Roasted Red Pepper Potato Soup

My mind is totally blown that I have not posted this Scott family standby to the blog yet.  This recipe is from Cafe Bernardo--a restaurant I worked at in my college days in Sacramento--it comes with a helping of Nostalgia! This soup is easy, comforting and we return to it at least twice a year.  If you like mashed potatoes, you'll like this soup. It can be adapted to a vegetarian diet and/or lightened up (ex: use milk instead of cream, half the butter) in a pinch. I usually serve it with a spinach salad and some buttered rosemary bread on the side.

Roasted Red Pepper Potato Soup

1 red bell pepper
5 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
5 cloves of garlic
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
2-3 medium carrots, chopped
2 quarts chicken stock, vegetable broth or water
1 cup hot cream
1/4 cup butter
Creme fraiche or sour cream (optional)

Roast the bell pepper by placing under the broiler or over an open flame (like a grill) until the skin is blackened on all sides.  Place pepper in a sealable plastic bag and seal top and letter pepper steam for 15 minutes or until the skin can be slipped off. Remove pepper from bag, peel off skin and remove seeds.  (You could also buy the bottled roasted pepper but I found the flavor to be a little thinner with the bottled stuff.)  Cut pepper into strips.

Place pepper, potatoes, garlic, onion and carrot in a large pot and add stock or water.  Cook over medium high heat until potatoes are sofft. Add cream and butter.  Puree in a blender, food processor or use an immersion blender to process until very smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream.

Crockpot Parmesan Garlic Chicken With Orzo

A student I used to work with exposed me to the "How Sweet It Is" blog and I have been going semi-crazy with trying recipes.  This past week I pulled out the crockpot--which is kind of counter-intuitive for summer--but wanted to try and easy chicken dish that would also yield good leftovers.  Oh, and I wanted it to also be semi-healthy after living off of leftover pizza and cupcakes from Bjorn's birthday party last week.

Enter: Crockpot Parmesan Garlic Chicken With Orzo.

Best part about this recipe is that it requires you open a "dry white wine" with which to marinade the chicken and also to place in the crockpot.  This, of course, does not make use of the whole bottle--so I got a "nice" (ie, above 9 dollars) bottle and had one of my first glasses of wine post-Elsa after putting together all the ingredients.

The verdict:  I thought this recipe was ridiculously easy, made the house smell delicious (if you like the smell of garlic, and if you don't--we need to have a talking to), and was pretty good to eat, too.

Some tips:

• Make sure to get and or grate the "finely grated parmesan"--it is pretty essential for the marinade not to have the shredded type.  
• I mixed the orzo with brocoli like the pictures told me to do even though they said "vegetable of choice".  Brocoli is so easy and also went well with this combo, I thought. 
• I think you can add more orzo and less chicken if you're into that kind of thing.  We are and used a little more than a cup of orzo and only used three chicken breasts instead of four.  

WS Old-fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits

Megan is probably out of buttermilk by now but I'm contributing Williams-Sonoma's (from the Complete Outdoor Living Cookbook) old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits recipe because it's good enough to go back to the store to buy more buttermilk.  This recipe is super easy, especially if you use the food processor short cut.  Serve these slathered with butter and honey and scrambled eggs on the side.

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chilled (COLD) unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425.  In a bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.   Using a pastry blender cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles  coarse meal.  (Or, in my case dump the flour mixture and butter into the food processor and blend a few times until it resembled a course meal.  Then put back into the bowl for the addition of buttermilk.)  Pour in the buttermilk and mix quickly with a fork until just blended. Do. Not. Overwork. Turn out lightly onto a floured work surface and knead the dough briefly until it just holds together.  (I use wax paper sprinkled with a little flour to make clean up easier.)
2. Shape the dough into a circle about 8 inches  in diameter, about 1 to 1 1/4 inches think.  Cut into biscuits with a biscuit or cookie cutter, or a glass (I use a 3 inch diameter drinking class).
3. Arrange the biscuits about 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake until golden brown and puffy, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cook on baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Rich Buttermilk Waffles (Or How to Utilize Leftover Buttermilk)

Remember when I made an Olive Oil Blood Orange Cake?  Yeah, well all of a sudden I found myself with more buttermilk in my fridge than I had ever had there before.  (When you start with never having  buttermilk in your fridge, this is not that difficult).

