Parmesan Creamed Onions

This recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs, "The Cutting Edge of Ordinary". I just love the author,Lisa and her sincere writing, her straight forward, warm style, great photos and of course her comforting, delicious recipes. These Parmesan Creamed Onions are hands down one of the best tasting foods around. Even if you are not a fan of onions, you will love this dish! The onions are so sweet and creamy...To. Die. For! 

The first time I made these, I served them as an appetizer with slices of baguettes and we were so full from eating the entire pan, that there wasn't much room left for the main course. We used the bread to sop up all the melted cheese and cream in the pan...absolutely divine! I made them again for 4th of July with a very large Maui Onion I'd picked up from a local farm. (Yes, I turned on the oven in the middle of summer, but it was so worth it.) I topped our burgers with these amazing onions and they transformed our burgers to super-delicious-amazing-burger status with the flip of the spatula! Don't take my word for it, try this recipe and wait for the praise. Enjoy!


Parmesan Creamed Onions 
(recipe from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary)

4 medium or large yellow onion
olive oil

salt and pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white wine
Parmesan cheese

Peel and slice onions into 1/4 inch rounds. Carefully place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, keeping the rings intact. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.
While onions are roasting, place heavy cream and wine in a small saucepan and simmer until it starts to bubbles around the edges. Remove from heat and set aside.
After the onions are out of the oven, carefully transfer them to a shallow baking dish, taking care to keep the rings intact. Slowly pour the cream sauce over the onions. Add additional black pepper if you'd like. Raise the oven temp to 450 degrees. Sprinkle each onion with Parmesan cheese. Cover pan with foil and return to the oven for another 20-25 minutes. Remove the foil and let onions brown and caramelize for an additional 5 minutes. 

Braised Short Ribs

The best part of cool weather outside, is the great things you can slow cook inside, like Braised Short Ribs. Here's a recipe I found many years ago from my favorite cooking magazine, Cuisine at Home. I've blogged a few recipes from this awesome magazine before, like Greek Meatballs, Garden Fresh Gazpacho, Rice Vera Cruz and Tofu Bruschetta. Cuisine at Home is great because it gives simple, important tips and techniques and of course it uses easy to find ingredients. In this recipe, Cuisine at Home goes over Braising basics which I'll summarize for those who may have never braised before. When I first started to cook, I learned the most from my mistakes, but when it comes to expensive cuts of beef, (because beef is expensive on my budget, no matter what the cut it) it's nice to get a heads up and avoid some common errors. Braising is the technique of slow cooking meats in liquid. There are a few steps that are important so the meat is brown and not gray and that the gravy is complex and delicious and not burnt tasting. So here are some tips from Cuisine at Home that has helped me make this wonderful dish perfect every time.
  
The first step is Browning the meat. This step adds color to the meat and renders some of the fat from the meat. The oven temperature alone won't brown the meat to a dark brown, so don't skip this step. Once you finish browning all the meat and set aside, it is best to pour off all the rendered fat and any burnt flour from the pan. The burnt bits will make the sauce taste scorched. You will have some bits of meat stuck to the bottom of your dutch oven, this is perfectly okay and necessary to add wonderful flavor when you braise.

Step two is Deglazing the pan. After browning the meat and setting aside, you will saute your vegetables with various ingredients in the same dutch oven and then you'll add flour to the cooked vegetables. The flour will coat the vegetables. Next, you will add your flavored liquids and deglaze the pan. The brown bits on the bottom of the pan will be dissolved and incorporated into the sauce and the added flour will act to thicken the sauce.

Step three is Braising. Add the browned meat, in a single layer, bone-side up in the braising liquid. Cover pot with a tight fitting lid and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours. The tight fitting lid helps keep the moisture and heat in the pot which breaks down the fat and connective tissues in the short ribs and makes it fall off the bone, delicious!

There you have it! Easy as can be and incredibly delicious! Happy Braising.

Braised Short Ribs 

(recipe from Cuisine at Home, Oct 2005)

Prepare:
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 T. garlic, minced
1 bay leaf

Combine; Dredge and brown in 1T of olive oil;Remove
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. black pepper
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
2 lb bone-in short ribs

Saute:
1 T. olive oil
Prepared vegetables
1 T. tomato paste
2 T. reserved dredging flour

Deglaze with; Stir in and Braise:
1-14 oz can beef broth
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup Marsala
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, halved (not packed in oil)
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
Browned Short Ribs

Add:
2 cups crimini Mushrooms, quartered
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare onion, carrot, celery and garlic; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, pepper and cayenne in a resealable plastic bag. Add short ribs, one at a time and shake to coat evenly (reserve unused flour). Heat 1 T olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add dredged short ribs, bone side up, and brown slowly, about 8 minutes. Turn ribs and brown other side for 8 minutes. Remove from the pan; pour off all the fat.

Saute vegetables, garlic and bay leaf with the tomato paste in oil until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add flour; stir until vegetables are coated.

Deglaze with broth, wine and Marsala; stir in tomatoes and Worcestershire, and bring to a simmer. Arrange ribs in sauce, bone side up, cover and braise in the oven for 2-3 hours. 

Add mushrooms and return pot to the oven; braise another 15 minutes. 

Serve with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and a roasted vegetable if your choice. I made some Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli with Garlic. I love garlic. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Empanadas

I made this delicious empanada dough earlier this year with my Chipotle Beef Empanadas. The dough recipe was slightly modified from an old Martha Stewart magazine recipe. I fell in love with it's flaky, buttery crust and knew it would be great for some fruit hand pies. I'd intended to make them this summer with some fresh summer fruit but never did. So, instead I thought of this cute little dessert that's perfect for fall. 

I LOVE fall and I've been planning some of these recipes since early this year, just waiting for the weather to cool enough to turn on the oven. Well, that day came early last week and I was able to make these Pumpkin Cheesecake Empanadas. These are the perfect combination of rich Pumpkin Cheesecake in a beautiful pie crust. If you're like me and love pie crust, this recipe is for you. Lots of crust and lightly sweet and creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling. Don't despair if you prefer sweeter desserts. I included an icing to drizzle, if you wanted to add a little more sweetness to it. 

The recipe itself has a few parts to it and may on first inspection look like too much work, but it's really a breeze and the best part is that you can make the filling and dough a few days ahead and assemble them when you want. Here's one better, if you want to get a jump on your holiday baking. You can make the dough, filling and assemble the empanadas according to the recipe, but rather than bake them, place the cookie sheet in freezer for 40-50 minutes until the empanadas are firm. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, then place individually wrapped empanadas in a large freezer bag and return them to the freezer. Just pull out the amount you want to bake. Think of how perfect Thanksgiving morning will be with an Pumpkin Cheesecake Empanada for breakfast and a steamy cup of coffee. What's that saying, "Life's too short, eat dessert first." Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Empanadas
Makes 16

Filling
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
In a large bowl, Whip together the pumpkin, condensed milk, sugar, cream cheese and two eggs until well combined with a light and fluffy texture. (about 3 minutes) Add vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon and continue to beat until incorporated. Spray baking dish with cooking spray and pour batter into baking dish. Bake mixture until set about 25 minutes. Cool on racks, then cover and refrigerate for about an hour until completely cool or overnight. (I made the pumpkin cheesecake filling a day ahead of time along with my dough.)


Empanada Dough (slightly adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup ice water
1 large egg, beaten with 1 t water (egg wash for the crust)
Cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling


Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1-2T milk


Prepare the Dough:
Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder in a large bowl. Add butter and shortening. Working quickly and using your fingertips, combine mixture until it resembles a very course meal. Add water. With floured hands, mix.

Knead once or twice to fully combine. The less kneading the better.  Divide dough in half; and shape into disks and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 5 days, bring to room temperature before using.) 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Divide each disk of dough into 8 pieces and keep in the refrigerator, using one piece at a time. Using a rolling pin on a floured work surface, roll out 1 piece to an 1/8-inch thick oval.

Use pumpkin cookie cutter to lightly score the dough to mark placement.

Using a medium sized cookie scoop, place 2-3 scoops of cooked pumpkin cheesecake filling into center of the dough. Fold dough over to enclose filling and lightly pat down the filling. 

Using a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, cut through the dough to enclose the filling and punch out the pumpkin shape.

Using a spatula, transfer the empanada to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press edges with a fork to seal.

Using a small leaf shaped cookie cutter, punch out leaf shapes and place on the empanada. (optional, I just thought it would be cute)

Coat each empanada with the egg wash and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes

Let cool and serve with or without icing. (I prefer mine without icing because I love the delicate flavor of the crust.) 

