Bacon Fried Rice with Brussels Sprouts

This was kind of stupid good.

I've been meaning to make a bolognese sauce for a few days, but keep getting derailed by other things. We had a bunch of leftover rice from Chinese delivery, and I also had some brussels sprouts and bacon to use up, so...voila.

I cut the bacon into ~1 inch pieces, cooked it in a large pan and drained out most of the fat. In the remainder I quickly sauteed 1 chopped onion, a few brussels sprouts (sliced/shredded) and a couple chopped garlic cloves. Then added in the rice, added a few splashes of soy sauce & sesame oil, black pepper & hot sauce. Then scrambled 2 eggs into the middle and mixed the bacon pieces back in.

I'd make fried rice more often - it's so easy and is a great way to use up leftovers - but I can never seem to cook rice to quite the right texture. Leftover Chinese takeout rice is the best!

Gourmet Star Wars Shortbread Cookies

OK, got pretty bad about posting on the blog. Sadly the CSA veggies kind of became more of a burden this year, as I was just too frigging busy to cook a lot of the time. However as I type this, I am enjoying some pasta with kale-arugula pesto, made and frozen from one of our last deliveries.

So the CSA's over; now it's just time for fun stuff. Christmas cookies. I got Star Wars cookie cutters a couple of years ago and at that time, made "regular" sugar cookies and spent quite a lot of time decorating them. They came out pretty cool (see below) but it was a lot of work!

This year I thought I would forgo the icing and made the dough itself in interesting flavors. I also went for shortbread, since...super simple and delicious! I settled on three flavors to match up with 3 characters:

- Dark Chocolate - Habanero Darth Vaders
- Cranberry - Ginger Stormtroopers
- Matcha Green Tea Yodas

There is also a Boba Fett cookie cutter...I probably could have come up with a fourth flavor, but I didn't think I wanted to make THAT many cookies.

For the basic shortbread dough, I used this for each batch:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 cups flour

For the Darth Vaders, I got a bar of Ghiradelli 70% cocoa, melted half of it in the microwave and added it to the creamed butter & sugar before adding the flour. I think I added some vanilla too. I probably could have added even more chocolate or maybe some cocoa...the dough didn't taste quite as dark-chocolately as I'd hoped. Before baking, I sprinkled the cookies with habanero sugar (more on that here). The baked cookies didn't taste particularly spicy at all, just a little bit of warmth that kicked in after a couple bites. I'd been cautious because the creme brulee I'd made with the habanero sugar (cut about 50% with regular sugar) was fairly spicy. So, I think if you'd like really spicy cookies you could add some cayenne/chipotle powder to the dough as well. Since I had the other half of the chocolate bar, I decided to melt that, dipped the "helmets" in it, and sprinkled on more habanero sugar. This did add a little more of the dark chocolate & spicy flavors, but they are still fairly tame (at least to my taste).

For the Stormtroopers, I chopped a good handful each of dried cranberries and crystallized ginger, and also added the zest of a lemon to the dough. These are really tasty, probably my favorite flavor of the bunch. Perhaps you can pretend that the cranberries are wounds from the stormtroopers getting shot. Errr...or not. I guess they never did much besides fall over and emit a bit of smoke from the laser hits.

For the Yodas, I added two tablespoons of Matcha (green tea powder) to the flour before adding that to the butter/sugar mixture. Matcha is a pretty expensive ($18 at Whole Foods for a Republic of Tea canister) finely ground high-quality green tea. It's a fairly intense flavor and supposedly has more antioxidants/health benefits than regular green tea. Y'know, to counter the .66 tablespoon of butter in each cookie. So...lovely color to these, and pretty intense green tea flavor. They are definitely a not-too-sweet (I even sprinkled them with some "sanding sugar" before baking) acquired taste of a cookie, but successful I think! Oh, I also added the zest of one lime to the dough for these, but could barely taste it. Could probably do a couple of limes if you want that flavor to be more pronounced.

The basic shortbread recipe I used said to bake these at 325 for 15-20 minutes. I did that with the first batch and they were not done (I also used "air bake" cookie sheets which take longer, I think). I upped the temp to about 335 and then even 350, but they still took at least 20 minutes to get barely brown.

