Most people are familiar with the classic tiramisu, an Italian espresso-mascarpone layered dessert. The creamy mascarpone combined with chocolate and espresso make a satisfying after dinner dessert. My love of cheesecakes has lead to many flavor combinations, like my Zebra cheesecake (on my blog), lemony versions, white chocolate raspberry, even an apple pie version. Classic desserts are my biggest inspiration for new cheesecake idea combinations. Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, so it’s only logical to make it into a cheesecake. Besides who doesn’t like coffee and chocolate – it’s a perfect combination, such as peanut butter and chocolate. For Valentines Day, I decided to make this dessert for my love. He gave his seal of approval.

Mascarpone is traditional in tiramisu, however cream cheese is the traditional ingredient in cheesecake. Cream cheese and mascarpone are very similar ingredients. In fact, the two are regularly combined, and may even replace one another, in cheesecake, and other, recipes. Mascarpone is a little tangier than cream cheese if you were taste testing the two side-by-side. However, the consistency of the two does not differ too much. In this recipe, I keep the cream cheese base for the cheesecake, but incorporate a fluffy mascarpone cream to reel in the Tiramisu experience.

Over the years I have tested many cheesecake recipes. For this recipe I use my basic cheesecake recipe to start. It is a combination of a classic recipe, and my grandmother’s recipe. This recipe always yields a perfect combination of creamy and fluffy. Some of you may like a dense and dry cheesecake (my boyfriend included), and you can achieve that by removing two eggs from this recipe and not using a water bath.

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. When I follow the standard water bath instructions, like most recipes call for, my crust ends up soggy. When I don’t use a water bath I notice my cheesecake is drier and cracks! So, I decided to use my roasting pan with the removable rack (my rack is flat not ‘V’ shaped) and filled the pan with water to just below the rack. This way I get moisture in the oven, without the soggy crust. If you have luck with a traditional water bath, definitely use it. It is all about what works for you.

Crust

1-package (12 lady fingers) –Raley’s keeps them in the bakery freezer, just ask the baker for a package.

4oz brewed espresso (you can use hot water and instant powder too)

Arrange the lady fingers in the bottom of your spring form pan as tight together as you can. You want the least amount of gaps as possible (I put a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of my spring form pan). Sprinkle the espresso over all the lady fingers so each one soaks up the espresso. I tried dipping the lady fingers in the espresso first, but found if I tightly packed the lady fingers then added the espresso, that worked much better.

Filling

3- 8oz. pkgs cream cheese (softened)

3/4c granulated sugar

1T vanilla

5 eggs (2 for a dense cake)

1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp espresso powder, or 3 tablespoon brewed espresso

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until combined. Add eggs one at a time and make sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Beat in whipping cream and espresso. Pour the filling onto the lady finger crust.

Reduce the oven to 300-degrees, bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 5 min (or until the middle is set).

Once the middle is set turn off the oven and prop the oven open slightly for about 15-20 minutes so the cheesecake can cool slowly (this will help avoid cracking). Remove the cheesecake from your oven and allow it to cool a bit more.

Mascarpone Cream

1 cup mascarpone cheese (about 8 ounces)

1/3 cup well-chilled heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar
In a bowl with a whisk or an electric mixer beat together mascarpone, cream, and sugar until mixture holds stiff peaks. Once your cheesecake is cool to the touch, spread, or pipe, the cream on to the cheesecake.

Sift sweetened cocoa powder over the top, or grate semi-sweet chocolate on top.

Refrigerate cheesecake 4 hours before serving.

