Spiced Eggs

What in the heck to do with the dozens of hard boiled eggs stinking up your refrigerator? You've come to the right place. Here is another family favorite. If you ever go to my Dad and Pam's house you can be assured to find a large jar of these eggs. Great protein snack or breakfast. You have probably seen a jar of these babies behind a bar or in a deli. They are colorful, flavorful and always remind me of home.

Spiced Eggs
Ingredients

• 1 dozen hard boiled eggs
• 1 large jar of yellow Mexican hot peppers
• Apple cider vinegar
• Water
• 1 t. Tumeric
• 1 t. Mustard Seed
• 1 t. Celery Seed

Instructions

• Use a large glass jar with tight-fitting lid (I used Tupperware, so it will work if you don't have it)
• Peel hard boiled eggs
• Place eggs in jar
• Pour hot peppers and pepper juice into jar
• Fill the empty pepper jar with vinegar and then pour into large jar
• Fill the empty pepper jar with water and pour into large jar
• Sprinkle 1t celery seed, turmeric and mustard seed into large jar
• Stir, close jar and refrigerate.
• These last FOREVER. To serve, slice and salt and pepper. YUM.

Soy Chicken, Fried Rice and Asian Green Beans

Last weekend my cousin Kim and her daughter Tea came for a visit. I was flattered when she asked to brainstorm a menu for an upcoming girls gathering she is hosting. We chatted about what was most important ...ease of preparation and tastiness! Works for me. After tossing a bunch of ideas around we settled on an old family favorite ...thanks Pam!

As always, good food is important, great company critical and the ambiance sets the stage. Here are some fun ideas to help with the latter...

• Add an orchid to your table arrangement
• Place an orchid on top of each folded napkin
• Offer Asian beer with fun, small glasses
• Use those tea pots you've been storing - serve green tea with dinner or dessert
• Consider using square plates
• Place soy sauce serving containers on table
• Use a ramicon (small custard dish) to help you shape rice - gives plates unique dimension. Place a long piece of lemon grass atop the rice to add drama
• Dessert Ideas: Buy fortune cookies and create your own fun fortunes (stuff using tweezers). Or buy specialty chocolate covered fortune cookies. Serve mango or ginger sorbet - top with crystallized ginger and using your lemon zester to create long curly strips. Love dimension, drama and subtle surprises!

Soy Chicken

Ingredients - serves 4

• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T sherry
• 1/2 t grated ginger
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 egg
• Sesame seeds
• 1/4 C flour
• 2 T butter
• 1 T vegetable oil

Directions:

• Mix soy sauce, sugar, sherry and ginger.
• Place chicken and mixture in a ziplock bag, marinate for 1-2 hours in refrigerator
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees
• Place empty Pyrex dish in oven while in preheats
• In shallow bow beat egg with 2 T of marinade
• Mix flour and sesame seeds
• Dip chicken in egg mixture then flour mixture
• Remove Pyrex dish from oven and add butter and oil to pan
• place chicken in the dish and bake uncovered 7-10 min/side

Easy Chinese Rice
Ingredients - serves 4

• 1 C sticky rice
• 2 C water
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 eggs
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1/4 C dry roasted peanuts (optional)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Boil water, add rice - cook as directed (25 min)
• While rice is cooking, cook bacon until crisp, then dice
• In another pan scramble the eggs and cook
• In large pan combine cooked rice, scrambled egg, diced bacon, chopped green onion, soy sauce and peanuts. Mix and heat through.

Asian Sesame Roasted Green Beans - Sunset Magazine

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds green beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon Asian (toasted) sesame oil
• Soy sauce

Directions:

• Rinse and drain beans; trim and discard stem ends.
• In each of two 12- by 17-inch baking pans, mix half the beans with half the olive oil; spread level.
• Bake at 450º until beans are slightly browned and tender - 15 to 25 minutes
• switch pan positions halfway through baking.
• Stir half the sesame seeds and half the sesame oil into beans in each pan; continue baking until seeds are golden, about 5 minutes longer.
• Pour into a bowl, add soy sauce to taste, and mix well.

Stuffed Mushrooms with Sausage and Herbs

Tasty Little Morsels
Man, are you as bored with your appetizer spread as I am? I mean seriously, how many olives and cheese platters can you put out? Or how about chips, salsa and guac? All good stuff, but every weekend? Last night we celebrated a good buddy's birthday and we expanded our horizons a bit. Remember stuffed mushrooms - double yum. These smell unreal and taste even better - Seriously.

