Happy Halloween!

Oct 31, 2009

 Happy Halloween!!! Today we went down to Uesugi Farm in Morgan Hill to pick out our pumpkins. It was a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky and a temperature of about 70 degrees. We have been going there for the past 5 years and it's always memoriable. The good thing about going on the day of Halloween is that everything is buy 1 get 1 free and that's always a plus.

 

Here I am with the orange wheel barrel with the pumpkins.

Mr. T and I decided to stop and pose with the scarecrow.

This is the pumpkin I got. Isn't it pretty.

There was an Alvin stencil in the Mercury News so I thought I used that this year.

Here's Alvin all lit up.

Here's Mr. T's pumpkin. The kids seemed to like the colorful lights.

Cheap Bites: 2 for $20 at Applebees (1 appetizer and 2 entrees)

Oct 30, 2009

With the economy in not so great shape right now, I noticed restaurant deals popping up more often and I must say it is working.  There was a commercial for Applebees for 2 for $20 which includes 1 appetizer and 2 entrees. The deal sounded good for a sit down casual restaurant and it's a great way to get out of the house on a Friday night. There were 4 appetizers and 10 entrees to chose from the list. I chose the fiesta lime chicken which was a chicken breast with cheese on top, with tortilla strips and spanish rice for the side. It was good, the chicken was juicy and full of flavor.

 

Mr T got the 7 oz sirloin steak which he upgraded to a 10 oz for $2 more. It included a shrimp and cheese topping which was incredibly delicious. Who wouldn't want cheese and shrimp on top of their steak. I was skeptical at first that this steak would tough and rubbery because it was a casual restaurant but I was wrong. The steak was juicy and tender unlike other places that all themselves a steak house like Black Angus. 

 

For the appetizer we chose the boneless buffalo wings which was good but not great. I prefer the bones intack because I think the bones give the meat flavor. The sauce contained way too much vinegar so we drenched it in ranch sauce to balance out the flavor. Overall, the 2 for $20 deal at Applebees is a great deal. The restaurant was full and noticed that every table almost ordered the 2 for $20 deal.The bill came out to be about $34 + tip with a purchase of  a large Blue Moon Beer for $6.25 and a soda for $2 bucks, and $2 bucks added for the 10 oz steak upgrade. The food was good, and our service was excellent.

Kimchi Soup

Oct 29, 2009

Its been windy and chili week in the Valley and soup is what I want to eat to warm me up. I had kimchi laying on the fridge and I decided to make soup with it. I actually didn't know much about what kimchi was until my korean friend introduced it to me back in my senior year in high school at her house. It smelled aweful and I couldn't dare put it in my mouth but once I did I couldn't stop eatingit. The chili and the radish combine together is quite tasteful. That was when I fell in love with Korean food and couldn't stop day dreaming about it ever since. My parents live in Santa Clara and I call it K-Town since every corner had a korean store or  restaurant. Every time I visit, I make a trip to Kyo-Po or Hankook just to get their kimchi, and I can't forget the Soju.  For tonight's menu, a very simple kimchi soup. It was extremely simple to do and that's what I needed on a Thursday night watching all my favorite tv shows on NBC.

Ingredients: 

4 cups of beef stock

2 cups of kimchi, cut into 2" pieces

1 package of firm tofu, cut into 1/2" squares

1 tbs of sesame oil

1 tbs of fish sauce

1 tbs of Korean chili paste

1/2 cup of kimchi juice

1 tsp of pepper

Directions:

Simmer beef stock in pot, add tofu, kimchi, sesame oil, fish sauce, and chili paste for 30 - 45 minutes.

Crispy Fried Noodles with Chicken Stir Fry

Oct 26, 2009

Simple and easy is what I like and one of my favorite things to make is Stir-Fry. I like it because I'm the one in charge with what ingredients and flavors I put in, and  most importantly I get the results immediately. To make it interesting I decided to crisp some noodles in hot oil to give it volume and texture.  For the stir-fry, I had straw mushrooms, chicken, carrots, and celery.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, cubed
1 15 oz can of straw mushrooms, drained
1 cup of carrots
1 1/2 cup of carrots, cut in half and cut diagnol
1 1/2 cup of celery, cut diagnol
1 garlic, chopped
1 tbs of soy sauce
1 tbs of corn starch
1/2 cup of water
1 1/2 tbs of hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tbs of oyster sauce
4 oz of vermicelli bean thread noodles
1 tbs of sesame oil
2-3 cups of oil


Directions:
Heat oil in sauce pan to high, drop vermicelli a handful at a time, after 5 seconds, turn the vermicelli over and cook. Drain on paper towels.
Over medium heat, add sesame oil on pan, add garlic and saute until golden brown. Add cubed chicken and cook until golden, add carrots, celery, and mushroom and stir fry until tender. Add hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. Stir ingredients together and turn heat on high. Combine corn starch with water and stir. Add cornstarch mixture to the pan and stir until the sauce thickens.
Place noodle on a plate, pour the stir fry and sauce over.

Wontons stuffed with Spinach and Cream Cheese

Oct 24, 2009

I had originally planned on making spinach and cream cheese ravioli from the last batch but my arm started to ache and I knew my patience was running out. The following day, I stopped by the supermarket and picked up a pack of pre-made wonton wrappers. What took me 2 hours to do only took me minutes to prepare. Rolling out my own dough was a good experience but it also confirmed that I was out of shape and had little patience. The next time I make my own fresh pasta, I'll be sure to have a pasta press.  For this batch, I also wanted to make dessert in which I used left over butternut squash that I added with mascarpone cheese. I finish it off by dusting ith with powdered sugar. By the way, that's Mr. T being silly, he insisted I use this picture =)  

Ingredients:
Spinach Filling
1/2 cup of frozen spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out
1/4 cup of cream cheese
salt to taste
12 wonton wrappers
 vegetable oil

Directions:
Place 1 tbs of filling on wonton wrapper, moisten the edges of the wonton and place another wrapper on top, press firmly.Or you can place 2 tsp of filling and fold the wrapper diagnolly.
Heat vegetable oil in deep fryer to 360 degrees, drop the wontons and cook until golden brown.

Roasted Butternut Squash with a Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Oct 22, 2009

It was grains/pasta lab in food preparation class and I was extremely excited. There's nothing more I love than pasta. Pasta is so versatile, you can cook them any method you like, use your favorite filling, sauce, eat them as an appetizer, entree, or dessert. My classmate and I made fresh pasta and we decided to make ravioli with it since everyone else was making string pasta. At first we decided to stuff them with spinach and feta filling but it was still frozen. So we saw sun dried tomatoes and took matters in our hands and made sun dried pesto. In a food processor, we combined sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, parsley, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Instead of cooking it in boiling water, we decided to pan fry with fresh herb compound butter and olive oil. For a sauce we mixed the pesto, olive oil, and butter in a sauce and let the ingredients marry with each other.  We drizzled the sauce on top of the raviolis. It was incredibly delicious and it was a hit with the class. I'll have to recreate the recipe and post the recipe up soon. When I got home, I was still thinking about the raviolis and how easy it was to make. So I wanted to cook my all time favorite ravioli which is a butternut squash with a sage butter sauce. I always order it when I see it on the menu as an appetizer or an entree. The only challenge I came across with was not having a pasta press, I envy those that have. Lets just say that I had a great workout rolling the dough as thin as it could possibly get it without ugh with

Ingredients: 
Dough
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbs of olive oil
pinch of salt


Filling
1-2 lbs of butternut squash -1 cup of butternut squash puree
1/2 cup of mascarpone cheese
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 tbs of butter
1 tsp of chopped sage
1 tsp of brown sugar

Sauce
10-12 sage leaves
chopped walnuts (optional)
5 tbs of unsalted butter
1 tbs of brown sugar
pinch of salt

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, cut butternut squash in half, spray non-stick on cookie sheet, place squash flesh down, and cook until tender approximately 25 - 30 minutes. Let it cool. With a fork or spoon, scrape the flesh and place in a bowl.

For the dough, place dough on a smooth surface, shape the flour into a well then place egg, olive oil, and salt. With a fork, slowly stir the flour until it forms a dough, add water if the dough is dry. Kneed the dough for 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap in plastic and let it rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

In a skillet, melt 1 tbs of butter, add minced sage, and cook until crisp. In a bowl,  add mixture to 1 cup of butternut puree, 1/2 cup of mascarpone puree, pinch of nutmeg, and pinch of salt.

Roll the dough in a pasta press or rolling pin approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 2 sheets. Brush with water, place 1 tbs of filling on the dough, leaving 2 inches space apart, make 24 filling/mounds. Place the second sheet and gently cover the mounds, press gently to seal the filling.

