Whole Wheat Tortillas

My friends at Kitchen-Concoctions recently published a recipe for homemade tortillas that I could not wait to try. With a few TastyKate alterations I made these for cheese quesadillas and they turned out fantastic! I made half a batch and ended up with 7 medium-sized (not "burrito size") tortillas.

Alterations/Specifications:

• 1/2 C all-purpose flour + 1 1/4 C white whole wheat flour
• 3 Tbl canola oil
• warm water (don't let it boil -- if you can't put your finger in it, it's too hot and let it cool a bit)

Check out the Kitchen-Concoctions website for the full recipe.

These can be stored for a couple days in the fridge in an airtight plastic bag once they have cooled down if you can keep your hands off of them! Good luck.

Kale and White Bean Soup

This soup was absolutely delicious and extremely easy to make. I was able to use many ingredients that I usually have in the fridge, plus just a few extras (kale and mushrooms) that I picked up at the store. Inexpensive and quick -- it's an easy weeknight meal any time of year.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
  
• 1 large carrot, diced
  
• 2 celery stalks, diced
  
• 1/2 C baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  
• 1/2 can of whole tomatoes, drained and diced
  
• 1 Tbl minced or crushed garlic
  
• 1 t dried basil
  
• salt & pepper
  
• 1/2 t red pepper flakes
  
• 1 32oz box of organic chicken broth
  
• 1/2 can white kidney (or cannelloni) beans
  
• 2-3 C kale torn up
  
• 3 Tbl fresh parsley, chopped
  

Directions

1. In a dutch oven, saute onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil over medium-high heat. Add S&P to taste.
   
2. When tender (~3 min) add mushrooms and saute (~2 min)
3. Add the rest of the ingredients except the kale and parsley.
4. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, tasting to see whether you need to add any spices, S&P.
5. Add kale and parsley, stir. Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat.
6. Let cool a bit (no need for a burnt tongue) and serve.

Serves ~4

Balsamic BBQ Chicken

Spring is here! That means it is time to break out the grill (or at least start thinking about it) here in New England. For me that means a time to prepare my favorite BBQ chicken recipe: Balsamic BBQ Chicken by Giada deLaurentiis. 

This recipe is tangy, slightly sweet, and absolutely delicious. While vacationing in Sea Ranch with some of my favorite girlfriends (pictured above!!)  I had the chance to share the recipe. I believe it was a great success. 

Just a note: you can make this in the oven or on the grill, skin on or skin off, and chicken or steak. You may not go back to the bottled stuff again...

Below is the TastyKate version of the recipe with some slight alterations. If you want to access the original or read others' reviews check out the Food Network website. 

Ingredients:

1 C balsamic vinegar

2/3 C ketchup (high-frustose corn syrup free -- TJ's has a great one!)

1/4 C brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbl Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

4 pieces of chicken bone-in (leaving the bone in will keep the chicken moist)

Directions:

Put all the ingredients (except the chicken) in a small saucepan and stir until well incorporated and smooth. Simmer over med/low heat for 20 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Keep over low heat until serving.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. If cooking on the grill, lightly brush with BBQ sauce and cook over medium heat turning once (about 8 minutes/side). Brush chicken with BBQ sauce every few minutes until chicken is cooked through.  Serve with remaining BBQ sauce. 

If baking the chicken in the oven, wait to add BBQ sauce until the chicken has cooked at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. Spoon over a generous amount of BBQ sauce and bake another 15-20 minutes. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe! It is one I will keep using for years to come.

Perfectly Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Ever want to make a quick batch of cookies and you feel like there is just one ingredient that you don't have for any given recipe? Perhaps you are thinking chocolate chip cookies might be nice, but are out of chocolate chips. Or you want some sugar cookies, but don't have any (or enough...) butter. Well, today I wanted to make some cookies. I had no all-purpose flour (only whole wheat...which would make a dense cookie by itself), no oats, too little butter... You get the idea. Then the unexpected happened. I found a cookie recipe with only THREE ingredients! Did I have sugar? Yes! Did I have 1 egg? Yes! Did I have peanut butter? Yes!

So this recipe was inspired by one that I found on allrecipes.com. The website must have had 3 or 4 recipes just like this one. I tweaked it a bit, read reviewer comments, and tried it out. The results -- delectable. I will definitely be making these again. They are just too easy. (beware!)

