Category: Favorites

More Spring Rolls, with some new dipping sauces

Spring Rolls are becoming one of our all-time favorite meals lately.  They’re very vegetarian-friendly (although it’s easy to add meat, for any carnivores that would like it,) there’s not much “cooking” involved (although there is lots of chopping!) and they’re light and healthy.

I made a “fancy” version last night, with a few extra ingredients and dipping sauces.

The ingredients that I used (in large tray) are:

rice noodles, sauteed sliced mushrooms, shredded romaine lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, sliced avocado, mung bean sprouts (that I grew myself!,) julienned red bell pepper, cucumber and carrot, grilled Teriyaki chicken, shrimp, baby corn and chopped water chestnuts.

I also had some fresh chopped chives and peanuts and cilantro and mint leaves to add as garnish inside the rolls.

The new dipping sauces that I tried were Hoisin dipping sauce and a peanut dipping sauce.  The third one is the spicy/sweet sauce that we’ve used before.  The spicy-sweet sauce is still Hubby’s favorite, but the kids and I LOVED the peanut sauce, so I will definitely be making that one again in the future.  Deee-lish.

For quantity/planning purposes, in case you decide to make this, I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts (marinated in Teriyaki sauce, then grilled and sliced) and about a cup of thawed, frozen, pre-cooked shrimp.  I made a half-batch of the peanut sauce (single batches of the other two.)  I used one can each of the water chestnuts and baby corn, one avocado, about a cup of sprouts, about 1/4 of a red onion, about 1/4 lb of mushrooms (sliced and sauteed in butter/olive oil until softened and golden) and one romaine lettuce heart.  I used half of an 8 ounce package of rice sticks/rice vermicelli noodles and less than one package of spring roll wrappers.

I was serving 6 people, one of whom is a vegetarian and two others of whom do not eat shrimp, but everyone at their fill and there were enough ingredients leftover to make 6 more vegetarian spring rolls (the meat was all gone) the next day.  I also served some steamed, in-the-shell edamame along with this.  If you’re serving REALLY hungry people, you might not have many/any leftovers.

Greek Salad

Adapted from a recipe from our friend, A.F., who adapted it from a recipe in the Pittsburgh Steelers cookbook.  It is flavorful and delicious and can be a salad course, but is also hearty enough (add a loaf of crusty bread) to be a meal on its own.

Greek Salad

1 head leaf lettuce (or 5 ounces packaged baby greens)

1 6-ounce package crumbled feta cheese (or a 6-ounce block, cut into small cubes)

1 12-ounce jar Kalamata olives, drained

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes (cut in half, if desired)

1 seedless cucumber

(peeled, cut in half lengthwise, seeded and sliced into half-inch wide half-moons)

Dressing:

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic salt

1 heaping Tbsp dried mint

1 heaping Tbsp dried oregano

6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Lay lettuce or greens in the bottom of a very large salad bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the herbs and spices, and lemon juice.  Pour the olive oil in, in a slow stream, whisking constantly and quickly until fully incorporated and slightly thickened.

Pour desired amount of dressing over salad (you may not need it all) and toss gently to coat.  Top with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and feta.

Serve immediately.

Chicken Spaghetti for 25

This recipe has been in my family for so long, I don’t remember which cookbook it came from, originally.  It was one of those civic/charity league cookbooks, I think…Junior League of Tyler, perhaps?  My mom gave it to me MANY moons ago and we’ve served it for quite a few “Help!  I need to feed a crowd!” occasions since, including Hubby’s graduation from the police academy and Girl’s christening, although I haven’t made it in a VERY long time.  I’ve adapted it significantly enough from the original version that I feel that I can now call it my own.  This is a real winner of a recipe, since it can be prepared ahead of time and only takes 20 minutes in the oven before serving.  It is very rich and creamy…not a “healthy” recipe, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s pretty universally appealing (all but the most finicky kids seem to like it and the mushrooms are big enough to pick out, if anyone objects to them) and hearty enough to not need a lot of side dishes.  We’re having a small crowd over for dinner tomorrow night, so I think it’s time to dust this one off again…

