roasted brussel sprouts for the sprout-hater

Everyone has that one food that they're just grossed out beyond words by, right? For me it's tomatoes (you can't even get me in the room if someone's cooking with them, they smell so bad). For Bunny? Brussels sprouts. Clearly he's the more normal of the two, because only weirdos don't like tomatoes and do like Brussels sprouts.

Bunny's hatred of the sprout runs pretty deep, and the last time he had one he would have been a kid. He promptly threw up all over the dinner table, apparently, and that was it for Brussels sprouts for him. I mean the man gets a pass, because that's some pretty intense food reaction right there.

Except I love me some sprouts. And there was maybe a half a pound of fresh Brussels sprouts in the crisper and damn if I wasn't going to cook them. This is the recipe that turned Bunny into a sprout lover, and he's since requested I make them again. So yeah, this is good. I also know his tastes in food, so this was tailored to his likings.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts in Bacon

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Brussels sprouts
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 strips of bacon
• 2 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Trim off ends of sprouts and then cut into quarters. Toss bits in a baking dish. Some of the leaves will probably fall off, just put those in the baking dish as well. They'll be good.
3. In a sauté pan over medium heat, cook bacon until just barely cooked. The bacon will cook further in the oven so you don't want to let it get crispy, but you do want to get the bacon to release most of it's fat. This should take about five minutes, and you'll probably want to flip the bacon strips once or twice during that time.
4. Remove bacon from pan, set aside.
5. Drizzle bacon grease over the sprouts, trying to get things evenly coated. Toss the sprouts around a bit if you find some areas are greasier than others.
6. Put the pan back over heat, add the onions. Cook until just translucent, about five more minutes. The onions will soak up any bits of bacon grease that didn't pour over the sprouts.
7. Remove onions from the heat, add to the dish with your Brussels sprouts.
8. Roughly chop the bacon and sprinkle over the sprouts.
9. Mix your salt and Italian seasoning in with your breadcrumbs, then sprinkle that over your sprouts. Sprinkle your cheese.
10. Put the whole mess in the oven, bake for about 30 minutes. These are done when the edges of your sprouts are starting to brown.
11. Eat. Watch your avowed sprout-hating husband devour his portion and ask for more.
12. Then, go see your mother in law and tell her that you win at life. Do a victory dance. (This step is optional.) 

crab and peppers cream cheese dip

The last time I made a crab dip, I wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. I've been muddling around with dips for awhile now, and I've figured something out. I like cream cheese dips. Given how much I love my spinach dip this shouldn't surprise me. I loathe mayonaisse, so there's no way I'm ever going to base a dip on the stuff. I tolerate yogurt in curries and while cooking, but I don't actually like the stuff. Sour cream? Even the name grosses me out, and I won't even use it in cheesecake. Apparently I have an issue with viscous white condiments. Who knew? (I used to hate cream cheese too, actually, but have recently embraced it for baking purposes.) That all being the case, I'm not even going to try and use any of those. I'd just hate the results. That being said, if you're into dips based on those things there's a million on the internet for you, or you can use these as a base to build from.

So, this dip? It has tons of crab in it, because I tend to feel like crab dips tend towards the runny and I wanted this to be a little more hearty. And I used real crab, though the canned kind. I didn't see a point in making a dip with the fake crab that doesn't have the right texture. I added the onions and peppers to give this some more crunch and texture (and so I can pretend I'm having a vegetable).

For the record, this was a hit. And just as good the next day for lunch. With the crab meat, grated parmesan and vegetable pieces this has a great textural contrast. I served this with tortilla chips (ummm ... well, let's not pretend that this is a healthy dinner, shall we?) and found that between the chips, the parmesan and the crab the salt levels were pretty perfect. If you're using pita or bread to dip this in, add a bit of salt to your dip to round out your flavours.

Ingredients

• 400 grams of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 2 cans crab meat
• 2 green peppers, finely chopped
• 1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400* F.
2. Drain the canned crab.
3. In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, parmesan, garlic powder and white pepper until the spices are pretty evenly mixed.
4. Add the onions and peppers and mix until things are well combined.
5. Add the crab meat to the mixture and stir it in carefully. By adding the crab last and stirring gently, we're able to keep the crab in chunks and get more contrast in texture.
6. Transfer to an oven-safe baking dish, and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the dip is bubbly and the top has begun to brown.
7. Serve with some amazing things to dip!

roasted cauliflower florets

Today I'm hiding out, trying to catch up on some alone time. Reading a bit. Checking out job listings, writing cover letters for distribution later in the week. Nothing too fancy.

