That's CAULIFLOWER??????????

When we were little, my mom had one way of serving cauliflower: whole, drowned in cheese sauce and baked.  It was pretty delicious but it seemed like a lot of trouble for a veggie side dish.  By itself, cauliflower is pretty bland, so it really needed that cheese sauce.

I haven't bought cauliflower on a regular basis for a long time, so I don't know how I thought of this.  Mashed Cauliflower!!!  I thought to myself, let me just treat it like a potato: boil it, mash it with cream and butter, and put it on the plate next to my steak.  Anyways, it was delicious with my little New York strip steak and a small arugula salad.  And it didn't make a huge mess!  Here's the whole meal:   :-)

EASY STEAK

Make sure you get a good cut of steak, like a ribeye, New York strip, T-bone, skirt steak (churrasco), etc.  I usually end up with a bone-in New York strip because I can sometimes get those for $4.00 at Fry's, which seems like a pretty good deal compared to the other steaks.  And it's very tasty!

Steak
1 Tbsp. Butter
Salt and Pepper

Season your steak with salt and pepper.  Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Make sure the pan is hot enough for the steak to sizzle when it hits the pan.  Place the steak in the melted butter, seasoned side down.  Now you can season the other side with salt and pepper.  Fry your steak until it starts getting brown (see picture), then turn it over and fry the other side.  It doesn't take very long, just a few minutes.  When it's done the way you like it (i.e., rare, medium, well done), take the steak out of the pan and let it sit for a couple minutes before you cut into it.  Pour the melted butter from the pan over the steak before you serve it.

You can also serve your steak sliced.  It's super yummy if you pour the butter over the slices!

MASHED CAULIFLOWER

1 Head of Cauliflower
2 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
1-2 Tbsp. Butter

I cut the cauliflower into pieces but I don't see why you can't leave it whole to boil it.  It fell apart when it got soft anyways.

Boil the cauliflower in lightly salted water until it's soft, then drain it well.  Add the heavy cream and butter, and cream it with an immersion blender (also called a "stick blender").  That's it!!

BABY ARUGULA SALAD

Baby Arugula Leaves, lightly chopped
Lemon Juice
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

I like to chop my salad greens lightly so that I don't end up with giant salad leaves on my fork.  I'm kind of obsessed with arugula right now.  You should be able to get the baby arugula leaves in a bag or a box, cleaned and ready to eat.

Dress the arugula with lemon juice instead of vinegar, for a nice lemony taste.  Add your olive oil and salt and pepper.  Super easy!

USELESS TRIVIA:

My mom is Japanese, so she can't pronounce "arugula" very well, even though she's lived in America for decades and doesn't seem to have trouble with other English words.  She thinks she says it just fine.

A Case of Unexpected Yumminess (Go SUNS!!!)

Every day I drink a fresh fruit smoothie for breakfast.  I usually put an apple in it, 1/2 a pear,  whatever fruit is on sale that week, like strawberries, raspberries, or grapes, and orange juice.  Every once in a while I'll buy a branch of fresh ginger to add in. 

This morning, nearing the end of my fruit stash for the week, I had one apple and one pear left, along with some ginger, so that's what went into the smoothie.

What a surprise!  It was refreshing and delicious!  Here's the recipe:

SMOOTHIE WITH FRESH GINGER

One apple
One pear
A one-inch piece of ginger, peeled
Orange juice - enough to cover the fruit

Place everything into the blender and blend it up until it's smooth.  Pour it into a Phoenix Suns glass and drink it!

Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy???

I had a dentist appointment this morning, but it wasn't until 9:45, which meant I had some time to kill after dropping the kids at school.  So I decided to search for something yummy to eat, like a breakfast burrito.  As I drove past Whole Foods Market, I remembered that they have a salad bar there, so I stopped to see if maybe, just maybe they also have an eggs and bacon bar.  Sure enough, they also have a hot breakfast buffet for something like $7.99 a pound.

While browsing my choices, I noticed a pan of "Vegetarian Gravy" next to the homemade biscuits.  I decided to give it a try, even though I had never heard of vegetarian gravy before, and could not imagine what it was made out of.  It looked just like gravy.

It was pretty good!  It tasted like.... gravy!

So that's my story.  I sat down and had vegetarian biscuits and gravy and a lovely cup of coffee from the other part of the store.  That was a nice way to start my morning, and well, I survived the dentist chair.  :-)

Easy Cheesy Cheese Straws Please!

When we were little, my mom used to make these cheese crackers that me and my brothers and sisters could make the dough into whatever shapes we wanted.  After she baked them we could eat the crackers we made.  They were cheesy and yummy, but I have no idea where her recipe came from.  I thought she may have consulted Joy of Cooking, but no cheese crackers there!

I was inspired to try making them last week after the Supreme Court struck down the laws banning same-sex marriage.  Don't ask me why my mind went there because I have no clue!  I went ahead and got a recipe off the internet, and me and the girls sat down and made many heart shape cheese crackers.  They're yummy with broccoli cheese soup!  I suppose if you want lovely crackers like the ones pictured above, you should probably pipe them out of a pastry bag with a star tip.  Otherwise you might end up with something like these:   :-)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a food processor, add the butter, cheese, flour, salt and cayenne and process until a smooth dough is formed. Scoop it into a cookie press, fitted with a flat ridged tip. Pipe the dough in 2-inch strips onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. (Alternatively, refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes and roll on a lightly floured surface into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut into smaller rectangles, about 2 by 3-inches, with a pizza wheel or sharp knife.) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to racks to cool.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zesty-cheese-straws-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Breaking News: Salad Haters Like Salad

Vegetables are good for us.  Grown folks know that and we want the kids to eat them.  But what a waste of time, money and food to serve up vegetables that they refuse to eat.  I recently decided that after school gets out, I would not give them anything sweet, including fruit or juice.  So what is left?  Vegetables, bread, cheese, and water!  And plain nuts!  Luckily they were receptive to things like celery with cream cheese, carrots, and cucumbers with salt (the small yummy ones).


Yesterday I decided to try giving them lettuce spears with ranch drizzled on them.  Guess what, they liked it!  They asked for more of them today!  I cut the romaine lettuce leaves in 2 down the middle (along the center vein) so they can eat them with their fingers.   That's all.  :-)

Hiding Vegetables in Plain Sight

When I used to read about moms hiding vegetables in their food to get their kids to eat them, I used to think to myself, “Haha, that’s silly!”  Now I’m doing it.

It was easy to chop up a couple extra tomatoes and add them to the spaghetti sauce.  Then I thought, let’s see if they’ll eat the vegetables if I hide them in plain sight.  They actually loved it!  Now they ask for Alfredo with spinach!

These girls only ever want noodles.  Ramen, yakisoba, spaghetti, pasta, and of course, Alfredo.  I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten these for 69 cents in the past, on this day they were on sale for 89 cents.  Still not a bad deal for a side dish that everyone can share.

SPINACH WITH ALFREDO SAUCE PASTA

1 package Alfredo pasta

4 cups fresh spinach, lightly chopped

Make the Alfredo pasta according to the directions on the package.  This one, you have to add water, milk, and butter.  (I guess you can make your own Alfredo sauce from scratch, if you know how to).

Boil the spinach for a few minutes in a little bit of water till it’s completely cooked.  Drain and rinse the spinach in cold water, then squeeze all the water out of them.  You should end up with a nice handful of cooked spinach.

Add the cooked spinach to the prepared Alfredo pasta.   Mix it in pretty good.  Enjoy!

The Best Cup of Coffee

Dispense with the cream and sugar; add a heaping spoonful of sweetened condensed milk instead, it will make your coffee SOOO YUMMY!!!!!