Chicken Spaghetti for 25

12 skinless, bone-in chicken breasts

1 white onion, sliced

4 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces

2 bay leaves

2 whole peppercorns

one bunch of Italian flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

2 carrots,  cut into 2-inch pieces (or about 8 baby carrots, cut in half)

4  1/2 cups white wine, divided (you’ll need a little more than one bottle and can save the remainder of the second bottle to drink with the completed spaghetti – remember:  don’t ever cook with a bottle that you wouldn’t drink)

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

2 cups half and half

4 1/2 cups sour cream

3 4-ounce jars of chopped pimientos

3 8-ounce jars mushroom pieces (or 2 1-pound boxes of fresh, sliced mushrooms, sauteed until golden browned and softened)

juice of 3 lemons

2 T Worcestershire sauce

dash cayenne pepper

salt and white pepper to taste

3 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 pounds spaghetti noodles

1 package Pepperidge Farms pastry shells, baked according to package directions

Place chicken, onion, celery, bay leaves, peppercorns, parsley stems (not the leaves), thyme and carrots in a large, covered stockpot.  Add 3 cups of wine and enough water to cover and simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked, but still tender.  Strain and reserve chicken stock.  Remove chicken meat from bones and dice it.

Melt butter in a large saucepan and add flour; cook for 1 minute.  Add half-and-half, sour cream and 3 cups of the reserved chicken stock; blend well.  Add pimientos, mushrooms, lemon juice, Worcestershire, cayenne, salt, pepper, 3/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and the chicken.

Unbaked casseroles, ready to go in the oven (or freezer.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook spaghetti in the remaining reserved chicken stock and remaining 1 and 1/2 cups wine according to the package directions (maybe undercook it just a TINY bit, because it will absorb more liquid as it bakes later), adding more water, if necessary, and drain.  Divide the spaghetti evenly among three 8-inch X 12-inch or 9-inch X 13-inch Pyrex-type (oven-safe) baking dishes.  Cover each with equal amounts of the chicken sauce.  Top with remaining Parmesan cheese.  Crumble pastry shells on top of each dish.  If desired, casserole can be frozen, at this point. (cover tightly with plastic wrap and then foil.  Thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours before cooking.)

Bake casseroles, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly.  Remove from oven and top with finely chopped parsley leaves for garnish (I forgot to do this last night.)

Ranch Dip for Veggies

Recipe here.

Another tray that I made for Girl’s birthday party.  This is great as a salad dressing or a dip and is vastly better, despite what The Pioneer Woman says, than the stuff in the green and white package.  Sorry I don’t have a better photo of the dip, itself, but I was taking these photos as 11 hungry girls were standing by, eager to dig in.

I’ve added the gluten free tag to this post, but, be sure that your ingredients (sour cream, mayo, etc.) don’t have any starch wheat-based additives or thickeners.  If you make this with all-natural (sour cream is supposed to be just dairy, and mayo is supposed to be just eggs and oil, maybe a little lemon juice) ingredients, it will be gluten-free.

Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

Recipe here.

This dip is really tasty and extremely kid-friendly.  It’s basically just cream cheese frosting, made with brown sugar, so it’s quite sweet and a little bit goes a long way, but whenever I’ve made this for Boy or Girl’s friends, or to take in to school for a class party, it has been INHALED.  Just make sure that folks know what it is, because I made the version pictured above with half dark brown sugar and it turned out so much darker than usual that some of the girls at Girl’s birthday party last night thought that it was peanut butter.

Veggie Sandwich

Vegetarian Girl LOVES the “Veggie Delite” sandwich from Thundercloud Subs (a fairly famous Austin chain,) so I thought that I would try to create an “at home” version for her.

I used:

a whole wheat hamburger bun

hummus

thinly sliced cucumber

thinly sliced tomato

caramelized onions

sauteed mushrooms

She liked the sandwich, but said that it was a little bland and that she’d like to add some lettuce, pickle slices and chopped olives next time.  So, not bad for a first stab, but we’ll know how to fix it next time.

Some other great possible additions or substitutions would be:

baby spinach leaves or your favorite kind of sprouts

avocado slices or a smear of mashed avocado (or even guacamole – yum!)

a spread of cream cheese or a slice of your favorite cheese (instead of the hummus)

grated carrot

White-on-White Buttermilk Cake with Jack Daniels Buttercream

Recipe here.

