Mint Oreo Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

So combine recently signing up for a dairy home delivery service with pregnancy, and some motivation, and voila... it's the end of only using my kitchen aid ice cream maker for responsible things, like sorbet and frozen yogurt. 

But holy crap, yum. 

Ingredients: 
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups 1% milk
2 T vanilla extract
1 can 14oz sweetened condensed milk
1 package mint oreos crushed with a potato masher
a few sprigs of mint from the deck herb garden

Directions: Whisk together heavy cream, milk, vanilla, and sweetened condensed milk.  Put in ice cream maker following instructions.

While that's going, crush oreos and chop mint and add to large bowl.  When ice cream is ready, fold into the bowl of cookies and mint.

Freeze.  Eat.

Kale & Brussel Sprout Ball Jar Lunch

Whoa.  Seeing the last date I posted on this here blog...  Shame.  Feeling like quite the slacker.  If anyone actually pays any attention, sincere apologies.  But eh, I've gotten comfortable with recipes, repeating favorites, and not experimenting too terribly much.  And this blog really just serves as my selfish little archives, anyways...  ;)

But it's January.  And with that comes renewed commitments to health goals, portion control, and steering clear of the foods that derail those goals.  This week, I'll be lunching on a lovely layered salad in a ball jar.  Expect more of these ball jar concoctions to come... (only to be blogged if actually tasty...)  This is a quick fix on a Sunday night to have a weeks worth of lunches ready - with a portioned amount to stay on target and in control.

This weeks concoction is a kale and brussel sprout lemon salad (inspired by a Wegman's bagged salad... and after enjoying the salad, wondering why I didn't just shred my own sprouts.)

May as well make 4 jars while you're at it - the per jar ingredient list is:

Handful of shredded kale
Handful of shredded brussels sprouts
1 tsp decadent vinegar (pear champagne vinegar from Los Olivos, CA if you have it on hand)
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 C cooked bulgur (cooked in chicken broth and cooled well)
1/2 C chickpeas
1/4 avocado
1/4 lemon

Layer kale and sprouts for about half of the jar.  Add oil and vinegar.  Put lid on and shake. Shake. Shake.  Top with chickpeas, bulgur, and avocado.  Squeeze lemon on avocado to keep from browning. 

Voila.

When ready to eat, dump in a bowl and add salt and pepper (if desired).  Quite satisfying.

CSA Kitchen Sink Carrot Ginger Soup

Continuing on the theme of CSA prep and process before going to GA and returning to rotten vegetables in the fridge... Process, prep, and freeze production continues...  Apologies if all these ingredients are random and mainly found in the CSA... But look at your life and look at your choices and invest in farm fresh seasonal goodness.

Ingredients:

Canola oil

2 onions

leek

2 buttercup squash - roasted the day before and cooled

1 bunch purple carrots

3 parsnips

A good 3-4 inch nubbin of ginger

2 boxes of chicken broth

Salt to taste

1/8 C honey

1 cup whole milk

Directions:

Coat bottom of stock pan with canola.

Throw in roughly chopped onion.

As you roughly chop other ingredients add in leek, carrots, parsnip.

Scoop out of skin and add squash flesh to pot.

Add 2 boxes of chicken broth and fresh ginger - peeled and roughly chopped.

Simmer for an hour or until carrots are pierced easily with a fork.

Turn off heat and add milk and honey.  Adjust seasoning.

Using my favorite kitchen toy.  Immersian blend the heck out of the soup.  

Taste, cool, package, and freeze for a rainy day.

Creamed Spinach

...when spinach grows up.

Operation, save the CSA - prep and  freeze - before going home sweet home for Christmas...

With two ginormous bags of CSA spinach in the fridge and the desire to make something that would freeze, I opted for creamed spinach.  A first, but not a last time this will happen.  (And quite a treat to the usual - dash of olive oil to saute spinach)

The CSA: where you learn what happens when baby spinach grows up.

