Carrot and Quinoa Fritters

I have a lot of quinoa in my pantry, and last year you saw me make quite a bit with it, including salads and burgers. But instead of relying on some of my old favorites, I wanted to try something different to kick off 2011. I had a recipe from Susan Feniger for quinoa fritters, which are similar to latkes, just without potato. I really liked the sound of them, but wanted to add a few more nutrients to the bowl. Or, I wanted to clean out my fridge and finally find a use for all the carrots I'd been saving up. Either way, I served the fritters topped with an herbed yogurt sauce, and the result was a crispy, tasty, filling meal. I love when kitchen experiments turn out well.

{The Saturday Post} Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's a new year. Are you the kind of person that makes lofty resolutions that are impossible to keep? Or, do you prefer smaller milestones, like resolving to eat dessert once a week instead of twice? I'm in the latter category, mostly because I find myself frustrated by goals that seem too difficult to reach.

Our New Year's traditions are pretty simple, and I love that. Typically we stay in, dress up, cook a fancy dinner, and reflect on the year. We also set some resolutions, about ten each, to help us focus on what our priorities are. One of my resolutions for 2011 is to incorporate more whole grain flours into my baking.

I already eat a lot of whole grains. Quinoa, barley, and farro are a few of my favorites. I've also switched exclusively to whole grain pasta. In the December issue of Whole Living, they wrote a feature on Kim Boyce, author of Good to the Grain, and reprinted several of her recipes. I was surprised (though I shouldn't have been), at how appealing they all were, especially these whole wheat chocolate chip cookies that have been very popular in the food blog world, and with good reason. You'll find the increase of brown sugar, as well as the whole wheat flour, really adds a deeper flavor, a bit like caramel. If you're not convinced already, give them a try and this might become your new favorite cookie.

WHOLE-WHEAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Recipe by Kim Boyce, Whole Living (December 2010)

Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients
Dry Mix
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Wet Mix
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Add butter and sugars to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix until just blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture to bowl and blend until flour is just combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add chocolate all at once to batter. Mix on low until chocolate is evenly combined. Scoop mounds of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving two inches between each cookie. Bake cookies for 16-20 minutes, until cookies are evenly brown, rotating halfway through.

Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and repeat with remaining dough. Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Rigatoni with Balsamic Roasted Vegetables

Easy dinner alert! I almost forgot to tell you about this recipe because it's just so simple. In fact, you hardly need a recipe at all. It's one of those clean-out-the-vegetable-bowl kinds of dinners, because you can really roast whatever vegetables you have in the kitchen. It might be just what you're looking for in the days after Christmas when you need something easy to put on the table.

Leek and Mushroom Stuffing with Chestnuts

Stuffing is without a doubt my favorite part of any holiday meal. In fact, it's one of the few dishes I'll eat even if it's made from a box. But as easy as it is to add water and fluff with a fork, I also love experimenting with new flavors. This year, I added chestnuts to a leek and mushroom stuffing I was craving shortly after Thanksgiving. When combined with lots of fresh herbs, it makes for a very hearty side dish with earthy appeal.

The Best Pancakes

My first camping trip was at six weeks old, which of course I have no recollection of, but since we camped nearly every summer until I was about 13 I had plenty of time to make memories. Some of my earliest food memories are of waking up in Yosemite or Malibu and having pancakes before heading out on a hike or bike ride. My mom even put a candle in a stack of pancakes on my dad's birthday.

We had pancakes a lot growing up, but they always tasted best outdoors with the smell of last night's fire nearby. I'm a cereal for breakfast kind of girl these days, but on the weekends when I want to indulge, I always crave pancakes, though until now, I didn't have quite the right recipe.

Chicken Tacos with Mashed Pinto Beans

Andrew and I have a joke that we're always in the mood for Mexican food. If we can't decide what we feel like for dinner, one of us inevitably suggests burritos or chile rellanos, and then we consider the tortilla chips and salsa alongside, maybe a margarita, and suddenly we're salivating and heading to our nearest taco stand.

