Dad Dinner: Death of Charles Dickens Tacos

Charles Dickens died 141 years ago to the day. He wanted a no-frills burial at Rochester Cathedral but was instead interred at Westminster Abbey. Oops. Confession: I have never read anything Charles Dickens wrote. Oops.

Tonight's dinner was prepared by my father, but I lurked in the kitchen so I know what went down. My mom likes hard shell tacos, and the kind we used have flattened bottoms. "Stand 'em up" tacos, or something. Pretty neat, actually, and they tend to collapse less frequently and sloppily than their round-bottomed cousins.

makes approx. 8-10 tacos

INGREDIENTS:

<1 c. short-grain brown rice

2 zucchini, sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 large jalapeño, diced

1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 14.5-oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic

4 green onions, chopped (used these because they were getting old)

2 cloves garlic, minced

cumin

chili powder

chipotle chili pepper powder

dried parsely

oregano

celery salt

ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put on the rice.

2. Sauté the onions with oil in a pot over medium-high heat. After a few minutes, add the garlic, can of tomatoes, black beans, garlic, and seasoning (some of everything, with tons of chili powder). Reduce heat to low and let simmer until the rice is done.

3. Sauté the zucchini with seasoning in oil in a pan over medium-high heat for seven minutes.

4. Pop the taco shells in the oven (325F for several minutes).

5. Assemble the tacos. Besides the rice, bean and tomato stuff, and zucchini, there's raw red pepper and jalapeño, as well as lettuce or other leafy greens and salsa. Some corn would be nice, too, although we didn't have any. And mushrooms! Next time.

After I finished filling my first stand-up taco, it promptly fell over. Poor thing couldn't hold its weight.

 

Telephone Spaghetti

On this day in 1876... I'm just gonna let Wikipedia tell it, because their wording is so endearing. "Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone." Kooky! There's also a thrilling little narrative over at the Timeline of the telephone page about how Bell and some guy named Gray were neck-and-neck for the patent.

This spaghetti could've really used some more vegetables or mushrooms or olives or something, but it came together out of a desire to hold off shopping until Wednesday, when I get a 5% student discount. Mom taught me well. So here it is, a simple sauce with a special sweet touch and some spaghetti noodles. (Yes, that's the most obnoxiously alliterative sentence I could come up with.) To cook the noodles I used the energy-efficient method provided on the packaging.

makes approx. 2-3 servings

INGREDIENTS:

6 oz. spaghetti

2 small red onions, diced

3 shallots, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 15-oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 15-oz. can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes

3 spoonfuls peach compote

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. rosemary

1/2 tsp. parsley

1/4 tsp. sage

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add spaghetti. After 2 min., shut off heat and let stand, covered, 20 min.

2. Sauté onions and shallots in oil in a pan. After several minutes, add sliced garlic. Stir to avoid burning the garlic. Add the minced garlic, then after a couple minutes the pressed garlic. Give it another minute or two, then pour in the two cans of tomatoes. Let it approach a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add peach compote and seasonings. Simmer 5-10 min., or until noodles are done or you can't wait any longer.

That is all.

Temporary Insanity Pizza

According to Wikipedia, on this day in 1859 NY Congressman Daniel E. Sickles won the first acquittal of murder on grounds of temporary insanity in US legal history. What a legacy.

This was my first attempt at pizza: spinach, bok choy, and walnut "parmesan." I was happy with it, but I really need a rolling pin. This crust would have worked better if I'd gotten it thinner. I sort of used this recipe from a site confused about exactly what veganism is.

makes approx. 4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 c. flour

3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. brown rice syrup

3/4 c. water

1 medium white onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bok choy, leaves sliced in thirds

6 oz. spinach

1 15-oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. rosemary

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. salt

splash red wine vinegar

oil

1/2 c. walnuts, halved

1/2 c. yeast flakes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

2. Sauté onion in a pan with oil over medium heat. After a few minutes, add garlic. Couple minutes later, toss in spinach. Cover the pan while you slice the bok choy.

3. Lower heat and add bok choy with a little bit of red wine vinegar; cover pan. Once the bok choy begins to turn bright, uncover and add the canned tomatoes and seasoning. Let simmer.

4. Do up the bread dough. Knead until it holds together, then press into a pan that's been greased and floured. Bake 20 min.

5. While the dough is baking, pulse the walnuts in a blender until rendered into a fine dust. Add in yeast flakes and pulse a couple more times, then stir.

6. Remove dough from oven, top with sauce and "parmesan." Bake for another 10 min.

According to Kafka's diaries, "Sisyphus was a bachelor."

Franco Bifo Berardi, What is the meaning of autonomy today?

Mike Patton Eggplant and Potato Curry

I didn't post anything yesterday because me and the roommates went out to a pan-Asian place to "celebrate" the first day of classes. It wasn't too vegan-friendly, so the less said the better. Turns out January 27 commemorates some horrible events. Luckily, today is also Mike Patton's birthday, so this curry is in his honor. He was/is the vocalist for like 8 million influential bands. Haven't really listened to his work since high school, but still got respect. Check out his band Fantômas.

I acknowledged in an earlier post that I'm not too good at making one-pot meals. Why don't I listen to myself? This came out fine, but all of the durations and some of the measurements are approximations based on little more than hunch. And I still haven't figured out how to make thick curry.

INGREDIENTS:
1 c. rice
1 medium red onion, diced
1/2 small bulb garlic, pressed
1 large eggplant, sliced into French fry-esque strips
1 small eggplant, similarly sliced
1 1/2 lb. red potatoes, quartered
3 1/2 c. water
1 14-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 13.5-oz. can light coconut milk
1 small jalapeno, chopped
2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. cayenne (90K Scoville)
1/4 c. cilantro
oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cook rice.
2. Fry the onion with oil in the bottom of a large stock pot. When translucent, add garlic. After a minute, add the eggplant and potato as you finish cutting. I actually added the small eggplant halfway through cooking because I panicked that the ratio was all wrong. You should probably not follow that example.
3. Add 2 c. water, cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cook for something like 10-15 minutes.
4. Lower heat to medium-low. Add seasoning, optionally reserve half the cilantro for garnish. If it needs more water, use up to 1 1/2 c. Put the lid on leaving space for the steam to escape. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until the eggplant is squishy and the potatoes are soft.