Other than knowing that tacos and beer await on the other side of the Atlantic, here isn’t much about an 11-hour flight that I look forward to.

I am not one of those people who can easily fall asleep on airplanes; rather, I’m the one sitting in the dark, reading my book underneath a single beam of light while everyone else around me is dozing. I gave up on watching inflight movies awhile back, because they were too hard to see on the tiny monitors. My fancy headphones need to be either repaired or replaced; I can’t listen to music without constantly having to give the wires a jiggle.

However, there is one thing that I love about flying: the food.

Like any good road trip, an air trip isn’t complete without the right take-along snacks. Since there’s no pulling into the nearest DQ along the highway for a Butterfinger Blizzard, I’ve come up with a list of to-go treats to make the long haul more enjoyable:

1. Almonds.

2. Fruit & Form bars. I like the ones with les fruits rouges the best. They taste like crackers with homemade raspberry-blueberry jam.

3. Ritz crackers for salty cravings. They only come in small boxes in France, anyway, which makes them perfect for air travel.

4. Gaufres au miel. Waffles with honey. I discovered these oversize crunchy cookies when I first moved to France and ate an entire box on a train trip to Germany.

5. Something chocolate. I often pack a chocolate bar, but on this trip, I made my own chocolate-chocolate chip brownies, and cut them into tiny squares, so I wouldn’t eat it all at once.

6. Lunch. I always make a vegetarian something with quinoa, usually a salad with roasted veggies very much like these, but it all depends on what’s in season. The idea is to make something that’s easy to put together, and that’ll be filling, but not heavy. I always think about texture, color, and crunch and try to steer clear of anything that’ll be tricky to digest. This is the first time I’ve made this salad, and I was so happy with it, it’s going to become a regular — for trips and for staying home, too.

This may seem like a lot, and it sort of is…but I always end up sharing, which is part of the fun of eating, anyway. Wherever you happen to be.

Beet, Roasted Pumpkin and Avocado Salad

Makes 4 servings

• 2 medium beets
• about 1 pound/500 grams of whole pumpkin
• olive oil
• sea salt and pepper
• 1 cup/170 grams of quinoa
• 1 avocado
• a small handful of toasted sunflower seeds
• E-Z French vinaigrette (recipe follows)

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F/200°C.

2. Trim the ends off of the beets, give them a good rinse and dry, and wrap them with heavy duty foil. Put the foil-wrapped beets on a cookie sheet and slide them into the oven to bake for an hour, depending on the size of your beets. To check doneness, simply take them out of the oven, unwrap the foil – do this carefully so you don’t burn yourself — and slide a dinner knife into the beet. It’s done if it easily cuts through the beet. If it doesn’t, just wrap it back up, and put it back in the oven. When they’re done, let the beets completely cool in the foil before slicing – and don’t wear white when you do.

3. Turn the heat to broil, and line a cookie sheet with foil. Put the pumpkin on the cookie sheet, toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and slide into the oven. Cook until the pumpkin browns on the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

4. Cook your quinoa by putting two cups of salted water onto boil, and when it boils, add the 1 cup of quinoa. Turn of the heat, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes or until the quinoa absorbs all of the water. Fluff.

5. To assemble your salad, simply put the beets, pumpkin, quinoa, avocado, and sunflower seeds in a bowl and toss with some of the EZ Dijon Vinaigrette. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature.

Advance Planning: Roast the beets and pumpkin ahead of time and simply assemble when you’re ready.

E-Z French Vinaigrette

Makes ¾ cup

• ¼ cup/60 ml of sherry vinegar
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• sea salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh herbs (basil, thyme, chives)
• ½ cup/120 ml of  olive oil

Put your sherry vinegar, minced shallot, mustard, a big pinch of salt and pepper and herbs in a jam jar, and shake until combined. Let rest for about 10 minutes — this softens the intensity of the shallots’ flavor and allows the salt to dissolve, then add the olive oil. Taste for seasonings.

Poor carrots. Sold in plastic bags with cartoon bunnies in the U.S., and in France, tossed willy-nilly in awkward heaps next to the bins of celery and zucchini. Talk about no respect.

And more often than not, carrots are part of something else…a soup, a stock, a braise…rarely are they the star.

Although I’ve never understood the appeal of raw carrots (why snack on those silly things when there are cookies in the house?), I love them cooked. Here, with an easy, slow roast, carrots take on a whole different personality — tender on the inside and slightly firm outside, with a smoky bite from chipotle and a brightness of lime. Just fabulous.

