Some stuff I made that was pretty much awesome!

Okay - here are a few things I have made this month. First we have a Lime tart in a coconut shortbread shell. I am not the biggest fan of citrus and all the sourness it has to offer the world. Let's put it this way - If citrus was the last food on earth I probably still wouldn't eat it. Unfortunately, one of my chef's loves citrus and has to add zest to everything he teaches us to make...on most days I will spend at least 10 minutes trying to convince him to go without it. : ) However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually liked this tart - I think the subtle coconut in the shell really complimented the citrus flavor. I also reduced the lime juice by 1 ounce...take that Chef! : ) Also, most people decorated the top of their tarts with the traditional Medusa look - covering the entire top of the tart. I thought the filling was so pretty and deserved to be seen. I also thought the lime zest made it pretty obvious that it wasn't a lemon tart, but was indeed a lime tart. As you can see, I am still working on my torching skills. : ) I was just playing around with the meringue and came up with this sun flower like pattern that I was pleased with. Kudos to originality!

Next we have a Sour cream Oreo cheesecake. Cheesecake tends to be so heavy tasting and really sits in your stomach - by using 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 cream cheese it really lightens cheesecake up. I made a chocolate tart bottom ahead of time and baked my cheesecake separately in a spring form pan. Then placed the cheesecake on top of the shell and covered it with crushed oreos. I was very pleased with the end product and will definitely make this one again with the addition of a fudge sauce drizzled on top.

Last, but not least we have a simple yet elegant tea cookie - Diamante Cookie. This is an easy icebox cookie that is mixed and then rolled into a log, chilled, brushed with egg wash, rolled in raw sugar crystals, sliced, and then baked. So delicious! Last year for my birthday my friend Maggie gave me some shortbread cookies from Dean and Deluca similar to these, but they had crystallized ginger bits in them. Next time I plan on adding ginger to mine. These are awesome and would make a sweet gift for anyone! They also freeze well.

Wild rice a la risotto

I am constantly in search of a good side dish to accompany my main entrees. What will go with roast chicken, roast roast, grilled shrimp, or turkey? Plain old potatoes or plain old rice just never did cut it. I decided to try something new and make wild rice using the traditional risotto method. Most people think that risotto is an Italian dish made with Arborio rice...however risotto is actually a method, that is traditionally made with shorter grained rice like Arborio. Interesting. Anyways, for Mother's day we boiled some awesome shrimp and paired it with a crisp salad and my new favorite...wild rice a la risotto!

Wild Rice A La Risotto:
Recipe by moi.


Olive oil
4 slices of bacon (optional...but makes it oh so much better...I did it without and it was still yummy)
1 medium-large onion - diced small
2 cloves minced garlic
3 cups wild rice
1/2 white wine
6 cups good quality chicken broth
salt and pepper = sap

Heat chicken broth in sauce pan on low heat. Meanwhile - Coat bottom of deep skillet with olive oil. Fry bacon slices until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and chop into bits. Add diced onion to pan and saute until nice carmelization is achieved. Add garlic and constantly stir 1 minute - be careful not to burn the garlic...it will taste bitter if you do. Add rice to pan and toast over medium=high heat for 2 minutes. Pour wine over rice and deglaze (scrape bits off bottom of pan) for 30 seconds. Slowly add a ladle of warmed chicken broth at a time to skillet of rice - stir constantly until liquid is absorbed, and then add another ladle. Continue this process while constantly stirring until rice is tender. Return bacon bits to pan. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy! It is so good!!!

Easter Feast!

I love Easter! Alleluia! I also love Easter feasts of endless counter tops filled to the brim with insanely high calorie/high flavor items. This Easter I must say I outdid myself. Everything looked and apparently tasted awesome. I say "apparently", because my Easter was tainted with the evil stomach bug which decided to strike me down right in the middle of my indulging. Darn sickness. I was in bed Easter mid day - Tuesday with an awful feverish disease...which has now been banished from my veins...Praise the Lord! It pains me to speak of these foods which I was not able to fully appreciate, but nevertheless they merit a nod of recognition.

