Vegetable-Walnut Pâté

I didn't do anything today.

Well, that's not entirely true, I did exercise. And shower. And change a burnt out license plate bulb on my car. But beyond that, I have been savoring my last official day of summer break as best I can. Listening to music. Reading in the sun. And what would my last day be without a little Moosewood cooking, you ask?  Nothing, my friends. Nothing!

So today I made Vegetable-Walnut Pâté. It's a spread for raw veggies and crackers. The only description written with the recipe is that "It really does taste like chopped liver." Uh ... I have never had chopped liver in my life, but it sounds pretty retched. Thankfully this pâté came out beautifully and did not remind me in any way of stinkin' animal organs!

I started by cooking onion and green beans in a pan.  I also toasted some walnuts in a separate pan. Next time I think I will just do them all together, ya know? Save a pan.

After these are nice and soft, everything goes into the food processor: the green beans and onions, walnuts, along with a hardboiled egg, fresh lemon juice, a little dollop of mayonnaise, and black pepper.

The hardboiled egg helped make this pâté nice and smooth and added some protein too!

There is one other pâté recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook and I think I'll try it out real soon!

Bermuda Salad

Green beans! Red onions! Cheddar cheese! Bermuda Salad has a lot goin' on, flavor-wise. There aren't many ingredients and it is fairly easy to make. Just assemble, let it marinate, and then eat!

I started by gathering my ingredients on the counter. They looked very sweet together.

You'll need fresh green beans, red wine vinegar, olive oil, red onion, cheddar cheese, garlic, parsley, and a little salt and pepper to make this salad.

I steamed the green beans on the stove until they were juuuuust tender. While the green beans steamed, I made the marinade and softened the onion with some boiling water.

I used the same process of softening the onions last summer when I made Mango Salsa. You just hold the red onion slices, in a sieve over the sink, and pour boiling water on them.  They instantly soften!

Add the softened red onion and the parsley to the marinade!

Bring the steamed and cooled green beans and a little cheese to the party (props to Charlie for holding the grater in this photo).

Everything mingles and marinates for an hour. Or, if you are like me, a little less.  This salad was delicious!  Next time I will leave out cheese though, making it completely dairy free. I ate the leftovers today and it was super flavorful, the green beans just soak up more red wine vinegar and onion goodness with time.

I served this salad with a delicious Boca Spicy Chik'n Patty and Charlie's famously sinful mashed potatoes.

We had a non-alcoholic toast to the freedom of summer! Wahoo!

Roasted Green Beans

Here are some delicious Roasted Green Beans complete with garlic and pine nuts. Pine nuts are divine. I lightly toasted them before adding them to the beans and, oh my goodness, they were tasty!

The green beans are roasted with whole garlic gloves and thinly sliced onion. After roasting, this was tossed with a little balsamic vinegar. Such a lovely side dish for dinner!