Buckwheat pancakes

I was surprised by these buckwheat pancakes. They weren't heavy like buckwheat pancakes of my youth. They were softer, moister, and delicious. Jeff had seconds.


Buckwheat pancakes
1 cup ground buckwheat flour (we used Bouchard Family Farm brand)
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon butter (for flavor - delicious, delicious flavor)
1 or 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat your pan to medium on the stovetop (4 was the setting that I used). Combine all ingredients.

I should note - I only intended on adding 1/4 cup of milk in these at first, but the batter was too dry. So, I kept adding. 3/4 cup was the perfect amount.

Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto heated pan. Cook & serve like normal pancakes.

Makes 10 half dollar pancakes.

Stuffed baby peppers

Last weekend ended our CSA. As a thank you, we received 7 pounds of whatever variety of apples they had (which was about 8) and two boxes of potatoes, tomatoes, & baby bell peppers.

I took those baby bell peppers & froze them as an appetizer for the future. Did you hear that echo? Let me say it again - Appetizer Forrrrr the Futurrrrrrrre!!



Here's what happened:

Stuffed baby bell peppers

1 package of cream cheese (1/3 less fat)
1/2 head of garlic (optional)
1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes (or your own oven-dried)
handful of fresh basil or other herbs
a quart or more of baby bell peppers

Preheat oven to 350. Slice one line into the baby bell peppers. This will be where we pipe the filling into the pepper. It makes sense to slice the line where the pepper naturally is face-up. Dig out (if you want) the seeds & ribs of the peppers. (I didn't on the 2nd time making these.)

Mince the garlic, chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Mix into the cream cheese. Place the mixture into a heavy duty quart-size ziploc bag. Snip one of the tips.

Pipe the mixture into each of the peppers. Lay onto a rimmed baking sheet or rimmed dish.

To make now: Bake until the cheese filling looks done - about 15-20 minutes.

To freeze for later: Lay the peppers onto a sheet pan & place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Make sure the peppers don't touch. Then, bag the peppers in a freezer ziploc bag & store for the Futurrrrrrre! I haven't used them since they've been frozen, but I would imagine that you'd bake them for 45-60min at 350 or 375 from frozen.

Yummy!

Tomato overload: oven-roasted, soup, & bolognese.

Our front yard vegetable garden & our friendly farmer from the CSA provided us with a plethora of tomatoes. We almost had tomatoes up to our eyeballs. Here's what we did with them:

First, we tried oven-roasting them. We sliced them, drizzled them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, & some fresh thyme (or lemon thyme, which we had in our garden). They were laid out on a baking sheet & baked in a 300 degree oven for over an hour.

Full of tomatoey flavor. Great for salads & recipes that call for tomatoes for an extra tomatoey bite!

Second, we created a tomato soup. This is a little harder to recall from memory. It was definitely an on-the-fly, invented recipe. But basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. (Feel free to add some of those oven dried tomatoes.) Add 2-4 cups of veggie broth. Season with salt/pepper & some lots of smoked paprika. Puree. Heat over low heat, add whatever herbs you want (e.g. basil, thyme, bay leaf, etc), & add more veggie broth if you need. You get a nice smoky tomato soup from this. You can add a little milk or heavy cream for a well-rounded tasty soup.

Deeelish.

Third, we created a bolognese sauce that was out of this world. This took us all summer to perfect. & Again, this was an on-the-fly, invented recipe. Basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add a chopped eggplant & chopped zucchini. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. Add a little crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a handful or two of fresh basil, some fresh or dried oregano/marjoram. Add 1/4 cup of red wine, such as Chianti. Puree if desired.

In a separate pan, heat a 1 lb. mixture of ground pork, beef, & veal. (Giant grocery stores sells this as "meatloaf mix" - no breadcrumbs or seasoning, though! yay!) If you want to keep some sauce vegetarian, pour only 1/2 of the sauce into the meat mixture. Otherwise, you know what to do.

Let the sauce(s) simmer on the stove for hours. Taste periodically to adjust herbs, sugar, salt, etc.

