What I Really Think

Last night for dinner, I wanted something quick, since we got home late from the shore (GSP traffic sucks). You know that old joke, why do they call it a parkway if you drive on it and a driveway if you park on it? Well, yesterday, you pretty much parked on the Garden State Parkway, well, at least until many of the PA locals departed onto the AC Expressway (which I bet wasn't much of an expressway).

Anyway, as always, I digress. So I wanted something quick for dinner last night and since I had been a bit off program (can you say sticky buns and Johnson's Caramel popcorn?) for almost a week, I also wanted something healthy.

Man, that being on the out of control merry-go-round sensation is not abating these days. Hopefully, next weekend, after Becky's play, our century ride, and my family reunion, things will calm down some. But in the interim, I've been inundated with produce from my local CSA. Which, by the way, adds a certain level of pressure. I mean I feel guilty when I don't use it all (so please don't ask about the load of pickling cucumbers I just threw out). Luckily though, with some help from Chris and the kids, last week I was able to make a bunch of stuff and today a bit more, so I though I'd post some recipes.

Okay - before I get dressed and hunker down with the rest of Boleskine's trip report (don't worry Jerry, it will be published soon), let me try to get the next couple of recipes up.

First one, Damn Hot Peppers (or Darn Hot, if you want to be "correct"). Actually, I think the batch I made yesterday should be called, "G-d Damn Hot Peppers," they're that hot. I got this recipe from Michael Chiarello at

It's a little different on his website than originally published in his NapaStyle cookbook. Anyway, here it is:

Okay one more before we head out to a wedding. I made this a couple of years ago and thought I'd resurrect it now. It's still in the oven, so I can't comment on this year's endeavor but if memory serves it was pretty good last time.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
From

Cake:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk
2 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
8 teaspoons fat-free milk
2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.
To prepare cake, coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray; dust pan with 1 tablespoon flour.

Place sugars, cream cheese, and vegetable oil in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Lightly spoon 2 1/2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 1/2 cups flour and next 5 ingredients (2 1/2 cups flour through cinnamon) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in zucchini, 2/3 cup chocolate chips, and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare glaze, combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine milk, 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, coffee, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in a 1-cup glass measure. Microwave at medium 45 seconds or until chocolate melts, stirring after 20 seconds. Combine powdered sugar mixture with chocolate mixture, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 281 (30% from fat); FAT 9.5g (sat 2.4g,mono 4.2g,poly 2.4g); PROTEIN 6.6g; CHOLESTEROL 27mg; CALCIUM 96mg; SODIUM 241mg; FIBER 2.6g; IRON 2.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.6g

Cooking Light, JUNE 2002

For more ways to cook zucchini click here.

In addition to all the zucchini I got last week (by the way the chocolate zucchini cake was good), I received a whole bunch of cucumbers. So yesterday I decided to make a batch of Amy's Chilled Cucumber soup, original recipe found on on the SlowTravel Talk Message Board . Warning, if you're not a premium member, you won't be able to access that forum.

Now I'm not a big fan of mint, so I left that out. Plus I like a little chunk, so I pureed the soup, but then threw back in about half a cucumber in a fine dice. Lastly, I didn't have time to get to the Lebanese market or Wholefoods for some good yogurt, so I used Stoneyfield Non Fat and combined it with some fat free sour cream too. Probably not as "tangy" but still delicious. Here's my version.

Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

• 2 large cucumbers


• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (If you can get the Total Greek Yogurt at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, it makes all the difference)


• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream


• 1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice


• 1 teaspoon honey


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• tablespoons skim milk (optional)

Directions

1. Peel the cucumbers, then cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Cut cucumber into slices.


2. In a blender container or food processor, puree the cucumber until almost smooth. (I leave it a little chunky). Then, add the yogurt, lime/lemon juice, honey, cumin, and salt. Cover and blend or process until almost smooth. Blend in milk, if desired to thin out.
   
3. Cover and chill 2 hours.


4. Stir before serving.

Makes 4 servings

Well, the hullabaloo around the century ride is starting to settle and lo and behold, I still need to cook dinner and the CSA is still giving me produce, so I thought it was time to use up some of (well all of) the beans I had in the refrigerator, probably two weeks worth. I found a recipe in August's Cooking Light that looked promising, and since I was craving Chinese (and meat), decided to make Ginger Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry last night. I only used two teaspoons of the chili garlic sauce to tone it down for Becky (but it was still too spicy and she only gave the dish a "so-so" rating). I liked it and when making it for Chris will probably use three teaspoons. Mom, if you're reading this, you should barely use one. I also usually complain about the lack of sauce in many CL stir-fries, but this had plenty. It used up those beans nicely, was tasty and once all the chopping was done, assembled very quickly.

The last few weeks we received several eggplants from the CSA. Not the big bulbous variety but the long slender ones. Still, they sat in my refrigerator's produce drawer until I could figure out a) what to do with them b) had time to do something with them.

So the other night, I dug out my falling apart copy of Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian (yes, that Frugal Gourmet, of someone dubious subsequent fame). He has a recipe near the front of the book for Caponata that we love, then he has subsequent recipes for what to do with the caponata once you prepare it (e.g., serve over pasta). Here's his recipes, with my changes:

Caponata
2 pounds eggplant - 1 inch dice
4 stalks celery - thin slice
1 medium onion - chopped
olive oil
1 can Italian Plum Tomatoes, crushed (I use a 28 oz. can of whole Italian tomatoes, and give them a quick whirl in the blender first)
2 T tomato paste
1/3 cup white wine vinegar (I was out this time and used red wine, no discernible difference)
1T sugar
2T capers, rinsed and drained (I through the entire drained jar in).
6 large green olives, sliced
4 - 5 anchovy fillets, he cuts them in half but I mince them

First he has you sprinkle the eggplant with 1T salt and let it sit, with a weight atop to "squeeze" out the bitterness. Then rinse and dry it. I didn't bother with this step.

Then he sautes the eggplant in batches, in olive oil, in a large skillet for about 10 minutes each batch, to soften. I didn't do this either - didn't want to use all the oil. Instead, I sprayed a large jellyroll pan with Pam. Then I put the eggplant on it (gave it a quick shot of Pam), and roasted it in a 425 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes or so, until softened and very slightly browned.

In a large dutch oven, I put 1T heated 1 T olive oil, and sauteed the celery and onion until soft, but not brown (about 15 minutes). At one point, I covered the pot, so it steamed a bit. To this I added the roasted eggplant and the rest of the above ingredients. Brought it to a boil, covered and simmered on low flame about 20 - 30 minutes. Voila!

You should know, he also adds toasted pine nuts to this after it's simmered, which I sometimes do too but I'm currently out of them. I think 1/2 cup would do nicely. And he adds raisin at this point, which I would love to do but Chris thinks raisins are the devil's food, so I don't add them (it would be about 1/4 cup).

In addition to the sauce I mentioned before (use sliced garlic, some white wine, maybe some pasta water to loosen), this is great atop bruschetta.

Enjoy!

Oh and if someone knows if I can can this in a hot water bath, please comment and let me know.

I have a Weight Watcher friend (i.e., someone I know from my meetings), who has the WW One Pot cookbook. They no longer sell this cookbook so she offered to bring it to a meeting for me, let me look through it, mark the recipes I would like and she would copy them for me. Good deal I thought.

So last night, I made the first of the copied recipes, this Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya. Now normally, I don't feel comfortable posting recipes from known sources on my blog unless they're already out there on the web (e.g., on Cooking Light or FoodTV) - not sure why, I guess just my bugaboo - guess I want the cookbook author to get to make another sale or something. But since this is from a book that's no longer in print, and therefore no one can make anymore money on it, I don't feel so bad.

Tomorrow, Chris and I will celebrate our wedding anniversary. But since more often than not, he's on the road for our actual "anniversary" we celebrate on the weekend before. So last night we cooked a wonderful anniversary dinner together, then set the dining room with our fine china, popped the cork on some bubbly (and later a Dei Montepulciano de Nobile Riserve 1997) and enjoyed.

To start, I ordered some domestic caviar from Tsar Nicoulai. It arrived Friday afternoon on schedule and we kept it on ice for last night in the fridge. I also ordered a package of blini mix which Chris cooked up during the afternoon.

Well, it's that time of year again, time to get ready for Thanksgiving. Why does it seem that every year, I think I'll have plenty of time to prepare and experiment with some new dishes, only to get jammed up the last week?

I know, it's because we usually end up going away during November, and by the time we return, I'm always hit with the realization that Thanksgiving is only a week away.

This year is no exception, but for the fact that rather than a week after our return, I'll only have two days, I find a bit daunting. You see we're heading out tomorrow for my brother's wedding in Florida and will not return until Monday afternoon; looking forward to the weekend but man, am I a bit nervous about next week.

So with that in mind, I threw together my menu and to do list last week, and rather experimenting with some new dishes, one that incorporates some old favorites, only one new dish, and some make aheads that I'm working on now. I also forfeited the idea of making the desserts from Dolce Italiano, Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen, to save some boockoo time, and decided for the next best thing, pies from Emery's.

I made this tonight for dinner after getting the original recipe from In One Pot by Weight Watchers (a book that's no longer published). We really enjoyed it, it came together pretty easily and was tasty. I've noted my changes at the end and I think the only thing I'll do different next time, is toast the flour in it's own saute pan or in the oven as Cooking Light does in their Gramercy Crawfish Gumbo. Enjoy:

* Exported from MasterCook *

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon oil
3/4 pound pork tenderloin -- trimmed of fat and 1/2" chunks
1/4 pound low fat sweet Italian sausage links -- casing removed
1 large onion -- chopped
1 large green bell pepper -- chopped
2 stalks celery -- chopped
3 cloves garlic -- minced
1/2 cup water
14 1/2 ounces canned diced tomatoes
10 ounces frozen okra -- sliced
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 bay leaf
2 cups hot cooked rice

Sprinkle the flour evenly over the bottom of a large nonstick dutch oven or heavy pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the flour is fragrant and begins to color, about 5 minutes. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour is the color of peanut butter, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer the flour to a small bowl, wipe the pot clean.

Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the pork and sausage and cook until very lightly browned, 6 - 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and water to the dutch oven. Cook stirring occasionally, and scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon, until the vegies are softened, 3 - 5 minutes.

Return the flour to the pot and cook, stirring about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the okra, broth, thyme salt, pepper, cayenne and bay leaf. Return the pork and sausage to the pot; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered until the pork is tender and the liquid thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.

Put a mound of the rice in the center of each soup bowl. Ladle the gumbo around the rice.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 372 Calories; 7g Fat (16.8% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 47g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 55mg Cholesterol; 944mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat.

NOTES : I sliced the okra though the recipe didn't call for it. So I defrosted the okra for a couple of minutes in the microwave first. I like it sliced because its pieces are then the same size as the others in the pot and it acts as an additional thickening agent. Also, instead of the salt, pepper, and cayenne, I subbed 2 teaspoons of Creole Seasoning. Lastly, I used Turkey sausage.

Serving is 1 1/2 cups of gumbo and 1/2 cup of rice.

I followed Palma's lead and made the infamous Cheddar, Date Biscuits, that Shannon, of Poptarticus had originally told us about, but with the changes Palma described in her blog, Palmabella's Passion, The Biscuit Experiment. While I love the taste, I'm not crazy about the "appearance." I keep thinking there should be something speckled green in the dough - like an herb or something but I can't think of anything that would go.

I froze a bunch though (unbaked) and will experiment with the reheating (i.e., do you defrost them first or bake right from the freezer, and if so, for how long) this weekend. Next, I need to figure out the WW points in each.

Pine Nut Biscotti

I'm back to cooking and baking so I thought I'd post a couple of things from yesterday, in case anyone is interested.

First, we had a bit of an ice storm yesterday, so to me, that means cookies. I tried Cooking Light's Pine Nut Biscotti from the December 2007 issue. While making it I made one change, I subbed almond extract for the vanilla because I like the taste.

Every year Chris's Grandma (and Grandpa) would make a huge batch of these very basic cookies for the holidays. This was before I knew them or Chris at all (actually, I never met Chris's grandpa as he passed away before we met). Anyway, when Chris and I first got married, his grandma gave us a big tin full of these cookies on Christmas morning. Our second Christmas together, we were living in Missouri, and she sent a tin to us there, with instructions not to open them until Christmas morning (I had to hide them from Chris). She passed away five months later.

Yet, the next year, we still received our tin, this time, from Chris's aunt, who took over the making of "Grandma's cookies." Each year we would receive our tin, and each year I would hide them until Christmas morning when we would eat them for breakfast.

When we moved back to Jersey in 95, I was indoctrinated by Chris's aunt into the making of "Grandma's cookies." The first year or two, I pretty much just watched but as Ann got a bit older, and her shoulders a bit stiffer, I began to assume more of the responsibility. We make a huge batch, and there's a lot of dough involved that has to be mixed (too much for my stand mixer), so we end up kneading it, almost like bread dough).

Now, on Thanksgiving, we pick a day to get together to make the cookies. We try for a weekend when the girls can help (they've been indoctrinated too - so much so, that this year, we even let Becky knead but mostly they crank the machine, shape and dip the cookies into the seeds, aka sprinkles). If we end up on a weekday, due to busy schedules, it takes Ann and I about three to four hours to bake about maybe 15 - 16 dozen (maybe more I've never really counted). When the girls help, we can get done in under three hours.

This year, Becky grabbed her camera and documented the event.

Last week I received a $5 off coupon to Weight Watchers new book, Mix it, Match it, so I bought it. Each page is divided into three, so you can make "x" many permutations of daily menus by selecting one from the breakfast category, one from the lunch category and one from the dinner category. The points range from two to seven for breakfast, three to seven for lunch and four to seven for dinner. Each recipe has a picture which is nice.

So yesterday, I made the Updated Bistro Salad and modified it for just me (the recipe serves 4 normally).

