It is a recipe for beet pancakes that I developed from the recipe in Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious. I had to mess with the recipe quite a bit in order to get in some whole grain flour, and also to avoid using a boxed pancake mix, which I never buy. So I combined a recipe for pancakes from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook with Seinfeld’s, adding in some oat flour, and this is what I got. Not bad. And my kids had no idea it had beets until I told them. Seinfeld’s recipe was also lacking in spices, so I basically upped all the pumpkin pie-type spices.

This has got to be the best recipe for beets that I have yet to discover, Beet Cucumber Gazpacho:

It is soooooo yummy, and you can barely taste the beets. It tastes more like the other stuff – cilantro, cumin, cucumbers, red bell peppers, lime juice and tomatoes.

I was at the grocery store the other day, and if you saw what I did when I saw the pile of rhubarb, you’d have considered calling to get me some kind of mental help. My mouth dropped open, I gave a bizarre sort of yelp, and literally ran to the table. I grabbed two huge packages of rhubarb along with 3 lbs. of strawberries. Where rhubarb is concerned, I refuse to let anyone say that I go into this only halfway. Considering how early it is, I’m doubting that the rhubarb was local. The strawberries weren’t local yet either. I feel a tiny bit guilty about that, as I’ve been doing great relying on mostly local produce since last Spring, when my CSA began. But the CSA is on hiatus until June, so I’ve been using the supermarket for the last few weeks. Besides, I would have to wonder about a person who can resist the first rhubarb of Spring, no matter where it comes from.

So I ran home and promptly made a strawberry rhubarb pie. Secret ingredient: Cointreau.

And then the next day, I made rhubarb muffins.

A few days after that, I made a rhubarb berry crisp. No picture of that one. Can you tell I like rhubarb? That is one thing I’m betting I’m going to miss in Costa Rica, unless they import it.

And finally, here is a yummy Indian shrimp dish that I mostly created. I’ll call it Bengali-style Mustard Shrimp:

I say that I mostly created this recipe because I learned the basic technique from my mother-in-law. But I created this particular recipe on the fly, which I am very proud of. It’s taken me many years of being married to an Indian man to be able to cook decent Indian food on the fly. I think I might type up this basic recipe and post it at some point.

Trish’s Zucchini Shrimp Quesadillas (Thai-style)

Ingredients

Shrimp – 1 lb., peeled, deveined, chopped in 1/4 in. pieces
Zucchini – 2 medium, quartered and sliced
Onion – halved and sliced thin
Garlic – 2-3 cloves, minced
Olive Oil
Frozen corn kernels – 1/2 cup
Cilantro – large handful, chopped
Basil – small handful, torn or sliced thin
Rice-Wine Vinegar – 1 tablespoon
Salt – to taste
Flour tortillas – 8 large
shredded cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel and chop shrimp. Put them in a bowl with some salt (to taste) and 1 tablespoon of rice-wine vinegar. Let marinate for 1/2 hour, as you chop other ingredients.
In a large pot or skillet, heat some olive oil on medium. Then add zucchini, onion, garlic, and a pinch or two of salt. Cook until zucchini is half done, a few minutes, being careful not to burn garlic. Then add shrimp to pan and raise heat to high. Continue cooking until shrimp is almost done, a few more minutes. When shrimp is almost done cooking, add frozen corn and the herbs. Heat through on high, trying to evaporate any additional liquid that may have gathered on the bottom of the pot. Turn off heat.

On two large non-stick cookie sheets or jelly-roll pans, prepare the quesadillas. (Or line pans with parchment to make cleanup easier). You should be able to fit two or three large quesadillas on each pan. Brush one side of half the tortillas with 1 tsp. of olive oil. Place oil-side down on sheets. Use the shrimp mixture to fill quesadillas (If there is a lot of liquid in mixture, use a slotted spoon to scoop). Add generous handfulls of shredded cheese (I like colby-jack). Top with tortillas and brush tops with more oil. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes, until browned, flipping them halfway.

Eat.

