Honeymoon Kitchen

Chile-Lime Acorn Squash

2012-01-13T08:37:00.002-06:00

Chile-Lime Acorn Squash
Adapted from Gourmet

When it comes to entrees, maybe 1 out of every 3 we make come out really well. But vegetables, one of America's most unpopular food categories, knock my socks off nearly every time. Despite popular opinion, vegetables taste freaking awesome. I mean, no, not those steamed-in-bag frozen ones, or almost anything steamed, really, but well cooked vegetables steal the show on our plates more often than not. I'm pretty convinced that roasting + oil + salt is God's gift to produce. Just that much will produce a pretty delectable result every time. But then there's recipes like this one that will really blow your mind. Acorn squash is usually prepared with butter and brown sugar (delicious), but this out-of-the-box preparation is outrageously good. I had it as a snack the other day, but it would make a great side to a Mexican or Asian meat dish.

Ingredients

1 acorn squash
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp coarse salt, divided
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp Sambal Oelek, or another red chile sauce (Sambal Oelek is amazing, and pretty easy to find in the Asian section of your grocery store)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard the stem end. Scoop seeds and stringy flesh out. Slice along the ribs to create wedges.
Toss wedges with pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, and 2 tablespoons oil.
Arrange squash on their sides on a baking sheet. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until tender and golden brown.
While squash roasts, make vinaigrette. Mince garlic. Place 1/4 teaspoon salt on the cutting board with the garlic and use the flat side of your knife to mash into a paste.
In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic-salt mash, remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and chile sauce.
Transfer roasted squash to plates and drizzle with vinaigrette.
Side note, extensive Googling has led me to believe you should not eat the skin of winter squash, including acorn. I just peeled it off as I ate.

Serves 4 as a side (I ate 2/3 of it as a snack).

Crabby English Muffins

2012-01-11T11:56:00.000-06:00

Crabby English Muffins
From Tera's Grandma Arlene

For the first 15 or 20 years of my life, virtually every Easter and Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandma's house. According to family lore, if you wanted to chat with young me, your best chance was to find me at the appetizer table, which was really the pool table in my Grandma's basement. Thank goodness we used something as big as a pool table, because our family knows how to rock appetizers. These are a family classic, and although my Grandma isn't responsible for cooking the whole meal these days, we can always count on her famous crab English muffins.

This year, with our big NYE party just around the corner, I finally thought to ask for the recipe. I called up my Grandma requesting that she email it to me, and to my surprise she said she has it memorized and can just tell me over the phone. Well, now that I know what's in this mystical delight, I can see what she meant. It's pretty much equal parts butter, Velveeta, and fake crab meat. It might not sound gourmet, but boy oh boy do they fly off the platter, and what more can you ask for in an appetizer!

Ingredients

1 stick butter
1/2 lb Velveeta
8 oz imitation crab meat, also known as surimi (it's in the refrigerated case, probably near sausages - it's a compilation of white fish, flavored and dyed to look like crab, and while that description sounds gross, just go with it)
6 English muffins

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place butter and Velveeta in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
Pull crab meat apart into smaller shreds, using forks or your hands (hands is way faster).
Mix crab meat into butter and Velveeta.
Split English muffins into 12 halves.
Divide crab mixture across muffin halves. If you want to make them in advance, you can put them in the fridge at this point and bake when you need them.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
Cut each muffin into 4 pieces.

Makes 48 pieces which will be quickly devoured, even after you admit that the only ingredients are butter, Velveeta, and fake crab.

Lobster Risotto

2012-01-10T11:54:00.000-06:00

Lobster Risotto
From Cooking Light

I know it's a little late for this story, but I'm finally ready to tell you about New Year's Eve at the HMK. It had the makings of a truly classy event. Five couples, wedding china, beef tenderloin, lobster risotto. Sounds mature, right!? Well, it's hard to say exactly where the night took a collegiate turn, but by about 1am we had transformed into a bunch of wannabe 21 year olds playing beer pong and quarters and ditching champagne in exchange for Coors Light cans.

Luckily the pre-frat party portion was just as big of a success. I've been reading a lot of Barefoot Contessa books lately and she really drills it home that you shouldn't overcommit and try to make too many things. It's more important that you and your guests have fun, and that doesn't hinge on one extra appetizer or a super complicated dessert. This, of course, was the hardest thing John and I have ever had to do. We have SO many recipes we've been dying to try, and we must have flirted with at least five things that we ultimately, and wisely, decided to skip this time. In the end we contributed a crab toast appetizer (coming soon to a blog near you), beef tenderloin, and lobster risotto. Our guests brought two more appetizers, a salad, a veggie, and a few desserts. Sure enough, it was the perfect amount of food, and by no means enough to stop everyone from staying and drinking until 4am!

Ingredients

4 cups lower sodium chicken broth
15 oz (2-3 tails) lobster tails (make sure it's good, non fishy lobster - I know it's expensive, but bad lobster will ruin the dish)
3 Tbsp butter, divided
1 cup Arborio rice, uncooked
3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Preparation

Bring broth and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium stock pot.
Add lobster and cook, covered. If your tails are about 5 ounces each, cook for about 4 minutes. If they are bigger tails cook a little longer.
Remove pot from heat. Pull tails from broth, reserving the broth.
When tails are cool enough to handle, remove meat (reserve shells), chop, and set aside.
Place shells in a gallon bag and smash with a mallet. They don't need to be pulverized, just broken up.
Return broken shells to broth and simmer, covered, on medium-low for 20 minutes.
Strain broth through a sieve, catching the broth in a bowl. Discard shells.
Place broth in a sauce pan and keep warm over low heat. Remove 2 tablespoons of broth and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a medium heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add rice to pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add 1 cup of broth and cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is nearly absorbed.
Add the remaining broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and waiting for each portion to become nearly absorbed before adding the next. It should take around 20 minutes.
Remove risotto from heat, stir in lobster, reserved 2 tablespoons broth, 2 tablespoons butter, and peas.
Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

New Years Eve

2012-01-08T11:51:00.000-06:00

New Year's Eve in the Honeymoon Kitchen!

