Everyone talks about what to do when your pantry is bare.  There are hundreds of sites dedicated to showing you super easy meals that you can make in 10 minutes with things you have on hand.  That’s great the for the average american running around super busy, not caring about food.  But what if you have just gone shopping and have a fridge full of fresh food?  If you ask me, that’s almost harder.  You have to be smart and use the freshest things with the shortest shelf life or else you’ll be tossing half of your groceries in the compost pile by the end of the week.  One such ingredient that Erin and I (especially Erin) love is fresh Arugula.

So arugula was the center of the meal we wanted to build on.  We needed some other fresh ingredients that have a short window too.  We happened to have Avocado at the PERFECT ripeness, and if you know how amazing a perfect avocado is, you would understand the need to put that into our meal.  We also got this amazing looking blue cheese from Wegmans so naturally wanted to include that too.  Some fresh beets were a part of the bounty so good to get those in too.  And finally we had a salmon to fillet to cook up too.  Those are some darn good ingredients to work with and just had to figure out how to put them all together.

Since Arugula/Beet salad is one of our favorites, it was the first thing that came to mind.  Erin had a great idea of serving the salad deconstructed style on the plate with the salmon pan cooked.  That way you can cruise around the plate making every bite an adventure.  I’m a huge fan of making a salad this way, and if you’ve never tried it, you’re missing out.  We got right to work…. right after making sure we had a glass of red wine to assist us in the cooking.  (very important step, do not skip!)

After we were properly armed with our cooking beverages, we had to figure out the timing of everything.  We were pretty hungry and didn’t have 2 years to wait for the beets to cook in the oven, so peeled them, sliced then, and started them in the cast iron with some olive oil.  That is probably the longest prep of the entire meal!  Once the beets were going, Erin washed the arugula and got to work on the simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing.

I, on the other side of the kitchen, was working with the salmon.  After years of cooking salmon, I have always found the best way to prep it is to wash it off in cold water, get it as dry as possible, and then season with kosher salt and pepper.  That’s it!  A dry piece of quality fish with salt and pepper is the basis of the perfect fillet.  Start getting the pan hot with some oil in it.  (in our case, we had some leftover bacon grease from earlier so used that).  Our salmon still had the skin on one side, and personally love it.  Not only does it keep tons of flavor in, but you don’t have to really worry as much about overcooking that side.

Once the pan is hot, lay down the salmon, skin side down and let it be for a few minutes.  Most of the time you can even look at the thick cut side and see about how far up its cooked.  Once you think its about half way, flip it (carefully) onto the meat side and do not move it.  By letting it sit there in one place, you ensure that it will develop a nice “crust” and color.  After a couple minutes, flip it back to the skin side until its done to your liking.

After the salmon is done, you can start plating!  We laid out the sliced Avocado, then the beets, salmon, a generous chunk of blue cheese, the dressed arugula, and added a bit of prosciutto for good measure.  Now just take your plates and glasses of wine to your table/couch/floor etc, and enjoy!

Well it has been a while since I’ve posted anything, though I’ve had this post in the works since the Kentucky Derby this spring! Hunter and I were invited to a Derby party, (hats were mandatory) and I wanted to see if there was any traditional Derby food that I could take, and that’s when I learned about Derby pies! It seems to be what everyone eats at the Derby, like strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, so I thought I’d give it a chance. I read versions that used pecans or walnuts, and I chose walnuts to make it different from the pecan pie that is a staple at my family’s Thanksgivings.  (I never really liked pecan pie, but after eating and enjoying this walnut pie, I may give the Thanksgiving tradition another chance!) I got this recipe somewhere online, and now I can’t remember where!

Kentucky Derby Pie

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup Karo light corn syrup
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup bourbon
3/4 cup gourmet chocolate chips for the pie (I used Valhrona) and an additional 1/2 cup for the topping
1 1/4 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, shelled and chopped in half if desired
A few Tbsp of heavy cream

Make a single pie crust, instructions here.

In a large mixing bowl, on medium speed with whisk attachment, whip butter, sugars, corn syrup, eggs, vanilla and bourbon together until frothy.

