Creamy Grilling Sauce

Source:  Hellman's Mayo

1 c mayonnaise
2 T snipped oil packed sun dried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 t dried basil

Mix ingredients together.  Brush half the sauce onto 4 chicken breast halves, burgers or steaks.  (I used chicken breasts).  Grill or broil meat.  Serve with remaining sauce.

So you say this is not much of a recipe?  Give me a break guys, I trying to ease back into things.  I have also been getting a big box of vegetables each week from my CSA, so I constantly need ways to make chicken breasts to go with all the produce I am trying to use every day.

Obviously, this was a very easy meal to put together.  The fattiness of the mayo made the sauce melt during the grilling, keeping the chicken breast moist.  The little chunks of garlic and sundried tomatoes in the sauce caramelized nicely.  Made for a messy grill pan though.

This was a good meal.  A nice "pantry meal" -- you'd have all these ingredients in your house, and does jazz up a traditional grilled chicken breast.  I did not care for the leftover sauce put on the chicken -- that overwhelming uncooked mayo flavor was just overwhelming, so I would suggest put all the sauce on the meat during grilling, let that raw mayo flavor melt/cook off, and you'll have a delicious and easy meal.

Fried Green Tomatillos

Source:  Sunny Anderson

1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c Greek yogurt
1/4/ c honey
hot sauce to taste

6 green tomatillos
1 c flour
1 c buttermilk
salt
pepper
1 c plain breadcrumbs
1c cornmeal
garlic powder
chili powder
fresh thyme

Sauce:  mix all ingredients together.

Tomatillos:  Slice tomatillos 1/2 " thick.  Lay them on a plate and season both sides with salt.  Let rest 10 minutes.  Pat dry with papertowels.
Combine flour and pinch of salt in a shallow dish.  Pour buttermilk into second shallow dish.  In third shallow dish, add breadcrumbs, cornmeal, garlic powder, salt, chili powder and salt.  Dredge tomatillo slices in flour.  Shake off excess.  Dip slices in buttermilk, then press both sides in cornmeal mixture.
Pour enough oil into a large saute pan to coat the bottom.  Heat over medium heat until oil begins to shimmer.  Fry coated tomatillo slices in batches, taking care not to crowd the pan, 2-3 minutes on each sides.

ingredient note:  You can get tomatillos at most grocery stores.  They sort of look like green tomatoes.  But.  As all of us who have ever watched Food Network know,  tomatillos are not related to tomatoes.  In fact, they are related to gooseberries.  They look pretty neat with their papery husks.  I found my tomatillos slightly sticky inside the husk.

 This is what a tomatillo looks like.  Pretty cool looking, huh?

And this is what they look like slice.  See, not related to the tomato.

Ever since I saw the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, I've been intrigued by recipes of this sort.  My dislike for tomatoes has stopped me every making it before. The fact that this recipe uses tomatillos (which look like freaky alien berries) just clinched it for me. I had to try it!

The recipe is fairly straightforward.  I always make a disaster with breading -- my fingertips end up wearing little dough"covers", there is flour everywhere -- it's a mess.  Also, I my ratio of cornmeal to breadcrumbs was 1 to 3 (third of a cup of cornmeal to one cup of breadcrumbs) -- instead of half and half.  I don't care for the texture of a cornmeal crust, so I wanted to downplay that.  The whole frying is always a disaster for me too -- the smell of oil, hot oil blah blah blah  (would be so much easier with a deep fryer, but I refuse to get that kind of temptation into my home).  So the recipe makes a mess.

The crust is crispy and flaky and perfect.  Once you bite into these you'll never doubt again that the tomatillos are related to gooseberries.  They are extremely tart.  The dipping sauce is PERFECT for this.  I thought that the 1/4 c of honey was an overkill -- you need every bit of sweetness.  And the heavy creaminess of the sauce is also great to balance out the acidity of the tomatillos.

And below is a picture of my daughter enjoying them:

Banana Mini-Chip Muffins

Source: Splenda

2 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 c butter softened
1/2 c Splenda sugar blend
1/3 c Splenda Brown sugar blend
1 t vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas mashed
1 large egg
12 oz package of semi- sweet chocolate mini chips

Preheat oven to 350

Spray 48 mini muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray (or line them with muffin cups -- as I did).  Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Combine butter, sugar blend and brown sugar blend and vanilla in large bowl.  Beat until creamy.  Beat in bananas and egg.  Gradually mix in flour mixture.  Stir in morsels.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake 15-30 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes in pan; cool on wire rack completely.

