Saturday, August 29, 2009

Breakfast in Bed

Decided to do "my breakfast with Rachael" instead of dinner, cause I was craving french toast or I guess "freedom toast" to appease my republican readers :-)

Now I am also going to include the Three Berry Compote portion since it is apart of the recipe, but I myself just topped my french toast with maple syrup, as I do not dig berries on pancakes or french toast.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in a splash of water
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
8 slices stale white bread or 6 slices thick cut stale bread
Butter, for griddle pan
Warm maple syrup, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar and/or fresh berries for topping


Preheat nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat. Beat eggs very well, add sugar and beat again. Add cornstarch in water and beat that in, then add milk and nutmeg. Coat bread thoroughly in egg-milk mixture. Lightly butter hot pan with butter nested in paper towels. Add bread to the pan and cook slowly, 3 or 4 minutes on each side, 2 to 3 slices at a time. Serve hot with your favorite toppings or Three Berry Compote

Three Berry Compote:
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup water
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

Combine sugar, lemon and water in a small sauce pot. Over moderate heat, dissolve sugar into water. Stir in fruit, coating it in sugar water and bring the fruit and water to a bubble. Reduce heat and simmer 7 or 8 minutes. Remove fruit with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and add maple syrup or honey to the pan. Thicken syrup 5 minutes and pour over fruit. Serve with French toast, pancakes or waffles.


The Verdict........well first I have to say that I think this is the first of Rachaels items that did not call for EVOO, although I guess you could use it instead of butter on the griddle or frying pan in my case. But let me get back on point......this stuff rocked, it was crispy, flavorful, really sweet and really just perfect, so much that I might just make this again at dinner time tonight. To make this a bit healthier, i but you could use skim milk and egg beaters and I bit the great taste would not change at all.

Until Tomorrow......

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Veggie Feast

Felt like making soup tonight............so it's Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup.......sounded really interesting so here we go........

Ingredients
2 tablespoon evoo
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cups canned or packaged vegetable stock
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained
2 cans (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Coarse salt
20 blades fresh chives, chopped or snipped


Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add oil. When oil is hot, add onion. Saute onions 5 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes, black beans and pumpkin puree. Stir to combine ingredients and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in cream, curry, cumin, cayenne and salt, to taste. Simmer 5 minutes, adjust seasonings and serve garnished with chopped chives

The Verdict...........I like this flavor combination a lot, very tasty. I could also see thickening this with mashed potatoes, but overall i like this soup. cats on the other hand smelled it and slowly backed away, but hey, can't win the all.


Until tomorrow.......

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I am back with a Southwestern Brunch

Well, your ever-lovin green eyed chef is back from Eureka Springs and is well rested. I had a blast roaming among the hippie crowd looking at art and I even took some time to do a little fishing. I saw more wildlife then I have ever seen before.....I even found an old hummingbird feeder and got the thing up and running and damn if like 100 hummingbirds showed up all the time...........really kind of cool to see.

Anyway after a long drive back, i was really hungry so i made Roasted Red Pepper and Potato Egg Pie.

Ingredients
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and halved
1/2 cup evoo
2 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and halved, then thinly sliced across into half moons
1 small onion, halved, then very thinly sliced
1 small brown paper sack
8 large eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper


Preheat broiler to high. Place red pepper halves on a cookie or baking sheet. Place peppers under broiler and allow the skins to blacken all over, about 10 minutes.

While peppers are working, heat about 1/4 cup evoo in a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add sliced potatoes and fry in oil until they begin to become tender, 5 minutes. Add onions and cook 5 minutes more. Remove potatoes and onions to a bowl using slotted spoon. Wipe out pan, return pan to heat and add remaining oil. Reduce heat to medium. Remove peppers from broiler. Leave broiler on. Place peppers in a brown paper sack and seal sack tightly. Allow peppers to stand and cool for a couple of minutes. Peel away charred skin and slice. Add peppers to potatoes and onions. Add beaten eggs to cooked vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Add mixture to the pan and cook until eggs settle and brown on the bottom. Transfer pan to broiler and allow the egg pie to brown on top and puff up.

Slide pie out of the pan and on to a serving plate. Cool slightly, then cut into 8 wedges and serve

The verdict..........well for starters the cats liked this.........but they have always had a very Pro-Egg stance, so no shock here. As for me, I thought this was a really flavorful dish, hearty, filling and the perfect dish when you are hungry yet wanting to stay healthy. The only thing I could see adding would maybe be sprinkling some cheese on top, like a Monterrey jack or Colby would work best.

Kudos to rachael on this one.

Until Tomorrow............

