Exotic Kitchen Sink Rice

When cooking rice, first add to the water a combination of any of these (the more the merrier):

Crushed fresh garlic
Cumin
Nutmeg
Cardamom
Paprika
Cinnamon
Tabasco
Salt
Pepper

Top with stirfry, roast, shishkebab, or any other juicy dish that needs a bit more of a foil than straight-up starch!

Love, Columbine 

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When dry roasting potatoes (uncovered, with no liquid added, at a high heat), don't put the garlic in until they're good and brown.  Crush it into a bit of extra olive oil, and toss well with the spuds, and roast 20 minutes before.  All the richness, none of the weird scorched bitter undertones!

Love, Columbine (having just delicious rosemary potatoes for supper, because I don't need any more than this!) 

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I'm having the munchies here.  Just normal late-night kind of munchies, not those associated with smokin the "funny cigs" kind of munchies.   Gosh, Columbine, those spuds sound really good right now- I will also try your idea for roasing potaoes.

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"The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed" -C. Bronte

Columbine:

Love, Columbine (having just delicious rosemary potatoes for supper, because I don't need any more than this!) 

Try rosemary sweet potatoes roasted with a little olive oil~ yum

I roast a combination of root vegis, fall is the perfect time for this a nice roast pork, beef or fowl and potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, beets...just toss ina little olive oil, a touch of salt and some fresh rosemary or thyme, cut all the roots in about the same size piece and lay them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet.

squash and fennel are good roasted together the same way but add some cumin and allspice and cayenne pepper to the mix instead of rosemary or thyme, this goes really good with turkey!

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~The mind is like a parachute, It always works best when it's open~Edna Buchanan~

~Northern Spy~The Apple of my Pie~

~Audrey~

NorthernSpy:

squash and fennel are good roasted together the same way but add some cumin and allspice and cayenne pepper to the mix instead of rosemary or thyme, this goes really good with turkey!

That sounds AMAZING.  I've been jonesing for squash...

Love, Columbine 

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Squashed Rice

Either buy a bag of frozen squash chunks or hack one up yourself.  Cook a couple cups of rice (I like brown, but I'm sure white would work).

Put a generous amount of cooking oil (at least half olive, if you can afford it) in a mixing bowl, and mix in a ton of your favorite BBQ spices.  I use coriander, sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, nutmeg, salt, pepper, Tabasco, and smoke-flavor oil (I get mine from Spices Etc.).  Crank the oven to 450.  Mix the squash chunks with the spiced oil, and put in a big flat open Pyrex or nonstick baking pan.  Stir every now and then; and when the squash softens, mush it into the spiced oil and stir it around some more.  When it's good and mushy (or threatens to stick to the pan) it's done.  Mix with the rice.  Tastes like BBQ potato chips!

Love, Columbine 

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Cranberry Sauce

Chop cranberries up small (I just put them in the food processor).  Put in saucepan with a little bit of water, a pinch of salt, and some honey.  Turn heat to medium, and stir constantly with a LONG-handled spoon because this will get very hot and make like a California mudpot.  Add more honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste as it cooks (taste by scooping a bit out onto a cold metal spoon and give it time to cool before tasting!)  When it's a rich, uniform garnet red, it's done - the natural pectin in the berries will thicken it up as it cools.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Columbine 

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Okay, this is terrrible, appalling, and totally unhealthy. I cannot suggest that anyone actually try this, as they will prob have a coronary on the spot.

But...

Get some bacons strips, cooked but still flexy*, not crispy.

Spread a strip with the cream cheese frosting that goes on Cinnabons.

Roll it up and eat it.

Squeal like a tweener at a Jonas Brothers show when you realise that you just downed about 783635455 calories in three bites.

Have another one because it's SO FREAKIN' GOOOOD!!!

Keel over of a heart attack.

Or, if you survive, have a shot of whiskey to start the blood moving again, and realise you won't be eating anything else for about 3 hours. :nod

 

Seriously, this is one of the most delicious things i've ever had and i can't do more than two strips, and i really do chase it with whiskey.

