Weekly Wrap- Up 3/11-3/17

Wednesday 3/14/12: Corn Chowder

One of my favorite restaurants is a place in North Liberty called Red's. They have amazing food (including a burger that my father claims is the "best he has ever had"!), an incredible beer selection, and the most glorious patio. But, the greatest thing about Red's, at least according to Tim and me, is their amazing bacon and corn chowder. It is sweet from the corn, salty from the bacon, creamy (from what I assume to be cream), and has just enough bite in the form of fresh scallions. I have been promising Tim that I would try to recreate the chowder at home, and on Wednesday I decided to give it a shot. I also decided that I would try to make a healthy version (i.e., less bacon, and milk instead of cream). I started by crisping the bacon, and sauteeing garlic, scallion, and a chopped poblano pepper in the rendered fat. Then I added in some yukon gold taters, and covered it with chicken stock and brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer. Once the taters were soft, I threw in a bag of frozen corn (this would be SO MUCH MORE AMAZING with fresh corn), enough 2% milk to make it creamy, and then I added a few tablespoons of polenta (b/c I don't have any corn meal) to thicken and bump up the corn goodness. I served it with scallions, cheddar cheese, and greek yogurt to garnish. 

At least it looks pretty! 

This would have been pretty good (not as good as Red's, but pretty good), but I was an idiot and walked away from the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came back the chowder was boiling, the milk was scalded, and the bottom of the pot was burned. I was so mad I couldn't even enjoy it... but Tim liked it, so that's good!

*Note, this is gluten free, and if the bacon was omitted entirely, it would be vegetarian and honestly it would still taste good! 

Thursday 3/15/12: Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu with Kale and Red Peppers

Last week for "vampire club" I decided to make a recipe that I had been eyeing on Pinterest for awhile. I followed the recipe pretty closely, except I doubled the "sauce", and I used this amazing marinated tofu that I get at the Coop. Also, I'm not sure what type of kale they used in the original recipe, but I used red kale which is just a bit more delicate than the other varieties, and it is super gorgeous (it should be called "purple" kale, but whatever). I only slightly wilted it, so it still had a ton of texture which is visible in the photo. I served the stir-fry with some rice noodles, but it would be amazing on its own too. 

This recipe was so amazing that I'm actually going to make it again this week, and I think I actually might succeed at getting (tricking) Tim to eat tofu! He is officially not afraid of kale anymore, and he likes red peppers, so I'm hoping if I jut call this "Stir Fry" and put it in front of him that he will be a happy camper. 

* Note,  I used chicken stock, but if I had used veggie this would be completely vegan, also it is gluten free! 

Friday 3/16/12: Fettucini with Shrimp and Bell Pepper

Friday evening, I threw together a quick dinner that turned out pretty great. I had a red bell pepper leftover from the stir fry, and some frozen shrimp leftover from last week's scampi, so I sauteed them up with some garlic and spring onion, and then tossed them with fresh fettucini noodles, some lemon infused olive oil, and fresh parm. It doesn't look that special in this photo, but it was pretty delish.

Weekly wrap-up 3/4/12- 3/10/12

Monday 3/5/12: Whole Wheat Pasta with Anchovy-Walnut Sauce

See, no anchovies in site.

I know a lot of people are utterly afraid of anchovies, and I honestly don't know why. Nothing is tastier than the oily salty yumminess that anchovies offer (though as a kid I had sardines as an afternoon snack, so perhaps I'm biased). Anyway, in this recipe, like most that include the feared fishy, you would never even know it contained something so "yucky" because it just melts down and adds lovely depth of flavor. However, it also adds an insane amount of saltiness, so beware! In fact, I might not even salt the pasta water if I made this again...



Wednesday 3/7/12: Barbecue Turkey Meatloaf

For Wednesday night dinner, I made a barbecue  turkey meatloaf that included homemade barbecue sauce (ketchup + vinegar + dijon + brown sugar + cayenne+ onion + garlic+ cumin) along with some other yummy stuff like parsley and oatmeal (to keep it nice and moist). The end result was pretty yummy but it looks gross. So, I'm not showing a photo. Oh, also I forgot to take a photo, so that is also part of the reason. Tim gobbled this down and claimed dibs on all of the leftovers too, so I guess it was a winner winner turkey meatloaf dinner!


