Eggplant, Ricotta and Marinara Stacks

Sometimes I sit at work contemplating what I am going to make for dinner at night.  I probably change my mind about 11 times throughout the afternoon but I think an essential ingredient to cooking is to actually enjoy planning and thinking about your meal.  I look forward to leaving work, going to the grocery store, buying my ingredients for the night, and spending some time in the kitchen.  I can get home at 7:30 or 8:00 at night, and it is still completely relaxing for me to throw a meal together.   It is probably a good thing that I am never bored at work as I might change my mind about 31 times and spend too much time on the Food Network website looking up recipes.  

I can't remember if I told you about this book or not, but a couple of weeks ago I read "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant".  It is a book of short essays from different well known cooks, foodies, and writers who talk about their favorite dishes to make when cooking for just themselves.  While I was reading the book I bought an eggplant, thinking I might be inspired to make something.  The eggplant sat in my fridge and I eventually had to throw it out.  Every time I opened the fridge I thought, yup there's that eggplant, but there wasn't a recipe or idea that captured my interest.  

Eggplant round 2.  I purchased another eggplant last weekend and was hoping to make something happen with it.  My Dad makes a fantastic marinara sauce and freezes it into quart sized ziploc bags.  I had a bag in my freezer and thought I could do something with it and the dreaded eggplant.  I can't say that eggplant has a lot of flavor but when paired with something else, it takes on the flavor of the other ingredients you are using.  I had some ricotta cheese and basil, and I thought about trying an individual sized eggplant type lasagna.

I roasted the eggplant under the broiler for a few minutes to get it soft before compiling the other ingredients.  I have a nice 1 inch diagonal burn in between by right thumb and right pointer finger where my skin met the oven rack in attempting to get the eggplant under the broiler.  Again, I have pot holders, but why I don't use them I have no idea.

The meal comes together really quickly, especially if your marinara is already made.  You can make this for 1 or you can put it in a large casserole dish and make it for a crowd.  For those of you not doing the pasta thing, this would be a great low-carb meal.   I served my eggplant stacks with brussels sprouts and a seeduction roll from Whole Foods.  A great meal, healthy, relatively cheap, and extremely satisfying.  

Eggplant, Ricotta and Marinara Stacks

1 small eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices

Marinara sauce (homemade or jarred)

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup chopped basil

Juice of 1 lemon

Dash of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice eggplant.  Place under broiler: 4 minutes each side.  The eggplant will become soft.  Take eggplant out.  Mix ricotta cheese with the garlic, basil, lemon, pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Get a Pyrex baking dish.  Place one slice of eggplant in the dish.  Layer with a tablespoon or two of the ricotta mixture.  Top with another eggplant slice.  Top with another tablespoon of ricotta mixture.  Top with marina.  Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, or until cheese melts.  

Puppy Chow Cheerios

Happy Fat Tuesday.  Spending Fat Tuesday in Chicago, IL is slightly different than spending it in New Orleans, Louisiana.  We did try our best though today to recreate the Mardi Gras holiday in our office.  Purple and yellow streamers, plastic masks, beads, and cajun music all made an appearance.  

I lived in Louisiana for 6 years and one of the greatest traditions of Mardi Gras was the King Cakes.  I was young when we lived there but I do remember that during this holiday, you didn't go anywhere that didn't have this dessert.  There is a baby hidden in each cake, and the person that got the baby would bring the King Cake for the next week.  We would have them at school, at family get-togethers, at Sunday School, and as a treat at home on the weekend for breakfast.  We always got our cakes at Weiss Guys Bakery in Covington.  When we moved back to IL we ordered King Cakes for the first couple of years and then just gradually stopped that yearly tradition.  It would be interesting to taste a King Cake from Weiss Guys to see what I think of it nowadays.

My goal for our Fat Tuesday party was to make a King Cake to bring into work.  I had the recipe and all of the ingredients, but time was my issue this week.  The dough requires 3 hours of rising time and 1 hour of cooking time.  If you get home from work at 8, that leaves little time to let the yeast work.  On my way home last night I decided to ditch the King Cake idea and thought I would make Rice Krispie treats.  My only catch was that I was working with the ingredients available at CVS in our building.  They didn't have marshmallows so I decided to make puppy chow.  I went for the Chex cereal and chocolate chips and they didn't have either of those either.  They did have Cheerios and giant Hershey bars though, and I thought I could improvise.

This recipe is slightly different from your conventional recipe but hits the same notes that the original recipe does.  I even got to use my new yellow pot again!  I didn't have a large Ziploc bag to shake the chow in, but I did have a large paper bag from Whole Foods so I used that instead.  You can make about whatever you have in your pantry work for this recipe.

