making it up as i go along
Delicious Greek dressing. A keeper for sure!
Ingredients
Directions
Add oil, vinegar and lemon juice to jar. Press 4 cloves into the jar. Add oregano, salt, black pepper. Shake vigorously to emulsify.
I recently discovered that the cornbread recipe from a website that I’ve been using for years was gone (the horror!!). Luckily, I was able to determine the old URL and the Wayback Machine was able to get me a snapshot of the page from a few years ago … so now I’m saving it here.
This is what I use to make cornbread to go with chili and in cranberry cornbread stuffing. Delish. Maybe I’ll even take a photo of it someday. It could happen.
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
Mix until combined and bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.
Well things got kinda crazy last week with the hospital thing and all. But the week wound down nicely into another busy weekend. On Thursday our resident grill master’s new grill was delivered. And it was pretty. And he was happy. Since we had a bbq planned for Saturday, we thought we best test it out. And how better to do that than cook a couple of recipes from Great Food Fast. So we did.
Flank Steak with Lime Marinade
In a resealable plastic bag, combine the lime juice, soy sauce, scallions, ginger and red pepper. Add the steak and seal the bag. Marinate in the refrigerator, turning occasionally for 30 minutes.
Heat the grill to high. Lightly oil the grates. Remove the steak fro the marinade, letting excess drip off. Season with S&P. Place on the grill and cover. Cook turning once until the meat has reached desired doneness, 6-8 minutes for medium rare. Let the steak rest for 10 minutes before slicing thin.
Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Scallions
Heat grill to medium. Toss the sweet potatoes in a large bowl with the olive oil, thyme, and cayenne pepper. Season with S&P.
Grill the potatoes, turning frequently until tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, 20-30 minutes.
Return the grilled potatoes to the bowl and add the butter. Break potatoes into large pieces with the side of a spoon. Toss in the scallions and serve.
These two meat and potatoes dishes were incredibly easy, very very tasty, quite healthy and a huge hit with everyone. We added a bit of fruit and dinner was served.
So after I decided that the original cookbook I’d selected for this month wouldn’t work, I decided to move on to Jaime’s Dinners, which I’d originally slated for next month. I started going through it and while I found some recipes that I want to try, the vast majority are heavier, BRITISH foods (err … duh) more suited for chilly winter months.
So I ended up giving up on it and I’ve switched (AGAIN) to Great Food Fast, which is a compendium of recipes from my all-time-favorite food magazine, Everyday Food. I’ve already tackled two recipes from the book since making the decision and I am really glad I chose it. They are tasty, healthy, fast and easy. The book is divided up by seasons which I love because that’s how I cook and everything I selected from this week was from the Spring section.
Asparagus Gruyere Tart
Ingredients
Heat oven to 400. Roll puff pastry into 10×16″ rectangle. Fold in 1/2 inch on each side and pierce surface with a fork. Transfer to baking sheet and bake 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Top crust with grueyere. Trim asparagus to width of crust and place on top in neat rows, alternating which side the tops point to. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 10-15 minutes more until asparagus is tender. Cut into segments and serve immediately to general applause.
Since we are all asparagus fans, this was an immediate hit in our house. We have another sheet of puff pastry (two to a box) and some more asparagus and Tabby has already requested we make it again. Similar to the chalupas, this is a good jumping-off point for lots of other flavor combinations on top of puff pastry. I can see there being lots of possibilities here!
Man, this week is kicking my butt. Long days at the office. Plenty of training to do (next race is in 12 days), kids have been … a bit on the frustrating side, house is a total mess. I don’t like feeling like this … under water, stressed. I like all my ducks in a row, all my plates spinning and it isn’t that way this week.
Well anyhow, enough of my whining. I’ve been wanting to share this recipe with you. A while back, I pinned and later tried a recipe for Crack Broccoli. It’s basically roasted broccoli with a little dressing and it is YUMMY. We’ve made it almost once a week since we first discovered it and it was Ben who came up with the name which we now use to refer to it: Broccamole! “Guacamole!” (presumably from “Holy Guacamole” is one of his favorite interjections and he charmingly bungled it into Broccamole! one night when we had this, and so now it is.
Broccamole
Ingredients
Line a cookie sheet with foil and place it in the oven. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Cut broccoli into smallish florets and lightly peel the stems. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and sugar and toss to combine. When the cookie sheet and oven are heated, remove the sheet from the oven. Work quickly and place all pieces of broccoli in a single layer on the sheet. Place as much of the surface area on the sheet as possible – this is where it will brown and be real tasty!
Put the sheet back in the oven and roast 9-10 minutes until broccoli is tender and lightly browned. Serve immediately with a drizzle of lemon juice if you’ve got a bit on hand.
