Pesto

I grew up in a world free of food allergies. It wasn't until I started college that I was introduced to people who had to food allergies. My first college roommate had Celiac disease, allergic to a variety of nuts and was also a vegetarian who at the time didn't like green vegetables. From that point on I seem to find more and more people who have various food allergies. I try to be accommodating as possible when I am cooking for people with allergies. I will also accommodate vegetarians if I am cooking for them. I haven't made up my mind on vegans yet (to this point I haven't had to make this decision). 

So what does any of this have to do with Pesto? Pesto for those who may not know is traditionally made with pine nuts, basil, olive oil and salt. This means if you are sensitive to tree nuts pesto may have to be avoided! This past weekend I had a ton of basil (thank you Trader Joes) and a worry that it would go bad before I got to eating all of it fresh. The best solution was to whip up some pesto, and considering ESFSW and I were planning on making pizza Saturday night. ESFSW is allergic to peanuts and while peanuts (which are legumes) and pine nuts (tree nuts) are not the same thing I felt like once upon a time I heard that these allergies can track. I decided since I had almonds I would try making pesto with almonds instead. As it turns out my roommates were also going to be making pizza so I was extra glad I decided to make pesto with almonds instead of pine nuts. 

Here is what I did:


In a blender or food processor. Process 1/4 to 1/2 cup of slivered almonds until you have almond crumbs

About 1/2 cup slivered almonds

 Pulsing the blender for approximately 1 minute resulted in course crumbs.

Coarse almond crumbs

 After another minute the almonds were in fine crumbs

Now they are done - fine almond crumbs

Added several cloves of garlic and a pinch of salt at this point and pulsed again til the garlic was indistinguishable.

Add olive oil - not too much about a 1/4 cup and pulse again.

Gorgeous!

Almond garlic paste

 Next add at least a cup of fresh basil leaves that have been rinsed and dried.

 Pulse until the basil is well chopped and incorporated. Add more oil if the mixture is too dry. Now add a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar and pulse again.

What a nice looking paste!

 Pulse til you have achieved your desired consistency. If you need to add more oil or vinegar please do. Make sure you taste a little bit and adjust the ingredients to satisfy your palate.

Finished!

The pesto was a great base to the pizza ESFSW and I made that Saturday night. I also had enough left over that I am hoping to have with some pasta and shrimp some time this week for dinner.

~ Happy Cooking! ~

Spinach Tomato Potato and Egg Salad

Dinners that are fast, fresh, cheap and delicious are not always the easiest to come up at the drop of the hat, but is the holy grail of week night cooking. In the winter the solution is easy - stews and soups that I make in big batches and freeze. In the summer I usually just make big salads, but I was craving something a bit more creative than just a salad recently and then I had a brain wave! I had spinach, eggs, tomatoes and potatoes!

What I present here is by no means fast since I had to roast the potatoes! But, with a little fore thought you could easily roast a batch of potatoes on the weekend!

Spinach, Tomatoes and Eggs, Oh My!

Here is what I did:

Pre-heat oven to 450 F. Clean and cut up 3 small red skinned potatoes (single serving). Toss potatoes in olive oil, sea salt, pepper and other herbs (as desired). Arrange on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 to 45 minutes (until soft). You should probably stir them around half way through the roasting time.

Meanwhile, put a pot of water on high heat. Once the water is nearly boiling add an egg. Boil for 15 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and chill in ice water (will help the shell peel off easier and the yolk from turning grey).

Tear up desire amount of washed spinach leaves. Half some grape tomatoes. Chop up the egg and add to the spinach and tomatoes in a bowl. Once the potatoes are done roasting add them while still warm to the partially assembled salad. Drizzle a little red wine vinegar and olive oil on top and enjoy. If you have crumble bacon on hand this goes well one top as well! Or grated cheese!

Obviously - when I made this salad it was not quick because I had to roast the potatoes. But I have repeated this when I had all the ingredients fully prepared and on hand and it took less than 5 minutes. I would like to point out the well balanced nature of this meal as well. Wouldn't you rather eat this for dinner or lunch than grabbing food out somewhere? Planning can be a busy cooks best friend during the week!

Happy Cooking!

Salted Chocolate Caramel Cake take 2!

Recently my bible study was saying good bye to one of our members, who was leaving to start a training program with Radius International. At her farewell picnic the previous weekend I asked if she would enjoy a celebratory good bye cake on the following Thursday. She like the idea but didn't know what she wanted. ESFSW jumped in and suggested I make the Salted Chocolate Caramel Cake I had made last December for a friends Post-Defense party. I blogged about this cake in one of my first couple posts. But, because the idea for a food blog hadn't come to fruition yet I didn't have any pictures of the first cake I made, so I had to grab stock photos from the interwebs. This time around I did remember to take pictures of the final product!

Cake layers out of the oven and cooling!

Final product!

The group loved it and again voiced opinions that they think I should open a bakery....maybe in retirement...

Happy Baking!

Simple Shells

A couple weeks ago I posted the recipe for Avocado Stuff Shells, but today I am posting a simple stuff pasta shell recipe that can be a quick week night dinner made up of the left overs from my previous cooking adventure. I have learned from the years of being single and living off a graduate student stipend that you don't throw away any left overs. Over the years I have gotten creative at combining left overs to some really interesting meals. This one was a particularly good brain wave. I made a single serving since I was eating alone this night but this could be easily made for more than one. 

I had left over uncooked pasta shells that I boiled. I also had about 1/2 cup of unused ricotta cheese from the previously mentioned recipe. I also had recently bought a rather large amount of fresh basil from Trader Joes. I minced up enough basil to make 1/8 cup. I stirred this into the ricotta cheese with salt, pepper and granulated garlic to taste. Into the cooked pasta shells (4) that I have drained and rinsed I stuff the ricotta mixture and place the shells into a bowl. I stop the pasta with the left over marinara sauce that I heated in the microwave (heat in glass or ceramic!). I then topped the whole dish with some more fresh basil.

Voila! 

A great dinner for 1 on a week day night. I think it took me about 20 minutes (a good portion of that was just boiling and cooking the pasta!). To make this four 2 just double everything! 

Close up on the ricotta basil mixture!

Blueberry Galette

My Strawberry galette had been such a wonderful experience I decided to make a blueberry galette for dessert one night when a friend was coming over for dinner and to stitch pdfs of her thesis together. I decided it would be fun to top the blueberries with a nectarine. While my galette turned out great that night, the thesis had to be assembled 3 more times before it was accepted.

What I did:

First make a pastry crust following the recipe on the post for the Strawberry Galette. Place the rolled pastry crust on a baking tray (silicon mat optional).

Because fresh blueberries were rather expensive I picked up a bag of frozen blueberries from the local market. I let these thaw and drained off some of the excess juice. Next I tossed the blueberries with a couple tablespoons of a flour, cornstarch and sugar mixture (feel free to add a little cardamom or any other desired spice as well!)

Next cover the pastry crust with a light dusting of flour. Pour the blue berry mixture on the center of the crust. Using a soft spatula fold the edges over to cover the fruit.

Arrange sliced nectarine on top. Brush the crust with egg wash and place galette in a pre- heated 350 F oven for 45 minutes.

Remove the galette when the crust has browned and the fruit filling is bubbling.

Let rest before serving!

~ Happy Baking! ~

~ Recipe ~

~Pastry Crust~

Follow directions from here

~Filling~

Thaw 1 lb frozen blueberries - and drain of excess liquid

2 Tbs flour

2 Tbs corn starch

2 Tbs sugar

1-2 tsp cardamom (optional - you can use other spices)

~Assemble~ 

Roll out pastry crust. Dust top with flour. Place blueberries in the center of the pastry crust and carefully fold up the sides using a spatula. Brush the exposed crust with an egg wash. Top with a sliced nectarine (if desired). Bake for 45 minutes in a 350 F oven.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Sunshineville is great for the supply of many a fruit and vegetable, but there are some limitations. One glaring one in my opinion is rhubarb! We just do not have the right climate to cultivate this odd little weed which requires a cold snap to break its winter dormancy. While Sunshineville can occasionally get down to the low 40s at night that really isn't enough. Come the spring some of the grocery stores will have some rhubarb, usually at prices that make a friend of mine who grew up in Minnesota scoff! But, I buy some anyways because I love all things rhubarb!

A couple years ago when hiking in the San Raphael Wilderness area north of Santa Barbara I happened upon a small plant that looked like it could be wild rhubarb. No idea if it was or not, but it was cool to see!

Wild Rhubarb?

What do you think?

With  rhubarb in hand I decided to make a pie!

Here is what I did:

Rinse the rhubarb stocks well, trim the tops and bottoms off

Cut up 2 lbs of rhubarb cut into 1/2" pieces

In a medium size pot, put the cut up rhubarb (reserve a 1/2 cup) with a 1 cup of water and 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar. Put over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the rhubarb has cooked down to a compote consistency (about 30 minutes). After the 30 minutes add the remaining rhubarb and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

Make a pastry crust for a double crust pie. Take half of the pastry dough and roll it to make the bottom crust. Place crust in a 9" pie plate. Cover the crust with the rhubarb mixture. 

