Cauliflower Fried Rice by JustPinchMe.com

In 1999 I got knocked off my rocker by a horrible, recurring 18 month long sinus infection that would not go away.  On a scale of one to ten, it was a decimating eleven.  I was wiped out and sick all the time.  It took all the energy I could muster for the day just to empty the dishwasher or throw a load of laundry in.

If I started my blog that year it would have been named “Swimming Through Mud”.  I was not having any “Just Pinch Me!” moments.

I bounced around doctors trying to get relief .  Each one ramped it up and wrote me a prescription for an even stronger course of antibiotics.  I’d feel better for a couple of days, but as soon as I stopped taking the antibiotic everything came slamming back.

And then I was pointed in the the direction of an incredible Ear, Nose and Throat specialist Dr. Joseph Donzelli.  

I wasn’t very hopeful as I told Dr. Joe my tale of woe, expecting him to write out a script for yet another stronger antibiotic and send me on my way.

“OK Cathy”  he said.  ”Here’s what’s going on.  All the antibiotics you’ve taken have completely whacked out your G/I, causing a condition called Candida Albicans.  Basically, an overgrowth of bad bacteria is creating systemic toxicity which is settling in your sinuses.  The only way to get rid of the bad bacteria is to take an antifungal medicine called Diflucan for three months and by the way you can only eat lean protein and green vegetables while you are battling this.”  

It appears the bad bacteria really thrive on ice cream and bread and pasta and potatoes.  Drats.

So I did it.  I ate only lean protein and green vegetables for three months.  Not one cookie or nibble of cheese or sip of wine or string of spaghetti passed my lips.  It was REALLY hard at first and then not so bad.  And wouldn’t you know pretty soon the birds started singing, I felt healthy and happy and energized.  Thank you thank you Dr. Joe!

These days whenever I feel a bit draggy or sluggish I go back to eating only meats and vegetables for a couple weeks.  Eating that way always re-engergizes me.

And want to hear something really cool?!?  In 2010 a research biochemist named Robb Wolf wrote a bestselling book called The Paleo Solution which touts the health benefits of eating a caveman diet consisting of…..you’ve got it.  Lean proteins and vegetables.  Now there are tons of fun cookbooks and food blogs written by folks embracing eating Paleo.

So my post today is about fried “rice”….uh huh.

Because there is actually no rice in this dish and the “rice” is made from cauliflower – crazy!!

What’s even crazier is the first time I served this dish to my hubbie, he told me “this dish is in my top five”.  (totally unsolicited)

“You mean top five in the masquerading vegetables category, right?”

“Nope, top five of ALL dishes.”

Alrighty then.  Many, many thanks to Micelle Tam over at Nom Nom Paleo for the inspiration on this recipe.

Cauliflower Fried Rice by JustPinchMe.com

Cauliflower Fried Rice by JustPinchMe.com

Cauliflower Fried Rice by JustPinchMe.com

coconut curry chicken breast by justpinchme.com

Ever since Curt and I stumbled on a little Thai restaurant in Hawaii right after we were married, and I tasted the cuisine for the first time, I’ve been hooked.  I adore ordering coconut shrimp when we are out.  This Coconut Curry Chicken dish reminds me of coconut shrimp, but with much more depth of flavor.

The sweet, salty and crunchy panko/coconut crust delights, and then you get a zing of the curry rub underneath.  Irresistible.  I love serving it with my Spicy Thai Garlic Ginger Peanut Sauce for dipping.  My Peanutty Noodles or my CPK Thai Crunch Salad go along great for sides. Oh! And I have a delish Pad Thai recipe to share …..coming soon.

Confession…….when I hear the words “boneless, skinless chicken breast, I instantly zone out of the conversation and stop processing anything spoken after it. All I hear is blah….blah….blah, like when the adults speak on the Charlie Brown TV specials. Sorry. The conversationalists are surely not to blame. (I try to hang out with engaging, intelligent & witty  folks.) No, it’s the topic: boneless, skinless chicken breast. 

So, I’ll apologize in advance to my gal Rita. (She’s in the pink dress on the right in the picture below.) I’ll admit I didn’t really listen when she told me all about the great new chicken dish she was bringing to our annual girlfriend’s Christmas brunch – Coconut Curry Chicken Breasts!

Then. I. Tasted. Them.  OMG.

