seeded wheat crackers

Eric made crackers. I don't know how. If you're curious, you'll have to ask him.

You: "Eric, how bout those crackers?"

Eric: "Okay, they were inspired by Chicago Green Roof Growers' homemade crackers. I just cut them with a pizza cutter halfway through baking."

roasted parsnip fries with creamy curry dip

Today was the tail end of a heavy snow/rain storm. The farmers at the farmer's market seemed pretty elated with the precipitation even though it meant they had to sell their produce in bad weather. We were pretty happy too since they showed up despite the bad weather. We were able to purchase some local produce including parsnips!


The farmer that we bought the parsnips from recommended roasting them like steak fries so when we got home, that's what we did! We were brainstorming a dip for the fries, and we remembered a delicious curry dip with pub fries that we had at local restaurant a few weeks ago. Since it was still storming outside, we decided to entertain ourselves by making the curry powder from scratch, but you could just as well use a store bought curry powder.


Serving Size: snack for 4

Roasted Parsnip Fries Ingredients:
1/2 lb parsnips
2 T. canola oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. cumin, ground
1 t. coriander, ground

Creamy Curry Dip Ingredients
3/4 c. (6 o.z.) yogurt
1/4 c. water
1 T. frozen turmeric, minced (or 1 t. ground turmeric)
1 t. frozen ginger, minced
1/2 t. cumin, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. cardamom, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. coriander, dry roasted, ground
1/2 t. dark brown mustard, dry roasted, ground
1/4 t. cayenne pepper, dry roasted, ground

Cut the parsnips into quarters or eighths and put them in a large bowl. Coat them in oil and spices. Roast the parsnips at 425 for 30 minutes in a preheated oven, flipping them halfway through.

If using pre-made curry powder, just add 1-2 tablespoons to the yogurt, along with 1 T. of canola oil. If attempting to make the curry powder from scratch, grind and dry roast all of the spices. You can use ground turmeric, but I bought a tiny piece of fresh turmeric root and wanted to try it out. If using frozen minced turmeric or ginger (a great way to keep these ready for use), cook them in 1/4 c. water in the microwave or on the stove until the water is all or almost all gone. Add 1 T. oil, the dry roasted spices, and finally, the yogurt!

steak fries

Something about it being "Super Bowl Sunday" makes me want to eat finger food and drink beer, even though we don't have a TV. These steak fries are easy to make and don't take long to prepare. These are great for bringing to parties too, they'll be gone in the blink of an eye. They do take 45-60 min in the oven though, so keep that in mind. Credit goes to my mom for this one--I learned by watching her.

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes (russet are best, but any will work)

canola oil

spices and seasonings of your choice (salt, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350F (if using a toaster oven, you probably don't need to preheat). Wash the potatoes and cut them into long wedges, as shown in the photo. Put them in a large bowl and pour some oil over them. You can put spices on them now, or wait until they are arranged on the cookie sheet. For extra garlicky potatoes, mince garlic cloves into the oil. Toss them with your hands until they are all coated with oil. Arrange the wedges, peel side down, on a cookie sheet. Laying them on their backs like this means you won't have to flip them later. Bake in the oven or toaster oven until soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, usually 45 minutes to an hour.

These are great with miso mayo or bbq sauce.

Side Note:
One might say that the spices are the key to this recipe. The past few times I've made these steak fries, I've used "all-seasons salt". Now, I'm usually not a fan of spice mixes, but this jar was on sale and now it has taken us 2 years to use half of it. I'll have to keep making steak fries to use it all up, but that's okay because it actually makes really good flavoring for the fries. For your reference, these are the ingredients:

salt, paprika, yellow mustard, dehydrated garlic, hickory smoke (torula yeast and hickory smoke), oregano, dehydrated darlic, and celery seed.

Hmm, dehydrated garlic is listed twice! Maybe that's why it is so good. Actually, it is probably the torula yeast, which seems to be similar to nutritional yeast.