baked tofu with shiitake, peas, leeks

some days a produce dept. plays out perfectly for you... like open harvest

did yesterday, when i found the following to go along with the 30% baked tofu from the same store.

leeks by the pound. usually sold by the bunch, which is sometimes (or always) more than enough, i'm more likely to enjoy leeks when i don't have to use five in one dish. of course i only needed one leek and still bought two.

fresh shiitake mushrooms for 12.99#. these look great every time i've seen them in stock recently at open harvest, and that's a great price. they're very lightweight... you can experiment for a dollar or two.

organic snap peas. delicious, a fair price, and a little bit of welcome spring.

i already had a jalapeno, sesame oil, and rice at home.

more delicious le quartier

cucumber salad, gomasio and seaweed

gomasio is a traditional seasoning in japanese cuisine. it's sea salt and

toasted sesame seeds. eden organics has some in local health food stores... my favorite variety also has seaweed flakes in it. great on popcorn, and also in this:

peel, seed, and slice the cucumbers. for each cuke, add a splash of rice wine vinegar, a dash of fish sauce, and a few shakes of gomasio. toss. chill until serving.

this is nice on a plate with a spicy meat dish.

cucumbers: the peel session

i couldn't pass up that sale of three cukes for a buck at ideal last week.
for me,

eating cucumber is almost as refreshing as drinking a glass of water.

to peel or not to peel?
i always peel any cucumber that's not organic.

to seed or not to seed?
if you're feeding them to other people, you should seed them. some people have trouble digesting the seeds. i find a grapefruit spoon works really well at gutting the fruit.
yes! it's a fruit! learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber
coming next: the best and easiest cucumber salad ever.

half-loaves from le quartier

if you visit le quartier bakery, you can buy half- loaves for two bucks, until they run out. these are handy if you want to use it all in one lunch while it's super fresh, or if you're trying to keep the carbs in a full loaf out of the house. because if you've tried their bread you'll know... it's kind of hard to stop eating it.

sale ad review: hy-vee, 2/25-2/26

this sale in addition to the week-long wednesday ad, and it's only today and tomorrow. the main item for me is asparagus at 1.68/#.

closing sale at kitchen store

i saw the "store closing" sign for urban villa, on south 48th in college view,

when getting coffee at the mill on prescott. i went over to check it out. all food items are 25% off, all non-food 40% off.
i'd wanted one of these tiny graters, for no good reason that comes to mind-- but isn't it worth a dollar? the headphones are in the picture for scale. do not use this grater on your headphones. (earbuds, whatever.) i'm thinking it would be useful for nutmeg.

and then, an escargot plate. original price of 6.95. i'm intending this to be a reasonably-sized deviled-egg serving dish, but i fear it's a slippery (slimy?) slope until you see a post about snails.

anyway. it is sad to see a local proprietor close up shop. having said that, they could probably use your money right now, and you might find a deal on something you want.

while you're in college view, hit up the salad bar or bakery at union college... and there's always conroy's (for the smell of baking cookies alone), and the mill (for coffee while you shop), on prescott just off 48th.

sale ad review: ideal, 2/23-2/29

ideal's got some pork blowout going on this week. i always like the use of a happy cartoon pig when advertising pork. and i admit i'm curious about "the many other pork items." what could they be?

highlights for me this week include 1.59 for a quart of half and half, and hydroponic tomatoes for 69/#. that's very very cheap for hydroponic tomatoes.
also, pink lady apples are 79/# and strawberries are 1.99/#, but i'd check the quality before planning the use of those two.

hello, mr. chips. i knew you at all.

the chip company (see below) has quite a name to live up to, but both flavors i

have tried are good.
the multigrain is better and lighter than i would've expected. and the olive flavor is quite nice.

here, i was going with those olive chips and good strong gruyere and cabot cheeses.
i had planned on avocado wedges on the plate as well, but the avocados i got on sale were pretty bruised up. i salvaged out of them what i could and tossed the bounty with some balsamic vinaigrette. i might even try that again with a perfect avocado, after tasting this with the cheese.

stuff on sale inside of fresh tortillas

i made a sort of pie crust out of the tortillas from marlene's, and some of the

produce (and meat and dairy) i've purchased recently went into the stuffing.

first, a layer of tortillas into a pyrex-sort of pie pan. i arranged mine out of five overlapping pieces.

there were two layers of stuffing. the first layer (lower picture) consisted of the following sautee: one julienned onion, one cubed mango, one cubed red pepper, and one diced jalapeno--added, in that order, to some olive oil over heat as high as i could get it without burning everything. then i added the steak round discussed earlier, cut into even smaller strips. once close to done, ladled this into tortilla pie shell, reserving one scoop.

(another layer of tortillas)

the second layer of stuffing was shredded mozzarella with chili flakes all around.

(another layer of tortillas)

i sliced into the top layer of tortillas just inside the circle's outside edge, and sprinkled shredded cheese along the same arcs. i also sliced an x into the top layer's center and topped that with more shredded cheese and then the reserved steak mixture.
i baked this at 350 for about 15 minutes... it's all safe to eat upon entering the oven, so was ready to go when the cheese looked tasty.