Creating Post it Notes

Farmer's Market #2

2011-08-29T12:09:00.004-04:00

Last Monday I posted a recipe from my first batch of Farmer's Market goods. My husband and daughter have been going every weekend and picking up secret ingredients and let me work my magic in the kitchen using the fruits and vegetables they buy.

On their 2nd trip to the market, they bought me zucchini squash, pattypan squash, neon eggplant, garlic, pears, and celery. What on earth? I had some really thick pork chops in the fridge marinating in an asian marinade so I had to think of how I could use those ingredients with those chops.

A-ha! Inspiration struck and I came up with my plan of action. I decided to make a slaw using the celery and pears, and using the squashes and eggplant to make hot and sour veggies underneath.

Pear Slaw

2 celery ribs - removed of strings and thinly sliced

1/2 lime, squeezed

2 Tbsp rice vinegar

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp gingerroot, grated

2 pears, cut into 1/4" matchsticks

2 green onion, thinly sliced on the angle

cilantro

a dash of crushed red pepper

Mix all these ingredients together in a bowl and let the flavors marry.

Grill your chops on a BBQ grill. I let my husband grill these babies up and they were absolute perfection. Remember you don't have to overcook these. Overcooked pork chops = dry dry dry.

For the hot and sour vegetables.

Peel and dice the eggplant and put in a strainer with salt. The salt will pull out the moisture in the eggplant. Leave it with the salt for 30 minutes. At that time, rinse well, and put on paper towels and wring dry.

Dice 1 zucchini

Cut up the pattypan squash into wedges

Quarter an onion and slice

mince 1 clove garlic

1 green chile, chopped (I used jalapeno)

In a bowl, mix together:

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp chili oil (I didn't use nearly this much because I have kids)

1 tsp salt

Put 2 Tbsp oil in a stir fry pan and heat over medium high heat. Saute the garlic and onion for 30 seconds, then add the remaining ingredients. Saute until the veggies are fork tender. When they're tender, add the bowl of liquid and stir. This will start thickening quickly. Coat all the veggies well with the sauce.

To plate, put a spoonful of veggies on your plate, top with your beautifully grilled pork chop and then using a slotted spoon, put a spoon of slaw on top.

You will find the acidic, bright flavor of the slaw a wonderful companion to the pork and the sweetness and slight spiciness of the veggies underneath is just perfect.

So the next time you're at the farmer's market, think about the vegetables you might necessarily know how to use. In my case, it was the pattypans and eggplant and I was able to find the perfect dish. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

.fresh squeezed lemonade.

2011-08-25T09:00:00.002-04:00

We love lemonade in our house. Nothing says Summer more than sitting outside on the back patio with a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade in your hand. It's a quick, easy, refreshing drink to make.

Step 1: In a saucepan, put 1 1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cup water. Zest a lemon and add the zest. Put the saucepan on to medium low heat and let the sugar dissolve. Nothing worse than gritty juice. Creating a simple syrup is the best solution! When the sugar is completely dissolved, set aside and cool completely.

I will often make this syrup up a head of time and keep it in the fridge in a jar, that way I don't have to wait for it to cool down.

Step 2: Squeeze 8-10 lemons and pour the lemon juice into a 2 quart pitcher, making sure you don't get any seeds in there. I always buy an extra lemon and slice it so it looks pretty.

Step 3: Pour in your cooled simple syrup and then fill the pitcher to the top with cold water. Stir well.

At this point, it's ready for pouring and drinking. If you're looking to change things up, add smashed raspberries, strawberries or blueberries to the pitcher and stir well.

Now that you've got the work out of the way... kick back and enjoy the rewards of your labor! :)

Farmer's Market #1

2011-08-22T10:46:00.004-04:00

We just finished watching another season of Master Chef in our house. I am a big fan because I love to cook and being a stay at home mom, a part of me wishes I could be on that show. (But what would I do with my kids while I'm gone!?!?!)

So my husband and oldest daughter decided to go to the local Farmer's Market and pick up some surprise ingredients for me to work my magic on. A fun idea, right? I thought it might be fun to do a Farmer's Market dinner every week and I'll post it on my blog! That's right! Every Monday, come to my blog to find out what I've made with my secret goodies.

On their first trip to the market, they bought me the following:

Peaches, Red Bell Peppers, Cilantro, Carrots, Green Beans and Fennel.

I was able to use items from my pantry (whew!) and I was able to pick out my own protein. Tonight, I used chicken thighs and wings.

The peaches were the stumper but I quickly found something to make with just about everything!

I'm calling my creation Roasted Pepper and Peach Chicken with Sauteed Vegetables and Roasted Green Beans.

Here's how I made it:

Peel the peaches, remove pit, and dice. Set aside.

Sit the red bell peppers on a burner over high heat and basically burn the skins. You can do this over the BBQ grill, too, which I would have done had it not been raining. When the skin is black all over, remove from the burner and place in a ziploc with a little olive oil. Squish it all around so the pepper is covered entirely with oil. Let sit for 5 minutes, then begin removing the skin under cold tap water.

Dice up the roasted red pepper and set aside.

Dice 1/2 onion and set aside.

Mince 1 clove garlic.

Chop a small handful of cilantro.

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan.

Saute the garlic and onion with a bay leaf for 30 seconds. Don't let the garlic burn.

Add the peaches and red pepper.

Chop up some of the fennel frong (the whispy part at the top) and put that and the cilantro in the saucepan.

Sprinkle in some red pepper flakes and some celery seed.

Add 3 Tbsp brown sugar

Add 3 Tbsp cider vinegar

Add salt and pepper

Let this cook down for awhile. This shouldn't be runny. It should be the consistency of jam. Taste and see if it needs more salt. If it's too sweet, add a little more vinegar. If it's too vinegar-y, add a little more brown sugar. You really can't mess this up unless you burn it.

Remove the bay leaf. Dump the chutney into a blender and blitz for a quick minute. You don't want this too smooth, but you don't want big chunks either.

Turn your BBQ on low heat and put the chicken on. You want to cook your chicken on low, especially if it's bone in to ensure it's cooked all the way through. Don't put your sauce on until the very end. When you know the chicken is cooked kick up the heat on your BBQ and start slathering your pieces with the chutney.

We want to caramelize that chutney to the outside of the chicken. When it's all good and covered and caramelized, remove from the grill. Serve with the sauteed vegetables and roasted green beans.

Sauteed Vegetable

Cut the end off the fennel and slice in half and then slice the entire thing. Don't make these slices too thick or too thin.

Slice an onion (or half of what was remaining from the chutney).

Peel and slice carrots. Because the carrots will take the longest to cook, I par-boiled them. Bring some water to a boil. Drop in the carrot slices and let cook for a couple minutes. Drain and quickly dump into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

Slice one red bell pepper.

Mince 1 clove garlic

Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a saute pan and saute the garlic in a skillet for 30 seconds. Add all the remaining ingredients and toss so everything's coated with the butter.

Season with salt and pepper and then squeeze half a lemon on top. Continue to saute until all vegetables are fork tender. Serve warm.

Roasted Green Beans

Trim ends and coat beans with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Zest a lemon and toss on the beans.

Place in a baking dish in the oven and bake at 350* until the beans are fork tender.

.chocolate cream pie.

2011-08-20T13:22:00.003-04:00

We were in Ohio visiting my husband's family last month and while we were away, my friend came over to our house every day to check on our cat and feed her for us. To thank her, I made her favorite pie: Chocolate Cream Pie!

Not only does my BFF love it, but so does my oldest daughter. In fact, for Christmas last year, the only thing on her list was her very own chocolate cream pie. That was an easy bill for Santa to fill!

The filling is just homemade pudding. Have you ever made homemade pudding? I wonder how many people in the world make it from scratch or do they take the easy way out and use a box of Jell-o Brand Pudding? I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark that 99.99% of people in the world go with that 2nd option.

Anyway... on to the recipe. I didn't cut into the pie because.. duh.. it was going to a friend. It would have been very poor manners for me to cut into her pie. But know that underneath that cloud of fluffy whipped cream and grated chocolate is a pool of decadent chocolate yumminess.

For the crust:

Crush 1 package chocolate graham crackers in a large zip loc. Add 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted. Mix it all together in the bag then dump into a pie plate and press into the bottom and on the sides. Set aside.

For the filling:

3 cups milk or half and half (depends on how bad you want to be)

5 egg yolks (you can save the whites for omelets or angel food cake)

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla

dash sea salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup semi sweet chocolate

1 cup milk chocolate

Put 2 1/2 cups milk, the sugar, salt, and cocoa powder in a medium to large saucepan and bring to scald over medium high heat. Do not let this boil!

In a bowl, put the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the cornstarch and egg yolks. Whisk well.

When the milk is steaming and scalded, but not boiling, carefully pour a little bit of the hot milk into the cornstarch/yolk mixture while you continue to whisk. This is going to temper your yolks. If you poured the hot liquid in without stirring, your yolks would begin to cook and you'll have really lumpy pudding. Yuck. Don't let that happen!

Put the pot back on the burner and then pour in the tempered yolks. **NOTE: When I pour the tempered yolks back into the pot with the remaining liquid, I pour it through a fine mesh sieve to keep egg particles or any lumps out of the pot. Lumps=bad!

Kick the heat up on the burner to high and keep stirring that filling as it comes to a boil. This will thicken as it heats up and when it's nice and thick, remove from the burner. Be careful as you whisk because this will bubble and pop up at you like molten lava and it hurts REALLY bad if it touches your skin. Constant stirring is essential at this end phase because it will burn on you if you aren't careful.

Once you've removed the pot from the stove, add the butter, vanilla, and the semi & milk chocolates. You can use whatever brand you want, but note that the better chocolate you use, the better your pie will be. For my friend's pie, I actually used some dark and milk Dove chocolate. YUM!

Stir well using a rubber spatula until the chocolate bits and butter are melted. Carefully pour the filling into your chocolate graham cracker crust. Cover the top completely with Saran and pop in the fridge. You want to let this chill for at least 6 hours (overnight is best) before putting the whipped cream on. This needs to set up otherwise when you put on the whipped cream, filling will ooze out from underneath. Not what we want.

Whipped cream

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

In a chilled bowl, add the cold cream. Using a chilled bowl and whisk/beaters will give you the best results for cream. Whip on medium speed until the cream is frothy and you can see ribbons of cream as it whips. Slowly (SLOWLY!) sprinkle in the sugar as you continue to whip. Whip on high until you have firm peaks. Mix in the vanilla.

Spoon onto the top of your set pie and spread out using your spatula or an offset frosting spatula. Take a piece of chocolate bar (in my case, I used a piece of Dove dark chocolate) and grate using a zester or the fine side of a cheese grater.

Keep this pie refrigerated until it's time to eat.

.navajo tacos.

2011-08-15T23:22:00.002-04:00

You know those chalupa things you can get at Taco Bell? I love those. My ultimate favorite was the Santa Fe chalupa, but they stopped making and selling them. What gives? That was my #1 craving when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter.

I remember as a little girl having Navajo tacos, which are really just a chalupa. Indian fry bread with some chili, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, onion and avocado. Mm hmm. It really can't get any better than this!

Making fry bread is very simple. Mix together:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp powdered milk
1 tsp baking powder

Add in 1 cup of warm water and mix it all together using your hands. When it comes together, form into a ball and cover with saran. Let this sit for about 10 minutes to relax the gluten in the flour. Make sure you don't knead this dough like you would bread dough. That will work the gluten too much and you'll have a tougher, denser fry bread.

This recipe makes 4 shells so if you want more than this, double or triple (or quadruple!) the recipe.

Divide the ball into four separate balls. Cover again and let rest 5 minutes.
Lightly flour your work surface and roll each ball of dough until it's almost paper thin. No worries, it will puff up a LOT in the fryer.

While you were letting the dough rest, I hope you put a pot of oil on to heat. You need it at 350*. When the oil is warm and your dough has been rolled out, carefully lower one piece into the oil and fry until both sides are lightly golden. Remove and let drain on a paper towel or newspaper. Repeat until all the dough has been fried.

I used my basic chili recipe for these and all that's left to do is top with your favorite toppings!

**A special tip I like when we have Navajo tacos is to make extra fry bread dough. Fry some up for your tacos, then fry up more and slather with butter and honey, or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. My fav! Enjoy!

.teriyaki wings.

2011-08-09T14:39:00.004-04:00

One of my daughter's most requested meals - or snack - is my teriyaki wings. She loves loves LOVES them. (Did I mention she loves them?)

These are very simple to make and are an awesome change to your standard hot wings.

First, start by making the teriyaki sauce:

In a saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp oil. When the oil is hot, saute 1 tsp minced gingerroot and 2 Tbsp minced garlic for about 30 seconds to a minute. You don't want the garlic to burn so really you just want to saute long enough to release the flavor.

Add 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup water and 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. Whisk well.
*Note: If you want these wings a little kicked up, add more gingerroot and some red chili flakes.

At this point, I pour about 1/3 of this on the thawed party wings. You can find plain unflavored chicken wings in your freezer department. Thaw them in the fridge. You don't want to give yourself food poisoning. That would be no bueno. I put the wings in a large ziploc and pour the sauce into the bag. Seal it up nice and tight removing as much of the air as you can. This will marinate the wings giving the flesh that sweet and salty flavor that makes these wings very desireable. I recommend marinating the wings overnight so remember when you go to make these, to give yourself an entire day.

Reduce the rest of the sauce down until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and let cool completely and put in the fridge.

To Make: Completely drain all of the teriyaki marinade off the wings. Put the wings on paper towels and pat dry. You don't want sauce lingering on the wings because when they hit the oil, you'll get a lot of splattering and you might get burned.

Heat oil in a pot or fry daddy to 350*. Carefully add the wings and fry for 4 minutes, using tongs to move them around for even cooking. When they're done, remove from the oil, and place on paper towels to catch as much of the oil. Put the wings in a large bowl and drizzle in that thickened teriyaki sauce. I like to garnish with some fresh sliced green onion. It not only gives a little onion'y flavor, but it looks pretty on the plate. Using a spoon or your hands, mix all of that together in the bowl and then dump into a pie plate or some other kind of baking dish. Pop in a 350* oven for 10 minutes. This will ensure the wings are cooked through, and it will also heat up that teriyaki sauce.

When I make these for a party, I dump the wings into aluminum pie plates and then just sit the pans on a plate for added stability. This makes for very easy clean up! Something every hostess can appreciate.

So the next time you're looking for a delicious snack or dinner option, think wings. Think teriyaki wings! Enjoy!

.roasted corn and avocado soup w/ crab salad.

2011-08-02T23:19:00.003-04:00

Have you ever had one of those days...

Scratch that..

Have you ever had one of those months? We've had one of those months. We were in Ohio visiting the inlaws and when I got back home I've been working hard on Pioneer Trek stuff. Apparently, someone at church thinks my cooking is stellar enough to put me in charge of all the food for this year's youth pioneer trek. Fun times. I'm actually very excited to be part of this activity. Fingers crossed the food turns out perfect!

When we got back from Ohio, it was hot. HOT HOT HOT. It was hot in Ohio and well, that heat dun followed us back to New York. So I decided to try an experiment I've been wanting to do for awhile. Make a chilled soup.

This soup is actually two separate ones. The base is a sweet roasted corn soup, then ladled in the center is a roasted avocado soup (YES ROASTED!) and it's topped with a delicious crab salad. Love me some crab!

We'll begin with the soups:

ROASTED CORN SOUP

5 ears sweet corn, husked, grilled, and cut from cob
1-2 jalapeno, seeded, grilled, and chopped
1/2 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp cumin

1 cup cream
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
salt and pepper
oil

In a small stockpot, heat a little oil. When hot, saute the onion, garlic, and 1/4 tsp cumin until the fragrance is released. Add all of the corn, minus the kernels from one cob (We'll save that corn for the crab salad) and the roasted jalapeno. Heat for a few minutes and then pour into a blender. Blitz until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add a little more water. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the corn soup into a bowl, cover with saran and pop in the fridge.

Now for the avocado soup.

ROASTED AVOCADO SOUP

4 Hass avocados, grilled (or roasted)
1-2 jalapenos, seeded, grilled, and chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 cup cream
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
salt and pepper
oil

Following the same steps above, heat oil in a pan. Saute the garlic, onion, and 1/4 tsp chili powder. Scoop the flesh from the avocados and put it in a blender along with the jalapenos, sauteed garlic/onion, cream, chicken stock, and water. Blitz until smooth. Add more liquid if it's too thick. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl, cover with saran and chill.

CRAB SALAD
3 crab leg clusters
1/4 cup green onion, sliced
1 avocado, diced
1 ear roasted sweet corn, cut from cob
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 lime, squeezed
cilantro
salt and pepper

Cook the crab in a pot of boiling water. Cool in an ice bath and crack the crab, removing all meat. Put in a bowl with the remaining ingredients and mix together.

A delicious soup perfect for a hot Summer night! Enjoy!

.garlic thyme chicken pasta with cream sauce.

2011-07-12T16:55:00.004-04:00

I feel that lately we've had a lot of mexican and asian style food in our house the past couple of weeks. I adore pasta, but pasta is no good for my insulin resistent body so I have been trying to not fix/eat it much.

This is a quick dish to make and relatively easy. If I had to give it a star rating, I would give it a 2. From start to finish, it'll take about 45 minutes to make and is super duper delicious.

Begin by taking chicken thighs and season with salt and pepper. I used thighs because we like dark meat, but you could use chicken breasts, legs, or whatever your favorite part is.