We kept it casual this year and hosted 8 friends at our place for dinner. Couldn't have asked for a better time! Details and recipes coming soon.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

2012-01-05T11:49:00.000-06:00

Bacon Wrapped Dates
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

How good are bacon wrapped dates? I'll be the first to admit they've become slightly overdone, but I'm still not sick of them. We order them at tapas restaurants, gobble them down at other people's parties, and serve them at quite a few of our own. And the other night, we made them for dinner. Yes, you read that correctly. They were our dinner. As in the entree. As I mentioned the other day, we received a plethora of olive oils as Christmas gifts, and decided to replace our dinner one night with an elaborate olive oil tasting. But since even we couldn't justify bread and oil as dinner, we added an appetizer to make ourselves feel better...yes, we have our own brand of logic in the HMK. Which is precisely what I love about it!

Ingredients

12 Medjool dates (I know they're expensive, but they really should be Medjool - they're super meaty and sweet and perfect for this dish)
12 whole, unsalted almonds
6 slices bacon
1 jar red pepper jelly (probably available near all the other jelly flavors)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350.
Use a paring knife to slice a slit in each date.
Reach into the date, being careful not to tear it open more than necessary, and pull out the pit.
Replace each pit with an almond, and squeeze the date shut.
Cut bacon slices in half to form 12 shorter slices.
Wrap each date with a half slice of bacon and place on a baking sheet, seam down.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until bacon appears crispy.
While dates are cooking, warm the jelly in a small sauce pan over low heat until thin enough to pour onto a platter.
To serve, pour jelly onto a platter and place dates on top of jelly.

Makes 12 pieces.

Lemony Multi-Grain Salad

2012-01-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

Lemony Multi-Grain Salad
From The Kitchn

Twas a week after Christmas and all through the house, not a creature felt skinny, not even young Ralph. (Ralph's our puppy, andddd I'm tired of rhyming).

Yes, it's time for the post-holiday bloat. Show me one more cookie, pie, or piece of meat and I may explode on the spot. We've returned from our stay in the 'burbs, the house is full of our new loot including 700 new dog toys (all of which have squeakers, thanks relatives, haha), and of course a few kitchen goodies. As the resident family foodies we always receive our fair share of cookbooks and kitchen trinkets, but this year had a unique theme - olive oil! We received awesome specialty oils from 3 different people, netting 7 oils and 2 balsamic vinegars overall. So we did what seemed obvious - grabbed a loaf of good crusty bread on our way back to the city and set up a little olive oil tasting station in lieu of dinner. The array had a few flavor-infused oils, including a delightful Meyer lemon oil. While it doesn't make the best dipping oil, we immediately agreed it was destined for a pasta salad. So today I whipped up this great salad for a light holiday-detox lunch. If you don't have a lemon oil, the original recipe actually called for a combo of fresh lemon juice and regular olive oil, so I'm sure that would be really good too.

Ingredients

1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 oz Israeli couscous (it's the bigger pearl-shaped balls, not the itsy bitsy stuff - orzo would be a good sub)
1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends discarded and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 oz faro (if you can't find faro, any chewy grain will do - maybe pearl barley or wheat berries)
1/4 cup Meyer lemon oil OR 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of 1 Meyer lemon OR 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of 1/2 regular lemon
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
2 oz soft goat cheese

Preparation

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Toast almonds, about 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently and be very careful not to burn. Set aside.
In the same skillet over medium heat, add couscous and toast until light brown, about 5-7 minutes. Stir frequently and be careful not to burn. Set aside.
In the same skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon regular olive oil. Add asparagus and saute until crisp but tender, about 4-5 minutes.
Fill two pots with water and bring to a boil.
Add couscous to one pot and faro to the other. Boil couscous about 5 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Boil faro about 9 minutes, or until tender but chewy.
In a large bowl toss almonds, grains, oil (and lemon juice, if using), asparagus, and salt and pepper to taste.
To serve warm, divide salad between 4 bowls and crumble goat cheese over each portion.
To serve cold or room temperature, chill salad for at least one hour, crumble goat cheese into salad and stir together. (If you stir it into the warm salad it will melt and be somewhat unattractive, as well as more muddled in flavor).

Serves 4.

Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee

2012-01-01T11:45:00.000-06:00

Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee
From Cooking Light

Happy New Year! As with every year, it feels like 2011 went too fast and I won't remember to start saying 2012 until well into February. But here we are, with the crazy holiday season behind us and months of beautifully unfilled calendars ahead. Of course that can only mean one thing - New Year's Resolutions! Truly one of the silliest concepts, seeing as how they're nearly always abandoned (I don't think I made it 3 days in 2010 when I resolved to stop nagging John to propose...). Yet every year I seem to come up with something, and this year is no different.

First and foremost, I'd like to advertise the blog a little more. Nothing major, just a little Facebook hype or perhaps a Twitter account. I was hesitant to publicize it at first in case I didn't stick with it or it was a major flop, but being home for the holidays made me realize how many people are actually reading it! And apparently enjoying it! Our main PR team at the moment is our moms, and as it turns out their friends are big fans (thanks guys!). In fact, we talked about the blog so much over the past week that I started to recognize a recurring theme which leads me to my second resolution: give more credit to the handsome half of the HMK. Every time the blog came up, people complimented me and then John piped up to mention his involvement. And it's true, he really does a lot both in the kitchen and behind the scenes. So I thought I'd take this moment to produce a short list of his many contributions:

Cheese grating and nut shelling.
Most meat trimming.
Risotto stirring and other mundane and sweaty stove-top tasks.
Running out to the store mid-recipe to get the ingredient we (I) inevitably forgot.
Website editing and fixing. (Please direct any comments/complaints to my one-man IT department).
Grilling. I don't even know for sure how to work it.
Bacon frying and other dangerous tasks with grease-fire potential. And in the event of a grease-fire, I'm pretty sure he'd do the fire extinguishing too.
Earning money to pay for grocery bills, which undoubtedly rival those of a family of 4.
Stove cleaning (I claimed not to be strong enough to scrub the grease off and he pretended to believe me).
All etouffee making. Which brings us to today's recipe.

