My new digs

You've probably been wondering where I've been in the past several weeks.  No, it's not baby time quite yet (few more weeks to go!) but we DID make a big change in our lives.  We bought a house!  And the best part of the house?  Our kitchen!

We went from this tiny thing...

(photo is property of Equity Residential)

To this....

Just look at how much more space we have!  Especially counter space!  And the light!

I cannot wait to share with you the delicious things that we make in our new home.

Margarita Chicken

During the summer I am always looking to make dishes with a lighter feel, and ones that don't take long are even better so I don't have to be in the kitchen for longer then necessary on a hot day.  This recipe fits perfectly on any summer menu.  And an extra bonus for me, since I can't enjoy a nice cold margarita this summer, I do get a little of that flavoring in this dish.

The one thing about this dish (which I've questioned with other dishes as well) is it says to serve it with a warm tortilla.  What is the purpose of this???  My husband cut up his chicken and made it into a taco which he said wasn't bad.  I ate the tortilla plain on the side.  If anyone has other ideas as to why they tell you to serve it with tortilla, please let me know.

The glaze on this chicken in so light and delicious, I could put this on the menu a few times a month and not tire of it.

Margarita Chicken (from Better Homes and Gardens Big Book of 30-min Dinners)

Ingredients
1/2 tsp finely shredded lime peel
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tbsp tequila
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
4 medium skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb total)
4 flour tortillas, warmed
1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
1 medium avocado, seeded, peeled and cut up
lime slices, cut in half (optional)

Directions
- For glaze, in a small saucepan stir together lime peel, lime juice, tequila, honey, cooking oil, cornstarch, garlic salt, and pepper  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir for 2 min more.
- Rinse chicken; pat dry.  Place on the unheated rack of a broiler pan.  Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat for 6-7 minutes, turn once, broil for another 2 or so minutes.  Brush with some of the glaze and broil for an additional 5 minutes (chicken should be tender and no longer pink).
- Arrange chicken, warmed tortillas, tomato and avocado on 4 plates.  Drizzle chicken with the remaining glaze.  If desired, garnish with lime slices.

S'more Bites

The summer is always full of barbeques and other outdoor get-togethers, and I'm always searching for the perfect dish to bring to the party.  When this month's issue of Self magazine showed up, it had a section of "fresh, easy, fun" dishes that don't take a lot of cook time.  The recipe for the s'more bites immediately jumped out at me because, well, who doesn't like s'mores?!

I made these for a 4th of July barbeque and they were a big hit.  And according to the magazine they're not too unhealthy

They were pretty easy to make, though I had to make sure I was spreading things out evenly.  The rice crispy layers I ended up just using my hands to break it apart and make sure I filled in any holes.  And I had spread the chocolate a little too thin and in some pieces the graham cracker didn't adhere to the chocolate, so next time I'll make sure that I leave it a little thicker so it can fuse together a bit better.

What's also great about this is that you mix the butter, marshmallow and rice crispys on the stove, and you have to melt chocolate, but there's no oven used in this and it's served at room temperature, so I was able to make this shortly before we walked out the door and didn't have to make it in advance enough to cool down, etc.

S'more Bites (recipe from Self magazine)

Ingredients
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 bag (10oz) marshmallows
6 cups rice-crisp cereal
1 cup melted, semisweet chocolate chips
rectangular graham crackers (approx. 15 squares)
1 cup marshmallow crème (such as Fluff)

Directions
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in marshmallows and cook, stirring until smooth, 2 minutes; remove from heat.
- In a bowl, combine marshmallows with cereal; mix well.
- In the bottom of a 9x13 in pan, spread half of the cereal mixture into a thin, even layer.  Top with warmed chocolate.  Place graham crackers in a single layer over chocolate, breaking crackers as needed to fit; top with crème.  Spread remaining half of cereal mixture over crème; press lightly to cement layers together.
- Let it sit at room temperature for at least 15 min before cutting and serving.

