Thursday, February 22, 2007

Imperial Chicken

This is not for everyday eating, very decadent, but a great special occasion meal. This is my Grandma's recipe.

1 c. fine, dry bread crumbs
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 c. minced parsley
2 tsp. salt (I don't add the salt)
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c.) butter, melted
1 sm. clove garlic, crushed
4 chicken breasts
1/8 tsp. ground pepper

Blend bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Combine melted butter and garlic. Dip chicken in butter mixture, then into crumb mixture, coating thoroughly. Arrange chicken in single layer in shallow baking pan. Drizzle the remaining butter mixture over chicken. Bake uncovered, in moderate oven, 350 degrees, until the thickest pieces are fork tender, 1 hour. Serves 4-5. Can be made a day ahead.

Pork Tacos

These are so good, and so simple.

1 pork roast (4 lbs or so)
1 jar of salsa
1/2 cup of brown sugar
tortillas
taco fixings:
avocado
tomatoes
cheese
cilantro
sour cream

Put pork in crock pot. Pour salsa over and add brown sugar cook for 6-8 hours on low. Shred with two forks, stir well. Warm tortillas on stove top (gas burner). Put meat, cheese, etc on taco. YUM, YUM.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

MIA

That means "Missing In Action" - we haven't heard from foodie bloggers Lynne, Leah and Michelle in quite some time. I'm going to take you off for the time being and feature you as a guest blogger when you have a recipe to share. Thanks!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Bing Cherry Cobbler

For the filling:
5 cups pitted fresh Bing cherries or other sweet cherries (about 3 lb. unpitted)
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, strained
3 Tbs. sugar

For the topping:
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tbs. sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat an oven to 375°F. For individual servings, place six 1-cup ramekins or custard cups on a rimmed sheet. For a large cobbler, have ready a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie dish or baking dish with sides at least 2 3/4 inches high.To make the filling, in a large bowl, stir together the cherries, lemon juice and sugar until well mixed. Divide the fruit among the ramekins or pour into the pie dish or baking dish. Bake the fruit for 10 minutes while you prepare the topping.

To make the topping in a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the flour mixture and, using a large wooden spoon, stir just until combined and a soft, sticky, evenly moistened dough forms.

To Finish:
Slowly pour in the buttermilk mixture and continue to beat just until combined and a soft, sticky, evenly moistened dough forms. Drop the dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the hot fruit, spacing it evenly over the surface. The topping will not cover the fruit but will spread during baking to cover it. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the dough. Bake the cobbler until the fruit filling is bubbling, the topping is browned, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the topping comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm. Serves 6.

Gourmet Spaghetti

One package of spaghetti
4 cups-ish chicken broth
15 roma tomatoes (chopped)
1 cup pine nuts
3/4 cup fresh basil (chopped)
3-4 garlic cloves (minced)
feta cheese

Boil noodles in chicken broth about 10 minutes
As spaghetti is boiling, brown the pine nuts in olive oil
Take noodles out and put broth aside
Mix: spaghetti, nuts, tomatoes, basil, garlic
Fold in the feta cheese
Add juice into the spag. mixture to taste (meaning, if you like it juicy, add more of the juice, or if you like it dry, not add as much)

**I'll admit that I forgot to buy feta, but had a fresh block of Parmesan so grated that and added that (lots!) and it turned out delicious.

Enjoy with french bread and a salad!

Monday, February 12, 2007

for the love of trader joes

ok, so trader joes is one of those places that we all love to shop, however, i find myself just buying the same things and not branching out sometimes for fear of the unknown, so...i thought i would ask you all what are your favorite things to buy there????
i love many many things from there:
i just bought the granola (almond flavor) and it is so good on yogurt for breakfast.
luke, and now velzy, can't get enough of the spicy flax and soy chips
their hand made tortillas are way better than any others
we always get lightly salted cashews and almonds for sancks
their frozen fish is always good for fish tacos
lemon herb chicken, cut up over their caesar salad in a bag is super good for dinner.
i love love love the australian panda black licorice and fruit leathers...this is all that i am thinking of off the top of my head, i will add more when i think of more, but i just wanted some new ideas from you all!
thanks!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Basic Fresh Tomato Sauce

Olive Oil
Fresh roma tomatoes, peeled and seeded
Salt
1 clove garlic, minced
4-5 fresh basil leaves

Combine all ingredients and add to pasta of choice.

