Published by mel on March 5, 2010 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.
I love recipes that taste better the next day and the day after. I bring my lunch to work, so if I can make a big batch of something on Monday and enjoy it for the rest of the week, I’m happy. This is one of those salads. The chickpeas and orzo absorbs the tangy, peppery vinaigrette until they’re tangy and peppery themselves. A little slice of prosciutto (or Serrano ham if you can afford it) and it’s my idea of a perfect lunch.
Continue reading ‘Chickpea & Orzo Salad with Piquillo Pepper Vinaigrette’
Published by mel on February 23, 2010 in entree and recipe.
For the past couple of months, Tom and I have been training for the A1A (Beach-front avenue!) Half Marathon and Sunday was the Big Day. For me, training was both exhilarating – you feel so accomplished when you’ve run a 10K before breakfast – and painful – patellar tendinitis isn’t particularly fun. Training made me hungry, made me hobble around like an old lady, made me stop drinking beer and wine on Saturday nights (the worst part by far) and made me actually stop wearing heels.
On the Big Day, we woke up at 3:30AM and had some homemade power bars and bananas and were on our way. The weather was great – 60 degrees – and we started our run heading east toward the most beautiful sunrise over the ocean. I didn’t have my best run, but Tom ran with me (almost) the whole way and my official time was 2:05:15. We crossed the finish line with our families cheering us on and then celebrated with a nice, big breakfast of French Toast, Eggs, Bacon and Bloody Marys. All in all, a wonderful, completely exhausting day.
So, what does all that have to do with Baked Chicken & Spinach Pasta? Well, it was all part of our pre-race meal. This dish is one of those things my mom made all the time when I was growing up and my brother and I loved like crazy. It’s a super simple recipe: sauteed chicken with lots of garlic, olive oil, spinach and white wine all tossed with pasta, covered with cheese and baked. Delicious. So, I made a batch and my mother-in-law made Tom’s favorite spaghetti and meat sauce and we all carbo-loaded on Saturday night before the Big Day. Perfect pre-marathon food, but good pretty much all the time.
And now, I’ll happily return to beer and wine on Saturday nights, heels at work and a lot less pasta recipes on the site.
Continue reading ‘Mom’s Baked Chicken & Spinach Pasta’
Published by mel on February 17, 2010 in entree and recipe.
Yeah – I have no business whatsoever calling this Chicken Cordon Bleu. It’s more like Spanish-style stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in ham and cheese. But that’s not the most eye-catching title. Whatever you call them, these chicken breasts are pretty amazing. Also, pretty simple to make.
Just butterfly some chicken breasts and stuff them with spicy Spanish chorizo and Piquillo peppers (roasted red peppers work too). Close them up, wrap them in ham and cover with a slice of provolone cheese and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Into the oven for a bit, and out comes a one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever made.
Tom says that only a Cuban would come up with the idea of chicken stuffed and wrapped in pork. And he’s kind of right – we do think pork makes everything taste better. (Sorry vegetarians!)
Continue reading ‘Chicken Cordon Bleu (but with chorizo & piquillos)’
Published by mel on February 2, 2010 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.
This is one of those weeknight meals that I’m always a little hesitant about posting. Caramelized onion and mushroom pasta – isn’t that too easy? Are people going to roll their eyes at this? They might. Yes, it’s a very simple recipe, but everyone needs simple recipes to add to the weeknight repertoire, so I’m posting it anyway.
This pasta is just easy enough to make after work, but still interesting enough to make a Tuesday a little more exciting. It starts off with some onions caramelized in butter. Once they start to melt into sweet deliciousness, add some shiitake mushrooms and cook until everything browns and melts together. To brighten it up, make a quick pesto-like sauce with Italian Parsley, olive oil and lemon juice.
Toss some pasta with the mushrooms and onions, top with some parsley pesto and dust with Parmesan cheese. The pasta gets a nice, deep brown flavor from the shiitakes and an herby lift from the parsley. It’s a really simple, really delicious dish any night of the week.
Continue reading ‘Caramelized Onion & Shiitake Pasta’
Published by mel on January 27, 2010 in entree and recipe.
I have no time for a lengthy post today, so I’ll let the picture speak for itself. (Hello delicious melty cheese!) Basically, this dish is polenta (that’s corn grits to you Southern Folk) that’s been left to cool, then cut into pieces and layered with a spicy sausage and eggplant tomato sauce and ricotta and mozzarella cheese. It’s creamy and spicy and corn-y and delicious!
Go make it now!
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Published by mel on January 20, 2010 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.
We’re in the throes of winter! Actually, we’re not here in Miami. After the ridiculous cold last week, it’s been a crisp and beautiful 70 degrees every day. This is why I live here! But enough bragging. For most of you, it’s still freezing outside and that makes salads really unappealing. Cold vegetables? No thanks. You want something warm and rich, like a lasagna. Or like this warm winter vegetable salad.
You start with rutabaga (or potatoes), carrots, leeks and brussel sprouts. Those get roasted with some olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh herbs and just a little bit of applewood smoked bacon. You know, because it’s winter and you need bacon in the wintertime. Once they’re caramelized and delicious-looking, you toss everything with some whole wheat orzo and drizzle with a balsamic reduction.
This salad doesn’t mess around – it’s bold and rich from the roasted vegetables, woodsy from the herbs and a little smoky from of the bacon. It’s everything you could ever ask for in a salad – except for lettuce.
Continue reading ‘Warm Winter Vegetable Salad (with bacon!)’
Published by mel on January 6, 2010 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.
Happy New Year! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? My fingers feel stiff and rusty from lack of blogging. Or maybe it’s the frigid weather. Yes, it’s frigid in Miami! While you Michiganders and Minnesotans are probably scoffing at our Floridian fragility, 40-degree weather is unheard of down here and I’m freezing. It doesn’t help that we don’t even know how to turn the heat on. So, what to do when it’s cold out? Make soup, of course.
In Italy, it’s good luck to eat lentils on New Year’s Day. I think everyone’s looking for a little luck this year because my local grocery store was completely sold out of lentils all week. I had to pilfer some from my mom’s pantry (thanks Mom!). So I’m kicking off 2010 on Bitchin’ Camero with lucky lentils and a resolution to blog more often and redesign the site. Here’s hoping.
This recipe is actually an adaptation from my favorite Christmas present – Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home cookbook (thanks Tom!). If you’re going to buy one cookbook this year, this should be it. Not only is it spectacularly beautiful, it’s full of all kinds of tips for mastering home cooking, from essential cookware to building the perfect salad dressing. Did I mention the hundreds of amazing recipes? I am in love with this book. It’s all about showcasing good ingredients in interesting ways. Like the Roasted Beet and Potato Salad with Smoked Salmon and Soft-cooked Eggs we had last night. Sounds weird, but tastes like heaven.
This soup caught my attention immediately. Sweet potatoes, lentils, bacon and cilantro are definitely a few of my favorite things. Of course I decided to make this before work, and the recipe ended up being too much for me to handle in the morning, so I simplified it a bit. When I have more time, I’ll be making it Thomas Keller’s way and I’m sure it will blow my mind. As it turns out, the simplified version is pretty darn good, too. A little smoky from the bacon and curry powder, a little sweet from the potatoes, carrots and onions, and brightened up with cilantro and sherry vinegar. For me, it’s the perfect bowl of soup and the perfect way to ring in this rather nippy new year.
Continue reading ‘Lentil & Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon & Cilantro’
Published by mel on December 15, 2009 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.
I am a very bad blogger. I’ve abandoned my website for what seems to be months. Years. First, I was on vacation in Chile (highly recommended for food and wine lovers!). Then I was severely ill and avoiding anything to do with the kitchen altogether. Then we adopted the cutest little mutt I’ve ever seen. (Her name is Mussels – isn’t she just precious?)
Not that I’m making excuses or anything. I just haven’t stepped foot in the kitchen. Until now.
This Eggplant and Sausage Casserole is kind of a mutt itself – a mix between Eggplant Parmesan, Lasagna and Strata. It’s warm and cheesy and perfect for winter. The bottom layer is a kind of sausage bread pudding covered by a thin layer of eggplant. That’s topped with some marinara sauce, then more eggplant. As with any casserole, the crowning glory is a layer of shredded cheese and breadcrumbs. Pop in the oven until it smells delicious and dinner is ready.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this recipe. Sure, I thought it would make a good weeknight meal, but I was surprised by how much I really liked it. It gave me a homey, pajamas on a Sunday afternoon kind of feeling. Like Chile, it’s highly recommended.
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Published by mel on November 13, 2009 in entree and recipe.
Last Saturday was one of those busy errand days where you do nothing but run from store to store, then come home and clean the house and go for a run. You know – they kind of day that makes you really hungry, but by the end of it, there’s no way you want to cook. Good thing I started this braise hours before dinner, before I’d cleaned the house and expended all my energy. Good thing it was a mostly one-pot meal and I’d already washed and put away all the prep dishes before collapsing. And dinner? Not to get overly Martha, but it was a very Good Thing.
I used pomegranate juice, fresh orange juice and red wine as my braising liquids and dried guijillo peppers and tart cherries for flavor. The juice and wine reduced into a deliciously concentrated sauce, the peppers lent some good spice to contrast the plump cherries and the meat was so very tender that I had a hard time moving it to the serving dish without it falling apart.
This dish is everything I wanted at the end of that long day. And leftovers were just as good or even better. My favorite kind of meal.
Continue reading ‘Pomegranate & Cherry Braised Pork’
Published by mel on November 10, 2009 in breakfast, entree, recipe and sides & bites.
I don’t know how much you know about Detroit, but pretty much every diner in the Detroit Metro area serves Greek food, which means you can get Greek Salad, Gyros, Tzatziki, Lemon Rice Soup, Saganaki (Greek fried cheese) and Spanokopita anytime, anywhere. It’s amazing. We always hit up Leo’s Coney Island when we’re in town and I can’t wait to get my fix when we’re there for Christmas.
So, it turns out, Tom loves Spanokopita. This was news to me since he almost always gets the Gyro or the Greek salad or the Lemon Rice Soup. Never the spinach pie. Nonetheless, I was craving a good Spinach pie with a flaky filo crust, so I got to work.
I made a simple stuffing with sauteed onions, garlic, spinach, lemon and good feta cheese. I also didn’t add filo to the bottom of the baking dish because it always gets soggy. Tell me, what is the point of filo dough if it isn’t crisp and flaky? But don’t worry, I added a few extra sheets to the top to made up for it.
It was everything I could ever ask for in a light lunch or snack – flaky, flavorful, full of good stuff and delicious.
Continue reading ‘Spanokopita (Spinach Pie)’
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