Food And Family

Hello everyone.

Thanks for checking out my blog once again. Yesterday I had the opportunity to cook for some of my extended family. My cousin Erin is in CT for the month, and asked if I would cook with her sometime this week. Not surprisingly I jumped at this opportunity, and went to bed dreaming of possible menu ideas. We settled on a salad, pasta, dessert menu that we thought everyone would enjoy. It was a neat experience to be able to cook for some family that I don't normally cook for. The kitchen was pretty toasty since my Uncle's AC wasn't working. Some would be thrown off by this, but it made me feel more like I was working in a real kitchen. In the end, the we were able to make a salad and pasta dish that received very good reviews. After making the first two dishes, we were hot, sweaty, and hungry. Because of this, we decided to make the dessert another day. Here's the menu we had came up with.

Salad: Romaine Lettuce with Goat Cheese, Crispy Bacon, and Balsamic Vinaigrette
   *Note: Recipe can be found in previous blog post

Pasta: Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs.

Dessert: Cinnamon Chips with Fruit Salsa
   *Note: Recipe can be found in previous blog post

As you can see the only new recipe was the spaghetti with fresh herbs.  You can find the recipe at
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=539133 . Here's how I made it.

Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs
16 Oz pkg spaghetti
1/4 C olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 tsp chopped fresh sage leaves
1 tsp chopped fresh basil leaves
2 C cherry tomatoes, chopped into quarters

*Cook spaghetti as directions state. Drain
*While spaghetti cooks, mix all the remaining ingredients.
*Toss spaghetti with the olive oil, herb, tomato mixture.
*Enjoy

                                                    Spaghetti

                                                    Chicken on the side to toss with
                                                    spaghetti.

                                                    Romaine,dressing,goat cheese. The
                                                    bacon is probably in the cup that's
                                                    knocked down.

Thoughts on the recipe: I originally made this dish in my food & nutrition class in high school. For not having a traditional tomato sauce or being doused in cheese, the pasta dish has a lot of flavor. This comes from the use of fresh herbs. This is a very healthy recipe that is simple to make any night of the week. Always remember that fresh herbs are your friend, and you'll be able to make a variety of flavorful dishes.

Thanks for reading! Special shout out to Erin, Mark, Kelly, Bill, Tom, and Baby Sarah who all tried my food.

A Breakfast of Blueberry Muffins

Hi guys


Sorry that I've seemed to not keep up with these posts. The summer is flying by so quickly, and I find myself not making the time to cook & update this blog. I will try my best to keep these posts coming as steady as possible. I have the whole day off of work Friday, so be prepared for me to cook up a storm. Anyways back when I made smoothies for my blog, I had a ton of leftover blueberries. To prevent them from going bad, I decided to turn them into blueberry muffins. Muffins make a delicious breakfast item. You can use the muffin as the main component of your dish, or have it be an accompaniment to another breakfast item. The recipe I used can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/BLUEBERRY-MUFFINS-50027274 . Hopefully you all try out my blueberry muffins .


Blueberry Muffins 


2 1/2 C flour
1tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
2 lg eggs
1 1/4 C milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C blueberries


*Preheat oven to 400
*Combine flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar in medium sized bowl. Set aside
*Melt butter in small bowl. Set aside
*In a large bowl, beat the eggs. To the beaten eggs, add the milk & vanilla extract.
*Add the melted butter to the egg & milk mixture.
*Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined.
*Fold in blueberries.
*Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. Bake 15 minutes. Let cool & then take the muffins out of the pan.
*Enjoy
***Note: This recipe made 18 mini muffins.

                                                      


Thoughts on the recipe: I thought this was a very good blueberry muffin recipe. The blueberry flavor really came through. Next time I think it would be cool to add some lemon juice/zest to make a lemon blueberry muffin. Thoughts? This recipe is a great base to make various types of muffins. Instead of blueberries you could fold in raspberries. The only thing your limited by while cooking is your imagination. Instead of going out & buying those extremely processed muffins from the store, try making your own at home. They taste much better.


Thanks for reading & see you all next time!

Smoothies for the Summertime

Hello everyone


Sorry for the little hiatus I took with this blog. When I don't try out a new dish for one day it all of a sudden turns into 2 weeks. Don't worry though because more posts will consistently be rolling in. Yesterday I set out to create something easy, delicious, and healthy. My inspiration came from watching  the new episode of Food Network Star on Sunday(shocking I know). One girl had made smoothies for the competition, and that inspired me to try making my own smoothies. Their a great way to get plenty of fruits into your diet, and couldn't be easier to make. Besides fruit the only other ingredients I used were plain yogurt, orange juice, and ice cubes. All you do is blend the ingredients together, and you've got a fresh fix for any time of the day.  Here's how I made my Strawberry Banana, Triple Berry, and Peach Mango Smoothies.


Strawberry Banana:
1/2 C Orange Juice
7 Ice Cubes
7-10 lg strawberries
1banana 
1/4 C plain yogurt


*Blend until smooth


Triple Berry
4 strawberries 
1 C Orange Juice
1/4 C yogurt
1 1/3 C blueberries
1 C Raspberries
7 Ice Cubes
1/2 Banana 


*Blend until smooth


Peach Mango
7 ice cubes
1/2 banana
3/4 C yogurt
1 mango chopped
2 sm peaches chopped


*Blend until smooth

                                                   From L to R: strawberry banana, peach
                                                   mango, triple berry. All you have to do 
                                                   is blend!


Thoughts on the recipe: I was a big fan of all these smoothies. They each had distinct flavors, and you could taste the fruits that were in them. My favorite was the strawberry banana because it wasn't as sweet as the other 2 smoothies. The peach mango & triple berry smoothies were more on the sweeter side, but were still as flavorful. My recipes can be guidelines for any type of smoothies you want to try. Feel free to get creative, and blend away. If anyone comes up with a good combination of flavors or wants me to try to make a different type of flavor let me know!




Thanks for checking out my blog, and I hope you all try to make your own summertime smoothies.