You may have noticed that I have not been posting recipes lately. That is because my DH has already left in our big move. We are moving to Lausanne, Switzerland, and he went ahead. So, I have a few "Cooking for One" recipes.
First, a fabulous sandwich.
Balsamic Chicken and Ham Sandwich
2 slices of white bread
3 slices deli shaved honey ham
3 slices deli shaved rotisserie chicken
1 slice provolone cheese
3 slices on-the-vine tomato
10 arugula leaves
balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp goat cheese with herbs
1. Spread the goat cheese on one piece of bread. Pile on the deli meats and top with the provolone. 2. Build the salad on the sandwich. Spread the tomato and place the arugula on top. 3. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and enjoy! This goes well with a handful of blackberries on the side.
Microwave Scrambled Eggs
1 slice red onion, diced
1/4 green pepper, diced
2 eggs- one whole, and one separated so that the egg white goes in and you save the yolk for something else.
a splash of cream
some cheese
S&P
1. Place your vegetables in the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl. Add the eggs, one whole and one just egg white, and stir around the vegetables. Add a splash of cream. 2. Microwave for 30 seconds until the eggs begin to set up. Add the cheese and pepper BUT NOT SALT (it will make the eggs rubbery). 3. Continue to microwave for thirty second intervals (you'll probably need another minute in total). Keep an eye on the eggs so that they are not overcooked. When the egg starts to bubble, pull it out. 4. Season with salt to your taste. Enjoy!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Florentine-y Rotini
Oh, this is such a wonderful recipe. It's creamy and delicious, and it's fairly healthful. At various times, I added chicken, kielbasa, and meatloaf to this, and also ate it without any meat at all. It served me, my mom and my sister several times over. I would say you can get 4-6 heaping servings of this.
Florentine-y Rotini
3/4 lb short cut pasta, such as rotini
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 package frozen spinach, defrosted and drained in a kitchen towel
15-20 stalks asparagus, cut into two inch pieces
3/4 cup Parmigiano reggiano, grated
Salt and Pepper
1. Put your pasta water on to boil. When it reaches boiling, season the water and add the pasta.
2. Start a traditional milk sauce in a large saucepan. Melt the butter over medium high heat and whisk in the flour. After a minute or so, when the flour taste has cooked off, pour in the milk. Whisk briskly until it begins to thicken. Add in the garlic and shallot to the sauce. Let it cook down for a moment or two. Then, begin adding the chicken stock in batches, stirring it in over the cooking time of the pasta. After all the chicken broth is in the sauce, stir in the spinach.
3. Drain the pasta. Quickly flash-cook the asparagus pieces. Put the pasta in the saucepan and stir it around. Turn off the heat, and melt in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
Florentine-y Rotini
3/4 lb short cut pasta, such as rotini
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 package frozen spinach, defrosted and drained in a kitchen towel
15-20 stalks asparagus, cut into two inch pieces
3/4 cup Parmigiano reggiano, grated
Salt and Pepper
1. Put your pasta water on to boil. When it reaches boiling, season the water and add the pasta.
2. Start a traditional milk sauce in a large saucepan. Melt the butter over medium high heat and whisk in the flour. After a minute or so, when the flour taste has cooked off, pour in the milk. Whisk briskly until it begins to thicken. Add in the garlic and shallot to the sauce. Let it cook down for a moment or two. Then, begin adding the chicken stock in batches, stirring it in over the cooking time of the pasta. After all the chicken broth is in the sauce, stir in the spinach.
3. Drain the pasta. Quickly flash-cook the asparagus pieces. Put the pasta in the saucepan and stir it around. Turn off the heat, and melt in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Budget Friendly Arroz con Pollo
I hope you are all weathering the economic downturn with smiles and good luck. However, if you are worried about your food budget, I'd love to introduce you to a budget (And figure) friendly dish gleaned from my ultimate source of recipes--my mom. This is a Panamanian-style Arroz Con Pollo. My mom spent some time down there when she was younger, and I've never seen this version online. DH and I are stuck in the house today thanks to a great festival taking place literally right outside our door. We are already parked an eighth of a mile away, thanks to traffic. Can't get out, so it's time to hit the freezer/pantry. DH is happy that I'm cooking out of the kitchen because we're getting ready to move out of the country. That's right! We're moving to Switzerland really soon! Anyway, here's the recipe.
