Cranberry Salsa

3/8 c. sugar mixed with 1/4 c. orange juice and stirred in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. REmove from heat and mix in 2 c. cranberries, coarsely chopt. Cool to room temp.

Meanwhile prepare 1 red bell & 1 jalapeno pepper, charred and skinned and minced.

Put cooled cranberries in a large bowl. Mix in minced peppers, 1/4 c. chopped, toasted hazelnuts or chopped slivered, roasted almonds and 2 T. grated orange peel. Can refrigerate for a day. Before serving, add 1/3 c. chopped fresh cilantro.

Parmesan Almond Patties

Preheat oven to 400. Mix 2 1/2 c shredded parmesan (means shredding about 8 oz of cheese) with 1 1/4 c. sliced almonds. Sprinkle maybe 1/3 cup of the mixture into a flat circle onto a cookie sheet that has parchment paper or a liner on it. The patty should be flat; a few little holes are fine; the circles should be 5" or so in diameter. Repeat (each cookie sheet will hold about 4 circles.) Bake for 5-6 min until golden and a bit bubbly. Meanwhile, if you want the patties to cup, get bowls on your work surfaced, turned upside down. Remove and start lifting the edges of the circles with a metal spatula. Either move to a cool surface if you want them flat, or turn them onto the bowl bottoms and gently press the sides down if you want them cupped. This last step is the only complicated part: they are firm enough to handle but pliable enough to cup only for a few brief moments.

Simple Tomato Salsa

Served on top of lettuce, which rested on Parmesan Almond Patties.

For 1 qt, generously serving 13 salads:

5 tomatoes, chopt in FP. Recipe also calls for 12 tomatillo, which I didn't have this time. Put in separate bowl. (Recipe says you can do all ingredients in the bowl, but it would take a really big bowl, and this way you have more control over the texture of the tomatoes.)
Then chop successively in FP:
1 jalapeno (recipe calls for 3 more hotter (Anaheim) or milder (Cubanel) peppers. That would be hot.)
3 scallions
juice of a lime
1 t. cumin (I used roasted whole seeds which got chopt in FP; recipe calls for ground)
pepper, 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. sugar

Thanksgiving

Oliver and I are making the bulk of the thanksgiving meal this year! Here is what we have planned:

Cornish Game hens (easier than Turkey)
Wild rice with roasted sqaush, pearl onions, and sunflower seed dressing
Orange ginger cranberry sauce
Pan fried brussel sprouts
Roasted carrots, brocolli and cauliflower
Cornbread
Green Salad with Persimmons and hazlenuts


Oliver's sister Katherine is making sweet potatoes and bread stuffing and his other sister is making pumpkin pie for dessert. Katherine is also buying a pecan pie. I know, I am a bad, bad southerner, letting someone BUY the pecan pie. But I have enough to do!

Say hi to everyone tomorrow for me. Hopefully everything will go okay on this coast.

Raw Kale Salad

...is not as gross at it sounds.
In fact, we had a really delicious one at The Yabba Pot this Sunday and it inspired me to give it a whirl at home. Kale is so freakin good for you, plus it's readily available in the winter, when other fresh/raw/not expensive vegetables are scarce.

Wash 1 bunch of kale & cut out the stems.
Cut leaves into little strips
Sprinkle on 1/2t salt, several shakes of red pepper flakes, 1 clove garlic (diced) and a handful of diced parsley
Dress with 1T olive oil and ~3T white vinegar.
"Knead" the kale with your hands to break them down a little bit.
Let it sit in the fridge a while (some recipes suggest 10 min, others overnight. I did overnight and it worked well). Enjoy!

I bet this would be great with shredded carrots, red onion, red cabbage, and/or sesame seeds if you had any of those things on hand. Basically anything that goes with coleslaw would probably go with this. Let me know what you try!

Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Flax'n Apple Muffins

Muffins representing Baltimore
Just tried this recipe from the box of the Hodgson Mill milled flax box. I was skeptical, since the Golden Flax Bread sharing the back of the box with this recipe was pretty awful. These muffins taste great, though, and they're healthy--only 1 egg in the whole batch and no butter. The flax seed gives it a surprisingly rich, buttery taste and is good source of omega-3 fatty acids. If it weren't for that one pesky egg, they'd even be Dad-appropriate.
Blend: 1/4c milled flax seed
3/4c white all-purpose flour
3/4c whole wheat flour (the recipe calls for graham flour, which would probably be good)
1/2c sugar
2.5t baking powder (recipe calls for 2t powder, .5t soda)
1/2t salt
Whisk: 1 egg
3T veg. oil
1/2c. milk
Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined
Fold in 1.5c chopped apples (~1 midsized apple) and 1/2c chopped nuts (I used pecans)
Bake at 400 degrees for 20min or until top springs back when touched
Yield: 12 med. or 9 lg. muffins

