In The Kitchen

This week I’m spot lighting a silicone bbq brush! We have always had the regular bbq brushes.  We were getting tired of the hairs always falling out and having to pick them off the meat or whatever it was we were basting/bbq.

We weren’t buying low quality brushes either and it was still happening.  One day I was in Wal-Mart and saw this silicone  bbq brush.  At first I wasn’t sure if it would work that well, because the sauce does take to the hair like brushes.  But we love our brush!

It’s not only super easy to use because you don’t have to pick hairs off of your meat, but it also is so much easier to clean! It holds on the sauce just as well as the other kind. So I highly recommend to throw out your old brushes and pick up a kind like this!

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Give away!

Organic Valley sent me a pack of coupons worth 5.00.

So I’m going to share them with one lucky winner.  All you have to do is tell me what is one reason you like organic foods?  That’s it! Good luck! This give away ends on May 3!

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Honey Mustard Crusted Salmon

I love salmon it’s one of my favorite fishes. I’m always looking for new ways to serve it because unfortunately my husband isn’t a fan of salmon because it finds it to be too fishy. I typically use a soy sauce/maple syrup glaze on my salmon, so when I saw this recipe in my Cooking Pleasures magazine, I knew I  had to try it. The original recipe called for a few more ingredients that I didn’t want to use, so here is my take on it.   Your taste buds will love this! I cooked this at a high heat, because cooking at a high heat keeps fish super moist and flavorful.

Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets

1/4 cup of honey mustard

2 tablespoons of butter, melted

1 tablepsoon of chopped freshed dill

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 475 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Place salmon, skin side down on the baking sheet. In a small bowl stir together honey mustard, butter, chopped dill, lemon juice and pepper. Spread over salmon.
2. Bake salmon 10 to 12 minutes or until fish just begins to flake.  Heat broiler. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat 1 minute or until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

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Maple Glaze

This is something that drives me nuts. When I go to a blog and there is no picture of the item! And I really don’t like to post and have no picture. But I totally forgot to take a picture of it! So I’m apologizing for it from the start! This glaze though was great.  The maple syrup added such a great flavor to the chicken, it made it sweet and tangy at the same time. I used it on chicken legs, but I think it would go great on a fish, like salmon as well.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 small garlic clove, minced

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients.
2. Glaze whatever you are cooking!

Enjoy!

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Mexican Lasagna

I was looking for a different spin on lasagna.  I thought about make a veggie lasagna, but for once I wasn’t in the mood for a pasta. I searched around for a bit and found one I liked somewhat but not totally by Rachel Ray in her 30 minute meal book. This recipe is adapted from what I found in the book.  It turned out great! My husband loved it so much and I was worried he wouldn’t because it wasn’t your typical lasagna we make.  This definitely will become a meal in our routine. This makes six servings and each serving has about 350 calories.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 1/2 cups of chopped onion

2 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin

About a baseball size of ground turkey

1 can(14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes

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

1 can (11 oz) corn niblets, drained

1 can (10 oz) mild enchilida sauce

5 (8 in.) whole wheat flour tortillas

1 1/4 cups of freshly shredded cheddar cheese

Reduce fat sour cream for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a round or square baking dish with non stick spray.
2. First brown ground turkey meat.  Then drain. Place back in skillet. Heat the oil, add onions and saute 5 minutes. Add cumin and saute 5 minutes or until onions are caramelized. Stir in tomatoes, beans, corn and enchilada sauce, bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.
3. Put  1 tortilla in baking dish. Top with 1 1/2 cups of the meat mixture, sprinkle with 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, repeat the layer 4 times. Ending with meat mixture.
4. Cover with foil and bake 20 to 25 minutes until bubbly around edges and cheese is melted. Cook 5 minutes, cut into 6 wedges and serve with sour cream if you like.

Enjoy!

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Give away winner

The winner of my third give away which was a a guide to cheese is:

Erica!!

Erica has an awesome blog as well:

http://ericaskitchenadventures.blogspot.com/

Congrats Erica!!

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Beer Braised Pork With Bacon

Braising meat, any type, turns tough, very inexpensive cuts of meat tender as they simmer slowly. Pork shoulder roast is also known sometimes as pork blade roast, is great for braising because it has a lot of connective tissue, which dissolves during long, slow cooking, giving the roast a ton of moisture. The bacon in this recipe adds a bit of a smokey flavor.  I wanted a different type of pork to make this weekend, so I searched for a recipe and found one I was looking for one and found one I liked in my Cooking Pleasures magazine. I followed the recipe pretty much the way it was written but changed a few things. The recipe called for a dark beer, but I used a light, because that’s what we had and beer stores aren’t open on Sundays. I also didn’t use parsnips or shallots either. Anyway, this turned out great and was so moist. Don’t mind the plates in this picture! I was at my parents house and my mom loves her 1980’s Correlle dishes! This makes six servings.

