Cashew Butter & Bacon Soup {Inspired by Goober Peas & African Groundnut Stews}

This month's Creative Cooking Crew Challenge - hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Joan of Foodalogue and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks - centers around four key ingredients: green apples, bacon, nut butter, and vinegar.  Participants have been tasked with creating any dish they like, using as many or as few ingredients as they please, as long as it  incorporates some version of these four components.

For good or ill, I will cheerfully turn just about anything into soup, and this challenge has done nothing to discourage this propensity of mine. Here I took inspiration from a Southern American dish, goober pea soup, a peanut-based soup eaten by the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  The ancestor of this dish is of course West African groundnut, or peanut stew. Goober is an African word for peanut, an example of the indelible imprint that African ingredients and foods, via the slave trade, made on the cuisine of the American South.

Bangers & Mash-Up: A Meat and Potatoes Challenge

Nothing will shake me out of my blogging doldrums like a good old Creative Cooking Crew challenge. This month's challenge, hosted by the fab Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! and the lovely Joan of Foodalogue,  was as wide open as it gets: We were tasked with creating a dish around the theme of "meat and potatoes."

So. Where to begin? Well, given that I have been on something of a British television kick lately (particularly BBC Sherlock, but as this is a food blog and not a fangirl's Tumblr I will spare you the details) I decided I would look to the traditional cuisine of the U.K. for ideas.

No-Egg Gnocchi with Roasted Garlic Cashew Nut "Cheese" {Vegan}

It's a new year, and the 5 Star Makeover group has undergone a transformation. We have a new logo and name:

As you can see, we're now the Creative Cooking Crew, helmed by Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks and Joan of Foodalogue. Rather than doing makeovers, our mission each month is to create original dishes inspired by a theme.

This month, the challenge was to create a vegan dish inspired by a meat or animal-product-heavy meal. I drew inspiration from one of my very favorite fattening things: gnocchi slathered with plenty of butter and Parmesan cheese.

Mini Barley Flatbreads with Tomato Confit & Homemade Farmer's Cheese: Cretan Dakos, with a Difference, for the 5 Star Makeover Greek Mezze Challenge

This theme for this month's 5 Star Makeover Challenge - hosted as always by the lovely and talented Natasha of Five Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks - is Greek mezze, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I don't know about what it's like in your neck of the woods, but where I live it is hot and sticky as Hades, and light bites are just about all I want to make, or eat.

Chilled Three Pepper Soup with Yogurt, Lime, Cilantro, & Tortilla Strips for the 5 Star Makeover Chilled Soup Challenge

I cannot tell a lie: I was not thrilled when I found out the theme of this month's Five Star Makeover Challenge, hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Natasha of Five Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks!. Chilled soups. If you'll pardon the expresion, I have never really warmed to them.

Oh, they're fine for a few bites. But I always think that with just a few tweaks, even the best of them would be better as something else. Fruity chilled soup? That would make a lovely smoothie. Gazpacho? Great as a Bloody Mary base. Cold vegetable soup? Just right for a dip or sauce.

Fish Meatballs in Tomato Saffron Cream Sauce for the January 5 Star Meatball Makeover

The theme for the first 5 Star Makeover of the year - hosted as always by the lovely and talented Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - is meatballs. But how to create a gourmet dish centered around a classic - downright messy, even -  comfort food?

So rather than attempt to create something neat and pretty and dainty and perfect, I decided I would work with the meatball's essential nature and present something simultaneously rustic and elegant; unstructured, yet refined. I think I've done that with this dish, a simple fish meatball flavored with shallots, parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, bathed in a rich saffron tomato cream scented with fennel, leeks, white wine, and thyme.

Gruyere Stuffed Purple Potato Dumplings with a Walnut Parsley Pesto

Recently I was invited to submit an original recipe to the Idaho Potato Commission as part of their "February is Potato Lovers Month" campaign.  I happily accepted; after all, this challenge involved two things that are close to my heart: potatoes and money. Not only would I (full disclosure) be paid for my time and trouble in creating the recipe, my dish would be featured (along with those of other participants) on the Idaho Potato homepage for the whole month of February. As an added bonus, prize money was up for grabs, as the commission would choose several winners, including best dish, most original recipe, and best photo.

Well guess what kids? I am very proud to announce that the image at the top of this post won in the "Best Photo" category! Many thanks to the Idaho Potato Commission for this award.

Savory Stuffed Pumpkin for French Fridays with Dorie

 

Those of you who were worried that I had been body snatched when I followed last week's French Fridays with Dorie pissaladiere recipe to the letter can relax. I did as I pleased with this, what she calls "pumpkin stuffed with everything good." But then, that's rather the point of this dish: Fill a 3-4 pound pumpkin with an assortment of savories - starch, protein, cheese - bake, and wait for the whole to emerge as greater than the sum of its parts. And does it ever!

Gougères Filled with Whipped Butternut Squash, Dill, & Gruyère Cream for the Five Star Makeover Tailgate Party

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

--Juvenal, Satire X

I don't want to be a party pooper, but the fact is, I do not like football, American or otherwise. I don't care for any team sport, really, and Poppa Trix and I don't follow any. For one thing, something about the randomness of madly cheering for a bunch of men just because they happen to be wearing a particular color jersey does not appeal to me. For another, I am a functional introvert,  and as such I am not a big fan of crowd activities. Besides, my contrary streak is a mile wide, and if a bunch of people are going mad over something, I grow suspicious. I am likely to at best ignore it; at worst, despise it. 

So you can imagine the blankness of my mind when this month's 5 Star Makeover challenge - hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Natasha of Five Star Foodie and the always creative Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - was announced: Create a gourmet version of your favorite tailgate party food. And I have never even been to a tailgate party.

But then I rallied. This is supposed to be a challenge after all, right? My mind turned towards the ancient Romans and the Circus Maximus, and the phrase "bread and circuses," or "panem et circenses," first coined by Juvenal in Satire X. The phrase refers to the political philosophy of the late Roman Empire: Give the citizenry plenty of cheap food and entertainment, and they would happily abandon their political involvement and relinquish their rights, living only for fleeting distractions, thinking only of  their own pleasure and comfort.

From the Modern to the Medieval: In Which I Look Back at Two Years of Posts and Choose My Seven Superlative Links

I was first tagged in the 7 Links Meme by Claudia of What's Cooking, followed shortly thereafter by Maya of Foodiva's Kitchen. I kept meaning to set aside time to play along, but to no avail. Then,  when I was recently tagged by Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! the third time turned out to be the charm, and here we are. The challenge? Participants are tasked with choosing one post each of the most beautiful, overlooked, helpful, successful, popular, controversial, and the one of which they are most proud. It's not as easy as it sounds, but it is every bit as fun.

I had the hardest time choosing my most beautiful post, as I found myself rejecting each potential contender for some fatal aesthetic flaw, real or imagined. Prompted by Poppa Trix, I settled on my savory salmon mousse eclair "hot dogs." I also chose these because of Leaf the Indolent Cook's comment that there were the most serene hot dogs she had ever seen: