B-Sprouts: Re-Mixed from the 1980's Version

Did anyone else have less-than-desirable experiences with brussel sprouts as a child?

Although my mom truly rocks at most everything she creates in the kitchen, I have to admit that brussel spouts just weren't her strong point. Those mini cabbage heads were boiled in water and served straight from the pot just as they were. Needless to say it wasn't the most popular side dish at the dinner table.

When I brought this topic up with a few of my friends though, I found that perhaps the unpalatable brussel sprout issue wasn't mom, but rather it was the prevailing method of cooking B-sprouts at the time. My girlfriends indicated they had the similar sprout experiences when they were growing up.

Moms: We don't blame you. You were victims of the time period. Let's move forward though: It's time to redeem yourselves.

I've found in recent years that I LOVE roasted brussel sprouts. Seasoned just right and slightly crispy on the outside, they're a wonderfully seasonal dish this time of year. While they're delightful on their own (as we had them for dinner tonight), they also make a great add-in to a meal-sized salad.

Tonight we tossed in a chopped sweet potato when we roasted our brussel spouts (leftover from Tuesday's soup). After the veggies roasted, Adam made a homemade Honey Mustard Garlic dressing to drizzle over the top. Bonus: The dressing is almost completely fat-free (and you'd never know it from the taste). It was definitely as good as it sounds--incredibly scrumptious!

Today, re-discover your love for brussel sprouts. Mom: This one's for you :)

Have you discovered a love for a food that you didn't like as a child?

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Honey Mustard Garlic Dressing

(vinaigrette recipe from Moosewood Restaurant's Low-Fat Favorites)

Divine. That's all there is to say about this recipe. Simply divine.

Veggie Ingredients:

• 1 pound of brussel sprouts, halved
• Optional: 3 (very) small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• a little drizzle of olive oil
• a little salt and pepper

Honey Mustard Garlic Dressing:

• 4 - 5 cloves of garlic, minced and sauteed in a tiny bit of olive oil (just to soften the bite of the raw garlic)
• 2 TBSP Dijon mustard
• 2 TBSP honey
• 3 TBSP cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees and coat a baking pan with cooking spray.

2) Drizzle just a little olive oil over the brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes. Toss to coat, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Place veggies on baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes, or until nicely browned and tender (stir the veggies after 20 minutes).

3) To prepare the dressing, whisk together the ingredients in a small bowl.

4) Drizzle a little dressing over individual servings of veggies.

Pizza Night Made Easy

We all love homemade pizza, right?

A crust made with only a handful of ingredients (literally--there are a mere 5 ingredients in tonight's recipe), just the right amount of sauce, and loaded (I'm talking loaded) with your favorite toppings.

The only downside to homemade pizza can be the time factor. Making anything with yeast can certainly throw a wrench in the plans of a busy cook. If you start homemade dough when you get home from work, you'll be lucky to have dinner on the table before the "The Office" starts at 9:00pm.

But alas! A solution for the busy cook: Make your dough when you have time on the weekend. Freeze it. On your Pizza-for-Dinner-Day, put the dough in the fridge before you leave for work. Arrive home, turn on the oven, prep you pie, and you've got dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.

That's how Pizza Night works at our house :)

I use a basic whole wheat pizza crust recipe from the classic Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. It's quite simple and it produces a thin, crispy, healthy crust. If you're looking for a thicker crust, just use the entire recipe for your pizza, as opposed to dividing it in half. And, if you're looking for a way to further simplify your prep-work, there's no shame in letting your Kitchen Aid dough hook do all the kneading for you.

So, this weekend when you hit up the grocery store, be sure to pick up all those strange pizza toppings you fantasize about (roasted corn and blue cheese anyone?), and plan your Pizza Night for next week.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

(recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

My favorite part of homemade pizza is doing pizza MY way. Some of my favorite toppings include homemade pesto, fresh mozzarella, green peppers, onions, broccoli, tomato slices, spinach, fresh garlic, and a sprinkling of Italian seasoning.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 1 to 1 - 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I usually end up using the full 1 - 1/2 cups)
• 2 - 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• Pizza toppings: marinara sauce or pesto, mozzarella cheese, and tons of veggies

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt. Add the warm water and oil, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds. Then, beat the dough for about 3 minutes on high speed.

2) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead in as much of the whole wheat flour as needed to make a moderately stiff dough that's smooth and elastic. Knead for about 6 - 8 minutes.

3) Divide dough in half. (At this point, wrap up one half of the dough and put it in the freezer). Place each dough half in a bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 30 - 60 minutes.

4) To make a thin crust pizza, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 12 inch pizza pan. Roll dough out into a 12 - 13 inch circle and place on prepared pan. Prick with a fork and bake for about 9 - 10 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and load it up with your toppings! Return to the oven to bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until it's bubbly.

Soup and...Peanut Butter?

I'm a firm believer that nut butter can solve almost any of life's problems--culinary or otherwise.

Remember the dad in the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding?" He had a steadfast obsession with Windex, and a strong faith that it truly made the world go 'round.

