Eat Our Blog

This recipe idea came to me from Saveur magazine. The first thing that I thought was “Great! I can use up the rest of the pesto I have left in the refrigerator!” Of course, I went to smell the pesto and realized it had better days. Since I still had it in my mind to make it, I went ahead and made a small batch of walnut basil pesto.

Doesn’t pesto grilled chicken and panzanella salad scream summer to you? Fresh flavors, cooking outdoors…

That was going to be all I was planning to make that night, but as I read more blogs about a fellow blogger’s (Jennie Perillo) husband Mikey, I felt that I had to make peanut butter pie. I had never even read her blog and didn’t know her or her husband. But the story of his sudden heart attack sent shock waves through the food blog community. She blogged about his death and how she kept telling herself she was going to make him a peanut butter pie (his favorite) and didn’t get around to it. She asked everyone to make a peanut butter pie and share it with someone you love.

I have never felt inclined to make one before, but I made it…and Sophie licked the spoon many times. Mark and I ate some that night…then my brother and his girlfriend had some with us the next night.  There was more to last a few more days. So that pie spread a lot of love and calories for days! You can go here to get the recipe for the pie. Note, I used half the sugar and about 3/4 of the condensed milk and it was really sweet like that. So, maybe add little by little and taste as you go to see how much you want to add.

Pesto chicken and panzanella
adapted from Saveur

1 3- to 4-lb. chicken, cut into 6 pieces
3/4 cup pesto (i made a walnut basil pesto)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 1-lb. loaf country-style white bread, cut into 1 1/2″ slices
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for brushing
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
2 cups packed baby arugula
1/2 cup oil-cured black olives
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 small cucumber, thinly sliced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 cloves roasted garlic, mashed
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

I bought my chicken already cut up so that I didn’t have to worry about messing with that. Using your fingers, loosen skin from meat on chicken and spread 1/2 cup pesto in between skin and meat. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet and season generously with salt and pepper (on top of and under the skin); set aside.

Make the panzanella: Build a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill to medium-high. (Alternatively, arrange an oven rack 4″ from broiler element and heat broiler to high.) Brush bread slices with oil and toss tomatoes and bell pepper with 2 tbsp. oil; season all with salt and pepper. Place bread and vegetables on grill and cook, turning as needed, until bread is toasted and tomatoes begin to burst, about 5 minutes. Remove bread and tomatoes, and continue cooking bell pepper until it is charred all over, about 7 minutes more. Let pepper cool, and then peel and remove seeds; thinly slice and transfer to a large bowl along with tomatoes, arugula, olives, parsley, onion, and cucumber. Cut bread slices into 1 1/2″ cubes and add to salad.

Heat grill to 425°. Place chicken skin side down on grill and cook, covered and turning once, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165°, about 25 minutes. Rub with remaining pesto and cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165°, about 5 minutes more. (Alternatively, heat an oven to 475°, and cook chicken, skin side up, for 25 minutes; rub with remaining pesto and cook until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°.) Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil; rest for 20 minutes.

To serve, whisk together remaining oil, vinegar, roasted garlic, lemon juice, and zest in a small bowl; pour over bread salad, toss to combine, and season with salt and pepper. Transfer panzanella to a large serving platter, and place chicken over top; pour any juices that accumulated on the plate over salad.

I can’t seem to find the time to do anything outside of work and getting this new house in order. I’m learning how to maneuver around this new kitchen (with less counter space), new appliances (new to me, not “new”), etc. And now that my 19 month old daughter is running all over the place, it is twice as hard to cook AND take pictures of the process while making sure that she isn’t getting into something she shouldn’t be.

I’m embarrassed to say that I record Yo Gabba Gabba on the DVR and play them for her so that I can actually get something done. I swore she wouldn’t watch tv until she was 2 and then I broke that rule a long time ago.

This past Saturday was the first time I cooked a meal in the new kitchen. I made a delicious chicken spetzatino and some whole wheat s’mores cookies. Why not go from cooking nothing to cooking dinner AND dessert at the same time? All or nothing. That’s how I like to roll!