• 1.5 ounces Canadian bacon, diced
• 4 cups packaged mixed greens (the recipe calls for 2 cups (if broken down into individual servings but I just used an entire mixed bag for me, which I think is about four cups).
• 1 large egg
• 1 t olive oil
• 1/2 medium shallot, minced (I used 1 small shallot)
• 1T fat free chicken broth (they used reduced sodium but I only keep fat free in the house)
• 1.5t white wine vinegar (I used champagne vinegar - I'm out of white wine vinegar)
• 1/2 t Dijon mustard
• 1/4 t dried tarragon (okay I just used a bit more than 1/2 t of tarragon mustard I brought back from France rather than these two).
• pinch of salt and pepper

1. In a nonstick skillet, over medium heat, cook the bacon until brown. They want you to transfer to paper towels to drain but it was pretty lean so I didn't bother. Toss this with the greens in a large bowl.
2. In another skillet (doesn't have to be no stick), fill 1/2 way with water, bring to a simmer. Crack the egg into a small cup and then slide into simmering water. Reduce the heat and cook egg until whites are set, about 2 minutes. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put this on paper towels. I did this because I didn't want a lot of extra water in my salad.
3. Now back to the first skillet (the one you did the bacon in). Add the oil to that skillet and put back on a medium flame. Add the shallots and cook about 2 minutes, until soft. Add the broth and simmer until it's reduced to a glaze (roughly 20 seconds but who is counting?). Remove from the flame and add everything else, mix. Pour over the greens and top with the egg.

I liked this one - it wasn't real "quick" but really good and I'll make it again. Wish I had taken a picture though, but I ate late and was starving - sorry.

On New Year's Eve day, Chris, Becky and I went to New Hope PA in search of some gloriously spicy pretzels (unfortunately, Suzie Hot Sauce was closed) but still ended up having a great time walking around the town, visiting the little shops. In one of them I found a Scottie cookie cutter, which of course I had to buy.

So today, in honor of Fala's birthday, I baked Fala Cookies! I used the same sugar cookie recipe I use at Christmas but rolled them a bit thicker and instead of using all vanilla extract or part almond extract, used 1/2t lemon extract. It made a dozen Fala Cookies, and about 1.5 dozen little circle cookies that will be great with tea. The Fala cookies Becky iced with royal icing (one egg white, to 1 cup powdered sugar plus coloring).

Give them a try if you like. The Fala cookies, because they were so big are 4 Weight Watcher points, if you use normal size cookie cutters, they're 1 point each.

• 1 cup butter or margarine -- softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 large egg -- beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or lemon or more vanilla or whatever you feel like).
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
2. Add egg and extracts.
3. Combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; gradually add to the creamed mixture, mix well.
3a. Chill for at least one hour.
4. On a surface lightly sprinkled w/ flour, roll out a quarter of the dough to 1/8" thickness (because the fala cookies were so large, I rolled them thicker - maybe a 1/4").
5. Place on ungreased baking sheets (I line mine with parchment paper).
6. Repeat w/ the remaining dough.
7. Bake at 350 for 7 - 8 minutes or until the edges begin to brown (Fala cookies cooked for 15 minutes)

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 59 Calories; 3g Fat (48.4% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 12mg Cholesterol; 54mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : Cookies may be sprinkled with the colored sugar before baking or frosted after being baked and cooled.

I thought the girls and I would have a nice Friday night dinner, so I decided to make a big lasagna (also had some noodles I wanted to use up in the pantry). Anyway, as it turned out, Becky went to a friend's house to "study" and Sammi doesn't appreciate "lumps" in her lasagna (aka ground beef), so she and I had a bit of this huge tray while watching Wheel of Fortune - so much for a nice dinner - I watched as Sammi scraped the sauce off the noodles and ate noodles and cheese.

Anyway, I liked it and would make it again. It is a bit of work because you start off making the sauce. I assembled the entire thing in the afternoon, and stuck it in the oven before going to a swim meet. I called Sammi to turn the oven on at 5:00 and dinner was ready about 6:30.

I'm hoping to freeze a chunk of the leftovers. Give it a shot though; it comes in at 8 WW points per slice.

My friend, Rain, is having a baby. It's getting difficult getting to the supermarket, when she's very pregnant and already has a toddler in tow. So she decided to try one of those home delivery/pick-up services. Basically, she goes on line, orders her food and then for two different prices, she has the option of either picking up the order, or having it delivered. The problem with these services, is, as a shopper, you must be completely aware of products and sizes. Rain, not so much - as she ordered a five pound bag of baby carrots last week. Five pounds is a lot of carrots and I'd imagine most people would be hard-pressed to use them up, let alone someone who doesn't cook or bake regularly. Lucky for me though, I became the recipient of about four pounds of that bag, so I went to work finding recipes to make.

Yesterday, I did a bit of baking after finding these recipes on Cooking Light. First up, Quick Carrot Bread.

Carrot-Raisin Quick Bread
From

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup coarsely shredded carrot
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup fat-free milk
3 tablespoons stick margarine or butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl (flour through nutmeg). Combine carrot and next 5 ingredients (carrot through egg) in a small bowl; add to flour mixture, stirring just until flour mixture is moist.

Pour batter into an 8-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 174 (19% from fat); FAT 3.6g (sat 0.8g,mono 1.5g,poly 1.1g); PROTEIN 3.1g; CHOLESTEROL 19mg; CALCIUM 42mg; SODIUM 215mg; FIBER 1.2g; IRON 1.4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 32.9g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 1998

I have a few dozen recipes I've bookmarked in Dolce Italiano but unfortunately got a bit side-tracked during the holidays. But I'm back now. Last night I went to a friend's house for dinner and I thought I'd bring a little something from the book for dessert. Angela from A Spoonful of Sugar had baked the Venetian Apple Cake back in November and had given it high marks so I thought I'd give it a go.

It comes together pretty easily once you grate the apple. Which I must say, I've never done before and I didn't get much out of it, even after scraping the grater down, but I didn't worry. I knew from reading Angela's blog that the cake had the essence of apple, not big chunks, like most of the apple cakes I've made in the past. The only other thing I noted was that after grating the apple, while assembling the other ingredients, the apple turned, not unexpected but I wondered if it would affect the coloring of the cake. It doesn't. The cake is golden and the apple fits right in - you don't really see it. Lastly, the spices used (a combination of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg) give it a real autumnal flavor - yum!

I love wheatberries. No, I really do. I loved them for years before I even knew what they were. Chris and I used to go to this restaurant, around the corner from our first apartment, Park and Orchard and they would serve this rice dish, with these little things in it that added a bit of crunch - I loved it (still do). Never knew what they were though.

Flashforward about 18 years, and I'm watching the Barefoot Contessa one day on FoodTV. She's making this Wheat Berry Salad (It was the Back for the Weekend episode. It looked good, so I thought I'd give it a go, and I loved it. I then realized, that's what those little things were in the rice at Park and Orchard.

Now, making that salad wasn't as easy as it sounds, because my local Shop Rite doesn't stock wheatberries. I'm not even sure they know what they are. So for a few years, I had that recipe tagged with no means of making it. Then into my life came, Whole Foods. In their bulk section, Whole Foods has tons of wheat berries. So I bought some for the salad and loved them. Knowing it's my only local source and knowing I don't get there near enough, the next time I went, I bought more ... and the next time .... and the next. Problem is I wasn't cooking with them. I need to find more wheat berry recipes.

So yesterday, I started with this one from, where else, Cooking Light, Wheat Berry-Black Bean Soup. Here's my portion (I topped it with some baked tortilla chips and Frank's Hot Sauce). Chris wanted a dollup of sour cream on his but couldn't find any in the refrigerator.

Chris really liked the soup. I thought it was okay. I'd make it again (to use up some wheat berries) but there are other Black Bean Soups out there that I like better. It was missing ... I don't know ... something. Perhaps if I figure that out, I'll make some adjustments. It got five stars (Outstanding) over on Cooking Light, I'd probably give it three (Good Solid Recipe). For you Weight Watchers out there, it's four points in one serving.

A while ago - probably over a year now, I bought Stir it Up, Super Skillet Cookbook at my Weight Watchers meeting. For a while, I cooked out of it but back then I was core, and so it got shoved to the back of the pile as many of the recipes in the book aren't (core that is). Anyway, as I was poking around for inspiration in making my shopping list, I saw it sitting there, wedged between a Nick Stellino and the Weight Watchers Comfort Food, so I thought I'd pull it out and give it a go.

Tonight for dinner I made the Lo Mein Pork and Peanut Noodles - the kids usually like pork and they like peanut butter, so I was hopeful. I became a bit discouraged though when I realized the amount of veggies in the recipe (1 large red bell, 1 small zucchini and scallions) and became even more concerned when I realized, these veggies aren't cooked but served in the noodles raw. I persevered however, and tossed the noodles and pork together first, then served the kids, then added the veggies which seemed to satisfy everyone.

I'll tell you, though it was quick to cook (once the water boiled for the noodles, 5 minutes), it did require about 20 - 30 minutes of prep time (slicing, dicing, you know the drill) - still pleasantly surprised with the results. Sammi gave it thumbs up and Becky said, "Okay." (she has a thing about spaghetti-like noodles - it's a consistency issue. I will make this again.

I don't know if the Polynesians actually ever made anything like this but Weight Watchers thinks they did and as I went back to the Stir It Up, Super Skillet Cookbook for inspiration again, I thought I'd give it a go. Heck, one of my kids likes chicken and pineapple anyway. Well she just picked out the chicken (but deemed it edible), while the other of the picky palette, glanced at it, and asked, "Can I have a Kids Cuisine?" She's sick, so of course I agreed. I on the other hand really enjoyed it and served it with a 1/2C brown rice. On it's own a 1 3/4C serving comes in at 7 points, with the rice 9.

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.

I think I mentioned somewhere that my CSA is experimenting with a winter share this year. They've never done one before but for $400 we get 16 weeks worth of crops from November through March (or so). It sounded like a good experiment, so I bought in. Though the quantity of crops has not been as rich as the summer, the quality is still good.

That said, last week, I received a cabbage head, that's, well, bigger than Becky's head.

(she's not happy up there because it's right after swim practice). Anyway...

At first, I thought I'd make Roasted Cabbage Rolls but then I saw this recipe in the March Bon Appetit, Cabbage and White Bean Soup with Sausage and it stuck in my head plus the Roasted Cabbage seemed too labor intensive and I didn't feel like it. So Wednesday, when I was at the farm market, and they had chicken apple sausage I decided to make the soup instead. Only problem, when I got home I realized I didn't have everything I needed. So this is what I came up with.

A few weeks ago, Jerry, posted a recipe for Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce that he originally got from Cooking Light. It looked so good, I knew I wanted to make it but always having the hardest time finding Red Curry Paste, I wasn't sure when. Then last weekend we popped into Dean and DeLuca and I saw the paste. I couldn't remember what I needed it for, but I knew I needed it, so I bought some. When I got home, and was planning our weekly menu, with fish for Friday because of Lent, I remembered, so ta da!

I know, I glopped on a lot more sauce than Jerry seemed to. Also, I didn't use Basmati rice but one of those Lundberg rice blends instead. All this along with some steamed sugar snap peas drizzled with a bit of sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds and that was one good dinner.

I'll post the recipe for those of you too lazy to check out Jerry's blog but you really ought to - lots of good stuff over there.

Last Friday I took a ride down to Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck). I needed to pick up Tilapia for Friday's dinner and since Matt sold the fish store I used to patron, I'm not as crazy about the quality of the goods. Anyway, while I was there, I thought I'd find something for us to have Saturday night. Of course, when I asked Chris for requests, I got the usual response, "I don't know." When I pressed him, I got a bit more information, "Something meaty." Lots of help, thanks.

So while in WF, I checked out the butcher shop (what I wouldn't give for a local butcher). Anyway, as I walked back and forth in front of the case, one of the butchers asked me, "Can I help you?" I replied, that I was just looking for inspiration and I'd let them know when I was ready. Then I spotted them, lamb shanks. I had never prepared lamb shanks but figured they couldn't be much different than veal shanks. I also had vague recollections of some sort of braised lamb shanks with Moroccan spices that I thought might be good (crossing my fingers that Chris would be able to fill in on whatever other ingredients I needed when he did our regular shopping on Saturday).

So tilapia, lamb shanks (and assorted other goodies in hand), I checked out and headed home.

Upon arrival, I logged on to Cooking Light and did a search on lamb shanks where I found this recipe. It wasn't the Moroccan preparation I had envisioned but it was easy, slow-cooking, and mighty tasty. Chris said it rivaled my rendition of Osso Bucco and I have to say it was so much easier to prepare. The lamb was tender and delicious when done, the polenta and roasted Brussel sprouts were great accompaniments. Not to mention, the Due Mile Sei wine from Castoro that we drank with it. Nice wine - good to taste it when I'm totally sober - it was smooth with flavors that reminded me of chocolate and raspberry - yum.

Anyway, I will definitely make this dish again and definitely wouldn't have qualms for serving it to company. Added bonus, the lamb shanks were so much cheaper than veal shanks. Oh, for you Weight Watchers, this came in at 9 points (not too bad for a Saturday night meal and that included the polenta).

Last week I needed a quick easy weeknight meal. My friend, Lisa, gave me the Weight Watchers Turnaround book a few months ago (she ended up with two), so having just rediscovered it I decided to give it a try.

Using the already cooked chicken (Perdue short cuts) this came together pretty easily. It was tasty too. Becky had hers as indicated (i.e., in the taco shells), but I had mine over a big bowl of mixed greens which was good too.

We had our first snow day on Friday and I promised Chris, if it snowed, I'd make him Cinnamon Biscotti. And I kept my promise. This recipe originally came from Cooking Light but I modified it with the addition of Cinnamon chips and because I don't use margarine and didn't feel like melting butter, I used canola oil.

Something about winter Sundays makes me want to eat stew. Well, at least something that's cooked slowly all afternoon while I slovenly sit on the couch, in this case, watching Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. So for yesterday's meal, I returned to the photocopies a friend made me from the Weight Watchers In One Pot cookbook.

But let me digress one moment. I have to say, there are two things that irk me about the Weight Watcher cookbooks. 1) They only offer them for a limited time and then they're gone. Unless you want to way overpay on E-bay, you snooze, you lose. 2) They repeat recipes. Well, yes, maybe they're not exactly the same but I don't call changing macaroni from regular to whole wheat and low fat cheese to fat free cheese in order to make something core, a new recipe. I guess because of these two bugaboos, I have no compunction about reprinting their recipes.

