Category: Culinary Creations

Sunday Morning Simple Fruit Tart

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I don’t know about you, but I always need something sweet with my savory for breakfast!  That yin and yang of flavors on my tongue is what satisfies me the most.  Today I threw together this tart at the last minute.  It really is super easy and takes very little time. The result is something that looks impressive; like you spent hours making it, and tastes delightful and fresh. I happened to have the ingredients on hand.  I had one frozen roll out pie crust and bits to fruit that needed to be eaten – you know how you end up with one of things and no one eats them and they sit and rot? Well, not today. I used up the last large peach, large mango, and the leftover fresh blueberries. You can use just about any fruit you have. Viola! a fancy tart for breakfast.

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You Will Need

1 pie crust ( I used store-bought frozen roll-out crust)

1 1/2 – 2 cups fresh blueberries

1 large mango chopped into bite sized pieces

1 large peach chopped into bite sized pieces (or 2 medium peaches)

1 heaping TBSP flour

1/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 TSP cinnamon

2 TBSP cream or one egg whisked

3 TBSP butter sliced thinly

6-7 lemon snap cookies or other very crunchy cookie (for topping)

1 tart pan

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

Instructions

Place pie crust in pan, do not cut off excess around edges, set aside

Cut peach/es and mango into bite sized pieces. Place in a mixing bowl with your blueberries

Add sugar, cinnamon, flour and pinch of salt.  Mix ingredients until the fruit is coated by the dry ingredients

Place the mixture into the pie crust in the tart pan and distribute the mixture evenly

Bend the edges of the pie crust over the edge of the fruit in the tart

Lay slices of butter all over the top of the fruit

Place your cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a mallet (or similar tool) until they are about pea sized pieces

Sprinkle the cookie crumbs over the top of the fruit and butter

Brush the bent over edges of your crust with your cream or egg mixture

Bake tart in a 350 degree F oven for about 45-55 minutes – until the middle of the tart bubbles and topping is golden.

Let cool before serving

Prep time: about 15 min

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 min (approx.)

 

Curried Quinoa w/ Grilled Veggies

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IMG_2148We’ve been eating quite a bit of quinoa lately. It is very versatile and really takes on whatever flavors you add to it.

Quinoa is a gluten free grain and comes in white, red and black varieties. I used white quinoa for this recipe, but you could choose any of the varieties. One cup of quinoa contains 8g of protein, 5g of fiber, 15% DV iron, 30% DV magnesium, 19% DV folate and heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids. Quinoa is a complete plant-based protein and provides all nine essential amino acids necessary for good health. It’s very simple to prepare and can be used in many recipes from side dishes to salads, desserts and cereals. It is great hot or cold.

This recipe is packed with flavor and healthy ingredients.  Remember that you can always change up your veggies in this recipe and serve this dish hot or cold.

Ingredients for making quinoa:

2 cups quinoa

4 cups water

1 heaping tbsp curry powder

2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp granulated garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

Cooking the quinoa:

Prepare the quinoa using package directions and adding all spices to your water.

Cook quinoa and set aside while preparing veggies.

Ingredients for grilled veggies:

1 zucchini

1 crook neck (yellow) squash

2 carrots

1 dozen or so brussels sprouts

1/2 small head cabbage

1 large yellow onion

12 large mushrooms

1 yellow or orange bell pepper

1/4 cup canola oil

salt and pepper to taste (I have been omitting most salt in my recipes for better health)

2 tbsp salt free spice blend

chopped cilantro

Cooking the veggies:

Chop all of your veggies in about 1″ pieces

Add to a large bowl and add oil and spices

Mix to coat veggies

Grill veggies in batches on veggie grill pan on the bbq. Grilling in batches allows the veggies to caramelize and not just steam. This is a key to getting great flavor.  I grilled my veggies for this recipe in three batches.  Don’t over cook your veggies – they should be slightly soft but still have some tooth to them.

