Roasted califlower with herbs

I love the oven and being able to roast delicious goodies in there. This dish took about 15 minutes and there are left over goodies to play with for tomorrows breakfast.

Preheat oven to 400
Prep all ingredients
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl except the chives, parsley and lime

1 head Califlower, chopped into chunks
4 roma tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges
6 stems fresh oregano, taken off the stems
1 stem rosemary, taken off the stems and chopped
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon agave
10 chives
5 stems parsley
1 wedge lime
Fresh black pepper to taste

2 red bellpeppers, whole

Place the mixed veggies and the whole red bell peppers on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or tin foil for easy cleanup.
Bake for 10 minutes
Stir once and turn bell peppers
Set oven to broil, broil on high for 5 minutes or until slightly golden brown
If the peppers are not charred keep them in the oven and remove the cauliflower.

Top the roasted veggie with the chives, chopped fine and the parsley, squirt with lime a twist of black pepper and enjoy!

These veggies are great over Fusilli pasta as well, topped with Parmesan, Olive oil and salt.

After dinner peel the bell peppers and place them in a jar with the juices thrown from them and the roasted veggies.

Tomorrow morning I will make a roasted red pepper fritatta with cauliflower. It will be smashing!

visual eye candy coming soon...

Just thought I'd drop a line here about the lack of visual accompaniment in these beginning posts! I will be adding photos to the past posts, (if I can figure out how to and when the edibles are recreated)

Moving forward to the future posts I also intend to be posting snaps of the edibles!

For now, exercise your imagination and enjoy!

nanny rose's stracitella

This soup returns to me each time I find myself eating eggs. Being pregnant is one of those times.

I am grateful to relive the childhood memories of this soup and seeing my papas mama at the stove making this for me as a kid...

I love this dish in misty, cool, blustery weather, just what we are having in the East Bay today.

I always start with cage free organic super fantastic eggs! Find the best you can for all your ingredients and you won't be sorry!

Ingredients: serves 1

1 egg, yolk lightly scrambled
2 Tablespoons Basmati rice
1 clove garlic, minced
small handful of parsley
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
few twists of fresh ground black pepper
fresh grated Pecarino Romano cheese
2 1/2 cups h2o

Saute garlic in the 2 Tablespoons olive oil until lightly golden
Add the rice and continue sauteing for 1-2 minutes
Slowly add the h2o & salt, lightly boil and lower to simmer
When the rice is almost perfectly cooked stir the egg into the soup with a chopstick, this will form strands of egg.
Add the parsley until bright green.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Top with black pepper and Pecorino Romano, and a drizzle of olive oil if you like.

Breath deeply, hold the bowl between your hands and enjoy!

Thanks Nanny Rose!

simply love for that chocolate craving

CHOCOLATE...
my body and emotions screamed earlier today.

Necessity being the MAMA of invention I whipped this up real quick...

3 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 Tablespoon agave
1 twist ground salt
1 pinch cinnamon
1 drop essential rose oil

Mix it up well in a bowl and enjoy straight or on top of thin Finn crackers!
YES, satisfied and satiated!

quick and hearty

This soup is amazing! It was an unexpected cool and rainy day here in the East Bay and I was inspired by 2 things,

• the temperature
• what I found in the fridge

Here's the result:

Light Tomato Saffron Soup with Texmati and Carrot Confetti

Ingredients:
1 carrot or handful baby carrots, diced
1/4 small red onion, diced
5 Russian fingerling potatoes, cut into batons
1/4 cup Texmati brown rice, brown or Basmati rice works also
2 Tablespoon Rapunzel veggie bullion
2 tablespoons parsley
1 handful cherry tomatoes
1 pinch saffron
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Saute onion, carrots, potato and rice in the olive oil for a few minutes
Add tomatoes, veggie bullion and 2 cups water to cover vegetables and fill to top of small pot
Add pinch of saffron & handful of cherry tomatoes cook for 10 minutes
Add Parsley
Skim off 1 1/2cup liquids and solids (eliminating as much rice as you can) and blend smooth
Add to pot and continue cooking until rice is done

*Optional:
Add 1 teaspoon goat cheese and 1/2 slice of bread to the bottom of 2 bowls before serving the soup on top. This makes for a wonderful addition. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Accompanying this was a fresh bright salad made with the following ingredients:

3 leaves romaine, chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, 1/2'ed
1 Tablespoon red onion, sliced
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1 carrot, matchsticks
1/2 Mediterranean, cucumber diced
5 Kalmata olives , chopped
1 roasted red pepper, diced
1/4 cup tofu, diced
1/2 lime
1 Tablespoon umiboshi vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon Goddess Dressing "Annie's"
1 teaspoon sumac
1 /4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients and enjoy!

How Ribolitta was made this time...

Since this is the first recipe I am posting I will begin with a little preempt. I believe in using the absolute best quality ingredients you can find. Here in California it is very easy to follow a few simple guidelines to find these wonder versions of food.

• Shop at your local farmers market
• buy organic
• focus on selecting the best quality & ripeness of each ingredient
  

This is the most recent version of Ribolitta that I made. I made it this way for versatility's sake...


Ingredients:
2 cups dry cannelloni beans, soaked 8 hrs and drained
4 carrots, sliced 1/2 moons
8 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 leek, slivered
1 white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 veggie bullion cubes (I really like Rapunzel), dissolved in 2 cups boiling h2o
1 veggie bullion cube, dissolved in 1 cup boiling h2o
1 head of Swiss chard (about 8 large leaves), chopped medium
8 tiny Russian fingerling potatoes, 1/4'ed
1 loaf Kalmata olive bread
1/2 cup olive oil
pink crystal salt (to taste)
black fresh pepper (to taste)
fresh grated Parmesan (to taste)
fresh basil, 8 leaves
fresh parsley, 4 sprigs

I began by soaking the beans in 4 cups of pure spring water for 8 hours. This yielded 4 cups of soaked beans.

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil and saute leeks & 1/2 onion until translucent
Add 2 cloves pressed garlic until golden
Add the beans to coat with the oil
Add 6 diced Roma tomatoes
Add the 2 bullion cubes and the water they were dissolving in
Heat on medium until boiling then lower heat to simmer
If the ingredients are not covered in liquid add water to cover
Cover pot with lid partially open
Cook until beans are tender.

This is what I was referring to as "made this way for versatility's sake"
***I like to make the beans first because then I can put some aside for a great side dish or add in some fresh basil and raw tomatoes for a lovely accompaniment or add Pecorino Romano to that and toss over pasta for a great meal.***

next, heat 1/4 cup olive oil and saute
Add 2 cloves pressed garlic until golden
Add 1/2 onion, saute
Add Russian fingerling potatoes
Add 2 diced Roma tomatoes
Add 1 bullion cube dissolved in 1 cup h2o
Simmer until potato is fork tender
Add chopped Swiss chard
Saute on low until tender
Add salt to taste

Break up 2 sliced of bread into the bottom of 4 deep bowls
After you have set aside some beans (approx 2 cups, for versatility's sake) mix the chard mixture with the beans
There should be enough liquid to be soaked up with the bread.
If not add water olive oil and salt to create more liquid.
Add the bean and vegetable to the bread bowls.
Stir and top with fresh black pepper, Parmesan cheese and a blessing as you drizzle a bit of olive oil on top.
Sprinkle fresh basil and parsley on top and serve!

This dish is wonderful served hot off the stove, cold out of the fridge or room temperature.

The ultimate in comfort food, so nurturing, fulfilling and downright splendid!

Enjoy in Joy!

The versitality of Ribolitta

What a wonderfully fulfilling and nurturing dish. The first time I was exposed to this dish was in Tuscany. I was in a small cavern of a restaurant sitting around a long, slender table with 20 or so others.

This is a taste memory that has never left me. Ribolitta is a hearty, stew like, "bread soup". This soup is stock full of various vegetables beans and bread. The most recent version that I have re -created featured the following ingredients.

White cannelloni Beans, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, tomato, vegetable broth, swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, Kalmata olive bread, olive oil, ground pink salt, fresh black pepper, Parmesan cheese.

I will post soon as to how I re-created this splendor.