Marbled Brownies

OK so I have to admit that this is not entirely my recipe, and I nabbed it right from the top of the cream cheese box. It's brownies from a box too, but this mix is better than the brownies that I make. However, I have made some minor changes. I swapped out vegetable oil and used canola to make it less heart attack enducing, and decreased the cream cheese by two ounces because it's all I didn't have a full 8 ounce package, and it still turned out really pretty and tasty.

1 box or pouch of Ghirardeli brownie mix (Costco is the best deal on this)
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil

6 ounces of softened cream cheese (allow to go to room temperature 3 hours earlier)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Pam cooking spray (or other nonstick cooking spray)
8 x 8 pan

In one large bowl, pour the brownie mix in, add the egg, oil, and water. Mix with a wire whisk until well incorporated and smooth - it wont be perfect because of the chocolate chunks, but the rest of the batter should be smooth and shiny.

Preheat the oven to 375

In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese for about 30 seconds. Then add the rest of the ingredients, one at time: sugar, vanilla, and egg. Beat until smooth each time. This should take about 2 minutes.

Prepare the 8x8 pan with Pam, by spraying the bottom and sides of the pan. Pour the brownie batter into the pan. Spoon in the cream cheese mixture on top in different places. take a knife and swirl the batter around to make a pattern. If it is too white on top, take a spoon or use a knife to grab a little brownie from the bottom layer, move it to the top, and continue swirling until a desired pattern is achieved. Bake for 35-40 minutes (I baked for 38 minutes). allow to cool to room temperature (or as close to it as you can) before cutting. Refrigerate any leftover brownies.

5 Cheese Mac and Cheese

This is a heart attack on a plate. 5 different cheeses in one dish. Mmmm tis the season.

Serves a crowd

1 pound of pasta - macaroni or other short hallow noodle. I used pennette because the store didnt have macaroni
2 teaspoons of salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) of butter, divided
4 garlic cloves
3 tbsp flour
3 cups of milk
1 cup of half and half
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 cup smoked Gouda
2 cups Monterrey jack cheese
3 cups cheddar, divided
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Parmesan Romano blend, divided

In a stock pot, boil enough water as directed. add the salt, and the pasta. cook as directed and drain.

While the water is boiling, heat on low a large pan with high raised edges. Melt 7 tablespoons of the butter (reserve 1 tbsp for later). Mince the garlic cloves and cook for a minute. Then add the flour, this makes the rue, and cook the butter flour mixture stirring frequently for about a minute. The butter will probably brown just at touch. Add in the milk and half and half. Increase the heat to medium. Stir in the mustard. Stir scraping the bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula. Bring to boil. Add the gouda, monterrey jack, 2 cups of the cheddar, and the parmesan-romano blend cheese. Gently stir and mix well until all the cheeses are melted into the milk.

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees. After the pasta is drained, place back into the pot. Drop in the remaining tablespoon of butter and mix into the pot until completely melted. Then mix in a 1/4 cup of parmesan romano cheese and mix. Scoop in the sauce into the pasta and mix. Reserve a scoop or two to top. Dump the pasta into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of cheddar. Then sprinkle two tbsp of the parmesan-romano cheese over the top. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the top is a little browned.

Corn Pudding

Oh my goodness I am so far behind! Well this recipe I just made last night. Growing up my best friend's mom Pat made this corn pudding during the holidays, and I absolutely loved it. I looked forward to it each season. Years later I asked for the recipe and I was so surprised how simple it is, and now I always make it during the holidays as well. It is the same recipe with the exception I added a little flour to give it some body, and some garlic for a touch more flavor.

Prep time - 10 minutes or less, cook time about 30-40

Serves about 6-8, or a crowd for a potluck Thanksgiving

2 cans creamed corn

1 can regular can corn - juices and all, do not drain

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp of baking soda

4 garlic cloves

salt and pepper

PAM cooking spray

9 x 13 baking dish

Preheat oven to 365. In a large bowl, open up the cans and dump in the corn. Put the butter in the microwave and allow to melt for a minute. In the meantime, mince 4 cloves of garlic. Pour the melted butter into the bowl, and also add in the garlic. add in the flour, eggs, sugar, and baking soda. Crack in some pepper and add salt. Mix with a whisk until fully incorporated. Spray you baking dish with Pam cooking spray. Pour mixture in. Bake in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until browned on top. I've also had success with this baking at 350 degrees for 50 minutes as well.

Banana Bread

This is one of my older recipes. I first made this in college, and this is my first baking recipe that was truly my own creation. It stemmed out of necessity because I would buy bunches of bananas at one time and I couldn't eat them fast enough. So I decided to over ripen them and turn it into bread. Basically, I ate a lot of banana bread in college. The bananas really should be over ripe, almost mostly brown or have LOTS of brown spots so the sugars are as naturally developed as possible. And I would recommend using an electric mixer or stand mixer to make this...even though back in college I was making this by hand.

Makes 1 loaf

3 bananas, very over ripe.
1 stick of butter at room temperature
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg - freshly grated with a microplane if possible
1/4 tsp cinnamon to top the bread
Pam nonstick cooking spray

In a separate medium bowl peel the bananas and mash them together. Set aside.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and eggs until incorporated. Add the sugars and vanilla and continue beating. Add the baking soda and powder and salt. Now add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, and completely mix in. By the time you reach three cups, the dough should appear pretty dry. Now add in the mashed bananas and continue to mix. Add in the cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until fully incorporated.

Prepare a loaf pan by coating it with Pam cooking spray.

Take a spatula to slowly pour the dough into the prepared loaf pan. Scrape completely. Sprinkle a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon on top of the dough. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Do not disturb. After baking for an hour, take a knife and insert in the middle and pull out to check. If the knife is clean, it is done.

Easier Caprese Pasta Salad and Artichokes with Clarified Garlic Butter

This meal was inspired by a farm stand stop in Gilroy. We saw this place on the way up to San Jose, and I really wanted to stop on my way back. There was lots of amazing fresh produce, and some of the things I picked up were a braid of garlic, fresh mini heirloom tomatoes, and artichokes.

I have never clarified butter before, but thought I should give it a try because I wanted something to dip the artichoke in and look appealing. Clarifying butter is simply the process of removing the milk solids from the butter to create a yellow clear liquid. Something you would see on the side of you plate if you ordered lobster or crab at a restaurant. I created a garlic version of it, and it wasn't too garlicky at all. Or I am totally immune to it. I ended up putting the milk solids from the butter into the pasta. Why waste perfectly good butter. The pasta I served at room temperature

serves 4

Easier Caprese Pasta Salad - with butter solids.