*To get crispy bacon, don't drain the pan. If, like me, you like your bacon flexy, just drain the grease as it comes. it's the "deep fried" effect of leaving the grease in the pan that makes for crispy bacon. Which i think is gross, but then, see above, i'm in no position to judge! *laughing*

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i'm a fountain of affection, i'm an instrument of joy...

Please pardon the lack of precise measures, as I was playing it by ear - but this is too amazingly good not to share!  I just had an idea that green olives and fennel would work well, and... Day-Yumm!

Unbelievably Good Faux-Greek Bean Spread 

2 onions, chopped
8-10 cloves garlic (or 6 really big ones), crushed
Olive oil (1/4 cup?)
1 can black beans, drained
Juice of 1 lemon
20 manzanilla olives or 25-30 regular stuffed green olives, chopped or broken a little
     (so they don’t just roll around on the food-processor blades)
Oregano (a decent amount)
Fennel (ground, not whole)

Caramelize onions & garlic in olive oil, starting with the onions and adding the garlic when the onions are transparent.  Keep heat just above “off,” and don’t rush - this takes a really long time, and is a good back-burner task while you’re doing something else so you don’t get impatient (I slow-grilled some eggplant).

Blend onion mixture thoroughly with remaining ingredients.  Use as a sandwich spread, or serve as a dip with crackers or bread (in this case, double it, since the main investment, time, won’t go up significantly, and this stuff won’t last long once your guests discover it!)

Love, Columbine 

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That sounds sooooo yummmmmmm!!!!!

Making shopping list for the weekend: black beans and olives!!!!! 

Columbine:

Cranberry Sauce

Chop cranberries up small (I just put them in the food processor).  Put in saucepan with a little bit of water, a pinch of salt, and some honey.  Turn heat to medium, and stir constantly with a LONG-handled spoon because this will get very hot and make like a California mudpot.  Add more honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste as it cooks (taste by scooping a bit out onto a cold metal spoon and give it time to cool before tasting!)  When it's a rich, uniform garnet red, it's done - the natural pectin in the berries will thicken it up as it cools.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Columbine 

Many thanks for this Columbine! My father loves cranberry sauce but all the commercial sauces are very high in sugar (he's diabetic).  Natural sugars like honey are always preferable, so I thought I'd give this a shot as an alternative. It was delicious! Even I had some and I'm not a big cran-sauce fan. Requests are in to repeat at xmas time.   Though I will be bringing my own food processor with me... my mother's was broken and I ended up fine chopping 12 oz of cranberries by hand!

Looking forward to having it on turkey sandwhiches tonight!

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~Kes


Desperate times call for desperate measures
Open your mind to all life's little pleasures
The hole in this world could be healed if by chance
everyone just stood up, took their pants off and danced

~Bruce Guthro

Always happy to seduce someone else over to the cranberry side of the force!

Love, Columbine 

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Bacamole (hors d'oeuvre)

Fry bacon (or facon, fake bacon - that's what I used) until crumbly, break into tiny pieces, and mash into ripe avocado with a splash of balsamic vinaigrette.  Serve on crackers or toasted baguette slices topped with half a grape tomato.

Love, Columbine 

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Spicy Orange Peanut Sauce

3 onions
1/4 cup olive oil
16 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
3 cups extra chunky peanut butter
6-10 cloves garlic
4 Tablespoons Red Rooster (Huy Fong chili garlic sauce)
7 Tablespoons prepared ginger*
Salt to taste

Chop onions & saute in olive oil, in large saucepan or spaghetti pot, on high heat until soft.  Turn heat down to Low, add orange juice concentrate, peanut butter, crushed garlic, Red Rooster, prepared ginger.  Stir.  Cook on lowest heat, stirring occasionally, until it’s too hot to keep sticking your fingers in to “check” it.  ;-)  Serve with just about any main dish, over noodles or rice.

*Prepared ginger is just ginger sliced and ground up in the food processor with enough tamari or shoyu soy sauce to make a thick sludge.

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Dessert, or snack or breakfast:

Toast 2 smores pop tarts and spread the non frosted side with nutella and squish together like a sandwich. Best PMS snack ever. I keep a box on hand just for this.

Happy snacking,

Loula

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Well there’ll be music all around you, You should see the way it feels