Heat a skillet over medium to medium high heat. When hot, add about 2-3 Tbsp olive oil. You don't need a lot because the fat from the thighs will cook down and add to the pan.

Placing the thighs in the pan, skin side down, fry for about 4 minutes per side. We want to sear the chicken so that it will retain all that juicy goodness. When you flip the chicken over, toss in some fresh thyme and crushed garlic cloves to the pan. Spoon the rendered fat over the chicken for a minute then let sear on the other side 4 minutes.

Remove from the pan and put in a baking dish. Spoon a little fat over the top, and make sure you put those garlic cloves and thyme on top of each piece of chicken. Pop in a 350* oven to finish cooking through.

While the chicken cooks in the oven, begin cooking the pasta. I used linguine, but you can use spaghetti or fettuccine. Linguine takes approx 10 minutes to al dente. When done, dump into a colander and shake off the excess water. Return to the pan.

While the pasta is boiling, make the cream sauce. We're going to use the pan we seared the chicken in. Heat the pan back up over medium heat and add a Tablespoon (or two) of olive oil. You'll probably need to dump out the chicken fat first. When the olive oil is heated, saute 1-2 shallots, minced and 2 cloves garlic, minced. Saute for 30 seconds to release the fragrance. You don't want the shallots and garlic to burn so make sure you keep an eye on it. Add 3/4 c. chicken stock and 3/4 c. white wine to deglaze the pan. (Deglaze means to bring up all those delicious cooked bits of chicken that are stuck to the bottom of the pan from the searing) Let reduce just a little bit.

Add 1 cup heavy cream, some fresh thyme leaves, a small handful of chopped parsley, and some grated asiago cheese. Stir well and remove the pan from the burner. Taste the sauce. You shouldn't need to add any salt because the cheese is salty. If you want to add some pepper, do so now.

Pour over the pasta and toss. Plate the pasta and put a thigh or two on top. Spoon a little bit of that fat that's in the baking dish on top of the chicken and if you want to make it pretty like my picture, put a sprig of thyme and a piece of garlic on top.

Enjoy! I served this dish with some roasted asparagus. It paired perfectly with the chicken and pasta.

.bang bang shrimp.

2011-07-08T11:45:00.005-04:00

Have you ever had one of those nights when you just don't want to cook? This was one of those nights but I knew my husband would kill me if I suggested take out (again), plus he was working late and would be hungry when he got home.

I didn't want to slave for hours, nor did I have that kind of time, so I checked the pantry, freezers and fridge and found some ingredients I knew would work well together. The wonderful thing about this recipe, is that it is QUICK! You can have this made in 30 minutes - no joke.

Here's the list of ingredients I used:

Shrimp

Garlic

Gingerroot (not dried ginger you use in baking)

Red bell pepper

Green onion

Cilantro

Chili oil

Red pepper flakes

Coconut milk

Fish sauce

Soy sauce

Sugar

How to prepare:

While the shrimp are thawing in the water, put 2 cups rice in a medium pot with 3 1/2 cups water. Cover with a lid and put on to boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and set the timer for 20 minutes.

Once the shrimp are thawed, drain well and pat dry with paper towels. The shrimp I use are not small but not huge. I also buy deveined shrimp that have the shell on, but for this recipe, I took off all the shells except for the tail because I just like how it looks. ;)

-Mince 2 cloves garlic and grate 1 tsp fresh gingerroot.

-Slice up one red bell pepper

-Slice 1 1/2 bunches of green onion on the diagonal (slicing on the diagonal makes it look fancy!)

-Roughly chop some cilantro

Heat a skillet or a wok. I use a wok but use what you have. When hot, add 2-3 Tbsp oil and a couple shakes of chili oil. I went a little too crazy with the chili oil which resulted in a pretty spicy dish, so I'm warning you, if you don't want this too hot, use just a little oil, or omit it altogether.

Add the ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds to release their fragrance. Add the red bell pepper and saute for a couple minutes. Then add the green onion, shrimp, and a shake or two of red pepper flakes. Saute until the shrimp start going from translucent to opaque. This doesn't take very long and we want to take care not to overcook the shrimp. Overcooked shrimp = tough and chewy = UNDESIRABLE!

When the shrimp are halfway cooked through, add 1/2 can of coconut milk, 1 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, and a handful of chopped cilantro. Cook for another couple minutes until the shrimp are finished.

By this point, the rice should be done. Spoon rice into a bowl and then scoop shrimp, veggies, and sauce over the rice.

A wonderfully fragrant, sweet and spicy dish that is sure to satisfy any craving for Thai/Indonesian food. And the great thing about this dish is that it's not only delicious, but it's easy and quick to make! You can't beat that. Enjoy!

Alright...

2011-07-05T19:12:00.008-04:00

I know I've been missing in action but you didn't need to send Chuck Norris after me with his wicked ninja skills..

So... Happy day after the 4th, everyone! I'd like to tell you I was really busy and that's what kept me away, but to be honest, I was suffering major burn out. Felt like I didn't need to have a food blog anymore because everyone and their DOG seems to have a food blog right now and I didn't feel I had anything special happening here.

Thank you to those of you who have contacted me begging me to come back. Your words and well wishes meant a lot (they still do) and here I am, ready to fight the good food fight. If you're a fan of this blog, let me know! It really keeps me motivated when I know there are people out there reading, making my recipes, and ENJOYING them!

Before I share a couple new recipes, I want to give you some breaking news: I'm moving my blog. The layout of Creating Post it Notes is boring me and I'm looking for something a little better. It's not going to happen overnight but within the next few weeks, I'll be moving my recipes to my new home. A whole new facelift and I can't wait to get it up and running.

For our 4th of July, Jim, the girls, and I went to West Point Military Academy to enjoy the festivities. I packed a picnic dinner of BBQ Chicken Salad, homemade bread, fruit salsa w/ cinnamon tortilla chips, watermelon slushes, and for dessert? Peach cobbler in jars for easy transportation. De-LICIOUS!

BBQ CHICKEN SALAD

This salad is so quick and easy to make. I normally grill up chicken and cut up, but I was running short on time and used Tyson Chicken Strips, slathered them with BBQ sauce, and baked them in the oven.

Here's a list of ingredients I use:

Iceberg and red leaf lettuces (you can use any kind you want)

Shredded cheese

Grated carrots

Roasted corn, cut from the cob

Red onion, sliced

Cucumber, peeled and sliced

Bacon (chopped into bits)

Black beans, drained and rinsed

Tomato, diced

BBQ Chicken, chopped up

For the dressing, I made ranch dressing (from the packet *gasp*) and added a little BBQ sauce (use whatever kind you like), cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. So quick and easy, but so delicious.

Did I mention I made peach cobbler in Ball jars???? These were *perfect* for our picnic. Baked in individual jars so all I had to do was pass them around and we were good to go. See how good these look?

Maybe a little closer????

And just a little closer. I am going to make these for my next big BBQ but I'm going to use the short Ball jars. Guests can stop on by and pick one up, maybe put a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top and walk away. It can't get more perfect than that.

And to finish this post - WATERMELON SLUSHES!!!! This drink is perfect on a warm summer night. Or if you had a party and have a lot of watermelon leftover and you don't want it to go to waste... use it for this drink!

Take a watermelon and chop up the center flesh. Put it in a blender and puree. Mix in a couple tablespoons of sugar. I didn't add very much because watermelon is already super sweet and I don't like sickeningly sweet drinks.

Pour the puree in a 9x13 pan and put in the freezer. Stir every hour or every two hours until you have the perfect watermelon slush. Spoon into glasses and pour ginger ale on top. Garnish with a sprig of mint. *OR* if you're looking for something a little more grown up, you can add vodka, tequila, or rum - whichever poison you prefer.

My watermelon lover was all over this drink. Enjoy!

.boston cream cupcakes.

2010-09-10T13:12:00.009-04:00

Earlier last month, the girls and I surprised my husband with a trip to Boston for his birthday. It's only a 3 hour drive from here and while I've been once, I didn't get to do any sightseeing because I was there for work. We had the greatest time seeing all the sites. We went to the New England Aquarium, walked the Freedom Trail, shopped at the Farmer's Market, saw street performers, and ate lots of lobster. It was a fabulous vacation!

Since taking that trip, I have had a hankering for Boston Cream Pie, but I wanted to change it up a bit and make it a cupcake instead of a cake (it really is a cake even though they call it a pie). Boston Cream Pie is really a yellow butter cake filled with pastry cream, then topped with chocolate ganache. So delicious. So decadent. So fattening (but it's okay to indulge every now and then!).

You want to start by making your pastry cream.

2 cups Milk

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp butter

pinch of salt

In a saucepan put 1 3/4 cups milk and sugar. Bring to boiling point but do not let boil; set aside. In a bowl, mix together the yolks, the remaining milk, and the flour and salt; mix well. While whisking, temper the yolks by slowly pouring the hot milk into the egg/flour/milk mixture. You don't need to add all the hot milk. About 3/4 cup.

Pour the tempered yolks/milk back into the saucepan and put over medium high heat.

Whisk constantly until the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and add

the butter and vanilla.

Put the saucepan in a ice bath to cool down the pastry cream. Make sure you stir this occasionally as it cools so it doesn't form a skin on the surface.

**NOTE: Pastry Cream can be made a day or two ahead of time and kept in the fridge in an airtight container.

How we want to make the cupcakes. If you're in a hurry, you can use a boxed yellow cake mix. I prefer cake from scratch. Here's the recipe I used:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Alternating, add the milk and flour until well mixed.

Fill each cupcake mold 3/4 the way up. Put in a preheated 350* F oven for about 20 minutes.

The tops should be slightly domed and lightly golden. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes are cooled, use a knife and cut out the center top of each cupcake. Spoon in a small dollop of pastry cream (I used a mounded teaspoonful).

Top with chocolate ganache (recipe) and put in the fridge to set.

This recipe made 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.

Grilling Class

2010-09-02T13:08:00.004-04:00

The past few months, I've been teaching cooking classes here in my home to a dozen or so ladies from church and their friends. It has been so much fun doing these classes and I think everyone that have attended has learned at least one thing they could take home and make for their own families. So rewarding.

Last week, I had a grilling class and thought I would share with you, dear readers, what we did.

First, I went over grill maintenance and how to work both a gas grill and charcoal grill. If you have no idea what you're doing or if you're afraid of the grill, DON'T BE!!!! It's such a wonderful way to cook your food!

Some important tips!

Never use your grill against the house. Pull the grill away from the wall because in the extremely rare case that it blows up (LOL!) or you get a fireball, you won't burn your house down. Gosh.. if you were afraid to use your grill before, I bet you just wet your pants. Seriously... I don't think I've ever heard of a BBQ grill blowing up before so let's not worry about that.
Never use your grill inside your home. It's dangerous. Don't ever do it.
Always keep your propane tank (if you use a gas grill) turned OFF when it's not in use. Do this for a couple reasons: 1) If you have kids they could fiddle with the knobs and drain your tank; and 2) they could fiddle with the tank and some poor sucker goes outside to have a cigarette and it's Uncle Lewis from Christmas Vacation all over again. Kaboom. No bueno people.. no bueno.
If you've got food crud stuck to the grates that won't come off with a grill brush, remove them and place on the grass. Spray with oven cleaner, let sit for an hour or so and then wipe with paper towels. Wash well and voila.. they'll look brand new!
If you need to GREASE your grates to keep food from sticking, NEVER EVER apply that to your grill when it's on and hot. Spray before you start the BBQ and please people.. don't ever spray PAM directly into a hot, burning bbq grill.
If you use a charcoal grill, never spray charcoal fluid directly onto flame. It's not a smart idea and you might wind up in the burn ward of your local hospital if you do. In fact, use the Match Light briquettes by Kingsford. They've already been soaked in fluid and they're awesome. Just stack, light, and forget!

So now that I've completely scared you, let's talk versatility of grill cooking. You can cook ANYTHING on a grill with reason. You can grill vegetables, bread, meat, pizzas, fruit, cake! The ideas are limitless.

If you let the man in your life grill, that's fine. My husband does the majority of the bbq'ing in our house. But when he was going out to sea all the time, I learned how to do it and am pretty dang good at being the Grill Mistress (if I do say so myself). If I hadn't learned, I wouldn't have ever eaten grilled food during those long deployments.

Now we're ready to grill. For my class, I threw on a thick ribeye steak that had been seasoned with McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning. Make sure you let the meat sit out on your counter for about 30 minutes or so. You'll get the best results if the meat is room temp. Also, it's important when cooking meat on the grill to have a good hot grill. This sears the outside and keeps all that juice and flavor inside. No one likes dried out meat, right? Grill for 3-4 minutes on one side, then flip. Keep doing this until your steak is cooked to your desired doneness.

For a great steak topping, I highly suggest my Mushroom, Onion, and Blue Cheese bake.

While the steak was cooking, I put a vegetable rack on the grill to keep my veggies from falling through the grates. You can pick up these vented pieces of sheet metal at Lowes where you can find the BBQ items for about $5.00. I had vegetables all prepped to make my Grilled Italian Sausage and Veggie Panini. The ladies really loved this sandwich!

I grilled extra vegetables, including some spears of asparagus to make a grilled pasta salad. No recipe, just grill up vegetables that are in season! I used zucchini, red onion, asparagus, red bell pepper, and portabello mushroom. When they're cooked, remove from the grill and add roughly chop. Toss together with some baby spinach, some cooked ravioli (I used one of those small packages in the deli section), a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and some salt and pepper. If you want a little more flavor, grill up some garlic (leave the cloves in the husk and rub with olive oil) and add that in. The perfect summer salad and low on fat. Grilling the vegetables gives them a whole new flavor and it's amazing!

Alright.. next up was a flatbread sandwich. I grilled some fresh ears of corn (3) and cut the corn away from the cob. The flatbread sandwich was really my Santa Fe Chicken Salad with Corn and Black Bean Salsa on grilled bread. For the dough, I made up a batch of pizza dough, let rise once, then divided, rolled out, brushed with olive oil and popped on the grill. Let bake about 2-3 minutes on each side, then remove. I grilled the chicken along with the steak and when it was done, diced it up and put some pieces on the flatbread, some lettuce, the salsa, and then drizzled lightly with the Southwest Ranch dressing. Fold the bread over, slice and eat! So so delicious!

After cleaning the grill grates with a wire brush, I started on the dessert part of the class. Earlier in the day, I pre-made some Raspberry Coulis (coo-lee) and had it in a little squeezy bottle. I thawed a Sara Lee frozen pound cake and cut it into thick slices. I also had peaches sliced in half and removed the pit. Brush the peaches with 3 Tbsp melted butter mixed with 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar and pop on the grill. The peaches will take about 6-8 minutes to grill. Turn them every 2 minutes to grill all around. While those cook up, put the pound cake on the grill. Yep, you heard me! Put them on the grill! Let them toast on each side then remove.

To plate, drizzle some coulis on the plate, put a slice of pound cake down in the center, place a peach half on top of the cake, then repeat with another slice of pound cake and peach. Top with whipped cream or some sweetened mascarpone cheese. Drizzle with a little more coulis and add a sprig of mint for prettiness!

That was the class. Now that you know what you can do on your BBQ grill, go forth and create!

Before you leave, tell me what your favorite food on the grill is. I'd love to hear from you!

.roasted garlic hummus with fresh pita.

2010-08-23T21:40:00.002-04:00

A few years ago, while we were stationed in Georgia, I surprised my husband to a trip to Savannah for his birthday. While we were in Savannah, we ate dinner at this little pizza place called The Mellow Mushroom and for the first time in my life, I had hummus. I had no idea what hummus was, but the waitress recommended it and we said, "Why not!" Let me just say my eyes were opened to a whole new world of food.

Since that time, I've had hummus multiple times. I've had good hummus. I've had bad hummus. I've had dill hummus. I've had roasted red pepper hummus. One thing I think we can all agree on (all you hummus lovers out there) is nothing compares to good, homemade hummus. (Did I say hummus enough times in that paragraph???)

The other night, an online friend mentioned The Mellow Mushroom and I immediately started craving a batch of roasted garlic hummus with FRESH pita. Now you could buy that store bought, I'm dry as bark, pita bread, but I'm telling you, once you have fresh, there ain't no goin' back! If you take the time to make pita yourself, you will love yourself forever and so will your family. It's easy easy easy. You can find the recipe here (you'll have to scroll past the souvlaki recipe) and if you make a double batch, you can wrap them in a freezer ziploc and have them ready anytime you want.

Now for the actual hummus recipe!

Begin by roasting your garlic. Take a bulb of garlic and chop off the top. Put it on a piece of foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, then wrap it up nice and tight. Pop in a 375* oven for 45 minutes. Roasted garlic is AMAZING!!! It mellows out the sharp pungency and almost makes the garlic sweet in flavor. Really delicious stuff. When it's done roasting, remove from the foil and let cool. When it's cool, just squeeze out each clove from the skin and put in a bowl. You can keep this in your fridge for up to a week. It's great in sauces and in homemade bread! For this recipe, you can use the whole shebang if you want, but I used 1 Tablespoon. Put it in a blender.
Add to the blender: Two 15.5 oz cans garbanzo beans, drained, the juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp tahini, and a little sea salt.
Blitz for a minute.
Turn off and use a rubber spatula to move things around.
Turn the blender back on and slowly drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil. You'll have to keep turning the blender off and mixing by hand with the spatula. You don't want to add too much oil because the hummus will become runny. Keep doing this until the beans are completely pureed and the hummus is a smooth, yet thick, texture.
Transfer to a bowl and stir in a small handful of chopped cilantro. Taste and re-season with salt if it's needed.

