Greek Nachos

One of the things I love to do is explore all the really great food and cooking blogs out there, and one of my very favorites is called "Bitten." It is written by the amazing Mark Bittman, and appears on the New York Times website. It is a fascinating collection of recipes, food articles, with various guest writers and tons of commentary from the community reading the different articles...basically an all-out love-fest of good food. I check on it regularly and am never ever disappointed. INTIMIDATED, maybe, but not disappointed.

Last week Mark ran an article that included a recipe for Greek-Style Nachos, and it is one of those recipes that makes you smack yourself on the side of the head and say, "why didn't I think of that??" It takes the basic nacho approach -- foundation of chips topped with meat, veggies and cheese -- but the chips are made of pita, the meat is lamb and the cheese is a feta-yogurt-mint blend. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum. Quick, fun and unexpected.

If you aren't familiar with Mark's cookbooks, you should know that he wrote one of my favorite general resource cookbooks ever, called HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. And it pretty much is exactly that. Take a look here:

HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING

And if you want to check out Mark's rocking great blog Bitten, take a look here. (But don't forget to come back to mine. Fair is fair.)

BITTEN

Where I notice he just posted an article on Cold Sesame Noodles, which I already have five different recipes for, but because I worship at his feet I will be trying HIS.

And if you want to try his Greek Nachos, here you go:

Greek Nachos

Just remember who your friends are, and come back to me when you are done making friends with Mark. Because tomorrow I am making Mexican Tuna Salad, and last I checked, he hasn't caught up with me on that one yet!

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs with Lemon Orzo

Now that I am practically a professional kebab-chef (see earlier post on Scallop Kabobs) I decided to really go for the gusto with some MEAT. I had another recipe on hand from Everyday Food (I wonder why I had all these kebab recipes? Obviously I had been harboring this secret, subconscious kebab craving that is just now working its way to the surface!). It followed the advice I got from my amazing cook of a mother, who pointed that that if one was having trouble having the meat and the veggies cook to the appropriate levels on the same skewer, one could use DIFFERENT skewers for the meat and the vegetables.

Wow.

She's right.

Different skewers.

Never occurred to me.

Anyway, this recipe loads up those skewers with chunks of marinated pork loin and chorizo sausage, along with layers of onion (which personally does not count to me as a vegetable). That's it! Cooks on a medium grill for about 12 minutes. In the meantime I followed Martha Stewart's advice and cooked up a side dish of Lemony Orzo, which went perfectly with the spicy kebabs.

Okay, I think I have worked the kebab thing out of my system for a while now. But in case you haven't, here are links to the Everyday Food recipes:

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs

Lemony Orzo

Different skewers. I feel so humbled.

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

Every once in a while I get a pancake craving, and interestingly it is usually at dinnertime. I am not a big breakfast eater (although I will never ever turn down poached eggs with corned beef hash at the local diner), but the whole concept of breakfast for dinner is appeals to the simple comfort food way that my brain is wired. I don't go for the whole "stuff in your pancakes" approach -- no blueberries or bananas or chocolate chips for me, thank you very much. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I know my dear friend Lynne enjoys a good blueberry pancake for lunch every now and again. But I do like experimenting with the basic pancake itself, and so I have recipes for sourdough pancakes, buckwheat pancakes, and of course there is the good old Bisquick variety. (ah, Bisquick. I heart you.) So when I saw this recipe in a recent edition of EVERYDAY FOOD I knew I had to give it a shot.

First of all, it features two of my favorite taste sensations: cinnamon and oatmeal. Good and good for you. Second, it calls for making the pancakes in nice little rounds - only 2-3 tablespoons of batter per pancake, which is SO much easier to deal with on the griddle and nicer on the plate as well. So we broke out the griddle and
gave it a try.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Is all I have to say.

Except for this: pancakes must always be anointed with Vermont maple syrup. None of this Canadian stuff, please. Vermont. If you happen to be running low on it, which never happens to me thanks to the fact that my Vermont relatives keep us happily supplied, here is a place you can get it.

Maple Syrup from Middletown Springs, Vermont

If I catch you with Mrs. Butterworth on your table...well, don't let me catch you. Anyway, here's how you make some great pancakes, and don't skimp on the maple syrup:

CINNAMON OAT PANCAKES

Makes 20 pancakes

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ONE cup of the oats. Pulse to coarsely grind oats.

2. In a large bowl, combine milk, eggs and oil. Add flour mixture and remaining oats and whisk until moistened.

3. Heat nonstick skillet or griddle over medium. Oil skillet. Using 2-3 tablespoons batter per pancake, ladle batter onto skillet and cook 1-2 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes until golden.

4. Serve with butter and Vermont maple syrup. From Vermont. The Green Mountain State.

Chicken Salad with Apple and Basil

Chicken salad is one of those recipes like meatloaf, or macaroni and cheese, where I always think there might be a better version out there. So whenever I run across another one I try it, because you never know if the grass might be greener on the other side of the chicken salad fence.

This particular version is adapted from one of my other favorite magazines (and the only other one that I have a subscription to), and that is REAL SIMPLE. If my life as I fantasize about it could be turned into a magazine it would be this one. "Simplify," one of the most beautiful words in a working mother's life. For me it ranks up there with the words "nap" and "summer Friday." Anyway, this recipe is a nice light mayo-free chicken salad that has the extra added attraction of having a lot of basil as one of the ingredients. I love basil, and I plant it every spring, and it starts out looking all nice and well behaved, like this:

And several weeks later it is 15 feet tall and threatening to move into the house.

Anyway, this nice recipe calls for poaching the chicken, and I've included that part in the directions below, but my usual approach to chicken salad is to make grilled chicken with something else earlier in the week and to throw a few extra chicken breasts on the grill. Pop them in the fridge and then this recipe will go even faster a couple of days later.

So for those of you, like me, who never met a chicken salad recipe you didn't like, here's another good one for your collection.

CHICKEN SALAD WITH APPLE AND BASIL

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from 2-3 limes)
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• 2 tablespoons sliced mint
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 
  

1. Pound chicken thin, place in saucepan and cover with water. Add 3 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to low boil. Cook until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl of ice water for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine lime juice, vinegar and sugar in large bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add scallions and apples and toss.

3. Dry chicken and shred into bite size pieces. Add to bowl with peanuts, mint and basil, along with remaining salt and pepper. Toss and serve.

Scallop, Orange and Cucumber Kabobs

I should start by saying I am slightly kabob-phobic. Generally when I make kabobs I am using either chicken or steak and assorted vegetables, and invariably the meat is cooked right and the veggies are charred within an inch of their lives, or the veggies are perfect and the meat is, um, undercooked. Which may be fine with my carnivorous Southern husband if it is steak, but chicken...not a good scenario. So I pretty much skip over kabob recipes when I run across them, despite the fact that their general approach to life -- a complete meal all cooked together on a stick -- is SO in line with my kitchen mantra: SIMPLIFY.

However, I ran across this recipe in one of my favorite cooking magazines, which is EVERYDAY FOOD. It's a little tiny magazine published by Martha Stewart's company, and I find so many great and easy recipes in it. I have a subscription to it, but you can also usually find it on those racks right by the supermarket checkout -- pick up a copy next time you are there and check it out. Anyway, they recently had a recipe for scallop kabobs, and because scallops cook in the blink of an eye, I thought maybe, just maybe, this is a kabob recipe that I can't mess up? Since the scallops and the veggies probably need the same amount of cooking time? Could it be?

It was. Glory Hallelujah.

The scallops are threaded onto the skewers with cucumber slices, orange sections, thin sliced ginger (note to self: ginger is for flavor. Ginger should be discarded before serving or your adventurous husband will eat it and it's always heart-wrenching to see a tough guy with tears in his eyes). The kabobs are basted with a honey/orange juice sauce, and take a grand total of 6 minutes on the grill. I de-skewered them onto a plate of brown rice and voila! Kabob-phobia officially cured.

Now all I need is for someone to tell me the secret to making chicken and steak kabobs. Is there a Secret Kabob Society that I can join to learn some sort of special technique? Someone let me know. In the meantime, here is the recipe for scallop kabobs, adapted with thanks from EVERYDAY FOOD.

SCALLOP, ORANGE AND CUCUMBER KABOBS

Serves 4

• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 navel orange, halved and cut into wedges. Juice the other half and save juice for sauce.
• 8 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 pound large scallops
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat grill to medium and oil the grates.

2. Combine honey and juice in small bowl

3. On 4 skewers, thread orange wedges (through skin), cucumber, ginger and scallops, beginning and ending with oranges

4. Season with salt and pepper

5. Grill until scallops are done, turning once or twice and basting with honey mixture throughout grilling time, about 6 minutes

6. Serve over brown or white rice.

Corn and Zucchini Salad

Okay, I know I pushed the envelope a little yesterday with the chocolate sausage concoctions, so here is a really really really healthy antidote: a lickety-split fast warm salad of all fresh summer ingredients. This is another one that you can make start to finish in the time that your significant other is cooking the main course on the grill (we had chicken that my Southern darling grilled, sliced and topped with a quick honey mustard sauce).

