Friday Night Challenge 9: Savory Basil Calzone

With mushroom and asparagus season underway, this was a great challenge. Joining those ingredients were a strong cast of feta cheese, diced tomatoes (I used Red Gold with basil/oregano), thin crust pizza crust, and artichoke hearts. I decided on a simple calzone.


I split the asparagus lengthwise and sauted them in olive oil along with the tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. Once these were slightly tender, I simply put them with a layer of feta cheese into the crust, folded and pleated it closed and baked in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.


The savory taste combined with the subtle sweetness of the crust and the tanginess of the feta cheese made for a nice all-around flavor. Good job challengers!

Friday Night Challenge 9: Dessert Night

Last Friday night I was given a challenge that turned from the initial idea of a dessert of simplicity to one of decadence. Without further ado, here's a quick yet elegant dessert for you to try sometime.


Ingredients: an angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream, dark chocolate chips, and light rum.


Split the angel food cake horizontally and allow it to soak in light rum for a number of hours. Melt the chocolate chips in order to drizzle over the dessert. Slice a strawberry into thin pieces.


Assembly: one layer of angel food cake, a bit of whipped cream, a layer of strawberries, the top layer of of angel food cake, more whipped cream, a drizzle of chocolate and a strawberry on top. Drizzle a bit more chocolate on the plate and around the piece of cake. Drop a few chocolate chips around with a couple more slices of strawberry. Extremely easy and quick.

Friday Night Challenge 7: Asian Goodness

When the ingredients came rolling in this weekend, I could see a pattern emerging with some great Asian features. Shrimp, coconut, green pepper, ginger...yep, Asian. And then the curve came--potatoes. Let the thinking begin. 


After a bit of pondering, I came up with Asian gingered shrimp with green pepper with a side dish of shredded ginger-coconut potato patties.


Chop one large green bell pepper into bite-sized pieces and stir-fry in a bit of vegetable oil. Add 2t. Chinese ginger. While the pepper is cooking, shell and remove the mud vein from raw shrimp. Once the pepper starts to soften, add the shrimp, another teaspoon of ginger, and 1t. salt. Let this simmer for around 10 minutes.


For the side dish: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and finely shred potatoes; cook until soft, add a pinch of salt. Drain and add in 2t. of ground ginger and 1/2 c. shredded coconut. Combine the ingredients. Spray a baking sheet with Pam and add 1T. of the mixture in flattened dollops to the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until the coconut just starts to lightly brown.


This is a fairly economical dish, not difficult to make, and has a nice, light flavor. Give it a try.

Friday Night Challenge 8: Brunch Time!

Decided to change some things up for the Friday Night Challenge and asked for ingredients for a brunch. Here's the list:

• sausage
• prosciutto
• eggs
• asparagus
• mushrooms
• mimosa (to drink along with the brunch)

Since brunch is such a great "anything goes" meal, I decided to make it a combination. First I made a creamy asparagus/porcini mushroom soup with shredded crisped prosciutto. Reconstitute 1 ounce of dried mushrooms--this takes about 30 minutes. Then take 2 cans of asparagus (NOW you know what to use the slimy stuff for!) and 2 cans of chicken broth. Bring these to a boil--turn down to a simmer. Once the mushrooms are reconstituted, pour them and the broth into the asparagus/broth mix. While the soup is simmering, shred up a couple of slices of prosciutto and fry carefully until crisp.

The other part of the brunch--a sausage frittata. This is just a basic recipe. I fried 1/2 lb. of loose sausage. I then added 5 beaten eggs and let them do their magic. I finished it in the broiler. Quick and easy.

A Salute to Pi Day (3/14)

Happy Pi Day! 2/14 may have it's special place on the calendar, but 3/14 is pretty much more fun. We have a valid excuse to make pie! For this special day I chose a variety of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I named it a "googleberry" pie in honor of my daily use and enjoyment of Chrome, Picasa, and numerous other programs created and offered by Google.


The "construction" of the pie was simple. I tossed some frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, and frozen blackberries into a saucepan and set them to cook a bit. I added 1/2 cup sugar and let them cook around 20 minutes (don't let them become mushy). I removed the pan from the heat and added about 1 T. corn starch for thickening. While the berries were cooling, I used a roll-out pie crust and put into the pie pan. I cut a Pi sign on the spare piece of crust and added it as a finishing touch. Bake the pie around 55 minutes at 325 degrees.


Enjoy and Happy Pi Day!

Friday Night Challenge 7: Sausage Rolls with Pecan Leek Fritters

The interesting combination of sausage, leeks, cabbage, pecans, and vinegar allowed me to start off in a different direction. As a result, the Friday Night Challenge yielded Sausage rolls with Pecan Leek Fritters.
To make: Pull full-sized cabbage leaves and drop into boiling water until tender. Remove and drain. Fry the sausage (I used ground turkey sausage). 
Dice the leeks finely and put in a small amount of water; boil for several minutes until they are very soft. Drain.
Chop the pecan halves (around 1/4 c.) to a fine consistency. Form the leeks into small fritters and coat with the pecan crumbs. Fry in the turkey grease until just warmed and lightly browned. 
Put 1/2 c. balsamic vinegar in a sauce pan and reduce to a syrup state. Pour on the finished fritters and across the sausage rolls.
Enjoy!

Friday Night Challenge 6: Minted Madeira Pork Chops

This week's challenge gave me pause: mint. Yes, that ubiquitous little herb brought my thought processes to a temporary halt. Frankly, I just don't care for mint flavors in food. So, I knew my own tastes were going to have to take a back seat on this challenge. 
The ingredients for this week's list were: pork, rice, wine, apples, and--mint. Yikes.
I started thinking about mulling and thought this might be a way to work mint into the recipe. I went looking for some fresh leaves outside, but, after coming to my senses and realizing it was still February--albeit the last day of February--all my perky mint plants were browned and wilted still in hibernation. So back to the herb drawer I went. I did find that I had mint flakes. Apparently at one time I had decided that I would try to get over the mint-meh hump.
I put a cup of Madeira wine into a small sauce pan and mixed with it a teaspoon of mint flakes and a tablespoon of rosemary. I let this combination simmer while I sliced two apples and cored them, leaving the peel to hold their shape. I dropped 1/2 of one of the apples into the simmering mix. Let this simmer for 20 minutes. Put 3 or 4 pork chops and the remainder of the apple slices into a small roaster and pour the mixture over it. Cover and bake in a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes (don't let the pork chops dry out). While the pork chops are baking, prepare some rice (your choice of type). When the rice was just about done, I added it to the roaster and let everything finish together. The blend of the flavors made for a nice well-rounded taste. 
I don't have the same distaste of mint I did before the experiment; the beauty of cooking is just that---constant delightful discovery.