Special Brownies and Kale Chips

I was in bad shape all day today.  I did something to my shoulders and was really in pain.  Took pain medicine and then was nauseated.  What a fun day.  Dinner was lame.  Salmon in the speed cooker, asparagus and Idahoan mashed potatoes.  This is second to MacDonald’s on Jim’s favorites list.  But my two experiments turned out somewhat.  The first was the kale in the dehydrator.  The precut is too small, but large kale would be great.  I would recommend a little EVOO and then the salt as I had a lot of salt fall off.  But the result is chips and they are absolutely calorie free.  It is just dried kale.  It tastes good.  Even Jim liked it.

The second experiment is just for Jim.  He has been complaining about losing weight.  Ladies, don’t we all feel so sorry for him?  So I have been making him brownies, from the box.  I have found the brownie box mix at Aldies to be very good.  I usually add walnuts and chocolate chips.  The last time I used really great chips that I had bought in CA.  They were flavored.  This time instead of the 2/3 C of veggie oil, I used 1/3 C flax oil and 1/3 C orange oil.  I thought the flax seed oil would be better for him than veggie oil.  I had to bake it a little longer, and the orange was a little too strong.  So next time I am going to use less orange oil, but Jim liked the orange and chocolate together.  He thought the result was a deeper chocolate taste.    

Tuscan Ribollita

I decided to make soup for dinner as it is cold today.  I forgot to mention yesterday that the recipe was also from Cooking Light.  Today’s soup is from the magazine that comes with Viansa wine.  Jim is a member of their wine club.  Ribollita means twice-cooked or re-boiled in Italian.  Sounded to me like leftovers.  This is easily 2 meals, even with Jim eating.  The recipe does not give a serving amount.  We used it as a meal. 

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

4 oz. pancetta, chopped (I found it pre-chopped at Trader Jo’s)

2 T EVOO (more required if you want to drizzle on the finished individual servings)

1 15 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

3 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 C chicken broth (I used 4, thought it was too thick)

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped (I bought mine bagged and chopped) I used about ½ the bag.

½ C toasted bread crumbs  

Grated Parmesan

Directions:

1.      In a large pot over medium heat, sauté the first five ingredients in 2 T of EVOO for 5 minutes.

2.      Add the tomatoes, and their juices, along with the beans, broth and rosemary.  Simmer, covered, until the beans break apart, about an hour. 

3.      Add kale and cook for 5 to 7 minutes more. 

4.      Stir in the bread crumbs and serve, drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with the cheese.

 I thought it could use a little heat, red pepper flakes or jalapeno.  Jim likes it the way it is.  I took the remaining ½ bag of kale, salted it and put it in my dehydrator.  Sometime last year, I made kale chips in the oven.  I remember we liked them.  However the way my system is now it is painful to retrieve.  Jonathan is going to fix that in the new site.    

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Saturday we arrived back from a long week visiting friends in Atlanta and Florida.  We had many good dinners and Jim wanted to attend the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot in Disney World.  I had a great lunch in the Chinese pavilion and we waited out the rain with Sushi in the Japanese pavilion.  The festival itself is nothing to write about.  Jim complained about the size and price of the wine pours.  We walked from 11:00 AM until 7:30PM when I collapsed.  We still had to get to the car.  The next time I am going to rent a motorized scooter like the rest of the old people.  We got home Saturday late afternoon after a stop at Atlanta’s IKEA and then the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  It was Jim’s birthday so I fixed his a steak dinner.  Sunday we went to our club for brunch.  Jim ate for an hour and a half.  I’m not real fond of the brunch. 

Last night I made the following shrimp dish.  I liked it, but Jim complained about the heat.

Ingredients:

8 oz. uncooked linguine (I used whole wheat)

2 T EVOO, divided

1 ½ T minced garlic, divided

1# medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

¾ C diced onion

1 t crushed red pepper

½ t dried basil

½ t dried oregano

2 T tomato paste

1 T fresh lemon juice

1 ¾ C canned crushed tomatoes

1 (14.5- oz) can diced tomatoes, drained

¼ t salt

Directions:

1.       Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.  I added salt, and never put oil in the water.  Drain; keep warm.

2.       While pasta cooks, heat 1T oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add 1 ½ t garlic and shrimp; sate 3 minutes or until shrimp are done.  Remove from pan; keep warm.

3.       Add remaining 1T oil and onion to pan; sate 5 minutes or until softened.  Stir in remaining garlic, pepper, basil, and oregano; cook 1 minute stirring constantly.

