Something just a tad bit different. A riff on a standard Southern dish. Zucchini cloaked in a light custard, grated cheese added and cheese cracker crumbs sprinkled on top. Easy.

Have you ever read a recipe, thought you’d saved it and didn’t? Then 2 days later you go looking for it and can’t find it. That’s me. I was SURE I’d saved the recipe – I’d found it on somebody’s blog. Went to the 2 blogs I thought it must have been, but nope. Not there. So what’s a cook to do except hunt around on the ‘net for another one.

This recipe is very similar to hundreds. Squash casserole is ubiquitous in the South. Most of them are made with yellow squash, however. You could use yellow squash in this one, but I had zucchini.

As I write this I’ve just spent the last 5 days. 4-6 hours each day, going back in my blog for the last 4 years (to mid-2011) and adding all the posted recipes from my blog into my MasterCook software. What a tedious job that was. My buns were sore from sitting. My kitten kept me company in his little bed (one of those short cat poles with a round carpeted bed on top) waiting for strokes now and then. So at least I now have a record of all my blog recipes, but have still “lost” all the saved to-try recipes. There were hundreds of them. Oh well, so many recipes out there and never enough time to try them all anyway.

So, what I had was zucchini, Fontina cheese, Pecorino and some cheesy crackers – actually they weren’t Cheez-its (I never buy those anyway) but Trader Joe’s new cheese crackers. I don’t like them particularly, but they worked fine for this recipe which I knew I was going to make which is why I bought them. I’ll likely throw out the remainder of the box because they’re not good enough to snack on. Most of the recipes use Cheddar, or even American cheese.

I had a couple of leeks, so decided to use them, although they are not traditional in this casserole. They added a nice sweetness to the custard. I lightly sautéed onion and the leeks, then added the chunky zucchini in. I cooked all that until the zucchini was almost cooked, but not quite. That got poured into a casserole dish, a custard mixture (2 eggs, 2% milk and a tetch of cream) cheese was added on top, then the crushed up cheese crackers. I added the cream because I only had 2% milk, and the recipes I read all called for whole milk. You can do it all with 2% if you’d prefer. At left is the unbaked casserole.

Into the oven it went for about 20-25 minutes until the top was a bit crusty golden brown. The cheese crackers didn’t really brown, which was fine – it’s the cheese and the egg mixture that does. I let it sit out for about 5 minutes before I scooped out a serving. I’d made some salmon for my dinner. It was dreadful. Probably the preparation was fine, but the salmon had freezer burn on it and it just tasted awful. I ate about 3 tiny bites and threw it all out. I made a chunked up salad of tomatoes, mozzarella, red bell peppers and some Italian parsley. It made up for the awful salmon. I didn’t even want to put it in my trash (I don’t use my garbage disposal much anymore because it too easily gets clogged up) because I knew it would smell something fierce. The disposal made quick work of about 1/2 pound of salmon. Sigh. At right is the finished (baked) casserole.

What’s GOOD: it’s very easy to prepare and makes a simple vegetable very elegant and tasty. I liked the custard and the cheese. And the onions & leeks also added a sweetness. I could have done without the cheese cracker crumb crust – maybe next time I’d use saltines or panko. Or maybe if I’d used Cheez-its or Pepperidge Farms’ cheesy crackers it would have tasted better. But overall, it was a great dish. It could also be a very nice vegetarian entree.

What’s NOT: only that it takes about 15-20 minutes to get it ready for the oven. A bit of chopping and mixing. But worth doing.

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Simple vegetable. Roasted. Spiced up. Pine nuts added. Tahini sauce on top. Yum.

I’d bought a cauliflower a couple of weeks ago. On a day when I thought, oh yes, I’ll fix that in a day or two. Days went by, and I forgot all about it stuffed into the back of the bottom shelf. By the time I decided to do something about it I truly thought it would have been over the hill (spoiled), but it wasn’t. Surprise. I’d read this recipe at Food52 that sounded really good and worth the effort to make.