Even if you don’t like broccoli you should really try this. Everyone in our house loves it!!
It would be an understatement to say that this was my best photographic work, or even good. Honestly, by the time I “plated” dinner last night, I was done. We spent ALL weekend sanding and polying the pieces of Ben’s bed. And we’re still not done. Probably not even that close. I was achey and grumpy and I didn’t even really want to cook. But we had to eat, so I did. This is why I buy ingredients. I won’t let them go bad and so I find myself in the kitchen even when I don’t want to making dinner.
This Salmon Tagine was the second recipe we tried from Zone Meals in Minutes. I can’t say it was a pretty meal. I probably could have done more with styling, but it was somewhat in the slop category as far as looks go. Luckily the taste was good. My favorite part was the cooked spinach with walnut sauce. YUM. I would have that anytime and it wasn’t too hard to make (though I always blanch a bit at the thought of cleaning the food processor). The salmon was yummy, despite the fact that I overcooked it – things got hectic. But I’m not sure it was so yummy I’d feel compelled to make it again. I really LOVE our Chicken Tagine recipe. This one was a bit more meh. I was tempted to post just the spinach, but I will post the whole since it make a complete Zoned meal (4 4-block meals) with my suggestions for improvement.
The kids and Matt all liked the salmon well enough which is a pretty good endorsement since it was over-cooked. But personally, I thought the spinach was the star.
Ingredients
Directions
Place walnuts, vinegar, dill, garlic and hot sauce in food processor and process until smoothish. In a large fry pan, saute onions in olive oil until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add apricots, raisins, minced garlic, ginger and spices with broth or water and then top with salmon. Bring to a low boil and simmer until salmon is done, approx 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a half cup of water (or leftover broth!) in a dutch oven or stock pan. Add spinach and mushrooms and steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain if necessary and toss with walnut sauce.
Serve salmon fillets topped with tagine sauce, and spinach on the side.
Summer is a hard time for me cooking wise. I don’t want the heavier comfort foods I am crazy about in the winter. It’s too hot. And we also take advantage of the longer days and get up to all kinds of things and have later, more casual dinners. So I’m up for anything that’s cool and light and super easy to make and have around. This recipe (well a recipe similar to this) was in my Google Reader for a while before I tried it but when I did I was an instant fan. I traded out vinegar for lime juice (I love anything with lime in it) and nixed the cilantro, but of course you can put these back in for a slightly different flavor.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine lime juice, oil, cumin and S&P in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and toss with dressing. I think this is best served chilled. We first ate it with Garlic Lime Chicken and I imagine it would be a great thing to take to any picnic or to have with burgers as well. Tomorrow I’m having it with Tortilla Encrusted Tilapia from Costco. mmmmm
Nutritional Info (1 cup)
Calories 150; Sodium 59 mg; Total Fat 6g; Potassium 31 mg; Saturated 0g; Total Carbs 35g; Protein 6g
I think of my paternal grandparents when I make this. Even though it’s not something they actually served, the combination of dill and green beans is very much THEM. My dad’s parents had a huge garden with loads of vegetables and my grandma was an amazing cook in the southern tradition. My grandpa proudly tended his garden and loved the smell of dill. My maternal grandma still loves to talk about him bringing her a bouquet of dill. A truly lovely thought.
The kids … mine and our good friends’ are crazy about this recipe. They scarf down the dilly green beans right along side mac ‘n’ cheese and hot dogs and that’s pretty high praise. Fresh dill is lovely, but dried works well too.
Ingredients
green beans
butter
dill (fresh or dried)
salt & pepper
Directions
Cook your green beans until done. I like to steam them in skillet with just a little water if fresh, or nuke them if they’re frozen, of course. While still hot, add the butter and mix it in so it melts. You do not need much butter. A tablespoon gives an entire pound of green beans a very nice flavor. Then season with dill and salt and pepper.
from: Martha Stewart
Ingredients
3 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup honey
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake sweet potatoes until soft when pierced with a knife, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool. Peel, and discard skins.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine cornmeal, milk, butter, brown sugar, spices, salt, and 1 cup water. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Let cool.
Butter a 2-quart baking dish. Working in batches if necessary, place cornmeal mixture, sweet potatoes, flour, honey, eggs, and cream in a food processor. Process until smooth; pour into dish. Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Serve.
from: Miss Raena
Ingredients
1 – 10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach – cook & drain
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups shredded cheese
4 slightly beaten eggs
4 Tbsp. soft butter
2/3 cup milk
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
½ tsp crushed rosemary or thyme leaves
Directions
Cook frozen spinach in the microwave – maybe 5 minutes on high then drain
Mix all and pour into greased baking casserole.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (check center to make sure it’s not runny but don’t overcook – it will be dry).