Tag Archives: pesto

Inspiration: If you need some, open your eyes!

21 Jul

Last night I was at the grocery store after a pretty long day. I was tired, hungry, tired and hungry (uh, wait….okay I already said that….that’s how tired and hungry I was).

I needed to buy something for dinner last night as well as something for dinner tonight, as I’m having a couple of friends over and one is a vegetarian.  I headed over to the cold case where I knew they kept the tofu (just wait to see what I’m making with it! I’ll post the full method tomorrow, after I’ve made it).  As I walked over there, I saw a little “turn style” (not sure what it’s really called), on top of this podium thingy (real specific, Siir’, thanks!)…..

I thought to myself, I wonder why they are selling seed packets next to the tofu?  Right.  That makes sense. So I looked again and realized it was a rotating kiosk full of recipe cards!  And the podium had a reference guide-book on it with divider tabs that showed how to cook every kind of meat and vegetable! I could NOT believe my eyes. Here are some free resources for EVERYONE to use, just sitting there in this little corner. I have been in that store at least 100 times and have NEVER seen it sitting there.

So, of course I took full advantage of what I saw.

Here’s a list of recipe cards I picked up to try:

Grilled Halibut Raspberry Vinaigrette
Chive and Rosemary Filet Mignon
Roasted Cauliflower Gratin
Baba Ghanoush
Minty Watermelon Salad
Brussels Sprouts Vinaigrette
Sweet Ginger Carrots

Tonight I’m making the Sweet Ginger Carrots to go with the tofu and then I’m doing a Kale pesto pasta salad. Can you say YUM?

For the tofu, I’m going to bake it like it’s my crispy baked chicken (the same recipe that I used for my Food Network YouTube Challenge Video) and just sub out the chicken for tofu, and reduce the amount of yogurt so it doesn’t get soggy (I drained it last night).

I’ll show you how I did it tomorrow!

Next time you’re at the grocery store, keep your eyes peeled for these cool, free resources.  Most stores have something of this nature, whether in the deli, butcher counter or produce department.  When you are short on inspiration, borrow some!

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Spring and Summer easy entertainers: Dip it

9 Jun

I just found out that the King Arthur Flour Company has a food blog: Baking Banter.  I am really liking it!

They have a whole series of fun, easy dip ideas I had to share with you for three reasons:

  1. I’m REALLY hungry right now and they make me want to bite my screen.
  2. They’re easy to make and cheap, and you probably already have some of the stuff needed at home.
  3. You can improvise which means you don’t need to necessarily follow the recipe to a T, which is always a requirement for me!

So the first one I wanted to share from their blog is their pesto, made with parsley rather than basil. Don’t cringe yet, it’s actually fresh and green tasting, and still just as satisfying. Check it out:

Parsley Pesto

image credit to King Arthur Flour Company

For the whole post about the method and what they used, check it out here!

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You are what you eat: Cucina Fresca Pasta

1 Jan

Hey friends!

A while back I got the chance to try some great products from Cucina Fresca, and I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas with you all.

First let me say I LOVE pasta, duh, I’m a woman. We love to carbo load, it’s in our DNA. Shocking, I know.

Second, I have to tell you, it’s hard to screw up pasta, but it’s easy to make it underwhelming, so I had set the bar pretty high for the products that were sent over to me.

To start, I want to share a short video I took of all the products:

I have already tried many, if not most of the things they sent over, but have kept a few for the next rainy day I find myself at home.

Here’s a peek at what I did with their smoked Guyere Mac and Cheese:

I took it out of the container it came in and put it into a glass pyrex (that way when I had leftovers, i could snap on the rubber top that goes to this and take it for lunch the next day, one dish, no fuss.)

About 5 minutes before it was done baking, (BTW: You can do it in the microwave if you want to) I added stirred it and added breadcrumbs to the top to brown.  I think my oven was a bit off, because it didn’t brown as much as I wanted, and the cheese didn’t get as bubbly as I’d hoped it would.

I checked with my contacts at Cucinca Fresca, and it sounds like my lack of browning and cheesiness was an operator error type situation, so I’ll try again! (I have another box in the freezer!)

I finished it off with some white truffle oil and sea salt, it was heavenly. YUM. What’s not to like, right?

Since then, I have also completely gobbled up the butternut squash ravioli and the pear & blue cheese ravioli, as well as the basil cream sauce, the Fettuccini (sp? I’m horrible!) and the smoked tomato sauce. SO GOOD.

