March 21st, 2010
Spring has arrived in Florida. It is nice to be able to walk out the door in sandles and summer clothes. The birds are singing and soon the manatees will be returning to the canals in our area with their pups. Last year I was down on our dock when a huge manatee appeared. I had heard that they like to drink fresh water, so I turned on the hose. Slowly he made his way over to me and lifted his huge head up out of the water and drank his fill. He then turned over on his back and let me spray his belly with the fresh water. I was in awe of this beautiful creature.
A friend and I went to the Farmer’s Market on Friday and loaded up on fresh produce. The Florida strawberries were beautiful and the asparagus was refreshingly crisp and green. I had leftover red pepper pesto from my last post so I incorporated it into a spring pasta dish full of fresh vegetables and chicken. I highly recommend this pesto. It was great on the appetizer, wonderful added to a pizza and now in this pasta dish.
We are returning to Lake Lure March 31st. Friends have told us that the weather has been lovely there, so I am looking forward to the soft greens of the budding trees and the pinks and whites of the dogwoods in bloom. All of us have endured a long winter. It is good to anticipate the spring season.
RED PEPPER PESTO PASTA PRIMAVERA
2 boneless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 pound asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into thirds, blanched and put into ice water to set color and stop the cooking
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 green pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, cut into thin strips
1 cup red pepper pesto (see previous post)
12 ounces tri-colored linguini
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large skillet, brown chicken in olive oil until no longer pink. Remove from pan. Add more olive oil if necessary and saute, red and green pepper, onion, and carrots until crisp tender. Return chicken and asparagus to skillet. Add red pepper pesto and a little water. Stir to combine ingredients.
Cook pasta according to package directions. When done scoop out some of the pasta water. Drain pasta and add to skillet with chicken and vegetables. Add some of the pasta water if it is too dry. Toss to combine. Season to taste and serve.
March 3rd, 2010
We have friends visiting for Daytona Beach Bike Week. The guys are busy going to such esoteric events as coleslaw wrestling and wet T-shirt contests and Jackie and I are spending our time shopping and seeing girly movies like It’s Complicated. As an aside, this is the second time I have seen this movie and I can’t get over my obsession with chocolate croissants. We have done some cooking. We had an excellent pork tenderloin on the grill, but most of the time we are out and about all day long. That is why, when Jackie told me about this recipe for crock pot chuck roast, I unearthed the crock pot and we put it on and left for the day. What is different about this roast is the way it is seasoned. Jackie rubbed both sides with cinnamon and garlic salt. She then browned it and we put it in the crockpot with about 1/2 cup beef broth. The use of cinnamon sounded strange to me but it imparted a unique flavor to the roast. I have never had a mole sauce but with the addition of chocolate this may be approaching that flavor. I haven’t had time to research it, so let me know if I am right or wrong about the flavors. I just know that we loved it.
CROCK POT CHUCK ROAST
1 4 pound chuck roast ( Try to find one that is at least 3 to 4 inches thick)
Ground cinnamon sprinkled on each side
Garlic salt or powder sprinkled on each side
Salt (if not using garlic salt) and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon olive oil to brown roast
Coat chuck roast on both side with seasonings. Brown in olive oil seasoned skillet. Transfer to crock pot, add beef broth and cook on low for about 8 hours. Remove the roast and degrease the juices. Thicken the gravy with a slurry of flour and water.
By the way, I think coleslaw wrestling is a huge waste of coleslaw. It is not pretty.
February 15th, 2010
My love of hamburgers goes back a long way. It was my comfort food as a child, the date food at local drive-in restaurants as a teenager, and the easy cheap meal to prepare in my student housing as a college student. Even now, at times, I need my hamburger fix. Kefta is an interesting alternative to the standard hamburger. I found the recipe in The Mediterranean Kitchen by Joyce Goldstein. This wonderful cookbook has the sunny earthy cooking of the European countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Everything from Greek baked goat cheese in filo to Provencal ice cream with lavender and honey is covered.
We are all familiar with Lebanese cooking. Lamb kebabs on pita bread with a cucumber sauce, baba ghanoush, hummus and falafel are all available at Middle Eastern restaurants. Kefta is a Lebanese ground beef patty flavored with cumin and parsley and served in a pita bread with a tahini sauce. I love the flavors of this fresh take on the hamburger. I lightened up the tahini sauce by using a yogurt tahini dressing from Eating Well magazine. I am now inspired to adapt the lowly hamburger to other flavor twists and cuisines. Do you have any suggestions?
Kefta
2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, grated
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Olive oil for cooking kefta
6 pita breads
tomato slices
mixed greens
Tahini Dressing (recipe follows)
For the kefta, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead with your hands until blended. Shape into 12 oval patties.
