Owen calls them “those big cookies.” I just call them delicious. They are dense and buttery and I can only eat one, but it’s plenty.

The inspiration for these scones came from three different places. I know I’ve mentioned Uprisings before, and there’s a recipe in there for orange date scones that caught my eye. My friend Michelle often makes her Grandma’s chocolate chip date cake for playdates, and it’s something we all beg for … so good. Finally — does anyone else out there remember the chocolate chip orange scones that Trader Joe’s used to sell but then had the nerve to discontinue? Back when I could still eat wheat, we’d buy them often and eat them with wild abandon.

All of those and more went into this recipe.

Orange Date Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 4 cups spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate + 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup dates, chopped
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put the butter, flour, baking powder and baking soda in your food processor and blend until you’ve achieved coarse crumbs. Or if you must, cut the butter into the flour by hand and eat these for breakfast next year or so.

By hand (meaning with your hands), mix in the eggs, agave and orange juice mixture until just moistened. Fold in the dates and chocolate chips.

Plop that dough right on your countertop and flatten to about 1 inch high. Use a large round biscuit cutter to make your scone shapes or just form them into biscuits shapes by hand. There’s no right or wrong here — they’ll taste great no matter what.

Place scones on a greased cookies sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

There’s always something tempting my palate electronically. I can’t open up my laptop without being alerted to another luscious recipe. And lately, I’m thinking in menus. How good would this kabocha lentil soup be with these cheddar bacon biscuits? And I might just eat two desserts — baked pears with lemongrass, ginger and vanilla and chocolate pretzels.

Are you sick of my Heidi Swanson love-fest yet? You won’t be after I share this recipe for kabocha French lentil soup … winter squash, green lentils, ginger, fennel … you must be drooling over that unique combination. Like Heidi, I’ve done the lentil soup thing to death yet still I want to make this one, yesterday.

I think I’d like to eat this soup with some cheddar bacon biscuits with fresh chives. It’s no secret that I adore savory muffins, like spinach muffins with feta, and I’d even thought about how good those muffins would be with fresh chives. And Epicurious recommends using their biscuits to make ham sandwiches which sounds divine to me.

I’ve been trying to get my little chef to make these chocolate pretzels with me for a couple of weeks now, and nothing. It’s very strange because he loves pretzels, loves chocolate and loves baking. It wouldn’t be as much fun making them by myself but it just may come to that.

Baked pears with lemongrass, ginger and vanilla sounds just about perfect, doesn’t it? And you don’t yet even know about the coconut milk, lime juice and pistachios that make up the sauce and garnish for this unique dessert. There’s something about that La Tartine Gourmande….

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Whenever I serve something like this cabbage salad, I get “the look” from Keith. Don’t you know that if it’s vegetarian, it’s not really a meal? Man, Kona — you must be starving! Tonight I sent Keith out to the grill to cook up some barbequed chicken drumsticks to go along with that air-food vegetable dish, so I was off the hook, but I truly believe this cabbage salad is hearty enough to stand alone. I’ll let you know after lunch tomorrow….

I had half a cabbage in the fridge to use up, along with some fresh cilantro, and from there all of the other flavors fell into place. I took a bit of inspiration from Heidi Swanson’s Tassajara warm cabbage salad when I added some feta. I couldn’t help it — I have this salty-luscious sheep’s feta right now that really complemented the other flavors in this salad. It was a natural.

Play around with the amounts of the different ingredients. I used a teaspoon of cumin seeds and dry-toasted them in a skillet for a few minutes, until they were browned and fragrant, but I thought at times that they overpowered the other flavors, so I think a 1/2 teaspoon would be plenty. Keith loved every last cumin seed in there, so you’ll have to adjust it according to your tastes.

Cabbage and Chick Pea Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, shredded
• about 4 cups sliced cabbage
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:

• 4-5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss together with all of the rest and enjoy.

I toyed with the idea of adding some fresh parsley as well, along with some baby spinach chopped chiffonade style. I think both would have worked great in this dish and I’ll probably try it next time. You could alter this a million ways, but I’m telling you, the saltier the feta, the better.

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You’ve probably figured this out by now, but I’m a riffer. A certain dish gets stuck in my head, and I riff off a recipe inspired by it. In this case, I’ve riffed off one of my own recipes (I tend to do that a lot, actually) — black lentil and sweet pea salad.

Keith and I had been thinking about this one recently, and he was dying to have it for dinner tonight. My fresh basil was scanty and left a lot to be desired so I decided to change this recipe up a bit. It turned out that I changed it quite a lot, so much so that it deserves its own recipe. I shall call it “Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad,” but only because George was already taken. Yes, I’ve been cooped up with a sick kid all week … I’m getting a little punchy!

Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sweet peas (I used frozen)
• 8 ounces black baluga lentils (from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup hearts of palm, sliced

For the dressing:

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons tamari
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• a dash or two of garlic powder

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss with all the rest. Could it really be so easy?

I was thinking some sliced or slivered almonds would taste wonderful on this salad, which could also be served warm as a side dish. You could probably throw in some scallions for that onion-y bite or some Chinese noodles for a bit of crunch. You could probably do a lot of things I haven’t thought of too. Whatever you decide, we’ve already decided that in our house, this one’s a keeper.

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I mentioned in a recent post that Kona has turned me into a crazed homemade pasta maker. I’ve yet to write up those recipes — they’re coming — but I have been collecting quite an array of ravioli recipes, now that the world is my oyster. Really, it may seem silly to you, but being unable to eat wheat and craving filled pasta has left me feeling like the greyhound chasing the rabbit, for years.

