Taco seasoning

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Laura

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Tacos are one of the few things our family could eat once a week, every single week and never get tired of. In fact, we do eat them pretty much every week. All this time I’ve been buying those little seasoning packets, and using double the seasoning amounts because they were good, but just not spicy or flavorful enough for us.

Then one day a few weeks ago I was looking at the packet and the ingredients list had only 3-4 ingredients. One of the ingredients was “spices”. Um, a bit ambiguous, don’t you think? I for one like to know what is in my food. Along came this fabulous recipe. I’d made taco seasoning from home once before and it was good, but missing a little something. This was perfect. I added in a bit of red pepper flakes to give it a bit more oomph and I was pleased with the results. This taco seasoned beef made the absolute best taco salads the next day that I’ve ever had. It would make an absolute killer batch of wet burritos or cheesy taco pasta bake, too. I am never going back to those little packets again!

Taco Seasoning
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Ingredients:
for the seasoning mix
1 T. chili powder
½ t. paprika
¼ t.cayenne pepper
2 t. dried ground cumin 
½ t. oregano
¼ t. garlic powder
¼ t. onion powder
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
¼-½ t. red pepper flakes
 
to make taco seasoned beef (or chicken-  I use this for both)
1 t. corn starch
1 C. water
 
Directions:
Mix together the seasonings. Brown the beef (or saute the chicken) and drain any grease
 
Mix together the seasoning and corn starch, then add to the pan with the water and stir together. Simmer until the liquid is reduced and the sauce is thickened.  Serve!
 
Source: seen on Closet Cooking here and here

Filed under: beef, seasonings and spices | Leave a Comment »

Green Monster Smoothie

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Laura

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Every morning I wake up thinking “Boy, do I need my coffee and spinach”. What? You don’t? That’s ok, neither do I. You don’t normally equate spinach with breakfast, right? Well NOW I do! I’ve been reading about these “Green Monster” smoothies for a few months now and my reaction was, well, probably what a lot of you are thinking now too: GROSS!

Then, slowly but surely, I started seeing them more and more of them around the blogiverse. Finally I decided to be all bold and daring and courageous and just try it. I couldn’t believe it! It was great! Ok, I’ll take my Green Monster with a side of crow, please.

The first time making this I didn’t have the equation quite right. I left out the ice and used only frozen banana which left the consistency a bit weird- and the smoothie a bit warm. Bleh.

There are multiple variations you could make including adding berries or any kind of fruit, adding vegetable juices, add nut butters (which I have done and it’s YUM). Make it your own. The best part is that the banana kind of overrides the spinach flavor so you’re not left feeling like you’re eating frozen spinach.

Green Monster Smoothie
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made one gigantic smoothie- the glass shown above is a pint sized glass and I still had about 1/2 C left in the blender

Ingredients:
2 C spinach
1 banana
1/2 C milk (or almond milk, or soy milk, or yogurt or whatever else you can come up with. make it your own)
1/2 tray of ice cubes
1/2 C raw rolled oats

Directions:
Place the spinach in a blender- it’s important to put the spinach first so that it’s closest to the blades. The banana and ice will hold it down and make sure the spinach gets finely chopped so you’re not drinking leaves of spinach.

Pour in the milk and add banana to the blender and puree until smooth and leaf-chunk-free. Add the ice and any other add-ins you’d like. Puree again until the ice is crushed and everything is blended together. Enjoy!

Source: Seen all over the blog world, but the Original Green Monster is from Angela from Oh She Glows  and the Green Monster Movement

Filed under: beverages, breakfast, spinach | Leave a Comment »

Garlic Parmesan Risotto

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Laura

Hi there, friends! Just a quite note for you. You might notice if you are coming here via http://laurasrecipecollection.wordpress that I’ve been redirected! I’m officially on my own domain: www.laurasrecipecollection.com! You should still be able to reach me via the old address, but just in case, you can update your google readers/rss feeds to show the new domain. Thanks for reading, and onto this fabulous recipe!

