Recipes

  • Good Enough for Jehovah*

    After meeting Curtis Stone on Saturday, I was inspired to try one of his recipes, one that Ted has been talking about on and off since we saw the episode on TV. It was mighty darned tasty, so I thought I’d share it with you. Here goes. This recipe isn’t in his book, but you can find it here. Pan Fried Halibut with Sautéed Black Beans and a Cilantro and Chili Salsa Serves 4 Ingredients: For the cilantro and chili salsa: 1/4 cup/60 ml extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons/25 ml red wine vinegar 1/3 cup/15 g chopped fresh cilantro 3 serrano chilies, seeded, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely diced…

  • Friday Five…Food Edition

    1. Cute cake, huh? Laluna made one for Maya last year, with little tiny Oreos on it, which inspired me to put little cookies on the cake, rather than trying to make little flowers or leaves or something fancy. I almost bought a cake platter thingie to present it on, just so it would look nice for the blog. But I have no room in my tiny condo kitchen for a cake platter thingie, so even though the colors in our dish pattern totally don’t match the cake, just go with it, OK? 2. I made chocolate chip muffins (Betty Crocker, same as my cake…no recipe from me, follow the…

  • What to do with your leftover chili…

    This is a truly yummy recipe. Yes, you have to make the sauce yourself. If you’re not willing to do so, go to your local grocery store and buy a can of the green enchilada sauce. But if you’re going to do that, why not just open a can of chili, too? The Greens Black Bean Chili deserves the homemade sauce. And it’s pretty easy, really. BLACK BEAN ENCHILADAS WITH TOMATILLO SAUCE 1. Make the Tomatillo Sauce 1. pound fresh tomatillos 1/2 small red onion, very finely diced 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 2 serrano or other hot green chilis, seeded and finely chopped (I use 1 jalepeno…easier to find)…

  • I Heart Mexican Food…

    I’ll get this right out there, I love Mexican food. It’s not like we eat it all of the time or anything, but I like to make soft shell chicken tacos, crunchy tacos, enchiladas, taco salad, burritos, fajitas, and chili. I like to eat in Mexican restaurants, be they authentic like the place in Stockton where you would NEVER dream of going at night, because you might get killed (even though it’s only a few blocks from the police station), or be they crap Mexican food like Taco Hell. (That’s what we used to call it, but hey, I’m not above running for the border now and again.) I love…

  • TV Dinner

    I’m hooked, not only on East of Eden (maybe 1/3 of the way through now), but also on the newish TLC show, Take Home Chef. Has anyone else seen this show? Here, it’s on from 5:00 – 5:30, and again from 5:30 – 6:00 on weeknights. So yeah, I’m kind of glued to the TV from 5 – 6 each evening. The premise of the show is that a cute blonde Australian chef named Curtis Stone (maybe from the Flintstones?) picks up someone at the grocery store (usually Whole Foods or another upscale store, and 9 times out of 10, the someone is a young woman, and she is always…

  • Cheddar Corn Chowder

    I saw this recipe on Barefoot Contessa the other day, and it looked so yummy, I decided I had to try it. We had it for our New Years Day dinner, and it was very good. We had it with good hearty bread, and a salad. Very nice. This time of year, corn on the cob is clearly not in season, so I used frozen. Also, since there are only 3 of us, and we didn’t want to be eating this for a month, I halved the recipe. Easy to make, and very tasty. Enjoy! Cheddar Corn Chowder 8 ounces bacon, chopped 1/4 cup olive oil 6 cups chopped yellow…

  • Turkey Chili

    I’m thinking one post on Saturday afternoon is enough, and I’ll take tomorrow off.  🙂  I posted every day in November, and I’m ready for a break.  So, here we go…a recipe.  Do you like Chili?  I do, with lots of beans, and some cornbread on the side, which I then crumble into the chili.  Mmmm.  This recipe is for Turkey Chili, but we made it this week with Smart Ground, which is some kind of soy substance, and it was good.  So either way is good.  By the way, this is a pretty quick recipe, too.  Maybe 45 minutes from start to finish. Turkey Chili 2 cloves garlic, minced…

  • Sweet Potato Pudding

    Ted heard some folks talking about this recipe on NPR, and he asked me if I would make it instead of the candied yams that I usually make for Thanksgiving. So, trying my best to be a good wife, I said yes. Guess what? They were a HIT! Everyone loved them, with the possible exception of me, since I don’t like sweet potatoes, but I liked them more than any other sweet potatoes I’ve ever had before, so that’s saying something. It was decided that I will be bringing this recipe from now on. So, if you make sweet potatoes for Christmas, grab this recipe. If not, grab it and…

