Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Fried Dinner


Another under 30 minute one pan meal. This a quick thrown together variation of a recipe from Bon Appetit which I would have made but I was missing an ingredient.


To a saute pan with heated olive oil add sliced Italian bread. Cook until both sides are browned. Remove the bread to a serving dish. Add more olive oil to the pan and add chopped Swiss Chard, obviously rinsed and de-stemmed. Cook that down until it wilts. You can add about a 1/4 cup of water and cover the pan for a few minutes. Uncover the pan and add a small drained can of chickpeas and saute for a couple of minutes. Uncover the pan and add one or two sliced hot dogs. Cook until the hot dogs have crispy edges. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, and crushed red pepper. Put this mixture on top of the bread on the serving dish. Add a bit of butter to the pan and fry a couple of eggs. Place the eggs on top of the chard mixture and dig in.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Unstuffed Zucchini Pie


This started off as Stuffed Round Zucchini. I thought it would be cute, perfect for Instagram, and a tasty meal. But then I rethought the idea. I decided to not stuff it but make the dish into a pie.


Easy prep work. I cut the zucchini as if it was an apple being sliced for a pie. I sauteed chopped onions and then added the meat, cooking it through. I chopped up some of the slices of the zucchini and added that to the pan. Seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, basil, and some parmesan cheese. I put that aside and wiped out the pan. Adding more oil to the pan I sauteed the zucchini slices.

The meat mixture went into a pie dish and it topped the filling with the zucchini and a sprinkling of cheese. Into a 375˚ oven for 20 minutes. Delicious!

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Pasta cresciuta con zucchine


I saw this recipe on the Memorie di Angelina site. I made half the recipe. If I had made the whole recipe we would have eaten all of them. Visit the Memorie di Angelina site and try this recipe. You will be so happy you did!

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Frozen Vodka Gimlet Pie



This is as good as it sounds. Wow! I do like Vodka Gimlets but this is a whole different ball game. I made individual pies. Six in total. Next time I will make one large pie.

Frozen Vodka Gimlet Pie


6 Graham Cracker pre-made pie shells


1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar


1/4 tsp. kosher salt. divided


3 1/2 tbsp chilled heavy cream


3 limes, zest removed and put aside


7-oz. sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 Tbsp. vodka

Whisk heavy cream in a medium bowl until cream begins to thicken to the point you see ripples and stiff peaks begin to form, 3–5 minutes.

Cut 3 limes in half and juice into a fine-mesh sieve set over a glass measuring cup (you should have about 1/4 cup juice). Pour lime juice into another medium bowl and whisk in 7 oz. condensed milk, 1 1/2 Tbsp. vodka, and 1/8 tsp. salt until smooth.

Fold half of the whipped cream into lime juice mixture, carefully folding under and over while turning the bowl. Add remaining whipped cream and continue to fold until no streaks remain.

Pour in filling. Gently spread filling to edge of crust.

Sprinkle the lime zest over the pie.

Freeze pie at least 8 hours, or preferably overnight.

This is a variation of a Frozen Margarita Pie found on Bon Appetit. I just prefer this one!

Friday, July 6, 2018

Friday Night Pasta

I am sure could come up with a more clever title to tonight's post but I can barely believe I even made dinner. This week my co-worker was on a much-deserved vacation.  That left me to do her job and mine. Dear God. I feel like I should buy her flowers on Monday welcoming her back. When I got home tonight I had a Vodka Gimlet, thank you Chris, and stood in front of the refrigerator and decided what to make for dinner. There was leftover grilled zucchini and sausage from last night. There were some sliced salami and a small zucchini. The recipe came together quickly.


I diced an onion and sliced the small zucchini. The saute pan was heated up with olive oil and the onion and zucchini were added. I seasoned the pan with salt and pepper. I added a knob of butter, and about a 1/4 of a cup of white wine. Next, I tossed in sliced salami and the grilled zucchini and sausage. I added chopped fresh parsley and fresh oregano.