These cookies were really quite good. I honestly had low expectations because when I make dessert, I just go all out since I don’t make them that often. I was looking through Bon Appetit’s website and came across their ‘healthy’ section. I saw these cookies and thought, why not? I didn’t put the words “Whole Wheat” in the title because I thought that might detract most people from checking this out. But trust me, they are good. I left out the walnuts because I don’t like nuts in my cookies.

When you mix the dry and wet ingredients together, it gets really hard at the end because it seems dry. I added a little more buttermilk to help the stirring process. Next time I make these, I will mix them in the KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

Whole Wheat S’mores Cookies
adapted from Bon Appetit

3 cups whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon robust-flavored (dark) molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces)
1 cup mini marshmallows
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl. Whisk eggs, buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla extract in medium bowl; whisk in butter. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring until dough is evenly moistened. Stir in chocolate chips, marshmallows, and nuts (if using).

Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing about 3 inches apart (about 12 cookies per sheet). Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown, dry to touch, but still slightly soft, about 15 minutes. I used a medium sized ice cream scoop and made larger cookies. I used the same baking time (15 minutes) and they turned out great. Let cookies cool on sheets 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool (cookies will firm up).

June has begun and we have been so wrapped up in trying to sell/rent our townhouse and buy a new house. It’s been hard enough to find the time to cook, much less photograph and write about it.

This is a dish we recently made and it was too delicious to keep it to myself. The mushrooms in this ragu give the dish such a heartiness that you don’t miss the meat at all. The polenta gives it an extra lusciousness without making it too heavy. This will appeal to vegetarians and “meatarians” alike!

The polenta is fairly simple and straight-forward.

Polenta

1 cup instant/quick cooking polenta
4 cups vegetable/chicken broth
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

Mushroom Ragu
adapted from Giada de Laurentiis, Food Network

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound mixed mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake) chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Marsala
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4-1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 to 3/4 cup grated Parmesan

For the ragu, in a large skillet heat the oil. When almost smoking, add the onions and garlic over medium-low heat until the onions have wilted, about 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Raise heat to high and saute until mushrooms are tender and all the liquid has evaporated. Remove pan from heat and pour in Marsala. Return pan to stove and allow wine to evaporate, about 3 minutes. Add chicken broth and simmer for 1/2 hour until the sauce has reduced by half. Add heavy cream and mix well. Take the pan off the heat and add the fresh herbs and Parmesan and mix thoroughly.

For polenta, pour 1 tablespoon olive oil in a serving bowl and then set aside. Then bring the chicken stock to a bowl. Once it boils, lower the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the polenta. Continue to stir until the polenta starts to pull away from the sides (maybe 5 minutes). Then pour into serving bowl and let stand for 5-10 minutes.

Once the ragu is done, pour over the polenta and serve.

Wow, it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything! Unbelievable how last month flew by. Between getting our house ready to put on the market and taking a trip to Europe, we were lucky to cook dinner…much less try to take pictures and blog about it.

The next blog I post will be a little synopsis of the AMAZING food we had while in Paris. Hoping to get that up in the next few days. In the meantime, happy mother’s day to all of the amazing moms out there!

I seem to be on this pesto kick lately….trying to think of ways to use it so that recipes don’t become redundant. This might be one of the more obvious choices for pesto, seeing that it is used with pasta (whole wheat spaghetti in this case). But with a few extra touches, you can bring it to a whole new level.

The combination of textures here make this such a delicious dish, using ingredients you can find at your local farmers market or at the grocery store. During a recent trip to the farmer’s market I saw some really delicate looking broccolini. Although, even though the stalks were thin, I still have to trim a good amount off because it was too chewy once roasted. Tomatoes aren’t in season yet so I had to get those from the grocery store. Regardless, roasting tomatoes brings out such a nice flavor from them – so it doesn’t matter as much that they are not in season.

For the pesto, I like to use the arugula/spinach mix by Organic Girl, but if you can’t find that, just use arugula by itself. If you make this pesto (or any pesto), please use good quality parmesano reggiano and not the powdered kind. It makes all the difference in the world.

