Curried Couscous Salad and Sauteed Green Beans

Curried Couscous Salad recipe here.

Sauteed Green Beans recipe here.

Both of these recipes were vary tasty.  The green beans are very simple, just a slight variation from basic blanching or steaming, but the get just enough color in the saute pan to add some great extra flavor.  The couscous was a little more complicated, but well worth the effort.  This was a delicious salad with some really bright, bold flavors.  The recipe makes a TON of salad, so plan to invite people over, take it to a potluck or enjoy some leftovers (which are great for a day or maybe two, but not longer than that, and you can’t freeze it because of the cucumber.)  If you have a smaller family, I would recommend making half a batch.

We served this with a little bit of Baby Bam-dusted, grilled chicken for the carnivores.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Recipe here.

We made this recently for a birthday cake for one of  The Boy’s pals.  It went over quite nicely, even though some friends initially expressed concern about the mayonnaise in the batter.  Apparently, it is a regional (The Carolinas, I believe?) specialty and may (or may not, depending upon which account you read) have originated due to creative solutions to deal with WWII food rationing.

Either way, it was rich and tasty.  If you think about it, mayonnaise is made from eggs and oil, anyway, so adding mayo rather than those two ingredients, independently isn’t really a deviation from most “normal” cake batters, anyway.

I forgot to take another photo of the cake after we actually sliced and served it, but epicurious has some good photos, if you follow the recipe link.

Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Puddings

Recipe here.

Make these now.  Really.  Yum.  They are like a creamy pudding-like version of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  Absolutely delicious and very simple.  They would be perfect for a dinner party, because they can be prepared in advance (they actually need to chill for a couple of hours before serving.)  They are VERY rich and you could probably make them a little smaller than the recipe calls for to stretch the number of servings to 8 (rather than the specified 6,) without feeling too deprived.

We will DEFINITELY be making these again.

Spring Salad with Grapes and Pistachio-Crusted Goat Cheese

Recipe here.

This was delicious and ridiculously quick.  The Easy Herb Vinaigrette in the recipe was indeed, easy and was quite tasty, but you could also use a balsamic vinaigrette or any other dressing that you prefer (although I would stay away from anything creamy, so that it doesn’t overpower the cheese.)  I highly recommend allowing the cheese to come to room temperature, as the cheese is much more palatable that way.  Nothing worse than a cold glob of cheese, in my opinion.  I used lowfat cream cheese for The Boy, because goat cheese is a little too gamey for him.  Boursin would also be good.

I was planning to grill some chicken to serve with this, but I forgot until I had the salads completely prepared and ready to go.  It was a very light dinner, but we didn’t miss the chicken at all, because we were having a VERY decadent dessert.  (Check out the next post for details.)

Mexican Chocolate Eclairs

So, I decided to spice up the eclairs that I made recently to go with last night’s Mexican meal.  I used the same recipe, but added about 1/8 tsp. of Cinnamon Spice Blend to the vanilla filling and 1 teaspoon of McCormick Cocoa Chile Blend to the chocolate glaze.  I really liked the original version a lot, but this was a fun variation, too.  I have had fun playing with chocolate and spices in the past (with Winter-Spiced Molten Chocolate Cakes here and Cinnamon Cupcakes with Chile-Chocolate Buttercream here.) There was just enough chile “kick” in these without being too hot and the cinnamon really added a lot of depth to the filling.  If I’m going to do this again, it’s probably not worth using a subtle vanilla bean, if I’m just going to cover it up with cinnamon.  If I doctor it again, I’d probably use vanilla extract in the filling and not waste the effort (and money!) on a vanilla bean unless I’m keeping the filling plain vanilla, where the bean’s flavor can be appreciated.

Grilled Skirt Steak and Creamed Corn and Black Beans with Poblanos

This was inspired by this recipe in May 2008 Food & Wine magazine, but I adapted things quite a bit.

First, I thought that the plain “sprinkled with salt and pepper before grilling” skirt steak could be improved upon, so we rubbed it with some coffee spice rub, instead.  The one that I used is from Williams-Sonoma, but they seem to only stock it sporadically.  If you can’t find it, I’m sure that a simple Google search would net you a serviceable recipe.

Secondly, I diced the onion in the creamed corn, because I’m not wild about long strips of onion, but just prefer the flavor of them, without being confronted with their slippery stringiness (weird?  yes, but I’m cooking, so I get to choose…)  I also upped the amount of corn in the dish (tripled, probably) and toasted/roasted it in a tiny bit of oil in a very hot skillet, so that it had a little “char” on it before adding it to the poblanos and sour cream.  I also added one can of (drained and rinsed) black beans.  I left the amount of sour cream the same (1 cup) and it was still PLENTY creamy for our taste.  In fact, if we had not added more corn and the beans, I think it would have been WAY too rich.  Until I added the beans and more corn, it looked like corny sour cream, rather than creamed corn.  With the adaptations, however, it was OUTSTANDING and was something that I will DEFINITELY make again with other Mexican meals in the future.  It would also be fantastic as a taco filling (with a little smoked chicken added, maybe?) or in an omelet.

I served this with some more of the Spicy Cilantro Slaw (I overbought and had an extra bag of the shredded cabbage in the house, so I decided to make it again.)  I probably wouldn’t do that combination again, as it was just too many creamy dishes on one plate, although it was still a great meal.  Vegetarian Girl made a meal out of the corn/beans and slaw, plus a little of the leftover lentils.

See the next post to see what I paired it with for dessert.

Jamaican Jerk Grilled Tofu

We made this vegetarian adaptation for Girl the other night when we had Jerk-Rubbed Catfish and she loved it so much that she requested it again.  It was SO easy, quick and healthy.  She made the little arugula-spinach-tomato salad to go with it (we already had the Baby Bam croutons on hand.)  It’s really the spice rub that makes it; it is absolutely fantastic.

You don’t need an actual “recipe” to cook the tofu, just cut a slice the size that you want to eat (use FIRM tofu), rub it down all over with a little (about 5 drops or so – not much is necessary) canola or vegetable oil, rub it down generously with the spice rub and then grill it on a preheated grill or grill pan.  Try to flip it as little as possible, because it can be a little fragile.

Spinach Salad with Lentils and Crispy Goat Cheese

Recipe here.

This will be a definite repeat.  Lentils are one of our favorite foods (especially Girl.)  They are terrific for you and have tons of the precious protein that can be so hard for vegetarians to get enough of.  We also all really like spinach, as well.  And, crispy-crunchy-gooey melted cheese?  Well, doesn’t EVERYONE love that?

This is similar to another salad that I made earlier this year (by the same food writer, even!,) but forming the cheese into patties and frying it takes this to a whole other level.

I made two slight modifications:

I cut back the amount of oil added to the lentils significantly.  I put in just enough to keep them from sticking (2 tsp?) while the garlic cooked.

I also used a bit of balsamic vinaigrette on the spinach instead of the olive oil.

We loved this and will definitely make it again.  The goat cheese was a tiny bit strong for Boy, so I might make his with boursin or something milder next time, but was still a fabulous and healthy vegetarian treat.