Beet and Goat Cheese Tart

So today at work they had a farmer’s market and I decided to go see what was up.  I scored some beets and other veggies and didn’t even have to go to store!  This was a plus in my lazy book.  The problem is that I had to figure out what to make with this stuff that I didn’t really have a plan for.

I love me some beet and goat cheese salad, but I wasn’t feeling salad so I tried to figure out what else we could combine this delightful combination in.  I discovered a beet and goat cheese tart at Epicurious.  Tarts take a while b/c of all the dough making, blind baking, then custard baking and whatnot.  But since most of it is inactive time I went for it.  I still had to go to the store but since it was for two of my favorite things, goat cheese and wine, I was OK with it.  And I would get to use my nearly new Cuisinart food processor!

Food processor:

that's right, there's an AZ cutting board in the back

It was practically gleaming when I put it on the counter!  I was so psyched to make a dough not by hand! Apparently I haven’t used this baby nearly enough though. First of all, this thing when put together is sturdy.  I was scared to break it using my brute force trying to get the top off but after a struggle I was successful.  I looked in, thought “hm, looks like food would go in that hole in the middle” decided it didn’t matter and dumped in my flour and salt. 

What do ya know when I finally wrestled the top back on and locked it and pushed start I heard some whirring but definitely no processing. 

Did you know you need to put the blade in to make the thing work?  Yeah.

This made me feel stupid.  But I did remember I had a sweet blade organizer that I was excited to open up and it even had a dough blade.  After dumping out contents, putting in blade, and re-dumping back in the bowl things worked much better.

Tart Baking:

YUM

This was pretty standard and uneventful.  Roasting and peeling beets is always a fun and very red process.  I added beet greens to the mixture so I wouldn’t waste food and b/c it can’t hurt to have more green in your diet. I also omitted the walnuts from the original recipe.  (Something about walnuts in a quiche-like food didn’t sound good to me.)I also used half the amount of goat cheese as the original recipe called for; I started to put it all but it seemed kind of excessive.  Last substitution: I used a dough recipe that I’ve been successful with before instead of the one from the website.

I've got to say the finished product did not look like what I was expecting.  I don't know why it looks exactly like what beets and goat cheese would after being baked for 30 min.  Either way it's good.




Voila!

 

Beet and Goat Cheese Tart

2 to 3 small beets

1 tablespoon olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dry white wine

3 large eggs

3/4 cup heavy cream (I used half & half and milk)
2 ounces fresh goat cheese

Crust

1 ½ Cups Flour
½ Tsp. Salt
3 Tbl. Crisco
6 Tbl. Butter
¼ cup water

Preparation

Heat oven to 400°F. Wash the beets and dry them with a paper towel. Roast about an hour until easily pierced by a fork, about and hour.

Peel the beets and cut them into a medium dice.

Heat the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, season with a little salt, and cook until the onion is just tender, about 7 minutes. Add in the beet greens and then the white wine and cook for another minute.

Heat the oven to 350°F. Toss the beets and onion together and put them into the blind-baked tart shell.  (Bake the tart shell on it's own at 400 for 15-20 min till golden brown.)

Whisk together the eggs and milk/cream, season well with salt and pepper, and pour over the beats and onions.  Top with dabs of goat cheese to your liking and bake for about 30-35 min.





Meatloaf with Asian flavors

Last week I was looking for recipes that would fulfill two criteria: I could make them ahead of time and bake later in the week and I would have leftovers for one lunch box. I was flipping through my magazine recipe index and came across a Rachael Ray full of meatloaf recipes. I pulled the issue out for a closer look and decided on an Asian meatloaf for a couple reasons. One, it used turkey meat. Two, it had chili paste in the glaze. Three, I had just about all the ingredients already in my pantry.

This came together very quickly:

The recipe calls for a small grated onion but I had a pretty large one so I used half and grated it on a micro-plane. I have a feeling the results were a much finer grate than was intended but truthfully the onion mush incorporated into the meat really well and I think helped keep the turkey meat moist.

