We have never made baby octopus at home before, but since we have had positive experiences cooking squid at home, we decided to try cooking some octopus. You can find frozen packs of baby octopus at most Asian stores and they are really cheap: I paid $3.50 for a pound pack of frozen octopus at my local ethnic food store.

I like my baby octopus quickly grilled or sauteed so they get a nice crunchy char on them, especially on the tentacles. This recipe is a classic Spanish seafood treatment and can be used on baby squid too if you are a bit too freaked out to cook baby octopus at home. This recipe makes enough for 4 people as a starter at $1.06 per serving.

Baby Octopus with Garlic and Parsley, adapted from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound baby octopus, defrosted if frozen
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
salt to taste

In a griddle, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat. Place the baby octopuses in the pan and sear them, without moving them for 3 minutes, then turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes until they are a bit crispy and charred. If a lot of water starts coming out of the octopuses, just remove them and pour out the water and restart the process until the octopuses are cooked. Remove the octopuses from the pan and place them on a large serving dish.

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic to a small frying pan and saute for 20 seconds. Remove the garlic from the heat and squeeze the lemon juice over it and stir together. Add the parsley to the mixture, then pour it over the octopus and add salt to taste. Serve the dish immediately.

Spaghetti with Artichokes and Pancetta, from Mario Batali in Food & Wine, April 2010
1 lemon, halved
8 baby artichokes or 2 large artichokes (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving

Fill a large bowl with cold water. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon halves, then add the lemon halves to the water. Working with 1 artichoke at a time, peel off the dark green outer leaves. Cut off the top fourth of the artichoke; peel and trim the stem. Slice the artichoke lengthwise into 1/8 inch thick slices and drop them into the lemon water. Repeat with the remaining artichokes. If you need help figuring out how to trim artichokes, check out this great tutorial.

In a saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic, and pancetta and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain the artichokes; discard the lemon. Add the artichokes to the saucepan, cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add the white wine, cover and simmer over moderately low heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add the pasta and the reserved cooking water to the artichokes and toss over moderate heat for 1 minute. Remove the pasta from the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve the pasta with grated cheese to top.

In September, I blogged about this great Spiced Butternut Squash, Lentil, and Goat Cheese Salad, but here is another squash-heavy salad to add to your repertoire. This Roasted Squash Salad with Maple Vinaigrette includes cheese and nuts, some of my other favourite toppings to make a hearty salad so you aren’t starving an hour later. The salad makes enough for 4 lunches at $1.31 per serving.

Roasted Squash Salad with Maple Vinaigrette, adapted from Health Magazine, November 2009
1/4 cup chopped, skinned hazelnuts
olive oil cooking spray
1 large butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into cubes
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, grated
6 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with olive oil spray and place the squash on the sheet, cut sides down. Cover the squash with foil, and roast them until they are tender, around 20 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, place the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan and toast them over a medium heat until they are fragrant, around 5 minutes.

To make the dressing, whisk together the maple sugar, vinegar, grated garlic, and mustard until it is well blended. You can doctor the dressing until it gets just to your liking. Toss the greens with the dressing, and season with salt and pepper. Place the roasted squash on top of the greens, and garnish the dish with the toasted hazelnuts and shredded Parmesan.

Anyway, I’m determined to eat less Asian food this week and eat way more vegetables instead. Y’all know that I love making soups because they are so easy to prepare and make weekday lunches effortless if you cook a huge pot of soup at the beginning of the week. Plus soups are a really great way to load up on your veggies. On one of our healthy non-Asian food eating days last week, I made this simple but delicious soup crammed full of roasted veggies and spinach. I let the soup sit on the stove while it cooled and the roasted butternut squash really flavoured the broth. This recipe makes enough for 6 bowls of soup at $1.10 per serving.