It wasn’t hard to make though it did take some time to do – cut the cauliflower into florets, toss them in a spice blend of ground cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Drizzle the cauliflower with a few tablespoons of olive oil and spread them out on a big flat metal baking sheet. Roast in a hot oven for about 40 minutes, removing half way through to turn all the pieces over so they get brown toasty spots on at least 2 sides. Toast some pine nuts part way, and add them onto the pan with the cauliflower during the last 4 minutes or so of roasting. Meanwhile, you make the tahini sauce: tahini, some lemon juice, garlic, and water added to make it barely pourable, and some fresh parsley. Pour the hot-hot cauliflower out into a wide platter or bowl, sprinkle on some more chopped parsley and drizzle it with the tahini sauce (some of what you made, not all). Done. I cut the sauce part in half (because the original recipe indicated you’d have left over sauce). Well, maybe I didn’t put enough tahini sauce on the cauliflower because even making half, I have a LOT of sauce left over. So I’ve altered the recipe below to cut the sauce recipe down by 2/3. You can always make more.

What’s GOOD: a delicious way to make cauliflower more interesting. I like anything with sort-of Indian spices. This isn’t exactly Indian – maybe it is – I don’t know – but the cumin and cayenne gave it a little bit of zip. Cauliflower doesn’t ever get crisp because it has a lot of water in it – but it did get toasted on the edges as you can see in the photo at top. I liked the tahini drizzle. When I tasted it as I made it I was a bit ho-hum about it, but I added some more lemon juice, which brightened the flavors a lot and it enhanced the cauliflower. The tahini, surprisingly enough, doesn’t overwhelm the cauliflower as I thought it might. It’s a good recipe, worth making if you’re adventurous about spices on a humble veggie.

What’s NOT: it did take a bit of fuss to make – roasting the cauliflower; and, well, cutting it up into florets too (maybe get a helper to do that part), whisking up the tahini drizzle, toasting the nuts – certainly a bit more work than an ordinary quick veggie. Warmed up (the left overs) weren’t so perky – couldn’t seem to crisp up the cauliflower at all and the nuts had gotten soggy. So try to eat it at the first sitting.

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Is it fall yet? Time for some heartier side carbs?

My son and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary (13 years) and they threw themselves a lovely sit-down dinner with all the bells and whistles – fine china, crystal – and they invited a few other family members. It was just so fun. Powell grilled thick ribeyes and a big slab of fresh tuna right off the day boat. I didn’t know what they were making, but was asked to bring a carb, so I searched around for something. It’s interesting that I decided NOT to make a potato salad (it is still very much summer here in SoCal) or a pasta salad, or a rice salad, or a corn salad. Nope. I’d picked out something and just couldn’t seem to get my arms wrapped around it, so I went back to look at other recipes and decided to make this mashed potato dish. I had all the ingredients on hand – thank goodness. I had some Humboldt Fog blue cheese in the freezer and I’d bought a bag of Yukon Gold potatoes without knowing if I’d be using them or not.

The most time consuming thing about making these was cooking the onions. Perhaps you can see in the photo, I used some red onion. The recipe calls for yellow onions, but I opted to use 1 yellow and 1 red. They’re slow-slowly cooked in a bit of oil and butter for a long time, stirring periodically so they don’t burn. Once they finally release all of the water they begin to caramelize (helped along with a tiny pinch of brown sugar). Once that’s done you add in some port wine. I thought I had a bottle of ruby port, but having searched through the multitude of liqueurs in the cabinet, I could only find Tawny port (which is slightly more aged port, that’s all). It took about another 15 minutes to cook that down until all the port was evaporated, but the onions then have this translucent red glaze on them. Oh my. I could have eaten the plate full of them. Forget the potatoes!

