Food & Wine – Page 5

{Recipe} Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Winter Salad

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

This is another one of those recipes that I kind of feel silly posting. It’s just so simple! But just in case you are still looking for a way to prepare Brussels sprouts that leaves them nutty and delicious… here it is!

My friend, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, was talking to me about Brussels sprouts last summer, and how he roasts an entire pan on Sunday and lives off of them all week because they are just so good. In addition to being a trained chef, he’s a kettle bell champ and he works at one of the Canyon Ranch resorts, so I definitely trust his opinion when it comes to healthy, delicious food. The first time I made these, my 10-year-old went back for seconds, so that’s just further proof of their yumminess!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts
olive oil
salt
pepper

Cut each sprout in half and toss into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Make sure the olive oil is on every sprout. Use a spoon or your hands to mix it all up. Then, place the sprouts on a foil-lined baking sheet. My friend suggested I put them cut-side down to get more of that roasty goodness. Place in a 400-degree oven and cook for about 25-30 minutes.

Now, what do you with them after this? Well, they are delicious as-is, or with a squeeze of lemon juice to kick it up a bit. Or you can toss them in a salad. I know — what? That sounds a little weird. Well, just trust me.

Make yourself up a salad with your favorite greens, dried cranberries, walnuts, and a bit of goat cheese. Add the Brussels sprouts and toss with a bit of Balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious!!!

Many of us grew up knowing only boiled, tasteless Brussels sprouts. Give this method a try and I bet it will change your mind.

I’m linking up with Sandra at Diary of a SAHM
because it’s Cooking Thursday!

{Recipe} Crock Pot Hot Fudge Cake

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day! Aren’t my roses gorgeous? Drew surprised me with a bunch this year — such a sweetie! I know so many people who are down on Valentine’s Day and true, you shouldn’t need a single day to express your love for someone (I know that’s certainly not the case with me and my amazing hubby), but I enjoy being a little extra smoochy and making things a little extra special. But that’s just me.

We had a delicious home-cooked dinner. I made surf & turf (filet mignon and sizzling shrimp scampi), steamed broccoli, a chopped salad, and baked potatoes. For dessert I made this decadent Hot Fudge Cake!

Oh, there is nothing like an ooey, gooey chocolate dessert… especially on Valentine’s Day! This is one of my favorite recipes, and best of all, you cook it in the Crock Pot so you can leave your oven free to bake up some other delicious dishes.

Hot Fudge Cake (in the Crock Pot)

Cake:
1 cup AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp coconut oil (feel free to use butter, vegetable oil or whatever you prefer)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Hot fudge sauce:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Combine the dry ingredients and then add the milk, vanilla, and oil. Combine well. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts. Spread the batter in a well-greased 2-quart slow cooker.

Add the brown sugar and additional cocoa to the boiling water and stir well. Pour this mixture over batter in your Crock Pot. Do not stir. Just leave it alone — trust me.

Cook on HIGH for 2 to 3 hours or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. See how it rises and all comes together?

* This recipe makes more of a traditional thick “pudding” — it’s not going to be firm like bakery cake. The water settles to the bottom and makes a chocolatey sauce, and the cake batter kind of rises to the top and gets baked, yet still kind of mushy. Just so you know what to expect. Here’s a photo after we dug into it.

** Correct: there are NO EGGS in this recipe.

*** If there are leftovers, they are not great cold — definitely warm extras up in the microwave or in the toaster oven.

I have never cooked this on the LOW setting, so I can’t recommend that. Serve it with ice cream or whipped cream — it is just heaven in a bowl!

Linking up with…

Whatever You Want Wednesday!

{Recipe} Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

It’s been cold lately. Really cold. And we’ve all been enjoying lots of hearty soups. This season, Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup has emerged as my family’s all-time favorite soup. (At least for now.) Luckily, it is simple to make and we almost always have the ingredients in the fridge or freezer. It’s perfect for a simple Sunday dinner, but quick enough to whip up for lunch.

