Red is all the Rage..

Red Beet and Apple Salad...

Now we're getting into the good stuff.

What?! Your kids eat beets?!! Yup. Mine do. I don't think I can take any credit for it. I just make sure they taste really good and for some reason they eat them. Call me weird. It's okay. Most of the time I am a little off my nut. One of my favorite ways to serve beets, is in a salad. Most beet salads have pickled or fresh beets and some kind of vinaigrette with dill or whatever. I used to make it with sour cream. That was pretty good at masking the dirt taste. A few years ago I found this recipe and have used it ever since. It's got apples and beets in a sweet dressing with some savory chopped mixed nuts...have mercy. No dirt taste anywhere. Love it.

The other day I bought these little beauties...not really winning any "Pretty" contests are they?

I think they are gorgeous, but that's because I know what they are capable of doing...
Once peeled and sliced they look like this. Now we're getting past the nasty exterior, into the ruby red love....

Cover and steam 8-10 minutes on the stove. Medium heat until tender. Cool.

Dressing:

1/4 apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup vegetable oil, I like a light olive for this one.

1 thin sliced green onion

salt and pepper to taste

So combine the dressing in a good size bowl, add the cooked beets and coat well.

Chop 1 large Granny Smith Apple (I'm a little partial to Awesome Washington State for these!)

Mix the apple with the beet mixture. They won't get brown because they take on the color of the beets. Pretty intense red.

Transfer to a serving dish and top with 1/2 cup chopped mixed nuts (mine where roasted with Tuscan herbs).

Tell me...would your kids eat that? It's worth a try! I'm eating it!

Oh yeah! It's gluten free!

Enjoy!

Creamy Southwest Polenta on Roasted Vegetables

Magic Merlin helped me with dinner tonight. I, the fairy princess chef, was in need of some new magic. I hit the computer and found a very cool blog called The Merlin Menu . There was a gorgeous picture of some creamy polenta. It looked freakishly easy and delicious. Merlin said it would go with anything, the perfect side dish. I started thinking about my vegetarian hubby and decided it would make a great main dish too. Heck, it can go with vegetables! The Arizona desert looked especially pretty today so I went with Southwest. What resulted was a combination of Merlin's magic, and my own. Here's what I used:

Creamy Polenta:
4 cups water (I used vegetable stock since it was for dinner)
1 cup polenta (it's cornmeal folks. I used a fine ground but the medium grind is awesome!)
1-2 T butter (I used the light stuff)
8 oz cream cheese (I used 4 oz, light with jalapeno and garlic)
Salt and pepper

Roasted veggies:
4 cups corn, fresh (frozen will work in a pinch)
2T garlic infused oil, 1 T for corn, 1T for bell pepper and onion
2 medium bell peppers, chopped
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
cumin, coriander,ancho chile powder, fresh cracked pepper

Melt butter into boiling water.

Add the polenta cornmeal. Stir constantly over medium-low heat 20-30 minutes (I used the finer grain and it took only 15 minutes).

The polenta was cooking pretty well. , I added the cream cheese. Once the cheese was incorporated, I transferred the thick pottage onto a lightly oiled sheet pan with a 1 inch lip. Spread it out and put it in the fridge until dinner time. Now Merlin served his creamy,right from the pot. He gave great ideas on re-heating it too. I know my hubby will eat it either way and that my kids would probably like it in a shape. So I did the sheet pan and then fry method...that is, I ate a bowl from the pot, put the rest on a sheet pan and smiled uncontrollably. This was gonna be AWESOME!!

I chopped. Mixed bell pepper and onion, saute in a large skillet on super hot heat for the fajita effect, though next time I will probably just roast them with the corn. I then added some ancho chile powder and some oregano...and as always salt and fresh cracked pepper.

The corn, cut off the cob and mix in a bowl with the oil and 1-2 tsp cumin, fresh cracked pepper, and salt. Place on a cookie sheet with an edge so it doesn't fall off and put on the top rack in your oven with the heat set on "broil". Leave it there 3-4 minutes, checking often so it doesn't burn.

To crisp up the polenta:

I cut the chilled in squares and then lightly fried it in a little garlic infused olive oil.
Then stacked it on the cooked veggies. Plum sauce was pretty easy. A couple of tablespoons of plum jam, heated then drizzled.

Look at it sparkle in the sunlight. Ahh dinner on the patio.

The final test...will the kids eat it. Yup... grin. Note to self, talk to Little Man about doing a great job on eating those veggies...and a little reminder to chew finger nails less...

Oh yea, and Ronit can eat this! It's gluten free and yummo!

Lehavah Ooo-La-la Cornmeal Anise Cookies with Orange Icing

Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care..

What kind of attitude is that?

This is a corny post. Brace yourself.

My friend Ronit Lehavah came to visit last weekend. I had not seen her in years... After the girlie squealing died down...which was a while, we chatted. Oh it was heaven on earth. Her mom came too and we found we both have a great passion for cooking--ooo I love kindred cooking souls!! Drooling over old school cookbooks. It wasn't pretty to see the drool, but fun. I am sure we will hear more from Linda in the future. Love love darling!!

