You are here: Home / Archives for 2010

Mediterranean Nachos

December 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

One night a month or two ago, my husband and I got some take out with one of our friends. We got it from this great El Salvadorean restaurant that’s close to our old apartment, and it’s good enough that every once in awhile we actually drive over there to pick up the food, since we’re now out of their delivery range. And for people who don’t like leaving their house, this says a lot about the quality of food. The main reason we go to this place is the amazing plate of nachos they make. It’s full of perfectly cooked beef, crema, tomatoes, lettuce, guac and salsa, on top of warm and crispy chips. It’s basically perfect. We started talking about other nachos we like and we were lamenting the lack of Mediterranean nachos in most establishments. Clearly, we had to rectify that.

A few weekends ago I got all of the ingredients ready and we started the process of making our nachos. For the sake of this recipe and my pride, I made my own pita chips. You are more than welcome to skip this step as I don’t think it’s 100% necessary. They were good, but I feel like store bought would’ve been just as good and possibly a bit of a time saver, since we were in the kitchen for quite awhile.

Mediterranean Nachos
8 small pita pockets, cut into quarters
1 medium-large cucumber, chopped
2 tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
1lb ground lamb
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon better than bouillon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tabouleh
1/2 cup feta
1/2 cup shredded cheese of choice
1/2 cup tzatziki
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Take the pita bread quarters, toss them with the olive oil and make sure they’re all coated. You can add salt and pepper to them, but don’t make the same mistake I did in forgetting that other components to this are salty as well. Bake the pita quarters for about 12 – 15 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and store in air-tight container until ready to use.

Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat. Once ready, add the lamb and cook until nicely browned. Drain off the fat from the pan, add in the Better Than Bouillon, water, paprika and cinnamon. Let that cook together for a few minutes until all of the flavors are absorbed by the lamb and the lamb is still moist – you don’t want all of the water to evaporate. Take off the heat and set aside.

Take out a baking pan and layer your nachos however you’d like: we went with a structure of chips, meat, cheese, repeat. While originally I was going to just use crumbled feta, we decided we needed to have a cheese that would melt well, so we added in some chedder-jack but any cheese will work well. Bake that in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and everything is heated through.

While the nachos are baking, mix together the tabouleh, tomatoes and cucumbers. Once the nachos are out of the oven, plate them and use the tabouleh mixture as a salsa and sprinkle it over the top. Top this with a healthy dollop (or three) of tzatziki and you’re done.

I’m not gonna lie: these were amazing. All the flavors we were wanted were in there and the meat was seasoned perfectly. Our chips ended up being more chewy than crispy, but even with that they were still great.

Filed Under: meat Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Broccoli and Cheddar-Gruyere Gratin

December 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

For Thanksgiving dinner this year, I brought a side dish and dessert to my in-law’s house. For dessert I made a sweet potato pie [which I shall not be blogging about as it cracked in the center, the bastard] and then for the side dish I made this really delicious gratin from Real Simple magazine. Every time I bring something for a holiday dinner, I try to make sure it can simply be reheated in the oven, since stove top space is at a premium, so this was perfect.

Broccoli and Gruyere Gratin, adapted from Real Simple magazine
2 large bunches broccoli, roughly chopped (about 12 cups)
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk [the recipe called for whole milk, but I used skim with no issues]
2 cups grated cheddar-gruyere
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 shallot, diced

Preheat oven to 375. Fill a large pot with 1 inch of water and steaming basket, bring to a boil. Once water is boiling, bring it down to a simmer and add the broccoli to the pan. Cover and steam for about 4 minutes, until the broccoli is vibrant green and tender.

Melt the butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook until translucent and fragrant. Add in the flour and stir briskly to combine. Once combined, slowly add in the milk, and keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. Once the sauce thickens, add in one cup of the cheese and continue stirring until melted. Once fully incorporated, turn off the heat. Add in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Put the broccoli in a large bowl and add the cheese mixture. Make sure the broccoli is evenly coated, then pour the mixture into a 7 x 11 baking pan. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling and the top is nicely browned.

