If you have never had fried cauliflower, you are missing out. My Nana used to make it, just dusted in flower and pan fried. I used to eat it with ketchup when I was a kid! It was delicious. Years later, as an adult, I had fried cauliflower, known as Zahra Mekleyah, again, at a Lebanese friend’s house, then again at a Lebanese restaurant. They traditionally serve it with a delicious Tahini sauce and it is out of this world. Blows ketchup right out of the water!

I have always tried to take fried things I have enjoyed in a restaurant and see if I can make them healthier at home. I still enjoy all the fried stuff when I go out sometimes, but I hate the mess of all the oil splatters in MY kitchen. Yes, I am a neat freak,that is established. My favorite way to get a similar crunchy texture in the oven to frying is either to bake it at
450F, maybe 475F or broil it. These cauliflower, I did the former.

Instead of creating a Tahini dipping sauce, I decided to toss the cauliflower in it after broiling. It was phenomenal. Roberto and I kept saying, the few words that we spoke because we were too busy gobbling this down, through the whole meal that we need to eat this eat least once per week. Oh and did I mention that the cauliflower was from the Farmer’s Market?
Oh, yes, but of course!

Along with this wonderful cauliflower we made bruschetta with delicious farm fresh tomatoes, also from the market. The Bruschetta is Roberto’s recipe and made the Roman way – with crispy bread and warm tomatoes. It was really really good. I would not recommend making this unless you have really good tomatoes, as they are the star of the show.

Here is a little music with your dinner:

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If you thought I hadn’t enough to post about this week, step in Daring Bakers Challenge!
This month the Daring Bakers Challenge had good company at my Thanksgiving table. I figured, while I was in the kitchen slaving away at the Thanksgiving meal, what was one more thing to make?
Plus I figured my family would really enjoy this month’s challenge: Tender Potato Bread.
I “unleashed the Daring Baker within” as encouraged by this month’s hostess: Tanna by adding roasted garlic and rosemary to my dough and forming the bread into rolls – which turned out to be the size of mini loaves. I also had enough leftover dough to make a small foccaccia. So it makes a lot of dough! The recipe was very straightforward and easy to follow. It just takes a long time to proof at various stages, like most other yeast breads.

The addition of mashed potatoes gave the dough a bit more body and a lot of softness – this dough is VERY soft. I have mentioned before my aversion to kneading bread and this was my worst nightmare – sticky dough ALL OVER MY HANDS – YUCK! But I was happy that it turned out so well. This recipe made 18 HUGE rolls and a small foccacia. The only problem occured when I went to bake the rolls and baked a few sheets on the bottom rack - the combination of the buttered sheets and the high temperatures, burned the butter and scorched the bottoms of some of my buns!

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Everyone always knows when it is Autumn in my house because I always commemorate it by making my Roasted Roots. I like a combination of Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Red Onion and Garlic. I toss them all in fruity extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle them with salt pepper and sprigs of fresh rosemary (dried works good too) and I roast them on cookie sheets in the oven at 450 for about 1 hour, stirring the vegetables once about halfway through. I decided to pair this dish up with a cheese fondue with a hint of apple cider. Served with chunks of French bread and the roasted veggies it was a fall meal of total satisfaction!

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This Daring Bakers challenge proves that I am still a New Englander at heart. With this Daring Bakers challenge and fall here (I can feel it even if I can’t see it here in Florida), my mind was brought back to those wonderful autumn days in New England. Days filled eating products made with sweet, local, maple goodness, pastries enjoyed with Maple Lattes or very often a warming cup of steaming hot Chai Tea. I have been yearning for the tastes of fall and I guess I am feeling inspired since it is only a few weeks until Roberto and I head to New England to visit family and friends during our most favorite season of the year. So this pastry is an ode to Autumn in New England.

In this challenge: Cinnamon Buns and or Sticky Buns we were allowed certain modifications, like changing around the spices. I have always enjoyed cinnamon buns over the years, but it is not a treat I often allow myself to indulge. Therefore, I decided since I am being forced to make them for this challenge, I might as well do them up in total Jenn fashion.

I love Cardamom, so I knew that I wanted this to be the focal spice in my cinnamon buns. See anything wrong with that statement: Cardamom as the focal point for Cinnamon buns? So clearly I needed to add cinnamon to the spice mix – it is afterall in the NAME of the pastry! Anyway, this being fall and with me already in the Chai Tea/ New England mindset I thought if I add a bit of ginger then I am really doing all the spices that go into Chai. What goes so well with Chai in my mind? Maple. So a plan came together straight from my New England Soul: adding pure VT maple syrup to my fondant glaze and topping the buns with toasted almond slices. I hope you enjoy these!

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We needed to go to the store BAD. There was just nothing in the house to eat. I could hear an echo in the fridge when I closed the door for about the 5th time, hoping that if I opened it again, I would find inspiration in the worst of times. Afterall, what kind of Leftover Queen was I if I was not able to find SOMETHING to eat! It was lunch hour and our stomachs were growling. I needed to make something, that was obvious, but what? Open the fridge…AGAIN… stare for a few minutes MORE. I was beginning to feel rather stumped and annoyed with myself for lacking all this food creativity. Hurumph.

Wait. Today was the day that my Honey Hazelnut Semifreddo had been made and we had leftover eggs that did not whip properly and they needed to be used - not gonna waste 3 egg whites on my watch! There was also some bread in the fridge and cream cheese, thoughts of lunch were beginning to form. Somewhere recently we had heard about stuffed French toast and it sounded really good, but we needed something else to round out this meal. One quick look in the freezer and there it was – Frozen mango! Perfect. Mango Stuffed French Toast!

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This is a dish I created for the “Mediterranean Summer” class I taught at The Culinaria Food & Arts Studio in Ocala, Florida. This menu was designed to travel well so that one can bring these dishes to a picnic, summer BBQ or family gathering. I have always loved crostini with white beans and I wanted to create one that would stand strong in terms of taste by adding fried rosemary and prosciutto. I hope you enjoy it and bring it to your next picnic!

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I saw a recipe for fresh fig pizza with blue cheese in Vegetarian Times years ago. I have a huge collection of recipes I have torn out of magazines and newspapers, printed from online, etc etc over the years. These are recipes that have given me inspiration on creating new flavors and dishes. Every time I move, which seems to have been quite a few times over these past few years, I go through the box and get rid of the ones I will never make or have lost their lustor.

This recipe has stuck with me over the years and I finally decided to try my version of it. As you know from my recent post about figs, fresh figs are finally in season and so I have been eating quite a lot of them! Since Roberto is always looking for a good ITALIAN pizza crust - (no New York style crust, here)– to no avail yet in a restaurant, we have been trying to devise our own. The secret to a great Italian pizza crust is of course the high temperatures in which they are quickly cooked. So I decided to finish the pizzas by grilling them off at the end, in a 600 F grill to get it to the right consistency. It definitely got the Roman’s seal of approval. I also drizzled the pizzas with olive oil and balsamic vinegar when they came out of the grill to give it a little something extra!
Buon Appetito!

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This is the leftovers from the last Daring Baker’s Challenge – Bagels! I love bread pudding and I made several sweet versions of the bagel in addition to the ones I showcased for the challenge and stuck them in the freezer, so I figured what better way to use them up than by making some bread pudding! Happy Friday everyone and enjoy your weekend!

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