Waking up Max....

Tonight's dinner was technically a side dish, but there are lots of times that we just increase the servings a bit and turn it into a main meal instead. We usually do this when the recipe makes a fair amount, so by doing this we can still try the recipe instead of having a ton of leftovers.

Macaroni Salad with Gorgonzola caught my attention as I would have never thought to include some of the ingredients together. The pasta I used was Barilla Plus and found the texture to be very palatable. I was surprised how much I liked the crisp and tart granny smith apples in the salad. Lots of different textures from the smooth dressing, crunchy walnuts and al dente pasta. Chopped arugula lends a peppery bite against the tang from the dressing. Crumbly rich gorgonzola is sprinkled on top and brings sharp bites of flavor throughout. To bulk the dish up a bit, I served it over a bed of tender baby greens.

We had to snap a picture this morning when Max was just waking up and sitting infront of the blinds. He just looked so calm and ready to go back to bed! Somedays I only wish he was this mellow all the time!

Does anyone plan on watching Top Chef tonight on Bravo? I have TiVO set up to record since it doesn't show until 12am here - hopefully it is a bit better than the other reality cooking shows.

Recipes
Macaroni Salad with Gorgonzola

Another batch of treats for the co-workers

As you know, Tuesday is the day where I bake something for Jeff to bring into the office for Wednesday Treat Day. I went browsing through some cookbooks and magazines for something a bit different and gave Jeff a couple different options. He picked a good one to try!

Whole Wheat-Date Bars requires some pre-planning as there are a couple steps where the dough needs to sit in the refrigerator for an extended amount of time. A combination of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour form a cookie base over a smooth date filling. The dates are first softened in apple cider so they can be easily pureed in a food processor. The crust has a hint of lemon, is nutty and firm enough to keep the filling from squishing out when you eat them.

These bars have a wholesome taste but the sweetness from the dates balances the wheaty flavor.

The side dish for dinner tonight was Toasted Coconut Rice. Cardamom is first toasted in a dry pan and then coconut is thrown in to get a bit of color. Garlic is then lightly browned in some olive oil, followed by the rice to allow it to toast before adding the liquid. The flavors are enhanced quite a bit which makes these extra steps worth it. Everything is mixed back in and allowed to simmer until the liquid is gone, creating a fluffy and slightly nutty dish. A bit of butter is thrown in with some cilantro at the end. We found the coconut to be not so pronounced, but fit in well as a background flavor. Very good.

Wasabi and Panko-Crusted Pork with Gingered Soy Sauce was a perfect weeknight dish since it was pretty quick to throw together. The tender pork is encrusted with a simple panko coating and cooked until golden brown on both sides. If you find that the crust is browning too quickly, you can throw the pan in the oven to finish cooking the pork for a few minutes. To take advantage of the tasty bits on the bottom of the skillet, the heat is lowered and fresh ginger is added to the pan. Quickly followed by a mixture of chicken broth, sake, soy sauce, some sugar to balance the flavor and wasabi paste to punch up the spice. The sauce is finished with some green onions and spooned over the chops.

Recipes
Toasted Coconut Rice
Wasabi and Panko-Crusted Pork with Gingered Soy Sauce
Whole Wheat-Date Bars

Many new things coming from the kitchen!

We had an interesting day in the kitchen today. I made one recipe that I thought I never would end up doing, one that has a new combination of flavors and a new take on cornbread. Let's start off with the sweet and slightly savory combo.

Curried Sunflower Brittle has a lot of promise, but I think the recipe could use some tweaking. Raw sunflower seeds and curry powder are first toasted (separately) and then mixed into a very hot sugar mixture. After spreading very thin and allowed to cool, you can easily break the brittle into shards. The recipe calls for cooking the sugar mixture for about 3 minutes, until you smell the first sign of caramel fragrance, but that is kind of hard to do when the air is filled with toasted curry powder. I let it go for about 4 minutes total, and while about half of it is crisp and firm, some of the mixture is a little chewy and sticks to your teeth. Other than the chewy texture, we both really loved the taste of this brittle. The brittle color is not as clear/see through because I used brown rice syrup in lieu of light corn syrup as we try to shy away from high fructose corn syrup when we can.

