Lettuce Wraps

I was searching for a recipe to change up our weekly meal plans, and seeing that the weather has been so summer like, high 70's for a few days I wanted something light and refreshing for dinner. I came across a Lettuce Wrap recipe, and made a few tweaks to make it my own (because I find if I just get a basic recipe I can add the things I know we love to make it that much better) and ended up making one of the most delicious lettuce wraps I've ever had. So let me share the recipe with you...


Lettuce Wraps
1 1/2 lb ground turkey (of course you can chicken too)
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
1 can bamboo shoots, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (more for garnish)
1/4 cup sliced green onion (more for garnish)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp fish sauce
Juice of two limes

Add sesame oil to wok and brown meat in it
While meat is browning mix soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce and lime juice together in a bowl
Add ginger, garlic, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green onion and cilantro.
Pour on sauce mixture
Cook until done

Serve in iceberg lettuce shells, with additional green onion and cilantro for garnish.

Enjoy!!!!!

Crock Pot Minestrone

I've tried many Crock Pot Minestrone recipes, and I have a "go-to" but this is my new favorite and will replace my old one for sure.

Crock pot Minestrone
1 lb sausage
2 cups vegetable/chicken stock
2 cups water
1 lg can diced tomatoes
chopped celery
chopped carrots
chopped onion
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
chopped zucchini
garlic minced
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup pasta (I used Stelline) cooked
Finely shredded Parmesan

Cook sausage in skillet on stove until brown, add to crock pot
Add stock, water, tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, herbs and sugar to crock pot.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
An hour before ready to eat add zucchini and kidney beans.
5 minutes before ready to eat add cooked pasta and spinach
Serve warm topped with Parmesan cheese

As much as I love a "throw everything in" and be done recipe, slowly adding the ingredients like zucchini, kidney beans and spinach gives a great texture to the soup.  Remember I don't give "amounts" for the vegetables/garlic etc, because every family likes things differently. You may want to add more carrots than celery, this way you can customize your minestrone yourself.
Enjoy!

Coffee Cake

I was trying to find a different "special" breakfast for Christmas morning. Growing up we always had Dutch Babies and although I do enjoy them I wanted to find something different. This year I found it. Coffee Cake, and seriously the best Coffee Cake I've ever had. I loved that I could fix it and throw it in the oven and serve, no "extras" no need for syrup, or powdered sugar.  Next time you're looking for something different for breakfast, doesn't even need to be a special occasion give this a try. I promise you'll love it

Coffee Cake
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 butter (softened)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk or buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Topping
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 butter (softened)

Preheat oven to 350
Grease a 9X13 pan
In a bowl mix (topping ingredients) add all dry ingredients and then cut in butter until crumbly
In a separate bowl mix cake ingredients. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cut in butter.
Mix should be coarse crumbles
In a small bowl mix egg, milk and vanilla together
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. This batter will be VERY thick.
Spread batter into pan and top with crumble topping
Cook 25-30 minutes
Enjoy!!!
I even think this would be amazing around Halloween and Thanksgiving with some canned pumpkin in the cake batter part. I can only eat pumpkin flavor in the Fall, so I won't be able to try it until next year.

Shrimp Ceviche

It's been a while since I posted, with Christmas and New Year's it's just hard to find the time to post. But that doesn't mean I haven't been finding amazing recipes, with all the cooking, baking and eating that occur this time of year I was bound to find some great recipes to share and I did. We celebrate Christmas Eve with 13 dishes, and we always like to try to find something new we haven't tried before. This year we tried a shrimp ceviche, and it was out of this world. We had 14 guests who all raved about how good it was and the nice thing was it was so easy. Not to mention we were able to prepare almost all of it the day before and then right before eating just adding a few last minute ingredients. You can substitute the shrimp for a white fish like cod, we stuck with the shrimp since we also had "fish" in one of our other dishes that night. Trust me try it, you'll like it and remember it's not raw, the acid in the lime juice actually "cooks" the fish so the texture is that of cooked shrimp/fish. 


