Beet It

This is not a beet.

Beets get a bad rap. It's the unfortunate fault, I believe, of the image above and also of pickling. For me, there is nothing more sweet, gorgeous and delicious then a lighly boiled beet. The vibrant color of both golden and red varieties make me want to cook only in the name of visual appeal.

 

My Beet Love ignited with an insalate I ate at Fritti in Atlanta, Ga., called Bietole e Mele (Roasted Beets, Granny Smith Apples, arugula, toasted hazelnuts, lemon and olive oil). I don't joke when I say beets are sweet, and completmented by the sour apples and sharp arugula...MAN.

The journey continued when I was visiting my grandpa in Butler, Pa. - yes, home of Night of the Living Dead. I stopped at a small farmers market in the neighboring town Mars. The beets this man was selling had literally been pulled from the ground an hour prior, causing me to practically jump for joy at the amount of dirt caked on these fresh red beauties. All it took was a good scrub (no peeling or cutting), some boiled water and enough time to get the beets fork tender to enjoy some truly scrumptious (and plain, might I add) veggies.

Now, this blog entry is about not only the value of fresh, local veggies, but also about how much your food experience can improve if you just explore the wonderful world of vegetables.

Enter Spaghetti Squash...

Now, maybe if you are a mother you already know about this miraculous and mysterious member of the squash family (apparetly commonly used to fool young children into eating vegetables). Spaghetti squash looks fairly normal from the outside, but after its cooked, the insides just peel apart into spaghetti-like strands. The flavor is fairly mild and with a bit of spaghetti sauce and parmesan you might even be convinced to trade in your typical carb-fare with this vegetable treat.

Now make it a meal!

I combined my squash and beets meal with mini portobello burgers, featured before on this blog yet this time cooked in the oven, and a small beet, radish and ginger dressing salad. These choices were inspired by my first trip to the Dekalb Farmers Market, a true wonder to behold for anyone who enjoys food. We paired it with Strong Arms wine from Australia which was cheap, yummy and had a really neat graphic design on the label.

A few secret veggies lovers:

You might even entice a sly cat to visit with smells you'll create

Be sure to enjoy your veggies with a sweet pup with eyes that deserve a few scraps from the table

Things that are delicious

But I don't have pictures of them.

1. Spontaneous Veggie Pizzas

 All it takes is ready-to-bake dough or in my case a dry dough mix  just add water (I used an amazing Irish soda bread mix from the Green St. Farmers Market in Roswell that had parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme as seasonings) and then lightly saute any vegetables you have in a frying pan. I used orange chanterelles, zucchini squash, yellow summer squash, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and red onion. Spread a little balsamic vinegar dressing on the dough after it's about halfway cooked. Then add lots of cheese, I used extra sharp white cheddar, cook a little longer. Then add all the veggies with a bit more cheese and cook the last few minutes.

     2.  Burgundy-Marinated Portobello Mushrooms and Goat Cheese Burgers

Take some large and succulent portobello mushrooms. Scrape out the gills and then rub them down with salt, pepper and olive oil. Then, stick them in a pan and cover them in burgundy wine. Let those marinate for the time it takes you to get your grill hot, or maybe about 20-30 minutes, spooning the wine over them occasionally if the wine don't fully cover the mushrooms. Meanwhile, caramelize some onions. Grill the mushrooms. It is important for this step to have a grill master - mine is Mark. Serve on hot buns spread with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. Add some fresh spring greens and the onions and you will go to food heaven.

    3.   Grilled Cheese with Gruyere and Green Apples

 Butter some bread. Add slices of Gruyere and green apples. Grill in a frying pan in some olive oil. Enjoy.

These delicious "recipes" are brought to you by Mark's vegetarianism and our garden.

Perfect Summer Noodle Salad

If you're ever looking for something delicious to make or even just a little chuckle, visit the Pioneer Woman's blog. Along with yummy recipes, you get gorgeous pictures showing step by step processes AND a good few chuckles at her clever writing style. The stuffed mushrooms featured on this blog before and the corn and avocado salsa to be featured soon are all treats from that excellent ranch.

Asian Noodle Salad

 Salad Ingredients

• 1 package Linguine Noodles, Cooked, Rinsed, And Cooled
• ½ heads Sliced Napa Cabbage, Or More To Taste
• ½ heads Sliced Purple Cabbage, Or Less To Taste
• ½ bags Baby Spinach, Or More To Taste
• 2 or 3 Red, Yellow, and/or Orange Bell Peppers, thinly sliced
• 1 bag or box of Bean Sprouts
• Chopped Cilantro, Up To 1 Bunch, To Taste
• 3 whole Scallions, Sliced
• Optional: 3 whole Cucumbers Peeled And Sliced, 1 can (about 10 Oz.) Whole Cashews, Lightly Toasted In Skillet (I've never added these but I'm sure it'd be good

Dressing Ingredients

• 2 whole Limes, Juiced
• 12-16 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 16 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 4 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 2/3 cups Brown Sugar
• 6 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger Chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic Chopped
• 1-2 whole Hot Peppers Or Jalapeno's, Chopped
• Chopped Cilantro

1. Cook the noodles. Drain them and rinse with cold water.
2. Chop all the salad ingredients and mix them together.
3. Whisk dressing ingredients together OR I found it easier to shake them together. My 21st birthday present shaker came in handy!
4. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix it all together with tongs.