Using a cookie cutter or ravioli cutter, cut the raviolis. If using a cookie cutter, gently press sides with a fork.

In a boiling pot, season water with salt, and place the raviolis, cook until al dente

Directions for the Sauce
Melt 6 tbs of butter in a sace pan, cook until it forms a brownish color. Add 10 - 12 sage leaves, and cook until crisp. Add brown sugar.
Sprinkle with chopped walnuts(optional)

Place ravioli in a platter, and spoon sauce on top, sprinkle more chopped walnuts and/or brown sugar if desired.

Oktoberfest in downtown Campbell

Oct 19, 2009

It was all about bratwurst, beer, and music from the Silicon Valley Accordion Society in downtown Campbell where it held it's annual Oktobertfest this past weekend. The crowd was friendly with beer in hand chilling with friends outside the street, walking, and talking, making new friends along the way as they strolled  through arts and crafts and most importanly making friends along the way. In all the years we've attended the event, we figured it out that Sunday is the way to go as Saturday gets extremely crowded unless you like waiting an hour for beer and food. I heard from friends that some booths ran out of beer after waiting in line for an hour. 

I would say the Biggest dissapointment this year would be the shrinkage of the beer glasses from 16 oz to 12 oz and kept the same price. I opted for a plastic cup this year as the beer glass was not worth the money. Mr. T brought his Das Boot, you know the 64 oz beer glass from the movie BeerFest. We did sneak in some beer...ssshhh don't tell anybody that. Walking with Das Boot in hand got attention from crowds even from the men in blue which wasn't a good thing. There were 3 popular questions that everybody asked: 1) where did you get that? 2) how much beer can you put in that? and 3) do you have to turn it? Our answers were: not here, a lot of beer, and no you don't have to turn it because we're not chugging it in 2 seconds. As we were in line to get our turkey leg, I see men in blue approaching. I told Mr. T to hide it but he ignored me. Of course I was right, they tapped him on his shoulder, they told him he couldn't bring your own beer glass so they gave him two options: to chugg it or dump. Das boot was just filled with 36 oz of beer and didn't want to pour it down the drain. He drank it slowly in front of the 3 men in uniforn and after a few minutes they got tired of looking at him and was walked away. Overall, I had a great time and I can't wait for next year's Oktoberfest.

Here I am eating a turkey leg. It was smokey and sweet, and tasted like holiday ham. Yummy!

This was me before the event practicing with Das Boot  which holds 64 oz of beer, and no you don't have to turn it unless you're chugging it in 2 seconds.

Blacken Salmon Filet

Oct 17, 2009

I was reading my fellow blogger Kim's blog (http://blog.ordinaryrecipesmadegourmet.com) and as soon as I saw the picture of the blacken salmon I knew I had to make it. I'm really not a huge fan of cooking fish but I do love cooking with Salmon. When I was younger, Milkfish (Bangus) was cooked a lot in my family, we would have it fried, grilled, smoked, or in a soup called Sinigang. I would cook it for the family but I wouldn't eat it. If you haven't had Milkfish before, it's notorious for having tons of bones. I had horrible memories of tiny bones getting stuck in the back of my throat nearly chocking to death. Sorry for the graphics. To this day, the only Milkfish I would eat is the boneless one and I still search for the bones just in case.

I love Salmon and I love to cook with it. I usually pan sear mine with spices mixes such as the Bayou Mix Garlic Cajun that I always have. It's great on meats and vegetables when you want a little kick.


Ingredients: 

2 Salmon Filet
Bayou Mix Garlic Cajun
salt and pepper

Chocolate Frozen Bananas

Oct 16, 2009

Only in California will you have a cold and rainy weather for 2 days only to find yourself turning on the AC a day later. So much for putting on sweats and bumming around the house drinking hot chocolate. I am now in shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. For a refresher, I thought I'd make banana split but I forgot to buy the most important ingredient, the ice cream. Since I had to have something sweet, I came up with Chocolate Frozen Bananas.

I first  cut the bananas in half, stick a chopstick in the middle since that was what I had but if you have popsicle sticks, even better. I freeze the bananas for an hour so they become firm and adhere to the chocolate better. I then drizzle  Hersey's chocolate syrup making sure to coat the entire banana, then I rolled it around in chopped peanuts before putting them back in the freezer for another hour.  It was what I needed for dessert; something sweet, simple, nutty, and a little chewy.