I still have the gluten free penne to try on Paul, with their basic Marinara and I think a pack of angel hair pasta and one other sauce? I’ll have to double check. At any rate, stay tuned for more reviews on what seems to be a great line of tasty pasta products. Locally made, by a green concious company.

(geez, now I’m getting hungry!)

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Dinner Date: Dina’s Goat Cheese Strata – I did it!

22 Dec

Hi gang,

So if you recall, a few weeks ago, Lori (my friend and boss) sent over a great recipe for this goat cheese strata thingy (it’s not as complicated as it sounds).

Well, fast forward to a little over a week ago: I made it for our wine tasting holiday party here at the office, and wanted to share my experience with you!

First, let me remind you of the recipe:

Cut very top off head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil, bake in oven at 400 for one hour until soft.

Ingredients:
One half pound cream cheese @ room temp,
One half pound goat cheese @ room temp
Salt and pepper
One half cup sundried tomato pesto,
One third cup basil pesto

How to make:
1. Mix the cheeses together well, divide evenly into three small bowls.
2. In first, squeeze the roasted garlic and mix well with the cheese blend adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. In the second bowl, add the sun dried tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.
4. In the third, mix the basil pesto and add salt (*careful not to overdo if your pesto already is well salted) pepper.
5. In a 3 cup ramekin or bowl, line with dampened cheese cloth. Spoon basil mix onto bottom and smooth with spatula.
6. Next, put the roasted garlic on top of the basil layer and smooth with a spatula, followed by the tomato layer.
7. Fold excess cloth over the strata. Refrigerate at least one hour…better at 2 or 3 hours.
8. To serve, unfold the cloth and invert onto platter, carefully peel cloth off the cheese….serve with crackers, bread, bagels, pita, or veggies.
***makes three cups

Now, it says you can do this in a ramekin or bowl…I’m dumb, saw only the word ramekin, and thought, “I don’t have one, so I’ll improvise and use a tart pan! YAY!”

(first layer with pesto)

Dumb. So dumb. Don’t do this, okay?

(second layer that’s supposed to have roasted garlic in it, but I forgot it at the store and was too lazy to go back, so it’s just the two cheese mixture)

Here’s what happened, it turned out great, don’t get me wrong, but it made the layers incredibly thin and hard to spread. So I had to heat up each mixture to spread it over the top of the previous layer, and be VERY CAREFUL. It went fine in the end, and it was tasty, but I have to tell you, I could have really screwed it up easily.

(final, third layer with sundried tomatoes. This was supposed to be sundried tomato pesto, but I could not find that, and I bought my ingredients at Costco, so I just made do!)

So, my advice is to make this in a bowl, like Dina said, not do what I did, and completely ignore the directions. Right. Check. Done and done.

Also, because I’m a spaz, I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but really it just looks like the first picture, because the layers are so thin that you only see the pesto layer when it’s turned out.

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Dinner Date: Goat Cheese Strata

29 Oct

This morning, my boss sent over a great recipe that her friend brought to dinner last night at her house.

She said, “Okay, so we had some guest over last night and they brought an appetizer that was AMAZING!  Dina swears that it’s easy to do and can be done mostly in advance. It was so good, that I’m passing this recipe on to you.”

I’m going to make this for my pumpking gutting get together this weekend at the house. I will take pictures, but no promises it’s going to turn out good! (although I’m sure the taste will be great no matter what!)

Goat Cheese Strata

Cut very top off head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil, bake in oven at 400 for one hour until soft.

Ingredients: 
1/2lb. cream cheese @ room temp
1/2lb. goat cheese @ room temp
Salt and pepper
1/2C. sundried tomato pesto
1/3C. basil pesto

How to make:
1. Mix the cheeses together well, divide evenly into three mixing bowls.
2. In first bowl, squeeze the roasted garlic and mix well with the cheese blend adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. In the second bowl, add the sun dried tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.
4. In the third bowl, mix the basil pesto and add salt (*careful not to overdo if your pesto already is well salted) and pepper.
5. In a 3 cup ramekin/bowl/small cassarole, line with dampened cheese cloth. Spoon basil mix onto bottom and smooth with spatula.
6. Next, put the roasted garlic on top of the basil layer and smooth with a spatula, followed by the tomato layer.
7. Fold excess cloth over the strata. Refrigerate at least one hour…better at 2 or 3 hours.
8. To serve, unfold the cloth and invert onto platter, carefully peel cloth off the cheese….serve with crackers, bread, bagels, pita, or veggies.
***makes three cups

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