Gender Specific Veggies?

Gender specific produce. Scientific or fable?

Shopping Advice from the Vermont Food Bank

Here a useful article about shopping your local co-op and maximizing your food budget.

Vermont Food Bank – Guest Post via City Market

How do you maximize your budget and do you take advantage of bulk products in your local grocery store or co-op?

~Ali

Lemon Rosemary Shortbread

Shortbread is one of those cookies that I never really got into.  They are usually either crunchy, which is not typically a trait I can appreciate in a cookie, and just sweet and buttery.  Which isn’t a bad thing, but I prefer a more complex flavor profile if I’m going put the time into making cookies.  I like old fashioned soft chocolate chunk cookies or one of my favorite recipes of oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies with crystallized ginger.  Another recipe that I found recently that is a little more time consuming then just popping a batch in the oven is for double chocolate cookies filled with salted caramel.  Gracious me, I could eat a whole batch of those.  Are you seeing the pattern here?  NO?  Chocolate.  Dark chocolate of course.  I decided to branch out this past weekend when I had a wonderful friend coming over for a quick tea and chat.  I searched Pinterest and Foodgawker for tea time appropriate snacks.  I thought about cucumber sandwiches or a dip but with only a couple hours to visit in the late afternoon, I wanted something light but tasty with any kind of tea.  When I found this recipe for a boarder line savory cookie, I figured it was time to give shortbread a shot.  With my stand mixer recently out of commission, I was wary to cream butter and sugar by hand…I know, I’m a wuss.  But I did it and dayymmm, it made for a “melt in your mouth” buttery, flaky, heavenly light cookie that I probs ate 15 of that afternoon!  I HIGHLY recommend this delicate cookie for any number of affairs.  I also recommend the arm workout and skipping the mechanical mixer.

I actually halved the recipe so I only had 1 stick of butter to hand cream and it turned out to make plenty.

Once the dough is fully incorporated, wrap it in plastic and flatten into a disc for easy rolling once it comes out of the fridge.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.

I used a pretty little flower cutter.  It’s about and inch and a half wide.

Once fully chilled, roll out onto a floured surface to a thickness you prefer.  It doesn’t change shape more than a tiny bit in the oven so it will be fairly close to the size and thickness it is when you put them in the oven. 

I baked them for approximately 8 minutes, turned the tray and baked for another 8 minutes.  They were just barely starting to brown on the edges and they were still moderately soft rather than the biscuit type crunchy cookie.

Serve with any variety of tea for a great mid morning or mid afternoon snack!

Lemon Rosemary Shortbread
1 cups all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoons sea salt
3/4 teaspoons lemon zest
1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary roughly chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Cream butter with a wooden spoon. Once smooth, mix in the sugar. Stir and cream until light and smooth. Mix in vanilla and lemon juice until incorporate.

Whisk together flour, salt, lemon zest and rosemary.

Slowly mix the flour until a cohesive dough has formed. Form dough into a ball and press into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Once fully chilled, roll out dough on a floured surface. Use your preferred cookie cutter placing cut cookies on a parchment paper lined sheet tray.

Bake for 12-16 minutes until edges begin to brown, turning the tray half way through.

Enjoy!

It’s All About The Beet

As a vegetarian, there are few meals that have that old fashion “meat & potatoes” type feel. When I started eating fish, putting together the trifecta dinner plate (veggie, meat and potato/starch) was a favorite of the week. While tonight’s meal was short the starch, nothing beets (ha ha…get it?) a super tasty salad and fish. Tonight was spinach salad with beets, apple, goat cheese, maple glazed slivered almonds and a homemade maple balsamic. Sharing the plate with some scrumptious ginger coconut lime crusted baked mahi. A mouthful, I know, but a wicked tasty one! Recipe(s!) below.

Ginger Coconut Lime Crusted Mahi (baked)
2 pieces of Mahi Mahi approx 8oz ea
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger or grated fresh ginger
1-2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
A pinch of chili powder
A pinch of garlic powder
A pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 375
Line a baking dish with coconut oil
Combine the coconut, ginger, lime, chili powder, garlic and salt in a small bowl
Pat the fish dry
Place the fish in the dish and press the coconut mixture onto the fish
Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through and starting to brown

Beet and Spinach Salad
4 cups fresh, chopped spinach
2 small-medium beets
1 green or honey crisp Apple, sliced
4ish oz of chevre
1/4 cup maple glazed shivered almonds
1/4 cup (or to taste) maple balsamic

Twist off the stems and leaves of the beets if they are still attached. Boil in a pot of water for 20-25 minutes or until soft. Cut them in half to cook if you want to speed up the process. Once they are cooked, remove from the water and allow to cool briefly. You should be able to pull the skins right off. Slice thinly.
Add the chopped spinach to a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over the leaves and toss until they are coated. Separate the mix between two plates. Top with beets and apple slices, chevre and almonds.

Maple Glazed Almonds
In a cast iron frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of butter and melt on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup slivered almonds to the pan. Stir in 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup. Allow to brown slightly, stirring occasionally. Once the butter and sugar has cooked off, remove from burner. You can allow to cool and enjoy or place in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes to dry them out a bit more.