lip-smacking good: orange pineapple berry smoothie

This morning I threw every fruit I'd want in a smoothie into the blender. As I expected, something very tasty came out.  Here's my recipe of sorts.

Do you create your own smoothie recipes?  What smoothie combinations have you experimented with?

lip-smacking good: pesto, avocado, gouda, onion and tomato pizza

homemade pesto, avocado, gouda, onion and tomado pizza

I made this pizza last night and it was a winner.  After deciding we would have pizza for dinner, I discovered that I'd left the cookie sheet I usually make pizza in at Joe's house. Undaunted and unwilling to abandon our pizza plans, I improvised by using two 8" cake rounds.  While the sauce can get a little runny and spill over into unused parts of the pan, the pizzas turned out well and I'd use the method again.  Without further ado, here's what you need to make one pizza like the one pictured above:

1/2 package whole dough
3-4 tbsp of pesto
1 1/2 slices of gouda cheese (ripped into small pieces)
1/4 c red onion (chopped)
1/3 large tomato (chopped)
1/2 a medium-sized avocado (chopped)
measurements are approximate as I eyeballed all ingredients.  Adujust as it suits your fancy.



pizza described in this post is baking on the right

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press dough into 8" cake pan, making sure it is evenly distributed throughout the pan.  Spread pesto over dough.  Add ripped slices of gouda cheese, red onion, tomato and avocado as desired.  Bake pizza for 13-15 minutes.  Gouda will not melt completely.  Enjoy!

lip-smacking good: red velvet cheesecake mousse in chocolate cups

I am always looking for delicious, party-friendly recipes that have big impact but can be made quickly and easily.  This red-velvet cheesecake mousse fulfills all of this criteria.  I made some for Diane's Baby Shower and had several guests ask me for the recipe. What's more, all of the mousse cups were gone by the end of the shower.  My modifications to this recipe appear below:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c soymilk
1 box cheesecake flavored instant pudding mix
1/2 c red velvet cake mix
3/4 small tub cool whip
1 bag chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Combine soymilk and pudding mix in medium bowl.
2. Mix in cake mix.
3. Fold in cool whip and use hand mixer to incorporate thoroughly.
4. Melt chocolate in microwave and pour into rounded cup mold.
5. Freeze molds until chocolate becomes hard (15-20 minutes).
6. Pop out chocolate from molds and spoon mousse into cups (you can use icing decorating tool instead of spoon if you prefer)

lip-smackin' good: baseball cookie pops

I made these cookie pops last month for a baseball-themed birthday party.  They were part of a goodie bag that each guest received.  The cookies were a hit, and if you read on, you can make them easily.

Ingredients

- cookie dough (I really like this recipe)

- lollipop sticks

- frosting (if you want to make your own, this one is easy and delicious. I used it here.)

- food coloring

- small, clear plastic bags--to wrap the cookie pops and for icing piping purposes (say that 5 times fast!)

- ribbon

Directions

1. Preheat oven 

2. Form 1/2 inch balls of dough. 

3. Spear the dough with your lollipop stick, so that the top of the stick is at the center of the dough ball. 

4. Place the uncooked pop on a cookie sheet.  The dough ball will cook into a circle.

5. Most sugar cookies bake for 8-10 minutes. 

6. Let cookies cool.  

7. Spread white icing onto the cookie pops, forming a circle out of icing on the top of each cookie.

8. Mix red food coloring and a small portion of your icing in a small bowl. 

9. Scoop icing into clear plastic bag and cut the tip of one of the bag's bottom corners.

10. Draw the stitching on each of the cookies, using the red icing.

11. Repeat steps 8 & 9, using black icing. 

12.  Write your message on each of the baseballs, using the black icing.

13.  Let icing on cookies harden a bit before wrapping each cookie in a small, clear plastic bag.

14.  Tie each of the bags to the lollipop sticks using ribbon.

15.  Share and enjoy your baseball cookie pops!

I make mistakes so you don't have to:

My first attempt at these pops resulted in gargantuan cookie pops that expanded almost exponentially in the oven and stuck to each other.  lovely.  My advice is to stick to the 1/2 inch balls of dough and increase incrementally if you want bigger pops.  I also painstackingly rolled out the dough and used circular cookie cutters.  While this did eventually result in small and proportional cookies, it is kind of bothersome and unnecessary if you're just going to make a simple circle shape.  The dough ball method works. I have subsequently tried it, and the cookie pops look just as round as the ones I made using cookie cutters.

quick, fresh, inexpensive lunch for work: part 2

If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm a fan of making pizza.  Up until a few weeks ago, I stuck to making large pizzas.  But, in an attempt to bring my lunch to the office more often, I decided to try my hand at mini pizzas.  I love that you can make a variety of pizzas, bake them and the refrigerate them for future lunches.

