We like to cook here at Fun With Carbs central. Sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than eating a delicious meal and knowing you created it yourself. Plus, that way you know exactly how many tablespoons of butter went into the dish. (but sometimes, ignorance is bliss.)
If you’re looking for recipes, email me at leeanne@funwithcarbs.com – I’m terrible at following recipes and would rather cook to sight and taste, but I can try to approximate. This is what’s been coming out of the kitchen lately…
Spinach and eggplant pie
Spinach and eggplant pie. I found this recipe, in of all things, a soup cookbook that my mother gave me to me a few years ago. It’s essentially a cross between a hot spinach dip and a quiche. The cookbook says it can be served hot or cold, but it tasted better heated. The ’spinach dip’ filling is a mixture of chopped spinach, egg, feta cheese, ricotta, Greek yogurt, lemon, onion and garlic. I sauteed the eggplant in olive oil and layered it throughout the pie. One key ingredient – that I’d leave out during my next try – was brown rice. The recipe called for a layer of it between the pie crust and the spinach filling. It may have served to soak up moisture, but it just lent an incongruous, unwelcome texture.
Shrimp scampi
Shrimp scampi. Not much recipe to this dish: the shrimp was sauteed with crushed garlic, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon, and then simmered briefly with white wine and a splash of fat-free half-and-half. But shrimp scampi always reminds me of the first time my husband and I ever cooked for each other as sophomores in college. I think I made pizzas, for that was all I could handle at the time. He tried shrimp scampi, but couldn’t for the life of him figure out how to procure lemon zest. Remember, this is before Food Network was big, before Rachael Ray grated lemons and limes all over your TV set. So he went out and bought a teeeeny jar of lemon peel for probably $8. I cringe and laugh when I think about college-days cooking and the time four of us watched a pan of chicken parmesan like hawks to make sure the chicken didn’t come out raw. (Like you can tell when it’s smothered with sauce and cheese.)
French bread
French bread, which is quickly becoming my specialty. Since I’ve had a bread maker in the house (THANKS ROB best Christmas present ever) I’ve been thrilled to create loaves of bread on a near-weekly basis. My former coworkers used to clamor for the ‘pretzel bread’ recipe (French bread glazed with egg white and coated with kosher salt, served with honey butter) but lately I’ve been sticking to a lower-sodium version with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt. I set the bread maker on the dough setting and let the dough rise in a covered bowl when it’s through mixing, then bake it in the oven at 350 degrees. It stays fresher days longer than any loaves I’ve baked right in the bread machine.
Tonight, we’ve got a small roast in the slow cooker that will become beef sandwiches on onion rolls. I’m downright fascinated with the crockpot, so I’m hoping to use it a lot this winter. Soliciting your favorite slow-cooked recipes…
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.