Beignets

Oct 15, 2009

For some strange reason, I've been craving sweet stuff, it's like I have to have dessert after my meal. I wonder if my blood sugar is low or something. A few weeks ago in my Food Prep class, our lab was deep frying. We fried everything from fruit to protien, and even made doughnut from scratch.  It was a good lab and enjoyed it very much but afterward, I just wanted to eat steamed vegetables. My teammate made doughnuts and I wanted to make it from scratch with my coffee. I remember it tasted like Churros so I wanted to see if I can make it into a Churro.   Since my classmate borrowed the recipe and forgot to return it, I surfed the net and found a recipe from Food Network and added cinnamon and nutmeg. I didn't have a pastry bag with a star shape so my churros ended looking more like Beignets. Those darn things didn't look good but they were really still yummy and sweet. Who doesn't like fried dough with sugar?


Ingredients:
Adapted from Food Network Churros Recipe
1 cup flour
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of water
3 eggs
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp of cinnamon 
vegetable oil for frying

Directions: 
In a sauce pan, heat wter, butter, and  pinch of salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in flour until mixture turns into a ball. Remove from heat and add beaten eggs. Spoon mixture into a zip lock bag and cut off tip about 1/2" diameter. Squeeze the mixture into hot oil. Cook until golden brown. Drain with papper towels and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle with powder sugar.

4 in the net = PIZZA!

Oct 13, 2009

I always have an amazing time every time I watch my favorite hockey team, San Jose Sharks at the Shark Tank. It's a treat when they win especially when they score 4 goals which means a free personalized pizza from Round Table. Today, I decided to get my usual Wombo Combo, a delicious meaty with artichoke pizza. For the past 4 years, I've been paying about $2.50 for 2 personalized pizzas since it wasn't a 1 toping. I was surprised today when the final cost turned out to be $4 +tax. Either they increased it because of the economy or the employees were ringing it up incorrectly for the past 4 years. Also, when I ordered, they told me that it's 1 ticket for each person present that means that I had to come with Mr. T which I didn't want to go anywhere in the rain. When we got there at the Round Table - San Jose/Thornwood Drive location near Oakridge, the cashier didn't check where the other person was. In fact, they asked Mr. T if he needed any help. Nothing more annoying to say one thing over the phone then fail to enforce the rules.

To my San Jose Sharks team (Big Joe, Patty, Little Joe, Pickles, Blaky, Gooch, Shelly, Clowey, Murry, Boyle, Nabby) I want to thank you for winning, keep up the good work and lets have a great year with many more 4 in the net games.

Spaghetti with Shiitake Mushrooms

Oct 10, 2009

I like my cream sauces in my pasta but sometimes I like it plain and simple with just mushrooms and cheese. My Spaghetti and Shiitake Mushrooms only takes minutes to make and it's delicious. The Shiitake mushrooms gives the pasta it's meaty taste and texture while the the combination of Parmesan and Romano Cheese provide a salty cheesy flavor and ending with a hint of heat from the chili flakes.

Ingredients:
2 cups of Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/4 lb of spaghetti
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp of red chili flakes or more depending on taste
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs of parsley, chopped

Directions:
In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Salt water and add pasta. Cook pasta until al dente
In a saute pan, heat olive oil, saute garlic and chili flakes. Add Shiitake mushroom and cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper.
Add spaghetti to mushroom and mix well. Add parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Egg with Country Potatoes and Vegetables

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and on weekends I like my eggs and country potatoes. This time I decided to add vegetables in my potatoes to give it more flavor and color. I had tomatoes, corn, and bell pepper in the fridge so I used them. Onions would be good as well to give it a sweet taste. Use what you like for this easy dish. Top it with sunny side egg and your breakfast is complete. There's just something about egg yolk running down the potatoes that give it another dimension to the dish. In any case, eggs go well with everything and they are good for you. I saw Bourdain earlier this week and he had a nice piece of steak with egg on top for dinner and it was to die for. It does melt in your mouth like butter.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 ear of corn, kernels separated from the cob
1/2 bell pepper, julienne
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 medium size tomato, diced
2 tbs of olive oil
pinch of paprika
pinch of chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a medium pan, heat olive oil, add garlic and saute until golden. Add potatoes and cook until al dente. Add bell pepper, corn, and tomatoes, and saute.
In in a frying pan, spray pan with olive oil. Cook egg sunny side up or over easy depending on preference. You may also poach the eggs if desired.
Place vegetables on the bottom of the plate, and place egg on top.

