It Ain’t Easy Being Cheesy

Posted on May 18, 2012 by AmandaD

RECIPE: Cheesy Rice

The Wednesday before speech and debate tournaments we have family dinners.  The team gets together in the foods room and the parent boosters make awesome dinners.  We have a guest speaker to get us pumped up for the weekend.  A few months ago, one particularly amazing parent (whose daughter I have in one my Junior English classes and is one of my favorite people ever because a) she doesn’t realize how hilarious she is and b) she reminds me of myself in high school)) made the most delicious rice I’ve ever had in my life.  I meant to get the recipe, but forgot until her daughter, who is my friend Matt’s TA, was helping me with a few things in the English office this past Wednesday and she mentioned cheesy rice.  I told her that I was emailing her mom at that moment and that would be my recipe this week.

I learned a few things while making cheesy rice.  First lesson: never use three cubes of bullion.  Ever.  Knorr bullion is really flavorful, and I like that about it, but three cubes in two cups of water is insanely salty.  I ended up added more water, which helped to mellow out the flavor.

Another lesson: brown rice takes eleventy billion years to cook.  Yeah, I like hyperbole.  I don’t usually keep white rice in the house, as I prefer brown.  Somehow my rice took nearly an hour to cook, when the recipe said it should take 15 minutes.  I know brown rice takes longer in general, but jeez.  Maybe I have faulty rice.

I made this recipe on the night when the WandaS team was video chatting to discuss some things. I was desperately trying to get it finished and photographed before our chat.  I then apologized because I ate my dinner while we chatted.   Of course they agreed that we should never have to apologize for eating, as we write a food blog.  I think that’s like how being in love means never having to say you’re sorry.  That makes sense, right?

Rating: Cheesy rice gets a 5 out of 5 cold glasses of beer.  This recipe isn’t healthy.  I mean, it could be healthier if you use fat free sour cream and low fat cheese, but I’m morally opposed to low fat cheese.  I do think that you can probably use less sour cream, maybe between 8-12 ounces.  I’d have to play around with it as to make sure it doesn’t leave the rice too dry.

Cheesy Rice
Print
Author: Manda
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2-4 c of chicken or veggie broth (or water + 2 cubes of chicken bullion)
  • 1 c long-grained rice
  • 16 oz sour cream, room temperature
  • 2 1/2 c (10 oz) shredded Mexican blend cheese
  • 4 oz can chopped green chilies, not drained
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a medium saucepan, combine rice and broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer until the rice is tender, 15-20 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, minus a 1/2 c of cheese.
  4. Put this in a 8×8 baking dish and cook for 20-25 minutes.
  5. For the final three minutes, add the remaining cheese to the top and put the oven on broil.
  6. Let stand for 5 minutes serving.
2.2.6

Share
Posted in 5 Wine Glasses, Side Dish | 1 Comment

Dinner, For When You’re on the Verge of Self-Commitment

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Elizabeth
RECIPE: Sausage and Peppers Throw Together Stew

Do you ever have days where you’re exhausted, stressed, feeling a tiny bit OCD and just really don’t want to touch raw meat? Those days where you can handle getting dinner on the table (days where a shrieky, “BRING HOME TAKE-OUT” phone call to a spouse is required are up another level), but the idea of rinsing and chopping raw, drippy, disgusting chicken is probably going to put you over the edge and you’re going to end up drinking the whole bottle of wine instead of just the glass you like to have while cooking?

I had one of those Monday. It was just enough running around and client phone calls and drama that I wanted an easy throw-together dinner. But it also needed to be one the kids wouldn’t stare at with thinly veiled disgust and one that wouldn’t ultimately make me feel like a bad mother who was poisoning my children with preservatives and nothing but processed crap. Because either of these things would have put me right over the edge, too. My sanity is precarious; I’m just saying.

Luckily (mostly for my husband and children, but probably also for the neighbors within earshot) I figured out the perfect solution: Sausage and Peppers Stew. I know the sausage is probably filled to the brim with processing and preservatives, but eff it, it’s protein I don’t have to wash my hands 8 times after touching. And combined with a buncha veggies and then a little bit of cheese and sour cream to keep everyone happy and HOLY COW: everyone was actually happy.

I think the key to getting my kids to eat the stuff I make is to regularly force weird-ass stuff on them. Then when I put together like 8 ingredients they can easily identify it’s like I told them they can have ice cream sandwiches for dinner.

(Or possibly they’ve just each developed a super keen sixth sense about when mommy’s on the brink of a nervous breakdown and they should support and praise her. But if that was the case it really would not explain the ‘Jonas peed on my toothbrush’ incident on Mother’s Day.)

