Yes, Virginia, you can put roasted sweet potatoes into a salad!

Since when do vegetables, specifically cooked vegetables, have to be relegated to side dish status?  Let’s not be casting our vegetables into some imagined pigeon hole.  How unfair!  Let them out to play and explore with the other foods.  Okay, I know it sounds like I’ve totally flipped my lid but hear me out on this one.  When you roast vegetables, their flavor gets a bit sweeter and their texture gets a bit softer but still has a chewability (yep, I’m making up words now too), or tooth to it.  These characteristics are a bit like a piece of cooked meat.

When I first suggested to Craig that I was putting roasted sweet potatoes into his salad he told me I was crazy (he probably should have run for the hills then, but now he’s kind of stuck).  I told him to just try it and if he didn’t like I would never do it again (little white lie there – I knew full well I’d be doing it again). I also heard “sweet potatoes are for mashing and eating at Thanksgiving.”  The rhetoric continued throughout the cooking process.  When he finally settled down and ate his salad, he really liked the sweet potatoes in the salad.  He especially liked the contrasting soft texture that they brought to the crunchy vegetables on his plate.  We had a winner.

Relationship Advice

Ginger Rogers once said “Two people who love each other, they don’t look at each other, they look in the same direction.”  If you follow relationship guru Paula Abdul and her relationship advice that “Opposites Attract,” you may have found yourself in some pretty odd situations.  Does it always end with a fight about should we stay in or go out on a Friday night?  No, it doesn’t.  While you may be Laura Ingalls compared to his James Dean (or maybe you’re Dita Von Tease and he’s George Bailey) this kind of opposite attraction doesn’t spell doom.  But remember this: YOU ARE NOT GOING TO EVER…I MEAN EVER…CHANGE THAT PERSON!  Just had to throw that in there.  The main thing that keeps successful couples together, through thick and thin, is that they both have the same future in mind.

Serves 2 – 4 (depends if using for side salad or main course)

Ingredients

For Salad

• 8 Ounces Mixed Salad Greens (baby arugula, mache, baby bibb, baby spinach, frisee, etc.)
• Handful of Parsely (chopped)
• 8 Mint Leaves (chopped fine)
• 6 Tablespoons Goat Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Pistachio Nuts (chopped)
• 1/4 Red Onion (sliced very thin)
• 1/2 Cup Dried Tart Cherries
• 1 Medium Cucumber (diced)
• 6 Baby Beets (roasted and diced)*
• 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes (roasted and diced)*
• Olive Oil (for drizzling)
• Kosher Salt

For Dressing

• 1/4 Cup Blood Orange Juice (can substitute regular orange juice)
• 2 Tablespoons White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Clove Garlic (mashed with 2-3 pinches of salt)
• 1 Small Shallot (sliced thin)
• 1 Teaspoon Herbs de Provence
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

For Roasted Beets and Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

Place baby beets in foil (tops removed), drizzle with olive oil and tightly close foil around beets.

Spread diced sweet potatoes on baking sheet – drizzle with olive oil (using your hands mix sweet potatoes and olive oil to ensure all sides of sweet potatoes are coated in oil) and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Once oven is heated, place foil packet of beets on one rack and baking sheet of sweet potatoes on the top rack.  Roast for 60 minutes.  Half way through the roasting time, stir the potatoes.

Remove both beets and potatoes from oven to cool.

Once the beets are cool open the foil packet.  Peel the beets, the skins will slip right off just using your fingers.  Cut off any rough spots and dice.

For Salad Dressing

In a small bowl add first 6 ingredients and stir to combine.  Be careful when adding the blood orange juice…this stuff stains.

Drizzle in olive oil while constantly stirring so that everything thoroughly mixed.

Set aside.

For Pistachio Crusted Goat Cheese

Place chopped pistachios on a small plate.

Roll one half of each tablespoon of goat cheese into a ball.  You can make these whatever size you like.

Roll each goat cheese ball into the chopped pistachios and set aside.

For Salad

In a large bowl add salad greens, parsely, mint, red onion, dried tart cherries, cucumber and roasted sweet potatoes.

If the dressing has started to separate, re-stir.

Drizzle the dressing onto the salad greens.  You can use as much or as little as you like (you can always serve the leftover dressing with the salad).  If you use too much dressing, your greens will get saturated and wilt.

Using tongs or 2 forks, lightly toss the dressing and greens together.