Ingredients:

8 oz of apple wood smoke bacon, chopped

2 1/2 to 3lbs boneless pork shoulder roast

3/4 teaspoons coarse salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon of pepper, divided

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

6 large garlic cloves, halved

3/4 cup light beer

1/2 cup lower sodium beef broth

6 new red potatoes, unpeeled and quartered

3 carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces

2 ribs of celery, sliced at 1 inch

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until it’s browned and crisp; drain on paper towels. Reserve drippings in skillet.
2. Cook pork in drippings over medium high heat 5 to 6 minutes or until browned on all sides. Reserve 2 teaspoons of drippings in skillet; discard remaining drippings. Place pork in shallow roasting pan large enough to hold pork surrounded by vegetables. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, sage, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper.
3. Cook onions and garlic in drippings over medium heat  3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Scatter around pork.
4. Add beer to skillet, boil over high heat for 2 minutes or until it’s reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring to scrap up any browned bits from bottom of skillet. Add broth; bring to a boil. Pour around pork; cover tightly with foil.
5. Bake 1 hour 20 minutes. Scatter potatoes, carrots and celery around pork, sprinkle vegetables with remaining 1/4 each salt and pepper. Reserve 1/3 cup of bacon for garnish; sprinkle remaining bacon over vegetables. Bake covered an additional 1 hour or until pork is for tender and pale pink in center.  Let it stand about 10 minutes before slicing.
6. Spoon pan juices over pork; surrounded with vegetables. Place bacon on top of pork before slicing for a garnish.

Enjoy!

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Coconut Cake with Blueberry Jam

I am so proud of this cake! This was one of my grandmother’s recipes, unfortunately she was one of those bakers who didn’t like to share her recipes or write them down in that matter! My mom sort of remembered this recipe so I played it by ear as I did it and it came out JUST like my grandmother’s.  She would be so proud of me.  She currently lives in a nursing home and is suffering from Alzheimer’s. I wish I could share a piece with her.  Adding the blueberry jam wasn’t something she included in the recipe, but I had a lot of blueberries and thought it would be a nice surprise to bite into.  My family loved it!

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 cups of cake flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup(2sticks) of unsalted butter, soft

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract

1 can (13.5) ounces of coconut milk

1 cup sweetened flake coconut

Frosting:

1 package (8 ounces) of cream cheese

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, soft

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 box (16 ounces) of confectioners sugar

1/2 cup of blueberry jam

1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 8 inch cake bans with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla and coconut extracts, beat until combined.
4. On low speed, beat in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with coconut milk. Beat well after each addition. Fold in chopped coconut. Divide batter equally between the two cake pans.
5. Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes depending on your oven. Cool pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans and cool completely.
6. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, beat in confectioners sugar until smooth.
7. Trim cake layers if crowned. Place one cake layer on a plate. Spread the top with the blueberry jam. Add remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with icing. Gently press shredded coconut onto sides of cake. Refrigerate one hour before slicing.

Enjoy!

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Edamame & Mushroom Risotto

Risotto is food that when you cook it, it’s either a hit or a miss.  Cooking risotto has everything to do with timing!  With risotto you have to cook the hard rice before you actual cook it, some call this technique toasting. I never have had edamame but hear there are so many health benefits of it, so I decided to make a edamame and mushroom risotto.  It was so creamy, the flavor that the edamame and mushrooms gave the dish were tremendous. I feel sort of silly posting this picture, because, well you can see, it’s missing a chunk of the risotto and it’s not on a pretty dish.  I forgot to take the picture after it was plated because I had friends over and they were looking at me like I was nuts for taking pictures of my food, so I had to take the next day.  When I went to take the picture I couldn’t resist not to take  a spoonful out! This makes four servings.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

8 ounces of white button mushrooms, sliced and trimmed(any type of mushroom would work)

1 pound of frozen edamame(I bought already shelled)

3 cups of vegetable broth mixed with 1 1/2 cups of water

1 small onion, chopped

1 1/3 cups of arborio rice

1/4 cup of  white wine

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

1/2 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, set aside.
2. Cook edamame about 5 minutes.  I steam them in about two inches of water. Drain the beans and add with mushrooms back into the skillet.
3. Place broth and water into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.
4. In a large saucepan heat remaining oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add rice and stir until rice is coated with oil. This is what some call toasting the rice.  Cook for one minute, stirring it constantly. Add wine and cook until wine is absorbed, about one minute.
5. Add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth mixture. Cook over medium low heat, stirring until broth is absorbed. Add remaining broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking in the same manner.  It takes about 30 minutes.
6. Gently heat mushrooms and edamame, stir in rice and remove from heat.  Stir in the pepper and 1/4 cup of the cheese.
7. Divide the risotto among four bowls and sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

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Teriyaki Flounder with Whole Wheat Pasta

I’ve never had fish and pasta before, well together on one plate that is.  Flounder isn’t typically  a fish we use in our house. We typically stick with tilapia and salmon.  I was looking for something to marinate the flounder in besides a lemon/butter sauce. I was in the mood for something Asian, so I thought why not make  a teriyaki marinade. It was so delicious. This makes two servings.

Ingredients:

1/8 cup reduced sodium teriyaki sauce

1 tablespoon of rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 flounder filet, a decent size one

3 ounces of whole wheat pasta

1/2 pound of sugar snap peas

1/2 sweet red pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, stir together teriyaki sauce, vinegar, ginger, sugar and garlic. Reserve 1.5 tablespoons for the noodles. Marinate the flounder in remaining teriyaki sauce for about 15-30 minutes.  This varies on how strong of a flavor you would like the fish to have.
2. Prepare the whole wheat pasta, adding the snap peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and place back in pot, toss in red pepper(if you want the red pepper cooked a bit, you can do that while pasta is boiling. Cover pot with lid.
3. Coat a grill pan with cooking spray and heat to medium high heat. Grill the flounder for about 2 minutes on each side.  Serve the flounder on a bed of the noodle mixture. Toss with additional teriyaki sauce if you would like.

Enjoy!

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