Appetizer:

Cheese tray: Gouda - my Aunt brought us some from Holland - yummy
Sharp Vermont white cheddar - my fam's favor
Brie - an absolute must for my Padre
Manchego - nice.
Fresh and delicious green and purple grapes
Mini crisp dill pickles
Homemade crackers - I used a recipe from the 101 cookbooks website - Wicked simple and awesome! There are a few left and they are still nice and crisp 5 days later. I sprinkled Parmesan on top before baking and then some coarse salt. I am lucky enough to have a pasta maker so I flattened them in this. Everyone loved them! I will be making these again!
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/olive-oil-crackers-recipe.html

Main Course:

Sauteed green and purple asparagus with shallots in a wine butter glaze. - I like my asparagus nice and crispy to I cut them up into 2 inch pieces and blanched them in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Then I sauteed the shallots in butter and olive oil - deglazed the pan with white wine. Added the blanched asparagus to the pan and sauteed a few more minutes. Salt and pepper. Nice, simple, and fresh - the light glaze was the perfect amount of flavor it needed.

Creamy Mashed new potatoes - I put cut up potatoes and put them in a pan of cold salted water...(fyi - if it grows below the ground you should put it in cold water and then bring to a boil...if it grows above the ground you bring to a boil and then add item). Cooked. Mashed. Added butter, heavy cream, and some chicken broth for flavor, salt and pepper. Another thing I learned about mashed potatoes...mash as smooth as you want before adding cream or milk - because after you add cream they won't get any smoother.

Garlic and herb roasted leg of lamb. - I marinate my lamb overnight in a mixture of Dijon, olive oil, fresh rosemary and thyme, salt and pepper, and garlic. Roasted 20 minutes per/1b. until internal temp of meat reached 145 degrees. Let rest 10-15 minutes before carving. We have this at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. I think my sister came home from college just for the lamb.

Fresh and Hot homemade crusty dinner rolls. - I used a King Arthur Flour recipe - I made a starter dough Friday night. Then made the main dough Saturday - added the starter (this gives it the slight sourdough taste)...Benched, punched, benched, shaped and then refrigerated over night. Baked in hot oven 20 minutes before dinner on baking stones. Sounds complicated, but it was simple. Nothing beats hot dinner rolls.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/crusty-hard-rolls-recipe

Dessert:

Dutch Apple Pie - My chef's recipe - it is awesome and perfect. I will post the recipe from our book in the near future.
Oreo Cheesecake - I make a lighter cheesecake with sour cream and cream cheese - it yields a not so heavy on your stomach feeling cheesecake.

Not to mention I also made cinnamon scones for breakfast and a fritatta. Whew - now time to start planning for the next Holiday meal! : ) Happy Easter!

You don't need a tortilla to call it a taco.

small dice - pulsed in the food processor - fresh cilantro

I love taco salad. The absolute best dinner ever! Healthy...yummy...satisfying. What more could you ask for in a dinner? All the benefits of salad without the fat of dressing...its like eating a garden with a garden sauce. It is a quick meal, that is a crowd pleaser. I made a big taco salad last night for dinner...awesome. The thing that makes this salad shine is the Pico de Gallo. My sister is not a sweets person like me, instead she is always craving chips and dip. When she lived with me this past summer I made her lots and lots of Pico!

Chicken for tacos or taco salad:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup tequila (or white wine...better with tequila...but white wine will do)

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. fresh chopped garlic

1/4 chopped chopped fresh cilantro

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Place in Ziploc bag along with rest of ingredients. Mix and mush around. Place in fridge and marinate for at least 1 hour....the longer the better : ). Heat skillet to medium heat. Place chicken in pan and cook until no longer pink.

