This was my second side dish in the meal with Salmon with White Wine Sauce (the other was the Roasted Tomatoes).
Ingredients:
Baby Spinach - one package, about 10 ounces (note: you can buy fresh spinach, or frozen)
Olive Oil
1-2 Tbs of Lemon Juice (if you are preparing this with the Salmon recipe, you can use some of the lemon juice that is remaining from that dish)
Crumbled Feta Cheese
1/4 cup Pine Nuts
Directions:
If you are using frozen spinach, follow the directions on the package to cook. I don't add any salt to the spinach, even if the directions call for it, because the Feta itself is so salty. Once the spinach is done cooking, drain any excess liquid and toss with about 1 Tsp of olive oil and pine nuts. You can either toss in the Feta or sprinkle on the top when you are serving it.
If you are using fresh spinach, heat 2 Tbs of olive oil in a pan. Add baby spinach and cook, tossing almost constantly, until tender. This will take about 3 minutes or so. Toss with pine nuts. Either toss in the Feta or sprinkle on top of each serving.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Roasted Tomatoes
I served these as a side dish with the Salmon with White Wine Sauce (and tossed spinach with pine nuts and feta cheese). There are many variations to this, and you can play around with flavors, etc and try out different things. Here's what I did:
Ingredients:
about 4 fresh Roma Tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
Olive Oil
Thyme
Minced Garlic (I don't know how many cloves; I use the already-minced garlic you can buy at the grocery store)
Directions:
You will be first baking and then broiling the tomatoes, so use a baking sheet that will also fit in your broiler. If necessary, you can probably remove the sheet that comes in the broiler and use this directly in the oven too. If this won't work, use a cookie sheet and then remove from there and place on the broiler sheet/pan later.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place halved tomatoes on a cookie sheet / broiler pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray / oil. Drizzle olive oil over the tops of the tomatoes. Sprinkle with Thyme. Place in oven and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Check tomatoes, you may want to add a little more oil. It should start to look almost as if they are caramelizing. Cook about 5 minutes more.
Remove from oven and put garlic on each tomato. I put about 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic on each tomato and spread it out a little.
Place into broiler and broil for 5 minutes or less. You want the tops to just start to brown, but not to become blackened.
Serve hot as a side dish.
Some thoughts on variations:
As Mandy and I were eating these delightful tomatoes, we thought of lots of options. One would be to add a little bit of Parmesan cheese or Mozzarella cheese to the tomatoes when they are broiling. Another idea was to serve with Feta cheese (sprinkle on after you remove). And of course, you could switch up the herbs. I liked the flavor of just the thyme and garlic, but basil would probably be delicious as well.
Ingredients:
about 4 fresh Roma Tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
Olive Oil
Thyme
Minced Garlic (I don't know how many cloves; I use the already-minced garlic you can buy at the grocery store)
Directions:
You will be first baking and then broiling the tomatoes, so use a baking sheet that will also fit in your broiler. If necessary, you can probably remove the sheet that comes in the broiler and use this directly in the oven too. If this won't work, use a cookie sheet and then remove from there and place on the broiler sheet/pan later.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place halved tomatoes on a cookie sheet / broiler pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray / oil. Drizzle olive oil over the tops of the tomatoes. Sprinkle with Thyme. Place in oven and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Check tomatoes, you may want to add a little more oil. It should start to look almost as if they are caramelizing. Cook about 5 minutes more.
Remove from oven and put garlic on each tomato. I put about 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic on each tomato and spread it out a little.
Place into broiler and broil for 5 minutes or less. You want the tops to just start to brown, but not to become blackened.
Serve hot as a side dish.
Some thoughts on variations:
As Mandy and I were eating these delightful tomatoes, we thought of lots of options. One would be to add a little bit of Parmesan cheese or Mozzarella cheese to the tomatoes when they are broiling. Another idea was to serve with Feta cheese (sprinkle on after you remove). And of course, you could switch up the herbs. I liked the flavor of just the thyme and garlic, but basil would probably be delicious as well.
