Curried Peanut Butter Turkey Soup

It's the day after Thanksgiving and hopefully you still have plenty of leftovers to carry you through the next few days!

There's no reason to keep on reheating and eating the same thing though. Take the same ingredients that you have in your kitchen and create something totally different, like this Curried Peanut Butter Turkey Soup. I use some shredded leftover turkey, sweet potatoes, carrots and mushrooms combined with curry to take these leftovers in a completely new direction. I think you'll enjoy it.

Seared Scallops with Tomato-Lemongrass Sauce

It's my last weekend at home without the family. The last two weeks have seemed like months! It will certainly be nice to have them home this week.

Had some more friends over this weekend and we had a fantastic dinner together. I started off the day by visiting the Mill City Farmers Market. It's a great little market along the river in Minneapolis. I'd heard a lot about it but hadn't ever visited before. Chef Shack also sets up there and I've been dying to get some of the great breakfast items they do there. After breakfast, I picked up some great produce including mushrooms, onions, rainbow chard, and even some fresh chevre. Produce from our garden included tomatoes, basil, chives, mint and cilantro. Picked up some scallops at Costco and we had our dinner menu.

Roast Duck Breast with Shaved Black Truffles

Some time ago I received a copy of Patricia Wells "Simply Truffles" cookbook to do a review on. I kind of laughed when I received it thinking there was never going to be a time when I would have a chance to make anything from it. I honestly didn't even read through it like I usually do with a new cookbook because I didn't want to get excited about anything.

Morel and Asparagus Lasagna

Spring is the redeeming quality of Minnesota. Our typical winters seem to start in September and go on through May. Admittedly this last Winter was surprisingly mild, but Spring was still a welcome change. I love to see the trees budding and tulips flowering and crazy as it may seem, I look forward to the first time I get to mow the lawn again too!

Curried Whole Grain Pilaf with Bacon, Mushroom and Cabbage

We're now in our second week of recipes for a Tasty and Healthy New Year with California Olive Ranch and Bob's Red Mill. We're moving on to side dishes this week and pairing together the Grande Whole Grains Blend and the Miller's Blend Olive Oil. Did you do a double take when you saw the title of this post and then saw healthy in the first line? Bacon and healthy... yeah, it works in my book. You see the thing is, coming from a non health nut, it's about balance. I am trying to eat better but I also like some things that aren't necessarily good for you. It's about moderation and making sure that the healthy foods usually outweigh the bad. And we all know, bacon makes eveything better, right? And come on, it's only four slices for the whole thing. You'll love it.

Mushroom Foraging

Last week, I brought another group of friends to visit Adam Vickerman at Cafe Levain. He had sent me a message earlier in the week saying he had received some fresh chanterelle mushrooms and I was excited to see what he was going to do with them. He used them in a few of the seven courses that he served to us and I was in love. Chanterelles are typically a beautiful orange or yellow color, have a slightly fruity smell and have a fairly rich flavor. Chanterelles of this quality can retail for as much as $50/lb.

Savory Crepes with Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Filling

If you remember, last month I went to visit my parent's in Connecticut. We visited the River Tavern restaurant in Chester and had an amazing lunch. I had some amazing shrimp crepes and my Mom tried to track down a similar recipe and recreate it at home. She found this recipe from Emeril Lagasse and although it's not quite the same as what we had for lunch there, I think this may be one of my new favorite foods!