Anyway, so back to my lazy Sunday - for yesterday, I decided to make a Beef Burgundy, which while it wasn't entirely in one pot, came close enough. I assembled all the ingredients about 10:00am because the recipe said it needed 8 to 10 hours on low. It was easy peasy, and then it sat and cooked away all day, making the house smell pretty good.

There are no pictures though because I have this thing with slow cooker foods - I don't know if it's me, or if it's because the recipe cooked too long (as I said, the recipe said 8 - 10 hours, but my crockpot cooks hot and it probably was done in more like 5.5 to 6 hours) or if it's just a function of crock pot cookery, but other than the parsley sprinkled on at the end, all the colors just melt, into a sort of brown. It tasted good though and Becky and Chris both said I could make it again. There's a lot of extra gravy, so make sure you have an nice crusty loaf for mopping.

Another Weight Watcher recipe, this time from Turnaround Program Cookbook. I love Chinese food so anything that resembles that, and satisfies a craving, I'm in. This one did that and came together quick. I'm usually concerned that there's not enough sauce in these recipes but this one had enough to coat all the chicken and broccoli nicely. Becky doesn't like broccoli but picked out the chicken and gave it a thumbs up. I will make it again.

Okay - shhh...don't tell anyone, but I forgot to post this last night, so my last day of February entry will be post dated. Anyway though, I was in a minor baking frenzy yesterday and thought I would return to Dolce Italiano for inspiration for last night's dessert. I had found almond flour a while ago in a local market, so decided to make the Almond Fingers.

Almond Fingers photo by Becky

Last year, No Knead Bread swept through the Internet - there were huge discussions about it everywhere. It was based upon a column by Mark Bittman published in the New York Times (I'll dig out my recipe and post it another time). But since then, Amy let us know about a second version of this bread, or "Soon the Bread Will be Baking Itself." My fellow Slow Travelers have been doing it for months and yesterday, I thought I'd finally give it a try.

You basically mix a batch that's good for four small loaves (maybe just under 16oz each). I did my first one yesterday:

which we enjoyed with dinner last night (by the way, those are some of those almond fingers in the background). Then I put the remaining dough in the fridge, and tonight, just baked another loaf:

It's cooling now. This is so easy (especially once it's in the fridge), I can't imagine buying bread again! Shoot - Chris has a bread knife in hand - have to go!

It's Purim today (well, I'm pretty sure it's today or tonight and tomorrow, I'm on vacation, so I've lost a bit of time). Anyway, Purim is a Jewish holiday, like many other Jewish holidays, that we celebrate, in that, the reason we're celebrating is someone tried to wipe us from the face of the earth, they failed, let's eat. Well, Purim is a little different because in addition to eating we drink for this one too (like Passover where we must have four glasses of wine), for Purim, if memory serves, we're supposed to get so blasted, we can't say, recognize or something the name of the villain in the story, Hamen.

Much updates to the blog must occur (for example, getting rid of the March Madness bloggers - bye friends and replacing them with our new group, Sunday Slow Bakers (we're really not slow, we're just all affiliated with SlowTrav in some way and like to bake). I throw the links up shortly but basically, there's a group of us, who each week will bake the same recipe from a specific source, and post our results on Sunday. For the first round, our source will be Dolce Italiano, Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen - each person selecting a recipe from there. Next go around, a different source - can't wait to see how long we can keep this going for.

Krista initiated the Sunday Slow Bakers and had the honor of choosing the first recipe, Italian Crumbly Cake. I baked it yesterday and here are some results and observations.

This week for our Sunday Slow Bakers, Deborah chose Sicilian Pistachio Bars. Like the other recipes, this one came from Gina DePalma's Dolce Italiano.

Normally, with pistachios, the hardest part of the recipe for me, is finding unsalted, shelled pistachios but I lucked out and found them at Whole Foods last week. The second hardest part is not eating them before I actually use them in the recipe. While I made it to the recipe with pistachios in tact, I can't say as much for the leftovers.

Okay, okay - I know I'm two weeks behind. I still haven't even done the bread sticks from week three but today, I finally got to the Grappa Soaked Sponge Cakes from week 4. Now, like so many of my fellow Sunday Slow Bakers, I did not have mini-bundt pans and though my intention all week had been to hit Bed Bath and Beyond to see if I could get some there, I never did. So like others, I improvised using a small bundt pan for half the batter and my large muffin tin (6) for the other half. Also, I don't have grappa, and at this point in my life, I don't feel like buying any. I'm not a grappa drinker. Normally, when a recipe calls for grappa, I sub brandy but after reading Palma's blog, I decided to go with limoncello instead (it was a toss up between limoncello and Disarono but more members of my family prefer lemon flavor, so the limoncello won).

The cake is pretty easy to put together though with a few distinct steps (e.g., making the glaze, dry ingredients, wet ingredients, separate eggs - oh and I always wonder, should I have sifted the cake flour and then measured or measured then sifted?). Also I feared I may have deflated my egg whites some when I incorporated them into the batter but everything seemed to rise just fine. Baking time was exactly 25 minutes, and while I enjoyed brushing the limoncello glaze on at the end, I realized I need new pastry brushes, as little bristles got left behind here and there.

Here are some shots, sorry no decoration with them and my results weren't nearly as pretty as my fellow bakers. Oh and I didn't do such a hot job of greasing the bundt pan (all those nooks and crannies), so the cake came out in two pieces leaving a bit behind in the pan.

Jerry picked Biscotti di Limone e Semolino for this week's challenge Sunday Slow Baker's Challenge, initiated by Krista. I'm cheating this week, since I made them before, when I first got the book, Dolce Italiano, you can check out my previous entry: Lemony Semolina Cookies.

So this week I got to choose what our Sunday Slow Bakers made. I wanted something slightly challenging, different, and with produce I knew I could easily find this time of year. I would have chosen the zucchini cake but I was hoping to do it this summer (with the glut of zucchini I get from the farm - though now I think it's what we're making next week, but I need to check). Gelato was another definite possibility, but we're supposed to be baking, so I ignored those too. There was also an apple tart - but again, to me, a fall dish, which is how I ended up with grapes (nine weeks out of ten I can find decent grapes at the market).

First off, I got these big, sweet black grapes from Whole Foods, so that part was easy. I had some left over hazelnuts from when I made the chocolate hazelnut cookies, no grappa (for soaking the grapes), so I substituted some Frangelico and the rest of the ingredients were pretty straightforward (e.g., butter, flour, cream, eggs, sugar).

I had already made two tarts using the Sweet Pastry Crust, a Fresh Fig Tart and the cover recipe, Pine Nut Tart, so I didn't have any nerves about assembling it this third time. I still love this crust recipe. It comes together easily, isn't delicate, so if it breaks while I'm rolling, or moving to the tart shell, it's easily repairable, and this time, if someone doesn't forget to close the freezer drawer and defrost my freezer, I should hopefully have some crust left for another tart real soon.

Likewise, the filling was pretty easy too - though it did require three different bowls, one on the food processor for chopping the nuts, one for the egg yolks and one for the egg whites. The recipe suggests using the same bowl for the yolks and whites, and just cleaning between, but since I needed a bowl to mix the hazelnuts and egg yolks together in, I didn't do that. I just used my hand mixer for the egg yolks, added the hazelnuts, and my stand mixer to beat the egg whites.

Leave plenty of time for this recipe though, both active and inactive. Inactive because the tart dough requires an hour or two of chilling before rolling, and then another hour once it's rolled out and in the shell. Active because slicing and then placing those grapes could be a bit time consuming.

It baked up fine in the specified time and looked pretty puffy when it first came out of the oven but then settled nicely. The grapes did spread some, so don't be afraid to place them close together.

I made this cake on Sunday afternoon since we were having friends over for dinner Sunday evening. Some comments from memory, it said to grate the zucchini but I've always shredded it in the past when making zucchini cakes (using my Cuisinart), so I wasn't sure how to approach this. I did end up using my box grater, and used the second to smallest hole to grate the zucchini which came out a bit pulpy and watery but I'm happy to say I actually liked it that way in the cake. You didn't have "strings" of zucchini as you ate the cake - it just sort of blended into the background.

The other think I loved about this recipe (and from the Grappa cakes), is the suggestion/direction to brush the glaze on. In the past, whenever using this type of glaze, the recipes I've used have always said to drizzle the glaze on - which usually ends up with a mess on my counter (if it's still on the cooking rack), or puddles on my plate (if I've plated it). Plus, you don't get "complete coverage" of the icing around the cake. By brushing this on, it really does create a crunchy coating all around the inside and outside of the cake.

My last observation, the use of the spice combination of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, made the flavor of this cake more reminiscent of fall desserts to us - so while I won't make it again during July or August - I absolutely know what I'll be doing with the September, and October bumper crop of zucchini we always get at the end of the harvest.

Chris loved this cake and definitely proclaimed it a make again. Becky too - Sammi, not so much, but I think if she didn't know there was zucchini in it, she would have loved it too.

Anyway, we're so pathetic, and this went so quickly that here's my picture!

Oh - I still need to figure out the WW points but will report back shortly with that information.

And we're back with the Sunday Slow Bakers. This week, MarciaB made the selection and a good one she did. We made the Chocolate Polenta Tart. All I can say is yum and yummier!

First it calls for the Polenta Tart Crust, which while I found easy to assemble, I had problems transferring to my tart pan. It kept crumbling. No worries though, I just transferred it in pieces and did a combination of pressing and using my little Pampered Chef roller to get proper coverage. I think this resulted in a thicker crust but we didn't mind (as a matter of fact, Becky asked me to just make the crust next time).

The chocolate filling was totally easy to put together and tasted like warm, fudgy brownie when it came out of the oven. We didn't have ice cream to serve it with, so just dusted on some powdered sugar.

This is a definite make again (as a matter of fact, it will probably be made very often). Next time, I may cut down on the butter in the polenta crust - just to see what happens. Oh and we wrapped it and put it in the refrigerator because we were going away on Saturday (I made the tart on Friday). Sunday night, when we got home, still good, good at room temperature, good cold, and good when Becky nuked it (it's hers and Sammi's new favorite). Oh and for those who are keeping track, at a sliver of 16 servings (as opposed to 10 in the recipe), this comes in at a whopping 7 points a slice.

Many of you know that I belong to a CSA, which means every week from June through November, I get a box off localy, organically grown goodies. Each week you don't know what you get until you arrive, but after you've been doing this a while, you get a feel for what will come and when.

Lately though, it seems we're getting Swiss chard out the wazoo. I mean really - how many times can you eat sauteed Swiss chard? And while I like it in my lentil soup, I hate that when I freeze my soup, the chard gets kind of a nasty green as opposed to the vibrant green it has if I cook it just right.

So last week I went searching for a new Swiss Chard recipe and found:

Swiss Chard Spanakopita Casserole

Cooking spray
2 1/4 cups minced white onion
3/4 cup minced green onions
3 garlic cloves, minced
9 cups chopped trimmed Swiss chard (about 1 1/2 pounds)
6 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint
1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 large egg whites
10 (18 x 14-inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add white onion; sauté 7 minutes or until golden. Add green onions and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in chard; cook 2 minutes or until chard wilts. Stir in parsley and mint, and cook 1 minute. Place in a large bowl; cool slightly. Stir in cheeses, salt, pepper, and egg whites.

Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board (cover remaining phyllo to prevent drying), and coat with cooking spray. Top with 1 phyllo sheet, and coat with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with 3 additional sheets.

Cut phyllo stack into a 14-inch square. Place square in center of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray, allowing phyllo to extend up long sides of dish. Cut 14 x 4-inch piece into 2 (7 x 4-inch) rectangles. Fold each rectangle in half lengthwise. Place a rectangle against each short side of dish. Spread the chard mixture evenly over phyllo.

Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board (cover remaining phyllo to prevent drying), and coat with cooking spray. Top with 1 phyllo sheet, and coat with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining phyllo sheets. Place 18 x 14-inch phyllo stack over chard mixture. Fold phyllo edges into center. Coat with cooking spray. Score phyllo by making 2 lengthwise cuts and 3 crosswise cuts to form 12 rectangles. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until golden.

Note: Cut the phyllo stacks so they fit in and up the long side of the baking dish. Arrange folded section against short edges of dish to encase filling.

Yield: 12 servings

CALORIES 121 (35% from fat); FAT 4.7g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.3g); IRON 1.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 14mg; CALCIUM 134mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.6g; SODIUM 449mg; PROTEIN 6.1g; FIBER 1.6g

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2003

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Now Phylo is one of those ingredients that scare me - it's brittle, it sticks together, you know the drill but this wasn't bad. Because you're making it into a casserole, you can easily hide your mistakes (sort of like lasagna). The instructions weren't so clear, and I meant to take more pictures (will do next time), but here's one from my camera phone of the casserole before I placed the top layer on.

Basically, you're cutting up the bottom layer of phyllo into three pieces so you have enough to line the edges of the casserole dish, all the way around. Then you cover it with the top layer, tucking the edges in towards the center.

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures, but I made this after riding 100K that morning, and while we were expecting company that night but trust me, it looked and tasted delicious. Oh, and can you believe I actually didn't have enough Swiss Chard, so supplemented with a little baby spinach too.

Definitely a make again and for you WW fans out there, it has 3 points per decent-size serving.

Well, here it is the first week of our Sunday Slow Scoopers! And unlike our bakers, where I fell by the wayside as the weather warmed, and we migrated to the shore, I figured I could follow through with this one, as moving my ice cream maker was a lot easier than all my baking accessories/ingredients. Hopefully it pans out.

So for the first week, we started with Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream. The first step in this process I did at home, whilst I had about an hour to kill on Thursday morning before my Weight Watcher meeting (ironic, no?). I melted some the butter, stirred in the nuts and tossed with salt before baking. I let them cool during the day (while we did crazy things, including dealing with car issues and getting my daughters pierced on various parts of their bodies), packed them up and brought them to the beach with me.

On Friday, after everyone cleared out of the kitchen at lunch time, I began making the custard with the help of my trusted assistant, and photographic documentor, Becky.

