25 May 2012

This is a new salmon recipe I created earlier this week.  I love pairing fruit flavors with salmon; they just seem to go so well together.  In the past I have used blackberry, lemon, orange, and apricot.  We had a pretty good rhubarb crop this year, and I thought it would taste really good on salmon.  I searched around online for a rhubarb glazed salmon recipe, but all I could find were recipes for salmon with a rhubarb sauce.  So I made my own recipe.  Turned out pretty well!


Rhubarb Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh rhubarb, diced
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey
¼ tsp salt
4 (4 oz.) salmon filets

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.

Place rhubarb in a small saucepan and add water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, or until rhubarb is completely soft and water has evaporated.  Mash rhubarb and add honey and salt.  Taste for seasoning, adding more honey if necessary.

Place salmon on baking sheet.  Spoon rhubarb over salmon.  Bake 15 minutes, adding more rhubarb sauce halfway through, if desired.  Turn on broiler during last few minutes of cooking.

Makes 4 servings.


This was so yummy!  Rhubarb does go really well with salmon.  How much honey you need to add to the rhubarb will depend on how tart your rhubarb is.  Mine was quite tart, so if yours is sweeter, you probably won't need as much honey.

I served this salmon with Gingered Brown Rice.  To make that, I made my standard Baked Brown Rice, and added about 8 coins of sliced ginger to it before throwing it in the oven.  You don't even need to peel the ginger.  The ginger flavor will infuse the cooking water as it cooks.  Then when it's done, just remove the spent ginger coins and discard.  The rice will have a lovely ginger flavor throughout.

17 May 2012

It's time again for the Improv Challenge.  The premise of this challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month the ingredients were strawberries and cream.  I didn't waste any time trying to come up with a savory recipe using strawberries and cream, because I saw this recipe for No-Bake Fresh Strawberry Pie in last month's Cooking Light and just HAD to try it.  And since cream cheese counted as a "cream" ingredient, I was good to go!  (As you can see, I did serve it with whipped cream on top too, for good measure!)

No Bake Fresh Strawberry Pie


Ingredients:
1 (6 oz.) Chocolate Graham Ready Crust
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
¾ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 tbsp seedless strawberry fruit spread
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
Whipped cream, optional


Directions:
Unwrap ready-made pie crust and set aside.


Place cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl; beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Carefully spread over bottom of crust. Place fruit spread in a large microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 10 seconds or until softened. Add lemon juice; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add berries; toss to combine. Arrange berries over pie. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.


Serve with whipped cream on top, if desired.


Makes 8 servings.

The original recipe called for making a chocolate crust from scratch, but I simplified things by using a store-bought one.  I'm sure the homemade one would taste better, but it wasn't worth the extra effort to me.  It also called for Chambord, a raspberry-flavored liqueur, but I wasn't about to buy a whole bottle of that stuff to use 1 tbsp of it.  I just increased the lemon juice a tad.



Look at all those beautiful berries!


Piled high!

This pie was so incredibly easy; I think I had it put together in 15 minutes or less.  And it is so good.  The combination of the tart berries and the sweet, creamy filling is amazing.  Next time I will make some chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top.  Because there most definitely WILL BE a next time!





Shared at:





15 May 2012



It's time once again for the Eating the Alphabet Challenge.  This month, we had to chose a fruit, vegetable, grain, bean, or legume that began with the letter G or H.



I could have taken the easy route and done something with grapes or grapefruit, but when I joined this challenge, I really wanted to do my best to use it to explore ingredients I had never cooked with before.  So I tracked down some guavas.  Actually, my favorite mega-mart, Meijer, carries them so I found them easily.  The cashier said, "Are these ripe? Are they supposed to be this hard?"  My answer: "I have no idea!"

