Girls' Night In!

Last Friday was my sister Hilary’s birthday. And it just so happened that Jim, Lena, and I were in town because Jim had a conference at the Fort Wayne seminary. I asked Hil if she would like to go out on her birthday and she decided it would be fun to stay in this time and hang out at her house. So then I asked her if she would like me to cook for her. She thought it would be fun if we cooked together. We hadn’t done that in a long time. Not since we made Enchiladas Hermanas, I think. Anyway, it was a great idea and we had a blast cooking together.

We ended up doing a tapas style dinner. We made four different dishes: Spinach Artichoke Dip, Mini Turkey Meatballs with Tomatoes, Garlic Spinach, and Eggplant Tomato Bake. And we tried a new cocktail, Raspberry Kir.

Here are the recipes!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts

9 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained

4 oz. (1 cup) shredded mozzarella

½ cup grated parmesan

½ cup mayonnaise (light is fine)

¾ - 1 cup fat-free sour cream

1 garlic clove

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine all ingredients and put in a 1 quart casserole dish. Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and brown.

Serve with toasted pita or tortilla chips.

Makes 4 servings.

Here's Hilary adding sour cream to the mixture.

The original recipe didn't call for it, but we thought it was kind of dry and clumpy. We were glad we did. It turned out beautifully. We toasted pita chips, and they got a little bit too "done" but oh well! It's really good with pita chips but would be fine with tortilla chips too.

Mini Turkey Meatballs and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

12 oz. lean ground turkey

½ onion, grated or finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tbsp grated parmesan

1 tbsp olive oil

16 oz. canned diced tomatoes

salt and pepper

Directions:

Combine turkey, onion, garlic, half the oregano, and parmesan in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Roll into 40 bite sized balls.

Heat oil in large skillet. Add meatballs and cook, stirring gently to brown on all sides. When brown, add tomatoes and the rest of the oregano. Season with salt and pepper and simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.

Makes 4 servings.

Here they are going into the pan.

And the finished product. Yummy!

Garlic Spinach

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp pine nuts

4 garlic cloves, sliced or minced

9 oz. fresh baby spinach

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cook pine nuts in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook gently for 30 seconds. Add spinach and cook, tossing and turning for about 3 minutes or until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

So this dish wasn't the greatest. For some reason, the spinach was bitter. We didn't use baby spinach, so we think maybe that was the problem. Also, it didn't have enough garlic. So I am going to try this again using baby spinach and more garlic.

Eggplant Tomato Bake

Ingredients:

1 eggplant, sliced into ½ inch rounds

1 tomato, sliced

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Arrange eggplant rounds on the cookie sheet and sprinkle parmesan over the eggplant. Layer one slice of tomato on top of each eggplant round. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Before going into the oven.

We tried an addition to this recipe. We added a leaf of spinach to each one, underneath the tomato. We thought it would wilt down and be yummy. Nope, it didn't wilt down. It just got crispy around the edges like dry leaves in the fall. Not good eats! Again, maybe because it wasn't baby spinach? I don't know. Also, we got a ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced it, and put a slice on each piece. That part turned out well.

Raspberry Kir

Ingredients:

1 shot raspberry Vodka

2 shots champagne

Crystal Light Raspberry Ice

Directions:

Measure out shots into cocktail glass. Add Crystal Light to taste.

We had to change this to be able to drink it. It originally called for 1 oz. of raspberry vodka and a 1/4 oz. of champagne. 1/4 oz? What is that, like half a thimblefull? So we first tried 1 shot of each. But it was still not sweet enough, so that's when we upped the champagne and added Crystal Light. The champagne is nice because it makes it bubbly. And it wasn't pink until we added the Crytal Light, as the raspberry vodka is clear.

The finished meal. You can see the Raspberry Kir in the glass before we added Crystal Light to it. We got to eat it at Hilary's new dining room table and chairs. It was so nice! Her dining room is just beautiful. Good job, Hil!

We had so much fun cooking together. Can't wait to do it again!

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Raspberry Kir

A part of our Girls' Night In dinner.