While this was cooking, it smelled amazing. Gruyere is such a great cheese for baking, it melts so beautifully. I actually used a cheddar-gruyere block of cheese that I got at Trader Joe’s because while I like gruyere, I also like having the sharpness of cheddar in there. This reheated really well the next day and tasted great; everything about this was satisfying, from the creamy cheese sauce to the perfectly cooked broccoli. A great addition to any holiday table!

Filed Under: vegetables Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Thanksgiving Tacos!

November 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Now, some of you may think I’m a freak, but: I don’t really like turkey. Dark meat is okay, but white meat does absolutely nothing for me. And it’s not even like I’m being served dry, over-cooked turkey; my mother-in-law does a great job at cooking turkey and keeping it moist, but even so I’m still not a fan. So a year or two ago, when faced with a mountain of leftovers and no bread to make a delicious sandwich filled with sides and minimal turkey, I came up with the perfect solution — THANKSGIVING TACOS.

I know we’re a little over the top with our love of tacos at Casa Shenanigans but this is seriously good/genius. It’s also not really a recipe per se, but it’s something we enjoy and I think everyone else should too. There’s no wrong or right way to do this, but basic idea is layering different sides with turkey on a tortilla, then cheese, then heating it up. Like so:

Butternut squash is spread over half of the tortilla, with shredded turkey on top of it. You can really do whatever you’d like on this taco, as long as it is somewhat spreadable. My husband prefers to have turnips and carrots with his, but I prefer the sweeter base to mine. Then, add stuffing (or mashed potatoes) and top with cheese.

You can either heat it up in the microwave or oven/toaster oven until the cheese is nice and melty and everything is heated through. It doesn’t look particularly pretty when it’s done, but it’s good. The only thing that would’ve made mine better was having leftover cranberry sauce in there between the squash and turkey.

Filed Under: meat Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fried Mashed Potato Cakes

November 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

Our power just went out! How exciting. I’m glad I was sitting safely here on the couch when it happened instead of wielding a knife somewhere. That could’ve ended in disaster, and we’ve had enough of those today; I almost baked cupcakes without eggs, I somehow managed to get cookies stuck to the baking sheet, and I may or may not have sliced my thumb with my chef’s knife.

I’ve seriously spent so much time in the kitchen today, it’s like I’m cooking for 30 people all the time instead of just the two of us. I use SO MANY dishes, there’s an endless amount to wash. Plus today I had to bake for work tomorrow [the almost-eggless cupcakes] and I wanted to use up some of the leftover mashed potatoes that I had from Franksgiving. Franksgiving, you say? Why yes! One of my lovely friends hosts a friends Thanksgiving every year before we all do the family thing. Friends + Thanksgiving = Franksgiving. I know, it’s cutesy enough to make you want to puke, but it’s a good time with friends and delicious food.

This year and last year, I’ve made mashed potatoes, and will likely continue to do so for the rest of our lives. My husband says it’s because everyone praises my mashed potatoes and I enjoy praise. Which… fair enough. So anyway, I made 15lbs of potatoes and have a bunch in my fridge that I’d like to use up. The obvious answer to this is fried mashed potato cakes with dill sour cream.

Fried Mashed Potato Cakes

2 cups mashed potatoes, cold
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Place a cookie sheet lined with paper towels in the oven and preheat to 200. Heat the oil in a small pan. Take 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes and form into a hamburger size patty. Dredge the patty in the flour and place in the hot oil. Let fry for 3 – 4 minutes until golden brown on the bottom and flip over, cooking an additional 3 – 4 minutes. Remove the mashed potato patty from the oil and place on the cookie sheet in the oven, to keep warm and absorb some of the oil while the other patties are cooking. Repeat with the rest of the mashed potatoes, making a total of four patties.

Dill Sour Cream

1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

Serve each potato patty warm with a dollop of the dill sour cream.

These are really simple and really good. The outside of the potato is nice and crispy and the inside is warm and slightly oozy. This works best with mashed potatoes that aren’t made with a ton of cream; I make mine with sour cream, cream cheese and butter so they hold their shape really well when cold. If your potatoes are too loose, add an egg to the mixture as a binder and follow the rest of the instructions. There’s so much you can do with these – I served them as a side, but you could easily make this the main component of your meal by adding a protein or some veg in there. Just chop it up pretty well and add it to the cold potatoes before making the patties.

