Yes, We Cook!

My mom once asked me to help her make a version of these mini-cheeseburgers for a kid’s birthday party. They were very easy to make and had visual appeal. I thought they were so cute that I made them last week for my organization’s “Taste of Near North” event (which is much like the “Taste of Chicago” event where you go around to different booths and pay some money to try a small serving of a food item.) These li’l guys were not only easy to make they were also a big hit! I was told they sold out in no time..

Sweet treats

The following recipe makes 40 mini-cheese burgers:
1pkg – Nilla wafers (buns)
1pkg -Keebler’s grasshopper cookies (meat)
1pkg – white frosting (for adherence)
1 tube- yellow frosting (cheese & mustard)
1 tube- red frosting (ketchup & tomatoes)
1/2 package shredded coconut (lettuce)
Green food coloring.
Sesame seeds
Honey

Steps:

1.) Lettuce – mix shredded coconut with green food coloring – set aside

2.) Spread white frosting on the flat sides of the Nilla Wafers – lining them up as a top/bottom pair (2 nilla wafers for one sandwich)

3.) Place a Grasshopper cookie on one of the two nilla wafers (the bottom bun)

4.) Apply yellow frosting as a circular ring on top of the Grasshopper cookie.

5.) Apply red icing in random dots around the yellow icing.

6.) Layer bits of the shredded green coconut on top of the frosting

7.) Place 2nd Nilla wafer on top (top bun)

8.) Place a dab of honey on top of the top bun Nilla wafer and brush on evenly.

9.) Sprinkle sesame seeds lightly

10.) Smile at your cute little creation and store in a cool place!

Enjoy!

When I couldn’t sleep a few days back I went searching for a number of dishes I want to make. As a result, over the next several weeks you’ll enjoy the results of my evening with insomnia and it starts with this dish – Bacon and Tomato pasta.

For this adventure you’ll need:

For my version I substituted Chili powder for the Red Pepper Flakes and also added dried Parsley.

You’ll have two things at once going on here, just be ready for it.

1. Add 2 tablespoons kosher salt to a pot of boiling water, and the pasta and cook until tender
2. In a large saute pan over medium heat, add bacon and saute until bacon is crispy.
3. Remove bacon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate and remove 3/4 of the bacon fat from the pan.
4. Add extra-virgin olive oil, onions, and red chili flakes. Cook until onions are translucent, add garlic, cook for 2 minutes then add tomatoes and saute for 5 minutes.
5. Deglaze with wine.
6. Drain pasta and add to the tomato mixture pan.
7. Add basil and bacon.
8. Toss with Parmesan, and add salt and pepper, to taste.

Your end result should look something like this…

Now here is the good new and the bad news.

The dish is good; however, the dish is NOT a main course. Seeing the effort time one needs to put into making the creation there is almost diminishing returns taking place.

Ok, on to the taste.

The wine, garlic and bacon mix perfectly.  Add in the basil and there is a delicate addition to the dish that helps tie everything together.  Yes, next time I make the dish, and I will make it again, I will give it a shot with the red pepper flakes. But was it stands it has the ability to add a little something to your meal.

Just remember, it’s not a main dish! it IS a main dish.

UPDATE:

Tina made a version of the dish and enjoyed it!

I made this for dinner tonight and absolutely fell in love!  I am also a kalamata olive lover so I actually made half more of the tapenade than this recipe calls for.  Once all the ingredients are ready, this dish does not take long at all to complete (that’s one of the great things about seafood).  Lots of flavor!  I will definitely be making this dish again.  Hope you enjoy as well!

What you will need:

12 fresh/frozen sea scallops (about 1 1/4 lbs total)
1/3 c kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 green onion, sliced
1/2 tsp finely shredded orange peel
2 tsp orange juice
1/4 tsp anise seeds, crushed
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1. Thaw scallops, rinse and pat dry

2. For tapenade, in a small bowl combine olives, green onions, orange peel, orange juice, anise seeds, and cayenne pepper

3. Coat unheated large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat over med-high heat. Add scallops and cook 3-6 mins or until scallops are opaque, turning once.

4. Serve with tapenade and if desired sprinkle with more orange peel.  Makes 4 servings.  (I served this with a parmesan rice side and a baby herb salad).

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 145

Total Fat: 3 g

Cholesterol: 47 mg

Protein: 24 g

Carbohydrate: 5 g

Fiber  1 g

Sodium: 353 mg

With this being my first post I wanted to be sure the dish is well worth your try. Rest assured, it is. For something so simple there is a lot of flavor and texture.

