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Impromptu dinner for company
2007-08-01 03:28:00
I didn't have company, I was the company for once! Ben and I went to his mom's house tonight, and though we actually helped prepare most of the dinner, it was only because she was busy assembling our wedding invitations. A good trade, if you ask me.Anyway, no real recipes here, I just wanted to share how easy it can be to throw together a quick dinner for company. Because, this wasn't really planned, and just sort of happened last minute, and despite that, you can still have something homemade, healthy, quick, and delicious. I will say, a fresh herb garden helps!We enjoyed some grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts, which were marinated for about an hour in cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, garlic, tequila, and a bit of canola oil. I sliced the chicken breasts and arranged them on a platter with sliced mangoes, and garnished with more chopped cilantro.The vegetables were seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and cooked in a basket on the grill. Since my parents were als...
More About: Dinner , Company , Compa , Prompt

Platinum Chef Challenge - Round 4
2007-07-30 21:13:00
I know I've been slacking lately, but have no fear, Round 4 of the Platinum Chef Challenge is on! The deadline for this round is August 13, and as a reminder (and for all the new participants!) here are the rules:*Current host will choose 5 ingredients for the challenge*Participants must create a meal using those ingredients*The meal can consist of 1 or 2 dishes - so you can use all the ingredients in one recipe, or make two. Ex. main dish + side, appetizer + main dish, main dish + dessert, etc. But, if more than one dish is created, each dish must use at least two of the ingredients (and, any ingredient may be repeated and used in both dishes if desired).*You can add whatever other ingredients you like*The event will run for two weeks at a time*When you've decided upon and prepared your dishes, please post pictures and recipes in your blog, link to this post, and send me an email at platinumchefchallenge@gmail.com. (if you don't have a blog, please send pictures and recipes anyw...
More About: Halle

Sunday brunch with friends
2007-07-30 03:19:00
Last night my friends Katrina and Matt tied the knot. Congrats, guys! In the morning, we had some of our other friends over for a cure-the-hangover brunch. I'm not sure if everyone's headache went away, but it was tasty! I made a spinach, feta, and tomato frittata and hashbrowns. Kate brought over fruit salad and mini bundt cakes. No recipe here, surprise surprise. To make the hashbrowns, I cut up some regular white and sweet potatoes and boiled them for about 10 minutes, then drained and cooled. Meanwhile, I sliced up some onion and bell pepper and started sauteing those in some melted butter. I threw in some chopped garlic after a few minutes. I then added the potatoes to the pan, drizzled with some olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and fresh chopped rosemary. I cooked this over medium heat for about 10 more minutes, until everything was browned up. The only problem was, I made too much! Luckily, Kate oh-so-graciously offered to take them home and serve them up...
More About: Friends , Brunch , Sunday

Iggy the Lush
2007-07-29 03:11:00
Now, here's a cat I can be friends with! I know this is totally not cooking related, unless you count the drink mixing, but I just had to share these pictures of Iggy . Iggy belongs to my good friends Kate and Jim. Really, I am NOT a cat person, but I love Iggy! He's cute and playful and friendly, and to top it off, he loves his martinis! No wonder we get along so well :)
More About: Lush

Platinum Chef Challenge Round 3 Wrap-Up
2007-07-25 03:52:00
I'll start with a confession. Here goes - I am a terrible hostess. I did not participate this round. It's not that I didn't want to or intend to, but things have just been so crazy these past couple weeks, I never had enough time to polish off my ideas, nevermind actually have time to buy the ingredients and make the dish(es). I'll tell you would I probably would have done if I had the time - peaches poached in port wine and honey, and some kind of Asian inspired shrimp dish involving peanut butter and green onions.The good news is, those who participated more than made up for my lack of involvement, coming up with some delicious dishes involved honey, peanut butter, wine, seafood and onions. Let's check them out out...Tara, aka The Cooking Fiend, made a Crunchy Noodle Salad involving all of the ingredients in one dish! It looks so colorful, delicious and refreshing - a great summer meal.Where I was stumped by the wine (pretty much because the other ingredients were all making ...
More About: Platinum , Chef , Challenge , Round , Wrap

