Mushroom appetizer and Wings

I felt like doing something different last night. Supper was my brother Kens buffalo wings, his SUPER GOOD mushroom appetizer. I served celery sticks with ranch dressing and we had some spinache dip served with tortilla's. It was like a mix of appetizers. Since, I'm going back to eating healthy after the new year, I figured I should splurge a little this week. : )

There was another batch of wings cooking when I took this picture.

For the MUSHROOM APPETIZER:
1. Cut up a bunch of portabella mushrooms.
2. Heat up pan and melt butter and olive oil.
3. Cook mushrooms. They should cook for at least 12-15 minutes
4. While cooking add paprika, salt, pepper and garlic
5. When done, add some heavy cream and KIKKOMAN Terriaki BASTE and GLAZE. Just enough to be like a little gravy for the mushrooms.

Serve with toothpicks or eat with a spoon. You can use 1/2 and 1/2 if you don't have cream.

For the WINGS.

1. Buy the party wings, since there smalller
2. Fry them in oil or bake them. It doesn't matter, although some say frying is best if you want your wings nice and crispy
3. Use 50%/%50 KIKKOMAN TERRIAKI BASTE and GLAZE and any kind of hot sauce. My brother says Crystals is the best, but I can't find any around here.
4. Heat up and pour over wings. You can also just pour some into an individual bowl and dip wings in sauce.

Crab Cakes and Broccoli Soup

The other night, I was watching one of the cooking channels and watched Emeril make some crab cakes. I notice later that he has made many version over the years, but this one really looked good and simple. Here is the recipe. I didn't bother with making the sauce. I ate my crab cake like a sandwich in a big romaine lettuce leaf. It is important to note that it's a loose crab cake, meaning when you flip it over it's a bit on the loose side and that is how it was done when I watched him make it on TV. He even mentioned how it doesn't always have to be neat and they ate the crab cakes with a fork. Here is the crab cake recipe:

I served that with my new favorite VERY EASY to make creamy brocolli soup. I actually got that recipe from Gordan Ramsay. I was bored one night and was watching different cooking videos he has out there. Plus, It was really interesting watching how he cooks and how he trys to teach people to cook. He is really good at making simple dishes taste really good. I heard he entered this into a competition where the other person had like 20 ingredients in there broccoli soup and his was better.

You would NOT believe that the soup is pretty much only 2 ingredients. Brocolli and the water the brocolli was cooked in. However, if you really want to spiff it up - take some goat cheese or cream cheese and put on the bottom of a bowl. Pour hot brocolli soup over it and it will melt into it giving it a yummy creamy texture. Little salt and pepper and even a few drizzles of some olive oil. Recipe is below:

Gordan Ramsay's Broccoli Soup
Ingredients
Water
Salt
Black pepper
2-3 heads of Broccoli very fresh
Olive oil optional, for garnish

Preparation

Cut the florets off the heads of broccoli. Cut the stems into similarly sized pieces. Add all of the broccoli -- florets and stems -- into a pot of rapidly-boiling, salted water (2 tablespoons salt in 5 quarts of water). Cover. Cook 3.5 to 4 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, put the cooked broccoli pieces into a blender. Fill blender about halfway with the cooking liquid. Make sure you use the water the brocolli cooked in. Blend carefully since it's hot. Add more cooking liquid as necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Add some salt and pepper.

Extra Note* Be double careful because when you blend hot liquid and the cover is not on tight - it can make a mess. You could also pulse a few times to get it going first too.

If desired, add cheese (goat cheese or cheddar cheese) to the bottom of the bowl before pouring the soup in. Serve, drizzled with olive oil if desired.

Gravy - A Proud Moment

I've made decent gravy's in the past. Sometimes it seems like I have good luck and other times, I don't. I haven't been good about taking notes. What really urks me is when I have a decent gravy and than I swear I do the same thing a few months later and it isn't good anymore. Hmmmm. In addition, I'm always inquiring about how people make there gravy and at times, I've watched some videos online watching people make gravy. As with a lot of things, there are many ways to making gravy and it seems everyone has there own way of making it.

Recently I saw one video that really caught my attention. I thought it was good at highlighting some important aspects of making gravy. I had VERY GOOD luck with it today. Here are the basic steps outlined.

