Cleaning out the pantry...

"Tom, what do you want for dinner tonight?"  -- This is a very common question in our household.  It's funny, I don't usually get much of a response other than, "Whatever you want, babe."  So then I typically forget about it then get home and nothing is thawed.  In those situations, my go-to's are any kind of fish or seafood since they thaw quickly.  I had a few shrimp left over and a box of frozen spinach.  I guess we call this dish, "Shrimp Qunioa"....Any better suggestions are appreciated!

Ingredients
- 1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained in the microwave
- 10-12 shrimp, thawed and peeled
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 large onion or 1 small onion
- 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Bring the chicken broth to a boil and cook the quinoa as directed on the package.  In a separate pan, sautee onion and garlic until soft.  Add shrimp for 3-4 minutes until pink.  Add spinach and heat through.  When the quinoa is finished, add the shrimp and spinach mixture.  Finish with a bit of butter to bring it all together (about 1 tbsp.)  Stir.  Eat.  Yum.

Pesky Turkey Leftovers

Hi all.  It's been a while.  My blogging has slowed down since our CSA box stopped for the winter :(

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I know I am turkey'd out!  But, I hate throwing out food...so I had to find some other way to use up the rest of the turkey leftovers.  As a kid...and now..I LOVED tuna noodle casserole.  I did a spin on that for a turkey noodle casserole!

- left over turkey, cubed
- 2 cups uncooked egg noodles
- 1/2 cup frozen green beans
-1/4 cup roasted red peppers, diced
- 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
- 3/4 cup red pepper alfredo sauce (it's what I had...)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
-1/4 cup milk or half n half
-2 tsp. butter.

Preheat the oven to 400*.  Start a pot of water boiling for the noodles.  In the meantime, dice the red peppers and turkey.  When the water is boiling, drop the noodled and cook according to package directions.  In the last 2-3 minutes add the green beans.  Once the noodles are done, drain them and put back in the pot with the butter, alfredo, milk, red peppers and turkey.  Stir and put into a small baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Top with bread crumbs and cheese.  Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and voila!

 Before going in the oven

 

After

Thats all for now.  Anyone have any suggestions for a star ingredient that they would like me to feature?  I love comments!

Happy Anniversary :)

Yesterday Tom and I celebrated our first anniversary.  (go ahead, gush about it! ;) )  The dinner we had wasn't totally "fresh" because Tom LOVES filet mignon so I made that for us.  However, my mashed potatoes and beet custard have CSA box ingredients :)

Beef Mashed Potatoes

• 4 cups beef stock (1/4- 1/2 cup reserved after cooking)
• 2 lb. red-skinned potatoes 
• 1/4 cup cream
• salt and pepper

Cut potatoes with skin on into 1-inch pieces.  Pour beef stock over top and boil until potatoes are tender.  Pour out stock, reserving about 1/2 cup.  Add cream, salt, and pepper and mash it up!

Roasted Beet Custard

• 1 lb. fresh beets, washed
• olive oil 
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. sugar

Earlier in the day I roasted the beets.  Preheat to 300 degrees.  Drizzle olive oil over the beet and roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Pull them out and let them cool.  Once cool, the peels should pull off easily.  Peel and puree the beets.  Fold in the cream, eggs, and egg yolks.  

Spray small 4 oz. ramekins with cooking spray.  Fill them up with the batter (mine made 3).  Bake at 250 for about an hour.  I put mine in a baking dish in a water bath to ensure even cooking.  Remove when firm.  We bruleed the top with a blow torch (see video).  Put a tsp. sugar on top and burn it up!  This was realllly good. It could've passed for dessert!

Filet Mignon

• 2 filets
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp. butter.  

I used my trusty cast iron skillet.  Kept the oven on from the beets and upped it to about 325.  Season the filets with salt and pepper.  Melt butter in the skillet and get it nice and hot.  Sear the steaks on each side (2-3 min per side).  Put skillet in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until desired doneness.  We eat ours medium-rare.

