Days 269-270: Some old and some new...

So yesterday my poor wedding ring finger took a beating in the kitchen.  While slicing onions, I sliced the finger's tip, and then while removing an apple pie from the baking sheet it was sitting on, I burned the same finger right above my rings.  I definitely won't be getting those off for a while--at least not until the swelling goes down!  So please excuse my slow typing... ;) (I crack myself up!)

Around this time of year, I start bringing back recipes we haven't had since last winter.  Some are served almost exactly the same, others have different side pairings, and others are changed even more.  These two dinners are repeaters with a twist...

Day 269: Stromboli & Antipasto
Here is the original recipe when it first appeared on my blog: http://bethanysmeals365.blogspot.com/2014/04/day-83-easy-stromboli.html

That recipe was a simple cheese, pepperoni, and crust recipe.  This time, I followed the same guidelines with the crust, but I added a layer of my homemade sauce inside the stromboli.  I also made it long enough that I could change the filling every 3rd section.  I left 1/3 of the stromboli with just sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.  The next 1/3, I added diced green peppers into the mix.  And the final 1/3 (Randy's 1/3) included all the previous ingredients, plus chopped onions and olives.  I baked it the same (400*, 10-15 minutes) and served it alongside a nice, big antipasto.  Buon appetito!

Day 270: Apple & Thyme Stuffed Pork, Butternut Squash Risotto, Asparagus, Apple Sauce

The original recipe for just the pork portion of the dish can be found here.  In that post, I combined the whole meal into one "recipe" and gave instructions for cooking the meal as a whole, with the sides and all so it would come out at the same time.  Here, I'll break down the pork recipe by itself, and then show the side recipes separate.  I served this meal with my homemade applesauce, which will be featured in a different post.

Apple & Thyme Stuffed Pork

4 pork chops
1/2-1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2-1 small apple, chopped
combo of fresh and dried thyme leaves (about 1/4-1/2 tsp each)
1/2 cup apple juice or cider
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 350*.  In a small saucepan, drizzle a little olive oil and start sauteing the onion and garlic.  When the onion is translucent, add the apple and thyme and cook a little more.  Pour in the apple juice and breadcrumbs and turn off the heat.  Stir everything so a nice, sticky stuffing forms.  If it seems too dry, add more juice.  If it seems to wet, add more breadcrumbs.
Pound out the pork chops and place a couple tablespoons of the stuffing in the middle of each chop and roll the meat around the stuffing.  Use toothpicks to secure them shut and place on a baking sheet seam-side down.  Drizzle the pork rolls with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.

Butternut Squash Risotto

1 cup arborio rice
1 cup small cubed butternut squash
1 TB chopped fresh rosemary
3 cups good chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
olive oil, salt, pepper

Warm the 3 cups of chicken stock in a saucepan on low.  In another, larger saucepan, drizzle olive oil and start the onion, rosemary, and garlic cooking over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes.  When the onion is translucent, add the rice and squash.  Pour in the white wine and cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated.  Start ladling in the warm chicken stock 1-2 ladlefuls at a time.  Once you've added 1 or 2 ladlefuls, stir the rice and squash vigorously to release the starches.  Then let it sit for a while until the liquid evaporates.  Once it evaporates, add more liquid and repeat the process until the rice is cooked through.  Add the parmesan cheese at the end and mix well.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Asparagus
Wash the trim the asparagus.  Lay out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Sprinkle on either garlic powder or 1 clove of finely minced garlic.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and roast in a 400* oven for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked to desired texture.

Day 183: Lemon Roasted Chicken, Risotto, Green Beans, & Pound Cake with Ice Cream

My parents are on vacation still so they came over for dinner tonight.  My house is in shambles but I'd honestly rather eat in than take my kids out again for a while after a long week of eating out a lot.  And the cooking aspect of it actually provides a little bit of stability and "zen" for me amidst the chaos of packing and preparing for lots of other upcoming events we have.  Tonight I prepared a very simple lemon chicken.  So simple, in fact, that as I type this I realize I forgot to add the dried herbs that usually accompany this dish!  Sigh.  Oh well, it could be worse.  The chicken was still delicious!

Lemon Roasted Chicken
Originally, I think I saw this idea from an Ina Garten show.  It's very similar to a chicken piccata, but the sauce is prepared slightly different and the chicken doesn't need to be breaded like in most chicken piccata dishes.  But the garlic and lemon flavors are there.  The recipe calls for chicken breasts without the bone but with the skin.  Most grocery stores only sell either skinless breasts or breasts with skin AND bone.  So I buy the latter and then de-bone the breasts myself.  The skin just makes the chicken more flavorful, I think!

