Lucy Knisley's "Mom's Pesto" Cream Tortellini for Cook The Books Feb/March Pick, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

It's Cook the Books time again. For February/March, we read Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley hosted by Simona of briciole.

Publisher's Blurb:

Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe―many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions. 

A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a graphic novel for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product.

(April 2013)

This was a reread for me but it had been about seven years, so it was nice to catch up with this fun foodie graphic novel. I love Knisley's illustrations--they really capture the essence of the food and the colors are so appealing. I think her memories growing up are easily relatable whether cooking and eating with family, friends, or while during travel. It's not to be read on an empty stomach! Although I read graphic novels on occasion and enjoy this format, I find Relish especially accessible if you are new to the genre or it isn't a favorite. 

This book is a about foodie inspiration from cookies to mushrooms, Sangria to sushi rolls, there's a little something in the book for all appetites. 

I have been craving pesto so I decided to make her "Mom's Pesto" recipe in the book. Knisley gives a host of ideas for using the pesto but I decided to make it into a slightly creamy sauce for cheese tortellini and add grape tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, grated parmesan, and my new favorite thing, Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs Cheese Bites (little round pieces of Boursin cheese). 

I used the recipe sketch in the book as a guide even though pesto is pretty common and easy to make. I don't usually use both Romano and parmesan cheese in my pesto and I often switch out pine nuts for other nuts. To me, getting the balance of salt and olive oil right and using the freshest basil possible is what makes for good pesto. 

To Make the Dish:

Once I had the pesto made, I cooked my tortellini (from the refrigerated section of my local grocery store) while I made the cream sauce by adding a little butter to a small sauce pan and then about 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. and heat until hot but not boiling. Stir in about 1/3 cup of the pesto, reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add about 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese and about 2 Tbsp of the pasta cooking water and stir until smooth. Add the drained tortellini and place in a serving bowl. Sprinkle cherry tomatoes, Boursin bites, another sprinkle of parmesan and small fresh basil leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy warm, so the pasta slightly melts the Boursin and parmesan. Enjoy!

Notes/Results: I really loved the pesto in the cream sauce and I am happy I have pesto left over for toast and salad dressing too. 

The deadline for this round is today (surprise, surprise) but if you like food and books, and foodie books, join us for April/May when we will be reading Mastering the Art of French Murder (An American in Paris Mystery #1) by Colleen Cambridge hosted by yours truly!

Happy Reading, Cooking & Eating!

 

Spinach Artichoke Risotto for Cook the Books April/May Selection: Lessons in Chemistry

Hi Friends, it's been a while. Lots of life changes, some good (I got a new job and out of some toxicity) and some bad (I lost my fur baby Max, the best cat ever, and got bronchitis and COVID again and have some lingering breathing junk) and I'm still not doing a whole lot of cooking. I missed our last round of Cook the Books, even though I read the book and I really didn't want to miss this one, so I am coming in right at the wire with my dish for the fabulous, lives-up-to-its-hype novel, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats. 

I think you might have to have been living under a big not-reading rock this past year to not hear about this book and see the many gushy reviews about it. It's been on my radar for a while now and this was the push I needed to read it.

Here's the blurb:

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. 

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.  

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

My Thoughts: Although I bought a hard copy of the book, I ended up using an Audible credit and listened to most of the book. It was delightful, the narrator captured the characters well and I enjoyed spending time with them. I really loved this novel, it's a charming and smartly written book and a debut novel which is hard to believe, it's so good! I loved Elizabeth Zott, she is just quirky enough of a character to be endearing without overdoing it. Intelligent, strong, funny, and dealing with so much struggle and sexism while making her way as a chemist and a woman in the 1950-60s. The supporting characters were fun--my absolute favorite was Six-Thirty. I could keep talking about the book, it will go down as one of my favorites for the year, but it's been a long day and really, you should just go read it (or listen to it) if you haven't already. I am also in half excitement, and half fear that Apple TV+ will be doing the series but the end of the audiobook was an interview with the author and she seems to think it's in good hands, so, fingers crossed... 

With Elizabeth Zott and her cooking show, there was food in the book. Dishes like baked spaghetti Bolognese, chicken pot pie, broccoli and mushroom casserole, vinegar, and brownies. I know there were more mentions but it was hard to keep track with the audiobook. 

I took inspiration from a spinach casserole Elizabeth made. I was thinking spinach and rice but rather than something baked in the oven, my thoughts turned to risotto which I love to make (the zen of stirring) and to eat. Given the fact that I am working remotely from home, but still remain super busy and not wanting to spend a lot of time or dirty up many dishes, I decided to add a little pre-made magic to my homemade risotto dinner and so I bought a container of parmesan spinach artichoke dip from the deli and also added a can of halved artichoke hearts and pre-shredded cheese. (OK, so I was having a dip craving too!) I'd like to think Elizabeth would understand the shortcuts, even if she wouldn't have approved them!  

