Goat Cheese & Corn Quesadillas

I spent the last few evenings going through three months of Cooking Light magazines that I haven't had time for because of school. I've now got a list of about 10--probably more--recipes on my to-do list. So tonight I started with goat cheese and corn quesadillas. They were really good and super easy. I served them with a tex-mex salad on the side.













Quesadillas:
4 tortillas (recipe called for corn, but I used flour)
1 cup whole kernel corn
1/2 cup goat cheese
1/2 cup tomatillo salsa (I had an open jar of black bean/corn salsa so I used that)

Saute corn in a small amount of EVOO. Mix heated corn with cheese. Lightly butter the tortillas, place butter side down in a warm skillet, top with corn mix and a spoon full of salsa, top with other tortilla. Cook two min on each side and slice with a pizza cutter.

Salad: (not from the magazine)
Spring mix
Roma tomato, chopped
Corn
Black beans
Bell pepper, chopped
Avocado, sliced
Cilantro
Salsa, on the side

Cinco De Mayo

It's no secret by now that we love Mexican food and I love trying new recipes, so last night we opted to stay in and avoid the crowds. I have also been dying to re-create a dish I had at the Border Cafe in Boston; Black Bean & Corn Empanadas.















I made them with pre-made cressent roll dough this time for ease, so that I could see how the filling turned out. We had Spanish rice and margaritas with them. They were really fantastic, so I think I'll try them again with puff pastry, then maybe venture to making the dough by hand. I had enough filling left to make a whole additional batch, so I froze it.

Recipe:
1 can black beans
1 bell pepper, I used orange
Cilantro, chopped
Shredded cheese
Red pepper flake
Cumin
Cressent roll dough, 1 can

Saute the beans and pepper for a few min. Then mix with cilantro, cheese, and seasoning. Fill dough and pinch together. Bake at 375 for about 15 min. I made four empanadas, and had enough filling left to make four more. I froze it.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
1 roasted red pepper, from a jar is fine
EVOO
Balsamic Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Red Pepper Flake, I used a lot to make it spicy

Mix together in a food processor until you like the consistency. For more than two people, double or even triple this.

Three-Garlic Risotto and Caprese Sandwiches

Fantastic. I really enjoyed both of these dishes. Sorry for the crummy camera phone pic, but that's all I had.















Three-Garlic Risotto
I found the original recipe here, it's a great cooking blog.

5 cloves raw garlic, chopped
8 cloves roasted garlic, chopped
1/2 small onion or 1 small shallot, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
5 cups chicken broth, warmed
1 cup arborio rice (I used orzo pasta)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
A few pinches of dry or fresh parsley
Optional: 1 tsp white truffle oil (I omitted this)

For the roasted garlic. I wrap the entire head in foil and stick it in the oven at 300 for about 15 min. The cloves will be falling apart and you can just squeeze out the garlic.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium/medium-low heat; add 1/2 of the raw garlic. Toast the garlic being careful not to burn it. Remove it from the oil.

Add the rest of the raw garlic and the onions to the oil. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add the butter and rice; stir for 1 minute.
Add the white wine and stir until it is absorbed.
Add the chicken broth 1 ladle-full at a time, letting it fully absorb before adding more. This takes a while, be sure to continue stirring or it will stick. Ryan tagged in a few times so I could work on the sandwiches.
Before the final ladle of broth, add the roasted garlic.
Add the cheese then parsley.
Top with the toasted garlic.

Caprese Sandwiches
(This is for my friend Jene)
I saw this on an episode of 30-Minute Meals, but I'm recreating it from memory.

4 flour tortillas
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 fresh mozzarella balls, sliced
4 strips of bacon (I only put bacon in two of them)
Fresh basil to your liking
Salt & Pepper
Balsamic

Blister the tortill a frying pan, cover one half with all other ingredients.
Fold over, and flip to golden brown on both sides.

Next time I make these, I won't put the balsamic in the tortilla. It made them too juicy and the two tortillas that sat on the plate while we ate the others got a little soggy in spots. I would probably make a balsamic sauce instead.

Sara's Version of Susie's Version of Sara's Chicken Enchiladas

Did that make any sense? Probably not, it's fine.

Potato, zucchini, and chicken enchiladas--Yum.