Hummus will keep very well in the fridge for quite awhile, but I doubt it'll last that long, it's that good.

So go and eat hummus my friends! It's good for you and it's YUMMY!!!!

.apple fritters.

2010-08-18T15:54:00.007-04:00

It's almost harvest time here in the Hudson Valley of New York. We moved to a new house in April and it's located smack dab in the middle of about a hundred apple and pear orchards, and vineyards. It's just beautiful here!

One of the bonuses of living in this location, is that we can get apples from any of our neighbors whenever we want, fresh picked from the tree. Yesterday, my daughter found some perfect apples that had fallen from the tree, so we got them for free! Can't beat that price! I thought those granny smiths would make some amazing apple fritters.

These fritters are out of this worldwhen fresh from the fryer. Maybe you should make some for your family today? (or for yourself if you don't want to share :) ) You know they'll love you for it!

I used 2 granny smith apples. Peel and dice. Try to keep the apple pieces uniform in size, otherwise you'll have overcooked and undercooked apples.

In a bowl, mix together:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

To the dry ingredients, add 1 egg and enough milk to form a thick batter (think thicker than pancakes). Stir in the apples. Heat some oil in a pot to 325*. We don't want to have the oil too hot because the fritters will brown too quickly and the apples won't have enough time to cook. Carefully (CAREFULLY) drop in large spoonfuls of batter into the oil. Don't overcrowd the pot. When they're nice and brown on one side, roll them over so the otherside can cook.

When they're done, carefully pull from the oil and place on paper towels to drain. Once drained, and cooled slightly, sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Best served with a glass of milk, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This recipe makes about 1 1/2 dozen. Bon appetit!

Valentine's Day Dinner

2010-02-19T10:06:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had a last minute opportunity to attend the US Bocuse d'Or final at The Culinary Institute of America. Twelve teams fought to be the US representative at the main Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, France January 2011.

Chef Thomas Keller, is the President of the US Bocuse d'Or organization and while there I was able to get him to sign my copy of The French Laundry cookbook! (Awesome!)

Anyway.... Part of my Valentine menu was inspired by a recipe in that book and the beef broth I made, *did* come from his instructions and it took all stinking day to make. That's okay though. The flavor of that stock was A-MAZING!!!

Competition floor

Chef Daniel Boulud introducting some of the judges

One of the presentation trays as it passes the judges -- (thank you zoom lens for having the capability to get these shots from my seat in the bleachers!)

At church, we can sign up to feed the missionaries who are serving full-time. Right now, we have the cutest, SWEETEST Sister Missionaries that I just love so when I saw that they didn't have plans on the calendar for Valentine's Day (except church), I put my name down and got to scheming. I like to make food they normally don't get every day and for this holiday, I wanted to make it extra special and extra delicious!

Dinner was served in 3 courses -

{Course #1}
Sweetheart Salad w/ Goat Cheese Croquette & Sweet Potato w/ Rosemary Rolls
I made my roll dough like normal but before adding the flour and salt, I stirred in 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes and 1 Tbsp rosemary. A little extra flour is necessary due to the moistness of the sweet potatoes, but if you gauge it by how the dough pulls together, you'll have just the right amount. I loved how savory these were. Delicious.

The salad was in a parmesan bowl that I made, but I didn't keep them in the oven long enough and they flattened out. They were so delicious with this salad! What I did was use my silpat and sprinkled two semi large circles on the mat (on a cookie sheet) and popped into a 400* oven. Let it melt until nice and golden brown. Remove and let sit for a few minutes so the cheese is cool enough to handle. Slowly pull the cheese up and off the Silpat and place over an upside down bowl. Allow the cheese to cool and harden completely.

My "sweetheart" salad had mini hearts cut out of a red bell pepper, I did a zigzag cut around radishes and when pulled apart, they look like little flowers, I curled green onion sprigs by slicing the chive part and then popping in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes. Grated carrots, sliced cucumbers, and topped with a goat cheese croquette.

To make the croquette, I cut semi-thick slices off a goat cheese log. Dipped each slice in egg wash (1 egg white + 1 Tbsp water) and then into a bowl of crushed Panko breadcrumbs.
Place all the pieces on a plate and put in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. Heat a little oil in a small saucepan and carefully put each croquette in to fry. When golden brown on both sides, remove and sit on a paper towel to drain. Put on top of the salad. This ooey, gooey warm bit of goodness is pure heaven!

{Course 2}

Parmesan Polenta Cake, Pan-seared Pork Tenderloin, & Root Vegetable Garnish

Polenta: Bring 2 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt to boil in a saucepan. Add 3/4 cup polenta and cook until thick. Add 1 Tbsp butter and a small handful of fresh grated parmesan cheese. Taste. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary. Dump out into a 9x13 pan and refrigerate. This can be made a day before hand to cut down prep time. I used a circle cutter to cut out all the cakes. This made 12 rounds. When ready to plate, heat a skillet. Melt butter and carefully place a cake for each person in the pan. Fry until both sides are golden.

Tenderloin: This part was the easiest. Cut thick slices of tenderloin. Season well with salt, pepper, and thyme (fresh is best). Heat a skillet over medium high heat. When hot, drizzle in some olive oil and carefully place each medallion in the pan. Sear for 3-4 minutes on each side. Pop into a 350* oven until the centers are no longer squishy, but still spongy. We don't want to overcook the pork!

Root Vegetable Garnish: Peel and slice celery root into batons (rectangles). Slice those little snack size carrots into quarters. Slice a beet and then cut into very very fine dice (small squares). Take 3 cloves garlic and crush with the side of your knife. Remove the dry skin.

Heat three saucepans up with water. If you don't have three, then just use one and alternate your cooking. Put the carrot and celery root in a small pot of boiling water. Cook until just slightly fork tender (do not overcook!). Strain and put the veggies into ice water immediately to stop them from cooking any further. Drain and set aside.

Boil some more water. This time, add the beet and repeat the same method as above. You want to cook the beet separately because it will bleed color everywhere and you don't want to change the color of the other vegetables.

Finally, we're going to do the exact same thing with the garlic! Boil in water until fork tender, drain, shock with ice bath, drain and set aside.

When you're ready to plate your food, put the veggies in a little saute pan to heat back up with 1 Tbsp butter. Season with salt and pepper. I think some chopped italian parsley would have been perfect for some color. I had used up the last of my parsley to make my beef stock so I wasn't able to do this.

Savory beef sauce: Heat olive oil in a skillet. Saute chopped carrot (2), 1/2 an onion, diced, 2 stalks celery, and 1 bay leaf. When the veggies are cooked through, remove from the pan. Add 1 Tbsp butter and move around the bottom of the pan. When melted, add 1 cup red wine and 3 cups beef stock. Cook over medium high heat until the sauce has reduced by half and is starting to thicken. If it doesn't thicken, stir a little beef stock and a tsp or two of cornstarch in a small bowl. Whisk until there aren't any more lumps and then carefully add to the sauce. Stir well. Once thick (not too thick!), drain through a mesh sieve to remove any particles.

When you're ready to plate, put one of the polenta cakes in the center of the plate. Carefully stack two pieces of tenderloin on top. Spoon the vegetable garnish on top, and then drizzle with the beef sauce. Be prepared for pure silence at the dinner table. Everyone will be too busy enjoying every bite of this dish! :)

{Course 3}

Bittersweet Chocolate Charlotte

I'd been eyeing this recipe for awhile and decided it would be perfect for this dinner. What says "I love you" better than chocolate? Come on now.

To improve on the recipe, I made my own chocolate lady fingers. I have to say, WAY better than store bought but with all the eggs you need to make both the Charlotte and Lady fingers, I say buy them if you can find them. (I used over a DOZEN eggs!)

I love individual desserts for special dinners so I lined the inside of my ramekins with a parchment circle on the bottom (for easy releasing) and put lady fingers around the edge. I cut my lady fingers in half so they were flush with the top of the ramekin. Once you have sides covered, spoon in some of the chocolate mousse. Top the mousse with more lady fingers and press slightly to make sure there aren't any air holes. Cover with saran and chill overnight.

When ready to plate, I simply ran a small knife around the inside of the ramekin to unstick any lady fingers then sat a plate on top. Flip them over so the Charlotte pops out (might require some shaking of the ramekin). Pull up the parchment circle if it's still attached to the Charlotte.

I piped on some whipped cream (use fresh whipped if you can. Aerosol whipped cream will melt and deflate all over and will be a huge huge mess), drizzled with a little ganache I had in my fridge, and garnished with a white chocolate heart I made the night before.

The perfect ending to a perfect night! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day. When you're looking for a showstopping meal for your loved one, or if you just want to impress the pants off your guests/family, I definitely suggest this meal! You'll be the talk of the town!

New Beginnings Cake!

2010-02-09T10:27:00.005-05:00

Last week, I got a private message from a friend at church bending my ear about the Young Women New Beginnings program that was on Sunday. They were looking for a dessert that would incorporate all of the value colors (there are 8 of them) and be a complete "showstopper" (their word, not mine). I thought about it for a minute and remembered there was a rainbow layered cake I'd been DYING to try! So I pulled up the recipe and had it made within the next few hours.

To simplify the steps, I bought 8" aluminum cake pans that I sprayed with Pam and lined the bottom with parchment circles. My oven has three racks so I was able to bake them all at the same time which was very convenient. I recommend spending $5.00 on the pans because it's worth saving your sanity and you can just toss them in the trash when you're done! Easy!

I made the frosting she has on her blog but it didn't make a ton, so I only used it as filling between each layer, then made a regular buttercream (using shortening/powdered sugar/butter extract/vanilla) to coat the whole cake. Rolled out fondant and put that on too because my big idea was to put girls all around the perimeter of the cake, each representing a value.

My original idea was to paint these little girls directly to the cake, but since I've never actually painted on a cake, I thought it's better to be safe than sorry so I mixed some fondant with gum paste and rolled out a small ball and painted on that, then cut around each girl and allow to harden on the counter. Then I used some frosting in a piping bag to glue them to the side of the cake.

All-in-all, the cake was a huge success. The girls loved it. The leaders loved it. The flavor was really delicious -- thanks to that whipped buttercream that calls for FOUR sticks of butter. WOW. I loved the rainbow layers and will definitely make this cake again!

Suzanne

.curried carrot soup.

2010-02-08T09:50:00.004-05:00

Back in November, my mom and sister were here from Seattle. Their visit coincided with a cooking class I was having here at the house. The topic for the class was "Soups, Stews, and Sauces". Nothing fancy, mind you, but I wanted to teach the ladies how to make a proper roux which is the root knowledge for making things like clam chowder, gravy, and alfredo!

I always try to offer a vegetarian dish too because I usually have a couple non-meat-eaters in the group. So I made a roasted carrot soup and added a dash of curry to it for a middle eastern taste and it was delicious! So delicious, that I decided to make it again for a church function yesterday.

**Note: Not only is this soup delicious and meat-free, it's VEGAN!

1. Begin by making vegetable broth. In a small soup pot, put water, carrots, celery, bay leaf, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat. Leave uncovered so the liquid can reduce. After it simmers on the cooktop for 1 hour, strain and reserve the liquid.

This stock can be made ahead of time and held in the fridge, or even put in the freezer!

2. Peel about 10 carrots and cutting them into 2-3 pieces. I use only organic carrots when I make this soup, but I can only imagine how delicious it would be with carrots grown from your own garden. I'm sure it would be so sweet!

3. Put the carrots on a baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Pop carrots into a 350* oven and roast until they're fork tender (approximately 30 minutes). emove from the oven and put into a blender with 1 can coconut milk, 1/2 tsp curry powder and 1 tsp ground coriander seed toasted.

4. To toast the coriander seed, spoon into a small saute pan and put over medium high heat. Swirl the pan around so the seeds don't burn. The heat will draw out the oil and fragrance from the coriander and it smells slightly lemony. Remove from the pan after toasting 2 minutes and put in a spice grinder and pulse until fine.

5. I pulsed the blender for a minute, but found it too thick to really puree adequately, so I spooned in ladles full of the vegetable broth to thin it down. Once you get the desired consistency, taste and re-season with salt and pepper.

Serve hot or cold. I topped each bowl with some pine nuts and chopped cilantro.

Makes 6-8 servings

.almondine sugar cookies.

2010-02-01T08:45:00.002-05:00

I'm constantly getting email asking about my sugar cookie recipe. I've always been hesitant to share because I sell the cookies online, but I've decided to pull it out from hiding and let you in on my sweet little secret.

There are a couple key things you need to do to make the perfect sugar cookie.

Do not overbake. When the cookies start lightly browning around the edges, remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack immediately to keep them from baking any more.
CHILL YOUR DOUGH!!!! This is probably the most important thing to remember so that your cookie holds it's shape. It will also keep you from having to use too much flour while rolling the dough out, leaving you with a "too-much-flour" taste in your mouth. I usually make my dough the day before I need it and let it chill overnight.

So those are my two tips... on to the recipe!

Suzanne's Almondine Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
6 cups all-purpose flour

Cream the butter and shortening in a mixing bowl until smooth.
Add the sugar and cream until fluffy.
Add one egg at a time, beating between each addition.
Add the baking powder, extract, salt and milk all at once. Mix well.
Add the flour, one cup at a time. You don't need any more flour than this. Too much flour, and your dough will be too tough. Too little, and your dough will be too sticky. So unless you live in a strange place, this is all you need. I've made these cookies in very humid conditions (southeast Georgia) and very dry conditions and have never had to alter my recipe.
Chill overnight.
When rolling out your dough, do not roll too thinly. Use as little flour as possible when rolling.
Do not overcrowd your cookie sheet. Give these cookies room to expand a little without fear of bumping into a neighbor.
Preheat your oven to 375*. Make sure it's been heated through (about 30 minutes).
Make sure you rotate your cookie sheets when they're in the oven. Swap to a different shelf so you get even baking. I've even tried baking these on convection and have had uneven baking, so keep a watchful eye on these babies.
Cookies will be done baking between 7-10 minutes. Pull from the oven just when the edge start looking slightly brown. Don't be afraid if they look too blond. That means they'll be perfectly soft!
Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. Can be held in an air-tight container for 3-4 days (unfrosted), and up to 3 months in the freezer.
Frost. I use a buttercream frosting vs. royal icing. Use whichever you prefer.

Buttercream frosting

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp butter extract
4-5 Tbsp half and half or cream (cream is preferred)

Cream butter and shortening until smooth. Add the extracts, mix. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, alternating with cream until it pulls together. If the frosting is too thick, add more cream. Tint with coloring paste and use a spatula or piping bag to decorate your cookies.

.honey cider glazed pork.

2010-01-14T15:49:00.005-05:00

My husband and I got sucked into another reality tv cooking show on Bravo called "Chef Academy". It is run by Chef Jean Christophe Novelli from France. Difficult to understand what he's saying half the time, but for me.. it's all about the food.

Each week he'd focus on different areas of cooking - bread, meat, seafood, desserts. The week he taught how to cook meat, he made a honey cider glazed pork that looked to.die.for. He used pork belly and let it slow cook for 4 hours in the oven. Heaven help me! *swoon*

I wasn't able to find pork belly so I used a Boston pork butt roast and it was amazing. I can only imagine how much better the belly portion would be. This was super super easy to make. If you're looking for something you can pop into the oven and forget about, this is the dish for you!

Take your piece of pork and, with the fat side up, rub liberally with cumin, kosher salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Chef Novelli put 2 star anise on top, but I didn't have whole, so I sprinkled on anise seed. Don't use too much because it can be overpowering. Place on top of the roast 3 bay leaves, 5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme and 2 crushed cloves of garlic.

Put the roast into a pan and drizzle with a cup of honey and 1 1/2 cups apple cider. Slice up two onions and scatter those around the sides of the pork.

Pop into a 300* F oven and let it cook. Make sure you check on it every 30 minutes or so and baste with the juices in the bottom of the pan. The honey and cider will caramelize all over the skin of the pork. If it's looking too black, cover it with a piece of foil.

When it's done, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice or shred and serve with your favorite side item. The flavors are a lot like a bbq sauce. So tender and juicy and aromatic. Enjoy!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTYyZ2NxZDNrZ3I&hl=en

New Year's Eve Madness

2010-01-12T11:05:00.004-05:00

Since I last posted back in October, a lot has been happening. We were in the process of buying a house closer to campus but that fell through, so we started looking again and found a beautiful new home only 25 minutes from the school. We're expected to close mid February and while I'm not looking forward to moving AGAIN, I'm excited to have a new place and start decorating.

This year, I catered and planned a wedding, catered and planned a birthday bash, catered and planned the Christmas party for church, *and* on top of it all, decided to throw a New Year's Eve party! I am completely insane. I'm just grateful my husband is so willing to go along with my plans and still keep a smile on his face. I just *LOVE* him! <3 id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425885664440924354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_og-G8_qS5PI/S0yeQ6TiuMI/AAAAAAAAHL4/m-MKzFEprW0/s400/nyebuffet1.jpg" border="0">Here's what my dining table looked like that night. When throwing a party, it's always a great idea to make the food and table the focal point. Putting food trays at various heights and angles is a great way to do that. If I removed that white tablecloth, you'd see how I did it. I used books, boxes, pots and pans upside down and towels. If I'm putting a basket at an angle, or want a salad tipped, towels are AWESOME because you can get the achieved look and it will keep the bowl/basket from moving too much. Once I put everything in the right spot, I drape it with tablecloths or fabric. I put a strand of white icicle lights on the table to give it extra lumination. A hurricane candle put on a tier and a vase of branches spray-painted white, help bring visual interest as well.

