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The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

Sunday Cookout: BBQ Tofu Sandwiches With Yellow Squash and Tater Tots.

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Y’all, today I had a breakthrough in the BBQ-tofu department.  This is life-changing, and I mean that!  (I take my barbecue seriously, you know.)
Let’s cut to the chase.  For the first time, I used Trader Joe’s extra-firm tofu in this meal, and it held up amazingly well on the grill, even after eight hours of marinating time prior.  The tofu strips were firm, grilled evenly, and were easy to flip midway through the cooking process.  Usually, I lose a strip or two (or pieces and parts therein) when I flip them all over, but this time, I lost nary a molecule!  And that’s a good thing, too, because this particular BBQ tofu was wonderfully flavorful and tasty.
Alongside the tofu, I cooked up a sliced yellow squash – two of them, actually – from last week’s Great Country Farms box.  I placed the slices in a long sheet of foil, then topped them with two chopped garlic scapes (also from the CSA box!), a generous amount of chipotle powder, and about a tablespoon of olive oil.  I sealed up the foil with a second sheet of foil for good measure, then placed the packet on the grill for about half an hour, turning it halfway through the cooking time.
All that was left to cook inside were the tater tots – an easy addition to round out the meal!
The weather was gorgeous outside tonight – it has been all weekend, actually – so LeeLee and I had no trouble settling down in the backyard for dinner.  The summer heat is supposed to come back with a vengeance tomorrow, so we enjoyed one last breezy July night and appreciated what we had!  Great weather, tasty food – what’s not to love?

:)

Sunday Cookout: Vegetarian Chik’n Fajitas With Rice.

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Ooooh, I think I have concocted a new Sunday-cookout favorite.
As I put together this week’s menu plan, my thoughts, as usual, drifted to what I could possibly grill out for our weekly barbecue.  Now, I love all the usual suspects – riffs on burgers, or veggie dogs, or tofu, or Portobello mushrooms.  But I wanted to do something different this week.  Something unexpected.
Something involving my never-been-used new vegetable-grilling pan, given to me by LeeLee a little while back.  Something like … fajitas!
So this afternoon I got to work.  I sliced my last Vidalia onion into thin half-moons, gave a red bell pepper the same treatment, and washed off a container of sliced white button mushrooms, putting them all into a large zip-top bag.  To the veggie mixture I added several tablespoons of olive oil and plenty of chipotle powder, garlic powder, and ground cumin.  Then I sealed the bag up and massaged the marinade into the vegetables, putting them back into the fridge to soak up the goodness for a while before I fired up the grill and turned the rice cooker on.
When it came time to cook, it couldn’t have been easier.  I placed the grill pan on the grill grate, poured in the veggies, and then placed four Gardein chik’n filets on the grate as well.  Every few minutes, I flipped everything around, and after about 15 minutes, the veggies were cooked through and the chik’n was nicely seared.  After I took the chik’n off, I added a foil packet full of flour tortillas just to heat them up a bit, and then dinner was ready!
Let me just say: These fajitas were fantastic.  The onions, peppers, and mushrooms had a great smoky taste – the spice blend really melded well with the grilling technique – and we loved the addition of chik’n, something we’re never able to get at restaurants!  We topped our fajitas with the works – vegan sour cream, Daiya pepperjack shreds, lettuce, sliced black olives, diced tomato, and the piece de resistance, a spicy sauerkraut from No. 1 Sons, which we absolutely adored.  Paired with the rice, the fajitas made an extremely filling meal – with plenty left over for lunch tomorrow!
With that, we’ve deemed the grilled fajitas a success.  And it’s safe to say they’ll be part of the usual suspects in very short order!

:)

Sunday Cookout: Veggie Dogs With “Bacon”-Wrapped Asparagus and Baked Beans.