If we were playing the newlywed game and I had to pick a cuisine John most enjoys cooking and eating, I'd feel pretty good about saying Cajun. He's made his fair share of gumbo and jambalaya, but this etouffee is by far his specialty. It is truly one of the only dishes that I have nothing to do with. It seems like he always makes it on nights when I have something keeping me busy until dinner time. When we made it a few weeks ago I thought I'd finally have my chance to see the Cajun genius at work, but as luck would have it an out-of-town friend called to chat just as we were getting started and John got the kitchen to himself once again. And so, it is with love and thanks (and only minor apprehension) that I turn the keyboard over to him for the first time so that the man who knows the recipe best can recite it for you.

Ingredients

4 cups less-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup butter, divided
1/2 cup flour
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups white onion, chopped
2/3 cups celery, diced
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped (between the onion, celery and peppers the mix is really up to you based on your preference - I seem to end up with about 4+ cups of chopped veggies)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
2/3 lb Andouille sausage cut into half-discs
Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste
4 cups long-grain rice, cooked and kept warm

Preparation

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cover and remove from heat. I always underestimate how long it takes to bring 4 cups of chicken broth to a simmer, start this right away use this step as a good time to chop the veggies.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Add flour to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook until the roux is somewhere between a milk chocolate and dark chocolate color (or lighter if that is your preference) and remove from heat.
Add 1 cup of broth mixture to pan, stirring constantly with whisk until smooth. Add remaining 3 cups of broth mixture, stirring with a whisk until smooth, set aside.
Melt remaining 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (I usually round up to 2 tbsps if i overdid it on the veggie chopping) in a large Dutch oven (and by large I mean large, I made this originally in our 4-qt Dutch oven and it nearly fills to the top. With our new and improved 9-qt Dutch oven its the perfect amount of space [thank you wedding]) coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.
Add veggies (onions, celery and bell peppers) to pan, cook 10 minutes or until veggies are tender and onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally.
Stir in 3/4 cup of water, scraping pan to loosen delicious browned bits from the pan.
Add tomato paste, Cajun seasoning, garlic, salt, black pepper and ground red pepper to onion mixture; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Add reserved broth-flour mixture and Worcestershire sauce to pan, stirring well to combine. Add Louisiana Hot Sauce to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add green onions, shrimp and sausage; cook 3 minutes or until the shrimp are done.
Time to play find the bay leaf and remove from the pan.
Serve over rice.

Serves 6 generous portions.

Honey Pecan Granola

2011-12-25T11:43:00.000-06:00

Honey Pecan Granola
From Martha Stewart

I have a love-hate relationship with Martha Stewart. On the one hand I want to be her (minus the divorce, then I'd have to change the name of my blog! jk). She makes everything look perfect and effortless. She makes you think things like "why wouldn't you give beautiful homemade gifts to everyone on your Christmas list??" So true, Martha! I'm on it! I saw her show about homemade granola a few weeks ago and was immediately compelled to do what she was suggesting - make a massive batch and put it in adorable jars and give it to everyone I know. Great idea!

But following every great Martha idea comes the inevitable moment when I hate her guts for causing me such grief. This time that moment came in the form of a Ball Jar wild goose chase. I'd decided to use Ball Jars with special storage caps to package my granola because they are cheap and I have been seeing them in every grocery store for months now. Little did I know, the "months" I had been seeing them are also known as "summer." Since Illinois is not one for a December harvest, the canning season officially ended about a month ago. So after driving to 3 city grocery stores during rush hour 4 days before Christmas, I was about ready to compose some hate mail to one Ms. Martha Stewart. In a last resort I started calling every grocery store in the city (side note, most customer service people have never heard of a Ball Jar and a few almost hung up on me for what they thought was a prank call...), I finally located the ONE store that still had some in stock.

Long story short, anyone who doesn't read this blog and received this granola was probably very impressed and will forever think that I am that much closer to being Martha Stewart. As for the rest of you, you'll always be able to imagine me wearing sweats and glasses in a fit of rage at my 3rd grocery store, seriously contemplating punching the bell ringing Santa guy and/or bursting into tears... At least the granola itself is easy to make!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ingredients

Pam or other nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups rolled oats (there's a million kinds of oats out there, make sure you buy ROLLED OATS)
2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cup dried fruit (any kind you like)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place racks far enough apart to allow 2 baking sheets at the same time.
Lightly coat two baking sheets with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine oil, sugar, honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.
In a large bowl toss oats and pecans to combine.
Pour liquid mixture over oats and pecans, scraping the small bowl to get all the liquid out. Stir until thoroughly combined.
Spread mixture out on baking sheets.
Bake for 27-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and immediately add fruit and toss. It will seem a little soft, but don't worry, it hardens before you know it.
Allow to sit 10 minutes or until granola is cooled and crunchy.
Store in airtight containers for up to 3 weeks, or freeze.

Makes about 7 cups of very addicting granola.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T11:41:00.000-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HONEYMOON KITCHEN!!!

We've got a delicious recipe for granola coming tomorrow, and then we'll be taking a break until the new year. See you in 2012!

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

2011-12-22T11:39:00.000-06:00

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes
From Cooking Light

After 4 months of food blogging, we've become very familiar with the question "is it blog-worthy?" It's always sad to admit it, but some of the stuff we make just doesn't cut it. It may be a decent dinner, but it's not something we'd recommend to a friend, so into the recipe dumpster it goes. It's fairly common, actually. What is not fairly common is a night where the actual meal goes straight to the dumpster. If taking a nice picture of recipe that never gets posted is sad, tossing an uneaten meal is down right depressing. But alas, we were plagued with such a situation last week.

As you may recall, we cooked up a massive quantity of pulled pork for our Labor Day BBQ. Despite making nearly 6 pounds of pulled pork, our first CostCo experience left us with 4 extra pounds which we froze and vowed to find a later use for. I saw a recipe for an apple cider pork pot roast and thought we'd found the perfect cold-weather use for that puppy. Being the smart lady that I am, I moved the meat from the freezer to the fridge a WHOLE DAY before I needed it! Fail. In case you didn't know (yeah, you probably knew) 4 pounds of frozen solid meat takes more than a day to thaw in the fridge. And with that error, our window of opportunity was gone. John started traveling more for work, and before we knew it the meat had been in the fridge for 2 weeks. In a last ditch effort on a Sunday night when we weren't even that hungry we decided to make the pot roast happen. In hindsight, I'm not sure the meat smelled quite right, but we went with it. In 2 hours time we had a lovely grey-brown mass that smelled putrid when we cut into it. Double fail.