Hey I never said a good cheesecake was easy…

My daughter and my boyfriend’s two boys love cinnamon rolls and pancakes. Usually, I save cinnamon rolls for special occasions since they involved making dough, letting it rise and then getting up early the next morning to get them ready. Homemade pancakes are a weekend tradition for us, and a favorite among our kids. When I saw a recipe online for cinnamon roll pancakes I had to try them. First, I used my own pancake recipe, but you can make your favorite homemade recipe, or use a box mix. Then, I use the frosting I use for my cinnamon rolls, and then made a “filling” out of melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

To be honest, the first time I made these was on a whim on a weekday morning before school/work. Yes sometimes I’m that crazy. But they looked easy enough, and they were, just a bit of a mess for a weekday morning. Next time I will make the frosting and filling ahead of time.  You can make the frosting and keep it covered in the fridge. The filling you can make and keep in a plastic bag at room temperature. Then in the morning all you have to do is mix the pancakes and throw it together.

The kids were really excited to see a cinnamon roll pancake with frosting and all.  One of them even said “hey look, they are like pancakes on the bottom.”

Pancakes

1 1/2 c. flour

1T. sugar (my regular recipe has 3T but we are adding so much sugar already)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

3T. melted butter

Mix first 4 ingredients. Then mix milk, eggs, and vanilla together. Then mix the milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix about 10 strokes. Then add butter and mix briefly just to combine. (over mixing the pancake batter will result in flat tough pancakes).

Filling

Allow the pancake batter to sit while you make the filling and the frosting.

1 stick of melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Then put the filling in a bottle (my preference, because it gives more control) or a plastic bag. You can cut the tip off the bag and squeeze onto the pancake.

Then heat up a pan or a pancake griddle…I use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to pour the batter onto my griddle. I allow the batter to set just a little, then add the filling in a spiral starting from the middle of the batter to the outside. Perfect…

Not Perfect…careful not to wait too long to add the filing and not get too close to the edge then you will have a spill…

Oh and before I forget! Wipe your griddle down with a wet towel between each batch, it gets messy and sticky.

Now for the frosting.  I made the frosting before I started cooking the pancakes so it was ready when the pancakes were still warm, kind of like warm cinnamon rolls right out of the oven with melty frosting.

Frosting

4 oz softened cream cheese

1 tsp. vanilla

1c. powdered sugar

3T. milk

Mix the cream cheese and sugar until crumbly.

Then add the milk 1 T. at a time. You can adjust the consistency of your frosting by adding more milk if you’d like.

Spread the frosting on the pancakes, just like a cinnamon roll.

See how the frosting gets down into the crevices of the pancakes…yum!

~Enjoy!

Amanda

This is not a healthy, heart friendly recipe, but it sure is tastey. While I substitute some fat with yogurt there is still plenty of sugar in the “apple pie filling” and the brown sugar topping to affect your waistline. So that I can avoid those waistline issues, I keep a few slices for me (and my family) and bring the rest to my fellow co-workers to bring smiles to their faces in the middle of the week.  Given this weekend is the beginning of Autumn, and the abundance of apples around town, no kidding, just this morning I saw a box full of apples in someone’s front yard, marked "free," a recipe with apples seemed fitting to kick off the start of fall.

Fall comes around, and so does the canning and baking bug. So far, I’ve made apple pie filling to keep on hand in the freezer, apple butter using the slow cooker and now this wonderful apple bread. Cooking and baking with the kids is always fun around this time of year as well, caramel apples, caramel corn and homemade candies (peanut butter cups, maybe?). Fall traditions are fun too, visiting Apple Hill, Corley Ranch and Lattin Farms festivals are always on my list.

Encouraging my fall excitement I decided I wanted to share a recipe to celebrate fall flavors. Brown sugar is one of my favorite ingredients, after chocolate of course, and it reminds me so much of baking and caramel, so it only made sense to make this apple bread using all brown sugar. The comforting smell of spicy cinnamon, nutmeg and apples will fill your house with the smell of fall. Hopefully this helps with what to do with the abundance of apples you, or your neighbors, may have.

Peeling Apples: I peel the apples and put them in a bowl filled with water and the juice of a lemon. Once I’ve peeled all the apples, I dry them, then I core and dice them.

Bread:

½ stick softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

Pinch each of nutmeg and ground cloves

1 egg

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 tbsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray or butter. Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer. Mix in the egg. In separate bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the yogurt – make sure to start with flour and end with flour.

