Basically, we’re making large chocolate eggs out of smaller ones, but it is really easy, tasty, and pretty good looking if I do say so. 3 ingredients is all you’ll need. Well…you’ll need a double boiler for melting the chocolate, and a mold like our egg tray, but that’s really it!

Here’s how the eggs got all glittered-up for Easter:

This only takes 15 minutes or so, but the time for it cooling & hardening the chocolates can take anywhere from 1-2 hours depending how warm your kitchen is. I put a fan on mine to expedite the process:) These little colorful & crunchy chocolate eggs would look very festive wrapped up as a little addition to an Easter basket! You can certainly make a standard chocolate bark in the same way or use candy molds, but since I didn’t have anything egg-shaped, the deviled platter had to step-up.

Everything is better candy coated, and baking chocolate is no exception. Enjoy these bright, 3-ingredient chocolates this week!

I used to love shelling fresh peas when I was little (I have no idea why), but baby green peas are still one of my favorite vegetables!

You can easily find them year-round in the freezer aisle, but fresh really can’t be beat. Instead of steaming them as I usually would, I wanted to make a cold salad with the help of some fresh dill, shallots, lemon zest, pecorino cheese, and bacon (that’s close enough to an Easter ham, right?) I wanted this to be light and fresh, so I opted to stay away from making this salad creamy with lots of mayo and sour cream, though it remains vibrant with lemon & good quality extra virgin olive oil. Okay, we do add a teaspoon of light mayo for the heck of it, but it helps bind the lil’ guys together.

This is very easy to make ahead, and a great compliment to a spring meal. Now we have no excuses but to eat our veggies and like it!

I love buying locally, so these English peas were a great find! I think this little salad is a nice alternative to simply steaming them, and they make for a perfectly pleasant cold salad, not to mention they’re nutrient-dense. Fresh dill is one of the prime spring flavors in my eyes, and it pairs really well with our sweet pods. The shallots I bought were really hot, so I cut back on the amount, though if you have sweet onion, that would be a great alternative in this case. No need to reach for that V-8, the peas have got you covered…

Only a few minutes, a few ingredients, and we have one less dish to worry about for brunch. A Happy Easter & Passover weekend to you, hopefully all in the company of good friends, good greens & good food!

These cookies are very easy and leftovers store well. I often double the batch for gatherings and there never seem to be any left. We give these cookies a lil’ extra something sweet by using honey in addition to our brown sugar. I also use a vanilla paste, which is made by the wonderful fine-baking-ingredient-folks at Rodelle. The paste gives a great texture to work with, and lends a very concentrated yet smooth vanilla flavor perfect for cookies like these. If you haven’t used the paste before or Rodelle’s vanilla products, check them out! Vanilla extract works fine here too, and don’t forget the cinnamon & honey…

These salty-sweet cookies smell as good as they taste, so let’s get some in the oven before I start eating all of the chocolate chips…

I always recommend letting your butter and eggs come to room temperature, and chilling-down the dough before baking. In most cases, I intentionally under bake my cookies slightly, so they’re chewier, but still slightly crisp on edges. Sometimes I get crazy and use the cookies frozen to make ice cream sandwiches…dessert knows no boundaries here!

It’s nice to sweeten your day, and these are easy to whip-up post dinner, and then make batches when you have time throughout the week. Just make sure to get one before they’re all gone… 

Sesames (Sesamum indicum) are loaded with body-benefiting minerals, vitamins & fiber. Hard to believe that 1/4 of a cup gives us the following Daily Values:

• 73% copper,
• 44% manganese,
• 35% calcium,
• 31% magnesium,
• 29% iron,
• 22% phosphorus,
• 18% zinc, and last but not least,
• 17% of our daily value of fiber.

Well, I’ll be darned! They’re also unique, as they possess two special lignans (sesamin & sesaolin) that help protect against oxidative damage and lower cholesterol. Speaking of lowering cholesterol, sesame seeds contain the highest amount of  phytosterols over any other nut/seed, per a study published in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. Plant phytosterols are proven very important for lowering cholesterol levels, so why not add a few of these into your cooking?