Filed Under: vegetables Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

October 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

I know, I’m an asshole. Not only have I not posted in nearly two months, but now that I am, it’s the easiest recipe known to man. I have no excuse [well, I could probably think of a lot, but what's the point, really?]. But I felt like I should post something now so that I’m warmed up for the epic post I’ll have after Halloween with all the stuff I’m making for our party.

I made these cookies awhile ago and really liked them a lot, but somehow I forgot about them until I was organizing the pictures on my computer not too long ago. Oops! Even though they are so simple, they’re still really delicious. As we were eating far too many of them, my friend said that they tasted “like childhood”, which I feel is a pretty apt description.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
2 cups peanut butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 – 3/4 cup jelly, any flavor

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all of the ingredients together until they are well combined. Take about two tablespoons of dough at a time and roll it in a ball, then place on a cookie sheet. Press your thumb down in the center of the cookie, about halfway down. Fill the indent with the jelly of your choice. Repeat with the rest of the dough, this should make about 24 – 30 cookies. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cookies cool completely before eating, or otherwise they may break.

I know, I know; it’s barely a recipe! But totally worth making it. You can also omit the jelly in the recipe, but then you’d just have a plain peanut butter cookie, and why would you want that?

Filed Under: desserts Tagged With: , , , ,

White chili: nothing seasonally appropriate here!

September 2, 2010 By 3 Comments

You know, I really had the best of intentions this summer. I was going to cook with seasonally appropriate ingredients and the blog was going to full of luscious fruit crumbles, delicately flavored salads, and other things that make you think “ooh, summer is full of tasty, tasty treats!” Alas, it wasn’t to be; call it laziness, call it still not having an installed stove, call it weeks upon weeks of 90+ weather. Whatever it is, I accept full responsibility for it [except the weather part, even I have my limitations].

Anyway, I’m back with something that you’ll be thanking me for two months from now when the weather drops below 70. I make my standby chili so much I could probably do it in my sleep and I can rattle off the full recipe to anyone that wants to listen. So I decided to spread my wings and leave my comfort zone by making …. WHITE CHILI. Okay, so maybe it’s really not that monumental. But it was delicious, so that’s gotta count for something.

White Chili
2 lbs boneless chicken (thigh or breast is fine)
3 15oz cans of cannellini beans, drained
4 cups chicken broth
8 oz of salsa verde
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
8 oz frozen corn

In a slow cooker, add the chicken, spices, liquid smoke and chicken broth. Let cook 6 – 8 hours, or until chicken is tender and can be easily shredded. Remove chicken from the slow cooker and shred it. Next, add in the drained beans. With an immersion blender [or regular blender, which will undoubtedly be messier] combine the beans and chicken broth until you have a smooth, creamy consistency. Add in the salsa verde, corn, and the shredded chicken. Let that cook on low for about 30 – 45 minutes to combine the flavors and bring everything back up to temperature. Serve immediately.

This has such a warm, earthy flavor to it thanks to the cinnamon and cumin. The liquid smoke adds a good depth of the flavor and the corn adds some sweetness and texture. This would be great garnished with sour cream, maybe some avocado, and definitely cheese.

Filed Under: Tex-Mex Tagged With: , , ,

Lemon-Dill Roasted Potato Salad

July 26, 2010 By 11 Comments

I know, I know; posting about potato salad during the summer. How novel. Next thing you know, I’ll be waxing poetic about hamburgers and hot dogs. But I just can’t help it – this is the first thing I’ve cooked in quite awhile that I’ve felt excited enough about to post on here. I made it for poker night this past Tuesday, and if left to our own devices, I’m sure my friend and I would’ve been able to eat the whole bowl ourselves.

There’s something about potato salad that I love, no matter how it’s made. It’s such a comfort food, and since I’m still lacking a stove, I’ve been lacking some of those comfort foods. I was kind of bummed out for awhile, because I like making potato salad, but not being able to boil the potatoes is obviously going to gum up the works. Luckily, I got my head out of my ass and realized I could just roast the potatoes and then treat it like I would any other potato salad.

That realization, along with the fact that I got an amazingly beautiful bunch of dill for $2 the other day, was the impetus for this potato salad. I love dill yet I rarely cook with it, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to do something different.