The results have been nothing less than thrilling, and trying these new raviolis are tops on my list.

Roasted portobello with caramelized onion ravioli would have been the first one I tried, if I had those ingredients in the house. I love that this recipe doesn’t have cheese in it so I can control the amount of cheese that goes into my food sensitive child by just using a sprinkle of cheese in the sauce. But I’ve been feeling caramelized onions in a ravioli… oh yeah.

This recipe, originating from Hawaii, has got some really interesting flavors. White bean and sun-dried tomato ravioli includes chipotle in adobo and cumin, along with more traditional Italian flavors. I riffed off of this recipe for my first ravioli recipe, which I kept more traditional, just in case. Trying this unique version could happen though.

I’ve been dying to make pumpkin ravioli, but I’m having trouble deciding which recipe to try. This Wolfgang Puck pumpkin ravioli recipe probably doesn’t suck (and I love that he uses spinach dough), but there’s enough heavy cream in the raviolis to put my son into a dairy-induced coma, so I probably won’t attempt it. Martha Stewart’s pumpkin raviolis sound delicious, but there are crumbled up cookies in them. Beyond being weird, we don’t eat wheat so we’ve defeated the whole purpose for making homemade ravioli.

So I’m exploring the amateur chefs to see what they’ve got for me. These butternut squash raviolis can be made with any orange squash and they have some parmesan cheese which I can substitute with pecorino romano (sheep’s cheese) and my kid will make it through the meal. This one’s a distinct possibility.

One more — a dairy-free pumpkin ravioli recipe! I’ll forgive the vegan for being vegan about it, because this recipe sounds delicious from start to finish and not at all what I was expecting from a pumpkin ravioli. I’m really excited to try this one.

Which one sounds best to you?

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I bake a lot of breakfast muffins. You know, you’ve seen the recipes:

• Oatmeal strawberry muffins
• Berry muffins sweetened with agave
• Peachy flax molasses muffins
• Banana coconut muffins

I’ve even ventured out into the savory muffin territory which was a really, really good idea. I’ve been thinking a lot about savory muffins because we don’t like to use too much sugar if we can help it (though I do use all-natural sweeteners like palm sugar and agave syrup) but also because I’ve got myself a good case of the cheese cravings. There’s nothing like a cheesy muffin and right about now, I really want to sink my teeth into one.

So I’ve done the next best thing — I’ve virtually sunk my teeth into nine instead. Cruising the internet for savory muffin recipes brought on about as much salivation as an actual muffin would. Let me wipe my chin and share some of the recipes with you.

These savory mini-muffins, with goat cheese, red onion and rosemary, would go perfectly with a frittata stuffed full of fresh herbs and tomato slices.

Bacon, cheese, buttermilk and Canadian bacon combine in these savory breakfast muffins. How do you think biting into a big chunk of bacon while eating a muffin would be? I’m on the fence, but I think I could get used to it.

These savory muffins sport two kinds of cheese and garlic and a pretty high ratio of egg to batter. I’m thinking they’d be like a flour-y quiche.

When I think about baking with zucchini, I think about molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg … but not dill weed. These dilly zucchini muffins take a different approach, and add in a whopping amount of ricotta cheese while they’re at it. Suffice it to say that I’m interested by these muffins. They intrigue me.

Hmmm … dill weed’s coming up again in these cheesy herbed muffins. Maybe it’s a thing that no one told me about. What attracted me to this recipe, though, was the onion, garlic and mixed herb topping that you sprinkle on before baking. These just seem so … fresh.

Cheesy sweet potato muffins … now that’s what I’m talking about. Grated sweet potato and gobs of cheese are spiked with paprika. Holy yum, that combination is clearly my favorite. I never would have thought of that but the uniqueness has got me running for my muffin pan.

Now wait a minute — these pumpkin cheddar muffins may have just trumped those precious sweet potato yummies. Dude, they’ve got a savory streusel topping with cayenne and pumpkin seeds, and the muffin itself includes pumpkin, cormeal and roasted poblano peppers. These have just moved from breakfast to brunch and I’ve invited several friends over.

Reading these savory muffin recipes has officially begun to hurt. How is it possible that they just keep getting better and better? Just Bento’s got not one but two savory (vegan) muffin recipes that are causing me physical pain: pumpkin miso and carrot-onion-hazelnut. Come on! Who thinks of these recipes?

If I don’t stop now my drool will ruin my laptop, but I’ll definitely be making some savory muffins — soon!

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If you read me often, you know that I kinda worship the kitchen that Heidi Swanson cooks in. Her book, Supernatural Cooking, is one of my favorites, and her 101 Cookbooks blog is on my email updates. To date, she’s never let me down. I know I can always count on a good meal when I cook up a Heidi Swanson recipe.

That’s why I’m sitting here, a little broken, by the fact that her recipe for palak daal was just a little bland for my taste. Funny thing is, I think she thought so too. Not only did she add lemon juice (which I also did), looking for more complex flavors than the original recipe offered, but when she heated it up as leftovers, she added coconut milk.

So when I ate the leftovers for lunch today, I tried the coconut milk and a generous shake of cayenne (since I went light last night for Owen) and it definitely was better. However, what I was really craving was that cilantro chutney that you get at Indian restaurants, you know the one — it’s tart and spicy and so cilantro-y … that’s what would have saved this recipe.