Alright! I’ll admit most nights I couldn’t get dinner on the table without boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They are a workhorse in my kitchen. But they are sooooo boring and predictable.  Not sexy at all! You know what I mean. Well, this recipe def brings sexy back.

The chicken was so good I couldn’t wait to expediently post the recipe on my blog!  (Ahem…more on the delay in timing later.)  My friend Kerri also made this to-die-for Pad Thai for the brunch which I promise I will post soon too.  Only one of many reason why we’ve dubbed the annual girlfriend’s Christmas brunch as “the best day of the year”.

Rita originally sourced the recipe from Sunny Anderson on The Food Network.  We tweaked it a bit for my post.  I love this recipe because it is so easy and packs a flavor punch you won’t believe.  The boneless, skinless chicken breasts are first dry rubbed with curry, then dipped in flour, egg and a mixture of panko bread crumb and shredded coconut, flash fried and finished in the oven.

These are quick enough for weeknight dinners and fancy enough for entertaining.  Enjoy!

Psssst…….did you happen to know I kind of like Paris?  French food too, just a little.  And while I probably will never have my very own pied-a-terre walkup in the sixth arrondissement like Ina Garten and Dorie Greenspan, I love stalking following these two celebrity American chefs and their culinary escapades in the city of light.

Both Ina and Dorie have published recipes for this French Lemon Yogurt Cake.  It’s a great recipe because it whips up in a flash using ingredients found around the house.  The cake tastes like no other, almost like eating a very dense, flavorful  and moist pudding.  There is a great crumb and depth of flavor created when a fresh lemon simple syrup is poured over the surface of the baked cake and absorbed.

Dorie uses extra virgin olive oil in her recipe and Ina’s calls for vegetable oil.  I’ve tried both and also make the cake using melted butter.  All three renditions are a bit different, but still absolutely scrumptious.

As the story goes, almost all French mothers make some version of this yogurt cake as a snack for their polite little children after a hard day at school.  Given there is a five star patisserie on almost every street corner in Paris, this is a great testimony to how good the cake is.  I’ve heard it trumps macaroons and chocolate croissants as the Parisian childhood snack of choice. (I personally love having it as a coffee cake at breakfast.)

Before we jump into the recipe, I want to share a picture from our most recent trip to Paris last October.  Gorgeous weather, five dear friends and a week in the cutest little 1st arrondissement apartment.  (In case you were wondering why this blog is named “Just Pinch Me!!”)  This picture captures, like no words can, how very special Paris is.  If you have not gotten to Paris yet, my wish is you will get to visit very soon.  (JoEll are you listening?!?)  Photo credos for this gorgeous pic go to my gal Sue over at The Spin Cycle blog.  If you click on the link, it will whisk you over to a very cute blog post she wrote about our trip.

If you are lucky enough to live close to a California Pizza Kitchen and lucky enough to have already tried their Thai Crunch Salad, you will be thrilled with my post today. If not, how does this sound? Napa cabbage is tossed with romaine lettuce, julienne carrots, sliced green onions, avocados, shelled edamame and roasted peanuts in a spicy cilantro lime dressing and then DRIZZLED with thai peanut sauce. Crazy good. Crazy good.

I have to credit my beautiful daughter for her suggestion during our umpteenth visit to CPK, one where I pretended to peruse the menu, knowing all along I would order my favorite salad.

“Hey Mom, I think we could make it at home.”

A couple of google searches later and wowza! We had an inspired recipe. (We tweaked  it a bit when we made it at home.)

I love the napa cabbage in this recipe.  Napa cabbage originated in Beijing, China and is used extensively in Asian cuisine. It’s less crunchy and milder than regular cabbage. Right after we got married, my husband’s family introduced me to their tradition of eating cabbage every year on New Year’s Day.  In the German culture, eating cabbage on New Year’s Day results in good luck, happiness and health in the upcoming year. Since I am Irish, this was new to me – we eat our cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.

We’ve tried lots of fun cabbage dishes on New Year’s Day over the years, but sometimes we end up just dunking a piece of cabbage in peanut butter and stuffing it in our mouth in order to meet the German cabbage eating requirements. (There seems to be a direct inverse relationship between the number of drinks downed the night before during New Year’s Eve celebrations and the elaborateness involved in cooking the next day’s cabbage dish.)

We snuggled in at home on New Year’s Eve this year, so I had lots of energy to cook on New Year’s Day. We  enjoyed this wonderful Thai Crunch Salad (with cabbage) and are looking forward to a healthy and happy coming year!