Arroz con pollo
1 package saffron rice
3 chicken breasts
salt
pepper
smoked paprika
red pepper flakes
paprika
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 can diced tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, chopped)
1. Start the saffron rice (I like Mahatma) according to package directions. Also, chop the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Season one side with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and Hungarian sweet paprika to taste. Then put the chicken pieces in a saucepan over medium heat with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper the other side.
2. Add in shallots and garlic and cook until the chicken is barely cooked through. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Add the can of tomatoes and the juice they came in. Also add the frozen peas. As soon as they're cooked, turn off the chicken mixture.
4. Once the rice is barely cooked, turn it into a glass casserole (I like a 9x9") and spread it out thinly. Pour the chicken mixture over it. Salt and pepper it again to taste, then turn lightly into the rice. Put it in the oven for twenty minutes. Serve once the chicken on top has lightly browned. If you like, add cilantro for garnish.
There it is! The colors on this recipe are amazing. You will be so glad you added it to your easy file.
Arroz con pollo
1 package saffron rice
3 chicken breasts
salt
pepper
smoked paprika
red pepper flakes
paprika
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 can diced tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, chopped)
1. Start the saffron rice (I like Mahatma) according to package directions. Also, chop the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Season one side with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and Hungarian sweet paprika to taste. Then put the chicken pieces in a saucepan over medium heat with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper the other side.
2. Add in shallots and garlic and cook until the chicken is barely cooked through. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Add the can of tomatoes and the juice they came in. Also add the frozen peas. As soon as they're cooked, turn off the chicken mixture.
4. Once the rice is barely cooked, turn it into a glass casserole (I like a 9x9") and spread it out thinly. Pour the chicken mixture over it. Salt and pepper it again to taste, then turn lightly into the rice. Put it in the oven for twenty minutes. Serve once the chicken on top has lightly browned. If you like, add cilantro for garnish.
There it is! The colors on this recipe are amazing. You will be so glad you added it to your easy file.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Picture Preview!
Here are pictures from my baked chicken of this evening. I will post on it soon, I promise. Probably tomorrow, but at the latest on Tuesday. Raw first. Then after cooking.
Pasta Primavera
It's spring, and the vegetables I can get are just flat out gorgeous. I made this lovely vegetarian primavera to celebrate the season. After eating this (So fresh! So Flavorful!) and seeing how easy it truly is, I will NEVER order it in a restaurant again. This version took me about half an hour (including cutting time!) and served DH and me three times each, so I guess that means it serves 6, or 4 really hungry people.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb short-cut pasta (I think you're supposed to use farfalle but I used rotini)
olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced (You might want to use 1 and 1/2, it was REALLY garlicky)
Fresh vegetables, varied. I used:
1 cup frozen peas
1 orange pepper, broken into large pieces
10 stalks spring asparagus
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 yellow squash, sliced
For the sauce:
3 Tbsp butter (that works out to 1/2 a tbsp per serving, so stop fainting)
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup 1% milk
8-10 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 handful grated parmesan cheese and extra to grate on top
1. First, I put cut up my vegetables and had them all ready to go.
2. Put water for the pasta on to boil. Once it boils, add some salt, then the pasta.
3. Start the vegetables. In a large saucepan, I ran the olive oil around the pan a couple times. Over medium high heat, I sauteed the shallot and garlic. When they got soft and slightly browned, I added in the frozen peas. Once the frost evaporated, I added the rest of the veggies, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked until crisp-tender.
4. Start the sauce. I used a separate pan, but you could easily push the veggies aside and make the sauce right in your veggie saucepan. Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Cook for a couple minutes so the flour doesn't taste raw. Then add your milk and basil so you end up with a basil-scented milk sauce. Add a tiny amount of salt and generous amount of pepper. Melt in your cheese.
5. Check your pasta, and drain it when it's just on the crunchy side of al dente. Toss the pasta, sauce, and vegetables together. Check the seasoning. Turn off the heat, scoop into bowls, and add a smattering of freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1/2 lb short-cut pasta (I think you're supposed to use farfalle but I used rotini)
olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced (You might want to use 1 and 1/2, it was REALLY garlicky)
Fresh vegetables, varied. I used:
1 cup frozen peas
1 orange pepper, broken into large pieces
10 stalks spring asparagus
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 yellow squash, sliced
For the sauce:
3 Tbsp butter (that works out to 1/2 a tbsp per serving, so stop fainting)
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup 1% milk
8-10 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 handful grated parmesan cheese and extra to grate on top
1. First, I put cut up my vegetables and had them all ready to go.
2. Put water for the pasta on to boil. Once it boils, add some salt, then the pasta.
3. Start the vegetables. In a large saucepan, I ran the olive oil around the pan a couple times. Over medium high heat, I sauteed the shallot and garlic. When they got soft and slightly browned, I added in the frozen peas. Once the frost evaporated, I added the rest of the veggies, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked until crisp-tender.
4. Start the sauce. I used a separate pan, but you could easily push the veggies aside and make the sauce right in your veggie saucepan. Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Cook for a couple minutes so the flour doesn't taste raw. Then add your milk and basil so you end up with a basil-scented milk sauce. Add a tiny amount of salt and generous amount of pepper. Melt in your cheese.
5. Check your pasta, and drain it when it's just on the crunchy side of al dente. Toss the pasta, sauce, and vegetables together. Check the seasoning. Turn off the heat, scoop into bowls, and add a smattering of freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Austro-Hungarian Casserole
This is a silly name for a yummy, comfort food dish. I made it up to use up some stuff in my fridge, but the end result was really good, so I'm sharing.
Austro-Hungarian Casserole
First layer:
1 bag sauerkraut
olive oil
celery salt
paprika
salt and pepper
honey mustard
white wine mustard
1. Drain the sauerkraut. Turn on the oven at 350F. Heat a saucepan over medium high heat and pour in about a tablespoon of oil. Brown the sauerkraut. Sprinkle liberally with celery salt, salt and pepper, and paprika. Pour out the sauerkraut into a 9x5 baking pan. When you have it laying flat, squeeze out lines of mustard on top. I did a crosshatch pattern so in some places my white wine mustard and my honey mustard combined. That's the closest you can get to sweet mustard from Austria without buying "senf" in tubes (cheaper too).
Second Layer:
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
paprika
salt and pepper
1. Using the same pan as the sauerkraut, pour in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the onion and pepper, stirring frequently, until glassy. Add LOTS of paprika. Your onions should turn orange. Season with salt and pepper. This is the layer I found myself sneaking tastes of out of the pan. 2. Pour over the sauerkraut. Don't mix.
Third Layer
kielbasa (however much you want, I was almost out when I created this recipe)
1. Cook your kielbasa according to package directions. I was using precooked, so I browned the edges using Rachael Ray's method. It's murder on your pan, but the sausage casings get nice and crisp. She has you put about an inch of water in a pan and a drizzle of olive oil. Then put in the sausages over medium high heat and leave them be. Once all the water evaporates, turn the sausages frequently. Try to get the casings crisp before the oil and fat turn to black sludge. :)
2. Pour out the sausages and any fat you managed to salvage over the casserole. Put the whole casserole in the oven for 20 minutes. Serve in bowls and stir up to your own satisfaction, or leave it in layers.
Voila! You have made a delicious, definitely eastern-European tasting comfort food. Next time I'm going to saute in some turnip greens or kale in the green pepper/onion layer. :)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Scallops Appetizer and my feelings on FRESH fish
I have a friend who, unfortunately, has to avoid gluten. She does not get to eat outside her own kitchen very often as a result. However, DH and I recently decided to accept an offer to live in Switzerland. So we decided to have my friend over to celebrate. Celebration dinners are wonderful, because it's ok to splurge a little. And believe me, I did. We ended up with a menu of bacon-wrapped sea scallops, wild mushroom risotto, salmon with a white wine compound butter sauce, and sauteed spinach. Yum. I was pleased to find that both my friend and her husband were sea scallop virgins. Admittedly, scallops are slightly intimidating. But they are truly one of the most delicious things in the world, especially fresh. I think my friend and her hubby were lucky that their first experience was with this easy, classic recipe.
Bacon-wrapped Sea Scallops
8 diver scallops, muscle removed
8 slices of thin-cut bacon (I used center cut and hickory smoked)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of butter
toothpicks
First, prepare the scallops. Make sure you buy them THAT DAY and that they are kept in a bag with ice underneath it all the way home from the grocery store. Look them over for a little tough muscle on the side. If they have it, pull it off. I also rinsed them in cold water and then patted them dry with paper towels. You don't want them wet at all, because it messes up the caramelization.
