13 Ekim 2012 Cumartesi

Yakisoba

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    This summer I made yakisoba for the first time for the two Japanese students who were with us summer quarter.   We found out through reading websites that yakisoba is actually the Japanese version of chow mein. It literally means "fried noodles in sauce."

 Anyway  this morning I Googled this recipe again because I want to make it this week with a different sauce. Anyway I found this recipe for yakisoba which got 5 stars from the website food.com.  I am going to try it this week with this yakisoba sauce.  The sauce got some good reviews so I'm hoping it's a keeper.  If you're not gluten free, you can buy a bottle of yakisoba sauce and not have to go through all the trial and error I usually end up going through.


YAKISOBA   - for 4- 6

1.  Prepare noodles:  Boil 1/2 lb of soba noodles (fine noodles) or 1/2 pound of udon noodles (thicker) according to package instructions [the recipe calls for 1 lb of noodles, but we liked the way this recipe came out with more sauce, so again it's up to you what you want to do].  Drain and put aside until needed.  (One site said if you don't have Japanese noodles, you can use spaghetti noodles, and that's what I did the first time I made this recipe.)

2.  Prepare chicken:  Rinse and thinly slice 1 -2 lbs of chicken breast.

3.  Prepare marinade:  Stir together 1 T sesame oil, 1 T cornstarch, and 4 cloves minced garlic and mix with the chicken.  Cover and refrigerate  the chicken until needed.

4.  Prepare veggies:
(1)  Shred 4 cups of cabbage.
(2)  Grate 1 cup of carrot.
(3)  Slice 6 green onions on the diagonal into 1" pieces (You can also add 1/2 of a sliced yellow onion, I got that from another recipe.)
(4)  Mince 1 T of ginger.
(5)  Thinly slice 1/2 lb. of white, shitake or other mushrooms of your choice.

5.  Stir-fry vegetables:
(1)  Put 2 T of peanut oil into a wok/large skillet and let it heat until a piece of cabbage would sizzle.
(2)  Add the ginger and green onion and stir fry for 30 seconds.
(3)  Add the carrots and stir fry for another 30 seconds.
(4)  Add cabbage and mushrooms and stir fry until the mushrooms release all their water, just a few minutes.
(5)  Spoon out the liquid and put in a medium sized bowl--you will use this for the yakisoba sauce.
 (6) Put the vegetables in a covered bowl.
(7)  Wipe the wok/pan out.

6.  Prepare  yakisoba sauce:  To the mushroom liquid add 1/4 cup gluten-free tamari, 2 T shiro miso,  1 T rice mirin (sake), 2 T cornstarch, 1 t salt, and 1 T sugar.  If you don't miso, some reviewers said they used some red wine, pepper flakes or more mirin.

7.  Stir-fry chicken & noodles:
(1)  Add 1 T of peanut oil into the wok/skillet and let it heat up until the chicken will sizzle in it.
(2)  Add the chicken and let it sizzle for 15 seconds and then stir making sure the oil and chicken get evenly disturbed.  Then let it sizzle in the oil for 1 minute to seal in the juices before you start stir-frying.
(3)  Stir fry chicken until it is tender.
(4)  Add the drained noodles and stir fry for 1 minute.

8.  Add vegetables & sauce:
(1)  Add the vegetable mixture to the wok/skillet and stir fry until everything is hot.
(2)  Add the yakisoba sauce and continue to stir-fry until everything is coated and the yakisoba is heated through.

Here's another I got this vegetarian yakisoba sauce recipe from food.com.

Blog Update 9-6-12:   I made the yakisoba tonight with this sauce and it was amazing!  The two Japanese students have left their comments below!!

Other Japanese recipes on this blog:

Make Your Own Sushi!


Sukiyaki

Yakisoba

Making Homemade Burp Cloths & Matching Baby Quilts

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A friend's  daughter just had a baby boy last week, and I wanted to make something special.  So yesterday I stopped by Jo Ann Fabric's and bought 1 1/4 yards of flannel and batting.  You can look at the instructions for making this quilt on the blog I wrote up last summer called Easy 1 2 3 Baby Quilt Making.




I had also seen at  a  gift shop a few days ago some homemade burp cloths and decided I'd try to make them to match the quilt.   I asked the gal at the counter how big she thought they were, and she said  I could probably get two of them out of 1/4th of a yard.  





Making Homemade Burp Cloths

(1)  After cutting the 1/4 yard of material in half, I rounded the edges  like I had seen at the gift shop.
(2)  Then I pinned the right sides together. 
(3)  Then I sewed it and left a space so I could turn it inside out.  
(4)  I sewed a topstitch close to the edge around the burp cloth just like I had seen at the gift shop.



Other blogs you can check out:

Easy 1 2 3 Baby Quilt Making

Crocheting Baby Blankets & Throws

Crocheting Scarves is Fun & Easy!


Acts Life Study: God's Move & Satan's Frustration

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Atlantic Ocean Sunset
    God's move and Satan's frustration always seem to go neck in neck.  When I read through the New Testament, I saw in the Gospels how over and over the Pharisees and scribes were either plotting to kill Jesus or  spying on Him and stirring up the people against Him.  In Acts we shouldn't think that it's going to be smooth sailing and Satan's just going to lay back and let the gospel spread without causing any turmoil. 

    In Acts 14 there are several accounts of the gospel being shared through Saul and Barnabus in the Gentile cities of Iconium (v. 1) Lystra and Derbe (v. 6), and Perga (v. 25).  But we also see that while this was going on, Satan was stirring up some Jews to frustrate the spread of the gospel to the Gentile nations.  Acts 14:2 says, But the Jews who were disobedient stirred up and ill-affected the mind of the Gentiles against the brothers.  And then in Acts 15:1 and 5 we see that some believers that had been Pharisees before were trying to force the Gentile converts to be circumcised. This might not mean anything to you because I didn't quite get it until I read what Witness Lee shares about this account in Acts Life Study message 42:
Actually when this heresy concerning circumcision arose at Jerusalem in the very beginning, Peter should have exercised the gift that the Lord had given him to clear up the cloudy situation in Jerusalem concerning God's New Testament economy [see Ephesians 3:9-11], according to the revelation that the Lord had given him and the other apostles in Acts 1:8 and the vision he had received at Joppa in Acts 10 concerning the Gentiles.  If he had done this, the Judaic heresy would have been cut off at the very beginning in Jerusalem and would not have spread to the churches in the Gentile world.  But he failed to do this, so Paul had to rise up and perform the surgery to cut off the  racial cancer that would have destroyed God's New Testament economy and killed the Body of Christ (Acts Life Study, Page360).
 