Serve greens on plates.  Add roasted beets (these aren’t added earlier because they will turn everything purple when you are tossing the salad greens).

Top with pistachio crusted goat cheese and serve.

Technorati Tags: Blood Oranges, Cheese, Easy Recipe, gluten free recipe, Goat Cheese, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Healthy Recipes, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Salad Recipes, Sweet Potatoes, Vegetarian Recipes

I actually feel sorry for artichokes.  They aren’t the easiest thing to figure out how to eat, most people don’t know how to cook an artichoke, and the vast majority of these little jewels get pureed into oblivion and buried in a sea of mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese.  Or they play the redheaded stepchild to spinach swimming in the familiar mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese pool.

When vegetables are used in our house, you can actually taste them.  I guess that’s kind of an unspoken rule around here.  You may not be able to pick out their flavor, front and center, but you can taste and feel them in whatever dish I put them in.  It’s a good thing that Craig likes vegetables.  Although, when we first met there were lots of veggies that he had never tried.  So putting on his best child impression, he would tell me that he didn’t like this vegetable or that one.  I have since figured out that when he tells me he doesn’t like a particular food, it means he’s never tried it before.  The vegetables, and fruits, that he was most adamant about not liking he now loves.

I have been on a bit of a phyllo dough kick around here.  It’s usually something I go through in the fall, but this year it’s the winter.  There’s a lot of swearing when I break out the phyllo dough because it’s so fragile and has to be handled pretty specifically, but the end results are worth it.

Oh, and even though I was bashing artichoke dip, the leftover filling from these phyllo triangles can be used as a dip.  (For the record: I’m not against dips – I’m against vegetable dip recipes where you can’t taste the veggies that are in them.)

Relationship Advice

Surprise your special someone with a dinner of just appetizers.  This is how they regularly eat in Spain (they call the dishes tapas).  For dinner you have little plates of lots of different kinds of foods.  Everything is just one or two bites and you share.  Break out a bottle of wine, or a couple bottles of beer and have some fun with it.  Make a couple of things (like the artichoke triangles above) and maybe some meatballs, and a bowl of edamame.  Then pick up some nuts and either grapes or strawberries.  Put everything on its own small plate or bowl and sit on the floor for a casual dinner.  You will get full and you will have fun eating lots of different things.  Since everything is small, you can forgo using silverware and just feed each other with your fingers.  This is bound to have some very positive results.

Makes 24

Ingredients

• 20 Sheets of Phyllo Dough (this is usually 1/2 of the box when there are 2 packages in the box)
• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (melted)
• 1 14 Ounce Can of Artichokes
• 1 8 Ounce Package Neufchatel Cheese (light or regular cream cheese will also work)
• 3 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 4 Small Cloves Garlic (peeled)
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a food processor, add the artichokes, cream cheese, Parmesan Cheese, lemon juice, garlic and thyme.  Pulse until the artichokes are in small pieces and all of the ingredients are combined.

Add kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste.  Stir to combine.

Carefully peel off 1 sheet of phyllo dough and lay out on your work surface.  Liberally brush it with the melted butter.  Peel off another sheet of phyllo dough and lay on top of the first buttered sheet.  Liberally brush it with butter (you will have 2 sheets of phyllo dough stacked).  Keep unused phyllo dough covered with a damp paper towel.

Using a sharp knife, cut the phyllo (on the long side) into 2 inch wide strips.

Place 1/2 – 1 Tablespoon of artichoke mixture 1/2 inch from the end of the phyllo strip.  Fold up corner into a triangle.  Repeat the fold up the length of the dough strip (just like folding a flag).

As each triangle is folded, place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, seam side down and brush with melted butter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Technorati Tags: Appetizer Recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, phyllo triangles, Relationship Advice, vegetable dip recipes, Vegetarian Recipes

Ah the Super Bowl.  Are you still nursing a hangover?  How about indigestion?  Can you button your pants/skirt?  I hope your team won…and if it didn’t win did you at least have fun at the party?  We had a small get together at our friend’s house, where the food outnumbered the guests.  But isn’t that the best kind of party?  Oh yeah, there was plenty of booze flowing too.  I brought lots of appetizers.

Okay, I can’t really write a whole post on the Super Bowl.  I don’t follow either team, I don’t care about The Who (anymore), and if I see one more of those talking baby commercials I’m going to call Children’s Services on E-Trade (that’s just not natural and above all else it’s CREEPY).

