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Dinner planning started with a CSA box and the vague notion of making one of the two salad dressings I’d pinned from Saveur’s article on favorite American salad dressings. I knew that both involved sour cream and mayonnaise, and made a point to have those on hand.

Upon arriving home from CSA pickup at 7pm, I realized I was missing several ingredients for both the Green Goddess and the Ranch dressings, I’d bookmarked. I did however, have a head of Boston lettuce and some lovely carrots, and so I came up with the dressing below, loosely based on Green Goddess.

Rose and I both found the dressing delicious. Shane’s taste buds are all weird due, presumably, to copious quantities of pain medication. We chose to disregard his neutral review.

The pasta was supposed to be Penne alla Vodka, but I didn’t have all the ingredients for that either. Instead we had a creamy, cheesy, tomatoey dish that I will never be able to recreate.

• Decadent Pale Green Dressing •
adapted from Saveur’s Green Goddess dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
2-4 anchovy fillets (depending on how you feel about anchovies – we liked it with 4)
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup fresh, flat leaf parsley leaves

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized, deep bowl or a food processor. Blend (with hand blender if not using food processor) until smooth. Serve over Boston lettuce with shredded carrots and cannellini beans.

Shane received another meat-based recovery food gift today. A selection of salamis from Olympic Provisions, sent by dear friends in San Francisco. It’s good to have friends in meaty places.

With our salami selection, we had prosciutto, ciabatta, and two salads. I made the yummy Beets & Beet Greens with Gorgonzola (below), that I’d been looking forward to since we received beets in our CSA box last Thursday. It’s a great way to use up the whole beet bushel.

We also had an on-the-fly white bean salad. Cannellini beans, the leftover olive and tomato salsa that my sister made, a lot of slivered lemon peel, lemon juice, olive oil and parsley. It was darn good.

On the medical front, Shane reduced his pain meds today, which means he’s feeling ever so slightly less pained. He’s still quite disabled, but I think things are starting look up for him.

• Beet & Beet Green Salad with Gorgonzola •
1 bunch beets & their greens
1 red or sweet onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola (or however much you like)

Heat oven to 350. Wash and trim the beet roots, wrap each beet in tin foil with a dribble of olive oil and salt, roast until soft when poked with a knife (time will depend on size of beets). When the beets are cooked, remove them from the oven to cool. Once cool, peel the beets and chop them into cubes, approximately 1″ square, set aside. Chop the onion and saute in 2 tablespoons olive oil, over low to medium heat until soft and translucent. Wash & remove the stems from the beet greens and chop into 1 or 2″ strips. Add greens to the onions and cook until greens are nicely wilted. Add balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat. Add beet root to beet greens and onions. Stir to combine and serve topped with gorgonzola cheese.

Shortly before my parents left today a friend came over to collect Rose. She returned her a couple of hours later with not one, but two meatloaves. One beef and one chicken. They were all prepped and ready to be cooked at our convenience. How totally rad is that?

We had the beef tonight. Rose exclaimed “I love meatloaf! Raise your hand if you love meatloaf!” and Shane was about as enthusiastic as someone on a whole bunch of pain meds can be.

With it we had mashed potatoes, which seemed like the quintessential potato side for meatloaf. And kohlrabi slaw with lime, cilantro and corn (CSA, baby).

Ordinarily, the events of the past few days would have me well into a bottle of wine. Sadly, my current condition has preempted the usual form of stress relief.

Instead, I’ve chosen to fixate on pie. I had been planning to make Torta Verde (Swiss Chard Pie) before Shane’s accident. It’s my very favorite thing to do with swiss chard, which I have from last week’s CSA box. And I was excited to try it using half spinach (also CSA) and half chard.

Since Monday, too much of my time has been occupied by trying to figure out when to make the Torta. Last night I made the dough, and then pooped out and ordered takeout.

Tonight I said screw it to our weeknight schedule, because I knew there’d be no relaxing until it was done. Dinner was an hour late, but I suddenly felt much better. And Shane loved the torta, which made it extra-gratifying.

We (meaning they) also had chicken breasts seasoned with Penzey’s Mural of Flavor, and cooked in the grilling pan. Shane managed to cut his chicken, pretty easily with one hand (and we both immediately lost respect for Jaime Lannister).

Here’s a photo of the torta before it went into the oven. If you haven’t tried this recipe before I highly recommend it, just not on a weeknight.

The reason I didn’t post last night was because Shane got hit by a car as he was cycling home. He was wearing a helmet, which probably saved his life. He’s okay, but his shoulder is going to need surgery and may never be fully functional again. I’m just glad he’s alive, and more or less intact.

It was a stressful night and we didn’t get home from the ER until really late. We’re tired. (Can you tell from the quality of the photo?) Thank goodness for takeout (Thai and sushi from Spicy Shallot).

Thanks to my sister who came over and took care of Rose so I could meet Shane at the hospital. And thanks to all the friends and family who have been sending their well wishes and offering support.

Shane and I love Farmhouse Baked Ricotta. It’s super-simple and utterly delicious. Also really versatile and nearly impossible to mess up. You can read a little more about it here.

The original recipe comes from Easy Peasy Organic. My version of the recipe is below, it’s a bit cheesier than the original, and the measurements have been converted from metric.

You don’t need much besides a simple salad (from your CSA box, perhaps?) with this dish. For my meat-loving husband and child, we added some hot dogs from the Empire Market in College Point.

• Farmhouse Baked Ricotta •
adapted from Easy Peasy Organic

Makes 12 pieces, recipe is easily halved
10-15 min. for prep, 20-30 min. for baking

2 cups fresh ricotta
1 cup grated pecorino cheese
2 medium sweet potatoes or two medium yukon gold potatoes
1 cup grated cheddar or gruyere (or another cheese that you like)

approx. 1 cup arugula pesto
OR
herb sauce:
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
2 handfuls basil leaves, washed and patted dry
1 tablespoon lemon zest
salt to taste

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with parchment paper, a 5-6″ square of parchment should do for each muffin cup.

Combine the ricotta and pecorino using a fork to blend. Peel your potatoes and slice very thin (about 1/16th of an inch) using a mandoline or sharp knife.*

Put a scant tablespoon of the ricotta mixture in the bottom of each parchment-lined muffin cup. Divide the sliced potatoes between the cups, staggering them slightly (it’s hard to stagger them a lot due to the size of the muffin cups, just don’t stack one right on top of the other or they might not cook through). Top each tart with the remaining ricotta, and then the grated cheddar or gruyere. Each tart should consist of 4 layers – ricotta then potato then ricotta then grated cheddar or gruere. 

Bake for 20-30 min, until the tops are golden and puffed. Then remove, and set aside  to cool for 5 minutes or so. While the tarts are baking make the herb sauce or arugula pesto.

For the herb sauce put all the sauce ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. For the arugula pesto, click here.

Let the tarts cool slightly before removing them from the parchment paper. Or serve them in the paper. Top with herb sauce or arugula pesto.

*If super-thin slicing is not for you, you can slice the potatoes about 1/8″ thick and boil them until they’re slightly soft, then drain and pat dry.

We didn’t go out for grilled cheese tonight because we needed to eat the bok choy. I cooked it with miso butter, similarly to how I cook the salad turnips. It was delicious. What isn’t delicious with miso butter?

Shrimp and rice on the side.