This current batch has a hefty scoop of garlic powder and of onion powder added to it. I figured I may as well make it visually distinct too, so it also has poppy seeds kneaded in.

I just hope this violation of tradition doesn’t send me to pizza dough purgatory.

What I should have said months ago:
“Alton Brown’s ribs, meet my smoker”.

Alton Brown’s Baby Back Ribs recipe has been rocking my world lately and ushered our household into a meat phase. These baby back ribs come out meltingly tender, with a touch of sweet and spice.

A great feature to this recipe is how its steps can be easily broken down into elements:

• rub down ribs with dry rub
• slow cook ribs with braising liquid
• boil down cooked juices
• glaze ribs
• finish under the broiler

After making up AB’s recipe as written a couple of times, I encourage you to study those components, and then steal his recipe and make it yours.

You know what I mean…

Shake up the dry rub:

• add a pinch of ground up candied orange peel,
• massage in some pummeled cilantro,
• candy some cacao nibs, grind them up and apply liberally,
• try some Szechuan peppercorns

Change out the braising liquid:

• pineapple juice works well,
• I imagine cherry lambic will have us turning cartwheels,
• apple cider plays well with pork,
• did I mention sake has a wonderful skill set?

Kick up that glaze:

• I’ve become addicted to adding mango jelly in at this point
• a swirl of Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce is more than nice.
• do you have some tamarind or pomegranate paste lurking in your refrigerator?

Next time up, I’m going to take my own advice and cook these babies in the smoker. It’s high time they met.

More baby back ribs from food bloggers

• Chubby Hubby: do you have it in you to let your cooked pork rest 2-3 days before digging in? My household is now full of laughter- we are not so strong. Go check out these black sticky gems: Pork Riblets Braised in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce
• Baking Bites: honey, you had me at root beer (no not root) Slow Cooked Ribs and Root Beer BBQ Sauce
• haverchuk: I’ve seen it and now I can’t get it out of my mind… I’ve got a severe case of rack envy: cooking Recipes from ‘Peace Love and Barbecue‘
• Simply Recipes: Elise is going to convince me to brine my next batch of ribs. Make sure to check out her post to also get in the membrane removing habit. Grilled Spicy Citrus Ribs Recipe

It’s based on the classic gratin preparation- though is shockingly at times devoid of cheese, as seen in this current example. Layers of vegetables often dressed and then baked together can add up to great large dishes suitable for large gatherings of hungry friends.

Using potatoes as a main ingredient, helps insure your dish’s reception in a spectrum of temperatures from cold to hot.

This pictured dish is a layer of onions, kale and vinaigrette dressed potatoes- its almost like a baked German potato salad. Scrunching all the potatoes up on end helps bring easily crisped height to the dish.

Fancy Looking Baked Potato Dish

Choose a large baking dish and preheat your oven to 375F.
Lightly oil/butter the bottom of the baking dish.

Slice an ample amount of potatoes (to fill a layer of your baking dish- the more the better) into salted water in a saucepan and boil approximately 5 minutes. Cook the potatoes until just barely fork tender. Drain and allow to cool.

In a skillet, sauté sliced onions with a pinch of salt and ample oil. Transfer the onions to the baking dish when they have achieved a golden color. Spread the cooked onions so that they cover the entire baking pan surface.

In the same skillet, dry sauté bunches of kale and spread on top of the layered cooked onions.

Sprinkle the the kale with your favorite salad dressing and a pinch of salt.

Also dress the cooled potato slices with salad dressing, coating more liberally than the kale, so that the entire potato slice is covered.

Starting at one end of the baking dish layered with onions and kale, make rows of potato slices stacked on top of each other, and laying down (like a traditional potato au gratin dish). To make the potato slices stand up straight, wait until the baking dish is 3/4 full with potato layers and gently press the potato layers back towards the end of the dish you started at. This scrunches the layers in closer and closer together and allows you to build more potato layers into your baking dish. When you have fit as many potato slices as possible you are done assembling the dish.

Drizzle the dish with one last touch of salad dressing and a sprinkle of salt. Bake until the potatoes are cooked to the level of your desired crispness.

I found I liked to enhance the potato salad aspect of this dish and further dressed it with a splash of vinegar.

This layering approach offers many opportunities to add your own variations depending on what ingredients you have on hand. It also offers a wonderful formula to have in mind on your next trip to the farmers market.

the dumplings shine with a delicate, slightly sweet corn flavor, and a small bright green note from the cilantro

They taste very much like steamed hushpuppies, those deep fried crunchy balls that accompany fried and Cajun food so well.

Dropping this batter onto your favorite pot of chili is a complete and wondrous delight.

Smoked Paprika Corn Dumplings

In a food processor, combine:

• flour:ap, 1/2 cup
• corn tortilla chips: ground, 1/2 cup (~25 chips)
• baking powder: 1 tsp
• salt: 1/4 tsp
• paprika: smoked, 2 tsp
• corn: kernels, 1/2 cup
• green onion: sliced, 1 whole
• cilantro: rough chop, 1/4 cup

process thoroughly to combine.
Add:

• fat: (lard, oil, or butter),1 Tbs

Drizzle in while the processor is running:

• warmed liquid: (milk, soy milk, buttermilk, or broth), 1/2 cup

Bring your pot of chili to just below a simmer and drop in tablespoons of the dumpling batter. I find that a small ice cream scoop works very well for portioning dumplings.

This may take one to two batches of cooking, depending on how much chili you have to comfortably fit the dumplings in. I cook for two and therefore have a smaller pot of soup. So I break this up into two batches of dumplings- the second one cooked for leftovers.

Put a lid on the soup and turn the soup down to your lowest setting and cook for 13-15 minutes, till a tested dumpling reveals itself to be light and cooked in the center.

This recipe makes 18 – 20 tablespoon sized dumplings.

One Year Ago:

Arggg, Chocolate Booty

…Over all the chocolates we sampled from Pix shared an amazing set of texture combinations I rarely find in chocolates. They all predominantly exhibited the characteristics of being coated in snappy bittersweet chocolate that yielded a dripping soft center. The fluid center makes these better suited to pop all at once in your mouth rather than bite in half to share, as I found out the messy way.

Our weather here in the Willamette Valley is keeping Eugene on its toes. My garden’s mini daffodils are finally in bloom, and I see more varieties pushing through the earth. This would mean its spring, right? And yet- we just had snow flurries on Wednesday!

These chilly spells have sent me looking for warm soupy comfort, and dumplings are marching hand in hand with our slurp of winter vegetables.

My recent experiments with finding a dumpling recipe led me to the realization that my recipe for flour tortillas works well in this capacity. The tortilla recipe is made up in a food processor, with extra liquid added, and then dropped by rounded tablespoon fulls into hot soup to cook. Further experimentation with frozen vegetables has brought to light how flexible this recipe is with the inclusion of processed vegetables. Whirling in frozen peas yields bright green dumplings that a extremely light and fluffy, a wonderful match to chicken soup, stew or chili.

This injection of bright springlike peas into our hearty winter soup’s dumplings have given us a perfect transition meal that reflects our weather being both winter and spring like.

I’m taking the time to enjoy winter’s opportunities for culinary comfort a little bit more. Spring will be here in full… soon.

Bright Green Pea Dumplings

In a food processor, combine:

• 1/2 cup ap flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

pulse to combine the dry ingredients and drizzle in

• 1 Tbs fat (oil, lard or butter)

Add to the processor

• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 green onion
• 3-4 fresh mint leaves

pulse the food processor till thoroughly combined and gradually add

• 1/2 cup warmed milk (soy, milk, or buttermilk) or broth

Bring your pot of soup to just below a simmer and drop in tablespoons of the dumpling batter. I find that a small ice cream scoop works very well for portioning dumplings.

This may take one to two batches of cooking, depending on how much soup you have to comfortably fit the dumplings in. I cook for two and therefore have a smaller pot of soup. So I break this up into two batches of dumplings- the second one cooked for leftovers.

Put a lid on the soup and turn the soup down to your lowest setting and cook for 13-15 minutes, till a tested dumpling reveals itself to be light and cooked in the center.

This recipe makes 18 – 20 tablespoon sized dumplings.

Enjoy!

More Dumpling Recipes from Fellow Food Bloggers

• Delicious Days: Pretzel dumplings with creamed chanterelle mushrooms
• Lex Culinaria: Fish Dumplings in Lemon Garlic Broth
• Bakingsheet: Blueberry Dumplings

I like to serve this up when making breakfast for a group of friends. Served along side warm soft corn tortillas, this meal provides a great meal for a post-party morning.

Poblano Skillet Potatoes

Serves 4.

In a cast iron skillet, over low heat, fry up one slice’s worth of bacon cut up into small pieces. Cooking this slowly over low heat separates the fat from the meaty bacon bits, its that fat we want. When the bacon bits are a nice darkened color, scoop them out with a fork, and feed them to your favorite kitchen slave.

To the hot remaining bacon grease, add one small onion diced, and sprinkle over 1/2 tsp of salt. Stir occasionally.

Cut up two – three large russet potatoes (each larger than a closed fist) into dice sized cubes. You want as much potato can fit into your pan.

When the onions have cooked through, and are slightly golden around the edge, add your cubed potatoes and stir in with the onions. Pour in the 1 cup of chicken stock, 1-2 Tbs of roasted poblano puree, and sprinkle with ground pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove lid after five minutes and cook till the potato cubes are fork tender and cooked through. Stir occasionally, scraping up the sauce from the bottom of your skillet.

Crack one egg person on top of the potatoes in the skillet. Cover with a lid and remove from the heat. Allow the residual heat from the potatoes to cook the eggs to your desired finish point (I like runny yolks).

Top the finished potatoes with a couple good shakes of vinegar based chili sauce, some sliced green onions and a good crumbling of feta.

Nice variations: using different types of roasted peppers shakes up this dish quite a bit. Also, try substituting beer for half of the chicken stock. Additionally, baby potatoes may be used and left intact or cut into halves.

Enjoy this pushing these potatoes into warm tortillas for a spectacular morning!

This post goes out to those in the ilk of Cookie Crumb of I’m Mad and I Eat. Cause if we couldn’t eat through our anger, we’d likely starve.

Old Glory Tuna Sandwich

It smells kind of fishy, and its likely to make you cry, but its our sandwich damn it.

To one drained can of good tuna add: (remember to give your drained tuna water to your kitty!)

• just enough wasabi mayonnaise to goo it all up. Spectrum Brand makes me cry when used full force. If you don’t feel that bitter, use a 50:50 mixture of wasabi mayo and regular mayo.
• a couple tablespoons of sliced green onion
• a little splash of lemon juice
• a good grinding of black pepper

Slather on to good all American white bread decorated with our flag courtesy of food coloring markers or painted on food coloring.
Enjoy the tears running down your face.

First Amendment Variation:
Decorate your all American white bread with the flag and toast before slathering on the tuna. Even better is to whip out your blowtorch and burn the edges… because you can.

I spent my second year of college in my first apartment with three roommates: my freshman year roommate Molly, her childhood friend Jenny, and Jenny’s partner in crime Hailey. While being introduced to splitting a household for the first time, this year in the apartment also gave me a new perspective on cooking and choosing food for reasons beyond flavor.

Our roommate Hailey was my first exposure to someone who is a vegetarian. She also chose her meals not just to be meat free but to also be healthy and nutricious- considerations I was aware of, but had never really seen someone do for themselves. It was fascinating! She exposed me to my first tofu, brown rice, peanut sauce topped broccoli, and Brag’s Amino Acid meals. These were just slightly ok in my book… I much prefered my adventures making cheese soup in bread bowls at the time.

One night, Hailey pulled out all the stops and made us teriyaki tempeh. While the concept of tofu was new to me- tempeh was unfathomable. I had no clue what it was- but it was wrapped in wonderful salty sweet teriyaki sauce, and passed the test of my taste buds.

Eugene hosts its own locally made tempeh put out by Surata Soy Foods. Tempeh is dense and meaty, being made of soybeans that are pressed into a brick and fermented giving it a deep flavor. Its density makes it very well suited to be cooked or grilled in a slab and eaten hamburger style on a soft bun.

I often find myself enjoying a food best in the style it was first introduced to me, and tempeh is one in that category:

Grilled Teriyaki Tempeh

In a sauce pan over medium high heat combine:

• 1 cup of mirin
• 1 cup of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of sake
• 1 inch of sliced fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic sliced

Bring to a simmer and lay in your servings of tempeh. Simmer the tempeh in the teriyaki marinade for 5 minutes. Remove the tempeh to drain slightly and continue to boil the teriyaki sauce till reduced to one cup of liquid.

Slightly oil a grill pan and heat. Cook the tempeh till grilled nicely on each side.
Remove the tempeh and brush with the reduced sauce.

May be served ontop of salad with a sprinkling of green onions, toasted sesame seeds and juicy mandarin oranges, or as a burger like slab on a bun with a slice of tangy pineapple.

Enjoy!

Gorgonzola Gnocchi with Apples and Walnuts

this makes a generous one serving or two small helpings

Cook up one cup of gnocchi. When finished, drain in a colander, and use the hot pan to lightly saute 2 Tbs of crushed walnuts in 1/2 Tbs of butter. Add the gnocchi to the walnuts and butter and turn off the heat. Toss in one cup of chopped raw spinach, 1/4 cup of cubed apple, 1 oz of gorgonzola cheese, and stir with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Dust with pepper and salt to season.

Additionally- halved grapes would be great with this dish too.

Enjoy!

However, my taste buds have grown up and have come around to this staple dish. Dhal is very much like curry, an algamation of many spices coming together in a myriad of tasty ways.

One of my favorite campus lunch spots, Holy Cow, offers a dhal and rice bowl with a scoop of coconut chutney. Inspired I set about to recreate their goodness infused with my favorite flavor notes: butternut squash and tamarind. Great on top of chewy brown rice, we also enjoy this with a baked cut up Morningstar Chik Patty…

Butternut Squash Dhal with Coconut Chutney

My dhal recipe makes use of my trusty pressure cooker. If you are without such a fortunate tool, simply extend the cooking time and replensh liquids as needed.

In a pressure cooker saute:

• 1/2 of a large onion, chopped

When the onions turn translucent, add:

• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbs yellow curry paste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp clove
• 1/4 tsp tumeric

Stir and cook briefly, about 1 minute.

Add:

• 1 cup of lentils
• 10 oz of chopped butternut squash
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Lid, and bring pressure cooker up to pressure. Cook over low heat, maintaining pressure for 20 minutes or until lentils are soft and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper, a Tbs of vinegar and the following tamarind liquid. Serve atop rice with a scoop of chutney and garnish with cilantro.

Tamarind Seasoning Liquid
This is a favorite top note to add to dhal and curries. Tamarind is quite tart, but lends a surprising perfect touch to many dishes.

Using tamarind paste sold in a compact brick, break off a 1 inch piece. Break up into 1 cup of water and heat. Stir to faciliate the tamarind paste breaking up into a sauce. Continue to heat and stir till the pulp is broken up. Use this resulting liquid as a finishing season to the dhal, stirring in 1/2 – 3/4 cup. Additionally the liquid may be drizzle on each dish individually.

Coconut Chutney
Is chutney a respite from spiciness? A hit of chili? A salve for the burn? I’m not entirely sure. I use it as a little of all of the above. Mainly I think its another layer of flavor with which one may individually alter their dish. For families cooking for both kids and adults, chutney may serve as a way to individually spice up a dish, while allowing the main meal to remain on a kid appropriate spice level.

In a food processor puree thoroughly:

• 1 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup of onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp jalapeno
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp peanut butter
• 1 Tbs coconut milk
• 2 Tbs mandarin orange juice
• several mandarin orange slices, no seeds