4.       Stir in the tomato paste and lemon juice; cook 1 minute or until slightly darkened. 

5.       Stir in crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and salt; cook 5 minutes or until thickened. 

6.       Return shrimp to pan; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. 

7.       Serve over pasta.  Serves 4. 

Taco Rice Salad

Yesterday we played golf with friends visiting from PA.  We decided to stay for dinner at our golf club, big mistake.  We have a new chef and if my dinner last night is his idea of food, I will not eat there again.  Tonight’s dinner from the Mix and Match Cooking Light cookbook, Jim pronounced hot but good.  It makes, 6 servings, but Jim ate 4.  I found one serving very satisfying.  Don’t let the list of ingredients scare you.  It is really easy.  Just do all the measuring, chopping, rinsing, draining and thawing ahead. 

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1# ground round

1 garlic clove, minced

3 C cooked yellow rice (I added saffron to my regular rice before cooking.  Make sure you cook the rice before starting dinner.)

1 t ground cumin

1 t chili powder

¼ t salt

¼ t black pepper

6 C torn romaine lettuce, about 10 oz.

3 C chopped tomato, about 1 ¼ #

1 C frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed

½ C chopped red onion

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Dressing:

2/3 C fat-free sour cream

2/3 C picante sauce

1 t chili powder

½ t ground cumin

Topping:

½ C (2 oz) reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.      Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat the pan with cooking spray.  Add beef and garlic, and cook 9 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. 

2.      Drain; return beef mixture to pan.  Add rice and the next 4 ingredients.  Cool slightly.

3.      Combine lettuce and next 4 ingredients to a large bowl; toss to combine. 

4.      Prepare dressing by combining all ingredients and stirring with a whisk. 

5.      Spoon dressing over lettuce mixture; toss to coat. 

6.      To serve, place 1 1/3 C lettuce mixture on each of 6 plates, or just divide evenly if serving 6.  Top the lettuce with ¾ C rice and beef mixture and sprinkle each plate with 1 ½ T cheese.      

Pecan Chicken and Chocolate-Chocolate Desserts

Again we had company for dinner, long time friends from PA and their traveling friends.  They had booked a time share in Nashville, before realizing we live here.  When I planned the dinner, I wanted to make sure I was able to socialize and not be in the kitchen cooking. 

Nuts and Olives

Previous blog Cashews

Carmelized Onion Dip with Chips and Vegetables

Previous blog

Arugula Salad with Orange Vinaigrette and Manchego

Bon Appétit, October 2012

Pecan Chicken

Paula Deen, 2007, FoodTV

Baked Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar and Butter

Paula Deen, 2007, FoodTV

Black & White Angel Food Cake

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Chocolate Sorbet

Previous blog

I will start with the salad.  This “green” actually used in the magazine was Treviso, a thin variety of radicchio.  I do not like radicchio, so I substituted arugula.  The salad was very tasty.  The recipe says serves 8-10, I served 6 but had a smaller quantity of green.    

Salad Ingredients:

¼ C plus 2 T EVOO

¼ C OJ

4 t honey

Kosher salt and pepper

1# Treviso (I had maybe 10 oz of arugula)

½ C chopped toasted walnuts

1 - 4 oz wedge Manchego cheese

¼ C coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 t finely grated orange zest

Directions:

1.      Whisk oil, oj, honey and vinegar in a large salad bowl until well blended, Season with salt and pepper.  (I forgot the s&p, it really needed it.)

2.      Add the greens to the bowl and toss. 

3.      Divide on the serving plates.

4.      Scatter the walnuts.

5.      Using a vegetable peeler, shave cheese onto salads.

6.      Garnish with parsley and orange zest. 

It was easy and a very pretty salad.  I wanted something light as the rest of the meal was not. 

Pecan Chicken Ingredients:

8 T butter

1 C buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 C all purpose flour

1 C ground pecans

1 t salt

1 T paprika

1/8 t pepper

¼ C sesame seeds

2 (2 ½ #) chickens, cut into quarters

¼ C pecan halves

1 C mixed red and green grapes

Directions:

1.      Melt the butter in a 10 x 15” baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.      In a shallow dish, combine buttermilk and egg.

3.      In another dish combine flour, pecans, salt, paprika, pepper and sesame seeds.

4.      Dip the chicken in the buttermilk and then in the flour.

5.      Place skin side down in the melted butter.  Turn to coat and leave skin side up. 

6.      Sprinkle with pecan halves.

7.      Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes. 

8.      Half way through cooking, toss the grapes onto the baking pan.

I washed and cut up the chickens the night before.  Earlier in the day, I breaded the chicken and then loosely covered with wax paper until the guests arrived.  It was pretty good.  Not as good as I expected, and I see no value added by the whole pecans and grapes. 

