Roasted Parsnip and Carrot Salad with Pomegranate

AZEats recipe #3: So I'm reading over the list of foods my friend in Azerbaijan said she had available and one jumps out at me - parsnips. I think I have only been served parsnips once in my entire life, and I couldn't tell you what they taste like to save my life. Oh wait, those were turnips. Yeah, zero parsnip meals. So of course - I must tackle the parsnip challenge.

But first I had to buy some. I go to the grocery store and see some white root looking things. Could they be it? No signage. I look closer and see "parsley root" - close but not quite. Eventually I find them (signed), looking like a pile of carrots that Bunnicula attacked. I realize that I don't know what to look for in a parsnip. They all look a bit blah. I pick out the firm ones with fewer obvious defects and bring them home...where they sit for over a week in my veggie crisper because I've been too busy or too out of town to cook.

I finally got some time to cook them (thankfully parsnips store well), but then the problem became - how do I cook them? Googling for parsnip recipes yields lots of soup recipes and parsnip purees, but that isn't what I'm looking for. I finally find a recipe on the Food Network site that at least gives me an idea. It involves orange and ginger flavoring. And ooh - it uses pomegranate, another ingredient widely available in Azerbaijan. Let's do it.

Modifications from the original: This recipe was one where you read it and knew right away it would need some modifications. First off - it practically called for more onion than other veggies combined. Also - pomegranate isn't in season around here right now, so instead of topping the dish with pomegranate seeds, my version of the recipe has you reduce pomegranate juice to create a "dressing" of sorts. It really worked well and gave the whole dish some neat red highlights as well as additional flavor. But I think pomegranate seeds would be best of all, so go for the real stuff, you folks in Azerbaijan.

Roasted Parsnip and Carrot Salad with Pomegranate
Serves 4 (as a side dish)
Adapted from Food Network Kitchens
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 large carrots (about 12 ounces)
2 parsnips (about 10-12 ounces)
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
Zest of 1/2 orange
Juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup peanuts
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (see note below re substitution)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup pomegranate juice OR seeds of 1 ripe pomegranate

Method:
Preheat oven to 350.
Peel parsnips and carrots and chop into pieces about 1/2 to 3/4 inch on each side.
Mix all ingredients except the cilantro and pomegranate, making sure the oil and spices are evenly distributed.
Pour into a roasting dish and put in oven. Cook for about 40 minutes or until parsnips and carrots are soft, stirring halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
While the veggies are roasting, pour the peanuts into a shallow dish (a pie tin works perfectly) and toast in oven for about 5 minutes, or until slightly browned.
To make the pomegranate "dressing" - Pour the pomegranate juice into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil until juice has at least halved in volume and begun to thicken. Remove from heat.
Stir cilantro leaves into vegetables. Top with the peanuts and drizzle with the pomegranate (or sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top). Serve while still slightly warm.

Verdict? Sweet, tangy and peppery good. Parsnips are a totally different taste than I expected, crisp with a hint of licorice (but just a hint - I don't like licorice but the parsnips are good). Next time I might consider omitting the black pepper and using cayenne instead, perhaps adding a bit of honey. But I certainly enjoyed it as is.

While eating the leftovers cold over a salad today, it struck me that a dollop of goat cheese might be nice on it as well. Just an idea~ Oh, and if you're one of those (weird!) people who don't like cilantro (it is genetic, I know, I just love the stuff), you might try substituting with flat leaf parsley.

Bonus ingredient tip: Ginger (in the root form you buy in the produce section) keeps well in the freezer. Just wrap it tightly in plastic and store inside an airtight bag. When you need to use some, peel the skin off of the frozen root using a paring knife and grate it with a Microplane or other fine grater. This way you'll always have it when you need it and won't waste money buying a whole root just to use a small amount.

Parsnip picture above by Gaetan Lee, used pursuant to Creative Commons License.

Sweet Ricotta Blintzes with Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce

I love breakfast. Well, not that yogurt and muffin I eat at my desk while reading my email. Weekend breakfast. I'm not a morning person but when I wake up on a weekend morning with nothing to make me rush out of the house, well - that is one of my favorite moments. It has so much potential. I could do anything! I could eat anything! Sometimes I even think of what I want to make to eat the night before, I love it so much.

