Recipe for Bacon Lettuce and Cherry Tomato Salad with Aioli Dressing

Recipe for Grilled Chicken and Peaches with Chipotle Peach Dressing

This was another recipe suggested to me in the SewMamaSew Giveaway. I was pretty excited to see such an easily accessible vegetarian recipe. A lot of times I get daunted by the sheer amount of ingredients needed to try and emulate meat. I just can’t get on board with that. This is really just a basic meatloaf recipe that substitutes lentils for ground meat. I wasn’t sure that it was going to work, but lentils are cheap, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

The whole time I was making this recipe, Jason was expressing his doubt as he usually does when I make something vegetarian. What is it with men and their meat? I served up the ‘meat’ loaf and Jason quickly stopped anything resembling complaining and quickly demolished his serving. It was good.

Can I say ‘I told you so?’

Recipe for Vegetarian Meat Loaf

Aren’t we cute? I love my book club girls.

The one thing that the book had going for it was it’s discussions of food. There were recipes included in almost every chapter (although towards the end of the book the recipes no longer related to the chapters they were included in. . . ), so we decided to do a potluck for bookclub, using recipes from the book. Fun, right?

We had goat cheese toast points with herbs and garlic:

I made the orange cous cous (which was just . . . ok in my opinion).

And I think the star of the evening was the chocolate cake with mascarpone chestnut cream made by Jenn. Delicious!

We tried to talk about the book some but really we ended up talking about food and eating the food that we all brought. So in light of that, I thought I would share the recipe that Jenn made with you.

Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone-Chestnut (ahem, nutella) Cake

8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c powdered sugar
3 large eggs
1 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 8 oz container sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl at high for 30 second intervals until melted, or on stovetop. Stir until smooth.

Beat butter and powdered sugar at medium speed with a mixer, about 5 minutes or until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating until just blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended afte reach addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured deep 9-inch round cake or springform pan, or a 9×13 glass pan. Bake at 350 for 28-30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove cake from pan and let cook completely. Served with a dollop of Mascarpone-Chestnut Cream (recipe below).

Mascarpone-Chestnut (Nutella) Cream

1 7 oz container mascarpone, softened
1 8.75 oz can creme de marrons (chestnut spread (or, nutella, because where in the world do you find chestnut spread in the states?)
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Beat mascarpone and chestnut spread together at medium speed, about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat whipping cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into mascarpone-chestnut mixture. Stir in lemon zest. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

I discovered that Jam has a blog and she posts a lot of her recipes on it. I found the one for the ice cream. Oh. My. Goodness. So. Incredible. She uses coconut cream to replace the dairy in the recipe and coconut cream is so rich and delicious, much like cow’s cream. It makes me want to make a lactose-free creme brulee it’s so dense and rich. I will say that if I make this recipe again, I’ll use half coconut cream and half coconut milk. It was almost TOO rich (if that’s even possible). I was hoping to make the sticky rice to go with it (as she has the recipe here) but I did not have the sweet or glutinous rice. . . just basic basmati. But trust me, once I find this rice, I will be making it sticky and making some more mango ice cream to go on top . . .

Recipe for Coconut Mango Ice Cream

I did make a few changes to the recipes. I didn’t use orange zest, substituted toasted crushed almonds for pecans, used bittersweet chocolate chips and cut down on the sugar just a bit. When I pulled the two loaves of zucchini bread out of the oven, I was worried that it had over baked, they were so firm on the top. But thankfully they were perfect. The zucchini kept everything moist and delicious. Not a dry spot in the bread. And really, the zucchini flavor wasn’t pronounced at all but the bread was absolutely delicious! Looking forward to seeing what else I can make with the zucchini from the garden. Any suggestions?

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

We had the ingredients on hand to whip a batch of these up (sadly, only 24 cookies and they went FAST) and we baked them off. The addition of the instant espresso powder is perfect. It is barely detectable when the cookies are warm but develops into a bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’ when they cool.

I think Jason was especially appreciative of these cookies as they were simple chocolate chip cookies. No nuts, nothing else, except for that tiny hint of coffee flavor that just amplifies the chocolatey goodness. I can certainly see why these cookies are the staple chocolate chip cookie for Neiman Marcus’ cafe.

Recipe for Neiman Marcus Cookies

Recipe for Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Then I went to a lunch time cooking class at Whole Foods and had these veggie burgers. They are versatile and delicious. And a great way to use up any vegetables that you have that may be languishing on your counter, garden or fridge. The only things in this recipe that are set in stone are the oats, potatoes, rice and eggs. You can substitute any vegetables as long as you keep the quantities the same and cook out all of the water in the saute process. If your mixture doesn’t seem to be sticking together, you can always add more oats, rice or potatoes. It is a very flexible recipe.

I tossed all of the veggies into my food processor with the grater attachment running. It made quick work of all of the veggies. Just note that this is not a quick recipe. It takes a significant amount of time to saute the vegetables so that they are no longer putting off water. You want these veggies dry but not burnt. That is the key.

The muhammara sauce is not an absolute necessity, but it is delicious. It could be served just as a dip or as a topping on the burger. I know I would have missed it if I hadn’t made it with the burgers.

Alright, I’ve talked these burgers up enough. Here’s the recipe:

Recipe for Veggie Burgers
makes 8

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onions, minced
1 cup carrots, grated
1 cup turnips, grated
1 cup zucchini, grated
1 cup golden beets, grated
1/2 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3/4 tablespoon dried dill, tarragon, mixed
1/4 cup oats, rolled, instant
1/4 c water
1 1/2 cup mashed red new potatoes
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
1/3 cup one day old cooked jasmine/basmati rice
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet. Soak oats in water for five minute, then drain and press out excess water. Add onion, carrots, turnips, zucchini, beets, garlic, cumin and herbs. Saute until vegetables are no longer giving up water. The key is to make the vegetables as dry as possible without burning them. Allow to cool slightly. Add oats to vegetable mixture along with mashed potatoes, nuts and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Form mixture into eight patties. Saute in olive oil for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden.

Recipe for Muhammara

1 bell pepper, roasted
2/3 c fine fresh bread crumbs
1/3 c nuts (I used pecans) toasted and chopped fine
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses (I didn’t use this)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Add all ingredients except olive oil to a food processor and puree until mixture is smooth. With machine still running, add olive oil gradually. Serve on the burgers or on the side with pita triangles.

Recipe for Homemade Thick, Chewy Granola Bars