Tag Archives: cooking

Quick Tip: Leftover Crudites

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So here’s what you do with those leftover vegetables from a crudite platter you’ve served at your party. You chop or dice up all the veggies and you make it into a quiche! Thank goodness for the extra frozen pie crust I had in the freezer.

Easy Quiche

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup milk (2%)
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tbsp. flour
  • 1/3 c. minced onion (or a couple of tsp. onion powder)
  • 8 to 16 oz. shredded cheese (I had mozzarella on hand, and only 8 oz., save some for sprinkling)
  • 10 oz. vegetables, diced (could be one pkg. frozen spinach, could be roasted veggies from last night’s dinner)
  • salt, fresh grated peper and garlic powder to taste
  • 1 9-inch pie shell

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, milk, mayo and flour and whisk well. Add onion, cheese and vegetables and stir. Finish with salt, pepper and garlic powder (I used about 1 tbsp.). Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle some cheese on top.  I had some leftover grated parmesan cheese from another dinner. Bake for 45-50 min. or until center is set.

Sort of quick Chicken Enchilada recipe

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Homemade Chicken Enchilada

Made this the other night. We love Mexican food, and the kids have only really eaten tacos and quesadillas. I thought this might be a friendly upgrade in the cuisine. In the end, the little one still liked his quesadilla, and I think the older one thought this was only “okay”. No big deal, it was delicious, and there was more for us! Serves 8.

  • 1-1/2 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 2 tsp. cumin
  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. Mexican spice blend (we used an Adobo spice mix from the Spice House)
  • salt and pepper (to taste; maybe less salt if there’s salt in your spice mix)
  • 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 med. onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup salsa (spicy or mild, it’s to your liking)
  • 1 cup corn
  • 2 cups cilantro divided into 1/2 cup (chopped) and 1-1/2 cup
  • 8 corn tortillas (can substitute flour)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (use any or mix all: Mexican blend, chihuahua cheese, pepper jack, monterey jack/cheddar)
  • 1/2 c sour cream plus 2 tbsp. water

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Take the chicken breasts and season with cumin, garlic powder, spice blend, salt and pepper. Coat well. Put vegetable oil in skillet/deep pan, coat well, and preheat over med-high heat. When pan is hot enough, place chicken in your pan, and sear both sides. Leave the chicken alone when you place them in the pan… just let them get nice and brown for a few minutes and then flip. The sizzling will die down and that would be a signal to check or flip the chicken. Remove chicken and set aside.

In the same pan, with all the good chicken bits, lower the heat, add a little oil if you need to, and add your onion and garlic. After a minute or two, add the salsa. This will help deglaze the pan. Stir well. Add your corn and chopped cilantro after two or three minutes and mix well. Take off the heat. Ladle some of this salsa into the bottom of your 9×13 baking dish, enough to cover. Cube the chicken breasts, which should be cooled down, and add to the salsa mixture in the pan. Place spoonfuls of chicken mixture into the tortillas and roll, then place into baking dish, seam side down. Ladle any salsa sauce left over onto the enchiladas, drizzle half of the sour cream mixture on top of the sauce/enchiladas, then sprinkle the shredded cheese all over. Bake for 20 min. or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with other half of sour cream and cilantro.

Lunch for the next day

Girls Night Out #2

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There’s so much to write about! I’ve been busy with the end-of-the-year gifts for the teachers. Stay tuned in a few blogs for a snazzy tutorial that uses envelopes. But about Girls’ Night Out… the weekend after the Craft Social I went to my friend’s house for a some more socializing and a manicure. My hostess friend is someone I’ve known since middle school (we called it junior high, back then) and another friend from high school was also there. I hadn’t seen her since we graduated!

Since I haven’t been drinking much wine lately, I totally forgot to bring a bottle to share, but I did bring these little appetizers.

Good helper assembling appetizers

Quite easy to make… cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella cheese (cubed) and you favorite balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixture to dress (after you assemble). Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, or mix that with your dressing, and you’re good. A pint of cherry tomatoes (halved) will get you about 48 pieces, and 8 oz. of cheese will do the same. You don’t need much dressing, maybe a few tablespoons of oil and vinegar. We have some yummy black cherry balsamic from a store called “Olive & Well“. Such a nice foodie place!

Black Cherry Balsamic VinegarYummy caprese salad on a skewer

And here’s my “mani”… I don’t get them often. Wouldn’t that be nice, though?

Overdue manicure

5 minute chocolate cake

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Had to share this recipe I received from a relative in NJ. I call her Aunt Carol, and she’s my dad’s cousin.

I tried it the other day and added a pinch of salt (always good in baking) and I sprayed the inside of my mug with Pam. I also will try 2-1/2 minutes for my microwave… I think I overcooked it. Last thing, be sure to eat it while it’s still slightly warm. Totally cooled off… not as tasty. (The pictures are from the original e-mail posting.)

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well..
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.microwave chocolate cake mixture
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

Out of the mugMicrowave chocolate cake a la mode

And for those of you who like CUPCAKES… Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book should be out this week if it’s not already. Check out her radio blog! There’s a terrific XM radio personality contest and the cupcakes are fantastic. (Big fan of Peter Walsh!)

Cha Chiang Mein

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Julie at the cooktop

My mouth was watering after watching a segment on Martha Stewart’s Noodle Show.  There was this little Chinese lady standing over the cooktop with a big wok and speaking in broken English.  “We make, uh, dish, Cha Chiang Mein, uh, like, uh Chinese spaghetti.”  Awesome!  Note: We really like this dish at Yu’s Mandarin in Schaumburg.  However, the dish on television was more like home-style cooking.  Yu’s Mandarin has a sauce that’s as dark as mahogany and as thick as molasses. We’d probably be afraid of how much soy sauce is actually in it.

So, I looked up the recipe on Martha Stewart and tweaked it to how we would make it, with what we have.

Cha Chianh Mein ingredientsChinese cooking wine

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped fine
  • 3 cloves garlic (I’d use more next time), minced
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 lb. spaghetti

Sauce

  • 1-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. black bean sauce (found in Asian stores or aisle)
  • 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce (not the same as plum sauce)
  • 2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine (white wine)
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 tsp. sugar

Cook spaghetti according to directions.

Prepped onions and garlic

While pasta is cooking:  Prep your garlic and onion.  Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl or mixing cup.  Should be about 1/2 cup of liquid.  Heat up the vegetable oil in your wok or pan over med-high heat.  Add garlic and onions, saute until they become slightly translucent.  Add sauce mixture and stir until heated – a few minutes.  Add ground pork and break it up as it cooks.  Continue stirring/breaking up meat until water/liquid has evaporated.  Meat should look dark/seasoned.  This will be about 10-15 min.

Cooking Cha Chiang MeinAdding pork

Finishing the Cha Chiang MeinCha Chiang Fan instead

Serve meat mixture over spaghetti, but in my case, I had white rice available.  So now it’s Cha Chiang Fan instead of Mein.

Chocolate Croissants at home

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We like shopping at Trader Joe’s and after my husband’s cousin told us about this, we had to buy it! These 4 little croissants are packed up in a box and frozen. You take them home and let them proof overnight. These puff balls were 1/3 the size you see here. Seriously.

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Here’s what they looked like after baking. You can’t see it, but there was a river of butter winding its way off the pan. That’s a hint to how they tasted.

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The downside is, there’s so much fat in these little babies that we probably won’t buy them too often. They were almost too rich, but they’re sooooo tasty. Maybe if we have guests…

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