Five For Friday

Okay so I love buying things I've never cooked with before. Lately I've been doing a lot of that. Which means my kitchen and pantry are stocked with interesting new-to-me items.

The problem is... they're never going to get used unless I actually plan to make something with them!

So here is where the brainstorming begins.

I take five ingredients and I find five recipes for each one.

Then I actually have ideas for what to use the ingredients in and they get used! YAY!

ANCHOVY PASTE

1. Pizza sauce
2. Green Goddess salad dressing
3. Pasta Puttanesca
4. Grilled Caesar salad
5. Eggplant Caponata

Pasta Puttanesca, image courtesy of kitchenriffs.com

CAPERS

1. Chicken with lemon-caper sauce
2. Mini cornbread crab cakes with lemon-caper sauce
3. Grilled Nopalitos with Caper Cumin Aioli
4. Cuban Sea Bass
5. Portobello sandwiches

Mini cornbread crab cakes, image courtesy of cookinglight.com

FIG BUTTER

1. Oaty bread. White cheddar or gruyere. Fig butter. Grilled in butter. 'Nuff said. Sort of like this
2. Fig crumble bars
3. Honey scones with fig butter smeared on
4. Fig vinaigrette
5. Caramelized Banana and Fig Oatmeal

Honey scones, image courtesy of buttermilkbakes.com

QUINOA

1. Cheesy Quinoa Burgers
2. Vegetable Fried Quinoa
3. Warm Quinoa Salad with Pears, Pecan and Raisins
4. Quinoa Tabbouleh
5. Quinoa fruit salad with yogurt

Cheesy quinoa burger, image courtesy of nutmegnotebook.com

CANNED PUMPKIN

1. Pumpkin risotto
2. Pumpkin honey beer bread
3. Pumpkin ice cream
4. Pumpkin rice pudding
5. Pumpkin penne

Pumpkin risotto, image courtesy of trissalicious.com