Fennel - why didn't we try this sooner?

Dinner last night used another vegetable that we had yet to try. While we like licorice flavor, I would usually pass up recipes that used Fennel as I thought the flavor might be too strong for us. As we found out, this was certainly not the case!

Fennel and Grilled Pork Tenderloin Salad showed us that Fennel actually has a slightly sweet and pretty mild licorice taste with a satisfying crunch. The pork tenderlion for the salad is marinated in a mildly spicy orange-chipotle mixture made from fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, chipotle in adobo, red wine vinegar and seasonings. A light, but generous amount of dressing has a subtle nutty flavor from the addition of walnut oil - you can use canola oil though if you don't have walnut handy. Toasted pepitas finished the dish with another dimension of crunchy texture. I also made one of our favorite biscuits to have along side, Asiago Black Pepper Biscuits. Next time, I might add another chipotle in the marinade to up the heat though.

Even though the salad recipe used only 6 cooked ounces of the meat, I knew I was going to need grilled pork tenderloin for another dish this week. I went ahead and used a full pound and kept the amount of marinade the same as there was plenty there to go around. I have the other cooked half in the refrigerator waiting to be used in a sandwich we'll talk about tomorrow!

Recipes
Fennel and Grilled Pork Tenderloin Salad

Peaking at the new neighbors... or are they checking us out?

Okay - the power must be really flaky here - we've "lost" power (and this post!) 3 times tonight during a storm! From what I hear, the Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Glaze we made yesterday was a big hit at the office!

Right behind us are these funny looking creatures - Alpacas! They seem to be very inquisitive with the happenings on the other side of their fence. I am not sure if the neighbors breed them, but it would be fun to see what their babies look like! I can't wait to see how the pups react to them when we bring them home!

Frittatas are quick meals to make and last night's dinner, Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Frittata, was no exception. They are basically open faced omeletes that start on the stove and are finished under the broiler until they get a golden color and puff up. Instead of using raw red peppers, I wanted to punch up the flavor some by roasting them first. To do this, I cut them in half and flattened them with my palm. I placed them on a baking sheet and they went under the broiler until the skins began to blister and blacken. When ready, I put them in a bowl and covered them with saran wrap. After about 15 minutes, the skins can be easily removed and they are ready for use! I did lose the crunch that the raw peppers might have added, but the flavor made up for it. We both enjoyed the creamy tang that the goat cheese added to the firm, yet still juicy eggs.

Recipes
Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Frittata

The Return of Wednesday Treat Day with a nutty cake...

After procrasting to get the PCs set up, I finally got them put back together with the desks setup down stairs. I was not sure when I would be able to start baking again, but we broke the oven in today! Since tomorrow is Wednesday, I figured it's time to get going so we can start a new weekly Wednesday Treat Day at Jeff's new office! Still no sign of the camera and most of the boxes are unpacked, so we had to pick up another camera - it will take some time to get accustomed to and tweaked so the pictures come out how we want them to. Please bear with us while we work on that!

To start things off, I went with a Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Glaze. I was intrigued by the recipe because you don't start off by creaming the butter and sugar. Because very soft butter is added to the dry ingredients with half the wet, the butter coats the flour and helps make the cake dense, but not dry. Using sour cream in the recipe as a main portion of the wet ingredients also keeps the cake quite miost.

Each piece of this rich and nutty cake has a sweet surprise swirl inside from ground toasted pecans, dark brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. To add another dimension of nutty flavor, ground toasted pecans are also added into the cake batter. Even though this cake is delicious on its own, I wanted to add a finished look so I drizzled a sweet cinnamon glaze on top. I don't often make glazes, so I probably should have made this one a bit thicker, but I didn't want to add too much sweetness. I hope Jeff's new co-workers enjoy this tomorrow!

We are a day behind on dinners since I was not able to post yesterday. Let's start there and we will try to catch up during the week - last night I made Chickpea Burgers and Tahini Sauce. I was a bit nervous since Jeff is not convinced he likes them yet, but he was quite happy with the results! These thick burgers are a mixture of chickpeas, fresh green onions, oregano and smoky cumin with an egg and flour acting as the binders. They are pan-fried in olive oil until they achieve a golden brown crust - these held together surprisingly well while they were flipped. The use of Tahini in the tangy sauce was a first for us and will be seeking out recipes that use it now! There is a generous amount of sauce that matched the large burgers perfectly, but for the picture I only added a small amount. My pitas were also on the small size - we couldn't find the ones we used to get when we made the trek to Trader Joe's. We had the rest for lunch today and they reheated very well!