Okay - first to start, I really do love Tiramisu. But every time I think of the name, I'm reminded of that scene in Sleepless in Seattle with Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks:

Rob Reiner's character, "Tiramisu."

"You'll love it."

Well, I'm here to tell you, they weren't talking about ice cream in that scene but maybe they should have been.

Pina Colada Sherbet w/ MintBleary, bleary, bleary - Chris woke up at 4:00 to catch a 6:00 flight to Atlanta this morning and he was a bit noisier than usual. Not to mention he woke up at 3:00 to take some Advil (as we found out yesterday, Chris has shingles - which is another entry in itself - the topper to a banner week health-wise for the Riemanns, but I digress). So we have a brave house guest (brave b/c she's not only dealing with Chris's sudden diagnosis but the return of two stinky teen girls, also recovering from illnesses at sleep away camp) but because we have that brave house guest, I pushed off making this week's Sunday Slow Scoopers dish until yesterday, so we could all enjoy it for dessert last night.

As I've mentioned before, our CSA seems to be OD-ing on Swiss Chard this year. I don' t think a week has gone by where we haven't gotten some to cook, many weeks at least 10 leaves. Normally, I just do a quick saute of it, or throw it in some soup, but I've been unable to cook soup this summer and I grew tried of my version of the quick saute, so I started looking for some alternative methods.

You may remember from a few weeks ago the Swiss Chard Spanakopita, which while delicious, is a bit labor intensive. So on Friday night, I went in search of something simple and found it on Cooking Light. This recipe was so flipping easy and so flipping good, I don't think I'll be making Swiss chard any other way for a good long while.

Spicey Swiss Chard with Lemon

Spicy Swiss Chard with Lemon
From

Although 16 cups seems like a large amount of chard, it will cook down. Three simple ingredients--crushed red pepper, garlic, and fresh lemon juice--round out the flavor.

2 teaspoons olive oil
16 cups trimmed Swiss chard (about 2 pounds)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chard; saute 1 minute or until slightly wilted. Stir in pepper and garlic. Cover and cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook 3 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Stir in juice and salt.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup)

CALORIES 43 (38% from fat); FAT 1.8g (sat 0.3g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.2g); IRON 2.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 74mg; CARBOHYDRATE 6g; SODIUM 345mg; PROTEIN 2.6g; FIBER 2.3g

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2002

Grilling ribs has been something I've always wanted to try and something I've always been intimidated to do. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was memories of my mom making spare ribs as a child, I seem to recall a lot of work, boiling, grilling, you name it. Maybe it was the fear of eating them (I don't even want to think about the Weight Watcher points involved) but whatever it was, I never made them ... until last Friday.

The Setting for Rib Night

Chris has been hankering for them too. At first, he had the bright idea for us to invite some friends over to join us in this culinary endeavor but I quickly talked him down from that (i.e., "What are you crazy?" and "Uh, no!" seemed to do the trick). But he wouldn't be detered from the overall pursuit of the ribs so we decided to visit Whole Foods on Thursday night, buy the best ribs money could buy (well, we think at least better than Shop Rite), and picked a recipe.

The other Sunday Slow Scoopers were making Lavender Honey ice cream this week but I just knew I didn't have it in me to do something that required lavender flowers, and custard, and whatever else, over the Labor Day weekend. So instead, I branched out on my own, and went for one of the simplest (and best tasting Blueberry Pie) ice creams I could think of, Vanilla.

Now, normally, Vanilla, like all the others requires the custard step. But Dave provides some recipes for "Philadelphia Style" ice cream, where while you cook the ingredients the day before, no egg is involved, therefore, no custard, and for me, no worries.

I forgot to take a picture the first night we enjoyed it atop apple pie (Dad didn't get blueberry), but here it is from last night, with a little chocolate sauce and sprinkles. And yes, I know, I really need to practice this food photography. I think it's the night lighting, yeah, let's blame that.

Philadelphia Vanilla

Chris says it's the best Vanilla he's ever had. Mom liked it too "even though I'm not usually a Vanilla fan." But if you're looking for something quick, easy and tasty, go with this one.

Vanilla Ice Cream, Philadelphia-Style

3 cups heavy cream (or 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk - I used this variation)
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Pour 1 cup of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add the remaining cream (or milk and cream combination, is using) and the vanilla extract.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, rinsing and reserving it for another use, and freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

It's that time of year again, the time of year when zucchini comes out of everyone's ears! We are no exceptions. Well, at least this year we didn't even bother growing our own. I've tried several zucchini bread recipes including an orange zucchini bread that I think I forgot to blog about (I'll go see if I can find pictures). So in addition to Becky's favorite, the lemony zucchini muffins I made last summer, this morning I tried a new recipe from Cooking Light.

Zucchini Bread

I have two disconnected memories of Peach Ice Cream from my childhood. One, I'm not sure is real but I remember visiting cousins of my mom, at their house on a lake, and having peach ice cream. Another time, I remember our neighbors, across the street, making it in this big wooden thing you had to crank. Not much came out in the end (at least I thought for what you put into it) but what came out (considering I wasn't a peach ice cream fan - I mean c'mon peach when you can have chocolate?), was pretty darn good.

So other than those two memories, since childhood, I hadn't really given much thought to eating and/or making peach ice cream.

Of course, that was until the Sunday Slow Scoopers stepped in.

Now let me start off by stating, if you don't get good peaches, don't bother with this. Your peaches taste bland, your ice cream tastes bland - there's no way around that axiom.

So while I'm on the subject of good peaches. Let's take a moment to educate the masses on how to choose a peach. Never, ever, ever squeeze a peach. I hate to tell people, but odds are most of the peaches in the bins (especially at the supermarkets) aren't ripe. Squeezing a hard peach, only leaves bruises that won't appear until the peach actually does ripen - so that perfect peach you bought at the market, a day or two later, will be completely bruised from where you poked and prodded it (or worse yet, my perfect peach will be because some shmo before me squeezed the crap out of it - can you tell I'm passionate about my peaches?). To choose a peach, simply pick it up, gently cupping it in the palm of your hand, and sniff it around the stem. If it smells like peach, even if it's hard, it will taste like peach. When you get home, stick it in a paper bag on your counter for a day or too and voila, good peach.

So now, once you have your perfect peaches, and they've ripened, you can make the ice cream (you need four good size peaches for this recipe, 600 grams or 1 1/3 pounds).

First you peel them. Does anyone have a good method for peeling peaches? Because I gotta tell you, those suckers get slippery as your working your way around them and almost lost a couple to the sink. Once peeled, slice all the way around the peach, dividing it in half and basically pry it apart to get the pit out. Now chunk it and throw it into a non-reactive medium-sized pot, with a half a cup of water and 3/4 cup of sugar. Cook that on the stove for 10 minutes, covered, on a medium flame stirring once or twice during the process. Let it cool to room temp.

Peach Mixture After Blending
Now take your peach mixture and in a blender or food processor (I used a blender), puree that with 1/2 cup of sour cream (I used full fat but may try light or no fat next time to see how it changes the consistency), 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla and a couple of drops of fresh-squeezed lemon juice. You want some chunks in this sucker, so don't puree too long. I think I did mine for a few seconds at most.

Chill the mixture in the fridge - I've taken to chilling mine overnight. Stick it in your ice cream machine and let it do it's thing. That's it - easy peasy. Oh and Dave says you can do this with nectarines too (follow guidelines above for choosing peaches), but you don't need to peel them because they soften enough during the cooking process.

Peach Ice Cream w/ Blackberries from the CSA

So here's my question though: can I make that sugar-syrup peach step and can or freeze it during the summer, then use those all winter long to make fresh peach ice cream? We didn't go peach picking this summer, but if we do next summer, it may be a good way to use all those peaches!

Update: A 1/3 cup serving is 3 weight watchers points. A 1/2 cup serving is 5 WW points.

So the eggplants keep rolling in from my CSA. And while I'm getting sick of caponata (look for a recipe for Eggplant Parm Lasagna real soon), I tried one at a farmers market in the Whole Foods parking lot a few weeks ago that was different than mine and delicious, so I made it last week. Sorry forgot the pictures but here's the recipe. It's sweeter than mine, and I like the addition of the red pepper, I think it's probably a better topping for crostini or bruschcetta than mine too. So anyway, here's the recipe:

1 large eggplant - cut into 1 inch cubes; I used a bunch of smaller ones - maybe a pound
1 large onion - diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic (I inadvertently minced these but it still came out fine - I just added them towards the end of the saute so they wouldn't burn)
2T tomato paste
1/4c raisins (I didn't have raisins, so I used currants)
2T chopped green olives
2T chopped black olives
1/2 dried basil
1t oregano
1 - 2T Balsamic vinegar (pretty sure I used two)
1T sugar
1t crushed red pepper
1/4 cup water

Fry the eggplant in olive oil until dark golden brown. Okay so the recipe didn't say how much olive oil and b/c I'm weight conscious I used 1t for each batch and did it in two batches - you could probably use more. Drain on paper towels (didn't bother with this). Empty skillet of oil (didn't bother with this). In 3T olive oil (I used less, maybe 1T), saute onion, pepper and garlic (remember if it's minced add it to the end). I sauteed until they were softened. Add remaining ingredients and eggplant. Simmer about 15 - 20 minutes, serve warm or cold.

As I've mentioned before, our CSA has totally gone overboard this year on Eggplants and I'm darn tired of making caponata. So I've started scouring Cooking Light, looking for other eggplant dishes. Although, not fall yet, and really not cool outside, I decided to fire up the oven Saturday night and make something rich and gooey - Eggplant Parm Lasagna.

Baked Eggplant SlicesThis isn't an easy dish from the standpoint that there are lots of steps, but in the end, it's a one casserole meal, so after dinner (assuming you've cleaned up along the way), you're pretty good to go. It also has a really decent serving size - dividing that 9x13 casserole dish into 9 makes for a good-sized portion at 9 Weight Watcher points each. Also, I was concerned about baking the eggplant as opposed to frying it but man, it worked great! This is a definite make again, a good vegetarian option, and I wouldn't hesitate to make it for company.

Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna

The eggplant glut continues (I think I have two left in the refrigerator). I also had a bunch of tomatoes left (we got to take 20 last week at the CSA). So I decided to make this dish last night. It takes a little prep time only because you have to roast the eggplant for 15 minutes (so figure in preheat time, roasting, and chopping of vegies), but once that's done, it comes together easily for decent pasta sauce. Heck, even Becky liked it (though she didn't actually eat it - opting for plain pasta, and just a taste of the sauce).

We love Indian food. But I've always been intimidated to make it at home. Not to mention the caloric count on many dishes. You can imagine my surprise though when my sil recommended a Chicken Tikka Masala recipe on the Weight Watchers site. I had to give it a shot, and I have to say, it was pretty darn good. I can't say whether or not it's "authentic" but it sure takes good. I've made it twice now and both times we enjoyed it.

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.

This week's choice was actually my pick! So, there's no doubt it would be Chris's favorite, and it was. Sammi chose it as her favorite so far too but Becky still prefers the peach. I think even Fala liked it best.

Crazy though, I didn't even get to serve this with apple crisp, or cobbler or pie, as it was gone before I had a chance to do any baking. I did get to serve it with a baked apple though on Saturday night.

I'm going to make it again this week and serve it on Rosh Hashanah I think with the cliche apple cake. Should be good.

I made this for dessert for Rosh Hashanah this year and it was really good. I left out the nuts in my version, only because I forgot but still no issues. I'd definitely make this lightened version of my normal recipe in the future.

Sorry, no pictures. And for you Weight Watchers, this comes in at 6 points.

For a side dish for Rosh Hashanah, you should have something sweet (well, the entire meal should be sweet, for the sweet New Year). Often we go for something with honey in it but I wanted something a little different and opted for these instead. This dish came together easy (once all the carrot peeling and slicing was done), tasted good and I made it the day before and simply re-heated in the microwave. I doubled the recipe but was still surprised by how much it cooked down. I'll still make it again though.

For Weight Watchers this has 1 point per serving. Again, sorry no pictures.

This is an old standard recipe that I've lightened a bit using fat free sour cream and egg beaters. Though I think I'm going to go back to either light sour cream and/or real eggs - I just think the consistency is better. I may cut down the sugar instead - consider the lightened version a work in process.

Noodle Pudding (5 points), serves 16 with other side dishes, 12 (and 7 points) solo

16 ounces no yolk egg noodles -- medium
1 1/2 cups sugar
15 ounces applesauce
1 cup egg beaters, Fat Free
2 cups sour cream, no fat
1/4 cup light butter, unsalted
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup raisins

1. Boil noodles and drain put back into the pot
2. Add all ingredients except cinnamon
3. Pour into greased 13 x 9 pan
4. Sprinkle w/ cinnamon
5. Bake 90 minutes at 350 or bake 45 minutes and freeze then bake one hour from the freezer

I got this recipe many years ago from an old friend. She made this Challah for Rosh Hashanah because it's especially sweet but you can use it whenever. Suse taught me how to bake and how cooking for your friends and loved ones is a way to show them you love them. Every time I bake this bread, I think of her.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Suse's Challah (3 points)
1 cup hot water
2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup honey
5 cups flour
1/4 cup oil (I use canola)
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs

1. Add oil to water
2. Add honey, stir until dissolved
3. Sprinkle yeast over mixture
4. Stir once to moisten
5. Let rise (5 to 10 minutes)
6. Add 2 cups flour to mixture
7. Add egg, raisins and rest of flour
8. Knead until smooth and elastic
9. Let rise 1 hour
10. Make challah (2 small round ones can also be made haven't tried braided yet - see pictures below)
11. Put on cookie sheet
12. Let rise until double in size (about 1 hour)
13. Brush w/ beaten egg yolk
14. Bake until golden brown (about 30 - 40 minutes at 350)

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 153 Calories; 3g Fat (17.4% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 18mg Cholesterol; 8mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

I have one daughter who is raisin intolerant (like her father), so in addition to Suse's Challah, I also make this recipe from my friend Lisa. What I like (love) about this recipe, is that it starts out in the bread machine, so you only do the final baking in the oven and no mixing or anything. It's great for starting on a Friday afternoon so you can have fresh Challah for shabbat dinner. Lisa has another challah recipe that's a little sweeter, if I recall, but I never got it from her.

