Grilled Cauliflower Steaks

First up in the Cauliflower Adventure was a rather unique twist to the vegetable. In my search for cauliflower recipes, I came across the blog Eighty Twenty and specifically, this post.

I was intrigued and decided to try this vegetarian alternative to steaks. Now don't get me wrong... I am the furthest thing from a vegetarian (as evidenced by the whole reason for this blog!) But who knows?! Maybe this could be a nice compliment to a great steak.

Finished product!

Simple ingredients

Slice head of cauliflower into "steaks"
and coat with ingredients above

Put directly on medium heat grill
and cook on both sides for 5-7 minutes

As you can see I made a couple of changes as I completely forgot about the Parmesan cheese. Oops! Another thing I'd do differently is to not skimp on the ingredients. I didn't want to have all the oil and balsamic vinegar drip everywhere, but in hindsight, I should have just let it drip! We needed to pour more ingredients on after as it was pretty bland. I think if I had been more generous it would have been better. But this was pretty easy and I'd like to try it again!

July is Cauliflower Month!

Sometimes I feel like Cauliflower is a poor cousin to Broccoli... but not this month! Cauliflower will be first and finally get the credit it deserves! We'll grill it, roast it and mash it. And hopefully learn to love it!

Cream Peas

On the last night of June, we had our friends Andy and Heather over for a BBQ. We had wonderful Hanger Steaks which if you haven't yet found the joy that is a Hanger Steak, I suggest you seek them out. It's the meat under the jaw of a cow and there is only one Hanger Steak per cow. Trevor's brother, Bryan, first introduced them to us and we've had them several times since. A little hard to find, but well worth the effort. We served the Hanger Steaks with some grilled potato packets, salad and Cream Peas. The peas were an after thought and we weren't sure if Andy and Heather liked peas... hence the salad just in case. However, the peas turned out great! I'm sure the healthiness of the peas is washed out by the butter and cream, but at least it's a "wash" instead of a loss right?!

You can find the recipe I used here. They were very easy. I think next time I might try using milk instead of cream to make them a tiny bit healthier. 

Finished product read to serve!
They do seem to get cold rather fast, so it's not a make ahead dish.

Letting the peas come to a boil in water and salt.

Added in the butter, and cream/flour/sugar mixture.

Garden Pea Salad

I know I say that every recipe is easy... but this one might be the easiest so far. Canned peas? Check. Pre Hard Boiled Eggs? Check. Bacon Bits? Check. Could not be any easier. 

The last Pea post was just ok in regards to the peas, they were a bit sweet for me in that dish. Whoa... never thought I'd ever say something was too sweet. But this salad was delicious. Trevor and I had my parents over for dinner and we paired the salad with steak and potatoes. 

Since this was so easy, I don't have a lot of photos of the process. You can find the recipe here: Paula Deen's Garden Pea Salad. I did doctor it up with some bacon bits... how could I not?! I'm surprised Paula hadn't already put them in!

Pasta with Peas, Shrimp, Mushrooms and Bacon

Yum! That's all I need to say about this meal. I started with this basic recipe for Angel Hair Pasta with Bacon and Peas from Martha Stewart. But of course... I doctored it up! I do need to give some credit to Trevor for his ideas to add stuff... if it was just me it would have been very plain. 

Apparently most of the vegetables I've been choosing go great with bacon... or maybe it's that bacon goes great with everything!

Finished product... of course sprinkled with bacon!

How can you go wrong with these ingredients?!

Finely slice the shallots... hmmm is that fine enough?!

Saute the shallots and mushrooms in the bacon grease

Add in the shrimp, beautiful shrimp from Zupan's here in Portland.

Add in cream and peas, again both from Oregon!

Finally toss in cooked noodles and some extra pasta water.

June is Pea Month!

As any reader can note, I slacked off took a break all last month. I had good intentions, but they went out with the window with the insanely busy schedule that is Trevor and Leah.

In the span of six weeks, Trevor and I have been to:

Austin, TX (Leah)

Dallas, TX (Trevor)

Olathe, KS (Trevor... twice)

San Diego, CA (Trevor)

Lincoln City, OR (Leah)

Seattle (Leah)

Bend (Leah... once, Trevor... twice)

Kissimmee, FL (Leah)

Needless to say, we've been too busy globe trotting to cook vegetables. We'll continue to be busy, but a month off has provided the necessary motivation to continue. Everyone needs a break and since this is "my" blog, I should be able to give myself a break. 

So that brings me back to June. This month so far in Portland has been aptly renamed to June-uary and has been a rainy cold mess. The forecast calls for wonderful weather for the next several weeks, so fingers crossed! As a result of our mixed month, I'm going to choose Peas for June. This vegetable can be served in warm dishes such as pastas, casseroles and soups. But it can also be served cold in salads and... um... other cold things, making it versatile to our weather needs.

With three weeks left in the month and one of them being spent in Seattle, I'll do my best. Here's to cooking and blogging!

May is Salad Month!

Well I'm starting a little late this month. Let me explain why. Trevor got a job! After being laid off for four months, this is very good news indeed. A huge shout out to my wonderful boyfriend and the career journey he is embarking on!

In the span of about six weeks, the two of us will be in places such as Texas (both Austin and Dallas), Kansas City, Bend, Seattle, Lincoln City, Florida and possibly San Diego. We're about in the middle of this hectic time so the blog has been put on the back burner unfortunately. I had mixed emotions about my dedication to the blog, but sometimes you have to forgive certain things in your life. After all, a blog is not mandatory and not something that should create stress.

With that in mind, I've decided to do a leafy green month. So far the blog has been very successful at stretching my boundaries in the vegetable world and we are frequently incorporating vegetables in to our meals. I don't shy away from restaurant menus that have too many vegetables on them. However the one thing I'm still really iffy on is salad. So far no matter how much fat you put on it, it's still like eating grass. So this month my goal is to learn to love salads! 

While we have a hectic rest of the month, I will try and make at least a few salads by May 31st. However, I'm also going to be actively ordering salads at restaurants as well. Wish me luck!

A preview of months to come: Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Squash, Peas, Herbs and probably a "remix" month in which I try recipes I didn't get to in other months. If anyone has suggestions, just let me know!