1/2 pack (8oz or so) of penne pasta

1 pound of mix heirloom tomatoes (one small box)

5 tbsp EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 large handful of basil (1/2 pack or so)

1 log fresh mozzarella

4 garlic cloves

Serves 2-3

clarified butter

3/4 stick of butter

2 cloves of minced garlic

Serves 2

2 steamed artichokes.

if you are steaming artichokes, I think it takes at least 45 minutes. Boil some water, drop in your steam attachment, lid it, and let it cook. I would turn it about every 15 minutes or so

on a separate pot, boil enough water for the half pack of pasta. add the pasta and cook as directed and add an extra minute or two. While the pasta is cooking, dice the tomatoes and mince the garlic. Julienne the basil. Cube the fresh mozzarella but set the aside to add in at the end. Drain the pasta when completed.

In a large bowl place the drained pasta. add the garlic, olive oil, and vinegars and toss. the oil and vinegars should unstick the pasta. Allow to cool for a couple minutes. add in the tomatoes and basil and toss.

in a small saucepan, meltdown the butter and add the minced garlic on medium low heat. when the butter is completed melted it should have bubbly white solids on top. Take a spoon and scrape the surface. Place whatever you scooped into the pasta dish. allow to cook for another minute and scrape the surface again. Repeat about 4 times or until the butter is clear. if there is garlic in it still that is fine. also if you scrape off some of the butter and placed that into the pasta dish, that is fine too, it just adds flavor. To serve, place a scoop of the pasta salad on a plate, with the artichoke, and place a serving of butter into the mini bowl to drip.

They Call Me Tater Salad

Makes 5-6 side servings

Goes well with the Waldorf Chicken Salad sandwich. I thought this came out pretty pretty decently for a 'simple' potato salad. But if I could do this again, I think a stalk of celery and 2 extra mini pickles would have been nice.

8 russet potatoes (these were small)

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp dried dill

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp sweet pickle juice from the jar of pickles

6 mini sweet pickles

2 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 heaping tbsp mayo

salt and pepper

bring to boil several quarts of water, enough for the potatoes. Add in some salt.

In the meantime peel and clean the potatoes. Then dice into bit size pieces, but not too small. I like to cut the potato in half lengthwise, then cut into quarters, then cut the quarters either 3-4 times depending on the size of the potato. pile them into a bowl. add the taters in once the water is at a rolling boil. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until just tender for a fork to pass through. Drain in a coriander when complete.

While the potatoes are boiling... mince the garlic, and dice the mini pickles

Put the drained potatoes into a large bowl. add in the garlic, which should cook enough in the fresh hot potatoes. add in the pickles, dill, vinegar, pickle juice, mustard, and mayo. Mix gently so you won't mash the potatoes. Season with some salt and pepper to taste. Chill. Serve.

Waldorf Chicken Salad

The very original Waldorf salad originated at the Waldorf hotel in New York, which is now known as the Waldorf Astoria, back in 1893. The original salad had apples, celery, and walnuts. So here is my variation on it. I prefer pecans over walnuts, added chicken and garlic. It can be served on a bed of greens, pictured, or in a sandwich, which is not pictured, but with extra mustard is pretty bomb.

Serves 5.

2 cups diced chicken from 1 chicken breast - leftover from a rotisserie chicken. no skin

2 cups apple - from 3 very small apples. I would recommend a firmer cooking apple - no delicious variety

1.5 cups celery - from 3 stalks

2 garlic cloves minced

3/4 cups pecans

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 lemon, juiced

salt and pepper

3 heaping tablespoons of mayo

if your pecans are raw, toast them in a pan on medium low, dry with no oil. This should only take a minute or two tops. remove them from heat and allow to cool.

Take out a large bowl. Dice all the ingredients and add them into the bowl as you are done cutting them up. The apple does not have to be peeled, I prefer the peel on since it adds a bit of color and flavor. I like to slice the apple into quarters, remove the core, cut them into 1/8ths, then dice them. The celery should be cut in half lengthwise then diced for smaller pieces. The chicken should be diced into small cubes and not shredded. The garlic should be finely minced. Run your knife through the pecans to cut them up and add that in the bowl. Mix them all together. add in the mustard and lemon juice. Mix well. the lemon juice should help prevent the apples from browning. if your apples are browning earlier than this, you can always juice the lemon earlier. Season with some salt and pepper. Add in the mayo. Mix well. Serve on a bed of greens with just a hint of dressing if you want (i used just a little bit of poppy seed dressing), or serve between two slices of bread for a sandwich.

Mediterranean Pasta

I was bottling my first batch of beer over at Diane's house, when she had this 'three layer dip' that she bought from the farmers market that day. the bottom layer was pesto, the middle layer was sun dried tomatoes, the top layer was feta. I thought it tasted VERY Mediterranean and said hmm, I need to incorporate this into something. My friend Summer was having a wine social that weekend and I thought this dish was a pretty good idea. But rather than make the dip, I turned it into a pasta dish. I like using rotini pasta for pesto because the little basil bits gets stuck in the middle of the corkscrews and it seems to lock in that flavor. This dish can be served warm, room temperature, or cold like a pasta salad. If you want to take a pretty good shortcut and not make the pesto from scratch like I did, just buy from the refrigerated section from your grocery store the premade pesto, and you'll probably have to use the entire four ounce container.

Serves a crowd as side dish or makes a main entree for 5

1 pound of rotini pasta - I used the organic one from Trader Joes

1 small jar of sundried tomatoes in olive oil
2 teaspoons of sun dried tomato olive oil from that jar

1 small container of crumbled goat cheese feta. Or use regular feta.

Pesto - approximately 1 cup

a generous sprinkle of parm cheese

Makes approximately 1 cup of Pesto:

1/2 large pack (approximately 2 handfulls) of fresh basil

1/4 cup pine nuts

5 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - EVOO

Boil enough water as directed for the pasta. While the water is going make the pesto.

How to make the pesto. In a food processor, take your cleaned basil and remove the stems and stuff it in. Add in the pine nuts and cloves of garlic - no need to mince, the processor does the work for you. Add in the parm cheese and season with salt and pepper. Take the EVOO and pour three turns in the food processor over these ingredients. close it and allow the food processor to rip. While it is chopping away, slowly pour the EVOO through the top of the opening and stream in while its processing. You can watch it emulsify and stop when it's at the good consistency. I would consider a good consistency to be liquefied basil leaves, but not sitting in a soup of olive oil.

Cook the pasta as directed - but add 2 minutes to the cook time. I didn't like the al dente consistency, and wanted it to be slightly more tender, but not close to being mushy. Package said 9 minutes, I cooked for 11 and was happy with that result. Drain. Take the pasta and dump into a bowl.

