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Posts Tagged ‘Martha Stewart’

Sweet Potatoes with Honey & Lime-Thanksgiving 7 Days and Counting!

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2012| 1 Comment »

Sweet potatoes Ελληνικά: Γλυκοπατάτες

Sweet potatoes Ελληνικά: Γλυκοπατάτες (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well it’s a week away and I still don’t know what I’m bringing as an hors d’ouevres since that is my assignment for Thanksgiving dinner.  This year we will be sharing the annual feast  with my daughter’s in-laws and other relatives of her husband.  It’s seems like there will be  a lot of famiglia!

But I digress, this post is about delicious and not quite ordinary side dishes.  I really wish I was supposed to bring one of them instead because most appetizers don’t travel well and it’s a 2 1/2 hour trip!

Since oven space is always at a premium Thanksgiving Day, you can make this dish ahead of time and reheat covered in microwave at dinner time.  

SWEET POTATOES with HONEY and LIME

Preheat oven 450 degrees

1 TBS plus 1 tsp coarse salt

6 sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise

6 TBS honey

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1 small fresh red chile pepper, thinly sliced

2 TBS unsalted butter, melted

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 TBS fresh cilantro leaves

Bring a large sauce-pot of water to a boil, add 1 TBS salt.  Add sweet potatoes and boil 4 minutes.  Drain and set aside.  

In a bowl combien honey, lime juice, chile, butter and remaining teaspoon of salt and the pepper.  Add the sweet potatoes and coat with the marinade.  Put potatoes and any excess marinade in a 17″x12″ roasting pan.  Roast in oven 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally, till tender and caramelized.  Garnish with cilantro. 

Serves: 6-8  – Recipe from Martha Stewart Living

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The BEST Thanksgiving Side Dishes! A Recipe A Day Till Thanksgiving!

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

Gone are the days of the green bean and Campbell’s soup casserole, known in my house as White Trash Green Beans.  SOOoooo politically incorrect – my kids named it, not me. 

I grew up with the usual suspects on the Thanksgiving table.  It was Mashed Potatoes, Mashed Turnips, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Bean French Onion casserole,  Creamed White Onions,canned jelled Cranberry Sauce.  Not too exciting, but oh so familiar 

I said good-bye, farewell to those dishes years ago!!  And I love side dishes so over the years I have collected a lot of recipes.  If you are making the BIG meal at home, you might find one or two to try out and if you’ve been invited to a feast, why not bring a really special dish?

Old habits die hard so here is a modernized version of the traditional Green Bean Casserole.  It is Green Beans with Carmelized Onions and Tarragon. 

1 TBS plus 1 Tsp extra virgin olive oil

2 large sweet onions such as Vidalia, thinly sliced

coarse salt and ground pepper

2 lbs green beans trimmed

4 tsp chopped fresh tarragon leaves

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 TBS oil over medium-high.  Add onions and season with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring often, until softened and just beginning to brown, 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium; cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are deep golden brown and very soft, 30 minutes.  (Refrigerate in an air-tight container, up to 1 day.  Bring to room temperature before using).

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook green beans until crisp-tender and bright green, about 6 minutes.  Drain and toss with tarragon and 1 tsp oil; season with salt and pepper.  Transfer beans to a platter and top with onions.

Recipe from Martha Stewart‘s Every Day Food

Green Bean Casserole with French Onions

The OLD Green Bean Casserole with French Onions (Photo credit: Moomettes)

martha stewart, every day food, white trash casserole,

The NEW Green Bean Casserole – Martha Stewart Every Day Food

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A Good Cook Knows When to Improvise!

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Short Pasta

The Many Moods of Macaroni

I consider myself a good cook, however, tonight I proved that corollary wrong!  I improvised a recipe and even as I was doing it, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.  And it was a classic case of being penny wise and pound foolish.  I had it in mind to make a pasta dish tonight that I had seen in Martha Stewart‘s everyday Food.  

The dish is Orrechiette with broccoli rabe, oregano and lemon.  It’s simple, easy and quick to make and I thought it was the perfect dish to make tonight as I was out all day and didn’t want to prepare something that needed a lot of prep or ingredients.

Here’s the recipe:

3/4 # of orrechiette

1 bunch of broccoli rabe (about 1#) trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves thinly sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 TBS fresh oregano leaves for serving

2-3 TBS fresh lemon juice for serving

Cook pasta according to directions , adding broccoli rabe 4 minutes before pasta is done.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan, heat oil, garlic and red pepper flakes over medium heat till garlic begins to sizzle.

Drain pasta and broccoli rabe and return to pot.  Add oil mixture and toss to coat; season with coarse salt and pepper.  To serve, sprinkle oregano over pasta and drizzle with lemon juice.

It was really tasty and certainly easy to prepare.  Here’s where I made my mistake and I did know better;  When a recipe calls for a certain type and shape of macaroni (pasta to you all), there’s a reason.  This is a weekly debate in our house as my husband (who is not Italian) only likes linguine.  Seriously he likes linguine with any and all kinds of sauces.  Different shapes have different densities and are able to hold the sauce better than others.  Some penne have lines like penne rigate as opposed to ziti and the sauce will cling to one and not the other.

This recipe called for orrechiette (little ears) and they are small, slightly dense and concave.  I love Wegman’s Food store, you all know that already, but lately I have a gripe with them;  Over that last six months, Wegman’s has been eliminating the shelf space allotted to Barilla (my absolute favorite)  and DeCecco brand of pasta and filling the shelves with their own brand.  So when I looked for Barilla’s orrechiette there wasn’t any.  In fact, even in the Wegman’s pasta, super pasta and whole wheat pasta sections, there weren’t any orrechiette.  BUT, in their Wegman’s Classic Italian line which comes in all kinds of exotic shapes and is packaged in a clear cellophane bag, they did have orrechiette BUT that pasta line is priced in the $3.00+ category and I just couldn’t justify spending that much on the pasta itself.  MISTAKE! Well not really, I should have gone elsewhere.  Instead, I cruised the aisle back and forth and back and forth trying to discern what other shape might be substitutable for the little ears.  There really wasn’t anything and I settled on some very small penne regate that Barilla calls Piccolini Penne and it cooks in 7 minutes.  The end result was that the penne cooked very quickly and even though I tried to cook it according to the package directions (something I NEVER do) and add the rabe at the right moment, the penne were a little soft.  We like our pasta al dente, the orrechiette would have been perfect.  So I saved some money and made a dish that was tasty but could have been fantastic. 

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Cucumber Coolers – Delightful and Refreshing

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 31, 2011| 2 Comments »

I guarantee you will be delighted with this crisp and thirst-quenching non-alcoholic drink.  I served it with dinner the other night, however my intention had been to serve it in the afternoon with some light refreshments or with lunch.  And when you are hot in the afternoon the way I was when we came home from the beach, this drink really hit the spot.  The prep work is a little bit of work but the end result is terrific.

Cool and Refreshing Cucumber Cooler

3 cucumbers – peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped

1/4 -1/2 cup water

1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves

1 lime thinly sliced

1 bottle of club soda

2 TBS agave nectar or honey

Puree the cucumbers and water in a blender.  Pour through a fine sieve, pressing on the solids – you should have about 2 cups of cucumber juice (it will be slightly thick)  Refrigerate overnight if desired or for at least a couple of hours.  

When you are ready to serve, place the mint leaves in the pitcher and bruise lightly.  Add the cucumber juice and the lime slices.  The recipe called for 24 ounces of club soda, I used a whole bottle of seltzer instead.  Add the agave nectar and stir to combine.

To serve: Pour over ice-filled glasses and enjoy!

recipe from Martha Stewart Every Day Food

Footnote: I prepared my batch in a covered pitcher (although not airtight) and even the next day there was enough fizz in the mixture to make it delicious and refreshing.

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Strawberry Shortcake with Basil

Posted in Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A bowl of Strawberries.
Luscious Red Strawberries

May and June and early July are the best months to get local strawberries! Sweet, luscious, juicy red strawberries and what better time than the upcoming holiday weekend to have real strawberry shortcake?  There’s a twist or two in this old standby dessert  and I think it will make a world of difference and bring a level of sophistication and delight to the dish.

Depending on when you plan to serve, read the recipe carefully because the cream is prepared at least 5 hours prior to serving.  Good to do first thing in the morning for an afternoon or evening picnic or barbeque.

2  1/4 cups cold heavy cream, plus 2 TBS for brushing

20 large basil leaves plus 1/2 cup small or torn basil leaves

1/4 cup sugar

4  1/2 cups strawberries (1 lb 4 oz) sliced

3 TBS  confectioner’s sugar

Bring 1  1/2 cups of cream to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Bruise the large basil leaves by hitting repeatedly with the dull side of a knife and stir into the cream.  Remove from heat, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let steep for 25 minutes.  Strain through a fine sieve, pressing solids to extract liquid.  Refrigerate till very cold at least 5 hours.