  

Puppy Chow Cheerios

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter

3 large Hershey bars (I used 2 special dark and 1 regular)

7-8 cups of Cheerios

1 tablespoon of vanilla paste

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

3 cups of powdered sugar

Melt peanut butter, butter, chocolate, vanilla paste, and espresso powder in a pot over medium heat.  Turn off stove and add Cheerios, stirring to coat.  Place Cheerios into a giant paper or plastic bag.  Add powdered sugar and shake to coat.  Put in container to store.  

Manhattan Clam Chowder

I am the proud new owner of a mustard yellow 8 quart Le Creuset stock pot!  I was in need of a bigger pot because my one saucepan can hold a small can of soup and my larger sauce pan can hold about 3 times that much, which still doesn't get me too far.  I can't say that I really had a pot to boil water in for pasta or to makes stocks for soup.  Granted this pot can be used for more than just those two options and it is a welcomed addition into my kitchen.  I have the pot sitting out on top of my stove next to the yellow tea kettle.  That works quite well, since there really isn't anyplace in the cupboards to store this type of thing.

Last night I attended the Bear Tie Ball for the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation.  It was a wonderful evening.  It was held at the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier.  I had hoped to take pictures of the food and blog about what we had, but the room was a little too dark for that.  I had my old camera with me because my new one didn't fit in my microscopic sized purse.  My old one hardly fit in my purse to tell you the truth.  For someone who habitually carries a large purse with a wallet, book, planner, keys, cell phone, small package of Kleenex, 32oz Sigg bottle, and a reusable bag, it is no wonder that I survived 6 hours without my staples.  The one idea that I took from the meal is that a cantaloupe, honeydew, and cilantro salsa actually goes quite well with beef.  They served it with fish.  However the fish was touching mashed potatoes, and I'm not too fond mashed potatoes, so I took the salsa from the fish and had it on my filet.  Salsas are usually of the pineapple and mango variety, but this was an interesting twist.  

I did my grocery shopping today and when I make my clam chowder recipe I always feel like I get a few weird looks when checking out.  I mean who buys bottled clam juice and canned clams?  If you haven't tried making clam chowder before at home you should really give it a try.  Yes, the first time you think about adding bottled clam juice to your soup pot will slightly make you second guess your intentions, but it turns out just fine.  This is a great soup because after you chop a few veggies, you really just need to open up some canned goods and let the soup simmer.

I'm not a fan of the white clam chowder because it just seems really heavy, full of lots of cream and butter, and you miss out on the tastes of each ingredient.  This Manhattan Clam Chowder is the red version, has practically no fat (I think), and it tastes great.  I have another meal for the week and am freezing the leftovers for another time.  I served it with a Seeduction roll from Whole Foods (which is a must try) and it was a perfect Sunday night meal.  

Manhattan Clam Chowder

adapted from Epicurious but tailored to my own tastes

2 pieces of bacon

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leak

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 28oz can stewed/diced tomatoes

2 8oz bottles of clam juice

2 cans chicken broth

Water (if needed)

2 cans of minced clams

12 oz tomato sauce

A couple of red potatoes, diced

1 4oz can of diced green chiles

Salt and pepper

Dash of cumin

Cilantro to garnish

Fry bacon over medium heat until brown.  Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf and thyme and cook until veggies are tender.  Add tomatoes with their juices, clam juice, chicken broth, tomato sauce, potato, and chilies.  Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 50 minutes to an hour.  Add clams with their juices and heat through.  Season with salt and pepper and cumin.  As the soup cooks it could get a little thick.  Depending on how chunky you like your soup, add a glass of water to your pot until it gets to the consistency you like.  Garnish with cilantro.

Black Bean and Hominy Salsa

If you haven't tried the Cadbury Mini Eggs before, I would highly suggest it.  We discovered them last year in our office and Easter hasn't been the same since.  CVS sells them in mini single-serving bags, which can be the perfect ending to a long work day.  I have never tried Chocolate Chip cookies made with Mini Eggs instead of chocolate chips, but I just may give it a try.   As far as Easter candy goes, I've never liked the large Cadbury Eggs and I am definitely not a fan of Peeps.   Dark chocolate chips are my idea of a great sweet snack to have around the apartment.  

I went through a phase of always needing a tin of Starbursts in my room at home.  I'd go through at least one big bag per week, rotating through the yellow, green, and blue flavors.  Mom and I used to make special trips to certain Walgreens or White Hens to get the appropriate color bag that we needed for the week.  I think that was also during the time when Mom would have to make a call to the McDonald's on 31/176, letting them know to hold one more Bacon Egg & Cheese Biscuit for me.  That magic time of 10:00am. when McDonald's stop selling breakfast. would be minutes away, but if you call, they will reserve you one and you can get it a few minutes after 10:00 if you are running late.  File that one under information that might be useful to you one day!

I knew this week was going to be a busy week.  The order deadline for Daffodil Days is this week and I was planning my weeknight meals accordingly.  In one of my recent posts I had tried hominy for the first time.  It went over really well so I thought I would try making a salsa with it.  If you make a big batch of salsa, you can have different proteins throughout the week to go with the salsa, add a steamed veggie and you have yourself a meal.  In the summer I usually always have a pineapple or mango salsa in the fridge.  It goes well with everything, and so does this hominy salsa.  You should have all of the ingredients in your pantry already so grab the hominy and some fresh salmon on your way home from work, and you are set to go.  

I served my salsa over salmon on Monday night and over a grilled chicken breast last night.  Tomorrow I'm bringing a salad with canned tuna and salsa for lunch.  It has a million purposes, and takes minutes to put together at the beginning of the week.

Black Bean and Hominy Salsa

1 28 oz can of hominy, drained

1/2 pound of black beans, soaked, drained and cooked

1 jalapeno, with seeds, chopped

5 cloves of roasted garlic

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

Big handful of cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1 lemon or lime

2 tablespoons cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  Wow, that was hard.  

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 day weekends are so wonderful.  Thank you Abe Lincoln and George Washington for being so influential on our country to allow us to have a day just to celebrate you.  The best part about 3 day weekends is that you can do whatever you want on your free day.  Saturday has passed and the errands have been run, the cleaning is done, and all of those little tasks that get put off all week get completed.  Sunday comes around and you have time to relax, go to church, grocery shop, and get everything lined up for the week.  But on a Monday holiday, surprise!, you have a free day.  You can lay in bed all morning, watch too much tv, spend the day outside enjoying the weather, without really having a set to-do list.  For these reasons, I love 3 day weekends.  Mom came into the city yesterday and we enjoyed walking around on Michigan Ave. with the sun shining.  We did some shopping, had coffee, panicked slightly about the lack of electricity in my apartment (which didn't last TOO long), and we honestly just enjoyed the day.

As I've told you before, I'm taste testing peanut butters to find the best one.  When someone decides to taste test peanut butter they end up with quite a few jars open in the refrigerator.  I was hoping to get through some half opened jars so I decided to whip up some peanut butter cookies.  I knew Ben would be in for a bag and I could send a bag home with Mom, so that would leave one bag for me.  We have a go-to peanut butter cookie recipe in our family.  They are a sure-fire, can't miss peanut butter cookie recipe.  I'll post the recipe in a later blog I'm sure.  I looked through some other/newer recipes and thought I would try something different.  I started with a recipe from Epicurious but made changes to suit my needs and the ingredients I had on hand.  

Before I get to the recipe I thought I would give a plug for my Daffodil Days event.  The order deadline to purchase is this Friday.  If you would like to make a donation click on this link: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/buydaffodils.  Click on Get Daffodils.  I will deliver anything that you order to patients receiving chemo/radiation treatment in the Chicago hospitals during the week of Daffodil Days: March 16-20.  

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups oatmeal 

2 cups flour (I used half white, half whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 cup peanut butter (I used 3 different kinds)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (dark or semi-sweet)

4 tablespoons ground flax seed

1/2 cups chopped peanuts

In your food processor, grind 1 cup of oats.  Stir that mixture with remaining 1/2 cup oats, flour, flax seed, ground peanuts mini chocolate chips, soda, salt, and powder.  

Cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugar.  Add the vanilla and eggs.  Slowly add dry ingredients.   Chill for just a little bit.

Drop big spoonfuls onto your baking sheet.  Press down slightly with a fork.  Bake at 325 for 17-18 minutes.   

Valentine's Day Scallop Risotto

The buzz around town the past couple of days has focused on President Obama being back in the city for the weekend.  It is known that they have spent previous Valentine's Day dinners at Spiaggia.  Spiaggia is a $$$$ Italian restaurant on Michigan Ave. that overlooks Lake.  I have not eaten there before, but I have dined at their Cafe, the $$ version.  The Obama's dined at Table 52 tonight for their 2009 Valentine's Day dinner.  I Mapquested the distance from my apartment to Table 52 and it is officially .04 miles away.  The president was so close that I could have smelled his cologne as he whizzed by my door in his motorcade.

