Maple Sweetened Buttermilk Cornbread

We have a pretty full fridge so I was nosing around figuring out what I could make to go with the ham steaks I made for dinner. I found some buttermilk and I have to admit I was torn between biscuits and cornbread. See, I got this really excellent cornbread cookbook a bit back and although I didn't used to think cornbread at every meal, I'm starting to consider it. So anyway I was leafing through this cornbread cookbook and I came across Crescent Dragonwagon's recipe for Vermont Maple-Sweetened Cornbread. It sounds really good. I didn't quite make it though. I really wanted to use that buttermilk and I didn't have the full amount of maple syrup. What I made turned out really good. With some salty ham steak and some peppery roasted potatoes the hint of maple comes through pretty nice.

This cornbread would be good for breakfast with some syrup, or for lunch with some beans or leftover ham, or just as a snack. I really liked it.

And I should mention that somewhere between my three tips to Michigan in a week and a half I received a wonderful package from London. I happen to love the sending packages by mail exchange kind of things I can sign up for as a blogger. Remember when Siri sent me that delicious black currant jam? Well Molly at Batter Splattered did another exchange, this time with cookies. I was lucky enough to have Rebecca in London (no blog that I know about) get my name. She sent a nice package full of some terrifically tasty cranberry and white chocolate biscotti that I have to admit I inhaled before I got a photo of. She also sent some caramels that went the way of the biscotti. Then she sent this here cute little mini Christmas pudding and some gingerbread cookies. To finish the whole thing off I got three handmade red, gold, and white star shaped ornaments. It was so exciting to get a little taste of so many different things!

I also got a little present in the mail from my bloggerganger. The other Shazaam if you will. She sent me a black cake. It's gone now too. I took it to my mom's who commented that it tastes like her fruitcake without the fruit. I think she nailed the description, but if you haven't had Mom's fruitcake, then you'll just have to be happy with the description: "Wow yummy!".

And now the cornbread recipe!

Maple Sweetened Buttermilk Cornbread

inspired by Crescent Dragonwagon and The Cornbread Gospels

Cooking Spray

1 cup all purpose white flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup low fat buttermilk

1/3 cup melted butter cooled

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray an 8 inch square pan and set aside.

Stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk the eggs, syrup, buttermilk, and melted butter together in a smaller bowl.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients using as few strokes as possible.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Quick Carrot and Raisin Salad

I think it's natural when starting a new year to think about changes you can make to your life to make it better. Whether they work or not is a whole different story. And while resolutions at this time of year are a dime a dozen, you won't find any of them here. Any lifestyle changes I'm making, I've been making for a couple months now. And really, they're personal. Sorry.

What I can share here, besides this really delicious Quick Carrot Slaw from Cooking Light, are some things to look forward to with this blog.

1: There will be a big exciting blog giveaway this month, just in time for my birthday. I'm pretty excited about it.

2: January will again be a celebration (for the most part) of my big love of vegetables. Yippee carrot salad! It's really good. I promise!

3: There will be much much more yeast bread here. I've been dabbling in it a little bit and haven't posted because I'm not changing the recipes at all. But as I get more confident in my bread baking I'll be sharing with you!

4: Perhaps you may remember me mentioning that Chester and Louise are in the freezer. While I am tremendously enjoying the pig and the lamb, the Brain informed me yesterday that we are getting 1/4 of a cow in the next two weeks. Sorry vegetarians, but I've got a hearty portion of pig and lamb to cook up to make room for the cow. and most likely there will be more meat going on. There still will be some vegetarian recipes sprinkled in though. Like this delicious carrot salad.

5: Yes, I'm in school for another semester and that means I'm going to continue to rely on the slow cooker. SO look for more easy to prepare meals for people on the go!

6: I still love legumes and Legume Wednesday will be continuing through 2009. Starting next week.

7: I have been really crappy at responding to comments and I'm going to try much harder to respond when you comment.

Yikes! That last one sounds like a resolution so I'm going to stop here. Have some carrot salad.

Quick Carrot and Raisin Salad
adapted from Cooking Light
Yield 4 servings

1/3 cup raisins
1/2 small red onion, minced
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 pound matchstick-cut carrots
3 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cloves garlic, minced

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine mayonnaise and remaining ingredients in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Spoon dressing over carrot mixture; toss gently to coat. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.

Yukon Gold & Sweet Potato Mash

Today, I'm ridiculously thankful that this man is our president.

I'm thankful that America rose up and made such a historic election and that we are sending a message to the world that hillbillies do not represent America. I am looking forward to a year of eloquent and intelligent speeches that do not include the words: dang it, doggone it, and ya know. And that's all the politics I'm going to give you.

I am also thankful for mashed potatoes in any form. When I was little, mashed potatoes were probably my favorite food. We would go to my Grandma and Papa's house for a holiday with my 19 cousins and 13 aunts and uncles and I would sit by my godfather, Uncle T., and respond to his question about how much potatoes I would like with the ubiquitous "two scoops please!" I think I may have had potatoes confused with raisin bran. Which would explain my gently expanding waistline.

As an adult, I find that I love the combination of mashing sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. The nice thing about this recipe too is that it still has that yummy factor without the thousands of extra calories that potatoes made with sour cream and heavy cream and tons of butter have. Don't get me wrong, those kind of potatoes are fabulous too, but remember my ever expanding waistline? These potatoes are delicious without the two scoops of guilt that comes with traditional mashed potatoes.

I'm also thankful that M. peeled the potatoes and sweet potatoes!

Isn't she pretty?

Yukon Gold & Sweet Potato Mash

from Eating Well

1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks

1/2 cup low-fat milk

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place potatoes and sweet potatoes in a large saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until very tender when pierced with a fork, 20 to 25 minutes.

Drain the potatoes, then mash in the pan to get the desired consistency. Place milk and butter in a small bowl and microwave on High until the butter is mostly melted and the milk is warm, 30 to 40 second. Stir the milk mixture, sugar, salt, and pepper into the mashed potatoes until combined.

Obama photo from here.

Maple Glazed Carrots

I am thankful because today I get to express my wishes and desires for the direction of this beautiful country. I get to stand up and say this is what I want and this is what's important to me. For the first time ever, I carefully went through and looked up each candidates position. Well, okay not all the candidates. I didn't look up those people from the Green Party, the Socialist Party, or Ralph Nader. And I overlooked the Ohio Supreme Court people by accident. And then there were three separate people on my ballot that were somehow peripherally people I knew. My breakfast buddy A's mother-in-law, another lawyer's dad, and a friend of the family's brother were all running for things, one Republican, one Democrat, and one Independent (sorry, my town may be the county seat and twice the size of Wasilla, but it's still pretty small). But, other than that I made informed decisions. I looked up who was running for sheriff. I looked up the issues. I listened to both sides and I thought about things and I made decisions for myself and I VOTED. This is a truly great country that we get the chance to vote. And for that I'm thankful. And if when tonight is over, Barak Obama gets elected I'll be even more thankful. That's right, I've voted for Mr. Obama. It's done. So none of your political arguments are going to change that. Or those damn robo-calls. Man those are annoying.


What's most important is that YOU actually make an informed decision about what's important to you and you go out there and wait in line and vote too. And besides if you take one of these stickers to Ben and Jerry's, they'll give you a free ice cream. That's something to be thankful for. Especially if your nearest Ben and Jerry's isn't hours away.

These lovely Maple Glazed Carrots were part of my Dinner of Giving Thanks. They were super easy and completely delicious. And yes, I just ate all of the leftovers for lunch. I might have to make these again...

Maple Glazed Carrots
from Real Simple

3 pounds carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick on the diagonal
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Kosher salt and black pepper

In a large skillet, combine the carrots, syrup, butter, 1/3 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring once, until the carrots are tender and the liquid has reduced to a glaze, 12 to 15 minutes. (If the carrots are tender before the liquid has thickened, uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook until the liquid forms a glaze.)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

So what exactly am I thankful for? Besides my happy family and my hunk of a husband? Well, today I'm thankful the brakes and headlights are good on my trusty Ford Focus. I'm thankful for my eye-foot coordination. And I'm thankful for the 4 feet of pavement that separated me from a pretty big male deer (it had horns) that happened to be standing in the middle of the road. It wasn't crossing the road. It was just standing there. Like it was suicidal or something. I hyperventilated for the next 10 miles, but I'm very thankful. Whew.

These Brussels sprouts are also something to be thankful for. It was kind of funny because my mom kept raving about them and how sweet they are. And my sister told me on the way out that if they were cooked that way at home she might actually eat them. I think that's massive praise considering M. is not a fan of vegetables in general. And even better these are a no-fuss vegetable dish.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

courtesy of Real Simple

2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

(the original recipe called for 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped, but I seem to have forgotten to add them. oops!)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the Brussels sprouts, pecans, oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Turn the Brussels sprouts cut side down. Roast until golden and tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

Country Lentil Soup

I've decided to bring it back. It's Legume Wednesday! See I got to thinking. Part of the reason I was doing Legume Wednesday was to show how easy and versatile legumes are. For example, I think the entire prep time for this lentil soup may have been a whopping 5 minutes. It would be less if you are speedier at chopping 1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks and used dried herbs. I was out of thyme. Oh the irony! And seriously, there are so many people out there who are far busier than I am and they're still blogging regularly, and besides they might appreciate an easy and hearty bean meal.

Ergo. It's back! SO today for Legume Wednesday, I brought out the kickass cookbook, 1001 Best Slow-Cooker Recipes. I have to admit this is the first recipe I've made out of this cookbook, but it was so easy and delicious that I'm sure there will be more. And the Brain can tell you that I have a bunch of cookbooks that I haven't cooked anything out of. Or maybe only one or two things anyway. It's his prevailing logical argument against me buying more cookbooks.

So yeah, this is a delicious Country Lentil Soup. Super easy to make. I mean really, there's minimal chopping and then it all just gets thrown into the slow-cooker and 8 hours later you have some really yummy soup. What better way to enjoy a rainy day in fall?

Country Lentil Soup

adapted from 1,001 Best Slow-Cooker Recipes

6 entree servings

3 cups vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 cup dried lentils

1 can (14.5 oz) petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1 tsp fresh marjoram, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)

salt and pepper, to taste

6 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients, except salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese, in 6 quart slow-cooker; cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle each bowl of soup with 1 tablespoon cheese.

Rice Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Well here's a time saver for all of us busy people out there. Rice Sticks. Yes, they sound a little odd. But they are really cool little thin noodles. They look somewhat like angel hair pasta, but they take no time to cook. Seriously. These noodles took 1 minutes to cook. It took longer to boil the water.

