Desperation recipes are the best. When you throw all caution to the wind when it comes to actually creating something that could be considered food, that’s exactly when some magic usually ends up happening. Much like the roasted walnut and avocado pasta I was forced to whip up a while back, this recipe came from my unwillingness to head to the grocery store, some left over sweet potatoes, and my need to fit fresh rosemary into every dish possible lately. I bought one of those rosemary Christmas trees that you can find at the store around this time, and it’s been amazing how much that little thing put me into the Christmas and/or cooking mood. I am a crazy food lady though. I don’t know if it’s that I have such low expectations when I start to create a desperation recipe, or if it really is just that good, but I couldn’t handle how much I wanted to eat a bazillion cups of this stuff! For someone who has been living without butter for a couple months now, that ghee added a crazy creamy and buttery flavor that was out of control. Really. The mix of fresh rosemary with anything sweet and salty is a flavor combination that can do no wrong, if I do say so myself. These creamy rosemary mashed sweet potatoes would make a great side dish for any holiday meal, or a light lunch for any day of the week. Or both—definitely both.

CREAMY ROSEMARY MASHED SWEET POTATOES

INGREDIENTS

One sweet potato

One Tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary

One tsp ghee (or butter if you eat dairy)

Fourth of a cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk if you eat dairy)

One Tbs maple sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Chop the sweet potato into 1-2″ chunks and place in boiling water. I keep the skins on the sweet potatoes for a nice consistency when these are mashed—or out of laziness, you can decide that one.

Boil for about 15-20 minutes. You’ll know the potatoes are done when you stab them with a fork, and you can start to tell that they would mash up easily.

Strain your potatoes and place in a medium sized bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

Mash with your preferred utensil—I used a fork

I have no recipe adventure this week, but instead, I have a recipe roundup for today. I love how delicious the internet makes food look, and how inspiring food blogs have been to me over the past couple years. It’s an endless fountain of information and unique dishes to try. I love getting lost in the kitchen, and picking out the perfect ingredients for a special dish that I want to try. These adventures usually take me way longer than I would have hoped, but you know…the Kardashians will always be on TV, so I don’t really think I’m missing that much, yeah?

BEANS // GRAPES // BANANAS

Now if this isn’t the most simple delicious mid-day treat, I don’t know what is.

I decided to make these like a mad woman while I was visiting Megan, inspired by her french-teachery-ness. This is the perfect drink to sip on, while being completely refreshing and non-alcoholic.

Take a half of a lemon, and squeeze it into a glass. Add some ice, top with water, and a couple sugar cubes. Stir.

What’s fun about this recipe is that you can adjust all the amounts of ingredients to you preferences. In France, they serve the glass of fresh squeezed lemon with a pitcher of water and a side of sugar so you can whip one up yourself. I love these for the sour quality these have that force you to sip slowly, and take a break from whatever is going on in your day.

Now I want to go buy a big bag of lemons.

I so want to try all of these fruity cocktails. Now to find the time to host a cocktail party…and the last one is a mocktail, for those of you taking a break from after the holidays.

PEAR NECTAR // PINK GRAPEFRUIT // PRICKLY PEAR

This was one of my most adventurous recipes that I’ve tried in quite a while. Over my French travels, one of my most enamored food ventures has always been the galette, specifically the ones in the Brittany region. They are like crepes for savory food. So. Delicious. My attempt to recreate these wonders was close to the original in taste, but I lack the blood of the French, as well as years of skills in the kitchen to recreate the wonder that are galettes bretonnes.

Just look at that egg oozing out and tell me you don’t want to rush to your kitchen and whip up a batch of these…come on!

I followed this recipe as closely as possible. Like all recipe adventures, small pieces here and there were changed. If you’d like to follow along, be my guest. You’re in for a treat for sure!

• Sift 1 and 3/4 cups of buckwheat flour, 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, and 2tsp of salt in a bowl together. If you can’t find buckwheat flour, don’t fret my friends…you can buy buckwheat groats (found at whole foods), and grind them in a coffee grinder, or…by hand if you’re super strong and persevering. Please, please, sift this before measuring the 1 3/4 cups. I did not, and my galettes turned out rather clumpy. I’m sure you’d have much better results if you used fine buckwheat flour than chunky. This was my first mistake. boo.
• Pour one cup of milk into the center of the bowl. Whisk until this forms a paste.
• Slowly add another cup of milk in two batches.
• Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Stir in 2 cups of water, and beat for 1 minute
• Stir in 1/2 cup of clarified butter. (Make a cup when preparing, and use the rest for the griddle or pan you’ll be using later. I used this recipe for clarified butter.) The clarified butter does not burn, and it’s important that you use this instead of regular butter.
• Heat the pan over medium heat, and wait five minutes.
• Dip a paper towel into a bit of the clarified butter and rub over the griddle. Wait 2 minutes more.
• Pour some galette mixture onto the griddle or pan. This will vary based on the size of your pan, but you want a very thin layer when all spread out. I’d say about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of mixture for a 14-16″ frying pan.
• Spread out the mixture thinly, and cook for 30-60 seconds on the first side. Flip, and repeat on the other side. You’ll be cooking these again later, so if they’re not crispy and browned, that’s ok.
• Place on a paper towel, repeat, and keep on stacking those glories up!
• If the first galette seems thick, add a bit of milk to the batter before the next. This is all up to you.
• Now it’s time to add your toppings!
• Place a galette back on the pan, and add away.
• Traditional galette: emontaille cheese, egg in the middle, and spring onions. Fold sides in to create a square where the egg yolk pops out slightly. Remove from pan and enjoy!
• My favorite salmon galette: Place smoked salmon on galette, top with emontaille cheese, spring onions, and creme fraiche. Fold as you would the traditional galette.

