Sausage and artichoke soup

Breakfast sausage is so versitile! I love to use it in place of other meats when I am feeling creative, or when it is the only thing in the freezer. This started out as a soup based on two things I couldn't use up in the freezer, artichokes and breakfast sausage, but turned into a soup that I love making and eating. It is super easy and serves as an uncommon twist on vegetable soup.

Start with chopping a standard soup base of celery, carrot and onion. Then cook your sausage in your soup pot. I like my sausage to get pretty brown and crispy, then add the celery, carrot and onion to saute for a bit, and then remove the excess fat. Add your stock (if using canned artichokes, you may hold them out until a little later so they don't fall apart).

Add the spices of your choice (I like basil, parsley, allspice, Cavender's and pepper) and then bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 20 or so minutes, add your artichokes if you left them out, check your spices, and then simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

Ladle yourself up a bowl (maybe with some Fiesta cornbread!) and warm up with some awesome soup. The veggies are so tender and somehow the sausage seems to fit so much better than chicken or beef!

Shrimp and Cucumber Brunch Salad

Brunch is my JAM! A decadent brunch buffet is one of the best treats I can think of. I happen to be in love with many of the dishes on the Paulo and Bill's brunch buffet, but one of my favorites is a shrimp and cucumber salad that they don't even list on the website. Apparently they don't think as highly of it as I do. This is my spruced up version.

Ingredients:
Shrimp (boiled until just pink and cooked through, then ice bath 'em)
Cucumber, peeled and seeded
Tomato, seeded
Avocado
Yellow bell pepper, roasted and cooled
Baby greens

Dressing:
4-5 tbsp Olive oil
2-3 tbsp Red wine vinegar
1 tsp Honey
1 clove Roasted minced garlic
1/4 tsp Onion salt
1/2 tsp Garlic salt
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/4 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/4 tsp Black pepper
Pinch Red pepper flakes

For the dressing, combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container, and shake it like crazy. Then chop/cube all of the salad ingredients into about 1/2 inch - 1 inch pieces. I like to chop the greens too so that it mixes in well. Combine everything in a large bowl and coat it in the dressing. Cover and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours (enough time to get really cold and marinate), and then serve cold (in a beautiful hand-painted bowl from Algeria that you got as a Christmas gift).

And I tell you... GOOD GERTY, THIS IS AMAZING. I want to eat this every day. It is crisp and tangy and fresh and freaking awesome. The avocados limit the amount of time that leftovers will stay good, but that just means you have to eat it all faster.

Wilted Spinach

Wilted spinach can be totally delicious... as long as you don't buy it frozen... and as long as you mix some interesting stuff into it. My current favorite is a combination of dried fruit and nuts. If you want to get real crazy you can toss in some cheese too. Basically, choose something from column A, B and C.

Column A                        Column B                          Column C

Currants                                       Pecans                                            Parmesan

Golden raisins                           Slivered almonds                       Feta

Cranberries                                Walnuts                                          Blue

Dates                                             Pine nuts

Apricots                                       Sunflower seeds

What I like to do is saute a giant wad of spinach in a pan with a liiiiiiiittle bit of olive oil and wilt the shit out of it. Like to 1/5 its original volume. You might like it crunchier, tis your preference.

This...

Turns into this...

I actually would have liked to cook it down even a bit more, it was a little watery for my taste.

Then I make a little hole in the middle and toast the nuts in the pan for a few minutes. You can do this in different pans or do one, remove it and do the other, but my way is the nice and lazy way.

Then toss in the fruit and or cheese, toss it all around, and have yourself a flavorful little side dish!

I went cheeseless because I served it with another cheesy side dish along with my pork chop. Side note, I used this method to cook the chops and GAAADDAYAM they were delicious.

Leeks and Mushrooms

Martha really knows her stuff. I do not have near enough free time to be Martha Stewart, but whenever I use one of her recipes or techniques or whatever, it is always pretty damn awesome.