Thanks for stopping!  I have lots more to upload....maybe another day... ;)

Steakhouse ala Tweedle

Hello all!  I have been slacking majorly.  I actually have been cooking, but just haven't had a minute to sit down and blog.  We have been very busy with weddings and life in general.  This weekend I looked in our chest freezer and saw some nature's basket ribeye steaks and decided to make them today.  What do you get with a steak?  Mashed potatoes and creamed spinach of course! .... Well, with a little twist :)

Steaks with chived and Greek yogurt mashed potatoes and Creamy Kale
---For the steak:
- 2 boneless ribeye steaks, natural if possible
- salt and pepper to season

----For the potatoes
- 4-5 yukon potatoes (from our basket) cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
- 1 bunch of chives (about 1/4 cup- 1/2 cup when finely chopped)
- 1/4 cup skim milk
- salt and pepper to taste


---For the kale:
- 1 bunch of kale, stems removed and cut into ribbons
- 1/4 cup skim milk (should probably have used cream, but I didn't have it...they turned out kind of runny)
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 4-5 sun-dried tomatoes diced
- 2 tbsp. sour cream


Preheat the oven to 350.  Begin boiling water for kale in one pot and the potatoes in chicken broth (you can use water, but I like the extra flavor) in another pot.  Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, with a spray of Pam.  When the water comes to a boil, add the kale for about 2-3 minutes until tender.

Once the skillet is preheated put the seasoned steaks into the skillet.  Sear for 3-4 minutes on each side and then put into the preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes or desired doneness.

Remove from the boiling water and put into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the color.  Let it sit for a few minutes then add back to the pot.  Add the milk, wine, and nutmeg and let simmer over medium heat for 6-8 minutes then lower heat to allow liquid to reduce.  My liquid did not reduce all the way down because I used skim milk.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes at the end.

Once the potatoes are tender (about 10-12 minutes) drain from the broth (I keep about 2 Tbsp. of broth in there).  Add the Greek yogurt, chives, and milk and mash and mix.  I like them a bit chunky and I also keep the skins on the potatoes.

Before plating, let the steaks rest for about 5 minutes so the juices can redistribute.  Also, add the sour cream to the kale.

 

Here is a picture of the full stove top :)

Tom got home just in time for dinner:

 

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy the steakhouse at home...it's much cheaper!!

Cruciferous party

I love the word cruciferous.  Cruciferous is another word for cabbage-family vegetables and they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  Today my stars are kale and cabbage

Beer-Braised Kale with Pancetta
- 1 bunch Kale
- 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pancetta
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 beer
- 1/2 cup stock ( I used vegetable)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Start by washing the kale.  Pull it off of the hard stems and break into pieces.  I used my salad spinner to wash and dry it off.  Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and saute onions and pancetta until getting browned.  Add the garlic at the end (I grate it with a microplane).  Add the kale and a bit more oil and coat it with the oil and onion mixture.  Add the beer and stock to cover kale about 2/3 of the way.  Put a lid on and simmer for about 20-25 minutes.  Enjoy :)  We had some leftover meatballs.  I probably should have let it braise 5 more minutes it was still not quite tender, but it was still yummy.

Turkey Stuffed Cabbage 
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/3 cup uncooked brown rice
-2/3 cup water
- splash Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper
- 8 cabbage leaves
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- splash white wine
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 tsp. tomato paste
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce

- Bring 2/3 cup water to a boil.  Add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Bring a wide, large saucepan 2/3 way full of water to a boil.  Add cabbage head whole for about 6 minutes.  This helps so that the leaves peel right off and don't tear.  Drain and cool. 

Combine the ground turkey, rice, tomato paste, some juice from the fire-roasted tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, onion, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  Spoon into the cabbage leaves and place in a dutch oven (I used the same pot I boiled water in for the cabbage).  I placed them with the rolled side down so it stayed together, but you could use a toothpick or string if desired.  Pour sauce, rest of the fire-roasted tomatoes, stock, and wine over top.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes, basting and stirring occasionally.   Serve.

