Brussels sprouts & pecans

I just whipped up some kind of amazing brussels sprouts while talking to Kurt about turning this blog into a real website where we could do cool things, which he has PROMISED he's going to do so I'm challenging him to do it before April 1. Go!

Ingredients
1 T oil--I used sesame oil because I just really wanted the flavor of it and figured it wouldn't really matter because I wasn't frying them or anything, but you could use vegetable, olive or any oil really
1 cup chopped brussels sprouts (I'll admit sometimes when I'm lazy I buy a bag of them already chopped from Trader Joe's - embarrassing, I know, especially while being on the phone with Kurt who's talking about how he needs to take the final step from buying canned tomatoes to canning his own, but it makes them so easy and quick to make)
handful of chopped pecans

Directions
Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the brussels sprouts, ¼ - ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes.

Weird that the ingredients and my rambling explanations are longer than the directions for this recipe. 

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 tablespoons grapeseed, peanut, or canola oil
non-stick cooking spray
salt

Directions
Peel the sweet potato and cut it into ¼-inch by ¼-inch matchsticks. Put them in a bowl and cover with cold, fresh water. Let them soak for 1 hour or up to overnight. Pour the water and sweet potato matchsticks into a colander, rinse with fresh water, then pat dry with paper towels.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line two baking sheets with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Add the sweet potato to a large plastic bag. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of the corn starch over the potatoes, close the bag and shake vigorously to coat the fries. Empty the bag into a mixing bowl and use your hands to toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Arrange the fries on the prepared pan in a single layer, not touching. Don’t crowd the pans or they will get soggy!

Bake fries for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the fries over. Return the pans to the oven, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until they have browned and are cooked clean though. Shut the oven off, prop the door open halfway, and let cool and crisp up further for 10 minutes before serving. Toss with salt after they’re finished baking.

I got this recipe from someone who takes their sweet potato fries VERY SERIOUSLY – check out her blog post if you want an intense level of directions and tips - but I have to say, she clearly has thought this through and her strange tips totally worked.

Green bean casserole

Kurt, if you're reading this I think it's time you upgrade us to get rid of all these weird formatting issues.  We can't have an ugly blog--that's just embarrassing. And if you're not reading this, then please start.

Ingredients

2 cups fried shallots or onions

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

Kosher salt

1 1/2 pounds white button mushrooms, rinsed and spun in a salad spinner

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons lemon juice from 1 lemon

2 cups low sodium chicken stock

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated on a microplane grater

1/4 cup flour

Freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 2 inch segments

Directions

Roughly chop mushrooms into pieces approximately 1/8th to 1/4-inches large. Set aside. Combine soy sauce, lemon juice, chicken stock, and heavy cream in 1 quart liquid measure or medium bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil and butter to 12-inch non-stick skillet. Heat over high heat until butter is melted and foaming subsides. Add mushrooms to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is evaporated and mushrooms begin to sizzle, 6 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium high. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until light golden blond, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisking constantly, add stock and cream mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until mixture achieves a texture between pancake batter and heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Bring 1 gallon of water and 1/4 cup kosher salt to boil over high heat. Add green beans to water and boil until tender but still bright green, about 5 minutes. Drain through colander set over sink and immediately transfer to a bowl of cold water or rinse under cold water until completely cooled. Drain green beans and set aside.

Combine green beans, mushroom sauce, and 1 cup fried shallots. Transfer to 9 by 13-inch rectangular casserole or 10 by 14-inch oval casserole. Bake until hot and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Top with remaining cup fried shallots and serve.

Cheesy cauliflower

In the spirit of cooking and eating more veggies, I made this amazing cheesy cauliflower dish tonight that's basically mac and cheese but with cauliflower instead of pasta.

What you need:

• 1 head cauliflower (chopped into bite-sized pieces)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf (unless you're afraid of bay leaves like I am)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1½ cups milk
• 6 oz cheddar, grated
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Set the oven to 400 F.

Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add the salt and the cauliflower, then cook for 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, butter or spray a glass/ceramic baking dish. Drain the water from the cauliflower and pour it into the baking dish.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the garlic (and bay leaf),
then cook for about 1 minute. Add the flour and stir quickly. Kurt and Hannah would like me to point out here that the flour-butter mixture is called a roux. They are the king and queen of the roux.  You want the roux to get just a little brown--this will probably take another minute. Slowly add the milk to the pot, stirring the whole time to incorporate the roux. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring so you don't burn the milk on the bottom of the pan.  Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the cheese and mustard.  Add salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the cauliflower. You can sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top if you're into that sort of thing, which I am. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the top is brown and bubbly.