Meanwhile the homemade, yes homemade, pasta was cooking in salted water. Disclaimer: I made pasta on Sunday and froze it!

I added the cooked pasta to the saute pan along with about 3/4 of pasta water. Some cheese, crushed red pepper. Adjusted the salt and pepper.

We had a hit. It was delicious. The sauce was just spicy enough. All we needed to add was a couple of glasses of wine.

Happy Friday!


Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Happy 4th of July


Burgers and Potato Salad. First burgers on the grill for this year. Delicious.

The Potato Salad was really pulled together as I stood in front of the refrigerator. I boiled red-skinned potatoes along with an egg. Potato Salad needs a hard-boiled egg. After the potatoes were cooked and drained I tossed them with olive oil and champagne vinegar. I added diced carrots, celery, scallions, the hard-boiled egg, and parsley. Salt and pepper and a knob of mayonnaise. Just enough to coat all the ingredients. The taste was, and this is quote, "This is not bad."

The burgers were a recipe we made a few years ago. They were delicious!!! Juicy Steakhouse Burgers. Click here for the link to the recipe.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

I Will Have My Usual, #6

Damn. What the hell! I blinked and spring was done and gone and now it is like Florida in August. My sister is in Ft Lauderdale with her family this week. The weather is hotter here than there! When I got out of work I noticed a few missed call from Chris. There was an email from him that suggested we have Jersey Mike's instead of the scheduled Fettuccini with Capers, Prosciutto, and Tomatoes. I had to agree. I opted for the #6 in a wrap instead of on a roll. Trying to keep it light. Score one for the heatwave.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Fattoush with Chicken



Another recipe from the Binder. Middle-Eastern Bread Salad (Fattoush) with Chicken. I do not even know where this recipe clipping is from. Maybe Better Home and Garden but it could have been Women's Day. I made this when we were first married, 26 years ago. Tonight I added Breaded Chicken Cutlets, yes those Chicken Cutlets, to the salad. I made the Chicken Cutlets yesterday while I was baking the Calzones. We are experiencing something of a heat wave. Not really a wave, more of a slap in the face. Oppressive heat. So the key is to keep the oven off if possible. When the oven is on you make good use of it.

When I posted this week's menu, tonight's dinner did not receive an overwhelming response. But I knew it would be well received and it was. Did I see someone going back for thirds!!! Oh, that was me!

Middle-Eastern Bread Salad (Fattoush)

Dressing Ingredients-
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp dried mint
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Salad Ingredients-
3 pita bread, split, toasted and torn in 1-inch pieces
6 cups assorted salad greens
1/2 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1 small red pepper, cut into bite-size pieces.
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 ounces fetta cheese
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

Method-
Whisk dressing ingredient in a large bowl.
Add pita and remaining ingredients. Toss to mix and coat. Serve immediately.




Sunday, July 1, 2018

Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzone




Again tonight we go to The Binder for our recipe. This time from the February 2006 Bon Appetit. Wow, my Mom was still with us when I saved this one.  The recipe called for refrigerator pizza dough. I had homemade dough in the freezer. And instead of goat cheese, I used mozzarella and provolone.

We loved this calzone. It was a nice change from the ricotta filled calzone we usually have.

Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzone, My Way

Ingredients-
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces)
4 slices of provolone cheese
2 ounces prosciutto slices, chopped
pizza dough, I used 1/2 of a batch of the Jim Lahey's recipe
Extra-virgin olive oil

Method-
Position rack in the middle of oven; preheat to 425°F. Toss first 3 ingredients in medium bowl. Season with pepper. Divide the pizza dough into two equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a circle. Mound filling on lower half of dough, leaving a 1-inch border on sides. Fold upper half of dough over. Crimp edges to seal to form half-circle. Pierce the calzone tops with a fork. Bake until puffed and brown, about 18 minutes. Brush with oil. Transfer to a platter and cut into 4 pieces.