Ingredients: 

2 giant bags of giant leaves of spinach

yummy creamy step.. 

2 T butter

4 giant shallots

3 T flour

1 C whole milk

1/2 C 1% milk

1 brick cream cheese

healthy pour of garlic powder

2 rinds of Parmesan (leftover from a party)

dash of nutmeg - around 1/4 tsp

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

Wash the giant sandy CSA spinach picking off stems and tearing into small pieces.

Melt butter.

Saute shallot in butter until translucent.

Add flour stirring frequently until nutty color.

Add milk.

Add cream cheese melting.  Add nutmeg.

Add all the other things and stir until spinach cooks down.

Noms.  I learned tonight that it goes well with quinoa and salmon.

...and we're ready to nom. 

Cantaloupe Sorbet

When the CSA overwhelms you with melon, it's time to dust off the kitchen aid ice cream maker attachment...  With 2 fruit shares - I had 5 cantaloupes sitting on my counter this afternoon - taunting me with their ripeness.  So, my mind obviously went to sorbet.  Inspired by Alton Brown's recipe, I got to work.  I sliced and diced for a small eternity - which in addition to the 4 pounds of melon I turned into sorbet, still yielded 4 freezer quart bags of cut melon to nosh on through the week.

Ingredients:
4 pounds cantaloupe chunked
1 cup fresh lemon juice (where I got to use my kitchen aid citrus juice attachment for the first time... Thanks, Tina!)
3 cups sugar
6 T vodka

Directions: 
In batches, since it turns out 4 pounds of melon won't fit in the food processor, blend all ingredients.  Put in fridge for a few hours to chill sorbet liquid.

Then following ice cream maker directions - mix it up in the ice cream maker...  I had enough to make some popsicles, too.

Can't wait to dive into a bowl of this... the spoonful I taste tested was mighty good!

Pad Kra Pao Ga - My Thai Basil Chicken Adventures

Here are the steps involved to get this deliciousness on the table.

Step 1.  Have an urge to combine the 2 pounds of chicken in the fridge with the abundant spicy Thai basil thriving on the deck.

Step 2.  Find a good looking recipe and realize you need oyster sauce and Thai chilies to make this happen.

Step 3.  After work, drive to a non-existent Asian Food Store.

Step 4.  Curse Google.

Step 5.  So, find another.  Get turned around a few times on the bazillion exit/on ramps involved in getting there, taking about an hour to even begin what you thought would be a 15 minute adventure.

Step 6.  Read the recipe in the store and wonder if the giant bag of chili de arbol could substitute for Thai chilies and if your Thai basil is holy enough.  (I mean they spend a whole paragraph discussing the need for holy basil.)

Step 7.  Go down a rabbit hole of thoughts about the holiness of basil.

Step 8.  Leave store with miraculously only one impulse purchase of mochi ice cream red bean balls.

Step 9. Get home and crank up music and start some brown rice.  Because.

Step 10.  Reread recipe.  Modify it.

• By throwing in a few giant handfuls of spinach.  Because.  
• Using only one kind of soy sauce.  Because.  
• Cook all the chicken at once, not a serving at a time.  Because. 
• Using 1 T of oil for the 2 packages of chicken.  Not 2 T of oil for one serving.  Because.  
• And I don't want an egg on the side.  Because.    

Consensus?  I probably could have gotten my two ingredients from Giant.  I could have ordered Thai takeout faster.  But - now I know where to get my international groceries.  And holy basil, it was delicious!  This WILL happen again.  (And not just because of my giant bottle of oyster sauce I only used 1 tablespoon of and my giant bag of dried red peppers of which I only needed about 7.)  Because it was noms and I know what's in it.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

I found this delicious looking recipe.  My thing with 'paleo desserts' (as with most recipes, really) is that the ingredients need to be real and not something I would only buy for one recipe (ie: almond flour.) But this recipe had real  food, so it was a winner.  I made a few changes... After reading comments, I left out the oil.  I also did more coconut in the pb mix... Here's roughly what I did:

Step 1 - order some cute candy molds from amazon.com (or just use a muffin tin, like an animal.)

