Lemon Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted cauliflower is my go-to, no fail veggie side dish. In fact, I love it so much, I will sit there happily eating an entire bowl all. by. myself.  No guilt.  This dish is open to variations. I've been wanting to incorporate anchovies into the mixture and I think capers plus the juice would go well.  I've tried adding the lemon juice and found that I don't enjoy the overly tangy flavor it brings out in the cauliflower.  I like them slightly crispy and salty.

Roasted Cauliflower

Serves 4 as a side

1 head of cauliflower

3 garlic cloves (smashed)

1/4 cup olive oil (I use just under a 1/4 cup)

Generous pinch of salt and pepper

Zest of half a lemon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Break the cauliflower into florets, wash and thoroughly dry. Place on a baking sheet. 

2.  In a bowl, I like to smash the garlic with a fork - if you don't like garlic much, only use one or two. Mix together with the lemon zest and the olive oil. If you like a more pungent lemon flavor - zest the whole thing. Pour over the cauliflower on a baking sheet. Using tongs or your hands, make sure each is evenly coated. Sprinkle a good amount of salt and pepper.

3. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to brown.  Those tiny florets that are just a little extra crispy?  Don't toss them, they are the best part!  Best served warm but I won't lie. I've eaten these cold from the fridge as a snack!

2011 Christmas Recap

For Christmas, we typically have two holiday meals. On Christmas Eve, we have a seafood dinner typically with lobster with some sort of side, and then for Christmas dinner, we have hot pot. This year was no different. 

Vodka Pasta: This was a request from my sister who has fallen in love with the vodka pasta from Sfuzzi in Dallas. It's a simple recipe and I've grown fond of Giada's version.  Check out my recipe here.  In an effort to add some sort of veggie to our meal, I sauteed up a bunch of spinach and added it to the top of the pasta.

Steamed Lobster: A lobster for each! Simply clean the lobster and then steam with some water until cooked. If you want to make another dish out of this, keep the lobster steamed water and lobster shells after you clean it of the meat. With just a little bit of broth making with the shells and some veggies, I was able to make a seafood risotto the next day for lunch.  Recipe to come soon.

Oven-baked Drum: Look at the size of this!  Even more impressive, my mom caught this fish! It seems like my parents go fishing at least once a week and the a few days before Christmas, my mom caught this enormous drum. When my mom called me with excitement about catching this fish, I actually had no clue of the kind of fish. Quick google and here you go. My mom seasoned the fish, added lots of butter and slices of onions. Baked in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

Russian Tea Cakes: To cap off the night, Russian tea cakes for dessert! Recipe can be found here.

And to end this post, my little booger of a niece, Sophie. She did take a few bites of the pasta (hooray!) and a few nibbles of the fish. The lobster, not so much, and much rather preferred salty seaweed snacks...

Mussels with Sun Dried Tomato & Basil Bread Crumbs

I've attempted steamed mussels once before and it was fine. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing so incredible that I've filed the recipe as "the recipe" and apparently not memorable in that I haven't tried again in the whole year.  I saw this recipe on a weekend Barefoot Contessa show and it seemed different yet simple.  It probably had nothing to do with the fact that I hadn't eaten anything that day and everything she made seemed delicious.


Fresh mussels are a must for this dish. Don't try this dish with the mussels in the frozen section as what makes a great mussel dish (in my personal opinion) is the sauce. Yes, the great sauce where you sop up all the juices with slices of bread or scoop extra juice in the mussel shell to loudly slurp. To get that seafood-y flavor and juices, you need fresh mussels and seem to find a good selection at Whole Foods.

 

Mussels with Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Bread Crumbs

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

3 slices of toasted bread (a few more if you like to eat your mussels with bread)

3 cloves of garlic (whole)

1/4 cup olive oil

9 sun dried tomatoes

Juice from 2 lemons 

Zest from 1 lemon

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup white wine

2 lbs fresh mussels
2 tbsp butter
S&P

1. Toast the bread and cool.

2. Put the bread, garlic cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor. Quickly grind.

3. Add the basil, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes along with a dash of salt and pepper. Pulse quickly.

4. Make sure your mussels are cleaned.

5. Put the olive oil and white wine into a large pot big enough to hold the mussels.  Bring to a boil.

6. Once boiling, add the mussels and then cover.  Keep covered for at least 5 minutes.  Take a look and your mussels should be all opened and smelling delicious.  Toss in two tablespoon of butter. Turn off the heat and toss any that have not opened.

