Chinese for everyone

It's late and I've just finished catering the Burr Mansion Christmas Tree party with the catering company that I work for called Festivities. I'm pooped and didn't cook today. I ordered Chinese food for the girls and our babysitter. I did celebrate a special birthday yesterday with some dear friends and felt filled with gratitude for their friendship- it's so true there is no greater gift than friendship.

Anyhow, I wanted to quickly share a good vinaigrette recipe that I used today while having lunch with my friend and neighbor. It's a lime mint vinaigrette and very easy:

1/4 C lime juice
2 tbs. Dijon mustard
10 finely diced fresh mint leaves
handful of finely diced flat leaf Italian parsley
1/2-3/4 C. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
optional- shredded Parmesan cheese

Whisk lime juice and mustard together, add in mint, parsley, salt and pepper, and slowly whisk in olive oil. Season to taste and adjust olive oil. Dressing is very tangy and delicious and will keep in the fridge for a week, but trust me, it won't last that long. It's also good drizzled over shrimp, fish or chicken.

Ok, I'm off to collapse into bed. Have to prep for a 30 person cooking class/birthday party on Saturday.

Baked pasta primavera

My friend Sue loves to make this pasta and here is a version of hers.

Boil penne pasta. While the water and pasta boil, dice 1 zucchini, a 1/2 onion, a handful of mushrooms, and a small Japanese eggplant.

Saute the vegetables in 1 tbs. olive oil until they soften. Season with salt and pepper.

After pasta is cooked until al dente. Drain and preheat oven to 375. Combine 2 C. tomato sauce with 1 C. skim ricotta cheese. Add in sauteed vegetables and toss to combine with pasta. Bake, uncovered in an oven proof casserole dish for 20 minutes until sauce is bubbly.

I like to turn the oven to Broil for 3 minutes before removing from the oven to get the top of the baked pasta a little crispy. No one else likes the little crispy bits, but I love to pick them off the top!

Kitchen's closed today.

We had a nice relaxing Saturday today, didn't do much, but enjoyed every second of it. Emma wanted ravioli with sauce, and Abby had more of the lentil soup and a couple cucumbers. We went to a movie tonight, saw Into the Wild, it was good, but long, - our dinner was popcorn.

I bought some Asian grilled chicken breasts from Trader Joe's- haven't tried them before, will let you know if they're any good.

:)

Wastin' time wit Jib Jab!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

I've found a brand new way to waste precious hours in my day, it's called Jib Jab and my friend Jane showed it to me last night at Thanksgiving. We spent most of the evening laughing at the new "home videos"!

Today was a quiet day, ate leftover turkey dinner sandwiches and made lentil soup tonight with ox tails. The recipe is really easy:

Heat a soup pan on high, add a little olive oil and cubes of frozen garlic. Season the ox tails with salt and pepper. When the oil shimmers, add the ox tails and saute for a few minutes, until they begin to brown on all sides. While the ox tails brown, dice an onion, a few stalks of celery, and a handful of carrots. Add them to the pot, another pinch of salt and pepper, a dried bay leaf, and a pinch of dried oregano.

Add a 32 ox. box of chicken stock and 1 1/2-2 C. of dried lentils. Stir to combine, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Soup takes about 45 minutes to cook. Make sure the heat isn't too hot, you just want a nice low bubble. Remove bay leaf and season to taste before serving. It's delicious, healthy and really easy.

Enjoy Jib Jab!

pears and blueberries

I am looking forward to tomorrow, Kirk is on a trip, the girls have a (short) day at school and I get to bake in absolute silence. These days there is very little I get to do in silence. This might be why I love to meditate, it's absolutely silent. Anyhow, we are going to a friends house for Thanksgiving and I am going to make a pear and blueberry crumble. I love to make crumbles because there isn't an exact way to do it, it's very easy and always tastes delicious.

Here is a general recipe for my crumble.

5 ripe pears
2 C. frozen blueberries
1-2 tbs. cornstarch
1 stick of butter
1/2 C. granular sugar
1 C. brown sugar
2 C. oats
1 C. flour
1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 350. Thaw pie crust until it will roll out. Wash and dice pears, toss frozen blueberries with cornstarch and granular sugar until the berries are all coated. Combine pears and blueberries, add 1/4 stick diced cold butter to fruit.