1 pound broccolini, stalks trimmed
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, divided
5 cups arugula spinach mix (by Organic Girl)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons
Pinch crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400F. While oven is heating, put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Once boiling, salt the water well (2 tablespoons or so), add pasta, and cook until al dente. Reserve a cup of pasta water for later.

Place broccolini and tomatoes on a sheet pan and put about 2 tablespoons olive oil, couple of pinches of salt, pinch of crushed red pepper, and a few grinds of pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes. Check on broccolini after 15 minutes as it may cook before the tomatoes are roasted. If so, remove broccolini and continue to roast tomatoes until the skins just burst.

While the veggies are roasting, go ahead and make the pesto. (Note: You can make the pesto up to a few days in advance if you’d like. If you do, just pour a little olive oil on top once you have put it into a secure container. This will make it keep better. Make sure to refrigerate until you use it.)

Place arugula, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper in a food processor and blend until it looks like a paste. Add parmesan cheese and blend. While blending, pour olive  oil in until it is the consistency that you prefer. You may use more/less olive oil than what I suggested, depending on how you like your pesto. Be sure to taste and add salt if needed.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain and place back into pot. Add 1/2 of the pesto and continue to add until you have as much as you like in there. If the pesto seems dry, add in about 1/4 cup of pasta water at a time until it’s the consistency that you like.

To make the breadcrumb topping, place 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a small pan, once heated, add the garlic and cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic. Then add the breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt, and stir together. Continue to stir and cook until the breadcrumbs are nicely toasted. Set aside.

To serve, put some pasta into a bowl or plate. Add some broccolini and a couple of cherry tomatoes on the side, and top with some of the breadcrumb mixture.

Ahh, the dreariness of the recent weather here at home is enough to put anyone to sleep. It’s so hard to feel motivated enough even to make dinner when it’s like that. It makes me just want to curl up on the couch and have someone bring me something good to eat. Luckily, I had some cooked lentils leftover from another dish we had made recently so I decided to make a soup.

I thought roasted root vegetables would go nicely with this, as more of a “garnish” than something you would cook into the soup itself. I planned in advance to use the roasted vegetables, but adding the goat cheese was a last minute decision. It gives it a nice tang to counter the earthy flavors. This is a really warm and comforting soup.

2 cups cooked green/french lentils
3 cups chicken/vegetable broth
1/2 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1 bay leaf
2-3 sprigs thyme
salt
pepper
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large sweet potato, chopped into cubes
3 parsnips, chopped into cubes
1/2 butternut/acorn/kabocha squash, chopped into cubes
Goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 425F.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium dutch oven (or heavy bottom pot) on medium/high heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots, and a pinch of salt and sautee until tender (5-7 minutes). Add garlic and sautee for another 2 minutes. Add lentils, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, cumin, coriander, 1/2 tsp salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Stir together and then add in broth. Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes to let all of the flavors incorporate. Once the soup is done, remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Then squeeze about 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice in. Add a little more if you feel that it needs more. The lemon juice really brings some life to the soup. Taste and add more salt/pepper if needed. (it depends on how much sodium is in your broth)

Meanwhile, toss the squash, sweet potato, and parsnips with 2 tablespoons olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in oven for about 20-30 minutes until golden and fully cooked. Toss the vegetables around halfway through the cooking process.

Ladel into bowls, place about 2 tablespoons of the roasted vegetables in the middle and top with a little bit of crumbled goat cheese.

Yesterday we went to the farmer’s market hoping for some interesting options. I couldn’t find some things that I wanted but did leave with a few things that I hadn’t planned on getting. After that and a trip to Earthfare, we headed home. For dinner, I made a dish that now ranks as one of my favorites ever. I got the idea from Cannelle et Vanille but adapted it due to what I had available locally. I would never think to combine a pesto with roasted beets but it worked really well. It was filling thanks to the meatiness of the salmon and starchiness of the potatoes.

With such a healthy dinner, we had to end the evening with a chocolatey, gooey dessert. I also got this recipe from Cannelle et Vanille but slightly adapted it as well. I try not to give Sophie many sweets but the happiness on her face from taking bites of a freshly baked triple chocolate cookie was priceless.

