melting your mouth

Well, once again I’m far behind … The September Daring Bakers Challenge was supposed to be posted a week and a half ago. I made it on time, but with going out of town for the Biochemistry Retreat last week, I wasn’t able to get it posted on time, but here it is now.

Thanks to Shellyfish for hosting this challenge — Lavash Crackers. This challenge was a lot of fun, and while I’ve enjoyed all the sweets lately, I was really ready for a challenge not topped with buttercream. I’d been wanting to make crackers for awhile, so of course this was the perfect excuse to try it out. We could make this recipe either gluten free or not, and since I didn’t want to buy xanthan gum, I decided to stick with the conventional version. I topped mine with an assortment of seeds and spices, including poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, rosemary, sea salt, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds. I made one batch with stripes of different flavors and one batch with everything mixed together, which I liked better. All of them would’ve worked better if I had pushed them into the dough a little bit, as everything tended to kind of fall off when you bit into the cracker. Overall, I really enjoyed the crackers though, and would definitely make them again. They turned out deliciously crispy and crunchy, and were a great dipping vehicle.

I did also try a sweet version covered with cinnamon sugar. I think these would’ve been good, too, except that they were thicker than the other batch, and so they came out chewy instead of crunchy.

As part of this challenge, we were also supposed to make either a vegan or gluten-free dip to go along. (This was the first “alternative” Daring Bakers challenge.) Unfortunately I forgot about that part when I decided to make a caramelized onion dip. I’m pretty sure it’s gluten free, but definitely not vegan since it contained sour cream. I guess this obeys the letter of the challenge, though probably not the spirit, since I made a gluten-free dip to go with non-gluten free crackers. I’ll try to read more carefully next time. At any rate, I’ll put the recipe for the dip up sometime in the next few days, because it turned out really well.

And don’t forget to check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll to see how everyone else fared. You may have to scroll back a few posts since I’m so late, but it’ll be worth it!

If you want the recipe for the crackers, check out Shellyfish’s post.

I’m sorry I couldn’t get a better picture of this — our camera is still screwed up so that everything is coming out dark, so I’m having to use flash on all my pictures, which makes them not look as good. But, I hate to just stop blogging because I’m less than thrilled with the pictures I’m getting, so, you’re just going to have to take what you can get for a little while! Our camera is still within warranty, so we’re going to have to send it off to Nikon to be repaired, which means it may be a while before we get it back. So please be patient with us!

So anyway, I promise that pimento cheese is much tastier than it might look in the above photo. If you’re not a Southerner, you may not have heard of this spread, which is extremely easy to make, and is a pretty yummy snack. Since we’ve been exercising more, we’ve found the need to keep more quick and easy snacks or meals on hand, so I made a batch last week. We like to use it to fill celery sticks (so you can tell yourself you’re balancing out the healthiness of mixing cheese with mayo), or spread it on sandwiches. If you’re going to put it on a sandwich, I think it’s much, much better if you toast the sandwich (in a toaster oven, already filled with the spread, so the cheese gets gooey and melty), but there are those in my family that disagree and think it’s better without toasting. Either way, you should give it a try, as it takes all of 10 minutes to whip up a batch.

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If there’s one person outside my family — which, not to brag, includes numerous excellent cooks — whose cooking I really admire and am inspired by, it would be our good family friend Kelly Branson. She can do everything from comfort food and cookies to fancy party food, always making it look easy and elegant — and everything is always delicious.

When Matt and I got married, Kelly and her daughter Meg, who I’ve been friends with since I was about 8, hosted a Bridesmaids Brunch for me. With the invitations, they enclosed recipe cards for the guests to fill out, so now I have a wonderful box of recipes from my family and friends. Kelly filled out several cards, and one of them was for her baked ziti with these roasted vegetables. Someday I’ll pass along the recipe for the baked ziti, too, which is delicious, but last weekend I just made these roasted vegetables. As Kelly says, “I could eat these roasted veggies all day - spread on crackers, pizza - cold, hot, yummy, yummy, yummy.”

Recipe after the jump….

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I’ve been trying to find a fish tacos recipe I like for a long time. I think maybe I like the idea of fish tacos more than most incarnations of them. I kept trying different versions, and Matt and I would always end up kind of saying “eh, they’re ok”, and the recipe would go in the Don’t Bother Trying This Again Unless They Stop Making Cookbooks pile. But here, I think I’ve finally found a winner!

Somehow I recently got on a mailing list from Culinate, a website about food with recipes, articles, etc., and I’m actually enjoying the suggestions rather than resenting the extra space in my inbox. That’s where this recipe comes from. The fish is marinated in lime juice and soy sauce, served with a lime-chipotle mayonnaise sauce, and topped with mango salsa. Don’t think about skipping the salsa, I think that may be the key.

We used the leftover chipotles in these chicken quesadillas the next day, which, incidentally, I recommend as well.

Matt and I had a delicious, though perhaps not all that balanced or healthy, meal of steamed mussels and artichokes the other night. We first started eating mussels while we were studying abroad in France, where they are often served with French fries as “Moules Frites.” There, mussels are eaten not with one of those silly little shellfish forks as I’ve seen them served here, but by using one of the shells as little tongs to pull the meat from the other shells. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture, but I thought it was worth including for purposes of instruction.)

We’ve cooked them a couple times since then, and they are very easy to prepare. A recipe in this months Cooking Light inspired us to make them again. This time, we simply steamed them with chicken broth, lemon juice, and some spices, and served them with some butter for dipping.

We also steamed an artichoke, which was originally planned as an appetizer but ended up being finished about the same time as the mussels. We also had some dipping sauce for the artichoke — as I said, not very healthy, but certainly delicious! If you’ve never eaten whole artichokes before, as we hadn’t until moving to California, they may require some eating instructions too. Basically, you pull off the petals, dip them in the sauce, and scrape the little bit of pulp off with your teeth. I didn’t take pictures of that part, but Elise has a nice tutorial. Also, you want to stop eating the petals when you get to the purplish ones in the center. This part is called the “choke.” It should be scraped out, leaving the delicious “heart” of the artichoke underneath.

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