Sometimes texture can be just as important to a dish as flavor. It’s harder to enjoy something that’s just a bowl of mush.  Ok, aside from perhaps enjoying a whole dinner of say, mashed potatoes with copious amounts of butter or oodles of macaroni and cheese.  I have those days, too.  But sometimes there are some things that need a little crunch.

Enter this delicious and surprising garnish for a ho-hum dinner in need of some oomph.  Consider moderating the spices based on your dish.  I think a curry granola or a chile scented granola would be equally tasty.  And if you’re local to Columbus, stop by North Market Spices to pick up one of their many spice blends (which are amazing) to use.

Savory Cumin Granola

1 c rolled oats

1 T honey

1 T olive oil

1 t cumin seeds

1/2 t ground cumin

Generous pinch of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together honey through salt and pepper.  Toss with the rolled oats.  Spread evenly across a silpat mat or parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring periodically to ensure the oats brown evenly.

Garnish lots of dinner things.  Fish with an edamame puree, for example.

Playlist included This Head I Hold, by Electric Guest.

Because of this I was there, in the backyard, when the peonies bloomed this year.  They are my absolute favorite flower: profuse, heavy blooms; heady fragrance.  I turned the confetti of abundant petals into syrup.  I did this last year, but not as adroitly.

Marry to this that I went strawberry picking with friends last week.  And 17 pounds picked meant there was certain to be some jamming.  Did there happen to be some master pastry chefs along?  Why yes, there were.  (Thanks, B.)  So I asked them how to incorporate my peony syrup into the jam that was sure to follow all that picking.   Add the syrup at the last minute, they said, to keep all the flower essence.   But of course.

Ten cups of strawberries and a half a cup of peony syrup made exactly three half pints plus two or three spoonfuls for savoring.  Worth it?  Absolutely.

Pluck petals from three huge peonies and mix them in two cups of sugar for two days.  Add a cup of water and bring to a boil and simmer for a few moments until clear.  Cool.  Strain.  Follow this recipe for jam (I however skipped the pectin and just cooked it down to a set).  Add in a half a cup or more of the peony syrup at the last moment when the jam is all made for maximum peony fragrance.

Enjoy May all over again whenever you crack into one of these three precious jars.

Playlist included Better Off Without You by Summer Camp.

Summer Picnic Slaw for Friends, serves 6

1/2 c rice wine vinegar

1 T whole cumin seeds

1 bay leaf

20 twists of black pepper

1 t salt

2 T sugar

1 head napa cabbage, very thinly sliced – a chiffonade, if you will

1/2 red bell pepper, very thinly sliced

1/2 jalapeño, deseeded and finely minced

3 carrots, shredded or grated

1 small handful of fresh coriander

1/4 c olive oil

In a small pot, combine rice wine vinegar through salt.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat until salt and sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  While the dressing is cooling, prep veg for the slaw.  Remove the bay leaf from the vinegar dressing, add the olive oil and then pour over the vegetables, tossing to coat.  Chill in the fridge for two or more hours, tossing occasionally.

Serve with your favorite picnic foods or a great bar-b-que, perhaps a dry rubbed pork tenderloin and some roasted potatoes.

Playlist included Houdini, by Foster the People.

pomegranate = olive green; blackberry = purple; blueberry = …blue; beet = pink; turmeric = yellow; dandelion = almost nothing

Playlist included Stay Young, Go Dancing, by Death Cab for Cutie.

Which of course meant they are at their peak for eating.

Tonight’s dinner involved a return to cooking with a risotto.  Included were the fruits of my garden weeding – young dandelion leaves – and broad beans, another early spring arrival.

I have many a risotto recipe on this site, choose your favorite then substitute these flavors for those.

Some hints and tips for this batch.

I made a vegetable stock with carrots, peels from shallots, broad bean pods, parsley from the garden and a few dried herbs (bay, juniper, coriander).  I shelled the beans from their pods and poached them in the hot stock for about three minutes.  You could further slip the individual beans from their outer shell, but I didn’t bother.

I used Alessi’s Arborio rice for this batch.  I find this cooks a bit faster than other brands I’ve found.  Weeknights, that’s a help.  I added in the already cooked beans along with the cleaned and chopped in three bits dandelion with the last ladle of stock.  Those cooked for not more than a minute.  I turned off the heat, added a tablespoon of butter (not a normal addition to my risottos, if you’ve been around) and mixed.  I just had a feeling tonight that these beans would want some melted butter.  I garnished with a finely minced mélange of parsley and chives that also popped up in the garden while I was away and a bit of Parmesan.

Turns out I didn’t make enough.

Playlist included Ekki Múkk, by Sigur Rós.

Also: I refuse to call them favas.  Blame it on Anthony Hopkins.

Dough Pizzeria | 6989 Blanco Road, San Antonio, Texas | 210.979.6565

Playlist included Look at Miss Ohio, covered by Miranda Lambert.

Maybe all you need is to take something familiar and give it a little tweak.

Enter pork jowls.  In Italian it’s guanciale, and it’s sliced and cured in a manner similar to bacon.  But it’s a deeper, richer almost gamey flavor that brings something different to your weeknight plate.  Fry them up, toss them with some familiar ingredients and you’ll have a pasta that’s delicious on its own.  Add some slices of easily-prepared monkfish and you can serve your loved ones something wonderfully unexpected.

