Roasted asparagus crostini with ricotta, bacon, and caramelized onions

Unlike some people I know, I am not hip or trendy. Although I am addicted to designer jeans -and so ashamed of this fact, but, c'mon they're like a second skin- I will never be caught dead in those trendy jeans that are out to suffocate everyones ankles. Nor will I ever be able to pull off the adorable short A-line hair cuts. I never wear high-heals, and my toes do not peep well, so those are out too. I'm trying to get into the new belting thing, but even that is iffy.

No, I am far too practical, and I like things like Subarus and Birkenstocks that never really go out of style, mostly because they were never really in style. However, when it comes to food, I think I could be trendy.

A food blog for starters. Those are trendy, right? I mean everyone and their mom seems to have one. Another hot trend in the culinary world right now: crostini.

And so, crostini has been on my mind lately. I almost literally threw this meal together, so I don't really have any exact measurements for it, but I will say, it was quite tasty.

Roasted asparagus crostini with ricotta, bacon, and caramelized onions
about 4, maybe?
1 white onion
6 or 7 pieces bacon (I used turkey bacon)
1 bunch asparagus
loaf of good artisan bread (I used ciabatta; you probably won't use the whole thing, but I wouldn't judge you if you did)
ricotta cheese (low or whole fat, don't bother with the fat free stuff)
plenty of olive oil
To carmalize onions, cut the onion into smallish pieces and toss in a saucepan with a splash (1 tbsp?) of olive oil and a pinch (1 tsp?) of brown sugar. Cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes to avoid burning. Set aside when deep brown and soft. Do not wipe pan, but use it to cook the bacon, also on medium heat, until crispy. Then crumble bacon and set aside.
To roast asparagus, I will use Cindy's recipe that she shared from her comment on this recipe. (thanks again Cindy!) Wash and trim asparagus, then cut into 1" pieces. Toss together with some olive oil. Lay on a rimmed baking sheet in one layer, season with salt and plenty of pepper. Roast in oven for 10 minutes at 425.
To grill bread, cut into 1/2" slices. Brush lightly with olive oil. Lightly is the key here; olive oil has a low smoke point, and the bread will burn quickly if you coat the oil too thick. Then place on grill (stove top grill or bbq). Apply gentle pressure to the top of bread and count to 30. (A George Foreman grill would be great for this.)
Flip bread and count to 30 on the other side.

To assemble crostinis, spread bread with ricotta, then top with bacon, onions, and asparagus. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic, or lemon juice over top. Enjoy.

Dessert idea: spread crostini with ricotta, sprinkle with berries, and drizzle with honey.Mmmm....

Pasta with chicken sausage, spinach, and asparagus

Today was the best kind of busy day: one filled with joyful family events. But when we finally arrived home in the evening and I heard the reoccurring five'o'clock question, "What's for dinner?", I had no answer. Oddly enough, this always excites me.

I enjoy the thrill (I guess I'm easily entertained) of throwing left over odds and ends together in an attempt to make a meal look like it was premeditated.

 


Today, I started with the asparagus that was trimmed and ready to be steamed. Then I realized we had chicken sausage that I needed to use. For the meals' starch, the go-to answer: pasta. There were left over kalamata olives from this recipe, and left over pinenuts from that recipe... and the rest just sort of happened. It's a simple dish, really, so throw it together anyway you want.

Pasta with chicken sausage, spinach, and asparagus
serves about 7 or 8
2 tsp olive oil
2 large chicken sausages
1/2 lb (or 8 oz, or a large handful) whole wheat spaghetti noddles
1 large piece shallot, minced (about 2 tbsp minced)
3 large handfuls spinach (about 3 cups)
1/2 lb asparagus, washed, trimmed, and steamed but still firm,* and then cut into about 1" pieces
salt and pepper
juice of 1 really large (or 2 small) lemon
1 cup pecorino romano cheese,** grated
1/2 cup toasted pinenuts
1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan. Add chicken sausages to pan. Cook the sausages a few minutes, turning them to brown the outside of the sausages. Remove them from the pan (but do not wipe pan) and slice into about 1/2" pieces. Return to pan with the shallots. Turn sausages every few minutes in order to brown both sides.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until al dente.
When pasta is done, drain it and add it to the sauce pan with the sausages and shallots. Add spinach also and toss, scraping the bottom of the pan to allow noodles to soak up oil. The noodles should begin to brown slightly from the oil, and the spinach should begin to wilt from the heat of the noodles. Add asparagus. Season with a generous amount of salt and pepper, and squeeze lemons over the pasta. Toss to coat.
Each serving of pasta dish should be sprinkled with about 2 tbsp cheese and 1 tbsp each pinenuts and kalamata olives. Enjoy.
*if you do not already have a method for steaming asparagus, here is an easy one: place trimmed, washed asparagus into a microwave safe dish in one layer. Add about 3 tbsp of water. Microwave about 3 minutes, or until cooked but still firm (you don't want mush!)
**this is a really salty, delicious sheep's milk cheese; it can be substituted for parmesan or asiago

Nectarine lime crumble

My dear "followers," I hope you haven't given up on me. What yesterdays post lacked in imagination (and butter), todays is sure to make up for. The story behind this recipe begins sadly, but ends deliciously.

