Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Fried Dinner!


This recipe is from a post from 2018. The original recipe was from Bon Appetit. I added a few ingredients this time. We had no leftovers. And it took less then 30 minutes and there were very few dishes in the sink. Winner, Winner!


To a saute pan with heated olive oil add the thinly sliced potatoes. clear a space in the center of the pan ad place sliced Italian bread. I did 2 at a time while the potatoes were frying.  Cook until both sides of the bread are browned. Remove the bread to a serving dish. At this point I added chopped onion and shallots. I sauteed them for about 2 minutes adding some chopped Swiss Chard, obviously rinsed and de-stemmed. Cook that down until it wilts. I added 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. 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.

Did I mention there are no leftovers! I think I saw someone eating Swiss Chard...

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Frittata with Squash Flowers and Proscuitto

Disclaimer this is something I made for my lunch at work this week.

But isn't it pretty!
A simple frittata, only 3 eggs, salt, pepper, parmesan, parsley, squash flowers, and Proscuitto.
Even if I eat my lunch at my desk it will be delightful!

On the dinner side of things, we had grilled Swiss Steak. I used a marinade that consisted of -








Saturday, July 18, 2020

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Zucchini Flowers two days in a row! It is not like we eat this all the time. Yes, tonight I made Fried Zucchini Flowers again but this time they were stuffed. I had the batter leftover from last night's dinner. I used a recipe for Bon Appetit for the stuffing. I only made enough for 4 flowers. I used about 3 tbsp Ricotta, one mint leaf that was chopped up, some lemon zest, salt, and pepper. I served them with a side of sauce. They were not bad but I do like plain fried flowers better.

Burgers and Potato Salad. The burgers were from Ferraro's. The Potato Salad was a recipe from the box that contains recipes I collected when we were first married.

Tonight we had Classic Potato Vinaigrette Salad. There was no notation of where the recipe was from. But I know why I saved it! Delicious!

Classice Potato Vinaigrette Salad (makes 3 cups)

Ingredients-
1# new potatoes
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp oil oil
2 tbsp minced shallots
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method-
Boil potatoes in salted water, just until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain Cool slightly. Dice.
Whisk vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk in oil. Add shallots & warm potatoes. Cool.
Stir in celery and parsley.

Friday, July 17, 2020

Uncle Art's Recipe for Fried Squash Flowers

Today I had a much-needed vacation day. I went fabric shopping with my sister Lenore. She came over with a beautiful bouquet of squash flowers from her garden.

When Chris and I were first married I worked as manager of an ice cream store that was very close to where my Godparents lived. Once and a while I would get a call my Godfather, Uncle Art, asking if I could stop by on my way home from work. He had something for me. I love my Aunt and Uncle and I would do anything they asked of me. I would pull up to the house and my Uncle would pop out of the kitchen and give me a greasy paper bag. It was filled with Fried Squash Flowers. Oh, the aroma! Oh, the grease! I would eat the whole bag while I drove home. Ah, memories.

Fortunately, I had asked my Uncle for his recipe. Here it is-

 
The batter-


 The flowers ready for the batter, remember to remove the piston.

 Frying-

 Sprinkle with salt as soon as you remove the flowers from the oil!!!!!


This was a perfect vacation day dinner! 
Yes, that is fresh corn on the cob from Cole's Farm Stand!




Monday, July 13, 2020

Rocco's Meatball Pizza

Well not exactly. We purchased a 6 pack of frozen pizzas from Rocco's Off Wooster.

 This past Friday, we of course had pizza from Rocco's for dinner. 
As part of our "new normal," we also order Mickey's Meatballs. 

 So we had the meatballs and the pizza.
 Put them together and voila! Easy Monday night dinner.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

BLT and Basil Tabbouleh

Basil Tabbouleh. Another recipe from the box. This one was from Good Housekeeping, July 1997.

Ingredients -
3/4 cup fine bulgur, rinsed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1/3 cup minced fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped scallion (I did not have this to add to the salad)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup finely diced seeded cucumber
1 cup finely diced seeded tomato

Method- 
In a bowl put the rinsed bulgur and 3/4 cup boiling water. Let it sit for 1 hour.
While the bulgur is soaking, Mix all other ingredients together. Drain the bulgur in the sieve, pressing hard to extract as much water as possible, add it to the bowl with the dressing and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and toss the salad well.

The BLTs were perfect. We used a small tomato from our plant on the deck. The other tomato was from a farmstand.

Today I did some prep for this week's dinners.


Stuffed Zucchini. Stuffed with ground beef and quinoa.

 I made enough to put a batch of filling in the freezer.

 
Fried Peppers and onions to go with grilled sausages.

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Fireman's Cut Steak

These steaks were very large. We could have split one but what fun would that have been. Chris ordered some meat from Ferraro's this week. He brought home lots of stuff including these steaks. He did an easy and really all you need to do prep on them. Let them come to room temp. Dry them completely and season with salt and pepper.
They were grilled perfectly. We each ate less than half of our steaks. I see a salad with steak appearing sometime this week.

Friday, July 3, 2020

Pasta and Bread

I am very happy that it is Friday night. What a week.

I am typing this as I am wearing a knee brace. It might be a sprain or it might be a torn muscle. Stay tuned...

This dinner was all about comfort food. My favorite homemade pasta recipe, thankfully already made and in the freezer. The zucchini was thinly sliced and sauteed in olive oil and butter. I saved a cup of the pasta water and put the cooked pasta in the pan with the zucchini. Added more butter and parmesan cheese. Slowly stirring the pasta to mix and adding the pasta water as needed. It is basically the Fettucini Alfredo recipe I make with sauteed zucchini added.
The bread was a gift from Mary Capazzo. Her husband is Mario of Mario's BEST Breads.  This was perfect for dinner. The crust was crunchy and the bread was absolutely delicious.