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Warm Black Bean Salad October 28, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dinner, Lunch , add a comment

This is great with the Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon! :) It’s also from the Rachel Ray 365:No Repeats cookbook.

- 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

- 1 medium red onion (chopped)

- 1/2 to 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (medium heat to extra spicy)

- 1 tsp. ground cumin

- 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

- 10 oz. frozen corn kernels, defrosted (or you could used canned)

- 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth

- 15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed

- a lime, to be juiced (or used the bottled kind)

- 2-3 tsp. fresh cilantro leaves chopped

- 6 cups baby spinach (I used frozen and it was okay too)

Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat with 2 tbsp EVOO (twice around the pan). Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.

Add the bell peppers and corn kernels and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Add the black beans and cook just until the beans are heated through. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the juice of a lime (or from a bottle), the cilantro and the spinach. Toss to wilt the spinach and then taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve with the lime and honey glazed salmon, or whatever else you like!

Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon October 14, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dinner , add a comment

Mmmm! Very yummy!

- 1 lime (or you can use the bottled lime juice)

- 3 Tbsp. honey (3 gobs)

- 1 tsp. chili powder

- sea salt

- pepper

- olive oil

- 4 6-oz. salmon fillets (but the sauce would cover even more)

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish. Pre-heat a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat (say, 7 out of 10). If the salmon was frozen, make sure it’s thoroughly thawed and pat it dry. Add the salmon fillets to the honey-lime mixture and coat thoroughly. Pour a little (about 2 Tbsp.) olive oil into the pan, let it warm up and then fry the salmon in the pan for about 3 minutes per side. Don’t be alarmed if there is all sorts of black or dark brown stuff on it or in the pan – this is the honey. It still tastes great! Make sure not to over-cook it, though.

The recipe book (Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats) suggests serving it with a warm black bean and corn salad. Either way, enjoy!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake October 12, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dessert , add a comment

It’s Thanksgiving, and no better time to try Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake! My sister made this for us one year, and we loved it! So, I sought out a recipe and made a batch yesterday. Very creamy, and like my sister, I made cupcake-sized cheesecakes (I’m being lazy, so visit this link for the recipe). As cupcakes, I only cooked them for 20 minutes (but in your oven, they may need 25). As I often do, I altered the recipe and make a dark crust using chocolate cookie wafers, similar to Oreos (in the cookie section of the grocery store), and butter and ground cashews. Yummy! Cashews are one of my favourite nuts, and they worked quite nicely in the crust. I also had to make a little more of the plain cheesecake mix (one more brick of cream cheese) because I didn’t have enough in proportion to the pumpkin flavoured mix. So, when the recipe says to take 1 and a half cups of plain out, perhaps take 2. :) My batch, which used a total of 4 bricks of cream cheese, made 32 cupcakes.

Enjoy, and if I didn’t say it already – Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Corn Chowder October 6, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dinner, Lunch , add a comment

Very yummy! Makes about 6 cups of delicious soup!

Cook 4 slices bacon (chopped), stirring, in a soup pot over medium-low heat until beginning to crisp, 10-15 minutes. Leaving the bacon in the pan, spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Add and cook, stirring, until tender and slightly browned, 10-15 minutes:

- one small onion, chopped

- 2 medium celery ribs, diced

Meanwhile, remove the kernels from:

- 6 small ears of corn (I used 4 large ones and that seemed to work well too).

Set the kernels aside and add the cobs to the pot, along with:

- 4+1/2 cups milk (I used half chicken stock and that was good too)

- 2 medium potatoes, diced

Submerge the corn cobs in the milk. Bring the milk almost to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, 10-15 minutes. Remove the cobs. Stir in the reserved corn kernels, with:

- 1+1/2 tsp. salt

- 1/2 tsp. white or black pepper

Simmer gently until the corn in tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. With a slotted spoon, remove 1+1/2 cups of solids from the soup and puree until smooth (I also needed a little soup to make it move in the blender). Return to the soup and add:

- 1 Tbsp. butter

Let stand until the butter is melted, then stir and serve. Enjoy! This recipe comes from a great resource, the massive cookbook/text book The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker.

Make Your Own Salad Dressing! October 3, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dinner, Lunch , add a comment

This post isn’t a recipe as such, just a few hints on making your own salad dressing! It’s very easy – just think of oil and vinegar! You need some oil – olive oil, or sesame, or grapeseed, or sunflower, whatever you have in your kitchen. Olive oil is the most distinct, so it will make a stronger-tasting dressing, which tends to work better with stronger-tasting lettuce like romaine (not iceberg). Then you need some vinegar. In reality, you just need an acid – lemon or lime juice works great, but you can also use orange or grapefruit juice, or any type of vinegar you have – apple cider or balsamic will make a strong-tasting dressing, but balanced with oil, it is great. You want roughly equal amounts of oil and vinegar (for example 1/4 cup), but you can combine two acids (such as 1/8 cup of plain white vinegar and 1/8 cup lemon juice) to make up the amount you need. I usually pour all the oil and vinegar into a small glass jar with a lid, and put the lid on and shake the heck out of it. Once it’s nicely mixed (emulsified), then you just need a few more flavours. You can try any of these (but not all!):

Remember that a little goes a long way, and make sure you taste it as you go! Creamy dressings can be made in the blender… but don’t make too much, ’cause they won’t keep very long in the fridge (a few days would be okay).  There’s no preservatives or chemicals!  :)

Have fun experimenting!

“You Only Live Once” Peanut Butter Cookies October 2, 2008

Posted by Teresa in : Dessert , add a comment

The title comes from my good friend Liesa, who often says “you only live once” whenever a discussion comes up about whether or not some yummy thing should be eaten!  I got the recipe from 101cookbooks.com. :)

- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, best-for-bread flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt

- 1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter (the “just peanuts” kind, no added sugar)

- 1 cup maple syrup (yum!)

- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 1+1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used the cheap stuff, but I bet the real expensive stuff would be better)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Place racks in the top third.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. in a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir until barely combined – still a bit dusty looking. Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two. Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets (I used my Pampered Chef baking stone, no parchment paper). Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. It’s a loose batter, so if you’re set on doing criss-crosses, go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step. Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.  They will be moist and delicious!

Make 2 – 3 dozen cookies.