Boozy Berries

Source: Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients
Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and/or strawberries!
sugar
wine (IGE suggests petite sirah)
Vanilla ice cream or vanilla fro yo

Instructions
Soak the berries in wine and sugar in the refrigerator. Put over vanilla fro yo/ice cream!

Well I tried this but I forgot to put the sugar in! So the berries weren't very sweet and as my mom pointed out, berries aren't very sweet yet. It wasn't bad though, I will have to try again and add the sugar!

Grilled Corn Orzo Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette

Source: Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients 

1 cup orzo, uncooked

2 ears sweet corn

1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved (or NONE!)

1 avocado, chopped (I used two because I love avocado!)

1/4 small red onion, minced

2 Tablespoons chopped basil (necessary)

Chili Lime Vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon honey

Juice of 1 lime

1/4 teaspoon chili powder (plus a little extra if you like it)

Salt & pepper

Directions

Cook orzo according to directions. 

Grill the corn, with or without the husk, however you like it!

Combine cooked orzo and corn kernels with tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and basil in a large bowl and stir to combine.

For the Chili Lime Vinaigrette: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, and whisk to combine. Pour over salad and toss to coat. Serve chilled, or at room temperature. I prefer chilled!

I loved this side dish. I don't usually have orzo so it was fun to cook with a new pasta. The only thing I would change next time is no cherry tomatoes! I just don't like them and as many times as I try them I just don't like them. I put them in this time because I knew some family members would enjoy them but next time, no. I got to take the leftovers home with me and I had some for dinner tonight. The grilled corn is so yummy and chunks of avocado...yes this is definitely a keeper!

Baked Zucchini Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip

Source: King Arthur Flour

I was in Yakima this weekend celebrating my friend Jessica's wedding to Kevin. It was a beautiful and very fun wedding :) On Sunday we had Grandpa and Grandma DeShaw down for a BBQ, Kelly made salmon on cedar planks with no fishy taste, mmmm! Jenni made a fruit salad (surprise surprise) and I made a cold orzo salad, zucchini sticks and boozy berries for dessert. Millie brought down her famous bacon wrapped sausages (so delicious) and cookies! And yogurt covered pretzels. We feasted!

Ingredients

Zucchini Sticks

3-4 medium zucchini

salt

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or the already grated king)

1 tablespoon mixed Italian herbs (you can use pizza seasonings too)

2 large eggs

Sweet Onion Dip

1 medium sweet onion, sliced

butter, salt and sugar for carmelization

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 

1 cup mayo (or greek yogurt)

Directions

Cut zucchini into finger size sticks, place in colander and sprinkle generously with salt. The zucchini will begin to sweat. Let them "sweat" for about an hour then rinse and pat dry.

Carmelize onions: Melt 1 TBS butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Add sliced onions and sprinkle with salt. Stir occasionally. After 10 minutes add a spoonful of sugar, this helps the onions carmelize. This whole process will take about 25 minutes, if they start to burn turn the heat down to medium-low heat. Once they are brown, remove from heat.

Make the dip: Combine the cider vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, mayo and carmelized onions in food processor and mix. Put in the freezer to chill it quickly!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In one bowl, beat the two eggs together. In another bowl, mix the panko crumbs, italian seasoning and parmesan cheese. Spray baking tray with non-stick spray. Dip the zucchini sticks in the eggs and then in the other bowl and lay on baking tray.

Cook for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through. I didn't flip mine and they turned out fine though. I also cooked mine a little bit longer, until the bread crumbs started to brown.

These turned out great!! A little bit labor intensive, I didn't have my sous chef and I was trying to make two other dishes at the same time. I planned for them to be appetizers for our Memorial Day BBQ but they weren't done until it was dinner time. They were still great for a veggie side and the dip was really good. It would be a good dip for Wavy Lay's...

Veggie Quinoa with Lemon Honey Vinaigrette

Source: Iowa Girl Eats

Serves 3

Tired of that same ole quinoa with veggies dish? I know I am. Here is a sauce you can put on it to change things up and still have a healthy veggi-ful dinner. This is delicious lemon honey vinaigrette with ingredients you are most likely to have already. You can put any veggies you have on hand in it so empty that veggie drawer.

