I’m sitting here in the yellow pollen fog of North Carolina springtime, consoling myself over the poor air quality with a bowl of fresh cilantro hummus and toasty pita.  Hey, if we can’t open the windows without gilding all horizontal surfaces in an inch of flaxen dust, we can at least enjoy a spring-green treat holed up in our kitchens, dreaming of a quick escape to some cool, clean, treeless paradise.  Hold on, North Carolinians! In a couple of weeks this will all seem a remote puffy golden dream.

Cilantro gives this hummus a fresh, lively flavor, and it is quite easy to make.
You’ll need:
1 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained – liquid reserved
~1/2 cup reserved chickpea liquid
2 T tahini
1-2 cloves garlic
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2-3/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/2- 3/4 t. salt
Like it spicy?  Add some jalapeño or 2-3 drops sriracha

Put everything in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

A New Yorker walked into a southern diner and said, “I’d like to try one of those grits”.

There are some serious misunderstandings about the oft-maligned grit.  I suppose they derive from the name itself, “grits” sounding less fashionable than their european cousin, polenta.  But grits, while they should hold their head high served plain or with gravy  as classic southern breakfast fare, can also be a canvas for all kinds of combinations of flavors and ingredients.  Grits are all grown up and joining you at the dinner table. This would make a wonderful side dish with pork chops and collard greens or fresh fish and spinach salad.

Serves 4
for the grits:
3 cups water
1 cup grits
1/4 t salt
1/2 c.  shredded asiago cheese

For the topping:
8 oz mushroom of your choice, sliced
2 T pine nuts or slivered almonds
olive oil
2 T butter
1/2-1 T flour (you can skip it if gluten is an issue)
1/3 cup white wine (or substitute chicken or vegetable broth)

Bring water and salt to a boil.  Stir in grits and asiago.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and let cook 5 min.

Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy duty pan or skillet over medium high heat.  When pan is hot, add ~2T olive oil to the pan, then place the mushrooms in the olive oil, spread out so they can sear.  Toss in the pine nuts or slivered almonds.  Sauté mushrooms about 3 miuntes on each side until they are just softened and have a toasty brown color.  Add 2 T butter and let melt. Toss in flour and stir.  Add white wine and stir.  Cook 2-3 minutes longer until wine is slightly reduced.

Place a heap of grits on a plate or in a bowl.  Top with mushrooms and pine nuts.  Garnish with freshly ground black pepper and a thin slice or two of asiago.

Hash browns seem to come in all shapes and sizes.  Sometimes the potatoes are cubed and fried with onions and peppers or other seasonings, sometimes they are large and flat, sometimes they’re short and stubby.  I like them best with the potatoes shredded and slightly held together to make a crispy little cake.

You’ll need:
2 large sweet potatoes
juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)
1-2 T flour
2 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1 egg
scallions or chives (optional)
kosher salt (optional)
Rinse, peel and grate sweet potatoes. Toss with juice of 1/2 lemon.  Let sit for about 5 minutes, then place in cheese cloth and squeeze out all excess juices.  (Make a smoothie with the leftover juice Pat dry.

Sprinkle with flour.
In a small bowl, mash goat cheese and yogurt to make a paste.  Whisk in egg.  Add scallions or chives, if desired.  In a large bowl, combine floured potatoes and yogurt mixture.

Heat a heavy duty skillet to medium high.  Add oil. Form potato mixture into loose patties and place in skillet.  Fry 2-3 minutes on both sides, until toasty brown.  Place on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt if desired.

Are you a fan of buckwheat?  I know the bandwagon for healthy alternatives to refined carbohydrates pulled out of town a long time ago, but I ran to jump on at the last minute.  We’ve been experimenting with quinoa, millet, buckwheat and such, some with more success than others.  Despite it’s name, buckwheat is not actually related to wheat, but apparently is closer to the sorrel family.

We had mixed reviews on these.  I mean, come on – we’ve eaten pancakes made with refined, bleached flour  all our lives. This may take us a while.

I made these with half buckwheat, half all purpose flour to ease us in to the taste. This is a large batch, so you could halve it if there are just a couple of you.
Yields ~15 large or 24 medium pancakes

1 1/2 c. buckwheat
1 1/2 c. sifted all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
4 to 5 T sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
4 cups buttermilk or 3 cups **milk + vinegar
6 T melted butter, cooled slightly + extra for the pan

Preheat pan or griddle to med high.
**If you aren’t using buttermilk, stir 1 T apple cider vinegar into 3 cups milk and let sit while you combine dry ingredients. Whisk together dry ingredients in large bowl.  Stir in eggs, buttermilk or milk/vinegar mixture, and melted butter.

Melt ~1/2 T butter on med hot griddle, then wipe off excess. Pour batter in 1/3 to 1/2 cup puddles on griddle.  When they begin to bubble, flip pancakes over. (Note – these don’t seem to bubble as much with the buckwheat added, so check the bottom side now and then.) Repeat with remaining batter, re-greasing griddle as needed.

This beautiful, yeasty bread makes perfect toast.  This version of the recipe for English Muffin Bread comes from King Arthur Flour’s test kitchen.  Sooo delicious with butter and honey or homemade preserves.

3 c. King Arthur Flour
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1 T instant yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 c. water
2 T. vegetable oil or olive oil
cornmeal to sprinkle in pans

Directions:
1. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and instant yeast in a large mixing bowl.

2. Combine milk, water, and oil in a pan and heat over medium heat to between 120 and 130ºF (about the temperature of hot bath water).

3. Pout the hot liquid over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

4. Beat at high speed for 1 minute.

5.  Lightly grease an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cornmeal.

6.  Scoop the soft dough into the pan, leveling it as much as possible.

7.  Cover the pan and let dough rise until it’s barely crowned over the rim of the pan, ~45 minutes to one hour.

8. Preheat oven to 400º.Remove the cover and bake the bread for 22 to 27 minutes until golden brown and the interior temperature is 190º.

9.  Remove bread from oven and cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.  Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Think you don’t like Brussels Sprouts? Of have a family member who just won’t eat them? I beg you to try them like this before you write them off completely.  There are two secret ingredients in here that make anything taste better, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me here — bacon (am I right?) and sugar (see what I mean?).  It’s actually only a tiny tiny bit of sugar… probably not even enough to register on the glycemic index, but just enough to bring out the sweetness of what people often consider to be a bitter vegetable.  Seriously, these don’t even make it to the dinner table at our house, because people keep walking by and picking them off the pan.

Preheat oven to 400º.
1 lb brussels sprouts, cut in half (I cut the larger ones in quarters)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 t. sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 – 1 t freshly ground black pepper
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

Place brussels sprouts on pan. Drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt, sugar, pepper, and bacon.  Toss everything to coat evenly.  Roast for ~20 minutes until they reach a toasty brown, turning over with a spatula every 5 minutes or so.

Once you get the little kids hooked, you can skip the sugar, and probably even the bacon and they’ll never notice.

Nothing revolutionary here, just an easy, delicious sandwich alternative.  Use this as the basis for all kinds of creative stuffing ingredients for quesadillas at home.
Makes 4-6 quesadillas, depending on size.

You’ll need:
4-6  flour tortillas – this is the large burrito size, folded
1 can black beans
Olive oil
garlic – 3 cloves, sliced
1 T. chili powder
6-8 Slices fresh pineapple
1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese
1/4-1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Other fun filling ingredients:
1/4 cup cotija cheese
1 roasted pepper, bell, poblano or other large pepper, seeded and cut into several pieces
Mango chutney

Sauté garlic in olive oil.  Remove garlic if you don’t want the slices to remain in the beans.  Pour beans into olive oil and add chili powder.  Heat through.

Heat a large, heavy duty pan, griddle or skillet to medium high.  Pour in 1 T olive oil. Brand pineapple slices on both sides and remove from pan. (Or stick them on the grill, on an oiled rack if the weather is nice.)

Add 1 T olive oil to the same pan.  Assemble some of each of the beans, pineapple, cheese, cilantro and any other ingredients you choose on half a tortilla and place on hot pan.  Brown both sides, checking to see if cheese is melted, then remove from pan. Cut in wedges and serve with guacamole, sour cream, salsa etc.

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into slices

1 /2 cup pumpkin purée (canned or fresh)
1 large egg
1/3 cup combined cream and orange juice (I use equal parts, adding to 1/3 cup)
1 T molasses (optional – gives more of a gingerbread flavor)

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  If you are using a baking stone, preheat it in the oven.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter, your fingers, or two knives, until butter lumps are the size of small peas.  Combine remaining 4 ingredients and stir into butter/flour mixture until just combined.  Do not overwork dough or it will be tough

Shape into a disk, about 7 inches in diameter.  Cut into 6 or 8 pieces. If desired, pat with milk and sprinkle with raw sugar.
Place on pan or baking stone and bake until golden brown and no longer gooey just under the top crusty part.  On a baking stone, for 8 scones  12-15 minutes.  For 6 scones 15-18 minutes. May need to bake a minute or two longer on a pan.

Let cool slightly, then drizzle with glaze.
For glaze:
2 T melted butter
1/2 to 1 T fresh lemon juice
~3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar
Combine melted butter and lemon juice.  Slowly add powdered sugar until you have a smooth, runny glaze.