Oh, and pro tip - if you make the dough the day before like I did, remember that shortbread dough turns back into pretty much solid butter when you chill it. Leave plenty of time for it to sit out at room temp before you roll it, and/or be prepared to use your muscles!

These were fun, tasty and different - and definitely MUCH less work than meticulously painting icing on like I did before:

Happy holidays, and may the force be with you!

Roasted Veggie Extravaganza with Black Rice & Spinach

One of the best things I've eaten this year was a meal at Life Alive, a vegetarian restaurant in Lowell, MA (and they have some other locations in MA). We ate there a few months ago on tour. Reading the menu, I was prepared for a healthy but "crunchy hippie" bowl of vegetables. Well, it was...but it was SO good! I'd gotten their signature "Goddess Bowl" which was beets, broccoli, carrots, kale & tofu over brown rice, with a creamy ginger-miso sauce. I also added avocado and a hard-boiled egg, which upped the deliciousness. What I really liked about it was that all the veggies were cut very small, so you didn't feel like you were chewing huge amounts of plant matter.

The last couple weeks of the CSA have brought a lot of lovely fall root vegetables. I thought I would use the Life Alive dish as inspiration and roast a bunch of these, over black rice for some nice color contrast. The result was a tasty rainbow:

Now...lest you think I am delving into a truly healthy vegetarian lifestyle with this dish...nope. I will still happily devour a greasy patty melt & fries at my local diner, or down a whole box of Kraft Mac & Cheese post-gig (made with half a stick of butter and half & half, no less). But sometimes you need to cleanse. And sometimes you just have A LOT OF FREAKING VEGETABLES you have to use up.

So...here are the players:

Sweet potato, golden beets (I'd actually been hoping for red for the nice color contrast, but golden beets are delicious and don't stain everything they touch), orange cauliflower (fun!), turnips and radishes (which I'm not a fan of raw, but I like them roasted).

Pretty golden beets!

This involved more cutting/prep work than I'm usually game for, but...it was a lazy day off. So I cubed everything very small:

Everything got tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper. And I added Penzey's Turkish Blend to the sweet potatoes & cauliflower. I think some Black & Red ended up somewhere too.

I roasted these on separate baking sheets and was able to do everything in "one batch" between the oven and toaster oven. Temp at 400 and I turned it down a bit after the first 15 minutes. The cauliflower & radishes were done in 15 minutes or less; the sweet potatoes & turnips in about 20-25 and the beets took the longest at about 30. I also turned the broiler on for a couple of minutes to get the beets crispier. Let these all cool for a bit as I was thinking the finished dish would be nice at room temp.

The roasted veggies (beets cooked way down!):

Meanwhile I cooked some black rice (also called Forbidden Rice). This has a nice chewy texture and nutty taste, and it apparently has lots of antioxidants & good stuff in it. I also chopped up some fresh spinach leaves and gave them a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

To serve, I put the rice in a bowl and mixed the raw spinach into it, which wilted it a bit. Then I put a couple spoonfuls of each veggie on top, and garnished with some goat cheese and Trader Joe's Goddess dressing thinned with a little lemon juice.

Really, really tasty. Would have been even better with some avocado and/or nuts/seeds, but made a nice healthy dinner with plenty of leftovers.

So there's a huge "FrankenStorm" on the way to our area. When I was at Safeway today I thought the one thing I might need in case I have to be holed up in the house for awhile was...Doritos. So y'know, good thing I'm getting the veggies in too.

Fall Vegetable Curry, Apple Streusel Cake

This curry used up one of the giant sweet potatoes we got yesterday, plus a bunch of kale and the rest of the cubed butternut squash I had in the freezer:

Started by sauteeing onion, garlic and ginger. Added in the squash & sweet potatoes. I have no idea what quantity of spices went in, but I believe I used cumin, coriander, cardamom, two kinds of curry powder, Penzey's tandoori spice, and black pepper. Perhaps overkill...but I thought it could have been even spicier!