Assembly:

Add cooked quinoa to a large bowl

Add your grilled veggies

Add your chopped cilantro

Add 1/2 cup of the shallot/garlic confit dressing (see recipe for this dressing on my blog or use a homemade vinaigrette)

Mix together

Check seasoning – salt and pepper to taste

Serve warm or refrigerate

Ham and Rosemary Scramble

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IMG_1426I love ham in scrambled eggs!  I had rosemary in the refrigerator and thought this would be a great savory addition. A great compliment to this dish is roasted red potatoes with onions, peppers and rosemary. (Serves 3-4)

You will need:

  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 cup diced ham (good quality)
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 tsp of rosemary
  • Salt & pepperIMG_1422

Directions:

  • Cut ham into 1/2″ cubes
  • Remove some of the leaves from your rosemary sprig.  Chop very fine to equal 1/4 teaspoon.  Rosemary is strong, it does not take much!
  • Crack and whisk eggs in medium bowl.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add chopped rosemary.
  • Add cubed ham.
  • Preheat pan on medium low.
  • Add 1 tbsp butter and melt.
  • Add egg mixture to pan and cook over gentle heat.
  • Serve

I have to interject here…..please don’t cook your eggs on high heat or overcook your eggs. Your eggs should cook slow and gently to retain that soft velvety texture. Remember, when you take them out of the pan they will still continue to cook (carryover cooking).  I cook my eggs until they are soft scrambled and then remove them from the heat and from the pan immediately so that they do not over cook.

Pineapple French Toast Bake (with pineapple maple syrup)

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French Toast BakeThis is a great Easter breakfast/brunch item.  Or dollop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on this warm bake and it makes a fabulous dessert! I like to make these bakes because it satisfies my breakfast sweet tooth and you just throw everything together and bake. So easy!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

You will need:

  • 5-6 cups bread cubes – about 2″  (I use a good sourdough round as it stands up well to the custard. You can also use french bread). You can also slice your bread about 1 1/2″ thick and lay your slices into your casserole dish.
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp group cloves
  • 1, 20 oz can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice (drained and juice reserved)
  • 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
  • 5 tbsp butter
  • pinch of salt
  • zest and juice of one orange

Directions:

  • Cube your bread and set aside.
  • Drain pineapple, set aside. Save pineapple juice for syrup.
  • Put 2 tbsp butter in 10″ saute pan and melt until it just begins to brown.
  • Add drained pineapple and 3 tbsp brown sugar to pan.
  • Saute pineapple on medium heat until it begins to caramelize then remove from heat.
  • Prepare custard mixture by beating 5 eggs in a large bowl.
  • Add 1 cup coconut milk,  1 cup whole milk, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.
  • Melt remaining 3 tbsp butter. Slowly drizzle butter into mixture with whisk.
  • Add zest and juice of 1 orange and pinch of salt. Whisk mixture until well blended.
  • Add your bread cubes to custard mixture and stir to coat all of the bread cubes. Let sit for 5 minutes, mixing a couple of times so that bread absorbs custard. (If you have sliced your bread, lay slices into casserole dish and pour custard over them and allow custard to absorb into bread slices.)
  • Pour bread and custard mixture into a deep casserole dish which has been rubbed with butter or sprayed with cooking spray.
  • Put dish into oven and cook for approximately 30-45 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and let stand about 5 minutes.IMG_1423
  • Spoon into dishes and spoon pineapple maple syrup over each serving.

If serving as a dessert, place one scoop of vanilla ice cream over warm bread and drizzle pineapple maple syrup over the ice cream.

Pineapple Maple Syrup:

  • While the french toast bake cooks, pour reserved pineapple juice into small sauce pan and put on medium high heat.
  • Reduce pineapple juice mixture to about 1/4 of its original volume.
  • When juice is reduced, remove from heat and add 1 – 1 1/2 cups maple syrup.
  • Let stand while your french toast bake cooks.
  • Serve over french toast bake when serving.

Italian Sausage & Veggie Fritatta

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IMG_1444This is a great full flavored fritatta that works for breakfast or dinner.  Fritattas are a great easy go to when you need a quick and flavorful meal. This was one of those I threw together with ingredients I had in the refrigerator.  For breakfast or brunch you can serve it with roasted breakfast potatoes, fruit or a muffin. For dinner it is great with a nice arugula salad with balsamic dressing. Don’t cut the veggies in this recipe too small, you want this to be a rustic dish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

You will need:

  • 1/2 green bell pepper chopped
  • 1/2 yellow bell pepper chopped (or any other color pepper you choose)IMG_1436
  • 1 small crookneck squash (yellow squash) chopped
  • 1 medium tomato chopped into 1″ pieces
  • 2 mild Italian sausages removed from their casings
  • 1 shallot diced (or white onion)
  • 1 large garlic clove diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 5 large eggs
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Directions:

