Eggs of the Devil?!

I'm planning what I hope will be a yearly Tea Party. My menu includes a recipe for Deviled Eggs that I found on Martha Stewart's website.

Since today is the day after The Big Snow, I don't have several ingredients so I made some substitutions and it turned out pretty well.

6 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and halved lengthwise.
1/4 cup light mayonaise
1 shallow tbsp McMenamins Terminator Stout Stone-Ground Mustard
1 1/2 tbsp finely minced white onion
1 twist of ground black pepper
1 shake of paprika
1 tbsp Homeward Bound Sparkplug Hot Sauce
a sprinkling of kosher salt

Combine yolks with remainder of ingredients and spoon or pipe into the egg-white.



Nom.

Pineapple-Cheese Casserole

A very southern thing...

Layer in order:

Large can chunk pineapple, drained (save the juice)
3/4 cup sugar and 5 Tbsp. flour--mix well and sprinkle over pineapple
dash about 5 Tbsp. juice over sugar/flour mixture
add 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
1 tube crushed Ritz crackers
melt about 1/2 stick of butter and pour over crackers

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Thanksgiving 2009

This year's menu:
Turkey
Turkey gravy
Quadruple-Bypass Mashed Potatoes
Walt's Mushroom-Wine Gravy
Jalapeno-Cheese Cornbread
Dressing
Corn Casserole
Pineapple-Cheese Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Buttermilk Pie
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Katie's Jalapeno Dip

Scott and I made the turkey, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, cornbread, jalapeno dip and cheesecake - the other offerings were made by friends that attended our dinner celebration.

Our turkey was 16 lbs. and Scott baked it with rosemary under the skin.

The Mushroom-Wine Gravy is a repeat from last year, an adaptation of my Uncle Walt's recipe. I didn't quite do things in the right order this year, but it was still quite tasty and we have lots of leftovers!

Quadruple-Bypass Mashed Potatoes
(so named because there are four heart-stopping additions to the potatoes - butter, goat cheese, cream cheese and sour cream)

I based my quantities on enough for 8 people - calculated at one and a half potatoes per person.

12 Idaho baking potatoes
11oz log of goat cheese
6oz sour cream
8oz butter
1 pkg cream cheese (I used neufchatel)
Salt to taste

Set butter, cream cheese and goat cheese out to soften.

Rinse and peel potatoes, dice into 1.5 inch cubes and place in large cook-pot. Add just enough water to cover and boil on med-high until potatoes are soft when poked with a fork.

Drain potatoes in a strainer and transfer to VERY large mixing bowl. Add softened butter, goat cheese and neufchatel or cream cheese. Mix with hand mixer just until blended. Add sour cream and mix again just until combined. Salt to taste.

This made a HUGE bowl of mashed potatoes, but they were GONE by the end of the day.

Death Valley Couscous and Chicken

These are the foods we invent when obvious recipes with traditional ingredients evade us. This is SUPER easy to make, and will provide you with tasty leftovers for days. Now, you can make this dish as spicy as you'd like... and you KNOW I did. Here's what you'll need:

2 cups of Couscous (uncooked)
1 onion (thinly diced)
1 can of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (diced 1/2 inch cubes)
1/4 cup dry parsley flakes (use fresh if you can)
1/4 teaspoon of Cumin, Onion Salt, Cajun Seasoning, Table Salt and Pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup of SparkPlug

Easiest step first... make the Couscous by boiling 2 cups of water in a large saucepan. Once at a boil, pour couscous in water and stir, stir, stir. Cover and remove from heat. You're done with this part until the end.

Next, saute one diced onion in a tablespoon of olive oil. After about 5 minutes throw the chicken in with the onions. Stir fry for a while. Don't worry if the chicken sweats a bunch and the sauteed mix seems to be drowning. That extra moisture will be necessary later. Feel free to add all our spices in with the saute.

While you're sauteing, make sure to stir often to get the chicken evenly cooked. You can also open that can of diced tomatoes and chilies, drain and dump into the couscous. Don't worry if a little water from the can gets in there. The couscous is pretty dry and will need a little moisture.

Lastly, throw the saute mixture in with the couscous and tomatoes. Stir it up well. The extra moisture from the saute helps loosen up the couscous and maxes everything mix much more evenly. Now, add your hot sauce and, again, stir thoroughly. I call for a lot of hot sauce. I enjoy the heat as well as the added moisture. Feel free to use less if you like.

I liked this dish because it satisfied my "pasta" craving without committing me to making a strainer full of spaghetti. Also, tons of poultry-based proteins. Don't forget there's about 4 servings of vegetables in there. Works well as a side or an entree! Feel free to let me know how your version turned out!

A Little Bit Healthy Pizza

1 "Mama Mary's" Whole Wheat thin pizza crust (pkg comes with two)
1 tbsp rosemary infused olive oil
2 tbsp grated parmesan & romano cheese, divided
1/2 cup shredded cheese (whatever you like, fat-full or fat-free)
15-20 leaves of basil, chiffonade
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
5 or 6 marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 Roma tomato, sliced
salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450F

Spread olive oil on crust evenly, all the way to the edges. Sprinkle garlic evenly over crust, then add basil strips.

Sprinkle on half of the parmesan/romano cheese. Sprinkle on salt (I use about 1/4 tsp of kosher salt, but I like things salty) and a couple of twists of pepper.

Add mushrooms, artichoke hearts and shredded cheese, then the other half of the parmesan/romano.

Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven. Slice tomato over top and NOM. :)

Not Quite Chicken Piccatta

I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist and therefore, vegetarian. In high school I made a few dalliances into the meat stall of the cuisine arena, but ultimately decided that I don't really enjoy eating meat, so I don't.

Another result of being raised SDA is that instead of meat we ate vege-meat. Some of my favorites were stripples, big franks and fri-chik. The main brands when I was growing up were Loma Linda and Worthington. Interestingly, Worthington was purchased by Morningstar Farms, then purchased by Kellogg, who also now owns Boca. Seems the vege-meat world is smaller and smaller all the time.

I've enjoyed the sauce on a few chicken piccatta recipies and decided tonight to make use of what we have in the cabinet: Cous-cous, Fri-Chik, and a few mushrooms in the fridge.

Here's what I came up with.


Fri-Chik Piccatta

1 cups water
1 tsp butter equivalent (I use Smart Balance)
Sprinkle of salt
Bring to a boil
Add 1 cup cous-cous, stir, remove from heat
Let sit 4-5 min, fluff with a fork


In a medium sauté pan, melt 1 tsp butter equivalent
Add 8 oz sliced white mushrooms
Sauté 2 to 3 minutes
Add 4-6 fri chik, sliced
Once mushrooms are soft and fri-chik is heated through, remove fri-chik pieces from pan and set aside.


For Sauce:

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 small sprig rosemary, finely chopped
8-10 leaves basil, chiffonade
½ tsp chopped fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 ½ cups fri-chik juice
½ cup water
3 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water
Salt & Pepper to taste

In mushroom pan add garlic & herbs, fri-chik juice, water & 2 tbs lemon juice, set to med-hi and reduce by 1/3. Add remainder of lemon juice, add cornstarch/water, salt & pepper to taste.

Plate ½ cup cous cous, add 2-3 slices of fri-chik, spoon sauce over.

Easy Cornbread

This recipe was adapted from a Pancetta Corn-Muffin recipe in a book called "Muffins-40 Tantalizing Recipes for Tasty Muffins" that I got as a 3 for $10 deal at a Walgreens in Key West.

Since I'm not so much into Pancetta and needed a basic cornbread recipe but lost the one I had developed, I decided to try the recipe without pancetta and baked in a pan.

I have to say, it's easy and tasty. I've also added green chilies and shredded cheddar to the recipe in the past to great laudation from my husband.



Makes an 8x8 pan of cornbread.

Preheat oven to 400F.

• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 2/3 cup fine cornmeal
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3.5oz/100g butter, melted (I used our kitchen scale and substituted Smart Balance Light for the butter)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/4 cups milk

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, stir in cornmeal and sugar. In a separate bowl, melt the butter, let cool a little and stir in the milk. Add beaten eggs slowly so they don't scramble.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir just until blended.

Spray 8x8 baking pan (I use an olive oil cooking spray) and pour in batter.

Bake for 30 minutes on center rack. Cornbread is done when knife or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.