Oven fries with simple chili

It was going to take way too long to make one of my favorite soups, so, tonight, to use up some of the many beginning-to-sprout potatoes, we made oven fries that had recently been featured in the Times.  We made a simple tomato and bean chili as a dipping sauce, and, for good measure, melted some leftover Havarti and Jarlsberg cheeses.

Italian basics

Ever since this Smitten Kitchen post, we’ve been looking forward to a night of pasta with tomato sauce for its rave reviews and absolute simplicity (3 ingredients, no prep work!).  Since no dinner could be quite that simple, we experimented with a calamari appetizer as well.

Master Pasta Maker

We had the great fortune of having mjw join us for dinner.  This seemed like the perfect occasion to make something a bit more involved—ravioli was the perfect adventure.  Turns out mjw is a natural at the pasta making!  Going with a very seasonally appropriate recipe, we stuffed the ravioli with mashed parsnip and topped it with a mushroom ragoût and added a side salad.  As this was a long process, we tried out pkf‘s suggested polenta fries with our leftover polenta.

Chicken tortilla soup

ib claimed he might be coming down with something, but that was just an excuse to make this spicy and immensely delicious soup.  The recipe is one of dsd‘s signature dishes.

Pizza leftover-bagels

The best part about making all of that wonderful brunch food is enjoying the leftovers for the entire next week.  Especially the bagels, which we enjoyed in epic pizza bagel fashion.

Fall tomato soup + grilled cheese sandwiches

The fresh heirloom tomatoes at the USQ farmers’ market were irrisistable—time for some always satisfying tomato soup with grilled cheese.

couscous with vegetables and lamb sausage

couscous with vegetables and lamb sausage

Quick mid-week way of using up lots of vegetables and making lots of leftovers.  We supplemented CSA eggplant, zucchini, and baby carrots with white mushrooms and onions.  We also roasted two home-grown heirloom Russian plum tomatoes.  We sautéed the vegetables with some summer savory (also from the CSA), some home-grown rosemary (from Alexey and Rebecca’s wedding), and some oregano.  Then we tossed with couscous and served with farmers’ market pasture-raised lamb sausage, olives, and feta cheese, with a squeeze of lemon on top.  More pictures after the break.