About Carrie Zinnecker

Posts by Carrie Zinnecker:

Revisiting Why I Blog and Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies

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With two kids to care for and a house to maintain, a lot of things in my life have become overlooked.  Showering, changing out of my pajamas before noon, exercising, reading, spending time with adults, feeding the dog and blogging.  I’ve been getting better with the kid blog after starting a photo a day project for 2013.  But Hottie Biscotti has been left in the dust.  Part of that is due to my time being dominated by being a mom.  How some women manage to run a business, look incredible, have immaculate homes, run marathons, home school their kids, make gourmet meals for their families and care for their children is beyond me.  But I’ve also been a little discouraged lately.  With so many beautiful food blogs out there I find myself feeling like there’s really no point in blogging everyday food from my suburban kitchen and posting iPhone photos.  I have a bad habit of comparing myself to others and really bumming myself out.  And that’s no way to live.

I am always amazed and flattered when someone I don’t know (or someone I DO know!) leaves a comment on the blog, but it’s not about that.  I do get excited when I have lots of hits or if someone has pinned something I made.  But it’s not about that either.  My recipes are rarely, if ever, original.  My pictures are mostly taken on automatic mode of my fancy camera or the iPhone.  I don’t have funny stories to tell or inspiring things to say.  So, why should I continue to blog?  When a friend or family member wants the recipe for something I can always point them in this direction.  It’s the best way for me to keep track of what I’ve made, if we liked it, if there were any changes I made or would make in the future.  It is my personal online cookbook.  And it’s a journal of my life.  I don’t keep a physical diary or journal, but when I include a little story with a recipe, like how I made something for some event when so and so was visiting I have memories attached to each post.   I can’t be concerned with how my writing, photos or food compare with other things out there.  If I base what I do on whether or not it’s popular or if people are impressed with it, I am putting myself up for serious disappointment.  So even though I’m never going to write a Hottie Biscotti cookbook or host a cooking weekend for 5 lucky winners, I am going to keep blogging.

Now.  On to the good stuff!

brownbutteroatmealcookies

Every night I need something sweet.  Need.  A little bowl of ice cream or a handful of chocolate chips is enough, but I would take a slice of cake or pie every night if I could.  Oh, and I’d eat that cake or pie with ice cream. And I might have seconds.  It’s a weakness.  A terribly delicious weakness.   I decided that I should take some time to do some therapeutic baking last week.  It had been a while.  It ended up being a little stressful.  At one point I was holding Betsy so that she wouldn’t cry while trying to stir my pot of browning butter so that it wouldn’t burn.  Holding Betsy on my left hip, as far away as possible from the stove, reaching out with my right arm to stir the butter.  After I finished the dough it sat on the counter for a good hour before I had a free moment to scoop it out onto a baking sheet.  Start to finish, I was working on these for a good 5 hours.  It won’t take you that long, unless you too have young children!

I found these to be really buttery and sweet.  Almost too buttery, almost too sweet.  But just almost.  These are good, rich and decadent for sure.  I would think you could scale back on the butter, 3 sticks seems like a lot to me, but browning it like this does make the butter have less mass/volume/some science term I should remember, so maybe you have to start with more in order to have enough in the final product?  I’m no food scientist.  I might mess around with that at some point.  In the original recipe (link below) he adds dried cherries and chocolate chips.  I threw a handful of cherries in when I had just a little dough left over, enough for about 5 cookies.  They were quite tasty, but the cherries are sweet.  Sweet cookie + sweet cherries = very sweet cookie.  Tart cranberries and bittersweet dark chocolate would be good, if you choose to mix in anything.  I liked them plain and simple.

Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies

From macheesmo.com

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, browned
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 2/3 cups white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant kind)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Brown butter: In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Once butter melts completely, keep an eye on it.  Do not leave the butter.  If it burns you’ll have to start over.  Stir gently and periodically as it goes through several stages, foaming up, then subsiding, then start to bubble.  You should begin to see little brown bits start to form.  Those are the tasty bits!  Stir to keep those bits from burning.  Things may start to happen quickly now and can go from perfectly brown to burnt in less than a minute.  So just keep stirring and swirling the pan until the butter is a rich amber color.  At this point, pour it into a heatproof bowl and let it cool to room temperature.  Then put it in the fridge until it is just firm.
  2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  3. Transfer cooled butter to a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat on high speed until creamy.
  4. Beat in the sugars and mix until fluffy.
  5. Add eggs one at a time and mix well, then mix in vanilla.
  6. Add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  7. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
  8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

 

Tomato & Pesto Chicken

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You can’t argue with the raw ingredients here.  Who doesn’t love pesto, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and freshly grated parmesan?  The time and effort this takes is another thing to love about this recipe.  I recommend this to anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of tons of time to make dinner but still wants something that didn’t come from the freezer or got picked up on the way home from work.  But I sure do enjoy Ben walking through the door with a pizza box every now and then…

pestochicken

While wasting time on Pinterest, I stumbled upon this recipe from Skinnytaste.com.  I took the basics of the recipe, kind of ignored the measurements, and whipped this up in no time last week.  We loved it and will have it again I am sure.

