More zucchini! Zucchini banana bread this time.

                                                                           

If you follow my blog, or know me well, you know that I rarely make a recipe exactly as it's written. I always have to mess with it.  Leave something out, add something.  Sometimes I don't even use a recipe, I just throw things together using instinct.  However, the one thing I usually never mess with is baking.  I usually follow the directions exactly, especially when it comes to things like leavening, and liquid amounts.  Today I threw caution to the wind.  I found this very large zucchini lurking under a leaf in my garden.  It was approaching baseball bat size.  The only thing zucchini that big are good for is zucchini bread.  I cut it up, took out the seeds, grated it and still ended up with seven cups of zucchini.  So now, while I'm fussing around in the kitchen, I also find a banana that is past its prime.  Hey, why not combine the zucchini and  banana? How bad can this be?  But as I look up my recipe, I realize that the banana will add lots more moisture to the mix, so I start experimenting.  Here is what I came up with.

2 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 ripe banana mashed
2  cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup oil ( I used coconut, but vegetable oil is fine)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon alspice
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9" by 5" loaf pan.  I spray the pan with cooking spray, then layer with parchment that hangs over the edge.  I then spray the parchment.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Since I used my food processor to grate the zucchini, I used it to combine my wet ingredients.  I transferred the grated zucchini to another bowl and added the egg, banana, oil and sugars to the food processor.  After a few pulses, I added this mixture to the dry ingredients and folded them together.  I then added the zucchini and nuts and mixed thoroughly.

Pour into loaf pan and bang on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.  Bake in the center of the oven for one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.  Then continue to cool before slicing or it will crumble when you slice it.  Enjoy!  Everyone loved this and I'm sure you will too!

Please feel free to share this recipe, and the whole blog for that matter, with your friends.  Leave questions and comments in the comment section below the post.

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a.
Nonnie

What to do with all that zucchini! Part 1

Every spring I plant a small vegetable garden around the outside of my condo. I'm lucky I live in a corner unit and have lots of space to plant. I do raised beds all around the foundation of the condo on the side and back.  Every year I plant zucchini and every year I am disappointed because the cabbage moths take over and lay their eggs on the leaves, then the larvae get inside the stems and leaves and eat everything.  Hence, no zucchini. When I lived in New Hampshire I always had more zucchini than I knew what to do with.  I even wrote an article for our wive's club newspaper with a bunch of zucchini recipes. Sadly, I no longer have the paper or the recipes. Well this year is different!  I have zucchini!  Lots of it!  So today I am playing with my zucchini and seeing how many recipes I can come up with.

I'm starting off with zucchini pancakes.


1 large zucchini about 4 cups grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 small onion chopped (about 1/2 cup)
3 cloves garlic run through a garlic press
3 Tablespoons fresh basil leaves finely chopped
1.2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Bisquick
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Scrub zucchini to get off any prickly things and trim off the ends.  I grate mine in the food processor, but you can certainly use a box grater.  You will need about 4  cups.  Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the zucchini and mix well.  Put the zucchini in a strainer over a bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes.

While zucchini is draining, chop the onion, basil and run garlic through a garlic press.  Now take the zucchini and place in a clean dish towel.  Wrap the towel tightly around the zucchini and squeeze.  I got almost a cup of liquid from mine.  The drier you can get your zucchini, the better your pancakes will be.

Put zucchini, onion, garlic, pepper and basil in a bowl and mix well.  Add eggs, Bisquick, and cheese and mix well.  In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat until shimmering.  Add large rounded tablespoon fulls of the zucchini mixture to the oil and pat down.  Cook for about 2 - 3 minutes.  Turn and cook on the remaining side for the same amount of time.  I found it easier to cook them in small batches rather than put too many in the pan and run the risk of the oil dropping in temperature.

These can be made ahead and reheated in the oven for a few minutes.  I ate mine for lunch, but they would make a great side dish.  Enjoy!

