Feline Friday

 How fitting to end the year with another BREAK-IN! On Christmas night, I made a rookie mistake and left a plate of gingerbread cookies on the counter.

Naturally, we woke up to this!

There was no doubt as to the culprit. In her signature fashion, she had torn open the plastic and scraped the head of the gingerbread boy with her sharp teefs. 

I guess we're lucky that she stopped with the cookies because I also left a partial loaf of garlic bread unprotected!

I will say that it was a particularly yummy batch of gingerbread! We recently got a new oven with a convection setting and the cookies turned out perfectly....LILY APPROVED!

My tried-and-true gingerbread cookie recipe can be found HERE. You know the cookies are good if they warrant a break-in!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2021!

 

Recipe: Homemade Salsa Verde

My daughter recently shared a recipe for homemade salsa verde. It seriously couldn't be easier...even I made it successfully!

You should be able to click on this image to enlarge it to see the recipe.

This easy recipe came from a Tex Mex cookbook in Bailey's boyfriend's growing collection. He has taken up cooking seriously in recent years, and her culinary skills have improved because of him! Even I've become a TINY bit more competent in the kitchen as a result of his suggestions and recipes. (I still have a LONG way to go...)

There are only a few ingredients in this recipe (tomatillos being the main one). Pop them in the blender, push the button a couple of times and you're done! As a bonus, I even whipped up a small batch of homemade guacamole.

The salsa and guacamole were really tasty with grilled chicken tacos, another recipe from the kids in Texas.

Even though she's very far away, I'll concede that there are a few good things about having a daughter in Texas...authentic TexMex recipes being one of them! 

jp

Recipe Worth Repeating: Greek Pasta with Shrimp

 Whenever Spouse is out of town, I take the opportunity to make some foods he doesn't like. I'm very slowly making my way through quite a number of recipes which include fish or shrimp. He will not eat anything that "swims or crawls on the ocean floor". :)

Instead of trying a new recipe, the last time he was out of town I repeated a favorite from awhile back: Greek Pasta with Shrimp, Garbanzo Beans, and Lemon (I skipped the lemon...again). It was so good and made plenty of leftovers!

Check out the recipe in my past post HERE! It's definitely a keeper.

While I was shopping for food to make while he was gone, I picked up a rotisserie chicken on sale. After I finished with it, I plopped it into a pot of water and let it simmer for a couple of hours to make broth. And since I had recently brought inside my planters of sage and rosemary, I added a bit of both to the broth, along with some leftover onions.

In short order, I had three nice containers of broth to freeze for recipes. I use a lot of broth in soups and I've found that homemade broth is so much better than store-bought. It's worth the time to make whenever I have a rotisserie chicken in the house!

Hope you try the recipe and also make some broth! If you do, let me know in the comments below! :)

jp

New Recipe: Banh Mi Rice Bowls

Awhile back, Spouse and I went to a popular local restaurant and I ordered a banh mi sandwich for the first time. It was seriously one of the two best sandwiches I've ever had (the other being a Cuban sandwich at a place which is sadly now closed). The freshness and crunch of the vegetables against the richness of the pork (protein options vary) really appealed to me. And of course, THE BREAD. You just can't beat crusty French bread, in my opinion!

If this is a new sandwich to you, here's a quick description and picture.

What is in a banh mi sandwich?

The Vietnamese sandwich, sometimes called a "bánh mì sandwich", is a product of French colonialism in Indochina, combining ingredients from the French (baguettes, jalapeño, and mayonnaise) with native Vietnamese ingredients, such as coriander, cucumber, and pickled carrots and daikon.

I recently ran across a recipe for a Banh Mi Rice Bowl on Skinnytaste, an attempt to make this sandwich a little less carb-intensive. Now it's debatable how many carbs you actually save with the bowls (which include brown rice) versus the sandwich, but OH, MY GOODNESS...this recipe is fabulous in its own right! Even if you only make the pork and use it in another way, it would be great. 

