Simple Summertime Snack Time

It's happened!  The time I never thought was coming has finally arrived!  I've spent the last few weeks preparing for it, hoping and praying it would arrive soon, thinking with each passing day of monsoon that it was all for naught, but it's here!  Like a child waits for Christmas morning with eager anticipation, I waited for summertime to come, and it finally has.  On Memorial Day weekend no less! Sunny, 85 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  Sounds like the perfect day to me for sitting on the patio with a bucket of beers and a delicious snack.

Shaun and I had the beer under control (its a rare day when there isn't at least a 12 pack of something cold in the fridge).  The snack, however, was all me.  I wanted something that wouldn't take long to prep and would be nice and cool and delicious.  I've always loved guacamole, but I wanted to make it a little more summery.  So, I made a slight twist to the avocado and tomato guacamole that most people are used to.  Instead, we're having Strawberry-Avocado Salsa with Cinnamon-Sugar Pita Chips.

Strawberry-Avocado Salsa with Cinnamon Pita Chips
(Make the chips in advance, cool completely, and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.)

• 2 tsp. canola oil
• 8 Pita pockets
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped peeled ripe avocado (about 2)
• 1 cup finely chopped strawberries
• 2 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp. minced seeded jalapeno pepper
• 2 tsp. fresh lime juice
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

To prepare the chips,brush the oil evenly over one side of each round pita chips.  Combine sugar and cinnamon ins a small bowl, sprinkle evenly over oil-coated sides of pitas.  Cut each pita into six wedges and arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until crisp.

Combine the avocado, strawberries, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and salt in a small bowl.  Stir gently to combine.  Serve with chips.





Now you have great little summertime snack that takes next to no time to make, especially if you make a large batch of chips ahead of time and store them for a up to a week.  This was the summer treat I was eagerly awaiting, served up perfectly on the patio with a nice cold summery beer.  I suggest you do the same!

 

Breakfast? Dessert? Bread So Good You Can Eat It Twice!

The other day, a loyal reader my little blog here asked me if "all I can do is cook?"  I inquired a little further as to the meaning of the question, just to decipher how insulted I should be by the question.  "Well, you only ever make 'dinner' type things... You never bake or make breakfast or dessert."  Clearly this is a friend who never sampled one of my cupcakes during my baking phase a year or two ago.

Regardless, I decided I needed to prove this friend wrong. But how?  Do I make breakfast?  I've got a great recipe for Maple Pecan Scones or Cheesecake Pancakes.  No... I'm not much of a breakfast person, myself, but I know other people are.  I have to really be in the mood for it.  Do I bake cupcakes or a cake of some sort for dessert?  Maybe.  Then it dawned on me.  Why not make a bread that could be eaten on its own with a little butter or cream cheese for breakfast, or dressed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dab of whipped cream for dessert?  It pleases everyone with a sweet tooth, no matter what time of day!  I settled on a quick and easy Apple Cranberry Bread with Lemon Glaze.

Apple Cranberry Bread with Lemon Glaze

• 1 cup of shredded Apple, squeezed dry (about 2 large apples)
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cooled melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon zest (optional)
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or orange juice
• 1 tsp lemon or orange zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  (Personally, I love my silicone bakeware, but the shape does always end up a little more flat and wide than tall with them, so if you prefer a traditional loaf shape, stick with glass.)  

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl until well combined.  Add in the rolled oats and dried cranberries and mix well.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted cooled butter, sour cream, vanilla extract and option lemon zest.  Stir in the grated apple which has been squeezed dry into the egg mixture.  It's ok if this starts to brown a little, but don't grate the apple too far in advance or you will have brown apples.  Fold the egg mixture into the dry mixture until just combined.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 30 minutes.  Then, turn the bread out onto the rack to cool completely.

Once the bread has cooled completely, prepare you glaze by whisking together in a medium bowl the confectioners' sugar, milk, lemon or orange juice and lemon or orange zest.  Place the wire rack with the bread on it on a baking sheet or wax paper and pour the glaze over the top, making sure to cover the top of the bread, letting the excess drip down the sides.  Let the glaze set for 20-25 minutes, or until firm.

For serving, I placed the bread on a small white platter, cut the first 1/4 of the bread into thin (1/2 inch) slices and leaned them up against the remainder of the bread, then sprinkled the plate with some extra dried cranberries.  This is an ideal serving method for breakfast, allowing people to take a slice and place their own spread of butter, cream cheese marmalade or jam on top.

For a dessert plating, which is what I served this bread as at home, I placed a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a shallow soup bowl, leaned a thicker (3/4 - 1 inch) slice against the scoop of ice cream and then put a dollop of whipped cream in the center on top of the bread and ice cream.  I then sprinkled a few dried cranberries on top and around the edge of the bowl for garnish.

All-in-all, this is a simple breakfast or dessert to make a day ahead of time and then you have it on hand for the next few days, as it keeps well.  After Shaun and I sampled for dessert, I brought the remainder into work the following morning to share with coworkers for breakfast.  Needless to say, my friend had a piece and hasn't asked me if I can do anything other than cook since.  Happy baking!

Asian Pork With Noodles Soup - Just Another Reason to Use Chopsticks!

Sundays are usually errand and cleaning day around my condo, so by the time dinner becomes a thought for Shaun and I, most people have already eaten, cleaned up and are well onto dessert or a nice Sunday evening movie on the couch.  No, not in my house.  While most people I know enjoy a relatively early family meal around 4 or 5pm, we're usually just getting home from the mall or the market. 

A few Sunday's ago, I was determined to make a conscious effort to change this.  Don't get me wrong, we still had a bunch of errands to run, a storage area to clean out and a condo to clean, but things were going to be different that day.  I decided early on to do a slow-cooker dinner so I wouldn't have to tend to it all that much.  I was so confident this would work out right, that I told Shaun he could even invite our friend Matt over for dinner... a rarity on a Sunday. 

That all being said, I am normally not a fan of slow-cookers.  The only thing I find them useful for is soups and stews, as most other things always come out tasting the same to me.  So, a soup it was going to be.  I had long been eying a new recipe for an Asian slow-cooker soup and decided this was the day to try it.  I made a plan Saturday evening to get up, go to the market on Sunday morning around 9am, get everything I needed, come home, get it going so it could cook for 8 hours and do all my chores as the soup simmered away. 

Well, 11am rolled around and I was just leaving for the market.  After getting a great piece of fresh pork butt cut for me by my awesome butcher at Dave's, I was ready to get home and get cracking on my Slow-Cooker Asian Pork with Noodle Soup.

Slow-Cooker Asian Pork with Noodles Soup

• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or dry cooking sherry
• 3 tbsp packed light brown sugar
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 2 pieces star anise (admittedly, this can be hard to find outside of an Asian market.  Substitute 1 tsp. Chinese 5-Spice powder in, which can be found in the spice section of most markets)
• Salt
• 3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt
• 1 head bok choy, roughly chopped
• 4 oz dried rice noodles
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, star anise or Chinese 5-Spice and 1/2 tsp salt in a 5-6 quart slow cooker and stir to combine.  Add the pork, then cover and cook on low for 8 hours.


After 8 hours, add the bok choy to the slow cooker; cover and cook about 20 more minutes.


Add the rice noodles to the slow cooker, making sure they are completely submerged.  Cover and cook 10 more minutes.
 

Remove the pork from the slow cooker using 2 large spoons or spatulas, as the meat will be very tender and will fall apart at even the most gentle touch.  Place the meat on a large cutting board or plate and shred.  Divide the shredded pork and bok choy amongst 4 bowls and ladle the broth evenly into the bowls.  Sprinkle with the cilantro.

Serve this soup in an oversize large bowl big enough to hold a hearty helping of the pork and a ladle or two of the savory broth.

So there you have it.  Even if we didn't eat early like I planned, we ate good!  The soup was a hit with Shaun and our friend Matt who graciously volunteered to come over for dinner anytime we would have him.  There's always next Sunday for another attempt at eating before 10pm.  For now, I'll just say we prefer the European dinner schedule! 