There were many things good about it, though, and I grew to appreciate it even more as time went on. My initial thoughts were disappointing, but it was filling and hearty and delightfully not gassy at all, considering it’s chock-full of lentils. Here are some more random thoughts about the recipe:

• My mouth was gloriously happy whenever I got a bite with a toasted cumin seed in it, which was often. I love that flavor.
• This recipe reminds me a bit of my old crock pot standby, curried chick peas and kale, but not as flavorful.
• I’m thinking swirling in a little plain yogurt before serving would add a sourness that will give this dish the complexity it seeks.
• I added much more water than the recipe called for, and for my propane gas stovetop, the cooking time was far too long. I think the two had something to do with each other….

Even though this wasn’t my favorite recipe of all time, it’s got it’s merits and with a little dressing up it becomes a satisfying meal … and leftovers.

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I really can’t take very much credit for this recipe, because it is very close to Bon Appetit’s original recipe, red cabbage salad with green apple, lingonberry preserves and toasted walnuts. In fact, if walnuts didn’t give 2 out of 3 of us canker sores here, and if I had lingonberry preserves in the house, I would have made the recipe exactly as-is. Well, not quite.

I actually ended up substituting 4 of the 7 ingredients, which easily constitutes an original recipe by legal standards, but not according to me, because it wasn’t really my brainchild. So I’m giving all of the credit to Bon Appetit’s Andrew Chase and Erwin Schrottner, but I’m reprinting my version of the recipe here for you to see.

Red Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons SuperFruit spread (blueberry, cherry, pomegranate, no sugar added)
• 1 large unpeeled Granny Smith apple, coarsely grated
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage

For the dressing:

• 1 tablespoon SuperFruit spread (Trader Joe’s)
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Toss together the four main ingredients. I dry-toasted my almonds in a pan over low to medium heat, grated my apple by hand with the coarse side of the cheese grater and sliced the cabbage in the food processor.

Add the first three dressing ingredients to your blender (or VitaMix) and slowly drizzle in the oil until it is creamy and emulsified. Toss with salad and serve.

We served this salad with a marinated skirt steak and it was a perfect, filling dinner. I’ll definitely be making this salad again and serving it to company. It’s that easy and that good!

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Bob might be obsessed with Whole Foods Market, but I’m starting to think I’m developing a little obsession myself. I’ve really been making a lot of dips, and the more I make, the more I dig ‘em. They are the perfect munchy appetizer for entertaining, a great way to get your kid to eat his veggies and a yummy alternative to a boring sandwich for lunch. I admit it: I’m officially dip-obsessed.

So when we invited my parents to dinner last weekend, the first thing that sprang to mind as an appetizer was — you guessed it! — dip. Rather than make my go-to perfect hummus recipe or the white bean dip I created for Christmas Eve, my taste buds led me to something with roasted red peppers.

After a little digging around in the fridge and the pantry, I managed to wrangle up a dip that even won compliments from dear ol’ Dad, which is not an easy feat. Even he couldn’t resist the combination of white beans, roasted red peppers, garlic, capers, fresh basil, miso and lemon juice.

Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean Dip

Ingredients:

• 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 6 ounces roasted red peppers, drained
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons miso (I used Hearty Brown Rice Miso)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

Add first five ingredients to your food processor and blend until smooth. Add capers, basil and black pepper and pulse until coarsely blended. Serve with crostini, pita chips, brown rice crackers or your favorite vehicle for dip.

If I’m dip-obsessed, does that make me dippy? Probably I was that long ago….

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Last week, we had my dad and step-mother over for the football playoffs. Luke, who uses any excuse to spend a billion dollars at the grocery store, decided he wanted to make subs. Except, that’s not what he was planning on doing at all. He said “subs,” but what he actually meant was “a muffaletta the size of my head.”

He was planning on making a vegetarian version that involved vegetarian lunch meat, but that wasn’t sounding too great to me, mainly because the second I heard “muffaletta,” I had a completely different picture in mind. There’s a cafe around here called South Street Under, and they make a vegetarian muffaletta sandwich that is to die for. So that’s what I set out to do.

I couldn’t remember exactly what they put on the sandwich, but I had the general idea, so I just decided to wing it. I was going to put zucchini, squash and eggplant, but unfortunately, the grocery store across the street was out of yellow squash, so I just used extra zucchini and threw in some spinach and mushrooms that I already had in the house.

I figured Luke would be bringing home a long Italian roll, but instead he brought home these huge rounds. Apparently, that’s traditionally how a muffaletta is served, and you cut pieces like you’re cutting a cake. A giant sandwich cake that was perfect to share while watching football. So perfect, in fact, that I’m serving it again during the Super Bowl!

Before we go any further, here’s the recipe:

Vegetarian Muffaletta

Ingredients:

• One large round (if you’re feeling daring) or Italian loaf
• 1 cup olive tapenade (from this recipe)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 baby eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 cup portabella mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• pepper to taste
• 8 slices provolone cheese

The first thing I did was whip up my trusty olive tapenade. It takes a minute to just throw in the food processor, and it’s delicious. The problem with sandwiches like this is that oftentimes they end up bland. The tapenade adds the kick that the veggies need.

While I’m working on this, I heat up the oil in my saute pan. I had to do this in two batches, so I used half the oil. While that’s heating, I spread the tapenade on the bottom half of my bread and set it aside. I saute the veggies, making sure to add the spinach last, as to not get it too wilted. As they’re sauteing, squeeze the lemon onto them. Generally, I saute vegetables in garlic, olive oil and pepper, but in this recipe I replace the garlic with the lemon, since the tapenade is quite garlicky enough.