Lemon Parmesan Linguine

This is a great dish - main or side. Love it.

3/4 lb. linguine
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 TB. butter
3 TB. fresh lemon juice
1 TB. lemon peel
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Cook pasta in pot of boiling salted water until just tender, but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water

Bring crea and butter to simmer in a heavy, large skillet over med-high heat. Mix in lemon juice and peel. Add pasta, toss to caot, adding reserved cooking water as needed to hink the sauce to desired consistency. Add parmesan, toss to blend. Season with salt and pepper.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Carrot Cake

Made this last night- super yummy and almost healthy with the whole wheat flour, pineapple, carrots and raisins. Just a mixture of a few recipes that i had. When i made it i thought the batter was weird, but it turned out great- super moist and flavorful.

Ingredients:
3 C shredded Carrots (hope you have a food processor)
1 C oil ( i want to play with this recipe and see if you could do half oil, half applesauce)
4 eggs
8 oz crushed pineapple- drained
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
optional: handful of raisins and/or nuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Stir together dry ingredients. Add oil and Stir. Add eggs and Stir. Add pineapple, carrots, raisins and stir.
You can bake it in two circle pans for 35 min or a 13x9 one for 45 min.

Frost with a cream cheese or regular white frosting.

Chinese Roast

this is one of Luke's grandma's recipes, that his mom gave me. it is easy easy easy, and yummy! it has a different taste than any other roast you will make- but it's Luke's favorite and i love it too!

The recipe is really whatever- i guess i mean that you can mess with it. When i made it I threw it in a big pot, added water and first 2 ingredients and boiled till i had to leave for church (20 min) then turned it down to low and let it cook while we were gone for 3 1/2 hours. And ate it after i cooked rice when we got home. It was super tender and flavorful and makes a lot. Also, you might have to look a little for the star anise and Chinese 5 spices!

Roast- pork is best- any size- i used around a 2 lb. last time
3 slices of Ginger root
1/4 C star anise- cool spice that looks like a star and smells like licorice
1 tsp Chinese 5 spices
pinch of red pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/4 C vinegar
2 C soy sauce- i didn't use that much though
5 stems green onion cut into 1/4 inch pieces


Directions:
Place Meat in Pot- and cover with water
Add Star Anise and ginger root and bring to boil for about 20 min.
Add other ingredients and boil- on low for several hours
Strain and keep broth- make a gravy out of it- as thick or thin as you like.
Take out the Roast and shred apart.
Eat over sticky rice with the gravy.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Question

Ton, I made this tonight and it turned out more like soup than chili. Did yours? And when you wrote low-fat, you meant it. I think I need a fattier version. Or maybe I just plain cooked it wrong. Any advice? Or another white bean chili?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Again, a recipe from Lillie - our resident guest blogger.

3/4 c. oats ground up (I use little food processor)
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter softened
1/4 c. canola oil
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chocolate chips

Beat butter until fluffy, mix in wet, mix in dry. Stir in choc. chips.

Bake at 350' for 8-11 min ( I think I do about 9)

**They're not low fat or anything so they're still good- just better fat (canola oil), and no white flour. Of course grinding your own wheat is the healthiest but who has time for that?
The dough seems weird compared to normal CC cookies because it's more oily but the cookies are so yummy if you like that sort of oaty, whole wheat flavor ( I LOVE it). They're from Cooking Light or Eating Well.. don't remember.

Frozen Brownies from a Guest Blogger!

I'd like to introduce our very first guest blogger! Lillie Biesinger is my friend from college and she is currently living in the California desert. She is a lover of Trader Joe's and with that comes good food. Thanks for sharing Lillie!

Brownies:
2/3 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. baking cocoa
1/2 c. walnuts (I never do this, but if you like nuts in them)
1 c. chocolate chips (sprinkled on top)

1. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla
2. Add melted butter
3. Sift together dries
4. Mix all together
5. Spread in greased 9x13
6. Sprinkle with 1 c. chocolate chips (half milk/half semi sweet is good- whatever you have)
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min. (I usually do about 26- brownies do not appear to be totall cooked in the middle when they are ready to be pulled out of the oven, but when the edges separate from pan, brownies are done.

Lillie freezes this brownies (individually Lil?) and eats them as a dessert. I haven't tried these, but she says that frozen is the way to go...

{If anyone else would like to feature a guest blogger, please let me know! We love recipes from everyone}