Oxo Mandoline

This year for Mother's Day I received a mandoline slicer. I had wanted one for a while so I was very pleased! My knife skills are pretty bad so I need all the help I can get with slicing veggies and fruits. Lena (with lots of Daddy's help) got me the one that was recommended by Cook's Illustrated Magazine and was shown on an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they compared mandolines.

It's the Oxo Good Grips V-Blade Mandoline Slicer. Check it out on Amazon. The V-shaped blade was recommended by Cook's Illustrated over the straight-edged blade.

It has four different thickness settings. They range from 1/4" to 1/16". It stands up on little rubberized legs for great stability. You can also lock the blade closed when you store it.

Some of the extra blades are stored on the underside of it for convenience. It comes with like 5 different blades.

Here are a couple of things I have done with it so far.

Beautiful potato slices for my Muffin Tin Potatoes. This would have been a horrible mess if I had to slice these by hand.

I know these look like potato chips, but they are actually crinkle-cut slices of yellow squash. Fun!

It has a julienne blade too. I julienned this carrot for my Rice Pilaf.

The mandoline also does cubing, and dicing. But I haven't done those yet. I'll post pics when I get around to it.

I highly recommend this mandoline. It's so fun to use and it's only about $30. Well worth it in my opinion.

I also recommend checking out America's Test Kitchen Equipment ratings whenever you are looking for a new kitchen gadget. They have tested all kinds of things, from spatulas to digital scales. Note: You do have to register on the website to be able to view equipment ratings (and recipes). But not to worry, all you have to do is enter your email address. It's not a paid subscription. And they don't send you junk mail, so it's well worth it for the valuable information.

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Blackberry Peach Dessert Sauce

Ok, not the greatest picture (should have left off the whipped cream), but you get the idea. I picked up some fresh blackberries at the farmer's market in Middleville on Friday. I thought a sauce for ice cream would be the perfect use for them. This is an amended recipe of one I found on Recipezaar.

Blackberry Peach Dessert Sauce

Ingredients:

½ cup sugar

⅓ cup water

1 cup fresh blackberries

4 fresh peaches, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)

2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

To make a simple syrup, bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. In a blender container, combine the simple syrup, blackberries, peaches, and lemon juice. Puree until smooth. Chill thoroughly.

Serve over ice cream, cheesecake, angel food cake, pancakes, waffles, or anything else you can think of. Blend with ice cream and milk for a delicious peachberry milkshake.

Makes 2-3 cups.

The original called for blackberries and raspberries, but I didn't have any raspberries. I was going to do double the blackberries but I didn't have enough. So I threw in some peaches. I think if I were to make it with peaches again, I would cut back on the amount of sugar in the simple syrup. The peaches were really sweet and the sweetness kind of drowned out the tartness of the blackberries. Maybe I will go ahead and make the whole amount of simple syrup and add it to the blender container a little bit at a time, tasting it for sweetness in between.

The perfect summertime treat!

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Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon

A super simple recipe I found on Allrecipes.

Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:

¼ cup packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

4 (6 oz.) boneless salmon fillets

salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper and arrange onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Whisk together the brown sugar and Dijon mustard in a small bowl; brush mixture evenly onto top of salmon fillets. Bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information

Servings Per Recipe: 4

Calories: 330

Total Fat: 16.2g

Cholesterol: 83mg

Sodium: 368mg

Total Carbs: 15g

Dietary Fiber: 0g

Protein: 29g

I really didn't change much here. The original called for the salmon to be cooked under the broiler, but since I had another dish that was baking at the same time, I baked them. My fillets were small enough (the skinniest ones I have ever seen!), that it took almost no time.

I really didn't think I would like this very much, but it was great. I thought the mustard would be too strong, but the combination of it and the brown sugar was the perfect flavor complement to the salmon. Absolutely delicious.

I served it with Muffin Tin Potatoes and Italian Peas.

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Italian Peas

This one comes from Allrecipes.

Italian Peas

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil or butter

½ onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 lb. frozen green peas

1 tbsp chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh basil, finely chopped

Fresh oregano, finely chopped.

