Apple Onion Tart with a Rosemary-Manchego Quinoa Crust

As you may have noticed, I have a thing for quinoa.  When cooked properly, the nutty flavor is marvelous.  And when cheese is added? Well, that is obvious.  This crust is delicious.

I made this recipe in tartlet form a couple weeks ago for a dinner party and liked it so much, I made it again so I could take pictures for you (and of course, eat it). This crust would also be delicious for a quiche or any other type of savory tart.  You can change up the cheese variety, or even, gasp, remove it.  Survey is out on whether I can turn this into a sweet tart crust – I’ll get back to you on that.

Quinoa Fritters

This is the time of year that I start wearing sandals, ballet flats (without tights), and bright colored clothes in an effort to make spring come faster.  I am sure that if I believe 55 degrees is warm enough to bare my ankles, it will be.  In the northeast, the reality is that it will hover around these temps for a couple weeks, then we will have one beautiful “spring” week with perfect temperature, and suddenly I will be complaining about how hot and humid it is.  Yet I still can’t wait.

I don’t know why but these fritters feel like spring to me – perhaps because they would be the perfect starchy accompaniment to a delicious salad.  And once my CSA starts coming, I know I will have a plethora of fresh greens for salad making. (It’s not too late to sign up for a CSA! You can find one near you and make sure you have delicious (and organic) fruits and vegetables all summer long.)

I promise everyone will like these fritters, even those quinoa naysayers.  I mean, who can say no to what is essentially an amped up latke?

Matzah Bread Pudding

It only takes a few words to sum up this scrumptious dish.

Rum. Raisins. Cinnamon. Matzah?

Ok. So I know I’m a little late with this one, but it was too good not to share.  Bookmark it for next passover – or use up your extra boxes of matzah with it this weekend. I swear no one will be able to tell you used matzah – seriously!

Gluten Free Matzah

Designing a gluten free meal for a seder is super easy – I simply focus on dishes that aren’t heavy on matzah meal, replacing where necessary with potato starch. The obvious problem is the matzah itself. Boxes of gluten free matzah cost upwards of $7 a box, which is completely prohibitive (although I noticed this morning that like most passover items, they are on super sale midway through the holiday). Since my GF sister-in-law was joining us for our seder, I decided I would try to make some for her. After working through a couple failures, I landed on one that worked!

It’s not perfect looking, but it’s tasty and does the trick.

Next year, I’ll ditch the boxed GF matzah balls, and try to perfect a recipe that’s as good as my gluten filled ones.

Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake (Made Four Ways)

What can I say? Who doesn’t love a good flourless chocolate cake. Well, me I guess. But I understand that most people really do love chocolate.

It is Hubby’s favorite food this time of year (really anytime of year).  This cake is rich, chocolatey, and dense. And since it’s flourless, it’s perfect for passover and the gluten intolerant. Best of all, it’s super easy to make and only has a few ingredients.

I’ve topped it several ways over the years, but this year I decided to test out several of them at once for a real taste test.  I made a simple dairy free ganache, a (dairy free) salted caramel, and a strawberry coulis.    I also dusted one cake with cocoa (for unadulterated chocolate flavor).  The winner?  It was hard to tell because they all received high praise; though not surprisingly, Hubby voted for the extra chocolate of the ganache.