Weekly Menu 7

VEW

Lamb Chops with Sundried Tomato Butter, Green Beans with Garlic and Prosciutto, Baked Eggplant with Prosciutto, Sundried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives

Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto

Lemon Chicken, Baked Cauliflower with Lemon-Mustard Sauce, Wild Rice and Lentils

Day 1
This was a slightly more involved celebratory dinner I made for my husband, but it came together really quickly as the lamb cooks for mere minutes and everything else is pretty hands-off once it’s cooking. The Sundried-tomato butter was really good—I would definitely try in on a pasta or orzo as suggested (see recipe).

Season lamb chops with s & p, sear on a hot grill pan brushed with a little olive oil and just a few mintes per side (lamb should be served medium rare at the most...) Spread a little Sundried tomato butter on each chop.

For the green beans, sautee some garlic and olive oil in a pan for about a minute and add in about 2 T chopped prosciutto for one minute more. Rinse beans and throw in the pan, cover. Cook for about 10 minutes, remove the lid, add a bit of sea salt and cook until carmelized.

I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but this recipe was pretty good. I doctored it to use some of the ingredients I had left over from the other dishes above and it worked out well. A pretty forgiving recipe if you don't follow it to a T.

Day 2
Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto
The fajitas are straitforward: Cut some red, yellow and green bell peppers into strips along with onion and whatever else suits your fancy. Do the same with some boneless chicken breasts and marinate for at least 30 minutes in some lime juice, minced garlic and chipotle seasoning (How much you use depends on how hot you like it). My sister-in-law sent this to us and it’s great. It gives the chicken that smoky, spicy chipotle flavor and sets these apart from your run-of-the-mill version. If you can’t find a chipotle spice you like, you can replace it with 1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce—just beware that these are hot! Sautee the veggies first, then remove and tent on a plate to keep warm. Cook chicken, throw everything together for a minute in the pan and then plate. Serve with pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, fresh cilantro and guacamole.

The “risotto” is easy and tasty. I’m not a fan of pepper jack cheese, but it’s what makes this dish great so don’t substitute plain jack cheese.

Day 3
Lemon chicken, baked cauliflower with lemon-mustard sauce, wild rice and lentils

This lemon chicken is one of my favorites. The cauliflower was so good I was wishing I’d bought 2 heads as I could’ve eaten one alone. You can easily cut the sauce in half and have plenty.

For the chicken, mix the juice of 4-6 lemons with ¼ C olive oil, 1T red wine vinegar, 1t dried oregano (or 1T fresh chopped) and 4 garlic cloves chopped and some salt and pepper. Put in a large ziplock bag and add a cut up chicken (I really recommend using bone in chicken as opposed to boneless chicken breasts); marinate for at least an hour and as long as overnight. Pour chicken with marinade in a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, flipping once.

For the wild rice and lentils, I just threw together the ends of bags. I tossed about a cup of wild rice and ½ C of lentils in a pot with 1.5C water and 1 C chicken stock. You can change the ratio of water to stock, just keep the liquid to about 2.5 cups to start. Bring all to a boil and then cover and simmer until done. You may have to add a little hot water if it’s too dry. Salt to taste. This sounds boring, but it was really good, and the lemony juices from the chicken are great to spoon over the top.

Scones, Fabulous Scones

VEW

Please pardon the horrible lag in new posts. This is the first year that I participated in the “holidays are so busy” cliché. I am still recovering. Couple that with the fact that my only New Year’s Resolution was to slow down a bit. Which means letting certain things go when more important things (say, my kids) are underfoot. Anyway, for the Tasty Plate, that should translate into simpler weekly menus and quicker preparations…so I guess it’s a good thing.
One of the things I am always busy doing and will likely never give up is making scones. The world of scones is huge and varied and limitless. I will post a few of my favorite recipes here. If the word scones conjures up images of crumbly, tasteless bricks that can be found at certain coffee establishments, please give any of these recipes a try—you will be pleasantly astonished.

Basic Scone recipe
This recipe is my mom’s and is responsible for launching me into my need for a scone to always accompany my morning coffee. While this is likely due in large part to the fact that when I was young my parents would often make these scones at night, after we kids were in bed and enjoy them alone in a quiet house. The following morning the scene was always one of mixed emotion: childish outrage that they had done it AGAIN! And excitement that they had at least left some for us.
These are classic cream scones—best eaten with raspberry preserves and freshly whipped cream.
2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
2T sugar
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
6 T butter
1 egg, beaten
1/3 C half & half or cream plus enough milk to equal ½ total liquid
1 slightly beaten egg for egg wash
Mix dry ingredients and then cut in butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture is like coarse crumbs. Combine the cream/milk mixture with the beaten egg; add into crumb mixture and stir to combine. Knead a few times to bring dough together. Form into 2 discs and cut into wedges. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake on parchment paper on cookie sheets at 425 for about 12 minutes.

Cinnamon Chip* Scones
2 Cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1T baking powder

2T sugar
1/2t salt
6 T butter
¼ Cup sour cream
¼ Cup buttermilk

1 egg
½ cup cinnamon chips
Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry; stir to bring dough together, then knead a few times to make a nice dough. Add in chips and knead to incorporate. At this point you can either prepare them for baking as in the previous recipe, or you can just pull off mounds of dough and place them on the baking sheet for a more rustic looking scone.

Orange Currant Scones
These are a great, tasty scone. The recipe makes quite a few—I often cut it in half and reduce the butter to 6T.

Oatmeal Currant Scones
These are similar to the scones above but the oatmeal adds interesting texture and flavor. They aren’t quite as dense as other scones, and on days I feel bad about letting my 3 year old eat a scone for breakfast, the oatmeal in this makes me feel better. Slightly.

This scone recipe is great for add-ins and is my current favorite. I leave out the raisins and add in any kind of chip or dried fruit and have good results everytime. To add something to the recipe, make the dough and knead it until it comes together (I often add 1-2T of cream because I find the dough as written is a bit dry), then knead in the chips or dried fruit. I use about a cup. If you add dried fruit sprinkle the tops with some turbinado sugar for a nice crust and some added sweetness.

Great add-ins:

Dried cranberries, soaked in a little orange juice for at least 15 minutes before adding

Small frozen blueberries—tossed with 1T four before adding

Applesauce or grated apple—you will need to adjust the liquid ingredients so your dough isn’t too moist

*While you can find Hershey’s cinnamon chips by the chocolate chips in certain grocery stores, they are not available everywhere for some reason. King Arthur’s chips are far superior and you can order online through their web site, so no one has an excuse for not making these.

Tasty, Fast and Fabulous Appetizers

VEW

Here are a couple really good, really easy appetizers that look nice as well.

Jacques Pepin’s Tortilla Pizza
Truly you won’t believe a pizza made on a flour tortilla could be this good and certainly not elegant. But you would be wrong, like I was. Were it not for Monsieur Pepin touting these as something he loves I never would’ve tried them.

Lightly coat both sides of a couple flour tortillas with olive oil, then sprinkle with 1 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese (each), sea or kosher salt and pepper. Top with thinly sliced tomato and grated fresh mozzarella. Drizzle with 1 T olive oil and bake at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let rest for a minute and then add freshly chopped basil. Slice and serve.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp with Herbed Goat Cheese
These take about 4 minutes to cook and a few minutes to assemble. If you want to make it even faster, buy goat cheese that already has herbs mixed in it.

Find the recipe here.

Smoked Salmon Crostini with Cilantro-Lime Sauce
Slice a baguette and brush with olive oil, toast in the oven. Let the toasts cool, then spread each with a bit of the cilantro-lime sauce (below). Top with a small piece of smoked salmon.
For a slightly different presentation, plate the salmon pieces and toasts separately on a platter with the sauce in a pretty bowl on the side.

Cilantro-lime sauce (from epicurious.com, but perhaps under a different name as I couldn’t find it on the site.)
1C pakced fresh cilantro leaves
3 T fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, peeled
1t Dijon mustard
¼ t hot pepper sauce
¾ C mayo
Blend first 5 ingredients in a food processor until cilantro is finely chopped. Add mayo and process just to blend. Transfer to a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill. (Can be made 1 day ahead).

Weekly Menu 7

VEW

Baby Romaine Salad with Spicy Chicken and Warm Chipotle Vinaigrette & Smoky Refried bean Tostadas

Lettuce Gyros Filled with Spicy Halibut

Grilled Fish & Two Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm and Blue Cheese

Pork Skewers with Avocado Tzatziki and Pita Bread

Lentil Soup with Curry and Lamb

Day 1
Both of these recipes are from the Fine Cooking Annual (2007) cookbook. The Tostadas are so simple I didn’t expect much but they were great and literally take minutes to prepare. I modified the recipe (see below) to my tastes and what I had on hand. The salad is a refreshing change from the norm, which is a plus if you’re like me and easily get burned out on salads.