The silver lining? We made these trusty mashed potatoes as a side dish. And no one in their right mind scoffs at curling up with a big bowl of mashed potatoes for dinner.

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups onion, diced
1 1/2 lb baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add onion, saute 15 minutes or until golden.
Place potatoes in a medium sauce pan and cover with water.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain and return to pot.
Add buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper to potatoes and mash together.
Stir in onions.

Serves 4.

Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

2011-12-20T11:37:00.000-06:00

Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

From Smitten Kitchen

As I'm sure everyone knows, last night was the epic basketball match up of Western Illinois University versus University of Illinois at Chicago. What's that? You didn't watch??? You didn't even know it took place? Well by golly, you missed a heck of a game! John, my parents and I were lucky enough to procure 10th row seats thanks to my dad's active membership in the WIU alumni association. Since my parents are WIU alums, my dad is also a UIC alum, I am currently a grad student at UIC, and John has the honor of paying for my UIC tuition, this was clearly a very meaningful game to us. So much so that we left with 2 minutes remaining and missed UIC's come-from-behind victory in the last second. Woops.

Ok, so the game wasn't the highlight of the evening, but it did give us an excuse to get together and have a few drinks. And since those drinks took place at our house, it FINALLY gave me a reason to cook something! Last time I served deviled eggs was at my book club, and I was stunned to discover that a lot of people don't eat deviled eggs or are scared to try one. Since they're a bit of work to do, I've been hesitant to make them again lest they go to waste. But with just my parents and John I was sure they'd be a hit, so I whipped up a batch. And since John's all time favorite salad is Caesar, they were enough to ensure a speedy departure from work to make sure he got a few before we left for the game.

Ingredients

6 eggs
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp anchovy paste (original recipe called for 1 anchovy, minced, but paste was all I had on hand)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup panko break crumbs
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese (obviously fresh is ideal, but I used the green can and it was perfectly fine)

Preparation

Boil the eggs. I put the eggs in a pot, covered with cold water. Brought to a boil. Removed from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Immediately place in an ice bath for at least 5 minutes. This makes very pretty, but somewhat tender hard boiled eggs, so take care when slicing and scooping the yolks.
Peel eggs.
Slice eggs in half, long ways. If you don't have a deviled egg platter, slice slivers from each side to create a bottom for them to sit on.
Scoop egg yolks into the bowl of a small food processor or small bowl. Set whites aside.
Add mayo, mustard, Worcestershire, and lemon juice to the yolks. Mix in food processor or by hand until creamy.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste, stirring and tasting to check flavor.
Spoon yolks back into whites, or pipe them in with a pastry bag.
Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat.
Add anchovy and garlic to olive oil and cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute or until anchovy dissolves into oil.
Add panko and saute until golden, about 2-3 minutes.
Stir in Parmesan cheese.
Sprinkle panko mixture over eggs and serve.

Makes 12 pieces.

Curried Egg Salad

2011-12-16T11:35:00.000-06:00

Curried Egg Salad
From 101 Cookbooks

Things in the HMK have been busy busy busy lately. Well, not the "K" part so much, since the kitchen hasn't been seeing much action these days. In between Christmas shopping, running errands, working and heading out to endless festivities, restaurants and takeout have become pretty common around here. So today when I had a few hours at home mid-day, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a home-cooked lunch. I managed to swing through the grocery store on the way home from work and grab the short list of ingredients for this egg salad. It comes together pretty quickly - while the eggs are cooking you can get everything else chopped up and ready to go. The title makes it sound punchy, and the apple seems a little suspect, but it really melds together and no one flavor dominates the dish. Serve it on crackers, toasted bread, or on top of a bed of lettuce for a refreshing little lunch any day of the week!

Ingredients

5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
4 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely minced onion
1/2 medium apple, chopped fairly small, but not minced
1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
2 Tbsp chives

Preparation

Hard boil the eggs. I think I use a different method for boiling eggs every time, but in this case I went with the recommendation in the recipe, which was to place the eggs in a pot, cover with cold water by 1/2 inch, bring to a gentle boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 7 minutes. Immediately remove eggs and place in ice water for 3+ minutes.
Combine yogurt, curry powder and salt in a large bowl, mixing to combine.
Add onion, apple, pecans, chives, and peeled eggs to bowl.
Mix everything together using a wooden spoon, smashing the eggs with the back of the spoon.
Serve as a sandwich, on crackers, or on a bed of lettuce. Or just eat with a spoon!

Serves 3-4

Taco Stuffed Shells

2011-12-14T11:34:00.000-06:00

Taco Stuffed Shells
From My Friend Laura's Grandma

For the first time since starting the blog back in August, I've been at a bit of a loss for recipes. There's a million reasons - December is hectic, we recently acquired an adorable but time consuming new family member (Ralph, our new puppy - be on the lookout for pics), and I haven't spent much time in front of a computer, which is when I do most of my recipe stalking (most people Facebook stalk, I recipe stalk...ok I do both). But probably the number one reason is that John has been traveling a lot for work, and at the end of the day cooking for one isn't as fun. Once upon a time it was my main form of cooking, but over the past three years I've gotten used to cooking with two, for two. It's still doing dishes with one - our marriage isn't that perfect.

Luckily, I have friends ready to step in! I mentioned my blogging woes at a party over the weekend and my fabulous friend Laura jumped in with not only a fantastic recipe, but an offer to come over and make/eat it with me! Pretty sweet deal, especially since this is the perfect weekday recipe. It's super easy and the only ingredient I didn't have laying around was ground beef and the pasta shells. I *almost* felt bad John missed this one...then I remember that our puppy has to go out every 6 hours and travelling for work = 8 hours of CONTINUOUS sleep...

Ingredients

12 jumbo pasta shells
2 Tbsp butter
1 lb ground beef
1/8 cup water
1 envelope taco seasoning
4 oz cream cheese
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese (we used a mix of chihuahua and cheddar, but pretty much anything would work)
3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
sour cream, to serve, optional
green onions, to serve, optional

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and toss with butter. Set aside.
In a medium skillet cook beef over medium high, until browned. Break up with a spoon while cooking.
Drain fat.
Add 1/4 cup water, taco seasoning, and cream cheese. Stir to combine and melt cream cheese.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
Grease a 9x9 baking dish. Spread a few tablespoons of the salsa across the bottom of the dish.
Divide beef mixture across the 12 shells and place in the baking dish.
Top with remaining salsa, cover, and bake 30 minutes.
Remove cover, top shells with cheese and tortilla chips, and return to oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
Serve topped with sour cream and green onions.

Serves 4.

Molasses Cookies

2011-12-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

Molasses Cookies
From Framed Cooks

Holy smokes, these are some delicious cookies. I've been following the Framed Cooks food blog for about a year now, and have been meaning to make these cookies for nearly as long. But as I mentioned earlier this month, I try to not make cookies very often, in order to avoid eating cookies too often. However, I have a few girlfriends coming over for dinner tomorrow night, and having a batch of cookies on hand seemed appropriate. I'm not sure if molasses cookies really count as Christmas cookies, but I don't see any reason why they couldn't be. Obviously gingerbread really steals the show in the spiced holiday cookie category, but my mom and I tried a different recipe every year when I was a kid and they never came out quite right. These, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure are fool proof.

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Preparation

Place butter, 1 cup sugar, molasses, and egg in a large bowl, stirring until combined.
Place flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk to sift together.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until combined.
Refrigerate batter until it is hardened.
Scoop dough and roll into 1-inch balls (a sturdy ice cream scoop works well).
Roll each ball in additional sugar and place on a cookie sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment. (I like using parchment because these cookies come out of the oven pretty soft and it allows you transfer them all to a wire cooling rack in one fell swoop). Space cookies well apart, with about 12 to a sheet.
Use your thumb to lightly press down the center of each ball.
Bake for 9-10 minutes. Transfer to a cookie rack immediately to cool.

Makes 3 dozen.

Beef Tenderloin

2011-12-09T11:28:00.000-06:00

Beef Tenderloin
From the Pioneer Woman

First, let me just say, LOOK AT THAT PICTURE. Sweet, sweet nearly raw meat, how we love you in the HMK. On nights when we can't afford to go pick up a beef tenderloin (99.9% of nights) we just pull up this picture and drool a little.

The exciting event that spurred the purchase of this beautiful piece of meat was one of our signature dinner party test runs. We are planning to do a surf and turf extravaganza for a few friends on New Year's Eve, but until recently we had very little experience with turf. Far be it for us to make everyone chip in for expensive meat on NYE only to over cook it (just typing it makes me sad inside). So we splurged on a random weeknight to test it out, and boy are we glad we did.

If you've ever cooked large hunks of meat before, you know that the most important tool, hands down, is a meat thermometer. We know this. That's why when we started the recipe we rummaged through our big bin of ~~crap~~ potentially useful kitchen gadgets and found one. We popped it in the meat, set it on the grill, and...EXPLOSION. As it turns out, our meat thermometer is NOT, I repeat NOT, the kind you can leave in the oven or grill. Considering it was Pyrex brand and their supposed specialty is awesome glass capable of cooking on the surface of the sun, this was a very shocking discovery. So now our [expensive] dinner is cooking away, our thermometer is ruined, and we have absolutely no idea what temp we are at. Back to the bin of [lifesaving] gadgets. The only other thermometer we have is a candy thermometer...also not heat stable, but it does have a really long metal part. SO, John runs back to the grill and Macgyvers some sort of extensive temperature reading station (being honest, I avoid going outside in the fall/winter in Chicago, and thus never actually went out to see this invention. I'm sure it was marvelous). In the end: IT WORKED!!! I'll refer you back to the majestic picture above for proof.

Bottom line: if you are looking for an impressive and delicious holiday protein, consider beef tenderloin...but buy a heat stable meat thermometer FIRST!!!

Ingredients

1 whole beef tenderloin (butt), about 4-5 lb
seasoned salt, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
lemon pepper seasoning, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
olive oil
4 Tbsp butter, divided
whole peppercorns (about 1/3 cup or more, to taste)

Preparation

Preheat grill or oven to 475 degrees.
Rinse meat and trim off any fat and cartilage (we're spoiled and our butcher did this for us, which saves a lot of time).
Generously sprinkle seasoned salt on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
Generously sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
Heat a skillet and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.
When oil reaches it's smoking point, place the tenderloin in the pan and toss 2 tablespoons butter in next to the meat.
Sear each side of the meat for a minute or two.
Remove seared meat from pan and set aside.
Place the peppercorns in a plastic bag. Smash them with a mallet or whatever aggression-releasing tool you have lying around. They don't need to be dust, just broken up a bit.
Use your hands to rub the peppercorns into the surface of the meat, covering all sides and pressing to make them stick.
Place the tenderloin directly onto the grill or in an oven pan with a roasting rack.
Top the tenderloin with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
Insert meat thermometer and cook until meat reaches just under 140 degrees.
Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
Slice and enjoy!

Serves 8.

Pantry Garlic Bread

2011-12-07T11:21:00.000-06:00

Pantry Garlic Bread
From AllRecipes.com

If you've ever made or ordered Italian food (ummm, if you're human, I assume you have), then you know that it's a week-long effort to consume all the leftovers. Obviously we can't control absurd restaurant portions, but for whatever reason even when we cook Italian food at home we make WAY too much. It does reheat relatively well, but all leftovers start to lose their intrigue a few days in. Usually the night we actually make the Italian dish we go out of our way to buy some delicious garlic bread, make side salads, and get out the fresh Parmesan cheese. Three days later it turns into an unceremonious bowl of noodles eaten sitting on the couch in front of the TV. (The image I've just planted is a 100% accurate portrayal of me right now...John's out of town, motivation for dinner making has waned).

So what's a leftover ridden person to do? Make pantry garlic bread! If you have a loaf of bread on hand and a fairly normal pantry/fridge, YOU CAN MAKE THIS! Right now! The beauty of it is the bread base, which can pretty much be any bread. Of course, if you have some fabulous crusty Italian bread on hand, more power to you, but I did it with 4-day-old bakery white bread and it was absolutely mouth watering. Keep the butter and olive oil as written, but you could probably change the seasonings to suit you. Jarred crushed garlic instead of fresh, sure! Italian seasoning instead of oregano, why not! Toss in some crushed red pepper, scrumptious! I'm hungry just thinking about it (yes, I did just eat it 30 minutes ago, don't judge).

