Ratatouille

It's not the prettiest looking dish, but my boys requested it after watching the movie. So I made it and we watched the movie too! It was fun to try and it ended up with a 80% approval rating! It's not for everyone, but I really liked it.

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a pan. I used my cooking pot. Add 2 large onions (or minced onion) and garlic salt. Saute for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 eggplant, diced, 6 small zucchini (I only used 1 large), 2 bell peppers, seeded and diced (I got creative and used yellow, red, and green), 1 summer squash, sliced, and 2 tsp salt. Add another 1/4 cup oil to keep veggies from sticking. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally. Add 4 large tomatoes cut in wedges or 1 can stewed tomatoes, drained (I used a can of diced tomatoes, drained). Cook for another 15 minutes on moderate heat and season as desired. I sprinkled a little Creole seasoning for pizzazz. Makes 8 generous servings.

I used it as a side dish and shared with the neighbors. If you love the veggies; you'll love the ratatouille!

Turtles...

Here's a tasty treat that's so easy the kids can help:

Ingredients:

-Pretzels
-Pecans or walnut halves
-Rolos

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
   
2. Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.
3. Bake for 4 minutes. While the candy is warm, press a pecan half onto each candy covered pretzel. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

(Recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pretzel-Turtles/Detail.aspx)

SPINACH BASIL PESTO

Wish I would have posted this one in time for St. Pat's Day. I LOVE the color. And I've found a new recipe that my family loves!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Blend the spinach, basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a food processor until nearly smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Drizzle the remaining olive oil into the mixture while processing until smooth. (Courtesy of allrecipes.com)

I substituted walnuts for pine nuts - no pine nuts in my kitchen. I threw in three cloves of garlic - four sounded like too much for my taste and I thought it turned out alright! I don't have a food processor and my blender did a fine job. Enjoy!

Oriental Chicken Salad

1 head of cabbage, chopped
2 packages of ramen noodles, crushed (discard the seasoning packet)
2-4 oz. slivered almonds
2 T. butter
cooked chicken (2-4 breasts), cut up
bunch green onion, chopped
3/4 c. vegetable oil
4 1/2 T. seasoned rice vinegar
4 1/2 T sugar
2 t. salt
1 t. pepper

Combing chicken, green onion, and cabbage in a very large bowl.
In skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add ramen noodles. As the ramen starts to brown, add almonds and stir until all is golden brown. Combine with chicken and cabbage and stir until well blended.

Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper in a bowl or a jar with a lid. Stir or shake until well blended and pour over salad. Use tongs to well coat the cabbage and chicken.

I can't help but eat this right away. It is delicious. But, it is even better if you can be patient enough to refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Better the next day!

We missed you at the sewing soiree, 

but you can have a little taste of our enjoyment with this recipe.

Cornucopia Salad

Cornucopia Salad

Sorry no picture to go with this post. I will take a picture of this elegant and delicious salad next time I make it and post it. But in the mean time, here is a recipe for the salad that is sure to please whether for Thanksgiving dinner, or any day of the week.

Prep: 25 minuets Makes: 4 servings

1/2 head green leaf lettuce torn into bite size
1/2 head Romain lettuce torn into bite size
1 C chopped celery
4 green onions chopped
1 avocado cut into chunks
1 apple or pear, diced.
1/4 C currants
1/2 C crumbled bleu cheese
1/3 C candied almonds

Dressing (make early for flavors to blend)

1/2 t salt and pepper
1/4 C oil
1 T chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 T sugar
2 T white wine vinegar

Candied Almonds:
Melt 3 T sugar in large frying pan with a package of sliced almonds. Stir almost constantly until almonds are coated. Don't let sugar burn. Spread on foil to cool. It's easy!

Makin' the Salad:
Mix it all up!

Now, I make a few changes when I make this. Although this is how my Gma makes it and I like it as is as well. My husband does not like bleu cheese or green onions so I leave those out. I always forget to get currants so I leave those out as well. I buy almonds in a large bag, so I just dump a bunch of almonds and a good amount of sugar in the pan and see how it goes. I keep the extra candied almonds in a container for later. Enjoy!

Frustration Released

Those of you who were in attendance at Emily's cooking class on Thursday feel more calm and relaxed. Beating and pounding the chicken felt good, didn't it?  You should have seen Claudine go!  She didn't even wait for a meat mallet.  She grabbed the closet thing handy [luckily just a rolling pin] and went at it.  Ryan was especially grateful to benefit from the evening, as he had a homemade lunch the next day of stuffed chicken and gravy.  He said it tasted just like a homemade chicken pot pie.

Emily has some culinary skills.

  Join us next time to see them in action.  And thanks to Machell and Rebecca for cleaning up.  Oh, and Lisa for the bleaching.  It was all great fun.

Maple Twist

I just had some a friend made.  It was amaizing!  It looks more complicated than it is.  The recipe is on her recipes blog.
Colleen

Pizza Dough from Playgroup

From one of my favorite recipe blogs: http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/:

Slow-Rize Pizza Dough (this is the one I made for playgroup, but the other one is great for quick dough)

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/3 cup water
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt.

The beauty about making this recipe the night before is you can just throw all the ingredients together cold (no warming the water) and stick it covered in the refrigerator. That is all I do - mix the dough to the desired consistency (I like my dough pretty soft) and really try not to overflour it and then place it in a greased bowl covered with saran wrap in the refrigerator. Be sure to take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before you make the pizza so the dough has time to warm and relax. This recipe makes 2 medium-sized pizzas. (It feeds our family of two adults and two children and we eat a lot of pizza.)

Directions for baking pizza:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. (If using a pizza stone, let stone heat for at least 30 minutes in the oven before baking pizza.) If baking in a sheet pan, press dough onto sheet pan and top with sauce and toppings. Bake for about 12 minutes (checking often) until crust is browned and cheese is golden and bubbly. If baking on the preheated pizza stone, slide pizza onto stone and bake for about 8 minutes. Makes 1 large pizza.

Fast and Easy Pizza Dough
This recipe was given to me by my Aunt who got it from a woman named Linda who I have never met - but in the event she miraculously stumbles across this blog, I'll give a big thanks, Linda!

3 cups flour, more or less
1 tablespoon honey, heaping
1 tablespoon oil, heaping
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. (If using a pizza stone, let stone heat for at least 30 minutes in the oven before baking pizza.) Mix all pizza dough ingredients together, except the flour. Add flour and knead for a bit then put into pan (or use a pizza peel and pizza stone). If baking in a sheet pan, bake for about 12 minutes (checking often) until crust is browned and cheese is golden and bubbly. If baking on the preheated pizza stone, slide pizza onto stone and bake for about 8 minutes. Makes 1 large pizza.