I'm not such a fan of steamed cauliflower, but heck, who needs to steam the stuff when you have this option?

Collard greens are another vegetable I'm not so keen on, mostly because the only way I've ever eaten them is cooked for a really long time so that they have the flavor and texture of slightly salty boiled paper. S., died early yesterday morning. Then throw in shredded collard greens and stir for one minute. Are you trying to get more greens in your diet?

So I settled on two recipes that looked pretty easy--Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic, and Collard Greens Miniera.

The cauliflower recipe had me puzzled a bit because it calls for minced garlic to be tossed with the cauliflower and oil and the whole thing to be roasted in a 425 oven for 25-30 minutes. You will really really love this dish.

It couldn't be simpler. Do you love bacon?

That's it!!!! Roasted cauliflower, sauteed collard greens, and 1.5 extra-dry martinis. More on him in another post--he needs to be properly eulogized.

Jeez, I thought--that garlic is gonna burn. It takes a few minutes to go through a bunch, but it's so pretty!



So yes, that's what I had for dinner last night. Saute three strips of minced bacon (I used four that were frozen, which actually makes it incredibly easy to slice) until crispy. Just strip out the big center stem, and stack a few up at a time. More on that soon, but suffice it to say that not much was going on in the fridge except these incredible veggies from my weekly organic produce box from The Fruitful Basket. He was 89, and fought the notion of death every single step of the way.

OK, you might be wondering how to shred collard greens, and no you don't use the grater.

What a revelation this dish is. It was kind of an odd dinner we had last night, to top off a very sad day. Roll them up like a big cigar (or a fatty, if you wish) and slice thinly. It burned.

So I've been puzzling over the garlic situation, because it's a great flavor to add to the cauliflower. And two little tiny containers of French yogurt. And I think if I were to try it again I'd use my mini-blender to grind the garlic up with the oil, so that it really clings to the cauliflower, because it was only the garlic that was loose on the tray that burned--there were a few nuggets here and there that stuck to the cauliflower and were yummy.

By the way, I've never eaten cauliflower like this, and it was really tasty--I loved it. But then I thought maybe it won't because of some Gourmet magic that will prevent it.

No magic.

As for the sad day, my boss, Dr. New readers, these are the folks I cook for--I'm a private chef in their household. Add a little salt.