Early Spring Hike

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Two Saturdays ago, it was sixty degrees out. I had to work into the afternoon, but when I was done, Greg and I had plans to hike. We planned to be in the woods exploring until the sun went down. And we did. It was just what the two of us needed. After a long and cold winter, being cooped up for too long, fresh and warm air is just what we needed. We enjoyed every second of that hike, and I know we’re both looking forward to when we can do it again. I took photos that day, of trees and water, of Greg and my shoes, of waterfalls, reflections and a meadow of fresh blooms. Here are some of my favorites from the day, in no particular order.

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Beet Gnocchi

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Ahhh. That’s a sigh of relief to be finally posting this recipe. This post has been a long time coming. Like last week, this is not my own recipe. But this again, is too good not to be shared with you.

I discovered this recipe, from Food and Wine, at the beginning of winter and have made it every week since, I think. The first time I made it, Greg declared it as his new favorite meal. And even as I’ve made it many more times, it’s still a favorite. It’s just plain good. Homemade beet gnocchi with a butter sage sauce and topped with toasted walnuts and parmesan cheese – need I say more?

I’ve found some tips and tricks that make the preparation of this meal go smoothly. Today I’m going to share those with you. If you want to make this meal, read the original recipe on Food and Wine. Then read through my tips and take a look at my photos. I feel that a visual always helps. Before making this, I had no experience with homemade gnocchi or pasta of any kind. Trust me, it’s not hard. You can totally do it. And it’s so fun. It’s fun and tastes so good. Have you got a weekend coming up with not much to do? Plan to start this in an afternoon and slowly make your way through the recipe. Play some music, have a glass of wine. You’ll love it.

So, warning: lots of words and photos ahead. If you decide to make this, read and look through. If you aren’t going to make this, look through the photos anyway – this dish is pretty!

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1. Use parchment or wax paper to cover your cutting board while peeling roasted beets. While my cutting board still got just a bit stained using wax paper, it’s a lot better than when using nothing at all.

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2. The four small beets I used (as you see in the photo) produced just under 1 1/2 cups of beet puree (what the recipe calls for). For a full 1 1/2 cups, I would have used 5 small beets. The amount of beet puree that you use, however, is slightly forgiving in my experience. I have used both slightly less and slightly more than 1 1/2 cups for this recipe and it has always been good.

3. Your beet puree does not have to be perfectly pureed. My food processor can’t seem to puree the beets into a perfectly smooth consistency. There are always still some small chunks. I have learned that not only does it not poorly affect the finished product, I quite like the small chunks of beet scattered throughout the cooked gnocchi.

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4. I used white whole wheat flour for this recipe rather than all-purpose flour, just because it’s what I had on hand. It worked quite well.

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5. The recipe calls for toasted walnuts. My suggestion is to start toasting walnuts in large batches and keep them on hand. Since I started to make this many months ago, I started to keep chopped, toasted walnuts in a plastic reusable container to use whenever I please. Toasted walnuts taste incredible and go well on so many things. My favorite dishes to sprinkle them on are this, any pasta dish, lentils and green salads. Having them on hand eliminates a step while making this.

6. View my photos on how to easily roll out the gnocchi dough. Once the dough sits at room temperature for 30 minutes, I cut it into 10 mostly even pieces with a sharp knife. I then flour my cutting board, take one piece of the cut dough and roll it into a ball. I place it on the cutting board to coat the ball in flour and roll the ball into a rope, about the length of my cutting board. I then cut that rope, with a sharp knife, into pieces, about 1/2 inch long, usually making 18 gnocchi from one rope.

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7. The recipe on Food and Wine calls for 1 1/2 sticks of butter for the sauce. While I do think that butter is delicious, I don’t prefer to use that much on a regular basis. I use 2-3 tablespoons of butter plus a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for the sauce instead. I have never felt that I was missing out on the butter I didn’t add.

8. Speaking of the sauce, don’t skimp on the sage leaves. I don’t always love to buy fresh herbs because I rarely use the entire thing, but for this recipe, buy fresh and use all that you can.