Ingredients:

• 12 large mushrooms
• 3-4 T Parmesan
• 1/2 # ground Italian Sausage (I used spicy)
• 3 oz fresh wild mushrooms such as shitake or oyster mushrooms
• 12-14 sprigs fresh tarragon
• 10-12 fresh sprigs chervil
• 7-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3/4 C chopped walnuts
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 C olive oil (you can use much less if you prefer)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 6 T heavy cream (you can use fat free half and half if you prefer)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Pull stems from the large mushrooms, leaving the caps whole for stuffing. Wipe the caps with a damp paper towel. Set aside in your baking dish.
• Wipe the wild mushrooms with a damp cloth and trim the stems.
• Finely chop the wild mushrooms
• Set aside 4 sprigs of each herb for garnish. Chop the remaining herbs and combine with Parmesan cheese.
• Coarsely chop the walnuts
• Cook ground sausage in frying pan until done - 5 min
• In another frying pan heat 3-4 T olive oil
• Add the chopped mushrooms, garlic and lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• Cook until all the liquid has evaporated - 3-5 min.
• Stir in the cream and cook until slightly thickened - 1-2 min
• Add the cooked sausage, chopped walnuts, herbs and Parmesan
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees
• Lightly oil your baking dish
• Spoon 1-2 T of mixture into each mushroom cap, mounding it well.
• Set the stuffed mushroom in your prepared baking dish
• Sprinkle about 1t of parmesean over the stuffed mushrooms
• Lightly drizzle olive oil over the stuffed mushrooms
• Place in the over for 15-20 min - until mushrooms are tender when pierced and the filling is very HOT
• Garnish serving dish with remaining sprigs

Roasted Vegetables: Side Dish and then Soup

Man, I had such a lazy weekend and indulged in one of my guilty pleasures, watching the Food Network. Even though it's looking like we are going to get weather in the 70's this week, this recipe for roasted vegetables is fantastic. In fact the Barefoot Contessa first served the roasted vegetables as a side dish to roasted chicken and then made a soup from the leftovers - you know I love that - Two for one!

The kicker in serving the roasted vegetables is the display and finishing touches. For ingredients and directions, please visit the below link.

Roasted Vegetable Display:

• Display each roasted vegetable on a large platter.
• Keep like veggies together, don't mix.
• For garnish, place a large bunch of flat leaf parsley on the edge.
• Top carrots with a pinch of coarse pepper and kosher salt.
• Top sweet potatoes and butternut squash with a pinch of salt and pepper and finely chopped parsley.
• Top parsnips with a splash of real maple syrup.

Barefoot Contessa Roasted Vegetable Soup:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-vegetable-soup-recipe/index.html

Taco Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...

Growing up in Southern California, I took making Mexican food for granted. Now married to a 'New Englander' I realize not everyone ate fajitas, enchiladas, tostadas, tacos and tamales on a weekly basis. In fact, from what I hear, there were not even any Mexican restaurants in CT - the horror. Well, now living in Colorado for the last 16+ years, I realize this isn't just an east coast challenge - it's much more widespread. In fact, I was asked recently by a friend who shall remain nameless, how to make Tacos. I was aghast, but then realized, she wasn't alone. So for you foodies, this post won't do it for you. For the rest of you, please don't deprive your families, for the love of God serve Mexican food.

Below you will find instructions and ingredients to make: Soft and hard shell tacos with toppings, quesadillas, recommended side dishes and guacamole.

Tacos
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 # Ground beef (or one package)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic, pressed
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 tChipotle Tabasco
• 1 T Green taco sauce
• Corn and/or flour tortillas (your preference)
• Vegetable oil (if you like your shells crispy)

Toppings:

• Chopped Tomatoes
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Chopped cilantro
• Shredded lettuce
• Sour cream
• Various hot sauces

Directions:
Making Taco Meat:

• Pour 1T vegetable oil in skillet over medium heat.
• Add chopped onion and pressed garlic. Cook for a minute.
• Add ground beef. Cook until brown (about 5-7 min ish)
• Season to your taste by adding salt, pepper, Tabasco/Chalulah and green taco sauce.

