Cacio e Pepe (Cheese and Pepper Pasta)

The fancy name for this pasta is Cacio e Pepe.  Literally, cheese and pepper.  A certain Bengali gentleman just calls it "Macaroni and Cheese that grew up and went to college."  This dish is not necessarily diet-friendly, but it's a nice weeknight dinner, and certainly an improvement on Kraft.  The dish is also a one-pan wonder, so that makes the dishwashers (both people and machines) happier.

The dish is rich and the black pepper adds some deep and complicated spice.  If you grind it fresh for the dish, it is really worth the effort, though I won't say it is completely necessary.  Last time we had this, I did about half pre-ground and half fresh ground, and it was totally delicious.  The dish also has some lovely, salty Italian cheese (and some butter) as a counterpart to the pepper.  It's a fantastic, simple combination that is sure to win you over.

Although not present in this shot, a nice green salad with some fresh tomatoes was an excellent way to round out the meal.

Mexic-esque Caramelized Corn and Black Beans

In the words of my new favorite video-blogger over at My Drunk Kitchen (It's decidedly PG-13, language wise, and obviously includes drinking. Warning over), I'm pretty much in a constant state of desiring Mexican food.  I'm obligated to tell you that the dish I'm presenting to you isn't really like anything I've eaten while in Mexico.  It's Mexic-esque, or Mexic-ish.  Mexinspired.  It's full of black beans and onions and chiles and onions.  Now, it's also sweet corn season here in the midwest, so we added some Indiana sweet corn to the mix, and the result was delish.

For this dish, we caramelize both the onions and the sweet corn to get some deep sweetness to counteract the starchy beans and the spicy chiles.  This can be served with a sprinkle of cheese over the top or some sour cream or omit both and just slather with some hot sauce (Cholula is my favorite).  Either way, serve it with some tortillas or chips and enjoy!

And now, on with the recipe!

Tortellini Soup

So, I know that August isn't exactly full of what I would call Soup Weather (cold, possibly rainy, and generally dreary weather), but I'm telling you, this soup is a winner even in the summer.  Besides, let's be honest with ourselves, there's no such thing as Not-Tortellini-Weather.

So, this soup is another awesome go-to weeknight dinner, full of lovely vegetables, as well as some cheese, which is good for the soul (unless you are a vegan, in which case, butternut squash or artichoke stuffed tortellinis are good for the soul too).  The other nice thing about this lovely dinner is that you can have the stuff on hand all year round, because you can use fresh or frozen spinach and fresh or canned tomatoes and artichokes.  Hooray for versatility!

This recipe is taken and adapted from a lovely little blog called the Well-Fed Newlyweds.

So, here goes nothin' (recipe-wise):

TVP Tacos

Obviously, I've been a very bad blogger.  But, the good news is, I'm really going to try and get back on the blog-wagon.  The other good news is that I really love some of the recipes I've stored up to share with you all and the one pictured above has recently become a real favorite chez moi.  It's taco filling (or Nachos or enchilada filling) made from a vegetarian meat-substitute called TVP.

About a year ago, I was gifted with a bag of Bob's Red Mill Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP).  It was from a lovely fellow Bloomingtonian who had purchased it on a whim and never knew what to do with it.  I have to admit that it sat in my cupboard for about 9 months without being touched.  Textured Vegetable Protein?  Is there any name that sounds less appetizing?  Finally, I was cleaning out my food storage and (with the Eye of the Tiger playing in the background), I resolved to make use of this alien ingredient.

And what did we make?  TVP tacos!  These tacos are spicy and delicious and way more calorie-conscious than your average meatatarian taco.  These come together in a snap once the chopping is all finished and make a great weeknight meal.  Also, they reheat well as leftovers.

The recipe above is ground-meat free but you could do a TVP/meat combo to make it a bit richer, or you can make it vegan by omitting the cheese.  Fantastic!  Let's get down to it.

Spinach Pinwheels

I had a serious debate with myself about what to call these. There aren't a lot of circle words that we use to describe food that are all that appetizing. Wheels? Nah, too transport oriented. Twirls? That's not food, that's movement. Rounds? Discs? Rings? None of these sound terribly appetizing. I really wanted something that sounded as tasty and light and crunchy as these lovely things. Ultimately, (as you can see above), I landed on pinwheels, but I'm not totally satisfied with that. Do you, my lovely readers, have any suggestions?


Anyway...this dish is, in the most basic description, spanakopita in a hurry. I posted a recipe a while back on here for spanakopita, the traditional way. It's a spinach pie with feta cheese and it's deliciously flaky and lovely. But, the fact of the matter is, working with phyllo dough is really time consuming. So, this recipe is a way to enjoy the wonderful spinachy-flavor of spanakopita, without having to worry about all that finicky phyllo. You make the filling in exactly the same way, but then you spread it on some puff pastry, roll it all up and they are in the oven in less than an hour. Gotta love a good shortcut!

Bulgur (Vulgar) Wheat

Bulgar, Spinach and Tomato Pilaf

Well, after such a meat-centric dish, It's probably time to go mostly vegan, right? The dinner can be completely vegan if you choose, just omit the yogurt.

Tonight's dinner (to celebrate a fabulous friend's successes!) was bulgur wheat pilaf. One regular at dinner has taken to calling it "Vulgar Wheat," and that sort of stuck. It's a tasty combination that is a variant of a recipe from Heidi Swanson's fabulous blog, 101 Cookbooks. For my purposes, I streamlined the recipe a bit and served it with some hummus, baba ganoush, cucumber/tomato salad and pita chips. A lovely middle-Eastern inspired feast!

Recipe (serves 3-5):
1 Medium sized white onion, diced
5-8 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 cups bulgur wheat
(I prefer the finer ground wheat, but the coarser grinds work as well, they just take a bit longer to cook)
2 cups vegetable broth
10-12 oz. fresh spinach
12-15 plum tomatoes
2 tbsp. balsamic vineagar
1 1/2 tsp. chili garlic hot sauce (like Cholula)
2 tsp. soft brown sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2) Cut the plum tomatoes in half. Mix half of the olive oil, hot sauce and balsamic vinegar together. Toss the tomatoes in the mixture.
3) Place the tomatoes cut side up in a baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake tomatoes for 20-25 minutes.
4) Heat a large skillet over medium heat with the remaining olive oil. Fry the diced onion in the oil until it is starting to turn golden on the edges. Add garlic and cinnamon and fry for another 1-2 minutes.
5) Add spinach to the pan and cook with onions, garlic and spices until beginning to wilt. Add lemon juice and cook for another minute.
6) Add vegetable broth and warm. The broth doesn't need to boil, but should be warm.
7) Add bulgur and stir. Cover the pan and cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
8) Add tomatoes on top of the mixture. You can also pour any of the remaining olive oil/balsamic/hot sauce mixture over the pilaf at this point, if you want.

Serve with Greek yogurt, pita chips or just by itself. Mostly, just enjoy it!

Until our next dinner,
ceh.