Sharing

Two things:
1. Even without bacon and green onions, this salad is amazing. I'm not sure if I shared it before, but it's really good.
2. Kraft now makes homestyle mac and cheese, which is basically velveeta with breadcrumbs.  It's meidocre on it's own but it's fantastic with barbecue sauce and baked in the oven on 425 for 10 minutes.  

Blueberry Crumble

There should be a picture here, but uh, we ate it too fast.

I bought fresh blueberries at the farmer's market yesterday and they were pretty darn fantastic.  I'm not a huge blueberry person, but I like them with yogurt.  Last night it occurred to me that we still had vanilla ice cream we hadn't eaten, and I should make a crumble with the blueberries.  It was going to be a crisp, but uh, there were bugs in my oatmeal when I pulled it out.  Ew.

I used this recipe only I made a half-ish batch with about 1.5 cups of blueberries.  I think I used too much butter and not enough flour or something, because it wasn't quite as crumbly as I'd hoped.

If you are cooking a small casserole like this for two, I highly recommend owning a small stoneware dish for cooking them in.  Or two of these.  Either way, if you put it in the toaster oven, the whole thing cooks in about 15 minutes instead of 30.  Serve with vanilla ice cream and remember that, in spite of the bar, summer tastes delicious.

How to serve a vegan

Ever since my cousin became a vegan, vegan-ness has been more on my radar screen.  We've been to a few events together and I feel like there is a lack of knowledge about how easy it really is to cater to vegan tastes.  People think it is so exhausting to read all of the ingredients, and vegans get the short end of the stick.
Some suggestions:
-Crudites.  Clearly vegan.  However, the dip that is usually served with them? Not so much.  Try hummus.
-Chips and dip.  Try a black bean dip, an eggplant dip, or plain old tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole.
-Pasta salad.  Please, you don't have to make pasta salad complicated or with mayonnaise.
-Bread and dipping oil - a nice garlic/pepper and olive oil combo and some crusty french bread is great.  You can go the next step up and whip up some bruschetta.
-Nuts, olives, or other small foods.
-Pasta salad.  Cook a box of pasta, toss with Italian salad dressing, maybe some balsamic vinegar, and voila.
-If you're grilling, boca burgers (or another *vegan* burger - read the labels for this one) for the grill.  I had a friend tell me that he thought that making veggie burgers was icky and he would rather just grill a vegetable, like a giant portabello.  The problem is that mushrooms don't actually have any protein in them, so don't serve me one and act surprised that I ate the entire rest of everything you served.

For dessert, a fruit plate and maybe some vegan chocolate (dark, high quality chocolates are more likely to be vegan) or some vegan baked goods.  (Think they're hard to find? Check this list.  Substitute applesauce for eggs and make sure to use oil instead of butter/shortening.)

I hate linking to Peta, but this list generally is pretty helpful for anybody shopping for or serving a vegan.
Any suggestions for obvious and easy vegan suggestions for party food that I missed?

Moving

Okay, so a few moving tips, because I know summer is a popular moving time.
1.) Pack the can opener WITH the canned goods.  I'm serious.  It sounds so simple, but it's so key.
2.) Shut down the kitchen 1+ week before you move.  Last Sunday, I made pasta salad and a pasta casserole and we lived off that for the week.
3.) Just order takeout.  I think last time, we didn't do this.  This time, we ate takeout for three days straight and it was a major stress reducer.
4.) Use the crockpot once you move.  It means you only have to clean one thing, and you don't have to put anything away, since you don't know where anything goes yet.  Win-win.

That being said, here is my original recipe for pre-moving/clean out the fridge eggplant pasta:
Ingredients:

• 1 half eaten box of pasta (any shape, I used mini bows)
• 1 half-full jar of pesto 
• 1 eggplant
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 onion
• Garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes

Procedure:

1. Put eggplant, squash, garlic, onion in crockpot with some olive oil on high for 2 hours. 
2. Add half box of pasta, dry.
3. Add diced tomatoes with juice.  Add half a can of water.  
4. Cook for another 2 hours or until pasta is tender.
5. Add pesto.  
6. Stir. 
7. Eat.  Or put in tupperwares.  Good with goat cheese.  Or feta.  

Are you moving? What are some moving meals that you make?

Pasta Salad with Arugula

This is from my Mac & Cheese cookbook - Macaroni and Cheese by Marlena Spieler, for my friend Susan, who I told I would post this for, because she has a CSA share and a lot of arugula.  But you should try it too, because it is amazing.  (And amazingly easy - the best kind of amazing.)
Ingredients:
1 large unwaxed lemon
12 ounces orecchiette (I used those piccolini bow-ties the last time and I think shells before that. Any pasta is okay, but I'd go for something flat if possible.)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 ounces Bulgarian, Israeli, or Greek feta cheese (I use President from Costco.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups loosely packed arugula leaves (washed)

Process:
1.) Zest the lemon, put in a small bowl.  Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl. Mind the seeds.
2.) Cook the pasta until al dente, drain.
3.) Put pasta in a large bowl (I love a stainless steel mixing bowl for pasta salad since it transfers heat so much better in the fridge.)
4.) Add lemon juice and olive oil to the pasta, set for up to two hours to cool.
5.) Before serving, toss with feta, salt, and pepper.  Serve w/ arugula at room temperature.

This is great for bar review lunches and dinners, btw.  Anything I can eat cold is fantastic.

What kind of cookbook would you write?

While studying my mind often drifts to what I would have done with
my life if I hadn't wanted to be Ms. Barefoot, J.D.

Today I thought about what cookbook I would write.

I think it would be called "variations on a theme". It would have several types of mac&cheese, varieties of pizza, different flavors to mix with a salmon breadcrust, herb and spice mixtures for foccacia, and all the weird stuffings my family has eaten over the past ten years.

Because it occurs to me that I regularly cook about 5 things, but anything can taste different with different cheeses.

What's your cookbook?

Gone Quiet

Apologies to all for the recent lapse and total failure of recipes.  I'm studying for the bar.
Studying for the bar is an arduous thing at best, but when you have a night bar review course, it also means that your eating habits go to hell.
I'm in week three now, and I still haven't figured out a great system for eating.  It seems that the best thing to do is eat a high-protein second breakfast after Bar Review Mandated Exercise, then hold off on lunch until about 2 or 3 pm, when I eat lunch.  Then, I just have some high protein snacks and eat them through bar review and come home to dinner.  Or come home to bed because I am no longer hungry.  It's not the best plan.

But what I wanted to write about is not my lousy eating habits during the bar.  It is how to freeze casseroles, then thaw and reheat them.

Last summer, when I went to Michigan, I made and froze a few lasagnas.  I read a great tip once that you can make mini-lasagnas in aluminum loaf pans.  Just follow the lasagna directions on the package, but put 3 noodles and the filling in each pan, then top with cheese.  Cover with foil and put in the refridgerator until cool, then freeze.

It turns out they freeze for up to a year, because we just ate the last one tonight.  To thaw, just put in the fridge the night before or the morning of.  Bake at 375 for awhile (Mr. Barefoot's very specific instructions) until warm and delicious.  

Any other suggestions for casseroles (vegetarian) that freeze and reheat well?