The potatoes are fairly straight forward – cook them in water – I halved the small Yukon Gold ones I bought – and I left the skins on, although you really can’t see them in the photo. They’re there, though. If you prefer, skin the potatoes first. Anyway, I tried to mash them with a potato masher and after many minutes of huffing and puffing with it, I gave up and got out the hand mixer. But I still had some little lumps after several minutes. They don’t bother me and I don’t think anyone else noticed, or if they did, they must have liked it that way too. Half and half is infused with thyme. I didn’t have any fresh thyme and I didn’t make a trip to the grocery store for it – so I used dried thyme and strained the mixture after it was heated and left to sit for awhile. I ended up adding a little bit more milk to the mixture to smooth it out – it was a bit too stiff. I chose to add the cheese into the potatoes early on (you can fold in the cheese and butter at the end if you prefer – I didn’t want little crumbles of blue. I wanted it to be mixed in well. Your choice. I piled the potatoes into a casserole dish and then added the caramelized onions to the top.

I made the casserole a couple of hours ahead and when I got to their house it was reheated in a 225° oven for about 35 minutes (uncovered).

NOTE: if you happen to taste the potatoes – by themselves – and you’re a bit alarmed at the blue-cheesy flavor, don’t be discouraged. I was more than a bit turned off by the flavor – blue cheese has a tannic taste – and I could definitely taste it in the potatoes. But paired with the (sweet) caramelized onions – oh, a match made in heaven. I decided that next time I’d make this I’d make twice as many onions just because they’re so good, and it’s nice to have plenty of onion to temper the blue cheese. So, I’ve upped the quantity of onions in the recipe below. In the original recipe, for 2 pounds of potatoes you use 4 ounces of blue cheese and use 2 onions with 1 cup of port wine. I’ve changed it to 3 ounces of blue cheese and 4 onions and double the port. Just so you know.

What’s GOOD: overall the flavor is wonderful – the blue cheese marries well with the sweetness of the caramelized onions. A great pairing. It’s a hearty dish, for sure, and goes well with a big hunk of meat (steak, roast, pork chop). I wouldn’t pair this with turkey (to me the blue cheese might overwhelm the delicacy of turkey). A chicken breast might be okay, though, as long as it wasn’t strongly flavored. Can be made ahead by several hours too.

What’s NOT: just the time it takes to make (caramelizing the onions and boiling down the port) but oh, it’s worth it if you can do it.

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If you’ve never made Calabacitas, you’re missing out. Really, truly, missing out on one sensational taste combination. If you want to know more about the dish, click on the link in the first sentence.

Really, this post is not about the calabacitas, although I’ve included the recipe below (again) and the pdf. If you’re inclined, just go to the original recipe – it’s a real winner and one I return to over and over.

Talk about favorites! This was my dinner. Just a bowl of calabacitas. Nothing more, nothing less. I tasted this at a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2007, and immediately came home wanting to know more about it. I think it’s the poblano chiles that MAKE it – those chiles have a very unique flavor, and this time I cut a corner and didn’t char the chile before using it – I just chopped it up and added it in. I was too lazy.

These days, since I’m cooking for one person – just me – I don’t go to the trouble to fix a complete meal all the time. My DH was always wanting a complete meal – meat, veggies, salad, an occasional carb. Sometimes I made a meat and 2 veggies. And I’ve found since I’m a widow, that making a green salad is more trouble than it’s worth. So I buy ready-made salads at Trader Joe’s. Sometimes I’ll use my own salad dressing, but more and more I’m lazy and use the tasty Trader Joe’s dressings they include. They’re all different. More often than not, I’ll have a TJ’s salad for lunch and then I’ll cook a dinner. Or, if I’ve been out and had lunch with a friend, I’ll have a TJ’s salad for dinner. That way I still get plenty of greens and some veggies they include. I have a couple of them that are favorites. I have some kind of Mexican chicken salad from there in my frig. Maybe lunch today.

We have a farmstand nearby and one of their first crops is usually sweet corn. I drive by it nearly every day. And this year they left the land around this farmstand fallow with nothing growing on the 10 or so acres there. The family who run this farmstand lease the farmstand space and they grow crops at other places in the county. BUT, at this time of year they have a big honkin’ sign they lean against the side of the small stand that says “SWEET CORN.” That means their farms are now harvesting the lovely sweet, white corn that’s always the first crop of every summer season. And when I saw the sign my mind just whooshed immediately to calabacitas. That was my CRAVING. I didn’t stop at the farmstand. I was in the wrong lane to get there, so since I was going to my local grocery store anyway, I decided to buy the corn there.

Surely, I’m a real snob when it comes to food. I admit it. I am. I like good food. I’m willing to pay for good food. I’m willing (usually) to go out of my way to find and eat good food.

And I learned a huge lesson making this dish, this time.

IF YOU WANT A QUALITY PLATE OF FOOD, USE QUALITY INGREDIENTS.

I purchased zucchini, corn and poblano chiles at the grocery store. Mistake. The zucchini was fine, and so was the poblano. But the corn? Oh my goodness, it was tasteless. Absolutely without taste at all. I should have stopped cooking – this was when I had used my wonderful handy-dandy corn tool to shave off the kernels and one errant one flew across the island. I retrieved it and into my mouth it went. Hmmm. Not much taste, I thought. I should have stopped then and there and made a trip to the farmstand or to the other local, independent market that usually has good corn. But I didn’t. I was lazy and said, well, maybe the other ear will be fine. No, it wasn’t. The corn cost me a dollar for 2 ears. At the farmstand they’re usually about $1.50 apiece; never again will I quibble about the price. I have 2 more ears in the frig. I should throw them out as I doubt I’ll eat the corn from them. I don’t know if they’re GMO corn. Probably. Albertson’s must have gotten a deal on the corn – cheap corn = cheap on flavor. Maybe most people wouldn’t care. Their loss, and certainly mine. The good zucchini carried the flavor along with the poblano chile, but the usual sweetness from the corn was missing.

So, if you make this, seek out good corn – taste it first. I don’t know exactly how you do that – grocery stores wouldn’t be very happy to see you flipping off the husks and silk to pull off a kernel. Well anyway, go to a source you know and trust and the corn will probably be good. Maybe it has to do with our drought? That’s a possibility, but our farmers are allowed to use the water they need (I think). It’s us residential consumers who are required to use 25-33% less water than we used to.

What’s GOOD: this calabacitas dish is sensational. I’ve been making it year after year after year, and until this time, when I used a poor quality corn, it’s always met my expectations. Just find good corn!

What’s NOT: nary a thing, except the finding of good tasting corn. Do seek it out.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much “over” hummus. And no, this recipe has nothing to do with hummus – I’m just ranting. I’ve just had too much of it. I don’t buy it for myself, and if I’m invited to someone’s home and that’s all they serve as an appetizer, well, guess I’d eat it. But I don’t seek it out. It’s like onion dip back in the 70s, and then vegetable platters with ranch dressing. But I do like to serve vegetables in some form as an appetizer.

So, when I was invited to a dinner, our little gourmet group, I brought appetizers this time, and that meant vegetables. As I’ve mentioned many times, my recipe to-try file on my computer is huge, but since all the recipes can be sub-categorized, I went through the appetizers and found 2 to prepare. This one and a red onion confit thing which I’ll post in a few days.

I do love vegetables. We should eat them twice a day, but I don’t. I prepare them for dinner only, and if I have left overs, then yes, they get eaten with lunch or for another dinner. But we as a population don’t eat as many of them as we should (unless you are vegetarians), so that’s why I prefer taking veggies in some form as appetizers because they’re GOOD for us, and they generally don’t fill us up as heavy, creamy dips do or bread things, or even cheese (which I did serve with the other appetizer).

These asparagus were already washed and pre-trimmed, so I did nothing but oil them a little and into a hot oven they went for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, I prepared the very simple oil and butter sautéed garlic sauce (low and slow, so you don’t brown the garlic slices at all), adding in the tiny jot of soy sauce (low sodium) and balsamic vinegar at the end. Once the asparagus was roasted, this warm sauce was poured over the top, and I used my hands to roll them around in the dressing. There isn’t very much OF it, so you do need to get all the spears covered with a bit of the mixture.

Then they go into a covered container – I suppose while they’re hot they may absorb more of the flavorings. I let the container cool down on my counter top first, then the tray went in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

This recipe couldn’t have been easier, although I did dirty up more dishes than I’d expected in preparing it. It can also be served as a vegetable with a dinner – maybe that’s how this recipe came about (over at food.com) – somebody had left overs and decided to serve them as an appetizer.

What’s GOOD: well, that it’s a vegetable appetizer. These are tasty. Not over the top, but they were good. Next time I’d add more garlic. I’ll be eating them (the left overs) as part of my dinner, I think. Do serve them with napkins, as your fingers will get a bit oily as you pick them up to eat out of hand. Everybody thought they tasted good.

What’s NOT: only that you want to eat them with your fingers – some people don’t like that when the item is oily, and these are. Not overly so, but you must serve with napkins.

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That photo doesn’t look like much. Where’s the tiny sprinkle of chopped parsley? Or maybe a green vegetable in there? Well, none. When I made this, I’d been home from my trip only a few days. I’d purchased the veggies (Trader Joe’s was out of zucchini) and chose the red bells, yellow squash and the eggplant. And then I was just so sick, making this became an afterthought. I did make it, I just didn’t eat it for about a week.

While I was in Italy, I was quite enamored with the trays and platters of grilled or roasted vegetables that were in every trattoria. Of course, each and every time we were served the antipasto, we had a big basket of bread to go along with it, and a bottle of olive oil to drizzle on anything and everything (they provide it on the table, like we do salt and pepper). So once I got home, this was the first thing I wanted to make. To figure out how the Italians do it, if it’s anything different than just rubbing oil on veggies and grilling or roasting them. My darling DH was really good at grilling sliced veggies like that, and particularly red peppers, but also zucchini and onions. I’m still far from an expert at grilling – it’s a new skill since I always had Dave to do it for me. Now it’s a hassle to me, to uncover the BBQ, clean it, oil it, heat it, stand there and watch the grilling, getting hot and sweaty, then waiting until everything cools off to put it all away (and covered) for another day. [Message to my dear DH in heaven: thank you, honey, for all the years of grilling you did for me, even weeknight dinners, and for always being willing to do it.]

I have a bunch of Italian cookbooks, and some in my upstairs, little-used bookshelves of cookbooks. I hunted and hunted for what I thought we’d had. Finally, I concluded that maybe it’s such a simple thing – just like I mentioned – oiled and grilled – that nobody considers it a “recipe” as such. I did find one recipe, though, that has you soak the veggies in an Italian vinaigrette for a day before grilling. Although I wasn’t so sure that had been done in any of my Italian samplings, I decided to try it. It’s certainly more fancy than what we had, but I figured it would be good no matter what.

Dutifully, I followed the recipe and soaked the sliced vegetables in the vinaigrette for about 24 hours. In that time the veggies soaked up just about every bit of the liquid. Because I wasn’t feeling all that great (the food poisoning I had was really kicking me down), I decided not to grill them, but to make it easier on myself, I roasted them at 350° using another recipe I’d found.

I have the most wonderful readers . . . my reader Donna W, who frequently leaves comments (bless you, Donna!) emailed to suggest that she was sure she’d seen a very simple veggie antipasto in one of Frances Mayes books, so I went looking for what books I have of hers. I don’t have her cookbook (Under the Tuscan Sun – the cookbook) but I did have Bella Tuscany, and sure enough, there’s a short paragraph in that book about a very simple grilled veggie. But by then I’d already begun marinating them, so next time I’ll try Frances’ version, which truly is grilling oiled veggies.