Recipes
Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce
Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

*Please note that my e-mail has changed - click on the link in right hand section under "e-mail us" to get the new one!

Laptop meltdown...

Well... I was all ready to talk about dinner we had tonight when my laptop decided it was going to have a meltdown.... I will be back tomorrow as I will get my main PC put together and we will continue on with daily posts! Sorry for my absence! This also means I've lost any e-mails you may have sent in the past couple days that I had not had a chance to respond to - please feel free to resend if you wish!

Quick and easy dinner while we unpack...

We are currently sitting in the middle of what feels like 300 half opened boxes as we slowly unpack and start the whole move-in proccess. The cable people showed up yesterday and we have internet access again - hooray! I guess we have some signal issue in the house, so we can't have TVs where we want them just yet. Unfortunely, no sign of our camera yet, but we are hoping for the best. It could be a little slow around here until we either find it or bite the bullet and buy a new one. We should be up and running again by the end of this week at the latest - we need to get some grocery shopping done and check out some of the farmers markets to stock up! Oh... and 1.1 acres takes a fairly long time to mow... even with a riding mower! What a change from our postage sized piece of lawn in Phoenix! I apologize for being a few days behind replying to comments, I will do my best to get caught up tomorrow afternoon.

I actually did the same recipe for dinner tonight that I made for a lunch before we left.... so at least we have a picture to share! Tabbouleh Chicken Salad is a light and filling salad with the bulk of it coming from bulgar. While I soaked the wheat in hot chicken stock, I cooked the chunked chicken breast in a tangy dressing of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and salt. After the chicken and bulgar is mixed together, the salad is tossed with nutty garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas), cool fresh cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, green onions, parsley and a punch of flavor from mint round out the dish. The remaining dressing brightens the flavors and keeps the salad moist. This was fairly low matinence to make and was a welcome change as we get back to eating normally.

Recipes
Tabbouleh Chicken Salad

Angry shrimp...

I think we used up a few trees with as many documents we had to sign today... we did get a couple nice coffee mugs filled with lots of chocolate out of the deal! Everything went well during the final walk-through and we closed on the new house this morning. The excitement quickly fell into a bit of nervousness as we realized we "officially" own two houses. Scary, but hopefully we can get something happening with the Phoenix house - there are just so many houses in the market now that people are certainly taking their time choosing.

I can't remember which day, but Jeff wanted something spicy and seafoodish for lunch before we left. I knew we had some raw shrimp in the freezer, so after searching through the recipe stacks we ended up with Shrimp Arrabbiata. Since fresh pasta takes just a minute or two to cook, I waited until the end of the recipe to dunk the pasta instead of trying to keep it warm. The chunky fire roasted tomatoes brought a subtle smokiness and ensured the sauce would be thick. It was not as spicy the first day, but as it sat overnight, we noticed it grew more intense. I think a habanero or jalapeno would be in order next time. I don't like how shrimp reheat in the microwave, so I pulled them aside before we reheated the pasta and sauce. If you are running behind, this would be a nice last minute meal as it is pretty quick to make.

Recipes
Shrimp Arrabbiata

Spiced up banana hot cakes

As I mentioned before, I did get a chance to make some new recipes for lunch and breakfast before we left. Since Thursday morning was going to be my last chance (or so I thought anyway...) to make something, I went ahead with a new pancake recipe for breakfast.

Banana-Oatmeal Hot Cakes with Spiced Maple Syrup starts out by making a killer sticky and warm dressing for these pancakes. Maple syrup is spiked with a cinnamon stick and whole cloves, brought to a boil and then allowed to steep to soak in the spicy flavors. As the mixture cools, you can begin the tender cakes. Cooked oatmeal makes these bit more dense than other recipes, but the hearty texture made sure for a filling breakfast. Mashed ripe bananas brought a subtle sweetness and went well with the nutty flavor from the mixture of half whole wheat and all-purpose flour. I found the batter to be much thicker than normal, so I gently helped the mixture by spreading it out with the back of a spatula. Skip this step if you want extra-thick cakes.

