Dijon Potato Soup
December 13th, 2009

Dijon Potato Soup

It was one of those nights that completely justified having a warm soup for dinner.  Plus it is really that time of year when you could have soup every night and never get tired of it.  Soup is such a comforting thing food, and I figure why not take a recipe of a soup that I absolutely love and change it up a bit.  No reason to have the same soup again when you can try something new.

This soup is a remake of my Kale Potato Soup with the new addition of some dijon mustard.  I really do like the original recipe but I thought it might be nice with the spiciness of dijon mustard in the broth.  It was a nice subtle hint of mustard that complimented the potatoes, sausage and kale.

With a great piece of crusty bread this soup was complete and just what the cold and raining evening called for.

Dijon Potato Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups finely chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 pounds cubed potatoes

4 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth

1 cup half and half

1/4 cup dijon mustard (to taste)

4 ounces Romano cheese

6 ounces hot italian sausage

2 cups chopped kale

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add 1 1/2 cups onion, saute 4 minutes stirring frequently.  Stir in potatoes, 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper, saute 2 minutes.  Add broth and mustard and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender; stirring occasionally.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add remaining 1/2 cup onion; saute for 6 minutes stirring frequently.  Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt and sausage; cook 8 minutes or until browned.

Add half and half and kale to soup and cook for 4 minutes or until kale is softened.  Stir in sausage and heat soup thoroughly.

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Holiday Baking
December 10th, 2009

Holiday Baking

This last weekend Sean and I headed over to Victoria to his mom’s house to celebrate an early Christmas with his family.  With all of us going in different directions around Christmas we decided to celebrate early so that everyone could make it.  We were all very happy to have Sean’s youngest brother fly over from Nelson to join us.

Other than my mother in laws famous rum ball we weren’t going to be exchanging gifts so I thought I would bake up some holiday treats to bring over with me.  But in the interest of keeping them fresh I decided to get up early Saturday morning before we left and bake.

With only 3 1/2 hours available for baking, I could only get up so early, I got started on my mom’s brownies.  These brownies are really amazing.  They are quick and easy and the perfect base for just about any add ons.  For today’s brownies I decided to add mint chocolates since my mother in law like mint chocolate as does my husband.

Once the brownies were in the oven I started working on the pumpkin biscotti, a recipe that I got from older sister.  Having only made biscotti once before I wouldn’t say that I was confident about this.  I mixed everything together and formed my dough and popped it in the oven.

The recipe said to cook it until it is firm in the middle, which I thought I knew what firm was until I started cutting up my biscotti.  I didn’t want to over cook the biscotti so I pulled it out when apparently it wasn’t quite firm in the middle.  I had a dilemma on my hands do I put the pieces back together and put it in the oven to cook a little more or do I move on to the next step and just hope that it finishes cooking.

In the interest of time I decided to move onto the next step and keep my fingers crossed that it would not be gooey.  My finished biscotti were cooked but really lacked that crunch you would normally see in a biscotti.  The taste was good and when dunked in some coffee or tea you wouldn’t know the difference.

Now on to the final recipe, peanut blossoms.  These cookies are something that I have been making for as long as I can remember.  They are one of my dad’s favourite cookies so I remember making them for him on various occasions over the years.

As was a theme in that morning I hit a snag when I realized I didn’t have any baking soda.  Thanks to google I did a bit of research and found that if I added extra baking powder it should still work…

Unfortunately I was led astray by my information and ended up with some very flat cookies.  But I have to say I wasn’t too upset because they tasted soooo good.  That warm peanut butter cookie with a hershey kiss on top can’t be beat, they really are great cookies even if they were flat.

So after my marathon baking we hit the road with the cookies still on the cookie sheets hoping they would cool while on the ferry so I could package them up.  Fast forward 2 hours and you find me in the back seat of my car, down the street from my mother in laws house, packaging everyones fresh baked goods.

No one would be the wiser :)

You may notice there is a lack of pictures, I was so busy baking I didn’t have time to stop and take any more pictures than the first one.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from my Mom’s recipe

3/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Chopped up mint chocolates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add remaining ingredients.  Put in an 8×8 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Pumpkin Biscotti

Adapted from Simply Recipes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ginger and cloves

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Give it a rough stir to generally incorporate the ingredients, the dough will be crumbly.