Baking them took about 45 minutes, turning the veggies every 15 minutes, and the eggplant was the quickest to cook through, so I removed that after 30 minutes. And although I like eggplant, the one I purchased was a fairly big one – and it was too seedy. (Next time I should try to buy the smaller, narrower ones.) I peeled it, which also takes away from the “beauty” of an eggplant. Once roasted, the eggplant takes on that kind of ugly brown look. Not pretty. In the photos I have from my trip, the eggplant was definitely done on a grill (grill marks visible) and it was definitely very fresh, because the flesh is still white-ish, not brown or gray. So, I suppose the eggplant was cooked over a medium hot grill – the interior was soft and silky smooth, but the outside still retained its shape. Next time I’d not marinate the eggplant at all.

Also, I must have been too liberal with the acid in the vinaigrette (red wine vinegar and lemon juice) so I needed to drizzle a bit more olive oil onto the veggies once they were done.

What’s GOOD: these were good, but I won’t say they were exceptional. Maybe when I was in Italy I was enamored with the moment, the thrill of being in Italy, eating in different little places every single day, exploring the varieties of vegetables they did grill or roast – like leeks and long-cooked cippolini onions. The other thing is that the vegetables grown in Italy may very well be more tasty than what we can buy here. I think organic veggies usually have better flavor, but I don’t think that’s what I bought here. Europeans are much more veggie-pure, I’ll call it – they are looking for flavor, not fertilizing for size and greedy prices! As I mentioned, next time I’m going to just oil and grill using a different, much more simplified recipe and I’ll try organic too.  I added more herbs (I had only dried, not fresh) and totally forgot the parsley at the end. In most of the trattorias they served red bell peppers, sometimes green ones, small eggplant and zucchini. Sometimes whole tomatoes also. Never yellow squash. It probably wasn’t in season yet.

What’s NOT: I didn’t think the vinaigrette added that much to the dish. Maybe my palate was still “off,” also because of my food poisoning I was still recovering from when I finally ate this. It may not have been the fault of the veggies or the marinating. Guess I won’t know until I do this again. I have some zucchini in the refrigerator right now, so perhaps I’ll try them, just them, and see how I do, if I like it better.

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Sometimes (maybe always, but I don’t think so) when cauliflower is baked awhile, it can begin to take on a kind of brownish tinge. When cauliflower is cooked through and through, it does have a translucence. You can see it in the photo above. IF you can overlook that part, and IF you like cauliflower,  you’ll find this dish very satisfying. I think I could just eat a bowl of this and forget the rest of the dinner. I do love vegetables.

And . . . well . . . this cauliflower is decadent. Not only does it have Gruyere and cheddar cheese in it, AND 2 cups of heavy cream, but it also has half a cup of blended whiskey in it. The recipe comes from Mary Ann Vitale, a San Diego chef and restaurateur (do note how that word is spelled – for the longest time, some years ago – I thought people were misspelling the word, I thought it was supposed to be restaurant-eur. But no, the n is missing in the word). Anyway, Mary Ann visited Scotland awhile back – maybe more than once, I’m not sure – and just savored the food. Everything about it. She sought out famous restaurants, probably befriended a few of the chefs/owners, and came home each time knowing she wanted to create her own version of several dishes, but keeping true to the traditional recipe. She recently did a class demonstrating  5 recipes from Scotland that all used Scotch whiskey. When in —-fill in the word — Scotland – – –  you use whiskey!

We talked about the whiskey in general, in the class – she loves single malt (once in awhile I’ll have some also, and I learned to appreciate its finely balanced flavors in Scotland many years ago – I still have a bottle of Dalwhinnie single malt – it’s a sweeter single malt with honey notes – I bought on the return trip – that’s got to be 20 years ago). In these recipes I’ll give you in coming days, Mary Ann used Dewar’s. A perfectly acceptable blended Scotch whiskey. This is not the time to pull out your very fine, and very expensive single malt. No, just use the regular stuff.

This is one of those recipes from the class. What’s unique about it is that the thickener used is oatmeal. Yes, oatmeal. Back in the early days, flour wasn’t always available, so they used what their grew, and oatmeal is a very good thickener, and you’ll never know it’s there. It’s not like you’ll suddenly get a taste of your morning cereal here – you only use 2 tablespoons of oatmeal anyway. The cauliflower, cut into florets, is cooked for about 5 minutes in boiling water (undercook them), drained and then placed in a buttered casserole.

