Weekend with the Girls

RaChelle asked me for two recipes that I made when they were down earlier this month and I thought I should post them on Foodie Friends....because I am a slacker. I love fritattas a lot - they are easy and fun to make and you can just put almost anything in them. Oh, and both recipes are from Epicurious.

Leek and Asparagus Frittata
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 cup chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)
1 12-ounce bunch thin asparagus, trimmed, cut on diagonal into 1-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup sliced stemmed shiitake mushrooms
8 large omega-3 eggs
1 cup diced Fontina cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Preheat broiler. Melt butter in heavy broilerproof 10-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté 4 minutes. Add asparagus and shiitake mushrooms, sprinkle lightly with salt, and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Whisk eggs, 3/4 cup Fontina cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in medium bowl. Add egg mixture to skillet; fold gently to combine. Cook until almost set. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup Fontina cheese and Parmesan cheese over. Broil until frittata is puffed and cheese begins to turn golden, about 3 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Notes: I hate mushrooms, so I left those out. I also added a bit of smoked salmon to about 2/3 of the fritatta - just dropped them on top - some of our group likes salmon and some don't.

Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups blueberries (7 1/2 oz)

Special equipment: a muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups; 12 foil or paper muffin liners

Preparation
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together butter, brown sugar, milk, and egg in a bowl until combined well. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries gently.

Divide batter among muffin cups and bake until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Notes: these are my favorite muffins of all time.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

My mom and I made a double recipe of this soup over Christmas. We feed 8 people and had leftovers for later. It is quite the comfort soup.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup
From: Carolyn (Mom) Marble Serves: 4

7 cups chicken stock
2 T dry vermouth
2 T butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz medium egg noodles -- we find these in the freezer section
6 T flour
2/3 cups water
1 cup diced cooked chicken

Combine 1 cup stock, vermouth, butter. Bring to boil and reduce to 1/4 cup. Stir in cream. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat remaining stock to boil. Add noodles, cook just until tender. Blend flour with water until smooth. Add to noodles/stock and stir. Boil 1-2 minutes.

Add cream mixture and chicken. Season to taste (my mom prefers white pepper, as the dish is mono-color) and serve.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

I'm trying to cook more and bake less in 2008-- but it doesn't mean I can't share one of my favorite cookie recipes . I have no self-control when it comes to these cookies.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1- 3 oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 T grated lemon rind
1 egg
1 T lemon juice
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Blend ingredients. Shape into small balls (approx. 1 in) and place on baking sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in flour. Bake 8-10 mins. Do not overbake. Frosh while warm with glaze.

Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 3-4 tsp milk until smooth. (You can use less milk and more lemon juice).

Indian Spiced Chickpea and Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

At the risk of being the nerdy one who posts twice in a row, here we go. It's soup season (we're ignoring the fact that it was so warm here today that I went running outside. In shorts. And a tank top.), and I recently discovered a real winner. This soup is simple, warm, delicious, and healthy, and (because this is the true test of a great soup) even better the next day. I made it last week and took the last tiny bit to work today--my colleague finally asked for the recipe, since I was mmming and ahhhing so much.

This is straight from Rachael Ray, and it goes along with a pretty good Indian lamb chop dish, but the soup was the real winner. I have done a half batch for the two of us, and it yields just enough for one round of leftovers apiece.

Serves 4 as a first course
Ingredients:
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cans chickpeas, drained
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/2 t turmeric
salt and pepper
2 c chicken of vegetable stock
1 (28-oz) can fire roasted tomatoes*
1 cup plain yogurt
Warm pita, any flavor or variety, toasted

*note about the tomatoes: on the show, Rachael used crushed fire roasted tomatoes, but at my store they only sell diced fire roasted tomatoes (which are actually a new addition to the tomato aisle, thank goodness). I just popped them in the food processor for a couple seconds once I was done with the chickpeas and it comes out splendidly.

1. Heat a medium pot with the extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Grind the chickpeas and onion in food processor. Add to pot and cook 5 minutes to sweeten onion.

3. Season the chickpeas with cumin, cardamom, turmeric, salt and pepper. Stir in stock, then tomatoes.

4. Simmer soup 5-10 minutes to combine flavors. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and warm pita for dipping.

There you go! It's, like, 5 minutes of active cooking (unless you have a crappy food processor that requires babysitting...how old does it make me to want a new food processor for my birthday?). Seriously, just typing this up makes me want to go make a batch. Yum!