Flour your hands and a clean kitchen surface and lightly knead the dough. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into a large log, roughly about 15-20 inches by 6-7 inches. The loaves should be relatively flat, only about ½ inch high. Bake for 22-30 minutes at 350ºF, until the center is firm to the touch. (Feel free to also form two smaller logs for cute two-bite biscotti; just cut the baking time to 18-24 minutes.)

Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then using a serrated knife cut into 1 inch wide pieces. Turn the oven to 300ºF and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Peanut Blossoms

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup shortning

1/2 cup peanut butter

Hershey’s kisses

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the kisses and mix with electric mixer.  Make balls of dough and bake 10-12 minutes..  Remove and place 1 hershey kiss in the center.  Press down until edges crack.  Let cool.

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking |
Epicure Party
December 4th, 2009

New Moon

A few weeks ago while visiting friends on Vancouver Island we took a break from New Moon madness to go to an Epicure party.  Although my friend Danielle was the host of the party it was being held at a more conveniently located house in town.  Having only ever had the salsa from epicure I was excited to try some of the other products, you really can’t turn down a chance to sit around and visit with people while ’sampling’ food.  Although I typically like to create things from scratch I had a fun time trying all the different spice mixtures and ended up getting a variety of mexican inspired products. 

Not many people know about my obsession with all things mexican…

While sampling at the party I had tunnel vision for the queso dip which is probably one of my favourite foods of all time.  I was pleasantly surprised with the queso dip from Epicure.  Nothing sounds better than a big bowl of warm cheese and unlimited chips to dip in them.  In fact on a recent trip to Jamaica I had queso and chips as a ‘snack’ before lunch and dinner every day.  Who really needs that much cheese, I know I do!  I really just can’t imagine a more perfect meal really.

For any of you who haven’t had the epicure salsa you are definitely missing out.  It has the flavour that I always wish my homemade salsa had.  I thank/blame Danielle for introducing me to the salsa because just like with my queso I want a huge bowl to scarf down.  I find that I am constantly looking for reasons to have salsa on things.

I am looking forward to my next trip to the island so I can pick up my goodies and start making all things mexican.

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Daring Bakers November Challenge
November 27th, 2009

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

As the holiday’s roll around I find that I want to use holiday ‘ingredients’ as much as possible.  Athought I know that nutmeg is a year round spice I find that when I use it I think of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The ingredient that is truly a holiday ingredient is eggnog something I knew I had to use for this months Daring Baker’s Challenge.  Since this round of Daring Baker’s let us have much more creative control over the recipe I thought I would go for a free form cannoli with some mousse between the layers.

I started making my dough with the flavours just as I wanted them and then I went and added the wine.  I wasn’t even thinking when I decided to use Shiraz wine which then turned the dough purple.  Even with the coloured dough it still had a great taste and a different look than your average dough would.

Dough

Having never done deep frying I was a little hesitant about the whole process.  I knew that the oil shouldn’t get too hot and I had to be really careful when putting in the cannoli dough.  Other than that I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  All I knew is that I didn’t want to have a frying accident and end up burned.

Deep Frying

Thankfully my deep frying was a success and I was left with squares of cannoli in varying size.  They really did turn out great and had a little added something with the shiraz in the dough.  I have come to realize that as long as you are careful with the oil, deep frying is not as scary as it seems.

Now we come to the part of the recipe that seemed like a great idea in my head but turned out to not to work as I thought.  Having never made mousse before I though it would be a great filling for my cannoli’s and why not make eggnog mousse.

Mousse IngredientsI figured I could take a basic mousse recipe and just substitute the whipping cream for eggnog, thinking that the fat content would be close enough for it to still whip up.  I was unfortunately wrong and was left with a bowl of eggnog, sugar, and an egg white that never made it to soft peaks.  It was at this point that I had to improvise and create my own version of eggnog.

After a quick trip to the store for some whipping cream I was ready to make my eggnog, or atleast whipping cream flavoured like eggnog.  I added a bit of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and was left with a very close replica of eggnog.

Mousse is something I can check off the list now, because it really wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.  My whipped egg whites turned out much better this time than they did for my macaroons last month.  It is always nice to be improving in my skills.

After assembling the ingredients and sprinkling with a little powdered sugar I was left with a successful version of stacked cannoli.

Cannoli Dough

Courtesy of Daring Baker’s November Challenge

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1/2 cup wine or any variety

1 large egg, seperated

4 cups oil

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that).

Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

Eggnog Mousse

Adapted from Katy at Sugarlaws.com

1/4 teaspoon cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 cup heavy cream

Whip heavy cream with spices and 1/3 cup sugar until soft peaks form (err on the side of slightly overwhipped). Set aside. Next, in a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/3 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold together the whipped cream mixture and the egg mixtures (I folded the eggs into the whipped cream).

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking, Daring Bakers |
Dinner Party
November 12th, 2009

For a couple years now I have wanted to have a dinner party, but I usually lack the space where I am living to pull something like that off.  I am happy to say that last friday I hosted my first dinner party and it was a success!!

Aftermath

Sean and I have lived in our apartment for close to a year we have finally had guests over for a meal.  I was very nervous leading up to the big event and wanted everything to be perfect.  Even though I was cooking for family it still didn’t lessen the nerves.  Our guests were my mother in law Linda, her partner Pedro and my brother and sister in law Kevin and Laurie.

Other than cooking for Sean and the occasional dish for my mom and sisters I haven’t cooked for people so this was my first test.  I thought I would go for something I knew I could make that would work for everyone, as it needed to be a vegetarian dish.  I decided to make an Orange Balsamic Roasted Salmon on a shaved fennel, asparagus and orange salad; a dish I learned at the Dirty Apron Cooking School.  I was confident that I could pull off the relatively easy dish for 6 people yet still impress them.

While I cooked the meal every one enjoyed a little Rock Band on our Wii, thankfully the kitchen is open to the living room so I was able to enjoy it while I cooked.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time which helped calm my nerves.

When it came time to take the salmon out of the oven I was a bit unsure, I don’t have a thermometer that works very well and I always seem to either undercook or over cook meat.  Thankfully Linda was on hand to help me with the timing and we ended up with wonderfully cooked fish.  As we all sat down to dinner I was finally able to relax and enjoy the meal with everyone.

After dinner it was time for a quick game and some dessert as Kevin and Laurie had to catch a ferry back to Bowen Island.  The night before I made vanilla bean panna cotta with dragonfruit pieces inside in a wine glass.  It was nice to have the dessert all ready with just a strawberry garnish added before serving.

Dragon FruitDragonfruit is not an ingredient I have really worked with.  While traveling in Asia Sean and I had dragonfruit for the first time and we weren’t very impressed.  There are two types of dragonfruit, one that has a good taste and the other that is not so good.  When buying the dragonfruit for my panna cotta I wasn’t sure which one I was getting I just figured it would be an interesting ingredient and texture for the panna cotta.  Thankfully I got the one that tastes good and it was a great conversation piece when explaining what was inside.

As everyone was gathering their things to head home I was so happy at the end result of our first dinner party.  I am happy to say that I finally used the beautiful china I got from Linda at our wedding.  We had good food, good wine, and a wonderful time.  I look forward to holding more dinner parties in the future.

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Belated Thanksgiving
November 11th, 2009

As I am going through the many pictures on my computer I come across a picture of the dessert I made for thanksgiving dinner back in October and for some reason never blogged about.  Better late than never.

Pumpkin Pecan Cream Cheese Tart

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

For my first Canadian Thanksgiving Sean and I went over to his dad’s house for dinner.  Since I wasn’t the one in charge of making all the food I thought I would contribute by making a cold green bean salad with a roasted onion balsamic vinaigrette and dessert.

For dessert I knew I wanted to do something with pumpkin and to take another stab at pastry so I settled on adapting my lemon curd tart to a fall recipe with classic flavours.  I quickly decided that I would make the same cream cheese base and mix in homemade pumpkin puree and then sprinkle some pecans on top which would be a play on a pecan pie without all the fat.

Making the pumpkin puree was a pretty easy process but not always necessary when you can just buy canned pumpkin puree.  My thought on the whole thing is that making it yourself is a fun part of the process so if you have the time you might as well do it.  The method I used was cutting up the pumpkin after discarding the seeds and stringy bit and removing the skin.  I then steamed the pumpkin until it was soft and transferred it to my food processor to create the puree.

It was at this point I realized that pumpkin doesn’t have much of a flavour so out came the cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.  Once adding these spices I was left with the taste I have always associated with pumpkin.  It was ready to be added to the cream cheese mixture.

Once it was all mixed together I was ready to add it to the shell sprinkle with pecans and put away in the fridge to set.