For the tostadas, brush 6 corn tortillas with a little bit of olive oil, place on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes until they start to brown and are crisp. In a pan sauté a small chopped onion in some olive oil, add in 1t of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobe and a can of pinto beans. Stir in one cup of water and salt to taste. Cook until creamy and thick. Top tortillas with some beans, sliced radish and fresh cilantro.

Day 2
This fantastic dish was the first recipe I made from Cat Cora’s Cooking from the Hip cookbook and my first ever Cat Cora recipe. It will go on my relatively short list of phenomenal dishes. Flavors, presentation, ease and healthfulness make this a truly outstanding dish. It seems like a bit of work at first glance but everything comes together very quickly—the feta mint Tzatziki is to die for…I ate the leftovers with hummus and pita for lunch the next day.

Day 3
This salad was good, colorful and definitely substantial enough for a lunchtime meal, but I added some grilled fish when I served it at dinner. It makes a big salad, and it will all keep well as leftovers as long as you don’t mix the arugula in with the rest of the ingredients, but rather serve the salad on a bed of arugula when you plate it.

I was unable to find this recipe online so pick up a copy of Cooking From the Hip or check it out from your local library if you’re interested!

Day 4
The pork skewers were inventive and interesting, though I found the pork was tastier two days after the meal. I added the suggested cherry tomatoes to my skewers and they were a nice addition. I also served the whole meal with pita bread to make it a little more substantial. It’s cold here right now and as we haven’t yet acclimated to the change of seasons, I grilled these on my grill pan as opposed to outside on a real grill.

(The avocado tzatziki recipe can be found here.)

Day 5
Adapted from an Alfred Portale recipe, this is one of my favorite soups.
Gently brown about 1.5 cups of chopped lamb and 1 chopped onion in a bit of olive oil. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic, a generous teaspoon grated ginger, some red pepper flakes if you like heat, and 3-4 t of your favorite curry powder (Portale uses Madras, I use a mixture of that and some others I have on hand). Stir for a minute and then deglaze the pan by stirring in 4.5 cups low sodium chicken broth and 1 cup water. Add in 1 cup lentils and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and partially cover, cooking until lentils are done, about 30 minutes. Bring the soup back to a boil and toss in 4 cups chopped baby spinach cooking just until wilted. Serve with freshly chopped cilantro.

Weekly Menu 6

VEW

Roast Chicken with Apple Cauliflower Soup

2 Kinds of Pizza: Barbeque Chicken Pizza with Roasted Yellow Peppers

Spicy Sausage and Goat Cheese Pizza with Roasted Peppers and Rosemary

Spicy Sausage and Wild Mushroom Pappardelle, Green Salad, Sour Dough Bread

Day 1
I am a big fan of roasting whole chickens and I have made a variety of different recipes to that end. Chickens stuffed with lemons, herbs, apples. Chickens simmered in broth and then roasted; chickens rubbed in herbs and slathered in butter. The following recipe is my favorite—the trick is that you do nothing. It sounds too good to be true but trust me. Or trust Thomas Keller because it is his recipe, his favorite roast chicken and he is a master. You rinse and pat dry a chicken. Salt and pepper the cavity, truss the bird (find trussing how-to here) and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast at 450 for about 50 minutes and then you’re done. Keller gives some ideas on what to do after that, but that’s all I do and it is awesome every time. You really won’t believe doing nothing could taste so good.