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I’ve been a bit hesitant to try risotto for a while. Partly because I’ve been told that it’s complicated, that you have to watch it constantly or it will ruin. Partially because Brian, with his food-texture issues, swears he doesn’t like it.  Finally, when we made venison filet with gorgonzola sauce I decided to try it. I figured that if he liked it, great. But if he didn’t he could eat all the venison he could ever want and not miss having a side dish. After smelling the garlic simmering with the wine and butter, he agreed to at least taste it. Then he took another taste. Then another. Then a heaping spoonful on his plate. Finally, he agreed that not only was it good, it was fantastic! I knew he would! I so love when I’m right :)

I really enjoyed the flavor of this risotto. It paired really nicely with the venison, too. The flavor combination was quite similar to this creamy parmesan orzo recipe, but the texture was, obviously, that of risotto rather than a pasta. I am already starting to come up with risotto variations that I can try. Especially now that The Husband will eat it :)

Risotto is a bit time-consuming since you have to watch it pretty carefully, so it worked well with the venison, since the venison was maintenance free after it was placed in the oven. I’m really glad I didn’t let the “Risotto is complicated” warnings I’d heard deter me from making this!

Garlic Parmesan Risotto
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Ingredients:
1 shallot, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 T. of butter or 2 tbsp olive oil or 1 tbsp each
4-5 C of chicken or vegetable broth (I used the whole 5)
¼ cup dry white wine
1 C arborio rice
¼ C freshly grated parmesan cheese (estimated amount. I didn’t measure, I just threw some in)
3 T. freshly chopped parsley

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, heat the chicken broth and continue on low heat to keep it warm.

Chop the shallot and garlic. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat, then add the shallot and garlic. Saute until softened. Add the rice and toss to coat.

Pour the wine into the pan and simmer, stirring continuously until the liquid is absorbed.

Add in one cup of chicken broth and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Continue this process until all but 1 C of the broth has been used. This took me about 20 minutes.

With the last cup of broth also mix in the parsley. Simmer until about half of the broth has been absorbed, then add in the cheese and stir until melted and combined.

Serve!

Source: adapted from Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations

Filed under: risotto, side dish | Leave a Comment »

Filet of Venison (or Beef) with Gorgonzola Sauce

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Laura

While flipping through yet another of my library copies of Ina Garten’s cookbooks, I came across this recipe for beef filet and gorgonzola sauce and thought “wow, that looks good”. But we very rarely buy beef steaks. Rarely as in never. I don’t think I’ve ever once made a steak at home that wasn’t venison.

Then it occured to me! Make it with venison! Oh my word. I’m so glad we did. The way we prepared the meat left it so unbelievably tender and juicy. You could, quite literally, cut it with a fork or butter knife.

The gorgonzola sauce just was the icing on the cake. What a perfect combination! Better still, it was AMAZING left over the next day.

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Venison Filet
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Ingredients:
4-5 lbs beef or venison filet (we used 1.5 lb back strap filets of venison)
2 T. unsalted butter at room temperature
1 T. kosher salt
1 T. coarsely ground black pepper

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 500° (since we were using smaller, thinner steaks, and a lesser amount we only did 450°).

Pat the meat dry with a paper towel, then spread the butter onto the meat with your hands. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast for 22 minutes (or in our case 20 minutes). We used a meat thermometer and roasted until it reached medium-well temps, about 160° in the center.

Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil and set aside to rest for about 20 minutes.

Gorgonzola Sauce
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Ingredients:
4 C heavy cream
3-4 oz crumbly Gorgonzola
3 T. freshly grated parmesan cheese (I was a bit more heavy-handed and didn’t measure it out perfectly)
¾ t. kosher salt
¾ t. freshly ground black pepper
3 T. minced fresh parsley

Directions:
In a medium sauce pan, bring the heavy cream to a boil over medium heat. Watch it carefully as it tends to want to boil over and go everywhere. Trust me on this. Keep at a rapid boil for 45-50 minutes until it’s thickened considerably. It should be similar to the consistency of alfredo sauce.

Remove the cream from the heat and mix in the remaining ingredients, whisking everything together until the cheese has melted.

Slice the meat and spoon the sauce over the meat. Serve.

Both recipe sources: Barefoot Contessa Parties! by Ina Garten

Filed under: sauce, venison | 1 Comment »

Creamy potato soup

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Laura

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Ingredients:
9 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 t. salt
½ C (1 stick) butter
milk, to taste (for thickness)
pepper, to taste
sour cream and cheese for garnish, if desired

Directions:
Cut the potato into chunks, dice the celery and the onion. Place everything in a large stock pot and cover with water. Boil until the potatoes are tender, then drain the water.

