're about five minutes from the end of your chopping, start a pot of salted water boiling (the salt will help it to boil faster). As soon as it reaches its boiling pot, drop in your spaghetti (make sure you stir it so the noodles don't stick together. Adding a few drops of olive oil will also prevent sticking). Set a timer on your pasta.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and add some olive oil. As soon as the skillet's hot enough that the olive oil glides easily over the pan when you pick it up and turn it, throw in your garlic and a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes. Neil likes lots of garlic, so I put in four or five teaspoons.

Let that cook for about thirty seconds, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, then add about a teaspoon each of rosemary and oregano (and parsley if you want it). Give it another fifteen seconds, then throw in your salt and pepper.

After another fifteen seconds, add your onions. Cook them for about three minutes until they're starting to turn a bit translucent, then add the mushrooms and cook for two minutes, then add the peppers and cook those for a couple of minutes. Typically you'd cook all of these for much longer to reach a fullness of flavor, but I'm kind of still in the spaghetti-hurry mode, so it's your call.

Add the carrots and celery and let the whole pile cook for another minute or two, then add in your sun-dried tomato soaking liquid. If you didn't do sun-dried tomatoes, just move ahead. In any case, let everything boil for a bit to get some of the water out with the flavor left behind, then add in the chopped tomatoes and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Give it a minute or two, then add in your tomato sauce or paste, plus water to get it to your desired sauce consistency.

And voila! You have a nice hearty sauce. Now drain your pasta and mix the two up together and eat your dinner, feeling virtuous about your whole-wheat pasta and all those yummy veggies you're consuming.

Homemade Pesto

1/4 c. olive oil (or cooking oil)
1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnut, almonds, or pine nuts)
2 c. firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c. grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1/4 t. salt
black pepper

If using a food processor, combine oil, nuts, basil, cheese, garlic, pepper and salt, processing until nearly smooth. If you're using a blender, it will be easiest to first chop the basil and nuts before adding them to the mixture.

See? It's that easy.

I like to make a huge batch and freeze individual portions. Pesto's optimal life in the freezer is 3 months.