Parmesan Herb Faux-Zotto

Crazy name, true. Fabulous dish, yes!
Morgan is here with us this weekend. He's now 18. The last time I 'attempted' to serve cauliflower when he was here I made twice baked cauliflower casserole. You'd have thought he was having a seizure or something the way he acted when the serving spoon filled with warm, cheesy cauliflower goodness headed towards his plate!
This time was different. He looked at it. He smelled it. He smiled. He tasted it. He savored it. He went NUTS about it! Hearing his description was like winning a cooking show! He said the consistency, texture and flavor was incredible!
That, coming from an eighteen year old ... I'll take it!

INGREDIENTS:
1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons Rosemary Infused Olive Oil
1 teaspoon chopped Garlic
6 fresh leaves of Lavender plus the buds off a large stalk
2 tablespoons Butter
1/2 cup Half & Half
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese (grated)
Sea Salt
Fresh ground Pepper

DIRECTIONS
1. Wash cauliflower and cut it into small pieces. In a food processor, pulse the cauliflower into the size of rice grains.

2. In a heavy pan, heat olive oil, adding salt and pepper and garlic. Sautee garlic until it's golden and aromatic. Add cauliflower, mixing well, to coat evenly.
3. Add lavender and more salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat, cover and allow to cook for 5 -7 minutes.

4. Add half and half, butter and parmesan cheese. Mix well and cover. Allow to cook an additional 5 - 7 minutes.

 After the liquids have thickened ...

5. Serve and enjoy!

RECIPE: Turkey Vegetable Soup

Tired of looking for recipes of casseroles for leftover turkey? I'm not sure what Turkey Tetrazzini is, but it sounds like it's loaded with carbs. 

After Zumba today I stopped by a local grocery store and picked up a few things to throw into a pot and call soup. I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I bought a few things I knew would be safe … Cabbage, Yellow squash, and spinach. s luck would have it, what I made was quite good and worthy of blogging.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups Trader Joe's Turkey Broth (or equivalent)

3 cups cooked and chopped leftover turkey

2 cups chopped cabbage (I used one small head, minus the core)

2 cups fresh baby spinach

2 yellow squash, sliced

1 teaspoon garlic, chopped

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 sprig each of fresh rosemary, sage and thyme

1/4 cup Trader Joe's quick cook barley (optional)

5 - 6 croutons

A few sprinkles of fresh parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pour broth into a soup pot and bring to a boil, adding cut cabbage, squash and turkey as they are ready. Cover.

2. Add fresh herbs, salt and garlic … Stir. 

3. Reduce heat and simmer soup for an hour. 

4. Add spinach, then the quick cook barley, if you choose to add it. 

5. Simmer for 20 more minutes.

6. Place soup into bowls, add a few crunchy croutons, then lightly sprinkle parmesan on top. 

Serve and enjoy!

RECIPE: Thanksgiving Dinner Trader Joe's Style

Every year of my life I have had Thanksgiving dinner with my family in Tennessee. Well, all but a couple of years when we were flying there on Thanksgiving Day. This year we are at home in California. Since I've always been in Tennessee, we've always spent the day with my family. My sister-in-law wasn't there this year either. Her daughter just gave birth to a beautiful baby earlier this week, so she's at their home helping them. She said this was the first time in 27 years she's not been with our family, too. Not to mention this was the first Thanksgiving without my dad. Anyway, we will be getting together soon, so we'll make up for lost time then. Dad definitely was the glue that held our family together. I miss you, dad.

So, with many changes in traditions, it's time to try new things and start our own traditions. Conrad and I talked over options of what to do for Thanksgiving dinner and we quickly ruled out making reservations at local restaurants. We discussed ordering a meal from a local restaurant or grocery store and quickly ruled that out, as well. We ended up cooking at home. We bought a 12 pound turkey ...

 I rinsed it, dried, it, put salt, pepper, fresh sage, rosemary and thyme inside, along with the neck and the organs and a slices sweet onion … 

 I also placed a couple of slices of bacon inside the cavity, as well. I rubbed the skin with olive oil, then generously salted and peppered the skin.

 I added a few more fresh herbs … 

 Then covered the bird in BACON! I had preheated the oven to 500°, so I put the bird in for 30 minutes before reducing the temperature to 350° for the duration of the roasting time. As you know, cooking time varied by oven and size of the bird, but it's done when the temperature reached 161 degrees in the thickest part of the breast. After it's done, take the bird out of the oven, place it on a large platter, cover it with foil and let it rest for 30 minutes before carving. 

While the bird was roasting I made dressing. Some folks call it stuffing, but I grew up calling it dressing.  I had never tried Trader Joe's Thanksgiving dinner fixin's before, but I will definitely use them again. To sum it up in one word … DELICIOUS!!!

I added a few of my own ideas to their stuffing mix recipe, including a pound of sage sausage, chicken broth instead of water for a richer flavor, and an egg to hold it together better.
First you empty 4 cups of water (or broth), 4 tablespoons butter, and the seasoning mix packet into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir often and let it gently boil for 3 - 5 minutes. I let it go 6.

 Fry the sausage … 

 Oh, and I added poultry seasoning! What stuffing/dressing is complete without it!

 Ready to go in the over … 350° for 50 minutes.

Yum! Finished product!

We also had grilled asparagus with olive oil, fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and fresh grated parmesan. In the background there's a triple crock pot with mashed potatoes for Conrad, mashed sweet potatoes for me, and Trader Joe's turkey gravy in the third one. 

Ding! And, the bird is ready! The bacon kept it moist, golden brown, and crispy skin with tender meat throughout!

Conrad made his famous deviled eggs, too. We splurged a little by having the dressing, a small piece of homemade rosemary bread, and cranberry sauce … Also from Trader Joe's. 

The table is set and dinner is served!

 Definitely a member of the clean plate club tonight!

RECIPE: Fresh Kale Salad

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bunch kale, remove the center stem
• 1 medium size fresh lemon, for freshly squeezed juice
• 1/4 cup Certified Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, you can also you lemon flavored olive oil
• 5 to 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 teaspoon or to taste sea salt
• 1/4 cup slivers, chopped or sliced unsalted almonds
• 1/4 cup fresh aged Asiago, Parmesan and Romano Cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash kale leaves thoroughly, dry or use salad spinner, then remove center stem and chop up.
2. Using a medium size bowl , add lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic & salt, mix well.  Add kale leaves to the marinade/seasonings.  With your hands work all the marinade into the kale. Massaging the kale leaves ensures coverage and helps to tenderize.  Let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Before serving add almonds and cheeses and toss...  Keeps for 2 days in the refrigerator. 

 Nutritional information on Kale:
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-kale

RECIPE: Roasted Vegetables - Broccoli

I had an "Ah-ha" moment yesterday afternoon. I had two huge crowns of broccoli and needed to prepare at least one of them for dinner last night. I'm rather tired of steaming them and I had seen several recipes for roasting broccoli, so I decided to give it a try. I'm VERY glad I did! We'll be eating roasted broccoli a lot more often, plus I will be trying LOTS more roasted vegetables now that I know it's so simple and so yummy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me preface this recipe by telling you about a very cool gadget I bought the other day. It's a MISTO Olive Oil Sprayer. It's a spray can that you use the lid to pump the contents so it actually sprays! All you do is fill the container 1/2 way with olive oil, pump the lid a few times, and spray! I LOVE it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's my version of Roasted Broccoli - Plain and Simple
(You'll notice there's okra and a red bell pepper in the photo, too. More on that later.)
INGREDIENTS:
1 large crown fresh broccoli
olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
grated parmesan cheese (not pictured as this was an afterthought)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash broccoli, but it must be thoroughly dry before you cook it, so it's best to wash it well in advance and let it dry. Cut broccoli into large bite-sized pieces.
3. Put about a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep dish baking stone or whatever kind of dish you'd use for roasting.

 4. Place cut broccoli into pan and spray olive oil evenly on the broccoli. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Toss and repeat.

