Blog Lovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3184547/ramblings-and-musings?claim=tpakwzgrubn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Roast Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice, Sausage, Cranberries and Hazelnuts,

This one is really yummy. Chris says it's one of his new favorites. I made it with brown rice, because that's what I had, but I think wild rice would make it waaaay better. I added sausage and Parmesan for a little more substance, but this would be a great side dish to roasted or grilled meat if you didn't want to just make this. I used a mild sausage, but again, I really think this would be better if you used spicy Italian. I'm going to make this for my Grandma on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, since she tends to be overwhelmed with cooking afterward... It's such a perfect fall recipe.

Ingredients
2.5 Cups Cooked Wild or Brown Rice
3 small acorn squash (each about 10 to 12 ounces), cut in half, seeded, or 1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 finely chopped onions
2 teaspoons crumbled dried sage leaves

1 lb spicy Italian sausage (remove casings)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons dried cranberries (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons chopped toasted hazelnuts (about 3 ounces)
1/4-1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Directions
Cook Rice. Transfer rice to large bowl.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil baking sheet. Place squash, cut side down, on sheet. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool. Using spoon, scoop out pulp from squash, leaving 1/4-inch-thick shell; reserve shells. Transfer pulp to medium bowl. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

I did the first part of this while the squash was cooking to save time....
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until very tender, about 15 minutes. Add sage; stir 2 minutes. Add rice, squash pulp and lemon juice; stir until mixed, breaking up squash pulp into smaller pieces. Mix in 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 cup hazelnuts and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide rice mixture among reserved squash shells. Place in roasting pan. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.

Bake squash until filling is heated through, about 25 minutes.

Delicata Squash with Rosemary, Sage, and Cider Glaze

I realized that I've not really been updating. I promise I will fix that.

Last night Chris and I were feeling a little lazy so while we were grocery shopping we picked up a rotisserie chicken. We had some left over mashed/pureed cauliflower and potatoes and a recipe for Delicata Squash that I'd been dying to try.

Chris and I were split on how this tasted. I really liked it, can't wait to make it again, Chris thought it was good but not amazing. The one thing that I didn't like about the recipe was the directions are not great, so I've fixed them just for you! In the original directions it said to cook over medium heat an an even boil, but 3 cups of cold liquid takes a LOOOOONG time to come to a boil in the first place and the directions don't indicate that you should increase the heat to bring it to a boil and THEN cook on medium. Anyway, I decided to follow the recipe exactly and about 20 minutes in decided to pull the squash and then reduce the sauce separately.

The only other change I made was that I used red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar. IF you do this, you need to add a little sugar. I used about 1.5 teaspoons of brown sugar. I also think a little heat wouldn't go amiss in this recipe, but choose something that won't muddy up the flavor. I suggest red pepper flakes, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 tsp.

Bottom Line: 4.3 Stars 

Salmon with Lentils and Herb-Mustard Butter

This was sooooo yummy, and fairly easy to make. If you feel like making your guests a slightly unusual dish without a ton of effort. DO THIS. I served it with sauteed Starburst Squash. You might want to try a more colorful vegetable though just in terms of presentation.

I don't really have much else to say about the recipe other than French Green Lentils are awesome, a better alternative to more common starches, and taste great when everything on your plate is smothered in delicious herb butter. Yay for fat.

Bottom Line: 4.6 Stars

Roast Salmon with Green Beans and Black Bean Cakes

The unanaimous decision on these was: Good but not great, but they could be great.

They need cilantro in the cake, and a little more heat. I used the bell/jalapeno combo rather than the poblano because there weren't any when I went grocery shopping and I didn't want to make a special trip. Maybe next time I will...

I was a little unsure about what creamy beans look like, but other than that this recipe is not super difficult but it is time consuming. Make sure you start these EARLY. Chris and I ended up giving up on night one and saving the pureed beans for the next day.

The only tricky thing about these is actually cooking them. If you've ever made fried mashed potato pancakes you know how tricky it is. It requires a lot of patience, needless to say Chris got a little frustrated. :p Make sure when you're cooking these you cook them on true medium and ROTATE them before you flip them to ensure they are cooked evenly. The only thing that holds this guys together is the crust that forms from frying so unless you want just a gooshy mess, take your time, rotate, flip, rotate and then finish them in the oven.

