Garlic Thyme Butter

Garlic Scapes... I've never seen these weird things before! Once again, Google comes to the rescue! Garlic scapes are the shoots that grow out of the garlic bulb. They're a lot like scallions, but curl up into these adorable little tendril things. I found a lot of helpful hints on what to make with these garlic 'flowers', including some ideas for compound butter.

I don't know about you, but anytime I go to a restaurant that serves compound butter, the 'fancy' factor jumps up quite a bit. I've had cinnamon butter with breakfast and garlic butter with bread at dinner. The big question - why haven't I ever made it?

You can add just about anything you want to the butter to get the flavor you want. This time, I figured I'd use some of the garlic scapes and a little dried thyme. My mom is coming over for dinner on Sunday, so I thought this butter would go well with a fresh baguette from Sun Street Bakery's farmer's market stand and an Italian Sausage/Kale/White Bean recipe I'll post about next week.

Easy-peasy recipe: (substitute the garlic scapes & thyme for whatever else you want)

• 2 sticks soft unsalted butter
• 3 garlic scapes
• 2-ish Tbsp. dried thyme (I just through a bunch in. Go crazy!)
• sea salt, coarsely ground, to taste

1. Cut the garlic scapes into 1/2 inch chunks, discarding the top part (cut just below the bump).
2. Throw the the garlic into your food processor (or your handy Magic Bullet - don't judge!), pulse until coarsely ground.
3. Combine butter, garlic, thyme, and salt. Mine still had some small plain butter chunks in it, but that'll make it more delicious.

I saved only a little bit to use for dinner with my mom and threw the rest in the freezer. Wrap it up like a log in some parchment paper, and you can keep it there for a few months.

I promise it will be a showstopper at your next dinner party!

Moroccan Veggie Stew

It is now week 3 of my CSA summer, and I've definitely learned a few things. First, always eat the lettuce first. Always. I picked up a salad spinner at boutique Target, which has helped immensely. Now I have at least until Saturday (we get our boxes on Thursday), so I don't get as salad-ed out. The rest of the items in the box so far seem to last through the weekend, which gives me a chance to look up recipes and do some planning.

I'm late in posting this recipe, but it is definitely worth posting!

We got a bunch of lacinato kale (also known as dinosaur kale - rawr!) in our first box and I was stumped. I'm not sure if I've ever eaten kale, much less cooked with it. So... after a lot of googling, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The only change I made was dropping the lentils... they're not my thing.

Although it was a LOT of chopping, I thought this was a super easy recipe and it made my house smell incredible with all of those spices & veggies stewing. I chose to freeze most of it so I would have something when I didn't feel like cooking (which, believe it or not, happens more often than I care to admit). The stew is also delicious straight out of the fridge after it sits overnight!

Moroccan Veggie Stew

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 2 cups finely shredded kale
• 4 (14 ounce) cans organic vegetable broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 large carrots, chopped
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
• 1 tablespoon water (optional)

Directions

1. Combine cinnamon, cumin, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, curry powder, and salt in a large bowl, reserve.
2. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion in the butter until soft and just beginning to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the shredded kale and reserved spice mixture. Cook for 2 minutes or until kale begins to wilt and spices are fragrant.
3. Pour the vegetable broth into the pot. Stir the tomatoes, honey, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, garbanzo beans, and dried apricots. Bring to boil; reduce heat to low.
4. Simmer stew for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked and tender. Season with black pepper to taste. If desired, combine optional cornstarch and water; stir into stew. Simmer until stew has thickened, about 5 minutes.
   

Footnotes

Make Ahead Tip:

If making ahead or freezing, prepare stew through Step 3. Simmer for 5 minutes over low heat; remove from heat and cool in the pot or in freezer-safe container. Transfer to the fridge (store for up to 3 days) or freezer. The vegetables store better if not fully-cooked prior to refrigeration or freezing. When ready to eat, (if frozen) thaw in refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours, then pour stew into a pot, bring just to a boil, and simmer until heated through.

Adventures in CSA-ing.

