Apron Strings to Diamond Rings: milk

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Mashed Roasted Garlic Cauliflower

Mashed Cauliflower is a great substitute for mashed potatoes. It has a similar flavor, if you can believe that, and texture! Fewer calories, by about half! The only difference is that the cauliflower has more liquid than a potato, but they're still fairly good. I've read a few recipes that steam the cauliflower then smash them with a bit of milk, but I wanted to give it a bit more flavor so I roasted the cauliflower with garlic and olive oil, then mashed them in a MagicBullet with some low fat butter milk and a dash of salt.

1/2 head of cauliflower, or about 2 cups
dash of EVOO (olive oil)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 cup buttermilk
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400˙. Mix the cauliflower with olive oil and garlic, put into a casserole dish and roast for about 30 minutes, turning them once or twice so they brown evenly. Then using a food processor or MagicBullet, mash the potatoes with a pinch of salt and about 1/8 c of low fat buttermilk or 1% milk. If you want them smoother, add more milk until it's at the consistency you'd like. Serve immediately! Happy Cooking, and Enjoy!

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Scalloped Potatoes

I was reading the most recent Food Network Magazine and was inspired to make Scalloped Potatoes. It was always one of my favorite dishes growing up, but I have yet to make it myself. I did a bit of research using the CookingLight, Joy of Cooking and AllRecipes to find exactly how I was going to tackle this. If you take a look around you'll find some recipes that take 30 minutes to cook and others that take an hour and a half. It all depends on how you want to do your prep work and how much you're making. If you cook the potato(es) first, then it doesn't take as long in the oven, but the prep time will be a bit longer, and there will be a dash more clean up (not much though). If you don't precook the potato(es) it will take longer in the oven. Here's what I cooked up for dinner:

How I Started Cooking

I am no professional chef, nor have I even taken professional cooking or baking classes. I create my dishes from the heart, reading and researching a combination of recipes, putting that knowledge to use and either developing my own recipe or amending one I have read. My love for working in the kitchen began when I was very little, watching my mom bake and cook. In high school I received the opportunity to take two semesters of cooking classes with a wonderful teacher. She is the woman who taught me how to make chicken broth from scratch, properly measure flour and most importantly, read every recipe at least once through before beginning. This is not to say that my mother didn't have a substantial role in my quest to conquer the kitchen. My mother is the one who let me go wild in the kitchen, throwing random ingredients from the pantry into a bowl just to call it 'peanut butter cookies' because they contained peanut butter. That was when I learned that if it contains flour, it most likely has to be baked. Thanks Mom!