Heat the grill or broiler. Brush the kefta with oil and grill or broil 3 to 4 minutes each side. Or heat 3 tablespoons oil in a cast-iron pan over high heat and saute the kefta 3 minutes each side.
Meanwhile wrap the pitas in foil and warm in oven.
To serve, cut the pitas crosswise in half. Fill each with lettuce, tomato slice and one kefta patty. Spoon over some of the tahini dressing.
Tahini Dressing
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
February 2nd, 2010
What fun it was to be in North Carolina for the snow storm and to get to spend time with my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Kristen was scheduled to be in Atlanta for an event honoring her business, but she opted to miss it for fear that she would not be able to get home on Sunday. Michael kept a fire burning all day Saturday and we had the neighbors over for S’mores Saturday night. Rachel got bundled up Saturday morning to play in the snow.
She is waiting for her Mimi and Mommy to suit up and get outside.
She said the snow tasted like sugar. Unfortunatly it was not a packing snow, so we could not make a snowman.
Kristen made a yummy pasta dish for dinner which she said she will blog about sometime soon. It was orecchietti pasta in a creamy tomato sauce with Trader Joe’s chicken sausage with sundried tomatoes. She added a little wine and balsamic vinegar to it and it was a very complex satisfying meal. I am so lucky to have a daughter-in-law who loves to cook as much as I do.
The planes were flying on Monday so I returned to Florida. It is a culture shock of sorts to get on a plane in cold blustery weather and get off in balmy weather. Believe me, I am not complaining. Dinner last night was this spicy tangerine beef from the Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes cookbook. It was wonderful over brown rice. It is so colorful. I love the addition of the tangerines to this. The zest was added too so it had a very fresh taste to it.
SPICY TANGERINE BEEF
2 Tangerines*
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons water, divided
3/4 pound boneless sirloin steak, trimmed and thinly sliced**
3 cups small broccoli florets
3 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 small red bell pepper, cut into strips
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Grate the zest from the tangerines; set aside. Peel the tangerines and separate into sections; reserve the sections. Stir together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the water in a cup until smooth; set aside.
Spray a nonstick wok or large deep nonstick skillet with nonstick spray (I just used a little olive oil) and set over medium-high heat. When a drop of water sizzles in it, add half of the beef and stir-fry until browned, about 3 minutes, using a slotted spoon to transfer the beef to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining beef.
Add the broccoli and the remaining 2 tablespoons water to the wok; cook, covered about 2 minutes. Increase the heat to high. Add the scallions, bell pepper, garlic, tangerine zest, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper; stir-fry about 1 minute. Stir the cornstarch mixture and add to the wok; stir-fry until the sauce thickens and bubbles, about 1 minute. Return the beef to the wok, along with the tangerine; stir-fry until heated through, about 1 minute longer.
* I cut the tops off of each tangerine section to make it easier to remove the seeds.
** I used Laura’s Lean Beef available at Target superstores. It is grass fed beef and does not use any antibiotics.
Serves 4. 4 Points
January 16th, 2010
January is a difficult month to get through sometimes. There is the let down from the excitments of the holidays and the weather that can be dreary, cold, and unpreditable. Now we don’t even have the Super Bowl and the attendant parties to look forward to. This year’s Super Bowl will be played February 7th in Miami at the Dolphins Stadium. But that does give you time for planning a party. Super Bowl food runs the gamut from chips and dips to pizza and subs. It is not the time to pull out the good china and the Coq Au Vin. One of my favorite easy comfort foods is a good sloppy joe. It is such a convenient choice for a crowd. You can put it in a crock pot to keep it warm. Serving from the crock pot is very convenient. A basket of good bakery rolls lightly toasted and a condiment bar can also be included. Condiments might include sliced pickles, pickled jalapenos, coleslaw, and shredded cheese. Another idea would be to offer the new slider size hamburger buns for those who want to exercise portion control. With some special potato chips and paper plates and napkins, you don’t even need silverware.
This recipe for sloppy joes is a little unusual. I adapted it from a recipe I saw on a website for Lindauer Family Farms. They raise natural, antibiotic free beef and their website includes recipes for beef. What I liked about the recipe was the inclusion of jellied cranberry sauce. I have used this before in making meatballs and it sounded perfect for sloppy joes. I love this recipe and it doubles easily for a crowd.
SLOPPY JOES
2 lbs ground beef round
1 medium onion, chopped
3 Tbls brown sugar
1 Tbls dry mustard
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup ketchup
1 8 0z can jellied cranberry sauce
1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
Brown ground beef and onions in a large sauce pan. Drain off fat. Add dry ingredients and stir and cook for a few minutes. Add ketchup, cranberry sauce and worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer on low-medium heat for 30 to 45 minutes.
