Fuzzy Fish and Almond Green Beans

Guess which dish was a hit and which wasn't?

If you guessed the green beans with almonds was a hit, you'd be right.

My youngest daughter, the fish lover, called my fish "fuzzy".

Fuzzy!?!

She elaborated that I added too much lemon zest so that it looked like the fish was growing grass.

That's funny as I zested the fish with orange, not lemon. She challenged me to taste it which I already had. I added the orange so I know darn well it wasn't lemon.

I thought the fish was okay, if not fabulous, and should have been marinated longer.

The green beans were very tasty so I'll provide the recipe.

 

GREEN BEANS WITH ALMONDS & GARLIC

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 



16 ounces French style green beans
2 tblsp butter or margarine
garlic salt
2-3 tblsp almond slivers

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter in a small sauce pan.

Add green beans and almonds. Then very generously sprinkle garlic salt on top of the green bean and almond mixture. Mix well.

Cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Then simmer on low heat for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve warm.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

We have an ice-stealing ghost.

Unfortunately, our new (to us) house did not come with a fancy schmancy refrigerator that has an ice maker. No, but it did come with 4 old-fashioned ice trays. Since our the money tree outside also died (or maybe was dug up and taken by the new owner) we have to make due with the current refrigerator. Yes, that's the same one whose door fell off a couple weeks ago.

This ghost loves to steal ice but never makes new ice. He's a very naughty, inconsiderate ghost.

See? Here's the proof. Another empty ice tray left sitting around. Often, I find the empty tray inside the freezer. What's up with that? Someone's L-A-Z-Y.

 

 

Um, it occurs to me that it's hard to tell from the picture that the tray is empty. Trust me, there's no ice in this baby. My normally low blood pressure was boiling. You see, I like lots of ice in my soda.

 

 

Let's forget the ice. It's not really a biggie in the scheme of things.

I LOVE ham and cheese. I mean I really really LOVE them.

My picky eater loves chicken.

So any dish with a combination of ham, cheese, and chicken has got to be a winner in my house.

And miracle of miracles! My picky eater is showing an interest in cooking. Her hands are pictured in the photos below. She really got into pounding the poor, dead chicken. I couldn't help but think that my vegetarian friend would be appalled if she saw us taking out our aggression with the mallet.

Since I haven't told my vegetarian friend about this blog, I'll admit it was cathartic to pound the chicken.

 

 

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU

 

 

 





INGREDIENTS:

1 chicken breast per person
about 1 pound ham, sliced
about 1 pound shredded Italian mix cheeses
bread crumbs
2 egg whites
tooth picks
non-stick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

Spray a large baking dish or pan with non-stick cooking spray

 

 

 

 



You want to tenderize (pound) the chicken until it's flat and can be rolled around the filling.

 

Dip your flattened chicken into the egg white. Then dip into your bread crumbs.

 

 

When the chicken is thoroughly covered with your bread crumbs, move it to your baking dish.

 

 

 

 



Next, break up the ham into small pieces and cover the chicken.

 

Now, sprinkle the cheese over the ham.

 

Roll the chicken up and "pin" it together with a toothpick.

Bake in heated oven until chicken is done, about 40 minutes.

Serve with a vegetable or starch.

Enjoy!
 

Grandma's Cherry Pie

When I was a little girl, my favorite grandma and I picked cherries from her tree in the back yard. Then she would make the tastiest cherry pie in the world.

Those are precious memories. I don't know what was better - picking the cherries with Grandma, smelling the delicious pie baking, or eating that scrumptious pie.

She obviously canned a lot of cherries as my father said her basement was full of canned cherries when she died.

To this day, I don't see a cherry pie without thinking of Grandma.

Grandma was special for many reasons. She played Yahtzee and other games with me. She taught me to play Canasta and Sambo. She walked uptown with me to buy cookies with icing in the middle, to get Cincinnati chili, and to buy my winter coat and school shoes. We fed her beloved red birds and blue jays from her kitchen window then watched them fly around her backyard around the cherry tree while we ate at her strategically placed kitchen table; by the window, of course.

And of course, Grandma made her own pie crust to go with her home grown cherries.

Writing this, I can practically smell her pie baking and feel her hugging me.

I wish I had a cherry tree so that I could pick cherries with my grand kids.