Directions:

Heat olive oil or butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic; cook about 5 minutes. Add frozen peas, and stir in stock. Season with salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until the peas are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add fresh herbs.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Information (using olive oil instead of butter)

Servings Per Recipe: 6

Calories: 106

Total Fat: 5g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 159mg

Total Carbs: 12g

Dietary Fiber: 4g

Protein: 4g

These were pretty good, but I made a couple of changes. The original recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic and I found the end result to be a bit too heavy on the garlic. It's unusual to hear me say that, because I love garlic, but it was just too much in this dish. So I would only add one next time. I also cut down on the onion a bit.

The only other thing I changed was the addition of herbs. The original didn't call for any herbs and when I tasted it, I felt it needed a little something. Onion and garlic alone didn't make "Italian" enough for me. So I added some dried basil and oregano. It helped, but I think fresh would be better. So I will definitely try that next time.

I served them with Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon and Muffin Tin Potatoes.

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Muffin Tin Potatoes

This is a recipe that Melissa D'Arabian made on the pilot episode of her new show during the finale of The Next Food Network Star. She calls them 5 Minute Individual Potato Gratins, but I renamed them because they take much longer than that!

Muffin Tin Potatoes

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

2 large russet potatoes, thoroughly scrubbed and thinly sliced

½ cup cheese, shredded

1 shallot, finely chopped

Salt

¾ cup heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

Spray 12 muffin tins with vegetable spray. Layer potato slices, cheese, and shallots into each muffin cup. Sprinkle salt in between each slice of potato. Top each gratin with 1 or 2 tbsp of heavy cream. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, removing the foil halfway through cooking time. Invert gratins onto plate and serve.

Makes 4-6 servings.

I changed a couple of things from the original. She said to peel the potatoes, but I didn't think that was necessary. I just scrubbed them really well. I think they are better with the skin on. I used my mandolin to slice them. Worked beautifully! I am a new mandolin owner and am still amazed at how pretty things look when I use it! My knife skills are pretty bad, so I love using my mandolin. I set it on ⅛” and that seemed to be the perfect thickness. Any cheese will do; I used colby jack.

The original recipe calls for 2 green onions instead of the shallot. Jim doesn't really care for onions that much and I was making another dish with onions in it, so I decided to use a shallot instead. We love shallots. They have the best flavor. The shallot was perfect in this dish. That's one thing I will not change when I make it in the future.

The original says to salt the potatoes after layering and topping with cheese. That didn't make much sense to me. When I layered the potatoes, I sprinkled a bit of salt in between each of the layers. I find potatoes need a lot of salt. I didn't use a lot, just a light sprinkle. But I think that is more effective than salting just the top after you put the cheese on.

The only other thing I changed was to use whole milk instead of heavy cream. I don't keep heavy cream on hand because I never use it. I thought the milk would work just as well. Actually, it didn't. I noticed when they came out of the oven that they were really watery. I think the milk may have separated a little bit because I also noticed milk solids. So I guess that wasn't the best idea. I'm not really sure if they need cream; I might try it next time without and see what happens.

Even despite the milk issue, they were delicious. Jim raved about them. They don't look very pretty, but they taste great. The shallot flavor works so well with the potatoes and cheese.

Not a great picture, but this is them getting ready to go into the oven.

My perfect mandolin slices.

I served them with Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon and Italian Peas. Note: I put four potato gratins on my plate for the pic, but that ended up being too much for one side dish serving. I would figure 2 or 3 per person.

Melissa's new show, Ten Dollar Dinners, airs Sunday afternoons at 12:30 on Food Network. I missed the first episode but am looking forward to watching the rest.

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Toasted Ravioli

As you might know, Jim and I spent three out of the first four years of our marriage in St. Louis. We both attended grad school there. This week I was pleased to find a recipe for a dish that is unique to the St. Louis area, toasted ravioli. You can find it on the menu of most places in St. Louis, but I have yet to see it offered anywhere else. We used to order it from Imo's. We didn't like their pizza (much to the chagrin of the natives), but we loved the toasted ravioli.

