Last Meal before the Holiday Break

So I haven't really posted lately. I had my Geology final this morning, except not. My professor made it optional. That made my life a lot easier actually.

On to my last meal this semester! This week is known as "outerim" in the co-op, where everyone signs up for (in this case) 3 hours. I didn't cook my usual partial Tuesday lunch spot with another person. So this week on Monday I head cooked myself with only one other person and a KP (kitchen prep), and that went along quite smoothly actually. I'm actually quite proud of this meal and it's incredible simplicity.

• Rainbow Chard
• It was so pretty! And we haven't had enough greens in the co-op lately. I made it similarly to the Collard Greens from Dino's Alternative Vegan. I diced up about 10 onions and crushed a couple small heads of garlic. Then a bowl of lots of yummy spices - mustard seed, sage, turmeric, thyme, marjoram, basil, coriander, paprika, salt.
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes are probably my favorite root vegetable and I'm always roasting them with beets and/or potatoes. So I decided for a change to make them all mashed like. I just boiled them in chunks, used our massive hobart mixer, and added about 1 cup of earth balance, maple syrup, and a bunch of cinnamon.
  
• Baked Italian Style Tofu
• Ok, so I just made the name up. It may not really even be that Italian. I marinated the cubed tofu in oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, salt and pepper and then baked it for about 20-30 minutes.
• Couscous and Quinoa
• No, I didn't make them together. I was brainstorming with some people studying the night before my meal and somebody suggested putting greens on top of couscous because they really liked couscous. I'm not such a big fan of couscous as I am of quinoa, and quinoa also has the added bonus of being gluten free. So I just made some plain couscous and some quinoa that was leftover for people to do whatever they liked with it (i.e. put greens on top of it)

And that was my last meal of the semester! Since it was finals and fewer people are actually eating at meals, it was easier to make since I wasn't cooking for quite as many people.

From here on out now will be my personal/family/holiday cooking and baking. If I'm lucky I'll be able to get my hands on a digital camera and post pictures of the food. Since everyone loves a yummy food picture.

The First Tuesday of December

Today was probably one of the easiest meals I have ever prepared. It's the end of the semester so it's getting to crunch time and as such, I don't put quite as much effort into cooking as I could. The produce this past weekend also consisted of very wintery vegetables. There is a joy in seasonal cooking I must say. So anyways, on to what was for lunch:

• Leftover Vegan-Alfredo-Risotto-like dish.
• My special meal was over the weekend and there were massive amounts of this leftover. So I just heated it up in our Cleveland. (beautiful industrial kitchen gadget. it's my favorite co-op toy.)
• Squash
• Exactly what it sounds like. Come to think of it, I'm not quite sure what kind of squash it was. I didn't even do anything fancy to it. Just roasted it in the oven. It even cooked all the way through! Now that's a co-op miracle. (cooked squash and cooked beans are two very things to get excited about in OSCA. for some strange reason people sometimes can't cook such things all the way through)
• Lentil-Vegetable Soup
• We had onions, turnips, potatoes, green beans, and lentils. So why not! I think it actually turned out quite nicely. I probably could've waited to add the green beans and potatoes a few minutes later, but it was still fine. That's part of what's so fun about massive cooking is you get to re-learn how to cook. Yes, it can be frustrating. But at the same time it's rather interesting.

And that's pretty much it! I only have two meals left semester. And then I'll be glad to get back to cooking for only 4-6 people for the next 6 weeks after that. With the ingredients that I really love to work with to. (Mirin? Miso? Fresh rosemary? Kosher salt? What?)

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I guess it's not really a cooking blog without pictures huh. Oh well. Perhaps I can manage to get some over break. I should also get some of the co-op kitchen. (Note to self: blog post with a co-op kitchen tour)