BONUS RECIPE (Moosewood Restaurant)

Recipe: Caribbean Sweet Potato Gratin

The recipe states it takes 35 minutes to prepare this dish. However!...when you are doing a photo shoot at the same time, you (I) must remember to tack on at least an extra half hour. My plan was to eat at 6-6:30. It is now 7:10 and my dish is still in the oven.

I sure have high hopes for this one. It looked absolutely delish putting it together! And how could it not?  With sweet potatoes, lime, spinach, black beans, and cumin, and coconut milk (which tasted devine!)

Ahhh...the timer is going off! Wish me luck! Stay tuned for the result....:

I am so bummed! Not anything like I thought it would be. The lime was too pronounced and the cornmeal topping was too grainy of a texture for my liking; a breadcrumb topping would be better. I really could not taste much else other then the lime. Nevertheless, my husband said it was good. It's healthy isn't it? he asks. It doesn't taste like beef jerky, but it's good! Good thing too...for there is a lot leftover for him to take to work tomorrow for lunch. And the next day, and the next, and next.....

Success meter (1-3): 1.5



Dessert on the other hand, was heaven!

(Thanks Bells!)





Book Twelve: Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

Recipe: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers



When I came across this recipe, it took me back to when I was a child and my mom made stuffed peppers; if I recall correctly they were stuffed with a hamburger and rice mixture. Here, they are made with quinoa (which I find I truly like a lot) and chopped veggies. These would definitely appease my vegetarian daughter. I must remember to share this with her!

Reading through the recipe I was surprised that one serving was a whole bell pepper (these are cut in half and filled) I thought for sure, half a bell pepper would be more than enough and there would be leftovers for lunch the next day. However, Andy & I devoured a whole one each! They are surprisingly light and not over-filling.

This is one I would make again, but I would increase the amount of spices. Cumin is one of my favorites and I really could not detect it in this dish. I did add extra hot pepper flakes as I always do for I like things spicy, which made for just the right amount of heat.

Success meter (1-3): 3



Book Eleven: Stars Desserts

by Emily Luchetti

     Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

I just love Emily Luchetti! Her desserts are always so easy, beautiful, and delicious. I have four out of five (well six...soon to be published if not already) of her cookbooks. The only reason I do not have the fifth one is, that it is my understanding that it is a compilation of a couple of her other books. Though I am tempted, just to make the library complete!

Not only is shortbread absolutely wonderful, (who doesn't like shortbread?!) but it is something you can always make at the last minute for we all have butter, sugar, flour and salt on hand. Place one cookie in a bowl of ice cream with or without a little chocolate sauce and viola, dessert!

I really must pay more attention to what I am doing, or maybe I should not be cooking dinner, sipping wine, baking and taking photos all at the same time. I dumped the bowl of sugar into the mixer along with the butter, forgetting that I had not measured the sugar yet.  I had just thrown some sugar into a bowl for the photo. My recipe called for only ½ cup sugar and the bowl holds about 1¼ cups! I did not realize this until it was whirling away in the mixer.  So now in my freezer, I have a bag of creamed butter and sugar waiting to be turned into something delightful; maybe chocolate chip cookies. I also failed to read the part where you are supposed to freeze or refrigerate the cookies for one hour prior to baking. However this did not seem to make a difference. The cookies turned out wonderful!!

To make them a bit more special for Valentine’s Day I sandwiched these with a dollop of Nutella.

Success meter (1-3): 3

amazon.com



Book Ten: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

Recipe: Winter Squash Galette

Mmmmm.....the scent of yeast when it's proofing and baking! I need to take up bread making. I used to pass up any recipes that called for yeast for it had always intimidated me; until this past November when I tried my hand at making Parker House Rolls; which I have to admit were to die for. So when this recipe gave me the choice of making Yeasted Tart Dough or Galette Dough (no yeast) I chose the former.

After baking the squash, there seemed to be a lot of liquid, not only on the tray, but in the bowl of which the flesh was placed after scooping it from the skin. I was concerned that all this liquid would make for a soggy crust. I placed the squash flesh into a strainer and let it drain while I cooked the onion/sage mixture. It still looked to have a bit of liquid in it, so I placed paper towels on it to soak up as much as I could.

As you can see in the picture below, my dough stretched considerably as I transferred it from my workspace to the baking sheet. I tried as I have in the past with tart dough, to roll it onto itself over the rolling pin, but it felt too sticky even with extra flour so I quickly moved it to the pan, but not quick enough! So my galette turned out oblong instead of round. Just as well, for I would not have had a large enough round plate to hold the galette.

All stages of this recipe smelled so good, from proofing of the yeast to the finished product coming out of the oven. However I must be loosing my taste buds. The flavors just were not as strong as I thought they should be. Maybe more sage next time and a sprinkle of coarse salt onto the dough after it has been brushed with the beaten egg.

Success meter (1-3): 3