Lemon and Green Onion Orzo

Tonight I was late on figuring out dinner...oops!  So I had to look at what I had and quickly whip something up!!  I decided on cilantro, grapefruit pork chops, bbq'ed bell peppers and some orzo.  The bell peppers were just tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper and thrown on the grill till they were charred and a little soft...SUPER easy!  I will share a quick and easy marinade post soon which will include the cilantro grapefruit.  For tonight I will share with you the orzo!  It is simple, tastes so bright and fresh and is really sooo delicious!

Here is what you need:
1 lb box of orzo (its a little pasta, shaped like rice but a bit bigger)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 lemon, just the zest
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper

Start by boiling a pot of very salty water.  Toss in the pasta and allow to cook per the boxes directions, normally around 9 minutes.  When pasta is ready strain well.  Put pasta back in pot and stir in butter and olive oil.  Next add in the green onion and lemon zest.  Once combined add the parmesan cheese!  Once this is all together taste and add salt if needed and some fresh grated pepper!  That's it! 

****Fun hint:  This is a great cold pasta salad as well!!  If you are going to serve it cold rinse pasta with cool water after it is cooked and before you add the other ingredients.  I'm not sure why this works (does something to the starch in the pasta) but my hubby taught me to do it, so I do!!

Grilled Corn on the Cob

I'm back!  Things have been crazy the last few weeks!  First the whole family was sick, then Casey and I went on a little trip...plus we have been enjoying SUMMERTIME!!  So, the blog has been neglected :(  That doesn't mean I have stopped cooking, I have been cooking a bunch and have about 10 blog posts running around in my head right now!

I just thought I would share a quick tip on making the MOST delicious corn on the cob ever!  A lot of us will be barbecuing this weekend and this is such an easy way to make corn on the bob taste soooo good and you can just throw it on the grill with the rest of your food!  Better yet, prep it outside, and you have absolutely no mess in your kitchen!

Ingredients:
Corn on the Cob
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

So simple...start by peeling back the leaves of the husk.  You don't want to remove them, just peel them away so you can get rid of the silk (hairy stuff).  Once you get all the silk removed rub the cob with olive oil.  I put some some salt and freshly ground pepper in  a little bowl and then rub your salt&pepper mixture heavily on the corn.  Next, pull the husks back over the corn. 

This is what it looks like in steps: 1.corn, 2.husk peeled back and silk removed, 3. olive oil, S&P, 4. Husk pushed back up

Then you throw it on the bbq and let it cook.  I put mine on for about 10 minutes (it was pretty high heat), but you need to leave them on until tender.  This corn is seriously delicious!  It gets steamed in the husk, yet has a yummy charred bbq flavor!  This is our favorite way to eat corn at our house!

Artichokes

I remember the day I had my first artichoke.  I was 16 and at my boyfriend's (future hubby's) house and he cooked steaks, mashed potatoes and artichokes.  I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous!  If your not familiar with an artichoke they can be very intimidating.  After spending a few minutes teasing me he showed me how to eat an artichoke.   I quickly decided it was one of my favorite things to eat, super yummy and fun to eat!  I have spent the last 10 years eating artichokes every chance I get and I have made them all kinds of different ways.

Since it took me 16 years to discover an artichoke I figured not everyone knows about how great they are, or you too are slightly intimidated by them!  This is why restaurants are able to charge $18 or more for a grilled artichoke!  CRAZY!  So, I have put together a little instruction guide on how to do artichokes at home.  There are a bunch of different ways to cook them, but this is my recent favorite.

What you need:

2 artichokes, the more closed the artichoke the better

2 lemons
3 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

This is what they look like

First you need to cut off about 1 1/2 inches from the top (depending on the size of your artichoke), you want to get rid of most of the thorns.  Then cut the end of the stem, and use a potato peeler to peal the outside layer off of the stem.  Then pick off any artichoke leaves on stem, and I normally take the outer most leaves off as well.  Then you can use scissors to trim any leaves that still have their thorns.

  They will look like this:

Now its time to boil them!  You need a big pot of salted water.  Use the potato peeler to peel the zest off of your lemons, add zest as well as lemon juice to water.  Also add the whole garlic cloves and bay leaves.  They will need to boil for about 25 minutes.  You will know its done when you can take off a leaf and eat it by using your top teeth to scrape off the "meat" from bottom of the inside of the leaf.  Test a leaf and allow to boil longer if needed.