Pour over the pasta your pesto. Mix. Dice up the sun dried tomatoes if they are not already diced. Be sure to scrape up the olive oil if you are cutting up the sun dried tomatoes and put that in the bowl too. Pour over the top most of the feta. Toss. Top with the rest of the feta, and also add over the top a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Serve.

Green Chile Enchiladas

It's been awhile since I made real enchiladas and not an enchilada casserole. However, this dish still has many elements that are little more casserole like. Most enchiladas only come with just meat and cheese. I love to layer in different flavors.

Serves 6

1 pound / large can of green enchilada sauce

1 chicken breast from a leftover rotiseree chicken and add a little bit of dark meat too. Diced.

3 whole red chiles. Remove seeds and dice.

1 can mild green chiles (one mini can)

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained.

1/2 small container heavy whipping cream (eyeball it)

6 flour tortillas

1.5 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1.5 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

In a large bowl combine the chicken, both chiles, onion, garlic, and beans. add a generous splash of green enchilada sauce and mix thoroughly.

Take a 9 x 13 baking dish and pour enough enchilada sauce to coat the bottom, but not too much that it's swimming in it. Then take the whipping cream and drizzle in a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. Stir to mix.

Grab a tortilla and fill with a few big spoonfulls of the mixture. Then add little of each cheese. Roll it up and place in the baking dish that is lined in sauce. Repeat until your pan is full.

Pour over the top the rest of the can of enchilada sauce evenly over all the enchiladas. Then take the whipping cream and pour a little over the top as well. Top with mozarella and cheddar cheeses. Cover with foil, and bake in a 375 oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil, then broil for 5-10 minutes, until just browned on top. Allow a few minutes to cool before serving.

Enchiladas Raw Enchiladas Done

Homegrown-Homemade Apple Pear Crumble Pie

I would say that pie making is one of my specialties, and one of my biggest prides in cooking. it's one of the things on how I really got into cooking and baking in general. We've had fruit trees growing in my backyard since we've lived here. One of the earliest pies I ever made was lemon meringue made from homegrown lemons. We also had lots of apples, so my mom use to do all the peeling and coring for me, while I did everything else for the pie. Me making this pie was based on necessity, which is using the backyard apples and pears which comes into season at the same time.

Pie Filling

5 cups mostly apple with some pear peeled and thinly sliced
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
2 tablespoons flour

Crust - good for 9 inch pie

1 stick butter -very cold

1 and 1/4 cups flour

dash salt

3-4 tablespoons water

Pie Topping - crumble

1/2 stick chilled butter

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

Start preparing the filling first. it can take time to peel and slice that much fruit. squeeze over the top the juice of a 1/2 lemon. toss. add in the rest of the seasonings and flour, and toss until evenly coated. Set aside.

Create the dough: cut the very cold butter into sections and drop in a food processor. Add in the flour, salt. Pulse until the dough looks coarse and the butter is well broken up. It shouldn't take that long, maybe about 6-8 pulses. It coarse dough should look about the size of little peas. Add in the water 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse each time. Remove the lid and check the dough. make sure the dough holds together when you pinch it. If it doesn't, add another tablespoon of water, and pulse again. Gather the dough into a ball and press together. Flatten the dough a little on a clean floured surface. Take your rolling pin and coat it with flour. I like to take about a tablespoon of flour and put it in my palm, then run the rolling pin up and down my palm to distribute. Then sprinkle disk of dough withe the extra flourand use the edges of the pie plate to measure. I say I like an extra inch all the way around the plate. if you have a scraper scrape to lift off the surface. Now roll the dough carefully onto the pin, then carefully roll the dough onto the pie plate. Press up against the plate and fill any holes. Flute the edges. Take 4 strips of foil, about two inches wide each. carefully fold them together to make a ring around the pie. Then get a little more foil and place in the middle so the topping doesnt brown too quickly. Bake in a 375 oven for about 40 minutes. Take off the foil. Bake for another 10 minutes. allow to cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple - Pear Crisp Crumble

Upon doing some research because I had to name this little recipe, I found out the difference between a crisp, cobbler, and crumble.

a cobbler has dough dropped by the spoonfulls and makes a clumpy "cobbled" surface

a crisp has flour, butter, sugar, and nuts,

a crumble has flour, sugar, butter, and oatmeal

So this recipe has flour, butter, sugar, nuts, and oatmeal. So I decided to name it a Crisp Crumble. it's rich and sweet, and enough to feed a potluck crowd with an 8 1/2 x 11 dish. I have a tiny food processor, so I had to make the crumble topping in 2 batches, which does split nicely.

1 cup flour

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup raw pecans

1 cup butter (2 sticks) - super cold

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

6 cups of a combination of peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples and pears. My ratio was 4 cups apples, and 2 cups pears

start peeling and slicing the fruit and set aside when completed. Mix to combine

preheat oven to 350. In a food processor combine the rest of the crisp - crumble ingredients. add in the butter last. I would even recommend popping the butter in the freezer for a few minutes prior to make sure it is as cold as possible. Dice the butter into little squares before putting into the food processor. but don't handle the butter too much or it will go to room temperature and it will not crumble as nicely. Pulse all the ingredients together until combined and crumbly.

place the apples and pears in an 8 1/2 x 11 dish. Pack them in tight. Top with the mixture. Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes, uncovered.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Israeli Couscous with Vegetables

This is a Yom Kippur Special – Israeli Couscous with vegetables. Zucchini and tomatoes are just wonderful in the summer. It’s a pretty healthy, tasty dish, so you won’t feel like you have to repent for eating it.

Serves about 5

½ cup pine nuts
3 tbsp butter
EVOO
4 cloves of garlic, minced
½ a large onion (or 1 small), diced
1 zucchini, cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced
1 box of Israeli couscous (trader joe’s) it’s bigger than regular couscous
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
1 stick of cinnamon
2 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock if you want a true vegetarian dish)
1 bunch fresh parsley
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup of whole mini tomatoes (used a medley of red and yellow)

In a pot, melt down the butter and cook the pine nuts until just toasted, it will only take a minute. Remove from the pot and set aside. Drizzle some EVOO in the pot and cook the onions, garlic, and zucchini stirring frequently. Season with a little salt and some crushed black pepper. Cook for a couple minutes. Now add the Israeli couscous and stir and allow to cook the firm couscous for a minute or two. Enough to just barely toast it. Add in the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Pour in the chicken stock. Raise heat and bring to boil then drop to very low. Meanwhile mince the parsley, and zest the lemon. When the couscous is al dente, turn off the heat. Mix in the parsley. Squeeze the lemon juice over the dish and toss. Now add in the mini tomatoes and the buttery pine nuts. Serve.