And a perfect side for anything — chicken, beef, pork, lamb, or whatever else you’ve got cooking. These take no time at all to put together, and need no further assistance once they’re in the oven – just remember to set your oven timer for two hours while you go do something fun, like catch up on episodes of “Mad Men.”

Tex-Mexy in spirit and simple to make, these seemed like just the thing to post for our #Letslunch “Holiday Sides” day. Here’s what the rest of the gang has cooked up:

Cheryl’s Auntie Jane’s Potato Gratin at A Tiger in the Kitchen

Charissa‘s Coconut Date Balls at Zest Bakery

Eleanor‘s Easy Festive Stir-Fry at Wok Star

Emma‘s Mom’s Hot Crab Dip at Dreaming of Pots And Pans

Felicia‘s Chinese Butterfly Cookies at Burnt-Out Baker

Grace‘s Fruitcake at HapaMama

Joe‘s Maine Homestead Holiday Dishes at Joe Yonan

Linda‘s Baked Salad at Free Range Cookies

Linda‘s Trinidadian Baked Pastelles at Spicebox Travels

Lisa‘s Potato Latkes at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Lucy‘s “Not My Mama’s” Black-Eyed Peas & Greens at A Cook And Her Books

Maria‘s Grandma Dorothy’s Deviled Eggs at Maria’s Good Things

Patrick‘s Baby Pecan Pies at Patrick G. Lee

Rebecca‘s Grandmother Martha’s Potato Kugel at Grongar Blog

Renee‘s Cranberry Christmas Salsa at My Kitchen And I

Steff‘s Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble at The Kitchen Trials

Victor‘s Roasted Parsnips, Carrots & Delicata Squash Tossed With Sauteed Mustard Greens at The Taste of Oregon

Lime-Chipotle Carrots

Makes 4 serivings

Adapted from a recipe in “The Essential New York Times Cookbook” by Amanda Hesser

• 1 pound of carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 of olive oil
• ½ cup of water
• juice of 2 limes
• zest of 1 lime
• a pinch of chipotle powder
• a pinch of cumin
• ¼ teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

1. Preheat your oven to 300°F.

2. In a small casserole dish, toss your carrots with the olive oil, water, lime juice, zest, chipotle powder, cumin, and salt. Cover tightly with foil and slip into the oven and cook for 2 hours, until the carrots are fully cooked and a knife can easily be inserted into them. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

The other day, I had lunch with a friend who I’ve not seen in years – three, to be exact – even though we live just 10 minutes away from each other. We’d both been through a lot since our last rendez-vous, but we spent our time talking less about our struggles than what we were happy about.  We also realized that sitting outside on November 17, the third Thursday of November and the annual release day of the Beaujolais Nouveau (which we both ordered), and reconnecting with a girlfriend was something to be very thankful for.

I’ve not been posting as often as I’d like because I’ve been so overwhelmed with all that’s going on in my life and in the lives of those around me. But over lunch last week, inspired by my friend Lucy, I decided to start making a list of the things that I’m thankful for each day, no matter now small or seemingly insignificant.

So far today, my list looks like this:

1. My morning coffee, made from freshly ground beans.
2. A real shower (not one using the handheld sprayer, which doesn’t count) after I successfully re-Superglued the attachment to the wall last night.
3. Rosedog, who always wakes me up with her wet nose against mine and a kiss.
4. The pot of black beans on the stove.
5. The music of Bob Dylan, Rivers Cuomo, The Noisettes, Wilco, Portishead, The Velvet Underground, The Mavericks, The Decemberists, Amy Winehouse, and Nick Drake…which kept me singing and dancing in the kitchen as I chopped, mixed, and baked.
6. Palmolive green dishwashing liquid.
7. Philadelphia cream cheese for 1.99 at the stinky Franprix.
8. Down pillows.

As I write this, I’m sitting at a café overlooking Boulevard de Clichy in Montmartre (#9), drinking a latte double (#10), and it’s another unseasonably warm November day (#11). In fact, I’m so comfy here, I think I’ll order another (#12).

I was hoping to be in Texas for Thanksgiving this year, but I’ve still got lots of work to wrap up before I go, so I’ve postponed my trip home until Christmas. I’m not sure what I’ll do this Thursday, but whatever I end up doing – or not doing – I’ll be on the lookout for what I can put on my list.

Here’s a recipe that I hope you’ll love as much as I do. It’ll work as a great side for the big day, or heaped on top of a turkey sandwich for the days after.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

Pumpkin Chutney

Makes 1 to 2 quarts

Adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe

• 1 2 ½ to 3 pound pumpkin, peeled and seeded
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 3 Thai chile peppers (or 2 Habaneros), finely chopped
• 2 cups of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (I use Quatre Epices in France)
• 2 teaspoons of ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 3 tablespoons of fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cups of apple cider vinegar

Dice your pumpkin and toss it in a large stockpot with everything else. Give it a stir, cover, and turn the heat to medium-high. Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let it simmer until the pumpkin is tender but not mushy. This’ll take about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how much pumpkin you’ve got. Let cool and refrigerate.

]]> http://cowgirlchef.com/2011/11/21/pumpkin-chutney/feed/ 2 http://cowgirlchef.com/2011/03/22/end-of-winter-sidesalad/ http://cowgirlchef.com/2011/03/22/end-of-winter-sidesalad/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:13:02 +0000 epierce http://cowgirlchef.com/?p=5531

Do y’all remember my End of Summer Salad post awhile back, and how wistful I was, not wanting summer to end?

Let me assure you, that this is not the case today. I am ready to kick winter to the curb. I’m still wearing the big black puffy down coat that I’ve been wearing, oh, since sometime around the first of October, best I can recollect. (I know, I know. I once said that I loved wearing scarves and gloves and hats and bundling up in the cold blah, blah, blah, but enough is enough.)

Even more depressing is the lack of interesting produce right now. Once vibrant and hopeful, the weekly markets are stuck in that betwixt and between stage, offering the last roots, cabbages and other dark leafy things. Sadly, we’re still a few weeks away from asparagus, which is when spring – and all of the fun that comes along with it – really begins.

On Sunday, X, Rose and I drove to the forest near Versailles, and afterwards, went to the market to pick up a few things for the week. I bought what will be perhaps my last bunch of Swiss chard, a kilo of spinach, and what turned out to be a sack of subpar Brussels sprouts, which I hope to trim up and roast later this week, in hopes of coaxing out a bit of flavor.

Note to self: Do not buy from the vegetable seller that’s next to the rotisserie chicken stand and the flirty straw shopping bag man in Versailles.

The spinach wasn’t the best that I’d ever seen, either, so I picked through what I had, and cleaned it up. After I tossed out the bad leaves, I didn’t have much left, so I decided to cut up the Swiss chard, too, and add this to the mix.

I’d been wanting to try out a new grain that I found a couple of months ago, called petit épautre, which I thought could be the base to pull this all together. Turns out, this grain, grown in Provence, is an ancient form of wheat that’s been around since 16,000 B.C. or so, give or take a millennia. It’s also known as triticum monococcum, but I like petit épautre better. It’s cuter and easier to pronounce.

Either way, it’s a wonderful grain – sweet and nutty  – it has more protein than wheat, and is high in vitamin B and magnesium. It takes nearly an hour to cook (but unlike rice, isn’t fussy), and can be swapped out for rice or pasta or any other grainy thing that you might otherwise use.

If you can’t find this in the U.S., I’d suggest using barley or something with a similar texture.

The rest of the recipe is dump-and-stir: sweet white raisins to balance the slightly bitter greens; toasted almonds for crunch; red pepper flakes for a bit of zing; and creamy goat cheese because I love it so.

I loved this salad, too.

Voila, winter. Here’s your denouement.

Now, get outta here. I’m over you.

End of Winter Side/Salad

Makes 6-8 side servings or 4 larger ones

INGREDIENTS

1 cup petit épautre or barley
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 oz. spinach, washed, and stalks trimmed (and removed if the pieces are large), chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 bunch Swiss chard, well-rinsed and chopped into 1/2-inch ribbons
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
pinch nutmeg
½ teaspoon lemon zest
⅓ cup white raisins
2 oz. toasted almonds (or pine nuts or your favorite nut)
2 oz. goat cheese
pinch red pepper flakes

1. Cook the petit épautre or grain of your choice according to the directions on the package, and set aside to cool.

2. Pour the olive oil into a large skillet and turn the heat on medium. Add the spinach, Swiss chard, salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon zest and cook only for a few minutes, or until it slightly wilts. Drain in a colander.

