Roasted Cabbage with Bacon

thekitchn.com

I thought I'd post the recipe for one of our favorite foods.  It really should be a side dish, but we eat it as the main event (lately with quinoa, Joe's newest obsession)

Roasted Cabbage with Bacon

1/2 head of green cabbage
4 strips bacon, sliced
salt and pepper
a drizzle of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cut the cabbage into wedges. Line them up in a baking dish.  Sprinkle the bacon slices over the top of the wedges. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Roast for 15 minutes, then, using tongs, flip the wedges.  They should be browning a bit.  Roast for another 15 minutes or until they are tender.

Ta-da! Serve with quinoa, rice, pasta, whatever!

Sunday Soup: Fennel and Tomato with creme fraische

This Oscar Sunday we had a really nice, rustic, full-o-veggies soup.  Delish!

Fennel and Tomato Soup with Creme Fraiche

4 medium fennel bulbs
one medium onion
2 carrots
6 sprigs fresh marjoram
salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium)

Creme Fraiche
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Make the creme fraiche first - whisk the ingredients together and let sit until time for serving.  You would ideally make this about 6 hours ahead, but I've never actually managed this.

Remove the fennel fronds, quarter, and remove the core.  Chop to a 1 inch dice. Onion and carrot should be chopped to a similar size.

Heat the oil in a medium sized soup pot.  Add the fennel, onion, and carrot; cook until the veggies start to brown, maybe 10 minutes.

Add about a teaspoon of salt, the marjoram, and the red pepper flakes.  Stir and let it get fragrant; add the tomatoes and broth.  Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

Use your immersion blender (Yeah!) to puree the soup, or use a regular blender very carefully.  Leave it a little chunky if you like (I like).  In a small bowl, combine 1/3 c. of the creme fraiche with a ladle-full of soup.  Stir this into the rest of the soup.

Serve in big mugs with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of fresh marjoram.  I served with a slice of a rustic, seedy bread.  It was delicious.

Enjoy!

Sunday Soup: Curried Cauliflower Soup

This one was a hit - Joe took one bite and uttered a resounding "mmm!" He then stated that this soup was one of his favorites.  Nice.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 large-ish cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
about 3 tbsp curry powder
1 head cauliflower, florets roughly chopped
4-5 red skinned potatoes, chopped
4 cups chicken broth (ideally low-sodium)
low-fat/non-fat greek yogurt
lemons
Salt and pepper

In a large saucepan (I used my larger Le Creuset, maybe 5 qt?  I don't really know), add enough olive oil to cover the bottom, heat until shimmering. Add the onions, cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for about a minute. Add the curry powder. If you're worried about the mixture being too dry (I was, since the powder seemed to soak up all of the oil), add a little more oil. Cook for a minute or so, until the curry powder is nice and fragrant (don't let it burn). I realized at this point that I wasn't ready to add the rest of the ingredients (I hadn't chopped the veggies yet), so I took the soup off of the heat until I was ready.

Add the cauliflower, potatoes, broth, and enough water to cover the veggies. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the veggies are fork-tender. If you have an immersion blender (I do!  Thanks, Joe! Thanks, Costco!) use it to carefully puree the soup in the pot (you can leave some chunks for texture, which is what I should have done).  If you don't have one, use a food processor or blender; just work in batches and be careful, the soup is hot!

Taste, and season with salt if needed.  I didn't need any, since I did not use low-sodium chicken broth (plus the soup tasted flavorful enough. You only want to add salt to enhance the flavors in the dish, not to taste the actual salt.)

To serve, ladle into bowls and add a dollop of yogurt (using greek yogurt is great since it's thick and creamy without having a lot of fat) and a squeeze of lemon juice. This is key. Do not skip these ingredients. I firmly believe that the yogurt and lemon were directly responsible for Joe's "Mmm!" response. Crack some fresh pepper over it.  We think it would be good with some chopped, toasted walnuts as well. And, as always, you could add some chopped, crisp-cooked bacon (but we're partial to bacon. And Bacon.)

I served this soup with one of my favorite salads: arugula with a drizzle of olive oil,  a squeeze of lemon, a little salt, and a crank or two of freshly cracked pepper. It rounded out the meal very nicely.

Enjoy, and have a good week!

My absence

Dear Rowdy,
Thanks for letting me come to your house to play.  You taught me that I shouldn't bite.  My parents really like that.
Your friend,
Bacon

Hi all!  I think I'm just going to pretend that I didn't disappear from the blogosphere for a month.  I'll just jump right back in, like nothing ever happened...after this post.

The past month has been pretty busy, since Joe resumed classes and added some responsibilities as the president of the GBA (Graduate Business Association, for those non-MBA folks out there).  I'm still working full time, cooking dinner (usually from scratch) each evening, staying on top of the housekeeping as best I can, and spending lots of time with Bacon.

By the way, Bacon is doing great.  He's probably the best decision we've ever made together (aside from the marriage thing). He's so fun, cute, and cuddly!  He keeps us on our toes with puppy-proofing and training. He also loves our attention, so when he's not sleeping, he wants to be with one of us and he generally wants to be playing or in a lap.  Thus, things like blogging get put on the back burner...

At the moment, he's enjoying a long nap in his crate. Today was the second-to-last class of "Puppy I," which is always super-fun and super-exhausting.  He's still the class clown, but he's really well liked. Especially by the kids in the class. One of them brought a camera to take pictures of Bacon today.  Four of them asked if they could get Bacon to "sit" and give him a treat.  Yes, please! We read that, up until 14 weeks old, puppies get optimal benefit from socialization. The more he's exposed to different kinds of people and animals no, the better.  That includes kids, which is great, since we plan to have a couple of those within Bacon's lifetime.  Get ready, Bacon! You won't be our "baby" forever, sorry to say!