Well, after a long long break... it's back to the food blog! I'm sharing a CSA share with a coworker of mine and I think it's the perfect time to get back into sharing my experiences in the kitchen. So... let's get to it!

Today was our first delivery from Hay River Farm. The farm is located in Wisconsin, but is delivering directly to Target HQ. Super exciting. Our first box included rainbow chard, dill, green onions, parsley, carrots, beets, radishes, baby bok choy, arugula, romaine lettuce, and kale. CRAZY! That's a lot of greens!



To get started on the right foot, I decided to make some quiche with the chard. The internet is a mighty tool, and I found a great recipe to serve as a starting place and made my own adjustments. It's in the oven now to take to work tomorrow, so we'll see how it turns out!

Rainbow Chard, Green Onion & Feta Quiche

2 T olive oil
1 c chopped onion (I used the green onion from the box)
1 pre-made pie crust
1 bunch Rainbow chard, stemmed and coarsely chopped
8 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream, half-and-half, whole milk, yogurt, sour cream…
salt and pepper, to taste
1 c crumbled feta (or other, grated) cheese

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, leaving some oil in the skillet.

2. In the same skillet, add chard and sauté until wilted and tender, about 5 minutes (or longer) and any liquid has mostly evaporated. Transfer to bowl containing onion. Stir to combine. Let cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Add onion/chard mixture and feta and stir to combine. Transfer to prepared baking dish with crust. Bake until set in center, about 45 minutes, or up to 55 minutes. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

Stuffed Peppers & Tomatoes

Until a few years ago, I wouldn't even go near a bell pepper - I think I was always afraid they were spicy.... silly me! Bell peppers are great for snacks, and good on fajitas and other dishes, but I think I like stuffed peppers the best. This is my roommate's recipe, and they always turn out great! The recipe makes enough that you can freeze some of the filling for another day (enough to make at least 4 peppers/tomatoes), which makes for a super quick dinner on a busy night.

Stuffed Peppers (or tomatoes!)
4 to 6 bell peppers (medium to large, use any color you like)
4 large beefsteak tomatoes
1 lb ground beef
2 T. Italian seasoning (oregano, basil, etc.)
3/4 cup white rice or couscous
1 can crushed tomatoes
salt & pepper
shredded parm or mozzarella for the top of each pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the rice according to package directions. Brown the hamburger, drain, and put back in pan. Add in rice, crushed tomatoes, salt & pepper, and Italian seasoning. Stir together. Cut the tops off each of the peppers & tomatoes. Scoop out seeds and ribs. Fill hollowed veggies with meat/rice mixture, top with cheese. Fill deep baking dish (I use a 3 inch deep casserole) 3/4 full with water, place peppers in water (water should be about 3/4 inch below top of peppers). Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until peppers are soft and cheese has melted on top.

The tomatoes take a little less time to cook, and can get by without the water bath, but it makes them nice and soft. If I'm feeling a little fancy, I'll use the fire-roasted canned tomatoes to add a 'rustic' taste.

Time for a spice rack!

I think it might be time for a spice rack... or just time to cook with more spices? We have an awful lot of little canisters!

Beef Stroganoff

This dinner came out of Lund's Buy One Get One sale - all sorts of good things were on sale, including egg noodles, hamburger, all kinds of good stuff. So... stroganoff!

I found this recipe on Simply Recipes.


I like my stroganoff to be very saucy, and as leftovers this one got a little dry. I recommend doubling the amount of sour cream/water - make it a little juicy, and then sop it up with some good crusty bread. Yum!

Pumpkin Soup

I made my first attempt at homemade soup last night, after cleaning out our pumpkins for carving. I figured it would be very 'green' of me to use as much of the pumpkins as possible. So, I made pumpkin seeds and gave the soup a try. To be honest, it wasn't spectacular - but I didn't follow a recipe, I just made something up. It needed a lot of spices to make it taste like anything - so if you feel like giving this one a try, don't be afraid of your spice rack. Oh, and I got to use the magic bullet! That's always a good time.

Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin leftovers, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 pint heavy cream
salt & pepper
spices, to taste (I used nutmeg, paprika, cumin, you name it, I probably threw it in there!)

Put the pumpkin chunks & cream into magic bullet, blend until creamy. Put creamy soup in sauce pan over medium low heat, stirring in spices to taste. Make sure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pot. Serve with some pumpkin seeds for garnish.

Country Apple Pie - Round 2!

I already posted the recipe for my country apple pie, but I had to post these pictures. I picked up a set of leaf shaped cookie cutters to make my fall pies extra special. Look how cute they turned out!

Champagne Punch

This post is long overdue! We made this punch for my birthday dinner. The dinner itself was quite the fiasco - I forgot to put the chicken I was making on a rimmed pan, so the butter leaked out and burned on the bottom of oven. The burning butter smoked SO MUCH that we actually had to drop to the floor of the apartment, open windows, turn on fans, and eventually LEAVE while the apartment aired out. Not exactly the way I wanted to start out another year, but as they say, shit happens.

On the bright side of things, we made this beautiful, delicious champagne punch. I have said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again; but THANK YOU Martha Stewart (and your underlings) for finding such delightful recipes. This one is super easy:


1 bottle of champagne
1/3 cup simple syrup
2 peaches, pitted, and cut in wedges
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries

(You could put in any sort of berry you like, but I definitely love the peaches in there - get creative!)

We made double, maybe triple the recipe, and everyone had quite a lot. It was fantastic! Even better, it doubled as our table centerpiece for the evening, as I put it in a very large, tall vase that we usually use for glads.

These pictures are from round 2 of the champagne punch, which Chelsea, Alexis & I just had to make another time - we had leftover simple syrup & peaches (darn!)

Eggplant Parm

My latest creation: Eggplant Parmesean!

I've been eating a lot of eggplant lately - it's exotic, rich flavor really adds a lot to simple dishes. Over the last month or so, my roommate and I have found some recipes like Tomato & Eggplant Caponata (a room temp veggie dish) and an Eggplant Tortellini (which is really cheese tortellini with a tomato & eggplant sauce).

The caponata dish, while delicious, was quite time consuming and I found it's more well received when served warm. The tortellini though, is an amazingly easy dinner to prepare, and it tastes much more complex and fancy than it really is.

Since we had been experimenting with the eggplant, and I found some gorgeous looking ones at the Maple Grove Farmer's Market last week, I decided to give eggplant parmesean a try. I LOVE chicken and veal parmesean. I've maybe had eggplant parm once, at a restaurant. Felt like something worth trying!

Eggplant seems intimidating at first - it looks much heavier than it is, it oxidizes as soon as you cut it (and I mean immediately!). But, I encourage everyone to give it a shot - it's just like cooking zucchini or other veggies - you just have to get to know it and give it a shot. :)

Here's my recipe for eggplant parm (serves 4-5):

1 large eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch slices (long slices)
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato sauce
fresh basil leaves
oregano
rosemary (I didn't have fresh rosemary or oregano, so dried is ok)
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 T. ground parmesean cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1/2 box mostaciolli noodles


Preheat oven to 350. Mix the breadcrumbs & ground parmesean cheese into a flat bowl. Dip the eggplant slices into the egg so they are coated, then dip into breading mix. Fry in hot pan with olive oil until brown. In a baking dish mix diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and herbs. Spread evenly over bottom of pan. When eggplant is finished frying, place eggplant over tomatoes. Bake for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes, sprinkle shredded parmesean over top, put back in over for remaining 5 minutes. Boil pasta, when cooked, drain & plate with eggplant. Use sauce from bottom of pan for pasta & eggplant. Serve immediately.

Delicious!!

Country Apple Pie

One of my coworkers brought me a bunch of apples from her parents' house the other day, and since I've been craving apple pie (or really any sort of pie) for awhile, I decided to give it a shot.

I've tried making apple pie before, but I've never been able to get the spice/sugar mix right to make the apples all yummy and gooey on the inside. Usually they just end up like sugary apples - more gritty sugar than gooey. But after some google-ing and a little reference cookbook checking, I felt I was ready. And it really did turn out great!