Ingredients

Veggies for 3 people (zucchini, corn, onion, carrots, etc)

Salt and pepper

Garlic

½ cup feta

2 TBS chopped basil (I didn’t have fresh so I used my dried basil spice!)

1 cup quinoa

1 ¾ cups chicken broth or water

Lemon Honey Vinaigrette

2 TBS lemon juice

1 TBS lemon zest

1.5 TBS honey

1 garlic clove, minced

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Direction

1. Cook your quinoa and chicken broth (or water) according to directions.
2. Heat a skillet on medium with olive oil and 1 clove garlic minced.
3. Add your chopped veggies and sauté them until a little tender. Add your salt and pepper now. If you are using dried basil you can add that now too.
4. In a bowl, mix all your vinaigrette ingredients together.
5. Add half of the vinaigrette and the quinoa to the veggie skillet and cook for another minute. I thought it was too much quinoa for the amount of veggies I had so I left about ½ cup out. Make your own judgment based on how you like your quinoa: veggie ratio.
6. Add remaining vinaigrette, feta and basil to the skillet and turn off. Mix well and serve!

Iowa Girl Eats does it again! I tell ya, that girl knows exactly what I like to eat! Ian and I both loved this dish. Of course I was greedy and put more feta in than called for and it kind of covered up the lemon flavor. When you got a feta-less bite though you could taste the lemon and sweet honey and it was a great change-up to our normal veggie quinoa dinner.

I can’t wait to make Ham & Cheese Pretzel sandwiches from IGE!

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

My beautiful tagine!

My beautiful roommate Danielle got me a tagine for my birthday! I finally got a chance to use it last night and the dish turned out great! Chicken, onions, apricots and a Moroccan seasoning packet simmered in chicken broth for 40 minutes , topped with toasted almonds , all on top of a bed of couscous = delicious.

I had never heard of a tagine (I still don’t know if I even say it correctly) so I did a little research. I found out that I was supposed to season my tagine before using it…oops. You’re supposed to soak it in water overnight and dry. Then you put it in the oven and turn on to 300 degrees; let it cook for 2 hours. Then turn the oven off and let the tagine cool down inside the oven. This process will cause the tagine to crack naturally. You don’t ever want to subject a tagine to rapid temperature change or it will crack. You’re also supposed to coat the interior of the tagine with olive oil before storing. Guess I have a task for tonight!

It sounds like you can use the tagine on the stovetop but it’s better to use in the oven so the heat is distributed more evenly.

Don’t have a tagine? Not a problem, just use a dutch oven or a slow cooker! The tagine works similarly; as the food cooks the steam rises, condenses, and drips down the sides back into the dish. The difference is the shape of the lid. With a flat lid the water sits on the underside of the lid whereas with the conical lid, it drips back down into the food.

You can also use the bottom as a serving dish.

Here is the recipe, I modified the recipe on the back of the seasoning packet.

Ingredients (Serves 3)

Chicken for 3 people ( I used about 6 frozen chicken tenders)
1 box of couscous

½ medium yellow onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, diced

½ cup chopped apricots

¾ cup chicken broth

½ World Market Moroccan seasoning packet (you should be able to find these at a specialty store, if not there are some recipe links at the end)

¼ cup toasted almonds (Bake shaved almonds @350 degrees for a 10 minutes)

Directions
1. Put some butter in a skillet at high heat. Put your chicken in and brown on both sides but don’t cook all the way through.
2. Put onions, diced garlic, chopped apricots, seasoning and chicken broth in the tagine. Add the chicken once it has browned.
3. I cooked this on the stove top for about 40 minutes on simmer.
4. Cook your couscous according to directions about 10 minutes before the tagine is done.
5. Combine couscous and tagine mix, top with your toasted almonds and serve!


Ian and I both enjoyed this dish. It was a nice change to have middle eastern/Moroccan food. The only thing I would have added was a little spice, maybe a dash of red pepper flakes. The seasoning packet had a lot of cumin in it so a little spice would have been a good mix.

There are a lot of Moroccan mix recipes online, here are a few:

http://penandfork.com/recipes/moroccan-spice-blend/

http://kathrynelliott.com.au/blog/2008/04/02/the-moroccan-spice-blend-that-saved-me

Strawberry-Rhubarb Smoothies

With cinnamon, with orange extract, with vanilla extract, with vanilla extract and cinammon

Ian gave me some rhubarb a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t have time to make anything so I chopped it up and froze it. Ian is going home for the weekend and had strawberries that needed to be eaten so we froze those and looked for strawberry-rhubarb smoothie recipes. We found a bunch of different recipes last night but none were a perfect fit so we decided to make our own. Here is what we came up with:

Ingredients

1 cup frozen strawberries

¾ cup frozen rhubarb

¾ banana

1 6 oz container of vanilla greek yogurt

1 TBS agave nectar

½ cup apple juice

Optional

Cinnamon

Vanilla extract

Directions

Throw it all in the blender and blend! Then liquefy or puree to try to get those rhubarb strings to go away.

Tips

If you don’t like it as sweet add less agave nectar – I like it sweet so I added more agave than Ian did. You might have to play with the ratios according to what you like. Try starting out with half of the ingredients and test tasting it before you add in the rest.

I topped mine with cinnamon and that turned out great! Ian put vanilla extract in his and it was pretty delicious as well. We also tested orange extract in it – ew. And peppermint extract – disgusting. However, I think if you had crushed mint leaves it might be worth a try…maybe not. Let me know if you try any other additions!

Strawberry Poppyseed Dressing

Source: Cheeky Kitchen

Ingredients

¼- ½ cup sliced strawberries (I used a ½ cup)

1 TBS diced red onion

1/3 cup white vinegar

¼ cup white sugar (I only had brown sugar on hand and it worked fine)

¼ tsp salt

1 clove garlic diced

½ cup extra virgin olive oil (I used a little less than this< it just seemed like a lot!)

1 TBS poppyseeds

Directions

Put all ingredients EXCEPT POPPYSEEDS in food processer and blend well! Stir in the poppyseeds. You will have to put it in a container and shake it up to get it mixed well. Put on your favorite salad!

Everyone loved this salad dressing! The recipe says it only lasts 48 hours so cut the recipe in half if you don’t think you can use it all. These amounts were good for 8 salads. 

Egg Boats

Source: Spoon Fork Bacon

how cute huh?

Ingredients
2 baby baguettes or 1 large sourdough baguettes
3-4 eggs
6 slices bacon
cheese: I used Boursin but you can try gruyere or gouda (something fancy)!
2 green onions chopped
salt and pepper


Directions
1. Cook the bacon and chop up.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Whisk the eggs and add cheese, onions, chopped bacon and s&p.
4. Cut a deep V in your bread. Pull out the insides and go ahead and stuff it in your mouth. I know you want to. Make sure you don't cut on the ends, only the top! I made this mistake and eggs were oozing out both ends. I also think it's better to use a large baguette versus two baby ones.
5. Pour your egg mix into the baguette carefully.
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until eggs are almost cooked in the middle and take out of oven. Its important that they aren't cooked all the way because they will continue to cook. No one likes overcooked eggs!

Ian and I enjoyed these but I don't think they turned out as well as we were expecting. A couple things we did wrong: cooked it too long and the eggs were dried out, uses two baby baguettes and as cute as they were I think it would be better in a large one, and cut on the ends so the mixture was oozing out. I'm not giving up though! Next time I think I will use gruyere and maybe sausage?

Enjoy!

Kate Recommends: Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

Pepperoni, salami, bacon and Parmesan on Garlic Herb Dough

Next time you're at Trader Joe's go to where the refrigerated hummus/veggies/pasta section is and pick up some homemade pizza dough. It's about $1.50 and so worth it! I have tried the Garlic-Herb and Whole Wheat and both are fantastic. They also have Plain. Garlic-Herb is the best though, it adds a that extra flavor to your homemade pizza and it's moist!