Frying Hard Shells:

• Heat 1 C vegetable oil in skillet over medium/high heat - it's gotta be HOTUse tongs to place flour or corn tortillas into the oil.
• For tostadas leave the tortilla flat and crisp each side. For tacos place the tortilla in the oil for 15 seconds then using the tongs fold into a shell and brown on each sideOnce the shell is to your liking place upside down on a paper towel. This will allow the excess oil to drip off and the shell to crisp up.
• If you like the tortillas soft, simply place a mixture of tortillas in foil, place in 300 degree oven for 15 min.

Make it to your liking:
Using various bowls display your toppings. The kids may only like cheese, others may like their tacos over loaded.
What else to serve:

Can't go wrong with serving a side of Mexican rice, apple sauce and refried black beans. Sweet, salty and spicy - all my favorites. It should go without saying that chips, salsa and guacamole should be served well ahead of time. And the kids love Quesadillas. Now, I again ASSumed everyone knows how to make these, but when I learned some folks were just 'nuk'n' them to a rubbery, chewy disaster, I knew I needed to set the record straight.

Cheese Quesadillas (No you cannot microwave these)
Ingredients:

• Shredded cheddar cheese (Shredding it yourself will result in better flavor)
• Flour Tortillas
• Butter

Directions:

• Heat 1 T butter in skillet over medium heat
• Butter one-side of the flour tortilla and place in skillet
• Cover tortilla with shredded cheddar cheese
• Butter another tortilla and place on top
• Flip the quesadilla when bottom tortilla is brown and do the same for the other side
• When both tortillas are brown and the cheese is melted, place on cutting board
• Slice into triangles and serve

Guacamole
Ingredients:
Four large, ripe avocados (not hard and not too soft)

• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic
• Cholulah (or whatever hot sauce you like)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bag tortilla chips

Directions:

• Remove skin and seed from avocados and place in mixing bowl
• Using a fork press the avocado into a chunky paste (if you like your guac smooth, press away
• Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon
• Add remaining ingredients (minus the chips!)
• Mix and season to taste - dice a jalepeno for extra spice
• Serve with chips and top the guac with cilantro, shredded cheese and tomato for garnish.

Adios mi amigos!

The New Freezer Pantry

Our resident pastry chef, Rob Palmer sent a link to a recent blog post from Michael Ruhlman - Notes from the Food World. This post briefly discusses the concept of the 'new pantry', a reflection on how our staple items might be changing or should be, because of our focus on cooking great food sensibly and efficiently. No more bullion cubes, canned stocks and a great idea on how you can actually make the most of a can of tomato paste after you open it. Short, sweet and helpful. Hope you enjoy as much as I did. Thanks for sharing Rob.

Get more tips: http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/01/the-freezer-pan.html

Chicken Piccata

Tender, Tangy and Tasty
So my mom is the first to admit that in the early days she was a woman with limited culinary talents. However, there were a few things she always rocked in the kitchen and still does. Her scrambled eggs are still the best on the planet. Chocolate chip cookies are to DIE for. Fried chicken is a gut bomb, but perfectly crunchy, salty and delicious. And her Chicken Piccata is melt in your mouth, holy cow, FABULOUS.

Perfect Piccata (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or two whole chicken breasts)
• 1 extra large egg
• 1 T water
• 1 C flour
• Kosher salt and coarse pepper
• 3 T unsalted butter (divided)
• 1 T good olive oil
• 1/2 C white wine
• 1/2 C chicken stock
• 1/3 C fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 2 Lemons sliced (for serving)
• 1/2 C Italian parsley, chopped (for serving)

Directions:

• Place each boneless, skinless chicken breast between two pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap
• Using a kitchen mallet, pound chicken until thin
• Beat egg and water in small bowl
• Mix flour, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl or plate
• In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat
• Place egg/floured chicken breasts in pan
• Cook 5 min. per side (or until cooked through and brown)
• Remove chicken from the pan and place on a side plate (until you finish making the sauce)
• Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter
• Add the lemon juice, wine, chicken stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
• Boil over high heat until reduced, about 2 minutes.
• Turn off the burner and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter - stir.
• Return the chicken breasts to the pan
• Place sliced lemon round and chopped parsley on top of the chicken
• Simmer for 3 min and serve!

Herbed new potatoes and steamed asparagus are always a lovely accompaniment to this family favorite. Enjoy!