winter veg slaw

Whenever I’m called upon to feed a crowd my thoughts turn to slaw.  Truth be told, my thoughts turn to slaw — with its delightful crispy, crunchy freshness — far more frequently than any social engagements require, but the point here is that slaw is the perfect thing to take along to a picnic or a potluck or any sort of food-related festivity.  It’s easy, inexpensive, and it can be made from whatever vegetables happen to be in season.  Although it’s a great do-ahead dish because the longer it sits (within reason) the more the flavors blend, it can just as easily be thrown together at the last minute for an impromptu gathering without sacrificing a great deal of yumminess.  Plus slaw looks pretty, tastes fabulous, and is a hell of a lot better for you than pigs in a blanket.  In fact, I whipped some up earlier in anticipation of Academy Awards revelry.  

butternut squash, caramelized onion & goat cheese tart

I know what you’re thinking.  It’s the same thing Chris has been thinking — often aloud — for the past few weeks:  squash again?  And, well, yes.  Because even the teensiest of winter squashes tend to weigh nearly a pound, which is rather a lot for two people, and one can only fit so much squash purée in one’s freezer.  Extra squash is inevitable, and the unused portion will languish in the depths of your fridge, feeling sorry for itself and gazing forlornly at you each time you reach in for some fresh new food until eventually you think to yourself, “Shit, I should really use up that squash.”

baked pumpkin stuffed with bread and cheese

I’ve developed a bit of a thing for this baked pumpkin.  It all started back in October.  We’d planned a Halloween party and I had my heart set on baking something — maybe soup — inside a pumpkin, mostly because I thought it would look cool.  But really.  Who wants to stand around at a party eating soup?  So I scrapped the baked pumpkin idea and then, when Chris got sick, the party itself. Which worked out rather nicely, because you know what’s great for sick people? Soup.

I’d originally intended to fill the pumpkin with cream and gruyère, but my cheesemonger sent me home with three other fancy cheeses and this recipe in Gourmet persuaded me to add bread to the mix, making the resulting dish less a soup than a warm bowl of soft, gooey cheesy goodness.

summer tomato sauce, two ways

In the past ten days I’ve purchased nearly twenty pounds of tomatoes, and I have every intention of continuing the insanity right up until the farmers run out of tomatoes to sell me.  You see, we had a long, cold winter, and I’m not just saying that because any winter would have seemed long and cold to a girl who’d recently moved from southeastern Virginia to northern Michigan — I’m saying that because it was still snowing in May.

So it seemed like those luscious orbs of sweet, juicy, vine-ripened summer freshness would never arrive to replace the barely-worth-it hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes that had characterized June and July.  And then suddenly, there they were — real tomatoes, spilling out of baskets onto tables throughout the farmers market.

I’m not taking them for granted.

I’m making sauce.  Lots and lots and lots of sauce.  Which is time consuming, but not at all difficult. 

grilled vegetable kabobs

I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who can wander through the grocery or farmers market and spontaneously plan a meal based on what looks good.  But I’m not.  I’m more the kind of person who, if she doesn’t have a carefully crafted list in hand, will come home with a random assortment of lovely-looking stuff, none of which has any business being on the same plate.  

So while ordinarily I try to have at least a general idea of what I might like to make before coming into close contact with vegetables, it doesn’t always work out that way.  Like on my last trip to the farmers market, for example.

I was accompanied by my mom, who doesn’t particularly enjoy cooking or even eating, but who really likes buying things.  She’s also the kind of person who keeps four bottles of ketchup on hand.  Just in case.

So it should really come as no surprise to anyone that our unsupervised visit to the farmers market yielded thirteen ears of corn, a pound of eggplant, two pints of cherry tomatoes, a pound of zucchini, two pounds of squash, five large onions, several peppers, and two pounds of potatoes.  Oh, and no plan.