Perfectly Roasted Asparagus

Spring = asparagus! Almost. And I recently discovered this easy way to make perfectly roasted asparagus spears. Why oh why did I ever saute them? This is so much better!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep asparagus by washing it and breaking off the ends. Do you know the fancy trick to break off exactly the tough part? Hold onto the very bottom of the asparagus spear with one hand, and bend the spear towards itself with the other. It will snap at the place where the spear stops being tough and starts being tender. Lay the spears on a baking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil. Turn the spears a few times to make sure they are well coated.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. When they come out, squeeze a little lemon juice on top, and sprinkle with (smoky) salt. *They are pictured below with bacon wrapped scallops, aka extravagant stay-cation eating indulgence that maybe will become my fave thing to eat ever.

Lemon Tartlets (paleo)

I was feeling motivated to try making some kind of dessert that fits within my current paleo preferred eating habits. My mom had already aced a paleo chocolate pudding (primary ingredients: avocado, cocoa powder, almond butter, and some honey - it was super tasty - thank you mom!), so it seemed time to try out something with lemon. I love lemon curd. Love love love.

This recipe was originally lemon bars, but calling them lemon bars conjures up a different idea. These aren't cakey or powdered sugar-y, these are rich and tart like. With several egg yolks. I ended up making mine in little muffin cups, which thus created tartlets. I followed this online recipe, which was adapted from a cookbook (that I now have on order from the library), but I halved the recipe because I only wanted a few and because macadamia nuts are expensive and because I couldn't figure out what I would do with 8 egg whites.

So. Follow the linked recipe, which is for a 9x13" pan (even though she says 9x9 in one spot). You can make it in a pan, or you can make some in a muffin tin - which made 8 for me when I halved the recipe. I made the crusts in a tin, and then transferred them to muffin cups in order to add the lemon topping to bake them again. (*Note you do not actually need to do this 2nd baking for tartlets. Instead, you can just spoon some cooled curd over a cooled crust bottom. And maybe put on some whipped cream and strawberries too!)

Another note: The crust pieces were puffier than I thought they would be - but once they cooled, they fell a little and were pretty firm (not cakey). They almost had a coconut-y texture, in a really good way. And really, you can't go wrong with macadamia nuts. omg. Also, go easy on the lemon curd for each tartlet. I was a little short for my 8th tart...

Sea Scallops!

I decided to take some days off this week in honor of my birthday. A five-day weekend seemed like a really good present to myself! I also seem to be treating myself to all kind of delicious food items, including some sea scallops (which I have been salivating over for the past few weeks). They are not cheap, running about $24/pound at Seward, but they were going to be my "start of vacation" dinner, so I bought 4 of them (1/3 of a pound) and made them for dinner.

I vaguely followed the recipe linked here, but changed it a bit to include what I had on hand. Oh this was so good! The sweetness of the scallop with the salty bacon and greens was perfect. I'll multiply the amounts so that the recipe below will serve two generous portions (I could have eaten 1/2 a pound of scallops, they are so good).

1 pound sea scallops
1/4 pound bacon, chopped
1 bunch of kale, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper

Chop bacon and saute in a large skillet for 5 minutes. Add onions and continue to saute until onions are translucent and bacon is crispy. Set bacon/onions aside, but reserve the bacon fat for cooking the shallots (you'll use the same pan).

While onion is cooking, start the kale steaming in a covered pot with an inch or two of water or broth at the bottom (I used broth because I had some, and it added really nice flavor).

Add the shallots to the pan with bacon fat, and cook on both sides for about 5 minutes each.

While they are cooking, pour out any extra water from the kale, then add the bacon/onion mix. Saute together for a few minutes and salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze fresh lemon (maybe a Tablespoon or so).

Serve scallops on top of greens. Yum!

