Raw Brussels Sprout Salad with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette

If you don't know already by reading my salad blogs, I am a salad L-O-V-E-R. I love salads! I can eat salad everyday, anytime of the day, even for breakfast. It's my comfort food. Of course I also like tacos and chili as my comfort foods too, so don't laugh too hard at my uncommon salad fixation. I realize that not too many people would say salad is their comfort food. :)  
Anyway, like most things I cook or prepare in this case, they usually come about by accident and by necessity. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that...So, I wanted to make a salad for dinner the other night and I opened my veggie drawer and found that I had no lettuce or greens to make a salad with. Instead, I had some Brussels sprouts and mushrooms. Not your normal salad ingredients, but I thought I could throw something together and that something turned into this Raw Brussels Sprout Salad. 
The Brussels sprouts, Baby Bella mushrooms and the Gouda are all pretty earthy tasting so I wanted to complement their earthiness with a piquant vinaigrette. I tossed it with my Garlic Balsamic dressing which I usually make with spinach salads but I thought it would work well with this salad, and I was right. The balsamic vinegar pairs well with the Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and smoked Gouda. The crispy onions and pine nuts add the crunchy texture as well as incredible flavor. With all the ingredients chopped small and bite-sized, the Garlic Balsamic dressing coats every inch of the veggies infusing flavor throughout. Super yummy!
This salad turned out so terrific it'll definitely be one of those salads I'll make again and again throughout summer. In fact, I can picture this salad in the fall too. It would be a great salad to serve along side some of my slow cooked fall meals. Hope you give it a try. Enjoy!


Raw Brussels Sprout Salad with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
Serves 4

8-10 Brussels Sprouts, thinly sliced (3-4 cups)
1 cup baby Bella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup smoked Gouda, grated
1/2 cup french fried onions
1/4 cup pine nuts

Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 cup Olive oil
1-2 T Dijon Mustard
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tsp dried Thyme
salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk all vinaigrette ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Thinly slice Brussels Sprouts and transfer to a large bowl. Roughly chop mushrooms. Add mushrooms, Crispy Onion pieces, smoked Gouda cheese and pine nuts to prepared Brussels sprouts.

Toss Salad ingredients with about half of the vinaigrette, adding more until you get desired taste. Top with extra cheese and pine nuts and serve.

Turkey Sausage and Peppers Pasta

It's early morning on Father's Day and of course I woke up thinking of food. Specifically about what dish could I blog about this morning that would be a manly enough dish to represent, this all man-day, Father's Day. I'm sure my husband would prefer this blog to be about steak and potatoes but unfortunately we rarely eat steak because of the price of beef. (Remember, we live in California on one income.) :) So I had to be resourceful. Pasta's always crowd-pleasing and this is a recipe I'm positive men, women and kids will love. It's utterly delicious and the hour long cooking time of the sauce allows the smoky flavor of the sausage to permeate the sauce and mellows the bell peppers into a sublime pasta sauce like no other. 

This recipe came about as a 'by accident on purpose' kind of meal because I didn't have any meat thawed for dinner one night. With hungry kids and a hard working hungry husband, I asked myself, "What thaws quickly in a pinch?" I searched deep in the freezer and I came up with some Smoked Turkey sausage I'd bought on sale a week prior. It was less than $2.00 for a pound. I also had some bell peppers and onions on hand and started to throw this dish together. I served it with a green salad but with the hour long cooking of the sauce, I also served some cheese and crackers to hold the kiddos and hubby over. Definitely don't skimp on the cooking time with this sauce, it's worth the simmer-time.

I'll let the recipe speak for itself and let me know how you like it. :)

Happy Father's Day!

Turkey Sausage and Peppers Pasta
Serves 4-6

16 oz. Smoked Turkey Sausage, sliced
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup green bell pepper, diced 
1 cup of red and yellow bell peppers, diced (or any combination on hand)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
1-15.5 oz can of Tomato Puree or 1 can of Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup red wine
1 t dried basil
2 T Prepared Pesto
1 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

2 cups dried mini bow-tie pasta or any small pasta, cooked

Preparing the Sauce:
Prepare all vegetables and slice turkey sausage into thin rounds. In a large
skillet or a medium-sized dutch oven, add onions, peppers and garlic with olive oil and saute for about 5 minutes.  

Add Sausage.

Add tomato puree, chicken broth, wine and basil and stir and heat on med to low heat for 1 hour. 

 This is what the sauce looks like after a half an hour. Almost there... You can cook the pasta anytime during the last half hour, drain and set aside.

After an hour the sauce will be thick and super flavorful. (If it gets too thick, you can add more chicken stock to thin it as needed.) 

