Ginger, Scallion and Garlic Shrimp

Well for those of you that know me well know I'm NOT a fan of Rachel Ray - simply because I've had the pleasure of meeting her and well, let's just say, it was NOT pleasurable!

Ever since that meeting I really stopped being a fan of hers.

But slowly but surely as I pick up issues of her magazine at stores and doctors to browse I'm getting more on the bandwagon - but I am still not a HUGE fan.

But this recipe popped up on my cooking board the other week and the girl who posted it raved about it - so I decided what the heck. It was descent. A little oily and I was disappointed that even after coating there wasn't much of a crispy coating on the shrimp - it just tasted oily.

I think if you just sauteed the shrimp in some light oil with the garlic, ginger, scallion and such it would have been a little better. We decided the flavors were good so we'll try just that next time.

Here's the full recipe from her Everyday Magazine.

Ginger, Scallion and Garlic Shrimp
From Every Day with Rachael Ray
4 SERVINGS
Prep Time: 12 min (plus marinating)
Cook Time: 10 min
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1½ teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1½ pounds large (26 to 30 count) shrimp, shelled and deveined
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons)
One 1½-inch piece of ginger, scraped and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 scallions, halved lengthwise, cut into 1-inch-pieces, dark green parts set aside
Steamed rice

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg white with the cornstarch, sugar, salt and pepper until a paste forms. Add the shrimp and toss to coat. Set the shrimp aside to marinate for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes; set aside.

2. Heat a large, heavy skillet over high heat for 3 minutes. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add the shrimp and the white and light green scallion pieces and stir to coat with the oil. Cook, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet, until the shrimp are almost cooked through, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic mixture and the dark green scallion pieces and cook, stirring, until the shrimp are cooked through, about 1 minute more. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer the shrimp to a large platter and serve with steamed rice.

Parmesan Chicken & Rice

For my first post on the Realistic Eats Blog, I wanted to add a recipe that I thought was wonderful and easy. It didn't take any time at all to make it (in fact I have a cold and felt sick, but still wanted to feed myself and my sweetie.) and it was really delicious with simple ingredients.

Parmesan Chicken and Rice

This was one of the best recipes that I've ever made. It was so delicious and had a great flavor from the mushrooms. The cheese also made it really good as well.

Ingredients
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1 tsp bottled mince garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 8-ounce package preslided mushrooms
3/4 lb boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1 cup less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, and mushrooms; saute 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add chicken; saute 4 minutes or until the chicken is lightly browned. Add wine, salt, and pepper; cook 3 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates.
2. Stir in rice and broth. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmmer 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in cheese and parsley.

Notes
Yields 4 servings, about 1 cup each. I added double rice and double cheese to make it super yummy!

Who is this new person posting??

Why it's my friend Kate from Maryland.

Kate and I went to Purdue together (go Boilers!) and still stay in touch - especially via our blogs. So when she asked me a while back to be a contributor to my food blog I said heck ya girlie!

Tonight she made her first post on this blog - the chicken and rice dish.

Kate is a pretty new cooker (no offense Kate!) but she's got some good recipes! So be sure to try some of her things as well!

Her blog you can catch her at it http://kateypooh.blogspot.com/

I made the Ugly Food Blog!

So, I've seen this ugly food blog floating around my cooking board on the nest. So tonight, since I'm stuck at work, I finally checked it out and I scroll down to see they are talking about a stuffed pumpkin. And I went - Ooo I made one of those this year, let's see how bad this person's looked! And lo and behold, it was my stuffed pumpkin!

It is strange, but in a way - I'm honored to be on the ugly food blog - especially with that recipe - because it just did not come out very good!

And lest we remember people - should my other recipes make it to the ugly food blog - just because something looks ugly doesn't mean it doesn't taste good.

http://uglyblogfood.blogspot.com/2007/11/chili-pie-and-chia-pet.html

Fabulous Fish!

I had a recipe in my stand for a few weeks now I wanted to make, so this week I got all of the ingredients. Then after staying home from work yesterday and being lazy, I was in NO mood to deal with pouches for the fish. So I essentially followed the same recipe minus the pouch with potato part and made the potatoes separately.

This was crazy DELICIOUS!!!! Adam raved about the flavor as did I!

