Recipe

Chicken Pot Pie

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

I decided Easter was a perfect day for me to try my hand at making a pot pie. I told Shane that it will be our Easter tradition. Something the girls can complain about years down the road, having to eat moms chicken pot pie…again. I think that sounds like a great tradition.

I decided they would be indivual per Shane’s request and that I would not make the pie crust from scratch, at least this time because duh. I decided on this Ina Gartens recipe but I did a double crust. The filling was so good it could be eaten on its own so I knew adding pastry was going to make this dish extra ordinary…and it was. 

I only made a few pies so I had quite a bit of filling left and now it’s in the freezer for the next time I want to make one. The store bought pie crust was pretty good, it was no homemade but the easy factor was worth it!

   

   

Baked Tilapia en Papillote

~ Girlmom ~ 5 Comments

Well what do you know, it’s a recipe and not kid spam.

I used to make this recipe weekly, I have no excuse why I stopped. It’s now being put back on rotation because it’s so good and SO easy. I was able to prepare this with one kid whining at my feet about how she was starving while simultaneously feeding a whiny baby. Plus, there is no real clean up, which will make the husbands very happy.

2 Tbs  fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 green onions (green part only), finely chopped
Serrano chile to taste
1 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 Tbs olive oil
Dash of toasted sesame oil
Dash of soy sauce
Dash of fish sauce
4 tsp dark maple syrup

4 Tilapia filets, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine all topping (first 10 ingredients) in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Prepare 4 sheets of parchment paper by folding each sheet in half and placing a tilapia fillet centered onto one side of the fold of each sheet. Divide topping evenly among them, spreading it over the top.

IMG_0863 IMG_0866 Roll up the sides of the paper first, then the top, leaving 1/2-inch space along one edge; fold to seal.

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Place in oven and bake 20-25 minutes.

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*Recipe adapted from Self Magazine

 

Chicken Curry Puffs

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

This recipe hails from {ahem} All Recipes. I usually stay away from that site because the recipes are from every day Joe’s and if you stay too long you will find the same recipe made 1,368 different ways. I usually end up questioning the recipe and  cursing the reviews. Now you may loooove that site and send your recipes in and if that is the case I have probably judged your recipe. Just kidding…actually I’m not.

Here is where I become a hypocrite. I was offered a free subscription to the All Recipe magazine and if you know me, you know I lOVE magazines, so of course I took it. And after skimming through 4 of them I finally found a recipe I wanted to make. My mind instantly went back to the chicken curry pasties we I devoured in London. These took a little work and would be great for a party if you can wrangle someone to help you fill them. These turned out good, you should make them.

Instead of writing out the entire recipe, here is the LINK.

The filling makes enough to fill at least 3 puff pastry sheets, so we had a lot of filling left over. But that’s not a bad thing because it’s good on it own. The only thing I would do next time was add a spicier chili. Oh and maybe spend more time closing these suckers up, most of mine popped open.

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What’s Up?

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I guess life has gotten in the way of my blogging. Not exactly sure what we have been doing with our free time but it comes and goes and then I realize I haven’t written in days.

A few weeks back Senna, my elderly kitty of 19 years had a stroke and wouldn’t leave the side of the house. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with her but she had no interest in food or water and could barely walk. My neighbor said I should take her to the vet, but I was alone with two kids with no crate, how was I going to manage that? I decided I would wait until the next morning to make a decision, it was all too sudden. But a few hours later I realized she was in misery, so I called the vet and asked what my options were and decided to take her in and have her put down. I am so thankful for my next door neighbors, one of them watched the kids while the other drove me to the vet. The vet confirmed it was most likely a stroke and that it happens in older cats. I stayed with Senna while she was sedated and then I left, not wanting to sit through the end. I was heartbroken and two weeks later I still think I hear her meowing and go to the door to let her in or to offer her chicken. She lived a long life as an indoor and outdoor cat. She traveled through California with me and probably used up many of her 9 lives battling cars, coyotes and possums throughout the years.

Last weekend was our monthly dinner party and the theme was “retro”. My plan was to make beef wellington but when I saw the price of the beef tenderloin at Costco, I decided maybe not -cha-ching! I then went back and forth on what to make and finally settled on Swedish meatballs. After staring and comparing 10 different recipes I went with Alton Browns. It was farely easy to make and it turned out great. The bowl was empty by the end of the night.