Thursday 3/8/12: Spiced Quinoa

yum yum yummy

This recipe was recommended to me by my good friend Jamie last year when I was collecting heart healthy recipes for my friend Rachel. I was just searching through my pantry the other night and realized I happened to have all of the ingredients (except for pine nuts, darn) on hand, so I decided to try it. It was pretty good -- though if I were to make it again, I would increase the quinoa to chickpea/raisin ratio, and I would also add more spices, and maybe some fresh cilantro. The flavors were good, but I like to be really hit in the face with curry. I ate the leftovers cold as lunch a few days later and they were spectacular. So, next time I make this, I will probably serve it cold as a salad or side as well... It's a nice mix of sweet and savory and spicy, and  has amazing textures too. I bet it would be even more awesome with the pine nuts for some crunch



Saturday 3/10/12: (vegan) Cinnamon Cupcakes with (not vegan) Brown Sugar Butter Cream

cupcake art?

It was my turn for dessert on vampire night, and I decided to make cupcakes. For some reason cupcakes seemed like a big task. Even though they are somewhat plain in flavor, design, etc., the process seeemed so tedious! Plus, I have to follow recipes. What a drag. I much prefer chopping up fruit, throwing it in a crust, and just seeing what happens. Anyway, I was inspired by one of my favorite blogs (love and olive oil) to try out vegan baking. I was pleasantly surprised! The cupcakes had a great light and fluffy texture. They weren't too sweet either, which was nice. I didn't love the flavor of the butter cream, but I think it wasn't anything wrong with the recipe, it just tasted like my butter was old (it wasn't, so that was curious). I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top to disguise the flavor and it ended up fine.

Weekly wrap up: 2/26 - 3/3

The past several weeks I have been spending what seems like every waking minute working on my prospectus. And while this leaves little time for writing blog entries (despite my New Year's Resolution to increase all types of writing activity), I did take time to cook a few times and snap some quick photos. Here are all the yummies from the last week!

Sunday Brunch for 1: Rum Raisin, Cinnamon Swirled Baked Oatmeal. Sunday morning I was really craving something slightly sweet. Because making pancakes (from scratch) for one is quite difficult, I turned this yummy looking pancake recipe into a baked oatmeal recipe! So, I soaked the raisins in rum, and added them to my standard baked oatmeal (1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup 1% milk, one egg) and then swirled in a mixture of cinnamon, raw sugar, and about a 1/2 teaspoon of water (to make it into a paste). I baked it at 350 for 20 minutes and then devoured it in 20 seconds. Oh-- I poured more milk on it before I ate it too, because I was feeling extra indulgent.

Sunday dinner: (Leftover) Fontina polenta with mushroom saute. For "vampire night" this week, I was on dinner duty. I went to my go-to source for a great meal, the December 2010 issue of Cooking Light magazine. This sounds really odd, but this magazine has given me more "winners" of recipes than most cook books I own! For a $2.95 price tag, that is not half bad. This recipe was no exception. It came together really quickly and was absolutely delicious. The leftovers weren't half bad either! I just changed a few things with the recipe-- for one, I used fontina cheese instead of fontal. Also, I used chicken stock instead of veggie, and my mushrooms were a blend of shitake and white button. Finally, I skipped the whole "put the polenta in the broiler" step and just ate it straight from the pot. And you know what? I got no complaints. 

Wednesday dinner: (sideways?) Cauliflower and Kale pasta bake and my go-to spinach salad. Wednesday I tried a recipe that I have on Pinterest. Well, I didn't so much follow the recipe as I did say "oh cauliflower and kale sound good" and made it up as I went along. I don't really know what I did here, but I know it was just okay. The star of the meal was my go-to salad. Some type of green (spinach in this case) + poppyseed dressing + a tangy cheese (gorgonzola) + a bit of bite from an onion (shallot) + some nut or seed (walnut) + dried or fresh fruit (crasin) = instant salad success! Especially when the greens are tossed in the dressing and the toppings are added later. Fool proof! 

Friday dinner for two: Kale Caesar Salad and Shrimp Scampi Rice Pilaf. Last week while working on my prospectus over at Tim's, I caught a recorded episode of Symon's Suppers (yes, my boyfriend DVR's cooking shows for me-- that is why he's wonderful!), and was inspired by the one and only Michael Symon to make a Caesar salad with kale instead of romaine. I didn't follow his recipe, but it was still super delicious. To make the dressing, I combined a grated garlic clove, the zest and juice of one lemon, an anchovy, some black pepper, parmesan cheese, and then slowly whisked in olive oil. I then tossed the kale leaves in the dressing and let it sit for close to an hour (while most salads would be ruined from sitting in dressing, the kale gets better as the acid slowly "cooks" it) and topped it with some thinly sliced shallots and tomatoes. YUM. 