Okay so back to the Ronit subject. Ronit has some very unique dietary needs. Ones that effect many, but that seem especially challenging for me now, because she is my dear friend and her pain is mine. How's that for enmeshment? At any rate, here is what we know so far...no gluten. That's one I can usually handle, but add to that...no rice, no potato...EEEK!! The only starches she can have are tapioca, corn, and buckwheat. That's it folks. So I have decided to add some recipes that will henceforth be known as "Lehavah Ooo-la-la"

So let's get Crackin'. Ronit needs some REAL food. Well, maybe a treat. Cornmeal cookies are my answer to the craving for sugar cookies. Sorry my "no sugar" friends. This one has some. I didn't take the time to try it with honey but try using 1/2 cup honey to replace the sugar and one less egg. It should be fine.

Wouldn't you know that I was plum out of cornmeal when I decided to do this recipe but we did have popcorn. So it went into the mill. You can just use regular cornmeal if you don't want to put your kids to work.

I really liked seeing my son pump the crank and show me his pecks. Quite funny.

Get your stuff together:

2 1/2 cups cornmeal

1/2 cup soy flour (Ronit can have soy! Yea!!)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened (you can use the Heart healthy stuff too)

1 tsp anise extract (or 2 tsp seeds...Ronit can't have seeds)

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg replacement)

frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 T water (more or less depending on how thick you like your icing)

2 tsp orange zest

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (or open the flaps of your solar oven and point it toward the sun). Combine the cornmeal, soy flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and butter until they look like this...

Now, here's a trick...if I can share one. Take this mixture and put it in a quart size storage bag. Write "Add 2 eggs, mix well, put on greased cookie sheet, flatten and bake 8-10 minutes." .Repeat the measuring and mixing process as many times as you want, and you have cookie mix, ready to turn into cookies at a moment's notice. If you use butter, store the mix in the freezer. Really, we don't want rancid tasting puke mix. Right? Note to self: make super luscious cookie mix for when Ronit visits again...

Okay, now if you intend to bake the cookies now...and really, why wait? Add your eggs and anise extract (you can use almond or vanilla if you prefer)

Mix them really well. It's gonna be crazy tight.

Put little Tablespoon balls on an oiled cookie sheet and flatten with your hand.
Bake 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes...until they are all golden and toasted. MMM.

Cool slightly on the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. When cool completely, combine the ingredients for the frosting and spread on the cookies...

They are crispy and yummy. Plus, look how cool the frosting looks. Love you Ronit!!

Apple Cider Caramels...And STEAK.

Steak and Caramel....

a perfectly normal combination!

So my insanely evil chef friend Tara found a great recipe for us to do together and I have to say that I was so excited to get back into the evil think-tank with her. The mind melting is working perfectly and I am pleased to announce that I now have half a brain. My husband tells me that I have been running on half-full for quite some time (I think from giving him a piece of my mind on a regular basis...haa haa.) Nice. This is a recipe that I can't take credit for but can be found with the self proclaimed SUGAR PUNK. I think I would much like to meet this "kindred spirit" and invite her to the think tank, as I am sure we could cause some serious chaos! Again this is one of those areas where other EGO chefs might think I am a bit nuts. I won't apologize. I like hanging out with new people! I tend to learn some of the coolest tricks that way. Case in point, this Punk chick has some really lovely ideas. Boiling the cream separate from the sugar syrup for caramel's. I didn't think of that! Major cool! Tara thought it was cool too! So hats off to the Sugar Punk and big love for the gorgeous caramel's! After the carmels, we took pictures of a lot of steak. I know that sounds wild. It was! One of Tara's co-workers has connections with a meat company and they needed pictures for an upcoming web site. I ate steak for the first time in six months. My hubby, the Ace, is also very much vegetarian so we don't eat steak at home much. It was delicious too! I don't have a recipe for the steak. Still can't figure out how God put together a cow from scratch. But, here is the recipe for the caramel's!




Apple Cider Caramel's

recipe from:

http://sugarpunk.wordpress.com/


2 c apple cider, Reduce to 1/3 cup, set aside.

2/3 c cream
6 tbsp butter Heat to boil, then set aside.

1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c corn syrup
1/4 water

Cook to light brown[I have found that my idea of "light brown"

Add cream, butter and reduced apple cider all at once, stirring constantly (it will foam up - use a good size pot)
Cook to 250 degrees, using med. high heat - you want to take about 5-7 minutes to get it up to temperature.
Pour it into a 8 inch square baking pan that’s been lined with two pieces of oiled parchment paper, one in each direction - this creates a “sling” to pull the caramel out of the pan. [This has always resulted in a layer of caramel approximately 1/2 inch thick. If you want thicker caramels (and I usually do), you can use a smaller pan, or I've made a spacer from cardboard that turns my pan into approx an 8x6 pan.]
[I also sprinkled a little Fleur De Sel over the caramels at this point, as I find them far too sweet if they don't have a hint of saltiness about them] (See! She needs to be in the evil think tank! You know how we love our salty-sweet!)[My final step: Cover the pan with plastic wrap, not touching the caramel (it'll melt)]. Wait until entirely cooled. Then cut with a sharp, oiled knife into pieces.

Steph's notes: If you noticed the big chunks of chocolate in the background you are SICK. Kidding, we actually had the chocolate directly shipped from my amazing Chef Mom! We ran out of dipping time. Lookie Lookie, gluten free and what a treat! My friend Ronit is going to love this one!