Usually I go for eggs, maybe pancakes, but this particular Saturday I decided to go in a different direction. Crepes, I thought...with ricotta (after inventorying my fridge). A few cookbooks later and I found my starter recipe in that standby book for home cooks - the Joy of Cooking. It is a blintz recipe. After a moderate amount of research trying to figure out the difference between a blintz and a crepe, I'm convinced it is pretty much the same thing, with crepes being of French origin and Blintzes hailing from eastern Europe. Some say it is about yeast, others about cooking one one side vs. two...If anyone cares to shed any more light on this, I'd welcome the info.

Modifications from the original: The ricotta, of course (the original calls for farmer's cheese or cottage cheese). I left out the orange zest and raisins optionally called for in the original - the former because I hated my zester and the latter because I didn't have any. I added a dash of orange extract instead and I think it worked. I now have a spiffy Microplane (love it!) so I'll try it with zest next time. I think raisins would be overkill at best and at worst out of place in this dish, so I vote for leaving them out.

And oh yes, the strawberry balsamic sauce. Why vinegar with strawberries, you might ask? Well, balsamic vinegar isn't your usual vinegar. It has complex flavors and sweetness of its own. And it really seems to bring out the strawberry's own flavors. I confess to not coming up with this combination on my own, but having some raspberry balsamic jam at an Italian market. It worked there, and I'd like to think it works here.



One final note - I'm sure this seems like a lot of work, but let me tell you that it really isn't so bad, especially since so much can be made in the blender/food processor. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to prepare the blintzes. Just keep that pan buttered and they'll come out perfect. Sure, this isn't as quick and easy as pancakes from a box, but with not too much work you can have a breakfast that tastes like something you'd happily pay good money for from a restaurant.

Sweet Ricotta Blintzes with Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce
Serves 2-4

Printable RecipePreparation notes: The below recipe is in three parts, the blintz itself, the cheese filling, and the strawberry sauce. The blintz batter needs to sit for 30 minutes and the strawberry sauce needs to simmer for a while, too, so I advise tackling all the tasks in this order: 1) prepare blintz batter through the resting stage, 2) prepare strawberry sauce and start it simmering as directed, 3) make the cheese filling, 4) cook the blintzes, 5) fill, fry, top, eat! You can also prepare the blintz batter, cheese filling, and strawberry sauce a day in advance and refrigerate it.

Sweet Blintzes
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
Makes 8-10 blintzes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
pinch of salt

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
When ready to prepare blintzes, coat an 8 or 10 inch skillet with butter. Heat pan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted, remove skillet from heat and pour in about 3 tablespoons of the batter, enough to just coat the bottom of the pan. Return skillet to heat and cook until the bottom is golden and the top is dry. Place blintz on a piece of wax paper and prepare next, stacking the finished blintzes between sheets of wax paper.



Ricotta Filling
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup ricotta cheese

2 ounces cream cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more as needed

Method:
Combine all ingredients except the butter and oil in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
Drop an equal amount of the filling in the center of the uncooked side of a prepared blintz.
Fold in the sides of the blintz to make a rectangular package in which the cheese mixture is completely encased.
Heat the butter and oil in a skillet until the butter is melted and any bubbles have subsided. Add the blintzes, seam side down. Cook until the bottom is golden and then flip and brown other side as well.
When the blintzes are done, set them on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
Transfer the blintzes to the serving plate and top with the strawberry sauce.


Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce
by Me
Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon butter (unsalted if you have it)
3 tablespoons sugar (use an extra tablespoon if your strawberries aren't very sweet)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Method:
In a small saucepot over medium-high heat, stir together the strawberries, butter, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the mixture has nearly reached your desired consistency. Add 1 tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar and let boil for one more minute. Reduce heat to low and and add remaining tablespoon of vinegar. Stir and let simmer until thickened, or until you're ready to eat!

Verdict? Yummmmm. Seriously. I'm getting hungry thinking about these now, and I just ate lunch. By the way, you can freeze the assembled blintzes (before pan frying them), so feel free to make a double batch and store some for later use. I have three of these babies in my freezer at home; can't wait to go eat them. Breakfast for dinner anyone?