Cooking dinner for Tim and I during lent is always nice because it lets me stretch my seafood legs a bit. Last Friday I made shrimp scampi rice, which is based off of a dish my mom made probably twice a month when I was growing up. It couldn't be easier, and it's sooo delicious. Basically, I melted about two TBSP of butter with another TBSP of olive oil (this was for four servings, so not much in each) and then sauteed some grated garlic, red pepper flakes, and scallions. Meanwhile I cooked up a pot of brown rice (if it was minute rice I would have just made it in the same pot as the yummy butter mixture, but it was the regular old "cook it for 30 minutes" kind instead). Just before the rice was done, I threw the shrimp in to steam up and then tossed in the yummy sauce. Last but not least, I topped it with the zest of a lemon (Tim proceeded to pick out every little piece of lemon, so next time I'll skip that step) and some more fresh scallions and finely minced parsley. So easy and delish! 

Saturday night dinner: Pantry Pasta (aka black squid ink fettucine with artichoke hearts, sundried tomato, spinach, and parmesan). Sometimes I just don't feel like grocery shopping. This is rare, since any food market is basically my heaven. But, Saturday was one of those "I can't bare putting on shoes, let alone real pants" kinds of evenings, so I had to go shopping in my pantry instead! I had half a package of black fettucine left from Valentine's day, so I put on a pot of boiling water, and meanwhile made a quick sauce of chopped canned artichoke hearts, the last couple sundried tomatoes out of a package, and half a bag of spinach (along with garlic, EVOO, red pepper, parm, and that sort of stuff). Tossed it all together and YUM. Not the worst pantry pasta I've ever had. 

So, that's what I cooked last week! I'm hoping for some equally delicious meals this week! Maybe some even inspired by the spring weather we will be having??

Haircut Dinner?

Before

Last week, I cut 10 inches (or maybe more) off my hair, and donated it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program which makes wigs for women with cancer.This is the fourth time I have donated my hair (and probably last since it is starting to go gray), and it has been emotional every time.

After!

Eight and a half years ago, my best friend Mariah died of cancer. She was the strongest and most vibrant person I've ever met, and I still miss her every day. But, her memory lives in me, and I try to channel her passionate spirit in everything I do. While I can't bring Mariah back, and I'm not cut out to do research to prevent cancer or provide support for those suffering like some of my other amazing friends are, something I have been able to do is give my hair so women undergoing chemotherapy have one less thing to take away their dignity.

My "hair cut" meal last Wednesday night was in honor of Mariah. One of her favorite meals was Chicken Fettuccine. For her that meant fettuccine alfredo with chicken, but I took some creative freedom and made one of my specialties. While I'm sure I was not the first person to think of this, it is one of the best dishes that I have ever come up with on my own.

This meal was delicious, and meaningful and reminded me that while adjusting to my new short hair may take awhile, it is worth it to be able to honor Mariah in this way one last time.

Sort of a lame photo, but a delicious meal

Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken stuffed with Goat Cheese

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 oz goat cheese
• fresh garlic
• fresh herbs (I used Rosemary and basil this time)
• 4 slices of prosciutto
• olive oil

Mince the garlic and chop the herbs and mix into the goat cheese. Set aside. Put chicken breasts on a cutting board and slice into them to create little pockets. Fill with goat cheese and press the pocket shut. Wrap with prosciutto, putting seams on opposite side of the goat cheese pocket. Grill on Medium heat for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through.

Fettucine with Wine Sauce

• fettucine pasta
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced or grated
• red pepper flakes
• 2 TBSP butter (or butter substitute)
• 2 (or so) cups dry white wine
• grated parmesan 

Heat water for pasta. When it boils, salt heavily and add pasta. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, sautee garlic in olive oil until it becomes tender. Add red pepper flakes and wine and simmer to reduce wine by about half. Reduce heat to low and add butter to sauce. When pasta is one or two minutes shy of perfection, drain and add to pan with wine sauce. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water to add in case pasta dries out. Toss pasta with parmesan (about 2 oz), season liberally with black pepper and a bit of salt, and serve.

Shrimp Quesadillas and Warm Acini di Pepe and Corn Salad

***this post is 2-3 weeks late, and is very much out of order. oops!

Last night's dinner was good. Really good, in fact. So good that I ate leftovers for breakfast! I made shrimp quesadillas (inspired by Pionner Woman's Quesadillas de Camarones) and this warm corn and pasta salad my mom used to make.