This recipe is so quick and so easy that it even fit (with blogging) into my nonexistent Sunday. Yes, I am only awake and at home for a total of about 4 hours on a Sunday. Throw out one hour for church and that leaves me enough time to wash the donut clothes, eat and take a shower. I have to say, I felt very much like Rachel Ray on speed. She may make healthy and delicious meals in 30 minutes, but I made mine in 15 minutes. OK, so I was mostly following a recipe, and she comes up with many many recipes to make in less than half an hour and so far I have one. Well, unless you count pasta, but the Brain has declared no more whole wheat pasta, and we could stand a break from it anyway.

Rice Noodles with Peanut Sauce

adapted from Betty Crocker's A Passion for Pasta

serves 4

6.75 ounce package Mai Fun Rice Sticks

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 cup water

14 ounce can of bean sprouts

1 small red bell pepper, cut into 1/4 inch strips

2 green onions, sliced (2 Tbsp)

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Heat 2 quarts water to boiling, pull noodles apart slightly and drop into boiling water. Cook uncovered 1 minute. Drain. Rinse with cold water and drain again.

Mix peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, and red pepper in small bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Gradually mix in water.

Place noodles in large bowl. Add peanut butter mixture, bean sprouts, pepper, and onions. Toss. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Tomato Sauce!

I wish I could say my schedule is turning into something completely manageable and that I'm whizzing through my classes and my house is clean and I'm preparing gourmet meals daily. Yeah. That would be nice.

In reality, we harvested most of the garden over the weekend. I roasted up the remaining beets and those have been a nice "go-to" addition to salads and as side dishes. The second crop of beans were steamed and eaten. Our zucchini and acorn squash plants seems to have rotted. Odd. And our onions never grew. I suspect that perhaps stomping on them (as I was told to do to make them grow big) wasn't the best idea. I won't do it next year. Our broccoli plants never really had broccoli on them. And I have 4 small cabbages sitting on my counter for me to figure out what to do with them. I'm open to suggestions. I'd say it wasn't the best year for the garden.

What we did end up with a lot of were these tiny little plum tomatoes. I was going to can the tomatoes, like I did last year, so I could enjoy them all year long. But the idea of trying to peel a gazillion 1 inch plum tomatoes didn't really excite me. The Brain had been hopping up and down asking me to make tomato sauce so I looked around to see what I could find in the way of a no-peel tomato sauce. Fortunately the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook came to my rescue! Yes, a delicious oven roasted tomato sauce from a diet, I mean lifestyle change, book.

And it's really really easy! I just had to quarter all of those tomatoes and put them on parchment lined baking sheets with a chopped up onion and about 6 peeled cloves of garlic. Then I sprayed them with olive oil (I have a Misto, but I'm pretty certain regular cooking spray would work.) Drizzled them with a little balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper and roasted them in a 375 degree F. oven for about an hour, rotating the sheets at the halfway point. Then when they are lightly browned, slightly dried out and smell really yummy, throw it in the food processor and blend it down. I didn't alter the recipe at all so I'm not going to post the exact recipe, but you get the idea.

Yeah, it's a really good and easy way to use up those tomatoes. And it's so yummy that I've been finding excuses to make pasta for lunch as much as I can. The best part is that I can freeze it in handy little used cottage cheese and yogurt containers and then just pull them out and thaw them when life gets a little too crazy for me.

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic-Cumin Vinaigrette, Feta & Herbs

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but as a kid I hated eggplant. Like really really detested it. I'd eat the peas that Super G would sit there and howl about having to eat. I'd eat M's celery from the chop suey. But I would not, could not, tolerate eggplant. It is my mom's favorite vegetable so pretty much we had it on a every so often basis. She would saute it up and I would sulk. I would call up Bethany and see if I could come over for dinner. I had have a temper tantrum. I would be downright rotten. And when it came time to sit down to dinner, I took the smallest portion possible. I forced it down with my milk. And I complained LOUDLY the entire time. (I did not have the stamina of M or Super G. who would carry on and make such a scene that prolonged dinner for a good 45 minutes. Picky eaters weren't exactly tolerated. We ate what was on our plates and nobody got up from the table until everyone was finished.)

Now it's a different story. Now those glossy purple vegetables call to me in the grocery. "Look at my smooth and shiny skin. Look at my plump firm curves. You know you want to caress me, to devour me. I'm so versatile." I get completely suckered in. Then I find myself at home with this luscious eggplant staring at me. Now what? I could do Baba Ghanoush. I love Baba Ghanoush. But really can't I do something different? I could make the Lamb and Eggplant Potpie, which is an all time favorite, but I don't have any ground lamb and it's hot. So while picking up noodles for the swimming pool for "family vacation" at Walmart, inspiration struck. I was standing there in the checkout and noticed Grilling Summer 2008 from the lovely people of The Best of Fine Cooking. I actually picked it up to see if they had anything interesting to do with a 1 pound pork tenderloin. But there. On page 88 was the most delicious looking eggplant salad staring me in the face.

I am so proud I restrained myself from going and buying more eggplant.

I made the Grilled Eggplant with Garlic-Cumin Vinaigrette, Feta & Herbs today for dinner. It's every bit as good as the photo. Man do I love eggplant now. And I have to say I'm getting better at the grill too. The Brain is working late so he doesn't get any. He can have leftover bucatoni.