But before I get into this quick little recipe, can we just pause for a second on the lovely little green bowl it is in? (Proud Mother Alert): my smart, beautiful, talented, black-belt wearing, honor-student of a daughter MADE that bowl in her ceramics class. Yes she did, and she brought it home to me, and usually it is sitting right here on my desk where I can admire it, but yesterday night it just seemed perfect to hold the little summer salad I had just made.

Did I mention that she is beautiful? My Emma.

Anyway, here is a quick and delicious little summer side dish that is the perfect healthy way to recover from too many chocolate sausage indulgences. (See yesterday's blog post. I still love them.)

CORN AND ZUCCHINI SALAD

Serves 4

• 1 zucchini, cut in half length-wise and sliced into quarters cross-wise
• 4 ears of corn, husked and kernels sliced off
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add zucchini and garlic and saute, stirring constantly, until zucchini is crisp-tender, about 2 minutes.

2. Add corn and cook 2-3 minutes more. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Remove from heat. Stir in basil.

Chocolate Sausage Bites

Okay, I can hear you now -- chocolate and...sausage?

Let me explain.

Don and I are always on the look-out for new restaurant adventures here in beautiful northern New Jersey. Yes yes, there is always New York City 20 short miles away, but that's not any kind of challenge. Finding a really great new place out here, on the other hand, is cause for celebration, and last Saturday night we found a keeper. For all you New Jerseyites, it is called the Spotted Rooster Cafe, and it is located in Mahwah NJ, in a complex with something called Ace Janitorial and something else called Scott's Turnpike Automotive. That might have been enough to scare away someone who is fainter of heart than my brave Southern husband (someone like me, for example). But he took my hand firmly and in we went.

It is a tiny place that specializes in brunches and lunches, and opens just on Friday and Saturday nights for dinner. There was jazz playing in background, little tables for two tucked along the red walls, sultry lighting, candles on the table, and it smelled DELICIOUS in there. Soon we were sitting at one of those cozy tables, holding hands, ooh-la-la, etc. etc. And then out came the very sweet waitress with "a little something from the chef, with his compliments," which turned out to be these unbelievably good little concoctions of toasted bread rounds spread with dark chocolate and topped with thin little slices of hot sausage. Don being adventurous and me being in a cooperative mood, we dove right in, and ooh-la-la all over again. Heaven, heaven, heaven.

So I took the first opportunity to try and recreate these little gems at home. I had some andouille sausage in the fridge, although I think it would be great with chorizo as well. I picked up a loaf of French bread and a jar of Silver Palate thick dark chocolate ice cream sauce (look in the supermarket aisle where they sell the sprinkles and cones), and we were in business. I made them the size I remembered them (see picture above) -- Don remembered them as being smaller, with just one slice of sausage on a smaller bread round. They are very tasty either way! So, with thanks to the Spotted Rooster, my adapted recipe is below. And if you are ever in Mahwah New Jersey and feeling romantic, or hungry, or both, here's a link to this great new restaurant:

Spotted Rooster Cafe

Or, you can just make these for your honey at home!

CHOCOLATE SAUSAGE BITES

• 1 baguette, sliced thin
  
• 1jar chocolate ice cream sauce (or any other kind of chocolate spread that catches your fancy. Nutella might be good!)
• 1 andouille or chorizo sausage, sliced into very thin rounds

1. Toast baguette slices until just slightly golden brown, let cool

2. Spread each toast with a spoonful of chocolate sauce

3. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and saute sausage slices until heated through, about 2-3 minutes

4. Using tongs, pick up sausage rounds and lay on top of chocolate-topped bread.

5. Arrange on platter. Convince those you are serving that even though these are a little off-beat, they will thank you forever if they try one.

And if you ever make it to the Spotted Rooster, I highly recommend the mussels gratin. I might try figuring out that recipe next!

Spinach Dip In The Rain

Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous. Those of us here in the NYC metropolitan area are seriously thinking about building an ark. If it hasn't quite been forty days and forty nights, it certainly FEELS like it has been. So, because all it does around here is rain, it rained on the barbeque my brother Rob and my lovely sister-in-law Claudia had yesterday. However, it was a rain or shine affair (I'm starting to think we need to say that the other way around), and so despite the damp, the party went on.

There were all sorts of good things to eat and drink. We all started with the drink.

There was little something for everyone.

Regardless of how old you were.

Whoops. Thank goodness for child-proof caps.

There was even barbequing in the rain, which is even more fun when you have twelve feet tall rambunctious teenagers cavorting right next to your red-hot grill.

And when the deluge started -- and yes ma'am, it deluged -- there were many strong-bodied men around to put up the tent, which went up in two shakes. I was very impressed.

And in the midst of all of it, there was my mom's classic spinach dip, which started out as being the point of this post, but actually the point of it is that despite the pouring rain - or maybe as part of being outside in the pouring rain under our cozy tents - we all had a blast. So all of you looking at the forecast for next week (guess what it says? you guessed it!), don't surrender to a few million raindrops. Because the company was all the sunshine we needed.

MOM'S SPINACH DIP

• 1 package frozen chopped spinach
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can chopped water chestnuts
• 1 cup mayonaisse
• 1 packahe Knorr's vegetable soup mix
• 1 cup fine curd cottage cheese.

Combine all ingredients and serve in hollowed-out round bread loaf with sliced bread on the side. This recipe can be doubled. Or tripled, if you are my mother. (Love you, Mom!!)

Spaghetti with Romaine and Fried Egg

I must say that when I first saw this recipe I was a little skeptical. Sauteed lettuce? Some things are not meant to be sauteed, thought I, but as always, my adventurous Southern husband jumped in and pointed out that you never know until you try, nothing ventured nothing gained, etc etc. And since you really can't go wrong with a recipe that features bacon, we gave it a shot.

You know what?

You never know until you try. It was really, really good.

So, for all you adventurous types out there who are not intimidated by a little fried lettuce, here is a recipe well worth trying.

SPAGHETTI WITH ROMAINE AND FRIED EGG

Serves 4

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 8 ounces bacon chopped into 1 inch pieces
• I head romaine lettuce, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 4 large eggs
• Grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta in boiing salted water and reserve 1/4 cup pasta water. Drain and put in large bowl.

2. Cook bacon over medium high heat until brown. Transfer to paper-towel-lined plate. Reserve bacon fat.

3. Add lettuce to skillet and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook 2 minutes until lettuce starts to wilt. Sir in vengar and transfer to bowl with pasta. Add pasta water and toss to combine.

4. Return skillet to medium heat. Add reserved bacon fat. Fry eggs until whites are just set and edges are golden, about 2 minutes.

5. Serve pasta topped with chopped bacon and then one egg per plate. Top with parmesan cheese and ground pepper.

Low Country Shrimp Boil

So, this recipe is really called "Low Country Boil" in my house, I just threw the Shrimp in there to get your attention. The first time I had this ultimate Southern summer dish was with my husband's extended family down in South Carolina. (That was the time I had my first red-eye gravy, and my first Krispy Kreme doughnut, and not the first time I ever had grits but definitely the first time I had THAT MANY grits). One of the many, many things I love about my Atlanta-born husband is that I have been indoctrinated into Southern cooking, Southern music and Southern figures of speech. And this easy, spicy, relaxed Southern dish is one of my sentimental favorites.

For all my fellow Northerners, here is a quick introduction to the history of this dish -- it is well known around the South (also by the name Frogmore Stew), but the fish varies from region to region. In the Louisiana area the fish used is crawfish (yum, yum), but in the Carolinas and Georgia we are talking shrimp, nice big ones with the shell on. For those of you who want the COMPLETE history, here is a link to everything you ever wanted to know about Low Country Boil but were afraid to ask:

Low Country Boil

All you really need to know, though, is that this is a dream come true of a casual outdoor meal that gets cooked up in one large pot, and in an ideal world is dumped out onto butcher paper (or in my house, flattened-out brown paper grocery bags) that have been laid out on your picnic or patio table in the back yard. No plates. No forks. No knives. Lots of napkins (as a matter of fact, I wet down washclothes and put them on the table for easy wipe-downs as we go along). HOWEVER, we are now on the 949th day of rain here in New Jersey, so we did have to put this particular batch on a platter to serve it up inside. Still no utensils, still lots of napkins, still a lot of fun.

And as an extra added enhancement to this meal, Don provided an all-Southern-music playlist for us to eat along to. So, before I give you the recipe, here is your playlist,

with thanks to my Atlanta honey - click on these!

Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynrd

Dixie Chicken, Little Feat

Southern Accents, Tom Petty

Southern Boy, Charlie Daniels

I Like It, I Love It, Tim McGraw

Oh, Atlanta, Alison Krauss

Georgia On My Mind 

and one from me!

When God-Fearing Women Get the Blues, Martina McBride

Ok then, ready for some good ol' low country boil? Here goes:

LOW COUNTRY BOIL

• 2 stalks of celery, cut in half
• 1 jalapeno pepper, cut in half lengthwise
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 tablespoons seafood seasoning (in the spice aisle, I like Chesapeake Bay)
• 1 pound baby red potatoes
• 2 ears corn, husked and cut into quarters
• 1 pound large shrimp, shells on
• 1 pound smoked andouille sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco

1. In large pot, combine chile, celery, onion, garlic, 1 tablespoon seafood seasoning and 10 cups water, bring to a boil.

2. Add potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes until almost tender

3. Add corn and sausage and cook 5 minutes more.

4, Remove pot from heat and add shrimp. Let stand until shrimp are cooked through, about 90 seconds.

5. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking liquid, drain shrimp mixture and return to pot.

6. Add butter, 1 tablespoon seasoning, hot sauce and reserved cooking liquid and toss.

7. Serve on butcher paper with lots of napkins and a rocking Southern soundtrack playing in the background.

8. Consider Krispy Kremes for dessert.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Yes, you are seeing things correctly -- those ARE in fact Fritos floating on the top of this soup.

Let me explain.

At one point in my obsession with collecting cookbooks, I had one called something like, "Best Recipes From The Back Of Jars And Boxes." Or something like that. I tried to find it the other day in my ever-expanding cookbook collection. I love my cookbook collection, but it has gotten big enough that it is kinda hard to find any one particular thing you are looking for.

See what I mean?

By the way, I just noticed that there is a book called Family First Aid Book right in the middle of all the cookbooks. I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something?

Anyway, I can't seem to lay my hands on that cookbook, but I know I have it somewhere and today's recipe is in that particular culinary genre: the "back of the box" category. And all I can say is, don't knock it until you've tried it, because this recipe (among various others in my motley collection) is a rocking good soup. I think I got it from the back of the Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce can and then doctored it up a bit (the Fritos are my own addition, thank you very much!). It's a great thing to do with leftover chicken, and is one of those last minute dishes that you can whip up very quickly if you have the right stuff in the pantry.

I don't deny that some of the back-of-the-box recipes out there are God-awful, and you will never catch me doing anything that involves cream of mushroom soup or those fried onions in a can (not that there is anything wrong with that!) but every now and again you do run across what we call in our house "a keeper." This one is a keeper. So with a nod to my friends at Old El Paso...

CHICKEN ENCHILADA SOUP

Serves 6

• Two 10 oz cans cream of chicken soup
• One 10 oz can enchilada sauce
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• Shredded chicken -- as much as you like! (I like a lot)
• 1/2 cup broken Fritos

1. Mix all ingredients except Fritos in medium saucepan

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted

3. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with Fritos

4. If you want to get REALLY elegant, you can also top with chopped tomato, or avocado, or sour cream. But nothing really tops Fritos if we are being totally honest, right?

Potato Salad with Bacon and Parsley

So, I should start by saying I am not the world's biggest potato salad fan. Frankly, if I am going to spend my carbs on a side dish, I like it to involve pasta or rice or even corn. And those potato salads with sour cream and mayo -- well, they are just a little heavy for me. I don't hate 'em, they just don't make my socks drop, if you know what I mean. But every once in a while I run across a new recipe that compels me to try another potato salad recipe in the hopes of finding one that I really like. And this one...I really like! First of all, it calls for new potatoes, and Fairway had gigantic bins of these adorable red and white ones:

Second, it calls for fresh chopped parsley, and this is the time of year when my herb garden starts taking over the world. They are the Herbs That Ate Manhattan. Okay, the Herbs That Ate Northern New Jersey. Here is the parsley in its natural habitat, pre-chopping:

This used to be not such an issue when we had Wilbur. Wilbur was our guinea pig, and he didn't have a lot of personality -- he was pretty much a baked potato with fur -- but man, he loved a good plate of basil and parsley, and could always be counted on to chow it down. Wilbur broke all world records for life expectancy, but finally keeled over last winter. We miss the old guy, actually more than I thought we would. Good old Wilbur.

But I digress. Last but not least, this potato salad also includes bacon, and c'mon, who doesn't like anything that involves bacon? All of this dressed with a light mustard viniagrette, and it is ready in two shakes. The longest part of this is the 20 minutes you spend boiling the potatos -- it really couldn't be easier. So here you go, a recipe for a potato salad that I actually LIKE. (Because I know you were worrying about that).

POTATO SALAD WITH BACON AND PARSLEY

Serves 6

• 1 1/2 pounds new potatoes
• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 4 slices bacon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Put the potatoes in a pot with water to cover and one teaspoon salt and simmer until tender, 15-20 minutes. Drain and run under cold water. Cut into quarters.

2. While potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, 6-8 minutes. Drain on paper towels and crumble when cool.