Raspberry Kir

Ingredients:
1 shot raspberry Vodka
2 shots champagne
Crystal Light Raspberry Ice

Directions:
Measure out shots into cocktail glass. Add Crystal Light to taste.

We had to change this to be able to drink it. It originally called for 1 oz. of raspberry vodka and a 1/4 oz. of champagne. 1/4 oz? What is that, like half a thimblefull? So we first tried 1 shot of each. But it was still not sweet enough, so that's when we upped the champagne and added Crystal Light. The champagne is nice because it makes it bubbly. And it wasn't pink until we added the Crytal Light, as the raspberry vodka is clear.

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Eggplant Tomato Bake

Before going into the oven.

A part of our Girls' Night In dinner.

Eggplant Tomato Bake

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, sliced into ½ inch rounds
1 tomato, sliced
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Arrange eggplant rounds on the cookie sheet and sprinkle parmesan over the eggplant. Layer one slice of tomato on top of each eggplant round. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

We tried an addition to this recipe. We added a leaf of spinach to each one, underneath the tomato. We thought it would wilt down and be yummy. Nope, it didn't wilt down. It just got crispy around the edges like dry leaves in the fall. Not good eats! Again, maybe because it wasn't baby spinach? I don't know. Also, we got a ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced it, and put a slice on each piece. That part turned out well.

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Garlic Spinach

A part of our Girls' Night In dinner.

Garlic Spinach

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp pine nuts
4 garlic cloves, sliced or minced
9 oz. fresh baby spinach
salt and pepper

Directions:
Cook pine nuts in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook gently for 30 seconds. Add spinach and cook, tossing and turning for about 3 minutes or until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

So this dish wasn't the greatest. For some reason, the spinach was bitter. We didn't use baby spinach, so we think maybe that was the problem. Also, it didn't have enough garlic. So I am going to try this again using baby spinach and more garlic.

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Spinach Artichoke Dip

A part of our Girls' Night In dinner.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts
9 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
4 oz. (1 cup) shredded mozzarella
½ cup grated parmesan
½ cup mayonnaise (light is fine)
¾ - 1 cup fat-free sour cream
1 garlic clove

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine all ingredients and put in a 1 quart casserole dish. Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and brown.

Serve with toasted pita or tortilla chips.

Makes 4 servings.

You can also throw this into a slow cooker for a few hours on low, stirring occasionally.

The original recipe didn't call for the sour cream. But after mixing everything else up, it seemed kind of dry and clumpy. It turned out great, so we are glad we added the sour cream. The only thing I might change next time is to break up the artichoke hearts a little bit. The chunks were really big and sometimes it was hard to dip. But it tasted great. We had it with toasted whole wheat pita chips.

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Mini Turkey Meatballs with Tomatoes

Part of our Girls' Night In dinner.


Mini Turkey Meatballs and Tomatoes

Ingredients:
12 oz. lean ground turkey
½ onion, grated or finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
16 oz. canned diced tomatoes
salt and pepper

Directions:
Combine turkey, onion, garlic, half the oregano, and parmesan in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Roll into 40 bite sized balls.

Heat oil in large skillet. Add meatballs and cook, stirring gently to brown on all sides. When brown, add tomatoes and the rest of the oregano. Season with salt and pepper and simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.

Makes 4 servings.

Hilary accidentally put all the oregano in the meatballs, instead of saving half for the sauce. And it was just great! I think we used Italian-style tomatoes, so they probably had more in there as well.

The meatballs going into the pan.

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Pork Chops with Brown Rice

This is a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com and modified.


Pork Chops with Brown Rice

Ingredients:
4 bone-in pork chops
Seasoning
2 packages dry onion soup mix 
2 cups brown rice, uncooked
3¼ cups water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.

Season pork chops to taste and brown in a skillet over medium heat. In a 9x9” baking dish, combine the soup mix and rice. Spread evenly in the bottom of the dish. Lay browned chops on top of rice. Pour water over all, gently. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1½ hours, or until rice is fully cooked.

Makes 4 servings.

You have to make sure to allow plenty of time while cooking this dish. Brown rice takes a long time to cook. The original recipe called for wild rice, but we don't particularly care for it. If you have the dish covered tightly with foil, you don't have to worry about the pork drying out even though you are cooking it for so long. Mine cooked for an hour and a half and it was the juiciest, most tender pork we've had in a very long time.