Paleo Brat Cabbage Rolls

Awhile back I made some traditional cabbage rolls, though ever since I sort of imagined my ideal cabbage roll as something more like a bratwurst-potato/cauliflower-kraut filled wrap. Yum. I finally got around to making it happen! And I have to say, they turned out delicious. I actually was really excited to eat them with some horseradish and sour cream because then the rolls tasted a little like pierogi. I have not had anything minutely resembling piergoi in a really long time, so i was a bit ecstatic. The rolls are also great with kraut loaded on top. I served these with some roasted beets (which I also ate with generous spoonfuls of horseradish and sour cream).

Brat Cabbage Rolls
1 head cauliflower
1 lb. bratwurst (mine was ground, but you can just remove the casing of links)
1 large onion, chopped
3 T fat substance (bacon fat, ghee, butter, coconut oil)
1 large head of green cabbage
Stone ground mustard
1/4 c. broth (or water)

Start by chopping your cauliflower up in big chunks and tossing it with 1/2 of your coconut oil substance. Layer it on a cake pan and put it in the oven at 375 to start roasting. You will need to flip/stir these every 10 minutes, and they should be nice and roasted and browned after about 25 minutes.

While the cauliflower roasts, fill a large pot with a couple of inches of water and set it on heat. Take your cabbage head and remove the core: I just cut a square into the cabbage at an angle so the sides all meet and I can pull out the cone shaped hunk of core. Set the cabbage (core side down) in the pot. You can also use a big steamer basket if you have one that is big enough. Cover the pot and let the cabbage steam. After about 10 minutes you should be able to remove several outer cabbage layers - set those aside to cool/drain, and return the cabbage head to the steamer to keep getting additional layers softened. Continue until you have 10-12 leaves.

While the cauliflower and cabbage are trucking along, heat the rest of the oil/fat in a large skillet or heavy pot. Saute the onions for a few minutes to soften before adding in the bratwurst. Cook for another 10 minutes until meat is browned.

When the cauliflower is finished, chop up the pieces in the pan so that they are small and consistent with the onion/brat mix. Add the cauliflower to the brat and onion, and salt and pepper to taste. A little caraway is also tasty in there. This is now the filling for the cabbage rolls.

Fill each cabbage leaf with filling (I generally err on the side of less filling, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup, depending on the size of the leaf) and a generous dollop of mustard. I have found it easiest to wrap the cabbage leaves this way: set your leaf rib side facing you with the leafy edge on top. Put filling in center. Use the ribbed bottom to cover the filling and sort of scoop it back in on itself. Fold the sides in, and then finish rolling so that the top part of the leaf covers everything.

Set the cabbage rolls in a large (coverable) baking dish (or cake pan that you will cover with tin foil). You can layer the rolls in several layers if you want, or just do one. Pour the broth over the top of the rolls and bake, covered, at 375 for 30 minutes.

Serve with saurkraut, horseradish, and sour cream.

Roasted Broccoli & Bacon

So, continuing on with my roasted veggie theme, this one adds in some bacon for extra deliciousness. It would still be tasty without though. I like how the edges turn a little brown, and the roasting brings out so much flavor! This "recipe" comes from "The Clothes Makes the Girl" blog.

Just cut 2 heads of broccoli up in large florets - I also use the stalks since they are so hearty (just peel the tough outer layer). Toss the broccoli with some coconut oil, and then layer flat in a pan. Cut up 4 slices of bacon, and toss that in the pan too. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or so, flipping or stirring a couple of times. Sprinkle a little smoky salt and pepper on top and serve!

parsnip macaroons

i found these lovely macaroons on the equally lovely blog by apt2b baking co which has delicious recipes and gorgeous pictures. these turned out so well! the parsnips add some earthiness and go really well with the almonds, coconut and lemon zest. i made two pans and the pan that got a little more done was, in my opinion, better because it made the outer crunch even better. the only change i made to the recipe was that i doubled the recipe but didn't double the sugar and they were still plenty sweet. i think you could probably even cut out the sugar altogether but i'm not sure if it would change the consistency. yum! (and i think they're gluten-free?)