I originally wanted to do a fruit salad, or something like that with the guavas, but after looking up guava recipes online, I found nothing of the sort.  Most guava recipes online are for some kind of puree or preserves or jam or something like that.  I found a recipe on Food.com that sounded interesting, though.  It was called Guava Whip, but it sounded kind of like gauva custard.  The sole reviewer put it in mini tart shells, and I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I picked up some of those graham cracker mini tart shells.  Here is the recipe I made.


Guava Custard Tartlets


Ingredients:
5 ripe guavas, peeled and chopped
2 tsp sugar
1½ tsp gelatin powder
2 tbsp hot water
½ cup prepared custard 
5 graham cracker mini tart shells
Whipped cream


Directions:
Place guava in a medium saucepan and cover with water.  Cover pan and bring to a boil.  Boil until gauva is soft.  If there is still a lot of water in the pot by the time the guava is soft, drain.  Place guava in a fine mesh strainer and press out liquid and pulp with a rubber scraper.  Discard the (mostly) dry flesh and seeds.  Put the gauva puree back into the pot and add the sugar.  Turn heat to low and cook gently until slightly thickened.  


Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water and add to the guava puree.  Whisk in the custard.


Pour into mini tart shells, cool, and refrigerate at least two hours.  Garnish with a blob of whipped cream.


Makes 5 tartlets.

Now, I have to be honest, and tell you this will probably be my first and last foray into cooking with guava.  Guava has a very odd texture.  Some recipes I read online called for scooping the seeds out before doing anything else, but the guavas that I had were almost all seeds, so if I had scooped them out, there would have been nothing left.  Now I know why all the recipes online were for purees or preserves.  It's just not the kind of fruit you can cut up and put in a salad.  They have a very weird texture.  It could be that the cashier was right and that my guavas were not ripe; I still have no idea.  I boiled them for a very long time before it was even close to soft.  Once I boiled the heck out of it, it had the consistency of a raw pear.  Kind of grainy.  

The biggest problem I had with the guava was that it didn't seem to have much flavor.  When my husband and I tried the tartlets, the general consensus was that it was really bland.  The added sugar just made them generically sweet, but they didn't really taste very fruity at all.  Definitely edible, but didn't have the "wow" factor I was expecting from cooking with tropical fruit.

So while I am glad that I can now say that I have cooked with and eaten guava, I think I will stick to other fruits in the future!  I actually would like to try this recipe with another fruit sometime.  I'm thinking strawberries, perhaps.




14 May 2012

Did you know you could make gorgeous twice baked potatoes in your slow cooker?  It's a really handy recipe to know, because so often the oven is tied up with the main dish.  It is also great in the summertime because you don't have to heat up the house when it's 90 degrees outside.  Throw your meat on the grill, toss these into the slow cooker, and zap your veggies in the microwave and you're good to go!  I saw this recipe at Crock Pot Recipe Exchange.  You can use leftover baked potatoes, or just bake the potatoes in the slow cooker like I did.


Slow Cooker Broccoli and Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes


Ingredients:
4 Russet potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt
1 cup small broccoli florets, cooked until very tender
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste


Directions:


Wash and dry potatoes. Rub with oil and salt. Place in slow cooker (you can stand them on their ends or stack them if you need to) and cook on high 4-6 hours or until tender.


Remove potatoes from slow cooker and turn slow cooker down to low.  Cut an oval in the top of each potato and scoop out the flesh, leaving some in the shell to hold its shape.  Place potato flesh in a medium bowl and mash.  Add the broccoli, sour cream, and ½ cup cheese.  Stir until well combined.  Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if desired.  Spoon the mixture back into the hollowed out potato skins.  Top potatoes with remaining shredded cheese.


Put the potatoes back into the slow cooker.  You can stack them loosely if necessary.  Cover and cook on low for another hour or so, or until cheese has melted.  Remove from slow cooker and serve.


Makes 4 servings.

If you are using leftover baked potatoes, you will need to increase the cooking time after stuffing because the slow cooker won't be preheated.  

