FFWD: Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli

Dressing up a vegetable is always a good idea. Not that I need any extra incentives to eat vegetables; I love the way they taste and I will rarely cover them up with sauce.  However, this dish kills two birds with one recipe. Both broccoli and the bread crumbs get a little fancy here and I love it when a few ingredients make such a difference in the flavor of my food. The texture of the dry bread crumbs is a perfect topping for steamed broccoli, which are tossed in a lemon-garlic-spiked butter that gives new life to a pantry staple.

Simplicity is a beautiful thing. That's why I love Dorie's recipes and why this book is becoming one of my favorites to cook from. It's the everyday meals that give me the hardest time. What can I throw together after a day at work that will still taste good? Around My French Table answers that question and lets us have the best of both worlds: elegant French components that will work for any occasion, from a casual dinner to a celebration meal. For more variations on the broccoli, check out French Fridays with Dorie and join us next week for Vanilla Eclairs. This is one recipe that I'm very, very excited to make.

Broccoli Crunch

 

This is something I've wanted to make for quite a while now. I'm a vegetable lover, really, even though you wouldn't know it from this blog. So I wanted to take the time to give some love to the vegetables. It's their turn. Starting with broccoli, which, when cooked properly, is delicious. This ensemble has everything I want in a salad: texture, flavor, and color. Ever had a creamy, too-sweet broccoli salad at a pot-luck and wished you hadn't bothered? Well, this is a distant, more sophisticated, healthier relation.  Grab a fork and dig in.

Summer Fest: Stuffed Tomatoes

  

These little gems are Marglobe Tomatoes all dressed up for summer. I thought about doing some sort of savory, cheesy tart to highlight garden tomatoes, but my husband requested a lighter meal for dinner. I wanted to do something a little more special than a salad, with more components than simply roasting them....and then, while flipping through the pages of Bon Appetit,  this recipe jumped off the page and was exactly what I was looking for.