Grilled Veggie and Rice Salad with Fish Sauce Dressing

Omg.  This salad is so good.  Even Tim liked it, lamenting the lack of meat only somewhat, stating that, "maybe it would make a really good side... you know... to some meat."  I liked it on its own, but agree that it would also make a kick-ass side dish and/or bed for some Vietnamese-style grilled chicken (we made a recipe quite similar to this one at our Hoi An cooking class in June.)  

I had lots of fresh herbs left over from our Vietnamese pomelo salad last week and saw this herb-heavy, Vietnamese-esque recipe in my July 2012 Bon Appetit magazine... I am so glad I made it.  It's got a lot of ingredients, but don't be intimidated, as it's really quite easy once you light up the grill and is a great way to utilize all your summer veggies and herbs- corn, eggplant, zucchini, okra, mint, basil, cilantro.  Mmm.

I made only a couple small changes to the recipe- the dressing is supposed to have grilled Holland or Anaheim chilis, but here there are just cabe rawit (the little ones) and cabe besar (the big ones).  All are blow-your-face off hot and not really the equivalent of an Anaheim.  Thus, I decided to substitute with some Sriracha to taste.  Also, rather than plain white jasmine rice, I bought some whole-grain Javanese brownish/reddish rice and cooked it coconut milk substituting for 1/3 of the liquid.  I think the hearty, nutty rice and extra coconut flavor really put the finishing touch on the recipe.

Vegetable Cream Cheese

I had a bunch of leftover cream cheese after the baby shower... I decided to jazz it up a little bit for Sunday bagel brunch. Loosely based on this Ina Garten recipe, I beat the following veggies into 2 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese:

• about 1/4 cup of finely shredded carrot
• 4 tablespoons minced chives
• 1 large or 2 regular green onions, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced dill
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• a sprinkle of black pepper

So good... Amy said it tastes like it came from a NYC deli. I think that's a pretty good compliment!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms with Pancetta and Chives

Yum. Loosely based on the Other Martha's recipe, but jazzed up with some crumbled pancetta, minced chives, and toasted breadcrumbs. Creamy with salty, earthy, and herby flavors.

Egg and Mushroom in Ham Cups

I saw these cute little eggs in ham cups and knew I had to try them... unfortunately they didn't work out exactly like they did in the photo.The ham I bought was a little too small and didn't quite form a full cup. The egg runneth over. Thus I couldn't remove them from the cups so they could stand on their own. Oh well. They tasted good anyway.

I added a little bit of shredded cheddar and some chives to go with my biscuits... mmm. Served with roasted potatoes.

Cheddar and Chive Buttermilk Biscuits

Mmmmm... now that I've discovered that I can successfully make homemade flaky, buttery, delicious biscuits, I want to make them all the time. But I restraint myself and try to limit it to once a month, max.I hosted a brunch for my new "TV Club" (like a book club, but more fun and less pretentious) this morning and made these cheddar and chive buttermilk biscuits, which were a big hit. Super easy and really fabulous.

Mushroom and Chive Toasts

Deb from Smitten Kitchen raved about these creamy mushroom chive toasts so much that I had to give them a try. Simple ingredients (stuff you probably have in your pantry), easy preparation, but luxurious tasting. Like the gougeres, perfect for a cocktail party.

I only had regular button mushrooms and simple white bread, and that worked just fine.

Crispy Stuffed Potato Skins!

Crispy, cheesy, bacony... fantastic. I'm bringing these to a football party tonight.

This method from Simply Recipes is a little bit labor intensive, but not difficult. It involves 3 separate baking times: first to cook the whole potatos, then to crisp the scooped out skins, then to melt the cheese. Totally worth it, though.

I used chives instead of green onions, but otherwise followed the directions. Mmmm.