Food goodness

From: Gina's Skinny Recipes This can be made in the crockpot (partially) or completely on the stovetop. I would like to figure out if you could do it all in one step in the crockpot, but in the comments Gina recommends not doing it that way. If I make it again maybe I'll experiment and try it, but this time I did the two-step process of making the chicken in the crockpot and then finishing it on the stovetop. Serve as is in a soup bowl, or over rice, or wrapped up in a tortilla, or over tortilla chips, etc. 3 chicken breast halves 1 small onion, quartered 1 tomato, quartered 1 carrot, peeled and chopped 2 cloves garlic, peeled 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 1 tbsp olive oil 1 small onion, thinly sliced 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced 1/4 cup dry white wine 1/2 cup tomato sauce reserved broth 1 tsp cumin, or more to taste (I like a lot) garlic powder salt and pepper to taste Place chicken, onion, tomato, carro...

She's right, it's perfect. This sort of makes an iced-coffee concentrate, which keeps in the fridge for a long time. I won't lie, it's messy and inconvenient (particularly if your dumb glass bowl decides to leak for no reason and you wind up with an inch of coffee all over your refrigerator shelf), but the results are worth it. I am an iced coffee fanatic in the summer, and cold-brew methods really do give you better, stronger coffee -- which has to be stronger since you need ice cubes, and unless you're super smart and make coffee ice cubes, the coffee gets diluted, and then even if you do have coffee ice cubes, it throws off your milk/coffee balance, which is problematic, and clearly I have thought about this an awful lot. PW recommends steeping this for at least 8 hours; I accidentally steeped mine for almost 24. It is strong, my friends. My current ratio is half coffee and half milk, plus a splash of delicious chemical-laden caramel macchiato fake cream . MMMM....

From: Pioneer Woman This is a good recipe for all the summer tomatoes that are starting to come in, from the garden and the farm share. You can use any kind of tomatoes - large, small, red, yellow, etc. We ate these piled high on fresh mozzarella with a bit of fresh-cracked black pepper and kosher salt. Todd also made a toasted/melted version for dinner, too - he toasted up some nice bread, piled on the tomatoes, placed some sliced mozzarella on top and then stuck it back in the toaster oven to melt the cheese. Sprinkle with sliced basil and, viola (as they say in France)! You could also serve it cold on toasted bread like bruschetta, or spoon it over some quinoa or cous cous for a side dish, etc. Ingredients 1 cup Canola Oil (I used less, and substituted olive oil) 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar 4 Tablespoons Sugar 1 teaspoon Salt Freshly Ground Black Pepper 3 whole Green Onions, Sliced 1/4 cup Chopped Parsley 18 whole Basil Leaves (chiffonade) 1/4 teaspoon Ground Thyme 2 cloves Garli...

Until last week, I'd never looked at Annie's Eats . I saw the url on several posts from foodgoodness posters and finally took a peek. This one is summery and nice. I messed with it, of course, but I'll just post as is and spare you my usual "but then I did THIS instead" litany. Just one thing, if you have a bread machine to make the dough and the extra hour for rising, homemade buns are easy , you guys. >>> For the salsa: 1 mango, diced 1-1½ cups diced fresh pineapple ½ of one red bell pepper, diced small ¼ cup red onion, finely diced 1 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro Juice of one lime Pinch of coarse salt For the sauce: (I halved it and had plenty for 4 burgers) 1 cup fresh chopped pineapple ½ cup low sodium soy sauce 1 inch knob of ginger, peeled and minced fine 3 tbsp. brown sugar 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ tsp. vinegar (apple cider or rice vinegar) ½ tsp. sesame oil 1 tbsp. cornstarch 1 tbsp. cold water For the burgers: 1 lb. ground sirloin 2 tbsp. finel...

Adapted from the Wood Prairie Farm website (and just about the most poorly written cookie recipe ever). 2 C whole wheat flour 1 t baking powder 1 t cinnamon 1/2 t soda 1/2 t salt 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 1 C white sugar 1 C dark brown sugar 1 T light corn syrup, optional* 2 large eggs 1 t vanilla extract 3 C old fashioned (rolled) oats--do NOT use instant 1 C dried blueberries 1 C chopped lightly toasted walnuts Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, leaveners, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl, whisk together and set aside. In your stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until lighter in color and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, corn syrup (if using) and then vanilla. Slowly add in flour mixture and be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl and beater to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed before adding the remaining ingredients. Add oats, berries and walnuts and stir on slow just until combined--the blueberries can be a bit fragile so be careful. If using a small cookie sco...

Adapted slightly from Mark Bittman in the latest issue of Cooking Light. This is a no-cook (if you leave out the chx), easy and delicious soup that I plan to make again. Also, it keeps well due to the citrus content. 2 ripe avocados, divided 1.5 C water 1/2 C fresh lemon juice 1 t honey S&P 1/4 t red pepper flakes 12 oz skinless, boneless chx breasts olive oil or cooking spray 1.5 C fresh corn kernels (or some fresh and some frozen or all frozen--it's up to you) 1 C chopped red bell pepper 1/3 C chopped green onions (I used red onion b/c that's what I had) 1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro, optional lime wedges Using your blender or immersion blender, plunk one avocado, peeled and diced into your work bowl and add water, lemon juice, honey, 3/4 t salt, 1/4 t pepper and the red pepper flakes; blend until smooth or it's reached the desired consistency. I also added the kernels from 2 ears of corn I had on hand and pureed them with the avocado. Then I used frozen roasted cor...

This? This right here? This is the new cornerstone for all of my cooking. Until, of course, I need a break from garlic. Which means it's a very long time from now. This very lovely garlic and olive oil is easy to make, fills the whole house with good smells, and is tasty, too. (what? i snuck a taste once the oil had cooled) Make some. You know you want to. from The Man, Rick Bayless Please note: the recipe does not call for the chipotle, but when I watched him in his PBS series, he threw a chipotle in. So I did, too. 4 large heads garlic OR 10 ounces (about 1 3/4 cups) peeled garlic cloves 2 cups olive oil 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup fresh lime juice 1 (or more) chipotle pepper Directions Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Break the heads of garlic apart, then mash each clove (a fist against the side of a knife is what I do) to release the clove from its papery skin; if using already-peeled garlic, scoop the cloves into a heavy plastic bag and use a rolling pin to mash them slightly. Stir ...

This was really good. Next time, I think I'll add some corn starch right after we add the heavy cream, so the gravy thickens. Still, really tasty. Oh, and a note...I doubled the recipe. It fit better in the slow cooker that way. Adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking 4 pounds turkey breast, cut in chunks 1 cup chicken broth 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 onion, thinly sliced 16 ounces sliced mushrooms 1 cup half and half 1 bag frozen green beans Put the turkey into the bottom of your cooker, and pour on the chicken broth and balsamic vinegar. Add onion and mushrooms. Stir a bit to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or on high for about 4. Stir in the heavy cream and green beans. Cover and cook on high for another 30 minutes, or until beans are thawed and heated through.

Too hot to cook. Too hot to think. Not too hot to eat bruschetta, vaguely based on this but with more laziness and less doing anything to the bread. 4 medium-sized and a handful of cherry tomatoes, seeded and chopped into small bits 2 cloves minced garlic (this is quite a lot of garlic; cut down if you don't want it sharp and garlicky) a handful of basil leaves, sliced thin a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar a slightly bigger drizzle of olive oil coarse-grained sea salt (or, whatever, just salt) black pepper 1 loaf of decent Italian-ish bread, sliced Combine everything and taste to make sure you have the vinegar/oil/salt/pepper ratio right. Let it sit, covered but unrefrigerated, for about half an hour -- if you can wait that long. Serve with a slotted spoon so you can drain off some of the juice before putting the tomato mixture on the bread. I like it best with a layer of goat cheese on a whole wheat baguette, topped with lots of bruschetta.

Elise has outdone herself with this one. The sauce prominently features this Korean red sauce I am obsessed with -- called gochu jang; I loved it on my bibim bop so much that I asked a waiter to write it down for me and then plunked the card down in front of some poor guy at the Asian grocery so I could buy it -- and then makes it even better, thinner and slightly diluted so it doesn't hit you in the face quite so hard. Perfect summer meal (although parents and delicate palates, be warned -- this is really very spicy and you can't control the spice level, because the gochu jang is what it is). Ingredients 1 lb soba (buckwheat) noodles (can sub practically any favorite noodle) Choose from assorted toppings: [I used lettuce, cilantro, cabbage/carrot slaw from the bag, cucumber, and scallions] Lettuce, thinly sliced Green and/or red cabbage, thinly sliced Cucumber, julienned Carrot, julienned Asian pear, julienned Green onions, thinly sliced Sesame (perilla) leaves, thinly sl...

This was SO EASY. Results were AMAZING. We ate it on Pasta alla Norma . Also we ate it on spoons. And fingers. Oh boy. I made it with the cream as Smitten suggests, but I'll leave it out next time and get back to you about how it's different. >> I made this ricotta three different ways: with all milk, as the Salvatore recipe suggested (we found it a bit dry), with 3 cups milk and 1 cup heavy cream and with 3 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Guess what? The last two ricottas were virtually indistinguishable.The extra cream did indeed add an even richer edge, but the one with less cream was also very indulgent. I imagine I’d use the richer version for toasts, for putting out at a party and the almost-as-rich one for pastas and things where I might need a larger, sturdier quantity. I’ll leave it up to you which way you go. Makes about 1 generous cup of ricotta 3 cups whole milk 1 cup heavy cream (see Note above about using less) 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt 3 tablespo...

I love Rebecca Lando of Working Class Foodies. She's looking for recipe testers for the cookbook she's working on. Sign up for her email newsletter and help a girl out! A special occasion recipe in honor of HP IV.2 to toast the HP phenomenon that has been part of our lives since 1997. Really! Watch her do it; the video is short and helpful for the visual learners among us. Recipe, narrative-style In a saucepan: 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 T water Cook on med-high heat, stirring frequently to keep from burning. Dip spatula in cool water to keep sugar from sticking to it. When it comes to boil, stop stirring. Use a candy thermometer and watch it closely until it reaches 240 degrees. She says this happens quickly. In a bowl: 5 T slightly softened butter 1 T lemon juice 1/2 t salt 1 T vanilla extract Remove pot from heat & stir in contents of bowl. Slowly add: 1/4 C heavy cream Stir and let cool. In a your favorite large mug: 2 T of cc syrup selzter water to fill the glass (RL add...

