A good week and a better weekend

This was a really good food week.

Wednesday: Braised mustard greens with black-eyed peas and Andouille sausage. I got the recipe from the New York Times and made obvious adjustments. You know, I had never tried mustard greens. They really taste like mustard. Crazy!

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Thursday: Amazon Bean Soup with Winter Squash and Greens. I used butternut squash instead of buttercup squash for no reason except Giant Eagle only had butternut. This was my favorite squash soup yet, and I love squash. It had a really nice squash flavor without being overpowering or sweet.

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I had an even better weekend because I love cooking for people. Saturday night we had a house full of people here to celebrate the first anniversary of some friends from out of town. I made two dips.

This dip is really simple, but it looks pretty and tastes amazing. It's a block of cream cheese with a mixture of raspberry preserves and jalapeno preserves (in approximately equal quantities) on top. That's it--berries with a tiny bit of bite. I serve it with Wheat Thins.

My second dip was a new recipe to me--Pan-Fried Onion Dip. This is the real stuff. No onion soup mixes. Just onions. Just amazingness. I'm definitely going to make this again.

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Sunday I brought brunch and dinner to the fam's (in-laws) house. We always have Sunday brunch with the fam, but I've been so desperate to cook for people that I volunteered to make the food this time.

We started with a basic fruit salad of sliced pears with grapes and walnuts.

The main event was Roasted Vegetables on English Muffins with Cheese Sauce. I got this recipe from "Cookshelf Vegetarian" published by Parragon Publishing. I only changed a few things. They wanted me to buy a bottle of "garlic vinegar" and vermouth just to use a couple of tablespoons in the vegetable marinade. Nope. Not going to do that. I doubled this recipe that is supposed to serve 4. We had leftovers.

1 red onion, cut into eights

1 small eggplant, halved and sliced

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1 zucchini, sliced

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 Tbsp chopped thyme

2 tsp maple syrup or light brown sugar

4 English muffins, halved

salt and pepper

Marinate veggies for an hour in the rest of the ingredients. Then roast for 20-25 min in a 400 degree oven until veggies are soft. Serve on top of English muffins with sauce.

To make sauce melt 2 Tbsp butter in a saucepan over med heat. Add 1 Tbsp flour and cook stirring for 1 min. Take off heat and add 2/3 c milk and 3 fl oz veg. stock. Put back on burner and bring to a boil, stirring until thickened. Add 3/4 c white cheddar cheese, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and 3 Tbsp chopped mixed herbs (I used basil, oregano, chives, and parsley because that's what I had).

I served these open-faced sandwiches with a basic hard-cooked egg mashed with butter, salt, and pepper. If you haven't tried eggs this way, you should. They are light and fluffy and wonderful. My mom made them like this when I was going up, and it was always my favorite.

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For dinner, we converted the breakfast fruit salad into a savory salad by putting the pears, grapes and walnuts over mixed greens and dressing it with balsamic vinegar and oil. I actually liked it better this way.

And I made one of my favorite soups. When I was a kid and we went to Maine to visit my grandparents, my dad used to go down to the docks and get fish chowder from one of the fishermen. It was a really simple chowder--huge chunks of various kinds of fish and small bits of potatoes and onions in a really thin broth with no seasonings. They served it in clear plastic containers with packages of salt and pepper and some oyster crackers. The last time I very went to Maine with my dad, he let me have it with him. It's one of my best memories. This chowder is my approximation.

I made a large pot full with 6 chopped potatoes and 3 chopped onions boiled in water. After the potatoes and onions were soft, I added about 3 c of cubed fish (flounder and perch...next time I'll use more). The fish only needs to cook for a few minutes. Then I added about a cup of half and half. And that's it. Salt and Pepper and you're done. Simple and Wonderful and minimal. Just what I like.

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Man! It's been good.