I had everything I needed for this meal already in my kitchen except for the chicken.  The version of myself I aspire to be would’ve used the pesto she’d made last summer with the basil from her garden and then froze in matching labeled containers (see post on Skinnytaste).  Instead I used a jar of Giada pesto from Target.  And while lacking in fresh from the garden flavor, it was good.

This can easily be adapted to serve 1 person or a dozen.  You can slice fresh mozzarella  or use the bag of shredded mozzarella, but provolone would be a great choice as well.  If you have a different type of pesto, try it out.  I think a nice sprinkle of fresh chopped basil would be a great and beautiful finish.  The ingredients below are what you will need, but the amounts are merely suggestions.  If you want a healthier option, use the measurement from skinnytaste.  I didn’t even measure.  So use your judgement and make it how you like it.

Skinnytaste slices each chicken breast lengthwise into 2 cutlets.  For her this may be portion control, but I think it’s a great way to prepare the chicken even if you aren’t concerned with all that.  The chicken cooks more evenly this way and with some of the ridiculously thick chicken breasts I’ve bought in my time it makes a lot of sense to slice them this way for cooking.

Pair with pasta and steamed veggies or crusty bread and a nice green salad.  Enjoy.

Tomato & Pesto Chicken

Slightly adapted from Skinnytaste

Ingredients

  • Boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 per person), sliced lengthwise into 2 thin pieces if breats are especially thick
  • Basil pesto, 2-3 teaspoons per chicken breast
  • Small tomatoes such as roma or campari, about 1 per chicken breast depending on their size, sliced 1/4 inch thick
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese, 1-2 tablespoons per chicken breast
  • Freshly grated Parmesan, to taste
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Arrange in pan sprayed with non-stick spray or foil lined and sprayed for easier clean up.
  4. Spread desired amount of pesto on each breast and bake for 10-12 minutes, a few minutes longer if you did not slice the chicken into thinner pieces.  Chicken should be almost done.
  5. Remove from the oven and place sliced tomatoes on each chicken breast.  Sprinkle with mozzarella and then Parmesan cheese.
  6. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes, until cheese is melted and just begins to brown.

 

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas with Goat Cheese and Homemade Enchilada Sauce

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When my dear, sweet sister Sarah came to help with Betsy right after she was born, she made us dinner.  She made these incredible vegetable enchiladas with sweet potato and black beans.  They were delicious.  The really wonderful thing about them was the goat cheese.  I would’ve never thought to do that, and I would’ve never thought it would’ve been as terrific as it was.  I tried to recreate them last week and while Ben and I really enjoyed them, they weren’t quite like Sarah’s.  So I’ll have to get an enchilada lesson from her the next time we’re together.

Pardon this iPhoned and Instrgramed photo.  I’m honestly just proud that I took a picture at all.  And to be quite honest I like that if I don’t try to take a good photo, then I can have an excuse for taking crummy ones.  One day I’ll start taking better quality pictures…

These enchiladas are a healthier option when you’re craving Tex-Mex.  They aren’t heavy laden with cheese, and they can be totally vegetarian if you choose to skip the chicken.  You really won’t miss it.  The goat cheese adds a perfect tangy surprise.  If you don’t like goat cheese, add some regular shredded cheese to the filling.

Sarah cooks like I wish I could.  She doesn’t really measure anything.  She doesn’t really follow a recipe.  She just makes what she thinks will be good.  And every time she’s done that when I’ve been around to taste the end result, it’s been quite yummy.  I tried to take some inspiration from Sarah and cook without measuring cups or spoons, so my measurements below are approximate.  The beautiful thing about that kind of cooking is that if you don’t have or like something below you can replace it with something else and not get too preoccupied with doing things a specific way.  Just taste as you go to make sure you have the flavor you want.  I used a packet of chicken taco seasoning, but you can use your favorite spices to make your own seasoning mix.

Other ingredients that I would consider trying in these enchiladas are corn, green chiles, spinach, mushrooms, shredded carrots and zucchini.  In place of chicken you can use ground beef or turkey, or some shredded pork if you happen to have some left over from another meal.

I realized when I started to put these together that I didn’t think to get any sauce and wondered if Sarah had even used any.  So I asked her and she said she just used a can of enchilada sauce.  And of course I had no enchilada sauce.  What’s a girl to do?  Make her own enchilada sauce of course.  And where does one find a recipe for enchilada sauce?  The internet of course.  I just Googled “homemade enchilada sauce” and I found this little gem.  I followed the recipe except for a couple things.  I didn’t have any tomato sauce so I pureed a can of diced tomatoes after draining off some of the juice.  In place of the self rising flour I used regular.  I used the spices it called for and as it cooked I tasted and added a little more chili powder, some paprika and I believe a little more salt since I didn’t have onion salt.  It tasted ok, but I was worried about how it was going to turn out on the enchiladas.  Turned out to be wonderful paired with the enchiladas, and something I’m going to make again the next time I need enchilada sauce.

Now I know flour tortillas are not what is traditionally used for enchiladas.  I used flour because that’s what Sarah used.  I might try corn sometime.  If you decide to, make sure to soften them in warm chicken broth or in the microwave to soften.  If you skip that step they will crack when you go to roll them up.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients

  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • 1 large sweet potato, cut into small dice
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 cups cooked, chopped chicken (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
  • goat cheese, 3-4 ounces
  • 8-12 flour tortillas (taco or burrito size)
  • 1 can enchilada sauce (or make your own using the recipe below)
  • shredded cheese, optional
  • sour cream and cilantro for serving

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 400°F.  Toss sweet potato, bell peppers and onion together with olive oil and salt on a large rimmed baking sheet.
  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from oven and let cool a bit.
  3. Combine vegetables, black beans, chicken (if using) and seasoning.  Taste and season as needed.
  4. Crumble goat cheese into filling and combine gently, keeping the goat cheese in good sized chunks.
  5. Scoop some filling into a tortilla and roll to close.  Fill generously but do not overfill, the tortilla should overlap itself by at least 1 inch.  Place seam side down in a greased pan.  Repeat with remaining tortillas fitting them tightly in the pan.  You may need 2 pans depending on what size tortillas you use.
  6. Reduce oven to 350°F.  Top with enchilada sauce, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil (add cheese if using) and bake for 15 minutes more.
  7. Serve topped with sour cream and chopped cilantro.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/4 cup chili powder
  • 8 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • salt to taste
Directions
  1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning flour.
  2. Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth
  3. Continue cooking over medium-low heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt.

 

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

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Roasted vegetables are fall perfection.  Anytime of the year perfection for me, really.  But fall and winter seem to be better for the rich and warm flavors and the delicious caramelization of the veggies that takes place in the oven.  One of my favorite things about them is their versatility.  You can use your favorite vegetables.  My favorite combination includes brussels sprouts, sweet potato, onion and cauliflower.  I can’t think of a better side dish, can you?  If you’re still planning your Thanksgiving menu, consider roasting a big tray of vegetables.  You can do all of your prep, including tossing with the oil and salt, the night before.  Refrigerate and roast right before dinner.

After starting this lovely dish in the crock pot I started thinking about what we would eat with it.  I decided on brown rice and salad.  But then I remembered that we had broccoli and cauliflower already cut up and just waiting to be transformed into something magical.  I was honestly pretty worried about roasting the broccoli with my normal method.  I’ve done it before and felt like the ends got too blackened and crunchy, even for me.  So I looked up a recipe for roasted broccoli and found this from Ellie Krieger.  As luck would have it, this particular recipe uses broccoli and cauliflower.  Perfect.

We loved these.  I ate the remainder of them for lunch the next day straight from the fridge.  One of the reasons they were so good is the garlic.  I smashed whole cloves and mixed them in with the vegetables.  If you cut the garlic too small, it burns.  I learned that lesson the hard way!  The garlic mellows enough through the cooking process to not be an unwelcome addition to your bite.  Cooking the vegetables covered allows them to steam before roasting, which keeps the broccoli from burning on the tips and cooking unevenly.  I will probably try this method with my normal line up of vegetables the next time I roast them.  However, I think you could get by with less covered steam cooking, maybe 20 minutes covered and 30-40 uncovered?  I’ll mess with that and see how it goes.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

From Ellie Krieger

Ingredients

  • 1 small head cauliflower (2 pounds), cut into florets
  • 2 large stalks broccoli (1 pound), cut into florets
  • 1 head garlic, broken into cloves, peeled and smashed but still intact
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  2. Place cauliflower and broccoli into a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, toss with the olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 1/2 hour.
  4. Remove the foil, stir and cook for 30 to 40 minutes more, until vegetables are tender and nicely browned, stirring occasionally.

Beef, Bean and Beer Chili for Frito Pie

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Goodness, blogging has certainly taken a back seat to mothering lately!  As it should, of course.  I kind of feel like I’ve fallen off the face of the earth in some ways, though.  I am beat.  I have permanent dark circles under my eyes and I can’t always form complete and comprehensible thoughts.  I almost always feel foggy headed.  And I hear this doesn’t get any better as your children get older…

Baby Betsy is 7 weeks old now and we are all alive, which is really saying something.  If you want more details, then check this out.  We love our sweet girl and are so very blessed to have our two beautiful and healthy babies.

A few weeks ago we had a group of friends and family at our house to watch an Aggie game.  We’d planned on grilling, but with rain chances that day being 100% we decided to make chili and have Frito pie instead.  It ended up only raining in the morning, so we could have grilled, but I am glad we changed our plans.  Chili and football just go together, don’t you think?  Now if only we could have a football Saturday under 80 degrees.  I am so ready for that.

I don’t know about you, but when I decide to make something I rarely get to say, “I have the best recipe for _____!”.  I start searching around online and in my cookbooks for a new recipe.  I don’t know how many times I’ve made chili, but except for this chicken chili, I have never used the same recipe twice.  I can stop searching.  I can print a hard copy of this recipe and put it with my keepers.  Thanks Jimmy Fallon and Martha!

The recipe for Jimmy Fallon’s chili is made in a crock pot.  I made it in a big stock pot since I was making 1 1/2 times the recipe and my crock pot isn’t big enough.  (And I needed my crock pot to make a batch of Velveeta and Rotel queso!)  And honestly, if you’re already getting a skillet dirty I don’t see the point in moving everything to the crock pot and getting that dirty too.  I guess the “set it and forget it” aspect is nice, but there is enough prep work that I don’t think it would be that helpful.  I did everything in one pot and that meant fewer dishes to clean which made my husband happy.  And that is good.

 

Beef and Bean Chili

From Martha Stewart courtesy of Jimmy Fallon

Feeds 12 generously

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 5 pounds ground chuck beef, ground for chili
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1-2 large white onions, chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons chile powder
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 3 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped with their juices
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
  • 2 (12-ounce) bottles amber beer (I used this)
  • 3 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
For Serving
  • Fritos
  • Grated cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Green onions, chopped

Directions

  1. In a large stock pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, add beef and cook until no longer pink.  Season with salt and pepper; drain on a large rimmed baking sheet lined with a thick layer of paper towels and set aside.
  2. Add remaining tablespoon olive oil to skillet and reduce heat to medium. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno; season with salt. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add beef to the onion mixture, and mix in chile powder, oregano, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Add tomatoes, cilantro, beer and beans.  Stir together and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1-2 hours.
  4. At this point you can either serve the chili or take it off the heat, let it cool off and put the pot in the fridge overnight.  The next day, reheat the chili over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until hot.
  5. Serve over Fritos, topped with cheese, sour cream and green onions or your favorite chili toppings.

Chicken and Rice Casserole with Roasted Squash and Spinach

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We’re moving in 12 days!  I’m starting to wonder why we thought moving 7 weeks before my due date was a good plan!  I’m actually very excited, just anxious and stressing a bit.  My sweet mom came down and helped me for a few days last week.  We didn’t pack the entire kitchen, but that process is beginning.  I plan to have the kitchen pretty much packed away by the beginning of next week.  That last week I plan to eat easy breakfasts, freezer meals, give Carson a lot of convenience foods (and his weight in strawberries of course) and explore the take-out situation in our neighborhood.  I’ve already stocked up on paper plates, plastic utensils and cups.  I don’t want to find myself packing plates and silverware at 2 am the night before we move.

Eating restaurant food is probably going to get old after a few days.  I like cooking and knowing what goes into our meals.  So I want to cook a lot in the coming week.  The problem with that is how unprepared I have been recently when it comes to groceries.  And if I’ve forgotten something, I have little to no desire to take Carson to the store for one item.  One night last week I made dinner with what we had around, which was an adventure.  And a pretty tasty adventure.  So tasty, in fact, that I typed this recipe up right after we ate so that I wouldn’t forget it.  The picture doesn’t do it justice, but casseroles in general are just plain unattractive.

I made fried chicken earlier in the week.  Since 2 people can’t (and shouldn’t) eat an entire chicken we had quite a bit left over.  My thought for dinner began with that chicken.  I knew we had rice, but I couldn’t think of what else I was going to throw in my chicken and rice dinner.  So began the scavenging.  Squash from Farmhouse.  A shallot.  Green onions.  A half bag of spinach.  The remains of a box of chicken broth.  The rest of a carton of sour cream.  Leftover white cheddar cheese.  And a packet of Lipton chicken noodle soup mix.  This was going to be dinner.  The biggest gamble was the squash.  I roasted it and figured if I didn’t end up using it in the casserole I could snack on it and give some to Carson.  It ended up being really great and something I would definitely repeat.