Pastry making…

Pastry is something that has eluded me for quite a while.  Last thanksgiving I made a great apple cranberry pie with a homemade shell that turned out pretty good, unfortunately that must have been a fluke.  I have failed to make a sucessful flaky crust since then.  Every time I try I psych myself out and end up cheating by just pressing the crust into the pan instead of rolling it out.  This is another one of those times.

The first attempt at this crust was pretty good, except that the bottom was thick with the sides crumbly.  I decided to abandon the crust and try out more of a shortbread crust my mom had given me.  Unfortunately the bottom of that crust was too thin and it ended up cracking.  So this left me with 2 options: try a third crust or go back to the first one and make it work.  Since we were going over to dinner later than night I went with crust number 1.

In the end a very yummy dessert was enjoyed by everyone at dinner and little did they know the crust dilemmas I had through out the day.  I am convinced that I will conquer the pastry crust one day, even if it means dozens of failed attempts between now and then.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

2 oz. cream cheese

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 C heavy cream or whipping cream

1/4 C pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in the spiced pumpkin puree.  Place in tart shell and top with pecans.

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Tags: , , , | Posted in Baking |
Cooking Class
November 11th, 2009

The Dirty Apron Cooking School

Cooking School

For my birthday my wonderful husband took me out to dinner at a great Belgium restaurant downtown, Chambar.  As soon as we got out of the car I noticed the Dirty Apron Cooking School.  I was instantly excited to have found somewhere that I could take a cooking class, something I had been toying with for awhile.

As we were enjoy our dinner my husband gave me my present, a gift certificate for a cooking class at the Dirty Apron, what an absolutely perfect present.  I couldn’t wait to take the Contemporary West Coast class which was schedule for a couple weeks later.

Although I was very excited for my class I was also very nervous because that this point I am not completely confident in my skills in the kitchen, I didn’t want to be the one holding the class back.  I also didn’t know what to expect, all I knew about the school I had found on their website.  All of my worries were put to rest upon getting to the school.  I met a very nice couple who had taken a class at the school before and seemed relaxed about the whole thing.

The class started with our teacher, David Robertson, giving us a quick intro to what was in store for us that night.  He then got right into cooking.  David is really a great teacher and you can tell he is doing something he really enjoys.  His enthusiasm makes you want to get in there and make something amazing.

One of the elements to the Dirty Apron that I absolutely loved was the format for the evening.  After David’s brief intro he began demonstrating the first dish.  Once he had gone through all of the steps it was our turn to get to our stations and make the dish.  We then took our completed dishes to the large table where we had a chance to visit with the other people in the class over a wonderful dish and a glass of wine.  For each dish we followed this order and it was truly a wonderful way to appreciated what you created within the larger group of your fellow students.

We created dishes that I would never think to tackle in my own kitchen.  And through this class I learned that they are definitely things that I can do on my own.  In fact I have already made two of the dishes again since taking the class.  I never realized what confidence taking a cooking class could do for you.

I would recommend this cooking school to anyone who is at all interested in food.  This is a place where you can be a beginner and still feel completely comfortable.  David and the rest of the staff have created an comforting and welcoming environment the encourages the chef in all of us.  I look forward to more classes at the Dirty Apron Cooking School.

First Dish

Unfortunately there are a lack of pictures because the battery on my camera died during the making of the first dish.  I guess that means I will just have to go back and take another class.

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Daring Bakers October Challenge
October 27th, 2009

Masala Chai Macaroon

French Macaroons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

For months I have been watching Daring Baker blog posts and secretly wanted to be a part of it.  I went back and forth on whether or not I should join feeling that my baking skills were pretty beginner and many of the recipes seemed much more advanced.  After thinking it over for a bit I made the decision to apply to Daring Kitchen and become a Daring Baker.

I am happy to announce that I have completed my first daring baker challenge, Macaroons, and am very happy with the results.  Although my macaroon is not super fluffy the taste makes up for it.  I decided to go with a masala chai macaroon with a pumpkin cream cheese filling.  What an amazing taste!

It seems like I am always looking for a way to use chai in a recipe but never end up doing it because I have been unable to find a good chai powder, similar to a matcha powder.  After putting it off for far too long I ended up just taking some masala chai I got while in India last summer and put it in the spice grinder, making sure to sift it before putting it in the recipe.  It worked much better than I thought it would and the end result was a macaroon with a hint of chai.

