Bind & CrEATe

I still remember the first time my friend Amy made this recipe. She and her partner Brian were having a gathering at their home, and I remember seeing a bowl of this on the table. I almost faceplanted forward. I’d tried quinoa before, was obsessed with chickpeas and quickly fell in love with the dish. Since then, I’ve always associated Amy with this combination.

Amy was important for a lot of reasons. For starters, she and Brian were older than most of us, so they had that life experience thing down. They could give advice, had been-there-done-that. Secondly, they were killer party planners. I always looked forward to a Friday night beer tasting there, or a dinner out to a new restaurant. I still fondly remember the time I watched she and Brian make falafels. It looked like magic. Thirdly, Amy was the person who bought me the Veganomicon, which houses this recipe and is a staple in my kitchen.

I did a lot of growing up in Washington, D.C., and Amy was there to see it. I’m sure she knows by know how much I think of her, and how much I appreciated the time we spent together. Especially surrounding food.

In addition to making me feel sentimental, this dish has also given me a great source of energy. Makes sense I’d associate it with such a good friend.

What’s a dish you always associate with another person?

We all know (and subsequently adore) Deb from Smitten Kitchen. I’ve been using her website so much this year that I’ve started to think we’re personal friends. Just the other night, the roommate did a Google search and Deb’s blog popped up. “She’s the one that cooks in that tiny kitchen with a toddler wrapped around her leg!” I said. Cat nodded as if Deb comes over for dinner (child in tow) once a month. I guess in a way she does, now that I’ve been making her dishes so frequently. This weekend we were blessed with a Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad.

If heaven came in the form of butternut squash, this would be it. Such a simple dish Deb recreated from Molly @ Orangette. If you like the nutty taste tamari gives you (one of the main ingredients in hummus), then you’ll fall crazy for this one. A bit of onion, a can of chickpeas, baked squash and you’re basically on your way.

I thought of my mother when I tossed together these ingredients and poured them into this glass bowl. I’m not sure whether my mother is a fan of squash, but she gave me this bowl a few years back. I use it sparingly, as I often place most of my food into Tupperware dishes for transportation.

However, coveting the goods in this rose-colored dish gave it flair and placed me back into the kitchen of my hometown. I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I saw this dish filled to the brim with tuna-noodle-casserole (my favorite growing up). The bowl is nothing fancy, but I imagine how wonderful it would be to pass it down to my daughter someday.

Hopefully, she can cook. Hopefully, she’ll like squash. And hopefully, she’ll invite her parents over for dinner often.

Cat and I have begun a new quest: Sunday cooking. I always cook a little something on Sundays, but this time we’re taking it to more-serious meal-planning level. Lately I’ve found myself rushing from one activity to the next during the week, with little time during the cook to cook or make lunches. This caused the restructuring of our food making.

First on the list was a basic chili recipe. We made this chili using fresh ground beef from my grandparents’ garden. I’ve eaten this chili twice this week – both for lunch and dinner on two separate days. It provided me with a ton of fuel to get through my running workouts and extracurricular activities. Though, I won’t lie. I still feel strange eating meat twice in once week. Maybe that means I’m more of a vegetarian than I thought.

The second dish we created was this Curried Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew with Garbanzo Beans. This is a major power-food meal. Cat has already reported increased levels of energy after eating this for lunch, and I concur. Plus, we got to use up 12 cups of the swiss chard from the garden – pretty much our last surviving garden good.

Cooking in advance had made my life infinitely easier this week. Having healthy meals on stock has really helped me choose the right foods, especially in moments where I’m fatigued and just need to eat.

After nearly a year of willy-nilly eating, I’m ready to get my nutrition back in check – and what better way to do it than with a little beans, vegetables and meat that comes from a source I know.

Do you cook in advance?