cauliflower cheese hash brown casserole

About a week ago, we had a lovely sunny day, with just a bit of fall in the breeze and I had a few quiet moments to myself so I curled up on my newish outdoor loveseat under a blanket and read a bit of Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries.

I was reading January, February - all about cold, grey, bitter weather and lovely things to cook then. I adore his roasted onion soup and I began to get quite hungry under my blanket out in the sunshine. I did have a strong hankering for mashed potato when I put my book down.

I had a cauliflower hanging out in my veggie drawer for a bit and so I decided to do cauliflower cheese hash brown casserole. As I had a pile of chard from the garden as well,

 I threw that into the mix for a bit of green. To balance out the greens, I added bacon. Actually it was the other way around, I added bacon, because..well, bacon. And then added the greens.

Cauliflower Cheese Hash Brown Casserole
1 head of cauliflower florets, roasted
2 large shallots, sliced
4 rashers thick cut bacon, sliced
1 big pile of chard, cut into ribbons
4 tbsp flour
560 mL milk (or broth and milk combined)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 small package of frozen diced hash brown potatoes
1 1/2 c grated cheddar or other hard cheese (I used a combination of old cheddar and goat)

Preheat your oven to 375 deg F. Add the cauliflower florets to a baking sheet and roast for 10-15 minutes until slightly browned at the edges.

Add the shallots and bacon to a dutch oven over medium heat and cook until the bacon is mostly cooked and the shallots are tender.

Add the chard and saute for a couple of minutes until the chard is wilted. Remove the vegetable mixture from the pan, leaving the bacon fat behind. Add the flour and milk to the pan, stirring until thickened. Season with salt and pepper and the dijon mustard. Add back the vegetable mixture, add in the roasted cauliflower and mix well. Add in the hash brown potatoes and the cheese and mix to blend.

 Bake for 30 minutes at 350 deg F until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the edges of the dish are browing. Serve warm.

summer pizza

A wander into the garden today resulting in our first harvest of potatoes,

 one very fat zucchini

and a big bunch of sweet peas. 

I used the potatoes and zucchini as part of supper and the flowers add fragrance to my kitchen. Tonight's pizza was inspired by all the summer goodness I have in my kitchen today and by this post from David Lebovitz.


Summer Pizza

1 ball pizza dough (I used Whole Foods)
2 tbsp basil pesto
6 small new potatoes, sliced and roasted
1 medium fat zucchini, sliced and roasted
a handful of kalamata olives, chopped
a small handful of diced red onion
2 giant leaves of swiss chard, slivered
5 big spoonfuls of fresh chevre (I was lucky enough to get from our local organic market)
2 ears of corn, kernels removed (from the fruit stand, picked today)
grated parmesan cheese

Roll out the pizza dough to fit a large baking sheet. Brush the dough with pesto. Cover the dough with the sliced, roasted potato and zucchini, then add the olives fairly evenly. Pile on the chard, and onion. Crumble the chevre over the top, then add the corn and finally the grated parmesan cheese. Bake in a 375 deg F oven for 15 minutes, or until the crust is browned. Slice and serve.

chard?

D came home on Friday night with a gift of a bunch of Swiss chard. I've never had it before, never cooked it before. But after a few seconds of pondering I pulled out my trusty Rebar cookbook and there it was - a perfectly, simply perfect way to cook it. Saute/steam with olive oil, garlic, chili and when wilted add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Mmmm. It tasted yummy with an aftertaste of goodness. You know when something you eat tastes like it is good for you. Bring on the chard.

Saturday the boys hung out together while I went for a hair cut. The plan was that D take T for a walk and possibly pick blackberries (they are huge and plentiful this year). When I got back, all coifed and carrying groceries (hey - two trips in one) - there were no blackberries to be found. All the berries picked were eaten. Sigh!

The market was smaller than usual on Sunday - not as many vendors and not as many shoppers but the weather was lovely. T got to paint a rock at the children's craft table which will be used as my office paperweight. I was too late to buy large organic free-range eggs and had to settle for medium. They seem a lot smaller than the large ones. Sigh. I'll just have to get moving faster next weekend and make it to the market earlier.

Sunday night I made a corn custard with smoked gouda which was very tasty. I also experimented with portobello mushrooms - oven roasted them, then topped them with a saute of mushroom stems, red onion, spinach and sun-dried tomato pesto and then a layer of feta cheese and popped them under the grill for a couple of minutes. Tasty!

I had some egg whites left over from the corn custard. Now I've always been afraid of merangues but I hate wasting food and last night I got out my Delia Smith - Basics of Cooking Book and looked up merangue. I carefully studied the pictures and read the directions, I beat my egg whites, added in the sugar and when it looked stiff and glossy, I stopped and laid out some merangue nests on a baking sheet and baked them as per the directions (into a warm (300 deg oven)), turn it down to 275 deg for 30 minutes and then turn the oven off overnight. I took them out when I got home tonight and they were good. A bit stuck to the baking sheet because I didn't have any parchment (to do for next time). I whipped up some cream and we had mummy pavlova - merangue nest with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Yum! T being unadventurous chose to have chocolate pudding over mummy pavlova - oh well.