From this angle, let me tell you what I made. (left to right) Rosettes, Crab Rangoon, Meat and Cheese tray (I had a small tray of crackers on the other side), Lemon Tarts, Baked Santa Fe Dip, and Chocolate Cake.

From this side (right to left) I made a Parmesan-Artichoke dip (recipe below), Stuffed Mushrooms, Hot Wings, and on the far far end, you can't see but I had a tray of Soutwest Eggrolls.

The next time you decide to have a party, try out some of these recipes. Happy New Year!

Parmesan-Artichoke Dip

1 can (the size of a can of beans) artichokes, drained and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
8oz goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 cups fresh grated parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp basil (fresh), roughly chopped
3/4 c. panko bread crumbs (japanese bread crumbs)

Mix all the ingredients together and put in a baking crock. Put in a 375* oven for about 20 minutes or until the dip is bubbling and golden on top. Serve with crostini (toasted baguette chip).

*To make the crostini, slide a french baguette on the diagonal. Lay on a cookie sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Put in a 400* oven for about 5 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Store in a large ziploc to keep fresh.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY1Y2QyOXQ4aHM&hl=en

.beef stew.

2010-01-11T08:27:00.009-05:00

Happy New Year! I'm embarrassed that I haven't updated in so long but truth be told, I have been so busy the past few months. I'm hoping for a reprieve once we get settled into our new house next month.

I trust you all had a good holiday season? Ours was wonderful. During the time my husband had off work, we watched the movie Julie & Julia. Have you seen it? It's such a great movie and it helped to inspire me all over again! One of the recipes the main character makes is Boeuf Bourguignon and it had me craving (craving!) a rich beefy stock with cooked vegetables.

Growing up, my mom would make stew quite a lot trying to use up the odds and ends of vegetables in the freezer (She can make a mean soup!) and I would have used her method, but I was looking to do something richer... something better (sorry mom!).

I remembered back to when I made Shepherd's Pie. The rich sauce from that dish was exactly what I wanted so I took a little from that recipe and a little from my mom's and went from there.

Something about stew, is you can't rush it. The beef needs to be seared and then braised in liquid until it's so fork tender it literally melts in your mouth. This pot sat on the stove to simmer for at least 2 hours. Trust me... if you give it the proper time it needs, the results will be well worth it!

Begin by taking a package of beef stew chunks, found in any grocery meat department and cutting off as much fat and sinew as possible. Sinew is that muscle layer that sticks to the meat and makes it tough and chewy.

Stew meat is perfect for this. It's rather cheap since it's pieces of meat that are remaining once all the big, regular cuts are made. Since the butcher can't actually sell it as a steak, they sell it for occasions when you need small, bite-sized pieces of meat. The downside is you have to cut off all the undesireable stuff.

Put the cut up stew meat in a bowl or in a large ziploc and sprinkle with flour and salt and pepper. In my case, I used Lawry's seasoned salt. Coat well.

Prep your vegetables. I used one onion (sliced into quarters), 4 carrots (left in their round shape), and 3 white or gold potatoes. You want about 1 1/2 cups of all your vegetables. I also quartered mushrooms to add in later.

Slice up approximately 1/2 cup pancetta. You could use bacon, but the smoky flavor of the bacon is not what we want and will probably overpower the soup. Pancetta is usually found in the deli area of your grocer.

Make your bouquet garni. We want to add a lot of flavor to the stew and this is a great way to do it. In my bouquet, I put thyme, bay leaf, and some flat leaf parsley. In addition to the garni, I minced 1 clove garlic and set it aside.

Heat a soup pot and drizzle in some olive oil. Add a third to half the stew meat. Don't overcrowd the pan. Sear the beef as best you can on all sides. My meat tends to stick together because of the flour so it's difficult browning on all sides. Don't worry about that. Just make sure you get as many sides browned. This will lock in the juices, resulting in tender tender steak! When one half is done, remove from the pan and set aside. Repeat until all meat is seared.

Add the vegetables to the pot with the pancetta and garlic. Saute for a 4-5 minutes. When the onions are nearly translucent, add 2 cups red wine, 4 cups beef stock, and 4 cups chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring the soup to a boil and scrape along the bottom of the pan to bring up those baked on bits of delicious goodness. When the liquid begins to boil, add the bouquet garni and mushrooms, and reduce the heat down to low. Cover the top part way with a lid.

There will be a lot of broth, and we want to reduce it down a little so it leaves you with a rich sauce that has a lot of flavor. If you put the lid on all the way, the evaporated moisture won't have a way to escape and your sauce can't reduce down.

After it simmers on the cooktop for 2 hours, it's time for the last step. Remove the bouquet garni and discard. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup milk with 1/4 cup flour. Whisk well to remove all lumps. To ensure I don't have any, I strain with a sieve. While stirring, add the milk/flour mixture to the pot. Turn the heat to high and keep stirring until the sauce thickens a little. Taste and re-season if necessary.

This stew is the perfect dish on a cold winter night. Serve with salad and rolls, if you like. As Julia Child would say.... Bon Appetit!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU5MzM1ZG1uZmM&hl=en

.croquembouche w/ lemon cream filling.

2009-10-04T11:10:00.015-04:00

Last weekend, I went to a social at church. We were asked to bring a "dessert for one" wrapped as a gift. I spent about a week debating what to make. I had originally thought I'd make some kind of sponge cake with mousse filling, but I wasn't sure how long something would be sitting out and I didn't want the mousse to melt all over the place. That would have been a disaster! Well, I decided to make a croquembouche, which is a fancy word for cream puffs stacked all pretty like in a pyramid shape and draped with spun sugar.

Don't be intimidated by the picture. This is a very IMPRESSIVE, do-able dessert that makes a statement for parties, or even for intimate dinners. You can make the cream puffs bigger, or smaller, just make sure you keep the sizes consistent otherwise it'll look strange.

I filled the cream puffs with a lemon cream that brought these babies into a whole new dimension. The contrast of the tart with the sweetness of the spun sugar and caramel "glue" is pure perfection. I know you'll enjoy this if you make the recipe.

First, make the lemon cream filling.

Juice 2 small lemons or 1 large. You need 4 Tablespoons lemon juice. Zest the lemons too. You need 1 Tablespoon zest. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk 9 egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, the lemon juice, and 1/2 cup flour.

After whisking, pour it through a mesh sieve to remove any lumps or egg particles.

Put 2 cups cream in a saucepan and bring to a scald. Do not let it boil.

While whisking, pour some of the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture. This is called tempering the yolks. If you had added the egg mixture directly to the hot cream, it would have instantly cooked the eggs and made scrambled eggs. Ick. After whisking in some of the cream into the yolk mixture, add the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and put back on a burner and kick up the heat. Whisk constantly while this cooks so it doesn't burn on the bottom. It will start thickening up quickly.

As soon as it's thick, remove from the heat and add 1 Tablespoon butter and the lemon zest. Set the pan in a shallow bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and cool the filing down.

To store, put in an airtight container and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

This filling can be made up to 2 days ahead of time.

For croquembouche, I use my basic cream puff recipe. Pipe small little dollops on a buttered cookie sheet and touch the pointy tips with a wet finger.

Bake at 375* until nice and golden brown. It's safer to overbake these a little so they don't collapse on themselves. We need them to stay firm.

When the cream puffs are baked and cooled, poke the bottom of each puff with a chop stick or any other tool that's similar.

Fill a piping bag with the lemon cream and stick the tip of the piping bag into the bottom and squeeze. Don't overfill.

I made a little cone out of cardstock and wrapped with foil. Since I was taking this somewhere, I needed a disposable base so I cut a piece of cardboard from an old box and wrapped that with foil too. To adhere the cone to the base, dip into the pan of caramel sugar and then press down. It cools quickly so you won't have to hold it down long.

If you're using a plate, use the same method.

For the caramel/sugar for spinning, put in a saucepan:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water

Put the pan over medium heat on the stove until the sugar dissolves. Let this cook until a candy thermometer reaches 110*.

Carefully dip part of each filled cream puff into the sugar and start stacking around the cone. There will be some gaps between each puff. That's okay. We'll camoflauge with the spun sugar.

This part is FUN but so messy. Make sure you put a towel down on the floor and put paper under the pans.

I put two saucepans down and sprayed the handles with Pam. Dip a fork into the sugar and drizzle it back and forth from the handles. Do this until you have a good buildup of thin strands of sugar.

This cools almost immediately so you don't have to let it stay for long. Remove from the handles and repeat until you have as much spun sugar as needed.

I put a silpat down on a cookie sheet and poured some of the caramel/sugar to create some designs. Break them apart when they cool and harden.

Carefully wrap the croquembouche with the spun sugar so that it spirals down the cone. Stick pieces of the broken sugar pieces around the cake, and at the top. Serve immediately!

.raspberry coffee cake.

2009-09-24T19:23:00.006-04:00

I had a meeting the other morning for church and I thought I would take a little treat for us to enjoy. When I got there, I discovered my friend, Leesa also made a coffee cake! Hers was cinnamon sugar... mine was a really moist raspberry coffee cake. Absolutely delicious. Rather funny that we both had coffee cake on the brain though!

You can use any berry you want. I had raspberries in the freezer and wanted to use them up. The perfect choice, in my opinion!

There are three steps to making this cake: Batter. Berries. Crumb topping.

Put 1 lb of berries in a bowl and add 1/3 cup sugar.

In a mixing bowl, put 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In another bowl, mix together 2/3 cup sour cream, 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks, and 3 tsp vanilla. Set aside.

Cut up 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter into 12 pieces
and set aside.

With your mixer on low, alternate adding some of the egg/sour cream mixture and 1-2 pieces of butter until it's all combined.

For the topping, put in a bowl: 2/3 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp salt, 3 1/2 cups flour and 1 cup melted butter. Mix it well together.

Butter a 9x13 baking dish and spread out 1/2 of the cake batter. Sprinkle the berries over the top evenly so that the entire surface has berries. Dollop the rest of the cake batter on top of the berries. Don't worry about spreading it out.

Spread out the crumb mixture over the entire top. Bake in a 325* oven for about an hour. I had to cook a little longer because the center was a little jiggly. If your center is jiggly, then keep on baking! When the center is set, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Make sure it's completely cool before serving.

Bon appetite!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY3aGJiOG1iY2I&hl=en

.suzanne's spaghetti.

2009-09-17T15:26:00.004-04:00

I was in Seattle this summer for most of July with the girls. When we got back, I went right to work helping my friend plan and cater her son's wedding reception. Four days before the reception, I got a call from my sister telling me my oldest brother passed away. He was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer at the end of July (just days before I came home from my vacation) and we thought he would have more time. Apparently we were wrong.

When I got back to New York from this latest trip to Seattle, we were running low on funds and my husband put me on a pretty strict grocery budget. I'm not used to budgeting! One meal that's very economical and something we all love to eat is spaghetti. If you've never made your own spaghetti sauce, you really should try because it's EASY and usually tastes a whole lot better than what you get in a pre-made jar. Here's what you need.

1 large can tomato puree
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 lb hamburger
2-3 italian sausage links, removed from the casing
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
salt, pepper, and sugar
extra virgin olive oil
herbs (oregano, marjoram, basil)

When I make my sauce, I let it simmer all day long. This is one of the times I pull out my crock pot because I love for all of the flavors to merry together. You can't get that in an hour or two.

I use tomato puree versus tomato sauce because it's slightly thicker. I don't like watery spaghetti sauce! This helps to cut down on the liquid.

In a skillet, heat a little drizzle of olive oil. Brown the hamburger and sausage and break it into fine pieces by chopping it up with the blade of a spatula. When the meat is almost cooked through, add the garlic, onion, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. When the aroma from the garlic and onion intensifies, dump it all into your crock pot.

Add the tomato puree, diced tomato, some salt, pepper, and about 1/2 tsp sugar. If you don't have fresh herbs, it's okay! I use a lot of herbs to season my sauce so dump in a generous amount of basil and oregano, then a little marjoram. Marjoram is a sister to oregano and has a gentle sweet flavor that is a great compliment to the sauce.

My oldest sister, Ronda, likes to add a splash of burgundy to her spaghetti sauce. I don't normally have burgundy on hand, but if you do, add a little!

Turn your crock pot on and let this cook all day long. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles and top with some fresh grated parmesan cheese. We love spaghetti with fresh homemade french bread and a vegetable packed garden salad.

(NOTE: I usually have a lot of sauce leftover so I put it in a ziploc and freeze. This way, I have extra sauce for the future for a quick meal, or to make lasagna with.)

Next time you're looking for a cost efficient meal that your whole family will love, don't open a jar. Make this sauce and you'll save on the pocketbook and put smiles on your family's faces!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY5Zmd3YmtraHE&hl=en

.watermelon ribs.

2009-08-10T10:17:00.005-04:00

Thursday was Jim's birthday so the girls and I decided to have a small party for him. One of his most favorite foods is bbq ribs. He loves them! I always make the same sauce and thought I would try something different this time.

In my cookbook "Top Secret Recipes", there's a recipe in there for Hard Rock Cafe's Watermelon Ribs. The recipe looked incomplete to me so I changed it up and made it my own. Here's what I did.

You're going to need 2 cups watermelon pulp, so cut the rind off of the watermelon, leaving a lot of the white you don't usually eat. Cube and put in a blender. Puree. It doesn't need to be completely smooth. In fact, if you leave it slightly chunky you'll have tiny sweet chunks caramelized to your ribs. Delicious! Set the pulp aside.

Mince 2 cloves garlic and 1/2 of a small onion. Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion and garlic for a minute, until fragrant.

Dump in the watermelon pulp, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup molasses, a couple shakes liquid smoke, 3 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 cup honey, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper flakes.

This is all you need for the bbq sauce! How easy is that? Now let this simmer on low for at least an hour. The sauce needs to reduce down and let some of that water evaporate out. You should be left with a nice rich and sweet bbq sauce after that time.

Now the sauce can be made days in advance if you need and kept in the fridge. You need to make it at *least* the day before because we're going to marinate the ribs in the fridge overnight.

Normally I use pork loin ribs that are practically boneless and super meaty. I decided to use racks of ribs. They came in this big pack so I cut the ribs into groups of 5 or 6 and put in large ziplocs. Pour in some of the bbq sauce (once cooled) and put in the fridge. Make sure you leave some bbq sauce for grilling!

To make: Heat an oven to 300*. Remove the ribs from the ziplocs and put in a baking dish. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil to lock in all the moisture. Bake for 2 hours.

Prepare your BBQ grill. To finish the ribs, throw them on the grill on medium heat (you don't want the coals too hot). Brush on some bbq sauce. Put the lid on the grill and let that bbq sauce caramelize on the skin of those ribs. Check periodically to turn them and glaze with more sauce. When they're nice and coated and have grill marks, pull from the bbq and serve.

To finish off Jim's birthday dinner I made smashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh slices of watermelon, and baked beans. Pun intended - he was HOG happy! LOL

These ribs were delicious. Sweet and tangy with a little kick from the pepper flakes. I'll be making these again!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU3cG02M2hkaGI&hl=en

.pan-seared pork chops w/ cream sauce and fried sage leaves.

2009-08-05T15:24:00.005-04:00

I know what you're thinking. The title is very wordy. But hey! You can't leave anything out, right?

The newest season of Hell's Kitchen is on again and it always seems to inspire me to cook something uber impressive. Maybe one day I will actually cook something like this for Mr. Gordon Ramsay himself! And maybe... just maybe he won't spit it into the trash on the first bite. I can wish!!!

Do you find yourself making the same kind of pork chop recipe over and over? Do you take the easy way out and use Shake n' Bake? If you want to try something new, that's delicious and impressive (and not too difficult!), I really suggest you try this recipe.

****NOTE: If you haven't noticed, I haven't taken many step by step photos because it's very time consuming. If the recipe is more complicated where you need visuals, I will take more pictures.****

Here are the directions to make this dish-----

Heat a skillet over medium to medium high heat.

Season your pork chops with a little sea salt and fresh black pepper. I bought about 1 1/2" thick chops because the thin ones cook too fast, have less flavor, and are easy to overcook... and when you overcook them, they get really dry. Not what we want. So make sure you get those thick babies!

Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil in the skillet and carefully place each chop in. Sear for 3 minutes on each side. Searing is really important because not only does it give the meat more flavor and color, but it seals in all of the juices. If you don't hear a sizzle when you put the chops in, your pan wasn't hot enough.

When the chops have been seared on all sides, transfer to a baking sheet or baking dish and pop into a 350* oven for 15 minutes. When you remove the chops from the oven, they should be perfectly cooked inside with a slightly pink center. If it's too pink, put back in the oven for 5 minutes more.

Don't freak out. The FDA has come a long way in how they handle and process pork so you don't have to cook it to well done anymore. You will find that the chop is so juicy and moist when you do this. Trust me... it's all good.

Let the chops rest for 5 minutes before plating.

Now for the cream sauce ---

When the pork chops are resting, we're going to make the sauce. Heat the same skillet back up on the burner. Make sure you don't clean the pan because we want all of those little stuck on bits to be in our sauce.

When it's hot, add a pat of butter and melt. Saute a clove of garlic, about 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes (halved), and a small handful of chopped maitaki mushroom. (I used maitaki because that's what I bought at the Farmer's Market this past weekend -- delicious mushroom!!). If you don't have maitaki, use cremini or shitaki. Saute for a 2-3 minutes.