What I am really excited about for this recipe is making Huevos Rancheros without a tortilla. I think some eggs, shrimp cheese and salmon would be FANTASTIC on these with or without heat. If you try it let me know how it goes, I might do it this weekend. If you have any questions about roasting salmon or cooking green beans leave a comment.

Bottom line: 3.7 Stars with Potential for a solid 4.5

Muffin Tin Omelet/Fritata

I think most people who work and need to commute in the morning hate having to cook breakfast, and hate skipping it even more. It's so early and all you want to do is spend that extra 10-15 minutes in bed rather than get up to cook. Who needs to eat anyway? Then it's two hours later and you're looking longingly at a Starbucks for the first time in your life and thinking "They have breakfast in there...sort of!"

Normally I would make breakfast burritos in a large batch, but since Chris is limiting his carbs we needed something that got the job done, was high in protein and didn't require me waking up to cook in the morning. These are the solution! Chris and I made them last night, and I ate mine this morning for breakfast. It was pretty delicious, despite having canned spinach (which is disgusting). 

These are awesome because they're already broken up for individuals, and if you have to make them for a bunch of people you can customize them based on what people do/don't like. And they are super versatile!

We did sort of Mediterranean type thing: Spinach, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic, bacon and I topped mine with a little feta crumbled up. But it would be easy to do something more Spanish (topped with salsa and avocado) or something really traditional.

Bottom Line: 4.5 Stars

Turnip and Onion Au Gratin

This is a pretty good approximation of potatoes au gratin, without the potato. If you have somebody who doesn't eat potato (freaks), make this for them. It's tasty! Not much else to say on it. Going to be a little of a recipe hiatus, since we're starting the cleanse Monday. I've started a separate journal geared toward that. Comment with your email address if you would like access. I'll continue to post on this journal as well, just in a limited way.

Bottom Line 4.3 Stars (Turnips just aren't potatoes)

Master Cleanse

I think Chris and I are going to do the Master Cleanse for 10 days starting on Monday. I am mostly doing it for health reasons, but I am also attending a wedding on the 13th and was thinking that dropping a few lbs prior would be a good thing, I am fully aware that I will almost certainly gain that weight back, but this cleanse is going to be the beginning of a permanent dietary change that Chris and I are starting.

The plan as of now is this:
Saturday July 30th - No meat or dairy, 70/30 veggies and fruit. As much liquids as possible. focusing mainly on soups and drinking a lot of water.
Sunday July 31st - Fresh orange juice and any left over soup/veggies
Monday August 1st - Day 1 of cleanse
Wednesday August 10th - Last day of cleanse
Thursday August 11th - Orange juice and possibly some soup
Friday August 12th - Soup and some solid foods, no meat or dairy
Saturday August 13th - Wedding

Mama's Chili

I don't like chili. Unless it comes on a hot dog or french fries I'm generally not interested. That being said, of all the chili I have tasted, I still think my Mom's is best. I know that most children think their Mom's cooking is the best, however, when you have a chef with 30 years of experience as your Mother, you are probably right.

When I made this Chris was a little dubious. Cocoa powder? There's a lot of water... etc. If you aren't familiar with cocoa in chili, you should try it. It brings all the flavors out, adds an earthy sweetness that when it's mixed with the beans and the meat make it hum.

I had a mix of beans so you'll get some mixed directions. Making it with dry beans is BY FAR the cheaper way, so as long as you have the time to devote do it. We have a bajillion cans of kidney beans so I added 3 of them to the dry beans I had soaked. It was yummy. You can make it spicier if you want. To my mind it's always better to make it milder, since spice tends to grow the longer it sits, and you can always add more.

This is a pretty sizeable batch of Chili. Chris and I filled up 4 yogurt containers which we froze, and still had enough for two lunches each and a little to have with dinner.

Meyer Lemon Semifreddo

I love semifreddo. A lot, its such a versatile and relatively easy dessert. It's like having the perfect combo between ice cream and mousse, it's awesome for the summer because it's frozen, but you don't need any special equipment to make it. It can be a little (a very little) time consuming but I think it's well worth the effort.

For this recipe I used strawberries and blueberries, I would really like to use blackberries and raspberries instead, but I used what I had. Also, I can't slice almonds, I'm just not that patient. so I gave them a rough chop, which I thought was fine. Last but not least, and I have to say, I think I'm pretty brilliant for doing this, but that probably just means that everyone has figured it out already. Do not make this in a loaf pan. Make it in lined muffin tins. No lie, it makes individual servings that you don't have to frustratedly slice, you can just pop them out. Serve them almond side up with the berries piled on top or around one side. It's looks sophisticated and just downright tasty. It also cuts your freezing time waaaay down because you're not trying to freeze a big block of mousse.