Let me tell you - this is the best bolognese! We had it with a pasta bake (pasta, ricotta mixed with 2 eggs & some parmigiana, & mozzarella on top). It was great!

Pumpkin Pie in Poland

No one here in Gdynia, Poland, has heard of Pumpkin Pie. So, for my dh's name day party, I made one. It was such a hit, another was requested.

Converting the flour and butter to grams for the dough, and doubling the recipe was too much for my brain. I ended up quadrupling the butter and doubling the flour! The crust was a wonderful butter cookie, but not an acceptable pie crust. Time to try again.

Here's the wonderful site that gave me great results:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/silky-smooth-pumpkin-pie/

Here are my changes:
Instead of cream, I was able to buy torte cream. It's heavier and thicker and delicious!
I used a fresh pumpkin, and didn't have candied yams. So I used 3 cups pureed pumpkin.
Skipped the maple syrup, and kept the brown sugar at 3/4 cup.
Used ground ginger, not fresh.

Use her all-butter flaky pie crust recipe too. It's wonderful as long as you get the measurements right!

Cheers!

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Craving oatmeal cookies, and loving coconut, I mixed two recipes together and added a touch of my own. They were crumbly, so maybe next time I'll add in a bit of honey. Hubby loves oatmeal raisin cookies, and he declared these better than any he had ever had!

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry ingredients together:
2 c. flour (I used brown rice, tapioca, white rice, xanthan gum mix)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. shredded coconut
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1 c. shredded carrot
1/2 c. raisins and cranberries
1 stick ground cinnamon
pinch or two of ground ginger

Mix wet ingredients:
1/2 c. agave nectar
1/c. melted coconut oil
1/2. melted butter

Mix wet and dry together.

I tried baking this two ways. Teaspoon sized cookies on a cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes, and pressed into a stoneware baking sheet. The cookies were bite-sized and perfect for kids.
The bars took longer to cook and broke apart on their own. Basically, bake until golden brown on top.

Enjoy! And if you have any improvements, I'm happy to hear them.

Leftovers That Became a Tradition

Dinner started as tofu with a dipping sauce and Millet with Summer Vegetables (p. 239) from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen Cookbook. The next day, it turned out to be something spectacular. So wonderful that our six-year-old asked what date it was.

"August 2nd."
"OK. So, every August 2nd we are going to eat this."
"You only want to eat this once a year?"
"Oh, yes! Every year on August 2nd we should celebrate and eat this."
Tradi-TIOOOOOON! Tra-DI-tion!

Here's what we did. It's a bit different than the recipe, but has the same idea.

Dinner One, Millet Pilaf:
Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes 1.5 cups washed millet in 3 cups water with salt.
Dice or chop 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 cloves garlic and sautee. Add kernels from 3 ears corn, and 2 cups chopped zucchini. When the vegetables are slightly cooked, just warmed through, add millet, a bit of olive oil, too much dill, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper. Serves 4 for 2-3 meals.

Dinner Two, Better-than-Pizza:
Brown ground meat, add millet pilaf and a can of drained, diced tomatoes. When warmed through, top with mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, and green scallions. Broil until the cheese starts to brown. Deeelish! We still have leftovers from dinner one, and will be making dinner two again as soon as we purchase more mozzarella!

Kale chips.

In our CSA this week, we got 3 bags of fruit & veg. First thoughts? What are we going to do with all of this kale that we're not going to do with all this Swiss chard??

My sister once recommended making kale chips. So, I gave that a try. They were delicious & crunchy & a little salty! All things that I like. The only drawback is that the stalk is still a little chewy after drying.

Here's what I did:

Lay kale on a sheet pan & spray with olive oil/Pam. Sprinkle a little salt over the kale. Bake in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes.

& voila! You have kale chips. Yummy, nutritious, & good for hand-to-mouth repetitions while watching TV/baseball.

Edit: I was just advised to try Indian spices with these. My friend Jaime makes them all of the time!!

Spring meal: White pizza with ramps & strawberry salad.