You will need:

1 c finely crused multigrain tortilla chips
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 egg
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/4 lb total)
shredded romain/salad
purchased salsa*
avocado slices

1. Preheat oven to 375 and coat a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a shallow dish combine chips, cumin, oregano, and pepper. Place egg in another shallow dish; beat lightly. Dip chicken in egg and then coat with tortilla chip mixture.

2. Arrange chicken in prepared baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until no longer pink. Serve on romaine and top with salsa and avocado. Makes 4 servings. Enjoy!

*I used a medium salsa for extra ‘kick’ and flavor.

Nutritional Information (per serving):

Calories: 230

Total Fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 135 mg

Protein: 35 g

Carbohydrate: 7 g

Fiber: 1 g

Sodium: 143 mg

Our quite decadent meal for two:

So this is pretty much our whole Thanksgiving meal save the dessert which was a coconut banana chocolate frozen goop.

The pumpkin soup is the recipe I shared here.

The salad is mixed greens from our CSA box, right off the farm. They are a delightful mix which includes some nice spicy and bitter greens.

The roasted potatoes are also from the CSA box and they are tossed with diced garlic, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper and olive oil and then roasted until browned. (they could have cooked a bit more actually)

The dressing is spelt bread diced in small pieces tossed with sauteed onions, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and LOTS OF BUTTER. After the saute I put in 2 diced uncooked apples, a handful of pinenuts, a handful of walnuts and a handful of raisins. Then put them in a baking dish and covered them while baking until the last 15 minutes.

The turkey is two thigh pieces. Roasted with salt, pepper, sage, rosemary and garlic.

The cranberry sauce was about 12 oz of cranberries with 2 diced pears and about 1/3 of a can of frozen orange concentrate. No sugar added. The orange juice was plenty for me, though it was tart, no doubt. Also about 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. Boiled until nice and thick.

I made a mock gravy as we didn’t have a whole bird to save juices. I boiled about 32 oz of chicken stock with 1/2 a cup of red wine down to about 10 oz. Added salt, pepper, garlic powder and sage, and then thickened it with flour. It wasn’t bad, though I prefer the real thing. No fat…that was nice.

We also have a dessert. I pureed in the blender 3 bananas, a 14 oz can of coconut milk, 1/2 cup raw chocolate powder and 1 tbls of honey. It’s in the freezer. When it’s thickened we’ll eat it. No picture.

That photo looks like it’s all sweet potato and it wasn’t at all.

So I had some chicken hot italian sausages. These are really good natural sausages. They do not have that weak chicken sausage flavor so many chicken sausages have. So if I didn’t know these were great sausages and you prefer pork, then I’d go with pork for this recipe.

I browned about a pound of sausage. I took off the skins and sauteed it like ground meat. Before I did the saute I boiled a massively huge sweet potato. Two regular sized large sweet potatoes would do. These are from the CSA box we’re getting so nothing is typical which is lovely because you know it’s not been genetically modified or altered in any way for it to look “normal” for the grocery store. So I cut up the potato in pieces and boiled it.

After the sausage was cooked I put it on the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish. I topped that with a layer of thinly sliced apple.

I mashed the potatoes once they were cooked and added salt. Then I put this over the apples and sausage. I baked it covered for 1/2 an hour at 400 degrees and then uncovered for 20 minutes.

I had no idea how this would turn out except I had a vague memory of liking pork sausage with sweet potatoes—where I got this idea I didn’t know. My husband later reminded me I used to get an egg scramble in a restaurant we used to frequent in which there was both a hefty amount of sweet potatoes and sausage. The apple was a new addition. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it but I did and in fact I loved it!

Served it with also local collard greens from the CSA box for an all around southern feel. (I live in the south for those of you who do not know)

Cross-posted at BlogAsheville

I’ve been having fun with my new (old) crock pot.

For the lentil soup I threw everything in without browning. If one wants a richer soup saute or brown the meat and veggies a bit. This one came out very well without doing so. I simply cut up and threw all the below ingredients into the pot and turned it on high. I cooked it for the afternoon. If you want to do it overnight the low setting would be fine as well.

The sausages were highly flavored and spiced so the flavor of the soup was greatly influenced by them. Think about what sort of sausage you’re using and adjust the flavors accordingly.

Ingredients

1 lb bison sausage (any sausage of your choice is fine)

2 cups dry lentils

water to fill the pot after all ingredients added

whole bunch of celery sliced

1 large onion diced

3 carrots sliced

5 cloves garlic diced

1 cup red wine

3 bay leaves

1 tbls celery seed

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

2 tbls molasses

Salt and pepper to taste (I used red chili flakes)

Looks like guacamole, but it’s not!