Anyway--I decided to try buttermilk pancakes this weekend to use it all up.  Then I remembered that Lars (and Bjorn?) actually don't like pancakes.  They are waffle purists.  Strange.  So, even though the recipe I found involved separating eggs and beating egg whites to firm peaks (gawd), I decided to appease the boys in my life.

This is the Mark Bittman Rich Buttermilk Waffles recipe that I halved since--despite eating for two and having a toddler who has seemingly grown six inches in the past week---we just can't eat four servings of waffles first thing in the morning.  

I was very happy with how they turned out.  I was a little skeptical since I don't ever recall being that involved with eggs and my sordid waffle-making past; but it wasn't that difficult to separate and just beat the egg with a whisk instead of using an electric mixer.   I can't say I would go out of my way and buy buttermilk explicitly to make this recipe again--but if I ever have leftover buttermilk in the house (the rest of the ingredients are pretty much staples),  it will be a go-to weekend recipe.

Smitten Kitchen has also adapted the Bittman recipe for posting on her website.  Also looks to be a case of leftover buttermilk.

California Chopped Salad

Another recipe circa my Cottage cookbook.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'm doing something illegal by posting it on here.  Am I?

We had our neighbors Bobby & Tina plus their adorable near-one-year old Emma over for a very spontaneous dinner last Friday night.  I was able to whip up homemade spaghetti pretty easily (its one of those back-pocket recipes you can go to in a pinch--you all have one, I know you do!) but I figured I should gussy up a salad of some kind.  This one looked easy, although I won't tell you how disappointed Lars was on a scale of 1-7 that there was no croutons.  I mean, it was off the charts!  Boy loves his croutons.  That said, our neighbors kept saying how good it was--and this should not really be that big of a surprise considering the delicious (and somewhat unhealthy?) ingredients.  Hey--it had garbanzo beans.  I get a little health street credibility for that, right?

CALIFORNIA CHOPPED SALAD
Ingredients
1.5 head of romaine lettuce
1.5 cups Caesar dressing (we used a FRACTION of this.  Restaurants always drown their salads in dressing, don't they?)
1 plus 1/2 cup chopped salami (I felt like this was totally an unnecessary ingredient if you are a veg.  It is not a bad addition; just not integral to the salad being delicious).
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts (we used non-marinated from a can.  Still good).
1 cup chopped mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 cup garbanzo beans drained
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup shredded parmesan (we omitted this ingredient although there was fresh parmesan on the table that people were informed they could sprinkle on their salad if they'd like).

Instructions
Wash and dry the lettuce and chop into small pieces.  In a large bowl, toss the lettuce with the salad dressing, 1 cup of the chopped salami, the artichokes, mozzarella cheese, olives, green onions, and garbanzo beans.  Divide the salad among four serving dishes.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the chopped tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of remaining salami on each (we did not do this whole divide and conquer step--we just threw everything together and tossed it up! although I will say adding the dressing to the lettuce before all the other ingredients was a very helpful step).  Sprinkle each serving with parmesan cheese and enjoy.

Boy do I use a lot of parentheses.   I wish I had taken a photo of this salad.  I thought it looked v nice when all was sad and done.  I was proud!

Chicken Jerusalem

This has been a recipe I have been eyeing ever since 2008. That's right--we're approaching on five years of me eyeballing a recipe and never making it. Having our friends over for a cooking party seemed like a good time to try it--especially since my cooking criteria was "artichokes" and this recipe had major artichoke potential! Apparently artichokes; olives; and all things brine are what floats my boat this pregnancy. Also I like oranges (see previous post).

The recipe is from the Cottage in La Jolla. We added more artichokes (!) and less chicken. Because that's how we roll. Also, we just used jasmine rice because it was what I had and I didn't really want to deal with wild rice. The effect was that, when plated, it looked pretty putrid. But it was still quite good. I would recommend figuring out how to add some parmesan or a little bit more salt because it was a little more mild than I had anticipated...

CHICKEN JERUSALEM
Ingredients:
1.5 cups wild rice (or Jasmine or white rice if you're me!)
2 whole chicken breasts skinned and boned (I just used plain chicken breasts because skinning and de-boning anything terrifies me)
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped (we didn't use marinated hearts--but I don't think you were supposed to. In hindsight, I wonder if this would have given it a little more flavor).
4 tbsp chopped shallots
1 cup white wine
2 cups heavy cream

Cooking Instructions:

Cook the rice according to the package directions, set aside and keep warm. Slice the chicken breasts into 1-inch strips. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and pepper. In a medium saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and add to the saute pan. Cook until brown. Add the garlic, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and shallots and cook for 3 minutes. Add the wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Add the heavy cream and simmer for 5-7 minutes.or until the sauce starts to reduce and thicken. Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if desired.

Presentation note: 
This dish is served nicely if you arrange the rice around the side of the plate and the Chicken Jerusalem in the center of the dish. If you only use white rice, its just going to look like a giant blob of white/artichoke color on your plate so be warned! Maybe a sprinkling of some nice herbs like italian parsley or a colorful garnish would liven it up a bit.

Blood Orange Olive OIl Cake

The citrus in the markets is overwhelming now, no?  I go to Trader Joe's or Meijer/Kroger (midwest regional grocery-store shout out.  Hey!) and I'm just blown away by the cuties; clementines; heirloom naval oranges (YES, PLEASE and THANK YOU).   Our house is a cornucopia of citrus right now.  I just can't get enough.  

...which leads me dessert on Saturday night.  Lars and I were hosting our good friends Danielle & Garrett from East Lansing.  These are my Michigan cooking friends.  We invite them over and then try new recipes--by "we" I mean Danielle and I.  Garrett and Lars eat chips and salsa and play indoor hockey and/or trains with Bjorn.  It all works out, you know?  On the menu for Saturday was Jerusalem Chicken (a la The Cottage Cookbook) and a kale salad.   Both turned out well--but my real triumph for dinner on Saturday was a Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake from the Smitten Kitchen blog.  

The finished product.  Aren't blood oranges beautiful?  

Oh, man.  I felt like such a champion when I inserted the knife into the middle after 55 minutes of hand-ringing baking and it came out clean.  Bonus--it tasted amazing (at least to me!) and blood oranges are beautiful.  

Ingredients I have never cooked with before include: blood oranges & buttermilk (true story!).  

Cooking techniques I have now learned/attempted:  Supreming an orange. 

One thing I regret is not making the compote even though I had all the ingredients!  At the end of the night and after cooking for an hour and a half; the last thing I wanted to do was make another mess in the kitchen.  Cake + vanilla ice cream sounded divine.  Although the compote (especially the part where you mix in the honey) sounded amazing.  Another time.  

I have a bunch of leftover buttermilk in my fridge.  Think I'm going to try homemade buttermilk pancakes at some point this week.  Because I'm a domestic diva.  

Our Favorite from 2012...