Did I mention I got a new pot for Mother's Day? I love it so much I might run away with it to a deserted island. It's that sexy.

Sausage and Peppers Stew
Print
Recipe type: Dinner
Author: Elizabeth
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 U-shaped beef polish kielbasa
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes with garlic (or substitute same amount of mild salsa, if you like it spicy)
  • 2 cups of cooked white rice
  • Sour cream
  • Shredded cheddar
  • Olive oil
  • Sriracha
Directions
  1. Cut the sausage into 1/2 inch half moons. Large chop the peppers and zucchini. Slice the onion.
  2. Saute the sausage on medium high in a large pan with 1 teaspoon olive oil just until it starts to brown a little bit.
  3. Toss in the veggies and saute 5 minutes more, until the some of the veggies have brown edges.
  4. Add the canned tomatoes and simmer, covered, another 5 minutes.
  5. Serve mixture over rice, topped with shredded cheddar, sour cream and Sriracha.

 

Share
Posted in 4 Wine Glasses, Dinner | 4 Comments

Asparagus, anyone?

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jen
jen's splash

RECIPE: Asparagus pesto.

What? You haven’t heard enough about Mother’s Day yet? Excellent. My mother’s the woman who likes activities planned. And if there’s sun around? Even better. Just stick her in it and she’s thrilled.

A trip to the Oregon Garden was born. And I packed a picnic to go with us; it included some scones and that tangy orzo salad (this time using red peppers to replace tomatoes).

Apparently that went over well. And Ken contributed a new fave: asparagus pesto.

Ken planted garden asparagus several years ago. And whoa, can these puppies produce. I swear they grow several inches a day. You just walk out to the asparagus bed and cut a handful. Tomorrow? More.

The pesto is a spread/sauce built like your traditional basil pesto. Cheese. Nuts (pine nuts or walnuts). Garlic. Olive oil. Lemon. Salt and pepper. Ken makes basil pesto in mass quantities later in the summer, so this idea was a no brainer.

We’ve since read up on several recipe options. In this one, the asparagus was cooked first. But I wonder about using raw asparagus. Or just blanching, perhaps. People even toast the nuts and roast the garlic, too. Or add in other greens to the mix, like spinach.

Regardless, it was perfect for the picnic—we put it atop pieces of sourdough/roasted garlic bread. And later? I used it as a dinner sauce with some garden bok choy. Lovely.

RECIPE RATING: 4 of 5 glasses of chilled white wine. I’d like to try some of the adaptations and see how that impacts flavor. Enjoy!

Asparagus pesto
Print
Author: Jen, but really Ken
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 8 mins
Total time: 23 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch segments
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Directions
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the asparagus and cook until fully tender but not mushy, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain. (Now I’ve seen recipes where you don’t cook it. And I wonder about just blanching. Or steaming. Try!)
  2. Prep your nuts and cheese (chop and grate)
  3. Transfer the asparagus to a food processor and add the garlic, nuts, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, Parmesan and a pinch of salt. Process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary, and gradually add the remaining oil. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Serve as a lovely dip, or a sauce over pasta or greens.
2.2.6

 

Share
Posted in 4 Wine Glasses, Appetizer, Dinner, Vegetarian | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Salmon and Roasted Vegetables

Posted on May 15, 2012 by JT

Recipe: Pistachio-crusted Salmon and Parmesan Roasted Vegetables

I was looking for something quick, tasty, and light for this week’s post. I saw this article in the Arizona Republic and thought I’d give it a try.

Roasted Parmesan squash sounded good, but why stop with just squash? Why not use any vegetables you feel like? Why not, indeed. I used summer squash and mushrooms, and I should have kept going. These vegetables turned out so good I was going to do a whole post on them separately. This is officially my new favorite way to prepare vegetables. And the cool thing is that it’s like a free side-dish with the entree’.

You just put the veggies in the oven ten minutes ahead of the salmon, then pull them out when the salmon is done. Voila! A whole meal! Cut whatever you’re going to roast into chunks, dress with some olive oil, salt, and a liberal dusting of pepper. Stir in some Parmesan cheese and turn out onto a cookie sheet. Roast for 10 minutes, stir them around a bit, roast for 10 more minutes, then enjoy vegetable heaven.

Seriously, if I’d doubled the amount of vegetables, we could probably have skipped the salmon altogether. But then we would have missed a real treat there too. That is why the AZ Republic article was such a jackpot. Two absolute winners in the same little article.

