Carrots

John came home the other day from a Costco run with 3lbs of carrots. I usually like it when he brings home a huge bag of something not on our regular list of things. I typically like the challenge. The problem, is that I'm not a huge fan of carrots. Dipped in something they are good, but I feel like I use them only as a utensil rather that a vegetable. Luckily, I adapted several different recipes in to this recipe using the classic flavor of carrot and ginger:

Orange Glazed Ginger Carrots

1 lbs of carrots, sliced, or whole baby carrots
1/3 cup of orange juice not from concentrate
1 cup water
2 TB honey
1 TB fresh ginger, grated
2 TB unsalted butter
1 TB chopped chives (optional - for garnish)
2 TB chopped pecans (optional - for garnish)

Melt butter in a deep saucepan (I used my cast iron skillet). Add carrots and saute for 5 minutes, coating all the carrots in butter. Add water, orange juice, ginger and honey and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to a glaze. Top with chives and pecans.

It was beautiful and delicious!!! Try it.

Curry in a Hurry

Try this yummy thai-style curry recipe. I made it tonight and it was so good! I substituted whole wheat noodles for the rice noodles, halved the amount of chicken and supplemented it with mushrooms.

A Delicious and Healthy Meal in Less Than 30 Minutes

Only sans the very annoying Rachel Ray. Tonight I made a spinach salad with chicken, carmelized cinnamon pears, toasted pecans, goat cheese and thinly sliced celery w/olive oil & vinegar dressing. I paired it with a side of polenta. Yes, I have been on a polenta kick lately. The best part of the meal is that it took me 30 minutes to make, enough time for John and Floyd to go for a walk and get home just as I was finishing the polenta. The meal turned out so well that I'm going to recreate it tomorrow night for John's boss, who we are delivering a homemade meal to while he recovers from back surgery. I hope he likes it as much as we did.

Polenta "Tartlets"

I made these cute little suckers for dinner tonight. The inspiration was an appetizer that I had at Faustina last week. They are muffin-sized polenta bites with goat cheese, tomatoes, chives and parsley over a roasted red pepper sauce. They were a success and super easy to make. I just used a simple polenta recipe made with chicken stock and parmesean cheese, poured it into a buttered muffin tray, made a thumbprint indentation in the middle and chilled until firm (about 2 hours in the fridge). Once set, I put a dollop of goat cheese in the indentation, topped it with quartered cherry tomatoes, and roasted in the oven for 20 min. I then sprinkled them with chives and parsley from my garden. For the roasted red pepper sauce, I blended a 12 oz jar of roasted red peppers (drained), about 1/3 C chicken stock, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1 garlic clove and a few sprigs of fresh parsley in a food processer until smooth.

When I make these again, I will probably add toasted pine nuts to the goat cheese and bake them longer or sautee them so that the polenta is crispy on the outside. Overall this is a simple treat for anyone who enjoys polenta and an elegant, crowd-pleasing appetizer to serve at any gathering.