Hummus with Mediterranean Salsa

I don't know what to call the veggie topping, so I called it a salsa. It makes absolutely no sense to call something with cheese in it a "salsa," so if you can think of a better word, I'd be supremely grateful. Anyway, this is super healthy and a great alternative to slaving over a hot stove on those sticky summer nights. I'll be submitting this easy recipe to Sweetnicks' ARF/5-a-day roundup.

Hummus with Mediterranean Salsa
For the hummus:
2 cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed (1/2 c of canning liquid reserved)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c tahini (sesame paste - find it in the ethnic foods aisle near the kosher goods)
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
salt, pinch of cayenne pepper

For the "salsa":
1/2 seedless cucumber, diced
2 c diced ripe tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes)
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 c diced feta cheese
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c lemon juice (or red wine vinegar, which is what I used because I didn't have another lemon)
1/4 c EVOO
salt & pepper

Combine the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, salt & cayenne in a food processor. Add 1/4 c of the canning liquid from the chickpeas and puree. If the hummus is too thick, add a bit more canning liquid and give it another whirl.

In another bowl, combine the cucumber, tomato, onion, feta and parsley. Whisk together the lemon juice (or vinegar) and olive oil in a small bowl, then pour over the veggies. Season liberally with salt & pepper and mix well.

Serve with toasted pita chips (just broil chopped up pita pockets for a couple minutes on each side), topping the hummus with the veggies and a drizzle of olive oil. This makes for a light meal or a delicious appetizer at parties. Store any leftover hummus in a plastic container in the fridge, spreading it smooth and topping it with a light layer of olive oil.

Mushroom mushroom!

OK, I know I've been slacking, but I'll make up for it. A couple of weeks ago we had a barbecue here with friends. Mr Wonderful grilled up some incredible NY steaks while I made stuffed mushrooms and panzanella...and you get BOTH the recipes here! The mushrooms are a delicious twist on my usual recipe, and the panzanella is a quick & healthy side dish that's ideal for summer tomatoes. Both recipes will qualify for Sweetnicks' ARF/5-a-day roundup - be sure and check out her site for other yummy recipes!

Stuffed Mushrooms
20 cremini or button mushrooms, cleaned
2 Tbsp EVOO
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 green onion, sliced thinly (green parts only)
4 Saltines or Ritz crackers, crushed to crumbs
1/2 pkg Boursin garlic-herb cheese
salt & pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop finely. Over medium heat, melt the butter and add the olive oil to a skillet. Add the mushroom stems and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic, parsley, green onion and some salt & pepper to taste. Add the cracker crumbs until you get a slightly moist, crumbly mixture (you may need to add a little more or less).

On a cookie sheet, lay out all the mushroom caps. Fill each mushroom cap with Boursin, smooshing it down with the back of a teaspoon. Top the cap with a little of the mushroom-garlic mixture and set it back on the cookie sheet. Fill all the caps, then top each cap with a little freshly grated Parmesan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the mushrooms soften, start to give up their juices, and get a little brown on the bottoms. Serve immediately.


Panzanella
1 c chopped tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, cut in half)
2 c rustic bread (pugliese, sourdough, whatever), cut into 1" dice
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1/4 EVOO, plus 2 Tbsp
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Scatter the bread on a cookie sheet, and toss with the 2 Tbsp olive oil and some salt & pepper. Pop it in the oven and let the croutons toast for ten minutes.

In the meantime, combine the tomatoes, shallot, parsley, 1/4 c olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt & pepper. As soon as the croutons are done toasting, toss them in with the tomato mixture and let the bread soak up the olive oil/balsamic vinegar/tomato juices. Serve immediately.

Corn & Black Bean Salad

A fresh, light vegetarian dish that works well as either a side dish or as a healthier alternative to guacamole. Scoop it up with chips, add it to your tacos, spoon it over an enchilada...the possibilities are endless. This veggie-filled dish is a natural for Sweetnicks' ARF/5-a-day roundup.

Corn & Black Bean Salad
1/2 red onion, diced
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 basket grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 c chopped cilantro
2 avocados, cut into 1/2" dice
3 limes
1/4 c EVOO
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chile powder
1 tsp sugar
6-10 shakes Tabasco, any flavor (optional)
salt & pepper

Mix the first five ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the juice from the limes, the olive oil, the cumin, chile powder, sugar and Tabasco sauce, if using (I'd use the Chipotle flavor...mmmm...). Whisk vigorously until very well combined and the dressing begins to emulsify. Add the diced avocado to the dressing, and turn gently to coat all the sides (this will prevent the avocado from browning). Pour over the veggies, then salt & pepper the salad liberally and stir thoroughly but gently, to avoid crushing the avocado. Allow the salad to stand at room temperature for at least a half hour so the flavors can blend.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I obviously didn't spend much time on plating, but maybe you'll forgive me if I tell you that I was halfway through a bottle of wine by the time it hit the table, since I spent ALL DAY cooking for only four people. Oh, and only two of those people actually appreciated the food and ate it without making nasty faces.

