stacey . smoore . the staceyfish . 
Life in a Northern Town: the exploits of an ecstatic Alaskan
Lens: the adventures of a girl and her camera
There are some days at work that are just way to hectic for me to break away for a bit, drive home, and prepare a delicious meal.
Luckily, I have this recipe, and I can make a delicious, healthy meal at work.
I have a feeling I'm not the only one who's occasionally too busy to get the much needed lunch respite, so in honor of all of us eat-at-our-deskers, I present this, a throughly modern, healthy, and delicious version of the typical American baked potato.
If you're like me, that previously mentioned russet potato (a starchy root whose super-nutritious skins are largely discarded), piled high with butter (artery clogger #1), cheese (A.C. #2), sour cream (A.C. #3), bacon (A.C. #4) and chives (woah, an innocuous one managed to get in there) is pretty unappealing. Try this take instead: a yam (not candied, but left in its pure fiber- and vitamin-rich form), piled with tangy plain yogurt (pretty healthy, especially when compared to sour cream), cumin (a wonderful spice), and rosemary (another fantastic flavor). See, the beauty of this lunch is that not only is it as easy and quick to prepare as the four-fold artery clogger, it's much more flavorful because you use herbs and spices and not lots of animal fat on a root veggie that already has plenty of flavor on its own. (Quick note: yes, that is a jar of ground cumin - I buy most of my spices whole but I go through cumin so fast that I don't take issue with buying it ground. I do keep whole cumin on hand, but for a quick, easy recipe like this it's just easier to take the shortcut.)
And I must admit it: I'm a sucker for the yogurt, cumin, and rosemary blend. I first ran across it in middle eastern lamb spread I make around Easter and for some reason it just works with the yam. And really, with fresh, flavorful ingredients like this, what's not to love? Unless, of course, you count the glares of envy that your Lean Cuisine-reheating officemates will be shooting you when they smell the lunch you're walking around with.
Click here for the recipe for "Baked yam with middle eastern flavors" »
I may have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with butternut squash. As soon as it hits the grocery store, I'm burrowing through recipes, writing down the weight of the squashes I'll need in my upcoming cooking marathons, and re-inventing the stuff as much as I can.
Sadly, though, there are very few recipes for the stuff that don't involve roasting. Not that I'm complaining - roasting is one of my favorite methods because it's totally fuss-free and extremely adaptable - but sometimes I just want some texture with my squash!
Then the folks at Cafe Cacao came to the rescue: their first executive chef whipped up this recipe, which is just beyond flippin' perfect. The nibs add not only just a bit of crunch, they also toss in a subtle chocolate flavor. Not a huge fan of unsweetened chocolate? Never fear, the squash provides that sweetness! This recipe is genius. Pure genius.
Can you see why I wanted to have the wedding rehearsal dinner there?
Skeptical about chocolate and squash? I'd like to clarify and say that Scharffen Berger nibs and Hersey's have about as much in common as apples and baseball bats. Hersey's (and other mass-marketed chocolate) are all about the sweet, sweet, sweet. There is not much chocolate to speak of. On the other hand, the nibs have a very warm, complex, nutty, fruity, vanilla-y, and above all, pure chocolate-y flavor. So throw caution to the wind and give this recipe a shot while the squash is still in season.
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted squash with cacao nib vinaigrette" »
Last fall, out on my own, looking for yummy things to eat, and cursing the lack-of-vegetable-repertoire that extended beyond steamed broccoli, I starting looking for new vegetables to titillate my palate and nourish my body. I tried just about every fall vegetable I could find like brussels spouts, parsnips, or spaghetti squash. I wasn't too impressed with the stuff I was trying but was more than willing to try again since a) winter produce in Alaska is, well, yeah.... and b) who could tell if my recipes were any good to begin with! I needed to give the veggies a fair shot to find a permanent place on my plate before I can in good conscience dismiss them.
But two veggies that I found were definite winners: butternut squash is a wonderful surprise, more like pumpkin than anything else, and who doesn't like pumpkin? Plus the stuff is super-versatile. You can roast it, put it in a risotto, make soup out of it, the list goes on and on. The other winner I found was shallots. Have you tried these things? They're freakin' fantastic! If you mated butter, garlic, and an onion, you would get a shallot. They are wonderfully mild yet still very flavorful and will literally melt into a dish the way its more pungent cousins never will. Plus, they melt in your mouth. What an amazing little vegetable...
So you can imagine my joy when, while looking for butternut squash recipes because I had bought too much (again), I ran across this gem. You mean it has butternut squash AND tons of shallots??? AND one of the best roasting herbs, thyme??? AND it is super easy, cooks quickly, and is amazingly delicious? Where do I sign up???
So seriously, do yourself a favor and try this recipe. It would fit wonderfully into a Thanksgiving menu too. You'll find it on my own table come Thursday, the 22nd of November.
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted butternut squash with shallots and thyme" »
You may be sad because summer has come to an end, taking with it delightful foods like nectarines, plums, berries, and locally grown vegetables like greens, cauliflower, chard, beets, and carrots.
But don't fret! Fall has its place in a foodie's heart because it brings delights like root vegetables, butternut squash, pumpkins, an untold number of apple varieties, bartlett pears, and pomegranates.