Just be sure to maintain the mystery: don’t tell them how easy it was.

Pork Jowl Pasta with Roasted Monkfish

For the pasta sauce:

1/3 lbs. of sliced pork jowl

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 of a white onion, diced

1 Roma tomato, diced

4 big leaves of kale, ribs removed and sliced

1 handful of good Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

For the Monkfish, inspired in part by this Mark Bittman method:

1 approximately 2/3 pound monkfish fillet

1 tbsp. of good Dijon mustard

1 tsp. of paprika

Salt, pepper, olive oil

Begin with the sauce for the pasta.  Slice the jowls very thickly (in about 2 inch pieces), and render over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, or until crisped up like bacon.  This will produce prodigious quantities of grease, and that is good.  Pour off any excess and reserve 2 tablespoons.  Keep the rest, since you never know when you’ll need pork cheek fat.  Add the garlic, onion, tomatoes and red pepper flakes, and soften for 8 or so minutes.  Finally, add the kale and turn the heat to low.

Meanwhile, prepare the fish.  Preheat your over to 400 degrees F.  Mix the mustard with the paprika and brush the mixture all over the fish.  Right before you put it in the oven, season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 20 minutes, or until the fish is done.  Let it rest and then slice the fish into medallions.

Cook your pasta according to package directions.  Add the drained pasta to the sauce and mix through.  Add the reserved fat for shine, the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix again.

Serve in shallow bowls with the fish atop the pasta.  Have a delicious dinner.

Playlist included Heaven by Emeli Sandé.

When we visited our farmer friend Dick Jensen a few weeks ago for maple tapping, we picked up some of his lovingly raised and delicious grass-fed beef.  We blew through the short ribs (I still owe you some posts on those, two ways) but we also bought a brisket with the full intention of having it as corned beef.

And everyone loves it for St. Patrick’s Day.  But consider it as something you could make anytime.  It makes enough for leftovers for a couple of days.  Turn it into amazing sandwiches with a little Russian dressing and coleslaw.  Add some leftover potatoes that you par boiled and then roasted in fat and turn it into hash.  This is not your out of the can variety.

It’s worth the effort.

There is a bit of wiggle room just how long you choose to brine your brisket.  Recipes from James Beard to Ruhlman give timings from five to twelve days.  We brined our three and a third pound one for seven days.   We followed the James Beard brine recipe, but Ruhlman gives a good one that is available online.  We also added a few extras to our brine, like a couple of tablespoons of molasses and some brown sugar.

When we were done with the brining, I rinsed the brisket and discarded the brine.  Then covered it with cold water, brought that to a boil and cooked it for an hour.   At that point,  I poured off the water and replaced it with fresh boiling water from a teakettle.  To that I added a dark beer and a handful of some of the same fresh brining spices.   Then I put it in the oven on 215 F for four hours.  If you had more time, you could cook it longer.

Corned Beef Spice for Brining a Brisket

1 T whole peppercorns

1 T whole coriander seeds

1 T whole fennel seeds

1 t whole celery seeds

1 t whole caraway seeds

2 whole bay leaves

8 whole juniper berries

8 whole allspice berries

3 whole garlic cloves, smashed

1 cinnamon stick

Combine all and add to a salt brine and cure for 5 to 12 days.

Playlist included We Don’t Eat by James Vincent McMorrow.

Since it’s a potluck, I decided to throw my hat in with this post that’s long been a favorite of mine.  The post is short and to the point, capturing a moment in family life with a slightly messy, but welcoming meal at the center of it all.  Which is to say, it’s quintessentially me.

Juniper Rubbed Sirloin with Balsamic Dressed Potatoes

Weeknight meals aren’t super complicated around here.  That doesn’t mean they have to be the same old boring flavors that make you want to tear your hair out.  Ok, maybe that’s just me that gets worked up like that.  But I digress.  Today I’m not going to give you so much of a recipe as an idea of how to flavor your next steak and potato meal.

Juniper berries, long used to flavor game in Europe, work perfectly with grass-fed, slightly wild-tasting beef.  Crush a half tablespoon of berries along with equal parts peppercorns for a lovely spicy and fresh fall rub.  Mix in a bit of salt and drizzle the steak with olive oil and let it sit for as long as you have time.   Perhaps you’ll mix yourself a gin martini, since you’re going with the juniper berries on the steak.  Not a bad idea, you clever thing.

For the potatoes, treat them as you would a salad.  Make a mustard balsamic dressing, perhaps chop up some tarragon for good measure and a single green onion.  Dress them after you’ve either roasted them or boiled them as you would for a potato salad.

Since we grilled the steak, Cherub asked if we could eat outside.  It was a perfect night for it and who are we to say no?  As the cool front blew in we realized that fall is probably our favorite time to grill and enjoy a dinner outdoors.  No being too hot or swatting away bugs.  Just lovely weather, the turning of the seasons and our little family enjoying a meal that celebrates it all.

The grass fed-sirloin was from Flying J Farm and the potatoes from Northridge Organic Farm.

The playlist included Velcro Shoes, by Pete Yorn.