Garlic, Mushroom, Cauliflower, and Veggie Sausage Bake

Ever have one of those days where you look into the fridge and say OMG I totally forgot about X, Y, or Z - well today was one of those days. Last week I bought a head of cauliflower with the intention of making buffalo cauliflower tacos. I also purchased mushrooms for - not sure what the reason was but they looked delicious. 

I did a quick Pinterest ingredient search and found a delicious cauliflower, mushroom, and garlic dish. I added some veggie sausage and a green salad and - voila dinner. 

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (or ghee)
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 pound (500 g) mushrooms, cleaned
• 2 field roast veggies sausages - chopped
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large pan or skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion until softened (about 3 minutes).

2. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 4-5 minutes on all sides. Make sure the mushrooms render as much moisture as possible. Brown them a little more if necessary, to avoid the side dish becoming soggy at the end. Keep an eye on it so they don’t burn either ;)

3. Once mushrooms are well browned, add cauliflower florets. Cook until golden and crispy on the edges, about 10 - 12 minutes. Veggies must be well-browned.

4. Pour in the vegetable stock and cook for 2 minutes, to reduce the sauce slightly.

5. Add thyme, 1 tablespoon of parsley, garlic, and veggie sausage. Cook the mushrooms and cauliflower until the veggie sausage is warm. Season generously with salt and pepper, sprinkle with remaining parsley, and serve.

Thanks for stopping by!

Root Vegetable Biryani

Still cold, still slippery, and still winter. January is my least favorite month mainly because it’s too early to get my vegetable seeds started, the health club is packed with all the New Year’s resolution people (I know I know they’ll be gone in a few weeks), and the Master Gardener season is quiet. Tomorrow, however, things should pick up - I get to meet the interns I will be mentoring this year - I’m excited. 

I’ve also been considering converting some of Dan’s favorite Indian dishes - like Chicken Biryani - and making them vegetarian. Last night I pulled out the recipe that his mom uses and decided it was a good time to experiment. I chopped, sliced, blitzed, sautéed, and baked until it was done. 

One thing to note - root vegetables i.e. carrots, turnips, etc hold up and are better in this dish than zucchini or eggplant so keep that in mind when choosing your vegetables. I originally thought I had too many vegetables, but 2 cups of raw rice make about 6 cups cooked so it was fine. We served it with a couple chutneys (coconut and tomato) that we had on hand - it was delicious and it looks like we’ll be having leftovers for a few days and according to Dan - that is great.

Vegetables:

4 medium to large carrots - peeled and cut into chunks

2 onions - chopped

4 small turnips - peeled and chopped

1 large delicata squash - cut in half, seeds removed, and then sliced

1 small head of broccoli - break into florets

1/2 head cauliflower - break into florets

Mix vegetables in a large bowl with the following:

olive oil 

3T coriander powder

2T cumin powder

1tsp turmeric 

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 - 2 tsp red pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

In a blender add:

6 cloves garlic

2 large jalapeno peppers

1/2 cup water

1-inch chunk of grated ginger

Pour 1/2 of the blender mixture over the veggies and roast 400-degree oven for 25 minutes.

Rice

2 cups brown basmati rice washed and drained.  

2 cinnamon sticks

4 cloves

4 cardamom pods

2t salt

1t turmeric

1/2 cup oil

Fry rice in 1/2 cup of oil until kernels are opaque.  Put rice in a roaster or cake pan.  

Fry 2 cinnamon sticks, 4 cloves, and 4 cardamom pods.  Add 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp turmeric, and the blender mixture (garlic/jalapeño/ginger mixture).

Add the fried spices and blender mixture to the rice plus 4 cups of water. Cover and bake rice for 1/2 hour at 350 - stir once halfway through. 

Remove rice from the oven and add the roasted vegetables to the rice - bake another 30 - 40 minutes (covered) until vegetables are tender. If the rice is still firm, add more liquid and bake for an additional 20 - 30 minutes. 

Toppings:

Fry 1 cup raisins in butter until puffed (or if preferred soak raisins in warm water for 1/2 hour until puffed and then fry in less butter just to coat). Add 1 cup of cashews and mix.

Serve with tomato-yogurt raita.

1-pint yogurt (unflavored) - can use non-dairy i.e. almond, coconut, or oat

1/2 tsp salt

1 T sugar

Chop 1 large tomato, and add onion to taste.  Mix all together and add fresh cilantro to taste

2023 Book Update - I'm an avid reader as well as a cook. This year I will be adding a short shout-out to my post about what I've been reading. If you've read the book or have book suggestions, please put them in the comments below. 

For those of you science fiction fans - I recently finished Cetaganda - book 9 in the Vorkosigan Saga written by Lois McMasters Bujold - if you are a fan it’s a must-read. The book was written back in 1996 so it’s likely you’ve read it if you are a fan.

Fabulous Focaccia

It’s January 16th and already I am so so over Minnesota weather - complete with ice dams, rain, snow, and ice, you name it we’ve had it. And if the weather is not enough, the refrigerator in our bar area died - and I didn’t find it until things had gone south. I had to toss all of my pesto, some apple butter, and part of this year's tomato sauce - ugh. The good news is the new fridge will be here on Monday.

On Sunday we had Dan’s dad and a friend over for dinner. I’ll start by saying my father-in-law is the easiest person to have over for dinner; he’ll eat pretty much anything, never complains, and is always complimentary and grateful - you can’t ask for an easier guest. 

We had some turkey in the freezer leftover from Christmas dinner and some butternut squash to go with it. I added a salad, some onion gravy, and garlic, rosemary, and thyme focaccia. 

I found a recipe that mixed everything together in a single bowl (as opposed to blooming the yeast/sugar first) and I decided to give it a try. After an hour of rising, which was what the recipe called for, it was still sad and lonely. I decided to turn on the oven and let it rise on top and after an hour it was ready to bake. I topped it with minced garlic and fresh rosemary and thyme from my indoor garden and baked it for about 35 minutes. 

As you can see I tried a little corner before Dan took the photo - it smelled so good, I couldn't help myself!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, to drizzle onto the pan

Dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water

3T olive oil

1 1/4 t salt

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon instant yeast or active dry yeast

Toppings:

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped oregano

Instructions:

Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a 9" x 13" pan.

Combine all of the Dough ingredients, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 60 seconds.

Scoop the sticky batter into the prepared pan, cover the pan, and let it rise in a warm place for at least 1.5 hours.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

Gently poke the dough all over with your index finger. 

Drizzle dough with olive oil and add toppings. 

Bake @ 375 for approximately 30 - 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Turn bread out on a rack and cut it into pieces - serve warm or at room temperature. 

Cauliflower Parmesan and a New Year!

Happy New Year and welcome to my first post of 2023! The holidays were wonderful, we connected with friends and both families and ate way too much food. Dan and I hosted Christmas this year for 25+ people and it was great to be back together again - it’s been too long. 

We also celebrated with my family at my nephew Corey and his wife Orlean’s house - great food, great company, and lots of laughs. You know you’ve hit the gift nail on the head when your grand-niece screams the name of the book title you got her, it feels good to get it right. 

This winter we are staying in the frozen tundra and dealing with ice dams, snow (lots of snow to be precise), and cold. We are planning another European cruise with our friends Ann and Warren in May and looking forward to getting back out into the world and seeing new things. 

I’ll be mentoring new Master Gardeners, working in community gardens, and volunteering at farmers' markets. If things come together, I’ll have my own Community Garden this year, participate in a garden productivity project, and support the Growing Connections and Master Gardener Learning tour efforts. There are so many things to get involved with - it’s hard to do all of the things that sound interesting. 

I’ve been looking for new recipes and things to cook and I hope to up my blogging this year. While I’ve added fish back into my diet, we continue to have a plant-based diet. 