  • Kismit

    A few weeks ago, I was talking to my step-mom on the phone, and she was telling me about a yummy recipe she has, for pistachio crusted cod filets. Hmmm, I thought, that sounds pretty good. So she mailed it to me.2 days later, Ted came home from the grocery store with a bag of pistachios. What? We NEVER buy pistachios. I swear, I’ve known him almost 20 years, and I don’t think we’ve EVER bought pistachios before. I’m not dissing pistachios. I love them. But they’re addictive and if there’s a bowl of them in front of me, I’ll eat the whole bowl, and I have witnesses who will…

  • Chicken Muffin Recipe? Ewwww…

    Last year, in the clearance section of Barnes and Noble, I was tempted into buying a muffin cookbook. Tempted by the beautiful pictures and the yummy sounding recipes, like cranberry muffins, spiced carrot cake muffins, etc. What I forgot in the heat of the moment was, I don’t really LIKE baking. One little thing goes wrong, and the recipe is ruined. Blech. I’m much more of a cook. One section that I found especially intruiging was the section of savory muffins. Hmmm. Sounded good. Leek and ham muffins. Bacon and cornmeal muffins. I tried one recipe, for Spicy Chicken Muffins. Ted and Maya thought it was good, I thought it…

  • Sunday Cooking

    I had a request in the comments from yesterday’s post for Indian recipes.  I don’t cook much Indian food, so I’m not much help.  However, my mother-in-law recently gave me a recipe for yummy eggplant.  She doesn’t cook from a cookbook, doesn’t measure, so you’ll have to just figure it out.  It’s not hard, and very yummy. Bolange* 1 globe eggplant, whole 2 or 3 cloves garlic, sliced 2 or 3 tomatoes, whole 1/2 small onion salt and pepper Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Poke holes in the eggplant, insert garlic slices into holes. Place eggplant and tomatoes on a baking sheet. Roast in 350 degree oven until eggplant gets…

  • Happy Thanksgiving!

    Seeing as how Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, why not celebrate it twice a year? The second Monday in October is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and, since Ted was born in Canada (Belleville, outside of Toronto), we decided to make a celebratory feast in his honor last year. This year will be no different, and I’ll make some turkey, stuffing, yams, veggies and cranberry sauce. I’ll be giving thanks for my Canadian born husband, my Canadian conceived daughter, and our neighbors to the north. I hope that next month, on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., I’ll be giving thanks for good election results. Keep your fingers crossed. Since this post…

  • Shrimp Recipe

    Tuesday night, we tried a new recipe, plus a semi-new recipe, and the combination was a winner. First of all, I made the Saffron Orange Rice, and then I served it with yummy Garlic & Orange Sauteed Shrimp. The only problem was that the Shrimp was supposed to be a pasta dish, and the pasta was supposed to be tossed with the sauce, which didn’t happen, since I served it with rice. I didn’t catch on until too late, so some yummy sauce ended up being wasted. I’ll give you the recipe for the Shrimp with pasta, and then if you want to make it with the rice, you can…

  • 13 Recipes You Should Try

    Yesterday’s Chronicle listed the 20 best recipes from their last 20 years of having a Food Section. A couple of them were intriguing, and almost tempted me into making them. But I’m more of a cook, (“cooker”, as Maya would have said in her youth), not so much of a baker, so these were just a bit too much for me. That got me to thinking of other recipes that I really like, and that maybe some of you might enjoy as well. 🙂 So, here are a few from the Chron, and a bunch that we really enjoy. Twice-Baked Goat Cheese Souffle. I’ve had this at Zax Tavern in…

  • Yummy Rice Recipe

    I posted a recipe last Sunday, for a vegetarian dish. Today I’m going to post a recipe for Saffron-Orange Rice, which is VERY yummy. My step-mom makes this recipe. I know it’s from a cookbook, but I don’t know which one. I’ve had it on previous trips to Portland, but I never thought to make it for Ted, because he’s not a fan of basmati rice AND he thinks dried fruit is devil food AND he’s not generally thrilled by nuts either. So I was excited when he raved about this dish, and said he would like to have it again. Right away, I emailed my step-mom for the recipe.…