I bought some leeks at Trader Joe's when I was in there the other day because they looked good even though I didn't have a plan for them. They were nice big ones and were pre-cleaned without the giant extra green part that you can't eat. When I had a free night to cook them I looked around for a recipe and Martha had a nice simple one here. It looks really simple, and you think, eh, how special could it be, but I am telling you, this was awesome. Easy to make, and I didn't even include the parmesan because it was so delicious without it (and I was so hungry I forgot it)!

Ingredients (sweetened with some Taye Diggs in the background):

Leeks

Mushrooms (I used baby bellas)

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

That is it! And guess what, toss it all together and saute it until carmelized. That is also it!

Martha said to put in the mushrooms first and do some fancy stuff, but I just threw it all in together and it was fabulous. That way the mushrooms still had a little firmness to them when they leeks were good and browned. I think I deglazed the pan with some water, maybe a 1/3 cup; if you like white wine, that would be good too, but I hate white wine.

Plate it and gobble it! I truly looked forward to eating the leftovers. That is how good this was. I love finding a new (to me) vegetable side dish that is easy to recreate.

Thai Red Curry

Curry is one of those things that can be really good or really crappy. At least for me. Red curry seems to be my favorite, and the others I could take or leave. One of my favorite Thai restaurants has a lunch buffet and they often serve red curry and it is always one of my favorite trips. I even talked my mom into it on my last birthday and she liked it, which is saying a lot because my family does not eat very adventurously.

I have had a little bottle of red curry paste in my pantry for a few months now and I finally got around to breaking it out.

These were all my ingredients, aside from the meat. I used this handy recipe from the Thai Kitchen brand since that is the curry paste I had. Basically it just says chop up whatever vegetables you want and some meat. I used chicken and shrimp, but the shrimp wasn't so great it in, so I would stick with chicken in the future.

I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, heating the paste, adding the stock and coconut milk, then adding the fish sauce and brown sugar. Simmer for a bit, then add the meat & veg and simmer some more. So simple!

I think I simmered mine a little too long while I was cooking my rice, because it began to separate a bit. So don't over cook it!

Still tasted good anyway! I finished my bowl and thought about having another! The mushrooms tasted particularly good in there, and the asparagus worked too, even though I was a bit skeptical. I might even go heavier on the curry next time because I think it could have been a bit spicier than the recipe suggests and I already added a bit more than a tbsp.

Faux Soba Salad

I have never been a huge fan of pasta. Blasphemy, I know. It is occasionally a good vehicle for a worthy sauce, but I am ambivalent about it on it's own. I have become interested in finding alternatives for pasta and so far vegetables have done a damn good job! Spaghetti squash will be coming in a future episode, but this time I am using zucchini.

I found this interesting-looking recipe and wanted to modify it not to contain noodles. As soba are fatter noodles, I decided to slice up some zucchini and use it instead.

I sauteed julienned zucchini in sesame oil with some sesame seeds until it was slightly softened. This was one zucchini, which ended up not making a whole lot, maybe enough for 3 people as a side, so multiply as needed. Then cut up some tomatoes (I used cherry), avocado and cilantro.

For the dressing, I whisked together tahini, soy sauce, red wine vinegar (they suggest rice vinegar in the recipe but this seemed fine too), sesame oil, a little water, salt and pepper. I added a little sugar since I wasn't using the tofu cooked with sugar. The dressing seemed to need that sweet element and just adding a bit of sugar did the trick. As you know by now, I don't measure anything, and with a dressing like this, putting things in to your taste works best.

Then just stir it all up in the dressing! I am pretty impressed with this. It seems really fancy but is really easy.

My dressing ended up a bit thicker than that shown in the recipe, but I liked the flavor even thought it looks a bit less colorful and pretty than in the pro pictures.

I didn't realize what a peanutty flavor tahini has. I had to buy a gigantic can of it so I hope I find some good uses for it. This salad was a great departure from most of the flavors that I use all the time, without much of a change of ingredients. It almost has that Asian peanut sauce taste. I hope it holds up in the fridge overnight so I can have it with lunch tomorrow!

Post script: Thick dressing = bad idea. After being refrigerated overnight, the consistency was a little unappetizing. Definitely thin your dressing with more vinegar, soy or water based on your taste if it ends up looking like mine above!