7. Take the bread crumb mixture and add to the top of the mussels. Give it a good toss with the mussels.

8. Serve with some toasted slice bread to soak up the delicious sauce.

Russian Tea Cakes / Mexican Wedding Cakes

I think I may have found a new favorite cookie. When I tell others my excitement over these cookies, I get a "oh yeah! those are good."  I'm disappointed. Why am I the last to know about these delicious cookies?

I originally found them as Russian tea cakes and after some reading, found they are more commonly known as Mexican wedding cakes.  These are similar to a crumbly, melt in your mouth shortbread cookie.  After making these a few times with different nuts, I recommend pecans over the walnuts.  Toasting the nuts is also very important as I made a batch without doing so and they definitely did not taste as good.


Mexican Wedding Cakes / Russian Tea Cakes

Makes about 3 dozen

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

1 cup pecan (can use walnuts, hazelnuts, etc.)
2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp by leaving out on counter for 2 hours)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon 


1. Toast your nuts in a pan on the stove until they slightly brown and you get that awesome nutty smell.  Put in a bowl and let it cool completely.  This is important as if you grind the nuts while they are still warm, it will start to clump together into more of a paste instead of the ground nuts you need.

2. Once cool, put in a food processor. Take your two cups of flour and spoon two tablespoon into the food processor.  The rest of the flour will be used in the next step.  Grind until finely ground. 

3. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and the powdered sugar until very well blended.  I let the processor run for a good 4-5 minutes, stopping periodically to scrap down the sides. 

4. Add in the vanilla extract and blend. 

5. Add in the flour (which is less by two tablespoon for the nuts) and the salt. Mix well for another 3-4 minutes.

6. Add in the ground nuts into the mixture.

7. Once incorporated, scrape down the sides/clean the paddle and cover the container. Put it in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes or so.

8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and start rolling the dough into small balls. I take a tablespoon and use that to measure each one.  These cookies do not spread much so you can place them fairly close together. 

9. Bake for 13-15 minutes or when you start to notice the edges starting to brown. Take them off the sheet and let them cool. When they are ready to be coated in the sugar, put the powdered sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl. Using a fork, use it to fluff the sugar to help roll the cookie in the sugar.  Note, don't roll the cookies right out of the oven or the heat from the cookie will melt the powdered sugar.

Kale Chips

Have you ever tried those seaweed snacks?  No?  You should.  Wait, no, you shouldn't because if you like salt, you seriously won't be able to stop. Like me. I'm addicted. While seaweed is healthy, I'm sure these are not with their high levels of sodium. That is why I'm addicted. I love salt. So, I needed to find an alternative. My friend, Liz, introduced me to kale and recommended I try kale chips. Um, a great snack and I'll make this for dinner than store in a container and have as a snack for the next day. 

Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale

2-3 tspn olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

S&P

1. Preheat oven to 350.

1. Wash and thoroughly dry the kale. Separate and for each leaf, remove the hard stem. Break the kale into small pieces.

2. Spread the pieces of kale onto a baking sheet. Make sure your kale is completely dry or your 'chips' will not crisp up.  Drizzle the olive oil over and give it a good toss with your hands. Sprinkle with the salt and garlic powder. Bake for about 12-15 minutes.

3. Eat immediately! I was able to keep mine for the next day to snack on by storing it in an airtight container.

Spiced Nuts

Love this recipe. I have tried a few variations and this is my favorite.  You can make sweet, spicy and even savory flavors. For the savory nut recipe, it used salt and fresh rosemary,  but I still prefer the sweet variation! Nothing taste (and smells) better than fresh nutmeg and cinnamon on these nuts. 

I've used several types of nuts and I prefer a half/half combination of almonds and pecans. Walnuts don't taste as good with this recipe.

Sugar and Spice  
1 lb nuts
1 egg white
1 tbspn water
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cinnamon (fresh if possible)
1 tsp nutmeg (fresh if possible)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 

2. Mix together the sugars, salt, cayenne pepper, cinnamon (freshly grated if possible) and nutmeg (freshly if possible). Set aside.

2. Whisk the egg white with water until frothy. No need to bring out your hand mixer, just use your handy dandy arm and whisk for about a minute. Put the nuts into a large bowl and add the egg white mixture. Mix well to ensure all the nuts are coated.

3. Add the sugar mixture to the wet nuts.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Don't skip this part! Otherwise, you will have a hot sugary mess stuck on your baking sheet and give you much grief cleaning...  Spread the nuts evenly on the baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes. 

5. Let the nuts sit on the counter for about 2-3 minutes. Then, taking two forks, start to separate the nuts into individual pieces. Again, don't skip this part or you will have large clusters of nuts. I like to lightly dust the top with a little more cinnamon and white sugar - optional.  Store in an airtight container and these will be good for at least two weeks.

