Chicken Gyros

These chicken gyros really hit the spot the other night. They were full of flavor and all the components work together really well. Warm, cool, soft, crisp. Yum! We liked them so much that I actually served them for a get together I hosted this week. This recipe has a few steps, but everything can be done ahead and assembled just before serving. I actually had everything on platters and everyone just helped themselves which made the meal easy and I didn't have to miss out on chatting since the prep work was all done.

Chicken Gyros

For the chicken:

2 lbs chicken tenders or boneless chicken thighs cut into long strips

2 lemons

salt

pepper

2 T thyme

2 cloves minced garlic

Juice lemons into a ziploc bag and then add in everything else. Zip the bag closed, turn the bag over a few times to thoroughly mix, and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

Grill chicken tenders until center is white.

Tzatziki Sauce

1 1/2 cups greek style yogurt

2 cucumbers

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped dill

salt

pepper

2 cloves garlic, smashed to a paste

2 T olive oil

Peel, seed, and chop cucumbers in small chunks. Place cucumbers in a strainer set over a bowl. Add a few pinches of salt and stir cucumbers together. Let water drain for 30 to 45 minutes. Once drained, add everything to a large bowl and stir together. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Assemble Gyros:

6-8 flatbreads

sliced red onion

sliced tomato

crumbled feta cheese

lettuce

Grill flatbread until warm and toasty. Add grilled chicken and top with tzatziki sauce, and any toppings you like. Wrap in foil for easy handling and enjoy!

Grace's First Birthday - Fondant

We celebrated my daughter's first birthday this week.  We did a festive luau theme including leis, tropical flowers, and more.

I did a small smash cake for my daughter to enjoy.  She was a little timid and didn't get into it until later in the day after the party was winding down.

I used a marshmallow fondant recipe to make the decorations for the smash cake and the larger cake for guests.  It was really tasty and easy to mold and work with.  I definitely recommend this recipe!

Marshmallow Fondant

16 oz bag small plain marshmallows 
2 Tbsp water
vegetable shortening
1 tsp flavoring
2 lb confectioner's sugar
pinch of salt

Grease a microwave safe bowl, a spoon, the dough hook, and the bowl of your stand mixer with vegetable shortening or spray with non stick cooking spray. Dump the marshmallows into the bowl and microwave for 60 seconds. Stir marshmallows with the greased spoon. If all the marshmallows have not melted, microwave for 30 seconds more. Stir in flavoring.  Place confectioner's sugar and salt in the stand mixer bowl, reserving 1 cup, and make a well in the center. Pour in the marshmallow mix and turn the mixer on to the lowest setting. When it sounds strained, increase the mixer speed up one setting. Turn off the mixer once all sugar has been incorporated. If the fondant is sticky, add the reserved confectioner's sugar 1/4 cup at a time.  Transfer the fondant onto plastic wrap. Rub a bit of shortening on the outside of the ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, place in a ziploc bag, and let rest for at least 2-3 hours. Keep unused portions covered when not using. If the fondant becomes stiff, place in microwave for 20 seconds at a time until pliable.   Roll out on a greased surface or parchment paper to the desired thickness.
To color: Add paste food coloring to a portion of the fondant and knead it until the entire ball turns the desired color.    
Once you have made desired shapes and decorations you can adhere them to the cake by adding a bit of regular frosting to the shape and sticking it to the cake.

Mexican Fiesta Night

Tonight we tried out a couple of new recipes and both were big successes. The main course tonight was this layered black bean pie. It is pretty rare for us to have a vegetarian entree for dinner, but to tell the truth I didn't even miss the meat in this tasty pie. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it and I liked the quick and easy prep. I assembled this a few hours before dinner and then baked it at the end of the day.

After we cleaned up the dinner dishes and put the baby to sleep, I found this recipe for churros in the latest edition of bon appetit. They are super delicious and Gabe couldn't seem to stop eating them. I actually stopped frying the dough because I didn't want to have tons leftover, otherwise he would eat them for breakfast in the morning

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie
adapted from Everyday Food Great Food Fast

4 flour tortillas
1 Tablespoon oil
1 large onion, diced
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper
1 bottle beer
2 15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed
1 15 oz can corn, drained
3 large scallions, sliced
6-8 oz. colby jack or cheddar cheese

Heat oil in medium saute pan. Add onion, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper. Saute until onion is soft. Add the beans and beer, bring to a boil. Simmer until beer has nearly evaporated. Stir in corn and scallions and remove from heat. Place one tortilla in the bottom of a springform pan or cake pan lined with parchment paper. Spread 1/4 bean mixture on top and sprinkle with cheese. Repeat three more layers and finish with cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Remove and garnish with additional scallions.

Cinnamon-Dusted Mini Churros
recipe from bon appetit May 2009

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
6 Tablespoons plus 1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon-divided
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
vegetable oil

Whisk together eggs, 6 T sugar, juice, peel, vanilla, and 1/2 t cinnamon. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in flour. Place dough in pastry bag fitted with large star tip. Heat 1 inch oil to 355 degrees. Pipe 3-4 inch long strands of dough into hot oil. Fry for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Roll churros in a mixture of 1 cup sugar and 2 1/4 t cinnamon.

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.