9. I do the ending of this dish a bit differently than the original recipe calls for. What I do (this is what I do instead of steps 6-8 of the original recipe): once the gnocchi is cut and I am ready to cook, I set up my stove with one large pot of boiling water and on another burner, my cast iron skillet. In the cast iron, I melt a couple tablespoons of butter and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I tear the fresh sage leaves into tiny pieces into the cast iron and let them fry while the gnocchi boils. I boil the gnocchi as the recipe says – boiling 1/3 of the gnocchi at a time and removing it from the boiling water with a handheld slotted strainer. Instead of transferring it to an oiled baking sheet, I usually let it drain off very well in the handheld strainer and put it directly into the hot cast iron skillet and turn the heat down to low. You don’t want it to burn, but I like the crispiness the outside of the gnocchi gets as it cooks in the cast iron skillet. Once all the gnocchi is boiled, I let it all cook for several more minutes in the butter/olive oil/sage sauce in the cast iron skillet. I then put it on plates and garnish with the toasted, chopped walnuts and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

10. This does freeze so well. With just Greg and I eating, I always freeze half of this recipe. After cutting the gnocchi, I always end up with two cookie sheets full. I place one cookie sheet directly into the freezer for 30 minutes. I then transfer the gnocchi to a gallon-sized zip bag and freeze. When I’m ready to make it (I’ve saved it for up to a month), I cook the gnocchi directly from frozen. We love this as a quick weeknight dinner!

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11. The most important tip I have for this dish is to truly enjoy making it. It is a dish that is meant to be enjoyed during the process of making it and the process of eating it. Make sure you do it when you have plenty of time and will not be rushed. I remember one Sunday a few weeks back where I spent the entire afternoon slowly making my way through this recipe and being so happy while doing it. I was even happier when after a long day of cooking, I sat down with Greg and enjoyed this beautiful meal.

Okay, I think I’m done. I know that was a lot to take in. If you want to make this dish and have questions about my experience, leave them in the comments! I hope that you find this helpful, but like with all things cooking, you will of course find your own rhythm and shortcuts as you go. Enjoy!

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Recipe from Food and Wine.

Blueberry Crisp

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It’s been awfully quiet here on The Dreaming Foodie, but I assure you, my kitchen hasn’t been quiet.

I’ve been in the kitchen more than ever lately, but unfortunately, not producing much to share with all of you. Not much of my own, at least. There have been more times lately than I care to admit when my own ideas have turned into recipe fails.

But it’s okay. I’m remaining okay with it and with the pace at which I share things with you. That’s the only way to be, really. Just being okay with what is.

Now, on to this crisp.

This crisp isn’t my recipe, but I can’t help but share it with you. If my goal on this blog is to share with you what is good in the world, then this is it. I seriously can’t get over this. I’ve made this crisp countless times in the last month since discovering it. It’s the best.

I love crisps, but I usually think of them as strictly dessert. I wouldn’t really think of having a crisp for a snack, or something that I make to keep around the house weekly, but this recipe is a game-changer. With this recipe, crisp is no longer strictly dessert. I do like to have something sweet around, because I know the craving will hit, but I like to keep the sweet things healthy. Like these pumpkin muffins, or these banana muffins or this granola. Now this crisp is added into that rotation. Or lately, it has sort of taken over the muffins and granola.

This crisp is made with olive oil, not butter. Almond meal, not flour. Pure maple syrup, not refined sugar. And oats and nuts. Health things. Things I am completely okay with eating on a daily basis. And real blueberries with no sugar added. None at all. I have been using frozen blueberries, but let me tell you, I cannot wait to taste this with fresh.

This is good any time of the day. I have been eating it as an afternoon snack, with full fat vanilla yogurt from a local creamery. I know I would love to have it as a dessert, too. This recipe is for people looking for something a bit healthier, but I’m convinced that it’s also for butter-laden crisp lovers. I tell you, this is the best crisp I’ve ever had, butter or no butter. This is it. The last crisp recipe I’ll ever need.

Make it. Try it. I promise, you won’t regret it.

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This wonderful recipe is from Shauna Niequist’s book Bread and Wine. Click here to view the blueberry crisp recipe.

Celebrating with Cake

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Lately, I’ve had a lot to celebrate, and I did so with this cake.

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This cake helped me celebrate:

Another full year of my life.
A weekend spent with my family.
Greg and I’s first batch of homemade beer (more on that later!).
Another full year spent with Greg.
Six full, happy months at an apartment and job that are both loved.
 Almost one full year of The Dreaming Foodie!
And everyday, I’m celebrating being one day closer to spring!

I don’t make cakes often, but I’ve decided that when I do, they are going to count. Just like the cake I made to celebrate the new year, much thought and time went into this one. I took parts of this recipe, from Sweetapolita, for vanilla cake with homemade blackberry filling. I followed the vanilla cake recipe exactly, followed the blackberry filling recipe exactly, and made the vanilla frosting but used regular sugar and added a vanilla bean. Warning though, if you use regular cane sugar in frosting, the frosting will be crunchy! Although it sounds delicious, I left the vanilla mascarpone filling out for reasons of simplicity.

