This past weekend, Francis and I had our housewarming in our new townhome. Personally, I love housewarmings because it’s a way to take your not-yet-warm, not-yet-totally-unpacked house, bring your family in to warm it up for you. Overall, I think it was pretty successful except for the fact that I think I may have overcooked a tad…which I tend to do. However, I think that everyone enjoyed the food, despite all the leftovers (anyone want a shipment of spinach-tart leftovers?)

Though I didn’t get a picture of everything I made, I did get pictures of a lot of things, so here I’ll just post everything:

Sundried Tomato and Goat Cheese-Stuffed Phyllo Shells

Source: Adapted from Elly Says Opa!

Ingredients:
Sundried tomatoes
One packet of goat cheese crumbles
Phyllo pop-out-shells

Mix the sundried tomatoes with the goat cheese with the goat cheese and some ground pepper. Meanwhile, bake the pop-out phyllo shells at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Take the tops of the shells and spoon the tomato/cheese mixture in the center. Bake approximately another 10 minutes.

Mushroom Pie

No picture of this one! Sorry! Source:Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:1 basic pie dough (recipe below) rolled out and lining a 9" pie dish chilled 2 Tbsp butter1 lb sliced mushrooms1 large clove garlic, mincedSalt and pepper1/2 cup cream1/3 cup milk1/3 cup sour cream2 eggs, lightly beatenA dash of  nutmeg 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley 1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese (I subbed Parmesan because that's what I had on hand)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line the inside of a pie shell with heavy aluminum foil, pressing it against the side. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove foil, poke the bottom of the pie crust with the tines of a fork to create air vents. Return crust to oven, bake for an additional 4 minutes, or until the crust just begins to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

In a large sauté pan melt butter on medium heat. Add mushrooms, stir to coat with the butter. Increase the heat to high, stirring constantly until the moisture the mushrooms has released and evaporated, a few minutes. Lower heat to medium, add minced garlic, stir with the mushrooms for 30 seconds then remove from heat.

Beat together the eggs, sour cream, milk, and cream. Add freshly ground pepper, a pinch of salt, and nutmeg . Stir in the grated cheese and chopped parsley.

Spread the sautéed mushrooms along the bottom of the pre-baked pie crust. Pour the cheese and cream mixture over the top of the mushrooms. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until nicely browned on top and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

For the Pie Dough:

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar (increase to 1 1/2 teaspoons if for a sweet recipe)
2 to 4 Tbsp ice water, very cold

Start by cutting the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes and placing in the freezer for at least 15 minutes (preferably longer) so that they become thoroughly chilled.

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar, pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together.

Remove dough from machine and place on a clean surface. Carefully shape into a discs.Sprinkle the disc with a little flour on all sides. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Remove the crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. Fold in half. Place on to a 9-inch pie plate, lining up the fold with the center of the pan. Gently unfold and press down to line the pie dish with the dough.

Mozarella Cheese Focaccia

Source: The Home Baker Cookbook

This is a re-post of an old recipe I have been using but the last time I wrote about it, in March, I did not get to take a photograph of this delicious bread before my niece got to it. This time, I got a picture, and though the picture isn’t great, it’s still better than nothing.

Link to the previous post

More to come:

-Spinach Dip

-Teriyaki Grilled Chicken

-Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean  Dip

-Spinach and Feta tart

-Mango Sorbet with plum berry compote

-Strawberry Sorbet

…as I said…I overcooked!

I love tilapia. It’s just such a light and flaky fish. Since I’m a vegetarian, it’s also a great source of protein for me. In our house, we make sure to have it at least once a week. However, you can only have so much of Parmesan Tilapia, so I’m always looking for new tilapia recipes. This tilapia recipe was a plus in that 1) it was new and 2) it gave me a chance to hide some zucchini so Francis would eat them before he knew what he was eating.

The potatoes were a great side for this meal since the tilapia is so light. We made them on the grill so that they would cook faster and also partly because Francis loves using the grill

Overall, this turned out to be a pretty successful dinner.

Foil Packet Tilapia with Zucchini and Tomatoes

Source: Sugar and Spice originally from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano leaves
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and ground black pepper
1 medium tomatoes cored, seeded, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium zucchini (about 6 ounces each), sliced
2 tillapia fillets
1/8 cup minced fresh basil leaves

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 F. Combine the oil, garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Measure half of the oil mixture into a separate medium bowl and toss gently with the tomatoes and zucchini.

Cut two 12-inch squares of heavy-duty foil and lay them flat on a work surface. Lay the zucchini in the center of each piece of foil. Season the fillets with salt and pepper and place on top of the zucchini. Top the fish with the tomatoes, then tightly crimp the foil into packets.

Set the packets on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the fish just flakes apart, about 20 minutes. Carefully open the packets, allowing the steam to escape away from you, and let cool briefly. Smooth out the edges of the foil and, using a spatula, gently push the fish, vegetables and any accumulated juices out onto warmed dinner plates. Sprinkle with the basil before serving.