Here's my own recipe (which is a combination of several recipes I found):

1 lb.-ish (enough to fill the pie) tart baking apples, peeled and sliced
1 store-bought pie crust, at room temp
3 c. sugar
2 T. flour
3 T. cinammon (go to town here... use as much as you like!)
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
3 T. lemon juice
5 T. butter (in 1 T. pats)

Mix sugar, flour & spices together in small bowl. Place 1st crust in pie pan (preferably glass). Fill with apples, sprinkle with sugar mixture. Drizzle lemon juice evenly over apples. Place butter pats on top of apples, evenly spaced. Cover with 2nd crust (you can be fancy with the top crust or just go with the basic top like me!). Press edge of crusts together with fork, remove excess crust. Cut steam holes to vent. Bake at 375 for 1 hour, or until crust is golden brown.



Maybe on my next attempt I'll try making my own crust! :)

Comfort Food

Yesterday morning I woke up to beautiful sunshine. The promise of gorgeous weather after a ridiculously humid & stormy Saturday made me want a delicious breakfast to go along with it. I'm not much of a breakfast eater. In fact, I usually will only eat breakfast foods when someone else prepares them. Hopefully my future husband (whomever he may be) gets that message early on, cause it'll be a rare and special event that gets me cooking breakfast foods.

Anyways, I was in the mood for something... comforting. I centered on pancakes or french toast, both of which remind me of my childhood. My mom & I made a lot of pancakes and french toast when I was a kid - both allowed me to help with the cooking, and it was something we both liked a lot. Considering I don't have the recipe that I love for pancakes in my apartment (and didn't feel like calling home to get it), I decided on french toast.

We had some leftover italian bread - soft, almost Wonderbread-like stuff. Perfect, since I grew up on white bread that never died. Unfortunately, our eggs were way past their prime and we were out of syrup. A quick run to the store fixed that (thank GOD we live a block from the grocery store), and 30 minutes later I had my french toast.

For a single (large-ish) serving of "Mom's French Toast":

2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 T. cinnamon
1 T. milk
2 T. butter (for pan)






Blend together, soak bread slices on each side until thoroughly coated in egg mixture. Cook in buttered frying pan until both sides are golden brown. Lather on butter and drown in syrup... and enjoy!



It was good, but not the same, not right. I'm fairly certain that I will never be able to make it taste the same as my mother's french toast. That makes me a little sad, that I can't reproduce the flavors I remember from my childhood. I guess that's a part of growing up, be it slightly depressing, that you can't always have things the same. Perhaps I'll just have to convince my mother to make me some (as I'm quite sure that's step one of getting anything to taste better - have someone else make it for you!).

Restaurant Week!

One of the best weeks of the year has come and gone... "Best of the Best" Restaurant Week. I'm sure there are many cities around the country that have something quite similar, but here in Minneapolis, it is quite a treat. The best restaurants in town (and by best, I mean award winning, 5 star, expensive restaurants) come up with Tasting Menus for anywhere from $10 to $30 per person for lunch or dinner.

Last year I had the privilege of dining at D'Amico Cucina (where I actually ate skate, as is bottom-feeder from the ocean skate - and liked it!), Cosmos (worth the $30 just for the atmosphere, the food was quite delicious as well), Cafe & Bar Lurcat (AH-MAY-ZING!), and somewhere else I can't think of at the moment. All of it was spectacular. We even braved a blizzard to go to D'Amico, it may have made the food taste that much better.

Here's a brief synopsis of this year's delights:

Red Stag Supperclub - One of my first forays into the Nordeast Minneapolis (why haven't I been coming to this area all along??). The room is loud with the chatter of the other patrons, which adds to the atmosphere. Our food was good. Not great, but satisfying. Good beer! A bonus: Red Stag has decent deals outside of Best of the Best week, free parking, and live music quite a few days a week.

