Tilapia, Potatoes, Green Beans

I don't cook a lot of fish. I just don't have much experience with it but I know it's good for us so I'm trying to find ways to prepare it that we might like. I bought 3 pounds of frozen tilapia fillets at the wholesale club and used a pound and a half for the fish cakes, but I didn't know what to do with the other pound and a half. I finally settled on a simple meal of fried tilapia, boiled potatoes tossed with butter and parsley and steamed green beans:


I coated the fish in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then dipped the fillets in egg (also seasoned with salt and pepper) and then put them back in the seasoned flour. I heated a skillet with about an inch of vegetable oil and gave them a quick shallow fry, just long enough to develop a nice golden brown crust:


The fish was perfectly seasoned, with a crunchy coating made even better with a generous squeeze of lemon. I also squeezed a little lemon over my green beans, which were still bright and snappy tossed with a little butter, salt and pepper. The potatoes were a nice change from the usual mashed and the addition of fresh, fragrant parsley was perfect.

Baked Chimichangas

I thought of this recipe after looking through our fridge and seeing large flour tortillas that needed using up. I'd made it a few times before and we enjoyed it, but it's yet another Rachael Ray recipe that only sort of works.


I modify the original recipe because I didn't enjoy the smoked turkey. I was going to put the smoked turkey in SP's chimi but there was only one person actually working the deli at the supermarket last night (the other person just stood there ignoring customers) so we got frustrated and left. I use the black bean and corn salad, adding some chopped red cabbage, cilantro, scallions and the cup of tomato sauce, as the filling along with some pepper Jack cheese.


I can never get the chimis to roll properly, despite using the large tortillas. The filling is tasty enough, but I think I'm done with this recipe for awhile. It just doesn't wow me.

Creamy Bacon Garlic Mushrooms

I first made this dish back in July based on a photo I saw on The Food Pornographer's site. I remember it being rich but flavorful.


While it looks pretty enough, there was something missing that I just couldn't put my finger on. Looking back at the older entry, I think I know what it is - white wine. Whoops, seems I left that out. That's what I get for trying to recreate a recipe based on my memory from 3 months ago.

Sunday Cooking

After breakfast I used the three over-ripe bananas sitting on my counter to make banana chocolate chip muffins:


I ran out of liners so half were naked:


The recipe is similar to the recipe I use for banana bread, but they're supposedly lower in fat. I'm eating two for breakfast right now and they're not as moist as I like, but they still taste great.

Around 4pm we turned on football and got ready for our chicken wing taste-off. The challenger was a wing sauce from a Buffalo, NY bar called Anchor Bar. Our neighbor bought it for us on a recent trip. The wings:


... were peppery and spicy, but nowhere near suicidal like the label claimed.


They were quite tasty, though and put up a good fight against the reigning champion:


... made with good old Frank's hot sauce.


We totally gorged ourselves on wings and celery dipped in blue cheese dressing as we watched the game. I think we overdosed on wings...it'll be awhile before either of us wants to eat them again. But man were they good!

Earlier in the day I made another half order of mac & chese:


... and discovered a conspiracy - a 1lb box of pasta does not actually contain a pound of pasta. The last time I made the mac & cheese I used shells. I measured out 8 ounces of pasta using my kitchen scale. Imagine my surprise when I measured the remaining pasta before making this batch and discovered there was only about 6 ounces left in the box. I opened the rigatoni I used instead and measured first 8 ounces and then the remainder - same thing. This really infuriates me. At least the mac & cheese was good.

Lazy Sunday

Amidst all the cooking and baking I did today I came upstairs to check on the laundry and found our cat snoozing on the bed. Of course he woke up as soon as he heard the camera click on, but I did managed to catch him in mid stretch.


I love when he's half asleep. He has that dazed and confused look about him that makes me want to hug him and squeeze him. I really love that little guy.

Sunday Breakfast

Today is all about relaxation, rejuvenation and food. Check back later for more food posts as we eat our way through Sunday. :)

To start off our day I made an old favorite, Rachael Ray's Canadian Bennies:


Regular readers will remember this as the meal I made Christmas morning and again a week later on New Year's Eve morning. It's an easy meal to make and it tastes fantastic.


SP loves sopping up the extra sauce with buttered bread. It's just that good.

Pizza Friday

This week's Pizza Friday was less than stellar. Things just kept going wrong.

For starters the dough may or may not have been moldy. I wasn't taking any chances so I threw it out. There was a hole in the bag and brownish green stuff on the dough near the hole. SP bought the dough frozen from the bakery so we can only assume the hole was made prior to freezing and the dough was compromised.

Then the sauce - I burned it. We usually don't cook the sauce but we bought a few cans of crushed tomatoes and the sauce is too watery if we don't cook it down, so I put the tomatoes, oil, salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes in the pot to cook down. I had the heat up pretty high so the sauce was at a pretty fierce boil and despite my frequent stirring, it burned a bit on the bottom. The sauce itself tasted fine, but my pride was hurt.

Then the replacement dough - SP, the wonderful man that he is, came home, grabbed some money and ran back out to get new dough. He called a few local pizza places but the first two refused to sell him dough. Then he called our usual spot and they agreed to sell him a large dough. Unfortunately it was pretty big, too big for our stone, so I couldn't roll it out as large as it needed to be. That meant the crust was on the thicker side, but the real issue was this:


See all the bumps? I call them pimples (gross, I know). I opened the oven about 5 minutes into the cooking process and saw my beautiful pizza covered in those gross bumps. It was too late to try to pop them so we were stuck with them.

I couldn't get a good picture of the whole pie since it wouldn't all fit on the plate, so here are two slices:


I did the usual pepperoni, mushroom and black olives. This was the last of the pepperoni so we'll be moving on to something else next week. Hopefully the last dough from the bakery will be OK to use.

Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Cream Sauce

I got this recipe for Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Cream Sauce from a girl on a cooking board I frequent. It looked (and sounded) so yummy yet so simple:


It couldn't have been easier to make and SP was a huge fan. He said anything I want to make in the future that involves orzo and a cream sauce is OK in his book.


I served some sauteed spinach on the side. For some reason it was very bitter. It was spinach we got from my parent's veggie box, but I don't see why that would matter.

Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce
As seen on Erin's Eats, adapted from Rachael Ray

Salt
1/2 pound orzo pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
Pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 package of white mushrooms, chopped
3 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon thyme leaves, a couple of sprigs, chopped
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, eyeball it
3 tablespoons heavy cream or half-and-half, a couple turns of the pan

Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and add orzo pasta. Cook to al dente.

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper and add to the hot skillet. Cook the chicken for 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm.

Return the skillet to the heat, turn heat back a bit, and add the butter. Once the butter melts add the mushrooms and brown stirring occasionally for about 4 to 5 minutes. Once the mushrooms are brown season with salt and pepper then add the garlic, thyme and shallots. Cook stirring occasionally for about 2 minutes or until the shallots are wilted. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook 2 minutes more. Whisk in the stock, balsamic vinegar and the cream. Turn the heat up to high and simmer for about 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice the chicken on an angle. Add the chicken back to the skillet to heat up, about 1 minute.

To serve, pile orzo on dinner plates and top with the sliced chicken and sauce.

Pasta Bolognese

A few weekends ago we bought a bunch of meat at the wholesale club, so this week we decided to raid the freezer for meal ideas. I thought pasta bolognese would be the perfect way to use up some of the ground beef.


I don't have a recipe for this but here's what I did: I finely minced a small carrot, half an onion and one rib of celery. I also found half a red pepper in the fridge so I minced that as well. All the veggies went into a pan with some oil until they were soft, then I added 1 pound of ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Once the beef was cooked through I added a large can of crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and 1 bay leaf. I let it simmer until it was nice and thick, with the tomato just barely holding the beef and veggies together. I mixed it with some rotini pasta and a nice shower of pecorino cheese. It was absolutely out of this world. For something I kind of threw together I was really impressed by how well it turned out.

Next week is the last week for the veggie box and this week was pretty slim pickings. Like the beginning of the year, we ended up with a lot of lettuce. Also, surprisingly, a lot of arugula. I threw together a quick salad of mixed greens, a chopped scallion and the last of my Spanish olives:


I tossed mine with red wine vinegar, oil and more pecorino cheese.

Chicken Cacciatore

One of the stops we made on our Sunday road trip was at a farm stand. We'd taken two packages of chicken thighs out of the freezer, but didn't really have a plan in mind for what to cook. At the stand we saw potatoes, mushrooms and peppers for much less then we pay at the supermarket, so SP suggested chicken cacciatore. Since I was home yesterday I was able to get dinner started earlier than usual and by the time SP got home the whole house smelled fantastic.


I didn't follow an exact recipe, but I did use some of the ideas from this recipe from Rachael Ray, the most important being marinating the chicken thighs in balsamic, olive oil, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and rosemary. We got some fresh rosemary from friends of C & C. The marinade really made the meal - all the fresh flavors were fantastic.

