Cranberry & Goat Cheese Salad

No picture, Sorry!

I've had several salads with goat cheese and cranberries, it's just a great combo!

Salad greens for 2 people (about 3 cups)
2 Tablespoons dried cranberries
2 ounces plain goat cheese
1 Tablespoon toasted pine nuts
Your Basic Vinaigrette with a little Dijon Mustard OR your favorite vinaigrette

1. Mix up vinaigrette in the bottom of salad serving bowl. Add salad greens and other ingredients on top. Toss together just before serving.

Cauliflower Gratin

Obviously, the cauliflower is on the right :)

This recipe is tweaked from Bobby Flay's. Well, about the only thing that is the same is one head of cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite size florets

1 cup heavy cream

1 and 1/2 cups shredded cheddar (we used a really good australian aged cheddar)

2 sprigs green onions, sliced thin

4 strips cooked bacon, diced

Pinch of white pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

S&P

1. Combine all ingredients, pour into a buttered casserole dish.

2. Cook at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender but not mush. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving & enjoy!

*We had leftover bacon from that morning's breakfast so we tossed it in. It could be left out, but the green onion was awesome, I would definitely add some onion kind of onion if green onions weren't available. 

Quinoa, Spinach, and Sun-Dried Tomato Salad with Beans and Pine Nuts

This was delicious! Most recipes here are inspired by ingredients that happen to be on hand, this one in particular. My yummy lunch for today:

1/2 cup quinoa

EVOO

1/2 onion, diced

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

6 sun-dried tomatoes, large diced

1 (15 oz. I think) can cannellini  beans

2 Tablespoons Toasted pine nuts

S&P

1. Cook quinoa according to package; or, if you buy bulk like we do, cook it in a ratio of 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, just like rice. So for this recipe, put 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. 

2. Meanwhile, warm EVOO in a skillet over medium heat, add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add spinach and wilt. Mix in sun-dried toms and beans; heat through.

3. When quinoa is done, mix it in with the spinach, tomato, and bean mixture. S&P to taste. Top with toasted pine nuts & enjoy 

This made about 2 servings. 

Stock

We make our own stock on a regular basis; I don't remember the last time we bought it. It's super easy, throw everything in a pot and come back a few hours later. Sometimes we keep veggies throughout the week in a dish in the fridge, like carrot peels, onion peels and the ends you can never cut, garlic peels. We've even put in broccoli stems. At the end of the week, we throw it into a pot. Usually it's vegetable stock, but if we have chicken with the bones, we throw those in too. 

So, 

Into a large pot, throw in large diced veggies. Our usuals include:

Celery (we buy celery and cut it  into pieces and store it in the fridge packed with water so it's ready for snacking or cutting into a meal); we don't even use the "good" parts, just the ends, leaves, and pieces that don't look good for eating.

Carrots (we buy a large bag of whole carrots, peel them and store the same as celery), we use all the peels and ends

Onion, usually one whole, quarter with the peel still on

Garlic, one bulb (or partial if that's what we have) cut down the middle to expose the fresh garlic

Herbs (usuals are parsley, thyme, bay)

Whole peppercorns (about a teaspoon)

Salt (mike doesn't add any, I do, but not a lot)

Cover with water, about an inch or so over the veggies. Simmer uncovered for 2-4 hours. You'll notice it reducing down and getting darker. This is the flavors concentrating. 

You want to reduce the liquid by about half. 

Strain into a bowl (you will need a finer, mesh strainer to catch all those peppercorns)

Let cool. Divide into smaller storage containers and freeze. 

Enjoy your "free" stock made from your kitchen scraps in soups, stews, pastas, etc. 

Grilled Cheese with Avocado & Bacon

This was awesome, just so you know!

Bread
Butter
1 Perfectly Ripe Avocado, sliced
A few pieces of cooked bacon
Asiago, shredded

Butter one side of the bread, place buttered side down in pan. Layer cheese, bacon, avocado, and more cheese on the slice of bread. Top with another slice of bread butter side up. Flip when browned on bottom. Tastes awesome, but it has bacon, so you already knew that!!

*No measurements for this one... There were two of us, we used half the avocado in the sandwiches, the other half we put S&P and ate straight up. Our store sells pre-shredded asiago. I put enough to cover the slice & make them stick together. Also, I have an awesome butter dish that keeps salted butter fresh at room temp, so I always have soft butter to spread, makes this a lot easier! Oh, and because we were both off this morning, we cooked up a whole pack of center cut bacon, so this was one way to use some of it up.

Goat Cheese & Roasted Beet Salad with Red Onion Vinaigrette

1 large golden beet (or whatever color you find at the store)
Salad Greens for 2 people (about 3 cups?, Arugula is one of our favorites)
2 oz Goat cheese

For the Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 EVOO
S&P
1/4 cup fine diced red onion
1 tsp Dijon mustard

1. Cut the the end off the beet and quarter. Wrap in an aluminum foil packet with EVOO to coat and roast at 400 degrees until soft when pricked with a fork (about an hour). When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off. (I often do this step the night before and just reheat in the microwave right before serving the salad.)

2. Mix vinaigrette: place vinegar, onion, mustard, S&P in a bowl, whisk in EVOO. Set aside.

3. Assemble salad: Divide greens between 2 plates, top with warm beets. Divide the goat cheese and top the beets (the warm beets soften the cheese ever so nicely). Top with vinaigrette & Enjoy!

*I can't take full credit for the beet/goat cheese combo; someone else's recipe inspired this, but it's still awesome :)

*As I might have mentioned, I don't measure when I cook, so some of these measurements are approximations. Don't be afraid to alter to your taste!!

Your Basic Vinaigrette

A little more oil than acid... That's my basic rule of thumb. 

So, 

1/3 cup vinegar (red wine, white wine, balsamic)

1/2 cup EVOO (or other good oil)

S & P to taste

You can put the vinegar in a bowl, add S&P and whisk in EVOO to emulsify (make it hold together) OR you can put it all in a sealed container and shake the heck out of it too. I find this to be much easier. 

Now that you know that basics, you can play with add ins. Like subbing in fresh squeezed lemon for the "acid" to make a Lemon Vinaigrette. Mix in fresh herbs like oregano and parsley for a Greek vinaigrette. A small dollop of Dijon mustard is a great emulsifier too; I add it to most vinaigrettes I make. 

When I cook, I tend to guestimate more than measure. Don't be afraid to eye-ball it. Don't be afraid to change a recipe to suit your taste better either.