Ft. Lauderdale!

That's right I am visiting my niece in sunny and thankfully hot Florida!

She made a great lunch of bruschetta's with 2 different toppings. One was olive paste (homemade), tuna and artichoke hearts and the other was a Caprese. She made a fruit salad with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries with a dressing of mint, basil and homemade limoncello! Everything looked so nice. Photos will be posted at a later date.

Kielbasa and Pretty Peppers

My husband made dinner tonight. Sautéed orange, red, yellow peppers and shallots with kielbasa and a side of rice. The peppers were so bright and colorful. A little mustard and we were enjoying a good meal on a rainy night.

Green Beans Part 3

Part One was the steamed green beans with dinner of Saturday night. Part 2 was last night. I made a Potato and Green Bean Salad to go with our Turkey Burgers. And tonight is one of my favorite dishes that my mom use to make. Marinara Sauce, Green Beans (which were steamed last night) and Poached Eggs.

You can use what ever type of marinara you have on hand. I had some in the freezer. I added the beans and heated it to a near boil. Dropped the eggs in one at a time. Covered the pan and reduced the heat to medium low. The eggs poach in the sauce and they took about 10 minutes.

Yesterday I made a stuffed bread out of whole wheat pizza dough and filled it with Prosciuotto, sautéed Zucchini, Provolone and Fontina cheese. It was prefect for dunking in the sauce.

Another nice meal you've gotten me into...

Saturday, July 19, 2009That is what Ollie meant to say to Stan in the Laurel and Hardy films. Well it was a nice meal. A perfectly cooked porterhouse steak, as much as I prefer veggies I do enjoy a good steak. We made Grilled Herb Shrimp to accompany the steak. I got the recipe from Tomatoes on the Vine blog. The marinade was wonderful. For a vegetable we had Pete's Green Beans! This is the same person who supplied me with all that fantastic broccoli rabe a few months ago. The beans were steamed and served with a little butter and salt and pepper. We kept the prep easy by using Kohinoor Rice Treat - Steamed Basmati Rice as a starch. And we had a bottle of Salento Rosso Notarpanaro 2000.

One word: Zhang's

Appetizers - Scallion Pancakes, Crab Rangoon and Shrimp and Cucumber Rolls.
Dinner was Ma Po Tofu, which is tofu, peas and scallions in a spicy sauce. It is my new favorite dish at Zhang's. There is a large black cat sitting between me and the keyboard making this blog post impossible to continue...

Grilled Balsamic Chicken

My husband was home first and made a delicious meal. I took chicken out of the freezer this morning and when I walked in to the house tonight I was greated by a dish with roasted corn, grilled onion, red peppers and Grilled Balsamic Chicken. The chicken was marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. We had an organic red wine, Ladybug Red, which was the first "organic" wine we had tried and it was quite good.

"Wow this is good"

And yes it was good. Not sure what to call this dish. It started out as a Sausage, Fontina and Bell Pepper Strata from the June Bon Appetit. As I was making this I was also preparing to make Baked Macaroni. As I stared at the pasta boiling I thought why not just combine the two dishes. My husband was very happy that I did. The Fontina cheese made it gooey and the flavor from the scallions was a nice addition. Obviously I did not use the bread the Bon Appetit recipe called for. Here is what I did -

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cups sliced green onions
1/4 cup finely grated Romano cheese
1 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound hot Italian sausages, casings removed
1/2 large red bell pepper, halved, seeded, cut into
1/2-inch wide-strips 1/2 Pasta, elbows or shells, cooked according to package directions
1 cups (loosely packed) coarsely grated Fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter ceramic or glass loaf baking dish. Whisk first 6 ingredients in large bowl; sprinkle generously with pepper. Set aside. Place sausage in large nonstick skillet; push to 1 side. Add bell pepper to other side of skillet. Sauté over high heat, breaking up sausage with fork, until sausage is cooked through and bell peppers are brown in spots, about 7 minutes.

Arrange half of pasta in prepared dish. Pour half of egg mixture over. Sprinkle with half of cheese, then half of sausage-pepper mixture. Repeat layering. Bake 45 minutes to an hour.

Chicken Triangles and Salad

So I had this ground chicken. I had no idea what to do with it. Someone at work brought in the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. I found this recipe for Chicken Triangles. Pretty easy to make and very tasty.

Filling-
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 pound ground chicken
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
4 sliced scallions
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
3 tbsp minced fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Phyllo Layers -
1 pound phyllo, thawed
olive oil, for brushing the phyllo
salt and black pepper

For filling:
1. Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, breaking the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix the feta, egg, scallions, olives, mint, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne together in a large bowl. Stir in the drained chicken. (Filling can be refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 24 hours.)
3. For Phyllo Layers: Adjust 2 oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Unwrap and unfold the phyllo and carefully smooth it with your hands to flatten. Cover the phyllo with plastic wrap, then a damp kitchen towel. Brush a phyllo sheet with oil, season with salt and pepper, then top it with a second sheet and oil that sheet as well. Cut the sheets length-wise to make two 4 1/2 inch strips.
4. Place a generous tablespoon of filling on the bottom left-hand corner of each strip. Fold up the phyllo to form a right-angle triangle. Continue folding up and over, as if folding a flag, to the end of the strip. Repeat with the remaining sheets of phyllo and remaining filling, arranging the triangles, seam-side down, over 2 parchment-lined baking sheets as you work.
5. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My husband made the delicious salad. And I got some squash flowers from someone at work. Got in too late tonight to to anything with them, so we added them to our salad. Perfect.

How about lunch?

A wrap made with grilled eggplant, goat cheese and tofu. Seasoned with salt, pepper and my favorite herb - thyme. Unsweetened ice tea to drink. Simple and fresh.

Oh by the way the tomato in the background of the photo is from that plant I picked up in May at the Farmer's Market.

Vegetable Frittatta

Last week I went to see Star Trek (the best movie I have seen in a while... since Wrath of Khan!) and the theater was near the cooking store. How convenient. Anyway I picked up a new Frittatta pan. It is great! I made a frittatta with zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, onion, potato, fresh parsley and thyme. For the cheese I used fresh mozzarella and ricotta salata. Added squash flowers on top. It was quite good. We made wrap sandwiches out of it.