Clearly, I used to LOVE to cook!! This looks like an old post from our Teasdale days that never got published. ENJOY

I don't get to cook as much in the summertime since I am a seasonal employee. However, I did opt for a Bountiful Basket this week and I've been hotfooting it around the kitchen so I don't let anything go to waste. On this particular afternoon, I made this:




Thai-basil, turkey meatballs
1 pound ground turkey
basil
1/4 c siracha chili sauce
3 tbs soy sauce
scallions
ginger
2 small eggs
1 c bread crumbs

 I used an old loaf of fresh baked white bread. I cut about 6 slices into cubes and toasted them in the over for about 20 minutes before transferring them into the processor.

In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. Roll into balls, transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

Arugula pesto
1 bunch arugula
toasted almonds
garlic
parmesean cheese
olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a food processor and voila!

I also made greek yogurt and lemon dip, roasted red-pepper hummus,  peach gazpacho and lentil soup. It's been fun and reminds me how much I love being in the kitchen. It totally rejuvenates me and allows me to be creative and express myself. Thus, feeling a little lighter and not so tense today. I am thankful for the bounty I received this week and look forward to doing it again soon.

I Like Killing Flies....

I was looking through an old journal of mine and I found the quote:

"There is a sexual friction that occurs when you put the wrong food in the wrong dish. That's the basis of fusion cooking. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't."

It took me a second until I realized that it was Kenny Shopsin from the documentary "I Like Killing Flies". The quote is not verbatim and Kenny actually uses quite a few more cuss words in his actual quote, but I only wrote down what I thought was important. This guy is eccentric, but he seems to speak the truth. A wise old soul in his knowledge of culinary arts. I'd call him a realist.

Check out his book EAT ME.

Lasagna Secrets

My vegetarian friend came over for dinner the other night. Anytime I am entertaining a vegetarian guest, I tend to pull out the lasagna guns. In this instance, I had foolproof roasting veggies on hand. We've got some chanterelle mushrooms, garlic, eggplant, button mushrooms and tomatoes. Mmmmmm, here we go.

Coat the veggies in olive oil and roasted red pepper flakes (that is one of my secret ingredients). Sometimes if I have it, I use a DAB (just a dab) of chili paste. Roast the veggies at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Oven temps and cooking times vary so check on them often. Try not to over cook them or they will dry out.

roasted veggies (experiment, have fun)
1 bunch spinach
3 cloves garlic
1 tbs butter
1 16 oz container of cottage cheese or ricotta (I usually use cottage cheese because I have it on hand)
parmesean, mozzarella, asiago blend
1 pkg whole wheat lasagna noodles (cooked)
1 jar of homemade marinara sauce (or whatever brand you prefer)
3 tbs homemade kalamata olive tapenade
1 half of an onion
1 egg

Meanwhile, saute butter, garlic and 1/4 of the onion in a medium sized frying pan. Add spinach and saute until cooked. Remove from heat and put aside.

In a mixing bowl, add egg, cottage cheese, a little bit of the cheese blend, spinach mixture and tapenade. Stir together and set aside.

Saute the remaining 1/4 onion in butter until carmelized. Add the marinara sauce and season to taste.

Take a 13x9 inch casserole dish and put some marinara sauce on the very bottom. Lay noodles on top of that, then your cheese mixture, veggies, more sauce, mozzarella blend and then repeat the layers until you run out of ingredients, or room.

Yes, please!

Persimmon Bread Pudding

I received some persimmons in my Bountiful Basket this week. Yuck. I cut one up one time and added it to a salad and it was horrible. Well, I'd never dealt with them before. I didn't know that they need to be uber ripe in order to consume them without spitting up all over the place. Now that I have all of these persimmons, what to do? What to do? For one thing, I guess I will wait until they are ripe enough, which means pret-ty squi-shy.

I have my ripe persimmons and so far, research on the internet brings me to pudding upon pudding recipe. Wait, bread pudding?! What? I love bread pudding. I'm from the south, DUH! I used a random recipe I found online as a guideline but mixed and matched and added my own touches. This is what I came up with.

3 cups persimmon pulp (in order to get the pulp, just peel the skin away from the fruit and drop the squishy part into a bowl and puree)
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
8 cups cubed bread (Italian loaf)
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tbs butter (cut into bits)
1 cup currants (feel free to use raisins, golden raisins, cranberries or whatever dried fruit you have on hand)

Whisk together milk, persimmon puree, brown sugar, eggs, currants, vanilla and salt. Add the bread cubes, coat completely, then let it sit for about 20 minutes. Stir the nuts into the mixture and transfer to the baking dish. I used a 13x9 incher. Strategically place the butter bits on top of the pudding, then into the oven she goes!

