For those of you who have followed Minced for a while now, you know about my obsession with lamb. Perhaps you spent an afternoon on my recipe for lamb ragu, found comfort in a bowl of North African lamb stew, or pulled out all the stops with herb-roasted rack of lamb. If you haven’t succumbed to lamb yet (such resistance!) then I offer up this recipe as a bit of enticement.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Food, Football Favorite, Grilling, Lamb, Quick and Easy, Snacks
North and one of our good friends from Charlotte are running the Shut-In Ridge Run tomorrow morning. For those who don’t like to torture themselves on Saturday mornings and as such, aren’t familiar with this race, it’s an 18 mile run UP Mount Pisgah in North Carolina. Sounds grueling, huh? The fact that autumn finally decided to show up causing the temperature to plummet, means that I’m especially pleased with my role as spectator for this one.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Baking, Breakfast, Chocolate, Quick and Easy, Recipe, Running, Snacks
The temperature is not cooperating, but today is the first day of fall. Thank goodness. I’m ready to turn on my oven and spend hours slow cooking food. I’m craving a hot bowl of soup on a cool, crisp autumn night. And I can’t wait to start cooking with fall produce.
My friend, a talented cook and devoted mother, made a version of these pickles and served them with burgers for a cook-out on Saturday night. Or at least, it was her intention to serve them with burgers. Sitting out on the counter, most of us found these pickles impossible to resist and I have to say we made a dent in the batch before the burgers were even on the grill. It’s easy to see why.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Condiment, Cucumber, Pickles, Produce, Quick and Easy, Snacks
It’s not often that I make dips, but when I was recently asked to bring a dip to a Super Bowl party, I knew I had to make something special. After all, dip at a Super Bowl party is right up there with turkey on Thanksgiving. It’s important and it better be good. Fortunately this recipe for caramelized onion dip is delicious. Unfortunately, I think I’m going to have to make another batch before the game tomorrow.
It started out innocently enough. Just a few carrot sticks to make sure that the dip was company-worthy. Quickly gobbled up, I pulled out the very old and very stale bag of chips from my pantry. The chips were terrible, but it didn’t matter. They were just the vehicle to get the dip to my mouth. Using that same logic, I dug out a spoon. And then I realized that not only had I eaten most of the dip, but that I was also about to start eating dip straight from a spoon. I harnessed what little dignity I had left, packaged up the dip, and stuck it in the very back of my refrigerator. So far I’ve managed to resist temptation, but I’m not sure I’m going to last much longer.
I’m living in Charleston during the week this summer and commuting back to Charlotte for the weekends. I could go on for hours about the pros and cons of this arrangement, but I don’t want to cry over spilt milk. No, I’ll keep my complaints to spoiled milk. Not easy to cart back and forth in the car, I can’t drink my milk fast enough and I’ve had many a breakfast ruined by sour milk. Determined to keep my mornings happy and have my money not go to waste, I’ve given up my favorite breakfast of cereal with milk and have switched to yogurt, which holds up longer in the fridge. This transition has brought about my current obsession with granola. Yogurt may be yummy, but it’s not breakfast unless it’s topped with granola.
It’s easy to make granola and even easier to make a large batch of it. This is a good thing; because once you find your perfect combination of ingredients you’ll find yourself wanting to eat it all the time. In the morning, you might enjoy it with milk or yogurt, in the afternoon a handful serves as a hunger-abating snack, and at night, your ice cream indulgence gets a healthy kick with the addition of this crunchy topping.
