Chicken sausage with white beans, kale and mushrooms

Here's a great recipe I am making for tonight's dinner. The weather is finally feeling fall-like and I am inspired... This is a one-pot meal and it can be ready in 30 minutes or you can leave it on the stove on low all day, you choose...

1 tbs. olive oil
2 lbs. chicken sausage (the fresh one's not the Aidelle's type), cut into 4" pieces
1 C. button mushrooms, quartered
3 cubes frozen garlic
2 C. small white beans (canned is fine)
2 C. kale leaves, about 1/2 bunch
2 C. tomato sauce (I love Rao's)
1/4 C. white wine

Heat olive oil in a large pan with high sides. Add sausage and brown for about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and frozen garlic and stir to combine. Add white beans, kale and tomato sauce, white wine and stir to combine. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes covered. Season to taste. Serve with a green salad.

Join me at the Blues, Views and BBQ Festival at Westport's Leavitt Pavillion on Saturday, September 25th where I'll be demonstrating how to prepare a whole meal on the grill from appetizer to dessert in under an hour- great food and good times!

Blueberry peach crumble

One of our family’s favorite summer traditions is going blueberry picking. We always pick way to many berries and come home wondering what we’re going to do with them. This recipe is always at the top of our list. Fresh blueberries freeze beautifully. Simply wash, and freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet before transferring to a ziplock bag. I’ve been asked over the years what the difference is between a crisp and a crumble. After some research, I found these general definitions, but the truth is you will not find a universally agreed upon answer. Whatever you call it, this dessert is delicious!


Betty — a baked pudding made of layers of spiced and sugared fruit and buttered bread crumbs.
Clafoutis — a French cobbler, with fruit (usually cherries) on the bottom, custard, and a rough batter crust baked on top
Cobbler — a spoon pie (more like a fruit stew with dumplings), in which biscuit dough is dropped onto the fruit before baking. The consensus is that the dish got its name because the lumps of cooked dough resembled cobblestones.
Crisp — a deep-dish fruit dessert made with a crumb or streusel topping and baked.
Crumble — a British dessert in which raw fruit is topped with a crumbly pastry mixture and baked. One reference says a crumble is like a crisp, but not as rich.
Grunt — a spoon pie, with biscuit dough on top of stewed fruit, which is steamed, not baked
Pandowdy — a spoon pie, with fruit on the bottom and a rolled crust on top, which is broken up to allow the juices to come through
Slump — a spoon pie, including cooked or uncooked fruit topped with biscuit dough or piecrust, which can be baked or steamed, and can be made upside down

For pie filling:

1 quart fresh blueberries
3-4 peaches, diced
½ C. brown sugar
¼ C. corn starch
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. cinnamon
3 tbs. unsalted butter, diced


For crumble topping:

½ C. oats
½ C. flour
½ C. almond meal
½ C. granular sugar
5 Tbs. unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp. cinnamon


Optional- 1 pie crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and gently toss to coat fruit with cornstarch. Place pie crust in a pie tin and add filling, draining any excess juice. Combine crumble topping in another bowl and using fingers, work to combine ingredients until it has the consistency of sand.

Add crumble topping to top of pie. Place pie on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 1 hour or until crumble is golden brown.

*IMPORTANT NOTE- After much research, we found this crumble is also delicious eaten cold for breakfast.

Blogging about salmon

I have been cooking up a storm, but haven't been posting here as I've been asked to write for a great site called http://www.salmoninseconds.com I've been making some incredible recipes and hope you check them out, they're worth the click.

Nicole

Grilled squid and cockles

The weather has been amazing here and last night was the perfect night to grill. I was feeling "meated" out, so I picked up some gorgeous little New Zealand cockles (they're like baby clams) as well as some beautiful cleaned squid.

In a disposable half sheet pan, I smashed up about 4 cubes of frozen garlic, a swirl of olive oil, about 1 C. of white wine, the juice of a lemon, a big pinch of kosher salt and pepper and a handful of basil leaves that I tore up.


Preheat your grill to high. While the grill heats, marinade the squid and clams in the mixture.

When the grill is hot, remove the squid and place on the grill. Leave the cockles in the marinate and place the sheet pan right on the grill. Cover the grill and let cook for 3 minutes. The cockles are ready when they pop open.

Turn the squid once and keep cooking for another 3 minutes.

Once the squid are done cooking, add to the cockles, garnish with another few leaves of basil and serve with a green salad and a baguette to sop up all of the juices.

Check out my segment on WTNH

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/ct_style/in_the_kitchen/hoison-shrimp-snap-pea-stir-fry

I'm going to the White House!

Westport's own Time to Eat! chef Nicole Straight is heading to the White House on Friday to participate in First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign to help bring about healthier choices to local schools.

"I am so thrilled to be a part of this, it's about time people begin taking our children's health seriously." Straight has been teaching busy parents in the tri-state area how to prepare delicious and healthy meals for their families for the past 9 years. Straight has been showing busy parents how easy it is to make 15 minute meals for their families that everyone will love.

As a working mother of 2, she sees the types of foods that kids are eating at school. "We live in one of the wealthiest towns in the country, I can not understand why our kids are being offered such unhealthy lunches at school, this has to change."

For more information on how to make Time to Eat! please visit www.timetoeat.info to register for a class.

Here is the official press release from the White House.


The White House

Office of the First Lady

For Immediate ReleaseMay 13, 2010
First Lady Michelle Obama Launches "Chefs Move to Schools" Program

THE WHITE HOUSE – As communities and organizations get behind the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation, one group that could have a tremendous impact on the health and well being of children is the Nation’s chefs. As part of her effort to turn policies into practical solutions for America’s families, Mrs. Obama is calling on chefs to get involved by adopting a school and working with teachers, parents, school nutritionists and administrators to help educate kids about food and nutrition. By creating healthy dishes that taste good, chefs have a unique ability to deliver these messages in a fun and appealing way to the larger audience, particularly children.

The “Chefs Move to Schools” program, run through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will pair chefs with interested schools in their communities so together they can create healthy meals that meet the schools’ dietary guidelines and budgets, while teaching young people about nutrition and making balanced and healthy choices. With more than 31 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program and more than 11 million participating in the National School Breakfast Program, good nutrition at school is more important than ever.

“Many children consume as many as half of their daily calories at school and as families work to ensure that kids eat right and have active play at home, we also need to ensure our kids have access to healthy meals in their schools,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “We are going to need everyone’s time and talent to solve the childhood obesity epidemic and our Nation’s chefs have tremendous power as leaders on this issue because of their deep knowledge of food and nutrition and their standing in the community. I want to thank them for joining the Let’s Move! campaign.”

“Chefs and nutrition experts can play a critical role in addressing the childhood obesity crisis, and they are welcome partners as we work together to improve the overall health and nutrition of America’s children,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “By passing a strong reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, Congress can provide important resources to improve school cafeteria equipment and expand training opportunities for chefs, school food service personnel, and nutrition experts in our schools, because they will be on the front lines of improving school meals for our kids.”

“School cafeterias are the frontline for fostering a healthy lifestyle for children,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “This initiative is a creative and vital opportunity for children to learn and practice healthy habits. When partnerships between schools and the broader community are created, everyone wins.”