It almost looks like as God moves, Satan gets an idea of what's happening and starts plotting a counter attack.  I really like the revelation in this Life Study because the importance of what Paul did here didn't really touch me until I saw what was at stake. God needs  the Body of Christ--a Body that is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles of many races and languages--to be built up and testify that God has made them one and has broken down all the middle walls of partition.  This is the testimony that God needs on the earth.     


Other Blogs on the Life Study of Acts:


What is Christ Doing in His Ascension?


Acts Life Study - The Early Church in Acts

What is the Purpose of the Lord's Ruling Over the Earth?

How Did the Lord Spread the Gospel in Acts?

The Gospel Reaches the Gentiles!

Acts is a Book on God's Move & Prayer

God's Move & Satan's Frustration

The Bible is God's Biography

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    I read this week that the Bible is the biography of God. I had never thought about the Bible in that way before, and I was thinking how is it like that?  As far as biography goes I'd probably of said it was about the children of Israel.  Anyway this is another incredible book by Witness Lee, and it is an amazing read.  He stated that 13 of the 50 chapters in Genesis were not on creation but on Joseph.  Then he explains why:  "Joseph occupies such a long portion of the record because God wants to show us how much He is there in Joseph's situation" (The History of God in His Union with Man, Page 25).  Then he shares about different people in Genesis like Adam, Enosh, and Enoch and how their story tells us something about God.  In fact this sentence was incredible:  
The Bible is not mainly  a record of men but a record of God.  Furthermore, it is not a record of God in creation; rather it is a history of God in His dealing with man, who is on His heart.  You need to read Genesis again according to this principle to see what kind of God is there.  Genesis is the first book of God's history.  By reading Genesis in this way, you can see this God manifested and shown to us through all the stories of Him with man.  When you add all these stories together, you see His history.  Without Genesis you cannot know God very well (The History of God in His Union with Man, Page 27).  
   As I read my Bible, I will look  for how the stories tell God's biography!  

Migas Breakfast Casserole

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Whenever my granddaughter Mikaela spends the night, she likes to help me make breakfast.  Here we are making some migas.  I got this recipe from a Texas cookbook I picked up at an airport about 4 years ago.  I tripled the recipe so it would fit in a 9 x 13 pan.  I've made this several times  and everyone likes it!   This is a delicious breakfast casserole.   



MIGAS BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
1.  Prepare vegetables:  
(1)  Dice up 1 onion
(2)  Chop up 2-3 tomatoes
(3)  Open a can of green chiles
(4)  Chop up about 1/4 cup of cilantro

2.  Cut in strip 8-9 corn tortillas.

3.  In a frying pan:  Warm up 3-4 T of coconut oil.  Then add the onions and sauté 3 minutes; then add the tomatoes and corn tortilla strips and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile whisk up eggs:  Whisk up 6 eggs and add 2 cups of milk, 1 t salt, and 1/2 t of black pepper.  Stir in the can of green chiles and cilantro.

5. Combine ingredients:  Put onion mixture in the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass pan.  Pour the egg mixture over the top.

6.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.


Other breakfast recipes on this blog:


Pancakes

Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes

Banana Split Pancakes

Gluten Free Crepes

Gluten Free Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

Gluten Free Banana Fritters




Egg Dishes


Eggs with Sweet Potatoes & Spinach

Hash Brown Egg Casserole

Baked Zucchini Frittata

Cereals

Homemade & Low-Fat Peanut Coconut Granola


Breakfast Muffins

Banana Nut Muffins

Blueberry Muffins



12 Ekim 2012 Cuma

More wraps: Turkey Wraps with Brie and Cranberry

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Turkey Wraps with Brie and Cranberry
Delicious Wraps 2007

4 10-inch wraps
2 ounces cranberry sauce
9 ounces cooked turkey breast, shredded
5 ½ ounces brie, sliced
Salt and pepper

Preheat a nonstick skillet or broiler pan until almost smoking, add the wraps 1 at a time and cook for 10 seconds on each side. This will add some color and soften the wraps. (I don't find this step necessary since the wraps I have were soft enough.)

Spread the cranberry sauce evenly over the wraps and divide the turkey and brie evenly among them, placing some along the center of each wrap. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then fold in the wraps at the ends. Roll up each wrap, cut in half diagonally and serve.

Makes 4.
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Normally I like to mix things up and I would wait a few posts to tell you about another wrap but heck, let's stay on wraps for another post (or two).

This would have been a great recipe to have last week but better late than never. I cheated and used prepackaged turkey, the new thicker 'carved' variety, which wasn't that bad. I had hoped to pick up a turkey after Thanksgiving but the store was wiped out.

This is not way out of the box but it's something simple that I wouldn't think to put together on my own.  I can make this for lunch in the morning very easily, which is a good thing. I know I say I'm going to start planning ahead but that never happens.  Brie is pretty easy to find these days.  I normally don't buy it since the local stores only seem to carry the bigger wedges and I know I could make it disappear very quickly.  However I was in a different store this weekend and I was able to get a smaller piece of brie. 

I love cranberry on sandwiches and these three ingredients go together very well.  I might have to start investing in those bigger wedges.

Question of the Day:  Do you like brie cheese?