If your potatoes are really large, you can cut them in half lengthwise and get two servings out of one potato (like the bottom one in the picture).  But if they are medium or small, cut an oval out and use one potato per serving (like the top two in the picture).  I baked three potatoes: two medium ones and a large one.  (The other half of the large one I left plain for my daughter who is allergic to dairy.)

We had these for a nice Mother's Day dinner last night.  My husband grilled steaks, I made these, and then we ate dinner outside on our deck.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  This was my second time making these potatoes and they are always a hit.  My four year old daughter ate the large one on the bottom of the picture.  And asked for more.  And she isn't really crazy about potatoes.  My husband and I ate the skin, but Lena didn't like it and picked it off.

It would be really easy to customize these and switch up the ingredients.  You could use spinach instead of broccoli or try different cheeses.  The possibilities are endless!




Shared at:

11 May 2012

This is a great way to make chicken, and I thought I should share it with you before it becomes the time of year when it's too hot to turn on the oven!  Chicken thighs are marinated in a flavorful concoction of Chinese five spice, garlic, shallot, and ginger, and then roasted to golden brown perfection.  This is (slightly) adapted from Skinnytaste.



Five Spice Roasted Chicken Thighs


Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, grated
1 large shallot, finely minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp sugar
¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
5 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs


Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the garlic, shallot, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and five spice powder.


Place the marinade in a large resealable bag.  Add the chicken, seal bag, and toss to coat.  Place bag in fridge for at least 6 hours.


Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with foil and place a cooling rack on top.  Coat rack with nonstick spray.  Place chicken on rack and cover loosely with a piece of foil.  Bake 15 minutes, remove foil, and cook an additional 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and golden brown.


Serve over rice.


Makes 4 servings.


The Skinnytaste recipe used whole chicken legs, but I had regular thighs on hand so that's what I used.  I increased the five spice from the original recipe because I thought it could use more.

This chicken is really good served over rice with broccoli on the side.  



10 May 2012


Today I am guest posting over at Frugal Antics of A Harried Homemaker.  Kristen is the hostess of the Improv Challenge that I participate in every month and she has started a series called "Introducing the Improv-ers". I am posting the recipe here, just so that it will be in my archives, but I hope that you will go check it out on Kristen's site to hear all the details and spend some time exploring her recipes while you are there. She's got some really great stuff that I am sure you will love.

Apple Turkey Meatball Kebabs


Ingredients:
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and coarsely shredded
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp salt
1 lb. ground turkey
½ cup apple jelly
1 tbsp soy sauce


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray. 


In a large bowl combine bread crumbs, egg, apple, mustard, and salt. Mix well. Add turkey and mix to just combine. Shape into 24 1¼” meatballs .  Place on prepared baking sheet.  Bake about 20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.


Meanwhile, prepare glaze. In a small saucepan combine apple jelly and soy sauce.  Cook over medium heat until jelly is softened and mixture is smooth. 


Combine meatballs and glaze. Thread on skewers to serve. 


Makes 4 servings.



 

09 May 2012


This is a super simple, all-in-one dish that I've made a couple of times now.  It involves very little effort, but tastes great and is a total family-pleaser.  It's an adaptation of one I saw on MyRecipes, originally published in Southern Living Magazine.


Smoked Sausage, Peas, and Rice Skillet


Ingredients:
14 – 16 oz. smoked sausage
½ large onion, diced
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup frozen peas, thawed


Directions:
Cut sausage in half lengthwise, then into ¼” semicircles.  Sauté in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove sausage slices and drain on paper towels, reserving 1 tbsp of drippings in skillet.


Add onion to skillet and sauté over medium-high heat until tender.  Stir cornstarch into chicken broth and add to skillet, stirring to loosen browned bits from bottom of skillet.  Add sausage back to pan, along with the smoked paprika, rice, and peas.  Bring to a boil.  When sauce starts to thicken, reduce heat to low and cook just until peas are warmed through.


Makes 4 servings.

