Sunday Summary July 31, 2011

This week I spent a lot of time cooking, but just never got around to posting. Meh. What can you do…

Next week will be real exciting though, I promise! Next week is the first week of August, which means that it’s Fiesta here in Santa Barbara! So expect lots of salsa and guacamole and tequila-y types of things.

Things I Made:

• Key Lime Pie with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust (Gluten Free!)
• Chicken with Balsamic Barbecue Sauce 
• Lentil Soup with Caramelized Onion and Bacon

Things I Want to Make:

• Spicy Jalapeno Cream Corn Soup with Roasted Corn Salsa – Girl Cooks World
• 5 Boozy Popsicle Recipes – The Kitchn
• Cajun Shrimp Pizza – Annie’s Eats

Things to Check Out:

• How to Grill Salmon on a Cedar Plank – I should take notes. Last time I tried there was a fire.
• How to Pick a Healthier Breakfast
• How to Clean Your Grill

Lentil Soup with Caramelized Onions & Bacon

This soup requires a little backstory… So, the other day I bought some lovely looking red lentils at Whole Foods. I am certain I have had lentils before, but I couldn’t distinctly remember, so at Mama CC’s insistence that lentils are awesome I decided to give them a whirl.  I rinsed them, picked over them, brought water to a boil. Things were going great. Then very suddenly the sky turned black, there was ominous thunder in the distance, there was a locust attempting to get in the window (I swear I saw it); things went very, very wrong.

The simmering pot boiled over. Don’t ask how, I don’t know. Things were burning else where in the kitchen. The lentils were forgotten about temporarily. And before I knew it the lentils had turned into a giant pot of mush… My vision of a gorgeous lentil salad with my homegrown lettuce had been crushed. After several minutes of blind rage and profanity, I set about remedying the situation. When life gives you a mushy pot of lentils, you make soup damnit. So soup we had.

Luckily, this disaster of a dinner turned out to be super delicious. Like amazingly delicious. We were sad there wasn’t more. This soup can easily be made vegetarian or even vegan if that’s what you’re into. Even though I eat meat again now, I still don’t trust animal derived stock for some reason, so I always stick to low sodium vegetable when it’s called for.

Lentil Soup with Caramelized Onions and Bacon

• 1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked over (get rid of the ugly ones)
• 4 cups water
• 2 tbsp. EVOO or butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1.5 cups vegetable broth
•  1/2 cup cream/milk of choice (coconut to keep it vegan if that’s your thing)
• caramelized onions
• 2 strips of burnt bacon crumbled (omit to keep it vegetarian/vegan, duh)

In a pot, bring water to a boil. Add lentils and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain lentils when they have cooked. Set aside

In the same pot, add olive oil or butter over medium heat, when heated/melted add diced onion and garlic. Sauté until starting to brown. Add broth to deglaze the pot. Add lentils back into pot. Stir to combine all the ingredients. Add cream/milk of choice and stir to combine. Allow cream the soup to warm through. Ladle into bowl and top with caramelized onions and bacon if you wish. Serve, enjoy and try to forget all the terrible things that occurred to bring about this soup.

Chicken with Balsamic BBQ Sauce

Stop what you are doing and make this barbecue sauce right now! It will change your life. It might be my new favorite barbecue sauce.

I used less ketchup and brown sugar than was called for in the original recipe because I hate overly sweet barbecue sauces and I really wanted the tang of the balsamic to shine through. I really love vinegar and balsamic in particular, but if you aren’t such a diehard vinegar fan, you might want to keep the full amount of brown sugar in the recipe.

The original recipe also says the barbecue sauce could be used over steak if that’s your thing. You also have a couple different options for cooking the chicken. I used a grill pan on the stove, but you could also use a real grill or bake it in the oven and it would be just as delicious. Luckily we had a ton of sauce left over and I ended put it on many various things and it just made everything so much better; grilled veggies, potatoes, it was all delicious.

Balsamic Barbecue Sauce (adapted from this recipe)

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Balsamic Barbecue Sauce:

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by 1/3, about 15 to 20 minutes.

For the Chicken:

Prepare the chicken. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Place grill pan over medium heat. Pour a bit of the barbecue sauce into a small bowl to avoid contamination from raw/cooking meat (yep, we’re a bit paranoid about getting salmonella in these parts). Lightly coat with some of the BBQ sauce using a pastry brush. Place the chicken on the grill. Cook the chicken about 8 minutes per side. Brush the chicken with BBQ sauce from the small, separate bowl every few minutes. Remove the meat from the grill and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve with the heated BBQ sauce alongside.

Key Lime Pie with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust (Gluten Free!)

So last week, I had to cook for 19 people. NBD. I’ve done it before in much worse conditions. The key to cooking mass quantities of food for mass quantities of people is utilizing your time. Anything that can be made ahead of time, should be made ahead of time. Desserts are usually a sure bet in the ‘make ahead’ category.

Key lime pie seemed like the perfect solution to all my problems. Make ahead, light, fruity, summery. I was actually inspired when I was going through a pile of cookbooks my mom is sending to cookbook heaven (aka the thrift store). We have a stack of cookbooks that have been lurking around for years, but haven’t used in ages and decided to give them one last glace before they were gone. We stumbled across a little gem! The original recipe in the Williams-Sonoma Savoring America had a great sounding crust, but the filling was a bit too fussy. I wanted this to be able to make this ahead of time and have everything be ‘easy peasy lemon squeezy’ not ‘difficult, difficult lemon difficult’. Or lime, I guess I should say. (I am going to venture a guess and say only one person reading this got the difficult joke… (Hey Lauren!) If you would like to get the joke, go watch this movie and thank me later.)

The end result was perfect. The crust had a little bit of a ‘spicy’ bite to it from the ginger and it complemented the cool, sweetness of the lime perfectly. Everyone wanted some…

Key Lime Pie with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust

Pecan-Gingersnap Crust (Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Savoring America, p. 218)

• 28 gingersnaps (we used Trader Joe’s GF Gingersnaps)
• 1/2 cup (2 oz/60g) chopped pecans
• 1 tbsp chopped candied or crystallized ginger
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 cup (2 oz/60g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Key Lime Pie Filling (adapted from this recipe)

• 2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup lime juice
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp. powdered sugar

For the Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Butter a 9-in pie dish.
2. In a food processor, combine the gingersnaps, pecans, ginger, sugar and cinnamon if using. Pulse until the mixture is finely ground crumbs, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add the melted butter. Mix until the crumbs are evenly dampened and the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
3. Press the mixture in an even layer on the bottom and sides of the pie dish.
4. Place the crust in the oven and bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer crust to rack to cool.

For the Key Lime Filling:

1. Lower oven temp to 325F/160C.
2. Combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Beat until blended and pour into cool pie crust.
3. Bake 15-20 minutes until the pie is just firm.
4. Transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
5. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
6. Before serving, mix sour cream and powdered sugar and spread on top of pie before serving.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Our First Strawberry!

Breaking news! We have our first strawberry!

If you need me, I’ll be staked out in the backyard protecting my strawberry from the crows!  If I can fend off the crows we should have a couple more strawberries shortly. Very exciting!

Sunday Summary! July 24, 2011

This week involved a lot cleaning and and preparing and cooking for a lot of people I didn’t know. It was weird. Then my one of my favorite singers died. Poor Amy. It was sad. But mainly this week involved a whole lot of this…

except that it's real...

If you have never met me in real life, I should probably take the time to point out that I am the most accident/injury/illness prone person you will ever encounter. I can currently count at least 7 injuries of varying degrees, along with one unknown mystery ailment, which is the bane of my existence at the moment. It’s taken years to perfect this extraordinary skill set of awkward and clumsy, but I really do make the most of it. Plus, all of my ailments and how I acquired them tend to make for fairly amusing stories.

Things I Made:

• Crockpot Salsa Chicken Tostadas
• Braised Pork Chops
• Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes
• Strawberry Vodka Lemonade
• Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

Things I Want to Make:

• Balsamic Strawberry Popsicles – Epicurious – Needs to happen asap.
• Hawaiian Pesto – Eighty Twenty – I hate real pesto but this sounds amazing.
• Mudslide Ice Cream Cake – Endless Simmer – I don’t even know where to begin…

Things to Check out:

Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

At the moment, I’m currently obsessed with corn. There’s something about it that’s just oh so summery. I threw this quick and simple salad together for a last minute dinner side dish. Excellent decision. It turned out to be really tasty. Something I would definitely make again. It can stand alone or fill in as a side dish or salad topper. I really loved the colors of this salad and the ingredients all accompanied each other very well.

Roasted Corn & Tomato Salad

• 1.5 cups corn, fresh, canned or frozen (I used Trader Joe’s frozen Roasted Corn)
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 pint baby tomatoes, chopped
• 4 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat. When heated, add corn and garlic powder. Sautee until corn is defrosted and/or warmed through. Remove from heat and pour into medium bowl. Add red and green onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Top with vinegar and mix all ingredients together. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Thirsty Thursday: Strawberry Vodka Lemonade

So it’s no secret that I am a bit obsessed with Joy the Baker. Not in a creepy way. More in a she bakes really amazing things and takes really pretty pictures and really hilarious podcast kinda way. Totally normal. Well, because of Joy the Baker’s wonderful podcast I have also recently become acquainted with Shutterbean. Tracy also makes some really wonderful things. The first time I visited Shutterbean, I instantly knew I was on to a good thing based upon the fact that her most recent recipe at the time was for Strawberry Infused Vodka. Yep, definitely the start of a wonderful thing.