In another bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour and remaining butter. Using your hands, combine ingredients until they hold together.

Roll out pie crust into a deep pie plate. Add fruit to crust and cover fruit entirely with crumble topping. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. If the top is getting too dark, lower heat and loosely tent with foil. Tent just means to place a piece of foil on something, but not cover it so it steams.

The pie is delicious served warm or at room temperature with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It won't last long, as it's yummy for breakfast too!

Have a great Thanksgiving to anyone who's reading this!!

Let them eat Brussel Sprouts

Abby had a Thanksgiving party, well feast, at school today and I volunteered to bring in brussel sprouts. Although most consider them the bastard child of vegetables, they've been given a bad rap. Brussel sprouts are tasty and so easy to prepare, this is the recipe I always use.

2 C. brussel sprouts
2-3 slices pancetta or proscuitto
1 C. chestnuts (the kind that come cooked in a jar)
1 C. dried cranberries
1 tbs. olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper
1/2 C. frizzled onions

Preheat oven to 425. Wash and slice brussel sprouts in 1/2. Slice proscuitto into thin slices and mix in with sprouts. Lay out on a cookie sheet, try not to overlap them. Drizzle a little olive oil atop sprouts and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast for 12-15 minutes, shaking the cookie sheet after about 7 minutes to rotate the sprouts.

When the sprouts and crisp on the outside, but a knife can be inserted into them, remove from heat. They shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to cook.

Toss sprouts with chestnuts, either kept whole or sliced in half, and stir in cranberries. Top with frizzled onions before serving.

We eat these year round, and although chestnuts aren't available year round, they are still delicious with the cranberries and proscuitto.

ENJOY!

Turkey chili

What a lousy day outside!!! What a perfect day for chili. I spent most of the day shuttling back and forth between the girls school-lunch duty, parent-teacher conferences. In the middle of the first conference, I get a txt message from Kirk saying, can't wait to hear the news! As if we're waiting to hear about early enrollment to Harvard!! I had to show the teacher, we both got a good laugh!

I bought a few art supplies for the girls, Model Magic, a package of new markers and landyard. They were sooooo happy!

Here's the recipe for turkey chili: It makes a lot!

Add a little olive oil to a large soup pot. When it shimmers, add a cup of frozen or fresh diced onion. I added frozen (they're great!) I also added about 1 C. of Miraupoix from Trader Joes. Basically, it's fresh diced celery, onion and carrot. It's the basis for most soups. I stirred that around for a minute or two, then added in a package of ground lean turkey meat. I stirred that around for about 5 minutes until it began to cook. I added in some chicken sausage that I removed from the casings. The easiest way to do that is to just run the sauasge between your fingers and squeeze the sausage out. Stir the sausage around and break it up with a wooden spoon. Let the meat mixture cook for about 5-7 more minutes. Add in 2 cans of rinsed beans, I used a can of red kidney and a can of pinto beans. I then added in about 1 tbs. of cumin, 1 tbs. of chili powder, a large pinch of kosher salt and pepper, and a few shakes of Adobo.

Next, I added in 2 large 32 oz. cans of diced tomatoes. Stir the whole mess around until it is combined, reduce the heat to medium low, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Taste before serving, as it might need more salt. It won't be spicy, so you will want to add spice to your own bowl.

The chili is delicious and my kids love to eat the beans and ground turkey.

Ribs, lentil soup and squash???

Tonight I am doing a book signing at the Darien Library and my husband was left in charge of dinner, at 4:20 he realized he had not (suprise, suprise) planned anything. He did his fallback dinner, Chinese take out.

Last night I made lentil soup which I didn't plan on giving the girls, assuming they wouldn't even touch it. They both ended up hungrily eating 2 bowls of it! I was pretty suprised as lentil soup isn't the most appealing looking soup. Anyhow, here's a good basic lentil soup recipe:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed
1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
2 quarts chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground toasted cumin

Place the olive oil into a large 6-quart Dutch oven and set over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrot, celery and salt and sweat until the onions are translucent, approximately 6 to 7 minutes. Add the lentils, tomatoes, broth and cumin- stir to combine. Increase the heat to high and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook at a low simmer until the lentils are tender, approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Using a stick blender, puree to your preferred consistency. Serve immediately.