Chicken and Rice Casserole with Roasted Squash and Spinach

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cups 1/2 inch cubed squash (I used patty pan and butternut)
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 6 green onions, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4-6 ounces fresh spinach
  • 1 cup white medium grain rice
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 package Lipton chicken  noodle soup mix
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4-1/2 cup shredded white cheddar cheese (optional but delicious)

Directions

  1. Roast Squash:  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Toss seeded and cubed squash with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes, tossing about halfway through.  Set aside.
  2. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a large skillet.  Once hot, add in shallot and cook for 2 minutes, add in green onion and cook 2 minutes, then add in garlic, stir and cook for about 1 minute.
  3. Stir in the rice, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add in the spinach and cook until slightly wilted.  Turn off the heat and mix in the chicken and roasted squash.
  4. Pour in the chicken broth, soup mix, sour cream and milk.  Stir until well combined.
  5. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.  Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and sprinkle with the cheese, if using.
  6. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

A Busy Life and Lots of Farmhouse Recipes: Spinach Basil Pesto, Quinoa Mac and Cheese Casserole, Mediterranean Eggplant and Quinoa Salad

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The last month has been a crazy one, and the next two aren’t going to be any different.  We are moving from our sweet little rent house into a lovely suburban home with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice big kitchen with garbage disposal, and enough counter space not to have to balance pans on top of the coffee maker.  Yes.  I have done this.  Life will be so good.  And about 5 weeks after we move in we will have a new baby on our hands, and so life will be a totally different kind of crazy.  Can that be an acceptable excuse for why I haven’t blogged in a month?

I have been cooking, but haven’t been taking pictures of any of it or recording it anywhere.  This is a big time bummer.  One of my favorite things about having this blog is being able to search for a recipe I’ve made in the past and be reminded of what I did to change it that made it better, or the things I didn’t like that I’d change the next time around.  When I don’t update the blog, I don’t have those recipes…unless I managed to write notes on them and put them somewhere safe…which is a rare event.  So today I am playing catch-up.

One of the things I’ve had the luxury of participating in this summer is the Farmhouse Delivery here in Houston.  When the bushel of local fruits and veg arrive on my doorstep carried by a shaggy headed hipster jamming out to whatever cool music is playing through his earbuds, I get positively giddy. Some of the items we receive are no-brainers.  Peaches and blackberries are perfect in my morning yogurt and granola.  Cucumbers, sweet peppers and the sweetest cherry tomatoes known to man get sliced and tossed into salads.  Potatoes, onions, corn and slicing tomatoes have also been part of our meals.  But then we get stuff like patty pan squash and eggplant.  What am I going to do with this?  I haven’t figured out the patty pan yet, but did find a use for the eggplant.  So Farmhouse Delivery, thank you for helping me to explore more in my kitchen.  And thanks, Sarah, for the recipe!  I feel more of an obligation to use the produce fully since, well, we paid for it, AND it’s fresh and local and delicious.  If I forget about a grocery store peach in the back corner of the fridge drawer I toss it out.  If I were to forget a farmhouse peach I would probably cry a few tears and have a little memorial service for the sweet and forgotten little guy. On to the recipes…

Spinach, Basil & Walnut Pesto

A big bag of fresh basil came one weekend, and so I made 2 batches of this pesto.  We ate it on pizza with mozzarella and farmhouse tomatoes.  Another night I mixed it in with penne pasta and chopped cherry tomatoes topped with grated Parmesan.  The leftovers from that meal got mixed with lots of mozzarella cheese, more pesto, more tomatoes and then baked in a casserole topped with Parmesan bread crumbs.  So many easy and delicious dinners out of one batch of pesto.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups baby spinach
  • 2 cups basil
  • 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions

  1. Rinse and pat dry spinach and basil.
  2. Put greens in the bowl of a food processor, pour walnuts over, sprinkle with salt and begin to pulse.  While pulsing, add olive oil in a stream until desired consistency is reached.  Taste and add more salt if needed.
  3. Transfer to a lidded container and store covered in the fridge or freeze for later use.

Quinoa Mac and Cheese Casserole

I’ve made this twice now.  It is sure to become a regular on our dinner menu.  The great thing is that you can change the vegetables, spices and cheese to make it fit your tastes or what you have available.  I used an onion from Farmhouse in this recipe, but other than that it’s a grocery store produce meal.  Don’t worry, I’m not getting all snooty about my produce…at least not forever.

