Brussels Sprouts Roasted With Maple Syrup

As simple as can be. Sweet and savory.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice your cleaned brussels sprouts in half. Spread them out on a lined baking sheet for easy clean up because the sugar in the maple syrup will stick to the pan. Toss brussels sprouts with a little extra virgin olive oil to coat, a few sprinkles of white balsamic vinegar (or regular balsamic), a generous tablespoon of real maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste. Roast for about 5-7 minutes or until you start smelling the aroma and they look tender. Check for doneness and once you plate them you won't be able to stop eating them!

See, I didn't use parchment paper or foil and the maple sugar stuck to the pan. 

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Pork Tenderloin in Apple Cider Reduction with Apples | Spinach

This was delicious!

The recipe for this delicious seasonal meal last night was found here at the Food Network website: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aida-mollenkamp/pork-tenderloin-with-apple-cider-reduction-recipe.html. 

The only thing I did differently was that I added apple slices (from one Gala apple and one Granny Smith apple because it's what I had) to the reduction during the last few minutes, just enough to soften the apple slices a little. They were a nice touch! 

Baby spinach made a nice side dish. The sauce in the recipe turned out thin but it made a nice dressing for the baby spinach. I served the pork and apples over the spinach and the heat from the pork, apples, and sauce wilted some leaves a little, some stayed crunchy. Just perfect. Although, I didn't think there was enough sauce for three of us. Next time, I'd reduce the sauce less (or make more?) so there'd be more sauce to dress the spinach and pork. 

Quick Zucchini Relish

We are still harvesting zucchini from our garden and the plants look strong! They usually look pretty tired by September. Bored with the usual zucchini dishes and baked goods, I decided to make a relish. I'll shred and freeze the rest of the zucchini for baking in the future.

Quick Zucchini Relish

Shred one large zucchini (the kind you find hiding under zucchini leaves in your garden that grew and grew and grew!) and mince one large shallot and place in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon celery seed, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or cider vinegar), one tablespoon honey, salt and pepper to taste. Place mixture in a covered container in the fridge for about one hour to let the flavor develop before eating. Store in the fridge for about one week. Add the relish to anything you think will taste good with it!

On Labor Day, we enjoyed the zucchini relish with organic grilled hot dogs, whole wheat buns, garden salad, and potato salad.

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For the potato salad, I baked chopped potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees, instead of boiling them, with extra virgin olive oil, Herbs de Provence (I just love these herbs on potatoes), some fresh rosemary from our garden, and a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper. After the potatoes cooled, I removed the rosemary stems, pulled off some leaves and broke them up, sprinkling pieces of rosemary over the potatoes. I added a little more extra virgin olive oil and then a little white balsamic vinegar to taste.

Rogue Island, Flavors of Rhode Island

Rogue Island

Located in downtown Providence in the historic and architecturally interesting Arcade.

Lots of great local food and drinks. 

We shared appetizers. 

The Charcuterie Board and the Berkshire Bourbon Pork Sliders were excellent. 

And the Warm House Made Pretzel Bits with Mustard Dip, well, wow!

My daughter loved the flavorful House Made Pappardelle with Clams.

She also loved the Shirley Temple made with local Yacht Club ginger ale.

And craft beer.

Casual, rustic atmosphere. 

We were there early in the evening and it was quiet until we left.

Can't wait to go again!

For another virtual visit of the Rogue Island, click here: http://rogueislandgroup.com. 

But I strongly suggest you visit in person!

Fresh Summer Zucchini Frittata

This is a lovely frittata with a beautiful presentation. 

These open zucchini flowers that I cut from my garden this morning were used in the frittata.

After washing the flowers, I gently shook off the water, pinched out the stamen, split the petals, and laid them on a towel to dry while preparing the other ingredients.

After mixing eggs with whole milk, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper, I sautéed two small diced zucchinis for a few minutes (in a non-stick pan) with a small minced shallot in a little extra virgin olive oil.

I gently poured the egg mixture into the pan with the sautéed zucchini and shallot, trying not to disturb them, and topped the mixture with the pretty zucchini flower petals.

I covered the pan with foil, finished cooking on medium/low-medium heat until done (firm in the middle), and slid the finished frittata onto a glass serving plate. We enjoyed the frittata with some Vermont bacon. Or some nice crusty toast rubbed with a garlic bulb and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil would be a nice side.