I actually made this in January, but somehow forgot to post it until now (just came across the photos when clearing off my laptop’s desktop,) but it was definitely more memorable than my behavior would have you believe.  This was a delicious, rich cake that was fluffy and sweet without being cloying and would be a perfect birthday cake for anyone except the most fervent teetotalers.

Will be a definitely repeat…possibly for Hubby’s birthday in a couple of months?

Spinach and Cheddar Souffle

Recipe here.

I’ve always loved souffles and absolutely adore Ina Garten, so when I saw this recipe in House Beautiful magazine, I knew that I had to try it.  It was totally easy and really is foolproof.  I confess that I even forgot and opened the oven door once and the souffle still didn’t fall.  Yummy and cheesy, but also light and fluffy.  We served it with a fresh tomato-and-basil salad (tomato from our garden…basil from Girl’s sweet Spanish teacher’s garden) and it was beautiful.

Vegetarian Girl, clowning around with the souffle after it came out of the oven.

Beautiful Tomato-Basil salad…no recipe necessary, just sliced tomatoes, thinly sliced basil, a generous pour of olive oil and a sprinkle of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  This is basically just a cheeseless Caprese salad, but it was delicious.

Almond Croissants

Like my Wizard of Oz coffee mug?  Yeah, we got a little obsessed around here for a while, but it has, blessedly, passed…

OK, so if you dig the flavor of almonds, you really owe it to yourself to make these right away.  I’ve made them a couple of times over the past few weeks and they are really something special, especially when they’re hot out of the oven.

Almond Croissant Turnovers

(recipe adapted from this one)

1/2 package frozen puff pastry

1/4 cup canned almond paste

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Thaw the puff pastry (you’ll use only one of the sheets in the package…wrap the other one tightly in plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer) at room temperature, wrapped in waxed paper or plastic wrap, for about 45 minutes, until it’s soft enough to handle without it breaking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Carefully unfold the sheet and lay it out flat on a lightly floured work surface.  Using a pastry cutter or pizza cutter, cut the sheet into four equal-sized squares.  Gently spread one tablespoonful of almond paste onto each square, stopping about a half-inch away from the edges of each square.

Starting at one corner, gently fold each pastry square over, diagonally, to form a triangle over the filling.  Beginning on the folded side, gently press any excess air out of the dough and then press the edges of the triangle to seal it, using a minimal amount of the egg (applied with a pastry brush) as glue, if necessary.  Repeat with each pastry square and then place all of the filled and sealed croissants on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Brush each croissant with a thin but thorough (cover the whole surface, but don’t douse it and try not to apply so much that it bleeds over onto the parchment paper) coat of the beaten egg.  Sprinkle each croissant with a coating of the sliced almonds (as many or as few as you’d like…a small clump or coat the whole thing…your choice) and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the croissants are golden brown and the almonds on top are toasted.

Let cool for about 1 minute while you brew your coffee,  and then enjoy.

Nota Bene:  I only use half the package of puff pastry, because there are four of us in my family, but you could obviously very easily double this recipe, by using the whole package, to make 8 croissants…or as many as you might need, if you’re serving a crowd.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I also think it would be fun to cut each sheet into 16 tiny squares and make mini croissants…stay tuned!

Dorie Greenspan’s Lemony Sour Cream Muffins

Recipe here.

These muffins were absolutely fantastic.  The melted butter gives a rich flavor and helps develop a delicious, crusty muffin top.  These will be a definite repeat.  Yum.

The recipe doesn’t specify, but this makes 12 muffins.

We served the muffins with a strawberry-banana-black grape fruit salad and some scrambled (mostly) egg whites.  When I make a recipe (such as custard or spinach-ricotta tortelli) that uses a lot of egg yolks, I’ll save the whites and either make meringues or macarons or just use them for scrambled eggs the next morning, for a slightly lower-cholesterol option.   I’ll usually add one or two whole eggs, also, for better flavor.   A good blend, to ensure palatability, is about 5 egg whites and 2 whole eggs (with some McCormick low sodium Montreal Steak seasoning – YUM!) to serve my family of 4.