Grilled Foil Packet Potatoes

Ingredients
3Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3-4 large Potatoes, cut in small pieces
spices (red pepper flakes, garlic powder, oregano, basil) 

In a bowl, toss the potatoes in the olive oil and spices. Lay them out in a single layer on large sheet of aluminum foil on one side of the foil. Fold over the other side of the foil and crimp shut. Grill for 20-25 minutes, turning half way through.

Francis’s favorite thing in the world is the combination of strawberry and rhubarb. Knowing this, his mom gave me a bunch of frozen rhubarb a couple weeks ago. Now I’ve never EVER dealt with frozen rhubarb before, so I had no idea that when I’d go to thaw it, it would turn into spaghetti. It took me a little while to figure out that this didn’t mean that it went bad, but by that time, I had already decided to incorporate apples into the strawbery-rhubarb crisp that I was making so that I wouldn’t have to use so much  of the floppy-rhubarb.

I honestly don’t know if Francis enjoyed apples intruding on his favorite combination of flavors, but I really enjoyed this dessert and it was gone in a matter of three days. It was also super easy to make, which was a big plus. I think I may have used a bit too much butter in the topping so it wasn’t as crumbly as I would have liked it to be, but it was still very yummy.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Apple Crisp

Source: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

For the filling:
Ingredients:
two small stalks of rhubarb, chopped
3 apples, chopped
2 pint baskets of strawberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the apples, rhubarb and strawberries with the remaining ingrediens and arrange fruit in an oven-safe dish.

For the topping:

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats or chopped nuts
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Using your fingers or the paddle attachment of a mixer, work the butter with the rest of the ingredients so that each piece is coated and you have a coarse, crumbly mixture.

Cover the fruit in the dish with the topping and bake for approximately 1 hour.

There are days when I just feel like baking a pie or a cake, for absolutely no reason. There are also days when I don’t feel like going grocery shopping. This week, those two types of days came on the same day and I decided to make a pie with what I had in my refrigerator: rhubarb from a crisp I made last week, and peaches that I got super-cheap at the grocery store.

I had always wanted to make a lattice top pie and was always a bit intimidated by them, but decided that since I had a lot of free time while Francis was at softball this week I should give it a shot. The top  didn’t look as neat as I would have liked it to, but it tasted pretty darn good! Especially after it set.

Peach-Rhubarb Pie

Source: Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and Annie’s Eats

For the crust:
Ingredients:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into small chunks
.25 cup ice water, plus more if needed

In a food processor, mix flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add the butter, and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining (10 seconds).

With the machine running, add the ice water through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until the dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Process for up to 30 sec. Mix until not too crumbly.

Turn out the dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, and place each half on plastic wrap. Shape into flattened disks. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

For the filling:

Ingredients
4-5 peaches
2 stalks rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cold, unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tsp water

Transfer one dough round to a 9-inch pie dish. Unfold and ease the round into the pan, without stretching it, and pat it firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Trim the edge of the dough. Set the dough-lined pan, along with the other dough round, in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

In a bowl, cut up the peaches and rhubarb. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the peaches and rhubarb. Toss and immediately transfer to the dough-lined pie plate. Dot with butter.

Using the reserved pie crust, cut long straight pieces and place in a checkered pattern over the top of the pie (to make a lattice top). For clearer instructions for this see this website

Place the pie in the freezer for 20-30 min. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush the pie with the egg/water mixture and bake the pie until the crust is golden, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely to set, 1 to 2 hours.

Now that I’ve blogged about my most successful ice cream attempt, I thought I should blog about my first ice cream attempt. I think I mentioned before that Francis got me the ice cream maker for our anniversary. I was so excited to use it that I don’t think I let the bowl freeze for long enough.

The ice cream flavor tasted great, but the texture wasn’t quite there. Anyways, I figured I should post this anyways because I definitely plan on making it again and freezing the bowl completely.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Source: Annie’s Eats

Ingredients
2 cups fresh strawberries cut in small pieces 
3 tbsp.  lemon juice
1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the strawberries with the lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar; stir and allow the strawberries to soak in the juices for 2 hours.

In another bowl,  whisk the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream, the vanilla and any accumulated juices from the strawberries.

Pour the mixture into the ice cream  maker. Let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Add the sliced strawberries during the last 5 minutes of freezing. Ice cream will be soft at this point. For a firmer ice cream, transfer to an airtight container and store in freezer until it has reached your desired consistency

This is  truly one of Francis and my favorite easy meals.
This family recipe is basically our go-to recipe when we don’t have much time to cook anything. Since I don’t eat meat, I usually drizzle the sauce over rice and it tastes great.

Kung-Fu Chicken

2-3 chicken breasts chopped in cubes
2Tbs soy sauce

Marinate chicken cubes in soy sauce for 1/2 hour

1/2 cup water
1 Tbs corn starch
crushed  red pepper
1/2 tbs sugar
4 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp soy sauce

Mix above ingredients in small bowl.