1.5 pounds ground turkey, onion mush, 1 clove garlic chopped, 5 oz. can water chestnuts chopped, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 1 egg, and 1/4 scallions chopped into a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix! But not too much. Just enough to get everything squashed together and the egg holding everybody in place.

Now, bringing in that single girl serving mentality I decided to form 2 loaves out of this mix so that I could put on in the freezer for a lazy day. I mixed up the glaze which was 1/2 c. ketchup, 2 T chili paste, and 1 T. light brown sugar and spread half on the loaf I was planning on baking and saved the other half to put on towards the end of baking.

So into the oven at 400 for about 50 minutes. I shaved off 10ish minutes of the original baking time because it was a smaller loaf. I added the additional glaze with about 10 to go.

I was incredibly happy with the final product. It was moist and full of flavor. There were little crunchy spots because of the water chestnuts (which I love) and the sweet and spicy glaze was delicious. I think next time I will add some red pepper flakes into the meat and little more chili paste in the glaze just for some more zing but overall I was definitely diggin this meatloaf!

I served with roasted cauliflower that I covered in the extra glaze...yummm. PS I know this is not a beautiful food photo but whatever I was mid meal when I remembered to take it!

It has been too long...

Over the past 36 months I have been working full time, completing my Master's degree, and doing my best to maintain a life filled with fun. Part of that fun included starting this blog with my Biggy Pop almost 2 years ago. I love cooking and baking and sharing my creations and total failures with my computer screen but other things have certainly taken priority over new posts.

Don't fret! I can see the concern in your face as you read this.  I'm not waxing poetic in a farewell tour but instead just the opposite! With graduation behind me (Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition!) I finally have time to really do things for me again like scrapbook, and blog, and even run for fun! Jo Anna and I will be running in a 5k in Disney World in November and I can't wait! Naturally it is the Epcot Food and Wine Festival run (seriously, we really love the food world...) so we will be sure to write about the good things we find to taste.

So anywho, all this brings me to my dinner creation tonight: noodle-less eggplant lasagna. Not only do I have a great recipe and cooking experience to share, I also dreamed up what I would like to create next for this blog! More of that to come but first...

Eggplant. Mom might disagree with me but as far as I am concerned I ate my first piece of eggplant when I was 25 years old when the ladies I work with brought a dish for a potluck. It is not something I ever saw Mom or Grandma(s) cook. I certainly do not blame them, the mountains of KY and the peidmont of SC are not exactly known for eggplant dishes, let's be real. Okra? yes. Grits? mhmm. molassey pie on your drop biscuits? damn skippy. But eggplant? yeah, no. So it is only recently I have been dabbling in eggplant dishes and I have to say, I am a fan! I have fried it for stir fry and roasted it for the top of baked ziti, so I was comfortable with this lasagna.

 I am more or less following the Sugar Busters diet and while whole wheat pasta is cool, I felt eliminating the pasta all together would be even better, hence the search for eggplant lasagna. I decided on this recipe but really did make quite a few adjustments.

Step one is handling the eggplant. First peel it with your trusty vegetable peeler, nothing fancy to see here. Next, cut off the top and bottom so you have flat ends. The recipe suggests 1/4 inch thick, lengthwise slices to mimic noodles. I bought a mandolin not long ago and this was an excellent time to justify the purchase! Now, I do feel the need to comment here on safety. I am the WORST with knives and the mandolin is like a rack of knives on steroids. I am 2 for 3 on slicing myself on this beast but luckily I still have all my fingertips (more or less after tonight's slip) and have not needed stitches. This being said, use the damn food guard it comes with. I thought it was too awkward with the lengthwise eggplant and it resulted in me slicing off a few layers of skin...so I wised up and then things went great! If you don't have a mandolin you can obviously slice up the eggplant with a sharp knife, just to try to keep your slices consistent. 

Set the oven at 425, spray cookie sheets with olive oil, salt and pepper all the slices that are in a single layer (took me three cookie sheets) and roast 5 minutes. Take them out, flip them over, season, and bake 5 more minutes.

In the meantime you can start your meat sauce.  I diced up 1 yellow onion and started that in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of my 12 inch cast iron. I kept the heat pretty low because I was chopping and adding along the way and I did not want things burning. Next came 4 small cloves of garlic.