3. Toss the greens with the grains, and add raisins, almonds, goat cheese and red pepper flakes. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.

Cowgirl Tip: You may use any kind of greens that you like here – kale or turnip greens would be great, too.

]]> http://cowgirlchef.com/2011/03/22/end-of-winter-sidesalad/feed/ 0 http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/12/10/mushroom-leek-quinoa-salad/ http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/12/10/mushroom-leek-quinoa-salad/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:49:25 +0000 epierce http://cowgirlchef.com/?p=4682

Like so many things around here, this little salad was born from a mistake — a half-pound of button mushrooms cooked to that just-brown -around-the-edges-crispy-perfection that I thought would work in a savory tart, but didn’t. I’d already promised X mushroom something for dinner, and I didn’t want to waste them, either.

I wasn’t leaving the house again. Not even to the stinky Franprix down the street. It had snowed. Then it rained. It was still below freezing, and I was tired of leaving the apartment dry, and then coming home wet and cold. So whatever I made, it would be with what I had on hand.

I had leeks, already roasted, also in the fridge – some would be for the tart, I decided, and the rest, for this — a great, nutty side that’s super-protein packed with both red and regular-colored quinoa.

So we had our tart for dinner and I served up this salad, too — and got rave reviews from X, the mushroom fanatic. Now that I’ve easily put this salad together completely by accident, I think that I’ll make it a fall-winter regular.

I don’t know about y’all, but this happens to me all the time. I start out in one direction, something unexpected happens, and I take a different route altogether, and end up in a much more interesting place then I’d imagined.

Let the spirit of adventure – in the kitchen and otherwise – take us into the holiday season and into the new year.

And of culinary camaraderie, too — this is my offering for this Friday’s “Let’s Lunch” gang of food bloggers across the globe. Cheers, y’all!

Today’s assignment: a holiday side (but I think that I’m going to make this whenever the mood strikes).

Come join us! Just type in the hashtag, #letslunch, on Twitter, or check out the links below.

Hot Curries & Cold Beer’s Green Beans with a Taste of Bengal

The Kitchen Trials’ Parker House Rolls with Molasses Butter

A Tiger in the Kitchen’s Spicy Pickled Beets

Free Range Cookies’ Green Bean Casserole

Cooking in the Fruit Bowl’s Kimchi Risotto Bake

Geofooding’s Side Dish of Life

Bon Vivant’s Leek Gratin

Dreaming of Pots and Pans’ Dave’s Peasant Bread

Mushroom, Leek and Quinoa Salad

Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

½ pound button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks, sliced (white parts only)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
½ cup regular quinoa
½ cup red quinoa*
zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme
Preheat oven to broil.

1. While the oven’s heating, cook the mushrooms. In a large skillet, drizzle the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and turn the heat on medium. When the skillet’s hot, add the mushrooms, a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper, and cook until they’re crispy and brown. (Cowgirl Tip: Be sure and give the mushrooms plenty of room. A crowded skillet makes for soggy ’shrooms.)

2. Put the leeks on a foil-lined cookie sheet and toss with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a bit of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Slide into the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until they begin to brown on the edges.

3. Cook the quinoa. Remember, it’s always 2:1/water to quinoa. Put 2 cups of water onto boil, and add a pinch or two of salt. When the water boils, stir in both the regular and red quinoa, cover, and turn off the heat. Set the timer for 10 minutes. When it buzzes, it’s done.

4. Assemble the salad. Simply fluff up the quinoa and put in a large bowl, add the cooked mushrooms, the leeks, the lemon juice, zest, and thyme. Taste for additional seasonings.

*If you can’t find red quinoa, no worries. Simply use 1 cup of regular quinoa.

Sometimes – often, in fact — simple is best. A great old pair of jeans faded to a soft, perfect medium. Cowboy boots, worn in from years of stomping around  your favorite places, up and down streets that you know so well you don’t even remember the names anymore, because they’re so much a part of you.

Wooden spoons. Copper pots. The color blue.

Yes, I love my collection of my i-this and that and Mac-whatevers, all of which helps my life move swifter and easier through the daily fray, but the beauty of them all is in their simplicity — an easy interface on top of a very complex bunch of technology.

Life, wherever you are, is complicated. There are cars to maintain. Appliances that need repair. Kids and/or dogs to shuttle around. Schedules and meetings and buses and metro trains to catch. There’s always so much stuff to squeeze in in any give day it feels like I’ll never get there – to the magical place of having it all done, of being completely organized, of not needing a “to do” list anymore because it’s all already done.

