Meet the newest member of the HAP family! Katie’s little pumpkin was born just in time for Halloween.
Preston James
October 15, 2014
Author Archives: kkregel
Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad
A few months ago I was at an event at RPM Italian in Chicago, one of the city’s latest “it” places. One of the dishes on deck for the night was this amazing Shredded Brussels Sprout salad. Unlike the roasty, bacon-y Thanksgiving style brussels sprouts (delicious as they can be) or the overcooked-underseasoned sprouts of so many people’s recollection (blech), this raw and creamy salad was like a revelation in sprouts.
So I began stalking the internet for hints of how to recreate the recipe, or get close to it, and found this recipe. While I’m not sure that it’s totally accurate to RPM’s real recipe, a few modifications and creative liberties made it taste pretty close and equally enjoyable. It’s shredded texture trickery even had brussels sprout haters digging in.
Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad
1 lb Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and chopped to a fine shred
3/4 C matchstick carrots, chopped into tiny pieces
5 peppadew peppers, patted dry and minced (optional)
1/2 C shredded parmesan cheese
1 C croutons, roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp peppadew juice (optional)
salt
cracked black pepper
Chop brussels sprouts and place in a large bowl. First, trim the ends from the sprouts, then make very thin slices across the width of the sprout so that they resemble confetti. Once you have several in a pile, run your knife roughly through the sprouts to break up any rings. Add parmesan cheese to the bowl.
Finely chop carrots and peppers, if using, and add to bowl. Toss to combine. Roughly chop croutons and set aside.
Combine avocado, garlic, lemon juice, and peppadew juice in a small food processor. Drizzle in olive oil and keep pulsing. Add salt and pepper to taste and pulse again until creamy. Taste and reseason as needed.
Just before serving, toss avocado mixture with salad and mix gently. Add croutons and gently toss.
NOTE: The salad will keep as leftovers or for a second serving but only if you keep the avocado dressing and the salad separate until each serving.
Filed under Appetizers, Garden, Sides
Summer Veggie Salad with Wheat Berries
Between my garden and my CSA box, I can barely keep up with the veggies that are making their way to my countertop. Yet I wait all year for this stuff and can’t bear to let it go to waste or give too much of it away. So I’ve lately been making “cram as much as you can together” type salads to use up the veggies when they’re fresh and taste the best. This is one of those such salads. It’s crunchy, savory, a little sweet, a little nutty and basically tastes like summer should.
This is also one of those recipes that almost doesn’t classify as a recipe because you could easily tweak it to fit the veggies that are overwhelming your counter. Peppers? Sure. Cucumbers? They work too. No wheat berries? So what. While the combo outlined here is rock solid, the options are many.
Summer Veggie Salad with Wheat Berries
2 cobs of corn, kernels shaved off (or 1 1/2 C corn)
1 medium zucchini, cubed
10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
2 oz feta, crumbled
1/2 C wheat berries, cooked
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp stone ground mustard
salt to taste
Cook wheat berries according to package instructions or cook 1/2 C wheat berries in 1 1/2 C water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 15-20 minutes until wheat berries are tender yet toothsome. Drain wheat berries and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a medium bowl.
Chop zucchini and add to bowl. Shave corn kernels off the cobs. Place in a small bowl with a splash or two of water. Cover with a paper towel and microwave for 2 minutes to steam cook. Drain and let cool to room temperature. Add to zucchini and wheat berries. Add in halved tomatoes, chopped basil and crumbled feta. Stir gently to mix.
In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar and mustard. Pour over salad and gently toss to coat. Season with salt to taste and toss once more.
Korean Style Bear Tacos
So I admit that we’ve been pretty bad slackers about posting new recipes lately. I suppose that’s just what happens when you combine summer with jobs, more babies, interstate moves, potty training, the list goes on. But fear not, we’re still alive and cooking (even if we’ve got some standby recipes on repeat) and experimenting with some new things when we can.