Below you can find the ingredients and instructions to make two of my favorite mini pizzas to date.

The Mango & Gouda, Pizza

To make one mini pizza you need:

1/8 bag Pizza dough (I use pre-made whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's)
1 Tbsp Pesto
1/2 slice Gouda Cheese
3 Mango chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out dough into small circle.  Spread pesto on the dough, Tear Gouda into small pieces and place over the pesto.  Add three Mango chunks.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

The Tahini-Pesto Pizza

To make one mini pizza you need:

1/8 bag Pizza dough (Premade whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's is great)
2 tsp Pesto
2 tsp Tahini spread
1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese
4-6 pepper slices
4-6 onion slices

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out dough into small circle. Combine pesto and tahini and spread on the dough.  Cover dough with cheese and add red pepper  and onion slices.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Do you have a favorite type of homemade pizza?

you can read about how to make quick quesadillas for lunch in part one of this series here.

lip-smacking good: st louis cardinal's yellow cake with buttercream frosting

Cardinal's cake

Last month I made a mini yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  I wanted to decorate it with the St. Louis Cardinals logo, as those who would be eating it are mega fans.  The cake was for a small gathering and there was a larger get-together later in the week.  So, making a smaller cake allowed leftover batter, which I used to make cupcakes for the larger gathering.

In my search for the perfect yellow cake recipe, I came across Smitten Kitchen's tried and true recipe, which she swears by.  Having used her recipes before with much success, it was clear this was the recipe I would use.  She also had a recipe for buttercream frosting, which I'm sure is amazing, but looked a little too involved for this baking novice.  So I opted for a much simpler recipe that was tasty to boot.

red kiss-like stars surrounded the base and the top of the cake

I tried several strategies to put a Cardinal on top of the cake.  I had read about the royal icing transfer method of getting images onto desserts and thought I would tweak that method using chocolate instead of icing, since I like the taste better.  I printed out a picture of the Cardinal's logo and covered it with parchment paper.  Then I traced the cardinal with melted chocolate in a piping bag, and filled the Cardinal in with the remaining chocolate.  I then placed the chocolate bird in the freezer to harden overnight.  Unfortunately, the bird came off in pieces and was unusable. 

I also experimented with free-handing on a piece of paper, thinking that if I could produce a  good enough likeness, I could freehand the Cardinal onto the cake.  That didn't work so well either. 

after several attempts, I get the logo on the cake

I remembered I had a cookie cutter with the cardinal logo on it.  The cookie cutter was circular and left a raised logo in each cookie.  I first tried filling it with melted chocolate in hopes I would get a chocolate medallion out that I could trace over with colored frosting or dyed chocolate.  The chocolate also came off in pieces once frozen.  Bummer!

So, I finally decided I would frost the cake, and when the icing had hardened a bit, I pressed the cookie cutter into the cake and held in in place for about a minute.  Then I carefully lifted the cookie cutter off the icing.  The cookie cutter made an impression of the logo on the icing, which I was able to trace with colored frosting. Then I used a small, star-shaped nozzle to decorate the cake with red frosting stars.

making a smaller cake means you can make cupcakes from the extra batter

The cake was moist and had a great frosting to cake ratio.  I would recommend doubling the frosting recipe if you want enough frosting for the cake and cupcakes.  I used two 6" round pans to make the cake and was able to make 16 additional full-size cupcakes.

Happy baking!

lip-smacking good: stuffed lemon cupcakes

Last week, my friend Sarah and I made some amazing cupcakes.  Knowing my love of all things cupcakes, and stuffed muffins, my mom gave me a gaget from Crate and Barrel that removes part of the innards of your cupcake or muffin, enabling it to be stuffed with frosting (or jam, peanut butter, nutella, marshmallow fluff, etc).  Eager to try this out, I suggested to Sarah that we make stuffed lemon cupcakes.  Andshe indulged me.  This is not really a recipe persay since we used yellow cake mix and store-bought frosting, but it lives up to its lip-smacking good title.

the goods

1 lemon cake mix & extra ingredients to make lemon cake as described on box
1 container vanilla frosting
1 orange 1/2 c orange juice

the tools

a zester or zesting-like tool
ziplock bag for frosting dispensement or fancy frosting tools
cupcake innards removal tool (could probably use a knife)

the directions

mix lemon cake batter as described on box, and pour into regular sized cupcake tray.

bake lemon cupcakes and let cool. while cupcakes bake, zest the orange. combine 1/3 container of frosting, 1/2 orange juice and orange zest to make the cupcake filling.  add more orange juice or frosting to get the right orange intensity.

remove part of the cupcake innards.  to do this, use your knife to make a small circle in the middle of the cupcake and remove a depth of 1/3 of the cupcake in the circle. 

pour the cupcake filling into each cupcake.

frost the cupcakes with the remainder of the frosting.  if your filling was extra goopy, refrigerating the cupcakes for a bit helps make eating them less messy.

enjoy!

lip-smacking good: sundried tomato, pepper and avocado pizza



pizza toppings

 On Friday night, I made pizza for a low-key evening in.  I've talked about how much I like Trader Joe's pizza dough before, and Fridaywas no exception.  Follow these easy steps for a quick, delicious and fairly healthy pizza of your own.

the goods

pizza dough (if you a few hours of prep time and you want to make your own, here is a good recipe for you)
marinara sauce (for those who have more time, this sauce has gotten great reviews)
3 small peppers
1 small avocado
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
12 slices pepperoni (enough to put on half the pizza if you have a meat-loving guest or counterpart)
2 cups shredded and blended cheddar and mozzerella cheese
pizza stone or baking sheet

i left pepperonis off my half and sundried tomaotoes off his half

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. If using a baking sheet, lightly oil the sheet and edges.
3. Roll the dough onto your pizza stone or baking sheet.
4. Spread your marinara sauce evenly over the dough.
5. Sprinkle the cheese over the dough.
6.  Slice peppers and avocado.
7. Place peppers, avocado, sundried tomatoes and pepperoni on pizza.
8. Bake for 11-13 minutes.

I happen to know that the pizza is also great the next day

Enjoy!

lip-smacking good: vegan carrot cake cupcakes

Carrot Cake Cupcake Chickadees

One of my favorite desserts to make is carrot cake.  I have a recipe passed down to me from my mom, who got it from my grandmother.  It is, hands down, the best carrot cake I've ever had and it never ceases to receive compliments from everyone.

I'm trying to use fewer dairy products in my baking and when I eat at home, and I wanted to attempt a healthier version of the cake and cream cheese frosting so I modified the recipe in several ways to create vegan carrot cake cupcakes for Easter this year.  While the frosting was a little less fluffy than it's non-vegan counterpart, it tasted as good and everyone was surprised when I told them (after they ate a few cupcakes) that the recipe was vegan.

cake ingredients:

1 and 1/2 C wheat flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup agave nectar (substituted for 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar)
3 tbsp whole ground flaxseed
7 tbsp water
1 and 1/8 C vegetable oil
1 and 1/2 C grated carrot (finely as possible)
8 and 1/4 oz can pineapple
3/4 C chopped walnuts

frosting ingredients

8 tbsp vegan butter or margerine (softened)
1 8 oz pack of vegan cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut (optional)
yellow, green and orange food coloring

To make the cake:
Mix first 5 ingredients well with mixer.
In a separate small bowl, combine flaxseed and water and stir until the mixture starts to have an egg-like consistency. 
Add flaxseed mixture and remaining ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well with spoon.
Oil cake pans and bake at 350 for approx 35 - 40 min (less time for mini muffins - check after about 20 minutes)

To make the frosting:

Mix together well with mixer.
For extra frosting to cake ratio, do one and a half this frosting recipe and you'll have plenty for the cake and some leftover :)

Enjoy!

lip-smacking good: avocado pie

avocado pie!