3. In a large bowl, mix oil, vinegar, mustard, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss with potatoes, bacon and parsley.

Steak Bites!

So first of all, credit where credit is due: this delish recipe comes from one of my favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman. (see her link on my list to the right and visit her site, you will love it!) I ran across this one the other day and described it to my husband, the Southern steak-hound. To say he was interested in having me make it is putting it mildly; I think he would have eaten it for breakfast that day if I suggested it. But I am a civilized girl and I made him wait until dinnertime. To say this recipe is simple and easy and wonderful is a Major Understatement. In terms of ingredients, all you need is this:

and (sorry all you vegetarians out there), one of these:

some of this:

A bowl of this:

and the recipe doesn't call for it but I was starting to feel nutritionally guilty, so I also cooked up some of this on the side:

I have included the actual recipe below, but basically you are searing little chunks of excellent steak in butter for about one minute -- just enough to be seared on the outside and medium rare on the inside - and when you are done you pour the browned, steak-infused butter over the pile of steak bites. Which you then eat with torn pieces of fresh bread to sop up the butter, and a little broccoli on the side to convince yourself you are being healthy.

Once you are done with this nirvana of a dinner, your husband will have an expression on his face that looks something like this:

And he will then dance with you on the patio to a Martina McBride song and then clean up the kitchen. Life doesn't get too much better than that....

STEAK BITES

• One sirloin steak (it would also be good with filet)
• Coarse Salt
• Fresh Ground Pepper
• Butter

1. Trim off all obvious fat from steak. Cut steak into strips less than one inch wide, rotate strips and cut into one inch pieces. Continue to trim off fat and gristle.

2. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and toss the meat around to distribute seasonings.

3. Turn on your stove's ventilation fan. (Trust me on this. You will thank me later).

4. Heat a heavy skillet to medium high to high, and add two tablespoons of butter. Let the butter melt and then brown.

5. Add meat in a single layer -- as much as you can fit without crowding it. It should sizzle loudly if the pan is hot enough. Don't move it for 30-45 seconds so it can brown and sear on one side.

6. Using a spatula, flip it over and sear for another 30 seconds on the other side. You want to sear the outside without letting the inside cook too much.

7. Remove the meat to a shallow bowl and repeat with the remaining steak, adding more butter as you go.

8. When all the meat is done, pour all that browned butter left in the pan over the meat.

9. Serve with torn up bread to mop up the juices and a token green vegetable to soothe your conscience.

10. When done eating, dance to any of the following with your true love: Martina McBride, Frank Sinatra, James or Livingston Taylor or any slow Joe Cocker song. Be happy.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

I was going to give the blog a rest today, but my friend Ilene has a Situation with some over-ripe bananas, something that I absolutely relate to. It goes like this: "Mom, I really really want bananas. Can you get bananas when you go to the supermarket?" And so Mom purchases a lovely large bunch of bananas. One gets promptly eaten. The rest of them languish there on the banana hook. And as soon as they develop one infinitesimal speck of brown on them -- well, that's all she wrote. This recipe is a great one since it can be assembled from stuff I usually have on hand. I made it this afternoon out of three well-aged bananas, and believe me, this cake will NEVER languish for long. However, the bunch of bananas in our house was a large one, so I have three more to go. Send me your banana suggestions, please! In the meantime -- Ilene, this recipe is for you.

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt

3. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, egg, melted butter and milk.

4. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until just blended.

5. Stir in chocolate chips

6. Pour batter into pan and bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. (It may have some melted chocolate on it but no crumbs)

7. Vow not to listen to children who swear they will eat all the fruit you buy. Until the next time they ask.

Corn Salad with Walnuts and Feta

Yes, I know I am rushing the season a little, but I see those piles of corn on the cob at you-know-where (Fairway!) and I just lose all sense of self-control. I am a complete sucker for any recipe that involves scraping those delicious little kernels off the cob. With new corn you barely even have to cook it at all, and with almost any kind of mix-in and the tiniest bit of dressing you have an easy, scrumptious side dish that goes with just about anything you can throw on the grill. We happened to have a lovely ham steak, purchased in bulk at Don's favorite emporium (that would be Costco), which we fully intended to grill but actually quickly pan-fried, given that we we living through the 739th consecutive day of RAIN here in beautiful northern New Jersey. At least the grass is happy.

