Oh my cauliflower.

Raw cauliflower is not a favorite flavor of mine. There's just something unappealing about it that I can't put my finger on, but I love it more almost any other way: brined/pickled, pureed, mashed, and ROASTED.



Roasted cauliflower is omgdelicious. The parts that make contact with the pan get all golden brown and slightly crisp, and that "raw" flavor disappears. What you end up with is a slightly sweet, perfectly tender-crisp veggie side dish or snack. All you need to add is olive oil and salt and pepper. Adding grated cheese or a squeeze of lemon juice during or after ovening it up tastes great too, but all you really need = salt and pepper.



If you don't like raw cauliflower or any other veggies, try roasting them in the oven. You won't regret it. The best part is that you can eat a whole bowl and not feel too guilty about it :)




Roasted Cauliflower

• cauliflower
• olive oil
• kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper
• additional seasonings of your choice, if desired (cheese, fresh lemon juice, garlic or onion powder, etc)
• chopped parsley for garnish
  

Preheat your oven to 400F. Cut your cauliflower into similarly sized pieces, preferably sliced like you would mushrooms so you get a lot of flat surface area (I'd already cut mine the night before without knowing I'd be roasting, so they're just in regular florets). Wash and thoroughly dry cauliflower pieces. Spray/oil a sheet pan and spread out cauliflower in a single, even layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper (+ optional additions). Roast for about 25-30 minutes until cauliflower has browned where it makes contact with the pan. Broil for a few minutes at the end in order to slightly brown the tops. Sprinkle parsley and serve immediately!


Cheers and happy St. Patty's day!
t

I enjoy carbs and rainbows

I've been using yeast on a regular basis since my first real post about it. Honestly, I've experienced a lot of flops along the way, but the whole journey has been enjoyable, rewarding, and teaching. In the beginning, I didn't really think about crumb, crust, preferments for more flavor, etc. I just tackled simple breads that usually took little time and were soft all around. Those can be really good, such as KitchenAid's 1 hour dinner rolls, but I'm just thankful that I've had the time to learn about the other options out there. All of this isn't to say that I even have an inkling of knowledge about serious bread baking, but I'm glad I'm starting to improve a bit.

There really isn't anything like using your hands to form something so wonderful. It brings families together... Love, time and care goes into making it. It can be an art. All of this may sound corny (and I said something similar in my first challah entry), but bread really is something special. I take my hat off to all bread bakers.


This bread used a no-knead dough recipe (let me know if you want the recipe). What baked up was crusty on the outside, moist and "holey" (I don't care if that's not the PC term, because I like saying holey) on the inside, and a wonderful sourdough-esque flavor. You make a relatively wet dough with flour, yeast, salt and water, let it rise for a bit on the counter, then stick the dough in the fridge for many, many hours. This allows the gluten to form, and flavor to enhance. Then you get the dough to room temp, fold and shape, rise, slash and bake at a high temp with some water splashed in the oven to create steam (for a nice crust). A lot of bread bakers point out that good flavor comes from the living yeast eating sugars and farting CO2 and alcohol! That little fact makes me smile. Who knew farts could make things so delicious?

I made rainbow cupcakes today. What more can I say about that?

So bright and groovy. Gel food coloring is the key (super concentrated gel food coloring = even better, but that's not available to me).
Just separate white cake batter into 6 bowls and add respective colorings drop by drop until you get the desired shades. Then spoon the first color into lined cupcake molds. Spoon the succeeding colors in the center of the previous color. Bake for recommended time and voila!

Cheers,
t