Black Eyed Peas, Pork, and Eggs

Thank you Lenore for the Black Eyed Peas!!! 

I can not tell you how happy I was eating dinner tonight.  We had Pork Chops the other night and there were leftovers. I had boiled the Black Eyed Peas and froze them when my sister gave them to me. Tonight I took the defrosted Black Eyed Peas and sauteed them in some olive oil and added the chopped up pork. Seasoned with the usual salt, pepper, crushed red pepper. In other pan I fried up the eggs. Oh this was so good! And the best part is I still have more Black Eyed Peas in the freezer!!

An Open Faced Calzone

This was just supposed to be a pizza but then I added some ricotta and realized it was more like a calzone than a pizza. I used up the left over Sausage and Peppers. And added some of my sister's tomatoes. A little bacon, some basil and cheeses and voila! A darn good dinner. It was more of a fork and knife pizza than usual but the flavors were spot on! Did I hear someone say this was delicious? I am sure I did!

The Taste of Summer

I love steak cooked on the grill.  This steak was grilled perfectly! The corn was from Cole's Farm Stand. It is the best corn in our area. The tomato salad was a combination of tomatoes from my sister's garden and some from my friend Kelly's garden. Both of these gardens have produced lots of veggies. More of their vegetables will be featured throughout the week. 

The tomato salad was simple. Tomatoes, some cucumber, olives, fresh Mozzarella, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, olive oil and champagne vinegar. Light and refreshing. 

Vegetable and Chicken Chow Mein

When I was little my Mom occasionally tried Chinese recipes. That is when the La Choy products starting showing up on the grocery shelves. My Mom's Chinese dinners were good but they always tasted Italian. Tonight's recipe is from Food & Wine and the flavors were not Italian. They were pretty close to take out. I had some leftover chicken from yesterday's roast chicken which I added to the dish. For veggies, I picked up some bok choy and my sister gave us some zucchini. I followed the recipe below, but of course, did not add garlic. This was a hit.


Vegetable Chow Mein, from Food & Wine (with my changes) -

Ingredients-
8 ounces yellow Chinese egg noodles
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, minced 
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 zucchini, sliced
1/2 medium bell pepper, seeded and sliced

Method-
Cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Rinse under cold water, drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and water. Set aside.
 
Heat the oil over high heat. Stir in the garlic, onion, and ginger. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the garlic and onions are soft and fragrant.
 
Stir in carrot, zucchini and bell peppers. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
 
Add the noodles and sauce mixture. Toss everything together until combined and heated through about 2 minutes. Serve hot.

Our First Margherita Pizza

I have never made a Margherita Pizza until tonight. When your husband brings home the most delicious tomatoes from Coles Farm and your basil plant is busting with leaves what else can you do? I stopped at Bishop's for some fresh mozzarella and headed home. I took pizza dough out of the freezer this morning. I believe I could have eaten the whole pie myself. Just ask my friend Heidi about my college days, it can be done. I was an adult about this and only had 3, okay maybe 4 pieces. The tomatoes are the best ever!!!

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.

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!

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!

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 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!