Bacon Wrapped Dates

December 29, 2013 ~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

It’s the time of year for cocktail parties. Saying goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014.

Bacon-wrapped anything is always a safe appetizer to take with you to your New Year’s parties. And bacon wrapped dates are your best bet. The dates caramelize in the oven and turn into candy. The bacon crisps up. What you are left with is essentially a chewy centered candy.

I have a big lesson learned to tag along with this recipe. Bake your bacon wrapped anything on a cookie sheet with a rim! Why? Bacon releases fat/grease. This grease is not solid. This grease will most likely drip off of a flat cookie sheet. In a 450 degree oven this grease will catch fire. Now what?! Turn off the oven. According to dummies.com keep the oven door closed and the lack of oxygen will cause the fire to die. But if want to save your bacon wrapped anything quickly and carefully remove them from the oven and throw either baking soda or salt on the flame. DO NOT USE FLOUR. Apparently, flour will cause an explosion!

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Ingredients:

dried dates
bacon

Steps:

Soak toothpicks in water, to prevent them from catching fire. Preheat oven to 450 deg.
Cut bacon in half. On a plate, microwave bacon for 2 minutes (covered with a paper towel).
Wrap each date with bacon and skewer with a toothpick.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until bacon is cooked and crispy.

*This recipe is adapted from Beau at http://oursavorylife.com/a-delicious-paleo-snack-recipe-bacon-wrapped-dates/*

Asian Slow Roasted Salmon

December 14, 2013December 14, 2013 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

Fish, although easy to cook, isn’t an easy thing for me. I never seem to crave it, and always prefer the fish I get at the local restaurants around here. But I do make an effort to keep a packet of frozen salmon filets in my freezer.

I typically find an Asian inspired flavor when it comes to salmon and this one caught my eye. I served it with quinoa. Quinoa is a great alternative to rice and is gluten free! It can be prepared the same way you prepare rice, using a 2:1 liquid to grain ratio. This go around I tested that method even further by using my rice cooker. I find using small kitchen appliances reduce my likelihood of burning and ruining my grains. The quinoa was a little too al dente so next time I’ll add just a touch more liquid. To give the quinoa a little extra flavor, I like to cook mine in chicken stock instead of water. It is also important to rinse the grain before cooking.

Our vegetable during this evening were boiled carrots, but they were such a last minute decision that they didn’t make the presentation plate! I apologize for the photo quality of this dish… I feel my food photography has taken multiple steps backwards with the time change. The windows in my house do not let in a lot of light, and now I have no hope of natural light as it’s dark before I even leave the office!

Asian Slow Roasted Salmon

Ingredients:

4 salmon filets
2 tbsp sesame oil, plus more for brushing
1/4 C soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp cornstarch

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Place salmon skin side down on a foil lined baking sheet. Brush salmon with sesame oil and season with pepper. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.
Over medium heat whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, ginger, and garlic. Bring glaze to a simmer. Whisk in cornstarch until the glaze is smooth and reaches desired thickness.
Drizzle glaze over cooked salmon and serve with grains and vegetables.

*This recipe is adapted from Riley at http://www.mydailymorsel.com/2013/06/17/asian-slow-roasted-salmon/*

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pesto Panini

October 11, 2013January 27, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

About twice a month I’m met with the “I don’t want to cook” flu. It’s usually accompanied by a strain of the “need to go to the grocery store” virus. There are two popular remedies to this illness: 1) date night out and 2) go to the store on the way home from work. With this recipe, I’ve discovered a new antibiotic! Take what you have and make a sandwich.

In asking Stuart what he wanted for dinner he actually had an answer other than my favorite “I don’t know”. He wanted a panini. So I hit the web and found one that looked good. I shared the recipe and was given the vote of approval… along with the question, “Do we have what we need?” My answer, “ Um, we have bread. And maybe cheese?” Instead of getting discouraged I read her blog post and thought, I could do that! (She utilized ingredients from her pantry/fridge to create her masterpiece.)

I used my engineering degree in the kitchen once again and improvised a panini maker. I slathered some butter on the outside of the sandwich and treated it like a grilled cheese. Except instead of using a skillet, I used my indoor grill pan. Taking the flat top of a saucepan, I pressed the sandwich. After achieving those traditional grill marks I flipped it over and repeated the process. The result – a beautiful panini fake out.

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pesto Panini

Ingredients:

4 slices of bread
butter, for spreading
2 tbsp red pepper pesto
2 links hot Italian sausage, sliced into medallions
2 slices white American cheese
kale

Steps:

In a small skillet, cook sausage.
Assemble sandwiches: Spread butter on all pieces of bread. On the opposite side of butter spread pesto on 2 of the slices. Top with sausage, kale, and cheese. Top with other slice of bread, butter side out.
Press in panini maker or follow my method described above.

