Feeding Friends: Margherita Pizzas

This week, my best friend since approximately third grade and former college roomie (one and the same) came over for an impromptu dinner. It was just like old times, except we are both married now, and she's expecting. And unlike most of our dinners in college, this one did not involve frozen pre-cooked flash-frozen chicken breast. Or pasta. But it did involve fro-yo for dessert, which is the 2012 equivalent of ice cream.

It also resembled college dinners because we were about to enjoy pizza and salad together.

She and I have shared many memorable pizzas in our day. The thick-crusted, sauce-on-top ones at my dad's house in high school. The buffet at Gatti's on campus. The frozen ones that lived in our freezer in the apartment on Speedway and the house on Palo Duro. The veggie supreme one we scarfed down at Conan's after spending the day taking our bridal shots together.

Pizza is near and dear to us.

So having my bestie over for tortilla pizzas, dressed with garden tomatoes, as she eats for two? Well, the beauty was not lost on me.

So here's to the days we are able to cook for those we love. Our husbands and wives, our children, our friends, our dogs. These are always special days.

Margherita Tortilla Pizzas

4-6 tortillas (multi-grain or whole wheat)
4 small/medium tomatoes, sliced 1/8 inch thick
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup (or a few good glugs) extra virgin olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced
2 teaspoons fresh basil, minced

Preheat the oven to 450. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet and prick all over with a fork to prevent them bubbling up.

Mix the minced garlic and evoo in a small bowl. With a teaspoon, distribute evenly to each tortilla, spreading out with the back of the spoon.

Sprinkle each tortilla with finely shredded Parmesan. Top with tomato slices (approximately five per tortilla; do not let them overlap).

Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella, oregano, and basil.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until tortillas are crispy and cheese has just turned golden.

Serve up with a side salad (we went Greek!) and enjoy.

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Cook It Again: Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles!

Last night, I made a new recipe (it's like I'm always recipe testing—what gives?) and when we sat down to eat, the dialogue went a little something like this:

Ryan, after the first bite, "Yum! Wow, this is really good. What is it again?"
Me: "Chilaquiles."
"Fascinating. It's really good. Are you sure it's healthy?"
"Well, it's got a little cheese... but yeah, healthy*."
"How come you never cook things twice? Even if they're good, you don't make them again."
"I should write down the good ones so I remember to cook them again."
"Um, isn't that what your blog is for? How about, 'Cook It Again Thursdays' or something?"

And so I give you, my inaugural "Cook it Again" post. I won't promise one every Thursday (you know how my Freshworthy Friday posts go), but he's got a point; it'd be nice to have a list of fail-safe recipes on hand. Especially easy ones that have room for improvisation already built in.

Back to the chilaquiles. I have unwittingly made similar dishes before, and last night realized it's amazing what you can do with some corn tortillas, a can of beans, and some vegetables. This came together in a snap and had all the merits of a tasty, family-friendly weeknight dinner. I only used two dishes—a pan for sautéing and the dish for baking. That's easy enough to clean up.

Chilaquiles, like enchiladas, have myriad variations and there is no one "right" recipe—so feel free to adapt as you please and add or subtract ingredients at whim. Basically, you need corn tortillas, a saucy mixture of vegetables with either a red tomato base or a green tomatillo base, and a little bit of cheese. Here's what I put together for ours last night, based on this recipe from Epicurious. Chilaquiles sometimes involve eggs; the recipe I used didn't call for them and I didn't add them. But now, it sounds delish.

Featured homegrown garden veggies: bell peppers, jalapeno, and zucchini.

*Because to me, beans and vegetables and corn tortillas (with only two ingredients) sounds pretty darn healthy. Mind you, I'm no nutritionist. 

Zucchini Chilaquiles

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1 large or 2 medium green bell peppers, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1 large zucchini, cut into small pieces

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles (like Rotel)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
8 corn tortillas, cut into strips
3/4 cup shredded cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a medium-sized baking dish (I used one similar to a 9x9). Chop the vegetables and open the cans. In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers, and saute until the onions are nearly translucent. Add the zucchini and cook for about 5 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes and the beans and add the cumin; stir, taste, and season accordingly with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer for another five minutes.