1. Cook chicken in oven. In this case, I only cooked 2 chicken legs and I used a very small shallow pan - there wasn't much room in the pan for anything else other than the legs. I just baked them in the oven until done. Prior to putting them in the oven, I used salt, pepper, olive oil and some fresh thyme. There were actually some juices on the bottom of the pan from cooking the chicken. I'm going to try this method when roasting a whole chicken and post the results. Obviously the pan will be bigger and some of the amounts may change.

2. Pour off any grease and juices from pan and take everything out of the pan.
3. Put pan on the stove and turn heat on. Remember my pan was really small and fit on one burner.
4. Put a tablespoon of butter into the pan along with a small spoonful of tomato paste. Mix and let cook a little. It should be a slight orange color. I did sneak in a little of the pan juices back in. I didn't bother trying to separate any fat, since it was such a small amount of pan juices.
5. Add some flour. Enough to suck up the grease. In my case, I added 2 small spoonfuls.
6. Add water or chicken broth. I added homemade chicken broth. I only ended up added a cup. This helps release the drippings on the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil.
7. I let cook on low for a good 5 minutes. I happen to be using my high heat burner so when it's on low - it's definetely higher than a simmer. I didn't mix it constantly, but did keep an eye on it and I mixed often. Usually when I checked on it, it would be at a fair boil.
8. Add a little cream, a tiny butter, salt, pepper, and some thyme. The cream helps smooth it out. The butter will add a nice shean to the gravy and give it more flavor.
9. I also personally added a few drops of gravy master.

I didn't quite fill the entire gravy bowl, but it came close to filling it up.

Here is the video that gave me the inspiration to try this.
My gravy didn't come out that dark, but it came out VERY GOOD and finally thick enough for my likings. Yeah Me!!!!

Video that inspired me.

It's a 3 part series, so you just go to the one before it and the one after it to see the whole thing. I linked to the 2nd part, which was the main part.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I spend one day concentrating on making the broth. Than the next day, I make the soup. I like spending an entire day concentrating on the broth because the longer you simmer it, the more it will reduce, get darker and become very flavorful.

PART #1/DAY #1:

1. I took a small carcass from the freezer from a bird I roasted in the near past. The birds we buy are small, so the carcass was small. I usually also use some chicken parts. I sometimes will just add left over chicken bones and a few times, I added two legs and two thighs including the chicken.

2. To the pan, I added the following: carrots, onions, parsnips, red onions, celery, chives, 2 bay leaves, 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of peppercorns. You can add anything you want. Sometimes I add Bok Choy and Leeks. Throwing in some fresh herbs if you have them is an excellent idea.
Some people sometimes add cloves and/or Cinnamon Sticks for a different twist.

4. Add water to the pan. I usually fill it close to the 8 quart mark.
5. Bring to a boil. That took awhile. : )
6. Put back down to simmer and cooked with cover on for a good 2 hours.
7. Cooked with cover off for another 3-6 hours. This is where it's suppose to reduce and darken and intensify.
8. Strain, cool off and put in refrigerator. From what I understand, since this broth was cooked for so long - nothing in there has any or much flavor since all the flavor is in the YUMMY BROTH. We are not talking about cooking broth for 2-3 hours, we are talking about a good 6 hours or more. SO after straining everything gets discarded. Some would try to save the chicken and do something with it, but you'd have to mix it with a lot of salsa or mayo for example for it to be any good.

TWO/DAY #2


PART TWO/DAY #2: THE SOUP

1. Take layer of fat off the best I could the next morning.
2. Heated 2 tablespoons of butter and a few tablespoons of oil in a pan.
3. Add chopped onions and let cook for about 5 minutes. Add some salt and pepper.
4. Add some garlic and cook for a minute. I than add my new secret ingredient - 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of tomatoe paste.
5. Chop and peel carrots and potatoes. Add those to the pan. I like to cut everything nice and small. Let cook until carrots and potatoes start feeling tender.

*Note*. Of course peeling and chopping the onions, carrots, and potatoes ahead of time is highly advised.

6. Add broth from the night before. Throw in one peeled and leafy celery.
7. Bring to boil.
8. Once it's boiling - add some pasta if you'd like. I like adding Orzo. Be careful about putting in too much pasta. I have made that mistake many times. It will eat up your broth if you put too much in. Cook as long as it takes for the pasta to be done and your pretty much done at that point.
9. Add some parsley and/or Thyme depending on your tastes and more salt and pepper. 10 You can also add some frozen corn and/or peas toward the end.
11. Lastly, add pre-cooked and chopped chicken. Left over chicken from your roast where the carcass came from would be great. If not, any left over chicken.