As an aside, I will no longer be posting, or sampling any recipes from Cook's Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, or Cook's Country. For background, check here and here. My personal viewpoint is this:

Given a list of ingredients cannot be copyrighted. And the method can only be copyrighted providing it uses wording that cannot be said another way, such as family anecdotes or such, not phrases like "bring to a boil." That when a person adapts a recipe, makes the recipe grow and evolve, they change the ingredients and therefore adapt the cooking instructions to those changed recipes, the recipe is therefore a different recipe. I'm not talking changing from a dash of salt to a pinch of salt. I'm talking significantly changing.

As a personal policy, I site the recipe source that I adapt so that you can know my inspiration. I think the people at Cook's Illustrated/ America's Test Kitchen/ Cook's Country acted outside of their copyright and merely resorted to bullying a food blogger because they can. Or they think they can. Shame on you Cook's Illustrated. Shame.

That being said, I copied this recipe almost verbatim. And you can see from my notes in the recipe how easy to adapt this recipe is if you don't have exactly the right ingredients. I strongly encourage you to find and buy this handy magazine. There are some amazing looking recipes in here. And I'm definitely not going to post them all! If all of Fine Cooking recipes are like this, then I may subscribe. And if they ask me to take down my post, I will because I didn't change it at all, but I will be disappointed.

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic-Cumin Vinaigrette, Feta & Herbs

from Fine Cooking

1 small clove garlic

kosher salt

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (I ran out of lemons, but jarred lemon juice worked just fine)

1 small shallot, very finely diced (I used a baby onion from the garden)

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted and pounded in a mortar or ground in a spice grinder (I used 1/2 tsp ground cumin, call me lazy)

Pinch of cayenne, more to taste

1 large globe eggplant (about 1 lb.), trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil; more as needed

Kosher salt

1/4 cup crumbled feta

2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh mint

2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

With a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and a pinch of salt to a paste, or mince the garlic, sprinkle with salt, and mash into a paste with the side of a chef's knife.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic paste and 1 Tbsp. of the lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes. Combine the shallot with the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice and a pinch of salt in another small bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Whisk the olive oil, cumin, and cayenne into the garlic mixture. Season to taste with salt or cayenne if needed.

Prepare a medium-high charcoal or gas grill fire. Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil and season with salt. Grill (covered on a gas grill; uncovered on a charcoal grill) until golden-brown grill marks form, 3 to 4 minutes.

Turn the eggplant and grill until tender and well marked on the second sides, another 3 to 4 minutes. The interior should be grayish and soft rather than white and hard.

Top the grilled eggplant slices with the shallots, feta, and herbs. Whisk the garlic-cumin vinaigrette and drizzle it on top. Serve immediately.

Greek Week Day 3: Lentils and Rice Pilaf

You guessed it. It's Legume Wednesday! And that means I scoured the book for legume recipes. There's a fantastic looking lentil salad that I really came close to making. But in the end, I chose to make Lentils and Rice Pilaf, Fakorizo. And WOW, I'm glad I did.

I substituted brown rice for the converted rice the recipe calls for, simply because I don't have any converted rice in the house. Because I used the brown rice, I had to up the amount of chicken stock by a cup. The result was the chewy brown rice played perfectly against the mushy lentils. And the tomato flavored oil sauce really flavored the whole dish. The Brain, who usually remains mute on most dishes told me it was "good" and had two very large helpings. I consider it success.

The lovely ladies of the Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral even provide some tips on how to make the dish suitable for Lent. I'm Roman Catholic, which means I'm not allowed to eat meat on Fridays in Lent. According to the book, Lent lasts 40 days and a strict fast is traditionally observed. "No meat, fish, milk, butter, cheese, or eggs are to be eaten until Easter Sunday. Today, few follow this fast totally; instead, they hold to it on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. However, all comply with this strict diet during Holy Week, the week preceding Easter." This is a much stricter fast than I do. It might be interesting to try it next year. If I remember.

Lentils and Rice Pilaf
from The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by The Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral

1 cup lentils, picked over
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup brown rice
salt to taste
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup olive oil
1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained well (about 1 cup)
black pepper to taste

Wash lentils. Boil them in chicken stock in a deep pot for 5 minutes. Add rice and salt and simmer, covered, until all liquid has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Saute onion in oil for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. As soon as lentil-rice mixture is cooked, remove from heat and add sauce. Sprinkle with pepper.

Note: This can be served as a Lenten dish if plain water is substituted for chicken stock.

Variation: If orzo is used instead of rice, increase the amount of chicken stock by 1/2 cup

Pasta with Lentils

It's Wednesday. That means more legumes! Today's variety is lentils. No fancy French lentils. Or Indian lentils with other names. Well they could go by another name, but I don't know what it is. These are those very cheap lentils you can buy in the grocery store at something like 3 pounds for $1. These are the lentils I ate all the way through college.

They may be cheap college food, but they are in a class way above Ramen noodles and boxed macaroni and cheese. Lentils are a fine source of protein. They have very little fat. They're high in fiber which is very filling and doesn't spike your blood sugar and keeps you full longer. It is actually possible to eat healthy while existing mostly on lentils too. I know, I know, there are those people who say that Ramen noodles are very versatile and are only something like 10 cents a bag. But they are wrong. Ramen noodles are crap. I lived on them for a while in college too. And I'd rather go hungry than eat them ever again.

Today's lentil dish is not the lentil dish I was planning on. We've had such nice moderate weather here that when I made the meal plan for the week I was aiming for a lentil chili. But then today is a full 10 degrees hotter than yesterday and any urge for chili died. So I searched the Internet and found this interesting Pasta with Lentils from Epicurious.com. I tweaked the recipe quite a bit, and I am really pleased with the result. The meatiness of the lentils really comes through, as well as the zing of the turnip. It probably would have been more glamorous if I had any other small pasta besides macaroni, so I garnished with some edible Nasturtium blossoms. Yes Kittalog, that's what's blooming in my garden.

Pasta with Lentils

inspired by Gourmet

2 small onions, finely chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup lentils

1 2/3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth to make it vegetarian)

1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine

1 turnip peeled and chopped fine

6 oz. elbow macaroni (or other small pasta)

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

In a heavy large skillet cook the onion with the thyme in the oil in moderate heat, stirring, until the onion is golden and lightly carmalized, about 10 minutes. While the onions are cooking, combine the lentils with broth and bring to a boil. Simmer the lentils, covered, for 12 minutes. Add the carrot and turnips and simmer the mixture, covered, for 3 minutes, or until the carrots, turnips and lentils are tender. Transfer the lentil mixture with the liquid to the skillet, season it with salt and pepper, and keep it at a bare simmer while cooking the pasta.

In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, boil the pasta until it is al dente. Ladle out and reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta liquid, drain the pasta, and add it to the lentil mixture. Simmer the pasta mixture, tossing it to combine it and adding some of the reserved pasta liquid to moisten the mixture if necessary, for 1 minute. Stir in the parsley and serve.

White Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Sage

Yes it's time for another installment of Legume Wednesday! Hooray! Tonight's recipe is excellent. Tonight we travel to the home of some of my husband's family's roots. Italy. Apparently white beans, tomatoes and garlic are ubiquitous in Florence. And most of my cookbooks have some recipe for "Tuscan White Beans". The recipes were mostly similar and some weren't very appetizing. Also, as I've never had these beans before, I wanted to make sure I made something fairly authentic. So I turned to my giant The New Best Recipe Cookbook. According to this cookbook, the traditional way for these beans to be made is for them to be stuck in an empty Chianti bottle and stuck in the embers of the fire overnight. Fortunately for me, and for you dear readers, the cookbook modernized the process for today's cook.

Although it took a long time to make these White Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Sage, the effort level was small and the rewards were tremendous. I realized at about 3:00 this morning in the middle of glazing some donuts at work that I forgot to soak the beans overnight. This was a little unnerving as I was determined to do another dried bean recipe. When I got home I immediately checked the recipe and found to my delight that there is no soaking required. Yay!

Boiling the beans with the onion, carrot, garlic, and bay leaves add tremendous flavor too. I have to admit, I tasted the beans several times while the tomatoes were cooking. The cookbook says you can use canned beans instead, but I can't imagine how you would get canned beans to taste so good. The recipe does use two pots, but I managed to do the dishes while making it so it all came out even in the end!

So yeah, this is one of the tastiest bean dishes I've ever had. It totally hit the spot tonight. I even helped myself to seconds. Fortunately it makes a lot of beans and I can have them for lunches for the rest of the week. These beans are also ridiculously good for you, low calorie, high in protein and fiber. They also are crazy cheap to make provided you have a well stocked pantry and an herb garden. And they are so very delicious.

White Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Sage

courtesy of The New Best Recipe Cookbook

1 pound dried white beans (navy, great northern or cannellini) rinsed and picked over

1 medium onion, unpeeled and halved through the root end

1 medium carrot cut into 2 inch chunks

1 garlic head, top quarter cut off and loose papery skin removed

salt

2 bay leaves

6 cups water

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 medium garlic cloves sliced thin

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh sage leaves

2 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained

2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves

ground black pepper

Bring the beans, onion, carrot, garlic head, 1 tsp salt, the bay leaves, and water to a boil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, partly cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are almost tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, adding more liquid if necessary. Remove the pot from the heat, completely cover, and let stand until the beans are fully tender, 30 to 60 minutes. Drain the beans, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Remove and discard the onion, carrot, and bay leaves. With a slotted spoon, transfer the head of garlic to a cutting board. Using the tongs, squeeze the cloves out of the skins and return the softened cloves to the pot with the beans; discard the skins.

Heat the olive oil, sliced garlic, and sage in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. As the oil begins to sizzle, shake the pan back and forth so that the garlic does not stick (stirring with a wooden spoon will cause the garlic to clump). Cook until the garlic turns very pale gold and the sage darkens, about 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and 1/2 tsp salt and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tomato juices have evaporated and the tomatoes look shiny, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the beans and reserved cooking liquid. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated. 18 to 20 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately, accompanied by extra virgin olive oil for drizzling.

Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice

For today's installment of Legume Wednesdays I turned to Cooking Light's Annual Recipes 2008 and their oh so delicious Cuban Black Bean Patties. That's what they named them, although I'm not exactly sure what makes them so Cuban.

I worked with a Cuban woman while bartending in Chicago. She was a tiny little coked up dynamo that had an eerie similarity to Yzma from the Emporer's New Groove. She could be downright scary. But when you're all of 5 feet 3 inches I guess that's how you maintain control of a big noisy dive bar. I'm not sure she would agree with the assessment that these are Cuban tasting.

They are delicious though. A little slimy to put together and they took a bit of effort. But darn tasty. They are also very nutritious and pretty cheap to make. Pineapple happens to be on sale this time of year and I picked mine up at 2 for $5. A can of Great Value (the Walmart brand) black beans is less than a dollar. Although the recipe calls for boil in the bag white rice, a cup of regular white rice would work just fine. My cilantro plant decided to die on me and I had to substitute Italian parsley. I think cilantro would have tasted better.

The only problem I had was that the recipe was that it called for one 15 ounce can of black beans and that should hold 2 cups of beans. I measured my beans three times and although I had one bean make a run for freedom and I had to throw it out, my beans did not equal two cups. I had a touch more than 1 1/2 cups.

Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice
from Cooking Light

Rice:
1 (3 1/2 ounce) bag boil-in-bag long grain rice
2 tsp butter
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp salt

Patties:
1 1/2 cups rinsed, drained, canned black beans (contents of one 15 ounce can), divided
1/2 tsp bottled minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cornmeal

Prepare rice according to package directions, without salt or added fat. Drain, place rice in large bowl. Melt butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pineapple and saute for 4 minutes or until pineapple just begins to brown. Add pineapple mixture, cilantro, and 1/4 tsp salt to rice in bowl. cover and keep warm. Wipe pan clean with paper towels.

To prepare patties, place all but 1/2 cup beans in a bowl with garlic, cumin, and 1/8 tsp salt; partially mash with a fork. Place 1/2 cup beans and egg white in a food processor; process 30 seconds or until well combined. Add bean puree to bean mixture in bowl, and stir until combined. Divide bean mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2 inch thick patty. Place cornmeal in a shallow dish. Dredge both sides of each patty in cornmeal. Heat pan over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned.

Spoon about 1/2 cup rice onto each of 4 plates; top each serving with 1 patty.

Per Serving: Calories 294, Fat 8.7g (sat 5.4g, mono 1.7g, poly 0.2g); Protein 10.2g, Carbohydrates 45g, Fiber 3.5g, Cholesterol 28mg, Iron 2mg, Sodium 532mg, Calcium 155mg

Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor

Also known as Brown Lentils with Chunky Onion and Chiles.

So remember how I was saying the Queen Geek came to visit this weekend. Well yeah. And we had a fabulous time. And she stopped before coming down here at the Bombay Grocers in Ann Arbor. Queen Geek had never been in an Indian grocery store before. I think she was surprised at the tremendous deals she found there. So she picked me up some legumes.

From bottom to top she brought me: urid dal, red lentils, brown lentils, mung beans, and Horse gram. I am completely unfamiliar with Horse gram and mung beans. And urid dal. But I'm excited that she brought them to me. (with some Nigella seeds. Yay!) Because don't forget that I still have that 660 Curries excellent cookbook. And so I added all these legumes to the massive pile of dried legumes in my cupboard and an idea struck me.

Well so did a couple bags of dried beans.

I will be having a legume project. Legumes are ridiculously healthy. They provide loads of dietary fiber, and protein. And they don't have any fat. And most of the worlds cultures have bean dishes. And they're pretty damn cheap. Cheap is really good when the cost of food and gasoline are skyrocketing. SO, once a week, I'm liking Wednesdays, I'll be making a legume dish. Don't worry, they won't all be dals. (Although I do like various dals and will make more.) I also can't promise that they'll all be vegetarian, but I think most of them will be. I can promise there will be no soybeans. Curse those soybeans and my inability to digest them.

For the inaugural legume dish, we travel to India for Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor. And no I don't really know how to pronounce it. It's a lovely, hearty dish of brown lentils with big chunks of onions and slices of chiles. It has a very chewy texture and the sweetness of the onions is really surprising. And even though I put 3 Serrano peppers in it, it doesn't overwhelm with spiciness. Served with some Trader Joe's Tandoori Naan it was pretty tasty!

Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor

From 660 Curries (also known as Brown Lentils with Chunky Onion and Chiles

1 cup whole brown lentils (sabud masoor) picked over to remove stones

1 medium sized onion cut in half lengthwise, and then cut into 1 inch chunks

2 Tbsp Ghee or canola oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

3 to 5 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or Serrano chiles, to taste, stems removed, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices (do not remove seeds)

Place the lentils in a medium size bowl. Fill the bowl halfway with water and rinse the lentils by rubbing them between your fingertips. The water will become slightly cloudy. Drain this water. Repeat three or four times, until the water remains relatively clear; drain. Now fill the bowl halfway with hot water and let it sit on the counter, covered with plastic wrap, until the lentils soften, at least 8 hours or as long as overnight.

Drain the lentils and transfer them to a medium size saucepan. Add the onion and 4 cups water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off and discard any foam that rises to the surface. Lower the heat to medium, cover partially, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, heat the ghee (canola oil) in a small skillet over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the skillet, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping(not unlike popcorn), about 30 seconds. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and lower the heat to medium (to prevent excess spattering when the tomato paste hits the hot ghee/oil). Simmer, uncovered stirring occasionally, until some of the ghee starts to separate around the edges, about 2 minutes.

Scrape the lush red sauce into the cooked lentils. Transfer a spoonful of the dal to the skillet and stir it around to get every bit of flavor; pour this back into the saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils have absorbed the seasonings, about 5 minutes. Then serve.

Aadrak Lasoon Masoor Ki Dal

What? Yeah that means Gingered Red Lentils. Really fantastically good Gingered Red Lentils. They were on one hand soothing comfort food and on the other hand knocked my taste buds for a loop. Kind of like if you broke up with a boyfriend they would pat you on the head and tell you everything would be okay and then go and kick said ex-boyfriend's behind. They're really good.