Then I added chicken broth to barely cover (you could use vegetable broth or water to keep this vegan), plus about a tablespoon of tomato paste. Cover and cook until vegetables are tender. Then I stemmed & chopped a bunch of kale and added that. After it cooked down a bit I added a can of chickpeas, and a can of coconut milk. I really need to use that more often...it's so good! To finish, plenty of hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon. Fresh cilantro would be nice in this but I didn't have any. Served over brown basmati rice.

For dessert: apple streusel cake! After perusing tons of apple cake recipes and almost making this one from the Washington Post, I decided to go with this one from Joy of Baking - looked pretty simple. I added in a chopped apple to the cake batter, but otherwise followed the recipe. The cake layer didn't rise very much and it was a small amount of batter. Also I thought the streusel needed more butter. But...not bad!

Had this with some Häagen-Dazs Creme Brulee ice cream (also not too shabby, but Ben & Jerry's wins on that flavor).

Kale-Arugula Salad, Mystery Roasted Tubers

I've been doing pretty well lately at using up lots of the CSA veggies at once. A few days ago I made jambalaya from Zatarain's mix, throwing in red onion, green pepper, diced kohlrabi, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes & cilantro.

Tonight's dinner also used several veggies. I made the massaged kale salad again and also added arugula (but no cheese--which I missed--and no dried cranberries). We also got some sort of mystery root vegetable this week - it wasn't labeled on the list. The tubers looked a little like overgrown parsnips but I don't think they were. They were pretty fibrous. I figured whatever they were, they'd be good roasted, so I peeled & cubed them with a couple small turnips, tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper and smoked paprika, and roasted at 400 for about half an hour. Yep, pretty hard to ruin any root vegetable that way!

I also made crispy roasted chicken thighs, mostly following this recipe. Very good...but note to self, I need to buy a spatter screen!

Fall Farm Salad

This may have been the most random salad I've ever made, but it was also one of the tastiest. And everything except for the dressing, pecans and the bread for the croutons was from either our One Straw CSA or from Marker Miller Orchards in VA (we stopped there for cider donuts after a visit to the gloriously kitschy Dinosaur Land).

The rundown:

-Arugula
-Cauliflower
-"Kentucky Black" Apples
-Kohlrabi, cut into small cubes
-Cherry tomatoes
-Red spring onions
-Purple basil
-Bacon (from a local VA farm)
-Homemade croutons
-Pecans

First I cooked the bacon in the oven on a sheet pan. Then tossed the cauliflower florets (cut small), bread cubes & pecans in the bacon drippings and roasted those in the oven (oh yeah!). That was tossed with the rest of the items. Trader Joe's Goddess dressing and...happy local(ish) salad!

We also picked up this at Marker Miller Orchards, it's from Peaks Of Otter Winery:

Hwa! Yeah, that had a bite. Good stuff.

Cajun Shrimp Pasta

I made this to use up some odds & ends: green peppers & garlic from the CSA, garden grape tomatoes, and the heavy cream from last week's creme brulee!

Quantities totally adjustable here depending on what you like and how much you're making. Sausage would be great in this too.

- Shrimp, peeled & tails off (or chicken or other protein)
- Cajun seasoning
- Sliced onion
- Sliced bell peppers
- Chopped garlic
- Chopped tomato
- Heavy cream (I really recommend not omitting this, but if you must...)
- Hot sauce
- Cooked pasta (I used whole wheat linguine)
- Sliced green onions (and/or cilantro) for garnish

Toss the shrimp with cajun seasoning. Sear in a hot pan in a little olive oil until just cooked; remove to a bowl.

Add onion to pan (with more oil if necessary), cook until starting to brown. Add peppers & a little more Cajun seasoning.

Add garlic, stir briefly, then add chopped tomato. Cook just until tomato softens.

Add some of the pasta cooking water to loosen things up (if you have some white wine open, that'd be even better). Add heavy cream and a good dose of hot sauce. Warm just until slightly thickened and add cooked shrimp.

Toss with hot pasta and garnish with sliced green onions (and/or cilantro, parsely, etc).

I drank a watermelon spritzer with this (watermelon juice + club soda). We've had a watermelon from the CSA in the house for oh...probably about a month now. You may think there's something wrong with that. It's just such a commitment once you cut it open! And our fridge space is always at a premium. So I decided to go ahead and juice it today. It was a little mealy so I think juice was the right way to go!