Hauntingly Delicious Nightmare!

I am a total sucker for holidays.  The decorations, the festive foods and the childlike spirit they evoke in us all.  If I could get away with putting my Christams trees up today, I would.  I love Halloween, but unfotunately missed out on the festivities of Saturday night to watch Texas get slaughtered (how fitting) and since it fell on a Sunday this year there was no getting too crazy on a work night (um, yeah - I'm getting old).  To capture the spirit I decided to create a spooky themed dinner nightmare menu.  Most of the Halloween recipes I came upon were way too gross to eat with basically enedible ingredients so it took a bit searching to find inspiration for these dishes that were haunting, healthy and delicious.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:  Cabbage, Beets, Apple Chipotle Brined Pork Tenderloin, Dried Cranberries, Dates, Radishes, Red Potatoes, Limes

Bloody Eyeball Margarita:  Margarita rimmed with salt and red sugar, Eyeballs mad of hollowed radishes stuffed with green olives and drops of red food coloring

Cockroach and Dried Scab Salad:  Mixed Greens tossed in Lemon Vinaigrette, Dates stuffed with goat cheese and pecans, and Dried Cranberries

Yummy!  Cockroaches!!!

Buried Alive Potatoes Colcannon:  Okay so not that spooky of a dish, but a true Irish Halloween tradition. "Colcannon, a traditional Irish dish associated with Halloween, is made with potatoes and savoy cabbage and served with a well of butter in its center. It's simple and delicious and comes with folklore that's sure to please the curious or superstitious. The tale, as told to me, concerns the fate of unmarried women who would put the first and last spoonfuls of Halloween Colcannon into a stocking and hang it on their doors. Their shared belief was that the first man who walked through the door would become their husband."  It is also traditional to serve the Colcannon with rings and prizes of small coins hidden inside.  I didn't find any jewelry inside and sure didn't put the leftovers in my stockings, but they tasted amazing.

Flesh Worms with Coagulated Blood:  Grilled Pork Tenderloin wrapped in Bacon, Raw Spaghetti teeth and Roasted Beet and Red Onion Puree

Ground Beef Wellington

Okay...so this does not sound like the most elegant of meals, I know.  The thing is, I have this amazing aunt that many of you know and we all love.  I am the youngest, so anytime she comes to town she still brings me everything a college kid would ever need to live off of (although I have been out of college a good 8 years now - SCARY).  You know,  the basics: dish soap, paper towels, TP, and tons and tons of frozen meat.  I am not complaining.  I think I am actually putting off getting married for fear of this treat coming to an end :-)  Suffice to say, I have found myself with a suprlus of ground beef.  So I present you with Ground Beef Wellington.

Mushrooms, yellow onion, baby cucumbers, leeks, parsnips, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese and yes crescent rolls.  I did not have time to make homemade puff pastry or to let store bought defrost.  I figured, I was already making ground beef wellington, so when in Rome!

Pastry rolled out with mushroom duxelle  and blue cheese layers.

My wellingtons.  Big mistake...I totally forgot an egg wash.  Oops - they were not quite as glossy and crispy as I would have liked.

Best part of the meal. What I drank while I cooked, and my secret ingredient to the sauce for the wellingtons.

Roasted tomato on rosemary skewers for salad.

Tada.  Not too terribly bad.  Parsnips and Leeks & Ground Beef Wellingtons with Vanilla Porter Balsamic Reduction

It's Raining Pecans!

It's Raining Pecans! Hallelujah!
It's Raining Pecans! Every Specimen!
Small, round, large and lean
Striped and brown and smooth and green!
Okay...enough with my tribute to the Weather Girls' hit.  BUT I am super stoked about the pecans that are seemingly being dumped by the truckload into our yard this time of year.  It's the first year the trees have fruited since we have lived here.  Our neighbor says they look like Burkett Pecans, but I really don't know the difference.  Nonetheless,  with a few other treats from our garden they made the perfect nightmare ingredient.

A few of the pecans I am picking up each day right now.  My dogs will not stop eating them - do you think that is a problem??

Fresh ingredients straight from the garden - various peppers, pecans, sage and one of the two pitiful tiny melons we grew this year.

Minced pecans for Pecan Crusted Veal.

Whole wheat gnocchi with grilled peppers and brown sage butter.

Arugula and spinach salad with (you guessed it) pecans, cranberries, goat cheese and roasted radishes.

Pecan Crusted Veal with Orange Agave Butter & Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Grilled Peppers and Brown Sage Butter

I took the juice of green grapes, lemon and the tiny watermelon and boiled with some water, sugar and Gran Marnier.  Then I froze for several hours to create a Watermelon Grape Granita.

Guava Glazed Chicken Wings & Avocado Pudding...Super Quick & Less than $10

Last Monday night I had promised a nightmare because frankly, I was too lazy to cook my normal Sunday dinner after my race on Saturday.  We were in a time crunch because due to some tutoring I got home late from work so here are the ingredients we grabbed from City Market.  I don't enjoy cooking chicken with bones in it - just one of my strange hang-ups.  However, I was happy with the chicken wings when I found out that Alex almost brought home chicken feet.  I have already started my research on that ingredient because I know it is bound to show up in my kitchen soon!

Iceberg lettuce, chicken wings, corn on the cob, kiwi fruit, guava, avocado

Wedge Salad with Peppered Bacon, Kiwi, Tomato and Balsamic Lime Vinaigrette

Cilantro Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Guava Glazed Chicken Wings with Cilantro Chipotle BBQ sauce and Chili Lime Grilled Corn

I finally tried something I have been wanting to for a long time - Avocado Chocolate Pudding.  It only has four ingredients; avocados, cocoa, vanilla extract, and agave nectar.  I was skeptical, but am down to try anything that is healthy and delicious.  To my surprise it tasted even more sinful than any regular chocolate pudding I have ever tasted.  If you have never tasted this delicious dish, it is a must try! 

(and one of the easiest things I have ever made) 

 

 

Victory Dinner, courtesy of Alex

This Saturday I competed in the Austin Oyster Urban Adventure Race.  It was not the easiest thing I have ever done, but I did it, so I will leave it at that.  Let's just say an 8:00am bike ride from Riverside Drive to Mount Bonnell and back on the first leg of a 6 leg race was not what I had in mind (I have been on my bike maybe 3 times in the past 6 months!)
Our goal was to finish in time to watch Texas take on Nebraska by 2:30.  The driving force behind finishing in time wasn't just the game, but the reminder that Alex was smoking his now self-proclaimed "world famous" pork butt to be ready in time for dinner.  My awesome team and I finished the race and I made it home by the 2nd quarter, in time to watch Texas beat Nebraska.  Here's to my amazing guy, my amazing Horns and an amazing victory dinner!

 

Tacos al Pastor!  I'm a lucky girl :-)

Lavender, Grapes, Baked Cheese, Stinky Papaya - Oh My!

Some sort of strange Baked Cheese, Sweet Potatoes, Grapes, Maradol Papaya, NY Strips

The strange "baked bread" cheese

Chopping fresh garden lavender to put in the lavender butter for the steaks

I thought I was really creative by mixing sweet potatoes, grapes, bacon and vinaigrette then roasting it.  After looking online, evidently it is done quite often - usually with sausage rather than bacon.

 

 

The Maradol Papaya.  I had big plans for a papaya salad, but once I opened this thing I could barely stand to be in the same room with it!   The smell was so off-putting that I checked online to see if it was maybe rotten.  Evidently, these guys don't smell like roses, or the normal Hawaiian Papaya I am used to.  It is a nightmare, so I have to use it!

 

Best way to a perfect medium rare steak - start with a super hot grill.

This is how I incorporated the nasty papaya.  I put it in the juicer with limes and made a vinaigrette.  Voila - Spinach salad with garden peppers, red onion, pecans and papaya vinaigrette.

Baked cheese.  Extremely tasty...and believe it or not did not melt on the high heat of the grill.

Grilled NY Strip with Lavender Butter and Baked Cheese; Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Bacon and Grapes