Valentine's Day

I'm really late on this post as you can probably tell from the title!

Back in January, my mom and I went to a culinary school at a spa in Utah for about a week. We learned how to do so many healthy dishes and it was such a good time! For Valentine's Day I made two of these dishes for my boyfriend and I. We stayed in and ate in front of the TV. It wasn't probably romantic enough for the rest of the world but we had a great time :)

These first two recipes are courtesy of Red Mountain Spa in Ivins, UT. The third photo is my attempt at the chocolate crepes from Gina over at Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes. My boyfriend absolutely loved these.. so much that he tried making a few more himself. The thing is, he has no patience and has extremely big clumsy hands. So Ryan and crepes didn't really hit it off in the kitchen. But he definitely enjoyed eating them!

Anyway I'll get to it.

Caesar Salad with Cheese Crisps

Hearts of romaine

Parmesan cheese (block)

3/4 oz anchovy fillets

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

2 segments garlic

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 oz red wine vinegar

1/2 oz lemon juice

4 oz soft tofu

1/4 tsp tabasco sauce

5 oz olive oil

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese (for crisps)

Croutons (optional)

Cut romaine into bite-sized pieces. In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients from anchovy fillets through tabasco sauce. Drizzle in the 5 oz olive oil.

On a silpat, create small piles of freshly shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for a few minutes (maybe 5), keeping an eye on the piles as they melt. When they appear to have melted, take the silpat out and let the crisps set till cool enough to touch.

To assemble the salad, toss the romaine with croutons and as much dressing as desired. Garnish each salad with a cheese crisp.

Salmon with Tofu Dill Sauce

Salmon fillets (4 oz per serving)

Sauce:

1 cup soft tofu

2 oz lemon juice

2 tsp dried dill weed

4 garlic segments

1 oz white wine

pinch salt

Combine sauce ingredients in blender or food processor. Put in refrigerator to keep cool while cooking salmon.

Salmon can be cooked on a grill or a grill pan (if you are in New England!)

And here's a picture of one of our crepes..

Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My last living grandma passed away this month. :(

It had been coming for a long time, but it doesn't make it too much easier to see her go. She was the sweetest grandma you could have ever asked for. Not even saying this because she was my own grandma, but she really was just one of those special little ladies that warms your heart everytime you see her. Sadly I didn't get to see her that much because Michigan is not very close to New Hampshire.

I dug through her recipe collection and found an old oatmeal carton top, the kind that had the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe right on it. My mom told me a story about how someone asked my grandma for her oatmeal cookie recipe (I don't remember who it was.. could have been her?) and my grandma responded something like.. "Oh sure. Go out to the store and pick up some oats. Follow the recipe that comes on the carton." Totally serious. I love that.

So these are NOT healthy.. which is not usually what I like to make. (You might not be able to tell from what I blog about, but I am kind of a health nut. I'm giving veganism some serious thought as well). But these cookies are so delicious, and they remind me of my grandma, so here you go. :)



"Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" (Quaker)

2 sticks butter, softened (the updated version on the Quaker website says 1 stick plus 6 T, which shows how old this carton top must be!!)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I actually used about three quarters whole wheat, and it was great)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional.. I opted out)
3 cups Quaker old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins (I soaked these in warm water to plump them up a bit first)

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.


I also want to show off two of my new toys from my Christmas/birthday season!!



(I used both of these toys for the first time with this recipe!)

Amish Oatmeal Date Bread

I baked this Amish Oatmeal Date Bread I found over on another blog and was so shocked with the results. I had never tried dates before but recently bought a bag on an impulse to make myself try them. I don't know if it was the dates that made this bread, but it was fantastic. I really mean this too - I ate almost the entire thing within 24 hours. I had to give some of it away to my mom so I would stop! I modified it a bit from the recipe I came across originally based on what I had at home.



Try it!!



Ingredients:

1 ½ cups skim milk
1 cup Quaker old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg


Bring milk almost to simmer. Place oats and dates in large mixing bowl and add milk. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. When oat mixture is cool, beat in egg. Stir in dry ingredients, mixing well.
Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until top is crusty and golden. Cool before slicing.