I followed the recipe in my Extra Virgin cookbook, but it can also be found here: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/debi-mazar-and-gabriele-corcos/frittata-with-zucchini.html

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For a lactose-free and milk protein-free version for me: I used organic vanilla soy milk (I think soy milk with vanilla tastes more like milk) in place of whole milk and Go Veggie casein- and lactose-free (and non-GMO) Grated Parmesan Style Topping. As much as I dislike using processed food, this is one of only a few cheese substitutes I'll use. When using Go Veggie, I use a little less than the portion called for since the flavor can be overwhelming. And, of course, the frittata would taste fine without cheese or cheese substitute.

Local Food In Providence

The local food at Nick's On Broadway was amazing! So glad I finally ate here. My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed the charcuterie and mussels appetizers. My sea bass dinner was perfect.

Skillful hands. Artists.

A surprise -- both the beautiful artistic chocolate treat we were each given at the end of dinner and the combination of flavors.

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It was such a lovely warm (and dry) spring evening we decided to have dessert at Pastiche. Even though we ate inside, we enjoyed the fresh air from the open windows.

Part of the mural on the wall next to where I sat. I marveled at the very simple strokes used to create the images of the people working in the field.

Cod Cakes With Bechamel | Cod Cake Burger With Remoulade

Cod Cakes

I was planning on making dinner by cooking cod fillets from The Local Catch in a skillet but they were thin and broke apart too much when I flipped them. So I stopped cooking and quickly searched for a recipe online and found a nice potato based cod cake recipe from Saveur.

The cod cake recipe can be found here. I made adjustments to the ingredients that suited my portion of fish. I didn't serve the cod cakes with a chow chow as recommended because I didn't have those ingredients. Rather, I made a quick Béchamel sauce.

Béchamel, lactose-free
For the Béchamel, I made this quick version because I didn't have a lot of time:

For the roux, I combined 1 tablespoon butter (I used organic lactose-free Earth Balance Buttery Spread, I read that olive oil can also be substituted) with 1 tablespoon flour until well blended in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.

Then I added 1 1/2 cups milk (I used Organic Valley lactose-free), 1 bay leaf, a little onion powder,  sea salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste. I omitted the traditional clove-stuck onion and nutmeg for this sauce but it could be made that way.

I cooked the sauce on medium-low, whisking until the flour flavor was gone and it coated the bay leaf, like below. Then I discarded the bay leaf and sprinkled in some Old Bay seasoning to taste. I thought of Old Bay seasoning because it's what my father uses often when he makes seafood meals. 

I topped the cod cakes with the savory Béchamel and we ate them with leftover roasted vegetables. Cheese can be added to the sauce, but I liked it just like this and wanted to keep it lactose-free.

Cod Cake Burgers

I made burgers with the leftover cod cakes. The Remoulade was a nice condiment by itself but I would have also liked a slice of tomato. However, it's winter and I stay away from grocery store tomatoes -- they are no substitute for a fresh summer garden tomato!

Quick And Easy Remoulade

To 1 cup of mayonnaise (I used the Just Mayo brand I talked about in the previous post), I added 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon tabasco/hot sauce, and minced 4 very small sweet gherkins. 

I served the cod cakes on local Portuguese sweet bread rolls that I toasted.

And if that isn't enough carbs, why not have a nice local craft beer with the cod cake burger! This light tasting Rhode Scholar is my favorite.

"Rhode Scholar"
from the Bucket Brewery, Pawtucket, RI

Don't want all the carbs (or the lactose from the milk in Portuguese sweet bread)? A cod cake with Remoulade tastes great with these pea greens. 

Local Fish Tacos

I saw a notice on Instagram about the fresh pollock that The Local Catch was going to have at the farmers' market with a suggestion for fish tacos. The idea piqued my interest and taste buds!

So I made the trip to the winter farmers' market that weekend and picked up two large fillets of pollock. I was told by a couple of people that Cilantro Mexican Grill uses pollock in their tacos and how wonderful they are. Well, I haven't eaten at Cilantro but it sounded good to me!

On my way out, these pea greens caught my eye. I thought they'd taste great in the fish tacos and grabbed two bags.

Here's the spread:

To make the tacos, I roasted the pollock with simple seasonings and high heat sunflower seed oil on a baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. (Timing depends on the thickness of the fish. I took out the thinner pieces and finished cooking the thicker pieces a few more minutes).