This recipe is my most recent experiment with bear meat. Of course, most people don’t have bear hanging out in the fridge and that’s totally fine – beef, pork shoulder or other wild game would work great as well. This one is inspired by this delicious “globally-inspired” taco place by my house and adapted from this recipe. It’s a nice little way to mix up your ho-hum taco night without too much extra effort.
Korean Style Tacos
For the Roast
2-3 lb bear (or beef) roast
1/2 C soy sauce
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 granny smith apple, julienned
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger
1/2 C honey
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
black pepper
3-5 C water
Place roast in a glass baking pan. Scatter apples and green onions on and around roast in pan. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, oil, honey, garlic, ginger and pepper, then whisk well to combine. Pour marinade over meat and vegetables. Marinate overnight.
In the morning, transfer roast and marinade to a slow cooker. Add water one cup at a time until the roast is 1/2 to 3/4 covered with liquid. Slow cook on low for 6-8 hours. Once meat is tender and falling apart, remove roast from slow cooker and gently shred with two forks.
For the Tacos
small taco size tortillas, warmed
1 C cabbage, shredded or chopped to coleslaw-like sized pieces
1/2-1 granny smith apple, julienned
3/4 C matchstick or julienned carrots
4-5 radishes, julienned
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
pinch kosher salt
1-2 tsp sriracha, to taste
1/2 C mayo
Prepare cabbage, apple, carrots and radishes and combine in a medium bowl. Add cilantro and toss to combine. Whisk together lime juice, oil, cumin and salt and pour over slaw mixture. Toss again to combine. Slaw don’t need to be exact – make your slaw to taste and for the appropriate amount of people you’ll be serving. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together sriracha sauce and mayo, adding sriracha until you reach your preferred heat level.
Assemble tacos by spreading sriracha mayo on each tortilla and topping with meat and slaw. Drizzle with additional sriracha if desired.
Filed under Healthy, Main Dish, Make Ahead Meal
Healthy Mini Muffins for Kids (or Anyone!)
Back in the fall when I was looking for more ways to use up the overload of squash from my CSA, I started baking with it. Using an old recipe of my mom’s for Pumpkin Apple Streusel muffins as a base, I thought I would swap the pumpkin for squash. But why stop there? So I started subbing ingredients to see how I could sneak in more veggies and make the muffins healthier. Some carrots here, some flax seeds there, some raisins for even more texture.
Every time I made them my 2 1/2 year old, who can be hit-or-miss on squash and carrots, gobbled them up. This weekend, he told me he wanted to make muffins so I took on the final frontier – reducing the amount of refined sugar. In my first attempt at messing with a staple baking ingredient, I cut the original amount of sugar in half and replaced the other cup with unsweetened applesauce and added an extra 1/2 C of flour to balance out the extra moisture.
Results? Success. The texture was exactly the same as the original version and although the muffins themselves are less sweet, I actually prefer it that way. Plus, it still passed the toddler test of requesting seconds.
Fruit & Veggie Packed Mini Muffins
makes 4 1/2 dozen mini muffins
2 eggs
1 C sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C applesauce (unsweetened/no sugar added kind)
1 C steamed and pureed winter squash (butternut or acorn work well)
3 C flour
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1 C shredded carrots
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded
2/3 C raisins
Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, beat together oil, eggs and pureed squash until combined. Beat in sugar and applesauce. Beat in pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, salt and flax seeds. Add flour, one cup at a time, mixing well for even texture. Fold in carrots, apples and raisins.
Lightly spray mini muffin baking tin with cooking spray. Spoon batter into baking tin so that each cup is 3/4 or slightly more full of batter. Bake for 12 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.
Filed under Breakfast, Healthy, Kid Friendly
Slow Cooked French Dips with Stout Au Jus
A few years ago, the hubs pulled a black bear tag and, lo and behold, came back from his hunt with well over 100 pounds of bear meat. This was the year we were getting married and had just bought a house and funds weren’t exactly free-flowing so I took it as my mission to take his “gift” and make the most of it in free meals (this is what love looks like, people). Some of the things we tried left a bit to be desired (ahem, bear ribs) but others, like this recipe below were pretty fantastic.