Roasted Baby Carrot Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

This summer I grew some baby carrots for the first time. They grew fast and heartily. As a result, I had a ton of carrots to contend with. They varied in size quite a bit. Some were very small and super cute at only an inch in length. As a little girl, I would've snatched up those baby carrots in a blink and served them up to Ken on a hot pink plate in my Barbie Dream House. Nice to know, nothing has changed since childhood, if only I'd kept my Barbie stuff. *sigh* 
But really, what should I do with them? Throw them away? Probably. They were so small that it almost wasn't worth the effort to clean them. But, I did and I used the really tiny ones in soups and numerous salads. Standard uses for carrots right? They were super cute, an unexpected surprise to see miniature whole carrots in your salad or soup bowl. 
However, the longer carrots were 3-5 inches long (The correct size for this variety of baby carrots) They were so pretty with their green tops, I couldn't bare to cut to tops off entirely so I decided to roast them whole and keep a little of the green tops on them. At first, I was just going to roast them and serve them as a side dish, but after they were roasted, they were so sweet and delicious I thought they would be great on a salad. I like to think of this salad as a transitional summer to fall salad. A perfect marriage of Fall and Summer, roasted root vegetables on a bed of summer veggies topped with a slightly sweet Carrot Ginger Dressing. Delicious! Hope you enjoy it!


Roasted Baby Carrot Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
Serves 4

1 head Boston Bibb lettuce, chopped
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup broccoli florets, blanched
1/2 cup asparagus, blanched
1 cup roasted carrots
1/4 cup whole almonds
Bleu cheese, crumbled

Carrot Ginger Dressing

1/2 cup baby carrots, cooked

1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 t fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced
2 T maple syrup
1 t yellow mustard
1/2 t dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash carrots thoroughly, lightly scrubbing to remove any remaining dirt. Trim green tops and the long root tip. I didn't peel my baby carrots, but if you prefer to peel them please do. Place carrots in a medium bowl and add 1 T canola oil and sprinkle with 1 tsp salt. Transfer carrots to a baking dish and arrange in a single layer. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with chopped Italian parsley and cool completely. 
For the dressing: Place about 1/2 cup roasted baby carrots (green tops removed) in a food processor and add all the dressing ingredients except the oil to the food processor. Puree until all ingredients are finely chopped and combined. Add the oil and puree until the oil is emulsified. Add more oil as needed.

Prepare salad ingredients. Arrange on individual plates, top with almonds, bleu cheese and dressing. 

Crab and Mango Won Ton Cups

My dear friend, Martha made these delicious Crab and Mango Won Ton Cups for one of our Dinner Clubs last year. They were so light and refreshing and delicious, I just had to make these this summer.  In fact, I made these on a very hot September day that just happened to be Martha's birthday. Coincidence? No. Her birthday was my inspiration to make them so I could blog this great recipe. As luck would have it, and further evidence that these were destined to be made that day, I got a few pounds of imitation crab on sale for a steal. Yay! 
The recipe called for lump crab, instead I used imitation crab and it was super delicious. I imagine the real stuff would've been off the hook, but nonetheless, imitation crab was a great substitute. I'll admit also that it was a bit hot to turn on the oven that day to make the won ton cups but it was worth the 10 minutes of heat time and the hour plus time it took to cool my kitchen. (But, I'm not complaining.:)) Although, as an alternative to heating up the house with your oven, you could serve the crab salad on individual leaves of endive lettuce as a variation of this appetizer or even on a bed of iceberg lettuce as a lunch-sized salad. In fact, I did just that the next day with the leftover crab salad. I served it in lettuce cups and had a super yummy lunch. I even crumbled some of the leftover won ton cups on top of the crab salad lettuce cup for added crunchiness. Easy and delicious.

Crab and Mango Won Ton Cups (recipe from foodnetwork.com)
Makes 24

Won Ton Cups
Cooking spray
24 round won ton wrappers
salt

Dressing
Zest of one large lime
2 T of lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T olive oil

Salad
1/2 pound lump crab meat or imitation crab, chopped
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1/2 cup mango, finely diced
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
2 T coarsely chopped cilantro leaves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Gently press won ton wrappers into muffin tins so that it forms a cup. The wrappers may overlap a little. Spray tops of wrappers with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 8-10 minutes until brown and crisp. Remove from the tin and allow to cool. 

Whisk together dressing ingredients. In a medium bowl, toss together the crab, celery, mango, green onions and cilantro and add dressing. Toss to combine. Fill each won ton cup with crab salad and serve.