My friend and I got together last night for a baking extravaganza of sorts.  I'd been itching to make avocado pie since I'd found a recipe for it, so we decided to make two--one for each of our families.  This recipe couldn't be more quick or easy.  And the results were very good!  It's the perfect desert for Spring and Summer nights.


avocado/milk/lime juice blended

the goods

filling:
2 avocados
1/2 container of sweetened condensed milk ( or make your own sweetened condensed soy milk to make it vegan)
1/4 cup lime juice
3 strawberries (optional, for garnish)

crust:
20 graham crackers
3/4 c margarine (or 3/4 c vegan margarine)

directions

dice avocados and put in blender with condensed milk and lime juice. 
blend for 20 seconds

crumble graham crackers (food processor is the best for this).
in a mixing bowl, use a fork or your fingers to mix margarine with graham cracker crumbs.
in a pie dish/pan, use your hands to form a graham cracker crust.

pour avocado/milk/lime mixture into graham cracker crust and spread evenly over the crust. 
garnish with strawberries.
chill overnight.



pre-garnish



My friend and I met this morning to taste our culinary creation.  While I would recommend it more for dessert than breakfast, we both really enjoyed the slices we had.  You an taste a hint of avocado in the tangy pie, but it is not overwhelming at all.  Reminded me of a much milder key lime pie.

lip-smacking good: brownies

photo via

Ever since I heard about the wonders of flaxseed, and its ability to serve as a good egg substitute from one of my veggie friends, I've been wanting to try baking with it.  Despite my love of fried-egg sandwiches and baked goods, I frequently find myself throwing out eggs that have expired.  Flaxseed has a longer shelf life than eggs, and I am trying to minimize the amount of dairy I consume at home (so far I've eliminated milk from my refrigerator).  I loosely followed the recipe below, substituting flaxseed and for eggs.  For

The goods

• Soft butter, for greasing the pan
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, whisked with 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 8 ounces melted butter (or 3/4 cup of vegetable oil if you want to make vegan brownies)
• 11/4 cups cocoa,
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 

photo via

The method

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter an 9-inch round pan.

Use a whisk to beat the flaxseed and water in a medium bowl.

Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until done.
Remove to a rack and cut into squares once cool.

The brownies were delicious and no one was the wiser about my flaxseed experiment.  I will definitely be using flaxseed in baking from now on, although I might have to keep a few eggs around since I'm guessing a fried flaxseed sandwich just wont do it for me.

lip-smacking good: crab-stuffed potatoes

my crab stuffed potatoes

This weekend, I was invited to a Mardi Gras-themed barbeque.  In preparation, I scoured the internet for appropriately-themed recipes, finally settling on cajun crab-stuffed potatoes.  The picture caught my eye, and then the ingredients list sold me.  I tweaked the recipe a bit because I wanted to make a lot of little potatoes, since it served the needs of the party better.

I used small red potatoes to make bite-sized appetizers

The goods

• 8 small baking potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup half-and-half cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions or chives
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 can (6-1/2 ounces) crabmeat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed or 1 package (8 ounces) imitation crabmeat, cut up
• Paprika

the potato innerds and all the fixin's

To make

 Nom, nom, nom.  I will definitely be making these babies again!  Enjoy!

• Bake potatoes at 425° for 45-55 minutes or until tender.
• When cool enough to handle, halve potatoes lengthwise.
• Carefully scoop out pulp into a bowl, leaving a thin shell. Set shells aside.
• Beat or mash potato pulp with butter, cream, salt and pepper until smooth.
• Using a fork, stir in onions or chives and cheese. Gently mix in crab.
• Stuff shells. Sprinkle with paprika.
• Return to the oven for 15 minutes or until heated through. 

lip-smacking good: red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes in some adorable silicone footed cups given to me by a coworker

Red Velvet Cake is one of my favorite desserts.  I realize its just chocolate cake with red food dye, but there's a quality about it, a je ne c'est quoi feel to red velvet that sets it apart from chocolate cake.  It could be, too, that the cream cheese frosting helps a bit.

A while ago, I decided to try my hand at red velvet cake from scratch, and also made my own cream cheese frosting (a 3rd generation, no fail frosting recipe that will have people talking for weeks).  I've also made this frosting when baking sugar cookies and carrot cake.

