Tag Archives: Friday Food Fight

Spinach Empanadas

Posted on by Run DMT
13

PhotobucketThree weeks after my wisdom teeth extraction and I’m still on a forced soft foods diet and probably will be for another three weeks since my steenky holes are slow to heal and still pretty sensitive. *sigh*

Besides losing weight, another upside to my soft diet is that it’s forcing Iron Chef Allan and me to think beyond our family favorite menu staples.  During the process, we’ve dusted off some long forgotten cookbooks to find new dishes to try.  This Williams-Sonoma Spinach Empanada recipe was found in one of those dusty old cookbooks, The Best of Taste.  While rediscovering this cookbook, I found a few more recipes I’d like to sink my teeth gums into and if they’re tasty, you’ll find them here on Fridays for my weekly Friday Food Fight.

Although the recipe calls for pastry dough, I opted to use the empanada dough found in the freezer section of my supermarket.

Oh and see those yummy crispy edges?  Um yeah, about that…I couldn’t eat that part but the dough and filling was yummy for my gummy!

Spinach Empanadas

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp garlic, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

½ lb spinach, chopped

¼ cup pine nuts

1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and chopped

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Salt

Fresh ground pepper

1 package of frozen empanada dough (10 count)

Directions

In skillet, heat olive oil over a medium heat.  Cook onion until soft, stirring often.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about five minutes.

Add pine nuts and spinach.

Cook until spinach wilts, about five minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in chopped egg and nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.  Using a slotted spoon, add 1 Tbsp of filling to each round.

Lay on flat surface and fold dough in half.  Pinch edges with fork prongs to seal.

Carefully move filled empanada to baking sheet and brush with olive oil.  Then, repeat steps with remaining empanada rounds.

Bake for 25 minutes or until slightly golden brown on edges.

Serve plain, with side of aioli or a dash of Tabasco hot sauce. (I served mine with a cup of homemade tomato soup, but I’ll tell you all about that next week.)
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Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight! Can’t wait to see what everyone is flinging this week!


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Sesame Noodles for Chinese New Year

Posted on by Run DMT
22

PhotobucketGung Hay Fat Choy!

It’s Chinese New Year!  The year of the Dragon!

We started our Chinese New Year festivities with a potluck play date at the park with our friends.  Everyone brought a Chinese entrée to share and everything so delicious.  We had dumplings, doughnuts, a variety of noodles, fried rice, orange chicken and of course fortune cookies.

Emmalynn insisted on wearing her Mulan costume for the occasion.

The kids decorated dragon masks and made lanterns, which Allana loved almost as much as the dumplings.

For the potluck portion of the program, I brought Sesame Noodles to share.  This dish is so simple and tasty served either warm or cold as a side dish or a main entrée.

The Rachel Ray recipe I use calls for angel hair pasta but I prefer spaghetti for this dish, so I sent hubby to the store to buy the ingredients for me.  He returned with spaghetti rigata.  Um…ok! At least it wasn’t linguini!  Actually, hubby’s mistake worked perfectly because spaghetti rigata noodles are square and resemble lo mein noodles.  (This is where Iron Chef Allan would chime in to tell me that was his intention all along.)

 

Sesame Noodles

(Adapted from Classic Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals)

Ingredients

1 pound capellini (angle hair) or spaghetti rigatta

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp tahini

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch gingerroot, peeled and grated or ½ tsp ground ginger

3 scallions, chopped

1 large carrot, grated

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish (optional)

Directions

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a rolling boil and then add pasta.  Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine soy sauce, tahini, sesame oil, cayenne, garlic and ginger.  Whisk until smooth.

Drain pasta and immediately chill in a large bowl of ice water to blanch pasta and prevent further cooking.

Drain and dump chilled pasta into bowl with sauce and combine until noodles are evenly coated.  Add veggies and toss to combine.

Serve in soup bowls garnished with some extra sliced greens of scallions, sesame seeds and a little crushed red pepper.

Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight.  Link up and see what everyone else is flinging this week.  



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Chicken Salsa Soup

Posted on by Run DMT
8

PhotobucketA few weeks ago, as part of our New Year’s resolution, Iron Chef Allan and I thought it would be fun to have soup for dinner on Sundays, which we would appropriately call “Soup Sundays”.  Original and clever, I know.