I received this cookbook, 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. Yeah, he's the same guy from the Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking cookbook, which I have and also love. And he was recently featured in Cooking Light Magazine. (Yikes, now I'm sounding like a groupie!) I have to say, this cookbook was seriously intimidating for me. First, there were hardly any pictures so I didn't really know what things were supposed to look like. This really isn't too big of a problem, it just made picking the first recipe a little difficult for me. 660 is a lot of curries and it took a long time to single one out. Secondly, there are many ingredients that are hard to find in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio.

That said, I do highly recommend this cookbook. There's something for everyone really. It has many of the familiar Indian dishes, so you could ease into the Indian cooking experience. Mr. Iyer has clear and easy to follow directions, so even though there are no pictures you are able to tell that your dish came out looking correctly. Thirdly, there is a glossary of ingredients in the back, so that if you are like me and live far from the nearest Indian family, much less Indian grocery store you can figure out exactly what you need. And finally after the glossary in back, there is a list of online sources for spices and legumes as well as this link to finding an Indian grocery near you. Oh yeah, and he even has a website to discuss his cookbook with you.

Unfortunately there isn't an Indian grocery anywhere close to me (less than 50 miles anyway). So while I was at my mom's I went to a terrific Indian/Pakistani grocery store in Troy, MI called Subzi Mandi. The people were very friendly and helpful and I stocked up on loads of spices. The only minor glitch was I ended up with this bag of Takmaria (aka Tukmaria, aka Basil seeds) when I was hoping for Nigella seeds. They didn't know what Nigella seeds were. Consulting Mr. Iyer's cookbook, I found out that Nigella seeds are also known as black cumin seeds despite not really being cumin. If anyone knows what to do with Takmaria/Tukmaria seeds besides plant them and hope for basil please let me know!

Yeah, I am not sure if red lentils are hard to find out here because I got them in Michigan too. But I can tell you that I'm on the lookout for them here. I have enough to make this only one more time and I'm going to want to make it again and again. This is also my contribution to the annual Vegetables, Beautiful Vegetables 2008 event hosted by Eat The Right Stuff. This is a fun event celebrating National Vegetarian Week in the U.K. (May 19th through 25th) and even though I'm not a vegetarian this dish was tasty enough for me to stuff myself with completely on it's own last night and I'm sure vegetarians, especially British vegetarians will love it too. Incidentally, there are loads of vegetarian and vegan recipes in 660 curries, and I noticed at least one meat curry that gave the option of substitutions to make it vegetarian.

Gingered Red Lentils (Aadrak Lasoon Masoor Ki Dal)

Copied directly from 660 Curries

1 cup skinned split brown lentils (salmon-colored in this form, masoor dal), picked over for stones

1 small red onion, coarsely chopped (I used 1/2 a medium yellow onion)

4 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

4 lengthwise slices fresh ginger (each 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1/8 inch thick), coarsely chopped

2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or Serrano chiles, stems removed

2 tablespoons Ghee or canola oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed

1 medium sized tomato, cored and finely chopped

1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

1. Place the lentils in a medium size saucepan. Fill the pan halfway with water, and rinse the lentils by rubbing them between your fingertips. The water will become cloudy. Drain this water. Repeat three or four times, until the water remains relatively clear; drain. Now add 3 cups water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium heat. Skim off and discard any foam that forms on the surface. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pan, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentil are tender, 18 to 20 minutes.

2. While the lentils are cooking, combine the onion, garlic, and fresh chiles in a food processor. Mince the ingredients, using the puling action. (Letting the blades run constantly will yield a watery blend.)

3. Heat the ghee in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and dried chiles, and cook until the chiles blacken and the seeds turn reddish brown, and smell nutty, 5 to 10 seconds. Immediately add the onion blend, reduce the heat to medium and stir fry until the mixture is light brown around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Stir in the tomato, salt, and turmeric. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomato softens and the ghee starts to separate around the edges of the sauce, 3 to 6 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.

5. Stir the sauce into the cooked lentils. Ladle some of the lentil mixture into the skillet and stir it around to wash it out; add this to the lentils.

6. Cover the pan and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the flavors mingle, about 5 minutes. Then serve.

Sauteed Escarole with Currants and Capers

Blame it on Rachel Ray. Usually when she cooks I'm about as familiar as I'd like to be with her ingredients. With the exception of escarole. The first couple times that she cooked with it I was curious. As she continued to cook with it I was intrigued. Finally I came across a recipe in one of my many many books, or it could have been a magazine clipping, or I could have seen it on TV and I thought, "I have to make that and find out what's so great about escarole!" Unfortunately planning ahead didn't happen and when I got to the store I had no idea how much to buy. So I threw one bunch into my cart and figured that if the recipe I wanted to make needed a different amount I'd adjust it.

But then I couldn't remember what recipe I wanted to try. Or where I found it. So here was this escarole sitting in my fridge and I was at a loss. So I tried to find a good recipe to try. There are tons. Now I was really at a loss. Apparently escarole can be eaten raw in salads, or simply sauteed as a side, it's pretty common in Italian soups too, and commonly it's paired with white beans. Being that neither the Brain nor I had tasted it before, I thought this simple, quick, easy to make Sauteed Escarole with Currants and Capers was probably a good idea.

It was delicious! Apparently escarole is closely related to endive and is part of the chicory family. It is high in Folate and Vitamin A too. The currants and capers in this recipe really set of the lovely mild bitterness of the escarole. I think it's a more flavorful green than spinach and yet it doesn't have the long cooking time of kale. We'll definitely be eating more escarole in our future.

