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 :-)

Wednesday Pork Chops

This recipe is one of my go-to recipes when I have pork chops thawed. The original came from the Food section of the Washington Post many years ago. And whadya know, I found it online courtesy of the Post too: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2003/04/30/1144-pork-chops/. It really works, and it's really easy!

I didn't find the sauce recipe online (I looked, but I'm not going to claim I scoured the internet...). It was published in the Post the same day as the pork chop recipe. I've also made the Bourbon and Mustard sauce that's linked to the page the pork chop recipe is on - it's also very good, although I have a slight preference for the mustard-marsala one.

Mustard-Marsala-Cream Sauce:

1/4 cup marsala

1 Tbl coarse grained mustard

1/2 cup half and half (recipe calls for heavy cream - it's just as good with half and half)

When you remove the pork chops from the pan, add the marsala to deglaze it, upping the temperature of the burner to get it boiling and reduce it a little. Add the mustard, then the cream. Pour on top of pork chop. It's also ridiculously good on the veggies!

I didn't take a picture of dessert. I made "Magic Bars" - basic recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/magic-cookie-bars-from-eagle-brand/detail.aspx . This is a recipe that lends itself well to whatever goodies you have on hand. I used chopped macadamia nuts, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, in addition to the coconut. I used fat-free sweetened condensed milk. We both liked it. A lot.

Nothing Fancy tonight

Today started out dreary and chilly, then after an afternoon rain squall, turned somewhat sunny, hot and humid. Perfect salad weather, and since I'd had a busy day it also needed to be a quick and easy meal.

Buffalo chicken salad is the best of both of those worlds - lots of flavor with little effort. I purchased a jar of wing sauce and poured it into a zip-lock bag. Then I cut up a couple chicken breasts into "tenders" and tossed those in the bag with the sauce, and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

The salad fixings might be made up of different things from time to time, depending on what I have on hand. Today it was romaine lettuce, Roma tomato, a little bit of a banana pepper, carrot and celery. And a pinch of crumbled blue cheese. Top it off with the chicken after sauteeing it in a pan (no added oil) and some blue cheese dressing and voila! Easy meal!

Dessert was another piece of the blackberry frozen yogurt pie I made yesterday.

Meatless Monday

We're going to give this "Meatless Mondays" idea a try. It should help our waistlines as well as out budget (although I'm not saying that fresh veggies are cheap, ya know?). If it helps the planet, so much the better.

Today I used a conglomeration of recipes I looked at. First, I roasted three sweet potatoes at 425 for about 55 minutes, until they were nice and mushy inside. To the mashed taters I added about a teaspoon of chipotle powder and about 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese. I didn't measure those - I added according to visual and tastebud approval. Added a little salt & pepper, and put 1 teaspoon filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper. Then I wet the edges of the wrapper and affixed another wrapper on top and sealed them. I used a fluted pastry wheel to trim the edges up pretty-like.

The sauce I got from this site: http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2009/10/sweet-potato-ravioli-and-spinach-in.html. I substituted half-and-half for the heavy cream.

It was OUTSTANDING!! I might add just a tad more chipotle to the ravioli the next time around. It was discernible, but pretty tame. I don't want overpowering, I just want a little better balance to the sweetness of the potato and cheese.

For dessert, I had made blackberry frozen yogurt from these directions: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/berry_frozen_yogurt.html. After churning it in the ice cream machine, I turned it out into a purchased chocolate graham cracker pie crust. It's very tasty, but the directions did not mention straining after processing the berries, and next time I would add that step as the seeds were very noticeable and they took something away from the enjoyment of the dessert (like "crunch" when chewing, for instance).

Thursday, on time this time

Playing catch up here...

In my introduction to myself and this blog, I mentioned that I take notes when I watch Iron Chef America. Tonight, I used those notes to make our main entree.

We record Iron Chef every week, and once in awhile, we'll sit down and watch a bunch of them. So, although it aired some time ago, it was just last week when Iron Chef Jose Garces was competing and the secret ingredient was blue cheese.

I actually took several notes from that show. It doesn't hurt that Chef Garces actually lives and cooks within striking distance to us (in Philly - we have reservations for a paired beer dinner at one of his restaurants in August but are unlikely to be able to attend due to a work conflict of John's... but we WILL eventually make it to one - or more - of them!).

One of the courses that intrigued me involved not only blue cheese, but chorizo, onion, garlic, and quail. I've never had quail. I've never seen quail for sale at any of the grocery stores I frequent. But I have chicken on hand, and I'm not afraid to use it.

I had two half-breasts, which I flattened as best as I could so I'd have some space to roll up the filling. The filling was about a half cup of sweet onion, diced, and two chorizo links, crumbled, and sauteed in a skillet with a dollop of olive oil. when those were mostly cooked through I added a large spoonful of the "secret ingredient" - some Danish blue cheese. Chef Garces had used Maytag blue cheese, but my store didn't have that - it had this Danish blue cheese and a plastic container labelled "blue cheese". Pathetic.

By the way, how, exactly, can you tell when blue cheese has gone bad??

Anyway, I took the filling and put a couple spoonfuls on each chicken portion and rolled it up, and secured with a couple of toothpicks. Each portion was huge enough to easily feed both of us, so this would have served four. I put both pieces in a small casserole dish which I'd sprayed with cooking spray, and baked it at 425 for about 25 minutes.

For a veggie, I julienned one yellow squash and one zucchini and stir-fried them in olive oil and dusted them with oregano.

For dessert, I got my inspiration from another Food Network persona - Sandra Lee. I have a couple of her cookbooks and although there was no recipe, there was a picture and short description of a pie-like dessert that sounded really easy.

I purchased a tube of crescent rolls, ready-to-bake, and unfurled that, placing one triangle in each of 8 ramekins. On top of that, I put a couple of spoonfuls of canned cherry pie filling. The 8 ramekins took exactly 2 cans of pie filling. I dusted them with some pink sugar crystals I bought a long time ago and don't remember why, but they're in my pantry so why not... and baked as recommended for the crescent rolls, at 425 for 12 minutes.

I don't know if the blue cheese in the chicken/chorizo enhanced it in any way. But I plan on trying this again down the road without it, since I am not constrained by any secret ingredients.

And we both liked the dessert, which is easy enough for anyone to make!