Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Oops, for some reason I thought I posted the bacon wrapped asparagus recipe before, but going back and looking through the recipes it turns out I didn't. These are great and would make a great party combo with the bacon wrapped artichoke hearts I posted last time--I know, I know, I said that in the last post, but I really think I'm going to take these to my next party.

Serves ~10, Makes ~20

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of asparagus - cut to about 5 inches
10 pieces of bacon cut in half lengthwise

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wash and trim asparagus spears to about 5 inches.
Wrap 1 half of bacon around one asparagus spear so it covers the length of the spear, leaving the tip and end exposed.
Place evenly across a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the bacon is browned.
Let cool a bit, but serve warm.

Bacon Wrapped Artichoke Hearts

The bacon wrapped artichoke hearts were an inspiration from my favorite Basque Pinxote. They make a wonderful finger food and would be great to take to a party. Better yet, take a combination of bacon wrapped artichoke hearts and bacon wrapped asparagus, yummy!!!!

Serves about 6 - makes about 18

Ingredients:
1 12-14 ounce jar of marinated artichoke hearts quartered and drained--keep the liquid for later
9 pieces of bacon cut in half

Directions:
Pre-heat to oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Wrap 1 bacon half around 1 artichoke heart, continue until you used either all the bacon or all the artichoke hearts. Many sites suggested securing bacon with a toothpick. I decided against this since the bacon wrapped easily around the hearts and stayed in place without the toothpick. line a backing sheet with tin foil place the wrapped hearts evenly on the sheet drizzle with the artichoke liquid you kept. Depending on your oven, bake for ~15 minutes or until the bacon is browned--it took my oven ~30 minutes. Let cool a bit, but serve hot.

These were delicious!!! Next time I make them I might try sauteing up some scallops to add to the top, sounds yummy.

Primal in Euskadi!!!! Not a recipe, but fun!

Sorry it's been awhile since I last wrote, but I have been in the Basque Country for several weeks. Dan had some business there so I went with him. Eating in Euskadi was a fun and interesting experience. There were a lot of primal options. They are big on eating a big piece of meat for their main course. Typically a hunk of steak, pork, lamb or fish. When we stayed Getaria, which is right on the coast, we ate a lot of fish. Hake is a popular fish in the Basque Country along with tuna. For sides big salads with white asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and tuna seemed to the favored choice. The only type of asparagus I saw while there was white, I never saw any green asparagus.

Pintxos (pronounced pinchos), served in practically every bar in the Basque Country, were also a tasty treat. Many of the pintxos tend to be served on bread, however, you could definitely find some that were not. Some of my favorite breadless varieties were roasted mushroom caps, artichoke hearts wrapped in bacon and marinated and baked artichoke hearts, yummy--I love artichoke hearts! Don't get me wrong they have plenty of pastas and they love their bread, but I found it quite easy to eat primal while vacationing in the Basque Country.

Leftover Turkey Soup - Primal Eating After Thanksgiving Indulgence

Sorry it's been soooooo long, it's been a busy few weeks with Thanksgiving and all. I didn't post any Thanksgiving recipes because my father is the Thanksgiving King and he loves to prepare a big traditional Thanksgiving with lots of booze and cigars. So, needless to say, I kinda leave primal eating at the door for this holiday. However, this year my Aunt insisted I take a turkey carcass home with and make some soup. With my new found love for cooking, I decided I would go ahead, take the bird and try to make my first ever turkey soup. I have never made turkey soup before, or any soup that involves a carcass before -- most of my soup experience has been of the vegetarian persuasion. I'm glad that I stepped away from vegetarian soup for a day and tried cooking turkey soup.

Serves 6 or more

Ingredients:

Stock:
Turkey carcass
Water - enough to cover the carcass by an inch
1 onion roughly chopped
5 carrots chopped
Thyme - to taste
Bay leaves - to taste
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Soup:
All of the stock + turkey meat
1 Onion - chopped
3 Cloves garlic - peeled whole
3 finger potatoes - chopped (optional)
5 Carrots - chopped
4 +/- Sprigs of fresh thyme - chopped
4 +/-Sprigs of fresh sage - chopped
Fresh parsley - a handful, chopped
10 shitaki mushrooms - quartered
1 baby bok choy - bottoms removed and chopped, tops chopped as well
Salt and pepper

Stock:
First I made stock, by breaking up the carcass and covering it, by an inch, with cold water. I added the onion, the carrots, some thyme, bay leaves and salt and pepper to add flavor to the stock. I brought everything to a boil and then immediately turned it down to a simmer. I then let it simmer for four hours.

Once the stock was done simmering I removed if from the heat and strained it. I removed all the bones from the meat and returned the meat to the stock. I threw out the flavor veggies since they would be too mushy for the soup.

Soup:
Add onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, thyme and sage to the pre-made stock. I cookeda the veggies at a simmer until the veggies were tender. Salt and pepper to taste. It took about thirty minutes for the veggies to tenderize. After about 10 minutes of simmering I added the shitaki mushrooms. Then when there was about ten minutes left of cooking I added the bok choy bottoms and when there was about five minutes left I added the bok choy tops. Serve warm

This made quite a bit of soup, I froze some for later. Mom, Dan and I all really enjoyed it, It was pretty easy to make too. However, having the turkey cooked for me helped quite a bit. Thanks pop!

