Give your holiday meals a creative twist this year with these garlic dinner rolls! Tucked inside the layers is a spread of slow roasted garlic, shredded Parmesan cheese and rich butter.
When I stand in front a table of holiday foods with an empty plate, I start negotiating with myself. I can’t possibly eat it all, so what is it that I can cut out to reduce volume that I also won’t miss much?
Rolls. It’s always the rolls.
Add a twist to your holiday stuffing! This recipe takes my favorite combo of pears, walnuts and Gorgonzola and turns them into a delicious version of one of my favorite holiday sides.
Friends of ours hosted a Thanksgiving potluck and I was put on the stuffing list. Since mine was stuffing number 2 at the dinner and stuffing number 1 was straight up traditional, I was given free reign to get creative. So I volunteered to bring this.
I made this recipe before…in 2009! 2009?! To be honest with you, I can’t believe I’ve been blogging that long. But there that post sits, with some pretty ugly photos and in need of some revision.
This fall salad is loaded with seasonal fruits and topped with candied pecans and blue cheese. The rich molasses balsamic vinaigrette has a mild spice from cayenne pepper.
I have the strangest pattern for salad cravings. For some reason throughout the end of the summer, despite all the light and refreshing produce, salads did not sound good at all. But all of a sudden fall hits and I’m ready for some leafy greens.
Maybe it’s the seasonal fruits like grapes or the heavier toppings like blue cheese that make fall salads surprisingly comforting. That must be why my cravings have finally come around, especially since the temperatures dropped a bit today and the leaves are starting to fall.
This recipe uses a gluten-free filling made with olives and almond meal. White button mushroom caps are stuffed with the filling, covered in an easy marinara and baked until tender.
Almond meal is my new bread crumb. I sprinkle it on as a topping, coat fish and chicken with it, and use it to make fillings and stuffings. It doesn’t get quite as crunchy as bread crumbs, but it does add a pleasant sweetness. It also makes a grain-free alternative, so if you want to reduce grains or add some protein, it will do the trick.
I picked up some white button mushrooms last week. Yes, I know. At first glance they seem boring, but they are one of my favorite varieties. They are easy to work with, cook quickly and stay tender. This batch was on the big side, as in about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter for each mushroom. Perfect for stuffing.
I’ve been combining green olives with tomato sauces a lot lately. I love the saltiness of the olives with the sweetness of the tomatoes, so I kept that theme with these mushrooms by adding olives to the stuffing.
The almond meal works so well with these. There is enough moisture in the vegetables to create a stuffing you can mold easily, but if you find yours is a little dry, feel free to add a tablespoon or two of stock to get it to the right consistency.
If you use this as a side dish, it can easily serve 3 and maybe even 4. But if you serve it as a main course like I did, plan on 2, possibly 3. After your first helping you are going to want a few more, so plan accordingly!
The challenge? Come up with a potato recipe that can be classified as Potatoes: Vegas-style! We go to Las Vegas every year so I started thinking of all the words I associate with that sparkly, shiny town.
Gamble – Maybe a little too negative and not something you really want to take with a new recipe.
Strip – As in the street, but it still leaves a little too much to the imagination.
Winner – Maybe.
Jackpot – Now you’re talking.
So I started thinking about what I would consider a jackpot of flavors. You can never (and I mean, never) go wrong with potatoes and bacon. And sharp cheddar, of course. Cheddar then makes me think of beer, as in beer cheese. I tossed around ideas of how to put it all together and finally decided on some crispy, crunchy baked croquettes that resembled playing chips with their disk shape. It has to be gold potatoes, by the way, because there are few cities as golden and shiny as Las Vegas.
Switch up your cold grain salads and add some sorghum! In this recipe, the chewy grain is combined with pomegranate and walnuts, and then topped off with tangy goat cheese.
I was cooling down from my run last week, taking a nice leisurely walk back to the house, when I saw it. Tucked between two houses was a tree with long branches that were bending under the weight of beautiful red pomegranates.
I see fruit trees around here all the time – figs, citrus, persimmons – and while I’ve seen a pomegranate tree before, I had never seen one in our neighborhood. It was gorgeous.