I found this recipe on the Eatwell 101 website https://www.eatwell101.com/cauliflower-parmesan-recipe. I served it with a green salad and we both agreed it is something we’ll have often. One piece of advice is to use freshly grated parmesan - it makes a huge difference

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower trimmed and sliced into 1-inch steaks

2 T olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 t Italia seasoning

1 c tomato sauce (I used the sauce from our 2022 garden harvest).

1/4 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese - divided

1 c vegan mozzarella cheese

1 T chopped basil

1/2 t red pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. To make the cauliflower parmesan steaks: Preheat your oven to 425°F (225ºC). Arrange cauliflower slices in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Roast the cauliflower steaks, flipping once, until cauliflower is tender and golden, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the cauliflower from the oven and top each cauliflower steak with marinara sauce. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and half of Parmesan.

3. Switch your oven to broil mode and broil cauliflower steaks until the cheese is bubbly and golden for about 3 minutes. Serve the roasted cauliflower parmesan sprinkled with remaining Parmesan, chopped basil leaves, and red pepper flakes. 

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by ❤️ 

A Simple Greek-Style Eggplant

Are you ready for the holidays? Surprisingly I am; gifts are purchased, decorations are up, and I’m going to bake cookies later today. We’re hosting Christmas this year for Dan’s family - all @30 of them - we’ll need a few card tables to get through the dinner part but other than that we’re good and looking forward to getting the band back together (so to speak). 

In my shopping travels, I’ve been searching for a cast/enamel brasier. I know you are shaking your head at this moment saying “girl those are for meat, you don’t eat meat” wrong. Dan did a lovely fish dish on Saturday and last night I did a Simple Greek-Style Eggplant that will definitely be made again and again. 

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that gets a bad rap - not everyone loves it - but I love eggplant in all of its forms - globe, Japanese, white, purple, red, striped - you name it I love it. Also known as aubergines, eggplant belongs to the nightshade family and is used in many different dishes around the world. Many people consider it a vegetable however, they are technically a fruit as they grow from a flowering plant and contain seeds. This year we grew a dwarf version of eggplant - it was prolific, had very few seeds, and was not bitter. 

There are also many health benefits they are low in calories and carbs and contain manganese, folate, potassium, and vitamins K and C. They are high in antioxidants and may reduce the risk of heart disease, and help with blood sugar control and weight loss. This simple and delicious fruit is a great addition to any healthy diet.

But enough about the science! Let's eat - also, check out that beautiful brasier. 

Ingredients:

1 large globe eggplant cut into cubes

1 large yellow onion - chopped

1 green bell pepper - diced

1 carrot - peeled and chopped

6 large garlic cloves - minced

2 - 3 bay leaves

1.5 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp dry oregano

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground pepper

dash of salt

28 ounces chopped tomatoes

2 - 15 ounce cans of chickpeas (I used 1 chickpea and one white Canelli)

olive oil

fresh herbs to garnish - i.e. parsley and/or mint. 

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place eggplant cubes in a colander over a large bowl or directly over your sink, and sprinkle with salt. Set aside 20 minutes or so to allow the eggplant to "sweat out" bitterness. Rinse with water and pat dry.

In a large braiser, heat ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil over medium-high until shimmering but not smoking. Add onions, peppers, and chopped carrots. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly, then add garlic, bay leaf, spices, and a dash of salt. Cook another minute, stirring until fragrant.

Add eggplant, chopped tomato, chickpeas, and reserved chickpea liquid. Stir to combine. Bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes or so. Stir often. Remove from the stovetop, cover, and transfer to oven.

Cook in the oven for 45 minutes until eggplant is fully cooked through to very tender. (While eggplant is braising, check once or twice to see if more liquid is needed. If so, remove from oven briefly and stir in about ½ cup of water at a time.)

When eggplant is ready, remove from oven, and garnish with fresh herbs (parsley or mint). Serve hot or at room temperature with a side of Greek yogurt or even Tzatziki sauce and pita bread.

Thanks for stopping by!

That's a Wrap - or is it?