Bottom Line: 5 stars!

Fried Eggs and Mustard Creamed Spinach on a Bagel

At work we're hosting summer workshops for upcoming High School Seniors who are applying to College this fall. We provide snacks and last week we had bagels, but we over bought so we had a TON left over so I took some home. Including some specialty ones: Spinach and Provolone and  Sundried Tomato and Red Pepper with Mozarella. I got home that night and was really not excited about cooking. Chris said he wanted eggs and I thought about this recipe which I had seen in an older issue of Bon Appetit. Chris was a little apprehensive about the combination of spinach, egg and mustard, but this recipe seriously won him over. I think he said "Baby, this is really good." about 6 times in the 15 minutes it took to eat. I agree. The acidity of the mustard with the fattiness of the egg yolk was awesome. It was almost like a mock hollandaise.

Obviously I substituted the bagels for the bread crumbs. I think either would be delicious, it's just a matter of whether you want a heavier meal or a lighter one. I think in the future I would serve this with English Muffins rather than bagels if I was to use something other than the crumbs. I also didn't have half and half on hand so I did 2.5 tablespoons of milk and 1 tablespoon of butter, which I thought was fine, but stick to the recipe if you can. Don't skip the fresh thyme! It's really important.

Bottom Line: 4.7 Stars

Slow-cooked Beef Stew/Pot Roast

Okay, something you should know about me: I have a huge crush on my slow cooker. That's right. I admit it. If you have one, and use it, you probably do too.

There's nothing I love more than putting everything together the night before, flipping a switch as I (often quite literally) run out the door and then coming home... Specifically coming home to a wonderful smelling house, a meal that is already cooked and only 1 pot to clean. That my friends is pure joy.

This beef stew is awesome, simply and extra tasty. You can also substitute beef shoulder, boneless chuck roast or some other fatty well marbled piece of beef and turn this same recipe into pot roast if you prefer. If you are going to do this get more poundage of beef, since it will have more fat and cook down to less meat.

Bottom Line: 4.5 Solid recipe

Sundried Tomato and Basil Hummus on toast with Avocado and Shrimp

This didn't include ingredients from my produce box, but was really good so I thought I would post it. I think it would be great as an appetizer served on toast rounds or flat bread.

Yesterday was kind of hot, I wasn't super hungry and really didn't feel like cooking, especially since we didn't have charcoal so I couldn't grill. Chris didn't have any objections so I made Hummus to spread on toast, with avocado and sauteed shrimp.

I increased the garlic by half (seeing a pattern yet?), and had a little extra sundried tomato that I decided to through in rather than keeping 2-3 pieces that wouldn't be good for anything. It was great.

Everything would have been perfect except the shrimp were a little off. But if they hadn't been off it would have been delicious!

Bottom Line: 4.9 Stars

Chicken Provencal w/ Sauteed Spinach

This is pretty yummy and quite easy. 

I doubled the garlic (I'm a garlic fiend in case you hadn't noticed!). I added 1 tbs of tomato paste, since the tomatoes I had were a little unripe still. Make sure you salt and pepper the sauce well. Other than that the one thing I would encourage is NOT skimping on the kalmata olives! Normally I feel like they can easily overpower a dish, but I think they make this one. 

I sauteed the spinach in oil with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. I then laid the chicken quarter on a bed of the spinach and spooned the sauce over the top. 

One other thing. This sauce was NOTABLY better the next day. I think letting the flavors have some time to mix was a good thing for the sauce. I don't know if I would ever make the sauce the day before or not though, just seems like a hassle.

Bottom Line 4.3 Stars

Upcoming Stuff

I'm pretty excited about the food for this week! I bought a container of veal stock from grocery outlet, and it and my veggies are sort of determining what I'm making. Tonight is going to be Chicken Provencal, tomorrow is Pork Chops with Apple-Balsamic Sauce, after that there's going to be some Slow-cooked Beef Stew and Prawns with Zucchini and Salsa Verde over spaghetti. Yummy!

***Edit***
Prawns are cancelled until I go an yell at the people at QFC for selling me cooked prawns that were off when I wanted uncooked and certainly un-spoiled prawns.
Might re-think the pork chops too. I ended up using the veal stock in the slow-cooked beef stew since I didn't have beef stock.