So obviously, it was also the perfect time to do a simple little lunch. Granted, this is no more fancy than my grilled asparagus, but it thrilled me. I got a little bit of healthy, little bit of buttery-crunchy-yummy, and a whole lot of full, happy belly.

This is a variation on what I actually wanted: fried cauliflower. That's just too indulgent, and rather too much work as well. We'll be honest here, I'm lazy. My preference would have been to add some parmesan to this, but I didn't have any. If you do, sprinkle with abandon.

I promise there is nothing to this recipe. Nothing. I almost feel like I'm cheating calling it a recipe. But I'm still going to. This serves one person, as a lunch, or perhaps two or three people as a side dish.

Roasted Cauliflower Florets

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 cups cauliflower florets (about a quarter head of cauliflower)
• 1 to 2 tbsps butter (although you can certainly use margarine or olive oil, I like the butter flavour)
• 2 to 3 tbsps bread crumbs (mine came pre-seasoned, if yours don't add a little salt and whatever else you like to this)
• 2 to 3 tbsp fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional, but amazing)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Arrange cauliflower in a casserole dish. Place small pats of butter on each floret. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
3. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes. If using parmesan, sprinkle on with about 10 minutes bake time remaining, so it doesn't burn.
4. Eat!

Seriously. That simple.

parmesan polenta

We're always looking for new things to try in the kitchen around here. (I think that's something that most serious home cooks, aspiring cooks, and people trying to find new easy-and-quick recipes have in common.) Especially when it comes to our starchy or grainy side dishes.

We eat mashed potatoes like they are a staple. A lot of rice passes through our kitchen, in many different forms. Roast potatoes, sweet potatoes are common, easy side dishes. If we're  That's not really all that much variety, though. If every day of my week I have some sort of rice or potato on my plate ... that's rather boring.

All that being the case, I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I've never made polenta. Part of this comes from my childhood dislike of Italian food. (Have I ever told you of my extreme tomato aversion?) Italian, and Italian inspired, dishes have been working their way into my kitchen for year, though. I love pastas, risottos, and am having a bit of a love affair with the hunk of parmigiana-reggiano in my fridge right now.

Other reasons there is no excuse for my not having had polenta so far? I love cornmeal muffins. I love corn. And tortillas. And everything. So I solved that today.

This is, of course, only a first attempt. I took inspiration from two culinary favourites: Lynn Crawford and Giada de Laurentiis. But let's be honest, I didn't use either of their recipes. I got ideas for proportions and methods then went entirely in my own direction.

I found it a little bit bland on its own, but I served it with roast chicken and glazed carrots. The chicken and gravy were nice enough with it, but oh the carrots. The sweetness from the glaze gave the polenta a new life. The grainy texture of the polenta practically melted into the sweet glaze.

Parmesan Polenta

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 4 cups water or chicken stock, plus 2 cups on reserve
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup grated parmesan/parmigiana-reggiano (I had the good stuff and went a little crazy. That stuff begs to be grated. And eaten as is, or maybe with some honey and glazed walnuts. And grated more.)

Directions:

1. Bring 4 cups water or chicken stock to boil.
2. Reduce heat to a simmer, stir in the cornmeal. Wisk this up thoroughly at this point.
3. Continue to cook for about 30 minutes, wisking frequently.
4. While cooking, add additional water/stock in 1/4 cup increments as needed. You'll know when you need it; the texture of the polenta will get thick and the whole thing will stiffen. Don't sweat it. Just add the liquid in as needed.
5. Turn heat waaaaay down. Mix in butter and parmesan, and stir until things are all melted through.
6. Eat this. Serve with something with strong, pronounced flavours (like the carrots, or maybe a big meat sauce).

glazed carrots and parsnips with brown sugar and ginger

This is one of my "set it and forget it" deals. Which, essentially, is what I want out of my side dishes. I don't want to slave over my side dishes. I want to put a little bit of work into getting it started, chuck it in the oven and forget about it until I'm ready to eat.