Apple Cauliflower Soup
The soup is something I just made up tonight as I was waiting for the chicken to cook. I would like to work on this recipe more because it’s pretty good, but who knows when that will happen so for now, here it is:
Chop up 2 peeled apples ( I used Golden Delicious, but I think something more akin to a Granny Smith would work better) and put in a pot to simmer with 1 can chicken broth. Cut up 3 shallots and caramelize in a pan with 1 T butter, 1 t fresh thyme, minced and a little olive oil. Steam 1 head of cauliflower (this will take about 20 minutes). Add the onion mixture and the cauliflower (along with up to ½ C of the water used to steam it) to the pot of apples and stock, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend until smooth and return to pot. Add 1/4 C light cream, 2T butter, salt and white pepper to taste (it requires about a teaspoon of salt if you’re using low sodium stock). Serve warm. (Makes about 4 servings)

Day 2
I have always been a believer that chicken doesn’t go on real pizza, but my husband has always liked barbeque chicken pizza so I finally gave it a try and I really like it. Here’s our easy (dare I say low-brow?) take on it. On a premade pizza crust such as Mama Maria’s, spread purchased barbeque sauce. Add shredded chicken (I just boil boneless, skinless chicken breasts until cooked and then shred them). Roast some cut up yellow peppers drizzled with olive oil at 400 until the skins are just starting to char, then add them to the pizza. Top with sliced jack cheese and bake until cheese melts. Top with fresh cilantro.

For the sausage pizza, remove the casings from spicy Italian sausage and crumble in a pan to brown. I made a quick sauce of tomato paste, salt, fresh rosemary minced, dried oregano, pepper and olive oil all to taste, and spread it on the crust sparingly. Top with sausage, more of the roasted peppers from above, dollops of goat cheese and a few slices of jack cheese. When it comes out of the oven, top with fresh flat leaf parsely if you’re so inclined…

Day 3
This is a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef Takes Off cookbook. As such it was simple and fast yet good. My husband made the pappardelle from scratch which automatically takes any pasta dish up about 5 notches. Here is a similar recipe, just add in the sausage.

Green Salad
I get really tired of salads, but they are a good idea so I try to come up with interesting combinations so as not to bore myself. For this one I used a combination of greens I had in the fridge and added in a lot of herbs—fresh parsely, basil, mint—but you can use whatever you have around. Adding in about ¼ C of each herb really imparts a great flavor that is a much needed change from the typical salad. I dress it with whatever kind of vinaigrette suits my fancy…just pick an oil and then pick a vinegar and toss as little sea salt on top.

Weekly Menu 5

VEW

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Rice

Greek Lamb Burgers with Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus Soup with Pan-Roasted Scallops & Tomato Bread

Day 1
This recipe was given to CLN of this blog by a friend of her mother’s. It is very good and different than any of the other enchilada recipes I have.

Boil 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with salt and pepper and a bayleaf until cooked through. Remove from water and let the chicken cool, then shred it. Add ½ C water, 10 oz green enchilada sauce (or a salsa verde, or blended tomatillos if all else fails). Mix together with ½ C sour cream, ¼ C chopped cilantro and 4 oz can of green chiles. Heat tortillas to make them pliable and put the chicken mixture along with some jack cheese and onion inside and roll up. Place seam-side down in a baking pan and cover with enchilada sauce (see below). Bake covered for 20 minutes at 375, then take the foil off, add additional cheese on top and bake for another 5 minutes.

Enchilada Sauce
Here is a great 10 minute enchilada sauce that gives a pretty authentic flavor and depth to this dish. The quality of the chili powder determines how good the sauce will be…

Green Rice
CLN turned me on to this great side. It’s a nice alternative to Spanish rice or plain rice and beans as a side when you’re making the enchiladas.

Day 2
This is a great recipe from Cooking Light magazine. I generally find their recipes to be a good idea but just not very tasty. This one was an exception; I will definitely make the lamb burgers again. If you have a favorite Tzatziki sauce recipe, feel free to substitute it for this one, though it is pretty good…but don’t make the mistake of making the sauce in a food processor to save time…it will turn out too runny.

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

This is one of my favorite sides because it is quick and delicious. Rinse and trim asparagus by holding the bottom of each stalk and bending until it breaks; discard the woody bottom. Lay on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Broil for about 3 minutes until crsip-tender. Serve as is, or grate some lemon zest over them. You can also wrap a bundle of stalks in prosciutto before broiling for a different take on this dish.

Day 3

If you haven't been to Williams Sonoma’s web site for great recipes you are missing a goldmine. I have never made anything bad from their offerings and everything is simple—no über long ingredient lists or ultra-fancy cooking techniques. The results are always elegant and most important, delicious. This soup is great, healthy (if you cut back on the heavy cream or substitute light cream), and you can’t beat the tasty simplicity that is seared scallops. As with all seafood, try to get it the day you plan to cook it, and if you have a good fish monger or seafood shop, that is preferable to the grocery store.