Please share this recipe and blog with friends and family and please leave questions and comments in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a.
Nonnie

Boursin chicken

I discovered Boursin cheese spread back in the late 1970's.  When we had dinner parties, we would serve it on crackers with cocktails before dinner.  When was the last time I served cocktails before dinner?  For that matter, when was the last time I had a "dinner party"?  That was a whole different life I had back then! Several years ago a friend at work mentioned that she had tried this recipe with Boursin spread stuffed in chicken breasts.  She never actually gave me the recipe, but just kind of told me how she make it.  I fooled around with it for a few years before I finally wrote the recipe down. Usually when I make this, I finish cooking the chicken in the oven while I made the sauce.  I avoid turning my oven on in the summer, so tonight I tried finishing it on the stove.  It's just as good and uses one less pan!  You can easily find Boursin spread in your grocery store. It comes in a little white box with green lettering.  It's usually near the specialty cheeses, like the brie and goat cheese.  It now comes in several different flavors, but I still use the original garlic and herb version.

4 very thinly sliced chicken breasts
1 pkg boursin cheese spread
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary

Pound chicken breasts very thin.  I usually put them in a zipper bag to do this, but don't close it or it will pop.  Dry chicken with paper towels.  Open the cheese and cut in half.  Cut one half into four portions.  Put a portion of cheese onto each chicken breast and roll the breast around it.  Fasten with a toothpick.  I used several toothpicks to keep the ends shut. Put butter and olive oil into a large skillet over medium high heat.  Put flour, salt and pepper into a shallow dish and mix to combine.  Coat the chicken in the flour and shake off excess.  Place chicken in the skillet and cook for about three minutes on each side until nicely browned. Some of the cheese might leak out, but that's okay, it will just get incorporated into the sauce. Remove the chicken to a separate plate. It is not cooked all the way through at this point.

Now add three tablespoons of the dredging flour to the skillet and cook for two minutes, whisking to combine.  Add the wine to the skillet and whisk while getting up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add about one cup of the chicken broth whisk and cook for two to three minutes on medium high until sauce thickens.   If at any point the sauce seems too thick add a bit more chicken broth. Return the chicken to the pan, cover and cook over low heat for about ten minutes, turning once.  Check the temperature of the chicken with an instant read thermometer, it should be 165 degrees. Now remove the chicken to a platter and cover with foil.

Now add the remaining cheese spread to the pan and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add rosemary and parsley.  Check seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.  If sauce becomes too thick add more chicken broth.  Pour sauce over chicken and serve.  I made this with buttered noodles and fresh green beans.  Enjoy!

Please leave any questions or comments in the "comments" section below this post, and please share with your friends! Thanks!

Happy cooking!

Carol
a.k.a. Nonnie

Oriental Chicken Salad - A refreshing meal for a summer evening

This was a salad I used to order at Nordstrom's restaurant. I often duplicated it at home using bottled Asian sesame dressing.  I haven't made this in a long time and decided to make it tonight, but I didn't have any bottled dressing, so I concocted my own version. Everyone liked it and it's all natural, no preservatives or additives.  No more bottled dressing for me!

This is one of those salads that you could throw almost anything into.  Tonight I used lettuce from my garden, but it's also great with spinach.  I'll give you the list of ingredients I used, but feel free to change it up.  I grilled boneless chicken breasts marinated in some of the dressing, but you could certainly purchase a rotisserie chicken, shred it and use that.

Sesame Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (I'm sure you could substitute white wine vinegar or something similar)
1/4 cup honey
3 Tablespoons sesame oil
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
4 large cloves of garlic, run through a garlic press

Combine all ingredients in a blender ( I actually used my Nutribullet) blend for a few seconds.

Set aside half of the dressing for the salad and use the remainder to marinate 2 large boneless chicken breasts.  Marinate for about one hour.  I grilled my chicken, but feel free to bake or cook on the stovetop.

Salad:

Romaine lettuce, spinach, leaf lettuce or any combination of thereof
2 - 3 carrots Cut into matchsticks. I actually used a peeler that cuts them into skinny strips.
1 cucumber seeded and cut into matchsticks
1 - 2 cups fresh snow peas
1 can mandarin orange sections drained
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Chow mein noodles

Thinly slice the cooked chicken breasts against the grain. Combine salad ingredients.  I served the chicken in a separate plate from the salad, but you could certainly combine them.  Top with dressing and chow mein noodles. Enjoy!

Please feel free to leave questions or comments in the "Comments" section below this post, and please share with your friends!

