melting your mouth

Last weekend I asked mom to bring a salad to dinner, but she did much better — she brought romaine to grill along with the chicken we were making! I had been seeing recipes for grilled romaine, but hadn’t tried it yet. I wasn’t convinced I thought lettuce was going to have enough flavor to be worth grilling, but boy was I wrong — this was delicious! It reminded me a little of the caramelized brussels sprouts we were making all the time last winter. She kindly shared the recipe. Next time you fire up the grill, you should definitely try this one out.

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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 know you’re all thrilled to hear we are back in town and finally getting to do some cooking again! The food on our RAAM trip was actually pretty good thanks to the hard work of Anne, our resident chef, but it still feels good to get back in the kitchen.

I’ll readily admit that this is not the most photogenic side dish in the world — but it sure is delicious. Matt and I bought The South Beach Diet Cookbook several months ago, with a plan to try to eat along those lines. The diet didn’t last long — instead we decided to start a food blog! But, we have enjoyed a few recipes out of the cookbook, particularly this one for edamame, which we make all the time. It goes well with stir fry, as in the picture, but it’s often just a go-to vegetable side dish for us, since we can keep everything on hand. It is definitely quick, easy and healthy, and it’s surprisingly delicious, especially considering how little there is to it. I urge you to give it a try!

Sesame Edamame

adapted from The South Beach Diet Cookbook

12 oz frozen shelled edamame
1 T light soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 1/2 t sesame oil
Dash of hot pepper sauce (we use either Tabasco or Crystal, depending on how spicy we want it)

Combine edamame, soy sauce, and water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce to low and simmer for about 12 minutes, until tender. Continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated and the beans get a little bit shriveled-y and caramelized. (I think it’s best if they seem to almost be getting dried up. They seem to have more flavor that way.) Stir in the sesame oil and hot pepper sauce.

This recipe comes from my grandmother Pat, my dad’s mom. I think of these marinated carrots as one of her specialties. They’re great because they don’t take too long to make, and they will keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. Pat always seems to keep them on hand, and they often appear as a side dish at lunchtime. I especially think of eating them at my grandparents’ house in Blowing Rock, NC, so they remind me of summer. The perfect accompaniment to a Memorial Day hot dog to kick off the start of the season!

Marinated Carrots

I keep these in a jar in the fridge, just like my grandmother. But we don’t actually preserve them or anything, so they do need to be refrigerated. They’ll keep for a couple weeks.

2 lbs sliced carrots
1 onion sliced thin
1 c chopped celery
1 can tomato soup
1 t prepared mustard
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 c sugar
1/2 c salad oil
3/4 c vinegar
salt and pepper

Boil carrots until almost done but they still have a nice crunch (less than 5 minutes). Drain and cool. Mix in onion and celery.

Combine remaining ingredients and pour over carrot mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate at least 12 hours. Drain to serve.

Heidi at 101cookbooks recently made this beautiful spring tabbouleh, which Matt and I copied the other night. We changed it up a little — Heidi had used mostly chives instead of the traditional parsley, but I love parsley, so I decided to use it instead. Also, we have this crazy jungle of mint growing outside our kitchen window, and it needs to be tamed a bit, so we we chopped up some of that to add to the mix as well. We also replaced the walnuts with pine nuts.

I had never tried bulgur before, but I keep thinking I should branch out and try different whole grains, so here’s a first step in that direction. This was a wonderful, quick, healthy but fulfilling one dish meal — the perfect thing when we got home from the gym Tuesday night. And so pretty, too!

Spring Tabbouleh

adapted from Heidi Swanson

1 cup fine bulgur
1 bunch of asparagus, cut in 1″ pieces

1 garlic clove, crushed with a couple pinches of salt
1 lemon
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil

1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
handful of mint, finely chopped
handful of chives, finely chopped

1 c of pine nuts, toasted
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

Boil some water (~4 c or so). Put the bulgur in a medium bowl and pour water up to the top of the grains. Let sit until just tender (Heidi says 15 minutes, but it took a little longer before it was tender enough for my taste).

Return the water to the stove, salt it, add the asparagus, and blanch for about a minute, just enough to take the edge off their bite. Or, do what I did, and put the asparagus in a microwave safe dish, pour the water over them, cover them, and microwave for about a minute.

Once the bulgur is done, press out any remaining water and add the asparagus to the bulgur.

Meanwhile, whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Taste the dressing, and season more as necessary.

Add the herbs, half the pine nuts, and a generous splash of dressing. Toss, add more dressing as needed, and adjust the seasoning. (I ended up using not quite all the dressing, and adding a bit more olive oil.) Garnish with remaining nuts and chopped egg.