French Onion Soup

September 18, 2013January 27, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

While in Hawaii Stuart had the idea for me to recreate the foods we ate for my blog. Our favorite meal of the trip was at a little French restaurant in downtown Hilo. I haven’t attempted making crepes yet, but I do know how to make French Onion Soup.

I made this recipe back in 2011 after finding it on Kelsey’s Essentials on Cooking Channel. I altered the recipe slightly this go-around to utilize Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions, adjusted the liquid amounts for a desired consistency, and added more cheese.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

3 lb onions, sliced and caramelized – less 1 C
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 C white wine
1 tbsp flour
4 C beef broth
2 1/2 C chicken broth
4 rolls bakery bread, cubed
1/2 lb swiss cheese, shredded

Steps:

Melt 1 tbsp butter in a large pot. Add the caramelized onions, season with thyme, salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes.
Stir in the flour, mixing well. Pour in white wine and bring to a boil for five minutes. Season again with S+P.
Add in both broths and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Preheat the broiler. Ladle soup into individual ramekins. Top each ramekin with cubed bread and cover with shredded cheese. Broil for about 4 minutes until cheese begins to brown.

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

September 17, 2013November 6, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

Caramelized onions can take a sandwich to the next level, but you don’t always want to spend the time making caramelized onions just for a grilled cheese! I stumbled upon this fantastic idea to make caramelized onions in the slow cooker! It’s definitely one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments. Sure, it definitely takes longer but it’s so much easier and all the prep-work is done whenever you do want caramelized onions because you can freeze them too!

I actually cut my onions the night before, put them in a container which I then wrapped in plastic wrap and double bagged to keep the onion smell from permeating my entire refrigerator overnight. (No one wants to go to the office smelling like raw onion.) So in the morning all I had to do was dump my 3 lbs of onions into the crock pot with 3 tbsp of butter!

If you aren’t already hungry when you get home (I always am!), the smell of caramelized onions wafting over you as soon as you open the door will make you anxious to use them immediately! I used the onions for French Onion Soup – taking 30 minute off of my active cooking time. We also served them with burgers.

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

3 lb yellow onions
3 tbsp butter, cubed

Steps:

Using a sharp knife, slice onions thinly.
Lightly spray inside of slow cooker with non stick cooking spray. Dump in onions and butter. Spritz top of onions with another hit of cooking spray.
Cover and cook on high for 10 1/2 hours.

*This recipe is modified from Dorothy at http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/crock-pot-caramelized-onions-slow-and-steady-does-the-trick/*

How To Cut A Pineapple

August 23, 2013December 11, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

About 9 months ago my husband drank the CrossFit Kool-Aid. (Really, I can’t complain!) The CrossFit gym on base has classes during the lunch hour, and if I don’t pack him a lunch he’ll run to Einsteins Bros. Bagels on his way back to his desk. In an effort to stay healthy, he always gets the fruit cup in addition to his bagel sandwich. (Fruit with lunch is an Everson household rule) The fruit cup has pineapple in it, and an addiction was born. He always examines all available fruit cups and buys the one with the most pineapple.

When you buy a pineapple from the store, there’s usually a tag on one of the leaves telling you how to cut the fruit. If you’ve tried this, you know as well as I do that it’s not as easy as the cartoon drawings make it seem. And I was determined to find an easier way if Stuart was going through a whole pineapple every 5 days!

For a while I’d cut the entire pineapple into circles, and then trim off the skin and cut around the core. Although this method is simple, it’s time consuming and very sticky.

Here’s how I do it now!

Here’s what you’ll need: a sharp knife

Here’s what you’ll do: Chop off the top and bottom of the pineapple and stand it up on the now flat bottom. Run your knife between the flesh of the pineapple and the skin. Cut the flesh of the pineapple away from the core. Cut into cubes.

Fun fact: Eating an entire pineapple 1-3 days before getting your wisdom teeth removed will help to prevent swelling! There is a chance that doing so will affect your taste buds’ opinion of the fruit though.

How to Peel Tomatoes

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013 ~ lk529 ~ 3 Comments

I have a slight addiction/OCD when it comes to peeling things. It all started with my first Christmas. It’s Christmas morning, we’re opening presents. It’s all new and exciting. But then it’s nap time? Nap time on Christmas?! Well I didn’t think so! When my mother came back into my room, I had managed to peel the wallpaper off the wall by my crib. I still peel things – it’s why I never get my nails done. If there’s tape on a door/wall, it’ll be removed before I finish walking by. If paint is peeling off a desk, it’ll be stripped before class is over. And I happily open up all new CDs and DVDs. So why I didn’t think I’d like peeling tomatoes is beyond me!

When a recipe called for peeling and crushing fresh tomatoes, I thought about skipping that step and buying them out of a can. But when I saw that the tomatoes at the grocery store were in good shape, I decided to just go for it. It’s actually really easy (and fun)!

Here’s what you’ll need: paring knife, gently boiling water, bowl of ice water

Here’s what you’ll do: Cut an “x” in bottom side of tomato (opposite end of stem). Put in water for no more than 30s until the tomato starts to open up. Transfer tomato to the ice water. Peel!

Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad

July 22, 2013November 6, 2016 ~ lk529 ~ 5 Comments

When I travel I like to bring a magazine on the flights with me. On my last business trip in April I made it through the 3 Food Network magazines I brought with me before my last flight, so during my layover in Atlanta I scoured the shelves for something that would interest me. I was hoping for a book of crosswords, but all I could find were Sudoku and Word Searches. Then I saw the most appetizing looking salad on the cover of Everyday with Rachael Ray. It was the May issue and had lots of Mexican style recipes and party ideas. This salad recipe has been worth the $4 I spent because I’ve made it four times already! I’ve even made just the sauce for leftover chicken and created nachos when I didn’t have any lettuce left. Another variation, and time saving tip, is to use leftover chicken and warm it through in the sauce.

You have to make this! (It takes care of Mexican Monday and Salad Night)

Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb chicken, sliced into strips
1 tsp each cumin, paprika, coriander
1/3 C + 1 tbsp olive oil, divided use
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce depending on your desired heat level
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 hearts of romaine lettuce
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, diced
juice 1 lime
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 C chopped cilantro
2 C crushed tortilla chips

Steps

Season chicken with salt and pepper and spices. Cook completely in a large skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
Make the sauce/dressing in a food processor or blender. Puree shallot, garlic, chipotle peppers, vinegar and brown sugar. While the machine is running, pour in 1/3 C olive oil. Simmer in the same skillet from step 1 for about 1 minute.
Make salad with remaining ingredients. Top with chicken and warm dressing.

And don’t throw away the remainder of the can of chipotle peppers in adobo! I have an ice cube tray that I use for freezing foods. Simply put a pepper in each segment of the tray and the sauce over each of them, when frozen put into a freezer bag and now you’ll have chipotle peppers in adobo whenever a recipe calls for them. As a general rule of thumb, one ice cube is about 1 tbsp. I do this for tomato paste too.

Update August 2016: We’ve made this salad many times and it was a favorite go-to dinner for quite some time. It was fun to revisit it this summer, and while I’m still not thrilled with these updated photos, they’re immensely better than what you see above! I now prefer to buy the colorful tortilla strip salad toppings to crushing up regular tortilla chips; I find they provide a better crunch ratio as they don’t get soggy as quickly.

Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad | Sew You Think You Can Cook | http://sewyouthinkyoucancook.com

Freezing Herbs

July 16, 2013July 26, 2013 ~ lk529 ~ 6 Comments

My husband and I have no shame in admitting that we both have black thumbs. So naturally, I do not grow my own herbs. Maybe 17 years from now when we own a house I’ll attempt it. Or maybe my future children (no mothers this is not a hint) will be blessed with the green thumb of my grandfather, my parents, and mother-in-law. Even if you can successfully grow your own herbs, this tutorial will help you during the winters when your plants are in hibernation yet you still want that freshness.

I try my best to plan my weekly menu to generate as little food waste as possible, but even still, the herbs go bad before I get the chance to use the entire bunch. I can’t even successfully keep them thriving in a glass of water! I’ve tried wrapping them in damp paper towels in the fridge because I read to do that somewhere on the internet (and they can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true). Yea, I couldn’t do that either.

Here’s what you’ll need: An ice cube tray! (Well, you need a freezer too…)

Here’s what you’ll do: Chop up your herbs. Pack them into an ice cube tray. Boil water. Pour over herbs. Freeze. Remove into freezer bag. Each ice cube yields about 1 tbsp fresh herbs. When you want to use them, simply pull out a cube and toss into your dish!

This quick how-to method works for soft leafed herbs (i.e.: basil, cilantro, mint, parsley).

Note: These herbs are now for cooking. I haven’t tried letting the ice cube melt to see what the delicate leaves will look like. If you try it out before I do, let me know if you can still garnish your dish with previously frozen herbs!