Pour the contents of the pan into a blender or large food processor and puree until smooth. (I had to do this in batches). Pour the potato mix back into the pan and add in a bit of milk very gradually, stirring, until you get your desired soup thickness. Add in the butter and heat until melted in and the soup is fully heated.

Add some additional salt and pepper, to taste, garnish with sour cream and cheese, and serve.

Source: My mother in law. Original recipe source unknown.

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Smoked Mozzarella Fondue

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Laura

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When we go to Olive Garden (never. Brian hates it. HATES it. He’s so picky.) I always drool over the smoked mozzarella fonduta appetizer. Then one day, back in the I Suck At This Cooking Stuff days, I wandered online to search for a recipe. It’s melted cheese. It couldn’t be that complicated to make, right?

Right! This is such a fast recipe to throw together. The most time-consuming part is grating the cheese.

Sidebar: I have a confession. I loathe grating cheese. For some reason, I’m very, very slow at it and it takes me half the time of preparing and cooking a dish to grate the dang cheese.

Just a suggestion- if at all possible, purchase slightly more of the smoked cheese than you need. If you’re anything like us, you’ll end up eating half of it while it’s being grated, then you’ll need to go buy more for the actual fondue. Not that I’ve ever done that….

Smoked Mozzarella Fondue
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Ingredients:
3 C shredded smoked mozzarella cheese*
3 C shredded provolone cheese*
1 C sour cream
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
3 T. grated romano cheese
3 T. grated parmesan cheese
diced roma tomatoes and chopped fresh parsley for garnishing, if desired. I leave these out
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced into pieces. I prefer them a bit thicker- 1/2 inch or so

* Note: You can use either smoked mozzarella or smoked provolone, but just use one of the cheese smoked. Otherwise the flavor gets a bit overwhelming.

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 450°.

Grate the cheese and set in a large bowl. Mix together the mozzarella, provolone, sour cream and spices until well combined.

Lightly oil a 9×9 glass pan. Pour the cheese mixture into the pan and bake for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the bread into 1/4 inch thick slices (or however thick you’d prefer). Set them on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Add the bread into the oven and bake both the fondue and bread for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and slightly bubbly on the edges and the bread is toasted.

Garnish with tomato & parsley and serve. (I skip the garnish)

Source: Unsure. I believe I got the recipe straight from Olive Garden’s website a few years ago.

Filed under: appetizers | 2 Comments »

Chicken noodle soup

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Laura

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It’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing colors, the temperatures are dropping. And the cold and flu season is upon us. Just ask my 4 month old, Madeline. Thankfully, just in time for this nasty illness season, I discovered this recipe for chicken noodle soup- the age old Mom Cure for ailments :)

I found this actually freezes nicely, but you wouldn’t want the noodles to be too squashy when you freeze them. The first time around the noodles were a bit more al dente than I would have prefered but after freezing and reheating they were perfect!

Ingredients:
2 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (I used leftovers from whole roasting chickens)
olive oil
kosher salt
ground black pepper
2 quarts chicken stock
1 C medium-diced celery
1 C medium-diced carrots
2 C wide egg noodles
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350°. Coat the chicken with olive oil, then season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35-40 minutes or until no longer pink in the center. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Once the chicken is cooled enough to handle, remove the bones and skin and cut up or shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces (or whatever size you desire in your soup).

In a large soup pot, simmer the chicken stock, adding the carrots, celery and noodles. Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the noodles are completely cooked. Add in the chicken and parsley and simmer until fully heated. Serve.

Source: Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten

Filed under: chicken, freezer friendly, soup | Leave a Comment »

Chicken Piccata

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Laura

This recipe comes from another of my ridiculous library book stack. I’d been going through the cookbooks and marking pages with sticky notes and I actually bypassed this one. Brian’s always telling me that he doesn’t like lemon, so a chicken flavored with lemon would be something he’d NEVER want to try. Just like he hates baked eggs. No frittatas or Quiche for us!