Ingredients

8 1-oz slices of bread
5 Tbsp butter, softened but not melted
2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp coarse salt
pepper, to taste
1 cup mozzarella, shredded (I imagine just about any cheese working fine)

Preparation

Arrange oven rack to highest position and preheat broiler.
In a small bowl mix the butter, oil, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.
Spread the butter mixture evenly on the bread slices.
Arrange slices on a baking sheet.
Broil 4-5 minutes, keeping an eye on them to watch for burning.
Remove bread from oven, top with mozzarella cheese, and return to oven for 2-3 more minutes.

Makes 8 slices.

Breakfast Souffle

2011-12-05T11:18:00.000-06:00

Breakfast Souffle
From John's Grandma ABC (Rosemary)

Actual conversation:

John: Geez, this is easy to make, I don't know why my mom only makes it Christmas morning.
Tera: Well it makes so much food, it's not like you can just whip it together for 4 people or something.
Pause.
Tera: Wait, that's how many we're making it for.
John: Yeah.....

So yes, this is John's family's official Christmas morning breakfast casserole, and it most certainly serves their family of 6 and then some. But it's also really delicious and super easy to make, and since it calls for 9 eggs we decided it just couldn't be cut in half. In retrospect, all the ingredients are pretty simple multiples of 3, so it could actually be cut down quite easily, but there's no Monday morning quaterbacking allowed in the HMK.

Frankly, it's probably for the best that we made so much of it since we enjoyed it while drinking Bloody Marys and screwdrivers at 9am before the Bears game this past weekend. Considering the amount of cocktails that we ultimately consumed on Sunday, I'm sure we needed all the food we could get to soak up some of the alcohol. (As you probably noticed, I'm breaking my perfect record of 7am Monday posts thanks to the ensuing hangover...what's that? you didn't notice...oh, well, sad but true). In the end the Bears may not have won, but at least this casserole didn't let us down!

Ingredients

1.5 lbs bulk breakfast sausage (the stuff that comes in a big log 'o meat)
9 eggs
3 cups milk
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
3 slices white bread, cut into 1/4" cubes
1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Preparation

Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high, using a wooden spoon to crumble it up.
Whisk eggs, milk, mustard and salt in a large bowl.
Stir bread, cheese, and sausage into egg mixture.
Pour egg mixture into a greased 13x9 pan.
Refrigerate overnight, covered.
Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serves a lot more than 4...probably closer to 8-10.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-12-02T11:15:00.000-06:00

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
From John's Family

The month of December is special for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my sudden willingness to make batch after batch of cookies. Don't get me wrong, I have a desire to make cookies year-round. But in the interest of my waistline, I generally only cave to this desire when I can use "'tis the season!" as my excuse for all culinary indiscretions. Sure, I have space in my diet for the occasional year-round cookie, but in the honeymoon kitchen, a whole batch of cookies for the household = a whole batch of cookies minus two for Tera. For example, this is how last Saturday played out:

Tera and John bake Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies together. Tera offers John one of the mixer whisks with cookie dough on it. John proclaims he doesn't like raw cookie dough. Tera licks both whisks. And the bowl. Batch one of three comes out. Tera tests a cookie, you know, just to check. John takes a bite of one and sets it back on the rack. The minute he turns his back Tera eats the remainder. He doesn't even notice. Batch two comes out. Tera tests it to check for "discrepancies between the two different cookie sheets used." They taste the same. Aka still really good. John is bored so he leaves the kitchen to do other stuff. Tera sticks around to "supervise the oven"...eats 3 more cookies out of boredom. Final batch comes out, taste test says all three cookie sheets worked marvolously. John's mom and sister stop by. Tera shoves as many cookies as she can fit into some tupperware and begs them to take it away. About 2 dozen cookies remain on the counter. You get the picture. (Speaking of, I obviously had to take a bite of another one for the sake of the above picture...and then eat the rest to reward myself for getting a good shot.)

So in the name of all things merry, enjoy the first of a few Christmas cookie recipes this season, and then don't expect any more until next year! Happy December!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 oz bag mint chocolate morsels (here's the deal, back in the day when John's family made this recipe a Christmas tradition, Nestle made these wonderful mint chocolate chips...in the past year or two they discontinued them and now sell a bag that's a mix of chocolate chips and minty chips...not nearly as good...this year I found bags of Andes mint crumbles and it turns out they work really well) (UPDATE: apparently Ghiradelli makes a good option too, so be on the lookout people, and don't be afraid to stock up!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine vegetable oil and 1 cup sugar. Mix well.
Beat eggs and vanilla extract into oil mixture.
Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in mint chocolate chip morsels.
Shape into small balls (a little smaller than a ping pong ball). Roll each ball in remaining sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on how big you rolled them.

Garlic and Red Pepper Broccoli

2011-11-30T11:12:00.000-06:00

Garlic and Red Pepper Broccoli
From Cooking Light

Alright, here it is, probably the last healthy recipe I'll have a chance to post before next year. Oy. Hopefully our actual diet won't be as bad as this blog will make it out to be, but it only seems right to post fun seasonal things during the greatest holiday eating season of the year.

But I was determined to squeeze this recipe in sooner than later. We took this picture when we made it over a month ago as a side for our fettuccine Alfredo. And we've made it at least 3 times since then. It's in our top 3 go-to sides since we keep every ingredient except the broccoli on hand. I know it sounds super simple and hardly revolutionary, but there really is something special about the result. I'd recommend following the directions exactly because every time we try to get fancy (aka more red pepper to satiate our weird addiction to heat) we regret it.

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
6 cups broccoli florets (about 1 large head)
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup water

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add broccoli, salt, crushed red pepper and sliced garlic. Saute 2 minutes.
Add 1/4 cup water.
Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 2 minutes or until broccoli is crisp tender.

Serves 4.

Fried Turkey and [Stuffing] Waffles

2011-11-28T11:09:00.000-06:00

Fried ~~Chicken~~ Turkey and [Stuffing] Waffles
From Longman and Eagle via Daily Candy

I swear I am being 100% honest when I tell you I was going to post something healthy today. I had a lovely broccoli saute all cued up to post since I figured people are probably really full from Thanksgiving and could use something refreshingly light. That was the plan.