And I want some!
When I see trees loaded with fruit that seem to be untouched I am so tempted to knock on the door and ask if the owners are going to use the fruit. But I have never gotten up the courage. Then again, the stakes have never been quite this high. A pomegranate might be just enough to get me out of my comfort zone.
So here is the plan. I’m going to watch the tree for the next few weeks and if none of the fruit disappears, I’m doing it. I’m going to walk up and ring the doorbell.
I think. Maybe.
This was supposed to be a three bean salad.
I went to the pantry and grabbed three cans of beans, drained and rinsed them and added them to the mixing bowl. It wasn’t until I was halfway done making the recipe that I looked down and thought – wow, all those dark beans look the same. It turns out I grabbed two cans of black beans instead of one black and one can of kidney beans. It seems I have a problem with attention to detail.
Oh well, you are getting a little less variety, but not at the cost of good flavor or a darn easy recipe.
This recipe for carrot and cucumber pickles remains one of my very favorites. If you like pickled veggies as much as I do, this cookbook needs some space on your shelf!
The first time we traveled to Southeast Asia, I completely missed a very important thing about the cuisine.
It’s all about the condiments.
I saw the little bowls of peppers, relishes, chutneys and sauces on our table and I tried one here and there, but it wasn’t until we returned and I researched recipes further that I realized I should have been much more adventurous! Now, I can make a complete meal out of the condiments alone. Sweet, spicy, tangy, pickled, fermented – you name it and I want it.
I’ve become that annoying person at the dinner table who asks a million question of the server. What is that? How is it made? What’s in it? I’ll take any little piece of information I can grab to help me find a recipe so I can make it at home later, or at least attempt to. I always feel a little intimidated because it never seems to turn out just right. But that’s probably because I haven’t really had a reliable resource for recipes. Until now.
I made this carrot radish salad a few years ago when I received a bottle of ponzu. New to me at the time, I was an instant fan and it made a delicious peanut dressing for this seasonal side dish.
The thing that draws me to food the most is that I’m always learning something. No matter how much I travel, cook or eat, I will never know everything.
A good example — I learned of ponzu just last year when I was in the Seattle for the International Food Bloggers Conference. Considering my love of all types of Asian food, I’m not sure how this one got past me.
Ponzu is a Japanese citrus-based sauce often mixed with soy sauce. It was on my list to try when Marukan offered to send me a bottle earlier this year. I already use their rice vinegars so I gladly accepted the offer.
Marukan’s version of ponzu is made with sudachi juice, a sour Japanese citrus fruit used to flavor foods. The result is a tangy, salty sauce that makes an excellent dressing for summer vegetables.
With some carrots in the fridge and radishes I picked up at the market this week, I set out to see what I could come up with using this new-to-me ingredient.
I must admit that carrots are not my favorite vegetable. I kind of eat them like cookies — in moderation. I’m not sure what it is. It’s not that I dislike them. It’s more because their flavor quickly overpowers other foods to me.
That being said, I love this salad! The combination of the carrot with crunchy radishes and the tangy, nutty dressing is really delicious.
Don’t feel like you have to cut the carrots in ribbons, although it makes for a pretty presentation. You can shred or chop them if you like. If you decide on ribbons, it’s really easy. Just use a vegetable peeler to peel off thin strips. You’ll eventually reach a point where you have a thin piece of the center of the carrot. At that point, just reserve it as a carrot stick snack for later.
I’m still on the lookout for more ways to use ponzu so if you have any ideas, please share!
Disclosure: The ponzu in this post was sent to me for review purposes. I was not required to post about it and received no compensation for doing so.
So when it comes to dinner, I am seeking simple.
I tend to master this pretty well, but sometimes things can get too simple. I pick up a few vegetables at the market and then stare at them for a good 15 minutes in the evenings trying to figure out how I can season them to avoid another serving of bland steamed broccoli or kale chips (although I do love a good kale chip).
Ingredients
Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli and onion. Cook for about 1 minute. Add the zucchini and yellow squash, cook for about 3 more minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook until the vegetables reach your desired doneness (for me, it’s about 3 more minutes).