1 package of chicken breasts with the skin (about 5 lbs or 5 breasts is a typical package)

2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup white wine
juice & zest of 2 lemons
1 lemon
salt, pepper
fresh thyme (optional-apparently) ;)
dried oregano (also optional, since I left out these 2 ingredients tonight) :/

Preheat the oven to 400*.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook the olive oil and garlic.  Cook until fragrant but not brown--careful not to burn it!  Turn off the heat and add the white wine and the juice from the 2 lemons and stir.  Pour the juice into a 9 x 13 baking pan.  Place the chicken over the sauce, skin-side up.  Sprinkle the chicken with the herbs, salt, pepper, and lemon zest.  Cut the remaining lemon into 8 wedges and place them in the pan throughout the chicken.  Bake for about 40 minutes or until just cooked through and the skin is golden brown.
I served this with risotto and green beans.  For dessert, I served the rest of the pound cake from last night and ice cream.  Delish!

Day 85: Mediterranean Paradise: Lamb Meatballs, Cous Cous, Tomato-Feta Salad

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Greek food.  Well, I LOVE THIS MEAL!  The flavors are beautiful and each dish combined with the next makes more an amazing and cohesive dinner.  The cous cous and tomato-feta salads are inspired by Ina Garten, but the meatballs are mine.  Actually, the truth is I thought I had made lamb meatballs before and searched and searched for a recipe and couldn't find one.  But Ina does have a recipe for lamb kebabs in one of her cookbooks.  However, I already had it in my head that I wanted to make meatballs, not kebabs, and since I couldn't find a recipe I thought I had, I just made it up myself, using some of the ingredients I knew would work.  They were delish!

Today was our first trip back to the playground this year, and I wanted to spend as much time there as possible.  So dinner was a little rushed, and I didn't measure everything like I intend to do when I know I will be writing a post about the recipe.  I will do my best here.

Lamb Meatballs

1 lb ground lamb
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 TB chopped shallot
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 TB red wine
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 TB bread crumbs (to hold the meat together)
1-2 TB fresh rosemary, minced
salt, pepper, fresh parsley to taste

Combine the ingredients and shape meat into balls.  Drizzle a skillet with olive oil and brown the meatballs on 1 or 2 sides.  Finish them off in a 350* oven, for about 10 minutes or until desired temperature.

Cous Cous
Cous Cous is a snap to make!  The hardest part is just having the ingredients ready ahead of time (toasting the pine nuts and chopping the parsley) but it's really no big deal.  This is a great recipe for a simple dish that is the perfect complement to the other dishes tonight that have such a bold flavor.  The recipe makes A LOT of cous cous, we always have plenty leftover for lunches!

3 cups homemade chicken stock
1 1/2 cups cous cous
1 chopped shallot
3-4 TB butter
1 cup dried cranberries (or currants)
1/2 - 1 cup toasted pine nuts
3 TB (or a handful) of fresh chopped parsley
salt, pepper

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and saute the shallot.  Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the cous cous and cover and turn off the heat.  Let stand for 10 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and add the pine nuts, cranberries, and parsley.  Stir to combine.

Tomato-Feta Salad

There are some bold flavors in this salad.  It's very yummy.  In the summer, I like to find the heirloom tomatoes so there's a color "pop" in the salad.  It also makes a great next-day lunch!
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
5-6 oz feta cheese, cubed
2 TB chopped red onion (or you can keep with the shallot theme)
2-3 TB fresh chopped parsley
2 TB fresh chopped basil
2-3 TB olive oil
1-2 TB white wine vinegar
salt, pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Day 66: Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Sausage Stuffed Peppers
(The stuffing could easily fill 4 peppers, I but only use 3.  I like having extra stuffing to serve on the side or for my kids.)
3 green bell peppers
1 cup rice (I use brown rice)
8 oz sausage (breakfast sausage is fine)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
salt, pepper
paprika
Southwestern seasoning
grated parmesan cheese
breadcrumbs
butter
water

Preheat the oven to 400*.  Cook the rice on the stovetop.  While the rice is cooking, saute the chopped onion and add the sausage.  Cook until browned.  While the sausage is browning, cut the tops off of the peppers and pull the core, seeds, and veins out of them.  Preserve the tops (minus the core/stem) and chop it up finely.  Add the chopped pepper and the garlic to the sausage/onion mixture.  Season with some salt, pepper, paprika, and Southwestern seasoning to taste.  Add the rice and stir.  Sprinkle some salt and pepper into the whole peppers.  Fill them with the stuffing.  Place the peppers in a pan and pour in about 1/2 cup of water so the peppers are sitting in it.  Sprinkle the tops of the peppers with a parmesan cheese/breadcrumb mixture and then place a pat of butter on the tops of all of them.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Day 26: Valentine's Day Dinner for Two

Our romantic post-child-bedtime-dinner includes: Cheese & Crackers Appetizers, Homemade New England Clam Chowder & Salad, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Asparagus Risotto, Individual Red Velvet Cakes

Drink Pairings: Sauvignon Blanc (for the girl), Zinfindel (for the guy), Decaf Coffee, Brandy "Night-Caps" 

Forgot Corduroy

Putting kids to bed...

