January 31, 2012: Cremini Mushroom Salad Recipe

In trying to find a new, light side dish to serve with baked fish, I turned to The Food Network online. After reviewing several recipes, I put together the best of them and came up with this recipe.

Cremini Mushroom Salad served as a side to coconut milk poached cod on a bed of couscous

Cremini Mushroom Salad

4 ounces cremini (baby Portabella) mushrooms

¼ large red onion

¼ small head cauliflower
8 baby Heirloom tomatoes of various colors, thinly sliced

1 t. dried parsley (or 1 T. fresh parsley)

2 T. olive oil

2 T. balsamic vinegar

2 T. soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4 arugula and 8 frisee leaves

Crispy cheese discs*

Using a mandolin, thinly slice the mushrooms, onion and cauliflower and place in a mixing bowl. Add tomatoes, parsley, oil, vinegar, soy sauce and black pepper; toss together. Allow ingredients to sit at room temperature for at least an hour.

To serve, divide arugula and frisee between four plates. Spoon a quarter of the mushroom salad on top of the arugula; top with cheese disc.

*To make cheese discs, grate about an ounce of Parmesan or mozzarella cheese. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium. Scatter the cheese in the pan and cook until crispy on the bottom, flip and cook the other side until golden brown (much like a sausage patty). Carefully remove with a spatula and cool before cutting into four pieces.

January 23, 2012: Slimmed Down Coq au Vin Recipe

Coq au Vin is one of my favorite recipes for comfort food during cold months. It has everything I love – bacon, chicken, root vegetables and a yummy sauce. But there’s no reason this French dish has to be so loaded with fat calories and sodium. Here’s a version I created that is great for the calorie conscious diner but just as delicious, hot and filling as the original.

Slimmed Down Coq au Vin

4 pieces bone-in chicken, skin removed (breasts, thighs, drumsticks)

Salt and pepper

1 T. olive oil

1 shallot, sliced horizontally

8 large cloves garlic, thickly sliced

1 cup baby carrots, halved lengthwise

1 rib celery, sliced

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into thirds

1 cup dry white wine

2 cups chicken stock

1 t. dried oregano

1 t. dried sage

½ t. dried parsley

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. water

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté on both sides for five minutes per side, until golden brown on the outside. Remove from Dutch oven and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lower heat and add vegetables to Dutch oven. Sauté for a few minutes, until vegetables begin to soften. Add wine, chicken stock and herbs; place reserved chicken pieces on top of vegetables. Cover Dutch oven and place in preheated oven. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are soft.

Stir together cornstarch and water. Remove chicken pieces from Dutch oven and stir in cornstarch mixture. Place chicken back in Dutch oven and return to oven for five more minutes to thicken sauce.

Serves 4

Note: This is a complete meal that only needs biscuits or French bread as a side.

January 7, 2012: Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli With Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

Part of getting healthy and losing weight is incorporating more vegetables into your diet. I can do this easily as there are very few things I won’t eat but my husband has a harder time (to his credit, he hasn’t complained about our new eating habits and happily munches on salads and soups along with me).

While just about anyone will eat broccoli or cauliflower smothered in a rich cheese sauce, it’s harder to allow these vegetables to stand on their own merit. Roasting root vegetables at a high temperature, however, caramelizes them and gives them a different flavor profile that meshes perfectly with this vinaigrette.

Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli With Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 cups cauliflower florets

2 t. olive oil

1 cup broccoli florets

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/8 cup olive oil

1 ½ t. capers

1 T. finely minced shallot

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

½ t. Dijon mustard

¼ t. sea salt

¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss cauliflower with olive oil. Place cauliflower on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.

While cauliflower is roasting, make vinaigrette. In a small, heavy saucepan, heat olive oil to medium low. Add capers, shallots and garlic; fry for about 2 minutes, until vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.

Toss broccoli with vinaigrette. Add to cauliflower and return to oven to roast for an additional 20 minutes.

Makes about 3 servings with 130 calories per serving.

December 3, 2011: Rice Alfredo Recipe

If you want to sneak more veggies in to the food your family eats, this recipe for a yummy rice side dish just might fit the bill. Because the cauliflower is the same color as the rice, chances are no one will even notice it's there!

Alfredo rice served as a side dish with Parmesan Chicken and fresh green beans.

Rice Alfredo

1/2 cup white rice
1/3 cup finely chopped cauliforets
1/2 t. dehydrated garlic
1/2 t. garlic salt
1/2 t. dried parsley
1 cup water
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup prepared Alfredo sauce (or just use bottled, such as Ragu)
1 T. butter
2 T. milk

In a medium sized saucepot, add rice, cauliflower, garlic, parsley, garlic salt and water. Bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, until rice is done. Add pepper, butter, Alfredo sauce and milk. Heat through.

Serves 3 - 4

November 2, 2011: Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes Recipe

Do you love mashed potatoes rich enough to be delicious even without gravy? Then these “smashed” potatoes are perfect. Try this recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner this year for a traditional side dish that is just a bit different.

Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes

1 head garlic

Olive oil

4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 T. chicken bouillon (or chicken stock base)

2 T. butter

½ t. garlic salt

¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. dried minced parsley

½ cup heavy cream

Place the garlic, unpeeled, in a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over it. Close the foil to make a package and place in a 350 degree oven (ideally, roast the garlic while you’re baking other dishes in the oven). Bake for about 30 minutes, until cloves are completely soft.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes, cauliflower and chicken bouillon. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Continue to gently boil until vegetables are tender. Drain.

Return the pot with the potatoes to the warm burner. Allow moisture to evaporate, about one minute. Add the butter, seasonings, and heavy cream. With a fork or potato masher, smash until creamy but still slightly chunky. Serve with a dollop of butter in the middle of the mound of potatoes.

Serves 4

BTW, today is my husband’s birthday. Happy Birthday, my dear sweet husband! His favorite food is hamburgers so that's what we're having tonight - as I stand outside in the dark and freeze in order to grill his burger!

October 9, 2011: Cream of Squash Soup Recipe

Earlier this month I shared with you a picture of how I used my unusual squashes as an autumn table decoration. Well…I just couldn’t allow all those good gourds to go to waste. I selected the acorn squash and whipped up this tasty soup one night for dinner. Because the texture is not indicative of squash, even my picky husband ate it without complaint.

Cream of Squash Soup

1 acorn squash (or other type of firm fleshed squash such as butternut)

1 cup cauliflower florets

3 sprigs fresh dill weed

3 – 4 cups chicken broth, divided

2 T. butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ t. nutmeg

½ t. cayenne

½ cup heavy cream

Cut the squash in half; scoop out seeds. Cut into large chunks. Add squash, cauliflower and dill to a sauce pot. Cover with chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently for about 20 minutes, until squash and cauliflower are soft. Remove from heat. When cool enough to handle, remove peel from squash. Add squash and cauliflower in the broth to a blender or food processor; puree.

Meanwhile, in the same pot melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute, just until garlic is softened. Add the pureed squash mixture, nutmeg and cayenne. Heat through. Add cream and cook over low just until heated all the way through. Garnish with sprigs of dill, cracked black pepper and swirls of cream.

Tip: To make a design with the cream, gently dribble cream in circles across the top of the soup in a bowl. Use the tip of a knife or a toothpick to run through the cream, making a design.

For a bit of crunch, top soup with freshly made croutons.

March 2, 2011: Cauliflower with Linguine Recipe

Don’t you get tired of serving the same old side dishes over and over again?

I know I do. While making a special dinner for my husband recently, I combed through my recipe binder (five inches thick with pages covered on both sides with recipes!) and found a dish I’d meant to make in 1996. It came from the Butterball website and was meant to be an accompaniment to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Consequently, it serves a lot of people – but it’s easy to cut down to size. I used about a third of all the ingredients listed and it made a dish that was perfect for two diners, along with a steak and a salad. And the best thing? This side dish not only tastes good, it looks very elegant.

Cauliflower with Linguine

1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
9 ounces fresh spinach linguine (I cheated and used dried pasta but the fresh variety would have been much better)
2 T. cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. butter
3 T. flour
¼ t. white pepper (you can use black pepper, but the white looks nicer)
Dash nutmeg (I didn’t have any nutmeg –horrors! – so I used paprika, which worked very nicely)
2 c. light cream or half-and-half
¼ c. + 2 T. grated Parmesan cheese
¼ c. snipped fresh parsley
¼ c. cooked and crumbled bacon

Cook cauliflower in enough water to cover for 15 – 20 minutes or until just tender; drain (I used a steamer basket which allowed me to use the same pan to prepare the sauce, cutting down on the number of dishes to wash). Cook pasta according to directions, drain in a colander. Immediately toss with oil.

Meanwhile, in a 3-quart saucepan, cook the garlic in the butter for a couple minutes. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg (or paprika). Add the cream all at once. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir one minute more. Stir in the cauliflower until well coated with sauce.

To assemble, toss together cooked pasta and ¼ cup of pasta (note: I had a hard time getting the cheese to stick to the noodles so I just scraped out what was left of it and sprinkled it on top of the prepared casserole). Slowly twirl a portion (or a piece if you are making a smaller quantity) of pasta onto a long-tined fork using hands as a guide to help form a nest. Push pasta off fork into a greased 2 ½ quart oval baking dish or shallow casserole. Repeat with remaining pasta, forming a circle of nests around outer rim of dish. Spoon cauliflower mixture into center of pasta ring. Sprinkle parsley, crumbled bacon, and remaining parmesan cheese on top of cauliflower mixture. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven about 20 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 8 – 10 side dish servings.

Tip: Don’t have time to make pasta nests? Just layer the pasta into the bottom of your casserole dish and make a well in the center for the sauced cauliflower.