I guess I stopped writing just after my birthday, so I missed filling you all in on my Rosh Hashana menu. I wanted to get inspired, early on, and try some new dishes but as usual, I got side-tracked and went with many tried and true but did manage a new one.

For starters, we went with a Mediterranean theme:

• hummus
  
• Babba Ghanoush
  
• stuffed grape leaves
  
• olives
  
• pickled vegetables

For dinner we had:

• Matzo Ball Soup (aunt Sheila made the pea soup)
  
• Mixed Greens salad with Everyday Vinaigrette, glazed pecans (store-bought), and Gorgonzola (on the side b/c half the family doesn't like cheese on their salad)
  
• Then I stole Chicken with Leeks and Figs from Amy. I was worried about making a new dish without taste-testing it first and so I was also going to make the Eggplant Parm Lasagna but my oven went on the Fritz on Saturday and I didn't want to push my luck with its use. As it turned out, with the oven, I "trick" it into warming up and once it gets to the proper temp, it maintains it but I just never knew when it would die, so didn't push it.

  Anyway, back to the Chicken, mine was a bit different than Amy's because I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts (most of my family are white meat eaters; cooking for my extended family, by the way, can be problematic at best). So what I did was to keep the chicken breasts out of the concoction, after the initial browning, until the last 15 minutes when I added the figs, since I figured the thin breasts would cook quicker (oh yeah, I used the chicken breast cutlets). Anyway, this worked well. I also made it on Sunday and let it sit in the fridge until Monday, when I reheated it in the broken oven for about 30 minutes, covered, at 350-375 (hard to tell w/ the broken oven).



• Carrot Coins with Maple-Balsamic Browned Butter
  
• Standard Noodle Kugel (I had a craving)
  
• Raisin and Plain Challahs

Everything came out great, and there was plenty of food and no worries with the busted oven.

It's pretty warm here right now - in the seventies - but the calendar says October, the leaves are changing and starting to fall, and for me that means fall. Along with that, it means fall flavors. Nothing says fall like apples, so this hit on all cylendars.

I was going to make this dish last night because I needed something that I could cook based upon what I had in the house (I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer, apples in the fridge and the first apple cider of the season too) because I didn't know if Chris was going to get the food shopping done before dinner or not. Then it turned out that Sammi's friend was sleeping over, and Chris could get to the market, so we opted for something safe last night (hamburgers) and to make this tonight, with the now defrosted pork tenderloin.

As far as the Sweet Potatoes, well, I bought a whole bunch at the farm market Friday afternoon (they scream fall to me too) and we always have maple syrup around, so that was a no brainer.

Pork Medalions with Double Apple Sauce and Maple Sweet Potatoes

This week Chris brought home lemongrass from our CSA. Of couse, I had no idea what to do with it but luckily they provided several recipes and this is the one I decided to make.

A 1.5C serving comes in at two points. This is a really refreshing soup, I think due to the inclusion of the lemongrass. Definitely refreshing enough to enjoy as a summer soup too.

Ingredients

1 fresh lemongrass stalk, root end trimmed and 1 or 2 outer layers discarded
1 large onion, chopped
1T olive oil (originally called for 2T butter and 2T olive oil)
1 3/4 pounds kabocha or butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1- inch pieces ( 4 cups)
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen com kernels (10 ounces; from 2 to 3 ears)
5 cups water (I used 4C chicken broth and 1C water to give a little richness)
Garnish: cilantro leaves (I forgot this but it would have been good)

Preparation
Cut off and discard top of lemongrass, leaving a 6-inch stalk, then smash stalk with side of a large heavy knife.
Cook lemongrass, onion and 1t salt in oil in a heavy medium pot over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 10 minutes. Add squash, com, water, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and discard lemongrass.

Puree soup in 3 or batches in a blender until very smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), straining each batch as blended through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heatproof bowl, pressing hard on and then discarding solids. Season with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary.

For this week's Sunday Slow Scoopers, Chris chose any flavor of chocolate from the Perfect Scoop. At first I thought I'd keep it simple and go with the Philadelphia Style Chocolate Ice Cream - basic and simple. But then I saw the chocolate peanut butter, which is one of my favorite flavors and it was way simple, meeting the second requirement, so that's I went with.

And Lisa, if you're reading this, just come over for some before it's all gone.

Oh, and for weight watchers, a 1/3 cup serving is 5 points.

Wednesday night (for reasons I will discuss in some future post), I wanted something quick and easy for dinner and yet comforting. Of course, when I planned our weekly menu (yes I plan a menu on the weekend and then Chris food shops based upon that menu), I had no idea that's what I would want, so this one worked out really well.

The soup comes together in a few minutes, and cooks for maybe 15-20 minutes before you eat it. I didn't bother with the salad, but we had some left over ciabatta that Chris toasted up, rubbed with garlic, sprinkled with salt and drizzled olive oil over to make a nice accompaniment.

No pictures (maybe I'll get one at lunch today) but it's soup; it's easy and it's good. Oh and for you Weight Watchers out there not necessarily good value (7 points in a 1C serving) but it is pretty darn filling and with a salad, makes a good meal.

Pasta e Fagioli
From

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
1 1/2 tablespoons bottled minced garlic
1 cup water
1 (16-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 cup uncooked small seashell pasta (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans or other white beans, drained
Minced fresh parsley (optional)
Crushed red pepper (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and garlic; sauté 2 minutes or until browned, stir-ring to crumble. Add water, broth, and tomato sauce; bring to a boil. Stir in pasta, 1/4 cup cheese, oregano, salt, pepper, and beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 8 minutes or until pasta is done. Let stand 5 minutes; sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese. Garnish each serving with parsley and red pepper, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

CALORIES 353 (26% from fat); FAT 10.2g (sat 3.1g,mono 4.1g,poly 2.3g); IRON 4.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 34mg; CALCIUM 177mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.6g; SODIUM 742mg; PROTEIN 20.5g; FIBER 4.5g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2000

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 Slow Travelers are back in the kitchen but now we're simmering soups! We're four weeks in, and while I made the Mexican Turkey Soup, I've missed two others so far but I'm jumping back in with Teaberry's selection. For other Slow Soupers and their take on this delicious soup, click on the links to the right, under Sunday Slow Soupers. The spices mixed into the meatballs give them, and the entire soup an interesting flavor, almost middle eastern as opposed to Italian. For me, I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow as dinner tonight was delish!

Italian Wedding Soup

Meatballs:

2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound ground turkey (or ground meat of choice - I used 96% lean ground beef)
2 tablespoons olive oil
spices: 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon allspice, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt

Mix everything together, and roll into 1″ balls. Saute in the olive oil until lightly browned on the outside (I baked them at 350 instead until they were brown; next time I may try poaching them in the soup). Set aside.

Soup ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 cloves minced garlic
3 diced strips of turkey bacon (or regular bacon - I used center cut regular)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Marsala wine
2 quarts of chicken stock
1 cup orzo
1 tablespoon dried oregano

4 fresh leaves of basil, chopped
3 cups of arugula
1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano for garnish

Saute the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in large soup pot for 5 - 6 minutes. Add the bacon and the balsamic vinegar, and let all the flavors mix and blend.

Add the Marsala and let this cook down a little. When it is almost evaporated, add the chicken stock, orzo, meatballs, and oregano. Simmer this for about 15 minutes, til the orzo is soft.

Add the basil and arugula and cook for about 1 more minute. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmigiano for garnish.

Well, I'm probably not eating today but that doesn't mean you all can't. I got this recipe years ago, I think from the New York Times, but now I pretty much wing it and thought I'd share it with you. It's a great pantry meal (i.e., I keep everything in my pantry and can make it in the time it takes to boil water), hope you like it too.

1 16oz box of spaghetti (or really whatever pasta you like)
1 28oz can Whole Italian tomatoes (or a good brand of crushed - like Muir Glen, or heck, even diced would probably work too)
1 can anchovies (or maybe 5 fillets from a jar if you can find)
1 - 2T capers (rinsed and drained)
pitted kalamata olives (I prefer fresh from the olive bar but keep a jar in the pantry just in case; I've also used green and plain bland black ones in a pinch - I use a good handful - adjust based upon how much you like olives).
1 medium onion
parsley (decent amount of fresh, or a couple of tablespoons of dried)
basil (1 -2 T dried - Chris likes a lot of herbs)
oregano (1T dried)
crushed red pepper - a dash

Dice the onion and saute with the anchovy in olive oil in a large fry/saute pan. Break down the anchovy with the back of a wooden spoon. When onions are a bit soft, toss in pretty much everything else (if using whole tomatoes, break up with back of same spoon). When it boils, bring it down to a simmer.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. When it's boiling, add some salt to the pot, and give it a minute to return to a boil before tossing the pasta in (it's quicker to do it this way than salt the water from the beginning - it takes longer for salted water to come to a boil). Once the pasta is done, toss it with sauce and serve with some parmigiano reggiano atop if you like.

Reading Diana's, Creative Structures, I saw the entry on the coconut cake her niece baked from the Barefoot Contessa and that got me hankering for some too, only going through Ina's cookbook, it wasn't the coconut cake that caught my eye but the coconut cupcake. And before we go any further, let me tell you, cooking light, this is not!

A good friend called this morning to touch base, talk about the inauguration, and ask if I put the recipe for the lamb stew I made two weeks ago on my "website." To which of course, I replied, "Doh, totally forgot." So I'm glad she called, among other reasons, because it reminded me I had to do this and gave me a topic for today.

This dish originally came from Barb of Follow my Bliss after she posted it on the Slow Travel Talk Food Forum (which by the way is still open to the public through January 2009).

We found it hearty and delicious, the perfect meal to have on a cold winter night. It freezes well too, so we'll be able to have it again soon.

Yesterday, David Lebovitz posted a recipe for Creamy Feta-Red Wine Dressing, which sounded easy and delicious. And since miraculously I had all the ingredients in the house, and I had been craving a "Greek" salad for weeks, I decided to whip up a big salad for lunch.

Mine contains mixed spring greens, sliced red onion, grape tomatoes, pignoli nuts and dried blueberries (antioxidants and all). His picture, of course, came out better than mine (hey, what do you expect using a cell phone camera) but here's yesterday's lunch.

Chris found this recipe recently, in the copy of At Home with Michael Chiarello that he bought me a few years ago. We've made it twice and when he gets home from taking Becky to her first Semi-Formal (well, not her first, but her first with a date), we're going to make it a third time. You can find the recipe on the Napastyle website, and here's a direct link: Grilled Gaucho Steak with Chimichurri Sauce but it's not exactly the same as in the cookbook, which I'm going to give you now.

Grilled Gaucho Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Berry and Brown Sugar Muffins

Diana over at Creative Structures posted this recipe the other day and it sounded intriguing, especially because I always have frozen berries in my freezer (though we're out of raspberries that the recipe called for, I used blueberries and blackberries). Diana's version came from Bianca at White Living, who I believe posted the recipe in German, which Diana translated. Diana, in turn, posted the recipe in metric, which I've now converted below using my Weight Watchers scale (yes, you should appreciate the irony in that as these are not for the weight conscious but rather a bit indulgent).

Berry and Brown Sugar Muffins

3/4cup plus 1.5t butter or margerine
5.2 ounces brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
4 eggs
11.4 ounces of flour
3 teaspoons (aka 1T) baking powder
5 tablespoons of milk
6.1 ounces of frozen raspberries or mixed berries (I used about 4oz blueberries and the rest blackberries)

Beat the butter (by the way, I softened this as much as my impatient soul would allow), vanilla, sugar and salt in a mixer fitted with the paddle until it is light and airy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue mixing (I also scraped down the sides). Mix the flour with the baking powder. Add spoonfuls of the flour to the egg mixture, alternating with teaspoons of the milk (this was an exercise in patience as 5 tablespoons of milk equals 15 teaspoons!).

Mix a tablespoon of flour into the frozen berries. Then mix the berries into the batter carefully.

Pour into a muffin tin outfitted with parchment paper (i.e., for those in the states, I just used muffin paper cups). Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes.

These were good, but something in my conversion perhaps was off. I think next time, I will add a tad more brown sugar, not a lot. I will let you know how it goes.

I've tried many recipes for Beef Wellington over the years, some with great results and some disasters. Once you get the whole puff pastry concept down, it's really not that hard to do and this one is one of our favorites. As a matter of fact, last night's was so good, we realized after we finished, we forgot to save a "taste" for Fala!

I don't make this often, usually about once a year, but it's also a great make-ahead if you're having company and who doesn't love puff pastry?

Mini Beef Wellington w/ Gorgonzola

As life returns to "normal" I've started to cook again. Though, with the expectation that I'll be tired by the end of the day, I'm selecting recipes that are labeled either quick and easy or under 30 minutes. Last night, I snagged Gnocchi with Broccoli Rabe, Caramelized Garlic, and Parmesan from Cooking Light as it was tagged Quick and Easy, and it was.

Gnocchi with Broccoli Rabe, Caramelized Garlic, and Parmesan.

We totally enjoyed this dish, and the only thing I may do differently next time is up the crushed red pepper a tad (or perhaps buy some fresh crushed red pepper). I may also bulk up the boccoli rabe because I love it, and that will increase my vegies and portion size while also increasing the number of vegie servigs I get in a day.

Tons of beer left in the fridge from last weekend, a beautiful day and a major craving for red meat, sent us out to the grill last night for some Chile-Spiced Tenderloin Steaks. We went back to Cooking Light, looking for Quick and Easy recipes to grill and these came through. You marinade them only for as long as the charcoal grill warms up, so no need to pre-think this either (well, except for the ingredients). They had a nice kick but not burn your mouth spicy and I would definitely make them again.

Chile-Spiced Tenderloin Steaks

This has been a big deal on the Slow Travel Talk Food forum for a while now but I've never made it... until now. Since Becky is keeping kosher for Passover (which is another story), I wanted to get some decent snacks for her (as that blueberry muffin mix that was kosher for Passover was quite gross). Anyway, while she was away, I did a test batch (and brought them to my cousin's much to their delight), which came out great and will make another batch today. In the mean time I thought I'd share it with you.