Roasted Vegetable Soup with White Beans and Spinach, adapted from Bon Appetit, January 2000
nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 medium carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups (or more) vegetable or chicken broth
4 cups baby or finely chopped spinach
3 large fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 15-ounce can Great Northern beans, drained

Preheat the oven to 400¬?F, and spray a baking sheet with oil. Arrange the carrots, tomatoes, onion, butternut squash, and garlic on the sheet, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle the veggies with salt and pepper and toss them to coat. Roast the vegetables until they are golden and tender, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Set aside the carrots and butternut squash. Place the garlic, tomatoes, and onion into a food processor and puree until the veggies are almost smooth. Pour 1/2 cup of broth onto the baking sheet and scrape up any of the browned bits stuck on the sheet.

Transfer the baking sheet broth and vegetable puree to a large pot, and add 5 1/2 cups of broth, spinach, thyme, and bay leaf to pot. Let the soup come to a boil and then reduce the heat and let everything simmer until the spinach is tender, around 20 minutes.

Add the beans and the reserved carrots and squash to soup. Simmer for 5 minutes to blend the flavors, and add more broth to thin soup if it is necessary. Season the soup with salt and pepper, and discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.

Turkey King Ranch Casserole, adapted from Homesick Texan
3 cups leftover turkey meat, shredded
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1 10-ounce can Ro-Tel tomatoes, or 1 8-ounce can diced tomatoes and 1 small can green chiles
3 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons lime juice
1/2 cup half and half
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
4 cups grated cheddar cheese
10 corn tortillas
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium, and add the onions, red bell pepper, and poblano pepper. Let the veggies cook for 10 minutes, and add the garlic, flour, cumin, cayenne pepper, and ancho chile powder to the mix. Cook for another minute, and pour the chicken broth in the saucepan and cook over a low heat for a few minutes until the mixture thickens. Stir in the half-and-half and Ro-Tel. Cover the saucepan and let everything simmer for around 15 minutes while giving the sauce an occasional stir.

Take the lid off the saucepan, and add the sour cream, lime juice, and 1/4 cup of cilantro to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and take the sauce off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, as you begin to assemble the casserole. Grab a large baking dish, and spoon 1/2 cup of the sauce onto the bottom of the dish. Layer 5 of the corn tortillas on the bottom of the dish. I like to cut 3 of them in half and place the straight edge of the tortillas against the edges of the pan. Arrange the tortillas so the bottom of the pan is evenly covered.

Place half the turkey on top of the tortillas and pour over half of the remaining sauce. Top the casserole with half of the remaining cilantro and 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Repeat the layering process again starting with another layer of tortillas and ending in a thick layer of grated cheese.

Cook the casserole uncovered for around 30 minutes, or until the cheese topping gets nice and browned. The casserole tastes great served with a big dollop of sour cream.

While all of the meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned, the stand out dish of the meal was the Potato Puree. These potatoes were the silkiest and most flavourful that I had ever had. They were the equivalent of potato crack, and I half seriously joked with Carlo that I wanted to lick out the last dredges from the dish since they were that good and I had drunk quite a bit of wine that night. A couple of weeks ago, our friend Bethany was in town and graciously took us out to eat at Craftsteak. Once again we got the tasting menu, and thank god, the potato puree was still on the menu!

After falling in love with these potatoes all over again, we knew that we had to try to make them at home. Unfortunately we don’t have a potato ricer, so we had to use a stick blender to puree the potatoes which didn’t result in as fine or silky potatoes as those at Craftsteak, but they were still pretty damn good. I like Tom’s technique of whisking the potatoes and then slowly adding the cream and butter to make them light and fluffy. I think that a potato ricer will definitely have to be on my Christmas list this year so I can perfect these potatoes. This recipe makes enough to for 6 side dishes at $1.22 per serving.

Potato Puree, adapted from Tom Colicchio’s Craft of Cooking
5 pounds yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed
salt and white pepper
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
olive oil
chopped fresh chives

Place the unpeeled potatoes in a large pot, and add water to cover them. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and bring the pot to a simmer over a medium heat. Simmer the potatoes until they are tender, around 20 minutes or so.

Drain the potatoes, and then while they are still hot, peel them. To stop the potatoes from burning your hand, hold the potato in a dish towel and use a sharp paring knife. If you don’t want to do this, I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to peel the potatoes before you cooked them.