Was Cooking Light magazine's Vietnamese Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wraps.  If you don't do pork, never fear! We tried the marinade with chicken and it was just as awesome.  The bright flavors of the lemon grass, pickled carrots and herbs is pure happiness.  Although the ingredient list is pretty lengthy, it is easy to make, especially if you have two plus sets of hands to help (hooray for 9 year olds who can wash and dry lettuce leaves and measure).  A few other notes:
1. Double everything to use up more of the produce, and triple the pickled carrots (some without jalapenos for the kidss and double jalapenos for adults!).
2. This makes a great "leftover" salad on day two.
3.  It's best on the grill to get the charred edges but we've made it with the oven broiler and it's still very good.  
4. Perfect for a summer Saturday dinner (or all year round in Florida), open a bottle of sauvignon blanc or riesling or a lager to compliment the meal.

ok ladies, it's a new year.  that means we all need to get cooking (and blogging!)   ha!   cuz none of us are busy, right?   right.

so over my well-deserved and well-utilized ten day vacation from school and work, we did a lot of cooking. well, baking, mostly.  you know, to go along with all the eating.

my parents had a sleepover on Christmas Eve, so I wanted to make something fun for breakfast the next day.   enter....the lemon ricotta tart.  so good.  so, so good.  even Emma had 3 slices!

oh, and PLEASE don't be intimidated by the make-your-own-crust.  seriously, it's dummy proof.  and the herbs are key.

photo source: Reading My Tea Leaves

herbed crust recipe
1 cup of flour (plus more for rolling out the dough)
1 stick of cold butter (8 tablespoons), cut into pieces
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of salt
a few tablespoon cold water
a healthy handful of fresh chopped herbs. i used sage, oregano, and thyme, because that's what i had.

pre-heat the over to 350. using a pastry blender (or fork, or food processor) blend together butter, flour, salt, sugar and herbs until the consistency is crumbly and none of the butter pieces are too big.  using your own two hands, form the mixture into a ball, adding cold water by the tablespoonful to combine.  place ball of dough into a waxed paper bag (or whatever you use for wrapping) and flatten into a disc with the palm of your hand.  pop the dough into the freezer for ten minutes, or into the fridge for longer.  when it's chilled, remove and turn disc onto floury surface to roll out.  use your tart pan as a guide and roll into a circle large enough to fill the pan and its edges.  pre-bake for ten minutes or so if you're of the persuasion that likes things done right.

filling (adapted from carolyn cope's recipe)
1 cup of ricotta
1 cup or so of chopped garlic scapes (hard to find here, I used green onions instead)
zest from a lemon
a handful of thyme
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a smallish-sized bowl and whisk with a fork to combine.  pour mixture into your pre-baked tart crust and cook for 30 minutes, or until the middle of the tart has set and the pastry is thoroughly golden. serve hot or cooled.

if you haven't had your fill of garlic scapes, make pesto.

hide N seek muffins (kid friendly cooking)

I recently picked up this book - part of the Moosewood family of awesomeness.   It's designed with short, simple recipes that kids can make - with a little parental support.  There are illustrations for the kids to read, and nothing we've made so far requires ingredients we wouldn't already have on hand.

We went strawberry picking yesterday, so naturally we wanted to find recipes that could incorporate the FIVE POUNDS of strawberries we have.  We picked "Hide N Seek Muffins" which is really just a basic (if bland) muffin mix where you shove a sugared strawberry into the middle.   They tasted pretty good - we garnished them with some vanilla greek yogurt - but more than that, they were fun to make together.  Pardon the hasty iPhone pics, but it's all I use these days!

 

Definitely recommend the book if you have a kid who loves helping in the kitchen! 

Directions & Ingredients:  
*** My only modification to this would be to GREASE the muffin papers before pouring the batter in.  They were a bit hard to take off.  

Black Bean Lasagna Rolls

...Nonni is in town. We eat well.

