What I Really Think

Sometimes at my Weight Watcher meeting, my leader, Amy, hangs recipes on the walls. Today there were two up there that sounded interesting, oven fried chicken (still to come) and Raisin Scones. I opted to try the raisin scones first, since I was looking for something sweet to make to have with some afternoon tea (I'm trying to kick the popcorn in the afternoon habit).

It took less time to assemble these than it took for my oven to preheat. Also, I soaked the raisins first in hot water (I like to do that to plump them a bit before baking). Lastly, I ran out of raisins so I did half raisins half currants. They're not bad - light and easy - and at one point each, who can complain. Next time, I may try cranberries with a little orange zest added in. Or the currants again with some lemon zest.

Have you gotten the idea yet? We're getting lots of eggplants this summer from our CSA. Don't get me wrong, I really like eggplant. But sometimes, too much of a good thing ... In an effort to help me, Tourmama over on Slow Travel Talk, even started a discussion on eggplant recipes. She posted a link to this San Francisco chronicle article, Meet the eggplant's extended family which has a couple of interesting recipes.

But last night, after another CSA pickup with three more eggplants in it, and still having some eggplants left from last week's pickup, I decided I need something quick and easy to do as a "side-dish" for last night's dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala and that's where the Quick Eggplant and Tomato Sauté came into play.

It was a good choice too because not only did it use up a bunch of the smaller eggplants, but it also used up the red onions and peppers I received from the farm. Once all the dicing was done, it came together quickly and made a tasty side dish. I have a ton left over so we'll see how it is re-heated with lunch today.

Now it says it's a 1/2 cup serving at 1 point but a 1 cup serving also has 1 point - in case you want to double up.

Lest you think I've been wallowing in self-pity, I decided to throw some recipes up too. Friday and Saturday night we've enjoyed some really good dinners, so as time allows, I'm going to throw the recipes up here.

First, last night's dessert, Oatmeal Cranberry Classics. I got these from Weight Watchers Best Ever Desserts cookbook, which I believe they sold only in meetings, not in bookstores, and as is their way, took out of print within the year. What attracted me to these suckers (besides I'm a huge oatmeal cookie lover) is that I had all the ingredients in the house. I even had dried cranberries, which I didn't use though, because no one but me and Mom like them. Instead, I subbed Cinnamon Chips which just give a little burst of flavor. If you want to stay within "protocol" you could have subbed dried cherries, blueberries or chopped dried apricots (and I imagine the ubiquitous raisin) but I wanted a little indulgence.

I used my smallest scooper (about 1T) and got 36 cookies (as opposed to the 30 they said) and the best part, each of these little suckers comes in at only 1 point (high fiber). Oh and I found Whole Wheat Pastry flour at Whole Foods but if you use that cinnamon chip link above, you can also get it from King Arthur Flour.

Well, the folks from the Slow Travel Talk Food Forum are back at it again. This time though, to go along with the spring/summer heat, we're doing salads! So welcome to the first edition of the Sunday Salad Samplers.

Today's edition is brought to you by Eden of Wanderings and Wonderings and she's titled her salad Foraging the City Salad (aka Palma and Jerry salad, named for the two individuals who inspired this creation). I believe the Foraging came from the search for blood oranges.

Foraging the City Salad

I'm always on the lookout for one point cookie recipes. I'm also always on the lookout for snickerdoodle recipes. So Gold! Found both on Cooking Light (aka MyRecipes.com). Now my friend, Lisa, has been nagging for this recipe, as she wants to make them for her Sukkah open house, so I figured I'd finally post it.

Snickerdoodles

Sammi has been asking me for years to make Monkey Bread. Y'all know what Monkey Bread is right? Well, for those who don't it's this pull-apart bread coated in a cinnamon-sugary caramelized syrup and it's downright decadent. Well, for obvious reasons (i.e., as obvious as my stomach hanging over my pants), I never made it (seriously, it's like heroin to an addict).

Anyway, now that Sammi is baking, I finally decided to let her have a go at it and purchased a "Monkey Bread kit" for her for Hanukkah (with the intent that she could bake us all Monkey Bread for Christmas morning). Unfortunately, that morning, we realized the kit needed some major effort (i.e, allowing time for dough to rise and such), and we were hungry. So instead we opted for this recipe, Grands Monkey Bread since I had a couple of cans of biscuits in the house (Sandy, please, I hope you're not reading this and discovering that I don't make biscuits from scratch). Within 45 minutes, yummy, Monkey Bread.

But now I'm back on program and so I decided to check out Cooking Light to see if they have any Monkey Bread recipes, and surprisingly they do, here but I didn't want to deal with the frozen bread do. So I combined the best of both worlds to come up with my version.

Mmm...Monkey Bread

I've offloaded a bunch of photos from my iPhone and found a bunch of entries I'd been meaning to do. This is the first.

Purim was last weekend (not yesterday weekend but a week ago weekend) but if you're reading this as it's dated, well, that would be last weekend ... confused? Anyway, as usual, we made hamentashen. When we got to the end though, of course we fooled around with our fillings a bit (I don't think Sammi's M&M fillings were a huge hit) but I thoroughly enjoyed the filling I did with the Gianduioso I purchased at Eataly in November. Sorry for the picture quality (iPhone after all) but you get the idea.

Nutella Hamentashen

I'm going to have to remember these for World Nutella Day next year.

Still in my quest to get caught up with our Sunday Slow Sides, I made Week Five's selection, Tomatoes, with the recipe supplied by Nancy of A Wine Lover's Wanderings. Really, Nancy gave us a description more than a recipe which is cool, and will taste good - as long as you great ingredients (i.e., fresh local or home grown tomatoes) and taste it to make sure you like the flavor combinations - if it needs something to satisfy your taste, don't be afraid to add.

Sample of our garden's tomatoes and basil this year

Me, I went with the basic description Nancy provided.

Fresh Uncooked Tomato Sauce

• Ripe Homegrown or Locally Grown Tomatoes, chopped - Nancy recommends using heirlooms - I had a bunch of different on hand so I went with a Lemon Boy, Rutgers, some odd green/reddish one from my CSA, sunbursts (I think that's what they're called - little yellow ones) and some sweet 100s, oh and two Romas (also from the CSA).
  
• Sweet Mild Onion (like Vidalia), chopped
  
• Garlic, minced
  
• Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I only used 1 teaspoon but you can use more.
  
• Basil, chopped coarsely

Combine all of the above and let them blend at room temperature. Serve over hot pasta with Parmesan cheese. Also good cold the next day.

Okay - I varied there a bit - I've been promising Sammi gnocchi, so I served mine over the gnocchi with a bit of grated pecorino atop.

Gnocchi with Fresh Tomato Sauce

I will definitely make it again. It's so incredibly easy and I only wish I had more tomatoes!

I've been hankering for a long weekend in Boston this summer but we just can't seem to work out the dates. So instead, I decided to make one of our favorite Boston treats, lobster rolls, for dinner at home (and luckily the weather gods cooperated and we got a beautiful night on the deck in which to enjoy it). As usual, got this recipe from Cooking Light, well actually, their recipe site (for all their publications), My Recipes. It's really an easy to put together recipe (well, other than de-meating the lobster), when you're local grocer/fish monger steams the lobsters for you ahead of time. We had 3 1.3 lb lobsters and were probably shy of the quantity of meat required.

Lobster Rolls

4 cups cooked lobster meat, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash hot sauce
4 hot dog buns (we prefer ours toasted, either in the toaster oven, or on the grill, if already lit)

Combine first 7 ingredients. Spoon 3/4 cup salad into each bun.

This comes in at 8 Weight Watchers PPV.

Lobster Roll w/ Korean Cucumber Salad - apologies for iPhone picture quality

Korean Cucumber Salad

To go along with the lobster, I used one of our plethora of cucumbers to make this dish. Again, easy peasy to come together, can be made ahead, and really great for a hot summer evening. The recipe calls for an English Cucumber but I used our regular garden variety, slit in half, with the seeds scooped out. It's got a bit of a kick, so be careful.

Korean Cucumber Salad

3 1/2 cups (1/16-inch-thick) slices English cucumber (about 1 large - see note above about cucumber)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons minced green onions
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

Combine cucumber and salt, tossing well. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes. Drain and squeeze dry.
Combine cucumber, onions, rice vinegar, sugar, crushed red pepper, and sesame oil. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Honestly, I didn't bother counting even 1 Weight Watcher PPV for this, but you probably could/should count it as 1 because of the sugar/oil.