Tequila Pineapples

Here you go Missy! This is my Aunt Joanne's recipe. It is ridiculously delicious!


Grilled Tequila Pineapples
3/4 cup tequila
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 large pineapple, cut lengthwise into slices
Mix all ingredients except pineapple in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Pour mixture over pineapples and marinate for 30 minutes. Grill pineapple over medium heat until brown. Baste with tequila sauce while grilling.

Mixed Mashed Potatoes

Okay, this is too simple to bother posting, but since it had never occurred to me to mix potato types in my mashed potatoes, I thought it might not have occurred to you either.


Mixed Mashed Potatoes
1 large sweet potato
4 small/medium red potatoes
4 small/medium white potatoes
2 tblsp butter
1/4 cup whole milk (or more depending on desired creaminess)
Peel potatoes and cut them into 2" cubes. You might want to keep the sweet potatoes a bit larger since they cook faster than the others. Cover potatoes with cold salted water and boil until fork tender. Drain and mash with butter and milk.

Grilled Stuffed Tomatoes

I came home from vacation to find my tomatoes had ripened! Joy! Instead of just plopping them on a plate with every meal, I figured I should try something a little different. It was also hot as heck, which meant I was not interested in firing up the oven, so I decided to try stuffed tomatoes on the grill. They were delicious, but definitely a mess.

Grilled Stuffed Tomatoes
3 plum tomatoes, halved, seeds removed
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated romano cheese
1 tblsp fresh oregano, chopped
1 tblsp fresh basil, chopped
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients except tomatoes. Add olive oil until the bread crumb mixture just comes together. Grill tomatoes, meat side down, for a minute to warm up and add a little grill flavor. Flip tomatoes over and spoon filling into the tomato and grill until the cheese melts and the filling browns lightly.

Rice with Cheese

This was a last minute change when I decided that just plain brown rice would be too boring. I needed to do something quick to dress it up.


Rice with Cheese
1 batch brown rice
1 handful parsley, chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 chunk (about palm size) goat cheese (mine was chive and garlic flavored)
Cook brown rice. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Veggies in Foil

This is a great side dish for any grilled meal. I made it to accompany chicken breast marinated in raspberry walnut vinaigrette. Try that once. Tasted delicious, but it was kind of, umm, pink. Anyway, onto the veggies...


Veggies in Foil
3 cups chopped veggies (I used pattypan squash, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a banana pepper, and some weird sweet orange peppers)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
couple of shakes of tabasco sauce
Mix together all ingredients and let sit for 20 minutes. Wrap in a foil pouch with a small opening at top to vent. Cook over high heat on the grill for 15-20 minutes.

Orzo Salad

This was inspired by Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp and Orzo Salad and the orzo risotto recipe from my cooking class. It can be served hot or cold. It was quite tasty hot and I'll be having it cold tomorrow for lunch. I served it with some roasted beets and kale chips. 


Orzo Salad
olive oil
2 small carrots, sliced
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 handful peas
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup orzo

1 handful parsley, finely chopped

1 sprig oregano, finely chopped

5 basil leaves, finely chopped

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper
1/2 cucumber chopped
1/2 block feta cheese, crumbled
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, broccoli, and peas and sweat for 3 minutes. Add water and bring to boil. Add orzo and cook for 8-10 minutes or until water is absorbed. Put orzo in a serving bowl. In a small bowl, mix herbs, vinegar, and olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Add dressing, cucumber, and feta to orzo. Stir to combine and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Kale Chips

One of the ladies at the community garden gave me this recipe. I was completely surprised when Natty actually ate a few!


Kale Chips
1 bunch kale, cut into bite size pieces
olive oil
salt
Toss kale in olive oil and salt. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until crispy.

Kevin's Special Cole Slaw

I believe that cole slaws made with vinegar are called Carolina slaws. I'm not sure. All I know is that my husband can't stand anything in a "mayonnaise bath" and I can't stand a summer without cole slaw and potato salad next to my burgers and dogs. This is the middle ground I came up with. Happily, Kevin loves it!


Kevin's Special Cole Slaw
1 medium head cabbage, sliced thin or shredded
3 large carrots, shredded
1 cup vinegar
2 tblsp spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
Toss cabbage with 1 tblsp salt and let sit for 1 hour. Drain liquid and rinse and dry cabbage. Put cabbage and carrots in serving bowl. In a separate bowl, mix vinegar, mustard, and sugar. While whisking the vinegar mixture, drizzle in olive oil. Pour mixture over cabbage and carrots. Mix thoroughly and salt and pepper to taste.

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

As usual, during the early days of summer as the CSA season begins, I find myself with a bunch of greens and no ideas. Tonight I decided to combine it with potatoes, turnips, and cheese sauce - you can't go wrong with cheese sauce! The only bummer was that the greens are a little too wet and caused the sauce to separate a little. Oh well. Still tasted great.


Cheesy Veggie Casserole
4 cups mixed greens, chopped (I used broccoli, chard, and mustard)
3 medium potatoes, sliced
3 medium turnips, sliced
1 tblsp butter
1 tblsp all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
Boil greens in salted water for about 15 minutes. Drain. Melt butter in saucepan. Add flour and cook until lightly browned. Add milk and cook over medium heat until thick. Add cheese and parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 10 minutes. Layer potatoes, turnips, and greens in a greased casserole dish. Top with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Oven Fries

This doesn't count as a recipe post since I have been wholly unsuccessful at making oven fries, leaving me with nothing to post. Rather, this is a plea for help. Do you have any tips on oven fries? I feel like it should be easy. Potatoes, oil, salt, bake. Right? Mine never brown, but stick like crazy to my pan. What am I doing wrong? I've tried extra virgin olive oil and regular vegetable oil. I've cooked them at 400, 425, and 450. I've cooked on aluminum foil and straight on the pan. Same thing every time. They taste good, but look awful - pale on one side, almost burnt on the other. Any tips? Do I need to soak the potatoes first? Should I not salt them until they're done? Is there a particular potato I should be using? Any hints you have would be greatly appreciated!

Garlic Bread

About two weeks ago, I could think of nothing but garlic bread. I started trying to plan outings so that they would take me places where I knew I could get the tasty stuff and planning my meals to make sure that they went with garlic bread. It culminated in a meal at my mother's for which I specifically requested something that went with garlic bread. It was really kind of sad. Who lets a piece of bread rule their meals for a week? Apparently I do. I'm a sucker for the kind with garlic butter - I like it a little greasy and with nice chunks of garlic on top. I know, I know. It's not the traditional way, but I don't care.


Garlic Bread
1 loaf torpedo shaped bread with a nice crust (I made a half whole wheat rustic Italian for mine)
1 stick butter, softened
6-8 cloves garlic, rough chopped
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
Put butter, garlic, salt (pinch if you're using salted butter), pepper (to taste), and crushed red pepper flakes (to taste) in a small blender/chopper. Mix thoroughly. Cut bread in half lengthwise. Smear both sides with butter until all crumb is covered. Bake in 400 degree oven until lightly browned or stick it under the broiler and keep a close eye on it. 


Mmm, mmm, mmm. I think I need to go make some again. Oh, if you have any extra butter, just stick it in the freezer for the next time.

Easter Sides, Part II

So, to hedge my bets that the other people at Easter dinner would enjoy a side dish, I picked up some green beans... But then I thought the heck with them! Just kidding. I really do hope they like the beans even though they're not just steamed. I actually serve this as a salad a lot when beans are in season - just top lettuce with the beans and drizzle the sauce over the salad as dressing. Delicious. If you really feel like dressing it up a bit, add some grilled veggies and feta or goat cheese to the mix. Mmmm... 


Balsamic Beans
2 tblsp olive oil
1 qt green beans
3 tblsp water
3 tblsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add green beans and toss to coat. Add water and cover for 3-4 minutes tossing occasionally. You want the beans to cook, but still be firm and crunchy. After beans are cooked, remove lid and turn heat up to high. Cook off half the water. Add balsamic, salt, and pepper and toss to coat. Let the beans cook for a minute or two in the balsamic and then serve.

Easter Sides, Part I

So, it just wouldn't be a family dinner if I didn't bring a side dish that only me, my mom, and Kevin would eat. Last time I brought kohlrabi, which my sister actually liked, but everyone else made faces over. This time, I went with kohlrabi sprouts (actually, there are two kinds of sprouts, but I can't remember what the others were). These young greens are much sweeter than more mature greens, so give them a try even if you don't like the bitterness of other greens. The sign at the farmers' market said that they would be good stir fried, so I just went for a quick sauté. 


Kohlrabi Sprouts
3 tblsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, rough chopped
1 large colander of kohlrabi sprouts
salt and pepper
Heat olive oil over high heat. Add sprouts and toss. Add garlic and toss. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the leaves are slightly wilted. 

Fiesta Corn

Okay, so we all know my kid won't eat vegetables. So, when I went to make a side vegetable for dinner the other night, I thought I would try adding salsa and cheese because who doesn't like salsa and cheese! Well, it turns out that Natty doesn't like salsa and cheese. At least not when it's served on vegetables. Oh well. Kevin thought it was delicious. For lack of a better name, I threw in fiesta since that seems to universally indicate the involvement of salsa and cheese!


Fiesta Corn
olive oil
1/2 bag frozen sweet corn
1 large handful frozen peas
1/4 cup salsa
2 oz cheddar cheese
In a skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add corn and peas. Cook until warmed through. Add salsa and stir until warmed. Turn off heat and add cheese. Stir to combine. Serve hot.

Mustardy Cabbagy Goodness

Farmer's market pickings are getting pretty slim right now, so I was pretty excited to find a lovely head of Napa cabbage. I decided to tweak one of Anne Burrell's recipes (Warm Savoy Cabbage Slaw) to accommodate my pantry. How cute is that woman? I'm fascinated with the amount of salt she uses. And her hair. And the fact that she says "earl" instead of "oil." Fascinating. Plus, she never puts a recipe on her show that doesn't look like something I would happily gobble up in two seconds if it showed up in front of me.