Origonal Recipe from Eating Well
Makes 4 servings
ACTIVE TIME: 35 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 50 minutes
EASE OF PREPARATION: Moderate
1/4 cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons dry white wine

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 pound yellow-fleshed potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 pound sole or flounder fillets, cut into 4 portions

1. Preheat a gas or charcoal grill.

2. Combine shallots, parsley and capers in a small bowl. Whisk lemon juice, wine, oil and mustard in a small bowl or glass measuring cup.

3. Stack two 20-inch sheets of foil (the double layers will help protect the ingredients on the bottom from burning). Coat the center of the top layer with cooking spray. Arrange one-fourth of the potatoes, slightly overlapping, to form a 5- to 6-inch circle in the center of the foil. Sprinkle with a dash of salt; set a piece of fish on the potatoes. Top with one-fourth of the shallot mixture and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice mixture. Bring the short ends of the foil together, leaving enough room in the packet for steam to gather and cook the food. Fold the foil over and pinch to seal. Pinch seams together along the sides. Make sure all the seams are tightly sealed to keep steam from escaping. Make 3 more packets with the remaining ingredients.

4. Place the packets on a gas grill over medium heat or on a charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium coals. Cover the grill and cook until the potatoes are tender and the fish is opaque in the center, 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness. (When opening a packet to check for doneness, be careful of steam.) To serve, use a spatula to slide the contents of the packet onto a plate. Top with the remaining lemon juice mixture.

*****

OK now here's what I did differently - I did NOT do the pouches. I placed the fish in a baking dish seasoned with salt and then in a bowl mixed everything - minus the potatoes - and then poured that over the fish and baked that for about 15 - 20 minutes - we used tilapia. Then I diced and boiled the potatoes, then drained and seasoned with 1 T each olive oil and butter and then salt, pepper, parsley, dill, paprika and garlic powder - i used fresh parsley though. As you can see - my version was MUCH easier!!!

THIS Was out of this world, we talked about this dish all night long.

Tortellini Soup with Canellini and Kielbasa

This was so easy and fantastic for dinner with me nice fresh bread.

2 T olive oil
12 oz. fully cooked smoked kielbasa thinly sliced - I used Turkey Kielbasa
1 onion chopped
1 medium fennel bulb chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 T fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
10 cups chicken stock
4 cups baby spinach or kale (the recipe calls for kale, but we don't eat kale so we used spinach and it was wonderful!)
15 oz. can of canellini beans drained and rinsed
9 oz package of cheese ravioli

heat oil in stock pot and add the next 6 ingredients. saute until vegetables are tender and kielbasa is brown. Reduce heat and add broth. Bring to boil. add the beans and spinach and bring to a simmer. add the tortellini and ook for about 6-8 minutes until the tortellini is tender.

top with parmesan cheese in the bowls and serve.

Turkey Wild Rice Casserole

I needed something to do with some of fthe leftover turkey from Turkey Day so I came across this recipe in my old grade school cook book - yet again this book is proving to be the best addition to my recipe entrouage.

Adam LOVED this reciep, he's still raving about it 3 days later and can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow night. I thought it was good - but a little heavy.

Turkey & Wild Rice Casserole

1 cup wild rice (I actually doubled this to 2 cups uncooked - using the Trader Joe's brown and wild rice mix and I'm glad I used the 2 cups uncooked, it would have been way too little rice for all of the meat mixture to follow)

1T olive oil and cooking spray

1 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms

2 carrots sliced

3 stalks of celery sliced

1/2 onion chopped

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

3 cups cooked turkey diced

1/2 cups slivered almonds

3 cups chicken stock - reduced sodium and fat

1 1/2 cups light cream

2 T sherry or lemon juice

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Cook rice according to package directions. let cool.

In a large skillet or dutch oven heat oil/pam and sautee all of the vegetables until tender. Then add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer until slightly thickened. The one thing I did add here was about 2 tsp of dried sage for some flavor and that really helped.

Spray a casserole dish - you'll need a large 13x9 or something, and preheat your oven to 350. Place rice in bottom of casserole and then top with the meat mixture. Cover and bake for 20 minutes and then uncover and and cook another 10-15 minutes until thickened.