Galumpkis: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This has been one of my favorite meals since I was tiny. So I decided to make it for my boyfriend who had never had it. The recipe I followed was good, but I made a near fatal mistake: I forgot to season the filling. This is a SUPER bummer, because the meat-rice mixture this gets filled with requires a pretty large amount of salt and pepper otherwise the natural flavors just don't come out.

There are three things I'm going to do with this recipe in the future:
1. Add 1.5 tsps of paprika to the filling
2. Double the garlic in both the tomato sauce and the filling.
3. Increase by half the amount of the sweet and sour tomato sauce that is added to the filling

The only change I made to the recipe this time (aside from my spectacular blunder) is that I made a full 1 cup (uncooked) batch of rice and added that to the filling, which I thought was balanced pretty well aside from needing a little more of the tomato flavor.

EDIT: I just remade this and like an idiot a forgot ANOTHER ingredient, this time the egg, so I'm not going to adjust my rating. Still the filling was soooo much better with the changes I made. the only thing I would for sure say is salt and pepper the hell out of that filling I probably added around 2 tsps of salt to the filling and I would say another wouldn't go amiss.

Bottom line: 4.6 (with the above changes this would be a 5)

Beef, Black Bean and Corn Nacho Dip with Sour Cream and Guacamole

We had this for dinner last night, it's pretty good. Would be great to take to a party, since it is tasty and your chips stay nice and crisp. We didn't have chili powder, so we used some cayenne, we also subbed canned corn for the frozen corn. We also added a little cumin, which I think was a good addition. If you're into heat definitely add some jalapeno!

Update: we made this for our Harry Potter Movie Marathon and we did it in the slow cooker and it was fabulous. Sautee the onion and brown the meat first then just dump it and everything else into the crockpot and leave it on low for 3-4 hours. We poured it into a baking dish, covered it with cheese, sour cream and home made Guacamole.

Bottom Line: 4 Stars

Broiled Salmon and Sauteed Squash and Spinach

So I thought that although I'm not doing anything really special with the vegetables that doesn't mean that I shouldn't include the recipes for the rest of the stuff.

This is a pretty easy, standard meal, Chris and I made it with Steelhead tail. This is how we almost always make veggies unless we are roasting them. The salmon recipe calls for "Fines Herbs" we just left this out, thinking that the dill would be sufficient. We were pretty happy with it! We didn't make any tartar sauce, but it would have been a great addition.

Bottom Line: 3.6 Stars (Solid, but not great)

Linguine with Prawns, Zucchini Sundried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts

I love this recipe. It's a go to recipe and probably one of my top 10 (I think I'll do one of those posts later). Chris and I make it all the time. It was taken from a Food and Wine cookbook that my Grandmother gifted me some time ago. It's fast and delicious, and we think that the addition of zucchini makes it even better than the original recipe. When we're flush we make it with scallops, when were middling with prawns and when we're skint...we don't make it (pine nuts and shell-fish are just too pricey). :(

In addition to the zucchini I have made two additions. Once I've added the garlic and zucchini I add some white wine, it goes well with the shell fish and makes the sauce a little more saucy. Then at the end I add Pecorino Romano or Parmesan, because who doesn't love cheese on pasta?!

If you're making this with scallops follow the directions, make the scallops and set them aside, they are too delicate to cook in the sauce. With the prawns just add them at the end (before the last of the parsley and pine nuts get stirred in) and let them finish in the pan with the sauce. No matter what do not overcook shell fish. It's a crime. If I had my way it would be punishable by death.

Bottom Line (with scallops): 5 stars

Dere-licht my balls.

Welcome to summer!

So yeah, I've been a little remiss in my duties, but it's mostly because I haven't really made anything unusual recently, and even less so with my produce. I've been roasting vegetables mostly. It's easy. I can set it up, take the dog for a short walk (praying the house doesn't burn down while I'm away) I get back sprinkle it with lemon and dill/rosemary/basil/herb d'jour, and eat. But I promise I'll be better.

I need to add this recipe that I did for Broccoli Almond Soup. It was terrible, and took a great deal of re-working, but I think the theory is good. I can't decide whether to put my recipe for German Pork Roast on here, since it doesn't have anything to do with my produce, since I don't make my own Sauer Kraut. We'll see. Tonight is going to be pan-roasted chicken quarters and roast/steamed asparagus (depends on how hot it gets!).