Toasted ravioli is fresh ravioli that is breaded and fried. Delicious. Filled pastas (ravioli, tortellini, etc) are some of my favorite foods. So when I saw Rachael Ray make it on an episode I had DVRed a few weeks ago, I was very excited to try it.

Toasted Ravioli

Ingredients:

2 eggs

Splash of milk

Salt and pepper

1½ cups Italian bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan

¼ cup parsley, chopped

12 large fresh ravioli, about ¾ lb.

3 tbsp olive oil

Marinara sauce for dipping

Directions:

Beat eggs and a splash of milk seasoned with salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Combine bread crumbs with cheese and parsley in a second dish. Coat the fresh pasta in egg then bread crumbs. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet then toast the ravioli until deep golden, 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Makes 2 servings.

Awesome! Hilary was here the night I made it and we gobbled it all up! It really does taste just like the kind they make in the Lou.

I really didn't change much about the recipe. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the large raviolis when I went to the store that day, so I used regular-sized ones. It really doesn't make any difference, except it takes longer because you have to bread and fry more of them to equal the same number of servings. But they taste just the same. Rachael's recipe called for spinach and cheese ravioli, but I don't see why you can't use any kind you like. We used Buitoni Four Cheese Ravioli, but even one with a meat filling would be fine. I saw that Buitoni has a new kind, called Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, that I can't wait to try.

I didn't have fresh parsley, so I used a smaller amount of dried. She said to use either milk or half & half in the egg, but I don't keep half & half on hand. Milk worked just fine.

If you look at Rachael's original recipe, she included a recipe for a red pepper dipping sauce to go with the ravioli. Jim and I don't like red pepper, so I omitted the sauce. I picked up a yummy jarred marinara sauce, Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese. It's really good. It has spinach running through it and it gives it a great flavor. I really like spinach. It made a great dipping sauce for the toasted ravioli.

Using the small raviolis would make a nice party dish.

I hope you try this. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know what kind of ravioli you used and how it turned out.

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Vegetable Curry

This is one of Alton Brown's recipes, from his show on spices.

Vegetable Curry

Ingredients:

1 (1 lb.) bag mixed frozen vegetables

⅔ cup plain yogurt (lowfat is fine)

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp fennel seeds

½ tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp freshly ground coriander

⅛ tsp freshly ground cinnamon

2 medium cloves garlic, crushed

¼ tsp sugar

½ tsp kosher salt

Directions:

Poke several holes in the bag of frozen vegetables and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until thawed. Drain and set aside.

In medium mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt and cornstarch. Set aside.

Heat oil in a 10”, non-reactive saute pan over medium-high heat. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds and mustard seeds, cover pan with a splatter screen, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to pop. Once they begin to pop, turn the heat down to medium, and add turmeric, onion powder, coriander, cinnamon, and garlic. Saute until garlic turns golden brown in color, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Gently add the vegetables, sugar, and salt, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are heated through. Remove vegetables from heat, pour into bowl with yogurt mixture, and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Super yummy. The spices aren't overpowering, so don't let the long list of spices deter you from trying this. It called for dried red chiles, but I left that out. Without those, it isn't spicy at all, it just has really great Indian-style flavors. If you like a little heat, you should add them.

The veggies getting coated in the spices in the pan. I tasted one before I tossed them with the yogurt and I think it would be good that way too. If you don't like plain yogurt or have dairy issues, or you just don't have yogurt on hand, you should try it without.

Tip: The turmeric stains horribly. Bright yellow. So be careful what utensils you use in making this dish. I accidentally used a white silicone scraper and now I have a yellow silicone scraper!

When Jim saw it, he said, "It's pretty! Use it for Easter!" I scrubbed it with some SoftScrub, and it lightened a little bit, but it's still yellow.

I served this with Peanut Chicken. I know, one is Asian and one is Indian, but they were still good together.

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Slow Cooker Peanut Chicken

This is a recipe I found on a slow cooker recipe website a few years ago. I saved it, but never tried it. I stumbled upon it in my recipe files when I was doing my meal planning for August and decided to finally try it.