Place a full layer of corn tortilla strips in the baking dish, completely covering the bottom of the dish. Pour about half of the zucchini and black bean mixture on top of the tortillas and add half of the shredded cheese. Add one more layer of tortilla strips, the rest of the vegetables, and the rest of the cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and a little bit browned. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Add a side salad or a scoop of homemade guacamole to round out the meal.

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Lately... It's Lettuce.

Peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs from the garden.

There's been a whole lotta cooking going on. Sunday I spent most of the day in the kitchen making casseroles. Five of them. With meat. Ryan lamented that, "It smells so good, and none of it's for me." (I also failed to take a single photo of the marathon cooking event; it's probably better this way because it was a little bit... chaotic.)

I had a grand ole time making King Ranch Chicken, lasagna, chicken spaghetti, and more for my lovely sister-in-law and her family. They're expecting their second child any day now and apparently I'm vicariously nesting by way of freezer-friendly casserole dishes. Poor Ryan. There was organic beef cooking on the stove in our home and it wasn't for him.

Once all the casseroles were shuttled to their house, we had only leafy greens and garden vegetables left. Which is just fine by this particular vegetarian-not-that-strict.

Let me tell you why this was particularly exciting: because my quick-pickled banana peppers would be the star of the show.

We have a bet going in our house. Hold on to your hats, this bet is c-r-a-z-y... That's just how we roll.

Ryan insists that "real" pickles (those processed in a hot water bath in a pot so big that it takes up two burners and takes almost two hours to reach full boil) taste better than "quick pickles," which are made with the exact same brine but left to pickle in the refrigerator for two weeks. I argue that quick pickles, made in the same brine but stored in the fridge instead of being fully processed, taste just as good.

While we haven't done the official pickle taste-test, the quick-pickled banana peppers were awesome. I also made tzatziki sauce with some of our garden cucumbers. Round it out with some homemade hummus, multi-grain tortillas, and a perfectly dressed salad, and you have yourself a bonafide Greek night. I'll admit that falafel would've been a nice touch.

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Grilled Zucchini and Brie Sandwiches

Zucchini on the grill.

The long weekend meant I had plenty of time in the kitchen. A little too much time, if you ask my dear husband. It was my job to clean the kitchen within an inch of its life (or my life, depending on how you look at it), and every time I'd make some headway, I'd start another recipe. So I'd have a load of dishes in the wash, and decide I needed to do a batch of quick pickles. Halfway through that, I'd decide to add another vegetable to my pickling list and out comes the chopping board again.

It was exhausting, all the cooking and cleaning and cooking and... not cleaning. Oops.

Open-faced sandwiches: perfect for a backyard grill night!

My favorite new recipe from the weekend has to be this riff on Whole Foods' Grilled Summer Squash and Brie Sandwiches. It's fresh and delicious, and the leftovers today proved to be every bit as good as they were hot off the grill last night (with toasted bread and veggies broiled in a toaster oven—resourceful!).

It's also the perfect showcase for our Purple Cherokee heirloom tomatoes, which are finally red (purple?) and some of the last garden zucchini (more on that tomorrow).

I simplified the recipe out of necessity; we cooked these at someone else's house and I forgot a few of my ingredients at home. Suffice it to say, though, that the grilled bread topped with brie, a few slices of grilled zucchini, and a thick slice of an heirloom tomato make for an amazing summertime dinner. So even if you leave out the garlic and sprouts, this is a winning grill recipe.

Grilling summer squash is easy. And if you've got an overabundance of zucchini in the garden, go ahead and let a few of them get huge. The one I sliced and grilled weighed more than two pounds, but tasted wonderful grilled with a little olive oil and season salt... Not to mention, it fed almost five people.

Have you grilled summer squash yet? What's your favorite way to enjoy it?

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Zucchini Enchiladas Verdes

If you had told me I'd have tried a dozen completely different zucchini recipes before June because the summer crop would be that prolific, I never would've believed you.