Next, take a slice of bacon and roll the scallop in it. You end up with what looks like a coin--white on the inside, pink on the outside. Stick two toothpicks straight through the bacon and scallop so your bacon stays on. This is actually pretty cool, because now you have something you can grab with your tongs and you don't have to worry about the scallops slipping.
Once you have wrapped all your scallops, salt and pepper them liberally. Then melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a pan. With tongs, place the scallops in your pan. Make sure you leave room between the scallops--don't let them touch! Don't move them at all for at least five minutes. Then, when you have a nice caramelization, turn them over. One time. That's it. Don't move them again for about four minutes. Remove to your serving plate and serve. If you like, pull out the toothpicks first.
My husband has a strange scale when he rates my food. I'm usually at an 8 or a 9, even when I make his favorite dishes. But my scallops were a 10. I think that says it all.
Now, about the fresh fish. One of the comments my friend made was that my salmon tasted better than hers. I asked her where she bought hers, and she said Wal-mart. Now, I am like most people, and the big W can save you a lot of money on certain things. In fact, if you're planning on serving it THAT night, and you're feeding at least 8 people, Sam's sells good fish. But if it's just two of you, and you're buying fish...well, I'm sorry, but you should buy it the night you plan to serve it, and it should be fresh. We compared prices, and I paid 23 cents an ounce more than her. I think the taste is worth the price. I live in Atlanta, which is landlocked. So when I buy fish, I go somewhere with a fish department. I also ask what's fresh, and I always get ice for my bag. Snooty? Probably. But I've never had food poisoning from my fish. And it tastes great. Plus, there are all those health benefits. I'm sorry to get all preachy. I could go into wild-caught versus farm raised and talk about trying to buy fish as locally as possible. But I won't. I'll just say that if it's not fresh, it's probably not worth it.
Bacon-wrapped Sea Scallops
8 diver scallops, muscle removed
8 slices of thin-cut bacon (I used center cut and hickory smoked)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of butter
toothpicks
First, prepare the scallops. Make sure you buy them THAT DAY and that they are kept in a bag with ice underneath it all the way home from the grocery store. Look them over for a little tough muscle on the side. If they have it, pull it off. I also rinsed them in cold water and then patted them dry with paper towels. You don't want them wet at all, because it messes up the caramelization.
Next, take a slice of bacon and roll the scallop in it. You end up with what looks like a coin--white on the inside, pink on the outside. Stick two toothpicks straight through the bacon and scallop so your bacon stays on. This is actually pretty cool, because now you have something you can grab with your tongs and you don't have to worry about the scallops slipping.
Once you have wrapped all your scallops, salt and pepper them liberally. Then melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a pan. With tongs, place the scallops in your pan. Make sure you leave room between the scallops--don't let them touch! Don't move them at all for at least five minutes. Then, when you have a nice caramelization, turn them over. One time. That's it. Don't move them again for about four minutes. Remove to your serving plate and serve. If you like, pull out the toothpicks first.
My husband has a strange scale when he rates my food. I'm usually at an 8 or a 9, even when I make his favorite dishes. But my scallops were a 10. I think that says it all.
Now, about the fresh fish. One of the comments my friend made was that my salmon tasted better than hers. I asked her where she bought hers, and she said Wal-mart. Now, I am like most people, and the big W can save you a lot of money on certain things. In fact, if you're planning on serving it THAT night, and you're feeding at least 8 people, Sam's sells good fish. But if it's just two of you, and you're buying fish...well, I'm sorry, but you should buy it the night you plan to serve it, and it should be fresh. We compared prices, and I paid 23 cents an ounce more than her. I think the taste is worth the price. I live in Atlanta, which is landlocked. So when I buy fish, I go somewhere with a fish department. I also ask what's fresh, and I always get ice for my bag. Snooty? Probably. But I've never had food poisoning from my fish. And it tastes great. Plus, there are all those health benefits. I'm sorry to get all preachy. I could go into wild-caught versus farm raised and talk about trying to buy fish as locally as possible. But I won't. I'll just say that if it's not fresh, it's probably not worth it.
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