Not Merely Living

Recipe spotlight: Shells, Scallops, Bacon & Peas

I'm not really a recipe maker, but I love trying out new dishes. Viet is really a much better cook than me, so often he tries out new recipes that I think sound good.

Viet recently made a very yummy dinner for me. He adapted this recipe from Epicurious by Michael Chiarello with Penelope Wisner.

Since I'm allergic to shellfish, he made two separate versions--one with chicken and one with scallops.



This is the perfect dish for spring. It's got a great combination of flavors, and the bacon peans and shells go together nicely with the chicken.

Happy Almost Friday!

Valentines Cookies to Share

Are you wishing you had the perfect simple cookie recipe to make for your honey tonight?

I found it! I'm not really good at making my own recipes (except by accident), but I love trying out recipes I find online.

For Valentine's Day, I was looking for a simple sugar cookie recipe, and after digging around a bit I found this perfect recipe from the kitchn. Exactly the right match for my Red Heart Cookie Cutter!

 

 

I made a simple icing out of powered sugar and red food coloring. I wanted to kick it up just a notch.

 

Then I put in a few more drops to get some red icing:

I hope my coworkers will enjoy these today! Viet enjoyed the broken bits. :)

What's your favorite simple sugar cookie recipe?

Much love and Happy Valentine's Day!,

Mere 

 

Friday, Pie day

I want to share with you a tasty family Kentucky Derby pie recipe that is my go-to dessert all year long (but especially around the holidays). It is very simple to make. My kind of recipe.

I love chocolate. Alllll kinds of chocolate. If there are every dessert options and chocolate is one of them, and I always choose chocolate.

No strawberry or vanilla ice cream for me-just chocolate.

This recipe is the perfect cure for the chocolate sweet tooth. I made it for Thanksgiving, but like I said this is the kind of pie that (if you like chocolate) that's good to make for any occasion.

And depending how long you cook it, it can be served in more of a pecan pie consistency (gooey-my favorite) or a cookie pie sort of consistency or more of a biscotti consistency.

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of sugar

1/2 a cup of flour

1 tsp of vanilla

2 eggs

1 stick of margarine or butter (4 ounces or 8 Tbspns)

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 & 1/4 cup of chocolate chips

9 in pie crust (you can make your own crust or just use one of the pre-made crusts)

Before you get started making this pie, you want to try to melt the margarine and let it cool. This always annoys me because I'm not very good at being patient or tackling recipes where I have to do one step and then wait any period of time before the 2nd step, but this is worth it.

Mix the sugar and flour ingredients together in one bowl. Then blend the melted butter, eggs and vanilla well in a separate bowl. Slowly blend in the dry ingredients in with the wet ones. Then add in the vanilla. Then mix in the pecans and chocolate chips.

Bake at 345 degrees for 35-45 minutes depending on your preferred consistency. I stick a tooth pick down the middle to check the gooeyness.

And there you have it! Sorry I only have one crummy picture. I forgot to take a picture before I served it!

 

Gobblers!

Hi Everyone!

I'm getting excited for tomorrow. How about you?

I wanted to share with you this very easy and fun recipe for some special cookies that are easy and fun to make with kids this Thanksgiving.

Check out these cute little Gobblers!

I'm going to use these to accompany our place cards.

To make it all you need is:

oreos (these are double stuff)
chocolate frosting
hershey kisses
candy corn
red hots

I like to put the red hots, kisses and candy corn in bowls for easy access.

First,

Start with an oreo,

cover with frosting evenly (as much as possible).

Second,

add a kiss to the very edge.

Third,

Place four candy corns with the points towards the kiss arranged like feathers.

Fourth,

add a dab of frosting on the top of the front of the kiss (this is the glue for the red hot). You won't need as much as you would think you might.

Last,

Place the red hot on the frosting.

That's it! This is a very easy, fun treat to make for Thanksgiving.

Hope you enjoy!

Mere

 

Fried Pickle Recipe as promised

As promised, I want to share with you the tasty recipe for Fried Pickles that Kara made the other night.  Sorry I don't have pictures of them. I was too busy eating them as quickly as possible :).

She used this recipe from the Food Network as her base with a few extra additions (which I've highlighted below):

Ingredients

• 1 pint sliced dill pickles, undrained (Kara used dill pickle chips pre-sliced)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, plus 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Kara added cornmeal to the flour-this is KEY)
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (Kara kicked in some extra hot sauce :)
• 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons ground red pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Vegetable oil

Directions

Drain pickles, reserving 2/3-cup pickle juice. Press pickles between paper towels. Combine 2/3 cup pickle juice, egg, 1 tablespoon flour, and hot sauce. Stir well and set aside. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour with ground red pepper, garlic powder, salt, and paprika. Blend well. Dip pickles in egg mixture, then dredge in flour mixture. Fry coated pickles in 375-degree oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

And there they are! Thanks Food Network! They were DELISH.

