Watermelon and Blueberry Margarita!

To me the Memorial Day weekend marks the official start of summer!  I know, by the calendar we are still weeks away from the official start but I have always been a summer lover and it sure is stinking hot here already.  With all of the thought about summer and the long weekend I started thinking about drinks that I could serve over the weekend and I remembered one that I had made last year but could not for the life of me find the recipe for it again.

Finally success!  It is a Bobby Flay recipe and it is a true summer time drink…beautiful juicy watermelon, ripe plump blueberries and fresh from your garden mint!  How could it get any better?  TEQUILA!!!!

Watermelon and Blueberry Margarita (recipe by Bobby Flay)

This makes enough for about 8 drinks…

Ingredients

1. 1/4 cup water
2. 1/4 cup granulated sugar
3. 8 cups diced seedless watermelon (1 pound)
4. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
5. 1 3/4 cups blueberries
6. 3/4 cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves, plus 8 sprigs for garnish
7. 1 1/4 cups silver tequila
8. Ice

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a simmer with the sugar and stir over moderate heat until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute; let the sugar syrup cool.
2. In a blender, puree the watermelon until smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl and strain the watermelon juice, pressing gently on the solids to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the pulp.
3. In a large pitcher, combine the sugar syrup with the lime juice, blueberries and mint leaves. Using a wooden spoon, lightly muddle the blueberries and mint. Add the watermelon juice and tequila. Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
4. Pour the cocktail into tall ice-filled glasses. Garnish with the mint sprigs and serve.

Really fast Tilapia in Parchment…

Okay, I could have gotten really fancy there and told you that I made Tilapia en Papilotte, which I did but I really want you to try this and figure this title might not intimidate you and you could see how truly easy this recipe is!

I am submitting this recipe to Marye at The Restless Chipotle who is helping to change the way people think about fast food.  It DOES NOT need to come from a box to be fast food!  To see what she is trying to do and to check out all of the the wonderful entries from her last round of Real Food….. Real Quick up head to her site!

In total I think this took me about 5 minutes to pull together and that included going outside and cutting the herbs for it.

Tilapia in Parchment adapted from and inspired by Heart homecooked

4 Tilapia fillets
4 sprigs each of thyme, oregano (1 sprig of each for each pouch)
1/4 cup packed basil leaves, thinly sliced
8 slices of thinly sliced lemon, 2 for each pouch
4 tsp of butter, 1 tsp for each pouch
coarse salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Wash fillets and pat dry with paper towels. Season well with salt and pepper.
• Place fillets on top of cut parchment paper (ehow.com and latimes.com have excellent "en papillote" step by step instructions) and top with butter, lemon wheel and herbs. Seal the pouch and cook for 10 minutes.

***you can skip the butter if you are watching your weight.  I added about 1 tsp of olive oil to mine instead of the butter and it is a 4 Point recipe based on a 6 oz. piece of fish.

 

Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberries and Syrup

So I woke up bright and early this morning as seems to be my M.O. lately and pulled some bacon out of the freezer.  My thought was that I would make breakfast sandwiches when everyone woke up.  This was one of those lazy Sunday mornings that I NEVER seem to get and I was just planning on enjoying it.  The girl’s woke up and crawled into bed with us (I was reading and Tony was still sleeping).  Dogs climbed in and it got way too crowded for me so I got up to tackle breakfast…

That’s when the plans all changed.  I wanted something fresh and light.  After the requisite 5 minutes of standing in front of my fridge wondering what to do (I know you do it too…), my plan came to me!

Light and Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberries and Strawberry Syrup (adapted recipe from the kitchn)

Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes
makes 8

1 cup ricotta cheese
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
pinch salt
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Set ricotta in a fine mesh strainer about 30 minutes before you start cooking, to drain off excess liquid. We used fresh ricotta from Whole Foods that was pretty dry. If you are using a commercial brand that's runny, you may want to drain it longer (or make your own).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Combine ricotta, milk, egg yolks, and vanilla in a separate bowl.
Beat the egg whites in an electric mixer until stiff. Add the dry ingredients to the ricotta and milk mixture, stirring gently until just combined. Whisk in a small amount of the egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remaining whites.

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat, and brush the surface with butter. Use a ladle or measuring scoop (we used a 1/3 cup measure) to pour batter onto the griddle. Cook pancakes for about 3 or 4 minutes, then flip, cooking until both sides are golden brown.

Changes I made: 

Less sugar. I was making syrup and strawberries for these so I reduced the sugar to 1 1/2 tsp.

Did not brush the griddle with butter.  I cooked them without any oil or fat and they turned out beautifully.

For the topping all I did was slice up some strawberries and add some sugar to them and let them sit.  How much sugar?  Not sure so just do it to taste (if you want them sweeter add more…).

The syrup I “made” was just a jar of Smucker’s Simply Fruit Seedless Strawberry micro waved for about 40 seconds until it was a syrup like consistency!

***The pancakes on their own are 6 Weight Watchers points add your topping to it and total it out for a total point value.

You may have noticed that it’s been a long while since I last posted.  I am really working hard to change this!  I spent an incredibly busy month doing things for BMX.  We travelled one weekend out of the past month but had another weekend of clinics and then the State Championship in which Kyra is now ranked 8th for 9 year old rookies in the state of FL.  I was just totally uninspired in my cooking through all of this and really didn’t think you would want to see the sandwiches that we were sometimes forced to eat for dinner!  Hopefully I am now back and feeling the inspiration!

You make your own birthday cake, right???

It was my birthday last weekend and I made a birthday cake for myself.  Never really thought about it but from the reaction I got from everyone who knew I was doing this, not everyone does it!  Control issues?  Maybe, but I know what I like and how to get it!  Do it myself.

My birthday always comes when strawberries are plentiful so naturally most of the cakes I have baked have strawberries involved.  This year they took center stage…along with some Limoncello of course!

I first made this cake almost 2 years ago, here, and absolutely fell in love with it.  It is a beautiful dense cake and the mascarpone whipped cream was the perfect compliment but I was not really keen on the sherry macerated berries so this year I decided to macerate the berries in Limoncello…good move too!

Mascarpone-Filled Cake with Limoncello Strawberries – adapted from Gourmet, July 2008

Ingredients:

For cake:
2 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 large eggs
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

For berries:
1/2 cup Limoncello
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups strawberries, quartered

For cream:
8 ounces mascarpone cheese (1 cup)
1 cup chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Line bottom with a round of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer at low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing after each addition until just combined.

Spread batter in cake pan, smoothing top. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles.

Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Discard paper and reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely.

Macerate berries:

Pour the limoncello and the sugar over the berries and toss gently ( allow to satnd for about 30 minutes mixing periodically - or you can do it the real way and bring Limoncello and sugar to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Put berries in a bowl and pour hot syrup over them, gently tossing to coat. Let stand 15 minutes. make cream and assemble cake.

Beat mascarpone and cream with sugar in a large bowl using cleaned beaters until mixture just holds stiff peaks.

Halve cake horizontally with a long serrated knife. Carefully remove top half and reserve. Put bottom half on a plate, then spread evenly with half of the cream and replace top half. Use the rest of the cream on the top and serve with berries.

Cooks notes:
•Cake, without cream, can be baked 1 day ahead. Wrap in plastic wrap once cool and keep at room temperature.
•Berries can macerate at room temperature up to 2 hours.

Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Sounds simple huh?  And something that you should be able to find a recipe for easily right?  WRONG!  Almost all of the recipes that I came across when searching for a recipe were sweet.  One thing Tony hates is sweet pork.  Sadly I am sure the rest of us like it but just never get to eat it…

This recipe came from about 10 different sources that I put together.  I am claiming it as mine and it is delicious!  I may have over cooked it a bit this time but trust me on this the first time I made it perfectly!  I will be making this again and again!

I used a pork sirloin roast. The one in the mesh cotton bag. I am sure any one but the tenderloin would work, would be too dry.  The picture below is only one of the 2 pieces in the bag.

Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Peel some garlic and pierce the roast with as many holes as you have garlic and push the garlic into the holes. I do about 3 or 4 cloves in each piece of meat. (the garlic will be pushed out during cooking, see pic, but the flavor is still there)

Make a mixture of:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp rosemary
1 tsp lemon zest
dash of ground cloves

rub this all over the meat and place in the crockpot.

Add 1/2 cup of water around the side and cook on low for about 6 hrs.

Thicken the juice with some flour to make a gravy to serve with the egg noodles you will really want to have with this!!!

***As a rule we only eat “Happy Meat” but happy pork roast is hard to come by here.  I did break the rule on this one and used CAFO pork *hanging my head in shame* but my family really wanted pork…

Black Bean Hummus…

I was hunting around the other day waiting to pick the girls up and I stumbled across a recipe for Black Bean Hummus.  Turns out a friend of mine has also been requesting a recipe from me for hummus.  I gave her my original one that is here, but this black bean one sounded really good to me and i couldn’t get it out of my head.  I love black beans and who doesn’t love a nice garlicky hummus???

This came together in a matter of minutes in my food processor.  I think stirring up the tahini took more time the the recipe!

Black Bean Hummus (from All Recipes)

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
1 (15 ounce) can black beans; drain and reserve liquid
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
10 Greek olives

Instructions:

• Mince garlic in the bowl of a food processor.
• Add black beans, 2 tablespoons reserved liquid, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, tahini, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper; process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
• Add additional seasoning and liquid to taste.
• Garnish with paprika and Greek olives.

***I calculated this for WW as 2 points for a 1/4 cup serving…that’s not including the yummy pita that you HAVE to have with it!

In a hurry? Homemade Baked Chicken Fingers

So you all know by now that we are a pretty busy household right?  Between ice skating lessons, karate classes and BMX races and practices you must wonder how we do all of that stuff and still eat home cooked, real food meals, right? 

This recipe for baked chicken fingers is one of my favorite go to recipes for a busy weeknight.  From start to finish it takes just 15 minutes for me to bread them and bake them and have them on the table for the kids.  Almost as fast as going to McDonald’s and getting the chicken nuggets and bringing them home for dinner…

Baked Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup AP Flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Cut chicken breasts into thin strips, about one inch wide.
• Longer sections can be cut in half to have uniform pieces.
• Mix flour and seasonings (garlic, salt, and pepper) well in a bowl.
• Dip chicken pieces into flour mixture. then egg mixture, and then finally in the Italian breadcrumbs.
• Place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. 6
• Bake at for 9-11 minutes, until crispy on outside and lightly browned.

***The girls like these dipped in Ranch Dressing, ketchup, BBQ Sauce or even Honey Mustard.

****To have these ready in 15 minutes I have to cut the chicken into thin strips earlier in the day.  Another time saver is to bread them and refrigerate them until ready to use and then just plop them in a preheated oven.  See you can eat well even when as busy as we are!!!