But it's the truth. I feel like the Bubba Blue of zucchini: zucchini salad, zucchini salsa, zucchini bread, zucchini brownies, zucchini pickles, zucchini pasta, zucchini tacos... You get the point. (And just to clarify... I am not complaining about my surplus of zucchini. It's finding its way to friends and colleagues almost daily so it's not going to waste, which makes me oh-so-happy.)

Here's a recipe to really drive home the zucchini madness: zucchini enchiladas verdes. They're both stuffed AND covered with fresh zucchini.

I made this as part of a vegetarian and gluten-free dinner party; despite its multi-special-diet appeal, it was wonderfully received by the omnivores. In fact, I'd planned on having leftovers for lunch the next day, but that wasn't in the cards since we polished 'em off. If you'd like to add cooked chicken to the filling or wrap the enchiladas with flour tortillas, be my guest!

This may look complicated, but it comes together fairly quickly. Pass the time while they're baking to enjoy some chips and zucchini salsa, and maybe a zucchini margarita or two.

Home-grown veggies featured in this dish: jalapenos, bell pepper, pattypan squash, and zucchini.

Zucchini Enchiladas Verdes

For the filling:
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 medium squash, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup chopped onion
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

To assemble:
10 to 12 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups Zucchini Salsa*
1/3 cup water or vegetable broth
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterrey jack cheese

Chop all the vegetables and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and bell pepper, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped zucchini and squash and saute until the vegetables are softened just a bit, about 5 to 10 more minutes. Add the drained black beans and the spices, and cook until heated through. Taste and season as you see fit. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Mix the zucchini salsa with the water or vegetable broth. In the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish, pour about one third of the salsa/broth mixture—just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan. Assemble the enchiladas: in each tortilla, put a good sprinkle of cheese (about 1 tablespoon) and about 2 tablespoons of the zucchini/bean filling. Roll tightly, careful not to crack the corn tortillas, and pack tightly into the baking dish.

Top the enchiladas with a handful of shredded cheese, and pour the rest of the salsa/broth mixture over the enchiladas. Sprinkle one more time with shredded cheese, for good measure, and pop them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Or until they smell amazing, the cheese is lightly browned, and you can no longer stand it.

Let cool and serve with brown rice and fresh salad. Serves 4-6.

*Any salsa verde will do, but the zucchini salsa really is tasty and cooks very well.

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Zucchini Salsa

Zucchini salsa with zucchini quesadillas.

It's still early in the summer gardening season, and already we've had such a bumper crop of zucchini that I'm having to get creative. (This is not me complaining, mind you.) I've steamed it, sauteed it, shredded it, sliced it; eaten it cooked, raw, and baked; tried it in sweet and savory.

But this week, I found a new favorite.

My mom planted the idea in my head that zucchini would make a delicious salsa. And because necessity is the mother of all invention, I winged it. The recipe was surprisingly simple, and with the help of a food processor, took mere moments to throw together. The result? A fresh, bright, tangy, barely spicy salsa that rivals its tomato counterpart.

We enjoyed this on tortilla chips, but it also made a wonderful topping for some zucchini quesadillas (whole wheat tortillas grilled together with cheese, black beans, sauteed onions and peppers, and shredded zucchini) alongside a little Greek yogurt or sour cream.

Next up, I'm thinking about using this salsa verde as an enchilada sauce. Stay tuned.

Zucchini Salsa

1 medium zucchini
2-3 jalapenos, depending on how spicy you like it
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup onion
1 teaspoon cumin OR 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Rinse all the veggies and trim off any ends or stems. Toss all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until the salsa is well blended.

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Squachos

The Zucchini Fairy made these zukes appear overnight. Most will be made into zucchini bread.

Thanks to an early and prolific summer garden, the squash/zucchini-to-person ratio in our house is currently about 5-to-1. We plucked five giant zucchini (and I do mean giant; the biggest one weighed in at 1 pound, 7 ounces) from our plants this weekend and doled them out to neighbors. But we still have plenty in the produce drawer at home.

Dinnertime was upon us, and I'm not sure if I was inspired by the thirst-quenching Lone Star I enjoyed or the garden surplus, but suddenly I had the second-greatest idea I've had this year:

Squachos.

Squachos: grilled yellow squash and jalapenos top run-of-the-mill nachos, elevating them to new heights.