I've hesitated to try making traditional banh mi sandwiches because the recipes all seemed a bit time-consuming, but this one calls for putting the pork in the crock pot which makes it super-simple. Other than grating the carrots (which somehow turned my kitchen into a war-zone!!!), it was a very simple process. AND SO GOOD! This recipe is definitely a keeper.

 

Banh Mi Rice Bowls - Skinnytaste

Ingredients:

For the pork:

• 1 pound pork tenderloin
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce*
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

For the pickled carrot:

• 6 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 2 radishes, cut into matchsticks

For the bowls:

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup thinly sliced English cucumbers (about ½ small)
• 1 small jalapeno, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Season the pork with salt and pepper and place into the slow cooker. Combine the garlic, jalapeno, soy sauce and brown sugar and stir to dissolve, pour over the pork.(NOTE: If your slow cooker runs hot, add 1/4 cup water). Cover and cook on low for 6 hours until the pork is very tender, turning once half way through if desired. When the pork is ready, shred the meat. Reserve the sauce.
2. Meanwhile, while the pork is cooking, make the pickled carrots and radish: In a medium glass bowl, combine the vinegar, sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Add the carrots and radish and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Drain well and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. To assemble the bowls, place 3/4 cup rice in each bowl, top each with about 2 1/2 oz pork, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the reserved sauce then top with the 1/4 cup shredded cabbage, 1/4 cup pickled carrots, 1/4 cup cucumber, sliced jalapenos and cilantro.

Recipe: Moroccan Chickpea Salad

If you're looking for a healthful salad, something a little different, I would recommend trying this recipe for Moroccan Chickpea Salad from Clean Eating magazine. I've made this salad when Spouse is out of town (that means more for me!) and just recently tested it out on him. He's not a fan of mint, so I left the mint mostly out of his portion. Even so, Spouse gave this recipe a thumbs up. He suggested that we might add roast chicken to it next time, but we both agree that it's great just the way it is!

 Moroccan Chickpea Salad

Clean Eating - click HERE for a printable recipe and more info

 Whilst making this recipe, I had to take a picture of this beautiful red pepper, surely one of the most perfect specimens I've seen!

  This is how the salad looks before adding the dressing and feta. All kinds of healthiness in there!

 I added the dressing and feta a few hours before dinner so that the flavors had a time to meld a bit.

We had enough salad for the two of us for two full meals. Next time Spouse goes out of town, I'll make this delicious salad again -- just for me! If you try it, let me know!

jp

Easy Recipe: Thai Basil Chicken

 I've been growing a few herbs this summer, but none has done better than my Thai basil. It grows crazy fast and smells AMAZING! 

My basil recently got ahead of me and managed to set blooms. In theory, you don't want to let your herbs do that because the flavor can be compromised a bit at that point, but I didn't let that stop me from using this beautiful plant. When I brought it inside to cut off what I needed, I just cut off the blooms first.

A good -- and easy -- recipe for using up Thai basil is Thai Basil Chicken from Skinnytaste.com. Click HERE for the website and more about this delicious recipe, including a printable version.

This recipe calls for 3 cups of basil leaves. You'll think that sounds like way too much basil, but as soon as you put the leaves into the hot pan, they wilt. It's actually sort of amazing to see that wilting process! In no time at all, you have just the right amount of basil leaves. AND THE SMELL OF THIS COOKING...you'd almost think you were in a Thai restaurant -- if it weren't for the cats standing at your feet hoping for a sample!

This simple dish is SO good and SO easy to make! If you have basil you need to use up, this is definitely a recipe to try!

jp

Recipe: Penzeys Northwoods Chicken Stew

Note for those who are punctuation-sensitive, like me: "Penzeys" does not have an apostrophe! Trust me, I checked multiple times. :)

Today's recipe for Northwoods Chicken Stew is one I've made many times over the years but for some reason have not shared! I found this recipe in a Penzeys Spices catalog a few years back. In addition to the word "Northwoods" in the title which just makes you feel all warm and cabin-y, this is a delicious winter stew. It makes a LOT, so you'll have plenty for leftovers or for freezing.

As usual, I mixed it all up early in the day and let it simmer for a few hours in the crock pot. I really like not having to worry about dinner at the last minute! As it turned out, it snowed this afternoon, making this a perfect recipe for chilly evening!

I love Penzeys Spices. We're lucky to have a store in our area, and I enjoy going inside just for the wonderful aromas. Beyond that, their spices are always great. You can find anything you might need there, from many varieties of cinnamon to wonderful spice blends like the Northwoods Seasoning which is used in this recipe. While you're visiting Penzeys, you can also pick up a free catalog and recipes. Over the years, I've made several recipes from the Penzeys catalog and have always found them to be wonderful!

 

The last time I was at Penzeys, I bought some Indian spice blends and a big bag of Northwoods Seasoning, almost enough to fill this bottle! Northwoods Seasoning is a blend of paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and ground chipotle pepper. It has just a little bit of kick but not too much.

 If you don't have a Penzeys store in your area, definitely check out the website for many great spices and spice blends as well as yummy recipe ideas!

I cannot find this recipe on the Penzeys website (go figure!) but I did find it HERE if you prefer an online source. 

Northwoods Chicken Stew

Source: Penzeys Spices

Christmas Baking

 We did a little bit of baking over Christmas break. I, for one, am still paying for it at the gym! Luckily we gave away quite a few cookies, or I'd be in even worse shape!

We did keep the baking and treat-making to a dull roar this year because there are so few of us around to eat the stuff. Bailey made Oreo Balls (YUM!) but we skipped the wonderful Peanut Butter Balls we made last year. They're just too irresistable!

I always make gingerbread, and this year I even made a batch at Thanksgiving to take to Bailey in Texas. If you're looking for a fail-proof gingerbread cookie recipe, I'd definitely recommend this one. I've been making these cookies for years -- with no fatalities! :)

 

 I usually don't go to the effort of making cut-out sugar cookies, but for some reason I wanted to give it a go this year. Bailey and I baked a batch one night, then the three of us frosted them the next day. I made a point of using some of my grandma's old cookie cutters.

 

 

I can say that it's been a very long time (if ever) since we all sat down and frosted cookies together! As you can see, we needed all hands on deck to frost all of these cookies!

 

I'm fortunate to have the sugar cookie recipes that both of my grandmas used each year. This is my maternal grandma's recipe, written out by my mom. Mom had a habit of only writing parts of recipes and very sketchy directions, but this one is complete. The cookies were great!

I mixed up (way too much) powdered sugar icing and then we set to work. As you can see, the icing was not elaborate! We did not get out my other grandma's frosting "squirters" which might have yielded fancier results. No matter...the frosted cookies were quite tasty!

I made a LOT of yellow frosting (why???) and put myself in charge of all the bells and stars. We had a lot of yellow bells and stars. :)

The next day, I packaged up some cookies to give away using these cute little waxed paper bags I found at the grocery store this fall. I had been looking forward to making these treat bags!

After adding a few cookies, I stapled a folded and decorated cardstock "topper" to the top of each bag. This was a fun way to use a few Christmas papers and embellishments.

Next year, I hope to start earlier so that I can make many more of these treat bags. In addition to being a festive little gift, it's a great way to get a few cookies out of the house! :)

jp

Recipe: Slow Cooker Picadillo

We tried a new recipe this past week, one that I found awhile back via Skinnytaste, one of my favorite sites for relatively healthful recipes. This recipe, Slow Cooker Picadillo, is great and seems like it would be very versatile. It makes a lot and re-heats well, so we enjoyed it for a few days for both dinner and lunch!

 

Any recipe that starts out with capers and green olives is already a winner in my book!

 And you know I'm a sucker for a good crock pot recipe! Whenever I come home to something cooking in the crock pot, I feel like I have succeeded in life. :)

Dinner smelled super yummy when I came home that day! 
Life goal = met!

