October Secret Recipe Club: Roasted Broccoli

Hello October! Yesterday marked six years of marriage for Bender and me. We spent a lovely weekend in Chattanooga, catching all the big sights like Ruby Falls, Rock City, and the Tennessee Aquarium. If you're a big fan of turtles and jellyfish, you must see the Tennessee Aquarium: they have tons of both!

Ruby Falls, Chattanooga, TN

Have you seen Rock City? (Lookout Mountain, GA)

We returned home during the late afternoon and I set about making dinner. On the drive back I found the absolute perfect recipe to make from my assigned blog for Secret Recipe Club. We called our friend Goose to come join us, which automatically meant I would be serving Baconated Cheesy Chicken. Goose will eat a whopping two vegetables: broccoli and green beans. When I saw Roasted Broccoli on I Am a Honey Bee, I knew it was meant to be.

I Am a Honey Bee is a great site, full of recipes, crafts, restaurant, and city reviews. If you are looking for a restaurant in the Boston area, be sure to check out Nicole's reviews!

But back to that yummy, crunchy, spicy, Roasted Broccoli.

Raw broccoli on a bacon-greasy pan.

Roasted Broccoli
minimally adapted from I Am a Honey Bee

3 small broccoli crowns, cut into florets
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red chile flakes (to taste)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp bacon grease

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Toss together ingredients in a large bowl. Spread evenly on a baking sheet.
3. Bake for 15 minutes or until florets are browned and still retain a bite. Serve immediately.

THOUGHTS:
I've have roasted broccoli before, but this was the first time I felt like I nailed it. Yippee! For the bacon grease, I used leftover fat (and the pan so I got some crunchy brown bits too) from the bacon for the Baconated Cheesy Chicken. I roasted it alongside the chicken, for a low fuss, delicious, nutritious, side dish.

Nicole serves her roasted broccoli with fresh lemon juice. My gang tonight was not big on lemon, so I gave everyone the option to squeeze their own juice. No one took me up on it.

VERDICT:
Make-again: 3 votes

(Goose wanted me to let you know that he gives the dish 4.5 Geese out of a possible 5)

Nom nom nom.

Secret Recipe Club: Baby Bok Choy with Shitake Mushrooms

Baby Bok Choy with Shitake Mushrooms

It's that time of the month again: Secret Recipe Club time! I must admit I get a thrill out of getting my blog assignment, pouring through the assigned blog looking at recipes, and then waiting with anticipation to see who picked what recipe from my own blog to make. It's a rush. Are you interested in joining in on the fun? Head on over to The Secret Recipe Club to sign up!

Double Take: Zucchini, Ham, Basil, and Ricotta Fritters

Zucchini, Ham, Basil, and Ricotta Fritter

Wow. Tabitha and I got to cook together again! Yippee. Bender and I are settled in Winston-Salem and starting back to work and “normal life.” Tabitha and I busted out two items, and we'll be showcasing one of them today: Zucchini, Ham, Basil, and Ricotta Fritters.

The original recipe called for slicing the zucchini into long, thin strips. We opted for a medium dice. If you prefer your zucchini to disappear a bit more, go ahead and shred it. Your cheese grater will thank you for the use. 

100th Post: Green Tomato Gazpacho for The Secret Recipe Club

Green Tomato Gazpacho

For today's post, I'm focusing on the positive. Happy 100^th post Fabulously Fun Food! Bender and I have now been back in the USA for two weeks and will be moving to our new home next week. We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family, which has been wonderful after two years of being so far away. As such, I've spent most of my time away from the kitchen, but I snuck in to my mom's kitchen last night and whipped up a batch of Green Tomato Gazpacho. Perhaps snuck is the wrong word considering my mom put more effort into making the gazpacho than I did. Halfway through the process I realized that I could not find the avocado I purchased, so I had to get Bender to drive me to the store to get another one. Luckily, Publix accepted my story without any questions, so I didn't have to buy a second one. So Momma did all the chopping; I did the blending.

Double Take: Risotto Primavera

Risotto Primavera

Since my first successful foray into risotto well over a year ago, I’ve taken to making it frequently, particularly when shell peas are in season! There is just something about sitting down with a big bag of peas, and opening each pod individually to get the green globes, all lined up and sitting pretty, out of their homes and into the bowl. Some might end up not making it to the bowl, but that’s okay. The risotto will still be yummy.