I also made an amazing ravioli at work yesterday which I had to share.

Butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli:
Boil 1 peeled and sliced butternut squash in chicken stock until soft- about 20 minutes. Once a knife can be easily inserted into the squash, remove from heat, drain and mash with a masher or fork. Season with salt, pepper, a little bit of nutmeg and a handful of diced, sauteed shallots.

Wonton wrappers from the supermarket are the pasta for this dish. Lay out a bunch of wonton wrappers on a cutting board, and place a small (really small) amount of squash in the center of the wrapper, place an equally small amount of goat cheese atop the squash. Brush the edges of the wrapper with either water or a beaten egg. Lay another wrapper atop the other and make sure all sides are closed. Cook in boiling, salted water for 3-4 minutes and serve with melted butter and fresh sage leaves.

Sunday supper

Darkness at 4:45 p.m.-hmmmm..

I made a mishmash of things tonight for dinner. We had our friends for dinner tonight and their girls.

I made flounder that I quickly cooked in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I removed the fish from the pan, added a little more olive oil, and sauteed a zucchini that I had diced and a whole sliced onion. I let those cook for a few minutes, then added in a cup of cherry tomatoes that I had cut in half. I sauteed those for another minute, added a pinch of salt and pepper, and a 1/4 C, of white wine. I served the veggies on the fish. It was good, but a little bland for my taste. I should have added a little red pepper flakes to the veggies.

i had bought some Lebanese couscous when we went to Kalustyans's in NY. I started with a little olive oil, and a cup of diced carrot, celery and onion. I found fresh diced veggies at Trader Joe's, what a time saver. After sauteeing the veggies for a couple of minutes, I added in 2 C, of couscous and 2 C. of chicken stock, brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to med. low and covered. I added in a little salt and pepper before serving. It was the largest couscous I have ever seen. Abby loved it

I also made some pasta with leftover chicken and red beans that the girls loved.

It was nice to spend Sunday evening with our friends and am looking forward to reading the NY Times after the girls go to bed!

Cooking for a crowd

Happy November 1st! I wanted to share a great gazpacho recipe that I made for a Halloween Party I did. I called it Bloody Mary Gazpacho shooters. It is non alcoholic and fun to serve in little tiny cups (I found great disposable plastic cups at a website called jbrince.com)

here it is:

4 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
4 cubes frozen garlic
1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
4 cups Spicy Bloody Mary mix
1/4 cup or balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ tsp. cumin
kosher salt and pepper to taste
croutons- for garnish

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss. In a blender or food processor, mix a few cups at a time until just slightly chunky. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve chilled.
Makes 4 servings.

I just made some Baja Fish Tacos for a journalist who came out to interview me for a story that's coming out in the Connecticut Post on 11/20.

Here's the recipe:

Baja Fish Tacos with lime coleslaw
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
flour
Seasoning salt- such as Lawry’s
1 pound tilapia, flounder, sole, or any thin white fish
Corn tortillas
2 limes
mango salsa
1 onion halved and sliced
2 tomatoes quartered
1 package shredded cabbage
2 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper

For tacos:
Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. While the pan is heating, cut fish into 2 inch long strips. In a shallow plate, add seasoned flour mixture (3 parts flour to 1 part salt) -make seasoned flour and store in a jar to use in the future. Dredge fish pieces in flour mixture, and place fish in pan. Heat tortillas until just soft (a toaster oven works well). Cook fish for 2 minutes on each side, remove from pan, and squeeze lime juice and a pinch of salt on fish pieces. When all fish has cooked, cook onion and tomato in pan for 1 minute, or until just barely softened. Assemble tacos by placing fish, onion, tomatoes and salsa in tortillas.

For coleslaw:
Drizzle coleslaw with juice from a lime, rice wine vinegar, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Serve fish tacos over coleslaw.