One last wrap - for now: Green Olive Hummus Wraps

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Green Olive Hummus Wraps
Delicious Wraps Copyright 2007

4 10-inch wraps
4 cherry tomatoes, halved I used grape tomatoes
½ cucumber, seeded and quartered
2 oz baby spinach leaves I used Romaine lettuce
7 oz canned chickpeas, drained
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil I used canola oil
1 tsp tahini
1 tsp lemon juice
2 oz pitted green olives, chopped I used pimiento stuffed olives
A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, shredded I omitted this
Salt and pepper

To make the hummus place the chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, tahini and lemon juice in a food processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste, transfer to a bowl and mix in the olives and parsley.

Preheat a nonstick skillet or broiler pan until almost smoking , add the wraps, 1 at a time, and cook for 10 seconds on each side. This will add some color and soften the wraps. I don't find this step necessary.

Spread some hummus over each wrap and divide the tomatoes, cucumber and spinach among them, placing some in the center of each wrap. Fold in the wraps at the ends, roll up, cut in half diagonally and serve.

Makes 4.
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I usually end up fighting the urge to barrel through a cookbook when I've made something really good from it.  I'm not sure why I fight it. One reason is that I have so many cookbooks, I don't want to get stalled on one book.  That might be boring and more importantly, it might make my other cookbooks feel left out and sad.  Another reason is that I try not to delve too much into a single cookbook - I'm trying to promote the cookbook love here, it's not my intention to share all of their contents.

This time, however, I gave into my urges and tried three recipes out of this same book, practically right in a row.  I have no regrets either - this book is three for three.

I love hummus.  I love Spiced Sweet Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, but I've been wanting to try different versions.  This one was fantastic, since I like green olives.  The salty olives really played off the garlic well.    The overall saltiness of the hummus played off the vegetables in the wrap nicely.

For the olive haters (and I know there are many), leave them out or try something else.  Personally I intend to do a lot more experimenting with hummus recipes since once you spring for the tahini (which isn't cheap but it goes a long way), the rest of the ingredients are very reasonable.  Store-bought hummus is rather pricey.

I did make this with the amount of oil called for the first time.  I won't lie - it's great that way, but I don't think you lose too much by replacing some of the oil with the liquid from the chickpeas or water either, which is what I did when I made it again (and again).

I continue my tradition of falling apart during December.  I am not even stressed out but I am not eating well and I haven't been to the gym in over a week.  I'm trying to conserve my cooking energy for baking.  

Let me just wrap up Christmas

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I did a lot of baking and candy making this year. I really hate dragging Christmas out past the new year but I need to document the new recipes I tried since I plan on making them again.



Polish Honey Cookies
from the internet (filed into the Ugly Binder)

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 ½ cups flour
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon pepper

Cream eggs with sugar until white. Combine with flour, honey and baking soda, dissolved in 3 tablespoons water. Sprinkle in ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and pepper, and work ingredients by hand into a dough. (I mixed the spices with the flour first.) Knead on floured board, sprinkle with a little flour and roll out to ¼-inch thickness. My dough was super sticky. I added a lot of flour. I might try chilling the dough next time.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees with biscuit cutter cut dough into circles (or other shapes) and bake on greased cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. The cookies can be glazed with white or chocolate icing. I made a white icing with powdered sugar, water and white food coloring. Store in air-tight tin, preferably for at least a week.

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My dad had mentioned honey cookies that his mother made. I did a little research and determined that I could probably not reproduce them - she could have used any variety of spices, some recipes leave out the ginger, some use nutmeg, etc. Still, I was interested in making a version. They were a pain - the dough was sticky, they were more suited to simple shapes (circles, squares, diamonds) than reindeer (yep, those are reindeer). I should have piped on the icing. But boy these were good. They were a light gingerbread cookie. Even my almost 8-year old liked these. They had an interesting texture. The recipe suggested letting them age but I thought they were better when they were fresher.



Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

from the internet (filed into the Ugly Binder)

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup baking cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
48 maraschino cherries, blotted dry

Frosting:
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
1 o 3 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice

In a bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture (batter will be very firm).

Shape into 48 balls, about 1 inch round, and place on ungreased baking sheets. Push one cherry halfway into each ball.

For frosting, melt chocolate chips in milk in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; add cherry juice and stir until smooth. Spoon one teaspoon frosting over each cherry (the frosting will spread over cookie during baking LIE!).

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Yield: 4 dozen
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These were a bit of trouble. The first batch the cherries went wonky and the frosting never covered them. Only two or three cookies from the first batch were presentable. I started using a wooden spoon handle to make the hole for the cherry so it was in deep. The frosting thickened while I was putting these together but that allowed me to form in around the cherry firmly. I got good coverage but the icing wasn't smooth. I didn't think of it but I could have added more cherry juice to thin it out. Also, don't be too generous with the frosting since it is just enough for 48 cookies.

I wasn't sure if they were worth the trouble at first but in the end these were one of my favorite cookies this year.


BAKER'S ONE BOWL Raspberry-Coconut Bars

from the internet

1-1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter or margarine, cut up
3 Tbsp. cold water
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg. (7 oz.) BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut
1/3 cup red raspberry preserves

Heat oven to 425°F. Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually stir in water with fork until well blended; press onto bottom of 8-inch square pan.

Bake 20 min. or until lightly browned. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Beat eggs in same bowl with mixer on high speed until frothy. Gradually add sugar, beating until thick and lemon colored. Stir in coconut. Spread preserves over crust to within 1/4 inch of edges; cover with coconut mixture. Bake 25 min. or until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting to serve.
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These were definitely good and pretty simple to make too. They just didn't wow me. It very well may have been that they didn't get a fair shake and got lost in the crowd. They may or may not be made again. I really can't say.


Besides these new cookies, I made Welsh cookies, Snickerdoodles, Milk Chocolate Florentines, sugar cookies, spritz, South Seas Cookies, chocolate chip brownies, and gingerbread men. I also made caramel and chocolate covered Lorna Doones and pretzel squares, chocolate covered caramels, peppermint patties, Five-Minute Fudge (with mini marshmallows), and crispy truffles.

I thought everything came out pretty well but my personal stand outs this year were the chocolate covered cherry cookies, the Polish Honey cookies, and the five-minute fudge. As always, I was amazed by how good Snickerdoodles taste a week later.






