Roasted Purple Cauliflower

Cauliflower is just more fun when it's bright purple, right? This is such an each and delicious way to prepare it, and the color looks awesome on your plate. I couldn't stop eating it.

Ingredients:

1 head purple cauliflower (white works too, just not as pretty)

a few glugs of olive oil

pinch herbs de Provence

plenty of salt and pepper

pecorino

Roasted Acorn Squash with Spicy Maple Butter

When the weather gets cold, I love roasted acorn squash. It's so good roasted with just butter and brown sugar, but I played around with that mix a little last night. I made a compound butter with butter, maple syrup, cayenne, chili powder, and smoked paprika, and a few other spices. You could also use chipotle powder - anything really. It's so easy, and the squash is tender and flavorful. Great side dish.

Roasted Cauliflower with Panko and Pecorino

Happy New Year! As with most early January weekends, I've had my nose in cook books - all my wonderful Christmas presents from the people who know me best. Every Christmas I amass several new books to add to my growing collection. My mother-in-law gave me Ina Garten's new "Make It Ahead" book. I love Ina, and pretty much everything she makes is good. Healthy, not always, but reliable and tasty, yes. This cauliflower is fantastic! Totally addicting. I will certainly be making it again. It's pretty simple and it will disappear quickly. 

Tomatoes Gratin

I saw a recipe from Ina Garten and thought it sounded easy and like a great side. I modified it a bit to make little miniature ramekins. They were tart and sweet and the crispy bread crumbs were a great contrast. Super easy, too.

Ingredients:
2 big handfulls grape tomatoes, halved
1 piece of bread
1 clove garlic
olive oil
pinch of thyme
olive oil

Directions:
Heat oven to 400. Pulse the garlic in a food processor until finely chopped. Add piece of bread and pulse to get course crumbs. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and pulse. Add a tsp or so of olive oil to the bottom of the ramekins along with the thyme and a big pinch of salt.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

I'm a fan of just roasting brussels sprouts tossed with olive oil and lots of salt at high temperatures, but I tried Ina's recipe with bacon - yum! The brussels sprouts get really caramelized and sweet and the bacon is salty. I didn't have balsamic so I drizzled them at the end with a little of rice vinegar. I'm sure the balsamic is better, but honestly, it was great with the rice vinegar too. This is a great side dish!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half or in quarters if they're really big
4 oz thick bacon or pancetta, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and add Brussels sprouts, pancetta, olive oil,  1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Toss thoroughly and spread out in a single layer. Roast for 20-30 minutes tossing once or twice, until sprouts are tender and the browned and the bacon is cooked. Remove from the oven, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, and toss. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Scalloped Potatoes and Turnips with Horseradish

This is not a light side dish, but boy is it tasty. The addition of turnips lightens it up a bit and adds a slight difference in texture. I accidentally poured the potatoes into too big of a dish, resulting in a really thin scalloped potatoes, but it was great! More crispy crust on everyone's plate. The horseradish is barely noticeable, but it gives the dish a little more complex flavor. I would make this again any time. It's so great.

Serves 6
Ingredients:
3 large Yukon gold potatoes, sliced about 1/8" thick
2 large turnips, sliced about 1/8" thick
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
5 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp kosher salt
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp whole black pepper corns
1 bay leaf
coffee filter
3 teaspoons jarred and drained horseradish (scoop it out of the jar and press it through the tines of a fork to drain it)
1-1/2 cups finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Sautéed Calamari

I've always seen calamari on menus as grilled or fried. I went to dinner at Supper last year on the Lower East Side and they had sauteed calamari. It was delicious and I've been making my own ever since. (Calamari is cheap and it cooks in no time.) It's a great appetizer or side dish and it seems impressive but is super easy. Last weekend I had some chorizo grease left in a pan and I thought it would go really well will calamari--it was a hit. Any time you make chorizo, save the grease for calamari! (I used leftover from the chorizo for a grilled pizza.)

Ingredients:
2 calamari, cleaned (or more if you have more people), sliced into thin rings
grease leftover from sauteeing loose chorizo in olive oil
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
Heat up the leftover grease and add the garlic (on high heat.) Sautee it until fragrant. Then add the sliced calamari and toss it all together. Cook until the calamari looks opaque, only 1-2 minutes. You really don't want to over cook it because it will get rubbery.
Take them out of the pan and serve.

(If you don't have chorizo grease, you can just use olive oil and add a bunch of crushed red pepper flakes.)