We recently ate at Coco Pazzo Cafe for dinner.  Mom and Dad were in the city for the weekend and we all went out to dinner.  If you haven't been there before I would highly recommend it.  Coco Pazzo Cafe is a neighborhood Italian restaurant, and it feels local, and I think that is why we like it.  The food won't blow you away $$$$ style, but it is great homemade food that warms you up from the inside out.  I had a delicious spicy spaghetti marinara with roasted jalapeno and it was some of the best I have had.  I still hope to re-create the marinara sauce that I had there.  Mom had a the special risotto of the day which happened to be scallop risotto with peas.  It was even better than my pasta marinara.  We both loved it and said that we would have to try and make it at home.   

I am very familiar with making risotto.  Williams-Sonoma has a great cookbook just of risotto recipes and I think I have made almost everyone in the book.  Once you get the hang of how to make risotto you will find that it is really easy to make.  The risotto cooks, becomes creamy, and you can add just about anything to it.  

I sometimes surprise myself with what comes out of my kitchen.  When I make my homemade pasta dishes, I sometimes sit and think, I can't believe I actually made this.  Homemade food can honestly taste better than anything you could have in a restaurant and I continue to confirm that belief.  I must say that the risotto I made tonight might be one of the best dishes I have ever made.  I took my first bite and thought, how in the world did I make something taste this good?!  I didn't use a recipe, but instead just went with the technique that I knew and from the taste I had a Coco Pazzo Cafe, and went from there.  I'll stop going on and on about it and just give you the recipe.

Valentine's Day Scallop Risotto

2 garlic cloves (skin on)

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

1 habanero, seeded and chopped

3/4 cups risotto

1 bottle clam juice

1 box chicken broth

1/2 cup bay scallops

1/2 cup peas

1/4 cup Parmesan

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1/2 lemon

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450.  Wrap 2 cloves of garlic with the skin on in a piece of tin foil.  Throw it in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.  Remove garlic from skin and mash.

Put clam juice and chicken stock into a pan over medium heat.  Bring up to a boil and then keep warm on the stove.  

Add olive oil to pan over medium heat.  Add shallot, habanero, and mashed garlic.  Cook until softened.  Add risotto.  Cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly.  Add a ladle of broth.  Stir liquid in with rice.  

Stir every so often until liquid is absorbed.  Add another ladle of broth and continue this process for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add scallops and peas.  Cook for about 5-7 more minutes, continuing to add more broth as needed.  

You will no when the risotto is done when it puffs up and no longer continues to absorb the liquid.  Stir in the Parmesan cheese.  Add the ground flax seed.  Add the squeeze of 1/2 a lemon.  Season with salt and pepper.  

The risotto is creamy, the Parmesan is salty, the pepper adds heat, the garlic add depth of flavor and the scallops at that seafood sweetness.  This is top notch delicious and if you ever want to come over and eat this meal with me, I am happy to make it again.  

Yogurt Spiced Chicken

I just finished reading the book More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin.  It is a sequel to her original book that I posted about in a previous entry.  When I read her books, everything sounds so incredibly good.  I make grocery lists in my head as I go from chapter to chapter and it is hard to keep my head from spinning with new recipe ideas.  She makes cooking and entertaining for friends sound like a breeze.  As I read more and more from her, I realize that I still have a long way to go with my cooking skills.  I enjoy her books because she makes normal, everyday food.  She can cook your basic roast chicken, a meatloaf, and simple desserts, and has an arsenal to go to when entertaining.  My goal is to cook basic food better.  That is slightly a challenge because I have a taste for things that most people don't enjoy.  I doubt entertaining with salmon, broccoli, and a slice of bread would be all that exciting for my guests.  I really love seafood, vegetables, olives, mustard, etc.  Things like red meat, pork, and chicken don't always seem to appeal to me but I am going to start working on that.

I am going to start small and build up great recipes for chicken.  Everyone likes chicken and as long as it has a great sauce to go with it, I think it tastes pretty good.  The book highlights a recipe for "Fake Tandori Chicken".  I thought I would give it a whirl.  The key in this recipes is to get the chicken marinating before you go off to work.  The fog was so thick this morning that I couldn't even see the buildings outside of my window.  The chicken soaks in the yogurt marinade all day and then all you have to do is come home and throw it in the oven.  The chicken gets so moist in the yogurt sauce and the paprika evens out the spiciness of the chili powder.  So easy.  

