Recipe: Southwestern Salad
Here’s a tasty recipe my nephew’s wife, Rachel, shared at our cabin a few weekends ago. While it is pretty easy to make, it does require some chopping prep work of veggies, but is well worth it.
Southwestern Salad
1 bag romaine lettuce
1-2 packages pre-cooked grilled chicken such as Hormel
1 small green pepper (chopped)
1 samll red pepper (chopped)
1 small orange pepper (chopped)
1 small can corn
1 samll can black olives
1 ripe avacado (cubed)
1 container feta cheese crumbles
Ranch dressing
Open bag of lettuce and pour in a large bowl. Add chicken, chopped peppers, can of corn, olives, avacado, and feta cheese. Toss and serve with Ranch dressing.
Options: Add a small can of black beans, or chopped red onion.
Enjoy!
Barb
Posted in Cooking in your kitchen on August 6th, 2010 by Barb | | 0 Comments
Recipe: Tempura Fish
Here’s good recipe to try for those fish lovers. Over the Fourth of July weekend, we had a fish fry at our cabin, that was a hit. Troy, our lead installer, made the batter and some home made tartar sauce to go with the fish. He got some rave reviews and was nice enough to let me share his recipes.
Tempura Fish Batter
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
pepper to taste
2 egg whites beaten stiff
1/4 tsp. lemon extreact
1 cold can of beer
1/2 cup seasoned flour (flour, salt, pepper, & cajun to taste)
Mix ingredients together in large bowl to form batter. Place fish in seasoned flour first, and then into batter mixture. Place carefully in fryer and remove when crisp crust is formed. Serve warm with tartar sauce, lemon, etc.
Tartar Sauce
1-1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 T. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. hot sauce
1 Tbsp. worchestershire sauce
1/3 cup diced onion
3/4 cup black olives
3/4 cup dill pickled diced
1 T coarse ground pepper
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Chill. Serve with fish.
Enjoy!
Barb
Posted in Cooking in your kitchen on July 23rd, 2010 by Barb | | 0 Comments
Summer, Ice Cream & Granite…
Ahh…summer, ice cream and granite—turns out to be the perfect mix.
I don’t know how many of you out there have visited a local Cold Stone Creamery for some ice cream, but if you have, your tasty treat was prepared on granite. And why not? Granite is one of the most durable surfaces for countertops and works great not only for rolling cookie dough, or bread, but also for mixing nuts, fruit, and candy into ice cream. Unlike other countertop materials, granite can also take on some of the temperature properties of what is placed upon it, keeping the ice cream cold, or those freshly baked cookies warm.
If you stop by a Cold Stone Creamery, you will notice the “ice cream artists” chopping, cutting, and concocting your favorite ice cream creation. Yummy—I can almost taste mine (Chocolate Devotion) of course. I can’t wait to visit them again. Otherwise—I might have to just make my own on my own granite! How about you?
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Cooking in your kitchen, Granite on July 20th, 2010 by Barb | | 4 Comments
Recipe: Berry Tart
Here’s a recipe I came across that would be a good one to serve for a Fourth of July celebration. There’s a little prep work, but well worth it.
Tart Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4-6 Tbsp ice cold water
Filling
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup cold heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup raspberries
1 1/3 cup blueberries
1 1/3 cup strawberries – stems removed and quartered
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp berry liqueur (if available)
In a food processor, combine flour, ground almonds, salt and sugar, pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add almond extract to 4 Tbsp of ice water, then add the almond water to the flour and pulse a few times to incorporate. Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the dough begins to clump together. Remove the dough from the food processor and form into a ball onto a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a disc, 5-inches wide. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.
Remove the dough disc from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, use a metal spatula to check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. Add a few sprinkles of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Carefully place dough into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Gently press dough into pan; have the dough come up 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the tart pan. Put tart pan in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Take tart pan out of freezer and poke the bottom in several places with a fork. Line with aluminum foil, with enough extra foil off the two of the sides to use for lifting. Fill with pie weights – beans, ceramic or stainless pie weights. Place a shallow baking pan on the bottom rung of the oven to catch drippings. Put the tart pan in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and remove the pie weights. (I lift the hot beans out by holding on to the aluminum foil and place the foil and beans into a large bowl to cool before storing.) Return the tart pan to the oven for 10-15 more minutes – bake until lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
In a medium bowl, using a hand electric mixer or stand mixer, beat together the mascarpone, cream, and sugar at high speed until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute. Scoop mixture into tart crust, and spread so that it is level.
Combine lemon juice and liqueur into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat until well mixed. If you are using a liqueur that is not sweet, you might want to add a teaspoon of sugar. Cook down to 3 Tbsp. Put berries into a bowl and pour the marmalade mixture over the berries. Use a large rubber spatula to gently mix the berries so they are all well coated with the marmalade mixture. Use a slotted spoon to lift up the berries from their bowl and place on the mascarpone cream.
Remove the rim of the tart pan before serving. (You may need to use a knife to gently separate the edges of the tart from the pan.)
Enjoy!
Barb
Posted in Cooking in your kitchen on July 2nd, 2010 by Barb | | 0 Comments
Recipe: German Chocolate Treasure Bars
Here’s a good bar recipe to try for those chocolate lovers. It’s easy to make and very good.
German Chocolate Treasure Bars
Crust
1 package German chocolate cake
1 cup butter melted
Topping
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup coconut
1 package Nestles chocolate chunks
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. flour
Spray a 13 x 9″ pan with Pam cooking spray. Mix cake mix and melted butter together. Press in the bottom of the pan. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, coconut and chocolate chunks together. Spread over the top of the crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool. Cut and serve.
Enjoy!
Barb
Posted in Cooking in your kitchen on June 27th, 2010 by Barb | | 0 Comments