I recently celebrated fall by having a harvest dinner (suggested by my most wise and venerable husband). On the menu was a roasted pear salad with candied walnuts, blue cheese, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, cabernet-glazed shallots, butternut squash risotto with wilted spinach and toasted pine nuts, sauteed pork tenderloin with an apple-sage sauce, and stuffed baked Jonagold apples with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. I love this menu -- it's so autumn-y with its warm, subtle flavors and unifying themes. Sage and apple are present in many of the dishes but are different and subtle enough to not get old or tiring.
Unfortunately, as with most dinner parties I host, I was pressed for time and eager to feed my guests (and myself!) so I didn't get photos. I'm normally loath to post recipes without pictures, but my desire to share this menu with others beat up my lack-of-photos hesitation and stole its lunch money. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!
There are so many reasons to love this recipe. Allow me to extol its virtues and enumerate a bit:
1. It's easy to prepare and it cooks quickly.
2. Substitutions and additions are definitely encouraged.
3. It's delicious and nutritious.
4. It smells fantastic as it cooks.
5. It's a great way to use seasonal produce.
6. The medley looks exactly like fall foliage.
Seriously, this is one of the best things I've made all autumn (I don't care that it was 19 degrees this morning, it's still autumn to me!). If you're looking at the list and you think that you don't like some of the ingredients (I'm reminded of a friend who would without fail exclaim "Beets are HIDEOUS!" when offered them), try them in this recipe. Some of them (like beets) have a totally different flavor and texture when roasted than they do when, say, boiled. Or when mashed with marshmallows (and that's why I thought sweet potatoes were gross for twenty-two years!). Other ingredients, like shallots, will never cease to surprise you with their delicious, delicate, and sophisticated flavor and the way they seem to melt when they hit your tongue. And still others that weren't included this time around, like butternut squash, would be truly divine.
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted fall vegetable medley" »
Around this time of year I'm always looking for delicious, light food that really takes advantage of the season's freshest produce. If it happens to pair with the fresh bounty from the sea that Alaska has to offer, all the better.
Right after I got back from my honeymoon I realized that halibut was in season and that was, of course, a perfect reason to have people over. Halibut needs little accompaniment on its flesh -- but that's another post. The tough question was what to serve beside it. Really, just about anything could go next to, but I needed something bright in color, texture, and flavor. Then I remembered green beans with red pepper, lightly sauteed and adorned with garlic.
It was perfect -- this light, flavorful, and wonderfully textured vegetable side dish just screams "SUMMER!" to me.
This is also a great dish to serve while entertaining. It comes together in mere minutes and is visually pleasing, thanks to the red and green. I've also found a couple of key substitutions that help adapt this recipe to different palates -- if you want something with a bit of spice to complement the garlic, use the red pepper flakes. If you want to add a different kind of crunch that brings some white to the presentation, use sliced almonds instead. You could also substitute other vegetables in, or just add them. It's a great, versatile, healthy dish that often finds its way to my table.
Click here for the recipe for "Green beans with red pepper and garlic" »
Growing up, one of my family's favorite accompaniments to meat dishes was steamed red potatoes and green beans. For some reason, the flavors go together quite well, especially when paired with a meat dish. I brought this idea along with me when I moved out, but as I learned more about cooking I couldn't help but modify it.
My experimentation all started with a recipe I found for a Salade Niçoise. It called for roasted potatoes, green beans (good so far) but then added in all this other stuff like chopped kalamatas, onions, anchovies, capers, and lemon and was served along unadorned flavorless grilled tuna steaks. Something had gone terribly wrong. I like a lot of those things, but the combination was simply too much. This recipe was trying way too hard. Instead of being warm, inviting, savory, simple, and satisfying, it was bitter, salty, and, well, gross.
Nevertheless, it did introduce me to roasting, and I knew that I was on to something good here. Knowing that the basic premise of red potatoes and green beans was pure and solid, I made it several more times over the coming months, but omitted the offending ingredients and added an aromatic or two.
Of course, the potatoes are heavenly on their own without the green beans. Last Christmas, my mother-in-law was roasting those red potatoes I love so well, and was of course adding in the requisite rosemary. This caused her father to protest loudly "Don't add so much rosemary! You'll ruin the flavor!" I couldn't help but laugh at this well-meaning but misguided advice, given that the potatoes have practically no flavor on their own. Potatoes and rosemary go together like tomatoes and basil: a match made in heaven. What would be the point of roasting them without it?
Click here for the recipe for "Roasted rosemary red potatoes with green beans" »
Growing up, while probably no different than most other American households, I was familiar with startlingly few grains. I knew of wheat, oats, rice, and.... that's about it. Since I've struck out of my parents' house own and have had a kitchen -- and some cookbooks! -- to call my own, I've been making a conscious effort to branch out.
This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks. It's odd that it's one of my favorites, give that I'm usually somewhat dissatisfied with the way the recipes turn out. Luckily, the recipes are usually a good 70% solution and I find it very easy to take their recipes and solve dissatisfaction with a few simple -- and still healthy -- substitutions. The original recipe for this dish called for (perfectly revolting) mushrooms but still lacked a thing or two in terms of taste and color. So I varied the cooking method a little bit, added in some much needed flavor, and here is the result!
Click here for the recipe for "Quinoa Pilaf With Arugula and Sun-dried Tomatoes" »