Don’t be daunted by the long list of ingredients for this recipe. They are readily available at the neighborhood supermarket and also give you a good start toward building a well stocked pantry for Asian cooking. The dressing and the drizzle are both a snap to make, just assemble the ingredients for each into the food processor and give it a quick whirl.

I cook all the time and have a culinary degree, but admit I am overwhelmed by all the recipe sources out there these days. The list is endless: magazines, food blogs, cookbooks, Food Network, and websites like Epicurious and All Recipes.

And then we have crack cocaine PINTEREST.  Did you know there is a whole industry producing amazing food accompanied by sexy food pictures aptly nicknamed “food porn”?  These folks hang out on PINTEREST all the time. For the days when I am too cocky and confident, a short stint spent pinning their food ideas and pictures on my PINTEREST boards provides me with just the right jolt of inadequacy to take me down a notch.

And that is why, hands down, my favorite place to get recipes is from friends. Friends only share recipes that are true winners. Friends already made the dish and will warn me of the ins and outs. Friends have my best interest at heart. Friends know I know where to find them if the dish fails.  (JK on that last one.)

So, this recipe is from my friend Ruth, who helped me overcome my reluctance to cook fresh ravioli at home. I’ve made fresh ravioli from scratch and I’ve picked it up in the refrigerated pasta section at the store, but I’ve never been in love with it. See, the problem is the fresh ravioli gets a bit slippery after cooking it in boiling water. No matter how much I drain it, it waters down my sauce. I steer away and like to use other non-sauce-watering-down pastas instead.

All that changed when I had the most delicious fresh ravioli at Ruth’s house. Her method is to toast the ravioli instead of boiling it.  She dips the ravioli in egg and then a mixture of breadcrumbs and cheese and gently sautés it until golden brown. Walla!  Absolutely divine, not slippery and definitely not watering down the sauce.

Ruth toasted fresh cheese and mushroom ravioli paired with a spicy marinara sauce. My grocery store had fresh butternut squash ravioli this week.  I thought it would pair well with a nutty sage brown butter sauce. I can’t wait to try this again with different types of raviolis and sauces.

Although my go-to flavor palette is always Mediterranean, this recipe gets me out of my comfort zone to foray into Asian ingredients and culture.  What’s not to like about Thai Basil Chicken?  The flavors are bright, acidic and fresh.  The aroma of the coconut sauce draws you in.  The basil garnish bursts in your mouth, adding just the right complexity to keep things interesting.  Not enough to entice yet?  Well, how about this.  It’s a one pot dish that comes together lickity split, perfect for week night dinners.

Ninety percent of my pantry is filled with olives, tomatoes, pasta and such.  I reserve one shelf designated for exotic ingredients like coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce and sriracha sauce.  Coconut milk, a Thai staple,  is made by simmering coconut meat in water and straining it.  I’ve been delighted to see canned coconut milk is now readily available at the local grocery store in the Asian section.  Sometimes I’ll open a can and the coconut meat has separated from the milk and formed a big lump.  No worries, just dump it all in a bowl and whisk it back together until it is silky and smooth.  Sriracha sauce, originating in Thailand, is a hot sauce made from chili peppers, vinegar and garlic.  It’s also easy to find these days in the Asian aisle at the market.  (Pssst…having trouble finding it?  Look for the rooster.)

This dish is perfect served stand alone, but also is delightful when served over hot rice.

The most wonderful thing about making a salad is….well, it’s a salad!  It’s like building a sandcastle, really simple and pretty hard to mess up.  You almost have to try to mess it up in order for an actual mess-up to occur.  And what’s more fun, building the sandcastle or enjoying it once it’s built?  It’s like that with salad too.

I love cutting up fruit and vegetables to make a salad.  It’s my Prozac.  The weight of a great knife in my palm, the repetitive and relaxing motion, the crunching and chopping and slicing sounds.  I love the sense of accomplishment I feel.  Look at the huge pile of carrot disks!  What great pepper strips those are!  It’s as therapeutic as building sandcastles, with the added benefit of a meal ready to eat when I’m done.

And like sandcastles, salads are just begging for you to express your inner child, but with food.  Put in what you like, like what you put in.  Experiment a little to see what tastes good.  There are no mistakes.

