Make This Dish ! - Chicken Thighs with Carrots, Fennel, and Orange Sauce

There is so much going on in this dish. I absolutely loved it. Beautiful pearl couscous is a backdrop to a sauce that is bursting with broth and orange juice enhanced by cumin and paprika. Nicely crisped chicken thighs are gently braised in this sauce with sliced carrots and fennel, black olives, and golden sultana raisins. There's sweetness, saltiness, the nasal herb fragrance and flavour of the fennel, and those spices ... oh, yeah and chicken and carrots! The final touch is slivered scallion greens and fennel fronds. The colors are gorgeous, the textures are a beautiful blend. This is a stellar dish.

DH's Slaw and Stories

Here's a cabbage and apple slaw without all that mayo. Diana Henry presents it as a great healthy side dish in her cook book called A Change of Appetite - Where Healthy Meets Delicious. This crisp and crunchy side nestled up to potato salad and a slow-cooked beef brisket dressed with Bourbon-Peach BBQ Sauce last evening. More on that beef brisket in another post.

Frosted Carrot and Parsnip Cake

Nothing fancy here, unless you think that a cooked meringue frosting and candied orange and lemon peel embellishment makes for a fancy cake. This carrot and parsnip cake had butter instead of the more traditional oil component to the batter, brown sugar instead of white sugar, and golden raisins added with the grated carrots and parsnips. There are no nuts, no pineapple, no added falderal.

It's a tall cake, made in an 8-inch spring form and slipped to a pretty cake plate shortly after coming from the oven. I cooled it and then slipped it under the cake dome overnight to let the residual warmth in the cake create a moist environment to soften the crumb crust at the outer edges and top.

Carrot and Apple Panini ...

Sprout Sara made me this sandwich last weekend when I visited her in Boston. She said she'd gotten the idea from a sandwich she'd grabbed in a small bar somewhere in Beantown on one of her nights out with friends. Whoever came up with this sammy combo is a genius! I loved it so much that I made them for SB and I last evening for light supper ... so good!

A Different Kind of Carrot Cake ...

Most carrot cakes that I have made over the years have a considerable amount of vegetable oil in the batter. The carrots are grated coarsely and join sweetened coconut, crushed pineapple, and walnuts to make a thick batter that has a heavy moist crumb. This version of carrot cake is a bit different, though.

Roasted Red Pepper and Carrot Soup

This is a soup that really hit the spot this week. I have needed to be on a simple soft diet for a few days, as I've been in the hospital to have a gall bladder procedure. Consequently, I am shuffling around the house with a pillow held to my mid-section, and a supply of easy meals in the fridge.This soup was made on Thursday morning just before I headed to the hospital. It has been lunch and late night snack after my return home.

I first thought that this would be a tomato based soup when I saw the recipe title, but no. This is a thick and rich carrot and red pepper soup with just a hint of tomato and a good dose of curry. The consistency is smooth and velvety, as the soup is pureed in the blender before going back into the soup pot to sit a bit and mature the spices. I told SB that the next time I make it, I'm going to throw a few handfuls of cooked rice and a handful of chopped parsley into the soup just before serving.

IHCC - Bangers and Mash Nigel's Way

Made a typically Brit meal with Nigel Slater last evening ... well, sort of. Certainly a plate of bangers and mash is typical pub fare in the UK. Nigel gives it a bit of a spin, though. I was intrigued! So, it was carrot mash and bangers browned and baked with a lemon honey mustard glaze. Added a chunk of pumpernickel bread on the side and a good glass of wine (no beer for me, but perhaps for SB!) and we had a tasty 'stick to the ribs' supper!

Yes Virginia, Your Tagine Can Make Chicken and Dumplings!

Chicken and dumplings! My Mom used to make huge pans of this age-old country fave when I was a kid.
It was cheap, filling, and so damn full of country flavour that it's practically obscene. Mom was feeding a raft of kids.  SB and I are on our own these days. This recipe is dramatically downsized and the dumplings were jazzed up a bit.

The dumplings I made last evening were chock full of green herbs and grated cheese.  Boneless chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots (lots of carrots), onions, celery, and thick, goopy gravy! A convenient step up from Mom's in that there were no chicken bones to pick around, but just as cheap, just as good, and the skeleton of Mom's recipe is intact. Thanks Mom!

Soup and Bread --- Simple Sustenance

Today was a day for baking bread. There were off and on snow squalls ... didn't amount to anything other than making us feel like we brushed up against the edge of winter. The woodstove in the kitchen has kept the place cozy enough to coax the bread dough up up up to the top of the loaf pans. And while the bread baked, I puttered at a small painting project.

I also wanted to try out a recipe for a creamy coconut carrot soup that I'm thinking would make a nice start to our Thanksgiving feast.  This month's Bon Appetit magazine has what looks to be a winning take on carrot soup so I've made it up and am simmering it, as we speak.

Musing on a Sunny Summer Morning ... and a Seasonal Soup

The march is on ... this morning we woke to a thrum of katydids and cooler, dry air. The heatwave that has been crushing the Eastern seaboard seems to be passing and a change is in the air. Autumn ... yup, that's Autumn rattling the bugs and bringing on a cool morning breeze. The sky is changing from that deep summertime azure to a more washed out blue. The roadsides are lined with feathery chicory blossoms and the fields beyond are beginning to turn bright yellow with late summer's goldenrod. I can practically hear the school kids groaning about summer's demise and the onset of another year of classes, but the boys up the street are racing up and down our dirt road on their bikes, screaming and whistling at each other and making our Corgis howl and hoot. Timmy and Christopher clatter their bikes back and forth out front of the house, defiantly in denial of summertime's end. It's a joy to hear. Their rambunctiousness is a perfect counterpoint to the almost hypnotic background sound of the crickets and katydids.