Well….that sure was an adventure. A delicious one. If you decide to take on this challenge, please let me know how it goes, or if you have any other topping suggestions…I could always add french cooking inspiration to my life. Yum.

Now this is one recipe that I have been trying over and over and over to get right. I finally think that I found the perfect way to make cauliflower pizza dough! It’s the perfect thing for when you’re trying to watch calories but still are craving that pizza taste. With some gorgonzola and pears as toppings….just. yum. I put gorgonzola and pear on everything, so if that’s not your thing, normal people toppings work as well.

CAULIFLOWER PIZZA DOUGH:

- Preheat your oven to 425
- Steam cauliflower, and when done, puree in a food processor or grate with a cheese grater. You’ll need 1 cup of the grated cauliflower. Put this in a bowl.
- Add one cup of low fat or fat free mozzarella cheese.
- Add an egg in there for good measure…and some bread crumbs if you have those around. I didn’t measure this, but maybe 1/8 a cup of breadcrumbs would do. Enough to have everything stick together nicely.
- Season that mixture with salt, pepper, garlic/garlic power, oregano, and any other seasonings you fancy. I’ve even added parmesan cheese when I’m feeling a bit naughty.
- Mix this all up, and place on oiled parchment paper in the shape that you want your pizza to be.
- Bake for….15 minutes? It will be bubbly and golden brown and look delicious. You can take this and use it as breadsticks, or put toppings on and heat until those are all toasty together.
- Voila! (almost) no carb pizza dough!

This is definitely something to get used to, and is not a substitute for the real thing, but it sure is something easy that you can whip up when you don’t want to wait 2 hours for pizza dough to rise or you are trying to shed some pounds. Let me know how it goes for you!

I’ve been cooking/arranging up a storm since leaving Savannah. I like to indulge a bit when it comes to making food for friends. Here are a couple things I’ve enjoyed putting on the dining table. This chicken (now tofu for me) picada recipe has been such a staple at home growing up. We’re not Italian, but for some reason my mom loved to cook this dish for us. I learned along the way, and adapted it to meet my semi-vegetarian needs throughout the years. So much lemony goodness! It would also be very rare for me to turn down any dish with capers in it. Obsessed. The brie, avocado, and baguette combo has also been a favorite meal since undergrad. Delightfully paired with a glass of cab-sav, and you’d have to try hard to not have a great night.

Yum. yum. yum.

MK came over this week and we had a girly afternoon where we watched a bad chick flick and made these marvelous little numbers! She had the recipe, but they were sooo simple, and it can be adapted to almost any kind of cake or flavor you could think of! Now that I’ve tried this out, I can feel the cake ball craze coming on. Watch out!

Dark Chocolate Cake Balls:

• Bake a cake. It can be from scratch, or boxed. We used a Betty Crocker Devil’s Food cake mix and followed the instructions on the back. Make sure the cake is thoroughly cooked.
• Take the cake and crumble it all into a bowl. When cooled, add in a can of icing. We used regular chocolate icing. Chocolate is our fav. Mmhhhmmm. Mix reaaaaal well.
• Take this mixture and start to form balls. We weren’t really precise with this, but you could weigh each amount before forming the balls to make sure they are even. We are more about taste and less about looks around here, so we skipped this step. Place the balls on wax paper, and put in your fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Melt dark chocolate in your microwave. We ended up using two full bags of dark chocolate chips for all of the balls. Start out using about half of one bag at a time, and microwave in 30 second increments, until when stirred, it is all melted.
• Remove the balls from the fridge, and in whatever way possible, coat the balls in chocolate, and place back on the wax paper. You’ll have to do through a couple rounds of chocolate melting, but once you’re all done, wait for the chocolate to harden (or if you’re impatient like me, slip them back in the fridge).
• Take out and enjoy!

My mother is a long time lover of key lime pie, and I think i’ve inherited this specific gene of hers. After making my own key lime pie earlier this year, I was astonished at how many bad-for-you ingredients (or at least full-of-calorie ingredients) went into making the pie. When I came across this recipe, I knew I had to try it out and see if it were at least half as good as any original. Boy did it go above and beyond my expectations! I’m a huge fan of mousse and whipped things, and this goes a little in that direction.

So good, you’d never even know it’s diet! Only 3 weight watcher points.

This is a variation of the Vieux Mot martini. Variation, because I didn’t have any cointreau on hand, nor can I really pronounce that word. If you’d like to make the real one, add 1/4 oz simple syrup and 1/4 cointreau instead of Sprite. Anyways, here is what I made as a nice end to the day.

‘Vieux Mot’ Martini:

1 oz St. Germain

1 oz Gin

Lime Juice

Sprite

Stir with some ice, and pour into glass. Enjoy.