Add 1 cup white wine and whisk, scraping the bottom of the skillet to bring up all of the stuck on pieces. Let the wine reduce in half. Add 1 cup heavy cream. You can use half and half if you wish to cut the fat. Let simmer for a couple of minutes. If the sauce is a little thick, add some chicken tock to thin down a little. Taste and season with sea salt and fresh black pepper. Add a pat of butter and whisk in. Make sure you whisk as it melts so it doesn't separate with the cream.

I served this with risotto (I threw some maitaki mushrooms into the risotto, otherwise, it's the same recipe linked). Put a spoonful of risotto in the center of the plate. Place a pork chop on top of the rice, then spoon some cream sauce over the top of that! Garnish with fried sage leaves.

**To make the sage leaves, heat a little oil in a pan. Drop in fresh sage leaves (about 4-5 per person) and fry until they stop bubbling. Pull from the oil and drain on paper towel.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY2dnFrcmM3ZjQ&hl=en

.blackberry pie for one.

2009-08-03T13:27:00.005-04:00

My sister, Ronda, sent me an email the other day with a bunch of links. When I clicked on each of the links, I was taken to various sites that have been making mini pies! Well, that got me hankering for pie and decided to make some that night for dessert.

The instructions on one of the sites required 4oz Ball canning jars but I don't have any so I used my ramekins instead. Nothing like having your very own pie to put a smile on my face.

Before I get ahead of myself, I'll share the link. Not Martha

I made a butter pastry. 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar mixed together in a bowl. Cut in 1 cup cold butter until the mix is crumbly. Spoon in some ice water until the dough pulls together. Divide into 8 balls. Roll each ball out and carefully line the inside of the ramekin, or ball jar.

Fill the pie up 3/4 of the way with the filling. Since I was in a hurry and didn't have fresh or frozen blackberries on hand, I used a jar of pie filling I had in my cupboard. Blackberry cobbler filling from Cracker Barrel. Mmmmm...

Roll out the other pieces of dough and top each of the ramekins. Trim the edges and then carefully tuck under and crimp. Make sure you put a vent hole in the dough before you put it on the pie because it's difficult to do. You can even use a mini cookie cutter if you want.

Brush the top with eggwash (in a bowl crack 1 egg and add 1 Tbsp water, whisk together) and then sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake at 350* until the tops are nice and golden.

Now if you want to take these out of the molds for serving, wait until they have cooled substantially otherwise the pie will collapse on itself like it did for me. I can be so impatient!

Serve with some vanilla ice cream and garnish with a sprig of mint for final presentation. This recipe will definitely impress your friends and family!

Apple Fennel Slaw

2009-07-30T10:47:00.004-04:00

While visiting my family in Seattle, we had many dinners and bbqs. Two days after our arrival, we went to Music in the Park and the plan was for us to bring a dish or two to share. I've been wanting to try fennel slaw for some time now. In fact, I had been planning on doing a big 4th of July segment here on my blog with summer/bbq type recipes, but it never happened.

We'll put the past behind us and move forward, shall we?

So for Music in the Park, I made peach cobbler, a roasted beet salad, and this... apple fennel slaw. I know it sounds like a strange combination but holy cow it was SO good. I encouraged my skeptical family members to try the slaw and they loved it, even though they took that first bite with much trepidation. (Suzanne would never steer you wrong!!!!!!)

Not only is this salad delicious and refreshing, it's very very quick to make. Here's how it's done.

In a large bowl, put:

2 fennel bulbs, finely sliced
2 granny smith apples, cut into matchsticks
1 carrot, grated

In another bowl, put:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
a shake of garlic powder
a shake of celery seed
2 Tbsp rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
the juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tbsp lemon juice)
and 1 Tbsp sugar

Mix all the dressing ingredients together and taste. It should be slightly sweet so if it's not, add a little more sugar to balance the acidity of the vinegar and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the dressing on top of the slaw and mix together well. If you want to get fancy with it, garnish the top with some of the fennel frond. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

The perfect side dish for a summer bbq! Enjoy!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTYxZ2g2bjdrazk&hl=en

Cheese Blintz

2009-07-28T15:32:00.004-04:00

Happy Summer! I have been so bad about updating and will try to keep posting new things as often as I possibly can. I haven't posted this yet, but guess what? I'M GOING TO CULINARY SCHOOL! I was accepted to The Culinary Institute of America and will start classes October 20th! I should have some awesome things to post once I start. I can't WAIT!

The girls and I were in Seattle visiting my family most of July. We just got back a few days ago and are slowly trying to re-adjust to East Coast time. Not easy my friends.. not easy. Thankfully, we have no commitments so we can sleep late. While I was there, I made crazy amounts of food for my family. I think they're going to miss my cooking more than me! (Okay, maybe not.)

A few days before we flew back East, my oldest sister, with whom I was staying, made cheese blintzes. They were *SO* good with some fresh berries and a yummy cream cheese/cottage cheese filling. She found the recipe here, but I will post it on my blog for convenience sake. I'm definitely going to make these... probably for my husband's birthday next week! He'll love that.

Keep your eyes peeled for some new things coming your way! Hope you all have a wonderful summer.

Suzanne

Cheese Blintzes

Crepe Batter

1 cup flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 tsp vanilla

Cheese filling

2 cups cottage cheese

3 oz cream cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift the flour, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Mix together until everything is smooth and there are no lumps. Let the batter rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. It can be held in the fridge for up to 12 hours.

Heat a crepe pan or small skillet over medium heat. You don't want the heat too hot. Brush the pan with melted butter (or use Pam spray). pour a cup of batter into the crepe pan and swirl around to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook the first side until it's set (about 2 minutes, then using a rubber spatula, loosen the edges and flip it over. Cook the other side for another minute. Remove from pan and repeat until all the batter has been cooked up.

Spoon some filling down the center of the crepe, roll up, and top with fresh whipped cream and fruit. You can use whatever fruit you like. We had blueberries and strawberries on hand but you can use cherries, peaches, or apples. Yummy!

Thanks Ronda for such a great time and for letting the girls and I stay at your place. Love you!

.flatbread steak sandwich w/ sauteed mushrooms and onions.

2009-05-06T21:48:00.006-04:00

The other day I was watching Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill on Food Network and he was making all of these grilled pizzas and flatbread sandwiches. Well, it got me craving in a big way. You can make any kind of flatbread sandwich you like, but tonight I'm making ones with grilled skirt steak, sauteed mushrooms and onions, lettuce, tomato, and an herbed mayonnaise.

First, you want to begin by making your pizza dough. If you don't have time to make dough, you can always buy it from the store, but it's not going to be nearly as good because they have to pump so many preservatives in those things... and you lose that fresh, homemade flavor and sometimes texture. So do yourself a favor and give yourself an extra hour, hour and half to make the dough. You will not regret it.

Slice up some mushrooms and onions and saute in a pan until the onions are nice and soft. If you feel like adding extra veggies to this, by all means.. go ahead! Set this aside while we make the rest.

In a bowl mix together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, a pinch of sea salt, fresh ground pepper, about 1/4 tsp thyme, and a dash of dill. Mix everything together and put in the fridge.

Season a strip of skirt steak with salt and pepper. Pop on a bbq or grill pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Skirt steak is very very thin and cooks rather quickly. I like my steak around medium rare and only kept it on the grill about 10 minutes. If you want your meat more cooked, keep it on longer. Give it another minute or two on each side.

Once the pizza dough has doubled, knead in a little more flour, and then divide into quarters.

Use a rolling pin to stretch out each piece. You want them in a rectangular shape because once they're loaded with stuff, you flip half over the top to create the sandwich.

This is about 6" x 10" in size. It's not a perfect science. If you have some big and some small, it's not going to kill anyone, right?

Put the rolled out dough on your grill and cook for a couple minutes on each side. Pull from the grill and set on a tray.

When that steak is done on the grill, make sure you let it rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing into it. Slice against the grain into very thin pieces. I have to tell you, this was so so SOOOOOO tender and delicious. I love me some steak!

Put some of the herbed mayo on the entire length of the flatbread. Put some steak down (as much as you want), and then some of the mushrooms and onion.

Add some chopped lettuce (I used romaine), and sliced tomato. Now flip the top and tack down with a large toothpick, or do as I did and use a bamboo skewer.

Serve with salad, or chips, or fruit... you name it. The perfect meal for Spring or Summer!

.grilled skewered steak w/ roasted red pepper salsa.

2009-04-30T14:04:00.008-04:00

This was another recipe I made for our appetizer night last week. When I was working up my app menu, I wanted to make sure I had a little bit from each food group. I had brie puffs (dairy and grain), italian stuffed mushrooms (veggie), crab cakes with the chipotle lime aioli (seafood), and I needed a meat. I had some flank steak in the freezer so I got that out to thaw. It was the perfect addition for our meal.

This is a great appetizer too. One I will be making for sure when I have a party!

You'll need one jar of roasted red pepper and 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes.

Chop up 1 clove garlic, 1 jalapeno (seeded), and 1/2 of one small onion.

If you want absolutely no heat in this salsa, leave out the jalapeno. If you want some, feel free to add as much or as little as you desire.

In a saucepan, add a little olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, and jalapeno for a minute taking care not to burn the garlic.

Drain the liquid out of the pepper jar. Do a quick chop to make sure there are no big pieces left.

Add that and the half can of diced tomatoes to the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook over medium high heat for about 4 minutes, stirring often, then reduce to low and let stew for 10 minutes.

Now the night before our appetizer night, I put the flank steak in a ziploc with crushed cloves of garlic (2) a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. The longer this can sit in the fridge, the better the flavor will be because the garlic will absorb into the flesh.

Thinly slice the steak. Remember, this is an appetizer. You don't want to have big honkin pieces of meat on the skewer because it will make it more difficult to eat.

Make sure you cut on the cross-grain.

Skewer up the steak.

I'm using my grill pan but you can use your bbq grill. In fact, the bbq grill will give it some awesome smoky flavor. If you use the bbq grill, please make sure you soak the skewers well. You don't want them to burn to a crisp.

Grill for 3 minutes on each side. Pull from the grill and place on a platter. Put the salsa in a bowl with a spoon so people can scoop some out on their plates.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY4ZjViZGJ0Y2s&hl=en

.italian stuffed mushrooms.

2009-04-28T16:00:00.007-04:00

The other night we had appetizer night, which I do when I'm craving multiple things at the same time. I usually do this on Friday as a kind of "celebration" for surviving the week. Normally I don't fix this kind of fancy food, but I was in the mood to try new things.

On the menu: Brie puffs (I used my profiteroles recipe and added grated Brie cheese to the dough before piping), Grilled Steak Kabobs with Roasted Red Pepper Salsa, Crab Cakes with Chipotle Lime Aioli, and Italian Stuffed Mushrooms. For dessert I made Coconut Parfaits using toasted coconut pound cake and coconut whipped cream.

Today's blog entry shows how I made the mushrooms.

In a skillet, put a little olive oil and cook some mild italian sausage (1 cup) with 1/2 cup finely diced onion. Saute until the sausage is cooked through.

Transfer the onion and sausage to a bowl and add 1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs, 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and one egg.

Mix everything together well using a fork.

Remove the stems from all of the mushrooms, leaving only the caps. You can dice up the mushroom stems and add to the filling if you wish. I chose not to this time.

Place the mushrooms in a baking dish.

Fill the mushroom caps with the stuffing. Make sure they mound up nice and high because you want to have enough filling so when you bite in it should be 50/50 in flavor.

Cut up 1/4 stick of butter and place strategically around the mushrooms. It will melt as the mushrooms bake and keep them from sticking to the baking dish. Put in a 350* oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTYzZnE2bXpmZjI&hl=en

.brownies to die for.

2009-04-23T13:03:00.006-04:00

Last night my husband wanted brownies. I usually make these cakey brownies that are a lot like Texas sheet cake. Okay.. it is Texas sheet cake, but we don't call it that. He wanted rich, gooey, chewy brownies that lull you into sweet chocolate dreams. It sounded pretty good to me!

I remember I have a specialty cookbook called Chocolate. That's it. Chocolate. There are recipes for brownies, cookies, cupcakes, cakes... all devoted to my obsession. :) So I peeked in there for the perfect brownie recipe and found it.

The nice thing about this recipe too is that you dirty one dish -- a large saucepan.. minus the brownie pan you actually bake these guys in.

First you need to take 3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks) and put in a saucepan over medium heat and melt completely. Turn off the burner and remove the pan from the heat.

When it's melted, add 2/3 cup cocoa powder. Mix well.

Next, measure out 1 2/3 c. sugar and add that, and 1/2 tsp salt to the pan and whisk in. It'll get really thick, but that's okay.

Whisk in 2 eggs and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla just until it's all mixed in. Don't over beat.

Sprinkle in 1 cup flour. Use a spatula to mix it all together and not the whisk. I tried it with the whisk and it was so thick it took forever to knock it all out from the middle. So learn from me... use a spatula.

Add 3/4 chocolate chips. You can use semi sweet, milk, or white chocolate chips. I'm not fussy... but I used plain ol semi sweet.

Chop 1 to 1 1/2 cups walnuts or pecans.

Spray an 8x8 baking pan with Pam and dump in the brownie batter. Spread out evenly.

Sprinkle enough chopped nuts on top to cover the surface. Pop in a 350* oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. When you insert a toothpick in the center, it should come out a little gooey on the stick. You don't want to overbake because then it won't be a moist, chewy brownie.

Remove from the oven and let it cool completely. Again.. trust me when I say let it cool. I didn't and when I cut into it, it was too gooey and wouldn't hold it's shape.

These were sinful and decadent. I could hardly eat even one of these they were so rich. So sit down and enjoy these with a tall cold glass of milk.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTYwZGRzNWg0Y2c&hl=en

.grilled swordfish w/ bacon.

2009-04-22T13:00:00.005-04:00

I've been looking at making meals that are healthier, and quicker to make for my family. Granted, this has bacon on it, but you can opt out and use turkey bacon, or pancetta. In fact, this dish is inspired by an italian one I saw Giada De Laurentis make the other day called Swordfish Spiedini and she used pancetta, which is traditional.

I, however, did not have pancetta, so I used the next best thing. Bacon. Everything's better with bacon on it, right?

Start by rinsing and patting dry one swordfish steak. If the fish smells bad or is slimy at all, do not use. Cut into bite sized cubes.

Put in a bowl and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil. Also add about 1/2 tsp basil and oregano. Season with salt and pepper and 2 Tbsp lemon juice, or the juice of one fresh lemon.

I let this marinade for about 15 minutes, but if you want to let this sit overnight, it'll taste even better.

Put the swordfish on skewers (if you're grilling outside, make sure you soak the bamboo skewers for at least 30 minutes. This will keep them from burning up.

Take a slice of bacon and skewer it at the bottom, wrap around, then attach to the top of the skewer to keep it in place.

Place the skewers on the grill and sear on each side for 2-3 minutes. It will take 10-12 minutes for these to cook all the way through.

Look how delicious these are. The meat of the swordfish will be firm and opaque, and the bacon will be beautifully crispened on the outside.

The flavor of the swordfish is out of this world. I served it with some parmesan orzo and veggie.

You can have this on your table in 30 minutes flat. So quick, easy, and delicious. Bon appetit!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU4Y3E2dHAzY3g&hl=en

.pan seared duck with sesame ginger glaze.

2009-04-14T17:06:00.004-04:00

Have you ever felt uninspired? Lately I've been feeling that way and then compound it with Spring Break and a husband working wonky hours.... well.. it's enough to drive me crazy.

I hope everyone had a great Easter. It was a crazy busy weekend for us, and since we had no special plans, our big dinner got put off until Monday. I made pan seared duck breast with a sesame ginger glaze, roasted fingerling potatoes, salad, and rolls. I was going to make a coconut mousse cake, but we still had brownies left and I decided not to make the cake until later this week. (I can't wait!)

I looked everywhere for 2 weeks for duck breast. Virtually impossible to find!!! My good friend, Deb was over here last week for scrapbooking and lunch and she mentioned a shop over near her home that had specialty type meats so I called and yesss they had some! So I had the husband pick it up on his way home from work on Friday. Two breasts cost me $20! Yikes. I think I might take up duck hunting in the very near future because this turned out amazing. Paige (my 7 yr old) loved it so much and told me I had to make it again soon. (I'm thinking I might make roast duck lo mein. mmmm)

This is a very easy dish to make. It's uncomplicated, which is refreshing when it comes to a holiday meal.

First, in a saucepan you need to put the glaze ingredients.

1/4 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 tsp minced garlic
1 dash red pepper flakes

Bring to a boil until it thickens. Set aside. This can be made days in advance and held in the fridge. I made some last week to have with lettuce wraps and sealed it in a ziploc and tossed into the freezer. All I had to do was pull it out and heat. Perfect!

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet with a couple cloves of peeled and crushed garlic. Sear each side of the duck breast for 4-5 minutes, starting with the fat side down. Use a spoon to continually spoon some of the fat over the top of each breast as it cooks. Pull from the pan and put in a baking dish. Pour some glaze on top of the duck and put in a 400* oven for 10 minutes.

Serve with rice or potatoes, salad, and bread.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTY0azc1ems5ZDY&hl=en

.strawberry wontons.

2009-04-08T23:40:00.005-04:00

Today was a great day. I invited a couple girlfriends over for lunch and for scrapbooking. I met them over at 2Peas, and while I have gotten together with Deb quite a few times, I have only had email conversations with Denise. I had planned on making Santa Fe Chicken Salad for lunch, but while grocery shopping yesterday, I had a sudden craving for lettuce wraps.....

... and crab rangoon... (weak)

For dessert, I decided to make some deep fried strawberry wontons. What is a strawberry wonton, you ask? Oh my.... well, let me show you what it is!

In a bowl (this bowl looks really small in the picture, but it's not) mix together 1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, a dash cinnamon, and about 1 cup finely diced strawberries.

While munching on these, we all decided that any kind of berry would be awesome in these. Raspberries. Blackberries.... we really aren't particular. They were so delicious!

Take won ton wrappers (usually found by the tofu products in your grocery store) and lay as many out as you need. This recipe will make almost 2 dozen. Spoon a little filling in the middle of each wrapper.

Crack open an egg and separate. We need the egg whites to act as glue.

Dip your finger in the egg white, and run it around all four sides of the won ton wrapper. Place another won ton wrapper on top and seal the edges well. Put a dab of egg white on the corners and then pinch the corners together (as seen in the picture).

Repeat until you've made all the filled won tons. Put them on a plate and stick in the freezer. You want to firm up the filling a bit before frying otherwise it will ooze out into your oil.

Heat your oil in a pot or wok to 350* F. Carefully add each won ton and fry until golden brown. Let drain well on paper towels.

Drizzle the tops with chocolate ganache (or you can use Hershey's syrup) and put a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

Serve warm (my friends said they're still pretty tasty cold too).

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU2aHNnazRuZ3M&hl=en

.easter nests.

2009-04-05T22:33:00.005-04:00

I love Easter time! Like I said in a previous entry, I was going to make various Easter type treats and dishes to inspire you in the kitchen this holiday. We only have one week left!

Today, Paige and I made these sweet little chocolate rice krispy nests. They were so much fun and if you've got kids in the house who like to get creative in the kitchen, you must make these with them. Quick, easy, and super yummy.

In a pot, melt 1/4 cup butter over low heat. Add 1 bag (10 oz) marshmallows and stir until they're all melted. Make sure you or your child keeps stirring so the marshmallows don't burn in the pan. Nobody likes a burnt rice krispy treat. Ick.

When the marshmallows have melted, add 5 cups rice krispies. Stir well to make sure everything's coated.

Put 1 cup chocolate chips in a bowl. Pop in the microwave for 1 minute and then stir to make sure they're all melted.

Scoop the melted chocolate into the pan and stir. This will give the nests a "dirty" look. I suppose if you wanted to skip this step you could.. or you could even use cocoa krispies instead of regular. I like it this way because it gives the krispy nest more firmness and isn't so wimpy and sticky.

Put cupcake liners in a muffin pan.

Spoon a good amount of rice krispies into each muffin cup. Use your fingers or some other kind of tool to dent in the center. I had Paige use this Pampered Chef tool that I sprayed with Pam (so it wouldn't stick).

As you can see, we had to sneak a few bites which left us short 1 nest. (oops) This recipe will make a full dozen though if you can exercise enough self control.

Put 1/2 cup shredded coconut in a ziploc and put a small bit of green food coloring in. If you use the Wilton gel type coloring, stick a toothpick into the color and then into the coconut. That's all you'll need because we don't want glow in the dark green. We just want to barely tint the coconut to make it look like light colored grass.

Put a little coconut grass in the middle where the indentation is.

The final step is to put some M&Ms or those candy malted robin's eggs in the middle. We used M&Ms with almonds that were the Easter pastel. One green, pink, yellow, blue, and purple egg. What a full nest for a little birdie!

.salmon dill eggs benedict.

2009-04-05T12:31:00.007-04:00

With my husband working nights (he goes back to days this week! WAHOO!!!) I have felt so guilty because he doesn't get nearly as many homecooked meals because he has to go in so early. One of his favorite things is eggs benedict. When we were first married, we would always hit this awesome brunch buffet at this nice hotel by our home on the weekend. Eggs benedict would be the first thing on his plate. So the other day I thought I would surprise him by making this for him. He loved it!

Eggs benedict is usually made with a toasted english muffin, a slice of canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. Mine is made with the english muffin, a slice of smoked salmon, poached egg, and a dill hollandaise sauce. Yummy. If you're looking for something new to make for breakfast this coming Easter Sunday, you should try this!

Hollandaise sauce is a rich, egg sauce. Not difficult to make. First you need to cut up 4 Tbsp butter and set to the side.

In a bowl put 3 egg yolks, 1 Tbsp water, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, a dash pepper, and 1 pat of butter. Put over a pot of boiling water in a double boiler method. Stir with a rubber spatula consistently so the eggs don't turn into scrambled eggs. When the pat of butter melts, add another pat and repeat until all the butter has been incorporated. By this time, the eggs should start cooking and thickening the sauce. When it's thick and coats the spatula, remove from the top of the pot.

Add some fresh chopped dill (or dried dill) (about 1/2 tsp).

This is the smoked salmon I used. It's usually found in the deli section of your grocery store. Do not buy the kind down the tuna aisle. It's not the same kind.

Now we need to poach the eggs. Poaching means to let the egg cook in water or steam. An easy way to do this is to first break an egg into a bowl and then pour into a skillet of hot water.

Repeat. I made 3 eggs... you keep adding for however many you're making this for. Let poach for 3 minutes.

Use a serrated spoon to scoop from the water.

Plate everything and serve with fruit and sausage or bacon.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_152fwzxtrhp

.spicy mango shrimp.

2009-04-01T09:47:00.006-04:00

Happy April Fools! I thought about pulling a joke on you all, but voted against it. Instead, I decided to post another recipe. :)

I have to tell you about my oldest daughter, Paige. She LOVES shrimp. She could eat it every day for the rest of her life. Okay, maybe not. She'd probably want to throw crab in there too. She's only 7 and loves crab, shrimp, lobster.... that's my girl! Such a refined palate. This was her choice of dinner the other night. She was a little concerned about the spice, but I only put a little red chili pepper in and it was good. Both she and Perry snarfed their meal!! I was impressed.

This dish is SO easy and fast. You can have it made and on the table in 30 minutes flat. Really! Let me show you.

You're going to need the following:

2 Tbsp honey, 1/4 cup olive oil, half of one mango (save the other half for grilling), 2 tsp grated gingerroot, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1 tsp red thai curry paste (not pictured), and some red chili flakes.

You can adjust how hot you want this. If you don't want any heat, leave the flakes out entirely. Put a few in. Don't be scared. It won't be hot, but it will give the sauce a little kick that gives the shrimp a real "wow" factor. If you want them really hot, dump more pepper flakes in.

Put those ingredients in a blender and puree till smooth. Transfer to a bowl.

Because of Paige's great love for shrimp, I keep a humongous bag in my freezer. These thaw so easily and quick by running them under the faucet. Don't use hot water, but around room temp.

I buy the peeled and deveined shrimp.. however the last time I was at the store, the only ones I could find still had the shell so if yours have shells.. peel them off.

Skewer those babies up and get them ready for cooking.

Once they're on skewers, brush both sides liberally with the mango sauce.

Put them on a hot grill, or grill pan and let them sear on each side. You want some nice grill markings on these but don't let them cook too long or else they'll become rubbery and hard.

What I did was grill for about a minute on one side, flip. While it was cooking the other side, I basted with more sauce, flipped and basted the other side, then flipped one last time (so they cooked 2x on each side)

As you can see, I also grilled slices of the mango. When you grill fruit, it changes the flavor a little because the heat draws out some of the sugars, and the heat caramelizes it a little. So delicious.

When your shrimp have cooked, pull from the grill and serve! I made some couscous to go on the side and was a perfect compliment to the shrimp.

So next time you're in a hurry for dinner, think about this dish for your family. It's sure to be a winner!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_153fvw9csgw

.carrot cake balls.

2009-03-31T08:11:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking about Easter. It's coming up soon, you know. Well, I wanted to put together a variety of Spring-type desserts and foods and put them here on the blog.

What do you traditionally have at Easter anyway? I usually do a ham with herbed gratin potatoes, some type of veggie and/or salad, rolls, and a dessert -- usually lime pie. I'm thinking of doing something different this year and would love to hear what you fix.

So back to these Easter-y, Spring-y recipes. The lemon meringue cupcakes fit into this group as do these: Carrot cake balls. Yummy! I'm sure your family and friends will enjoy these nuggets of goodness this Easter holiday!

Begin by making 1 carrot cake. (recipe)

Then make some cream cheese frosting by creaming 1/2 cup butter and 1 8oz pkg cream cheese. With the mixer on low, slowly add 4 cups powdered sugar. When all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, add 1 tsp vanilla.

Now comes the fun part -- crumbling the cake!! Get the kids involved if you want. There's no wrong way to do this but just make sure they break it apart good enough so there aren't big chunks.

Spoon in the cream cheese frosting (yes, ALL of it!) If you think this might be too sweet, then by all means, don't dump it all in.

Mix well with using a spatula.

I've heard people using a teaspoon, spooning some out, rolling it in their hands, and then dipping in chocolate. I didn't have that kind of time because the hubs was taking these to work so I used my small (2 Tbsp) ice cream scooper. It worked PERFECTLY!!! I really suggest going that route.

My freezer isn't wide enough to slip a cookie sheet in there, so I used plates. See how yummy those look?

Before dipping in chocolate, you're definitely going to want to put these in the freezer for awhile (like an hour or longer) to firm them up and make them not so sticky.

Recipes I have seen called for regular chocolate. Chocolate and carrot cake doesn't sound good to me, so I used white chocolate.

If you've never worked with white chocolate, it can be a total pain. It needs to be melted on LOW heat and watched like a hawk. If you start getting it too hot, it will begin seizing on you. If this happens, add a little vegetable oil to bring some fat back into the equation and work out the lumps. It's happened to me so I know. :)

However, what I did *this* time was use 1 1/2 bags Ghiradelli white chocolate and 1 bag Wilton vanilla candy chips. The candy chips aren't nearly as fussy as white chocolate and I didn't run into any seizing problems.

I apologize for not having pictures of the actual dipping process but it's pretty straight forward. You do NOT want to put the balls directly into the chocolate because it will 1) warm them too much and 2) they'll start breaking apart and you'll have cake pieces in your chocolate. Not what we want.

So put a cake ball directly on a fork (or candy fork) and use a spoon to ladle the chocolate over the cake balls. I kept a knife handy (just a small paring knife) to push the cake ball from the fork to a piece of parchment. The parchment was sitting on bakers rack. Repeat this until all of the cake balls have been coated. Put these in the fridge to firm up the chocolate.

I had leftover chocolate, so I tinted a little green, a little orange, and put into piping bags and made little carrots on top. (That way they know what kind of yummy carrot goodness awaits them!)

These were a lot of fun to make and even though they were for my husband's co-workers, I did try one (poison testing!!) and they were fabulous!!!

Trim off any excess chocolate at the base of the balls if you want. These need to be stored in an air-tight container in either the fridge or freezer. They can be held up to a week in the fridge.

.lemon chicken.

2009-03-29T09:58:00.013-04:00

So the other day I asked you guys what I should make for dinner. Mango Shrimp or Lemon Chicken. Well, DH woke up wanting chicken so I went with the latter choice. Here in this town we moved to, there's a chinese restaurant but honestly, in my opinion, it really stinks. The food is just awful and there are no other chinese choices so if we want that type of food, I have to make it myself. I'm not complaining, but making chinese food can be very time consuming. This dish, however, isn't bad at all. In fact, you can have this made in about 45 minutes! You can't beat that!

The chicken is going to take the longest because we have to ensure it's baked through. Yes.. I said baked. Instead of deep frying and having all of those extra calories, we're going to put this in the oven.

Start by taking 4 chicken breasts (or 1 per person) and put on some saran. Wrap the saran so that it's on the top and bottom of the breast. Using a mallet or a heavy saucepan, pound out the thickest part of the breast. We want to make sure the chicken is the same thickness throughout to ensure even baking.

Season the breasts with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle some flour on both sides of the chicken and rub in to coat.

In two separate bowls, put 2 eggs in one, and some panko in another. Panko is japanese bread crumbs that are super super fine and light. I love them and they are essential in Japanese/Chinese cooking.

First coat the chicken breasts in the egg, then put in the panko and make sure they are well breaded.

Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish and place the chicken breasts in. Pop in a 350* oven for about 30 minutes. To check if they're done, touch the chicken breast and if it's still squishy (which it shouldn't) then cook a little longer. The breast should be firm but not hard.

Now, while the chicken is in the oven, make the rice. The rice will take 20 minutes to prepare. In a pot put 2 cups rice and 3 3/4 cups water. Bring to a boil and stir. Put a lid on, turn the heat down to low low low and let it steam for 20 minutes. You will *always* have perfect rice doing it this way.

Once the rice has been put on the burner, let's make the lemon sauce. So super easy!

Juice enough lemons to make 2/3 cup. This took us about 6 small lemons. Strain so there are no seeds and put in a saucepan.

In the same saucepan, add 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup water, a couple shakes of black pepper and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Whisk everything together.

Before you throw away the juiced lemon rinds, use a vegetable peeler to peel off some of the zest. We don't need a lot but just enough to give a yummy lemon boost to the sauce.

And then, of course, you will want to thinly slice a lemon. Make sure you remove all the seeds. These will be added to the sauce at the very end to give it visual prettiness. :)

The sauce itself, does not take long to cook. Maybe 7 minutes, so don't make too early or else it could form a skin on top.

All you have to do is put the saucepan on the stove and bring to a boil, whisking consistently. Do not add the lemon zest and slices until the sauce has been completely thickened.

That's it! So simple!

Remove the chicken from the oven, let rest for a minute, then slice on the diagonal against the grain. Plate and spoon on some of the lemon sauce. Serve with rice. I also served mine with broccoli made asian style. If you're interested in that recipe, read on. Otherwise, bon appetit!

Asian style Broccoli

3 cups cooked broccoli

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp dark soy sauce (aka mushroom soy sauce)

1 cup beef or chicken stock

2 tsp cornstarch

salt and pepper

In a saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp of oil. Saute the garlic for a minute. Don't let burn. Add the broccoli and coat with the oil and garlic. In a small bowl, add all of the liquids and whisk well with the cornstarch. Pour into the broccoli and stir until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_141cnpwkrq9

What's for Dinner?

2009-03-27T09:03:00.003-04:00

TGIF everyone! Thought I would start the weekend with a poll:

What's for dinner?

I'm waffling between two different things and thought maybe you all could help finalize the menu.

So... should I make Lemon Chicken -or- Mango Shrimp? (Can you tell I'm in a fruity mood? Dad, don't you DARE say a thing. lol)

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Suzanne

.pasta e fagioli.

2009-03-27T00:40:00.007-04:00

To me, soup means comfort and I love comfort foods. This recipe for Pasta e Fagioli was one I found in a new cookbook I bought about a month ago. I changed it a little and it was so tasty. If you've ever had this at the Olive Garden, you'll know it's kind of an Italian style chili with pasta and beans and a rich tomato broth. It's also very easy to make so if you have a child in your home who likes to help in the kitchen, this is the perfect dish to prepare for little hands.

You'll need 3 carrots, cut up, 1 onion, diced, 4 celery stalks cut up, and 1 clove garlic, minced.

The recipe in the cookbook did not call for any meat, but we had to put some in. I had some spicy italian sausage in the freezer that I thawed and used. Remove the meat from the casing. (If you want exacts, I used three sausage links.)

In a soup pot, heat some olive oil. Saute the garlic and a bay leaf for a minute. Be careful not to let the garlic burn.

Add the sausage and start breaking it apart as it cooks.

When the sausage is almost cooked through, add the onion, carrot, and celery. Stir well and cook until the onions are almost translucent.

Add 5 cups beef broth (you can easily use vegetable broth if you want to keep this vegetarian) and 1 jar spaghetti sauce.

I used a garlic and olive oil flavored sauce from Bertolli.

Without straining either of these, dump in 2 cans Cannellini beans and 1 can diced tomatoes.

Make sure you season at this point with some salt, pepper, and 2 tsp oregano.

Stir everything well and let it come to a boil. Cover and reduce to low. Let this cook for about an hour. The longer you let it simmer, the more those flavors have a chance to marry.

For the pasta, I used ditalini, which is a short macaroni noodle. It has a nice firm texture that holds up well in the soup. You can swap this out using orzo or elbow macaroni.

About 30 minutes before serving, cook half the box in it's own pot of boiling water. The reason why I use a separate pot to cook the pasta it will take away all of the liquid in the soup if you threw it into the main pot. This way, if you cook to al dente, you'll have cooked pasta that still has room to absorb the flavor of the soup, but it won't take away all that delicious tomato goodness.

Drain the pasta well and add to the soup pot. Stir well.

Serve and top with some fresh grated parmesan cheese. Fresh baked italian bread is the perfect companion. I love using it to sop up the broth in the bowl.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_142dvb53qfz

.asian style brisket.

2009-03-26T10:36:00.005-04:00

***This is probably the EASIEST, MOST DELICIOUS recipe you will EVER EVER MAKE!!!!!****

:D :D :D

Asian Style Brisket!!! And this is the ONLY picture you need to make it. Seriously. All you have to do is take a 2-3 pound piece of beef brisket, trim the fat off, put it in a baking dish and dump on the asian sauce.