This is what they will look like boiling (the water is cloudy because of the lemon juice)

When they are done boiling they are ready to eat!  Because you boiled them in such well seasoned and yummy water the artichokes are great to eat on their own, or dipped in your favorite sauce (see below for a new favorite of mine!)  If you want to take them to the next level keep reading for how to make grilled artichokes!

So, now that your artichokes have been boiled and you have pulled them out of the water, slice them in half.  Use a spoon to carve out the "choke" and the itty bitty thorny leaves in the center.

The one on the right is what it looks like sliced in half, the left has the choke and leaves removed.

Now brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper!

Put these on a hot grill for about 3 minutes per side (or until you have some nice grill marks).  This just adds a nice smokey flavor!  So yummy!

Size of basil, zest and shallots for sauce

For Lemon Basil Aioli dipping sauce:

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 shallot diced super fine

Finely grated zest from 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons chopped basil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Place the shallots, lemon zest, juice, vinegar and salt into bowl and let sit for about 3 minutes (or longer).  Then add in the mayonnaise and basil stirring it all together.  Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Now you are ready to eat!!  I know it seems like a lot of instructions and a lot of work.  It isn't, I promise!!  These are so yummy and make a great presentation as well!

And now just for fun...here are some pictures of Connor (my now 4 1/2 year old) enjoying his first artichoke at 7 months!  I was determined not to let him live 16 years without one like his mama!!

 

5 Minutes to Awesome Garlic Bread

I am a strong believer in making everything you serve taste great!  This may seem obvious, but I find so often people don't take the time to taste what they are making and season it properly, or they make some delicious chicken, but the side dishes are boring or missing something.  It has happened to me on many occasions, I spend so much time on the main dish that I run out of time for the others...oops!  So, I have mastered making delicious and very simple garlic bread in almost no time at all.  I hope you like it too!!

Ingredients:
1 loaf french bread
1/2 stick butter, super soft-but not melted
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped and mashed super fine
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp salt
A couple grinds of pepper

Slice your bread in half length wise, and put cut side up on a cookie sheet.  In a bowl use a fork to mash together butter, garlic, parmesans, salt and pepper.   Smooth butter mixture completely over the bread.  Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and put into oven at 350 for about 2 minutes to warm it up.  Then turn the broiler on and let the cheese melt and turn golden brown, and the bread will crisp up!  (Watch carefully the broiler will go from perfect to burnt in seconds :)  Pull the bread out and slice it!

Guacamole...that will stay GREEN

A chef perk I received recently was when my hubby walked in the door with a bag of avocados and oranges one of his regulars brought to the restaurant for him.  I love oranges...well, anything citrus so the boys and I had fun eating those last week!  The avocados were all green and hard as a rock, I wasn't even sure they would ever soften up and be good to eat, Casey told me to be patient and he was RIGHT!  So, I made a big batch of guacamole with some chicken tacos for dinner and it was delicious!!

Now, how often have you made guacamole only to have it turn brown and gross looking half way through your party?  I know I have and so many parties I have been to I have seen this happen.  Putting the pit in it does NOT work!  But, today I will share with you the hint that my chef taught me and you will never have to worry about brown guacamole again.  The secret? Olive Oil.  Who knew, right?  Just a little drizzle of olive oil and my guacamole was still green and tasting great 2 days after I made it!

Everyone has their favorite recipe so if you love your recipe you can continue to make it your way, just drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil in it and stir it up.  If you want to try a new recipe I have included the way The Overtons make it below :)
Ingredients:
3 avocados, cubed
1/2 jalapeno, diced super small
1/4 onion, diced small
1 garlic clove, smashed into a paste or finely grated
3 tablespoons, chopped cilantro
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
heavy pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper

In a bowl combine jalapeno, onion and garlic with the lime juice and salt.  Stir this and allow to sit for about 10 minutes.  Then add the avocado, cilantro, olive oil and pepper.  Stir, but don't smash avocado.  Now enjoy your guacamole (now or later :) with some chips or with some yummy dinner.  I recommend storing in a bowl covered with plastic wrap pushed down so it is touching the guacamole so NO air gets in!