You want to add enough broth in step #6 to handle the pasta and all the food, because some of it will reduce from the boiling and the pasta and vegetables will swell a little.

Five spice braised chicken

This recipe is a BIG keeper. Thanks Chez Pim.
The recipe is served with egg noodles, but I used rice instead. I cooked some rice directly in the juices after taking the chicken out. WOW. My husband said he liked the rice the best. : ). I'm happy that I was able to learn a new way to cook chicken. I didn't have as much chicken as it called for, so I decreased some of the ingredients just a tad.

Recipe here

As you know from previous posts, I'm without a camara. I don't want to not blog at all, so I'll have to come back and post pictures later. The camera I'm interested in is $350.00 and I don't have the money for one right now. I'm hoping family can pool resources together for a combo Birthday/Christmas gift. : )

Mini SpareRibs braised in black bean sauce

Mini SpareRibs braised in black bean sauce:


I made this prior to a camping trip I went on this summer. Than I just heated up the ribs on the grill and heated up some of the extra sauce in a pan - on the grill.

WoW, this is really good. Strong flavors and the ribs were so good. This is something I would think about making for company. It's really impressive. The only down-fall was it cost a pretty penny to buy the ribs all cut up like that from the butcher.

dragonladykitchen.com where I got this recipe is another website I have on my favorites. I did try her sesame noodles and cooling off with cucumber recipes, which were good. I thought the cucumber was too strong from the soy sauce though. Anyways, back to the ribs. Some-day when I make them again, I'll have to remember to take a picture. For now, my blog is getting too outdated and I'm falling behind with sharing some awesome recipes. So here is my boring picture-less blog entry for Dragon Lady's Mini Spareribs braised in black bean sauce.

I also - tried cooking with black bean sauce for the first time, so that was kind of neat. Bonus: Since I picked up baby bok choy from the farmer this summer - I found another way to use the black bean sauce. See recipe here and very simple and very!! good.

Bonus Recipe:

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

I'm really falling behind with posting oh so yummy recipe's on my blog. It doesn't help that my camara died when I dropped it in the river back in July. I've been using my blackberry camara, which actually isn't too bad. Here is a link to a recipe I tried. My husband and I absolutely loved it. Needless to say, we gobbled up this recipe before I got a chance to take any pictures. Of course rushing to eat my supper every night so I can tend to the needs of my kids contributes toward me forgetting to take pictures. I will make this again, so I'll update this later with a picture.

Back to the recipe: When I made this, I also happen to have a real yummy batch of homemade chicken stock, which I'm sure helped make the recipe yummy. I didn't have enough of the homemade chicken stock for what the recipe called for, so I used 1/2 of that and 1/2 broth from the cans.

I also just mixed in bacon (instead of perchuitto) and the hard boiled egg into the entire soup at the end, instead of individually.

Thank you Claire from foodjunta

LINK HERE

I'd also like to note that food junta is one of my new favorite blog sites. I feel comfortable using there site and I've tried a few recipes from the site already.

Each person who contributes tells a nice story, the pictures are great and most of the recipes look really good, some nice and simple too.

mulligatawany

I went to a farmers market at the beginning of the summer. One lady sold some pre-made meals. I decided to take a small container of her mulligatawany soup home. It was made with goat leg meat and it was very tender. The overall taste of the soup was sooo good. After thinking about it for a long time, yesterday was the day I decided to make it.

You can use any kind of meat, but I used Goat Leg Meat. I bought it from another farmer. It wasn't as tender, but it was still good and the soup came out awesome!! I just love the combination of curry and coconut milk. From what I understand this soup is a type of Anglo-Indian soup. There are many variations of the soup. The back of the container I originally bought from the lady listed out her ingredients except the spices were not listed out. I ended up looking up a few recipes - getting an idea of how it was made - combined a few - and made sure I used all the ingredients that was in the actual recipe I tried. You could even serve it over rice or noodles. I might actually try that with some of the left overs (serve it over rice).

It was a winner and my husband really loved it too. The day before I made the soup I seared the pork leg and than braised it in the oven. I just put some red wine, beef broth and water on the bottom. I made sure I saved the broth for the recipe below.