Slow Cooker Peanut Chicken

Ingredients:

¼ cup peanut butter

2 tbsp peanuts, chopped

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp onions, minced

1 tbsp cilantro, minced

1 clove garlic, crushed

⅛ tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced

4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp butter, melted

12 oz. chicken broth

1 tbsp cornstarch

4 servings white rice, cooked

Directions:

Mix peanut butter, peanuts, 2 tbsp soy sauce, onion, cilantro, garlic, and ginger. Spread on inside of each chicken breast. Roll up; close with toothpicks. Place in slow cooker.

Mix remaining 2 tbsp soy sauce with honey, butter, and broth; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Remove chicken from pot. Turn power to high. Dissolve cornstarch in small amount of cold water; stir into sauce. Cook on high for about 15 minutes. Spoon sauce on chicken and serve over white rice.

Makes 4 servings.

This was really good! I don't know why I never tried it before. We love Thai-style dishes and dishes with peanut sauce on chicken or salmon. And I love my slow cooker, so this was right up our alley!

I changed just a few things. The original recipe called for parsley instead of cilantro. I don't really care for parsley very much and cilantro is more common in Thai-style dishes. It also called for red pepper sauce. We don't like red pepper, so I omitted that. I think next time I make it I will throw in some other kind of pepper or something to add a bit of heat to the dish. But it was okay without it.

I noticed that the chicken got a little bit dried out on top where they stick out of the cooking liquid. I'm not sure how to fix this. When I noticed it, I basted them a couple of times with the liquid and that seemed to help. The only other option is to increase the liquid so that it covers the top of the chicken. That might be a problem when you go to make the sauce, though.

I will say this: it was not a cinch to put together. It took a while to collect all of the ingredients and prep the chicken to go into the slow cooker. I honestly think it took me the greater part of an hour. But I am kind of slow and it was worth it anyway. Just keep that in mind if you are planning on throwing it together before you leave for work in the morning. To speed things up, you could put together the peanut paste and the cooking liquid the night before and store them in the fridge. Then in the morning, you would just have to spread the paste on the chicken, roll them up, and put in the slow cooker with the cooking liquid.

Here are some pics of the process:

Spreading the peanut paste on the chicken breasts. I use chicken breasts that have been split in two because the ones I buy are so incredibly thick. I wouldn't have been able to roll up a full one.

I used a lot of toothpicks to secure the rolls. Make sure you roll from the smaller end up toward the larger end.

Into the slow cooker with the cooking liquid. Notice I use Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners. They are so great. They make clean-up as easy as pulling out the bag and throwing it away. Highly recommended.

I served the peanut chicken with Alton Brown's recipe for Vegetable Curry. What a great meal!

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Cucumber Salad

This is a dish I first had in Texas. I was surprised to hear how easy it was to make. The key is letting it marinate for a while before serving it. I made it this time with our first garden cucumber! Yay for summer!

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

2 medium cucumbers, peeled

2 medium tomatoes

1 large onion

1 cup Italian salad dressing

Directions:

Cut cucumbers into 1” slices, then quarter each slice. Cut tomatoes into eight wedges, then quarter each wedge. Cut onion into large chunks.

Combine all veggies in a bowl and pour dressing over them. Stir to coat all the veggies.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight to allow the veggies to marinate in the dressing.

Makes 8-12 servings.

If you think you don't like raw onions, you should still try it with the onions. The dressing makes them really sweet. They don't end up with much bite at all.

This is a super easy dish that is perfect for potlucks or other carry-in dinners.

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Sister's Day Party Recipes

I finally got around to posting the recipes that Hilary and I made at our Sister's Day party earlier this month. We love to cook together whenever we have the chance and we always try new recipes. (The margarita recipe wasn't new to either of us, but it was the first time we enjoyed them together!)

Here are the links to my posts for each recipe. Our menu had a secret theme to it.

Lemon Soy Swordfish with Avocado Butter

Ginger Garlic Broccolini

Spinach and Sprout Salad with Gorgonzola

Brie Dip and Crackers

Doya Margaritas

Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse

I had a great time cooking with you, Hil! Can't wait to do it again! Happy Sister's Day and I love you!

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