By the way - if you want to attempt to reduce the fat used in this dish, you can probably get away with pan-frying the filled blintzes in your most non-stick skillet with less oil/butter or even cooking spray. For making the blintzes in the first place I'd advise trying to butter the skillet just every other blintz if trying to reduce the fat. That second one will be a bit tougher to get out of the pan, but it should still be fine. This dish will never be totally low fat but you can trim off a bit here and there. Enjoy!

By the way - sorry for the long delay between posts. Life got busy for a bit, but look for a new recipe tomorrow, one for you AZEats people. That one will be followed by more breakfast. Yummm.

Carrot, Spinach, and Rice Stew

I spent the past weekend trying my hand at a few recipes for the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I've only entered a few recipe contests and have yet to win anything. I don't mind, though, as the contests provide me with motivation/inspiration to be more creative with my home cooking.

For the Pillsbury Bake-Off you have to use at least two of their products. That means that I've been eating way more than my fair share of breads, sweets, and other high calorie foods. "This week will be healthy eating week!" I declared at 4 AM Sunday night, after submitting one of my last recipes to the Bake-Off. Of course I follow that edict with a dinner out at my neighborhood Italian-ish joint for rigatoni with eggplant and a (probably not) healthy dose of smoked mozzarella.

But Tuesday night came. I was once again ready to set foot in my kitchen, and wanted something healthy to make. Enter this simple recipe. It is low-fat and low-calorie, having little more than veggies, rice, and vegetable stock as its ingredients. An online calorie counter estimates this recipe has 115 calories per serving - not bad, right? It is also pretty low cost, as spinach, carrots, and rice are all fairly cheap at the store, and you're making your own stock now, right?

Modifications from the original: Cardamom! I feel like I unearthed a secret by putting that in there. The original makes only loose suggestions for seasoning, suggesting cumin or dill, and a lemon finish. I opted for cumin as it is one of my favorites (and I'm still satiated with dill from the zucchini pancakes). The lemon juice squeeze at the end gave the stew a bit of tart brightness and the cardamom served as the perfect bridge between the cumin and the lemon. But try it for yourself and see! I also used brown rice and a bit less spinach because that's what I had on hand, and simmered everything in stock instead of water. The recipe also calls for a tablespoon of butter to be added at the end. The butter does help a bit, but it doesn't alter the flavor or mouth feel of the stew terribly much, so feel free to use olive oil in its place or omit the butter/oil entirely.

Carrot, Spinach and Rice Stew
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Serves 4

Ingredients:
6 cups vegetable stock
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and chopped
Salt, to taste
1/2 cup rice (white or brown)
10 ounces spinach, roughly chopped (if using baby spinach, don't chop it)
3 small cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon salted butter
1 lemon

Method:
Bring the stock and carrots to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in the rice and a pinch of salt. Return the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat so the mixture simmers. After about 15 minutes, add the spinach, garlic, and spices. Simmer another 15 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked. Add the butter and taste for salt. Serve with a lemon wedge or top each bowl with a generous squeeze of lemon juice.

Verdict? Comforting, earthy yet tangy, simple goodness.

Zucchini Pancakes with Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

I kind of went overboard when shopping for veggies last week. I hadn't made the effort to go to the food coop where I usually buy my produce in a while, and then I found myself there twice in one week. I can't walk out of there without buying something green, so I wound up with an overflowing veggie crisper. The more delicate things got eaten first - the chard, the asparagus, salad greens, kale, peppers, eggplant. Finally the most durable-seeming vegetable of the ones I purchased last week was up to be cooked - zucchini.

I usually just saute zucchini with onion and garlic(mom-style) and call it a day, but I was in the mood for something a bit more fun. I also had some feta I purchased in the aforementioned trip to Astoria, and some dill I bought for another recipe. Those ingredients were all I needed to make something I'd seen a recipe for a few days prior - zucchini pancakes. A quick word about the feta - it was a very smooth, creamy feta. Still salty and tangy, but more delicate than all the feta I'd had before. I have to get more!

Okay, they weren't exactly all I needed, but they were the only things on the list that I don't always have on hand. This recipe comes by way of a New York Times column called "The Temporary Vegetarian"; it suited this permanent vegetarian quite nicely. Serve this Turkish-origin dish alongside a salad with vinaigrette dressing to make a complete dinner out of it, or just serve it alone with the yogurt dipping sauce as an appetizer.