Mulligatawny

* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped (about 1 cup)
* 1-2 medium onions, chopped (about 2-1/2 cups)
* 1-2 medium sweet potatoes, diced (about 2-1/2 cups)
* 2 garlic cloves, pressed
* 6-3/4 cups chicken and/or goat stock
* 1 can (19 oz.) chickpeas, drained
* 1 cup diced cooked meat (I didn't measure - I used wayyy more than a cup of meat)
* 1 cup coconut milk
* 5 teaspoons curry powder
* 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
* 1 apple, chopped or shredded
* 1/2 cup to a cup of raisins
* garlic
* jalapenos

Directions

1. In a large saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Sauté carrots, onions, potatoes, and garlic until the onions are translucent, 10 minutes.

2. Add the chicken stock and simmer over medium-low heat until the vegetables are soft, 20 minutes more.

3. Stir in chickpeas, apple, chicken, coconut milk, and curry powder and simmer until hot.

4. Mix in the cilantro at the end.

Found a great base Veggie Burger recipe

OK, took a little while, but I finally found a good Veggie Burger Base recipe. Here is my Veggie Burger making Story!!!

First I tried to follow a recipe for a Quinoa Veggie burger that I found. I couldn't take two bites from it. : (. It just was not good.

In the past, my friend Galya told me she had some good experience with making veggie burgers. She wrote it up on her blog and even referenced my name. I did patiently wait for her to reveal her veggie burger making secrets. : )

The first round of making these veggie burgers didn't work out to well.
I didn't do a good job getting the water out of the zucchini and it turned out to be a disaster. : (.

Than I took a break and a week or so later, I followed the recipe, except I had eggplant instead of zucchini and I shredded a carrot too. I would of tried zucchini again, I just didn't have it. I noticed after shredding the eggplant - that it was also watery, just not as watery as zucchini. I used my potatoe ricer to help me get rid of the water and I made sure I worked real hard at getting the water out the best I could. After it was pressed down to the point where no water was coming out, I would mix it around a little and run it through the potatoe ricer over and over.

The only real change I made was adding 1/3 cup of oat-bran "uncooked". I did still use crackers. I had a variety pack and I think I used about 4 of them. I cooked mine on a pan on top of the stove.

Yummy Yummy. Here is the link to the recipe: VEGGIE BURGER BLOG

The first night I had one as a side dish. Today, I had one for lunch. I made a wonderful sandwich. I used two garden fresh lettuce leaves and in between was the Veggie Patty, 2 slices of pre made bacon, cut up red peppers, and some blue cheese dressing. I followed the dressing recipe on this blog since I had left over blue cheese. Blue Cheese Dressing Blog

I have enough in the refrigerator to make one more sandwich. I'm hoping to get a picture when I make it.

Vegetable Chili

I told you I had some catching up to do. I recently made some vegetable chili. I got the recipe from my Penzey Spice Magazine that I get every month. This isn't the first time I've posted a recipe from that book. I'm really having some good luck with some of the recipes I'm finding in these magazines. All I did was buy a jar of Penzey spices and every month I get this magazine.

Anyways, here is the recipe. Thanks to Jordan Goldstein who's recipe got posted in the Summer 2010 Penzeys Spices Magazine.

My husband said he liked it a lot better than most meat chili's he's had.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 large celery stalks, sliced
1 medium crrot, diced
1 small red or yellow pepper, diced
1 tablespoon ground ancho chili pepper (I just used regular chili powder)
1-2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/2-1 tsp ground chipotle pepper. i used 1-2 peppers from a jar called "chipotle peppers in adobe sauce". Watch out, these are spicy.
1 large or 2 small zucchini's. I used eggplant instead
1 11oz can of corn kernels, rinsed and drained. Or kernels from 3 fresh ears of corn.
1 14 oz can of kidney or black beans, rinsed and drained. I had no corn and I used black beans.
1 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes with juice (or 3-4 large tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped)
2-5 tablespoons of water or red wine.

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and bell pepper and saute until cooked through. sprinkle the spices on. Add the zucchini slices, corn, beans and tomatoes. Add water/wine. Cover and simmer about 20-30 minutes.

Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, or yogurt on top if you desire.

Picture didn't come out too great!!!

Garlic Scape Pesto

A few weeks ago, I had some garlic scapes from the farmers market.

My friend Trina was very nice to send me this wonderful recipe called Garlic Scape Pasta. She shared some of her tips as well. : )
I made it and mixed some of it with pasta. As I mentioned before, I love the site this recipe came from.

Note*, A little sauce goes a long way. I froze some of the sauce for later use.

I also took her recommendation and tried the brown rice pasta made from Tinkyada. My husband is watching his grain/gluten intake and these are great. There better than the whole wheat pasta's you find.


