29 Sept 09

Green Salad with Moosewood Japanese Dressing (by Megan Williams- very good)

Sushi Roll Salad from Epicurious, modified for house (brown and white)

(the wasabi dressing was terrible! I can't figure out why; I've made it before successfully.

Tilapia with Pineapple/Orange/Soy Sauce and Ginger

Baked Tofu with same

Nasu Dengaku Soup

Eggplant, chickpeas, veggie broth, miso, peanut butter, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, scallions added at end. Better than I expected.

Minimalist Black Bean Salad, Japanese Variant, Served Warm with Seaweed. This was kind of gross when I just followed the recipe, because I hadn't really cut the onions small enough. So I added a little more soy than was demanded, and simmered it for an extra half hour. It turned into more of a Japanese Variant on Mexican pot beans than on American Bean Salad, but it was quite yummy. Should have mixed the seaweed in, though.

Chard and Spinach with a little soy, rice vinegar, and tahini

Strawberries from a Stranger

22 Sept 09

Green Salad

Turkey

Seitan Chickpea patties

Pineapple cranberry sauce

Mushroom Gravy

Brown Rice

Reheated Bread

Amazing Butternut Squash with Almonds

Chard

Okay Pumpkin Vegan Brownies

15 Sept 09: Pork, pork, pork

Kinda a repeat. Not bad. Poor Emily peeled a lot of garlic, though.

Pork Loin with Orange Juice and Garlic
(covered, as hot as the oven goes, for the whole shift. Surprisingly well cooked)

Seitan with Same
(didn't take as well to the treatment. Had to rescue by chopping and stir frying at 6:50. Yea awesome assistants doing all the clean-up and set-up while I salvaged this!)

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Bland. We didn't have veggie broth, and I forgot the paprika.

Sauteed Cauliflower Greens
A triumph of non-wastefulness. Sasha honestly almost labeled these incorrectly as "chard" even though she'd had a hand in cooking them. Served with pine nuts; should have had raisins, but we were out.

Chickpeas Romesco from the mighty Veganomicon
Times Ten. All Sasha's doing. Perfect.

Spanish Rice from the mighty Veganomicon
3 qts long grain Brown Rice, 4.5 quarts water, onions, lots of garlic, a little turmeric

Spinach Salad with Garden Cucumbers, Craisins, Blue Cheese, and Pear Dressing
A perfect use for the overripe pears: six of them went in the food processor with some apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and a tiny bit of olive oil. You never would have guessed that they were probably a day short of inedibly rotten; this was actually my favorite part of the meal.

Millenium Cafe's Chocolate Almond Midnight
with all nuts swapped out for peanuts. And Strawberries instead of Raspberries. My second favorite thing.

8 Sept 09: Menu for a transitional season

And by transitional, I mean changing of the guard and not the trees. We've all been iron cheffing this semester while the new kitchen manager has been away. A little stressful, but also fun. I'm pretty proud of what I managed to throw together tonight.

Baked Tilapia
Still don't have the quantity down. Last week, one box of fish was not enough. This week, I made two and less than half was eaten in the first round. I'm going to take this as a positive comment on the rest of the meal. Just salt, pepper, cumin, parsley, and lemon slices, because we had sauces. Thirty minutes in a really hot oven was not quite enough time.

Chickpea Carrot Burgers
Vegetarian Planet baked falafel burgers, executed by Sasha. Multiplied by 8, which was _way_ too much. But super yummy. Left to one person, this is quite a hussle. They need to bake at least forty minutes.

Green Salad
Overall, pretty weak (greens from Friday's produce delivery, carrots leftover from the burgers). But the poppy seed dressing from Chef Jamie's Healthy Kitchen was very good. Roughly equal parts plain soy yogurt and red wine vinegar, plus poppy seeds, s&p, a little sugar, and a big dollup of mustard. Vegan, low fat, and creamy! Yay! Plus feta and nuts.

Tomato Salad
How can tomato salad be bad? This one was great. Nice Romas, chopped pretty small, mixed with green onions and a balsamic dressing by Sasha.

Butternut Squash Soup
Standard. Not the best, because I didn't have the patience last night to wait up for the squash to cook as long as I would have liked. Apparently, this is not where I should be cutting corners.

Dressed Up Rice
Leftover rice with carmelized onioions, French lentils, and baked summer squash. Monday's cooks keep making too much rice, but they are *so* much better at it than I am, so I just reheat theirs in the oven, fixing it up a bit if I have time. Yay leftover rice!

Cucumbers and Mint in House-made yogurt

Lemon Tahini Garlic Sauce

Banana Pudding Brownies
from the Veganomicon. Times 4. Just right.