Fry chicken in some olive oil 3-4 minutes. May add onion or pepper and cook 2-3 more min. Add mixture (with water, corn starch, etc.). Simmer for 5-10 min.

When I was little, my mom would make Sloppy Joes as a special  “American Treat” since most of what we ate while I was growing up was Russian Food. When I married into Francis’s family, I inherited a new sloppy Joe recipe that I now make quite often. It’s so easy to make and is a big hit around here. However, these Joe’s are REALLY sloppy…while serving them, they ended up not only on the plate, but also on the stove, on the counter, on the floor…Francis says it’s because my fault because I did a good job of making them “sloppy” Joes…I think it’s just because the boy can’t serve a dinner without spilling something =)

REALLY Sloppy Joes

Ingredients
1lb - 1.5lb meat
1 small container plain fat free yogurt
2 stalks celery
4 carrots
1 red pepper
1 onion
crushed red pepper
lawry's seasoning
garlic posder
ketchup 

Mix the meat with fat free yogurt. Brown the meat for about 7 min on med-high heat. Drain the grease. Blend celery, arrots, pepper and onion in the food processor. Add the vegetable mix to the meat. Add spices. Finally, add ketchup to desired consistency. Simmer 10-15 min.

Why start updating my blog NOW??? I haven’t done it in MONTHS! Well, honestly, I needed a darn good reason to do it… THIS was it.

For our two year anniversary last week, Francis bought me something that I’ve been wanting for YEARS: an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid.

Those that know me KNOW of my little addiction to ice cream…can’t live without it. Since Wednesday, I’ve made TWO types of ice cream. The first was a strawberry ice cream that tasted great but the texture wasn’t quite there. I think that may have been because I didn’t freeze the bowl long enough. But try two? The chocolate chip ice cream? PERFECT! It was everything I had imagined it to be and more! Tasted great, texture was awesome… L-O-V-E-D it! I just wish that Francis had gotten this thing for me sooner!

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

chocolate chip ice cream

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream (didn't have enough, substituted 1/2 pint heavy whipping cream, 1/2
whole milk)
1 pint half and half
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
approximately 1 cup chocolate chips 

In a large mixing bowl (or in bowl of KA) mix 2 eggs. Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
and whisk together until thoroughly mixed. Then add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and
again mix thoroughly. Don’t pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup, let it stay loose. Add 1
pint of heavy whipping cream (or 1/2 whipping cream, 1/2 whole milk), 1 pint of half and half,
1/4 tsp salt and 2 1/2 tablespoons of real vanilla extract. Let the mix chill in the refrigerator
for 4 hours. Prepare in the ice cream maker according to instructions. Add chocolate chips in the
last 2 minutes of preparation. Freeze for 2-3 hours before serving. 

Source: . Adapted from Doc Wilson's
Old time Vanilla 

Eating green things in our home is a battle. Usually, I have to hide vegetables in other foods or disguise them so that Francis won’t see that they’re vegetables. I, on the other hand, being a vegetarian, love my fruits and vegetables and can eat them every day.

This recipe combined my love of vegetables and Francis’s love of cheese, so a win-win situation. Though I did endure a battle wound while making them (a splash of oil from the skillet managed to leave a really nice blister on my finger for a few days), I think it was worth it. The picture of them  isn’t the best, but hey, at least you can see somewhat the pretty flowers Francis got me for finishing my first year of medical school?

Zucchini Parmesan

zucchini Parmesan

Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Red pepper flakes, basil, oregano, garlic powder
vegetable oil 

Cut the zucchini into thin round slices. In one bowl,  combine the egg and the milk. In another
bowl,combine flour, salt and pepper. In a third bowl, combine bread crumbs, spices and Parmesan.
Dip the zucchini slices into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumb/Parmesan mixture. Fry in
the oil until lightly brown on both sides. 

These cookies were the last thing baked at Francis and my old apartment before we moved into our townhome. It was also the last thing I baked for my classmates this year (for my Human Growth and Development small group) before we left for six weeks of summer break. I was mainly looking for a recipe to use up the strawberry and raspberry jam that I had left in my nearly-empty refrigerator and stumbled upon this delicious recipe. The fact that they are hearts is mostly an accident. You see, the only cookie cutters that I have are hearts and Hannukah cookie cutters. I didn’t have plain circle cutters and I figured that Hannukah ones would just be a little TOO out there…so heart ones were my only other option. Anyway, that’s why I ended up changing the name of these cookies…because in the end, they looked like little bleeding hearts.

Bleeding Heart Cookies

Bleeding Heart Cookies

bleeding heart cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon hot water

1. Cream butter. Add sugar, combining well. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder gradually.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into whatever shape you like, and place on un-greased baking sheets.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes, or until very lightly browned at edges. Cool thoroughly.
4. Spread half of the cookies with jam, and top with remaining cookies.
5. Combine confectioners’ sugar, and enough hot water to make a thin icing. Frost tops of cookies

Adapted from Amber’s Delectable Delights