From our CSA this week, we received more flavorful salad greens, mustard greens, 2 pints of strawberries, & a bunch of radishes. We hadn't even finished our first set of salad greens yet! Plus, we've had 3 weeks of strawberries. PLUS! We've still have copious amounts of ramps & scallions. What to do!!

So, tonight I made a white pizza with ramps & a strawberry salad. It was a very nice balanced meal. PLUS!! We had a nice white wine with the meal.

Nice.

Just a warning - don't be afraid of the number of ramps. Ramps are much mellower than garlic or scallions/leeks. Don't fear the ramps!


Here's the basic recipe:

White pizza with ramps
10 ramps
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 or 3/4 cup shredded Italian cheese (we used Sargento's reduced fat Italian blend)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of fresh basil)
1-2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tomato, diced
1 pizza crust

So, I did a dirty, clever trick with the tomato. I purchased an heirloom tomato from the crappy Giant near me (not the super nice Giant). Mostly, heirloom tomatoes have tons of tomato flavor, which is indicated by their scent & their minimal travel time. However, I screwed up & chose a random heirloom without a good scent that traveled from Canada. After I chopped the tomato, I sprinkled it with a very small amount of sugar & a ton of basil. Then, it tasted more tomatoey. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than tasting like water.

Basically, the pizza crust is topped with ricotta cheese, then 1/2 of the ramps, the seasonings, then the tomatoes, then the shredded cheese. (Jeff says that you can cook all of the ramps in the pizza. I liked a few of them raw on top. But taste a raw ramp & choose your own adventure!) Sprinkle the top with the parmesan. Also, I brushed the exposed crust with some olive oil & sprinkled with some parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top the pizza with the rest of the ramps & (if you're feeling feisty, some fresh arugula leaves).

Enjoy with a nice white wine, such as a 2007 Cascina del Pozzo Arneis Roero (Italian white table wine - cheap!). Also, make a nice green salad & top with sliced strawberries & balsamic vinaigrette.

AWESOME!! & very Spring-y!


Aside: Ramps are SUPER ULTRA good pan-fried with potatoes. Just add the ramps near the end of the cooking. Nice onion/garlic flavor with potatoes - very good!!

Berry Crisp

Note: This week from the CSA, I got a 12 oz jar of wing sauce, a quart of strawberries, MANY ramps, a big bag of strange lettuces (e.g. spicy, flowering, purple, green, etc), & a spice container. The following recipe uses the strawberries, but we found that ramps do very well with pan-fried potatoes.

I read EatingWell's Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp, but I haven't seen any rhubarb at the Farmer's Market yet. Instead, I made a strawberry cherry crisp & modified the recipe a bit.

Keri's Strawberry Cherry Crisp

Filling:
1 lemon
1 pint of strawberries, cored & sliced
10 oz. bag frozen cherries
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour or corn starch (I used Jules' Gluten-free flour)

Crisp:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used Jules' Gluten-free flour)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon canola oil
1-3 tablespoon juice

Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss together fruit, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of flour/corn starch in a large bowl. Juice lemon over fruit mixture. Then, zest 1/2 of the lemon over fruit mixture. Transfer the mixture to a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or deep-dish 9-inch pie plate, pressing down on the fruit to form an even layer.

To make crumble topping: Combine oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, butter and oil in a bowl; work the ingredients together with a fork or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the juice until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Distribute the topping mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden, 35 to 40 minutes.

DELICIOUS! 5/5 stars!!

Ramp pesto.

Behold, my first CSA delivery. Pardon the mess in the picture. It was hard to get everything in the picture! What you see is:

2 strawberry plants (June bearing, I believe)
10 very large scallions
2 bunches ramps
1 large jar of homemade pasta sauce
1 small jar of peach jam
1 small basil plant
1 small parsley plant

First thing that I thought of - What the heck do I do with RAMPS? My first attempt - mixed into a salmon souffle - did not yield a ramptastic meal. It was good, but it didn't highlight the ramps enough.

Tonight, I made ramp pesto. It was great! 4 out of 5 stars!

Ramp pesto
1 bunch ramps
2/3 cup parmiggiano-reggiano cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
4 oz pinenuts
large bunch parsley

Process everything in a food processor.