Lemon-Dill Roasted Potato Salad

2.5 lbs baby red potatoes, diced
1/8 cup of roughly chopped fresh dill
3/4 – 1 cup of mayo, to taste
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons freshly cracked lemon pepper seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat oven to 425 F. Toss diced potatoes with oil and lemon pepper seasoning, try to evenly cover all the potatoes. Put in the oven to roast, about 40 – 50 minutes, depending on how well done you’d like the potatoes. Thoroughly mix the mustard, mayo and dill. Chill for about 20 minutes, to allow the flavors to combine. When the potatoes are done, put them in a large bowl and let them cool for a few minutes. Add in the mayo/mustard mixture and distribute evenly among the potatoes. Best served warm, although honestly, just as tasty room temperature.

Filed Under: poker food Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Muesli: No one knows how to pronounce it.

June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I can’t believe I didn’t mention this in my last post, as it’s something I’m so fond of bemoaning to anyone listening at home and work, but I DON’T HAVE A STOVE RIGHT NOW. I mean, I own one; it’s so pretty with its cast iron grates and a griddle in the center, and the shiny stainless steel. But it’s not hooked up due to circumstances beyond my control, so I instead complain about it. Up until this weekend, I had been cooking only with a microwave (yuck) and a tiny toaster oven. This weekend, however, I set up my new convection/rotisserie oven and now I’m back in action! I’ve already cooked up some salmon and chocolate chip cookies, so it’s ON.

Of course, today’s post is actually about something I didn’t “cook” …. and I made it two weeks ago. Oops.

Have you ever gone into Au Bon Pain, absolutely starving in the morning? Because I totally have, and one of those times, I picked up a 4oz container of muesli for about $3. I brought it up to the office to eat and it was delicious. It was sweet, healthy, filling: all the things breakfast should be. However, I couldn’t keep paying $3 for those tiny cups, it was driving me crazy knowing how much I was overpaying for it. I looked at the ingredient list on the Au Bon Pain website and went to work.

This type of muesli is actually considered “Bircher” muesli; it was created by a Swiss doctor who did stuff that I can’t remember back in the late 19th century/early 20th century, but I’m sure you’ll be fascinated by it when you read the Wikipedia page about him. He soaked the oats overnight in juice [which I did not do] and added some fresh grated apples [nope] and nuts [yup]. Modern recipes for muesli are slightly different, although most still soak the oats in juice overnight.

Bircher Muesli
1 cup of rolled oats
3/4 – 1 cup of skim milk
1 tablespoon honey [or to taste]
1 apple, diced
1 banana, sliced thin
2 tablespoons greek yogurt
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/8 cup toasted, sliced almonds

Soak the oats overnight in enough milk to cover them. In the morning, most of the milk will have been absorbed by the oats. Stir, then add in the yogurt, honey, and fresh fruit. Mix to combine. Add dried fruit and nuts. Taste the muesli and add more honey if necessary. Serves 2.

This is really good, but it’s definitely not for everyone. By the time it got to work with me, it looked gross. But it tasted delish; the fruit had sweetened everything up and the apple and nuts added a nice crunch that I would have otherwise missed. It’s exactly the sort of breakfast I’d like to have every day, if I weren’t the type of person that stayed in bed as long as possible as the morning, thus negating the ability to do the last steps of prep on this.

Filed Under: Grains & Rice Tagged With: , , , , ,

Salmony Goodness.

June 2, 2010 By 3 Comments

It’s been a long time. I’ve mostly been exhausted since we closed on our house at the end of April and have been dealing with the multitude of joys related to home ownership. While it has been completely overwhelming, I’m certainly glad we finally have a home and a place to spread out all of the crap we’ve accumulated over the years. It’s nice.

What’s not so nice? Is that I’ve actually had this post kicking around for awhile and just haven’t done anything with it. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to write it. Again with the exhaustion: I’M NOT FUNNY RIGHT NOW. But alas, I have to soldier on and fight the good fight. Or… something.

Lately I’ve seen a lot of slow roasting going on in various blogs, and you know I’m never one to pass up a trend. Or, conversely, see a trend six months ago and decide to try bringing it back now. Either way, it made for some tasty food, so what do you care? The one thing that people seemed to love to slow roast the most was salmon, so since the husband would probably sell my soul for his weight in salmon, I figured I’d give it a shot.