Yes.  My oven is back.  So I am back to baking, baking, baking.  YEAH!!!   I am not a huge artificial sweetener fan.  I am aware of all the studies etc. that state that they are actually worse for you then regular sugar.  But mostly, I am a believer in just eating natural foods, with as little processed and artificial components as possible.  With that said, I was drawn to this recipe -- the little choco-banana muffins sounded delicious.  If I could figure out how to substitute sugar for the Splenda bled, I would have.  I was worried that it might change the texture or taste of the recipe as it was clearly formulated with Splenda in mind.

Obviously, easy to make -- just throw things in a mixer.  I used regular chocolate chips -- mostly b/c I didn't pay attention to the recipe calling for mini-chips.  It turned out fine.  The recipe says it makes 48 mini muffins -- for me, it made 61, and I didn't underfill my muffin cups.

These are tasty little two bite muffins -- the banana taste is very pronounced, with the chocolate chips providing creamy little bitter-sweet surprises.  A solid option for using up mushy overripe bananas.

Ultimate Party Wings

Source:  Oceanspray Cranberry Jelly

1 12 oz bottle of chili sauce
1 can of jellied cranberry sauce
24 chicken wing drummettes

Over medium heat cook chili sauce and cranberry sauce until smooth and bubbly.

Heat oven to 375.  Place chicken drummettes on baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Brush with 2/3 of sauce.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Turn drummettes over, brush other side with remaining sauce and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes.

I finally got my new stove today, including 2(!!!) fully functioning ovens.   I was eager to try it out.  I didn't have the patience to make anything elaborate.  I wanted to make something right away.

So here is this recipe.  A riff on the chili sauce /grape jelly meatball party favorite.  And I love chicken wings.

Easy to make.

Pretty tasty.  Although if I were to make it again, I would bake the wings at a higher temperature first to get a nice crust on them.  Or at the end turn the temperature up to get some caramelization on the wings.

All in all -- good, but nothing special.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Source:  McCormick

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
1 c canned pumpkin
1/4 c oil
1/4 c water
3 eggs
1.5 t ground cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients together.  Spoon batter into 24 muffin cups.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

There is a cream cheese frosting recipe that goes with this, but I am not a frosting fan so I didn't make it.  It also gave me an excuse of calling these pumpkin muffins and pretending that they were healthy :)

I am still having issues with my oven, but this morning it turned on by some miracle, so I decided to take the opportunity to bake something.  I also came upon my frozen pumpkin puree in the freezer.  Last year I roasted a few pumpkins, and froze the roasted puree -- so I use that instead canned pumpkin.  And, just read last week's post re: cake mixes and puddings in dessert recipes.

This recipe could not be easier.  Just dump everything in the mixer, and scoop into the muffin cups.  Bake.  Ready.

Delicious.  Easy.  Not super unique, not super creative, but simple, easy to make and tasty.  Very light yet velvety texture.  Distinct pumpkin flavor with subtle notes of the spices.  Would be perfect addition to a Thanksgiving  breakfast, or a Fall brunch.

Pineapple Banana Hummingbird Mini Loaves

Source:  Pineapple can

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
4 eggs
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, drained, 1 cup liquid reserved
2 medium bananas well mashed
1/2 c chopped pecans
1 t cinnamon

Preheat 350 F

Combine cakes mix, dry instant pudding, cinnamon, reserved pineapple juice, eggs and oil for two minutes. or until blended.  Add crushed pineapple,  bananas and nuts, mix until just blended.
Pour prepared batter into 5 mini loaf pans sprayed with nonstick spray.
Bake 40 miutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely.

I know my posts have been spotty lately.  And there really haven't been many dessert recipes, despite my self proclaimed fondness for them.  Blame some hecticness in my personal life, but mostly, blame my oven.  It's been having issues ....such as not turning on, or turning on intermittently.  It's hard to bake that way.  Nevertheless, I took another shot at it today.

I am always looking for recipes using standard cake mixes.  Things that jazz them up, and make them seem/taste like real home made desserts.  As a side note, really, how hard is it to throw together the dry mix of a cake batter ....so why we think it's such a time saver??  But I did have high hopes that the pudding would give the cake a rich and velvety texture.  I also had some ripe, very ripe bananas and was excited to find a recipe other than a banana bread to use them in.  I was picking my daughter up from her grandparents today, and thought it would be nice to take a little something for them, and this dessert looked perfect for it.  Finally, who doesn't like anything baked in a mini loaf pan.  I mean how cute are they??  And, surely, there cannot be many calories in such a teeny tiny little slice,  right?  So you can have 2, 3......

So obviously, this was a ridiculously easy recipe to put together. You just dump everything in the mixer, and then you throw it in the oven.  Could not be simpler.

Mine took just a little bit longer than 40 minutes to bake - -but then again, I have issues with my oven.