I’ve developed a bit of a carefree attitude to making risotto these days. If I’m just making a pea risotto, I’ll throw a cinnamon stick into the chicken broth for about 10 minutes to give it extra flavor. I no longer measure, but just go with what feels/looks right. Don't worry though, I've left the original recipe's measurements intact so you get a good reference for starting out! 

Daring Cooks June Challenge: Healthy Potato Salad

Roasted Potato Salad, ribs, and green beans

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

What? Potato Salad? Where’s the challenge in that? There’s only one potato salad I like and that’s my mom’s. Needless to say, my reaction to this month’s challenge was a half-hearted, “Meh.” And unfortunately, that’s how I approached this challenge. I’m still surprised at myself for participating. Even more surprising is that my potato salad was actually tasty.

Double Take: Food o' del Mundo's Perfect Pizza Crust

Homemade pizza fresh from the oven. Does it get any better than this?

Welcome to Week 3 of the New Double Take Series! This week we feature something that should be a staple in every house: pizza crust! As you’ve seen before, I’m prone to buying the premade pizza crust because, well, I’m just a bit afraid of working with yeast. I’m fascinated by it, but I don’t have that much experience and haven’t gotten a ton of positive feedback on what I have attempted. So I haven’t been practicing. Somewhere, out of the blue a couple months ago, I got a tiny bit of confidence and decided to go for it. My first attempt was a bit, well, horrid. The dough tasted okay, but seemed to have the wrong texture. For some reason I had it in my head that I needed to knead the dough after it rose and before I put rolled it out. And of course, I didn't figure out that was what I had done wrong until Tabitha convinced me to try making pizza dough again.

Double Take: Savory Galette

Savory Galette with Spinach, Caramelized Onions, Potatoes, and Cheese

As you know from my previous post, Bender has been out of town. I had three nights to myself to make whatever my belly wanted. So the first night I went Japanese and made tempura, the second night I went Tex-Mex-ish and made quesadillas, and the final night I went Italian-ish and made a savory galette inspired by Cake Duchess' Savory Galette with Potatoes, Onion, Zucchini, and Gorgonzola.

What’s a galette you ask? Well, I think the easiest way to describe it would be to call it a pie not made in a pie plate, filled with ingredients of your choice. If you can make a pie crust, you can make a galette. Still squeamish when it comes to pie crust? Never fear, read Smitten Kitchen’s pie crust tips and you’ll be armed and ready to go. Remember: Keep it cold.

Daring Cooks February Challenge: Cold Soba Salad and Tempura

This challenge made me very happy. I finally had an excuse to use purple potatoes!

Today is February 22, not February 14. Oops. I’m a little late posting this challenge, but it just seemed easier to make this one when Bender was out of town. I tried making it twice when he was in town, but my tasters kept bailing on me at the last minute (for very good reasons, not because they were averse to tasting it) and I wasn’t about to make this one for me and Bender only. So I decided to wait an extra week and make it for myself only when Bender was away at a conference. And boy, am I glad I did.

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl.  She challenged

Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.

Double Take: Beef Stroganoff

Are you ready for a bowl of comfort?

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you know that my all-time comfort food is beef stroganoff. Full of mushrooms, onions, beef, and sour cream, how can you go wrong? When I first saw a recipe for beef
stroganoff in the all-new ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, I was excited. Until I actually read the recipe. It called for beef tips instead of ground beef. I don’t dislike beef tips, but I just prefer my comfort food to be the way I grew up eating it: with ground beef.

Double Take: Thai Noodles with Peanut Sauce

What is it about me and procrastination with these recipes? Once I get out of the habit of making things early, it is very difficult to get back on track. With a Christmas trip coming up, I’ve really got to get back in the swing of things! I’ll be missing two Thursdays, which means things must be made in advance! I had great plans to make today’s recipe and next week’s recipe on Tuesday, but I got lazy. So that put me back to scrambling to make today’s post last night. And next week’s will just have to wait. (Maybe Sunday lunch?)