My dad does it this way and always comes out a winner. Below is my dad's text messaged reply to me when I requested his in-it-to-win-it margarita recipe. I used it to complement Taco Night last Thursday night at the beach when it was our turn to cook for the whole assembled gang of more than 20 relatives. By the way...Taco Night also always comes out a winner. "Fill blender 3/4 full of ice cubes. Add: 1/2 container of frozen limeade (6 oz.) 6-12 oz of water 6 jiggers* of tequila 3 jiggers* of triple sec Blend on high speed. Salt rims of glass. Add fresh lime slice. Pour and enjoy. No driving if drinking." Gotta love dads. *a jigger is the precise 1.5 oz measure of a shot

For me, pretty dinner is usually reserved for a dinner out when I will ooh and ahh at a restaurant plating. My Italian Husband (MIH) is very patient with grains & beans, with one-pot meals, and with stir fries but Heidi and Michelle Obama have me thinking about how to balance the ingredients and how to present it appetizingly. Rather than cooking all the ingredients in one pot together as per my mom's and my usual method, I've found lately that if I decoratively layer a number of ingredients in a huge family-style serving bowl and serve it over pasta, then he is more enthusiastic about dinner. Everyone just wants to be happy. Basic idea of the dish (you'll note the Heidi-ness right away): Favorite pasta shape (sub grain here if you want) bean toasted nut pieces veggie(s) light sauce Here are two variations. Early summer variation - asparagus/tomato/canellini: - Rotini (because you can hide veggies inside for the youngest food skeptic!) - One small bunch of very thin an...

There's a long and complicated story about how I wound up baking something that involves Crisco, but I did, and it was this , and it was amazing. Best cobbler I ever made. Do I have to support Crisco now? 6 cups Fresh Or Frozen Blackberries [I used about 3.5 cups blueberries and 2.5 cups frozen peaches; I think this would be good with just about any fruit, and you can get away with a little less] 1/2 cup Plus 4 Tablespoons Sugar 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice 1/2 whole Zest Of Lemon 2 cups Flour 1/4 teaspoon Salt 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder 1/4 cup Crisco (vegetable Shortening) 4 Tablespoons Butter 1 whole Egg 1/2 cup Milk Preparation Instructions Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine blackberries, ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl. Stir and spread out in a buttered pyrex dish. In a separate bowl pour flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Add shortening and butter and work mixture together with a pastry blender (or your fingers) u...

Ah, July, the month when I endeavor not to turn on the oven or the stove, ever, at all, for any reason, amen. The reason I find excuses to turn the oven ON in the winter is the same reason I use keep it OFF in the summer in our un-air-conditioned second-floor apartment. But the Big Girls, Small Kitchen people have come up with a very nice post about no-cook dinners , so I may have run out of excuses to order take-out sushi every night. Roasting lots of tomatoes at once right before you go out is a good idea, and I also like the idea of antipasti plates for dinner. Yum.

a.k.a. It's Time to Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer and Pantry. I know I haven't been posting in a while mostly due to some craziness in the work schedule and other things but I have been cooking....just not post-worthy dishes. Or dishes that involve a recipe. Like 2 days ago when we had corn on the cob and yummy slabs of toast smeared with good quality chevre and topped with slices of heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with olive oil, S&P. See, no recipe but the ultimate summer meal in my mind. Anyway, the big news around here is that the Tall Man and I just bought a house and we close in early August. Now is the time to start cleaning out the food stores so I don't have to move it all (all of 1.5 miles away, but still). This fit the bill nicely. 1 medium japanese eggplant 1 medium zucchini 1 medium yellow squash 1 medium red onion 1 large bell pepper (I used red) 2 handfuls of raisins, optional 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained 1 C or so of israeli couscous, cooked ac...

In the last few weeks, I've gotten 5 heads of green cabbage from our little faux-CSA we are participating in. (It's through Whole Foods, and features all Maryland produce from various farms) Yeah. That's a lot of cabbage. Today I made this, which I will heat up and eat during the week. It's pretty tasty, and much, much more interesting than my standby -- boiled cabbage and butter. Adapted from A Veggie Venture 1/8 pound of meaty bacon, chopped (I used pancetta, because I had some in the house) 1 small onion, chopped fine 1 cabbage (about 2 1/2 pounds), trimmed, outer leaves and core removed, sliced thin 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds (I eyeballed this) Salt & pepper In a large skillet or Dutch oven (you'll need a cover), start cooking the bacon on MEDIUM. Add the onion as it's prepped, let cook 2 - 3 minutes. Add the caraway and let cook, 1 - 2 minutes. Add the cabbage as it's prepped, stirring well to coat with fat and caraway. Cover and let cook for abo...