Southwest Tart

Crust:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups veggie or chicken broth
1/2 small onion, diced
1 T oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans or almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 can green chilies
1/4 cup low-fat, shredded Mexican or pepper-jack cheese
1 egg

Filling:
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup low-fat, shredded Mexican or pepper-jack cheese
1 med. onion
1 med. bell pepper
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup black beans
1 cup baby spinach leaves
pinch cumin
pinch cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

To Prepare Crust:

1) Bring broth, oil and onion to boil.  Add rice and chili powder, cook according to instructions on package.

2) When rice is finished cooking add green chilies, nuts, cheese and egg.  Mix well.

3) Grease or Pam 9-inch pie pan.  Dump rice mixture into pie pan and press into bottom and sides.

4) Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and increase heat to 400 degrees.

To Prepare Filling:

1) Saute onion and bell pepper over med heat until onion starts to brown.  Add corn kernels, black beans, cumin, cayenne and salt and pepper to taste.  Warm through.

2) In bowl beat eggs and milk together.

3) Starting with spinach layer half each of the spinach, cheese, onion mixture and egg mixture.  Repeat layering procedure using remaining ingredients.

4) Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 and bake 35 minutes or until set.

5) Cool for 10 minutes before serving.  Serve with choice of hot sauce.

Parlay:

This is an adaptation of Suzanne's Italian Tomato Tart (which is delicious) modified to suit the unique tastes of my family and also take advantage of the ingredients we most often have readily available.  My family LOVES this recipe and asks for the dish "with the rice pie crust" all the time.  Leftovers rarely make it a single day before being consumed with much gusto. 

I like this recipe because it is healthy, relatively quick and easy to prepare.  Additionally it is extremely easy to modify - the original uses pesto and Parmesan cheese in the crust and prosciutto, shredded mozzarella and sliced plum tomatoes in the filling.  I want to try a "Greek" variation using pecans, nutmeg and cinnamon in the crust and broccoli, feta and spinach in the filling.  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination (and hopefully a dose of good taste)!

Pulpo y Pavlova

I'm not posting a recipe. Is that ok?

We had "Gourmet Sunday" once again at the Heskin House, with Mike and Anne both bringing scrumptious dishes. In order keep it brief, I'm posting the two things that are/were probably the most memorable.

I think Audrey was the biggest fan of pulpo (octopus). That's my girl!!

Anne's Amazing Pavlova....named after and created for famed ballerina as a "healty" dessert.

Lemon Bars

 

The recipe: Lemon Bars

From: http://blissfulb.blogspot.com/

For the crust:

1/2 pound unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

lemon layer:

6 extra-large eggs (at room temperature)

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4-6 lemons)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup flour

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting.

Pre-heat oven to 350°F and liberally butter a 9x13 by 2 inch baking sheet.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Gather mixture and form a ball. Flatten dough and press into buttered pan with floured hands, building up a 1/2 edge on all sides. Chill.

Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on wire rack. Leave the oven on.

For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, or about five minutes beyond the point where the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Notes: Don't be alarmed when you pour the lemon mixture into the crust if it happens to over-flow. Its ok, pour it all in there! I prefer to eat these bars served cold --straight from the refrigerator.

Parley

This was a request from one of the guys at work (one who obviously likes to eat) :).  He commented on the "lemony goodness" while enjoying a bar.  I think they turned out to have the ideal balance of tart and sweet, with a good crust (subtle, but firm).  They smelled like heaven while they were baking, and even though they're lemon bars, they reminded me more of deep green of lemon leaves, just in aura, not literal color.  This green is my favorite color, which might be why I already had two lemon bars.  (Don't fret fitness f(r)iends- I went running this morning and intend to work out later.)




 

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 cup flat beer
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
seasonings of choice i.e. rosemary, basil, oregano, garlic optional

Directions:

1) Place all ingredients in bread machine starting with dry ingredients.  Select dough setting and press start.
2) Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete.  Roll or press dough to cover bottom of pizza pan, brush with olive oil and let stand fifteen minutes.
3) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake dough for 10 minutes.  Remove and spread sauce and toppings of choice on dough.  Bake until crust is light brown and crispy, approximately 20 minutes.

Parley

I recently received as a gift a lovely bread machine that I'm much enamored with.  To date I've made three loaves of bread and two batches of pizza dough in the span of about a week, both of which are delicious!  Since pizza is so customizable, as well as being one of my favorite foods, I figured I'd share the dough recipe - it is extremely easy and tasty!  I'm hoping someone can perhaps modify it so that a bread machine is not required thereby making this recipe accessible to everyone.  One thing I'd like to add - I didn't have the patience to let the beer go "flat" so I just poured it into the measuring cup, let it sit about ten minutes (or however long it took me to finish the rest of the beer in the bottle) and proceeded with the recipe which worked just fine.  For the pizza pictured above I made my own sauce out of tomato paste and spices, used part-skim mozzarella (trying to be a little healthy), and topped it with carmalized onions, broccoli, roasted peppers, and some grilled asparagus from the previous nights BBQ to rave review from my parents!

Lentils with Eggplant

Ingredients

(4 servings)
5 oz of lentils - I think I used about 8 oz.
3.5 oz of onion - I used 1/2 of a medium onion
1 tomato - Forgot to buy one, so I used canned, diced
1 green pepper - Didn't have any. Used red.
3.5 oz of carrots - I used 4 medium
7 oz of eggplants - I used about 2/3 of a large one, sort of cubed
1 hardboiled egg - Yup.
1 clove of garlic - I used 2. BIG garlic fan
A few sprigs of parsley - Used dry
1 bay leaf - Yup
1 tbsp of sweet pepper - Used black pepper
4 tbsp. of olive oil - Not sure how much I added
Salt

Preparation
Place the lentils in a saucepan with the onion, tomato, pepper, eggplant, carrot, garlic, oil, bay leaf and a tbsp of the sweet peppers.
Cover everything with water and as soon as it begins boiling, reduce the intensity of the flame so it only simmers.
Stir them often with a wooden spoon so they don't stick together.
As soon as the vegetables are cooked, separate the tomato, onion, pepper and carrot and process these vegetables with the mixer until it makes a puree.
Then pour the puree on the lentils and chopped and cooked eggplants and simmer them. Season them with salt and let them sit for 10 minutes away from the flame but with the saucepan covered.
Decorate the lentils with the chopped hardboiled egg whites and minced parsley.

Parley

Still not sure what Parley means, but this is the way Jenn always does her recipes.

This stuff is good! It doesn't look all that pretty, but I really did like this stuff. I used an immersion blender instead of a regular blender, and it worked great. I basically chopped everything pretty big so that it would be easier to pull from the eggplant & lentils.

Basically....I found a use for lentils that I like! Thanks for the lentil web site Jenn. I will admit it's not like the most amazing food I've ever had, it's pretty basic. But it tastes pretty good, and it has a lot of really good-for-me stuff in it.

Maybe next I'll try Daal.

Japanese Veggie Noodle Soup

2 boxes (32 oz each) chicken or veggie broth
3 T. soy sauce
1 small piece of ginger, sliced, or a blob of minced jarred ginger
2 c. bok choy or napa cabbage, sliced
2 c. sliced mushrooms
2 med carrots, sliced
1 pkg cubed, extra firm tofu, drained
2 pkgs ramen noodles
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 T. rice wine or juice of 1/2 a lime
sesame oil for garnish

Bring broth, soy sauce and ginger to a boil over med-high heat. Add bok choy or cabbage, mushrooms, carrots and tofu, cook 2 min then add noodles (save flavor packets for something else!). Reduce heat, keep at simmer. Cook noodles for 3 min, then add scallions and rice wine. Cook 1 min, serve in bowls. Add a few drops sesame oil on top of each bowl for an extra layer of Japanese yumminess.

Parley
Another recipe from the "SOS Six 'O'Clock Scramble" by Aviva Goldfarb. Amazingly fast and amazingly yummy. Seriously....if you chop your veggies while the broth boils, this would take 15 min to make, start to end. Throw some grocery-store spring rolls in the toaster oven or microwave for a quick side and dinner is ON!

Heavenly Jalapenos

Heavenly Jalapenos

As many jalapenos as you want

Cream cheese to fill them up!

1 slice bacon per half jalapeno (2 slices per whole jalapeno)

seasoning of choice....I used chipotle pepper and cajun blackening seasoning

Cut jalapenos in half, scrape out seeds and ribs

Mix cream cheese with your spices,...to taste

Fill peppers with cheese

Wrap each half-pepper with one slice raw bacon, secure w/toothpick

Bake at 375 for 30 min or until bacon is crisp

Parley

Jenn and I were discussing Superbowl munchies that we "shouldn't " eat. She found this recipe online, and I just had to make it, especially after we were invited to our neighbor's for a Superbowl Party. I mean,...cheese, peppers and bacon? How could it be bad? I was a tad nervous taking these to party that we sure to be chock-full of PA natives ( ie. not spicy-friendly people), but went for it anyway, making sure to scrape out as much of the seeds/ribs as I could to minimize the spiciness. The smell from the oven was amazing, and the peppers were a hit, even among the spice-hesitant locals! This recipe is a keeper for its minimal ingredients, ease, and huge approval. I will be making these again! Use whatever spices you like in the cheese, or none at all. I used chipotle powder and a tad of cajun blackening seasoning, and they were super tasty. Enjoy! PS. Packers won,....possibly because everything at our party had cheese in it?

Zebra Cookies

Ingredients:

8 ounces dark chocolate
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa flour
2 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 teas. vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1 )  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Chop chocolate into small bits and melt over medium heat on a double boiler. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

2)  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.

3)  Using your hands, roll dough into 1-inch diameter balls, then roll in granulated sugar, then in confectioners’ sugar until completely coated. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake until cookies have flattened and the sugar splits, 12 to15 minutes.

Parley

Suzanne spotted these cookies on a Martha Stewart website and wanted to give them a try (Martha Stewart calls them something like "Chocolate Crinkle Cookies" but when I peeked in the oven their dark brown and white pattern elicited a comment something along the lines of "ohhhhhh...look at the pretty zebra cookies" and so I've renamed them, really now, what could be more appealing that stripped equine cookies)?  Not only are they quite eye catching but rich, decadent, and oh so chocolatey !  In fact, upon eating one hot off the cookie sheet, James declared they might be his new favorite cookie...but we'll wait for the final verdict tomorrow as he was under the influence of a rather intense barley wine at the time of tasting...

Do you do requests?

Okay...I recently bought lentils, because I don't think I've ever had lentils before, and I figured that I should like everything. The problem........what the heck do you do with lentils?!?!

Anyone?

Cornmeal Crusted Orange Roughy with Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa:

1 mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and diced
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 T finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 T freshly squeezed lime juice
1 teas. grated lime zest
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Fish:

6 (4-ounce) fillets of orange roughy (substitute fresh haddock or cod if not available)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons oil

Directions:

1) To prepare salsa, combine all salsa ingredients in a non-reactive bowl.  Let rest at least an hour to allow flavors to mellow.

2) To prepare fish, salt and pepper the fillets.  Put flour, buttermilk, and cornmeal into three separate, shallow bowls.  Dredge the fish first in the flour, then buttermilk, then cornmeal.  Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Sauté the coated fish fillets until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.  Serve with salsa on the side.

*Recipe from Southwest Seasonal Cooking.

Parley

This recipe is quite easy to prepare, very eye catching with all the beautiful colors in the salsa, and best of all tasty!  It's also versatile - you could easily substitute chicken if seafood doesn't appeal to you or just make the salsa and serve it with tortilla chips.