The conversation went something like this:

M: Trish (he no longer calls me mom, for some reason), I’m going to make dinner tonight.

Me: Well, OK. I have a recipe in mind. Want to help me cook it?

M: No! I am going to cook. You can help me! And I want to use exactly the vegetables I want to use!

Me: Well…OK. Why don’t we pick out some of the veggies from the fridge that you want and put them on the counter.

Here is how he looks while he gets that chef-energy going:

Some might be fearful of that kind of energy in the kitchen. He does kind of make Emeril look tame. Oh – he also cooks with no clothes on.

But once he sees all the veggies layed out and starts thinking of his project, he composes himself. After all, he is a serious artist.

Knowing how I like to blog about his cooking, M came up with a few rules this time. First, he refused to title his concoction. I suspect that maybe he realized that giving it a title influences his creativity. He also told me that I was not allowed to disclose the ingredients. All I could get him to agree to was allowing me to include a picture of the ingredients. You’ll have to figure out what everything is on your own. I will say that every ingredient in the dish, except for the oil and salt, came from our local farm (Bialas Farms) or my own herb garden.

Since I did want to have some small degree of influence over the meal, and because I wanted it to be edible, I explained to M the concept of the Sous Chef. Even though the final decisions were left to M, I was hoping that as Sous Chef, he would see me as a helpful confidant and valued assistant. So we worked together.

M is pretty good at chopping veggies. And he uses sharp knives. I remember reading something a while back, in some sort of Montessori book, that you shouldn’t give children play-tools that don’t really work. It only frustrates them, and doesn’t really teach them anything. When we first began cooking together, I made the mistake of giving M butter knives to cut veggies with. The result, just as the book said, was frustration. It requires too much force and strength to cut vegetables with a butter knife. As soon as I gave M a sharp knife, and some lessons on keeping your fingers out of the way, he took a lot of joy in cooking with me. At the same time I learned that lesson, I suddenly remembered this video I saw in an anthropology course in college. It was a video on the Inuit people, and it showed an Inuit parent allowing their 2-3 year-old child to use an incredibly sharp knife used for cutting whale fat. At first all the students in our class were horrified by the sight. But then we learned that kids are more capable than our culture sometimes tell us they are. I have a feeling that some day M will cut himself while we are cooking. I’m not looking forward to it, for sure. But I’m not letting myself become obsessed with worry either. I’m hoping that the joy he gets from really cooking will outweigh any of the pain he may get from cuts and burns.

Here is the finished product:

The amazing thing about this experience is that Arp and I totally enjoyed the meal. Even totally ignoring the fact that my son cooked it, it was delicious! And almost all of it came from less than 30 miles from my house, minimizing the use of fossil fuels. Life is good.

Trish’s Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

Saute in large pot until slightly tender:

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• pinch salt
• sliced carrots – halfmoons, 1 large handful
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 chopped fresh vegetable of your choice (zucchini, broccoli, etc)

Add, sautéing until hot and browning:

• 1 package Morningstar Farms Sausage Crumbles

Add, until heated through:

• 1 handful frozen peas
• 1 handful fresh or frozen corn
• Spices, to taste (parsley, dill, basil, tarragon, etc.)
• Salt and pepper, if needed

Make gravy and add to sausage mixture:
In a small pan, make a roux with 1 tbsp. vegan margarine and 1 tbsp. of flour.  Cook for 1 minute and then slowly add 1-2 cups of vegetable broth, whisking to avoid lumps.  The mixture should be pretty watery at first.  Add salt if needed.  Add 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast and then cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and resembles gravy.  Pour enough of this over the sausage mixture so that it is a nice thick mixture, but not so much that it is soupy.  Discard leftover gravy, or save for another use or to drizzle on the top of your shepherd pie servings later.

Make mashed potatoes from approx. 6 large potatoes, some vegan margarine, and plain ricemilk.  Pour sausage mixture into square pyrex pan and top with mashed potatoes.  Bake until bubbly, hot, and slightly browned.