Remove bowl from mixer, and fold in chocolate chips and pecans or walnuts.

Pour into prepared pie crust and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until set.

While the pie is cooling, slowly melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with the heavy cream over a double boiler. Keep the temperature of the boiler low so the chocolate doesn’t scortch. Stir constantly until melted, then spoon into a pastry bag, or if you don’t have one of those (I don’t) then put it into a plastic baggie, and cut a small corner off of the baggie.  Pipe the chocolate onto the pie in whatever pattern you like.

This past week, Mike and I took our first step towards our dream of farming (to be honest, I think Mike’s dream just includes the chickens!) and joining the movement of sustainable agriculture by visiting Glasbern Country Inn in Fogelsville, PA.

We’ve certainly been supporting our local food industry for awhile. Veggies and fruit from Terhune Orchards and a neighborhood, honor system farm stand. Meat, eggs & occasional chocolate bars from Cherry Grove Farms. And we will be partaking in the CSA program at Griggstown this season. It isn’t always an easy decision to eat local, sometimes due to money, sometimes due to convenience and often due to societal pressure. That last one might seem ridiculous, why would society be against supporting a community business that puts out great tasting, high quality foods? But look no further than a group outing to your neighborhood diner (scrapple anyone?) or burger joint. As a proud Texan (lost in Jersey), I love a good steak or burger, but after learning more about where our general food supply meat comes from, I can’t eat a burger without triggering a gag reflex. So now when we go out, I generally order a token portobello burger and I have to answer the inevitable “are you a vegetarian??” question.

The surprising thing is that the true answer, “I don’t eat feed lot meat” is far more controversial than the “I don’t eat meat” lie. It wasn’t that long ago that vegetarians were the controversial ones, now knowing where your food comes from gets the eyebrow raise (or heated argument, depending on the person). Most just don’t want to talk about it, the proverbial ostrich and the sand. And I get that, I do, ignorance can truly be bliss, my dietary life is far more complicated these days. I often gaze longingly at Wendy’s and McDonald’s when we’re on a road trip, remembering how easy it was to drive through for a cheap fix. But then I think of the resultant sugar crash and stomach ache.Yuck. Perhaps someday soon being a local eater will be as accepted as “not eating anything with eyes”.

The more we’ve learned about the food industry, the more we’ve wanted to supply ourselves and our community with our own products. So it was with great excitement that we visited Glasbern Country Inn in PA. They have a sustainable farming practice (mostly heritage breeds to boot) that supports the inn, restaurant and pub; as well as, a small farm store. (They have also started supplying a nearby farmers market, I forget which one though!) The inn itself is a luxury B&B with high speed internet, complimentary welcome Yuenglings in the mini-fridge, the softest sheets you can imagine and whirlpool baths in most rooms. They have a fitness center, conference areas for executive retreats and a spa. Quite the empire to learn from! We spent our two days at Glasbern tromping up and down fields, herding cows into grazing paddocks, collecting eggs, and lots of greenhouse work (I have the blisters to prove it!). Up at 6, in bed by 9:30…it was heaven and about as far from our normal 12-hours-at-a-desk web design existence as you can get. (Also, most visitors aren’t put to work on their vacations, we requested it!)

But this is a food blog, so let’s get to the food. Breakfast is included in your stay (pretty much the only nod to a typical B&B experience) and yum, was that a good deal or what. Fresh eggs from the grass fed chickens (rich, yellow yolks), locally made bacon (amazing), vanilla yogurt from the Devon dairy cows (truly addictive) and fresh cream for your coffee (there aren’t words to translate how good it was). Breakfast was delicious, but the real cherry-on-top experience was dinner. Salad made from local cheese and tender greens from the on-site greenhouse. Flank steak with risotto and crisp asparagus. Decadent chocolate cake with peanut-y peanut butter ice cream. Mike had the gnocchi and said it was outstanding. And the best part was, I could have ordered anything on the menu, knowing that it came from the pastures outside or somewhere nearby. No guilt or concern over what I was eating and even better….no need for a portobello burger. I’m still sad I didn’t try the chicken…it’s been so long since I’ve had chicken at a restaurant!