The original recipe called for green bell pepper instead of peas, but we don't like peppers and the peas are a perfect replacement.  The smoked paprika was my addition; it goes so well with the smoked sausage.

This meal is so perfect for busy weeknights because it contains ready-to-use ingredients and only takes 15-20 minutes to throw together.  I bake brown rice earlier in the day to use in this recipe, but if you don't have time for that, you could definitely use Uncle Ben's Ready Rice or Minute Rice instead.  If using Minute Rice, cover the skillet after adding the rice and let it cook the amount of time stated on the box.  You might need to add a little bit extra chicken broth.  What I usually do is bake a whole batch of brown rice (4 cups cooked), and then whatever I don't need, I freeze in 1 cup portions.  I love having cooked brown rice on hand for adding into soups and recipes like this.  

A note on the number of servings: I get four servings out of this, but that's two adults and two little kids.  This probably wouldn't feed four hungry adults. But it's perfect for a family of four. FYI!



07 May 2012




It's a busy day for this blogger!  Two of my monthly blog challenges, The Secret Recipe Club and The Crazy Cooking Challenge, are posting on the same day at the same time.  This post is for the Secret Recipe Club, click here for my Crazy Cooking Challenge post: Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

 It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day.  The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

Secret Recipe Club

This month I was assigned the blog Bizzy Bakes by Chaya.  Chaya is a grandmother who started the blog in order to share fast, easy recipes with few uncomplicated ingredients.  That sounded right up my alley!  I saw several recipes on her blog that caught my eye, such as Corn and Sausage Cakes with Tomato Topping, Asian Glazed Chicken, and Peach Rhubarb Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.  But the one I decided to go with was her Roasted Salmon and Potatoes.  We love salmon (my girls, ages 2 and 4, practically inhale the stuff!), so I am always eager to try new ways to prepare it.  This recipe sounded really good.  I made a few minor adjustments; here is my (slight) adaptation.  

Honey Mustard Roasted Salmon, Potatoes, and Mushrooms

Ingredients:
1½ lbs. small new potatoes, halved
8 oz. cremini mushrooms
3½ tbsp olive oil, divided
1½ tsp kosher salt, divided
4 (4 oz.) skinless salmon filets
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 tbsp honey

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°. 

On a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan, toss the potatoes, mushrooms, 1½ tbsp of the oil, and 1 tsp salt.  Roast, tossing once, until the potatoes begin to soften, about 25 minutes.

Push the vegetables to the edges of the pan and place the salmon in the center. Season with ¼ tsp salt.  Roast until the salmon is opaque throughout, the mushrooms are tender, and the potatoes are golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, honey, the remaining 2 tbsp of oil, and remaining ¼ tsp salt. Drizzle over the salmon and vegetables before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Chaya didn't use mushrooms in her dish, but I looked at her recipe source (Real Simple) and mushrooms were included in that, and since I love mushrooms I wanted to try it that way.  Roasted veggies are amazing on their own, but then tossing them in a honey mustard vinaigrette? Awesome! I changed the vinaigrette ingredients a tad just to suit our own tastes.  It's a little bit sweet and a little bit tangy.  It pairs so well with the salmon.  My husband is not a huge fan of mushrooms, and will often pick them out, but he absolutely loved them with this vinaigrette.  He ate them all and asked for more!



The potatoes and mushrooms getting ready to roast.



I used a 9x13, so it was a tight fit getting the salmon in there, but it worked.

I think it would be fun to try this recipe with different veggies, provided they would have roughly the same cooking time.  The next time I make it I want to try it with Brussels sprouts.  Yum!

Thanks for a great recipe, Chaya!  I am sure I will be trying more recipes from your blog in the future!






It's a busy day for this blogger!  Two of my monthly blog challenges, The Secret Recipe Club and The Crazy Cooking Challenge, are posting on the same day at the same time.  This post is for the Crazy Cooking Challenge, click here for my Secret Recipe Club post: Honey Mustard Roasted Salmon, Potatoes, and Mushrooms.

