Dingle and His Dad

I suppose this doesn't belong in this food blog, but Dingle is very much a part of my inspiration. He's very Irish. Not only is he green, but he was born in Ireland, in the town of Dingle to be exact. Actually Kevin won him for me at a claw game at a Super-Valu store in Dingle. I love those stores filled with affordable Irish groceries. The Dingle Peninsula is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. The next time we go to Ireland, I'd love to stay in a cottage near Dingle. Anyway I thought this other guy on the right was hilarious. He belongs to someone else but it looks like he could be Dingle's dad. Alas that the only one of these I could find online is $20 for a used one. Forget that...

Fig, Dubliner, and Walnut Microgreen Salad

Bought this package of cute microgreens from Trader Joes. I guess microgreens are basically sprouts. The TJ variety has organic greens from mizuna, tatsoi, red mustard, purple kohlrabi, red cabbage, kale, broccoli, collards, celery, arugula, beet tops, and amaranth. I liked this salad more than the other one that only had the rocket. The flavor of these microgreens is not as peppery as that of the rocket, so I think it matches better with the fig and dubliner.

Irish Steel Cut Oats

This is McCann's Steel-Cut Irish Oatmeal. I love the texture, which is a far cry from the instant or quick oat stuff, or even slow cooking oatmeal which is not steel cut. I cheated though and instead of cooking this per the directions I cooked it in a rice cooker so I wouldn't have to presoak anything. This is topped with a generous pat of Kerrygold salted butter (mmmm....) and walnuts. Delicious!

Yogurt Topped With Fig and Walnut

I used plain yogurt. Can't remember if it was nonfat or lowfat. I guess you can't see the yogurt but don't you love the colors? I made this bowl during a little group outing to Color Me Mine and painted what was on my heart, which is in Ireland. It is "a little bit of heaven..."


A little bit of heaven fell
From out the sky one day;
And it nestled on the ocean
In a spot so far away.

 
And when the angels found it
It looked so sweet and fair;
They said, "Suppose we leave it?
For it looks so peaceful there."

So they sprinkled it with stardust
Just to make the shamrocks grow;
‘Tis the only place you'll find them
No matter where you go.

And they dotted it with silver
To make the lakes so grand;
And when they had it finished,
They called it ... "IRELAND!"

Dubliner Fig Walnut Rocket Salad

Yay for more salad. The fig tree is yielding so much fruit in my parents' backyard. I brought back some to slice up along with TJ's candied walnuts and also slices from a block of Dubliner cheese, which matches very well with the fig. I love Dubliner from Kerrygold which is described as nutty, sweet, and sharp all at once. I love the naturally occurring calcium lactate crystals in the cheese. Anyway, bought a bag of this wild rocket from TJs, which was good although a bit peppery. But at least it is pretty! I could have drizzled some raw honey on this but decided just to go without.

Harvest Hodgepodge

Again I used the killer pan. I threw in fresh broccoli, fresh cherry tomatoes, along with a bag of TJ's harvest hodgepodge (broccoli, carrots, baby corn, mushrooms, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas, red peppers, and onions) together with random spices. This time I correctly grabbed the paprika instead of the cayenne pepper. I enjoyed it...

Mixed Veggies With Brown Rice, Pesto Scallops, and Gorgonzola Mushroom Chicken

Okay yes that sounds like a busy dish. Essentially, I used the 14-inch killer pan again for the carrots, squash, and tomatoes (from my parents' and brother's gardens) and served this with a few things from Trader Joes.

I was satisfied with how the seasoning of the veggies turned out... garlic, oregano, celery salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. It seemed to work, except I actually meant to use paprika instead of cayenne and accidentally grabbed the wrong one.

For the TJ stuff, I heated up pesto scallops (from their freezer section) in the toaster oven, and gorgonzola chicken with mushrooms (also from their freezer secion). I really liked the scallops because they came with a lot of pesto, and the sauce from the chicken entree was really flavorful too. So this was essentially a mix of three very flavorful components that worked out.

