I am officially done with my holiday shopping and now it’s time to start enjoying the holiday season. The tree is up, the mantel is decked out and we did our grocery shopping for Christmas dinner last night and yes there will be turkey - just not for me.
If I’m going to indulge in turkey I’ll save that for Dan’s homemade turkey soup, which he makes the day after Christmas with the turkey carcass. He boils it for hours until he has a rich and golden broth. Then he puts it outside and waits for the fat to rise to the top. He removes the fat, skims the bone and skin out and then adds, leftover turkey, carrots, celery, onions and spices - it is a favorite around here even with the vegetarians in the house - everyone has their guilty pleasures and this one is mine.
For those of you who are not in Minnesota or the Midwest, you might have missed the plunging temps we’ve had around here. Last weekend the temps dipped to -16 - yep it was cold but we still managed to have dinner at a new restaurant with some good friends on Saturday evening and we went to Orchestra Hall on Sunday and then dinner at the Red Stag Supperclub on Sunday.
I’ve been to the Red Stag a couple of times for breakfast with girlfriends, the restaurant is located next to the Herbivorous Butcher, which as you know is a favorite haunt of mine. I’ve wanted to take Dan there for breakfast for a while they have a roasted root vegetable hash that is simply delicious but we’ve not made it there yet. All of that changed on Sunday when I looked at the dinner menu - they had many vegetarian options - what a pleasant surprise.
We started with a flatbread that was a combination of baba ganoush topped with green olives, feta and almonds. The smokey flavor of the ganoush, the briny olives and the cheese and almonds totally worked - I’m hungry just thinking about it. For an entree I had a roasted butternut squash that was topped with mushrooms, kale, parsnips and other root vegetables and served with a grape mostard sauce on the side - it too was delicious.
After all that eating out it was time to start eating the great veggies in our fridge. I found a recipe for cauliflower fried rice and we had some tofu in the fridge so I decided to give it a try. The cauliflower rice took a little more than 30 minutes to make from start to finish. I made a couple of adjustments; first I used edamame instead of regular peas because that is what I had in the freezer. Second it needed additional spicing so I included 1.5 times the garlic, some ginger and crushed red pepper - which of course made it perfect!
The recipe is here: http://bestrecipebox.com/recipes/cauliflower-fried-rice/
Dan cooked the tofu perfectly; crisp on the outside and delicious on the inside. We tossed it into the “rice” and then topped it with green onions. Lucky for us there were leftovers we had them for dinner again last night. Now off to wrapping those presents, some cleaning (you know before the person who does the cleaning comes because you don’t want her to think you are messy - I know not logical) and baking - it’s going to be another great holiday.
Wishing you and yours a safe, happy and healthy holiday season.
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