Fold in the “filling” (see recipe below). Pour batter into loaf pan and top with the crumble topping (see recipe below).

Bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes or until tester comes out of the center of loaf clean. Let cool in the loaf pan for a few minutes before transferring to a rack. Let the loaf cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve warm with butter. Enjoy.

“Filling”:

1 ½ cups apples(about 3 medium apples), peeled, cored, and diced

¼-½ cup brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg and ground cloves

Mix the sugar and spices together, then toss with the diced apples.

Top with crumble topping.

Crumble:

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup oatmeal

1 tsp cinnamon

½ stick butter

Mix together with your fingertips until crumbly.

Notes: This could also be used for muffins. Pour into muffin liners in a muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I spoke with Fat Daddy’s Ice Cream and they commented on how nice people up here in Carson City have been to them. They were thrilled to be in such a beautiful place with great people.  Hopefully that means they will be back!  I tried the Chocolate malted crunch and my boyfriend tried the chocolate brownie with white chocolate topping. Both were super tasty. My chocolate malt crunch was crunchy and packed with malty flavor, which is my favorite. The ice cream was creamy and thick and did not melt faster than we could eat it (that is a real downer for me when my ice cream melts before I can eat it all). And Fat Daddy’s has some really fun marketing.

Again I visited my friend Phil at Traffic Jam, and this time he had Tri Tip on stick which was even better than the last time! Amazing! The next time I think I’m going to taste his Victorian Chicken Salad Sandwich with cranberries, apples, and almonds.

Of course I had to try Kenji’s tacos, at $1.50 a piece they were a huge steal! Chicken was my favorite but I tried the pork and beef as well. They blew me away. After waiting 40 minutes (this was average for most trucks by about 1pm) I would say they were well worth the wait. I will definitely be back to visit them in Reno on a Food Truck Friday. And on top of good food, they have good personality.

Next we had to try Slap Yo Mama. The name alone made me want to try this truck, but even more, the Snoop Dogg Montecristo (which this truck had the honor of making for Snoop Dogg himself). Two waffles, fried chicken breast, mac ‘n cheese dipped in batter and fried! Yes the heart attacker is what it should be called. Now I can say I really get what chicken and waffles is all about! This sandwich was extraordinary, definitely not an every day treat, but on occasion it would be okay.  A friend of mine got the soft shell crab sandwich and we tried that. It was super good too, with a spicy sauce, oh yum. Typically I don’t like soft shell crab, but I was surprised it was cooked perfectly!

Suge Knight – red velvet waffle topped with 2 pieces of fried chicken with butter and maple honey:

Snoop Dogg Cristo: fried chicken, mac ‘n cheese between two waffles, batter fried and toped with powdered sugar & syurp (super YUM):

and they entertain…

And of course I tried the Nom Nom truck. The runner-up in the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. Now I know that sounds funny, a show about food trucks, but I only got hooked because I happened to come across the show one night, and because it was hosted by Tyler Florence, who I really like and respect as a chef. This truck had an amazing following on the show and I can now say I have tried a Banh Mi. Chicken, pickled carrots and onions, jalapenos, cilantro on a roll. Those who know me, know I love cilantro and lime and onions. It’s one of my favorite combinations, so naturally this sandwich was a need to try. Fortunately for me when I finally made it to the truck I ordered the LAST Banh Mi for the day! I cut it so close! Very happy I was able to get to taste this sandwich. About half the way through the crispy sweet pickled veggies the heat of the peppers kicked in. Oh my is this sandwich good, but glad I shared it with a friend, my lips were on fire. I am not usually weak when it comes to spicy foods, but they have some nice hot peppers.  In the photo below you can see just one of the many green peppers, it is sitting on the very top. This sandwich has so much flavor, I highly recommend trying Nom Nom if you make it to San Francisco or if they return for next year’s Food Truck Festival.

Thank you Casino Fandango for holding such a really awesome unique event for our little city! Such a great experience it was, and I will attend any future events. Hopefully this event had a big enough turn out for the Fandango to hold another.  Now I will make more of an effort to head to Reno to test out more of our local food trucks, especially DISH truck and Gourmelt. Unfortunately we did not make it to those and both trucks. Both are well known for their outstanding menus so I cannot wait to try them!

~Enjoy~

Amanda

This street food greatness is the first of it’s kind here in Northern Nevada. As long as the food truck has been a popular food trend, I have not had the opportunity to try any of the Gourmet trucks, if you can believe that. I try everything and anything involving food, it’s my thing after all!

So you will see me this Saturday, June 30th 12pm-5pm. There will be food, music and outdoor bars. There is no entry fee, just the cost of your food and drinks.

Follow these tips and be prepared:

• Bring comfortable clothes (room to expand)
• bring your foodie friends, the kind that love to share, and lots of them.
• divide and conquer! (send your friends to different trucks and meet up together to create your own little tasting buffet).
• bring cash, some trucks only take cash.
• do your homework and research and choose the trucks you can’t miss. (you can find the list of trucks here. The list was 14 when I was first told of this event, it’s up to 19 now!).

Trucks are coming from Reno, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.  For those of you Foodies out there that watched the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, the Nom Nom truck (a runner up in the first season) will be at this event!

Last week I had the honor of attending Media Day and got to sample Traffic Jam truck’s food. It was terrific. Parmesan crusted sandwiches and steak on a stick! Yum…this is going to be a real great time! I cannot stress what a treat we are all in for! And (sshhh don’t tell) but if this is a hit the Casino Fandango would love to have a food truck event a couple times a year. So gather your friends who like to drink and eat and bring them to this event! Tell your friends, your families, your facebook friends and tweet it out loud! Let’s make it a HIT!

And now for some visuals to entice you even further and get your mouth salivating…

This is the roast beef sandwich

Look at the crusted parmesan and the gooey cheese coming out of this sandwich. I’m a sucker for a grilled melty sandwich and this was a toasty piece of heaven. Highly recommend adding Traffic Jam on your list.

The Steak on a Stick is awesome too. This is not the full size, this was only a sample. The seasoning on the steak is flavorful and the steak was very tender. Perfect for eating and walking.

Meet Phil the owner of this awesome cuisine…

the Truck to look for!

Court Cardinal President and General Manager of the Casino Fandango (right) and his crew enjoying some Traffic Jam food… thank you guys for bringing this event to our little city!

I hope to see you all at the Casino Fandango Food Truck Festival! I will be there with a drink in hand and my foodie friends surrounding me to test as many trucks as we possibly can! Save your appetites…Korean barbeque, gourmet grilled cheese, snow cones, ice cream, paninis, sandwiches and more!

~Enjoy~

Amanda

Twice now Stuffed Peppers has been on my weekly dinner menu. Twice now, I have decided to make something different with the ground beef because I did not want to turn the oven on and heat up the house for an hour. To solve this problem, I decided to try to make the peppers on the grill. I thought 350 on the grill is the same as 350 in the oven, right? Right!

So I prepared these babies wrapped them up in foil and cooked them indirectly on the grill. It takes about the same time 45 minutes or so but I’m not heating up the house! And you can really get creative if you add some mesquite or hickory wood in a little foil bowl or in a little foil wrapping, and add a whole other flavor to the mix (Note to self, try that next time).

Stuffed Peppers

1 1/2-2lbs lb. ground beef (or a mixture of beef and pork, heck even try turkey)

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup minute rice

1 egg, scrambled

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

4 bell peppers (green are my favorite)

Topping:

1/2 ketchup

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon sriracha (or any hot or chili sauce)

Mix the ground beef, ketchup, rice, egg and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl.

Wash the peppers, then cut the peppers in half lengthwise. Remove the stems, seeds and veins.

Stuff the peppers evenly with the meat mixture.

In a separate bowl mix the ketchup  , Worcestershire, soy sauce and chili sauce together. Pour the sauce over the top of the meat.

Wrap the peppers in foil and heat the grill to 350 degrees. Turn off one burner in the middle of your grill and place the peppers over that burner so that the flame is not directly under the peppers. Keep the grill temperature at 350 and cook the peppers for about 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature measures 160 degrees.

This is what it looks like when you open the foil and they are done…YUM!

That is it! Not so bad right?

~Enjoy~

Amanda

I purchased the apricots from Fruit Factory – aka Schletewitz Family Farms in California. They make a 6 hour drive to us each week to bring fruits we would not otherwise be able to get here in Nevada…I thank them!

I used Early Castle Brite Apricots for both the muffins and the apricot pie I made last week.

APRICOT CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup greek yogurt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup applesauce (or any other jam or fruit sauce)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cup fruit chopped (Apricots)

Cream Cheese Stuffing

1 8 oz bar of cream cheese softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.  Whisk eggs, yogurt, sugar, applesauce and vanilla together in a separate bowl.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet just enough to get all the dry ingredients moist. Just like pancakes don’t overmix! You still have fruit to fold in, that will help incorporate the batter the rest of the way.

Using a spatula fold in the fruit.  I use a small ice cream scoop when making muffins, cupcakes, or cookies, which helps with consistency. Scoop batter into muffin cups to fill just part of the way. Add 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese on top, then cover with more batter to fill the muffin cup.

Bake 17-20 minutes. Use a toothpick to check whether the muffins are done.

Cherries at the Market:

~Enjoy~

Amanda

My internal dialogue was definitely discouraging, while making this cake. No egg, who bakes a cake without eggs – even brownies have eggs, this was certain to be a disaster. And now add lemon juice or vinegar! What was this going to taste like? And really!? I’m going to prepare this cake right in the baking pan! No mixing bowl? No creaming the butter, but melt it? Huh? Where am I!? What is going on? After all of that, the batter was thinner than pancake batter! We were surely headed for thin deflated cupcakes. Certainly, you are asking me why would I even consider this recipe after reading it? Well it comes from the Joy of Baking website, a place I trust and the photo was very enticing. New and different is what I like, new challenges!

Joy of Baking – Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder(not Dutch-processed), sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon lemon juice(or vinegar)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.

In an ungreased 8 inch square cake pan, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. With a fork, mix all the ingredients together until well blended.

Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

**NOTE: I made these into cupcakes rather than a cake. Fill the baking cups 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes – or until a toothpick comes out clean.**

In the end, this is a very good simple recipe. It’s a heavier, moist cake. Not a light cake. The best description was somewhere between a brownie and cake. I’m more amazed by how well this cake came out and that it doesn’t have any eggs! (can’t get over that!).

~Enjoy~

Amanda

We have been reading the “Three Little Ghosties” book by Pippa Goodhart, this Halloween. It has best illustrations! (by AnnaLaura Cantone"). This is where I got the name for these cute little cupcake treats.

For my daughter’s Halloween Party at school we were assigned a dozen cupcakes. For this recipe I used my Chocolate Cake recipe and Vanilla frosting recipe:

Chocolate Cake

2  cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 package of instant chocolate pudding (only the powder)
1 1/4 c. milk
2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks room temperature butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350

Whisk together flour, baking powder, pudding powder and salt. Measure out the milk, set aside.

With an electric mixer in a large bowl combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time allowing each to incorporate well before moving on to the next ingredient.

Incorporate the dry ingredients and milk by alternating – half of the dry ingredients and half of the milk.

Use a small ice cream scoop for the cupcake batter. It makes the perfect size cupcakes. Scoop a heaping scoop of the batter into each cup. Stick one Reese’s miniature peanut butter cup in the middle of the batter in each cup.

Bake for 18-20 minutes. (The time will depend on your oven.  Since moving and changing ovens I have had to cook these for 21 minutes otherwise they deflate because they aren’t cooked thoroughly.)