Macerate strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar, plus more if needed, depending on sweetness of berries. Stir occasionally, for at least an hour.  Toss the berries with small basil leaves.

Whisk basil cream with confectioner’s sugar in the chilled bowl of a mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.

Mound basil cream on shortcake.  Spoon berries with juice on top

Recipe from Martha Stewar

I never thought of putting the whipped cream on the shortcake before the berries!  Which just goes to show you that you are never too old to learn a new trick.  This recipe is from Martha Stewart and I purposefully omitted her recipe for shortcake because I figure at least 75% of the people will buy those ready-made sponge cakes and maybe 10% will make their own short bread and I and the other 15% will make shortcakes from Bisquick.  And if you do use Bisquick, their recipe suggests you split the shortcake, fill with berries and top off with cream.  I’m going to sort of lightly break my shortcakes apart, then put the cream on and then the berries.  Can’t wait till this weekend.




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Tasty Tidbits Tuesday- A Day Late BUT then again…

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 18, 2011| 1 Comment »

A very dear and old friend of mine poked me and cheered me on and up about my blog.  So this one’s for her, Susan Celtic Lady!

This side dish is perfect for  a quick meal.  Well in NYC, you know it’s pretty easy to order in and also very easy to buy a Roasted Chicken;   Seems like all the grocery markets have them as well as little chicken shops.  I know the phrase little chicken shops sounds funny to anybody outside of the City, but we really do have little storefront shops that cook and serve chicken, mainly grilled or whole roasted AND they deliver.   So a couple of Sunday nights ago, I had the roasted chicken and needed a quick and healthy (always)  side dish to go with it.

Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

4  small shallots, thinly sliced

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

2 bunches (1  1/2 lb)  spinach (trimmed and washed) – I used two bags

coarse salt and ground pepper

grated Pecorino Romano cheese

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high.  Add 4 shallots and cook stirring often until soft and starting to brown, about 4 minutes.

Add  cherry or grape  tomatoes and cook until tomato skins are split and shallots are golden brown, from 2-4 minutes.

Gradually add the spinach, season with coarse salt and ground pepper, and cook until tender, 3 minutes or until all is in skillet and wilted. 

To serve, sprinkle with the grated or shredded cheese.

Recipe from Martha Stewart, Every Day Food

spinach

"I eats me spinach"

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Super Sunday Super Bowl Snack-Super Good Super Light

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If there was ever a day to eat junk food and/or fattening, artery-clogging food, THIS WOULD BE THE DAY!

But wait, not necessarily! Here is a quick and simple and heart-healthy quesadilla – perfect for the game tonight.

GOAT CHEESE AND MANGO QUESADILLAS

4 oz goat cheese room temperature

4 6″ whole wheat tortillas

1 ripe mango thinly sliced

1 jalapeno pepper thinly sliced (seeded)

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

fresh cilantro leaves

Spread the goat cheese on the whole tortilla and then layer mango, onion, pepper and cilantro on one half.  Fold over and brown and crisp in a large skillet over med-hi heat.

Quick and delicious!

Recipe from Martha Stewart‘s Everyday Food

Super Bowl Sunday snack, heart-healthy

Goat Cheese and Mango Quesadilla


 

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Count-Down to Christmas Dinner – Espresso Biscuits

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , on December 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

TASTY  TIDBITS  TUESDAY

I served this dessert at Christmas for several years.  Of course, the dessert table was laden with other choices, however, this is one of my favorites because it incorporates two of my favorite foods: chocolate and ice cream!  This year it may be resurrected.

ESPRESSO BISCUITS

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch cocoa

1 TBS ground espresso beans

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees with two racks spaced evenly apart. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift together flour, cocoa, and espresso beans; set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, scraping down sides of bowl twice.
  • Roll 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough between the palms of your hand to form a ball. Place on prepared baking sheet; repeat with remaining batter, spacing cookies two inches apart. Using a dinner fork, press tines into dough, and gently press into biscuit shape. Bake biscuits just until firm to the touch, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve these dessert biscuits with coffee** ice cream.

    • Read more at Marthastewart.com: Espresso Biscuits – Martha Stewart Recipes

    I have also served these delicious (not too sweet) biscuits with Peppermint Ice Cream.

    chocolate cookie, espresso, christmas dinner dessert,coffee ice cream, peppermint ice cream

    Yum Yum Yummy!


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    It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

    Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , , , on December 13, 2010| 5 Comments »

    I really am some kind of Christmas junkie.  For me the addiction is in decorating the house.  Over the years I have varied the look from time to time and when I had a large Victorian-style home in Connecticut, we had Christmas trees that were 9′ to 10′ tall and full of ribbons, flowers, bows, lace and confection.

    Then there was the year of The Toy Story Christmas; My daughter and I were living in a bungalow-style small house and there really wasn’t room for a real tree.  I spent hours making a good size Candy Tree.  That was a treat (no pun intended), so colorful and sticky too.  Presents were piled on and around an old golden oak hall seat, stuffed animals sat here and there, Woody himself  was near the tree.

    One year I went full-out Martha Stewart! I made the cookie ornaments featured in the magazine and a small flock of penguins hand-painted in blue and black frosting set in snow (salt), strung cranberries and popcorn and wrapped all the presents in brown paper tied with raffia.

    When I married Peter (who’s Jewish), Christmas was still very much present, however, now I was living in a New York City apartment and soooooo;  the living room which has an Art Deco look became a silver and crystal wonderland.  Reindeer inhabited every room, shelf and nook – they’re so ecumenical, don’t you think?

    Fast forward to the present and this year Christmas will be in our little cottage at the shore.  La Vie en Rose is a true confection of a cottage, at least I like to think so.  A small cottage can only handle so much decoration so again there’s no tree and by the way, that’s okay because over the years I have given all of the ornaments of their youth to my two now grown up kids.  The cottage is Victorian on the outside and eclectic on the inside.   Color is the key and this is what it looks like today.

     

    La Vie en Rose, Christmas tree, Ocean Grove

    A Pink Christmas is Perfect

    The tree really isn’t supposed to have any ornaments and comes pre-wired with tiny lights but I guess I couldn’t resist hanging a couple and now that I see the photo, I think I’ll remove them.

     

    flamingo, penguin, ornaments, bowl of ornaments

    Flamingo and Penguin Co-exist at Christmas time

    I love the reflections.

     

    ocean grove,nutcrackers,wooden soldiers

    My Army of Nutcrackers

    Joel and Chiara Berti, pink ribboned tree

    Pink Ribboned Tree

    I have been looking at photos from other Christmases in the cottage and I see that this tree has been promoted to the first floor!

     

    Christmas light bulbs, C-9 bulbs, canning jars, Ball jars, zinc lids, santa sleigh, pine cones

    The First of the Ball Jar Bulb collection

    There’s a few more jars and bulbs and a jingle bell wreath on the door.  I need to take a few more photos to do this all justice.

    Merry Christmas to All!

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    Cooking Up a Storm

    Posted in BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

    Linguine

    Image via Wikipedia

    Now there’s a crazy phrase! Let’s see how do you bake a tornado, or souffle a hurricane? Well look for this one sometime in the future in another blog.  Today is really about cooking;  what’s in the crock pot right now is Slow-Cooked Collard Greens with Smoked Turkey and it smells so good, the whole house is filled with the aroma.  I started on Saturday morning cooking;  Into the crock pot went the makings of Slow-Cooked Beef Minestrone see previous blog for recipe:

    https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/slow-cooked-beef-minestrone/. And while that was simmering all day, I decided to make some Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup also published in a previous blog: https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/roasted-chicken-and-butternut-squash-soup. It wasn’t really that cold this weekend so I’m not sure where the urge to soup-things-up came from but nonetheless, I love soups and am glad I now have a few containers of Minestrone in the freezer.

    Last night’s dinner was the Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash soup and when asked by you know who,“what’s for dinner”? and I told him, I got a less than enthusiastic reply.  I was informed that soup didn’t sound like much of a meal.  First of all I had to remind him that he has had it before and has remarked that “its a meal all by itself” because this soup is chunky, thick and full of chicken too.  So I thought about it and had recently seen a pasta recipe that I considered light- so why not make that as well.  Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce was delightful, I loved it and I never really told you know who that it had cream in it.

    Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce

    Coarse salt and ground pepper

    1# Linguine

    1 tsp. Olive Oil

    2 Shallots, minced

    1 cup of Heavy Cream

    1 TBSP Lemon Zest (1 lemon)

    2 TBSP Lemon juice

    Cook pasta and reserve 2 cups of  pasta water.  Drain and return to pot.  Cook shallots in oil in small pot over MEDIUM heat till tender (4 min).  Add cream and lemon zest and bring to boil and cook until slightly thickened ( I stirred almost constantly) about 8 minutes.  Add lemon juice, salt, pepper.  I added some pasta water at that point, judging the consistency as I like it.  I also sprinkled some grated cheese over the top also.

    Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food


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