Quinoa Burgers

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is one of those food things that's hip right now. It's a delicious, nutty grain that cooks up easily like rice. I like swapping it out it for rice and you can make a mean porridge with it. I saw this burger recipe on Eating Well...Living Thin and knew I wanted to try them. They sounded easy and delicious.  So here goes...

1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan bring the water and salt to a boil over high heat. Stir in the quinoa and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 18-20 minutes or until all water is absorbed and the seeds are tender. Allow to cool for a few minutes. You can also use 2 cups cooked, leftover quinoa.

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 medium carrot, finely grated
3 eggs
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 green onions, including white parts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Splenda or sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
olive oil for frying

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and stir until combined.

Heat a couple teaspoons of oil over medium-low heat. Measure 1/4 cup and form into patties about 1/2" thick. Mixture will be slightly sticky. Fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side. Makes approximately 10 burgers. (I got 13.)

I made a few tweaks. I didn't add sugar. I don't really get why it's in there. I also used one clove of grated garlic instead of garlic powder. My mixture was very wet so I added an extra tablespoon of flour. It was still pretty wet, but cooked up nicely. I would probably use only 2 eggs in the future. You could probably eliminate one or both of the cheeses and they'd still be good. I'd keep that extra egg if you do though.

The bottom line is that these are super delicious. They're a great all-year-round food. Not that I have them, but kids would probably eat these too. I served them (to myself) with brussels sprouts roasted with curry powder and it was a lovely 9 pm dinner. Give them a try.

Apple Pie Cookies aka oh sweet god...

When I saw this recipe over on Smitten Kitchen I wanted to leave work immediately to make these. (Not that I look at the internet at work or something.) Thankfully I have awesome coworkers so I could leave work immediately to buy ingredients. I made them when I got home from school and I'm so glad I did. I hope my friends are too, because I'll probably bring them to every fall event this year. I took some short cuts from the original recipe, but they were still easier than I anticipated.

I used store bought pie crust. I know the purists out there are gasping right now, but it's 2011; store bought pie crust isn't that much different than crust from scratch.

I also used the mandolin to slice the apples and it was (as always) perfect. The recipe says to cut them 1/8" thick, which was a little thin to me. I set the mandolin half way between 1/8" and 1/4" and it was just right. I doubled up the thin apples when I made the cookies.

I recommend assembling them one at a time. I laid out the first batch and topped them all with apples then sealed all the tops and they get pretty sticky. The stickiest ones separated in the oven. Still delicious, but not as pretty. The second ones I did one whole cookie at a time and they turned out much better.

I used honey crisp apples and they were heavenly. Thank you Kristin Damstra for introducing me to those. Macintosh would probably be awesome, too. Speaking of which, I listened to Fleetwood Mac while I made these and it was a fantastic evening.

Eggplant Parmasan Ciabatta

When my sister was little, before I was even born, there was a brief phase when she carried an eggplant around like a baby and pushed it around in a stroller. She's always had an eye for beautiful things. I bought an eggplant this week just because they looked so good. I didn't have a recipe in mind. They just looked so beautiful at the store and I'm too old to push one around in a stroller. I figured I'd roast it but wasn't sure what to do from there. And then I realized the obvious choice. Eggplant Parm Sub. It's second only to a chicken finger sub for me. I classed it up a bit and made an awesome (if I do say so) sandwich on ciabatta.