Beans aren't fancy or complicated, but lately they've excited me to the point that I'm frequently planning dishes around them. Over the summer is was my patio salad with white beans and basil croutons, refreshing and light for the warm weather. During the winter, black bean soup is a favorite, and now, I've added pinto beans to the pantry.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Sage Croutons

I've finally adjusted to the time change. It's taken a few weeks, as it usually does, because my mind just doesn't like the darkness. I have to gently nudge myself into the shorter days and remind myself how relaxing it is to snuggle on the couch watching a movie, or doing a puzzle on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The time change also means the holidays are here. Speaking of holidays, I hope you all have a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. It's hard to believe December is nearly here, and before we know it we'll be clinking champagne glasses together ringing in the new year.

Battle Apple: Apple and Cheddar Tarts

Last weekend I participated in Battle Apple, a modified version of Iron Chef that gave a group of college friends a great excuse to cook and spend time together. Of course, we made some modifications to the rules since it was completely unrealistic for all of us to be cooking simultaneously with no prior knowledge of the ingredients.

In fact, cooking was the easy part. It was nailing down a date that worked for everyone that proved most challenging! We each brought one savory and one sweet dish (although after the sugar comas that ensued, we're reconsidering an all-savory battle for the next one). Here's how we played the game, as well as the recipe for my savory dish, Apple and Cheddar Tarts.

Candied Rosemary Walnuts

'Tis the season of dinner parties, office parties and holiday cheer. If you're like me, your calendar is already starting to fill up with various activities that might leave you scrambling for last minute gifts. When it comes to edible tokens of appreciation, I love nuts because they're easy to make in large batches, and typically keep their freshness for a while. If you're looking for a hostess or Christmas gift, or want to treat your colleagues to something salty and sweet, these are it. They have everything you need in one bite: salty, sweet, a touch of spice, and the warmth of the rosemary truly celebrates the late fall weather. Cheers!

White Bean-Stuffed Portobellos

After a few weeks of meat-filled gluttony, we're vegetarians again, at least temporarily. You know my philosophy about how we eat better quality meat and poultry less often, and we'd recently spoiled ourselves with steak fajitas, grilled chicken with peach barbecue sauce, and flank steak with rosemary olive oil. My oh my, it was good.

But I wanted to take a little break from the red meat, and this recipe was the perfect opportunity. It immediately called my name when I flipped to it in October's Everyday Food. It looked hearty, satisfying, and healthy. Nevermind that meat doesn't make an appearance. I had a log of goat cheese in the fridge, so I substituted that for the feta. Thyme is especially wonderful with the mushrooms, but I'd imagine rosemary would be delicious as well, if you already have it on hand.

{The Saturday Post} Dad's Favorite Cake

In his own words, my dad is a simple man. He likes instant coffee with lots of cream, his reclining chair at a certain angle, and muscle cars. He's also a big fan of classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For a recent lunch, I invited my parents over to catch up about my trip to Europe, and it happened to land on the two year anniversary of my dad's cancer surgery (he's now healthy and cancer free). So, of course, we needed a cake to celebrate.

Quinoa with Roasted Pumpkin and Cilantro Pesto

I love when recipes take me by surprise, like this one did. I was perusing cookbooks at Borders during my lunch break and ran across a recipe for quinoa with pumpkin. This was seconds before I needed to step out and head back to the office, so I didn't stay and finish reading the recipe. On the walk back, I thought about those two ingredients and what else I might add to the dish.

Roasted Garlic Chicken with Israeli Couscous

I probably picked the worst day of October to roast chicken thighs. Fresh from a few days of rain, the crisp fall weather sent me running to the oven. But the day I made this dish, it was a cool 84 degrees in Los Angeles. Sometimes this city has a mind of its own, weather-wise, and mid-fall was rapidly turning into mid-summer all over again.

