Culinary therapy...

I was a bit ... bothered ... this afternoon about my appointment tomorrow, so I decided to practice some culinary therapy.  A while ago, I saw a recipe for cauliflower "breadsticks" and was intrigued by the idea even though the thought of them seemed a bit disgusting to me.

While I normally do not mess with a recipe without trying it first as written, I did not want to take any chances at wasting the cheese with less-than-tasty result.  So, I blatantly tweaked the recipe from the outset.

The Herbed Vegetable Sticks (I just had to change the name since these are in no way "bread") turned out far better than I thought they would.  I am betting the fresh herbs and garlic had something to do with that.

Since I do not own a food processor and was concerned about pulsing an entire cauliflower in my mini-food prep processor, I decided to start with Green Giant Fresh® Cauliflower Crumbles that I spotted in the store.  I was worried a bit about having too much egg white since I think 16 ounces of chopped cauliflower might be less that what a head of cauliflower might be once chopped, but the recipe turned out fine.  Perhaps there is a bit of proportion leeway in using egg whites.

Being a fresh herb novice, I really do not know how much to use most of the time I substitute fresh herbs for dried.  I think that my little pile of chopped herbs ended up being about 3 tablespoons worth. I tried to be specific about how much I used of each type in the recipe.  It seems like I basically end up with a heaping handful of fresh herbs no matter what recipe I am following.

I would definitely serve these to company, if only for their conversation value.  I do not believe I would mention, prior to serving, that the main ingredient was cauliflower.  After all, the melted cheese made them pretty attractive.

All in all, I liked the challenge of making something that is so completely outside my wheelhouse.

While I was cooking, I left the back door open to try and persuade Amos to tend to his major business.  Firewood Man was going to surprise me with the caulk and prep work so that we could finally paint the interior of the porch roof and the exterior horizontal strip of house red paint.  I practically jumped out of my skin when I turned around and he was standing in the open door.

[I confess I might have called him once or 20 times in the past few weeks since it is getting a bit late for painting.]

Tim thought I was nuts for making "breadsticks" from cauliflower.  I admit I agreed with him and hesitated before adding the cheese.  After all, who in her right might would want to waste cheese?  The smell of cauliflower was off-putting for me and rather worrisome, but I did chow down on four of the sticks (after girding my loins to gear up enough courage to take a bite) before putting the rest in the refrigerator.  There is a hint of cauliflower aftertaste that you wouldn't have with regular breadsticks, but not enough to make them un-tasty.

Not being a bread maker, I am untutored in the theories behind type of cooking trays/pans to use with bread items.  Since the sticks stuck to the baking stone that I used, the bottoms were then soft.  I tried to compensate by putting them back into the oven for two minutes after transferring them to a cooling rack.  Next time, I think I might try a metal pan.  Perhaps even a greased one.  For I believe these would be better if the bottoms were a bit crispy.

Feeling rather sanctimonious for eating something made from cauliflower, I toyed with the idea of having a second slice of the Apple Cider Donut Cake.  It thaws and reheats just wonderfully.  However, Becky encouraged me to stick with self discipline with her response:  "Desert your ideas about a second dessert!"

My funny friend!