We came home with an even greater appreciation of the results of knowing where your food comes from and the drive to get our personal farm experience up and running, one step at a time. And if you’re ever looking for a good meal or relaxing stay at a beautiful PA inn, I highly recommend Glasbern (as do 75 other reviewers, see here).

–A big thank you to the Glasbern owner, Al Granger, and staff for allowing us to pick their brains and have an absolutely fantastic time learning about their food system. Mike is ready for his chickens and I want to get a Devon dairy cow ASAP.

~ Laura

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One evening, it must have been almost 30 years ago, we were sitting around the table lamenting the lack of dessert and praising the virtues of baklava when our older daughter, Sarah, and I to began to deconstruct that sweet treat—wheat-based dough layered with honey and nuts—and thinking about how to create a substitute from the food we had on hand.  The result was the invention of the dessert taco—a flour tortilla covered in honey and filled with a variety of tastes.

Jana and I had not made them in many years, but they came up in a conversation with old friend and former boss Glynn Ligon.  A couple of nights later Glynn and his wife, Kelly, took us out to dinner, and we fixed the tacos for dessert.  We enjoyed them so much I thought maybe For the Love of Garlic might post them as a guest recipe.

We think of dessert tacos as a party food that guests can make to their own tastes.  Begin by setting out a variety of fillings.  For example, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, flaked coconut, dried fruit pieces, diced fresh fruit, etc.  Whatever you think folks would like.  I also like having cinnamon, ground cayenne pepper, cloves, and other spices available. You could also include a variety of liqueurs to sprinkle on the filling.

Begin with a flour tortilla.  Spread with honey and add the fillings of choice.  Then microwave for 20-30 seconds until hot, roll, and top with whipped cream.  The dessert taco shown in the picture was filled with chopped pecans, coconut, chocolate chips, and ground cayenne pepper with sliced fresh mangos, whipped cream, and cinnamon on top.

Give them a try.

PS—True Story

In the 80’s when I worked for Austin ISD, a group of us drove down to McAllen, Texas to visit some schools.  Cramped together for many hours in a Suburban, we talked about everything under the sun, and I described dessert tacos.  Interestingly, the idea of a dessert taco upset an Hispanic principal who said his grandmother would roll over in her grave at the thought.  Apparently, a gringo had insulted Mexican food.

A couple of days after we returned, I took the makings to a debriefing meeting, and everyone, except the principal who had been upset, made a taco.  He refused to make one, but when everyone else enjoyed theirs, he had a bite and told me after the meeting that he had really enjoyed it.   Maybe Tex-Mex food can be gringo-influenced after all.

Moussaka is something Hunter and I enjoy getting at Greek restaurants, so when I decided to try and make it at home I was certain I wouldn’t be able to recreate what we have had when eating out.  I think we were both surprised that this recipe made a moussaka that was as good if not better than many we’ve had at restaurants.  And it actually held together when I served it, which was a major victory for me.  This dish is pretty time and energy intensive, but none of the steps are especially difficult, and the result is really delicious. You could easily double the recipe and add on very little to the time and effort, and have an extra dish for the freezer to heat up on the next cold day.

I adapted this recipe from two that I found online, here and here.

Step 1:
Cut 2 large eggplants into thin slices and line them up along the sides of a colander. Put a plate under the colander to catch the juices that will drain. Sprinkle with sea salt and set aside. (I like to leave the skin on the eggplant, but you can peel them if you prefer).

Step 2:
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil over high heat. Slice two large russet potatoes into very thin, about 1/8 inch, slices. If you have a mandolin slicer, use that on a medium setting.  Then boil the slices until they are soft enough for a fork to easily pierce them, but don’t let them get too mushy. They need to still hold their shape.