The new take on cornbread tonight was Cheddar Corn Bread with Pepitas. This is a moist and more savory cornbread filled with sharp white cheddar, green chiles and topped off with crunchy pepitas. Since we have recently started using chiles in food, it seemed a bit too heavily chile-flavored , but the more we had I think we could have eaten the whole pan. Thankfully, we had something else to go with it tonight and only had a couple servings. Peptias are raw pumpkin seeds with the shells removed and bring a great texture on top. Definitely worth looking for.
Okay, so the main portion of tonight's dish is something that I steered clear of while growing up. Whenever my family made this, I was no where to be found as just the sound of the stuff that went in it made me nauseous (yes, I was a really picky eater!) Jeff always said he didn't like it either so I figured we were safe, but I finally overcame my fear and went ahead with a recipe called All-American Chili. What's to be afraid of about chili right? Beans and other unknown stuff that even though I've never tasted when I was younger, I just knew I would never like it.

Boy was I stupid for not even trying it a long time ago! We both thoroughly enjoyed this so much. Color me surprised! Thick, hearty and full of flavor with a bit of spice to heat things up. Even though the recipe uses lean Hot Italian turkey sausage and ground sirlion, they bring enough meaty flavor to make up for it. The recipe did originally call for brown sugar, but I set it aside until the end as I thought with all of the Merlot in the recipe it might not need it. When I tasted it as the timer was almost done, I'm glad I left it out. If you like your chili on the sweeter side, feel free to add in a couple tablespoons. This opens up so many other recipes we've skipped over because of certain ingredients we "thought" we would never like.

Recipes

All-American Chili
Curried Sunflower Brittle
Cheddar Corn Bread with Pepitas

Another one done....

We ended up with a total of 9 new recipes this week - a couple of stand-outs for us were the Peanut butter cake and Apple, Almond, and Mixed Greens Salad with Zinfandel-Cranberry Vinaigrette.

This week brings a few new flavor combinations and even a couple of ingredients we have never used before. I'm excited and hope they turn out as good as they sound. Here's a peak at some pepitas and merlot that will be used in separate savory dishes for tomorrow night's dinner.

We are really not wine drinkers and we were a little overwhelmed at Trader Joe's trying to pick out one to use for the recipe so I have no idea how this will end up!

A couple months ago I mentioned we finished a Disney puzzle we were working on and that I had started another one. I got a chance to finish it a week ago and here's how it ended up.

We are probably going to watch the Netflix selection of Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures a little early this afternoon so we can watch the Academy Awards tonight. We had this in the queue before the DVD of Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released.

Better the second time around...

It has been at least a couple years since the last time we made a sweet bread pudding. While it was pretty good, I remembered that the texture was a little too soggy and mushy for us. I've been leary about trying other recipes because of the previous experience, but I wanted to give it another try.

Cinnamon Bread Puddings with Caramel Sauce is dead easy to put together and has a much better texture than the other recipe. What I also liked about this one is they are baked in a muffin tin to create a perfect individual portion sized dessert. Using cinnamon swirl bread rather than plain lends just the right amount of cinnamon without having to add the actual spice. The texture is soft, but firm enough to hold the muffin shape quite well.

And of course you can't have this without the sauce! I used a homemade caramel sauce, but to make this even easier you could use a prepared version or even melt down caramel cubes thinned with milk.

Netflix sent us The Brothers Grimm with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. We wanted to see this in the theater when it was first released, but never got the chance to go. I already have plans about the upcoming week's menu even without going through the to-try piles, which could be dangerous! Stay tuned!

Recipes
Cinnamon Bread Puddings with Caramel Sauce

Thanks!

I just wanted to take a moment and say thanks for all of the birthday wishes and cards! I had my fair share of the cake yesterday and we still have a bunch leftover... I asked Jeff if we should bring some to work or send a couple slices to some friends, but I got the look of "don't you dare - it will freeze fine and we will eat it!" So I guess that took care of that!

While I was making breakfast this morning, I looked out the window to the backyard and noticed during sunrise that the sun was reflecting off a triangle glass table we have outside with a metal cactus sculpture on it. This displayed on the window for only a few minutes. First time I've ever seen this happen! As always, you can see a bigger version by clicking on the photo.

Tonight's dinner, Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, is actually cooked in the microwave instead of being baked in the oven. Even though this recipe leaves you with a bunch of dishes to clean up, I thought it was pretty quick to come together if you set it up in assembly line fashion. The sauce and fresh basil definitely make this recipe. The filling is a thick mixture of tender baby spinach, mushrooms, onion, creamy ricotta and delicate shredded mozzarella. I'm not too keen on raw bell peppers, but I love the intense flavor that the roasted red peppers added to the sauce. I served this with some fresh broccoli and the White Chedder Black Pepper biscuits. If you are looking for a change from the same ol' layered lasagna, give this one a try!