Thanksgiving 2011

Yes. I know. Christmas is one week away. Why am I posting about Thanksgiving when I should be thinking about our Christmas meal? The past few weeks have been a whirlwind and I'm in denial that Christmas is only seven days away or that 2012 will be here in two weeks. So I'll continue to be in denial for the rest of this post, the night and probably for the next few days. I'm telling myself that Thanksgiving was just last week and I have plenty of time to start/finish all of my holiday shopping and errands.


Thanksgiving this year had its successes and fails. I did not try anything too complicated but tried to look at more 'traditional' Thanksgiving dishes - cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, soup, etc. 

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
This was a great success. It was silky and rich.  The extra dollop of sour cream on top help tremendously. The only fault of this recipe? It makes a TON of soup so be prepared to have leftover soup for several days. Recipe here from Ina Garten.  My variations: I did not add any curry powder, I added the sour cream on top and instead of using a food processor, I used my sister's handy immersion blender!  I want one now!

Brined Turkey
Here is the big sha-bang, the TURKEY!  It turned out pretty tasty except the wings were a little crisp. I used the same recipe as last year, found here. No variation this year.

Chopped Salad
Have I told you that I love pinterest? I found this recipe for a great salad several weeks ago and love it. It's delicious. I think the charm is the combination for the dressing - 3/4 poppyseed dressing and 1/4 balsamic dressing, which I simply use balsamic vinegar than the pre-mixed dressing type.  You can really add anything to this salad but I think the musts are the toasted walnuts and the pear or apple slices. I also used the crispy bacon from the turkey above and crumbled a few slices for the salad - double yum!  You can find the recipe here from Espresso and Cream.

Roasted Cauliflower - Not a fail but prefer the simpler method
You know from previous posts that I love simple roasted cauliflower - but I can't just have simple roasted cauliflower for Thanksgiving so to kick it up a bit, I followed this recipe. My variations: No anchovy paste or raisins. Honestly, I think the extra work was nice but I'll stick to simple roasted cauliflower with just garlic, olive oil and S&P - taste just as good.

Boursin Mashed Potatoes 
No feast is complete without mashed potatoes. Not just any mashed potatoes but Boursin mashed potatoes. I buy the garlic and herbs variation of Boursin cheese but I'm sure any of the flavors would work. My variation: I added heavy cream instead of the milk and cut it in half, 1/2 stick of butter (yes, I know. Over indulgent but it's okay.), and freshly chopped thyme and rosemary. Next time, I'd push to roast a whole garlic clove in the oven (or even take from the turkey) and add to the potatoes.

Cream Corn
Ross' mom has shared a few recipes with me - Rum cake, pecan pie and cream corn. I've made this every Thanksgiving since she bestowed these amazing recipes to me and I'm surprised I have yet to share it with you!  This is not for the health conscious, those that are scared to use cream, or those who don't want to taste awesomeness. A future post to come soon.

Cheese Ball - Fail
I was first introduced to a cheese ball by Laurie during a holiday party and simply remember myself stationed next to this cheese ball for a good portion of the night.  I've looked through pinterest and came upon this recipe. For me, this was a fail - I'm not sure if it's the way I prepared it, the amount of time I let it rest in the fridge or that I'm simply comparing it to Laurie's amazing cheese ball. I'll attempt this again and may work on some slight variations but if anyone has a solid recipe to share for a cheese ball, please let me know!

Carrot Cake
In addition to the aforementioned Rum Cake, I also made a carrot cake for dessert. It's dense, has pineapples and is not sharp with hits of spices. Having had this since I was little, I actually thought this was the norm - until I had the carrot cakes that are covered in creamy frosting, light/flaky at times and with a heavy cinnamon flavor. After asking my mom if this was her recipe, I found out that she pulled this recipe from a Chinese newspaper back in the day!  No online recipe as it's on a handwritten and I'll work on putting up a separate post soon.

Cranberry Sauce
The last item we made was cranberry sauce. If you can believe it, we've never had cranberry sauce during Thanksgiving. I gave it a shot and most of us agreed that we weren't a fan. Unfortunately, this particular side probably won't make an appearance at future dinners. I realize that I didn't even take a picture of this final dish... 

What do you think of our Thanksgiving 2011?  My mom also made her Asian noodle dish (recipe here) and oily rice (similar concept to this). I didn't have time to take pictures while she was making the latter dish, but will do so next time as it's quite good and easy to make. 

Stayed tuned for some Christmas holiday cooking and some recent cookie recipes!