For the meat, I chose to use 1.5 pounds ground turkey and .5 pound mild Italian sausage (If they had had hot at the store that would have been the choice). I added this in and turned up the heat just a smidge to get things cooking. Next comes one red bell pepper chop chopped, and then 5 baby bella mushrooms sliced.

The recipe calls for a 28 oz can tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes, but suggests using 3 roma tomatoes in lieu of the diced can to eliminate added sugar. I found this to be a delightful suggestion and took that route. So, in goes tomato sauce and diced roma tomatoes. At this point I also shook in 2+ tbsp italian seasoning (Giada's Tuscan herb mix to be exact, thanks Ma!), a good teaspoon plus of red chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper. I mixed it all up and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

The last piece of any lasagna is the cheese. I used 1 3/4 cups ricotta (recipe called for 2 cups and the small tub was 1/4 cup short. Did not want half a container of ricotta sitting in the fridge so whatever), 2 eggs, 6 fresh basil leaves, 3 scallions, and about a half cup of shredded mozzarella. I could tell you this was to offset the lack of ricotta but in truth it was a mistake because I was listening to the World Game on tv and not paying a whole lot of attention. I can assure you this made 0 difference in the final product.

With everything made it's time to layer. Meat sauce, eggplant noodles, ricotta mix, mozzarella, Parmesan, repeat.  Oven set to 375, cover in foil, bake an hour. Uncover, finish under broiler 5ish minutes til brown. I put the lasagna in the fridge before baking because I did not want to eat it until a later day.  I can honestly say I did not miss the pasta in this dish at all. The sauce was spicy and full of flavor and the cheese mixture just creamy and delicious.

Now, back to my 'Ah ha!' moment for this blog. As I looked at this beautiful but giant lasagna sitting on my counter cooling before going into the fridge for later, I calculated how many dinners and lunches this was going to make for me this week. The answer is a lot. And as good as it is I do not want to eat only eggplant lasagna all week. So I think my new mission is going to be finding great recipes like this one, making the full size first to get flavors right, and then adapting them to a single girl recipe.  You can't always just halve a recipe and it work out. Wish me luck, and I will keep you posted along the way...

Full Ingredient List

2 eggplants, sliced 1/4'' lengthwise
salt and pepper

1 yellow onion, diced
4 small cloves garlic, diced
1.5 pound ground turkey
.5 pound ground italian sausage
1 red bell pepper, diced
5 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
3 roma tomatoes, diced
28 oz. can tomato sauce
2 heaping T italian seasoning mix
1+ t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

1 3/4 c. ricotta
2 eggs
6+ leaves fresh basil
3 scallions, chopped finely

3ish cups grated mozzarella
1 cup grated Parmesan

Roasted pork and fennel

So…it’s been a while. My cooking experience tonight indicates I need to hone my skillz a bit more.  I decided last week in an effort to have a healthier lifestyle I needed to cook more.  Good intentions! Well the week flew by and I had meals like hummus with a side of peanuts.  Even the grocery store lady laughed at that purchase.  So fine, I’ll cook.

I found this lovely recipe for roasted pork and fennel. I heart me some fennel and happened to have a pork tenderloin hanging around in the freezer.

I have to say that this recipe lies.  There is no way in the universe a tenderloin will cook through at 350 degrees in 15 minutes.  I cut into that baby and decided that no matter how impatient and hungry I was, I wasn’t willing to chance a suspect, too pink piece of pork.

In my impatience I decided 400 was a better temp, cooked for another 10 minutes and let it rest.  It was still a bit pink but I think I’ve read something that it’s ok nowadays to eat pork that’s not like a piece of leather so I went with it.  (I also still seem to be alive so living proof it won’t kill you)

Turns out it was pretty delicious.  I love fennel (did I mention that earlier?) and it went nicely together.  I also failed at buying something to eat on the side so green beans it was.  I again failed at that because while pondering whether I was willing to eat undercooked pork I forgot they were going and they were a little overdone.  Next time I’ll remember to go to a store that has fingerling potatoes.  P.S. what kind of store doesn’t have fingerling potatoes b/c I’m clearly too lazy to visit more than one in an effort to make a well-rounded dinner.