Squash Ingredients:

1 acorn squash for every 2 people (3)

2 T brown sugar (6T)

2 T butter softened (6T)

2 T maple syrup (6)

Salt and pepper (forgot as usual)

Directions:

1.      Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.      Scoop the seeds and stringy pulp out of the squash cavities and discard. 

3.      In a small mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, butter, syrup and salt and pepper. 

4.      Rub the squash cavities and cut edges with the butter mixture.  Place them in a Pyrex baking dish, cut side up. 

5.      Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

6.      Serve 1 half per person. 

The acorn squash in the market was I thought unusually small, so I have quite a bit of sauce left over.  I froze it and plan to fix these for Turkey Day dinner.  They were good.  Sugar and butter!  What’s not to like. 

Last but not least, the cake.  This cake is a real winner.  It turned out beautiful and boy did it taste good. 

Ingredients:

2 C superfine sugar (If you do not have superfine, put granulated sugar into the food processor fitted with the steel blade and process it for 30 seconds.)

1 1/3 C sifted cake flour

1 ½ C egg whites at room temperature (12 eggs)

¾ t kosher salt

1 ½ t cream of tarter

1 t pure vanilla extract

½ C coarsely grated semisweet chocolate (2 oz.)

For the glaze:

½ # semisweet chocolate chips

¾ C plus 1 T heavy cream

Directions:

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.      Combine the sugar with the flour and sift them together 4 times.   Set aside. 

3.      Place the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on high speed until the eggs form medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute.  (Mine took slightly longer)

4.      With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 ½ C sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. 

5.      Beat on high speed for a few minutes, until thick and shiny. 

6.      Add the vanilla and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minute. 

7.      Sift 1/4^th the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold into the egg whites very carefully with a rubber spatula. 

8.      Continue to add the flour mixture by fourths, folding until incorporated. 

9.      Fold in the grated chocolate.

10.  Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan (removable bottom if you have one), smooth the top.

11.  Bake for 35-45 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. 

12.  Turn upside down and cool on a wire rack.  When cool remove from the pan. 

13.  For the glaze, put the chips and the cream in a bowl over simmering water and stir until the chocolate melts. 

14.  Pour the chocolate glaze over the top of the cooled cake to cover the top completely and drizzle down the sides. 

Like I said, alone it was a winner, but I served with the chocolate sorbet.  It was the highlight of the meal. 

Goat Cheese and Roasted Corn Quesadillas

Working on my company dinner, made the dessert today, but will have to blog with the real dinner as the sorbet took two times to finish.  The quantity is more than my ice cream maker can handle.

Dinner tonight was very good.  It comes from Cooking Light, Mix and Match low calorie cooking.  We had such a great outing yesterday on my friends boat (is 98’x19’ really a boat or a ship?) that today was diet day. This dish was excellent. I served it with a salad of romaine and tomatoes.

Ingredients:

1C corn kernels

5 oz goat cheese

8 (6”) corn tortillas

¼ C chopped green onions

10 T bottled salsa verde, divided

Cooking spray

Directions:

1.      Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add corn; sauté 2 minutes or until browned. 

2.      Place corn in a small bowl with the goat cheese and stir until well blended. 

3.      Divide the corn mixture evenly among 4 tortillas.  Spread to within ¼ “of the edges. 

4.      Top each tortilla with 1 T onions and 1 ½ t salsa.  Top with the remaining 4 tortillas. 

5.      Heat the pan over M-H heat.  Coat the pan with cooking spray and cook 2 minutes per side.  I did this in 2 batches with my largest flat bottom skillet.  

Cut each quesadilla into 4 wedges and serve with remaining salsa.  I rounded out the meal with salad. 

Chocolate Sorbet

I am still getting ready for the next dinner party.  Tonight I started half of the dessert.  Now Haagen-Dazs makes really great chocolate sorbet.  It is fat free, so not popular in TN.  Actually it was very hard to find in VA.  So I found this recipe in Barefoot Contessa at Home.  I started it tonight for my dinner party.

Ingredients:

2 C sugar

1 C good cocoa powder, I use Ghirardelli

½ t vanilla extract

¼ t ground cinnamon

¼ t kosher salt

½ C brewed espresso (I keep instant in the freezer)

1 T coffee liqueur

4 C water

Directions:

1.      In a large saucepan, mix the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.  Stir in 4 C water and the espresso. 

2.      Cook over low heat until the ingredients are dissolved. 

3.      Off the heat, stir in the coffee liqueur. 

4.      Transfer to a plastic container and refrigerate until very cold.  I will have mine in the refrigerator overnight and most of the next day. 

5.      Freeze the mixture in an ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions.  Mine says 20 minutes. 

6.      Place in a plastic container and freeze for an hour or overnight, until firm enough to scoop.  Mine will be in the freezer for 2 days. 