Despite their healthy disposition, these baby seeds are nutty and add great texture. Easy to throw on salads and into dressings, but why not incorporate them right into your breadcrumb mix? So this is how we use them to make a favorite family chicken recipe…

These are an easy appetizer, or make them slightly larger as the main protein for your dinner. It’s crucial to time this and serve them right after baking, so avoid leaving them in oven to keep warm, or they’ll become tough and seeds will burn. I have found they’re still delicious & crispy at room temp if you’re serving as an app, and they make for tasty leftovers. There are bountiful choices of dipping sauces, and Lord knows I love ketchup more than the average adult should, but a tangy honey-based sauce really works best with the nutty sesame flavor in my opinion. (Maybe all of those childhood years dipping my Chicken Nuggets in honey really wasn’t all that weird!?) These strips are a convenient way to include more sesame into your diet, and I think they’ll become a repeat recipe in your kitchen also!

Sesame seeds are nutritious & delicious, but thanks to the great & late comedian Mitch Hedburg, they’re also humorous…this is a favorite: Mitch Hedberg Sesame Seeds.

I’ve made beef stew of many varieties, sometimes with plain stock, sometimes red wine, but I always seem to divert back to my version using stout. It’s March, and Saint Patrick’s Day is on the holiday horizon, and who am I to pass up an opportunity to be festive? (Don’t worry, we won’t dye the stew green). Since I’m not a fan of corn beef & cabbage, looks like stew will win-out this year. This recipe is best made on a day when you have some time to let the beef become very tender, and flavors meld together. So, I usually make this on a Sunday, or when I can start it in the afternoon, and though it makes quite a good amount, the leftovers are almost better!

I might go all out since I have Guinness, and make some of our Guinness Brownies from last March! Beef and brownies, not sure that’s the best marketing, but it certainly be a night of stomach pleasing deliciousness.

Beef stew may take some time, and hands-on preparation, but it is worth the efforts on occasion, and tonight is good enough for me!

When the weather warms, it’s nice to eat lighter. Since I just went to my farmer’s market this weekend, I decided to cool-it-down in the kitchen, and make something fresh and bright! I know what you might be thinking, but we won’t be using Easter candy in the making of this meal…we’ll save that for later in the month! However, we will be using local farmer’s market spinach, baby sugar beets, honey tangerine, and if those aren’t fresh enough, we’re topping this off with homemade Green Goddess Dressing. It’s light, full of fresh herbs and it’s green, so it has to be good for us. 

This salad will find its vegetable balance with the additions of creamy goat cheese crumbles, sliced red onion, and some lightly toasted pistachios for crunch. I think the green goddess is a great compliment to the sweetness of the beets and tangerine. Really, the salad gives us an excuse to eat copious amounts of dressing, but the good news is it’s healthy. This colorful creation would be awesome for a luncheon, or just to feed your own face, and here is how you can…

Starting with the leafy layers. we build our bowl with a fresh farmer’s market variety of savoy spinach. I buy this Indian, curly variety when in season from a local grower, Rodney Farms, at my local farmer’s market. It’s heartier than the more common flat leaf spinach & tastes freshly fantastic! I’ve previously praised the health benefits of spinach on the dinnervine, especially in our garlic spinach & tomato pasta, and I still try to eat it several times per week. This salad makes that easy to do, but we’re not stopping the nutrition there, oh no. We’re going to include antioxidant rich beets and honey tangerines, and the dressing? First thing that comes to mind with most dressings is they’re fatty, which equals unhealthy. Ours however, will have a base of Greek yogurt, freshly chopped herbs and avocado. No mayo. No oil, and you won’t miss them one little bit.

I find with spinach there are some leaf logistics to consider: washing fresh-from-the-farm-spinach, especially curly varieties is a must! Though this spinach is organic, it takes some time to clean thoroughly. I like to embrace some temporary OCD on these occasions and triple-wash mine. I rinse spinach bunches with cool water, submerge into a large bowl with cool water for several minutes, swish…rinse and repeat! (that almost sounded like a Pantene commercial) but regardless, you’ve gotta clean the green! I do this to ensure there are no critter stow-aways that may still be hanging around, and I don’t need any pet caterpillars at the moment.

I store my rinsed spinach once air-dried, in gallon zip-lock with a paper towel inside to absorb any residual moisture. If you don’t have fresh market spinach, then the packaged and pre-rinsed baby spinach from the store is great too…and you don’t have to wash it 200 times, which will just leave more time for eating dressing… 

Ring-in-Spring in your kitchen, with a bowl of goddess-inspired goodness!