I cubed 1 large, flavorful heirloom tomato, zested 1/2 lemon, chopped cooked chicken, sprinkled a little crushed red pepper, & put that over my pasta with pesto. It was delicious!

The ramps added a very nice garlic flavor without being overbearing. Most pestos start with a nice garlic flavor & feel like a kick in the teeth after 4 bites. This was a nice mellow flavor that slightly intensified by the end.

If you make it, I hope you enjoy!!

First try: Ravioli

Keri here again with a recipe using my brand new pasta maker! I haven't seen gluten-free raviolis yet... Plus, I doubt that they'll ever have pumpkin, butternut squash, or more creative fillings until many years in the future. This year, the man surprised me with a pasta maker to allow me to create pirogies, raviolis, flavored pastas, etc. Let the creativity begin!

We figured that I'd start with something rather basic for my first ravioli recipe. Now, I want to warn you: This isn't an amazing recipe. It's a first try at making homemade ravioli. It was pretty good, but there's room for improvement.

Firstly, the ravioli filling needs to be almost overwhelmingly flavorful. It needs to be able to stand up to the pasta dough - even though the dough is rolled thin.

Secondly, the dough needed to be rolled with a rolling pin prior to going through the pasta maker. Otherwise, the pasta maker couldn't catch the dough.

After that preface, here are my recipes:

Gluten-free pasta dough

I used Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta recipe as a base. For those of you not doing a gluten-free pasta, feel free to use his instead of mine.

4 eggs
3 1/2 cups Jules' Gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup water (more or less)

Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. If the dough has trouble coming together, add 1/4 cup water. Keep adding water until it becomes a cohesive mass. Gluten-free flour tends to be thirsty, but be sparing after the first 1/4 cup of water. If you overdo it, the pasta maker will shred the dough into little pieces. (Hint: If this happens - just add a little more flour, knead again, & re-roll.)

Remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature. (Hint: Keep most of the dough wrapped until needed.)

Roll 1/4 of the dough with rolling pin until 1/4-1/8 inch thin. Feed through pasta roller at largest setting. Then, feed through pasta roller at the ravioli setting. Cut sheet into large rounds. Add a very small dollop of ravioli into the center of a round. Wet the outer edge of the round. Top with another round & press down gently to seal. You can use a fork to flute the edges if you're feeling crafty. (Hint: If the dough tears, use a dough "band-aid." Wet a small bit of dough, & gently press into the tear. Boiling the pasta makes most of these look fairly normal. Plus, there's sauce, right??)

When done with the prep work, boil the raviolis until they float. Top with sauce, & Done!!


Ravioli filling
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive tapenade (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Cook pork on stove top until browned. Remove from heat, & place pork into large mixing bowl. Add ricotta, basil, seasoning, & tapenade. Taste. Add salt & pepper. Add more flavorings as needed. If you need, add other/more seasonings - Remember: It should be almost overwhelmingly flavorful.

Sauce

1/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers plus 1 teaspoon liquid from jar
2 tablespoons finely chopped sundried tomatoes plus 1 tablespoon oil from jar
3 leaves fresh basil, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Taste. Add salt/pepper. Done!

Food & Wine Steak with Herb Nut Salsa

Tonight, the man & I had steak with an herb nut salsa. The recipe came with our Food & Wine Adventurer Club wine shipment.

Aside: Food & Wine introduced two wine clubs last Fall/Winter: a collector edition & an adventurer edition. They ship us 6 bottles with a recipe booklet that pairs each wine with a primary recipe (& 3 alternates). Some wineries also do the same, which is pretty awesome.

The wine was really good for a cheapy wine, & it paired really well with the recipe. Good job, Food & Wine!!

Wine: Domaine de Baumard - Logis de la Giraudière - 2005. Fancy name for a red table wine... but it is really nice. Don't pay over $20 for it. Rating: 3.5/5

Recipe: Hanger Steak with Herb Nut Salsa Rating: 3.5/5

The salsa was salty herby goodness - So, I made very simple sides: roasted potatoes & onions with very little salt & some pepper and halved grape tomatoes with leftover herbs, basil, & shallot. Both cleansed the palate nicely after bites of the steak/salsa & sips of the wine. We made a few minor modifications: no tarragon, no chervil, anchovy paste in lieu of anchovies, less oil.