For Mushroom Lover's: Mushroom Pâté

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Mushroom Pâté
New Creative Cuisine Copyright 1993

4 tbsp butter
3/4 pound brown mushrooms, sliced I used baby bellas
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
pinch of dried thyme
5 tbsp butter, diced
5 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup sweet sherry
ground black pepper
pinch of sugar

Melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms, onion, garlic and thyme. When brown and soft, reduce heat to low and add diced butter and remaining ingredients except sugar. Stir until melted, them remove from heat, Add sugar, cool slightly, then purée, leaving mixture somewhat chunky. Pot, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours.
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It's hard to make brown food (besides chocolate) look appetizing but to be fair I think my photograph is just as good, maybe even better, than the one in the cookbook. This recipe isn't about looks, it's about taste. If you love mushrooms, I think you will love this rich spread. It's a great make-ahead recipe too.

I'm not sure how often mushroom pâté is still being made but it's been around for a while. I've seen recipes for it in several (mostly older) cookbooks. I know I've had one that I copied from a library book in my Ugly Binder since the 1990s. Oh, that poor recipe has been waiting for so many years to be made and it got trumped by this one since  it was the first mushroom recipe I saw after I bought baby bella mushrooms in Costco on whim.

I know this had a lot of butter but I'm sure some of you have been known to put something on top of a block of cream cheese and serve it. Is this much different? The butter is really the only 'bad' ingredient. The rest is pretty low in carbs but of course it's best served on some sort of carb.

I'm pleased to be starting the year with a recipe I loved.

This blog is not dead. It's just in a coma.

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I missed my seven year blogiversary last month. Seven years of trying new recipes and I still can't cook! I knew I was not a 'natural' when it comes to cooking but I thought that with a lot of practice that I would see more successes than failures. And I was, when I was cooking regularly, but it seems that it didn't take long for me to lose whatever skills I had picked up these past seven years. Lately I feel like I'm a worse cook than when I started!

I have left ingredients behind, I have made the wrong call and added the 'wrong' ingredient (a few white chocolate chips were all it took to turn my son's nose away from one batch of chocolate chip brownies), I've overcooked and undercooked things. Even recipes I've made several times before are not turning out right (Dan's disaster of a birthday cake!) I can't even make a salad for myself that hits the mark. I can't make anything that doesn't come out of a box or package that my kids will eat, and sometimes I can't even get the packaged stuff right.

So it's been hard to revive my desire to blog. Blogging certainly hasn't been replaced with anything - I still have the time to do it (I have more time than ever to do it). I was still buying cookbooks until recently when I decided that madness has to stop, at least until I start using them again. Will that happen? I honestly don't know.

11 Ekim 2012 Perşembe

I Judge the TV season

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We watch a lot of TV. We don't apologize because we get a ton of other things done too. I mean, we don't clean the house or anything, but we play with our kids, cook good food, pursue hobbies, and go out on date nights. So TV isn't it's all we do. And, okay, fine, sometimes we clean, but I don't like to brag.

We like to try out a lot of the new shows to see if there's anything we just HAVE to add to our schedule. Not very many things make the cut because we can only add so much, so unless something else has been cancelled, etc. we just don't have room to add a ton of shows. But this is what I think so far:

Revolution: I really like this but I think I'm in the minority here. It's got problems, yeah, but I like the whole set up. Imagine the world fifteen years after we lose all electricity. The show has gone a different direction than  I expected, but for me it's a good thing. It really is about a revolution (I know, I should have figured that out from the title) against the forces who seized control during the power vacuum after the outage. It's about how power corrupts and how evil is sometimes nuanced (<--this is the word of the day). I don't know. I think it's pretty cool, but it doesn't offend me when other people aren't feeling it.

The Mob Doctor: We watched about fifteen minutes of this and were over it. Flat characters, very formulaic. Nothing hooked us. Very meh.

Vegas: This has a great cast, but after two episodes now, I'd say the potential is lost on CBS. First, they're trying to cash in a little on the Mad Men luster by working in the same era, but the CBS version lacks subtlety. These actors play their parts well but they're being given some pretty lame material to work with. The characters are drawn as caricatures and this is very nearly always a death sentence for me. I think we're done with this one.

Elementary: I love the concept of Watson as a woman and both of these actors are great, but the plots are wildly convoluted and depend too often on coincidence to where it bugs me. Sherlock is better than what they're giving him to do. A lot of people whose opinions I respect really like this show, so I'll keep an eye on the buzz to decide whether to drop back in on it, but as of right now, I'm moving on.

Last Resort: This is a "submarine goes rogue in the name of principal" drama. I liked it. Kenny really dug it. Great cast including Andre Braugher who is awesome in everything, so I think we're "on board" for at least a few more episodes. Bwahahaha!

Nashville: This premieres tonight so I have no opinion yet, just hope, because I like Connie Britton a lot.

Arrow: Also premieres tonight, and it would not normally be my thing, but it got great reviews and since I'm already dropping a couple of other shows, I'm willing to give it a shot. (Bam! Another pun! I'm en fuego, baby!)

Go On: I want to love it because I really like Matthew Perry, but the first group therapy scene was painful. Comedy for the sense-of-humor impaired, maybe. I just like nuance because it requires craft and talent, not formulas. This was formulaic.

The Mindy Project: My favorite new show of the season. Mindy Kaling from The Office is hilarious here. Even the over the top stuff works. Actually, a lot of it is over the top but it's done with subtlety and I dig it and I laugh a lot when I watch it.

And that's where I'm at so far. Maybe next week I'll tell you what's returning that you should TOTALLY be watching if you're not.

And if you're over TV, and you want to read, you can pick up my new book Smart Move and read a review about it at Amie's blog, Getting Your Read On, to find out why. (Hint: I think it's pretty good.)