Anyway, this corn dish can be whipped up pretty much in the time it takes to cook or grill whatever you are having alongside it. Along with ham, or steak, or chicken, this would be a great side for lobster. Mmmm, lobster. Later in the summer, for sure! One word to the wise: whenever you are working with jalapeno peppers, I highly recommend putting on some sort of gloves. The best kind are surgical gloves -- you can buy them in boxes of 50 at any drugstore and I keep them in my kitchen for exactly this. Jalapenos are infused with oils/juices that gives this dish its peppery bite, but when you handle them to get the seeds out and chop them up, you will get some on your hands, and that oil is REALLY hard to completely wash off. As you might discover 2 hours after dinner when you rub your eyes -- eeee-yowch! So, rubber gloves are your friend. And on that slightly alarming note, here is the recipe for this very lovely corn salad!

CORN SALAD WITH WALNUTS AD FETA CHEESE

Serves 6

• 1 cup walnuts
• 4 ears of corn, kernels sliced off, either raw or cooked
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425. Place walnuts on baking sheet and bake until fragrant, 6-8 minutes. Cool and coarsely chop. Set aside.

2. Combine corn, jalapenos, lime juice, oil, walnuts, feta cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss lightly to combine.

Roast Beef and Cheddar Roll-Ups

There was a movie in the mid-late 80's called ABOUT LAST NIGHT. It starred Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and Jim Belushi, and it was about this group of yuppies living in Chicago. For those of you who don't remember your Brat Pack movies, here is a little refresher:

About Last Night

Anyway, besides the really terrible wardrobe they put poor Demi Moore in, the most memorable part for me was the cooking arrangements. Two nights she cooked, two nights he cooked, two nights they went out, and the seventh night was Sandwich Night! How great an idea is that? So every once in a while, we have Sandwich Night. This is a distant cousin to Breakfast for Dinner Week, which we also do every once in a while -- but that is a blog for another time.

Those of you who are my Facebook friends know that I post what I am making for dinner each night that morning, and when I posted that I was making Roast Beef and Cheddar Roll-ups, my friend Mari commented that she thought they would be good heated up with the cheese melted. Sadly for me I didn't see that post until AFTER I had already made, photographed and eaten mine, and since the recipe calls for making them cold I didn't get to try out this approach. But I think it has possibilities! I would lay out everything but the lettuce on the tortilla and nuke it for about 30 seconds and then add the lettuce and roll it. Next time! (Thanks, Mari!)

And so if you want to give Sandwich Night a try, Don and I recommend this quick little recipe listed below. Unless you are Emma Jackson, in which Sandwich Night always looks like this:

Because a girl can never get too much PB&J.

ROAST BEEF CHEDDAR ROLL-UPS

Serves 4

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 4 large flour tortillas
• Romaine lettuce leaves
• 8 ounces thinly sliced deli roast beef
• 4 ounces thinly sliced cheddar cheese

1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and horseradish. Spread evenly over each tortilla.

2. Layer the tortillas with the lettuce, roast beef and cheddar. Roll up. Serve with kettle-cooked potato chips and give a cheer for Sandwich Night. Consider watching old movies from the 80's after dinner. Anything with Molly Ringwald is a great choice.

Note: all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Golden Gazpacho

If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be soup.

Wait...maybe it would be pizza.

But soup is a close second. I have a ton of soup recipes -- beef barley in the slow cooker, tortellini soup, butternut squash soup with sage and parmesan croutons. Cauliflower and stilton cheese soup, tomato gorgonzola soup, Italian wedding soup, coconut shrimp soup. The issue with these recipes and the summertime is that they are all, well, hot. And while Don is very patient when it comes to my experimental cooking, I try not to push my luck too much. So I am pretty much on soup hiatus in the summer months, except for my precious couple of cold soup recipes. I was very happy to run across this one, which not only is a lovely COLD soup, but also can be made in (I am not kidding about this) 10 minutes or under, depending on how fast a vegetable chopper you are. Most of the time involved in this recipe is chilling the soup. It says to chill it for at least two hours...I find that 15 minutes in the freezer and another 15 in the fridge will work just fine if you are too hungry to wait. And it involves no cooking whatsover. And it is so ridiculously healthy it can probably do push-ups all on its own.

Why is it golden, you ask? Well, the recipe calls for using all yellow heirloom tomatos. Those are a little hard to come by this early in the season, but Fairway (oh Fairway! have I told you lately that I love you???) had this nice little collection that worked just as well.

Between these and the carrot juice and the yellow squash, my version did turn out reasonably golden. The recipe calls for chopped avocado on top (I did have one of those) and chopped red tomato (oops! I used them all in the recipe and forgot to save one for the garnish). I did divert from the recipe to sprinkle some chopped salted pistachios on the top of mine (after I took the picture, but trust me, I added them and they were great). You can improvise further -- I might try chopped fresh basil next time, or maybe some fresh grated parmesan. Or both. Anyway, there is nothing like a good soup to make you feel happy. Good and good for you.
Here's the recipe.