Cold Chicken Satay Noodles

I've mentioned in the past that my husband and I like to cook together.  Well, sometimes he takes over in the kitchen and makes dishes entirely on his own (or maybe with me as his sous chef chopping, etc as needed like he does for me).  The following is his first guest blog post, featuring one of our favorite summertime dishes - Rachael Ray's Cold Chicken Satay Noodles.....

This is a great recipe because the hardest part of it (the rotisserie chicken) is already made.

The rest is just simple ingredients that require very little prep work.  It is also a great summertime

 dish because as delicious as it is warm, it tastes even better when served cold as leftovers. 

The peanut butter and whole wheat pasta are a very flavorful combination and the vegetables add a 

nice freshness to it.  Just slice the vegetables, cook the pasta, combine all of the ingredients, 

dig in and enjoy!

Rachel Ray’s Cold Chicken Satay Noodles (recipe from Rachael Ray)
Ingredients

Salt
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti

1/4 to 1/3 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup tamari
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp hot sauce
3 tbsp peanut or sunflower oil
Handful of shredded carrots
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1 cup spinach, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
2 cups shredded store-bought rotisserie chicken
2 tbsp chopped, fresh cilantro or flat-leaf parsley 


Directions

-  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt the water liberally, then add the pasta and cook to al dente.

  Run the pasta under cold water to cool.  Drain well.
-  While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, heat the peanut butter in the microwave in 10

second-intervals until softened.  Place in a large bowl with the honey and warm water.  Whisk in the

tamari, garlic, lime juice, and hot sauce, then whisk in the oil in a slow stream.  Add the noodles,

veggies, and peanuts to the bowl and toss until the ingredients are well mixed. 
- Serve the noodles in shallow bowls topped with the chicken and cilantro

Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust

This month's theme for What's Baking was "sweet n salty".  This left open so many possibilities!  I had made salted caramel blondies last fall which were delish, but did I want to go that route again?  I turned to trusty ol' Google and came across this recipe for a chocolate tart with a pretzel crust.  Yes, please!!!

It was a little time-consuming, though I could have split it up a bit more and done the crust either earlier in the day or the night before, but I didn't mind spending the time on it (it was a lot of "do this then let it chill for 30 min" steps so I had some free time to do other things).

One issue I ran into was with the crust.  It was super hot in my apartment when I was making this, so I'd take the dough out of the fridge from chilling, and it would warm up pretty fast.  This may have been the cause for the crust not staying formed when I went to bake it.  Even with the pie weights the crust rose more than it should have.  But even if the end result was more crust than chocolate (I ended up being able to put in maybe 3/4 of the filling) it still came out delicious.  I don't know if I needed more chocolate, and the crust was so good I wanted more of it.

I ended up bringing this as a dessert for our Father's Day celebration with my in-laws and not only did everyone enjoy it, but I got the best compliment of all - as we were saying our goodbyes my nephew only wanted to know if the chocolate pie was staying!

Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust (slightly adapted from foodandwine.com)

Ingredients 
Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened 
1 1/4 cups coarsely crushed thin pretzels (3 1/2 ounces) 
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 
1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
1 large egg 
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

 

Filling:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 lb milk chocolate, chopped 

sea salt, crushed pretzels and crème fraîche, for serving  

Directions
- In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with 3/4 cup of the pretzels and the confectioners' sugar at low speed until creamy. Beat in the flour and egg. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of pretzels, being sure to leave some pretzel pieces intact. Flatten the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes.

-  Roll out the dough between the sheets of plastic wrap to a 12-inch round. Peel off the top sheet and invert the dough over a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the corners and patch any tears. Trim the overhanging dough and refrigerate the shell for 30 minutes or until firm. 

- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Off the heat, add the milk chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer the filling to a bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.


- Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line the shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nearly set. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the tart shell is firm; cover the edge with foil if it darkens too much. Let the shell cool completely. Brush the melted chocolate over the bottom and up the side and refrigerate for 10 minutes, until set.

- Pour the filling into the shell and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and crushed pretzels. Cut into wedges, top with crème fraîche; serve.

Summer Vegetable Chili

One of our absolute favorite meals to make at our house is three bean chili.  But when the weather turns warmer, it just seems a bit too hearty for a summer dish.  Don't take me wrong, we still make it in hot weather from time to time, but when I saw this recipe for Summer Vegetable Chili in this month's Food Network Magazine, I knew it would be a good alternative to try out.