Fortunately for me I have recently become enamored with the idea of canning, so I had the prerequisite mason jar on hand. I also had a lot of fresh strawberries and vodka on hand, this obviously just had to happen as soon as possible. And happen it did.

I will admit I had a little sip of the vodka when it was done and I was definitely less than impressed, but being the intrepid sort, I decided to give it another go. I am quite happy that I did. The results were delicious. A little too delicious. This drink was the perfect answer to a hot and muggy afternoon. It definitely went down very easily. With all the berry action going on, there isn’t much of a vodka taste, which can be both a good and a bad thing.

Strawberry Vodka Lemonade

• Strawberry infused vodka
• Sparkling lemonade (I would suggest Trader Joe’s French Lemonade)
• A couple chopped up strawberries

Combine vodka and lemonade over a couple ice cubes. Top with Strawberries. Serve and enjoy!

Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes

When I first saw this recipe I thought “Shrimp. Polenta. Chives. Sold.” Three things that I like all together in one meal, it definitely had to be made.

The other thing I really liked about this recipe that it’s one that can be prepared ahead of time and cooked as you are just about to serve it in under 10 minutes. I also think it looks much ‘fancier’ than the preparation involved. I’m sure it would impress just about any dinner guest.

I also took some liberties with the shrimp. I don’t think they really mind, they probably enjoyed it. The original called for basil, which I am so totally not a fan of. Basil = grosssssss. I am, however, a firm believer that it is not a real meal unless there are mass quantities of  garlic and paprika involved (you can take the girl out of Hungary…).  

Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes (adapted from this recipe)

Chive Polenta Cakes:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pyrex dish
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 4 oz. goat cheese
• small bunch of chives

Grilled Shrimp

• 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp. smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. minced onion
• 1 tbsp. oregano, dried or fresh
• kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Butter a Pyrex dish (the original recipe calls for an 8×8, I used something that was more like a 6×10, worked just as well). In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine milk, cornmeal, and butter, and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, over medium high heat. When mixture begins to simmer, add salt, chives and goat cheese , and keep stirring until thick, about 15 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to slice, about 3 hours.

Place shrimp, olive oil, paprika, garlic, onion, some big pinches of salt and pepper, and oregano in a large bowl and toss to combine; place in the fridge until polenta has set.

When polenta has set, you can either cut the polenta into slices in the pyrex or un-mold the polenta onto a cutting board and cut it there. Preheat grill or grill pan to high heat.

Gently grill polenta slices until grill marks form, and polenta is heated though, about 8 minutes. Remove from grill and reserve. Grill shrimp until pink and beginning to char, about 3 minutes per side.

The most exciting part of the whole meal was the accompanying side salad! What’s so exciting about lettuce you ask? Well, this was the first harvest from out our garden! I maintain that our homegrown, organic, pesticide-free, raised with tender love and care lettuce tasted much better than what we get at the store, but Mama CC says there was no difference… I like my story better.

I served the lettuce with a little mustardy vinaigrette which is super simple to make a goes with just about any salad.

Mustardy Vinaigrette

• 1 big spoonful of dijon mustard (I normally use grainy, but we were out)
• 1 big glug of olive oil
• 1 medium glug of white wine vinegar
• Garlic, fresh, minced or I like to use Garlic Gold Nuggets
• Salt and fresh ground pepper

Braised Pork Chops

Yeah. I don’t quite know why I’m sharing this recipe because:

1. I don’t eat pork
2. I didn’t actually try the recipe (see number 1).

But I have made this recipe several times with both pork and beef (which I also don’t eat) and it has been a hit with both small children and Marines, therefore I believe that it can be declared a success all around. If I was to base this recipe on smell alone, it would be an overwhelming success. It smells amazing! Like amazing enough to be tempted to eat it, but in the end my love for the movie Babe always wins out…

I also like this recipe because it is a good make-ahead recipe. It requires very little preparation and once it’s in the oven, you don’t have to do a thing. You have more than enough time to get the rest of the meal prepared while the meat is cooking.

Braised Pork Chops (adapted from this recipe)

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 pound lean pork chops

Heat oven to 250. In a medium bowl combine all ingredients except meat. Make a foil packet and place meat in it. Pour sauce into packet and cover meat. Closed up packet. Place in baking dish an cook for 2 to 2.5 hours. Be sure to check the internal temperature of the meat after 2 hours.When meat is cooked, transfer to a cutting board and thinly slice. Serve with sauce.