After an hour of cooking time, finish the sauce off by adding the 2T of a prepared pesto and the pat of butter and serve over cooked pasta. 

The butter and pesto add a complexity of flavor that really completes the sauce. If you don't have any pesto, for sure add the real butter to finish it off, you will not be disappointed. Enjoy!

Homemade Hummus and Pita Chips

Making homemade hummus was an easy, pleasant surprise. It reminded me of the kind of surprise you get after you worry about an upcoming test and you study hard for it and then when it's over you realize happily that it wasn't hard at all... in fact it was easy. 
I'd avoided making hummus because I thought it would be too hard to make or it wouldn't be good.(The upcoming test) Not to mention the fact that I'd never had one of the main ingredients, tahini or sesame paste, in my pantry. My opinion at the time, tahini was an exotic ingredient which required some investigating. (Studying for the test) 
Well, I solved the ingredient problem and purchased some tahini from Cost Plus World Market about a few months ago. (Studying in progress) I placed it front and center on the pantry shelf so I'd see it every time I opened the cupboard. A constant reminder to give hummus a go. (Like flash cards)
I even had my recipe all ready to try. A recipe I stumbled upon on Pinterest, which I quickly re-pinned for the sole purpose of further motivation to make hummus. (Cheat sheet for the exam) So ready or not, it's test time. 

Here's this wonderfully simple recipe from two tarts. The order in which the ingredients are combined is the key to making this creamy hummus and it's what sets this hummus recipe apart from the others. It's super creamy and delicious and goes great on veggies, sandwiches, pita chips or just about anything. My husband added it to some leftover chicken and made some Mediterranean-type tacos we had on leftover night and he loved it. I had it for breakfast the day after with some broccoli and it was super delicious, even better the next day as the garlic melded with the ingredients. Give it a go. I promise that you will never buy store bought hummus again. Enjoy.  


Homemade Creamy Hummus (recipe from Two Tarts.com)

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 T water
4 small cloves of raw garlic
16 oz can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 t salt

Put tahini, lemon juice and water in a food processor. Blend and scrape down sides if any tahini sticks until it forms a thick creamy emulsion.
Blend garlic and salt into the tahini emulsion. Add your chickpeas and blend until smooth and creamy.

Note: This recipe calls for fewer chickpeas in proportion to the other ingredients than other hummus recipes- it is more tahini and lemon heavy, which helps achieve that delicious texture.

Homemade Pita Chips
Makes about 3 dozen chips

3 Pita bread pockets, sliced into triangles
olive oil
sea salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice pitas into triangles. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer and brush both sides lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with some sea salt and bake for 10-12 minutes. Flip pitas over about half way through baking time.

Pork Tenderloin with Mustard-Caper Sauce

This is one of those dishes that's so easy to prepare and tastes like it required some culinary training to get it to taste so good.  The simplicity of this recipe makes it great; no fussy, hard to find ingredients and simple preparation.

To illustrate how easy and fool-proof this recipe is to prepare, I'll tell you about the very first time I made it. I made this dish for the first time many years ago for an old boyfriend (pre-husband). Anxious to cook and ready to impress my new boyfriend, I broke the golden rule of entertaining...which is, 'Never make a new dish for the first time for company'. Experimenting with a new recipe is never a good idea when entertaining others, especially a new boyfriend you're trying to impress by cooking for him. With that being said, I broke this rule because it was one of my Mom's recipes. She'd recommended I try it and as a general rule, my Mom's recipes are always good even if you've never made it before.(Provided you don't burn it or use the wrong ingredients.) Anyhow, I plowed forward and made the dish. I was nervous about how it would taste, since I myself had never tasted it before. We sat down and we took our first bites...and oh my....it was so incredible! The boyfriend sighed and mmm'ed in agreement that it was, in fact, delicious! Big relief! He went on and on about how good it was and finished the whole pan with seconds and thirds.
Anyway...the point of this walk down memory lane is that although I served a dish I'd never prepared before, the dish was utterly delicious. Not because I had intense hope that the dish would be awesome or even because of my cooking ability. Pork Tenderloin with Mustard-Caper Sauce was incredible because this recipe uses great ingredients and has easy, simple preparation which makes it fool-proof and delicious the first time and every time. This is one of my favorite dishes and I've made it many many times over the last 10 years since my maiden voyage and it's always delicious. Hope you give it a try.

