Category: Favorites

Pimm’s Cup cocktail

Recipe here.

This was REALLY, REALLY tasty and refreshing and has the potential to be a new favorite summer drink.  I muddled a strawberry in with the cucumber, to add a little more sweetness and omitted the rhubarb garnish, because it just seemed a little superfluous.  Frankly, you could probably omit the lemon slice and herb sprigs, too.  They don’t impact the flavor (other than for you to be able to smell them as you sip,) but they do make a pretty presentation.

I took this photo before topping the cocktail off with the ginger beer and forgot to take another one afterward (I was too eager to start sipping, I guess!,) so the finished drink will be a little lighter in color and will fill the glass a little more.  I halved the batch and only made one drink, because Hubby’s not a gin guy and isn’t a fan of sweet-ish drinks.

Spinach-and-Ricotta Tortelli with Browned Butter

Recipe here.

I knew when I saw this recipe that, as appealing as it looked, it was going to be a fair amount of work.  I’ve had it sitting in the “someday when we have a lot of free time on our hands” pile for quite some time, just waiting for the perfect day.  I  knew that the kids would want to help with the stuffing and rolling, so it had to be a time when every one was home (difficult) and didn’t have other compelling things to do (near-impossible.)  It was time-consuming, but not terribly, and it took a little patience to get the hang of rolling the tortelli, but it was easiest than I thought and we were more successful than I had feared we might be.  All of the tortellis remained intact during cooking (I cannot boast this level of success with previous homemade ravioli attempts) and they were VERY tasty.  Well worth the effort and definitely something we will be doing again.  After running the pasta disks through the pasta machine, they became VERY long and unwieldy strips, so I cut them in half, but that turned out to be a mistake later, because I was not able to cut as many dough circles out of them.  We consequently had about a third of our spinach-ricotta filling left and our batch of dough made less tortellis than the recipe specified.  I’ll correct this next time by using a slightly larger circle cutter (I have another one that is 3 inches across) and using slightly more filling in each one.  We’ll be trying this again (now that the kids have mastered tortelli-shaping) and maybe experiment with different fillings and/or sauces.

Our batch only made about 52 tortelli, although the recipe states approximately 80.  I think I know what we did wrong, though, and will correct this next time.

We served the tortelli with some sauteed green beans and a grilled New York Strip steak (we just buy one steak and cut it into small strips to split three ways, amongst the carnivores in the family.)  Vegetarian Girl just had green beans and pasta.

We also sipped a lovely Syrah-Sangiovese blend that we brought back from Italy last summer.  We were saving it for a special occasion and figured that making our own stuffed pasta from scratch qualified as one.

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.

Wakey, Wakey Eggs and Bakey!

Recipe here.

I’ve had this recipe stashed in my files for quite some time.  I don’t remember how I came across it, initially, but I’ve been dreaming of making these cute little egg tarts for quite some time.  These were not a disappointment and, when the shells are made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container, were not difficult to make at all.  The crusts could use a little more flavor, in my opinion, that what is called for in the dough, so when I make these again, I’ll add a little salt and pepper and maybe some minced herbs to it.  The shells would also lend themselves well to mini-quiches or other applications.

I didn’t have pancetta around this time, so just served these with regular bacon (no bacon for Vegetarian Girl, of course) and a small bowl of berries topped with yogurt and granola.  Yum!

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.

Soft-Shelled Crabs Meunière

Recipe here.  Please pardon the crummy cell-phone photo.

Making these recently at my best friend’s house in the mid-Atlantic region (during high soft-shelled season) is what gave me the courage to attempt the Sole Meunière.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  Soft-shelled crabs are one of my all-time favorite foods.  Paramount is getting the freshest crabs available.  Unfortunately, this is not possible in Central Texas, but my best friend has THE MAGICAL PLACE at her disposal.  A magical place where the crabs are decapitated and de-lunged when you order them.  If you cook them as soon as you get home, they might still be twitching.  Mmmm…

I followed the original recipe pretty closely, but did substitute Wegmans pan searing flour (a GREAT product) for the regular flour in the recipe.  They were, consequently, pretty peppery, but pretty fabulous.

Classic Sole Meunière

Recipe here.

This is one of my favorite “fancy restaurant” meals, but I’ve never attempted it at home before.  I’m SO glad that I did, because it was super easy and VERY delicious.  I think that the recipe’s suggestion to buy a couple of extra fillets is a good one, because it does take a tiny bit of practice to get the knack for how long it takes to cook each fillet and for how to turn it.  The sole fillets are VERY fragile and have a tendency to fall apart when you flip them, but even if they do, they’re still delicious, and it shouldn’t take you more than two or three “practice fillets” before you’re flipping like a pro.  You definitely need to have the butter, lemon juice and parsley measured out and ready to go, because when you need each addition, you need it NOW and there’s no time to chop parsley or squeeze lemons.

We served this with some sauteed spinach and basmati rice.  We added a bit of sauteed shallot, chopped parsley and toasted, chopped pecans to the rice and finished it with a tiny bit of butter after it was cooked.

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.

Beer-Brined Butterflied Chicken

Recipe here.

This is my all-time favorite chicken recipe.  It turns out SO moist and flavorful.  It is an upscale version of “Beer Can Chicken” and is just downright delicious.  Takes a little time, with the brining and all, but really doesn’t take much hands-on effort…it’s mostly just “waiting” time.  Getting the hang of butterflying might seem daunting, but it’s really not that bad.  There are tons of “how-to” helpful videos around, if you are worried, but it’s much simpler that it seems.