Chocolate Caramel Matzoh Crunch

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

Did I mention that the Slow Travel Group is back in the kitchen? This time, in honor of the warm weather, and the overwhelming desire to not heat up our kitchens, we're making salads (yes, while last summer's ice cream recipes were great fun, some of us are still working them off).

Anyway, I'm way behind in my salad making - yes, even salads an take time to prep. So now I need to catch up. I did make this one relatively close to the original date (05/03/09), but just haven't gotten around to posting it until now.

Black Bean Salad

Sorry about the picture quality, you think by now I'd make sure my camera battery is charged instead of relying on my phone's camera...

Here's another one I'm playing catch-up with. I was a little leery of the raw asparagus thing but they tasted great. Just don't make the mistake that Chris did (though I warned him not to) and buy thin asparagus. They're very hard to peel. This was quite the refreshing/tasty salad and in the future, I'm thinking this would be a great Passover Seder addition, with all the flavors of spring.

Asparagus, Pea and Arugula Salad

Again, apologies on the picture quality.

In my effort to continue playing catch up with the salad samplers, for dinner Monday night, I made Jerry's, Thai Chicken Salad. Both Chris and I enjoyed it though Becky wasn't 100% thrilled. I'd make it again though.

I've got many notes here because I skipped some "exotic" ingredients and blew preparation a bit.

Thai Chicken Salad

Thai Chicken Salad

For the chicken:

4 roasted chicken breasts (I bought chicken breasts on bone w/ skin, seasoned w/ salt and pepper and roasted them in a 425 degree oven until they were done)
½ tsp chopped galangal (can substitute with ginger and I did)
Juice of two limes
1 ½ tsp minced bird’s eye chilies (or 1 tsp chili paste such as sambel oelek - I opted for the chili paste)
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 kaffir lime laves – centre rib removed, cut in a chiffonade (I didn't have these so grated the zest of a lime)
¾ tsp fish sauce

Shred the chicken breast. Mix all of the dressing ingredients. Toss the shredded chicken with the dressing. Adjust the seasonings – there should be a balance of hot, sour, and salt. To adjust seasonings in Thai food follow these rough guidelines . . . if it is too sweet add more fish sauce . . . too salty add more sugar . . . not tangy enough - add more lime juice . . . not hot enough - add more chili or some sambel oelek

For the salad base:

2 T fish sauce
2 T palm sugar – (can substitute with regular or brown sugar - I used brown)
¼ cup lime juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 bird’s eye chilies, minced (I, again used chili paste - too lazy to mince, and very little because I thought it would be too spicy for Becky).
1 bunch watercress, trimmed
8 Napa cabbage leaves cut in a chiffonade (I stole Amy's idea and used a bag of pre-shredded cole slaw because I didn't think Chris could handle finding/buying Napa cabbage)
16 cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 cup blanched green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
½ bunch cilantro, leaves trimmed and coarsely chopped
½ bunch mint, leaves trimmed and cut in a chiffonade (I used more cilantro and a little basil because I'm not a big fan of mint)

½ cup roasted peanuts (non-salted) or cashews, chopped

Mix the fish sauce through to chilies in a jar. Stir/shake well to dissolve sugar. Taste for seasonings). Store it in the refrigerator overnight so the flavors come together. I forgot to do this the night before, so they had very little marinating - also I mixed everything in my blender.

Mix together the watercress through mint in a large bowl. Toss with dressing.

To serve:

Divide the vegetable mixture amongst 4 plates (I just put everything in one big bowl). Add the chicken on top of the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with chopped, roasted nuts. You can also add some cilantro to garnish.

Deborah, of Old Shoes New Trip provided this week's recipe. It sounded like a great side salad to our barbecue dinner last night (gaucho steak sandwiches) so I made it yesterday evening, not realizing the flavors were supposed to blend overnight. Oh well! It was still darn good, and am looking forward to having it again this evening with our Greek-Style Burgers.

Roasted Corn & Wild Rice Salad

Roasted Corn & Wild Rice Salad

The recipe is very easy. It keeps well and freezes well. You can serve it both chilled or at room temperature. Great for picnics where you don't want to worry about spoilage.

1 package - uncooked wild rice. (the original recipe called for wild rice blend, but I prefer the stronger flavors of only wild rice.)
2 cups - frozen roasted corn nibblets (Deborah uses Trader Joes. I don't know if our local shop rite carries such a thing, so I bought frozen corn kernels and then sauteed them in a non-stick pan until they were caramelized a bit).
1 cup - finely chopped celery
3/4 cup - shredded carrot
3/4 cup - Craisins
2/3 cup - toasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup - finely chopped red onion
1/3 cup - raspberry vinegar
1 tbs - olive oil
1 tbs - low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp - grated orange peel
1/2 tsp - pepper

Cook rice according to package directions: omit salt and fat. Cool.
Combine rice, corn and all other ingredients in a bowl; stir well; chill overnight to blend flavors.
Serve cold from fridge or bring to room temp if you prefer. (I like room temp., Dan likes cold)

This makes a pretty big batch, so you might want to halve it.

I have to say I was a bit leery on the orange zest addition but it really gives the salad a nice, refreshing flavor.

Oh, and for Weight Watchers out there figure 12 servings, serving size 2/3 cup and 3 points per serving.

A couple of weeks ago I received a bunch of delicata squash from our CSA. I didn't know what to do with them until I did some research and found that they're similar to a butternut squash. Still, not having any meals with which I'd consider cooking them, and a chill in the air today, I decided to bake with them, converting a chocolate chip pumpkin bread recipe to use the delicata squash instead.

"Delicata" Bread

Those SlowTrav cooks have been working on these small bites based upon different ingredients for weeks now. I had intended to participate from the beginning but well, you know what they say about the road to hell...

Anyway, last week's ingredient was pumpkin. And, basically, each cook is challenged to make something small (most thing appetizer but I guess it can be a dessert too), which utilizes that weekly ingredient. Some are pulling out tried and true recipes, some are finding new recipes to try and others are creating things on the fly.

For this week's challenge, I decided to sort of join the last group. I was inspired by a pumpkin-sausage quiche recipe that Barbara (of Barb and Art fame) posted for me when I inquired what to do with a cheese pumpkin I received from our CSA. Instead, I changed it into something that I could use for the small bites.

Okay, I'm a little late, but at least I did it. This week we had to make something with mushrooms. At first I thought I'd do some sort of strudel-type dish with phyllo dough and a mushroom cheese insert (I thought this because let's face it, many dishes made with mushroom look like poo or barf and I figured with the shrooms inside, it would look good). But then I got lazy and I found the Godfather on AMC, so I needed something quick and easy.

I settled on a poo-looking but delicious tasting and easy to make stuffed mushroom recipe instead. I had this recipe in my files for almost 20 years, since I took my first cooking class at Dierberg's in St. Louis, but don't think I've made it since then. I figure the points using my lightening (hey all that oil was left in the bowl), they come in at one point each as opposed to the two points in the original recipe. Again, don't let the images dissuade you.

Shrimp Stuffed Mushrooms

I know, I know, I'm a bad small bite contributor - no excuses. But I did make something for today's ingredient, Brie. Of course there's the ubiquitous baked brie, which is an easy choice, and because I'm somewhat lazy, I decided on a variation of that.

Brie Tartlets with Grape Relish

1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
1/2 (8-oz.) Brie round, rind removed
3/4 cup seedless red grapes, chopped
1 green onion, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Garnish: fresh rosemary sprigs

1. Place walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Increase oven temperature to 425°.

2. Unroll piecrust on a flat surface. Cut into 24 rounds using a 2-inch round cutter. Press rounds into bottoms of ungreased miniature muffin cups (dough will come slightly up sides, forming a cup). Prick bottom of dough with a fork.

3. Bake at 425° for 6 to 7 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans, and cool on a wire rack 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300°.

4. Meanwhile, cut Brie round into 24 pieces. Stir together grapes and next 4 ingredients.

5. Arrange pastry shells on a baking sheet. Place 1 Brie piece in each pastry cup; sprinkle Brie pieces evenly with toasted walnuts.

6. Bake at 300° for 4 to 6 minutes or just until cheese begins to melt. Top tarts evenly with grape mixture. Garnish, if desired. Serve immediately.

Yield: Makes 8 appetizer servings

This recipe originally came from Southern Living (via www.myrecipes.com) and the only real change I made was that I didn't have green onion, so I minced red and the nuts didn't rest easily atop the brie, so I sprinkled them in the shells and placed the brie on top. They were easy to assemble, tasty and if only I could make them ahead of time, they'd be perfect.

Oh, and apologies again for the crappy quality of the photo. But remember, I'm lazy, too lazy to go upstairs and get my camera, so this shot was taken with my iPhone.

Brie Tartlets with Grape Relish

I love a good slow-cooker recipe but find they are few and far between. Plus, I have found that my cooker seems to run hot and often cooks quicker than the recipes indicate, leaving me with a pile of mush or stringy meat in the end. So I was glad this recipe turned out pretty good - due to a mistake by me though (more on that later).

I served our corned beef on rye bread with sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, and some melted swiss cheese and it was a great Sunday night dinner. Better yet, the leftover hash I threw together today!

Sorry no pics. (See previous post on my laziness if you're wondering why).

Finally made last Sunday's slow bite. This is one of my favorite dips. Tonight I made it with low fat mayonnaise and Chris couldn't tell, so that's good. It's incredibly easy too.

Artichoke Dip

1 cup mozzarella cheese -- cut in small cubes (I used shredded)
14 ounces canned artichokes packed in water -- drained and chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat)
2 cloves minced garlic

Mix all ingredients together. Bake uncovered for half-hour at 350. Serve with crackers or I guess vegies would work too.

I'm trying to use my bread machine more (c'mon let's face it, who doesn't like warm bread, baked fresh daily?). So I started searching around for Cooking Light bread machine recipes, and I found this one.

Olive Bread

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup warm water (105° to 115°)
• 3/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped green olives
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 package dry yeast

My machine requires the ingredients to be entered liquid first (so I did it in the above order). Then I put it on light bread cycle (I have an old machine), and two hours later, I got a loaf of bread.

Olive Bread

Alternatively, you can do this bread without a bread machine by following these directions.

I know I've been a bad Slow cook lately, but along with a bunch of other New Years resolutions (post to come shortly), I'm recommitting to participating in this weekly ritual. So now we're doing suppers and focusing in on different techniques. We're all preparing the same recipe (you can see a list of participants in the sidebar) but of course, everyone has their own twists and turns, so it's worth checking out the others. You can also see a complete schedule here.

This week we're doing roast, and Amy, from Destination Anywhere provided us with the recipe for Smoked Paprika Chicken.

Smoked Paprika Chicken - beautiful color

Found this recipe on Cooking Light this morning, Pumpkin Muffins, when searching for something I could make for some friends coming over for coffee (I knew I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry). After reading reviews for the recipe and based upon what I had on hand, I made a few adjustments and came up with this instead.

Pumpkin Muffins (with chocolate chips)

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

Okay, I know you're expecting Sunday Slow Suppers but I didn't get a chance to do it yesterday (feeling under the weather), so I'm going to make it tomorrow.

In the meantime, I got this recipe from Sheri of As the Seasons Change when we were talking Crockpot recipes. It's so easy! I ended up making it on Friday and then we went out, so I put the roasted pork in the fridge and yesterday, shredded it and reheated it with BBQ sauce.

BBQ Pulled Pork

2 - 2.5 pound pork tenderloin (I used two that weighed about 2.25 pounds)
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
BBQ Sauce

Put the first three ingredients into the crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Discard the liquid. Shred the pork and rewarm with a BBQ sauce of your choice (we used KC Masterpiece). That's it.

Now, I used a bit more than a 18 ounce bottle of sauce b/c I was trying to keep the points down but you'll probably want to use more. I served these on potato rolls, with cole slaw and fries and it could not have been easier!

Points for the pulled pork figuring this makes 10 servings (about 1/2 cup in size), is 5 points (plus 2 for the roll, total of 7). If you get 12 servings out of it, well then it's 4 points for the meat.

Sorry no pictures.

Yes, I know I missed last week and I still intend to make the veggie stew but in the meantime, I skipped ahead and on Friday night I made Jerry's Risotto al Granchio e Gamberi.

The original recipe called for 6T olive oil but I cut that down to 2T. And at 6 servings (about 8 oz each), this came in at 7 points a serving (with the 6T it would be 10 points). I also used canned tomatoes as winter tomatoes suck. I drained the canned, diced tomatoes and measured 1 cup. Otherwise, everything was the same.

I found the crab meat I bought a bit fishy or strong in taste and may make this again with better quality crab or only shrimp. Oh, and I used rock shrimp, which I didn't bother to chop, and found to be sweet and delicious.

Shrimp and Crab Risotto

Okay, I know I'm a day late, but through the miracle of back-dating, this post still appears on time. Hey, it's not cheating, it's using my resources.

Anyway, I wanted to make these yesterday but ran out of time. I wanted to make them yesterday because February 5th was World Nutella Day! Yes, a day devoted to the ... well ... devotion of Nutella (who needs Valentine's Day when you have a day devoted to the delicious chocolate hazelnut spread?).

A few years ago, Michelle, over at Bleeding Espresso, and Sara over at Ms. Adventures in Italy started this "affair" and it's been going strong ever since.

So without further delay - let me present you with my contribution to the worship of Nutella!

Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprints

This week Candi of Candi's Corner: Wanderlust and Passions suggested our recipe for this week. She based this stir fry on a recipe she first learned during a cooking class in Chiang Mai Thailand (though she chose to add more vegetables to it). It's delicious - and the cooking is easy though there's a lot of chopping for prep.

Ingredients chopped and ready to go

Note: as the picture above shows, I do like laying out all the ingredients for a stir fry before I start cooking. Stir fries come together so quickly that often there isn't time to do any more prep, while something cooks.

We celebrated our Valentine's dinner an evening early as Chris works tomorrow (though the girls are off from school). We were quite lazy, watching the Olympics (interspersed with House on Bravo) so it was a good thing this meal came together so quickly.

