I cooked for three evenings straight and had a great time being home and getting to cook. We'd been gone so much that I'd pretty much forgotten what my kitchen looked like. About a month ago I started prepping for the two dinner parties. Making lists of potential recipes. Finding out what folks liked and didn't like. Wednesday after work Connie headed to the grocery store and I headed to the kitchen. And, proceeded to cook for almost three hours. It was well worth the time and effort because we now have several new recipes that we'll make again. A couple that will be go-to's.
Wednesday evening was scallops with basil cream sauce. Then, I had some Swiss chard in the front bed that I knew I needed to use. (And, you can see the gorgeous lilies too!)
I found a recipe with farro and kale and figured the chard would be a perfect substitution. The third dish was one that sold me on the cookbook - buttered beets with pine nuts. We gave each and every dish a five. The scallops were quick and easy and incredible. Actually, the same description can be applied to the other two dishes. Just amazing.
Thursday was catfish etouffee with a kale salad. Both were good but not standouts like the night before.
Then, Friday evening. That was zesty hummus for an appetizer. That's going to be a new family favorite. It was so easy and so flavorful and SO beautiful. Dinner was shrimp and mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce over Texas toast. Alongside was a roasted carrot salad that was very complex and very tasty and a cucumber/beet/radish salad. The cucumber salad was good but probably isn't one we'll make again. If I'm going to have cucumber salad I want Christiane's cucumber/feta/herb salad. It's killer. I'll work on posting these recipes another day...
So, let's dig in on some recipes here:
Scallops with Cream and Basil
(serves 4)
Ingredients:
6 T butter
12 sea scallops
salt and pepper
1/4 c chopped shallots
1 t slivered garlic
pinch crushed red chile flakes
1/2 c dry white wine
3/4 c heavy cream
20 basil leaves, cut into ribbons
Directions:
In a large skillet, melt 4T of the butter. When it's hot, add the scallops. Salt and pepper them to taste. Brown both sides of the scallops. Remove them from the heat before they've cooked through. Wipe out the pan and add the other 2T of butter. When it's melted, add the shallots, Saute until they're softened. Then, add the garlic and the chile flakes. Cook that for about a minute and don't let the garlic get too brown. Add in the white wine and cook over relatively high heat until it's reduced by half. Then, add the cream and cook the sauce down until it's reduced by half. Once that's done, add the scallops and pan juices back to the pan. Add half the basil after about a minute. When the scallops are just firm, you're ready to serve. Top the scallops with the remaining basil as you serve them.
adapted from the New York Times
Farro with Kale or Swiss Chard
(serves 4-6)
Ingredients:
1 c pearled farro
salt and pepper
3 T EVOO
1/4 lb pancetta or guanciale, chopped (I omitted this but would add it next time)
4 shallots or 1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch Tuscan kale or 1 bunch Swiss chard, stemmed and chopped (I thinly sliced the stems and sautéed them and added them in)
freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c chicken stock
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/3 c chopped hazelnuts, toasted
Directions:
Cook the farro as per the package instructions. Drain it and set the pan aside. Pour the EVOO into a large skillet and add the pancetta. Use medium heat. Once the pancetta is lightly browned, add the shallots. When those have softened, add the garlic. Cook for a few minutes then add the kale or Swiss chard and let it wilt. Stir in the chicken stock and the nutmeg, lower the heat and let it simmer until the greens are just softened. Combine the greens, farro, lemon juice and hazelnuts to serve.
adapted from Rachael Ray
Buttered Beets w Pine Nuts
(serves 2)
Ingredients:
1 beet
butter
balsamic vinegar
pine nuts
Directions:
Peel and grate the beet on the large holes of your grater. Brown the pine nuts in about a tablespoon of butter. Spoon the pine nuts out of the butter and add the grated beets. Cook for a few minutes until they're tender. Add a dash (about a teaspoon) of the balsamic. Serve topped with the pine nuts.
adapted from A Fresh Taste of Italy
Connie and I had a difference of opinion on the best dish of Sunday night's dinner. He voted for this potato salad. I voted for the kicked up baked beans. But, when push came to shove and we had 25 points to allocate among crab boil potato salad, kicked up baked beans, esssence corn, essence chicken and essence + Alabama sauce chicken, we both came up with 6-5-5-5-4 points. And, really I didn't mean to wind up with three starches. It just happened. I wanted bbq chicken, corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes. It just didn't quite turn out that way. i served dinner and said OOPS! We've got a whole lotta starches going on here. It's not going to quite work with the old food pyramid deal. It did, however, work wth the old taste buds!
You see, when Connie plays bridge I frequently have either part of a can of Bush's Bourbon Brown Sugar Grilling Beans or part of a jar of pasta sauce. It's called easy and quick food so I can get on with my projects for the evening. Let's just say I had half a can of beans left. They needed to be used up. That's excuse number one.
Excuse number two is even better, if I do say so myself. While we were out running our errands Sunday afternoon, I read part of a Food Network magazine. There was a GREAT booklet of 50 potato salads. We guessed the percentage that were mayonnaise, sour cream and yogurt based. I won when I said half to two-thirds. There were 30 out of 50. I love winning contests like that :-) One of them was for Crab Boil Potato Salad. Now, who I ask you, can pass up an opportunity to make that??? And, I had potatoes from the CSA that needed to be used. The watermelon and blueberry salad got moved to later this week. Quickly got moved.