Shrimp Scampi

Recently, I made Ellie Krieger's Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes and was so impressed with the taste. It also came together very quickly which is something I always really value in a recipe. I don't ever really mind spending all day or all night in the kitchen, but sometimes it's nice to get in and get out. Anyways, this is one of those dinners that is easy, quick, and really, really good.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp (about 20), peeled and deveined
1 (11-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed, or 1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained, and quartered
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and cook, stirring until softened but not browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add shrimp, artichoke hearts, wine, and lemon juice and cook until the shrimp are cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the parsley, salt and pepper. Divide among 4 plates, garnish with additional parsley, and serve.

Greatest Coffee Cake Ever!

Do I have your attention??

I have been so busy with classes that I haven't really been able to post anything that I made over the past semester. I have to catch up now that I'm on break!

Hands down the BEST recipe I made was Ashley's Banana Coffee Cake - it turned out to be so good, I actually submitted it to my newspaper's weekly culinary contest and it won! I was so excited! I really recommend you try this one.. it's a winner :)

Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Modified from Bon Appetit

FOR THE STREUSEL:
1 cup semisweet mini morsels
2⁄3 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon cinnamon
FOR THE CAKE:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
4-5 small overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 to 1½ cups)
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and coat 8- by 8-inch pan with nonstick spray.
Combine streusel ingredients in small bowl until evenly mixed. Set aside.
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.
Using a mixer, beat sugar, butter and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Next, beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Finally, add the dry ingredients until evenly mixed and dry ingredients become wet.
Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half the streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake about 45 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a cooling rack.

Starfruit Upside Down Cake

My boyfriend's favorite fruit is starfruit. I had never really had one until we started dating. They are actually pretty mild-tasting, like a combination of a pear, a grape, and an apple with the consistency of an orange. Hard to explain.. but good! His birthday was yesterday and I surprised him with this upside cake I found after a long google session.

The ingredients called for passionfruits, and being in New Hampshire it's pretty obvious that this is something I don't see every day. I found them at Hannaford luckily. I had no idea what I was doing when I juiced these bad boys but I did the best I could. What a WEIRD texture!

I scooped out the insides of the passionfruits with a spoon and juiced them by hand. I used the edge of the peeler to get the seeds out of the star shapes (I did miss a few though!)

Star Fruit Upside Down Cake (from http://www.nikibone.com/recipe/fruit/starfruit.html)

3 to 4 star fruit, sliced

1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
juice of 2 passion fruit

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Arrange sliced star fruit in bottom of a greased 9 inch cake pan as close together as possible. Mix together 1/4 cup butter, brown sugar and passion fruit juice and pour into pan, turning so mixture covers bottom. Set aside.

Cream together 1/2 cup of butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well. Mix together dry ingredients. Add flour mixture, alternately with milk, to butter mixture. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until cake pulls away form sides of pan. Let cool for five minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

8 servings

It was not what I expected.. it turned out to be a really dense cake, but it was so, so good! We had it with scoops of rainbow sherbet :) Mmmm

Zucchini Bread

I picked up a monster of a zucchini from a farmer's cart the other day outside of my work. It sat in my fridge for days, during which it was constantly coming up in my thoughts. It's been sort of like this.

Zucchini: "Why haven't you eaten me yet??"

Me: "I'm too busy!!"

Zucchini: "I'm going to go bad soon, and you're going to be wasteful!"

Me: "Aaaaaagh!!"

I hate wasting food, and I think I hate eating bad-for-you foods even more. But I had to get this Zucchini out of my fridge so I pulled up an old recipe card of my grandmother's. This is not the same grandmother who loved to cook, this one is still alive and kicking in a nursing home out in MI. I don't have too many of her recipes, and this was a new one for me. It was actually really good. Probably because of the two cups of sugar that went into it :) I didn't do the two loaves, I did three of the mini loaves and a bunch of mini muffins. I'm not sure that the batter really is enough for two loaves, but I'll update next time I try it.

Anyways.. I'll post now!



Grandma Dz's Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
½ tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
½ cup nuts
½ cup raisins (I subbed for chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine sugar, zucchini, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil and vanilla, blending all ingredients together. Stir in nuts and raisins/choc chips. Pour batter into two 9x5x2 loaf pans and bake for about an hour.

Yields: 2 loaves