Spaghetti with Alfredo Sauce, Fresh Tomato, and Kale.

Why not Linguini?  Because I don't have any in the cupboard.

I went with Ree Drummond's Alfredo Sauce recipe from her t.v. show.  The Alfredo from her blog adds the shredded cheese with the pasta, instead.  We joked that we were having ice cream for dinner; it's pretty rare for me to serve something so rich.

My daughter was worried that tomatoes were going to ruin the Pasta Alfredo.  Because the juices might dilute it.  So for her, I got the juice and squishy parts out of the tomato and chopped them.

The kale I cooked separately in an iron skillet, with some store-bought pesto to season it.

The adults mixed the pasta, tomato, and vegetables in together on their plates.   Some children ate their vegetables as solo side dishes instead.  The surprise was the kale went first.

I think it's funny that the pesce-vegetarian in the house loves Pioneer Woman Cooks recipes.  Ree Drummond lives on a ranch and does a lot of meat dishes, but the vegetarian dishes are often hearty.

Vegan cooking: Naturally Ella

Today I discovered Naturally Ella, a vegan cooking site with beautifully photographed dishes, indexed by season and featured vegetable ingredient.

The computer I keep in the kitchen is an older Mac, and my significant other keeps shaking his head at the flour and cooking oils that are depositing themselves on it.  The interface for choosing the vegetable in the seasonal recipes doesn't work for me here.  Perhaps it's a javascript issue.

I'll probably try to work my way around that, because Erin Alderson, aka Naturally Ella, has gathered the kinds of recipes I want to make.  We may not be a vegan family, but we love good vegan cooking.

Tonight I tried the Spicy Lentil Vegan Sloppy Joe and I'll be making it again, though next time I think I"ll cook the lentils and sauce separately and combine them at the end.  I did add a tablespoon of brown sugar to a doubled recipe, (don't shudder) but that was because the old balsamic vinegar from the back of the cupboard is intensely strong, and needed more than the called-for molasses to balance it.

It's an amazing and delicious sloppy joe sauce, which is what I need to overcome my teenagers' love of ConAgra Manwich.  Not being vegan, we eat it with good sliced Vermont sliced cheese.

Simply Recipes Elise Bauer

I love, love, love the Simply Recipes site.

I was at BlogHer in San Francisco, and I had no idea who she was when I attended her session, which was not about food but about her (actually extremely useful and spot-on) advice for doing a blog well and getting what you intended from it.

Elise Bauer is generous and charming.

Then I went home and started cooking her family recipes.  And they are delicious and dependable.  And presented in a time-saving order of instructions.

Among her recipes that are in our regular rotation:

Salade Nicoise
Zucchini Bread and Muffins
Tuna Croquette
Dal
Mango Lassi

Spaghetti Squash Fritters

Cooking Light's spaghetti squash fritters.   I used kale instead of spinach.  I wondered about throwing in chopped onion. I had baked the spaghetti squash earlier to serve with marinara, but when it came time to put together dinner I.just.couldn't.do.it. These are more like squash latkes than fritters, but the joy of baked spaghetti squash is that it is effectively already shredded.

Quick Catfish in Cornmeal

Quick Catfish in Cornmeal

Once again, picking fish at Hannaford's and looking up a recipe on my phone while the fish is wrapped.  This was good and not too involved.

Tom Yum Soup

I find the about.thaifood.com site fairly dependable.  Though I'm happy to make Thai food with what's on hand, these are solid recipes that are a good framework.  

Vermont, having fewer people, has fewer thai restaurants than the San Francisco Bay area. So when I'm not in the mood to drive to or pay for amazing thai food, I make good thai food at home.

Tom Yum recipe at about.thaifood.com

My notes:

• 6 cups water
• 2 tablespoons Better than Bouillion Vegetarian or Chicken
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 2 stalks minced lemongrass,
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. minced ginger
• 1 fresh red chili, minced, OR 1-2 tsp. Thai chili sauce, OR 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. dried crushed chili OR cayenne pepper
• generous handful of fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce 
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• optional: handful of fresh basil
• optional: other vegetables of your choice: baby bok choy, bell pepper, green beans, etc.

Tuna with Tomato and Olive over Polenta

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Farfalle-with-Tuna-Tomatoes-and-Olives-102987

I skipped the pasta and served it over baked sliced polenta.

[edited to add: nine months later, and I still haven't made this again.  There was something too fussy about it, I think I'm in the only one in the family who really enjoyed the strong flavors of the sauce.]