Tomato Bread
Tomato Bread should be a staple in everyone’s repertoire. To make it, toast baguette slices drizzled with a bit of olive oil. As soon as they come out of the oven, cut a garlic clove in half and rub vigorously over the coarse surface of the bread—you will be amazed at how much flavor this imparts. Next cut a tomato in half and rub it over the bread, squeezing it as you go so the juices seep out and are soaked up by the bread. Enjoy immediately!

Weekly Menu 4

VEW

Lamb and Artichoke Kebobs with Lemon and Rosemary, Risotto with peas, Caesar salad, Lemon Crème Brûlée

Wine pairing Chateau de Flaugergue 2003 Coteaux Du Languedoc Cuvee Sommeliere

Mustard-Crusted Roast Chicken, Green Beans with Tomatoes and Pancetta, Crispy Potatoes

Wine pairing: Kendall Jackson Meritage 2003

Prosciutto-Wrapped Salmon with Three Cheese Cavatelli and Spinach

Bun Cha

Day 1

I made this for a dinner I had with 4 girlfriends. It was easy, good and I didn’t spend all night cooking.

Lamb Kebobs
Cut up lamb into small pieces and put in a large ziplock bag with olive oil, 1 T chopped, fresh rosemary, the zest of 1 lemon and the juice of 1 lemon, a container of frozen artichoke hearts, kosher salt and pepper to taste. Let sit in the marinade for a least an hour and up to 4. Grill until the lamb is medium rare. (Adapted from Williams Sonoma Hors d’Ouerves cookbook, which I highly recommend).

Risotto
The Risotto base I used this time was Jamie Oliver’s,which I’ve written about in a previous post, but any will do. At the end I tossed in some peas, fresh flat leaf parsley, freshly grated Parmesan and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

Caesar Salad
The Caesar is self-explanatory. When I have time on my hands (which seems like never lately) I prefer to make my own croutons and dressing which make this salad a lot more enjoyable, but on this occasion I didn’t and none of my guests left out of disgust…

Lemon Crème Brûlée
The Lemon Crème Brûlée was my first time making a crème brûlée and I will do it again as it was easy and good. I don’t have a torch so I just used my broiler to get that crispy, golden brown top and it worked well.

Day 2
This is a recipe from Fine Cooking that is only available online if you’re a member of their site…which is too bad. It was a fabulous recipe so if you get a chance to pick up the September issue of Cooking Fresh, do it! (CN of this blog told me that Sam’s Club sells old issues of various magazines like Fine Cooking for about half the newsstand price…FYI). If you can’t find this exact recipe, any roast chicken dinner will work in this weekly menu, with a side of sautéed green beans and farm stand cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with some balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of salt. Please remember that when we can’t lead you to an exact recipe, the main purpose of this site is to lay out weekly menu ideas because we find that to be the hardest part of meal planning.

Day 3
Wrap wild coho salmon fillets in a slice or two of prosciutto, cook 10-12 minutes (I had 2, 7 oz fillets) at 425 degrees.

Pasta
Melt 2 T butter and 2T olive oil in a skillet. Add 2 cloves chopped garlic and sautee until golden. Add 1 cup whole milk ricotta, ¼ cup half and half, and ¼-1/2 C pasta water. Stir to combine. Add 3 C chopped baby spinach, zest of 1 lemon, nutmeg, gray salt, white pepper, red pepper flakes for heat and 1-2T lemon juice. Cook until spinach wilts. Throw in ¼ C diced smoked mozzerella cheese. Stir and keep warm. Meanwhile, cook some cavatelli noodles, add to the sauce along with freshly grated parmesan and parsley. I wouldn’t serve this as a stand-alone pasta, but the flavors went nicely with the salmon.

Day 4
Bun Cha
Vietnamese food is one of the best kept secrets of the food universe in my opinion. It is the shy step-sister to Thai food and all too often overlooked. This recipe makes easy work of the fresh, healthy and flavorful ingredients that make up much of this region’s diet. Because Vietnamese food relies mainly on loads of fresh herbs like mint, coriander and basil as well as the ubiquitous fish sauce for flavor, you won’t find butters or oils very often in its cuisine. Having traveled to Vietnam, I was skeptical that the simplicity of this recipe would result in an authentic dish, but I was wrong! It was great and reminded us of the Bun we had at Pho 2000 in Saigon. Enjoy!