Barefoot Contessa Clam Chowder

This is another recipe adapted from Ina Garten. I love her style, her recipes, and cookbooks. They all have such honest, good food. The only thing is that some of her recipes call for much more fat (butter, usually) than I want to use. So, I normally cut it by quite a bit, and amazingly, the recipes still work and the food is still great. This chowder was the best, it beat all the chowder that we ate in Key West last week - hands down. Try it, it is easy and really tasty. Toast a piece of ciabatta with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and you'll love it even more!

Clam Chowder

adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten

3/4 stick of butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, diced

3 carrots, diced

3 potatoes, diced

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3 cups clam juice

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 small can chopped clams - drained

Melt half the butter in a large pot over medium. Add onions and saute for 6-8 minutes. Add celery, carrots, potatoes, and thyme. Continue cooking for another 8-10 minutes until vegetables are starting to soften. Add clam juice and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

In a separate pan melt remaining butter and whisk in flour. Cook a few minutes to make sure the raw flour is cooked a bit. Add a cup or so of hot broth to flour mixture and then whisk everything back into large pot of hot liquid. Cook until thick and then add in the milk and clams. Leave on low for a couple of minutes or until clams are cooked through.

Valentine's Dinner - Vegetable Crostini

We had a wonderful Valentine's Dinner tonight. I ended up making this tasty grilled vegetable crostini for our appetizer and then we had a wonderful Sea Bass for our main course. Tonight I wanted to tell you about this appetizer and I'll post the Sea Bass recipe another time. The crostini was scrumptious...it took a few steps, but it was worth it. The grilled bread was so crunchy and delicious and a great backdrop for the tender, slightly sweet, grilled veggies. I really like the idea of this also, since you do all the work ahead of time and then let it marinate at the end. That means you can work on something else and not worry about your appetizer until just before serving. It worked out great. We'll be having this again.

Grilled Veggie Crostini

adapted from "Simple Pleasures" by Alfred Portale

1 red pepper

1 Japanese eggplant (you could substitute zucchini or regular eggplant if necessary)

1 large red onion

1/4 cup olive oil

1 clove garlic

salt and pepper

2 t red wine vinegar

1 t dried oregano

2 basil leaves, cut into a chiffonade

8 ounces fresh bufala mozzarella (much creamier than normal mozzarella)

ciabatta bread (sliced 1/2 inch thick)

Drizzle red pepper with olive oil and place under broiler until blackened all around. Take out of oven and place in a paper bag for 5 minutes. Take pepper out of bag, peel outer skin off, take seeds out, and slice into 5-6 long sections. While that is happening, slice onion into 5-6 thick slices and cut eggplant on the diagonal into 1/4 inch pieces. Brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, grill until tender, 4-5 minutes. Remove.

In a bowl combine garlic, oregano, 1/4 cup oil, salt, and pepper. Pour marinade over vegetables and let them sit for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Just before serving, brush bread with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until toasted and crisp. Place warm bread on a platter. Layer with cheese (sliced about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick) vegetables, and basil. Drizzle with extra marinade if desired.

Mushroom Linguini

The other night Joseph and I headed out for our own little date night. We made it to a little theater production put on by our local college and then we went to a wonderful Italian place for a drink and some pasta. We had a terrific mushroom linguini with a light veal sauce. It was very tasty. Memorable enough that I was already trying to recreate it this week. I had to improvise though, so I substituted lamb jus for veal. I was very satisfied with the results, especially since this was the first time I'd used lamb for anything other than chops. Joseph said he thought I hit it out of the park on the first try...so I think it was a success.

I ended up freezing the leftover jus to create this dish again. This is a good thing since the restaurant where we had the original dish changes their menu weekly so I can't count on having this dish again.

Mushroom Linguini

1 cup lamb jus - leftover from roasting a leg

1 lb linguini

2-3 cups mushrooms - I used a combination of cremini and porcini, sliced

1 T olive oil

1 t garlic

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 T butter

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Parmesan cheese

1 cup leftover cooking water from the pasta

While linguini is cooking, saute mushrooms in olive oil until softened. Add garlic, salt, and pepper. Saute another minute. Add lamb jus and butter. Once the butter has melted, turn down the heat and add the cream. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Drain pasta, add half of the reserved cooking water. Add mushroom sauce and additional cooking water if the sauce looks tight and serve immediately. Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Chicken with Paprika

The other night I made this chicken with smoky paprika and it was delicious. It was a little bit smoky and a little bit spicy from the paprika. It was also very tender and juicy since it all cooks evenly throughout.

It was also pretty easy to prepare once you have the chicken processed. Taking the backbone out can be tricky unless you have a good knife or kitchen shears. Once you do have the bone out and the chicken flattened out on your sheet pan the rest is a cinch though. This is a flavorful dish for a weeknight meal. There is very little prep and very little cleanup...that's a keeper.

Chicken with Smoky Paprika

1 whole chicken

2 t salt

1 t freshly cracked pepper

2 t smoked spanish paprika (I use the kind from Penzey's)

1 T olive oil

Remove the backbone from the chicken and lay it flat. (Simply cut clong either side of it by setting the chicken in an upright position or use the shears to cut through the bones.) Press down on it with your hands to flatten it out so that it will cook evenly. Liberally season both sides of the chicken and drizzle with oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Check with a meat thermometer for doneness. Let rest 5-10 minutes before carving.

Sugar Cookies

It's that time of year...the time when I search for the best sugar cookie recipe I can find. This year I found a keeper. I really love this recipe because you don't have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature. That is key because I never plan ahead enough for that to happen. I always work on the fly...if the kids are happy and my hands are free then I bake. Today my hands were free so I grabbed some butter from the freezer and got to work.

This simple recipe bakes a batch of tender sugar cookies that don't last long around here. We baked a couple dozen and hardly had any left by the time I got around to snapping a few picture. We invited the neighbors over to decorate cookies. The kids ate a bunch while decorating, we gave a few away, we ate some more, we gave some to my guitar teacher, and then we ate a few more. It's a good thing this recipe makes a big batch of dough, because we can cut off a big chunk of dough and have terrific cookies anytime we want them.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cup butter melted

2 cups white granulated sugar

4 eggs (jumbo)

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 tbs almond extract

5 cups of flour

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Whisk in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and almond extract once the butter/sugar mixture has cooled enough so that it won't scramble the eggs. Mix the flour and baking soda. Add a bit at a time (I used the paddle attachment on my KitchenAid and just let it whirl around 5 or 6 times before adding another big scoop of flour.) Chill for about 2 hours in the fridge.Roll out about 1/4 inch thick on a floured board, cut, and place on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake at 35o for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will be a very light golden at the edges. Let them completely cool and then decorate with icing and sprinkles.

Icing

2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cream cheese, softened

Food coloring

Whip together with the mixer. Separate and color as desired.

The Crispiest Chicken Fingers Around

It's been a busy time around our house lately. We've still been cooking up a storm, but we've gone back to home-style classics that are easy to prepare, yet still super tasty. We've made these chicken fingers twice in the past few weeks and they turned out terrific each time. The first time I made them with chicken thighs and last night I made them with breast meat. I have to say that I preferred the tender juicy thighs, but for all of you white meat fans the breasts worked really well also.

You can see we didn't do any fancy-pants presentation last night...straight off the baking sheets. We also had oven fries and I played around with some onions peels as well. I wanted to tell you about the chicken though. The secret to these crispy little bites is that I bread them with panko bread crumbs. Panko is a Japanese style bread crumb. I can get it at the regular grocery store, but if you can't find it in your local shop try a bigger chain like Meijer. I simply dipped the chicken in egg and then rolled it in panko mixed with a bit of Season-all. I finished it off by frying at 350 degrees until golden. We dipped these little morsels in honey-mustard sauce, but they are so tasty you don't even need sauce.
Chicken Fingers
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
2 eggs
3/4 c panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
1/4 c parmesan cheese
1 tsp season all
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
vegetable oil

Cut chicken into 1 to 2 inch pieces.  In a pie pan or small bowl beat 2 eggs with 2 T water.  In a second pie pan or bowl combine all remaining ingredients.  Dip chicken pieces into egg mixture and then place in panko mixture.  Press panko mixture onto chicken pieces.  Set aside.  Heat 2 T vegetable oil in a large shallow pan and fry chicken pieces until browned on all sides.  Transfer to a sheet pan and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes until cooked through.

Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin carving means pumpkin seeds available for roasting. We carved our pumpkins last night and we roasted our seeds to ways. We did a simple salt version and then we did a sweet sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and extra cinnamon version. My husband loved the salted ones and my son and I really got into the sweet version. Try some, they're addictive.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Wash and dry seeds from one large pumpkin. In a medium bowl mix seeds with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Toss with 1 tablespoon salt for savory version. Alternately, toss with 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and a dash or two of extra cinnamon.

Roast on a parchment lined baking sheet for 15-25 minutes at 350 degrees. We like our seeds crunchy so we opted for a longer bake at 25 minutes. If you like them more tender lessen the bake time to 15 minutes or so.

Tasty Pork and a New Grain

A few weeks ago I received a package in the mail containing a sample of a local companies' all purpose sauce to try in my own home. I gave it a whirl in some sloppy joes I made and liked it, but I didn't think that I could review it very accurately because the sauce was intermingled with too many other flavors. So, I decided to try using the sauce as the main flavor agent.

Last night I used it on a pork tenderloin with a little salt and pepper and I got a better sense of the sauce. It was the perfect compliment to the pork. It was not overly sweet like many barbecue sauces out there, but it added loads of flavor due to the vinegar and molasses it contains. We really enjoyed the pork and the fact that it only took minutes to prep, which is always a plus with a baby and toddler demanding my attention. I simply poured on about 1/3 cup of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce and popped the pork into the oven until cooked through.

I served it with a new-to-us grain called Farro. I wasn't quite sure what to do with this grain so I simply boiled it in salted water until tender. Then I drained it and added a bit of olive oil and parsley. I was really happy with how tasty this side dish was for the limited amount of effort required. It turned out similar to a rice but much healthier since it is a whole grain rather than just a starch like rice. It says it can be added to stews and soups like minestrone, so I'll have to give that a try as well.

Perfect Soft Pretzels

This is a terrific and easy recipe for soft pretzels. Gabe and I made them twice in the past two weeks. We doubled the recipe the second time and we cut them like bagels to make pretzel bread sandwiches, yummy!! They even stayed fresh and moist the second day so we ate them with a cup of soup.

Perfect Soft Pretzels
dough:
1 tsp active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

soda water bath:
3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup very hot water

kosher salt

Dissolve yeast in water and let bloom (stand) for 10 minutes. Mix yeast mixture with remaining dough ingredients. Knead dough until smooth, 4-5 minutes. Let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Cut dough into 4-6 balls and roll each length into a long snake. Once all are rolled out, repeat since the dough will be a bit relaxed at this point and easier to work with. Twist dough into a pretzel shape and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Dip each pretzel in water and place it back on the parchment paper. Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake for about 8 minutes.

Flavorful Short Ribs

These Asian inspired short ribs were so flavorful and tender we were wishing we had bought more than a pound and a half to split for dinner. We will definitely be having these again and again, I may even switch to doing my pot roast with these Asian flavors as well. The ginger, soy sauce, and orange juice actually mellowed and melded together during the long cooking process to create a super flavorful sauce to use for the meat, starch, and vegetable we had at dinner.
I asked Joesph if he thought it tasted Asian and he said he didn't know...all he knew was that it had "a lot of good flavor."
Asian Inspired Short Ribs

1 1/2 - 2 pounds short ribs. (I had the butcher cut each rib into 3 smaller pieces.)
Juice of 3 oranges
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 onion - thinly sliced
1 T minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
veg. oil

Season ribs on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large, heavy, oven safe pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 T oil to pan, once oil shimmers it is time to add the ribs. Once browned on all sides remove. Add sliced onions and cook over medium-low heat until softened a bit. Add ginger and garlic, cook an additional minute. Add orange juice, soy sauce, and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and add ribs back into pot. Cover and place in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
It is a good idea to make the ribs up to this point earlier in the day or the day before serving. That way you'll have time to let the extra fat solidify which makes removing it much easier and healthier.
Take ribs out and add 1 cup of water to pot and bring to a boil. Return the ribs to the pot and cook until heated thru. Serve with rice, potatoes, or egg noodles for best results.