Steak on the Grill

Flank steak is one of my favorite cuts of steak, but I never seem to have any ideas for how to prepare it. I came across a recipe for Flank Steak with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Glaze that's been in my online cookbook forever. Love caramelized onions, love balsamic, how could we go wrong?

Flank Steak with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Glaze

This recipe calls for a simple balsamic reduction. I've reduced balsamic before, but it's been a while and I had forgotten how wonderfully thick and syrupy it gets with no real work other than letting it boil. The onions and balsamic complement the steak wonderfully.....delicious!

This recipe might be best kept for cooler grilling days as it calls for reducing the balsamic and caramelizing the onions for about a 1/2 hour.

SGOTW #54: Emeril's Potluck

This past week we were to got to our #23 cookbook, which for me meant Emeril's Potluck: Comfort Food with a Kicked-Up Attitude. I don't remember where this cookbook came from.......maybe my mom gave it to me?? As I looked through it, several recipes vied for my attention, but since I haven't been making many sweets lately, I decided on a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. Interestingly, all of the recipes from this book are on Emeril's website!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This pie starts off with a cookie crust, calling for a combination of graham crackers and Oreo cookies with the cream filling removed. Well, why use Oreos if you have Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers available? A lot less work (though my youngest happily volunteered to remove all the cream from the Oreos, if necessary) and I happened to have a package of these that I intended to use last fall for a pumpkin treat but never did. I would have liked to have done an all-chocolate crust (I really don't see the need for the graham crackers - they just get in the way of my chocolate), but I didn't have quite enough for 2 1/2 cups of chocolate crumbs, so I used a 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs.

Once the crust is done, there is no more baking time, making this a great pie to make when you don't want to heat up the kitchen too much. The filling gets creamed together, spread onto the crust and then the pie is chilled for at least 4 hours.

What really struck me about this pie is that the peanut butter flavor REALLY comes through. I find that when I bake with peanut butter, I'm often disappointed that its flavor seems to get lost - I'm almost always left wanting more peanut butter flavor. Since the filling does not get baked, I wonder if NOT baking peanut butter is what helps its flavor shine through? The cream cheese keeps the filling firm and gives the pie a little cheesecake-type tang.

I skipped the chocolate sauce because I usually find that a sauce on a rich pie like this is just too much. (Well, if you didn't make the chocolate sauce, then what's that chocolate stuff drizzled in your photo you say? Shhhh....that's just a little Hershey's syrup put there to add interest to the photo.) I'm thinking that was a mistake. While the peanut butter shouts out, the chocolate gets a little lost and a little drizzle of rich chocolate sauce might be just the thing to send this pie from very good to out of this world.

Game #55 comes with a twist. This time, we are to pick the cookbook with the best looking recipe on the cover. Extra points if you make the cover recipe.

Sneak in a little spinach....

...with this yummy pasta bake. If, like me, you have a few spinach-phobic members in your family, this pasta bake might be a good one to try. The smoked mozzarella is the dominate flavor, while the spinach, though plentiful, plays a more minor taste role. My husband and oldest son enjoyed it quite a bit, but my youngest wasn't so easily fooled - he still wasn't crazy for the spinach. Frozen spinach does tend to clump and it's a bit stringy, so I think next time I would consider pureeing it with the marinara sauce first to create a smoother, more evenly distributed sauce.

Smoked Cheese Pasta Bake

I used Barilla Plus for this dish and it worked quite well. My only gripe? The penne box is only 14.5 ounces, instead of 16. I don't know if their Penne Plus was always 14.5 ounces or if they have downsized, but it's annoying just the same. I wish companies would stop doing this! Recipes are often written based on commonly available sizes and it SO annoying when companies downsize or produce boxes that are smaller than the standard size - it messes with recipe proportions. And 1.5 ounces less pasta is almost one whole serving less per box.

In any case, this recipe was a winner for us - pretty easy to put together, though it did use a fair amount of pots/pans/dishes (one to cook the pasta, one to heat the sauce, one to mix the cheese and sour cream, and one to bake it in).

