Love of Cookbooks

I tell you Goodcook.com is the BEST website! I have scored something like 7-10 cookbooks on this site for 50% off the sale price when all is said and done. My most recent purchase was Crescent City Cooking by Susan Spicer. This is a fun Cajun cookbook by a chef from New Orleans. I found a pretty sweet recipe for Caribbean Crab Pilaf with Coconut Milk.

The flavors in this dish sounded awesome together. I'd like to say it was everything I thought it would be, but the flavors weren't as strong as I would have liked them to be and it was DEFINITELY better the next day after the flavors had an opportunity to meld together.

Caribbean Crab Pilaf with Coconut Milk:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 cups medium- or long-grain rice

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and diced - we didn't peel it...that's too much work

1 pound lump crab meat, picked free of shells

1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk

1 teaspoon Angostura bitters

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

Hot sauce

1 /4 cup finely sliced scallions

1/4 cup each chopped fresh basil and/or cilantro, optional

Heat the oil and butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and add the onion, carrot, and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, then add the curry powder and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes longer. Add the rice and saute for another 2 minutes. Add the tomato, crabmeat, coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups water, bitters, lime juice, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand covered for an additional 10 minutes. Stir the rice and season it with the salt and hot sauce. Serve garnished with scallions and herbs.

O.K. here are the pointers you REALLY should not miss out on. 1 teaspoon of salt is no where near enough to make this flavorful. I took leftovers to work the day after we made this and I had to steal salt from the nasty restaurant downstairs. :) Also, the recipe says the basil or cilantro garnish is optional...it is NOT optional. Next time I am going to use chicken stock instead of water for some added flavor.

I definitely think you should try this out. It has a great mesh of flavors.

Empanaditas

I love to collect cook books. Every time I travel I like to pick up a new cook book that will remind me of the area. Six ago I visited San Francisco with some friends and spent a day in Sonoma wine tasting, of course. At one of the winery's I found by dream cook book. 'Potatoes, from mash to fries.' I LOVE potatoes! The funny thing is I have only ever made this recipe from the book.

This recipe is AWESOME! It reminds me of living on my own because it was cheap to make and really yummy. I used to make this with nutritional yeast when I was vegan. :) This recipe has a lot of memories for me and I hope it it creates memories for you too.

Empanaditas:

1 medium potatoes, cut in 1/4 inch dice

3 scallions

3/4 cups canned corn kernels, drained

1 or 2 green chilies, seeded and finely chopped

3 oz. queso fresco

2 teaspoons dried marjoram

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Cuban Chorizo diced - this isn't a part of the original recipe, but you can add anything you want!

Pastry:

See recipe

I don't like the recipe the book has for pastry dough because if you have been reading my blog you know I sucked at making pastry dough until I scored a sweet recipe from my friend Jen.

Parboil the potatoes in a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain well, and let cool. Combine the remaining filling ingredients in a bowl, stir in the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Follow instructions for the pastry.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8-inch think, the cut out 16 rounds, 5 inches in diameter, using a small saucer as a guide. Knead and re-roll any trimmings. Place 1 tablespoon filling on each round a little off center. I made mine a little bigger and use more filling.

Dampen the edges of the pastry with a little water and fold in half over the filling. Using the tines of a fork, press the edges together to seal them.

The recipe calls to fry these babies in a deep pan filled 1/2 way up with oil at 375 for about 3-5 minutes until brown. That is too much oil for me so I bake these at 375 for about 20-25 minutes until lightly browned.

These make great snacks or a yummy meal.

I never used up all the filling so I used the leftovers to make a breakfast burrito with them. YUM!!!!!!

Veggie Cream Cheese

I don't know about you, but I LOVE bagels. I especially dig flavored cream cheese. Since becoming pregnant I have become a fan of all natural and try to eat few processed foods. You never know what stuff they put in that cream cheese at the bagel shop to preserve it. You really don't know what they put in cream cheese to preserve it.

Regardless if this recipe is more natural than what you would get at the bagel shop...I'm going to pretend that it is because it makes me feel better about devouring my morning bagel.

Veggie Cream Cheese:

8oz. package of 1/3 fat cream cheese

1 carrot, shredded

3 green onions, minced

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried dill

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

Mix all ingredients until well incorporated. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 weeks. I'm sure this would keep longer...but I'm pregnant and can't afford to see how long it will stretch.

Man...it's 9pm and I am jonsing for a bagel.

Noodles in a Hurray!

For Christmas, Alex's sister gave us a subscription to a cooking magazine called Cuisine at Home. We got our first issue two days ago. So far, I like it. There are a lot of recipes in there I normally wouldn't make, but I am glad as it will expand our cooking experience.

Soba Noodle Salad:

For the Noodles:

1 box soba noodles (8 oz.)

1/3 cup chunky peanut butter

1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon EACH: low-sodium soy sauce, brown sugar, and minced fresh garlic.

1 teaspoon chile garlic sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 teaspoons sesame oil

3/4 cup snow peas, halved crosswise

3/4 cup sliced red or yellow sweet pepper

3/4 cup bias-sliced scallions

3/4 cup bean sprouts - our stupid grocery store doesn't carry bean sprouts so we had to pass

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

For the Shrimp:

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons fresh ginger root

2 teaspoons minced garlic

20 medium shrimp

Salt and Pepper

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds - we passed on these too.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for noodles. Cook noodles according to the package directions. Drain, rinse and set aside.

Whisk peanut butter, broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger root and chile garlic sauce together in saucepan over medium heat just until peanut butter melts. Stir in lime juice and sesame oil, set aside.