Happy Cooking,
Carol

a.k.a Nonnie

Pot-stickers! Out of this world!

I'm finally back!  I have had a rough year, but I won't bore you with all the details.  Just know that I am finally up to speed again and you will be hearing from me more often as I have quite a few new recipes to share with you.
                                                                   
So, I am one of those people who can't sleep at night.  Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, I turn on the Cooking Channel and watch old episodes of one of my favorite shows, "Good Eats" with Alton Brown.  The other night he did a series of episodes on Asian cooking, and one of them was about wonton wrappers.  He used them in quite a few recipes, but the only one that I really remember was pot-stickers.  It might be because we all love pot-stickers.  In fact we usually buy the frozen ones and eat them as a snack, but after watching Alton Brown, I figured, how hard could this be?  The only problem, was that I hated the ingredients he used. Along with the pork, ginger, soy sauce and scallions, he put in things like catsup and mustard!  Really? How does that go in a pot-sticker? Convinced that there had to be a better way, I searched the internet and found dozens of recipes.  I took what I liked from each of them and came up with my own version.  I guess it was a success, because everyone loved them!

Now, I must be brutally honest here.  This is not a quick week-night meal.  While the process is not at all difficult, it is very time consuming.  I made about 80 pot-stickers and found it took me about 40 seconds to make each one.  That was before cooking them, so you do the math.

Most of the recipes I read suggested making a large batch and before cooking, freezing them on a sheet pan and them and then transferring them to another container. This would be a good idea, but my whole family was here tonight and I knew I had to cook all of them.  I actually had most of the ingredients here, but I was out of fresh ginger and needed to get scallions along with the wonton wrappers. Some of the recipes called for napa cabbage and some for regular cabbage. Since I already had regular cabbage in my fridge, I used that. Wonton wrappers are found in your local grocery store and are usually in the produce section near the tofu.  One more thing, you will need to cook these in a skillet with a tight fitting lid. Do not use one of those super copper non stick pans, they won't cook properly.  Pot-stickers got their name because they need to stick to the pot!  Are you ready?

2 cups finely chopped cabbage (2 cups is about 1/4 of a small head of cabbage)
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 to 1 lb. of ground pork
a 1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated.  Do not substitute ground ginger!
1 small carrot grated
3 scallions finely sliced, both white and green parts
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped or run through a garlic press
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 small egg beaten (if your eggs are extra large, use only half)
1 quart chicken broth
1 package won-ton wrappers (I used a package and a half and a whole pound of pork)
vegetable oil for frying

Begin by making sure the cabbage is finely chopped.  Put in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt.  Allow this to sit for 30 minutes.  In another bowl whisk together the soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and egg. Add the pork, carrot and scallions and mix. After the cabbage has sat for thirty minutes, transfer it to a clean tea towel, twist and squeeze out all of the liquid. Squeeze really hard!  Add the cabbage to the meat mixture and mix the whole thing with your hands like you are making meatloaf. Now comes the fun part.

Before you begin assembling the pot stickers cover a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper. Dampen a tea towel.  You will need to keep your pot-stickers covered with the towel until you cook them so they don't dry out. Place another damp towel over the wonton wrappers; you don't want those to dry out either! Also, place a small bowl of water in your work area so you can dip your fingers to dampen the edges of the wonton to seal.

Now place a small amount of filling at one corner of the wonton wrapper.  Dip your finger into the water and moisten the two opposite sides.













Fold the wrapper over the filling and seal.  Now make two pleats on each side of the triangle.  Place under your damp towel and continue until all the wrappers or filling has been used up.


Now add a tablespoon or two of oil to your skillet and heat over medium high heat.  Place about ten pot-stickers in the skillet.  Do not touch them! There is no need to flip them over.  Let them cook for two minutes - I actually set my timer. While they are cooking, pour 1/2 cup of chicken broth into a measuring cup with a pour spout. When they have cooked for two minutes, reduce the heat to low, pour the broth into the pan and cover. Cook for another 2 -3 minutes.  Remove lid. You will see the pot-stickers deflate and become all wrinkly. That's what we want!  Remove to a plate.  Pour out excess chicken broth and repeat the process. Turning the heat to medium high when you first place them in the pan and reducing it to low when you add the broth.
You will probably not use the whole quart of chicken broth.  I only had to add oil every two or three batches, but each time I added oil, I used a paper towel to wipe out the pan first.                                                                                                                                


I made these early in the afternoon.  When it was time for dinner, I placed a steamer basket over a pan of boiling water and steamed them in batches for a few minutes to reheat them.

