Category: Baking / Cooking

Stuffed to the Gills

Some vegetables were made to be stuffed. Open, empty cups, yearning to be filled, they’re more than just an anonymous vehicle for egregious amounts of dip. Meaty caps to really sink your teeth into, even simple little button mushrooms can transform the average appetizer into an elegant canape.

Popularized around the mid 20th century, these fun guys have a relatively short gastronomic history, but have been the life of the party ever since. No matter what savory delights you find packed into the center, a warm, roasted mushroom with concentrated umami flavor can do no wrong. Bonus points for being a naturally compact finger food, self-contained and perfectly portioned.

Lightening the load of what tends to be a very rich heap of cheese, cream, breadcrumbs, and/or sausage, these baby bellas are filled with everyone’s favorite culinary chameleon: Cauliflower! Simmered until meltingly tender, a quick mashing makes them indistinguishable from less healthy fare. Redolent of vibrant lemongrass and basil, it’s hard to resist eating straight out of the pan by the forkful. Truth be told, you could easily serve this stuffing in place of mashed potatoes, but mushrooms really do take it to the next level.

This recipe was inspired by Kevin’s Natural Foods Lemongrass Basil Sauce and is my entry into the “Eat Clean. Live Happy. Blogger Recipe Challenge.” Like all of these products, my recipe is proudly paleo, keto, gluten-free, and sugar-free. You can get more information and inspiration on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Don’t wait for a special occasion to make stuffed mushrooms. Even if you’re just throwing a party for one, the small amount of extra effort will really make your taste buds dance.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)5 Comments

Solo Celebration

Thanksgiving, a time of abundance, celebration, and above all else, togetherness, looks considerably different this year. Global pandemics really put a damper on group festivities, traveling, and essentially all the annual rituals we tend to associate with the holiday. The writing has been on the walls for months, but it’s only just starting to hit home now. No endless buffets of home cooked excess, no tight, endless hugs with mom or dad, no laughing over a dwindling fire about our embarrassing childhood stories. Instead, I’ll walk in the door to an echoing, empty home. A vacant dinner table. A cold kitchen.

Although I’m alone physically, I know my situation isn’t special. Everyone’s in the same emotional boat, flailing about, rowing frantically just to avoid capsizing. It’s hard, it’s awful, but it would be so much worse to get sick, or make someone else sick. Fighting the very human nature that calls us together as a community goes against everything instilled in us since birth. This Thanksgiving will be a test of endurance, though it doesn’t have to mean days, or weeks, of self-imposed suffering.

Let’s do this thing together, separately. What does that look like in practice? For me, it means paring down the bountiful feast to just the essentials. At bare minimum, it’s simply not Thanksgiving without:

Don’t go crazy. Don’t make enough for an army. Don’t even turn on the oven if it’s too much. You can easily fill out this menu with delivery or prepared dishes from the grocery store, at a fraction of the cost of the typical, enormous spread.

That’s all it takes. More importantly, don’t forget to invite everyone you know and love! No, don’t actually have them over, but get them on the line with Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook, WHATEVER. Throw their faces up on the big screen TV if you’ve got it, put the monitor right on the table with you, and pull up a chair.

It’s hard to be thankful when so many obstacles have been thrown in our path this year. Not a single person on this planet has gotten off easy. No one can claim to be unaffected. There’s still so much in life to be grateful for, and I know I’m going to make the most of it, no matter what. There’s nothing stopping me from enjoying the traditional foods I love for the holidays, or enjoying time spent with the people I cherish. Cheers, to brighter days ahead; let’s eat!

Hannah (BitterSweet)14 Comments

Enticing Spicing

Supplements are vital for filling the gaps, ensuring a well-balanced diet, but it’s a simple fact that nutrients are best absorbed through food. “Food as medicine” is far from a fringe movement, though that doesn’t mean it should taste medicinal. If we can have cake made of cauliflower and noodles made of zucchini, why can’t we turn everyday meals into more flavorful, more powerfully nutritious dishes? Enspice is on a mission to end childhood malnutrition by putting essential vitamins and minerals back where they belong: In food.

We’re talking about naturally sourced, plant-based seasonings and spices enhanced with a boost of potent superfoods, not synthetic supplements. Things like maitake mushrooms, kelp, chlorella, kale, sunflower seeds, and more are what bolster the profile of these spicy sprinkles. One teaspoon of any of the six bold, piquant blends contains 50% of the FDA daily values.

Unlike more fragile, volatile ingredients, these spices are designed to withstand the heat of cooking or baking, so you’ll get the full benefit of those nutrients no matter how you put them to use.

Their statement about eradicating malnutrition is more than just hot air, too. The Enspice Children’s Foundation was created first to feed malnourished children around the world. Each purchase donates one meal for a child in need. You’re feeding yourself and your family well, AND making an impact on those less fortunate at the same time- As if a nourishing, flavorful home cooked meal wasn’t enough to feel good about.

Open up your spice rack to make room for the full fleet. Use them just as you would to season any of your favorite recipes. If you’re not sure where to start, aside from the obvious here are some of my favorite uses so far:

Cinnamon:

  • Snickerdoodle Cookies
  • Overnight Oatmeal
  • Cinnamon Sugar Toast

Black Pepper:

Taco Seasoning:

  • Pozole
  • Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
  • Tex-Mex Rice

Chipotle BBQ:

Cape Cod:

  • Corn on the Cob
  • Potato Salad
  • Jackfruit Crab Cakes

Seasoned Salt:

Variety is the spice of life, but spices themselves can enhance the quality of your life, too. Shake things up, and shake it on everything! What’s your favorite way to get spicy these days?

