Roasted Garlic Peppercorn Sauce

Next time I make this, I'll either use cream or whole milk, skim milk didn't quite cut it. I also added grated mizithra cheese. I served it over lobster ravioli from Trader Joe's, with chicken breaded in matzoh meal, parsley, pepper, and paprika, and roasted green beans and onions.

I got the recipe for the sauce from allrecipes.com

• 1 whole head garlic
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground mixed peppercorns
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Slice off the top third of the head of garlic so the tips of the cloves are exposed. Place in a small baking dish, and add just enough water to cover the bottom of the dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the top of the garlic, then cover with a lid or foil. Bake for 45 minutes.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Mix together the flour and milk so there are no lumps, and pour into the pan with the butter. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skin, and mash. Stir garlic into the sauce, and season with salt, peppercorns, and nutmeg.

Chicken with Lemon Rice

This was good, but could have used a little extra something-maybe broccoli? Good comfort food for a cold night.

16 med. green onions

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 lbs uncooked chicken breast, cut in 3 x 1/4” strips

3 cups cooked rice

2 tbsp grated lemon peel

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp capers, rinsed

1/4 tsp pepper

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Heat onions, garlic, and broth to boiling in 12 inch skillet. Boil 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender. Reduce heat to med, stir in chicken. Cook 3 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients except parsley. Cook 3 minutes until rice is hot and chicken is cooked. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley.

Serves 6

Peach Crisp

This was a super easy one! We had bought some peaches at the farmer's market, but they were a little tart, so I decided to make them into a crisp, and it was SOO good!! I got this recipe from About.com

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds fresh peaches, peeled, pitted
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup soft butter

Preparation:

Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Preheat oven to 375°.
Slice peeled, pitted peaches into the prepared baking dish. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over peaches in baking dish. Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes, until topping is golden brown and peaches are tender. Serve peach crisp warm with cream or whipped topping.

*I made this the next week with cherries instead of peaches, and that was good too!

Tuna Steaks with Lemon Caper Sauce

I got this recipe from foodandwine.com when Eric wanted fish for dinner and I was craving capers. We had all the ingredients in the house and it went together so quickly!

INGREDIENTS
. 3 tablespoons drained capers
. 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
. 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley-we had dried parsley, so I just mixed it all together to let the leaves soak up the moisture for about 10 minutes and it turned out fine.
. 3/4 teaspoon salt
. 1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
. 8 tablespoons olive oil
. 4 tuna steaks, about 3/4 inch thick (about 2 pounds in all)
DIRECTIONS
. Light the grill or heat the broiler. In a small glass or stainless-steel bowl, mash the capers with a fork. Stir in the lemon juice, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper and then 6 tablespoons of the oil.
. Coat the tuna with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Grill or broil the tuna for 4 minutes. Turn and cook until done to your taste, 3 to 4 minutes longer for medium rare. Serve the tuna topped with the sauce.


This was so yummy, and so easy, we're definitely doing this again. The article notes that it would go well with any fish, and I agree! I think I'll try it with salmon next.

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin muffins are usually a fall thing, but when Eric told me last night that his office was having a potluck today and he volunteered to bring muffins, it didn't leave us with many options. The recipe calls for pumpkin pie spice, but I was afraid that would make it taste too Thanksgivingy, so I did vanilla instead. The recipe called for 1 cup of pumpkin puree, but the blog I got it from said they accidentally used the whole can and it was fine, so that's what we did.

I got it from http://muffintop.wordpress.com/, who got the recipe from Gourmet magazine.

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 15oz can solid-pack pumpkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla
1.25 cups plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Equipment: 12 foil or paper muffin liners; a muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups

DIRECTIONS:
Put oven rack in middle positiona nd preheat oven toe 350F. Put liners in muffin cups.
Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, 1.25 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.
Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.
Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full).
Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

*We made mini muffins and baked them for 14 minutes.

I love pumpkin muffins, and they weren't too Thanksgivingy at all. They were moist and pumpkiny and not too sweet. I think we may have to make a batch for ourselves now! Mini chocolate chips might not hurt it either...

Curry lime fish

This one I totally made up so I don't really have measurements but it was really good! We had pollock, but it would work with any fish.

