Blog Archives
Summer Menus: July Week Two
JeffreyW is the pizza king.
I’ve been busy in the yard today, so this will be short and sweet. For the menus, click here: July Week Two Menus
Tuesday features Adobo Sirloin and Garlic Roasted potatoes.
JeffreyW grills up some garlic potato wedges and steak.
Wednesday serves up a sweet Oatmeal Apple Cookie, along with an easy Tuna Macaroni Salad.
And Friday offers up two quick pizza dough recipes for a family night of Fresh Pizza built with your favorite toppings.
Shopping list is here: July Week Two Shopping List and remember it’s color coordinated so you can easily skip ingredients from the recipes you’re not using.
As always, you can substitute ingredients to suit your own tastes – skip the tuna in the macaroni salad and add a variety of fresh garden vegetables for a quick and easy vegetarian dinner. Choose your favorite cut of steak or bone-in chicken instead of boneless breasts and substitute favorite vegetables for any of the suggested ones.
And finally, a bonus recipe, since peaches are starting to show up at the local farm stands:
Spicy Peach Dressing
- 2 large peaches, peeled, pitted and quartered
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 jalapeño or other hot pepper, halved and seeded
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Purée all of the ingredients, except oil, in a blender or food processor until smooth. Continue to blend, on low, while adding oil slowly. Mix until well blended. Refrigerate.
Spinach Chicken Salad
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- 1/2 small sweet yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1 lb cleaned baby spinach leaves
- 1 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
- 1 peach, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
- 3 ounces crumbled bleu cheese or chevre
Place the chicken in a plastic zipper bag with ½ cup of dressing. Marinate 2 hours in refrigerator. Remove chicken, discard marinade and grill until cooked through (170 degrees at center).
Toss the spinach, onion, walnuts and cheese with the remaining 3/4 cup dressing. Slice the grilled chicken and arrange on top of the salad.
Serving: 4 to 6
Enjoy! – TaMara
Summer Menus: June Week Four
All this week’s photos are from JeffreyW’s library
This week, at the bottom of the menus is a list of substitutions and ideas, save that for future weeks.
As we finish up June, there are more grilling recipes and a couple of quick and simple meals for those busy days when being in the kitchen needs to be kept to the minimum.
Here are June’s menus and recipes: June Week Four Menu (click for printable PDF)
Monday features Chicken Carbonara. Along with a Sautéed Mushroom Salad
Thursday, Toasted Tuna Sandwiches are paired with a tasty chilled Wild Rice Salad, that can be prepared ahead of time for an easy dinner.
And Friday’s Kid Friendly recipes include Quesadillas and a sweet summer salad.
Click here for the shopping lists: June Week Four Shopping List. Remember they are color coordinated to the menus, so easy to eliminate any ingredients when you skip a recipe. (You skipped a recipe?!? 🙂 )
What’s on your menu this week? Let me know in the comments if you have a question about any of the meals.
Enjoy!
Summer Menus: June Week Three
We’re partying there tonight. Bixby turned three.
Here are the menus for week three: June Menu Week Three
Highlights: Grilled Salmon with Orange Glaze (Thursday) Greek Grilled Potatoes (Monday) and a yummy Chocolate Orange-Cream ice cream treat (Friday).
Here are the shopping lists – remember they are color coordinated so you can easily eliminate any recipe ingredients you aren’t going to use. June Week Three Shopping List
If you have any questions on any of the recipes, hit the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. What’s on your plate this weekend?
Have a great weekend!
Weekly Menu: June Week Two
Wednesday is Tomato-Pasta Salad
Sorry for the delay, as you can see here I had a big project yesterday. Continuing with our summer menu project, here are this week’s menus, recipes and shopping lists. Lots of garden fresh ingredients and grilling as summer kicks into gear.
JeffreyW has a great blueberry harvest. Perfect for Wednesday’s Blueberry-Lemon Parfait
For the PDF of week two menus and recipes, click here: June Week Two Menus
Shopping lists are here: June Week Two Shopping List
Don’t forget the staples, here.
Monday is Cranberry Grilled Chicken and Minted Cucumbers
That’s it for this week’s menus. You can find last week’s menu, recipes and shopping list here.