This is really the simplest of recipes: take whatever marinade/seasoning/rub you like best on salmon and slap it on. Preheat your oven to 225F.

My marinade of choice was a basic spicy honey mustard; I would’ve gone for a rub of some sort, but by this point I had stopped going grocery shopping and was just using up what I already had. So, mustard + honey + random spices = marinade.

Put it in the oven for about 25 – 30 minutes, or until it starts excreting moisture. That’s a horrible image, isn’t? The last thing you want is for your food to be described as “excreting” anything. But there it is:

Total excretion.

So even though it doesn’t look done, trust me, it totally is. It is amazingly soft and buttery, very nearly like smoked salmon but just shy of that. If you like a good, firm salmon, this is not for you. Even the husband was somewhat suspicious of the texture, but he of course ate it like the good blogger’s husband he is.

I’d definitely make this again, although I think next time I’d like to try a dry rub to see how it permeates the meat and also if it makes a difference in texture. And then when I get my smoker? WATCH OUT.

Filed Under: Seafood Tagged With: , ,

Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. Mmm.

April 22, 2010 By 2 Comments

My husband is currently complaining about the movie Julie & Julia. I, too, have a few complaints about that movie, but mine are mostly related to the fact that I could have done entirely without the “Julie” segments of the movie and had the whole thing focused on the fabulous Julia Child. Her relationship with her husband, her passion for cooking and everything about her is just imbued with such joie de vivre, whereas the parts of the movie that focus on Julie are so lackluster and you can’t help but feel annoyed with her over and over again. And maybe that’s the point; although the Julie “character” [this is in quotes because I don't think the real life Julie Powell is as cute and cuddly as Amy Adams] is dull as dishwater and whiny and very “me, me, me”, I also think she’s very representative of a whole generation of people out there who equally felt adrift in life and without any passions to guide them.

I’ll admit I’ve felt that way, and I’m ashamed to also admit that I finally started this blog after I read Julie Powell’s book. It’s something I had wanted to do for a few years but never got up the gumption to do it; finally, I just did and I am pretty pleased with the results. Plus, it’s forced me to rediscover my passion of writing and it allows me to futz around with my fancy camera and hope for the best. It’s got a little of something for everyone!

But the biggest reason I’m so happy I started this blog? I probably would have missed out on some pretty awesome food. Case in point is what I made for poker this week: pulled barbecue chicken sandwiches. It’s something that’s really simple, but the combination of the home made barbecue sauce and the tender, slow cooked chicken made for one of the best poker night dinners I’ve made in a really long time. Which was certainly attested to several times as I was told over and over how good it was. The fact that some people had four sandwiches was also a tip off.

I got the sauce recipe from allrecipes.com and it was amazing. I know I use a lot of superlatives, but for real: this barbecue sauce is tangy, sweet, smoky, with just the slightest kick to it. It’s a perfect fit for so many things.

Bourbon Whiskey BBQ Sauce
1/2 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup bourbon whiskey
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste

In a large pan over medium-high heat, add the onion, garlic and whiskey. Bring to a simmer and let cook for about 8 – 10 minutes or until onion is translucent. Mix in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer about 25 – 30 minutes or until thickened. This makes about 4 cups.

Now, the original instructions say that you can strain the sauce before letting it cool and sit overnight. I, however, was in no mood for that and used my immersion blender on it. The onions were perfectly blended into the sauce and it actually thickened it up enough that next time I’d probably cut back on the tomato paste. Because oh yes, there will be a next time.

I let the sauce sit overnight, and then the next day I put 2.5lbs of frozen chicken breasts into the slow cooker along with all of the barbecue sauce and set it to cook on low for 8 hours. When I came home, the whole apartment [and everything in it, including our cat Paul] smelled like the barbecue sauce. And then? THIS:

A pulled barbecue chicken sandwich. The stuff dreams are made of, if your dreams are filled with juicy, shredded meat with just the right amount of sauce that tantalizingly lingers on your taste buds. Yeah, seriously, it’s that good.

Filed Under: meat, poker food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts