Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale


Here's the recipe I mentioned in an earlier post, from Giada's new book. Even good reheated the next day. Dare I be turning over a leftover leaf?!
6-8 servings (she makes for Thanksgiving)
3 tbls olive oil
1 med onion, sliced
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered (I used the prewashed and sliced)
1.5 lbs green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces (I used a bag o' frozen)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 dry white wine (+ more for drinking during cooking)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 bunch kale-1/2 lb., rinsed, stemmed, and coarsely chopped (I just chopped)
2 tbls freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tbls finely grated parmesan cheese (I didn't measure this :))

Warm olive oil in large, heavy sauté pan over med-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 4 min. Add mushrooms, green beans, salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add wine and continue cooking until green beans are almost tender, stirring once or twice, about 5 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and kale and continue cooking until kale has wilted, 4-5 min. Add lemon juice and parmesan. Toss to coat and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Monday, January 26, 2009

I'm going to be a recipe tester!

I signed up to be a recipe tester for Cook's Country magazine. My kind of commitment. If I can do it, great, if not, I can skip it. Will let you know what I come across, if it's good of course.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Things I want to make from scratch, just to say I did

Crackers, Croissants, Pasta, the perfect biscuit, Pie Crust, Marshmallows

Tortilla anyone?

This weekend I made tortilla soup from Everyday Food this month. I don't think I'll be making it again, but it did make me realize I want to find the perfect recipe for Tortilla Soup. Anyone who's got one-bring it on!

The only way to eat broccoli

I made some YUMMY cheddar broccoli soup. No low fat, no half fat cheddar cheese. The real thing. With fresh garlic, fresh broccoli, full fat milk, full fat sharp cheddar. Yu-um. And as if I didn't find that yummy enough, I made some fresh bread to dip in it. They were supposed to be bread bowls. Okay it was a bread machine mix, but it was fresh-ish! At any rate, the mix said it was supposed to make 6. Next time I make it the dough will be divided into 4, as this was just large dinner rolls. At any rate, they were GOOD. So good I'm really looking forward to lunch today!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Cozy casserole

Well, last night's dinner was a chicken leek and mushroom casserole. Martha. Was good. Was supposed to be an alternative to creamed soups casserole, using whole wheat bread on the bottom to soak up sauce you made to make it creamy....I've determined that any recipe made with wine is good. Oh, and especially if you also drink it while you are cooking. Another chick blogged about it...http://marthaandme.wordpress.com/

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Bobby Flay/Giada

My husband was kind enough to get me two cookbooks of two of my favorite chefs for Christmas. I made a recipe from each one of them for dinner on Tuesday. I am VERY impressed with myself. Grilled asian marinated pork tenderloin-fresh ginger, lemon, jalapeno, sesame oil. And on the side (from Giada), of all things, kale. I looked up kale and it is ridiculously good for you. Kale, green beans, mushrooms, onions, all sauteed with red pepper flakes, wine, garlic, fresh lemon, and finished with parmesan. ALSO good reheated. I might be turning over a new leftover leaf. Again, I hope to add pictures soon...

YUM



I made some soup-sausage lentil soup. Barefoot Contessa. It's like a big, warm hug. Also tried my hand at some homemade biscuits-they need some practice. Good flavor-no fluff. I took some pictures, but despite several attempts, have not been able to successfully upload-work in progress I guess. Anyway, had to rave about this soup, as I ate it 3 days in a row, and it got better every day. And I am not, I repeat, NOT a leftovers gal. I highly recommend the soup; it makes a huge batch-good for freezing!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

perhaps on a wedding bouquet?


I want to figure out an application for embossed velvet ribbon. Still have velvet in the basement I had planned to emboss and never got to it, but now, ribbon, I can wrap my head around. Maybe a wedding date or name of the new couple? Monogram? Perhaps a love poem or verse. Check it out: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/monogrammed-velvet-ribbon

finance

How does finance fit in? I am interested in personal finance and entrepreneurship.
sites I love: ladieswholaunch.com and carrieanddanielle.com, and I've read several of Jean Chatzky's and Suze Orman's books, among others, including a money memoir. I can't remember the title.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

obsessed with ribbons


My friend Jessica is getting married. (Yay! An excuse to buy Weddings magazine!) Which reminded me: I'm obsessessed with ribbon. I once went so far in researching a ribbon for another friend's wedding (thank you Jeni! Seriously, was SO fun.) that I talked to a store owner in Canada and offered to be the midwest rep for the ribbon company Vivant, out of the Netherlands....I need to revisit that. Anyway, the ribbons at my wedding were hanah silk. Amazing, dreamy, delicious. The tie-in must be FOOD? www.hanahsilk.com. I look forward to talking with Jessica about food, fashion, and flowers for her wedding. We'll leave finance out of it.

Monday, January 5, 2009

intro

So, I "started" this blog on January 12 of 2005. Yes, you read it right. 200-5. Then went to write something and felt like I didn't have anything to say. Well, now that I've defined what it is that my long term obsessions are, I feel comfortable talking about them! That's not to say that some other items might not make their way onto this, like my new son, or some craft item, or compliments about a friend or family member, but what I often return to are: food, fashion, finance, and sometimes flowers...they all feed my soul.

Other things I love? Ribbons, paper, magazines, books, catalogs, writing, painting, photography, music, dogs, humor, girlfriends, psychology, Michael's, well, really, it's endless, so I need to have a rough guideline to rope in the ADD.

Read or don't read. I'll be here on occasion. Feel free to pop in.

asian


I made a pork and green been stir fry last night. It was much better than I expected!
Here's the recipe: (Everyday Food June 2005)
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pork-and-green-bean-stir-fry?autonomy_kw=pork%20and%20green%20bean%20stir%20fry

couple things I did/would do differently:
-put all the pork, ginger, and red pepper flakes in at the same time (salt pork first!)
-used frozen green beans and microwaved em
-rather than add water, I think you could NOT drain the green beans and just put em in there.
-served with brown rice. Mixed in a little sesame oil, chopped scallions, salt and pepper. YUM.

I should have taken a picture.
Next time I post a recipe, I'll try to remember to include a picture, so you can see the food for real, rather than styled by Martha or someone else. :)

Happy Monday!