Because it is a rather heavy soup, I suggest pairing with a crisp salad. That’s what we like to do.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

5 Tbsp. butter
1/3 c. diced celery
1/2 c. diced carrot
1/2 c. diced onion
1/2 c. frozen peas
6 c. chicken broth
2-3 chicken bouillon cubes (optional)
2 c. egg noodles
2 c. diced cooked chicken
6 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 1/4 c. half-and-half
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a large stock pot over medium heat. Saute carrots, onions, and celery until they are soft (about 5 min.) Add the chicken broth, bouillon (if using), chicken, and egg noodles. Bring to a boil then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 min., stirring occasionally. Add the frozen peas to the soup.

Mix the flour and poultry seasoning together in a small bowl. Set aside. Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour mixture to the melted butter, a little at a time, stirring constantly until the roux is smooth. Slowly add the half-and-half, again just a little at a time, constantly stirring until there are no lumps and the mixture is slightly thickened. Stir the sauce into the soup. Add pepper to taste.

Sleepy Saturday

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

There’s nothing like a solid three hours of sleep to get you refreshed and ready for the day, right? Sigh, of course I’m being sarcastic. Laura had a later bedtime than usual last night, which naturally resulted in a very poor night’s sleep. I’ve always laughed at people who suggest letting kids stay up later in order to get them to sleep in later. Sure, at Jake’s age this works. But not for the wee little ones. At any rate, after two hours of going in an out of her room, consoling, pleading to go back to sleep, I gave in at about 3:45 a.m. and took her downstairs.

I’d hoped that some TV might relax her back to sleep but nope… it wasn’t until I was vacuuming (yay for white noise!) after lunchtime that she started snoozing on the couch. So yes. I’m tired.

I got lots done this week, though, and it flew by. One of the projects on my list was sketching out my stash-buster blanket idea. Quite a while ago, I was inspired by this gorgeous quilt from Pippa Patchwork that I originally saw on Pinterest:

Source: moderndayquilts.tumblr.com via Carol on Pinterest

As I am hardly a quilter, I thought this would be a great solution to my growing stash of odds and ends from various crochet projects. I thought of doing a granny square blanket or a stripey blanket, but this design really “wow’ed” me. Simple enough to work on while watching TV, but I think it has a nice, modern feel.

I whipped out the graph paper to figure out how many squares I’ll need.

And I played around with various colors, picking out 10 that I loved best for the largest squares.

This project is hugely different for me because I don’t think I’ve ever combined so many different colors all at once. I suppose all those years of following Lucy from Attic24 are finally having an effect on me!

So I am slowly (oh, so very slowly) plugging away at my first single-crochet purple square. I need to keep up the momentum 🙂

Well, I think it’s time to get up and bake a dish of brownies for dessert tonight and make my house smell even better than it already does. I’ve got two crock pots going: one simmering a pot of chicken stock, and the other cooking up a delicious pot roast for dinner tonight. Drew and Jake have been at the Eskimo Run for Cub Scouts all day and I know when they get home they’ll be cold and hungry.

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

The Humble Onion

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

It’s pretty amazing to me that something so lowly as an onion, can go from something like this:

To a fancy schmancy French soup like this:

It just takes a little time and a little love. I guess that onion soup could be an allegory for a variety of things that just take patience — relationships, goals, our own personal struggles. I don’t know, maybe I had a little too much red wine after I gave the soup a good “glug” but there was something about it that struck me today.

Anyway… it’s Monday! No menu plan this week because I just don’t haven’t written one out. Tsk, tsk, I know.

Today was a rather warm-ish and sunny day, a welcome change from the past several days that all looked pretty much like this:

Gray. Foggy. Damp. I loved it for the first couple of days, but it started to get a little dreary, even for me. Of course, we do have a little more snow forcasted for mid-week. Seems as though we are actually having a winter this year, unlike last year. Even though I complain (my right, as a cranky Yankee), I secretly love it.