GOLDEN GAZPACHO

Serves 4

• 2 pounds yellow heirloom tomatos, cored and quartered
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium yellow squash, halved lengthwise and thickly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, cut into large chunks. (I left this out. See previous post on steak with summer squash to find out why)
• 1 thinly sliced garlic clove
• 1/2 cup carrot juice
• 2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt
• I avocado
• 1 small red tomato

1. In a blender, combine tomatos, onion, squash, pepper, garlic, carrot juice, vinegar and oil. Pulse until finely pureed. Season with salt. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 2 hours.

2. At serving time, halve, pit and dice avocado. Core and dice red tomato. Serve soup in chilled bowls topped with avocado, tomato and/or any other garnish that catches your fancy.

Note: all images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Chilled Sesame Spinach

This is my favorite recipe so far in Summer 2009. (yes all you purists, I know it is not officially summer yet. But I consider it summer as soon as you can start eating dinner outside, so there. ) Anyway, this perfect little summer recipe starts at one of my favorite places in the world:

There it is, a-gleaming in the sun.

The apples!

The lemons! The limes! The tomatoes! Okay, snap out of it. We are here for spinach. This recipe calls for 2 pounds of spinach washed and trimmed. It may be a little more expensive but I promise you that it is worth every last penny to buy baby spinach. It doesn't have all the sand in it, and there are very few stems to trim. My Fairway (yes, it is MINE!) has baby spinach in a big bin so you can scoop out as much as you need. I like a lot of spinach. Don likes a lot of spinach. Emma likes exactly no spinach. Dixie would probably eat the plastic bin they store the spinach in.

This recipe takes exactly five minutes once you have all the ingredients out, and then I pop it in the fridge while we are making whatever goes with it. This time we grilled some chicken and sliced it thin, and by time that was all done the spinach was perfectly chilled.

CHILLED SESAME SPINACH

• Coarse salt
• 2 pounds spinach, washed and stems trimmed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce
• 1/1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine (rice wine? I used white wine. tasted just fine)
• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1. Fill a large bowl with ice water, set aside.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil, season with salt. Add spinach and cook until just wilted, about 30 seconds. Drain immediately in colander and plunge into ice water.

3. Let spinach cool completely, about 30 seconds, drain again. Using your hands, squeeze excess water out of spinach. When you think you are done squeezing, do it one more time. Spinach is absorbent stuff. Transfer to cutting board.

4. Coarsely chop spinach and place in medium bowl, set aside.

5. Meanwhile, whisk together oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar and wine. (I do this while the water is boiling). Add dressing and sesame seeds to the spinach, mix to combine.

6. Spinach may be refrigerated for up to 2 days. I, however, have trouble not eating it between mixing in the sesame seeds and putting it on the plate, that's how good it is. If you love spinach, that is.

Baked Lemon Pasta

There is this website that I ran across when I was trolling around for recipes one day, and you'll have to forgive me if I gush all over the place while telling you about it. It is called The Pioneer Woman, and today's recipe comes straight from this site. The site belongs to Ree Drummond. She lives on a ranch in Oklahoma with her husband and her four kids, and how she does everything she does all day long -- well, it makes me exhausted just to READ about it. In addition to everything involved with running a ranch that looks like it has an endless number of horses, dogs, cows and visitors, she also homeschools her four kids, cooks an endless array of incredible-looking dishes, and is one amazing photographer. And...wait for it...this fall she has what will surely be a spectacular book coming out from William Morrow Cookbooks (which yes, is a division of HarperCollins!). Heaven! For me it doesn't get any better - a website that combines fantastic recipes with beautiful photography, and Ree's ongoing photography tips as well. So be sure to check out her book this fall, which you can find here:

THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS!

and visit her amazing website, which you can find here:

The Pioneer Woman

And here is her delicious recipe for Baked Lemon Pasta!

• 1 pound thin spaghetti
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Juice and zest of one lemon
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese
• Chopped parsley
• Extra lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente.

3. Melt butter with olive oil in a skillet over low heat. Add minced garlic and squeeze lemon juice into pan. Turn off heat.

4. Add sour cream and stir. Add lemon zest and salt. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir. Pour into oven-safe dish.

5. Baked, covered, for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for 7-10 minutes more. Remove from oven and squeeze more lemon juice on top. Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley. Give a final squeeze of lemon juice on top. Serve with French bread and green salad.


Be sure to visit the Pioneer Woman site for more fantastic recipes like this one. Tell her I say hello.