Dinner Menu: Wednesday Night

For a meat-and-potatoes man…actually, allow me to rephrase this. The meat-and-potatoes man I’m writing about is my husband, but he’s not so much of a potatoes man. He likes potatoes, for sure, but he also likes to avoid carbs.  So I guess I should just call him a meat man.

For a meat man, my husband, who loves his steak and his venison and eats bacon for breakfast almost every day, is surprisingly open to eating vegetarian meals, including tofu.  The fact is, the guy just likes to eat. It doesn’t matter what he’s eating so long as it tastes good.  I am grateful for this because, although I am a flesh-eating omnivore, I enjoy cooking and consuming vegetarian meals. 

Tonight I cooked a meatless meal: A quick black bean soup, Delicata squash and salad.  The recipe for the black bean soup came from Simple and Delicious magazine, and it was indeed simple and delicious. It consisted of just four ingredients: a can of black beans, a cup and a half of chicken stock, 3/4 of a cup of chunky salsa (I used Newman’s Own) and lime juice.  Dump all the ingredients in a pot, heat over a simmer, and voilà: You’ve got instant, tasty black bean soup.

The Delicata squash came in last week’s CSA. I baked it at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  The red leaf lettuce and bell peppers that I used in the salad also came from Clear Brook Farm. 

It was the perfect, hot, nourishing supper for a cold, rainy Vermont night.

Cooking with Game: Partridge

Eric shot a partridge last November, and we finally ate it for dinner last night. It was scrumptious.

I just love partridge. It doesn’t taste at all gamey, and it’s so easy to prepare. We usually roast it. Here’s our fool-proof method, which Eric employed last night:

Season bird with salt and pepper. Rub skin with butter and place in a roasting pan with some ramps (wild leeks) and a splash of white wine. (We prefer the screw cap wines. Nothing but the best for us.) Bake at 400 for 35 minutes.

Interesting note about the partridge Eric cooked last night: When he cleaned it out, we saw that its last meal had been bittersweet.

I made a bulgar wheat salad to go with the partridge.  I tossed a cup of cooked bulgar with some olive oil, lemon juice, sliced grape tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, chopped red onion and feta cheese.  It was wicked good.

How do you like to prepare partridge?

Blueberry Pie and Cherry Pie

I’m about to make a confession.

I make a blueberry pie that everyone–EVERYONE–who tastes it loves. It’s my mother’s recipe, and it’s just the best blueberry pie ever. That’s all there is to say. (This is not the confession.) My friends will vouch for this pie’s sweet taste and bursting blueberry flavor, and not just because they’re my friends. This pie is so good it has caused lovers to fight over the last slice–nay the entire dish. True story. Last year I made my mom’s blueberry pie to give to a friend for his birthday, and his then-girlfriend-now-wife, who is also a friend, wound up eating the whole pie. Every last crumb and lick of indigo filling off the fork. Mike didn’t get a single bite. This pie-hording didn’t go over well with Mike, but Janice couldn’t help herself. The pie was that good. She had to have it all. Perhaps the pie satisfied Janice in a way Mike could not? We’ll never know…

Part of what makes this pie so scrumptious is the crust. People always remark, “This crust is really good.” And I’ve always smiled sweetly yet sheepishly in acknowledgment but never said anything about the crust. The reason? Here’s the confession, folks:

Clear Brook Farm Produce Stand to Open June 13

I ran out to Clear Brook Farm at lunch today in search of plum tomatoes for the gazpacho I’m planning to make for dinner tonight.  I thought for sure Clear Brook had opened its produce stand last weekend, while my summer cold rendered me bed-ridden.  The farm stand usually opens at the beginning of June.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a sign that said the produce stand would open this Friday and that I hadn’t missed the opening day (it’s something I look forward to every year), but alas, I didn’t get my tomatoes.

Anyone have a recipe for gazpacho that calls for canned tomatoes?  I was planning to follow the gazpacho recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.  That cookbook has not once failed me.