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Happy weekend, friends!  We’ve been at the beach since Friday (hence the silence on these blog pages), and rolled back into town just in time to throw food on the grill for tonight’s U.S.-Portugal soccer game.  The fun in the sun was fantastic, but we were both ready for some home-cooked food.  Enter: tonight’s Sunday Cookout!
As you no doubt know by now, veggie dogs are a perennial favorite around Chez Recessionista.  So is asparagus.  So are baked beans!  But I wanted to do something a little different, to jazz up the dish and surprise and delight my fellow diner (that’s LeeLee).  With that in mind, I looked in the freezer and my eyes settled on the new package of vegetarian bacon, just waiting to be used as an inspiration piece.
Aha!
I’ve wrapped Brussels sprouts before and cooked them on the smoker, but I’d never done the same thing with asparagus (and the grill).  No matter!  Tonight, I washed our asparagus (delivered in last week’s Great Country Farms box), cut off the woody ends, and wrapped each stalk in a slice of veggie bacon.  Instead of wrapping them in one even cylinder, as I did with the sprouts, I wrapped the bacon up the stalk, trying to cover as much of the asparagus as possible.  Then I covered them with foil and kept them chilled until their time on the grill began!
Next, I lit up the grill and let it get nice and hot.  Then I placed a pan of baked beans onto the grate and warmed it for 20 minutes or so before placing the aforementioned bacon-wrapped asparagus next to the pan.  After another five minutes, I added the veggie dogs – and after this point there was no space left on the grill!
After about 10 more minutes (and several rotations of our veggie dogs), I took everything up and added two buns to replace them, toasting them on each side for a couple of minutes apiece.  After that, it was time to pile our plates high, crack open a beer, and watch the World Cup while we had dinner atop our trusty TV trays (which are brought out for just such occasions)!
The World Cup may not have gone America’s way tonight (though it could have been worse!), but the dinner was a hit here at home.  We both loved the bacon-wrapped asparagus, and of course as usual devoured the veggie dogs and baked beans.  Both of the latter components are now waiting in the fridge to be used as leftovers tomorrow; I can’t say the same for the asparagus, which was picked clean tonight!  We’ll definitely make that again.

:)

New Recipe: Grilled Pizza.

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What a wonderful weekend this has been!  From strawberry-picking yesterday (more on that in an upcoming post!) to a preserve-canning session today, it’s been a fresh-foods sort of time.  The weather has been in the 70s, the cat willingly went into the backyard on her leash and harness setup for the first time in nearly a decade (!) – and alongside all of that, it was Cookout Sunday!  What could be better?
Tonight, we made one of my very favorite grillable meals: Grilled pizza!  We laid out a plethora of toppings from which to choose – pizza sauce, olive oil, mozzarella, Daiya cheddar, vegetarian pepperoni, black olives, diced bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, and plenty of herbs from the garden.  Then LeeLee and I set to work in crafting our own individual pizzas, trying to top the other’s creations and win bragging rights.
We each brought the heat with some killer red-sauce pies: pepperoni and herbs, a take on a Supreme, and a mozzarella-and-mushroom duo, just to name a few.  Then we each tried our hand at some olive-oil-based pies with equally good results.  I’ll have to call tonight’s cookout a draw, which is A-OK – every pie was a winner, and we’ve got plenty more where that came from!
Here’s how we did it.
GRILLED PIZZA
Serves four
What you’ll need:
For the dough:
1 cup water
1 packet of yeast
3-3 ½ cups flour
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. cumin seed, optional
For the toppings:
1 jar pizza sauce
1 container sliced white mushrooms
1 bell pepper
1 can sliced olives
1 container vegetarian pepperoni
1 bottle olive oil
1 ball mozzarella cheese (or vegan cheese that melts, like Daiya)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Various herbs (think parsley, basil, oregano, chives, dill, etc.), to taste
First, you’ll want to allow enough time to make the dough, let it rise for an hour, and, ideally, let it cool in the refrigerator for another hour or so minimum.  (Cooling the dough makes it more pliable when the time comes to shape your pizza crusts.)  So, backing up, allow at least two and a half hours – up to 24 hours if you want! – to get your dough together.
To make the dough, add 1 cup of warm water to a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl) and sprinkle the yeast in, mixing gently with a wooden spoon.  Next, add one cup of flour and all of the olive oil and seasonings.  (And by all means, substitute out seasonings as you see fit!  This is an easy mix-in recipe and you’ll hone your personal favorite dough over time, believe me.)
Blend your mixture with the spoon or a stand mixer’s dough hook and continue adding the flour, half a cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and forms a cohesive ball. 
If you’re using a stand mixer, hooray for you – just let the dough hook do its job and knead your dough in the mixer bowl until the dough is no longer sticky.  Next, drop down past the next paragraph and join up with me there.
If you’re doing this by hand, turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and flour your hands well.  Then put a little elbow grease into the job and knead your dough until it’s no longer sticky – this usually takes me about five minutes, with the occasional distraction.
(Stand mixer users, please join me again here!  And by-handers, stick with me too.)  Spray a bowl – I usually use the one I’ve just been mixing in, and let me be honest, I don’t even clean the leftover flour and dough out – with cooking spray and place the balled-up dough in, sealing up with plastic wrap.  Let rise for an hour; your dough will nearly double in size.
Next, spray a zip-top bag with cooking spray (on the inside, people!) and put the dough in, sealing it up nice and tight and doing your best to remove any leftover air.  Place your bag in the fridge for at least an hour, up to 24, and let cool.  If you’re going to be longer than 24 hours, just put it in the freezer and place it in the refrigerator the morning you’re planning on using it.
Once your dough is ready, fire up the grill!  You want your grill nice and hot (as is customary with all my recipes!) for this one.  Full speed ahead, baby!
Bring all of your supplies outside to your backyard table (or what-have-you) and clean your hands up well.  You might want to keep a clean dishtowel nearby because this can get a little bit messy.
Next, grab a hunk (that’s the scientific term) of dough, enough to fit in a fist, and begin to shape it into a small, personal-pizza-sized disc.  Experiment with the thickness to determine what style you like best.  Once it’s ready, just throw it onto the grill – and by all means please do not try to shape it and/or push it around once it’s on the grates!  Your dough will fall through the cracks and it’ll make a big mess.  Plus, you’ll burn yourself, which is hardly the way to kick off an evening al fresco.
Our grill can usually handle up to about four of these discs at once, so get all your guests and/or relatives involved in the pizza-making!  That’s half the fun.
After about five minutes on a super-hot grill, start checking your dough for doneness (on the bottom, at least – the top will still be pretty soft).  Once it’s browned (or blackened, as are some of our creations) to your liking, use a spatula to scoop it off the grill and bring it over to a plate or work surface.  Decorate it however you see fit – with any of the ingredients above, or with some of your own, we won’t judge you! – and place it soft-side down back on the grill for another five to seven minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bottom is browned.
Next, scoop it up again, place it on a cookie sheet (we actually use a pizza pan), slice it up with a pizza cutter, and voila!  Personal pizzas for all, cut up into sizes suitable for sharing.
:)

