Warm mushroom and grated beet salad

This is just cooked mushrooms, with grated roasted beets, and a wee bit of cheese. If you have greenery (spinach, arugula, lettuce), you could serve this over a bed of greens. But I ate it all by itself and it was delicious.

1 box button mushrooms, sliced
2 medium roasted beets, peeled
Butter, olive oil, fresh thyme
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Lightly saute the mushrooms in butter and olive oil until they start to give up some liquid. Add fresh thyme, and grate the beets into the pan. Mix together and continue cooking until the mushrooms are as done as you want them. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm, with cheese.

As an aside, this was an excellent way to use up both some old mushrooms and a couple of old beets I found in the vegetable drawer.

Beets and burrata

Another nice thing about working in a restaurant is the inspiration factor. My restaurant is doing a new beet and burrata salad, which looked so delicious I thought I would take a stab at it.

Burrata is fresh mozzarella cheese, with a combination of fresh mozzarella and cream on the inside. I sliced it (well, "sliced," the inside is mostly liquid), drizzled it with olive oil, salt and fresh thyme, and laid it alongside roasted sliced beets. The beets got salt and pepper.

Verdict: not as good as the original, of course, but still an excellent use of beets. The creaminess of the cheese plays really well with roasted beets.

Carrot greens tea

I rescued a bunch of carrot tops from a box headed for the dumpster at work. Some went into a white bean soup. One bunch became carrot greens tea, which is supposed to be very good for your kidneys.

It's just boiling water poured over the greens, let sit for a few minutes. I let the water sit until it was tepid, and the flavor was a little strong for my taste. (Although reheated, with honey, it was fine.) It tasted like carrots and greens and garden dirt all in one.

I didn't notice any difference in my kidneys. But it was a fun experiment. My recommendation with carrot greens is still to use them in soups.

Rhubarb crisp

Rhubarb is another one of those great harbingers of spring. Usually paired with strawberries, it's also great on its own (provided you sweeten it a little, as rhubarb is pretty tart). This crisp is sweet and tart together, and trust me, it didn't last long enough to cool down. We scarfed it up hot out of the oven.

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb
2 cups sliced peeled apples
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add rhubarb and apples or strawberries; toss to coat. Spoon into an 8-in. square baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

Banana bread

I've made this banana bread before, but I thought I'd try a new recipe this time. This one seems moister to me (then again, I used one more banana than the new recipe called for). It also has the added advantage of being simpler, with fewer ingredients.

Freeze your overripe bananas and save them for banana bread--when you thaw them, they'll turn black, but that's what you want. The bananas will be soft and the flavor will be intensified.

1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup/2 large mashed bananas
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a loaf pan. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas and oil in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and stir til just combined. Pour into loaf pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until done. Let cool in pan 15 minutes.

Pickled ramps

Ramps are one of the most delicious harbingers of springs. They're wild onions (technically wild leeks) with a oniony-garlickly flavor, found in the mountains of the Eastern US.

I got a handful from work, and decided to pickle them. (Just the white bulb gets pickled--I saved the green tops for another use.) You can find them at farmer's markets and the occasional upscale grocery store.

From Serious Eats:

1 pound ramps, carefully washed, ends trimmed
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup salt
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon yellow or black mustard seed
6 allspice berries
1 pinch red pepper flakes

Carefully pack ramps into a sterilized quart-sized jar with a screw-top lid. Combine remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil, whisking until sugar and salt are dissolved. Pour hot brine over ramps (it should fill the jar completely, if you have excess, discard). Screw on lid and allow to cool at room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator and allow to rest for at least 3 weeks and up to a year before consuming.

Kale and avocado salad with lime-Sriracha viniagrette

You know I can't resist a good raw kale salad. This one has avocados (2 for $1, on sale) and a lime-Sriracha dressing. Yum, yum!

Salad:
1 head of kale, stripped from the stems and torn into pieces
2 avocados, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons Sriracha (or more to taste)
Olive oil

Mix the lime juice and Sriracha together, then drizzle in olive oil while whisking until an emulsified dressing is formed. Add Sriracha to taste. Pour over the salad, then using your hands, massage the dressing into the kale. Let sit for at least an hour. Add salt and pepper and serve.