koko's corner

Handmade pasta

This is an easy peasy, egg less pasta. Use half a pound of flour, half a cup of water then mix mix, roll roll, it's pasta.

This is the first of a two part post. First I made the pasta for lasagna then the lasagna. This post will be just the pasta, next will be the making of the lasagna.

Let's get goin' rollin'

Vegetable Lasagna with Mornay Sauce

After I left the home made pasta to air dry I started making the lasagna. I wasn't sure where I was going with this until I scrounged through the fridge to see what veggies I had that would work.  

Crimini mushrooms, a leek, an heirloom tomato, ricotta and Parmesan cheese, sounds like lasagna fix-ens to me.

Let's get busy

Veggie Salad

This is one of my favorite summer salads. So much can be done with it, the possibilities are endless.

This one is made with corn, red kidney beans, olives, carrots, and green beans. It's dressed with a simple vinaigrette then topped with some chopped Italian parsley and fresh thyme.

Sometimes I add celery or water chestnuts for crunch, sometimes tuna is added and that makes it a good meal for lunch. The spice combinations are endless and any of your favorite beans can be used. Pick your favorite cuisine and throw in a few of those spices. For a Mexican flavor I add cumin, oregano and some diced green chiles. Make a vinaigrette using some of the adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles. 

Asian flavors are great on this too. I could go on and on about the possibilities. Oooo, how about chunks of cheddar cheese and...O.K. I'll quit.

Mafé

Mafé is a classic Senegalese stew that is served with rice. It is typically made with lamb but can also be made with beef or chicken. I chose chicken this time. 

I know I will be making this a lot this winter. Come see how it's made.

Leeks Nicoise

A Silver Palate Cookbook recipe.

Some beautiful leeks, Heirloom tomatoes, basil, . Sounds good to me.

The recipe calls for 12 leeks. Since I'm not cooking for an army I scaled it down a little. 

Our little foster kid...ahem, I mean kittens

We thought it would be a good idea to foster some kittens. It helped take away some of the sadness of having to give up Matilda. 

We got a couple of litter mates, well the one's that survived after being taken away from their mom too early. We are assuming they were abandoned. 

We named the little girl Smokey, I know, not very feminine, but she just looked like a smokey to us.  

She weighed in at a whopping 12 oz's and wouldn't eat. I had to hand feed her a few times then she was off and running. 

This is Boots. He has four white feet so of course we had to call him boots. He weighed in at 14 oz's

Boots had no eating challenges. See the dirty muzzle, that's from burying his nose in the food. 

O.K. cat lovers there's more. 

Stuffed Peppers

It's what's for dinner. I used the bell peppers I got from the church garden.

 

Let's gather up the ingredients and get cooking.

Meet some of my neighbors

These are some of the neighbors that I pass every morning and evening on my way to and from work.

 

I think her name is Za Za, just look at that beautiful fur coat. I'm sure there are some pearls under there somewhere.

I wasn't sure if she's been mad mugging me, if she was just kind of stand offish, or if she wanted to be sure I noticed her in her coat.

Caponata

I got some beautiful produce from the church garden this morning.

I had planned on making baba ganoush with the eggplant but dang it, I'm out of tahini. I searched the web and found some recipes for Caponata so here's what I made.

Chorizo Chicken

Chorizo, chicken and spices, what's not to like. The proportion of chorizo to chicken is a matter of personal taste.

 

Let's get the ingredients together and start cooking.