Cinnamon Crepes w/ Blueberry Compote
Cooking fancy breakfasts for friends is always a ton of fun for me, but I don’t get to do it often. Usually, when a large group of friends end up spending the night at the same place, breakfast doesn’t get made for everybody for one of three reasons; 1- they wake up with the thought “Man I need to go home”, 2- nobody is in the mood to cook, or 3- you don’t have the ingredients or kitchen to use. If you are not a twenty-something year old you probably hardly ever wake up in a random friend’s house. This means planning a breakfast party if you ever want to have a big breakfast with friends, which for some reason just doesn’t happen as often in our busy lives. I am happy that I was able to cook these delicious crepes for a group, rather than just myself! These are also the perfect idea for a Father’s Day surprise!
This is also my entry for the Highbush Blueberry Council’s recipe contest!
Throwback Thursday: Green Chile Chicken Corn Chowder
The title of this Throwback Thursday recipe may have some of your running for the door because it is a soup. Also, I know it may be hot where some of you are, but that doesn’t mean you have to cut out hot food! I know you will have a chilly night when you are craving a delicious soup and this recipe is going to hit the spot. It is a spicy, cheesy chicken corn chowder that is just the kind of heat you want in the summer time.
This soup is packed with green chiles, red peppers, onion, cheese, chicken and potatoes. If you are not one for spicy food you can simply just leave out the green chiles and cayenne pepper. This soup goes perfectly with the Ciabatta Bread from last Thursday’s throwback recipe. Dig in!
Artichoke, Celery Root & Potato Gratin
Until about two weeks ago I had always bought canned artichokes. My friend Kelcey and I decided to make a delicious vegetarian dish after planting our new garden and wanted fresh veggies for this recipe, so I decided I would buy fresh organic artichokes. Little did I know that trimming an artichoke is no easy task. We completely butchered two organic artichokes and ended up having to purchase canned ones in order to finish the dish. Another downfall to our dish was that we topped the bread with way too much cheese, which kept it from getting crispy and left us with a soggy bread topping… Not the most appealing. So here’s to round two!
Grilled Mahi Mahi w/ Olive & Shallot Tapenade
Since I have come home from Africa, I have had a serious case of the travel flu. I’m sure many of you had come down with this bug at some point in your life. You know that feeling when all you can think about is traveling and you would just love to get out and explore, just be anywhere but here. Well this time it has hit me hard. I have been planning my around the world trip for two and a half years from now. I have also been trying to squeeze some sort of trip in for the meantime.
Kiwi-Raspberry Sorbet
This has been the most bizarre summer I have seen for a while. It hadn’t stopped snowing in the mountains here in Colorado until about last week. After the snow stopped, a serious heat wave hit and took everyone by surprise. Lucky for me, I was puppy sitting at my parents’ house during this heat wave. This meant access to all of my mom’s cooking appliances, including an ice cream maker. I took full advantage of this and decided to make a nice cold treat for the heat.
Throwback Thursday: Ciabatta Bread
I am moving to a new house at the end of the month and it has so many great new things to offer. I have a huge garden. We just planted around 30 different plants, including peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuces, peas and strawberries. We also have about 7 pots of herbs. If things go as planned I will be cooking with my own home-grown veggies all summer long! My new house also has something that many young foodies’ kitchens don’t- counter space! I cannot explain how great it is to finally have room to cook! One thing on my list of things to make in my new kitchen is bread, lots of bread.
This week’s throwback recipe is the only time I have made my own bread, other than the two years I spent working at Subway, which I wouldn’t really call making bread anyway. 😉 This was some of the most delicious bread I have ever had. The recipe gives it a delicious salty kick that makes you want to eat a huge piece all by itself. Plan your day if you are going to make this bread, because it takes a long time to let the dough rise properly. If you have never made your own bread, I encourage you to try this recipe; you won’t be disappointed!
London Broil w/ Tomato-Bell Pepper Pizzaiola Sauce
There is something about large cuts of meat that is just amazing. I always feel like a large tenderloin or roast is always much juicier and flavorful than individual pieces of meat. Lucky for me, my mom belongs to a local farm and receives ungodly amounts of meat. I have had a two-pound hunk of beef in my freezer tantalizing me for months. I had not gotten around to cooking it because I did not want to cook the entire thing for only two or so people. This weekend I finally had the chance to have a dinner party, if you want to call it that, and serve this delicious cut of meat to a group of friends.
Shrimp & Goat Cheese Quesadillas
I am back at it again with the goat cheese. I recently read that goat cheese has a large amount of tryptophan in it, the same stuff in turkey that makes everybody so sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner, so if you are having trouble sleeping you might just want to try one of these quesadillas before bed, or maybe the Smashed Potatoes with Goat Cheese & Parsley. Tryptophan is not only good for sleeping, but is an essential amino acid that has been shown to boost your mood and help you relax as well. If that isn’t enough to get you eating goat cheese, maybe this recipe will.
Maple-Glazed Salmon w/ Pineapple
How many of you liked fish or veggies when you were a kid? Now, how many went through that phase in your life where you magically began to like all sorts of food? As a kid, I would not even eat fish sticks, let alone a real fish! My vegetable category consisted of mashed potatoes, peas and corn. In only the past two years, my taste buds have matured. Now the only vegetables I really don’t like are mushrooms; except I must admit I ate a grilled portobello with cheese the other day and it was delicious! Also, I also absolutely love seafood now. Living in Colorado I have not had the luxury of tasting a huge variety, but I have fallen in love with it.
Throwback Thursday: Butternut Squash Gnocchi w/ Moroccan Lamb Sauce
I am laughing while writing about this week’s Throwback Thursday recipe. Don’t get me wrong, the dish was delicious, I just had a few mishaps while trying to prepare it. This meal was my first time eating butternut squash. I spent ages trying to find a recipe that I thought would be a good intro for the new veggie. Finally, I decided to make gnocchi, something else that I had never made before. I ended up making the gnocchi way too wet and struggled to make well-shaped pasta. At the time I had no idea that the pasta was too wet and was dumbfounded on how people made their gnocchi have the cute little fork marks in them. To this day I have still not made gnocchi again. It is something I should probably think about doing in the near future.