Then a few days later I was watching clips of Food Network shows online (oh, if I only had cable and watch the whole thing!) and a clip of Ina making this recipe came on. Brian walked by and said “Wow, what is THAT?!” I slyly said “Chicken piccata” and left it at that. He sat for a moment and said “you should try it”. OK! Bwah ha ha.

I did end up telling him ahead of time that there was lemon in this chicken, and he agreed to at least try it. After his first tentative bite, he loved it. In fact, he ended up taking the leftovers cold the next day for lunch (and said it was even better than the night before. We’re such leftovers people). So, the lemon recipe was a success. Now if I could only get the man to try a frittata.

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Chicken Piccata
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Ingredients:
2 split (1 whole) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1/2 tablespoon water
3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
Good olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons), lemon halves reserved 
1/2 cup dry white wine
Sliced lemon, for serving
Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 400°.

Pound the chicken breasts to about ¼ inch thickness. Coat lightly with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, ½ t. salt and ¼ t. of pepper.

In another small bowl beat the egg with ½ T. of water.

Pour the breadcrumbs into a 3rd small bowl.

Dip the chicken into the flour and coat, dip into the egg mixture, then coat with the breadcrumbs.

Heat the 1 T. olive oil in a pan over medium heat and cook the chicken until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan in the oven for about 10 minutes to continue to warm/cook while preparing the sauce.

Wipe the pan clean, then melt the butter. Add in the wine, lemon juice, lemon halves, ½ t. of salt and ¼ t. of pepper. Bring this to a boil, then lower to a simmer for about 2 minutes, until the sauce is thick and reduced to about half. Add in the last 2 T. of butter and mix until it’s melted and blended in. Discard the lemon halves.

Remove the chicken from the oven pans, drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with the parsley and serve. Garnish with additional lemon slices if desired.

Source: Barefoot Contessa at Home, by Ina Garten

Filed under: chicken | 1 Comment »

Bacon-Wrapped Herbed Venison

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Laura

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At the rate we’re going, Brian’s venison is going to be gone before bow season even ends! This was our 2nd attempt at a new venison recipe and, sadly, I can take very little credit for this. The entire concept was Brian’s (which I believe he adapted from his brother). Kudos, men. It was fabulous. The only change I made to Brian’s concoction was to add the thyme and pepper. And, in case you were wondering, this was even better cold the next day!

Ingredients:
1 ½ venison backstrap (or any kind of steak)
½ lb bacon
kosher salt
pepper
thyme

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350°.

Lightly salt and pepper the venison. Wrap the bacon strips around each piece of venison steak and secure with a toothpick. Sprinkle with a touch more ground pepper and a dash of thyme.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until just slightly pink in the middle (or longer for a more well-done steak).

Source: Original Brian recipe, adapted from a concept by my brother-in-law.

Filed under: pork, venison | 4 Comments »

Sweet Potato Leek Soup with Turkey Kielbasa

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Laura

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Colored for Halloween, flavored for fall! I loved this soup (especially the kielbasa & sweet potato flavor combined). Next time around I’m going to make a few tweeks- I think I might actually do less of the leeks since they overpowered the sweet potato flavor I love so much- but overall this was a perfect fall soup. Thick and hearty!

 Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) 1 pound turkey kielbasa, chopped into medium dice
4 medium leeks, roots removed, white and light green parts roughly chopped and thoroughly cleaned of all grit (dark green parts discarded)
6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
A couple dashes hot sauce
A pinch nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups chicken stock, divided
5 leftover sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Sour cream, low-fat or regular, for garnish (optional)

Directions:
Pour olive oil into a soup pot. Heat over medium-heat, then brown the chopped kielbasa until it is slightly browned. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel and set aside.

Add the chopped leeks, thyme and garlic, hot sauce, nutmeg, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for 10 minutes or until the leeks are tender.

Transfer the leek mixture to a food processor and blend with 2 cups of chicken broth and blend until smooth. Add in the sweet potatoes and more chicken broth and continue to puree, adding more broth as needed. You may need to do this in batches (I had to and my processor is huge). Transfer everything back into the stock pot, bring to a boil, then lower to simmer for a few minutes.

Transfer to bowls, top with kielbasa and sour cream.

Source: Rachel Ray

Filed under: soup, sweet potato, turkey | Leave a Comment »

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