Fish fillets 

Curry powder

Lime juice

Jarred minced roasted garlic

Red pepper flakes (I thought this made it wayyy too spicy but Eric loved it)

Dried parsley

Paprika (I don't know if this did anything, I was just feeling creative) 

Pepper 

Mix equal parts curry powder and lime juice, and just a scoop of everything else. Mix well and spread over fish. Broil fish until done. With the pollock I think the package said 10 minutes.

While the fish cooked, I cooked onions, zucchini and yellow summer squash until tender, then poured in a can of diced tomatoes , a few shakes of dried pepper, and lots of ground pepper. An adaption from a dish we've had at Eric's parents' :)

I also served it with Near East Whole Grain Blends Roasted Pecan and Garlic flavor, which had chunks of pecans in it! I also put a little bit of curry powder in it to accent the fish.

Baked macaroni and cheese

We've made this twice now, once following the recipe, and once with some cooked Italian turkey sausage.

1 box macaroni (we have used ziti and spirals)

3 tbsp butter

1 small onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp dry mustard

3 cups milk

5 cups shredded cheese, any kind you like

pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Boil pasta according to package until the lower time (if it says 8-10, just do 8) Drain and pour into casserole dish.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a pan and cook onions and garlic until soft. (This is also when I did the sausage) Stir in the flour, pepper, and mustard until well mixed. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until milk has thickened, about 10 minutes. Take milk off the heat, stir in 4 cups of the cheese until melted. Pour over the pasta, stirring to make sure all the pasta is covered. Top with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese bubbles.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ok its a little late, but it turned out really good! I read about adding butter, and wasn't sure, we don't usually cook with a lot of butter. Some people said they put in a whole stick, eww! But I put in a quarter of a stick and I think it really made it more rich.

1 corned beef brisket

6 potatoes, cut into pieces

1 small cabbage, cut into wedges

1 onion, cut into small pieces

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 package sliced mushrooms

1/4 stick butter

Saute garlic and onions in a pot. Add roast and sear on all sides. Add spice packet and cover with water and butter (I had also just made chicken broth so I put some of that in there in place of part of the water). Bring to a boil, then simmer 50 minutes per pound. 40 minutes before it is done, add potatoes. 15 minutes before it is done, add in cabbage and mushrooms.

Take out the meat and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing, and serve with the broth and veggies.

The best chocolate chip cookies

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made! It makes a smaller batch than on the Nestle bag but it is easily doubled (or tripled!) My dad was borrowing my camera for the week, and by the time I got it back, all the cookies were gone, so I'll just have to make them again to get a good picture!

1 1/2 plus 2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Beat sugars, butter, and shortening until creamy. Slowly mix in egg and vanilla, without stirring too much. 

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir into the bowl until mixed. Add chocolate chips.

Put walnut-sized balls of dough onto a greased sheet (the recipe said ungreased but I never trust it) and bake for 12 minutes.

This made about 24 cookies, but Eric did eat a lot of the dough while I was making them so it might make up to 30.

Portobello Fajitas

I found this on the internet but forgot to save where. This is one that we cheated on...we added shrimp, but it would have been delicious without it too. These were incredibly good!

1 orange bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
2 portabello mushrooms
Olive oil
Tequilla-we didn't have this so we just used a couple of splashes of Glenlivet...which is scotch maybe?
1 lemon, or a few table spoons of lemon juice.
cumin
chili powder
1 avocado
2 large tomatoes


Step 1 - Clean and slice up the mushrooms into nice thick slices. Place in a ziplock bag. Pour in a little olive oil, squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon, and pour in about 1/4 cup of tequilla. Squeeze out the air and seal up the bag. Let marinade on the counter while you work on the rest.

Step 2 - Slice up the peppers and onion into strips.












Step 3 - Saute the mushrooms and the onions. Cook, covered but stirring often, over medium-high heat for a couple minutes. Add the bell peppers. Sprinkle the whole mess with salt, cumin and chili powder to taste and pour in a lil more tequila. Stir up and let finish cooking. Serve with warm tortillas and top with the chopped tomato and avocado.


We served ours with the leftover refried beans from the other day with a little cheese on top. YUM!