Salad fixins:

Romaine lettuce (or spinach...you can use iceberg...but I think iceberg is wicked lame)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Sour cream

Salsa
Pico de Gallo (recipe to follow)

Black beans

Avocado

Crushed tortilla chips

Pico de Gallo:

1 large round tomato

1 small red onion

1 jalapeno

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/8 cup lemon or lime juice

Chop all ingredients nice and small. Or pulse in the food processor for a more finely chopped product. Tastes better if refrigerated overnight. Serve over salad, on tacos, or mix with chopped avocado and eat with chips.

Fun facts about Pico de Gallo:

- "Pico de Gallo" means "Rooster's beak" in Spanish...the jalapeno looks like a beak...this is why they call it this.

- The colors represent the Mexican flag red-tomato, green-jalapeno, white-onion.

- Another meaning of the name is from the verb "picar" which means: To chop or mince, or bite and sting.

Silly Rabbit, Carrots are for kids.

I must say I used to loathe carrots. They looked like an accidental creation...weird shape, covered in dirt, tasted like dirt, but somehow wasn't dirt. Every time I eat a meal I hear my mom's voice in the back of my mind..."make sure you get some veggies...here, take some carrot sticks." Well I guess her persistence finally paid off...believe it or not, I now like carrots. I enjoy carrots frequently as a mid afternoon snack with hummus, or ranch dressing, or plain. I must say though, the absolute best way to enjoy carrots is baked into a cake. : )

My mother loves 2 kinds of cake. Carrot and German Chocolate. For years I have been researching and testing out new recipes to find one that will satisfy her picky taste. I am proud to say I finally found a winner! My mom turned 29 again this past weekend...um yeah...and I made this cake with the hopes of baking her the most perfect carrot cake I could. This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe with a few changes of my own. I nixed the pineapple on top, added 1 cup of coconut to the batter, used pecans instead of walnuts, omitted the raisins, and made it into 3- 8" round pans. The pineapple and the carrots make this cake so incredibly moist and delicious. I prefer cold carrot cake, so I like to chill my cake in the fridge for at least 12 hours before eating it...if it can last that long without someone eating it! The thing that really makes this cake awesome is the icing. Sometimes I find cream cheese icing to be too sweet, so sweet that it actually hurts my teeth. This icing is a nice blend of butter and cream cheese and yields a much lighter and delicate sweetness. In the future I hope to make the icing with 1/2 marscapone cheese and see what happens. Also, I think that banana bread or zucchini bread made into cake rounds would also be wicked good layered up with this icing. Without further ado...

Oh, and I realize I have been posting a lot of dessert recipes...which is truly my forte, but I promise to post more of my savory culinary recipes in the near future! FYI - This cake would be an awesome end to your upcoming Easter feasts!

Carrot Cake El Yummy

For the cake:

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided, and sifted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 pound carrots, grated
1/2 cup diced fresh...or canned crushed pineapple

For the frosting:

3/4 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 cup finely chopped pecans...I pulsed mine in the food processor.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter 3 (8-inch) round cake pans.

Beat the sugar, oil, and eggs together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light yellow. Add the vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, the cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the coconut and pecans with 1 tablespoon flour, mix into batter. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. DO NOT OVER MIX! Divide the batter equally between the 3 pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.

Mix the cream cheese, butter and vanilla with electric mixer until combined. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.
Place 1 layer, flat-side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Repeat. Repeat. Cover sides with icing...then carefully press crushed pecans onto the sides only. Chill. Eat. Share only if you want people to love you! p.s. This picture is before I had a chance to clean up the edges...so it is a bit rustic and messy looking, but you get the idea : )

Muffins Rock my socks

Wow - life has been busy. I went skiing in Utah for a week and it took up three of my weeks with planning and recovering : ) Since I have been so swamped I haven't been in the kitchen all that much. This weekend I did make some blueberry muffins and they made me smile. This sour cream batter is very versatile and can be made into cinnamon streusal muffins (or a coffee cake), blueberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins, banana muffins, or just add any kind of fruit you like. This recipe is adapted from the Barefoot Contessa version. I don't like using cake flour because it is bleached, so instead I used all purpose unbleached flour. I haven't tried yet, but I imagine it would also work well with white wheat flour or a combination of whole wheat and all purpose flour. I plan on experimenting soon.

