Scallops anyone?

I love to cook.  So much, in fact, that I’ve always wanted to go to culinary school, just for fun. 

I’ve worked in restaurants before – that is not fun.

I’m the kind of cook that has a very hard time sharing recipes, though.  I rarely use them and I never measure.  I’m more of a grab this and that, toss some in, take a taste kind of gal. 

Therefore, I can’t exactly share with you this recipe.  I can tell you what I put together, but not how much of anything. 

This post is mainly to give ingredients and inspiration – you’re on your own after that.

I started with rice.

I like to use parboiled rice, and I cooked it with some chopped garlic, fat-free chicken broth, and turmeric.

Next, like any really good recipe, I used lots of unhealthy chopped bacon.

I used bay scallops for this recipe.  They are generally not as delicious as sea scallops, but in this case their small size is an asset, and they are easier for my young children to manage anyway.

I sauteed the scallops in an olive oil-butter combo with minced garlic.  Be careful not to overcook – small scallops cook very quickly!

I then removed the scallops and worked on the sauce, adding some white wine, lemon juice, a dash of chili powder, and salt and pepper to the garlic and fat already in the skillet.  Reduce until it begins to thicken, add some chopped green onion, and remove from the heat.  At this point I swirled in a small amount more of butter to thicken.

In a bowl I topped the rice with scallops, bacon, and sauce.

This was a very easy, inexpensive, under 30 minute meal that my whole family raved about.  Granted, it’s not the most healthy fare, but sometimes good food is worth an extra mile on the treadmill.  I’ve made this about half a dozen times now and everyone always eats more than I expected, so definitely plan for extra!

Scallops a la Heather – enjoy!

Homemade Pesto Sauce

If you said that looks tasty, you’d be wrong.  It’s beyond tasty and all the way into fabulous.  If I do say so myself.

Want the recipe?  Read on my friends, read on.

But first know that you will be bombarded with pictures.  I judge cookbooks by their pictures – I like lots of ‘em.

Ingredients:

2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup E.V.O.O.

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

pinch of salt

pepper to taste

Begin by toasting the pine nuts.  You can substitute the cheaper and more readily available almonds or walnuts, but the end result is much better if you stick with pine nuts.

Whichever you choose, lightly toast them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat.  As you can see, I actually prefer mine to be more than lightly toasted, but start light until you develop your own preference.

You can put these on the heat with minimal attention besides the occasional stir.

Moving on to the herbs – gather your basil

and parsley

and wash and dry thoroughly.  The parsley is not essential, but if you’re making the pesto to freeze, it helps the sauce retain that beautiful bright green color upon thawing.  If you opt not to use parsley, you may want to decrease the EVOO by a tablespoon or so.

Meanwhile, remove the stems.  (Not completely necessary if you’re in a rush – I’ve done it both ways and was never disappointed)

Place the basil and the parsley in a bag and using a rolling pin, the back of a spoon, or the flat side of your meat tenderizer, pound until all of the leaves are bruised and slightly weepy.  This releases extra flavor and it is key to a superior pesto sauce.  My secret weapon.

The garlic should be blanched.  Again, I’ve skipped this before and it’s ok in a pinch, but the strong flavor can overpower the more delicate herbs and change the tone of your sauce.  A quick 30-60 second dunk in boling water will make an amazing difference in the finished product.  If you are making pasta at the same time, blanch the garlic before you add the pasta to the pot.

At this point I like to use a mini food processor, just the right size for 1-2 recipes.  If you don’t have one you can use a mortar and pestle, the back of a fork, or possibly a really good blender.  I add the garlic to the food processor first, and after it’s finely minced, the pine nuts as well.  I then add the basil and EVOO, drizzling in a little bit at a time.  Finally, the salt, pepper, and Parmesan.  I know it’s very un-fancy of me to admit, but in the sauce, I prefer the powdered cheese.  I use freshly grated to top the pasta, but the powdered kind spreads and freezes better.

The end result:

If you are making this for immediate consumption, one recipe will coat 1 pound of hot pasta.  I like to reserve a bit of the water the noodles cooked in, just to add in and help the spreading consistency of the sauce, but that should be based on personal preference.

I generally top with grilled chicken and fresh parmesan, and serve with hot, crusty bread.  This is a tried-and-true recipe in my house that leaves everyone coming back for more.

[Obligatory kid pictures]

Yes, Catie is eating a tomato like an apple.  She loves them, and she grew that one herself.

And the freezing I mentioned?  Once you try this recipe, you’ll want to freeze some too.  I usually grow several basil plants each summer, and I make and freeze basil every few days all season long so we have a nice stockpile for winter.  Sadly, this year we are already out – and have been for quite some time.

Part of my stash:

It’s that good.

Promise.

Pesto

Super Bowl Sunday

My friend Julie just blogged about how important a witty title is to attract the interest of potential readers.  Clearly, this week I am not trying to attract anyone new.  I’m either writing for current followers or for those who just love the painfully obvious, what with clever titles like ‘Handy Manny Cake’ or ‘Lilly’s First Haircut’ floating about.  Pardon my Super Bowl Sunday thing.  Duh. 

