Virtual Fall Feast!

I'm so excited to be participating in Baking Bad's Virtual Fall Feast!  My contribution is my favorite Thanksgiving salad.  It was originally published on Goop.com, but I have made a few changes to fit my tastes.

Mixed Greens with Goat Cheese and Pecans.


SERVES: 10 to 12
TIME: 10 minutes

 (Maple Dijon Dressing)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 Tablespoons real maple syrup
1/3 red wine vinegar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
coarse sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

(Mixed Greens)
2 Large heads of endive, washed, chopped
1  large head radicchio, washed, chopped
4 large handfuls arugula, washed
1 1/3 cup goat cheese
3/4 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries

For the dressing:
  Mix garlic, mustard, maple syrup, vinegar and salt/pepper together.
 Slowly whisk in olive oil.
For the Salad:
  Toss your greens together and divide up into salad bowls.  Sprinkle
each salad with cheese, pecans and cranberries.  Dress with Maple
Dijon dressing.

Notes:
  Feel free to substitute a bag/box of "baby mixed greens" for the
endive and arugula.  Also, to make the salad extra special, drizzle
pecan halves with real maple syrup before toasting them.  Chop and add
to salad as directed.  This is especially yummy with left over
thanksgiving turkey mixed in.

The Noms...or the lack thereof.

   I must apologize for my recent lack of recipe posts.  I have been experiencing a number of culinary fails and most certainly not "bringing the noms."  I am resolved to do better and probably stick a little closer to the things I know I'm good at.  Look for a plethora of soups in the weeks to come.  In my book, soup is the official food of the autumn season and I couldn't be more excited about it.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon

I'm always looking for ways to incorporate herbs I'm growing into what we eat-even if it just a little oregano here or some chives there.  Since there is just Hubs and I, this is just for two, but you can easily double or triple it.  As usual, I hit up All Recipes for this, but since I'm not really capable of sticking to a recipe...here's my version.  I served it with shallot roasted corn.

2 Salmon Fillets (mine were about 4 oz)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
2 teaspoons Honey
2 1/2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
1 little splash (1 or 2 teaspoons) white wine-if you have it
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, finely chopped ( or just ripped up in little pieces)
Aluminium foil

Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees.  Cook your garlic in the olive oil until soft, add vinegar, honey, mustard and wine (if using).  Let it cook down about 3 minutes.  Add your oregano.  Make two little pouches out of foil, put one piece of salmon in each.  Divide your sauce between the two and close it up enough that the sauce doesn't spill out.  Pop them in the oven for between 10-15 minutes or until it easily flakes.

Kitchen Tip - Clean Your Sponges!

                      Hello Kitty Die-Cut Sponge

So I think we all know kitchen sponges are a little sketchy.  They're pretty much a magnet for germs, grime and all around grossness.  If they are as cute as this one you don't want to simply toss them unless they are worn out, so here is a super easy solution-pop them in the microwave!  Make sure your sponge is good and wet, then let it go for about 2 minutes.  The heat from the steam will kill the bacteria.  If it's dry it could burn, so be sure it's wet-it may foam a bit, but that's not a problem.  Super easy, super clean!

Source: Mercola.com

Cauliflower Leek Soup

As you can probably tell by the pictures and use of words such as "glugs" I'm not super serious when it comes to things in the kitchen.  However, I do like to eat tasty things and I try to incorporate seasonal / home grown items into what I cook.  This soup qualifies as both and was inspired by this one from All Recipes.  I hope you enjoy it!

Yields: 4-6 servings

1 Head of Cauliflower, chopped into small pieces
2-4 Leeks (depends on size) light green/white part only, sliced into 1-inch (ish) pieces
1 or 2 Shallots, thinly sliced
6+ Cloves garlic, minced
32 oz. Broth (Chicken or Veggie)
1/2 cup Half and half (optional)
1 or 2 Glugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Snipped chives for garnish

   Saute your garlic, shallot, cauliflower, and leeks in the olive oil for about 10 minutes.  Add pepper.  Add broth, bring to a boil.  Cover and let soup simmer for about 25 minutes or until cauliflower is soft and easily breaks apart.  Take soup off of heat and blend until creamy.  Stir in cream, top with chives (if desired) and serve. 

A few notes:

-I use an immersion blender, but you can use a regular blender-just do it in batches and be aware that the steam can build up some pressure inside your blender.
-If you've never used leeks before, be warned, they can be super sandy.  Since they have so many layers, the dirt likes to get in between  them and this can make them hard to clean.  Rather than cleaning them first, I chop them up, put them in a collandar and poke them around a bit to seperate the layers.  Then you just spray them off and you're done.