Salmon with White Wine Sauce
Last night for dinner, I made a delicious Salmon with White Wine Sauce, served with Spinach & Feta Cheese and Roasted Tomatoes (see separate posts). Here's the recipe for the Salmon (for 2):
Ingredients:
2 Salmon Fillets (I like to use the thicker pieces, rather than the long skinny type)
1 lemon
1 green onion, thinly sliced (note, you can use shallots instead, or even chives if you prefer)
Salt
1/2 stick of butter
1 Tbs of flour
1 cup of dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
Directions:
Cut lemon in half and squeeze out most of the juice (set juice aside)
Spray baking dish with Pam / Cooking Oil. Place Salmon pieces in the dish and put the two lemon halves that you have taken the juice out of in the pan as well. The lemon "hulls" as I call them will give a slightly lemon flavor and a wonderful aroma to the fish, but you don't want to squeeze juice over the salmon itself because the white wine sauce will be lemony. Sprinkle with a little of the green onion slices and season with a little bit of salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan. As soon as the butter is melted, add the wine and flour and quickly whisk together. Add about half of the lemon juice you squeezed out of the lemon (this is according to taste - you can make it more or less lemony). Reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Note that even on a simmer, this mixture should be kind of foaming, almost like it is still trying to boil. The liquid should reduce down as it cooks. Stir in the onions, and a little bit of salt to taste.
When salmon is done, serve topped with the white wine sauce.
Ingredients:
2 Salmon Fillets (I like to use the thicker pieces, rather than the long skinny type)
1 lemon
1 green onion, thinly sliced (note, you can use shallots instead, or even chives if you prefer)
Salt
1/2 stick of butter
1 Tbs of flour
1 cup of dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
Directions:
Cut lemon in half and squeeze out most of the juice (set juice aside)
Spray baking dish with Pam / Cooking Oil. Place Salmon pieces in the dish and put the two lemon halves that you have taken the juice out of in the pan as well. The lemon "hulls" as I call them will give a slightly lemon flavor and a wonderful aroma to the fish, but you don't want to squeeze juice over the salmon itself because the white wine sauce will be lemony. Sprinkle with a little of the green onion slices and season with a little bit of salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan. As soon as the butter is melted, add the wine and flour and quickly whisk together. Add about half of the lemon juice you squeezed out of the lemon (this is according to taste - you can make it more or less lemony). Reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Note that even on a simmer, this mixture should be kind of foaming, almost like it is still trying to boil. The liquid should reduce down as it cooks. Stir in the onions, and a little bit of salt to taste.
When salmon is done, serve topped with the white wine sauce.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Free Stuff: Jewelry!
So I just read about this website (www.silverjewelryclub.com) that has silver jewelry for free! You have to pay shipping (around $6-$7) but that's it! There's no catch! The company assumes that if you go on there and get some stuff for free, you'll eventually buy something or tell your friends about it and they will buy something.
The items rotate frequently, with each one being available for about 15 minutes at a time, from what I can tell. At any given time there are about 4 items on the website that are available for free. You also can click on a link at the top of the page to see what is coming up next. It usually falls into one of three categories: pendants, rings or earrings. And most of the pieces are silver with some kind of gemstone. Check it out for yourself!
The items rotate frequently, with each one being available for about 15 minutes at a time, from what I can tell. At any given time there are about 4 items on the website that are available for free. You also can click on a link at the top of the page to see what is coming up next. It usually falls into one of three categories: pendants, rings or earrings. And most of the pieces are silver with some kind of gemstone. Check it out for yourself!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Potato Leek Soup
I love to make soup when it's cool outside, and even sometimes when it's not! A good soup is such great comfort food! This is one of my favorite recipes. It takes a lot of prep time, but it is delicious and good for sharing with a group!
A note about kitchen tools: I use my submersible handheld blender for this soup (and for lots of other soups). It was recently not working properly and I could not get the texture of the soup right without it! The other option would be to use a food processor or a blender - at the end of the preparation, you would remove the soup in batches to the food processor or stand blender and cream/blend it. The best I can suggest if you don't have any of these tools is that at the end when the potatoes are super-soft, you could use a traditional potato masher in the soup pan and then stir the soup to blend it together. My potato leek soup is always very creamy and very smooth in texture, but some people prefer (I guess) for it to be more mushy and chunky.
Ingredients:
5-6 medium to large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into about 1.5 inch cubes / chunks
2-3 medium-sized leeks, cut into small pieces (by the way, if you haven't used leeks much before, here is a link to a helpful blog with great tips and instructions for cutting up the leeks: http://startcooking.com/blog/183/Leeks)
1 small onion, chopped (I use a yellow onion)
1 stick of butter
1/2 package of bacon, cut into about 1 inch pieces before cooking
2 cans of chicken stock
1/2 pint of whipping cream (you can actually use a little more either whipping cream or half and half if you want it to be even more creamy)
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
For toppings (as desired):
Shredded cheese
Cooked bacon pieces
Chives
Start by preparing all of your ingredients. You won't have time to be chopping, etc once the soup gets going. I start by peeling and chopping the potatoes, cutting up the leeks, and chopping the onion, and I set each of these aside separately in prep bowls until later. I then cut up the bacon into smaller pieces using kitchen scissors so it will be ready to add to the pot.
