So I became a member of Pinterest some time ago but I did not really post anything or look at other things people had posted. Well.....all that changed last weekend. I was bored and ended up on Pinterest and it snowballed from there! Bless my heart is all I can say!! But I ended up on one particular website, Bev Cooks and and thoroughly enjoying reading her blog. But this one looked easy and tasty. My step-mom came in to town this past week and when I showed her all the recipes that looked good and she honed in on this one. So I got all the stuff to make it but it just never fit intou our plans. So I decided to make it today for lunch for just me. And it worked out pretty well if I do say so myself.
Recipe:
1T each cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and tumeric
1 sweet potato, diced or julienned
3 medium carrots, diced or julienned
2 chicken breasts
1/4c chopped fresh parsley
3T fresh orange juice
1t fresh orange zest
1/2t cardamom
1/2c olive oil
salt and pepper
salad greens
*the dressing here didnt have enough bite for my taste so I added about 1-2T of apple cider vinegar to my dressing and it gave me the bite of a vinaigrette dressing I was looking for.
*adding in dried cranberries or golden raisins gives the salad a nice sweet chewiness.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together your cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and tumeric in a small bowl. Place your sweet potato and carrots on a baking sheet and drizzle some olive oil to lightly coat. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and half of your spice mixture over the veggies. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and veggies are soft. I butterflied out my chicken breast so it would cook quicker. I also julienned my veggies because I thought they looked better that way.
While all of that is cooking go ahead and make your dressing. Whisk together your parsley, orange juice, orange zest, cardamom, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in your olive oil to keep it emulsified. If you like a tart vinaigrette feel free to add the vinegar at this stage.
Place your salad greens on your plate. top with roasted veggies and roasted chicken. And drizzle over your dressing. If you want the cranberries add them under the dressing.
This was a very light and easy meal. With it being so hot you just dont want to put a lot of heavy foods in your stomach. And at night I just do not feel like cooking so it made for a very nice easy lunch. I will do a few things differently next time. I had the idea of maybe using sweet potato fries that you can buy in the freezer section. I think they would add a nice crunch to the salad that I was missing. And it could be that I used butter lettuce instead of a crunchier lettuce. And while the spices were ok in the salad they were not as strong as I was hoping for. It is a good starter salad. Or something different but it didnt feel like Morocco to me. So keep that in mind when making this and you will have a very easy and refreshing salad for these hot summer days!!
Well it is time for another family lunch at my grandmothers house. This time in honor of Fathers Day. And as I scoured my recipes for a dessert to bring I found this recipe and lit up like a Christmas tree!! It is everything I love in a good family function recipe. Its relatively easy, transports nicely, and is a show piece! How can I resist??
So I decided to go for it and try to recreate this wonderful piece of art!!
Recipe:
1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Germn chocolate)
4 large eggs
1c buttermilk
1/2c vegetable oil
1/2 bag sweetened coconut flakes
1 can chocolate frosting
1 can vanilla frosting
Mix ingredients together with a mixer. I used a small cake pan and two glass pyrex, oven safe bowls. You need it to have a cylindrical type shape. I just wish I had a small cake pan. My cake is going to look a little squatter than this cake. But thats okay. I am sure it will work out just fine. Bake for 20-30 minnutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Take 1/2 a bag of sweetened coconut and place is a skillet over medium heat. Stir continuously so the flakes do not burn. Once the coconut flakes are toasted and brown, remove from the pan and let them cool completely.
Once the cake is completely cool assess your 3 layers and decide which layer will be on the bottom and top. And if your flat layer is larger than your bowl cakes you need to trim it so they are level. I had to do this. Place your bottom layer on a cake plate and place a layer of chocolate frosting on top. Place your flat second layer on top of the frosting and add some chocolate frosting to the top of that layer. Finally take your top layer and gently cut a circular hole in the top. This will be what looks like the top of the coconut drink when frosted. Place your layer on the frosting.
Take the chocolate frosting and frost the outside of the cake making sure not to get the top of the cake and leaving a 1 inch border at the top on the side.
Taking your vanilla frosting frost the inch border and the top of your cake. I went ahead and took a small knife and frosted the inner circle of the cake and all the corners around the top where you are not going to put coconut. I didnt read the directions well enough and vanilla frosted the entire top layer. No biggie you just see a little white frosting through some of your coconut.