These were absolutely delicious.  I didn't miss the red meat in them.  It made some extra sauce to pour over the top.  Probably one of my favorites on the website so far!  Thanks for reading :)

Hodgepodge

Sorry I have been away for a while.  Things have been very busy and I left my laptop cord at a friend's house so I have had a dead lap top for a week :)

Anyway, this past week's CSA box had:
Kale
Roma Tomatoes
Corn on the Cob
Red bell pepper
Peaches
Green beans

We went to Erin's parents house for dinner on Friday night and we were going to be busy a lot of the weekend, so I tried a dish that used up a lot of our food to take there.  I ended up doing a Quinoa salad with roasted corn, red pepper, and green beans

Quinoa Salad with corn, green beans, and red pepper
- 2 cups quinoa
-4 cups chicken broth
-4 ears of corn, roasted
- 1 red bell pepper, roasted
- 2-3 handfuls green beans, blanched
- salt and pepper
-4-5 tbsp butter

This took a bit of time to make, but I made it as I was doing things on Friday.  Start by roasting the corn and red bell pepper.

To roast corn in the oven, preheat to 400.  Peel the husks back from the corn, but not all the way off.  Remove the corn silks.  Put a small pad of butter inside each cob as you wrap them back up in the corn husks.  I made two packets by wrapping to cobs in foil and placed directly in the oven.  Once they have cooled and are able to be handled, stand up the corn and cut the kernels off.  I put a ramekin bottom-up in the bowl and cut down the cob so the kernels fall into the bowl.

To roast the red pepper, you can do it at the same time as the corn.  If you have a gas stove, which I don't, you can just char it on top of the burner.  Since I don't have one, I used the oven.  Just put the pepper on a small baking pan and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 turning every ten minutes or so.  When you take it out put it in a brown paper bag or wrap tightly in foil to keep the heat in.  The pepper will shrivel in about 10-15 minutes.  Once it shrivels it is very easy to peel the skin off.  Cut off the top and squeeze out all of the seeds then dice the pepper.

To blanch the green beans, boil a pot of water and salt it.  Cut the ends of the beans off and cut into bite-size pieces.  Drop the beans in the boiling water and after about 3-5 minutes remove and put the beans into ice water to stop the cooking and keep the color.

Make the quinoa as instructed on the package.  I always make mine with chicken broth instead of water.  Combine the veggies with the quinoa and toss.  Add a tbsp. of butter and voila!  People really liked it at Erin's moms.  I totally failed on taking pictures during cooking and of the final product so I only have one of the veggies before adding the quinoa!  Oops!

 

In other news, I actually baked yesterday for our Labor Day party.  I made a skillet pineapple upside down cake from scratch and people seemed to like it.  It's not really related to the post at all but I was just happy I baked something and it turned out.

Bring it on down to Omelette-ville!

Every once in a while I like breakfast for dinner.....especially eggs.  I am not good at flipping omelettes, however.  I thought I could do it in the oven instead, and I was right.  It's similar to a quiche or a strata, but just very thin layer so it as quite omelette-like.  I made a pepper- tomato- carmelized onion omelette for dinner last night.  Here's the recipe!

Green Pepper, Tomato, Carmelized Onion Omelette
- 1 cup diced, roasted green bell pepper (from Dilner's farm)
-1 cup diced, roasted tomatoes (from Dilner's)
- 1 onion, carmelized. (from Dilner's)
- 2 tbsp. butter
-olive oil
-6 eggs (organic if ya got 'em!)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a tomato basil cheese from Finger Lakes)
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Melt the butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cut the bell pepper in half and remove the seeds and do the same with the tomatoes.  Place on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until soft and roasted.  Once done, pull out and let them cool, then dice.  Meanwhile, slice the onion and put in the pan with butter.  Be sure not to exceed medium heat when carmelizing onions.  They will take about 30 minutes to carmelize. 

Beat the 6 eggs in a bowl.  Add in the diced peppers and tomatoes and carmelized onions.  Add the ricotta, cheese, and salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Pour into a 9 x 12 an coated with cooking spray.  Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 375 or until cooked through.  For the last 2-3 minutes melt some cheese on top.

I totally forgot to take pictures of my ingredients.  I only have one of the finished product.  This was pretty tasty, although, this is coming from the person who can eat carmelized onions as a meal by themselves sooo....

I also made French toast this weekend with the Amish bread that came in our basket last week.  I again, forgot to take a picture, but it was really good.  I put eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in my batter....and I don't measure, so I can't help ya there!

This week's CSA box on Thursday will have sweet corn, eggplant, green beans, peaches, cucumber, red bell pepper, and roma tomatoes.  Stay tuned!  I am thinking of some sort of Eggplant Napoleon, a green bean salad of some sort.  Tomorrow I am making scallops with garlic green beans with the beans I got last week!  Have a great night, and thanks for reading!