This meal is great because it requires no prep time at night.  Going to the gym after work at night is much easier, knowing that dinner is all ready to go when you get home.  I did a yoga class tonight.  It was slightly weird because the whole class was done without music, which is so unlike Body Flow at Healthbridge, but I'm still glad that I went.  Hopefully other yoga classes at the gym actually have music during the 1 hour workout.  

Yogurt Spiced Chicken

2 bone in chicken breasts (skin removed)

1 carton plain yogurt

2 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon hot chili powder

Salt and Pepper

Lemon Juice

Mix yogurt, paprika, and chili pepper together.  Slather on the chicken and let sit in the fridge all day.  Preheat oven to 400.  Squeeze chicken with lemon juice.  Bake for 35 minutes.  

Cottage Cheese and Spinach Roasted Salmon

Please don't be fooled by the title of this blog.  I don't want to hear any 'ewwws' or 'no ways' from the food critics and picky eaters out there.  If you try it, you will like it.  I am going to start off this entry with a helpful kitchen tip.  When you pull a hot pan out of the oven, do not use a slightly damp dish cloth as your pot holder, because your hand will burn.  I do know better as I have made that mistake before.  I will blame the excitement and hurry of wanting to take my 'money shot' pictures with my new camera for my lack of judgement.  I own 4 pot holders; really cute ones at that, yet I still didn't use them.  Don't worry Mom I am ok and thanks to a little aloe vera my finger tips are going to survive.  

I am really loving writing this food blog and one of my goals is to start creating more of my own recipes to write about.  I love paging through my food books, looking at my cooking magazines and surfing the online food websites but I also think I should be getting to the point when I can start creating more of my own recipes.  I truly believe a well-stocked fridge and pantry allow you to have more creativity with your meals.  If you have quite a few ingredients to choose from, you should be able to come up with something for dinner.

I looked in my fridge and had some broccoli, cottage cheese, mint, red pepper and spinach leaves.  I enjoy eating fish about 3-4 times a week.  The key with making fish fun, new and interesting is having a topper to go on your seafood.  Whether it be a fruit salsa, a compote, or a pureed sauce, giving it a specific flavor makes it taste good.  I threw all these ingredients into my mini-prep, added some cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin, and a squeeze of meyer lemon juice. I mounded it on top of my salmon and cooked it in the oven.  Fish cooks in the oven in 12 minutes.  You won't think it is done BUT IT IS.  DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR FISH.  This could be one of the reasons that most people don't think fish tastes cook, they cook the life out of it.  I served my fish with roasted parsnips and carrots and steamed broccoli.  Simple, homemade, healthy, and delicious.

Cottage Cheese and Spinach Roasted Salmon

1 4-6 oz piece of salmon

1/4 cup cottage cheese

3 florets of broccoli

Handful of spinach

2 sprigs of mint leaves

3-4 slices of red pepper

Salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

Squeeze of meyer lemon

Preheat oven to 350.  Puree cottage cheese, broccoli, spinach, mint, red pepper, lemon juice, and spices.  Rub salmon with a touch of olive oil.  Top spinach with pureed mixture.  Bake in the oven for 12 minutes.   

Frozen Bananas with Blueberry Sauce

I am the proud new owner of the Sony Cybershot H10 8.1 megapixel with 10x zoom digital camera.  My Grandpa gives all of the kids, well we are hardly kids anymore I guess, a Christmas check each year and I hadn't spend my money on anything yet.  I had thought about new boots but with this heat wave we've been experiencing lately, I'm banking on the fact that I won't need dress boots for the rest of the season.  I have been eyeing a new camera for awhile now.  I can probably quote the reviews of all the digital cameras on Amazon.com by heart with prices and ratings.  I've had my Canon Powershot for quite a few years now and was in need of an upgrade.  I didn't think I was quite ready for the DSLR series as spending $600 on a camera just doesn't seem practical at this point.  I am so very excited about my new purchase.  I've spent the night reading through the manual trying to understand what each function does, and I've taken a picture of just about everything in my apartment possible.  I'm hoping this will not only enhance some of my blog photos but also give me an opportunity to learn more about photography in general.  

I am a person that needs to have some sort of dessert every night after dinner, as I've probably already told you before.  I can't remember if I've always been like that or if it is something that has just come on the past few years.  And of course the dessert is never the same from week to week, it goes in streaks about like everything else I eat.  At one point I should have owned stock in Edy's Slow Churned Ice Cream, but these days not so much.  My new thing is frozen bananas done many different ways.  Carissa introduced me to that idea about a year ago but I am now just getting into tinkering with different recipes.