Take your cooled toasted coconut and gently cover the entire outside of your cake. Make sure all the sides are completely covered so you dont have any gaps in coconut.
Garnish with some tiki straws or candied pineapple on bamboo skewers or any other dried candied fruit you like.
Unfortunately the decorations would not fit with my cake topper on it so I decorated once I got to my Grannys house. And I forgot to get a picture of it with my tiki straws. But you see the original photo I was copying so you get the idea. I was putting my straws in the cake and my uncle looked at me like I was crazy. I tried to explain it was for presentationl flair! I think my Dad just shook his head and laughed. But you know what? Everyone loved the cake. They may not have realized it was suppose to look like a tiki drink but it ate well and really.....isnt that the main thing for any food function? So I call this a success! Hope if you try it you like it!
Ok before you freak out, this is not a roadkill kinda dish! In fact there is no armadillo in it anywhere. I am sure you are thinking with me there is no telling. But I promise...no armadillo! These are cheese stuffed, sausage wrapped jalapenos!! Ahhhh..........now I got your attention!! I have been getting just tons of jalapenos out of my garden this season and I thought I might make a stuffed jalapeno to take to a family function this weekend. As I started searching the internet for ideas I came across this one on the Serious Eats website and fell in love. And I believe that after you see these you will be in love too!!
Recipe:
8oz low fat cream cheese
2c sharp cheddar cheese
1-3T chopped cilantro (depending on how much you like cilantro)
18-24 large jalapenos, seeded and halved
3lbs loose breakfast sausage
your favorite BBQ seasoning
In small bowl mix together cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and cilantro. I think next time I might add a little chopped fresh garlic.
Take a small spoon and place a dollop of cheese mixture in the jalapeno. I kept them flush with the top of the jalapeno.
Take a small ball of sausage and flatten it out. Place the stuffed jalapeno in the center of the sausage and gently fold around it forming an oblong egg-like shape. Place on a baking sheet until you have finished balling all of your jalapenos.
The original recipe called for grilling the eggs with some apple or cherry wood. I am not allowed to touch the grill and even more so now that my husband is deployed. So I used the grill pan for the stove.
Lightly sprinkle your BBQ seasoning over your eggs and grill. Cook for about 20 minutes making sure to brown all the sides.
Once sausage is completely cooked through lay on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Serve to your guests or yourself and enjoy the deliciousness!
I wasnt sure how these little wrapped packages would go over with my family, a lot of them are not big spicy food eaters, but more of them tried them than I thought. And everyone who had one loved them! And oh man they were good even after traveling 2 hours. So pull these little suckers out for your next party and become a food goddess!!
Ahhhhh summer. What a lovely time of year for fresh produce. And sometimes the best fresh produce needs to remain fresh and not cooked. This year most of us on my Dads side of the family planted purple beans this summer. Purple beans are just green beans that are purple essentially. Although they do turn green once cooked. And while my garden is small and I could only plant two small rows of beans my Dad was able to plant considerably more than me. Why is that important in the grand scheme of things? It is not unless I go to visit him and am able to take advantage of his garden produce! And he had bags of fresh picked purple beans. I had been forming an idea in my head of eating them in either a bean salad or bean and pasta salad. Because to be honest with you those beans are delicious right off the plant. In fact I ate almost as many as I picked while we were outside. They are just so sweet and crisp. They are never any better in my opinion. And while cooking or steaming them tastes good too, I wanted to find a recipe that would allow me to indulge in the crispness of the raw bean. And this is the recipe we ended up with. And I hope you enjoy your fresh produce as much as we did!
Recipe:
8-oz purple beans, cut into 1cm coins
1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
1 ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed
handful of basil, chiffonade
Place in a large bowl and gently toss.
Dressing:
1/3c white balsamic or white wine vinegar
1/2 small shallot, minced
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/3-2/3c extra virgin olive oil (depending on how tart you like yours)
salt and pepper
Combine your ingredients and whisk to make sure it is emulsified. Pour over your vegetables. Gently mix to coat every piece. Let it sit for half an hour. This can also be made several hours in advance, just make sure and toss the salad together before serving to make sure the vinaigrette is mixed and evenly distributed.
This was a very light and refreshing salad that would be a great addition to any summer meal. Ours just happened to be ribs. The burst of flavors in your mouth was just wonderful. I think I overdresed the salad and the beans lost a little bit of their sweetness. But I suppose thats the price you pay sometimes. But overall it was a very delicious dish that I absolutely recommend. So happy summer eating everyone!!
So here is another wonderful recipe to use up some of my cherry tomatoes. I was watching The Cooking Channel and they were in Florence and a chef there made this recipe. And how I just love Italian food. Ask anyone. And I think I am pretty good at it too. So when I saw they were making gnudi and using a cherry tomato sauce I rewound the channel to get a better look at the meal. And after taking some notes on what it looked like and what they said was in it I made it tonight. But just in case you are not familiar with gnudi I will enlighten you. Gnudi is a dumpling very similiar to gnocchi but made with ricotta instead of potato. So if you are a fan of gnocchi then you will most likely like gnudi. So without further ado......
Gnudi Recipe:
1 small carton ricotta cheese
1/2c chopped spinach
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4c grated parmesan
salt and pepper
In a small skillet add some olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add spinach and saute until cooked through. Let it cool down.
In a medium bowl combine together cheese, spinach mixture, parmesan, salt, and pepper.
Take a generous amount of olive oil and rub it all over your hands, kind of like you are washing them in olive oil. And take small amounts of ricotta mixture and roll into balls. The size really depends on you and how you want to make yours. Mine were roughly the size of golf balls today.
Tomato Sauce:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4c basil, sliced
salt and pepper
olive oil
In a medium pot add some olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper. Bring to a simmer and keep at low heat for 20-30 minutes or until tomatoes release their juices and are cooked down.
To assemble this gnudi dish take 4-5 small oven proof dishes ( I used mini quiche and mini loaf pans) and place on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place a small spoonful of tomato sauce into the bottom of the dish. Place 2-4 gnudi (or more if you made smaller balls than me) on top of the tomato sauce. Place another 1-2 spoonfuls of sauce onto gnudi. Sprinkle on a generous helping of parmesan cheese.
Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Now while this is what the tv said I had to crank up my oven to 375 degrees after leaving it in the oven for 30 minutes on 300. I wanted the juices to be bubbling before taking it out and the parmesan to be golden in color. So I cranked up the oven and maybe at a higher temperature it wouldve only taken 10 minutes. So watch your oven and your times because they may need to be adjusted accordingly.
This dish was very good. And for a dish that I make it was very easy to make. I got to use up another pint of fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden and that was my biggest thing. So this dish is another keeper. I think the sweetess of my tomatoes cuppled with the cooking of them brought out a lovely sweet acidic flavor that brought the whole dish together in a very lovely manner. So try this dish! You wont regret it!!
Well my cherry tomato plants are just taking off and producing more fruit than I know what to do with. I am not a big tomato fan either. So I was searching the internet for a recipe that would help me use some of the tomatoes I have gathered. And I love Lidia Bastianich and her website was the first place I went to. And she did not disappoint!! I found this wonderful recipe. So when my step-mother came out to help me with the kids I could not resist making it for her. And she did not disappoint! She always makes the best yummy noises that boost my cooking ego. And you can bet that I will absolutely be making this recipe several times over the summer while I have a plethora of fresh summer cherry tomatoes. So I highly recommend this recipe!!
Recipe:
3 pints fresh cherry tomatoes
1/2c olive oil
1/3c breadcrumbs
1t kosher salt
1/4t pepperoncino flakes (red pepper flakes)
1lb spaghetti, gemelli, or penne pasta
10 plump garlic cloves, sliced
2T fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1c fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (julienne)
1/2c parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Halve your cherry tomatoes. Toss with 3T of the olive oil in a large bowl. Top with breadcrumbs, salt, and pepperoncino. Gently toss and pour onto a parchment or foil lined baking sheet. Spread them out evenly into a single layer on the sheet. Bake until they are shriveled slightly and starting to caramelize, about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile fill a pot with water and salt it generously. Bring to a rolling boil. When the tomatoes are nearly done place the pasta in the water to cook.
