Pinteresting...Cauliflower pizza

 So, I've started doing a fresh produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets, which is amazing, and forcing me out of my comfort zone as far as what veggies and fruits I cook with.  Enter, Pinterest, giving me inspiration for turning potentially less than delightful veggies into delightful meals.  For example, the ever smelly cauliflower.

So, while the local family boys were on a disc golf adventure across the state, the local family girls (Tim's mom, Charlie and myself,) got to work on the cauliflower.

Step one: Grate half a cauliflower and a cup of cheese (we used mozzarella.)  Microwave the cauliflower for 6 minutes, then freeze to get to a temp you can handle.  Once it's cool, mix it with one egg and the cheese and form into an egg on a greased cookie sheet, and drizzle oil over the top to help it brown.  Bake it at 450 for 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown.

When you've pulled the pizza out, switch the oven to broil.  Add your sauce, (we used pesto), cheese (we used 1 c. mozzarella, and a handful of feta and parmesan), and toppings (we used yellow pepper, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts, 

It was pretty tasty, although it tasted egg-y to me.  Also, we made the crust to thin to support the veggies, but clearly that's something we can fix in the future.  Over all, a convincing pizza that's way healthier.

Charlie wasn't wild about the pizza, but she did claim the yellow pepper as a pet.  Whatever keeps her happy, right?

Cooking from Pinterest

I've lately been attempting to take back the kitchen.  You know, fewer frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets, meatballs, fries...the garbage you take from freezer to microwave and then consume.  Thank you Pinterest for making everything look easy and delicious.

My first attempt:
Baked Pesto Chicken

I used:
1/2 c. Costco's pesto sauce, so maybe that's cheating, but it's fresh and so much more delicious than any other pesto I've ever had, so I call it good.
Two fresh chicken breasts (from Costco, they're packaged in groups of two, so it's perfect for us.)
1/2 c. Tillmook mozzarella

That's it.

Super easy:

Preheat to 375
Slice chicken breasts in half lengthwise
Spread your glass baking dish with 1/4 c of the pesto
Lay chicken breasts over the pesto
Spread remaining pesto over the chicken
Cover with foil
Bake 25-30 minutes, or until done
Add mozzarella, cook for 5 more minutes (broil if you want the cheese to brown and bubble)

This probably would have been amazing, if my meat thermometer hadn't been broken (which I discovered after about 50 minutes of baking...as it was, the sauce was good, and the chicken was...chalky. 

Fail.

On the side I made these:
Sliced Baked Potatoes

These cook at a higher temp than the chicken, so I tried to cheat the system by baking them for a half hour at the appropriate temp, then lowering it when I added the chicken and cooking them 25 minutes more.  Guess what happened?  Oh right...they didn't cook properly. 

Anyway, the how to:
As many potatoes as you want (I used 4 golden)
Slice from top to bottom, leaving just enough potato intact on the bottom to keep it from falling apart (I cut it like I would for scalloped potatoes, just not all the way through)
Drizzle with butter, olive oil, salt an pepper

Bake at 425 for 40 minutes

But, we got a pretty good idea of how they should have tasted, and we agreed they need more than oil, salt, pepper and butter.  Like...all the stuff you'd put on a normal baked potato.  But mostly, it needed cheese.  So, there you have it.

So, though this dinner was a fiasco, I have since made several more things that were successful.  Stay tuned!

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*Pictures not mine - they're from Pinterest

Cucumber Martini's

When we were cruising Alaska, we had the pleasure of trying one of their cocktails - the cucumber martini. It is delicious. So delicious that soon after coming home I made it my mission to recreate it. The winning recipe (makes two):

4 ounces of gin

2 ounces of apple pucker schnapps

1 ounce of sweet and sour mix

1/2 ounce of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, boil water and add sugar until dissolved.)

About 12 slices of english cucumber

Cut up your cucumber, set aside 6 slices for garnish. Chop the remaining slices into little cubes and tip it into a shaker.

Add simple syrup to the shaker and muddle with the cucumber.

Add gin, schnapps and sweet and sour.

Fill with ice.

Shake shake shake.

Pour into glasses, put a cucumber on the rim of the glass and two slices floating in it.

Enjoy!

Mom's Button Cookies

Last night I went to a Christmas party. It was the perfect opportunity to make my mom's famous button cookies. They turned out delicious, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Ingredients:
For the cookies:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1/3 cup light whipping cream
1 cup sugar
For the frosting:
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
Red and green food coloring
Directions:
Mix flour, 1 cup softened butter, and light whipping cream together, kneading with your hands until dough makes a ball. Cover the dough and chill it in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll the dough 1/8" think, rolling 1/3 of it at a time. Cut out small circles (I use the top of a shot glass). Put 1 cup of sugar in a small bowl. Dip each cookie round in the sugar, coating both sides. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, prick them with a fork and bake for 7-9 minutes. Do not over bake. They will be a light golden brown. Let them cool completely.