Successes and Failures, know your cauliflower limits

I tried to take on Whole30, and failed, but I still got some good things out of it. Meal planning is a super smart thing to do. It makes shopping and cooking much easier. I, however, very much require dairy and sugar. And "paleo" baked goods are disgusting, but cauliflower makes a good replacement for some things like rice and grains. I am going to continue to strive for a close-to-Whole30 30 days, but I have pretty much broken every rule in the 2 weeks up to now. According to the creators I am not doing it right, but it is still eating better so screw the rules!

So that leads to last night's meal. I decided to make all new things: breaded pork tenders with mint cashew pesto and carrot cauliflower mash. Spoiler alert... the pork tenders were the only really good part.

It all looks good right? Well, the pesto was way too salty and the mash had very little flavor. The pork tenders however were quite good. I just chopped some slices off a pork loin, dredged them in flour with salt and pepper, dipped that in beaten egg, and dipped that in a mixture of panko and parmesan (not at all Whole30). Popped it in a pan until brown and they came out moist and tender. Perfect!

I think part of my pesto problem was that I didn't have enough of the ingredients to adjust my flavors. I think it could be good. It is just spinach, mint, cashews, salt, pepper and olive oil blended together. I couldn't get it well blended because there was so little, and once it was too salty, I was out of spinach and mint to try and fix it. Not sure if I will try again or not.

The carrot cauliflower mash I had high expectations for because the ingredients were so good!

Even just in the pans it looks so good! For some reason my carrots never steamed. How does that happen? I boiled water under the steamer...? I am still confused by it. The onions were delicious on their own, I should have just eaten them: chopped onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme and olive oil. I steamed some grated cauliflower from another recipe in the microwave and then added it all to the blender.

I think I might try this again without the cauliflower. I had used cauliflower in so many recipes lately that I think I wore myself out on it. With salt and pepper it was edible, but I didn't eat much of it. Mostly I just ate the peppers out from underneath with the little bits of mash I didn't flick off. Also, maybe I just don't like mashed things... I am not sure about that, but it could be part of it. I am going to try another version of carrot mash, to be used as a dip, so maybe that will provide some more insight!

Awesome Guacamole

I love avocados. A lot. If there is an apocalypse then I am moving to Mexico to make sure that I continue to get a regular serving of avocados. I always have them in the house. They don't even go on the shopping list because I always know how many are left and if I require more.

So... I make a lot of guacamole. Recently at a few parties, people have raved. I figured I would throw my recipe into the ring with all of the others.

Ingredients:
Several ripe avocados (not too firm or soft)
White or red onion (your preference, I used white)
Fresh tomatoes (not canned!)
Lime juice (I get lazy here and use bottled)
Salt

Pretty much every single one of these ingredients can be added to taste. I choose to go about 2:1:1 on my avocado:onion:tomato ratio. 

First, chop up your cados, onions and tomats. There is a bit of an art to getting the flesh out of the avocado, and if you haven't mastered it, here are my tips:

-Slice the fruit (veg? who knows) in 1/2 long ways, and twist the 2 halves apart

-(this gets a bit dangerous and you can probably use a spoon, but I...) jab a knife into the pit and twist it a bit to loosen and pull it out

-Use a knife to score the flesh still inside the rind (peel? shell?) both long and cross ways so you have a grid

-Use a spoon to scoop out your lovely avocado cubes!

Mix up your chopped ingredients in your serving bowl. I try not to make it too uniform, I like the chunks. Add the salt and lime juice slowly, tasting and stiring to see how much you like. That's it!

I suggest making quite a bit more than you think people will eat, because it goes fast. But it also doesn't store well, and gets brown pretty quick, so you may have to eat the leftovers the same day (oh no!) if the browning scares you.

I didn't make this for Memorial Day, but the weekend before. We made steak skewers marinated in wine, which were delicious (though the wine seemed superfluous, couldn't tell they were marinated once cooked). Won't bother with a recipe because that was all there was to it! So pretty!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Spicy Orange Stir Fry Sauce

I have a bit of a condiment and sauce obsession. If I could have a bunch of little bowls of dipping sauces at each meal I would be so very happy. The only problem is that sauces that you buy at the store usually seem to suck. Especially Asian sauces. Unless you are buying something basic like soy sauce, the amount of interpretation is so great from brand to brand that none of them seem right. I have been making stir fry with these sauces forever. I have even tried mixing different sauces and it still sucked.

