Are you a person who cringes when your foods touch? Don’t answer that. I don’t want to ruin my impression of you because I happen to really like when my foods touch. I like seeing what certain things taste like together because you never know when you’ll find a random winning combination. When I was 8 years old I had an epiphany when part of my dinner salad casually slid into my french fry ketchup mound. That day I discovered that ketchup on salad tasted just like 1000 island dressing without the mayo. I spent a good year putting ketchup on my salad while enduring the looks of disgust from my family. Have I lost you?
The other day I decided to eat comfort food in the form of Thanksgiving dinner (for lunch) from Whole Foods. I got home, opened the cardboard to-go box and saw that all of the contents had shifted. Delightful! The Brussels sprouts and roasted butternut squash were saturated with gravy and cranberry sauce and I thought, “We’re really onto something here.” I decided to give you a recipe that I like to call a happy accident, even though I did it on purpose. I just want your taste buds to thank me for something new and different. In this dish, sweet roasted cubes of butternut squash mix with savory browned Brussels sprouts, bits of apples, onions, smoked curry powder and the surprising tang of cranberries. It’s like stuffing but without the bread, a roasted medley that’s perfect for all the vegans, vegetarians & gluten-free diners at your Thanksgiving table. You could eat it on a random fall afternoon because you’re ridiculously excited about Thanksgiving dinner. It’s really up to you.
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I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite snacks.
Avocado + Charred Corn Tortilla, meet Shutterbean Readers.
Shutterbean Readers, meet Avocado + Charred Corn Tortilla.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about this favorite snack of mine. It’s really simple, absolutely tasty and worth it when you find an awesome avocado. I think I’ve only had two really good avocados this year. What gives? Sometimes I eat this tortilla & avocado number with an egg in the morning. Sometimes it’s a full blown lunch or maybe it plays the role of an afternoon snack. The protein of the avocado works wonders!
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Let’s talk about kitchen staples for a sec. You should always have extra virgin olive oil on hand. Always always always. Onions are a must too. Make sure you get some every time you’re out grocery shopping. Balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, salt & brown sugar are necessities as well. Why? Because without these staples, you can’t just go into your kitchen one Sunday afternoon and make caramelized onion jam on a whim. And how sad is a refrigerator that doesn’t have a nice little jar of Caramelized Onion Jam in it? Very sad.
So, what does one do with Caramelized Onion Jam? Let’s brainstorm!
- put it on a pizza with Gorgonzola and pears
- add it to crostini with figs and goat cheese & prosciutto
- put it on a steak sandwich or burger with a grainy mustard
- add it to pasta with roasted tomatoes and peppers
- stir it into your mashed potatoes
- shove some in your grilled cheese
- put some on a hot dog
- make an arugula salad with it
- add it to a baked potato with sour cream
- add it to an omelet with mushrooms
- stand in front of your fridge and eat it directly from the jar
Caramelized onion jam is now a staple!
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I absolutely LOVE oatmeal raisin cookie dough. It’s the only cookie dough that I’ll actually eat. Other doughs just don’t compare. There’s something about the texture of the oats mixed with brown sugar and a hint of salt that makes me swoon. Yesterday I was sitting on my couch flipping through this Raw Energy Cookbook I picked up at the library and the teaser on this recipe said that it tastes just like chilled oatmeal raisin cookie dough. SOLD! I immediately sprung into the kitchen to test it out.
After quickly blending a few ingredients in the food processor I was blown away; it totally DOES taste like oatmeal raisin cookie dough! You won’t find eggs, butter, flour or refined sugar in this mixture YET it totally tastes like dough. Weird. Crazy. Amazing! One of these Maple Cashew Oatmeal Squares pairs perfectly with a glass of milk/soymilk. I bet they’d also be great with a scoop of ice cream on top. The trick is to keep the squares in the freezer so they remain chewy. At room temperature they tend to be super gooey; they’re raw! With that said, I have a strong feeling these might not last very long in my freezer this week.
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If you’ve been around here for awhile, you might already know how obsessed I am with coconut oil. I love it on toast and in my waffles. I also make granola with it, drizzle it on popcorn, use it as a moisturizer, a hair mask and even as a hand exfoliator. I love the subtle coconut flavor of coconut oil but sometimes it’s just not enough. Sometimes I just want the coconut taste to be BOLD. I want texture. I want more!
Cue the coconut butter! It’s 100% coconut. That’s all it is. Mix it in a food processor and it liquefies after a good 8-10 minutes. You’re left with a thick, creamy coconut butter that’s both savory & sweet. It’s great on just about anything. If you’re like me you might find that it tastes best eaten directly from a spoon!
