Still Love Mom's Cooking!

I just came back from a long weekend in Chicago visiting my mom. It's hard being away from her and it was so nice to be together.

Together we made a wonderful dinner on the night of my arrival that was inspired from a menu from Prevention Magazine.

However, we shortcutted the heck out of things!

We browned chicken cutlets in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then we modeled our stuffing after this recipe here. However we used a boxed Peppridge farm mix for ease but added in the dried fruits. Instead of hazelnuts, we used finely diced/chopped macadamia nuts! DELISH!!!

For our veggie - again we went using this recipe. However to make it easier, we steamed on the stove top the green beans and mushrooms. Then when they were done I tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and some more of the macadamia nuts.

Excellent meal all around! Will so make this now that I'm at home.

And nothing was as good as Mom's cooking.

I hope she enjoyed the meals I made for her just as much - Penny a la Punk Ass Sister Betsy and Vegetarian Sushi Bowls.

It's big, it's puffy, it's delicious!

So I'm going to post a series of pictures and you need to guess what this is going to become...

Sauteed spinach, vidalia onions, mushrooms

Pancake Batter

Swiss Cheese

Any Thoughts???

The other week I found a recipe for something I've been searching for for a long time. Back in IL there was a restaurant chain - Waker Brothers - that made a puffy pancake with broccoli and cheese. It was one of my favorite things on the menu.

I finally found a recipe for Puff Up Pancake on the Your Home Based Mom Blog. I love her blog. You have to check it out. Well I emailed back and forth with her for a bit about if she'd ever made this recipe savory style. While she hadn't we both agreed it would be something good to try. So I became the guinea pig.

And let me just say this did not disappoint. I will certainly make this again savory style as well as with fresh fruit, even thinking about apples and sausge in the fall.

Puff Up Pancake

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
5 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour

(to make it more savory, I did half a tsp. of vanilla and half a tsp. of salt, but it could have still used the full tsp. of vanilla)

Melt butter in a 9x13 glass pan in an oven while preheating to 425. Mix eggs, flour and milk with wire wish. Add batter to dish and bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve with fruit, powdered sugar and lemon juice. (that's if you want it with fruit). Bake on a lower rack with nothing above it, it will really puff up and get big.

To make it savory:

Sautee a vadilia onion, a container of sliced mushrooms and then add in a bag of baby spinach leaves. seasn with garlic cloves that have been crushed, salt, pepper, and fresh basil. Press the mixture once cooked between paper towels and weight with a heavy pan. Do this until the moisture is out of the mixture.

Follow the above recipe to the baking part. When the pancake is puffy and done, remove from oven and turn oven to warm. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup swiss cheese and then gently sprinkle the veggies over the pancake. Top with about 1/2 cup swissh cheese. Return to the oven and let the cheese melt and the veggies warm up.

Slice and serve.

Absolutely a make again, so delicious.

Nice Fresh Summer Meal

I found this recipe on My Recipes.com which is the page that hosts the Cooking Light Recipes.

It sounded nice and summery and perfect.

I did alter the recipe by using boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs since that is what I had on hand - and it worked just fine. I made the marinade as the recipe calls and it hardly seemed like enough for my two chicken breasts - so I'm not sure how it would work for 12 chicken thighs! I would recommend doubling the marinade at least if you did all 12 chicken thighs.

For the tomato salad, I used a mixture of parsley and basil and I have to tell you, the parsley wasn't exciting it it, it didn't lend itself well to the salad, so next time I'd go with all basil in the recipe and would suggest that for you to make it as well.

Grilled Chicken with Tomato Salad

Chicken:
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
12 chicken thighs (about 3 1/2 pounds), skinned
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray

Salad:
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved - I used 2 pints and it was fine with enough for leftovers.
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley - again, go for basil
2 tablespoons diced red onion
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon capers, drained
2 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

Preparation
To prepare chicken, combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 2 hours, turning occasionally.

Prepare grill.

Remove chicken from bag; discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Place chicken on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 9 minutes on each side or until done.

To prepare salad, combine tomatoes and remaining ingredients in a large bowl; toss well. Serve with chicken.



Very good, great for a summer cookout!

Could Possibly Be The Best Pasta Recipe...

This recipe was featured a long time ago on The Pioneer Woman Cooks blog. I always had it bookmarked to make but just never got around to it until now.

We made it last weekend and it was so good, we had seconds, and quickly devoured the remaining leftovers for Sunday lunch, quickly followed by the hubs request to make it again this week and the next and all of the weeks that follow.

Now when the hubs says something like that, a meal MUST be good!

THANK YOU PIONEER WOMAN and PUNK ASS SISTER BETSY!

Penne a la Betsy

(I'm writing the directions part with what I did)

1 pound shrimp

3/4 pound penne pasta (I used a full pound box, I hate having partial boxes of pasta in the house)

butter

olive oil

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup white wine (we used sherry)

1 8oz can tomato saucec

1 cup heavy cream (we used light cream)

fresh parsley

fresh basil

salt and pepper

Cook the penne until tender-firm. Drain and set aside

I used raw in the shell shrimp. I defrosted, peeled, took the tails off and then cooked. Heat 1 T butter and olive oil in a skillet. Add the shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes until just opaque. Do not overcook them. Remove them to a plate to let cool. (NOTE: we decided next time we might use PAM to cook the shrimp to reduce some of the fat in the recipe.)

Finely dice one small onion, mince two cloves of garlic.

In a large skillet heat 2 T butter and 2T olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and saute, stirring occasionally. While this is sauteeing, cut the shrimp in to pieces. Once the onion and garlic have cooked a bit, add the white wine and let evaporate for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. You can use chicken broth if you don't have wine.

Now add the tomato sauce, stir well to combine. (NOTE: I turned the heat down here to reduce the pan heat to add the cream to prevent any curdling.) Then add 1 cup of the cream and stir. Turn heat to low and let simmer while you chop the herbs. Add the herbs - about a T of each to the sauce.

Now add in the shrimp and pasta and stir to combine.

THIS IS A MAKE AGAIN!!!

I love when flavors mesh so well!

I love Thai food - the flavors - ah delish.

And I love a good burger.

The result is a recipe I found on Cara's Cravings Blog. She has a wonderful blog with so many wonderful recipes! I've made many of her recipes and she's never misguided me before.

This was no different.

Wonderful, favorful, easy. With so many flavors in the turkey, it surely doesn't taste like a healthy burger but it is!

You must make these. I served these with an Asian inspired cole-slaw and some fried poofy noodles instead of buns.

Thai Peanut Turkey Burgers

I doubled everything to use the full pound of turkey.

8 oz ground turkey

1 medium carrot shredded

1 large scallion minced

1/4 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. chili garlic sauce

2 tbs natural peanut butter

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp ground ginger

*NOTES: I also added a touch of fresh cilantro to the hamburger mixture since it comes out in the may as well and it was a nice addition.

Combine the above ingredients in a mixing bowl. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Form burgers in to patties. Cook for 7-10 minutes per side until cooked through.

Mayo for the burgers

2 T light may

handful minced cilantro

1-2 tsp. chili sauce

Mix all ingreidents together and top on the burgers.

For the coleslaw

I went with a very similar mix to the may for the burgers.

1 bag cole slaw mix

Fresh cilantro
1/4 cup light mayo

2-3 T chili sauce

combine all ingredients and let sit in the fridge for an hour before serving.

This dinner was just a wnderful mix of flavors and was a huge hit. I will make this whole meal again!