Salmon Salad with Roasted Beets and Potatoes
adapted from Cannelle et Vanille

The original recipe calls for peppergrass and sorrel for both the pesto and the salad greens. Because I couldn’t find them at the farmers market I improvised. I already love pesto made from the combo of arugula and spinach, so I added parsley to give it more of an herbaceous flavor. Also, she poached her salmon. I didn’t have enough olive oil for poaching so we grilled the salmon, which I think worked out really well. It gave it that nice grilled flavor which is great in contrast to the pesto. I used Earthbound Farms Fresh Herb Salad blend as my base because I knew it would provide a good balance of fresh herbs and lettuces with the salmon.

Spinach, Arugula, and Parsley Pesto

1 cup mixed spinach and arugula (I get this already mixed from the Organic Girl brand)
1/4 cup parsley
1 garlic clove
2 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil

Salad ingredients

3 small red beets
3 small golden beets
6-8 small white/golden potatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound fresh salmon with skin, cut in half
olive oil
salt and pepper
Mixed greens or herb blend
lemon juice

In a food processor, blend spinach, arugula, parsley, garlic, pine nuts and salt. Once it’s become paste-like, add the cheese and blend. While it is blending, slowly add the olive oil through the top until you get the consistency that you like. I don’t like mine too runny so I probably only added 1/4 cup olive oil. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Trim and peel the beets and cut in half. Peel the potatoes and cut in half. Place on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes in the oven until cooked (but don’t overcook these as you don’t want them mushy). The beets will have a slight “bite” to them which is good. Once cooked, mixed with some of the pesto in a bowl.

While the vegetables are roasting in the oven, heat a grill or grill pan. Rub olive oil, salt, and pepper on the salmon and grill (skin side down) for 12 minutes or so depending on thickness. Do not flip over.

Take your mixed herb blend and place it on a platter. Squeeze about a half a lemon on it and sprinkle a little salt. Mix together. Spread roasted vegetables on top. Flake the salmon into big chunks (discarding the skin) and place onto the salad. I guarantee this will become one of your favorites as well. If you don’t like salmon, try it with shrimp or chicken…or leave out the protein altogether.

Triple Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Cannelle et Vanille

These cookies are really chocolately and rich. You need quite of an assortment of chocolate for this and very little flour (surprisingly). I changed up the types of chocolates to come up with what I have below, which led me to alter the sugar levels as well (mostly because I couldn’t find unsweetened chocolate). Her recipe was in grams, so I left it that way to keep it more exact. Grams are easy if you have a food scale. If you don’t have one, you should get one. They are not expensive and come in really handy with cooking.

2 eggs
140 grams sugar
100 grams semisweet chocolate (bar or chips are find)
113 grams bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli bar recommended)
80 grams butter
40 grams flour
1 gram baking powder (a little less than 1/4 tsp)
2 grams salt (a little less than 1/2 tsp)
55 grams milk chocolate chips
110 grams dark chocolate chips

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the eggs and sugar. In the meantime, melt the semisweet and bittersweet chocolates and the butter over a double boiler. When the chocolate has melted, add it to the eggs and mix until combined. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix to combine. Then fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula or wooden spoon.

The batter will be really liquidy and very hard to scoop. You can let it rest in the bowl for around an hour so that it hardens enough to scoop it. I put it in the fridge for the last 15 minutes to help it along. Use an ice cream scoop and scoop out balls onto a sheetpan lined with parchment or a silicon mat. I used a regular ice cream scoop, so I yielded about 9 large cookies. You could also use a small scoop to get smaller cookies.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 12-14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies have set. (if you make smaller cookies they will probably be done in 10-12 minutes). They will be really soft in the middle until they cool off. Once done, let cool on the cookie sheet and then move to cooling racks.

The original recipe called for using the cookies to make ice cream sandwiches. She made her own chocolate mint ice cream, but I just got some vanilla gelato (though I bet chocolate mint would be really good too). After the cookies are totally cooled, scoop out some ice cream and press it down a little. Then top it with another cookie and press down a little on that (careful not to break the cookie).