Right now, you can get 10% off Enspice seasonings & spices with the code MOMSMEET. This offer expires 12/30/20.

This review was made possible as a collaboration with Moms Meet and Enspice. My opinions can not be bought and all content is original. This page may contain affiliate links; thank you for supporting my blog!

Hannah (BitterSweet)5 Comments

Hot Potatoes

Remember years ago when sweet potatoes had a moment in pop culture history, akin to the fervor perpetually surrounding everyone’s seasonal darling, pumpkin spice? Oprah Winfrey essentially discovered the orange spud, according to online sources- And you know that if it’s on the internet, it must be true. All of a sudden, health gurus and foodies alike raced out to clear supermarket shelves of the tubers. It was as if no one had ever noticed them before, or at least, fully appreciated their flavorful potential.

Like all food trends, the extreme pitch and tenor of that enthusiasm quickly died down to a low roar, eventually settling back into a quiet hum of indifference. Where are all the sweet potato proponents now? Is there really only room in the oven for one autumnal vegetable superstar?

This year, I’m bringing sweet potatoes back. I’ve already professed my support for their simpler starchy brethren, so it’s time we dig a bit deeper into the root cellar for more colorful, flavorful possibilities.

Warm spices and dark, rich molasses join forces with the supple amber flesh, transforming the nostalgic, simple pleasure of the humble rice crispy treat into a seasonal delight. The satisfying crunch of toasted pecans punctuate the chewy, tender squares, rivaling the experience of a full slice of Thanksgiving pie.

Better than baked custard or scratch-made pastry, though, the instant gratification of transforming basic ingredients into a instant dessert surely squashed the competition. That’s definitely something to be thankful for.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)6 Comments

Potatoes for President

Like many strangely compelling trends, it all started as a silly hashtag.

#Potatoesforpresident was a random phrase that popped into my head during the previous election cycle, a small nod to my frustration over lackluster candidate options. Tinged with a whiff of frustration and the omnipresent craving for comfort, potatoes just stood out as the spuds for the job.

Potatoes themselves are diverse, proliferating across the globe in all colors of the rainbow. Far beyond white waxy varieties, purple, orange, yellow, and more speak to a wider range of flavors than just basic bland starch.

Endlessly adaptable, versatile, and accommodating, most potatoes can be eaten either cooked or raw, hot or cold. Spiralized, roasted, boiled, steamed, baked, scalloped, simmered, sauteed, mashed, fried, dried, juiced, distilled, blended, or stuffed, your humble potato is there for you, ready for the job.

Persevering through the bleakest of harvests, they’ve withstood the test of time. Unlike most fresh produce, they’ll keep at room temperature for months in the right conditions, good as the day they were unearthed. Potatoes are there for you when you need them, no matter what.

It’s never been more important to vote, so make it count. I’ll still be going to the polls to cast a real ballot on November 3rd, but at home, I’m always going to back this culinary campaign. #Potatoesforpresident, until we get someone in the Oval Office with even slightly more of a brain.

Here are a few of my favorite spuds to keep you company in the meantime.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)18 Comments

All Jacked Up

Gather ’round the campfire and pull your loved ones in close. It’s time for a ghost story more haunting than the Winchester Mystery House, more frightful than Frankenstein, and more bewitching than the lovely ladies of Salem. I’m talking about the tale of Stingy Jack.

Naysayers may call it a myth, but legend has it that Stingy Jack was a classic con artist, scraping by on someone else’s dollar while swindling his way into another man’s coin purse. He was already a man on the fringes of society, making more enemies than friends, so it should come as no surprise that eventually, the only creature willing to share a drink was the Devil himself. When last call came, predictably, Jack didn’t have the means to pay for his drink, so he made a dangerous bet with the devil instead.

Calling out his demonic power or lack thereof, he suggested that there was no way the devil could turn himself into the necessary coinage. With enough taunting and cajoling, already somewhat tipsy himself, Satan proved his prowess, transforming into a gleaming golden coin without any difficulty. Snapping up the opportunity along with the cash, Jack decided to ditch the bill and keep the money instead. Securing it in his pocket next to a silver cross, the Devil was prevented from transforming back into his original form.

Only when Jack died was demon freed, and quite peeved, to put it lightly. Hell was too good for this malicious man, so he set him off into the night, with only a piece of burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. Somewhere along the line, repeated reiteration of the story turned the turnip into a pumpkin, and that’s how we ended up with Jack-o’-lanterns.

Mea culpa; perhaps that was more of history lesson than a horror story. I can’t help but find myself enchanted by the origins of our strange holiday traditions. If you made it this far through my rambling tale, though, you definitely deserve a drink. How about a shot of applejack, on the rocks?

Better yet, let’s put it in the pumpkin.

That, my friends is the TRUE history of how the Applejack-O’-Lantern Pie came to be.

Cradled in a flaky pastry crust lies a layer of spiked and spiced apple filling, topped by a creamy pumpkin custard. Tender fruit mingles with brown sugar-infused pumpkin puree; each bite is highly spirited, in all meanings of the word. It’s a sinfully good treat to commemorate villainous old Stingy Jack… Just don’t make any deals with the Devil to secure a second slice.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments