Fresh Happy Tasty: Green Apple and Macadamia Quinoa

Follow me over to Culinary Covers where I review the cover recipe, Green Apple and Macadamia Quinoa from Fresh Happy Tasty: An Adventure in 100 Recipes by Jane Coxwell.

Also, I want to make every recipe in that book. It deserves a full review, which I intend to do this summer.  But in the meantime, I'll just say this:  GET IT.  It's gorgeous and full of healthy recipes.  I think my summer is definitely going to be fresh, happy and tasty. :)

Baby Chard and Brown Rice Fritters

The weekend if finally here.  I'm so ready for it.  This week has been non-stop running around, working, and all that other stuff we all have to take care of each week.  I put my garden in on Monday.  Finally.  I bought the seedlings for myself as a Mother's Day present.  I took Monday off from working so I could pull out the massive amounts of overgrown weeds and last year's plants I never pulled out...yeah.  It would have been much easier to do that last Fall.  But I dug out the my four kale plants--the roots were approximately 18-inches under ground and about 4-inches in diameter.  No joke.  Oh, I could go on and on about how good I am at planting and weeding and how when it turns cold out, I run out of steam and neglect the garden until Spring.  In any case, I'm feeling good about my garden and my lovely container garden.  And I feel even better about my new favorite quick meal, Baby Chard and Brown Rice Fritters.  Make that quick, healthy meal.

I know these pictures aren't the greatest.  They're a bit blurry and they don't show how every bite is loaded with healthy chard and brown rice.  Or how there's just enough fresh garlic and salt.  And they don't show one of my favorite ways to eat them--with homemade marinara sauce.  These are nothing more the humble, unassuming, unattractive rice fritters that taste great hot out of the cast iron skillet when they burn your finger tips and the roof of your mouth.  (But you just can't resist)  They taste great at room temperature as you're running out the door to run errands. 

Confession:  I've made double batches of these just so I can eat them for dinner that night, breakfast and lunch the next day. 

Mixed Greens with Fresh Strawberry-Herb Dressing

If you have plans for a Mother's Day get together this weekend, I have a recipe for you.  A GREAT recipe.  It's so good that everyone will fall all over you asking for the recipe--just like my extended family did when I made it for them last year.  Fresh Strawberry-Herb Dressing.  It is an easy favorite of mine.  And I'm excited to make it again and again this year.  The salad and the dressing.  It's good enough to eat by the spoonful and I bet when no one is looking, you'll take a little swig from the jar even.

I confess Mother's Day is not my favorite holiday.  (Design Mom said it perfectly.)  I'm on the guilt end of the spectrum.  (But we'll save that for another day.)  I am enjoying the sweet homemade cards and painted styrofoam cups full of soil and flowers.  I'll be spending the day tomorrow in Heber at a beautiful farm learning to make mozzarella with some of my besties.  And I think that is probably the greatest gift I could give myself--a day out with my girls, a beautiful drive through the canyon and up to the farm, and learning something I've always want to know how to do.  Prepare yourselves for fresh mozzarella recipes. :)

I was out in my garden this morning looking at strawberry blossoms.  Over the last month, I've taken a few pictures of the first few blossoms peeking out among the green leaves.  I always get excited to see the blossoms because I know it means fresh strawberries are just a few weeks away and that I need to get off my duff and get outside and weed.  I had totally planned on doing that today, but I got a little sidetracked.  (I won't say with what. *cough* Grey's Anatomy.)  I also stayed inside and planned out my garden a little better.  Last year I thought for sure we would be moving and didn't really do much planting.  I let the plants that reseeded grow back and had an awful harvest of everything except for the prolific kale.  Not this year!  This year I'm making sure to plant everything just the way I want it.  So, first the strawberries will be ready, and then everything else will follow.

Monday the forecast says it's going to be near 90 degrees.  I. cannot. wait.  Summer is finally here.  Make this salad dressing. Then come back and tell me what you thought of it.  (You're welcome in advance.)

Cashew Dulce de Leche French Macaron Recipe

Before we talk about how glorious the flavors are in these Cashew Dulce de Leche French Macarons are, we need to talk about macarons. Why are they so difficult to make properly?  Egg whites, ground nuts, sugar.  Doesn't seem like it should be so complicated, right?  But they are.  Read on, friends. 