Craig and I were supposed to go to the party, but since he had tons of work to do, he stayed home (he was accompanied by half of the appetizers that I made, so he wasn’t lonely).  But since my parents are in town from Cleveland, I brought them with me.  There is nothing better than going to your friends’ party with your parents and suddenly you feel like a dorky teenager again.  At least as an adult you can drink alcohol in the open and not have to hide in a closet with three of your friends sharing the same glass of whatever you could swipe off of the counter when no one was looking.  Not that I ever did that or anything.

Relationship Advice

I guess it would be appropriate to use this space, today, to pass along a quote my parents would say to me regarding relationships.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

My parents have been married a little more than 40 years, my mom’s parents were married more than 50 years, and my dad’s parents were married more than 40 years (they passed away before they hit that landmark 50).

Ingredients

• 1 Clove Fresh Garlic (peeled and cut in half)
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil (divided)
  
• 1 Loaf Sourdough Round (1 Pound)
• 8 – 12 Ounces Brie Cheese (triple cream is the best)
• 1 Tablespoon Herbs de Provence
• 1/4 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

Cut 1/4 of the top off of the bread loaf.  Tear out the inside bread from the loaf.  Tear into 1 inch pieces and set aside into a serving bowl.  Leave a 1 inch thickness to walls of the bread loaf.

Rub the cut side of the garlic clove all over the inside of the hollowed out bread bowl.  Brush 2 tablespoons of the olive oil on the inside of the hollowed out loaf.

Cube the brie into 1 inch pieces.  You can remove the rind or leave it on.  (To remove the rind without losing a lot of cheese, use a piece of unflavored dental floss.  Hold both ends of the floss and run it just underneath the rind and pull all the way through.)

Fill the bread with the cubes of brie.  Sprinkle the Herbs de Provence and pepper over the cheese.

Cover the bread bowl with the lid that was previously cut.

Brush the outside of the loaf with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Wrap the filled bread bowl with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Remove from oven.  Take the bread bowl out of the foil, remove the lid and serve with the bread pieces.

Technorati Tags: Appetizer Recipes, Brie Cheese Recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Party Appetizer Recipes, Easy Recipes

What do you do when you have a meeting or a party to go to and you have to bring something to eat?  Do you go sweet or savory?  Do you go grand or understated?  Whatever you do – go big or go home.  By big, I mean big flavor.

My issue was compounded due to the fact that my get together was with a bunch of foodies.  While you might think another foodie wouldn’t have a problem deciding what to bring to a foodie gather, but you would be wrong.  The pressure was staggering!  Okay, I may be exaggerating just a bit – okay a lot.  I thought that most people would go the sweet route, so I decided that savory was the way to go.  That and the fact that I’m trying to get ready to go out of town, made me also go for E-A-S-Y.  Oh, and if you were wondering where my story of Craig is, he was already out of town so I had to hold down the fort by myself (another reason for easy).

Appearances can be deceiving.  These cookies look like those adorable little Walker’s shortbread cookies or those discs made by those sweet little elves that live in trees.  While they may be little, they are not sweet.  They get their savory kick from Parmesan cheese a topping of more cheese and black smoked salt.  I got the original recipe from an old Bon Appetit magazine, but I’ve really changed it up.  (Shocking, I didn’t leave a recipe alone.)

Along the lines of full disclosure I have to give mad props to the photographer on this one.  Patti, over at Worth the Whisk took this shot for me.  I didn’t bring my camera.  So thank you Patti!  BTW, she’s got some great recipes over there too.

Relationship Advice

Spice things up at home too.  I know that I just talked about going out on weekly dates.  But instead of going your regular route: a movie, dinner, a play, don’t tell you significant other what this nights date is.  Have them meet you somewhere then walk together to an art gallery, a wine bar, or a hot new club.  The idea is to just get in the mindset of doing something different every once in a while.  They say variety is the spice of life and that doesn’t just pertain to food.  It also pertains to things that you do or places that you go together.

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (plus more for topping cookies)
• 1/2 Cup Finely Ground Toasted Walnuts
• 1/8 Teaspoon Ground Fennel (or fennel pollen)
• 1 Cup Butter Cubed (2 sticks)
• Black Hawaiian Smoked Salt (or large crystal smoked salt)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper (these cookies are pretty delicate when they come out of the oven, the paper helps when removing them from the baking sheets).

