Karl’s Celeriac Potato Soup with Kale

Eilene is still on her vegetarian diet. I am bored with potato and leek soup, so I wanted to try something new. I found a BurpRecipes and adapted it to my family’s tastes.

Karl’s Celeriac Potato Soup with Kale

Karl’s Celeriac Potato Soup with Kale

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Filed under Main Dishes, Soups, Vegetarian MD

Karl’s Tofu Strada

Eilene has been studying animal cruelty and how animals are used in the American food chain in her sociology class.  As a result, she has wanted a lot of vegetarian meals lately. I could not spot anything online that really appealed to me. Most of the dishes were variations of noodles in sauce or salads. I wanted something different.

Karl's Tofu Strada

Karl’s Tofu Strada
((someone must be hungry)

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Filed under Main Dishes, Vegetarian MD

Karl’s Banana Beer Bread

After last Sunday’s meal, the question remained about what to do with the Voodoo beer. This was an undrinkable concoction that tasted of peanuts, chocolate and an unfortunate and overpowering taste of banana. Jan suggested that it would make good banana beer bread. I have adapted my Guinness Beer Bread to include these new ingredients.

Karl's Banana Beer Bread

Karl’s Banana Beer Bread

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Filed under bread, Breakfast, Side Dishes

Karl’s Anniversary Carrot Salad

This week is our 30th anniversary. This weekend Jan mentioned that her favorite salad was carrot. We were at the farmer’s market and she wanted to buy some heirloom carrots for her favorite salad. We thought through how I could possibly not know this after all this time. Jan, apparently, has always loved carrot salad. She buys carrot salad to eat for lunch whenever she has a chance, except when I am with her. If she is at a business dinner and there is carrot salad in the buffet she will take a big scoop, except if I am with her. This, it seems, has been going on behind my back for 35 years.

Karl’s Anniversary Carrot Salad

Karl’s Anniversary Carrot Salad

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Filed under Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables

The Inverted Peanut Butter Cup of the Lueck Ladies

[Back hand, stage whisper] “The secret is the chocolate is on the inside!”

The [trademarked chocolate and peanut butter confection] Challenge. This entire meal resulted from Myr having made peanut butter cookies from an Alton Brown recipe. Myr followed the recipe fairly closely, except that she did not have chunky peanut butter. She made do with smooth PB and added fresh chopped peanuts. Even after she had made dozens of large cookies, she still had a quarter of the cookie dough left over. When she told her mother about this, Jan said, “That would make a good pie crust and we could fill it with Claudia’s Chocolate Mousse. I also just bought a bottle of “Voodoo,” a chocolate and peanut stout. Karl, make a dinner with chocolate and peanuts!”

The Inverted Peanut Butter Cup of the Lueck Ladies

The Inverted Peanut Butter Cup of the Lueck Ladies

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Filed under Desserts & Treats, Pies & Tarts

Karl’s Chicken Cacao with Peanuts and Mango

The [trademarked chocolate and peanut butter confection]  Challenge. For the last few weeks I have been constrained by trying to make things suit a particular cuisine. With just an ingredient challenge I am free to go whole “California Fusion.” To mix and match flavors and techniques with only one constraint–it should all taste good when I’m done.

Karl’s Chicken Cacao with Peanuts and Mango

Karl’s Chicken Cacao with Peanuts and Mango

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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry

Karl’s Kale with Mushrooms

The [trademarked chocolate and peanut butter confection] Challenge. I have recently discovered dark greens. For the last two weeks I have made a collard side dish. Gee, you don’t have to cook dark greens into sludge like our mothers did! Maybe it is time to revisit kale.

To meet this week’s challenge I will have to work in chocolate and peanuts, but for this dish the greens will be the star. A little peanut butter and ground nibs to give the sauce a thickness and base should be enough.

Karl’s Kale with Mushrooms

Karl’s Kale with Mushrooms

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Karl’s Peanut Rice

The [trademarked chocolate and peanut butter confection] Challenge. My chicken dish for this meal emphasizes the chocolate elements. For my starch side dish I want to make the peanuts the star, with the chocolate element being more of a secret ingredient. I want it to add a depth to the taste without having a distinct “chocolate” flavor.

Karl’s Peanut Rice

Karl’s Peanut Rice

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Filed under Side Dishes, Starches

Karl’s Mission Fig Balsamic Asparagus

Jan and I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and she fell in love with Big Paw’s Mission Fig Balsamic Vinegar.  The question was what to do with it. We had already decided that we were going to have a Deli-dinner (fresh bread, cheese, cold meat, salad etc.) Jan had already gotten some heirloom carrots for carrot salad, so what were we going to do with the new vinegar?

Karl's Fig Balsamic Asparagus

Karl’s Fig Balsamic Asparagus

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Karl’s I Don’t Do Casseroles

I don’t do casseroles, especially tuna casseroles, too many years of church socials growing up. Jan, on the other hand, loves tuna casserole, although she has a problem with its portion control. You cannot take less of the starch and more of the veggies, since everything is mixed together. The other problem with casseroles is that the ingredients do not cook at the same rates. Some things will be under done or others will be way over done.  Somewhere there had to be a solution.

Karl’s I Don’t Do Casseroles

Karl’s I Don’t Do Casseroles

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Filed under Main Dishes, Seafood