But, weather aside, this recipe was quite satisfying. Crisp chicken skin, creamy couscous, and a glass of Chardonnay from one of our favorite wineries.

Steak Fajitas with Cilantro Sour Cream

When I started cooking in college, my repertoire was limited to grilled cheese, spaghetti with jarred marinara sauce, and chicken fajitas. Fajitas with grilled chicken, brown onions and red and yellow peppers were practically a weekly staple and the dish I entertained with most often. I knew how to make them and I stuck with it for years.

Nowadays I prefer grilled steak, red onions, and green peppers. I also add lots of lime, some chile powder for a kick, and loads of guacamole. But watch out: all these components can require a bit of prep and clear your cupboards of its serving bowls.

Pumpkin Risotto

It's October, a month typically devoted to shades of orange, not only in the kitchen with all the squash and pumpkin available, but in the leaves (if they change in your neck of the woods), the magazine covers, and the grocery stores reminding you to pick up Halloween candy. Fall announces itself in a big way, and I'm always finding myself printing out recipe after recipe of all things pumpkin. Thankfully, this year I'm finally getting around to making a few of them.

Whole Wheat Fusilli with Walnut Sauce

I've been spending time with my cookbooks lately. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have them on the shelf, and that they're filled with swoon-worthy recipes. In this digital age where I receive tweets from my favorite food magazines, have more food apps then I care to admit, and send myself recipes by email, it's easy to forget about the heavy, glossy pages of a cookbook. Not that I don't love them, of course, but I often find myself so inundated by food from other sources during the day that when it comes time for meal planning, I instinctively reach for my iPhone instead of the bookshelf.

Grilled Chicken with Peach Barbecue Sauce + Fried Carrot Chips

Before he transitioned from cooking show expert to restaurateur (I'm hoping to get to Wayfare Tavern sometime soon), Tyler Florence was one of our favorite Food Network chefs, and recently I was compelled to pull out one his cookbooks and revisit some of the recipes I bookmarked.

I still had a few peaches leftover from the peach and basil crumble, so peach barbecue sauce was a useful way to finish off the week of peaches. 

I also made fried carrots. They're small, sweet, salty, and addicting. I'm surprised I managed to get their picture before finishing the plate.

GRILLED CHICKEN PEACH BARBECUE SAUCE

Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence, Tyler's Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Any Time

Ingredients

Brine
4 cups water
1 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons cup brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 fresh thyme sprigs
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
4 chicken breasts

Barbecue Sauce
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch fresh thyme sprigs
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups ketchup
2 large peaches, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Preparation
For the brine, combine the first six ingredients in a gallon-size plastic bag. Add the chicken and seal. Refrigerate for up to two hours.

To make the sauce, heat two rounds of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the thyme (secured with twine), garlic, and onion. Sauté until fragrant and the onion becomes translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cook slowly for about twenty minutes.

Puree the sauce in a blender, then return to the pot.

Cook chicken on a well-oiled indoor or outdoor grill (your preference). When you flip the chicken, brush it with some of barbecue sauce. Serve cooked chicken with extra sauce.

FRIED CARROT CHIPS

Ingredients
4 large carrots, thinly sliced with a mandolin
Canola oil, for frying
Salt and cayenne pepper, for dusting

Preparation
In a large cast iron pan, heat 2 inches of canola oil to 325 degrees. Fry the carrots in batches, about 3 to 4 minutes total, or until beginning to turn golden brown. Remove carrots and place them onto paper towels. The carrots will continue to crisp as they cool. Immediately sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper (if using). Serve hot.

Summer Pasta with Tomatoes and Grilled Corn

I'm one of those hyper-organized bloggers that preps posts a week or two ahead of time. I like to have things scheduled in case life gets busy or I'm just not up for writing. But this recipe is different. It's entirely dependent on the seasons, and if I waited until late September, you might have missed your chance entirely. So I'm hoping some of you still have juicy tomatoes and fresh corn around to send off summer in style.