Wine: I'm no expert on wine, so don't look to me for pairing recommendations for everything. However, I did visit my neighborhood wine shop and ask them to recommend something to go with this meal; their choice was so good I thought I'd share it with you: a 2007 Grüner Veltliner from Theirry-Weber (Austria). The guy in the store described it as having unripe pear and white pepper notes. I often enjoy a glass of wine with a meal, but rarely does a pairing work out so well. The flavors of the wine enhanced the flavors of the meal and vice versa. So if you want to go all out - look for this and enjoy it with the pancakes! Okay, back to the food...

Modifications from the original: None really. Actually, I'll say to reduce the amount of garlic in the yogurt sauce because it is super garlicky. Also - I actually only had two zucchini on hand instead of the three the recipe calls for, so I scaled down the rest of the ingredients accordingly. It still worked beautifully. This recipe also gave me a chance to attempt to season my new cast iron skillet by pan frying in it - hurray!

Zucchini Pancakes
Adapted from nytimes.com
Serves 4 (about 12 pancakes)

Ingredients:
3 medium zucchini, shredded (use your food processor, it is worth hauling it out)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon baking powder
vegetable oil as needed

Method:
Preheat oven to 250.
Mix zucchini with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place in a cheesecloth and squeeze to extract as much water as possible from the zucchini (volume will shrink to about half the original).
Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add zucchini and stir well with a large fork.
Add flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, olive oil, feta, scallions, dill, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Stir well.
Stir in baking powder.
Add enough vegetable oil to a large skillet to cover the bottom. Heat over medium heat until oil is shimmering.
Place heaping tablespoons of the batter in the skillet and press with a spatula to pancake form, about 3/8 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter.
Fry until golden brown on one side, then flip and brown other side. Pancakes should be slightly crisp when done.
Remove pancakes from skillet and place on a paper towel lined plate. Keep plate in oven until all pancakes are ready to serve.
Top with Garlic-Yogurt sauce below.


Garlic-Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients:
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
Mix ingredients together and serve on the side or on top of the pancakes.

Verdict? Full of flavor. There is a hefty dose of dill and scallion flavor, mixed wtih the more subtle earthiness of the zucchini and pulled together with just the right amount of tang from the feta. These were so good I ate the leftovers cold straight out of the refrigerator. Please do try them with the wine pairing listed above - you'll be happy you did!

Lavender Tea Bread

I was in Astoria this past weekend for brunch with two friends. For those of you outside of NYC, Astoria is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens which has the largest population of Greeks in the city. On the way back to the subway we stopped at this great Greek market. The highlight of the store was the feta counter in the back, boasting six different types of feta at least, possibly more. In addition to a half pound of a mild, creamy feta, I bought some special baking powder that I'd been on the lookout for, a sheet of dried apricot paste that I have no idea what I'm going to use it for, and a bottle of dried lavender.

I'd messed around with lavender in food a few months ago but didn't do much beyond make lavender butter. (For those of you who aren't familiar with the taste of lavender, to me it tastes like a mix of lemon and flowery herbal notes.) I tried to do some googling to find some specifically greek recipes making use of the stuff, but saw this recipe and knew I had to make it. That night.

Okay, I made it the next night. I shouldn't have waited - it was wonderful.

Modifications from the original: I keep forgetting I have cake flour on hand. Thankfully I remembered and used it in this recipe (use just 2 cups of flour if you're using all-purpose). I think I can thank the cake flour for the wonderfully light texture and relatively fine crumb. I can probably also thank Bakewise, as a quick read through the section on creaming suggested that longer and colder is better. I also used less lavender, since I was working with dried and not fresh. Feel free to use up to 3 tablespoons of lavender if you are working with it fresh. And the part you want is the little flowery buds, not so much the leaves.

By the way - Many people say a good substitution for a cup of cake flour is to use a cup of all-purpose flour, minus 2 tablespoons, plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Feel free to give that a whirl here, but remember that the recipe itself calls for 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons, so adjust accordingly.

Lavender Tea Bread
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender
6 tablespoons butter, slightly below room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups plus 2 Tbsp cake flour (approximately 6.5 ounces on my cheap Ikea scale)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 325.
Put mixing bowl, beaters, and sugar in the freezer to cool.
Grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.
Chop the lavender into smaller bits, as best you can (it will go flying, try to keep it in a pile). Or, if you have a mortar and pestle, use that to crush the buds into smaller pieces.
Add milk and lavender to a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat until milk simmers, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Remove items from freezer and, using an electric mixer on medium-high, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth - at least 5 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until mixture is light and almost fluffy, about 3 minutes (mix should hold a shape for at least a few seconds).
Place the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together for 30 seconds to distribute leavening evenly.
Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the main work bowl in small amounts, alternating between the two. Stir just enough to blend the ingredients.
Pour batter into the loaf pan.
Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out with only minimal, fully baked crumbs.
Let cool on a wire rack.

Verdict? This is a wonderfully light cake, a refreshing change from the usually heavy things that come out of my loaf pan (banana bread - I'm talking to you!). Do try to make this with the cake flour if you can (or the substitute). Now if only I could score an invite to someone's house for tea to share this bread...otherwise I'll be eating the entire loaf myself!

Spinach and Brown Rice Pilaf with Feta

My kitchen is full of printouts of recipes I discover when I'm at work. I print them out and save them for when I'm ready. Some I get to within the week; some I've had for months. This recipe didn't even make it 24 hours.

Silky spinach meets hearty brown rice and tangy feta in this Greek-inspired dish. You'll have doubts when this first goes in the pot - it looks like a giant pot of watery spinach filled with rice that will never cook. But it will cook. And it'll be quite tasty when it is done, I promise. I served this as a one-dish meal with some chunks of lemon pepper baked tofu on top.

Modifications from the original: The original called for jasmine rice and fresh spinach. I used brown rice for the health benefits as well as because that is what I had in my pantry. I also used a mix of fresh and frozen spinach, in an effort to test to see if this recipe could be made using either one. In the end - I don't think it matters. This dish cooks for a good 40 minutes, so using fresh doesn't really seem to matter. Use whichever is available; obviously starting with frozen chopped spinach rather than fresh will save you the cleaning/chopping time.

Spinach and Brown Rice Pilaf with Feta
Inspired by Kim O'Donnel

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup brown rice
1 pound spinach, chopped (frozen or fresh)
Salt and black pepper
1 cup chopped fresh dill
Dash of nutmeg
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 pound feta, crumbled

Method:
In a 4-quart saucepan or other large pot, heat olive oil over medium-low heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook until soft but not brown, about 10 minutes.
Stir in rice and cook for about 2 minutes, allowing the rice to absorb some oil.
Stir in spinach in small batches, waiting for each batch to wilt a bit before adding more. (If using those bricks of frozen spinach, just toss the whole brick in and break it up as the contents reach a boil.)
Stir in 1/4 tsp salt and a generous pinch of fresh ground black pepper.
Add 2 cups of water and turn up heat to bring mix to a boil.
Cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 30-40 minutes (or until rice is almost cooked), stirring occasionally.
Add the dill and nutmeg. Cook for another 10 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed, and the rice is thoroughly cooked.
Add another generous pinch of salt (up to 1/4 tsp) and more fresh black pepper to taste.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Transfer to serving dish and crumble feta on top.

Verdict? Wonderful. The spinach got nice and creamy, the lemon juice and feta imparted a nice contrasting tang, and the dill gave the whole thing an extra "fresh" taste. Serve as a main dish topped with a protein of your choice or as a great side.

Beet and Potato Hash

Beets have been a relatively new addition to my diet. I don't recall them being around when I was a kid. As an adult I always just thought of them as those red things in salad bars. I liked them well enough, but that was about it.

One day I decided to buy some on a whim when I was food shopping, because they looked so pretty - in a happy earthy way. I just roasted them in olive oil with salt and rubbed the skins off when done. I ate these sliced over some mixed salad greens and was hooked.

My beet adventures have since continued, bringing us to this recipe. This comes to us by way of chow.com, originally titled "Red Flannel Hash." It was intended to be a breakfast recipe, but it made a wonderful dinner alongside a green salad with vinaigrette.