Sloppy Buffalo Joes

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Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds ground chicken or turkey breast
1 carrot, peeled and chopped or grated
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 to 1/3 cup hot sauce (recommended: Frank's Red Hot)
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup chicken stock
8 good quality burger rolls, split and toasted
1 cup blue cheese crumbles
2 large dill pickles, chopped


Directions

Heat a large skillet with extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Add meat and break it up with wooden spoon, cook 5 to 6 minutes. Add in carrots, celery, onions and garlic, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, cook 7 to 8 minutes more. In a bowl combine the vinegar, sugar, Worcestershire, hot sauce, tomato sauce and stock. Pour into the pan and stir to combine. Simmer a few minutes more. Pile sloppy Buffalo filling onto buns and top with blue cheese and chopped pickles.
From: foodnetwork.com

Chicken Cutlets with Herbs

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Cook Time: 10 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 loaf baguette bread - day old is fine
4 pieces chicken breast halves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour, for dredging
1 large egg
Several sprigs fresh thyme, leaves finely chopped
2 to 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
A handful fresh chives, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
Olive oil, for sauteing cutlets


Directions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Tear bread into pieces and place on baking sheet. Toast bread until deep golden brown, 10 minutes. Transfer to a food processor and coarsely grind into bread crumbs.


While bread toasts pound out chicken breasts to 1/4-inch thick. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour, reserve. Beat egg with splash of water in shallow dish.

Transfer bread crumbs to a plate and season with herbs and poultry seasoning.

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.


Coat chicken in egg then bread crumbs and add to pan. Saute until golden and firm, 3 to 4 minutes on each side.
From: foodnetwork.com

Sausage O'Patties

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Cook Time: 14 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 small Idaho potato, peeled
1 small onion, coarsely chopped, about 1/3 cup
3/4 pound ground pork
A few sprigs fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ground thyme, 1/3 palm full
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan


Directions

Grate the potato onto a cutting board, salt it, then transfer to a paper towel lined bowl or plate to drain.

Place potato, onion, pork, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper in the food processor and pulse grind to form a sausage mixture. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat with extra-virgin olive oil. When oil is hot, form 8 potato-sausage patties 3 inches wide, 1/2-inch thick, and set into skillet. Cook patties 6 to 7 minutes on each side until they are deeply golden brown in color.
From: foodnetwork.com

Vicki's Favorite Chicken with Grapes, Couscous and Roasted Asparagus

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Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients

1 1/2 pound asparagus
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, stripped from 6 to 7 sprigs
Coarse salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, eyeball it
2 pounds chicken tenders
1/2 cup white wine, eyeball it
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (available on soup aisle in paper boxes), divided
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grainy, stone-ground mustard
1 1/2 cups, about 1/2 pound, seedless red grapes, halved
2 cups couscous


Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.


Trim tough ends of asparagus and save for soup. Place asparagus in a large bowl and toss with about 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of chopped thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Spread the asparagus out on a cookie sheet and roast 10 to 12 minutes until the asparagus is tender and crispy at the tips.


Heat a large skillet over medium to medium high heat; add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, and 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. Place flour in a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper then dredge the tenders in flour and add it to the pan. Cook chicken 7 to 8 minutes until browned. Add wine and scrape up browned bits as wine cooks down and bubbles, 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup stock to skillet. Combine cream and mustard and add to stock. Add grapes to the pan and turn chicken and grapes to coat and combine with the sauce. Simmer 5 minutes over low heat.


Bring remaining 2 cups chicken stock and remaining tablespoon of fresh thyme to a boil in a small pot. Add couscous. Put a tight fitting lid on pot and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.


Serve tenders and grapes on couscous alongside asparagus.

From: foodnetwork.com

10 Ekim 2012 Çarşamba

Best Thing I Made in 2011: Porketta

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I'm not offering a detailed recipe today. This post is really for my own benefit. I want to document what I did, so I could do it again. I didn't measure anything. This was the best thing I made all year but I'm biased - porketta has been a long time favorite food of mine.

Porketta (or porchetta) has become quite popular recently. I grew up eating porketta - I'm not sure why it took so long to take off. It was popular in NE PA, where I grew up, as a hot roast or sliced cold for sandwiches. You could buy the uncooked roast preseasoned from the meat department of the local supermarket or you could buy it cooked and sliced from the deli deparment. It was sold at church picnics. Huge platters of porketta sandwiches would come out at family gatherings. Now, you can find restaurants in NYC devoted to it. Smart people, the ones who thought of that!

I took it for granted early in life but then I moved away from home and - no porketta. Of course, I know now that I could have found it in Philly, had I known where to look but it wasn't in the grocery stores in Center City. I could at least find pork in the deli, seasoned more lightly but somewhat of a substitute good for sandwiches but then I moved again and I couldn't even get that any longer.

So making my own porketta roast had been on my mind for years. An old friend I had recently reconnected with on Facebook had posted her porketta recipe which really fired me up but I couldn't find her recipe when I went to make it. I decided to completely wing it and try to recreated it from memory. It came out perfect. It's been too long to say if it's the same as the porketta I grew up on but it hit all the right notes. This was definitely one of those 'why-the-hell-didn't-I-do-this-sooner' things. Hopefully I can do it again.

It was just before New Year's so pork roasts were abundant at the supermarket. This recipe needs a bit of fat so I chose a bone-in loin roast but I removed the bones. Lean boneless roast don't have enough fat. Pork butt or shoulder would be better than anything lean but I though this cut was the perfect medium.

(Note:   You can get a decent gravy from just the roast drippings but the bones removed from the bone-in roast can be used to make an even richer pork gravy if you are going all out. I wasn't that ambitious this time and gravy isn't absolutely necessary to enjoy this roast.)

I flattened it out to make a rolled roast. I rubbed the inside with crushed fresh garlic. Then I pulled out a grinder and made a spice blend using dried dill weed, black peppercorns, fennel, rosemary, oregano, marjoram and salt. I wanted dill, garlic and pepper to be the dominant flavors - the other spices were added more sparingly.

I generously covered the inside of the roast with this mixture, then I rolled it and secured it with silicone cooking bands. I rubbed the outside of the roast with the spice mixture (but not fresh garlic - that was only on the inside). I wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

Then I unwrapped it, added more dried dill and garlic pepper all over the outside (the garlic pepper had additional seasoning in it including salt - I only used it because I had no plain garlic powder but it worked so well, I will probably use it again).

I baked it at 325 for 2, maybe 3 hours. I don't know exactly how big the roast was but it was standard. It started out as about a 6 chop roast. I made sure it was at least 160 degrees.

(WARNING: This smells delicious. My son made about 40 comments while this cooked. He couldn't get over how good it smelled.)

When you first cut it hot, it's kind of sloppy and hard to get a neat slice but it's still delicious.


If you chill it and then slice it, it's prettier.  You can either reheat it or eat it cold.


Now this isn't what porketta is to everyone. Porketta is a seasoned roast pork but there are variations. The spices can be whatever you like. Some people like it fattier, even adding an extra layer of fat to the roast. It doesn't have to be a rolled roast. Some people like to serve it shredded. Let's face it, if you take a nice piece of pork and season it well and cook it slowly until it's tender, you can't really go wrong.

(P.S. I am trying to figure out Pinterest. I can't get this 'Pin it' button to work for me but I don't know why. If anyone tries it and it works (or doesn't), please let me know. For me, it looks like it worked but then I can't see it on my boards, just a red X.)

Pin It

For Mushroom Lover's: Mushroom Pâté

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Mushroom Pâté
New Creative Cuisine Copyright 1993

4 tbsp butter
3/4 pound brown mushrooms, sliced I used baby bellas
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
pinch of dried thyme
5 tbsp butter, diced
5 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup sweet sherry
ground black pepper
pinch of sugar

Melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms, onion, garlic and thyme. When brown and soft, reduce heat to low and add diced butter and remaining ingredients except sugar. Stir until melted, them remove from heat, Add sugar, cool slightly, then purée, leaving mixture somewhat chunky. Pot, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours.
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It's hard to make brown food (besides chocolate) look appetizing but to be fair I think my photograph is just as good, maybe even better, than the one in the cookbook. This recipe isn't about looks, it's about taste. If you love mushrooms, I think you will love this rich spread. It's a great make-ahead recipe too.

I'm not sure how often mushroom pâté is still being made but it's been around for a while. I've seen recipes for it in several (mostly older) cookbooks. I know I've had one that I copied from a library book in my Ugly Binder since the 1990s. Oh, that poor recipe has been waiting for so many years to be made and it got trumped by this one since  it was the first mushroom recipe I saw after I bought baby bella mushrooms in Costco on whim.

I know this had a lot of butter but I'm sure some of you have been known to put something on top of a block of cream cheese and serve it. Is this much different? The butter is really the only 'bad' ingredient. The rest is pretty low in carbs but of course it's best served on some sort of carb.

I'm pleased to be starting the year with a recipe I loved.

Keeping it light to start the new year

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Zippy Ham Salad Cucumber Snackers
Rachael Ray 30-Minute Get Real Meals Copyright 2005

1/4 lb cooked deli ham , sliced 1/4 inch thick and finely diced
1 celery rib , finely chopped
2 tablespoons pimento-stuffed green olives , drained and finely chopped
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley , chopped I omitted this
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (just enough to bind the salad)
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 large dill pickles , finely chopped
1/4 small red onion , finely chopped I used sweet onion
1 English cucumber (seedless)
salt
fresh ground pepper

In a bowl combine the ham, celery, olives, parsley, mayonnaise, mustard, pickle, red onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Reserve.

Cut the cucumber into 1 1/2 inch-thick disks. With a melon baller scoop out a little bit of the center of each cucumber disk to create a cup.

Fill each cup with a heaping tablespoon of the ham salad. Serve cold.
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I picked up this cookbook because I spied a couple of ground chicken recipes in it (Rachael Ray is always good for ground chicken recipes). It wasn't until I got it home that I noticed it had a low-carb slant which is perfect since I am trying to watch my carbs. However, these recipes aren't necessarily healthy. I am not doing a meat, bacon and cream type of low-carb thing. This book isn't that far out there but many recipes in this book are still quite caloric and fat-filled. This particular recipe fit my personal eating plan but many of them don't. One Cobb salad recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat, 4 chicken breasts, an avocado and 5 strips of bacon (among other ingredients) and it's only supposed to serve 4 people! Her burgers are still 1/2 pound burgers as usual (I always halve her burger recipes and still make 4 burgers).

My usual basic ham salad is ham, mayo and relish whirled in a mini-chopper. I remember making it in a blender when I was very young. I had tried the deli version and I don't know how I ended up making it myself (I didn't read it on the internet LOL). It was one of my first realizations that you could actually make the same food at home that you bought in a store - duh!

This was a much more flavorful version. I went very light on the mayo - there is so much flavor from the rest of the ingredients, you really just need a touch. I lightened up on the mustard too so it wouldn't overpower the salad. I'll definitely make it like this again. More important than the recipe here was the idea of using cucumbers instead of crackers, a simple trick I'll be sure to remember. The cucumber is bland but the salad has enough flavor to balance it out. Hollowing out the cucumber slices is a simple thing to do but kind of tedious and wasteful though so after these initial snackers, I switched to just spreading the ham salad on cucumber slices.

Let's hope I can at least get through January keeping things light!

Mushrooms and birthday pie

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Kennett Square Mushrooms
Best of the Best from America Cookbook Copyright 2005

20-25 medium-size mushrooms (approximately ½ pound)
2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced (I added this ingredient)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1/3 cup soft, fine bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley
2 tablespoons water

Select mushrooms with closed caps. Pull stems from mushrooms and chop finely. Melt butter in skillet and add stems and onion. Sauté until tender and translucent. Stir in remaining ingredients except water. If preferred, parsley may be sprinkled on top instead of mixed in with the other ingredients. Fill mushroom caps with mixture, mounding over top. Arrange mushrooms in oven-proof serving dish. At this point mushrooms can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Before serving, add 2 tablespoons of water to dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve hot.
_________________________________

I had more of those baby bellas from Costco to use up so I made a half-recipe of these stuffed mushrooms.  I've free-styled stuffed mushrooms a few times and I can never get them quite right.  There is always something lacking.  For a simple version (no crab, sausage, etc), these were very good. They were cooked perfectly and the filling had good flavor.  I did add a clove of garlic just because I felt like it. They only required a bit of bread crumbs and a bit of cheese so I didn't feel guilty eating them.

Nick turned 8 this week and this is the first time in 8 years that I didn't plan him a party or make him a cake. He was okay with that (or a party and cake would have happened!)  He got to pick out a present, I bought him a steak lunch (they have steak on the kids menu at Applebees!), I made him birthday treats for school and then I made the pie he requested (Truffle Pie).


I won't lie - I did enjoy a break from the usual insanity of trying to plan a birthday party just a few weeks after Christmas.   I was able to use things I had already - sprinkles, decorations, food coloring, cupcake rings. His birthday treat was Heidi's Sweet and Crunchy Popcorn. I made it in black and gold, his school colors. I packed it in treat bags and added a football cupcake ring (I had a ton of extras from last year since there was a mix up).   It felt good to use up some of my surplus.

This blog is not dead. It's just in a coma.

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I missed my seven year blogiversary last month. Seven years of trying new recipes and I still can't cook! I knew I was not a 'natural' when it comes to cooking but I thought that with a lot of practice that I would see more successes than failures. And I was, when I was cooking regularly, but it seems that it didn't take long for me to lose whatever skills I had picked up these past seven years. Lately I feel like I'm a worse cook than when I started!

I have left ingredients behind, I have made the wrong call and added the 'wrong' ingredient (a few white chocolate chips were all it took to turn my son's nose away from one batch of chocolate chip brownies), I've overcooked and undercooked things. Even recipes I've made several times before are not turning out right (Dan's disaster of a birthday cake!) I can't even make a salad for myself that hits the mark. I can't make anything that doesn't come out of a box or package that my kids will eat, and sometimes I can't even get the packaged stuff right.

So it's been hard to revive my desire to blog. Blogging certainly hasn't been replaced with anything - I still have the time to do it (I have more time than ever to do it). I was still buying cookbooks until recently when I decided that madness has to stop, at least until I start using them again. Will that happen? I honestly don't know.

9 Ekim 2012 Salı

Broiled Lamb Chops with Braised Root Vegetables and Colcannon - Creamy Kale and Potatoes,

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Cook Time: 25 min
Level: Intermediate
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients

Braised Root Vegetables:

2 tablespoons butter
1 pound packaged baby carrots
1 rutabaga, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
Salt and pepper
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
8 loin lamb chops
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Colcannon:

4 medium to large all-purpose potatoes, such as Russet, peeled and cut into chunks
Coarse salt, for boiling water
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 head dark curly kale, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup whole milk, eyeball it
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, fresh or grated
1 teaspoon ground thyme
2 scallions, sliced
A handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Prepared, store bought Irish soda bread or brown bread, warmed, for passing at table
Sweet butter, softened, for the bread


Directions

For braised vegetables: Heat a skillet with a cover over medium to medium high heat. Add butter, carrots, rutabaga and onion. Cook veggies 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add broth or stock, bring to a simmer, and reduce heat and cover. Cook vegetables 15 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from heat and set aside.


Preheat broiler to high for lamb.


Boil potatoes for 15 minutes in salted water. Drain potatoes and return them to the hot pot and mash.


Heat stock or broth to a simmer. Chop kale tops, discarding tough stems. Add kale to broth and cover. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes.


Place chops about 6 to 8 inches from broiler and cook 5 minutes on each side. Remove from broiler and season chops with salt and pepper on both sides. Let chops rest 3 to 5 minutes.


In a large skillet over moderate heat melt butter and add milk. Season with nutmeg and thyme and add scallions to the pan. Remove kale from cooking liquid to the milk and butter mixture using a slotted spoon. Stir in 1/2 cup of cooking liquid. Add mashed potatoes to milk and kale and stir until combined and creamy, 1 or 2 minutes. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.


Serve the chops along with vegetable colcannon. Warm up store-bought Irish soda bread or brown bread with soft, unsweetened butter. The bread makes a nice starter, side or ending to this meal.

From: foodnetwork.com

Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Shrimp

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My favorites bacon and shrimp with pineapple twist! Yum-O!

Cook Time: 6 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients

12 jumbo shrimp, deveined
1/4 fresh pineapple cut into bite sized chunks or 1 (14-ounce) can pineapple chunks in natural juice, drained
6 slices center-cut bacon, cut in 1/2 crosswise
12 wooden toothpicks


Directions

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Holding a shrimp, nest a chunk of pineapple in the natural curve of the shrimp then wrap bacon around the shrimp and pineapple and secure with a wooden toothpick. Wrap and secure all 12 shrimp then add to the hot pan and cook 3 minutes on each side or until bacon is crisp and shrimp are opaque and firm.

From: foodnetwork.com

Vicki's Favorite Chicken with Grapes, Couscous and Roasted Asparagus

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Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients

1 1/2 pound asparagus
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, stripped from 6 to 7 sprigs
Coarse salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, eyeball it
2 pounds chicken tenders
1/2 cup white wine, eyeball it
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (available on soup aisle in paper boxes), divided
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grainy, stone-ground mustard
1 1/2 cups, about 1/2 pound, seedless red grapes, halved
2 cups couscous


Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.


Trim tough ends of asparagus and save for soup. Place asparagus in a large bowl and toss with about 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of chopped thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Spread the asparagus out on a cookie sheet and roast 10 to 12 minutes until the asparagus is tender and crispy at the tips.


Heat a large skillet over medium to medium high heat; add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, and 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. Place flour in a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper then dredge the tenders in flour and add it to the pan. Cook chicken 7 to 8 minutes until browned. Add wine and scrape up browned bits as wine cooks down and bubbles, 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup stock to skillet. Combine cream and mustard and add to stock. Add grapes to the pan and turn chicken and grapes to coat and combine with the sauce. Simmer 5 minutes over low heat.


