Honey Spiced Plantains

Look at those UGLY bananas!!! You know C is tainted by my love of strange foods when he sees these on the counter and says, "Plantains, right?" The next thing he said really surprised me though. "Spicey and sweet. That's what you should do with them."And so I did. For those who don't know, these are more like potatoes than bananas, so a hot wing mixture seemed appropriate.



Bake @ 350* for ? Er, 20-30 minutes? I confess, I didn't watch the time...


It's possible that I threw a few more ingredients in the sauce, but it was so salty that I had to correct it, therefore, I would have left out the salty bits and made the sauce as shown above. Maybe a bit of fish sauce for a third dimension...

Lemongrass Shrimp Cakes

I pulled this recipe off of a fellow food blogger, so here is the photo journaling. You know how much a measure so...I doubled the recipe and my little chopper started smoking under the intensity of grinding two pounds of shrimp. Exciting. I really liked this, although I think I might try lemon thyme in lieu of the lemon grass, which is so hard to find. Either way, I don't recommend dried lemon grass. Chop together...
Now grind the shrimp...


Combine the two mixtures (or chop together in the first place if your processor is big enough.
This crinkle cookie cutter was ideal to shape the cakes. Spray first each time with non-stick and the cake falls right out on the pan.



The sauce is just fish sauce, maple syrup, chopped jalapeños, red pepper flakes and lemon juice. The correct recipe is here.

In Search of Snackerlings

I chanced upon a delightful snicker-snack. I brought home Belgian Endives one night, and by chance decided to eat them with hummus. Did you know that Endives are the perfect scooper food? True story! Plus I found these nifty containers of hummus at Costco, and no chopping required! Just rinse and go! Perfectly packaged and all that. Well, after visiting six stores, I could not find any more Endives, so I opted for Baby Bok Choy (shown ab0ve). Quite nice as well, although not as lovely as Endives...

Sweet Red Pepper Cilantro Scramble

Made up this lovely little scramble. I think Dubliner is on my short list for favorite cheeses now.

You will need:Add onions, peppers and eggs to the skillet and cook until eggs are almost done...Then toss in cilantro...
...and shredded Dubliner cheese (la Gruyere or a white cheddar may suffice...)
Drizzle with tomatillo sauce, and enjoy!

Always Perfect Salmon

This is too simple for words. Brush Parkay fat free butter spray (not squeeze bottle) over the salmon fillet, sprinkle with lemon pepper, bake at 375* for 20-25 mins. Perfection! Use foil for no mess. Tastes amazing chilled, too!

Golden Beets

Ah, there you are my pretties! While searching for some lemongrass recently, I stumbled upon these lovely golden beets. I am the girl at the grocery store who goes to the checkout line and the cashier says, "What's this?" Fennel, I respond. "What's this?" Endives, I respond. Then she spends the next ten minutes trying to find it on her chart while people give me angry looks from behind.I popped them in the microwave because I am NOT a glutton for punishment, and cooked them as if they were two potatoes each. Then I ran cold water over them and rubbed off the skin.
Meanwhile I boiled some whole wheat farfalle.
and roasted six chopped red peppers on broil in the oven after tossing them with a tiny bit of olive oil.
I layered the farfalle with Classico Tomato Basil sauce, topped with the golden beat slices and shredded cheese and repeated. I then broiled it until the cheese was melted. Served with red peppers on the side. C loved it!

Jalapeño Rolls

The problem with jalapeño bread or rolls is this: I can never get enough jalapeño, and always wind up with much too much bread. I took matters into my own hands, and using 1/4 part of this bread recipe, I created the following:

Rolled out dough and added cheese, chopped onion, almost a whole jar of jalapeños, Herbs Provençal, and scrambled eggs (two yolks, six whites) cooked with Spike (no sodium seasoning).

Roll up.
With so many peppers in there, I couldn't use dental floss to cut like I do with sweet rolls, but the Ulu knife worked nicely.
As you can tell I cut them thick. Not too much bread here! This is a hearty meal any time of day.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and ... Perfection!