Garlic Scape Pesto recipe:


I grilled up some pork chops, cut them into pieces and added that to the dinner. Chicken will go well with it.

Bean, Kale and Flounder soup

I belong to a CSA and picked up some Kale this past week. I tried making Kale chips, but was unsuccessful. I than decided to make this. WOW I am so glad I found this. This was yummy and my husband gave it a huge! thumbs up. I broiled some flounder, broke it into pieces and added it to the entire soup.

I also halved the recipe. I only had cherry tomatoes, so I put a whole bunch of them in the food processor. I had white beans, but decided to use a can of black beans instead. I'm so glad I did. My husband loves black beans.

See original recipe for Bean soup with Kale.

Update: I made this again, since I picked up more Kale. I served it at a Beach Party luncheon that I hosted. I live on a Lake and the beach is across the street, so luckily I didn't have to carry the soup too far "LOL". My friends loved it. I didn't add the fish in this time.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Baked Beans and Cole Slaw

I went all out for fathers day. Had the family over and made Pulled Pork sandwiches, baked beans, and coleslaw all homemade. Served that with corn on the cob as well.

The family gave this meal a pretty big thumbs up. LOL. It is well worth posting.

I bought an 8lb boston butt from Hannaford. I made a dry rub. I rubbed it with vegetable oil and than put the dry rub on. It sat in the Refrigerator for about 8 hours. It is recommended that you let it sit over night. Put rubbed shoulder in a roaster with a rack and into the oven it went (uncovered overnight). Start time was 11pm. Total cooking time was 16 hours. The oven was on 225, however I upped it to 275 around noon time, as it was getting closer to eating time. I also loosely covered it with tin foil the last 5 hours or so. Out of the oven it came, and I shredded away. Put some of the juices from the pan on the stove and boil some of it out. Add at least one bottle of bbq sauce and heat up. Mix shredded pork into the sauce.

On fathers day it was served with onion rolls and plain rolls. Today, I decided to make a little bbq ranch sandwich. As you can see in the picture, I used lettuce leaves instead of bread. Very Yummy. I grated a little cheese on it too.


DRY RUB:

Ingredients
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemary powder

These baked beans came out great. I got rave reviews.
I did follow the advise I read about on some other recipe sources - and continued to cook the beans for a total of 6/7 hours. I continued to add more broth or hot water as needed. I never made baked beans from scratch so it was neat seeing the process.

See recipe here: Click here!

**** If you can wait for the pork to register at 190/200 degrees at a long and low heat - the better the pulled pork is suppose to be. It will still be great shredded pork if you take it out early. I took mine out at at 175. Oven times vary based on different conditions. Estimated time frame would be between 10 and 18 hours.

I got a lot of reviews about the cole slaw too. Click HERE for recipe I used.

A HUGE thanks goes out to discusscooking and allrecipes. I have had a long relationship with allrecipes.com. That is the first site I started using for recipes years ago. Although I haven't used them as often as I used to - I have never been disapointed after choosing a recipe from there site. I love the review system they have. I don't think I've talked about it too much in my blog so I figured I'd give thanks on this one. I get a lot of help from people over at discuss cooking. I can't begin to explain how nice these people are and the amazing knowledge they have about food and cooking. They helped me through a few questions I had about making the fathers day meal.

Mediterranean Meatloaf

This meatloaf recipe is awesome. I really!! enjoyed this tonight. My last few meatloaf attempts have been a little bla. I like to call this Stuffed Mediterranean matloaf.

I did make this once before and remember enjoying it. Of course today I had to experiment and make one change. I added about 2/3 cup of oatbran. The original recipe actually doesn't call for any kind of breadcrumbs or oatbran etc. Personally, I think that is great, especially if your cutting down or not eating grains. I didn't quite have a cup of mushrooms - so I thought it was best to add the oatbran so that it stayed together.

I only used ground turkey for the loaf I made today. For my fillings I peeled some egg plant and threw that in the food processor. To the food processor I also added, a few baby carrots, a boiled egg, and some spanish olives. You can see from the original recipe, you can do what you want for the fillings.

I also put some BBQ sauce on the top before cooking. I'm thinking next time - I might try adding a little bacon and maybe even some cubed cheddar cheese into the mix. Although, more calories when those items are added.

I didn't have 2 lbs of meat - I think I had a little over 1 1/2 lbs. Because of this I only ended up using one egg and less sun-dried tomatoes. I don't think more or less of something in this recipe is that big of a deal.