1 chicken breast diced and cooked in chipotle seasoning
2 potatoes diced, boiled for 3 min, then sauteed in a little bit of green enchilada sauce
2 small zucchini diced, sauteed in a little bit of green enchilada sauce


In the tortilla:
green sauce
chicken
zucchini
chicken (I made some w/o chicken for me)
quesadilla cheese

Roll them up and top with green sauce and more cheese.

Adventures in Curry

I wanted a really light meal the other night, so I searched for a vegetable curry recipe. I found one on cooks.com, I can't find the original recipe, but as usual, I made changes based on what I had in the cupboard, so here is my version.


1 bag 90 second Uncle Ben's classic rice.
1 yellow squash
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
1/2 an english cucumber
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
1/2 can pineapple w/ juice
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp Thai peanut sauce
1 tbsp Curry power
















Chop the veggies and stir-fry them in the EVOO and peanut sauce. Set aside. Heat shallot and garlic in pan, add pineapple and juice, boil. Add curry powder and boil, add veggies back in and boil, then simmer for ten min.

Spread rice in a serving dish and top with veggies.

It was really good, but I'd add more curry powder next time or maybe a jalapeno. I might also add some nuts of some sort and I would use a red pepper for color. I used green and yellow b/c that was what I had, so it annoyed me that everything was so green and yellow in it.

Pasta Primavera

The inspiration recipe for this came from http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/. Great website, btw. I changed it up a bit based on what veggies/pasta/cheese I had in the kitchen. Below is my adapted recipe, but check out the website I referenced for the original and other great recipes.

Pasta Primavera

Saute the following in EVOO
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Two handfulls of chopped mushrooms
Red, yellow, & green pepper, chopped
Or whatever veggies you have.

Toss those in a big bowl once they are cooked to your liking. Boil pasta, drain and toss in bowl w/ veggies.

Sauce:
1 cup chicken or veggie stock. I made chicken out of water and bouillon cubes.
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4/ cup milk
1/2 cup parm cheese
1/2 cup mozzerella cheese
1/4 cup asiago cheese
Salt/pepper

Dump the sauce over the pasta and veggies and mix. I topped it with more parm cheese.

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Egglant Sundried Tomato Calzones

As you know by now, I love eggplant and am always looking for new wasy to prepare it. I was flipping through the Best Vegetarian Cook Book. I think that's what it's called, I'll double check and update this if I'm wrong. These were so good, I will make them again.























I never got a really great picture. I served it with scalloped potatoes and assparagus.


Calzones:
Eggplant, peeled and diced
Sundried tomatoes, chopped
shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped (I used 2)
Puff pastry (I used pie shells, one for each calzone, fill, then fold over into half-moons. Cut in half when done for four servings)

Saute the eggplant, tomatoes, shallot, and garlic together until just tender. Fill puff pastry with mixture and bake at 350 for about 15 min.

Tomatillos are so hard to find in Toledo

But once in a while, I get lucky and there they are! Anderson's almost always has them. After researching many many recipes, this is what I came up with for tomatillo sauce. It's quick and easy, and we really love it.

Tomatillo Sauce

5-6 tomatillos, boiled for about 5 min.

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 jalapeno, chopped

salt and pepper

Toss it all in the food processor until smooth, add about 1/4 cup water to thin it.

We like it over cheese enchiladas. Put a spoonful of sauce in each tortilla, then fill with cheese and roll the enchiladas, cover with tomatillo sauce and bake for about 20 min at 350.

Cheesey Goodness

I finally made the broccoli rigatoni. It was so good. I have to say, I was surprised at how easy the bechemel sauce was to make. I think my favorite part of the whole meal was scraping up the extra cheese sauce with pita bread. YUM. The original recipe came from http://mecookingcreations.blogspot.com/






Bechamel
3/4 stick of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
2 tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup light cream
Cheese (amounts are approximates): 3/4 cup asiago, 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/3 cup fontina I used asiago, mozzerella, and shredded parm.
Dash of nutmeg

Pasta
1 pound rigatoni I used some pasta I had in the pantry that was similar
4 slices prosciutto, chopped Didn't use this
1 large head broccoli, chopped into florets
I added chopped sundried tomatoes