Go ahead and let it settle in your brain for a moment. Squash and nachos coming together in one unmistakably easy and delicious dinner. Mmmm-hmmm.

The word popped into my head and I got myself into a full-on giggle fest, right there in the middle of the kitchen, with a chef's knife in one hand and a frosty beverage in the other. The absurdity of it all is not lost on me.

Growing up, my dad made us oven-broiled nachos every Sunday night. They are the perfect weekend-send-off food—cheap, easy, fast, tasty; qualities I appreciate now more than ever. I've even figured out how to make them healthier (black beans instead of refried, fresh veggies on top, and a little less cheese than before).

The squachos version involved just one extra step: grilling strips of pattypan squash in some olive oil and season salt prior to adding them to the nachos. I'm not sure this merits an actual recipe; you get the drift. Tortilla chips topped with cheese, black beans, grilled squash, fresh jalapenos, and baked at 450 until everything is toasty and the cheese is melted. I topped ours with store-bought tomatillo salsa and a few dollops of Greek yogurt.

Squachos are inspiring; I'm already thinking that squashadillas will be a regular part of our summertime diet, and I can't believe that I haven't already come up with the name "squacos" for these squash and zucchini soft tacos from last week.

The moral of the story is this: If you can't have fun cooking, why do it at all?

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Easter Eggs

Poached eggs with sauteed collards on toast.

I don't remember poached eggs being a part of my childhood—we were mostly a scrambled or over-easy family. Scrambled eggs were served with cinnamon toast (you make a sandwich, see, by folding each full piece of cinnamon toast in half and putting your scrambled eggs in the middle, DUH) and fried eggs, over easy, which were always plopped on top of a piece of toast—one that already boasted butter and jam. Seriously, try it if you haven't already. Toast, butter, strawberry jam, fried egg over easy, salt and pepper, you can't go wrong.

Quiche, breakfast tacos, strata, custards, bread pudding—all egg-based dishes have become a favorite of mine at some point in time. I'm working my way up to an egg-topped pizza, which in my mind tastes exactly like heaven.

Fitting, it seems, though I didn't begin with this thought, that I'm writing of my love for eggs in the week of Easter; eggs are, after all, a sign of spring and of new life and of good things to come.

Meanwhile, maybe I should mention that our neighbor may or may not have two hens nearing egg-laying age and a hand-built coop that he's looking to hand off to someone when he leaves town.

And maybe I should mention also that I've been asking for hens for a while. You see where I'm heading with this?

I should also bring up the fact that the neighbor's chickens do emit an unfortunate smell that woefully wafts into our yard and has made me question this whole chicken thing. Hmmm.

Goodbye, collard greens...

So it may not be happening for us, this whole backyard chickens thing. Which is unfortunate, because I felt like I was SO CLOSE to convincing my dear, loving, supportive husband that we are wonderful candidates for backyard chickens. That I would love them and feed them and collect their eggs and play with them every day.

We'll see where the hen saga lands. In the mean time, I will enjoy organic, free-range, cage free, locally sourced brown eggs that I've lovingly purchased at the grocery store.

This dish is a simple weeknight meal that comes together in a matter of minutes. It's healthy, savory, and delicious, and you can swap out any dark leafy green for the collards (think kale, spinach, mustard greens, beet greens).

I used up the last of the collards from our garden to put this together, which made for a perfect send-off. It's been hard for me to say goodbye to our winter garden because it was so wonderful to us. I enjoyed everything we ate from it, and it just kept giving, despite being savagely attacked by snails in the last month. It is April, mind you, and we've already seen temps in the upper 80s here in Texas, so it's a wonder my leafy greens held on so very long.

By Sunday, I knew it was time to pull the last of the greens (they'd started to bolt and were so ravaged by snails that it was hard to salvage much) to make way for the cucumbers now residing in that bed.

But remember the eggs? And the symbol of new life (and the beginning of a new gardening season)? And the promise of good things to come? We've come full circle.