Sour cream makes these guys nice and moist - I use full fat organic sour cream, but any kind will work. Also, if you are out of sour cream I have also made these with plain or vanilla yogurt - they come out a little bit different - but still delicious! The sour cream and yogurt's acidity helps tenderize your muffin, so basically it is enhancing the natural beauty your muffin has to offer : )

Random fact: "Smetana" -is a heavy sour cream used in Slavic, Finnish and Hungarian cuisines.

Sour Cream Muffins:

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar with blender until light and fluffy -4-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time until well blended. Then blend in the vanilla and sour cream. Add dry to wet one cup at a time until fully incorporated. Be sure not to over mix...this will toughen up your batter, yielding a more dense product.

At this point you can get creative and add what you like. I always toss my mix ins with a tiny bit of flour to keep them from falling to the bottom. You can use fresh or frozen fruit. When I made the blueberry muffins this weekend I added 1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries, then I topped it with the streusal topping. (recipe below). Fill muffin liners to the top - do not overfill - they will spill over when baked. Bake 15-20 minutes for regular muffin cups, and 20-25 for jumbo ones. Allow muffins to cool before removing them from the pan. Best eaten fresh and hot, but if not, cover completely before storing.

If you want to make a Coffee cake - pour 1/2 the batter into a greased 9x13 pan or a bunt pan. Sprinkle 1/2 streusal recipe over batter, cover with rest of batter and then the rest of the streusal. Bake 45-50 minutes.

Streusel:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional...I usually don't add the nuts because people here don't like them : )

Hummus

Hummus...I don't remember my life before hummus. So yummy. So good. I used to buy my hummus from Trader Joe's in Virginia, but alas, darn old Texas does not have a Trader Joe's. So I started making my own. It is so simple, and easy! My preferred method of eating hummus is just dipping sliced red peppers or carrot sticks in it for a healthy protein filled snack. The even better way to eat it is by toasting some pitas in the oven, and then dipping them in warm hummus. My old roommate used to make a delicious sandwich - a thick layer of hummus on one side of the bread, a layer of goat cheese on the other side, and grilled or roasted red peppers, eggplant in the middle. I don't like eggplant all that much, its texture feels like a slimy glob- yuck! So I modified her sandwich and put grilled asparagus, red peppers, onions, and zucchini in the middle - with olive oil, salt and pepper drizzled on top. Awesome! Hummus is also an great thing to bring to parties, or to have at your own parties - it is always popular with the peeps!

My garlic hummus:

2 cups canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
5 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini paste
1 tsp. kosher salt
4 tbsp. olive oil

Pulse garlic in food processor or blender until small mince is achieved. Add chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini paste, and salt. Pulse for a few seconds. Slowly add the olive oil and pulse until smooth. If it is too thick add more olive oil. Store leftovers in the fridge...if there are any : )

*Notes:
All chick peas are garbanzo beans. All garbanzo beans are chick peas. Therefore, chick peas are garbanzo beans. Chick peas are wicked high in protein and fiber, which means they make you a better person.

Tahini paste is ground up sesame seeds. It is a popular ingredient in Middle Eastern dishes. It's name comes from the Arabic word "tˁ-ħ-n" which is a verb that means 'to grind'

I prefer roasted garlic in this recipe, but if you are short on time raw garlic works too. To roast the garlic, cut off the top exposing the tips of the cloves. Sprinkle with olive oil and place in 400 degree oven in a covered pan for 30-40 minutes. Squeeze cloves out of their skins to use. So delicious in everything! Especially Mashed Potatoes!