I skipped the apple crisp, figuring that Rugrat wouldn't eat it and I'd be plenty full from dinner anyway. But I did put out a crudite platter for everyone to snack on during the afternoon, and whipped up a quick batch of stuffed mushrooms for Mr Wonderful and I. The kids won't touch mushrooms with a ten foot pole, which was just fine with me, because stuffed mushrooms are one of my favorite things.

Mashed Maple-Brown Sugar Sweet Potatoes
3 c baked, peeled & mashed sweet potatoes
1/3 c half and half
1/3 c good maple syrup
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients together and spoon into an 8" buttered baking dish. Then, combine the following ingredients with a pastry cutter (or in a food processor or stand mixer, if you're lazy like me) until it gets crumbly and the butter bits are smaller than peas:

1/4 c lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 c flour
2 Tbsp cold butter

Sprinkle evenly on top of the mashed sweet potatoes, then bake for about 30 minutes. Serves 6-8.


Stuffed Mushrooms
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp EVOO
10 mushrooms, cleaned
1 Tbsp minced shallot
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
1/2 c cracker crumbs (I usually use saltines; this time I had oyster crackers on hand, but you can use Ritz or whatever)
salt & pepper
2 Tbsp finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop the stems finely. Place the caps, hole side up, on a cookie sheet. Melt the butter with the EVOO in a small saute pan, then add the chopped mushroom stems, shallot, parsley and lemon zest. Cook for about 3 minutes to soften the mushrooms and shallots, and to blend the flavors together. Add the cracker crumbs. At this point, you may need to adjust a little - if the stuffing looks too wet, add a little more cracker crumbs; if it's too dry, moisten with a bit more EVOO. Cook for another minute, to bind everything together and toast the crumbs a little, and season with salt & pepper to taste.

With a teaspoon, stuff each mushroom cap with the mixture. You should mound it up and kind of press it down a bit with the spoon, making sure it's well packed. Top the mushroom caps with the shredded cheese and then pop them in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the mushrooms give up their liquid and start to brown a bit. Serve immediately. This recipe will only serve about 2 people, though, because they are really yummy and you'll be scarfing them down as fast as you can.

Spring Rolls with Hoisin Dipping Sauce

Spring Rolls
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister

My mom recently sent me a few Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, and I thought this would be a great, light recipe to try. It's from the August 2007 Bon Appetit issue, and it turned out very well. It's low-fat, high in fiber, and full of incredible flavor. I poached the shrimp in plain old boiling salted water for a couple minutes, and they were perfectly cooked. It took a few tries to get the rolling technique perfected, but it's just a question of practice. I ended up adding green onions and a little bit of the dipping sauce to the spring rolls before rolling, and I think that improved the final product. Also, the hoisin sauce is pretty spicy, so you may want to cut back on the chili-garlic sauce if you're sensitive to that. It was fine for Mr Wonderful and I though; we like spicy stuff. :)

The recipe is available on epicurious.com.

Goat Cheese Toasts with Savory Cherry Jam

Goat Cheese Toasts with Savory Cherry Jam
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister

I got a bunch of cherries at the farmer's market ('tis the season), and I wanted to try something savory with them. Obviously there's loads of recipes for dessert with cherries, but I was looking for something a little different. So this is my first attempt at using the cherries in a savory dish, and it was OK, but a little heavy for the season. It needed something to lift it up a bit; when I made the chicken I threw some parsley in with the cherry mixture, and that brightened it up just enough. Although I just had an idea - orange juice! I'll bet that would be fabulous - next time I'll add a splash of OJ to the sauce during the cooking process. (I think the cherry jam/sauce would be fantastic over pork tenderloin as-is, especially in the fall -- but when are you going to find fresh cherries in the fall? Never, that's when.)

Goat Cheese Toasts with Savory Cherry Jam
Sourdough bread, sliced 1/2" thick
Chevre (fresh goat cheese)
1/2 c cherries, pitted & roughly chopped
1 tsp chopped rosemary
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Pinch of salt & pepper

Toast the bread slices in the oven or toaster oven until golden brown. While the bread is toasting up, throw the cherries, rosemary, vinegar and salt & pepper into a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the cherries are soft. At this point I used a stick blender to smooth it out a little, but I wouldn't advise doing this unless you are cooking at lot more of it at one time; I wound up with cherry splattered all over my kitchen. Instead, you could either chop up the cherries very finely at the beginning of the process, or you could use an actual blender to get the consistency you want. I wanted mine a bit chunky.

Spread the toasts with the chevre, then top with the cherry mixture.

Guacamole

Guacamole
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

The quintessential Cinco de Mayo dish...just a couple days late.