Ingredients: 
1/3 C crunchy Smucker's natural pb
3T shredded unsweetened coconut maybe more
1 T honey

1/2 C dark chocolate chips
1/2 tsp unsalted butter

Directions: 
Melt chocolate in glass bowl in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring in between until melted.  Add dab of butter.  Stir and melt.

Spray molds with spray oil of your choice. Then add a dab of chocolate in each mold that you're using. Drop a few times on the counter to get chocolate to spread out.  Put mold in freezer.

Melt PB in 30 second increments in microwave, until soft.  Add coconut and honey.  Add dollop of pb to each mold.  Smush with a knife to fill.  Put in freezer to harden.  For around 5 minutes.  Add final chocolate layer.  Keep in fridge until you are ready to pop out, present, and enjoy.

Tips:
They are kind of prone to melting.  I'd keep in fridge until you're going to eat them.
Before you make them, I measured the volume of my mold.  I knew I didn't want a whole tray, so I tested to see how much water would fill, and I altered the recipe so that I didn't have a bunch of candy laying around.  Though, after tasting them, that was a dumb idea.

   

Beef (No Bean) Chili

I'm being nice and making paleo things.  This was a big hit with the bf.  Pretty simple and quick (for chili standards..)

Ingredients: 
1 package ground beef/bison/turkey
1 diced onion
2 large garlic cloves - minced
1 green bell pepper - diced
1 jalapeno minced
1 - 28oz diced tomatoes
1/2 T oregano - ish
1/2 T cumin - ish
2T chili powder - ish
salt to taste

Directions:
Brown meat.  While that's browning, throw in onion and garlic.  Cook for a few minutes.  Drain grease, if there's a lot of fat swimming around... When meat is browned, throw in bell pepper, and spices.  After a few minutes, add can of tomatoes, and simmer.  Simmer for an hour and a half.  I might experiment next time and add a can of pumpkin.  

I served mine over a mini baked potato and topped with some shredded cheese.  Not so paleo.  But very delish.

My Mom's Famous (Bourbon) Balls

Guest post from my Madre.... Sharon’s Bourbon Balls

These will be the hit of any holiday party.  Give them to your friends and they’ll be expecting/demanding them every year!  I give them away in little holiday tins and have even been known to do refills.  The original recipe from over 30 years ago was Rum Balls.  Over the years as our family’s southern roots have grown deeper we've changed from rum to bourbon.  We have even had taste testing with different types of bourbon and Woodford Reserve has won out.  Every year friends say that these are the best ones, yet!

Ingredients: 1 – 11 oz pkg vanilla wafers crushed

1 cup pecans finely chopped

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

½ cup bourbon

Directions: 

Stir ingredients together.

Shape into small balls about 1 inch, any size works though.

Roll in more powdered sugar. Tip – the crushing and chopping is a good job for a food processor.

Save the Chicken; Clean Out the Fridge Rice Dish

I'm in the habit of cooking up a whole chicken on a Sunday to nosh on for dinners and lunches throughout the week.  For whatever reason, this chicken was a bit on the dry side.  I decided to save it by shredding it and adding liquid, and use some butternut squash in need of cooking to boot.

Ingredients: 
1 C uncooked brown rice
~3.5 C chicken broth
1 small can tomato sauce
shreds of leftover chicken - about 2 cups
1 butternut squash peeled and chopped
~1 T each of cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder.  Basically, a heavy hand of all of them.


Directions:

Start the rice.  Use 1.5 C chicken broth and 1 C water and 1 C brown rice.  Bring to a boil and then simmer.

While rice is going - peel, dice and chop butternut squash.

In a large skillet, add ~ 1 C chicken broth and diced butternut squash.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Add tomato sauce and spices - stir, and keep simmering for ~ 10 minutes.  Add chicken.