Mix flour, Parmesan cheese, fennel and walnuts into bowl of food processor.

Add butter, in small pieces, and pulse on and off until dough starts to come together.

Bring the dough together to form a ball.  Divide the ball in half and roll into 2 12″ logs.  Roll each log in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill for 1 hour.

Remove dough from refrigerator and break into pieces and form balls.

Arrange balls on lined baking sheet about 1 1/2″ apart.  Flatten each ball into a 2″ circle.

Sprinkle tops of shortbread cookies with Parmesan cheese and smoked salt.

Bake shortbread until tops are dry and edges begin to turn golden brown (20-30 minutes).

Remove cookies from baking sheet and cool on racks.

Technorati Tags: Appetizer Recipes, Baked Goods, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes

I know, I know you’re either saying that I’m out of my mind by making this “guilt free mac and cheese claim” or you’re saying “this must taste like crap if it’s healthy.”  Well, you would be correct if you said the former (I am out of my mind most of the time) – although not specifically regarding my macaroni and cheese claim.  But if you read the heading on this, you would notice that I have a made a disclaimer to the guilt free part by saying “ALMOST.”  This recipe still uses pasta, 3 kinds of cheese and butter – would I let you down on something as sacred as mac and cheese?

As usual, Mr. Belly was oblivious to my secret healthy additions.  I let him in on the little secret when he was oohing and aahing over having baked macaroni and cheese, as I was slurping on my veggie soup.  This is what he gets to eat when I’m doing my detox.  Of course I had some, I’ve got to taste it, but this was for him.

I guess I should spill the beans already.  Instead of using milk, I used soy milk.  But the extras are the cool part.  I added sauteed chicken breast and roasted cauliflower to the mix.  Both of these worked really well with the cheese combo that I used.  And yes, this recipe is very similar to the one that Alton Brown makes, but while Mr. Belly and I both adore Alton and his mac and cheese, we like this one a bit better because it has a different flavor.

Relationship Advice

Congratulations – you’ve survived the holidays!  Shopping, parties, in-laws, out-laws….etc.  Now what?  You’ve probably already fallen back into that same old groove.  You know – breakfast, work, home, dinner, tv, sleep, repeat.  This isn’t what things were like when you first got together, is it?  You want it to be like that again.  How do you get back to that place again?  How about doing some of those things that you did when you first started dating?  Be more appreciative when your significant other does or says something nice (say your appreciation out loud), compliment one another on their appearance, hold the door open for her, open her car door, slip a little sexy note in his wallet, and make a date night each week.  The date doesn’t have to mean going out either.  It can be a dinner at home with a movie, game night, or a special romantic scenario in the bedroom.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1/2 Pound Cellantani Pasta (elbow macaroni or small shells pasta)
• 1 Medium Head Cauliflower (chopped and roasted)
• 1 Pound Chicken Breast (sauteed and diced)
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 5 Tablespoons Butter (divided)
• 3 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Coleman’s Prepared Mustard (could also use Dijon mustard)
• 3 Cups Soy Milk
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion (finely diced)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
• 1/2 Lemon (juiced)
• 1/4 Teaspoon Thyme
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/8 Teaspoon Szechuan Peppers (ground – can use more to taste)*
• 2 Eggs
• 5 Ounces Goat Cheese
• 5 Ounces Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 6 Ounces Shredded Emmental Cheese (or Swiss cheese)
• 1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs (or other bread crumbs)
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

For Roasted Cauliflower

Clean core and leaves from cauliflower (you do not have to have any precision when doing this).  Chop cauliflower into pieces.  Pieces should be roughly 1/2″ – 3/4″.

Place chopped cauliflower pieces onto a baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil over top of cauliflower and mix to thoroughly coat pieces.

After 20 minutes, toss cauliflower pieces to brown all sides.  Bake for another 20 minutes or until edges are browned.

Remove from oven and lower temperature to 350 degrees Farenheit.

For Macaroni and Cheese

In a large pot of boiling and salted water, cook pasta until it is al dente.  Once done, drain.

In another large saucepan, over medium high heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter.  Once melted, whisk in flour.  Keep whisking to ensure that there are no lumps.  After 5-7 minutes, the butter and flour mixture should be a light caramel color.

Add the soy milk, bay leaves, paprika, lemon juice, thyme, garlic powder and Szechuan pepper.  Stir occasionally for 10 – 15 minutes.  The mixture should thicken up.  Remove bay leaves.