Once again, Galya has a winner recipe!!! Here is the link to the recipe:

RECIPE HERE

Homemade Turkey/Chicken Pot Pie

Below you will read about a nice homemade Turkey/Chicken Pot Pie. Also, below is a very quick recipe for a good, easy and not so homemade Turkey/Chicken Pot Pie.

My mother in law gave me a book called Best Recipes from Time-Life Books. There was a recipe called Vermont Chicken Pie. Instead of pie crusts, you just place homemade biscuits on top. There were instructions on poaching a whole chicken, but I didn't follow that portion of the recipe. Instead, I had left overs from a turkey I roasted not too long ago. We froze some of the drippings and the left-over turkey for a few weeks. Eventually, I defrosted everything and used both the turkey and the drippings for the Turkey Pot Pie. Biscuit Recipe also included below!. I have to admit, hubby and I are trying to cut down on grains, so I probably should of left the biscuits out. I would make this in a heart beat with out the biscuits or crust.

Assuming you have fat from the bird, the recipe actually states to drop the reserved chicken fat into a heavy 10 to 12 inch skillet, add 2 tablespoons water, and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently. When the bits render all there fat, remove the residue with a slotted spoon and discard it. This was another STEP I didn't do, since I never saved the reserved chicken fat. I just added olive oil to the pan and a little of the fat that rises to the top from the drippings we saved. The rest of the instructions are taking exactly from the recipe in the book.

To this 2 tablespoons of butter is added and melted over moderate heat. When foam subsides, stir in 6 tablespoons of flour and mix to a smooth paste with a whisk.

Pour in 2 1/2 cups of turkey or chicken stock, stir constantly - until it comes to a boil. You can use chicken broth from the can of course if you don't have stock. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Salt and Pepper it.

Mix in 1 inch turkey or chicken pieces. I also added frozen peas and corn. Pour all into a baking dish.

The original Vermont Chicken Pie recipe is ONLY the meat. I think it's better to add things though. You could add anything, potatoes, carrots etc. However, since the pie is only cooked in the oven for 1/2 hour, you might want to pre cook your carrots and potatoes. One idea is to saute carrots, potatoes, celery, onions etc. on the stove and add that to the mixture.

BISCUITS:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt. sift all three ingredients into a large chilled bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons of butter, cut into bits and 2 tablespoons of lard, cut into bits. I used crisco instead of lard. With your finger tips, rub the flour mixture and fat together until they look like flakes of coarse meal.

Pour in 1/2 cup cold milk and beat with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth and can be gathered into a fairly dry, compact ball. If the dough is moist and sticky - add flour one tablespoon at a time.

roll dough, cut dough into 2 inch rounds. You can use the bottom of a glass to make the rounds if you want.

Brush tops with butter. Place them all on top of the chicken pot pie mixture. Bake for 25 minutes 400 degrees.

It was very yummy. I used individual crocks.

If your looking for a VERY easy and yummy pot pie recipe - this is great. It's not exactly homemade though. Take 2 cups of cooked chicken, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1/2 cup of frozen veggies and 1/2 cup of milk. Mix all together and pour into pre-made pie crusts. Cook until done. Not exactly homemade - but I have to admit, it's always a winner in my house.

Lamb Meatball, Orach and Cashew soup

I haven't updated my blog in awhile. I have either been making recipes that are already located on my blog or just throwing stuff together. Sometimes with the kids, it's easier for me to throw together a quick salad, throw some steaks or burgers on the grill etc. And since I went off my 'eating healthy' lifestyle for awhile, eating out became a bit more frequent.

Today I decided to combine 2 recipes. Penzeys spice magazine had a lamb meatball recipe. I made these and put them into a soup recipe I tried for the first time. The soup is called Orach and cashew soup. I couldn't find Orach so I used spinache instead. My husband and I enjoyed this meal. The soup recipe comes from Galya. You have probably noticed a lot of recipes on my blog come from her. She just has this wonderful way of preparing and cooking healthy, sophisticated foods and at the same time minimal list of ingredients, easy preparation and minimal cooking time.

Click here to see recipe for soup:

The Lamb Meatballs were pretty easy. Here are the steps.

1. 1 lb ground lamb
2. 1 tsp of spearmint or 1-2 TB fresh spearmint. I could only find mint so I used that instead.
3. 1 tsp of lamb seasoning
4. some pepper
5. 1 TB fresh minced parsley.

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours to let flavors meld together.