This year, another bear ‘showed up’ in my freezer and I was actually quite excited to bust back out the slow cooker and make this version of a hearty French Dip Sandwich. Of course, most people don’t just have bear at their disposal but this would be just as wonderful with a beef roast.
Slow Cooked French Dip Sandwiches with Stout Au Jus
4 lb beef or wild game roast cut
1 can beef consomme
1 can french onion soup
1 bottle stout beer
dash Worcestershire
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 small bunch fresh thyme
cracked black pepper
sliced swiss cheese
French rolls
Place roast in a slow cooker. Pour beef consomme, french onion soup and beer over meat. Add Worcestershire, garlic and cracked pepper. Toss in bay leaf, rosemary and thyme. Slow cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours until meat is very tender.
Remove meat from slow cooker and shred or slice thinly, depending on meet you’ve chosen. Place meat on sliced French rolls and top with a slice of swiss cheese. Microwave for about 30 seconds to just melt cheese. Ladle jus from the slow cooker into a small bowl for dipping to serve.
Filed under Make Ahead Meal, Quick & Easy, sandwich
{Gift Guide} Emerald & Pine
Anne’s Picks
Give a gift that will be an instant conversation starter. The book The Art of Manliness tries to revive the lost art of manliness with equal parts solid and humorous advice. And if your daughter is anything like mine, she could spend the day twirling around in this adorable, tiered tutu. The best part? It strays from the traditional girly pink tutus that you normally see.
1. The Art of Manliness ($15) 2. Rewind candle ($25) 3. Turquoise statement necklace ($110) 4. Plush-a-saur ($24.95) 5. Girls Blended Tutu ($34)
Katie’s Picks
My clothing picks on this one feel exactly like what my husband and I will be wearing as we go into 2014 – an easy-chic, work dress in a rich color for me to kick off all those business meetings and a stylish yet practical merino hoodie to accommodate his outdoor fanaticism.
1. Quantum Plus merino hoodie ($219.99) 2. Emerald studs ($38) 3. Silk cinema dress ($160) 4. Organic Green Tea ($14) & Infuser tumbler ($19.99) 5. Nail polish in Laughin’ to the Bank ($17)
Stef’s Picks
My little man loves Pete the Cat and I have to say I do not blame him. I’m all about gifting books at Christmas time and you can’t go wrong with this one. If you are looking for something for a tech-saavy, stylish female, try the Taylor iPad Case from 1154 Lill Studio. You can purchase pre-made items or create your own in store or online.
1. Pete the Cat Saves Christmas ($13) 2. Broken-in Chino Urban Slim Fit ($75) 3. Taylor iPad Case – Pea Pods ($69) 4. Lincoln Logs Classic Edition ($28) 5. Hand Knit Boot Cuffs ($19)
{Gift Guide} Snow & Ice
Anne’s Picks
My all time favorite candle from Anthropologie comes in the beautiful (and reusable!) jar this time of year. Pick this up for your hostess and grab one for yourself while you’re at it. If you have any new little ones that have joined your family this year, think about getting them this adorable owl hat. It is equal parts adorable and functional.
1. Capri Blue candle ($25) 2. Owl hat ($16.75) 3. Cable knit knee socks ($16.50) 4. Fleece bear robe ($23.97) 5. Bird cup & saucer ($13.96)
Katie’s Picks
Who says you can’t wear white in winter? This chic, minimalist leather skirt from Topshop (via Nordstrom) feels like a fresh twist on a winter skirt and would elevate your look from work to cocktail hour in that I-didn’t-even-try kind of way.
1. Sequined table runner ($24.95), 2. Trimmed Mazurka gloves ($32), 3. Leather skirt ($180), 4. Mercury glass flask (from $26), 5. Ceramic sugar jar ($12.95), 6. Silk tie ($150)
Stef’s Picks
It may be cold out, but the little ones can always warm our hearts. Consider giving the grandparent in your life the My Quotable Grandkid Journal. Here they can chronicle the darndest things their grandkids say. This is also available for parents. If you want to give a little extra to your whiskey-getter, try the sphere ice mold set. These slow melting molds won’t dilute your whiskey, plus they look like a snowball in a glass.
