Colcannon that is not colcannon. (Egg Noodles with Yellow Pepper Sauce)

Last night was a joint effort in the kitchen, after much exasperated, "I don't know what I want for supper, what do YOU want for supper?"

Well, it turns out while neither of us knew what the hell we wanted for dinner, both of us could definitely get behind a pasta meal, so here was ours - egg noodles with sauteed yellow peppers and onions, mushroom gravy, boiled cabbage with fried onions, steamed snow peas and carrots, and garlic bread with Swiss cheese. It was totally satisfying.

I wanted to do something with the head of cabbage I picked up for 75 cents, because I was under the impression that I hate cabbage by itself and could fix this simple fact with an appropriately elaborate dish. I had aspirations of cabbage rolls, kraut, colcannon, anything but plain old boiled cabbage.

So I found a colcannon recipe that looked good, but I didn't want to make potatoes (since we were already cooking noodles and one starch is plenty). I told R, "I think I'm going to make this colcannon, except that I'm going to leave out the leeks and potatoes and just use the fried onions and butter."

"How do you cook it?" he said.

"You boil it for ten to fifteen minutes, then mix in butter and fried onions and it's done."

"So just like regular boiled cabbage then."

"Right. Not like colcannon at all, really," I replied (a bit sadly).

Colcannon or not, it was hella delicious. Here is how we did it...

Grocery List:
several cups of green cabbage, shredded
one large white or yellow onion, sliced thinly
double handful of snow peas (snap the snow peas in half)
double handful of baby carrots
egg noodles
mushroom gravy (we just used the packet kind 'cause we're lazy)
one large yellow bell pepper (deseeded and sliced)
1-2 cloves garlic, mashed
salt and pepper
butter or margarine
4-6 slices of white bread (or whatever kind of bread floats your boat)
a few handfuls of shredded Swiss cheese
garlic salt

- Saute your yellow pepper, half the onion, and garlic together until tender. While this is cooking, set up a stock pot of water to boil for the egg noodles. Set up a separate pot or Dutch oven with the shredded cabbage, putting about two or three inches of water in the bottom. Bring it to a boil while you saute your pepper mixture.

[Note: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.]

- Boil the cabbage for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain (leave a bit of water in the bottom of the pot though) and put in a generous helping of butter - a couple of tablespoons should do it. Salt and pepper that baby and leave it on low to simmer, making sure to stir regularly.

- Put your egg noodles on to boil (they cook fast, so watch them). If your yellow pepper mixture is done, remove it from the pan and start cooking the other half of the onion (this will go in the cabbage).

- While the egg noodles cook, set up a small saucepan and prepare your mushroom gravy according to the directions on the package. Also, set up a pot with a very small amount of water in the bottom and get it to boiling. Once this water is boiling, toss in your carrots and snow peas and cover, then reduce the heat and cook about ten minutes.

- While everything is wrapping up, butter your bread, dash a little garlic salt on it, then sprinkle each slice liberally with the Swiss cheese. Pop it in the oven and it should be out around the same time everything else finishes up.

- When the pasta is finished, drain it and toss in the pepper mixture and mushroom gravy, stirring thoroughly. Mix your fried onions in with the cabbage and stir THAT. Then serve the noodles with steamed vegetables, boiled cabbage, and cheesy bread on the side.

Verdict: Awesome supper. It made a lot of dishes (all those pots!!!) but it was totally worth it.

Snow Day - Red Pepper and Chile Soup w/ Onion-Mushroom Paninis

Well Saturday it snowed, and the snow stuck for the first time in almost a decade in my part of the world. We sat around all day in our pajamas playing video games and playing with the Two Monks barn cats, which got to come inside for the day to get out of the cold.

To celebrate a lovely lazy snow day (and satisfy our lack of desire to cook anything complicated) we went with soup and sandwiches for dinner. This is a spinoff of "Red Pepper and Chile Soup" from Easy Vegetarian Meals. Of course I totally changed the recipe, 'cause that's the way I roll, yo.

Despite my housemate's belief that I am obsessed with soups, he could not help but gobble this up too. It's that good. Get ready to convert your soup haters. This ain't the Campbell's your momma made ya.

Note: We used a bit too much chili paste in our soup, so it was very hot. Edible, but sweat-breaking-out-on-the-bridge-of-your-nose hot. I reduced the chili paste in this version of the recipe as a result. The addition of the coconut milk (NOT in the original recipe whatsoever) gave the soup a great terra cotta color and cut the chile a bit, but not enough.

Another Note: I think this recipe would be even better if the red bell peppers were roasted first (or if you got roasted red bell peppers from a jar and chucked them in) but we had no jarred bell peppers and we were too hungry/lazy to roast our own. Apologies. Feel free to go the extra mile in my stead - I cook vicariously through you!

Red Pepper and Chile Soup

- 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 red bell pepper (seeded and sliced)
- 2-3 roma tomatoes (sliced)
- 3 cloves of garlic (smashed)
- 1 large white onion
- freshly ground black pepper and salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp. cumin
- dash of dried oregano
- dash of smoked paprika (I'm in love with this stuff)
- 1 1/2 tsp. fresh basil (we used the pureed-in-a-tube kind)
- 1 cup of So Delicious coconut milk
- 1 tsp. chili paste (more or less to taste)
- dash of garlic salt
- dash of white sugar (to balance out the hot/salty flavors)

Onion-Mushroom Paninis
- 8 slices of bread (we used plain old sliced white bread)
- 1 bag of shredded Swiss (or non-dairy equivalent)
- A large handful of button mushrooms (chopped small)
- 1/2 white onion (chopped small)
- glug of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- enough Earth Balance or other margarine to butter the bread

Directions:

1. Throw all soup ingredients together in a pot and bring to a boil. Use enough ground black pepper to get a good pretty speckle going on through your soup. Once boiling, reduce heat and add the coconut milk; let this mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. While your soup is coming to a boil, heat up a small skillet and start sauteeing your onions and mushrooms in olive oil for the paninis (med-high heat should be about right). Season well with salt and pepper; you can add other seasonings to them at this point, but we didn't. When all the onions and mushrooms are nice and cooked and caramelized (be sure to give the onions long enough to get transluscent and brown) remove the onions and mushrooms from the skillet and pour any excess olive oil out.

3. Take your soup (which should be ready by now) and let it cool for a few minutes before pouring it into a blender. Pulse until the soup is completely smooth and incorporated. It should be a bright orangey-tan color with flecks of black pepper throughout. Beautiful! Pour the finished soup back in the pot to warm off while you finish making the sandwiches.

4. Assemble the paninis by buttering the bread on the outsides, putting down a layer of cheese, a layer of onion-mushroom mixture, and then another layer of cheese. Start frying these up in your hot oiled skillet, mashing them down a bit with your spatula to get that flatbread look.

5. Once your sandwiches are done, serve it up and eat! Serves two.

We served this meal with Vegan Yum Yum's Chili Almond Asparagus, which is a staple in our household. The link to that recipe is here: http://veganyumyum.com/2009/05/chili-almond-asparagus/

Happy snow day!