Preheat oven to 375
Heat some oil in a pan.
Form small balls from your mixture and brown on all sides. (total time 5-8 minutes).
Place on Cookie sheet and cook in oven for 10-15 minutes.

You can even make a dipping sauce for the lamb meatballs if you don't put them into a soup like I did. Just chop up 1/4 of a cucumber and mix that with 4oz of plain yogurt or sourcream. Add some fresh parley into the mix when ready to serve.

collection of healthy foods

I have decided to do a little post briefly discussing and posting links to some very healthy things I've been incorporating into my life. I will than hopefully add more as time goes by. So the list begins. I probably have more, but these are the ones that I can think of for now. A BIG HUGE thank you for the people who have shared these wonderful recipes and have made my life more healthier. I have tried them all and they all get a BIG thumbs up. : )

1. My new favorite salad. Link here: SALAD
Look at Chris’ Cayenne Candied Pecan California Salad under Eat A Salad Everyday.
I actually have used walnuts and sunflower seeds instead of pecans many times.

To continue with the salad sega for a second, I actually made one up today. 1/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, tuna (which was mixed with a few tablespoons of sour cream, lemon juice and some spices), 1/2 cup cold black beans and a whole bunch of spring lettuce leaves. It was sooo good. : )

2. Here is a list of 10 healthy marinades you can make. Tonight, I'm trying the Tandoori Chicken marindade. It's in the oven now. I plan on trying more of these marinades. Here is the link: MARINADES
You have to scroll down a little to get to the list of marinades.

3. Also from the same site, but different link: Some homemade salad dressings. I have made the Balsamic Vinaigrette a few times. It is is so good and it took like 2 minutes to make. Here is the link: SALAD DRESSINGS

4. A recipe my mom found recently. It comes from Sam the Cooking Guy, her new favorite show.

Warm Cabbage Salad.
Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1/3 to 1/2 cup of any kind of honey dijon dressing

1/2 head of napa cabbage (not the core end) finely shredded - about 6 cups.

1-2 ounces pack 'ready bacon', sliced thin across the strips

8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

STEPS:

1. Place cabbage in large bowl with cheese on top
2. Saute mushrooms in about a tablespoon of olive oil until quite soft - add bacon. Book both about 3 more minutes, until bacon starts getting crispy.
3. Add dressing to pan
4. Pour mushroom, bacon dressing on the the cabbage and mix well.
5. Season with salt, pepper and serve.



4. I have many!!! lovely recipes from my friend Galya over at http://eatloveandtrain.blogspot.com/

Some of my favorites are:

1. Ricotta Breakfasts: Ricotta Breakfasts

2. Mock bread and Italian Mock bread: Mock Bread. Italian Mock Bread.


3. Banana Bread: Banana Bread

4. Protein Bars. This one is a GREAT one. I can't for some reason find it on the site right now, so here it is, written by Galya. Thanks Galya!!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup oat bran
1 grated apple
1/2 cup berries ( I used aronia/chokeberry here)
2 scoops vanilla protein powder (roughly 50 grams)
1/2 cup nuts
1/4 cup dried fruit (cranberries in this recipe)
3 eggs
2 tsp pumpkin spice

Mix all the ingredients and let them sit for half an hour. Pour in a silicone pan and bake for about 20 minutes at 370F. Cut while still warm, pizza cutters work best in my opinion.

To store, wrap in a wet towel and keep in the fridge.

5. Guacamole Dip

6. Nutty Swiss Chard

Thanks so much Galya!!!!!!

and my last one, that I made up but got the general idea from a forum I was reading:

HEALTHY DESERT:

tablespoon of cocoa powder or however much you want
smooched up banana
tablespoon of coconut oil (actually looks more like a paste or soft butter than oil)
tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup of blueberries.
1-2 teaspoons of honey or maple syrup.
1/4 cup chopped nuts (toasted would be best, like hazelnuts)
Mix all together and eat. A little mushy looking, but it's a good sweet treat. I think I left out the nuts, the last time I made it, because it was fairly late at night and I didn't feel like chopping them in my mini chopper and toasting them in the oven.

OK ONE MORE. : ). My new favorite Shake.

