#veggietastic

Nick and I don't fight very often, but one thing we "fight" about is casserole. Nick loves casseroles, and frankly I don't blame him. They're full of delicious things: pasta, cheese, and butter! I love all these things, but I have two issues with casseroles.

1) They're pretty high calorie and high fat.

2) They require getting every pot and pan in the entire kitchen dirty.

Now, I don't always mind high calorie and high fat, but to me meals that are both of these things are ones to be eaten occasionally. As for point two, a casserole requires sauteing vegetables, boiling water for pasta, making bechamel, and putting the whole deal in a Pyrex to be baked. This is a big clean-up!

On Friday, the first day of fall, I was really craving lasagna. Lasagna is similar to a casserole but it has less cheese (at least when I make it) and is layered with tomato sauce and spinach and other vegetables. Nick isn't too into lasagna, so I told him we would compromise and make a veggietastic casserole if he agreed to do the dishes. The last time we made a casserole, it turned out well. But for some reason, this time it was particularly delicious and satisfied both of our cravings. The main difference this time was the vegetables we used. We used two small red onions, half a bag of frozen peas, and entire bunch of collard greens, a red pepper, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of cannelini beans. There was a higher ratio of vegetables to pasta than last time, which obviously made me quite happy. Yay, compromise!

Yesterday Molly invited us over for dinner for enchiladas--also a very fall-y food. Despite the warm, humid weather, I was in a baking mood. It's true that it's been a while since I baked. Our apartment is just too unpleasant in the summer to tolerate turning on the oven. But since it's technically fall now, I've been feeling ready to brave the heat. At the grocery store I found a bag of Macintosh apples grown in New York. Originally I had planned to bake a pie, but decided to make an apple galette instead.

Molly's enchiladas! Filled with butternut squash, kale, black beans, and cheese. A woman after my own heart!

Over Labor Day weekend I made an apple galette with my mom, but I was ready to do it on my own. I used my mom's trademark pie crust recipe, which is great because it makes two crusts.

In a food processor blend

2 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1 t sugar

Add

1 c butter, chopped into 1-inch chunks

Blend flour-butter mixture until it forms coarse crumbs.

Add 1/4 c ice water and blend until the dough forms a ball. Remove the dough from the processor and pat it into two round disks. Refrigerate the disks for fifteen minutes.

While the dough was in the fridge, I made the apple mixture.

Core and peel 5 or 6 medium apples and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Toss the slices in a bowl with the juice of one lemon, a half cup of sugar, and 1 1/2 t cinnamon.

Let the apples marinate while rolling out the dough into a 1/4-inch-thick disk, about ten inches across. The other disk of dough can be used to make another galette or frozen for future use.

Once the dough was rolled out, spread a thin layer of jam around the center, leaving a three inch gap from the edge. I used strawberry-cranberry jam, but most any kind will work. (Apricot works well.) Then arrange the apples in a circular pattern in the center of the crust, again leaving three inches clear of the edge. (The pattern is unnecessary. You can also just pile the apples in the middle!) Next fold the edges of the dough into the middle. Bake the galette at 400 for about 45 minutes, until the crust is golden. I'm starting to think that my oven is wacky, so keep an eye on it once it's in the oven. Serve with vanilla ice cream.