Freezing the banana out of its peel, in slices, gives it this creamy, icy, frozen texture.  As you chew it, the consistency is like a harder version of ice cream.  From past experience, don't freeze the banana in the skin as it is mission impossible to get it out of there once frozen.  And as another tip, chop up the banana before you freeze it.  Otherwise, as you try to slice it with your spoon in the bowl, the banana chunk will fly out of your dish with the force needed to get through it.  I've topped the banana with dried oats and peanut butter, or honey and chopped peanuts, and even crumbled shredded wheat with chocolate chips.  The possibilities are endless.

My new favorite way to have them is by making a blueberry sauce on the stove.  Making your own sauce is a cinch.  When I was at Whole Foods today I saw frozen Goji berries so that is the extra berry that you see in the picture here.  The blueberry sauce is warm and as it melts the banana slightly, and it makes for a heavenly combination.  And again, you could use any type of fruit fresh or frozen.  I have a stockpile of frozen fruits in my freezer so I can be ready for anything at anytime.  But I would say this is a great, healthy desert.  You have one superfood in the blueberry, a cancer fighting fruit in the goji berry, and then you have the great benefits of a banana.  

Frozen Banana with Blueberry Sauce

1 banana, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup or so of frozen blueberries

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon of sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)

Freeze banana for at least 30 minutes in your bowl.  Over the stove, on medium heat, bring blueberries, water and sugar to a boil.  Simmer for about 5 minutes until the fruit gets soft and the berries start to burst.  Pour over the frozen banana.  

Orange Roughy with Roasted Yellow Pepper Grits and Poblano Sauce

It is a toss-up as to which day of the week is my favorite.  The toss-up is between Saturdays and Sundays.  I have a definite routine on Saturday.  I wake up, watch tv, eat breakfast, workout, sit at Starbucks and read a book while planning my week of menus, and then I come back and clean my apartment.  It is a day that accomplishes both relaxing and chores, which sets up Sunday to be a day of complete relaxation.  Not to talk about the weather again, but today was an ideal Saturday morning in the city.  I woke up and decided to take a walk by the lake.  The sun was shining, the wind was only slightly blowing, and it was a beautiful day to walk by the water.  I wish it didn't take me 12 minutes to walk to the lake, as by that time I am starting to get tired, and my walk is practically over.   You can tell that everyone else in the city felt the same way about the weather.  Just to feel the warm sun on your face was a welcomed change.  A day like today re-invigorates you, reminding you that it is possible to survive the next 6 weeks of winter.  

I think a chef makes a recipe for many different reasons.  Whether it be a recipe you want try because the ingredients sound new and exciting or a meal that you want to make for a special occasion, there is always a reason to make a meal.  Tonight the main subject of the meal was my Dad.  He absolutely loves corn, grits, polenta, and anything that has to do with this staple crop.  You can say the word sauteed liver, blood sausage or curry with ingredient of corn, and to him it sounds like a delicious meal.  I was researching recipes this morning and came across a one for grits.  If I was going to spend a night at home for dinner and make grits as an entree, then I knew it would be a success no matter what.  Add that to the fact that grilling of fish could be done outside, and it was a sure winner.

This particular recipe calls for hominy.  I have seen hominy made on the Food Network before but I have actually never purchased or tasted it before.  I went to Whole Foods and they had canned hominy.  Have you ever had Corn Nuts?  You can get them at your local Seven 11, White Hen Pantry, etc.  And I must admit that my Dad turned me onto Corn Nuts when i was a little girl.  Hominy tasted like an unsalted, un-fried version of a corn nut.  The flavor is definitely there without the crunch and the grease.  

Orange Roughy with Roasted Yellow Pepper Grits and Roasted Poblano Sauce

3 - 6 ounce Orange Roughy filets

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

Season orange roughy filets with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Grill or saute.

Yellow Pepper Grits

3 yellow peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 16 oz. cans hominy

1 cup milk

1/4 cup grated cheese

Place pepper on a baking sheet.  Broil on high in the oven for about 15 minutes, rotating pepper until blackened on all sides.  Place the peppers in a brown paper bag, and seal closed for 15 minutes.  Remove skin and seeds from peppers.  Place 2 peppers in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Finely chop the remaining pepper and reserve.

Place hominy in a food processor and process until smooth.  Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft.  Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the hominy, yellow pepper puree, cheese and milk.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook 15 minutes and fold in the diced yellow peppers and cheese.  

