Salad Photo-Op

Most often I dont make a salad from a recipe. I like mixing veggies and fruits with olive oil, salt and pepper. Today I had home-canned peaches (My mother is a terrific canner!) and pomegranate with romaine lettuce. Simple and delicious!

From Blogger Pictures

Sauted Mushroom Appetizer

How many mushrooms does this take? Umm, you know, about 1 box??? I never buy sliced mushrooms because whole ones are always in better shape. This recipe is delicious when you can find beautiful fresh button-small brown mushrooms in which case they can be prepared whole. However, if you can only find larger mushrooms and want to speed up your cooking time, you can prepare them in thick slices.

2 tbsp olive oil
Generous pat of butter
1 box small brown mushrooms
2 tbsp finely diced shallots (or onion, what's available!)
2 tsp diced garlic
4 tbsp bread crumbs (I just mash up some toast)
Salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Italian Parsley or Cilantro

Heat olive oil and butter in medium frying pan on medium heat. Toss in mushrooms, small and whole or diced. After a few minutes, add shallots and garlic. Saute another 8-10 minutes until mushrooms are almost done and shallots are sweet. Add bread crumbs, plenty of pepper and salt to taste. Let the bread crumbs soak up some of the liquids and add lemon juice and herbs. Serve immediately piping hot!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These are my absolute favorite cookies. And Ive included my "secret" ingredient, so anyone ready to hunt their local Indian grocer for the perfect touch of spice can replicate these sweet babies.

Mix together:
1 cup butter, margarine or crisco (or combination)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar

Add:
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix in:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp masala
(if you havent procured this from your local Indian grocer, you may substitute 1/2 tsp Nutmeg.)

Add:
2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins

Bake at 350 on ungreased cookie sheet for 13 minutes. I recommend cooling on paper bags, this removes excess butter from the bottoms.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Blogger Pictures

These are classic, although my favorite cookies are my Oatmeal Raisin.

Mix together:
One cup butter, margarine or crisco (or a combination)
One cup brown sugar
One cup sugar

Add:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Mix in:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Add:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 bag chocolate chips

Bake at 350, on greased baking sheet for 13 minutes. I recommend cooling on a paper bag, which soaks up some excess butter from the bottoms.

Ginger Coconut Chicken Soup

2 cups cubed chicken (Breasts, thighs or tenders, whatever's handy.)
1 chopped onion
1/4 cup finely diced ginger
1 tbsp finely diced garlic
2 cups chopped carrot
2 cups chopped snap peas
1 cup chopped celery
2 tsp fish sauce
4 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 can coconut milk
2 can vegetable broth
salt and pepper
cilantro
lime

In large soup pan, begin sauteing the chicken cubes and onion on medium heat. After about 4 minutes, add the ginger, garlic and carrot. Continue to saute 10 minutes or so, and add snap peas and celery. Once the mixture is hot, add fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Simmer a couple of minutes and add coconut milk and broth. Simmer and cover until carrots are soft. Season with pepper and salt (or more soy sauce). Serve with finely chopped cilatro and lime.

Greek Vegetable Roast

This quick vegetable roast highlights mildly sweet aromatic fennel. I serve with toasted pita bread and hummus.

Coat with olive oil and broil 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally:
1 eggplant, cut in approx 1 x 3 inch strips
1 zucchini, cut in approx 1 x 3 inch strips
1 fennel root, quartered
1 red pepper, cut into chuncks
1/2 green pepper, cut into chuncks

Toss with Italian Parsley and lemon juice before serving.

Eggplant-Crusted Mini Pizza

This complex little appetizer uses thick eggplant slices as a pizza base. Spoon on a thick sausage and veggie tomato sauce and top with monzarella cheese.

Bottom half 1 eggplant for pizza base
6 oz Sausage
1/4 cup Onion
1/4 cup Carrot
1/4 cup Zucchini
1/4 cup Eggplant
1 cup Tomato Sauce
Black Pepper
Basil or Italian Parsley
Monzarella Cheese


Brown the sausage.

Put oven on broil at 500. Cut the eggplant in half so the round end makes a fat "D." Cut thick (3/4 inch) slices of the round bottom. These will be used for the pizzas and the other half for the sauce.

Finely cube the onion, carrots, zucchini and eggplant for the sauce.

Generously salt the eggplant slices and lightly coat with oil. Place on cookie sheet in oven to broil. Brown one side (4 min), then flip.

Saute the veggies in olive oil. (Start with onion, carrots and eggplant- add the zucchini after a bit.) Add in the sausage and tomato sauce, season with pepper and herbs. It should be a thick, chunky, spoonable mixture. When its all hot, remove the eggplant from the oven and spoon the sauce on top. Sprinkle on some mozarella, pizza like, and put the slices back in the oven until monzarella is browned.

This delicious snack is all about the eggplant! Combined with aromatic sausage and basil, and everyone's favorite toasted monzarella- this is good food.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken

From Blogger Pictures

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp red curry paste. I recommend Mae Ploy brand and NEVER A Taste of Thai brand.
2 cups cubed chicken (breasts, thighs or tenders... as you like it.)
2 tbsp fine chopped ginger
2 tbsp fine chopped garlic
2 tbsp fine chopped shallots
2 cups chopped snap peas
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 can vegetable broth
basil
lime

Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Heat curry paste for a couple minutes and add the chicken. Saute for 5 minutes and add ginger, garlic and shallots. Saute another 5 minutes and add snap peas. Mix it all up and add fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Saute and add coconut milk and broth. Once this heats up you can start tasting and add more curry, coconut milk or broth to get the flavor you want. Add lime and shredded basil just before serving.

Serve with jasmine rice.

From Blogger Pictures