Coming Soon to my Tiny Kitchen...

Hello, lovely readers!  Time sure flies when you're having fun.  Can you believe that it has been over a year since my last post?  Well, that is going to change soon.  I have been doing a lot of cooking (and eating) using fresh, good food.

I have been having the most fun playing a little game I like to call, Mystery Ingredient Challenge.  In Mystery Ingredient Challenge, I am given two random ingredients and I have to come up with a way to incorporate them into a recipe.  This week was Cod and Strawberry Ice Cream.  (Which turned out totally yum, by the way).  Other ingredients have been things like Vegemite, condensed milk, Raspberry Jell-O (gelatin), bleu cheese, Tim Tams, mango, etc.

The Mystery Ingredient Challenge has been a very fun, odd and delicious journey so far and I am looking forward to sharing it here.

Strawberry-Curry Cod

Warm From Your Nose Down To Your Toes

I love it when we get to the time of the year when we can open up the windows and the house is full of fresh air.  During the warmer months, our windows are open 24/7, no matter how high or low the temperature gets.  The only down side to this is the nights when the temperature drops into the high forties and you find yourself freezing.  When I find myself cold no matter how many blankets I heap on, I know that it is time for soup.

This evening, as the temperatures dropped to 48°F, I found myself craving a little something to warm my insides so I turned to my collection of soup recipes.  Many of the recipes for soup in my collection requires hours of simmering to prepare them and that just was not something I was interested in tonight.  Tonight, I wanted something relatively quick but I did not want to cut corners on flavor.  I did not have enough vegetables on hand to do a vegetable soup and my Magic Chicken Noodle Soup simply takes too long to make.  Then I found a recipe I had not made in a long, long time:  Peanut Soup.  It is simple, quick and tasty and I just happened to have all of the ingredients I needed on hand.

Peanut Soup is one of those recipes that are so tasty and simple, you have to wonder why you don’t make it all of the time.  The flavors are bold without being over the top, it tastes creamy without containing any cream and you can dress it up and serve it on an elegant table or dress it down and serve it on a basic table.  No matter how you choose to serve it, there is no mistaking that Peanut Soup will keep you warm from your nose all of the way down to your toes!

Peanut Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups vegetable broth
• ½ small onion, diced
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 cup cooked rice
• Peanuts

Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan, bring the vegetable broth to a boil.
2. Add the diced onion and zucchini and allow to simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.
3. Add the garlic, tomato paste, peanut butter and soy sauce and stir until well combined.
4. Allow to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through, stirring occasionally,
5. Add cooked rice, stir to combine and allow to simmer for 3 – 5 minutes.
6. Garnish with peanuts and serve hot.

What kind of soup warms your insides on a cool evening?  Comment below and let me know!

Mmm...Mushrooms

I am not going to lie, I love mushrooms.  I love them raw, I love them cooked, I loved them fresh, I love them canned, I love mushrooms in a box, I love mushrooms with a fox.  I love mushrooms here and there, I love mushrooms everywhere! 

My love of mushrooms began as a child when my parents insisted on ordering mushrooms on pizza.  The passion just grew from there.  I began eating them on salads, as side dishes, as main dishes, raw, cooked…Well, you get the idea.  I love mushrooms and I am willing to eat them any way they are served.

The other day, I was in the mood for stir fry and when I went to my refrigerator to see what I could throw together, there, staring me in the face was two packages of organic mushrooms and a bunch of organic asparagus.  I knew immediately that the only answer to the question of what I was in the mood for was a Mushroom and Asparagus Stir Fry.  I could barely contain my excitement as I got out my rice cooker to get the rice going before I began preparing the sauce and vegetables.

I love Mushroom and Asparagus Stir Fry because it is simple and quick and it makes enough that I can portion out the leftovers and eat them for several days.  In a matter of minutes, I can have the sauce ready to go, the mushrooms cooking and a big pile of asparagus cut into bite size pieces and ready to go in the pan.  My recipe makes four generous portions or six normal size portions that are incredibly filling yet light enough that you will not feel weighed down after a meal.  On the down side, my husband would not touch Mushroom Asparagus Stir Fry with a ten foot pole.  He avoids both vegetables like the plague.  On the up side, that just means that I get to eat it all myself.  (It’s mine!  Mine I say!  All mine! – Insert maniacal laughter here.)

Mushroom Asparagus Stir Fry

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

• 1 pound white button or Baby Bella mushrooms
• 1 bunch fresh asparagus (about 1 pound)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• Optional:  4 – 6 servings cooked rice or quinoa

Sauce Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• ½ cup vegetable broth
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch or flour

Directions

1. Thoroughly whisk together all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Cut mushrooms into quarters.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Add mushrooms and stir.
5. While mushrooms are cooking, cut asparagus into bite-size pieces.
6. Add the asparagus to the mushrooms, stir to combine, cover and allow to cook for about 5 minutes or until asparagus is tender-crisp.
7. Add the sauce, stir, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 more minutes.
8. Remove from heat, stir and serve over cooked rice or quinoa, making sure to drizzle the pan sauce over to top of the vegetables.