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups dry quinoa
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 6 ounce bag fresh spinach
  • 8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 cups grated white cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat in a large, deep saucepan.  Add the onion, bell peppers, scallions and saute for about four minutes, just until bell pepper has started to soften.   Add the mushrooms and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted.  Add the garlic and continue sauteing for another 30 seconds.
  3. Add quinoa to the pot, followed by the chicken broth, salt, dry mustard and pepper.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed, stirring just a couple times.
  4. Add 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese and milk.  Stir to combine then pour into a greased 9 x 13″ casserole dish.
  5. In a small bowl, combine the Panko and the remaining cheese.  Sprinkle on top of casserole and bake for about 30 minutes until golden.

Mediterranean Eggplant and Quinoa Salad

Eggplant, onion, zucchini and tomatoes from Farmhouse and then a great punch from the lemon dressing and an herby freshness from the parsley and mint make this my kind of summer meal.  My sweet sister helped me find a recipe to use up my eggplant without feeling like I was eating eggplant.  I used her suggestions of using quinoa instead of barley, and adding in a can of chickpeas and crumbled feta.  This has made a terrific lunch the past couple days.

From Sarah, Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 2 small to medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 2-3 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1/2 onion, halved then sliced
  • 10 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 cup chopped scallion (from 1 bunch)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 cups quinoa
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 3 cups reduced sodium chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/3 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and halved
  • 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
  • 4-6 ounces crumbled feta

Directions

  1. Roast eggplant and zucchini: Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.  Toss eggplant and zucchini and onion with 5 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, then spread in 2 oiled large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pans. Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in 1 pan and cool.
  2. Cook Quinoa: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallion, cumin and coriander, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add quinoa and cook, stirring until well coated with oil, 2 minutes more.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until all of liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to reserved shallow baking pan and spread to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
  3. Make dressing and assemble salad: Whisk together lemon juice, sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2-3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl.  Add quinoa, roasted vegetables, and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well.

Vietnamese Turkey Meatball Bún

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While in Austin a few weeks ago my sister took me to Elizabeth Street Cafe.  Eat here if you ever get the chance.  It’s a French-Vietnamese cafe, which may sound strange to you (it has to a couple people I’ve told about my meal) but the marriage translates into delicious bánh mì, bún and pho as well as sweet eclairs and delicate macarons.  We didn’t actually have dessert here since we’d already made plans to have ice cream at Lick.  Go there too.

This was one of the yummiest meals I’ve had in a while.  Vietnamese cuisine has a way of leaving you totally satisfied but not stuffed.  I think it’s the abundance of fresh veggies and herbs, differences in textures and the heat and intense flavor of the sauces.  We shared the pork belly steamed buns, pork  bánh mì on house-made baguette, and the keffir lime fried chicken bún.  All delicious.

This meal inspired me to make my own Vietnamese noodle bowl at home.  I decided on a Vietnamese turkey meatball instead of fried chicken.  Thanks to my Farmhouse delivery last weekend I had fresh carrots and cucumbers to use in the bowl.  I made the dressing for the bún, nuoc cham.  It’s a basic Vietnamese dipping sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, peppers, garlic, a touch of sugar and water.  I think this a really great summer dinner.  Fresh crisp veggies and herbs with warm meatballs and a spicy cool heat from the sauce.

I baked the meatballs instead of pan frying.  I think there was too much liquid in the meat mixture because the baked meatballs were sitting in a pool of meatball juice (you know what I’m talking about, and it ain’t pretty) so I had to drain them.  They tasted delicious and with some tweaking they could definitely be something I’d make again.  Although, these meatballs I know are good and could easily be used here.  The recipe below makes about 35 meatballs.  I wanted to have enough to make bánh mì later in the week, which we did (2 nights in a row, in fact).  Cut the meatball recipe in half if you’re only planning to use the meatballs for one meal with some leftover.

The meatballs do take some time to prep with all the chopping you have to do, and the chopping and slicing doesn’t end there.  The bún is full of shredded lettuce (I used iceberg but you could use romaine) julienned carrots, cucumber slices, chopped cilantro and mint.  So get your best knife and cutting board ready!  I made the meatball mixture, dressing and chopped everything during nap time.  This made dinner time pretty easy.  All I had to do was scoop and bake the meatballs, and cook the rice noodles.

In looking at different recipe for bún I saw other vegetables used like bean sprouts, daikon and red radish.  Traditionally beef is used as the protein as in this recipe from Leite’s Culinaria that looks dleicious.  But pork can also be used, like in this recipe from Fine Cooking which is making me crave grilled pork at 9 in the morning.

