Spicy Carrot Salad

The kittiesx3 household adores spicy food—the spicier the better. And this dish is spicy. It’s also ridiculously tasty and very nutritious too. Let’s put it this way. One person in my home dislikes carrots but makes an utter pig of himself when I serve this dish. I’m lucky to get any.

Ingredients:

4—5 carrots, peeled and shredded in a food processor or by microplane
Pinch each of salt and sugar
1 T canola oil
1 t cumin seeds
1 t dry mustard seeds
1 t sesame seeds
½ t cumin
¼ t hot red pepper powder (we make it with ½ t and it is HOT)
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
1 t fresh lime juice (substitute lemon if that’s what you have on hand)

Directions:

1. Add the pinches of salt and sugar to the shredded carrots, mix and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the cumin, dry mustard and sesame seeds. Heat until the sesame seeds begin to pop. Remove from heat.
3. Add the cumin, hot red pepper powder to the saucepan and stir.
4. Stir in the chopped cilantro and lime juice.
5. Add the mixture from the saucepan to the shredded carrots and mix well.
6. Chill.
7. Enjoy!

Sliced Baked Potatoes--Two Versions!

Version 1

Version 2

How do you find new recipes? I find a lot of mine while eating out or surfing the web. I ran across an image for this recipe a couple of weeks ago on Pinterest (if you want an invitation, let me know). Well I like potatoes, and these seemed pretty interesting so I thought I’d give it a try. We tend to go meatless a couple of days a week and this looked like a hearty, meatless entrée to me.

I googled sliced baked potatoes and found a handful of recipes so I sort of combined them all together to create my own.

Be warned, my version isn’t a hands-off recipe. You’ll need to tend to your potatoes about every 10 minutes until they are cooked.

Ingredients:

2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed and with the skin on
4 T butter, melted
½ C shredded cheese, your choice (I use cheddar/jack cheese from Costco)
Italian seasoning to taste

Directions:


Version 1

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Place two wooden spoons on a cutting board about as far apart as your potatoes are wide. Use the handles to hold your potato in place as you slice the potatoes and to keep you from slicing all the way through. You want the bottom of the potato to remain intact. Also, slice thinly—my slices are about ¼ inch wide.
3. Place the sliced potatoes in a baking pan. I use cooking spray only because I wanted an easier clean up session afterwards.
4. Carefully open your sliced potatoes and drizzle the melted butter across them. Don’t worry when it runs out the sides—you will be basting the potatoes with this butter throughout the cooking process.
5. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning on the potatoes and try to get some inside the slices.
6. Bake for a total of 60 minutes. Important! About every 10 minutes, pull the potatoes out and re-baste with the butter. Also turn them over. That will let all the skin get a butter bath.
7. After 60 minutes, remove from the oven.
8. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the potatoes and return to the oven for about 10 minutes.
9. When done, place each potato in a shallow bowl. Pour the remaining melted butter over the potatoes.
10. Enjoy!

Version 2

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Slice the potatoes into thin slices, preferably about ¼ inch wide.
3. Pour about half of the melted butter into a large baking dish (9x13) that’s been sprayed with cooking spray. Tilt the pan around until you’ve coated the entire bottom of the pan.
4. Place the sliced potatoes in the so that the slices are in no more than two layers. Ideally you want just one layer of potatoes.
5. Drizzle the melted butter across the slices.
6. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning on the slices.
7. Bake for about 60 minutes. About every 15 minutes, pull the potatoes out and flip them. This helps a lot with ensuring the potatoes brown evenly.
8. After 60 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the shredded cheese over the potatoes. Bake for another five minutes or until the cheese is all melted.
9. Serve with sour cream if you feel decadent.
10. Enjoy!

Cream of Garlic Soup

I was watching the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate and they were talking about the best garlic dishes they have ever had. Someone on there showed this amazing looking garlic soup. I thought to my self, I must try that. So after looking over different garlic soup recipes on the web this is what I came up with.

This soup had the most amazing sweet garlic flavor you can imagine. It's not pungent garlic, but sweet. In other words, you won't sweat garlic for the next year after eating this. But, if you don't like garlic, I mean really like garlic, you may just want to pass on this one.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of garlic cloves
3 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup vermouth (you can substitute any white wine)
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peeled potatoes (some recipes use bread cubes instead, could be worth a shot)
Croutons

Directions:

1. Mash garlic into a paste. I use my mortar and pestle, but a food processor would work.
2. Add garlic and oil to your pot and cook garlic until it begins to color, stir often. Don't burn it!
3. Add chicken broth and vermouth.
4. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes.
5. Add milk, cream, and potatoes and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
6. Enjoy the smell of garlic that has not permeated your home!
7. Puree soup in a blender and then return to your pot to simmer.
8. Simmer for another 30 minutes or longer.
9. Ladle into a bowl and top with croutons.
10. Enjoy!