Recipes
Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Would you make your own?

I don't get a chance to make cakes very often and I love when I get to. In fact, I think the last cake I made was the Mickey cake for Jeff's birthday. So... today I went ahead and made my own bithday cake - Do/would you make your own or would you rather buy it?

Since you know I am a big fan of peanut butter, of course I was going to have a Peanut Butter Cake! I've never made a peanut butter cake before, but I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It has a distinct peanut buttery flavor, is quite moist, and baked very even with no "dome" to trim off. Although... it would have been fun to have that dome to trim off and nibble on!

I thought for awhile about how I was going to frost and fill it, but I decided to just keep it pretty simple and do a chocolate buttercream. I was afraid the chocolate might overpower the peanut flavor, but the cake really held it's own. To give a texture difference and some more peanut taste, I scattered some chopped peanuts on top. I wanted to have some fun with the outside decoration, so I tried to do my first basketweave on the sides. My piping skills could definitely use some improvement and the frosting was probably a touch too thick, but it went okay I guess. Next time I make this cake (and I will so be doing this one again), I might try a peanut butter mousse filling with a smooth chocolate ganache frosting.

I don't mind sharing - would you like a slice?

Tonight's dinner was something Jeff and I had been talking about making for awhile. While it is pretty simple, it was so darn good. Using a new recipe for Beef Meatballs, we made Cheesy Meatball Subs. I baked the meatballs in the oven so they kept their shape well while they cooked. When they were done, I simmered them in some fresh chunky marinara and then spooned them over lightly toasted rolls. We topped them with provolone and then set under the broiler to melt the cheese. The meatballs have a bit of spice to them and were very flavorful. I served these with some baked tortilla chips.

Recipes
Beef Meatballs
Peanut Butter Cake

Join me for a rain dance?

Well, we still have had no rain since the last post when we surpassed the old record. This makes the total of 135 days without anything - we actually got a couple sprinkles (I saw maybe 3...) yesterday though - nothing measureable. I hope that we get something soon as there is a cloud of junk in the air. They have been talking about how bad they expect the fire season to be this year too.

I mentioned that this week would have some comfort food dishes and the meal tonight fits right in. Potluck Potato Casserole has a bit of a tang to it and is quite cheesy. This creamy dish with a crunchy top coat of corn flakes was like a blast from the past and a big hug in the form of food. I might add a little more cayenne next time to give it just a bit more bite. This recipe was meant to be a side dish, but I found it filling enough to stand on it's own with a bit bigger portion size. You can assemble everything ahead of time and leave in the refrigerator until you need to bake it. Just save the topping until right before you place it in the oven.

Recipe
Potluck Potato Casserole

Sometimes you should just stay in bed....

Have you ever had one of them days where you wish you just stayed in bed? That was me this morning.... Jeff puts his glass of iced tea back in the refrigerator if he does not finish it all and while trying to fit something in the fridge, I managed to knock it over and spill it everywhere. About 10 minutes after that, while trying to eat lunch, instead of crunching down on the piece of apple, I bit my tongue instead... So after 20 minutes of waiting for it to stop bleeding, I was ready to just call it a day and go back to bed. Since it is Tuesday though, I had to get something together for Jeff to bring into the office for Wednesday treat day, so I cleared my head and went on with the rest of the day.

The recipe I picked out to make for him to bring in tomorrow is Chocolate Pretzel Cookies. I've been meaning to try out this cookie since I first went through the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. It is a simple ice box chocolate sugar cookie that is rolled into a long rope and then shaped into a pretzel. An egg white glaze is brushed over the top and a some coarse sugar crystals are sprinkled on. Baked until firm, these cookies held their shape well and have an intense chocolate taste from the dutch process cocoa. The coarse crystals not only add a sparkle, they bring a nice crunch on top.


I didn't have to worry much about tonight's dinner as it was put together yesterday. Strata Milano with Gorgonzola uses the bread I mentioned on Sunday's post. Sourdough bread is sliced, toasted, and then allowed to sit in a flavorful cheesy egg mixture overnight. Ricotta and gorgonzola bring a salty richness to the sour bread. Smoky bacon and rosemary flavor the plum tomatoes which are layered inside and on top of the crusty toasted bread. The bottom layer soaks up most of the egg mixture and softens a bit, while the top layer takes on a deep golden brown color and stays quite crisp. It looked kinda funky while it was being put together, but after it was baked I liked the unique appearance. This dish reminded me of the Bread Pudding Florentine we made some time ago.

