Recent Posts

Oldies But Goodies: Turkish White Beans

Oldies But Goodies: Turkish White Beans

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is forTurkish White Beans. You’ll find the recipe here. Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click…

Zucchini Casserole Widmer

Zucchini Casserole Widmer

This is a recipe for Zucchini Casserole Widmer. Who in the heck was Widmer? I found this recipe deep in the pages of my recipe collection. I haven’t made it for years but I (rightfully!) remember it fondly. I transcribed it in my handwriting, so…

Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

Need a bit of drama at your 4th of July party?

This Chickpea Salad With Herbs and Scallions would be perfect. It’s not the traditional Fourth of July potato salad (wonderful as that is!) Instead, it’s a delightful chickpea variation on that traditional salad that will intrigue and delight your guests.

This is a Lydie Heuck recipe from The New York Times. You can find the original recipe here.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.

 

Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

June 29, 2024
Ingredients
  • 1/2 C. plain full-fat Greek yogurt
  • 3 T. mayonnaise
  • 2 T. lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 t. Dijon mustard
  • 1 t. kosher salt
  • 1/2 t. black pepper
  • 2. T. minced fresh dill
  • 2 T. minced fresh parsley
  • 3 fifteen-ounce cans chickpeas (rinsed)
  • 1 C. finely-diced celery
  • 1/2 C. thinly-sliced scallions
  • Half a ripe avocado
Directions
  • Step 1 To make the dressing, whisk yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper together until smooth. Add dill and parsley and stir. Set aside.
  • Step 2 Rinse and drain chickpeas. Cover with water in a small pan and boil for a few minutes to further soften and to heat. Drain. Mash about 1/3 of the chickpeas with a fork.
  • Step 3 Mix mashed and whole chickpeas with the diced celery and sliced scallions.
  • Step 4 Add dressing to the chickpea mixture. Stir. Let the salad sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavor of the dressing to mix with the chickpeas. Serve in a  avocado half .

 

Coming Up Roses: Strawberry Lime Almond Snacking Cake

Coming Up Roses: Strawberry Lime Almond Snacking Cake

A rose is a rose is a… strawberry.  Strawberries, North American natives,  are in the rose family. Grown in abundance by North America’s indigenous people, the pretty sweet fruits were part of the Columbian Exchange once European explorers and colonists arrived. Among other crops, Europe…

Oldies But Goodies: Neil’s Romaine Salad

Oldies But Goodies: Neil’s Romaine Salad

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a delightful salad, Neil’s Romaine.  You’ll love the garlicky salad dressing. You don’t want to miss this…

Get Your Morbid On With A Pickle Brine Margarita

Get Your Morbid On With A Pickle Brine Margarita

Looking for an unusual cocktail?

This Pickle Brine Margarita from The New York Times might be quirky enough to fit the bill. You can find the link to the original recipe here.

The NYT gives credit for this cocktail to a bar in Brooklyn named  The Pine Box Rock Shop. Interestingly, the bar is located in a former coffin factory. (Yikes!)

From reading the Pine Box Rock Shop’s  drink menu (here) it sounds like quite a place. There is the Pickle Back Margarita, of course, but you can also order a Hipster Funeral Pale Ale or a “Sam in a Sweater” ( a boozy mixture of rootbeer, vodka, triple sec, and milk.) Just WOW on that last one! I’m having one of those if I ever make it to Brooklyn and am cool enough to get into this bar.

Here is the recipe for the Pickle Brine Margarita  as I prepared it in my kitchen.