Black Bean Lasagna Rolls

Prep: 25 minutes. Cook: 30 minutes
Yield: 8 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese
1 (4 ½-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
½ teaspoon chili
8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
2 cups canned and drained black beans
Vegetable cooking spray (i.e. PAM)
1 (151/2-ounce) jar salsa
Fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine first 5 ingredients, stirring well.
2. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain well.
3. Spread cheese mixture over one side of each noodle. Spoon black beans evenly
over cheese mixture. Roll up noodles, jellyroll fashion, beginning at narrow ends.
4. Place lasagna rolls, seam sides down, in an 11 x 7 x 1 ½ inch-baking dish located
with cooking spray. Pour salsa over rolls. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30
minutes or until heated thoroughly heated. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Make believing it's wintery outside

It's been a pretty mild winter--even by Floridian standards.  For the last week, temperatures have been in the 80s and the humidity and bugs are already breathing down our backs.  BUT...last night...last night...the temps fell all the way down to the 40s!  To celebrate I made this delicious vegetarian soup: Barley and Lentil Soup with Chard (or Kale in our instance).  It's easy, super healthy with all the veggies and low in fat but still very filling.  This recipe makes a lot of soup but looking over the reviews it freezes well.

At the farmers' market last weekend, the girls talked me into buying a bushel of zucchini. A week later and we're all sick of zucchini so I started hunting for ways to make something less zucchini-y but still used zucchini.  And I found this: Chocolate Zucchini Mini-Muffins.   I made all sorts of substitutions and our take on the recipe is below.  The girls were skeptical, especially when I subbed in applesauce for some of the oil (zucchini AND applesauce? AND chocolate? AND orange zest? No frosting???....EWWWWW!!!!!"  Have I mentioned that their acquiring reading skills often makes life more complicated, especially when it means reading rude graffiti on Costco shopping carts and freaking out when you start to play fast and loose with a recipe.)  But the muffins turned out delightfully and with a lot less fat and calories than the originals.  

Lighter Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup of coconut oil (melted and cooled)

1/4 cup of plain applesauce

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

2 1/4 cups shredded zucchini

Zest (finely grated) and juice of 1 orange

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

11/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 -1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (depending on how chocolatey you want them)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease standard muffin pan with nonfat cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, applesauce and 2 teaspoons of the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each, then add the buttermilk. Whisk in the zucchini and half the orange zest.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, whisking to aerate. Stir half the flour mixture into the egg mixture, then the other half. Fold in the chocolate chips and distribute the batter evenly into the muffin tins.

4. Bake on the center rack until springy but firm to the touch and lightly browned around the edges, about 22 minutes. Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then remove and let cool completely.

Clare's Soup (..or Kielbasa & Cabbage Deliciousness)

...as I mentioned on the "anything goes" blog, Clare is a woman who used to work with my mom. A long while ago she gave us a recipe for this kielbasa & cabbage soup that is so easy and so good. We always called it Clare's Soup so I am continuing the tradition here. It is wonderful with warm buttered sourdough and a little bit of parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. I think it might actually be ridiculously healthy, too.

Ingredients:
1 medium head cabbage
2 medium carrots, cut into ½ inch slices
1 (10 ounce) Polish sausage, cut into ½ inch slices (we use Turkey Kielbasa for this)
1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
4 cups of chicken broth
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine onion, cabbage, carrots, sausage, tomatoes, sugar, stock, allspice, paprika,
and salt and pepper to taste in a 4-quart non-aluminum pot. Bring to boil. Simmer,
covered, until carrots and cabbage are tender, about 20 minutes. Adjust seasonings
to taste.

Cranberry Relish

There is a good chance I have posted this before--but it bears repeating in the days before Thanksgiving. Also, I wanted to test out my new iPhone camera and pretend I was the Pioneer Woman or Deb from Smitten Kitchen.

We've been making this for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. Its been a Thanksgiving staple for me and my family. I understand there is a time and place for canned cranberry sauce--but it should not be on the Thanksgiving table because this is far superior in most every way imaginable. Despite this--I am always "battling" with the canned stuff whenever I go to Lars' family's. Don't even get me started. Don't ask me to bring cranberry relish and then have discs of canned cranberry crap on the table. BITTER? ME? No...I'm as sweet as homemade cranberry relish.