GRANDMA'S CHERRY PIE

INGREDIENTS:

FILLING:
4-5 cups fresh cherries
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

PIE CRUST:
2 cups white flour, sifted
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup milk


DIRECTIONS:

Boil cherries in medium to large sauce pan with sugar, salt, and water. Reduce heat and simmer. Stir often until a syrup forms.

Set aside to cool.

Mix the flour and salt. Pour oil and milk into the flour mixture and stir until well mixed.

Roll 1/2 of the dough betwen two pieces of waxed paper until about 1/8" thick and large enough to fit the pie plate.

Spray the pie plate with non-stick cooking spray.

Transfer to pie plate.

Pour the cooled filling onto the pastry.

Next roll the remaining dough to 1/8" thickness and cover the top of the pie. Remove the excess dough. Flute the edges.

To release steam, make slits in the top of the crust.

Bake in 350 degree F preheated oven.





 

Julie & Julia

I'm watching JULIE & JULIA, not only one of my favorite movies, but one of my major blogging inspirations.

I want to be a blogger like Julie as much as I want to be an amazing cook like Julia.

I need an amazing project like Julie's. But what? I. Do. Not. Know.

Yet.

Is there another project as worthy as Julie's, learning how to cook from the master?

I can't conceive of deboning a duck or killing a lobster. I can't conceive of putting a poor, defenseless worm on a hook or catching a poor, defenseless fish. I'm 1000% positive my picky eaters would turn up their noses at an aspic. I wonder if I'd go broke and gain another 100 pounds if I choose a French cooking challenge.

Thus I am on the hunt for a specific project.

Unlike Julie I can see that a few people read the blog from my stats even though I've yet to receive any comments. Did blogger not show stats in 2002? I wonder where to find out who the most popular bloggers are on Blogspot.




 

Kitchen Ambush - Shrimp Scampi and Black Beans and Rice

I admit it. I'm an addict. A Food Network addict. (Also a Pinterest addict.) I guess I have an addictive personality.

I'm watching a new-to-me show, KITCHEN AMBUSH.

What a fun show. Fun, except I'd be mortified if somoene told me my kitchen was filthy, which is what one of the host chefs just told somebody. I keep my kitchen clean so I don't think that would happen to me. Unless he would count the fast food bags my hubby insists on overfilling the fridge with. He's on my sh-- list, ya know.

Anyway, what could the ambush chefs make if they ambushed my kitchen?

My pantry is really full. Some dinners are planned (not as much this week as I'd like because hubby overstuffed us with his snacks and leftovers) and most aren't.

There are a LOT of black beans. I bought a six pack at BJ's before two of my picky eaters told me they HATE black beans. I LOVE them - they don't know what they're missing. I'll have to make two versions of dinner again, one of my pet peeves.

I also have one large jar of Prego Italian sauce, minute rice, egg noodles, canned spinach, canned mushrooms, canned soups, french onion soup mix, mashed potato mix, bread, bread crumbs, flour, sugar, brown sugar, syrup, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, velveeta shells and cheese, Bisquick, nutella, baking powder, baking soda, zucchini, sweet potatoes, one onion, red/orange/yellow peppers, green onions, blue berries, shrimp, chicken legs, ground beef, tilapia, lobster/shrimp dip, Ritz crackers, sweet pepper jelly, pudding, brownie mix, cake mix, lemon juice, fresh garlic, barbecue sauce, ketchup, cottage cheese, yellow rice, chicken boullion, eggs, turkey bacon, and tortillas. I may have forgotten a couple things.

Oh! Another stipulation is that you have to make the meal in 30 minutes or less. That's my kind of cooking. But it's not always that easy.

Of course, there's my go-to easiest meal ever - Spaghetti with meat sauce. Duh! What a no brainer.

Then there's shrimp fried rice. Wait! I don't know if my 18 year old human eating MACHINE, devoured the ham tat is so necessary to this dish. Probably.

Crepes with nutella. That would be desert but not the main dish.

There's always another easy stand by - scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Or French toast.

If I had cheddar or Monterray Jack cheese, which I usually do, I'd make chicken quesadillas. I used all the cheese on homemade macaroni and cheese last night. I think I can squeeze some ham and cheese into my packed fridge as they're staples in my kitchen.

I have lots of American cheese so I could make grilled cheese.

I need to come up with fancier meals than grilled cheese, however, to fit the spirit of the show.

Maybe black beans and rice for half of us and grilled cheese for the picky eaters.

No! I've got it! Shrimp Scampi with black beans and rice on the side.

So, here are my newly made shrimp scampi and black beans recipes.

The shrimp scampi was so simple, yet so delicious. And I'm throwing in a bonus. We stopped at BJ's inbetween my writing the first part of this post and cooking shrimp scampi. We sampled baguette bread dipped in an olive oil mixture that was simply to die for. Knowing it would be the perfect accompaniement to the scampi, I scooped up the baguette. So I'll also post the recipe for the baguette oil.

 

SHRIMP SCAMPI
 

 

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 pounds shrimp, deveined and without tils
Butter
1 medium clove, Fresh Garlic, minced
Lemon Juice
Sea Salt

DIRECTIONS:

Melt approximately 1 stick butter in a non-stick skillet. When melted, add thawed shrimp. Cook on medium heat.

Generously squeeze lemon juice over the shrimp. Add the minced garlic and sprinkle sea salt over shrimp.

Cook until shrimp look pink, stirring often.

BLACK BEANS

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 can 16 oz black beans
3 small peppers, 1 each orange, yellow, and red, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
sea salt
black pepper
1-2 tblsp butter

DIRECTIONS:

Put black beans in medium-sized pot. Stir in minced peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, and butter. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Stir often.

Meanwhile, make rice to go with beans. I made up a pot of Zatarain's yellow rice which was very tasty.

BRUSCHETTA AND DIPPING OIL

INGREDIENTS:

1-2 rolls baguettes
1 cup virgin olive oil
1 medium garlic clove, minced
2-3 tblsp Italian spices

DIRECTIONS:

Mix olive oil, minced garic, and Italian spices.

Heat for 1 minute in microwave.

Slice baguettes into very thin slices.

Dip bead in warm oil mixture.

Yum!





 

Hash Brown Cakes

I love to watch Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, on the Food Network. I'm also on the hunt for new breakfast recipes. So when the pioneer woman showed how to make hash brown cakes, my ears perked up. I bet they looked positively Vulcanish.

Luckily I recorded the show to watch again because I left out a crucial step (or two) the first time I made these neat little egg nests.

So pay attention better than I did if you want the yummy version, intead of my first bland version.

There's nothing more blah than a bland potato.

So what did I forget? I forgot to cook and season the hash browns before topping them with the egg. I also cooked them a little too long. My granddaughter was bouncing her yolk around like a ball.

So please, cook and season your hash browns so no more innocent potatoes die in vain.

HASH BROWN CAKES

 

 

INGREDIENTS

Hash Browns (either make your own from scratch or buy frozen)
Fresh Eggs, enough for at least 2 per person
Salt
Pepper
Non-stick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Spray non-stick cooking spray into a muffin tin. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

Tuck your hash browns into each muffin indentation in the muffin tin. Make the hash browns look like a nest, with a well in the middle. Generously season with salt and pepper.

Cook the hash browns for 15 minutes.

Remove the hash browns from the oven.

Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

While the oven is heating again, crack one egg into each nest. Season each egg with salt and pepper.

When the oven is ready, cook the hash brown cakes for about 3-5 minutes. Don't cook too long unless you want to make your own bouncy balls.

When cooked properly, these are delicious.

Thank you Pioneer Woman!






 

Nutella Gravy

This morning I was tuned into Trisha's show on The Food Network and her friend Tina made the most delicious looking chocolate gravy and biscuits.

I've never heard of chocolate gravy but that didn't stop me from salivating.

For dinner, I made biscuits and my own version of chocolate gravy as I didn't have a pinch of cocoa in the house. Nor did I have self-rising flour. To top it off, I didn't have whole milk, just 2% milk.

It turned out great and the biscuits were gone lickity split even though I had to force the gravy on my picky eating youngest daughter as she thought it looked yucky. One taste and she was a convert.

NUTELLA GRAVY

 

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
3 heaping tblsp Nutella
1 1/2 cups 2 % milk
1 tblsp butter
4 tblsp all-purpose flour

Directions:

Make a batch of biscuits. You'll want a minimum of two per person as these are yummy.

Melt the butter and Nutella in a large non-stick skillet on medium heat.

After the Nutella softens, mix in the sugar, milk and flour. Stir continuously until it thickens.

Pour over warm biscuits. Enjoy!