Melt the butter in the bottom of a large pot. Add the bacon, and cook until bacon is done and has rendered most of its fat / grease. Note, you don't want to cook it until it is extremely crispy, as this will mean the grease starts to evaporate and even burn. Remove bacon from the pan but leave the liquid (now a combination of butter and bacon grease) in the pot. You may need to turn off the heat as soon as the bacon is done to prevent the grease from starting to burn before you go on to the next step.
Add the onion and the leeks to the pan and cook until the onion starts to become translucent. Add chopped potatoes and stir them into the hot grease. Add chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil. If potatoes are not covered, you can add additional chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer / cook until potatoes are almost done / starting to turn soft, then mix in the cream. Also add salt and pepper at this point. (I use probably 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper). Bring mixture back to a boil and cook until potatoes are starting to fall apart.
Using the hand-held blender, blend / cream the soup while it is still hot and in the pan. If you are worried about overcooking, you can turn off the heat completely at this point. Submerge the metal end of the blender in the soup mixture and blend, moving the blender around the pot frequently. Stir with a large wooden spoon, and check the texture to see if more blending is needed.
Stir in parsley, and additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Serve hot with shredded cheese, crumpled bacon pieces and chopped chives as garnishes. Enjoy! This will make enough soup for about 6 servings, you can easily double it for a large group!
A note about kitchen tools: I use my submersible handheld blender for this soup (and for lots of other soups). It was recently not working properly and I could not get the texture of the soup right without it! The other option would be to use a food processor or a blender - at the end of the preparation, you would remove the soup in batches to the food processor or stand blender and cream/blend it. The best I can suggest if you don't have any of these tools is that at the end when the potatoes are super-soft, you could use a traditional potato masher in the soup pan and then stir the soup to blend it together. My potato leek soup is always very creamy and very smooth in texture, but some people prefer (I guess) for it to be more mushy and chunky.
Ingredients:
5-6 medium to large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into about 1.5 inch cubes / chunks
2-3 medium-sized leeks, cut into small pieces (by the way, if you haven't used leeks much before, here is a link to a helpful blog with great tips and instructions for cutting up the leeks: http://startcooking.com/blog/183/Leeks)
1 small onion, chopped (I use a yellow onion)
1 stick of butter
1/2 package of bacon, cut into about 1 inch pieces before cooking
2 cans of chicken stock
1/2 pint of whipping cream (you can actually use a little more either whipping cream or half and half if you want it to be even more creamy)
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
For toppings (as desired):
Shredded cheese
Cooked bacon pieces
Chives
Start by preparing all of your ingredients. You won't have time to be chopping, etc once the soup gets going. I start by peeling and chopping the potatoes, cutting up the leeks, and chopping the onion, and I set each of these aside separately in prep bowls until later. I then cut up the bacon into smaller pieces using kitchen scissors so it will be ready to add to the pot.
Melt the butter in the bottom of a large pot. Add the bacon, and cook until bacon is done and has rendered most of its fat / grease. Note, you don't want to cook it until it is extremely crispy, as this will mean the grease starts to evaporate and even burn. Remove bacon from the pan but leave the liquid (now a combination of butter and bacon grease) in the pot. You may need to turn off the heat as soon as the bacon is done to prevent the grease from starting to burn before you go on to the next step.
Add the onion and the leeks to the pan and cook until the onion starts to become translucent. Add chopped potatoes and stir them into the hot grease. Add chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil. If potatoes are not covered, you can add additional chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer / cook until potatoes are almost done / starting to turn soft, then mix in the cream. Also add salt and pepper at this point. (I use probably 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper). Bring mixture back to a boil and cook until potatoes are starting to fall apart.
Using the hand-held blender, blend / cream the soup while it is still hot and in the pan. If you are worried about overcooking, you can turn off the heat completely at this point. Submerge the metal end of the blender in the soup mixture and blend, moving the blender around the pot frequently. Stir with a large wooden spoon, and check the texture to see if more blending is needed.
Stir in parsley, and additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Serve hot with shredded cheese, crumpled bacon pieces and chopped chives as garnishes. Enjoy! This will make enough soup for about 6 servings, you can easily double it for a large group!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Strawberry Jello Cake
This is one of my very favorite desserts to make, so easy and oh so yummy! This year I decided to make it for Easter dinner at my mother-in-law's house... I hope everyone likes it... on second thought, maybe they will all hate and I can eat the whole thing myself. Pass the big spoon my way, YUM!
Ok ok, so for instructions: Start by preheating your oven to 350.
Rinse and dry one carton of strawberries. Obviously this dish is even TASTIER with fresh strawberries, but it's not quite time for that around here... so I settled for the very best Ingle's had to offer me on this Easter Sunday.
Slice the strawberries thin as you can get 'em and cover the bottom of your glass baking dish.
Ok, so I snuck a few slices, what of it? Strawberries are DELICIOUS!
Alright, so then take a can of crushed pineapple, juice and all. Pour it over the strawberries and mix it up a bit.
Man, that smells great...
Now sprinkle on to packages of sugar free strawberry jello.
My camera batteries died so there's no picture of this stage... sorry, I was on an Easter time crunch, no time for waiting on my sweet husband to change out the batteries. But here's a close up from the next step so you can see, sorta. You will completely cover the fruit with the gelatin.
Ok, now add some mini marshmallows. I think you are only supposed to add like a cup of marshmallows but... I really don't know because I usually add half of a 10.5oz bag. This time however, I was talking to Stephen and shooing away the dogs and emptied almost the whole bag in, oops! But Stephen says you can never have too many marshmallows which sounds about right to me!
Mix a box of white cake mix with two eggs and the amount of water directed on the package, no oil.
I forgot the two egg rule this time and added three (which is what the package tells you) but I don't think it will do too much damage, we'll see.
The batter can be a little lumpy, no need to worry. Pour it on top.
Stick it in the oven, doesn't it look delicious!
As a side note, taking this picture is the first time I have noticed there was a light in my oven!!!!! Who knew? It's been out since we moved in I guess, Stephen is going to have to fix that, I'm so excited!
Cook it for 50 minutes, it's gonna smell so good!
The top should come out golden brown and fantastic looking, that's right, fantastic, and the smell should make you drool a little, but just a little, I mean anything more than that is just gross, so don't do that, ok?
And the bottom will be a bubbly and yummy looking!
Now spoon it out and top it with some cool whip and you're in hog heaven. Enjoy!
Ok ok, so for instructions: Start by preheating your oven to 350.
Rinse and dry one carton of strawberries. Obviously this dish is even TASTIER with fresh strawberries, but it's not quite time for that around here... so I settled for the very best Ingle's had to offer me on this Easter Sunday.
Slice the strawberries thin as you can get 'em and cover the bottom of your glass baking dish.
Ok, so I snuck a few slices, what of it? Strawberries are DELICIOUS!
Alright, so then take a can of crushed pineapple, juice and all. Pour it over the strawberries and mix it up a bit.
Man, that smells great...
Now sprinkle on to packages of sugar free strawberry jello.
My camera batteries died so there's no picture of this stage... sorry, I was on an Easter time crunch, no time for waiting on my sweet husband to change out the batteries. But here's a close up from the next step so you can see, sorta. You will completely cover the fruit with the gelatin.
Ok, now add some mini marshmallows. I think you are only supposed to add like a cup of marshmallows but... I really don't know because I usually add half of a 10.5oz bag. This time however, I was talking to Stephen and shooing away the dogs and emptied almost the whole bag in, oops! But Stephen says you can never have too many marshmallows which sounds about right to me!
Mix a box of white cake mix with two eggs and the amount of water directed on the package, no oil.
I forgot the two egg rule this time and added three (which is what the package tells you) but I don't think it will do too much damage, we'll see.
The batter can be a little lumpy, no need to worry. Pour it on top.
Stick it in the oven, doesn't it look delicious!
As a side note, taking this picture is the first time I have noticed there was a light in my oven!!!!! Who knew? It's been out since we moved in I guess, Stephen is going to have to fix that, I'm so excited!
Cook it for 50 minutes, it's gonna smell so good!
The top should come out golden brown and fantastic looking, that's right, fantastic, and the smell should make you drool a little, but just a little, I mean anything more than that is just gross, so don't do that, ok?
And the bottom will be a bubbly and yummy looking!
Now spoon it out and top it with some cool whip and you're in hog heaven. Enjoy!
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