Now line the top of the rhubarb with sliced strawberries.

Roll out the reminder of the pastry crust. Cut it into strips and arrange in a lattice pattern. After the lattice was arranged I finished the edge.

Place the pie in a pre-heated oven at 375 F. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until the crust has browned and the filling is bubbling. Let the pie cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

All done!

Excellent eaten on its own or with vanilla ice cream!

Happy Baking!

~ Recipe ~ 

Pastry Crust for double crusted pie: You can double the recipe used here
Rhubarb compote
1 lb strawberries - sliced

~Rhubarb Compote~


2 to 3 lbs of Rhubarb (chopped)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Put the rhubarb (minus 1/2 cup), the water and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the reserved rhubarb and simmer for 15 more minutes. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to a month.

~Assembly~

Roll out 1/2 the pastry crust and line the bottom of a 9" pie plate. Add rhubarb compote and then arrange sliced strawberries on top. Make a lattice top by weaving stripes of dough across the top of the pie.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes at 375 F. Until crust is golden and filling is bubbling.

Avocado Stuffed Shells

Years ago when I was going through and copying recipes from my mom's collection I happened upon a recipe for Avocado-stuffed Shells. To be honest there was a part of me that always thought this sounded a bit weird. I associate avocado with Mexican food and served cold, not Italian food served warm. So, I avoided this recipe in my card file. Although I did take the time to write it down so I thought I should try it.  I believe this was a recipe that hails back to my grandmother, but I am not 100% sure. If it does she was a head of her time living in Wisconsin mixing avocados in with Italian food. I wish she would have lived longer because she loved to cook and even could have been considered a gourmet. But, I smile knowing that even if she did not live long enough to teach me how to cook and give me advise, I know I inherited her love of cooking and she is looking down from heaven hopefully smiling! If I ever do find out the whole story I will be sure to share along with my recipe tweaks!

What I Needed:

Shredded Mozzarella

Ricotta Cheese
Avocados
basil and oregano
Large Pasta Shells
Basic Marinara Sauce
(see Recipe below for exact amounts)


What I Did:

Boil water in a large pot with a little oil in it. Cook 20 (plus a few extra) of the shells for 2 minutes under the al dente cook time. You really don't want to over cook the shells. They will be impossible to fill without loosing structural integrity. When you bake this dish you the noodles will continue to soften a bit so you won't be crunching into dry pasta shells.

Drain the water and rinse the shells in a colander with cold water and let them sit to cool down a bit. Best not to handle these straight out of boiling water unless you want burned finger tips!

While the noodles are cooking/cooling mix up the cheeses, avocado and herbs. Then when the shells are significantly cooled fill each one with a spoonful of the cheese/avocado mixture.

Stuffed Shells!

In for the close up! See the bits of avocado....mmmmmm!

Once all the shells are stuff cover with a Basic Marinara sauce

This should look familiar! (If not see previous post)

All smothered!

Bake for a while uncovered and un-cheesed. The last 15 minutes top with shredded mozzarella and continue baking.

The last 5 minutes turn the boiler on low and toast the top. Please don't wander away during this step. It is only 5 minutes and broilers left unattended like to burn food to a crisp!

Resting for it gets served

And in for the close up!

Gorgeous!

We paired this dish with some asparagus. But a nice green salad or some other greenery would be equally good!

Happy Eating!

~ Recipe ~

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (low moisture - don't go breaking out the Buffalo!)
1/2 lbs (8 oz) Ricotta cheese
2 ripe medium Hass/Fuerte avocados (just not the West Indian Varietals! aka Florida Avocados) - diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white ground pepper
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
20 Large pasta Shells (Conchiglie)

Basic Marina
Grated Mozzarella for on top
9" x 13" pan

Combine cheeses, avocado, salt, pepper, oregano and basil in a boil. Cook shells in a large pot of boiling water with a touch of oil until just starting to soften*. Drain and rinse the shells with cold water. Handling carefully, fill each shell with a spoonful of the cheese and avocado mixture. Arranging them in the 9"x13" pan. Cover the shells with Basic Marinara Sauce. Bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven for 25 minutes. Top with shredded mozzarella and bake for another 10 minutes. To brown the cheese on top, broil on low for NO more than 5 minutes (best to just keep an eye on the oven for this time!). Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving!

*Best to go a minute or two under the cooking time because you will be baking this dish and it is hard to fill the shells without ripping them!