I've made macarons quite a few times and each time I am sure they are going to be perfect.  Only a few times have they turned out picture worthy.  These macarons?  Well, they're on that fine line between perfection and disaster.  I used extra care when measuring the ingredients.  I even used a digital scale instead of measuring cups.  I sifted, sifted, sifted to make sure the dry ingredients were free of lumps.  They looked beautiful pipes onto the parchment-lined baking sheet.  The tops developed skins just like they were supposed to.  From all I could see, these were going to be the most perfect macarons I'd ever made.

I peeked through the oven window and my macarons even had "feet."  And boy did they ever have feet!  When I took them out of the oven, they had some mighty big feet.  Those macarons had GIANT feet.

I waited for them to cool completely before removing them from the baking sheet.  (Okay, I'm totally lying.  I ate a few warms ones right off the pan.)  The flavor was incredible!  Just as I was hoping.  But those feet!

It was then that I decided these macarons are a bit like me--sweet, nutty, perfectly salty, with over-sized feet.

Luckily I have a few friends who helped me troubleshoot on Instagram. Utah's high altitude makes a tricky cookie a bit more tricky to perfect. But I promise you, I'm not stopping until I get it right! I seemed to have less trouble when I lived at sea level.  So this just might take some getting used to.  I also didn't use meringue powder, which is sometimes used in macaron recipes.  I'll try that out next time to see if it makes a difference.  So I guess what I'm saying is that even though my macarons aren't the most perfect macs you'll ever see (they taste perfect), don't despair. I can see I just need more practice.  The recipe is just fine.  It's another keeper one from Aran Goyoaga's Small Plates and Sweet Treats.  (It really is one of my favorite cookbooks and if you're gluten-free, I suggest buying it.)

Now let's talk about dulce de leche and cashews.  I honestly have never met someone who didn't like dulce de leche.  Cashews, yes.  I wasn't a fan of them until I was an adult.  They are one of my favorite kinds of nuts now.  Caramel cashew anything is my favorite.  As I was dreaming up my idea for the perfect caramel cashew macarons, it dawned on me that instead of making a somewhat complicated caramel meringue buttercream, I should just use caramel.  And then I thought some more and dulce de leche came to mind.  Of course there was no other course to pursue.  Add dulce de leche to anything and it's going to taste good.  I used store-bought dulce de leche because when I make it at home, it never seems to be quite as thick or dark as I want it to be.  (You can find it near the Mexican food section of most grocery stores.  Or order it online.)

It was a good choice indeed.  I've never seen my family go so crazy over any other treat I've made.  I'm thinking it wasn't the macaron part.  I'm the one who goes crazy for macarons.  They are little dulce de leche fiends and the mac shells were just the perfect, chewy, nutty vehicle.

So I give you perfectly sweet, nutty, perfectly salty macarons with perfectly oversized feet.  The dulce de leche filling makes up for their ragged appearance.  And even if they are ugly, they taste fantastic and at the end of the day, they just get eaten anyway, right? :)

What about you?  Have you ever made French macarons?  Did yours come out with pretty feet and perfectly smooth tops?  Tell me your secrets!

Citrus, Avocado and Quinoa Salad with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

Yes, it's another quinoa salad.  And you better believe I put avocado in it too.  Can't get enough avocados ever.  Someday I will have an avocado tree in my yard.  Oh, yes, that is going to happen.  Avocados are in season right now and because we love them so much, we buy them four at at time.  This Citrus, Avocado and Quinoa Salad with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette might be something to add to your menu this weekend.  A healthy alternative to, or accompaniment for, other Mexican-inspired dishes for Cinco de Mayo.

This week I've been working really hard this week to clean out my fridge and use up the food in it.  There's a dirty little secret we food bloggers don't often tell you--a lot of food gets wasted.  I know--it's a tragedy and I hate when it happens.  Wasting food makes me feel sick.  It's been a goal of mine this year to make sure to use up everything and let nothing go to waste.  We're getting better at it, I'm happy to report.

So yes, another quinoa salad that involved me using up bits of this and that and the other and incorporating the goodies from my CSA.  This week we got a bunch of cilantro.  I don't have great luck growing cilantro before it goes to seed, but my friend Efra from La Nay Ferme does.  The farm's cilantro is beautiful and I can't wait to get more.  While I still do love that creamy cilantro dressing the same as everyone else, I do like a refreshing, lighter vinaigrette just as much.