Seasonings were a "spicy seasoning" (a salt-free mix I found at Whole Foods) and a little fresh ground pepper. By roasting, the fish was flavorful, gluten-free, and lower in calories and fat than fried batter.

While the fish roasted, my hands were free to prepare the taco fixings:

~ Homemade lactose-free Baja sauce (sort of)
1/4 cup lactose-free sour cream, 1/4 cup mayonnaise*, 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro, juice from half a lime, a little "spicy seasoning" to taste. After mixing it all together and putting it in a small serving bowl, I sprinkled some smoked paprika on top.

~ Sliced fennel for some crunch and nice flavor

~ Shaved curly carrots because there were plenty available at the farmers' market

~ Pea greens, another great farmers' market find

~ Minced shallots

~ Fresh lime

I used organic whole-wheat tortillas instead of corn tortillas simply because I like the flavor better. To make this dish entirely gluten-free, use gluten-free tortillas/tacos.

And, by the way, fresh pollock tastes amazing in tacos!

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*For the mayonnaise I used Just Mayo. It's non-GMO certified, vegan, and is awesome.

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Photos of the Port of Galilee in Rhode Island I took this past summer, 2013:

Fishing trawler heading out to sea from the Port of Galilee

No compensation was received. These are products I love and want to share.

Spinach And Walnut Pesto For Dinner And Lunch

When not in season, fresh basil is pricey so spinach is a really good and nutritious alternative to use when making pesto. We had a lot of leftover spinach from a large container we had bought and I thought making spinach pesto would be a great fresh way to use it up. Walnuts are also a nice alternative to pricey pine nuts usually used in making pesto.

Pesto
I often make batches of pesto from my garden basil at the end of summer and freeze it for winter. This past summer, a pest ate all the basil and I couldn't control it. So, unfortunately, there was no basil to harvest.

Since I've been making pesto for years, I don't need to pre-measure the ingredients. My spinach pesto recipe is much like the recipes that can be found on the internet or in cookbooks. So if this post inspires you to make some nutritious spinach pesto for your family one night, great! You can either work from my general instructions or try another recipe that sounds good to you.

Method
For this pesto, all I did was stuff a bunch of washed baby spinach into my small 2-cup food processor, plopped in two peeled garlic cloves, a handful of walnuts, juice from half a lemon, a little sea salt, and some freshly ground pepper. When it was time to blend the ingredients, I poured in some extra virgin olive oil (somewhere around 3 tablespoons to 1/4 cup), enough to make the mixture move around and blend and until it looked like the right texture. When it was almost done, I added another bunch of spinach and finished blending. For a larger food processor, all the spinach (a total of about 3-4 cups or whatever you want, just adjust the other ingredients to taste), should fit in one batch.

When the spaghetti was done cooking, I scooped out some of the pasta water before draining to use for extra moisture in the finished dish as needed. I probably used 1/2 cup of pasta water to 1 pound of pasta.

Pesto usually has some parmesan cheese. I left it out so I could avoid lactose on my portion (the combination of gluten and lactose can be too much for me). Then, whoever wanted cheese could add it to their dish at the dinner table. The pasta is organic but not gluten-free and not whole wheat. I haven't found a gluten-free spaghetti I like yet. And my family doesn't like whole wheat pasta, although, I think it would have tasted fine with this pesto.

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Spinach And Walnut Pesto With Goat Cheese ~ Lunch or Appetizer

The rest of the pesto that didn't get used for dinner was saved for lunch another day.

I spread the spinach pesto on top of two toasted multi-grain gluten-free bread slices and cut them into four bite-sized pieces. In a separate dish, I poured some local honey and leftover crumbled walnuts over goat cheese. For an appetizer, I'd just trim off the crust for a nicer presentation.

Then I put it all together for a nice lunch during a sewing project. Oh, look! I couldn't wait to eat some before taking a photo: 

And while enjoying lunch, I heard the loud cawing of crows outside . . .

Crow and branch silhouettes on a gray winter's day

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The delicious bread I used for the snack is a gluten, dairy, and nut free multi-grain bread is from a local bakery, A&J Bakery, in Rhode Island. We don't have allergies, but I like to buy gluten-free bread sometimes just to take a break from eating gluten and this bread just happens to also be dairy and nut free.

No compensation was received. This is just a product I love and want to share.