What is your favorite way to eat mushrooms?  Comment below and let me know!

Curry It Up

It has been a while since I have posted a new recipe.  Rest assured that this is not because I have not been cooking.  Rather, circumstances have been such that my husband has been eating a lot of soft foods and I have been fighting seasonal allergies and a bit of a sore throat.  I am sure that we will both be back to 100% soon enough and I will be back to my kitchen experiments as usual. 

In the meantime, I have been stepping out on my beloved garlic and instead have been having an intense affair with curry powder.  Now, before I go any further, let me make it clear that shaking a little curry powder on some food does not a curry make.  Curry and curry powder are two different beasts entirely.  Generally speaking, curry is something akin to a gravy, simmered in Indian spices and true curry pretty much never involves the use of curry powder.  If you want authentic curry, stop by a really good Indian restaurant.  Curry powder, on the other hand, is a combination of ground spices, which usually include coriander, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, and chili peppers.  Curry powder as we know it was something of a marketing ploy devised by the British in the mid-18^th century to sell exotic spice blends. 

Now, back to my love affair with curry powder.  When a much younger version of me purchased my first jar of curry powder, I had no idea what it would taste like.  In all honestly, I was not very fond of the flavors and I could barely choke down the dish I had prepared.  Not wanting to be wasteful, as time went on, I began adding little bits of curry powder to all kinds of dishes – a dash on a sandwich, a pinch on pasta, a little sprinkle on roasted meats.  During this time, a funny thing happened:  I developed a taste for curry powder and I began craving it.  On the occasions that I used it, I began adding it in larger amounts.  Then I began adding curry powder to everything from avocado to zucchini and everything in between. 

In the past week, I have added curry powder to roasted chicken, potatoes and even a salad.  Sometimes I add it all by itself and other times, I combine it with other spices.  I love that with only a small amount of curry powder, I can transform a simple dish into something that tantalizes with exotic scents and flavors. 

Spices are a way of life for me.  In my little kitchen, I have an entire cupboard dedicated to them and on occasion, I like to open the door and breathe in the mingling scents.  I have my favorites and a few I am not so fond of and I love to use them all.  I will always love garlic above all else but I will never feel guilty about stepping out with curry powder.

What are your favorite spice blends?  Comment below and let me know!

So Fresh Pasta "Sauce"

I was in the mood for pasta the other day but I did not want to just open a can or jar and dump some sauce on it.  When I started looking for sauce recipes, it suddenly seemed that the only recipes out there involved canned ingredients and that just did not sound appetizing to me.  Therefore, I decided to pick up some fresh ingredients and come up with something of my own.

I absolutely love zucchini so that was a must when it came to my pasta.  Additionally, I picked up some organic heirloom cherry tomatoes, onion and garlic, Kalamata olives and a pound of organic, hormone and antibiotic-free, grass fed beef.  I combined all of these with a few dried spices that I had on hand and whipped up a bit of magic in the kitchen.

Making a pasta dish using fresh ingredients takes a considerable amount more time than opening a jar and dumping it in a pan.  Anything fresh takes a lot more time than processed food in a jar.  The flavor and nutritional benefits are definitely worth the extra time.  When you make real food for yourself and your family, you will never be sorry for doing so.  Even your veggie haters will love the flavors in this pasta dish!

"Sauce" is ready to toss with pasta!

So Fresh Pasta “Sauce”

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 1 pound cherry tomatoes
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 small zucchini diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce or anchovy paste
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ cup diced Kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 16 ounces of your favorite pasta (I used mixed veggie rigatoni)
• Optional:  Fresh Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions

1. Combine olive oil, garlic, fish sauce, red pepper flakes and oregano in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Finely chop tomatoes.  (If you have a food processor, process until finely chopped but not pureed.  If, like me, you do not have a food processor, you can first remove any stems then cut all tomatoes in half.  After that, use kitchen shears to finely chop tomatoes in a bowl.)
3. Place chopped tomatoes in a sieve or fine mesh strainer and allow liquids to drain into a bowl below.
4. Using a rubber or wooden spatula, gently press on solids to extract more liquids.
5. In a large pot, cook pasta until al dente then drain and set aside.
6. In a 12-inch skillet, brown ground beef.
7. Add onion and zucchini to beef and cook until onion is slightly translucent.
8. Add olive oil mixture to beef mixture and cook for 2 – 3 minutes.
9. Add liquid drained from tomatoes to beef mixture and allow to simmer until liquid is reduced by half.
10. Add tomato pulp, olives and parsley, mix well and allow to cook for 2 – 3 minutes.
11. Remove skillet from heat then combine meat mixture and pasta and toss gently to combine.
12. Serve immediately.

Chopped, unstrained tomatoes.

