Spinach, Cauliflower & Bell Pepper Bake, Revisited

This was posted a while back during vacation season...and I just made it again. It was late Summer and  this was a side dish to my husband's grilled (burnt) offering. I was even lamenting the slim pickings in my vegetable garden at the time. Well, I really had nothing to complain about. Because now it is late Winter, and the vegetable garden, is brown and full of dead leaves and other winter debris that has collected inside the fence over the last few cold, dark months. The cauliflower, peppers and spinach are easily available, and good at this time of year, and this does make a great (ova-lacto) vegetarian, gluten free meal for a wet chilly windy night like this one. just too good to relegate to summer only.  With a nice piece of bread or a gluten free roll, a glass of white wine and some fruit  for dessert...and you can sit back and pretend you picked it all in your yard, even if the snow is flying.

Spinach, Cauliflower & Bell Pepper Bake

From last Summer:

Now that we've joined the Big Green Egg cult, I haven't cooked a single piece of meat in the house, unless you count a pan or two of bacon. While I used to be the BBQ Girl around here, regularly loading and running a smoker full of apple logs and briskets while my disinterested DH watched baseball, I am now Kitchen Girl. The Egg has kindled a new interest in outdoor cooking in him and I am relegated to the side dishes. For the moment...I'll be back out there as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, though, it has given me a man-free kitchen to whomp up something to go with the manly burnt offerings (actually he hasn't burned anything, but it sounds good). And when you cook the meat outdoors, there is no roasting pan to wash. So it's all good and I pretty much love our Egg as much as he does, maybe more, since I've wanted one far longer. But I digress...

Remember I was whining about  the slim pickings in the garden last Friday? Well, it still is producing a little of this and that. All good.  Some shallots dug a few weeks ago, garlic, and bell peppers. And I got a very small cauliflower at the farmers market on Friday which, when you are aiming for low- carb, is a godsend. It made the base for a good cheesy dish that's somewhere between a casserole and a crustless quiche. You can add or subtract whatever you don't like here, but the eggs and sour cream proportions need to stay constant, or, well, you have an entirely different dish...possibly not bad, but different.

Note: to grate cauliflower, just scrape it on the big holes of a box grater, or chop it medium-fine in a food processor. To cook it, I just sauté it in a bit of butter until soft. If you want to keep this dish vegetarian, either use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, or Pickapeppa sauce which has no anchovies in it.

Homegrown peppers and shallots.

Spinach, Cauliflower & Cheddar Bake

3 cups of grated cauliflower, cooked soft
1T extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced 1/2"
5 oz. baby spinach
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. Cholula or other hot sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Oil a 9" square oven-to-table baking dish. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan, and add the shallot, garlic and bell pepper. Sauté on medium heat until the pepper is soft and the shallot is limp. Stir in the spinach a bit at a time and cook until it just wilts. Turn off the heat and set aside in the pan to cool for a minute or two.

Infinite possibilities with fresh-from-the-garden vegetables.

Whisk together the eggs, sour cream hot sauce and Worcestershire in a medium bowl. Stir in the cheese, and the vegetable mixture from the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 - 60 minutes until brown at the edges and bubbly. Good side with grilled meat or as a vegetarian main with a salad.

Serves 4-6.

From Garden to Plate: Spinach, Cauliflower & Cheddar Bake

Spinach, Cauliflower & Bell Pepper Bake

Now that we've joined the Big Green Egg cult, I haven't cooked a single piece of meat in the house, unless you count a pan or two of bacon. While I used to be the BBQ Girl around here, regularly loading and running a smoker full of apple logs and briskets while my disinterested DH watched baseball, I am now Kitchen Girl. The Egg has kindled a new interest in outdoor cooking in him and I am relegated to the side dishes. For the moment...I'll be back out there as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, though, it has given me a man-free kitchen to whomp up something to go with the manly burnt offerings (actually he hasn't burned anything, but it sounds good). And when you cook the meat outdoors, there is no roasting pan to wash. So it's all good and I pretty much love our Egg as much as he does, maybe more, since I've wanted one far longer. But I digress...

Remember I was whining about  the slim pickings in the garden last Friday? Well, it still is producing a little of this and that. All good.  Some shallots dug a few weeks ago, garlic, and bell peppers. And I got a very small cauliflower at the farmers market on Friday which, when you are aiming for low- carb, is a godsend. It made the base for a good cheesy dish that's somewhere between a casserole and a crustless quiche. You can add or subtract whatever you don't like here, but the eggs and sour cream proportions need to stay constant, or, well, you have an entirely different dish...possibly not bad, but different.

Note: to grate cauliflower, just scrape it on the big holes of a box grater, or chop it medium-fine in a food processor. To cook it, I just sauté it in a bit of butter until soft. If you want to keep this dish vegetarian, either use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, or Pickapeppa sauce which has no anchovies in it.

Homegrown peppers and shallots.

Spinach, Cauliflower & Cheddar Bake

3 cups of grated cauliflower, cooked soft
1T extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced 1/2"
5 oz. baby spinach
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. Cholula or other hot sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Oil a 9" square oven-to-table baking dish. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan, and add the shallot, garlic and bell pepper. Sauté on medium heat until the pepper is soft and the shallot is limp. Stir in the spinach a bit at a time and cook until it just wilts. Turn off the heat and set aside in the pan to cool for a minute or two.

Infinite possibilities with fresh-from-the-garden vegetables.

Whisk together the eggs, sour cream hot sauce and Worcestershire in a medium bowl. Stir in the cheese, and the vegetable mixture from the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 -60 minutes until brown at the edges and bubbly. Good side with grilled meat or as a vegetarian main with a salad.

Serves 4-6.

Another Grainless Wonder: Cheddar Bacon Chive Muffins

I miss a good muffin. A good savory muffin. So far I've gone a week without sugar or grain products and am feeling much better. I still miss a good muffin, though. I'm not a big bread eater in general, but some saucy foods just cry out for something to soak up the good juices.

Grain-free Cheddar, Bacon & Chive muffins, pass the butter!

I've been fascinated by these recipes that use plain cooked beans to make cakes and cupcakes. The two batches I've made have turned out perfectly. How delicious would it be to have some sort of muffin  alongside a bowl of chili or a cup of soup? Made with a bean base? Guess what? These are killer. And no grain. They even got thumbs up from my decidedly flour and sugar loving co-workers.

At last, a muffin recipe that's gluten free, grain free, and doesn't have 37 different odd grain flours from 6 different stores in it. And its fast, easy and totally scrumptious. They have bacon in them, after all.

Notes: If you don't quite end up with 6T of bacon fat from cooking the bacon, add enough butter to the bacon fat to make up the difference. A good sized portion scoop will make it easy to fill the muffin pan,  Some white beans, like cannelloni beans, have a stronger flavor than navy beans, which have no discernable flavor in this recipe. If you use another type of bean, let these muffins sit at least 4 hours, and there will be no bean taste to them whatsoever.

A portion scoop keeps me from being my usual messy self.

Grain-Free Cheddar Bacon Chive Muffins
Makes 12

You'll need: paper muffin / cupcake liners, cooking oil spray and a muffin pan with 12 cups in it.  And a blender.

1 15-ounce can of navy beans, rinsed and drained
5 large eggs
2T Granular Erythritol
5 slices of smoky bacon cooked and crumbled (save the fat)
6 T of bacon fat, cooled slightly
1-1/2 packed cups shredded extra sharp cheddar
1/4 cup minced chives
3T coconut flour, packed
3T flax meal
1T sweet paprika
1/8 teas. cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder (Rumford)
cooking oil spray

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place muffin / cupcake papers in the muffin pan, and spray with cooking oil spray. In your blender, put the beans, the erythritol, the bacon fat and eggs.  In a small bowl, mix the coconut flour, the flax meal, the paprika and cayenne. Set aside. In a medium bowl, mix the crumbled bacon, the chives and the cheddar cheese, breaking up the cheese with your hands, mixing it all well. Puree the bean mixture until smooth. Add the coconut flour mixture to the blender and puree until well mixed.