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart to make the red velvet cake, and ended up making regular and bite-sized cupcakes.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

Then, to make the frosting:

1 stick butter (softened)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 C coconut (optional.  makes it harder to dye the icing, and some people are not huge fans of coconut.  the frosting is delicious either way)
 

Mix together well with mixer. For extra frosting to cake ratio, do one and a half this frosting recipe and you'll have plenty for the cake and some leftover (for spreading on graham crackers, regular crackers, sugar cookies, fruit, cardboard, or eating by the spoonful).  I decided to color some of the frosting using some neon pink food coloring I got from the grocery store.  Happy baking!

lip-smacking good: sharp cheddar and sparkling apple cider fondue

sharp cheddar and sparkling apple juice fondue with bread, apples and peppers for dipping

I love me some fondue.  When my parents got a fondue pot several years ago, my mom set to work making delicious cheese and chocolate recipes and I was hooked.  Fondue combines my preference for sampling little bits of several things (or, in this case, a little cheese or chocolate on several things), with the urge I often get to dip my food in something (cookies in milk, bread in soup, donuts in coffee).  And that's not even to mention the fun parties you can have with fondue on the menu.  There's something intimate and fun about sharing stories over a pot of melted cheese.  There are even games you can play while eating fondue.  One I know of involves anyone who loses their bread, apple, brocolli in the fondue must tell an embarrassing story about themselves on the spot.  Have I sold you yet?

My mom and I got so good at making fondue, that we believe our recipes rival the Melting Pot.  Lest you think I'm a total braggart, our opinion has been echoed by friends and strangers alike.  So when I found out about the Crafty Pinterest Potluck happening in my city at the Upcycle Exchange this Friday, I knew I had to come with fondue.  My go-to cheese fondue recipe is a sharp cheddar and sparkling apple cider fondue.  It calls for a pinch of nutmeg, too which really sends it over the top in my book.  Without further ado or fanfare, here is the recipe.

the goods
4 C sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 T cornstarch
1 C sparkling apple cider
1/4 C lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
bread, granny smith apples, peppers, and any other vegetables or fruits for dipping
 directions
1) combine the cheese and cornstarch in a medium bowl
2) place your fondue pot on the burner and turn the heat to medium
3) add the apple cider and lemon juice to the fondue pot and stir together
4) wait a few minutes for the liquids in the pot to warm
5) begin to add your cheese/cornstarch mixture to the fondue pot in handfuls, stirring as you go
6) as the cheese in the pot begins to melt, add more until you've reached the bottom of the bowl
7) during this time, you can also be cutting up the bread, apples, etc you'll be using for dipping
8) stir in salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
9) turn the burner to med/lo
10) at this point you can either dish the cheese into individual bowls or take the fondue pot to the table and place a tea light under it to keep the fondue warm

enjoy!

lip-smacking good: cake pop edition

my 2nd attempt at cake pops. strawberry cake with strawberry icing, dipped in white chocolate.

Ok, so this feels like cheating a little bit, since there isn't much of a recipe to follow, but these were delicious and so fun to make.  No question, I am a cake-pop convert.  There are cake pop recipes all over the Internet, so I won't post one here, but I will say that the sure-fire way to get the cake balls to stay on the lollipop sticks is to dip them in melted chocolate first.  Then, push the melted part of the stick 3/4 of the way into the cake ball.  Some of the melted chocolate will ooze out of the cake ball and form a circle around the base of the cake ball.  This is fine, and helps anchor the cake ball on the stick.  It also helps to refrigerate the balls for a little while before dipping them into the melted chocolate.  Either way though, the cake pops should stay on the stick when submerged in the chocolate.  And a little chocolate goes a long way.  Also, if you decide you want to embellish your cake pop with sprinkles and such, make sure to do this right after dipping, as the sprinkles will not stick to hardened chocolate.

Good luck on your cake pop adventures.  Have you ever made them?  Any advice you have that I neglected to mention?

lip-smacking good: part 2: asparagus and strawberry salad

I'm the kind of person who likes to have a lot going on in their salad.  Not just some measely mixed greens and dressing, ok?  Maybe its the vegetarian (ok technically, pescevarian, but that sounds so pretentious, so I stick to identifying myself as a vegetarian who eats the occassional fish) in me, but I often eat salads as a meal and so the more veggies and fruits and other interesting things I can mix in, the better.  I made this salad the other night and really liked how it turned out.

The Goods:

half bag of mixed greens

8 golden grape tomatoes

6 strawberries

1 avocado

8 asparagus shoots

2 tsp olive oil

a handfull of parmesean

salt and pepper to taste

your favorite dressing (I usually default to caesar of some sort, but a fruity dressing would work well, too)

optional: meat or fish of your choice.  I chose ahi tuna steak from Trader's the other night.  You will want marinade or bbq sauce if you go this route.

Directions:

Marinate the tuna in a teryaki marinade.  This works best if you do it overnight, or at least make it the first step and grill the tuna last.  I did not have the foresight to marinade overnight, so I just poured a liberal amount of bbq sauce on the tuna after grilling.  Tasted fine to me, though I'm sure it would be better having marinated.

Slice your asparagus shoots in half and dip into the olive oil.  Place asparagus on the grill for several minutes, rotating to ensure they grill evenly.  I use my George Foreman for this, and it grills my asparagus to perfection.

Cut up your tomatoes, strawberries and avocado.  Toss with mixed greens in large salad bowl.  Add asparagus, dressing and salt and pepper.

Grill your tuna for about 6 minutes to make it medium-rare.  Add bbq sauce to taste.

Enjoy with parmesean bread!

lip-smacking good: part 1: parmesean bread

This is part one of a super easy, but delicious dinner you can make in no time flat, using a few ingredients.  Joe and I made this meal a few nights ago and were kind of pleased with ourselves. 

First up, parmesean bread. Props to you if you make your own bread, but I don't have a breadmaker.  I do, however, love me some bread, especially when I'm having soup or salad.  I also made this bread back when I made clam chowder, and got compliments on it then as well.

Several years ago, I came up with this recipe/assembly for parmesean bread:

The Goods:
a loaf of bread (any kind, but I prefer whole grain bread in slices)
a few tsp. olive oil or some butter to lather the bread in
two roma tomatoes or several golden grape tomatoes
1/2 c parmesean (can use the powdery kind, but I prefer the long slices.  Can get a parmesean blend at Trader's that is excellent)
oregano to taste

Directions:

Place the desired amount of bread onto a cookie sheet.  Spread butter or olive oil on bread.

Sprinkle parmesean on top.  Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the parmesean.  Place the cookie sheet on the top shelf of the oven and broil for under two minutes.

full disclosure: this is what happens when you leave the bread under the broiler a little too long.  a rookie mistake!

Watch carefully, as the broil setting is very hot on the oven and can cause the bread to go from not quite done to very overdone in a matter of seconds.

second, much more successful attempt, pictured with an asparagus and strawberry salad

Remove from oven, plate and serve.  Next up, the asparagus and strawberry salad.

lip-smacking good: clam chowder edition

photo via

Last week, I made some clam chowder for a friend.  He recently got divorced and everything about the man screams, "I haven't had a homecooked meal since my ex-wife moved out."  I took pity on him and found a recipe that made plenty so there would be leftovers for him for the week.  When I say I am a newbie to cooking, I mean I learned to boil water after college.  I believe measuring cups are over-rated and I've been accused of being a less-than-precise vegetable chopper.  If I can make this recipe, anyone can.  I got the recipe off of AllRecipes.com, where a woman posted it under the psuedomyn of Pioneer Woman.  Chad, the undernourished and newly single man cub, is going through somewhat of a pioneer period himself.  A clean slate, a new beginning.  Perfect, I thought.  And the recipe had 5 1/2 stars/ 6 to boot.
                
My Best Clam Chowder Recipe

Ingredients
3 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams
1 cup minced onion
1 cup diced celery
2 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup diced carrots
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 quart half-and-half cream
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Drain juice from clams into a large skillet over the onions, celery, potatoes and carrots. Add water to cover, and cook over medium heat until tender.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in cream and stir constantly until thick and smooth. Stir in vegetables and clam juice. Heat through, but do not boil.
Stir in clams just before serving. If they cook too much they get tough. When clams are heated through, stir in vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

 A few things to note about the recipe. 
 *You only need one potato.  I wasnt sure what two cups of cubed potatos looks like, so I liberally purchased three. 
*The recipe also calls for half and half, but I discovered, upon arriving to Chad's house, that the half and half I'd brought from my own kitchen had expired in October (another giveaway to my rookie-cook status).  So we ended up using whole milk instead.  I couldn't imagine having the chowder turn out too much creamier, so I would go the less fattening, whole milk route instead of the half and half. 
*When the recipe says wait until just before you are ready to serve before adding the clams, it means, wait until just before you are ready to serve before adding the clams. Otherwise the clams get chewy and rubbery.  Enough said.

All in all, I was pleased with how the chowder turned out.  I made a simple avocado, tomato and arugula salad and some parmeasan bread (super easy and delicious recipe to follow at some date). 

After dinner, Chad and I roasted marshmallows in his fireplace.  he didnt have any big ones, so we loaded the mini ones onto skewers and used his large metal fireplace tongs to hold the skewers to the flames (did I mention that Chad is an engineer?)

The perfect end to a home-cooked meal.