So simple and so good.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 cups sugar (you can make this less sweet if you like--I usually only put in about a cup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 12 oz package (3 cups) cranberries
• 2 medium pears (cored & cubed--2 cups)
• 1/2tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 4 inches stick cinnamon

COOKING DIRECTIONS
Bring sugar and water to boiling in two quart saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil rapidly, uncovered, 5 minutes

Add cranberries, pears and spices. Return to boiling. Cook 3-4 minutes or until cranberry skins pop, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Cover and chill. Remove cinnamon before serving. Store for up to a week in the fridge.

Here's the finished product. If I had my act together I would post it in a beautiful white bowl but you get it like this.

Comfort Me With Chicken Pot Pie (Palos Verdes Style)

I realize that the legitimacy of a chicken pot pie recipe from Palos Verdes is a little circumspect (what do people in Palos Verdes know about comfort food for crisp fall weather and cold winter nights!)...but this recipe will make a believer out of you. Its a little bit of a twist on the traditional chicken pot pie, in that you bake biscuits within and on top of the "pie" in lieu of the pie crust. Comfort food at its finest and perfect for winter weather. Or summer weather if you're Kate and you live in San Francisco. Ginny--I don't think you're allowed to eat chicken pot pie in Florida-might be illegal so you should check with local ordinances. So, really, this recipe is for Erika--my cold weather doppelgänger. We got our first dip into 20 degree weather last night so its very appropriate to post this now.

Recipe here--I give it 5/5 "Noms"

PALOS VERDES CHICKEN POT PIE (Serves 4)

Pie Filling

• 8 teaspoons butter
  
• 8 teaspoons flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup diced carrots, peeled
• 1 cup green peas
• 4 chicken breast halves, skinned, cooked and diced (or a roast chicken from the market)
  
• ¼ teaspoon thyme (so important--love the flavor this adds)
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

Biscuit Dough

• 1 ½ cups of flour
• 2-teaspoon sugar
• 1-teaspoon salt
• 2-teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1-cup milk or half and half
  

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Melt butter in a medium pan and stir in flour. Stir in broth and cook over low heat until mixture is smooth and thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in carrots, peas and chicken. Add thyme and season well with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Prepare Biscuit Dough: Place flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in bowl and stir to mix well. Cut in butter until crumbly. Add cheese. Pour in milk and stir briefly until batter is sticky and holds together.
4. Spoon half of chicken mixture into buttered 2 quart casserole. With spoon, drop half of dough over chicken. Cover with remaining chicken mixture and top with remaining dough.
5. Bake until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

Slow Cooker Masala Chicken

We all know what a deal breaker is, right? Its something you can't live without. I feel as though my ultimate relocation deal breaker would be proximity to a Trader Joe's. Somehow, its become the only place I shop. I don't know how--but I've just discontinued my weekly trips to the more traditional grocery stores, do the bulk of it all at TJs, and occasionally pick up some items at Target or Kroger (Ralph's equivalent).

That said--I found this excellent/easy recipe for slow cooker chicken masala which uses the Trader Joe's simmer sauce as a base. Its kind of cheating--but kind of not. We're all incredibly busy, right? Why not let TJ's ease our cookies woes if only for a little while.

The recipe can be found HERE--but the pictures don't do it justice. I mean--it looks wrong. But it tastes so right. For mine, I actually did not add that much half & half and I did add some red pepper flakes to up the heat index. Also, I just made regular old rice with butter and mixed in some peas for the base. Lastly--I bought some Trader Joe's frozen Naan bread and ate that on the side. Delicious. Plus you just kind of throw everything into the slow cooker and let it go. I love this.

Shrimp with Avocado-Mango Salsa

This was a very easy, quick meal and healthy too. It was pouring outside so I used the broiler setting in the oven and the only mis-hap was using a silpat to line the baking pan.  Turns out, Silpats+broiler=FIRE; so I advise against using a silpat in this recipe.