Fruit and Cabbage Salad

Tonight I whipped up this lovely salad on the basis of what happened to be in the fridge. Oliver and I liked it so much we almost ate half a head of cabbage between us! Wow, that's a lot of cancer fighting indoles :)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

Half a head of cabbage
1 fuyu persimmon
1 apple
4 green onions

For the dressing
1 meyer lemon
Roasted walnut oil (hazlenut oil would be great too)
Sea salt

Cut the cabbage into very fine strips. Dice the apple, persimmon and green onions. Combine all the ingredients.
For the dressing, juice the lemon. Then add twice as much oil as you have lemon juice. Add a generous dash of sea salt and whisk the dressing. Toss the salad with the dressing and let it marinate at room temp for an hour. This makes the cabbage taste sweeter, to me at least.

I also want to give a shout out to all of Suzanne's pictures. I really like actually seeing the food! However, I keep my camera in the lab since there are many photo worthy things that happen at the lab ... occasionally involving science. Yesterday there was a huge protest and I saw police in riot gear! It was nuts. I didn't stick around long enough to get a good picture, though.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Just tried this fabulous recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Soup from 101 Cookbooks. I normally don't like Broccoli Cheddar Soup, but I made this recipe anyhow (I know, the decision didn't make sense to me either.) Perhaps it speaks to my faith in that blog. Anyhow, it was delicious! In the past I've only tried canned broccoli cheddar soup, in which the broccoli is usually very unfresh, or Highland Lodge b.c. soup, which is about 50% cheese, giving it the flavor and consistency of fondue. I did everything almost the same as the recipe, but I just had it with bread instead of making croutons. Also, the directions about the cheese are a little confusing--it's hard to tell whether the recipe calls for 2/3 c cheese total or 2/3 + cheese for garnish. I went in betweensies and used 1/2 c cheese. With so little cheese, it's advisable to use a very sharp cheddar. I used some Cabot that has aged in my fridge. Most of the body comes from potato, while the cheese provides the flavor. Also, I chopped up the broccoli stems (after peeling off the toughest part of their skins) and added them with the garlic. I garnished it with olive oil, mustard (which I forgot to mix in earlier), and parsley.

Potatoes Au Gratin (aka delicious cheesy taters!)

I got a lot of potatoes at the farmer's market this weekend b/c I wanted to use the skins to make stock. Then I remembered I need to eat the potatoes, too... so, I decided to try the Joy of Cooking's Potatoes Au Gratin. I tweaked it a little to suit my tastes and my fridge. Interestingly, according to Joy, the si ne qua non of Gratin is not the cheese--it is the breaded topping. This version is delicious for a chilly night. I used a mix of buttermilk and skim milk, which worked really nicely (especially with the feta!), but any sort of milk or cream would work. I think using all skim would be a mistake, though--mine ended up fairly watery with only half.
Slice ~2 lbs potatoes and 1 onion very thin
Place in large saucepan with 1.5c milk and 1.5c buttermilk
Season with white pepper, salt, and a pinch of nutmeg
Gently boil for 5-10 minutes over med heat
Meanwhile, slice a garlic clove in half and rub it on the inside of a 1.5-2qt casserole dish (I have no idea what this does, but Joy said to do it). Mince and add to potatoes
Rub ~1/2T softened butter over this same dish
When the potatoes have softened somewhat and some of the liquid has evaporated, add the potato mixture to the casserole dish. Smooth with a spoon or spatula.
Cover the top with crumbled feta cheese, bread crumbs, and a little paprika (I used mom's Spanish pimenton--delicious!!)
Cook at 350 for ~45 minutes, or until the top browns a little and the smell gets too good to bear. Poke with a knife to make sure the potatoes are nice and soft.
Enjoy!

Warm Red Cabbage Salad

Just tried this recipe from 101 cookbooks. I hardly changed a thing, and it was fabulous! I used a regular onion instead of a red one and omitted the parmesan due to the current limitations of my fridge, but it would be probably be even better if you had both of these things. Quite possibly the most interesting salad I've ever made. I paired it with Mom's squash pudding for a vegetarian supper.