Memorial Day Cookout: Vegetarian Beer Brats With Asparagus and Baked Beans.

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Happy Memorial Day to you, friends, and my thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones.

Though the Memorial Day holiday isn’t the official start of the summer season, it sort of is, in terms of summertime activities.  Though we’ve been cooking out for weeks already, the Memorial Day barbecue holds a certain gravitas that our typical Sunday cookouts can’t quite muster. It’s the start of something Big, the start of summertime treats and pool parties and beach trips and outdoor movies.  As a result, I’ve been planning for it for weeks!
Tonight was an all-grill feast – no indoor cooking required!  First, I poured a can of baked beans into a grill pan, covered it with foil, and placed it on the grill to heat up, allowing a cook time of about 35 minutes from end to end.  Next up came the asparagus: These spears were just big enough to fit on skewers, so I carefully threaded them through and sprayed each side with cooking spray.  When I knew we had about 15 minutes left in our grilling time, I placed them onto the grates and seasoned each side with some Cajun seasoning.
Finally, out came the beer brats and accompanying sauerkraut!  As the brats cooked, I put some sauerkraut in a foil packet and heated it up alongside for some extra zest.  When dinner was nearly ready, I tossed two buns on to toast.
As for the final result: It was wonderful.  The brats, sauerkraut, asparagus, and beans were all fantastic (if I do say so), and the accompanying beer wasn’t so bad either!  We have a couple of brats left over for lunch this week, which I know neither of us will turn down.  Hooray for summer fun!

:)

Sunday Cookout: Vegetarian “Beef” Tacos.