Pickle Brine Margarita

June 9, 2024
: One
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 ounces tequila
  • 1 ounce dill pickle brine
  • 1 ounce fresh lime juice
  • 3/4 ounce triple sec
  • 2 t. granulated sugar
  • 2-3 dashes habanero hot sauce or Tabasco (optional)
  • Coarse salt for the rim of the glass
  • Slice of lime
  • Slice of fresh jalapeno
Directions
  • Step 1 Fill a large jar with ice.
  • Step 2 Add tequila, pickle brine, lime juice, triple sec, granulated sugar and hot sauce to the jar of ice. Shake until foamy.
  • Step 3 Wet the rim of your glass and dip the rim in coarse salt. Fill the glass with ice.
  • Step 4 Strain your Margarita mixture into your prepared glass. Stir in lime slice and a slice or two of fresh jalapeno.
  • Step 5 Serve.

 

Coffee-Glazed Molasses Bars

Coffee-Glazed Molasses Bars

  This is a delightful little snacking cake. It’s got all the flavors—molasses, allspice, cinnamon, ginger. Oh. espresso. It’s got espresso flavor, too. It is just the kind of flavor bomb you need to jolt you out of your late afternoon funk…or your just-outta-bed bleariness. …

A Really Good Mushroom Soup. Really!

A Really Good Mushroom Soup. Really!

This is the “little black dress” of mushroom soups. It’s basic. It’s elegant. It never disappoints. This recipe is from Deborah Madison’s cookbook Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. You can order the book through your local bookstore or on Amazon here. It is a great…

Tangerine Trees, Marmalade Skies and a Truly Delicious Broccoli Forest Loaf

Tangerine Trees, Marmalade Skies and a Truly Delicious Broccoli Forest Loaf

Hetty McKinnon’s recipes usually delight my senses. This one caught my attention with it’s fanciful name. In fact, for some reason, this reminds me of the colorful imagery in the first stanza of  McCartney’s and Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. You remember those imaginative words. 

“Picture yourself in a boat on a river

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes”

 

Surely, a proper broccoli forest would have fit right in among those tangerine trees and marmalade skies! 

So, here we are with colorful mind pictures and a very tasty recipe. 

This recipe is from Hetty McKinnon’s cookbook Tenderheart. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or buy on Amazon here.  The recipe also appears on the Epicurious site here.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

Broccoli Forest Loaf

May 18, 2024
Ingredients
  • 1 small head of broccoli (trimmed and cut into large florets)
  • 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 t. baking powder
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. ground turmeric
  • 1/2 t. chile powder
  • 1 T. sugar
  • 1 1/2 C. grated cheddar (I used sharp white)
  • 1 bunch chives (chopped)
  • 1/3 C. chopped black olives
  • 1/2 C. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3/4 C. sour cream
  • 1 large egg
Directions
  • Step 1 Parboil broccoli florets until they are crisp-tender (about 2-3 minutes). Remove from boiling water and immerse in ice water until the broccoli is totally cool. Drain and let the broccoli dry. Set aside.
  • Step 2 Prepare an 8 inch by 4 inch loaf pan by spraying it with cooking spray and then lining the pan with parchment. Let the parchment hang over the sides of the pan–giving you “handles” to remove the loaf from the pan after it is baked.
  • Step 3 Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, turmeric, chile powder and sugar together in a large bowl. Fold in cheddar, chives and chopped olives.  Set aside.
  • Step 4 In another bowl, whisk olive oil, sour cream and egg together until smooth. Fold the dry ingredients into this wet mixture.
  • Step 5 Spoon the thick batter into the prepared pan. Push broccoli florets into the batter. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours.  (My loaf took a bit of extra time. Ovens, of course, may vary.) Your Broccoli Forest Loaf is done when the top is a pretty golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then remove the loaf from the pan (using the parchment handles) and cool on a rack until the loaf is totally cooled.
  • Step 6 Slice and serve.
A different kind of pancake:  Yellow Bean and Spinach Dosas

A different kind of pancake: Yellow Bean and Spinach Dosas

I grew up with the notion that pancakes needed to be sweet. You know, sweetened batters cooked on a grill, slathered with butter and drizzled with a generous glug of maple syrup. (Those were wonderful pancakes.) As my palate has matured and much to my…