That bizarre topping in this picture is indeed purple cauliflower. I saw some in Kroger and I just thought I had to have it. This salad is so colorful on it's own it only added to the rainbow of colors. And in case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure it's just dyed purple because when I cooked it, the water turned purple. The health hazards of dyed cauliflower are debatable.


****WARNING! Chopping Jalapenos and other hot peppers can be dangerous! Do not touch your eyes or nose and wash hands well afterwards. Do not taste the pepper. Even if it doesn't look/smell hot, trust me it is. If you are my mother you might even wear gloves.****

Day of Infamy

Yesterday, I put confectioner's sugar into my famous mac and cheese instead of flour...


But can you blame me?
This looks exactly like flour in my mother's nondescript glass container.

The Culprit

But good news it, my famous mac and cheese is SO good, that everyone ate it anyway. The slightly sweet notes were only somewhat noticeable BUT i think I will stick to the real recipe.

Famous Mac and Cheese

One box of elbow noodles
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of pepper
1/4 tsp. of garlic powder
1/4 tsp. of red cayenne pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups half and half (Or I used heavy whipping cream once because I had some leftover and that worked too)
8 oz. extra sharp cheddar, shredded (You'll never find this pre-shredded sorry)
16 oz. sharp chedder, shredded, halfed

Isn't it lovely?!                                                                 My Cheese Grater

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Cook the pasta while you make the roux.
3.Melt the butter in a deep frying pan over medium high heat.
4. Whisk in the flour for about 2 minutes. As someone once told me, you need to cook the flour or your dish will taste like raw flour.
5. Add the next 4 ingredients (spices).
6. Gradually whisk in the milk and half and half. Whisking constantly, cook for about 8 to 10 or until thickened.
7. Add the extra sharp cheddar cheese and half the sharp cheddar. Remove from heat when mixed in.
8. Mix the cheese and the noodles and spread into an ungreased 9'' x 13'' pyrex pan. Sprinkle the remaining sharp cheese on top.
9. Cook for 20 minutes. The cheese will look a little bubbly, maybe a few golden spots when done.
10. Let rest for 5 minutes and enjoy!

And the best part is, this mac and cheese reheats for days and keeps on giving!


The Moral of the Story: If you put ingredients in new containers, please label them.

Bien-être

Have I mentioned I wish I were French...they get to eat the most heavy, rich and delicious meals while living in the most beautiful country in the world and they only work 25 hours a week. I am a firm believer that their food habits - small portions packed with flavor- is what makes the French so beautiful.

Inspired on a strangely chilly Monday in April, I sought out a meal that would warm the soul and thrill the tastebuds. The stuffed mushrooms were just decadent enough to make a mushroom-ambivalent lady keep begging for more; and homemade french onion soup, well, is just about as good as it gets. I paired this meal with a nice baby green salad with carrots, yellow bell pepper, croutons, and honey mustard dressing. It certainly treated me right, and accompanied by a glass of wine and The African Queen, I couldn't have been more pleased.


...and of course any excuse to break out the Creme Brulee torch is a good one!

 
Stuffed Mushrooms, by The Pioneer Woman

• 24 oz. White Button Mushrooms
• ⅓ lb. Hot Pork Sausage
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
• ⅓ cups Dry White Wine
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• 1 whole Egg Yolk
• ¾ cups Parmesan Cheese, Grated
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Wash off your mushrooms and pop out (or cut out, as sometimes this is harder than it sounds) the stems. You will use both parts.
2. Chop the mushroom stems into fine pieces.
3. Brown and crumble the sausage. Remove the sausage to cool but don't clean out the pan.
4. Cook the onions and garlic for about two minutes over medium low heat in the sausage pan.
5. Deglaze the pan with wine, scraping up the good browned stuff and allow the liquid to evaporate.
6. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for two minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.
7. In a bowl, combine cream cheese and egg yolk. Stir together with Parmesan cheese.
8. Add the cooled sausage and mushroom stems. Stir it all together and refrigerate for about 15 minutes or until it's firmed up a little.
9. Spoon the mixture into the cavity of each mushroom so that it goes about the top some.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.Allow to rest 10 minutes before serving.

French Onion Soup

• 4 large onions, sliced
• 2oz. slab of bacon cut into 1/2 inch cubes (If you can't find that, I just used cut bacon, about 6-8 strips. If you get the rind on, cut that off and fry that up too to put in the pot for flavor. And take it out later.)
• Bouquet Garni (4 sprigs of Thyme, 4 sprigs of Rosemary, and 3 Bay Leaves tied together with twine or thread)
• 4 cups chicken stock, make your own!!! or use the low sodium canned variety like I did because I'm not one who plans ahead very well when it comes to food inspiration
• Salt, Pepper to taste
• 1 baguette
• 8oz. Gruyere or Swiss

Directions
1. Caramelize those bad boy onions until your house in so full of onion particles all your roommates are sniveling but it smells so sweet. Most importantly, use a NON non-stick pan and don't push them around too much. Let them get nice and evenly brown.
2. Meanwhile, cook up the bacon and rind in a frying pan until they are about half-cooked. Then save them on a plate. (When I did this recipe I just threw them in raw and they didn't get cooked. The flavor they added was nice, but it was sad to take them out and not eat them.)
3. If you have a glorious large dutch onion, you can carmelize your onions all in one pot, but if you are like me, you will transfer the onions to a bigger pot to commence with the soup. If you do this, be sure to pour a little stock into the onion pan to deglaze and get up all that brown goodness. They pour it all into the soup pot.
4. Add the rest of the stock, the bacon and the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil. Then, bring down to a simmer for about 40 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, cut your baguette into circles about 1/2 inch thick. Brush some olive oil on top and stick them in the oven until golden brown and a little crispy.
6. Shred the cheese, and remember don't skimp on the cheese - that melted goodness will treat you good.
7. Taste the soup every 10 minutes or so and starting after 20 minutes, you may slowly season with salt and pepper.
8. When the soup is done, pour servings into ovenproof bowls if you will use the broiler to melt the cheese, or into any old bowls if you will use a Creme Brulee torch. Place two bread circles on the soup and cover with shredded cheese. Broil or torch until it bubbles and turns a nice golden brown in spots.

Wine Pairings, by Goop

As a young woman inexperienced in the ways of fine wine, I frequently ponder what the proper wine pairing for my meal might be if I one day stopped exclusively buying magnum-sized bargain wine. I am on a constant search for a good guide that will ease my graduation into an amateur sommelier. I subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter Goop, and last week's edition just happened to be a great question and answer with various professional sommeliers and wine merchants. The newsletter also contained an informative catalog of tasting terms excerpted from the Glossary of Bottlenotes Guide to Wine: Around the World in 80 Sips.

I encourage everyone to check out this link to Goop and learn a little something useful about wine pairings:  
http://www.goop.com/newsletter/79/en/ 

Also, here's a handy wine pairing chart from acmefood.com:

Tip: Dry wine has very little residual sugar following fermentation. Because these wines don't have an added sweetness that could adversely effect the taste of the dish, dry wines are often preferred for cooking.

Tip: My first experience with port wine was on Monday, April 23 2010. I conclude that although it makes for a tasty french onion soup, it is nasty to drink plane. It's sweeter than sweet.

The Sweet Treat That Never Stops Flying

This week I have a recipe for Hummingbird Cake to offer you from The Joy of Baking website. I'd never heard of this delightful cake until I had a slice at The Grit. To me, it's like a banana bread cake with the added notes of pineapple and roasted pecans. Because this is not the sweetest cake, a cream cheese frosting adds the perfect touch even for non-frosting lovers. 

Hummingbird Cake Recipe

1 cup pecans, roasted and finely chopped

3 cups flour (A Tip: Never scoop directly from the flour bag with a measuring cup because the amount will be packed tighter and yield more flour than if you spoon flour from the bag into a measuring cup)

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 large eggs

3/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

8 oz. can crushed pineapple, do not drain

4 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed

                    Icing

                    2 cups of Confectioners Sugar

                    8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature 

                    1 stick of butter, softened 

                    1 tsp. vanilla. extract

                     1/2 cups pecans, roasted and finely chopped

 

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Spread all the pecans on a baking sheet and brush evenly with butter. Roast in the oven for about 8 minutes, tossing about halfway through. When done, chop finely until, you have 1 1/2 cups. Leave the rest whole for cake decoration.

2. Grease two cake pans with either Pam or butter and line the bottoms with a round of parchment paper. 

3. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. 

4. Mix together the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, pineapple, mashed bananas and 1 cup of pecans.

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a fork until combined. 

6. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and cook for 25-30 minutes.

7. To prepare the frosting, use a mixer to combine confectioners sugar, cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

8. When the cake is completely cool, frost and decorate with whole roasted pecans as you see fit.

I attempted to draw a hummingbird sipping nectar from a flower with my pecans...

Here I cooked the batter in a scone pan, producing these adorable individually-sized cakes.