In a medium size bowl thoroughly mix eggs.  Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, slowly add milk mixture to eggs (temper the eggs).  While adding the hot mixture to the eggs, make sure that you keep whisking.  Once you have roughly 2 cups of the soy milk mixture in with the eggs, dump everything into the main saucepan and stir.  Add in 3/4 of the shredded cheeses, and all of the goat cheese, and stir to combine.

Add in the cooked, diced chicken and roasted cauliflower.  Once these are combined, add the cooked pasta and stir thoroughly.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour into a 9″x13″ baking pan.

Cover with remaining cheese.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saute pan.  Add panko bread crumbs and stir to coat all of the crumbs with butter.

Top the mac and cheese with the panko crumbs and bake for 30 minutes.

Let rest for 15-20 minutes before serving.

*If you really want to kick up the heat factor in this, you can add tablespoon of Sriracha hot sauce to the mix.

Technorati Tags: Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Recipes, Easy Recipes, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Healthy Recipes, Main Course

This is the requisite “welcome back to reality” post.  Being that it’s the first work day after the long holiday season.  It seems difficult to get my head together today.  Probably due to the lack of coffee in my system since I’m now on day 3 of my self-imposed detox.  It doesn’t help that I’m writing this post about the yummy Arancini we had on New Year’s Eve and that Mr. Belly has not joined in on the healthy start to the New Year.  His idea of starting the new year off healthy is having a healthy sized dinner.  So he gets mac and cheese for his dinner tonight.  But back to these lovely little Arancini.

I’ve never made these before, but I had seen them months ago and had kept rolling a recipe for them around (no pun intended) in my head.  I knew at some point I wanted to make these for some occasion.  The occasion happened to be New Year’s Eve with Mr. Belly and our annual Wii battle.  Yes, that’s an occasion at our house.  If I don’t save my good wines for super special over the top occasions, why should I wait to make the Arancini for some special over the top occasion?  If that was the case, We’d never drink any of our wines.  So if it’s a good enough rule for the vino…it’s good enough for the food.

Traditionally, Arancini are a Sicilian treat made with rice, peas, meat and cheese, but they are also made with leftover risotto.  I get it.  They look fussy and time consuming.  Trust me…fussy they’re not, easy it is, and the only time consuming part is that you have to make up the rice mixture in advance and let it cool.  You could use pretty much any kind of rice you want, except instant rice.  I had basmati rice around, so that’s what I used and it came out great.  This whole recipe is pretty tough to mess up.  Your reward is a little golden ball of warm rice flavored with cheese and spices with a gooey cheesy center and a crunchy outer coating.

Relationship Advice

An occasion is as special or as mundane as you make it.  A quiet evening at home can be just as special as eating at a 5 star restaurant.  Why keep saving that bottle of wine for a “special occasion?”  How often do you actually get to spend a truly quiet night at home doing what you want…not what you have to do?  Celebrate that!

Makes 30 2″ Arancini

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 Cups Basmati Rice
• 3 Cups Chicken Broth
• 3/4 Cups White Wine
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Canola Oil
• 30 1/2″ cubes of Emmetaler Cheese (or Swiss, Mozzarella, Gruyere)*
• 1/4 Cup Milk
• Panko Bread Crumbs**

Directions

Put olive oil in a medium size saucepan over medium high heat.  Once oil is hot add the rice.  Stir rice to coat with oil and lightly toast.

Add chicken broth and white wine to rice in 1/2 cup increments and stir continuously.  As each amount of liquid is absorbed, add the next 1/2 cup of liquid until all of the liquid is absorbed and rice is creamy.  The rice should be starchy and creamy, NOT fluffy and separate.

Remove rice from heat stir in Parmesan, thyme, lemon zest and add salt and pepper to taste.

Let rice cool at least 2 hours.  Preferably overnight in the refrigerator.

Thoroughly mix 1 egg into cooled rice mixture.

Spoon 2 tablespoons of rice mixture into your hand (using an ice cream scoop makes this job much easier), start to form the rice into a ball.  In the center of the mixture, add in the cube of Emmentaler.  Continue to form the rice ball around the cheese.  Once the ball is formed, set it onto a baking sheet and continue doing this until all of the mixture is used up.

Set up 2 bowls.  In one bowl, beat 1 egg and the milk.  In the other bowl, add the panko bread crumbs.