Recipes
Chocolate Pretzel Cookies
Strata Milano with Gorgonzola

Light night...

Today was pretty busy so we had a couple of light items for dinner tonight. I was looking for something that would be pretty filling, but not heavy.

To start us off I made White Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits. I wish I would have made a double batch of these just to put one set in the freezer. The tender biscuits, made with buttermilk, have a sharpness from white cheddar and just the right amount of bite from the pepper. I was afraid there would be an aftertaste of baking powder since there is quite a bit in the recipe, but neither of us detected it. Instead of rolling and cutting them, I decided to speed things up and just turn them into drop biscuits. Since most of the work is done in the food processor, these can be whipped up in no time.
Keeping with the light, but filling theme, we went with Apple, Almond, and Mixed Greens Salad with Zinfandel-Cranberry Vinaigrette. The fresh tasting dressing is made from cranberry juice, zinfandel, lemon juice, shallots and olive oil. Dried cranberries burst with flavor when bitten into as they were plumped up by steeping them in boiling apple juice. Crisp apples bring a nice contrast in texture to the tender baby greens. Toasting the almonds brings out much more of the nutty flavor which allows the serving size to be small, but they still pack a punch. Next time I would include some gorgonzola or another type of crumbly cheese to add another dimension.

Recipes
White Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits
Apple, Almond, and Mixed Greens Salad with Zinfandel-Cranberry Vinaigrette

Ingredient sneak peak...

We did a little better this week, with 11 new recipes. I quite enjoyed most of them, but I think the stand-outs were the Creamed Cauliflower with Herbed Crumb Topping and Breakfast Crunch Bars. The new week has some fun and comforting recipes coming up - I can't wait to get started as we roll into another month.

Here's a peak at one of the ingredients we will be using in a recipe at some point during the week. A few of the other ingredients that will go along with these crusty Sourdough Baguettes are fresh tomatoes, baby spinach, and gorgonzola.

The movie from Netflix tonight will be The Pacifier starring Vin Diesel and Brad Garrett. Going over the list of recipes to make this week, I see it will be quite busy as some require a lot of prep work to be done the day before. Stick around and see what we end up with!

Good... but could be better...

It has been awhile since the last time we have made brownies. As I said then, we prefer the fudgier brownies more-so than cakey ones. Even though the brownie we made today was very moist, the title of this recipe is a little deceptive. I did take them out a couple minutes before the stated baking time, but they ended up with a different texture that I was expecting.

Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Brownies have a rich flavor and while the texture was lacking for me, it was still very good. The mocha part is very subtle as it is just there to beef up the chocolate taste. I used toffee bits without the chocolate coating, but I think they could be better with the coated ones. They reminded me a lot of the ones you might find in the snack isle of a grocery store. I would make these again as they were pretty good for being a brownie on the lighter side!

Tonight's weekend movie from Netflix is Millions. Was this even released in theaters? I don't ever remember seeing anything about it. I think this is the first week that I have not added anything to my to-try pile, so it did go down a few this time! I have a feeling that will change this week with new magazines coming in.

Recipes
Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Brownies

Soup du Jour

Unlike some soups in the we have made in the past, the one tonight does take quite a bit from start to finish to make. You can speed things up a little by preparing the veggies early and leaving them in the refrigerator until you are ready.

Roasted Vegetable-Rosemary Chicken Soup intensifies the flavor of the veggies by roasting them until they are caramelized. Since I love the flavor of roasted garlic, I added a couple whole garlic cloves along with some sprigs of fresh rosemary for some additional flavor while they cooked. You can start cooking the chicken in a flavor-filled mixture of water, chicken broth, fresh rosemary and garlic while you wait on the vegetables. When the veggies have enough color, the two are then combined and allowed to simmer to meld the flavors together. Just before serving, whole wheat rotini is added, which soaks up the intensely rich and potent liquid as it softens. Much of the liquid evaporates or is used up by the pasta and there is not that much left when serving. I would think about adding some more liquid next time so it is more of a soup. I found it to be very filling and provided a generous amount of pasta when portioned into 4 servings. We both agreed that this was probably the most flavorful soup we have made to date. Jeff requested baked potatoes to go along with the soup tonight.