Roast Veggies

This was super easy and no fuss since I was already roasting a chicken anyway. The maple syrup didn't leave much of a flavor, it just helped everything caramelize. I made this with golden beets, in my unending quest to get Chris to like beets, I think the golden beets made this dish look very fall-y. Nice warm brown, orange and gold colors. I think the green onion sets this off beautifully, don't know what red beets would do to the presentation... I imagine make everything pink.

I added an extra carrot and an extra parsnip rather than a rutabaga, cause they're gross and parsnips are delicious. Next time I might nix the carrot altogether. I also subbed yams for the sweet potato because I like their flavor better. I thought the cook time was a little long. Everything was tender after 1 hour. that might be because I sliced them a little small. I totally forgot the green onion and the butter. Next time! Definitely a good solid recipe.

Bottom Line: 4.0 Stars

Cod with Mango Salsa and Black Bean & Corn Tortilla Cakes

I love fish with fruit salsa. When I was little I didn't like mangos, I think they just got lumped in with Papaya as some disgusting tropical fruit. I still think papaya is gross and smells like vomit and butt, however I have very seriously changed my mind about mangoes. 

I thought the mango salsa could have been more mango-y, maybe next time I'll chop it a little finer so that it distributes more evenly. In addition I added 1 tbs of minced jalapeno to the salsa. My biggest issue was that I really wanted a firmer fish, like halibut rather than cod, but cod is so much cheaper it was hard to justify to myself, or Chris, spending 4x as much money on the Halibut. Swordfish or Mahi Mahi would make this dish AMAZING.

The corn cakes were awesome, and really easy to make. I shortened them down to 2 layers (3 tortillas) rather than 3 layers because that seemed ridiculous given the height of the things as it was, and I also didn't have quite enough tortillas to make it that way. There was a TON of cheese in these, so if you are dieting I would suggest cutting the amount of cheese down to 1 cup of each, it would probably still be plenty.This would be an awesome meal to cook for a gluten free family member or friend!

UPDATE: I made this with prawns and thought it was better than cod, but I still think a good firm fish would be preferable.

Bottom Line: 4.6 Stars (I'll probably up it to a 5 when I figure out the right fish!)

Ginger and Lemon Carrot Soup

This is one of my favorite soups. It's flavorful and filling, and it's cheap to make, especially if you make your own stock. Instead of the sour cream I like to add 1.5 tsps Sriracha to it for a little bit of added heat.

Bottomline: 4.2 Stars

Steak and Pureed Cauliflower and then Cauliflower Soup.

This doesn't need much of an introduction... This was the best pureed cauliflower I've had. Normally it's just a very weak substitution for mashed potatoes, but this stood on it's own as just plain delicious. Steaks were seasoned and then pan fried. I reheated the leftover cauliflower the next day, added some half and half, cut up a baguette, and presto-magicko cauliflower soup for lunch!

Bottomline: 4.0 Stars

Zucchini Vichyssoise

I love leeks. I love potatoes. I love soup. So it comes as no huge shock that I love Vichyssoise. When I got both of those things in the produce box last week I was super thrilled and immediately thought of making it. But I deferred, I said to myself: The who purpose of this is try things and experiment. So I started looking around for recipes with leeks. I was truly tempted to make leek confit and serve it with salmon... but I didn't. Then it was getting to be a while and soup seemed more logical since my leeks were less than pristine. So I thought I'll make Vichyssoise after all, but I'll look around and see if there is any different spin on it I can try. 

This was so so so good, not to mention really pretty looking! Once the zucchini purees it's almost like there are spices in the soup, there's these nice green flecks that just look lovely against the creamy potato. The other thing I really like about this recipe is that it's a little more practical than making a traditional Vichyssoise. Let's face it: Creme Fraiche is expensive and a freaking hassle to find. So most people normally fake it by mixing half and half or cream with sour cream. This was a nice departure from that. Especially since sour cream inevitably goes bad in my fridge unless I can also plan to make Mexican food. Now I have half and half  for my  tea and I don't feel quite so wasteful.

As to taste, I'm not sure that the zucchini added a ton of flavor, it was subtle, especially paired with something as potent as leeks. But it's a really good soup that I'm going to be eating for the next few days and that is NOT a problem for me! :P I've been serving it warm, it's not quite hot enough yet in Seattle for chilled soups, it's just as good warm as it is cold!

Bottom Line: 4.5 Stars

No Going Out to Eat Month

UPDATE: Chris apparently invited guests for this week from Arkansas, so NGOEM is cancelled and will be resumed some time in June. Thanks!

Chris is finally home after the conference his department hosts for Expeditors. Thank god. I hate it. He's horribly stressed out the whole time and even when he's home he's working. This lasts for almost a month before the damn thing even happens. Another side effect is that between the conference and other personal stuff we are both way too busy/stressed out to cook dinner as often as we should. Which means that in the last two weeks we've been eating out waaaay more than we normally would. In an effort to detox we have determined that the next 31 days will be another No Going Out to Eat Month. 

Which (hopefully) means I will be posting a LOT of recipes on here for the coming weeks. However, we are going camping this weekend and our camping trip ends in Portland  and we will be eating one meal out there (I will have a restaurant review for wherever we go). That just means that another day gets added on at the end.

I have also made a resolution now that the madness of our lives is slowing to be better about pictures.

Restaurant Review: Paseo's (Ballard)

I don't think I've ever heard a bad word spoken about Paseo's, except for the lines. The one in Ballard reminds me of California food shacks. The kind you find on the beaches in the southern region. There's some picnic tables outside, but no indoor seating. You walk up to the counter (or wait in line for 20 minutes) order and mill around till your food is ready.

Once you get your food you remember why you were waiting in line in the first place.

Chris and I each got one of the Cuban style sandwiches, ate half and switched. I started with the scallop sandwich, which was tasty, but there wasn't enough filler in the sandwich to make up for the amount of bread. Not that I blame them, it's already impressive to get a $9 sandwich that is enormous and has a pretty good amount of scallops in it, maybe add some other stuff besides the onion? Not sure what though... That being said, the scallops were cooked very well and meshed with the aioli and garlic tapenade perfectly.

The pork. OHMYGODTHEPORK. We got their most popular sandwich which was the Cuban Roast Pork. It was falling apart, and super messy. That's really all you need to know. A couple of drops of the juice fell on the bench we were sitting on and Jaxxson proceeded to lick the bench until I thought he had splinters in his tongue. And I wouldn't have blamed him if he did.

In addition we got a bowl of rice and a bowl of black beans. We didn't really need either because the sandwiches were enormous, but Chris was worried that we wouldn't have enough food. The rice was just plain jasmine rice. The beans were a little spicy and quite vinegar-y. It gave them a nice tang though and I think it would go great with one of their roast chicken thighs.

Price (Meal): $8-$14
Bottom Line: 4.8 Stars and only dinged because of the wait.

Upcoming Ingredients

In the box this week:

1 ea Imperial Sweet Onions

1 ea Broccoli

0.75 lb Roma Tomatoes

2 ea Sweet Corn

1 ea Local Asparagus

1 ea Carrots with Tops

2 ea Ataulfo Mango

3 ea Minneola Tangelos

1 ea Strawberries

1 ea Cantaloupe

1 lb Gold Beets

I think this is going to be a little bit of a challenge... Nothing on this list really jumps out at me. Probably going to make something Mexican-ish, since I'm getting the corn and the tomatoes. But all in all I'm not super excited. Who knows though?! I could come across something spectaculon!

Roasted Radishes and Greens w/ Brown Butter

I served this with leftovers from my roast chicken.

I used to hate radishes, they always tasted bitter and spicy, but not in a good way. So when I saw them in the box I was a little bummed, but I decided to look at it as a challenge rather than certain defeat.

I've only ever had radishes in salads, so I thought why not try them hot? Other spicy veggies tend to mellow when cooked, makes sense right? Yes it does.

These turned out really well! The radish itself was sweeter and kind of juicy. I wasn't super happy with the way the greens tasted. Chris and I agreed, it was sort of like eating grass. So either try cooking them as well or nix them all together. We'll see next time.

Bottom Line: 3.2 stars

Roast Chicken with Parmesan Garlic Rapini

I figure you can't really go wrong with parmesan and garlic. I'm not terribly comfortable with cooking rapini (broccoli raab), I've only done it once or twice in my life, but this looked simple enough. It was and it was suuuuuper tasty. The cheesey garlicky flavor mixed with that slightly spicy quality that rapini has was really good. Chris always looks a little nervous when there are veggies that he's never seen before but he really liked this. Although sometimes I think I could sautee a paper bag and as long as it had garlic on it he probably wouldn't complain too much. :P

My roast chicken is my Mom's recipe and it turns out pretty awesome every time. I'll include the recipe just in case anybody wants it.