Poblano Pepper Sauce

3 poblanos, roasted, seeded, and chopped 

Handful cherry tomatoes, roasted and chopped

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Handful chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons honey

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Place peppers, tomatoes, vinegar, cilantro and honey in a food processor.  Season with salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth.  Add the olive oil until emulsified.  

The meal is delicious.  The hominy is what makes the dish.  You can substitute just about any protein here, and I am telling you, it won't be a disappointment.  

Meyer Lemons

I can't believe I am going to do a whole post about lemons, but when Chicago weather gives you lemons, blog about lemonade.  It has been unbearably frigid this week and I can't say anything productive has come out of my kitchen.  Chicken noodle soup last night, halibut with roasted parsnips and carrots the night before, and salmon with those same roasted veggies on Monday night.  I'm starting to keep a tally of how many times I talk 'weather' with someone throughout the day.  I've been noticing that it usually happens in the elevator when I am riding with someone I know, and ironically the weather always comes up.  I'm in elevators quite often throughout the day, so maybe this is why I am always having the same conversation with people.  I'm wondering if this is just a Chicago thing or if it happens around the country?   I must have heard from 17 different people today that it is going to be 50 degrees this weekend.  What else would one talk about if we weren't unbearably cold all winter? 

A lemon is always something that I have in my fridge.  It can go into just about anything that you cook and can brighten up the flavor of any dish.  My grandparents used to own a condo on Sanibel Island in Florida.  It was the highlight of the spring to go down there for a week to visit them.  One spring break, I decided that I wanted to make my hair lighter (those were the days when I had a lot more hair on my head).  My Grandma convinced me that when she was a little girl she used to squeeze lemon juice in her hair and that would make it lighter.  I laughed at first, but Grandma said it was the truth.  So everyday before we walked down to the pool or the beach, we would squeeze lemon juice in my hair.  If we ran out of lemons we went straight for the bottle of lemon juice.  At the time, I must have been more pre-occupied with the blondness of my hair and not taking note that my hair was in sticky clumps as I lounged around by the water all day.  I don't think my hair ever got much lighter, but we sure did have some laughs playing with the lemons.  Every time I go to the pool I still laugh thinking about that trip to Florida.

I had never purchased or eaten a meyer lemon until last weekend.  These lemons are grown in the autumn-spring and they are sweeter than a normal lemon.  So sweet in fact that I could eat half a lemon on it's own without puckering my lips or adding sugar.  I was amazed.  My Mom surprised me and ordered me The Flavor Bible from Amazon.com and had it shipped to me.  It came in the mail today and I am looking up meyer lemons right now.  

The book says "A Meyer lemon is different from a regular lemon.  If you are using a Meyer lemon, you may want the perfume, aroma, and subtlety of it.  Yet when you taste it, you may want to add a touch of regular lemon to give it a little more acidity and a little kick".  I used the Meyer lemon to make a spinach pesto and it turned out fantastic.  Put the pesto over pasta or on a piece of fish or chicken.  You can even spread it over french bread as an appetizer.  It is tasty either way.  

Spinach Pesto with Meyer Lemon

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Zest of 1 Meyer lemon

Juice of 1 Meyer lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

Big handful of spinach leaves (fresh)

Pasta cooking water or chicken broth to thin

Diced jalapeno

Salt and pepper

In your Mini prep, pulse all ingredients until smooth.  Add enough pasta cooking water or chicken broth until you get to your desired consistency.  Serve over pasta, chicken, or fish.  

Chicken Noodle Soup

There is nothing more comforting than a bowl of homemade pasta or homemade chicken noodle soup.  What is it about these 2 dishes that immediately just warm you from the inside out and make you feel better after just the first bite.  If I am not feeling well, the thought of curling up in my chair with a blanket, Tivo, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup is about all that I can think to do.  I don't like crackers in my soup and I usually prefer there to be more broth than ingredients.  That is a plus when making your own soup; you can make it however you want it.    

When I was younger, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and a homemade grilled cheese made with the American cheese that came individually wrapped in plastic was about the extent of my cooking.  Therefore, it was a meal that I had quite often.  It was that, a Lean Cuisine, or Kraft Mac and Cheese.  I haven't recently eaten the plastic wrapped cheese, nor do I plan to in this lifetime, but next time I'm at the store I am going to see what the ingredients are in Kraft Singles.  Maybe it would be more appealing to me if they didn't wrap it individually in plastic.  Did you ever have one of the creamed Campbell's Soups?  When you opened the can, the soup came out like a roll of jelled cranberries that you would see at Thanksgiving.  You added liquid, and it somehow formed a mixture that I guess could be called soup.   