I'm participating in the Link Party at Homework!  Pop on over and be inspired!

Lemongrass Tea

After enjoying some lemongrass tea from our local farmers market I thought I'd try my hand at making some.  I picked up a lemongrass plant this summer and I'd noticed it was getting quite tall so it seemed a good opportunity to make some tea.  If you don't have a lemongrass plant, you can usually find the stalks for sale in the produce section.  The lighter colored base has the strongest lemon-y flavor, but you can use the green leaves as well.

What you'll need:

Lemongrass (approx 1/2 cup chopped up into 3-inch pieces)
Water (about 6 cups)
Sweetener (if desired)

Boil your water, drop in the leaves, let them simmer for about 20 minutes.  Strain out the leaves, sweeten to taste. ( I used stevia)  Pop into the fridge and enjoy it iced.

Lemongrass goes well with a lot of other teas, I love to pop in a couple bags of pomegranate or orange tea herbal tea.

P.S. I didn't include pictures because, well, lemongrass tea isn't very photogenic.  It smells good, it tastes good but doesn't make for anything lovely to look at.

Green Tea Lemonade

I love iced tea, especially in the summer.  I also love citrus.  One of my favorite summertime drinks at Starbucks is their Zen tea lemonade.  I could seriously drink that stuff all day.  Given how much I enjoy it, I thought I'd give it a go and make my own.  It's super easy and super refreshing.

-6 Cups Water
-9 Tea Bags (I used green, but feel free to use whatever you like)
-Lemonade Concentrate
-Pitcher

1.  Brew your tea according to package directions.
2.  Let tea cool and add to the pitcher.
3.  Add half a can of lemonade concentrate to tea.
4.  Mix.
5.  Fill up your glass with ice, then fill with tea mix.

This is strong.  If I'm using an insulated cup, I usually use it as a concentrate and use 1 part tea mix and 1 part water.  This isn't really a recipe, it's more of a suggestion-feel free to tweak it to your own taste.
A couple notes about green tea-don't use boiling water and don't steep longer than the package states (usually no more than 2 mins).  I usually wait about a minute past the water has stopped boiling, making sure the tea bags are taken out promptly.  These things should keep your tea from getting the bitter taste.

Summertime Sangria

I don't know about you, but every season has specific beverages that go along with it (Apple Cider for Fall, Mulled Wine or Hot Chocolate for Winter, etc.).  Sangria is the official drink of summer, at least in my book.  Now when I am thirsty, I drink a lot.  I am also a bit of a light weight, so this sangria is not all that strong.  Feel free to adapt it to your personal taste or whatever fruit you happen to have on hand.

Summertime Sangria

1 Bottle (750 ml) of wine (I prefer Cabernet Sauvinon or White Zinfandel)
1 or 2 shots of Brandy (optional)
1 Bottle (2 Liter) Ginger Ale
16 oz Can of Pineapple in Juice
2 Lemons
2 Limes
1 Orange
1 Large pitcher

 Wash and slice up your fruits and put them in the pitcher. Add your pineapple w/juice.  Cover your fruit with wine.  Add brandy (if desired).  Let fruit/wine mixture soak a few hours.  Add ginger ale, and drink up!  My pitcher wasn't big enough to mix ginger ale and wine mix together so I mixed it half and half in each glass.

Chickpea Brownies...A.K.A...Chocolate Ninja Protein

So I'm trying to incorporate more protein into my life, however I have an incurable love of sweets.  While one could argue that chocolate chip cookies ARE made with eggs, I really need to do better than that.  A few months back I attempted to make a chickpea (garbanzo bean) chocolate cake.  It was pretty good, but it was lacking the flavor I wanted.  I did some googling and tweaking and this is the finished product.  Let me preface this by saying that I am not one of those people with a high tolerance for odd tasting "healthy deserts."  If it doesn't taste good, I'm not going to eat it.  While these are not the exact same as traditional brownies, they definitely help out when you need a chocolate fix.


Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas (approx 14 oz-Drained)
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil or your oil of choice (Olive, Coconut, etc.)
1/3 Cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 1/8 cup white sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon baking powder
2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon instant coffee
Optional add ins: Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, shredded coconut, or omit coffee and add some peanut butter.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 8x8 pan.  Mix all ingredients together in a blender and blend until very smooth.  Or mix together in a mixing bowl and use an immersion blender and blend until smooth.  Pour batter into pan and bake for approx 35 minutes, until it puffs up a bit and the edges become dry and pull away from the sides of the pan.