Two Dog Diner

Two Dog Diner is a retro-chic establishment offering upscale versions of diner classics that can be readily tweaked to suit vegetarians and mega-carnivores alike.  Nestled in a corner of the New Urbanist Prospect neighborhood in Longmont, Two Dog is a popular spot for sandwiches, salads, breakfast served all day, and innovative specials like the Roasted Duck Hash that was featured on the board when we stopped in for lunch.  The interior is classic retro with whimsical touches, including the mix-and-match salt and pepper shakers on the tables (ours was adorned with cute black and white pigs, though the pepper pig appeared to be suffering with some sinus issues) and colorful touches throughout.

It's probably just me, but I find the placement of one of those balls to be suspect.

We have visited a few times in the past and have had mostly positive experiences, and on this bustling Saturday afternoon our experience was consistent.  The place was jammed with a diversity of people eating plates of great looking food, and the counter was also a popular spot.

The service on this very busy day was a bit harried and impersonal, though still attentive to the important things like beverage refills and clearing plates.  The menu is extremely vegetarian friendly, with the option of vegetarian sausage as a breakfast side and a wide range of appealing sandwiches and salads that are meat-free.  Harrison ordered the Portabella Mushroom with Fontina and Roasted Red Peppers on the recommended sourdough bread, along with a side of home fries.  The server helpfully pointed out that the home fries are made with red bliss potatoes (presumably because they do not crisp up as much as russets):

The sandwich was really nice, with great flavor from the roasted red peppers and fontina, and nicely grilled sourdough that was not saturated with grill grease, as can sometimes be the case.  I order the Grilled Prawn Club, also on the recommended sourdough, and the server asked if I preferred two or three slices of bread.  I went with her recommendation of three and it worked well, but it would be slightly easier to eat with two:

The shrimp were a little skimpy but were nicely done and were well complimented by the pesto aioli and the sourdough.  I enjoyed the sandwich and would order it again but ask for a little less pesto.  The salad on the side was field greens dotted with thinly sliced cucumber, halved grape tomatoes, and sliced, raw button mushrooms (I am in the camp that hates raw button mushrooms on salads, but I know some people enjoy it--I just push them aside).  I ordered the Balsamic dressing which was nice but the salad was quite overdressed.  Next time I will ask for it on the side.

We also shared a side order of the Potato Pancakes with House-Made Applesauce and Sour Cream:

They were crispy and savory, veering toward standard hash browns, and paired really well with the thick applesauce.  As you can see, the applesauce was a bit of a scarce commodity, and we definitely wanted more to compliment the cakes.

Two Dog Diner is family-friendly and single-diner-friendly, and they offer a range of house-made desserts and coffee drinks, as well as freshly brewed teas.  My iced black tea was excellent, and I will readily mark a place off of my dining list forever if I am served bad tea--so clearly I found that a major selling point.  We have had consistently good food during our visits--sometimes excellent, sometimes just shy of the mark--and I would recommend stopping in and giving them a try.  They are open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week, and dinner every evening but Monday. 

Thanks for reading,

-Angela FRS

Season's Last Market: A Photo Essay with Recipe

Because we have had vegetable, fruit, and egg shares from Grant Farms this season, we have not spent a lot of time at the wonderful Saturday markets in Longmont and Boulder--just a few quick stops for Hazel Dell mushrooms or a snack from the pot sticker stand.  Today was the season's last market, so we went by to look, to snack, to buy some of our favorite turnips and some pumpkin empanadas, and to snap some photos to get us through the winter months:

Harrison's favorite stop--the pie shop

The chile roasters make the place smell like heaven

The most amazing, sweet little turnips

Beautiful loofah soaps, from Dew Farms

We bought one of these tasty stems of sprouts.

Sprouts that everyone will really eat!  See recipe...

Maple-Orange Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

3 cups sprouts, cut into quarters or halves if they are large

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup pecan halves

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon fresh orange zest

sea salt and cracked black pepper, to taste

In a large skillet or wok pan, toss the sprouts with the olive oil and cook over medium-high heat until they turn bright green--the key to good-tasting sprouts is to not overcook them.  The reason you hated these as a child is they were cooked into sulfurous nastiness.  Don't do that.  You want them bright green, and that is all.  When they hit that, toss in the pecans and let them toast on the side of the pan for minute (I shove the sprouts to one side for this).  Stir in the maple syrup and orange zest, plus salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, tossing the sprouts, just for another minute or two.  Serve and see if you can't get a sprout hater to see the light!