Sneaking in a Soup

When I got home from subbing on Monday, it was cloudy and cool and I didn't know what to make for dinner. I honed in on some Italian turkey sausage in our freezer and started searching. Ultimately I decided to take advantage of the cool temps and make a pot of soup.

Pasta e Fagioli
(before I added the green beans)

This soup really isn't anything new and exciting - basically another reincarnation of many other soups out there - but it served as a springboard to get me inspired to cook something for dinner and that's definitely a good thing! I had to tweak to suit the ingredients I had on hand, but my version stayed pretty true to the overall theme of the original recipe. This turned out to be another soup that came through with great flavor for little effort (it took all of about 15 minutes to assemble). As an afterthought, I threw in some leftover green beans I bought for dinner the other night from the Wegmans prepared foods deli. They added a splash of color and a little nutrition and surprisingly enough, my youngest proclaimed that they were really good in this soup!

Rachael Ray: Spanakopita Burgers

I've been rediscovering my Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats cookbook and quite a few of the burger recipes have been jumping out at me now that it's grilling weather. When I put burgers on the menu, it's usually just a plain old ground beef burger. And while I have to admit that I like the ease and simplicity of just throwing a plain old burger on the grill, burgers can be so much more than that!

I had a hard time deciding which one to try first, but settled on the Chicken or Turkey Spanakopita Burgers. These are not made with ground beef, but rather ground chicken or turkey (we used turkey). In with the ground turkey goes onions, garlic, seasonings, feta cheese and spinach. I love feta and spinach together!

Spanakopita Burgers hit the grill.

Unlike turkey burgers we've had in the past, these were quite moist (and that's even with me forgetting the olive oil drizzle). The feta cheese flavor did not come through as much as I would have liked, but perhaps the brand of cheese I chose is the culprit there because there seemed to be plenty of nice feta chunks in the mixture. We were a bit afraid that the burgers would be fragile, so we cooked them on a grill pan - chilling the burgers first also seemed to help keep them together. If the burgers themselves weren't interesting and flavorful enough, Rachael suggests several topping as well: sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, grilled onions, a roasted red pepper spread and pepperoncinis. We skipped the cucumber and tomato and I inadvertently forgot the pepperoncinis, but the burgers still had plenty of flavor. Interestingly, there is a slightly different version of these burgers on her website that calls for a yogurt sauce - I'm not a big fan of yogurt, so I'm not sure I would have made this anyway.

Everyone very much enjoyed these kicked-up burgers and happily, the mixture made enough for me to have 4 burgers leftover (it made 10 burgers in all) to stick in the freezer (I used 2 pounds of ground turkey and upped everything except the spinach). I look forward to trying the buffalo chicken burgers next.......yum!

Lastly, a picture somewhat close to what I tried to get, but couldn't make work:

(Photo from RachaelRayMag.com)

SGOTW #53: Anniversary Edition

First, a shout out to all of the mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day. We are headed to brunch today.

This week we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of SGOTW over on the CLBB. For this game, Cookieee had us go back through the old games and choose a recipe that was submitted by another player. I was determined to go through every old game and I did, but it took quite a long time! There were many tasty looking recipes, but I ended up choosing a pasta dish that was looked easy, tasty and a little different than other pasta dishes I've tried in the past.

The recipe I chose not only sounded delicious, but it also satisfied several other attractive criteria - I had the necessary ingredients on hand, it helped me use up some ingredients that were in danger of going past their prime - some goat cheese and a bag of spinach - and it also was a recipe from a chef that I like, but don't normally cook from - Giada de Laurentiis.

Anyway, I chose the Penne with Spinach Sauce that was originally posted by Tkay on Game #43. This was very easy to throw together and we all liked it a lot. Especially my youngest - he ate at least two helpings and raved over it!

Penne with Spinach Sauce

I didn't mess with the recipe too much, but unfortunately I was out of multi-grain pasta, so I had to used plain old white pasta. I also inadvertently used 2 ounces of cream cheese instead of one and for a bit more flavor punch, I used a bit more Parmesan than called for. Also, in keeping with advice from reviews on this thread, I reduced the amount of garlic - I don't tolerate raw garlic very well - it does a number on my system.

I didn't measure the salt and pepper - I just added those to taste, so I can't comment on whether or not her measurements are well-balanced or not. I use Kosher salt and a little goes a long way, so I can't really go by recipes or things will end up way too salty.

Easy and delicious. A great way to get spinach into spinach-wary eaters as the spinach in no way dominates this dish. I am already imagining quite a few variations on this dish that I can't wait to try.

Don't forget to check out what everyone else made for this week's game.

Now on to SGOTW #54. Cookieee has posted and the number is.........23. Hey, I actually have a cookbook #23! Hmmm...I think it's going to be a toughie...........

If you have just heard about SGOTW, check out this link for the games I have played so far.

Pasta from Barefoot Contessa

Whew, we made it through our week. Didn't get a lot of cooking done and what cooking we did was quite simple (like our favorite Easy Layered Rice and Beans), but we only resorted to fast food one night, I think. Not bad for a crazy week.

Lately I have been intrigued by lemon pasta dishes, especially this one from Giada. I was all set to make it until I stumbled on a recipe from Barefoot Contessa that not only had lemon and cream, but also arugula and cherry tomatoes. Not only did that sound like a fabulous taste combination, but I knew it would be a pretty dish too.

Lemon Fusilli with Arugula

It was pretty, but certainly NOT low fat. I rarely make anything using more than just a little bit of heavy cream, but I decided to go for it this time. Recipes like this that use so few ingredients tend to rely on using the most flavorful ingredients possible. I was afraid that using half and half or an even lower fat milk product would really cause the flavor to suffer. Now that I've tasted it, I'm not so sure. It was delicious, but the cream flavor did not come through as much as I anticipated. The cream did, however, make a lovely, thick sauce. I think with a little tweaking, this recipe could easily be made lower fat and just as delicious. I definitely plan to tinker with this one and various incarnations.

This was a delicious dish - pasta coated in a thick lemon cream sauce with peppery bites of arugula and bursts of sweet cherry tomatoes - that goes together with very little fuss. Now I have to decide if I'm going to run the nutritional information through Mastercook or just remain blissfully ignorant..................

Insanity!

Why there isn't much cooking going on around this house this week......

Monday:

• Sub half day
• 5:45 baseball game that didn't end up starting until 7:15 and we didn't get home until after 9:00!
• Picked up other son from soccer game at 7:45 - he got to hang out at the BB game with us. Poor guy, he was out of the house from 7:40 AM until after 9:00 at night!
  

Tuesday:

• Sub all day
• Soccer practice until 5:00
• Band concert at 7:00

Wednesday:

• Day off - for sake of sanity (I hope they don't call me to sub.....it's so hard to say no) Well, so much for that! I got called for a half day office job - can't turn that down. Oh well......hope my sanity stays intact..............
  
• Soccer game @ 4:30 - probably won't make that - would like to but...........
  
• Baseball pictures at the other end of town at 6:00, game back down at the other end of town again at 7:00
  

Thursday:

• Sub half day
• Soccer practice
• Elementary school musical @ 7:00
  
• Tae Kwon Do @ 7:00???? Probably will skip.......
  

Friday:

• Sub half day
• In-laws arrive for the weekend
  
• Baseball practice @ 6:15 - but probably can't make due to........
  
• Jazz Concert at 7:00 at other end of town
  

Saturday:

• Baseball Game at 5:00

Sunday:

• Mother's Day Brunch out

Anyway, the house is a wreck and I'm already exhausted! One day at a time! It gets much better after this week. And only 22 days of school left - which also means the end of soccer, baseball and band - woohoo!

How in the world do you full-time working parents do it??????

SGOTW #52: The Good Carb Cookbook

So, it's Sunday and that means it's time for SGOTW. The number drawn for this past week's game was #73. #73 ended up being Sunset Vegetarian, a cookbook I have already cooked from for this game. Since I've only been playing a few weeks and since I'm not really thrilled with that book, I generated another random number for myself and ended up with The Good Carb Cookbook by Sandra Woodruff.
I don't really remember why I bought this cookbook! I've never gone low-carb though I did toy with the idea. I think I might have bought this hoping it would contain a lot of recipes for using whole grains in everyday dishes, but this did not turn out to be the case. What really turns me off about this book is the use of things like reduced-fat or fat-free dairy products and the heavy-handed use of egg substitute. I like to eat healthy, but I can only go so far before my eyes begin to roll back in my head due to utter boredom. In my opinion, you're better off using naturally low-fat foods, like fresh vegetables and fresh herbs, to achieve a great low-fat, low-carb dish than to try to take something that relies on fat for flavor - such as cheese sauces - and try to dumb down the flavor. Sometimes it can work, but most of the time it doesn't.

Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Olive Oil

In any case, I did find a recipe that intrigued me, mostly because it's one that involved a veggie that we have never tried - broccoli rabe. Broccoli rabe looks like a cross between a dark, leafy green and broccoli. My family was more than a bit skeptical - nothing like the word "broccoli" to activate up their veggie-wary radar. Maybe I should have just called it rapini. I was happy to see, though, that they managed to keep an open mind and give it a fair shake and in the end, they liked it. The preparation was simple - the broccoli rabe was lightly steamed and then sauteed in olive oil and garlic. We did not find the flavor to be overly bitter, maybe just a bit, but nothing unpleasant or overwhelming.

I am happy to say that broccoli rabe has now been added to our list of healthful vegetables that are welcome at our table. However, I think the cookbook will be hitting the garage sale pile. In fact, this game is really opening my eyes to the fact that I have a bunch of books gathering dust on my shelves and not just because I don't think to use them, but because they really don't grab me at all. As this game goes on, I'll bet I'll be getting rid of more than a few of my 26 cookbooks and making room for something a little more exciting........

SGOTW #53 is going to be the Anniversary Edition. We are going back through all of the old games and selecting a recipe - as always, one we've never tried before - from the recipes that were posted over the last year. You can find a list of the past SGOTW here.

Don't forget to go over to the CLBB and check out the thread for SGOTW #52 to see what everyone else made.

On the Grill

Okay, so resisting every temptation to litter this post and the title with cutesy little Rachael Rayisms, here we go.......

As I've been playing SGOTW, I've been looking more closely at my collection of cookbooks. I've already told you that I'm not a big collector of cookbooks - I have about 26 and 4 of those are simply Cooking Light annuals. As I leaf through these cookbooks, I've come to realize that part of the problem is that I simply have not made good choices - I need to really LOOK before I shell out the money for something that often ends up sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

However, I have also happily found that I need to crack open my Rachael Ray cookbook - 356: No Repeats - more often. Whatever I think about her perky personality or her apparent overexposure, I've come to realize that I really like her style of cooking. Her style is casual but hip and updated - a little funky without being stuffy or pretentious. Kind of like the food you'd expect to find at a really good micro-brewery or upscale tavern.

Spiced Grilled Chicken and Veggie Pockets

With so many tasty recipes to choose from, it was hard to pick something, but I settled on a grilled chicken recipe. It was fantastic. Lots of fresh, summery flavors with a nice heat from the chicken marinade. The marinade was so good that I would definitely try it on its own. The recipe calls for marinating the chicken for just 10 minutes, but I ended up marinating for about 2 hours - I wanted to get everything ready to go so that we could enjoy a little relaxing time on the deck before dinner.

Although the list of ingredients is pretty long, this recipe really does come together fairly quickly. I don't know how often I actually come in at 30 minutes for Rachael's recipes, but this recipe could come in pretty close if you're an efficient chopper (which I'm not). Uncharacteristically, I decided that I would NOT skip the cilantro and give it a try. I'm glad I did. I'm still not a big cilantro fan, but I'm warming up to it ever so slightly and it was not at all overwhelming in this dish. I also made sure to use fresh herbs as called for - there is no way dried herbs would work in a dish like this.