Unfortunately my camera battery was dying so I had to rush in this shot as opposed to getting a sharper image from a better angle. I'd say there's just about every color in this dish, except maybe the blue/purple group. Time for an acai smoothie tomorrow perhaps...

Stir-Fried Veggies, Finally!

I can't remember if I'd already mentioned this, but I'd been avoiding stir frying for the longest time for multiple reasons. One of the reasons was that my previous pan (a non-stick variety) was basically peeling. Bleh. I stopped using it, and then I discovered along the way that I don't particularly like standing at the stove with all these fumes.

But in an effort to change things up, I decided to bust out my new pan from our wedding registry, which is a nice 9-inch / 2 quart hard anodized commercial grade Calphalon. But it's too small for stir frying lots of veggies!

So then I ordered a 14-inch stainless steel one from Amazon with a glass lid. This thing is a monster! As you can see it basically overlaps the other three burners on our small stove. Anyway I finally got around to using this for the first time for stir-fried veggies, and yay for getting nicely cooked broccoli! I threw in some tomatoes from my parents' backyard which I thought really helped. Tomatoes are better for you if cooked and/or with olive oil...

Cute Stubby Organic Carrot

My brother takes the credit for this puppy. I decided to show myself holding the carrot for reference. This carrot is fat! I peeled a bunch of these, cut them up, and have been munching on them at work. Sweet, fresh, and almost juicy...

Irish Beef Stew Over Brown Rice

I must admit I use the freezer A LOT. Shhh... This Irish stew with Guinness is actually the same dish I made from one of my first posts. I had frozen some of the leftovers in freezer-safe containers and reheated this to serve over brown rice. That was a really convenient meal, and Kevin liked it (again). The beef was still very tender, the corn (which came from fresh white corn on the cob) and all the flavors were still as good as new.

Car-Shaped Cupcakes

I bought these muffin / cakelet pans with cups shaped like cars. Here are some vanilla bean cake cars and also some apple walnut raisin cake cars, dusted with powdered sugar.

Maui Short Ribs

I bought those Maui short ribs from Trader Joes, and threw them in the slow cooker with cabbage and carrots. I also threw in a bottle of sangria, just to add liquid and also to get rid of the sangria (yay just one more bottle left!). These turned out okay...

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Again, the name says it all. I followed my tried and true cookie recipe I learned in college, which results in very cake-like and eggy cookies that are not too sweet. I learned not to mess around with the type and quantity of flour... Once I dumped in a lot more flour than called for, and the "cookies" turned out like rocks. Once I used spelt flour, and the cookies totally spread out. I think the spelt didn't absorb moisture very well. Aren't these little puppies so cute? They are so round!

Blueberry Melon Pecan Salad

This has got to be one of the prettiest dishes I've ever made. It's got mixed baby greens from Trader Joe's Sorrento salad blend (arugula, spinach, lettuces), sliced cantaloupe, fresh blueberries, unsalted toasted pecan pieces, sliced almonds, and drizzled with raw honey. Even Kevin said this looked really nice, which is something he rarely says about any predominantly vegetable dish. This is something I would actually dare to serve to people. I like how the dressing is just raw honey rather than a salad dressing that I would never use otherwise.

Avocado and Egg Whole Wheat English Muffin

Well the name pretty much lists the three components of this sandwich. I actually like the taste of toasted whole grain bread with avocado already, so adding the egg was an extra treat, since I don't usually take the time to cook eggs in a pan (who wants to wash the pan for just one or two eggs?). I used one egg over hard and half an avocado for this baby, and it was delicious!

Yogurt Berry Parfait

Yay for healthy stuff! This is nonfat yogurt topped with blueberries and this new cereal that attracted my attention. It's called Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise (from Nature's Path). I got it because the mix of corn, brown rice, quinoa, flax, buckwheat, amaranth, and vanilla sounded interesting. It's a bit too sweet for my taste though. I prefer the taste of the ancient grains found in the Heritage Flakes cereal (also from Nature's Path). That has kamut, wheat, oat, spelt, barley, millet, and quinoa and basically is an advanced and crunchier version of Wheaties. Anyway yay for the cute cup too!