As soon as the pasta is cooking, pour the remaining olive oil into a large skillet over medium-high heat and scatter in the garlic. Cook for a minute or two until it is sizzling and lightly colored. Then ladle in 2c of the pasta water and bring to a boil. Let half of the water evaporate then lower the heat and stir in the chopped parsley. Keep the sauce barely simmering.
As soon as the tomatoes are done, remove from the oven.
Once the pasta is al dente, lift it from the water and let it drain briefly and place into the skillet with the sauce. Toss the pasta quickly with the parsely sauce. Then add in the parmesan. Once incorpoated add in the cooked tomatoes and the sliced basil. Toss together gently. Mound generous portions onto your plate and serve immediately.
This dish was a perfect example of what summer food should be. The tomatoes were fresh and wonderfully sweet and made even better by baking them. The pasta was cooked perfectly and not heavily dressed so the meal was not heavy. But it was filling enough to please even a meat eater. The freshness of the basil was also very refreshing. And the best part was how inexpensive this whole meat cost me. I grew the tomatoes myself and I had the herbs in my box so it was cheap and very very tasty!! I absolutely encourage you to make this with your own fresh cherry tomatoes! Venite a mangiare!!
You know for a self proclaimed non-baker, I sure am making a lot of baked goods. How does that happen? Oh I know! I love desserts thats how! And this time my dessert making was intensified with my mother in town. She loves desserts as much as me. In fact there was one night for dinner we had boiled peanuts and key lime pie! Healthy and nutritious right? lol! Well this dessert was an inspiration from a local cupcake shop we found in downtown Fort Walton Beach. It was called Cupcakes by the Beach. She only had about half a dozen options and we chose 3 of them. We tried the Red Velvet, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Strawberry Shortcake. They were decent cupcakes but nothing spectacular. And after looking at her strawberry shortcake I started to get ideas of how I would make the shortcake cupcake. And sitting on the counter in front of me were some perfectly ripened and sweet smelling white peaches. So I looked over at my mother and asked if she was up for an adventure. I would make a better tasting white peach cupcake with my own whipped cream frosting. So we started scheming our next day's dessert.
I will go ahead and let you know up front that after making and eating this it tastes more like an actual shortcake than a cupcake. The cake part itself tastes more like pound cake than a white cake. It is very tasty and as long as you know its a shortcake and not a cupcake it tastes much better in your head!
Cake Recipe:
1 3/4c cake flour
1 1/4c all-purpose flour
2c sugar
1T baking powder
3/4t salt
1c butter, cubed and cold
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1c whole milk
1t vanilla and/or 1 vanilla bean scraped
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a medium bowl combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Add in butter and mix until just coated with flour.
In a small bowl beat your egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, milk, and vanilla. Slowly add the egg mixture to your dry ingredients in 3 parts. Then gently fold in your egg whites.
Next time I make these I may not do cupcakes since they do taste more like pound cake than cupcakes. Maybe mini loaf pans would be better.
Peach Puree:
6-8 ripe white peaches
1/2c sugar
Remove all flesh from peaches and place in a medium pot with the sugar. Bring to a low boil and simmer gently until peaches are cooked through. Using an immersion blender or regular blender puree the mixture. I left the skins on my peaches because I like the pink color of the puree.
I placed a small dollop of puree in the center of the cake batter in the tins and swirled it around with a wooden skewer providing a marbled effect. But it glomped to the bottom of the cupcake and we ended up with upside down peach cupcakes. Next time I might omit some of the liquid in the cupcake and replace it with the peach puree. I also might save 1-2 peaches and cut up and place some fresh peaches in a hollowed out center of the baked cupcake. So choose whatever method you think works best for you and if it turns out please be sure to let me know!
Be sure and save the remainder of your puree to drizzle on top of your cake later!
Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes. Cool on a rack.
Whipped Cream Frosting:
8oz mascarpone cheese, softened
6T powedered sugar
2c heavy cream, whipped
Using a hand mixer combine mascarpone and powedered sugar until smooth. Gently fold in the whipped cream until fully incorporated.
Once your cakes have cooled dollop some frosting on the cake and drizzle generously with peach puree.
Hopefully you enjoyed your peach shortcake as much as we did. And any improvements you make to this first try please be sure and let me know!
