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Dinner

Octavia’s Warm Shrimp Salad with Cantaloupe & Feta

July 14, 2014 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

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Excuse me for a minute while I eat all of the popsicles and forget to blog about it (oops).

I spent last week in Sunriver, Oregon, where the air is hot and dry and the mountains loom quietly on the horizon.  We were there for Ben’s family reunion.  There were some sweaty bike rides, a dip in the pool, a few spirited games of pickle ball (a real game, apparently), lots of empty wine bottles, ample ice cream cones, plenty of deer sightings, and a whole lot of family time.

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My niece, Matilda, says hello.

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…Skeptically.

We drove through Portland to get to Sunriver, so we stopped at Lardo for pork meatball bahn mi sandwiches, cucumber salad and french fries.

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A good decision.

In Sunriver, we pretended to know how to play croquet.

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When we got back to Seattle, it was hot.  Real hot.  Like, sweaty-knee-back hot.  So we picnicked on the patio with cold white wine and this salad, which is plump with shrimp and tangy with arugula and feta.  The cantaloupe is a nice and unexpected addition; it really pulls the whole dish together.  It’s a salad for hot summer evenings, light and flavorful, as delicious at room temperature as it is warm.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Salads

Roasted Black Bean Burgers

June 10, 2014 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

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HELLO!

Hi.  It’s been awhile, huh?  Almost a month!  Which is like… a long time, in blog-years. Man.  I have no good excuse.  I went to the BlogHer Food conference in Miami last month and got really overwhelmed – sponsors! ads! video! networking! social media! –  so instead of trying to catch up on all of the things I’m not doing here, I decided to stop writing altogether.  A successful conference, no?  (To be fair, it was a fun conference, I’m just a spaz.)

Anyway, I’m back and ready to talk about burgers.  I’ve made a lot of burgers since Memorial Day (as one should, I think).  I’ve done classic hamburgers, caprese turkey burgers, (recipe coming in my forthcoming book! More on that soon…), lamb burgers and these roasted black bean burgers, which definitely hold their own in the category.

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These are my first go at homemade veggie burgers — I wanted to try my hand at making them because, though I’m definitely a meat eater (ahem, lamb burgers), lately I’ve been slanting towards a more veggie-centric diet in general, and sometimes I’m just not in the mood for meat (and lambs worldwide rejoice).

Veggie burgers can be lackluster (at best), and I was worried about turning up a mushy, ambiguously-flavored patty, but Kenji at Serious Eats helped put my fears behind me.  Roasting canned black beans (rinsed and drained, first) eliminates the mush-factor and intensifies the flavor of the burger, and adding sautéed onions, garlic, and poblanos, plus some chopped chipotle in adobo and a handful of roasted cashews, really brings the whole thing to another level.

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The resulting burger is deep and smoky, with a firm, slightly crumbly texture once cooked.  You won’t miss the meat.  Pile it on a bun with all your favorite fixings, or eat it over a bowl of dressed greens with some rice or quinoa mixed in.

Happy (burger-time) summer!

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes

Smoky Bacon Turkey Chili

January 8, 2014 by mollygilbert520 10 Comments

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I imagine a “polar vortex” to be a swirling mass of polar bears.  Or some sort of high-powered polar bear business conference?

…Am I close?

Living in California, you see, comes with some benefits.  Fresh oranges and avocados, sure, but also a lack of swirling polar bear activity.  Or bracing cold, for that matter.  I don’t mean to rub it in.  I’ve seen the crazy, Day-After-Tomorrow/White-Walker-Winter-Is -Coming-Style photos of the rest of the country.  New York looks miserable.  Chicago?  Forget it.  Meanwhile, I ran outside this morning.  In pretty much a t-shirt.

In other news, I’m the worst.

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In other other news, I made you chili!  And as everyone knows, chili is where it’s at during a polar (bear) vortex.  It’s a simple, one-pot, warm-to-the-bone kind of meal.  It uses a lot of what may already be in your pantry.  Plus there’s bacon!

The smoky bacon is what starts us off, and then the chili fills out with ground turkey meat and some spicy chicken chorizo.  Smoke and spice get topped with sweet tomatoes and rich beer, and some creamy beans, too.  Top it all off with a handful of green onions and shredded cheese, a scoop of cool yogurt and some chopped avocado for good measure?  CHILI TIME.  With chips.  Let’s see what our polar vortex has to say about that.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Soup

Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpea Salad

January 2, 2014 by mollygilbert520 13 Comments

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New year, new salad.  Isn’t that how it usually goes?

I was big into cauliflower in 2013, and even though that’s like, so last year, I’m sticking with the stuff.  I like eating raw florets dipped in Trader Joe’s cilantro & lime yogurt dip (which, for those of you who don’t know, is the bomb dot com), though I also enjoy finding ways to get it all roasty toasty in the oven, too.

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This here is a roasty toasty application.  (That’s a thing.)

I’ve got a lot of big, exciting, scary things on the horizon for 2014.  There will be a 30th birthday.  There will be a cookbook.  There may be a trip or two.  My stomach is flopping and my fingers are crossed for it all.

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But today?  Today, there will be cauliflower and chickpea salad.  It’s a start.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Salads

Chicken Pot Pie

December 6, 2013 by mollygilbert520 9 Comments

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I feel like I often use the weather to introduce my recipes.  It’s kind of standard protocol.  It’s fretfully hot?  (It’s Not).  Popsicles!  Or hey!  It’s cold!  (It is cold, even in California these days, jeez.)  We need sweaters.  Mugs of tea.  And chicken pot pie!

It makes sense — warm, rib-sticking fare for chillier weather — but really, weather talk?  Has it come to that?  We’re all friends here, after all.  We can talk about our ups and downs, the joys and heartbreaks and embarrassments of it all.  I just read a lovely essay about heartbreak here, actually.  Heartbreak comes in many forms, though, as I’m sure you’re aware.

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Chicken pot pie can help with heartbreaks.

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And embarrassments?  My life is full of them.  I’m really good at tripping in public, over nothing but my own (normal sized, you should know) feet.  In college I majored in American Studies but if you asked me who our 5th President was, I’d have to Google it.  And the other day while clothes shopping I ran into a girl I went to grade school with — I was half-zipped into a too-small dress and had just popped my head out of the fitting room to ask my sister for help, and oh hey!  There she was.  Tall and svelte and beautiful, smiling and ready to catch up on 20 lost years of friendship.  I thought I should hug her but didn’t want to risk ripping the dress/being naked so instead I just took an awkward half-step forward and stood there, grinning dumbly.  She asked me about my life and then I think I asked her if she had checked out the sale section?  Awesome.  Oh and also, last week I forgot to wear deodorant to a group exercise class.

Embarrassments?  Check.

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Joys are better.  My current joys include going on chilly runs with my dad and sister before eating too much cheesecake.  Watching my new niece, Matilda, and hoping she’ll fall asleep on me.  Cozying up with cheeseball Christmas movies on abc family.  Or nailing a cookbook recipe on the first try!  Joy.

Chicken pot pie is a joy, especially one that’s homemade but simplified (rotisserie chicken meat and Pillsbury crust, holler).  I made this for Matilda’s new parents a few weeks ago, and it was so heartwarmingly good that I made it again the very next day.  It makes enough for two medium-sized pans of pot pie, so we ate one and I stashed the other in the freezer, where it will keep for a few months (if it lasts that long), ready to ease the next heartbreak, soothe the inevitable embarrassment, or celebrate the next joy — maybe just a chilly evening with friends and family.

Joy to you, friends!  And chicken pot pie.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes

Spicy Tofu Quinoa Salad

June 25, 2013 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

A week from today I’ll be on a Long Island beach.  In a bathing suit.  We’re talking two (rather small) pieces. And although it’s a grey and drizzly mess here in San Francisco and what I’d really like to be doing is cozying up to a cup of tea and a bag of cookies, I’m going to take the path of good decisions and eat this quinoa salad instead.  There are bathing suits to consider, after all…

Plus I finished all of the cookies yesterday.

As good decisions go, this one isn’t too hard to get behind.  Quinoa is everyone’s favorite ancient whole grain — high not only in protein and fiber but also in popularity, you know?  A solid start to our salad.

We’ll add some bright, crunchy vegetables and some firm, baked tofu, then dress it all with an Asian-inspired dressing — one that’s easy to throw together and out-of-this-world good.  It’s got all of our bases covered — rich with toasted sesame oil, sweet with honey; it gets some spice from our old friend Sriracha, salt from dark soy sauce, and a tangy bite from the addition of rice wine vinegar.

If we can’t have cookies for lunch, this will surely do.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Salads

Cold Sesame Noodle Salad

May 1, 2013 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

You know those days where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and then you’re out of conditioner?  The ones where you step in a dirty puddle at the bus stop in open-toed shoes?  And then you stare at your computer and your computer stares at you and neither of you can think of a single thing worth writing? Or you accidentally get a legitimate (and legitimately expensive) parking ticket?  How about a fat day in a pencil skirt?

Today is not one of those days.  

Today the sky is blue and the sun is shining; it’s an iced coffee kind of day.  I’ve got a new bottle of conditioner and my nails match my tank top, accidentally on purpose.  Tomorrow I’m taking a trip east, to see my family and this band live and to eat some wedding shower cake. And according to my Astrology Zone forecast for the month of May, I’ve got the next 31 days on lock.  So, there’s that.

Also?  Cold sesame noodles!

In this salad, our noodles are cool and slippery, rich with toasted sesame oil and Sriracha-style spicy.  Thinly sliced fresh and verdant veggies keep things bright and crunchy.  So many good things, to go along with all of the other good things.  

This month better watch out — because we are coming at it with noodle salad.  And pink nails and general sass.  But mostly noodles.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Salads

Spicy Tortellini Soup

April 9, 2013 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Bay area mornings start out nestled under a bed of gray fog, cold and wooly on the eyes. Some days the blanket lifts to reveal blue sky and sparkling sun by noon, and everything is good.  Other times the fog keeps us wrapped tight in grey, so we wrap ourselves tight in hoods and coats (mostly Patagonia, let’s be real), and everything is still pretty much good.  We eat soup!

And sometimes we hop in the car and drive towards sunnier skies.  To chilly sunny beaches in Carmel.

Or richly green and windy overlooks along Big Sur.

Other times we fly to Seattle, which is unexpectedly warm and full of sunshine for Easter.

The blossoming cherries there!  Nothing better, I’m almost certain.

While you’re in Seattle, you might meet a new man.  Charming and adorable.  Killer style.  I was instantly smitten with this one.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Soup

Chicken Chili Stew

January 26, 2013 by mollygilbert520 10 Comments

You guys!  You are the best.  Thank you, thank you for indulging me with your comments and sharing my pancakes.  Sorry I hogged the syrup.

In other news and happenings, I’d like to inform you that if a person didn’t know that the Super Bowl was going to happen next weekend, a person might, I mean maybe, accidentally book tickets for her and Ben and Emily and Dan to go see a musical show.  Four glorious tickets to a matinée of Wicked (!), on Super Bowl Sunday.  A person might do this!  By accident.

But let me tell you, if a person did do this, she wouldn’t hear the end of it.  The Ben, and also the Dan, wouldn’t be entirely happy with the person.  Because the person would have inadvertently taken away a Ben’s and a Dan’s ritual of manhood, one of body-bashing and fist-waving/yelling-at-the-tv and zone-blitzing and chicken-winging, and replaced it with… Glinda.

Oops.

Let’s eat some chicken chili stew?  A warm and hearty peace offering?  It’s totally manly.  You can smother it in shredded cheese and sour cream and eat it with corn chips.  Like men.  Like men at a Super Bowl party.  Or, um, the theater.

Just… just eat.  We’re cool, right?

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Soup

French Lentil Soup

December 4, 2012 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

 This time of year is fast and furious.  Mostly fast and less furious, I suppose, on account of the fact that Elf plays on loop on the cable tv.  Elf is good.  Zooey Deschanel as a blond doesn’t seem entirely right, though.  It doesn’t make me furious, but I’m just saying.

Fast!  We’re only four days in, but December is already flying by.  Whoosh!  It was just Thanksgiving a minute ago.  Whoooooosh!  Now it’s pretty much Christmas.

Buy your presents!  Clean the house!  Bake the cookies!  Finish your projects and dust your mantles and pack for traveling and wrap everything everywhere and can I get free shipping with that and are you sure it will get there in time and don’t forget the cookies!!

Whoa.  All of the fast needs to just go ahead and slo-o-ow.  Let’s forget about the presents and the cleaning and the traveling and the projects and just take a minute to breathe.  To admire the twinkly lights on the coffee shop door and the smell of peppermint lattes.  To sit with Ben.  To be here, on December fourth.  To wear our warmest socks and crack open the window and cozy up with a steamy bowl of hearty soup.

Can we do that?

Good.  Let’s get cozy.  Elf is on.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Soup

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H!. I’m Molly. I’ve got big cheeks and big dreams. Looking for healthy and also unhealthy recipes, with a side of random chatter? You’ve come to the right place.

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One Pan & Done is about getting simple, delicious meals from your oven to your table, post haste. Pull out your sheet pans, Dutch ovens, cast iron skillets, casserole dishes, muffin tins and more – we’re coming for ya!

 

Sheet Pan Suppers is my first book! It is about cooking on a sheet pan (read: easy set-up, easy clean-up!) and I think you might be into it.

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