We made baked shrimp with feta from Cooking Light (April 2009) for dinner tonight. We made the suggested orzo accompaniment as well. Just before the orzo was finished cooking, we threw in some spinach, and tossed the orzo and spinach with the herbs, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Although the recipe suggested the orzo as a side, we threw it into the baking dish with the shrimp mixture. It turned out great - I will definitely make this again!

chocolate beet cake

Every week I have received a bunch of beets through my CSA. I do like beets in their typical preparation - I am especially fond of beets and goat cheese on salads - and I was quite pleased with the beet and carrot latkes I made earlier this summer. But I can't always make the time to cook them, so I have been boiling them, pureeing them, and freezing them for future use. This is well suited for chocolate beet cake. I had my reservations at first, but yes, I would gladly make this again (as a matter of fact, this was the second time I made it). The recipe calls for 2-3 oz of chocolate - but who's going to use 2 oz chocolate when you can use 3 oz? And it just so happens that Taza Chocolate bars come in a 3 oz size. I used the 70% dark chocolate bar since that's what I like to eat on its own.

It would be delicious as a layer cake with a cherry filling, or even a cherry glaze on top... or perhaps chocolate ganache. But it's delicious on its own - it's very moist with a nice hint of chocolate, and you don't really notice the beets.

I also made a vegan cupcake of sorts - red velvet pupcakes. It was my first attempt at vegan baking and my first attempt at cooking for Hobie, the three month old Australian Cattle Dog that joined our household last month. She can be a picky eater, but I know she has enjoyed other treats that include beets, so I gave this a go. I replaced the applesauce with more beet puree (so the cupcakes are quite pink) and rather than using cottage cheese as a frosting, I simply used peanut butter.

Although I'm not canine I tried one of the "pupcakes" myself, sans peanut butter and biscuit, and it's surprisingly good. And my intended audience was quite pleased (although she left the little bone shaped biscuit behind).

honey spice beer cake

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Originally uploaded by stephykay

I love spice cake, and I love beer... so I couldn't pass this recipe from The Washington Post up! They adapted it from the book Booze Cakes. I used the beer they recommend, Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss beer, which someone had recommended to me as a nice summer beer. Of course after the cake is baked you can't taste the beer, but it made the cake nice and moist. Although most people prefer spice cakes during the winter, I think this one was "light" enough to be used year round.

For the frosting I used Formaggio Kitchen's Hefeweizen, which is made for them by Cisco Brewers (pictured behind the cake). I screwed up the frosting - my butter was too soft. It's more like a glaze. The flavor is just kind of meh to me, so I think next time I would stick with a traditional white frosting. The walnuts were nice - I might try to bake these in the cake next time (yes, there will be a next time!)

I went ahead and ordered the book, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more spiked baked goods from me!

Moroccan carrot soup

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Originally uploaded by stephykay

This soup is much more to my liking than the corn soup, not only in terms of consistency and texture, but spice. It's the Moroccan Carrot Soup recipe from Bon Appetit, April 2010. I used carrots and onions from my CSA delivery. I've made ginger carrot soups before, but this recipe caught my eye because I love cumin. I simply used ground cumin instead of toasting my own cumin seeds - I am sure that the toasted cumin seeds would add another dimension to the soup, but for a quick and easy after-work dinner, ground cumin works just fine. The soup is low fat but it tastes very rich - once again the immersion blender works its magic!

It would be easy to make this vegan - simply replace the chicken broth with a vegetable based broth, and skip the yogurt on top, which isn't essential to the dish.

corn soup

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Originally uploaded by stephykay

Food52 is a crowd-sourced cookbook of sorts. They announce themes and invite people to submit recipes. Although I have perused their website many times, I had yet to try any of their recipes. Corn season is upon us, and I am always looking for new uses for my CSA produce, so I decided to give cold corn soup with basil chili oil a go.

Although this is one of those recipes where I whipped out my immersion blender (love it!) the soup never reached the creamy consistency that I was hoping for. Next time I would probably add a potato or two to help it along. The basil oil was delicious and really made the dish, since the soup on its own was not memorable. It's hard to place blame on the recipe, though, as the corn may not have been at its peak.

beet and carrot latkes

I received a small bunch of beets in my CSA on June 10th. I hadn't paid attention to the farm's website update, so I didn't realize what type of beets they were until I sliced them open. I was pleasantly surprised!

Shredded, they look like confetti:

These lovely candy striped beets were so deliciously sweet - after shredding them it occurred to me that they would have been great in a slaw of some sort. But I had already come across this recipe for beet and carrot latkes, so I stuck with the recipe.

With the carrots:

And the final product!

This recipe is definitely a keeper for me. I will have to give it a try with different types of beets.

Asian kohlrabi slaw

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Originally uploaded by stephykay

I received several kohlrabi in my CSA, as well as a big bunch of cilantro. It just so happened that The Washington Post featured a recipe for Asian kohlrabi slaw that very same week. I simply used cilantro instead of parsley. And of course I used sriracha, which was listed as optional in the recipe. The heat provided a nice contrast to the crunchy cool kohlrabi.

You can read more about kohlrabi in the accompanying article.