Main Dish

Rosemary Shrimp Skewers

February 11, 2011 by Terri · 1 Comment

This is the easiest recipe I have posted so far! It is amazing how delicious and flavorful these shrimp are with such simple ingredients. My inspiration for this recipe came from my mom and a co-worker. When is was a teenager my mom made blackened shrimp swimming in a saucepan of butter and seafood magic spice. They were great but necessarily an occasional treat. Then a co-worker was telling me how his wife used rosemary branches AS the skewers for shrimp and grilled them. I thought that was brilliant. I made the grilled shrimp with rosemary as the skewer and thought they were great; but it occurred to me that the Cajun shrimp my mom made and the rosemary could work together to be AMAZING! I was right. So. These shrimp are super easy and amazingly delicious for the effort; which is almost nothing. You can serve them as an appetizer course or as a main. You will be surprised how easy they are. First take the 4 ingredients: Shrimp, melted butter, Fresh Rosemary … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Side dish

Pork Ribs with Whiskey BBQ Glaze

January 30, 2011 by Terri · 3 Comments

Ooh boy did these ribs turn out great! I got a pressure cooker for Christmas and have been experimenting with it. Cooking Light magazine had an interesting article on them in the fall that intrigued us. Matt was craving BBQ the other night and I remembered that there was a spareribs recipe included with my new pressure cooker set so I decided to give it a try. It was an asian ribs recipe though so I just used it for a timing guideline and went my own direction. The Whiskey BBQ glaze recipe is originally from the Jack Daniel's website. I didn't have Jack on hand though so I used a Knob Creek Whiskey that Matt had in the liquor cabinet. I also used less sugar than the Jack recipe did and it was still pretty sweet. The full cup of sugar would have been too much for us for sure. Next time I will add some cayenne to the sauce to give it a little kick. If you try it with the cayenne, let me know how it goes! Regardless of whether you have a pressure cooker, the sauce is worth … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish Tagged With: Pressure Cooker, Ribs, Whiskey BBQ Sauce

Italian Vegetable Soup

October 22, 2010 by Terri · Leave a Comment

Fall seems to have arrived in San Francisco. A couple of weeks ago we had a record breaking heat wave and now it's cool, foggy and rainy. What to do? Make soup! A pot of soup bubbling away on the stove seems so warm and comforting to me. I just love it! Some would argue it's always soup season in San Francisco because of the foggy weather we so frequently have, but it just seems weird to me to make hot soup in the summertime. Soup is just Fall and Winter food to me. Don't even get me started on cold summer soups, I can't stand them. Eww! The other night I made a big pot of vegetable soup with Italian flavors. It turned out so great! It's one of those things that you can't believe is healthy because it tastes so darn good. I wanted to stick to a vegetarian soup this time as we are trying to each vegetarian at least one night a week. You could easily add some chicken or sausage to it but it doesn't really need it. I used fresh herbs because I had them on hand. You can … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Vegetarian Tagged With: Carrot, CSA, Fennel, Onion, Oregano, Soup, Tomato, Vegetarian

Potato, Zucchini, Onion Frittata

October 1, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Frittatas are a common meal in my kitchen. They are easy to make, taste great and are healthy. They are also a great way to use up and vegetable odds and ends that you have around. The best thing of all is how versatile they are, you can use any combo of veggies, herbs, cheese and meats if you don't want to go vegetarian. I usually serve them for a weekend breakfast but have been known to whip one up for a quick weeknight dinner as well with a salad on the side. This time I chose to use potatoes, onions, zucchini, parsley and parmesan cheese. If you are using potatoes, dice them small and saute them first until they are cooked through to make sure they don't end up crunchy. You will also need an ovenproof pan. Cast Iron or Enamel covered cast iron are ideal. I recently bought this pan Mario Batali 10-Inch Saute Pan, Chianti and I love it! I works beautifully for a frittata and sauteing as well. Potato, Zucchini, Onion Frittata Ingredients: 1 medium yukon gold potato or 6 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breakfast, Main Dish, Vegetarian Tagged With: Breakfast, Frittata, Onion, Potato, Zucchini

Ratatouille

September 8, 2010 by Terri · 2 Comments

This past Christmas I put Mastering the Art of French Cooking on my wish list. I really enjoyed the movie Julie & Julia and thought it would be fun to try my hand at some of the French techniques. I LOVE this cookbook. Everything I've made in it so far is unbelievably fussy and taken forever to cook. Everything I've cooked in it has also been unbelievably delicious and worth the effort. This year we've been having a Julia night once a month or so. It's been fun to try my hand at making fancy food. We've had friends over a few times to enjoy a recipe or two from the cookbook and watch the movie. Don't be surprised to see more Julia recipes popping up over time. For a while now I've been eyeing the Ratatouille recipe and planning to make it when I received eggplant from my CSA share. Well, this week's share seemed made to order for ratatouille! I used the tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini from this week and the parsley from last week. I only needed a few other ingredients and I had … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Pasta, Side dish, Vegetarian Tagged With: CSA, Eggplant, Onion, Parsley, Pasta, Ratatouille, Tomato, Vegetarian, Zucchini

Handmade Beet Pasta

September 5, 2010 by Terri · 3 Comments

A friend reminded me I never followed up on that homemade beet pasta I talked about a few weeks ago. I did make it, and it was delicious! I started making fresh pasta a few years ago when my husband bought me the attachment to go with my Kitchenaid Mixer. Homemade pasta is easy and fun to make. We like to make it so much that when the new extruder attachment came out this year, we had to have it! Remember when you were a kid and you used those fantastic presses to make fun Play-Doh shapes? It's just like that but now you're an adult making dinner! Anyway these definitely fall into the category of "gadgets I love"! It's also a great way to involve the kids in the kitchen, my son is always happy to help out with pasta making. Isn't the color of that beet pasta coming out amazing! You only need a small amount of beet puree to make this beautiful color. The beet flavor doesn't really come through much into the flavor of the pasta, it's more about the color . You can make a multitude … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Pasta, Vegetarian Tagged With: Beets, Padron Peppers, Pasta, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

Green Chile

August 25, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

Growing up in Colorado I loved green chile and all things smothered in green chile. Good spicy green chile is pretty hard to find in San Francisco. California style Mexican food is more the taqueria and taco truck variety. I like it too but still long for my green chile. Last night (yes on a Tuesday!) I hosted a going away dinner party for my friend Jane who is moving back home to England. She and her family will be sorely missed! Some of the guests are following a gluten free diet so I had to put my thinking cap on to come up with some yummy food that would please everyone, kids and adults. Mexican food is easy to make gluten free. Corn doesn't have gluten and you can find hard taco shells, corn tortillas and tortilla chips without gluten. Just be sure to check the label for hidden wheat flour. The first brand of tortilla chips I picked up had wheat flour listed as an ingredient which surprised me. For the party menu I decided on a taco bar with ground turkey taco meat, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish Tagged With: Chiles, Green Chile, Mexican, Stew, Tomato

Thai Shrimp and Corn Cakes (Kao Pood Tod) with Chili Dipping Sauce

August 4, 2010 by Terri · 19 Comments

A few years back I took a cooking class at Sur La Table on Thai cooking taught by Chat Mingkwan. I loved thai food but had never been brave enough to try any recipes on my own. It all seemed so exotic and complicated! I had a great time at the class and it was a great introduction to the flavors and ingredients of thai cuisine and where to buy them. Here in San Francisco we are lucky enough to have several large Asian markets with any ingredient I might need. I didn't realize how lucky I was until I tried to cook these same recipes in Denver and had a hard time finding the ingredients and Asian markets at all for that matter. This recipe doesn't have that many unusual ingredients, the hardest to find one is probably shrimp base. This ingredient can be left out if you can't find it, it just adds a "punch" of shrimp flavor to the dish. This is the perfect recipe to make right now at the height of the summer corn season. Sweet summer corn makes the dish that much better. I made it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Side dish Tagged With: Corn, CSA, Shrimp, Shrimp corn cakes, Thai, Thai dipping sauce

Homemade Sausage Lasagna

August 1, 2010 by Terri · 1 Comment

I'm finally getting around to that Lasagna recipe! Time got away from me a bit the last few days. Homemade lasagna is really quite easy to make and absolutely delicious. For mine I've started making handmade fresh pasta sheets and wow is it fabulous! You don't have to go that fancy though to start with, lasagna noodles from the store will work just fine or if you can find them you can buy freshly made pasta sheets at some stores or Farmer's Markets. I will feature a post soon on how make your own pasta. I started making my by hand a few years ago when I got some of the pasta attachments for my KitchenAid mixer. It is fun! My mom makes a great lasagna and taught me how to make it when I was a child. It has been a family favorite for many years. This recipe is for a sausage lasagna. I also make a great Spinach Lasagna which I'll feature soon too. This recipe makes a large 13x9 full pan of deep dish lasagna. It will serve a crowd. It also freezes beautifully. I often make it and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Pasta Tagged With: Basil, CSA, Fennel, Italian, Parsley, Pasta Sauce, Tomatoes, Zucchini

Chunky Tomato Pasta Sauce

August 1, 2010 by Terri · 4 Comments

My family loves a good pasta with red sauce night. Being a foodie there is no way I can just heat up a jar of sauce and call it dinner. I HAVE to mess with it. This is a good basic recipe that can be varied in a lot of ways, using whatever vegetables you have on hand. It's a great way to clean the fridge of all the remnants from the previous weeks CSA shares too. This recipe uses a jar of organic marinara sauce to make it easy but using fresh tomatoes makes it even better if they are in season. Ingredients: 1 large fennel bulb, diced 1 large onion, diced 1 zucchini, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 red bell pepper, diced 3 Teaspoons olive oil 1 jar organic marinara sauce 1 large can organic diced tomatoes 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil( 2 tsp dried will work but fresh is sooo much better!) 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (2 tsp dried will work too) Red Pepper Flakes (optional, amount varies by your preferred spice level, 1 use about 1/2 teaspoon) Heat … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Main Dish, Pasta, Vegetarian Tagged With: Basil, CSA, Fennel, Italian, Onions, Pasta Sauce, Red peppers, Tomatoes, Zucchini