Lately, I have been craving something sweet. When grocery shopping last week (at my awesome locally owned grocery store) I decided to purchase a huge bag of chocolate chips from the bulk section. However, I became distracted while chatting with the sweet gal who works specifically in the bulk section. You see, she informed me that they were expanding this section, and she asked me for suggestions of foods I would want to be able to purchase in bulk. I was so overwhelmed/excited that I stood stammering for about five minutes trying to articulate all of the foods that would fit into that category. It was at this moment that I made my great mistake: carob.

I bought carob chips instead of chocolate chips. Like, a lot of carob chips. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of biting into something you think will delightfully satisfy your chocolate cravings, only to be met with the distinct yucky sweetness of carob, let me just tell you: it isn't good. Comparing carob to chocolate is like comparing margarine to butter, non-dairy hydrogenated alternative to real whipped cream, Pee Wee Herman to George Clooney.. okay, getting carried away again... but, in all seriousness, this is not a mistake you want to make. 

Utterly crushed (I'm not dramatic at all), I decided to make something else chocolate. At this point, the only real chocolate in the house was cocoa powder. So, I thought it may be fun to try chocolate granola (hopefully a recipe of chocolate granola will be on its way soon). I was only making a small batch, so I decided my toaster oven would be the best appliance in which to cook my experiment. Wrong again. Apparently, things cook much faster in the toaster oven. So fast, in fact, that the smoke alarm was practically going off about 15 minutes after I put the granola in. Frustrated, I decided to take up my dessert project another day. 

That day was today, and the result was nectarine lime crumble. It is sweet and fresh tasting; a perfect summer dessert to pair with ice cream or frozen yogurt. I made a small batch (only about four or five servings), but it could easily be doubled by using twice the ingredients (obviously, hence "double") and making two layers of the nectarines. A double batch would probably bake about 25-30 minutes. 

Nectarine lime crumble

about 4 or 5 servings

zest of 1 lime

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 or 4 tbsp butter, chilled

3 or 4 nectarines, sliced

1 tbsp honey*

1 tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1/2 of a lime)**

vanilla ice cream, for serving (or plain yogurt, then you could justify it as a breakfast food)

Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl combine flour, zest, and sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or a knife until butter is in pea-sized pieces. Lay nectarine slices in one layer in a pie dish. Drizzle with honey and lime juice. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over top. Bake about 15 minutes, until bubbly and golden on top. Serve with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy.

*the nectarines are already plenty sweet, as is the crumble topping, so the honey could be omitted and you would still have a sweet-tooth satisfying dessert

** my husband thought there was too much lime (I did not), so if you want to be on the cautious side, perhaps add only 2 tsp of fresh lime juice instead of the tbsp. 

Beat the heat iced tea

(Warning: this recipe is so easy that when you get to it you will most likely roll your eyes, sigh "duh" under your breath, and wish you had been using your time to read this recipe instead.)
I am little embarrassed about my last post. But how was I to know that the temperature would jump from the 50's to the 80's in a matter of days? Consequently, in the typical Oregonian style, I am preparing for the heat. Heat is really the only extreme weather we prepare for as Oregonians. The majority of us seem to think an air conditioner that is used about one week out of the year is more necessary than an umbrella that could be used, oh say, about 300 days out of the year. Anyway, today was beautiful, but tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-eighties... my husband is already complaining.

So, in the interest of staying hydrated, here is a "recipe" for some really refreshing iced tea. I would suggest making it tonight, or in the early morning... I would hate for anyone to over-exert themselves in the ensuing heat wave.

Is this really a recipe? iced tea
2 tea bags black mango or peach tea
2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled
Put tea bags and ginger into a boiling-water-safe container (you can use tupperware, I use a mason jar). Bring one pint of water to a boil, add water to container and cover. Let sit a few hours before pouring over a large glass of ice. Enjoy.

Mediterranean inspired meatballs with orzo and roasted tomatoes

It is June. Officially. And it is pouring outside. A "flood warning" (meaning larger than normal puddles) has been in effect where I live for the last week. I am beginning to wonder, as every person in the Pacific Northwest does this time of year: will summer ever come? I mean, sure we had those sunny teaser days when we all think: "Here it is! Sunshine every day until October!" But then, the rain starts again.

This year, however, I am determined to embrace the never-ending gray sogginess outside my window. After all, I am a true Oregonian in every way, and come mid-September when we will have endured four of five straight weeks of nothing but sunshine (ugh), I will be getting a little irritable and whiny, as does every other native here, pining after days when we can pull the sweaters out of storage under the bed and make chili for dinner.

So, I have decided take advantage of the gloomy weather and look on the bright side (figuratively speaking, of course). Because clouds and rain mean that comfort food is still in season, and bathing suit season is not yet upon us. Hallelujah.

And so, this recipe is a nod to the absence of laying poolside in next to nothing. It is pasta and meatballs. Gray clouds? Bring 'em on!

Mediterranean inspired meatballs with orzo
serves somewhere around 4 or 5
3 tomatoes on the vine, sliced
cooking spray, a little olive oil, salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups orzo pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup parsley, chopped, and more for garnish
3/4 cup white onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
3/4 lb ground turkey
1 large lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
Preheat the oven to 350. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray. Place tomatoes on the sheet in one layer. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare pasta and meatballs.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orzo and cook about 10 minutes, or until no longer chewy. Turn off heat, drain the pasta, then return it to the pot. Stir in 1 tbsp olive oil.
Combine bread crumbs, parsley,onion, and 1 tbsp olive oil in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Put this mixture in a large bowl. Add the egg, feta, and turkey. Zest the lemon and add the zest to the turkey mix. (then cut the lemon into wedges and serve the wedges with the dish) Combine the turkey mixture together with your hands. Form about 16 meatballs out of the mixture. Then heat 1 tbsp olive oil and the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a small sauce pan. (I did mention that this was not a low-fat dish, right?) Carefully add the meatballs to the pan in three batches, about five meatballs per batch. Let brown on one side for about two minutes, then flip and let brown on the other side for two more minutes. Then cover the pan and let the meatballs cook about eight minutes. Transfer to a dish and repeat with the next two batches.
Serve meatballs over the pasta, topped with kalamata olives, roasted tomatoes, and lemon wedges to squeeze over the pasta. Enjoy.

Chicken, blue cheese, and rosemary ravioli with balsamic vinegar and pinenuts

In the last ten months, since James was born, I have learned a lot about human curiosity. For the first few months of his life, it was simply: "Who are these people?... Where am I?... What is everything around me?" Now, it is becoming a little more complex: "What happens if I turn on the sink, then sit in it?... Can I stand up by myself and pull my diapers out of the drawer?... What does a lemon taste like?"

James' questioning nature is exhausting. I have to constantly anticipate what he will try to do next ("I wonder if I could pull myself up with one hand, and try to grab Mommy's mug of hot coffee with the other?")
But, I realize that this is the way he will grow and develop.

 

And, of course, I will relate this lesson to cooking. Where would the culinary arts be, after all, if mankind was not inquisitive by nature? If no one had ever asked: "What if I beat egg whites continuously until they could stand on their own, then gently fold them in with their yolks and bake the whole kaboodle?" the souffle as we know it would not exist. I could get really carried away with this metaphor, but, in the interest of saving time and just getting to the recipe already, I will just say that it was in the spirit of curiosity that I developed this dish.

 

I had the most beautiful wedge of smoky blue cheese and I couldn't figure out what to do with it, but I knew it had to be something fabulous and unusual. Pasta always seems to be the answer, so I decided on ravioli. The quickly browning rosemary in the fridge furthered my inspiration. I wanted a little extra texture for the ravioli filling without adding any more strong flavors, thus the chicken. 

The tastes were already complex and rich, so a sauce would have been too much. Vinegar seemed the perfect option, and pinenuts for some crunch. Voila: chicken, blue cheese, and rosemary ravioli with balsamic vinegar and pinenuts was created. Whew. 