• 2 cups white beans (cooked in the crock pot over night on low after soaking for about 4 hours — in the morning I turned it on high for about 1 1/2 as the beans weren’t cooked! that surprised me)

• 1 bunch cilantro

• 1/2 cup olive oil (more if needed)

• Juice of 2 lemons

• 5 cloves of garlic (more or less to taste)

• Salt to taste

I pureed the olive oil and cilantro in a food processor with the garlic first then added the rest of the ingredients. Blended until smooth.

I served this on grilled eggplant slices the day I made it. After that I ate it on rice cakes, and also used it in place of salad dressing. It can be a sandwich spread, or a veggie dip. I imagine it can be frozen as well, though I’ve not tried it yet.

Ingredients:

• 3 lb whole chicken

• 2 lbs mushrooms sliced

• 64 oz stock of your choice

• 1 cup dry white wine

• 8 oz fresh goat cheese

• 1 very large onion diced

• 4 cups of celery diced

• 6 cloves of garlic minced

• 3 bay leaves

• 1 tbls celery seed

• Salt to taste

• Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Boiled chicken in stock for 2 hours with the bay leaves and the celery seed. I usually skin the chicken first to avoid having to take the fat off of the soup in some other way.

In separate pan I sauteed the garlic, onions, celery, and mushrooms until soft. Then I added the wine and brought it to a boil and turned it off while I waited for the chicken.

Once the chicken is done I remove the chicken from the broth and let cool. I take out the bay leaves from the stock.

I crumbled the goat cheese and melted it in the broth at this point.

Once cool I take all the meat off the chicken and cut it up in very small pieces. At this point all is thrown together–the chicken, broth with goat cheese and the sauteed veggies with the wine. Heat all together to blend flavors, then serve.

If you want a creamier soup you can add a 1/4 cup flour after first adding water very slowly until you have a liquid. Drizzle in the flour with water while stirring a boiling soup. I did not add the flour and liked it just as it was.

One can also add rice which I intend to do tomorrow for the second round. I like steaming the rice separately.

This chard is from our winter CSA box. It’s so nice to continue getting stuff off the farm locally even though our garden is done.

This is a really nice and easy veggie dish. I simply steamed the chard and added olive oil, pine nuts and dried cranberries. It’s pretty and delicious.

Photo a little blurry, but what a nice color:

Borscht is a soup people tend to either go hot or cold on. I’m hot for it. Love it. I thought of that as one can eat it hot or cold too! (ugh, bad play on words, perhaps?) It can also be made with meat or just veggies. There are endless variations. I simply used what I had around as is my wont to do.

Ingredients:

• 6 beets (I used three orange and three red beets)

• 1 small purple cabbage

• 24 oz crushed tomato

• 48 oz vegetable stock

• 3 carrots

• 1 very large red onion

• 12 cloves of garlic

• 3 tbls dill (fresh would be better, I used dry)

• 1/2 cup very strong red wine vinegar (I get this really rocking stuff from a winery in California’s Napa Valley. My step father is the source. I have never liked the weak crap you can get in the grocery store and also grew up with fine vinegar. This stuff is thick and dark and you can’t see through it–it’s a whole other realm of wonderful–if you have ordinary vinegar you might want to use more as you like)

• 1 tbls paprika

• Salt to taste

I cut up everything in relatively large chunks as I am not well enough to do lots of time consuming stuff, including endless chopping. (I’m a hard-core foodie so I can’t give it up, but I do have to take a lot of short cuts) If you can cut some of the veggies before hand and saute them, that’s better. Then whether you puree it at the end is a matter of taste.

I just did big chunks and threw all the ingredients in a pot and let it cook for about an hour and a half. I then let it cool a bit and pureed it in a blender.

Top with thick delicious greek yogurt.

juicy pulled chicken

Joanne from Eats Well With Others commented on my pork stew the other day and mentioned doing pulled pork in a crock pot. I immediately thought I would be doing that soon. I ended up with three large chicken quarters in my fridge and figured I’d do pulled chicken instead. I prefer pulled pork, but wanted to do something different with the chicken and I have my new toy, the crock pot.

So Joanne did recipes that included more sweetness. I live in the land of pulled pork (the south) and here they make both sweet and vinegary versions. I like the vinegary versions better. I’ve never been one to like sweet barbecue sauce.

Occasionally I make my own bbq sauce for chicken and I use a vinegar based hot sauce, tamari and garlic. Simple and yummy. I did a variation on that theme for this chicken.