Spinach Artichoke Risotto
by Deb, Kahakai Kitchen  
(Serves 4-ish) 

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large shallot, minced

2 tsp garlic, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1 tsp salt
1 cup dry white wine, room temperature
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or non-chicken stock, warmed 

1 (8 oz) container prepared spinach artichoke dip or homemade

1 can artichoke hearts, cut into bite-size wedges 
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella or other favorite cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan + more to top 
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp fresh lemon juice or to taste

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over high heat add the butter, shallots and garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring regularly. Add the rice and salt and stir with a wooden spoon to coat all the kernels with oil. Continue to cook for about 3 minutes, or until the rice is sizzling. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until it is almost completely absorbed. Now begin adding the chicken broth, one cup at a time, stirring frequently between additions. 

After the first cup is almost entirely absorbed, add the next cup. Continue in this way until the rice is cooked through and you have a creamy risotto, about 20 minutes in all. (The risotto should be slightly loose, not dry; it should run off your spoon. If it gets too dry, add a bit more broth.) Gently stir in the prepared spinach dip, artichoke hearts, cheeses and black pepper and warm through. Taste and add lemon juice, salt and more black pepper as need. Serve and enjoy.

Notes/Results: Oh yeah, this was tasty comfort food and other than the stirring time, quick and easy to put together. The dip blended right into the risotto and the extra cheese didn't hurt. If you wanted more protein, some chicken would be nic but I was more than satisfied with it as written. I will happily make this again. 

So, yes, the deadline for this round of Cook the Books is today, but if you want to join in the next one, Simona of Briciole will be hosting our June/July pick, Food Americana by David Page (May 2021).

 

Revisiting Giada De Laurentiis's Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

When picking a soup to revisit this month, I went back four years to Giada De Laurentiis's Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese. This is a great spring soup, making the most of fresh asparagus and basil with tangy, herby goat cheese on top.

Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese
Slightly Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis via Food Network
(Makes 4 to 6 Servings --1/2 cup) 

Goat Cheese: 
1/2 cup (4 oz) goat cheese, at room temperature
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
sea salt and freshly ground pepper 
vegetable oil cooking spray

Soup:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large leek, white and light green part only, finely sliced (I used 2 leeks)
(I added 2 cloves garlic, minced)
(I added 1 tsp celery salt & 1 tsp dried basil)
4 cups low sodium broth (chicken or veg)
2 lbs medium asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
(I added 2 tsp fresh lemon juice) 

Goat cheese: Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. 
Using a fork, in a small bowl, combine the goat cheese and basil until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a 1/2-ounce cookie scoop or a round tablespoon measure sprayed with vegetable oil cooking spray, scoop the goat cheese into balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Soup: In a Dutch oven or large saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring constantly until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. (I added the garlic, celery salt and dried basil and sauteed for another minute here.) Add the broth, asparagus and basil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the asparagus is tender, about 15 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. (I stirred in two teaspoons of lemon juice here.) Keep the soup warm over low heat. 

To serve: Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and garnish with the herbed goat cheese. (I also garnished with shaved asparagus and a couple of basil leaves.)   

Cook's Note: The soup can also be pureed by ladling, in batches, into a food processor or blender and blended until smooth.

My Notes: A rich-tasting soup with good flavor on its own but it is the herbed goat cheese balls that make it shine. I am for putting herbed goat cheese balls in/on everything--soups and salads, pasta... ;-) If you wanted to make it vegan, you could use a vegan cream cheese in place of the goat cheese. I like the additional flavor I added to the soup with the garlic, spice and lemon--I felt like the soup would have lacked a bit without it. I meant to buy bread to go with the soup but forgot so I served it with cracked pepper water crackers for a light lunch before some tuna pasta salad. This soup is easy to make and pretty enough to make for a party or luncheon. I would make it again with my changes. 

We have some great friends and dishes in the Souper Sundays kitchen--let's take a look! 

I'll highlight their dishes below and open the link up for a couple of weeks so feel free to add a soup, salad or sandwich creation and I'll highlight them in two weeks.