Faster Broccoli Cheese Soup

Miss me? It's been awhile, and I am recipes behind so I wanted to at least do a quicker one today. I've already posted a Broccoli Cheese Soup, but this one has fewer ingredients, as I had way less time to make it. I made it while I was entertaining Vicky. It took maybe 5 minutes to assemble, and you'll be done in about 20 minutes or less.

Serves about 5

extra virgin olive oil

1 bag of fresh broccoli florets (it was the Trader Joes bag, so maybe 12-16 ounces)

1 large onion

3 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper

1.5 boxes of broth. You can get away with 1 box for a thicker soup, but I had leftover

1/2 cup of half and half

2.5 cups extra sharp cheddar (I like Tillamook's black label for this)

drizzle a tablespoon or so of EVOO in a soup pot to medium heat. Slice the onion - no need to finely chop, and cook. add in the broccoli and cover. Mince the garlic and add to the pot. Allow to cook stirring occasionally for a few minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper. Then add the broth. bring to a boil and cook until broccoli is tender. Pour in the half and half and mix. Take out a blender and a large extra bowl. Ladle into the blender about half the soup (don't fill the blender more than half way). Blend on low then increase to medium to pureed. This should take only about a minute or so. Pour the pureed soup into the bowl. Now repeat the process with the rest of the soup. It only took two batches when I did this. Pour the blended soup from the blender back into the empty soup pot, and also the soup in the big bowl. Place on medium heat to heat up again, even though it should be hot. Add in the cheese and stir until completely melted. Serve with a little extra sprinkle of cheese on top.

Curried Noodles

This is a vegetarian dish, as this was a side item to some chicken that was cooked on the grill. Dad said he could ‘’really’’ taste the soy sauce in this dish, even though it was just a tablespoon. I thought it was subtle enough but some are sensitive to this. So I would actually recommend just starting with maybe a teaspoon of soy sauce, then adding a little more if you think it needs it.

Serves about 4-5

3 bundles of soba noodles (rice noodles). Each bundle is pretty small, but this expands pretty big!
Evoo – extra virgin olive oil
½ can coconut milk
½ - 2/3 bottle of Trader Joe’s red curry sauce
1 bunch of green onions
1 bunch of cilantro – remove stems and use the leaves only
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 zucchini – cut lengthwise, then lengthwise again. then dice.
4 garlic cloves – minced.
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce (optional. if you don't have it around, it should be fine)
Crushed black pepper

boil a pot of water. Add noodles and cook as directed, should be no more than 5 minutes for the noodle cook time. Drain.

While the water is boiling, prepare the vegetables by cleaning then and dicing them.

Meanwhile in a very large another pan (big enough to hold noodles and veggies) on medium heat, drizzle a tablespoon of EVOO and sauté the zucchini, celery, and carrots. Crush some black pepper for seasoning. Add the garlic. Allow to cook for a few minutes. Add the drained noodles into the pan and toss. Then pour over the coconut milk and curry sauce. Add the soy sauce and fish sauce. Mix thoroughly and allow to heat through completely. You can cover the pan and allow to heat on medium low for a few minutes. Dice the green onion and the cilantro. Add to the pan. Mix and toss thoroughly. Serve hot.

another recipe to come with what to do with that leftover bottle of curry sauce and coconut milk.

Asian-y Salad

What to do when you walk into your house and you find grilled teryake marinated chicken on a plate.

Serves 1

2 grilled teryake marinated chicken thighs
1 handful of spinach leaves
3-4 butter leaf lettuce
5 stems of worth of cilantro leaves
4 baby carrots
1 or 2 green onions
spicy peanut dressing from Trader Joes

Chop and arrange ingredients on a plate. Serve with the dressing.

That's a Wrap

I wanted a sandwich, but I had no bread, so I made this wrap instead.

serves 1

1 tortilla - sun dried tomato
1 spreadable mini triangle of low fat laughing cow cheese
3 slices of seasoned turkey meat
a mini handful of mix tomatoes, cut into quarters
1/2 a small persian cucumber, diced
some spinach leaves
a heaping tablespoon of guacamole
1 slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese, cut into mini chunks

heat tortilla on a stove top until softened on both sides and warmed. Spread the cheese. place the turkey meat on top. add the veggies, cheese, and guacamole. Wrap and serve.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Lovers Cookie

I took mini peanut butter cups, in a peanut butter cookie dough, with just enough chocolate to make a cookie that's decadent yet addictive. Matt gave me this great idea that he saw on America's Test Kitchens on how they browned the butter before making the best chocolate chip cookie ever. I decided to go run with it, and came up with this recipe. I honestly think it's one of the better cookie recipes I've come up with. It is still my 'standard dough' recipe with just a few mods in it.

1 cup butter (2 sticks) - melted and browned
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons peanut butter (think slightly heaped 1/2 cup when scooping)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 cup mini peanut butter chips - available in Henry's bulk candy section, or in a small clear box package at Trader Joe's.
1 cup chocolate chips

pre heat your oven to 375 when you're about half way done with the cookies. and as always, mix your wet ingredients first then add the dry.

In a medium saucepan on your stove top, put the two sticks of butter over medium low heat. melt down completely and cook the butter until it is just barely browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

With an electric mixer beat the sugars, eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter together. The peanut butter will probably not mix in well at first, but that will change. Now stream in the melted butter. If you dont have a stand mixer you can just slowly add the melted butter a little at a time. Add in the baking powder and salt. Now add the flour about a half cup at a time. Keep mixing until fully incorporated. Now mix in the peanut butter chips, then the chocolate chips.

Create one inch balls and drop onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-12 minutes (depends on your oven, but I thought 10 minutes was solid). Cool for a minute on the sheet then transfer to a rack.

3 cheese pizza with vodka sauce on herb crust

Makes 1 pizza, serves about 4

1 ball / pack of raw herb dough from Trader Joe's
flour
EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pam cooking spray
1/3 - 1/2 bottle of Vodka sauce, also from Trader Joe's
about a 1/3 of a ball part skim mozzarella, shredded. turns into about 1 cup
1/2 log of fresh mozzarella ( use the whole log if you want and not use as much regular mozzarella. That would be dope. but I plan on making a caprese salad this week so I wanted the leftover half)
3 tablespoons or so of parmigiana reggiano cheese or whatever parm you feel like using.
4 cloves of garlic minced

before you get started, put the dough out of the fridge and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. On a clean floured surface, roll out the trader joe's dough. On a pan or cookie sheet spray the surface with Pam cooking spray. Carefully lift the dough from the surface - I folded it into 4ths to lift and transfer - and place on the prepared pan. unroll the dough. Take some EVOO and drizzle about a couple teaspoons with directly on the dough. Brush to spread evenly all the way to the edge of the crust. Place the dough in the oven for about 8 minutes.

