Saturday night – 04/26/2014

A rainy day put me in the mood for pancakes so that’s what we had for dinner along with the usual accompaniments.

Menu
4 batches of Alton Brown’s “Instant Pancakes”
Ham
Cheddar and scallion scones
Fruit salad with watermelon, papaya, pineapple and grapes
Homemade blueberry syrup plus real maple syrup and “pancake” syrup

Snickerdoodles for dessert

Roasted Asparagus

If one were to look through my side dish section of my Recipe Index you would find numerous recipes for roasted vegetables. Over time we’ve found that many vegetables that I once thought were nasty only needed a better preparation to make them pretty darn awesome. Asparagus is certainly one of those.

Roasted Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus
Servings: 4
Prep time: 5 minutes (really however long it takes your oven to preheat)
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. fresh asparagus stalks
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. Rinse asparagus and shake dry. Snap root end off each spear and place on a double layer of paper towels. Cover with another layer of paper towels and pat dry.
3. Transfer dry asparagus to a bowl and drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Arrange in a single layer on a rimmed sheet pan.
4. Place on the middle rack of the oven and cook for 5 minutes. Toss asparagus and redistribute into a single layer. Cook for 3-4 minutes until slightly darkened.
5. Toss with remaining oil, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice (mind the pips). Arrange on a serving plate, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste and serve.

Braised Dark Meat Turkey

We love the complex flavors in this simple dish. Made in advance and reheated, or served hot from the oven, it is filling and satisfying. See the notes for info on making this in advance and reheating.

Braised Dark Meat Turkey

This recipe is based on one by Dave Lieberman.

Easter Sunday 2014

My mom and sister joined us for Easter lunch today. With a small number such as this a full ham dinner seemed a bit much. After batting a few ideas back and forth Ted and I settled on an old favorite.

Menu
Braised Dark Meat Turkey
Buttered Egg Noodles
Roasted Asparagus
Green Beans and Tomatoes

Bull (Portuguese Sweet Bread)

Carrot Cake Trifle, for dessert

Saturday night – 04/12/2014

Meat integration was in full effect tonight with our vegetarian friend away and a smaller number of folks around the table. I still dirtied half the dishes in the kitchen making the meal to make this “simple” casserole.

Menu
Shepherd’s Pie

Gingerbread

Saturday night – 04/05/2014

Just filling in a missing Saturday Night.

Menu
Penne pasta with Slow-Cooker Tomato Sauce
Grilled Sweet Italian Sausages
Roasted Asparagus
Green Salad with radishes, Fuji apples, shredded carrots and vinaigrette
Homemade rolls

Pies – one blueberry and one pecan

Cheesy Toast

I made this one weeknight when cooking wasn’t really something I wanted to do and comfort food was what I craved. We enjoyed it with some leftover fruit salad. It hit the spot.

This easy-peasy recipe is a ripoff, with some modification, from Jamie Oliver. A link to his recipe is in the notes below.

Vegetable Curry

This recipe takes some time to prep and assemble. Once you get it in the pot you can mostly concentrate on other things though. I think it is worth the time and effort.

Vegetable Curry
Servings: 12+
Prep time: 60 minutes
Total time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 lg. red onions, roughly chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup minced ginger
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 3 Tbsp. ground turmeric
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 heaping tsp. kosher salt
• 3 Tbsp. peanut oil
• 3 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4″ slices (on the bias)
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz. lite coconut milk
• 1 head cauliflower, cored and cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro or parsley (optional)

Directions:

1. Place onions in a food processor and pulse until finely cut. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Place peppers in the food processor and pulse until finely cut. Transfer to a strainer to remove as much moisture as possible.
3. Combine the spices in a bowl and stir until well blended.
4. Prep remaining vegetables and set aside.
5. Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until smoking.
6. Add the onions and drained peppers along with a good pinch of kosher salt. Stir in the oil to coat and allow to cook for ~5 minutes until softened. Add the ginger and garlic; cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds, a minute at most.
7. Add the spice blend and stir into the onions/peppers. Allow to cook for about a minute, stirring a few times to prevent burning.
8. Add the carrots and vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 5 minutes
9. Add the coconut milk, cauliflower and drained tomatoes. Bring back to a simmer, recover and cook for 15 minutes
10. Add the frozen peas and cook to heat them through, about 5 minutes.
11. Garnish with chopped cilantro or parsley (if desired).

Notes:
You may ask why I process the the onions and peppers separately. I found that the peppers produced so much liquid when chopped in the food processor that I wanted to strain that off so the dish didn’t have to work at evaporating the liquid. I actually took the pepper liquid, and the drained tomato liquid, combined them in a small pan, and simmered them until they reduced to about 1/3 of the original volume. I added that into the curry along with the coconut milk. I really didn’t notice them in the final product so I left that out of the recipe text.

This recipe is adapted from a great book I picked up years ago named Something for Everyone. The premise was to provide recipes that would make a dish for a family of vegetarians and non-vegetarians from one recipe. It appears to no longer be in print.