Tomorrow I have a wonderful book review and a recipe I’ll be sharing, so be sure to look for that. Also, if I have the time to get things organized, I’m planning on starting my big crochet project of the year. Super excited to share that, too!

Ah, Monday

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

And another week begins… as Monday comes to an end. The kids are in bed (asleep or reading), and I am bundled up under a blanket, enjoying a cup of tea. This year I hope to do more of these journal-type entries, so I hope you’ll indulge me. It’s a great way to keep track of the year. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve referred to old, old blog archives to look up something the kids did as babies. Anyway…

The day started with a migraine for my poor husband. He doesn’t get them very often, but when he does… ugh, not good. When I got up a little before 6 and saw he was already out of bed, I knew something was wrong. He’d been up since 4, laying on the couch, hoping to feel better. By breakfast time he’d improved a little, but he still took it easy today.

I puttered around this morning, making phone calls, doing housework… the usual. At lunchtime I threw together some creamy spinach soup. (D. usually has a big salad for lunch, but salad just wasn’t sounding good to him, so I figured this was a good way to get some veggies in.) Basically I just made my usual creamed spinach recipe, but added chicken broth and pureed it all. Considering that D. devoured two bowls at lunch and Laura insisted on having three helpings (pre-schooler sized, but still)… for dinner, I’d say it was a great success 🙂

This is when I realized that even though sometimes I fancy myself to be a food blogger, I’m just not. I love to cook. I cook all the time. I cook almost every meal of the week at home. But I am very much a “home cook.” Measurements? Sigh… most of the time I can’t be bothered. It’s a little of this and a little of that. And when it came to suppertime, that’s exactly what I did again. Naturally I poured a little glass of vino to enjoy while prepping everything.

I’d planned on making lemon chicken, but I wanted to turn it into “comfort food” somehow. So I cut it into chunks, , lightly coated them with breadcrumbs, and went about my standard lemon chicken recipe. Meanwhile, I boiled tortellini, and then added it to the pan along with capers, artichokes, and a bit of leftover broccoli in the fridge. And voila! Lemon chicken tortellini:

(Ugh, the dinner time light this time of year is so bad for food photos… it really looked much more appetizing, I swear to you!) It was quite tasty if I do say so myself, LOL!

Well, it’s time to finish up a few things around the house before calling it a night for myself. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Menu Plan Monday, January 7

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Carol — No Comments ↓

All right! The first full week of the year is here, and if you’re anything like me you’ve finally cleaned out the cakes, cookies, egg nog, and who knows what else is leftover from the holidays. I’m trying to use up a bunch of stuff in the freezer this week, but I think the menu came together all right.

I’m especially looking forward to Wednesday night’s dinner. Mmm… kielbasa, sauerkraut, egg noodles… I’m playing around with a recipe, so hopefully it will turn out great and I will share on Thursday. I’m not yet sure what kind of soup we’ll have on Friday. I made some creamy spinach soup for lunch today, and the husband looooved it. Maybe I’ll make that again. Or go with chicken soup? We’ll see what’s in the fridge!

Monday: Lemon chicken tortellini, salad
Tuesday: Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, broccoli, salad
Wednesday: Lazy pierogis with kielbasa, steamed veggies
Thursday: Out
Friday: Soup & sandwiches/salad
Saturday: Crock Pot beef stew with herbed biscuits, salad

For more menu ideas, visit Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday feature.

{Recipe} Peanut Butter Pie

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

There are two desserts that stick out when I think about my childhood: Lemon Lush Pie and Peanut Butter Pie. I’m not even sure if my mom made either of these very often, but I loved them both. One day last week, when things weren’t going the greatest, I joked on Facebook about “stressed” just being “desserts” spelled backwards, and suggested pie was in order. My brother mentioned peanut butter pie and I could not get the idea out of my head.

