Wednesday, March 14, 2012

quick orange and tangerine salsa

Happy Day to me! Look at this beautiful box of fresh produce E.B. brought to us.






















Most of it has been eaten already - no surprise there. Ada plowed through most all the fruit in a couple days. Those snow peas made a delicious appetizer with a little bulgogi gravy and sriracha sauce. The mushrooms will hopefully get posted this week. But the first recipe I will share was made with the asparagus. The trick to this recipe? You need to get it all chopped up and in the bowl with the pepper before the kids eat all the pieces!


Here's the final dish.
I used prosciutto. I'm sure substituting bacon will work just fine. 


I then used a combination of oranges and tangerines because there weren't enough oranges after Ada ate all the pieces! 
It still turned out pretty great.
I also was too lazy to go outside and fire up the grill so I pan fried the asparagus after cooking the bacon...think that's probably how I'm gonna do this going forward - really made this dish quick to prepare - unless of course there are other things to be grilled - in that case it ALL goes outside.






YOU WILL NEED:
2 oranges
1 tangerine
1 red pepper (I think at the grocery the sign says 'red jalapeno')
1 package prosciutto (4 ounces I think)
1 or 2 tablespoons of honey
fresh cilantro - chopped
salt
pepper


TO DO:


peel and chop all the fruit and place in a bowl.
make sure you also squeeze all the end pieces to get all the juice out of them and add that to the bowl.
slice a few rounds from the pepper and add to the orange mixture.
chop the rest of that pepper up and add to the bowl.
add the honey, a couple turns of salt and pepper.
mix all this together then set aside and let all those flavors mingle.


chop and crisp the prosciutto.
remove from the pan to a plate lined with a paper towel.


drain most of the fat out of the pan then add the asparagus.
cook over medium heat and keep rolling them around until some char marks start appearing and until all the little bits of prosciutto have been picked up.
it should only take a few minutes for them to heat through.
if you like your vegetables a little softer - add about a 1/4 cup of water and cook them a little longer.


chop about a 1/4 cup cilantro and add most of it to the orange mixture.
stir well.
taste for seasoning.


plate, garnish with remaining cilantro.
serve.











Friday, March 9, 2012

the Avo-dilla.....sort of.....

I have been crazy busy getting ready for the Renaissance Faire at my daughter's school. In the few minutes I have to eat something I'm trying to eat things that are NOT purchased in a drive-through! But they need to be filling and keep me filled for another several meetings, assignments, errands and whatever else I have to get done.
I saw this on Pinterest a while back and love avocados so saved it for a future date. I'm actually not sure how I feel about the maple syrup drizzled over the top. Yes - it was tasty. Definitely that whole 'sweet and savory' thing going on.
Do I think the syrup could be left out? Yes I do. But I think you should try it at least once with the syrup and decide for yourself.


There's no recipe in this post - it's another one of those "idea" postings but I thought it was really good and it's so quick - that alone made it worth sharing.


meet the avocado quesadilla.






















Here's the link to the original recipe I saw "the avo-dilla" - it is a completely vegan recipe - which I am not - so obviously there had to be a few adjustments made. Also, I was starving when I made this and just didn't think avocado alone was going to do it for me - therefore the addition of the tomatoes and cheese and some chopped onions I already had in the fridge.


Now that I'm reading all this I see there is almost nothing similar to the original dish......hmmmmmm......


Anyway,


YOU WILL NEED:
tortillas
avocado
tomato
chopped onion
butter
maple syrup
salt 
pepper


TO DO:
melt 2 tablespoons butter in a warm skillet.
add the tortilla.
warm through then flip it over.
sprinkle cheese all over the top.
add some sliced avocado.
then a layer of cheese.
add the onion if you're using.
then some thinly sliced tomatoes.
more cheese.
a little bit of salt and pepper.
























now carefully fold the sides up and over and make sure there is an overlap.
hold the overlap in place until there's no threat of the whole thing flying open.


is the cheese melting and starting to run out the ends?


carefully flip this entire giant thing and cook for another minute or so.
now drizzle one tablespoon of maple syrup back and forth across the top.
let cook until edges are crispy and beautiful.
you can flip it over one more time but i needed to eat so I didn't bother.


plate
slice
serve
enjoy!



Thursday, March 1, 2012

caramelized onion and pear sandwich with camembert

Here's the sandwich.




Here's how this came about.
You know when you're on Facebook and the activity of your friends shows up in the little feed area on the right side?
And then the voyeur in all of us has to do the cyber stalk thing and click on one of those to see what was said and by whom and what time and yada yada yada....even though none of it actually has anything to do with us personally?!
(don't try to deny this - we all do it - it's okay)
Well a friend posted on another friend's wall about the menu at one of our favorite bars - Pangaea Two Brews Cafe in Sacramento - I love this place. 
The sandwich above was on said menu. I immediately text her saying "Take a photo of that sandwich! Or did you eat it already?"
Well, she didn't actually go and after a little research there was no photo online of this sandwich and as you can see I was becoming a little obsessed about the whole thing so obviously the next step was to just make it myself.
(obviously right?...)


Part two of this story is that my friend Alexis had just catered a giant party and had a ton of left over cheese so she gave me a bag. A BAG! Of several varieties of cheese. (enter the Camembert)
The debate right now is what kind of friend is she for giving me all these hunks of cheese knowing I would eat them and then hate myself in the morning? And all this right after making all those samoas!
I'm starting a diet Monday.


This is a sandwich.
Nothing to it except caramelizing those onions which doesn't really take any doing. And maybe using a little elbow grease to spread that camembert. And then of course a little self control to not just lick the camembert off the knife.


YOU WILL NEED:
good sandwich bread - I used this torta sandwich roll- very good.
1 white/yellow onion
a 'small' block of camembert - or some other spreadable cheese
a few pieces of canned pears
little olive oil
salt
fresh ground pepper
about a teaspoon of sugar


note: I canned a ton of pears late last year and have a couple jars left so I just happened to be able to throw all this together.
























I don't know if this will work with fresh pears or canned pears purchased at the grocery. Maybe.....try it?


TO DO:
slice those onions.
heat your skillet, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil then add the onions.
a little salt and pepper and almost a teaspoon or so of plain white sugar.
stir occassionally.
once the edges have turned dark and crispy turn the heat off and let them cool.


slice and toast the bread.


slice the pears.


spread your cheese on the toasted bread - a little on one side - a lot on the other.


spread out the cooled onions onto whichever side is the bottom.


lay out the sliced pieces of pears.


ground a little fresh pepper on top.


close it up and enjoy.