  • Saute your Italian sausage in 10″ oven safe saute pan. Break up into pieces and saute until lightly browned.
  • While sausage cooks, chop your vegetables.
  • When sausage is cooked, remove from pan and set aside.
  • Add  2 tbsp olive oil to pan, saute shallot, garlic, peppers and squash in pan until they start to caramelize.  Add Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.IMG_1437
  • When veggies start to caramelize, add tomatoes and sausage into pan and cook with veggies until tomatoes just start to soften.
  • Turn heat on pan down to medium low.
  • Beat your eggs and add a pinch of salt and pepper
  • Pour egg mixture over veggie and sausage mixture and gently move eggs throughout mixture and then let sit on heat and begin to cook.
  • When egg mixture has partially cooked on edges and bottom, move pan to your preheated oven and allow to finish cooking – about 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on your fritatta and do not let your eggs overcook.
  • Remove cooked fritatta from oven and let set about 5 minutes before slicing.IMG_1442

Orecchiette with Mushrooms, Asparagus, Capers and Arrabiatta Sauce

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This is a fantastic quick dinner to make on a work night.  It took me less than an hour to pull it all together. This quick version uses a store bought arrabiatta sauce that I tweak a bit for more flavor. Of course, you can make your own – but for me, that’s a weekend project.  Arrabiatta is a slightly spicy marinara sauce that is great for pasta dishes with vegetables, it adds a bit of zip to the dish.  You can serve this with a quick salad. This time I just threw together some garlic Parmesan puffs and a glass of wine! Voila! (Wait, that’s French, not Italian……)

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You will need:

  • 1/2 of a 1 lb box of good quality Orecchiette pasta
  • One 24 oz jar of Arrabiatta sauce (shhhh, I used the private selection variety sold at  Ralphs)
  • 3 baby portabellas cut into about 1 inch pieces
  • About 10 shitake mushrooms (about 2-3 oz) cut into pieces
  • About 15 thin stalks of asparagus, bottom 3 inches trimmed off.  Cut stalks into 1 inch pieces
  • 1/2 white onion chopped
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • Three large cloves of garlic
  • 3/4 cup white wine (don’t use Chardonnay, use Pinot Grigio or similar)
  • 3/4 cup chicken (or vegetable) stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

 Pasta:

  • Get you pasta started in boiling, salted water

Prepare your sauce:

  • Put about 4 tbsp olive oil in a large deep frying pan on medium/high heat
  • Add chopped onion, potabellas and shitake mushrooms
  • Saute for about 5-7 minutes
  • Add cut asparagus and saute another 2-3 minutes
  • Add three cloves garlic crushed and stir until you can smell the aromas of the garlic (do not let garlic burn or brown)
  • Add 24 oz jar of arrabiatta sauce and stir to mix
  • Then add your 3/4 cup white wine and 3/4 cup chicken stock (or veggie stock)
  • Let simmer on low for 5 minutes
  • Add your capers and salt and pepper to taste
  • Let simmer while pasta finishes cooking (do not over cook pasta, pasta should be al dente)
  • Then add drained, cooked pasta to your sauce, stir and let simmer about 3-4 more minutes
  • Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to finish and serve

 

 

Citrus Peach Martini

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So, we had all of these oranges hanging off our tree and thought, “What in the world will we do with all of these?! By george, we will make martinis!”  This fabulous martini is a refreshing delight. My mixologist husband created this with a vanilla twist.  You will drink more than one!

You will need:

  • 1 1/2 oz peach vodka
  • 1 1/2 oz good quality vodka
  • 1 oz triple sec
  • 1 1/2 oz fresh squeezed orange or tangerine juice
  • vanilla rim sugar
  • Zest of one orange/tangerine

Directions:

  • Pour all contents except vanilla sugar into cocktail shaker with ice.
  • Shake vigorously until chilled.
  • Rub rim of glass with orange and dip into vanilla sugar,
  • Pour cocktail into glass
  • Sigh and enjoy!

 

Garlicky Green Bean and Artichoke Salad

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So a lot of my recipes are invented out of necessity.  Garlicky Green Bean Salad is definitely one of those.  I bought one of those big bags of beautiful thin green beans from that big box store C _ _ _ _ O.  I used half of them and the other half remained in the fridge for a week. When I finally uncovered them I knew I had to use them before they got slimy! This salad was the quick result derived from ingredients I had on hand. IMG_1303 (1)

You will need: 

1 lb fresh green beans, ends removed and cut into 1 inch pieces.
1/4 medium white onion or sweet onion.
3/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts sliced into bite sized pieces.
Salt
Pepper
Garlicky dressing – recipe below
Crisp bacon chopped (optional)

Directions:

  • Blanch cut green beans in salted boiling water for about 2-3 minutes. You still want beans to be crisp.
  • Drain beans and run with cold water to stop the cooking. Lay out on clean dry towel and allow to dry off.
  • If you are using bacon, fry until crisp, drain, and chop into pieces.
  • Finely chop onion and put into a medium sized bowl.
  • Cut marinated artichoke hearts and add to bowl.
  • Add dry green beans to bowl.
  • Pour garlic dressing over beans, onion, artichoke hearts and stir until well coated.
  • Let salad stand at least 2 hours before serving so all the flavors can marry together.
  • Add chopped crispy bacon before serving.