Little does not seem excited about this dinner but I swear fennel is much more mellow when cooked and browned and delicious.  Since the recipe calls for wine it's also a good idea to drink some of it because while you're waiting for your failed, undercooked pork to get to the right temp you can entertain yourself.

Bottom line: good recipe, just cook longer and use more lemon juice than it recommends because lemon juice is also delicious.  I’ll stick to baking, seems to be my sweet spot ;)

 

oh. and no pics because I forgot and my food never seems to be particularly picturesque anyway. Who needs to plate things pretty??

Whole Wheat Pizza

This Christmas I received a cookbook made especially for Kitchen Aid stand mixers. We all know how much I love and utilize Gladys, so I was pretty stoked to see what else I could do with her.  The cookbook is a bit of an advertisement for the multitude of attachments you can buy, however, there are a lot of fun ideas in there.
I'm currently on a diet that eliminates enriched white flours so I am always on the lookout for whole wheat recipes. I came across a grilled pizza recipe in the book that is topped with just cooked grape tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. I figured just swapping whole wheat flour was a terrible idea so I then started looking for a whole wheat pizza crust recipe.  I also decided grilling outside in the 15 degree weather was an equally terrible idea so I essentially combined elements of two recipes and added my own two cents to make a whole wheat cheese pizza.

The crust recipe came from a blog called Tablespoon. It looks like this:
2.5 c. whole wheat flour
2.25 t. active dry yeast
3/4 t. salt
1 c. warm water
1 T. EVOO
1 T. sugar

I realize now as I'm typing this I just assumed one packet of yeast was the right amount, however upon inspection I do believe I should have used two. This explains why it took so long to rise and didn't exactly double in size....

Anywho, Combine yeast (turns out 2 packets) and warm water with 1 t. sugar. Let sit and get foamy.

Dough ball, covered in plastic wrap

I used Gladys for every part of the dough so I combined 2 c flour and salt and remaining sugar in the bottom of her bowl, made a well, and then poured in the yeast when it was ready and the EVOO.  Using the paddle I mixed until combined then switched out the paddle for the dough hook. "Kneading" on speed 2, I added flour a T at a time until the dough pulled completely away from the sides of the bowl and wasn't sticky to the touch. I turned the dough out into a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and let sit on top of the oven for almost 2 hours even though the recipe said 45 minutes-one hour.

Dough rolled out on the pizza stone

The dough did rise but like I said it was supposed to have more yeast so it didn't get super fluffy. I punched it down, made a disk, and rolled a circle with surprising ease. This is usually hard for me, as we have learned with my pie crust debacles...

In the mean time this is how I made my sauce (pieces from the Kitchen Aid book, some from me:
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 can roasted garlic tomato paste
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 t. dry basil
1/8 t. salt
1/2 t. red pepper flakes

Tomatoes and garlic in the oil

I heated about 1 T. EVOO in a skillet over medium high heat then added in the garlic. After a minute or two I added everything else but the tomato paste.  Once the tomatoes were cooked down significantly I added the tomato paste. I let this simmer on low heat for over an hour while the dough was rising, adding about 1/ c. water twice to keep it from reducing too much.

After I rolled the dough I let it rest ab out 10 minutes before topping it with the sauce, fresh mozzarella rounds, shredded mozzarella and a few pieces of salami.
I baked it for 12 minutes on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven and then let it sit for 15 minutes to settle itself.

The pizza turned out to be quite delicious.  The crust wasn't chewy or tough which can sometimes happen with whole wheat. I am now curious what it is like with the right amount of yeast so I will probably be making this again very soon.  The red pepper flakes give the sauce a bit of zip and the fresh mozzarella really set up nicely on top. For me to be able to keep pizza in my diet is very exciting, and for it to be quite tasty is another solid bonus!

Granola Fail

My very own mother has complained not that I haven't been blogging in months but that my posts did not have enough failure. Thanks, Mom. So, fresh from my holiday kitchen I bring you a solid recipe failure: homemade granola.