Sloppy Joe...Slop..Sloppy Joe

I know what you're thinking.  Sloppy Joes on a food blog?  Is she serious?  Well, this ain't no Mamwich :)  I had decided to make homemade sloppy Joes with grass-fed ground meat and the green pepper and hot pepper from my CSA box.  However, my green pepper was not looking so hot, and I sadly had to pitch it :(

Spicy Homemade Sloppy Joes
- 1 lb lean ground beef (I used grass-fed)
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 small hot pepper (I used half of the one in the picture below), finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp. Dion Mustard (No HFCS in Dijon by the way!)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste (used this instead of ketchup since it also does not have HFCS)
- 1 can fire roasted crushed tomatoes (14.5 oz)
- 2 tsp. brown sugar
- 1 tsp. Worcestershire
- 1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
- whole wheat buns

In a large skillet or a dutch oven, pour about 1 tbsp. olive oil.   Cook the meat, onion, and pepper over medium-high heat until the meat is brown and the onion and pepper are soft.  Season with salt and pepper.

When the meat and onion and pepper are almost cooked, grate the garlic cloves over top.  (If you add them too early, they will burn.)  Drain the meat mixture in a strainer to get rid of any grease.  Return the meat and onion mixture to the skillet or dutch oven.  Add the tomato paste, Dijon, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and the fire roasted tomatoes.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat and let it simmer for about 25 minutes.  Remove from heat and let rest for about 5 minutes to thicken. 

Before serving, add the sour cream and incorporate into the Sloppy Joe mixture.

You don't have to do this, but that pepper was HOT so it served a few purposes.  The sour cream cooled it down some, made it a little creamier, and helped thicken the Sloppy Joes.  Put on a toasted bun and top with a slice of cheese, if desired. 

Tom ate two and he hardly ever eats seconds :)  The best part is we have left overs for tomorrow!  Thanks for reading :)  Let me know how they turn out!  I will definitely be making these again sometime.

Family Reunion Day

Today is our family reunion with my mom's family, the LeGrands.  Everyone brings a side dish.  I decided to make cucumber salad from the farm and a peach, plum, and raspberry crisp.  Delicious!

Cucumber Salad
- 4 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup sour cream
-1/2 cup greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp. snipped chives
-salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 2 tsp. distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 to 1/2 diced onion (I used red because that's what I had, but you can use whatever, or none at all)

Combine the sour cream, Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, chives, sugar, and vinegar together until smooth.  Pour over sliced cucumbers and onions.  Mix well until cucumbers are coated.  Chill for at least 1 hour.  I am not crazy about the taste of raw onion so I didn't put a whole lot in there and used more chives since they have a mild onion flavor.  Hope people like it!  If not, I'm glad to bring home leftovers :)

 

Peach-Plum-Raspberry Crisp 

- 3 large peaches, peeled and thinly sliced

- 3 small plums, thinly sliced

- 1/2 cup fresh raspberried

- 1 tbsp cornstarch

-2 tbsp sugar

-2 tsp. cinnamon (divided)

- juice of one orange

-2 tbsp Gran Marnier (optional)

-zest of one orange

- 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

-3/4 cup brown sugar

-3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 1/4 cup butter, cut into pea-sized cubes

 

For the filling

 

For the crumble

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine the sliced peaches, plums, raspberries in a medium-sized glass baking dish.  Combine the orange juice, Gran Marnier, corn starch, sugar, and cinnamon.  Pour over the fruit and gently combine.  In a separate bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, and orange zest (P.S.  Don't forget to zest the orange before you juice it into the fruit mixture!).  Combine the crumble mixture (I just use a clean hand to do it) so that you have pea-sized crumbles.  I suppose you could use a food processor too and pulse it, but I didn't have time to get it out.  Spoon the mixture over the fruit and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown and fruit is bubbling.  Let cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.  This would be amazing with some vanilla bean up on top.  We'll see how everyone likes it!

Mama Mia!

Good evening all.  Tonight's star from my CSA box is the tomato.  I made a tomato-basil panzanella (bread salad). 