Chicken, blue cheese, and rosemary ravioli with balsamic vinegar and pinenuts

Makes about 16 raviolis
Chicken (you could also use leftover chicken that you already have)
1 skinless boneless breast
salt and pepper
2 tsp olive oil
Rinse the chicken breast and pat dry with paper towel. Sprinkle pinch of salt (4 turns on salt mill) and pinch of pepper (about 5 or 6 turns on pepper mill) on each side of breast. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan. Cook three minutes on each side (make sure browning occurs on each side), then turn heat down to medium and cover, cooking about 20-25 more minutes, or until a meat thermometer shows middle reaching 165. Remove the chicken from the pan, and shred/chop it into small pieces for the filling. Using a spatula, add the pan drippings to the ravioli filling.
(I cooked two chicken breasts and used about 1 tbsp oil. I saved the other chicken breast and will use it for something else. This gave me more oil and drippings to use for the filling, so I recommend it.)
Filling
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary (plus sprigs for garnish)
1 cup shredded/chopped chicken
drippings from chicken recipe
32 wonton wrappers
balsamic viegar and pinenuts, for serving
In a bowl, smash the cheese, rosemary, chicken, and chicken drippings together with the back of a fork.
On a dry surface, lay out 16 wonton wrappers. Scoop about one tbsp of the cheese mixture onto the middle of each wrapper. Wet the edges of each wrapper and place another wrapper on top, pressing edges together with your fingers. Try to avoid getting air bubbles in with the filling.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in about four ravioli at a time so that they won't stick to one another while cooking. Let cook about two minutes each, allowing them to rise to the surface of the water. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Serve the ravioli with vinegar for drizzling and pinenuts. Garnish plates with rosemary sprigs. (I served the ravioli with red wine and big piles of steamed asparagus, which I highly recommend.) Enjoy.

Arepas con Frijoles

 My Latino heritage has been calling me: I have been absolutely craving good Latino food lately. Not just a generic burrito or quesadilla, but something fresh and homemade, and simple of course. When this sort of craving strikes, I always turn to the same food: arepas. 

Okay, okay, so I am not technically Latina. But, my wonderful step-mother, Bertha, is from Colombia, and arepas are her specialty and we have made them together several times. That counts a little bit, right? Bertha serves arepas with scrambled eggs and cheese whenever my husband and I visit around breakfast time (thus making that our favorite time to visit). 

I, however, like to turn my arepas into a sort of tostada with beans and cheese and salsa. Part of my Latino food craving involved cotija cheese, so I incorporated it into this dish. Cotija is a Mexican cheese that is crumbly and salty like feta, but the flavor is more mild. It can be found in any specialty shop that has different cheeses, or in almost any grocery store that has a Hispanic food section. The arepas themselves are pretty much just a really thick tortilla, so they are easier to make than tortillas, and no special tortilla press is needed. Bertha has a specific brand of masa (or, instant corn masa flour) that she uses to make her arepas, but I just use whatever is available, which is usually meseca brand. Masa can be found in grocery stores with Hispanic food sections, or any Mexican tienda you come across will be sure to have it. 

This recipe is really easy to make, and the colors make it eye-appealing as well. It can be doubled or tripled really easily, and its inexpensive, making it a great party dish. So, blast the Celia Cruz music, invite over some amigos, and get cookin'!

Arepas con Frijoles

serves about 4

for the arepas:

2 cups masa

2 cups water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetabel oil

for the bean mix:

2 tsp olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 cup white onion, chopped

6 cups beans, rinsed if canned (I used 1/2 black and 1/2 pinto)

1 tsp cumin

for the salsa:

1 cup red onion

2 tomatoes

1 serrano chili pepper, seeds removed

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

juice of 1 lime

for garnish:

1/2 cup cotija, crumbled

1/2 cup cilantro 

2 limes, wedged

To make the arepas, mix the masa, water, and salt with a wooden spoon. Let the mix sit for a few minutes and absorb the water. Then grab a handful; the mix should stick together easily, but not stick to your hands. Add more masa if it is too sticky, more water if too crumbly. Heat vegetable oil on a griddle or large pan over medium- high heat. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of the mixture, form into a ball, and then flatten with you palms, turning the arepa as you go.  Place arepa on the griddle and let cook until golden-brown spots start to form on the under-side. Flip the arepa and cook until golden-brown spots form on the other side. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.

For the beans, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and white onion. Heat until the onion starts to brown, moving pan occasionally so there is no burning. Add the beans and toss with the onions. Sprinkle the cumin over top. Let the mixture cook about five more minutes. Then transfer to a bowl and mash with a potato masher.

To make the salsa, I was lazy and threw all of the ingredients in a food processor. However, if you are wanting something a little more like pico de gallo, simply mince the garlic and chili pepper, and chop up the tomato and red onion and then just stir it all together with the salt and lime juice. 

To assemble arepas, place two arepas on each plate, top with about one cup of the bean mixture, and a couple tablespoons worth of each of the salsa, cotija, and cilantro. Squeeze lime wedge over the arepas. Disfruta. Enjoy.