First we started with some caviar that we purchased at Whole Foods earlier in the day. Chris went with the usual blini but in an effort to keep the points down, I opted to use some endive leaves as my "scoop." Yum.

Next up, we moved onto Roasted Lobster Tail with a Ginger Dipping Sauce and some simply roasted brussel sprouts.

Roasted Lobster Tail

. Yes, you read that correctly, goat! That's because Deborah of Old Shoes, New Trip likes to push us the the limits of our comfort zone and boy did she succeed with this one.

For me, it struck a cord on several levels - 1) Goat - need I say more? 2) Fennel - I'm not a big fennel eater 3) Preserved lemons - do I make, do I buy and if so, where??

Really, I think all along, I had no intention of making this recipe, or if I did make it, I always intended to substitute lamb shanks, which is really no substitute at all, since the original recipe upon which this one was based, actually called for lamb. No matter though, I didn't believe it was going to happen for me. Until...

I woke up on Saturday in a semi-adventurous mood. So that was me, calling all the halal butchers in the area to see if they had goat shanks. Well, it was hard enough for them to understand that I wanted goat - my accents and theirs got in the way, let alone the shanks. But I persevered and finally found a butcher in the next town over that at least had goats, if not the shank.

Next, was the preserved lemons. Yes, I was in an adventurous mood but no, I was not in the mood to do any extra work than necessary. Amy said a Lebanese market would/should have preserved lemons so I called our local market and they told me they did have them.

Got dressed and headed out the door.

First stop was the Phoenecian Bakery for preserved lemons. All I have to say is why don't I pop in there more often!! Seriously, the place smells fantastic. They have all sorts of great food items, preserved olives, fresh pita, Turkish coffee and both dried and preserved lemons (spicy and regular). We purchased some oil-cured olives and some lemons but passed on the baklava (this time).

Next stop, the supermarket where I couldn't find fennel (seriously) but did fine "anise" which I'm assuming is the same thing.

Last stop was Mawab Grill near five corners. This was an adventure unto itself. The store isn't crammed full with stuff (some curry mixes, a refrigerator section filled with sodas and milk, and a small hot "buffet" area that had some prepared dals, biyriani and a couple of other items). The butcher case was empty.

But there was one burka-clad woman behind the register, three gentlemen butchering and grinding meat behind the counter and two gentlemen up front. When I approached the elder and started to speak, he immediately knew who I was when I said I called. "Ah, yes the goat. Come with me."

He led me behind the counter and into walk-in refrigerator where four full goats hung from hooks. I showed him which part I thought would be the shank (upper arm/leg and shoulder) but he told me he couldn't cut that part from each of the goats, so instead they cut me an entire leg which one of the other men, who spoke no English, I used my fingers to indicate how big, cut into chunks for me to stew.

He wanted to know what I was doing with the goat and I explained the tagine to him and told him, if we liked it, we'd be back. And we will!

After leaving the store we headed home and I got to work.

Sheri, of As the Seasons Change provided us with this week's recipe - a cross between a soup and a stew from chirpy Rachel Ray (you can find the original recipe here). She calls it a "stoup" but I just can't bring myself to do that, so I'm sticking with soup (besides most of us added extra broth and the liquid wasn't thick like a stew so I'm going with soup).

My guess, she got the Osso Buco part of it because she uses ground veal (as opposed to the traditional veal shank of Osso Buco) but I used ground turkey (for health - and next time may try ground turkey breast instead) and the finishing gremolata. Either way, love her or hate her, you can bet that this soup is good!

Next time, I may do what Amy did (I think it was Amy) and add some shredded cabbage - of course, that would have to be on a night when the girls weren't around to eat it, and of course, that would make it less Osso Buco-y but what the heck.

I still need to figure out the Weight Watcher points in this one.

Hope you all enjoy.

Osso Bucco Soup

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.

We'd never eaten fish tacos in all our years though we've heard our California friends rave about them over and over. Then in Hawaii last June, while staying at the Kanapali Hyatt we finally ordered them at their pool side restaurant Oovo. Gotta tell you, we'd been totally missing out all these years. Now at Oovo they had grilled fish and fried fish, and as you can guess Chris went for the latter while I enjoyed the former (you know, for health reasons).

So it completely took me by surprise when I saw a recipe in Cooking Light of all places for Baja Fish Tacos with fried fish and we decided to give it a go.

Now first off, they warn you to maintain the oil at the correct temperature otherwise the fish absorbs to much fat (who knew that was the secret to healthy frying?). We did ours in Chris's Deep Fat Fryer (since it has a temperature gauge) and had to use more oil as a result but I think an electric fry pan would work as well too (just remember don't overcrowd the fish).

The original recipe called for corn tortillas but we used the lowfat mission tortillas because it's what I keep in the house and they're less fattening. It also called for halibut but we prefer Mahi Mahi, so that's what we used.

I still prefer grilled, as I found the fish a tad greasy but overall we definitely like them and would make them again.

Baja Fish Tacos

I'm a sucker for tuna casserole. Yes, I know, not your most highbrow food, but I love it. Mom used to make it with left over Kraft deluxe mac and cheese (had to be deluxe not the powdered crap - we had our standards - and don't even get me started that today a box won't give you any leftovers), a can of Campbells cream of mushroom soup and a can (or two) of drained tuna. If I remember correctly she'd sprinkle a bit of paprika on the top. When I got older and moved 1000 miles away, I added peas to mine because I liked the color and the peas.

Well, as you can imagine, that's not the best meal to eat when you're trying to eat healthy (can you say overly processed) or when you're trying to lose weight (even if you use the 2% mac and cheese and the healthy request soup), so I was quite excited when I found a recipe in Cooking Light this past January for a tuna casserole that looked rich enough (others I've tried have been week) but not totally outrageous that I could make this as an occasional meal (much to the girls' chagrin). The only thing I might do different next time is add a bit of chopped mushrooms (I do so miss that cream of mushroom soup from Mom's version).

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I have lots of recipes for meatballs and spaghetti. And of course, there's the stand by method that my mother taught me 20 years ago (remind me to tell you the story of my first pot of sauce/gravy). Anyway, I bought this new Weight Watchers cookbook during the winter, Slow Cook It, 165 All New Slow-Cooker Recipes, and I've been working my way through it (at least I was before the weather turned warm). They have their version called Best-Ever Spaghetti and Meatballs and I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's 9 points, which is a lot but it is a complete meal and not bad. Plus, of course I love the whole convenience of the crock pot (aka slow cooker).

Best Ever Meatballs and Spaghetti

Because there's been some interest, I'm sharing my recipe for Corn Bread. Sorry no pictures - it's really my go to version (and yes, it's sweet which may upset some of my southern friends).

1C flour
1C yellow cornmeal
2T sugar
4t baking powder
3/4t salt
2 eggs, beaten
1C Fat Free plain yogurt (or fat free buttermilk, or skim milk)
2T honey
2T canola oil.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Mix all the dry ingredients together with a a fork or a whisk. Add the wet ingredients to dry. Mix just until moist ( Now here's a little trick I do. I measure 1T of the oil, and then 1T of the honey, then repeat. That way, the honey slides right off the measuring spoon - oh and sometimes I use 4T honey instead of 2T honey and 2T sugar).

Pour into a 9x9 or 8x8 baking pan, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425 for 20 - 25 minutes (it will be a bit toasty brown on the top - make sure a toothpick in the middle comes out clean).

That's it - at 16 servings, they're 2 points each, 12 servings equals 3 points each and 9 servings are 4 points each.

A few weeks ago we started doing a Sunday Slow Sides cooking group, focusing on ingredients from the summer's bounty. I've actually been making most of the recipes, just not posting. So I'll be catching up over the next few days. Unfortunately, I missed the first week which was a pea dish provided by Amy of Destination Anywhere called Petits Pois a la Francaise but someday I will get back to it.

Next up came Avocados from Shannon. She provided two recipes and gave us a choice:

Grandma's Recipe

Avocado
Hard Boiled Egg
A Little Mayo
Onion Salt (or regular salt.)

Basically, smash these four things up until it is good and mashed. You can use more egg, more avocado, whatever. I think it is probably one avocado to 2 eggs. She says you don't need to add mayo even, unless you want to.

She used to put it on HomePride Buttertop bread for me which I adored because lets face it that is not really bread, it is junk food. Use whatever kind of bread you want. A hearty wheat would be good... or sourdough. And garnish with whatever you think would be good. My childhood memories has them unadorned, of course.

Because that is so simple here is another sandwich recipe to try, along with Grandma's (or instead of.)

Open-Face Avocado and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Feninger
(from Saveur Magazine)

1) Mix 1 T. lemons juice with salt and pepper to taste in a bowl - stir well.

2) While whisking constantly, drizzle in 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil to form a dressing, set aside.

3) Put 4 oz. soft goat cheese, 2 T. lemon juice, 1/8 tsp. pepper, the flesh from 4 ripe avocados, and a few dashes of Tabasco in a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork, season to taste with salt.

4) Divide avocado mixture between 12 lightly toasted small baguette halves and spread to cover each.

5) Transfer baguettes to baking sheet and broil until just warmed through, 1 - 2 minutes.

6) Top with tomato and cucumber slices, and drizzle with dressing.

I opted for the first recipe and because I'm me, and because I'm on Weight Watchers, I made some adjustments.

Grandma's Avocado Mash

First I hard boiled 3 eggs, and used all three whites but only one yolk (for you WW people that's 2.5 points). Then I only used half of the avocado (another 2 points - but I probably should have used more), a little salt and a little smart beat mayo. Then I had 1/2 of the mixture on one of the new Thomas's Bagel Thins things (1 point) for a total of 3.25 (i rounded down) - 3 point sandwich. Oh, and I didn't have tomato in the house but wanted some, so I chopped a few grape tomatoes into the mash.

Shannon's Grandma's Avocado Mash

This week's recipe came from Annie of Churches in Venice She provided two recipes, Summer Green Bean Salad and Vibrant Tasty Green Beans, both from 101 Cookbooks.

I opted for the salad recipe (and actually had it with my previous Sunday side, the Avocado Mash).

Summer Green Bean Salad

While Chris is away during the week, Becky was in Israel and Sammi down at the shore, I was cooking for only me. Doing that, I would just poke around the freezer each afternoon to see what left over meat was in there, then I'd do a search for a recipe, and come up with something for me. I actually ended up grilling a lot, and one day, after finding a few chicken breasts in the freezer, stumbled upon this recipe, which was easy and flavorful.

Quick Barbecue Chicken

I think it was two years ago (right, not last summer?) that the Sunday Slow Cooks decided to make their way through Dave Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop. Since then I've spent some time making other recipes of his, as well as experimenting a little too.

Sammi's been hocking me to make ice cream for her (I made three batches last week, but brought them to a friend, so I promised to make some this week with her), and since I had milk chocolate in the house, I opted for this flavor.

You should know a few things.

1) His ice creams are for the most part way fattening. He justifies the eating of these by limiting yourself to one perfect scoop. But even with that, I still found many of them overpoweringly rich in that I could feel the fat on my tongue. So as I've been making them recently, I've been swapping the milk proportion with the cream proportion. Or reducing in some other fashion. They are still in no way low fat, but at least my tongue doesn't feel coated with fat when I eat them.

2) For this flavor, he suggests using good milk chocolate, that has at least 30% cocoa. The first time I made this, I found some organic chocolate that did specify how much cocoa, percentage-wise, the bar contained. The second time, I had Lindt chocolate that does not specify, and that's what I used.

3) His recipe calls for 8 ounces of chocolate. The bars I had were 3.5 ounces and I only had two. Using a total of 7 ounces of chocolate didn't seem to affect the recipe at all.

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

7 ounces good milk chocolate, chopped fine
1 cup cream (he uses 1.5 cups)
2 cup whole milk (he uses 1.5 cups)
3/4 cup sugar (I used a scad less and might consider reducing it a bit more)
1 big pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
2 t cognac (I used it the first time, and didn't use it the second time - do what you like).

Melt the chocolate in the cream in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water (I used the top of a double boiler). Set aside with a sieve over the top (I scraped my mixture into a bowl and then put the sieve over the top).

Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl.

Heat the milk, sugar and salt in a medium sauce pan. When warm (not boiling), slowly add this to the egg yolks, stirring with a whisk as you go (if working alone, wrap a dish towel and base of bowl that holds the yolks, so it doesn't spin). Return yolk-milk mixture back to pot and warm on stove until it thickens, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula or in my case a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom. The mixture is done when it coats the back of spoon/spatula and you can trail a finger through it and the pathway remains (the more ice cream you make, the better you'll get at figuring out when it's done).

Pour the custard (aka egg-milk mixture) through sieve into bowl with chocolate mix. Put bowl in ice bath (I actually do this ahead of time, so it's already there when I add the custard), and stir to cool, adding cognac if you want. Pour into a container and put in fridge to chill thoroughly (I like to chill mine over night).

Put mixture in ice cream maker, following manufacturer's directions.

Oh, and if you can get 16 "perfect scoops" out of it - they're five points each. I'm going to try this as ice milk soon - that should knock it down some but of course, it won't be as creamy.

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!

Having a glut of cucumbers from our garden ... did I tell you the cucumber story? No? Okay, I'll digress for a moment. Every year we plant a small garden, mostly herbs, some grape tomatoes, and a zucchini or cucumber plant or two. I only plant one or two of those suckers because they grow like weeds, driving out everything else. You have to buy them in a pack of four though at our garden place. Well, this year, Chris did the planting, and I forgot to tell him only plant one or two cucumber plants, but yep, he planted all four, so we're eating cucumbers all the time!

So anyway, with a glut of cucumbers that had to be used before my next trip, and a desire not to do any canning, I found this recipe. It was great too because I had some potatoes left from our CSA - I love when I can use up a lot of produce in a recipe that's also freezable! Plus, other than a lot of chopping - this was very easy to put together.

We had this as a starter last night and it's delicious. I'm freezing the rest today (it will keep up to a month in the freezer but you'll have to puree the soup again before serving), and considering serving it at Rosh Hashanah. Hope you like it as much as we did.

