Food

Yum!Cauliflower has a bad rap. Why all the haters? Perhaps those haters are steaming or boiling up their cauliflower to a watery mush, then dumping a truckload of butter on it to cover up the glop. Oh, lovely readers, I've found a ton of eye-opening recipes that will have your taste buds (and your kids!) begging for more. It's like when Dorothy opens her door and her world is now in color with sparkly ruby slippers to boot. Come with me on this cauliflower journey, I promise not to disappoint...

Curried Roasted Cauliflower Cracklins
Curry and cauliflower are long-lost lovers for your mouth.

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, chopped into bits
1 Tbsp muchi curry powder
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 tsp fine black pepper

Directions

Toss cauliflower in mixture.

Lay cauliflower on a baking sheet - in a thin layer.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Broil for 5 minutes.

Taste. Add additional salt/pepper if desired. Serve warm or chill

Inspiration for tonight's menu: a taste of the rolling Tuscan countryside to brighten up the evening. Uncork a nice Chianti to sip while you nibble on Merrill's creamy and bright Bruschetta with Ricotta, Honey and Lemon Zest and kick your feet up while you watch your Ribollita simmer away on the stove. Rustic Italian bliss, on your table in under an hour.

Find more great ideas for Dinner Tonight on food52.com, search for hearty winter soups, one pot meals, and while you're at it, join our community of great home cooks!

The Menu

Ribollita by la domestique

Serves 6

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes
1 carrot, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
28 ounces (1 can) plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 pound cavolo nero, or any other variety of kale, trimmed and chopped into bite sized pieces
15 ounces (1 can) cannellini beans,

It's hard to muster romantic feelings about winter right about now. Three-day weekends are behind us, our Valentine's flowers have wilted, and some of us can barely remember our new year's resolutions. Coworkers and friends alike report they're all feeling a little puffed-up and run-down. The season of colds and comfort foods has caught up with us, and I, for one, am in need of a little healthy inspiration. You too? Enter the mighty quinoa salad.

TasteFood | Kale and Quinoa Salad

Healthy Tasty Cheap | Warm Spiced Quinoa Bowl

Green Kitchen Stories | Moroccan Quinoa Salad

Photo by Kelly Senyeiby Kemp Minifie, Gourmet Live

With Oscar Night less than a week away, I know what I'm serving for hearty nibbles: A pile of crostini (little baguette toasts) with different toppings. It fits right into my style of entertaining, which is to give people choices. To make the crostini, cut a baguette crosswise into ¼-inch thick rounds. Brush them with olive oil and bake them at 350°F until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Toppings are endless, but here are five favorites:

Related: 10 Favorite February Recipes from Gourmet

Guacamole
Take a tip from my colleague, Kelly Senyei, who loves guacamole on toasts as much as on tortillas.

Chickpeas with Garlic and Mint
Rinse and drain a can of chickpeas and coarsely mash them in a bowl with a fork. Mix in 1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste, then some chopped fresh mint, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. If necessary, loosen spread further with a little warm water.

Manchego Cheese with Quince Paste
It doesn't get much

By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor for EatingWell Magazine

For the longest time, the only oil I bought was extra-virgin olive oil. After all, it's high in heart-healthy antioxidants called polyphenols and monounsaturated fats, which can help lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and raise "good" HDL cholesterol levels. Then a friend, who was also a chef, told me that there are actually times when olive oil is not the best choice. So I looked into the best uses for olive oil, and when to choose another oil.

When to use olive oil: When you're making salad dressing or sautéing vegetables over medium heat, olive oil is an excellent choice. Since it has a distinct flavor, use it in dishes where you want to taste it-drizzled over steamed vegetables, soup or bread, for example. Olive oil has more monounsaturated fat than other oils, making it a great choice for heart-healthy cooking. Find out the difference between extra-virgin olive oil and other olive oil labels

Science cooks a mean burger.
For $1 you can get a fast food burger that looks like it was grown in a petrie dish. Or for about $400,00 you can get one that was.

Dr. Mark Post, a professor of physiology based in the Netherlands, is developing lab-grown meat, made entirely from the stem cells of a cow. His cost to produce the first ever burger of its kind has reached six figures, but the pay-off could be huge.

This isn't some Top Chef nuclear gastronomy stunt. Post hopes his discovery will be a solution looming ecological and agricultural crises.

"Meat demand is going to double in the next 40 years and right now we are using 70% of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock," Post told The Guardian. "You can easily calculate that we need alternatives. If you don't do anything meat will become a luxury food and be very, very expensive."

Post's process involves growing sheets of cow muscle extracted from stem cells harvested in fetal calf serum. Still with me? The muscle sheets, once