The recipe makes a lot more salad than will fit in 4 pita pockets - it makes enough for at least 6, if not 8 pita pockets - but I was more than happy to have the leftovers and look forward to eating them for lunch today. Speaking of leftovers.......I skipped the red leaf lettuce and even if I did use it, I would not put it into the salad, but place it in the pita seperately - the lettuce would not hold up well at all if you want to have good leftovers the next day.

I look forward to making better use of my Rachael Ray cookbook and who knows, maybe I'll even buy one or two more. But there are so many to choose from - I count about 10 or 11 on Amazon - so I'd have to take some time and browse at the bookstore...............

Mmmm...Tasty Tofu

It's been quite a long while since I've cooked tofu. I like tofu when it's prepared just right - it has to be firm and chewy - but I have trouble getting that texture at home, so I sort of gave up on it. The class with David Hirsch (a chef, author and collective owner of Moosewood Restaurant) that I wrote about yesterday, however, changed all that. For the salad course, he prepared a Caesar salad with tofu croutons. They're really not croutons at all, but seasoned, baked tofu cubes that once cooked, do resemble croutons in appearance if not texture.

I was very intrigued by this method of preparation - it calls for tossing the tofu in a tasty sauce and then baking it in a single layer on a baking sheet - much easier than sauteeing which is how I am used to preparing tofu. To help get the chewy texture that I personally enjoy, there are several key things you need to do. First, choose extra-firm tofu. Second, you need to extract as much of the excess water from the tofu as possible. I do this by putting a thick layer of paper towels on a large plate, placing the tofu on top of the paper towels, followed by another layer of paper towels and thenfinally, a cast iron skillet. The skillet isn't quite heavy enough on its own, so I put a few heavy canned goods in the skillet for added weight. As the tofu sits, the water is gently pressed out. I changed the paper towels once to get even more water out. To get the tofu even chewier, you can try freezing the tofu before you press it.

Caesar Salad with Tofu Croutons

The third important step in achieving a chewy texture is to cook the tofu long enough. I taste-tested the tofu cubes as they cooked and it definitely took the entire 25 minutes to get the tofu a bit crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. I used a metal cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, so anything thicker than that - say a glass baking dish - will likely require a longer cooking time to achieve the same effect. Don't be afraid to cook the tofu until it is quite dark - just keep checking as you go and stop when it reaches the desired texture.

The texture was just right and the flavor was amazing. I am not a big fennel fan, but the fennel seeds are absolutely essential in this recipe. The sauce creates a flavoring that is savory and a bit spicy - not at all unlike a sausage seasoning - the perfect flavoring to turn tofu skeptics into tofu lovers. My only quibble with the sauce is that there was really too much sage and fennel - the flavoring was fine, but a lot of it ended up on the parchment paper, charred. When I make this again, I will double the tofu and all of the sauce components except the fennel and sage. And I definitely recommend doubling the tofu - my family scarfed down the tofu very quickly. It was enough to make a meal, but it would have been nice to have a little extra, especially for leftovers.

The star for me in this salad is the tofu, but the dressing is very good as well. It's a creamy Caesar-style dressing that uses mayonnaise which I presume is in place of raw eggs. In order to make this truly a vegetarian meal, you'll want to use the soy sauce instead of the Worcestershire sauce since Worcestershire contains anchovies, a non-vegetarian ingredient. I'm not a vegetarian and I prefer Worcestershire for a Caesar dressing. Although Caesar salad is typically made with simply romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese and croutons, I couldn't resist throwing in some red bell pepper and shredded carrot for added color and nutrition.

If you are a tofu skeptic, I urge you to give this recipe a try - I think it will change your mind. As we enjoyed our salads, I began envisioning other variations on this salad using various seasonings for the tofu - perhaps Buffalo tofu croutons? Or maybe toss them with a nice Teriyaki dressing? The possibilities are endless.

SGOTW #51: Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers

Normally I post my SGOTW recipes on Sunday, but I didn't get around to making last week's recipe until last night and actually I snuck in my recipe for game #52 too, but I'll save that until Sunday.......
Anyway, I was so excited for last week's game because the number picked just happened to be my newest cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas for the Weeknight Table. This cookbook actually comes with a story too!