My dad loves granola so as part of his Christmas present I thought I would make a batch of granola from scratch. I asked the Biggy for a recipe suggestion and she gave me one off of Orangette, but I was thinking I wanted to make a cherry almond vanilla ish granola and that recipe maybe didn't lend itself to those flavors. And it required a trip to Whole Foods for brown rice syrup and I was feeling lazy. (As you will see most likely resulted in the upcoming fail...) So I started searching around and came across a recipe for Almond Crunch Granola:

1 c. slivered almonds, toasted
1 c. flaked coconut
1/2 c. honey
2 1/2 c. rolled oats (I used quick cooking, recipe said any kind would do...)
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 vegetable oil

I figured I'd add some vanilla in with the honey and stir in dried cherries after the fact. Blend everything together and bake at 350 for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Well, things started rough when I came within 45 seconds of burning the toasted almonds. They were just a bit more brown than golden, but didn't taste burnt so onward I went.  Next, I realized my honey bear had crystallized and I don't have a microwave in this kitchen. (And besides, the last time I microwaved honey I left it in too long, the jar began to melt, I tried to pour the honey out to save it from the plastic and the honey was so hot it began to melt the honey bear I was pouring into...molten honey will burn off your fingerprints. Just sayin.) Learning lessons all the time, I say. So this time I boiled water and made a water bath to melt the honey. Which worked fine except I only had maybe 1/4 cup. Sigh. What to substitute? Dark Karo syrup? Why not. I have no idea if this was a good idea or not, but that's what happened.

With everything finally mixed together (vanilla added as well as some cardamom) I spread it out on the baking sheet and in it went. I set the clock for 15 minutes, stirred everybody up, and put it back in for another 15 minutes. Turns out 10 would have been better. I started smelling it and pulled it out about 3 minutes early. It wasn't blackened. Yet. But it was certainly a nice dark brown. I got mad and went for a run hoping when I came back the granola would be crunched up and not too bad. Needless to say I mixed in the cherries. I poured it into its cute glass jar. I stared at it. I tasted it. I glared at it.

Annnnd this morning I salvaged the cherries and tossed the damn thing. Yep, that's it in my trash can.

So I decided Dad didn't need granola and sat down with my coffee, Real Simple, and Giada's perfect stinkin' Christmas episode on tv. And that is when I absently flipped open my magazine to an applesauce granola recipe! I grumbled at Santa to butt out and got started.

This time around the recipe looked like this:
3 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. chopped raw cashews (I had almonds left so that's what I used)
2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c. sesame seeds (left these out)
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
4 T. melted butter
1 1/2 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. fine salt
1/2 c. chopped dried pineapple (I also added the, ahem, saved cherries)

Mix everybody together, spread on a rimmed baking sheet, bake at 275 for 55-60 minutes tossing twice.

I learned that dried cherries will absolutely not be chopped in a food processor, mini or regular sized. I also learned that this granola is a way better idea. The ginger, pineapple, and cherry make a really nice flavor combo, the lower temp oven meant I was less likely to burn yet another batch...

Chai Spiced Sugar Coins

This holiday season I tested out all new recipes for my cookie baking. That's a bit risky you say, but I prefer to think of it as an amazing idea.

I went with my girl Rachel Ray's "1 dough, 16 cookies" insert from the December magazine to simplify my life and these sugar coins were my favorite of the 4 I tried.

Recipe looks like this:
2 sticks butter (room temp)
1 c. sugar
2 egg yolks
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 t. coarse salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cardamom
1/2 t. ground ginger

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, scrape down the bowl and beat in vanilla and egg yolks until just combined. In medium bowl whisk dry ingredients, then mix into butter mixture.

With this dough, split in half and using parchment paper roll into a log (about 1.5 inch in diameter). I work with playdoh A LOT at work so this is really easy for me, but for those less capable of making a snake, this is how I do it:

Place dough at one end of your parchment paper piece. Roll edge of paper over the dough and using both palms, roll towards the other end. I roll the dough over several times, shaping it, before actually wrapping it in the parchment. When you have the thickness you want, tap the ends of the log on the counter, flattening them, and roll it up tight in the paper. Then it goes in the freezer for an hour.