   
Just a note about this picture above. I love the rustic feel and look of the rough chopped shallots and the graininess of the whole-grain mustard, it makes me feel comforted just looking at it and imagining the taste of it. The best of both worlds is a dish that can be elegant and light but also rustic and satisfying. I made this dish last week and served it with some roasted asparagus with garlic. Something light for Spring but still satisfying and delicious. Imagine this dish on a cold Winter night served with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, a bottle of wine and big loaf of crusty bread to soak up the delicious pan sauce. Can you imagine it? Give it a whirl and wait for the compliments to rain down on you. :)

Pork Tenderloin with Mustard-Caper Sauce (recipe from my Mom's book)
Serves 4

1 lb. pork tenderloin, silver skin removed and cut into 1" thick rounds
2 T butter
1/3 cup shallots, chopped
1 can chicken broth
4 T whipping cream
2 T rinsed and drained capers
2 T course-grained Dijon Mustard
salt and pepper (to taste)

Place pork rounds on a layer of plastic wrap and cover with another layer of plastic wrap and lightly pound pork rounds to approximately 1/2" thickness. Lightly salt and pepper and set aside.

Melt butter in skillet over medium high heat. Add pork to skillet and saute until brown and almost cooked through about two minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add shallots to skillet and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken broth and cream and heat scraping up bits. Continue to reduce until sauce thickens to coat spoon. (~5-8 minutes)
Note: This sauce will not be a thick sauce as there is no thickening agent added. Heating and reducing the liquid concentrates the flavors and thickens the sauce.
Add mustard and capers. Return pork to sauce. Simmer for about 2 minutes more until pork is heated through. Salt and pepper to taste and serve. 

Quick Pickled Jalapenos and Radishes

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. 
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, 
Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?

I say that nursery rhyme in my head every time I think of pickled peppers. If only I could remember most other things that well and for as long. Anyway, I stumbled on a pound of Jalapeno peppers for a $1 yesterday and wanted to attempt to make some pickled jalapeno peppers. I thought it would be fun to top some burgers or hot dogs with these little babies for a Memorial Day BBQ.  

I searched the Internet for 'pickled jalapenos' and this super quick and easy recipe popped up from allrecipes.com  I also had some radishes in my fridge and decided to add these too and see how they turned out. I told myself that if they were good enough, I would blog about them. They turned out great and they were super delicious and very spicy! But I like spicy. 

The video on allrecipes.com suggested to rinse your cut jalapenos in cool water to help remove some of the seeds to help lower the heat.  If you didn't know already, the hottest parts of peppers, comes from the seeds and the ribs holding the seeds. So if you are wanting to reduce the hotness of peppers in this and other preparations, do remove the ribs and seeds. (I skipped this step in my preparation of this recipe)

I like this recipe because it's easy and it's intended to make a small amount to be used in a short amount of time. You can prepare and serve them in a matter of hours rather than in days as in traditional canning methods for pickling vegetables. Store them in your refrigerator for up to three months*. (*I'd previously stated that you could only store these in your fridge for about a week, but I have since been doing more research on quick pickling and these pickles will keep in your refrigerator for up to three months.) 

Here is a picture of my breakfast this morning using the peppers I pickled. Pretty perfect. The radishes were terrific too, surprisingly delicate and flavorful, you pick up the notes of oregano well in the radishes. Pickled radishes are my new favorite discovery and I plan on pickling them again so I can experiment with dishes to incorporate these bad boys. :) 

Quick Pickled Jalapenos and Radishes (recipe from allrecipes.com)
(Makes 2- 8oz jars)


3/4 cup water
3/4 cup vinegar
3 T granulated sugar
1 T kosher salt (I used canning salt)
1 clove garlic (I used 2 garlic cloves)
1/2 t Mexican oregano
10 large Jalapenos, sliced into rings
5 radishes, sliced into rounds (I added radishes to the mix as well)

Add water, vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic and oregano in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add Jalapenos and radishes to pot with vinegar mixture and remove from heat. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes.

Use tongs to transfer peppers and radishes into 2-8oz jars. Top off each jar with remaining vinegar mixture. Place lids tightly and refrigerate.

These are only quick pickled peppers and radishes and can be used immediately and/or stored in your refrigerator for up to three months. Enjoy!

Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter

I made this dish a few weeks ago and feel silly that it has taken me so long to write about it. With my husband and kids at a cub scouts camp-out today, I raced to my computer to write. But now, after the week I've had, I'm glad I was delayed in writing this one. Now it seems like the perfect comforting dish to blog about and to make again this weekend to ease my weary soul. 

