Random Recipes from the Last Sandwich Life House Concert

Thank you all that brought food and drink to share the other night.  As always, you outdid yourselves.  It is SUCH fun to see–and enjoy—what everyone brings.  A couple of people asked about some of the recipes so I will post mine.  Feel free to add yours in the comments—-Sue—-I want the pickled shrimp recipe!

We grilled a batch of our favorite cherry-honey sausage from Old Time Meat and Deli (they have a ton of different sausage that they make….all the ones we've had have been good but these are our big-time favorites) and then made roasted edamame and olives with brown rice, a kale salad which was so-so….I think I like it better when I've made it with just the lacinato kale…I used a mixture, and also my sesame noodles.  I was surprised when I realized that three of my dishes were vegan and I wasn't even trying!

Roasted Beans with Garlic and Olives
from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven

3 T extra virgin olive oil

1  1 lb package frozen lima beans

6 large cloves garlic, peeled and halved or quartered lengthwise

1 heaping cup green olives, pitted and sliced

1-2 T minced fresh herbs (1-2t dried): summer savory, marjoram, thyme, and/or sage

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spread 2 T olive oil into 6 x9 baking pan or an oval gratin pan.

Toss everything directly into the pan and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  cover the pan tightly with foil.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the garlic is tender when pierced with a toothpick or a fork.  Transfer to a bowl and stir.  If desire, you can drizzle on a little extra olive oil and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

I love this recipe and have converted lima bean haters with it.  This time though I used an equal amount of shelled edamame (frozen).  I was lazy and didn't slice the olives but probably should have…they also came with garlic so I cut back a bit on the garlic cloves.  I made a double batch for the house concert and roasted it almost twice as long in my Le Creuset pot.  Then I made a big batch of brown rice (I think it was 5 or 6 cups when dry) and mixed that in at the end, adding a bit more salt and pepper and just served it in the pot.  In the past I've often served it on it's own or over rice…it's nice over basmati but I did like this and it makes a hearty dish that could be a meal on its own.  I added a bit more olive oil to the beans and olives as well because I knew I was adding such a large amount of rice.  Oh, and I used a bunch of fresh oregano because that is what was bountiful in the garden.

I love pretty much everything I've made from this cookbook.  I never consider getting rid of this one when I do a cookbook purge.  It was fun to make it with with edamame as somehow lima beans seem more wintery—this felt more springlike. 

I also made my sesame pasta again and topped it with fresh pea tendrils because we were at the co-op and they were so freaking gorgeous.  I made it the day of the party but I do think, as Todd and I talked about that day, that it's better made a day ahead.  Still good…but lesson learned.

I also made a blueberry cobbler because I had blueberries in the freezer from last summer's farmers' market and thought I better use them up!  It was late in the afternoon so I made my simple mix-it-in-a-pan memorized recipe that I got from Judi's friend Nancy's sister.  It makes a cake like cobbler but it's simple and good and I end up making it much more often than the recipe from Cook's Illustrated that I like….

Nancy's Sister's Cobbler

1 stick butter

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 t baking powder (thank you Gail for lending the baking powder to Leo)

1 cup milk.

Melt the butter in the pan, stir in the dry ingredients with anything extra you want to add (I used about a teaspoon cinnamon with the berries), then add milk and mix.  It will be quite thin and a bit lumpy but just dump in a few cups of fruit and toss it in the oven.  Bake at 350 until set and browned….depending on pan and fruit—anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  

It's good with ice cream but that was too complicated for me the other night.  It's quite sweet so you can cut the sugar if you like—but it all depends on your fruit. There's no sugar added to the fruit so you do need a bit in the batter. This is my favorite kind of recipe—-like the one for the sesame pasta—-simple enough that you can keep it in your head which means you actually make it and not just file it away!

Thanks again for sharing all the bounty!

Oh, and here are the eggs that Audrey brought us.  I'm thinking of a frittata for dinner tomorrow night. Aren't they gorgeous?