While there's still time on the clock for rice, go ahead and dump the pot into the skillet to finish cooking and absorb the spiced tomato broth.  Simmer for a bit.  Stirring, and adjusting spices if need be.  Call it done when there's a little bite still in the rice.  Add water if mixture is getting dry.

Delish.  

Beef Stew, Plain and Simple

Sometimes you want to eat a nice dinner at your desk before heading to a yoga double.  AKA 3 hours of zen.

Last night I made this delicious stew with the CSA bounty.  I essentially emptied the veggie drawer... And it is delish, I just didn't know it last night.  I had to wait until just now, eating it at my desk, to realize that its simplicity is indeed blog-worthy.

Ingredients:
Splash canola oil
Package stew beef
2 small onions
1 leek
4 small-ish potatoes
3 turnips
3 carrots
Half a huge head of cabbage
2 bay leaves
3 beef bouillon cubes
salt and pepper to taste
water
1 can tomato sauce

Directions: 
Brown beef in canola oil.  Set aside.  Toss in chopped leek, and onion.  Saute until soft.  Add a few cups of water.  And chopped carrots, chopped potatoes (I left the peels on), chopped turnips (I peeled them), and cabbage cut into chunks.

Add beef bouillon cubes, dissolve and add bay leaves.  Add beef back.

Simmer for 90 minutes or so.  Maybe monitor and add water, as needed. Add tomato sauce.  Simmer another 20 minutes.     Salt and pepper to taste.  Refrigerate / freeze in portions...

Sauteed Cabbage

Sorry, friends.  I've been MIA.  But really, I just haven't done new blogworthy toiling in my kitchen.  And arguably this isn't too blogworthy.  But sometimes you just have a head of cabbage you need to figure out what to do with that isn't the same ol' same ol'.  (Which for me is an asian stirfry or slaw.)

Inspired by Ina, this recipe couldn't be simpler.

Ingredients:
large head of cabbage - cut and sliced
2 T butter
salt and pepper

The results were a simple, slightly sweet cooked bowl of sauteed cabbage.  

My First, But Not Last Ratatouille

Ingredient Pile

Oh, hey blog.  Sorry you've been neglected.  But 1.  I've been busy - travelling like a crazy woman and also 2. I haven't done much new blogworthy kitchen-ing.  -- Basically meaning my blog is working for my selfish purpose of saying, 'oh, self what was it you did with that random ingredient?'  Look it up on your blog, and recreate it.  

So tonight.  Tonight there is tunes and chopping and prepping and solitude and rain and thunder.
---------
Immediately following the CSA email with the contents this afternoon, came the brilliant suggestion from the sister-in-law, 'sounds like ratatouille!'  (We share the CSA...)

Indeed.  Leaving out the corn on the cob and cauliflower, all other veggies married well together.  I read up on Mark Bittman's Oven-Baked Recipe and a few others, and the rumor is that pretty much anything goes with ratatouille... But here is what I did, for what it's worth... 

Oven Ready

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant - sliced and salted and let sit for a bit and wrung out
3 bell peppers coarsely chopped  
4 beautifully ripened heirloom tomatoes coarsely chopped (minus the two chunks I had to try because they were beautiful and purple and red and tempting)
4 tomatillos coarsely chopped
a dozen or so bright sweet small peppers
a large handful of yellow grape tomatoes
Seasoned with healthy pour of olive oil - Maybe 2T; salt; pepper; marjoram; oregano; garlic powder; and onion powder.

Directions: Layer in a large casserole dish.  Bake 350 for 1 hour periodically opening the oven to smash.

Taste test... Amazing...  Lunch all week..  

Impulsive Pulse and Quinoa Salad

The scene.  Carpooling to a winery potluck with friends at 10:45 am on a gorgeous Saturday for a afternoon jazz festival.  Woke up the same day with no idea what to make.  (I'll blame it on the nutty week I'd had.)  Open the fridge/pantry.  This is what came about.

Ingredients:
1 cup dry quinoa - cook it according to directions.
1 cup dry lentils - cook according to directions.  (But first spill about a half of a cup on the floor and trash them because you hadn't had coffee yet.)
3 green onions sliced thin
1 bunch asparagus
Awesome garlic scape pesto made earlier in the week (you could get the same flavor profile with garlic powder, salt, lemon, oil, and  parm, probably.)
More lemon juice (~1 T)
More olive oil (~2 T)
A smidge more parm (~2 T)
Salt to taste

Directions:
Cook lentils and throw in a bowl and put in the fridge to cool.  Cook quinoa.  The last few minutes of the quinoa throw in chopped asparagus to blanch.  (I didn't feel like getting another pot dirty.  You could steam the asparagus.  I wanted some crunch still left.)  Add into the lentils.  Mix in remaining ingredients.

This makes a lot.  I saved 2 servings for later and the rest went to the potluck with 10 people and a bit was leftover.  It had good reviews for something so impulsive!

Fun hayride with the owners schooling us on vineyard vs. wineries

Kitchen Sink Crustless Quiche

That sigh when you've cleaned the kitchen after playing in it and you sit on the couch with your feet-up.  I love that feeling. It's like winning.  A combination of being well-nourished and de-stressed.  That just happened and I just heard myself sigh.

Tonight, I fetched veggies, rushed to Pilate's, came home and cranked up a sappy Joni Mitchell Pandora station and got into veggie prep mode.  

Inspired by being overrun with CSA eggs and veggies, a veggie quiche came to mind... I was mildly following this recipe... for time, temp, and a rough idea of ingredients.

After some stressful days at work, it was a nice mind and body reset to exercise and cook with tunes cranked.  My therapy.

Ingredients:
6 farm fresh eggs.  One of them had 2 yolks.  Because, you know, that's how the CSA do.  So not sure if that's 7 eggs?  But, I cracked 6 shells, so...
A 2 cup package mexican cheese, 2% that has been in the freezer for awhile.
1 zucchini leftover from beach weekend.

2 bunches of CSA spinach.
2 green/purpley scallions from the CSA.
Healthy drizzle of canola oil.
2 tsp garlic diced.

Directions:
Saute chopped zucchini, onion, and garlic in canola oil until cooked with salt and pepper.

Beat eggs in a bowl.  Add 2 C package of 2% Mexican cheese. Add cooked veggies and dump in casserole pan.  (I couldn't find my pie pans.  Probably in my trunk, knowing me.)

Cook at 350 for half hour.  Let rest for 10 minutes.

Portion out. Freeze half a dozen portions, so you don't feel overwhelmed by a quiche.  (Food shouldn't overwhelm.)  Save 3 portions for now, or meals later in the week.

Spinach - Microwaved

In the vein of, Sarah, what are you eating today?

Effort to clean out the fridge before vacay has commenced.  And the bagged spinach I brought to work looked wilty and unappetizing.  So I decided to microwave it to wilt it some more.

Pick out the culprits, add a spash of water and microwave for 40 seconds.  Add ham deli meat, avocado, hot sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Serve with a side of yogurt, cherries, a lingering headache, and listening to a senate approps markup.
 

Strawberry Rhubarb Oatmeal

So rhubarb was in the inaugural CSA box of the season.  Something I'm not all too familiar with using.  But I knew I wanted to make something that wasn't dessert.  Using inspiration from the Oatmeal Artist's recipe,  I went to town.

I decided to pre-prep the rhubarb in one big batch and will use it throughout the week in hot oats and probably my cold soaked oats as well - I have a hunch all of the ingredients below will make for some delish soaked oats.  But holy smokes, my hot strawberry rhubarb oatmeal was a lil bowl of heaven this grey morning.

The CSA rhubarb yielded 3 cups chopped rhubarb.

For rhubarb sauce/liquid stuff - 
Ingredients:
3 cups chopped rhubarb
2 1/4 cups water
3 T maple syrup

Directions: 
Bring to a simmer and cook down for about 10 minutes.  I did this the night before and put in mason jars to use in oats later.

So for the oatmeal in the morning... Ingredients:
1/2 C oats
1/2 C rhubarb liquid/sauce
1/2 C milk
1 C sliced strawberries
splash vanilla extract
1 t sugar in the raw

Directions:
In saucepan simmer oats, rhubarb, and milk.  Add in half of strawberries to cook with oats.  When consistency is right for you, put in bowl and add vanilla, rest of strawberries, and sugar.  Enjoy!

Shredded Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad aka the Shallot that Brought me to Tears

Shredded Kale & Brussels Sprout Salad
Serves a dinner party of 10 with plenty leftover. 

My other Easter side was a yummy carrot salad.  Leave it to me to ensure there isn't a shortage of veggies on the dinner table.  It's kind of my thing.  This oober green salad was delicious and turned out really well, aside from the shallot making me bawl my eyes out.  My time tested trick on how to handle onions and shallots making you cry?  Suck it up, it will be over soon.

I don't need to bother typing out a recipe, when it's already written and photographed so elegantly.. So, see here.  But I will copy and paste it and and I'll add some notes...
-------------------------
For the dressing:

1 Tablespoon minced shallots (Just use a whole giant shallot, because what does one do with the leftover?)
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard (Apparently, optional, because I forgot it.)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I wanted more.  Juice of 3 lemons.)
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (Zest of 1 lemon.)
2 teaspoons honey or agave nectar (A blop of honey. More like 2T.)
1/4 cup olive oil (I didn't measure it and I used canola.)

For the salad:
4 cups finely shredded Lacinato kale (loosely packed) (I didn't really measure - Bought a healthy loose amount from the store.)
4 cups finely shredded Brussels sprouts (loosely packed) (1 package of sprouts.)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (Toasting, meh.  I just used a package of slivered almonds.)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (Measuring, meh.  I used the rest of a package of shredded parm.)

DIRECTIONS:

Make the dressing:
In a small bowl, whisk together the shallots, mustard, lemon juice, lemon zest and honey. Stream in the olive oil while whisking continuously until well combined. Season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste. (You can add more lemon juice or agave nectar to adjust the acidity or sweetness to your personal taste.)  (Or just add all ingredients and shake it in a mason jar.)

Assemble the salad:
In a large bowl, toss together the shredded kale, shredded Brussels sprouts and toasted almonds. Add as much dressing as desired, tossing to combine, then add the cheese and toss. Serve immediately. (I have a feeling it will be delicious a day later also.)

Kelly's Notes:
To shred the Brussels sprouts, cut off the stems, halve them and using a very sharp knife, cut them into shreds. (Or use the food processor.  Amaze-balls.)

To shred the kale, strip the leaves from the stems, stack the leaves on top of one another, roll them up and then cut the roll into ribbons. 

Carrot Raisin Pineapple Salad

An Easter potluck with friends and family. The perfect time to inflict a craving upon your loved ones. For whatever reason, I've been wanting this sweet carrot salad. And just like that, it is prepped, in the fridge, and awaiting consumption tomorrow.  (And perhaps a bit lighter than the one I occasionally snag from Chick-Fil-A.)

Ingredients:
2 pounds carrots - shredded
20 oz can crushed pineapple
1 cup raisins
fat free greek yogurt and light mayo until moist enough.  I probably used 1/4 C each

Mix.  Voila.

Irish Soda Bread - Altered...

Wake up in the morning and make bread at 8am on a Saturday?  Why not...  Have a few gatherings to attend today and don't want to show up empty handed...

I used Ina Garten's recipe... So I will spare you most of the details.

But since I can't just let a recipe be a recipe... Here were my alterations:

1 C raisins instead of currants
1/2 the flour I used was whole wheat
I used fresh grated orange zest
I threw in 2  tsp of caraway seeds for good measure
I split the dough into two smaller loafs

Delish...

   

Sunday Morning Update:  Makes phenomenal
french toast.