It's time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge!  In this challenge, all the participants make and blog about the same dish each month.  Each blogger is to scour other blogs for a unique version of whatever that month's dish is.  The goal is to highlight and promote personal food blogs. This month's assigned dish was grilled cheese sandwiches.  So we were to find a unique grilled cheese sandwich recipe, make it, and blog about it.

Photobucket



The timing was awesome for this challenge.  April was National Grilled Cheese Month, so grilled cheese recipes were EVERYWHERE.  This was a good thing, but it made it really hard to decide which to choose!   My head was spinning with all the possibilities.  I saw tons of grilled cheese recipes that looked amazing, and I probably bookmarked 5 that I JUST HAD TO MAKE.  While I saw recipes on several different blogs that caught my eye, one blog in particular had me drooling every day.  Suzanna at Galley Kitchen posted a unique grilled cheese recipe EVERY SINGLE DAY in April.  Yep, she now has 30 awesome grilled cheese recipes on her blog that you must go check out!  While I still have several of them bookmarked to try in the future, one of hers really grabbed me and I knew that it was THE ONE.  Her Roast Beef and Blue Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich sounded amazing to me.  It contains all the flavors of a steakhouse dinner: hearty beef, tangy blue cheese, and even the creamed spinach side dish!  It sounded incredible and I couldn't wait to make it.  I changed her recipe only very slightly; here's my adaptation.


Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups fresh baby spinach, packed
2 tbsp smoked bleu cheese crumbles
2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
4 slices Texas toast
8 slices very thinly sliced deli roast beef
Butter

Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Add spinach and sauté until wilted.  Remove spinach to a paper towel to remove excess moisture.  Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and blue cheese.  Mix well.  Spread the mixture on all 4 slices of bread.  Top two slices of bread with the roast beef and the other two with the spinach.
Close it up and butter the outsides of the bread.

Griddle on high heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.

Makes 2 servings.

I used Texas toast instead of regular bread because I love how hearty it is.  It can really stand up to the bold flavors in this sandwich.  I also sauteed my spinach instead of putting it in the sandwich raw.   The only other thing I changed was that I used a smoked bleu cheese.  I didn't even realize smoked bleu cheese existed, but when I went shopping for bleu cheese, I saw it and couldn't NOT try it.  I love smoked gouda and other smoked cheeses, so I thought it sounded fabulous.  It was AMAZING in this sandwich.  The smoked flavor goes so well with the beef and the spinach; it's just incredible.

This is a very messy sandwich, but after one bite, you are not going to care one bit!  

Thank you, Suzanna, for all of your awesome grilled cheese sandwich recipes, but especially this one!






05 May 2012


Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!  I love Cinco de Mayo and consider it a food holiday!  We love Mexican food and margaritas and think it's totally awesome that there's a holiday for them!  I created a new "Mexican" dessert the other night and want to share it with you now.  The name sounds really fancy, but really, it's just cinnamon and cayenne stirred into a brownie mix and topped with cinnamon-flavored sweetened condensed milk that's been cooked.  Easy peasy, but so good!


Mexican Brownies with Cinnamon Dulce de Leche


Ingredients:
1 (19 oz.) box brownie mix
Egg, oil, and water called for on brownie mix box
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp chipotle or cayenne powder
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
¾ tsp cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° (or whatever temperature the brownie mix box says to use).


Make brownie mix as directed on box.  Stir in 1 tsp cinnamon and chipotle or cayenne powder.  Bake according to box directions, in either an 8x8 or a 9x13 pan.  Remove from oven and let cool.


Meanwhile, remove the paper label from the can of sweetened condensed milk.  Place can in a large pot and completely cover with water.  Place on stove and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer for 2½ to 3 hours, making sure the can is covered with water at all times.  *IMPORTANT!* If the water level dips below the top of the can, add more water to the pot to cover it.  If the can isn’t covered by water, it will get too hot and explode all over your kitchen.  With tongs, remove can from hot water and allow to cool for several hours.