I can’t put a point on when or how it started, but I love Asian food. Since I’ve moved to Germany I have come to realize that I love Americanized Asian food… not so much German Asian food. Believe me, there is a difference. Of course, I’d rather eat German Asian food than German cafeteria food, so I end up ordering German Asian food whenever I don’t have food for lunch at work (which is surprisingly not that often). Bender likes my other food more, so when I cook Asian food at home, it’s just for me. Hence why this recipe easily fell by the wayside Tuesday night when I decided to spend time with Bender rather than cook after dinner.

Double Take: Shredded Brussels Sprouts

This week's Double Take is a little different. We've both been sick this week and failed to make the challenge recipe scheduled ahead of time. Luckily, we both had a recipe stashed away for times like these so you still get a recipe!

A culinary match made in heaven: ribs, Brussels sprouts, and garlic smashed potatoes.

Double Take: Whole Cooked Artichokes

I’m not sure why, but I kept putting this recipe off. I love artichokes. I picked this recipe to help convince Tabitha she should try them. But week after week they made my list of things to make, but I never made them.

I was first introduced to artichokes when I was 16. One of my friends and I had a brilliant idea to have a medieval feast, and well, when my friend put her mind to something, things happened. We decorated her finished attic, made medieval dresses, and she and her mom prepared a feast for kings (or rather, princesses). One of our appetizers was artichokes. Until then, I had only ever had them marinated or thrown into a spinach dip… in other words, I’d never really tasted a pure artichoke. She served them simply, with salted clarified butter, very similarly to how one would serve lobster (mhmm, lobster). I thought I’d gone to heaven. One bite of that succulent, butter-dipped, silky plant-flesh had me converted to an artichoke fan. I haven’t liked canned artichokes since. The canning process completely robs the artichoke of its umph. The texture completely changes and you are left with a limp, woody mass that squeaks as you bite into it. Eww. Give me fresh artichokes or give me none! (I know, I know, that saying isn’t quite the same without ending in death, but I don’t think I would die without artichokes. I’m much more likely to put my life on the line for people or liberty than a particular type of food.)

Double Take: Tabbouleh

One of my favorite lunch places in Winston-Salem served a great Tabbouleh. It was always a little too heavy on the dried cranberries, but it was always enjoyable. So when I saw a different Tabbouleh in the all-new ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, I got excited. Bender and I also ate a lot of salad during the three weeks of summer (way too hot to turn on the oven when our apartment had zero circulation, zero fans, and zero air conditioning), so I was also on the lookout for more salad recipes. Thus, this Tabbouleh recipe made the list.
But I’m just now getting around to making it. Outside my window, I see fall in Germany in full swing: cold and rainy. My seven day forecast is calling for wintery mix soon. I’m not thrilled. I’m wanting those three ridiculously hot weeks of summer back!

Oh right, you’re here to hear/read about this Tabbouleh, not my dislike of the weather.  This recipe definitely brought a bit of summer into my mouth! The warmth didn’t exactly extend to my apartment, but that’s okay. I guess you can’t expect too much out of shredded lettuce, bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, mint, garlic, onion, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Unfortunately, this recipe is the first one in a while that is not linked online, and since I followed the recipe almost exactly (I did halve it), I can’t post it. But I’ll take you through the steps and give you some recommendations!

Double Take: Green Bean Risotto

We've headed away from the sweet, fruity dishes and back into the land of savory, where I am much more comfortable. I enjoyed perfecting a pastry crust and learning about shortcakes, but I'm ready for something with a bit less sugar. Enter: Green Bean Risotto

Green beans boiling in a ridiculously tiny amount of chicken broth.

Double Take: Stir-fried Broccoli

We are making our rounds through the sections, and today's recipe comes from the "Side Dishes" section. Five recipes down, 1245+ to go!

The goal this week was to pick out a side dish that would come together easily and be enjoyed by all. We'd originally picked out a mashed potato recipe, but at the last minute we noticed that the recipe called for red potatoes, which aren't quite in season yet. So look for that recipe later this spring (or next year). Broccoli is available year round, so Tabitha picked out "Stir-fried Broccoli."

Daring Cooks Challenge: Risotto

The Daring Kitchen popped up on my radar about six months ago, and I've been watching it closely, trying to decide if I were up to the challenge.  In February, I caved and joined.  I was initially worried that the challenges would be a bit too far out there for Jason (hence my hesitance to join).  But I threw caution to the wind and today you get to see my first challenge. 

Mandatory taglines: The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.