Tag: vegetarian

Pasta With Summer Vegetables

I created this way to serve pasta as a flavorful side dish that goes well with many different main dishes. The ingredients below make 3 generous servings.

INGREDIENTS:

About 8 ounces pasta (rigatoni, penne rigate or fusilli)
2 – 3 T olive oil
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/3 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup chopped tomato
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup finely chopped carrot
1/3 cup finely chopped green pepper (about 1/4 inch dice)
1 large clove of minced garlic
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/3 tsp. basil
1/3 tsp. marjoram
2 or 3 T grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Cook the pasta according to directions on the package. While the water is heating and the pasta is cooking mince the garlic and chop the onion, carrot and green pepper and put them in a small bowl. Remove the stem from the tomato and chop it medium fine. When the pasta is nearly done, microwave the onion, carrot, pepper and garlic until the vegetables are hot but not cooked. The pepper should still be crunchy.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice, about 1/3 tsp. salt and sugar. Stir in the vegetables, spices and parmesan. Grind in some black pepper and taste. Add more salt and spices if necessary. If the pasta appears dry, add a little more olive oil.

Serve with parmesan on the side so guests can add more if they wish.

Notes: Fresh herbs work well too. Start with about three times as much as listed in the recipe and chop them fine. You can double this recipe very easily by using a whole package of pasta. You can vary or add other vegetables, such as zucchini, yellow squash, green beans. I have used yellow, red and Vidalia onions and red and yellow peppers at one time or another. I have also garnished the pasta with chopped parsley, but I did not think of it yesterday and it really is not essential.

Serve with parmesan on the side so guests can add more if they wish.

NOTES:  Fresh herbs work well too.  Start with about three times as much as listed in the recipe and chop them fine.  You can double this recipe very easily by using a whole package of pasta.

You can vary or add other vegetables, such as green or wax  beans or jalapeño peppers.  I have also used yellow, red and Vidalia onions and red and yellow peppers at one time or another.   If you serve this recipe cold, you can call it a salad.

Grandma Rang’s Date Cookies

Families have different ways of celebrating Advent.  When I was growing up, one way we celebrated was by getting a Christmas tree.  Finding the tree was a man’s job, so each year Dad and I would head into the woods on the first or second Sunday of December.  

We would look at thousands of spruce and balsam trees and examine a hundred or more until we found the perfect one.  Then we would take it home so we could listen to complaints about bare spots and flat sides.

It was easier to take the criticism if we were eating one of Grandma Rang’s Date Cookies.  Baking those was one way my mother celebrated Advent, and they were Dad’s favorite cookie.   

They are one of my favorites too.  About twenty years ago, the tradition of these cookies was enriched for me  by a wonderful lady, Hazel Olson, who gave me a cookie cutter that had belonged to her husband’s grandmother.  It is a tinned steel cutter with fluted sides, a tool that was probably made sometime in the middle of the 19th century.  The handle is missing and the plating is worn off in a few places, but it works fine and feels good in my hand as I cut the rich dough.

 

Although you can eat them as soon as they are cool, these cookies are better after they have been stored in a tight container in a cool room for two or three days.  They keep fine for as many weeks.

INGREDIENTS FOR DATE FILLING:

1 cup dates

1 cup cold water

1 cup light brown sugar

Dash of salt

2 T flour

PROCEDURE:

Chop the dates fine and put them in a saucepan with the cold water, sugar and salt.  Heat to boiling and simmer until dates are tender, about fifteen minutes.  Stir frequently.  Mix the flour in a quarter cup cold water and stir into the dates.  Simmer another five minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool before using as filling.  

INGREDIENTS FOR COOKIE DOUGH:

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup butter

3 large eggs

4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

PROCEDURE:

Measure the sugar into a large mixing bowl. 

Cream the soft butter and sugar together.  Beat the eggs until lemon yellow and stir them into the sugar mixture.   Add the soda, baking powder and salt to the flour, and sift it into the sugar mixture about one cup at a time, stirring thoroughly between additions.  The dough should be very stiff.  Add a little more flour if necessary.  

Preheat the oven to 350º and grease the baking sheets.

Flour a large breadboard.  Take one-third of the dough, work it into a ball, place it on the breadboard, press it into a round pat about one inch thick, and turn it over, making certain that there is plenty of flour on the breadboard.  With a well-floured rolling pin, roll the dough to eighth of an inch thickness.  

Cut with a three or three and a half-inch round cookie cutter.  Put the rounds on a well-greased cookie sheet and put about a heaping teaspoon of date filling in the middle of each.  Top with more rounds and seal the edges by pressing them with your fingers.  Try not to make the cookie edges too thin.  

Bake in a 350º oven until the cookies are lightly browned, about ten to twelve minutes.  Cool on wax paper.

NOTES:

My mother’s recipe says to use a scant teaspoon of soda, baking powder and salt.  You can replace the  butter with oleo or with about a half cup of shortening, but the cookies are not as good.  Use a spatula to handle the rounds, as they are very tender.  The trimmings can be worked into the next third of the dough without harm.

Although you can eat them as soon as they are cool, these cookies are best after they have been stored in a tight container in a cool room for two or three days.  They keep fine for as many weeks.

The photo shows Grandma Rang’s Date-filled Cookies, Grandma Hopp’s Gingerbread Cookies and some Peppernuts.