Friday, September 15, 2006

Thursday Night Kitchen Throwdown

Ever walk into your kitchen with the idea of doing one thing and end up doing fifty other things too without noticing or flinching? Sort of stream of consciousness culinary creation. Or something like that.

Picture it, it's about 6:00, I've gotten home from work (read: hell, bane of my existence) and I'm going through the Boston Organics box like a kid going through gifts at Christmahannukwanzakah. (And yes, it was an Acorn Squash...it was labeled on the crate and in the recipe news letter...I'm just not accustomed to new and exciting squash varieties!)



My weekly booty included some of the freakishly cute Paula Red Apples (very tiny, like plums). Now these followed last week's delivery of 4-6 of the little buggers that had just started to make friends with the broccolini and zucchini in my veggie drawer. Now I had some enormous number of size challenged apples...what's a gal to do?

I remembered Emmy's blog with her delicious looking applesauce and went to town on the little midgies. They were so small that I decided to leave the skin on and just washed them really well...

And I ended up with:



Very red applesauce. Insanely sweet with NO sugar/sweetener! And yes, the splatter stains on the stove do make it taste better.

So then I scan my kitchen and spot my bag of baby yukon gold potatoes and there were some starting to grow some interesting appendages. I don't like wasting food at all, so I washed them up, cut off all of the offensive bits and tossed them with some spices and several whole cloves of garlic and threw them into a hot oven. Mmmm...



I'm on a roll now! I remembered that I had some leftovers from the weekend when I attempted to make the Eggplant Paprikash from Fat Free Vegan. I don't know what I did or didn't do, but I didn't like it much. Instead of throwing it out, I rinsed off the sauce and threw the rest into the food processor with the rest of my hot sauce and came up with something akin to spicy babagahummus.



So I'm trying to think of what to do with said babagahummus. I was thinking of thinning it a little and adding some peas and curry powder and calling it dinner... No, too simple, too ordinary, too pedestrian (I get so haughtily verbose when contemplating a food challenge). I then thought back to the success I had last weekend when using the recipe for pizza crust from Urban Vegan and then thought that pizza covered in babagahummus and melty pizza cheese would be a good idea.



Yes, dream became reality, and aside from the cheese being a little thicker than I knew how to handle, it was good (or so I was told). I didn't actually eat much of it.

I snacked on leftovers garnished with potatoes, grilled asparagus (another resurrection from the nearly dead) and applesauce.

I went to bed with such a tummy ache. It was like right after trick or treating and you eat all of the really good candy. Of course, I have eaten spinach every day in the past week...who knows if Mr. Coli might be knocking at my door. Let's hope not!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy Moly! I'm exhausted just reading about your night :) But you came up with some great dishes!

theONLYtania said...

I feel like such a long entry deserves a long comment.. but all I really have to say is..

Babagahummus, I won't lie, I actually laughed out loud.

Anonymous said...

What a clever post. I both love and loathe days like this. I love being able to make stuff from leftovers, food that's about to turn bad, etc. I've been trying to be very creative myself because I have to free up freezer space. I have my bulk buying club order showing up on Monday and I don't know where I'm going to put 6 loaves of bread!

Babagahummus is a great new word! Hahahah!

KleoPatra said...

When i walk into my kitchen, i don't have that thought... mostly because i don't cook like you do. VERY NICE what you did with your time in the kitchen her.

I could have sworn that squash was the... whatever i called it... but acorn it is!

Love the weekly booty you mention, how nice. And i can appreciate you calling them "size challenged" - that made me laugh! Way to make applesauce out of apples... similar to making lemonade out of... well, you know how that one goes!

Wow, garlic like crazy with the baby yukon gold potatoes? The smell must have been insane! YEAH BABY! And the babagahummus... very nice! On a pizza, that is so cool!

Take care of that tummy... we need you healthy and happy!!

*HUGS* for a great kitchen cooking event. You are an inspiration...

Jessica Johannesen said...

Phew! You make me tired just reading about all that cooking! What a marathon. I did that once. ended up in the kitchen all day and I loved it Though I turned out a few more deserts than you. lol

Candi said...

Very creative!! I love how you used all the leftovers and dying veggies. Lol! Everything looks so good!

Babagahummus...I love that word! Lol!

Harmonia said...

WOW! You sure did go cooking crazy! That's the way I usually operate! ;)

Everything sounds wonderful!

Dori said...

babagahummus
Nice that you made that up -
love it!

I just saw on the news tonight about the bad spinach... that sad. Hope you tummy will feel better soon!

Nicki Baker said...

just saying hi. i don't have internet at home right now, so today is the first day I've posted in over a week.

Anonymous said...

wow what a great post! very creative! i hope you feel better of your tummy!

wheresmymind said...

I love getting our Boston Organic's delievery. I always peek to see what we are going to get as my wife threatens to kick my ass if I ruin her surprise :)