Bottom Line: Rapini gets a solid 4 stars, good but not life changing.

Roast Salmon w/ Asparagus and Brie Risotto

Chris and I were both pretty disappointed with this recipe... The asparagus didn't cook all the way, which was not my fault since I followed the recipe exactly. In the future I wouldn't cook the asparagus in the risotto at all since it made the risotto have a very strong asparagus flavor. Also, I think the risotto itself could do with a little sprucing up. It needs salt since risotto is normally made with saltier cheeses like Romano, Asiago, Parmesan etc. Also I think a little white wine added at the beginning would go amiss either.

This didn't effect the flavor but it is worth noting. Make sure that the broth you are using is light in color. If you use a darker broth your risotto will taste fine, but it will look like baby poop.

Bottom Line: 3.0 Stars

Broccoli in Oyster sauce

Last night seemed like the first night this week that Chris and I had a normal schedule. So nice. He's been stressed out with work, which stresses me out, on top of that my uncle is in the hospital so I'm all freaked out about that.

Last night we had pan fried steak and broccoli stir fried in oyster sauce. I really like broccoli, but I usually just steam it so I've been on the look out for something new to do to it. I found this recipe and thought I'd give it a try. I really enjoyed the flavor, I just wish that the sauce was a bit thicker. Still it was pretty good and all that sauce soaked into the rice nicely. Any suggestions on how to thicken Asian sauces? I don't like the aftertaste that cornstarch leaves... 

The only other thing I'd want to do is maybe sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on the top. Bring out the flavor of the oil a bit. No pictures this time. Sorry!

Pork is a very misunderstood meat.

Chris was under the impression that he didn't like pork chops. Which I knew had to be crazy. Understandable though, considering what a mess most people make of pork chops, especially overcooking them. Overcooked pork is just... sad. Dry and sad.

Needless to say the situation needed to be remedied. Pork and Seafood fight for first place in my heart. So Friday night I made breaded pork chops, skillet greens and applesauce.

I didn't have bread so I used pre-made bread crumbs so I didn't add any salt like you would in this recipe. I think there was way too many or my chops were just much smaller. Either way I'm cutting back on them next time and increasing the garlic a little.

For the greens I made them according to the recipe using chard and kale, this time we didn't use the bacon fat, and despite what the recipe says I have concluded it is absolutely NOT optional. The pork fat plus the applecider vinegar is what makes that taste so good. However, they were remarkably good cold the next day, and I'm inclined to think the pork fat wouldn't have made it as good for leftovers. So if you are planning on eating them all in one night, definitely go with the bacon, if not it's up to you.

The applesauce was just out of the jar. I'm remaking this recipe (minus the greens) tonight and I'm going to warm the applesauce and doctor it a little.

Bottom Line: Porkchops 4.6 stars and this version of Greens 4.1 stars
No pictures for this one, didn't think about it till it was already consumed!

Prawns w/ Avocado and Blood Orange Salsa

Ooooh man. This was GOOD. Like top 5 home-cooked meals ever good. I think all the stuff I made would be great made into tacos with a little rice added. That being said it was really good just on it's own. I've had blood oranges before, but these were so sweet and so tangy they practically sizzled on your tongue! The salsa was such a nice counterpoint to the buttery-ness of the prawns.

I served it with black beans, which don't look so pretty in the pictures, but really they aren't the focus anyway! I really need to learn something to do to doctor canned black beans besides simply warming them up. I like them better than most other beans, but they are still sort of ho-hum unless you take the time to really make them from scratch.

I added about half a cup of cilantro to the mix, and I think it was a good thing I did. Who ever heard of fresh salsa without cilantro. That's just crazy talk. In the future I will also add a little cumin and maybe a touch or oregano. Also, my blood oranges were teeny-weeny so I used four of them. Chris thinks that they need to be chopped rather than segmented so their distribution is more even throughout the salsa. I sort of liked pairing a wedge with each prawn, but I see his point. I'll try it next time and update. I'll also add photos to this post and the previous one this weekend.

Long day = Simple dinner

Chris and I both had long stressful days yesterday. I had to take our puppy Jaxx to the vet and had to work at the lab, and Chris has a big deadline coming up for work. Not to mention we were out of prawns so I couldn't make what I was planning on.

