Fat Tuesday Sweet Tooth Recipes

We knew this blogging thing would eventually slow down, but here we are back in action! It’s Wednesday (Ash Wednesday at that, Happy Mardi Gras), which is synonymous with CSA basket day. Still gettin’ a lot of greens but as I was unloading the box into my grocery bags a bright shinning beacon of hope was tucked away in the back corner waiting to surprise and delight me… an Avocado!! I knew they grew in Texas but had no idea about the season or region. Apparently this one came from the citrus farm that also supplies our CSA with oranges and grapefruits. There were no more to be found today but maybe we will spy some at the Saturday market (one can only hope).

The beans have been a great boost to our diet. Egg protein is starting to get a little old so it’s nice to throw in the complete rice and bean protein now and again. Although the woman I bought eggs from today gave me a half dozen for free! So now I have 18 eggs to try and consume. I guess it’s a good thing we have so much dill and mayo. Speaking of mayo- here are the latest recipes:

Notice the use of BUTTER. Way Back When Dairy sells butter along with yogurt milk and cream at the sunset valley farmers market. What a treat.

Orange Pecan Cookies

3 Tbsp honey

3 Tbsp butter

6 Tbsp flour

grated orange peal

toasted and chopped pecans

-mix honey and butter in a pot on low heat. When uniform, add flour, orange and pecan. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes. They go great with peppermint tea.

Rice Pudding
2.5 cups whole milk
1/3 cup white rice
two heaping spoonfuls of raw honey
splash of vanilla
pecan pieces
-Bring rice and milk to a boil and stir occasionally to prevent sticking and scalding. When rice is al dente add honey and vanilla. Stir until honey is dissolved and keep on low heat until milk has thickened to desired consistency. Serve hot or cold. To get a nice skin formed on the top- let cool uncovered before storing. Mix in pecans right before eating.

Herbed mayo
One egg yolk or full egg
Juice from half an orange
½-3/4 cup olive oil
chopped parsley and dill
-put egg and orange into food processor with normal blade and run for a minute. Very very slowly add oil through feed tube while the blade is still running. You should start to see the mixture thicken up. Stop a few times to scrape down the sides and make sure the bottom is mixing in. Add chopped herbs when you reach your desired consistency. Just using the egg yolk will produce a very thick “peaky” mayo. Adding the whole egg will make it more of a puffy dip. Ordinarily I think you are supposed to use a less flavorful oil like canola because this mayo tastes overwhelmingly like olive oil. Not necessarily a bad thing, but just a heads up.

Update on the Paneer
I was a little skeptical of making it with grapefruit instead of lemon and the result was a pinkish curdled mass. However when I pulled it out of the fridge yesterday it was a perfect cheese texture and browned up nicely in a stir-fry with rice and roasted veggies.

And just for fun here is a picture of how I start about 70% of my meals- Mushrooms, green onions, olive oil and my favorite cast iron skillet