luluOver the years with no one home but two, most of my friends have quit cooking dinner opting for takeout or restaurants. That works for me every now and then, but I still enjoy preparing the evening meal because there are so many things to try. That makes the hubby very happy as he’d rather eat at home any day!
Another friend and her hubby are the same, so every week or so we share a meal. They are not meat eaters which at first made meal planning a challenge, but it has gotten easier and done creatively, those meatless meals are downright tasty.
For ideas, I go no farther than these two cookbooks loaded with recipes to suit any palate. There’s no chance I’ll ever get through the two!
The last dish tried was a mushroom/asparagus/cannellini bean combo that was so tasty not a bite survived. Of course, meat lovers could add chicken or pork to go with it, but when something is as good as this it’s really not necessary. Enough said, I’ll share the recipe!
Polenta with Asparagus, Mushrooms & Cannellini Beans
1 1/2 c. vegetable stock
1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 T. olive oil
1 bunch green onions, including as inch or so of green, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
15 oz. can cannellini beans
1 brunch of asparagus, steamed or roasted
1/2 c. Parmesan (serve on the side for a vegan friend, otherwise add it to the cooked polenta)
1 T. butter (can be left out)
chopped basil, parsley, chives or marjoram for garnish
Make the polenta using a packaged mix or yellow cornmeal cooked with water over a double boiler. While it is cooking, do the chopping and mincing required to prepare the sauce.
Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the mushrooms, season with sea salt and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes over medium heat. (It may be necessary to do the mushrooms in 2 batches depending on the size of your pan.) Add most of the scallions and garlic and cook for another minute. Then pour in the stock and add the beans. Simmer until the mushrooms are tender, about 10 minutes.
When ready to serve, add the butter and the remaining scallions to the mushrooms. 
Spoon 1/2-3/4 c. of polenta into the center of a plate. Arrange asparagus around it and spoon the sauce over the polenta. Garnish with chopped herbs.
What I like about this recipe is that it’s pretty easy to fix and all you really need to go with it is a hearty, crusty bread to use for soaking up the liquid. Don’t be surprised when appreciative moans accompany this dish!
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This night there were two salmon filets and a bunch of asparagus, and in just a few minutes they were in the oven roasting away.
While they were cooking, I whisked together a tangy sauce of key lime juice and soy sauce to pour over the fish and asparagus.
In less than half an hour, a healthy and satisfying dinner was ready to go on the table.
If you are standing in line at the grocery or drug store checkout and see this magazine, buy it. I can’t promise you will slim down but be assured you will prepare some very tasty recipes.
Slow Cooker Sausage Cassoulet
For several days I craved chicken pot pie, so I finally broke down and made one. I didn’t have the traditional ingredients so it was time to look in the pantry and refrigerator to see what might work. On hand were a couple of chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, leeks, green beans, mushrooms and a sheet of puff pastry.
While the chicken breasts were cooking in salted water, I chopped and readied the vegetables. I steamed the sweet potatoes and green beans for a few minutes and sautéed the leeks and mushrooms in olive oil to soften everything up.
All done, the pot pies were ready to pop into the oven to bake until the pastry was a golden brown.
Since the mixture proved to be quite generous, I thought it would be fun to make individual servings in these Polish pottery vessels. Also, they would make it easier to serve as pot pie can be kinda messy.
They also became the starting point for an easy table setting. 
Flowers and candles were already on the table so adding denim chargers 
and woodblock placemats and napkins that I got in India completed a table as comfortable as the food that would be served. Have I ever mentioned how much I like to keep things simple? 
Does this tell you it’s cold in Houston? With temperatures the last several days being below freezing, one is not encouraged to venture far from home. That means it’s only natural to think of warming with comfort foods like soups and stews.
In the refrigerator were most of the makings for beef stew though the pantry was empty of the diced tomatoes and broth I typically use for liquid. That being the case required some creative thinking, so I added a bottle of beer and at the last minute the remains of some frozen edamame and red pepper and tomato soup that had accompanied a grilled cheese sandwich on another frozen day. Noting the ingredients, the hubby raised his eyebrows in questioning wonder. 
While the stew was bubbling away,
I got the bar, where we eat most of the time when it’s just the two of us, ready for dinner.
It’s nothing fancy, but I do choose dishes that go with whatever happens to be on the surface. If you’ve seen any of my tablescapes, you know that seldom is an eating surface unadorned which makes it very easy to add on.
With fragrant smells emanating from the kitchen, we settled to watch the evening news. By the time the latest Trump bashing was over, the stew was ready and guess what? Those extra added ingredients combined for a pretty tasty creation which goes to show you don’t always have to rely on the tried and true. Cooking is just another way of expressing your creativity.
Before we were frozen out of Maine a few days ago, we had dinner at one of our favorite Rockport restaurants, Nina June, in the heart of the village.
It is the brainchild of Sara Jenkins who combines her love of Mediterranean food with her Maine roots. She is also a cookbook author, the most recent one written with her mother Nancy Harmon Jenkins, a food guru in her own right.
I started with the known ingredients and added chicken broth and half and half. I can’t promise that it was as good as Sara’s, but it wasn’t bad. Here’s how it went together.
Simple enough, the soup was very tasty and a perfect meal with a green salad and cornbread muffin. Next time I make it I might add a few drops of Tabasco and I can also imagine it with spinach or kale as an ingredient. Hmmm, what started at Nina June may take on a life of its own.
OK, you know the table is set so what’s for dinner?
Chicken Stoup