After you have your sauteed vegetables, pile them on top of the bottom half of the bread and cover with the provolone cheese.

Cover with the top of the bread, and bake in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly, and the bread is crusty.

Cut like a giant sandwich cake and enjoy!

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Isn’t that just about the prettiest salad you’ve ever seen? So crisp and fresh, the white of the apple and fennel contrasting with the shades of green in the arugula and apple skins. This fennel, arugula and green apple salad is fast becoming a favorite around this house.

When my friend brought this salad for a Christmas celebration, I enjoyed it for the first time. It went perfectly with the plum-glazed pork loin (which I made with figs instead of plums) we made. I served it not long after that for my parents, when they came for some sirloin with chimichurri sauce. Again, it went perfectly with it, even though it technically really didn’t go with it. In my attempts that make almost no sense, I’m saying that this salad is a very versatile dish.

I made it almost exactly as written, with a couple of exceptions. First, I dry-roasted some almond slivers in lieu of the walnuts, since my dad’s allergic. I had eaten it with the walnuts the first time, and it loses nothing with the switch to almonds. I think candied pecans would work spectacularly as well.

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you that I omitted the sugar in the dressing. I like my dressings tangy anyway, but with the orange and lemon juice, it really doesn’t need to be sweeter. Nature’s sweeteners are already in it…. yeah, I had to say it.

The salad is well-balanced: tart apples, fresh fennel, peppery and bitter arugula all dressed in citrusy-sweet. In fact, I challenge you to find something this salad doesn’t complement. You can even make it a main dish by adding poached or seared fish, grilled chicken or even shrimp.

An easy salad to prepare and enjoy.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

I just can’t stop thinking about comfort food. Last week was that kind of week. I made Shepherd’s pie, a big batch of my lentil vegetable soup and pasta with homemade pesto and sausage. If there’s one good thing about winter, comfort food is it.

It’s no wonder that my weekly collection of recipes are pretty much all comfort foods. Homemade vegetable bouillon can make countless soups, turkey meatloaf speaks for itself and white lentil soup with chorizo and paprika cream (with a poached egg) couldn’t be more comforting if served in an afghan. Not quite sure if pizza counts, but you can’t miss drooling over the duck pizza recipe, so read on!

Heidi Swanson, my culinary hero (or one of them) has done it again. I never would have thought to make homemade vegetable bouillon, but if you have salt and a food processor, you can do it with ease. I love that I can control the amount of saltiness this way, and also the type of salt, because I find many store-bought bouillons far too salty for my tastes. Exciting!

Someone please explain to me why this recipe for turkey meatloaf caught my eye. I have never made a meatloaf before and we really don’t eat like that in my house. For some reason the simplicity of this comfort food got to me and I really think I’m ready to try a good ol’ fashioned meatloaf. Can I still be a food snob if I eat meatloaf?

Or pot roast? Kelly Estes posted her recipe for pot roast on her new blog, Hot Cookin‘. With my penchant for whole foods, I can’t see myself ever making a recipe with a soup mix as an ingredient, but it looks as though her pot roast came out spectacularly!

OK, I’m back to being a food snob with this recipe for white lentil soup with chorizo and paprika cream. The thing is, it’s still comfort food and it’s still very easy to make. Now this is the way we usually eat in this house! Incidentally, La Tartine Gourmande is fast becoming a favorite of mine….

Just to solidify my standing as food snob after my strange deviance with the meatloaf recipe, I’ll add in this duck pizza with hoisin and scallions. Dude, who would do that to a pizza? Oh me, definitely me.

Tell us about your favorite comfort foods, so we all can drool while curled up in our afghans.

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For better or for worse, pasta is a staple in many vegetarian diets (and that sentence is how I am able to justify this as a “Hold the Meat” post [brilliant!]). A lot of times, I’ll pretend to be healthier about it by buying whole wheat pasta and/or organic noodles. However, sometimes I”ll just throw the $1.00/box stuff in there too.

The other day though, I was reading All & Sundry, and she was talking about how she’s recently been making more food from scratch. This is something I’ve been trying to do as well, especially now that Cooper is a bit older and is eating human food (as opposed to, you know, dog food). So I clicked through to some of the recipes that she’s used, and holy crap! Why the hell didn’t anybody tell me that there are only three ingredients in pasta, and that they’re all things that I have in my house right now?

2 1/4 cups flour, 3 eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. That’s all! It’s super-easy too. You just beat the eggs, and put them into a little flour nest in a large bowl, like so:

Then you mix it all together until it forms a ball of dough. Knead it about five minutes, and then put it in some greased plastic wrap (I just sprayed some cooking spray on it) and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, at which point you can get your sauce on the stove. After that, take about 1/4 of the dough and roll it out.

This part was actually pretty fun for me, because it was the first time I’d actually used a rolling pin (I know, I’m really pathetic).

Roll it out until it gets about as thin as you would want a noodle to be. Then, roll it up like you would a jelly roll and cut it into little wheels:

After that, just unfurl them, and put them aside. Do this for the three remaining quarters of your dough, then boil the pasta for about 5 minutes, until it’s firm but tender. The noodles start to float when they’re done; it doesn’t take long at all. After that, you’ve totally got pasta– without even having to have a pasta machine.

