Curried Cauliflower

You can use frozen or fresh cauliflower for this recipe.

20 oz. frozen cauliflower florets or 1 small head cauliflower, chopped into florets
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt
oil

Steam the cauliflower until its just getting tender. Move it to a saute pan or wok, with a bit of your preferred oil - mine are canola or olive oil. Liberally sprinkle with salt, then the spices. Add more spice if you like. Saute and stir about five minutes until every floret is coated with curry and done to your liking.

Sweet Potato Dollars

Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best! This is from Nourishing Traditions.

Serves 4

3-4 sweet potatoes
3 T melted butter
3 T extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

Peel potatoes andslice crosswice at 1/4 inch intervals into "dollars." Brush two cookie sheets* wth mixture of butter and olive oil. Arrange the dollars in one layer and brush with the remaining butter and oil. Season lightly with sea salt. Bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

*Forgive me for not understanding the physics of baking, but I used one silpat lined cookie sheet and one glass baking pan. I highly recommend the glass baking pan!! The dollars which baked on the glass browned nicely on the bottom and were even crispy! (watch them closely near the end, some were almost burnt at 45 min). The ones on the cookie sheet, while tasty, were rather soft and soggy. This is probably why my baked sweet potato "fries" never came out very good in the past.

Lebanese Orzo and Rice Pilaf

This was another basic recipe that I got from my Mom when we first were married.

1/4 cup orzo
1/2 cup white rice
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 3/4 cups water
a bit of oil - canola or olive

Heat a small saucepan over med./high heat. Add enough oil to coat bottom of pan. Add orzo and stir over heat until golden brown. Add water and bouillon cubes, then rice. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until water is absorbed.

Red Cabbage, German-style

I got a had of red cabbage in my farmshare bag two weeks ago. I looked up recipes on my favorite site and they were all the same. There was about a dozen recipes for red cabbage and apples aka German Red Cabbage. I figures since its the only recipe out there, it can't be that bad. I also thought it would be nice to branch out. I make a lot of Asian-inspired food but when it comes to Europe, I don't really venture outside the Mediterranean.

I went for it and it's quite tasty. I thought it would be super sour, like sauerkraut, but it isn't. It's sweet yet tangy and you have complete control over the amount of each flavor.

The reviews suggested substituting brown sugar for white and apple cider vinegar for white. I used white vinegar and brown sugar because it's what I had on hand. The cabbage seemed pretty well cooked before I added the sugar and vinegar, so I turned off the heat and just let it sit after stirring in those two ingredients.


Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 cups shredded red cabbage
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Directions:
• Heat oil in a medium size saucepan. Stir in cabbage and onion; fry until wilted. Stir in apple and water, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes.
• Pour vinegar and sugar into the mixture while tasting for desired sweet and sour taste. Cook another 5 to 6 minutes.

It's pretty tasty and I expected to hate it. Even kids like it. The reviews say so and I think so, too.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Here is how I make a side dish out of butternut squash:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel the squash with a veggie peeler. Cut it into approximately 1 to 1 1/2 in. cubes, discarding seeds and pulp in the center. Put the pieces into a greased baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Check a piece to see if it is tender all the way through. If not, bake for an additional 10 minutes and check again.

I then puree the pieces in my food processor, adding some brown sugar and butter. It is also delicious without anything added.

My friend Wendy leaves the pieces intact, but sprinkles salt and pepper on them and sometimes a little olive oil.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Michael didn't think he liked brussel sprouts too much until I prepared them this way. I got this recipe from food.com; Barefoot Contessa. I've modified the amount of salt though, b/c I think she calls for too much.

1.5 lbs Brussel sprouts
3 T EVOO
1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussel sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for about 25 min until crisp on the outside and tender on the indside. Shake pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Serve immediately.

Roasted Acorn Squash

We had this as a side dish tonight and it was like having dessert during dinner!

2 acorn squash
butter
brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut each squash in half (not through pointed ends). Scoop out the seeds. Trim the pointed ends so that squash can rest flat on their bottoms, so to speak. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and place squash cut sides down in pan. Bake for 1/2 an hour, then take pan out of oven, flip squash so that they are resting on their trimmed ends, and bake for another 1/2 an hour. Remove squash from oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes or until you can handle them without burning yourself. Scoop out the cooked squash into a serving bowl with a spoon. Add a few tablespoons of butter and as much brown sugar as you like and stir it up.

If you manage to scoop out the squash without damaging their skins, you could always stuff the filling back into the skins to serve it. We just dole portions out from the serving bowl.

Three variations on this recipe:

1.) Instead of butter and brown sugar, you could make it savory with olive oil, salt and pepper.

2.) My Mom's way: In the final 1o to 15 minutes of baking time, take the pan out of the oven and put lots of butter and brown sugar in each little squash half. Pop them back in the oven so that it all melts together. Serve one squash half to each person. They can scoop their own squash as they eat it.

3.) Skip all the additions, and just eat it plain. It's sweet enough on its own, in my opinion, but I could never get Ben or the kids to eat it this way!