Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Salad dressing

While I don't have my camera, and due to another request for it, I am FINALLY posting my salad dressing recipe. Which is one of the reasons I started this dang food blog. And, the other reason was a loaf of bread I never tried making, so there.

Hilary's Honey Miso dressing:

3-4 tablespoons miso paste. (It is the only obscure ingredient but I can get it at my local grocery store, refrigerated in the hippie section. If you have a choice, get mellow yellow or white, not the red. It has been carried at every health food store I have ever worked at, and it should be available at Asian markets. It lasts FOREVER and it is actually a great condiment/ingredient for other purposes, too, including the obvious bowl of soup. I use it to cook chicken sometimes, and it is delicious.)

Grated ginger, at least a T
diced garlic, at least a T
honey, at least 2 T to taste
flax oil, about a cup (this can be substituted with olive oil or any other oil, but since I make a big batch and keep it in the fridge, I prefer flax oil because it stays liquid when refrigerated, unlike olive oil)
Apple cider vinegar, about 1/2 a cup
Trocomare, which is a herbed salt blend. Can be replaced by salt and pepper
You can add fresh herbs if you are fancy.
Blend and enjoy. I almost always tweak it based on taste testing, add a little more oil if it is too tangy from the vinegar and not creamy enough, add some honey if it is not sweet enough, adding garlic if it is not garlicky enough, etc.

The kids love it. Picky loves it. Everyone who visits loves it. My ex husband used to carry it with him to work for his salads - heh, I hope he misses it.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Kumquat tagine

I wish I had my camera. This was such a yummy and pretty dish. The recipe is from Eating Well magazine. A tagine is a Moroccan stew. I have never had kumquats before, and they are yummy. And, kumquat is fun to say! Kept us giggling and making bad jokes all through dinner.

Tagine is also fun to say, except that it reminds me of someone I don't like's nickname for the female genitalia, and we can just leave it at that.

I also like this meal because Picky loved it and said I could make it again, and it had CHICKPEAS in it! Don't tell him.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I would eat this...

I love blood pudding, and curry goat, and all sorts of other strange entrail and weird body part based foods. I would eat this.

Would you?

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Picky does Mother's Day breakfast


I love big weekend breakfasts with Picky. He makes really good breakfast potatoes. Today, I got to sleep in. When I couldn't stand the yummy smells any more, I ventured from my room and found this breakfast with these smiling faces waiting for me! Yummmmm!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Stuffed cubanelles


I made delicious stuffed cubanelle peppers last week. I used to make this recipe with poblano peppers, but their heat is too unpredictable. I have had 3 people at the table telling me they are delicious, and one person crying and gulping water. The cubanelles had a wonderful, sweet flavor, more complex than bell peppers and no unpredictable scalding of anyone's tongue.

I roast, peel, and bread the peppers. It may seem high maintenance, but only the breading is really messy and hands on. I also roasted some garlic and tomato to put inside, and chopped up some delicious Italian mild sausage. I added some ricotta cheese, since I was using Italian sausage. Usually I do a more Mexican style filling. These were a huge hit.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

What's grosser than gross?

When you Google the pizza place you usually order from because you lost the menu and can't find the number, and you come up with a site about restaurant closures by the health department because it was closed recently due to rodent activity.

*shudder*

We are now ordering from Mr. Pizza. Not on the list. I guess we're both somewhat picky.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

What happens when I run out of time and onions

I seem to have a folder full of pictures of food, and no blog posts that I put up with them! So, without further ado, here are the highlights of a week or so of meals:


My former roommate Charity came over for a farewell visit, and she has since moved to Gainesville, boo hoo! I really enjoyed having her by my side in the kitchen again. Here is her beautiful salad with fresh fennel from the garden:

We had a favorite meal of hers that night, one I like to call the three P's: pork, pineapple and peppers. I put pork loin country ribs over chopped celery, onions, pineapple, and multi colored fresh sweet mini peppers, cut into rings, cilantro and diced garlic. I drizzle over this pineapple juice, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil or grapeseed oil. Roast in the oven at 375 or 400 for about an hour, until the pork is done. Watch out, the pineapple gets really scorching hot, and it's hard to resist digging in right away!


I made top sirloin this past week, on one of my favorite pieces of kitchen hardware - my cast iron grill pan. This sucker weighs 27 pounds, and I saw Alton Brown using an identical one on his show recently, so it must rock. Behold its glory.

Finally, I ran out of onions and celery. If you have read any of my recipes, you will see why that would cripple me. So, I decided to veer away from my usual tilapia recipe and tried adapting a recipe for Fish Meuniere with Browned Butter and Lemon. Instead of sole or flounder, I used tilapia, and instead of fresh parsley I substituted fresh garlic chives that I originally planted for my brother-in-law more than three years and two houses ago. It was fabulous, and a big hit. Even with Picky, who usually tries to order pizza every time it's fish night. At the end of this meal, he said, "This was definitely better than pizza." I was beaming.