I don't know about anyone else, but I see baguettes in the grocery store and think they look sooo tasty and then I forget there are only two of us at home and before you know it, it's stale.  Well, this recipe is perfect for that good, stale bread!  It's also a good vegetarian meal--AND it's quick!  Tom worked down in the basement all day and I wanted to make him a good Italian meal.  He loves Italian and I especially wanted to carb load him after a day of work. 

Ingredients:
- 1 baguette, any kind, I used sourdough, cubed
-3-4 tbsp. olive oil
-1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp. seasoning for the bread. (I used this garlic parm dipping oil seasoning I have)

-about 1 cup variety of tomatoes (I used the two in my CSA box and then a few grape tomatoes I had in the fridge, roughly diced and seeded
- 8-10 leaves of basil
- 5-6 fresh mozzarella bocconcini, diced in half or thirds
- salt and pepper
- pasta on the side, if desired

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cube the stale bread and set aside on a baking sheet.  This was tough!  Stale bread is not easy to cut, even with a serrated knife...got a little workout in for the upcoming carbs I was about to consume.  Cut the large tomatoes in half. GENTLY squeeze some of the extra juice from the tomatoes down over the bread cubes.  Roughly chop the tomatoes and put aside on a different baking sheet.  Stack about 6 leaves of basil on top of one another and roll into a cigar.  Keeping the tight roll, chop the basil and you get little ribbons of basil to put over your tomatoes.  Add about 2 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes and basil and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle about 2 tbsp. olive oil over the bread and sprinkle your bread seasoning (garlic powder, parm cheese, etc.)  Put both baking sheets in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on the bread so that it doesn't burn.

 I know it doesn't look like a lot, but remember its just the to of us :)

While the food is in the oven, cube the mozzarella balls.  Fresh mozzarella can be a bit expensive, so I usually get it from the antipasto bar.  It ends up being a good bit cheaper and just as fresh!

Remove the bread and tomato basil mix from the oven and toss together in a bowl with the mozzarella.  I chopped about 3 more leaves of basil to put over the top and drizzled a bit more olive oil.  For some reason, I didn't think this would be enough to eat on its own so I made some pasta to have on the side.  It was definitely enough food without the pasta and the bread was so nice and crispy.  However, it DOES need a nice glass of red wine :)

Oh Deer

I think I have mentioned before that my Uncle Don is a hunter (and a very good one at that!)  He loaded us up on venison last time we saw him.  I will never say no to lean, organic, local meat!  Tom and I have been on vacation this week working on the basement....(maybe he will start a blog on that), which means I have been cooking more meals than usual.  Tuesday night I made venison steaks on the grill with a grilled zucchini and spinach gnocchi.  I finally used up my last zucchini!

Not much to this "recipe." 

Venison steaks with spinach gnocchi and grilled zucchini
- 2 venison boneless steaks
- salt and pepper
-half box of spinach gnocchi that I had in the pantry
- zucchini
- spice rub
-olive oil

Pretty easy!
I preheated the grill and boiled water on the stove for the gnocchi.  Sliced the zucchini lengthwise and seasoned with a tsp. or so of dry spice rub and olive oil.  Put the steaks(seasoned with salt and pepper) and zucchini on the grill and the gnocchi in the water.  The steaks took about 4-5 minutes per side and the zucchini about 3-4.  It was great because everything was done at the same time.  Don't you love it when that happens!?

 

In other news my CSA box arrived today!  They give you so much food!  And I have the small box, too.  We got a cantaloupe, peaches, nectarines, plums, corn, green pepper, tomatoes, and a cucumber.  We also stopped at Reilly's to go raspberry picking, as you see on the side.  The CSA pick up site has a "swap box" so we swapped one of our ears of corn (they had given us 3) for a hot pepper.  I hope we can eat all of this!

Since it was so nice out tonight, we decided to grill out again.  On our trip to Finger Lakes this past weekend we got some great cheeses!  One of them was roasted garlic cheese.  I decided to make Venison (surprise, surprise) burgers with a roasted garlic cheese center with grilled sweet corn on the cob.

Ingredients

- about 1 lb. ground venison (or whatever meat you'd like)
- 4 one-inch cubes of your favorite cheese, I used roasted garlic)
- dash of Worcestershire sauce
- 1 clove of garlic, grated
- 1/4 onion (optional), grated
- salt and pepper
- toppings, as you'd like
-2 ears of corn, in their husks

Begin by soaking the corn (in the husk) in a pot of water for about 15-20 minutes.  Preheat the grill to medium heat.  Cut 4 cubes of the cheese and set aside.  To make the burgers, in a bowl put the ground venison and grate the onion and garlic overtop with a microplane grater (this gives the burger some moisture, especially the onion since venison can be dry.)  Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper.  Mix gently, but do not overmix.  Score the meat into 4 even sections to make the burger patties.  Form each burger around a cube of the cheese.  Be sure they are well-formed so they do not fall apart on the grill.  Set the prepared burgers aside.  Remove the corn from the water.  Pull back (but do not remove) the husks and remove the silks.  Wrap the husks back up the corn.  Put the corn on a medium-heat grill, turning every 2-3 minutes for 2-3 turns, then put to the top rack of the grill.  Put the burgers on the grill.  They take about 5 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness.  For the last 2 minutes, feel free to put more cheese on top!  I had some extra Mango BBQ sauce from my BBQ chicken last week, so I put some on top of the burger along with some Romaine lettuce my neighbor gave us from her garden.

This one was a winner!  That cheese is amazing!  Tomorrow: A caprese bread salad with fresh tomatoes!  Thanks for reading, everyone :)

Recovering

Hello, all!  Sorry for the lapse in posting.  Tom and I have been away since Thursday.  We went to the Finger Lakes and bought a TON of wine.  If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it.  Be prepared to spend money if you like wine.....some of them you taste and you just have to have them!  Anyways, we came home with 2 cases of wine.  We went with Tom's sister, Kathryn and her fiance, Mike to get wine for their wedding.  I am excited to drink it! :)  We also got a few different cheeses that I am excited to cook with!

We then went to the Poconos and had planned on hiking and doing some water sports.  It was chilly and rainy, so we didnt get to get in the water, but we did get a hike in.  They had some really cool waterfalls and dams.  It started pouring as soon as we got to our car, so I would say it was good timing!

We stayed near the town of Jim Thorpe, PA, which is a really cool town!  We ate at this place called Flow.  It is a restaurant built on top of a natural stream...you can see it through the glass floor and window.  I tried to get a picture, but it didn't come out!  I had quail with quinoa and a raspberry coulis.  I plan to try to replicate some raspberry coulis once we go raspberry picking at Reilly's.  I hadnt had quail before, but it was pretty good.....similar to chicken!  Tom had scallops with a carrot ginger puree over top of lentils.  He liked it!  I might fuse our dishes and do scallops with raspberry coulis!

 

In more exciting news, we get our first CSA box on Thursday!  It will have peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, cantaloupe,  cucumber, green pepper, plums, and sweet corn in it.  And that is the SMALL box!  Here are my plans for the upcoming days:

- grass-fed beef homemade sloppy joes

- Cucumber Salad (for our family reunion on Sunday)

- Peach and Plum cobbler

- Caprese Bread Salad

- Venison burgers filled with garlic cheese (from Finger Lakes) with sweet corn on the cob

Stay tuned!!  I'll get cooking soon!

 

Clean Eating Inspiration

I can't take much credit for this one.  I subscribe to Clean Eating Magazine, and I love it.  Most of the recipes use stuff you can find in your local grocery stores and keep it "clean."  Only a few really overdo it on difficult or specialty ingredients.  I saw a recipe in there for Mango Barbeque Chicken.  BBQ sauce is delicious.  My favorite was always Sweet Baby Rays, but unfortunately almost every condiment out there now (yes, even Heinz Ketchup) has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.  So I really wanted to make my own condiments and sauces as much as possible so I can control what goes into them.  Tom wants me to start canning.....I'll get there once I have a bigger kitchen...hint hint :) 

Mango BBQ Chicken (I will put the recipe from CE Mag and add my modifications)
- 5-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used Nature's Basket legs, since I had some on hand)
- 1 large tomato, seeded, peeled, and diced (Farmer's Market)
-1 mango, peeled and cubed.  (P.S.  THIS is how I cut Mangoes.)
-1 small red onion, finely chopped
-2 TBSP. plus 1 tsp. of apple cider vinegar
-2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
- 3/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1 TBSP. Sucanat (I couldn't find this so replaced with trusty Agave nectar)
- 1 lemon (I used lime because I forgot to get a lemon :)
- olive oil and cooking spray
-black pepper