1. My Quotable Grandkid Journal ($13) 2. A Chilly Treat Sweater ($60) 3. Mini Boden ‘Cozy’ Teddy Bear Texture Gilet ($38) 4. Philosophy Giving Grace Fragrance Spray ($44) 5. Sphere Ice Mold Set ($12) 6. Vintage Stamped Serving Spoons ($28)
{Gift Guide} Neon & Neutral
Anne’s Picks
Consider giving a small clutch that can turn an outfit into something special. This pop-of-color clutch from the gap is on trend, practical and reasonably price. And for the kid in your life, give a shoe that makes an outfit! These neon baby vans are too adorable to pass up.
1. Let’s Do This pillow ($69) 2. Lippy Marker ($10) 3. Orange skinny belt ($49.50) 4. Pink leather clutch ($39.95) 5. Neon baby Vans ($30) 6. Knot & Bot tag set ($10)
Katie’s Picks
Your favorite home cook needs an Emile Henry salt pig in their life. Ok, they probably don’t need it but it will certainly keep all that kosher salt contained (as opposed to spilling on the bottom of their spice cupboard like mine is) and make them feel like the culinarian they are as they grab liberal pinches and toss them into their favorite dish.
1. Summit fleece track jacket ($128), 2. Chevron fingerless gloves ($35), 3. Cable knit sweater ($59), 4. Salt pig ($29.95), 5. Embossed leather wallet ($120), 6. Herringbone throw ($74)
Stef’s Picks
If you are looking for a fun gift that as Uncle Eddie says, “keeps on giving the whole year through” gift your man or woman with a Birchbox subscription. I receive one of these little kraft boxes every month and love testing out all the home and beauty products. A little pampering can go a long way! You can choose how many months you’d like to give, offering a good range of price points.
1. Minnetonka Leopard Kilty Moccasin ($40) 2. Baby 7 A.M. Enfant Duodoune ($90) 3. Flared Trench ($225) 4. Nike Free TR III ($100) 5. Birchbox Subscription ($10/month)
{Gift Guide} Black & Gold
Anne’s Picks
I love adding a few beautiful cookbooks to my collection around the holidays. This year I came across the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and fell in love. The recipes are divine and the pictures are perfection. It is a wonderful cookbook to inspire creativity in the kitchen.
1. The Smitten Kitchen cookbook ($24) 2. iPhone case ($34.95) 3. Alphabet stacking ring ($30) 4. Metallic slouchy beanie ($34.50) 5. The Polar Express ($12) 6. Salt & pepper shakers ($19)
Katie’s Picks
It’s terribly difficult for me to not select one of these sparkly options, but as someone who is always cold Under Armour’s Infrared tech hoodie is definitely on my list. UA’s says their infrared technology is designed to absorb and retain your own body heat to keep you warmer without extra bulk – double win. Thinking one of the guys on your list would be into this too? Don’t worry, there are plenty of men’s infrared options as well.
1. Twill gingham shirt ($34.96), 2. Starstruck cocktail ring ($59), 3. Coldgear Infrared EVO hoodie ($64.99), 4. Metal clutch ($68), 5. Catcher sparkle flat ($150), 6. Foil print pillow ($24.99)
Stef’s Picks
For the man, or real woman, in your life, surprise them with a bottle of Great Lakes Distillery Kinnickinnic whiskey. Locally distilled right here in Milwaukee, this bottle will spice up your Christmas day. If you are looking for a splurge, I’m loving all oversized gold sports watches for women this year. You won’t disappoint if you adorn your favorite lady’s wrist with this Karl Lagerfeld piece.
1. Great Lakes Distillery Kinnickinnic Whiskey ($40) 2. Men’s Bridgeport Jacket ($100) 3. Karl Lagerfeld Karl 7 Gold Watch ($250) 4. Seamless Shimmer Hoodie ($89) 5. Smashbox Full Exposure Palette ($49)
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