Vietnamese Turkey Meatball Bún

Ingredients

Meatballs

(Makes about 35, you may want to cut this recipe in half)

  • 2 pounds ground turkey
  • 5 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
  • 3 small shallots, finely chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons minced ginger root
  • 2 stalks of fresh lemongrass, tender white inner bulb only, minced
  • 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
  • 2 tablespoons chopped basil
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Nuoc Cham (Dressing)

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
  • 1 red or green Asian chile, or serrano chile, sliced into thin rounds

Salad

  • 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded (or you can use romaine)
  • 6-8 ounces of rice noodles (this depends on how many people you’re serving and how much you like noodles. We used 5 ounces and it made 5 servings.)
  • 1 cucumber, sliced into half moons or halves
  • 6-8 carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 4 green onions, sliced
  • chopped cilantro
  • chopped mint
  • chopped basil
  • chopped peanuts
  • sriracha (if you need more heat!)

 Directions

Meatballs

  1. If baking right away, preheat the oven to 400°F.  Position a rack in the top third of the oven.
  2. Combine the turkey, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, herbs, egg, salt and pepper and mix with your hands until well combined but without overworking the mixture.  At this point you can either refrigerate the mixture in the bowl, form into balls and cover and refrigerate on the pan, or form into balls and bake right away.
  3. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Using slightly moistened hands, roll the mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls. Transfer the meatballs to the prepared baking sheet and bake them for 15-20 minutes, until they are lightly browned and cooked through.

Nuoc Cham (Dressing)

  1. Combine warm water and sugar and stir to dissolve sugar.
  2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

Salad

  1. Cook rice noodles by bringing a pot of water to a boil.  Add the noodles and remove from the heat.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.  Drain and rinse the noodles in cool water.
  2. Layer in deep, wide bowls: lettuce, noodles and meatballs.  Arrange vegetables and herbs around the sides.  Sprinkle with peanuts and green onion and drizzle with nuoc cham.  Toss everything together and enjoy using fancy chopsticks (or a nice reliable fork!).

Potato Cinnamon Rolls

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This recipe has been bookmarked in my Pastry Queen cookbook for a couple years at least.  The photo of these always makes me pause and swoon a little whenever I’m flipping through the pages.  You’ll have to buy the cookbook to see it.  My photo doesn’t come close.

I find it hard to resist the sweet, bready, ciannamony, yeasty goodness of a cinnamon roll.  My favorite rolls are at The Upper Crust Bakery in Austin, Texas.  They’re a totally different type of cinnamon roll with a crunchy cinnamon sugar coating instead of a gooey frosting.  If you’re ever in Austin, you must go get one.

The problem with me and cinnamon rolls is the commitment (and the mess).  Make the dough, let it rise, make the filling, roll and fill, cut and place in the pans, rise again, bake, frost or glaze, then enjoy…if you even have the energy at that point.  And if you want to make these fresh for breakfast you have to either get up at a ridiculous hour or use some time management skills to get them ready for a morning rise and baking.  So much work!  But these are well worth the effort.  You can even freeze them for later, which does require some work on the front end, but you get yummy cinnamon rolls straight from the oven without having to touch a bit of flour.

For some reason (could have been the 2 lonely potatoes on the counter) I just felt compelled to commit to these last week and am so very glad I did.  I baked 2 pans of these rolls and there are 3 more in my freezer that are a mere overnight thaw and hour rise away from being enjoyed.  Yes, this recipe makes 5 pans of cinnamon rolls.  So make sure you either need to feed a hungry army, give these away as gifts or have room in your freezer and save them for later.  Oh, and make sure you have 2 good sized bowls for rising.  The recipe says to let the dough rise in one bowl and then divide it in half.  Well, I do not have a bowl big enough for that and I don’t know who does…except for maybe my mother-in-law.  So I divided the dough in half before rising and still had to use 2 of my biggest bowls.

The pecans are optional.  I made one half of the rolls with and the other half without.  If I’d really been thinking I would have baked one pan of the with and one pan of the without, but I wasn’t thinking.  So all of my rolls with pecans are in the freezer.  I am sure they’ll be delicious since most baked goods are better with pecans.

Using mashed potato in these rolls gives them a lighter texture than your normal roll.  They don’t taste like potato.  They are just slightly sweet, unless you drench them in frosting (like I do).  If you bake and don’t eat all the rolls in the same day, cover and refrigerate the rolls.  Warm in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to recreate the fresh-from-the-oven flavor.  Store for 3-4 days at most in the fridge.  They’re just not as good after that.