Friday, August 21, 2009

Vacation

Just a short note that I am leaving on vacation and will not be back util next tuesday evening...........but i will be cooking rachael meals while down at Eureka Springs...............that's right your ever loving green-eyed checf is heading off the Hillbilly country....................anyway I will be jotting down notes on the meals I make, so i will be back with a multi post blog tuesday night.........unless something happens to me while in the backwoods of eureka.................on the plus side, the police will easily identify my body, cause I will be the only one wearing shoes:-)

Later Taters..........

Thursday, August 20, 2009

tasty and guilt free

Only need to make a dessert tonight and I wanted something light, so I made, Melon with Berries and Sorbet. Low fat and low cal.

Ingredients
1 cantaloupe, quartered and seeded
1 pint mango or strawberry sorbet
1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint strawberries, sliced
2 teaspoons sugar


Cut a thin piece of the skin off of the back of each wedge of melon to give the melon sections stability. Top each melon boat with a scoop of mango or strawberry sorbet. Toss berries with a little sugar and spill them down and over the sorbet and melon


The Verdict.........ok it's not the crustfree apple pie from the other night, nor is it chocolate cake..........but it is still pretty damn good and more importantly, it is healthy, so enjoy.


Until Tomorrow............

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Holiday from being a veghead

Well I was asked to make a non vegetarian dish, so that is what I am doing........Stuffed Steak with Prosciutto and Spinach.........I remember watching rachael make this one and always thought that it diid look fantastic.

Ingredients
1 (10-ounce) package chopped frozen spinach
3 tablespoons EVOO
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 small red bell pepper, 1/4 chopped, 1/4 cut into thin strips, for garnish
2 ounces prosciutto (about 3 to 4 slices), cut into ribbons
Coarse salt
Black pepper
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano
2 pound eye round roast
Re-sealable plastic bag


Defrost spinach in microwave. Wrap in clean kitchen towel and wring chopped spinach dry.

Place a large skillet on the stove over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil-to hot skillet. Add garlic to oil. Add onion and red pepper, cook 1 minute. Lower heat to medium. Add the prosciutto and the spinach. Season with salt and pepper. Add bread crumbs and cheese to spinach. Turn off heat. Let stuffing cool.

To create the cavity for the stuffing, use a long sharp knife (like a boning knife), and cut a 1 to 2-inch hole through the center of the roast making a lengthwise slit. Turn the meat around and cut another slit in the same spot so that your knife completes the cavity. Insert a wooden spoon into the cavity to make sure the hole is even and goes all the way through.

Put the cooled filling in a re-sealable plastic bag and snip a hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe the filling into the cavity. You may need to push it along with your fingers to make sure that it goes all the way through.

Preheat nonstick skillet over high heat. Cut the roast into 6 even slices, being careful to keep the stuffing in each slice. Add 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and sear in hot, nonstick skillet, 2 minutes on first side. Flip the steaks and sear for an additional 2 minutes then lower the heat to medium-high and cook until done (about 3 to 4 more minutes). Garnish with thinly sliced red pepper.

The Verdict.......this was great, even a vegetarian can admit that meat is good....for those readers who are not around a well stock grocer, if you cannot really find prosciutto, then bacon would work just as well. I would also say youy can use a flank or skirt steak too instead of round.

Also, the cats loved this, and I think from thier meows, that they are requesting seconds.

Until tomorrow........

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fillin' Groovy

Ate a salad at Panera Bread tonight, but was in the mood for some dessert, so I was loooking through few of rachaels recipes and found Apples, No Pie, a la Mode. Now normally my favorite part of Apple pie with vanilla ice cream is the hot pie crust mixed with the cold ice cream....all I can say is YUMMY.....so a crust less pie i figure would be a tad different.


Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated or minced
3 Golden Delicious apples, quartered, cored and sliced
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 canister whipped cream


Heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the ginger and apples to warm butter, squeeze a little lemon juice over the pan and saute 4 to 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg to the apples and cook another 2 minutes. Spoon apples into dessert dishes and top with ice cream and whipped cream. Garnish whipped cream with a pinch more cinnamon or nutmeg.


The Verdict.......well if you read the list if ingredients, you could tell that there was NO WAY, that this would be bad and it was not. This was hot and delicious.

It was quick to make, I did cut the apples a bit smaller then Rachael called for, but it would not make a difference how you cut them.......this was DA BOMB.

Karen, since you will read this, you need to make this for your family THIS WEEKEND, and when they say "thanks mom this is great", you can say "don't thank me, thank the everloving green eyed chef from My dinners with Rachael"

Until Tomorrow.....................