I was scrambling to put some dinner together. I had leftover brown rice. I had zucchini, squash and tomatoes. I decided to put it all together and see what happened. It was pretty fab!

2 tbsp olive oil

1/8 cup chopped onion

1/2 small zucchini, sliced thin

1/2 small yellow squash, sliced thin

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/4 cups cherry tomatoes

1 1/4 cups cooked brown rice

4 fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a skillet and add the onion. Cook until translucent. Add the squashes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until they begin to soften. Stir in tomatoes, basil, and rice. Cover and cook over medium for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until tomatoes break open. Sprinkle cheese on top and stir until it is incorporated and melted.

You can change this up adding some garlic or other herbs. It would also be good with goat cheese instead of Parmesan. The leftovers made a great lunch!

I was scrambling to put some dinner together. I had leftover brown rice. I had zucchini, squash and tomatoes. I decided to put it all together and see what happened. It was pretty fab! 2 tbsp olive oil 1/8 cup chopped onion 1/2 small zucchini, sliced thin 1/2 small yellow squash, sliced thin salt and … Read more →

I have to admit, I’m really liking Martha’s new cookbook, Martha’s American Food (disclosure: the publisher sent me a review copy after I asked for it – I looked at it in the library and really, really liked it). I’ve got lots of pages marked. Spicy peach-glazed chicken sounded really good, and it was grilled, which is even better on a hot summer day. I left out the cayenne when I made it since I don’t like really spicy foods, but the garlic definitely gave this plenty of zing. It was quick, simple and no marinating was required which meant it worked when I realized I needed to get something on the table in an hour.

1 cup peach jam or preserves

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper

4 skin on chicken breasts

4 ripe but firm peaches

Heat grill to medium. Mix preserves, garlic, oil, soy sauce, dry mustard, and cayenne and season with salt and pepper.

Brush grill with vegetable oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper and place skin side down on the grill. Cook about 10 minutes on each side before brushing with glaze. Cook another 10-12 minutes turning every 3-5 minutes. While chicken is cooking, place peach halves on the grill cut side down and brush with glaze and cook 2 minutes. Turn them and cook 3-4 minutes until the cavities fill with juices.

I used chicken leg quarters for this, left out the cayenne, whizzed up all the glaze ingredients in the food processor, and did not have any peaches to grill, but it was really tasty and delicious! I will definitely make this again and again.

I have to admit, I’m really liking Martha’s new cookbook, Martha’s American Food (disclosure: the publisher sent me a review copy after I asked for it – I looked at it in the library and really, really liked it). I’ve got lots of pages marked. Spicy peach-glazed chicken sounded really good, and it was grilled, which … Read more →

I must confess, I am not a big fan of squash. I try really hard to like it and make it all sorts of ways. I don’t mind zucchini in a stir fry, but I tend to find that a dish that is all squash doesn’t usually cut it for me. We got 4 small squash in our CSA bag this week – 2 yellow and 2 green. I stumbled upon this recipe for squash gratin in July/Aug Food Network Magazine and it was just what I needed! I adapted the recipe as follows:

Toss 4 thinly sliced small yellow and green squash with 1 tbsp kosher salt and let sit about 20-30 minutes. Then drain and rinse and pat dry. Chop 1/4 large onion, 1 tbsp fresh thyme and 1 tbsp fresh parsley. Add to squash with 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese and some pepper to taste.  Arrange in a baking dish and sprinkle 1/4 cup grated Swiss on top. Bake for 25 minutes at 400 or until browned and squash is cooked through.

I really enjoyed this a lot. The lemon juice gave it some brightness and the cheese, well what doesn’t cheese make better?  It didn’t taste like plain ole squash and I liked it so much I ate leftovers for lunch for two days!

I must confess, I am not a big fan of squash. I try really hard to like it and make it all sorts of ways. I don’t mind zucchini in a stir fry, but I tend to find that a dish that is all squash doesn’t usually cut it for me. We got 4 small … Read more →

We’ve often joked that my husband should be Greek, judging by how much he loves Greek food. When we eat at Greek restaurants, he always orders gyros. I prefer making my own though. It’s just about as easy as making a hamburger and I can chop up lots of healthy and tasty toppings.

I start by making tzatziki sauce:

8 ounces plain yogurt

1 small cucumber, peeled and chopped in the food processor

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

I mix this together and keep in the fridge. It lasts for days and it’s delicious as a sauce on fish, chicken and sometimes I even use it as a dressing for salad.

Then I make the gyro meat:

1 pound ground lamb

1/2 a white onion

2 cloves garlic (sometimes I substitute a handful of garlic scapes for the garlic which gives the meat a fresher, greener flavor)

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary

salt and pepper to taste

I place all of these ingredients in the food processor and chop until everything is finely and completely ground.

I prefer to form these into patties and grill until cooked through, but in the winter I sometimes form them in little logs (about hot dog sized) and bake them at 400 for about 15 minutes until cooked through.

I serve with:

pita bread

feta cheese

halved cherry tomatoes

lettuce

Sometimes I include some sliced onion or chopped cucumbers. We like to eat it all stuffed in the pita.

We’ve often joked that my husband should be Greek, judging by how much he loves Greek food. When we eat at Greek restaurants, he always orders gyros. I prefer making my own though. It’s just about as easy as making a hamburger and I can chop up lots of healthy and tasty toppings. I start … Read more →

I chose this recipe for today’s Martha Mondays. I recently spent some time with the new Martha’s American Food cookbook (disclosure: the publisher sent me a copy after I requested it). This is a really great collection of regional specialties from around the country. I have marked a lot of recipes I want to try! The  blueberry crisp was very easy to put together and turned out nicely. I served it with vanilla ice cream. I modified the recipe to include cinnamon in the filling and the topping (a pinch in the topping and about 1/2 tsp in the filling) and I also increased the amount of sugar in the blueberries by about 1/3 cup. Also, as I was typing in the recipe below, it hit me that I forgot to add in the baking powder, so the recipe works even if you forget that! I loved the bit of crunch this gets from the oats. This is the perfect summer dessert. We really enjoyed this, and my in-laws whom I served it to loved it!

A note about Martha Mondays: We’re going to take a break for a couple of weeks. I was going to suggest resuming on 8/20, but Pru is taking a blogging break for August and I thought maybe everyone would like a break during the hottest part of the summer as well.  How does getting started again on Sept 3  with a pick from Megan sound?

Blueberry Crisp

For the filling:

6 cups fresh blueberries (3 pints)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp coarse salt

 

For the topping:

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional – I did not use this)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp coarse salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Make the filling: Mix blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt. Transfer to an 8 inch square baking dish.

Make the topping: In a medium bowl stir together flour, oats, nuts, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on medium, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir flour mixture into butter. Using your hands, squeeze topping pieces together to form clumps.

Sprinkle topping evenly over filling. Bake until filling is bubbling in center and topping is golden brown, about 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool 30 minutes before serving. Serves 8.

 

I chose this recipe for today’s Martha Mondays. I recently spent some time with the new Martha’s American Food cookbook (disclosure: the publisher sent me a copy after I requested it). This is a really great collection of regional specialties from around the country. I have marked a lot of recipes I want to try! The … Read more →

My in-laws came to dinner recently and I wanted something that I could do a lot of prep for in advance and which wouldn’t be something too weird and outrageous. Grilled chicken is always a safe bet, so I dug out a recipe I saved from May 2007 Bon Appetit and tweaked it a bit. This turned out beautifully! It was flavorful and colorful and also amazing as leftovers the next day.

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

2 garlic cloves

6 garlic scapes

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 chicken breasts and 4 chicken leg quarters (substitute any parts you prefer)

2 cups jasmine rice

3 cups water

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 mango, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

Fresh cilantro for decoration

Put the cilantro, garlic, garlic scapes, cumin, paprika, salt, cayenne and oil in the food processor. Process until combined. Add the yogurt and lemon juice and pulse until combined. Reserve 1/3 cup of this mixture.

Place the chicken in a glass baking dish and cover with the mixture, turning to coat. Cover and marinate at least an hour (I left mine for about 6 hours).

Heat your grill to medium and cook the chicken until done. While this is cooking, combine the rice, water and reserved yogurt mix in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Allow to cook about 15 minutes until the liquid absorbs. Fluff with a fork and add in pine nuts and mango. Serve with chicken. Serves 6.

 

My in-laws came to dinner recently and I wanted something that I could do a lot of prep for in advance and which wouldn’t be something too weird and outrageous. Grilled chicken is always a safe bet, so I dug out a recipe I saved from May 2007 Bon Appetit and tweaked it a bit. … Read more →

Pru at Perfecting Pru chose this week’s recipe, cabinets. I had never heard of these before! They are essentially a milkshake on top of a sweetened, cooked fruit puree.syrup. Martha says they are from Rhode Island. I visited Rhode Island only once, when I was looking at Brown University (it’s probably where I would have gone had I not met my husband and decided to stay local to be with him). I didn’t have a cabinet when there. About the only thing I remember about Providence was my mom complaining that there was no place nice to stay or eat when we were there, which she found hard to believe with such a prestigious university in town.

I was intrigued at the idea of this drink I had never heard of and did some Googling. From what I read, Martha’s recipe is not really a cabinet at all. A Rhode Island cabinet is actually called a coffee cabinet. They make a drink called “coffee milk,” which is milk with coffee syrup. When you add ice cream to this to make it a milkshake, it’s a coffee cabinet. Fascinating. Now I will have to go to RI to sample one!

Anyway, I’m always excited to try something new and this was definitely new! I made the raspberry/strawberry/cherry fruit mix. I really don’t like raspberry seeds though. I am unsure how you are supposed to eat this. Spoon? Straw? Both? Some of the fruit was too big to make it up the straw. I liked it best when I mixed the fruit in completely because then it tasted like a smoothie and it wasn’t so tart (the fruit on its own just tart compared with the sweetness of the milkshake).

This was really pretty when put together and is a fun way to make a milkshake something classier or more grown up!

Pru at Perfecting Pru chose this week’s recipe, cabinets. I had never heard of these before! They are essentially a milkshake on top of a sweetened, cooked fruit puree.syrup. Martha says they are from Rhode Island. I visited Rhode Island only once, when I was looking at Brown University (it’s probably where I would have … Read more →

Thanks to Sassy Suppers for choosing bruschetta for today’s project. I cheated and used pita bread for this. I have to say I am not much of a fan of bruschetta because I always feel like it needs something else – cheese, or some other vegetables or just something. It was good, but in general I just don’t find it too exciting. I would rather slice the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and eat with some fresh mozzarella than this way I think.

This photo is a total cheat by the way. I completely forgot to take the pic, then when I remembered the grill was off so I just recreated it on an ungrilled piece.

Thanks to Sassy Suppers for choosing bruschetta for today’s project. I cheated and used pita bread for this. I have to say I am not much of a fan of bruschetta because I always feel like it needs something else – cheese, or some other vegetables or just something. It was good, but in general … Read more →

My mom recently made this amazing (and super easy) carrot dish for us at the lake. They were crunchy on the outside and roasting them brought out their inner sweetness. They were awesome and I am totally stealing the recipe:

Mix whole egg and some milk together. Dip carrots in egg mix and then roll in plain cornmeal. Drizzle with olive oil. Spray baking sheet.  Roast about 20 -30- min.  at 350.

She used whole carrots with the stems on and cut the stems down to an inch or two. I would love to find REAL baby carrots with stems on and make this as an hors d’oeuvre. I would make a fab dipping sauce to go with it I think – maybe something with bleu cheese. These were awesome as is though, as part of a meal.

My mom recently made this amazing (and super easy) carrot dish for us at the lake. They were crunchy on the outside and roasting them brought out their inner sweetness. They were awesome and I am totally stealing the recipe: Mix whole egg and some milk together. Dip carrots in egg mix and then roll … Read more →

Megan at Megan’s Cookin’ chose today’s project, Coconut Balls. These look a lot like Mexican wedding cakes (or what my family calls Russian teacakes). In full disclosure, I used gluten-free flour in mine, which explains why they didn’t hold their shape well at all. I thought they were really good though – so delicate and soft. The coconut was good in them. This is a nice alternative to Mexican wedding cakes. I’ll bet they would be good with some nuts added – maybe finely chopped macadamias.

Megan at Megan’s Cookin’ chose today’s project, Coconut Balls. These look a lot like Mexican wedding cakes (or what my family calls Russian teacakes). In full disclosure, I used gluten-free flour in mine, which explains why they didn’t hold their shape well at all. I thought they were really good though – so delicate and … Read more →