Perfectly Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

- 1 C peanut butter (natural works, just stir well!)

- 1/3 C packed brown sugar

- 1/3 C granulated sugar

- 1 egg

Now you can just use those above. However, based on what others have said I added the following...

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 3 Tbl white whole wheat flour

Note: Other variations include replacing 1/2 the peanut butter with almond butter. Those who did this really liked the cookie. I didn't have almond butter around, but if I did it would have certainly made it into the recipe. Almonds are thought to be quite a bit more healthy than peanuts -- so try it out!

Process:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to create golf ball size cookies. Place them on a cookie sheet. Take a fork and make the tell tale criss-cross design on top pushing the peanut butter balls down slightly. Bake for 10 minutes. Let sit at least 5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet. They will be crumbly if removed too soon.

Enjoy this delicious, easy, and relatively healthful dessert! (Just don't eat the whole batch.)

"The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating"

Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times writes that these 11 foods are packed full of nutrients and antioxidants, not to mention full of flavor!

1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Swiss Chard
4. Cinnamon (though not a good reason to eat cinnamon buns...)
5. Pomegranate Juice
6. Dried Plums (aka prunes)
7. Pumpkin Seeds
8. Sardines
9. Turmeric
10. Frozen blueberries
11. Canned pumpkin

The article gives some good insight into the main health benefits, as well as some tips on how to incorporate these ingredients into your diet.

It was amazing to see how many of these things have I started eating because of joining a CSA (community supported agriculture). Even now that I am far away from California I still will buy cabbage and swiss chard at the store -- beets, not as much. Everything on this list is delicious and not bank-breaking.

Perhaps a series on great recipes with the above ingredients highlighted is in order?

Roasted Sweet Potato Sandwich

One of the most delightful cafe sandwiches that I have ever had was at Ula Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA. It was an unusual combination -- a sweet potato, avocado, and sprouts...etc, etc, sandwich. I can't afford eating their $7.95 version with any regularity so I decided to try to recreate it at home. You can buy turkey as a back up and use the sweet potatoes for an array of other dishes if the final version doesn't suit you. Me -- I'm planning on having it for lunch every day this week. So much for perishable ingredients!

Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

Cut 5 sweet potatoes (I made these all at once to freeze and use in other dishes) into wedges or thick slices.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix sweet potatoes with about 2-3 Tbl olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, turning once until tender, but not mushy.

Assemble Sandwich:

1 avocado, sliced

1 red onion, sliced

1 Tomato, sliced

sprouts

4 slices Provolone cheese (or Monterey Jack)

2 Tbl Tahini 

8 slices Semolina bread (sourdough or a hearty italian bread works well, too)

Spread each bread slice with about 1 tsp of Tahini. Then layer the sprouts, tomato, onion, cheese, avocado and sweet potato on 4 of the bread slices. Place the other slice of Tahini bread on top.  Enjoy!

Bourgogne Pinot Noir

While shopping at our local TJ's I was looking for a red wine that would pair well with pork or another light protein, like fish. A member of the TJ crew confirmed my suspicion that a Pinot Noir would be a good choice. Now, I was hesitant to pick a Pinot Noir, because a) they can get expensive, and b) there seems to be more of a linear relationship between price and tastyness (aka. a cheap pinot noir will not necessarily be very fun to drink). A few of the $14-$18 wines were suggested, but I was looking more in the "$10" (really under $10...) price range. Perhaps the only Pinot Noir under $10 that TJ carried was one from France. The employee recommended it with some reservations, "it is really light...I mean, really light," he said. 

So why did I buy it? My thoughts guided by the employee's description...

1. Not too spicy

2. Easy to drink, smooth

3. My friends may enjoy it, too. 

4. $7.99

Great! "I'll take it!" I told him. 

Being invited to a friend's for dinner, I was hesitant to bring the wine with me. But, it was the only one we had and I figured it couldn't be that bad. I just hoped they weren't serving some really heavy meal that would completely overwhelm the flavor.

My thoughts:

After finishing off two other bottles of red, this wine was opened and served. It certainly was the most light and clean of the wines we drank that night. It was reminiscent of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in some way. It was not a terrible wine, but it was also not very memorable. Hints of cherry and a clean finish. I would like to try a few other Pinot Noirs before coming back to this one.

Details:

Cuvee 2007

Blason de Bourgogne

Pinot Noir

13% Alc.