Our Soup Sundays would help us spice our usual menus by trying some recipe as well as returning some forgotten favorites into the mix.  Upon our first installment of Soup Sunday, we decided to try a new recipe and Rachel Ray’s Chicken Salsa Soup.

Does anyone tear recipes out of magazines and store them into a notebook?  Well, this particular recipe had been tucked away in my notebook for a couple years.  Such a sin, because this soup is too delicious not to try!  And it was a perfectly delicious pick to start our Soup Sundays!

We modified the soup recipe by adding chicken breast instead of thighs, because we don’t like dark meat.

Also, before you start the soup, you have to make the Rachel Ray’s Salsa Fresca.  It’s the base for the soup, but it is also delicious with tortilla chips or as topping to any Tex-Mex dish.  There’s a ton of cilantro in it, which I love, because you can never have too much cilantro in salsa!

Rachel Ray’s Salsa Fresca (Borrowed from Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine.)

Ingredients

1 cup packed coarsely chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic

½  onion, coarsely chopped

1 jalapeño chile, halved lengthwise

2 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes (7 or 8), cored and quartered

Juice of 1 lime

Salt

Directions

Using a food processor, pulse the cilantro and garlic together for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides, add the onion and jalapeño and pulse until finely chopped; transfer to a medium bowl.

Working in batches, add the tomatoes to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to the cilantro mixture. Stir in the lime juice; season with salt.

Rachel Ray’s Chicken Salsa Soup (Borrowed from Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine.)

Ingredients

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 head garlic, cloves finely chopped

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts

One 32-ounce container (4 cups) chicken broth

1 ½ cups Salsa Fresca

Salt

1 avocado, thinly sliced lengthwise (optional)

1 cup chopped cilantro (optional)

¼ cup sour cream (optional)

Directions

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken breast and broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in 1 cup salsa, cover and remove from the heat. Let stand until the chicken is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and shred.

Return the broth to a simmer; season with salt. Add shredded chicken to pot.

When ready to serve soup, top each bowl with avocado, cilantro, sour cream and remaining salsa.

Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are flinging for this week’s Friday Food Fight.  



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Camping with Pigs in a Blanket

Posted on by Run DMT
2

For this week’s Friday Food Fight, I’m flinging my breakfast from Hillsborough River State Park campgrounds.

Since we’re tent camping, it’s not 5-star accommodations or dining, but the food is served hot and thanks to our portable heater, the tent is cozy warm.

One of our usual camping breakfast meals are pancakes from the box. *gasp* Shocking, I know, since Iron Chef Allan enjoys his from-scratch pancakes best, but it’s all about convenience and ease when you’re camping and box pancakes fit that bill.

This is the first time we tried Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancakes and I was pleasantly surprised. The whole grain batter offered a lovely mealy texture and you certainly need a hearty meal when you’re hiking trails, canoeing or in my case, chasing a rambunctious toddler around the campground.

My camping pancakes are always served with a side of Al Fresco Breakfast Chicken Sausage. I’ll wrap a hot off the griddle pancake around the sausage, pig in a blanket style. No forks necessary, just a dish to dip your pig in some syrupy mud.

Pigs in a blanket are the perfect breakfast on a cool camping morning!

Now link up and see what Karen of If I Could Escape and Kirsten of Gone Banans are servinng.

One Bad Mother Baker

Posted on by Run DMT
4

I’m one bad mother baker.  I got made piping skillz, yo.

Check it out.  This is the chocolate chip cookie cake I made for Allana’s class for her tenth birthday.

Iron Chef Allan was pretty impressed. But he better step off, ’cause I’m as smooth as this icing, baby and he can’t touch it.

Then on Wednesday, the kids and I baked Rolled Sugar Cookies for our neighborhood firefighters as part of our 30 Days of Giving.  We used the same vanilla butter icing and the kids each chose a color for the icing.  They did a gorgeous job decorating the cookies and they tasted pretty darn good too.

Like I said, I’m one bad mother baker.

Word.

 
Rolled Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick unsalted butter (1 stick), softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Cream together sugar and butter.  The beat in vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder and salt.

