Tamari Roasted Vegetable Platter

One of my favorite ways to serve side dish vegetables to company is just to grill or roast a big platter of them and put them in the middle of the table for people to help themselves. I also think it's a fun appetizer with cocktails instead of the more expected cheese and dips.

Roasted Parmesan Sugar Snap Peas

I was on a hunt the other day for some fresh spring peas (I'm pretending it's not still freezing outside) but none of my local grocery stores had them. What I did find was fresh sugar snap peas. Those wouldn't work for the recipe I had in mind but I figured I'd come up with something so I grabbed them.

Smoky Beer Battered Cauliflower

In between batches of holiday cookies, I thought I would take a quick veggie break and indulge my love of cauliflower. I'll eat it pretty much every way there is but I have to admit that my mother's crispy breaded and fried cauliflower was and still is my favorite. So, so good but maybe not so good for me if I'm trying to minimize the cookie damage.

Roasted Cauliflower with Tomato Greek Yogurt Tahini Sauce

Can we talk about how people think summer is laid back? Um...where does that come from because there is nothing laid back or slow or even reasonably paced about my summer so far? I thought maybe it was just me but my friends have been talking about crazy kid activity schedules or that frantic rush to get extra work done in advance so you can take a vacation. Nope, not feeling the summer relaxation just yet!

Cheesy Cabbage Gratin

I seem to have an odd relationship with cabbage. Whenever I cook with it, I remember how much I like it and it conjures up happy childhood memories of my mother's amazing stuffed cabbage rolls and her favorite sweet and sour red cabbage. But when it's not specifically on my shopping list I walk right past it at the market. Oh, I do often pick up it's cousin, the Brussels sprout, but the large heads of cabbage don't go into my cart.

Crumb Topped Cheesy Butternut Squash Gratin

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you already know I'm basically obsessed with crumb toppings. There isn't a cake, pie or trifle that couldn't benefit from a few (or a lot) of sweet, thick crumbs. But a savory crumb? I've seen a few recipes around but they always contain a little sugar, despite the savory filling, and that just didn't make sense to me. A savory crumb should be savory but it would need a flavor of some kind.

Mustard Roasted Cauliflower

I'm not sure how much cauliflower I eat in a given year but it would not surprise me at all to find out I'm personally subsidizing some nice cauliflower grower out there. Hey, if you're that farmer, it would be so much easier to bypass the grocery store altogether and just back that truck up to my house. It's my favorite vegetable.

Cauliflower "Rice" and Butternut Squash Bake

Over the weekend I found myself doing the thousand yard stare into my pantry, trying to decide what to make for dinner. I had some salad ready and some chicken but I needed a side dish. Potatoes, polenta, rice...hmm...I kept coming back to the rice. I guess I like rice with chicken. Except that I'm trying to cut back on the starches for a while and add a few more vegetables. And then it hit me that I could make my favorite non-rice rice!

Savory Tomato Cobbler with Gorgonzola Biscuits

We've been going a little tomato crazy around here this summer.  I realize that sounds normal to most of you but...um...I used to hate tomatoes.  Yes.  Hate.  And I know you're thinking that I probably still ate things like ketchup and tomato pasta sauce but you'd be wrong.  Hate is hate.  Happily, tastes can change.

Yellow Summer Squash Casserole

I love almost all squash.  Pumpkin and butternut and always on my shopping list in the fall and winter.  And they get replaced with zucchini and yellow squash in spring and summer.  Though not as sweet as their fall cousins, their flavor is mild and easy to incorporate into lots of dishes.  But I also love them enough to want to make them the star sometimes.

Bacon and Corn Souffle

Today I'm continuing to participate in the second annual brunch week co-hosted by Terri of Love and Confections and Susan of The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen.  From May 5th to 11th, a group of over 30 bloggers are celebrating the deliciousness of brunch.  In addition, we have some amazing sponsors who have donated great prizes for a gigantic giveaway so please see below for more information.

Quinoa and Feta Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers

Last week when I stopped by our local fruit cart (is this a Manhattan thing?), I saw that they had bags of colorful baby bell peppers.  They looked so good and I was tempted but I already had some holiday menus planned and knew I wouldn't have a chance to use them.  So I passed but now my head was full of potential pepper recipe ideas.  Happily, I came home the other day to a delivery from Baloian Farms containing those very same colorful baby bells.

The Tao of Tahini...with Roasted Beets

Both of my European parents spent a few years living in Israel before they met.  And both fell in love with Middle Eastern cuisine.  Years later when they married and moved to New York to raise a family, they retained their love for the food.  Tahini is a staple of Israeli menus and it was frequently on our table when I was growing up.  I loved it then and now.  Beets also made appearances thanks to my mother's Russian heritage but I admit I didn't develop a taste for them until I grew up.  What I don't recall is ever seeing them paired back then.

Cauliflower and Gruyere Gratin

Today I am bringing you yet another of my many, many cauliflower recipes because I seriously never get tired of cauliflower.  It's actually hard to get tired of it just because it is so versatile and can be made to taste so many different ways.  Every time I try a new method of preparing it, I think it is my favorite.  At least for a while, until my next new favorite way.  So, today, this is my new favorite way!

Oven "Fried" Crispy Cauliflower Poppers

When I was growing up, there were a few "special" dishes in my mothers repertoire that I always looked forward to and even occasionally begged for.  Certainly she always knew what to cook for me for my birthday.  Her pot roast with mashed potatoes and onion gravy was my all time comfort dish and the special treat was a fried veggie on the side.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin

No Brussels sprout preparation I've tried, roasted, sauteed, sweet, spiced, has convinced the Mr. to eat these little cabbages.  But I don't let sprout prejudice stop me from enjoying them.  Yes, they do have a slight bitterness to them, which can be lessened with the right preparation, but it doesn't bother me any more than bitter salad greens like kale and arugula.

Creamy and Crunchy Corn Casserole

Over the weekend I had a huge craving for one of Brian's delicious burgers.  He seasons them with Worcestershire sauce and garlic, then gets the cast iron pan screaming hot for a great sear, and he serves them with a mound of amazingly good caramelized onions on toasted ciabatta rolls.  I had to have one!  So, while he was out shopping for the ingredients, I got to work on the side dishes.

Baked Spinach Chips

Remember when kale chips were all the rage?  Well, they're so over now!  OK, maybe they're still raging.  My supermarket now sells them ready made in little 3 serving containers...for $7.00!  At those prices they'd better still be raging but they're definitely over in my kitchen.  I sort of liked them, kind of, for someone who doesn't generally like kale all that much.  Brian ate the first batch I made last year and decided they were over back then.  The net net was that, if you made them for me, I would eat them but I usually didn't bother making them for myself.

Fresh Thyme, a Gratin and the Parsnips of Doom

This is a parsnip and fresh thyme gratin and it was a fun alternative to traditional potatoes.  We ate it with grilled steak and a kale salad.  We ate it a few hours later than usual, however, due to an overwhelming attack of stupidity.

Cheesy Bacon Corn Casserole

Do you ever get in a cheesy, bacony kind of mood?  That's probably a silly question, isn't it?  So, there I was, on my own for dinner and it was getting late.  I was wrapped up in a dozen projects, papers everywhere, the remnants of cooking projects everywhere.  One of these days I should take a photo of the chaos this place goes through during the day.  But, back to the subject of dinner...