Ginger-Ale Glazed Carrots

I'm not a huge fan of using soda pop in cooking. But I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots, so if a little ginger ale may get me to eat my vegetables, it might be a worthwhile compromise.

Ingredients:
1 lb carrots
2 Tbls butter
pinch salt
1 C ginger ale 
½ tsp chili powder
1 Tbls chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions:
Peel carrots, slice ¼" thick on the bias. Combine the carrots, butter, salt and ginger ale in a saute pan over medium heat. Cover; bring to a simmer. Once simmering, remove lid, stir, and reduce heat to low. Cover again and cook 5 minutes. Remove the lid, add the chili powder. Increase eat to high. Cook, tossing occasionally, until ginger ale is reduced to a glaze (about 4 or 5 minutes). Serve immediately, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Cheesy Cauliflower Pancakes

Ingredients: 
1 head cauliflower
2 large eggs
½ C cheddar cheese, grated
½ C bread crumbs
½ tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
salt
olive oil

Directions:
Cut cauliflower into florets and cook in boiling water until tender (about 10 minutes). Drain. Mash while still warm. Stir in cheese, eggs, bread crumbs, cayenne & salt to taste. (My pancake batter seemed a little too runny, so I added a little extra bread crumbs.)

Coat griddle or skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. Drop -- and spread if needed -- the cauliflower mixture into 3" pancakes; cook until golden brown and set (about 3 minutes per side). Keep each batch warm in oven while cooking the rest.

I got 11 pancakes out of one head of cauliflower (1 recipe); some of mine were a little more than 3", so you could probably figure on a dozen.

Gingerbread Blackberry Muffins

Ingredients:
3 C flour
2½ Tbls baking powder
1 Tbls ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
1 C butter, softened
1 C brown sugar
1 C dark molasses
4 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1¼ C blackberries*

* or substitute blueberries, cranberries, even raspberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease or spray muffin pans, or use paper liners. Combine flour, baking powder and spices. In separate bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add molasses, eggs (one at a time), and buttermilk. Using an electric mixer is optional, but it makes a lighter, fluffier batter. Add flour mixture all at once and stir until just combined. Layer batter with berries in muffin cups until ¾ full. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Cool 5 minutes before removing from pan (if not using paper liners). I topped mine with raw/turbinado sugar, but that's definitely not necessary.

Makes about 30 muffins. I often just make a half recipe.

'Monkey Bites'

Hardly need a recipe for these. Saw them in a magazine promoted as a 'better for you' frozen dessert.

Ingredients:
banana(s)
peanut butter
chocolate
optional garnish: sea salt or peanuts

Directions:
Slice bananas; freeze the slices for about an hour - on a cookie sheet lightly coated with non-stick spray. Spread half the slices with peanut butter; top with the other half of the slices, then refreeze for another hour. Melt chocolate (chips, broken up chocolate bars...) in a double boiler. Dip the peanut-butter-banana bites in the chocolate. Top with coarse sea salt or half of a peanut. The 'Monkey Bites' can be returned to the freezer for a frozen treat, but they'll also keep equally well in the fridge for a softer bite.

Sparkling Blackberry Mint Julep

Ingredients:
mini ice cubes or crushed ice 
½ C blackberries
4 Tbls mint leaves, torn or roughly chopped
2 Tbls simple syrup*
3 oz bourbon
prosecco (or other sparkling wine)

* Combine equal parts water and sugar; bring to boil just long enough to melt sugar. Cool.

Directions:
Fill 8 oz glasses with ice cubes/crushed ice.

Muddle blackberries, mint leaves and simple syrup in shaker (or bowl).  Add 1 C ice and bourbon; shake (or mix) well. Strain and pour into glasses, filling ¾ full. Finish filling glasses with Prosecco.

Garnish, if desired, with additional mint leaves and/or blackberries. Serve with a short straw.

For a non-alcoholic version, simply skip the bourbon and use seltzer water or ginger ale instead of prosecco.

Pineapple Rosemary Ice Cream

This recipe makes me crave a buttery cookie crunch of some kind to compliment the ice cream...

Ingredients: 

1 C milk
2 C heavy cream 

¾ C sugar
3 egg yolks
1 - 1½ Tbls fresh rosemary, roughly chopped (adjust to taste, if desired)
1  15.5-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice, puréed 

½ C dried pineapple, chopped (optional)

Directions: Put 1 C heavy cream in large bowl with fine mesh sieve over top; set aside. In saucepan over medium high heat, warm milk, 1 C cream, and sugar. Stir frequently until the sugar dissolves; bring mixture almost to boiling point.

In medium bowl, whisk egg yolks. Temper eggs by slowly whisking part of hot cream mixture with yolks, then pouring yolk mixture back into saucepan, again whisking constantly. Add chopped rosemary. Over medium high heat, bring mixture to a simmer; cook until thickened enough to coat spatula. Pour the egg mixture through sieve into remaining cream. (It's okay if small pieces of the chopped rosemary passes through.) Stir in pineapple purée. Cool to room temperature; cover and chill for 2-3 hours (or overnight).

Pour chilled mixture into ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer's instructions. Optional: Stir in the dried pineapple during final minutes in ice cream maker; this distributes it evenly by preventing the chopped pineapple from sinking to the bottom.

Parmesan Crusted Baked Zucchini

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini* (about 1 lb)
1 Tbls olive oil
¼ C finely grated Parmesan
¼ C plain dry bread crumbs
¹/₈ tsp salt
¹/₈ tsp pepper

* Clearly this varies widely with the size of the zucchini. I used zucchini from my own garden, and they're huge. A single zucchini weighs about 8 lbs. Obviously...use your judgment. Other squash and some root vegetables would also cook nicely this way. The tasted great on their own, but I served this with an Asian plum sauce, but a marinara would compliment the Parmesan crust well too.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Slice the zucchini into ¼" thick rounds. Toss zucchini with the oil to lightly coat. Combine Parmesan,
bread crumbs, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in Parmesan mixture, coating evenly on both sides, pressing coating on to stick. Place in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake until browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove with spatula. Serve immediately.

Yellow Cake

This was decent as a basic yellow cake mix. A little denser/dryer than I would have liked, but still good (especially with fresh berries!). Simply baking it slightly less may help some; and I may play with the recipe a little for a lighter, moister texture. But for now, so I at least have the recipe saved, here it is...as is:

Ingredients:

2 C flour
1 Tbls baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ C unsalted butter
1½ C sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 C whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Line two 8" cake pans with parchment; butter and flour pans (or coat with non-stick cooking spray). Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar until smooth and light. Add eggs; beat well. Slowly add flour mixture, stirring until well combined. Add milk and vanilla; beat until just combined. Divide batter between pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes until cakes are golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pans 15 minutes before turning onto wire racks to cool completely.

Frost as desired. Delicious with cream cheese icing, chocolate frosting...