Chill the cough for 3 to 4 hours before rolling.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Use a melon baller to scoop and roll dough into 2 inch balls.  Place cookie dough on a greased on lined cookie sheet.  Bake 7 to 12 minutes. Let cookies stand for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool. Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

 

Quick Vanilla Icing 

Ingredients

2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1/4 cup  (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

Directions

Combine in a medium bowl and beat together on a medium speed.

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Now link up to win and to see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are flinging for this week’s Friday Food Fight.


But wait!  There’s more!  The winner of our very first Friday Food Fight giveaway and proud new owner of Joy of Cooking is….

Based on last week’s linky, #11 is The Rickett Chronicles!  Congratulations! A big THANK YOU to everyone who entered a foodie photo! :-)

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A Pizza My Mind

Posted on by Run DMT
17

You may be tired of reading about my husband’s mad culinary skills, but it’s seriously no exaggeration.  His hand-tossed homemade pizza is another fine example of his handiwork.


Over the years, he’s perfected his crust from a recipe he found online seven years ago.  (I only know the date because the time-stamp printed on the bottom of the print-out.)  He follows this recipe exactly and prepares the dough in his Zojirushi bread machine that he’s had for over 12 years.

 The pizza sauce is simply our simple onion sauce, which is perfect for pasta and pizza.

 Top it with some shredded mozzarella and whatever else toppings you love…

….and you’ve got a New York state of mind pizza.  Forget about it!

New York Style Pizza Crust (from Robbie’s Recipe Collection)
Makes 2 pizzas or 4 calzones
Prep. Time: 2:00
Serves: 16

Ingredients
1 ½ cups 110˚ F water
2 ½ tsp granulated sugar
2 ½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp active dry yeast
½ cup cornmeal
Sauce, as needed
Shredded mozzarella cheese, as needed
Toppings of your choice, as needed

Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in water.  Add oil and flour to bowl and stir with heavy spoon for 1 minute.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press into a circle.  Sprinkle yeast evenly over dough and knead for 12 minutes.  Divide dough into 2 equal-sized portions for pizza.  Place dough balls in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 1/2 hours in a warm location.

*If using a bread machine, combine ingredients machine and set machine to dough setting. Then, in two hours, begin the following steps.*

Preheat a pizza stone in a 500˚ F oven for 1 hour.

Place a dough ball on a lightly floured surface and sprinkle a light coating of flour on top.  Working from the edges to the center, press dough into a 12″ circle.  Coat a large board with cornmeal and place the dough onto the cornmeal.  Spread sauce over crust and top with cheese and desired toppings.  Gently shake the cutting board, assuring it isn’t sticking to the board.  Slide the pizza from the cutting board directly onto the stone in the oven.

Bake in a 500 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden.

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Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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Now Serving Spanish Rice

Posted on by Run DMT
9

The chicken dish I wanted to share this week didn’t come out quite the way I hoped.  The Pollo Relleno recipe needs some tweaking before I throw it into the Friday Food fight arena.  Hopefully, it will be tastier and more photogenic next week when I try my second attempt at it.

Though my chicken dish didn’t quite pass the taste test, the Spanish rice that I prepared to accompany the chicken came out perfectly.  This was my first attempt at making Spanish rice from scratch and I couldn’t believe how easy it was!  I grew up eating piles of Rice A Roni Spanish rice, but Iron Chef Allan never even heard of the rice or its brand name counterpart.  Wiith one bite, he was a Spanish rice lover.

Run DMT’s Spanish Rice (adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil

½ cup chopped Spanish onion

½ cup chopped bell pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup of organic Basmati rice

1 ¾ cups organic free range chicken stock

1 cup Pomi chopped tomatoes

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a Dutch oven skillet over a medium heat, sauté onions, garlic and bell pepper in olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add rice and stir until well coated.  Then, add broth, tomatoes and spices and bring to a boil.  Stir once, cover and transfer to oven.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Uncover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
 
Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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My Own Margaritaville

Posted on by Run DMT
8

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you my husband makes the BEST margaritas.  But like so many of my favorite foodie items, he’s ruined me for order margaritas at restaurants, which is probably a good thing I suppose.

 

Many restaurant margaritas would give me heartburn, which I thought was related to the tequila.  But then I discovered that the margarita mix that many places use contains high fructose corn syrup, yellow dye #5 and blue dye #1.  Yuck.  I don’t eat that garbage, so why should I drink it?

So hubby began searching for a margarita mix without high fructose corn syrup and food coloring and he found Stirrings cocktail mixers.  Stirrings margarita mix had a nice taste, but it was a bit pricey and we were going through the mix like mad.  With two margaritas between us, the bottle would empty rapidly.

So Iron Chef Allan decided to create his own concoction.  With a little tweaking here and there, he soon made the best margarita mix, minus the high fructose corn syrup and food coloring, of course.

Iron Chef Allan’s Margarita Mix

1 container Nellie’s Key Lime Juice

7 cups filtered water

1 cup sugar

Bring to a boil.  Let cool and refrigerate.

Once mix cools, fill a 16oz glass with ice.  Add  1 ¾ oz Camarna tequila.  Add ¾ oz Patrόn Citrόnge.  Squeeze ¼ lime into cup.  Fill with margarita mix.  Pour all ingredients into a shaker and shake well.  Salt rim of glass (optional).  Pour mix back into glass.  Add a wedge of lime for presentation.

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Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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Mojo in My Mojo Marinade

Posted on by Run DMT
14

Mojo roast chicken is an entrée that’s a regular on our menu rotation, especially since my husband raves about it every time I serve it.

My mojo roast chicken always finishes nicely with the gorgeous golden brown color and crunchy charred garlic bits.  The kids devour the crispy skin which is probably not the healthiest part of the chicken, but at least they save me from eating it and that’s a good thing.  Although, if you eat the skin, it could very well clog and cleanse out your arteries at the same time with each bite since my mojo marinade recipe contains 6 cloves of garlic.  But if it doesn’t cleanse your arteries, at least it will keep the werewolves away!

After I prepare the marinade and completely coat the chicken over and under the skin, I pour the remaining mojo marinade inside the cavity and stuff the squeezed limes in there too.  This produces an even juicer and tender mouth-watering meat.  Then on top, I’ll sprinkle a bit more kosher salt and a touch more black pepper.

Then this perfectly dressed bird flies into the oven set at 450˚ and cooks for about 20 minutes per pound or until it reaches an internal temperature of 170˚.  Once out of the oven, it rests for a few minutes or until it reaches 180˚ after which my lovely assistant, Iron Chef Allan, carves it.

As for side dishes, I’ll serve slices of chicken breast or a leg portion on top of a bed of couscous with a heaping pile of roasted veggies.  I know how to put the mojo in my mojo.  Yeah, baby!

Mojo Marinade for Roast Chicken

Ingredients

¼-½ cup olive oil

Juice of two limes

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp oregano

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp red pepper flakes.

Directions

Add all the ingredients in a small bowl.  Whisk until well combined.

Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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Crowd-Pleasing Chicken Cutlets

Posted on by Run DMT
13

PhotobucketI must being returning to my roots these days, because I keep creating some unbelievably tasty Italian dishes, like these chicken cutlets.  I should leave a check on the table at the end of dinner to start earning some tips for all my hard labor.  Actually, I pride myself in making some really simple yummy dishes, so honestly there’s no real hard labor involved.  But I should probably throw flour on my face like the old Rice Krispies commercial so it looks troublesome.

These chicken cutlets taste delicious blanketed by either of the sauces I shared here or here.  A side of your favorite pasta makes a nice companion to this dish too.  Lay a slice of fresh mozzarella on these bad boys and you’ve got yourself some fancy schmancy restaurant-style chicken parmesan like mama used to make.

Italian-Style Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

1 lb boneless chicken breasts

¼ cup of olive oil

1 cup all purpose flour

2 eggs

1 cups plain bread crumbs

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp thyme

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

 

Directions

Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the chicken cutlets to ¼- ½ inch thick.  Warm a ¼ cup of olive oil in a griddle set to 350 degrees.

Pour flour into one bowl, prepare an egg wash in another bowl and then combine the bread crumbs and spices in another bowl.  Lay each breast in the flour covering both sides of the fillet.  Then, lay the flour breast in the egg wash and wipe off excess egg.  Then, cover both sides of chicken breast with the bread crumb mixture and lay in heated olive oil.  Sauté until golden brown on both sides (about 4-5 minutes for each side).

Serve smothered with your favorite tomato sauce and a side of pasta.

 

Even though Karen is back in the States, we’re continuing to fling foods at one another. Link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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