The ingredient for this week is ginger, a spice that's near and dear to my heart. Way back in the good ole days, I did an Ayervedic ginger cure for my asthma. I had to puree ginger root with a minimum of water and drink it like a shot, twice a day. It felt like a shot a Tequila going down, nice and warm.

For this recipe, I made roasted cauliflower.
I cut up one head of cauliflower and made this "rub" to toss it with.

Ginger Roasted Cauliflower

preheat oven to 425°

2Tablspoons roasted peanut oil
1" piece of ginger root, sliced.
1 large clove of garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Blend those all in a small food processor. Toss with cauliflower pieces.
Line a 9X13 pan with parchment paper to make for easy clean up.
Roast at 425° for about 20 minutes or until desired tenderness.

For a "small bite" you could use toothpicks. We just ate it as a veggie for dinner. You can also use the spice mixture as a rub for chicken.

I love ginger!

I was excited to get back to the Small Bites routine this week, after missing the two previous "challenges".
My idea was to make something like Sedish Meatballs, using mushrooms. Upside--they were really tasty. Downside --they looked awful, but so do Swedish Meatballs. Another problem was they were so difficult to handle to form. They worked as little patties--think sliders without a bun. Well here's the recipe:

Mushroom Balls/sliders

Makes about 16.

They're very light and I didn't mind the lack of sauce, at all. Each one is about 2 bites.

What can be done to make them prettier?

I have been loving this photo sine I took it in Venice in July 2008. I was sitting on the ground, waiting in line for the Basilica San Marco to open, early in the morning. When I saw this woman's footwear, paired with her Disney bag, I just had to snap a quick shot. Finally, it's useful.

Pecans are a big deal here in the South. They grow all over Tallahassee; our friends the Watkins have a beautiful grove of pecan trees on their land in Monticello. These, I bought at the Farmers market, yesterday.

This recipe is a slight variation on an Ina Garten one that my friend Cecelia often makes with cashews. I decided to mix the nuts half and half. I used about 2 cups each of cashews and pecans.

Savory Smokey Nuts

Roast the nuts in a shallow baking dish at 375 for about 12 minutes--until they just begin to take on a little color.

Meanwhile in a large bowl combine:

1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Toss the hot nuts with the above mixture.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Watch out! They are totally addictive.

I took the easy route for goat cheese. The best thing is that we can buy, at New Leaf Market, the fabulous, luxurious, fresh and tasty goat cheese from Sweet Grass Dairy in nearby Thomasville Georgia. All I did was buy a ready made pizza crust (like Boboli) and spread the goat cheese on it-- then baked it like it says on the back of the package. After it was warm, I put a bunch of arugala on top, cut it into appropriately bite sized pieces and there you go. Here's an appetizer even Rachel Ray would love:

I don't know what the name of this sport is, especially in Italian but this shot was taken in Lerici, Liguria, Italy, June 2008.

We sat there for quite a while just watching, the sport, the marina, the view--aaaah--Italy.

I just couldn't decide between these two.
First from Outz's--the same place with the toilet fountain.

And then this one from Genoa, Italy:

The ingredient for this week is avocado, which I love. At Fresh Market they had organic avocados that were just about ready and they tasted great.

Here's my recipe: I don't have a name yet-- ABT bites? only works with the ballet crowd
BAT bites--a little too Halloweeny. How about the totally pedestrian:

Tomatoes stuffed with avocado and bacon:

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl.
Stuff the tomatoes. You can use the melon baller again to stuff.

I consider these a big success flavor wise. But--some of the tomatoes were too big. I would like to do it again with big cherry tomatoes so they'd really be just a bite.

Detail from the from the San Lorenzo Duomo in Genoa Italy. It was probably built in the early 1300's.

I have been experimenting all summ with sun dried tomato pesto, after using it in a fish recipe from Andrew Carmellini's "Urban Italian" cookbook. It is a totally versitile condiment. I love to simply toss ith with pasta, of course but you can also use it for a topping for a soft cheese for an appetizer.
One time I mixed about a tablespoon full with some goat cheese and used it as a spread for crackers. It's great on turkey burgers instead of ketchup, too.

After trying almonds and walnuts, I've decided I like the toasted pine nuts the best.

Here's my favorite combination of ingredients:

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

1 clove garlic
½ cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup fresh basil leaves packed
6 oz. Sun dried tomatoes
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup half & half
1 cup finely grated (on a microplane) romano cheese

With food processor running, drop in garlic clove—process until finely minced.
Add the rest of ingredients except cheese. Process until it’s a red paste.

Add cheese and about ½ cup pasta water, when you toss with with pasta.

No picture--use your imagination. It's a beautiful deep red paste.

Well, my sweet man turned 59. What did he want for dinner? "I don't know... but chocolate mousse for dessert." I know he wouldn't want anything too fussy and I know when we are in Italy he orders lamb so--
I got these beautiful Sliver Fern, organic, New Zealand baby lamb chops from Kent at Clusters & Hops. I just seasoned them with salt and pepper and rubbed a little garlic and dried thyme onto them and gave them a quick sear in the cast iron skillet--about 2 minutes per side. Perfect! I also made a simple vinegar mint sauce I found on epicurious which was nice but a little too much vinegar for me. We also ate some simple "cavolo nero" (tuscan kale) and gorgonzola mashed Yukon Golds. I'd never done the potatoes with gorgonzola before and I really loved it. For about 2 pounds of potatoes, I used about 2 ounces of the cheese, with the half and half and butter, which I thought was the perfect balance of flavors. You could still taste potatoes with an undercurrent of blue.

For the mousse I used the recipe in Cook's Illustrated's Best Recipe cookbook. It was simple, classic and fabulous. I used a combination of Ghiridelli 60% and Sharfenberger 82% chocolates.

We drank a NXNW cabernet which wasn't as wonderful as I remembered but still paired well with the meal.

So, Happy Birthday to Ken. He DID enjoy it!

Well, we are finally done with salads and are moving on to "small bites".
Each participant has chosen an ingredient and we all get to make something with it, and post our recipes and photos.

Crab was easy for me. We get lovely fresh blue crab here, although I was surprised that the crab at my fish mongers (Southern Seafoods) actually came from Alabama this week. I have made plenty of crabcakes in my time but these were, I'm happy to say, among the best! A little tweek of the old recipe really worked.

Here's my recipe:

Small Bites—Crab Cakes—9-12-09

1 pound lumb crab (didn't use jumbo--too $$$)
3 scallions minced
1 tablespoon chopped parlsey
2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 large egg
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 tsp whole grain mustard
½ tsp paprika
1 tsp lemon juice

panko crumbs
olive oil for frying

Sauce:

½ cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon prepared horseradish
1 tsp ketchup
2 tsp whole grain mustard
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ tsp paprika

To make the crab cakes, I combined everything but the crab, first, them gently folded it into the mayo mix.
I made about 12 small cakes (about 1/4 cup each but I just eyeballed it). Set the little cakes on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours--more is fine.
When you are ready to pan fry them, heat up olive oil, just a thin layer on the bottom of the skillet, to a strong medium heat. Pan fry for about 3 minutes each side until they are nice and brown. (I used my cast iron skillet to get a nice crust but they didn't all fit in a 10")

For the sauce, just mix everything together. Use as dipping sauce or thin with a little water and use as salad dressing.

You can serve these as is, with the sauce, for little apps.
What we did, was put them over a salad.

Coat each one is panko, seasoned with S&P.

We drank a Farrari Carrano Fume Blanc with the salad, some grilled yellow squash and a little fettunta made with ciabatta bread.

At Outz's near Tallahassee they have an extensive toilet garden.
Here is the one with the electric fountain.

Publix had figs on sale this week and they were beautiful! Not local, they are long gone, but I just couldn't resist them.
So I made the Fig Tart recipe from Gina de Palma's "Dolce Italiano".

And the amazing thing was--it tasted better than it looked! I used less honey than she called for in the recipe because the figs themselves were very sweet.
Hope you all enjoy it!

Afew ripples in the St. Marks River, near Tallahassee.