Escargot Pasta

You're probably wondering What the Hell?
Yep, same.
Blame Canada. And my impulses. But mostly Canada.
I saw this in a supermarket a couple of years ago on a road trip to Canada, and had to buy it.
That was two years ago.
These aren't just snails. They're old snails. Bring it.

Nothing a little wine and herbs can't handle.

Escargot Pasta
- 1 can of snails (hahahaha)
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
- 1/4 sweet onion, sliced thin
- 1/4 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
- 1/4 c clam juice
- 1/4 c white wine
- 1 tsp each oregano, basil, onion and garlic powders
- 2 sprigs fresh tarragon, chopped
- 1 tsp fleur de sel (salt)
- 1 serving whole wheat pasta
- grated Pecorino Romano cheese for topping

Boil pasta water. Cook pasta. Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan and saute onions until just beginning to soften. Add yellow pepper and garlic, and once everything has softened and onions are translucent, pour in the clam juice and white wine and add all of your seasonings, except the fresh tarragon. Once the liquid has reduced to about half, toss in your snails and tarragon, and simmer until everything is nice and hot. Serve over the pasta, top with the grated cheese and black pepper, and shake your hand for being an adventurer.

MUFFINnnffum

Single serving muffins for solo missions.

BANANA-BERRY MUFFIN for ONE!
- 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp oatmeal
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 packets splenda
- 1/2 ripe banana, mashed
- handful of mixed berries
- 1/2 tsp canola oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp milk
- handful chopped walnuts
- 1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all the dry ingredients. In another bowl mash the banana with the milk and oil, add to the dry ingredients and then stir in the berries. Grease a small baking dish or a single cup on a muffin tray, scoop out the batter and sprinkle on top with the walnuts. Bake for about 15 minutes, and just before it's done, sprinkle with the tablespoon of sugar and give it a brief blast under the broiler so it gets nice and crunchy on top, but be careful that the walnuts don't burn.

Honey Butter Carrots with Tarragon

You know what's great about winter crops? You hardly have to do anything but pick them.

Big ups to winter crops out of my garden.
Especially for the love I didn't show them - I just dropped some seeds in the ground last fall and forgot.
Carrots, Swiss chard. Awesome
Went nice with some broiled fish.










HoneyButter Carrots with Tarragon
- 1/2 lb garden carrots, cut in rounds
- 1/8 c vegetable broth
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp fresh tarragon, minced
Toss carrots into a frying pan with the vegtabe broth, cover and let cook until carrots have softened. Stir in the butter and then honey and continue to cook on low heat until most of the liquid is reduced. Sprinkle witht he tarragon, stir, and serve hot.

Peanut Butter Jelly French Toast

PB and J breakfastfest.
There is nothing not to like about this unless you don't like peanut butter, don't like jelly, or don't like French Toast, in which case you're not allowed to talk and shouldn't have come here anyway.


Peanut Butter Jelly French Toast
- 2 slices whole wheat bread
- honey roasted peanut butter
- blueberry preserves
- cinnamon
- 1/4 c egg whites
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp maple extract

Spread PB and Jelly on the two slices of bread, dust the PB side with cinnamon and then put the two together to form a sandwich. Next, mix the egg whites with the sugar and the maple extract and pour onto a plate. Coat a small skillet with butter-flavored cooking spray, dip both sides of the sandwich into the egg white mixture until all the liquid is absorbed and throw it in the pan right away. Pour out any remaining egg whites into skillet, and cook sandwich till golden brown and crispy on each side and all liquid has seeped out and cooked up. Enjoy as is or with whipped cream, or a drop or two of that sweet elixir called maple syrup !

Beet Salad

This salad hails from my days spent as a Russian, and is only one of the many, many types of beet salads out there in that Slavic world.
This particular salad is called Vinagrette, and though like all salads it has many variations, its general components are usually the eponymous beets, apple, onion, cucumber, pickles, parsley or possible dill. I didn't have any pickles or cucumber, and no parsley, but I had beets, onion, apple and dill. You basically chop it all up, mix it all together, and let it marinate in a sweetened vinegar in the fridge until wanted for eating.
It keeps well, tastes good, and is probably full of vitamins.

Beet Salad
- 2 roasted beets, cubed (can used canned)
- 1/2 small sweet onion, diced
- 1/2 tart apple, diced
- fresh dill, chopped
- 1/4 c red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar

As said above, chop everything up, mix everything together, combine the sugar and vinegar and pour over top of the beet-apple-onion mixture, sprinkle with dill, stir it all up and stick it in the fridge to wait for you. Optionally, you can lightly dry-saute (w/out oil) the onions a bit to intensify their sweetness before adding.


linked up at Side Dish Saturdays over at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

Vegetarian Sukiyaki Broccoli

Sukiyaki is a Japanese traditional dish of thin-sliced meet and onions and mushrooms and such boiled in a sweetened soy broth and eaten over rice. I did away with the meat and used seitan to make it veggie instead, and threw in a bunch of steamed broccoli because that's how I roll.
Easy to make, easy to like, and an excellent excuse to break out the Sri Racha hot sauce and go to town.

Vegetarian Sukiyaki Broccoli
- seitan (enough for 1), sliced
- 1/2 sweet onion, sliced
- 1/2 c mushrooms, sliced
- 1 c steamed broccoli pieces
- 1/4 rice vinegar
- 1/4 mirin
- 1/4 teriyaki sauce



Heat oil in a pan until very hot and then toss in the onions and saute till just beginning to soften. Throw in the seitan and then the mushrooms, and stir constantly to prevent burning. Reduce heat to low and add in the vinegar and mirin and then the teriyaki sauce and let the whole thing simmer for about 5 minutes (you may need to add more of the liquids). Finally, add in the broccoli and continue to simmer until heated through. Serve and enjoy.

"Braisin" French Toast

Banana, raisin. Get it? ?
Pass the syrup.

Braisin and Bold French Toast
- 2 slices whole wheat bread
- 1 ripe banana
- cinnamon
- handful of raisins
- 2 egg whites
- 1 tbsp milk

In a small Tupperware, cover raisins with a little water and microwave for a few seconds to soften them, then drain them and set aside. Cut the banana 3/4 of the way down, saving the smaller piece to slice thin and top the finished toast with. Mash the bigger piece with the cinnamon and then add in the raisins and then spread the mix on one of the pieces of bread and seal it up with the second piece to make a sandwich. Mix the egg whites with the milk and then dip each side of the sandwich in the mix until all of the egg whites are absorbed. Coat a skillet with butter-flavored cooking spray and cook the sandwich until golden brown on each side, then top with sliced bananas and enjoy.