Well I won't steer you down that path.  If you haven't tried making your own chicken broth before, I would highly recommend it.  Canned broths have come along way, but to really make a great pot of soup, homemade broth turns an A soup into an A+ soup.  I didn't really use a recipe for this, but went with what I thought would taste best.  In recipes that I have seen, you always boil your root vegetables with the chicken and the water to make your broth.  Once the chicken is cooked, you discard those root veggies.  I got to thinking, why not keep those veggies, puree them in the Mini Prep, and then add them back to the soup.  Not only do those veggies have a ton of flavor, but when pureed, they will give the soup a great texture.  So that is what I tried and I will continue to do this step in the future.

When making homemade broth, I usually encounter just one small problem.  I never leave myself enough time to let the broth cool, the fat will float to the top, and you can skim it off before putting it in your soup.  Ideally, you would make your broth the day before, but like I said, I'm always doing it at the same time.  Yesterday as I hurried to get to my Superbowl party, I had my soup pot in the freezer, attempting to cool the broth slightly before I used it.  Not so successful, as my ice cream started to melt.  I quickly aborted that mission.

Chicken Noodle Soup 

For the broth:

3 bone in chicken breasts

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 parsnips, chopped

Salt and Pepper

Dried herbs (rosemary, time, oregano)

Place ingredients into a soup pot.  Cover with water.  Simmer over low heat for about 2 hours.  Veggies will be very soft and chicken will be tender.  Strain stock into a bowl, catching remaining veggies.  Puree veggies in a food processor.  Add veggies and broth back to pot.  (If you are making the broth a day ahead, cool broth in the fridge overnight, and skim off fat in the morning).

For soup:

Broth

Chicken that you cooked earlier, skin and bones removed and diced

Pureed veggies

3 carrots chopped in half moons

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 parsnips, chopped

1 handful Kluski noodles

Salt and pepper

Dried herbs

Bring broth, pureed veggies, carrots, celery, and parsnips to a boil.  Cook until veggies are tender.  About 30 minutes.  Add noodles.  Bring to a boil until noodles are cooked.  

Enjoy!

Mini Prep Quesadillas

I am starting to accumulate quite a few appliances in my kitchen.  Each one is designed for its own particular function that makes my time in the kitchen not only more enjoyable but also easier.  If you are someone who likes to be in the kitchen, then I suggest that you purchase a Cuisinart Mini Prep Food Processor; I could talk your ear off about all the of the wonderful things that this machine can do.  You can finely chop toasted nuts, puree ingredients for sauces, quickly make pesto, whip up a small batch of peanut butter, chop veggies, etc.  The Mini Prep is smaller than your normal food processor and it has 4 parts to it: the base, the bowl, the blade, and the cover.  It is really easy to assemble, clean, and store.  You can get them for $39.99 just about anywhere.  Everyone in my family has one: Ben, Mom and Dad, and even Grandpa.  

There was a time when I boycotted using a normal food processor.  There were so many pieces and when I was younger I could never get the lid to go on the food processor correctly.   And then there is the story from earlier this year where the food processor accessories fell out of the cabinet onto my head.  There was also a time when I put really hot liquid into the food processor, filled it a little too full, and started to hit puree.  Well the soup I was making that day not only flew out of the machine, but also left hot splotches on my body.  You surely won't have these types of issues with the Mini Prep, although the hot liquid rule still does apply.

I made a whole meal with this gadget.   I whipped up some black bean quesadillas with a mango salsa for dinner this week.  I had a half of bag of beans from Rancho Gordo that I wanted to use up and I set them out to soak before I left for work in the morning.  I always keep some 365 Organic Corn Tortillas in my fridge, in case I need a quick weeknight meal, because you can do just about anything with a few tortillas.  I served my quesadillas with some boiled beats that I had in my fridge.  Gotta get that veggie in there.

Mango Salsa

Handful of Cilantro

1 mango, peeled and roughly chopped

Dash of lime juice

1 jalapeno (with seeds for those who love spice.....me!)

Put all ingredients into your mini prep.  Puree until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.

Black Bean Quesadillas

2 corn tortillas

Cup or so of black beans

1 shallot

Spinach leaves

Chopped tomatoes or Canned diced tomatoes if that is all you have on hand

Chopped cilantro

Puree black beans in your mini prep.  Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Add a touch of oil to the pan.  Slather your bean puree on 1 side of both corn tortillas.  Add the chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and spinach leaves on top of the bean mixture.  Cook over medium heat, flipping the tortilla to make sure both sides get brown.  Serve with mango salsa on the side.