So this is very good.  Distinct banana flavor but not as pronounces and one tone as in a regular banana bread.  Has a lovely rich texture (most likely from the vanilla pudding), and the occasional bite of pineapple provides little bursts of freshness and tartness.  Excellent variation on a standard banana bread, would be nice addition to a brunch.

Pork and Lemongrass Meatballs in Lettuce Cups

Source:  Bon Appetit Magazine

Meatballs:
1 lb ground pork
1 lemongrass stalk
1/4 c chopped shallots
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 T fish sauce
2 chopped garlic cloves
1 T vegetable oil
1 t sugar
1/2 t ground white pepper

Dipping Sauce:
1 lemongrass stalk
1/4 c fresh lime juice
1/4 c fish sauce
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 T grated carrot
4 t brown sugar
2 t minced Thai chiles


2 T vegetable oil
1 head butter lettuce leaves
1 small Persian cucumber (confession: I don't know what a Persian cucumber is.  I used an English cucumber.  I think that was a good choice -- a regular cucumber would have too much liquid to work in this recipe.)

Chill pork in freezer while making lemongrass paste.  Obviously, I didn't have to mess with this using the lemongrass from a tube.  So I just put the pork in the freezer for like 10 -15 minutes.  It's less greasy that way, and easier to work with.  Combine all the ingredient for the meatballs in a food processor with the exception of the pork.  Pulse until paste forms.  Add the pork -- pulse until just blended. Please, don't turn it on and let it rip -- it'll turn into a gummy mushy liquidy paste that will never become meatball "material".  Form 24 meatballs.  Put them on a baking sheet.  Cover;  chill at least one hour or up to one day.  I actually left the meatballs in the fridge for 2 days, and day turned out great.

Make lemongrass past from other lemongrass stalk.  Add lime juice, fish sauce, cilantro, sugar and chile to bowl, whisk until sugar dissolves.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add meatballs, brown until cooked through, turning occasionally, about 15 minutes.

To assemble:  take lettuce leaf, place meatball in it, garnish with cucumber and drizzle with dipping sauce.

By now most of you know that I am drawn to recipes that have either an unfamiliar ingredient, or a new technique or both.  Lemongrass is something I have never worked with before.  I've always thought it would be an interesting ingredient to work with.  I've seen people on TV just whacking on it like no ones business.

Also, who doesn't like lettuce wraps, right?  And finally, meatballs -- little bite size meatballs?  Delicious and fun, right?  And the perfect summer meal with fresh crunch lettuce leaves.

My grocery store did not carry lemongrass.  I guess I should have looked at Whole Foods, or an Asian grocery store.  But, the grocery store did have  already minced lemongrass in a tube. Look, I know it's not like a fresh one, but at least they had the ingredient, and I figured that way at least I won't be randomly chopping at some woody lemongrass stalks.

I didn't have any trouble finding fish sauce.  In fact, I already had it at home, used it in some previous recipe.  I think it tastes like soy sauce with a slight fishy undertone.

I also prepared the meatballs on Sunday, and let them chill overnight so that I could prepare them for dinner on Monday.  Most of the time consuming work of chopping, pulsing, rolling ... most of that I got done on Sunday when I had more time to cook.  And I will tell you, I didn't actually cook the meatballs until Wednesday night b/c that's when I I had time.

It wasn't heard to make.  At all.  Just a little focus to get everything mixed, chopped, prepped.  The meatballs ROCKED.  So flavorful, so delicious.  Actually, this same recipe meatball would work with pasta and sauce as well.  I think the fact that there were no breadcrumbs or eggs in it made the meatballs richer and more flavorful, and the fish sauce and lemongrass just punches up the flavor like nothing else.

The dipping sauce is absolutely fabulous -- they say that Thai food expertly combines all major tastes in one bite -- that's definitely true of this dipping sauce -- it's sour from the lime juice and lemongrass (and I went a little nuts with the lemongrass b/c I had trouble measuring it);  very salty and savory from the fish sauce, and sweet b/c of the brown sugar (BTW, I know it sounds like a lot of sugar -- the sauce needs every bit of it).  The cilantro add a little something something, and the carrots are mellow and add a delicious crunch.  I omitted the Thai chiles b/c I was afraid that it would be too hot for my three year old daughter -- I think the sauce would have benefitted from the sauce, and at the end of the day, I just served the meatballs "naked" to my daughter, so I definitely wish  there was a bit of heat in the sauce.

I won't lie -- it's a big mess trying to eat this dish.  But it is very delicious, and well worth the time it takes to make it, and the stains on your shirt :)  And I am going to keep that meatball recipe and use it for my regular meatballs.