Other then that, I pretty much made my own dish based loosely on the recipe. I cut the thighs into a large dice and browned them in a large pan (we call her Bertha). Then I added 2 chopped green peppers; 1 package of mushrooms, sliced; a few cloves of minced garlic; half an onion, sliced and cooked everything down together. Once the veggies were soft I added 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, seasoned with a little more salt and pepper and let the whole thing simmer until SP got home (maybe 20 minutes). The sauce got nice and thick as it cooked, which was great because the longer it sat the better it got. I cooked the potatoes with a few cloves of crushed garlic and then mashed them with milk, butter, salt and pepper. They made the perfect bed for the chicken cacciatore.

Cheese Quesadilla

I took the day off today and in between running a slew of errands I made myself a quesadilla for lunch:


I shredded some cheddar cheese and minced a scallion for the filling. I crisped up the tortilla on my griddle and then sandwiched in the cheese and scallion. After the cheese melted I cut it into 4 triangles and served it with a dollop of sour cream, fresh chopped cilantro and some diced grape tomatoes.

Road trip - NJ

Yesterday we went on a road trip adventure with our friends C & C to Luna Parc, an artist's house in Northwest NJ. It was a long trip but we stopped for breakfast in Frenchtown on our way. C1 tried the salmon, feta and red onion breakfast crepe:


... while C2 had a sausage and egg sandwich on focaccia:


I should have listened to my gut and had my breakfast (eggs, bacon, cheddar and tomato) on focaccia as well since what I was served:


... didn't amount to a very substantial breakfast. But no worries. As we approached Luna Parc we stopped at a farm stand for cider donuts.

Here's where the food photos end and the crazy, wacky world of Ricky of Luna Parc begins. This is his house and he opens it twice a year to the public for viewing. He also sells pottery and jewelry to finance his art.




This is an outside shot of the bathroom. It's amazing inside but I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing:






In his kitchen he has a popcorn machine that dispenses free popcorn to hungry art lovers:

A concrete waffle (complete with butter and syrup) on the ground outside the house:

Pizza Friday

Another week, another Pizza Friday. This time we had pepperoni, mushroom and black olive pizza:


I cooked down the runny sauce I used last week into a nice, thick paste and it tasted so much better. I have to say, this was almost perfect. I got the crust nice and thin and it really crisped up well on the bottom. We've been using our new stone and it's been working out very nicely.

Beef Stroganoff and Spinach Salad

I love when I try something new and it works out just the way I hoped it would. Last night I made a perennial favorite - my modified version of Rachael Ray's beef stroganoff from one of her first books, 30 Minute Comfort Foods:


I always sub ground beef for the sirloin and add in onions and mushrooms. This time I grated in some garlic as well. Unfortunately there wasn't really enough sauce, but it was still very tasty. I still think I prefer this dish with ground turkey since it's moister and more flavorful, but ground beef worked just fine.

I also tried a completely new recipe, Alton Brown's Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing:


I modified the recipe slightly, leaving out the mushrooms since we had them in the stroganoff and subbing half a shallot for the red onion since I didn't have any on hand. I also upped the egg count to three and cooked them for about half the time I usually do hardboiled eggs so the yolks were just on the edge of being cooked through. This was a fantastic recipe and one I'll definitely make again. The dressing is astringent without being too strong, baby spinach is always tasty and the addition of the egg and bacon is a winning combination.

Happy Halloween (and some Mac & Cheese)

I can't believe it - we actually ran out of candy! We bought a huge bag (125 pieces) from the wholesale club even though our next door neighbors told us we don't get a lot of kids. By 8:20pm all the candy was gone and we had to turn a few kids away. This was our first Halloween in this house so I'm glad it was a good one. Our neighbors brought over their daughter, who was adorable in her pink leopard outfit, and we had the front windows open and the screen door and we could hear all the kids yelling in the street. It was so much fun. And everyone was so polite - they all said thank you and wished us Happy Halloween. There were even some grownups dressed up.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love our neighborhood? I'm telling you, it's like a little slice of heaven. We feel very lucky to live in such a great place. And I can't even tell you how many people complimented us on the pumpkins SP carved.


Next year we're going to do even more decorating and SP's already planning what designs to carve.

In the midst of all the excitement I managed to make macaroni and cheese for dinner.


SP requested shells for the pasta, so I used some medium-sized shells. They really held the sauce nicely. I think I'll use them from now on. I forgot the cheese topping so I threw it on over the breadcrumbs. It formed a nice crust that almost looks like a spider web (at least that's my story, since it's Halloween). It was so good I wished I'd made a full batch.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!