Easy Teryaki Marinade

A few years ago I tripped over this recipe, and with the amount of steak tips we eat in the summer this is good to have on hand. Well, the amount of grilling we do in the summer, no matter what meat you are cooking, this recipe is good to have on hand. The cost of "30 minute marinade" is quite pricey when you think about it if you like meat marinaded and you marinade a few times a week. Keep in mind that after the meat has been marinated all the marinade must be tossed (since it is now contaminated). What a waste ... but when you make it at home it is so much cheaper which means less money down the drain.

Super Simple Teryaki Marinade

8 oz. can of crushed pineapple
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce

Whisk all the ingredients together.

When marinating it is best to pour it into a zip-lock bag and marinate meat in bag. Refrigerate for 1 hour-24 hours.

As you can see we made chicken on skewers and they were fantastic. Like I said, steak tips, chicken thighs, chicken wings, chicken or beef on skewers, etc. the sky is the limit.

YUM!!!

Edamame & Mushroom Risotto

The other day on Facebook I said I was going to work my way through my pantry and freezer and cook all weekend without going to the market. Which if you think about it has many benefits, from cooking at home and not eating out, eating healthier since you are eating home, and eating things on hand so they do not expire or go bad.

After I made this post I began to think ... can i really do this? and my husband encouraged me that I could. But keep in mind when I made this I did some modification, for some items that I did not have and made do with others.

The thing with me is a meal still has to have tons of flavor and one I would cook again even if I used ingredients from the pantry and freezer. So after looking in the pantry and the freezer I started with Risotto. I know risotto is not the easiest "rice" dish to make, but it sure is yummy. The best thing about this version is the edamame (i.e. soy beans), they are full of protein and so good for you. This dish gives you the opportunity to eat a vegetarian meal and not miss the meat.

This is what I did ...



Edamame & Mushroom Risotto

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained

1 lb. of frozen edamame

3 cups of chicken broth mixed with 1 1/2 cups of water

1 small onion, chopped
1 1/3 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/8 teaspoons black pepper
1/2 cup shredded Romano cheese

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add drained mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Cook edamame, following the directions on the package, Drain, cool, and remove beans from pods. Add to the skillet with mushrooms.

Chicken broth and water should be placed in a sauce pan and heated over medium-high heat, to simmer.

In a second sauce pan heat remaining oil over medium-high heat, and saute the onion. Add the rice to the sauteed onion, and stir until rice is coated with oil. Add the wine and cook till wine is absorbed. Add 1 ladle full/1/2 cup of simmering broth to mix. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the broth is absorbed. Continuing doing this until all the broth is absorbed. This is a bit of a process since you have to stay with your risotto and stir in between each added 1/2 cup of broth. This should take about 30 minutes.

Heat the mushroom and edamame and stir into the risotto. Remove the risotto from the heat and add 1/4 cup of Romano cheese.

The other 1/4 cup of cheese can be sprinkled over each bowl before serving.

As you can see from the picture I also made chicken teryarki, this I will blog about at a later date. When my husband ate this he was so happy. One bowl is so filling it is all you will need.

YUM!!!

Anisette Cookies

Let's talk about cookies. Cookies are definitely something I love but I do not seem to make them enough. Anisette Cookies are an Italian favorite, and they are best when made with anise extract. When I was little my Nana would gather her grandchildren and we would make these cookies together. The fun part about making these cookies is that since they have to handled, we would all make our initials and those would be our cookies to eat when they were served to the family. It was silly but we all had fun making them.

Years later I was a friends house and she made them and they were just like Nana made!!! You know who you are if you are reading this :), and I love that you shared your recipe with me. I knew I had to make them for myself.

Anisette Cookies (Noni Cookies)

1 cup granulated sugar
12 heaping tablespoons butter flavor Crisco
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk (room temp.)
5 cups flour
6 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 tablespoon anise or lemon extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a large bowl cream sugar and shortening for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mix well after each with mixer on low speed. Add 1/2 cup of milk, 3 cups of flour, baking powder and extract. Stir slowly adding the remaining 2 cups of flour until dough is pliable. Dough should be sticky when you take it out of the bowl, and kneed on a floured board. Kneed till dough is firm.

Break into 1"balls, dough will rise to 2x size when baked. Place dough balls on ungreesed cookie sheet 2" apart. Bake in hot oven 8-10 minutes, till top is slightly browned. Remove from oven and cook on rack before frosting.

YES!!! Frosting. This is what makes these cookies what they are, the frosting and the sprinkles.

Frosting

3 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon anise or lemon extract (accordingly)
1/4 cup milk (room temp.)

multi-colored sprinkles

Combine sugar with extract and mix well.
Add milk to form a paste: to thick add more milk, to thin add more sugar.
Frost cookies on wax paper and immediately sprinkle.

When cooled (about an hour) move to decorative plate.





YUM!!!

Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta & Beans)

If you are not Italian or know someone Italian you may never have heard of Pasta e Fagioli. When I was a little girl my Nana & Grandpi made this soup quite often, but it was not my favorite dish. It wasn't until years later that I realized how good it really is. You see I was in the North End of Boston (the Italian section) with some friends when we found this hole in the wall family restaurant, which sad to say I have no idea what is the name of the restaurant, but I do know it is family owned and operated. It was a cold winter day and all I really wanted was something warm and comforting and I think the cheapest and most filling dish on the menu. That was Pasta e Fagioli, it was so yummy I still think about it whenever I make mine.

Pasta e Fagioli is for the most part peasant food since it is pasta and beans, two very cheep ingredients that can fill you up and serve many. But don't let that stray you away from making it. It is so yummy. I will say I have been told that my version is quite fancy but why not, when you have the ingredients use them.

Pasta e Fagioli


2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/8 lb. pancetta, diced


1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon chili powder or crushed red chili's


1 medium onion finely chopped
2 carrots finely chopped
2 ribs of celery finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
salt n pepper to taste


2 cans of beans (cannelloni, garbanzo, or kidney your choice)
1 cup canned tomato sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup water
1 quart chicken stock


1 1/2 cups of ditalini pasta


grated Romano or parmigiana

Heat a stock pot over medium high heat and add oil and pancetta. When pancetta is browned add the herbs, vegetables, and garlic. Season with salt n pepper to taste. But be careful how much salt you use since Pancetta is a cured meat. Brown the veggies, then add the beans, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and chicken stock, and raise heat to high. Bring it to a boil. At this point you can add the pasta, and cook for 6-8 minutes. Or what I like to do is let it simmer on the stove for a few hours so all the flavors meld. Then before I plan on serving I make the pasta.

When serving it is best to grate cheese over each bowl, either Romano or parmigiana.

What I can say is my Grandpi is very proud to eat my version, even though it is not like his. But one thing to remember mine will never be like his even if I make his version ... there is always something that makes Grandpi's different than mine. But the fact that I make Pasta e Fagioli now brings back all the memories of being in Nana and Grandpi's kitchen, and what great Grandparents I had and still have.

This is so Yummy ... you got to try it. YUM!!!

Lettuce Wraps

Any visit to P.F. Changs for dinner and you probably have tried Lettuce Wraps, or about 5 years ago they were a staple on Chili's menu. To find good ones are sometimes not so easy, and since the closest P.F. Changs to me is 30 minutes away I have been thinking baout making these, but have not been really sure where to start.

The other day the January 2010 Everyday-Food magazine came in, and low and behold there was a recipie for Lettuce Wraps. This was the perfect oppertunituy I had to fininally make these for my husband.

This is what I did ...

Lettuce Wraps

1/4 cup soy sauce

4 teaspoons fish sauce

4 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, diced

2 tablespoons ginger, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

1 lb. ground turkey meat

2 large heads of bib or boston lettuce

2 carrotts julienned

In a small bowl whisk soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar till sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Heat up a large skillet over high heat. When hot add oil, and swirl pan round to coat the pan with the oil. Add the shallot, ginger, garlic, ginger, and chilli and stir until fragrant (the oils in the shallot and the chilli will over take the other smells). Add the ground turkey and cook, braking up meat as it cooks with a wooden spoon.

Remove the leaves from the head of lettuce. The leaves are going to serve as you "vessel" to hold the meat.

To serve; place piece of lettuce on dish, fill with turkey mix, carrots, and drizzel sauce over. Fold like a burrito and eat.

If you are not sure what a shallot is ... it is a French onion. They are not very big but can be found at any local grocery store, and if you cannot find them I would suggest substituting red onion for one. Sometimes white onions are too strong and a milder onion flavor is needed here.

A secret I can tell you is I did not cut the carrots thin ... I used my potato peeler to make thin pieces of carrots. they came out very delicate and were so super easy to make. sometimes thinking outside the box can achieve the same goal.

One very nice thing came of this ... when we sat down to eat dinner my husband was so excited before he even took a bit. He knew before he ate it that it would be great. When he bit into his first one he asked "where did you get the sauce?" When I told him I made it he did not believe me and thought I purchased it somewhere. That was the best thing I heard all week. YUM!!!

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala is one of, if not my ultimate favorite dishes to eat. My husband realized a few years ago that I should try to make Chicken Marsala myself, since every time I went for Italian food I ordered Chicken Marsala ... and I can tell you where it is good and where it is bad, for there are some places that I just think it is bad. The bad ones are the ones that inspired me to make this dish at home. At first I thought this was going to be so difficult but it is really one of the easiest things to make.

One of the best parts of this recipe is it is versatile in that you can use any meat ... chicken, veal, pork, etc. They all taste good with this recipe as the foundation.

Chicken Marsala

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
3 slices of Italian prosciutto cut into small pieces
1 package of sliced mushrooms

4 chicken cutlets
3 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1/4 cup of Marsala wine
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Saute 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, prosciutto, and mushrooms till golden brown. Set aside. Return pan to heat.

Pound chicken till 1/4 inch or less thick. Dredge in flour and saute two pieces of chicken in 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Till golden brown. Set aside. Saute the other two pieces of chicken in rest of butter. Do not clean the pan.

The pan now has all yummy goodness stuck to the bottom and that is where most of your flavor is going to come from.

The step is deglazing the pan. Pour the liquid, Marsala wine and water, into the pan return to the heat, slowly scraping the bottom of the pan to release the yummy goodness. Add the dark brown sugar, and stir till dissolved. Remove from heat. Return the everything you have set aside; chicken, mushrooms, prosciutto. Cover and set aside for a few minutes before serving. This helps all the flavors marry.

Before serving sprinkle with parsley. YUM!!!

(This time when I served Chicken Marsala we also had mashed potatoes, the sauce on the potatoes was perfect!!!)

Beer Braised Short Ribs

Beef is something that is not cooked as often in the winter time as it is in the summertime at our house. For in the Summer the grille is on almost every night and my husband knows how to cook a mean steak. When it comes to the Winter the grille is still in use and accessible but a juicy steak is not craved as much, since I don't consider steak comfort food, and in the winter that is what I crave the most ... comfort food.

A couple of months ago we went to a Beer Dinner at Summer Winter in Burlington, MA. we had never been to a beer dinner, wine dinners are so common, but a beer dinner seemed to really interest us. We went and the food was to die for. The first one was a Sam Adam's beer dinner and the last one we attended was an Allagash beer dinner. Beer dinners are a bit different from wine dinners in that not only is the beer paired with the food ... in most cases the beer is used in preparation of the food (Cherry Wheat vinegarette on my salad, and Cream Stout ice cream for dessert). Both of these dinners featured a Beer Braised short rib as the main course, and in both cases all that was left only our plates was the bone. I knew I had to find a way to make this, and I knew my Crock Pot was the secret component.

This is what I did ...

Beer Braised Short Ribs

1 -1 1/2lbs. of beef short ribs

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

3 cloves garlic minced

1 teaspoon if thyme

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup flour

1 bottle beer - Wheat Ale (or stout, or a beer with a bold loud flavor)

1 cup chicken or beef broth

Add dry ingredients to crock pot; beef, brown sugar, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, in slow cooker. Sprinkle with flour and toss to coat meat.

Add wet ingredients; broth, soy sauce, and beer, pour over beef.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (or high for 4-5 hours). Cook until meat is fork tender. (I will advise to cook for 8-10 hours, slower and longer makes meat tender.)

Remove beef from sauce, and set aside. Ladle out two spoonfuls of the broth and put in a small sauce pan on medium low heat. In a cup mix 2 tablespoons of cold water with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, add to the broth on the stove top. Whisk till thickens.

When serving put sauce over meat.

Yum!!!

PS ... sorry no picture, we ate it all before i could even take the camera out.