On another note, Marbs, we had your chicken couscous recipe again last week, and it was even better the second time!

Thanksgiving Recap

The turkey was fantastic. I think my favorite part was the gravy (so was Jenny's), which covered up my less-than-fantastic mashed potatoes (my sister and I both employed the "cook your potatoes early and keep them warm in the crockpot" idea to our own demise), but the whole thing was simply fabulous. And yes, RaChelle, my turkey cooked way faster than I expected, moving dinner up a whole hour. Yikes! Maybe it WAS a good thing I'd done the potatoes first!

There was some debate before about what stuffing recipe to use, and I hemmed and hawed until, seriously, Thanksgiving morning about whether to just use glorified Stove-Top or stuff my bird with something more exotic. The result? Compromise--I used the Apple, Sausage, and Parsnip Stuffing with Fresh Sage recipe linked to the turkey recipe, with a few alterations:

1) I did not use parsnips. Seriously, what are parsnips?
2) I used ground, Jimmy Dean-type sausage instead of sausage in casings. It was the "savory" kind (no hot sausage), and actually had sage in it, which was awesome.
3) Instead of the sourdough, I simply cooked up a box of Stovetop and mixed the rest of the ingredients in with it. I know, totally cheating, but I adore Stovetop, so why waste my time toasting sourdough when what I really want is a fancied-up box mix?

It was delish. I only had a 12 lb bird, and I think this stuffing recipe is for a 20 pound bird, plus extra on the side (and since Jason's dad doesn't like sausage I had to make regular stuffing on the side anyway), so I cut the recipe to about a quarter, give or take a few apples. I am very sad it is all eaten up, but I'm glad it was eaten up by Jason, who has never liked stuffing before.

The other thing I am sad about is that there is no more tapioca salad, which is my all-time favorite holiday (and any other day I can eat it) recipe. For the record, here is the recipe:

Tapioca Salad
Boil together in a saucepan:
2 c. water
4 T. minute tapioca
1/2 c. sugar (or Splenda works)
Once the mixture comes to a boil, take it off the stove and let it cool.

Once cool, mix in:
1 can fruit cocktail (drained)
1-2 chopped bananas
1 c. frozen strawberries or raspberries
1-2 c. cool whip (the recipe says 1, I like more)

Chill until ready to serve.

Okay, so I'm sad that the tapioca salad was all gone by the end of the weekend, but I did make it again for our Sunday school party on Saturday. My flight from Idaho was so late that by the time we made it to the party everyone was done eating. I am not sad that I got to take most of it home with me...

Coconut Pecan Chicken

This is a great recipe that I discovered in the newspaper, of all places. I'm posting it now because Anna and I were talking about how in the world to use up our Costco-sized bags of pecans!

P.S. I tried Andrea's Red Curry Soup and it was awesome! It's a keeper for sure.

1 1/2 c. plain fat free yogurt

2/3 c. sweetened coconut flakes

2/3 c. panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

1/2 c. finely chopped pecans

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast, cut into 1 inch wide strips

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put yogurt in a small bowl, and set aside. In a shallow pie plate, combine coconut, panko, and pecans. Dip chicken strips in yogurt to cover, then roll in panko mixture. Place strips on an oil-sprayed baking sheet. Spray top of chicken. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350, and bake 15 more minutes. Check that coating browns but does not burn. If desired, broil 2 minutes for an even crunchier top.

Serves 6. Per serving: 288 calories, 31 g. protein, 18g carbohydrates, 12g fat (3g saturated), 67mg choloesterol, 1g fiber, 187mg sodium

Thank goodness for amazing turkey!

It was a group effort for Thanksgiving this year, and since it was at our home we provided the turkey and dressing. The dressing recipe that I wanted to use is from Williams-Sonoma (Kori Frahm made it last year at our five year reunion Thanksgiving) but I could not find focaccia bread stuffing (literally, I called Trader Joe's, Wild Oats, etc.), so I chose a cornbread stuffing recipe from Sunset magazine (which I can't even find the recipe on line any more, they must of realized IT WAS NOT GOOD). Lets just say it was disappointing. BUT, that is okay, because the star of the show was the two year champion turkey recipe which Andrea mentioned in one of our first posts. Seriously, people were talking about the turkey days later. Brining is the way to go. Although (those of you that followed the recipe) did you notice that it cooks faster than the recipes suggests? Mine was done both years after about 3.5 - 4 hours. So I am wondering...maybe a lower temperature? I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!