Meanwhile you make a cheesy cream sauce with heavy cream, the Gruyere (a French cheese, but so flavorful) and Cheddar (make it Scottish cheddar if you want to be authentic, but any sharp WHITE cheddar will do, even a New York one), then the oatmeal and the whiskey. You add salt, pepper and a bit of nutmeg (freshly grated). The sauce is poured over the top and THEN you sprinkle the top with some toasted walnuts. Different, huh? And it’s baked for 30-45 minutes. When you pour the sauce in, it will be a bit on the loose side – that’s the way it should be – it thickens up as it bakes. And if you want to be able to eat all that luscious sauce, serve the cauliflower in a small bowl or ramekin. With a spoon!

What’s GOOD: Oh my. I thought every single, solitary morsel of this dish was magnificent. But then, I like cauliflower! The cheese, the sauce, and particularly the toasted chopped walnuts on top. Don’t overlook that part – it added a really nice texture to the dish. Unexpected, for sure.

What’s NOT: well, the cream and all that cheese. You can try cutting down on the quantity of cream and cheese – won’t be quite so good – but you’ll get the gist of it.

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Fennel isn’t everybody’s favorite vegetable. Some folks don’t even know what it is. It didn’t used to be a “regular” at the market, but it certainly is in my neck of the woods. Every market carries it, even Trader Joe’s (theirs are the least expensive I’ve found). I love the stuff – eating strips of it out of hand, or softly simmered in something until it’s silky tender.

Here on my blog there’s another recipe for fennel that’s probably my favorite – Baked Fennel – with Parmigiano shaved on it. It’s divine. I haven’t made that in awhile, but this time I wanted to make something different. I read about this recipe online (at Fine Cooking). I made half of the below recipe and I had ample left over. I sent most of it home with my D-I-L Karen, enough for them for a meal. Vaughan, my grandson, did take one itty-bitty-teensy-weensy bite and proclaimed a resounding “no.” Even though I told him it had orange juice in it. Nope, he was having none of it. He used to be much more adventuresome about food, but as he’s getting older (he’s 7), and probably with peer pressure at school at lunchtime, he’s much more picky. He doesn’t like whipped cream. What kid doesn’t like whipped cream? Well, he doesn’t. He loves green beans, though. I can always get a home run with him if I bring green beans. He wants food to have texture – whipped cream doesn’t have any, and this cooked fennel had very little (too soft for him, I suppose). But he loves marshmallows. Go figure!

Fennel does have a hint of anise to it  (it’s in the same family) – which probably turns off some people – but to me it’s very mild, and when it’s cooked, I don’t get any of that anise flavor at all. So if you’ve never liked raw fennel, you might like it cooked.

First, with this dish, you brown the wedges of fennel in some olive oil until they’ve taken on some golden brown tinges. Then those are removed to a baking dish. Then you add garlic to the pan, then wine and broth. The orange juice is added along with some toasted fennel and coriander seeds, salt and pepper. The orange peel strips (that you shave off the orange with a peeler) go in to flavor the whole dish. Foil covers the dish and it bakes for 1 1/4 hours. Hopefully you have a few fresh fennel fronds to sprinkle on top. At right is a photo I took of the dish before it was baked.

What’s GOOD: I happen to love the texture of baked fennel – soft and smooth. Easy to slice. It becomes quite bland when it’s cooked, so you do want to have some other flavoring (hence here the orange, fennel seed and coriander seeds). I liked it just fine. It’s not exactly a colorful dish, so the orange strips certainly enhance its appearance.

What’s NOT: nothing really – it was delicious.

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Do you often think of serving beans as a side dish to beef? Can’t say that I do, but these were really delicious with the Italian Beef in Barolo wine (you can see it in the background). They’re great on their own – the beans – and you could probably add some broth and make it a soup if you have any left over. Or better yet, whatever part of the Italian Beef (and sauce) you have left over, add that into the soup. Sounds like a plan to me!

When my DH was alive, because he was a Type 1 diabetic, I really limited carbs, and figured it was just as well for me too. Not that we didn’t eat any, just that I limited them, or we had very small portions. So, when I was at a recent cooking class with Diane Phillips, I certainly took note of the serving of a bean side dish with a roast. The beans were exceedingly easy to make, and were a very nice textural change. Diane said the roast could be served with mashed potatoes or noodles, but these beans . . . well, they were really delicious.

In the recipe below directions are included for both stove top and slow cooker. Both are easy – stove top takes about 2 hours, and in the slow cooker it will take 8-9 hours on low or 4-5 on high. Make these the day before you need them – they’ll taste even better. That way you’ll have the slow cooker available to make the roast.

Did you know how/why what we used to call a crockpot was changed to slow cooker? I certainly didn’t. Diane has written 2 cookbooks about using such appliances, and she knew enough to call them slow cooker books. Rival (the brand) trademarked the name “crockpot” decades ago, so only something made in a Rival pot can be called a recipe for a crockpot or a cookbook would only be published by their company. Interesting, huh? Diane also told us in the class that she followed the testing done by Cook’s Illustrated about any of these types of appliances. According to the tests, Rival brand’s crockpots run about 20° higher temperature than nearly all the other brands. She doesn’t use Rival at all. But she recommended the All-Clad (which is what I have, but I also use my risotto maker as a slow cooker because it has a smaller capacity (more suitable for me, now).

So, back to the beans . . . it’s best if you allow the dried beans to sit overnight amply covered in water, which plumps them up some and gives the cooking a little kick-start. You cook a bit of pancetta, garlic and fresh rosemary, add it all to the slow cooker with chicken broth or vegetable broth, cover and cook. How simple is that?

What’s GOOD: these make a really nice side to a tasty meat dish. Or it could be an entrée too, but I’d probably add more flavoring (like celery, fresh fennel, even carrots) if I were doing it that way. And remember my suggestion – after serving for an main meal, turn the left overs into soup with any other goodies you’ve got hanging around your refrigerator.

What’s NOT: nary a thing, other than you need to plan ahead – soak the beans overnight – make them – and they’ll be better if you make them a day ahead of serving anyway.

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Oh, how I love Brussels sprouts. I just don’t understand why some people don’t like them. My mother wasn’t very inventive with them (maybe back in the 50s when I was growing up nobody was very inventive with them) as she just boiled them in water and maybe added butter. But I like them even that way, though I sauté them rather than leech out all the nutrients by boiling them in water. But nowadays, there are so many more ways to make them interesting.

Often I just make halved Brussels sprouts sautéed cut-side down in a bit of oil and butter, in a pan and probably my favorite method is just to add a little drizzle of maple syrup during the last 10 seconds in the pan. I don’t even need the bacon, or prosciutto, or ham, or other goodies people often add.

My blog already has a bunch of Brussels sprouts recipes, but they’re enough of a favorite of mine I’m happy to add yet one more. This one is SO simple – bacon and walnuts (oh, and salt and pepper). That’s it. You do have to roast this in the oven, so yes, you do dirty-up two pans – one for the bacon and walnuts, and then a big baking sheet (lined with parchment – makes for easy clean-up) for the roasting part of it. This recipe is yet another from that marathon cooking class I went to with Phillis Carey and Diane Phillips. This is Phillis’s recipe. I eat my share of veggies, and I’m not a vegetarian, but I think I could eat an entire plate of this. The only fat in it is the bacon – and you do use the bacon grease (instead of oil) to lubricate the Brussels sprouts before roasting them. Altogether delicious.

What’s GOOD: this recipe isn’t going to send you over the moon – some of my other Brussels sprouts recipe on my blog may be more exciting, but this one was really good. Worth making as a variation. And all things considered, you could limit how much bacon you put in it and it would be fairly healthy. If you did that, you’d likely need a bit of oil to help with the roasting.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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