Quinoa Salad(s)

December 30th. It's time to start thinking about those New Year's Resolutions. Do people really make resolutions anymore and actually stick to them? I've never been one to make big resolutions, nor am I good with following through with them. In years past I have vowed to be more patient throughout the year. Patience is a virtue, but I just don't think I have that virtue figured out yet. There will be the millions of people that will miraculously start going to the gym on a regular basis, taking up bikes in spin class, but that is already a part of my normal routine. I thought about giving up text messaging for a month but I don't know if I have the will power to do that. This would mean that I would actually have to pick up the phone and call someone? Maybe I could start my Emily & Rick cooking project? I'll let you know what I decide.

I'm getting stocked up on recipes that I've made over the holidays so you are going to be getting some 2 for 1 recipes in the next couple of posts. In this post, I have two really great recipes for quinoa salad. We had our traditional office potluck party right before the holidays and I contributed by bringing a Cranberry Quinoa Salad with Lemongrass. I had never cooked with lemongrass before, so that was a fun adventure. Lemongrass does taste like lemons - for all of you that might be wondering. For Christmas Eve dinner in Schaumburg, I made an Asparagus and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese. Both salads were relatively easy to put together and both went over well with the crowd. Most people seem to like quinoa, even if they have never had it before. If I had to pick a favorite between the two salads, the quinoa salad with goat cheese just might win. The saltiness from the cheese and the olive vinaigrette just really make for a perfect combination.

These salads are perfect for everyday use and also travel well for any gathering you might be attending. They can be made a couple of days in advance, which can be a huge time saver. Try them out. You'll love both.

Asparagus and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese

adapted from Bobby Flay

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Quinoa Salad

1 bunch asparagus spears, trimmed, steamed and chopped

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

2 cups quinoa

4 cups water

8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 green olives, chopped

2 tomatoes, seeded and diced

Green Olive Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup pitted green olives

1/2 cup olive oil

To make the vinaigrette: Combine the vinegar, mustard, cayenne pepper, green olives, and olive oil in a food processor. Process until smooth.

To make the quinoa salad: Bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and cook until water has completely absorbed - about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the quinoa in a large bowl. Add the red wine vinegar, olive oil, parsley, tomatoes and 1/4 cup olive vinaigrette. Stir to combine. Top with the crumbled goat cheese, chopped asparagus, and olives. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Serve at room temperature.

Cranberry Quinoa Salad

adapted from WholeFoodsMarket.com

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1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

4 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon lemongrass, minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

4 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

Salt to taste

Bring water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until all the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Combine honey, lemongrass, garlic, peppers, cranberries and lime juice in a small bowl. When quinoa is cooked, stir in honey mixture.

Add parsley, red onion and salt. Stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Chill until ready to serve.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream & Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins

December 26th. The day after Christmas. It's snowing here. I'm sure you can see that from the picture above. Today alone, we have had about 8 inches and it doesn't show signs of stopping. I love when they call for 1-3 inches and give you 8 instead. I couldn't ask for a better winter scene out the kitchen window. I had already planned on staying inside today, working on a jigsaw puzzle, cozying up by the fire, looking at Christmas gifts that are piled under the tree, and simply relishing in the idea that nothing is scheduled for the day. When it's snowing buckets, it makes a day spent inside even better.

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone. I think I say that every year. It has simply been a perfect holiday week.

Mission accomplished. I was able to distribute all of my homemade Christmas gifts over the past couple of days to some very deserving friends and family. Bella Eats recently had a post with homemade gifts and I took Andrea up on her various ideas. I was able to hand out mason jars filled with homemade granola and almond butter. I love giving something from the kitchen because I think it not only makes for a tasty gift but also represents something I love to do. I updated my recent recipe post of Everyday Granola by adding raisins, dried cranberries and a touch of shredded coconut. Because it was the holiday, I even added a little extra brown sugar for the perfect taste of sweet to capture in a jar.

Mission Accomplished. Gag gifts were completed. Between sips of Starbucks coffee and rolling out shortbread cookies, I was able to craft a semi-successful gag gift. Gag gifts have been a tradition in our family for years. At Thanksgiving time, each person draws a name and on Christmas Eve, we exchange our gifts. I think each person secretly wants to have the best gag gift and the pressure can sometimes do you in. I take that back - not sometimes - it can ALWAYS do you in.

