Showing posts with label Salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salad. Show all posts

When Life Gives You Bread... 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 -
New Year Resolutions. I like to refer to these resolutions as goals. I learned that from my friend Mo. I like it. Goals versus resolutions. I personally haven't really vocalized any this year. I made some last year. Here is a recap:
  1. Enjoy friends & family to the fullest. I think I did pretty good on this one. I made my annual trip to Boston to see my dear friends in Massachusetts, had a delightful time with my Indy friends, and missed others like the O's incredibly. It is hard to live people to the fullest when miles separate you. Good thing the phone and interweb were invented. Just sayin'. To all my friends - I love you. To my family - I love you lots too. I'm looking forward to enjoying 2012 with you. But that isn't a resolution - it is an expectation of mine.
  2. Start a new blog. City Nom Noms was born. Check and complete.
  3. Continue living a healthy lifestyle. Well, does 50% count? I did for sometime, but I fell off the wagon. Hard I might add. I tried to get back on a few times, but alas. But here I am, trying again. But this isn't a resolution - because I have a goal in mind. Team captain Ryan knows the goal - it is called the Mudathon. Bring on the mud.
So, no resolutions? Well, I guess not. And for those who decided to eat less carbs, this may not be the post for you. But for those who decided to reuse and recycle, keep on reading. I know I have a friends (hello AK!) that don't like to throw things away. And this is a quick and easy way to create something out of soon to be compost.

Hubs had made some bread for dinner. He's an amazing baker. Just sayin'. Anyway, we had an extra roll and were planning on having salad so I thought, "mmm..croutons." As mentioned, if you have resolved to forgo carbs, stop reading. But croutons are oh so delicious.

All I did was cube up the bread and toss with a little olive oil and some garlic seasoning. Simple. In a single layer on a baking sheet, toss it into the oven at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Flip and repeat. I personally like when croutons still have a little soft texture to them, not crunchy all the way through. This is perfect for a wedge salad, or any other salad you may be having that evening. Use in a day or two though, or they'll go stale.

Don't have a salad and are worried about a loaf of bread going bad? Then make breadcrumbs! Same process, but dry the bread cubes out completely. Then, whip out that food processor and process away. Homemade breadcrumbs are great, because you can season anyway you would like. Throw in some dried herbs, like oregano and basil. Maybe lemon pepper or something else. The bread is your oyster. Have fun with it. Use right away or store until needed.

It is day 3 - how are your resolutions going?

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Quinoa Dumplings & Heirloom Tomato Salad 

Thursday, September 8, 2011 -
Remember the quinoa stuffed peppers?  Well, I had so many leftovers of the stuffing I just couldn't get rid of it.  I quickly looked in the pantry to see what else I could do with them.  Remember, we were avoiding the grocery store and only utilizing what we had in our pantry/fridge/freezer and the wonderfully fresh veggies from our friends CSA. (And yes, I know this post is delayed - my apologies!)

We didn't have much.  But, we always have flour since we make a lot of our own bread and pasta. 

With a little water and flour, I knew I could have a quick dough for some dumplings.  I hesitated because of the starchy quinoa mix being stuffed in more starch.  But, the quinoa is the only ingredient in the mix (there is also meat and veggies) so I shrug my shoulders and give it a go.  I mix 2 cups of flour with just a bit of water to make a dough, then I kneed it until it is perfect consistency.  I let it sit while I mix up the salad dressing.

I was keeping the dressing simple.  Red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper were whisked together before streaming olive oil into the mix.  That's it.  Maybe two tablespoons of vinegar, one of mustard and a few tablespoons of olive oil gave me a slightly zesty dressing.  Perfect for the heirloom tomatoes and greens from the CSA.

After making the dumplings, I cooked the dumplings in some boiling, salted water until done.  And viola, a quick dinner utilizing leftovers, basic pantry items and fresh veggies.  It was quite simple and delish with a little hoisin sauce to taste.

Who else loves to clean out the pantry, get creative in the kitchen, and end up with a great meal?

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Vacation Anticipation in the Kitchen 

Thursday, April 28, 2011 -
I love getting excited for vacations.  I especially love the anticipation of a Walt Disney World vacation.  I'm a Disney brat - love everything about the place. 

