Home-Ground Hamburgers

This will be a relatively short post, for a couple of reasons. First, it's less of a recipe and more of a quick "look what I made." Second, I'm really behind in my posts, but I've been cooking, so I have a good 3-4 posts I want to get written before I completely forget how I made them. 

Vegetable and Gruyere Pizza

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time I've done a blog post about pizza. I don't often do traditional New York-style pizza, just because it's nearly impossible to recreate. So when I do make pizza, I tend to do more unique combinations of toppings, doughs, and cheeses. Hence my latest creation -- Vegetable and Gruyere Pizza. 

I had just gotten over a really nasty stomach bug, and wanted something a little light, with lots of vegetables, so I decided to make a vegetable pizza. I was cooking for my husband and my sister, and most of the vegetables I wanted to put on got vetoed, so the list got narrowed down to green peppers, mushrooms and red onions. Gruyere is quickly becoming my favorite cheese, and it goes so well with mushrooms, so that was an easy choice. Again staying with the healthy theme, I wanted more of a whole wheat dough. The grocery store had plain and whole wheat, but my eye caught a very seedy multi-grain dough that sounded fun. At least to me, it did. I brought it home to many moans and grumbles from the peanut gallery, who were quickly won over after the first bite.

Healthy Potato Salad

Just as the weather is starting to warm up, and I'm looking for something a little lighter on the palate, and on the hips, the Daring Kitchen challenges us to a healthy potato salad - perfect timing! Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

Despite the prize for originality, I went with one of the Daring Kitchen-provided recipes - Greek yogurt and dill potato salad. Even when the Daring Kitchen encourages us to go off and create our own dishes within the guidelines of the challenge, I still tend to follow one of the recipes they offer, for a couple of reasons. One, I'm really just not that creative. I love to cook, and I'm getting better at it, but coming up with new twists on old classics, or unique combinations of flavors is not quite my forte. Another reason I like to stay within the provided recipes is that it forces me to use ingredients and techniques that I otherwise wouldn't. If I chose my own recipes, I'd stick to foods and methods that I'm familiar with, no matter how hard I would try to break out of my comfort zone. 

This potato salad was one of the best I'd ever had and, despite my undying devotion to mayonnaise, I think I may be making this one all summer. The peppers gave it a sweetness that was balanced out by just the right amount of sourness from the yogurt and lemon juice. I love, love, love dill, so there was just no going overboard on that. I think I may cut the potatoes a bit smaller next time, though, just because it gives more surface area for the dressing to coat. Really, though, that was my only complaint. I made it yesterday, and as I was packing it for my lunch today I snuck a tiny bite, and I can assure you, this one definitely gets better as it sits. 

P.S. - please forgive the gratuitous pictures. It was an overcast day, which was the perfect lighting for playing around with my camera so I kind of went a little nuts.

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually - a Daring Cook's Challenge that turned out just ok. I didn't love it, it wasn't terrible, but I don't think I'll be making it again. Still, it was a fun experience, and I got to try okra, which I'd never had before. And that's what it's all about, really!

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Crumpets

I made this recipe as a birthday gift for my sister's boyfriend, who is inexplicably obsessed with crumpets. I brought them to Sunday dinner at my grandmother's, intending to give them to him when everyone else gave him their presents after dinner, but they were gone before I even took my coat off.

Insalata Bianca in a Parmesan Cup

Oh boy, this month's Daring Kitchen challenge really focused on a weakness of mine - creativity. I can take a recipe and replicate it to a tee, and make all sorts of dishes come out great, but I really fail at being creative. Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com.

For the bowl, I went with my most comfortable medium - cheese, of course. And the best type of cheese I could think would harden into a bowl is parmesan. That was the easy bit. Then I figured it had to be filled with something cold, as anything hot would too quickly melt the cheese, so salad seemed the obvious choice. But I didn't want to go with a plain, green salad. Instead I made a marinated Insalata Bianca - a white salad with a variety of marinated white vegetables and lemon vinaigrette dressing. 

Papas Rellenas with Huancaína sauce

The theme of this month's Daring Kitchen challenge was Peru. Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

I made the Papas Rellenas as suggested by Kathlyn, but instead of the Salsa Criolla she recommends, I went with a Huancaína sauce that my mother-in-law got from her co-worker who is from Peru. She's been telling me how great it is on potato dishes, so I've been meaning to make it for awhile now. So it was a perfect time to try it out when a Peruvian challenge came up that featured potatoes!