Then this recipe found its way to my inbox. Stupid inbox, gets me every time.

We came back from our holiday adventures in the suburbs on Saturday morning and immediately whipped up two batches of these - one with leftovers of the stuffing we made last week, and one with the leftovers we brought back from John's family. Then, after we stuffed ourselves silly, we mixed what remained of both batters and made a combo batch the next morning. See, that's the great thing about this recipe - it totally doesn't matter what variety of stuffing you have on hand. And all the other ingredients are pretty standard pantry and fridge staples, so chances are you can whip these up without a trip to the store. Of course you do have to have a waffle maker, but even our crappy $15 Walmart variety one worked just fine. And if you're really in a bind, you can probably get away with a pancake of sorts instead.

As for the turkey, well, it's buttermilk fried turkey. Do you doubt it's good? Maybe it's because neither of our families does the deep fried turkey thing, but we were seriously enthralled with this concept. We agreed unequivocally that this was the best use of leftovers we have ever tried. I know it's already been 4 days, but seriously, if you have ANY leftovers still hanging around, MAKE THIS!!!

Ingredients

Fried Turkey

1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp seasoned salt
1 cup buttermilk (if you only have regular milk, mix 1 Tbsp white vinegar with 1 scant cup of milk, let stand 5 minutes)
leftover turkey pieces - we think we used about 2-3 cups of chunks of dark meat
vegetable oil

Stuffing Waffles

2 eggs
1 cup leftover stuffing
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
butter (for serving, optional)
syrup (for serving, optional)
leftover cranberry sauce (for serving, optional)

Preparation

Fried Turkey

Mix flour and seasoned salt in a shallow bowl.
Set up a dredging station with the seasoned flour and another shallow bowl with the buttermilk.
Dip each piece of turkey in the milk, then the flour.
Heat enough vegetable oil to thickly coat the bottom of a high sided skillet.
Fry each piece of turkey until golden brown, turning as needed to brown each side. Do this in batches so that you only have single layers of turkey each time.

Stuffing Waffles

Mix eggs and next eight ingredients, through vanilla extract, with a hand mixer.
Pour batter into waffle maker, according to manufacturer's instructions.
Top with fried turkey and serve with butter, syrup, and cranberry sauce, if desired.

Makes about 10 small waffles.

Fennel, Sausage and Caramelized Apple Stuffing

2011-11-23T11:05:00.000-06:00

Fennel, Sausage, and Caramelized Apple Stuffing
From Cooking Light

As you are probably aware, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. And as you probably don't know, John and I attended a fabulous "Friendsgiving" feast on Sunday. Both of these events involve stuffing. Lots of delicious stuffing, some of which may even be offered to us as left overs, which is great since we love stuffing. In fact, love might not be a strong enough word. Case in point: on Tuesday we made a MASSIVE (i.e. 12 serving) batch of stuffing...for the two of us. Of course we didn't eat all of it in one sitting, but I'd be willing to bet we polish it off before the week is out.

I blame magazines (obviously I'd never blame our lack of self control...) for this act of gluttony. The magazine shelves are currently brimming with outrageous cover stories about caramelized veggies, potatoes galore, and of course every variety of stuffing known to man. The average person only gets to contribute one or two dishes to their family's feast, so for cooking addicts like us there's just not enough Thanksgivings in a lifetime to make everything that looks amazing. Thus, we had no choice but to cave in and make this awesome stuffing recipe on a random Tuesday night sandwiched between two legitimate holiday feasts.
Don't worry, we turned it into a real meal by sauteing some extra sausage with red pepper and red onion strips and having some garlicky broccoli on the side, but in the end this stuffing stole the show. The apples add a hint of sweetness without over powering it, and the sausage is the perfect savory note. It's certainly not traditional Stove Top style, but it's not so far off that traditionalists would be insulted. So if you're one of the lucky ones that gets to contribute stuffing this year and for some reason haven't found a recipe yet, consider giving this one a try!

Ingredients

12 oz sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
cooking spray
9 oz Italian sausage (we used hot Italian sausage, but mild works too)
5 tsp olive oil, divided
4 cups chopped onion
1 1/4 cups fennel bulb, sliced
1 1/4 cups carrot, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves (the recipe called for 2 Tbsp chopped fresh sage, but we didn't have any)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
3 cups apple, chopped (we used Honey Crisp, the recipe called for Golden Delicious)
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Arrange bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake for 16 minutes, stirring after 8 minutes. Place toasted bread in a large bowl.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray.
Remove casings froms sausage and add to pan. Cook 8 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add cooked sausage to bread bowl, reserving sausage grease.
Add 3 tablespoons oil to sausage grease, swirling to coat.
Add onion, sliced fennel bulb, carrot, thyme, crushed fennel seeds, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the pan. Saute 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Add veggies to bread mixture.
Add 2 tsp oil to pan, swirling to coat.
Add apple and sugar, and saute 5 minutes or until apple caramelizes, stirring occasionally. Add apple mixture to bread mixture.
Whisk broth and eggs in a small bowl.
Add broth mixture and 1/4 tsp pepper to mixture, tossing well to combing.
Spoon mixture into a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until browned and crisp on top.

Serves 12.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

2011-11-21T10:53:00.000-06:00

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
From allrecipes.com

Happy four days till Thanksgiving! Is there any other week all year with an anticipation level quite like this? Just four days till a gloriously long weekend, unabashed Christmas decorating, and of course, the meal to end all meals.

Interestingly, though I think not uncommonly, neither John nor I are big turkey eaters. For us it's the side dishes that really steal the show. Just the thought of stuffing gets my heart racing. We recently had a sample of some mediocre store brand stuff at the grocery store and we were practically drooling in our little paper cups.

At this year's family Thanksgiving feast the stuffing is being covered by my mom, but we're excited to contribute an appetizer and a Brussels sprouts side dish. For the sprouts we naturally thought of our Roasted Brussels Sprouts recipe, but that dish pretty much demands to be eaten right after roasting and we were worried there might not be enough space in my aunt's oven. To be safe we decided to test out a few recipes that could be made in advance and reheated in the microwave before serving. This recipe turned out to be a big winner, and although best eaten fresh, it can definitely be reheated - just add the bacon and almonds after it's been microwaved. As it turns out my aunt is a kitchen logistics master and we're able to make the roasted sprouts after all, but we're hardly complaining about adding this awesome dish to our repertoire.