What goes in the asian sauce, you ask? Easy easy easy.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp hoisin (found in the oriental section of your grocer)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp minced ginger

Cover the baking dish well with foil and pop in a 200* oven for about 6-7 hours. You could probably put this in a crockpot too.

It turned out so moist, and so delicious. Serve with rice and veggie. The perfect Sunday night meal.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_143kjx4j3dm

.salmon w/ cheesy crumb topping.

2009-03-23T23:20:00.005-04:00

I have a very easy, delicious recipe for you. Salmon with a cheesy, crumb topping. I received this month's issue of Woman's Day a week ago and while flipping through it came across this recipe. I tweaked it a little because I didn't have everything they listed, but it was very good and something I will be making again.

I realized I don't make nearly enough fish and that's something I want to fix. Paige isn't quite excited about the plan though, but she did eat the salmon, and picked off the cheesy topping. Go figure.

In a mixing bowl, put 1 8oz package cream cheese (I used low fat), 1 cup bread crumbs (fresh preferred), 1 tsp dill, 1 tsp thyme, 1 clove minced garlic, and a little salt and pepper.

Cut a salmon fillet into individual pieces and put in a baking dish that has been drizzled with olive oil. Make sure you put the skin side down.

Spoon the cream cheese topping on top of the salmon. Use your finger to push around if you need to. Pop in a 350* oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes. When the flesh is a light pink the salmon is done.

So super easy and healthy, and delicious. While the salmon was in the oven, I sauteed some fresh spinach leaves with a little olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. I put a spoonful on the plate and rested some salmon right on top. Delicious!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_1443bjqm8cb

.lemon meringue cupcakes.

2009-03-19T23:05:00.009-04:00

My mom always taught me, when life hands you lemons... make lemon meringue cupcakes. Okay, maybe she didn't really teach me that, but today is so gloomy and yucky that I needed to make something to bring a little sunshine into my family's life. And what's better than cake, and lemon, and fluffy, toasted meringue? (I can't think of much else)

Someday I really would love to open another bakery and offer a big line of cupcakes. These will definitely be on the menu because they were so delicious. A little sweet, a little tart.... yum yum yum!

There are three steps to making these. Step 1: The lemon curd. Step 2: Lemon cake. Step 3: Fluffy meringue. You can buy the lemon curd if you need to, especially if you're in a hurry, but the curd *can* be made at least 2 weeks ahead of time and held in the fridge.

In a bowl, put 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks. Make sure you reserve the whites from those 4 eggs in a separate bowl. We'll need them for the meringue.

Whisk the eggs and yolks together.

Zest 3 lemons. I use the small grater on my grate box to do this. Don't zest your lemons too far in advance because these will dry out if left out too long.

Set the zest aside.

After you've zested, juice all three lemons. Set aside.

In a saucepan put the 2 eggs/4 yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice (which should be 1/2 cup).

Turn the burner onto LOW and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. There will be lumps in this but don't be worried. We'll take care of that in a minute.

Remove the curd from the burner.

Dump it all into a fine mesh seive and use the wooden spoon to force it through. This will filter out any of those lumpy egg particles. Make sure you scrape the bottom side of the seive once it's all been pushed through because there will be a lot clinging to it.

Add the lemon zest to the bowl and mix in.

Now take 4 Tablespoons of butter. Drop one piece in at a time and stir as it melts. This will incorporate the butter into the curd, giving it a velvety smooth texture. Repeat until all of the butter has been added. Do not add it all at once. It won't work and will cool the curd off too fast before it all melts in.

Cover the curd with saran. Make sure you let the saran sit directly on top of the surface. This will keep a skin from forming. Put in the fridge and allow to chill.

Now for the cupcakes! In a mixing bowl, put 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temp and 1 cup sugar. Cream until smooth.

Add 3 eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Make sure you scrape down the sides of your bowl too.

In a bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In another small bowl put 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 tsp oil.

Alternate adding the buttermilk and the flour mixture until it's all added.

Scrape sides with spatula.

Zest 1 lemon, and then juice it. Add all of it to the bowl and mix well.

Spoon cake batter into a greased muffin tin about 2/3 full.

Put in a preheated 350* oven for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Pop from the pan and allow to cool on a baker's rack.

When they're finally cool, use a sharp knife to cut out the centers. I removed some of the cake from the "lid".

Spoon some of the chilled curd into the little hole. Put the lid back on top.

Place all of the filled cupcakes on a baking sheet. Time to prepare the meringue.

Remember those 4 egg whites we saved from the curd? We're going to need those. They need to be almost room temperature. You'll get fluffier egg whites if they lose the chill from the fridge.

When the whites start getting frothy, slowly add 1/2 cup sugar while the mixer is on. (You should be whisking on high)

As soon as the sugar is poured in, add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar.

Allow to whip until the meringue has nice, firm peaks.

It'll be like fluffy clouds of goodness!

Put the meringue in a piping bag fitted with a wide round tip.

Pipe onto the the surface of the cupcake. I made it all spikey, but you can pipe it on however you like.

Pop under a broiler for a quick minute, keeping a VERY close eye on them. If you do spikeys like I did, the tips will start to burn so you need to make sure you pull them out before you have a giant fireball of meringue in your oven.

Keep these stored in an air-tight container in the fridge (if they last that long).

This recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_145f8tg4nxk

.orecchiette w/ chicken, spinach, and lentils.

2009-03-19T05:28:00.001-04:00

My husband has been working 12 hour night shifts the past week and a half. He works this 6 days a week and has only one day off. He'll be working these hours until mid April. Yikes. As tough as it is for all of us, it's even tougher trying to work out a good mealtime for us all because when he needs to eat, it's still too early for us girls. It's tough!

This explains why I haven't posted as many recipes, because I've been making my go to meals that I already have posted on the blog. I did try a new recipe the other night and it's one of those perfect meals that you can make in about 30 minutes (give or take).

Orcchiette pasta is native to southeastern Italy that resembles the shape of an ear. It's name actually translates to "little ear". Too cute, huh? I came across a similar recipe for this on a blog and took mental notes of what all went in it. Their version was vegetarian so you can easily keep the chicken out of this dish if you want something lighter for a spring dish... or even a side dish for that matter!

Put 1/2 cup lentils in a small pot and fill it halfway up with water. Bring the lentils to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Let these start cooking before you do anything else. You want to make sure they're cooked all the way.

They should be tender and soft when you bite into it. If they're still a little crunchy, keep cooking. You may need to add more water to the pan if it evaporates too much.

Peel and slice 2 cloves garlic. I didn't mince the garlic this time because I wanted larger pieces so they wouldn't get lost in the dish.

Take 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh baby spinach and roll up as best you can. Take your knife and thinly slice the spinach. They call this slicing "chiffinade".

Slice one onion. Cut the slices in half.

Slice one lemon in half and remove the seeds. Juice and set aside.

Chop a small handful Italian parsley.

Cut up 1 or 2 chicken breast into bite sized pieces.

Take your package of orecchiette pasta and cook according to the directions on it.

Heat 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Saute the garlic, spinach, and onion for a couple minutes.

Add the chicken and continue to cook over medium low heat until the meat is cooked through.

When the pasta and lentils are cooked, drain both and add to the pan along with some parmesan cheese and the chopped italian parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with bread and salad. A wonderful light meal that you can have on the table within an hour. You can't beat that!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_146c6m53fc9

.buttery croissants.

2009-03-16T10:20:00.004-04:00

When I had the bakery, we made a lot of things with or croissants -- breakfast sandwiches, chicken sandwiches... you know.. those types of things. However, we usually *bought* them from our supplier because making croissant dough is a feat and when you're expecting to make a bazillion sandwiches each week, there's just no way to keep up *and* run a bakery.

However, we did make enough croissant dough for our danishes. The flaky, buttery goodness just melts in your mouth. If you would like to try your hand at this, it's not hard... just time consuming! Trust me.. the results are well worth the effort.

First you want to start out by making your dough. I use the same recipe I use for my french bread. It's a very simple dough. Let it rise in the fridge until double.

Flour your counter and roll the dough into a rectangular shape as best you can. Don't roll too thin.

I used only half the dough because we just didn't need that many croissants. If you make the whole batch at once, you'll need to double the butter measurement below.

Take 2 sticks butter (1 cup) and flatten them. I used the palm but you can use your rolling pin.

Place the butter down the center of the dough.

Fold half the dough over the butter.

Then fold the other side over.

Then fold one end up 1/3 of the way.

Then fold the other half over. All cute and snug as a bug. :)

Wrap the dough with saran and put in the fridge.

It's important to keep the dough cold. This keeps the butter from working into the dough too much each time you roll. This gives you those wonderful flaky layers that make croissants sooooo desireable!

After the dough has been held in the fridge for about an hour to hour and half, pull out and roll out again into a rectangle. Repeat the folding steps.

Re-wrap with the saran and put in the fridge. You need to roll and fold another 5-6 times. Wrap well after the last time and keep in the fridge overnight.

The next day, your dough whill be all ready to go!

Unwrap and roll out into a rectangle again.

Cut into triangles. I made my croissants small because we had them with breakfast. If I were using these for danish or sandwiches, I would cut the slices much bigger.

Roll the dough up and bend into crescent shapes.

Make sure you either butter your baking sheet or spray with Pam.

Put in a 400* oven and bake for about 30 minutes. When they are beautiful golden, pull them out and let cool.

Serve with jam.

.southwest burgers.

2009-03-09T08:41:00.006-04:00

It's not often we make our own burgers at home. I don't know why because they're so much tastier than anything you can get out and about, you know? I have had it in my mind for awhile to make these but I didn't have the right hamburger. You need to use a fattier ground beef for this because anything leaner and your patty won't stick together as well. What can I say? Fat holds it all together. :D

For these burgers, I wanted a spicy dressing so I went with chipotle mayonnaise. I put some mayo in the blender with 2 chipotle peppers (it was very spicy so if you don't want it as hot, just use one pepper), a squirt of lime juice, and a little salt and pepper. Puree until smooth and transfer to a bowl.

In a large bowl, mix together 2 lbs ground beef (80% lean), 1/2 cup corn, 1 jalapeno finely diced (seeded), 1 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 clove minced garlic, and a small handful chopped cilantro.

Season with a little salt and pepper.

Take sheets of saran and patty out some of the meat mixture until you've used it all up. I got 5 large patties out of this so if you make them slightly smaller, you could easily get 6.

If you make a lot, you can easily wrap them up and put in the freezer.

Prepare all of your toppings. Leaf lettuce, tomato, and some sweet onion.

Slice up some avocado. It just wouldn't be a true southwest burger without these.

Slice up some pepper jack cheese. I used regular cheddar cheese for my daughter since she doesn't like spicy food. Feel free to use whatever kind of cheese you like best.

Throw your patties in a pan, or on the grill, or on a grill pan like I'm using here. I grilled these for about 12 minutes. 3 minutes on one side. Flip over and grill another 3 minutes. Flip back to the other side for another 3, and then flip one final time for 3. These were perfectly cooked and so moist and delicious.

During the last few minutes of grill time, I threw some onion rolls onto the pan to toast up.

To assemble your burger, put the patty on the bottom bun, put the cheese and avocado. On the top bun, spoon on some of that chipotle mayo, then put your tomato, lettuce, and onion.

Serve with sweet potato fries, regular fries, or chips. (or if you're being good... serve with salad.) Ole!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_147vb9n5sf3

.buffalo chicken salad.

2009-03-06T19:42:00.007-05:00

I have a confession. I love (LOVE) hot wings. It was probably the one benefit of low-carbing (when I low-carbed it) because I would eat them every day for lunch. Mmmmm... Tangy, zesty.. spicy!

I bought a new cookbook a couple weeks ago that offer quick meals and this was in there. I changed it up a little and it was so SO good! The spicy chicken mixed in with the crunchy lettuces, carrots, and celery.. then drizzled with a homemade blue cheese dressing. Nothing quite like it in the world.

I cheated by using the pre-seasoned buffalo chicken strips. If you make your own hot wings and want to take that job on yourself, go right on ahead. The nice thing about this recipe is that it is on your table in 30 minutes. And if you use these? I promise not to tell if you don't tell on me. :D

Bake according to the directions on the package. When it's cooked, pull from oven and cut into bite sized pieces.

Chop up 1 head iceberg lettuce and 1 head romaine lettuce.

Slice up 4-5 stalks celery and put it in the bowl with the lettuce.

Slice 3 peeled carrots and put that in the salad bowl too.

Annnnd add some sliced red onion.

Chop up some tomato and put in a bowl. I don't like adding it to the salad because that tomato slime gets all over the place. Yuck. (Am I strange?)

In a bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 cup crumbled blue cheese, 4 Tbsp white vinegar, salt and pepper, 1 tsp sugar, and 1 clove minced garlic.

This can be made up in advance. In fact, the longer you let this sit in the fridge, the longer those flavors have a chance to marry.

To serve, put a pile of the lettuce/salad on a plate. Sprinkle on the tomatoes (if you like tomatoes) and then put a handful of chicken around and spoon on some dressing.

Easy peasy and very delicious!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_148vp964sg5

Anniversary Cookie Winner!

2009-03-04T12:04:00.003-05:00

Thank you to all who entered. The winner of the cookies is:

Ani Wilson!

Ani if you will please email me your mailing address, I will get them out to you!

.white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

2009-02-27T09:20:00.007-05:00

I have to admit I have a slight addiction to cheesecake. Probably one of the reasons I love going to The Cheesecake Factory. There's just something about that creamy baked filling and the graham cracker crust. I love all variations!

This recipe has melted white chocolate mixed into the batter, and jellied raspberries on top. A delightful marriage. Here's how I made it.

Begin by creaming together 4 8oz packages of cream cheese (softened) and 1/2 cup (1 cube) butter (softened).

Once creamed, scrape down the sides and add 3 eggs. Mix well.

Add 1 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp flour, and 1 tsp vanilla.

Melt 8 ounces white chocolate (use a good quality brand) in a double boiler. When the white chocolate just starts melting, turn the heat off and let the steam finish it off. Pour into the cream cheese mixture and mix well, scraping sides down.

Prepare one graham cracker crust by crushing 1 package (about 2 cups), then adding 2 tsp sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.

Pour the cream cheese mixture into the pan and wrap the entire pan with foil.

The foil will keep water from getting into the pan. Put a baking sheet that has sides in your oven and fill halfway up with water. Place the springform pan in the center. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs in a preheated 325* oven.

When done, the top should be slightly browned. The center should be set and there shouldn't be any cracking on the surface at all.

Allow to cool to room temp then cover well with saran and put in the fridge to chill at least 5 hours, but best if you can let it chill overnight.

Now for the topping. You can use fresh or frozen raspberries. In a saucepan put 1 1/2 cups berries with 1/2 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp cornstarch, and 1/2 cup water. Put on the stove over high heat. Make sure you stir often to keep this from burning.

When it's done, it should be nice and thick. At this time, I added another 1/2 cup or so of berries because the ones I put in the pan originally have cooked down a lot and I like to have some whole berries in there.

Spread out on top of the cheesecake and then put back into the fridge to chill another hour to really let that raspberry topping set up.

When you're ready to serve, use a thin knife and run along the sides to release the cheesecake from the pan. Carefully open up the side of the pan and remove.

Heat a butcher's knife by running under hot water. Dry the blade and slice the cheesecake. This will keep the cake from sticking to the metal when you pull through. Serve with some whipped cream.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_149f782pdf6

.shrimp & sausage gumbo.

2009-02-26T11:58:00.011-05:00

Happy Mardi Gras week everyone! Fat Tuesday was the other night and I had to make gumbo. Love love love it. The first time I ever tried gumbo was when Jim and I were first married. One of the guys stationed on the ship with him was Creole.. he and his wife came from New Orleans. All I can say is holy crap that stuff was hot! LOL And this guy kept adding hot sauce to his bowl! ACK! I don't make mine nearly as hot. I'm sure if you want it spicier, you can dump in more Tabasco, but if you've got people in your home who cannot tolerate too much heat (because there still is some heat in this), add more hot sauce to your own bowl.

There are a lot of variations of gumbo but the ingredients that are a must are okra and andouille sausage.. and you must serve it over rice. Here's my version.

Chop up the following: 1 green bell pepper, 1 onion, 1/2 cup parsley, and 3 celery stalks.

You will also need 2 cloves garlic, minced.

You'll also want to slice up 1 cup of okra. I'm glad I know what okra is, having lived in the south, because they didn't have this labeled at all in the grocery store. In fact, I better check my receipt to make sure I was charged for the right thing!

Slice up about 2 cups andouille sausage. This is a french sausage that is nice and spicy and has a smoky flavor. Cut on the diagonal.

In a stock pot, melt 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) and add 1/2 cup flour. Make sure you whisk as you add so you don't get lumps. This is our roux. Cook it over medium low heat, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn for about 15 minutes.

When the roux turns a nice brown color, add the chopped vegetables and garlic and stir to coat all the pieces. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often to make sure everything cooks evenly.

Add 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 bay leaf, some salt, and 1 Tbsp Tabasco sauce, or any other Louisiana hot sauce. Mix well and cook again for another 15 minutes. The heat will release the flavor of the cumin.

Add 8-10 cups chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover with a lid. Cook for another 30 minutes.

10 minutes before serving, add 1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp (medium to large size) and sausage. Cover and let cook until the shrimp are nice and pink and the sausage is slightly shrunk. It'll shrink a little because the fat is cooking out and all that flavor is marrying with the broth and veggies.

Taste and season again with salt and pepper. Add more hot sauce if you want.

