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Posts tagged ‘recipe’

Feb 19

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Roasted mushrooms, chorizo, and sweet potatoes with chipotle quinoa (plus more exciting announcements!)

Nearly two years ago, when we decided we were moving to Madison, I began seeking out other like-minded folks and food-related organizations to start getting to know my new hometown. Among many others, I was delighted to find a couple of other food bloggers (Vicky of Things I Made Today and Sarah of Wisconsin From Scratch) and the three of us have been getting together regularly over the past year or so to chat about our businesses and find ways to support each other.

Over time, we found there could be a lot of benefits of working together as a group – we could coordinate our efforts, cross-promote each other, brainstorm future collaborative projects … after a few meetings we had generated a pretty sizable list of ideas. So we’ve officially joined forces together as Wisconsin Whisk, a collective of food website coming together to share our love of cooking and of rooting our work here in Wisconsin. We even have an intern! (That’s official.)

There’s more to come on Whisk later – like a shiny new website! – but for now, we’re very excited to announce a rather fortuitous turn of events, unveiled today. Madison Magazine’s Best of Madison 2015 list was announced this morning, and the three of our sites have been listed as Madison’s best food blogs! Thanks most of all to all the readers (that’s you!) who helped vote us here. Woo hoo!

And in the spirit of collaboration, we’re teaming up to bring you a celebratory three-course meal, each of us contributing a recipe. I’m here today with the entree of the meal, an easy and flavorful one that’s been on my table at home a few times over the recent weeks.

Before I say too much more, let’s talk about what comes before and after (important to know what you’re in for!).

sun-dried-tomato-soupFirst course
Creamy sun-dried tomato soup

“I’ve been on kind of a sun dried tomato kick recently, and using them in soup form seemed like a logical next step. Obviously fresh tomatoes aren’t quite in their prime during winter, so the sun dried version is an excellent alternative …”

Full recipe from at Things I Made Today

Chipotle-quinoa-sweet-potato2Entree
Roasted chorizo, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes with chipotle quinoa

“… a wonderful, modern interpretation of some great Mexican flavors.”

See recipe below

blood-orange-cakeDessert
Blood orange cornmeal upside-down cake

“I swapped out the butter in the cake for olive oil, whose fruitiness I felt sure would complement the oranges. I added some coarse ground cornmeal for texture and  more rustic feel …”

Full recipe at Wisconsin From Scratch

My contribution is fairly simple to put together – perfect for a weeknight dinner; enough for two people with plenty of lunch leftovers the next day. Roasting chorizo, onion, and mushroom together is one of my favorite taco fillings, as I’ve written about here before, and it’s balanced perfectly by creamy roasted sweet potatoes. Adding chipotle to quinoa or any other grain is a perfect way to add some flavor and give it a kick, and topped with some basic Mexican-style garnishes (especially avocado, cheese, and/or crema if your quinoa ends up pretty spicy) this is a wonderful, modern interpretation of some great Mexican flavors. Read more

Nov 17

Caramelized apple Dutch baby pancake

As the holidays approach, I can sense a growing anxiety in the conversations about food that I have with other people. From simple office potlucks to special holiday feasts and everything in between, this time of year can be particularly taxing for folks who start to feel overwhelmed by what needs to come out of their kitchens. There’s pressure to make something exciting and to keep up with traditions, to make things that feel special, and to get it all right, even when you’ve maybe never made the dish before. Sharing and enjoying food you’ve made can be one of life’s best moments, but it’s easy to let anxiety build and overshadow the experience. I get that; it happens to me too.

What’s my advice for overcoming it? Oh boy. It’s woven through my classes and through all the conversations I have with anxious home cooks, but it would take a bit of thinking and a fair amount of time to write it all out – and we all know this isn’t a time of year prone to excess time hanging around. So for now, I’ll just leave you with a secret weapon – a caramelized apple Dutch baby.

Apple-Dutch-Baby_2 Read more

Oct 29

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Holiday spice cake with orange-vanilla sugared cranberries + cake baking tips

Spice-cake-2

As if you somehow have been living under a rock and aren’t currently aware, THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING. And boy does the world want you to know it.

Should this sort of thing cause your pulse to quicken and temples to bulge, a few things to note:

  • Holiday dessert, decided. See photos above and below and tell me that wouldn’t look gorgeous as part of your holiday spread. Spiced cake, creamy cream cheese frosting, and crispy, sweet-tart sugared cranberries spiked with orange zest and vanilla. Once everyone stops oohing and aahing long enough to eat a slice, you’ll quickly be crowned the king or queen of the holidays and everyone else will lay down their spatulas in submission. (A little dramatic.)
  • Looking for a creative, unique holiday gift or gathering? Remember that Bowen Appétit offers private parties and gift certificates!  Read more

Oct 5

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Creamy parsnip soup with crispy prosciutto

Before I dive into this recipe, let me start you cold-weather climate folks with a counter-productive warning: Think about February.

Think about February, a gray day in February, cocooned in your warmest coat, trudging to the grocery, keeping that hope alive that you might find something green, something crunchy, something fresh that won’t break your budget. You’ll be more than ready to emerge from your steady diet of squashes and root vegetables, eager to peek out from under the soil and up into the light.

This is the image that is keeping me from eating squash, sweet potatoes, and parsnips all day every day, despite my excitement about their arrival. We are locked and loaded for a quick turn of seasons here (36 degrees and the slightest hint of snow yesterday morning – a short cold snap, but still NO JOKE), and while everyone around me seems to be jumping joyfully into a diet of starchy and subterranean vegetables, I’m trying to ease myself in for fear of running out of steam far before that cold, gray grocery store trip in February. Believe me: I’d gladly fill my meals with all matter of squashes and roots and everything else wintery – but I’m trying to remind myself that I have plenty of time. Where asparagus and berries and corn and tomatoes seemed to have come and gone in the blink of an eye, these root vegetables and I have a long, cozy winter to look forward to.

Parsnip_soup

We can get through this, people – we just have to pace ourselves. Read more

Sep 13

Sweet, savory butternut-tahini spread

Butternut-tahini-spread2

I’m pretty good at posting things just a little too late. (Remember last year, when I posted the 4th of July cake on the 10th of July? Like that, but even worse.) It can be more work than expected to get a perfect storm of interesting recipe, notable finished product, written recipe notes, and decent photograph, and sometimes by the time I’ve managed to piece it all together, it’s a little later than it should have been.

But this time – this time I’m AHEAD of schedule! You maybe haven’t even thought about squash yet, though if you also live in a place that has had the wonky growing season we’ve had here, maybe you’re starting to see fall produce at your farmers’ markets, too. (I find it exciting, though I wouldn’t dare say so in public for fear of rabid winter-fearing Wisconsinites.)

Read more

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