Cucumber-Buttermilk Vichyssoise

Back to making ice cream. This time, toasted coconut. Again, from the Perfect Scoop.

Okay - the recipe...

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2.5 cups whole milk (original recipe called for 1 cup whole milk)
1/2 cup heavy cream (original recipe called for 2 cups cream)
dash of salt
1 vanilla bean
2/3 cups sugar (original recipe called for 3/4 cups sugar)
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon rum or vanilla

I think I'm almost at the point where I could make a basic custard for ice cream in my sleep.

Now with this one we have some pre-steps. Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the coconut out on a jelly roll pan and toast in the oven for 5 - 8 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until golden brown. The first time I made this ice cream, not realizing that you strain the coconut out later, I didn't toast the coconut (b/c Chris doesn't like toasted coconut), and I couldn't find unsweetened, so I used sweetened. I did strain the coconut as I was supposed to but Chris still remarks that he liked the bits of sweetened coconut that escaped the strainer and made it into the ice cream. Anyway ...

In a medium pot, warm 1 3/4 cups of milk, 1/4 cup cream, sugar, salt and toasted coconut. Split the vanilla bean and add the little seeds to the milk mixture and the bean, then cover and let steep off the heat for 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, whisk the 5 egg yolks.

In another bowl, put remaining milk (3/4 cup) and cream (1/4 cup) and put a sieve over it.

Strain out the coconut and vanilla bean from the milk mixture, using a sieve, and rewarm it.
Slowly, add the rewarmed milk to the egg mixture, whisking the entire time. Return the milk-egg mixture to the pot, and rewarm, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat proof spatula until mixture thickens (coating the back of the spoon/spatula - if you can trail a finger across it and leave a path, it's done). Add this custard to the bowl with the milk/cream and stir in the rum or vanilla (I once used coconut extract instead - not bad).

Put in ice bath and when it's cool, stick it in the fridge to cool overnight. Churn it according to your ice cream machine's directions.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture last night. Oh well.

I'm cleaning out stuff from my inbox (which contains lots of photos for restaurants and recipes I've tried) and you all are going to be the "beneficiaries" over the next few days (at least until I start to blog from Italy). So here's the first thing.

Last March (yes, I have things in my inbox from last March - no mocking allowed), I made this recipe from Cooking Light. It's really not very light (or very low fat) considering that it's Cooking Light but both girls like coconut shrimp (and so do I), so I thought I'd give it a try. Funny thing, though we all liked it, I haven't made it since. But now that I remember it. I will.

Coconut Shrimp

Yes, I promised recipes and here's another (from March again). It's in the Weight Watchers Slow Cook It book and it's pretty darn good (and easy).

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

2 (1/2 pound) bone in chicken breasts, skinned
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
6 fresh parsley sprigs
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 bay leaf
1T chopped fresh thyme or 1t dried
1/2t salt
1/4t black pepper
2 32oz cartons low-sodium chicken broth (I used the fat free kind)
1 1/2C no-yolk egg noodles
1/4C chopped fresh dill

1. Combine first 10 ingredients (up until broth), in 5 - 6 quart slow cooker. Pour brother over all that stuff, cover and cook until chicken and vegies are tender (4 - 5 hours on high or 8 - 10 hours on low).

2. At end of cooking time, remove parsley, garlic and bay leaf. Transfer chicken to a plate and let stand for about 10 minutes (until you can handle it). Remove the meat from the bones and cut into bite size pieces (I just shred it using two forks).

3. Meanwhile, in a separate pot, cook the noodles.

4. Add chicken meat and noodles to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high until chicken is hot again, about 5 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with fresh dill.

This is my own creation. Although, really it's based on the broccoli raab and sausage dish you see in lots of places. I make that too but we've had an abundance of Swiss Chard from our CSA this year, so I've used that to make this too.

Pasta with Sausage and Swiss Chard

First, I take anywhere from 1/2 pound to 1lb hot turkey Italian sausage, removed from its casing, and brown that in a big pan. Then I remove it.

Then, I take two or three cloves of sliced garlic and put them in the pan with olive oil (If I'm watching my weight go down, I use maybe 2t to 1T oil; if I'm watching it go up, I just pour it in), I cook the garlic and some crushed red pepper (depending upon how much heat you want) until the garlic is just shy of toast (you should be able to smell it). Then I toss in a whole bunch of sliced, washed chard (don't worry it cooks way down and really, it's hard to get too much). I don't worry about draining the chard well either b/c the water helps it cook. I sprinkle it with a bit of salt.

Meanwhile, I've boiled water for pasta (I may even take some of this water - like a 1/2C and add it to the chard to help it cook). I add pasta to the water (any short type - orrecchiete, shells, rigatoni, penne - just not spaghetti or linguine or something like that).

Once the chard has wilted, I add the sausage and if my timing is right, my pasta is ready about a minute later. I set aside about 1C of the pasta water before I drain the pasta, and add the drained pasta to the sausage and chard. I add some of the reserved water to "loosen" it a bit, scraping up the browned bits and basically giving the pasta a nice coating of flavor.

Serve with some grated cheese on top.

By the way, using 1/2 pound of whole wheat pasta, 1T olive oil, 1/2 pound turkey Italian sausage, and up to 1/2lb chard gets you 6 weight watcher points for a serving of 4 (no cheese).

When I was sick, Marta went through a period of cooking Southeast Asian dishes. I remember thinking I want to come back and try some of these recipes, but here, over two years later, I haven't. Until tonight.

So I'm sitting on my couch, trying to remember what I put on the shopping list, which Chris threw out, for tonight's dinner (yes, I make a menu each week and put it on the shopping list, so I know what to buy). Anyway, I knew it was some sort of salad with grilled shrimp but looking at the skies and the threatening storms, I decided to do something else with the shrimp, which is how I ended up searching through Marta's Blog, Postcard's From the Trail, to find something to make.

And that's how I cam across her Thai Red Curry, perfect!

Well, for a moment. You see I figured I had everything but the kaffir lime leaves (yes, I keep red curry paste and fish sauce in the house - hey you never know), yet I found some where that said I could substitute lime rind and some lime juice. Okay I'm good to go.

Or maybe not.

What happened to the light coconut milk I normally keep in the pantry??? Well, after cleaning out and organizing all the cans, no small feat, especially with stitches in both boobs, no coconut milk. Time for the next substitute. I ended up using 1/2 cup evaporated milk, 1/2 cup water and a teaspoon of coconut extract. Okay, good to go.

Well, maybe not.

Palm sugar? What's palm sugar? No idea but I found I could substitute brown sugar for it and finally - I'm off!

Okay, so I didn't have the Thai Basil, but I used some regular basil (from our garden) and a bit of cilantro I had in a fridge.

Oh, and I didn't have chicken but I did have shrimp, so finally I cooked dinner!

Thai Red Curry - Apologies for the iPhone image quality

And although with all the above substitutions, it may not be authentic it was definitely darn good (especially with the The Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale) and I can't wait to make it again for Chris.

Oh, and I used 3 generous teaspoons of curry paste and probably used a bit more for a bit more heat. Enjoy!

Thai Red Curry

2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
1 onion—finely chopped
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste (or 3 teaspoons for a hotter curry)
2 cloves garlic—finely chopped
1 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1/2 cup veggies—sliced thin
1 red pepper (capsicum)—julienned
1 cup Jasmine rice
12 oz (360g) uncooked skinless chicken breast fillets—cut into bite-sized pieces
5-6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh Thai basil leaves

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the curry paste and garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute.
Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, then bring to the boil. ADD the veggies, cover with a lid, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 12 minutes.
While the curry simmers, cook jasmine rice.
Add the chicken and Kaffir leaves to the curry and simmer, covered, for a further 8 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and basil.
Serve on a bed of rice.

Variations: This curry tastes equally delicious using any selection of seafood (such as shrimp, scallops or pieces of firm fish), or cubed firm tofu. Adapt the recipe with fresh ingredients and seasonal produce.

David Lebovitz calls this Roasted Banana Ice Cream but I added a 1/4 cup of Pyrat Rum and decided this reminded me of a favorite dessert, Bananas Foster, so I changed the name. Next time though, I'll add a bit more rum. I like the contrast with the bananas.

3 medium size ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1T butter, cut in small squares
1.5C whole milk
2T granulated sugar
1/2t vanilla extract
1.5t fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4t coarse salt
1/4C (or maybe 1/3C) dark rum or really good rum like Pyrat.

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the bananas into 1/2" pieces and toss them with brown sugar and butter in a 2qt baking dish. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring once, or until the bananas are browned and cooked through.

Scrape the bananas and syrup into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and puree until smooth. Chill in the fridge (I chill overnight), and put it into your ice cream maker and follow the ice cream maker's directions.

Oh, and he says if it's too thick when you go to put it into the maker, whisk it to thin it out.

Oops - one more thing - this has more the consistency, I think, of ice milk, you may want to try a little cream for something smoother (I may next time).

Batting 1000 this week. Last night I made this Cooking Light recipe and we all (sans Sammi, who is away and doesn't eat anything anyway), loved it. I sprinkled my shrimp with Chipotle Chili Pepper instead of ground black pepper and I didn't use a grill pan (they're a pain to clean) but a large frying pan (because I couldn't get our outdoor grill to light). Other than that, I kept it pretty much the same and it was good! Oh, and I left the tail shell on the shrimp, next time, I'll remove it.

Spicy Chipotle Shrimp Salad

• 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I used chipotle chili pepper)
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon chopped chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 8 Boston lettuce leaves (I didn't bother with these)

1. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with salt and black pepper. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add half of shrimp to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove shrimp from pan; repeat procedure with remaining shrimp. Cool shrimp for 5 minutes.

2. Place shrimp in a medium bowl; stir in celery and next 6 ingredients (through cumin). Arrange 2 lettuce leaves on each of 4 plates; top each serving with 3/4 cup shrimp mixture.

This came in at 6PPV on Weight Watchers (four servings). I still need to convert my other recipes.

Photo by: Photo: John Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr. I stole it because I was too lazy to take my own.

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.

Yesterday was the first day of school for my youngest, it was pouring and I had some over-ripe bananas sitting on my counter. I don't know what that adds up to for you but for me that means baking. But Sammi, I don't think, is not a big banana bread fan and personally, I wanted something that would be warm and wonderful when she walked in the door only 45 minutes later - banana bread takes too long. So I scoured My Recipes, looking for things made with banana, that had appeared in Cooking Light, and found this recipe. Easy to do, tasty and it was ready when Sammi walked in the door.

Banana Snacking Cake

Ingredients

• 6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups - btw I love measuring flour but c'mon do scales really measure to the hundredth decimal?)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (didn't have but used 1 cup of low fat buttermilk instead)
• 3/4 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 medium)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed (we didn't bother with this)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next five ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of flour mixture - not sure why I bothered, with the buttermilk the liquids totally overpowered the dry ingredients anyway.
3. Combine yogurt, banana, oil, vanilla, and egg in a small bowl; stir until well blended. Add yogurt mixture to the flour mixture in large bowl, stirring just until moist.
4. Pour the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan (I used an 11x7 pan) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake in the pan 10 minutes on wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Serve with whipped topping.

This came out to 5 Weight Watcher Points Plus (no topping), when I plugged it into their recipe builder.

I think the title should say it all. But if you need more convincing here's the picture!

These were quite good and came together easily enough. The batter was very thick though which made distributing the chocolate chips at the end a bit difficult. I think next time, I may use mini-chocolate chips to get a better disbursement. Also, these were 4 PPV (points plus value) as described in Cooking Light at 20 servings for the pan, but I used my Perfect Brownie Pan which only allows for 18 servings, so that brought them into the 5 PPV range.

These will definitely be made again!

Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

Ingredients

5.6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I swirled the melted butter into the measuring cup so the peanut butter came out a little easier)
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray
4 (0.75-ounce) peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped - This was one King Size Reeses package that contained 4 cups.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Combine peanut butter and next 4 ingredients (through eggs), stirring well. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Scrape the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray (mine was 12x8), and arrange the peanut butter cups over batter. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes (it took mine 23 minutes and I've seen others say 24 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

I like apples. I like chicken, so as I perused Weight Watchers recipes, looking for a simple but good weeknight dish, this seemed like a no brainer. I decided to make it last night because my Mom was staying with me so at least I knew I wouldn't just be making it for me (my daughter, Sammi, is the quickest to exclaim, "I don't like chicken!").

It's a bit of prep with the slicing of the onion and peeling and slicing of the apple, but made a little simpler because I used Perdue perfect portions (which actually are more like 4.75 oz per serving) so as not to have to worry about my chicken breast size. Weight Watchers says 20 minutes prep, and I think that's about right. The nice thing though, once the chicken and onions are cooked, you set it to simmer for 30 minutes which is plenty of time to make a nice side dish of rice or couscous and a salad to go with, set the table, and clean up your workspace.

I worry when making these dishes that there will be enough sauce to enjoy with the meat, but this had plenty, with enough apples to correspond with the chicken. So much so that Sammi even agreed to try it and liked it!

It's a great fall dish, one that I'm contemplating making again for the holidays!

Apple Braised Chicken

Ingredients

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 pound uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces (again, I used Perdue Perfect Portions so came in at almost 5 ozs a piece)
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 large onion, sliced (I used two small ones, didn't have a large one)
• 2 medium apples, firm, cored and sliced - they're not kidding - use firm like granny smith otherwise 30 minutes will make them too soft. I also peeled mine.
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 cup fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp table salt (I used kosher, I always use kosher salt)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger (I used scant ginger and a bit of curry because my Mom has an aversion to ginger)
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Directions

Reduce stove temperature to low and add onion to skillet. Sauté, stirring often, until onion is tender and lightly browned. Stir in apples, cider, chicken broth, salt, ginger and chicken. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer chicken, onions and apples to a serving dish (I covered the dish with foil) to keep it warm).

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 2 to 3 tablespoons of pan juices. Combine cornstarch mixture with remaining pan juices, whisking constantly. Simmer for one minute. Pour sauce over chicken and serve. Yields 1 chicken breast and about 3/4 cup of apple-onion mixture per serving.

And it's 6 Weight Watchers PPV. Enjoy!