You can serve with soy sauce or make the following dipping sauce. This was a little spicy, so if that's not your thing, leave out the red pepper flakes.

To a small bowl, add:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
3 cloves of garlic grated or run through a garlic press
1 teaspoon of honey
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Mix well and serve with the warm pot-stickers.  I served this with Mongolian beef and broccoli, but that's a recipe for another day!

I hope you find the time to try these.  It was really rewarding to see that I could make something so professional!

Feel free to leave questions or comments in the comments section below this post. I promise I will get back to you as quickly as possible.  Let me know if you tried them, and how you liked them!

Happy cooking!

Carol
a.k.a. Nonnie

I'm back and I have a correction to Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic!

I just discovered that I have not posted anything here for a year.  The last recipe I posted was for Irish Soda Bread on St. Patrick's Day last year.  Unfortunately, my life has been a bit topsy turvy for the past year.  I was quite sick all summer and fall with a recurring health problem I have.  At the end of October, I had surgery to correct the problem and I am finally back on my feet.  The holidays consumed most of my time and energy since I was still recuperating. Then I had several commissioned quilt projects that I had to catch up on since I didn't really do any sewing the whole time I was sick.  I can happily report that I am now back on my feet and up to my normal speed again.
  
So, about that correction I mentioned in my title, I plan to make the Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic for dinner tomorrow and decided to look up the recipe here instead of getting out the cookbook. After reading through the recipe to see if I need to purchase anything besides the pre-peeled garlic,  I suddenly realized that I left out several ingredients from the ingredient list.  My sincere apologies!  I must not have proofread the recipe before I posted.  I have made the corrections to the recipe. You really must try it if you haven't, it's one of my favorites. Just go to the "search" box to the right side of this post and type in the title of the recipe. Enjoy!

I think I'll be doing lots of cooking and baking this week.  We are supposed to have a huge snow storm on Tuesday and snow always makes me want to get in the kitchen and play around.  I have a few new recipes I'm working on, and I PROMISE to post them by the end of this week.  See you then!

Happy Cooking,
Carol

a.k.a. Nonnie

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's an Irish Soda Bread Recipe for you!

Many of you know that my heritage is Italian.  All of my grandparents were born in Italy and came to this country in the early 1900's.  I am very proud of my Italian heritage, but today everyone is Irish, including me!

Over the years, I have tried many different Irish Soda bread recipes, but I always seem to come back to this one as noted by how dirty the page is in my cookbook.  This recipe came from the Sunset Cookbook of Breads published by the Lang Magazine and Book Company.  The original was copyrighted in 1966. My edition was printed in 1975.  It was my very first bread cookbook.  I began all my bread baking adventures with this book.  It is literally falling apart, so much so, that I purchased a second copy back in the mid 80's. Yet I always come back to the original one, even though I now have nearly two shelves of bread cookbooks, I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

This is a very easy recipe, it doesn't involve yeast or rising or any other usual bread making techniques, except for a little kneading.  There are several variations, you can add caraway seeds, raisins, craisins, or currents.  This recipe makes two loaves.  I usually add craisins to one loaf and leave the other plain.

4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
1/8  teaspoon cardamom or coriander (optional)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 egg
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

This can be made in the food processor since you are cutting in the butter, but you can use the old fashioned method of two knives or a pastry blender to cut in the butter.  Combine flour salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar and spices (if using) in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse a few times to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.  Do the same if you are using a pastry blender. Beat the egg slightly and mix with the buttermilk.  Add to the mixture. Combine until blended.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead three or four times. Divide the dough in half and shape into round loaves.  Place each loaf into a greased 8 inch round cake pan.  Use a sharp knife and cut a cross about 1/2 inch deep into the top of each loaf.  Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.  Turn loaves onto a rack to cool a few minutes.  Serve with butter and jam or marmalade. Enjoy!

Happy cooking!
Carol

a.k.a
Nonnie