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Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking: Tacos for a cookout?
Well … not really.  In fact, all weekend LeeLee and I had been looking forward to grilling beer brats with all the fixins.  But upon opening the grill at 6:30 this evening, to begin cooking, I was dismayed to see that my ash dump had turned into a concrete pit, soaked as it was in a mix of ash and three-day-old rainwater, a casualty of Friday morning’s deluge. 
I calmly removed the ash dump and, well, dumped the standing water.  But the cement-like ash residue remained, all soggy and clumpy and sad.
As is my way, I took matters into my own hands – literally – and began beating on the back of the ash dump in an attempt to dislodge the wet cement.  No dice.  I slammed it (half out of necessity, half in frustration) onto the patio.  No dice.  That cement had begun to gel, and I knew I was fighting a losing battle.
So I evaluated my options.  How to grill sans ash dump?  I even consulted the wide expanse of the Internet’s barbecue knowledge, to no avail.  An ash dump, it would appear, is a very useful thing to have when generating ashes (and, before that, fire) in a grill.
It took me about 25 minutes to concede defeat, but once I did, it was all systems go toward Plan B.  As LeeLee prepared the back yard for our feast – we may not be grilling tonight, but we were still going to enjoy the nice weather! – I heated up some ground “beef” in one pan, some refried beans in another, and got some rice started in the rice cooker.  As everything simmered away, I chopped up some onion, cherry tomato, fresh lettuce and cilantro from the garden, and some black olives.  Once the rice was finished, so was everything else (I’d put the taco shells in the oven about 5 minutes before dinnertime), and we prepared our plates and carted them outside to enjoy al fresco.
Our menu items may have changed, but the tacos were still quite tasty!  We mowed everything down with the usual fervor and were both so pleased to learn that in the end we had lots left over for lunch tomorrow.  And those beer brats?  They’ll be making an entrance soon themselves – just as soon as my ash dump dries out.

:)

Sunday Cookout: BBQ Tofu With Peas and Baked Potatoes.

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First of all, happy Mother’s Day, especially to my own dear mama, who has been known to read these pages from time to time.  I sure do love her. :)

If it’s Sunday, it’s Cookout Night, and tonight was no different.  Unlike last night, which threatened to storm off and on for hours, today was clear and warm and beautiful, with blue skies and limited humidity.  And no mosquitoes, LeeLee pointed out as we sat around on the patio reading magazines for hours!  A wonderful night, indeed.

Earlier in the day, I’d marinated some sliced tofu in a bath of barbecue sauce, nestled safely within two separate zip-top bags to ensure the sauce wouldn’t make a mess in the fridge.  (I learned that one from experience, believe you-me.)  All the tofu had to do after that point was lie in wait until the grill was ready for it!

When we were about an hour out from dinnertime, I wrapped two potatoes in foil and placed them in a 375-degree oven, flipping them over about half an hour in (and adjusting the temperature to 400 degrees – these were some BIG potatoes!).  As they baked, I lit the charcoal in our backyard grill and once the flames had died down and I’d dispersed the coal, I placed an aluminum container of English peas (seasoned with pepper) atop the grate, covered with foil.

As the peas warmed up, I proceeded to get my toppings – tomato, onion, and backyard lettuce for the sandwiches; chives, dill, and parsley for the baked potatoes – together on a serving plate.  I’m loving the fact that our own little garden can now provide a few side items for dinner!

When I had about 20 minutes left in the potatoes’ cook time, I laid each strip of tofu out on the grill and closed the lid again, flipping the tofu (or trying to) after 10 minutes.  I confess I did lose some smaller pieces to the coals below, which was a shame, but was the cost of doing business.  The barbecue sauce causes the tofu to stick a bit, and wrestling with it is always fraught with disaster!

Once the potatoes were finished, I brought them outside to our patio setup and then took the peas off the grill, followed in short order by the tofu.  In its place I heated up two steak rolls for just a minute or so on each side, and then dinner was ready!  We topped our sandwiches with Vegenaise and all the fixins, and added a dollop of butter to our potatoes before adorning them with greenery.  The peas were A-OK as-is!  And we proceeded to mow down the entire plate of food in no time flat.

I’m thrilled to report that we’ve still got some barbecue tofu left for tomorrow’s lunch – since there’s only enough left for one of us, it’s going to be a race to the fridge before we go to work!

:)

Sunday Cookout: Veggie Dogs, Asparagus, and Sweet Potato Fries.

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After a long day of gardening, we’ve found the best way to relax is to sit outside on the newly cleaned patio with a cold beer and a little red grill filled with ingredients for dinner.  In this setup, you’ve got no option, really, other than letting the stress melt away as you leaf through a magazine, listening to the birds sing sweetly (or, in the case of our resident grackles, caw incessantly).

For tonight’s cookout, we settled on some family favorites – veggie dogs, asparagus from the farmers’ market, and sweet potato fries! 
First, I prepared the asparagus by slicing off the woody ends.  Usually, I like to skewer the stalks for grilling, but these springtime asparagus spears were much too tiny for skewering!  This is, in fact, an excellent thing – it means they’ll be some of the tastiest, most tender asparagus spears of the year – so I went with it and instead placed them all in a foil packet, marinating them with some olive oil and our favorite, Tony Chachere Cajun seasoning.
Once the grill was hot enough, I laid the packet down atop the grate.  I like to cook the asparagus a nice, long time to get it perfectly tender, so I planned on a 25-minute cook time, turning the packet over every 10 minutes or so.
In the meantime, I put the sweet potato fries in the oven to bake.  I still can’t come up with a good way to keep the fries crispy on the grill!  If you’ve got an idea, I’m all ears – let me know in the comments!
When I had about 10 minutes left in the cooking window, I threw the veggie dogs onto the grill, rotating them every couple of minutes.  As they cooked, I chopped up an onion (my father-in-law used to say that a hot dog without onions was like a day without sunshine) and added the other condiments to the table.  Once the dogs were ready, I took them up and placed two buns on the grates to toast for a minute (and only a minute – don’t turn your back on them, or they’ll burn up!).  Then I removed the buns and the asparagus, and put the fries into a serving bowl, sprinkling them with some salt at the last.
The result?  Well, what do you think?  :)  With such a friendly spread, we couldn’t go wrong!  The food was gone in minutes, and the beer was quick to follow.  Another successful cookout, indeed!

:)

Veggie Burgers With Peas and Tater Tots.

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First of all, let us just take a moment to breathe in the long-awaited spring air (pollen optional) and thank the Powers That Be for finally making it out of winter and into our very first cookout of the season.
Yes!  You heard me right!  Finally, finally, after several false starts over the last month, I fired up our trusty Aussie grill, complete with a showroom-new grill grate and ash dump, and got to work.  First up was an aluminum grill pan teeming with English peas (seasoned with black pepper), which I covered with foil and cooked for half an hour or so.  As it cooked, I baked a sheet of tater tots in the oven indoors (because I still can’t figure out how to make them nice and crispy on the open flame – but give me time!).
While the peas and tots warmed up, I opened up a beer and sat down to leaf through the latest Real Simple.  But not just any beer – a Double Take from a six-pack that LeeLee and I picked up today while at the Safeway.  Why am I mentioning this?  Because said six-packs were on sale for 50% off – on top of a pre-existing sale!  So a $7.99 sixer cost us $3.  Which, as LeeLee pointed out over dinner, means each bottle is precisely $0.50.  Fifty cents!  Now that’s what I call spring fever.
When I was about 10 minutes from dinnertime, I put four veggie burgers onto the grill to warm up, and before long they were sizzling and juicy.  As I took them up, I put two buns on to toast.  I like to cook with a wide-open heat (if it can’t be grilled at full steam ahead, what’s the point?), so they were nearly too brown in no time. ;)
The results were springtime personified.  Everything tastes better after being grilled, and tonight’s meal was no different.  The first cookout of the season always adds extra flair – the newness of the year’s Sunday cookouts hasn’t work off yet!  After the winter we’ve had, I doubt we’ll settle into complacency any time soon.  Veggie burgers, 50-cent beers – what’s not to love?

:)

Buffalo Tofu With Peas and Tater Tots.

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When I first put this meal on the weekly menu, I had grand visions of tonight being the first cookout of the season, just a hair before spring’s official arrival this Thursday.  The weather has been so mild, so sunny and lovely these last few days, that a barbecue seemed a reasonable assumption to me.
Now, it is snowing.  So much for reasonable!
And so our cookout became a cook-IN, with the buffalo tofu baking for a solid hour in the oven instead of for 25 minutes on the grill.  I can think of worse dinners! :)
I began marinating the tofu right after I woke up this morning, slicing the block up into eight strips and pouring almost a full bottle of buffalo sauce into a zip-top bag atop said tofu strips.  Every few hours I reached into the refrigerator and turned the bag to allow the tofu to marinate evenly, and there it sat, chilling, until I needed it tonight for dinner!
When it came time to bake, I laid each strip out on a baking sheet and turned the oven to 350.  I cooked the tofu on one side for 20 minutes, then flipped each strip and cooked it all for another 20.  A sheet of tater tots joined the tofu for the final 20 minutes, at which time I cranked the oven temperature up to 425 (and added a can of peas to a saucepan on the stove).  By the time the buffalo strips had been in the oven for an hour, everything else was ready!
We served the tofu on steak rolls with all the sandwich fixins – lettuce, tomato, onion, nutritional yeast (for me – LeeLee doesn’t care for it as much as I do), and the like.  And cookout or no, it made for a perfect Sunday night meal!  We’ve even got enough tofu left to make a hearty lunch for tomorrow – huzzah!

:)