Thanks for reading,

-Angela FRS

Adventures in Gardening

If you have been following along with our story, you will recall that Harrison put together a mini greenhouse several weeks ago, and there was much rejoicing.  We immediately seeded the ground with some cold-weather crops--radishes, various types of lettuce, and some spinach.  We watered and waited patiently and were thrilled when a huge flush of green began to emerge.  Days went by, and that field of green turned into a field of something that looked nothing like lettuce:

Hmmmmmm...I picked a few and tasted:

Yes, just as I suspected--we had been nurturing two large swaths of baby dill.  The dill had gone to seed in the garden and when we moved in the soil we had inadvertently planted lots and lots and lots of dill.  No lettuce seed had managed to win the fight, just dill and a few lonely radishes.  Sigh.

Well, at least we like dill.

I have been reading the lovely book A Homemade Life, by the author of the acclaimed blog Orangette, and last night I went to sleep with sensory images of her meatballs in yogurt sauce dancing through my head.  We don't do meatballs around here, and the recipe called for cilantro and cumin, but I thought, hey, how about chickpea croquettes with dill?  Not much like the original recipe, but I thought it sounded like a great way to use up a bunch of volunteer baby dill.  I started by rinsing and draining a 25-ounce can of chickpeas and putting them in the food processor with a third-cup each of pine nuts and golden raisins, along with a good fistful of dill fronds and a sprinkle of salt. 

I pulsed this to a chunky paste--you want some texture left, so don't go too far with this:

If the golden raisins sound strange, please trust me and try them--they add a burst of sweet, slightly citrus flavor to the croquettes and you will not be thinking "raisins" when you taste these.

Stir a whole egg, a teaspoon of olive oil, juice of half a lemon, and a half cup of breadcrumbs into the chickpea mixture, then refrigerate for thirty minutes to let it firm up a bit.  Form into small balls (I made eighteen):

Working in two batches, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and brown the croquettes, turning to brown on all sides. Repeat with the other half and another tablespoon of olive oil, if needed.  They will flatten a little as you move them around, but this is charming, right?  You don't want them to look like they came from a falafel factory.   Place the first batch in a warm oven or on a warm plate tented with foil while you cook the second batch.

When they are nice and golden they are ready to eat.  I doubled my dill usage by serving these with an easy yogurt-dill sauce, made with plain yogurt seasoned with some garlic, a little lemon juice, some ground white pepper, and another fistful of snipped dill.

We will need to eat about another 38 batches of this recipe to use up the rest of that dill, so fortunately they taste pretty good.  They would be good cold, too.

The annoying part, of course, is the total lack of lettuce in the greenhouse.  Ah well, this is a lovely recipe.  They would also be nice tucked into some pita bread or tossed with some buttered egg noodles and sprinkled with more dill.  If you need some dill, let me know--I can hook you up.

Thanks for reading,

-Angela FRS

Super-Sexy Cauliflower and New Potato Soup with Saffron

It is possible that you are thinking to yourself, "cauliflower cannot be sexy--ever."  It is one of the most underappreciated and sometimes maligned creatures of the vegetable world, usually steamed and placed in bland whiteness next to a pork chop or an equally-pale chicken breast.  I am here to tell you that cauliflower can be totally sexy.  Just try this soup, and you will never go back:

It is honestly one of the most delicious soups, ever--creamy, earthy, and really quite sexy.  You need to make it and see for yourself.

I was inspired by a couple of things from the CSA--first, a bunch of tiny red potatoes, and, of course, some fresh cauliflower:

I scrubbed up the potatoes and boiled them, and set aside about three cups for the soup.  I started by sauteing some sliced shallots (onion would be fine) in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft:

To that I added all of my cauliflower (about five cups, equivalent to one large head), which I had rinsed and divided into florets, along with the three cups of potatoes, a teaspoon of sea salt, and water to cover:

Bring that to a low boil then cover and cook until the cauliflower is tender.  This took about 20 minutes.  From there I added in the magic ingredient, saffron:

Saffron is one thing I always have on hand, because just a pinch of the strands can transform a dish into something beautiful.  It is expensive, yes, but I believe in buying pure, non-powdered strands for maximum color and flavor.  There really is no substitute, and it is such a gorgeous ingredient:

With the soup off the heat, I put in a generous pinch of the threads, along with a half cup of shredded asiago cheese and a third cup of mascarpone cheese for silky texture and a rich finish.  The mascarpone is optional, but leaving it out will downgrade your soup from super-sexy to Miss Congeniality.  Still great, but not as thrilling.  An equal amount of heavy cream would be a good substitute.

I then used our immersion blender--which I consider one of the best inventions, ever--to puree the soup.  You can also do this in batches in a blender and get the same result (just be careful either way, as hot, flying soup is really unpleasant, and I speak from experience).

 

Taste and adjust your salt at this point, and then get ready to dish it up.  Serve sprinkled with some chopped fresh parsley or chives, croutons, or a swirl of chive oil:

You and cauliflower will never be "just good friends" again, trust me.

Vegan Option:  Substitute a third cup of nutritional yeast for the asiago cheese and substitute vegan cream cheese for the mascarpone.