Poached Eggs with Toast and Greens for Two

1 bunch collard greens, de-stemmed and cut into inch-wide ribbons
4 eggs 
water and a splash of white vinegar
4 pieces of toast (I prefer hearty whole-grain with seeds–extra crunch is nice)
4 slices sharp cheddar
Dijon mustard
lemon wedges
salt and freshly ground pepper

The quick version of the recipe: saute the greens in olive oil for about 10 minutes, or until they're done but still al dente. Squeeze one lemon wedge over the greens.

Prepare your toast and top with Dijon and cheddar. Pile the greens on the toast and then poach the eggs. Put the eggs on top and garnish with salt and freshly ground pepper, and more lemon if you like it.

Now the long version.

The trick to this is not necessarily the recipe, which is simple and straightforward (and was inspired by the photos from this post), but the timing. You'll want to have the greens and toast ready to go in time to slide the eggs right on them. Meanwhile, you don't want your toast to get soggy while you're waiting on anything.

The entire meal takes only 10 minutes: I prepped the greens and cooked them for about 5 minutes before turning on the toaster and beginning to boil the water. As soon as the greens were al dente, I spritzed them with lemon, turned off the heat, and covered them. By then, the water was just about to boil and the toast had about 3 minutes left to go. Just as the toast timer dinged, the eggs were done. Assembled dinner and voila! It's all hot and ready to eat.

It really helps to know your egg poaching technique forwards and backwards. Last night, I aced it. The eggs were perfect and put-together and I was happier for it. Here's how I do it:

Crack each egg into a small bowl or ramekin. In a small saucepan, heat the water and vinegar until tiny bubbles form (just before boiling). Give the water a good stir so that it is circulating, and then slowly slide each egg in from its ramekin. Cook, undisturbed, for 2-3 minutes for runny yolks (my preference). Carefully remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and let all the water drain off.

For a great how-to video, turn to the Kitchn!

And here's another tip: I made a version of this at work the next day. I packed the sauteed greens, some bread, and two raw—yep, raw—eggs in my lunch box. Come lunch time, I used to company toaster and the microwave to recreate my dinner. It turned out pretty great! Here's the microwave poached egg how-to.

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Two Meals of Greens and Sweet Potatoes

Last week, we treated ourselves to a little stay-cation. While it involved one car breaking down, a 20-foot limb falling in the yard after a storm, and days upon days of hard work around the house, we surely ate like kings, going out for every meal. There were fancy drinks, tacos, queso, two separate tuna fish sandwich situations, multiple beers, veggie burgers, and more. 

So this week, our goal has been to eat clean. See that colorful bowl of dinner above? Clean, wholesome food never felt so good. 

While most of our winter gardens are gone, we have one bed still producing mounds of kale and collard greens. Snails have infiltrated enemy camp, but I've let them have go to town on some of the bigger leaves and have made a point to harvest every other day, so that new growth can have a chance to thrive. Stubbornly, I've resisted the urge to put out shallow pans of Lone Star.

After our week of pizza, we were craving beta carotene-rich foods and dark, leafy greens, and by golly that's what I made two nights in a row. In fact, they were two nearly identical dinners; one was met with gusto and praise by my dear husband, and the other was given a shrug and the aside, "It's tasty, but I won't be willfully requesting it."

That said, I loved both of the similar meals for different reasons. 

Sunday night, inspired by Smitten Kitchen's roasted sweet potato stacks, I sliced the sweet potatoes into half-inch-thick rounds with the peel, and roasted them at 425 for about 40 minutes (I flipped them once, halfway through). They were melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the peel was crisp and flavorful. I served them with a huge batch of kale chips—one of our new favorite foods. Kale chips are so easy to make and so healthy. They satisfy a salty craving while filling you full of vitamins and nutrients.

Monday evening, in an attempt to use up the rest of the sweet potatoes and finally eat some non-snail-slimed collards, I turned to this recipe from Whole Foods for Sweet Potatoes With Collards.

Happily, I had green onions from the garden and organic peppers from another grocery run still in the fridge; we lacked aduki beans but the can of kidney beans in the pantry stood in just fine. I loved this recipe because it was chock-full of nutrients and protein, low in fat, and had an interesting twist at the end with the lime juice. Better yet, it reheated perfectly for leftovers the next day at lunch. I didn't have sunflower seeds, but that extra crunch would've been fantastic.

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