What’s on your menu this week?
Perfect Standing Rib Roast
Dinner menu (left to right) Cucumber Tomato Salad, Perfect Gravy, Standing Rib Roast, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Spinach Raspberry Salad.
This recipe came from Chef Michael Symon and I don’t think I’ve changed much, except I don’t use as much rosemary and thyme (about half). I’ve been using it for several years and every time it is perfect.
From Michael Symon on The Chew:
GARLIC & HERB CRUSTED STANDING RIB ROAST
1 standing beef rib roast (7 to 8 pounds, rack of ribs separated from roast)
4 cloves garlic (smashed and made into a paste)
2 sprigs rosemary (leaves removed and finely chopped, plus more)
4 sprigs thyme (leaves removed and finely chopped, plus more)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups red wine
1/2 cup beef stock
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Season the roast and rack of ribs with salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Remove the rib roast to room temperature 1 hour prior to roasting. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
In a medium bowl, add garlic, herbs and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, to form a loose paste. Coat the roast and ribs with the herb oil and season with more cracked black pepper. Using kitchen twine, tie the roast every 2-3 inches to secure shape.
In a roasting pan, place the rack of ribs with the ends pointing up. Place a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme on top of the rack. Place the roast, fat-side-up inside the rack of ribs so they act as a roasting rack. Pour the wine and beef stock in to the bottom of the pan underneath the roast.
Place in the bottom half of the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF and continue to cook for another 1 ½- 2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the roast is 125ºF for medium-rare. During the cooking process, baste the meat with the pan juices every 30 minutes. If the pan starts to get dry, add a little more stock or water.
Remove the roast to a cutting board to rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Separate the ribs and thinly slice the roast. Serve with pan juices.
Tip: for ultimate flavor, season the roast and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
If you’d like some personal instruction, click here for video of Michael preparing it.
Bake Flowering Onion ;-)
Don’t want any copyright issues. This was delicious and easy to do. Again, I went to my go-to crispy coating – potato starch. The result was a sweet, creamy onion with a crispy spicy coating.
Baked Flowering Onion
- 1 very large sweet onion (good time for Vidalias are in season right now)
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 2 tsp paprika (the good kind)
- salt & pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- pinch of oregano & thyme
- dash of cayenne
- 2 eggs
baking dish(greased on the bottom), two deep bowls
Remove about 1/2 inch slice from the top of the onion and peel. Slice about 8 to 10 slices from top to bottom on the onion, making sure not to cut through the bottom end (root end).
Mix together all dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.
Beat eggs with a dash of water in another deep bowl.
Dip the onion in the eggs, making sure it is thoroughly coated. Then place in the dry ingredients and gently roll and use a spoon to help coat inside and out completely with potato starch. Remove to baking dish.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 – 60 minutes until the onion is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. If it begins to get too brown, reduce heat to 350 and gently tent foil over it until it’s completely cooked through. Remove foil and give it a minute or two uncovered to do a final crisp. Serve immediately with favorite dipping sauces (mayo, horseradish, southwestern buttermilk dressing, etc).
Stir Fry Dinner Menu: Orange Chicken and Broccoli
I’m not big on deep frying anything, but I love orange chicken so I wanted to find a way to make it so it was still crisp without all the oil and breading. I found the perfect ingredient to produce that result: potato starch. I’ve been using it for a while now and it makes the most perfect Oven Baked Chicken – I’ve been substituting it for the bread crumbs, combining it with crushed rice chex – I’ll post an updated recipe on that technique this week.
I thought it might have the same effect on pan frying chicken pieces. It did. Crispy, light and flavorful. Of course top anything with enough orange sauce and I’m there.
On the board tonight:
- Pan-Fried Orange Chicken
- Rice or Rice Noodles
- Steamed Broccoli
Pan-Fried Orange Chicken
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp to 1 tbsp sriracha or chili sauce (opt)
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp white or rice vinegar
- 1 tsp corn starch
bowl
Mix together in bowl and set aside
Chicken:
- 1 lb chicken boneless breast (or thighs), cut into large chunks
- olive oil
- 1 cup potato starch
- salt and pepper
- 6 green onions, chopped – save 1 tbsp of chopped greens for garnish
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds for garnish
- 2 tbsp oil (more as needed)
2 plates, skillet or wok
Add salt and pepper to potato starch. Drizzle a bit of oil over chicken pieces to coat. Dredge in potato starch mixture and move to clean plate. Finish all chicken before cooking.
I used to have a wok, but never got the results I wanted from it. Then I heard Ming Tsai discuss how a skillet works better in regular kitchens because a wok really needs a commercial heat source to get it hot enough to cook the way it is designed. Got rid of my wok and use my skillet now. So don’t feel you need a wok to stir-fry things.
Heat oil and add onions (whites and green) quickly stir until they have softened (about 1 minutes) and then add chicken pieces – one at a time so they all touch oil/skillet surface. You may have to cook chicken in two batches depending on the size of your pan.
Fry until golden on one side, then flip to brown the other side. Then I tossed it around a bit until it was golden on all sides.
If you cooked in two batches, remove first batch to clean plate and cook the second batch. Add all chicken back to pan, coat with Orange Sauce and toss until it’s all coated. Let sauce heat through thoroughly over low heat. Serve with rice (or noodles), garnish with sesame seeds and onion greens.
Friday Recipe Exchange: Holiday Sweet Treats, Something For Everyone
While I’m busy baking away today, here are some previous goodies from 2014:
Lots of cooking going on. And look what Santa dropped off early:
Just in time to hold the assortment of cookies I made this week. Most of them are going into gift boxes, but I’ll hold enough back for my annual Christmas Eve dinner.
Let’s get right to it. Pictured above:
Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies, recipe here
Spritz Cookies, recipes and instructions for using a cookie press here.
Not pictured because I still have to make them, Chocolate-Walnut Flourless Cookies, recipe here. I love these because you’d never know they were flourless and they taste like brownie bites.
Looking for side dishes for your holiday dinner? You can click here for a lot of different types. And for the pet lovers, Bixby posted an update here and here is photo evidence of how the cats torment him, try not to laugh, it hurts his feelings.
How about you, what’s on your menu for the holidays? Share your holiday traditions, both edible and otherwise.
Tonight’s featured recipe had a bit of a serendipitous beginning. I was having lunch with friend LFern and told her I was still working on what type of cookies I was going to make for my gift boxes. LFern mentioned she really liked Russian Tea Cakes. I’d never heard of them, so I googled, figuring I’d surprise her with them in her gift box. Turns out they are also called Mexican Wedding Cookies. Next day I was visiting friends Larilyn and Alton (not that one) and what do they bring out to go with the coffee? Mexican Wedding Cookies. Turns out Al calls them Mom’s Pecan Cookies and he shared his mom’s recipe with me. So no matter what you call them, they are tasty.
Pecan Cookies
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped nuts pecans
- Powdered sugar for rolling
Preaheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add flour, salt and mix until the dough comes together. Stir in the nuts. At this point, I mixed by hand until the dough stuck together and was smooth.
Scoop about a tablespoon of dough, roll into shape and place on baking sheet
Bake cookies for 18-20 minutes until bottoms are just slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool for just a minute. Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated. Place on a rack covered with wax paper (keeps the sugar mess to a minimum) to cool.
You have to roll them in powdered sugar while they are still hot, which hurts like hell for the first two, but after that, your fingers are coated in powdered sugar and it acts like a heat shield and you’ll be fine. Look, holiday gift baking isn’t for wussies. It’s an extreme sport.
After they cooled, I coated them with more powdered sugar for a festive look.
That’s it for…this year. We won’t have another recipe exchange until January. But I will be posting the recipes for Christmas Eve dinner between now and Christmas. The menu is: Roasted Cornish Game Hens, Smashed Potatoes, Cranberry Chutney, Spinach Salad, and an Ice Cream Sundae Bar.
Have a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate. Thanks for coming along for the ride – TaMara
Christmas Eve Dinner Menu: Dessert Tray, Pt 1
With the dinner menu being fairly simple, I’ve spent the week baking desserts. I started with Spritz Cookies. I used this recipe, and then I divided the dough in half. I added 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, about a 1/4 cup extra flour (a little at a time until it was workable dough again) and 2 tsp of lemon zest. I dusted those with powder sugar when done. The other batch was just the yummy butter half of the dough.
Next up, this cake. I had leftover Cranberry-Apple Sauce from Thanksgiving, which I froze with this recipe in mind. It made for a very tasty fruit bottom. Here’s the original recipe:
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups cranberries, chopped*
- ½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp orange zest (rind)
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup milk
Topping
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-1/2 tbsp orange juice (more as needed)
- 2 tsp butter, softened
8×8 glass baking dish & mixing bowl
Preheat oven to 350°
Melt 3 tbsp of butter and pour into baking dish, spread to cover bottom and up the sides. Add ½ cup sugar, mix with butter on bottom of pan. Add cranberries & walnuts, spread over bottom of pan. Cream remaining butter & sugar, add vanilla, egg, orange zest, mix well. Add flour, baking powder & milk, mix until well blended, don’t over mix. Pour batter over cranberry mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and center bounces back at the touch. Invert on plate. Let cool.
Topping: Mix together butter, orange juice & powdered sugar, pour over cake and serve.
* if you don’t have a food processor, you can leave cranberries whole.
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I’m not done yet. I’ll be baking more later this week, so stay tuned….
Friday Recipe Exchange: Thanksgiving Files
![_DSC5565 [1024x768]](https://whats4dinnersolutions.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/dsc5565-1024x768.jpg)
Is this thing on? I know it’s been forever – the house, work and puppies have taken most of my time. Cooking lately is mostly just for sustanance, nothing terribly creative. But Thanksgiving is almost here! Time to get cookin’.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, next to 4th of July. Food, family, friends…and leftovers. I’m going to have a house full this year and I’m excited to host. Although I wasn’t expecting to have a puppy thrown in the mix, but that just makes it more interesting. I have compiled some of my most requested holiday recipes for tonight’s exchange.
JefferyW makes Cornbread Stuffing, (pictured above) part 1 here and part 2 here.
Roasted Butternut Apple Soup makes a great starter, recipe here.
Hearty Garlic Mashed Potatoes, click here – my family loves these, though the first time I made them they mocked me until they were served because the cooking method is so unusual. I cook them early and keep them warm in a slow-cooker while everything else cooks and stove top space is at a premium.
Two Brussels Sprout dishes: Pan Roasted with Pancetta and Onions (recipe here) and JeffreyW’s Brussels Sprout and Potato Au Gratin (click here)
There will be a variety of pies this year, but instead of the traditional Pumpkin Pie, I’m making Pumpkin Cream Pie (above), the recipe is here, plus there are additional pumpkin dessert ideas at the link.
For the main course, we’ve made turkeys a bunch of ways here, including a Spatchcock Turkey, recipe here. For something more traditional, here are some ideas from people smarter than I am: turkey four different ways, good stuff here.
What’s on the menu for your Thanksgiving this year? Do you have a must-have recipe for your holiday dinner?
I’m not a fan of traditional candied sweet potatoes, so tonight’s featured recipes are some non-traditional styles for sweet potatoes.
Cajun Sweet Potatoes
- 4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp Cajun seasoning
- ¼ tsp cumin (opt)
Covered casserole dish, well-greased
Steamer and saucepan
In saucepan, add water, steamer and sweet potatoes. Steam until you can easily stick a fork in them. They don’t need to be completely soft. About 10-15 minutes. Add sweet potatoes to casserole dish. Combine oil, butter and spices. Pour evenly over potatoes. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until potatoes are soft. You can adjust cooking time if you prefer your firmer or softer potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes w/Apples
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
- ¼ cup water
- 2 apples, cored & sliced
- 8 oz can sliced pineapple (including liquid)
- 2 tsp butter
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
2 qt casserole dish, greased
Add ingredients to casserole dish. Stir gently and bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes, uncovered, until apples and potatoes are very soft. Cover if it begins to brown too much
That’s it for this week. I hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. – TaMara