This dish appealed to me because it sounded like Spring. I got the recipe from cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com. It was definitely delicious, but I realize now that I put twice as much mascarpone as I was supposed to so it was a little heavier than I expected. I had doubled this recipe to have extra and did the oz. to cups conversion wrong on that part. Oh well. This was the first time I had “buckwheat groats” and the consistency was really great. The final product kind of felt a little like a risotto.

I constantly struggle to find great watercress at the grocery stores, so I ended up with about half the amount I needed because I had to weed through the bunch to find good pieces.

Creamy Buckwheat with Peas, Fennel and Watercress

Serves 4

3 cups of water
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1 shallot, thinly diced
1/2 medium fennel bulb, diced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 cup watercress
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
chicken stock, optional

Bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the buckwheat. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes. Drain.

In the meantime, in a separate saucepan, heat the olive oil. Sweat the shallots and the fennel until tender.

Add the cooked buckwheat, peas, mascarpone, parmesan, lemon zest, watercress, salt and pepper. If you feel it’s too dry, add a little bit of chicken stock to lighten it. Serve immediately.

This weekend was such beautiful weather…until Sunday, which was pretty overcast. It proved to be a great day to stay in and do a lot of cooking.

The day began with fresh baked apple muffins. I saw the recipe on smittenkitchen.com when I was searching for a “healthier” muffin recipe. This did not disappoint. Initially I thought there would be too many apples and not enough muffin, but when you take your first bite it just all works together so well. The apple cooks enough that it is tender, yet not mushy. This was also another hit with Sophie, which makes me so happy. Sometimes I feel like she is my biggest critic. Loves something one minute, and LITERALLY hates it 3 minutes later. So when she eats it from start to finish, I feel victorious!

We attempted to go to the farmer’s market to get some local, organic vegetables, but when we arrived we found very few vendors. I guess it’s not quite the season for all of the farmers to come out. So, we took our chances at Earthfare. One thing I desperately wanted was watermelon radishes. I saw a very simple salad recipe on Cannelle et Vanille’s website and desperately wanted that for lunch. But the only radishes I found were the regular ones so I gave up that dream for now.  I don’t know even know if I’ll be able to find those around here anyway. We’ll see once Spring comes! Another hope was to find fresh peas, but no luck there either.

So, lunch was an interesting, yet delicious mix of treats. I made a quinoa salad with goat cheese and grilled asparagus. This is something I have made up along the way and is one of my favorites now. Mark made a white bean “mash” with truffle oil on toasted whole grain bread.  Really satisfying and flavorful.

You’d think after all the cooking at baking in the early part of the day that we would simplify dinner…no, not us! Mark wanted us to try to go vegetarian until we go to Paris and London next month. So he bought this great modern vegetarian cookbook where he got the white bean mash recipe out of…and this is where he also found our dinner idea…more on that soon…

For the recipes of the muffins and quinoa, see below.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
From smittenkitchen.com…who adapted it from King Arthur Flour

Note: I used 1 granny smith and 1 pink lady apple to get the combo of tarte and sweet, but you can use all granny smith, yellow, pink lady…or any other you like. Also, I didn’t have buttermilk so I used yogurt.

Yield: They said 12, I got 18

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese and Grilled Asparagus

1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 bunch asparagus
2 oz goat cheese
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Toast quinoa in a heavy bottom pot for 1-2 minutes. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low-medium, and cook for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, trim the asparagus and then toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Grill either on outside grill or inside on a grill pan for about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the asparagus). Don’t overcook it, it should still have a slight bite to it. Once done, cut into bite-sized pieces and place in a large glass/ceramic bowl.

Once the quinoa is finished, let it cool slightly and then add to the bowl with the asparagus. Add in lemon juice. Then add olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and mix. Now crumble in the goat cheese, add the parsley, mix together, and enjoy!

This will make about 4 servings. It’s really good cold, out of the fridge the next day.

I recently came across a recipe for cheddar cheese goldfish crackers on one my favorite food blogs (smittenkitchen.com). Now that I have a one-year, healthy recipes for kids are constantly on my mind. I love the idea of a healthy snack that I can make and will last for almost a week.

The recipe is SO easy and everyone will love them – adults and kids. Probably the only semi-time consuming thing is cutting them out and putting their “faces on”.

