Curried Chickpea and Cauliflower Couscous.

Maybe first source from Reeni. Exactly what it says. Nothing out of the ordinary. A nice, voluminous dish that can plate well as a side or main.

Best Baked Spinach.

From Deb. It was ok. I should have used more salt.

Enfrijoladas de Espinica

From Herbivoracious. Basically spinach enchiladas with refried black bean sauce. Pretty tasty. It didn't come together as quickly as I thought, probably left too much water in the spinach. But it's a simple, hearty meal.

The tortillas were supposed to be dipped but they were falling apart. I might try it again will lightly fried tortillas.

Greek Creamed Spinach.

From Cinnamon Spice. I'm not really sure what makes it Greek, but it looked good so I tried it. The bechamel (not vegetarian?) is seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg while the spinach just takes some salt and pepper. I didn't have any shallots or green onions, so I just used yellow onions which I always have. I don't think I can really taste the difference between shallots and yellow onions anyway. I used frozen spinach which might have been a mistake. It turned out a little stringy, but the taste was ok. Could have used more salt.

Black Bean Guacamole.

Similar to the black bean dip I made a while ago, but I think this is better in some aspects. I think I got it from Closet. It's basically a lot smoother, having run the beans through the food processor. Cumin, diced onion, lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper, cilantro. It's less watery than the bean dip. You'll also run through it pretty quickly. This was two only two cans, which seemed like a lot when I was opening them but seeing and tasting the end-product made me think otherwise.

Polenta.

Finally made some polenta that wasn't a ridiculous mess. I used mostly yellow cornmeal and some white cornmeal, paid attention the whole time, salt, pepper, Parmesan. Cooled in a 9x13 pan. Cut and served with some Italian sausage and tomato sauce. Works well for breakfast too with runny eggs.

Red Kidney Bean Curry.

From smitten. I eat a lot of beans, so it's always nice to try something other than chili. I'm also a huge fan of Indian food, so this is a nice thing to have in my back pocket. It comes together pretty quick, maybe 30 minutes from start to finish.

Spanakorizo.

Another one from Kevin. A solid rice dish with onions and spinach, sprinkled with feta. I made mine with brown rice because I like the extra chewiness.

Radish and Scallion Dip.

Sourced from Farm Girl. Basically just processor'ed radishes, creme cheese, feta, scallions, a bit of pepper and lemon juice. I used only half the amount of creme cheese so it came out a bit watery but very fresh tasting. More creme cheese = more like a spread, which would be/is pretty good on some pulled pork or turkey sandwiches.

Refried Black Bean Dip.

Sourced from Farm Girl. I used canned black beans (which I didn't drain enough) that I mashed myself so it came out rather watery. Red onions (adds some freshness), diced tomatoes (canned, but fresh would taste so much better), canned green chiles (fresh minced jalapeno would be good), didn't have cilantro, chopped avocado.

Lentils Masala.

Two of my favorite things: carmelized onions and garam masala.

Tomato Zucchini Feta Fritter.

Yet another random thing from Kevin.

Kimchi and Zucchini Quiche.

Sourced from Closet. I didn't have as much kimchi as was called for, but mine was probably more fermented than would be expected so I figured it would be ok. The combination of cheese and kimchi weirded me out a little, but the brown rice crust was a nice idea. In the end, it was basically like rice hotpot but not as good.

Corn Fritters.

I had some corn to use up. Wheat flour was a bad idea here.

Falafels.

There were some various methods for preparing chickpeas ranging from scratch to boiling canned ones and then chilling. I just used canned ones without boiling and without chilling the batter. In retrospect, doing both probably would have helped the balls hold together in the fryer. Falafel is pretty quick and simple, though not as quick when you're using a wok to shallow fry. An electric wok with temperature control would be handy. Or a deep fryer.

Cabbage.

Yes, yes, another blurry picture. Guess I'm too drunk to hold the camera steady. Anyway, the whole point of this is to talk about that cabbage.

So Elise is always serving shredded lettuce or cabbage sprinkled with vinegar and salt with her Mexican meals. I like vinegar. I put it in soy sauces, corned beef and cabbage, and the like. So I finally got around to this since I've trying to feed myself without going to the grocery. I did throw this in with the potatoes for a bit since I wasn't actually planning on doing this. But I figured, "Why not?" Turns out it's awesome. Shredded cabbage, vinegar, salt. Damn.

Eggplant Parmesan.

It's been awhile since I've actually put some effort into making something. And the last time I tried making this was in high school. I've gotten smarter and handier with a knife since then.

The rounds were slotted and stuff with minced mushrooms, mozzarella, and Parmesan. I cut garlic powder into the flour and oregano into the bread crumbs. (I've also gotten better at breading things.)

I pan-fried them for a few minutes each side to develop a crust and then baked them for another 10 or so. In retrospect, I should have baked them a bit longer. And added butter.

I used that trusty GV Green Pepper & Mushroom sauce and added some crushed red pepper which I had finally gotten around to buying. All in all, it was pretty ok, but there's a lot of tweaking to be done.

Manicotti and Cannelloni.

I made half a dozen of each. The cannelloni was hot Italian sausage, bella mushrooms, and onions. The manicotti was just ricotta. I had initially thought to use spinach and ricotta, but I forgot about the spinach until after I had already stuffed the shells. So it just went on top. I figure a bit of green all around wouldn't hurt. It turned out mostly ok, but nothing to write home about either.

Hummus and Baba Ganoush.

Here's my first go at my food processor. I don't have any numbers for these but it's easy enough to figure out the taste. The hummus turned out pretty great. The baba ganoush not so much. I haven't quite figured out what's off.

Pajeon.

I absolutely love Korean pancakes (my favorite being bindae-duk which I'll get to at some point). This is one of those Korean comfort foods for me.

It's also really straightforward which means I'll probably be making it a lot.

• 1 egg
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup flour

produces enough batter for two-ish ~6" pancakes. Maybe for two people. Or one. I can eat a lot of pancakes. I'm guessing the "pa" in pajeon is referring to the green onions used. I prefer to use only the green parts, cut into pieces about an inch long, maybe two bunches for the amount of flour used above.

I cooked these in my super sweet cast-iron which basically outperforms any other pan I've ever owned or used. I will say that the cooking is a little slow and that in the time it takes to cook a second pancake, you should have been able to drain the first, cut it (into quarters or ~3x3" inch squares), and have it eaten by someone. That's basically the way it worked in my mom's house.

1. Wait for pancake.
2. (Pancake arrives on plate.) Try to eat pancake.
3. Burn mouth.
4. Walk off with pancake so no one else can get it.
5. Burn fingers.
6. Continue trying to eat pancake. When consumed, go to 1.

You can also add meat to this. I think with seafood, it's called haemul-pajeon. And the sauce that goes with this uses equal parts soy sauce and either rice vinegar or white vinegar and a bit of sugar, chili powder, and green onions to taste. If you use the rice vinegar, you may not want to add the sugar. And is the case with green onions and soy sauce, I like to use the whiter parts for that.