Recipes
Roasted Vegetable-Rosemary Chicken Soup

Nuts all over....

On the baking front today was some more muffins... I pulled out the last one I had in the freezer for a snack today. Most muffins freeze quite well and it's nice to have a good supply for snacks as they thaw pretty fast.

This time around I made Fruit studded Muffins with Almond Streusel. The muffins are quite healthy - filled with ground flaxseeds, whole wheat pastry flour, orange juice, fresh apples and golden raisins. I found them to be moist and a little dense, but not so much heavy. They are slightly sweet with the nutty crowns bringing a crunchy texture difference. I made 14 muffins, but you could stretch them a little more and still have pretty large muffins.

Whew! Tonight's dinner was pretty spicy. Kung Pao Chicken is heavy on the ginger with a thick sauce that I served over a bed of brown and wild rice blend to soak up some of the liquid. Crisp tender broccoli and juicy chicken bites are coated in a spicy mix of garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, hoisin, soy sauce, chicken broth and soy sauce. Crunchy peanuts are thrown on top to go along with the nutty rice. This takes just a few minutes to throw together and is perfect for a quick weeknight meal. I would add more veggies (maybe carrots and red bell) next time and use cashews for the nuts.

Recipes
Kung Pao Chicken
Fruit studded Muffins with Almond Streusel

Happy pups...

Well it has been just over a month since the last time I had some puppies dancing around the oven waiting for their treats to come out. They have been out of treats since Monday, so I figured I better get them done today or they would have been whining all weekend.

I was very happy how the dough turned out for the Cheesy Herb Biscuits. They are a little different from previous biscuits we have made as these have yeast in them. They are flavored with chicken broth, fresh grated parmesan cheese, parsley, oregano, and garlic. The use of whole wheat flour, rye flour and cracked wheat gave them a great texture. The dough was easy to roll out as long as you give it a few minutes to relax after kneading. Even though there is no rising time, you get quite a bit of lift in the oven. You can bring these together pretty quick and cut them out with whatever cutter you like. Midway through baking, they are taken out from the oven and an egg wash is brushed on both sides which gives them a glistening coating. They are returned to finish baking for about 30 minutes and will become quite crisp. They smelled quite good while baking and had the dogs pacing for their chance to try and sneak a bite! I'm guessing they were good because as I was trying to package them up, one fell on the floor and Max would not give it back.

Tonight's dinner was more of a side item turned into a main dish. Creamed Cauliflower with Herbed Crumb Topping turned out to be very surprising hit! The last time we had Cauliflower, I was satisfied I found my favorite way to prepare it, but this dish ranks right up there. The tender cauliflower is coated in a thick Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese sauce and then topped off with fresh breadcrumbs.

The sourdough flavored crumbs are mixed with melted butter, garlic and fresh herbs to create a pretty close version of Garlic bread - only in a crunchy breadcrumb form. This is baked until the creamy inside starts to bubble and the topping turns a deep golden brown - not too much fuss for such a flavorful meal.

Recipes
Cheesy Herb Biscuits
Creamed Cauliflower with Herbed Crumb Topping

For the peanut butter lovers...

It's that time again... the baking of goodies for Jeff to bring in to his coworkers for Wednesday Treat Day. Like last week, I ended up choosing a bar cookie. This one, despite the name, is a little too rich to eat at breakfast.

The recipe's name, Breakfast Crunch Bars, is not suggesting to eat them at breakfast, rather it is more of a description of one ingredient used. Breakfast comes from the use of a morning cereal - Rice Krispies. If you are a fan of peanut butter, I highly recommend this recipe as it has 1 1/2 cups throughout! The cookie starts out as a buttery base with a rich peanut butter flavor. Dark chocolate and peanut butter are melted together in one bowl and Butterscotch chips with more peanut butter are melted in another. Rice Krispies are mixed into both and then each is spread onto half of the large base.

The bars do take awhile to set up, but can be cleanly cut into squares once ready. The Rice Krispies stay very crunchy and I like how each side has it's own intense flavor. Next time I might divide the chocolate/butterscotch mixture into stripes so you get a little of each in the squares. If you don't have Rice Krispies around, these would be just as good with crushed cornflakes!