 

Chilean Stewed Chicken

I lived with a woman in Chile for a while who made this delicious chicken. The recipe isn't exact--it's pretty much just from my memory. It's a very easy recipe. I've made it a couple of times, and it always turns out delicious. Stop reading if you don't like chicken. ;)

These are the ingredients I use:

• 1 whole chicken
• 8 medium tomatoes
• 1 box of chicken broth
• 1-2 cups of water
• 4 bell peppers ( 2 red and 2 green)
• 2 large onion
• several cloves of garlic
• a dash of olive oil

Take a whole chicken and cut into eighths.  It's best to remove the skin. I didn't do that this time, but I should have.

Chop onion finely and sauté in olive oil. I'm not sure why I only took pictures pre-chopping:

In a large pot put the chicken broth, water and chicken.

Also chop peppers and tomatoes.

In the large pot add in the chopped tomatoes, peppers and sauteed onions. Add in chopped/pressed garlic and some salt.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 2-3 hours. I usually bring it back up to a rolling boil for the last 30 minutes or so.

Use broth to make rice.

Ta dah! This doesn't look that appetizing, but I promise it's tasty.

 

Double Date Dinner Party & My Go To Veggie Casserole

Flowers from the front yard and table settings Viet brought me from India. I loves them.

On Monday are friends Tim and Fanny (FOH) came over for dinner. I learned how to make a Zucchini Casserole when I lived in Chile. The recipe has changed and adapted to this Veggie Casserole/Fritta. I make it pretty often because I generally hate leftovers, but this reheats really well.  It's not really thatttt healthy, but it tastes healthy. I don't take exact measurements in terms of the cheese and bread crumbs, but this is my best estimate.

Ingredients:

• 10 small zucchinis
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese
• splash of olive oil
• 1/2 cup of shredded parmesano

Chop all the vegetables to taste. I've made it with bigger pieces, and I've put them all in the food processor too. I prefer somewhere in between. I like the vegetables to still be discernible but not so big that any one bite would be overwhelmed by any single vegetable.

chopped zucchini and carrots

ha. i don't know why i thought it would be a good idea to take pictures pre-chopping. I'm still getting the hang of this :) :

onion, red pepper and green pepper

Then I put a splash of olive oil in a large frying pan and add in all the veggies. If your pan isn't big enough, you may have to saute the vegetables in batches.

oops. forgot to take pictures of the next step. Once the veggies are soft and cooked through. Turn heat off and let them sit.

In a large bowl mix six eggs, milk, 1 cup of cheese, and bread crumbs. Then add in the vegetables and mix thoroughly.

Pour mixture into a pan (I use a rectangular one), pour other cup of mozarella on the top and put into the oven to bake at 350 degrees:

Bake for ~45 minutes. I just keep an eyes out until it's golden brown on top.

Then I pull the casserole out and spread the shredded parmesano on top.

and Voila!

no fancy plating around here :)

I also made a blueberry pie, but it failed miserably. . . soooo I'll save that recipe until I can figure out how to make it right. :)

happy eating!

Mere

 

What do Crunch wrap supremes and giant pinatas shaped like coronas have in common?

They're the best way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!!

Last Thursday we decided to have an impromptu gathering of  friends over to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and share home-made crunch wrap supremes. Our friends Curry and Pedro showed us how to make these, and they are Amazing. These are warm, tasty and self-contained.

Necessary Ingredients:

• Burrito sized tortillas (~13.5" in diameter)
• tostadas
• ground meat or meat substitute of choice
• taco seasoning of choice :)

Plus whatever fixins you would like. We used:

• black beans
• guacamole (key)
• sour cream
• shredded lettuce
• chopped tomatoes
• shredded cheese
• hot sauce
• salsa
• jalapenos

1. Take a large Burrito sized tortilla (~13.5" in diamter)

You can put the fixins together really however you would like, but my approach is:

2. I put most of the cold fixins down first. In the center of the burrito, I spread guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and hot sauce (if desired).

3. Next put on the tostada

4. Then I add in the two main ingredients: ground meat or meat substitute and beans.

5. On top of the beans, I put shredded cheese (so it will melt :) and then a dob of sour cream and jalapenos on top (if desired).

6. Next is the artistic part. You want to fold the tortilla in to the center point by point like a pinwheel. Once all folded, we grill on a cast iron skillet. We use a cast iron to press the crunch wrap. Once lightly toasted on each side, it's ready to eat!

Unfortunately, I was too busy cooking to take pictures, so these are pictures from the last time we made them:

Glorious

handheld like a burger but better! no drippage!

Here are pictures from our fiesta on Thursday:

the beautiful backyard:

Pinata!

Shap and BG

Will and Mizokamis

We wrapped the bottom of the crunch crap in tin foil to make it easy to hold and eat.

happy eater (aka Andrew)

this picture makes me feel lucky. happy moments

Handsome Friend-Neighborz

Pinata pre-destruction

MIghty Bunky up to Bat

she swings

and that's all it took :)

Andrew and Janet

It was a glorious night. :)

I hope this becomes an annual event.