I'm not kidding - I really do. 

I expressed my love in my first blog post.  I've had great vacations and have made many memories with friends and family.  My love (maybe an obsession, I'm willing to admit this) got stronger after hubs proposed to me under the Disney fireworks in 2006 - our engagements story was published in a Disney newsletter too.  And for the record, Alice is my favorite (which is apparent from this past Halloween party) with the villains, especially Cruella, following her very closely after.

I can't help it.  I love it.  If you are my friend, you know I love Disney.  Even if you are a virtual friend of mine and read this blog, you know I'm a Disney fan from my many random Disney ramblings throughout the blog.  There is always happiness streaming out of my pores.  Happiness = love.  Disney = love.   

See this little girl?  She was probably just waiting for mom and dad to get in the car and take her to the Happiest Place on Earth.  No kidding.

So when hubs and I decided to use our timeshare in Orlando this May, we invited some friends and arranged for our Disney travels.  I say Disney, others say Florida (it is all one happy place to me.)  My anticipation has officially leeked into the kitchen.  I'm a fan of buying cookbooks on my travels, and of course, there is a Disney cookbook in the library.  So, we are cooking up Disney for the next few weeks to continue the anticipation build.

This week - we had the Kona salad from the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.  Yum - it is a citrus based vinaigrette that is lightly dressed over some great ingredients.  We used the little gen romaine from our CSA as the base and topped it with bleu cheese, walnuts (versus the almonds that are in the original recipe), red onions and anjou pears.  Plus, hubs cooked up a chicken breast with simple seasoning and we split that on top. 

Simple, and delish.  Plus, made me crave Disney a bit more!

We plan on having a few more Disney inspired dishes this week and in the weeks to come as we prepare for our vacation.  It will be fun incorporating our CSA veggies into these recipes too.

How do you build up your excitement for a vacation?

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Tomato Bisque and Pumpkin Focaccia 

Friday, January 7, 2011 -
Over my holiday break, I love to organize.  I find things that can be tweaked and have a go.  This break, I tackled many things: hubby's closet (which still looks fantastic I might add), kitchen shelves, our media center, and all the wonderful cooking magazine subscriptions that I get.  Yes, I went through four years of magazines.  I have no idea how I had so many, but I hope you wouldn't have really known that if you were in my home (many were put away in drawers, of course, organized by year and magazine). While I was recycling many of them, I came across a few recipes here and there that inspired our menu for this week, specifically one from Cooking Light - tomato bisque and pumpkin-walnut focaccia.

As you know, I love pumpkin and make it often in the fall/winter season.  From muffins to soup, I think pumpkin is great in anything.  Hubby is normally the baker of the two of us, but I decided to give the focaccia a try.  I began by activating yeast with warm water and brown sugar.  After a few minutes, I added some flour and butter, mixed it up, and put it in an oven I had warmed (but no, it wasn't on!)  Once the yeast did some work, I added the pumpkin puree, nutmeg, some cinnamon and salt - then more flour and off to the mixer with a dough hook.  At this point, I threw in a handful of Gouda from the lobster mac & cheese I was also making for good measure.  As it mixed away (saving me from kneading the dough), I marveled at the beautiful color.  Once it had the elastic texture I was going for, I let it rise for the remainder of the evening.

While I was prepping the dough, I also was prepping the tomatoes.  Two cans of whole tomatoes, an onion, and lots of garlic went on a baking sheet and was covered with a broth mixture made out of vegetable broth, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.  Now, I was out of soy sauce (have you noticed I've been out of things lately?) but alas, Chinese take out packets were saved (don't ask when, because I have no idea) and came in handy for the sauce.  I poured this over the tomato mixture and placed in the oven to roast for about one hour.  I got great color and caramelization without any burning due to the broth.  When that cooled down, I poured it into a blender.

I actually split the cooking/baking into two days.  After all this prep was done, hubby and I enjoyed the lobster mac & cheese we were also making and put the bisque and dough in the fridge for the next day.  Then the next day while I was at the gym, Tim took out the dough to warm it up.  When I got home, we both got to work, which was minimal because of the prepping from the previous day.