Excellent Mac & Cheese

So I heard about this recipe from Ellie Krieger for home made mac & cheese that uses butternut squash as a base to elimiate the fat that would typically be used in the heavy cream.

I decided to give it a try saturday night with a nice turkey meatloaf, talk about comfort food!

It was so good. unfortunately all of the cheese was too rich for adam, but my god it was so good and i'm still eating it!!

Macaroni and 4 Cheeses
Cooking spray
1 pound elbow macaroni - i used the new ronzio smart choice pasta for added fiber
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen pureed winter squash
2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt (and surprisingly with the cheese in there, it really does still need the teaspoon fo salt cause i typically don't salt anything with cheeses in it but it needed it )
1 teaspoon powdered mustard (I just used real dijon)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used Paprika instead)
(I also added about half a teaspoon of nutmeg here too
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but firm, about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.

Mmmm comfort food!

Thanksgiving

For pictures and such, visit
http://www.adventures-of-the-hesslers.blogspot.com/

Chicken Cordon Blue in a White Wine Sauce

I was trying to decide what to take for my monthly Habitat for Humaity dinner the other week when mom told me oh you should make that chicken with cream sauce I used to make. Failing to find the recipe like she was describing it online, I decided to get out my old elementary school cook book, relinquishing myself to making another recipe she used to make - Whamo! Chicken I decided I'd browse for something else to make.


Lo and behold 3 pages from Whamo! Chicken was the chicken recipe submitted by my mom!


It was a little time consuming to make (thank heavens I took the whole day out of work - just kidding!) but it was such a delicious meal. I served it over a mixture of white and brown rice and with fresh squash sauteed.

4 chicken breasts, butterflied

parsley dried or fresh for garnish

4 thin slices of baby swiss cheese

4 thin slices of low sodium ham

1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs

3 T wheat germ (optional)

Lay chicken out and place ham and cheese over breast. Roll the breast up and then roll into the mixture of bread crumbs and wheat germ. (You can choose to do an egg wash but my chicken was moist enough that I didn't bother.)

Spray baking pan and place chicken rolls in pan with seam facing down. Bake in preheated ovedn on 425 for 20 minutes or until browned and cheese is melty.

Sauce

1 C fat free low sodium chicken stock

3T flour

3 T white wine (I used sherry and it did turn the sauce a little brown but was still delicious)

2/3 cup milk

onion poweder, white pepper, nutmeg to taste

parsley to garnish

Combine broth and wine in saucepan and heat to boiling, redudce heat. Mix flour and milk in small cup and then stir into the simmering broth. Cook until thick and bubbly. Sprinkle in herbs and seasonings. Pour over chicken and serve.

Pork Fried Rice

An easy weeknight favorite. We look for the packages of Misc. pork at the grocery stores, it's usually pieces off the belly and rib area and they just slice it up and sell it. We buy these and slice and dice them into 1 lb. servings and then freeze. This meal was perfect because it was quick, delicious and simple.






Pork Fried Rice

2 Cups cooked rice

1 lb. pork, sliced/diced

sesame oil, 2 T

2 pagackages chinese frozen veggies by birds eye

1 can water chestnuts

1 can bamboo shoots

2 eggs, beaten + 1 T milk

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp. dried ginger



Heat 1 T of sesame oil in the Wok and add the pork. Cook until just done. Remove and set aside in a bowl.

Add remaining 1 T of oil to the wok and add the veggies (canned and frozen) and the rice. Cook until veggies are tender and heated through.

In another small skillet, spray with cooking spray and scramble the 2 eggs. When done, transfer to bowl with pork.

Add pork/egg mixture to wok with vegetables and rice. In a measuring cup, combine the soy sauce and ginger then pour over food in the wok. Toss to flavor and serve.

Finally, a stuffed pumpkin for you!

So on Halloween each year I make a stuffed pumpkin for dinner. This year we tried a new recipe and were really not all that impressed with how it turned out. Usually I use rice and meat with veggies for the filling, this recipe called for meat and stuffing with heavy cream. It had a really nice flavor but was just way too heavy for dinner. Sadly, the leftovers never made it in our bellies but in the trash can.

Oh well, it was pretty!

Overstuffed Pumpkin with Cornbread, Apples, and Turkey Sausage with Sauvignon Blanc

1 pumpkin
1/4 cup melted butter (I just used some olive oil)
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil (I used Pam)
1 onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage, divided
Salt and pepper
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cubed
2 pounds ground turkey sausage (I used a lb. of meatloaf mixture meat)
3/4 cup Sauvignon Blanc wine (I used Sherry)
1 cup heavy cream
1 (16-ounce) package cornbread stuffing ( I used regular stuffing)
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Cut off the lid of the pumpkin and set it aside.

Pull out the seeds and strings from inside the pumpkin. Brush the inside flesh with melted butter, season with salt and pepper.

Place pumpkin on a roasting pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

In a large skillet, heat oil over moderate heat. Add onion, celery, garlic, celery seed, fennel seed and 2 tablespoons each parsley and sage. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the apples and cook 2 minutes. Add the ground sausage, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, and brown until no longer pink, about 10 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with wine, cook down 2 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Stir in the cream, check seasoning. Scrape the sausage mixture into a large bowl and fold in the cornbread.

Gradually blend in the eggs and chicken broth, until the stuffing is evenly moistened. Add remaining parsley and sage. Fill the pumpkin with stuffing, return to the oven and bake 20 minutes until the eggs are cooked and the stuffing has a little lift. Serve stuffing in the pumpkin bowl topped with lid

Product Rave

Run, don't walk, to your nearest market to try these out. Oh ok, what the hell, you can wait until after the Thanksgiving rush at the market to get these.

Strolling down the bread aisle Sunday - not needing ANY bread - a little pack of English Muffins with a red stripe on them caught my eye - NEW, Limited Edition Thomas Cranberry English Muffins.

Well, if you know me, you cranberries are one of my favorite foods ever - any way you make them - I'll eat them. And put them in a tasty toasty baked good - even better!

I bought two packages (I know I hadn't even tried them but come on how bad could they be?!). Oh My God! So glad I got two - one pack is in the freezer and the other is almost gone!

They are the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. The cranberries are fresh and huge in them and toasted with a touch of butter - mmmm delicious!

These are limited edition - just for the holidays - but you have to get them and stock up! You'll want them year round.

I hope they start doing more of these. A pumpkin English Muffin would be great, so would a blueberry one in the summer!

A quick staple in our meal schedule

This past weekend we worked feverishly to get the basement done before the carpet gets installed this week.

So last night, when it was finally time for dinner at 9:15 I was so glad I had a quick dinner planned.

Turkey Sausage and Potatoes

After years of making this adam and I finally decided the best way to do it is to use canned potatoes and after icking the idea for a LONG time - now it's what we do - they cook up so much faster and crispier without the meat getting too browned.

Slice turkey sausage
drain and rinse potatoes
place in skillet and sautee til golden brown

I season mine with Hungarian Sweet Paprkia, garlic and onion and a little pepper. Remember, don't add salt, there's enough in the meat.

It's Soup Season

It's Cold! We've had our first real frost - you know the scrape the windows on the car in the morning kinda frost.

Last night we had our first bag of our favorite soup for the season - thanks to Greg and Sandy getting us hooked on these.

http://www.vigoalessi.com/dgroupView.php?grp1=7

Last night was split pea - that and the lentil are really our only two favorites but they have so many.

That coupled with some pilsbury breadsticks and a nice salad with Girardi's Champagne dressing was delicious - but just too late for our tummies once I got home from work at 8:15.

See how easy and nice dinner can be!

Did you know...

Cheesecake Factory now sells a bunch of their sauces and dressings? Oh yes! But they don't sell jars of their awesome penaut sauce!

So Friday when there with friends, we begged them to sell us 3 jars of the peanut sauce that is so good - and we found out they make is fresh each day with a blend of other sauces and herbs - but they still sold us 3 jars for 5 bucks a jar.

We finally finshed up the sauce last night - since there aren't any preservitives you have to eat it within 7 days (or freeze it) so we ate it! I served it with chicken cubes and a dipping sauce at my Lill party saturday night, we had it with noodles and chicken for leftover lunch, and last night on chicken thighs and rice. SO GOOD!

See if you can bum some off your local Cheesecake Factory today :)