Simple Pasta W/ Home Made Tomato Sauce

     I am facing the fact that I will soon be leaving this food paradise.  I have been living in the northern tip of California's central valley for nearly 10 years now.  I have grown accustomed to having easy access to almost any kind of fruit or vegetable I could want.  I expect to have TOO MANY tomatoes during the summer; which is not a real thing but means I have to start thinking of ways to use tomatoes rather than trying to save them for a special meal.  

    This looming transition has me thinking a lot about how one establishes good food practices.  How do we go from having an empty barren kitchen, which makes cooking impossible,  to having a stocked pantry, which makes cooking joyous.  These thoughts are developing very much thanks to Jaleen who has been pushing me to 'food coach' her.  I dont know what this means yet but I think that is because I have been in a fictional food land.  My kitchen is always stocked, I have help shopping, I have farmers for house mates, I have a yard which is bursting with vegetables!  My current concept of a kitchen is so different from what most of us face after a long day of work.  

     I plan on ramping up the 'advice' I give here as I start to take a hard look at how I put together a kitchen from scratch but today I have one thing to offer . . . 

Always have tomatoes around. 

    I dont care if they are fresh or canned or sauced, tomatoes have incredible utility.  The dish I am showing you here:

is pretty much tomatoes tossed on plain pasta and ti was DELICIOUS ( the basil is just garnish to make it look extra pretty)!  Tomatoes have the unique pleasure of adding sweetness and acidity.  They act like a fruity vinegar that can make flavors pop, add sultry color and natural saucyness!  

Keep tomatoes on hand.  If you are in doubt. . .look back through my blog and count how many dishes use tomatoes, oh we will find a way to use them dont worry.

     For example: Home made pasta sauce.  What I love about tomatoes is how you can just toss them in a pot with some oil, salt, pepper and garlic and let them simmer.  There are all kinds of ways to get more fancy, roasting, peeling, pureeing, and so on but . . . I love the body of a basic simmer sauce.  This sauce made use of cherry tomatoes (sun golds give this sauce a lighter color and higher sweetness).  I simmered them with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar ( I love my vinegar).  It took 45 minutes for this to simmer down to a sauce I liked. If I were more patient I could have made something wit a much more bold flavor but we always gotta balance that love of food with practicality and  I was hungry.

     While the sauce was saucing along I prepared the pasta and some extras. Mostly I sauteed some onions in olive oil with a bit of garlic.  Towards the end I pushed in some chard (because it grows like a weed here and adds lots of yum), making sure to cut the stems out first.  The stems go in the pan earlier than the green (dont you dare throw them out! 

   If you get your timing right, and let the onions go s-l-o-w so they get sweet and smoky, the sauce is ready at the same time as the extras (which could have included mushrooms, or bell peppers or zucchini or any vegetable we would like but I just wanted sauce).    Toss the pasta in the vegetables with the garlicy oil you used to saute.  At this point you could also toss the pasta with sauce to give a really even coating.  I spooned my sauce over the top for presentation but dont worry I had fun mixing it up a second after this picture!  

I hope to become more consistent after I relocate . . . but I dont know what I will be more consistent with.  In the mean time . . . Keep Eating!  

Soft Tacos!

I get home from a two hour drive and a full day of movin' and shootin' in the sun only to realize. . .I have not eaten all day!  I mean sure I had a hand full of granola here and a few almonds there but really not nearly the calorie count I need to be as active as I am!  Solution, Soft Tacos from heaven!  These bad boys are made with rice and beans, peach salsa and wilted chard.  The extra body comes from braised bell peppers and zucchini.  Lets break it down a little bit more.

The beans were a quick job.  After cooking two cups of beans in a pressure cooker for almost an hour, I took a few spoon fulls (probably a cup cooked beans) and simmered them with garlic powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and coconut oil (though olive or safflower would have been fine).  After they simmered enough that they began to mush I tossed in a hand full of corn kernels (cut off the cob by a lovely housemate) and turned off the heat.  

The rice was brown and delicious! 2.5 cups of rice with 5 cups of water, a healthy pinch of salt and a few tomatoes diced up small.  I salted the rice but left it relatively plain so I could use it as a flavor gradient [that is if the beans are on one side and the salsa is on the other the rice takes on the flavor at each end and provides a balance in the way they mix]  

For the wilted chard we will have to ask Emily but she 'over slated' them and I thought they were perfect

the zucchini was a seat of my pants braising!  Get your cast iron SUPER hot with just a bit of oil, toss in your zucchini so it sizzles then add a dash of balsamic, a squeeze of braggs and a hint of vegan Worcestershire suace.  All that wet cooks away fast so turn down the heat and let it 'burn' onto the zucchini to give a quick-grill-feel.  

Peach salsa was a bit of a sham since I forgot the lime AND the Cilantro (which davey will be happy about).  Diced tomatoes, sliced onions, minced garlic, minced jalapeno, a dash of apple cider vinegar (in an attempt to make up for missing lime) and one average peach diced up.  Mix and let it sit long enough that the flavors really mix together (10 minutes minimum).  

Putting all this in a little tortilla is hard but that is why I have six tacos!  And look at that, I got to top it with a lovely slice of avocado!  

Summer time and the lunching's easy

It is beginning to be a challenge. . .cooking zucchini in new ways but brazed is usually a good idea.  By using a VERY hot skillet with a minimal amount of oil you can get the natural sugars in zucchini to brown . . .of course take it too far and you are just burning it.  To help you can splash a bit of soy sauce or balsamic vinegar ti give the appearance of browning while kicking in some extra flavor.  Above is zucchini brazed in balsamic vinegar with garlic to accompany my side of rainbow chard sauteed in lemon juice garlic and butter (earth balance but do I really need to say it every time?  just assume it is some vegan butter, even better assume it is earth balance). with tomato and green beans.  The quinoa is tossed with tomato and oregano and dashed with olive oil and topped with avocado and pepper.  Yeah I can keep eating Zucchini.