My week was full of kids activities and play dates and cub scout camp-out planning and PTA this and that. Underneath all the 'doing' this week, I'm exhausted from worry for my 13 year old dog, Lucy. She got hit by a car last Friday night and had me on the worry train all week. No broken bones or internal bleeding which was a miracle in itself. A bruised liver and an abrasion over her left eye was what she was left with, which has been incredibly painful for her. So, it has been a week already and she is steadily improving. She's still in pain but seems to be resuming her old routines; eating, drinking, pooping and sleeping more comfortably. 
The first few nights she was home with us, I slept on the couch with her next to me on the floor because she was having such difficulty getting up, labored breathing, pain, etc so I was awake often those nights. I know I was worried and half expecting the worst outcome. So now that she seems to be on track and on the road to recovery, I can breathe a little easier. And I've even slept through the night in my own bed. My heart is a little lighter but I still feel drained by the whole ordeal. So what better way to be gentle with yourself, and ease the anxiety after experiencing a week of helpless worry. Pasta!  Specifically, Penne Pasta with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter.

This recipe from foodandwine.com is super simple and utterly delicious. The balsamic vinegar is simmered and reduced to about 3 tablespoons which mellows it out so beautifully. You are left with decidedly balsamic flavor but without the pungent notes you get from vinegar. Then add some sugar and a 1/2 cup of real butter and a ton of roasted Asparagus...oh Man...the perfect dish. The recipe on the link also suggests some variations of this using roasted broccoli instead of or in addition to the asparagus. Luckily, I have both asparagus and broccoli on hand, so I'll give it a try and make a Asparagus and broccoli version of this tomorrow night. Enjoy!

Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter (recipe from  foodandwine.com)

1 lb asparagus ( I used 2 lbs of asparagus)
1 T olive oil
2 t salt
1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup plus 2 T Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 t brown sugar
1 lb Penne Pasta
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Snap tough ends off the asparagus and discard them. Cut spears into 1-inch pieces. Put the asparagus on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil and 1/4 t each of the salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the vinegar in a small saucepan. Simmer until only 3 T remain. Stir in the brown sugar and the remaining 1/4 tsp pepper.  Remove from heat.

Cook Penne in a large pot of boiling, salted water until just done, about 13 minutes. (or check time on box, I had to cook mine a little bit longer.) drain pasta and toss with the butter, vinegar, Asparagus, Parmesan and remaining salt. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.

Cereal Bars

Cleaning out my pantry last week, I came across a nearly full box of cereal that had been left open and forgotten in the back, so the puffs were kind of stale. Still edible but not as crispy as they should have been. I was on the fence whether or not to toss them and tried to think of how I could use them in their stale state. I could make bread crumbs out of them for coating chicken or fish, I thought. But how much breadcrumbs do I really need? A whole box of cereal will surely make a ton of crumbs that I most likely won't use since I don't fry food often enough to use them all. Much to the dismay of my oldest son who loves fried foods. So it pained me to even think of throwing them away, since it's wasted food.
However, I then moved to my baking cupboard and found an opened bag of extra large JUMBO marshmallows that my boys had begged me to get for them. The marshmallows are nearly the size of baseballs they are so huge. Needless to say, they ate two each and lost interest. So there they sat discarded and alone for who knows how long. They were so sticky that there was no way of pulling them apart from each other. I was just going to throw them away as well, until I thought about Rice Crispy treats or rather, Kix Crispy treats. Light bulb-on! It's not a new idea but it solved my dilemma of "to toss" or "not to toss".
I pilfered my kids remaining Easter candy, grabbed some Reese Pieces, some peanuts and decided to make these Cereal Bars. I know you are probably thinking but all these ingredients are stale and old, why bother? Well, my answer, why not? Once you melt the marshmallows with butter they are perfectly fine, adding the cereal and the other ingredients turns it into candy basically leaving the cereal bars perfectly yummy!  Enjoy!

Cereal Bars
Makes 2 dozen

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 bag of JUMBO marshmallows
1 1/2 quarts of cereal (a little less than a full box of Kix)
1/2 cup peanuts
3/4 cup Reese's Pieces
1/2 cup of frosted flakes

Here is a look at this super sticky mess of marshmallows, I literally had to peel away the plastic and drop it in the pot as one solid lump. Not pretty, but it will be. 

 Melt 1/2 cup butter in large pot and then add bag of marshmallows.

 Heat on med heat and stir periodically until marshmallows begin to melt.

 Continue heating until smooth. Much prettier now. :)

I also grabbed the remaining bit of Frosted flakes (not pictured) and added them to the mix too.

Add cereal and peanuts and stir until well coated.  Then gently add Reese's Pieces and stir until just mixed. Too much mixing will break and melt the candy, so just add them in slowly without a lot of rough mixing.

Spread out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and use a spatula sprayed with cooking spray to smooth out cereal.

Pop into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes until cooled and then cut into squares and eat. Store these in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. :)