I used a skewer for the eyes and a 1/4 tsp. metal measuring spoon for the mouth. It’s hard to find something that will give it that curve. I used a little less than 1/4 tsp salt and I felt like it was ever so slightly salty (the cheese had plenty of salt), so I will go with 1/8 tsp next time.

Also, I got the fish cutter here.

And here is smitten kitchen recipe….

6 ounces (1 1/2 cups coarsely grated) sharp cheddar, orange if you can find one you like
4 tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) butter
1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 62 grams) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (1 1/8 ounces or 31 grams) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, running the machine until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.

If the dough feels warm or worrisome-ly soft, wrap it in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. This also makes it easier to transfer shapes once they are rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/8-inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased (though mine were parchment-lined, because they are in despicable shape) cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch between them. Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.

Hope you enjoy them as much as Sophie did!

These posts have gotten a little harder to do lately, as we are about to put our house on the market. Unfortunately this has left little time to explore new recipes and/or share with you what we have been cooking/eating.

Friday night was a good night to grill so we decided to do turkey burgers. I have this very simple, very delicious way that I make my turkey burgers so I figured I needed to share it. I do not really measure for this. It’s more like “a little dash of this” and “a few pinches of that”. But honestly, it is really hard to mess this up so don’t stress about exact measurements.

Also, I have gone back and forth between using only ground dark meat turkey, turkey breast, and even mixing them. This weekend what I already had was ground turkey breast. It was so delicious, probably one of the best turkey burgers I have made to date so I am now going to stick with the turkey breast. If you do it right, it is really moist and juicy. But if you use dark meat it will still be delish.

Again, please excuse the approximations here. I was too tired to measure for the purpose of the blog. Next time I make these I will measure and update it here.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey breast

1/4 cup of minced yellow onion

1 teaspoon of kosher salt (if you use fine table salt then use less)

A good few dashes of Worcestershire sauce (probably equals a tablespoon or so)

A few shakes of garlic powder

Few grinds of fresh black pepper

Olive oil for brushing on burger

4 Hamburger Buns

Cheddar Cheese (or whichever cheese you prefer)

Toppings (lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, ketchup, etc)

Directions:

Place turkey, onions, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder in a bowl and mix together. Divide into 4 portions and shape into 4 burgers. Use your thumb to press a small divet in the top of each burger. Brush both sides of the burgers with olive oil.

Grill for approx 6 minutes on each side. If you are adding cheese, make sure to do this a few minutes before the burger is done so that you allow time for it to melt. Once it’s done, place it on the bun and add your favorite burger toppings!

I found this recipe in a Bon Appetit magazine and it has become one of my favorites. It takes only about 30 minutes total to prep and cook. Braising the kale for 20 minutes removes any bitterness and leaves this luscious flavor. The garlic has such an amazingly sweet flavor after braising with the kale for that long. It’s amazing how much it develops after cooking it for that long. The recipe says this feed four as a first course. Mark and I just make it for our dinner and we finish the entire thing easily!

I use Lacinto Kale (which is also called Dinosaur Kale). It’s pretty easy to find, but if you can’t find it I assume regular curly kale would be fine. Though use Lacinto if you have the choice. It doesn’t seem as bitter to me. And the best part, it’s so good for you. Kale is high in antioxidants, omega-3s and cancer prevention nutrients.

Sometimes we make only the kale and leave the pasta out in order to serve it as a side with fish, chicken, or meat. Last night we made this with the pasta. Believe me, you will have a newfound love for kale after you have this!

Spaghetti with Braised Kale
Taken from Bon Appetit Magazine

Ingredients

Directions

Rinse kale. Drain; transfer to bowl with some water still clinging.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Add sliced garlic and sprinkle with salt; cook until onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add kale and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss until wilted, about 3 minutes. Cover pot and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until kale is very tender, stirring occasionally and adding water by teaspoonfuls if dry, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in medium pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Add cooked spaghetti to kale mixture in pot. Add lemon juice and 2 tablespoons reserved cooking liquid; toss to combine, adding more liquid by tablespoonfuls if dry. Sprinkle spaghetti with grated Parmesan cheese and serve.