Ben and Anne joined us for Christmas day. Anne brought her homemade caramels studded with walnuts. I'm in awe of Anne's patience. I would never be able to individually wrap such a large number of caramels on a yearly basis. If you haven't made caramels before with walnuts in them, I highly suggest it. That little crunch you get in the candy, makes these over the top. These are a big hit - which means Anne can probably be talked into making them again next year.

Christmas day was wonderful. We had coffee. We opened presents. We oohed and ahhhed at our gifts. We made the traditional peppermint hot chocolate. We cooked breakfast with our traditional Peak Brothers BBQ ham. We all got out in the snow to take Chloe for a walk around the neighborhood. We tinkered with our new gifts. We listened to Christmas Cd's all day. We made Christmas dinner. We did dishes. Here was our 2009 menu for the day:

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs, Peak Brothers Ham on Toasted 12-grain English Muffins

Fresh Fruit (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries)

Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Dinner

Hummus with Assorted Vegetables

Steamed Asparagus

Smoked Gouda, Pepper Jack and Cheddar Cheese slices with Triscuits

Beef Tenderloin served over Anson Mills Grits

Tomato Chutney

Green Peppercorn Sauce

Sauteed Green Beans with Shallots

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Shortbread Cookies

For something sweet in the morning, I went with a recipe from Ina for Blueberry Coffeecake muffins (recipe posted below). Disregard the fact that these muffins have 12 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of sour cream. Throw caution to the wind and make them. Just use this recipe when you are really looking to treat yourself for a holiday or special occasion.

I seem to be on an ice cream kick when it comes to holiday desserts. I had originally planned on a peppermint ice cream to go with the whole holiday flavor theme. However, while in mid-recipe search, I came across a title for salted caramel ice cream. Does that not sound like the perfect Christmas dinner dessert? I completely trust David Lebovitz when it comes to his recipes for ice cream. If you plan a day ahead, making ice cream can really be a time saver when it comes to dinner time.

This might be one of the most gourmet ice cream flavors I've ever tasted and it is over the top amazing. The salty/sweet combination seems to be in right now - and this ice cream goes right along with that theme. You make a caramel brittle that gets folded into the caramel ice cream. The saltiness of the ice cream really brings out the flavors of the caramel. One scoop will definitely do you. I served the ice cream with cutout shortbread cookies.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

adapted from David Lebovitz

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Caramel Praline (Mix-in)

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Ice Cream Custard

2 cups whole milk, divided

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons salted butter

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup heavy cream

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

To make the caramel praline, spread the 1/2 cup sugar in an even layer in a medium saucepan. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush sparingly with cooking spray.

Heat the sugar over moderate heat until the edges begin to melt. Use a wooden spoon to gently stir the liquefied sugar from the bottom and edges of the pan - stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook stirring infrequently until the caramel starts to bubble at the sides and begins to smell like it's just about to burn. It won't take long.

Without hesitation, sprinkle in the 3/4 teaspoon salt without stirring. Pour the caramel onto the prepared baking sheet. Lift up the baking sheet immediately, tilting and swirling it almost vertically to encourage the caramel to form as thin a layer as possible. Set aside to harden and cool.

To make the ice cream, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl about half full with ice cubes and adding water so that the ice is floating. Nest a smaller metal bowl (at least 2 quarts) over the ice. Pour 1 cup of the milk into the inner bowl, and rest a mesh strainer on top of it.

Spread 1 1/2 cups sugar in the sauce pan in an even layer. Cook over moderate heat, until caramelized, using the same method as earlier with the sugar brittle. Once caramelized, remove from the heat and stir in the butter and salt, until butter is melted. Gradually whisk in the cream, stirring as you go. The caramel may harden but return it to the heat and continue to stir over low heat until any hard caramel is melted. Stir in 1 cup of the milk.

Whisk the yolks in a small bowl and gradually pour some of the warm caramel mixture over the yolks, stirring constantly. Scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan and cook the custard using a whisk, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. An instant read thermometer should read 160-170.

Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk set over the ice bath. Add the vanilla. Stir frequently until the mixture is cooled down. Refrigerate at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the appliance instructions. While the ice cream is churning, crumble the hardened caramel praline into very little bits, about the size of very large confetti. Add the confetti to the ice cream mixture just as it is finishing churning.

Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins

adapted from Ina Garten

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Recipe makes 20 muffins

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup reduced fat sour cream

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Dash of salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat muffins pans with cooking spray - or line with muffin liners.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each is thoroughly combined before adding the next. Add the vanilla, sour cream and milk.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins - filling just over 3/4 full. Bake until the tops are golden brown and the center of a toothpick comes out clean - about 32 minutes.

Cranberry, Pistachio, White Chocolate Biscotti

I didn't put up a Christmas tree in my apartment this year. The whole process is slightly overwhelming and requires quite a few steps to get a tree from the suburbs, into a city apartment, just to enjoy it for a short 3 weeks. It's not that I don't love having a tree, but all of those steps require the help of an additional able body. And by additional, I mean someone other than me. This year, I opted for white lights around my windows, a nativity scene setup on my table, the homemade holiday nut wreath, and my homemade yarn ornaments attached on the wall with mini 3m hooks. It worked.

For as long as I can remember, we always cut down our own Christmas tree - we never wanted to do it any other way. And it was always Oney's Christmas Tree Farm. We would load up in the Jeep - Chloe included - turn on Charlie Brown's Christmas CD, and head out to find the Phillips family Christmas tree. The best part of the trip was roaming around through the acres of farm land, trying to find the perfect tree. You always wanted to be the person to pick out "the tree" - or at least I did. "I think I found it" probably came out of my mouth about 47 times on that day. Chloe was allowed to get off the leash and run circles around the trees, which is an activity I like to think she looked forward to each year. I guess it was all fun for me, since I wasn't the one lying on the ground, sawing at the tree, then carrying it back on the mile walk back to the barn.

Some years, the farm was completely under mud and walking around was quite a task. Other years, the ground was completely frozen and you could hardly stand being outside for more than 10 minutes at a time. For a two year period of time, I was on crutches and Mom had to call ahead to beg Oney's to let us drive the Jeep out onto the farm grounds so that we could carry on with the tradition. You could always usually win when you played the cancer card. We would go really early in the morning, before Oney's opened, so that I could ride along in the Jeep and get out and crutch around to look at the trees. The year I was in the hospital, Dad and Ben went out to Oney's, video camera in hand, got the tree and documented the entire experience so that I didn't have to miss out. Ben arrived at the hospital a mere 6 hours later, with an edited video set to music, Charlie Brown Christmas none the less. That is dedication.

Obviously, some years were milder than others. What must the temperature have been this year to only require a light grey hoodie and a scarf? This was the year we ditched the real tree tradition. I couldn't part with not going to Oney's, so we made a special trip to pick out a pre-cut small tree to go out on the back deck. Our thought was that we could then replant the tree into the ground in the backyard after the holidays. It would become a new tradition. Well, the tree died immediately after planting it, and dad threw out his back trying to move it, so that tradition only lasted for a year.

When inflatables were first popular, we got our own frosty. We positioned him in the backyard so that we were the only ones that could see him lit up. I won't admit how much we loved seeing frosty come to life each night. He did have his ups and downs trying to stay inflated throughout the winter.

We have since moved to a fake, unbelievably tall tree that comes together in 4 very heavy pieces. I've actually never lifted one of those pieces, but they sure do look heavy. It is a beautiful tree that comes back to life year after year and it fits in the house perfectly. There is a part of me that misses cutting down a real tree, but I'm sure it is a tradition that will come back around eventually.

So if you are still reading at this point, might I suggest this holiday biscotti recipe as a perfect tree trimming treat or even as a little afternoon snack to have with a cup of coffee. I spend a lot of time baking in the kitchen - sometimes eating what I make and sometimes not. If biscotti are being made, I am eating them. They could top any cookie that comes out of my oven on any given day. This particular recipe is studded with cranberries, pistachios and white chocolate chips. They look like Christmas. The original recipe calls for them to be dipped in white chocolate but that seems a little too sweet and a little too over the top for me. I like them just like this. Not too sweet and the perfect bite for what you might be craving.