It takes less than an hour to make (and goes quicker if you have two of you in the kitchen chopping the veggies) and tasted delicious.  Our market didn't have fire-roasted frozen corn, just the regular kind, but I thought it tasted delicious and the corn was maybe my favorite part, so I don't think I was missing anything.  Not to say I won't try it with fire-roasted eventually if I find it elsewhere, but I don't think it makes or breaks the meal if you have regular corn instead.  Also, if you leave off the cheese and sour cream there's no dairy in this, which is always a nice option.

As per our usual chili tradition, we ate it with tortilla chips, though the original recipe says to have it with a side of warmed corn tortillas.  Maybe you're supposed to rip them up and dip them?  I wouldn't think you'd make a burrito out of it, so not sure how that would work, but I guess it's personal preference.

Summer Vegetable Chili (from Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 poblano chili pepper, seeded and diced
2 portobello mushroom caps, chopped
2 cups frozen corn (preferably fire-roasted), thawed
2 14oz cans no-salt-added pinto beans
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and/or fresh cilantro for topping (optional)

Directions
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add all but a few tablespoons of the chopped red onion.  Stir in the garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion  begins to soften, about 3 min.
- Add the poblano, mushrooms and corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 3 more minutes.
- Add the beans, tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups water and /2 tsp each salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then stir and reduce the heat to medium.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the chili is thick, about 20 min.  Season with salt and pepper.
- Divide the chili among bowls.  Top with the cheese, sour cream and/or cilantro; sprinkle with the reserved red onion.

Pesto Chicken Burgers

It's my favorite time of the month, the week after I get my Food Network Magazine and try out all of yummy looking dishes in the latest issue!  This month had a lot of good recipes, but one that stood out was the Pesto Chicken Burgers.  I actually changed it up a little bit to make it kosher, and used the dairy-free pesto that I used for my pesto chicken rolls last year.  Also, my supermarket doesn't regularly have kosher ground chicken so I bought stir-fry chicken and ground it myself.  But even adding the time of grounding the meat myself didn't add too much time to this, so it still makes a good weeknight meal.

We did question the lack of seasoning in the chicken burger (it's just bread, chicken, salt and pepper) but honestly, the pesto added so much flavor that we really didn't think it was underseasoned at all.  Though my one note - when you cut up the roll to add to the chicken, I'd cut it into tiny pieces.  My pieces were small, but not tiny and I ended up having to separate them a lot more with my hands as I worked in into the meat.

We had this with a side of kale chips and it was a nice, filling, easy meal.  Definitely adding this to the rotation.  I may experiment with added seasoning in the burgers, but I would also make them again without.  And another good thing about this, the extra pesto that I made will end up being used for pasta next week.

Pesto Chicken Burgers (adapted from Food Network Magazine) 


Ingredients
5 whole-wheat hamburger buns (1 cut into tiny pieces, 4 split open and toasted)
1 1/4 lb ground chicken
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium tomato, thickly sliced
pesto (dairy-free recipe below)

Directions
- Toss the cut-up bun with 3 tbsp water in a large bowl; set aside1 minute.  Add chicken, 3/4 tsp salt, and pepper to taste.  Mix with your hands until combined.  Form into four 3/4 in patties (best to do this with wet hands)
- heat the olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  Add the chicken patties and cook until no longer pink, about 7 to 8 minutes per side.
- Serve the burgers on the buns; top each with a spoonful of pesto and a tomato slice.



Dairy-Free Pesto (from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom)

Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/3 cup Ppne nuts
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 and 1/2 tsp. fresh squeezed Lemon Juice (more or less, to taste)
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions
- In a food processor or blender, combine the basil leaves with the nuts, lemon juice and sea salt.  Pulse a few times until mixture is reduced in volume and the mixture is well incorporated.
- Add the garlic and pulse a few times more.
- Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the blender or food processor is running, stop to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.
- Taste.  Add more lemon juice and/or salt if needed.