Also, ignore the recipe's note about 12 minutes for toasting the hazelnuts. Toast until fragrant, & don't wander away. Otherwise, it's a mad dash to open the door, turn on the fan, & cover the smoke detector.

Overall, the dish was very good together. We will probably make this again when the vegetable & herb garden is in full force. I recommend the wine & recipe together as a semi-fancy meal.

Loud restaurants make you eat more, leave faster.

Check this out: Loud restaurants make people eat more, drink more.

Makes sense, huh?

Though personally, the man & I tend to eat more, drink more at a quieter place. However, we aren't big drinkers or big eaters - unless it's sushi.

Post-race Pizza.

There's nothing quite like home-made pizza. Delicious ingredients combined just the way that we like them... Yum!

For this pizza, I used Jules Gluten-free Flour. It is by far the best gluten-free flour that I've had. No extra ingredients. No adjusting of the recipes. Just use as you would regular all-purpose flour.

I made the dough using AllRecipes Pizza Dough III with a few minor modifications: I gave the yeast about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for food, I decreased the amount of sugar in the dough, & I added a teaspoon of an Italian seasoning blend into the dough.

Next time, MORE Italian seasoning into the dough!!

For the pizza:
1/4 jar of pasta sauce (leftovers work great for this!)
1 tin of tomato paste
8-12 leaves of fresh basil
Boar's Head pepperoni (gluten-free!)
1 package of Sargento shredded Italian 4-cheese blend
1 diced tomato

I lightly greased the pan prior to putting the dough on it. (Normally, I spread the dough on a flexible, plastic chopping board, & then I flip it onto the baking sheet.) Mix the pasta sauce with the paste. Taste & add any seasonings if needed. (We didn't need any!!) Put down the sauce, then the basil, then the cheese, then the pepperoni, then the tomatoes.

Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Yummy!!!

Homemade Almond Joys.

While I haven't tried this recipe, it's potentially too good to pass up.

Homemade Almond Joys without the milk. Nice. Link sponsored by Grist, the environment news website.

Polenta Bake

This one is easy, easy, easy, and delicious!

1 tube pre-made polenta (or make your own from corn grits, flavored as you wish)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 carrots, shredded
shredded cheese

Sauce:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tbl seasonings (used no-salt seasoning mix)
1 tbl nori flakes (optional)
salt and black pepper to taste
olive oil

Blend all ingredients, adding a bit of oil at the end.

Preheat oven to 400. Make sauce. Oil loaf pan. Slice polenta in half lengthwise, then into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Line the bottom of the pan with polenta, breaking polenta up if needed to fill bottom layer. Top with black beans and carrots. Top with sauce, then cheese. Do the layers one more time, crumbling any extra polenta on the top of the loaf with the cheese. Bake until warm, bubbly and browned on top.

Serve with a salad, or add some greens into the sauce (for St. Patty's Day) or the bake layers.

Enjoy!

CSA!

Just a heads up! If you're interested in joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), now's the time to act.

A CSA is a way to purchase a subscription for a full seasons worth of fresh farm produce. Most of the CSA's here run from the beginning of May (or June) to the end of October. There are options for fresh flowers, eggs, and other items for your subscription. The farm can have drop off locations, deliver to your home/work, or reserve your box at their farm.

For your $$, you get a random selection of in-season produce (fruits, veggies, herbs - depending on the farm) in a bushel or half-bushel box. It's almost like getting a Top Chef/Chopped mystery basket every week.

I like mysteries. & intrigue. & cooking!

I'm going to sign up for my first CSA this year. Very exciting!! I'm eyeing Bigg Riggs' CSA, which has a pick-up option right near my gym every Sunday at the Farmer's Market. So, I can always pick up my supplementals at the Farmer's Market when I scrounge through my box of surprises.