Step 3:
Now it’s time to make the custard sauce.  Melt 5 tablespoons unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, whisk in 6 tablespoons  flour until it forms a smooth mixture.  Cook this mixture, stirring constantly for about a minute.  Then remove the pan from the heat and add 3 cups whole milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and a pinch of nutmeg.  Return to the heat and whisk constantly while bringing to a boil.  Let this simmer 2 minutes, and then pour the sauce into a bowl and mix in a quarter cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese and stir until the cheese is melted, then let the sauce cool for a bit.  Once cool, whisk in 1 large egg and the yolks of two other eggs.

Step 4:
Now make the meat sauce.  Heat a half tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat, and once hot, add about a cup of diced yellow onion.  Cook this until it is quite tender but not brown, and then add 3 minced garlic cloves.  Cook the garlic for about a minute, then add 1 pound (more or less as you like) of ground meat. Lamb is the traditional meat for this dish, but I bet you could use beef, pork, turkey, buffalo etc. with different but also tasty results. I used lamb.  Break the meat up into small pieces, then add a bay leaf, a half teaspoon salt, a cinnamon stick (or a half teaspoon ground cinnamon), a pinch of allspice, a pinch of ground cloves, and a small grinding of pepper.  Stir to mix in the spices, and cook until the meat is no longer red. Then add about a half cup of water and stir again.  Adjust the heat so the mixture simmers, and let cook for about 30 minutes until the sauce thickens up a bit.

At this point, if you plan to cook the moussaka the same day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 5:
While the meat sauce is cooking, you can fry the eggplant. By this point, the eggplant should have released some brownish juices.  Rinse the eggplant of the salt and pat very dry with paper towels.  Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and heat it over medium high heat until it gets shimmery.  Then sautee the eggplant, a few slices at a time, in the oil until lighly browned and fully tender, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side.  When cooked, place on a rack to drain of excess oil and continue until all the eggplant is cooked.  You will probably have to add more oil as you go, but make sure to let the oil get hot before adding the eggplant, otherwise the eggplant will soak up too much oil.

Step 6:
Time to assemble the moussaka! Get a rectangular baking dish and brush some olive oil on the bottom, and then sprinkle the bottom with 1/4 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs.  Lay half of the eggplant in the bottom of the dish, overlapping the pieces if necessary but try to cover the whole pan bottom.  Then put half of the meat sauce over the eggplant, and smooth it out with a spatula.  Layer the rest of the eggplant over the meat sauce, and then add another layer of meat sauce.  Then put the sliced potatoes over the second meat sauce layer, letting them overlap to completely cover the meat.  Finally, pour the cheese sauce over the potato layer and smooth it out, making sure all the potatoes got a nice layer of sauce on top. Bake the dish, uncovered, until the sauce is bubbly and thick, and a knife can easily make it through all the layers, about 30-45 minutes.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

I’m not a big pie eater but I do love a good strudel.  This was always my lunch of choice when I was younger and would go skiing in Germany.  The sweet creamy vanilla sauce mixed with the tangy apples and flaky crust are a sure winner for just about any occasion!  I took this to an Olympics opening ceremony party a few weeks ago and it got eaten up pretty fast.  I made the strudel dough from scratch as you’ll see below but that is really a big time commitment. This recipe would be pretty easy to do if you substitute pre-made packaged phyllo dough for the dough in the recipe.

Apple Strudel

Step 1:

Put 3/4 cup raisins in a bowl and cover with rum. Let soak while you make the dough (recipe below) or at least 20 minutes.

Step 2:

Peel and cut up about 4 apples into slices, and then cut each slice into cubes to make 6 cups.  Mix the apples with 1 Tablespoon of grated lemon rind and squeeze about half of the lemon over the apples. Then mix in the soaked raisins but not the run, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3/4 cups of ground or finely chopped almonds, and a sprinkling of allspice. Set aside.

Step 3:

Heat 1/4 cup of butter in a pan over medium heat, and when melted, add 1 cup of unflavored breadcrumbs. Cook until the crumbs are light brown. Set aside to cool.

Step 4:

Assemble the strudel. The dough should be in a rectangular shape. Lay out the dough and brush the top with some melted butter, then sprinkle the bread crumbs all over the dough, leaving about a 1.5 inch border on the long sides of the rectangle, and about 6 inches on each of the short sides.

