I still love taking photos of what tops my table.

A year ago I started posting my centerpiece of the month (COTM), and invited others to do the same. Each month I would post all the table-top inspired photos, providing monthly ideas and inspiration.

Toward the end of 2007, I passed the baton—or the table—to Bill & Sandi at the Whistlstop Cafe. Now she posts the monthly roundups, and I happily contribute my monthly ideas to her.

I have these brushed silver turtles that have lit up my table with tea lights for years. This January, with all the Christmas decor wrapped and packed away, pinks and maroons began to emerge as the January color of choice. No doubt because the colors lead beautifully into February, a month dedicated to deep reds and all hearts.

For a short while I had two blogs, this and another called Brown Bag Blues.

I [unofficially] decommissioned that site so I could focus more on this one. But all is not lost, I plan to occasionally bring you boredom-beating brilliance to cure your brown bag blues. A few of my favorite recipes will find a new home, here.

Brown Bag Blues will be a category on this site, dedicated to providing good ideas for better lunches. Mostly, it will provide recipes that are perfect for tucking into lunches. For my own children, my brown bag agenda is to provide variety, balance, novelty~regularly tasting unfamiliar foods, and maintain/develop their curiosity toward food.

I pulled this recipe out of some random magazine a million years ago, then changed it a bit. I was excited to find a granola bar disguised as a cookie; it is still a treat but with more of a nutritional punch.

In fact, I have been known to put granola (sub varying cereals in place of cornflakes, even add a little coconut) and a variety of nuts (sunflower, walnuts, pepitas) and dried fruit right into these cookies. I will tell you the basic recipe, then you can improvise from there (note: if substituting, just stick with similar proportions):

Lunch box Cookies
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour (I use wheat)
1 cup oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups cornflakes cereal
2/3 cup roughly chopped pecans

Oven to 350. Beat sugars and butter; beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, oats, soda, powder, salt just to blend. Add cereal and nuts. (If you are a dough eater, this dough rocks). Shape into ‘golf balls’ and bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes 2 dozen, though I never count.

Core-eezo? Chore-eezo? Empa-what?

Skip filling your mouth with fancy ingredients or tell-tale titles. Just open wide and insert a few of these pastry and sausage bites.

I made these for a special holiday dinner, and it was all I could do to slow down and save some room for the main event. I am SO making these again; they were delightful, unusual and easy to make in advance. And I adore it when food can be made before the party starts.

Pronunciations aside, I actually enjoy learning about new foods. Here is the Wikipedia info about chorizo:

Sometimes mispronounced as “choritso”, it can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked, but in Europe it is more frequently a fermented cured smoked sausage, in which case it is usually sliced and eaten without cooking. Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red colour from dried smoked red peppers (pimentón/pimentão or colorau). Chorizo can be eaten as is (sliced or in a sandwich), simmered in apple cider or other strong alcoholic beverage such as Aguardente, barbecued or fried. Like breakfast sausage, it is used as an ingredient of other dishes. It also can be used as a partial replacement for ground beef or pork.

It is a bit spicy; I used the cured version, so no cooking required. I just cubed, cut and pasted:

Chorizo Empanadillas
chorizo sausage, about 1 cup in 1/4 inch dice
9 0z (1 sheet) puff pastry
flour
1 egg, beaten
paprika, to garnish

Preheat oven to 400. On floured counter, roll out puff pastry dough. Cut dough into 3 inch circles. Dampen edge of each round with water, fill with 1 heaping tsp chorizo, fold into half moon and press to seal [with fingers]. Use fork to crimp edges. Cut tiny slit in side with knife. Brush tops with beaten egg for glaze; bake for 12-14 minutes, topping with sprinkle of paprika to serve. Serve warm.

Answer: they are all a wrapped in Greek.

My latest favorite salad is this Greek salad, pictured here. One of our favorite family movies is: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And my sixth grade son just started a new social studies unit on Greek culture.

My son is learning everything from Greek religion to dress, history and geography. The ‘dress’ part of which added a twin size white sheet to my errand list (I often crack up when I consider what lands on my errand list, it is so random and often so unusual and so very mismatched that it warrants a chuckle. But I will talk about that more on another day). What you need to know: I bought a big white sheet so my son, like every other child in the sixth grade, can make togas to wear daily to class. Errands aside, this new dress code is worth a chuckle. And Target will wonder why they are out of flat, twin, white bed sheets. They will never know what hit them. Maybe I will buy a Queen white sheet and wear a togo myself; that would be cause for erupting chuckles in various circles…

Well, if you aren’t going to wear a toga, and you don’t have time to watch a movie (though, try to make time for this one, it is a hoot), you might as well make this simple, good for you salad. Course, you could upstage me: wear a toga while eating Greek salad and simultaneously watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Hands down: you win.

I wonder if I should pack this salad, along with some pita wedges, in my son’s lunch during their Greek days?

Simple Greek Salad
1/2 red onion
kalamata olives, pitted (about 2/3 cup)
cherry tomatoes, halved (about 2/3 cup)
feta cheese, sliced into 1/2 inch dice (about 1 cup)
2/3 cup cucumber, peeled/seeded/sliced into half moons
1/2 lemon
Olive Oil (just under 1/4 cup)
kosher salt, course pepper (KSCP)
optional good idea: add handful of fresh parsley or mint and/or dried oregano, to taste

Slice the red onion into bite size wedges; let sit in bowl with ice and icewater for an hour (takes out the extra zing so the flavors can meld); meanwhile, place olives, tomatoes, feta, cucumber in a bowl. Mix juice of the lemon with twice as much olive oil and pour over salad. Let marinate, occasionally stirring, at room temperature 1-2 hours. After 1 hour, drain onions and squeeze out water from onions. Add onions, KSCP, herbs to salad. Toss and let sit at least another hour, and more.

I love roasting vegetables. And all it really takes is olive oil and coarse salt, an oven hovering around 400 degrees and about 25-40 minutes, depending on the veggie.

It makes them all taste sweet, caramelized, and above all approachable. And then, once I have done the rounds with olive oil and salt, I like to play a little. So I add rosemary and cayenne and brown sugar to sweet potatoes (here), and in the name of Barefoot Contessa added dijon to my new potatoes; and now this: red onions will never be the same.

Shocking really. Maybe you will ask for a side of these onions instead of ice cream with your next pie. Your kids won’t know what hit them. Are these really onions? Now, I am not saying the goal is to mask the flavor of onions, just that I am impressed with how slow-roasting brings out the sweetness of onions (or a plethora of other vegetables), and with a few extra shakes of this and that you have your new golden side dish.

Roasted Red Onions
3 red onions, sliced in 1/2 inch half-moons
olive oil
kosher salt
2 T raisins
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Oven to 400; cut onions in half, then in 1/2 inch wedges. Put in baking dish, lube with the olive oil, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. Roast in oven 40 minutes. Meanwhile, combine raisins, garlic, honey and vinegar in saucepan over medium heat. Bring to simmer, off heat. Add to onions, once they have roasted for 40 minutes. Stir onions, roast another 15 minutes. Serve.

Other, recent roastings:

• Brussel Sprouts
• Sweet Potatoes
• Two bulbs of Fennel
• Roma Tomatoes
• Roasted Kohlrabi from Alanna at Veggie Venture
• from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks gives us Roasted Cauliflower