I'm basically the nut butter version of the Big Fat Greek Dad.

Given my significant attachment to America's favorite pantry staple, it should come as no surprise that I would even love a tomato-based soup...with peanut butter. And not just a spoon-sized dollop--we're talking a full cup of the all-natural, freshly-ground stuff.

Enter the Moosewood Collective's West-African Peanut Soup. This thick stew boasts flavor from sweet potatoes, spicy tomato juice, and a big ol' scoop of peanut butter. It's definitely my favorite winter soup recipe, so I was thrilled when Adam wrote it into this week's menu (a full month before winter arrives!). It's even better the next day, so I'm already pumped for Wednesday's lunch-time leftovers.

Have a lovely Tuesday, and enjoy your soup. And remember: You don't need a bottle of Windex to solve your problems. A jar of peanut butter and a spoon will work just fine.

West-African Peanut Soup

(a recipe from the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook)

This soup is hearty and filling--perfect for a main course. Serve with a green salad and garnish with chopped peanuts and a little chopped spinach. Looking to carry the peanut butter theme through the entire meal? Try some Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting for dessert.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped onion
• a little olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 cups chopped sweet potatoes
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups canned tomato juice
• 1 cup chunky natural peanut butter
• Optional: crushed red pepper for topping

Directions:

1) Heat a little olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and saute until softened. Add cayenne, garlic, fresh ginger, and carrots, and saute for about 5 minutes. Stir in the vegetable stock and potatoes. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until veggies are tender.

2) In a food processor, puree the soup (we left about 1 cup of veggies un-processed, just to add a little texture). Return the pureed soup to the soup pot, and stir in tomato juice and peanut butter until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Gently reheat the soup until heated through. Serve with chopped peanuts and/or chopped spinach as a garnish.

Chocolate + Pretzels + Cookie = Brain Power

It should come as no surprise that food (read: treats) can be a highly motivating reward--and powerful tool of persuasion--when working with high school students.

I'm fortunate enough to have a job that I love, doing work that I find both fulfilling and inspiring. The students I work with are bright and determined, and they certainly make sure that no day is a dull day!

They also like to remind me that homework will get done faster during tutoring, and they'll listen more intently during programming, if they have a snack to power up their energy.

My response? Bring on the treats!

Tonight I baked a Chocolate Pretzel Cookies to take for the students this week. I found this perfectly sweet n' salty recipe on Monet's blog, and knew that it would be the ultimate after-school snack to power their brains through tutoring.

If you like chocolate-covered pretzels, this one's for you. I love the crunch, I love the chocolate, and I love the hint of salty peanut butter--these little guys showcase a great twist on the classic chocolate chipper, and they don't require any elaborate or unusual ingredients. I added a half cup of peanut butter to my batch because, well...when do I not add peanut butter to my chocolate?

Grab your apron and cookie up! It's Chocolate (plus peanut butter) Pretzel Cookie time, friends.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

(adapted from Monet's recipe)

These cookies are the perfect kid-pleasing treat--salty pretzels, yummy peanut butter, and chocolate, all wrapped up into cookie form.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, or white--or a combo of all three!)
• 1 - 1/2 cups crushed pretzels

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray.

2) With an electric mixer, cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract until well-blended. Sift in flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in pretzels and chocolate chips.

3) Drop by rounded spoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.

T-Day is on its way...

T minus 18 days until it's here.

That's right, friends: The BIG day. The revered fourth Thursday of November. The food-loving holiday that allows us to put aside any modesty at the dinner table, and actually celebrates gluttony and excessive eating.

Bring on the stuffing and roll out the pumpkin pies. It's Thanksgiving season, and I'm ready to rock n' roll.

Although I'm sure most people like to rely on family recipes and long-standing traditions for Thanksgiving foods, I actually enjoy the challenge of experimenting with new and unique twists on Thanksgiving recipes. Over the next two weeks, I'll be posting some of my most recent T-Day favorites, in the event you want to switch things up at your own feast table this year.

First on the menu? Cranberry sauce. My dad often recalls, with great fondness, the can-shaped tube of cranberry sauce that my grandmother used to serve at Thanksgiving--the jelled substance was always plated on a large lettuce leaf and sliced as neatly as a frozen roll of cookie dough.

Despite the awesome retro-factor of my dad's cranberry sauce memories, I've opted out of my grandmother's "recipe," in favor of my mom's updated fruit n' nut-loaded version. Thank you, Hungry Spoon Mama!

I've used this crunchy, fiber-licious and flavorful recipe for the past few years--loaded with toasted walnuts, oranges, apples, and celery, it easily surpasses the "wow factor" of the jiggly red globs from days past.

I'm always looking for new ideas to change up my favorites though, so if you have any creative suggestions for cranberry sauce add-ins, please share below!