Bring remaining 2 cups chicken stock and remaining tablespoon of fresh thyme to a boil in a small pot. Add couscous. Put a tight fitting lid on pot and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.


Serve tenders and grapes on couscous alongside asparagus.

From: foodnetwork.com

Veal Rolls with Pancetta

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Cook Time: 10 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients

1 pound veal scaloppine from the butcher counter
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
Salt and pepper
1 pound smoked fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1 (16 to 18-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and sliced
1/3 pound pancetta, sliced like thin cut bacon at deli counter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 clove cracked garlic
1 (10-ounce) sack baby spinach or triple washed spinach leaves
1/4 to 1/3 cup white wine or dry vermouth


Directions

Arrange scaloppine on waxed paper or plastic. Sprinkle veal with parsley, salt and pepper. Place a thin layer of cheese and a few slices of roasted pepper on each scaloppine. Roll veal and wrap each roll with a slice of pancetta. Secure with toothpicks.


Fry veal rolls in a thin layer of extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, until golden all over and pancetta is crisp, 5 or 6 minutes. Remove from pan to warm platter. Return skillet to heat. Add a drizzle of oil and cracked garlic. Wilt spinach in pan, add a touch of wine or vermouth to lift drippings and combine them with greens. Using tongs, place a bed of spinach on each dinner plate and top with veal rolls. Serve immediately.

From: foodnetwork.com

Jalapeno-Lime Corn on The Cob

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A perfect match with your BBQ!

Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 6 servings


Ingredients

1 stick butter
1 lime, juiced and zested
1 small jalapeno, seeded
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
6 ears corn on the cob, husked
1 slice bread, of any kind
Coarse salt


Directions

Combine butter, lime, jalapeno, garlic and paprika in food processor and pulse process until smooth. Place on waxed paper or plastic and roll. Place in freezer until ready to serve.


Cook corn by boiling, steaming or grilling. Cut disks of butter and rub onto corn, nesting the butter in a slice of bread to apply it to the hot corn. Season ears with salt (and fight over the hot buttered bread slice!)

From: foodnetwork.com

8 Ekim 2012 Pazartesi

Gluten Free Oven Fried Chicken

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Gone are the days of KFC.  The next best thing is this recipe for oven fried chicken that my sister in law gave me years ago. All I had to change was the flour.  What I like about this recipe is everyone likes it because it tastes great!  I'm not going to compare it to KFC, but it's the next best thing I've come across so far.

When I was a child my mother would make fried chicken in a pot of oil.  Wow, it's a good thing I was a kid and could burn off all those calories! You will be surprised at how little fat is in this recipe.  As you'll see below, all the chicken in this 9 x 13 pan cooked in just half of a cube of butter. The original recipe calls for an entire cube, but  as you can see from the pictures, it still cooked up great.

This recipe comes from my selection of recipes on the blog 4th of July Gluten Free BBQ Favorites.

 Lesley's Oven Fried Chicken (made gluten free)
1. Prepare chicken: Rinse 2-3 pounds of chicken pieces.  I usually remove the skin on all my chicken recipes to reduce fat.  I guess it depends on how much compromise you're going for here.
2. Make coating:
(1) Mix together 3/4 cup of rice flour, 1/3 cup of cornmeal, 1/4 T chili powder, 1 t salt, 1/4 t thyme, 1/4 t oregano, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese in a medium size bowl.

(2) In case this is too much coating (sometimes I have extras), just put some into a smaller bowl and add more as needed or you can put some into a plastic bag and shake the chicken. Store any extras in an airtight container.

 3. Prepare chicken for baking: Pour 1/2 cup of buttermilk into a bowl. Dip each piece in the buttermilk and then put in the bowl and coat evenly with the flour mixture. Put on a plate.
4. Prepare 9 x 13 pan: Put 1/4 cup of butter in a 9 x 13 pan and set the pan in a 400 degree oven and let the butter melt. When the chicken pieces are coated, lay them in the pan. Cook the chicken uncovered for 25 minutes and then turn them over and cook another 25 minutes.



This is the Best Minestrone Soup!

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   Minestrone is a good clean the frig sort of soup.  A few days ago my son and his girlfriend came over for the purpose of making this spectacular minestrone soup recipe that she had found posted on Pinterest.  She tweaked a few things and consequently you have the recipe below.  The original calls for 4 links of Italian sausage, but you can also use Amy's chicken sausage or make it completely vegetarian.  This minestrone is fabulous!



MINESTRONE SOUP
1. Prepare veggies:
(1)  Chop up 1 yellow onion.
(2)  Chop 2 stalks of celery.
(3)  Coarsely chop up 2 carrots
(4)  Chop up 1 small zucchini.
(5)  Rinse 2 cups of spinach
(6)  Mince 1 T of garlic.


2.  Saute veggies:  Put 2 T of oil in a large skillet and saute the onion for 2-3 minutes and then add the garlic, carrots and celery.  Saute for a few minutes.  If you want you can add some sliced Amy's Chicken Sausage.

3.  Meanwhile prepare the soup: 
(1)  Put 8 cups of chicken/vegetable stock into a soup pot,  2 t of salt, 1/2 t pepper, 1/2 t basil, and 1/2 t oregano and bring it to a boil.

(2)    Then  add two 15 oz cans of whole tomatoes, 1 can of drained green beans, 1 15 oz can of kidney beans, 1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, and the spinach and let simmer for 15 minutes. You may need to add a cup more of chicken/veggie stock if it's too thick.

(3)   Add 1 cup of gluten free pasta and let the soup cook until the noodles are tender. 

(4)  Taste and adjust any seasonings. 



List of My Favorite Soups, Chili & Stew Recipes: 

Vi's Best Chili

Texas Cowboy Stew

Chinese Chicken Soups:  Bok Choy Chicken Soup, Chicken & Spinach Soup, & Chinese Cabbage Soup

This is the best Minestrone Soup!