Sauteed Escarole with Currants and Capers

adapted from Gourmet magazine

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 head escarole, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp dried currants

1 Tbsp drained capers

In a 12 inch nonstick skillet saute garlic in oil over moderately high heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add escarole in 3 batches, tossing each batch with tongs until wilted before adding next. Stir in currants, capers, and salt and pepper to taste and cook, covered over moderately low heat until escarole is tender, about 3 minutes. Remove lid and cook over moderately high heat until most of the liquid is evaporated, about 2 minutes more. Stir in nuts.

Orange Roasted Carrots with Honey, a chunk of meat, and some dirt

Today, with the help of my migrant farm workers (my mom and stepdad) the garden has been planted. I would have taken a photo, but for the most part it's merely a slab of dirt. But in a couple months I will have eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, kohlrabi, beets, beans, radishes, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, onions, and an assortment of squashes (zucchini, yellow, and acorn). But like I said, for now it's a slab of dirt. They also weeded and planted in my herb garden. My stepdad pruned one of my rosebushes and promised that I would have bigger more vibrant roses because of it. My little family of Robin Red Breasts looked on the whole time. So far I count 3 babies. They're only a couple days old.

My mom and stepdad are Master Gardeners. So having them spend the day meant a day spent outside enjoying the warm temperatures and the sunshine. They complimented my tulips out front and told me that if the tree bush that I have growing there is an elderberry, that the berries would then be edible. Now I just have to go about finding out what exactly an Elderberry is supposed to look like.

My mom even pulled up most of the dandelions in the yard and pointed out a virulent weed (I forgot the name, but the phrase "virulent weed" had me pulling weeds as best I could!) and she helped me pull all of it from under the Maple. So I made them a batch of chocolate chip cookies to snack on and tried not to be completely annoying while I watched them work. Gardening is much more fun when you can be involved. I also made them dinner. Because I know that I have some vegetarian readers, I didn't take any photos of the chunk of meat that I served them. It was a 2 1/2 pound eye of round roast that I got at Costco on the very cheap. I also prepared it from the recipe from this cookbook on page 417. It was FABULOUS!

What I will tell you about is the Orange-Roasted Baby Carrots with Honey. They may have completely charcoaled the pan I roasted them in, but they were really really good. My mom kept eating them and the recipe went home with them in the stack of 2007 Bon Appetit magazines. The orange wasn't overpowering at all. It was like a little kiss of it. And the honey enhanced the carrots natural sweetness so I couldn't really tell it was there either. It was like a whole lot of really good pieces making an even better whole. Even if my carrots weren't baby. They were the baby cut mini kind Ala Costco again. I love that store.

Orange-Roasted Carrots with Honey

from Bon Appetit

1 1/2 pounds peeled baby carrots

2 Tbsp olive oil

zest of one orange

juice of one orange

1 1/2 Tbsp honey

salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange carrots in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and orange peel; sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss. Pour orange juice over; cover tightly with foil. Roast until crisp tender, about 10 minutes. Remove foil. Increase temperature to 450 degrees F. Drizzle honey over carrots. Roast uncovered until carrots are tender and browned in spots, about 10 minutes longer. Drizzle lightly with additional olive oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Beet Risotto

One of the things I've been doing to occupy my time during my massive amounts of free time, has been to go through my food magazines that I acquired last year. I know that many people out there have this problem. Cooking Light is easy enough because they send me a cookbook in January that has all the recipes from the previous year in it. So I pack up my old magazines and give them to my stepdad. Bon Appetit is a little more complicated. But because I have the whole year I've offered them to both my stepdad and my sister Super G and I'm letting the two of them battle out who wants them. All those recipes are on epicurious anyway. The remaining magazines pose more of a problem. There's several Rachel Ray magazines and some Eating Well magazines and maybe some Martha Stewart like little Everyday Food magazines.

So my process has been to tear out the recipes that look really good to me and then I file them in a expandable file by recipe type. It's all very anal and silly, but I'm having the small problem that this file is starting to bulge. It occurs to me that I never cook these recipes that get stuffed into the expanding file. Well tonight at dinner I changed it all up. I cooked from a recipe that I found in a Rachel Ray magazine. kinda sorta. See her recipe was for Beet Risotto with Roasted Asparagus and Ricotta Salata. I had no asparagus and no Ricotta Salata. I'm pretty sure Ricotta Salata would be considered a hard to find ingredient out here. But I did have some goat cheese. So I made Beet Risotto with crumbled goat cheese. Rachel Ray may be super peppy and perky and far cuter than I could hope to be, but she also seems to be pretty easy going and I'm sure she wouldn't mind that I'm changing it all up on her.

It was delicious. Even the Brain, who doesn't "care for beets" ate two helpings. It was rich and creamy without any extra butter or Parmesan cheese. The color is beautiful. And it's not overly sweet like many beet dishes can be. Totally "delish"!

Beet Risotto

very loosely based on a recipe by Rachel Ray

3 Tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth, kept simmering

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

4 baby red beets, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 small yellow onion chopped

2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup dry red wine

salt and fresh ground pepper

4 oz. crumbled fresh goat cheese

Heat olive oil in large skillet or medium dutch oven over medium heat. Stir in the rice to coat with the oil, and toast for 2 minutes. Add the beets, onion, and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Pour in the wine and cook until absorbed into the rice, then begin adding the broth by ladelfulls (about 1 cup at a time) stirring with each addition, until the rice is cooked, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Crumble goat cheese on top.