Next time I would probably add only the bok choy bottoms, not the tops. The tops were good when eaten right after cooking, but after freezing, they got wilty an just don't look good in the soup.

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

Spaghetti Squash, yummy!

Spaghetti squash is a nice alternative to traditional spaghetti, when making spaghetti and meatballs. It's fun to make and really simple. One medium sized squash produces enough noodles for two to three people, although if you have big eaters you may want to get two. The texture of spaghetti squash noodles is a bit different than that of regular spaghetti, but not too different as to be unpleasant or weird.

I have never made meatballs before, I got the recipe from Mark's Daily Apple and they turned out great. I didn't have rendered bacon fat so at first I used olive oil. Using olive oil, the meatballs stuck to pan really bad. They still turned out okay, but it was a bit frustrating. Halfway through I switched to shortening, which ended up working a lot better than the oil. If you have rendered bacon fat, I have a good feeling that it would work the best and it probably add some nice bacon flavor to your meatballs.

Feeds about four

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized spaghetti squash
• marinara sauce of your choice
  
• 1 lb ground beef
  
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme, minced
• 1 long sprig fresh oregano, minced
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• A few grinds black pepper
• 1/4 cup cream - optional
  
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan - optional
  
• 1/4 cup rendered bacon fat

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pierce the squash several times with a knife or other sharp instrument. Place squash on a baking pan and bake for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes -- it's ready when you can pierce it without any resistance.

While the spaghetti squash is baking, prepare the meatballs. First remove the sausages from their linings. Then combine all the ingredients--except the bacon fat-- into a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Roll the meat mixture into balls, about the size you would for cookies. To ease this process you may want to put some olive oil on your hands to prevent the meat mixture from sticking to them. In a saute pan heat the bacon fat over medium, once the fat is hot add several meatballs, fry until the bottoms are brown, about 5-7 minutes. Then flip the meatballs over and fry until that side is browned, another 5-7 minutes.

Once the squash is done let cool for about 5-10 minutes. This is a good time to start warming the marinara sauce. Once the squash has cooled enough for you to handle, cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Then using a fork scrape out the inside. The insides should be easy to remove and should come out stringy, looking like noodles.

Top the squash noodles with meatballs and add marinara sauce.

This is a hardy recipe that will fill you up. I can't wait to try making the meatballs again, but with bacon fat instead of shortening. The meatballs did turn out really tasty even though I did burn the outsides of a few. I bake my spaghetti squash for an hour and fifteen minutes or longer I like my noodles to be soft, so I opt for a longer baking time.

Bolognese Stuffed Peppers

I decided to make this recipe, because a month or so back I made some stuffed peppers and the recipe I used made the meat on the inside really dry and the meat alone wasn't very flavorful. If you ate the meat with the pepper it wasn't too bad, but I wanted something that was tasty throughout.

This recipe was very good. the meat on the inside was flavorful and juicy. If there was one thing the stuffing may have been a little runny, but it was still really tasty.

Feeds about 3

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated cauliflower (rice substitute)
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/8 cup minced carrots
• 1/8 cup celery - I had celeriac left over from my soup so I used that instead of regular celery
  
• 6 bell peppers (any color) stems and seeds removed
  
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/4 pound smoked bacon, diced
• 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup heavy cream - optional
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided - optional

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Microwave the grated rice for about one minute, set aside

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook and stir carrots and celery until tender. Add ground beef and bacon, and cook until browned. Add marinara sauce, wine, and red pepper flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cream, half of the Parmesan cheese, and cauliflower. Simmer until the liquid has been mostly absorbed.

Place peppers in a shallow baking dish, and fill with beef mixture. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve while hot.


Enjoy!

Stuffed Eggplant: From Mark's Daily Apple

Sliced Eggplant

Mark's Daily Apple is the site that first turned me on to primal eating. There are a bunch of recipes on his site and I can't wait to them try out. The spicy stuffed eggplant entree was the first primal recipe I ever, intentionally, tried. I originally made it last winter for my boyfriend and his brothers family and it was a huge hit--everyone loved it, even those who thought that they would never want to try eggplant in their life. Personally, I love eggplant, but you don't need to love it to love this recipe.

Feeds about four

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
5 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
8 oz ground beef, bison or pork, cooked
Salt and Pepper to taste

First be sure to pre-cook the meat in a skillet. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop out and keep the innards of the eggplant leaving about a 1/4 of an inch to create a bowl. Chop up the eggplants innards then set aside. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet and place the eggplant flat side down in the skillet and cook for about five minutes. Once that is finished place the eggplant flat side up onto a cookie sheet or oven safe dish. Add the rest of the olive oil to the skillet then saute the onions and garlic. Then add eggplant, tomatoes, thyme, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to the skillet. Once it gets to a stew-like consistency remove from heat and mix in the cooked meat. Fill the eggplant bowls with the meat mixture and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

Mark's blog calls this recipe spicy stuffed eggplant. I for one am a spicy whimp, this recipe was not terribly spicy. I was able to eat it with ease.