Garlic Baguette with Caprice Salad

I just had one of my favorite things for lunch!  A caprice salad!  I love the combination of tomato, mozzarella and basil...I could seriously eat it everyday :)  I know tomatoes aren't in season right now, but my hubby brought home some beautiful black heirloom tomatoes so I couldn't resist (I also saw some yummy looking tomatoes on the vine at Trader Joe's yesterday!)

I have a little bit of a cold right now, and after encouraging a friend on facebook to try a little raw garlic to shorten her cold I thought I should take my own advice!  So I used some garlic and a few slices of baguette to add to an already awesome lunch!

Ingredients for the Caprice Salad
Tomato, sliced
Fresh Mozzarella Ball, sliced
Fresh Basil, torn
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

The key to making this salad so delicious is to SEASON EVERY LAYER!!!  Start by laying a slice of tomato on a plate, season with salt and pepper.  Lay a slice of mozzarella on top of tomato, season with salt and pepper.  Lay a generous amount of basil leaves on top and then drizzle a few drops of olive oil over the basil.  You can then continue to layer each ingredient, or make a few of their own little piles!  So yummy!

Ingredients for Garlic Baguette
1 fresh baguette
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove peeled, raw garlic

Slice a few slices of the baguette on the diagonal.  Rub some olive oil on one side and put on a sheet pan (cookie sheet).  Put in oven under the broiler for about a minute.  You want a little color and for the bread to toast, but not burn.  Watch it closely!!  Take the bread out of the oven and while it is still hot rub the bread with the raw garlic.  I like to rub generously on both sides...I LOVE garlic.  If you are not so much of a garlic fan rub one side. 
I have to admit that this is a trick that I learned from Casey, I didn't come up with it on my own.  I figured you wouldn't mind because, why would you want to read a blog about a chef's wife if you weren't going to get some advice directly from a chef?!?
Want something really yummy?  Make the caprice salad on top of your garlic baguette and you can pick it up and eat it kind of like a bruschetta!  Yum!  Enjoy :)

**I am on a diet right now and wanted to be good, so I did not use any olive oil on mine (every calorie counts) and it was still really delicious, just not quite as good as it could have been :)

Coleslaw and Apple-Cranberry Crisp :)

Sunday night we had some family over for dinner and Casey cooked up some pork shoulder, chicken wings and sausage in the smoker. He loves using his smoker, but it is an all day ordeal. As a matter of a fact, I think he started the pork around 2 am, for dinner at 5:30! Crazy! The food was soooo good though and when he does the meat I usually take on the task of side dishes and dessert!

I made some coleslaw and for dessert an awesome apple cranberry crisp :)

Coleslaw

Ingredients:
1 head cabbage (I like to do 1/2 green cabbage and 1/2 purple)
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch cilantro, leaves picked and chopped
1/4 cup apple-cider vinegar
juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper to taste

First put finely chopped onion and garlic into a bowl with vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and salt and pepper. You want to let that sit for 10 minutes while you get everything else ready. Then slice the cabbage. Cut cabbage in half and then each half into halves. Cut out the core and then very thinly slice the cabbage. Once all cabbage is sliced, add chopped cilantro and vinegar mixture and toss together. The last step is to add the mayonnaise. Once everything is mixed, please be sure to taste the coleslaw and add salt & pepper if needed :)

Then the Apple-Cranberry Crisp for dessert! This recipe is so simple, and can easily be modified to suit your own creative genius!! For example try making this dessert with these mixtures, or others: Apple-Blueberry, Apple, Pear, Apple-Blackberry, Peach, Plum, etc!!

Ingredients:
For Filling:
5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used pink lady, granny smith are also yummy)
1 cup fresh cranberries
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup (or try honey, agave nectar or caramel)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt

For Topping:
1 stick cold butter, cubed
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a large bowl mix all the filling ingredients together until coated and pour into your favorite baking dish (I used a 13x9 in pan). Then mix all ingredients for topping in bowl and use your fingers to mix everything together creating dough( you can also do this in a food processor). Use fingers to clump dough on top of filling. Once it is basically covered put into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. It will be bubbly and brown and ready to serve with some ice cream!!