Toss noodles, peanut sauce, snow peas, sweet pepper, scallions, sprouts and cilantro together in a bowl to coat.

Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons ginger root and garlic in a bowl. Toss with shrimp; season with salt and pepper.

Saute shrimp in remaining olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Serve on top of noodles and garnish with sesame seeds.

This is a pretty decent dish. The noodles and peanut sauce ROCK! Alex thought it was weird that the veggies weren't cooked up at all, but I LOVED the crunchiness of the veggies. This would be a GREAT dish with or without meat. You should definitely check it out.

Penguins!!!

These little babies are the CUTEST EVER!!!!!!!

In my hiatus from blogging I also stopped looking at food blogs because a lot of foods did not appeal to me. Quite honestly I was too tired by the time I came home from work to do much more than eat and go straight to bed. It is so nice to be in my second trimester!

This week when I got up the effort to start looking at blogs again, Megan's Cooking caught my eye. She made the cutest little penguin appetizers. We are having a couple of friends over for dinner so I thought I would try this recipe out. I was worried it would be really time consuming so I didn't have high expectations. WRONG! These babies are EASY to make and so damn cute!!!!! When they are all bunched up they look like they are keeping their eggs warm.

Penguins:
18 jumbo ripe Black olives
18 small ripe Black olives1
(8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 carrot (about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide)
18 long fresh chives
18 toothpicks

Cut a slit lengthwise from top to bottom in each jumbo olive. Fill each cavity of the jumbo olives with about a teaspoon of cream cheese (I used a knife and pushed the cream cheese in a little at a time through the top hole). This makes the the white stripe in penguins chest.

Cut carrot into 1/4 inch slices, then out of each slice cut a small pie shaped piece. This makes the feet, save the piece you cut out, this will be the beak. In the x slit in the center of each small olive (where the pit was removed) press the small piece of carrot into the hole with the pointed end out. Using a toothpick, stack head ( small olive ), body (large olive) and feet (carrot slice), adjusting so that beak, cream cheese breast and notch in carrot line up. Tie chive around neck for the scarf.

Not only are these little guys cute, they are TASTY! The chive is a requirement. If you don't use it as a scarf, you should chop them up in the cream cheese. Thanks for the idea Megan!!!

Seriously! This is so easy. You have to make these for your next cocktail party.

Greek Salsa

These salsa books I bought in San Antonio ROCK!!!!! I love salsa. I could eat it all day, every day. I bought these two books at the Alamo and *hoped* they were going to yield a couple of good recipes. All three recipes I have made from these books so far are phenomenal. I am going to be the hit of every appetizer party I attend for the rest of my life!

I wouldn't consider this a salsa exactly...it is lacking the spiciness of a chile...but it certainly is yummy! Alex thinks this would be awesome on a pizza. I whole heartedly agree!

Grecian Island Salsa:

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled - I made sure the feta was pasteurized so I can eat it in my 'condition'

1/2 cup white onion, minced

1 medium tomato, finely diced

4 0z. black olives, chopped - we used kalmata olives, much tastier

Juice of 1 lime

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup fresh parsley, minced - I only used 1/3 cup because we only had curly parsley

2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced - our silly grocery store didn't have fresh dill so we used a teaspoon of dried dill

Freshly ground black pepper to taste - NOTE: it does not say to add salt...don't do it. The feta and olive are salty enough. I added salt :)

Combine all ingredients and stir gently. Serve immediately with toasted baguette slices or pita crisps. We had it with crackers and it was GREAT!

Despite the fact that I added salt at the end, this was a wonderful salsa! But seriously, don't add salt. I'm not sure what I was thinking. It wasn't miserable by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't need it.

Wow. I have missed sharing recipes online. I am glad I am feeling better. When my belly gets bigger I will post a picture.

GREAT SALSA!

I have apologies to make...it has been nearly 2 whole months since my last post. That kind of sounds like I am confessing sins to a priest. I have been feeling under the weather as a result of a parasite...a self inflicted parasite. I am pregnant!!!! I have not felt like cooking for months. It has been kind of heart breaking. I think I am on the rebound, so you should be seeing more posts in the coming weeks...but be patient...this little parasite of mine is sucking the life out of me.

Alex and I went to San Antonio to celebrate the holiday with his sister. We a GREAT city! We encountered the BEST STORE in the world! City Market is a high end grocery store similar to Wild Oats, but not so vegan. The deli serves gourmet dishes worthy of a fancy-schmancy dinner party, a cheese section so freaking fabulous I thought I had died and gone to heaven, and a wine selection better than the wine stores I am used to...not that it matter much on this trip since I can't drink.

While in Texas I scored two SWEET salsa cook books. Both books have a lot of recipes for fruit salsas. I dig mango salsa, but there is a recipe for strawberry salsa that is to DIE for. We made it in San Antonio with Alex's sister...sorry, no pics, but I have included the recipe if you'd like to try it out.

Corn and Black Bean Salsa:

1 cup drained canned corn

1 cup canned black beans, rinsed

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced - I used red and it was fantastic!

2 tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 avocado, seeded, peeled and diced

2 Jalapeno chiles, seeded and finely diced

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

1/4 cup diced red onion

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients. Cover and chill.

This salsa is so easy and PURE yummy! We cooked up some salmon with yam potato pancakes and topped it with the salsa and a dollop of chipotle sour cream. This salsa is awesome with chips too. You should make this for your New Years football parties...you'll be the ROCKSTAR of the party.

Summer Salsa:

2 cups diced strawberries

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

salt and white pepper

Combine all ingredients. Cover and chill.