Eilene’s friends came over to binge watch the last two episodes of GoT. I really do not mind feeding them, as long as Eilene gives me more than a five minutes warning that the hungry hordes are descending. Eilene and her friends like to be “spontaneous,” but this time they gave me 24 hours notice—one of them even requested three bean salad.
Karl’s Three Bean Salad Plus with Kumquat Marmalade Dressing
Filed under California Fusion, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
I bought a Safeway ham the other day and I was thinking about a weekday dinner. I wanted something other than my usual sweet potatoes and steamed green beans to go with the ham. I decided what I needed was a dish that covered both my starch and vegetable. Three bean salad seemed the way to go.
Karl’s Three Bean Salad
Filed under Beans, California Fusion, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I wanted to make a Sub-Saharan side dish to go with my West African chicken stew. I knew I wanted to use garbanzo beans and spinach, but all the dishes I found on-line threw in peanut butter to “make it African.” Since my chicken dish already contained peanut butter, I did not want to use it—two dishes that taste too similar is not interesting. I had to find another way to make my dish “African.”
Karl’s African Spinach Soup
Filed under Side Dishes, Soups, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Adapted from an Eating Well recipe
I am making a Spanish tapas dinner for this Sunday. Knowing my family as I do, I knew that I needed one or two hors d’oeuvre tapas—that I could make well ahead—to keep them in check while I finished the other tapas. While some tapas have a fairly set ingredients list—like Tortilla Española—others allow for more creativity. Roasting chickpeas into crunchy “nuts” lends themselves to creative variations.
Karl’s Tapas
Garbanzos Picantes Asados
Roasted Spicy Chickpeas
Filed under Beans, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I wanted a vegetable dish to go with my Moroccan lamb this Sunday. I just put Miriam on a plane for Milan, Italy, on Friday and I pick up her husband, Chris, who is just getting back from NY on Saturday. Chris is on the Adkin’s diet, so this dish must fit his needs—out go the starchy vegetables, fruit and flour as a thickener.
Karl’s Adkin’s Vegetable Tajine (Tagine)
Filed under Clay Pots, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
I wanted a vegetable dish to go with my Moroccan lamb. None of the recipes I found on-line were quite what I had in mind. I started taking ingredients from several of them and built my own.
Karl’s Vegetable Tajine
(Tagine)
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
I am making my Middle Eastern Easter Feast. In addition to mixed olives and pickles, I saw some fresh garbanzos in my local Middle Eastern market. Pan roasting them with a bit of spice seemed like a quick and easy side dish for a feast.
Karl’s Sautéed Fresh Garbanzos
Filed under Beans, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
We rent out house from our friends, Peg and Russ. They live in Texas. This morning, they texted that they were in San Jose and could we get together? We invited them over for a last minute Fourth of July BBQ.
Karl’s Quick Four Bean Salad
Filed under Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
For me Ham and Beans has always meant slow cooked dried beans with ham. As I was researching recipes recently, I found a few that included fresh green beans. This got me to thinking about really mixing up this recipe, If one fresh bean, why not all fresh beans.
Karl’s Ham and Three Fresh Beans
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
Eilene was sick today so I plan on Chicken soup. Originally I was going to go with my usual French chicken noodle soup and then I noticed the bag of Mandarin oranges on the counter. I had bought these thinking they were Cuties, but they were not as easy to peel. As a result, they were just sitting on the counter getting old.
Karl’s Chickem Casablanca Soup
I went on the Internet looking for some kind of “orange juice chicken soup.” There were surprisingly few hits and fewer that looked appealing or what I had in mind. One that was close was a Moroccan soup that used orange juice. I looked up several Moroccan chicken soups and the spices blends and ingredients that made them Moroccan. Picking and choosing and using what I had on hand I came up with this recipe.
Note after dinner: This was a fantastic combination of flavors. Spicy with being hot. It may seem that there is a lot of spice for a dish this size, but it was perfect. The Mandarin orange juice worked as a secret ingredient (the soup did not taste “orange-y,” but you would have missed it if it was not there). Finally the bulgur thickened the soup just the right amount without turning it into a pasty stew.
Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups
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Miriam