Homemade New England Clam Chowder (Devon Fredericks & Susan Costner via Ina Garten)
It's hard to find fresh shucked clams around here, so I bought frozen.  I wasn't really up for shucking clams myself with everything else going on!

12 TB butter, divided
1-2 onions, chopped
2-4 stalk celery, chopped
4-6 carrots, sliced
8 potatoes, chopped
1-2 tsp thyme leaves
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 qt clam juice
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
3 cups clams (fresh or frozen--not canned)

In a large stockpot, melt 4 TB butter and add the onion to cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.  Add the celery, carrots, potatoes, thyme, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 more minutes.  Add the clam juice, bring to a boil and simmer uncovered until the vegetables are tender. (20 minutes)
In a small pot, melt the remaining 8 TB butter and whisk in the flour, cook on low for 3 minutes.  Whisk in a cup of the hot broth from the soup and and then pour the whole mixture back into the soup pot.  Simmer until the broth thickens (a few minutes).  Add the milk and clams and cook a couple minutes until the clams are cooked.  Add more salt and pepper if desired.

Chicken Cordon Bleu (for 2) (Tyler Florence)
2 chicken breasts
2 slices prosciutto
1/4 lb Gruyere cheese, grated
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
1 small clove of garlic
1-2 TB melted butter
1 egg
extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 350*.  Pound out the chicken breasts between wax paper until about 1/4 inch thick.  Layer with prosciutto and cheese, and roll up like a jellyroll.  In one bowl, season the flour with salt and pepper.  In another bowl, beat the egg and season with salt and pepper.  In a third bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper and add the melted butter.  Dip the rolled chicken in the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.  Lightly coat a baking pan with olive oil and bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes until browned and cooked through.  Cut into pinwheels.

Asparagus Risotto
I love making risotto.  It may seem like a challenge, and too fancy of a dish to have at home, but really, it's all about the technique.  Yes, there are fancy "risotto" rice grains out there, but really, you cam make risotto with regular long-grain white or brown rice if you want.  When you make a pot of regular rice, you start with water and boil it and then add the rice and cook down.  With risotto, it's the opposite.  You simply start with the rice in the pan with some butter and oil.  Have chicken stock warming in a pan nearby.  Slowly add the stock a ladle at a time.  Add 1-2 ladles, then stir the rice vigorously for about 30 seconds to a minute, releasing the starches.  Then when the liquid has all been absorbed, add more stock and repeat the process.  Adding the liquid slowly and stirring the rice will release starches that make it so creamy.  For added flavor, incorporate onion, garlic, white wine, and of course, parmesan

cheese at the end.  Once you have the basics for a good risotto, you can easily add squash, asparagus, or a different type of vegetable for a new twist.  Here's my recipe:
1 cup arborio rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 bunch of asparagus, chopped and blanched
(*To blanch asparagus, chop it first.  Prepare a pot of boiling water, and a bowl filled with ice water.  Boil the asparagus 2 minutes or until just tender.  Immediately pull out of the boiling pot and place in the ice water.  This will stop the cooking and preserve the bright green color of the vegetable.)
Drizzle some olive oil in a large saucepan and add about 1 TB butter over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic and saute until translucent.  Stir in the rice.  Add the white wine and reduce the heat to low.  When the wine is just about cooked off, start adding the chicken stock which should be warming in a small pan nearby.  Add 2 ladles and stir vigorously.
After about a minute, leave the rice alone to absorb the liquid.  Check back in a few minutes.  If the liquid of mostly absorbed, add another ladle of stock and stir again.  Then leave it alone.  Repeat this process until all of the stock is used, or the rice is cooked through and is no longer crunchy.  Then add the parmesan cheese and asparagus and mix together.

Individual Red Velvet Cakes (Emeril Lagasse)
This recipe is for one large cake, but I filled 4 ramekins to make 4 small cakes, and used the rest of the batter for mini-cupcakes for Abby's friends at daycare.
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsps cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 oz red food coloring
1 tsp distilled white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1 lb confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 350*.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk while mixing on low.  To finish, add the food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.  Mix together.  Bake 20-30 minutes.  (In the individual ramekins, I baked the cakes for 25 minutes.)
Cream together the butter and cream cheese.  Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix together until fluffy.  You can add the pecans to the frosting or use as a topping.
I split the individual ramekin cakes in half to make little layered cakes and topped with pecans.

We had to share one because we were so full at the end of the meal!

 Happy Valentine's Day!