I also had my hysterosalpingogram (HSG) test. This is the same test I had when I was trying to get pregnant…oh the irony. After I had Averi the doctors had a hard time actually finding my fallopian tubes due to the mess of scar tissue left from Kaili’s delivery. They weren’t exactly sure if they were successful in their attempt to tie them so I patiently waited 3 months and then had my HSG. Two thumbs up, everything is as I want it.

Speaking of Averi, she turned 4 months a few days ago, can we talk more about that later? Someone hasn’t taken her monthly pictures yet. (points to self)

Is it really two weeks until Thanksgiving?

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Vietnamese Lemon Grass Beef and Noodle Salad

~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

Craving- (Noun) A powerful desire for something.

These days I rarely have the motivation to make an elaborate meal and by elaborate, I mean something with more than 3 steps and takes longer than 15 minutes. That is until I saw this recipe and I needed to have it in my mouth that day!{that’s what she said.}

After a quick trip to the store, where I found everything I needed except the chili’s {so I settled for a Serrano} I started to prep what was going to be the best football lunch evah!

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The recipe is straight forward and I didn’t veer off course. However, the recipe claims to only take 1 hour but it took  longer. There is a bit of prep work and add on 15 minutes to fry the shallots {don’t skip this!} It’s worth it, I promise!

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Cold noodles, hot meat, fresh herbs, crunchy shallots, spicy siracha, you guys, it was delicious. “Haha <– she said hot meat!”

 

Panzanella Salad

~ Girlmom ~ 5 Comments

Why a Panzanella salad? Because I had an heirloom tomato sitting in the fridge, a half a loaf of ciabatta bread racing towards getting stale and zero burrata cheese.

Gawd, Google can be a bitch when looking for a recipe. Every one I came across was different than the next. Some had peppers, few had capers, some even had Feta cheese. Feta isn’t Italian, it’s Greek so that is not OK to put in your Italian bread salad.

The Pioneer Woman had a good looking recipe but I have recently made two of her dishes and was disappointed both times, so I am sorry to say I will not be making her recipes anymore. However, Ina Garten has never let me down…I went with hers.

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It’s a very straightforward dish to make. Chop up all your veg and throw them in a bowl. Toast your bread chunks in some olive oil and salt and then whisk up a vinaigrette. Toss it all together and let it marinade for an hour at room temperature and then serve.

The only tip I can give you is don’t put this in the fridge BEFORE serving. It changes the texture of the tomatoes and the bread gets soggy. You will have to challenge yourself and your guests to eat the entire bowl, easy challenge!

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Daeji Bulgogi

~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

I am taking a “get out of a month free” card for July’s culinary bucket list…for obvious reasons. I did make an onion pie with a handful of the many Walla Walla onions we had but no one was really excited about, so we will pretend that didn’t happen.

I finally got around to trying one of the recipes in this book. I bought it about 6 months ago and it’s FULL of mouth watering recipes.

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I’m trying to get back into the routine of meal planning for the week, I think I will choose one recipe from this book and try it each week along with my culinary bucket list… we shall see.

We’ll start with this recipe, Daeji Bulgogi or Spicy Korean BBQ. This was really easy and VERY good. I told Shane that if I had ordered this in a restaurant I would have been very happy with myself, if that isn’t a pat on the back  for myself and Cooking Light, I don’t know what is.

This is served “lettuce wrap” style with rice, I decided to make coconut rice and you NEED to do the same. I also suggest marinating the pork longer than 1 hour, at least 3 to be sure the flavors get in there good.

*This recipe is copied from here.

Note: I didn’t use the grill, I used a pan.

Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed

2 TBS brown sugar

2 TBS soy sauce

1 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced

Wrap pork in plastic wrap; freeze 1 1/2 hours or until firm. Remove plastic wrap; cut pork diagonally across grain into 1/16-inch-thick slices.

Combine pork, sugar, and next 6 ingredients (sugar through garlic) in a large zip-top plastic bag. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning bag occasionally.

Prepare grill.

Place a wire grilling basket on grill rack. Remove pork from bag; discard marinade. Place pork on grilling basket coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes or until desired degree of doneness, turning frequently.

Serve on in a lettuce wrap with coconut rice and sriracha.

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Culinary Bucket List { Asparagus Risotto }

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

I almost fell off the culinary bucket list wagon. Luckily I got my shit together 3 days before June, phew.