Pasta Ottolenghi - IHCC Uses the Noodles

Chef Ottolenghi calls this pasta bake 'luxurious' - the semi-fried carrots, celery, and eggplant give the pasta a nice edge. Ottolenghi's recipe calls for orzo pasta, but I prefer a bit more bite to my pasta so I opted for ditalini, little short tubes of macaroni. The neat thing about this recipe is that the pasta is rinsed and then cooked in the baking dish with olive oil, broth, the vegetables and their juices, and tomato paste. This process does make the flavour silky and yes, luxurious! Must be the starch from the pasta that makes the resulting sauce around the pasta and vegetables so silky! Put some cheese into the blend, oregano and thyme sprinkles on the tomato slices atop it all and you have one jazzy pasta and vegetable casserole!

Pub Food - Beef in Stout with Herb Dumplings

Sunday Supper never looked so good ...

Cheeseburger in Paradise Soup

This is a new soup ... one that I found in a Taste of Home magazine that my son gave me at Christmastime. With time and finagling, I think it will be a worthy soup, but yesterday when I made it, I couldn't put my finger on what will make is a perfect cream soup. As you look at the list of ingredients, give it a think, will you?  Let me know if something glares out at you.

Carrot Latkes ... Light Lunch or Appetizers

These little fried latkes give tradition such a tweek on the nose! They're sweet and crunchy on two fronts - from the carrot flesh and from the fast crisping that they get in a wee bit of fry oil. What a treat! I made them as a light lunch. With a dollop of Greek yogurt and a little mound of cilantro chutney, they were delicious little bites. So tasty and different!

Whiskey and Cider Glazed Ham with Colcannon

I know I'm pushing the Fall thing, but it's presence is ever closer - just look at all that goldenrod that's in bloom! SB and I went for a bike ride today out along one of  the New Hampshire rail trail bike paths. This one was over in Jaffrey. There were clumps of goldenrod along the path and ponds carpeted with defunct lilypads ... limp, drooping blossoms laying on the water and bullfrogs 'galumphing' away.

Turkish Carrots and Lentils

Cheap, nutritious, spicy, and good! That's it in a nutshell! Excellent with grilled meats and a plain green vegetable or salad to cool the palate ... make these! Really! I found the recipe in a Diana Henry cookbook called Plenty.

Beef Noodle Soup

Another day ... another lunch! I am on a mission to use up all the little bits of things that I have in the fridge and this soup does the job admirably! A warm nod to a brisk afternoon, this soup has Asian overtones - earthy dried mushrooms,  garlic, ginger root, soy sauce, and dry wine added to a beef broth. Lean strips of beef are stir-fried in just a bit of peanut oil. Carrot and scallion strips are then stirfried with the garlic and minced ginger. The fortified broth is added and simmered to bring out the flavours and finish the dried mushrooms. Then spinach ribbons and Ramen noodles are added to finish the soup. Everything simmers until the beef is tender and the noodles have the perfect 'bite'. Yum ... it was a slurpy, savory affair!

Spring Day Poking Around ... and Carrot Soup

SB and I have had our noses poked in the seed catalogues and gardening books this past week and we've been thinking about vegetable gardens and berries and Springtime yard pursuits! Isn't the change of seasons a motivating time? Yesterday, it was absolutely glorious outside all day. SB raked and I baked. I poked around a bit looking for daffodils and crocus popping through the soil. Then we sat around on the back terrace and caught the first mosquito of the season and laughed over that little bugger. It was a lazy day at the grey cottage.

Come evening, I used some leftover carrots (from the little church's Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner event) and made SB and I a delightful pot of Cream of Carrot Soup. This was a simple uncomplicated affair - onions and garlic sautéed, boiled potatoes, and cooked carrots, a flour and butter roux, and a session in the blender to make a smooth as silk purée. The lot was put back in the pan with some low-fat evaporated milk, chicken broth, white pepper and a bit of smoked paprika. Whisked to a steaming simmer, it was a perfect easy supper. We had some leftover yeast rolls all warm and steamy to dip in the soup ... and I had my cold glass of Sauvignon blanc. Life is good.

The New American Plate - The Book and the Concept

My brother, Rich told me about this book a while ago and I poohed-poohed it, all the while knowing that he was concerned about me and was trying to pass on a good idea and some good recipes.

We all have to come to terms with weight loss and dietary control in our own time and it's taken me a while, but hey now ! I'm slowing coming around. The Weight Watchers membership has been a good first step. I'm managing to stay somewhat  mostly disciplined in my diet and as I get used to things like portion control, looking at the actual plate content analytically has started to kick in ... and here is where this cookbook comes in.

Minestrone Soup with Tortellini

There is nothing better than soup for supper! With fresh bread alongside, it just can't be beat for the end of a busy day. And the kicker is ... when you make a big pot of soup, you can have leftovers for lunch for the next couple days ... mmm! Am I right? Huh? Huh?