Savory Stuffed Apples

This is one of my favorite recipes. I really like the Vegetarian Times "stuffed" recipes. My first true vegetarian dish in this "vegetarian diet exploration" was their stuffed peppers and they were so awesome that I didn't mind just eating vegetables. I made this before with apples that I got from the apple orchard (They had fallen apart so I wasn't able to take pictures) and they were much better than the apples that I just got from the grocery store out of season. Again, I wish there was an apple orchard around here. The one I went to in October was a good 100+ miles away but I so missed the smell that you savor when you walk into a apple orchard store along with apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. They also had the most amazing vidalia onion tomato salad dressing. I really wish I remembered when kind it was so I could try to find my own recipe.

Savory Stuffed Apples

Adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

1 cup of vegetable broth

2 cups of water

1/2 cup of wild rice

1/4 cup of quinoa

2 Tbs olive oil

1 cup of shiitake mushrooms (finely chopped)

1/4 cup of red onion (finely chopped)

2 tsp of dried sage

1/4 cup cranberries (chopped)

4 medium apples (I used red delicious)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring 1 cup of water and vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add wild rice and reduce to medium low. Cover and cook for 50 minutes. Then stir in the quinoa and cook for 20 minutes more or until most of the water is absorbed.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and saute mushrooms for around 7 minutes. Stir in the sage and wild rice and turn the heat to medium high heat. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes to meld flavors. Then remove from heat and fold in cranberries.

Cut the apples in half through the stem and scoop out the core and seeds with a spoon, leaving a 1/4 in thick wall around the sides. Fill the apple halves with the rice mixture. Place it in a large baking dish and fill the baking dish with 1 cup of water (or 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup apple cider). Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 min - 1 hour (until apples are soft)

Zucchini and Wild Rice

Well, my fridge is broken... Thats fun. The freezer is fine but the fridge is warm and I have already had to throw out my milk, butter and eggs. I just spent an hour vacuuming cat fur from under and behind the fridge, but I don't think it is going to help. This makes dinner difficult. I think I am going to pickle the radishes (daikon and regular) that I have and then just have mashed potatoes. Not exciting, but at least I am using some things from my fridge and reducing the food I may have to throw away. I am tempted to put the items (at this point, all sauces) in our common area outside my back door. I think with how cold it is outside right now, that this indoor area is probably colder than my fridge!

Here is one of the recipes from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I enjoyed reading this book and it was much easier to get through than the Omnivore's Dilemma, which I am still working on (whenever I eat breakfast, the rest of the time I'm working on different novels- right now the Magicians by Lev Grossman). I feel like it preaches less and makes you want to try new things. One thing that it made me do while reading, was look up kits to make cheese at home. I only like parmesan (which takes a lot of work) and mozzarella cheese, but you can make mozzarella at home and sounds really cool. The book also had me try zucchini for the first time. My mom has always cooked with zucchini, but I would never try it. This dish turned out really tasty, but then I got really sick a few days later. When I pulled back out my food sensitivity test results, I found that it shows I am very sensitive to zucchini (very red) so I guess it is the first, and last, time I am trying it!

Zucchini and Wild Rice

Adapted from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked wild rice (book uses 3/4 lb of orzo pasta)

1 chopped onion

4 cloves of garlic

3 large zucchini

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs fresh thyme

1 Tbs fresh oregano

Parmesan cheese

Use a grater to shred the zucchini. Then saute the garlic, onion, and zucchini together in olive oil on medium heat. The zucchini mixture is supposed to turn lightly golden, but I sautéed until all the items were soft (couldn't get it to golden). Add thyme and oregano and remove from heat. Toss with wild rice and add cheese, salt, and pepper to taste.

Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

This has to be one of my favorite dishes of all time. I think it is a perfect dish for Christmas to follow my sweet potato risotto for Thanksgiving. I thought it was soo good because of the butter which I rarely cook with but my dad said that it is the caramelized onions and my grandfather agreed saying that even putting them on top of ice cream would taste good (I don't know about that one).

I am making this dish again tomorrow for my husband's family's Christmas party. He doesn't think that they will like it, because they have very traditional tastes, but I think the situation is like the one that I had with my aunt and cousins. When I brought my sweet potato risotto and ginger cranberry sauce to Thanksgiving I really thought they wouldn't like it because they have traditional tastes and have eaten the same thing at Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. My aunt revealed that she didn't know what risotto was and my cousin said she hadn't eaten sweet potatoes before (they've had it for Thanksgiving before but it is usually covered in marshmallows). However, after getting past the initial reluctance, my risotto was the first dish finished and they ate all of the cranberry sauce too. I think that many people don't try new foods because they are not comfortable in making something new. I think once they try it, and the ingredients are not too far from their comfort zone, that they will find that they like it, and I hope that is what happens tomorrow.

Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

Adapted from Ocean Spray

Ingredients

2+ cups vegetable or chicken broth (depending on directions on bag/box)

1 cup of wild rice

3 Tbs of butter

3 medium onions sliced in thin wedges

1 cup of dried cranberries

Cook wild rice according to directions using chicken or vegetable broth. Melt butter in a medium skillet, add onions, and stir to coat onions with butter. Reduce heat to low and cook onions until caramelized (around 30 minutes). Stir in cranberries. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on low until cranberries start to swell then mix cranberry onion mixture into cooked wild rice.