Complete Veggie Dinner + Garlic Bread

The weekend was approaching. We were leaving. And I hate it when good food goes to waste. Absolutely hate it. So many veggies to use and so little time - what's a man to do?

Make a completely vegetarian dinner plus some garlic bread, of course! There were tomatoes, grilled onions, cucumbers, green onions, sweet potatoes, raw mushrooms, and mushrooms cooked in red wine.

I love veggies. I seriously cannot get enough of them, so this was a perfect dinner for me. If I could, I would make 2/3 of my meals more or less completely vegetables/fruit/vegetarian with a huge variety of fresh produce. Magnifique. Enjoy!

Whisk or no Whisk?

As a featured publisher for Foodbuzz I check out the Daily Specials from time to time. Today, the daily special is an 11-inch Silicone Ball Whisk. If you're curious what that is, you're not alone. I had no idea it was called a ball whisk either. It certainly doesn't look like a ball, though the ends have balls on them. But I digress...

I rarely use whisks myself. I figure a good old fork is fine enough, and it has been for the most part. However, there have been a couple times when I certainly could've used something like it. Like when I made the Healthy Zabaione and Healthy Baked Meringues - a whisk would've been very useful! Basically, any time where you have to really froth up eggs.

You can get by without it, for sure, but maybe (just maybe) life in the kitchen might be a little easier if one were lying around.

Cajun Chicken Drumsticks and Biscuits

Is there anything more comforting than some good ole down home chicken and biscuits? Mmm cajun chicken drumsticks!

The biscuits are same ones as the Savory Buttermilk Thyme Drop Biscuits. Delicious. You MUST try these biscuits. I could rant and rave all day about them - honestly.

As you can see, everything was paired with some scrumptious veggies. There was baked mushrooms and baked tomato alongside a helping of homemade coleslaw and steamed yellow squash. It all was the perfect accompaniment to help lighten up the chicken and biscuits - I will definitely be making this again. Enjoy!

Stove Top Beer Bread

So I'm having a brewski the other night and decide to experiment with the last of it by making a beer bread. How cool, I thought.

But then I didn't want to wait around for it to bake or anything like that as is traditionally done, so I ventured onto the internet in search of something that could be made on the stove instead. Then I came across this Stove Top Beer Bread from Cut Out + Keep - huzzah! Theirs comes out much more like a biscuit (which is what I was intending), and mine came out more like Beer Bread Pancakes.

Still delicious with a hint of beer and with the dash of thyme and rosemary, it really developed an intense flavor the next day. So I did what anyone would do in this situation (right?) and topped my little beer breadies with some sunflower seed butter and had at a couple.

Now you may be wondering...does beer bread go with beer? My answer: does anything not go with beer? Enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin

Directions

Take the tenderloin out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Film an ovenproof skillet with oil and sear the tenderloin over medium-high heat to brown all sides, about 5 minutes in all. If you're using a glaze, apply it now.

Soy, Ginger, and Garlic Glaze

3 Tbs. soy sauce

1/8 cup sugar

4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tsp. sake or rice wine

2 tsp. finely chopped fresh ginger

2 tsp. Asian sesame oil

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl until sugar has dissolved. Combine the glaze and meat and throw in the oven.


Italian Rub

I used a lot of Italian herbs and spices - like garlic powder, parsley, rosemary, oregano, black pepper. If you've got it and it's "Italian," throw it on. It'll be great! Trust me.

Savory Buttermilk Thyme Drop Biscuits

More buttermilk recipes! Just what everyone wanted, I know. Though I suppose these biscuits could be made with regular milk as well. Ask Martha Stewart - that's where I got them.

No, my biscuits do not look as pretty as hers, but damned if they don't taste completely awesome!

I really cannot stress enough how much I loved these. I think we combined them with chicken or something delicious, and I ate one a day until they disappeared. Hmm, I think I'll go make some more right now...Enjoy!

Turkey Meatball Subs

Mmm haul. That's what I have to say to these subs. Mmm haul.