So when I got it in my mind to do glazed carrots, I wasn't interested in any of the recipes that called for boiling and then pan glazing. I'd be too busy with the other dishes at the end of my cooking process to want to bother with that. I wanted oven-glazed. Easy peasy, yes?

The only question left was what did I want my glaze to be? I like honey, but I'm not crazy about it. I find it's a little too strong, when sometimes all I want is sweet. I didn't have any real maple syrup on hand, so that was out. Molasses sounded interesting, but I had enough other experiments for dinner. That being said I was left with an old standby: brown sugar.

I promise, this is dead simple. If you can peel and chop a carrot (even if you can't - you could use "baby carrots" here in a pinch), use a microwave, and turn on an oven you can make this. This is enough for two people, comfortably. If there are more at your dinner table just double (or triple) the amounts.

Oven Glazed Carrots and Parsnips with Ginger

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into disks
• 2 parsnips, peeled and sliced into disks
• 2 tbsp butter, melted (you can do it in the microwave!)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 - 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400* F.
2. In a small bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, ginger and salt.
3. Put the carrots and parsnips in a baking dish.
4. Pour the glaze on top of the carrot mixture. With a spoon, mix things up until all the carrots and parsnips are evenly coated.
5. Place in the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes, depending on what else you have going on.
6. Don't panic if you need to leave them in the oven an extra few minutes, or pull them out early. It will be ok.

Cream Cheese Spinach Dip

This is the sort of recipe I have spent ages trying to perfect. I still probably will continue to tinker with it over the years. Spinach suspending in a creamy mess? Delicious.

But I have dip problems, which I have told you about before. I don't like mayo or sour cream. They creep me out. The idea of either of them makes me cringe. I've since figured out that I like yogurt and cream cheese based dips (although the idea of eating cream cheese on a bagel also creeps me out - I'm a weirdo) and my very favourite comes courtesy of Kelsey's. (They also introduced me to deep fried Mars bars. Which I adored.)

Recipes claiming to duplicate their dip have abounded over the internet, and I have certainly used more than a few. But there are always a few missing in my pantry. I usually have parmesan and cheddar cheeses on hand, but we don't tend to have cream cheese or Romano on hand. We'd rather have blues and bries for eating purposes.

What's a girl to do? Well, I adapt things for what I do have onhand. No Romano? Well, I have two different parmesans. I'm never going to chop just a tablespoon of bell pepper, but sometimes I have miniatures on hand, and I'm ok with having too much bell pepper.

This recipe is just barely adapted at all. Just barely.

Almost-Kelsey's Four (Three?) Cheese Spinach Dip
from cdkitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 package (250g) plain or light cream cheese
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons Trestelle pre-grated Parmesan
• 1 miniature bell pepper, chopped extra fine
• 1/4 small red onion, chopped extra fine
• about 3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
• 2/3rds cup grated Cheddar cheese
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400* F.
2. In boiling water, blanch spinach for 45 seconds. Drain into a collander over the sink. When it has cooled, squeeze to dry.
3. Mix cream cheese, garlic powder, cayenne and parmesan(s) until softened and thoroughly mixed.
4. Add bell pepper and onion, mix until just incorporated.
5. Add spianch, mix until just incorporated.
6. Transfer to small, oven proof serving dishes (ramekins, gratin dishes or miniature casserole dishes all work perfectly for this) and top with the cheddar cheese. (Pro-tip: I transfer my dip into two miniature casseroles, so that Bunny doesn't eat the entire dip before I have had three bites. Plus, this way he gets an orange dish and I can have blue or purple and that makes us happy.)
7. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until bubbling on the top.
8. Serve this baby up with baked or fried pita wedges (if you want to go all Kelsey's style) or tortilla chips. Especially corn chips. Oh yeah.

Also, possibly the best part here, you can make this ahead of time and just pop it in the oven. One of the best ways to entertain.

crab cakes

My love of crab comes straight from my mom. I'm pretty sure it's the best seafood: nothing quite matching the sweet and juicy flesh. It's amazing dipped just slightly into butter, or completely on its own. It's not exactly something you see on my everyday menu though. It's expensive, and in general the closest thing to fresh crab I ever bring home comes in a can.