Jailhouse Potato Cinnamon Rolls

From The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

Ingredients

Dough

  • 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled, quartered, boiled and mashed
  • Reserve 3 cups of potato water
  • 1 oz active dry yeast (4 pkgs.)
  • 3/4 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 sticks butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 9 cups flour

Filling

  • 4 cups toasted pecans, optional (I used 2 cups and made half with and half without pecans)
  • 4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 2 sticks butter, melted

Icing

  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
  1. Grease two 9X13 disposable foil pans (you will probably need more pans, depending on how many rolls you end up with. I used 5).
  2. Wash, peel and quarter the potatoes and boil until fork tender, 10-15 minutes.  After boiling the potatoes, set aside 3 cups of the potato water and let cool to 110 degrees using a candy thermometer, or to the temp of hot water coming out of the faucet.
  3. Mash potatoes in a large bowl, set aside.  Sprinkle yeast over the water, stir until dissolved, add 1 tsp. sugar.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes until foamy.
  4. Whisk the mashed potatoes and 3/4 cup sugar together.  Add the melted butter, eggs , salt and potato water and mix until smooth.  Switch to a wooden spoon, and add the flour 3 cups at a time, mixing until combined.  Mix until all the flour is incorporated.
  5. Place the dough in 2 large greased bowls.  Cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place until the dough is doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  6. Leaving the dough in the bowl, flour your hands and punch it down until it deflates.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. At this point the dough can be refrigerated until the next day.  You can proceed from here, but it is easier to handle the dough after it has chilled.
  7. With floured hands, remove one batch of the dough from the bowl onto a well floured surface.  Using a rolling pin, roll into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle. About 20 X 10.  Spread the rectangle with half the butter, then half the brown sugar mix, then half the chopped pecans.
  8. Starting with the long side, carefully roll the dough.  Using a very sharp floured serrated knife, cut each roll crosswise in 2 to 3 inch slices. Place the slices, cut side down, in the foil pans spacing about one inch apart so they have room to expand. Make sure the end flap of each roll is set snugly against a side of the pan.  Repeat with the other bowl of dough.
  9. At this point the rolls can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and a layer of foil and frozen up to 3 weeks.  Defrost in the refrigerator overnight or for one hour at room temperature and continue following the directions from this point.  Leaving them covered, set the rolls in a warm draft free place and let them rise until they get puffy, about 1 hour.
  10. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Remove covering and bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown.
  11. Combine icing ingredients with a whisk and drizzle over warm rolls.

 

Cilantro Peanut Pesto Pasta

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When it comes to pesto, I tend to think only of the basil and pine nut variety.  This one is my favorite.  But there are so many combinations of herbs and nuts that you can use to make pesto!  I find basil and pine nuts to be on the pricier end of the spectrum, so using cheap ingredients like cilantro and peanuts make this a wallet friendly pesto as well as a delicious one.  The pesto is tossed with some linguine and shredded chicken to make for a complete meal.

My Everyday Food magazine on the iPad is proving to be quite the handy resource.  I can put the iPad in my cookbook holder.  I don’t have to print out the recipe, and I don’t have to have my big laptop next to the stove and sink.  In addition to being convenient, there are a lot of quick and simple recipes, like this one.

I didn’t change much about the recipe.  I used less pasta than the recipe calls for.  I did this for a couple reasons.  I’d rather have more stuff in my pasta dishes and less pasta.  Also, my pasta was a 1 pound package.  I’d rather use half and have enough to use later for another recipe instead of using 3/4 and trying to incorporate 1/4 into a meal.  I had some pesto left over, so I should have just used the 3/4 pound.

The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, but spice hasn’t been my friend lately.  So I left that out.  I used a little more ginger, added shredded rotisserie chicken for some protein, and used 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and found that to be plenty.  But start with 1 tablespoon, taste and adjust as you see fit.

Martha says you can use the entire bunch of cilantro, including the stems.  I’m not sure if the same is true for basil and parsley.  I would think parsley would be since the two are so similar (I’ve bought one instead of the other at the store on more than one occasion).  Basil, I don’t know.  But since basil leaves are so big it isn’t a difficult task to remove them from the stem.

This cilantro peanut pesto has inspired me to search out some other interesting pestos.  Here is a kale and walnut pesto from Lauren of Healthy Foods for Living.  And Cookie + Kate’s arugula and walnut pesto sounds amazing.

Cilantro Peanut Pesto Pasta

From Everyday Food

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch cilantro, 1/4 cup leaves reserved for serving
  • 1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest plus 2 tablespoons juice
  • 1 teaspoon light-brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup roasted peanuts, divided
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1/2 to 3/4 pound spaghetti or linguine, cooked according to package instructions
  • 2 cups shredded chicken (optional)

Directions

  1. In a food processor, combine cilantro, garlic, ginger, vegetable and sesame oils, lime zest and juice, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup peanuts. Pulse until a coarse paste forms. Season with soy sauce and pulse to combine.
  2. In a large bowl, toss pesto with pasta.  Stir in shredded chicken.
  3. Roughly chop remaining peanuts and sprinkle over pasta along with cilantro leaves.
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