Ruby Tuesday (9) Cauliflower with tomato pesto

Cauliflower does something with my brain. It's kind of boring to cook as-is. The kids like it though. So I do a cauliflower curry, potato cauliflower soup, oven roasted with spices like comin and cilantro.

This time I threw a little Italian in. Blanched a sliced cauliflower, short cooked some sliced potatoes, combined both in a large bowl.

Tomato pesto dressing:

3 tbs tomate pesto (from a jar or home made)

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 ts honey

1/2 ts aleppo pepper flakes

1/2 ts ground pepper from the mill

salt to taste

Combine in a small bowl and whisk.

Sprinkle over vegetable mix in the large bowl and use a spoon to carefully coat the vegetables with the dressing.

Place mixture in a lightly buttered ovendish and layer cooked ground beef on top. (Every once in a while I prepare a large amount of ground beef, seasoned with herbs and spices, divide into parcels and freeze. This makes for quick meals, just grab and add whatever you like).

So, you have your pesto-vegetable mix, ground beef on top, I added mini mozzarella, mini pomodori and fresh basil. Just after taking this pic I decided to add the rest of both boxes so it was even more colorful when it went into the oven. You could also add some grated cheese.

Preheat oven to 200C/375F and bake for approx. 20 minutes or until tomatoes are roasted and cheese has melted to a lovely color.

Enjoy!

Another entry for Ruby Tuesday, round up over at Work of the Poet!

POM pom di dum.. (POM Wonderful)

(In English? just scroll!)

Een gesponsorde blogpost? Hier? Dacht het niet! Ik werd een poosje geleden benaderd of ik genegen was Pom Wonderful uit te proberen. Zo ja, dan zou het produkt persoonlijk aan de deur afgeleverd worden.... Pom watte? Nou jeweetwel Pom!

Dat granaatappelsap waar een flink aantal Amerikaanse blogs vol van stond een poosje geleden. Zie je? Alles gebeurt hier ook maar gewoon wat later. Uitgekiende marketing strategie die kennelijk wereldwijd wordt toegepast. Benader eerst de foodies, genereer wat gratis "rumour around the brand", zorg dat je gezien en gehoord wordt op de juiste plekken met een minimale marketing inspanning aan geld. Nice. Er is nog genoeg marketing meisje over in mij om het te kunnen waarderen.

Ben ik gezwicht? Tuurlijk. Gratis! Nieuw! En... voor mij het belangrijkste, er werden geen voorwaarden gesteld. Gewoon alsjeblieft, hier zijn 2 ijsgekoelde flesjes van 473 ml en veel plezier ermee.

Nou goed dan, wat doen we eerst? Smaak? Uiterlijk? Prijs?

Uiterlijk dan maar, grappige flesjes (zie foto hierboven, het cape-je zit niet bij de prijs inbegrepen), heel donkerrood ondoorzichtig wat dikker sap. Wij vroegen ons af of je wel geacht werd het puur te drinken.

Smaak: ik vond het gelijk lekker, twee van mijn zoons vertrokken gelijktijdig hun gezicht. Oef! Zoon nr. 3 keek, en schudde fanatiek zijn hoofd, hij wilde niet. Inderdaad het is maar een klein beetje zoet jongens, eerder rins met een klein bittertje, droog, en heel vol van smaak. Doet denken aan die flesjes bosbessensap van vroeger.

Prijs: Ai! Behoorlijk. Ik zag adviesprijzen van 3,99 per flesje van 473 ml. Dat is flink. Even rekenen? Dat is zo'n € 8,50 per liter...

Dat is duur voor een glas sap. Is het duur voor een glas "gezondheid"? Wel grappig, het ziet eruit en wordt gepresenteerd als een luxe "sapje" maar tegelijkertijd staat er in de persberichten dat 1 flesje POM goed is voor 2 doseringen. Doseringen? Hmm. Want dat is de claim; POM Wonderful bevat 100% granaatappelsap, geen toegevoegde suikers, geen kunstmatige toevoegingen en krioelt van de anti-oxidanten. En die zijn weer overal goed voor, de nieuwe vitamine C. (is trouwens ook een anti-oxidant maar dat wisten onze moeders vroeger nog niet, hadden ze toch gelijk). Heb jij je anti-oxidanten al gehad vandaag?

Anti-oxidanten zijn van nature aanwezig in met name rode vruchten zoals frambozen, bosbessen, paprika, kersen, tomaten, aalbessen, druiven, granaatappels ;-), maar ook in koffie en -groene- thee. Dus wat gaan we doen? Even langs de groenteboer of de markt, of toch voor een quick-fix naar de supermarkt voor een flesje? Ondanks dat ik het sap erg lekker vond geloof ik dat ik prijstechnisch tóch eerder naar de groenteman zal gaan, hapje vezels erbij, wat mineralen en andere nuttige zaken... Zoals ze zeggen bij het Voedingscentrum:

Een evenwichtige voeding met volop groenten en fruit levert voldoende voedingsstoffen inclusief antioxidanten in ‘veilige’ hoeveelheden

Goed, wat heb ik er mee gedaan behalve puur gedronken, gemixed met sinasappelsap en me vermaakt met het kijken naar de gezichten van mijn kinderen? POM Wonderful was een smaakvolle aanvulling in een smoothie met banaan, frambozen uit eigen tuin, zemelen en ijsblokjes, en ik heb er een dressing van gemaakt voor een maaltijdsalade bestaande uit verschillende soorten sla, lauwwarme eendenborst, geroosterde paprika en gebakken paddestoelen.

Dressing:

3 delen olijfolie

1 deel frambozenazijn

2 el granaatappelsap

peper,zout

1 tl dyon mosterd

Dank aan Pom Wonderful voor de keurige service and de mogelijkheid om dit nieuwe produkt te proberen!

This is a sponsored message!

No, not really. Not here. Never.
Fact is that I was asked if I would like to try Pom Wonderful, launched here in Holland last week. I was interested to try (hey it was free, it's new to Holland and yes I was a little flattered), so last Thursday two precious** 473ml ice cold bottles were hand-delivered on my doorstep for us to sample. Just like that, no questions asked, no conditions, no strings attached.
** didn't know how precious exactly, waited to see store prices... Ouch! €3,99 per bottle.

I think they are effectively steamrolling the blogging world having seen many a post featuring the pomegranate juice-in-a-bottle pop up over the last couple of weeks, USA first and now the rest of the world to follow? We're talking about a claimed 100% pomegranate juice from concentrate. Quite tart, full of flavour (rich?) and a deep dark opaque red in color. The full bodied flavour had us wonder if you had to mix it up or drink it as-is.

What I did after enjoying the kids faces when they tasted the stuff (wrinkling every facial feature). I made a smoothie, a salad dressing, mixed it up with orange juice, drank it pure and enjoyed it with wodka, lime, sugar syrup and sparkling water....

Smoothie:

1 large banana

large handful fresh raspberries from the garden

1/2 cup of pomegranate juice

a few ice cubes

3/4 cup yoghurt

2 tbs wheat bran

Will I buy it from now on? Hmm I don't think so, it's quite expensive and I do believe that a balanced diet including a visit to the market will provide you with all the anti-oxidants you need. Berries, broccoli, tomatoes, grapes, spinach, bell peppers anyone?

Tiramisu

I won't bother you with a pick up line because I assume you all know what Tiramisu stands for. It's a bit retro dish that I used to make when we weren't afraid of raw eggs, tasted raw ground meat to check for seasoning....

This one is care-free because the egg yolks are whisked over a hot water bath, no egg whites are used for the cream. It's quite mellow in flavor, my kids (all but one) loved the soft and creamy taste. The next time I made it into a more adult version by adding some liquor in the dipping espresso, we loved that one even more; the kids weren't too pleased...

Now for the recipe... I know I read it somewhere and copied it on one of the many scraps of paper..... then when I wanted to thank her for the recipe couldn't remember where I read it. I think it's from you Ari, please check Baking and Books, recipe to be found here.

I used:

3 egg yolks

slightly less than 1/2 cup sugar

2 tbs liquor (such as Grand Marnier/Creme de cacao/Tia Maria)

225 gr. mascarpone

225 gr. whipping cream

1/8 cup sugar

espresso coffee with optional extra 2 tbs liquor

lady fingers/savoiardi

grated chocolate

I didn't invite Murphy for dinner did I?

Throwing a party, listening to advice to not make everything from scratch and for once order everything. Make it easy on yourself, just do it. Well after looking at different catering businesses and their lists of food/prices I threw caution to the wind and decided to do it myself anyway. But... I did order dinner!

I ordered Thai food (pat on the shoulder to not make dinner for 10 myself). Yes tiny town has a Thai lady married to a local boy. Placed the order a week ago, set the time for yesterday night at 6. Went to get it.

Thai lady who cooks from her house opens the door at a crack and looks at me inquiringly. I beam back a smile, faint alarmbells ringing in the back of my head, Conversation as follows:

lady asks: yes, you just phoned? Is dinner at 8? Not ready yet.

-I say, no. I ordered a week ago, dinner for 10 at 6

Thai lady says: nooooo

-(Alarmbells get louder) and I say: Yeeeeessss!

Thai lady: no, you rang. 8 o'clock

- smile wavers a bit and I insist, shaking my head: I'm sorry but I ordered last week, here at your house and your mother in law took the order, I saw her write it down.