5. Bake in center of the oven for 15 minutes, then stir broccoli to expose bottom sides.
6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired. (We do!)
7. Continue roasting for another 10 minutes. Some of the broccoli will be golden brown. Most of what you see in this photo is the browned parmesan cheese.

**NOTE*** I wanted to try this with some okra, too. It worked very well! We still had some Mediterranean Eggplant Stuffing left, so I roasted a red bell pepper, too, with the intention of putting the stuffing in at the 15 minute mark. I also stuffed some large mushrooms. We preferred the mushrooms over the red peppers as the taste of the peppers over-powered the stuffing, in our opinion. Keep in mind I am not a pepper person.

RECIPES: Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant

It has literally been at least a decade since I've had eggplant. As a child growing up in the South I remember my mom cutting it into slices, soaking it in milk, then rolling it in some sort of floury mixture before frying it in vegetable oil **STOP** What were we thinking back then??? My body cringes at the thought! As is visible in the photo of the vegetables I bought for the week, there's an eggplant among them. It has plagued me all week as to what to do with it. Upon my 'exploring' on the Internet I came across this recipe for food.com's Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I am very glad I did! It's an amazing recipe and one I will definitely use again and again. As a matter of fact, I bought extra mushrooms in hopes of having some stuffing left over, so guess what's for dinner tomorrow night? You guessed it! Stuffed mushrooms!

Ingredients

• 1 lb meatloaf mixture ( ground pork, veal, beef)
• 1 tablespoon lard
• 1 small onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon organic butter
• 1/2 pint white mushrooms, chopped
• 2 small eggplants, halved and contents scooped out and chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins, chopped
• 1/4 cup almond meal ( or finely chopped almonds)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 pinch cayenne powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese**Please note** The photo shows a jar with some bacon fat. I was going to use it instead of olive oil and butter but changed my mind. 
  

  Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, cook ground meat in lard until well browned, scraping bottom with a wooden spoon periodically to avoid burning.
  3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onions in butter, with a little salt, until translucent (about five minutes). Add chopped mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms have softened.
  4. Add onion and mushroom mixture to meat in skillet, and stir to combine. Add chopped eggplant to skillet, stir to combine. Add seasonings, raisins and almonds. When eggplant softens, add water to skillet, and deglaze bottom of the pan.
     
     5. Add olive oil to the empty saucepan. Lightly salt eggplant cavities, and place eggplant in the saucepan, cut side down. Cook eggplant this way for about 3-5 minutes. Flip eggplant, exposing cavities. Cook eggplant in a 400 degree oven for another 5 minutes. Remove eggplant from the oven.
     6. Add cheeses to the meat mixture and stir to combine. Check for seasonings, and add salt if necessary. Divide meat mixture evenly, and stuff into the 4 eggplant halves.
        
        7. Bake until delicious, golden brown, and bubbly, about 5 more minutes.
        
        8. Serve.
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        ***NOTE*** This is by far the best way I have ever eaten eggplant. It's amazing! (Even Conrad raved about it!!)

RECIPE: Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

I found this recipe while surfing the web a few days ago and would have tried it earlier but we didn't have any fresh parmesan. I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and fixed that problem! I found this recipe on: Life's A Plate and had to give it a try.
INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup almond butter
• 3 Tbsp olive oil (use good quality for taste)
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp agave or honey
• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1-1.5 Tbsp freshly finely chopped rosemary (I opened a fresh jar of Trader Joe's Rosemary as I didn't have any fresh.)

DIRECTIONS:

• Beat the almond butter and the olive oil together.
• Add in eggs and agave.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, arrowroot, salt, baking soda and Parmesan cheese.
• Add dry ingredients to wet.
• Fold in rosemary.
• Pour into loaf pan that has been coated with olive oil and dusted with a bit of almond flour.
• Bake approximately 45 minutes at 325 or until toothpick test is clean.

Ready for the oven ...

 Fresh out of the oven ...

 Sliced and ready to eat!

 Can you smell the rosemary?

Tomorrow night we'll probably be having smoked turkey and home made Paleo mayonnaise on this bread!

**Note** Conrad likes this bread so much he gave it his official seal of endorsement!