Then add the apple mixture and fold the long edges in on the filling.  Starting at one end, fold the dough over the filling and roll the strudel into a rectangle shape, as shown in the pictures below.  Brush the top with melted butter and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and flaky, at least 30 minutes.  Serve with vanilla sauce (recipe below).

Vanilla Sauce

If you can find German vanilla sugar in the store, it will make this sauce great. But even without it, it is a delicious addition to the strudel.

Step 1:

Beat together 4 egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar (and 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, if you have it) until the yolks are thick and pale yellow and the sugar is dissolved.

Step 2:

Heat 2 cups of milk over medium high heat, and when the milk boils, temper in the egg yolk mixture. Then heat the milk and egg mixture without boiling it until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.  Then remove it from the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.

Strudel Dough

Step 1:

Soften 1/4 cup of butter and put it in the bowl of a stand mixer, with the dough hook attachment. (Alternatively, place in a large bowl). Then add 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix.  Add 3 cups flour and mix with the dough hook, adding enough cold water to make the dough come together into a ball, but not too much as to make it mushy.  Once you have a good consistency, knead with the dough hook until it is smooth and elastic. (Alternatively, mix with a wooden spoon while adding the cold water and then knead the dough on the countertop until it is smooth and elastic.)   Put the dough into a clean bowl and coat it with vegetable oil, and then let it sit and rest for an hour.

Step 2:

After the dough has rested, you will need to stretch it out nice and thin.  To do this, I put down a clean tablecloth on my dining room table and coated the cloth lightly with flour.  Then put the dough ball in the center and start rolling it out with a rolling pin to get it as thin as possible.  This recipe should make a dough that is at least 4 feet by 3 feet.  Once you have rolled it out as much as possible, let it rest for a few minutes then use your hands to gently stretch the dough out even more, but be careful not to tear it.  When it is as thin as you can get it, cut off any thick edges and cut the dough in half.  Brush one half with melted butter and carefully lay the other half on top.  (You could also cut it into 3 pieces and do the same, but make sure it is extremely thin if you do this).  Then follow the filling instructions above.

I almost feel guilty posting this recipe, because these sandwiches are so tasty and addictive!  They are fantastic in their simplicity, and I can’t imagine anyone not liking them. I took these to a super bowl party a few weeks ago and they disappeared ridiculously fast, and I even got a few sad eyes from people who didn’t get one before they were gone, and not from the kids at the party.  That’s always a good sign! These are actually quite easy to make. I got the cookie recipe from www.smittenkitchen.com and they were fantastic. They hold up really well in the freezer, not getting too hard or too soggy.  I used ice cream from the store (Breyers) because my homemade ice cream always gets too hard.  The combination of chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream was delicious, but I think there is a whole series of these you could make: chocolate with mango sorbet, chocolate with peanut butter ice cream, chocolate with mint ice cream… I am also thinking about experimenting with this cookie recipe to see if I could remove the cocoa and make them into peanut butter cookies, or just vanilla cookies. Or even chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, or mint chips.  That would really make the ice cream and cookie combos fun to play with!  Anyway enjoy these sandwiches and if you are taking them to a party, leave some behind at your house, you won’t regret it!

Cookies from Smitten Kitchen, reprinted below for your convenience.  The recipe calls for rolling out the cookie dough and then cutting it with cookie cutters.  This way you can make fun shapes.  I rolled mine out but just used a glass to cut them into circles. Another option if you want circle cookies would be to shale the dough into a log and wrap in saran wrap and chill, then slice the log into the thickness you want. To make ice cream sandwiches, 1/4-inch cookies worked well.

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Making the Sandwiches

To make the sandwiches, let the cookies cool completely, and make sure the ice cream you are going to use is completely frozen.  Tear off enough pieces of saran wrap to wrap each cookie, and set aside.  Then take a large knife and cut the ice cream carton away from the block of ice cream.  Then cut the ice cream into the right thickness and shape you want, and put between two cookies. You want to do this as fast as possible, and get them into the freezer as soon as each cookie is made.  Or you can just serve them right away!

Another option would be to let the ice cream soften a little bit and then use an ice cream scoop to scoop the ice cream onto a cookie, and then smoosh it down a little with the top half of the sandwich.  Either way works well, so take your pick.

A few weeks ago, Mike and I took a trip down to Baltimore for the weekend. It was a great trip (we saw Owl City in concert, ya!) and surprisingly, we had two food epiphanies that had nothing to do with crab or seafood. The first night we wandered down Eastern Ave on our way to the concert and spotted a truly amazing, cash only (always a good sign), hole-in-the-wall taqueria. The menu was a chalkboard with four taco filling options, all in Spanish and the open kitchen was stacked floor to ceiling with bags of masa. I grabbed a “Made in Mexico” bottle of coke (cane sugar, yum!) and ordered dos carnitas, Mike hedged his bets and got one carnita and one chorizo taco. And of course, a side of guacamole. The tacos came out steaming hot on soft, double layered corn tortillas topped with cilantro, diced jalapeno with a simple side of sliced radishes. And we had our own tray of two salsas and a little bowl of delicious guacamole. For me, it was a taste of home and for Mike, it was a revelation. All he’d had before was the stiff, tasteless corn tortillas that we can buy at our Wegmans. (Funny aside, when Hunter and Laura visited us, we took them to Wegmans and asked the bakery staff where the tortillas were. Blank stare. “Oh is that one of those Mexican things?”)

Moving on to the parfait. We stayed at the perfect B&B for our needs. For those of you anti-B&B people in the crowd (yes, you.), this is not your normal frilly, share a bathroom and mandatory breakfast at 9AM B&Bs. If you search for the Blue Door on Google, you’ll see that others share my sentiment (70 positive reviews, unheard of!). So if you’re going to Baltimore any time soon, I highly recommend staying there. Conveniently located with beautiful rooms and those little personal touches that make staying at a B&B ever so much better than a stale hotel room (with the possible, just as stale “welcome” cookie).  And breakfast. Wow. Crazy good coffee that was so smooth, I didn’t even need sugar. And tropical fruit parfait.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear parfait, I think two things – Shrek. And Boring with a capital B. Parfaits were all the rage for awhile, and then Starbucks, Borders and every other deli stop picked up on the craze. Suddenly blueberry, banana with a hint of strawberry, capped with mushy granola became the norm.

This? This is not boring. This is a parfait that would make Donkey proud.

Tropical Fruit Parfait
Serves 4 extra large appetites

1 papaya, small chunks*
2 bananas, sliced
1 orange, segments chopped
4 fresh pineapple rings, chopped
yogurt**
1/2 cup granola***

*Papaya that isn’t ripe yet is GROSS (in my opinion) so read this if you’re unsure how to pick out a ripe one.
**We used organic vanilla yogurt for this. We eat Fage greek yogurt as a general rule but that wouldn’t work very well in this application.
***Fresh, fresh, fresh is in order here. I bought just a large handful from the bulk bin at Wegmans but you could make your own if that’s your thing. You want it to be light and crispy without too much extra zing going on to distract from the fruit.

Using a clear glass (choose your own size, all we had were pint glasses which make BIG parfaits, FYI), start layering your yogurt and fruit (e.g. spoonful of yogurt, then a few pieces of each fruit, spoonful of yogurt, etc) and when you’re happy with the amount, top with a dusting of granola. Serve with a spoon and a smile.

–These hold well without the granola so you can make ahead of time and then top with granola before serving.

Risotto is, in my humble opinion, one of the easiest and highest impact dishes a person can master.  For some odd reason people think its tough to make and quite honestly I have no problem with that.  Sometimes you need a dish in your portfolio that is perceived as challenging but can be whipped up with little to no planning.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A lot of chicken stock (either homemade, a large can, or one of the higher end cartons will do)
• 2 cups arborio rice (make a lot, it reheats pretty well)
• half a medium onion, diced
• Your rice seasoning (in this case a leek, a few sad twigs of asparagus and a few pieces of chopped crispy bacon)
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

First things first, take a small to medium sized sauce pan, fill it with the chicken stock, and then heat the chicken stock on medium heat.  You don’t want the stock to boil, just warm up so that it’s hot to the touch.

When the stock is close to being the right temperature take a fairly large saute pan (stick or non stick is your choice completely) and saute the diced onion, leek and asparagus (with the 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil).

Once the onion becomes translucent toss in the rice and using a wooden spoon or spatula gently fold the rice into the sauteed veggies.  Continue to stir the rice for the next minute or two, allowing it to soak up some of the juices.

When the minute or two is up take a spoon or measuring cup and start adding the stock.  Take it slow, you don’t want to add too much, just enough so that it is absorbed in a minute or two.  Make sure to stir the rice for the majority of the time you are cooking it.  I’m not going to tell you that if you step away from your risotto for two minutes to check the score it will be ruined, but you do want to keep the rice moving.  So be prepared to spend thirty to forty five minutes on your feet and stirring risotto.

Some people feel obligated to dump a bunch of parmesan cheese into their risotto.  If you want a richer creamier risotto, by all means, dump in a 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese.  I won’t judge you.  Just know that the dish you had before the cheese was plenty rich and creamy all on its own.

- Team Denver

Textured vegetable protein (aka textured soy protein) or TVP for short is our new friend. In case you’re wondering, we didn’t quite make it through our cleanse. The first 24 hours were pretty brutal with headaches, grumbly stomachs and incredibly low energy levels (duh, that’s what happens when you cut the fun out of your diet). I’m pretty sure I didn’t even send one email that day, which is saying a lot. So to those who endorse and love cleanse and detox plans, more power to you. I’m just not one of you!

However, there were benefits that came out of that special hell. One, coffee the next morning was absolutely heavenly. I hadn’t appreciated coffee like that in a long while. Secondly, shopping for the cleanse really opened my eyes to how much at the store is really not that great for you. We’ve overall been much better about eating less and healthier since then. And as of right now, we’re still subbing in one liquid meal (vegetable smoothie or soup) which not only makes you feel better but also is faster and in some ways cheaper! So from that standpoint, I recommend subjecting yourself to a well planned detox/cleanse for as long as you can stand it. It’s truly a memorable experience.

So back to TVP. Mike and I sometimes crave burgers and fries. There was a time when we satisfied that with a McDonald’s Angus burger. And then we moved on to hand formed 1/2 lb lamb burgers (can you say rock in your stomach?). And now, we are at the frozen veggie burger portion of our journey. Perhaps someday we’ll be hand grinding our own veggie patties…who knows! But until that day comes, Amy’s veggie burgers have been a great weekday dinner. We keep whole grain buns and the veggie burgers in the freezer, so they make an awesome “what’s for dinner” meal. Great served with sweet potato fries or a salad, we’ve found that topping them with sauteed mushrooms or sliced avocado really takes it up a notch.

Currently we like the California style Amy’s veggie burgers but there are quite a few to choose from. Here’s a sample meal plan.

Turn on oven to 400. While the oven is heating, saute 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms (per person that you’ll be feeding) in olive oil. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, garlic salt and a little cumin. Use a medium heat. While these are sizzling, cut up one sweet potato (skin on) into fry shapes. Put on a cookie sheet, toss in a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle with your favorite seasoning and put in the oven. Once your mushrooms are nice and brown, remove to a bowl. Add a little more olive oil to your pan and add your veggie burger patty (straight from the freezer is fine). Let it brown on medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Put your frozen burger buns in the oven and toss the sweet potato fries so that they cook evenly. Flip your veggie patty (it should be nice and brown) and top with the sauteed mushrooms. Add some shredded cheddar cheese over the shrooms and cover the pan. Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes. If the fries aren’t quite done, you can turn the heat off the veggie patty and leave covered. Make sure you take out the buns before they get too crispy! Once everything is to your satisfaction, assemble your burger and enjoy!