In fact, dinner smelled so good that we ate it right away, before I could take a picture of it! Just imagine this mixture, cooked down a bit and over rice. I'm sure you get the idea!

We don't use a lot of ground beef at our house, and I'm sure you could substitute any other type of meat in this recipe.

In addition, I would think you could use it in wraps or even in taco shells if you drain off a little liquid or mix in some rice. I'll definitely be making it again soon!

jp

Organization: Family Recipes

Two years ago, I set up a binder system to organize my recipe mess. After living with this system for awhile, I can say unequivocally that I absolutely love it. The binders make it easy to find the recipes I use most often and organize new ones that I print or tear out of magazines. As you probably know from reading my blog, I'm not a great cook, but I do want my recipes to be organized and accessible!

If you're interested in more information, check out this post for a look at where I started with my recipe organization two years ago. This post shows how the project progressed. And here's a post about how I set up the binders with sheet protectors and recipe card sleeves.

So back to today's subject! Over the weekend, I finally tackled the humongous pile of recipes from my two grandmas which I've found in sorting through the boxes in our basement. (I forgot to take a "before" picture of the stacks of recipes, but trust me: There were TONS!)  Both of my grandmas were good cooks, each one with her own specialties. I treasure their recipes!

As I was working on this project, I really put my recipe system to the test. Happily, I was able to incorporate most of their handwritten recipes into my binders. Each of my grandmas kept spiral notebooks, too, which I left intact and just placed on the shelf.

  
As I worked on this project, I decided to expand the space I have devoted to recipes, which allows more room for the extra books I brought home from my parents' house. I took the opportunity to donate a few recipe books that I no longer need and set aside several that belong to our daughter, whenever she is ready for them.

As a side note, I noticed that I have an incredible number of recipes for cookies, cakes, and desserts. This is rather ironic, because I almost never make cookies, cakes, or desserts! But if I ever decide to do so, I'm very well-equipped! :)

In addition to the binders, I still have a lot of recipe books which I use from time to time. Many have special significance to me so I plan to keep them for the time being!

 

 I kept my mom's old recipe "file" intact, just the way she used it. Although she was a very good cook, Mom was notoriously awful at organizing her recipes. This was a running joke at our house. When I was growing up, I made several attempts to organize her recipes, which you can see when you dig through her recipe tin. But nothing ever stuck! Eventually she wrote her favorites in a spiral notebook. But there are some wonderful recipes in this tin, if you're willing to hunt for them!

 I'm happy I finally took the time to get my recipes (except for my mom's, of course!) under control. It's a good feeling to know that all of my recipes are in one place, organized and ready when I need them. Now maybe I'll be able to channel some culinary skill from my two grandmas! :)
jp

Great Recipe: West Coast Chicken Salad

 What's this? Two good salad recipes in close succession? What is going on?! No, you're not reading the wrong blog!

We tried another new recipe recently, and I'd say this one is going to the top of the list! This is another handy "serves as a meal" salad. I love this kind of dinner where nothing else is needed! It would be great with bread, but we're cutting out bread (*SOBS QUIETLY*) so there was none of that for us this time!

I've had this recipe for a long time but had never tried it. I'm not even sure where I found it, but I'm glad I kept it all these years!

This looked like a salad that needed a bit of time to marinate so I started it very early in the morning -- so early that I was on my first cup of coffee!

Of course, it wouldn't be a new recipe without my forgetting SOMETHING. Sure enough, I forgot to buy both tomatoes and radishes. Good grief! Spouse scored some brownie points by making a quick run to the store for me.

 Like the last new recipe I shared, there was a lot of chopping involved with this salad, too, which was dangerous since I was doing all of this before my first cup of coffee and with my eyes still halfway shut. But other than slightly mushy avocado, it all worked out!

 As you can see, this recipe also makes a LOT of salad. But it's nice to have leftovers when it's something as good as this! If you're looking for a great summer salad, I would definitely recommend this one!

jp