It’s official, the 2023 gardening season has begun. After putting this year's garden to bed I planted garlic for next year. If you’ve never tried to grow garlic you should give it a shot it’s so easy to grow. You put it in the ground sometime between mid to late October, cover it with mulch, and forget about it until next Spring.

We are still working through last year's garden. We harvested about 20 honeynut butternut squash, 15 delicate (from one plant), and a few acorns. The green tomatoes have now ripened so we are working fast and furiously to eat them because I don’t have room for another batch of sauce - so it’s tomato sandwiches, Caprese salads, and tomatoes on pretty much everything. 

This year we got back to having a Halloween Party and it was fun. We dressed up as solar systems, cooked some appetizers, and carved pumpkins. Everyone had a good time! The next generation of pumpkin carvers joined us - my husband's cousin, his wife, and their little 2-year-old daughter got in on the carving action. Their daughter especially liked removing the pumpkin's guts. 

There were some great costumes - Marie Antoinette, Hippies, Aliens dressed as humans, the sun, and a couple of TV show characters I was not familiar with. It was great to see old as well as some new faces. And the pumpkins were fun - spiders, smiles, and ghosts.

 

One of my favorite things for an easy dinner is grain bowls. You roast some veggies, cook some rice (or whatever grain you have), chop some cold veggies and toss it all in a bowl with a sauce. You can add tofu or another protein but generally, I like it without. 

In our last grain bowl adventure, I added a simple tomato salad drizzled with oil and vinegar and topped with feta - it was delicious. 

Grain Bowls

Ingredients:

2 small delicata squash - cut in half and seeds removed

4 - 5 small carrots (we had some small purple ones from the garden)

1 - red or yellow pepper - cut into chunks

a handful of brussels sprouts - cleaned, trimmed, and halved

1 container of mushrooms - cleaned and cut in half

Spices - I used paprika, garlic, cumin, and a little cayenne pepper

1 - 2 T olive oil

rice - I had leftover basmati 

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep all vegetables as instructed above and place them on a large rimmed baking dish. 

Mix olive oil and all spices together and pour over vegetables. Toss to coat. Bake until cooked through. 

Tomato salad

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes - thickly sliced

a handful of spinach - used to line the serving platter

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

feta cheese 

Instructions:

Trim spinach ends and line the serving platter with a single layer. Slice the tomatoes and place them on top of the spinach. Drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the tomatoes and top with crumbled feta. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Northern Collard Greens - Vegetarian Style

October already - where does the time go. The tomatoes are winding down, the squash is maturing, and the kale and collards are ready to harvest. The temps are beginning to dip into the 30s and the possibility of frost is real - so it looks like fried green tomatoes are in our future. 

I’ve been ready to clean out the green bean bed but every time I go out there my little green frog friend is quietly sitting on the leaves and I just don’t have the heart to destroy his habitat so it sits there but I know one day soon I will have to take it down and he will have to move on. 

Every year I struggle to decide what to do with the collard greens. I really like them but when I think of them I think of bacon, ham, and black-eyed peas - none of which I love. I've stuffed them with a spicy tofu mixture and baked them in a rich tomato sauce. I’ve also blanched them and used them in place of a wrap for sandwiches or frozen them to use later in soups and stews but I never get rave reviews from Dan in either of those situations - the real problem is they are fibrous so you need some way to break them down. 

I’ve been experimenting off and on this summer and think I’ve finally found something that Dan gave the thumbs up on - Northern Collard Greens - vegetarian style.

Ingredients:

3 strips of veggie bacon 

1 lb collard greens

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 - 2 small summer squash - small chunks

1 cup zucchini - small chunks

1 - 2 veggie sausages thinly sliced

1/4 cup veggie broth - divided

1 T apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Microwave veggie bacon until slightly crisp. In a pan add collard greens, cherry tomatoes, broth, and apple cider vinegar. Stir gently over medium heat to combine for approx. 6 minutes. Add the zucchini, summer squash, veggie sausages, and a bit more broth and simmer until the collards have softened. 

I served them with a little leftover orzo rice and some baked acorn squash (from the garden). We'll definitely try them again. Thanks for stopping by!