Croutons!

So if you have some bread (maybe even some you made from a recipe on this site!) that has gotten a bit stale, you should make croutons. These are simple, take so little time, and are a great way to get the most out of bread.

Ingredients:
Bread
Oil
Seasonings

Directions:

1. Cut the bread into cubes.
2. Put bread into a bowl and put olive oil over the bread.
3. Season the croutons. I like to use a high quality seasoned salt and some parsley. You could do parsley and garlic salt for Italian style, or anyway that sounds good to you.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
5. Spread bread out on cookie sheet.
6. Cook for 10 minutes and then stir the bread.
7. Continue cooking until the bread cubes have a bit of a crunch to them. They should brown some, but not burn.
8. Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread

This style of bread hit the food world a few years ago and was made famous by the NY Times article on it. If you have never tried this, you really should, it is extremely easy and has fantastic results. The bread is airey and crusty and a perfect compliment to many meals.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 5/8 cup of water

Directions:

1. Mix flour, yeast, salt, and water in a bowl.
2. Cover and let sit for 12-18 hours.
3. Dough will be bubbly on top when ready.
4. Remove from bowl with a spatula onto a floured surface.
5. Shape dough into a ball. Use only enough flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.
6. Generously flour a towel. Put dough on towel.
7. Let rise for 2 hours, should double in size.
8. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
9. Place cast-iron or similar pot in oven to heat.
10. After pot and oven are heated plop the dough in the pot.
11. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
12. Uncover and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
13. Enjoy!

Macaroni and Cheese

When Ben was little, I bowed to the tyranny of a two year old and made mac & cheese from the blue box. But honestly that stuff is expensive and full of strange ingredients. Plus I dislike using canned soups a great deal. In fact, you could say I downright hate it. Fortunately this mac & cheese recipe doesn’t need any cans of anything.

Ingredients:

2 cups pasta (we prefer gemelli but if you like elbow macaroni, have at it)
4 T butter
¼ C all-purpose flour
3 C milk
2 C shredded semi-hard cheese (cheddar, Gouda, Monterey Jack—whatever you have on hand and feel free to mix it up)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2/3 C freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. Cook your pasta OR follow my "no humidity added to the house" method below. Drain well.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
4. Whisk in the flour until a paste forms.
5. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth.
6. Bring the sauce to the boil over moderately high heat, stirring or whisking constantly, until thickened.
7. Remove the pan from the heat and add in the shredded cheeses until melted (not the Parmigiano-Reggiano just yet).
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Stir in the cooked pasta and then put the mixture into a 9 x 13 glass or ceramic baking pan.
10. Top with the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
11. Broil about four inches from the heat for about four minutes or until richly browned.
12. Let the dish sit for about five minutes before serving.
13. Enjoy!

*Bonus no humidity method for cooking pasta:

1. Bring the water to the boil in a covered saucepan.
2. Add the pasta, cover and immediately turn off the heat.
3. Let sit, covered, on the stove for 20 minutes.
4. Drain and enjoy your humidity-free home.

Caveat: Angel hair pasta doesn’t really need the full 20 minutes and gemelli may take up to 25 minutes.

Penne Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Caper Cream Sauce

I love smoking food. One of my favorite thing to smoke is salmon. Something about the fatty fish just is perfect with smokey flavor. Up until recently there was only one dish I would use smoked salmon in; a dip (I'll post a recipe for my irresistible smoked salmon dip soon enough). But this creamy pasta dish works perfect with smoked salmon. Even though this dish breaks a few culinary rules you'll find that it is lip smacking good!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound smoked salmon, chopped (I smoke this myself, it is cured before hand as well, but that's another post)
1 cup heavy cream (a.k.a. whipping cream)
1-2 tablespoons capers, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (if you smoke your own salmon, I'd skip the salt)
1 pound pasta, cooked al dente, drained (reserving about 1/4 cup of the cooking water)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 lemon

Directions:

1. Cook your pasta
2. In a large skilled add your olive oil and onions. Cook the onions til they are translucent, but not brown.
3. Pour in the cream and the capers. Heat an additional 1-2 minutes.
4. Combine sauce and pasta.
5. Add the pasta water you reserved.
6. Sprinkle your serving with (gasp!) Parmeasan cheese.
7. Squeeze some lemon juice over the top of your portion.
8. Enjoy!