Fruit n' Nut Cranberry Sauce

(Recipe from the Hungry Spoon Mama)

I'm big on texture and a good solid crunch when it comes to food, and Thanksgiving recipes are no exception! This cranberry sauce packs a high crunch-factor, with nuts, celery, and apple. For a sweet treat the following week, stir some into a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 can of mandarin oranges, rinsed and drained (or use cut segments from 2 oranges)
• 2 apples, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 2 - 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• A little orange zest
• Optional: diced fresh mango (this is a fantastic addition, but sometimes--like today--a girl just doesn't have a mango sitting around)

Directions:

1) To prepare cranberries (as directed on the side of the Ocean Spray bag!): Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add cranberries and return to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (cranberries will start to split open). Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

2) Once cranberries have cooled, stir in remaining ingredients. Refrigerate before serving

The Best Soup in the Whole World

As the days have started darkening much earlier, I'm less and less able to capture pictures of my food in the natural light.

The result? Sub-par food photos, lit only by my dinky dining room light.

Perhaps most importantly though, I also owe apologies to the delicious bowl of soup pictured here. He was so rich, so creamy, so bursting with flavor...he most certainly deserved a cover-model, natural-light photo that would highlight his best features.

Friends, I think I may have actually made the best soup in the world this week. Yes: the whole world.

Put your chili to rest. File away those bisque recipes. Forget the chowder. "The Best Soup in the Whole World" is otherwise known as "Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup." I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover it.

I owe credit, of course, to Ina Garten for inspiring this ridiculously scrumptious combination: roasted butternut squash, roasted apples, and curry powder. Those three ingredients alone form the base for this super-simple, super-flavorful soup.

After you find "The Best Soup in the Whole World," there's not much left to say, is there?

Except, "I'm sorry my picture doesn't do you justice."

What's your favorite soup recipe?

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

(adapted from a recipe in Ina Garten's Back to Basics Cookbook)

The curry powder and apples are what make this particular squash soup stand out from the rest. Ina suggests garnishing with chopped cashews (as I pictured here), but when I took the leftovers in my lunch, I ended up using toasted walnuts instead.

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 3 large apples, diced
• 1 onion diced
• a little olive oil
• 2 - 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 - 3/4 tsp. curry powder
• Salt
• Ground black pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat two large baking sheets with cooking spray.

2) Place squash, apples, and onion in a large bowl. Drizzle with a little olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Stir to evenly coat. Place them in a single layer on the baking sheets, and roast for about 35 minutes (or until softened), tossing occasionally.

3) Meanwhile, bring the stock to a simmer in a small saucepan. Add the curry powder.

4) When the veggies are done, process them in a food processor with the stock (since I have a mini food processor, I did mine in 3 small batches--a little veggies, a little stock each time). Season with salt and pepper.

5) Serve with cashews (or toasted walnuts, as I later discovered!). Don't forget to thank Ina for introducing you to "The Best Soup in the Whole World."

Funfetti Anniversary

2 nerds + 3 years of marriage = 1 happy family

Three years ago today, this was my November 3:

Good times :)

While we served our wedding guests some delicious "grown-up" cake (chocolate + raspberry and vanilla + vanilla cream), Adam maturely requested that our portion of the cake be "Funfetti." What can I say? The man loves sprinkles in his cake.

In celebration of today's anniversary, I surprised him with a homemade Funfetti cake. Forget Duncan Hines. The Hungry Spoon version of this wedding day dessert involves Cooking Light's basic vanilla cake recipe, with colorful sprinkles (and a little lovin') mixed right in.

This is a bowl-heavy cake to prepare. The recipe guides readers through four different mixing bowls, including the classic "beat the egg whites alone before adding them in" process. No worries though--the cake was super tasty, and the shock on Adam's face when he discovered the colorful cake made the labor-intensive prep well worth it.

The icing is by no means healthy, but it's ridiculously good--and it's the same recipe our dear friend Mrs. Gallon used when she made our wedding cake. I marvel at people who can make icing and not lick the beaters when they're finished. You couldn't pay me to leave an icing-coated beater without enjoying its leftovers.

Enough of my rambling, though. You've got some baking to do, and I've got some cake to eat.

What's your favorite "celebration food" to make?

Funfetti Anniversary Cake

(recipe adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

Who needs a cake mix when you can make your own Funfetti cake? Use seasonally-colored sprinkles to match your cake for a holiday-theme (red and green sprinkles for Christmas, anyone?)

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 - 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 TBSP butter, softened
• 2 TBSP canola oil
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 large egg whites
• approximately 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles (or whatever amount looks good to you!)

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 - 3 TBSP milk

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 8 inch round pans with cooking spray.

2) Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In small bowl, combine buttermilk and skim milk. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together at medium speed until well-blended. Add oil and egg yolks, beating well. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and beating until just combined.

3) Place egg whites in a bowl and beat with a mixer (with clean beaters) on high speed until foamy. Gently fold egg white mixture into batter. Stir in sprinkles. Divide batter evenly between the pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

4) To prepare frosting, beat butter and shortening together until well-combined. Add 2 cups powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 TBSP milk; beat well. Add remaining powdered sugar. Add milk and sugar as need to bring the frosting to your desired consistency.

5) Enjoy a piece with your favorite person :)