Ingredients

1/2 lb bacon
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup slivered almonds
2 lb Brussels sprouts, shredded (use a food processor for speedy prep)
3 green onions, minced
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
pepper, to taste

Preparation

Place bacon in a cold, large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat till crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels.
Discard bacon grease, reserving 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
Reduce heat to medium. Melt butter with reserved bacon grease.
Add almonds and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly browned. (If you are planning to reheat the dish to serve later, skip this step and toast the almonds in a dry pan or the oven so that you can add them after microwaving the sprouts).
Add Brussels sprouts, green onions, seasoned salt and pepper.
Cook over medium heat until sprouts are wilted and tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Crumble bacon on top just before serving.

Serves 8 as a side dish.

Cranberry Dip

2011-11-18T10:50:00.000-06:00

Cranberry Dip
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

Brace yourselves folks, eating season has officially arrived. From about November 15th through January 2nd the honeymoon kitchen turns into a lean, mean, holiday food making machine. Well, maybe not so lean...

Right now we're in the throes of Thanksgiving prep, which means testing out potential recipes to contribute to the big family dinner next week. We're somewhat neurotic when it comes to finding the perfect recipe, and we always test things out before serving them to the masses. This usually results in a lot of weird dip-for-dinner, veggies-for-breakfast type meals, but we can't complain.

This particular dip was inspired by a Whole Foods cranberry dip and it's certainly pretty enough for any holiday spread. The only problem with it is that I couldn't figure out when to serve it. It's delicious but a little too sweet for an appetizer to a big dinner. I think it could be perfect for a holiday cocktail gathering, but alas, we don't have any such event on the calendar this year. Oh well, it made for a decadant dinner and a number of fantastic afternoon snacks!

Ingredients

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 sweet onion, diced
1 tsp + 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz goat cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted (you may notice a variety of nuts in the pic because we were experimenting - trust me, go with almonds, they were the winner by far)

Preparation

Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Add diced onions. Saute, stirring often, until onions are softened.
Add 1 tsp sugar and mix well. Cook until onions are caramelized, stirring often, about 10 minutes.
Remove onions from skillet and set aside.
Add cranberries, water, and 1/4 cup sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cook until cranberries are softened, periodically smushing them with a wooden spoon, about 7 minutes or until mixture thickens.
Add balsamic vinegar and caramelized onions. Stir to combine.
Chill cranberry topping at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, goat cheese, orange zest, and orange juice together with a hand mixer.
Spread cheese mixture in the bottom of a serving dish. Top with chilled cranberry mixture and slivered almonds.
Serve immediately or chill up to 3 days. (I thought it got better after a night in the fridge.)

Magic Sauce

2011-11-16T10:48:00.000-06:00

Magic Sauce
From 101 Cookbooks

Oh magic sauce, how do I use thee? Let me count the ways. Roasted chicken. Baked potato. Scrambled eggs. Dipping oil. Roasted squash. Frittata. And the list goes on.

We initially whipped up a batch of this oil to rub down chicken thighs that we roasted, shredded and used in our fettuccine Alfredo. We had a lot left over so we popped it in the fridge for "later use." We put a lot stuff in the fridge for "later use," which is typically just a synonym for "throwing out in 7 days." But not magic sauce. I pulled it out every day that week until I was scraping the bottom of the jar with bread scraps. The recipe says it will last 3 weeks in the fridge, but I guess if I want to test that out I'll have to make a triple batch next time.

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 medium cloves of garlic, smashed into a paste
1 well-crumbled bay leaf (hotly debated on a number of websites, but yes, you can eat dried bay leaf - we didn't die anyway)
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon grain sea salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

Gently warm the olive oil over medium-low heat in a skillet or pan, until it is just hot, but not so hot that stuff sizzles when you drop it in. Remove from heat.
While the oil is warming, lightly pound the rosemary, thyme, and oregano in a mortar and pestle. We don't have one, so we busted out the meat pounder mallet then and just smushed them around a bit on the cutting board with that.
Stir the paprika, garlic, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, and salt into the oil.
Add the bruised herbs and lemon juice.
Use now, or store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. If it thickens when cold, just set it in the sun or on top of a warm oven for a few minutes when you want to use it.

Makes about 1/2 cup.

Fettuccine Alfredo

2011-11-14T10:46:00.000-06:00

Fettuccine Alfredo
From Cooking Light

"Light" fettuccine Alfredo shouldn't be good. It's supposed to be a heavy, fat laden dish that you can't justify eating more than once or twice a year. So why is this Cooking Light version SO good? Answer: we don't know. It's been discussed at length in our house, and we simply can't figure it out. We are generally anti low-fat dairy in cooking, as it rarely performs well and doesn't save nearly enough calories to make it worth it. For example, we'd never dream of swapping out the plethora of cow-based fat in our beloved mac and cheese. But here, it just works.

The only possible answer we could come up with is that maybe our guilt doesn't allow us to order fettuccine Alfredo in restaurants enough to have a very clear comparison of this version versus something more typical. Regardless, we have never once finished this dish feeling anything less than decadently satisfied. I'm always tempted to up the sauce:pasta ratio, but you really don't need to. This time we even mixed in some shredded, roasted chicken, and it was still plenty of sauce. On that note, it's the perfect dish to add stuff to - broccoli, mushrooms, chicken, it's all good.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp flour
1 1/3 cups 1% milk
1 1/4 cups (5-oz) Parmesan cheese, grated
2 Tbsp 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
8-oz uncooked fettuccine
fresh ground black pepper, optional

Preparation

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Add garlic. Cook one minute, stirring often.
Stir in flour.
Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk.
Cook 6 minutes, or until mixture thickens, still stirring constantly.
Add most of the Parmesan cheese (save a little for garnish), cream cheese, and salt. Stir with a whisk until cheese melts.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.
Toss sauce with hot pasta.
Top with reserved Parmesan cheese and pepper.

Serves 4.