About the seasoning: the original recipe didn't call for seasoning the pork chops, but many reviewers suggested doing so. You can simply do salt and pepper, but I use a different Penzey's seasoning blend every time I make it.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it before we gobbled it up. Next time I'll try to remember.

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Slow Cooker Bean Soup

A month or so ago, Meijer had all of their dry beans on sale. I had been wanting to make a bean soup sometime, so I stocked up. I wanted to do it in the slow cooker, as I love using it, but have only a few meals that I make in it. I looked at some recipes online, but there were too many, and I couldn't decide on one that I wanted to try. Some of them weren't slow cooker recipes, so I had to figure out how to adapt them. And almost all of them (even the slow cooker ones) called for soaking the beans overnight before cooking them. Well, that seemed like a pain. So, I put off making the soup because I wasn't sure how to proceed. Well, today I just decided I was going to wing it. I didn't soak the beans at all, so I wasn't sure how long it was going to take, but it turned out really great. I have to say, it was a complete success. Here's the recipe I created:

Lesa’s Slow Cooker Bean Soup

Ingredients:
2 lbs. smoked ham shanks
1 cup dry pinto beans
½ cup dry black-eyed peas
½ cup dry large lima beans
½ cup dry red kidney beans
½ cup dry navy/great northern beans
½ tsp salt
10 cups water, divided
¼ cup dry lentils
¼ cup dry split green peas


Directions:
Place ham shanks in large slow cooker (at least 6 qt.) Pour beans over ham. Cover with salt and 6 cups of water. Cook on high, about 3 hours. Check water level. Add more water to again cover the beans and ham, about 4 cups. Cook on low, another 3 hours. Take out ham shanks and separate the meat from the bone and fat. Cut or shred meat and return to slow cooker. Add lentils and peas and cook for another 30 to 60 minutes, or until they are soft.

Makes about 8 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving:

Calories: 155
Fat/Sat. Fat: 2/.5
Cholesterol: 8
Sodium: 315
Fiber: 21
Protein: 16

It turned out really well! I started it at 11:30 and it was done by 5:30. We had church, and couldn't eat it until 8:30, so some of the beans were a little on the soft side, but now that I know how long it takes, I can plan it out better. Jim absolutely loved it. That's how I measure my success!

Some notes:
1. The recipe says to cook on high for three hours, then low for three hours. That my be hard to do for those of you who work all day and don't have a programmable slow cooker. I think it would work just as well to cook on low for a longer period of time. Maybe low for a total of 8 hours? I will try this next time. The reason I put it on high was because I didn't get around to putting it together until 11:30. And since I didn't know how long dry beans would take, I thought I better start off with high. So next time, I will allow 8 hours and start it on low. If you are going to leave it all day, you better add as much water as you physically can at the beginning so they don't dry out by the time you get home.

2. I made it today with black beans, but excluded them from the recipe because they made the whole soup kind of black-tinted. The broth was almost black. It doesn't affect the flavor, it's just kind of weird looking. It makes everything the same color, and you can't even tell the different kinds of beans apart. I had that problem with the taco soup once when I forgot to rinse the canned black beans before I added them. I think I will look for another type of bean to replace it, but for now I will just skip them.

3. Next time I would like to add some onions. I have to be careful, because Jim doesn't like them too much, but if I add them at the beginning, they will be all soft and sweet by the time it's done. I think they would be a great addition. I might add some very finely chopped garlic as well.

4. I am thinking about adding the lima beans part way through cooking next time. They cooked the fastest, which surprises me because they are the biggest bean. By the time we ate it, the skins of the limas had all come off and were floating around. I think next time I will wait maybe 2 hours and then add them. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Sorry that I don't have a pic to show you. My camera is giving me problems. Hopefully I'll be able to get one the next time I make it.

Want to know the greatest thing about this meal? It's super cheap! I figured it up and guess how much it costs per serving? Less than 70 cents! Can you believe that? It's really filling too.

I think I found myself a winner. I hope you try it. Leave a comment and tell me what you think if you do try it.

