Roasted Cauliflower

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a great holiday - with fabulous food, of course. I had the honor of hosting my family's Christmas dinner this year, which just made the day even better for me. I love getting to cook for my favorite people!

That said, Christmas is always a whirlwind - and now that we have a little one, the holidays are even more hectic than they've ever been! So, while I wanted my Christmas menu to boast some delicious dishes, I also wanted them to be simple and easy to make. Easier said than done? Not necessarily!

Take today's recipe, for example. Literally FOUR ingredients and just a few steps and you've got a super yummy, beautiful side dish! It doesn't get much easier - or more delicious - than this. Yum, yum, yum.

Roasted Cauliflower
Adapted from Cooking Light Dec 2014

1 head cauliflower, trimmed to florets

2 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place cauliflower on ungreased baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. 

Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Stir cauliflower and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Yep, it's that easy. See?!

Until next time...

Cheers!

Super Side: Cajun Asparagus

When I was younger, I hated asparagus. With a passion. I'll never forget the night that my poor Mom spent way too long in the kitchen making a dish that the rest of my family ended up hating...Ham and Asparagus Casserole. Blah. None of us liked it, though looking back on it now I wish I'd been a little more discrete in my disgust (sorry, Mom). That was my first taste of the stuff, and while I don't think I found it as gross as I did lima beans (which I STILL hate and probably always will) or peas, I also wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of eating it again. My, how things change.

Fast forward a decade and a half or so, add in a more sophisticated palette and an affinity for food that I didn't have when I was a kid and, voila - I am now a huge asparagus fan. Alright, so it makes your pee smell bad...yep, I said it (most of you were thinking it anyway)...but so what? It's so yummy that I don't really care. AND, it's really versatile - there are several different ways it can be prepared, and plenty of flavor combincations that work really well. Like the roasted red potatoes I gave you here, it's just as natural to serve this vegetable with a casual dish as it is to add it to a fancy date night dinner. I've already given you a fancy way to prepare it (check it out as a date night side item here), so today I thought I'd show you how you can dress it down. Yes, it's a spicy recipe; however, this side is just as good if you omit the cajun seasoning, which will eliminate the spice factor for all of you who don't like the heat.

Cajun Asparagus

14 asparagus stems, white ends trimmed

1 1/2 tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp cajun seasoning

Ziploc bag

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place asparagus in ziploc bag and add olive oil, salt, black pepper and cajun seasoning. Toss to coat asparagus entirely with oil. Place in refrigerator while oven preheats. 

Add asparagus to lightly greased baking pan and cook in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately. This recipe makes 2 servings, so double it if you're planning on four.

Until next time...

Cheers!

Super Side: Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Red Potatoes

I'm always on the hunt for versatile side dishes, particularly those that take very little preparation and monitoring. I don't like to have too many things going on at once while I'm in the kitchen - cooking is a de-stresser for me, and I like to keep it as laid back as possible. I love to find sides that I can pair with almost anything; I end up using them so often that I don't even need to look at the recipe after awhile (I like that, too). Today's recipe is one of those.

The first time I ever tried to make this dish was at my husband's request. We were having crab legs, and he mentioned that we should "make those really good potatoes that usually come with the crab leg plate at Joe's [Crab Shack]. You know, the red ones?" Yes, I did know. Willing to try it, I ran to the store to buy the ingredients for what ended up being a super delicious accompaniment to our dinner. We haven't been back to Joe's since (it's too expensive, and honestly? our homemade dinner was WAY better!).

These potatoes are like your favorite little black dress - you can dress them up or down, depending on the occasion. For example, they are casual and delightful when paired with crab legs and a side of garlic butter, but sophisticated and classy when prepared with a stuffed chicken breast and baked asparagus. Versatile? Absolutely. Delicious? Of course!

The BEST thing about this recipe? I'm giving it to you two ways. These are both extraordinarily easy, and both come out really yummy. Really, your schedule will determine which method you'd like to use, as one takes significantly longer than the other.

Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Red Potatoes

1 lb. red potatoes, quartered

2 tbs olive oil

8 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp kosher salt

Fresh Rosemary sprigs (or 4 tsp dried rosemary)

Method 1: Oven

  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake covered for 45 minutes. Uncover and stir potatoes, then return to oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Method 2: Slow Cooker (as pictured above)

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cover. Set to low and cook for 4 1/2 hours, or until potatoes are fork tender.

You will find that the results differ slightly between these two methods (the slow cooker version will produce a softer potato than the oven-roasted method). Both, however, extract the wonderful rosemary and garlic flavors and infuse them right into the potatoes. So good!

Until next time...

Cheers!