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Monthly Archives: March 2017
Today I want to share with you a delicious Irish Freckle Bread recipe just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. This hearty whole wheat bread (or should I dare call it a fruit cake?) is chock full of flavor and delicious fruits – raisins, cranberries, currants, prunes, and dates. Moist and dense, you would think a little goes a long way – which it does – but it is also addicting; you just have to have a second slice! I found this recipe on the King Arthur flour website and loved its simplicity, but made some changes of my own. So here’s my take on this tasty Irish breakfast bread. Give it a try and you’ll agree… this tasty treat should…
Tonight I decided to perform a different type of mash-up. This one is doing a Creole flavored fried rice cooked like an Asian fried rice. As many of you know, gumbo is served over rice, jambalaya is everything cooked together, etc so I thought “Why not do an Asian fried rice with Creole seasonings and such?’. Hot country sausage, the trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery), long grain rice, Tabasco, and Creole seasoning replace chicken, broccoli, soy sauce, etc. The results were, if I say so myself, fabulous. If you enjoy Cajun and Creole cooking, this is a recipe I suggest you try. It’s easy and it’s a whole lot of flavor. Can you hear the zydeco playing already? Save Print Creole…
It has been a while since I did a breakfast post, so today I am rectifying that oversight. These banana pancakes are simple to make and very tasty. The subtle sweetness and light banana flavor fires on all cylinders. I paired these with a butter pecan syrup for a wonderful flavor combination and I bet these would sing just as well with honey or a light maple syrup. And the best part, this recipe makes a single stack of pancakes – just enough for one – which means you can skip the breakfast diner and enjoy a tasty breakfast in the comfort of your home! Save Print Banana Pancakes Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 15 mins Serves: 1  …
Pasta. Tonight I wanted pasta and fresh (ok, store bought ‘fresh’) tortellini just fit the bill. This recipe is one of my go-to recipes when I don’t really feel like cooking. And with this cold/flu/lingering death making me miserable, I can say I honestly did not feel like cooking tonight. But I needed to eat, so here we are. I hope you feel like cooking tonight… and perhaps you will make this easy and tasty pasta dish! Save Print Tortellini with Prosciutto and Asparagus Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Serves: 1 Ingredients 1½ oz sliced prosciutto, cut into strips 8 oz asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into…
Well, I jinxed myself. I was thinking last Sunday that I had gone through this whole winter without having been sick once. No flu. No cold. No sniffles, sneezing, coughing, or runny nose. I was feeling glorious… until Tuesday evening when my throat felt raw, the sneezing began, and that was the beginning of the end. But this unfortunate malady makes this week’s Friday cocktail all the more relevant. One tinted with the fond memories of childhood. Yes, I said it. We were given hot toddies as children when we were sick. So what’s the big deal? It worked to help us feel better and get better. And tonight, this drink is on deck because I need it. It’s a double…
Today I had planned to make a Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup (based on the recipe available on the America’s Test Kitchen website). Well, sizing recipes down can be challenging and I hit one today. I ended up with what was more like a pilaf then a soup. So I figured if I have pilaf I better make something to go with it. I had a flatiron steak in the refrigerator I was planning on cooking sous vide with a healthy number of spices, so I made it a double experiment day. And guess what? Both experiments may not have been exactly what I was shooting for, they were very tasty parts of this meal. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good! Enjoy the…
Winter is still gripping the Pacific Northwest and this means perfect weather for using the oven for a lengthy roast like a beef roast. I am sure many of us remember growing up with the weekly beef roast dinner. Perhaps is was a beef chuck roast cooked in a liquid paired with potatoes and a green salad. It sounds very boring compared to the meals we enjoy now, but there is beauty in this simplicity. But let’s face it… the typical beef roast is way too much for one person. And given that one of the driving factors for this blog is to show you how to make meals without having to ‘enjoy’ it for seven days straight, this meal was just begging…
Today I made something new. Something I found online that piqued my curiosity. Something based on a friend’s request for dishes with lentils. This recipe is all about happy coincidences. Recently, I received an update from Suzy’s The Mediterranean Dish blog which included her Koshari recipe. I was very intrigued by her description of this Egyptian street food dish and wanted to try it. I had the added incentive of helping my friend out with his request for dishes with lentils. So I dove in. Well, I will not lie, this dish is involved. There is nothing very complicated, just many elements cooked simultaneously. That is always a fun challenge and I understand why since we are building layers of flavors and textures. Of…
Tonight’s cocktail is a variation of Jessica Torres‘ Twist of Fate at the blog OneMartini – a wonderful cocktail pairing blood orange and rye. My tweak was to start with a basic Manhattan (rye and sweet vermouth) and substitute some of the vermouth with Aperol and blood orange juice. The result is a dusky hued drink with spicy, sweet, citrus, and herbal flavors with a most pleasing fragrance. So let’s take advantage of blood orange season and make a cocktail or two with this delicious fruit. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the unique flavor it brings to the party. And thanks for the inspiration Jessica! Save Print Twist of Fate Prep time: 5 mins Total time: 5 mins…
Here we are, one month after good old Punxsutawney Phil poked his head out of his burrow and saw his shadow. And as superstition/tradition would have it, we have ‘enjoyed’ four more weeks of winter with two more to go. So I decided why not ‘enjoy’ a soup made with a forgotten and ignored root vegetable – the parsnip. I recently cooked with parsnips in the Bableves Kolbasszal recipe and I thought, why not make some other dishes with this reliable and flavorful vegetable. First up, a roasted parsnip soup. To be exact, it is a roasted parsnip and carrot soup. When roasted, both of these vegetables become sweeter – which is good – and that sweetness allows us to pair it with…