Spanish Rice

A while back, for a few years in a row around Christmas, my family cooked a Tex-Mex/Mexican style dinner. Most everything was made from scratch and tasted great, but for some reason that did not extend to the rice. I never really liked Spanish rice but decided to try the boxed mix version at our dinner anyway and was disappointed. It tasted too much like canned tomato and lacked general flavor and was mushy. I do like the rice in burritos, so I knew it could be good if we just gave it some thought.

Fast forward to a few months later where I somehow really wanted to have some good rice with a Mexican style meal, and chose this. It was easy AND really good. It is no harder than preparing it from a package, and has LOTS more flavor than the boxed mix. I now make it regularly with Tex-Mex/Mexican food. I like to serve it with refried beans and spicy chicken tacos.

Notes:

• My favorite kind of rice to use here is jasmine rice, though you can use any long grain rice you wish.
• I have not tried it with brown rice but I imagine if you did it might just take a little longer to cook.
• It will end up highlighting the flavors of whatever salsa you use, so make sure you like the taste of the salsa you plan to make this with. My favorite is a tomato based salsa with peach and mango, which makes it slightly sweet.
• To make it vegetarian, use a vegetarian broth of your choice instead of chicken broth. 

RECIPE: Spanish Rice

Warming Carrot Cauliflower Stew

I had a head of cauliflower and began looking for new recipes to use it in, and this one caught my eye because it is carrot based rather than tomato based.

Notes: I'm not sure what chile powder means here (like the spice blend that you use for making chili, or cayenne pepper, or what?). I didn't want it to be TOO spicy and there was already crushed red pepper flakes, so adding even more sharp heat with cayenne seemed like a bad idea. I put in some chili powder but then decided that was not the right flavor, and threw in a bunch of curry powder. I liked the curry powder. I used about 3/4 of a 1 lb bag of baby carrots instead of cutting whole ones into rounds because it's what I had. I used Better than Bouillon's No-Chicken Base + water instead of vegetable broth because I don't like the taste of most vegetable broth, especially if it's too strong. I topped it with chopped cilantro and ate it with some goat cheese toast.

Verdict: It tasted fine but not exceptional. I wouldn't go out of my way to make it again for the amount of work involved (pureeing the soup and especially separately roasting the cauliflower only to sog it up by throwing it in liquid). I didn't have chickpeas when I found the recipe and while I did end up buying some, I almost feel like this might be more delicious and texturally interesting with red lentils. I'm not sure whether you'd want to cook them in the soup after blending it, or cook them separately and add them in when you'd add the chickpeas.

RECIPE: Warming Carrot Cauliflower Stew

Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Waffles

On Easter this year I made brunch. It was the first time in my adult life buying a whole ham, which is a surprise considering it's one of my partner's favorite foods. I wanted to try making fried ham, something I associate with my dad because he cooked whenever we made large breakfasts when I was a kid, and he likes fried ham and so do I. It was nostalgic and tasty.

I also wanted waffles. I make waffles so infrequently that I never remember what recipe I used for the previous batch, whether I liked it or not. Time to fix that by documenting them here!

I tend to pick simpler recipes that don't require whipping egg whites separately from the rest of the batter. I'm sure it tastes great, and maybe someday if I care enough about how different it tastes I'll try it, but usually when I decide to make waffles I want the batter to mix up quickly. Martha Stewart's recipe fit the bill.

Notes: I made a single batch. I "made" buttermilk with lemon juice and milk. (To make 1 cup, put 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar in a liquid measuring cup, fill with milk to 1 cup, and let stand for about 10 minutes.) The recipe made about 9-10 waffles (7" diameter round), about 1/3-1/2 cup of batter per waffle. The batter was thinner than I was used to, which made it a little harder to work with in terms of making sure it didn't leak out the sides of the waffle iron, and was more liable to stick to the iron. Definitely brush the waffle iron with oil before adding the batter to the waffle iron. However,  despite these extra challenges, I think the thinner batter made for a more light and crispy texture, which I liked. Extra waffles can be frozen after cooking for a quick, tasty meal or snack. We served them with butter and maple syrup, and I have also made fruit sauce with some water, sugar, and frozen mixed berries.