Also, toddlers + cous cous=GIANT MESS.  Be prepared to spend more time cleaning cous cous off the floor than cooking.  I generally wait until it's dried (about an hour) and it's much easier to sweep up.

Shrimp with Avocado and Mango Salsa

Vegetable oil cooking spray

8 cups baby spinach

1 cup couscous

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt,divided

1 large mango, peeled and diced

1 medium avocado, diced

1 medium tomato, diced

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/2 jalapeño chile, seeded and finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Heat grill. Fold four 18-inch-long pieces of foil in half; unfold and coat inside with cooking spray. Place 2 cups spinach in center of 1 half of each piece of foil. Combine couscous with 1/4 cup water; divide evenly among packets, placing on top of spinach. Combine shrimp, 1/4 cup cilantro, oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Divide shrimp evenly among packets, placing next to couscous. Fold foil to close and crimp edges to seal; place on grill; close lid; cook until packets are fully puffed, 10 minutes. Combine remaining 1/4 cup cilantro with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, mango, avocado, tomato, onion, jalapeño and lime juice in a bowl. Carefully cut foil to open; stir contents; garnish with salsa before serving.
(Source: Self Magazine, via www.epicurious.com)

Mediterranean Lentils and Rice

So here is a vegetarian recipe that I enjoyed. I wouldn't say it made it into our top ten but it might be a contender with a few additions (mainly some form of protein for the husband). It was very easy and healthy! Plus it made the house smell FANTASTIC (thanks, cinnamon).

PS--Who swapped out the layout? I lava it!

Mediterranean Lentils & Rice
(serves four)

Ingredients:
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup dried lentils, sorted for stones nad shriveled lentils and rinsed
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (I had chicken broth on hand and this is what I used instead--no harm no foul).
1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes undrained
2 more cups low-sodium broth
1 cup uncooked rice
1/2 cup of water
1/3 cup dried currants or raisin (I would actually recommend MORE of these--they're so flavorful and when all was said and done, I wished there was a higher ratio of them in the dish).
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne. Cook for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft.

Stir in the lentils and first two cups of broth. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients except the feta. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes--or until the rice and lentils are tender.

To serve, sprinkle with feta.

Taming the Beast--Conquering Cravings for Mexican Food in the Great Lakes Region

So--now that I've conquered fish tacos-it was time to think about shredded beef. Now there's an introductory line if I ever wrote one.

I love love love shredded beef in Mexican food. I've made it a couple of times before but I've never been able to make it as wonderful as it is in some of the B-Grade restaurants/shacks in San Diego. Fear not, my friends--for I have found a recipe that I made last night and it was so good (and sooooo easy with a little bit of planning). Searing a giant chuck roast at 8am is not my idea of a good time--and this is before I had my coffee!--but it was worth it in the end.

Here it is.

It makes a lot (I made it for 6 adults and we still had quite a bit of leftovers)--so would recommend making it for a large group or being prepared to eat tacos or some variation of tacos for a while after making the meat.

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Earl Grey Buttercream Frosting

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Earl Grey Buttercream
Makes about 15

For the cake:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder*
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 bags of earl grey tea, just the leaves (tea bag tea leaves are finer, so stick to bags)


For the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tbsn. lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons of earl grey tea leaves

Preheat oven to 350 F. Fill a cupcake pan with liners. Beat the butter until creamy, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure that they are incorporated thoroughly. In a bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients, including the tea leaves. Next, add half of the dry mixture. Add the milk then the remaining flour, stir until combined. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, rotating halfway to ensure even baking. Let cool completely before frosting.


For the frosting, cream the butter until nice and smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Next, add the lemon zest, lemon juice and tea, making sure it is well incorporated. Frost and enjoy.

*I had read that these cupcakes have a tendency to sink in the middle. So I actually doubled the baking powder amount to 4 tsp - to no avail. They still sunk in the middle, and had a slightly extra tart flavoring - probably from too much BP. If you have any ideas about the sinking, please share! :)