Easy and Fast Apple Crisp!

A quick and delicious weeknight dessert!

My kids like dessert and snacks. Okay, they LOVE dessert and snacks and you know what? They get it a lot. I buy a very minimal amount of processed foods. I make our bread, all of our food, and most of their snacks.

There really are several reasons that I do this. The first being for our health. When I make them the food they are eating I know exactly what is going into their little bodies! I know they aren't getting High Fructose Corn Syrup, Red Dye #40, any of the other dyes and no artificial sugars! Are they always getting "healthy" desserts and snacks. Hell no! They have cookies, cakes, quick breads, turnovers, and whatever else I feel like making them during the day! These are some lucky kids huh?

The other night I was going out for dinner with a friend of mine and I made sure that the family had leftover pizza for dinner but I also quickly threw together a really quick apple crisp with some poorly neglected apples. I was inspired to do this after reading Kelly's post here about a very elegant Maple Oat Apple Crisp that she had made. This one needed to be quick though. So this is what I threw together...

Easy and Fast Apple Crisp (I have no idea where this is from I have used it FOREVER)

5 cups peeled, sliced apples, pears or peaches
2 - 4 Tbsp of brown sugar
1/2 cup regular Quaker Oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

• Pre heat oven to 375°
• Place fruit in a 8 X 1 1/2 " round baking dish (or any other small dish that you choose), stir in the 2 - Tbsp brown sugar.
• For the topping, in a mixing bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. I usually use my fingers to do this. It seems to mix it faster.
• Sprinkle topping over the fruit.
• Bake in a 375° oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is a nice golden color.
• This can be served warm with ice cream.

This recipe is incredibly versatile but the basic one I follow. Here are some changes I make

• Throw in some dried fruit
  
• Use a different shaped pan or dish
• Add some neglected pears or berries
• Make it smaller or larger
• Add more crumb topping
• Add different spices (cardamom, cloves etc.)

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Look at my breakfast!

I am trying to eat healthier in the New Year. Christmas and New Year's did me in this year and my energy was not where it needed to be. By eating healthier and lighter meals I am rapidly correcting this! Having my wonderful CSA box right now helps a whole bunch but you can do this with food from your grocery store too!

Today it was an egg scrambled with Asian spinach and tomato. Yesterday it was the same egg scrambled with leftover pizza sauce and cremini mushrooms.

All I do is reach in the fridge and find something fresh and cook it up. When it's just about cooked I add the beaten egg and there you have it. Breakfast in less than 5 minutes!!!

Weight Watchers - 1 egg is 2 points. Most veggies are 0

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Swiss Chard And Summer Squash Frittata

This was suppose to be with tomatoes instead of the summer squash but I have a tomato hater and an old summer squash...

Yesterday morning I was in a real bind about what to make for dinner. Once again it needed to be something that I could make ahead of time and reheat when it was time for all of us to eat. We had Karate after school and it makes it much easier when we get home at 6:45 to have something that can be reheated and set on the table immediately. So what did I do? I tweeted it!!! I had several responses but @nandita from Always Order Dessert won this round. She suggested my exact dinner!!! If you are not familiar with twitter maybe you should be. And if you are really interested you can follow me there on Twitter @nofearentertain

I did call on T's help with the side dish to the frittata. I had him throw butternut squash fries into the oven for me when he got home. All I did was take 2 baby butternut squash and peel them and clean out the inside and cut them into French fry shapes. These were sprayed with some olive oil spray and tossed in a preheated oven of 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Removed from the oven and sprinkled with kosher salt and flipped and placed back in there until nice and crispy. About 20 minutes more. These were so good. They are so much better than sweet potato fries and I will be making these again and again!

Anyway onto the main player here...



Swiss Chard and Summer Squash Frittata (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites, the Moosewood Collective)

1 lb. Swiss chard
1 summer squash, sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 cup chopped onions
2 tsp. Olive oil
6 egg whites
2 whole eggs
3 Tbs. Chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Ground black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Wash the Swiss chard, remove and discard the large stems, and finely chop the leaves. In a 10 inch cast iron skillet, saute the garlic, summer squash and onions in 1 teaspoon of the oil for 3 minutes on medium heat. Add the Swiss chard, stir, cover, lower the heat, and cook for a bout 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and drain the Swiss chard if juicy.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites, eggs, basil, salt, and pepper until blended. Stir in the sauteed Swiss chard. Coat the bottom of the skillet with the remaining tsp. of oil and return it to medium heat. When the skillet is hot, pour in the Swiss chard-egg mixture. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until the edges are firm and the bottom is golden and beginning to brown. Place in a preheated 400 degree oven and cook for about 5 minutes, until the eggs are fully cooked. Serve immediately or at room temperature, topped with grated Parmesan if you wish.

This was such an incredible meal that was a hit with both of the girls. It will be made again and again in our house!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Thanks Jo and Yummr!

Brownies!

About a month or so ago I won a Pesto Challenge, with my Arugula Pesto and Wild Mushroom pizza, that was hosted by my friend Jo of The Adventures of Kitchen Girl and Yummr. The prize for the contest was 5 pounds of Barilla Pasta! Now that was exciting enough but I got the box the other day and as most of you know I have made myself a little nutty the past couple of days so I never got around to opening it (wayyyy too busy crying you know-what a DA* I am some times). Anyway I opened it yesterday afternoon and not only did they send me 5 boxes of Barilla but they sent me letter cutouts YUMR!!! How fun is that.

During the day yesterday I was going to make the girls some cookies but in my bleary eyed state (you know from crying all the day before-DA* me!) I opted to make them brownies from a box with some add ins to make them better. I dumped in some nuts, chocolate chips and some cookies that I had in the freezer from my Gourmet cookie event. They turned out delicious and were even more fun once I used the letter cutouts to spell YUM!!!

Thanks Jo and Yummr!

*DA = Dumb A**

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Coq au Vin

Served over rice this was a hearty and delicious meal that can be made ahead!!!

Can I really even call it that? I had to use red wine and I couldn't even be as clever as the RecipeGirl and call it Coq au Zin as she used zinfandel. I just had a bad bottle of red that I used! But it was good. This dish was really, really good. Who cares what it's called right?

I based it on a couple of different recipes that I found and I really liked how it turned out.

Coq au Vin-my way (inspired by here, here and here)

Ingredients:

6 leg quarters
2 Tbs olive oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder to season chicken
1/2 tsp dried thyme
10 cloves of garlic, cleaned and left whole
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 large onion, rough chopped
1 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced or quartered
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken stock

Directions:

Season chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat oil in a large dutch oven or pan. When the oil is hot add the chicken skin side down and brown well (you may have to do this in batches). Only brown the skin side. Remove from pan and set aside.

Remove all of the oil but for 2 Tbs and add the garlic, onion, celery. thyme and mushrooms. Cook until soft and the onions are starting to brown.

Add the red wine and reduce to about 1/2. Once reduced add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the pot, skin side up and simmer until it is cooked through.

This turned out to be a really good meal served with rice and the sauce as an au jus. I was able to make this in the afternoon and refrigerate it, in the same pot, while we went to karate and then just heat it back up on the stove for dinner. Love a meal like this. So did the family!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Beef Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine (Slow and Low)

Yesterday was a beautiful day! We got up and the house was nice and cool and seeing it was Sunday we had no commitments until later in the day (I had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese-please shoot me now!!!), we decided to take advantage of the weather and head to the beach for a nice walk. T. had too much to do to spend the day but a walk was great!

For dinner I had decided that I needed something that I could get in the oven and have ready for me while I was gone with minimal babysitting! Kelly over at Sass & Veracity had just the thing. This isn't the first time I made this either. Yes, it's that good!!! I made it when my Mom was here over Christmas and it was a huge hit then as well.

Beef Short Ribs in Wine (I got from Sass & Veracity who adapted it from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook...)

Ingredients:

3 T extra virgin olive oil
8 good-sized short ribs (3" square)
salt & pepper
1 bay leaf
1 T fresh rosemary
1 tsp. fresh thyme
2 sprigs parsley
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 shallots, diced
1 T flour
1 T tomato paste
1/2 c. ruby port
2 c. red wine
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled
3-1/2 c. veal or beef stock
3 c. mushrooms
flat egg noodles (T. made some homemade noodles to go with)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Sprinkle all surfaces of the beef with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven or large lidded, oven proof pot, heat 2 T of the olive oil and brown the short ribs, turning each to make sure a nice, rich color is achieved on each side. Remove the ribs to a bowl as they finish browning before adding the remainder.

After all the ribs have been browned, add the remaining 1 T of olive oil with the carrots, celery, onions, and shallots to the pot. Over medium heat, cook, stirring frequently until veggies have begun to soften, about 8-10 minutes.

Stir in the flour and tomato paste, mixing well for about 1 minute. Add the port and stir, scraping the brown coating from the bottom of the pan. Add the red wine and allow to simmer until the liquid is reduced, 10-15 minutes.

Add the garlic cloves, veal stock, herbs, and short ribs with juices to the pot and return to a simmer. Add the mushrooms, stirring into the mixture, place a lid on the pot and put into the oven for approximately 3 hours until meat is extremely tender.

***This was a delicious meal and I think it is one that will be made again and again. I had never had short ribs before and this made me a true fan...twice!!!

I have also found that I love to braise meat. The flavor is incredible and the secret is in getting that meat nice and browned and using up all those brown bits of heaven that are left on the bottom of the pot and deglazing to get every bit of flavor!!!

Check Kelly's site for some better pictures and step by step ones as well!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

During Christmas when my Mom was here, we made a run to Costco to pick up some things. Mom loves Costco for the very same reason that my girl's do...SNACKS!!! I can go through that place after taking them to skating on Saturday mornings and can almost get away without serving them lunch that day!!

Well Mom walked past the lady who was sampling the Spanakopita. They weren't quite ready yet. Mom decided to camp out until they were ready. Lucky for us it wasn't too long and she had her little triangle package of bliss...or was it? I tasted mine and my first thought was I can make this better!!! So I started searching for recipes and of course I didn't have to look too far!

Peter, one of my bestest buddies, at Kalofagas-Greek Food and Beyond was able to hook me up. Only thing was he made his own Phyllo Dough???!!! Very impressive but not what I had in mind. So I emailed him and we went back and forth a couple of times before I headed off to the grocery store to BUY some frozen phyllo dough.

This made for an incredible meal and even as large as the slices were the girls ate a whole one each.

I used a 9" Square baking pan and it worked perfectly for us!

Spanakopita (adapted from Kalofagas-Greek Food and Beyond)

Ingredients:

1 roll of frozen phyllo (filo) dough, thawed and ready to use
1 1/2 cups of ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
8 oz. feta cheese
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 bunch of scallions, sauteed in oil (softened)
2 boxes of frozen spinach, thawed and chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients (but the phyllo dough) together and check for taste.
  
• I used a 9" square pan and it worked fine. Grease your pan (bottom and sides with oil (best not to use olive oil or butter for this as it could burn).
  
• Now you take the phyllo sheet by sheet and layer it in your pan, alternating directions. Use 12 sheets for the bottom and that will leave you 8 sheets for the top. When the bottom is layered melt some butter and add some olive oil and drizzle some on your bottom layer and spread with a pastry brush. Poke some random holes with a fork in the pastry.
• Spread your spinach mixture evenly over then pastry. You will have pastry overlapping the sides of the pan.
• Start layering the top layer of phyllo dough. Alternating directions. When all 8 pieces are on fold the edges together and roll down. Using your butter/oil mix be sure to coat the top layer well.
• Cut through the top pastry layer to help avoid breaking your dough once cooked.
  
• Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour in a 375 degree oven. When nicely browned remove from oven and cover with a clean tea towel for about 15 minutes.

This was so incredibly fast and easy! I know I didn't make the little triangles but this is much more practical for a meal. I will be making this again and again! My pie was definitely fuller than Peter's and he had cautioned me about overfilling it as it may ooze out. I think my filling was a bit thicker than it should have been so I didn't have that trouble and I liked it nice and thick! We served it with a green salad and it was a nice hearty meal! I may try my hand at making my own dough. See here for Peter's step by step instructions!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com