I love my Moo Cards

Oct 8, 2009

My moo minicards have arrived in the mail today, compliments of Foodbuzz for being a Featured Publisher. They are extremely adorable, the size of half a standard business card. The card contains the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher title, my blog name, url, and my email address. The back contains colorful photographs of different food and beverages, and the texture is plasticy smooth and velvety. Did I mention they're green too, made from recycled materials. Gotta love that!

Thank you Foodbuzz for the wonderful gift. If you ever want to become a Featured Publisher, join here

Chop Suey - Vegetable Stir-fry

Oct 7, 2009

Today in my Basic Food Preparation class it was all about meat: veal, pork, lamb, and beef. My group was in charge of Veal Marsala, Pork Tenderloin, and Ground Veal. Our dishes turned out great and I wished I had a picture to show. Even though I'm a huge carnivore, seeing 30 plates of just meat was too much for me. I like a meal with some form of vegetables in it to balance everything out. For dinner tonight, I didn't want to see any meat on my plate. All I wanted to see and eat on my plate was a pile of just vegetables. I did add poultry in there from leftovers I had the other day and to give it some flavor. You can use whatever vegetables you like, I had broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, baby corn, celery, and cauliflower. For the sauce, I added about 2 tbs of oyster sauce, and 2 tbs of soy sauce, and thickened it with cornflour and water. Be creative with this dish, it's all about what you like.

Pancit Palabok

Oct 6, 2009

Pancit Palabok is a Filipino rice noodle dish with a savory sauce topped various toppings. I've never made Pancit Palabok from scratch before and I didn't know where to begin. I've always had it only on family gatherings or on special occasions. When I was a kid it just magically appeared on our table with just a phone call away and we didn't care where it came from just as long as it was there. As I made my weekly trip to the Asian market, I saw those packets on the Filipino aisle for only 89 cents. The picture looked so good and the directions seemed so simple that I had to get it.
Sometimes these packets are good when you don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. All I had to do as the instructions noted was to boil rice stick noodles, and in a separate sauce pan, combine 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of oil, and boil until desired thickness. Since Palabok means toppings, it is usually topped with hard boiled eggs, shrimp, chicharon, tinapa (toasted garlic). The only topping that I managed to put on top were eggs and shrimp.

I was amazed at how good it came out and it tasted like it came from any Filipino Restaurant. I'll have to learn to make it from scratch someday. If anybody has a good recipe please email it to me at janice@filipinalovesfood.com and I'll post it on my website.

Grilled Chicken with Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Shrimp

Oct 5, 2009

No matter whether it's hot, cold, windy, raining, summer, or winter, you can find us grilling outside with a beer glass in one hand and tongs on the other. Grilling just makes everything taste better and we do it as often as we can. You can take a bland food like Tofu and make it taste smoky and delicious. For tonight's dinner, it was grilled chicken breast with Vietnamese green papaya with grilled shrimp glazed in hoisin sauce. Since I usually make something up as I go, I didn't have much time to marinate the chicken tonight so decided I used was a sweet chili sauce as a glaze to give it a nice flavor.

Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Shrimp Glazed in Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:
2 chicken breast
1 medium size green papaya, peeled and shredded
1 carrot, shredded
1 cup of Thai basil, more or less depending on preference
Peanuts or cashews (optional)
sweet chili sauce such as Mae Ploy
2 tbs of hoisin sauce
1/4 lbs of shrimp, peeled and deveined

Dressing:
1/4 cup of fish sauce
juice of 3 limes
2 -3Thai chili, sliced
3 tbs of brown sugar
1 tsp of honey
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Directions:
Soak wooden skewers in water for at least 15 minutes. Thread shrimp to wooden skewers. Spray with olive oil to prevent from sticking and season with salt and pepper. Pre-heat grill. Place Shrimp on grill and cook on both sides for 2-3 minutes on each side until pink. Glaze with hoisin sauce and cook for 30 seconds on each side. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place chicken on grill and cook chicken for 7-8 minutes on medium heat or until it has reached 165 degrees. Glaze chicken with sweet chili sauce and cook for an additional 1 minute on each side.

For the salad, combine papaya, carrots, and Thai basil in a large bowl. Add dressing to the bowl and toss until all ingredients have combined.

Eggplant Parmesan

Oct 4, 2009

Today is just one of those lazy Sundays where all I want to do is sit around the house, read the newspaper while eating my egg in the hole, drinking a cup of coffee, watch a little TV, and read a book by Jennifer Weiner. So for dinner, I just wanted to make something simple. I decided to make a pan fried eggplant parmesan. All you need is a nice plump eggplant, slice it, pan fry it, add some bollanaise sauce, top it with mozzarella cheese, and repeat it with 2 more layers. Pop it in the oven for 10 -12 minutes and there you have it, dinner is served.

Egg in the Hole

Oct 3, 2009

I was reading my Google Reader and one of my fellow food bloggers, Karena (www.runbeansrun.blogspot.com) posted a simple and interesting breakfast item called egg in the hole. It's interesting to me since I've never had it before. It's basically toast with an egg in the middle which is done by cutting a hole on the toast. Then it hit me, it only made sense since toast and eggs go well together. Last night when I was browsing through my Culinary Institute Of America Cookbook that I saw the same item only it was called toad in the hole where sliced sourdough was used instead of regular sandwich bread. It's a bit strange that they called it that because toad in the hole is an English dish comprised of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter according to Wikipedia.

To make the egg in the hole, I start by cutting a hole in the middle of the bread at which I used a shot glass or you can use a biscuit cutter. Melt 1 tbs of butter on the pan, place your bread and cook until brown then crack the egg and place it in the hole sprinkling salt and pepper to season. Depending how toasty you want the bread, flip it and cook it until crispy brown. It was really delicious, a perfect breakfast.

Mr. T decided to add cheese on top which was extremely good.

Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup

Oct 2, 2009

Bright orange/yellow leaves falling on the ground and the coldness creeping up on you unexpectedly both symbolizes the sign of fall. Fall would have to be my favorite season here in California. The weather just seems to be perfect, a slight temperature change but not too extreme. Since it's officially fall, I decided to make a batch of soup. A can of Cannellini beans have been sitting on top of my cupboard for quite sometime and it was screaming to be used. I also had plenty of fresh organic spinach, corn, and zucchini that will be good for the soup. The soup turned out delicious and light. The corn added an extra texture and added a great crunch when biting into it. This soup was needed after a long week, a great comfort food in a bowl.

This is the cutest corn I've ever seen! It fits in the palm of my hand.

Ingredients:
1 can of white beans (cannellini)
6 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of diced tomatoes
6 cups of spinach, stems removed
2 cups of fusilli pasta
1 tsp of dried rosemary
1 tsp of dried chives
1 tsp of dried oregano
2 zucchini, halved and sliced
2 ears of corn, kernels separated from cob approximately 1 cup
1 clove of garlic, smashed
1/2 onion, diced
2 tbs of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a pot, saute garlic and onions in olive oil, add tomatoes and cook until soft
Add chicken stock, rosemary, oregano, chives to pot, and bring to a boil then bring down the temperature to a simmer.
Add pasta and cook until al dente
Add corn, zucchini and cook until al dente
Add spinach and cook until wilted
Serve with shredded parmesan cheese

Banana Bread

Oct 1, 2009

I wasn't a baker until recently and I am enjoying every minute of it it. Now I know why people love to bake and I am becoming one. I think it might be easier than cooking...Maybe. I bought some bananas on my trip to the organic store and I had 3 left. They were turning darker and darker each day and that means that I had to use them fast otherwise they'd be soft like baby food. Last weekend my friend made mini banana muffins and they were delicious, so I thought I'd take a crack at it. I checked online for recipes and came up with my own version. Instead of melted butter I use clarified butter which is a little bit healthier since the milk solids and water has been removed when rendered. The bread turned out delicious, I didn't feel that much guilty eating this version which has full of vitamins from the oats and banana.

Melted butter without the milk solids, what you have is pure fat

Milk Solids removed

Ingredients:
3 bananas, smashed
1 egg
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/8 tsp of salt
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
3/4 cup of Quaker Oats
3/8 cup of clarified butter (1/2 + 2 tbs)
walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Whisk egg, bananas, sugar, and butter, until smooth and creamy
Sift nutmeg, flour, salt, and baking soda, and combine with wet ingredients
Fold 1/2 cup of oats. Pour into greased bread pan, and sprinkle with the rest of the oats
Cook for 1 hour until tooth pick comes out clean.