A side effect of NaBloPoMo is that my titles suffer.

So aside from the obvious, we’re not doing much.  I’m making some yummy snacks and using the prize pack I won from my friend Mary and Old El Paso.  I’m a big football fan so this Tackle The Taste package is right up my alley, and green chilies – yum. 

And the big game, of course.  I’ll be watching here:

No, that’s not a movie theater, or a high school gymnasium.  It’s actually our family room, and my husband’s new, embarrassingly large television.  It’s like 400 inches wide or something, just so that no one has any doubts about who the smart one is in this house.  Me with the books, him with the barcalounger and remote.

You decide.

He ordered the projector from China – bought it on ebay.  It’s apparently 1/20th of the price that way.  I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for, but him notsomuch.  This contraption arrived Friday evening, and he spent the entire weekend re-arranging, building, re-wiring, mounting, and hanging it all up, just to be ready for game day.

Too bad we don’t care about either team.

But hey, at least I’ll have a comfy spot to eat my chips and guac, right?  And it’s almost as great as being in Miami, since the players will appear pretty much life-sized in front of us.

Not that I’m bitter about the whole big dumb stupid ridiculous absurd tv thing.  Not at all.

Happy game day!

Handy Manny Birthday Cake

As I mentioned earlier, my youngest daughter turned 3 last month. 

This is where I’d like to talk about how beautiful she is – because she really is gorgeous.

(She also refuses to look at the camera for pictures)

I’d like to tell you how smart she is, what a quick sense of humor she’s got, how she posesses a God-given ability to entertain herself quietly for hours.  I’d like to tell you how bittersweet it is to watch her grow up, knowing that she is my last baby.

But since I just said a blog shouldn’t be all about ‘me’, I can’t.

So instead I’ll tell you about her Handy Manny Birthday Cake.

The kid is head over heels for Manny these days.  I have my concerns, but whatever.

She got the Handy Manny Talkin’ Toolbox for Christmas, so a toolbox cake seemed appropriate.  It also seemed easy, since I could just steal borrow the plastic tools from her set.

My mom was kind enough to bake the cake and fashion the handle for me – my only task was frosting it.  You’d think I’d be able to handle that, but actually not so much.  Cake decorating is so not my thing.  Pardon the rough splotches.

The design on the front was meant to make it look like her toy toolbox.  My dad printed the image off and laminated it and then I just stuck it in the frosting.

(You might notice here that I said ‘my mom’ and ‘my dad’ and not ‘my husband’.  That’s because he did nothing.)

Lilly was a happy camper.

And a good day was had by all.  Even by Mommy, who cried a little when she tucked a 3-year-old baby into bed that night.  Bittersweet, I tell you.

Caesar salad recipe

For whatever reason, yesterday was a hungry day for me.  All day long I was looking for something to munch on, so of course when it came time to blog, food was on my brain.  Therefore, you get to hear about food.

When I was in college I worked at a fancy-schmancy restaurant where I had to learn all about fine wines, gourmet foods, and proper serving etiquette.  I was expected to pick up on non-verbal cues like silverware placement to know when plates should be cleared – very formal.  I also learned how to make a table side Caesar salad, which turned out to be the best part of the job.  This salad is delicious and easy, and I still make it quite often.

The ingredients:

3 cloves garlic

1 tin flat anchovies

1 T. olive oil

1/2 T. vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)

1/2 T. mustard (Dijon is preferable, but yellow will work in a pinch)

1 egg yolk

1 T. lemon juice, or the juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon, squeezed

dash Tabasco sauce

dash Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

grated Parmesan cheese

croutons (optional)

1 head Romaine lettuce, torn or chopped into small pieces

To make the dressing table side, or if you’re a purist, follow the directions below.  This could also be mixed in your food processor – but I prefer to do it by hand.

Place whole garlic cloves in a hard bowl (not plastic) and crush with the back of a fork until they are in small bits.

Add the tin of anchovies, including the oil they are packed in, and smash them thoroughly as well.  Add in olive oil and vinegar and you should have a consistency like this:

Add remaining ingredients one at a time, combining as you go. The end result should be thick, not runny on a fork, and look something like this:

At this point I like to add in a little of the cheese to help with tossing the salad.  Add the chopped Romaine to the bowl and toss with forks until evenly coated.  Plate, add more cheese and croutons or chicken, if desired.

Yum!

I have made lots of substitutions in this over the years, and they all came out great (mustard, hot sauce, different types of lettuce, vinegar, etc)  However, the 2 things that make many people nervous are the 2 key ingredients – anchovies and egg yolk.  It is possible to make a good Caesar salad without them, but not easy…and it’s really not nearly as good.  And chances are, if you’ve ever eaten Caesar salad in a nice restaurant, you’ve already eaten it made this way anyway.  You honestly don’t taste anchovies when you try this, promise.

My family loves this recipe and I hope you will too!

Update – check out Foodista.com!

Caesar Salad

The (cheap) wine project

I have a favor to ask of you.  It involves you drinking wine. 

Do I have your attention now?

I am working on a new page for the blog which will contain wine reviews.  I want both the good and the bad, so we know what to look for and what to avoid at all costs. 

On a personal note, I like the cheap stuff.

Not Boone’s Farm kind of cheap (though I’m not knocking it – every wine has it’s time and place, including all manners of hooch).  Just inexpensive.

The kind that you won’t hesitate to spontaneously buy, even when it’s not on sale.  The budget-friendly-even-in-a-recession kind.  The wine we do not cut from the budget ever.  That kind.

Not that I don’t appreciate good wine – I most certainly do.  A decade+ ago I worked in a 5-star restaurant and learned a lot about what makes a wine great.  I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy that great wine at bargain prices too.  But what I once enjoyed wholesale gives me sticker shock retail.  ‘How much?  For something we will drink?  It will be ALL GONE?  Ummm…no.’

Anyway…I welcome reviews of all price ranges, but I personally am focusing on the cheap more affordable varieties.  (Hint – the less it costs, the more you can buy)

I’m making note of every bottle we open and I will be adding a new tab shortly.  I hope to add to this list on an ongoing basis, and while I do love wine I can’t afford to drink it all, so I welcome your input.  My goal is to have a fairly comprehensive list of budget-friendly wines we can all refer to and enjoy.

So there’s a project for you this weekend.

Go, drink lots of wine, and report back.

Do-able, right?

Calphalon!

Big Thanks to Mary for pointing out this Amazon steal! If you need new pots and pans, check these out:

Calphalon bargains on Amazon!

Just call me Angelina

Hey Maddox, I let my kids play with knives too:

I remember helping my mom in the kitchen, and I hope she remembers those moments as well (instead of crazy mad mommy moments!) I wish we could have more of them, but with two little sisters who also want to help, it’s complicated. This day we parked them in front of Annie’s dance recital DVD while we worked!

County Fair!

The girls entered a few things in the fair again this year, and tonight we learned the results. A very successful year!

I say ‘the girls’, but actually only Annie entered last year. Sweet Catiebug is only 3, but she has to keep up with big sister so she was very excited about entering things her OWN self.

Catie’s cornbread won a blue (1st place) ribbon:

Not that you can really see the detail, but in the back there is a coloring page that she did – a little cheerleader girl. This won a white (3rd place) ribbon:

Annie and her cousin Erin made these patriotic rice crispy treats, and they won 1st place as well:

Annie and Erin also teamed up for this Peanut Butter Fudge, which not only won a blue 1st place ribbon, but it also snagged a purple Grand Champion ribbon! This is the second year in a row Annie’s made prize winning fudge, and she’s pretty darn proud of herself.

Here are Annie’s super-duper chocolate chip cookies, on a stick, and dipped in chocolate. I have to say that I’m really not a chocolate lover, but these are pretty good. Just the regular cookie though, I can’t do the chocolate coated part – that’s just insane. (But if Aunt Amy were here, I know she’d be up to the task!) These also took 1st place:

Again, very hard to see detail. At the corner where the tables meet is Annie’s coloring page with Jasmine, for which she won a red (2nd place) ribbon. Two pictures up from that is her drawing, which won a red ribbon as well. She drew herself, her cousin, and her sisters all in a flower patch.

And finally here is Catie’s banana bread, which also won 1st place. I have to say I’m shocked that this didn’t also get a purple ribbon, as it is hands down the best banana bread I’ve ever had in my life. If I do say so myself.

So sorry I haven’t been blogging lately! As I mentioned above, our very dear cousin Erin and my sister are here visiting, and we’ve been so busy having fun that I haven’t found time to blog about it! I’m taking lots of pictures though, so hopefully we’ll be up and running again soon!

Thanks for letting me brag about my girls. They are such fantastic little people.

Spice up my deck!

I love to cook and I love to garden, so combining the two only seems natural, right? Well for me not so much. I’ve never had good luck with herb or vegetable gardens. The veggies are puny and flavorless, the herbs inevitably dry out (my own fault – they actually need watered every day. Just a little FYI)

But hopefully this year will be better! We’re off to a great start so far. I bought more herbs and spices than I ever have before, and I bought cute little pots to plant them in. I figured I’d be more likely to maintain them if they looked pretty. My kids are pretty and I take really good care of them, so I think the logic fits. My husband, after seeing the receipt for said flower pots, was slightly less enthused. But happily the skeptic in him vanished when he saw how festive our deck looks now; in fact, he suggested we buy more! I’m waiting to be sure these survive first.

So here it is, in all its glory – my little garden of wonders:

Cilantro and Tarragon

Greek Oregano, Chives, Basil, Rosemary, more Basil (hello? homemade pesto!), Parsley

No, that first pot isn’t empty, it’s just really S-L-O-W growing Thyme, Dill, Sage, Catnip

And Annie’s strawberry plant, which produces some really tasty berries!

Now my question for you – what can you do with Catnip? I bought it for our two adopted kittens, but as it turns out they are allergic. Is there anything else I can do with it, or shall I just chuck it and buy something else? (and by something else I mean more Basil)