Door opens a bit wider and the lady disappears in the house, I follow her into the kitchen. Over the noise of the alarmbells now ringing at full force I can see it coming. Her eyes widen, hand up to her mouth: Nooo, not possible! Haven't seen the ordersheet. How? I'm so sorry...

There's 10 hungry people in my house, waiting for dinner and I know that there are 20 more coming in like 2 hours to surprise my husband and celebrate his 50th birthday.... All pre-party stress floats away in that same instant. Pfff, never mind, I'll think of something else. Shit happens.

Then she asks while firing up the enormous stove, and clanks pots and pans on the counter: can you wait? Just 1 hour? I'll bring the food to you, promise. 1 hour? Yes?

I grin back and nod: Sure, we'll wait, have another drink. Sounds great. Sure you don't want me to get it? No? Ok, see you then! Turn around and drive back home, radio on 10.

You can plan everything to the nine but something, somewhere always goes a little different than you think. Not necessarily wrong or bad. Just different. Never mind.
Exactly one hour later we were having a wonderful Thai dinner, super fresh, loads of lovely food, a great mix of flavours, spicy and mellow, fish, various kinds of meat dishes, vegetables and lovely thai rice. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
No time for leasurely after dinner talk/dessert, dove straight into pulling out all stops to get everything ready for the guests, in the meantime weather turned, wind was down, temperature just right and we poured out into the garden for coffee and cake and the guests arriving.

I think/know Hubby had a great evening, we sat outside until late with candles and drinks and little bites. Maybe we should turn this into an annual thing. Celebrate life with friends and family!

Bread Baking Babes: Almost Wordless Wednesday

{feta cigars}

I would have told a tale of tahini, Sukkar bi Tahin to be exact. Today is our posting day, the day Natashya invites us to join her at her Kitchen of the Month to bake sweet tahini filled swirls. Sounds good no? I thought so...

{walnut filled dates wrapped in bacon}

But today is also DH birthday. His 50th. He didn't want any 'circus'. I decided to do a little bit of juggling after all. He doesn't know. Yet. (Hi honey I hope you're busy at work scooping runny caramel custard sauce next to pillow-like brioche cake and not pay attention to my blog hehe. Have a nice day!).

{wasabi deviled eggs}

Instead of showing tahini swirls I'll show you an -almost- Wordless Wednesday, updating as I go. Please head over to Natashya to see what I should have done, don't forget to pay a visit to all my wonderful sisters in arms (knights in shining?) to see what they made (links in the side bar). I promise you, it's worth it! My swirls will follow soon.

Newborn Apples on Ruby Tuesday (8)

I am so proud! Finally there are little applings growing on my 4 year old birthday tree! This year it had the most beautiful blossom so far so my hopes were up. Now there's an absolute ban on playing soccer in the garden around the tree!

Seems that the advice to support the lithe tree with a sturdy pole was a sound one, the thought behind was that there wasn't any energy left to grow fruit because it had to struggle to keep standing upright. Good job tree!

You want Chocolate Raspberry Marzipan Pie with that?

I thought so!
If only I could remember what I did to get that dense brownie-like chocolate dough....

I know for a fact that I spread it lightly with the last of the lemon curd, layered it with fresh raspberries from the garden and grated raw marzipan on top! Accidently achieving the same color scheme as in the badge for: You want pie with that? Sounds good no?

Recipe crust:

(adapted from KA cookie companion)

220 gr butter

40 gr vegetable shortening

300 gr sugar

1 ts salt

1 ts baking powder

40 gr (1/2 cup) cocoa powder (Dutch process/natural, I used the latter)

325 gr (11.1/2 oz) unbleached ap flour

Topping:

lots of fresh raspberries (forgot to measure, they were fresh from the garden)

approx. 50 gr raw marzipan, grated

lemon curd (.... raspberry or orange curd!)

Uses a lightly greased 9x13" or 11x11" pan or similar size.

Preheat oven to 350F/175C

Beat butter, shortening, sugar, salt, baking powder until fluffy, sift together cocoa and flour and beat until well blended. Press two thirds of the dough in the pan and up the sides to form the crust. You might like to crumble the reserved dough over the topping, I used it to bake a mini pie.

Convince husband to let go of that last jar of lemon curd, scrape the jar and spread the crust with a thin layer of lemon curd. Top with fresh raspberries, sprinkle grated marzipan on top. Bake for 40 minutes, take care that the marzipan turns golden, not black! I needed to cover for the last 15 minutes with tin foil.

Verdict: this pie had my family searching the kitchen for seconds and thirds... they are chocolate lovers and this crust really satisfied their craving with it's dense and moist very chocolatey quality. Fudge brownie anyone?. For me the tangy combination of curd and raspberries was wonderful paired with the almond. I think I would have liked the crust to be lighter, that's me; I'm just not one for dense and moist. It's just how things are around here: tangy versus chocolate and dense and this pie has it all!