Blackberry Pecan Cream cheese Muffins

Blackberry? Pecan? Cream cheese? Muffin? Any one of those things would be delicious enough on its own, but all together? There are no words. I originally found this recipe for Raspberry cream cheese muffins on Cooking Light's website, and was  excited to have found a way to use up some of the leftover buttermilk that I had from the St. Paddy's day Irish Soda Bread. I was all set to use frozen raspberries, and then the happiest surprise of my life happened  (only a slight exaggeration) when I found FRESH blackberries on sale for $1.50 a pint at the grocery store. Glorious. So-- anyway, I swapped raspberries for blackberries, and walnuts for pecans, and then I ate like five of these beautiful little babies before they even cooled down. Ohhhh man, they were so good. So so so so good. Okay I'm done now. 

St. Paddy's Day 2012

Timmy and I just realized that this was our FIFTH St. Patrick's Day together. Wow. It was definitely our most laid back holiday, in that I spent a lot of the day working, and I had half a beer total, all day, but it was still pretty great. For the third year in a row, Tim cooked for me, and he really hit his stride this year.

Timmy prepping the carrots

Chef Timmy was in charge of the corned beef that he made in the crock pot with some delicious carrots and cabbage. And, to make something extra special, we also had butter potatoes! Yummm.

The beef, carrots, and cabbage hot out of the pan (hence the dreamy fuzziness from the steam)

 I was in charge of everything else, so I made Kale chips as a snack. I was surprised at how much Tim liked them, and I can't wait to make them again for us. They are possibly the easiest snack in the world to make--- take kale leaves, rip into bite sized pieces, toss with 1 tsp olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake on a sheet for 20-30 minutes at 300. (I really love them with seasoning blends from Penzey's like Turkish seasoning, or Mural of Flavor as well.)

I also made a Vegan Guinness Cake with a chocolate whiskey glaze. Because we ate so much corned beef, I only ate about three bites of the whole cake, but it was pretty darn tasty! Since the cake was vegan, it was nice to have the little extra something that the Guinness offered.

Also, just like last year, I baked Irish Soda Bread. It was extra delicious piled high with corned beef and cabbage. I also ate it the next morning toasted with butter and honey. I love how the sweetness of the raisins is counteracted by the savory caraway seeds, and this bread is the perfect texture. Plus it is so easy and requires no kneading or rising time, and it is pretty darn gorgeous.

I think my food coma lasted about three days, but it was definitely worth it. Happy St. Paddy's to all!

the whole spread

My adorable "Kiss me I'm Iowish" tee. :)

chocolate nanner bread

I have made this before and it was just as delicious this time. The perfect way to distract myself from the fact that my honey was stuck in a hurricane all weekend. It is quite possibly the best banana bread I've ever had, not just because it's chocolate or the fact that it's socially acceptable to eat it for breakfast even though tastes like cake, but because the consistency is to-die-for. Oh, and there's no butter in it so I trick myself into thinking it's "healthy!"

http://www.evilshenanigans.com/2011/03/chocolate-banana-bread/

There are no photos because I ate it too fast. :)

Bruschetta three ways

***First off, I need to be better about blogging because this post is a good two weeks late.

Sometimes I am overly proud of myself for creating meal ideas out of thin air. This was one of those days. I had a produce drawer with a half a tomato and a verrrry overripe red pepper, and one of those baguette portions that Panera gives you as a side dish on my counter. And it just came to me!

Tomato: I diced up the tomato and threw it in a dish with a little EVOO and the juice of half a lemon. I added fresh basil (which I always have on hand, but dry would be fine), garlic powder (because I didn't have fresh on hand... embarrassing), a few red pepper flakes and some S&P to taste.

Red Pepper: I sprayed the pepper with cooking spray and then broiled the crap out of it (about 10 minutes a side) until it was almost entirely black. I put it in a baggie to cool, and then used a paper towel to wipe off all of the charred skin and get the seeds out. Then I roughly chopped the flesh and added probably 1/4 tsp of olive oil and some sea salt.

Goat Cheese: this one was tough. I opened a package of goat cheese and dumped it into a ramekin. Whew!

The bread: I sliced it as thin as I could, sprayed lightly with cooking spray, threw on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler after the peppers were done (probably 2-3 minutes?) just until crisp

Goat Cheese + Red Pepper on the left, and Tomato Basil on the right.

Grilled Chicken, Lemon-scented Asparagus, and Panzanella

Oh my gosh my blog is so messed up. Part blogger maintenance and spontaneous deletions, and part procrastination... but it is taking way longer than I would like to catch up.

So, instead of racking my brain for details about dishes I made two weeks ago, I figure I should jump to what I made last night (5/16/2011) for dinner while it is still fresh!

