Polenta Nests

Serves 4

Ingredients:

6 cups vegetable stock

1 1/2 cups corn meal (polenta)

2 teaspoons celery seed

3 Tbsp butter

2 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced

9 oz fontina cheese, cubed

Instructions:

1. Pour vegetable stock into a large pot and bring to a boil.

2. Add polenta and celery seed and stir evenly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring frequently. (You want to try and get the polenta as smooth as possible).

3. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, then add sliced leeks. Stir frequently and cook until leeks are soft and wilted.

4. Add the fontina and stir a few times until cheese is slightly gooey. Remove from heat.

5. Scoop the polenta onto plates in next shapes and top with leek and cheese mixture.

I made this for lunch today and just finished eating it. It was delicious, yet it had very few ingredients and was very quick and easy to make. As always, I am a fan of most things where cheese is involved, so I enjoyed this meal.

Potato and Leek Chowder

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp margarine*

1 onion, minced

1 leek, finely sliced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 Tbsp rice flour*

1 1/4 quarts vegetable stock

2 1/2 cup diced potatoes

1 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 cup young green beans, sliced

1/2 cup rice milk*

salt and pepper

*This recipe is gluten-free and vegan to suit the dietary needs of my roommate. The original recipe called for butter, all-purpose flour, and milk.

Directions:

1. Melt the margarine in a large saucepan. Add the onion, leek, celery, bell pepper, cilantro, and basil. Cook over a low heat until the vegetables are soft.

2. Add the flour and stir evenly. Add the stock and stir until blended. Continue to stir frequently, and bring to a boil.

3. Add the potatoes, thyme, and bay leaf. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.

4. Add the green beans and simmer for an additional 15 minutes until all vegetables are tender.

5. Remove bay leaf and stir in rice milk. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

I bought a soup cookbook last Wednesday. You should expect to see many soup recipes on here in the coming months since I'll be making plenty of them to keep myself warm this winter! I'm anticipating many rainy days here in Oregon, and I think soups are the perfect rainy day meal!

I chose this recipe in particular because I went to the Lane County Farmer's Market yesterday and I picked up some leeks for super cheap while I was there, so I needed to figure out what to do with them! I expect I'll be making plenty of trips back to the farmer's market; I found lots of wonderful fresh fruits and veggies there.

This recipe was really good. The soup is nice and hearty, and quite aromatic. It rained today, and eating a hearty soup like this makes me feel warm and cozy.

White Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients:

10 sheets lasagna

8 oz fresh spinach

1 cup sliced mushrooms

4 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

1 cup flour

6 Tbsp butter

5 cups milk

salt and pepper

ground nutmeg

grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Boil the lasagna sheets in water for ten minutes or until fully cooked. Drain and let cool.

2. Put spinach and 2 Tbsp water in large pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms and cook for an additional 3 minutes.

3. Drain water from spinach and mushrooms and chop roughly.

4. In a large saucepan, combine flour, butter, and milk and bring to a boil. Add spices to taste. Stir continuously over heat until sauce is thick and smooth.

5. Lay out a lasagna sheet and spread sauce, spinach/mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese on the top quarter of it.

6. Roll up the lasagna sheet and place it seam-side down in a large greased baking dish. Place rolls in the dish right next to one another.

7. Spread the remaining sauce over the rolls.

8. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and place under hot broiler until browned.

This was pretty good, and I love nutmeg, but I felt like it was lacking a depth of flavor. If I made it again, I wouldn't use the white nutmeg sauce on both the inside and outside. I would keep the white sauce inside, but put a red sauce on the top. Overall, the inside ingredients: mozzarella, sauce, spinach and mushrooms are a great combination, and I wouldn't change that. That was a perfect flavor and texture. However, the sauce was very thick, and so while it made a nice hearty inside, I felt like having it on the outside as well was a bit much. A more liquid red sauce would have been a better choice. Next time, next time.

August: A Slow Month for Cooking

I didn't post much in August. There are a few reasons for this: a) I took a business trip to Austin, TX; b) I took a camping trip to central/northern California; and c) I cooked a few things I've posted before, so I didn't feel the need to repost those recipes.

I stayed with a friend in Austin, and we did some cooking while I was there. We made the vegetable and cheese pie that I posted about in May. This time we had some marinara sauce on the side for dipping, which was an AMAZING idea. It was like an extra-veggie pizza with a delicious flaky bread crust.

We also made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I posted in June and brought them into the office for our coworkers.

The cooking we did while camping was definitely nothing to blog about; I don't think anyone needs instructions for heating up cans of lentil soup over a portable camp stove. Camping was great though, we had tons of fun.

I did cook up some interesting things the past two nights, so be ready for some new recipe postings for September!