1. frozen banana
2. 1-2 tablespoons of almond butter
3. cup of unsweetened almond milk
4. few bunches of baby spinache
5. sometimes sliced strawberries or frozen blueberries
6. Blend!!! Yummy

Red Curry Sauce

Once again, I'll have to update with pictures at a later time. I do want to continue sharing my favorite recipes, even if don't have pictures of them. : )

This is great. I usually make a stir fry and pour it over the stir fry. Served with rice is always good too. I've made this a bunch of time too. I also have to find the original source that I found this recipe. I found it awhile ago. I was very excited when I first made it, because it really reminds of a sauce I've had at a Thai Restaurant in Salem that I used to go to.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minched, peeled ginger root
1 teaspoon coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/4 cups of coconut milk
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons packed brown sugar

Instructions:
1. heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Saute the garlic and ginger for several minutes, than remove from heat and add the coriander seeds, cumin, paprika, curry paste and cook over low heat for 2 minutes to release oils, stirring constantly.
3. Do not let it burn.
4. Add the coconut milk, tomato paste, soy sauce, and brown sugar.
5. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to ALMOST a boil, stirring constantly. Be careful and don't let it boil or it will separate. Remove from heat and keep warm, or reheat it very gently when ready to use.

Baked Halibut (or TALAPIA) with tomatoes, capers and olive vinaigrette

This recipe is so awesome. I've made it for company and my husband and I love this supper. The next time I make it, I'll try to take pictures and than update this blog with pictures. I've been making this for years now. It was adaped from Gourmet Magazine.

Baked Haliburt (OR TALAPIA) with tomato, capers, olive vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
quartered 2/3 cup kalmata olives
2 tablespoons drained capers, rinsed
salt and pepper
1-2 lobs of fish cut into bite size pieces.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Whisk together lemon juice, and mustard.
3. add oil in a slow stream whisking until emulsified.
4. stir in tomatoes, olives, capers, salt and pepper.
5. Put fish into a glass baking dish and pour everything in with the fish.
6. Cook until finished. Anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes.

Kellys healthy pancake recipe

I think I mentioned in an early board, that I would post my friend Kellys pancake recipe. We all love this. My friend Kelly also has young children, and her family loves it too.

Dry Mix to store:

4 cups of Quick Oats
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup wheat germ or groundflaxseed
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
3 tablespoons baking power
1/2 teaspoon cream tarta (found in spice isle).

When ready to make Pancakes:

1. 2 cups mix that you made above.
2. 2 eggs
3. 1/2 cup olive oil
4. 1 cup water
5. mix alltogether and make pancakes.

You can half the recipe too.

Favorite Holiday Season Deserts.

The last couple of years, my mother in laws chocolate peanutbutter fudge and a wonderful peppermint bark recipe I found have been our favorites. They have been big hits. I have even made the fudge for the cookie walk at the annual toys and greens sale. Although these will continue to be big hits and I will make them again, this year I made what's called a chocolate salami. It came from a magazine from Hannaford called Fresh - home for the holidays issue. It's a truflle like mixture studded with almonds and cookie crumbs, making it look like salami. The recipe can be halved and it can be frozen. Very simple and a new holiday favorite. Here is the recipe. Also, an added bonus : ). The bark and fudge recipes are also below.

Recipe for Chocolate "Salami"

1 12 pkg semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, sliced
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups vanilla wafer cookies crushed into crumbs
1/3 cup of sliced almonds. I grinded mine up in my mini chopper.

Instructions:
1. melt chocolate using a double boiler or a metal bowl or saucepan that will rest on top of a bottom saucepan. Fill the bottom pan halfway with water. Place chocolate and butter in the top pan. Heat the water over medium low heat. Gently stir the chocolate and butter after about 1 minute. Keep stiring. When it's about 80 percent melted, take off stove and let it continue to melt.
2. stir in vanilla, cookie crumbs and almonds
3. put the pan in the freezer until mixture is slightly firm. 5-10 minutes or so.
4. spray a large sheet of plastic wrap with vegetable cooking spray or use parchment paper (which I did). Spread the chocolate mixture evenly along one long side. Roll to form a log shape about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter and 10 to 12 inches long. Place in freezer until fully firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
5. Remove log from freezer 2 hours before you plan to serve. Cut into slices. You can garnish with strawberries, whipped cream ect. on the side if you want.


Peppermint Bark: Here is another wonderful recipe that I have found and used from Boston Chefs blog over at http://bostonchef.blogspot.com.
The recipe can be found here:

Chocolate PeanutButter Fudge:
1 lb white chocolate
1 lb milk chocolate
16 oz jar of cream peanutbutter

Melt chocolate
stir in peanut butter
pour into 9X13 pan lined with parchment paper and refrigerate.