Open can and pour contents into a small bowl.  Add ¾ tsp cinnamon and stir to combine.  Pour dulce de leche over the brownies and smooth it out.  Cut brownies and serve.  Refrigerate leftovers.


Makes 9 thicker brownies (8x8 pan), or 15 thinner brownies (9x13 pan).

I made mine in an 8x8 pan and didn't use all of the dulce de leche topping.  I'm not totally sure it would be enough for a 9x13 pan, though, so if you are doing a 9x13 pan, make two cans of the sweetened condensed milk.  You will probably have too much that way, but it's better than not enough.  Also, the dulce de leche kind of soaks into the leftover brownies when you refrigerate them, so it's nice to have a little extra to drizzle on those.

This is a decadent dessert that finishes off a yummy Mexican dinner perfectly.  The cinnamon and ground pepper add just the right amount of spice and heat.  And you can't beat the convenience of a boxed mix!

I hope you are all able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by enjoying some delicious food and don't forget the margaritas!




Shared at:

03 May 2012


Not a great picture, but it was the best I could do before the party crowd completely devoured it!  This is a dip I made for my daughter's birthday party in February.  You can find a million gazillion recipes for buffalo chicken dip online, but this is how I made mine.


Buffalo Chicken Dip


Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup low fat sour cream
1½ cups chicken, cooked and shredded
¼ cup crumbled bleu cheese
¼ cup Frank’s wing sauce


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.


In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese and sour cream.  Add in the chicken, bleu cheese, and hot sauce. Stir well to combine.  


Pour into a small oven-safe dish.  Bake in oven for about 20 minutes, or until warmed through.  You can also put the dip into a small slow cooker set to warm.


Serve warm with celery stalks, carrot sticks, and/or crackers.


Makes 2½ cups.

It was a huge hit at the party.  It's great because it's a little bit spicy, but the creaminess and the blue cheese really balance it out well.  And I love the beautiful orange color; so festive!




I served it with carrot sticks, celery sticks, and crackers.  I think the crackers were most popular, though.  I kept it warm by putting it in a server with a tealight underneath.  I didn't have the right size slow cooker for this situation.  I think it would be good cold too, though.


02 May 2012


This is a recipe I made over the winter that I've been looking forward to sharing with you.  My sister got me an awesome cookbook for Christmas, Food Network Magazine's Great Easy Meals.  I subscribe to several food magazines now, but Food Network Magazine is hands-down my favorite.  My favorite day of the month is the day that Jim walks in the door with it in his hands after checking the mailbox.  I was so excited to get the cookbook for Christmas because it's like having a whole stack of the magazines, but all in one book. If you read the magazine, you know they have two major sections, Weeknight Cooking and Weekend Cooking.  This book is a compilation of  tons of the Weeknight Cooking recipes.  They are right up my alley: simple and easy to throw together, use everyday ingredients, but are very fresh and unique and very creative, I think.

The first recipe I made from this book is a side dish, Lemon Potatoes.  That's the other nice thing about this cookbook: all of the recipes are also on the Food Network website, so I can look them up and read reviews from people who have tried them.


Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients:
4 potatoes, peeled
⅓ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed
4 oregano sprigs, or ½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 500°.

Slice potatoes into 1½” rounds.  Place in an oven-proof skillet.  Combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and oregano.  Pour over potatoes.  Sprinkle salt over potatoes.  Add enough water to come halfway up the sides of the potatoes.  Cover, bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes.  Uncover and place in the oven for 30 more minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

These potatoes are so yummy! I love the beautiful brown color they get on the edges.  The combination of the lemon, garlic, and oregano is amazing.  The potatoes cooked through perfectly, not underdone and not too mushy.  Potatoes are quite heavy, so lemon pairs perfectly with them; it brightens up their flavor beautifully.  

This is a great go-to side dish to have on hand, and is perfect on nights when your main dish uses the stove top.  






Shared at: