Lettuce Wraps - A 30 Minute Meal!

The first time I ever ate lettuce wraps was at a P.F.Chang's in Denver.  I was sold and knew I had to make these at home.  This is a quick and easy dinner that goes together in less than thirty minutes. An internet search will bring you dozens of recipes.  I combined several to come up with this one. You can choose what kind of lettuce to use.  Iceberg works well, but its crispy leaves will often break, something with a soft leaf like Boston Bib works best, but I have even used Romaine. Hoisin sauce can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store.  It's kind of like barbeque sauce, but sweeter and not smokey. Serve with sauce and chopped scallions.  Enjoy!

1 head lettuce (bib, iceberg or even romaine)
1 pound ground chicken (you can substitute pork)
1 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 can water chestnuts diced
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped or run through garlic press
1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
3 Tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari if you are gluten free
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar (can substitute cider vinegar)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce This is a hot sauce to give it a little kick, you can omit if you wish
3 scallions chopped (white and green parts)

Sauce for topping

Whisk together with a fork;
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add garlic, onion and ginger. Cook for about three minutes over medium heat until softened.  Add chicken and cook about seven to ten minutes until no pink shows.  Add hoisin, soy sauce, vinegar, Sriracha, if you are using, and water chestnuts.  Cook through. Lastly, add sesame oil and stir to combine.  Serve with lettuce. Put meat into whole lettuce leaves, add a bit of sauce and some chopped scallions, wrap and enjoy!

Feel free to leave questions or comments in the comment section below the post.

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a. Nonnie

Crockpot Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

I can hear you now, "forty cloves of garlic!"  " Is she crazy?"  No really, it's fabulous. Slow cooking gives the garlic a sweet mellow flavor.  This could easily be a company dish.  Next your asking, did you really peel 40 cloves of garlic?  No, I didn't; I used pre-peeled whole cloves in a jar.  This develops a rich creamy sauce that goes well over noodles or rice.  Serve with a vegetable and salad and you have a wonderful meal, and don't forget crusty bread to smear the garlic on.  You can use a whole chicken, chicken breasts, thighs, bone in or not.  It's up to you. This recipe came from Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen.  It is my go to slow cooker recipe book.  I have yet to make anything bad from this book.  Enjoy!

1 whole, cut up chicken, or chicken breasts, legs, or thighs.  It's your choice.
40 cloves of garlic, leave whole
2 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots quartered end to end
3/4 cup white wine*
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (or 1/4  teaspoon dried)
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme ( or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

* If you don't want to use the wine, just change the amount of chicken broth to 1 1/2 cups

Begin by drying chicken and seasoning with salt and pepper.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the chicken a few pieces a a time and lightly brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate and cook the rest of the chicken in the same way.  If you have used chicken with skin, remove the skin at this point.  If you need more oil in the pan add the rest of the olive oil, shallots and garlic.  Cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes until they become soft and golden.  Add flour to the pan, stir and cook about 2 - 3 minutes.  Then add wine, and stir up any bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add the chicken broth, raise the heat until sauce begins to thicken.  Add  the sauce to the crockpot along with rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves.  Stir to combine and add the chicken and any juices that are on the plate.  Cook on low for about 5 - 6 hours.  Remove the chicken and skim any fat from the sauce.  Adjust seasoning. and serve over noodles or rice and garnish with parsley.  Enjoy!  Don't forget to leave questions and comments in the comments section below this post, and please share with your friends!

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a.
Nonnie

Cheesy Shepard's Pie with a Twist

I have confessed to you before that I am addicted to cooking shows.  Well for some reason, this week, nearly every cooking show, or cooking segment on a morning show has made some sort of casserole.  Is it national casserole week?  I don't know, but I figured I'd jump in on the bandwagon.

As you know, I grew up in a very Italian family and I had never heard of Shepard's Pie until I went to middle school got to eat cafeteria food for the first time in my life.  Well the Shepard's Pie in my school cafeteria was a scary concoction of ground beef, vegetables and gooey mashed potatoes on top. Back in the 70's when casseroles were all the rage, I tried to feed my family Shepard's Pie a few times, but it was not a hit.

This morning on the Today Show, Al Roker made Shepard's pie, and I got the idea I would try it again.  I did change his recipe drastically.  He used ground beef, I used left over cooked chicken. He made his gravy with dark beer and bullion, I used white wine and chicken stock, but  I did like his idea of putting cream cheese and sour cream in the mashed potatoes though.  Yumm.

This is a meal that lends itself to using up left overs, which is what prompted me to try it.  I had some left over cooked chicken in the freezer, left over green beans from dinner the other night, as well as a little bit of left over mashed potatoes.  I did have to cook more potatoes to make sure there was enough.

This is one of those recipes that you can adapt to whatever you have in your kitchen. Feel free to change up the combination of vegetables. Use red and green peppers if you like, or frozen mixed vegetables, the possibilities are endless. The ingredient list is long, but this went together in the time it took me to cook the potatoes, honestly!  Have fun with this!

3 cups diced cooked chicken
2 large potatoes cut up
1 onion diced
2 cloved minced garlic
1 cup of carrots diced
1 green beans, cut into small pieces
1 cup frozen corn
6 tablespoons butter divided
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup white wine
about 2 cups chicken stock plus more for the mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (do not use garlic salt)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Begin by boiling the potatoes in salted water.  Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet and add the onions, carrots and garlic.  When the vegetables have softened after about five minutes add the corn, green beans, salt, pepper and rosemary.  Saute until the corn is cooked.  Now add the flour of the pan and cook for about three minutes over medium high heat.  Add the wine and scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add the chicken broth and worcestershire and cook over high heat until mixture thickens.  You may add more broth if it gets too thick.  Remove from heat and add the parmesan cheese.  Mix well.  Prepare a casserole dish with non stick cooking spray and pour the mixture into the casserole.  Now drain the potatoes and return to the pot.  Add the cream cheese, sour cream butter and garlic powder, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and mash.  Add chicken broth until you have a smooth consistency.  Spread the potatoes over the casserole and top with cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, Heat your broiler, and place under the broiler for about three minutes, or until the top begins to brown.  Enjoy!

Please leave questions and comments in the comment section below this post and don't forget to share with your friends!

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a.
Nonnie

A New Kind of "Pizza" Dough.

As some of you may know, we were buried in about 26 inches of snow this weekend.  I don't know why, but snow makes me want to cook.  This is a recipe I found in a new cookbook I just purchased before Christmas called The Free Range Cook, by Annabel Langbein.  I just discovered her on the PBS Create channel.  She is from New Zealand and has some really interesting dishes.  This recipe is for a kind of pizza like pie called Pissaladiere.

What I found really interesting about the recipe was the dough.  I pretty much changed up the toppings, but I wanted to try this dough.  There is no yeast, and its made with olive oil. If you are a fan of thin crust pizza, which I am, then this is for you.  It is so much easier than traditional pizza dough, and even though I have told you to purchase your pizza dough ready made, this is still easier.  The magic comes in rolling it out.  Traditional pizza dough is like working with silly putty.  You roll it out and it just springs back;  it takes work and skill to get it really thin. This is so easy to roll out.  Also she makes some suggestions for baking that I found really helpful.  This does not lend itself to wet soggy tomato sauce, it is more of a rustic pie, but oh so good! I am going to give you the dough recipe and some suggestions for toppings. This recipe makes enough for one large sheet pan.  Feel free to double it. Have fun!

Olive oil dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3  cup good olive oil
2/3 cup warm water

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir with a fork to combine.  Combine oil and water and add to the flour mixture.  I used a fork and then a wooden spoon to combine, and finally, a few quick turns with my hands.  Cover with a dishtowel  and let rest for 1/2 hour.  You can let it rest as long as 24 hours. This is a very soft, moist dough.

While the dough is resting, you can pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and prepare your toppings.  About 15 minutes before you are ready to bake your pie, place your sheet pan in the oven to preheat.  This little trick helps to make sure you have a crisp crust.

Now for toppings.  I thinly sliced two onions and minced about 6 cloves of garlic. I sauteed this in about two tablespoons of olive oil until they were soft and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Next I prepared grape tomatoes but cutting in half and squeezing out the juice.  Finally, the original recipe called for using uncooked Italian sausage as a topping, but I didn't want to defrost a whole package of sausage for just a few sausages, so I cut up some pepperoni into tiny bits and  cooked it in a skillet to render out the fat.  I also used kalamata olives, grated Asiago cheese, pesto which I had in the freezer, dried rosemary and dried basil.

Next cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your pan.  Flour the paper and roll out your dough into a large rectangle.  Turn over the edges to make a kind of lip around the outside.  Next I covered it with the cooked onions and garlic.  Then I put on the tomatoes, olives, pepperoni, herbs, a few blobs of pesto and cheese.  Remove the hot pan from the oven, lift the parchment and place onto the pan. Return to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. I will admit the lifting of the parchment was a bit tricky as the dough folded over on itself, but it was an easy repair because this is such a forgiving dough.

Experiment with toppings.  I would love to try broccoli, zucchini or other veggies.  What about cooked chicken? The original recipe did not have cheese, but I added just a little.  Try other cheeses and experiment with your toppings.  Let me know how yours turned out! Don't forget that you can leave questions and comments in the comments section just below this post.  Also please feel free to share with friends!

Happy cooking!
Carol

a.k.a.
Nonnie

Really great hot pinwheel appetizers!

I just had to post this before I left for my New Year's Eve party.  I was asked to bring an appetizer, and  I have been seeing this all over the internet, so I thought I'd try it.  Of course when I went to look for the recipe online, I couldn't find the one I originally saw. So here is my version.  The original recipe used ham and cheese, but then I decided to make another batch with turkey.  They are really tasty, and it takes less than 15 minutes to put them together!  How's that for fast! These would also make a fun lunch for the kids, with a bowl of hot soup!

The original recipe called for canned pizza dough, but I used crescent roll sheets because that's what I had in my fridge. (Pizza dough has less fat, so substitute if that's a concern)  I tend to keep these around since I find so many uses for them. You can use regular crescent rolls, but then you have to smush (a very technical culinary term) all the seams together. I will give you my original recipe and then my variation. One canned crescent roll sheet gives you about 15 pinwheels.  I ended up making three batches! Here goes!

1 canned crescent roll sheet
1/2 pound thinly sliced deli ham
1/2 pound sliced swiss cheese
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2  teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Open the can of crescent roll sheet onto a floured surface roll out to about a 9" by 15" rectangle. Mix mayo, mustard, worcestershire sauce and pepper in a small bowl.  Spread mayo mixture over the dough.  Now put a layer of ham slices over the dough, then a layer of cheese slices and finally another layer of ham slices.  Leave about an inch open at one of the long sides.  Now, starting on the long side and working towards the inch you left without filling, roll the whole thing together TIGHTLY like you would for cinnamon rolls, or a jelly roll, and pinch the long side shut.  Now cut the log into slices about 1/2 inch thick.  Place a toothpick through the pinwheel to hold it together.  Place on a cookie sheet which you have covered with parchment.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Keep an eye on them, it depends on your oven.  Remove when they are golden brown.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool, or eat hot from the oven.  Remove the toothpicks and serve.  How easy was that! These can be made in advance and reheated.  You can even freeze them, and then thaw and reheat.

For the second batch, I spread the dough with about 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise to which I added two or three tablespoons of pesto. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and layer with deli turkey and swiss cheese instead of the ham.  Roll and secure and bake as before.  We almost liked the turkey ones better! Experiment! I'm sure any number of fillings would be great.  What about pepperoni and mozzarella?  Roast beef and horseradish sauce? Or just cheese if you're vegetarian?  I could keep going here, but you get it!

Well, I'm on my way to my party. I wish you all a safe and happy New Year.  May the new year bring you health, blessings and happiness!  See you in 2016!

Happy Cooking!

Carol
a.k.a. Nonnie

Fettuccine with spinach and ricotta

Please forgive the long pause between posts, but I have been having some minor health issues that are now pretty much under control. I'm back in the kitchen and raring to go! 

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and are preparing for a healthy and prosperous New Year. If you are not planning to go out for a big fancy meal on New Year's Eve, here is something rather easy and elegant, you can make at home.  This meal took less than thirty minutes to prepare and can certainly qualify as an easy weeknight meal.  I have been watching lots of cooking shows on television and I get lots of inspiration from them.  This is a recipe I saw on "Lydia's Kitchen" that I have adapted to make my own.  I left some of her ingredients out and added a few of my own.

This recipe calls for pancetta which is a kind of Italian bacon. Most supermarkets carry it, but feel free to substitute bacon. It also calls for pignoli nuts, also called pine nuts. They can be a bit pricey, so feel free to substitute chopped walnuts, pistachios, or hazelnuts.


1 pound fettuccine
1/2 cup pignoli or other nuts (if substituting other nuts make sure to chop them)
1/2 cup finely chopped pancetta (if using bacon, use about four slices and chop before cooking)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup white wine (you can substitute chicken broth)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg - use fresh and grate yourself if you have it, but don't try to measure, just a several times over the grater will do.
1 pound fresh baby spinach
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
16 ounce container of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese plus more for serving

Begin by cooking the fettuccine in salted water.  You will prepare the sauce in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.

Add about half a tablespoon olive oil to a large skillet and turn the heat to medium.  Place the pignoli nuts in the pan.  Do not leave the pan!  These will burn in about 45 seconds.  Stir until they begin to turn brown.  Remove quickly.  Add the pancetta to the pan and cook until it is crisp.  Now add the olive oil and garlic to the pan.  When the garlic begins to soften, add the wine and scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan.  Turn the heat to high for just a minute to let the alcohol cook off.  Add the spinach to the pan and lower the heat to medium.  Use tongs to continually stir the spinach until it is wilted.  Add the nutmeg and pepper and stir.  When the spinach is wilted after about five to seven minutes, add the ricotta and stir until it is softened.  If the mixture seems thick add about a cup of water from the pasta pot to the pan.  When the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan.  Stir to thoroughly mix and turn off the heat.  Add parmesan and stir.  Transfer to a bowl and add pignolis and serve with additional parmesan. Enjoy!

Remember you can leave questions or comments in the comment section below this post. Please feel free to share with friends and family!

I would like to thank you all for your support this past year.  Here's hoping that next year will be even better! I hope you all have a very happy and healthy New Year!

Happy Cooking!
Carol

a.k.a Nonnie

Quick,savory stove top pork chops

This is a quick meal that can be made on a weeknight.  I used thick cut boneless pork chops (about 3/4 inch), but this will work with thin chops or those with a bone, just don't cook them as long, and use a thermometer to check the temperature.  We no longer need to cook pork to death as we did years ago as trichinosis has all but been eliminated with modern pig farming techniques. Just be sure that the internal temperature of your meat is at 150 degrees. This is great served over rice or egg noodles.

4 pork chops
3 cloves garlic finely minced
2 shallots finely minced
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup beef broth plus extra if needed
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup white wine
2 Tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Note:  I don't always have beef broth in my pantry, but chicken broth will work just as well.  If you like a deeper flavor, just add a bullion cube or a half teaspoon of beef base.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat.  When the oil is shimmering, place pork chops in the pan. Don't fiddle with them, just let them cook and turn after 2 or 3 minutes.  Cook on the other side for another 2 - 3 minutes.  While you are searing the chops mix soy sauce, brown sugar beef broth and red pepper flakes in a small bowl.  Remove pork chops to a plate and cover with foil. Add the garlic and shallots to the pan and lower the heat to medium.  As soon as shallots and garlic soften, sprinkle with flour and cook for 2 more minutes.  Add the wine to the pan and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add broth soy sauce mixture to the pan.  Mix the cornstarch with water and add to the pan.  Raise heat to medium high and stir until sauce begins to thicken. If sauce becomes too thick, add more beef broth.   Add the pork chops back to the pan, cover and cook over low heat for about ten minutes.  After ten minutes, check temperature of the meat, if it has not reached 150 degrees cook a little longer.  Serve over rice or noodles and pour sauce on top.  Include a green vegetable and salad for a healthy meal!  Enjoy!

Please feel free to leave questions or comments in the "comment" section below this post.  Let me know how you liked it!

Happy Cooking!

Carol
a.k.a. Nonnie