In the meantime. Shred the mozzarella cheese and mince the garlic. Take the fresh mozarella and cube into chunks or cut into thin slices.

When ready, take the dough out of the oven. This is called pi barring the crust (however you spell it). I found with the it creates even baking, and it makes it slightly crisper.

Spoon the bottled vodka sauce over the crust. spread evenly. I like to layer the cheese a little, sprinkle some fresh mozarella, some regular, add a little parm, and back to fresh. Top with the minced garlic sprinkled through the top.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is just slightly browned. Transfer pizza to a large cutting board and slice.

Frances' Birthday Strawberry Shortcake

Looking through Frances' photos from her bodypaint festival, I came across this one. I was very late to her birthday dinner because I was still putting together this cake. I missed the dinner, but Frances, Vicky, and myself still very much enjoyed her cake. It's SUPER easy, and really delicious. The double bonus was that this was Frances' favorite birthday cake growing up, and she use to ask her mother to make her one each year for her birthday.

cake:
1 box of white cake mix. I believe this one was Pillsbur. Make as instucted and mix with 2 eggs, oil, and water.
Use a bundt pan so you have a cake with a hole in the middle to fill with fruit. Bake as directed.

filling:
1 pint of fresh strawberries
about 2 tablespoons of white sugar

whipped topping. Cool whip or other brand.

wash and hull the strawberries. Slice into quarters and place in a bowl. add sugar, and toss. The sugar will incorporate into the strawberries and create a light sauce.

After the cake has cooled enough to remove, place on a platter. Then flip it onto the plate you want to use. Take the strawberries and fill the hold in the middle first, then arrange the rest of them on top. Spoon the extra sauce over the berries and cake. Serve with a dallop of whipped topping.

Happy Birthday Frances!

Double Chocolate Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks of butter) softened to room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

preheat oven 375 degrees. cream together the wet then add the dry. Beat the butter and sugars together. Then add the vanilla. beat until smooth. continue beating in the ingredients: add the baking powder and salt. Add the cocoa powder 1/4 cup at a time and mix until smooth. add in the flour a 1/4 cup at a time as well. then add the chips. scoop cookies by rounded teaspoon fulls (I like to use a cookie scoop) onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

bake for 10 minutes at 375

Grilled Peaches with Honey Balsamic Sauce

A month ago I was at a BBQ and we had grilled nectarines outside after a BBQ. They were brushed with this sauce and served as below. So here are some grilled peached, made indoors on a grill pan:

Serves 2

1 peach - preferably a large ripe one

approximately 1 ounce (a shot glass worth or so) of honey. eyeball it.

2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

vanilla ice cream

Belgian butter waffle cookies (available at trader joe's)

heat a grill pan on medium high.

in a little bowl, mix the honey, balsamic vinegar, and vanilla together. stir with a fork until fully incorporated. Cut the peach in half down the middle length wise, and gently remove the pit with your fingers. take a brush and brush on the honey balsamic mixture on the cut side of the fruit. drop the heat to medium. Place the fruit, cut side down on the grill pan - they should sizzle - and do not disturb them for a minute. brush the backs with the sauce mixture. Take a spatula or tongs and flip them. brush the cut side up fruit with the sauce again.

Place two cookies on a plate. Top with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Place the grilled peach next to the ice cream. drizzle the ice cream fruit plate with some leftover sauce.

WiLd Rice Summer Salad

sorry for the low res photo guys, just trying new phone options.

This salad was a Trader Joe’s inspiration and perfect to prepare in the summer when the kitchen gets too hot because no cooking or heating required. And very minimal chopping (ahem Shan and Vic =) I was shopping and stocking up on stuff for comic con weekend when I came across this demo. I did one small change to this salad, but otherwise, this is a solid recipe of the demo lady’s creation. It packed nicely in my purse in a little to go container, and served as a great lunch while waiting for Sons of Anarchy and the Always Sunny panels at Comic Con. I served my own bowl with chopped tomatoes, but my friend can’t stand tomatoes so I left them out of the main pot bowl. Tastes great both ways, IMHO.

1 pack of precooked wild rice
1 can of whole kernel corn, drained
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
½ red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
½ - ¾ of a bottle of fresh cilantro dressing
1 lemon – will use zest and juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Tomatoes – optional. The whole mini ones would work well Or dice up a few and add in.

The rice pack comes air tight, and is precooked. Just open the bag and push into a large bowl. Fluff with a fork. Open up the cans of corn and black bean. Drain the corn and place in the bowl, then dump the black beans into a strainer rinse and allow to drain, the place them in the bowl. Mince the garlic and chop the red onion. Toss all of it together. Then zest the lemon – I recommend a microplane which totally rocks. Then juice the lemon over the salad. Toss. Add in the tomatoes if you want. Dress the salad with the cilantro dressing and mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pasta Salad into Caprese Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad

into

Caprese Pasta Salad

I went to a show last night at the Hollywood Bowl - a picnic friendly venue - with my friend SueAnn and her friend Shane. They made a caprese pasta salad, and thought it was just an awesome summer dinner. Here is my variation on it. I decided to create a new take on the last dressing I made. Rather than use raw garlic to infuse olive oil for days, I decided to cook the garlic into the olive oil, let it cool, then use it as a dressing.

Garlic Infused Olive Oil Vinagrette:
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar with a splash of red wine vinegar

Pasta Salad:
12 ounce pack organic multi colored rotini pasta
1/2 red onion
1 and 1/2 cups fresh basil. it was about half a big pack
1/2 log (or use a full log) of fresh mozarella
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

Caprese Pasta Salad:
add tomatos
spinach

Boil a stockpot of water. While the water is coming to a boil, heat a pan and mince the garlic. add the olive oil and allow to heat for about less than a minute on low heat. Add the garlic, and cook for less than a minute stirring through the pan and cook evenly. Then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Dice the onion and set aside. Wash and dry the basil. Remove the stems and chop the basil.

Boil the pasta and drain as directed. Put the pasta in a very large bowl. While the pasta is still warm, toss the onion in and stir so the heat from the pasta cooks the onion a bit. Add in two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Then add the basil. Allow this to cool before adding cheese.

Now the olive oil should be cool. Pour the garlicky olive oil into a liquid measuring cup. Add vinegar to just short of an 1/8 cup then add a splash red wine vinegar. Add a teaspoon of dijon mustard. Beat thoroughly with a fork.

Dice the fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss.

To make the Caprese Pasta Salad. Take a 1/2 cup or so of spinach and place in the bottom of a bowl. Put a scoop of pasta salad. Top with a couple of diced tomatos.

Caprese Salad

The key to a good caprese salad it to buy everything as fresh as possible. A Caprese salad is just as good being simply dressed with a little salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. But I decided to make a balsamic vinnagrette to liven it up. It was finally warm out last night, so this salad tasted like summer.

Serves about 2-3

Salad:
6 small tomatos on the vine. I believe these were Campari
1/2 fresh mozzarella log. Or you can buy the mini pearl ones which are really awesome too.
8-12 fresh basil leaves.

Dressing:
2 cloves of garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
dash of italian seasoning blend
salt, pepper

Dice the tomatoes into bite size wedges and place in a bowl. Cube the fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces, then place in the bowl. Roll the basil leaves together and chop finely. Run your knife through it a couple more times until finely chopped and place in the bowl. Season with a little salt and pepper. Toss everything together and set aside.

Get out a small bowl for the dressing. Mince the garlic, add into the bowl with mustard. I don't measure so I wish I could tell you better for how much olive oil and vinegar I use. But remember to use double the oil to one part vinegar. Since this was just a salad for 2, I would just use 1/8 cup vinegar, to 1/4 cup oil, which is plenty of liquid. In the 1/8 vinegar I used mostly balsamic with just a splash of red wine vinegar. With a fork mix all the ingredients together. Then drizzle in just a little bit of honey (1 teaspoon or less) to take a little edge off the vinegar. Place in a dash of italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Spoon over the Caprese salad. You can serve right away or you can let the dressing marinate the salad for a few minutes prior to serving.

Snickerdoodles - Hold the Cream of Tartar

The butter was softened and ready to go, and I was in the mood to bake up a storm. I had the classic 1970’s cookie baking book opened and the page pressed ready to make the snickerdoodles. I’ve made the recipe as is once, and they turned out perfect. I decided to mod the recipe another time by increasing butter and omitting the shortening, and they came out flat. I was ready to actually follow a tried and true recipe, but as I scanned the recipe I saw it required cream of tartar. I check my cupboards and surely enough I was fresh out of cream of tartar. What to do. Replacing a rising ingredient can be a precarious situation. The wrong portion and substitution can create flat splayed out mess. So I researched online and saw that MOST snickerdoodle recipes required cream of tartar. I checked my empty cream of tartar mini jar that you can make baking powder out of this stuff in combination with corn starch and baking soda. My hopes were raised, baking powder should have enough base and stabilizing ingredients found in cream of tartar that it simple swap should be enough. And low and behold, you can make a snickerdoodle without cream of tartar.

2 sticks of butter (1 cup) – Salted Sweet cream – super soft at room temperature.
1 ½ cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs

2 ¾ cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp white sugar

Makes about 3 dozen, 3 inch diameter cookies.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With an electric mixer – flat beater on kitchen aid if you got one – beat the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This will take about 3-5 minutes of beating and will look like the consistency of whipped butter. Then add the eggs and continue beating. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture a little at a time, about 1/4 – 1/2 cup and continue beating and allow to fully incorporate while mixing. Be sure with a rubber/silicone spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl and sides every once in awhile for a perfectly smooth consistency. On a separate small plate, add the cinnamon and sugar – and mix. Take a generous rounded tablespoon of the dough gently roll in the cinnamon sugar mix. Then shape into a rounded ball with your hands. Place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. When you pull the cookies out of the oven they should be slightly puffed, and they will deflate a little when the cool on the sheet for a minute. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Shortercut Chile Quilles with Cheesy Eggs

I learned how to make Chile Quilles from my friend Tom during our Big Bear ski trip. He made the sauce from scratch, and it tastes way better than this shortcut version. Using prepared enchilada sauce does in a pinch and has a smokier flavor. This is a cross between chile quilles and huevos rancheros. Except the huevos aren't coated in enchilada sauce, the tortillas are.

Serves 3-4

extra virgin olive oil
6-7 flour tortillas - the smaller size - cut into strips, then into squares to make bite size pieces
1 onion, small and diced
3 cloves of garlic
3 small tomatos, chopped
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (go lighter if you don't want that much heat)
Bottled Enchilada Sauce - Trader Joe'. about 1/4 - 1/3 cup

1 tablespoon of butter
5 eggs
1/2 - 3/4 cup of shredded or cut up cheese (I used a variety on hand - havarti, cheddar, swiss, and gouda. but use whatever). Divided. 1/2 cup or so in the tortillas mix, 1/4 cup in the eggs.

in a large saute pan with raised edges, heat about 4-5 tablespoons of EVOO. On medium high heat, Saute the onion until soft, then add the tortillas. make sure you coat the tortillas well. Mince the garlic finely then sprinkle to coat. Cook the tortillas until browned. Season with red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, and a little cayenne pepper. When the tortillas are browned, add the tomatos and drizzle on the enchilada sauce. toss to coat until heated through. Spinkle on cheese.

In another pan... preheat a pan to cook the eggs. add in the butter and allow to melt and swirl around the pan to coat. Crack all the eggs into the pan and cook them sunny side up style for a couple minutes. season with salt and pepper. spinkle on the cheese. Then take a spatula and break up the eggs and mix. Cook until just still barely wet... or well done. however you take em.

Serve on a plate with a generous scoop of chile quilles and a scoop of eggs.

Creamy Red Sauce - Hold the Cream

I can say this is one of the better red sauces I've made, and I held out on the heavy whipping cream! Requires to be blended twice, but totally worth it. Just think of the blender doing the work for you. Serve with pasta or spaghetti squash.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
1 large onion (or 1-2 small / mediums) diced
2 celery stalks
1 carrot
½ head of garlic – about 8-10 cloves
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
A pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can of tomato sauce (or two mini cans)
1 very large can of whole peeled tomatoes. The large girthy can.
1 big handful of fresh basil leaves – about 10-14 no stems

Heat about 2 tbsp of EVOO in a very large pan on medium heat. Dice your onion in the meantime and add it to the oil. While the onion cooks, dice the celery and peel and dice the carrot. Add it to the pan. While that is cooking, start peeling the garlic then mincing. I am imagining if you are feeling very lazy and just crushing the garlic and removing the skin and placing the crushed cloves into the pan should be fine as well. Season with a dash of the red pepper flakes and about a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning blend. Also put in some salt and pepper. Lower the heat to medium low. Pour the can(s) of tomato sauce and cover. Meanwhile, take a blender, dump the whole can of the whole peeled tomatoes into it, and blend the tomatoes until pureed and smooth. Pour the pureed tomatoes into the pan and stir. Cook until heated through. Then take the rest of the mixture and carefully spoon that back into the blender. Blend until smooth. The pureed cooked veggies really thicken the sauce and incorporate the rest of the flavors. Pour back into the pan when it’s smooth and place on medium low heat. Chop the basil leaves and wilt them into the tomato sauce. Then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Red Chicken Mirepoix Curry

Here's another curry recipe. I decided to make a mirepoix curry because it's a mix of veggies I generally keep around, and had it in abundance at that moment. I usually don't put celery in curry, but it was a nice change.

2 chicken breasts (or one whole fillet)
extra virgin olive oil.
1 onion
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 red pepper
2 inch piece of ginger
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 box of chicken broth
1 pack of thai red curry paste
1 teaspoon of curry powder - yellow
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 tsp or so of chili powder
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons of fish sauce (patis)

Brown the chicken in olive oil. Cook a cup of rice in a rice cooker with double the water. In the meantime prepare the mirepoix - peeling and dicing the carrots, celery, and onion. Then peel the ginger and dice finely. Add all that in the pot as you are done chopping. Season the meat and veggies while it cooks with salt and pepper, curry powder, red pepper flakes, and chili powder. Then chop the red pepper and add. Allow this to cook for a few minutes. add the coconut milk and broth. Then add the curry paste and stir until dissolved. Then add the fish sauce. cover and bring to boil stirring occasionally. Serve over rice.

Spiced Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Spiced Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) salted sweet cream butter
1 ¼ cup light brown sugar
½ cup white granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp all spice
½ tsp nutmeg – freshly grated is best.
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cups flour
3 cups quick oats

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup bitter sweet dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the wet ingredients before adding the dry for best results. Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla until perfectly smooth. Then add the salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Then add the spices – all spice, cloves, and cinnamon. I use a microplane and grated the nutmeg right into the bowl because the flavor turns so much better. Add the flour a half cup at a time and keep stirring until fully incorporated. Then add the oats, a cup at a time and keep stirring. Then add both sets of chips. Scoop rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper – although I hear right onto a cookie sheet works because there is enough butter to prevent sticking. But I love parchment paper. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the edges are barely golden. Cool down and enjoy.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

These cookies are called several things. Too dangerous as my friend would say… “the racist cookie” another friend said… in reference to being an all white cookie. I call them thin, soft, and moist. This recipe is not perfect… yet. One of these days I will create the ideal cookie. I had this recipe created in my head for days, so I had to experiment how it would come out. I’m thinking that this recipe could have improved slightly with a ½ cup more flour, and one teaspoon of baking powder. But I will let you know the results next time. In the meantime, as pictures, these are my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies:

1 cup of room temperature butter- salted sweet cream is what I used
1 cup white sugar
1 ¼ cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ tsp salt

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2.5 cups flour

1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup roasted unsalted macadamia nuts. Buy them whole, but chop just before using

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The best way to make cookies to start with the wet ingredients then add dry. So cream together the sugars with the butter, add the eggs, vanilla, and salt. Stir until creamy and fully incorporated. Then add the baking soda and powder. Add the flour a half cup and a time and stir until fully incorporated. In the meantime chop the macadamia nuts by running your knife through them a couple times. Be sure to get any of the crumbles and nut powder from your chopping into the bowl as well. Add the white chips. Drop by rounded teaspoon fulls ( or you can use a cookie scoop if you have it) onto parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes. I baked for 11 minutes. Allow to cool on the sheet for a minute or two. Then transfer onto a rack and allow to cool completely. Makes 4-5 dozen


mmmmmmmm

Easy Berried Shortcake

Really good. Really easy. It's a variation on strawberry shortcake.

Serves 2

6 strawberries
1/4 fresh cut pineapple
handful of blackberries
whip cream in a can
angel food cups

Place one angel cup down. Place some whip cream on top. Top with fresh berries, pineapple, and black berries. Top with a dallop of whip cream. Or a spray of it.

Two Salads Collide: Cous Cous on Greens

Cous Cous. So nice they named it twice. And this is actually my first time making Cous Cous! This is a combo of a warm and a cold salad. and it tastes pretty good cold the next day.

1 whole chicken breast (or two halves) pre marinated in lemon herb seasoning. available in Henry's meat section

cous cous
1 box of plain cous cous
1 box of chicken broth - or a couple cans

EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
7 cloves of garlic minuced
1 red pepper diced
1 zuchini sliced
red pepper flakes
1 cup of mini tomatos
1 can of artichoke hearts in water - diced
1 large handful of basil - julienned
1 lemon
feta cheese

1 set of mixed greens
cucumber

You will need two pans, one saucepan - for the cous cousand one sautee pan. Cous Cous requires a one to one ratio liquid to cous cous. So it's easy to remember. Boil the directed amount - this was just a 4 -6 serving small box of cous cous - of chicken broth. Add cous cous and turn off heat. cover and let it sit for about 5 minutes or so. then fluff with a fork. In the meantime:

In the sautee pan, drizzle a couple tablespoons of EVOO and heat. place the chicken breasts whole in the pan and brown both sides until done, about 5 minutes a side. Remove from heat and place in a plate and cover with aluminum foil. This will carry over cook.

Drizzle more EVOO in the pan and cook garlic for a minute, then add zuke and red pepper. Add a few pinches of red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. add in the rest of the veggies as you chop them. Then add the cous cous and basil. mix well and fluff. squeeze over the lemon juice and add a handful of feta.

On a cutting board slice the chicken. Take any juiced from the chicken plate and put that in the cous cous and mix

On a plate, arrange some greens with some cucumber. top with feta sliced chicken. next to it place a couple scoops of the cous cous. This also works by layering the cous cous on top of the greens, then adding the chicken on top.

Choco Cran Nut Cookies

This cookie recipe is inspired by a cookie that I had at my friend Alysa's house. And also every other cookie I had from Mike's Pastry's in Boston had a lot of almond extract in it. So delicious. So this cookie's got chocolate, cranberries, and pecans in addition to the almond extract which also makes it a little different. I believe this was my first attempt to come up with a cookie recipe entirely on my own from start to finish, and not just tweak a current recipe, and it turned out pretty decent.

1 cup butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups bittersweet dark chocolate chips (Ghirardeli)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans chopped.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugars, eggs. Add extract. Beat on low or hand mix until fully creamed together. Add salt, baking soda, and baking powder and continue mixing. Add in the flour a 1/2 cup at a time. Stop mixing occasionally to scrape the bottom of the bowl. Mix until the dough is fully incorporated and moist. Add in chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans. Drop by rounded teaspoon fulls on parchment paper. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until barely golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Seared Ahi Salad

Lost Night Recipe part deux. This salad plates and presents pretty nicely. Can I just say how awesome that this particular salad had no chemicals or pesticides. Well if you buy the right stuff. The tuna was wild and sushi grade, as it should be if you are serving it rare. This salad was pretty big, enough for 8 people and generously portioned. But that was served with some things that would be a little filling, like lighter noodle dish and other apps – see previous post on baked brie en croute. I actually wasn’t thrilled with the dressing as I didn’t think it through and just assembled it in front of everyone at the last second. And I ran out of garlic. But it came out ok I think. The seared ahi came out pretty amazing, if I can say so myself =)

Meat and marinade:
2 large and 1 small - sushi grade ahi tuna filets - Costco has some quality seafood very reasonably priced.
1 lemon
Soy sauce
Montreal steak seasoning (to cook with only, no need to marinade with it)

Salad:
4 large handfuls of baby spinach
1 red pepper diced and seeded
1 english cucumber thinly sliced
½ - ¾ cup edamame removed from shells
2 whole avocados diced, but not too small

Dressing:

EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
Sesame oil
Hot chili oil
1 lemon
Apple cider vinegar
Soy sauceground black pepper

I allowed the meat to marinade at room temperature 2 hours before cooking. I placed the tuna in a baking dish with raised sized. Cut a lemon in half and juice over the tuna. Then splash some soy sauce over the top of the fish as well. Flip the fish over then squeeze the other half of the lemon over and splash on more soy sauce. Set aside. Allow to marinade for about 1.5-2 hours prior to cooking.

In the meantime you can assemble the salad. Place the spinach down first on a very large serving platter. Then around a large oval layer the red pepper, cucumber, avocados, and edamame. Remember you are placing the meat in the middle and on top so you want the veggies to peak out underneath.

I can’t measure dressing, sorry. Just remember you want to eyeball about 2 parts oil to one part acidity – which includes the lemon, vinegar, and soy sauce. For those measuring challenged you can always make the dressing in a liquid measuring cup. For the oil, I am pretty sure I used ¾ths EVOO to ¼th sesame oil ratio and hot chili oil. Sesame and hot chili oil can be overpowering so you want to go a little easy on it. Like it was just a splash of hot chili oil. But adjust to taste. Sprinkle some cracked pepper and stir vigorously. Serve on the side. If I could do this dressing again, I would have added a smidge of Dijon mustard, 1 minced garlic clove, a ¼ inch piece of minced fresh ginger, and a little drizzle of honey. THAT would have been a dressing. But this recipe is what I made, and it was pretty simple to throw together.

Just before serving, preheat a grill pan on high heat. I would give it a solid 2 minutes. Although you can do this in a regular pan, the grill pan leaves the cool grill marks on the fish. Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray (PAM). Sprinkle some montreal steak seasoning over one side of the fish. Place the seasoned fish face down on the grill pan. Repeat with other fishies. Now be very careful and only SEAR the fish. Don’t cook for more than a minute. It should be long enough to create some grill marks, and since the fish is at room temperature it should cook better and slightly faster than cold meat would. Sprinkle a little steak seasoning on. Use a pair of tongs to carefully turn the fish over. Sear a minute. Remove the fish from the heat and place on a cutting board. Allow the meat to rest for about a minute or two. Then cut slowly against the grain to ¼ inch thick slices. Place on top of the salad. Serve with dressing on the side.

Baked Brie En Croute

Lost, the Series Finale. Something special had to be done to marked the last ever Lost dinner party. (But don't you worry friends and bleaders this certainly won't be my last dinner party.) I considered this to be slightly ambition to try and make something brand new to me with less than an hour of company coming over for dinner, but hey I always wanted to learn and sometimes there's nothing like stress to make . There was a little hole in the cheese apparently, which is why there was a 'crown' of cheese surrounding the Brie, but it came out delicous. I guess you wrap cheese in buttered pastry it's bound to turn out decent. Presentation is something that will be a work in progress for this.

1 smaller wheel of brie. I love Costco.

1 roll of defrosted Phylo dough.

1 stick of butter.

a handful of pecans, chopped.

1 baking pan or dish with raised sides

Served with:

1 pink lady apple

1 gala apple

1 bosc pear

Simple Bruscheta bread:

1 par baked baguette loaf (I love trader Joes)

olive oil for brushing

Leave your Phylo dough out to room temperature for about 2 hours prior to use. keep it rolled. When it's ready, unroll it. as you use a sheet at a time, recover immediately with plastic wrap then cover with a damp towel. Otherwise it will dry out and crumble as you pull out the sheets. I also learned this the hard way as well, so trust me.

in a small fry pan on low heat, melt a stick of butter. when melted pour half to 2/3's of it out into a little bowl. You will use this for brushing the dough.

Take the remaining butter and on low mix in the nuts. cook for a couple minutes.

Take Every time you lay down a single paper thin layer of phylo dough, you must brush it with butter. So one layer at a time you put down a sheet, brush it with butter completely, then top with another sheet, and brush it with butter completely. I did about 3 sheets horizontal to the pan, then three vertical to the pan. Then I layed the cheese in the middle. Take the buttered pecans and place them on top of the Brie to lifted the sides (carefully) to wrap the cheese and nuts. The phylo did not cover the cheese at the top, so I took about 3 more sheets of phylo to wrap the top. Each buttered of course.

bake in a heated 375 oven for 30 minutes.

During the last 7-10 minutes pop in the bruscheta with it. BTW Brusceta in italian means brushed bread. a super simple bruscheta:

slice bread at an angle, place on a baking sheet. Brush with olive oil.

Now pull everything out and serve with the fruit. cheese, fruit, bread. Pass the wine please.

Pantry Chili

This chili was created out of necessity. I had a pound of ground turkey in the fridge, and I had to do something with it quickly before it turned. So chili it is. Unfortunately, it did not have the flair of my regular chili, which contains a ton of peppers and greater depth of flavor, but this was pretty good for what I had around the house, not prepared to make chili. Luckily I had a can of Chili peppers in adobo, which essentially saved my butt in making this. It adds a really nice smoke flavor and just enough heat.

1 pound of ground turkey

canola oil

4-6 minced shallots

5 cloves of garlic minced

1 can black beans

1 can red kidney beans

2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 can of tomato sauce (regular can, not mini)

1/2 box of chicken stock

1/2 can chipotle peppers in adobo

1/2 bag of frozen corn

1 fresh hot pepper - no idea what kind it was, it was red and green and form the yard

1 teaspoon cumin

2 heaping tablespoons of chili powder

1/2 teaspoon parsley

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 tablespoon Montreal steak seasoning

Saute the ground turkey with canola oil, and add minced garlic and shallots while browning. When cooked through drain the beans, do not rinse, and add them in. Season with steak seasoning, chili powder, parsley, oregano. Then add the tomatoes and sauce. Now add in 1/2 a box of chicken stock and bring to boil. while that is going open the chipotle peppers and pull out half the can. dice them and scoop them up, sauce, seeds and all and place that in the pot. add in cumin to taste. Place the corn in a coriander, and run some water over it to quickly defrost, then add into the pot. Bring to boil. Serve over rice. This will thicken as it stands.