In a deep pot or heavy skillet pour canola oil to 1″-2″ deep and heat to 350 degrees Farenheit.  If you don’t have a thermometer, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking.  The oil should sizzle when a bit of the rice is dropped into it.  (Using a thermometer is the best way to ensure that your fried foods come out perfectly browned and not greasy.)

While your oil is heating, dredge the rice balls in the egg and milk mixture, then roll in panko bread crumbs.  After coating, set back onto baking sheet.

Once oil has reached 350 degrees, add 3-4 rice balls to the oil (do not overload the pan as the oil temperature will drop too low and your food will take a long time to cook and will get greasy).  Cook until golden on one side (approximately 2-3 minutes) then turn the Arancini over to cook the other side.  The Arancini should be a rich orange/golden color.  Once done cooking, remove to drain on paper towels.

If you want to keep all of your Arancini warm for serving, you can put these in a 300 degree oven (on a baking sheet) as you finish them.

* You can also use small meatballs or vegetables for the centers.

** If you don’t have Panko bread crumbs, you can use regular bread crumbs or ground crackers.  Or to make this gluten free, you can use chickpea flour.

Technorati Tags: Appetizer Recipes, arancini, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, gluten free recipes, Rice Recipes, Risotto Recipes

I just could not come up with a pithy or cutesy title for this post because this sandwich (and oh so easy recipe) is just too close to my heart to even slightly mock it in any way, shape or form.  I first had this sandwich on a bitingly cold and wet morning in Amsterdam back in 2002 at a little cafe called Tisfris.  Unlike here in the United States, Amsterdam restaurants stick around longer than 6 months.  (It’s still there.)  Anything or anyone that can save me from turning blue and being utterly miserable from being cold – is my hero.

Last week was spent back in Cleveland, with my family.  I’m not sure if anyone saw the weather for Cleveland, but it was beyond cold the entire week we were back there!  Of course, living in Southern California for the past 14 years affects my judgement on what’s really cold (but let’s just say that the windchill was in the negative digits while we were there – that’s cold).

My first day was spent at the West Side market picking up all of my favorite Polish foods (pierogi and sausage…to name a few).  But then I saw it…a beautiful vision of white, no not a Currier and Ives-esque snow drift, but a perfectly formed log of Boucheron (aka bucheron) cheese, the loveliest of goat cheeses,  and I had to get my hands on a chunk of it.  Then I went over to the baker and picked up a dark hearty loaf of whole wheat honey and sunflower seed bread.  The final purchase was a large piece of ginger.

The next morning was my glorious breakfast – I had a hot cup of tea with warm rich bread, gooey cheese and pears all bathed in a warm sweet ginger syrup and my belly was really happy, and not so cold anymore.  Oh, and what about “my man’s belly”?  He slept in too late and didn’t get any.  Hey, you snooze you lose!

Relationship Advice

You can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink.  You can lay the groundwork for the perfect meal or moment, but if your significant other has other things that they would rather do, then there is nothing else you can do to change their mind or actions.  So if you’ve already done everything, you shouldn’t let it go to waste – enjoy it yourself!  Don’t wait for somebody else to make you happy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 Loaf Dark Bread
• 1/2 Pound Boucheron (sliced into 4 pieces)
• 2 Pears (peeled and sliced thin)
• 1/2 Cup Ginger Syrup – Warmed (recipe to follow)

Directions

Slice and toast dark bread.  If the loaf is not large use 2 pieces of bread to accommodate the diameter of the bucheron.  After toasting the bread, lay them side by side on a large plate.

Place slice of boucheron in center of the 2 pieces of toast.

Arrange slices of pear on top of boucheron.

Drizzle liberally with warm ginger syrup.  Serve

Ginger Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1 2″ Piece of Ginger (peeled and sliced into rounds)

Directions

Pour sugar, water and ginger slices into small saucepan.  Over medium high heat, completely melt sugar into the water.  Do not let water boil.  Once melted, leave pot on heat for 2 minutes longer.  Remove from heat and remove ginger pieces.  Syrup is ready to serve.

*You can then put the ginger pieces onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and put in an oven set at 150 degrees Farenheit for 2 hours for crystallized ginger.

Technorati Tags: 30 Minute Meals, Breakfast Recipes, bucheron cheese, Candied Ginger Recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, Ginger Syrup, Goat Cheese Recipes