As a side note, when I was cooking this, I took a taste and I wasn't a fan at all. I was cooking in preparation for the next night's dinner and started thinking about alternative side dishes. I packed it up in the fridge and hoped my tastes would change for the next night. After a day of mellowing out in the fridge, the cabbage turned delicious. So delicious I found myself running back to the pan for seconds. 


Mustardy Cabbagy Goodness
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, sliced
1/2 head napa cabbage, sliced
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tblsp stoneground mustard
dash thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup apple cider
salt


Brown bacon in large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and sweat. Add cabbage, vineagar, mustard, thyme, and bay leaf and toss to coat. Channel your internal Anne Burrell and toss some salt on that pile of cabbage. Cover and let cook until cabbage wilts and starts to soften. Add apple cider and cook uncovered for about 10 more minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat and stick it in the fridge. The next day, pop that cabbage in a saute pan with a lovely little kielbasa and heat everything through. Chow down.

Mac and Cauliflower

I saw cheddar cauliflower at the farmer's market and felt certain that I could get Natty to eat it... Especially when I pureed it and stuck it in some mac and cheese.

Mac and Cauliflower
1/2 box whole wheat elbow macaroni
2 tblsp butter
2 tblsp AP flour
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup pureed cheddar cauliflower (steam then puree in food processor)
Cook macaroni in salted water to desired tenderness. Drain and set aside. Melt butter over medium heat. Add flour to make roux. Cook to a light brown color. Add milk and cook, stirring frequently, until milk thickens. Remove from heat. Add cheese and cauliflower puree. Stir until melted. Add macaroni and combine.

Cheesy Potato Sticks

These were supposed to trick Natty into eating something, but they didn't work. Luckily, they are tasty, so we'll just have to eat them with dinners.

Cheesy Potato Sticks

2 large potatoes

milk

butter

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 egg yolk

pinch coriander

flour (for dusting)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Peel potatoes, cut up, and boil in salted water until fork tender. Mash potatoes, adding milk and butter to taste. Add cheese, egg yolk, and coriander and mix. Turn out onto floured surface and flatten to about 1". Cut into finger width strips. Flour hands. Pick up each piece of potato mixture and form square. Coat in breadcrumbs and place on lightly greased baking pan. Cook in a 400 degree oven until lightly browned.

Dressing up Ham Steak

After a crazy day, I had about 5 minutes to make dinner before everyone in my house, including me, had a breakdown about how hungry we all were. Ham steak to the rescue! I also made another attempt at getting Natty to eat veggies, but apparently rice isn't his thing... Stinker.

Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce
1 ham steak
1/4 medium onion sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1 heaping tblsp course ground mustard (by tblsp here, I mean one of the regular spoons out of the drawer, so it was probably more like 2 tblsps if you're actually measuring)
Cook ham steak in skillet over medium high heat until browned. Remove from skillet. Toss in onions and let brown for a minute. Add wine and deglaze pan. Add mustard and combine. Remove from heat.

Cheesy Rice
1 package instant brown rice
1 large carrot chopped into 1 inch chunks
milk or water
1/4 medium onion chopped
1 handful shredded mozzarella cheese
Cook rice according to package directions. Add carrot to water while rice is cooking. Drain rice and carrot. Place rice in serving dish. Puree carrot in food processor with a small amount of milk or water to help it along. Saute onion. Add pureed carrot, sauteed onion, and cheese to rice and stir to combine.

Fall Salad

I made this for dinner at a friend's house this weekend. There are not a ton of what I consider to be "normal" salad vegetables available at the farmer's market in November, so I opted to roast all the delicious vegetables I found. I also found some very spicy arugula. This recipe also marks the first time I successfully purchased, cooked, and consumed beets. I'm not convinced of the greatness of the beet, but it was up against some stiff competition in this salad.

Fall Salad
1 bunch arugula, chopped
3 radishes, sliced
1 purple potato, sliced into thin disks
1 yellow potato, sliced into thin disks
1 head kohlrabi, peeled and sliced into thin disks
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into thin disks
8 beets, scrubbed and trimmed
olive oil
salt and pepper

Combine arugula and radishes and set aside. Put all remaining vegetables, except for beets, in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet and place in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until veggies are tender. Toss beets with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on a separate baking sheet in a 400 degree oven until fork tender. (I put the beets separate so that the other veggies would not turn red. After removing beets from oven, let cool for 10 minutes and then peel and slice (I actually served them whole, but probably slicing them would have been prettier). Vegetables can be served on the salad hot or cold (I went with cold). Serve with mustard vinaigrette.

Mustard Vinaigrette
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
4 tblsp balsamic vinegar
1 heaping tblsp coarse ground mustard
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp dried thyme
pinch salt
fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
Mix all ingredients except olive oil in a small bowl. Add olive oil while stirring with a fork. Transfer to serving container.

Grilled Fennel

Kevin fell in love with grilled fennel at a restaurant near us, so I thought I'd try to recreate it. Way too easy to make, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Grilled Fennel
1 fennel bulb
olive oil
salt and pepper
Remove leaves and stalks from fennel bulb. Cut bulb into quarters and clean. Toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place on hot grill pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.