When the dough is frozen, use a bread knife (certainly a serrated knife) and slice the log into even coins.  Bake on greased or parchment sheet at 350 for 15-20 minutes. If you want, you can sprinkle them with colored sugar before baking.

These cookies aren't super sweet but they have a definite spiced flavor. Really amazing with coffee. And something you could make anytime during the year, not just the holidays. The recipe also makes over 3 dozen so you get a lot for not a lot of effort.

Fruity Crumb Cake

Hi Everyone!  I’m alive.  Apparently once again the slacker half of this team.  I have been cooking some but one thing I really liked was a delicious summery cake I happened across.  Lately I’ve been baking more because really, that’s my favorite thing to do.  And then I can take it to work and let other people eat it for me! Too bad summer is almost over but I’m sure there are some spare summer fruits hanging around at home or in the store!

This cake is yummy; it’s a pretty simple buttery cake with some fruit compote in the middle and a crumbly, nutty topping.  It’s also very pretty, mostly because it’s got a lovely layer of fruit tucked in the middle not because I’m good at decorating.   It also reminds me of a muffin in the form of a slice of cake therefor making it a breakfast cake.



Fruits before and after

 

Fruity Crumb Cake

Filling
4 oz. fresh raspberries
4 oz. Fresh cherries pitted
2 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ cup sugar

 

In a saucepan toss the raspberries, cherries and peaches with the cornstarch to coat.  Stir in the sugar and cook over medium until it’s bubbly and thick.  Remove the pan from the heat, mash the fruit a bit and set aside to cool.

Cake
1 egg
½ Cup sour cream
½ Cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 ¼ Cup all-purpose flour
¾ Cup sugar
¾ Cup butter cold & diced
1/3 Cup sliced almonds
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt

Coarse sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 10-inch tart or spring form pan.  (I think mine was actually 9 inch if it matters)

Stir together the wet ingredients.  In a separate large bowl combine the flour and sugar.  Cut in the butter like you would a pie dough until it creates a coarse meal. 

Remove ½ cup of this mixture and put it in a small bowl and mix it with the almonds.  Set aside.

With the remaining flour mixture whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and use quick stirs until just combined (It will be thick but light like a muffin batter).

Spread about 2/3 of the batter in the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Spoon the reserved fruit mixture over the batter, spreading to cover but leaving a ½ inch border from the sides.  Dollop mounds of batter on top of the fruit mixture and then spread together to make a top layer.  It’s ok if there are some gaps – mine didn’t look too pretty.  Sprinkle the crumb topping over it and then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Place on baking sheet and bake for about 35 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean, the cake pulls away from the edges of the pan, and it’s a nice golden color on top.  Cool for about 15 min and then remove the sides of the pan.

 

Yum!  I should make this again before there aren’t any more peaches.  I imagine this cake would go well with most fruits.  I can’t really think of winter fruit right now but I’m sure there are some you could cook up and throw in there. (Apologies for the formatting and somewhat large pics, this computer and I still do not get along)

 

Easiest side dish EVER

I found the tiniest blurb ever in the June Rachael Ray for a Tomato & Basil bake and I figured that those are two of my most favorite things, so why not? Turns out this is the easiest thing in the world to make and it was amazing!

1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves of garlic
1 T EVOO
1/3 c panko I didn't have panko so I used Italian bread crumbs instead
2 T melted butter
2 T chopped basil

Toss tomatoes, garlic, and EVOO in an 8 inch baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. I used cherry tomatoes and some mini heirloom tomatoes, hence the yellow in there.
Broil, stirring until tomatoes soften, approximately 12 minutes
Stir panko and butter together, sprinkle over the tomatoes and broil for 30 seconds. I stirred the basil in with the Italian breadcrumbs and butter and sprinkled it all over to broil

And that was that. So easy and unbelievably delicious. I had mine with garlic naan and that was all I needed for a nice, summer supper! 
 

