Asian themed meal June 22, 2008

We had guests for dinner on Friday night.  My sister, Kara had requested grilled food since she never gets to eat it.  She’s also a vegetarian, so we had to work around those specifications.  We also had to work around some sketchy weather… but it all turned out fine in the end!  We had some great food and played fun games.  It was a really great night!

 

Ross made his homemade salsa for an appetizer… I’m not sure he’s ready to share his secret recipe, or if he ever will be for that matter.  It is the best salsa you will ever taste, though!

 

Ross grilled chicken for the carnivores in the group.  He used this marinade recipe found on recipezaar.com and spiced it up a bit with things like cilantro and green onion… and who knows what else.  The recipe is actually for sandwiches, but we just used the marinade.

 

Hoisin Chicken Marinade

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 garlic clove 
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger 
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix all ingredients together and marinade chicken overnight.

 

We made Spicy Vegetarian Peanut Noodle Salad courtesy of Food Network and Ming Tsai.  It was also very easy to make, had fairly simple ingredients and was a super nice change from a typical pasta salad.  We all loved it!  I didn’t have any coriander, so I had to leave that out… I’ll put it in next time, but it was still great without it.

For Kara, we made Grilled Portabello Mushrooms with Artichoke Puree and Roasted Corn-Tomato Topping.  I found this recipe on another recipe blog with lots of vegetarian recipes.  This was nice because you could make the toppings ahead of time, so all you had to do at the last minute was grill the mushrooms.  We didn’t have room on the grill to roast corn, so I cooked some corn in a frying pan in a little bit of butter until it was slightly blackened.  We also cook corn this way to put in tacos or other Mexican meals and it is delicious.  The dish looks really pretty when you serve it, and Kara said it tasted great, too!  I want to make it again sometime soon when I can eat it!

 

At the last minute, we decided to skewer some pinapple and grill that, too.  The meal turned out really well, and Kara made us a key lime pie to have for dessert.  It was a great night with some good food, but more importantly, great company!

My sister’s pasta salad June 9, 2008

Here’s the link to the pasta salad my sister made on Friday.  It was GREAT and such a nice change from the typical pasta salad!  I really loved the asparagus and artichokes in it.  We all had at least seconds, many of us thirds.  Kara made it without the chicken to make it vegetarian and it was still great.

Note:  The pine nuts in this were really tasty, but as they cost $10 for a small amount and I’m cheap, I’ll probably leave them out when I make it.

 

Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken, Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Pesto-Pasta-Salad-with-Chicken-Asparagus-and-Cherry-Tomatoes/Detail.aspx

A Creamy, Cheesy Meal June 2, 2008

Tonight we made “Anniversary Chicken”.  It is a recipe from allrecipes.com that Ross found awhile ago, but we never made.  I wish we had made it sooner!  It was SO good!  We used light ranch and made real bacon and crumbled it instead of using Bacos.  It was easy to make and had a great taste.  The teriyaki and ranch really mix together well.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Anniversary-Chicken-I/Detail.aspx

I wanted to make something with orzo for a side dish.  I am not Italian, but I grew up in a town where most people were.  So, I absolutely love pasta.  I really think I could eat it everyday.  This is great when you are trying to eat cheap, but not when you are trying to fit into a pair of jeans (or a wedding dress)!

 

Orzo is great because it is pasta, but a little different.  This recipe looked really good to me.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  The breadcrumb/cheese mixture was way to much, I think just a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese would have made it taste a lot better.  The recipe follows:

BAKED ORZO AND CHEESE1/2 pound orzo, uncooked
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk, heated
5 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-by-11-inch baking dish.

Prepare the orzo according to package directions, until not quite al dente. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes.

Increase the heat to medium-high, slowly whisk in milk and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook, whisking often, for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cheddar. Season with salt and pepper. Stir orzo into sauce and transfer to baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and sprinkle over orzo.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until bubbling and lightly browned on top.

Servings: 6-8
Adapted from source: Sara Moulton Cooks at Home by Sara Moulton

 

Now we’re going to have dessert… Ben and Jerry’s Cheesecake Brownie ice cream!!! 

 

UPDATE:  That ice cream is wonderful.  It tastes just like cheesecake, and the brownie cheesecake chunks are amazing as well.  We ate them out of waffle bowls, which ended up being almost like a graham cracker crust, which made it taste even more like cheesecake!  Go get some!

A Great Saturday May 25, 2008

We had a great day Saturday.  We spent most of the early part of the day being lazy, and then headed to San Lee Park in the afternoon for a hike.  It was perfect weather and we had a great time.  Since I hadn’t done much all day, I wanted to make something good for dinner.  We had already started marinating chicken to grill.  We had some broccoli that we needed to use so I was planning on roasting that, so we just needed some sort of a potato to go with it all.  We went back and forth for quite some time about what to make (we aren’t the best at making decisions, especially when it comes to food).  We had discussed baked potatoes, twice baked potatoes, cheesy potatoes, potato skins, etc.  So, I finally decided to make my own invention of a combination of all of them.  Here’s what I came up with:

Twice Baked Potato Skins

4 whole potatoes

4-6 slices of bacon

1 small head of broccoli florets

1 cup shredded cheddar

4 oz sour cream

2 T butter or margarine

splash of milk

salt and pepper

green onion

 

Pierce potatoes with a fork.  Bake in oven at 375 for about an hour or until soft. 

While potatoes are cooking, steam broccoli until very soft.  Let dry, reserve in medium sized mixing bowl. 

Cook bacon and let cool to get crispy.  Crumble bacon.

Let potatoes cool.  Slice in half and scoop out pulp, add to mixing bowl with the broccoli.  Add butter, sour cream, and milk.  Mash with fork until mixed well and most of the potato lumps are out.  Add 1/2 c. cheese, crumbled bacon and salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Place empty potato shells under broiler until golden brown.  Remove from oven.  Sprinkle a little bit of cheese in the bottom of each shell.  Add potato mixture back to shells.  Top with remaining cheddar cheese.  Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  Garnish with green onion.

 

We thought they turned out great, tasting 1/2 like a potato skin and 1/2 like a twice baked potato!  We plan on making them again soon.

 

The chicken was probably the best grilled chicken I’ve had in a long time.  Ross is a master griller.  He marinated it in Thomas’ sauce and grilled it to perfection.  We also tried the new Bush’s Grillin’ Beans.  We had the whiskey and brown sugar flavor and they were good, but I think I still prefer the ol’ doctored up baked beans.

 

I hope everyone had a great Saturday, too and continues to enjoy the rest of this long weekend.  What a treat!

Spaghetti Salad and Super Good Burgers May 20, 2008

This cold spaghetti salad is one of my favorite summer salads.  It’s like a pasta salad, but with a twist!

 

1 lb spaghetti

1 green pepper

2 cucumbers

1 onion

3 carrots (or dump in a bunch of the matchsticks, I used about 1/2 bag)

2 tomatoes

1 jar chili sauce

1 c. Italian dressing

pepper, salt and garlic powder to taste

 

Boil pasta.  Toss with chili sauce and dressing.  Dice vegetables and add to pasta mixture.  Add seasonings to your liking.  Chill and serve.

 

Ross made burgers last night on the gril and they were the BEST burgers EVER.  He cut up a piece of really good steak into tiny pieces and tucked them into the middle of the burger before grilling.  I am not sure, but I think he brushed a mixture of worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar on them while they were grilling.  They were so incredibly good.  It tasted like a burger made out of fine steak.  Delicious.  Even Sully knew they were something special, he was going so crazy that we had to put him in the other room while we ate!  We had them with fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob.