Naan fattoush with yogurt dressing

Healthy and easy meatless fattoush salad made with whole-wheat naan, protein-rich white beans and a tangy Greek yogurt dressing. 

My immediate need for fast and easy meals does not seem to be going away, given our slow local move.

Why so slow? Well, in addition to the fact that The Ninj is "the movers" this time, what started as a couple of paint touch-ups on a couple of walls has turned into a repainting of almost all the interior walls and ceilings. Done solely by me and Mr. Ninj.

(Have you ever painted a ceiling? No? Take my advice: Don't. Not if you like living without a stiff neck.)

So, needless to say, I don't have as much time for dinner prep as I'd like. Which means I've been turning quite a bit to salads -- because one cannot eat from the slow cooker every day, right?

However, at this time of year, before farm- and garden-fresh produce is plentiful, tasty salads can be a challenge.  I love bread salads because they're hearty and not totally dependent solely on vegetables for their awesomeness; they're like croutons turned up to 11. And I'm practically addicted to naan, so I decided to use it in a riff on fattoush, a meatless Mediterranean salad traditionally made with pita.

Kati flatbread salad

Kati rolls, the popular Indian street food, deconstructed into a hearty meal salad that can also double as a unique appetizer pizza.

I know you're all like, "Kati? What the heck is kati, Ninj?"

Don't worry, I didn't know either until I stumbled across an article in Good Housekeeping this month about new food trends. Apparently, we're all supposed to be going completely cray cray for Indian street food. And apparently, kati rolls are uber-popular Indian street food.

Kati rolls, based on what I've read, sound a bit like gyros: a warm, meat-based filling wrapped in flatbread (although the fillings can vary widely). OK, I'm in -- sounds awesome.

However, I'm not a big fan of sandwiches for dinner. To me, they're fine for lunch, but for dinner they seem a bit like a cop-out (and no, burgers don't count as sandwiches -- they're in a category all their own). It's silly and arbitrary, but it's my thing. 

Being all ninja-like, I just took the kati roll concept and deconstructed it into a flatbread salad. Because I'm OK with salads for dinner or lunch.

Easy Thai tuna sliders

Easy Thai tuna sliders -- a fast weeknight meal and a great way to add Omega 3s to your diet.

Even though creating, tweaking, photographing and writing about food and recipes is my passion, all that can often leave me tired and not too psyched to spend a lot of time making dinner every night. Just like you.

Therefore, I'm a big fan of quick and easy weeknight dinner recipes -- like these Thai tuna sliders.

I think I read somewhere that the slider craze is "over" -- whatevs, people. The Ninj isn't trying to stay one step ahead of the trends: I'm giving you real-life solutions and strategies to real-life eating situations. And one of those situations is not wanting to spend a ton of time making dinner.

(And sliders? Over? Come on -- who doesn't love cute food? Jeesh.)

So, can you open a can of tuna? Can you toast a bun? Then these tuna sliders have got dinner covered for you.

Quick weeknight falafel

Quick weeknight falafel -- a super-easy, protein-packed meatless meal recipe.

It's unusual to see a meatless recipe like falafel being touted by someone who regularly refers to herself as The Meatasaurus. I grew up in a household in which we did not eat unusually or adventurously; meat, potato and one veg at 6pm every night, that was us.

But you have probably noticed that, with a nod to both good health and fearless cooking, I have been trying to add more meatless dinners to my weekly menu. And not just more pasta, which has always been my meatless crutch.

However, any meatless or vegetarian choices must still meet The Ninj's stringent dinnertime recipe criteria: easy to make and free of unpronounceable, difficult-to-procure ingredients. These falafel patties check both those boxes (seriously -- they only take about 15 minutes from start to finish!) and, with an entire can of chick peas in the ingredient list, are a great source of protein. Plus, adding extra veggies like carrots, peas or even some finely chopped spinach to the falafel, together with a quick pan saute in place of the more traditional deep frying, makes them light and wholesome without sacrificing any of the classic Mediterranean flavor.

Spanish tomato soup with smoked paprika potatoes

A unique Spanish tomato soup with olives, topped with smoked paprika roasted potatoes.

Are you familiar with smoked paprika? If you aren't, you need to be.

I'll admit, I'm not that sensitive to the nuances of different styles of spices. If a recipe calls for some weird-ass version of a basic spice, I usually just use the basic spice, rather than going to four different stores or having to mail-order it.

Remember my number one favorite-recipe criterion: must be easy to prepare. Mail-order spices don't make the cut.

Smoked paprika, however, is the exception.

I'm not sure what recipe originally turned me on to smoked paprika but, once I tried it, I was hooked. Yes, it's paprika, but it also has a not-so-subtle smoky flavor that you can really taste. And it's readily available in most grocery stores. Booyah.

This tomato soup recipe caught my eye because of the smoked paprika. And because it has olives in it (I know, right?). And because it is topped with roasted potatoes. Too crazy!

Verdict? It's fantastic! This is no ordinary tomato soup.  The flavors are smoky and spicy and the briny tang of the olives is the perfect complement. Plus, the roasted potatoes turn it into a meal rather than simply a soup.

Asian pork burgers with quick pickled cucumbers

There's been a lot of talk about veg around here lately, so I thought I probably owed you a nice, meaty post.

So of course I shall focus on pork (not quite bacon, but damned close).

I've been trying out some pork burger recipes over the past few months, looking for some alternatives to straight-up beef burgers -- although there is nothing wrong with a nice, locally raised grass-fed beef burger, my friends, nothing at all.

I came across a recipe for "triple pork burgers" in a recent issue of Food and Wine. Triple pork? You know The Ninj's interest was piqued. And it also included cabbage. Yep, cabbage -- in the burger. Very stealthy indeed.

But, as is often the case, I felt the recipe was way too involved and included some spice that would require a special trip to an ethnic grocery store in another town.

Not happening.

Not to mention that "triple pork" was misleading: that simply meant three burgers per bun. Come on: sometimes more pork is simply too much pork. (Can you believe I just wrote that?) 

So, being all stealthy like I am, I gave the recipe a ninja-style modification to make it more realistic, less unhealthy and faster to prepare.

Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup

Confession: I had never eaten tortilla soup before I made this recipe.

Another confession: This is not surprising, as there are lots of things I have never eaten before. I, probably like many of you, will often read a description of the dish or list of ingredients, think "eeew!" and then never give it another thought.

Lately, I've been learning that my judgmental nature has cut me off from some pretty good eating.

(Remember the stew?)

In reading a recent issue of a popular food magazine, I was drawn to a photo and recipe for tortilla soup; it was gorgeous and looked delicious. Then I read the headnote. What made this one noteworthy, in the magazine's view, was the chef's secret substitution: instead of tortillas, he used butter. An assload of butter. I think it was an entire stick.

What the ... ? Wouldn't that then be BUTTER SOUP?

I don't know about you, but when I want a little crunch alongside my sandwich at lunchtime or a vehicle to scoop up some yummy guacamole, I DON'T GRAB A STICK OF BUTTER.

Panettone

Panettone

I'm sure each of you has at least one never-to-be-messed-with family holiday traditions. Mine is panettone, a light, sweet, fruit-filled Italian bread.

(Well, it used to be homemade manicotti for Christmas day dinner, but then I married someone who is not Italian and we started spending the holidays with his non-Italian family.)

So I introduced my non-Italian in-laws to panettone. I'm happy to report it has become one of their traditions now, too (or, at the very least, they're humoring me, so thanks for that -- mwah.).

As I mentioned in my last post, I like to try one big new recipe at holiday time each year. This year, I decided to try my hand at panettone, complete with homemade candied citrus peel.

It turns out, there are a LOT of varied recipes for panettone out there on the web, which can make it difficult to decide which one to try, especially when you're messing with a tradition: you don't want it to suck.

To stay on the safe side, I chose Jeff Hertzberg's and Zoe Francois' recipe, straight from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. Even as an amateur bread baker, I have had such good luck with their recipes and instructions that I knew it would be a winner.

Paglia e fieno (straw and hay) pasta

Paglia e fieno (straw and hay) pasta

Sometimes I come across recipes in very unusual ways.

Which I totally love, because, to me, it is extra evidence of the whole small world, six degrees of separation phenomenon.

I don't think it's all just coincidence.

For example, straw and hay pasta. Yeah, sounds really appetizing, right? "Let's eat some straw and hay!" So you can believe me when I say that I was not googling "straw and hay for dinner" or anything even close to that when I stumbled upon this.

(I may have a new barn but as of yet no animals that require straw or hay: that's not how El Jefe and The Ninjette roll.)

What I was googling was Vermont food blog, to see how many, if any, other folks like me are out there. (In case you're curious, nearly none, but that's not really what this post is about. It's about straw and hay, right?)

As is the way of search engine optimization, I got some interesting results (SEO is clearly very ninja-like -- can't be explained or totally comprehended by mere mortals, ha ha ha). One that piqued my interest was a restaurant review from the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC).

(See what I mean about SEO? Completely bizarro.)

French bistro vinaigrette: a recipe

We recently took a little trip to Paris.

While it was fun seeing all the major sights and attractions (along with, it seemed, four gajillion other American tourists -- jeez!), my favorite part was, of course, the food.

(Sidebar: An entree on a French menu is, as its name implies, a starter. So how the hell did entree then come to mean "main dish" in English? Anyone? Anyone?)

Even though the weather was craptacular the whole time, we managed to eat nearly every meal outside at a bistro or brasserie (those who know me will realize this was heaven for me, as I am all about dining alfresco whenever possible -- which isn't very often here in Vermont).

It may sound silly, but we had some amazing salads for lunch every day. What I call a meal salad, because there's usually a meat protein in it. Smoked duck breast, fois gras, pate -- oooh la la! I was in charcuterie heaven. Like a good little food blogger, I've already been busy recreating these salads at home (watch for a post later this summer).

Lactofermented dill pickles and homemade remoulade

Celery remoulade, made with lactofermented dill pickles

Time for another adventure in cooking as part of Grow It Cook It Can It's Cook It! 2012 challenge.

(I am seriously loving this year-long challenge. It's like having fun, creative homework for Home Ec class or something. So far we have made pasta, bread, butter and cheese.)

May's topic? Lactofermentation.

This one was a bit trickier for me. Why? Well, first because I had to research what the hell lactofermentation even means.

In a nutshell, it's an old, natural process by which veggies are fermented using salty brine.

OK, it's essentially rotting, but it's good, yummy, controlled rotting, not like the kind of "fermentation" that happens in the bottom of my crisper drawer when I forget about a bunch of cilantro. The addition of the brine means that the veggies produce lactic acid that will kill off the bad bacteria and prevent complete putrefication.

(Wow, I'm making this sound very unappetizing. Sorry. Keep reading, it gets much more delicious.)

Poutine: a recipe

Poutine!

Wow. So apparently poutine doesn't photograph all that well...

If you've never heard of it or eaten it, poutine is a comfort-food dish traditionally made with french fries, topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. It is native to Quebec, although it has trendily been popping up all over the place in the past few years.

It's diner food, Quebecois style.

I first tried it last summer during a vacation in Canada and immediately became obsessed. Its salty, gooey goodness is a little hard to describe, given how nasty it looks in photographs. (It's not just mine -- do a Google image search on poutine and you'll see what I mean. Also note that Vladimir Putin shows up right next to all those cheese curds -- hilarious.)

Pasta with butternut squash and lamb: a recipe

Mark Bittman's butternut squash and lamb pasta ... sort of

In looking over my blogs posts from the past few months as well as my menu plan for the week, I think I'm a wee bit obsessed with butternut squash.

But it's not entirely my fault. Being a current seasonal vegetable, it just keeps showing up in all the recipes I've come across lately.

Today's comes from Mark Bittman, although I must admit that, since I had to modify it to accommodate the only ground lamb I could find this week, I will need to try it again, using Bittman's suggested ingredients, to see which version I like better.

Rösti casserole with baked eggs: a recipe

To keep the whole Thanksgiving-induced food coma rolling right along, I give you this rösti casserole.

(Geek sidebar: perhaps the greatest thing about this post is that I remembered the HTML special character code for generating a lowercase o with an umlaut!)

According to Wikipedia, the source of all unquestionable truth on the always unquestionably truthful internet, traditional rösti is a Swiss dish, made primarily of shredded potatoes, that ultimately ends up looking like a big potato pancake or latke. This riff on it is a hearty casserole, courtesy of Cooking Light.