Shrimp Quesadillas --  (serves two with leftovers)
The quesadillas were a little higher calories than I'd normally like to eat for dinner, but I think the future I could just use one tortilla and a little less cheese. Otherwise, they are very healthful. Lot's of veggies, a little protein-- what's not to love?

• 8 shrimp, deveined and peeled
• half a yellow onion, diced
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• 1 small red pepper (I used half a large, but same idea), diced
• four whole grain tortillas, sprayed lightly with cooking spray
• olive oil
• red taco sauce
• colby jack cheese 

Pioneer Woman does a fantastic tutorial for how to assemble these, but basically you sautee the veggies til they are soft, then cook the shrimp in the red sauce and chop it all up. Then you assemble quesadillas-- tortilla, cheese, veggies, shrimp, cheese, tortilla. Cook long enough to heat through and melt cheese. Cut into pieces and enjoy!

Acini di Pepe and Corn Salad
Have you ever seen acini di pepe in the past aisle? They are like tiny dots of pasta-- as if someone took spaghetti noodles to a mandolin. They almost act like couscous in this dish, which I'm sure could be used instead. Also, at some grocery stores it's easier to find pasta stars. As long as you use something grainy that is smaller than a corn kernal, you are set!

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• sea salt
• 4 oz acini di pepe (or whatever you use)
• 1 cup or so frozen corn kernels

Boil acini with package instructions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a saute pan and then cook garlic until translucent. Throw in the scallions and plenty of sea salt. When the pasta is done and drained, add it and the frozen corn to the pan and toss around. The corn cooks almost immediately, and you don't want to over cook it because you want to keep it nice and crisp. Garnish with more scallions on top, and enjoy!

Tilapia with Pesto and Cacio e Pepe

 

Hello. My name is Katy, and I am a month behind in blogging. I thought I could get away with this, since zero people read my blog... but alas, I have been found out. 

Anyway, sometime back in April I made tilapia with pesto. The pesto was super yummy and flavorful which was a good thing because the tilapia was BLAND without it. I usually love tilapia, but I just haven't had much luck lately. 

With the fish, I served one of my stand-by dishes-- cacio e pepe. In other words, noodles+cheese+black pepper= delicious. You can google this and find a thousand ways to make it, but my standard method is boil noodles in salty water to just a minute or so shy of my desired tenderness. Then, save a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Meanwhile, heat 2 or so TBSP of olive oil in the pasta pan til it's realllllly hot. You can also throw some buttah in here (which I do when I have some). The, put the pasta back in and stir it around, and then pour the pasta water over it as needed. Throw in whatever kind of cheese you want (plain old parm is my favorite, but romano is decent too) crack a ton of black pepper over the top (and when you think you are done, just give it like two more shakes) and then lightly toss everything together. In theory, the cheese should stick to all of the noodles and make every bite taste salty and gooey, but sometimes you will end up with a giant ball of goopy cheese that is somehow not stuck to any pasta. It still tastes good if that happens, fyi.

Whole wheat penne with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Sometimes after yoga, all I can think about is the incredibly delicious and healthy meal that I am going to carefully make for myself, savoring every moment. Other times, such as tonight, I am so hungry that I would eat any combination of crap that I happened to pull out of my fridge. Luckily, this evening, those things sorta went together.

I just made a serving of whole wheat penne and threw the red pepper sauce that I made on Saturday on it. I added a handful of parmesan, several shakes of cracked black pepper, and a palm-full more of fresh basil.

Not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but it did the job!

Namaste.

Monday night fail

Tonight I made Cajun tilapia with a side of lemon scented orzo and broccoli. I still think it sounds like it should taste good, but it just... didn't. The pasta was okay, but could have used even more lemon... or lime actually. The garnishes were nice (cilantro and red onion), but they needed more of that fresh citrus burst. Granted, I am only a few steps away from my kitchen and could easily fix this, but I'm too lazy (fail again!)

For the fish, I just used a mix of Cajun seasoning, dried parsley, black pepper and -- here is the bad part-- salt. I forgot that Cajun seasoning is already salted. I cooked the fish in 1 TBSP of vegetable oil over medium heat. The texture is really nice, but it's just too darn salty. It makes it taste so gross. Next time I will just make my own seasons with cayenne and paprika and control the amount of salt.