Shrimp Ceviche
1 lb fresh shrimp (or white fish)
8-10 limes
1 jalapeno or Serrano chili
1 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in half
2-3 cucumbers chopped
2 avocado chopped
salt to taste

Chop shrimp into small pieces and place in bowl
Slice limes in half and squeeze all juice onto the fish
Add 1/2 cup of cilantro, 1/4 cup of the green onion, the entire amount of chili you want to add and a touch of salt.
Cover your dish and refrigerate for several hours or overnight
Before serving add all the rest of the ingredients: chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, remaining cilantro, remaining green onion, avocado, and additional salt if needed.
Serve with chips
Enjoy!!!

Rosemary & Chipotle Spiced Nuts

Recently I was a little donut shop and saw a jar of Rosemary & Chipotle Spiced Nuts, I was reluctant to try them but bought a jar on my husbands insistence. Well....let's just say they were amazing. I decided I had to find a recipe myself and make them myself. I searched the web for a recipe and came across an Ina Garten recipe, however I did tweak it a little to my own liking. So here it is and trust me they are worth it.






Rosemary & Chipotle Spiced Nuts
Vegetable oil
1 bag (16oz) cashews
1 bag (16oz) whole walnut halves
2 bags (8oz bags) whole pecan halves
1 bag (16oz) whole almonds
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 freshly squeezed orange (I was lucky enough to use the blood oranges from the tree in my backyard)
4 tsp, crushed chipotle pepper add more for extra spice
6 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, minced (I was able to use it from my backyard too)
Salt

Preheat oven to 350
Brush vegetable oil on cookie sheet
In bowl combine cashews, walnuts, pecans, almonds, 3 tbsp vegetable oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, orange juice and 3 tsp chipotle peppers.
Toss to coat evenly
Add 4 tbsp of minced rosemary and 4 tsp salt and toss again
Spread nuts in one layer on cookie sheet
Roast for 25 minutes, stirring twice until the nuts are glazed and golden brown
Remove from oven and place in bowl, sprinkle with remaining 2 tbsp of rosemary, 1 more tsp of chipotle pepper (if want a little more spice) and 2 more tsp salt.
Toss well and stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
Can be served warm or cool completely.

*** If you make the full batch I recommend cooling 1/2 the batch at a time to ensure the coating cools evenly.

Cranberry Relish

This is the only way I've ever known cranberries "sauce" at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Growing up I'd never met anyone who ate anything like this, it was always canned cranberry sauce.  Until I met my husband and his family has a very similar recipe. I love how fresh this recipe is and it pairs perfectly with the Thanksgiving dishes, we also serve at Christmas

Cranberry Relish
4 large orange quartered, seeded (leave skin on)
2 bags fresh cranberries
5 Tbsp brown sugar 
2 tsp cinnamon
4 lg apple (I like granny smith)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp nutmeg

Put orange, cranberries, & apple into food processor (you want it the consistency of a pickle relish). I use my KitchenAid mixer with the sausage attachment medium grind. 
Stir in remaining ingredients, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Chile Cheese Hors d'oeuvre

Need a new appetizer, or a potluck dish for some of those holiday parties that are coming up.  This is a recipe I grew up with and it was a go to potluck dish for any party my parents attended. My mom would actually bring copies of the recipe with her as it was inevitable someone would ask for the recipe.

Chile Cheese Hors d'oeuvre
8 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups mixed jack & cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
2 4 oz cans diced green chilies

Beat eggs until light and fluffy.
In separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder & salt
Add dry mixture to eggs
Fold in cheese and chilies
Bake @ 350 in a 9X9 greased pan for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean

Chicken Pot Pie

I love Chicken Pot Pie, like absolutely love it. The perfect mixture of crust and filling, such a great comfort food on a crisp night. The kids have gotten really excited by using cookie cutters, so as you can tell they decorated the top of the pot pie using their pumpkin cookie cutter. I found this recipe in the Winter of 2008 and it's become a favorite. I think one of the things that make this such a great recipe is we make our own homemade crust which really does make a huge difference, it may seem like "one more step" but it's quick, easy and well worth the extra few minutes to have your own homemade crust.