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Mushroom Risotto

Tonight I tried my hand at making a risotto. A risotto is a rice dish that is creamier than plain rice. It is made that way by adding the liquid slowly and stirring constantly so that the starch comes out of the rice and thickens the dish. Sometimes milk or cream is added as well.

Here's how I made mine.

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:
1 ½ tsp olive oil
¼ cup onions, finely diced
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 cup white mushrooms, diced
⅔ cup milk
½ cup rice (I used long grain)
2 ½ cups beef stock

Directions:
Heat oil in large skillet or saucepan. Add onions and cook gently until they become soft but not browned. Meanwhile, put beef stock in separate pan on low heat.

Add salt, pepper, and mushrooms to onions. Cook mushrooms until soft. Add milk and rice and bring to a simmer. Add 1 cup of warmed beef stock and stir regularly until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add another cup and repeat. Add the final half cup and repeat.

If you keep the heat set to medium, the rice should be cooked by the time the final half cup is absorbed. If not, add more stock and cook a little longer until rice is cooked through.

Makes 2 servings.

Now, I think risotto is traditionally made with short grain rice instead of long. But I couldn't find short grain at the store I went to, so I decided long would have to do. And it did just fine. I would like to try it with short grain sometime, though.

And a note on the beef stock. I used homemade broth from a roast I made a while back then froze. I thought the finished dish had a kind of sweetness to it, and I don't know if it is from the broth or not. That roast was cooked with lots of carrots, so it could be. It's rare that I have my own beef broth; in the future I will probably use a reduced-sodium store bought type.

I served this with some baked salmon and green peas. Jim absolutely loved the risotto. He said it was the best rice dish he's ever had anywhere, anytime. Wow! But I have to keep in mind that he was on some pretty strong pain meds for his kidney stone and was a tad bit loopy. :)

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Ginger Honey Carrots

I needed a vegetable to go with my Asian dishes, so I did a search for ginger-flavored carrots. I found one on allrecipes.com and gave it a try today.

Ginger Honey Carrots

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp candied ginger, chopped finely

1½ tbsp honey

½ tsp lemon juice

1 lb. carrots

Directions:

Melt butter in small saucepan. Add ginger and cook until soft. Add honey and lemon juice and stir to combine. Heat on low until mixture reduces a bit.

Cook carrots by steaming. I put them in a dish with a small amount of water and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 2-4 minutes, depending on how done you like them. Drain and toss with the glaze.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 100

Fat/Sat. Fat: 4/1

Cholesterol: 0

Sodium: 140

Fiber: 3

Protein: 1

I didn't change much; just some quantities. The original called for 4 tbsp butter, 2 1/2 tbsp honey, and 1 tsp lemon juice. Oh, and I also doubled the ginger because I couldn't really taste it after I added the 1/4 tsp. Some people would probably like it with the full amount of honey, but I thought it was bordering on the "too sweet" side as it was. I know it's supposed to be sweet, but I don't like my veggies really sweet. And having to reduce the lemon juice was probably the result of reducing the honey.

Overall, very good. Will definitely be making again. The picture doesn't show the glaze very well.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

****Update****

So I have been tweaking this recipe and have added something that makes it truly amazing. First of all, I don't use frozen carrots anymore. I have found I much prefer fresh. I peel them, cut them on the bias, and steam them in the microwave. I have been using those new Zip'n Steam Bags by Ziploc. I really like them. Then, I add something special to the glaze. After the butter melts in the saucepan, I add some chopped crystallized (candied) ginger. I let it get nice and soft in the butter before adding the honey. Since I added the crystallized ginger, I decreased the amount of ground ginger previously called for. Oh man, it is so good! The ginger gets all soft and adds such a wonderful flavor. Here are some pics:

Here's the ginger getting soft in the pan with the melting butter.

When the ginger is soft, I add the honey, lemon juice, and ground ginger. Then I add the steamed carrots and let the glaze reduce a bit. Yummy! In the background you can see some chicken satay I had on the grill pan. I seasoned it with Vindaloo. Awesome.

Jim thought these carrots were okay before, but now he is asking for them all the time.

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