Canned crab? Yeah I know. A can of crabmeat can turn into any number of delicious things, though. Bunny goes crazy for crab quiche. I love crab in my pasta. Of course, there's also the standard crab cake.

Generally speaking, I make crab cakes as appetizers or grazing food. When I'm cooking for two, this recipe yields way more than we'll realistically eat with a meal ... but by the time we go to bed the two of us will have devoured them.

Crab Cakes
adapted from Elizabeth Baird
makes about 12

Ingredients

• 1 can crabmeat
• feel free to replace this with fresh crab, if available
• 2 gloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1/2 large bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 red or sweet onion, finely chopped
• one large egg
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cups breadcrumbs, divided
• note: I use preseasoned crumbs. If you don't you'll want to add some Italian seasoning in to your recipe
• Olive oil, for cooking. (About two tbsp)

Directions

1. Drain the can of crab meat. You want the flesh to be fairly dry. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Add the pepper, onion, egg, parmesan cheese, 2 tbsp of bread crumbs and yogurt. Stir until well combined.
3. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs in shallow dish.
4. Form crabmeat mixture by rounded spoonfuls into balls; roll in bread crumbs. You'll want to ensure that your crabcakes are fully covered in crumbs as this is what gives them that lovely crunchy crust.
5. Place covered balls onto waxed paper or prep plate. Press down slightly to flatten. (Be careful here, because they cakes tend to want to fall apart at this point in my experience.)
6. In nonstick skillet, heat half of the oil over medium-high heat; cook crab cakes, in batches and adding enough of the remaining oil as necessary, for 2 minutes per side or until golden.
7. Sprinkle with salt, to taste after removing from the pan. (This is when the salt with adhere the best. You don't need much.)
8. Serve with any creamy dip of your choosing (lemon aioli would be lovely), or on their own with lemon.

Notes:

• The yogurt could easily be replaced with mayo. I just hate the stuff.
• These would be a great side to a salad. That would be an amazing lunch.
• If you're using fresh crab, you may need to add some salt to the mix. Canned crab tends to have salt already added.

bread, made of corn

We'd already talked about dinner. With a fridge full of leftovers, and being a few days late on the grocery shopping, it seemed only natural that we'd delve into deliciousness made on days past. Life should be so easy, right? We all know that I don't do things that simply.

Come about five o'clock, and cravings struck. Intense desire, no need for new food. Carbs, breads, chocolates: something with a nice crumb. I could go out to the corner store and grab a box of cookies, but that seemed particularly unsatisfying. But cookies? They might do the trick. Out came the cookie book.

Chocolate chip was out, as I do that so often. A quick check of the pantry revealed that we were out of oats and nuts. Options were limited, it seemed. Then, out of nowhere, I flipped the page and my eyes landed on not one but two recipes for cornmeal cookies. Cookies described as tasting just like cornbread. Rather brilliant, no?

Brilliant or not, it wasn't going to fly. If I wanted something that tasted like cornbread, maybe I should just make cornbread. So that's what I did. I mean who doesn't like cornbread, right?

I used a pretty basic sweetened cornbread recipe, nothing too fancy. Because there weren't many ingredients, modifications were simple. This is a cornier cornbread than most, as I changed the flour/cornmeal ratio (so there would be more corn goodness). This made two big changes in the bread. To start with, you loose a little bit of a bready, soft texture and gain a more mealy texture. The upside to this is that everything tastes that much more intensely of corn. (If that's not your thing, use even amounts of cornmeal and flour.) Another change was to switch out the oil for applesauce, because that tends to make things moister in my mind.

Slightly Sweet Corny Cornbread
adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all purpose flous
• 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cups white sugar*
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1 cup milk***
• 1/3 cup applesauce

* I'm sure this would also be delicious with brown sugar. I'd also love to try honey, but that's something to be careful with, as it changes the dry/liquid rations
** This sounds like a lot of baking powder, but after baking this I absolutely would not reduce this
*** You can sub a can of creamed corn for the milk
**** If you don't have applesauce (preferably unsweetened) just use your favourite low flavour cooking oil (vegetable, canola)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400*F. Lightly grease a 9" cake pan*.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Lightly wisk to evenly incorporate all dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, applesauce. Mix well.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until well combined.
5. Transfer batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula to ensure even distribution.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes. The top should have begun to brown just at the edges, and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cornbread will come out clean.

* You can also try this in a cast iron skillet, or a loaf pan. If you use a loaf pan you'll want to be careful of your cooking times, as it might change.

stuffed mushrooms

The first three times that Bunny and I cooked for each other, there were mushrooms involved. Creminis sauted with cumin and sesame oil, portella slices in red wine vinegar with parmesan cheese, and stuffed mushrooms. It was also a time of pretending that I wasn't desperately turned off by tomatoes, to the point that I gag and leave the room when they are cooking. It would have just been too much: a vegetarian who won't go near a tomato.

I have very fond memories of our early forays into cooking for each other. Every time I have grilled cheese I'm taken back to the first breakfast Bunny ever cooked (and first year university, where I ate it five days a week in the cafeteria). We went to great lengths to impress each other with our kitchen prowess, and every now and again we like to recreate parts of our early meals.

For me, that means making stuffed mushrooms, which is a go-to showy dish for me. It's easy, and looks much more impressive than the sum of its parts. I tend to stick to the same pepper-and-mushroom stuffing, because I like the colour and texture contrast, but that's where you can get creative and do whatever you want. Without any further ado ....

Pepper Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 10-12 "stuffer" mushrooms - or any large cap mushroom. Large creminis and mini bellas are probably my favourites here.
• 1 bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I tend to use a pre-seasoned crumb. If you don't you may want to add 1/2 tsp each of oregano and thyme, OR 1 tsp Italian seasoning. Or whatever spices YOU like.)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling
• olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F. Clean the mushrooms, trimming off the woody part of the stem.
2. Carefully destem your shrooms. Often, the stems snap off fairly easily, but you may prefer a paring knife. Carefully trim away any flaps of mushroom flesh from the opening, in order to create more stuffing space. Put the mushroom stems aside for later.
3. Arrange mushroom caps on a lined cookie sheet. Lightly sprinkle salt over all caps, set aside for later.
4. Chop onion and bell pepper, mince garlic. Finely chop the stems of the mushrooms.
5. Using a non-stick skillet, bring about two teaspoons olive oil to medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cooking until onions are translucent. Season to taste with salt - I find about 1/2 tsp here to be more than enough. Add the bell pepper and mushroom stems, and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Everything should start smelling really good and the bell pepper will lose some of its opaqueness.
6. Remove from heat. Stir in bread crumbs and parmesan.
7. Carefully spoon stuffing mixture into the mushroom caps. In general, this recipe yeilds overflowing caps (just the way I like them).
8. Sprinkle some grated parmesan over the top of the caps for extra deliciousness.
9. Bake 12-15 minutes. The cheese at the top will start to brown and your nose should tell you when these are done.
10. Eat them. Share with friends or hoard them all for yourself. (I won't tell).

Notes:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: make this to YOUR tastes. There are so many things you can adjust on this dish to suit yourself. Good starting points are:

• SEASONINGS. I barely season this: I find that just a touch of salt to bring the flavours out is more than enough, especially with the parmesan. You could do Indian-inspired, or heavily garlicked, or a great smoky flavour.
• Bread crumbs. I know these are problematic for lots of people, but I'm sure that you could find an acceptable gluten-free substitute. Make your own crumbs from gluten free bread? Maybe there's a different binding agent you'd like to use. I cook imagine substituting cooked rice or barley here, but it wouldn't hold together quite as well.
• The stuffing. I've got a craving for these cooked up wonderfully with a nice crab-and-green onion filling. Or maybe grains. Different vegetables. I'm clearly in love with the Red Lobster stuffed mushrooms. Choose flavours you like and play! (And if you change the filling, maybe change up the cheese!)
• The cheese. I use what I like, and what's easy for me, but there's nothing to say that these wouldn't be great with a romano or asiago. Actually, I think I've done asiago before. It was nice.

chinese new year dinner + spicy orange green beans

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't entirely realise that today is Chinese New Year until I spoke to my mother last night, and was reminded of the fact when I was watching the news this morning. So, since our week's menu is very loosey goosey, it seemed natural to make up a Chinese inspired dinner.