What's great about this recipe is that the ingredients store very well. This is the sort of recipe you can shop for a week or more ahead of time. Another thing that was great about this recipe? Eating it. I really enjoyed the homey feel of the pan-cooked potatoes mixed with the different texture and slightly sweet flavor from the beets. And everything is better with an egg on top, in my humble opinion...

Oh - I almost forgot! I made a special purchase for this meal: my first cast iron skillet. Unfortunately it isn't quite up to snuff as far as seasoning and having that lovely natural non-stick coating, so I experienced quite a bit of sticking. A way to avoid this would be to stir the hash more often, but don't do it so often as to prevent the potatoes from forming nice crunchy crusty bits; that is part of the point. If you don't have cast iron, any oven-proof skillet will do. Avoid rubber handles (that probably goes without saying) and non-stick coatings (which can become toxic when exposed to high temperatures such as used here). Look for more cast iron recipes soon, as I've been saving them up for when I finally got one!

Modifications from the original: I just used whatever kind of potatoes I had on hand - Russet, I think. I mixed red and golden beets. The color from the red beets still dominates everything, but there now are a few lovely yellow undertones as well. The original also calls for a half cup of chopped parsley to be stirred in just before the eggs - to be honest, I just forgot to do this and don't feel as though the dish suffered much. So if you have the parsley on hand, go for it (or any other fresh herb you're a fan of), if not - don't sweat it. Also - I added some other seasonings as detailed below. Unfortunately I neglected to measure these out. So - taste as you add. But it will be hard to go wrong with any sort of salty/peppery/herby combination on this; even seasoned salt would do nicely.

Beet and Potato Hash
Adapted from chow.com

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 medium potatoes, diced to about 1/2" cubes
2 red beets, diced
2 golden beets, diced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
dash of paprika
dash of cayenne
dried oregano
4 eggs

Method:
Preheat oven to 450.
Add vegetable oil to skillet and place in preheated oven for about 5 minutes, until the oil is shimmering.
Remove skillet from oven and stir in the potatoes, beets, onion, and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Put skillet back in oven and roast for about 50 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time (or more if your skillet is not non-stick). Add the remaining spices at the halfway mark. Taste for salt.
When the potatoes and beets are cooked through, remove the skillet from the oven and stir the hash. Create four indentations in the hash and crack an egg in each. Return skillet to oven until eggs are cooked to desired level, about 6-9 minutes.
Serves 2-4.

Verdict? Loved it. I'll be eating this again for sure. I love savory breakfasts, I love eggs, I love beets. I wish I still had the leftovers...

Brown Sugar Carrot Bread

I made some Bahn Mi the other night and shredded WAY too much carrot. I did a bit of cookbook surfing to try to decide what to use the leftover on. I was thinking carrot souffle, pudding, maybe cake... When I stumbled across this recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman I had to try it.

Modifications from the original: less lemon zest because I couldn't bear to make more than one lemon naked, no nuts because I'm allergic, shredded instead of grated carrot because that's what I had, golden raisins because they seemed like a good addition and I had them on hand.

Brown Sugar Carrot Bread Recipe
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter
2 cups flour
1 cup dark brown sugar (okay, I was a bit short so it was more like 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/8 white sugar, 1/8 Splenda for baking).
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup fruit juice (I used a tropical mix - pear, pineapple, papaya, guava, mango, etc.)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup golden raisins

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x5 loaf pan.
Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in the butter (either by hand or using food processor).
Beat juice, zest, and egg together. Pour wet mixture into dry and stir just until blended.
Fold in carrot and raisins.
Pour into loaf pan and spread into all corners.
Bake for an hour (was 65 mins for me) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for 15 mins, then remove from pan.

Verdict? Pretty good. I'd stay closer to the hour cooking time if you're using a metal baking pan, as my crust was fairly thick considering how moist the inside stays (meaning it was tough to cut a pretty slice). Then again, that could have been a result of me slicing it while still warm because I couldn't wait. It was pretty sweet but in a nice, earthy way. I probably could have gotten away with just the 3/4 cup of brown sugar just fine.

Edit: After letting it cool fully, the bread sliced wonderfully. So don't be impatient like I was. The crumb also looks/feels better in the cooled-off version than it does in my close-up pic. But I think it looks yummy either way...