A couple dishes for dinner tonight. We started out with a take on creamed spinach. Individual Spinach-Asiago Gratins have a creamy inside which contrasts well against a crunchy panko crust. This was a first for us tonight (creamed spinach that is) and it took a few bites to get used to the texture. I'm not sure if I would have liked it as much without the panko crust on top though. The asiago cheese punched up the flavor just enough even though only an ounce is used. Overall this was quite good once we got used to the texture!

I also made Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Dried Fruit which was served over Whole Wheat couscous since it was pretty saucy. The original recipe called for a pre-packaged 7 ounce mixture of fruit bits, but I just chopped up what I had on hand. I used dried apples, cherries, pineapple, apricots and golden raisins. Once the chops are cooked, shallots are added and then chicken broth and the dried fruit. It is left to simmer, covered, for a couple of minutes so the fruit can absorb some of the liquid and plump up. The sweetness from the fruit went quite well with the tender and juicy chops. This is such a fast dish to prepare, so make sure you have everything ready to go and it can be made in just minutes!

Recipes
Breakfast Crunch Bars
Individual Spinach-Asiago Gratins
Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Dried Fruit

Bringing some spice to the cookies...

When I'm searching for or coming up with a recipe, especially sweets, I love to seek out unusual spices or ingredients we don't often use. Today's cookie is pretty different than what we have made in the past by the combination of ingredients and the method used.

Cardamom-Lemon Polenta Cookies are firm, dense and have a toothsome texture from cornmeal. I only had white cornmeal on had, but you could certainly use yellow. The cardamom flavor is very upfront in these wedges with a subtle nuttiness coming from ground toasted almonds. I couldn't so much taste the lemon zest, but felt it just enhanced the rest of the flavors coming through. Cardamom is a pretty strong flavor and could easily become overpowering so measure carefully here. The cookies come together easily in the food processor which make these quite fast to prepare. As the cornmeal brings a bit of crunch and makes them on the drier side, I think some macerated berries would be perfect to serve on top.

We have made a couple broccoli filled pies before, but the one we made tonight moved right past them to become a favorite. Broccoli-Cheese Pie differs from the others as it has a crunchy panko coating on the outside and the egg mixture soaks with cubed whole wheat bread to add a heartier texture. Lean Canadian bacon lends a smoky flavor that goes well with just enough spice from Frank's Red Hot sauce. Pancetta or ham would be a good substitute if you want to use something else.

Recipes
Broccoli-Cheese Pie
Cardamom-Lemon Polenta Cookies

How do you eat yours?

Not as many recipes this past week as we normally make - 8 this time, with the stand-outs being the Creamy Key Lime Bars and Peanut Chicken Soba Salad. I have the week ahead planned out and I will be much more busy with recipes this week!

Hershey's really seems to be cranking out the new limited edition candy bars these past couple months. Last week we spotted the Milkshake Kit Kats and today we found Double Chocolate Reese's cups!

While I do love our homemade version we make of Reese's, this one is quite good. The filling is quite firm and is less peanut buttery, but not in a bad way. It reminded me a little of nutella, execpt made with peanuts instead of hazelnuts. When I was growing up, if I had a choice I always went for Reese's first - My favorite way to eat them is to have them slightly frozen and start by nibbling off all of the edges. Then I'll eat the middle last. So how do you eat your Reese's?

Yesterday after making the key lime bars, we went to check out the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. We were taken back by just how big this was - there were so many horses and quite a few events going on. It was hard to pick out what to go see, but we went from arena to arena and watched to see all of the different horses. From the information they gave out, there were close to 2,000 horses from all over at this show. Quite the sight! If you are in the area, I would definitely suggest going to check it out, it goes until the 26th of February. Here are a couple shots... Netflix's movie of the night will be War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. We planned to see this in the theater, but we were less interested after the whole press thing with Tom/Katie and decided to just wait until the DVD came out.

So much flavor for being so tiny....

I love the refreshing taste that lime brings to many dishes. The small key limes are a favorite, but they can be a pain to juice and zest. The recipe today uses them and while you can substitue regular Persian limes, I suggest trying it first with the little guys. To make juicing a little easier, microwave them for a few seconds to get the juices going.

Creamy Key Lime Bars start out with a sweet buttery crust and a filling that is very reminiscent of cheesecake. Key lime juice and zest bring an intense and slightly tart taste to the filling which the base helps cut through. There are not that many ingredients so it comes together pretty quick. It is baked until the edges are set, but the center still has a slight jiggle to it when you move the pan, similar to baking a cheesecake. Even though the filling remains a little soft, I found them to cut very cleanly.

