Daily Dishes: Recipes that Caught My Eye

Roasted Asparagus and Cherry Tacos  This is, by far, the most intriguing recipe I’ve come across in awhile. The key here would be to try to get both the asparagus and cherries in season, which might be hard to do in some places.  Asparagus season ended a couple weeks ago and cherry season is in full swing now.

Butterbean and Almond Hummus  I am forever on the hunt for new hummus recipes.

Salted Pumpkin Caramels  This is a bit out of season–more suited for fall, but it sounds delicious.

Marinated Zucchini Zucchini is cheap and plentiful during summer months, and I always run out of creative ways to use it.  I think everyone can fess up to just being fed up with zucchini by the end of the summer–there are only so many things you can do with it.  This recipe might stave off the zucchini boredom of late summer.

Russian Pickled Watermelon I could eat watermelon every night for dinner during the  summer.  I cannot get enough of it.  I don’t know if I think this recipe is brilliant or an abomination.  I’ll let you know what I decide.

Sunday Menu Planning

 The husband and I just got back from grocery shopping.  I’m not an Easter or Jesus-y person so I really didn’t plan on making an Easter dinner, per se, or doing anything special, but old habits die hard and I remember my mom always making an Easter dinner for us, so I caved and bought a whole chicken.

So, along with a roasted chicken, I will also make:

Swiss Chard and Caramelized Onion Tacos

Red Lentil Hummus

Farro Salad with Roasted Mushrooms and Parmesan

I’m thinking I will make the taco filling and stick it in the fridge for later in the week.  It looks like a super easy and delicious vegetarian recipe–and I’m sure it will reheat nicely.  We bought beets from the Saturday Market, and Jeff’s friend gave us some red chard, so I will mix the beet greens and chard for this dish.

The red lentil hummus will be good for an easy and light weeknight meal.  We picked up some pita and fresh vegetables to go along with it.

Lastly, the farro salad sounds like it will accompany my chicken well.  Except, I couldn’t find farro at the MoC, so I bought some wild rice instead.  I bought some mushrooms (shiitake, maitake, and lion’s mane) at the market yesterday, too, so I will use those and make the salad with rice.

Let’s see…anything else?  I also have some leeks and the beet root in the fridge that I will need to use as well.  The leeks would go good with the chicken and the beets can be roasted in the oven, too.

Stay tuned for pictures and the process later today.

Hummus Obsession

Living in Eugene, Oregon has turned me into a hummus fiend.   So, as I sit on my couch, in my pajamas, trying to motivate myself to shower and start my day, I google hummus recipes.  I tell myself that I’m doing you all a public service–finding outrageous hummus recipes so you don’t have to waste your valuable time.  Lazy?  Nah.  A couch potato?  No way!  I’m just helping you guys expand your hummus horizons.

You’re welcome.

Beet Hummus

Chipotle Hummus

Slow Roasted Tomato Hummus

Parsley Hummus

Green Olive Hummus

Moroccan Carrot Hummus

Lemon Ginger Hummus

Creamy Peanut butter Hummus

Cinnamon Peanut butter Hummus

Sweet Potato Hummus

Cucumber Dill Hummus

Kale and Sundried Tomato Hummus

Curried Pineapple Hummus

Cilantro Jalapeño Hummus

P.S.  The impetus for this hummus dump (did I actually just type that phrase?) was Jeff asking me if I’d ever come across a recipe for hummus made with bacon grease.  I haven’t, but wow.  Just, wow.

Too Busy to Blog (Sunday Menu/Interesting Food Links, News, and Recipes)

I haven’t had a weekend cooking marathon in about a month.  Instead, we have been eating lots of sandwiches.  And burgers from Wendy’s (still need to explain about my lapse in vegetarianism).

Tonight, I will cook, I think.  I found a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs: Closet Cooking.  Every recipe this blogger makes speaks to me.  One of my favorite features of this blog is the blogger’s tendency to use one special ingredient in several different ways throughout the week.  Kimchi, for example, was one of his recipes and then many of the following recipes were fusion-type recipes that used kimchi in super creative ways.

• Kimchi…quesadillas?
• Kimchi…bacon, and shitake mushroom pizza?
• Kimchi…egg salad sandwich?

There are many more and it’s fun to watch the wheels turn in this blogger’s mind as he tries to repurpose bold ingredients.

When he was on a peanut sauce kick, we saw gems such as:

• Thai peanut turkey burger
• Thai Spicy Peanut Chicken Enchiladas
• Thai Chicken Mole

His fusion recipes are fun, but he also makes a wide range of authentic dishes from different countries as well.  So for every riff on a quesadilla he creates, he also has a recipe someone’s grandma would cook in that given country.

So, tonight I will make his latest recipe:  Tuna and Caper Tomato Pasta.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

In other news, here are the best food links of the week:

• Scrambled Eggs, I like your legs… for all of you Paul McCartney/Beatle lovers out there…
• 100 Ways to Cook Sweet Potatoes…I love lists like this.  I tend to get hung up on one certain ingredient and I love to find new ways to fix it (I fondly recall the Summer of Hummus).
• Seven Worst Stocking Stuff ideas…fetus shaped cookie cutter?
• Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms…I can’t stop drooling.

There isn’t enough hummus in your life

Hummus: The Rap

I never liked hummus until I made it myself.  Most brands of store-bought hummus are gritty, chemical-y, sour, or bitter.  But I bought it time and time again, slathered it on freshly toasted pita, hoping that one day, I would find a brand that didn’t taste terrible.

When we moved to Oregon, I noticed something strange.  At every potluck we have ever attended, there were multiple types of hummus brought to the party.  Multiple.  Some store-bought, some homemade.  Oregonians love their hummus.

With the intention of fitting into our new culinary culture and finding something easy, nourishing, and vegetarian to eat for dinner this summer, my husband and I ended up making and eating hummus homemade nearly every night of the week.

It became an obsession:  I began googling hummus recipes, always searching for the perfect recipe.  It was the ideal summer food: no cooking required, cool, creamy, easy.

I was so very diligent in my search. Some would say monomaniacal.  I never found the perfect recipe, but my husband created his own and it was our go-to recipe when we were too afraid to try the weird ones I had been unearthing.

His recipe included: 2 cans of beans (garbanzo, cannellini, red kidney, etc.), a rounded tsp. of sunflower seed butter, 1-2 cloves of garlic (crushed), salt and pepper to taste, the juice of one small lemon, and enough olive oil to lubricate the blending process.

We made so much hummus this summer that we broke our brand new blender.  We bought it in May and it was toast by August.

Here is a list of the strangest and most delicious recipes we came across:

red lentil hummus

 

cilantro lime hummus

 

yellow curry and butternut squash hummus

 

white bean and roasted eggplant hummus

 

beet hummus