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

I'm alive! After yet another month of inactivity...I am broadcasting to you live from the new apartment. I managed to get all my kitchen goodies into the smaller space and I added a snazzy kitchen cart named Charlie to the gang. He and Gladys are besties now.

Anywho, since I've been doing nothing but moving, assembling furniture, driving to IKEA, and repairing holes we put in the drywall, I have a stack of recipes that I've been flagging but haven't had the chance to make. I picked one this afternoon to test out: Blueberry Oat Bars. I have renamed them Blueberry Cheesecake Bars because it seems much more fitting.

I got the recipe from the May/June issue of Taste of the South.

1 1/4 c flour (plus 2 T later)
1 c quick cooking oats
1 2/3 c sugar (divided)
3/4 t baking powder
2/3 c salted butter, melted
2 (8 oz) boxes cream cheese
4 large eggs
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 t vanilla
2 c fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 and grease 13x9 baking dish

Mix together 1 1/4 c flour, 2/3 c sugar, baking powder, and melted butter. Press out the mixture into the bottom of the dish.  Bake about 15 minutes until the crust begins to brown around the edges. Let cool for 30 minutes. Side note, we don't have a microwave in this place, so I melted butter in the preheating oven.  This took FOREVER. But it worked :)

Reduce oven heat to 325

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until creamy, add remaining cup of sugar, 2 T flour until blended. Add eggs one at a time until blended, add lemon juice and vanilla. I looked at the recipe wrong before I went shopping and only bought one box of cream cheese. Luckily I had also bought a tub of whipped cream cheese for bagels so I had enough.

Spread blueberries over the cool crust, pour cream cheese mixture over berries. Bake 40 minutes or until knife comes out clean and center feels firm. Let cool for 2 hours, cover, and chill in fridge for 3 hours. I have no patience. Mine cooled maybe an hour before going in the fridge. I cut them after the were chilling for about 2 hours ish and yes I can see how they'd be even better totally cold and firm but they were darn tasty still a touch warm.
I always tend to make really rich chocolate desserts so this was a good alternative, especially when it's so hot outside. (Although I won't complain, my poor biggy is in 120 degree heat!!!) Totally a make again recipe...it would be great for pot lucks too because you could make it the night before and it would be ready to go in the morning.

 

Chops, grits, and 'maters

After all this Asian-y experimenting, it was time for some Southern yumminess. Last month's Real Simple had a recipe for pork chops, cheesy grits, and tomatoes so that's what I went for!
I used paprika, salt, and pepper to season up the 'chops and cooked them up in olive oil. Once the meat was out, I added a bunch of halved grape tomatoes, 1/4 c. cider vinegar and 3 T. of brown sugar to the skillet and cooked it until the tomatoes got a bit soft.

I used quick cook grits, added almost 2 cups of white cheddar cheese, salt, and pepper as the 1/2 c. of grits thickened up. I also boiled the first ear of corn of the summer! Here is the final product. Total Southern tastiness. (I will use white cheddar in my grits again, they were slammin')

Porky Potstickers

So the third and final recipe from the three meals one grocery list article is for potstickers. I think they should maybe be called rolls of some kind because potstickers seem to be pouches of sorts but anywho...

This recipe was actually much easier than I expected it to be. I am no longer afraid of wonton wrappers, it's official!
So pork went in first, then the bok choy and garlic. I didn't have crushed red pepper flakes, so I used cayenne and some slightly random seasoning mix I have. I also had no soy sauce so I used Worcestershire sauce instead...

 Mixed this in with the pork and I was ready to roll!

 I followed the directions and wet one edge of the wrapper, then filled it with the mixture and rolled towards the wet edge. (I used my fingers, dipped them in water and then ran them along the edge. Don't know if that's how it should be done, but it worked great!)

Look at them all! They actually held together and looked legit. I was pretty proud!

Into the skillet! The recipe basically said to fry them off in the skillet so I brushed them with oil and I added a little to the pan just in case. I put them seam side down and then flipped when golden.

Final product plus the radish salad. I will admit I was a little skeptical about this concoction but it turns out that cilantro, radish, and lemon juice is pretty tasty. I'm not sure I would make it again, but I am glad I tested it out.  I also need to remember to add salt if I skip the soy sauce again with the potstickers. Overall good meal though!