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes until it looks perfectly, golden brown. This recipe can be made a day ahead and reheated at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The result was spectacular. The best dessert I've ever made. Easy. I love persimmons! I am excited to make my next batch. Just waiting on them to ripen up. I enjoyed this tasty dessert with chai ice cream! *Bliss*

Chicken breasts with artichokes, stuffing, parmesean cheese....should I go on?

I borrowed a cookbook from a friend of mine that loves to cook almost more than I do. It's the Southern Living Cookbook published in 1999. The original recipe was titled "Swiss Chicken and Artichokes with Dressing". First of all, whenever I think of artichokes I am reminded of the beautiful fields that blanket the northern California coastline. Countless times I can recall yelling as we passed thorough the little towns "look at all the artichokes!" The recipe sounded delicious, looked amazing and I couldn't wait to try it. Been saving it for a special occasion, actually. The special occasion in this case just happened to be the return of my Wildland Firefighting husband who has been gone for two weeks! I of course tampered with the recipe a bit and this is what I came up with. The results were out of this world.

1 carrot
1 small onion
1 green bell pepper
16 oz of homemade vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of white wine
1 box of Stovetop cornbread stuffing
2 pieces of bread (cut into cubes)
1 8oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 8oz can artichoke hearts
2 large chicken breasts
2 eggs (beaten)
5 sprigs of parsley

Above is exactly what I used. The original recipe calls for different ingredients, like celery and cream of celery soup. I just used what I had on hand and I'm sure it would be fine if you did the same.

First, dice the onion, carrot and bell pepper. Saute in butter until tender. Add the box of stuffing mix and bread cubes. Stir around for a moment before transporting it to a casserole dish. Add the vegetable stock and eggs to the mixture.

Meanwhile, brown the chicken breasts for about 3-4 minutes on each side. My breasts were quite large, and I had two of them. (HA!) Seriously though, I imagine if you have smaller ones they won't need as long.

Drain the artichokes and rinse with water. Arrange them on top of the stuffing and add the browned chicken breasts to the top of that.

Mix cream of mushroom soup with white wine and parsley. Mix together and pour over the chicken.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Uncover, grate parmesean over the top and bake for 10 more minutes.

Casserole aside, I also prepared a gorgeous salad of butter lettuce, tomato, cucumber, grated carrot, radish and cumin seed cheese. I also set the table with glasses have full of ice and cherry juice. Garnished with a sprig of mint and a lemon wedge to be topped off with Limonata.

He looked happy! Welcome home, handsome...

Avocado Fries? Really?

When I saw the recipes for baked or fried avocado fries on Pinterest, I thought to myself, yeah right. They must have some sort of special machine to make those with. It would be terribly hard, messy and yuck. No thanks. Ideally, it sounded good but imagining the process was enough for me to keep looking. As many of you Pinterest users know, things get flashed before you quite often. Even if you aren't interested in them. As goes for the story of the avocado fries. My new favorite recipe. My gosh, and so easy to make you would not believe! The basic recipe is here but I made mine quite differently.

In one bowl I beat 2 eggs with a little bit of milk. One recipe calls for heavy cream. I would have used that if I'd had it on hand. In another bowl I mixed corn meal, flax meal, smoked paprika, Old Bay seasoning and salt and pepper.

Cut and slice the avocado into spears. They don't need to be perfect and I actually preferred the smaller bits. Dip and dip. Wet mixture to dry mixture and lay onto a foil covered sheet pan (I sprayed mine with cooking spray). Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Turn them over, heat the oven up to 450 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes. What you have in the end is magical. The slices stay in tact, have a delicious crust and are just delightful. Far from what I was imagining would happen if I attempted to bake avocado.

To accompany my fries, I mixed up some cilantro with mayonnaise and lemon juice. I also saved a slice of lemon to squeeze over the fries. Serious yum.

Rape Van for Sale!

I found this article way too amusing. Not just because it has bad words in it (come on, you know poop jokes are funny) but more so because of the anti-feminist undertones. Sarcastically, of course. Some of the band names are totally hot and I'm sure these musicians get a lot of airtime strictly because their name is "TWAT KICK" or whatever. I named my band "Rape Van for Sale" and I want YOU to be in it. Awesome van picture, though. Really, whoever owns this van, I must buy it for my tour bus.