Tonight's DVD from Netflix is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride starring the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. I love his other movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I hope this one can live up to that. Lots of recipes to search through to pick out some goodies and dinner to make for the week ahead - I'll be busy after the movie as always! Check back and see what we are making next!

Recipes
Creamy Key Lime Bars

Lookin' for dinner in a hurry?

Tonight's recipe for dinner, Peanut Chicken Soba Salad, can be made in a snap and would be great for leftovers during the week as lunches. You could even speed up the prep process by buying a pre-roasted chicken or already shredded meat.

What makes this meal is the sauce the chicken sits in. It may take some looking around to find it, but the roasted peanut oil is so worth it for this dish alone. The sauce has a bit of spice from chili-garlic sauce and some sweetness from honey. Crisp texture from fresh carrots gave a nice contrast paired with the tender buckwheat noodles. I liked using the fresh basil here, I found it to brighten up the flavors quite a bit. The salad is finished off with a sprinkling of crunchy chopped peanuts. I think the salad could take on a few more veggies to stretch the dish like snow peas or edamame. If you don't want to use meat in this dish, some cubed firm tofu would be a great alternative.

Recipes
Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

Veggie filled Thursday...

Blogger seems to be having many issues lately - the site may load quite slowly today or not at all. I hope they can get these problems fixed soon!

Tonight's dinner puts a healthy spin on a different type of omelet. Tortilla Española, also known as Tortilla de Patatas (potato and onion omelet), focuses more on the potato element in the dish, rather than eggs, like in an American omelet. The ingredients could not be more simple - potato, onions, eggs, a bit of oil and salt.

In the traditional version, the potatoes are fried first before assembling. Here we roasted them for about an hour with the onion and a very reduced amount of oil. This adds so much more flavor than if you were to just boil them. They are then added to the eggs and allowed to sit for a few minutes to absorb some of the liquid from the eggs. The trickiest part was flipping the potatoes back into the pan, but it held its shape much more than I thought it would! The tortilla is only cooked until the egg has a chance to set on both sides and to bring a dark golden crust to the outside. By making this in a smaller skillet, the appearance is quite striking when cut into - as you can see all of the layers. While it did hold together okay, I think it could benefit from adding one or two more eggs. This is best at room temperature rather than serving right out of the pan, so it would be a good dish to make ahead to serve to guests. This is our entry to the VRC that Biscuit Girl is guest hosting for Alysha at The Savory Notebook.

Since the asparagus was on sale this week and looked extremely good, so I went looking for a recipe to use them rather than just steaming. Balsamic Roasted Asparagus is now by far my favorite way to prepare this veggie. Very simply done by roasting them with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper at a high temperature. I don't think I could go on enough about how much we liked this, they were so good! The asparagus we used was pretty thin, so if yours are much larger you might want to increase the cooking time by a couple minutes. This one will be repeated often!

Recipes
Tortilla Española
Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

I didn't forget about them!

Since yesterday's post contained mostly Valentine's day related items, I decided to wait until today to talk about what usually happens on Tuesdays. If you came here yesterday to see what the Wednesday Treat that Jeff brings into his office was, no worries as I did make something!

Iced Hermit Bars, another winner from Martha Stewart's cookie magazine, went over quite well today. Rich and dense bars are filled with spicy chunks of crystallized ginger and golden raisins. The dough has many spices in it, including black pepper, that punch up the flavor so much. Using both dark brown sugar and molasses deepens the flavor quite a bit - but if your not a fan of heavy molasses flavor, I would use light brown sugar in the dough. The chewy bars are topped off with a free form drizzle of thick icing and more bits of ginger. If you love the sweet and spicy combo, these bars are for you.

Tonight's dinner was a quick to make soup - Shrimp and Egg Flower Soup. Chicken stock is the base and it is flavored with fresh ginger root, soy sauce, sesame oil and vegetables. The original recipe called for peas, but I replaced them with edamame as we normally do. The shrimp are cut in half lengthwise so when they cook, they curl into a fun spiral shape. I'll have to remember this for future soups as they looked pretty cool! Right before serving, beaten eggs are slowly drizzled in and are almost instantly cooked to create the "flower" effect. Next time, I think I would add a tablespoon or two more cornstarch to thicken it a bit and some chili-garlic sauce to bring some heat to the soup.

Recipes
Iced Hermit Bars
Shrimp and Egg Flower Soup