Culinary Adventure (in Small Steps)

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

Harriet Van Horne, NY Newspaper Columnist

One of my resolutions for 2011 charges me to broaden my culinary horizons. Now, I'm not a wild and crazy gal, so don't go expecting to see eel (or even sushi) appear in upcoming posts. Instead, I'll be taking small steps guided by the wealth of experience available in technicolour on food blogs. I can spend blissful hours cruising through my bookmarks and then adding to my list as I discover more wonderfully inspiring blogs.

Usually, I copy an interesting recipe over to my hard drive with the good intention of trying it someday. This evening I came across The Dog's Breakfast blog out of Montreal. I was immediately drawn in by the luscious visuals. To be true to my resolution, I jumped out of the comfy chair and away from my computer and headed into the kitchen. "Roasted Walnuts with Rosemary" promised to be a simple, 10-minute adventure.

I did not let the fact that I couldn't quite match the ingredient list deter me. Only walnut pieces could be found in the cupboard and the dry rosemary seemed past its 'best before' date so improvisation with the fresh herb was necessary. And there was a bit of adventure as my walnuts went, seemingly spontaneously, from golden to black. Oh well. The result was edible and my culinary adventure is off and running. I look forward to making this simple nibble again and serving it with pears and Stilton blue cheese, or apples and dark chocolate.

Stay tuned for more excitement. ;-)


Roasted Walnuts with Rosemary

Ingredients:
butter
walnut halves
dried rosemary
fine salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. In a saucepan, over very low heat, melt enough butter to coat the walnuts lightly. Turn off the heat, throw the walnuts into the saucepan, and stir to coat. Season generously with dried rosemary and salt. Turn the walnuts out of the saucepan onto a baking sheet, leaving any excess butter behind. Bake for 7 minutes, or until the walnuts are just turning from gold to bronze.

Source: the-dogs-breakfast.com