For those of you interested, you can find Farmer's Markets & CSAs through LocalHarvest.org. (Also, if you search by zip code, be sure to zoom to get the slimmed list of what's closest. Otherwise, you've got a 50 mile range of places.)

Yay for spring!!

Quiche me!

You know what's really hard to screw up? Quiche.

I mean - You add a bunch of eggs, some cheese, & a little bit of dairy, & *poof* quiche.

Or you add a few egg whites, a little bit of dairy, some vegetables, & *poof* quiche.

Or you add a mix of eggs & egg whites, a little bit of dairy, some meat, & *poof* quiche.

But my all-time favorite quiche recipes call for a mix of the above. Since we were doing manual labor this weekend & we didn't have time for cooking/cleaning/etc, I made a quiche with a medley of pantry items. I wasn't sure how it was going to taste - since it had all of the competing flavors. It was, however, delicious. After all, how hard does one have to try to screw up quiche?

Pantry Quiche

1 leek, chopped white part only (mostly, I prefer shallot to leek)
3 egg whites
2 eggs
1/2 - 3/4 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chorizo or other cooked sausage
1/2 cup milk or unsweetened dairy substitute
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen spinach
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
couple of sprigs of thyme (chopped) or 1 tablespoon dried
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

1 pie dough (recipe, mix, or store-bought of choice)

0. Preheat oven to 325.
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add leek & cook until limp.
2. Whip eggs, milk, cheese in a bowl.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the eggs (including the leek).
4. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into prepared pie pan (with dough in it).
6. Place pie pan into oven & bake for 1-1:30 hours or until center is set. You may want to increase the temperature to 350 at the end if it doesn't come together & you're especially hungry.

Onion tart.

This year, we celebrated Open That Bottle Night with a few friends.

For those of you who don't know:
Ever have a special bottle of wine that is sitting on the shelf... gathering dust... maybe looking a little lonely? Open That Bottle Night was created strictly for that bottle. It doesn't have to be expensive. It just has to be unopened & waiting.

For our Open That Bottle Night, we opened 5 bottles of wine. Of which, the best was last - an amazing 2003 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm not a big red drinker, but this one could convert anyone. Anyone, I say!

To pair with the wines, everyone brought a little something. Kate, our hostess, made lamb chops and roasted potatoes. Someone else brought a spinach bread & red wine chocolate cake. The man & I brought an onion tart and tea smoked chicken lettuce wraps.

The onion tart? It was phenomenal - a definite keeper. If you read the recipe, you'll see crème fraîche in the ingredients. Crème fraîche is the delight of sour creams & expensive to boot. If you can't find it or don't want to "waste" $5 for a tiny pot, substitute full fat sour cream. I doubt anyone will notice a difference in quality. (Except the cook - who will not be tempted to repeatedly dip a spoon into the sour cream & lick. At least, not me.)

I ended up making it twice this week. After all, we had the ingredients even the crème fraîche (*lick*lick*), & it was amazing. Even non-onion eaters loved it.

The tea smoked chicken lettuce wraps were also good, but not nearly as amazing as the onion tart.

Make it!! Make it tonight!

Peanut Butter Bisque

My friend Stacey & I made a peanut butter soup from EatingWell.com. This is probably the most hearty vegetarian soup that I've ever had. It's creamy, spicy, and delicious. Lots of delicious North African flavors... YUM!

I can't give it enough accolades. Also, I can never make it with the man. He HATES peanut butter.

But please, make it! Make it! I plan on eating it when he travels for work.

Eating Well's Sweet Potato Peanut Bisque.

You mean dinner isn't made yet?!

This was a last minute "look in the pantry for what I can make fast, because it's 5 and dinner isn't started yet" dinner. It came out delicious!

