Turkey Meatballs (p. 167) and Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats (p. 201)

Ladies' night dinner at Jody's.  The menu was salad, spaghetti with turkey meatballs, and Rice Krispie squares for dessert.
I altered the meatball recipe a little since I wanted them to go with spaghetti. 

I mainly changed the spices, and didn't add the sesame seeds.  Instead I use some fresh basil, a bit of celery seed, and some cayenne.  It felt weird to add water to the mix, but I did it.  You then fry them in a skillet to get some texture on the outside, then bake them to finish.  When I pulled them out of the oven I cut one in half to be sure they were done.  It smelled so good I had to taste it.  And then I ate the whole thing!  They were a big hit with the ladies, too.  I will definitely be making these again.  I suppose I should try the more Moroccan version as well.

Dessert was a hit too.  The recipe is described as the classic recipe, just with a bit more (double) the butter, and browned.  You use unsalted butter but add just 1/4 tsp. of salt.  I really liked them - nice texture, great slightly caramel flavor, and just a little hit of salt at the end that makes them totally craveable.  They also seem to be holding up well - not get all dry and crunchy like regular RK treats.  Super quick and easy to make, and very tasty.
Okay, that's three in a row from Jody.  The ball is in your courts!

Wild Rice Gratin with Kale, Caramelized Onions, and Baby Swiss

I was looking for something to make, and I had some wild rice on hand, so I went with this dish. 
There's some low maintenance but time consuming steps in this recipe, namely cooking the wild rice and caramelizing the onions.  Cooking real wild rice takes about an hour.  Then there's the onions, and chopping the kale.  But kale is pretty, right? 

 Confession: this is the first time I've ever bought kale. It's cheap!  94 cents for a giant bundle.  So you combine the cooked rice with the cooked down onions and kale.  Toss in some shredded swiss cheese. Then top with more shredded cheese and bread crumbs and bake.   
Ooh, pretty browning.  Yes, of course, you put some butter in with the bread crumbs. 
So, how was it?  Interesting.  Good.  I'd say it's not really a main course, even though it's in the vegetarian main course section.  But it's a really nice side.  If this was a Minnesota recipe there'd be a can of cream of mushroom soup and a cup of sour cream or something in there and it would be heavy and gloppy.  This way it's actually really nice and light.  An adjustment for me, but I prefer it.  It would be good with chicken. 

roasted eggplant with yogurt-tahini sauce and cumin-crisped chickpeas, p.146

"This is an interesting dish,"  says Kathy as she came home late from a church meeting to eat our newest venture into the cookbook. 

A week ago, Ginger bought the ingredients for this dish and we never got around to making it while she was here. She has returned to Ohio for a few weeks. This morning before she left, she roasted a pork roast for us to eat. So, we sliced that up and ate it with our eggplant. It was delicious!

Back to the eggplant. The recipe was pretty straightforward. I made the chickpeas as suggested. They are yummy and I would eat them as a snack (and have been all night!).

We had two regular eggplant (too large for the recipe, so I sliced them in thirds) and three skinny Japanese eggplant. I thought the bigger eggplant would take longer, so I baked them alone for 15 minutes first, then added the smaller eggplant. At the end of the baking time (45 minutes for the large and 30 minutes for the small), I thought they still lacked color, so I broiled them for a couple of minutes on the top side. 

I made the sauce as suggested, but wasn't careful with the lemon and it has been suggested by the diners (not me!) that it was too lemony and covered up the eggplant taste. Vaden would like to taste the eggplant more and the sauce was potent. Maybe less sauce or less lemon would help that. 

You can see it was a pretty dish to serve. I don't think I would want it as my only main dish, but as a side dish it was great. If I served it as a main, I would likely include rice and a salad or two (eggplants call for tomatoes, so a fresh tomato salad would be great with this dish).

Peach and Sour Cream Pancakes (p. 5)

A friend of mine from work gave us some very nice peaches and so I decided to make these pancakes.  Putting the batter together was straightforward.

Cutting the peaches very thinly was not. Mine ended up about 1/4 of an inch thick rather than the suggested 1/8 of an inch (I got 8 slices out of one peach).  Cooking them was also a bit tricky.  Mine took about 10 minutes on the peach side (rather than the suggested 5).  M said that while she really liked the final taste, the texture left much to be desired.  She suggested that I cook them on one side, flip them and then add the peach to the top and then finally flip them again to caramelize the peach - guaranteeing that the pancake is done on both sides.  As it was, the peach did not really "melt into the pancake" as promised, so perhaps this would not be much of a compromise. 

M's other comment was that as the pancakes have a bit of sweetness to them, you should go light on the maple syrup.  Overall, I liked them quite a bit and I'll definitely make them again!

tomato scallion shortcakes with whipped goat cheese (take 2)

made by Bruce and Ginger

Inspired by Elyn's post, we decided to try the scallion biscuits too. We served the biscuits as a side dish to salmon patties and white beans with rosemary and olive oli. Ginger whipped up a remoulade for good measure for the salmon. 

What did we change? Following Elyn's advice, we tried to make more topping. So, we doubled the cream but did not have double the cheese. Kathy, unaware of this, commented that she wished the topping was cheesier. So, that was not exactly a complete success.

Other than that we followed the recipe as is. All week long Bruce thought the recipe was "chive" biscuits, and we might try this next time. The drizzled tomatoes were good, and made the bottom of the biscuit a bit soft; three of four diners thought that was good. Finally, the dressing on the tomatoes could be amped up with a little dijon mustard and garlic.

mmmmm. Lovely!  One last thing. A little milk brushed on the tops of the biscuits would aid in browning. 

big cluster maple granola pg. 26

Last night, I found myself alone in the kitchen at 9:30pm. Bruce & Kathy were exhausted from their day working at the house, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and carrying belongings from one place to another to arrange in their lovely new space. And since it was a faux Sunday night, Vaden went up early, too. Ummm, what should I do? Wondering, I turned to the SmitKit book and the granola recipe leaped out at me. I do love granola and have been making it for years. This recipe is remarkably similar to mine, which I have tinkered with and gotten pretty close to perfect, according to my family and fans. <smile> Sometimes I even give it for Christmas gifts.

All ready, assemble, pretty easy. As you can see, I used almonds and pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts (because someone would have to rush me to the hospital if I ate any - my throat swells closed and makes it v difficult to breathe) and coconut.

Here it is on the pan before going into the oven.

After 25 minutes, I attempted to turn over without disturbing chunks. Notice use of the word "attempted" as most chunks were disturbed. But I don't think they were annoyed.

And after another 20 minutes, I took it out of the oven.

Vaden followed her nose downstairs just as it was coming out of the oven and had a bowl of warm granola with (gasp) a little half and half. She said it was good but didn't think it was crunchy. I waited til it was cooler for my bowl and it is definitely crunchier than what I usually make. The egg white made all the difference, I think. The astounding thing to me was the small amount of oil - 2T - compared to what I usually use - 1/3 cup, which I didn't think was much. I'd say this recipe is a keeper!

fingerlings vinaigrette with sieved eggs and pickled celery pg. 59

Before I begin with the recipe, I have multiple confessions to make: 1. This recipe was prepared on 8/27. I was having difficulty transferring photos from my phone to PC, but I got it now and 2. I didn't have fingerlings so we substituted new brown potatoes that I picked up from the farmer's market.

You might have noticed that I used "we" in the preceding sentence. When I picked Jonah (10) up from school, I told him that he could help with a project. He was interested when I told him it was a cooking project for a blog...and when I showed him the blog, he was very excited! So, for the recipe -

First, Jonah pickled the celery. He was willing to do this and taste it along the way even though he admitted that he doesn't like celery.

With the celery pickling in the fridge, we scrubbed the potatoes, taking a bit of the skin off as we went and put them in a pot to boil.

Jonah carefully measured the vinaigrette ingredients.

We drained the potatoes, mashed them a little & drizzled the vinaigrette over the top while they were still warm. I think this is essential because the warm spuds absorb the flavors ever so much better than if they were chilly. Jonah sieved the eggs (he learned a few new words and how to spell them and use them in a sentence...I love learning as a by-product of doing.) Each potato got a careful topping of egg. He finished by sprinkling on the pickled celery. Neither of us was crazy about the pickled celery so we agreed to only put it on half. 

Then I spied a leek in daughter Mary Beth's kitchen. Jonah and I concluded that a little leek browned in a little butter would enhance the looks and the taste. Jonah served the dish to his family (Mary Beth, Steven & Paige (12) for dinner. 

OK, folks, 'fess up, how did you like it?