For a first try, I was really impressed with how it came out. Other than the 30 minutes the dough has to rest, it’s actually a pretty quick process. I made it kind of slow, just because I was nervous about it, but in general you can do this pretty quickly. It’s important to note that you don’t really have to roll the dough up– you can just roll it out and cut strips. I’ll probably do that next time, because the noodles ended up being a little thicker than I wanted them to be.

Going forward, I’d like to experiment with filled pasta, as well as different kinds of flour– maybe I’ll even use Debbie’s favorite, spelt flour. But for the first time I wanted to keep it as straightforward as possible, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

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Most definitely, if it’s my roasted broccoli. One of the things I like best about it are the crispy ends of the florets that get all brown and toasty. The insides are sweet and tender and it’s a perfect texture contrast, all in one little floret.

There’s something magical about the flavor of roasted broccoli. It won’t remind you of steamed or sauteed broccoli; it somehow takes on a whole different nuance of flavors and brings out the best that broccoli has to offer.

For a time commitment of about 20 minutes, you really can’t beat it. Toss the florets in olive oil, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and roast at 400 convection roast (or 425 degrees flipping halfway though) until edges are crispy. You can serve as-is, or grate some pecorino romano or parmesan over the whole deal, or roast some garlic along with it or sprinkle with crushed red pepper.

It’s a good thing to salivate over a vegetable.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

Is there any rhyme or reason to delicious recipes? Does there always have to be a theme? Do we, as a society, need to dictate categories for scrumptiousness? My answer is a resounding “no!” Reading these recipes made my week just a little bit brighter and I hope they do the same for you.

When I see fennel, I click; I just can’t help myself. So even though I couldn’t right off the bat picture “spicy” and “fennel” together, I still clicked on the spicy spaghetti with fennel and herbs recipe when it hopped across my computer screen. I’m sold! I’ll be trying this recipe sometime soon, because with the jalapenos, fennel bulb and seeds, pancetta and fresh parsley, it’s sure to be a winner.

I admit that the recipe for chocolate zucchini cupcakes with peanut butter frosting has been sitting open in my browser for months. I’ve just been looking for an occasion to bake them but with the cookie-fest around the winter holidays I just never got the chance. It just sounds like the perfect combination. I love baked goods with zucchini, I love chocolate and I’m thinking a peanut butter frosting (or reasonable facsimile made with almond butter) would top these babies perfectly.

My friend just had back surgery and I wanted to cook her family a meal to help out. Imagine my panic when she told me they are plain eaters — I’ve never cooked plain in my life! When she listed the veggies they would eat, I immediately thought of Shepherd’s pie and found this great recipe kicked up a bit with Worcestershire sauce. Even my not-so-plain eaters enjoyed it.

Recently, Molly discovered La Tartine Gourmande’s site and sent it to me, knowing I’d love it. She’s a girl after my own heart in some respects. Her baking is gluten-free, and I’m so sure these vanilla-flavored almond and quinoa rose teacakes are going to be made in this house, and soon.

What recipes brightened your week?

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Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….

The first thing you’re probably thinking is, “Avocados are so ridiculously delicious — why would anyone make a guacamole without them?” That’s what I thought before I first tried sweet pea guacamole, many years ago. Let me say right up front here that sweet pea guacamole is not a substitute for avocado guacamole, it’s a completely different dip but very yummy in its own right.

Don’t get me started on these do-gooders who think they are making healthier recipes for us when all they’re doing is taking the good fat out of our diets along with the taste. There’s nothing wrong with saturated fats from whole foods — avocados, coconuts and their oil, all the “taboo” foods are fine to eat, and in fact offer your body a great many benefits. So make the sweet pea guacamole because you want the taste of it, not because you fear avocados. That’s just silly.

What’s not silly is that this weekend, the little recipe that saved my appetizer was, in fact, a recipe for sweet pea guacamole. I have these avocados that refuse to ripen, and a bag of frozen peas are infinitely less stubborn than unripe avocados, so I went with it.

Using this recipe for sweet pea guacamole as a base, I altered it more to suit my tastes (since I actually have taste buds) and added more, well, tasty things. Remember, make the sweet pea guacamole because you want a different taste … or because your avocados won’t ripen.

Sweet Pea Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 pound bag of frozen peas, defrosted
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice or 1 tablespoon lemon juice + 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fire roasted chile peppers (though I bet I could have used the whole can … it was small and the dip wasn’t spicy)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (your choice)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

Puree the peas, garlic, chiles, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and cumin until smooth. Pulse in the cilantro, onion and tomato. Taste and increase seasonings to your liking.

Just a few notes. Because the peas are so sweet, you probably want lemon juice as opposed to lime; it’ll give your dip a little more kick. But try it out and see what works for you. You can add raw jalepenos for more spice and always more garlic and cumin. This guacamole was perfect served with thick, organic, restaurant-style yellow corn chips.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

I’ve got to just say it and not be ashamed: I’m not sick of heavy, rich foods yet. Serve me up a hearty lamb stew, slather some rich sauce all over my bloody rare red meat, and I’ll take a side of creamy, garlic-smashed potatoes to go with that. I’m still game, even though I ate myself silly during the holidays.

The difference is that I just don’t want the portions I devoured last week. Instead, give me some very modest portions of the rib-sticking foods and fill the rest of my plate with some greens, please. A cold, fresh salad is just the thing to balance out the warming winter foods.

For our Christmas celebration with some friends last week, they brought this amazing fennel, arugula and green apple salad. I’d pretty much eat anything if there was arugula in it, but thankfully this salad was out of this world. Even the kid crowd liked the citrus-y dressing and the shredded fennel and apple.