• 3 oz Flamin’ hot pepper sauce (little more than 1/2 the bottle)

• 1/2 cup tamari

• 1/4 cup ketchup (I would leave this out next time–I never use ketchup, it’s in the house for my husband, I used this for him thinking if would be more bbq-ey, and it was but I like the sharper flavors of it without the ketchup. This ketchup happens to be organic but it’s still got sugar in it though it’s cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup)

• 3 tbls apple cider vinegar

• 12 cloves of garlic (whole)

• 1/2 onion sliced in half circles

I didn’t feel well at all last night so I made this by literally tossing all the above ingredients in the bottom of the crock pot and then topping it with the chicken which I stirred once. It took about 3 minutes. I turned the crock pot on low and went to bed. I let it cook ten hours. There was a lot of juice and perhaps there is not supposed to be, but it’s tasty and went well over rice which is how we ate it.

This is the hot sauce I used which is by no means a requirement. Any vinegar based hot sauce will do. This is very spicey.

So as my cooking blog world grows I get inspired by more and more people. A week or two ago Auntie V made this eggplant and lamb casserole. Eggplant and lamb are so delicious together so I was immediately drawn to her recipe when I saw her post it on twitter. I knew eggplant and lamb was in my future. I ended up thinking I’d rather make some facsimile of Moussaka which I’ve never made and probably only eaten once or twice. It’s a very delicious Greek dish. I bounced around and looked at multiple Moussaka recipes. Also, since I read a wonderful Greek blogger who makes wonderful Greek food, I visited Peter’s site and found this recipe.

Frankly given Peter is Greek, I’m a bit terrified to admit this is the route I took as I did indeed take liberties. This cannot be considered a true Moussaka. I’m a bit of an Italian food snob as I’m a first generation Italian and so I know that what I’ve done here (especially with the cottage cheese!!) is probably mildly sacrilegious in the eyes of a Greek person. So let’s just call this a Moussaka inspired food.

In any case, I cook with what I have in my kitchen often determining what is created more than a recipe…so here is my creation. It turned out quite nice.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground lamb (or ground beef)

• 2 eggplants

• 16 oz canned diced tomatoes

• 1/2 cup red wine

• 1 red onion diced

• 8 cloves garlic diced

• 1/2  tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 4 tablespoons pesto (I had some frozen, you can just use basil of whatever kind you like)

• 1 tsp red chili flakes

Slice eggplants in rounds, brush them with olive oil, lightly salt them and then put them on the grill. I used a small foreman grill and it took three cycles. I’ve been grilling eggplant instead of frying it for eggplant parmigiana for a long time now and so I did the same here. I also sometimes stick a big pan of eggplant in the oven under the broiler. I never prepare the eggplant with salt ahead of time and don’t know how much of a difference it makes. Peeling the eggplant would certainly make cutting up the dish easier, but I didn’t do that either.

The meat sauce is as follows:

Saute the onion and the garlic until soft and lightly browned. Toss in the ground lamb and brown that as well. I then put in the 1/2 cup of wine and cooked it on high until it was pretty much gone. Then I added the diced tomatoes and let that cook down as well, don’t want much liquid left if you want a firm casserole. While it was cooking I added the spices and herbs.

Bechamel sauce

• 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)

• 1/4 cup flour (I used rye flour as I’m allergic to wheat, so use whatever you like)

• 2 1/2 cups milk

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 6 eggs

• 1 lb cottage cheese

• 1 cup grated pecorino cheese (there is a greek cheese called kefalotyri that is used in the true moussaka, but I saw lots of references to substituting pecorino which I always have in my home, the cottage cheese is absolutely NOT Greek.)

Make a roux with the butter and flour and then add the milk slowly while stirring. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir while on medium heat until it thickens and comes to a boil. Take off heat and let cool just a bit. Add cottage cheese and pecorino. Add eggs.

Stack the dish with the eggplant on the bottom, the meat in the middle and finally the bechamel on top.

Bake at 350 for about 30 – 40 minutes until the top is browned.

It tasted very good to me. Given that I really don’t know what an authentic Moussaka tastes like I don’t know how it compares. My husband liked it too. There was a bit too much liquid but that didn’t bother me much. It might have had I served it for guests. I really really loved the bechamel stuff…it was sort of souffle like and was delicious with the lamb and eggplant.

So, since I’ve been bouncing around the cooking blogosphere I’ve gotten a fire under my butt about getting a crock pot. It’s been on my list of things to acquire for a long time but I got really motivated lately. Crock pots are often given away for free on freecycle so I’ve been watching the local list like a hawk and I finally scored. I’ve actually responded to several people giving them away in the last couple of years but I finally got one about a week and a half ago. Freecycle is like a lottery and you never know if you’ll get what you respond to.

In any case my husband did the pick up for me and when he walked in he said, “The crock pot is a “piece of doo-doo.” I shrugged my shoulders and said “aww well…you never know what you’re gonna get with freecycle.” Funny thing is, my husband who is always telling me what a snob I am about all things food got a surprise when I saw the crock pot and squeeled, “it looks perfect!!” It’s one of the original crock pots. It took me right back 30 years to childhood and frankly that is probably when this crock pot was manufactured. The thing is it works just fine. It only has a high and a low setting for heat but I just made my first awesome meal in it and hell, we saved it from going into a landfill and it was free to me.

So the next step was figuring out what I would do first. I already had a small pork shoulder roast in the freezer and so I just created something pretty much out of thin air without even looking at how I should use the crock pot. I did absolutely no research about proper crock pot usage! I didn’t have the time to invest right now so this is crock pot cooking in sheer ignorance. I may also be excited about my old funky machine out of ignorance. I don’t know. But the dish turned out fine. As far as I know the only bad thing about this old funky thing is that the interior doesn’t come out so it can easily be washed. You all let me know, what else am I missing out on?

Ingredients:

• pork roast (shoulder — any cut you like is fine)

• 1 cup red wine

• 1 tbls dried tarragon

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• 1/4 cup natural mustard with the seeds in it (the condiment)

• 1 cup stock

• 4 carrots (chopped)

• most of a whole head of celery (chopped)

• 2 medium red onions (chopped as you like)

• 10 cloves of garlic (coarsely chopped)

• Salt and pepper to taste

I would have put potatoes in too but I didn’t have them. And if I’d done that I might not have served it with the brown rice I ended up serving it with. I like mashing up potatoes in the meat juices myself and then would definitely skip the rice.

I didn’t have time to cook today and this is exactly what is wonderful about a crock pot from what I understand. In any case, I imagine this would taste better it one browned the meat in advance but I didn’t do that. I simply slimed the mustard all over the roast. Dumped it in the bottom of the pot and then stacked the rest of the stuff on top of it then poured in the wine and the stock. At that point I put it on high given I had never cooked with it and I put all the food in at 12 noon so I knew I didn’t want it cooking for 8 or 9 hours on low.

Here is where I need advice though. I have no idea how high high is. I cooked it for about 3 hours and then put it on low for another 2. It’s very done and yummy, but I have no idea how long you can cook on either setting and I’m sure there are all sorts of subtleties I know nothing about. I will try to start cruising about the net to learn more about my little funky machine soon.

I served the stew with steamed brown rice, it was good but I would have preferred it with potatoes.

Once again this post was inspired by Tina. I had never made a bourbon marinade. I used a few of the ingredients from Tina’s recipe but then did my own thing once I cruised around the net looking at variations. The meat I used was not tenderloin either. As I eat natural and organic meats I tend to buy cheaper cuts in order to maintain affordability. This is a pork butt that I sliced up. It’s good and we get it a lot. Certainly use tenderloin if you’ve got it!

Ingredients: (double up for larger amounts of meat)

• 1/4 cup bourbon (I used Jim Beam)

• 1/4 cup tamari (soy sauce is fine, I use tamari as it’s wheat free)

• 2 tbls pureed garlic (I pureed a ton of fresh garlic and froze it, nice and convenient)

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp red chili flakes

• 1 tbls prepared mustard (the condiment in the fridge, I used a nice seeded natural mustard)

• 1 tsp sage

I mixed it all up and put the meat in it and mushed it around.

Now I have a gadget to share with you all. It’s a great toy for the foodie! It’s a marinater that one can get all the air out of. It creates a vacuum and forces the marinade into the meat in a fraction of the time. It’s wonderful!

My husband is the hand model!

Anyway, this marinade thingy is one of my favorite kitchen items. It means you can get away with thinking about dinner that involves a marinade on much less notice than if you don’t have one. It deeply and richly marinates in much less time. So I marinated about 4 hours. Without it you might do twice that.

I used my little Foreman Grill which I totally love even though I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat machine.

I thought this was amazingly delicious, but in the interest of full disclosure my husband was not as impressed. Not sure what the deal was on that difference of opinion. My husband thought it was good, but not like I did. I was ecstatic. Anyway he and I have never had the same taste in food. He is British and I’m Italian. Our culinary experience growing up was vastly different. We do have lots and lots of crossover though and he is my favorite person to cook for, so I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t enjoy this as much as I did.