1 can black beans
.5 can coconut milk
2 cups broth
1 can diced tomatoes
2 carrots coarsely chopped
2 yukon potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
1 cup peas (frozen or fresh-add at the end)
4 leaves kale
.5 onion sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon seaweed flakes (optional)
1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
salt and pepper to taste
top with cilantro or herb of choice, a dash of lime, and a turn or two of pepper

Saute onion and garlic in a bit of oil with cumin and coriander seeds. If you only have powder, use that after the onion and garlic are cooked. Add in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer until potatoes are done. If you chop the potatoes large, add in the beans, kale, peas and coconut milk when the potatoes are almost done. The smaller the potato, the quicker the meal is done. If you dice them and the carrot, you can have this ready to eat in 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Easiest Chilis.

On a cold day, nothing warms the body like a good bowl of chili. Here are two of my favorites:

This is super easy & really delicious. Sometimes, I add a little cumin & oregano to the mix, but it's almost always well seasoned by the salsa.

Trader Joe's Sample Turkey Chili
1 jar of salsa - preferably something punchy such as mango habenero (same ol' same ol' salsas just don't cut it!!)
1 lb. ground turkey or lean beef
1 box of Pomi diced or crushed tomatoes or a 28oz can
1 bag of frozen roasted corn
(You can also add more veggies etc to this.)

Brown ground meat. Add salsa, tomatoes, corn. Heat thoroughly & serve.


My mom always makes chili on the first cold day of the season. This is a tribute to her tradition.

The First Cold Day Chili
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 box of Pomi diced or crushed tomatoes (or a 28oz can if you can't find the box)
1 green bell pepper
2 tablespoons chili pepper
1 tablespoon chipolte chili pepper (optional - gives a smoky flavor)
1-2 tablespoons of oregano
1 tablespoon of cumin
(sacrilege: Sometimes I add a can of kidney/black beans or corn or carrots depending on if we need more veggies or carbs for the day.)

Brown the beef. If there is fat to skim, skim it. Add the seasonings & mix well. Add the bell pepper & cook it for 1-2 minutes. I like to keep it relatively firm & only slightly cooked. Add the tomatoes & anything else such as corn or beans or both. Heat thoroughly & serve.

Dessert.

Since the man & I have been together, I've gained 7 pounds of "happy" fat. While I'm still happy, I had decided to make smarter choices for our meals & portion things more realistically.

However, this doesn't mean that we've stopped having dessert. Oh, no. That wouldn't do. There are definitely fewer desserts in a week, though.

Last night, the man & I had a little date night. We opened a bottle of wine (courtesy of Food & Wine's wine club), I made strip steak with garlicky olivada, & then we had poached pears for dessert.

It was a caloric splurge night for sure.

The pears? They were magnificent. We couldn't find star anise, & I didn't want to use my vanilla beans for this. So, we used extracts without any real hit to taste. Also, I used about 1/2 cup agave nectar in lieu of the 1 & 1/4 cup sugar. (That's a LOT of sugar!!)


I ate my half pear plain with a little of the syrup on top. The man had his with a little vanilla bean ice cream. Divine!!!

We gave this 5/5 stars. Make it!!

P.S. We used the small bottles of Robert Mondavi cab sav for this. The bottles come in a 4-pack & are super convenient for cooking.

Black Bean and Yam Stew

I got the recipe from here: http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/09/chipotle-black-bean-and-yam-stew-recipe.html This is quickly becoming a favorite food blog. They also have a lovely cookbook that is gluten, egg and dairy free! All the things our family must also limit.

But I didn't have all the ingredients. So here's what I made:

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 stalks celery chopped
tiny bit of cumin seeds
good dash of coriander
large bit of dried oregano
chili powder
sea salt
2 yams
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cans cooked black beans
3 cups water or bean cooking liquid
1 cup coconut water (I reserved the cream for the kids' porridge)
1 head broccoli
lime

Heat a large 6 or 8-quart pot over medium heat. Add olive oil then add onions and saute for 5 to 7 minutes. Add chopped celery and garlic.

Then add the spices, sea salt, yams, and saute a minute or two more. Add the black beans, coconut milk and water (or bean cooking liquid). Simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes or until yams are barely tender but not yet cooked. Timing will depend on what size you dice your yams.
Then add the chopped broccoli and simmer for 5 minutes more. Taste and adjust salt and spices if necessary.

Ladle into bowls and add lime juice.