Today I just roasted a cauliflower. I came up with a great spice paste and just mixed up the florets into it. Then I spread the cauliflower out on sheet pans and in only a half hour they were done and then I gave them some optional toppings. Serving size WILL DIFFER….We all like different sizes for servings and also the size of your cauliflower will differ…..Lately I usually find very small cauliflowers but got lucky and found an extra large one. Mine will make a good 6 servings but it is rare that you find the extra large cauliflowers so I will say 4 servings. I do also note that you will have some extra roasting sauce from the cauliflower that is delicious that you should use for either a protein or couscous or rice with the cauliflower.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 cauliflower – break down to florets

2 shallots thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves – peeled and thinly sliced

1 1/2 Tablespoons sea salt

1 Tablespoon dried dill

1 Tablespoon ground cumin

1 Tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

6 oz. tomato paste

2 Tablespoons pomegranate molasses

1 Tablespoon urfa pepper

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Optional – fresh pomegranate to taste for finishing

Optional – Feta cheese to taste for finishing

Optional – roasted pistachios (or hazelnuts, or pine nuts) to taste for finishing

Optional – cilantro to taste for finishing

Optional – tahini to taste for finishing

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F

In a large mixing bowl mix everything except the cauliflower and mix well. Then mix in the cauliflower till it’s coated well. Spread the cauliflower in a single layer on sheet pan(s). This goes in the middle rack of the preheated oven till lightly browned and the cauliflower is cooked. (in my oven this took 30 minutes but oven do differ and your timing could be more or less.)

This is delicious as is…….I added some extras fresh pomegranate, feta cheese, roasted pistachios, and some cilantro. I held back on adding tahini because my husband hates tahini.

ENJOY!!!!

Don’t laugh….OK you can laugh……I tried to make ground turkey balls taste like corned beef and I thought that would be great for a party in meatball sized cabbage balls. I used the spices that I guessed would be good for corned beef but my fatal errors were not using Prague powder (stuff that turns beef pink) and also maybe not using beef. ANYWAYS they came out fragrant and tasty but didn’t taste like corned beef. I made a spice blend and used 1/2 in the meatballs and 1/2 all over the cabbage to flavor it. This recipe takes two days to prepare so the cabbage can stay wrapped on the meatballs.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 cabbage

1 quart stock or soup base (vegetable, chicken, or beef)

1 lb ground turkey (I used 99% lean)

2 eggs – beaten

1/2 cup panko

1 Tablespoon (heaping) Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base reduced salt

1/2 cup already cooked peppers and onions chopped

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1/4 cup dark brown sugar – SPICE BLEND

1 + 1/2 teaspoons sea salt – SPICE BLEND

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper – SPICE BLEND

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon – SPICE BLEND

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice – SPICE BLEND

6 juniper berries – ground to powder – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger – SPICE BLEND

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning – SPICE BLEND

Directions

Day One – Either boil or roast the cabbage till soft. Let cool on a counter.

Mix up spice blend. (brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, mustard, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, ginger, and Old Bay Seasoning. Split this in half. Half of the spice blend goes in a large that you will mix the meatball mix in.

In a large mixing bowl with 1/2 the spice mix add the ground turkey, eggs, panko, garlic, pepper & onions, and mix well.

Assemble

When the cabbage is cool remove one leaf at a time from the core and remove only the very thick veins of the cabbage. Scoop a meatball into the cabbage leaf.

Place this on plastic wrap and twist it into a ball shape.

Repeat till done.

These NEED to sit on the refrigerator over night.

Next day

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove plastic wrap from meatballs.

Spread out the meatballs for cooking.

Sprinkle remaining spice blend all over.

Cook till well done about 20 minutes give or take.

ENJOY!!!

Cheese Blintzes are crepes that are usually filled with fruit, farmer’s cheese, or potato and then fried in butter. Some people like them sweet and other people like them slightly savory. Some people serve them like dessert with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Other people like them topped with sour cream.

I was shopping at Sprouts and farmer’s cheese was at an incredible price that I could not pass up so I decided to make cheese blintzes today. Latter I went back to Sprouts and purchased fruit to make a fruit sauce for the blintzes.

It’s best to make the cheese filling the day before so you can drain some liquid out of it.

Anyways my recipe made me 11 crepes so I will say 11 servings. I did have maybe enough cheese left over for one more crepe.

Ingredients for around 11 servings

4 eggs

1 cup water

6 Tablespoons sweet butter – melted

2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt

couple drops vanilla extract

1 cup flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 Tablespoons butter – to fry blintzes with

2 cups farmer’s cheese – for filling

1 cup whipped cream cheese – for filling

1/4 cup sugar – for filling

1 egg – for filling

1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice – or more to taste – for filling

1 teaspoon vanilla – or less to taste – for filling

pinch sea salt – for filling

Directions

Make the filling first.

In a medium bowl combine the cheeses, sugar, egg, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. This goes in a paper towel lined colander over night. The top you can loosely plastic wrap. In the morning I changed the towel so it could drain some more. Keep refrigerated till ready to fill blintzes.

Make the crepes. In a large bowl combine the eggs, water, melted butter, yogurt, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt.

Melt 1/2 the butter on medium heat in a non stick pan.

Use a serving spoon to measure the batter. One serving spoon seemed to be the perfect amount of batter for my pan. You don’t just pour the batter in you have to turn the pan on its side to shape the crepe around the pan………..Once you get a nice round crepe you wait till it looked cooked and flip it and leave it on heat maybe 1/2 a minute more.

I had a pan lined with plastic wrap to collect the crepes. Between each crepe I used more plastic wrap so they wouldn’t stick together.

Repeat till done and add butter as needed.

When you are ready to make the blintzes.

Either pipe or spoon out the cheese.

You roll it up like a burrito.

Bottom and top of crepe over the cheese.

Now you roll till rolled up.

Repeat till done.

Fry the crepes in butter on medium heat on both sides till slightly browned.

You can enjoy now or add sour cream or preserves. Some people like them sweet with powdered sugar……

I made a mixed fruit sauce. It was a pint of blueberries, a pound of strawberries, and 10 ounces of pitted cherries. I added 2 ounces of butter and about 1/2 a cup of sugar. I mixed it together and this went in a 350 oven in two pans for around an hour.

Enjoy!!!!

The Sprouts Grocery in NORTH LAS VEGAS has some really great surprise sales. I walked in and they had BIG BAGS of two kinds of broccoli on sale for 99cents a bag. In case you don’t know Yotam Ottolenghi is a multi award wining and James Beard award wining chef, restauranteur, and cook book author. I figured that he would have a great tender stem broccoli recipe and he did on his website. I didn’t want to change anything in his recipe but I had to change a few things due to what I had around the house. So I made a few substitutions and left out one ingredient that I didn’t have. I also doubled the amount of brown sugar peanuts because I knew I would want more than a 1/4 cup. This came out different and delicious! It might be something that you might want to try? This made four generous side servings for me.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar – peanuts

2 teaspoons soy sauce – peanuts

2 teaspoons olive oil – peanuts

1/2 cup peanuts – peanuts

non stick spray – peanuts

1/2 cup peanut buttet – dressing

2 teaspoons gochujang – dressing

1 Tablespoon soy sauce – dressing

1 teaspoon dark brown sugar – dressing

1 lemon – just the juice

2 teaspoons – fresh grated ginger – dressing

2 garlic cloves , ground to paste – dressing

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 Tablespoons water

1 Tablespoon chives – to finish

1 pound broccoli (You can use whatever broccoli you want)

Salt to boil water

Directions

Set oven to 325 degrees F.

Get a small sheet tray ready and spray it with non stick spray.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oil. Then mix in the peanuts. Pour this out on your sprayed baking sheet in one layer and spread it out. This goes in the preheated oven for nine – ten minutes.

Put a pot of water on to boil and salt the water.

Mix up the dressing – in a small bowl mix together the peanut butter, gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, salt, and water. Put to the side.

When the peanuts come out of the oven they will be molten hot. You might want to break them up a little before they set and lump up together.

Boil the broccoli for three minutes. Drain the broccoli and either serve or if for latter put in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Serve with peanuts and sauce either on the side or drizzled on and finish with chives.

A Special THANKS!!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for his Tenderstem Broccoli with Gochujang Dressing Recipe so I could come up with what I got here.