A locally owned kitchen store in our area - Now We're Cooking - offers cooking classes. Well, more like cooking demonstrations since most of the classes are not hands-on. I was not happy about this at first, but the classes have grown on me. The first class I attended was a sushi class. I was really hoping to get a chance to try rolling myself - you can only learn so much from watching - but alas, it was a demonstration-only class. A local chef came in and prepared several different sushi rolls for us and as I sat there eating the sumptious morsels that were put in front of me, I realized that even if I wasn't getting any hands-on experience, it certainly wasn't an unpleasant experience to sit and be served fantastic food from a great chef! Almost like a private chef's table tasting. (A big thanks to my MIL for giving me a gift certificate for these classes for my birthday last year!)

Anyway, back to Moosewood...........

One of the classes they offered last month featured a chef/owner/cookbook author from the Moosewood Collective, David Hirsch. The class offered a full dinner prepared by David, as well as a signed cookbook. No way could I resist this one! I have two other Moosewood cookbooks, Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites and Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. I have to admit that I don't cook a lot from either one, but then again, I don't use my cookbooks much at all which is why I am participating in SGOTW in the first place.

It was a fun evening - David Hirsch entertained us with stories from his experiences while he prepared us a lovely vegetarian meal. The first two courses were hands down the hightlights for me - they were fantastic. The meal started with an appetizer of Sicilian Chickpea Spread - a hummus-like bean dip, minus the tahini, enhanced with pine nuts, roasted red peppers and fresh basil - really delicious. Next up was my other favorite of the evening, a Caesar Salad topped with tofu "croutons". The tofu was diced, tossed with a sauce and then baked in the oven. The results were delicious - so delicious that I am inspired to cook once again with tofu, something I used to try to make at home, with mixed results, but have been avoiding in recent years.

After the salad, David served up Red Bean, Potato and Arugula Soup - I loved the peppery bite of the arugula - a very simple but fairly tasty soup. Alas I have to admit that I was not wowed by the main course - Spring Vegetable Sauté. It's a simple dish of carrots, asparagus and artichokes in a simple vegetable-broth based sauce. There was nothing bad about the dish, it just didn't have anything that made it stand out or shine. I think that it was a little too light on the salt - David talked quite a bit while he cooked and I know that I often lose track of what I'm doing if I talk when I cook, so I have a feeling that something went a little wrong with this one.

The meal ended with a yummy Mango Coconut Sorbet. I have a coconut-mango recipe that I actually like a bit better, but it uses Cream of Coconut, a product that contains trans fats, so this sorbet, which contains coconut milk instead, would be a more healthful alternative.

On to the recipe I tried! I had originally intended to make the salad with tofu croutons, but was missing the fennel seeds which I think are pretty essential in this dish, so I opted to make a salmon dish instead. Salmon? That's not vegetarian! Well, although the Moosewood offers primarily vegetarian fare, they do serve fish 5 nights a week at the restaurant, so their cookbooks do include a few fish recipes.

Oven-Roasted Miso Sesame Salmon

This recipe calls for a simple miso-mirin glaze and a short baking time in the oven - very simple. It was a lovely day outside, so we opted to grill the salmon instead of baking it. The dish was good, but I didn't think the miso glaze shined enough for my tastes. I tend to prefer very strong flavors with salmon, so this may just be a matter of personal preference. Of course the miso glaze might have shined through more had I remembered to slash the salmon first, as it says in the recipe. Evenings have been prettied harried around here lately and I've been making a lot of those kinds of mistakes - misreading or skipping over whole parts of the recipe. Ah well, at least I'm still getting nutritious, from-scratch meals on the table most nights!

The Moosewood Restaurant is a very interesting place to read about - it's run by a collective composed of about 12 people who run the restaurant and also serve as chefs and/or cookbook authors. Ithaca, NY is only about 2 hours north of here, and I hear that it's close to NY wine country so I think a weekend trip to the Moosewood is definitely in our future........

Before I go, I should mention that this week's number (for game #52) is 73. I'll post about what I made on Sunday......