Ha! If only.

I’ve decided that I’m giving up on that fairy tale notion, and instead, I’ve decided to do what I can, and rejoice in what I cross off the list, instead of getting anxious about what I’ve not yet done — because I’ll never get there. It’s endless.

Instead, I’m focusing on the simple, the easy, the doable — and lest I not forget, the fun.

Now that we’re officially into the holiday season, I thought that all of this might be good for all of us to keep in mind. Plus, there are so many simply good things that I’m loving (or just thinking about) right now that I thought that I’d share a few with you:

My new pair of n.d.c. Made by Hand boots, which are so comfy, I’m rotating them in with the Old Gringos for tromping around Paris. Handmade in Spain, they’re both soft and durable – I love the lug soles, which are perfect for pounding the harsh city streets. I think they’re very urban cowgirl, don’t you?

Morning mysore classes as Ashtanga Yoga Paris, where I’m doing sun salutations as the sun rises.

These tops from Lululemon. They move with you, and don’t bunch up or cut in around the arms. Plus, I’m sure that my asanas have improved since wearing them.

Petit Bateau boys’ tees, which are super-soft and long, great for layering or just wearing around the house.

Handmade terra cotta pots from Poterie Not, which I found  just down the street, at Mademoiselle Spanghero.

My gray wool pork pie hat, made by British hatmaker Antony Peto here in Paris. When I bought my hat, he told me about how to care for it (light rain was OK; heavy rain would ruin the shape, and if that happened, I just needed to bring it back and he’d reshape it for me). How many times does that happen when you buy a hat? When the sales begin in January, I’ll be back.

Long silk scarves, made of patched-together pieces in soft blues, grays and pinks, from Merci, the cool concept store in the 3rd.

Reading glasses from Amy Sacks. Un-nerdy and as far away from drugstore “Daves” (as my dad called them) as you can get, they make reading fun again – and best of all, 100 percent of the profits go to The Pixie Project (www.pixieproject.org), a nonprofit that pays for medical care and adoption for dogs and cats.

I’m imagining Tolix stools — still manufactured with galvanized sheet metal just as they were when Xavier Pauchard first designed them post-World War I, in his shop in Autun, Burgundy — in tangerine to go with my new table in the kitchen. Love that they stack. Smart functional design is always in style.

A camel hair throw — or plaid, as they say in Frenchy — from Descamps to cover myself with while I watch reruns of “Law & Order.” (Santa, are you reading this?)

New snow boots by Sorel, which need no breaking in. They say le grand froid is coming this weekend. I’m so glad that I’ll be ready. When I’m not stomping in the snow, I plan to be making soup — or chili — or perhaps both.

And this recipe, for roasted butternut squash. It doesn’t get much simpler than this.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
2 oz. feta, crumbled
4-6 basil leaves, torn
¼ teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Put the butternut squash in a large bowl, add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and toss to evenly coat. Now, lay the butternut squash pieces on a foil-lined cookie sheet, sprinkle a bit of sea salt and pepper on top,  and pop them into the oven. They’ll cook quickly – about 15 minutes should do it — and you’ll want to flip them over once the edges brown to cook a little longer on the second side. It won’t take long – you want them to be cooked through, but not mushy. 
Remove from the oven, and serve warm with crumbled feta, torn basil leaves and a sprinkle of cayenne.

]]> http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/11/26/roasted-butternut-squash/feed/ 4 http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/11/01/cauliflower-cornbread-fritters/ http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/11/01/cauliflower-cornbread-fritters/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:59:25 +0000 epierce http://cowgirlchef.com/?p=4217

I understand that there are still quite a few of you out there that don’t like cauliflower, and if your experience has been of the steamed-’til-mushy, then served up with a fake-o cheese sauce variety– do y’all remember that? —  then, OK, I’m with you. I get it. Why would anyone do that to any vegetable, much less one as lovely and delicate as the choufleur?

Yes, it’ll take up half of your shopping bag, and oui, it weighs a ton, but treat her right, and choufleur will show you all sorts of fun.

For proof, just look at my most recent bit of choufleur whimsy, these fritters (or galettes if you want to be Frenchy) made with cornmeal, cheddar cheese, green onions, and a bit of cumin, to give it that Cowgirl twist.

It goes without saying that X doesn’t like choufleur, but I no longer pay any attention to his long list of vegetable dislikes, and figure that with time, he’ll come around. Remember what happened with broccoli? Oh he HATED broccoli, he said. Just wouldn’t eat that. Oh no. But when I started putting broccoli — and tofu! — in my Basil Thai Fried Rice, I watched him pick the broccoli right out of the rice — and eat it FIRST.

So I made these fritters one night not too long ago to show him just how good choufleur can be.

Did it work?

Well, I came home the next day and found him eating the leftovers, cold, right out of the fridge. Cold cauliflower fritters instead of cookies as snacks?

Winner.

Cauliflower-Cornbread Fritters

Makes 12-16 4-inch fritters

INGREDIENTS

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup corn meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon cumin
2 eggs
5.29 oz. container Greek yogurt
1 cup water
4 chopped green onions, divided
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Chipotle Crème Fraiche, recipe follows

Preheat oven to broil.

1. Put the cauliflower florets on a parchment-lined cookie sheet (or two if you need more room) and drizzle the florets with the 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and lightly sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Slide into the oven until the florets begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Once the florets brown, pull them out of the oven and turn them over, so the other side gets brown, too. This will take about 10 more minutes. When browned on both sides, remove from the oven and let cool. (Note: You can do this ahead of time and just pop in the fridge until ready to make the fritters.)

2. To make the fritters, in a medium bowl, whisk together the corn meal, baking powder, sea salt, cayenne pepper, and cumin.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt and water. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir together. If the batter is too thick, just add a bit more water. Fold in the cauliflower florets, cheddar and green onions, reserving about 2 tablespoons of green onions for garnish.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a skillet and turn the heat on medium-low. When hot, spoon about 2 tablespoons of the batter onto the skillet for each fritter, and fit in as many as you can, leaving about 2 inches between each one. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until the bottom is brown and toasty, and flip to the other side for another few minutes. You don’t want these to cook too fast, or they’ll be wet in the middle. Serve immediately with Chipotle Creme Fraiche and a few green onions, because it looks pretty that way.

Cowgirl Tip: Although some people like to eat these cold, they also reheat beautifully. Just pop them in the toaster or toaster oven.

Chipotle Crème Fraiche

INGREDIENTS

16 ounces crème fraiche or sour cream
2-3 chipotle chiles (depending on how hot you like it)

Put chipotles in Cuisinart and pulse to chop. Add crème fraiche and blend.

This is one of those things that I’ve been thinking about for awhile, and it’s been on my list of recipes to create, so the other day, while my super-incredible Mexican meat loaf (that I was testing for a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article on fall picnics) was in the oven, I figured it was time. Plus, I happened to have the few ingredients that I needed to make this on hand — potatoes, goat cheese, green chiles — so I had no reason not to.

Other than the fact that this was my last can of green chiles. Sigh.

But I just couldn’t serve meat loaf without potatoes, now could I?

X wouldn’t know the difference, of course, if I’d just given him a pile of spinach (which I also did), but I would. It’s really just not done. Ever.

So in the spirit of being in the moment, living for today, and all of that, I forged ahead.

Naturally, I used fresh chevre from the cute goat cheese man, and if you don’t happen to have a cute goat cheese man in your neighborhood who you buy your cheese from each week, don’t despair. I feel safe in saying that even the store-bought fresh goat cheese will work here, too. We all must make sacrifices. I’m using canned chiles – and please, no more notes with details about the Hatch green chile festival this or that going on back home. I can’t take it anymore.

These potatoes are not really mashed — they’re just smashed a bit — so they still taste like biting into potatoes, not some whipped and pureed fluffy something-or-other. I don’t have anything against mashed potatoes, which they call puree de pommes de terre over here, but I’ll take lumpy over smooth any day. Guess that’s my grandmother Mary in me.

Green Chile-Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

3 pounds red-skinned potatoes, cut in 3-inch chunks
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 4.5 oz. can chopped green chiles
7 oz/200 grams fresh goat cheese
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

1. In a large, deep pot, put the potatoes and cover with water by 4-6 inches, and add the 1 teaspoon sea salt. Cover, and turn on high heat. When it boils, turn it down and set the timer for 10 minutes. When it goes off, see if the potatoes are ready by puncturing them with a fork – the potatoes should be soft, yet not mushy. If they’re ready, take them off the heat and drain them. If not, give them a few more minutes and keep testing until they’re done.

2. After you’ve drained the water off of the potatoes, add the 3 tablespoons of butter, and give it a stir. Here’s where the fun begins. With the hand potato masher (or just use your wooden spoon), give the taters a mash, so some of them are mashed and others are still in pieces. The idea is to be chunky and rustic — we’re not going for a smooth puree. Now, add the green chiles and the goat cheese and gently stir it in – be careful here, too, because it’s more fun to have the goat cheese in blobs and bits throughout than completely mixed through.

My beet obsession continues. I’m definitely eating more red these days than green.

I’ve been playing around a lot with textures — shredding what I’d usually slice, and slicing very thin veggies and fruits that I often just cut up in chunks. Just changing the shape of something can completely change how you perceive it. (My seven-year-old niece, for instance, will only eat chicken noodle soup with Sponge Bob-shaped noodles.)

I’ve seen shredded beets in the grocery stores here — sitting right next to the shredded carrots, in fact — and I’ve often wondered how it would taste to mix them up together.

I was hoping that for a bright bowl of orange and red, but alas, the beet juice had other ideas. Since the beets and carrots are both sweet, I added capers for a bit of salty, some dill, and when I served this (to myself — since X won’t eat beets), I added a few crumbles of Roquefort, and when I ran out of that, I substituted with feta. Pour on a bit of E-Z Dijon Vinaigrette, and you’ve got a very rouge, crunchy, salty-sweet light lunch.

Shredded Beets and Carrots

INGREDIENTS

4 cups shredded cooked beets
4 cups shredded raw carrots
1 tablespoon roughly chopped capers
1 tablespoon dill
¼ teaspoon sea salt
pinch or two black pepper
E-Z Dijon vinaigrette, recipe follows

In a medium bowl, toss the shredded beets, carrots, capers, salt and pepper. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons or so of the dressing on this mixture, toss, taste for seasonings, and let rest for an hour or two before serving. You’ll probably want to add more dressing — I keep the rest in the fridge, and add a a bit more, if needed, as I eat this over the next day or two.

E-Z Dijon Vinaigrette

INGREDIENTS

⅓ cup sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I often use a coarse grain mustard)
1 teaspoon shallots, minced
1 teaspoon fresh herbs, such as thyme, basil, parsley, chopped (optional)
salt
pepper
⅔ cup olive oil

Put everything but the olive oil in a jar (I always use old jam jars for my dressings) and shake until combined. Add oil, shake again, taste, and adjust for seasonings if necessary.

There may not be an easier recipe for eggplant in the world. Or one that’s more delicious.

I saw this recipe in “Plenty,” Yottam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, and thought that it sounded too good to be true: eggplant, split and brushed with olive oil, some herbs, salt and pepper, and that’s it.

Seriously. That’s it.

You know how eggplant can be so, so wrong? It can be mushy. Greasy. Or both. Well, this eggplant is neither. It’s soft, yes, but it’s so tender and lovely and inherently eggplanty, that you’ll not believe that there’s not more to it.

The original recipe calls for a buttermilk-yogurt sauce, which I was planning to make, but the stinky stinky (and always understocked) Franprix, naturally, didn’t have buttermilk, so I nixed that plan and just whipped up some raita instead. It was fabulous. Perfect.

In keeping with my “eat cool” mantra of the summer, I made this early in the day, and X and I ate the eggplant at room temperature later, for dinner. The crunch of the cucumbers in the chilled yogurt gives this a great textural contrast, and makes for a totally satisfying, light summer meal.

Oven-Roasted Eggplant with Thyme

Adapted from “Plenty” by Yottam Ottolenghi

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1 large eggplant, split down the middle, stem intact
4 tablespoons olive oil
pepper
sea salt
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 pinch garam masala, for garnish (optional)
1 recipe raita, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F.

Place the split eggplant in a Pyrex dish. Make a few slices in the flesh so it’ll better soak up the oil, then brush with olive oil. Slide into the oven and cook until soft, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool.

When ready to serve, top with raita, more fresh thyme leaves and a pinch of garam masala.

Raita

INGREDIENTS

300 grams/10 oz/1 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
225 grams/8 oz/1 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 pinch cumin
2 pinches cayenne
1 teaspoon mint, chopped

In a medium bowl, gently mix all of the ingredients. Refrigerate for an hour, at least, before using.