I’m trying to incorporate more fruit into my diet (well, I wrote it down on my to-do list at least) and I love fresh pears of almost every variety. There is something mildly sweet & clean about them, which makes ripe pears perfect for baking, and in this case, poaching with a flavorful sauce. Though, the real inspiration for this dish came when I sampled a seasonal balsamic vinegar at my local WeOlive. They were featuring a Mulled Spiced Balsamic this winter, which shined with aromatic flavors of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, though was still very subtle. I fell in love with this one immediately, and though it would be great with oil for dipping bread, I knew it would compliment a dessert perfectly! I love to use various balsamics over fruit, like strawberries & blackberries, but I thought that the red pears on my counter deserved a go, and so I found myself reducing a slightly acidic/semi-sweet sauce, and poaching these bad boys ’till perfectly tender. Great on their own, but I felt we needed to make this one extra decadent given the occasion, with rich & creamy mascarpone cheese & cinnamon. It is indulgent, and I’m okay with that…

Perfectly easy to prepare, and this one would also marry-up well over rich vanilla bean ice cream, or Greek yogurt. Though, I virtually never buy mascarpone, and it is a welcome & decadent deviation from my standard yogurt. Mascarpone is essentially an Italian cream cheese, and comes in flavored varieties, but I went with the plain and just added the cinnamon for just a touch of spice. Our poaching sauce is full of vibrant flavors, which will tie the dish all together, so we don’t need much other than that and the pears! I think this is great for a romantic night-in, or for a dinner party dessert. Valentine’s Day may mean long lines, overpriced gifts, and a 2 hour dinner wait, but it is certainly one darn good excuse for making something sweet. 

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day to you, and however you’ll be spending it, I hope there is dessert!

Luckily, I had the components for this already, and used fresh broccoli florets, and crimini mushrooms. Though you could use frozen broccoli and canned button mushrooms if you’ve got them, but I like to grab fresh vegetables whenever I can. Since the dinner menu was decided early, I had time to marinate the chicken breasts in Italian dressing for several hours in the fridge. This gives us a little extra flavor & seasoning. Then it’s only a matter of skillet cooking the chicken, steaming the broccoli and making some rice. Mix all ingredients together, put them in a dish, crumble-on said crackers, bake and…Voilà! You have a very satisfying dish with some good-for-you vegetables & a lean protein, and well…some Cheez-Its…and umm, they fall into the cheese food group I’m assuming. *Warning: Consuming 1/3 box of addicting, baked-cheese snack crackers in the preparation of this dish is not recommended… not that I would know from personal experience or anything…

It’s time to put down the crackers & cook…

Loving the creamy texture of this, and keeping the chopped ingredients chunky makes for a hearty and rustic plate. I made enough for friends and even had some leftovers, but I wasn’t bummed about that in the least! This one is already on the radar again for later in the month. You can easily add more cheese and seasoning to your taste, but definitely don’t skimp on the crunchy cracker topping, it makes for one ridiculously easy and unique crust… I guess wandering down the wrong aisle at the grocery store has its perks, enjoy!

Pin It]]> http://www.dinnervine.com/2013/02/chicken-and-rice-broccoli-casserole/feed/ 1 http://www.dinnervine.com/2013/02/chicken-and-rice-broccoli-casserole/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dinnervine/~3/G8GWozjfEPM/ http://www.dinnervine.com/2013/01/hot-blt-dip/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:21:42 +0000 lbs http://www.dinnervine.com/?p=7016 It’s that time when the new year commences, in which I try to implement some healthier cooking & eating habits. You know, your standard, eat-more-green-vegetables-and-less-mac-&-cheese resolutions. Though, some of my healthy plans will need to be put on hold temporarily, due to pressing circumstances… NFL… Football…. Playoffs. Oh yes, it’s serious football viewing time, and with the only 2 games left until Superbowl, we have to get our game day snacks in gear. Something about kale & carrot sticks just doesn’t scream football, so we’re just going to have to suffer through a few more Sundays of delicious appetizers. With so many snacking options, what should we make? Usually it’s a game time decision for me. I go with whatever sounds good at that moment, or use what ingredients I have on hand. However, this Sunday I already know what is on the menu, and it starts with a little something you’ve seen before on the dinnervine – bacon. Well, there’s more to it than just that, though I’m not above simply serving-up some crispy strips & enjoying a blissful bacon coma. Though, we’re going to get a little more creative with my take on a bubbly Hot BLT Dip. BLT’s make their appearance here fairly often in one form or another, but we’re turning all the flavors of the coveted Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato sandwich into an easy party app. There are many recipes out there I’ve seen for both cold and hot versions, but I opted to use of cream cheese and sharp cheddar cheese that I use commonly for other dips. I can assure you, this one will get devoured faster than you can crack open your second game day beer. This dish is dairy-based, with a only few ingredients. It is rich; though I created my recipe using lower-fat varieties of sour cream, cream cheese, mayonnaise & shredded cheddar cheeses. After pre-crisping the bacon, we bake our deliciousness for about 20 minutes in the oven, and serve with slices of a lightly toasted sourdough baguette.