I simply made two 5-inch vanilla cakes, let them cool, topped one with both vanilla frosting and blackberry filling, placed the other cake on top, and spread vanilla frosting roughly all around.

This cake was so delicious, but was made better by the people who I shared it with. Isn’t that the best? It’s so great to celebrate with cake.

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Thanksgiving Burgers

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Or: lentil-rice-cranberry-thyme-walnut burgers.

That’s what these really are, but that’s far too long a title, and I like Thanksgiving Burgers better anyway. Each one of those ingredients is important though, and with one missing, this burger just wouldn’t be the same.

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Around Thanksgiving, there are always sandwiches talked about that have all the season’s fixings on them. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy. I always think that sounds so good other than the fact that I don’t like turkey, and a stuffing, cranberry + gravy sandwich just doesn’t sound as appealing. Lately, I have been craving a Thanksgiving sandwich, so I decided to make one of my very own.

All of the ingredients and flavors in this burger are what remind me of Thanksgiving. And all of the flavors bring me comfort during these cold months.

Lentils: I was cooking lentils the other day and they smelled so buttery. I thought they would be the perfect base for my Thanksgiving burger.
Brown rice: A hearty grain that I love on its own and in vegetarian burgers.
Cranberries: Can’t have a Thanksgiving burger without the cranberries. A sweet/tart punch among the many savory flavors in this sandwich.
Thyme: I am obsessed with it. It is the perfect-to-me cold weather seasoning.
Walnuts: Can’t get enough of putting walnuts in food. They add a great crunchy texture to these burgers.

I would never pass up the real Thanksgiving dinner for one of these burgers, but they will from now on quickly satisfy a Thanksgiving craving whenever one hits. Although these burgers are great plain + right out of the skillet, they are even better on a bun, with melted cheese and sautéed mushrooms.

Thanksgiving, in a burger. Healthy, comforting deliciousness:

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Thanksgiving Burgers
Yields 5
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Ingredients
  1. 1 cup prepared green or brown lentils
  2. 1 cup prepared brown rice
  3. 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  4. 1/2 cup rolled oats
  5. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  6. 2 celery stalks, diced
  7. 1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
  8. 1/2 cup walnuts
  9. 2 garlic cloves, minced
  10. 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  11. 3/4 teaspoon salt
  12. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  13. 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  14. 1 tablespoon ground flax
  15. Buns, optional
  16. Cheese of your choice, optional
  17. Sliced mushrooms for topping, optional
Instructions
  1. There are a lot of little parts to this recipe. I found it easy to do all the little parts as my lentils and rice were cooking, then everything was ready to put together at once.
  2. While the lentils and rice are cooking, place the dried cranberries in a small bowl and cover them with hot water. This will rehydrate them. Let sit for about 25 minutes.
  3. Pulse the 1/2 cup rolled oats in a food processer until they resemble a coarse crumb. Remove from the food processor and set aside in a small bowl.
  4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the diced celery and onion. Cook for several minutes, or until the veggies are softened and slightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
  5. In a pan over medium-high heat, toast the walnuts. I place them in the pan and toss around for about 5 minutes, or until they smell fragrant and are slightly golden. Once toasted, remove from heat and set aside.
  6. Once all of the parts are prepared and the lentils and rice are slightly cooled, add 1 cup lentils, 2 minced garlic cloves, thyme, salt, pepper and onion powder to a food processor and process until mixture is paste-like.
  7. Add the cranberries, celery and onion and pulse a few times, just to lightly incorporate. You want to retain chunks of the veggies and cranberries.
  8. Add 1 cup of rice, toasted walnuts and ground flax to the food processor and pulse several times, just to lightly incorporate. You want the burgers to have texture to them, rather than being completely smooth.
  9. Add the mixture to a large bowl and add the pulsed oat flour, a little at a time, until the burgers come together and are just slightly sticky. You want to be sure they will stay together when cooked.
  10. Add olive oil to a pan and once hot, add patted out burgers, cooking on the first side until toasted and golden brown. Flip burgers, and cook until other side is toasted and golden brown.
  11. While the burgers are cooking, add the sliced mushrooms to a pan with olive oil and cook until softened. If you want, add some white wine in with the mushrooms and cook until all liquid is absorbed.
  12. Place burgers on a bun and if desired, top with cheese and sautéed mushrooms.
  13. Enjoy!
Notes
  1. On their own, these burgers are vegan + gluten free.
  2. These burgers cook well right after putting everything together, but cook even better if mixture is refrigerated a few hours. If you have the time, refrigerate several hours after oat flour is mixed in.
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