Dressing:

  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • Two cloves crushed garlic
  • 1 tsp good quality Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp sugar or honey
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper

Mix until ingredients come together, taste for seasoning, adjust as necessary.

Food is a Time Machine

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I always say that food directly ties us to memories of our past. It’s like music that way. You hear that old song on the radio and it takes you back to a time or even a certain day or moment in your life and you get that warm Deja vu feeling.  For me, food memories are very strong.  My family often communed around food. Getting together for holidays where you anticipated the fabulous stuffing, mashed potatoes smothered in gravy , and great desserts made with love. My mom used to make homemade spaghetti sauce on Sunday mornings and let it simmer all day. To this day spaghetti and meat sauce is one of my favorite comfort foods. When I make jello, which for some reason doesn’t happen often, it reminds me of my grandmother who used to make jello for me every time I would come over to their house. I ate a lot of jello as I was there all of the time! She would call me in advance and ask what flavor and what fruit addition I wanted. She loved to make me grape jello with marshmallows. Sounds weird, but it was good. She had a pantry full of jello boxes. My grandfather made great milk gravy. He would toil over the stove slowly and meticulously stirring it on low heat until it was thick and perfect. He also loved to BBQ

Family food
Mom, me, grandpa and grandma – ready to eat!

steaks and hot dogs.  We ate a lot of BBQ hot dogs by the pool each summer. Today hot dogs are my guilty pleasure and remind me of my pop pa. Almost every weekend or so we would go to my grandparents and we’d make Mexican food.  Homemade  shredded beef tacos, rice, beans, salsa, etc.   I ate a lot of Mexican food growing up and I haven’t slowed down. I make many authentic dishes now and they are always family favorites.  My dad made great chipped beef and gravy over toast. This was a throwback from his military days in the Marines. He made it gourmet style and man was it decadent and good! He is actually a fabulous cook – very gourmet. My entire childhood is full of memories of loved ones gathering together around good food.

I sometimes worry that I might not have made enough food memories for my girls.  Of course I cook a lot and they love my cooking, but I make so many different things and I am always experimenting. They do have their favorites.  Maybe that’s what they will remember when I’m gone, that mom had no fear in the kitchen as long as she was making something that she knew her family would love.

Carrot Ginger Soup

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As I was digging through my veggie bin this morning I noticed a large bag of carrots that were starting to look a little sad.  Somehow things always get pushed to the bottom of the bin and sometimes its too late – but these I rescued in the nick of time.  My husband had picked up a root of ginger at the store the other day and I had been contemplating what in the world I was going to do with it.Ah-ha! Ginger carrot soup!  Should be simple and easy to throw together with what I have in the fridge and I figured we could eat on it a couple times during the week.

Here’s how I made it.  You will need:

14 carrots peeled, ends removed and cut into 2 inch pieces

Two large shallots

Two stalks celery

1/2 teaspoon grated ginger root

3 to 4 good sized cloves of garlic  (I like garlic, but you can add less if you want)

64 oz chicken or veggie stock (I used chicken for extra flavor)

1 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of 1/2 lime

IMG_1283Directions:

Chop shallot and celery and saute in a heavy pot with two tbsp olive oil until translucent.

Add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper while sauteing.

While that saute’s grate 1/2 tsp ginger and your garlic.

Add ginger and garlic to pot and stir briefly until you begin to smell the aroma of both.

Add your cut up carrots, your stock and water.

Let simmer until carrots are soft throughout – about 20-25 minutes. If your stock reduces too low, just add water a cup at a time.IMG_1284

Turn soup off and let sit about 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon contents into your blender and process until very smooth and silky.  If you are using a hand immersion blender, blend as smooth as possible.

Pour soup back into pot and put on low heat. Squeeze the 1/2 lime (this helps brighten the flavors) into the pot and add salt to taste.IMG_1291

Heat on low until bubbly.

Serve with garnish of thinly chopped scallions or chopped cilantro. Add an extra squeeze of lime if you like.IMG_1293

This soup was so simple to put together!  The added benefit to tasting great is that it is also healthy. But I did not tell Bruce or the girls that! God knows I need that vitamin A as it seems my eyesight is deteriorating quicker every day.