The apple and citrus got me thinking about this beet, orange and apple salad, a combination that might be just as good as chocolate and, well, anything. The only greens here are beet greens, but don’t let that stop you. Beet greens are one of my favorite greens and a perfect compliment for this salad.

Bob, this one’s for you: crisp escarole salad with garlicky anchovy dressing. Kona, stay far away, because there are a lot of anchovies in this dressing, which should actually make it perfectly tasty if you’re not a vegetarian.

I have to include my favorite gourmet mesclun salad here, because it is still truly my very favorite salad. We could have it every night and not tire of it. Lately, we’ve been using toasted pine nuts instead of the usual slivered almonds and it’s infinitely better. So sorry, Almond, but a fact’s a fact. We’ve also been tossing in some grape tomatoes and snap peas. It’s a winner.

What’s your favorite salad to balance out the rich winter foods all over your plate?

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Is there anyone who doesn’t love cheese? OK, I’m not talking to you vegans, unless you count that fake soy cheese as remotely edible. But the rest of us love cheese. You don’t know how happy I was when I got pregnant and my lactose intolerance mysteriously disappeared. Owen’s birthday marked a day much more special than just becoming a mom — I could eat cheese again!

Many of us entertain to celebrate the New Year, and I’ve already given you nineteen ideas for easy and festive appetizers you can prepare. Now, the CliqueClack Food staff has banded together to give you some of our favorite cheese platters. After all, everyone should have a little Clique in their New Year.

Bob says, “I really like serving jelly with cheese. In particular there is a hot pepper cranberry jelly that is amazing with both brie (or St. Andre, another favorite) and extremely sharp cheddar. I also like to serve a selection of hard cheeses (Gruyere, Manchego, etc) with some paté.”

Keith loves meat with cheese too, like assorted hard cheeses (some spicy!) with cured meats, like salami, gourmet sausages and prosciutto.

Cate says in Portugal, where she lives, “people like to serve cheese with plain cakes, like an un-iced pound cake — sounds really weird but it’s totally delicious. It’s especially good with super-soft buttery cheeses. It’s that sweet/salty combination that makes it work, like Bob’s cheese and jelly or that feta with peppered honey. Other than that they pretty much just do a basic antipasto platter — cubes of cheese, slices or chunks of prosciutto, olives, fresh crusty bread, and lots of wine!”

Back to the jelly with cheese: my brother has been serving brie with apple butter to great raves, and two favorites of mine are Manchego with fig jam and Gouda with roasted onion and garlic jam.

Kona says, “I like to have an assortment of hard and soft cheeses with fruit, like grapes and Granny Smith apples. Blue cheese and granny smiths are great together. I also always make sure to have goat cheese and Dubliner on hand.”

Since Owen and I don’t eat wheat, we’ll use rice crackers, but like Kona, fruit works best. Here are some of my favorite combinations:

• figs and feta
• Gala apples and gouda
• red grapes and gorgonzola
• strawberries with goat cheese

Kelly, the new kid on the block here at CliqueClack, loves to serve Alouette garlic and herb spread with crackers. Her family also loves Cabot extra sharp cheddar, and they will accept no substitute.

Jen’s got some cheese and bread pairings for us (but why would we expect anything different from the genius behind the “Let’s Get Baked” column): “We like to pair Camembert with a good crusty Italian bread, sliced pears, and OLIVES!  But gorgonzola melted onto bread slices under the broiler is always a great favorite, especially paired with a nice Shiraz.”

A few other super combinations that are easy to put together for guests:

• Manchego, Marcona almonds and raw honey (you could also do a fried goat cheese with this combo)
• Goat cheese, olives and roasted red pepper
• fresh mozzarella with sun-dried tomato tapenade

Even Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, got together with us to share some of her cheese platter ideas. OK, not really, but the link is out there for the world to see and I had you there for a minute, didn’t I?

If you’re serving wine with your cheese appetizers, we’ve discovered several rosé Cote du Rhones that go amazingly well with cheese. You also can’t miss with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

There are no rules for the cheese platter, but we hope that some of our favorites will make your New Year’s gathering even more special. Happy New Year from CliqueClack Food, and be sure to share your favorite combinations in the comments!

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A lot of people are under the impression that, as a vegetarian, my diet mainly consists of salads. While that wouldn’t be a bad idea, there are actually several salads that are off-limits, including the ubiquitous Caesar salad. Even if you don’t add the grilled chicken to it, Caesar salads are still generally no-nos to vegetarians, due to the anchovies (a food which I still do not understand, even a little bit).

Some of your “fancier” Caesar salads will have actual anchovies in them, staring up at you as you’re pretending to be healthy by eating a salad. However, even your low-rent Caesar salads generally contain anchovies in the dressing. So, what’s a vegetarian to do? Eat something else. After all, we’re pretty used to that. Sure. Or, we could make our own non-anchovyish Caesar salad dressing. A dressing so versatile that it can even be made, sigh, vegan.

When I was with my family for the holidays, my sister made an amazing vegetarian chicken Caesar salad. I wanted to eat it all the time, so I was not to be deterred by the fact that she lives halfway across the country from me. I set out to recreate the goodness at home. So here you go:

Vegetarian/Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing (serves 2-4)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise (I prefer the mayo made with olive oil, but you vegans out there can use vegan mayo).

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1-3 garlic cloves, minced (I use at least three, but I’m obsessed with garlic. This should really be to your taste)

1/2 lemon, juiced

Dash of soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together, and BOOM: Best Caesar salad dressing ever. The best part is, you don’t have to mess with raw eggs or any of that nonsense, so it’s fast and less scary than just downing eggs.