Instead we just had broiled steaks, sauteed zucchini and pasta for dinner. Really easy. 20 minutes. Zucchini was cooked in olive oil and garlic, seasoned to taste.

Tonight we dine on PRAWNS!

Lunch! Blood Orange, red onion and cucumber salad

Lunch today was pretty simple. Tuna and egg salad open face on a whole grain english muffin and a green salad. I packed the tuna and egg on because it was going to be a long day with no snacks, so no judgement please!

The salad was made with stuff from my box: I used red and green leaf lettuce, cucumber red onion and segments from 2 small blood oranges. I used a modified version of the dressing from the Grapefruit, Avocado and Arugula salad. The only modifications I made were that I used just lemon juice, more dry mustard and white wine vinegar. I substituted garlic for shallots. It turned out pretty well and didn't overpower the blood oranges which I segmented and added to the salad.

Chicken, Grated Beets, Beet Greens and Orange Butter

I really love beets, and Chris doesn't. However, he hasn't eaten them that much, so I'm always on the lookout for new ways to cook beets. This was pretty okay... Chris liked it, but he was also a bit drunk. The chicken was good, needed a little bit longer on the stove than the recipe called for. The Orange butter was pretty nummy, I put it on the grated beets since they didn't end up having a ton of flavor. The beet greens were the best part of this hands down.

I followed this to the letter including the crazy foil tenting, which seemed kind of dumb. Next time I'm going to switch the order... I don't think the beet greens gained THAT much from the chicken fat, besides, I can always use bacon!

Bottom Line: 3.7 Stars

Skillet Greens with Apple Cider Vinegar Gastrique

These were delicious and SPICY! I use really hot red pepper flakes though, so it may just be me. 

I sort of wanted breakfast for dinner. So I had these with fried eggs. Grits or potatoes would have been great but I was lazy and didn't want to go to the store. I used collard greens and kale raab, which I didn't have any experience with. Major tip for both, but especially the kale: make sure you get every little bit of stem off, it is SUPER tough.

Everybody who lives in the Northwest knows that right now it's really hard to find a vegetable that's actually in season, luckily greens are and they are delicious. It's miraculous to me that my boyfriend grew up in the south and managed never to have them. If I was going to pair this with meat for a more traditional dinner it would be pork. Either slow cooked or chops would be fine. I actually really enjoyed the eggs with them though... I used 4 pieces of bacon to make the drippings, and I'm a little sorry I ate them on the side instead of adding them to the greens. Knowledge for next time. My gastrique was a little on the thin side, but still tasted wonderful. To be truthful though bacon, apple and shallots is a winning combo no matter what else goes in there!

The Bottom Line: 4.8 Stars

Grapefruit, Arugula and Avocado Salad with Citrus Dressing

Originally this recipe is supposed to be made with arugula and Fennel, however I didn't have any fennel so I just mixed 2 bunches of arugula with 1/2 a head of green leaf lettuce (red would have been better). I initially made this recipe to go with some fish I had, but I once the whole thing was ready I took one bite of the fish and decided it wasn't worth a night of puking. I tossed the fish and just ate the salad. I had some left over and had it with boneless/skinless chicken breast, that I heated separately, the next day. It was super tasty.

The dressing was really yummy, a tiny bit Asian tasting (ginger and sesame oil). The only thing I would change is to increase the amount of dry mustard or use actual mustard, good dijon if possible. The components of the salad interacted really nicely: the sweetness of the grapefruit, the spiciness of the arugula and the creaminess of the avocado.

I think the original recipe with the fennel would be amazing and I would SERIOUSLY like to try it next time I have some fennel.

Bottom Line: I give this recipe 4.5 Stars

A journey through time and produce...

So my boyfriend and I signed up for produce delivery about a week and a half ago. We got our first box of produce on Tuesday. My thought is that I want to start a blog based on the recipes, meals, etc that we eat based on what we get. I think it will be pretty fun, and I'll do my best to include pictures where I can. Basically this is getting switched to a food blog, that I'm going to do my best to update. I will continue updating my beauty blog simultaneously. Good luck me.

These first few posts will be a bit retro-active, since a lot of what we got last week has already been made and consumed, which also means that there won't be any pictures. There will also be a short hiatus while Chris and I are in Texas and Arkansas.

Think that's about it!