Summertime in the Kitchen

The end of summer has brought an avalanche of good food to our home, both because of emerging dietary needs and desires to try something a bit different.  Some of the experiments have been a success while others have been, well, less successful.  

Side Note:  Do you refer to your favorite chefs by their first name?  We do.  Mark (Bittman).  Heidi (Swanson).  Alton (Brown).  Julia (Child).  I’m sure there’s a few I’m forgetting, but these are the ones that spring to mind.

Kelly sent me a link a few months ago for homemade Cliff bars, and I decided to give them a try.  Sadly, the end result resembled peanut buttery rice krispies more than an energy bar.  I may have scrimped on the peanut butter (using chunky instead of smooth) and using Agave Nectar instead of Brown Rice Syrup.  Smooth peanut butter would have been a little creamery and I would have used more Brown Rice syrup than agave, which I think would have made the difference.  A little more glue and a little less substitutions and I’d have bars.  Instead I have a crumbly snack.

Not to be discouraged, I next tackled a recipe for grilled portobello mushrooms and pesto mayonnaise.  Becoming curious, I checked with Alton and decided to make my own mayo, which turned out to be easy and very tasty.  

I’d say the grilled mushrooms (which I marinated) with the mayo and some avocado made for the prettiest meal I’ve made in a while.  Although, truth be told, the presentation points should be given to Kelly.

My first attempt at arrangement had me tossing the avocado into a pile.  While I got my camera ready, Kelly was kind enough to rearrange them a bit.

To round out a week of good cooking, I worked on two of Heidi’s cookie recipes (second recipe) and ventured into Saint Paul’s premiere fish market, although I didn’t do anything interesting enough with it to post.  

How long will my desire to cook good food and write regular blog posts hold out?  Not sure, but at least it’s made for an interesting week or two.  

Doing the winter shuffle

It's entered that point in winter where I'm just waiting for Spring, which is sad because this has been the easiest winter in Minnesota that I've ever experienced.  We've been above freezing more than below it, and there's been almost no snow whatsoever.

Still, it's chilly, and I want to build some gardens in our new backyard, go running on the weekends and bike to work during the week.  All of which would be possible in the winter, I guess, but I'm a weeny.

Winter doesn't mean we have to eat ugly foods, though.  I love to eat with the seasons, and root vegetables, for the most part, aren't known for their visual appeal.  It seems unfair doesn't it?  When everything else is dreary and gray, it seems like food should offer an alternative.  I think it does if you search for it and don't give in to the easy appeal of processed foods.  I found this recipe off of 101cookbooks.com, one of my favorite websites to find yummy vegetarian ideas, and decided to give it a try.

Some purple and green cabbage, mixed with some onion, carrots and parsley.

I did mess up the recipe, so it didn't turn out super well.  It calls for roasted sesame seeds and tahini.  We had tahini but no sesame seeds, but we figured it didn't matter since tahini is sesame seeds and that maybe the roasted sesame was just for visual appeal.  Nope, I made it, we ate it and agreed it was definitely missing something like a roasted seed or nut of some kind, just for an extra flavor boost.  Oh well, next time I guess.

(Sorry for the picture quality of this last one)