Zucchini, Portabella, Chickpeas and Feta

Apologies for the somewhat blurry photos, which hardly do justice to the symphony of flavors that came together in our stomachs this evening.

Instead of picking and choosing, we decided to favor ambition and make three dishes - stuffed portabella mushrooms, zucchini patty sandwiches, and Grandma's blintzes with cherry pie filling.

The result was, well, you can't go wrong with portabella, zucchini, chickpeas and feta.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms (with our modifications)

Ingredients:
2 large Portobello mushrooms
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta (note: the original recipe called for goat cheese, but we used feta)
1 recipe of oven roasted tomatoes*
Note: the original recipes called for 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley and 1 tablespoons fresh chopped chives but we went without either and didn't miss it.

*For oven roasted tomatoes:
Half a pint of cherry tomatoes. Mix with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with either fresh or - like we did - dried thyme and basil. Slice 3 garlic cloves and them to tomatoes. Salt and pepper (just a sprinkle of each). Bake at 375, preferably in a dish that will collect all the juices and roast the tomatoes in their own juices, for 20-25 minutes or until they start wrinkling a little bit.

Directions:
1. Take out the mushroom stems and scrape out each mushroom's "gills" with a teaspoon, carefully, so you don't crack the portabella itself.
2. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic and cover portabellas with it on all sides (use up the whole thing)
3. Broil the mushrooms on a baking sheet for 3-5 minutes (in an oven) until they start releasing juices
4. Take em out, and fill to the top with roasted tomatoes and chunks of feta
5. Stick in the oven on 375 for about 10 minutes (or less, if mushrooms start looking ready)

Voila! You have stuffed portabellas that are ridiculously delicious.
Original recipe at http://afoodcentriclife.com/stuffed-portobello-mushrooms-with-roast-tomatoes-and-goat-cheese/

Zucchini and Chickpea Patty Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 15.5-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 zucchini, grated
1 small red onion, grated
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 whole-wheat pitas, toasted
1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
Some lettuce or mixed greens

Directions:
1. Mash chickpeas in a bowl until smooth. Stir in breadcrumbs, zucchini, onion, egg, and salt. Form into 4-by-1/2-inch patties.
2. Saute patties in oil until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. USE A NONSTICK PAN - it makes all the difference!
3. Halve pitas and stuff with patties, yogurt, lettuce, and anything else that fancies you.

Note: we had to practically broil these in oil and many fell apart. Next time, we're going to try adding a second egg and a tablespoon or so of flour, in the hopes of reducing the amount of oil and keeping the patties together better.

 And last but  not least...

Someone's Grandma's Russian Blintzes

While Sonya has attempted to make HER Grandma's blintzes for ages, they never quite presented the nostalgia and similarity to her Grandma's kitchen that this recipe yielded.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons oil

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together. Leave the flower for last, as you will need to fold it in and then mix the batter until it is completely, read, completely! clump free. The measure of an excellent blintze is the smoothness and lightness of its batter.

2. Heat non-stick skillet and using one standard soup ladle per blintze, pour out each blintze onto the skillet as evenly as possible, cooking just long enough on each side for it to turn golden.

3. Eat with any filling your heart desires - we experimented with cherry pie filling out of a can (also heated in the microwave) and some left-over yogurt but recommend any sort of fruit jam/preserves, cheese, mashed potatoes, and the list can go on.

All in all, some serious grating, chopping, frying, and baking went down.

You CAN cook from Pinterest

I'll admit that the actual recipes we used did not come from Pinterest, but the images we salivated from did and that led us on a scavenger hunt for the original recipes which would make the beautiful things we were looking at on the screen.

For anyone who wants to trace the blog, these came from Punchfork - but the actual recipes lives at www.simplyrecipes.com and www.lovefood.com (respectively).

And so, tonight's adventure included Caprese Corn Salad and Roasted Vegetable Couscous (we threw in some garlic bread, fried plantains, and plain steamed corn as well, to fill out the dinner plate).

Please note, we modified both moderately.

Caprese Corn Salad (and you thought you've had good caprese salad!)

Ingredients (our measurements):
2 ears worth of raw sweet white corn kernels
2ish cups cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
8 ounces (1 package) of fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped (could go with less, it's a pretty dominant flavor)

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
Some salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:
Cut em all up and whisk together salad dressing (in separate dish), then pour it all in and mix well.

Seriously, so delicious with the crunch of  the corn and the smoothness of the mozzarella and the acidity of the tomatoes, we just about swallowed the bowl whole.

Roasted Vegetable Couscous

Ingredients (our version, based pretty much on the recipe but with a few omissions):
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled and finely chopped
1 red onion, chopped (not as finely as the rest, it will cook down)
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbs thyme (we used dried)
2 tbs zatar seasoning (this was our addition - if you don't know this spice, look it up, it will change your world!)
2-4 tbs olive oil
1 package couscous (we used the quick-cook kind with its own spice packet and followed directions on the box)
Some salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:
Chop all vegetables, put in big bowl, and mix with garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, zatar and thyme. Mix well so everything is coated. Spread on cookie sheet (we covered ours in foil) and cook until vegetables are well roasted (browned at the edges) on about 375. Make sure to stir them often so they don't stick and burn.

Separately, follow directions for cooking couscous. When both are done, mix vegetables and couscous together in large bowl. We added an extra tbs. of olive oil for good measure.

As sides, we cooked some corn (steamed), some garlic bread out of a box (gasp, I know, the travesty), which added a really nice flavor to everything, and friend some sweet plantains in regular vegetable oil (sprinkle with sugar, salt, or both after frying them until they are a golden brown).

The Caprese Corn Salad and Couscous were AWESOME and now I have a super-easy recipe for super-great and SUPER-easy roasted vegetables!