Friday night Lenton dinner

I'm not Catholic... but I am dating someone who is, and most of my family is, so I am used to following the lenton tradition of not having meat on Fridays. While I am okay eating purely vegetarian stuff, I know that the man in my life prefers a little protein. So, this evening I made the two of us seared scallops with fettucine in a white wine sauce.

The entire meal took about 12 minutes to make. I think I spent longer waiting for the water to boil than anything!

1. Boil water.
2. Do prep work for other stuff: Smoosh up a few garlic cloves (I smashed and then roughly chopped), get scallops dried off, remove their little foot, and lightly salt and pepper get out some butter, parsley, a lemon, and some red pepper flakes).
3. Put the pasta in the water (I did 1/2 pound tonight and I always add a glug of olive oil and some salt)
4. Heat up a non-stick skillet. Melt 1 TBSP of butter and then put the scallops in. When the bottom half is no longer translucent, flip them over. Then I turned the stove down to Medium and threw in the garlic. Once the scallops were done on the other side I moved them to a plate and poured in some white wine (which I had handy since I was drinking it... ha), the juice of half a lemon, and another TBSP of butter. A few shakes of red pepper flakes too.
5. Reduce wine sauce and about a minute before pasta is coming out, throw scallops back in.
6. Drain pasta and put in serving dish. Pour wine sauce and scallops over, as well as a big handful of chopped parsely. Toss. Serve with parmesan to taste.

DELISH! It was light but filling-- the lemony garlickly buttery sauce went so well with the rich sweetness of the scallops.

It helped that we were both starving when dinner was put on the table, but we cleaned our plates in no time!

Per request of Tim: "Mac and Crap"

"Mac and Crap" started a few months ago when Tim was trying to text me about a delicious lunch he had, but he couldn't quite remember how to spell cheese. Is it two e's, two s's... I can see what it would be confusing (sorta). Anyway, to simplify matters, "Mac and Crap" was born. We're both big fans (in fact, on our first date, Tim wined and dined me with a box of Kraft Deluxe. Pretty impressive)  and scout out the best dishes around town. There's "Mac and Cheese Mondays" at Z'Marik's,  the bacon surprise at Blackstone, the home-baked gooey deliciousness at Atlas, and Panera's bowl of creaminess.

Needless to say, I strive to make a good Mac and Crap at home, too. I've made it a bunch of different ways with a bunch of different cheese blends, but this week I decided to try something new. For one thing, I actually followed a recipe to the T! It is weird to say that. Anyway, I channeled the beloved Pioneer Woman and made this lovely recipe-- based on her recommended spices, I added dried mustard, thyme, and a dash of cayenne. 

It was really tasty and the perfect texture-- actually I snuck a few bites before I put it in the oven and I almost liked it more then. Next time I might just serve it straight from the pot.

Usually I like cheese blends, but something about the unbridled flavor of the extra sharp cheddar was very nice. Also it provided a much better (and more mac & cheese like) color than my Italian mac would. I think I might like to try this recipe with white cheddar (and maybe nutmeg instead of thyme?)

Overall, a delicious comforting meal! Five stars all around.

Great expectations

I have been eying a recipe on smitten kitchen for a long time now and tonight I finally decided to try it out. I served asparagus, goat cheese, and lemon pasta because I really love all of those things (it also has tarragon... yum!) Other than fudging amounts here and there, I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. I also prepared salmon fillets in the oven (350 for 15 minutes, 1 TBSP butter, lemon juice, and tarragon on top). The entire meal took 15 minutes to prepare so that was a total bonus!

I loooove goat cheese (marry it and have many tangy creamy babies kind of love) so I was expecting to eat all eight servings of this and fend off any other potential feeders with my pasta tongs. But.......... it just fell a bit flat. I liked all of the flavors, but it wasn't as life-changing as I hoped. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to have enough leftovers to provide me a healthy and tasty lunch the next few days, but I don't know how often I would repeat this recipe. 

Timmy was very excited to eat everything (obviously), but he was pretty wary of the pasta once he experienced the tang of the goat cheese. He wolfed down the salmon (I was also feeling "eh" about this), and then he actually suggested that next time I just do the asparagus in the goat cheese, lemon, and tarragon and I think I just might try it! If nothing else, it's really good to know how easily goat cheese melts and becomes an instant pasta sauce.

My "great expectations" weren't met, but it was still a healthy and pretty dinner with the boy I sorta like. Can't complain about that!

***Update-- I enjoyed the pasta served cold (I just added a bit more lemon juice, and salt) very much. I had it for lunch a few days in a row!