I made the sauce the night before as follows:
In a medium pot, heat 2 TBSP. olive oil on medium heat.  Add the onion and sweat and soften until lightly brown and soft for about 8-10 min.  Stir in tomato, mango, agave, vinegar, 1/4 cup water, and Dijon.  Bring to a boil then put heat on low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the sauce has reduced, use immersion blender or food processor to combine sauce until smooth.  (By the way, this sauce smells amazing.  We wanted to eat it last night while it was cooking!)  I refrigerated it until the next day and just heated it when I was ready for it.  Set aside about a half cup for brushing on the chicken and keep the rest for dipping.

 

Sauce components (missing Dijon in this pic!)

Sauce

Heat charcoal or gas grill to medium heat.  Spray the chicken and season with salt, pepper, and lime juice.  Cook chicken for about 15 minutes or until juices run clear (we had to do a little longer with the legs).  Brush on sauce for last 5 minutes of cooking.

Served with grilled asparagus and brown rice.

 

Chicken on the bottom, asparagus in the foil.

 

I love to plate food!

 

Clean plate club :)  Tom loved this one too!

Thanks for reading, all!  Let me know what ya think!

Ole!

Tonight is Mexican night at the Tweedle house :)

On the menu is: Venison Chili con Queso and Avocado Corn Muffins

Venison Stew:
My Uncle Don is a fantastic hunter, so he is our hook up on venison meat (steaks, ground meat, etc.)  That's considered grass-fed and local, right??  He just gave us a stash last week so I decided to make chili with it.  Best part is you can do it in the crock pot which means two things..1) Minimal clean up and 2) Minimal work!  Venison can get tough easily because it is so lean so we cooked it low and slow.  If you do not like venison, you can certainly substitute ground turkey, chicken, or beef.

-1/2 lb ground venison
-1 large can (28 oz) of crushed fire roasted tomatoes (I use Muir Glen brand)
- 2 peeled, chopped tomatoes (I had these from my neighbor's garden, you probably don't need to do this step if you don't have extra tomatoes.)
- 1 green pepper, chopped (farmers market)
- 1 sweet onion, chopped (farmers market)
- 1 jalepeno, chopped finely, seeds discarded
-2 Tbsp. spice mix (We have a great one from Soergels, it's actually a Steak and BBQ spice rub, but its good on anything that needs some heat.  Or just add in some Paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper...whatever you want!)
- 1 can (14 oz) kidney beans
- shredded cheddar for topping (optional)
- sour cream for topping (optional)

 

Put all the ingredients except the beans into the crock pot and stir them up.  Cook on low for about 4 hours.  Add the beans and cook an additional 1 hour.   Props to Tom on this one too...I got the ingredients all chopped and ready for him last night and he put them in the crock pot this afternoon since he was off today!  It was pretty tasty.  Perfect amount of heat for me, but Tom added some Red Hot to his.  Very filling!!

Avocado Corn Muffins
If you are noticing I use Avocado a lot, you're right.  I love it.

So what goes with chili?  Cornbread, right?  Why not add avocado in it??  Sure!

 (I followed the corn bread recipe on Bob's Red Mill Cornmeal package and then just added a few things...)

- 1 cup Bob's Red Mill cornmeal (or whatever corn meal you have), I used a medium grind
-1 cup whole wheat flour
- 4 tsp. baking soda
-1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 Avocado, diced
- 5-6 chives, finely chopped
- juice of one lime
- 2 Tbsp. agave or honey

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the butter, milk, egg, lime juice, and agave.  I used a hand mixer to incorporate the wet into the dry.  Do not overmix.  Once combined, fold in the avocado and chives.  If you do not want chunks of avocado, then put it in when using the electric mixer.  You will get 11-12 muffins out of this.  I used an ice cream scoop so that they were all even.  Bake for about 25 minutes.  Serve with the chili, warm if possible!  These were good.  Had nice texture around the edge.  The best was when you got a chunk of avocado!