I shaped the dough and sprinkled with walnut before putting it in the oven.  When it came out, I had two loaves of some beautiful bread.  It wasn't really the consistency of focaccia (at least to me it wasn't,) but it was still delightful.

The soup was blended and mixed with some more vegetable broth and half & half to give it that creamy texture.  For a more smooth texture, this could have been drained as well, but ours was pretty thick and that wasn't going to happen quickly enough for our stomachs. 

One of my resolutions is to eat more veggies, so I paired this meal with a simple salad.  It was a great, healthy dinner that didn't take much time to make due to previous preparation.  The soup was creamy and delicious - perfect on a cool evening in the winter.  The focaccia was subtle in pumpkin flavor but still very present.  The bread itself was very soft and paired great with the soup - I actually ended up using the slice I had versus a spoon.  And the leftovers for lunch the next day were also fantastic - I ended up making a chicken sandwich out of a slice for Tim and I ate mine as originally prepared.



I was happy to stumble upon this recipe that I had marked to use, but hadn't gotten around to it.  I made a few of my own modifications, but I'm sure it would have been great on its own as well.  

What dish haven't you cooked yet, but have plans to do so in 2011?

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Grilled Romaine Salad (yes, in the Winter) 

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 -
I have been wanting to use this for quite sometime...
My mom had an extra tube and insisted that I take it with me when we left Wisconsin after the holiday.  On Monday, I decided to make the most simple item I could think of out of the paste - Caesar dressing.  
 
This all really started with the fact that hubby and I had these fantastic kabobs to eat.  Whenever we are in Green Bay, we always stop at Maplewood Meats - this insane meat market.  The quality and variety of the meat products is abundant and we always end up running around like kids in a candy store, drooling over the counters and waiting patiently as we take a number and wait to be called upon to order.  It is quite an experience, and I love everything about it.  We purchased beef sticks (which we ate for dinner on Sunday after we arrived home), stuffed pork chops, beef teryaki kabobs, pizza burgers (mmm...), breakfast sausage, andouille sausage, and so much more.  I knew when we bought the kabobs that I wasn't about to freeze those, so we kept them in the cooler (yes, we travel with a cooler due to our anticipation of the butcher shop) for our Monday night dinner.  They are large portions, and both the veggies (mushrooms, peppers and onions) and meat are always tender. And might I add that it isn't just beef tenderloin, but they throw hunks of ham on their too.  I love you Maplewood Meats...nom nom...

Thus, on Monday, we fired up the grill and I pondered, "what shall we have on the side?"  Then, I thought about the delicious grilled romaine salad I had at Pizzology a few weeks ago.  And rather than an herb salad, why not make some Caesar from the anchovy paste?  I gathered up some garlic, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mayo and some herbs along with the anchovy paste and started pulsing while adding olive oil.  And just like that - Caesar dressing.  Delish.
 
As hubs grilled the kabobs, I decided our salad needed croutons as well.  I buttered up some bread that we had and sprinkled Italian herbs and a healthy dose of garlic powder on top before popping them in the oven.  I also prepped some mozzarella and Indiana tomatoes for the salad.  

Once the kabobs were just about ready, hubs added the lightly oiled romaine halves to the grill.  When they were done, we had a meal that was perfect for the summer - or in our case, a Wisconsin-ites winter, because outdoor grilling is year round of course.  The kabobs were tender and delicious, bursting with flavor that had me yearning for an al fresco dining session.  And the salad, crisp and warm, was dressed perfectly and had the subtle char taste we were looking forward to.
It was a great meal, not too heavy, especially since I didn't eat all of the kabob.  Leftovers were saved, and as I sit here writing this, I'm enjoying this:
Yup, I sauteed the remaining peppers, onions and tenderloin, added some tomatoes and made an egg scramble.  And don't judge - I like to cut up my toast and make it mini for easier eating. Plus, mini is just adorable.

We also LOVE to shop at Festival Foods when in Green Bay, but that is for a different post (teaser - let's just say that remember I said my husband was jealous of the amazing King Crab I had in Vegas?  Well, after Thursday, he won't be jealous much longer...  
 
Is there a place that you just HAVE to stock up when visiting?

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