As for the salad itself, follow your bliss. Romaine, croutons and parmesan are boring to me, so I decided to make a chicken Caesar salad. I added the parmesan (because it is delicious) and cooked up two of the Morningstar Farms Italian Herb Chik Patties, sliced those bad boys up and stuck them in. I also added cucumber because they’re delightful and we had some that needed to be used up. All in all, if I didn’t make Luke have some, I would have sat there and eaten the entire bowl of salad, which would have been pretty much the opposite of the healthy, “I think I’ll have a salad for dinner” choice.

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How will you be ringing in the New Year? If you’re at home with a young one, like Keith and I, you’ll probably be hoping for an early kid bedtime so you can enjoy your rack of lamb in peace, but you definitely won’t be partying. That doesn’t have to keep you from enjoying appetizers that practically scream, “Best. Party. Ever.”

Even if you’re not saddled with child, these appetizers will appeal and make your party (or your bring-along) a huge gastronomical hit.

I’ve recently made four dips that are perfect for partying: tahini miso dip goes well with snap peas or sesame crackers, and white bean dip with sun-dried tomato and roasted garlic is magical with crostini laced with pecorino romano and extra virgin olive oil. Alton Brown’s olive tapenade and this sun-dried tomato tapenade are spectacular with just about anything edible.

My cousin’s wife makes a warm goat cheese in tomato sauce dip that is easy and crowd-pleasing. To this basic recipe, I’d add a bunch of fresh basil, chiffonade style and probably even some Kalamata olives.

Some of Bob’s favorite Food Network recipes are appetizers, like Bobby Flay’s flatbread with white bean hummus and Alton Brown’s spinach artichoke dip. One spinach artichoke dip you don’t want to make is Food Network’s lightened up version; a great idea but a flavor failure.

Now I’m thinking of my perfect hummus recipe, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika. It’s perfect for serving just like that, with pita triangles, or using on bruschetta with sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives, and maybe a fresh basil leaf, for a one-bite appetizer.

Speaking of one-bite or individual serving sized appetizers, I like these mini-quiches in prosciutto cups. This recipe is so ridiculously easy and so deliciously gourmet that it’s hard not to want to make them every night of the week.

If that’s too complicated for you, try wrapping dates or figs or asparagus in prosciutto with a little blue cheese sprinkled in. Bake until melty goodness is achieved and you’ve got yourself an appetizer.

You can even get fancy with some store-bought pesto, or your own homemade pesto. Spread eggplant rounds with pesto and top with a sun-dried tomato and slice of fresh mozzarella. Bake as above … you know, until melty goodness is achieved. Try the same on sliced baguette with roasted red peppers and goat cheese, or any combination that pleases you.

Don’t rule out the world’s easiest sushi rolls; I don’t know many people who wouldn’t pop those delightful little seaweed-wrapped nuggets like candy. We like avocado with just about anything stuffed inside, and you might be better off using cooked ingredients when serving a crowd. We can’t all claim to have friends with good taste.

Here’s an easy one that our guests brought to our house the other night: simple fried polenta sticks dipped in marinara sauce, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis. Fun and appealing to just about everyone. Come to think of it, the fried polenta would be amazing with the sun-dried tomato tapenade I mentioned above.

What are your favorite appetizer ideas? Have you tried any of the above?

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When winter weather sets in, my soup recipes come out. I think my first soup of the season was my lentil and vegetable soup … so easy and so flavorful. Before the spring thaw, some of my old favorites will surely make an appearance as well: acorn squash soup, carrot ginger soup and Thai coconut soup.

One of these days, I’ll get around to posting those recipes, but for now, I’ll share some of the delightful soups I’ve been discovering on the internet. Who doesn’t love a new soup recipe? Oh, and accompaniments that’ll make your soup shine….

I love a rich, brothy soup that makes me feel all warm inside. Wild mushrooms are just a happy bonus, and this recipe for porcini mushroom soup seems pretty easy to make, yet impressive.

This recipe for cauliflower soup intrigues me, because it is probably the simplest recipe I’ve ever seen. I haven’t yet decided if that’s good or bad, but I’m leaning toward good. Every flavor in this soup is wonderful — cauliflower, potatoes, stock and herbs de Provence. I’m even thinking that if you roasted the potato and cauliflower you could get a different flavor nuance to this simple soup. I’m trying it, and soon.

Chicken mulligatawny is an Indian-style soup that reminds me a bit of the Thai soup I love so much, with the curry and coconut. This one’s got chicken, Granny Smith apples and toasted almonds as a garnish … not sure you can go wrong here.

Speaking of soup, nothing goes quite so well with a hearty bowl of soup than some homemade flatbread. I’m rather fond of making an onion and olive focaccia, but I’m definitely trying this seeded flatbread recipe the next time, bursting with poppy, sunflower, pumpkin and mustard seeds.

Or maybe these sweet potato spelt biscuits will grace my table. It’s not often I find a recipe already designed for spelt flour, so I’m game to try a recipe without altering it, something that almost never happens.

Do you have a favorite soup recipe to share?

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Every Christmas Eve, my family throws a giant party with all of the aunts, uncles and cousins. Everyone brings an appetizer or dessert and we munch and mingle the night away. In the past we’ve brought our butternut squash sage pizza, chicken wings, and a variety of dips and one-bite appetizers.

One thing I always try to bring is something I know Owen can eat, since he’s got lots of food allergies. And in fine five-year-old form, he’ll refuse to eat anything at a party that can’t be scooped up easily, grabbed and eaten on the run. If there’s a fork involved, all bets are off.

A few weeks ago, I was playing with a white bean dip recipe which we ended up using inside quesadillas. Yesterday, I stepped it up a bit and perfected it and that’s what I’m bringing tonight, along with these recipes for Alton Brown’s olive tapenade and sun-dried tomato tapenade (can’t stop eating this one … hope it makes it to the party!). They go so well together and when it’s a bigger gathering, I feel cheesy just bringing a little bowl of dip, so classing it up and presenting it as a “dip trio” made me feel better about myself.

White Bean Dip with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

• 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2-3 large cloves of garlic (or more!)
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, depending on how lemony you like it
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in hot water, then drained
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• pinch sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

To roast the garlic: Cut the tops of the garlic cloves off, but leave them in their skins. Drizzle with a little olive oil and wrap loosely in foil. Cook at 400 degrees convection roast (or 425 normal) for about 30 minutes.

Puree beans and sun dried tomatoes until smooth, adding lemon juice and olive oil until smooth and of desired consistency. Adjust, then add the garlic and puree again.

Add all other ingredients and pulse until just blended. If you blend too long, the basil will become pureed and make the dip an ugly color, so please pulse. Serve with baguette rounds drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated cheese (we used pecorino romano) and baked at 400 degrees for about 5-7 minutes. Rice crackers and pita chips are also perfect with these three dips.

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What would you do if you were expected at a party with something snacky in 15 minutes, and the cantaloupe you were planning on bringing had molded in your fruit basket? Yeah, I’d make white bean dip too, but someone was already bringing that, so I turned to my fridge — and the internet — for some speedy inspiration.

I found it in this recipe for tahini miso dip. Believe it or not, I managed to follow this four-ingredient recipe fairly closely, somewhat of a miracle for me. Instead of using red miso, though, I just used the brown rice miso I had here at home, and plain old water (I wonder what the carbonated water would do for the recipe? Make it a fluffier dip maybe?).

I dug around the fridge a bit more and found some carrot and celery to slice up into bite-sized sticks and I had myself a bringable snack.

The dip was a big hit, and the salty miso and the nutty tahini blend together so nicely. There were red pepper sticks and sesame crackers at the party that complemented the dip well, and I just know it would be perfect with snap peas.

So there you have it: a new recipe for you that has been tried and tested, and a new go-to for me to bring to parties in a pinch.

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This has not been my year for making sweets. First, I completely botch a gift batch of Never Fail Fudge (oh, sweet irony… pun intended) and then I make these cran-crackle bars for my cookie swap and the crust just simple falls apart. They should be called cran-crumble bars. I have a fix idea for them, but I didn’t want to risk it one night before the swap, so I looked to Rich’s recipe for coconut macaroons to save my sorry baker’s butt.

Me being me, I healthed them up something good, and honestly, they are a complete dream. They’ve made up for my December cookie-baking foibles and I feel worthy of writing for a food blog once again. When you make them, you’ll know just what I mean, and you’ll be petitioning to be the Next Iron Chef.

Healthy Chocolate-Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 2 3/4 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded un-sweetened coconut
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips, finely chopped (I used my Pampered Chef equivalent of the Slap Chop)

Mix together the dry ingredients (the first three), then stir in the rest. I found that letting the batter sit a few minutes before making the cookies allowed the liquids to soak into the dry, making them hold together better. I completely agree with Rich — you’ve got to mush these suckers into balls yourself. Simple dropping them onto the cookies sheet doesn’t make a pretty cookie or one that stays together well.

I rolled balls about 1 to 1.5 inches, and cooked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

These are so good that I’m making another batch tomorrow to replace the Completely Fail Fudge that I tried to make as gifts. I actually feel a lot better about gifting a recipe that won’t wreak havoc on the recipients’ liver and glycemic load too.

Just so you believe me that I actually can bake, this recipe for cardamom snaps is also a complete winner … I promise.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

After the last few themes, where I was purposefully searching for recipes like quesadillas and crock pot meals, it’s a welcome return — for me anyway! — to the mishmash that constitutes the recipes that float into my in-box each week. For just a little while, I can cook whatever I feel like cooking and not worry about entertaining, bringing things to other people’s houses and the pressure of aiming to please. If I want to make pancakes for dinner, then I can, gosh darn it! But why would I, when I can cook things like this….

Sauteed green beans and brussels sprouts with chile and mint sounds like the perfect veggie side dish to me. I love green veggies, and the hot and cool accompaniments may just be too good to be true … or at least to be imagined, until we taste it!

Penne with grilled eggplant and radicchio sauce actually came across my path late this summer, when we had radicchio coming out of the woodwork, from our CSA farm. I never got the chance to make it, but it is on my list. Eggplant has that sweet-yet-slightly-bitter thing going for it that would be a perfect complement to the bitterness of radicchio and the salty tartness of goat cheese. Sign me up!

There’s almost nothing yummier than a crisp, whether it be apple, cherry, peach, pear or any other fruit imaginable. OK, one thing: a harvest pear crisp with crystallized ginger. C’mon, can’t you taste those sweet, syrupy and juicy pears with the oats and almonds? Now imagine getting a bite with some candied ginger in it … oh yeah. Now, some pumpkin coconut ice cream and you’ve got a killer dessert.

Anything that’s got you wanting to cook, even after the holiday madness?

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