Verdict: I think I still want to shop around for more recipes but these were reasonably good for the effort.

RECIPE: Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Waffles

Lemon Polenta Cake

A former coworker introduced me to this recipe. She had been on vacation in Italy and this cake was served at the breakfast buffet at her hotel. She had one bite and fell in love. She and her husband went down to breakfast early the next day to make sure they wouldn't run out before she got all that she wanted to eat. After she returned home, she made this cake and brought it into work to share, and promptly hooked all of us on this delicious treat too. I knew she liked to make Nigella Lawson's recipes (chocolate fruit cake was another recipe she always made for holiday parties), so when I went looking for lemon polenta cake recipe and saw Nigella Lawson had a recipe for it I knew this was the right one.

She passed away four years ago today, but I always think of Barbara when I make lemon polenta cake, and I like to think her joy lives on each time I introduce someone else to it.

Notes:

• I like to serve it with fresh berries on top.
• You can also top the cake with lemon curd, which is 100% unnecessary but it definitely tastes good.

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RECIPE: Lemon Polenta Cake

Smitten Kitchen's Perfect Meatballs and Spaghetti

I'm on a roll with the Smitten Kitchen recipes lately! I saw this on her Instagram recently and had to try it because it looks delicious, the meatballs are baked in the oven (the only way to do it as far as I'm concerned), and both my husband and I are big fans of spaghetti and meatballs.

Changes/deviations:

• I used half ground chuck (beef) and half ground pork for the meat.
• I doubled the meatballs because I wanted leftovers and there wasn't a good way to only buy 1/2 pound of each type of meat when I was buying it. I used 3 eggs (doubled would have been 4).
• Used angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti because it's what I had
• Cooked meatballs for ~15 minutes because they weren't done after 12 minutes, and I think it's because I made mine bigger than the recipe asked. Apparently my estimation of 2 inches is a lot bigger than 2 inches, haha. I ended up with 16 large meatballs (doubled recipe) while the recipe photos show 12 meatballs for a single batch. whep.
• Accidentally doubled the garlic in the sauce even though I wasn't doubling the sauce. Sometimes too much garlic can ruin a dish but a couple extra cloves' worth was fine here.

Verdict: Definitely will make again. It's a little more fussy than what I'm used to (! lol because this is supposed to be easy, and it was) but well worth the effort. The meatball mixture felt kind of soft but they cooked really nicely and smelled wonderful. You can really smell the cheese in them. Since I was only making it for two people I might cut back on the pasta next time, though I also don't want to prepare pasta 2-3 times for this. I had never made pasta like this where you heat it again with some of the sauce and reserved pasta water and it was great! This would be a really good, easy thing to make for a dinner party.

RECIPE: Perfect Meatballs and Spaghetti

Blood Orange Margaritas

I have been wanting to try these ever since a coworker told me how much she loved them when she made them. Now that it's finally blood orange season again, I got my chance. I served them with carnitas tacos. I did not change anything about the recipe.

Verdict: They were definitely good, but not blow-your-socks-off good (for me at least). Given how hard to source and potentially pricey blood oranges can be, I don't know that I'll go out of my way to make these again, but I am definitely glad I tried it!

RECIPE: Blood Orange Margaritas

Vermontucky Lemonade

I ran across this on Smitten Kitchen and I had fresh lemons, so I decided to give it a try! It's basically maple lemonade with bourbon whiskey (I used Buffalo Trace, and the smaller amount of it). I wasn't sure how maple and lemon were going to taste together but I was curious.

Verdict: It was pretty nice! It was a little bit watered down tasting but I am almost certain it's because of some not great decisions about how I prepared the lemonade. I don't know that I'll go out of my way to make it again since bourbon is not my first choice of things to drink (and if I do drink it I tend to drink it by itself) but I'm glad I tried it, and if someone put this in front of me I'd happily drink it. I'd even try it again if I would make the lemonade properly.
Edit: After thoroughly chilling it and letting it stand in the fridge for a few days I think the lemonade tasted better.

RECIPE: Vermontucky Lemonade