Nothing fancy, really. Frozen pork and vegetables potstickers we'd bought on sale. Rice. The big gun was actually the beans today, because I wanted to spice things up a bit. I've done nicely sauted green beans before, often with a nice kick, and I hugely enjoy them. So I figured I'd share with Bunny and you.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound of green beans (or two good handfuls), ends trimmed off
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• 1 inch chunk of ginger, grated
• 1 orange, zested and juiced (separately)
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Directions

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanche beans approximately 1 minute, quickly run under cold water or in an ice bath.
2. Heat sesame oil in saute pan. Add garlic, quickly saute about 1 minute.
3. Add beans, stir to coat with oil. At this point, add orange zest and chili oil . Saute another minute to two minutes.
4. Add orange juice, saute another 2 minutes.
5. Serve!

Seriously easy. You can adjust the chili oil up and orange juice up and down to change your heat levels and sweetness levels. Bunny rates this at a 4 on the heat scale (his scale has 11 as "too hot to handle". Don't ask.)

Holiday Win: carrot & turnip mash

The circles I follow within the blogosphere have been talking a lot about one thing, lately: how to navigate the early(ish) years of a relationship and newly married life in relation to the holidays. The give and take, the things that you do just to make your significant other happy, the things you miss out on - and sometimes the things you gain.

In Bunny and my holiday scheme, I have an urge to shout out "I WIN!" Because for the most part we do have the easiest holidays ever. The only thing that separates his mom's front door from my mom's front door is a driveway, so we bumble over here and there all the time. Our first year we really did our holidays separately but met up on the drive every hour on the hour, and both spent some time with each other's family. We've since moved to primarily spending different days with one family or the other, but we do see them both fairly equally. Both our parents are super understanding, and we also have to be respectful of his sister, brother-in-law and neice's holiday plans, so the flexibility comes easily.

That's not what I mean by "I WIN" though. What I mean, is I get all the best benefits. I grew up with big extended family on my father's side, and would spend large chunks of time over the holiday travelling for family dinner after family dinner, seeing a million cousins and aunts and uncles. Ever since the divorce, though, and other messiness, I don't get that. The closest relationship I have on that side of the family occurs on Facebook. My mom's family (grandma, aunt, cousin) all come down for the holidays, but it's not a super festive big exciting thing.

I get a big family gathering back, though, with Bunny's Dutch side. This is only the second year that I've gone, but I do feel very welcomed into the fold there. Win. I love the extra love there.

There's another holiday win, though, that comes from his mother's kitchen. I think the first time I had this was a couple of Thanksgivings ago, when we all (and by all, I mean BOTH our families) piled into Bunny's living room to eat. It was better than the mashed potatoes ... and for me to say that is something else.

Mama Bunny's Carrot & Turnip Mash
a rough approximation of Bunny's mom's recipe

Ingredients:

• Carrots - 1 to 2 cups, peeling and roughly chopped
• Turnip - 1 to 2 cups, peeled and roughly chopped
• Note: very the amount of vegetables based on your audience. I make 1 cup each carrots & turnip if I'm only feeding Bunny and myself, plus leftovers
• I like to use equal portions carrots and turnip, but if you prefer to load up on one over the other go for it!
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Butter or Margarine - 2-3 tbsp (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Prep your vegetables. Peel, cut into pieces roughly the same size. Dump vegetables into large pot, cover with salted water. Bring to the boil.
2. Boil approximately 10 minutes, until fork-tender. Drain water. (If making a gravy or sauce, set some of this aside. Vegetable water adds a little more "oomph" to gravies.)
3. Add butter to the pan, and then MASH away. If you prefer you can always use a blender or processor to make it super smooth, but I like my carrot and turnip to be a little bit chunky.
4. When thoroughly mashed, taste. Add more salt or butter as necessary.
5. Enjoy! They don't replace mashed potatoes, but they're easily as good.

Also, leftover mash is amazing when mixed with breadcrumbs & parmesan and fried up. In fact, it's maybe even better than the original.