Pesto, chicken, bacon and parmesan on Garlic-Herb dough

Cashew Chicken

I went through an Asian recipe mood for awhile and I wanted to make Cashew Chicken. I love having cashews or peanuts in my Asian dishes but the first recipe I tried just wasn't up to par for Ian and I. It was a little bit too healthy I think. So I searched and searched for a different recipe to try. There are a lot of variations... So I found this one when my friend Anna came to visit for my birthday. It was a success and the secret is hoisin sauce! Never cooked with it? Don't be afraid, it's a little expensive but definitely worth it. 

Ingredients

¾ cup roasted, unsalted cashews 

2 servings of chicken breasts or tenders (enough for two people)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 medium garlic cloves, minced (use a garlic press)

3 green onions

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

4 tablespoons hoisin sauce (check the Asian section)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¼ cup water

¼ teaspoon sesame oil

Directions

1. Place chicken pieces in large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat evenly.

2. In a large skillet, heatthe vegetable oil over high heat until very hot. Add garlic. Cook the chicken in it until it is browned on the outside but don't cook all the way through. 

3. Turn heat down to medium and add the rice vinegar; cook until evaporated, about 30 seconds.

4. Add the hoisin sauce, soy sauce and water; cook, tossing, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the green onions, cashews and sesame oil. Make sure your chicken is cooked all the way through!

Raspberry Corona Vodka Cocktail

Ingredients
1/2 cup of fresh raspberries or frozen
2 bottles of corona (12oz) beer, chilled 
1/2 container frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed or pink lemonade
1/4 cup good quality vodka

Directions
You can mix everything together in a large container and serve over ice. But what we did was try to blend it all in a blender. What happens when you try to blend beer? My friend Erin and I figured that consequence out quickly. So the next time we blended everything but the beer. Then we mixed in the beer and served. We didn't need ice either, with the frozen concentrate and frozen berries it stayed cold enough. Or we drank it fast enough :)


I had been wanting to make this recipe forever!! The link is right here and her pictures are a lot prettier!

Veggie Tray with Greek Yogurt Ranch Dip

I got this idea from my friend Heids! 

The dip is a Greek Yogurt Ranch seasoned dip:

3 containers of plain greek yogurt

2 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried dill

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp pepper

Taste it and if it's not seasoned enough I would add more dill, pepper and garlic powder. 

Steel Cut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 steel-cut oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or nutmeg

1/2+ cup chocolate chips

10 tablespoons butter, slightly melty

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit

2. Mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter until it’s thick and creamy; add both white and brown sugars and mix briskly. Next mix in the egg and vanilla.

4. Once all your wet ingredients are well-combined, add about one cup of the dry mix, working in increments and mixing thoroughly before adding more. 

5. Cover the bowl with a towel refirgerate for 30 minutes.

6. Make dough balls and flatten them a bit before they go into the oven. 

7. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

I took these cookies to Ian's graduation party and I think most people liked them :) Unfortunately I didn't get  chance to take any pictures!

Lucky Charm Treats

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-10 oz bag of marshmallows

1 small box Lucky Charms

Directions

Place butter and marshmallows in a large pan over medium-high heat. Stir until melted. 

Remove from heat and pour in lucky charms. Stir marshmallow mixture and cereal until completely coated.

Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish and press down firmly until compact.

Let it cool and enjoy!

This is optional but I spread vanilla frosting on top of these babies and yum yum yum! Sugar heaven :)

I made these for my birthday treat to take into work.  

Rhubarb Ginger Spritzer

Ian has rhubarb growing in his backyard and I decided to make use of it!

Rhubarb and Ginger Syrup: 

* 4 stalks fresh rhubard, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)

* 4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped 

* 3 cups sugar

* 2 cups water

Spritzer: Sparkling water or ginger ale

Directions:

Add rhubarb, ginger, sugar and water to a large saucepan. 

Bring to a boil. 

Reduce to a simmer until the rhubarb is soft (about 20-30 mins). 

Remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes.

Pour mixture through wire strainer.

Chill syrup completely.

Combine sparkling water with syrup on ice.

See the recipe here!