Carmelized Onion and Shallot Dip

I have two events that I am getting ready for; one a boat party that I just have to bring something and the other is another dinner party.  I had planned to make a half of the following recipe for the dinner party, but instead I made the whole amount and will take it with a veggie platter and Terra chips to the boat party and serve about a cup with other appetizers at my dinner party on Monday. 

Ingredients:

2# large yellow or white onions, sliced (they said thinly, but I had to do this twice as they burned.  The second time I did them about ¼ “ thick and they did fine.)

2 large shallots, sliced

4 sprigs thyme

¼ C EVOO

Kosher salt and pepper

1 C dry white wine

2 T Sherry vinegar

2 C sour cream

¼ C minced fresh chives

¼ C plain whole milk Greek yoghurt

2 t onion powder

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2.       Mix onions, shallots, thyme sprigs, and oil in a large roasting pan.  Season with salt and pepper.

3.       Roast onion mixture, stirring and scraping down sides of pan every 10 minutes, until mixture stars to break down and turn golden brown, 45-55 minutes.  (I did 45 minutes the second time with all the onions cut about ¼ “ thick)

4.       Discard the thyme sprigs.  Add wine and vinegar; stir scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pan. 

5.       Return onion mixture to the oven and continue roasting, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. 

6.       Spread onion mixture out on a rimmed baking sheet to cool. 

7.       Mince the onion mixture.  I did mine in the food processor. 

8.       In a bowl, mix the remaining 4 ingredients and stir in the onion puree.  Taste for salt and pepper. 

This can be done ahead as many as 3 days.  Cover and keep chilled.  Will tell you later how it taste.  I did have Jim taste it and he said oniony and good. 

Moules Marinere

I have probably blogged this before, but the way my blog works now, I would have to search 3 years of input to tell you where to look.  So instead I will just input it again.  I have a young friend who is a blog genius working on my blog and will announce the changes when they are done.  Meanwhile, here it is again.  I use Julia Child’s recipe from The Way to Cook.  We had to run out tonight to Costco to get a veggie platter for tomorrow and it was seafood Friday.  We bought mussels.

Ingredients: 

4 T butter

1 C minced onion

1 large garlic clove, pureed

A large handful of chopped fresh parsley

4 qts. fresh mussels (I had whatever a bag of mussels is from Costco)

2 C dry white wine

Directions:

1.      Melt the butter in a large pot.  Stir in the onions and garlic and cook slowly for several minutes until the onions are limp.

2.      Then add the parsley and the mussels cover the pot and shake once.

3.      Pout in wine and shake once again. 

4.      Turn the heat to high, cover tightly, and steam for 4 minutes. 

Serve the mussels and fragrant cooking liquor in bowls.  Sop up the liquor with French bread.  Jim and I love this meal and Max loves French bread.    

Chicken-corn Chili

This recipe is courtesy of Food Network magazine.  It was easy, delicious, and fast.  The recipe says 4 servings, but it is about 8 cups of a very dense chili when finished.  I could only eat 1 C.  Jim ate about 5 cups and the Jiffy cornbread that I whipped up to go with it.  I did not add the suggested sour cream garnish. 

Ingredients: 

1 T EVOO

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 4-oz can chopped green chiles, drained

1 t ground cumin

2 C low-sodium chicken broth

2 C shredded rotisserie chicken (I discarded the skin and bones, but added the entire chicken.)

2 15-oz cans large white beans or pinto beans (one can drained; 1 undrained)

1 C frozen corn, thawed

½ C chopped fresh cilantro

1 C shredded Monterey jack

Sour cream and cornbread, for serving (optional)

Directions:

1.      The first step is to consider this as if doing a Chinese stir fry.  Have everything chopped, minced, measured and shredded.  Have it easily accessible next to the stove. 

2.      Heat the EVOO in a large pot over medium heat. 

3.      Add the onion and cook, stirring, until slightly soft, about 3 minutes.

4.      Add the garlic, jalapeño, green chilies and cumin and cook, stirring, until the cumin is toasted, about 2 minutes. 

5.      Stir in the chicken broth, chicken and beans along with the liquid from one of the cans of beans.

6.      Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 15 minutes.

7.      Using a potato masher, mash the chili until about half of the beans are broken up. 

8.      Stir in the corn, cilantro and ½ C cheese.

9.      Divide the chili among bowls and top with remaining ½ C cheese.  (I served in the pot and dished out servings.  I had a cheese bowl separate for each to sprinkle the desired amount. 

Notice there is no salt in this dish and it did not need any, even the salt hound did not use any.  I chose not to use the sour cream as the dish was rich enough for me.  We really liked this dish and will be having the remaining as leftovers after golf.