I’ll often walk down the beach imagining the personalities responsible for each sandcastle I see.  The rambling, quirky sandcastle built by an unsupervised five year old, or maybe a ninety year old with a five year old’s love of play.  Or  the perfectly balanced, precise masterpiece built by an engineer on vacation.  The tallest one I see as my eyes scan the horizon, built by an overachiever with his mellow on.  Each one is just perfect.

I loved hearing from everyone who roasted their first ever whole chicken after reading my last post, Roasted Chicken with Lemon, Garlic & Rosemary.   Want to use the prepared roasted chicken in your fridge for a dish?  You must try this chicken salad.  Use my recipe as a guideline, but don’t be afraid to experiment.  It’s called kitchen sink chicken salad because it’s all about using what you have on hand and what you love.  Anything of course but the kitchen sink!

 

When I make chicken salad, I try to include a crunchy vegetable (like celery, radishes or water chestnuts), fruit (apples, grapes and pineapple work great), roasted nuts (walnuts, pecans, cashews or even pistachios) and onion (diced red, sliced green onions or chives).  It’s always fun to put add dried fruit like cranberries.

I love all the tastes and textures bursting in your mouth every time you take a bite.  Chicken salad can be served by itself on a bed of lettuce as shown, or scooped up with crackers or used as a sandwich filling for a croissant or toasted multigrain bread.

Enjoy!

Preparing dishes using pre-roasted chicken is one of my go-to strategies in the ongoing journey of feeding the family on weeknights.  My quest to put a relatively hassle free, fresh and simple dinner on the table depends heavily on my repertoire of quick soup, salad and casserole recipes using pre-cooked chicken.  For years I bought the ubiquitous rotisserie chicken available almost everywhere I frequented.  (Just recently I saw a row of the merry little maidens rotating away on a rotisserie spit at a local quick trip gas station.)  However, the problem with the store bought chicken is, although very convenient, it doesn’t taste very good.  Kind of unnatural and chemical tasting.  And it’s dried out.

I became disenchanted a couple years ago and decided to switch to roasting my own.  It’s not often in life making such a little change garners such huge results, but this is one of them.  First of all, roasting the chicken at home is so stinking simple and easy.  Even if you do nothing but rub the bird with a little olive oil and season it with salt and pepper before sticking it in the oven to roast, the resulting meat is juicy, tender and eons ahead of any purchased rotisserie chicken.  I can also show you a couple of quick prep steps which will pump up the  flavor factor even more.  These birds are so tasty!

Best of all I use the leftover roasted bones to make a killer homemade chicken stock.  I’ll show you how in an upcoming post.

Since this recipe is so simple, the quality of the chicken used really effects the outcome.  Get a great, fresh organic bird to roast.  Costco has a two pack of organic roasting chickens I often use.  On most winter Saturday mornings you can find me sticking a couple of  these birds in the oven to roast (after a quick ten minute prep time).  After they are cooked, I slice the meat off the bone and store it to use during the week.  It’s so nice to get a head start on the upcoming week.

I’m not making any assumptions here on your previous encounters with a whole chicken.  First of all, this is what the whole chicken looks like when you grab it at the store.  After you take the plastic off, fish out the organ meat (liver, heart and gizzards) usually wrapped in paper and stored in the cavity of the bird.

Save the organ meat to makes terrines and pates later, or just toss them if these culinary adventures are not on your horizon.

Rinse the bird and pat dry with paper towels.  Rub the outside of the bird with olive oil and season it generously with salt and pepper.  It’s perfectly OK to stick it in the oven to roast at this point.  However, I like to add some extra goodies to pump up the flavor.

You can place any aromatics like lemons, herbs and garlic in the cavity of the bird to enhance the flavor.  I used one lemon cut in half, a sprig of fresh rosemary and one whole garlic head sliced in half.  After adding them to the large cavity of the bird, I tie the legs together for even cooking.

Place the bird in a roasting pan and cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.  This step caramelizes the skin and locks in juices.  At this point, turn the oven down to 350 degrees and roast until juices run clear.  The internal temperature taken with a thermometer should read 160 degrees.  Depending on the size of the bird this should take about an additional hour or so of roasting time.

Remove from oven, cover with tented foil and let stand for twenty minutes before carving.  This ensures the juiciest, tastiest chicken ever.  The leftover juice in the pan is perfect for making gravy too.  Good luck!  Leave a comment below and let me know about your adventures in roasting a chicken at home.  Enjoy!