Baked Pasta Pleases Everyone

This past weekend, Shaun invited a friend of ours over for dinner and volunteered me to cook, as he so often has recently.  I think he's finally realizing that those who were once his friends are now coming over for my cooking and less for his company.  That being the case, I of course snatched the phone away from him when he was making these plans to do a little reconnaissance work on what our guest wanted for dinner.  Being met with a response of "I don't know... anything," followed immediately by a list of items that were off limits (all of which were things you would never find being made in my kitchen anyways), I offered up some things.  I had already made steak the last time she was over for dinner, so I ruled out red meat.  "Chicken of some sort?  Pork?  Perhaps a particular fish?  Pasta?"  "Ooooh... oooh.  Pasta.  Yes. Pasta!"  Done.  We hung up and I had a dinner plan.  Or did I?

There are so many things one can do with pasta.  Small pasta, large pasta, stuffed pasta, baked pasta.  Red sauce, cream sauce, wine sauce, cheese sauce.  After ending my internal monologue of sounding like an Italian chef's personal Dr. Seuss book, I settled on doing more than just heating sauce and perhaps a meat or veggie to toss into a plain old marinara sauce.  Thus, I decided to a slightly more enriched pasta bake filled with ooey-gooey cheese and meat and veggies with a homemade creamy tomato sauce.  I couldn't just put baked pasta on the table though, so I decided to do a little roasted tomato appetizer and some garlic bread.  I was looking for a reason to try Ina Garten's pesto recipe, and it just fit so perfectly here.  So there we had it.  A nice dinner of Tomatoes Roasted with Pesto and Baked Pasta with Sausage, Eggplant, Fennel and Spinach with Tomato Cream Sauce.

Tomatoes Roasted With Pesto

• 2-2 1/2 pounds large red tomatoes
• 3 tbsp. good olive oil
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• Pinch of Salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup pesto, store bought or homemade (see Ina Garten's recipe below)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Homemade Pesto Sauce

• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 3 tbsp. diced garlic (about 9 cloves)
• 5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups good olive oil
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Baked Pasta and Homemade Sauce

• 1 lb of Large Shells
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• Pinch of Red Pepper flakes
• 28 oz. can of plum tomatoes
• 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs basil
• 1 cup hot Italian Sausage, cooked and crumbled
• 1 cup eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and sauteed until soft
• 1 cup fennel, thinly sliced and sauteed
• 1 cup fresh ricotta
• 3 cups fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 cup grated Pecorino cheese, grated

First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; cook the shells until very al dente, about 2-3 minutes less than the label directs; drain.

For the tomatoes, core them and then slice them across (not through the stem) in 1/2 inch-thick slices.  Arrange the slices in a single layer on a sheet pan.  Drizzle the tomatoes with the 3 tbsp of good olive oil and sprinkle with the oregano, 1 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper. (Oregano is one of the few herbs where I prefer to use dried over fresh, as the flavor is actually better).  Set aside until ready for baking when the pasta is resting.


To begin the sauce, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the 4 sliced cloves of garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes and cook until the garlic is golden.  Add the 28 oz. can of plum tomatoes to the skillet and crush them.  Once crushed, add the diced tomatoes.  Rinse each can out with 1/2 cup water and add the skillet.  Add 4 large basil sprigs; simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes.  Discard the basil; season with salt.  (Alternatively, if you're short on time, you could use 4 cups of prepared tomato sauce).

While the sauce is simmering, cook the hot Italian sausage, eggplant and fennel in the other 2 tbsp of olive oil.  Stir in the 1 cup ricotta cheese into your sauce, then add your cooked sausage, eggplant and fennel.  


Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella and 1/2 cup of the Pecorino cheese.  Spread into an oiled 3-4 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Pecorino over the top.  Bake, uncovered, until browned, about 15 minutes.  Let rest 15-20 minutes before serving.

While the baked pasta is resting, bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes.  Remove them from the oven, spread each slice with pesto, and sprinkle with the Parmesan.  Return the tomatoes to the oven and continue baking for 7 to 10 minutes, until the Parmesan is melted and begins to brown.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with extra salt to taste.


For plating, I served the tomatoes first on a small salad plate, although in hindsight, I probably would have served the tomatoes with the pasta and garlic bread.  Regardless, place a decent sized scoop of the pasta bake in the corner of the plate and lean a piece of the garlic toast against it, and sprinkle some fresh shredded parsley for garnish.  Enjoy!