My dad e-mailed me what what on mom’s recipe card and I put it all together for dessert on Sunday night. It was almost as good as I remembered… but mom’s is still better 🙂 It’s simple to throw together, and you could probably freeze it, too.

Peanut Butter Pie

1/3 c. peanut butter
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. Cool Whip
graham cracker pie crust

Beat together peanut butter and cream cheese until combined. Stir in powdered sugar. Fold in vanilla and Cool Whip. Empty into pre-baked graham cracker pie crust, smooth the top, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

This pie also kicks if you use one of those Oreo pie crusts. But all I had was the regular graham cracker one, so I guess I will just have to make it again!

{Monthly Recipe Swap: Cookies} Pumpkin Cookies

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

My friend Janet at Frugal and Focused has started a recipe swap feature on her blog and this month (the very first swap!) the theme is… cookies! How perfect for Christmas. I’m sharing a recipe for pumpkin cookies that I got from my friend Sherry so long ago. Even though they are more of a “fall” cookie, I love eating them year-round.

Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional: Chocolate chips, walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips and nuts if you like. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove, and cool cookies on a wire rack.

If you want to participate in the recipe swap, hop on over to Frugal and Focused to join in.

Thanksgiving Side Dishes with Country Crock

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Carol — No Comments ↓

I say it every year: Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What could possibly be wrong with a special day focused on food, family, and gratitude? A few years ago, our family became the host for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a challenge that I found very exciting, but I was also worried about combining traditions for two different families (and hopefully addiing our own to the mix). How would I manage? (And do it all with three kids running around?)

One obvious solution was to ask for help. So every year I delegate certain dishes to the people who cook them the best. That leaves me with the turkey and just a few sides.

Thanksgiving dishes don’t have to be heavy and fattening. It’s easy to lighten up your sides with Country Crock, a spread that has less fat and fewer calories than butter. I’ve given two of my Thanksgiving dishes a “make over” and I”m sharing them with you today. You’ll notice that they’re not fancy, they’re not involved, and they’re pretty traditional. They’re also pretty delicious, if I do say so myself!

First is my recipe for sweet potatoes. I didn’t grow up eating them at Thanksgiving (or ever), but my husband did, so I like to incorporate them into our meal. Instead of loading up the potatoes with marshmallows, I rely on maple syrup to add a little extra sweetness.

Maple Baked Sweet Potatoes

2 sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp. Country Crock spread
2 tsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Bake for 1 hour or until soft. Remove potatoes from oven and carefully cut each potato in half. Scoop out the flesh and combine in a bowl with the Country Crock, maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice. Using a fork, whip until the mixture is creamy. Stuff the whipped potatoes back into the skins and arrange on a serving platter. (You can transfer the whipped potatoes directly into a serving dish, if you’d rather skip stuffing the potato skins.)

This recipe can easily be scaled up, adding an addition 1 Tbsp. Country Crock, 1 tsp. maple syrup, and 1/8 tsp. pumpkin pie spice for each additional sweet potato. You can also make this ahead and simply reheat in your oven as the turkey finishes cooking.

On to my second “must have” dish at Thanksgiving. Both of our families enjoy green beans, and they are a quick side dish that also adds a nice burst of color to your dinner spread. Adding lemon gives the beans a fresh, light flavor that provides a bit of contrast to all the heavy dishes.

Green Beans with Lemon

1 lb. trimmed, cut green beans (you can also use frozen beans)
salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. Country Crock
1 lemon

Zest the lemon and squeeze out 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice. Set aside. Cook the green beans in a pot of boiling, salted water until they are tender (about 10 minutes). Drain the beans and return them to the pot. (Do not put it back on the heat.) Add the Country Crock and lemon juice. Toss until the Country Crock has melted. Transfer the beans to a serving dish and sprinkle with lemon zest.

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.