Pour the contents of the blender over the cheddar cheese mixture and mix well with a spatula until the chives flecks are evenly dispersed. Scoop into the prepared muffin pan, and bake about 22 - 25 minutes until lightly browned, and a toothpick comes out clean if you test a muffin. Let cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. for best flavor, let cool and rest 4 hours. Store covered, or refrigerate.

Can you tell what's in these besides bacon, cheese and chives?
 My tasters couldn't!

Disclaimer: I do my nutrition calculations on a free nutrition website, and am not responsible for inaccuracies; your calculations may differ. Each muffin has approx. 260 calories, 4g usable carbohydrate (96.5g carb - 3.38 fiber) and 12 g. of protein.

Madeleine Cookies: Cat Hair is NOT a Seasoning

Just for the record, I've never considered myself a cat-person. I've had one cat, or rather, she had me. I'm a dog person. Cats like me because they know that I'm a sucker for any small, dependent animal. Sadly, a family member passed away recently, leaving behind a cat named Madeline, who is about 9 or 10. I've been looking after her during her Mom's illness, and since the person originally designated as the cat-step-Mom can't take her, Chuck and I, and the dog are all trying to accommodate a cat who's never seen a dog or been out of her old home since she was a few weeks old.

Madeleine, aka Maddy or Madeline, is a bit mad.
No female wants her picture taken on a bad hair day.

The animals are having a Mexican Standoff. This is only my second cat, and the first one (also inherited) one liked to be outside most of the time. I, having forgotten that cats are mostly nocturnal, am not accustomed to having a cat jump on my head at 4 AM. Or cat singing. Nor am I accustomed to having an animal that can jump on to my kitchen counters or the range. I now have a spray bottle of water at hand in the kitchen at all times to  (hopefully) deter her from those places. Eeeeew. Cat hair, in my book, is NOT a seasoning. My dog doesn't shed. Madeline does. A lot.

Since the poor furry thing has come to a household where a real Francophile runs the kitchen, Madeline is now be known as Madeleine, because she really is a sweet little cookie. I started making Madeleines about a million years ago from a recipe in Marion Cunningham's " The Fannie Farmer Baking Book" for the delicate shell-shaped cookies and I still consider this recipe among the best. The do NOT have any cat hair in them, but lots of good butter, eggs and sugar. I wonder if Marcel Proust had a cat? Welcome to your new home, Madeleine!


Madeleines
Adapted from Marion Cunningham's "The Fannie Farmer Baking Book"
Makes 24


You will need to buy or borrow some Madeleine pans or molds with shell shaped indents, two would be good, since each holds 12, so you don't have to wait between batches for the pan to cool. The texture of the cookie changes as the batter stands, and the second batch will be cakier, and less crispy unless you can bake in two pans at once. If you only use one pan, let the pan cool after the first batch, wipe it out thoroughly, butter well and repeat.


2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon zest, or 2 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup sifted AP flour
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 T softened butter

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Smear about 1/2 teas. of the softened butter over the inside of each shell indent in each form, no bare spots, please. Combine the eggs, sugar and lemon in a big, heat proof bowl, and set the bowl over simmering water and stir until the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, nearly tripled in volume. May take  3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt.

Sift half of the flour over the egg mixture and fold in gently Pour in the melted butter and sift the rest of the flour over the butter. Fold in until it all is just mixed. Spoon a heaping tablespoon into each shell indent, but don't level, they'll self-level in the oven. Bake about 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Lift each cookie from the mold with the tines of a fork or the tip of a knife and let cook. Serve with powdered sugar sifted over them if you like. Serve the same day as baked or wrap tightly and freeze.