Cooking from Scratch
We’ve gotten a number of cabbages from our CSA this year, and, for the most part, we turned them into our Light Coleslaw. It’s easy, cool for summer, and it uses a lot of cabbage, making it great to put together for a lunch or dinner side dish. But, after making Light Coleslaw three or four times, it’s time for a change. So, we came up with this Asian-insipred version of coleslaw. Try it and let us know what you think.
Continue reading “Asian Peanut Slaw”
Okay, we were gone for a short trip to the next state over, so don’t expect a really good post for a day or two. Instead, we have a couple of great recipes that are simply variations on some of our favorites. This is one of the great things about Scratchin’ out your meals: you learn a few recipes that are really good, and, with just a change or two, you can make up something just as good, but different enough that you won’t get bored.
Continue reading “Sweet and Tangy Glazed Carrots with Cherries”
We lucked out at a used bookstore a few weeks ago and picked up a copy of both Ad Hoc at Home and The French Laundry Cookbook, both by Thomas Keller. We’ve tried a number of the recipes before and found them to be nearly perfect. They do take time and care, but, they’re great for those days when you’d love to spend the afternoon in the kitchen, sharpening your cooking or baking skills, and wowing people around the dinner table. This recipe is perfect; it took us several hours to prepare, then another hour-plus baking time. In the end, we thought it was worth it.
Continue reading “Vegetable Pot Pie a la Thomas Keller”
As we were making these, disaster struck. Our faithful camera self-destructed, so you won’t see how these carrot muffins turned out, but you will see most of the steps, so you can scratch ’em out yourself.
We decided to make these for our fellow Monday night volunteers, mainly because they sounded healthy. After all, it’s like eating carrots, right? Of course not; it’s more like eating cake with some carrot pieces, but, that’s okay, too (we were going to go with chocolate muffins, but changed our minds at the last minute).
Continue reading “Mini Bouchon Carrot Muffins”
When we first saw this recipe, we were skeptical; supposedly a few flavorings and a bit of baking would make carrots taste like bacon. In fact, the recipe in Bacon-ish, by Leinana Two Moons, was titled “Carrot Bacon,” which we changed to Crispy Smoky Salty Carrot Strips. Why? Well, let’s face it, carrots will not taste like bacon, and they’ll surely not fool anyone into thinking they are eating bacon, and that’s just fine. Why should they? Why can’t this recipe be just a new way to enjoy carrots? A way that’s crispy, smoky, and salty? We thought so. So we figured we’d give the recipe a whirl and pass it by our Scratchin’ It taste-testing panel for critique. What do we have to lose? It’s just a carrot, right?
Continue reading “Crispy Smoky Salty Carrot Strips (Carrot Bacon)”
For the last week or so, we’ve had lighter lunches, mainly consisting of a bit of bread, some cheese, vegetables, and fruit — the fruit we’ve been getting has been so good lately that we’ve made a concerted effort to make sure that we get our five-a-day. These lunches have been just perfect: the bread is always homemade, but, then, all our bread is; the cheese varies from day-to-day, and the vegetables have been things like broccoli florets, cucumber slices, and carrot sticks. Nothing exotic, just whatever has looked fresh and tasty.
Also, last week, we checked out a book from the public library (perhaps the greatest human institution ever) filled with recipes and ideas specifically for lunch: Continue reading “Carrot and Poppy Seed Salad with Rye Bread”
We’ve wanted to try this recipe for a long time. Why haven’t we? Well, we really don’t know. Perhaps it’s that it calls for carrot juice. Or, perhaps it because it’s mainly a carrot soup without much in the way of other flavors. But, we think that the most likely reason is that it’s a soup served chilled. We don’t know about you, but our soups are hot and that’s the way we like them. Can we change?
Continue reading “Chilled Carrot Soup with Sage Mousse”