Cranberry, Pistachio, White Chocolate Biscotti

adapted from Epicurious.com

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3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

3/4 cup raw, shelled pistachios

3/4 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl to combine. Using a mixer, beat eggs, oil and almond extract together until well combined. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in pistachios, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Drop dough into 2 12-inch logs on your baking sheet. Logs should be about 2 inches wide.

Bake logs until lightly browned and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet for 30 minutes. Lower oven to 250.

Carefully transfer logs to a cutting board. Cut each log crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces on the diagonal. Stand upright on the baking sheet. Bake until firm, about 1 hour. Cool completely on the baking sheet. Serve with coffee or tea.

Macaroni and Cheese

Today is Sunday. I'm embarking on one of my favorite weeks of the year. It is one of those weeks where I just want time to slow down and I want to savor every minute of these final, pre-Christmas days. It's a time when I welcome the cold winter weather because it makes it feel like the holidays. I love to see the snow flurries out the window. I love having Christmas music on in the background as I go about my day. I love the hustle and bustle that the grocery store has, as everyone is gearing up for meals with friends and family. I love crossing those final Christmas to-do items off my list. My cards are written and sent. My Christmas shopping is just about done. My gag gift, however, is far from being ready. Dean's eggnog is in the fridge. The yellow legal pad is out, as we start to finalize the Christmas dinner meal. It doesn't get much better than this.

Macaroni and cheese used to be a staple of ours growing up. It was in the normal rotation with bone-in chicken and rice made with a can of cream of mushroom soup, a macaroni noodle and tomato based meat sauce combination that we called goulash, meatloaf, Aunt Jemima's pancakes with blueberries, and tacos made from the Old El Paso taco kit box. I actually don't know how macaroni and cheese made the cut as a weekly dish for us, since it always involves so many different pots and pans to complete the meal.

Back in the day, we were very gourmet conscious and made our macaroni and cheese with a box of Velveeta cheese. To this day, Velveeta cheese just doesn't make sense to me. It's a box of cheese, that can sit on the shelf, wrapped in foil, without being refrigerated and it has the texture of a very pliable rubber. That's just odd. I guess we were just used to it and didn't know any different. Throughout high school, I was a whiz at making Kraft's blue box macaroni and cheese. In my mind, the version of Easy Mac never came close to tasting like the original. There are still a few occasions when a bowl of this boxed mac and cheese just sounds like it would hit the spot.

Macaroni and cheese is not something that I make very often. It's hard to make a casserole style dish when you are just a party of 1. Macaroni and cheese does not freeze incredibly well, and the combination of noodles and cheese does not make for the most healthy of meals. Hammy is a new Mom and I wanted to bring her and Greg a meal that they could have on hand to heat up whenever they needed it. I figured mac and cheese would both travel and hold up well in the fridge. I used a pretty traditional recipe from Ina Garten. For a meal like this, I think you need to stick with the classic flavors. I boiled the noodles and made the cheese sauce ahead of time, and put the mixture into a disposable aluminum dish. There is an optional tomato and breadcrumb topping. I opted for breadcrumbs but not tomatoes, since they aren't really in season. The macaroni and cheese can then be heated up in the oven when you are ready to use it. It tastes like home. It tastes like the macaroni and cheese your Mom used to make, except with updated ingredients. A perfect winter meal.

Macaroni and Cheese

adapted from Ina Garten

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1 pound elbow macaroni

1 quart milk

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup flour

12 oz shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz shredded Monterrey jack cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add elbow macaroni and boil until just tender - according to the package instructions. Drain well.

In a sauce pan, heat the milk, but do not boil. In a separate pan, over medium heat, melt 6 tablespoons of butter. Add the flour. Whisk for about a minute over low heat, allowing the mixture to cook out the raw flour taste. While whisking, add the hot milk to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth and has started to thicken. Off the heat, add the shredded cheese, salt and pepper. Stir until mixture is smooth and the cheese is melted. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 baking dish or a disposable aluminum dish.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top. Bake until macaroni is heated, cooked through and bread crumbs have toasted. (Macaroni can be made ahead of time. Once you pour mixture into the dish, refrigerate until you are ready to use. Don't top with breadcrumbs until the dish is ready to go in the oven. Cook for 40 to 50 minutes.)