Sunday cooking, and somewhat Presto Pasta
2007-07-23 02:37:00
Reason #345348098 why I love the weekends: time to cook, even when it doesn't feel like it, and even when you are exhausted from the week. Reason #707890370 why I love the weekends: feeling like it's ok to enjoy a few extra calories. With those ideas in mind, and with my sage and rosemary both begging to be used, I spent some time getting to know my kitchen again. Let's just say, we haven't been that intimate lately! What goes better with sage than buttery, orange-fleshed winter squash? Not much, in my humble opinion. And since it's been a few weeks since my first entry to Presto Pasta Nights, I decided to try my hand at Pumpkin Gnocchi in Sage Cream Sauce with Toasted Pecans.I've never made gnocchi before and really did not know what to expect. I based my recipe off of this one here, using canned pumpkin puree to make my pasta even more presto. I added a dash of nutmeg to the mixture for depth of flavor. However, I found I needed more flour in the mix to make a workable dough...
More About: Cooking , Sunday , Cookin , Some

A near-disaster, averted
2007-07-21 02:34:00
Cooks can be divided into two categories when it comes to stuffing chicken: those who cut a pocket in the side, and those who pound out thin and roll. Tonight I learned that it's best to stick to your own kind. You see, I am a pocket cutter, but I decided to try rolling tonight. What a disaster! My pounding seemed to totally destroy the chicken , making it all funny-shaped, shredded, and un-even. And I didn't even think I was pounding that hard. I tried my hardest to roll it up with sliced mozzarella and fresh chopped basil, but it just wasn't happening! Not even toothpicks all over seemed to hold it together. At this point, everything else was prepped and ready to go but I had no other chicken thawed out and I couldn't think of any way to salvage this pounded out disaster of a chicken breast. So what to do? Call Benny! He hadn't arrived home yet, so I asked him to stop and get some chicken, preferably the kind that is already pounded out thin. Wow, this stuff was great! Sudden...
More About: Disaster , Vert , Aster

Teriyaki Turkey Burgers / WHB
2007-07-18 03:23:00
Another nod to ground turkey, could you be any more versatile?! Lately, I don't even have any of those summertime cravings for a real beef burger because I've been getting so much satisfaction from my turkey burgers. I've already gone southwesters with cilantro turkey burgers, Mediterranean with my Greek turkey burgers, and Italian with my pesto turkey burgers. Tonight brings us somewhere into Pacific, perhaps, with teriyaki turkey burgers! All these different herbs going into the turkey burgers also make them a great example for Weekend Herb Blogging, this week hosted by The Chocolate Lady from In Mol Araan. For these turkey burgers, I originally planned on just using cilantro, but seeing my basil plant getting so large and *gasp* neglected, I decided to throw some basil in as well. After all, I have had the pleasure of tasting basil in some Asian-style dishes, and though that usually happens to be Thai basil, I figured that the Italian kind would work ok too. Besides, I could n...
More About: Turkey , Teriyaki , Burgers , Riya , Urge

Thai Chicken Wraps
2007-07-17 00:54:00
Mmmm. We love Thai . We love chicken. We love wraps. What's not to love? Oh, it's pretty quick and easy too! I got this recipe from a friend of mine on a message board, and the original recipe was actually for Thai chicken fajitas. I was immediately intrigued by the sauce, which contained both apricot preserves and peanut butter. It's pretty much guaranteed that Ben will flip over anything involving peanut sauce. I chose to serve the filling in low-carb lavash wraps instead of tortillas, to save some calories. Alongside our wraps we had some stir-fried snap peas seasoned with Chinese 5-Spice powder and a dash of soy. And the best part was, I made just enough filling to have leftovers the next day for lunch! Here is my adapted version of the recipe.Filling:3 small boneless, skinless chicken breastssalt & pepper4 cups Broccoli slaw mix (1 package)1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced2 green onions, cut in 1 inch chunks1 can chopped green chilies2 TBS chopped fresh mintwraps or tortillas ...
More About: Chicken , Wrap