Grilled Chicken
After a successful marinade for my pork chops this weekend (blog entry will probably appear in a month), I have been on a marinade kick. When I was flipping through a grilling magazine grocery store, I saw the headline "black tea soaked chicken" and thought, "whaaaaat?" Anyway, I was so intrigued, I had to do it.

• 3 boneless, skinless, organic free range chicken breasts (b/c I'm paranoid about chicken)
• 2 scoops of loose English Breakfast tea and two cups boiling water
• whole cloves
• whole peppercorns
• 1 TBSP agave nectar (honey would also work-- but put this in while water is hot)
• worstestecan'tspellit
• olive oil
• salt

First, I made the tea (just left the leaves in) and allowed it to cool to room temperature. I then added the other ingredients minus olive oil and salt. The oil I rubbed directly on the chicken, and then sprinkled it with sea salt. Then, I poured the marinade over the chicken and put it in the fridge for two hours. With chicken marinades, it's usually the longer the better, so if I could do this again, I would probably try to put it on in the morning. Also, I might try pounding out the chicken to thinner, even pieces.
When it was time to grill, I just scraped off most of the tea and cloves and threw the breasts on a pre-heated grill for 12 minutes (turning once).


Lemon-scented Asparagus

Over sharing-- I have never in my life had my pee smell funny after eating Asparagus. I hear people talking about it a lot (which I realize is also weird), but have never experienced it myself. But this weekend I got fresh asparagus (or ass-per-gas as my dad used to call it) from the farmer's market and WHOA. Now I know what everyone else is talking about... and I do NOT like it! I'm going to go back to store-bought asparagus to avoid this horrible plague.

• Asparagus
• Olive oil
• Salt, Pepper to taste
• Lemon juice (could have used zest too but forgot and juiced it first)
• leftover cheese from Panzanella

Toss asparagus in oil (you hardly need any, just keep tossing), S&P, and a bit of juice. Grill for 6-8 minutes. Drizzle more juice and put cheese on to get melty. Eat and enjoy!

Panzanella
Leave it up to the Italians to come up with a salad made out of bread. I haven't had a good panzanella since I was in Rome last, but I for some reason was inspired to make it. Actually I know the reason. I looked at my counter and saw nearly-stale dinner rolls, ripe tomatoes, a red onion, a lemon, and olive oil. And then I looked in my cupboard and saw a bowl to put all of those things in and it was done. Anyway, panzanella is one of those things that allows you to get use out of ingredients you otherwise might throw away. It's different every time based on what you have available, so you should be creative!

• day-old (or more) bread (preferably crusty) cut or torn into bite sized pieces
• tomatoes, diced (I used two yellow and one red)
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• lemon
• olive oil
• S&P
• red pepper
• basil
• capers
• cheese-- I used a combination of parm, romano, and mozarella

Put the bread in a large bowl-- this is where the whole salad will end up. Put the tomatoes in a smaller bowl with a dash of olive oil and a generous amount of salt. Then, wait five minutes and be  amazed at how much juice the tomaters produced. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the tomatoes and add to the bread, and keep all of the juice.  Put the onion in yet another bowl and cover with juice of half a lemon. Let this sit 5-10 minutes to "pickle" the onions. Then, put the onions (but NOT the juice from the bottom of the bowl-- throw that out b/c it is nasty onion flavored) with the bread. Add basil, capers, black and red pepper, and whatever other flavor you like to bread bowl. To the tomato juice, add more olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice and lighty whisk. Then, pour it over everything in the large bowl and toss. Finally, toss with cheese.

Chocolate (yep, chocolate) banana bread

I am not really sure what inspired me to start googling chocolate banana bread recipes, but I am certainly thankful I did because I am currently savoring my second slice of pure goodness. I saw a few recipes, but I opted for this one from Evil Shenanigans. I was first drawn to it because it didn't require me to take a trip to the grocery store, but I was also really intrigued by the addition of coffee.

I followed the recipe except I used probably double the cinnamon, and I'm not sure how many bananas I used. Whenever bananas get overripe in my kitchen, I peel them, throw them in a ziplock, and freeze them. The bunch I got out of the freezer tonight I had pre-mashed as well, so I guesstimated that there were three, but it may have been four. Also, either my oven or my loaf pan just does not do the best job sometimes, so I baked it probably twenty minutes longer than suggested.

What turned out was pretty incredible. The edges are crisp (probably because of my extended baking time) but not hard, the inside is incredibly moist, the chocolate is rich but the banana reminds you that you are being "healthy". I think this one is a keeper!!

St. Patrick's Day Extravaganza -- photos

Apple Shortbread Pie

My beautiful Irish Soda Bread

heaven?

A little fun

The Irish chef busy at work

a perfect partnership

The aftermath of a roast leg of lamb

Peas and onions roasted in pan drippings from the lamb

Timmy's piece de resistance, the Corned Beef!