chickinthekitchen.com

Warm White Beans with Roasted Fennel & Red Pepper

This is a tasty, vegan winter dish. Although I don’t care for fennel raw, I really love it roasted.

Warm White Beans with Roasted Fennel & Red Pepper
Adapted from Cooking Light

2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed and cut in 1/2″ slices
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut in 1/2″ slices
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
2 15-oz. cans cannellini beans, drained (or any white bean)
7 oz. package of fresh baby spinach, washed (about 4 c.)
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Toss fennel, red pepper, and half the oil on a baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes until vegetables soften and begin to brown.

While the fennel and pepper are in the oven, add remaining oil to a large skillet and saute the onions over medium-high heat. Cook for 10 minutes, until they caramelize. Add beans to the onions and cook for an additional 5 minutes; add the fennel mixture when ready. Stir in the spinach and continue cooking for a few minutes over medium heat until the leaves wilt slightly. Season and serve warm.

2 Comments December 11, 2011

KitchenAid Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls

Thanks to a great Black Friday sale, I am the new owner of a bright red KitchenAid stand mixer! I’ve been entering blog giveaways to win one of these babies for years, but was never successful. I finally decided to treat myself to one when I saw a price for the Professional 600 that was lower than I’d ever seen before.

I have never been much of a bread maker, but with the new mixer I was tempted to try out the dough hook. I used a recipe for Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls that came in the instruction manual of my mixer. The recipe comes together easily, and they smell delicious even before they hit the oven — just the smell of the raw dough rising is warm and homey. Out of the oven, they were very tasty if a little plain. My boys loved them and gobbled up several on the spot. They won approval from 2 out of 3 of my dear friend Sharon’s kids as well.

However, once the rolls cooled they were quite tough. The recipe makes 24 rolls, so not all of them are going to be eaten warm. I am a very inexperienced bread maker, so the tenderness issue could be from several technique shortcomings: too much flour, under kneading, or over kneading (I think this is the least likely). I felt that I followed the recipe closely, but I will need to try them (or another recipe) again as I develop my bread legs and get used to what my new mixer can do.

1 Comment December 1, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 Recap, In Pictures

On the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, our power went out. I had 3 loaves of cornbread in the oven at the time, both the dishwasher and the washing machine running, and untold pounds of food for the next day in my fridge.

Thankfully, there was a turkey looking out for me somewhere, and the electricity was restored just a half hour later. It was 30 minutes of panic, as you might imagine, but smooth sailing from then on out. Even the cornbread turned out fine. Although we were missing some of our far-flung family members, this Thanksgiving turned out to be one of the most relaxing holiday afternoons and tastiest meals we’ve ever put together.

You can see my whole menu at Thanksgiving 2011: The Plan, but here are some highlights: (more…)

4 Comments November 28, 2011

Tzatziki Potato Salad (Potato Salad with Yogurt, Arugula, & Dill)

Arugula is not my favorite green, but I do aim to eat everything I get from my farm share. There is almost always a preparation that makes a ho-hum vegetable into something closer to palatable. Several readers told me they love arugula raw in a salad, but that route is not for me. Since I also had a lot of potatoes from my CSA, I thought this light potato salad — Potato Salad with Yogurt, Arugula, and Dill — would be a good accompaniment to a dinner of soup.

J. doesn’t like mayo, so I adjusted the recipe by using a 6 oz. contained of non-fat Greek yogurt plus 2 Tbsp. of apple cider vinegar to thin it out and add some acid. I also used green onions instead of shallots. The combination of yogurt and dill screams “tzatziki!” to me, so I think this side dish would be a nice addition to a Greek-flavored chicken (lots of oregano and lemon) or just to round out a meal of a Greek salad.

The flavor is surprising, because your brain expects mayo when you see a creamy potato salad. But the taste is far from that traditional dish; it’s very springy and light, and super-tangy. We liked it well enough to finish leftovers, but it is probably not a dish I’d repeat. Still, if you like dill and yogurt, you’ll probably like this easy, fat-free dish.

October 27, 2011