So today I decided to make my own stir fry sauce. I wanted something sweet and spicy and simple. The base of this sauce is orange juice. I zested and juiced a couple oranges. I bought a zester, and dang it, I am going to use the crap out of it!

I added some orange juice from the bottle too, just because I needed more, and it didn't seem to hurt anything. Then I added a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons of sugar and about 1/2 a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. That's it! Then I reduced it by half or more, until it was a little caramelized.

I left it simmering while I worked on the stir fry. I used shrimp and some frozen vegetables (bell peppers, snap peas, onions and edamame), but I am sure you could use whatever you like in your stir fry.

I cooked the shrimp through and warmed the already thawed veggies. Then I just poured on the sauce and cooked until the sauce was the consistency I wanted, and coated everything. Serve over rice, and TA DA!

Magic in a bowl! Those 4 simple things made the best stir fry sauce I have had in a long time. I may just throw out some of the crappy sauces that have been hiding out in the fridge for years. The red pepper flakes weren't overpoweringly hot, and the orange juice was the perfect vehicle for sweet and spicy. Obviously this is not an entirely original flavor, but it was so much better than a bottle. Paul Newman, you can suck it!

Ratatouille Gratin

I have been thinking about ratatouille for a while. I looked up some recipes and was a little disappointed because I kind of expected it to be fancier... possibly because I saw Ratatouille and I believe everything I see in cartoons. So I decided to do a little twist on it and make it a stacked gratin. And I also left out the eggplant, because I wasn't at all interested in it.

Ingredients
zucchini
yellow pepper
roma tomato
onion
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt pepper
thyme
basil
rosemary
garlic
parmesan

Basically you can use any amount of these that you want. I went light on the balsamic because I didn't want it to overpower everything else. Cut the vegetables into uniform-ish pieces (1/2 inch thick, 2 inches square/round), mix everything else (minus 1/2 the parm) in a large bowl and then toss the veggies in the bowl.


I preheated the oven to 425 at this point (why do all recipes say to preheat at the beginning? I usually end up with a fully heated oven for 30 or more minutes before I need it!) Then I layered everything (vertical layers, not horizontal) in a glass pan and spread the rest of the parmesan on top.

I happened to have too much for my pan, so I crammed the rest into a little ramekin to make an individual portion. This one I topped with parmesan mixed with panko because it sounded delicious.

I pulled the ramekin out after 25 minutes and the big pan after 30. You could see the juices boiling in the bottom which always makes me happy. SCIENCE! I let them set for a bit (because they were scary hot) while I grilled up some chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and some spices.

This is going to be made over and over again. I am absolutely in love with this. I feel like I was a little light on the flavors, turns out I could have gone heavier with the balsamic and spices, but even as is, I just loved this. The big dish was beautiful, and the strong parmesan flavor was perfect for the vegetables. But panko and parmesan in the small dish was a revelation. It browned up beautifully and tasted nice and crunchy with the softened veg.

I do think for this fresh herbs would have been stronger and more interesting. I have been thinking of getting a kitchen herb garden, but my kitchen window above the sink has a tiny sill and is painted shut. I will continue working on a solution for this.

Braised Leeks and Onions

I was watching some cooking shows and decided that I needed to try leeks. I swear they schedule those shows in blocks to each feature the same ingredient so you want to go get some. Conspiracy!

I bought these 3 giant leeks thinking it was totally enough, until I cut one and realized the useful part was quite a small percentage of the entire vegetable. So when in doubt, add onions. (Alternatively, when in doubt, add avocados, but I went traditional on this)

I based this recipe on Braised Leeks from Simply Recipes, and basically followed it, except I cut the leeks smaller, left out the bay leaf and added onions, and I never measure anything.

Here is the pan pre-wine. It looks prettier than post-wine. Final product:

I dig it quite a bit. The wine was a bit strong (probably just because I am not a wine-drinker) so I would consider changing the braising liquid in the future, but I will definitely play with leeks again. They were even more tender and tasty than the onions.