Chicken Pot Pie
Crust:
2 cups flour (sifted)
3/4 cup butter salted, softened
6 tbsp cold water
Put flour in a bowl, cut in butter until crumbly
Add water until ball is created (may need additional water)
Put in fridge for 4 hours (I've made this both ways by refrigerating and not refrigerating and don't notice a difference. I will say if you do refrigerate make sure to take it out at least 30 minutes before you're ready to use otherwise it's impossible to roll out.)

Filling:
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt & pepper
1 tbsp garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 3/4 cup chicken broth (we use our homemade bone broth)
2/3 cup milk
1 lb cooked chicken, cubed
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup celery stalks, chopped
1 cup potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas

Preheat oven to 400F
Melt butter.
Add salt, pepper, onion and garlic
Whisk in flour, then add chicken broth & milk (continue to whisk)
Cook & stir until thick
Add potatoes, carrots, celery & cook until desired firmness of veggies
Add chicken & peas
Mix well, pour into pie crust.
Cut slits into crust
Bake @ 400F for 30 minutes or until brown and bubbly

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted caramel is my kryptonite, but it has to be a good salted caramel. There's a lot of imitation salted caramels, I've had many  disappointments, many that got my hopes up so high only to be crushed by the first taste.  When you've tasted good salted caramel, you know what to expect, you know what your tastebuds are searching for. So I'm always very hesitant when I see a recipe/food "claiming" to be salted caramel. Well I found a recipe that definitely lives up to it's claim. So now I share my kryptonite with you...Enjoy

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
6 wrapped caramels, cut into the size of half a sugar cube (I used Trader Jacques' Fleur De Sel Caramels)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Sea salt (I used pink Himalayan)

Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl, set aside
With an electric mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and sugars together.
Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla bean paste and mix well
Gradually add the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms
Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts
Chill dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator
Preheat oven to 350
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet
Gently press a few pieces of caramels onto the tops of the cookies
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are slightly browned
As soon as removed from oven gently sprinkle with sea salt
After cookies have set (about 2-3 minutes) move to cooling racks 

Since I've already tested this recipe I have definitely worked out a few of the bugs from the original recipe. I added walnuts, because personally I cannot eat a chocolate chip cookie without them and it adds a nice texture and a little bit of additional salt.  I also found the original recipe called for the caramels to be much bigger, but I made them quite a bit smaller for a few reasons. I didn't want to have a really sticky, chewy piece of caramel in my cookies, more than anything I just wanted the caramels for added flavor so the size I used worked perfectly for flavor and didn't leave a huge chunk of caramel in the cookie. So keep in mind if you're wanting that chewy, sticky piece of caramel then make sure to cut your caramel bigger.  This could easily become one of your go-to cookies this holiday season during cookie exchanges, dessert parties, a plate of cookies for the neighbors... etc as this cookie not only has great flavor but is something more unique than your standard chocolate chip cookie. 
Enjoy!  

Butternut Squash, Sausage & Kale Soup

In my effort to experiment with more and more Fall produce I searched out a recipe to utilize a butternut squash, we typically eat the butternut in a pureed soup (I posted the recipe last Fall if you want to try that one as well). Originally this recipe called for sweet potatoes but I opted for butternut squash knowing the flavors would work.

Here it is...

Butternut Squash, Sausage & Kale Soup

2 tbsp oil

1 lb sausage

1 lg onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups chicken broth (we use our homemade bone broth)

2 cups butternut squash, diced into squares 

1 (28oz) can diced tomatoes     

1 cup dried pasta (loved it with Orecchiette)

1 cup roughly chopped kale

salt & pepper to taste

Parmesan for garnish

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium-high heat 

Add onion and sausage, cook for 5-7 minutes, until onion is translucent and sausage is slightly brown

Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes

Add chicken broth, butternut squash and tomatoes, stir to combine

Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes

Cook pasta on side until al dente and add to soup (you could cook the pasta in the soup but we are very particular about how al dente we like our pasta so we always choose to cook separately)

Stir in kale and season with salt & pepper

Serve with Parmesan

Enjoy!