Serve over rice. A true Mardi Gras dish for your whole family to enjoy!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_150g8xs7tc6

.chicken curry.

2009-02-24T19:23:00.008-05:00

My husband has traveled around the globe courtesy of the Navy and one of his favorite things was having curry while on port visits in the middle east. I had tried curry once and wasn't horribly impressed but someone told me when you have bad curry, it's BAD, but when it's good... you will never be the same. Jim used to ask me to make curry for him but I would just turn my nose up at him... eventually he gave up the idea I'd ever turn around.

Then one day we were out for lunch and he ordered curry. I tried a bite and was shocked! It was fantastic and since then sought out a recipe that would compare. After I made this, Jim said it was very close to what he's had in the Gulf. It wasn't spicy because I left out the peppers (the girls gobbled this up!), but if you want it kicked up, add a little Thai chili.

Start with your prep. Peel and slice 2 carrots, julienne 1 red bell pepper, slice 1 onion, and peel and cube 3 potatoes (I used white potatoes).

You'll also want to mince 4 cloves of garlic, and grate 1 Tbsp fresh gingerroot.

In a stock pot, heat up 2 Tbsp oil (you can use chili oil if you want) and saute the garlic, ginger, and 3 tsp curry paste. I used red curry paste. Stir to make sure nothing burns. Work that curry paste into the ginger and garlic.

Add 1 can coconut milk. If you can find a light version of this, go ahead and use it to cut down on the fat content. I had this in my pantry and wanted to use it up.

Also add 2 tsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, and 1 can chicken stock.

I didn't get a picture of this either, but you'll want to thick this a little. So put 3 Tbsp flour in a bowl and whisk in 1/2 cup water until there aren't any lumps. While stirring the sauce in the stock pot, add the flour/water.

Now for the chicken. The best thing to use for curry are the thighs. The meat is so tender and juicy and practically falls off the bone when it's all cooked. So delicious.

Put the thighs in a ziploc and sprinkle in a little flour, salt, and pepper. Shake to coat it all.

Put a little oil in a skillet and heat over medium. Add the chicken thighs and fry on each side until they're nice and golden. Remove from the pan and let sit on a plate.

Then add the prepped veggies and saute until the potatoes start getting translucent on all sides. Season with a little Thai basil. If you don't have Thai basil, use regular. I used about 1 1/2 tsp.

Add the chicken and sauteed vegetables to the curry. Bring to a boil, stirring often, then reduce the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Allow to cook for 20-30 minutes. Season with a little salt.

Serve over rice.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_151d9vg6tsz

.sun-dried tomato, kalamata olive, and feta pizza.

2009-02-15T08:38:00.008-05:00

Yes... we are cliche. We had heart-shaped pizzas on Valentine's Day. I have been craving feta and kalamata olives the past week. At the bakery, we used to make pizza as part of our lunch menu, in addition to salads, sandwiches, wraps, and soup. This was by far my most favorite thing to eat.

The saltiness of the olives with the tanginess of the feta... nestled on baked dough and warmed garlic sauce? Oh man. Can you smell it? (it's fantastic!!!)

Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a saucepan and add 1 clove minced garlic. Saute for a minute.

Add 2 Tbsp flour and whisk. Let the roux cook for a few minutes on low heat. Keep stirring to keep from burning.

Add 1 1/2 cups milk and kick up the heat a little. Make sure you whisk while adding the milk so you don't get lumps. Keep stirring this and it will begin thickening.

The sauce needs to be slightly thicker than a gravy. Season with salt and pepper and I even add a little parmesan cheese.

The main ingredients. Feta (check!), kalamata olives (check!), and sun-dried tomatoes (check check!).

My tomatoes are julienned. If yours aren't, you'll need to slice them up into thin strips. Chop up some olives. Make sure you get pitted olives otherwise you'll have to try and rip the flesh from the pit and chop up. That's no fun.

Take your pizza dough and divide in half or in thirds. Since my family doesn't really like this pizza (read: they hate olives), I made it smaller so it was all mine! ALL MINE!!!

I formed my pizza into a heart shape. Awwww...

Spoon on some of the garlic sauce. Top with the olives, tomatoes, and feta. I also put a little parmesan and mozzarella on top.

As you can see I put a little sprinkle of cornmeal around on the pizza peel. If you don't have a pizza peel, don't worry. Just use a cookie sheet that doesn't have a lip. You do want to use a pizza stone though. You can find them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or if you know someone who sells Pampered Chef, get one of those! They have a better warranty.

If you're using a stone, put it on the lowest rack in your oven about 30 minutes before you start rolling out your pizzas. Turn your oven to 475* and let that stone heat up real good. That's key for giving you a nice crispy and chewy crust. Mm mm mm.

Carefully shimmy the pizza onto the stone once it's hot. Sometimes I have to use a pancake turner to push it off without losing all my toppings. Bake for about 10-15 minutes. The top will be nice and golden brown and your crust should be all puffy and beautiful. Let sit for a few minutes before slicing and eating.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2009-02-14T12:10:00.004-05:00

Hello readers and Happy Valentine's Day. Are you all prepared to start cooking? For easy access to all of the recipes for tonight's menu, here are all of the links to the courses. Each entry has a printable version so you can keep it right next to you.

Course 1

Crab cakes w/ lemon dill sauce

Course 2

Spinach salad w/ blue cheese & toasted walnuts

Course 3

Filet Mignon w/ Madeira sauce and Roasted garlic mashed potatoes

Course 4

Chocolate Souffles

To stay true to this beautiful meal, your table should be set accordingly. Below is a diagram of how to set a proper (informal) place setting. I used two goblets on our table; one for water, and another for sparkling cider. If you're having wine, you'll definitely want a separate goblet for that. ;)

Enjoy your evening and again, I hope you let me know how everything turns out!

.chocolate souffle.

2009-02-12T20:36:00.010-05:00

Ahhhh chocolate souffle...or should I say pure unadulterated pleasure in a ramekin. Oh how I love thee! This dessert recipe is the cherry on top of the cake for your Valentine Dinner. Are you folks ready to start cooking?

Remember, you can do a lot of your prep tomorrow if you have time, that way you aren't killing yourself on Saturday. It is a good thing Valentine's Day falls on a weekend though, right? I really hope if you make this menu for your special love, that you'll come back and let me know how it goes. Deal?

Okay.. back to the pot of pure pleasure. I have to admit something. This is the first time I have ever made a souffle. I guess I've always been intimidated by it and thought they took so much work and time. I couldn't have been more wrong. Seriously. It really isn't difficult. You just have to know what you're doing and that's where I come in. You are going to WOW the socks off your husband or wife if you make this for them. Really. So don't be afraid. Just follow me. :)

Take 4 ramekins and butter the bottom and sides. Dust with regular sugar. This recipe will probably make up to six souffles, so if you have enough ramekins, by all means.. make six!

These ramekins need to go back into the fridge to sit while we make the souffle.

You need to melt 4 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa) over a double boiler on very very low heat. You don't want your chocolate to get too hot. A tip. When the chocolate starts melting, turn the heat off and just let the heat melt it.

Once it's melted, just set it aside for now.

Separate five eggs, saving only 3 of the yolks. You need all of the 5 egg whites so do not discard them. I put my eggs on the counter to warm up a little before starting my souffles. You will get more volume when it comes time to whip.

Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with 1/4 cup sugar. Whisk on high for 3 minutes. At that time, the yolks and sugar will be really pale and fluffy.

Add 2 Tbsp flour and whisk again on high. The mixture will start thickening now. Make sure you scrape the sides of your mixing bowl to ensure everything is incorporated.

I didn't tell you beforehand, but you need to heat 1 cup milk just until it's warm. Do not let it come to a boil. While the mixer is on low speed, slowly add the milk into your egg yolk mixture. Once the milk has been added, turn onto high speed and whisk for a minute.

Pour the entire milk/yolk mixture back into the saucepan and put on a medium burner. You need to stay right on this and whisk getting into the corners because it will burn and try to stick on you. So keep whisking. It will start thickening up a little. Once it starts thickening, REMOVE THE PAN FROM THE BURNER and whisk whisk whisk just to make sure nothing's sticking.

I returned this BACK to the mixer bowl and whisked again on high heat to make sure I had it whipped real good.

Add the melted chocolate and whisk again on high for a minute.

This is your creme patisserie and the base of your souffle. If you aren't quite ready to go all the way with your souffle, then put a sheet of saran over the top of this mix, pressing it to seal tight on the surface of the patisserie. Keep in a warm place.

I'm pretty sure this is how far a restaurant goes with their souffles. Then when someone orders one, all they have to do is fold in the egg whites and bake. Pretty amazing process, I'm sure.

Okay.. ready for the next step? You're almost there!

If you only have one mixing bowl and whisk attachment, you're going to need to move the creme patisserie to another bowl, wash your mixing bowl well and drying it completely, and clean your whisk. You need a very clean bowl to get your whites to whip up.

Put the 5 egg whites in the bowl with a pinch of cream of tartar. Whip on high. When you have soft peaks, sprinkle in 2 Tbsp sugar. Continue to beat until you have firm peaks. Little fluffy clouds of goodness!

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate. This will lighten up the base. Add the remaining whites and quickly fold in before they deflate. If there are striations in the batter, it's okay.

Pull the ramekins from the oven and ladle the souffle filling into each one. Fill just up to where the lip flutes out.

Put these into a preheated 400* oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes are up, pull these from the oven. Make sure when they're baking that you don't open the oven for any reason. The egg whites give the souffle the lift and bouyancy that make this dessert so spectacular and so indulgent.

Dust lightly with cocoa or powdered sugar. If you want to serve this with a little whipped cream or ice cream, go right on ahead.

So is it as intimidating as you think a souffle appears to be? If you can whip egg whites, or make a cream pie filling, you can make these! I know I'm not scared anymore. I even have a recipe for a lemon souffle that I'll have to try sometime.

Thank you to all of you who are taking this Valentine dinner journey with me. I hope you have much success and I hope the hearts and stomachs of those you love are filled this holiday weekend.

Love,

Suzanne

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_138fs7zw8dh

.roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

2009-02-10T22:30:00.002-05:00

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes are my husband's absolute favorite food. If it's on the menu as a side, he'll order it. I make them from time to time. I go through garlic so fast that I have to mentally remember to buy an extra bulb when I'm at the grocery store. These will take a little extra time, but the results are well worth it!

If you're making these for your Valentine dinner, make them and hold in a low temp oven until you're ready to serve your main course. The potatoes can be peeled and chopped, then held in a bowl filled with water. Just keep the bowl in the fridge. This is a big time saver because peeling potatoes is a task. If you have teenagers or tweens in the house, enlist them to help you with this!

To make the roasted garlic, take a length of aluminum foil and fold in half. Cut off the top of your garlic bulb using a chef's knife. This makes it easier to get the pulp out once the garlic is roasted.

Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Twist up the edges. This locks in the steam and flavor. Put in a 400* oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

Pull from the oven and unwrap. Let this cool down a little bit before you try squeezing otherwise you will have hot burning magma of roasted garlic on your hands and you'll be crying like a baby.

Now to extract the roasted garlic, just squeeze from the base of each clove pod. See how it squirts right out the top? You can make this roasted garlic up ahead of time and keep in a little airtight tupperware container in the fridge.

Peel and cut up enough yukon gold potatoes as you need. Here's Paige mid karate chop! She is such a great helper.

Once you've got the potatoes cut, fill the pot with enough water to cover all of the potatoes.

Put the pot on a high burner and boil until the potatoes are fork tender.

Drain the potatoes in a colander. While the potatoes drain, heat 3 Tbsp butter and 1/4 cup milk in the microwave.

Put the potatoes and all of that delicious roasted garlic in a mixing bowl and whip on high for 30 seconds. Don't over beat because it will over work the starch in the potatoes and they'll become very rubbery and glossy. If that *does* happen, add a little more milk and it should correct itself.

Season with salt and pepper and then mix again just until everything is smooth.

Transfer your potatoes to an oven safe bowl, cover with foil and put in the oven to hold (*if you're making this for the Valentine dinner).

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_139fxpjxfdd

.crab cakes.

2009-02-10T10:08:00.001-05:00

I have to admit that I was never a big fan of crab cakes. I know! What's wrong with me? It's probably been in the last 3-4 years that I have actually grown to love them. I have even gotten over my fear of mustard... but only enough to use it in this recipe.

There is no wrong or right way to make a crab cake. There are a bazillion different variations out there. If you have a tried and true recipe, then stick with that one. This is one I have used quite a lot and we like it well enough. Serve with a lemon-dill cream sauce (not pictured).

Begin by making the bread crumbs. What I do is set 5 slices of bread on the counter. Let them sit out for at least 5 hours. It's better if you can let them sit overnight to dry out.

You can make these a couple of days in advance. Grate and put in a ziploc baggie.

If you have a food processor, break the bread apart and pulse away until they're "crumby". Otherwise, you have to do it the old fashioned way like I do and use a box grater.

In a blender, put 2 Tbsp parsley, 1 Tbsp red bell pepper, 1 Tbsp onion, 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper, 3 egg yolks, 1 tsp Tabasco, and 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard.

Blend blend blend. With the blender still on, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup olive oil.

Transfer the mixture from the blender to a bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup sour cream.

I like different layers of flavor and texture. I put 1 lb lump crab meat (blue crab is the best, but any will work well, except for king crab), a little chopped parsley, a little minced red bell pepper, and a little minced onion. Basically the same stuff I put in the blender, but this gives the crab cake some texture.

Dump in the aioli mixture and stir everything together.

Dump in 2 cups bread crumbs and mix everything together well.

I don't have a picture of me making the cakes because my hands were all gunked up. Not too difficult to figure out though. Just patty up some crab, then coat with the remaining bread crumbs. Put on a baking sheet.

Put these in the fridge and let firm up for at *least* 1 1/2 hours. It's better if you let them set up more than that though. They will be a little firmer before frying.

Melt 4 Tbsp butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Carefully place your crab cakes in the pan and fry for 4 minutes on each side.

Super blurry picture. Flip and cook on the other side.

What I did was fry them up and then put in a low temp oven on a plate while I fixed the rest of the meal.

If you're making these for your Valentine dinner, I highly suggest you do it like I did above. You'll want all of your meal ready and held in a warm oven. That way all you have to do is pull things up to plate as you need to.

I didn't get any pictures of the lemon-dill sauce. Here are the directions:

Lemon Dill Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp capers, drained

1-2 tsp fresh dill, chopped

2 lemons, zested and juiced

Mix all of the ingredients together and put in the fridge to set. Can be made 1-2 days ahead of time.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_137gsvd49gz

.filet mignon with madeira sauce.

2009-02-09T22:48:00.007-05:00

*rubbing hands together*

I have to tell you all, this steak was FANTASTIC! The filet was so tender, you could cut it with the side of your fork! The only bad thing? We were so full from eating salad and crab cakes we could only eat a very small bit of our steak and potatoes before we had to stop. LOL

If you don't have a grill, or it's just too cold to grill, you can use a skillet. I bought a grill pan for this and it worked great.... except for the stupid $200 Viking hood that ISNT HOOKED UP. Yep. I turned on my fan but as soon as I put the steaks on, the house started smoking up. I checked and there is no vent tubing taking the SMOKE OUTSIDE. So I need to contact the builder and have him come fix that. What a nuisance. Grrrr... but the steaks were fabulous and the Madeira sauce was the perfect companion for the meat and potatoes. I know you will agree.

You really do need to use Madeira wine. You will not get the same flavor if you use something else, but if you really need to use something different, I suggest a port. Port wine reduction works for steak, right?

Put 1 1/2 cups Madeira wine and one chopped onion in a saucepan. Turn on medium to medium high heat. Let this cook down.

See how reduced down that is? Doing this intensifies the flavor and the alcohol cooks out. It has now been infused with the onion so there's a lot going on here. Once it gets to this point, turn the heat to very very low.

Once the Madeira has reduced, put 3 Tbsp butter in a skillet and saute up 1 cup mushrooms (can be omitted). Saute until they are nice and brown.

Sprinkle 2 Tbsp flour over the mushrooms and cook the flour for a minute, while whisking.

Now pour in 1 1/2 cups beef stock. This will begin thickening up almost immediately. Make sure you keep whisking so you can work out any lumps. After a minute, pour in the Madeira reduction.

Taste and season with salt and pepper.

At this point I transferred the sauce to an oven safe bowl, put a piece of foil over the top and held in a low temp oven to stay warm.

Remember when cooking steak... let it sit out for about 30 minutes before grilling. This relaxes the meat, which ensures it will be very very tender. Again, we're using Filet Mignon, which is pricey, so make sure you don't destroy it by overcooking.

Before putting on the HOT grill, I seasoned well with salt and pepper. I did put a little oil on the pan before putting the steaks down to ensure they don't stick.

Grill on one side for 3 minutes, then flip over and sear the other side for 3 minutes. Then flip *back* over, putting it on another diagonal to give you criss cross grill markings. Grill again on that side for 3 minutes, and repeat for the other side. That should be enough for a perfect medium rare steak. If you want your steak done a little more, then cook a little longer on each side.

When these were done grilling (and all the smoke was cleared out of the house. LOL), I put them on a plate and held them in the oven to "rest" and stay warm.

Serve with a helping of roasted garlic mashed potatoes and put some of that delicious Madeira sauce on top. Visual presentation is just as important as flavor, so when plating, stick a little sprig of fresh thyme in the mashed potatoes (see picture at top). You will really impress your Valentine with all your cheffy skills!!!

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_140hc3fdvc9