So get all your greens in Saturday because come Sunday, bacon’s in the lineup! 

A little bacon, a little pigskin, the perfect combo! You may be wondering where the ‘L’ is in our BLT, but there is something about hot lettuce that sounds like a hot mess to me… So, instead we’re using fresh green onion to give our dip some extra flavor, and take the place of the leafy green. You also can add more tomatoes if you fancy. I used the entire basket of little grape tomatoes, and would have added more if I had extra, and hey, they make this healthy right?! Just make sure to deseed the lil’ guys so your dip isn’t full of tomato guts. I think warm and toasted sourdough baguette slices are the perfect vehicle for eating this, and together really give us the taste of the homemade sandwich. You can also use tortilla chips and change it up; bacon doesn’t discriminate. I am excited for this game this Sunday, though truthfully, I think I’m more excited about the food!

Enjoy this dip with some football watching-friends, and you’ll have a true winner, even if  the same doesn’t go for your favorite team…

My trip down South has ended, and I’m already fondly reminiscing over the great times & many wonderful dishes. Recently posted were tasty peppermint cookies & collards and black-eyed peas, but there is one Southern staple I miss already – sweet tea. May seem simple, but if you’ve been to the South, you’d be hard-pressed to find a kitchen or restaurant not serving a chilled pitcher of this easy-drinking variety. It’s not that I can’t make it at home, I do make tea occasionally, but there is something addicting & refreshing about a good pitcher of the sweeter kind.

One local restaurant is known for their awesome sweet tea with mint & great lunch specials, and it’s a favorite when I visit Atlanta. Mittie’s Tea Room Cafe is located in both Historic Roswell and Historic Downtown Alpharetta, and for over 25 years Mittie’s has been charming locals & visitors with their hospitality. I remember going there as a kid, and loving their delicious iced tea and famous chicken salad! I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit Mittie’s for lunch over Christmas, and was again delighted by the country charm of their Alpharetta tea room. Mittie’s is nestled within a historic country cottage, donning charming hand-painted tea pots, and country inspired decor.

Their menu offers both a country breakfast and lunch fare, but I always find myself ordering ‘Katie’s Delight’ consisting of their famous Chicken Salad Croissant, side of house lobster bisque and a harvest green salad. The chicken salad is unique, and full of white meat chicken, almonds, grapes, a little mayo, and a secret spice blend. All goes perfectly inside a buttery, freshly-baked croissant if I do say so! Soup and salad are pretty ordinary lunch options, but there is something exceptional about Mittie’s menu that keeps people coming back for years & years…

Inspired by my  trip to Mittie’s, and the tea my family made daily over the holidays, here is a classic Southern Sweet Tea recipe I know you’ll love! Did I mention it’s as easy as boiling water? See, I knew you’d like it too…

You might be thinking this is just like making any iced tea, and you’d be correct! Though, what sets this sweet tea apart is in fact the ‘sweet’, our white sugar, is added at the right time! We add the sugar directly into the pitcher while our tea is still warm-hot. This allows the sugar granules to completely dissolve & incorporate throughout. Now you won’t have to fool with awkward sweetener packets to make each glass…

Our tea also has a deep flavor, because we do not add ice into the pitcher. In the past I’ve filled the pitcher with ice cubes to chill our steeped tea, but that ultimately dilutes its richness. It just makes sense to serve our undiluted brew, instead over ice in individual glasses.

Now I’ve got this sweet tea stuff down, and I’m ready to whip-up a fresh pitcher! Though I can’t be sitting on Mittie’s charming porch, I’ll have to enjoy my next sweet glass from the West Coast…