 

Pressed and liquid strained into bowl below.

Browned beef just after adding onions and zucchini.

What is your favorite way to prepare pasta?  Comment below and let me know!

Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken

By now, you all know that I have a chicken obsession so it should come as no surprise that I created a new chicken recipe yesterday.  I combined my love of chicken with my husband’s love of spinach and came up with Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken.  All kidding aside, I think I can say that this is easily my husband’s favorite thing I have ever made.  Ever.  EVER!  I cannot even count how many times he told me, “This is so good!” while we were eating dinner. (I served mine with a side of rice and fresh homemade cornbread.)

In our house, we normally only eat two meals on Sundays.  It is not a conscious decision we made.  It is just something that happened all on its own and we have gotten used to it.  For that reason, or Sunday dinner is a bit bigger than most dinners we would consume and we eat it mid-afternoon instead of in the evening.  Because of this, Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken works really well for us.  It makes a meal that is filling enough to last through the evening.

I do not often post recipes that require another recipe as an ingredient.  Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken is one of the few that does.  If you do not feel like making your own Creamed Spinach to use in this recipe, you can always use the frozen brick variety available at most grocery stores instead.  If you have the time, though, I recommend making it from scratch.  You will not be sorry if you do!

Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken was not something that I planned out in advance.  It was getting on to mid-afternoon when I walked into my kitchen and, aside from knowing that I wanted to do something with the chicken I picked up at the grocery store the other day, I did not know what I wanted to make.  I looked in the refrigerator and saw what I had on hand and came up with it then. 

While it might be a little messy to make, it is pretty easy and fun to do so.  –Any meal you can prepare that involves the use of a kitchen mallet is fun!  While I am not a big fan of eating plain feta cheese, I am convinced that some sort of magic occurs when you combine it with spinach.  The resulting combination is a new form of crack and I just cannot seem to get enough of it.

Mother Clucking Feta Florentine Stuffed Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts –boneless, skinless
• 1 recipe CreamedSpinach or 3 - 4 serving package of frozen creamed spinach, cooked
• 2 – 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• Salt to taste
• Garlic powder to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Place chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound with the smooth side of a kitchen mallet until chicken is ¼ – inch thick.
3. Remove top layer of plastic wrap and flip chicken breast so smoothest side is down.
4. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder to taste.
5. Spread one quarter of creamed spinach onto chicken. (No need to spread it completely to the sides.  It will squish to the sides all on its own when you roll it up.)
6. Sprinkle one quarter of crumbled feta over chicken.
7. Carefully roll chicken lengthwise, starting at widest end and ending at smallest end.
8. Transfer to 9 x 13 – inch baking pan, seam side up.
9. Bake at 375°F for 35 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
10. Serve hot.

Have you ever walked into the kitchen without a recipe in mind beforehand?  Comment below and let me know!

Creamed Spinach

My husband, who detests most vegetables, loves spinach.  Therefore, I am always trying to incorporate it into my cooking.  One of my spinach recipes that he really enjoys is Creamed Spinach. 

I used to always keep a couple of those frozen bricks of processed creamed spinach in the freezer so I could have a handy side dish available to put on the table.  In recent years, though, I have put a lot of effort into learning about processed convenience foods and I found myself feeling let down by the US food industry.  Therefore, I have made an effort to be more conscious about food choices for my family.  Where I would not have batted an eyelash at popping a frozen brick of spinach in the microwave and putting it on the table a few years ago, today I would rather buy organic produce (or grow my own heritage varieties), make a little effort in the kitchen, and put that on the table instead.  By doing this, I can be better informed about what is going into the food that I feed my family.

My recipe for Creamed Spinach is almost sinful, it is so good.  Sometimes I serve it plain as a side, sometimes I top it with a little extra cheese to dress it up just before putting it on the table and sometimes I incorporate it into another dish.  The Creamed Spinach I made today was to be incorporated into Mother Clucking FetaFlorentine Stuffed Chicken. 

Creamed Spinach

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ pounds fresh spinach
• 1 ¼ teaspoons olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
• ¾ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated

Directions

1. Chop spinach
2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat then add spinach, cover and cook for 2 – 3 minutes or until spinach leaves become wilted.  Stir if needed.
3. Drain spinach in a strainer then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. 
4. Allow spinach to rest until cool enough to handle then squeeze to remove as much excess liquid as possible.
5. Mix salt and other dry spices in a small bowl and set aside.
6. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat then add shallot and garlic and cook until shallot becomes translucent, stirring often.
7. Add spice mix and heavy whipping cream and mix well.
8. Raise heat to medium-high and cook until cream has reduced to about half, stirring occasionally. 
9. Add lemon zest and stir well.
10. Reduce heat to low, add spinach and mix well.
11. Cook for 2 -3 minutes or until spinach is heated through.
12. Add Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and mix well.
13. Serve warm.

What is your favorite spinach recipe?  Comment below and let me know!