The filling was my tried and true base of cream cheese and sugar whipped in the stand mixer with some whipping cream mixed in.  Once the stiff peaks form you fold in some pumpkin puree with spices added.  The end result is a creamy light filling that can be used in a variety of ways.

Macaroons seem like a recipe that take a bit of practice and finesse.  Making sure your egg whites are beat just right before folding in the almond flour, but then making sure you don’t over mix to lose the fluffiness.  There are many things I have learned in this first attempt at macaroons that will improve the results for my future tries.

But I have to say…

Feet on a Macaroon

Nothing is better than when you watch the feet form on your macaroon and know that atleast one part of your recipe is going according to plan.  My husband who is always supportive came over and gave me a high five when he saw how excited I was.

I have decided with baking that even if it doesn’t go according to plan there is always something great that results from your baking, who knows it may become a new favourite recipe.

Masala Chai Macaroon

2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar

2 cups almond flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

5 room temperature egg whites

1 tablespoon masala chai powder

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Combine the confectioners sugar almond flour and masala chai powder in a medium bowl.

Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks.  Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine.  Sift the remaining flour in two batches.  Be gentle!  Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plan half inch tip, or use a ziploc bag with the corner cut off.  Pipe one inch sized mounds of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 35 degrees.  Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pan back in the oven and bake for an additional 7-8 minutes, or lightly colored.

Cook on a rack before filling

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filling

2 ounces cream cheese

3 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or whipping cream

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Mix pumpkins and spices and then fold into the cream cheese mixture.

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking, Daring Bakers |
Chicken Tostadas with Mango Avocado Salsa
October 26th, 2009

Chicken Tostada's with Mango Avocado Salsa

Mangoes are definitely something that I have learned to love over the years.  I was never a big fan of them until I was living in Egypt and having fresh mango juice from a street vendor.  Up until recently I hadn’t even really worked with fresh mangoes,   I now see what I have been missing all these years.

The mango avocado salsa is what initially caught my attention for this recipe.  The original recipe from where else but Cooking Light, is for a chicken taco with mango avocado salsa but I thought I would mix it up a little bit and pile it high on a tostada. 

The seasoning used on the chicken had a little bit of spice that complimented the sweetness of the mango.  All of these elements played together for a really great dish.  This was a perfect meal for a weekday night when you want something different but don’t have all day to put it together.  I will definitely make this dish again.

Chicken Tostadas

Courtesy of Cooking Light

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 (6 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Combine the first 4 ingredients and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Rub over the chicken.  Add oil to the pan, swirl to coat the surface.  Add chicken and cook 4 minutes on each side or until done.  Remove chicken from the pan and let stand for 5 minutes.  Cut into 1/4 inch thick strips.

Mango Avocado Salsa

Courtesy of Cooking Light

1/2 cup diced peeled mango

1/2 cup diced peeled avocado

1/2 cup chopped tomato

1/3 cup chopped onions

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I used 1/4 of a cup)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper

tostada shells

While the chicken cooks, combine mango and the next 6 ingreidents, stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Pile everything on top of the tostada and enjoy!

 

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Tags: , , , | Posted in Chicken |
Tater Tot Casserole
October 15th, 2009

Everyone has those dishes that they remember from childhood but haven’t had in years, even though it was a staple when you were little.  There is just something comforting about these dishes that just make you think of home and being a kid.

Tater Tot Casserole

Tater Tot casserole is that dish for me.

Tater tot casserole has ingredients that are just meant to be together.  Tater tot casserole at 27 is just as good as it was at 6.  Can you really go wrong with ground beef, onions, tater tots and lots of cheese?

This is a dish that can be put together in 15 minutes and then just popped in the oven until the tater tots get crispy, what could be easier in the middle of the week.

Since enjoying this dish it makes me want to start making the other dishes from childhood like tuna noodle casserole, which I am pretty sure I hated every time my mom made it but I have no idea why I felt that way.  It is fun to relive those childhood memories through food.

Tater Tot Casserole

Courtesy of my mom, Patti Steen

1 pound ground beef

onion

salt and pepper

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

cheese

tater tots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the ground beef and the onions.  Remove from heat and add the cream of mushroom soup and the salt and pepper.  Put mixture in the bottom of an 8×8 pan.  Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and then put down a layer of tater tots.  Sprinkle the top with salt.  Place pan in the oven and cook until tater tots are crispy.

It is that easy!

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Tags: , , | Posted in Ground Beef |
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