Sprout & Pea

Eggs Bene­dict has always been one of my favorite brunch indul­gences but I love when I find healthy vari­a­tions of it on restau­rant menus. Enter my favorite veg­etable– the arti­choke. I was eat­ing a whole arti­choke for din­ner one night and when I got to the heart of it, I real­ized that it was the per­fect lit­tle shape for a poached egg to rest in. Since then, I’ve been scour­ing the inter­net for the per­fect sauce to top this idea off with. I wanted to do some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent than the usual Hol­landaise, and I finally came across a great recipe for red pep­per aioli that made my mouth water a lit­tle bit.
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Yes­ter­day was national cheese lovers day and you can be cer­tain that when I got home from work, I dove right into a big block of extra sharp ched­dar (as I do just about every­day). It’s my guilty plea­sure that I don’t ever plan on giv­ing up. This being said, I have dis­cov­ered over the years that dairy is maybe not my best friend. I don’t have quite the reac­tion that the lac­tose intol­er­ant do, but it doesn’t make my stom­ach or my aller­gies the hap­pi­est of campers either. This is why about a year ago, I decided to switch to almond milk.
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I had never thought about mak­ing quinoa for break­fast, until I came across Heidi Swanson’s recipe on 101 Cook­books. The thought of it made me feel all warm and cozy inside so I of course decided to make it for…err…dinner. Franky, I couldn’t wait until break­fast to taste this. I made enough to have left­overs for break­fast the next few days though and I’m cer­tainly glad I did!
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Recently read­ing Heather Taylor’s post on her apple but­ter can­ning visit with Jen Smith made me yearn for a farm of fresh apples to make my own apple but­ter with. The beau­ti­ful pho­tos and write up of the day on Heather’s blog L.A. In Bloom inspired me to wake up early this past Sun­day morn­ing and seek out the next best thing: fresh apples from my local farmer’s mar­ket. Later in the after­noon, I returned home with a huge batch of locally grown apples and two very spe­cial ingre­di­ents in Jen’s recipe– rose­wa­ter and car­damom.
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My cousin and I were born about 3 months apart and we share most things in com­mon, except for his love of any­thing with choco­late and peanut but­ter. For what­ever rea­son, I’ve never been one to order peanut but­ter fla­vored any­thing on the dessert menu. I seem to be a rar­ity as I find myself sur­rounded by many friends who like to eat the stuff straight from the jar. Don’t get me wrong–  I love a good PB&J sand­wich, but I don’t reach for the spoon when a jar of Jif is around. The cake pic­tured above that I made for my cousin’s 28th birth­day, how­ever, has pos­si­bly made me a con­vert.
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Check out this great con­test from Every­day Health! All you have to do to vote is click here and reply to your favorite recipes. If you hap­pen to reply to my Quinoa With Red Onions, Toasted Pine Nuts & Parme­san recipe, I wouldn’t mind a bit! Just say­ing

Thanks and happy cook­ing everyone!

xo