Quick & Easy - Hot Ginger Apple Cider

It's 11 days until Christmas!! In years past, I would have already bought all my gifts, been baking up a storm, & be watching every sappy ABC Family Christmas movie there is.  This year,  I haven't even once tuned into my Pandora Christmas music station.  How could that be?!?  Luckily, it is never too late to get into the holiday spirits & I know just what I need to kick things off.  A hot beverage to make me feel warm & cozy!

It only takes a few holiday essential ingredients...
     1 cup apple cider (not spiced)
     4 slices fresh ginger, unpeeled
     Cinnamon

In a small sauce pan...
     Heat the apple cider & ginger over medium heat until it simmers
     Turn off the stove & let the ginger steep for a few minutes
     Pour the cider into a glass or mug & sprinkle with cinnamon over the top

The cinnamon makes the cider tastes like a fresh-out-of-the-oven apple pie & the spiciness of the ginger  cuts the sweetness of the cider & warms up my whole body.  If you want to serve this as an after dinner beverage or @ a holiday brunch, considering adding a bit of bourbon to kick things up another notch.  Another idea is to reduce the cider down to almost a syrup, cool it down, & add it to some sparkling wine to make a first rate Bellini.

As I sit at my kitchen table sipping on my cider & writing this post, I wish everyone a beautiful holiday filled with love & happiness!!

Quick & Easy - Lemony Herby Quinoa

Quinoa - the new darling of the healthful eating - has captured the entire food world's attention in 2012.  A source of complete protein with high concentrations of minerals, it is praised as a fantastic substitute for grains such as rice, millet, & couscous.  I had actually bought a pack of quinoa months ago but had shoved it into the back of the cupboard & only found it a week or so ago when reorganizing the kitchen.  The original recipe is from the Food Network & I made some minor modifications to suite what we had in our fridge.

To make my version of the recipe, you will need...
     1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
     1.75 cups low-sodium chicken stock
     0.3 cup lemon juice (~1.5 lemons)
     0.25 cup extra virgin olive oil
     0.75 cup fresh parsley, chopped
     1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
     1 tablespoon lemon zest
     Salt & black pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan...
     Bring the quinoa, chicken stock, & 0.25 cup of the lemon juice to a boil
     Lower the heat to a simmer until all the liquid is absorbed (~12 min)
     In a large bowl, whisk together oil, remaining lemon juice, parsley, thyme, lemon zest, & salt/pepper
     Once the quinoa is cooked, pour in the dressing & mix well

The quinoa tasted good, even if it did look a little like the bean sprout experiment that we all did in elementary school.  Although I adjusted the recipe to use less lemon juice, it was still a little bit too acidic for our taste; maybe I should substitute the cooking lemon juice with water.  Also, the 1 cup of quinoa turned out to be a lot!  I have quite a bit left over so now I am going to add in grape tomatoes, cucumbers, & feta to make a salad for lunch.

Quick & Easy - Garlic Bacon Mashed Potatoes

I haven't had a steak in over 8 weeks & I am still kind of not supposed to have it.  But he wants a steak, & I couldn't just make him one & leave myself out; that just would not be fair.  So knowing I can only eat about 20% of my steak, I needed to make something that would make me feel full as well as help me feel not so deprived.  What better to fulfill these goals than thick, rich, garlic'y mashed potatoes strewn with crispy bacon?!?

Get together...

     2.5 pounds red potatoes

     2 slices thick-cut bacon, diced

     4 large cloves garlic, skin removed & slightly squished

     0.5 cup low-fat milk

     2 tablespoons butter

     Salt & black pepper to taste

And then...

     Scrub the potatoes to remove the surface dirt & cut them into 2 inch pieces

     Put the potatoes & garlic into a large pot & cover them with just enough water

     Bring to a boil & reduce to a simmer until the potatoes are tender (~10 min)

     In a pan, cut the bacon over medium heat until crisp & then drain off the fat

     Drain the potatoes & return them to the warm pot

     Mash the potatoes up with the butter, milk, salt, & pepper

     Stir in the bacon

I didn't know how to serve this on the dinner plate because it was too stiff to form into a nice little pillow like @ restaurants.  Then I remembered I always liked how chefs form their ice creams into cute little oblongs (or quenelles) so I took out 2 spoons & scooped away.  The first few didn't turn out very well but I think the trick is to make sure the spoon that is doing the scooping scrapes against the other spoon to form a clean edge.  The Boyfriend says it tasted better than a baked potato (which is his favorite) but I thought the flavor wasn't quite there yet.  I especially had problems with the garlic which couldn't be mashed up & didn't really give any flavor to the mash.  A few things I am probably going to change up the next time I make this are to peel half of the potatoes, use more bacon, & make a garlic butter beforehand.  Oh, I also found shallots to go really nicely with the potatoes so another recipe idea might be shallot & parsley mashed potatoes with olive oil.

Weekend Dinner - Turkey Lasagna

I don't go out much on weekends anymore...actually I never did go out a lot on weekends, but I digress.  So instead, I cook dishes that are more complicated & too time consuming for a week night after coming home from work.  I don't know what made me want to make a lasagna since I haven't made one since sophomore year in college & it sucked.  Maybe it was the 2 for 1 lasagna noodle sale @ Safeway.  Maybe it was the random pack of ground turkey I found in the back of my freezer.

The ingredients list is long but it's easy to find in just a few section of the store...
    11/2 pounds ground turkey
     1/2 onion, minced
     2 cloves garlic, crushed
     28oz (1 can) crushed tomatoes
     12oz (2 cans) tomato paste
     13oz (2 cans) tomato sauce
     1/2 cup water
     12 lasagna noodles
     16oz (1 tub) ricotta cheese
     1 egg
     3/4 pound mozzarella, sliced
     3/4 cup grated parmesan
     11/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
     1/2 teaspoon oregano
     Salt & black pepper to taste

There are a lot of steps, but it's worth it in the end...
     In a large pot, cook the ground turkey, onion, & garlic until the meat is browned
     Add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, & water
     Season the sauce with Italian seasoning, oregano, & salt/pepper
     Cover the pot & let the sauce simmer for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally
     Cook the lasagna noodles for 2 minutes less than the instructed time
     In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the egg
     Assemble the lasagna in a 9x13 baking dish in the following layers:
          11/2 cups meat sauce
          6 lasagna noodles, overlapping lengthwise
          1/2 of the ricotta cheese mixture
          1/2 of the mozzarella slices
          11/2 cups meat sauce
          1/4 cup parmesan cheese
          6 lasagna noodles, overlapping lengthwise
          The rest of the ricotta cheese mixture
          The rest of the mozzarella slices
          The rest of the meat sauce
          The rest of the parmesan cheese
     Spray a piece of foil with non-stick spray & cover the baking dish
     Bake the lasagna at 375F for 25 minutes covered & 25 minutes uncovered
     Let cool for 15 minutes before serving

I used crushed tomatoes & tomato sauce that already had some seasoning in it to help boost the flavor since I didn't get the dried basil or the fennel seeds.  But for some reason, the dish was still too sweet for our liking.  Be prepared for some serious stove cleaning after making this recipe because no matter how low you turn down the heat, the tomato sauce will splatter everywhere when you try to stir it every-so-often.  Oh and watch your fingers too because the sauce will get you & that does not feel good.

Tasty Time - Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls with Icing

As the holiday season fast approaches, there are plenty of commercials advertising Pillsbury products.  I think I've had some of the cookies before when I was younger but nothing since then.  After seeing that commercial where a little boy is in the kitchen with his mom & sister & he's saying "2 inches apart, Becky, 2 inches," I was seriously tempted to see what this whole ready-to-bake pastry is about.  And with a sale of $1.11, it's like the universe is telling me I should do it.

We went for the Orange Sweet Rolls since it is out of the ordinary.  The long cylindrical canister contains 7 sweet rolls & a small thing of orange flavored frosting.  The canister itself was kind of hard to open but that's probably because I had never done it before.  The baking process was easy enough & it took just 9 minutes for the sweet rolls to come out golden brown. There was virtually no clean up since I used a piece of parchment paper on top of the cookie sheet.

Now on to the taste.  The rolls themselves were pretty small - about 2 inches in diameter - but the texture was pretty good.  We opted to use the frosting only to regret it after the first bite.  To me, the frosting was super sweet & reminded me of a cheap, generic imitation of Tang.  To him, it tasted like orange Tums.  Aside from the artificial sweetness, we really couldn't taste anything else.

I can definitely see why something like this appeals to kids & the convenience really cannot be beat.  But for people like us who don't often eat cinnamon rolls, I would definitely recommend spending the time & the effort to just make them from scratch.  And hey, all that work will likely make me not want to have any more cinnamon rolls for a good while.