Directions
Boil water, cook pasta til still slightly firm, drain
Heat oven to 375; put broccoli in a baking dish and toss with just a touch of olive oil; roast for 6 minutes
In a large saute pan over medium heat, heat olive oil and butter.
Add garlic and shallots, saute for 2-3 minutes
Add flour slowly and whisk until you have a nice roux
Slowly add milk and cream, whisking the entire time
Bring to a simmer and then add cheeses. Whisk until creamy.
Add a dash of nutmeg
Pour the pasta into a baking dish. Add broccoli and sundried tomatoes. Add sauce and mix until all of the pasta is coated. Top with a few pinches of asiago cheese. Bake covered on 375 for 20 minutes; bake uncovered for 5 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Eggplant Rolatini and Amazing Scratch Scallops

I had an eggplant that I needed to use, I didn't feel like baked eggplant, so I attempted eggplant rolatini. It turned out pretty good. But the star of this meal, for sure, was the scratch scalloped potatoes. The eggplant is my own concoction, and the potatoes were from http://www.foodtv.com/

Eggplant Rolatini:
One eggplant, sliced length wise
Ricotta cheese
Mozzerella cheese
1 egg
EVOO

Put the eggplant slices on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt, let them sit for about 10 min. Drizzel them with EVOO and bake for about 5 min at 350. Lightly scramble the egg, mix with ricotta & mozzerella to your own liking. Then scoop cheese mix onto a slice of eggplant and roll it. Place in baking dish, tightly together so they don't unroll. Cover with tomato sauce and more mozzerella cheese. For sauce, I just blended a can of italian seasoned tomatoes, some basil, and some parm cheese. Bake for about 20 min. at 350.

Scalloped Potatoes:
1 pound of yukon gold potatoes (or Russett)
1/2 cup cream
garlic
nutmeg
salt & pepper
parm cheese
butter

Cut the potatoes into thin slices. I held the potato with my PC onion holder. In a sauce pan cook the cream & spices on low heat. Put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a baking dish, overlap them, pour in some of the cream mix, sprinkle with parm cheese, another layer of potatoes, cream mix, two pats of butter, parm cheese, then two more layers. Then top with rest of cream mix and parm cheese. (I added some mozz cheese to the top). Bake at 375 for 45 min. Then broil for 5 min. to brown the cheese.

My favorite dinner

I love baked eggplant...love it. I make it once a week to once every other week. I serve it with garlic mashed, a veggie, baked feta, and mini pitas. Last time I made it R asked for a sauce for it. I told him that I usually spread the feta or some of the garlic mash on it. His response was that he had already scarfed his garlic mash...too bad for him. So this time I made a sauce. I'll admit, it was a nice addition.

Since I had the sauce this time, I decided to do something different with the potato. I just bought some ramekins the other day and wanted to use them so I made little potato souffles.

Aren't they cute? Here is what I did:

Made garlic mashed as usual.

Spray the ramekins with non-stick spray

In the food processor:

1/2 c. flour

1 egg

1/2 c. milk (maybe less)

Process

Pour mix into ramekin just above covering the bottom, the fill with potato, then pour more mix over top. It made a great little baked crust.

Here is the rest:

Eggplant:

Slice

Dip in egg

Dip in breading mix

Bake at 400 for about 15 min on each side.

My breading:

Panko bread crumbs

Shake and bake or italian bread crumbs

Oregano

Basil

Garlic powder

some parm cheese

The Sauce:

Leftover pan drippings from shrip linguini and a can of italian spiced tomatoes in the food processor. R loved the sauce BTW.

My favorite soup

Cheesey Potato Chowder

I got this probably six years ago out of a magazine, sorry, I don't remember which one. I've made many changes to it over the years, so here is my version.

Extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 chicken broth cubes
2 cups water
3 cups potatos, diced
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1 can whole kernal corn, drained
4 cups milk
2 tblsp flour
salt
2 cups shredded cheese of your choice

Cook onion in oil for about 4 min. Add water, broth cubes, potatos, carrots, and corn. Boil then simmer for 15 min.

Whisk milk, flour, and salt. Add to soup and boil. Simmer for 3 min or until slightly thickened. Add cheese and cook on low for about 15 min.