Guacamole

4 ripe avocados
juice of 1 lime
1/4 c diced onion
1/4 c diced tomato
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 chopped fresh cilantro
salt & pepper

Remove the flesh from the avocado skins, discarding the pits and scraping off any brown spots. Mash it gently with a fork, and then pour the lime juice over it. Add the onion, tomato, garlic, cilantro and salt & pepper to taste. Mix well, and serve with your favorite corn chips.

Party Jinx

I am pretty sure I have a party jinx. Whenever I throw a party, invite people over for a get-together, whatever...if it's not family, they don't come. I had ONE person come to the book club meeting last night. Three people emailed to cancel the morning OF the meeting (like they didn't know it was coming up? Even though they got a reminder email a week ago?). Two other people just didn't bother. Whatever.

I, of course, spent the better part of two days cooking & cleaning. I bought $40 worth of wine. I made fantastic food: caramelized onion & goat cheese tarts, prosciutto & gruyere pinwheels, stuffed mushrooms, lacy almond cookies with fresh fruit. And now? I have half a bottle of wine leftover in the fridge (because the one woman who showed up was 8 months pregnant and I had to drink the wine alone), and I gorged myself on mushrooms last night so I wouldn't have to throw them away. I have a couple of the onion & goat cheese things left, and I sent the other lady home with most of the remaining pinwheels, half the cookies, and all the fruit. It's not like I can just keep this stuff around - I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow, for a family reunion.

I am never throwing a party again. It's just not worth the stress.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tarts

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 4-oz log fresh goat cheese
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
Minced fresh thyme (couple teaspoons, I guess. "Just eyeball it," as Rachael would say)
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 425°.

In a heavy pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Add the onions, salt & pepper to taste, then cook over medium heat for a long time, stirring occasionally, until they get golden brown and caramelized. You can throw in a little sugar if you want (maybe a tablespoon), while the onions are cooking. This helps them caramelize and makes them even sweeter.

When the onions are done, roll out your puff pastry sheet until it's about 18" x 11". Trim off any uneven edges, and then cut into squares about 2-3" on each side. You don't have to get all anal about it, just make roughly the same size/shape for each tart. Put the puff pastry squares on cookie sheets (I use silpats with mine) and with a fork, gently pierce the squares at about half-inch intervals, leaving about a 3/4" border all around that is un-pierced. When you pierce the pastry, that part doesn't puff up; the unpierced part will puff up and make a pretty square border around the filling.

Put a little of the onions and goat cheese in the middle of each square, and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Bake for 15 minutes, until the puff pastry is, well, puffed and golden brown. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature. They're good either way.


Prosciutto & Gruyere Pinwheels

1/2 lb thinly sliced prosciutto
1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten with a little water

Roll out the puff pastry sheet until it's about 18" x 11". Trim off any uneven edges so that it's a rectangle. Starting at the side closest to you, which should be a wide edge, lay strips of prosciutto on the pastry until it's all covered, leaving about a half-inch to an inch of the edge farthest from you uncovered. Sprinkle the Gruyere cheese on top. Then just roll the sheet up until you get almost to the end. Brush the bare edge with the egg wash, the finish rolling. Wrap the entire roll in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for at least half an hour (up to a day or two, if you are making this ahead of time).

Preheat oven to 425°.

After the roll is chilled, pull it out and slice it into circles about 3/4" thick. Lay them down on a parchment- or silpat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown and puffed up a bit. These are also tasty warm or at room temp.


Stuffed Mushrooms
This is such a "whatever" recipe; the amounts below are really just guesses.

1 lb white button mushrooms (bigger ones are better)
4 Tbsp butter
Olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh minced herbs (thyme, sage, marjoram, whatever you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
Saltines, crushed
1/4 c shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400°, or thereabouts. 425° is fine.

Gently clean the mushrooms (do NOT run under water) with a damp cloth. Pop off the stems and set aside. Lay out the mushroom caps, bottoms up, on a cookie sheet.

Over medium heat in a skillet, melt the butter and add a little olive oil, maybe a couple tablespoons. Chop the reserved mushroom stems finely. Add the shallot to the pan, then a minute or two later add the garlic and the mushrooms. Saute for a couple minutes, then throw in the herbs and salt & pepper. It should be pretty loose at this point, with lots of butter and oil. Add in enough cracker crumbs to soak up the liquid and bind it all together. I can't give you an exact amount here, sorry. It's just one of those things. If it gets too dry, add a little more olive oil. Cook it for another minute or so to keep the crackers from tasting too raw.

With a spoon, push the filling into the mushroom caps, mounding it up slightly. Really kind of pack it in and on top of the mushroom. You should have just about exactly the right amount to fill all your mushroom caps. Sprinkle the mushrooms with shredded Parmesan and then pop it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes, until the mushrooms are giving off their liquid and are cooked through, but still a little bit firm to the bite. For the last minute or two, turn on the broiler to brown the tops. Serve immediately.