For Rebecca

One of my sisters is undertaking the "No Meat November" challenge and I am here to support her. She asked me to put together some great recipes that are either vegetarian or pescaterian. Here are some of my favorites:

Vegetarian:

Quinoa Salad with Candied Walnuts:
A great dish that I love to throw together. It features quinoa, which is a high protein grain that works
great in cold salads.

Mushroom Risotto:
This was really intimidating to make, but it is actually really simple. A lot of recipes have really confusing descriptions and instructions and I tried to make sure mine were very clear and user friendly. I served this with some seared tofu to make a good full meal.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa:
This dip is really good, but I slightly over complicated the recipe. It is pretty easy to make this recipe in a skillet as I described or can just be stirred together cold.

Guacamole:
Guacamole is actually one of my favorite things to make in the winter because I love to make it with pomegranate and you can only really get a good price on those around this time of year.

Not Beef Stroganoff:
This one takes advantage of the fact that mushrooms are really meaty. It is pretty simple to take a traditional and replace the meat with mushrooms. While this is a great recipe, I do need to take a new picture for it.

Here is a link to the rest of my vegetarian recipes, which, given how much I like meat, I have a surprising amount of.

Seafood:

Shrimp Bisque:
Dear God this stuff is good. As the weather gets cold, this is a perfect thing to warm you up with a little spice and a little alcohol.

Cream of Crab Soup:

Another fantastic soup for this time of year. This one is made that traditional way, only white ingredients, but it is easy to make it Maryland style, just add Old Bay!

Maryland Crab Cake:

I have nothing else to say about this one, just make it. It's amazing.

Miso Soup:

While I provided a traditional set of ingredients for this one, it really is fridge velcro. You can put pretty much anything into it that you want.

Crispy Skin Salmon:

This is a easy and simple application of my new favorite way to make salmon. This recipe includes detailed instructions on how to make this amazing dish. 

Bourbon Maple Pepper Salmon:

Ok, the title is a bit of a mouthful, but this is really good stuff. If you have not made crispy skin salmon before, I would recommend taking a look at the previous recipe to get a really good idea of how to do it.

Steamed Mussels:

Pretty much the best mussels I have ever had. It is spicy, but amazing. It is not strictly speaking pescatarian, since it includes sausage, but it is easy to leave that out and still have a great dish.

Mini Grilled Cheese

My wife was complaining that we had no food in the house and I said she just lacked a bit of imagination. After making that tea party, I had some left over "very thin" sliced bread and I found a can of tomato soup in my pantry. So I thought, why not make a small twist on an old classic and I made mini grilled cheese sandwiches to go along with my cup of soup. They were small so I didn't feel guilty for eating more than one.

Tea Party Menu

I did a culinary demo for a few of my friends, and I wanted a spread that would wow them so I decided to throw together a tea party. I made a variety of finger sandwiches and here they are in case you want some ideas. None of these are particularly complicated, but they are tasty.

• White bread with cucumber and a citrus butter
• White bread with cream cheese and sweetened strawberries
• White bread with ham, Swiss cheese, and pea puree
• Wheat bread with chicken breast, bacon, and pesto mayo
• Wheat bread with turkey breast, muenster cheese, and cranberry mango pepper jelly
• Wheat wrap with cream cheese, spinach, tomato, and a little salt
• Sun-dried tomato bread with ham, cheddar cheese, and mayo

Obviously no tea party would be complete without scones, jams, butter, clotted cream, and, of course, tea. I also served a fruit tart, that I bought, and mimosas.

Update: Here is the recipes for some of the spreads I made

Don't worry, posts about meat are coming.