Taco Night!

Ash seems to be implying we are slackers at blogging.  Fine, I’ll do it.  It is a lazy Sunday meal though, one that I put very little planning in and looked up recipes while enjoying a beer.  It did turn out better than expected!

It all started with my desire for some grilled corn Tyler Florence style.  He calls it Mexican grilled corn, so it’s basically that recipe from Food Network but modified a bit. I was sketched out by this when I first tried it last year, but it is DELICIOUS. It’s grilled corn covered in a mayo based sauce and other delights.  I’m not a big mayo person but all the other flavors combined make it a delight.

 

 

I also wanted to grill some kind of limey chicken to make tacos with but was out-voted and we bought a steak to grill.  The recipe calls for flank or skirt steak but all I could find was flat iron.  It seems similar and worked well so, whatever. (You could probably use any meat.)

Taco night ended up being very tasty.  I stuffed the steak in a tortilla, topped with some homemade pico, queso fresco, and grilled onions.  YUM.

Grilled Corn

4 ears of corn in the husk
¼ cup light mayo
½ C low fat sour cream
Juice of a lime
handful of chopped up cilantro
Cotija or other Mexican cheese (I used Queso Fresco)
Chili powder

Mix the mayo, sour cream, lime and cilantro in a bowl.  Soak the corn for about 30 min and then grill until all sides are charred.  Shuck the corn.

While the corn is still warm, slather with the mayo mixture, sprinkle the cheese all over it and dust with chili powder to taste.

Cilantro lime marinade

Juice of 1 Lime
1 Garlic Clove, smashed
Cilantro
1/3 cup Olive Oil
2 teaspoons of Honey
1/2 teaspoon of Cumin
1/2 teaspoon of Ancho-Chili Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
Kosher Salt and Fresh Black Pepper, to taste

Chop up lime, cilantro, and garlic in a mini food processor.  Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until well combined. 

Pour marinade over the steak in a plastic bag.  I marinated 30 min at room temp.  I’m sure you could go longer for more flavor in the fridge, but it was plenty tasty.

Grill approx. 3 or 4 min a side.  Ours was done a little under medium. 

 

Asian "Lasagna"

Jo Anna was very uncomfortable with this concept, but I can't think of a more clever name, so, quotes it is.

So, Asian Lasagna from Rachael Ray. I started by prepping all the ingredients so I chop chopped bok choy, shredded cheese, warmed up some milk, and threw an onion in the food processor.

Now, I have never worked with bok choy, but it was essentially celery stalks with lettuce leaves on top, so that was easy enough.

 

Once everything was prepped, I started with the butter and flour in the pan, whisking til it was pretty thick. Then I added the milk. (I did actually use whole milk...a lot of times I'll just use my skim, but I thought for a cream sauce in a potentially sketchy dish I'd better buy a baby whole milk) Here I am whisking and whisking until it boiled and got thick. Then off the heat, in with the cheese, salt, and pepper.

New pan, in goes a smidge of butter and the ground pork. Browned that up and set it aside.

 After I pulled the meat out I added the onion and bok choy stems and cooked them until they were soft. Then in went the leaves, the pork, and some lemon zest. I cooked this down just a bit and then came the interesting part.

 Turns out wonton wrappers are super easy to work with. Naturally I do not have an 8x8 baking dish (thought a brownie pan would be weird...) so I went for the oval. Did not have a ton of trouble making the wrappers fit, as you can see. I layered in sauce, wrappers, meat, repeat. (The recipe says to dip them in warm water before you layer, and that made a lot of sense, giving them the texture you would assume these things should have)

 There she is before the oven...

 And after.
So this dish was really pretty yummy. The wonton wrappers are way less fatty than lasagna noodles, although I am sure we made up for that in the cream sauce...but still, that's always nice. The only thing I would change next round would be less bok choy leaves. I don't like greens and these were a little too healthy tasting for me :) The stems were delicious with the onions, though, and the cheese sauce was awesome.
Most excellent day two of summer blogging if I do say so myself!