It’s the time of year for winter vegetables; parsnips, rutabagas, potatoes, turnips, carrots and of course…..brussels sprouts!

Brussels sprouts….ewwwww!

Most people make an icky face when I mention brussels sprouts.  The poor little vegetable that looks like a miniature cabbage just doesn’t get enough respect.  I can’t figure out why.  We love them in season and gobble them up around our house.  If you ask my kids, they will tell you it’s their favorite vegetable.  The nutty, woodsy flavor is interesting and satisfying.  Give ‘em a try sometime.

Brussels sprouts didn’t actually originate in Belgium, but were named after the capital city since the country is the epicenter of world sprout production.  Hmmm….maybe one of the reasons I love the sprouts so much is because I have a bit of Belgium (Belgish?) in me.

As a kid, there was always quite a bit of bantering in our family regarding our cultural roots.  We had many light hearted argumenst speculating on the preponderance of our Irish vs Belgium vs English inherited personality traits.  My Dad was 100% Irish, extremely proud of it and always claimed us kids were 100% Irish too.  Of course this was impossible given my Mom’s Belgium and English DNA.  Rumor has it my Mom’s grandmother was a young Belgium girl hired as a cook on an English estate, later eloping to America with her English butler from the same estate, living happily ever after on the dairy farm they owned together in the midwest.  So, my culinary chops were probably inherited from my Belgium side, along with my love of chocolate and brussels sprouts. (Sorry Dad)

My favorite technique for cooking sprouts is steam and sauté, which by the way is also a great technique for lots of winter vegetables.  I cut the core off the end of the brussels sprouts and steam them in a sauté pan in water, olive oil and a little bit of butter.  Just when the sprouts turn a bright vibrant green and are almost cooked, the water has magically evaporated and the sprouts begin to sauté in the leftover olive oil and butter.  At this point it is time to salt and pepper to taste.  If there happens to be a bit of water still left over when the sprouts turn bright green and are cooked to the firmness you desire, just drain the excess water off to get the sauté started.  Cooking too long in the water makes for mushy sprouts….ewwww!  The sauté step caramelizes the outside of the sprouts and makes them oh-so-wonderful to nibble on.

Another favorite technique is roasting.  After cutting the core off the end of the sprouts, toss them in a little olive oil, salt & pepper.  Spread the sprouts on a sheet pan.  Roast at 400 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.  Toss and serve immediately.

I frequently julienne my sprouts and quick sauté them in olive oil and butter.  Delish!

I have a fab raw brussels sprouts salad that is to die for, but I will save that for another post.  I can’t wait to hear about all your adventures with the sprouts.  Enjoy!

Hello 2012.  We are all snuggled in today. The wind is howling outside and I am thankful to be curled up in front of the fire, reflecting on the wonderful holiday season just passed and musing about what’s in store for this upcoming year.

I’m chuckling remembering the conversation I had with my very witty niece right before Christmas.  She just turned thirty and loves her job as a professor of sociology at a small midwestern university.  She bought her first house but hasn’t spent much time yet cooking in the kitchen.   When I told her to check out my blog, her quick retort to me was “What, so I can discover new ways to heat up Hot Pockets?”

I think she’s pretty representative of a generation that no one taught to cook.  We rely so much on convenience food, not realizing how simple it would be to make things from scratch instead.  Although there is an abundance of great, fresh ingredients at our fingertips and we are inundated with media images of food recipes and cooking instruction, it’s still pretty intimidating to walk in the kitchen and pick up a knife.  My wish this year is to inspire you to maybe make a soup from scratch, or whisk up a vinaigrette, or serve a fresh pasta sauce in lieu of opening a jar or roast a whole chicken at home instead of grabbing the rotisserie from the grocery.  I promise you you’ll never want a Hot Pocket again.

I think this soup is a great start.  Once you make it, you won’t believe how simple it is.  You can use any number of winter squashes, I just happened to pick butternut and acorn.  The squash makes the soup so creamy and velvety and decadent, it’s hard to believe it’s actually quite healthy!

I roast the squash first to add a layer of flavor dimension to the soup.  Plus, it’s so much easier to scoop the cooked squash flesh out of the skin after roasting as opposed to peeling the skin off the raw squash and then chopping it up.  You can also roast the squash ahead of time, scoop out the flesh and save it in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the soup.  Once the squash is ready, the soup is a snap to make.

This is the soup right before I puree it with an immersion blender.

 And after it’s pureed.  Enjoy!