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While growing up, I could always count on seeing a bright yellow plastic melon baller nestled in the back corner of my mom’s kitchen utensil drawer. It stood out among countless wine openers, toothpicks, random metal skewers and an egg slicer. That melon baller couldn’t help but look pitiful & needy from lack of use. Whenever we bought a melon (which was almost never) that melon baller would come out and I’d be overly excited to use it. Precursor to my adulthood? A month ago I was helping my mom clean out some of her kitchen drawers and she offered up the infamous yellow melon baller. It was almost as if she was daring me to use it. I gladly accepted the challenge and when I flipped through the Heart of the Artichoke cookbook, low and behold I found a recipe that required melon balling action!
I’d like to say that my melon balling went swimmingly; it did not. I was under the impression that a melon baller will give you perfectly round spheres of fruit. I was mistaken. After I hacked up half of the cantaloupe, I walked up to my computer and immediately started watching melon balling videos on youtube (they totally exist!). What I gathered is that you can’t make a perfect melon ball; one edge is almost always slightly messed up, flat or has shreds of melon meat hanging off of it. If you have enough melon balls to cover a dish and present the nice round sides up to the world, no one will be the wiser. Top the half perfect melon balls with with cut mint leaves and generously squeeze lime juice on top and you have a fancy salad. After you take your first bite of juicy sweet melon with the lime & mint, you’ll forget about imperfections. You’ll marvel at how perfectly balanced the salad is and you’ll feel like you’ve satisfied your sweet tooth while cleansing your palette. This salad is the perfect end to a delicious meal.
What have we learned here today? A melon baller that doesn’t get used is a very sad melon baller indeed. Bust out your melon baller, it needs you!
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Tomato & Basil=Caprese Salad. Tomato & Cilantro= Salsa. Right? Here’s a salad that’s sort of a hybrid of the two. Which means you can now eat salsa with a fork and knife! Chips are not invited to this party.
What you’ll find here is a surprisingly delicious/refreshing/light sliced tomato salad with a little sharp kick of red onions, a toasty coriander undertone and a nice tang of red wine vinegar. Talk about tomato enhancing! A salad that is slightly reminiscent of salsa but then totally not. If you happen to have leftover Scalloped Corn & this tomato salad, do yourself a favor and grill a piece of bread, top it with a little leftover corn and a few slabs of tomato. You’ll love it. I know this. What are you waiting for? Put those tomatoes to good use. Time’s a tickin’!
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If guacamole and hummus had a baby, they would name it Guacamole Hummus. It would be thick, rich and creamy. It would taste and look just like guacamole but have the density of hummus. Guacamole hummus would eventually settle down with a bowl of chips and make a nice home in your stomach. Don’t you just love a happy ending? I do. Especially when there’s an avocado involved.
Make this. Inhale it. Smother it all over your body. It’s seriously good. Guacamole hummus is my new best friend.
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It’s hot outside and all I want to do is sit in front of a fan with a gigantic bowl of this Vietnamese Noodle Salad because it’s both light AND hearty. It’s the type of salad that’s best served cold. It gives you the most pleasant after taste and doesn’t put a lead weight in your stomach like most noodle salads. I bet it’s the perfect thing to eat if you’re planning on making out with someone later. Let me know how that goes!
Thinly sliced cucumbers, crunchy red peppers, tangy lime juice mixed with spicy chili sauce and the hugest dose of mint? YES, PLEASE. Did I mention the grilled marinated tofu? I don’t think I did! It’s a known fact that grill marks are sexy and just look at those grill marks! Get a bowl, sit in front of a fan, add a jar of fancy Iced tea and chow down. Your taste buds are begging to be awakened.
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What the heck is Giardiniera? It’s a spicy Italian pickled vegetable mixture that’s mostly eaten as an antipasto. Sometimes it’s included in salads and it’s occasionally shoved into a delicious Italian sub. In my case, it’s a healthy snack eaten directly out of the jar!
Ever since I had this simple salad at one of our favorite pizza places, I’ve been somewhat addicted to the taste of crunchy pickled carrots, tangy bites of cauliflower and red peppers with spicy slices of Serrano peppers. It’s definitely a party in your mouth! When I wasn’t able to find a reasonably priced jar of Giardiniera in my local grocery store, I figured I’d make my own. Turns out it’s a cinch to make and the second you open the lid, one whiff will you transport you to that kitschy Italian restaurant from your childhood. Pickling your own vegetables is super fun! I highly recommend it.
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