Frosting: Mix butter, powdered sugar and vanilla and divide into two bowls. Add red food coloring to one half, and green to the other. Frost 1/2 of the cookies and top them with the other half.

Makes about 24 cookies. Enjoy!


Yes, this was my breakfast. Please don't judge me.

The Christmas party was great, complete with carols, Secret Santas and lots of food. Two of the girls even made ornaments for everyone, look how cute they are!

If you make the cookies, let me know how you like them! They're a Christmas staple in our home. Do you have a cookie you bake every Christmas?

Cupcakes and Cocoa

Last night I made some box cupcakes when I got home, but with a twist. I put half the batter in the cups, then added a caramel and poured the rest of the batter on. In retrospect, I should have baked the batter a little and then put the caramel in because it sunk straight to the bottom and created gooey deliciousness under the cupcake. But it was delicious, and a fun tweak on a classic. We washed it down this some hot chocolate and peppermint shnapps, oh man. So good.

Chicken Parmesan

Last night I took my first attempt at Chicken Parmesan. I couldn't find a recipe that used enough cheese for my liking (you can never have too much cheese), so I made my own. It was gooood. And pretty easy.

My Chicken Parmesan (Feeds approx. 2.5)

4 pieces of boneless skinless chicken, thawed (I used thighs cause that's what we had.)

Breadcrumbs (I used parmesan crumbs, cause again, you can never have too much cheese.)

Italian seasoning

Jar of Pasta sauce (I used Ragu Tomato and Basil)

Mozzerella cheese, Two healthy slices for each piece of chicken

1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375

Mix crumbs and seasoning in a bowl, dredge chicken in crumb mixture (I opted not to use eggs, but you can if you need to for additional stickage.)

Place chicken in an 7 x 11 baking dish

Put mozzerella cheese slices over chicken

Sprinkle (liberally) parmesan over mozzerella

Pour pasta sauce over and around chicken

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until chicken is 165 degrees.

Serve over pasta or with vegetables.

Voila! Yummy dinner with hardly any prep.

Stuffed Bell Peppers Ala Yum

So, over the weekend I decided to try something new. Stuffed bell peppers. But...I couldn't find a recipe for what I wanted. I wanted chicken (not ground), and Mexican flavors. It doesn't seem like an impossible combination, but flipping through online recipes and all of my cookbooks says other wise. What I eventually wound up doing was using the Better Homes and Gardens instructions for roasting peppers and making up the rest. The result...yum.

What you need:

Red, Yellow or Orange Bell Peppers (I used all three.)

Boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used three, which was more than enough to stuff five peppers)

Lawry's Chile lime marinade and/or Mexican seasonings (I use cumin, McCormick's Mexican seasoning, garlic sea salt, black pepper and lime juice.)

Rice A Roni Spanish Rice

14.5 ounce can of stewed tomatoes

14 ounce can of black beans

1 cup of cheese (I used Colby Jack)

Instructions:

Marinade chicken for at least an hour if you decide to use it (which I recommend, it's really good.)

Make rice according to directions on the box. When you add the tomatoes, add drained black beans as well.

While rice is cooking, start cooking your chicken (I put the breast whole on a hot skillet, let them cook on both sides for about 8 minutes, seasoned liberally, cubed it and then threw it back in the pan to get the last bit of pink out.)

Preheat oven to 375.

Carve your peppers by cutting around the stem and twisting it out. Technically you're supposed to scoop the seeds out, but I just rinsed and swished and called it good. Test your pepper to see if it can stand up on its own. No? Shave a tiny bit off the bottom with a paring knife until it stands.

Once the rice and chicken are done, scoop the rice into the bottom half of your pepper, then scoop chicken into the top.

Bake for 20 minutes until the pepper is blistering. Add cheese to the top and bake 5 minutes more.

Viola! Amazing meal for you and yours! I also added some chunky guacamole and chips on the side - just cube equal parts avocado and tomatoes, mix in a bowl with the same Mexican spices used for the chicken, pour in some lime juice and eat with chips. Sangria doesn't hurt either.

Let me know if you try this, I'd love to know what you think.

Tonight - Eggplant Parmesan! (I couldn't resist buying an eggplant the size of my forearm at Carpenito Brothers over the weekend. I'm going to try to recreate the eggplant Parmesan from the cruise.)