Vanilla Buttercream

1/2 cup shortening (used the Crisco stick because it’s easier to measure)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup) – room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
2-4 T. whole milk
1 T. vanilla extract

In a stand mixer, beat the shortening and butter together, add the vanilla bean and extract.  Incorporate the sugar gradually – 1c. at a time. Once sugar is incorporated (it will look dry) add the milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you like. It will be about 2-3T for a medium consistency.

Cover with a wet cloth while not in use, or place in the fridge if you plan on using it much later.

Use a cake decorating bag or a zip lock bag and spoon in the frosting. Cut a big sized corner off the bag. Pipe on the ghosties by holding your bag straight up and down and squeeze some frosting in a spiral motion onto the cupcake. You can also squeeze the frosting out and press down a little then back up and then down again, repeating this action.  

Eyes & Mouth

Melt some of your favorite milk or dark chocolate in the microwave (at 30 second intervals stirring each interval until completely melted) or melt in a double boiler (I use a small pot with a few inches of simmering water, and a metal mixing bowl that is big enough to sit on the pot, not in it).

Allow the chocolate to cool enough to handle.  Pour your chocolate into a zip lock baggie, cut a super small tip off the corner of the bag and pipe on the eyes and mouth. Using dots for the eyes and different shapes for the mouths – oval, sad, circular – filled in solid with chocolate.

One of my go-to dishes during the winter. It is meatless so you can feel good about going meatless one night a week. Cannellini beans are low-fat, packed with fiber (10g) and a 3oz portion has 10% of your daily value of iron (about the same amount of iron found in a 3oz portion of beef) and the cauliflower is a great source of vitamin C.

You know there is always that debate about how to cook your vegetables – steam, boil, microwave, roast. Truth is it varies. For example (I got this off Dr. Weil’s website),

“A study published in the November 2003 issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that broccoli cooked in the microwave lost up to 97 percent of its antioxidant content but lost only 11 percent when it was steamed. Another study showed that spinach cooked in the microwave retained nearly all its folate but lost about 77 percent of this nutrient when cooked on the stove.

The one consistent thing I read is that how MUCH or LONG you cook your veggies usually determines how much nutrients are lost. If you overcook vegetables (they are mushy), you are losing many more nutrients, than if you cook them to a tender crisp. I keep most of my vegetables tender- crisp. I am no nutritionist, I do read a lot about food on my quest to learn “how” to properly prepare foods, so count this as my own, unprofessional, conclusion.  Bottom line, though, as long as you are eating vegetables regularly you will be healthier in general!

If you want to learn more about properly cooking vegetables Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food is a great vegetable cooking guide!

1 head cauliflower
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 shallot
½ box spaghetti noodles
1 can cannellini beans (or other white bean)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ cup shredded parmesan

(You could also use a can of garbanzo bean and roast them with the cauliflower to mix it up – roasted garbanzos are a great snack or mix them with roasted chicken and tomatoes – they are really good!)

Take a head of cauliflower, pull it apart and then cupt it up into bite-sized pieces. Coat the pieces lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with some salt and pepper and toss.  Roast the cauliflower in a 450° oven for about 15 minutes, or until it starts to brown. (all ovens are different you make take more or less time)

Meanwhile cook spaghetti noodles according to the package directions, reserve 1 1/2 cups of the pasta water when draining the noodles.

Put 2T. Olive oil in the pot and sauté the shallots for 2 minutes. Add the roasted cauliflower and sauté for another minute more.

Drain a can of cannellini, or other white beans. Now add the beans, cooked pasta, and reserved pasta water to the pan and toss. Finish the pasta off with chopped parsley and serve with parmesan cheese and a light salad. (You can add many more vegetables to this dish if you’d like – zucchini, squash, eggplant, just roast with the cauliflower)

(and my daughters slight addition – avocado. To her, avocados goes with EVERYTHING!)

(NOTE: I am going to replace these awful photos with new ones when I make this recipe this week! Ones with nice natural lighting instead of this ugly yellowish lighting – these were taken indoors last winter pre-off camera flash and softbox days). — As promised – 100 times better, right!