An updated classic
2007-07-12 02:59:00
For the longest time, I did not like eggplant parmesana. Give me any eggplant any other way and I'd eat it though. When I was younger, my favorite preparation was eggplant sauteed with peppers and onions in a spicy tomato sauce over pasta. And because my brother would only eat eggplant parm and NOT my pasta, my mother would have to make eggplant both ways, some sauteed for me and some breaded and baked for him! Over the years I have learned to like eggplant more, and even as eggplant parm. The best I ever had was at a work potluck, made by an old Italian guy. The slices were tender and smokey, gooey slices of melted cheese, tomato sauce bursting with fresh flavor, and the best part, no breading! In my opinion, this really allowed the other flavors to shine. When I came across a recipe for Grilled Eggplant Parmesana in this month's issue of Gourmet magazine, it went straight to the weekly dinner menu. I love grilled eggplant, so I was really excited to try this! I made the recipe ...
More About: Classic

Another summer salad night
2007-07-11 02:57:00
Tonight we had a dinner from Cooking Light which I have been meaning to make for a while. Kate recommended it, so I knew it must be great! It was the Fiery Thai Beef Salad . It calls for flank steak which I finally had on hand, and it was a late, hot evening which required a simple, quick dinner. Ben even started preparing it while I was still on my home from the gym - score!Kate did tell me that the salad needed a little something, but she wasn't sure exactly what. I figured with all that heat, it needed something sweet, so I went with diced mango. I also had leftover jicama from the night before, so I figured that a little extra crunch in the salad wouldn't hurt. The dressing was delicious and the combination of flavors was great. However, I'm just not sure that this nice cut of steak is really necessary here. Flank steak is one of my favorite cuts, however, it doesn't particularly shine here; I think something cheaper like a lean top round might work too. Also, the recipe does...
More About: Summer , Night

The hunt for blueberries
2007-07-10 03:25:00
This past weekend, we went up to Maine to see my brother in a summer theater company show. (Great job, Jared!) Wouldn't you imagine that driving through Maine one might come across a blueberry stand? I mean really. It is supposed to be THE place for blueberries! Well, we couldn't find any fresh blueberries to take home, but we did enjoy a slice of blueberry pie with a scoop of blueberry ice cream. We also returned to a wonderful breakfast place we went to last year, the Wild Blueberry Cafe in Ogunquit. Last year when we visited, they brought warm, fresh blueberry mini-muffins right over as we sat down. Apparently it's a limited offering, though, because we were told that they ran out before we arrived. We didn't get blueberry pancakes, but Ben did get another Maine specialty - lobster benedict.Well, I guess everything happens for a reason, because though I returned home a little sad without any blueberries, I was delighted that my local supermarket was having an incredible sale ...
More About: Hunt

After years of searching... Jicama comes home!
2007-07-10 03:20:00
I'm not sure what is so special about jicama, why I couldn't find it for years and years in the grocery store. Maybe I just don't shop at the right ones. The only place I have ever eaten jicama is in the Barbecue Chicken Salad from California Pizza Kitchen, but ever since then I've always kept it in the back of my mind as something to look for. Jicama is also known as a Mexican potato, though it's very low in calories and has a slightly sweet taste. You can eat it raw, and on it's own it doesn't have too much flavor, but it does add a wonderful crunch and texture to salads. I decided to make a grilled corn and jicama salad to go with our grilled tuna. I don't have measurements, but here's what I did:-squeeze a lime into a bowl and season with chili powder and cumin-remove husks and silk from a cob of corn, spray with evoo and brush with lime juice, reserving remaining lime juice-grill corn till tender, in foil, removing foil for the last few minutes to let it char a bit-pee...
More About: Home , Years , Searching , Year , Ears

Bread: The Semi-New-Fashioned Way
2007-07-07 04:13:00
Believe it or not, people actually made bread before bread machines came into existence. And tonight taught myself how. I had some buttermilk left over from the red velvet cake, and I did not want to make anything like muffins or scones or other baked goods which Ben and I could really do without, as we already had our share of splurges for the week. So, I decided to make a loaf of bread. We actually don't eat much bread either, but I figured I could slice it and freeze and it save for the weekends, when we will occasionally make some toast or something. Brea d is one of those things that sounds a little intimidating - when you first look at a recipe, the kneading might seem like somewhat of a pain and getting the rising times right could be a little daunting. And if you've never worked with yeast before, that might also sound a little strange. Well, fortunately, food processors or stand mixers take out a lot of the work, as do kitchen timers. This is why I am calling it "semi-new-...
More About: Semi , Fash