The only tedious part of the prep, and it really wasn’t that bad, was shelling 3/4 cup worth of pistachios and then chopping them up. You might be able to tell from the picture above that I ran out of patience with the chopping part, as the chunks get noticeably larger going from top-right to bottom-left. After the fact, it occurred to me that I should have made a pass over this with a rolling pin to get the chunks broken up a little more.

The pistachio crust adds crunch that really complements the smooth, rich salmon.

Here it is, both dishes straight out of the oven. You can’t tell how good this is by looking at that picture. My suggestion is to go right now to the grocery store and buy the ingredients, then spend the 15 minutes required to do the prep and make the meal.

Go ahead, right now.

There, see? I was right, wasn’t I? Delicious. You. Are. Welcome.

Rating: 10 out of 5 pints of lager. The vegetables? 5. The salmon? 5. The math is pretty easy, 5+5 = 10.

Share
Posted in 5 Wine Glasses, Dinner, Seafood, Side Dish | 3 Comments

Blintzes a la my momma

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Amanda N

RECIPE: Blintzes

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. It’s..  well, it’s kind of a tough day for me. I lost my mom a few years ago and now every Mother’s Day makes me sad. It just does. There’s not really any getting around it, you know? Wanna see my mom? Here’s one of my favorites. This is my mom and my brother when the three of us snuck out for lunch together in the middle of the week.

I attribute my love of cooking to my mom, but when I was younger I was miserable to her when it came to helping in the kitchen. I grumbled my way through dishes, because it was my ‘job’, and I never once offered to help cooking. Today’s post is a story about the last meal my mom ever cooked for me. Stick with it until the end…

I may not have helped my mom in the kitchen, but I watched her. And now that I’m older and cooking for my own family (of two), I really appreciate her skill in the kitchen. She could come home with zero idea of what to cook, look through the cabinet, and whip up something delicious.

One of her favorite meals to make was blintzes. It’s basically a crepe with a ricotta cheese filling. She’d make these in huge batches and freeze them individually in plastic wrap so she could grab what she needed on nights when swim practice/girl scouts/boy scouts/baseball/speech & debate/etc.. overtook our lives. She’d defrost some, fry them up in some butter, and serve them with applesauce and peas. That was always the combo.

I have a story here, but I wanted to point out that in the picture above, it could be my mom making those. My hands are really the only thing that look like they came from my mom. We both have piano-players’ hands.

Two weeks after my mom passed away, my dad decided to take a trip, and us kids (Kevin, my husband Ryan, and I) decided to help him out by going through her things and donating what he wouldn’t need. We got his permission, of course, and I can imagine it was good for him that he didn’t have to do it. For us… it turned into a hilarious couple of evenings. My mom had some antique pieces (like fur coats and hats), some funny warm clothes, interesting things from travels… and sometimes I’d put them all on at once for the boys to have a laugh over. (we were also drinking her favorite beer) These few nights were therapeutic for us, and I’m so glad we did it.

On the first night going through things, it got to be late and I realized the boys needed to eat. I went out to the freezer in the garage… and found my mom’s last batch of blintzes. Right next to a bag of peas. So I defrosted them, cooked them in butter, and fed them to the boys. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

You don’t need an electric crepe maker to do these, but the thing is magical and not very expensive. If you decide to just make crepes in a frying pan, I’d suggest checking online for how to do that. The filling would be good no matter how you make the crepe. This recipe is another one from the cookbook my mom made when she got sick to give to all her friends.

Blintzes
Print
Recipe type: Dinner/Breakfast/Whenever
Author: Amanda N’s Mom
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 2
My mom’s blintz recipe. It’s crepes w/ a ricotta filling.
Ingredients
  • 1 C. flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 C. milk
  • 1/2 C. water
  • 2 Tb. melted butter
  • 1- 8oz container of ricotta
  • 1 beaten raw egg
  • Sugar (to taste)
  • Butter
Directions
  1. Blend flour, eggs, milk, water and melted butter in an electric blender, 30 seconds. Stop, stir, blend 30-60 more seconds. Pour into pie pan. Follow manufacturer’s directions to make crepes.
  2. Mix ricotta, egg and sugar.
  3. Place crepe brown side up on a plate. Put about 2 heaping Tb. filling in center. Fold each set of opposing sides over to the middle.
  4. Heat butter in a frying pan. Brown the blintzes on both sides in the butter.
  5. Serve with applesauce over the top. Also good with canned cherries.
Notes

This is a small batch. I’d double or quadruple if you want to freeze leftovers. To freeze, don’t brown the blintzes before wrapping them in plastic wrap. Defrost and then brown in butter when ready to eat.

 

Share
Posted in 5 Wine Glasses, Breakfast, Dinner, Vegetarian | 2 Comments