What did we think? Well, you already know Connie voted this as his favorite dish of the meal. For me, this was second place. It was VERY good and I'll absolutely make it again. I may try making this as a pasta salad too. The flavors were wonderful together and I think they'd do equally well with pasta. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 t of the seasoning. I doubled it and was very happy I did.
Crab Boil Potato Salad
Ingredients:
2 lbs boiled, cubed red potatoes
1/2 c celery, chopped
1/2 c corn
1 c mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
1 T Old Bay or Emeril's Essence
1 c crabmeat
Directions:
Put the potatoes, celery and corn in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the dressing ingredients: mayo, lemon juice and Old Bay or Emeril's. Gently toss the potato salad with the dressing. Then, gently stir in the crab meat. Serve warm or cold.
adapted from Food Network Magazine
Not too long ago, I bought a five ingredient cookbook. Not my typical cookbook. I know exactly why, though. There’s a recipe for mini sour cream biscuits. They sounded wonderful. As did several of the other recipes. So, what the heck.
Then, on the way home from a trip to Columbus, OH to see our grandkids, I read the whole cookbook. Not bad at all. And, there are a lot of quick and easy recipes that’ll bail me out on a weeknight when I get home at 7:30 and still want to get a decent dinner on the table.
Saturday, I finally kind of got my kitchen back. Sunday I was supposed to be emptying the dining room but instead spent my time putting the sitting room back together. Something about wanting one room that’s put together :-) That meant that I actually could cook on Sunday evening. Time to try a couple of newbies along with an old faithful – Crispy Sesame Salad Stack.
The first recipe that the Gooseberry Patch 5-Ingredient Family Favorites fell open to was Creamy Italian Noodles. That’d be perfect with the Sesame Chicken from McCormick 3-Step Cooking with Flavor.
What did we think? These were perfect. I doubled the amount of cheese. That's reflected in the ingredients list below. I used the half and half but will probably substitute 2% milk next time.
Creamy Italian Noodles
Ingredients:
8 oz package medium egg noodles
¼ c butter
½ c evaporated mild or half and half
½ c grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 ½ t Italian salad dressing base
Directions:
Cook the noodles about two minutes less than the package directions. Drain them. Leave the noodles in the strainer while you melt the butter in the saucepan. Add the Italian dressing base to the butter and mix it well. Pour the noodles back into the saucepan and add the milk and cheese. Stir well to mix. Serve.
Growing up we had the normal suspects as starches: potatoes, noodles and rice. I'd never heard of couscous or any of the other grains. Finally, a few years ago, I tried couscous. Love at first bite. First off, it's very quick and easy to make. Second, you can make it go with almost any meal. Third, it's great with almost anything with a sauce. The first time I made it, I made up a recipe that I make to this day. It's a box of olive oil and garlic couscous with a peeled and chopped and seeded cucumber and a good handful of crumbled feta cheese. Yesterday, when I had all of 15 minutes to make dinner, it was the starch of choice. I tossed a handful of pine nuts in a skillet and let them brown while the water came to a boil. Then, tossed in a handful of raisins and a bit of thyme. There was about a tablespoon of the sauce from the pork specials so that went in too. But, it's not necessary... It's still really good stuff.
Raisin Couscous
1 c boiling water
1 c couscous
1/3 c raisins (I used the mixed bag from Trader Joe's)
1/4 c toasted pine nuts (ok, so toasted is in the oven, sauteed is stovetop...who cares as long as they're nice and toasty brown!)
1/2 t thyme
Once the water is boiling, pour the couscous into it and remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the raisins and stir. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes. Add the thyme and pine nuts and stir. Serves 2.
Last weekend I found some baby back ribs on sale at Sam's. John Marvel had just made the BEST baby back ribs for the MOPS March/April party so I was anxious to try the recipe for myself. What goes with baby back ribs? Cole slaw, au gratin potatoes, baked beans. MMMMM, lots of good things. Many times over the years I've doctored up a can of baked beans. But, I can't recall ever having made my own from scratch. It was time to try. Particularly since I had well over half a slice of ham left from the pork skewers for the MOPS party. Gosh, it does sound like all the MOPS do is party and eat! I started with some great northern beans and looked at a couple of recipes. One of my favorite barbecue guys is Steven Raichlen. I probably used his recipe the most. But, his calls for canned beans. I wanted to avoid those because of the sodium.
Baked Beans
1/2 bag great northern beans (13 svg bag)
1/2 ham slice (3/4 of a pound)
1 kielbasa, cooked and diced
1 onion, finely diced and cooked with the kielbasa
1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c shagbark hickory syrup or maple syrup
1/2 c barbecue sauce
1/3 ketchup
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T dry mustard
1 T yellow mustard
1 T cider vinegar
Cook the beans. You can either soak them overnight, then cook them or boil them for 10minutes then cover them and let them soften a bit. Whichever method you choose is fine. Then, you want to cover them with water and let them simmer for a couple of hours. Add the ham in at the latest halfway thru the cooking. Saute the kielbasa and onion. Once the beans are tender, drain them. Shred the ham and put it back in with the beans. Put in the rest of the ingredients and heat through.