Disclaimer: being the weird customizing part-time vegan that I am, I actually used almond milk and soy cheese and I'm delighted to say that it still turned out delicious although the sauce wasn't quite as creamy as it usually is because apparently fake cheese doesn't melt quite as nicely as normal cheese. But I'd still do it again because once it all bakes, it's still creamy and amazing.

Disclaimer #2: I got the recipe from this cookbook, which I love--she is amazing! 

Kale, cauliflower, and broccoli

I'm currently trying out Kurt's zucchini recipe and I thought I should share that I think adding olive oil and parmesan makes all vegetables better really.  Baking kale drizzled in olive oil with salt and parmesan basically turns gross kale into delicious potato chip like things.  Chopped up cauliflower with olive oil, salt, parmesan, and lemon juice is amazing.  Or if you put some butter, parmesan, and bread crumbs all over the top of a head of cauliflower and bake it in the oven, it also turns out pretty tasty.

And I know we're not supposed to say things like we like vegetables plain because they're so delicious, but have you ever just stir fried broccoli in olive oil?  Somehow steaming, boiling, pretty much anything you do to broccoli makes it somewhat gross to me, but stir frying it to the point where it's almost burning gives it little crispy edges and with some salt, it's strangely delicious.

Anyway, I just wanted to do some vegetable promotion because I think we all need inspiration in that department.  I'm working on operation make veggies delicious this summer so I'll try to keep it up.

Grilled corn, avocado, and tomato salad with honey lime dressing

This salad is pretty amazing and I've decided to start using this dressing on everything I eat.

Ingredients:
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
2 ears of fresh sweet corn

Honey lime dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp honey
sea salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:
Remove husks from corn and grill over medium heat for 10 minutes, or if you're lazy like me, just stir fry some frozen corn.  Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together.  Combine the sliced tomatoes, avocado, and grilled corn with the dressing and mix gently so everything is combined but you don't mash the avocados.  Let sit for 10-15 minutes to let the dressing soak in.

PS Heidi - I just added some quinoa to the salad because obviously I always have to make weird customizations and I thought it would make it more filling (plus didn't add the avocado out until lunchtime so it wouldn't get brown) and just had a delicious lunch out of it.

Green Beans and Zucchini

So far we have focused on the main course. Sides and vegetables (at least in our kitchen) are often considered a necessary evil. This doesn't need to be the case. Since green things are generally loathe in this house, I don't yet have much in the "fun vegetable" department. I realize that they can be made to taste fairly good, and would like more ideas. I'm hoping that this post will serve as a launching pad of sorts. Post comments with any good ideas you may have. The only favor I ask is that no one post anything like "oh my, but broccoli is so delicious just by itself!!" It isn't. If that's your (wrong) opinion, you don't need a recipe and you should just keep your thoughts to yourself.

Tonight we had our standby. Green beans with garlic and balsamic vinegar. There isn't even a recipe, you just steam or boil some green beans until they are not quite done, then fry some diced garlic in olive oil for about 30 seconds. Toss in the beans, cook for another minute on low heat. Put it all on a plate and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. It's about as easy as it gets, and even Hannah likes it.

Another fun thing to do with beans is to cook them with butter and lemon juice. Again, steam the beans until they are nearly done but still a bit crisp. While they steam, melt some butter in a pan. The amount is about 1 tablespoon of butter per fistful of beans, but it doesn't much matter. any extra will just be left in the pan. When the butter is hot, add a diced clove of garlic. Cook on medium heat for about 30 seconds, then add the beans and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice for each tablespoon of butter. Add a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper and cook until the beans are done to your liking, probably around 2 minutes.

Another go-to is zucchini. Anyone who knows me would have a hard time believing that I eat zucchini, but it's true. The first time I made this Hannah ate the entire zucchini and asked for more. And, as usual, it involves vinegar. It goes like this: wash and slice a zucchini as thin as possible. Line a cookie sheet with foil and smear some olive oil all around. Arrange the slices on the foil and drizzle some olive oil over the top (not much, maybe one drop per slice.) Bake in the oven until they are tender, about 5 minutes. A toaster oven is perfect for this, but I am too lazy to find one on Craigslist.

When they are tender, use a spatula to move them to a plate. They are going to overlap on the plate, which is fine. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar (again, about one drop per) and grate some parmesan cheese over them. Done.

So there are my two thoughts for the day, now come on all you people who aren't even reading this! Let's hear your ideas.