The Perfect Make Ahead Dinner-Chicken Marbella

Feb 292012
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I must thank my dear friend for treat­ing us to such a fab­u­lous din­ner! I must admit the thought of prunes and olives was not mouth water­ing at first. If you can get past the ingre­di­ents list and just make it, you’ll be in for a deli­cious sur­prise, I promise. For those of you look­ing for the per­fect make-ahead dish, look no fur­ther. You mar­i­nate this the night before and just pop it in the oven the next evening. It’s so easy but will taste like you spent an entire day slav­ing in the kitchen. Don’t for­get to serve it with some fresh Ital­ian crusty bread for dip­ping in the juices. (the best part) My friend made a fresh green salad and oven roasted aspara­gus on the side. It was the per­fect com­bi­na­tion! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did…

Buon Appetito!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECIPE HERE
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“There’s No Crying In Cooking!”

Nov 282011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other day I was in the kitchen chop­ping onions in my nifty Vidalia Chop Wiz­ard. (this is one of my favorite kitchen gad­gets) Tears were just gush­ing down my face and it was burn­ing like crazy.  I hap­pened to glance over on the counter where my sun­glasses were. I decided to put them on to see if it would help. It totally worked! No more tears! I now store a cheap, but cute pair of sun­glasses in my uten­sils drawer. They’ve worked every time. Yes, it’s a lit­tle dark, but only for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at these chic glasses I scored for only a buck at the dol­lar store! They fit per­fectly in my kitchen drawer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, you can always pur­chase kitchen gog­gles but you’ll save money and look more styl­ish my way.


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Caffeinated Cows

Nov 162011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m shar­ing one of my secret steak mari­nades today! That’s right. It’ll be float­ing in cyber space for­ever now. I rarely order steak out at a restau­rant because I think my ver­sion tastes just as good, if not bet­ter. My secret ingre­di­ent is espresso. It adds a sub­tle earthy fla­vor, while ten­der­iz­ing the steak.

My first choice cut of meat would be a rib eye bone-in. Oth­er­wise, you can choose what­ever cut is your favorite, just be sure it is a high qual­ity choice. (no slow cook­ing beefs)

Mari­nade: (4 steaks)

  • ½ cup espresso (or really strong coffee)
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 2 gar­lic cloves crushed
  • coarse salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • red pep­per flakes (optional)

 What to do:

  1. Salt and pep­per your steaks generously.
  2. Mix all the other ingre­di­ents together in a shal­low pan (like a casse­role dish). Place your steaks in the mari­nade. The longer you let them sit, the bet­ter. I usu­ally mari­nade them 2–6 hours depend­ing on how pre­pared I was that day. At your halfway point, flip the steaks on their other side in the sauce. Note: If you’re let­ting them mari­nade for more than 2 hours, be sure to cover your pan and refrigerate.
  3. My pre­ferred method of cook­ing the steaks is on the bbq. Noth­ing can repli­cate that unadul­ter­ated smoky fla­vor. If you do not have access to a bar­be­cue, you can use the oven or stove top grill pan.
  4. It’s very impor­tant to let your steaks rest for ten min­utes after they’re done cook­ing. This allows the juices to stay in. I always fin­ish with a lit­tle bit of salt right before serv­ing. It melts per­fectly into the steaks. (My mouth is water­ing as I type this!)

How long to cook your steak:

Every bar­be­cue, oven, and stove work dif­fer­ently. These are just gen­eral guide­lines. Please adjust as nec­es­sary. For a 1 inch thick steak, 4 1/2 min­utes per side for rare, 6 1/2 min­utes per side for medium and 9 min­utes per side for well done. The more “give” or “bounce” you feel when press­ing into the steak with your fin­ger, the rarer it is. Try not to cut into the steak to check if it’s done. That will pro­vide an escape path for all those won­der­ful juices.

Buon Appetito!

 

PersonalWine.com

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Easy DIY: Wine Box Turns Recipe Box

Nov 012011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine boxes are not only cool look­ing, but they may hold some sen­ti­men­tal value for us. What can we do with them? My hus­band had a kinda genius idea. This past year we made a rule to give each other hand­made gifts. Since I’m a foodie and a winey girl, he came up with this idea for me. (I’m still hav­ing trou­ble believ­ing he didn’t get some help! wink,wink)

What’s extra amaz­ing is he killed two birds with one stone on this diy project. Check out my old tech­nique for stor­ing my recipes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I had recipes on nap­kins, index cards, Post-it notes, mag­a­zine pages and print outs. You could find them in any crevice of the kitchen too. I’m noto­ri­ous for stick­ing Post-it’s inside my cab­i­net doors with recipes. Not exactly the ideal orga­ni­za­tion tech­nique. Because I would just set the recipe papers next to me while cook­ing, they are cov­ered in every ingre­di­ent imag­in­able. Just look at my favorite recipe…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could re-write it at this point, but I love the char­ac­ter it shows from all the years I’ve been mak­ing it. Think wrin­kles for recipes. In fact one day it might be fun to frame it. But for now, it is pro­tected in one of my binder pages neatly orga­nized under the appe­tizer section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just store my wine box on my kitchen counter. It not only matches the decore, it’s prac­ti­cal and serves a daily pur­pose! All this thanks to my genius hub…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuto­r­ial Here

Tips:

  • This makes a great wed­ding gift. Gather recipes from friends and fam­ily to add to the binder. Mod Podge their wed­ding invi­ta­tion on the top of the recipe book or on the inside of the box somewhere.
  • If the box comes from a win­ery you vis­ited, line the bot­tom (see tuto­r­ial) with a map show­ing the vine­yard location.
  • Add a “take out” menu binder to store in the box along with the recipe binder. There’s plenty of room for both.

 

 

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Sunday’s Supper: Braised Short Rib Goodness

Oct 282011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I didn’t make any soup this week, there­fore it’s Sun­day sup­per instead of soup. I think you’ll for­give me after you see what I have in store for you…short ribs! I nor­mally use another recipe, but decided to try out this one from my new cook­book, How To Cook Like A Rock Star. Anne’s recipe has more of a tomato fla­vor base. It’s very sat­i­fy­ing and will have even the pick­i­est of eaters singing praises!

Short Rib Recipe Here

Changes I made to the recipe:
  • I used 1/2 cup tomato paste only.
  • Instead of short ribs on the bone, I used boneless.
  • I made mashed pota­toes for my side, which I think is the per­fect com­pli­ment. My sec­ond choice would be pasta, given the tomato fla­vors of the dish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you’re won­der­ing why Sun­day sup­per is posted on Fri­day night, it’s so you have time to get the gro­ceries and plan for Sunday!
Buon Appetito!

 

 

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Save The Bubbles!

Oct 212011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you do when you’ve popped open the bub­bly and can’t fin­ish the bot­tle? On the rare occa­sion this hap­pens to me, I pull out the spoon. Yes, you read that right. Although this method is up for debate, I per­son­ally have found that works. Thank you Michael Chiarello who shared this tip with me 10 years ago. I’ve been doing it ever since!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to do:

  • Avoid let­ting the sparkling wine or cham­pagne get to room tem­per­a­ture if possible.
  • Insert the han­dle of a stain­less steel spoon into the open­ing of your bot­tle.
  • Place sparkling wine or cham­pagne back into the refrigerator.
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New Twist On: Mason Jars

Oct 192011
 



I love shar­ing ways to repur­pose dif­fer­ent items. Today I’m fea­tur­ing a clas­sic favorite, mason jars. Here are five ways I’m lov­ing them:

1.Pie In A Jar

Our Best Bites came up with this genius idea. They’re indi­vid­ual serv­ing sizes and can go straight from your freezer to your oven. These pies in a jar are per­fect to have on hand for unex­pected guests or a sud­den crav­ing of sweet good­ness! Find the recipe and direc­tions here.

2. Painted Flower Jars

I love this col­or­ful cre­ative way to re-use mason jars. Wouldn’t these make great bud­get friendly cen­ter­pieces for your next party? For step by step direc­tions go to The CSI Project.

3. Bath­room Beauty Storage

Clever! Clever! Clever! Lovely Lit­tle Details came up with a great bath­room stor­age idea.

4. Sewing Kit in a Jar

Whether we sew or not, we all need a mini mend­ing kit. This is a great diy gift idea! Find out how to make these by Martha Stew­art here.

5. Soap Dispenser

Heather Bullard made this diy soap dis­penser to keep on her pot­ting bench. I think this would be fun in a bath­room or kitchen as well. You could also bring some antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer to a park pic­nic or party. For a host­ess gift, fill a mason jar up with some yummy smelling hand lotion. Find the tuto­r­ial on how to make one here.



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My Dish Duty Secret Revealed

Oct 072011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I owe this genius idea to my sis­ter. She puts her dish soap in a small spray bot­tle next to her kitchen sink. I had the oppor­tu­nity to try it out one night when I so nicely vol­un­teered to clean the din­ner dishes. I was amazed how such a sim­ple change like the soap dis­penser could make clean­ing dishes that much eas­ier. That’s when I decided I had to share this with everyone!

PROS:

  • You have con­trol over the amount of soap that is dis­pensed and where it goes exactly.(assuming you can aim 2 inches from something)
  • No soap is wasted which is what hap­pens so often with the com­mon soap bottle.
  • It’s eas­ier than a pump.
  • You can mul­ti­task eas­ily hold­ing the squirt soap bot­tle, sponge and pot all at the same time.
  • It’s easy to store away under the sink, in the sink or on the counter.
  • Save money buy­ing your dish soap in bulk and refill­ing as needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXTRA:

  • Buy dec­o­ra­tive spray bot­tles to match your kitchen if you want to leave it out. I think a stain­less steel one would be uni­ver­sal. You can find those at stores like Con­tain­ers and Things.
  • This makes a great host­ess gift. Get a nice spray bot­tle, large dish soap refill, (I love Method, by Tar­get) new sponges/brushes and those ever adorable funky dish gloves. Wrap it all up in a styl­ish reusable gro­cery bag or wire bas­ket lines with raf­fia. Attach a thank you gift tag and maybe include a lit­tle print out of the above PROS.

 

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Salmon on Salt

Oct 052011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you buy your foodie friend who has every­thing? How about a Himalayan salt block.  For my attempt at using one, I tried a sim­ple salmon din­ner recipe. Well, maybe I should say my hus­band did. He’s the expert salmon chef around here. Accord­ing to my nephew Cameron, he’s never had salmon as good as Ryan’s!

Salmon on Salt- (2 servings)

ingre­di­ents needed:

  • 1 1/2 pounds salmon filet (cut into 2)
  • 1 clove crushed garlic
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • pep­per

direc­tions:

  • pre­heat the salt block in a 350f oven
  • mix together all the ingre­di­ents in a lit­tle dish
  • rub mix­ture on salmon filets
  • place the salmon directly on the salt block and cook for 4–5 min­utes on each side depend­ing on the thickness
  • remove very care­fully and serve immediately
  • pre­pare a sim­ple side of lin­guine pasta with fresh gar­lic, olive oil and basil from the garden

 

 

 

 

Facts:

Freshly cut from ancient min­eral deposits, hand-cut blocks of translu­cent pink salts can be used for cook­ing meats, fish and more. They con­duct heat beau­ti­fully, lend­ing foods a won­der­ful depth of fla­vor. Use them on the grill, in the oven, or chill them for a beau­ti­ful way to serve sushi, appe­tiz­ers and more. Himalayan salt blocks are nat­u­rally anti-microbial and easy to clean with­out deter­gent. Just scrub the sur­face with a brush, pat dry, then air dry to use again and again.

Find­ings:
  • We did not sea­son the salmon with salt ahead of time and found the sea­son­ing to be per­fect. I’ve read a lot of reviews say­ing it comes out too salty. We didn’t have that out­come. It was perfect.
  • The salt block seemed to make the salmon more moist than usual.
  • It’s heavy and very hot to han­dle so this could be a prob­lem for those like my sis­ter. (wink, wink)
  • Clean­ing it isn’t the eas­i­est task. You have to scrub pretty hard with some­thing like a wire brush. I couldn’t get the sur­face 100% clean. I think in this case, it’s smart to have one side you cook on and the other for cold food presentations.
  • It’s def­i­nitely a cool nov­elty and con­ver­sa­tion starter for any­one who loves to cook and enter­tain. How­ever, the dif­fer­ence between cook­ing the salmon on the rock and not, may not be worth it for everyone.

Our next adven­ture with our salt block will be with some­thing chilled. I have a hunch using it in this capac­ity will be my favorite. Stay tuned…

WHERE TO BUY: I’ve got­ten a lot e-mails ask­ing where to buy one. Mine was a gift, but I know a lot of kitchen home stores carry them.

Here is a link to the best priced one I could find.

 

 

 

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Lovely Apple Pie

Sep 282011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look­ing for a twist on apple pie? I stum­bled across a great recipe, pocket apple pies. This is a per­fect exam­ple of how to take a sim­ple dessert and make it fab­u­lous! Annie over at Ten­nessee Sugar is not only shar­ing her great recipe with us, she’s giv­ing away an apple pocket pie mold from Williams-Sonoma. The dead­line is Octo­ber 1st so be sure to go over and enter to win. Find more fab­u­lous pho­tos and the recipe over on Annie’s site here.

{these would be a per­fect addi­tion to “break­fast in a box”}

 

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