Hostesses With The Mostest > Recipe Requests

Your best discoveries from 2012, recipes or ingredients

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buvezdevin:
Some of you may be like me in that there are recipes and ingredients I learn of and love, but if for any reason they don't go into the roster of frequent rotation, I am apt to forget them.  I mean to be more mindful of that, but lest new acquaintance be forgot, I have a few "keepers" from the year past, and would love to hear of other's discoveries over the past year.

Leading my list with a couple of items I learned of through this forum:

1.  Roasting asparagus with some olive oil and sea salt.  It never occurred to me to do this till it was mentioned in a thread here.  This one is definitely in heavy rotation at our house now, I doubt we will ever steam it again, though still sometimes sautée.
2.  Lemon powder from King Arthur for "jooshing" up the lemon flavor in baked goods.  This was suggested in a thread I had started looking for the most lemony possible lemon cake.  It may have been PastryGoddess, who I know had some excellent suggestions, and whoever it was, soooooo many big thanks!

Not from this forum, but from a newspaper article boyfriend saw: Baked fennel and cheese with herbs.  This one now sees heavy rotation for us, and we sometimes add some sausage and have it as a meal by itself.

Ingredients (which can be easily tweaked to be healthier with less cheese, more veg, etc.)

Two or more fennel bulbs
1 cup Mozzarella, grated (while we love fresh, we actually prefer the firmer packaged stuff for this for meltiness in this dish)
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup bread crumbs (even better if Italian seasoned; can use more if wanted)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Garlic cloves (suggest at least 2, we use 4)
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
Some oregano (could be up to a tablespoon, less if bread crumbs are seasoned)
Red pepper flakes (not essential, but they add a lot to the flavors, we use about 1/2 teaspoon)

Slice the fennel bulbs cross wise about 1/2 inch thick, and boil for 5 to 10 minutes, or steam (they need to be well on the way to "soft" - we used to boil, now just steam in the microwave)
While fennel is boiling/steaming, mash up fennel seeds with garlic and salt (we use a mortar and pestle, but could be done in small food processor, or chopped together), then mix this with the oil and pepper flakes.
Lay fennel bulb slices in a casserole dish, no need to be fastidiously neat, let them overlap.
Sprinkle grated mozzarella over fennel slices.
Sprinkle half of the bread crumbs over mozzarella
Drizzle about 2/3s of the oil/garlic/spice mix over bread crumbs.
Sprinkle grated parmesan and remaining breadcrumbs, then drizzle remaining oil mix.
Bake at 350f for 20 minutes.
Serve.

I admit, I am hoping to pick up some more good new ideas from those of you inclined to share!

Stormtreader:
Recipe from the NYEs party that was a huge hit:

2 ritz crackers
Add a layer of smooth peanut butter between them, about 1 crackers thickness
Dip in white chocolate and leave to cool on a baking tray
Eat in rapture :)

Shotochick:
Pulled Pork with Asian Slaw which I found, tweaked, fell in love with and now rotate for parties for myself and for friends (http://aussiefoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/asian-pulled-pork-with-cabbage-slaw.html if you are interested)

Chilli Threads - found them in a herb market in Munich, and they now go on and in most salads I make

Japanese Toasted Sesame Dressing- for when I am being lazy and cant be bothered making my own dressing

Arehucas Honey Rum from Gran Canaria - had it on holiday and fell in love

Its been a quiet year due to trying different diet/eating styles to find what works for me weight loss wise...but my aim this year is to be blogging my own healthy versions of recipes more often, sso I cant live without using www.myfitnesspal.com for tracking my workouts and breaking down the nutrional value of recipes.

Betelnut:
In 2012, this forum introduced me to Biscoff Spread. 

Curse you, eHell!!!!

 :P

Mikayla:
From this forum, it was my own shout-outs for creative brownies and also sauces for squash pasta.  I've been playing around with ideas ever since!  Also, the thread in this section about ricotta - a substance I love but never know what to do with.

In the real world, now that I'm a meat eater, I've seriously gotten into rumaki.  Basically, it's a main ingredient like dates, scallops or water chestnuts, that get marinated and wrapped in bacon.  I have some great recipes if anyone wants them.

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