Debra of Eliot's Eats shared the Sweet and Spicy Balsamic Vinaigrette she made for our last Cooks the Books round, saying "As Nate lunches with other CIA employees, there’s a simple salad dressing that just spoke to me. ... I agree with Nate’s description of this recipe: “The dressing had a balsamic sweetness cut with Dijon and a hint of heat, unlike any vinaigrette he had ever tasted” (261). ... The salad I created had bits and pieces of things from the veggie drawer—shaved Brussels sprouts, shaved radicchio, some baby kale and some chard cut into ribbons. (The last two ingredients came from the greenhouse, the first two from last week’s farm bag.)  I added some red quinoa that I also had precooked in the fridge, some hard boiled eggs, and a bit of smoked goat cheese. Loved it!"

Melynda of Scratch Made Food also shared salads with us, saying "Fresh Green Bean Salad with Tomatoes, Feta, and Toasted Walnuts! That is a long name for a salad............but this is a salad worthy of every letter used! Because it is delicious! Don't think the blanching process is not worth the trouble, this process is a cinch..."

Another salad she shared saying, "Does your family love potato salad? Want a delicious yet easy-to-make potato salad? Mary's Potato Salad is the potato salad of my youth, with potatoes, eggs, onions, pickles, celery, and a delicious mustard dressing. Now made even easier with the help of your electric pressure cooker..."

Thank you friends for joining me, even when it has been so sporadic!

If you'd like to join in Souper Sundays, I am opening up the below link for two weeks while I try to finish deciding what my go-forward looks like. 

Anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the two weeks and I will post a recap of the entries on Sunday in two weeks.) 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.  

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchenand link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!

 

Soubise (Onion and Rice Casserole) for Cook the Books Feb/March Pick: "Red Sparrow" by Jason Matthews

It's Cook the Books time again, the bi-monthly virtual foodie book club I cohost and of course, per usual, I am right at the deadline. What can I say? February was busy, March was no better and I found myself involved in five "buddy reads" of books with various book groups, not counting this one. This book got put on the back burner and I finished it Tuesday, last night after a long day of work I tossed my dish together and I was way too tired to set up lighting and fuss with the looks, so I apologize for the very bad pictures. 

This round of Cooks the Books was hosted by Simona of briciole and her pick was Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews, a spy novel with recipes. 

From the Publisher:

In contemporary Russia, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova has been drafted to become a “Sparrow”—a spy trained in the art of seduction to elicit information from their marks. She’s been assigned to Nathaniel Nash, a CIA officer who handles the organization’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. 

The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception and, inevitably, a forbidden spiral of physical attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s valuable mole in Moscow.

My Thoughts:

I have never been a reader of spy novels. I actually avoided them until the author of one of my favorite series released a new series centered around a former CIA case officer with the first book set in Russia. I gave it a try and enjoyed it enough to load the second and third on my Kindle but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet. Anyway, I digress... we are here to talk about Red Sparrow. I was a bit lukewarm  going into this book and wondered at the combination of spies and food, and was not thrilled to be reading about Russia given the current Ukraine situation, but I actually found myself caught up in the story and wanting to find out what happened next. 

It's not a perfect book for me--it's a deeper, grittier dive into the spy trade than I wanted. Some of the violence and misogyny is hard to take, as are the descriptions of "Sparrow School" where Russian women and men train for honey traps and more. The pace is uneven, tension ebbed and flowed and I found myself slogging through some parts and then rushing through others. But I liked Dominika and Nate and some of the other characters and I kept reading. The food descriptions and abbreviated recipes were varied from different countries and cuisines beyond Russia, and I actually marked several I wanted to make or read up on.  

Overall, it diversified my reading with a seldom-picked genre, and that's always a good thing. I don't know if I'll keep going--it's a trilogy I believe, but I am curious to see what happens after somewhat of a cliffhanger ending. I may even try and watch the film version (I tend to avoid spy movies too so it wasn't something I made an effort to see.) 

Food Inspiration:

As I mentioned above, a recipe follows each chapter, based on something one of the characters cooked or ate. I originally thought about making the "Old Lady's Beet Soup" from the first chapter but I wasn't feeling it. Some of the pastas and sauces sounded good, as did the Bristol Hotel Cucumber Salad and Gable's Cheese Fondue and Proper French Omelet. I ended up going with (Station Chief) Forsyth's Soubise, described as "He knew one dish, a soubise, buttery braised rice and caramelized onions." It was what I wanted most. 

I took the recipe sketch in the book and also looked online where I found Julia Child's version. Mine is a combination of the two, cut down t heavily to make a small portion and I cheated by using my favorite frozen glazed onions.(I used a tray which is about 3 onions worth). To save time on a night after a long work day, I cooked my arborio rice about 10 minutes and ended up cooking the dish about 35 minutes instead of Julia's hour. I also added a little dried thyme and stirred it into the mix and besides adding the cheese to the rice mixture, at the last minute, I shaved Gruyere on top of the dish.

 

I promise, it tastes MUCH better than my sad little pictures look! ;-)

"Forsyth's Soubise" From Red Sparrow

"Boil rice in salted water for five minutes. In separate French sauciere, highly caramelize seasoned onions in butter. Stir in rice, cover, and cook gently in medium oven, stirring occasionally, until golden. Before serving, stir in heavy cream and grated Gruyere." 

-----

Soubise

Adapted from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," Knopf, 1970 

(Yields 6 Servings)

1/2 cup rice 
4 quarts rapidly boiling water 
1 1/2 Tbsp salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/4 cup (one-half stick) butter, plus 2 tablespoons softened butter 
2 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced 
1/8 tsp pepper 
1/4 cup heavy cream 
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese (I used Gruyere)
1 Tbsp minced parsley (I mixed in dried thyme)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. (I cooked it at 325 degrees)

Drop the rice into the boiling water to which has been added the salt. Boil five minutes exactly and drain immediately.

Heat the 1/4 cup of butter in a three-quart flameproof casserole and when it is foaming, stir in the onions. When they are well-coated with butter, stir in the rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cover and cook very slowly in the oven for one hour, stirring occasionally. The rice and onions should become very tender and will usually turn a light golden yellow. Taste and reseason. (The recipe may be prepared to this point several hours in advance. Reheat before proceeding.) 

Just before serving, stir in the cream and cheese and then the softening butter. Taste again for seasonings and turn into a dish. Serve with sprinkled parsley. 

Notes/Results; OK, this is really good--really rich and REALLY good. It's creamy, buttery, decadent, and the sweet, caramelized onions and nutty Gruyere are an excellent match. It's like an oven-baked risotto with less stirring and it probably would even be better without the shortcuts I took. I was both sad and glad that I made 2-3 servings only. Sad because I enjoyed it, glad because health food it is not. I will definitely make it again. 

The deadline for this round is today, and Simona will be rounding up the entries for Cook the Books on the website in a day or two. If you missed this round and you like books and food and foodie books, join us for our April/May pick, Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, hosted by me. 

 

Low Effort But Fully Loaded Potato Soup for Cook the Books Dec/Jan Pick "Midnight Chicken" and Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

In a stunning turn of events, ;-) I actually made it into the kitchen this weekend and I am bringing you a new soup this Sunday! Please forgive the fact that it is probably the easiest soup possible in the world, requiring mostly just dumping packaged ingredients into the slow cooker. But it is a soup nonetheless, and a fully-loaded potato soup full of comfort and made for our Cook the Book January/February selection, Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) by Ella Risbridger and hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats.

Publisher's Blurb:

There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.

There was a time when, for Ella Risbridger, the world had become overwhelming. Sounds were too loud, colors were too bright, everyone moved too fast. One night she found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up--and it was the thought of a chicken, of roasting it, and of eating it, that got her to her feet and made her want to be alive.

Midnight Chicken is a cookbook. Or, at least, you’ll flick through these pages and find recipes so inviting that you will head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chili-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagna, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies. It’s the kind of cooking you can do a little bit drunk, that is probably better if you’ve got a bottle of wine open and a hunk of bread to mop up the sauce.

But if you settle down and read it with a cup of tea (or a glass of that wine), you’ll also discover that it’s an annotated list of things worth living for--a manifesto of moments worth living for. This is a cookbook to make you fall in love with the world again.

My Thoughts:

Midnight Chicken is a charming book, written in the vein of a cookbook/memoir which is my favorite kind. I enjoy cookbooks that don't just give me a recipe, but give me a story about that recipe--what inspired it, why it's a favorite, when they first cooked it, or how they enjoy it. Ella Risbridger does this very well, and when accompanied with the beautiful watercolor illustrations by Elisa Cunningham, it makes for a very pleasurable read to meander through. 

I bought a print copy back in June during the Amazon Prime Day sales and paged through it slowly after it arrived. But then, I gifted it to a friend who was feeling down in the dumps, meaning to get myself another copy, and I never did. Cue the past week where I checked out the e-book from the library in a panic (where did January go?!) and went back for another skim. I found that I could really relate to the author this round, as I have been in a "funk" the past several months, and even something I always loved, cooking and blogging, has become overwhelming. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted and honestly, I have just been doing the bare minimum to get by. While my issues are not as serious as the author's seem to have been, I can understand where she was coming from and I am glad she was able to pull herself out of her depression with support and focus. I'm not sure yet what that looks like for me, but she has inspired me to get to work and figure it out. And I will be grabbing myself another copy of this gorgeous book. 

So, what to make? As mentioned my kitchen efforts lately have been slight, and although I wanted a warm and comforting bowl of soup, I didn't really connect with the soups in the book and wanted something REALLY low effort. I decided to pull out my slow cooker and do a "dump it in" recipe where I didn't have to chop and prep much. Potatoes are my love language and Ella covers them especially in the Picnics and Pack Ups chapter with recipe sketches for Pocket Potatoes and Lid Potatoes (like a twice-baked potato). I put my cubed frozen hash brown potatoes into a fully loaded soup--which just requires some time to cook but very little else. I started mine at 11:00 PM Saturday night, so it was cooking at midnight at least! ;-)

Low Effort But Fully Loaded Slow Cooker Potato Soup

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes 6 Large Servings)

1 package frozen sautéed glazed onions or 2 large sweet onion chopped

1 large package frozen hash brown potatoes (I used cubed)

1 can condensed cream of celery soup (or condensed cream soup of choice)

1 package Ranch dressing seasoning mix

2 tsp roasted garlic powder

6 cups light vegetable or chicken broth (I used non-chicken stock paste)

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Optional Toppings: grated cheese, fake or real bacon crumbles, chopped green onions or chives, sour cream 

Dump onions, hash browns, cream soup, and Ranch dressing seasoning mix in bottom of a large slow cooker. pour the broth on top and gently stir. Set slow cooker on high and cook for 4 hours, stirring about every hour. Check potatoes for softness, reduce heat to low and cook another 90 minutes, adding the cream cheese about 30 minutes before down. Let cream cheese melt, stir to mix completely and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Note: you can puree some of all of the potatoes, but I found it creamy enough that I didn't bother)

Serve in bowls, topped with grated cheese (I used a Tillamook Cheddar Mix), chopped chives or green onions, fake or real bacon bits, and a scoop of sour cream if desired. 

 

Notes/Results: Creamy and indulgent without having to go to a lot of trouble--the hardest thing is cleaning up the slow cooker after, and you can't beat that. I pretty much used everything packaged and I don't regret it, as I now have cozy lunches for the work week. You can of course add other veggies and make more of an effort, but this is a good recipe for a lazy weekend. I will happily make it again.

The deadline for this round is tomorrow, Monday (1/31/22), and Debra will be rounding up the entries for Cook the Books on the website in a day or two. If you missed this round and you like books and food and foodie books, join us for our February/March pic, the novel Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews hosted by Simona of briciole.

Let's see who is in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week.  

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen is here with a Vegetable Pasta Bake (Salad) and says, "I made the tomato sauce for the pasta bake from scratch, but if you want you can use ready made or passata even.  Stir in the cooked macaroni pasta and chopped vegetables: mushrooms, red pepper and spring onions; and for some piquancy capers and black olives. Served like this, its good as a Pasta Salad: warm or cold; or Sprinkle the top with grated cheddar cheese and bake!"  

Melynda of Scratch Made Food shared two salads this week: Mediterranean Cottage Cheese Salad with Za'atar Tomatoes and Olives saying it "is light, refreshing, and delicious! Perfect as a side salad or as the main dish for a light supper or meatless meal." 

About her Red Beet Salad with Cranberry Maple Vinaigrette, she says, it's "a unique and delicious salad from our days living on the upper peninsula in Washington state! Don't pass this lovely salad by..."

Simona of briciole stopped by with a Honeynut Squash and Red Beet Soup also inspired by our Cook the Books selection, saying "I was not inspired to make any of the recipes, but one of them reminded me that red beets are called beetroots in England and that inspired me to grab a beautiful bunch of them at the farmers market, with their glorious greens (foglie di barbabietola) still attached. In our household we LOVE beet greens so those disappeared fast. The book includes a recipe for Butternut squash mash, which reminded of a recipe I made some time ago that brings together those two ingredients into a bright soup that is just perfect for when the weather is gray and cold."

Debra of Eliot's Eats shared this pretty Delicata Squash, Apple & Spinach Salad made with items from her weekly farm produce bag, saying, "What was the verdict of this salad? The roasted squash was a hit and this coming from The Hubs who does not care for it. I would probably add some shavings of parmesan to the salad or maybe a crumble of goat cheese. I definitely needed to season the salad dressing a bit more with salt and pepper. I saved some of the squash seeds for the upcoming garden!"

Thank you to everyone who joined me this week! 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.
• Although we are pretty wide on what defines a soup, sandwich or salad, entries that are clearly not in the same family (ie: desserts, meats, random main or side dishes that aren't salads, etc.) are meant for another round up and will be deleted. 

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Updated Link Party--Open through Sunday /13.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!