Place the peeled potatoes in a covered bowl so they remain hot. Puree the potatoes with a potato ricer, or immersion blender. Place the potato puree in the pot and whisk the puree with a stiff whisk. Gradually whisk in the milk, cream, and butter, then season with salt and pepper.

Serve the potatoes topped with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped fresh chives.

Other Recession Recipes Potato Recipes:
Twice Baked Potatoes with Cheese and Broccoli

However, I’m also pretty open to new tastes, so we decided to make a truly fancy stuffing this year. I never used to like cornbread that much, but have recently become a huge sucker for it. In this stuffing recipe, the sweetness of the cornbread contrasts nicely with the spicy andouille sausage, and there are a few veggies thrown in there for penance since you are basically eating a dish made up of bread and sausage. This recipe makes more than enough stuffing for 8 guests at $1.34 per serving.

Cornbread Stuffing with Andouille, Fennel, and Bell Peppers, adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2009
1 1/2 pounds purchased cornbread, cut into 1-inch cubes
5 tablespoons butter, divided
12 ounces fully cooked andouille sausages (about 4), halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide pieces
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt plus additional for sprinkling
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus additional for sprinkling
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 large egg

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage pieces and saute them until they are brown, around 4 minutes. Transfer the sausages to a large bowl.

Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fennel, onion, and bell pepper. Season with salt and pepper, and saute until the onion is golden, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the veggies from the heat, and add them to bowl with the sausages.

Preheat the oven to 350¬?F. Add the cornbread, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to the vegetable-sausage mixture, and mix everything gently. Whisk together the 2 cups of broth and the egg in a medium bowl, then add the broth mixture to the stuffing and toss so that everything gets coated.

Place the stuffing in a large glass baking dish, and bake it uncovered until the stuffing becomes crisp on top, about 1 hour. Let the stuffing stand for 15 minutes to cool before enjoying.

I’ve always enjoyed cooking (and of course eating), but since getting laid off, I have become the primary chef in the house after Carlo taking the lead for the last 8 years. Thinking about what I’m going to cook, grocery shopping, and then actually cooking takes up a large portion of my unemployed life, which helps add some structure and significance to days that are largely indistinguishable from one day to the next. Cooking makes me happy, and I love making something that Carlo enjoys. Plus I like sharing my cooking adventures with y’all too.

On Monday when I was super down in the dumps about not getting this job that I wanted, I knew that I had to get into the kitchen and cook something even if we did have Beef, Guinness, and Cheese Pie leftovers for dinner. I decided to make this Mexican Pumpkin Soup that my old friend Tina from Wales was raving about and which is in the great cookbook that she gave me last month when she visited Vegas.

The meditative process of chopping vegetables and pureeing made me forget about my crappy afternoon. Instead I focused on the delicious soup that I was making and how it would nourish me and Carlo, both literally and metaphorically. Making the soup made me think of my friend Tina and all of the good times we had together at the UEA Union Bar all those years ago, and it made me wish that I had more friends and family in Vegas with whom I could share this soup.

I’m a firm believer that any food that you put love into tastes great, but this soup was a knockout winner with its spicy sweet flavour and the crunchy flavorful topping. Plus it seemed to have magical powers in chasing the blues away. This Mexican Pumpkin Soup recipe makes enough for 6 bowls at $1.40 per serving.

Mexican Pumpkin Soup, adapted from the Riverford Farm Cook Book
1 pumpkin or butternut squash (about 3 pounds), peeled, deseeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
14 ounce can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce or garlic chilli sauce
juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
1/2 chopped cilantro
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

To garnish the soup:
tortilla chips, crushed
grated cheddar cheese
2 ripe avocados, peeled and diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the pumpkin or squash cubes on a roasting tray and toss them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and generously season with some salt and pepper. Put the pumpkin in the oven and let the cubes roast for 40 minutes, until they are slightly golden.

While the pumpkin is cooking, heat the rest of the olive oil in a large pan and add the onions. Cook the onions for 20 minutes until they are tender and slightly caramelized. Stir in the paprika, garlic, and chillies and cook for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and let them simmer for 15 minutes or until the base is reduced and thick. Stir in the roasted pumpkin.

Add a little bit of the stock and begin pureeing the soup using a hand blender. Slowly add the stock and continue to puree until everything is well combined. Bring the soup to a boil and add the kidney beans and corn. Season well, adding the cilantro, chilli sauce, and lime juice to taste. Let everything simmer for 10 more minutes.

To serve the dish, top with crushed tortilla chips, grated cheese, and diced avocado.

Winter Minestrone, adapted from Gourmet, January 2009
1/3 pound sliced bacon or pancetta, chopped
3 medium red onions, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch Swiss chard
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice
3 quarts hot water
5 cups coarsely chopped cored Savoy cabbage, about 6 ounces
5 cups coarsely chopped escarole, about 1/2 pound
1 piece Parmesan rind, about 3 by 1 1/2 inches
1 14-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
4 ounces dried macaroni pasta

Brown the bacon or pancetta in oil in a 7-to 9-quart heavy pot over medium heat. It is best to get the bacon as crispy as possible so that the majority of the fat renders and you aren’t left with flimsy and fatty pieces of bacon in your finished soup. Add the onions, celery, and carrots, and stir occasionally, while preparing the chard.

Cut out the tough stems from the chard and then chop them up, reserving the leaves for later. Stir the chard stems into the bacon and veggie mixture with garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all of the vegetables are very tender and begin to stick to bottom of pot, about 45 minutes total.

Push the vegetables to one side of pot, and add the tomato paste to the cleared area and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste begins to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Stir the paste into the vegetables and let everything cook for another 2 minutes while continuing to stir.

Stir in the canned tomatoes with their juice, and use a spoon to break them up into smaller pieces. Add 3 quarts of hot water and scrape up any brown bits from bottom of pot.

Bring everything to a simmer, and then stir in the cabbage, escarole, and Parmesan rind. Let the soup continue to simmer, covered, until the greens are tender, about 40 minutes.

Coarsely chop up the chard leaves and stir them into the soup along with cannellini beans and pasta. Simmer, partially covered, for another 10 minutes. Remove the Parmesan rind from the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Turlu Turlu, adapted from Moro: The Cookbook
2 zucchini, trimmed and cut into 1 inch disks
1 eggplant, halved lengthways and each half cut into 4 wedges lengthways
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
2 green peppers, halved, deseeded and thickly sliced
3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthways and each half cut into 3 lengthways
1 medium turnip, cut into 1 inch wedges
2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 can chickpeas
2 14-ounce cans of whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 small bunch each of fresh Italian parsley and cilantro, roughly chopped
salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. While the oven is heating up, sprinkle a teaspoon of fine sea salt on the zucchini and eggplant slices, and let them stand for 20 minutes before rinsing under cold water. The salt helps get rid of the excess water in the vegetables so they can roast up nicely.

In a large bowl, toss the eggplant, onion, 2 garlic cloves, peppers, carrots, turnips, and potatoes with the olive oil, allspice, coriander seeds, and a little salt and pepper. Spread the veggie mixture on a large roasting tray in a single layer, so the veggies can roast rather than steam.

Cook the vegetables for 45 minutes in the oven, and gently turn the veggies over every 15 minutes or so to prevent them from burning. After 45 minutes of roasting, add the zucchini disks to the tray and cook for another 15 minutes.

While the veggies are in the oven, make a sweet tomato sauce that will bind the dish together. In a medium saucepan, heat up the olive oil over a medium to high heat. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the 6 finely sliced garlic cloves and fry until the garlic begins to color. Add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt to balance their acidity. Cook the sauce over a medium heat until most of the liquid that the tomatoes give out has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and then stir in the rinsed chickpeas to heat them up.

To serve the Turlu Turlu, add the roasted vegetables to the tomato-chickpea sauce and then stir everything together with the fresh herbs. Taste, and season with extra salt and pepper if needed.