I have not been in any mood or have had the energy or the desire for that matter to do any cooking. It’s been all Lean Cuisine and take out dreams baby.

After a sleepless night I got the hankering, scratch that, that is a horrible word. I got a craving yearning a want for a roast chicken, the roast chicken made me think of risotto and I have no idea why.  I have only made risotto a handful of times and it’s been the easy way, you know throw ingredients into a dutch oven, stir and slide it into the oven.

The classical way wants you to stir, stir and wait and stir like you are an executive chef in a fancy restaurant, risotto rubbing it’s fanciness all in your face. But since this is a bucket list I thought I would suck it up and try the fancy risotto.

I remembered a recipe my mom sent me years ago, it’s just been sitting on my computer waiting to be used. I followed it exactly plus 2 more cups of chicken broth, and it turned out goooood. Gordon Ramsey would SO not yell at me for this risotto. It kept me on my feet longer than I should have been, contraction, stir, contraction, sit down, stir. But it was well worth it!

So if you feel up to making risotto the fancy way give this recipe a try, if you don’t have the patience, try Ina’s.

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1 pound fresh asparagus
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons whipping cream
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional garnish: chopped tomato

1. Remove tough ends of asparagus. Reserve tips for later use in recipe. Finely chop the stalks and leave the tips in one inch pieces.

2. Bring broth to boil in a medium saucepan, then reduce to a simmer.

3. In a larger saucepan, melt butter; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is transparent. But not brown. Add rice and stir rapidly to coat with butter, Add asparagus stalks and wine, allow wine to evaporate.

4. Add ½ to 1 cup broth, so that the rice is barely covered with liquid. Stir frequently to allow broth to be absorbed. Don’t let rice go completely dry. Repeat, adding broth in ½ cup measurements, until 1 cup remains to be added.

5. Add asparagus tips and finish adding broth ½ cup at a time. When all is absorbed, remove pan form heat. Immediately stir in cream and Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, garnish with chopped tomato.

Serves 4 to 5

Tommy Tart Remake

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

A few months ago I made this Tommy Tart and although it was good, it needed something more. I decided to remake it adding more flavor.  Instead of Boursin cheese I used an herb goat cheese and parmesan. I also added sautéed onions…because why not? The best part is I used a tad of wine to cook the onions in. It basically forces you to have wine with your tart because now you have an open bottle. You’re welcome.

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Ingredients

1 sheet puff pastry- defrosted

good olive oil

1 sweet onion, sliced

1 garlic clove sliced

1 tsp. fresh thyme

2 tbs white wine

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

4 oz garlic herb goat cheese

2 tomatoes, sliced

fresh basil

salt and pepper

 

Pre-heat oven to 425.

Place pastry sheet on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Saute onion and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute for 15-20 minutes until onions are limp. Stir in wine, thyme and salt and continue to cook another 10 minutes until onion start to turn brown and liquid evaporates, remove from heat and set aside.

Sprinkle parmesan on puff pastry. Then top with onions and crumbled goat cheese. Layer tomatoes  on top of cheese then drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle with salt and basil.

Pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm and with the extra wine you now have.

 

 

Mango & Chili Glazed Shrimp

~ Girlmom ~ 5 Comments

Let me start by saying that this would have been better with big ass prawns, new culinary term. I didn’t have any big ass prawns so I used shrimp. Since I was putting myself through the trouble of skewering these shrimp I decided to toss all the marinade/glaze ingredients in the food processor. Choose your battles.

Making the marinade was as easy as pie. BUT don’t turn your back on it once it’s done because your 2 1/2 year old might pour it on the salad you just made, like mine did. I only freaked out for a minute, okay two.

I let the shrimp marinade for a few hours before skewering them, my least favorite thing to do. Once they have all been at your mercy you can throw them on the grill. The shrimp cooked in no time so I only glazed one side after I flipped them, before I knew it they were done.

This sauce would be good on anything really, I might try salmon next time.

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Ingredients

2 pounds large Prawn
1 large mango, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs mint
2 tablespoons chili paste
2 limes juiced
1 ime zest
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Puree all above ingredients in food processor.

Pour all but 1/3 cup mango puree over shrimp in plastic bag. Let marinade in refrigerator 2-3 hours.

Pepare grill. Grill prawns 2-3 minutes per side until done, glazing each side with reserved marinade.

Brush with glaze one last time before serving. Serve hot.