Barrio - Another of Tim McKee's great ideas, Barrio Tequila Bar is a storefront's width on Nicollet Mall. Barrio actually provides you with a tasting menu - fresh guac & chips, tequila marinated shrimp kebabs, mahi mahi tacos. Kind of fish heavy, for a non fish eater, but I still ate all of it, and liked it. Delicious cocktails as well! I had the blackberry mojito - oddly light for a winter night, but it fit well with the food. I can't wait to get back here in the summertime when the tables take over the sidewalk and the windows are thrown wide. Something about this place tells me it will be even better in the summer.

Chambers Kitchen - I've been told by a couple of people to make my way here, and Best of the Best seemed to be the 'best' way to do it. Chambers Kitchen is located in the basement of the Chambers Hotel. We went for Sunday lunch, and enjoyed a delicious squash soup. It is kind of like eating in an art gallery, which I guess is how it's supposed to be. The bar upstairs is even better - very chic and sleek, especially later in the evening.

Vincent: A Restaurant - This was the BEST of the best, the food was just to die for. Chef Vincent Francoual is a true artist. I had Coq au Vin, which tasted exactly as you imagine it should. Hearty and comforting, with no pretense or too much flair. There isn't anything wrong with a little flair when you're eating at award winning restaurants, but sometimes an honest dish is exactly what you're looking for. We saw Vincent out and about in the restaurant during our meal, greeting patrons, without any stress on his face. He loves to cook, loves his restaurant, and loves pleasing people with food, and it shows. Go there. NOW. I can't wait to get back.


I wish I had all of the money in the world to get out to all of the restaurants I would like to go to, but sometimes you just need a week devoted to food to encourage you to really get there (the prices can't be beat, either!). I'm looking forward to next year already!

Wayzata Eatery

The other day I had the great pleasure of dining at Wayzata Eatery for lunch with a coworker. Having grown up in Wayzata, I've seen quite a few businesses come and go from this location, and was curious about what the latest venture might be. I'm glad to report that the food was magnificent, the service attentive and friendly, and the atmosphere very "Wayzatan".

First, the food. I had the Half and Half, with the Reuben sandwich and the soup of the day; a Cream of Portobello Mushroom. The Reuben was a bit on the greasy side, but I believe it was only because of the way the bread was toasted. I haven't had many Reuben sandwiches in my life (it has become a craving only in the past few years), but this was very good. The true star of the day was the soup, with a great full-bodied portobello taste and a hint of bacon to round out the flavor. I could, perhaps, have eaten just the soup for lunch; but when eating somewhere new I do enjoy trying more than one thing. My lunch companion also enjoyed the soup and a Chop-Chop Salad, which looked very nice.

Our waitress was friendly and informative, I almost felt as if I was dining in her own home from the way she spoke about the food. Very much to the point but still descriptive enough to get me interested, which I like. While some foods do indeed deserve an introduction, most do not and I feel quite non-plussed at restaurants that do such things for simple plates. For dining during the lunch hour, I was impressed by the timeliness of our service (even with our non-complicated choices); it shows that the staff is aware that not every patron has hours to spare.

The atmosphere, I've decided, is very much "Wayzatan". There are old maps and pictures of Wayzata's crown jewel, Lake Minnetonka, hung on the walls. The tables are small and cozy, fitting for the space that was once an artisan bread shop. I was impressed that the space beared no resemblence of its prior incarnations, as so many restaurants often do. The spacing of the tables and the high-backed booths offers the intimacy one might need for date night or a power lunch; while the openness of the room allows for the symphony of conversations and laughter one would expect during Sunday brunch. The beautiful woven rugs and dark wood tones offer the feeling that you are in someone's dining room, rather than a bustling up-and-coming restaurant.

It's no wonder why this little restaurant has received some rave reviews from the Star Trib, Minnesota Monthly, and City Pages. I will certainly be returning!

Well, howdy.

My goal for this blog is to write a bit about my experiences with food - cooking, eating, restaurants, etc. Maybe a bit about bars/nightlife and weird Minneapolis stuff too. I'll post when I find a new recipe that I really like or don't like, and my tips and tricks. Sounds like fun to me! Hope you enjoy!