Recipes
Banana-Oatmeal Hot Cakes with Spiced Maple Syrup

Arrival...

After a bumpy 4 1/2 hour plane ride to Cleveland, an overnight side trip to pick up one of our cars and see our pups/kitty at Jeff's Moms house and finally... a 4 1/2 drive across PA - we arrived at the hotel in Frederick! What a weekend! We'll be living out of here until the moving truck comes at the end of the week - then the fun begins with unpacking!

Because the movers would not take certain pantry items, I found myself with a bag of Cinnamon chips that I didn't want to throw out.

I decided to make a loaf of the Cinnamon Bread that we have made quite a few times before now since I can make the recipe from memory. I did change one thing, instead of the cinnamon/sugar topping, I sprinkled on some raw sugar for a crunchy finish. We saved a couple slices so we could have it as a snack on the plane and I'm sure the packers enjoyed their pieces warm from the oven! I hope we are able to find some of the chips out in the area as well! We snapped these before the camera went "missing".

Now that we are out here in Maryland permanently, there was talk about changing the website name as we are no longer "in the desert". What do you think? Do we change it? Keep it the same?

All packed up and on the move....

The movers were here yesterday packing up the house and came back today to load the truck... the house is now empty (echo... echo... echo...) and we are "officially" on the move! The past couple of days have just flown by and I didn't even get to cook or bake anything... boo! We are flying back east early in the morning to pick up the car we drove out with the pets a few months ago. We will drive back over to Maryland on Sunday and then we wait until Thursday when we close on the new house.

In other news... it seems our camera may have been taken (sigh...) during the whole process. We will have to wait and see what happens in that department once we get settled in - until then it looks like we may have to look into getting a new camera. I do have a few new recipes that we made last week with pictures that I will be getting posted over the next week - check back to see what else we ended up making! Thanks for all the support and well wishes - hopefully the rest of the move will go smoothly!

The difference that fresh can make...

It has come to the last home cooked meal in Phoenix as the movers will be here tomorrow to pack up the place. I may not be able to post everyday as we will be dealing with the packers, flying out east and dealing with the closing. We will "officially" be in the new house next Friday - Woo! I've been making a few new recipes for lunch over the past few days that I need to write about, so we will be posting new recipes throughout the week.

Jeff told me a long time ago that he has never been a fan of creamed corn - but I think that is because he has only had it from a can. The fresh corn is just too good to pass up nowadays, so I thought I would give it a go and see if we could change his mind. The recipe, Creamed Corn, turned out to be delicious and was insanely easy to make. I used a combination of fresh yellow and white sweet corn that was pureed with milk, cornstarch and a touch of salt. A cup corn is set aside to lend some texture to the smooth mixture. Once the puree and whole kernels are combined, the corn is allowed to simmer until it thickens up and the kernels are tender.

I did have one issue... while I used a "medium" saucepan, I had a lot of problems with the mixture "burping" hot corn everywhere, as I think my pan was not deep enough. I ended up using a splatter guard, but it still made a mess... so be careful as the hot corn mixture does not feel good on the skin! Jeff ate more than his share and said "Why didn't you make this before? And just so you know, I get the leftovers! I love creamed corn now!!" Bah.... at least there is one more thing to check off that he will eat now!

I did finish using up all the leftover chicken from the freezer with the recipe Chicken Picadillo. You can use pre-ground chicken, but after using the food processor to make our own lately, I have come to the conclusion that I like the resulting texture a bit better. Not as mushy as I find in the store. Since I had to dirty up the processor anyway, I used it to mince the garlic first, then added the chicken and pulsed both of them together. This mixture is then browned with some seasonings and then the chipotle salsa along with golden raisins are mixed in. After cooking down, the mixture is finished with some sliced toasted almonds. The smoky chipotle salsa brought a fiery heat that was a perfect off-set to the sweet plump raisins and crunchy almonds. At first bite, I was unsure about the cinnamon, but as I ate, I found myself enjoying the complex flavor it brought. While you could serve this alone, this would be an awesome filling for tacos or placed on some flatbread.

Recipes
Creamed Corn
Chicken Picadillo

Final treat day in Phoenix....

Happy Fourth of July!
Be safe if you are out and about tonight!

We've come to the last baking for the Wednesday Treat Day we started at Jeff's previous office here in Phoenix. It has been a lot of fun trying out new recipes and having lots of great feedback on the outcome! Hopefully Jeff's new co-workers will not mind him bringing in treats - I will probably keep it on Wednesdays as it seems like a great way to break up a long week with something fun.

Today's recipe is definitely made for peanut butter fanatics out there, myself included! Chocolate And Peanut Butter Filled Peanut Butter Blondies is a mouthful for a recipe title and for trying to eat the bars themselves! The bars are like two giant soft peanut butter cookies with a chunky sweet layer of bittersweet and peanut butter chips in the center. I worked hard to savor each bite as the intense peanut butter flavor melded with the rich chocolate from the heat in my mouth.

In the instructions I talk about dropping small dollops of batter on top of the chips - if you try the recipe, be sure to give this a go. The top spreads out as they bake, but they remain bumpy on top with some open areas where you can see the chips trying to poke out. They may be a little tough to test for doneness, so underdone is better than overdone here - you can place them in the refrigerator to firm up, if needed, to make cutting easier.

Dinner tonight, Grits and Sausage Casserole, turned into an interesting way to fix up grits. Quick-cooking grits, which help hasten the prep time, are mixed with sharp white cheddar, parsley, seasonings, and lean turkey breakfast sausage. The interesting part comes in when you gently add in egg whites that have been beaten until stiff peaks. This lightens the mixture, so as it bakes, it slowly puffs up and changes the texture. The grits are not as dense and are almost fluffy. Next time, I might try using some soy crumbles and maybe a different cheese to change the flavor some. This would be a great brunch dish - light, but still filling. Not the easiest thing to take a picture of though!

Recipes
Grits and Sausage Casserole
Chocolate And Peanut Butter Filled Peanut Butter Blondies

Repeat along with a couple new recipes...

Even though it was not a new recipe, I did do some baking today. Jeff asked if I would use the last of the frozen cranberries to make his favorite Cran-Apple Muffins. As most muffins do, these freeze very well and make for a filling snack.

Since I was looking to get the chicken in the freezer used up, I made Swedish Meatballs tonight. As the recipe calls for ground chicken, these meatballs are a bit lighter than recipes that use ground beef/pork. The chicken is lightly seasoned, so some may think they taste a little bland by themselves, but the sauce confronts that problem head on. The meatballs are first seared until they achieve a golden crust, and then in the same pan, you start the sauce. Once slightly thickened, the meatballs are added back in and allow to finish cooking while the sauce reduces.

The sauce has a thick robust texture with a tang coming from sour cream. When I think of Swedish Meatballs, I believe the sauce has a rich and darker color, but this one keeps it fairly light. Egg noodles, served along side, were a delicious way to soak up the generous amount of sauce. I liked the unique hint of rye that the bread added, be sure to use it if you can!

It probably didn't match well, but I had a ton of carrots I needed to use - so I also made Spiced Carrots as a side. Chunky carrots are cooked in a flavor-packed mixture of garlic, chili powder, cumin and lemon zest. I cut the cooking time down to just over 10 minutes as we like our carrots with a bite in the center. If you like a softer texture, leave it to cook the full amount to time. The smoky cumin along with a slight heat from the chili powder was fresh way for us to doctor up plain carrots. The splash of fresh lemon juice at the end heightened the flavor and helped to bring out the sweetness of the carrots.

Recipes
Spiced Carrots
Swedish Meatballs

My how time flies....

It all started when I talked about a typical Saturday for us... and now today the blog is one year old! Yes, we still even have chicken salads on Saturday nights! We have since tried and posted over 400 new recipes that we made! Whew! I was looking back and was surprised that we have only had a couple flops, but that was mainly due to our taste buds and not so much the recipes. I did not think a year ago that we would be here still talking about our ever evolving palate and our fun adventures in the kitchen. I started the blog as we were beginning to branch out from a set rotation of recipes and we were wanting to try new foods... our family and friends couldn't believe we were eating more than chicken fingers and fries! We have done a couple face lifts to the blog, but I think we are pretty happy with the layout now - it's not perfect.... but it works for us! I hope that we are able to give some inspiration to play around with some new recipes we share and to have some fun in the kitchen!

Well, this was also our last weekend in Phoenix! We are flying back to Maryland for the last time at the end of this coming week - it went by so fast! I'm not sure how long it will take us to get settled in, but it should be an interesting experience - we don't close on the new house until the 13th. We will be living out of a hotel until then... oh boy!

Expect a fair amount of chicken recipes this week as we try to get the rest of it used up from the freezer. We did make 11 new recipes this week - it was hard to pick out favorites, but I think the Easy Fruit Ice Cream, Fish Tacos with Broccoli Slaw and Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies were excellent. As we did our final round of grocery shopping today, we did pick up a couple of new items we saw. The first is one we will be using in a recipe this week - I snuck a taste and man... it is spicy!

I drink a lot of water each day (250-300 ounces) and while I try to get Jeff to have it plain, he prefers to drink it flavored either by having it as Iced Tea or crystal light. We saw these at the market today and the first thing I noticed was that it is sweetened with Stevia!

While I don't have anything against Splenda or other sweeteners, it is nice to see companies starting to use alternatives. We tried it and were both pleasantly surprised! I don't enjoy the taste of tea much, but this is sweet with a strong berry-like flavor. While it does not taste like fresh berries, I didn't notice any aftertaste and it was a nice change from plain ol' water. They come in these fun single use packets to add with about 16 ounces of water - it will definitely come in handy at the hotel at least!

The packers will be here Thursday and they will be loading the moving truck on Friday... I'm going to try and sneak in as much baking and cooking as I can before that - but we are pretty busy trying to get things separated and ready.

PS - If you were at Costco today and happened to loose your Platinum Wells Fargo Debit Card, we found it and called the bank to let them know we had it. They placed a hold on your account in case someone copied down the number and was going to use it maliciously. Hopefully we stopped someone from doing that, but I don't know how long it was lost!

Sweet ending....

We didn't have much time at the house this morning, we had to get everything cleaned up and leave as we had an open house today. After we left, we ended up at a Saturday market and found some nice looking organic strawberries - I had just the recipe in mind as soon as I tasted one.

Served in tall slender glasses, Strawberry Cream took very little prep time to throw together and only needed some extra time to set in the refrigerator. Delicious fresh strawberries are pureed with vanilla scented granulated sugar and a dash of vanilla extract. To add some richness to this light strawberry base, sour cream is added, followed by some dissolved gelatin to lend some body and texture. The creamy soft set mixture is finished with more fresh strawberries that have been diced and allowed to macerate with a touch of sugar to cajole some juices out of them. Garnished with a sprig of chocolate mint, this was a cool and refreshing way to wind down this very busy Saturday.

Recipes
Strawberry Cream

We might start clucking soon....

You may have noticed we were a touch heavy with chicken dishes this week. As I'm working through the stock in the freezer, I noticed today I still have 2-3 pounds left... so the chicken theme may have to continue for a couple days next week!

Tonight for dinner we had Spicy Chicken Cakes with Horseradish Aioli. I did have to make a slight change to the Aioli though - I was not about to buy a whole bottle of horseradish to use two teaspoons and throw the rest away, since we leave next week. Instead, I ended up using Wasabi powder mixed with a bit of water, which explains the light green hue! The chicken patties are a mixture of fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs, green onions, mayonnaise, cajun seasoning, salt and an egg to help hold the mixture together. I was not sure if they were seasoned enough and since I was not about to taste it raw, I took a tip from Sara Moulton and quickly cooked a small ball of the mixture to see how it tasted.

I couldn't taste too much of the cajun seasoning, so I upped it some from the original recipe and then continued on. When you are combining the mixture for the cakes, be sure to not overmix the chicken - you want everything combined, but not turned to mush. The patties are pan fried just until no longer pink in the center to keep them juicy and then served with the garlicky and spicy Aioli. The Aioli recipe does not make too much, so if you like things a little saucy, be sure to double the recipe. Next time, the devil in me might be a little tempted to add a couple dashes of Franks Red Hot to the chicken mixture to kick up the heat in the patties!

Recipes
Spicy Chicken Cakes with Horseradish Aioli

Gratifying treat offset by a light dinner...

In an effort to use up some good quality bittersweet chocolate before the move (instead of eating it by itself that is...) I wanted something that was a bit different and a little indulgent.

Mocha Wedges with Bittersweet Glaze turned into just what we wanted. Putting my springform pan to work, these rich and decadent wedges have just a hint of espresso that beefs up a deep chocolate flavor. The texture of these has a crisp outside while the inside remains kind of soft, dense and almost fudge-like. Not quite a cookie and not quite a brownie - somewhere in between. To gild the lily, a drizzle of thick bittersweet chocolate completes the indulgent factor with a sweet finish.

Since we were flying high from the wedges, we went a little lighter for dinner. BLT Bow Tie Pasta Salad has the classic flavors from a BLT, minus the bread of course. Crisp torn romaine is tossed with tender bow ties, chunks of chicken breast, fresh tomatoes and salty bacon. The dressing is a light and tangy mixture of sour cream, plain yogurt, broth, barbecue sauce, vinegar and pepper. The generous amount of dressing kept the salad moist and brought an interesting flavor twist. I kept a portion the romaine mixture separate from the dressing so we can have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow - the full recipe makes quite a bit, but I can see us making this again and again for picnics or barbecues.

Recipes
BLT Bow Tie Pasta Salad
Mocha Wedges with Bittersweet Glaze

Just what we needed...

Back a few years ago, our diet pretty much consisted of chicken fingers, fries, or probably pizza. We were pretty picky and didn't stray too far from that selection. Since then, we have really branched out on the variety of foods we will try and we now tend to eat pretty healthy. Sometimes, though, one just wants to have something comforting and familiar - especially during stressful times. Before, the chicken fingers certainly would not be coated in almonds and whole wheat flour... and the fries were definitely deep fried.

Instead of going back, tonight's dinner gave us what we were craving - but without the guilt in the morning.

Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers are coated in a mixture of almonds, whole wheat flour, papkria, garlic, mustard powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Instead of leaving this spicy mixture dry, olive oil is drizzled in while it is being processed to give an indicative golden hue that is sometimes lacking in other baked recipes. The nutty coating stayed intact when they were turned over and added a crunchy texture to the moist chicken. The combination of spices complimented each other and brought a friendly level of heat.

There is not really much of a recipe for the fries. There are a couple key points though that I found to really help make them tasty. One thing I like to do is soak them in water to draw out some of the starch - you can use cold water, but they will need a longer soaking time. I use a tip I found from Cooks Illustrated that if you use hot water, they only need to sit for about 10-15 minutes. While I dry them off, I preheat a lightly oiled pan for about 5-7 minutes in the oven. If you do this step, as soon as they hit the hot pan, they will start to form a crust and will not end up sticking or tearing apart when you go to turn them over. I coat the dry fries with a couple splashes of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. I flip them halfway through and in about 30 minutes you have golden crisp fries that are still tender and moist on the inside. Don't forget to season them again while they are still pipping hot from the oven. For these two recipes, they are cooked at the same temperature so they will be done at the same time if you start the fries a few minutes before hand!

Recipes
Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers

Fresh cranberries... well they were frozen fresh!

Yes, the treats are still being made for Jeff's previous co-workers! Next Wednesday will be the last treat day for them as we won't be here anymore the week after.

The treat for Wednesday Treat Day may be a little unseasonal, but there was no way I was going to let cranberries from the freezer go to waste! I always buy a few extra bags during the cranberry season and stash them for summer treats.

Today's recipe is a bar cookie - Orange Cranberry Nut Bars. Inside these moist bars are whole cranberries with sliced toasted almonds scattered throughout. The eggs are the only leavener in the recipe, so the bars are a bit dense - but they do rise a little though. Fresh orange zest adds a zing to these slightly sticky and sweet gems. While these bars do not need anything else, a glaze made of powdered sugar and orange juice coats the top with just enough sweetness without being too over the top. When you get a piece that has a cranberry still intact, the fresh burst of flavor that fills your mouth makes your tastebuds stand at attention wanting more of that tangy bite.

We had such a fun and hands on dinner tonight - Fish Tacos with Broccoli Slaw! The original recipe called for cabbage slaw, but we really like the crunch and taste the broccoli version gives. These fresh tacos start with a layer of juicy slaw flavored with lime juice, olive oil and salt. Cod that was seasoned with smoky chili powder and salt is pan-fried just until the firm fillets start to flake. They are then chopped into bite-sized pieces and arranged evenly over the warmed corn tortillas. The tacos are rolled up and finished with a scattering of chopped fresh tomatoes. Because the slaw mixture makes more than you need, it is served on the side as a small crunchy salad.

Recipes
Orange Cranberry Nut Bars
Fish Tacos with Broccoli Slaw

Figgy kind of day....

Big, thick, healthy cookies... and they even taste good! I've been looking for a recipe that would work for a quick breakfast on the go or a substantial midday snack - I think we've found one that we both really like!

Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies uses a mixture of whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and wheat bran. They are packed full of chopped mission figs, dried cranberries and toasted sliced almonds. Lightly spiced with cinnamon and allspice, they have a slightly sweet and wholesome taste. They are a little hard to describe texture wise, the best I can come up with is the cookies are like a muffin top that meets a sturdy cookie. They are not melt-in-your mouth cake-like, but not chewy/crisp either. There is a healthy flavor to them, but definitely not in a bad way. The cookies are almost 4" across and 3/4 of an inch thick! I want to tinker around with the recipe to try to add oats for some texture, and test other fruit combinations. I was going to use turbinado sugar on top, but glad I stuck with the granulated. I think with these golden cookies, the smaller grains scattered on top work better than the chunky raw sugar.

Keeping the fig theme of the day going, we had Chicken with Balsamic-Fig Sauce for dinner tonight. The chicken is seasoned with thyme then seared off just until they are no longer pink in the center. To the bits left in the pan, balsamic vinegar along with chicken broth, soy sauce and chopped mission figs are added in. As the mixture bubbles away, the figs plump up by soaking in the deep flavorful mixture. Meanwhile, the chicken is cut into long strips and when ready, the warm mixture is spooned over the top. There is quite a bit of sauce, so I think this would be great served over brown rice to absorb the tangy drippings. Lots of flavors and textures happening for such a quick dish.

I made Cumin Potatoes as a side for dinner, but alas - no figs hiding in this! This one starts out by boiling chunky russet potatoes until tender, but not falling apart. They are then quickly rinsed in cold water to halt them from continuing to cook. To enhance the cumin flavor, the seeds are quickly toasted with some oil in a hot skillet. The potatoes along with other seasonings are added in and left to form a rich crust. After a couple quick flips, they have a warm moist interior with a crisp outer coating. We had a hard time trying to stop at one serving each!

Recipes
Cumin Potatoes
Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies
Chicken with Balsamic-Fig Sauce

*I also updated the recipe section to the left today - you may have to hit refresh to see the additions!

Lusting for something cold....

Well, the stress level is rising! The packers are coming to box everything up in under 11 days.... time is going by fast. We are still waiting for a contract on the house here in Phoenix since the first one fell through, but we have had quite a few showings this past week. I hope we get something going before we have to leave an empty house behind! At least I can keep myself busy in the kitchen - we made 11 new recipes this week. The standouts for us would be the Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Basil Squares and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Breakfast Muffins.

It is wicked hot here today... even though it is cloudy this afternoon, it got to almost 115. Not fun when you need to get your grocery shopping done! I would usually post a picture of something we plan on using this week, but instead I'll talk about something icy cold I just made to try and get some relief from the heat.

Easy Fruit Ice Cream is not a true ice cream, but it is dead easy and boy did it ever hit the spot. This is a mixture of vanilla soy milk, powdered sugar, a small box of instant pudding mix and a ton of frozen fruit. I used a combination of blueberries, marionberries and raspberries and the pudding was a white chocolate mix. All of the ingredients are placed in a food processor and in just a minute you can enjoy the smooth concoction. The instant pudding mix adds some flavor, but also provides a creamy mouthfeel and helps to keep that "icy" texture from forming. Right out of the processor, it was at soft-serve consistency and easily held its shape. I used a cookie scoop to show how it held its form, but I did place these in the freezer for a few minutes so we could take a picture without them melting. If you do prefer a more firm texture, scoop it into a bowl, cover and place in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. Ahh... I feel much better already!

Recipes
Easy Fruit Ice Cream