Wow on Wednesday

There are a lot of recipes coming your way tonight! Sometimes when you mix and match, it doesn't work out, but tonight they all went together splendidly.

Tonight's entree was herbed lamb chops. The recipe comes from Elie Krieger's "The Food You Crave" cookbook. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/marinated-lamb-chops-recipe/index.html. It wasn't actually the recipe I was looking for - that one includes herbes de Provence - but I couldn't find the other one and the notes I made in the cookbook next to this recipe said "Yum!!" so I knew it was good. And it was!! I followed the instructions to the letter, except I made it for just two people with one large chop apiece.

To go with that, I made a spinach salad, using a recipe to make spiced pecans but otherwise just putting in what I want. I've mentioned the spiced pecans before, in an Asian Pear salad. I didn't make that salad, just the nuts, using the canola oil, pecans, sugar, cinammon and cayenne pepper. Here's the whole recipe: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/748680-Asian-Pear-Salad. On top of the spinach, I put one thinly sliced plum tomato, some crumbled feta cheese (I would have preferred goat cheese, but the goat cheese in my refrigerator was, shall we say, blue cheese) and the pecans. I made a maple-mustard vinaigrette I gleaned from my Eatingwell cookbook. Recipe here: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/maple_mustard_vinaigrette.html. It went really well with everything in the salad.

For dessert, I used up some of the extra shortcake recipe I posted yesterday and made a tiramisu trifle in Sandra Lee's "Semi-Homemade Desserts 2" cookbook. I haven't been able to find the exact recipe online to link to, but I changed a few things anyway so here's what I did:

1. Combine 3 cups milk (fat-free) with one 6-serving box of instant vanilla pudding mix (fat free-sugar free). Whisk for two minutes, then let stand about 3 minutes or until thick. Stir in mascarpone cheese (recipe calls for an 8 oz container... I had used some already so was short of the full container by two or three good-sized spoonfuls. It didn't seem to make any difference). Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until smooth.

2. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup boiling water with 2 teaspoons instant espresso crystals. Add 6 tablespoons liqueur - the recipe calls for Kahlua. I had on hand a bottle of a chocolate-hazelnut no-name liqueur and I used that. Set aside the hot mixture.

3. Spoon the vanilla pudding mixture into the bottom of a trifle dish to cover the bottom. Add leftover shortcake - cubed to bite-sized and dunked into the coffee/liqueur mixture - on top of the pudding. Spoon thawed Light whipped topping on top of the shortcake.

4. Repeat step 3 until you either run out of one or more of the ingredients or run out of room in the trifle dish.

5. Dust top with cocoa powder.

6. Eat and say YUM!!

A better shortcake

I found a great recipe I want to share with you. Actually the website is pretty cool too, from what I've seen. If you want to eat smarter, check it out. They use the word "healthify" - it's what I've been trying to do to my diet, although I have to admit that cheese is still a weakness.

I found strawberries on sale and looking great recently, so wanted a shortcake to go with them. The recent "lump of dough baked on a cookie sheet" shortcakes weren't making my mouth water. Then I found this. http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/healthified/healthified-strawberry-shortcake-squares.aspx. Yum!! Very light but tasty. I used the no-sugar added applesauce instead of the oil and it turned out just perfect. I ran out of strawberries before I ran out of cake, so used some of what remains in tonight's tiramisu trifles. I still have three small squares remaining and I think I'm going to put those in a baking dish and top them with some canned peaches and cinammon and nutmeg.

By the way, the tiramisu picture and recipe will come later today.

Catching Up

I'm still here. I haven't stopped cooking (or eating, although I really should probably at least slow down.

We ate out a bit this past weekend, but here are some of the things I've made since my last entry:

Chinese chicken and noodle salad: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chinese_chicken_noodle_salad.html. I didn't take a picture of it though. We really liked it and I'll make it again. I didn't have almonds, so omitted them (none of the nuts I had on hand sounded like they'd really work with the rest of the ingredients). I also used canned chicken breast meat instead of poaching a breast and shredding it, which kept me from needing to cook much on a really hot day!

Saturday night we ate the rest of the sweet potato raviolis from Monday, which I had frozen. They were every bit as delicious after having been in the freezer for a few days.

Sunday one of our meals was turkey keilbasa subs with peppers and onions. I saved the remainder of the veggies for use in fajitas, which we had for lunch on Tuesday (John telecommutes one day a week when he can).

We went out for lunch Monday, but I continued the Meatless Monday brand new tradition for dinner by making polenta and eggplant pie. That's the picture at the top of the blog entry. The recipe comes from Epicurious.com, on my phone app. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Polenta-Pie-with-Cheese-and-Tomato-Sauce-234993 I did not have the spaghetti sauce with eggplant, so I cut up half of a small eggplant, diced it and put it in the sauce (arrabiata) to simmer for awhile. It was okay. The cheese was the best part (one can never have too much cheese). If I make it again, I will choose a sauce with a little bit less attitude. It gave me heartburn.

I didn't take a picture of dinner Tuesday night. We'd had a good sized lunch and were still fairly full. I made tuna sandwiches (on homemade potato bread - yum!) and a salad. I don't think any of you need a visual on that - if you do, you're beyond my help in the kitchen :-)