Use the same recipe as the Grilled Hot Turkey Patties minus a couple ingredients (don't worry, the meatball recipe is below) and bake instead. They're so light and juicy - not too juicy that they ruin the toasted bun either. I'm not a fan of really dense meatballs because I feel like a coronary is coming on after only one or two, so these were perfect.

Tip: a trick to increasing the amount of ground meat you use for any recipe is to add mushrooms. This will add a lot of volume without altering the flavor, allowing for increased juiciness as well!

The sauce is from our Basic Pasta Sauce dressed up with some garlic powder, oregano, and crushed red pepper. I didn't want to over-season the sauce since I was hoping the flavors of the meatballs would stand out. Read on for instructions on how to prepare your own Turkey Meatball Sub. Enjoy!

Exotic Fruit Sushi Night!

It's hard to tell from these pictures (in fact, it's basically impossible), but there's fruit inside that sushi. Yes, fruit. Sweet and tangy fruit. We made four types of rolls - two with fruit and two without - and it only worked really really well with one of the fruit sushi rolls. But that's the price of experimenting sometimes.

By the way, the sauce you see is eel sauce poured on top and there was also the traditional soy sauce on the side. We also did plain sashimi strips of ahi tuna!

So read on for more. I won't tell you how to make sushi rice or how to roll your sushi - there are plenty of resources out there for that - but below you'll find a mixture of maki that hopefully will inspire some experimentation of your own. And if that's all I've done here, I'll be happy. What kind of sushi have you experimented with yourself? Enjoy!

Sauteed Portobello with Baked Purple Potato Coins

I'm going to let the picture tell the story on this one. If you like what you see, read on. My tummy highly recommends it. Enjoy!

Banana Buttermilk Bread (Act III)

Our third Banana Buttermilk Bread in as many weeks! We're extremely addicted to the stuff, I must say. The other two recipes - Banana Buttermilk Bread and Banana Buttermilk Bread (Act II) - turned out so well I just had to make another delicious loaf.

There is a slight variation to this loaf as well. I love experimenting in the kitchen (and maybe next time I'll try adding oats and honey to it and see what happens. Who knows!) It's more akin to the first loaf instead of the second. In this one brown sugar is used instead of white sugar. I was curious how the molasses in the brown sugar would add to the moisture and complexity of flavor of this quick bread.

And how did it fare? Fantastic! Spectacular!

It's slightly moister than the original and not as dense as the second, and I think you'll find the molasses adds that wonderful little hint of something-something you've been looking for all your life.

So run to your kitchen, turn on the oven, and start savoring this bread, as I do, for breakfast, dessert, and as a snack. Enjoy!

Popcorn with Sunflower Seed Butter

OK..here's how it should have gone down:

A hankering for popcorn threatens.
The need/desire to combine it with some protein.
Oh, I know. I'll drizzle some melted/watered-down sunflower seed butter (Trader Joe's!) on top and maybe make popcorn balls!

Alas, this was not the case - either too much popcorn, too little sunflower seed butter mixed with hot water, or too watered down. At any rate, I got the taste I wanted (I suppose) but lacked the fun of popcorn balls and also most of the popcorn that came in contact with the sunflower seed butter ended up a little soggy. Eww.

So I need some help. Some tips. Some hints/tricks/suggestions for how to make this work. But here's what I ultimately want: popcorn with a nut butter that doesn't have sugar or regular butter added to it. Anything anyone? I still have that hankering!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes!

I'm kind of proud of these pictures - for once. It's all thanks to the fact that we made something early enough that the light shown beautifully into the kitchen at just the right angle. Well, moving on...

Have you ever heard of cottage cheese pancakes? I hadn't until J told me about the fond childhood memories she had with her friend and devouring one after the other right out of the pan. So we just had to have them!

I imagined they would be like a regular pancake - you know, cakey and whatnot but with cottage cheese in the recipe. Oh how wrong I was. It's almost like the Oatmeal Pancakes or even the Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes from last autumn.

They're so light, delicate, and simple I can't help but eat a ton of them. I'm always interested in new kinds of pancakes and breakfast foods in general, so if you have any recipes to share, please do. And if you've heard/made cottage cheese pancakes yourself, do tell. Maybe there's an exciting variation out there we can try. Enjoy!