Thanks for reading,

-Angela FRS

Artichoke and Avocado Enchiladas with Roasted Green Chile Sauce

Growing up in the Midwest, I had never experienced the captivating aroma of a tumbling barrel full of green chiles roasting into blistered goodness.  Now that I have been in Colorado for a decade,  I cannot help but associate autumn with roasted green chiles.  We got this beautiful sack of chiles with our CSA box this week:

This obviously left me with no other option but a batch of green chile sauce.  To begin, I headed to Las Americas Tortilleria to pick up some fresh corn tortillas.  This little place has the most excellent tortillas and when you get a nice, warm bag it is pretty hard to resist eating them in the car (we do this.  Yes, we do.).  This, too, was news to my Midwestern self, previously only having had the stale corn tortillas you get at the grocery.  If that is all you have access to, my sympathies.  But yes, grocery store tortillas will work, you will just have to heat them to soften them up before you wrap up the filling.

After I picked up the tortillas I went home and started the green chile sauce.  I roasted all of those peppers along with some fresh tomatillos.  Roast them at 375 degrees until the skins blister and blacken in spots, then throw the peppers into a paper bag to let them steam cool.  Peel and seed the peppers, then place them in the blender with the tomatillos, some onion that you have chopped and sauteed in some olive oil, garlic, salt, and a little water to thin it out (mine was too thick, as you will see--I should have added more water).  Let the blender go until the mixture is smooth, and be sure to taste to determine the heat level before spooning it willy-nilly over your food.  I sometimes add lime juice and/or a shot of olive oil after tasting, if it needs acid or balance.

Next I assembled the filling.  For this I chopped up a 10-ounce box of frozen artichokes (I prefer frozen to canned, but either will work nicely) and diced a large avocado, then mixed that up with some very random bits of cheese out of our cheese drawer.  These are great with no cheese at all, or with goat cheese or jack cheese or whatever you like or have on hand.  Spoon the mixture into your tortillas and roll them up and place them seam-side down in an oiled baking dish, and when you have a nice row, spoon on some of the chile sauce:

Bake until they are warmed through, which takes about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  I served these with a little crema (substitute sour cream if you like), but that, too, is optional.

For dessert I picked up a pan de muerto at Las Americas, which is a lightly sweet bread flecked with anise seed and dusted with sugar,  that is shaped to look like it has bones on the top.  It is a traditional bread for the Day of the Dead, and when they start showing up at Panaderias around town I can never resist.

Very delicious, and a nice end to the enchilada meal.

Vegan Option: Omit the cheese and crema and/or substitute vegan cheese and sour cream

Finally, if you have not yet cast a vote for my offering for the Marx Mushroom Challenge, I hope you will--there is no registration at all, just a simple click on Foodie Road Show.  One vote per person, and voting ends this Friday.   Just click the link below then scroll down to vote for me. Thanks for your help!

Daikon, Leek, and Apple Cakes with Horseradish Cream

This is one of those ideas that I intellectually assume will work, yet I am still surprised when it really does.  Since we started getting our CSA vegetable and fruit shares every Monday, our weekends have involved poking around in the fridge and looking for random produce that needs to be used before the next box rolls in.  This weekend that included a large, white daikon radish, a leek, and some apples.  Do these things go together?  Well, they can:

After I made these I dubbed them "Yuppie Latkes."  The thing about Daikon is that when it is raw it acts just like a radish--zingy, whiffy, and not something you think would make a tasty fritter--but when cooked it mellows into something that is more potato-like in character.  Since I have become the "fritter queen" since we started the CSA, I decided to take the giant radish, the leek, and the sweet apples and put them all together:

I started by peeling the radish, coring the apples, and cleaning and thinly slicing the leek. I then grated the radish and the apple:

 

I tossed the mixture with a quarter cup of corn starch and a half teaspoon of sea salt.  I then stirred in one whole egg.  Since the sizes of these produce items will vary, note that I ended up with about four cups of grated and sliced produce and added in one tablespoon of corn starch per cup.  Unlike my previous recipe for summer squash fritters, you do not want this mixture to be too soupy or it will fall apart as it cooks.  If it looks too wet just stir in a little more cornstarch:

That's all there is to the mixture, then you just put quarter-cups full in a skillet that has been heated with some olive oil skimming the pan--use medium-high heat for these.  Brown well on both sides and serve as is, or with a dollop of sour cream, or with my easy horseradish cream, which is  just a little grated horseradish stirred into some mascarpone cheese (no, I am not secretly paid by the mascarpone cheese producers, I just really like the stuff):

The slight sweetness of the apple and the mellowed radish and leek all makes a really unusual and delicious cake.  The amounts specified here made about a dozen.  If you have a daikon radish hanging around and you want to move away from the standard pickles, this is a great option.

Thanks for reading,

-Angela FRS

Daikon Radish