If You Can't Stand the Heat....

             The word “smothered” can sometimes be a very off-putting descriptor. “Smothered” by a herd of stampeding elephants, for instance, can inspire a horrifying visual. On a personal note, the word “smothered” reminds me of a chilly, windy camping trip from my childhood when my mom broke into my tent and cocooned me in a ridiculous amount of blankets in the middle of the night…However, when describing food, the word “smothered” is usually code for “ooey”, or “gooey”, or “this-is-so-good-I-could-kiss-you-on-the-mouth”! I love my sundaes smothered in hot fudge, I love my pb and j sandwiches smothered in jelly until it oozes out of the sides, and I love this Southwest Smothered Chicken. I will warn you, if you are a giant pansy when it comes to spicy food, this could be a jolt to your delicate taste buds. I will include some variations to lessen the heat, but I encourage you to man up and try the original version. For this photo, I served the chicken with sides of refried beans and Mexi-rice. (Dump some salsa and cheddar cheese over leftover rice and heat). Feel free to substitute your favorite Mexican sides. 

Here’s what you do:

1.     Flatten 4 chicken breast halves to ½ inch thickness. Sprinkle sides with ½ tsp each of cumin and cayenne. In a large skillet, cook chicken in 1 tbsp. oil over medium for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. It should be golden before continuing.

2.     Combine 1 cup frozen corn and 1 cup your favorite medium (mild if you like) salsa and spoon over chicken. Top each chicken breast with 1 slice of pepper jack cheese (or Monterey jack for less spice) and 2 slices of pickled jalapeno. (Pick ‘em off if they scare you)! Cover your pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted. Top each with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt.

What's Shakin' Bacon?!

      When I first set out to make this dish, I was not excited to try it. I thought, what is so exciting about some pasta with veggies and bacon?  Mind you, bacon and I have an excellent relationship, and I love pasta and fresh veggies, but just mentioning them does not do this dish justice. Something completely magical happens when you toss this Summer Carbonara together. Say it with me, folks, “car-bon-AH-rah.”A carbonara usually consists of spaghetti noodles and bacon, tossed with eggs and parmesan cheese. This variation adds all those yummy vegetables that are so perfect this time of year. Zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, basil…yum! Perfection! For a vegetarian version, you could omit the bacon, but let's face it, that would just be silly! Here’s how to do it:

1.     Cook 16 oz. spaghetti noodles in boiling, salted water. At the same time, place 12 slices bacon on a lightly-greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Both the noodles and the bacon should be ready at about the same time.

2.     While you wait, chop up one large sweet onion, 2 small zucchini (I cut it into fourths lengthwise and then slice the pieces), 1 medium yellow squash, ¼ cup basil leaves, and 4 tomatoes.

3.     In a large sauté pan, pour 2 tbsp. olive oil and toss in the onion, zucchini, squash, and 2 tsp. minced garlic. Cook over medium until veggies are soft and onion looks opaque.

4.     Dump the cooked veggies into your serving bowl and cover to keep warm.

In the same pan, with the heat off, crack in two eggs and whisk them until well-blended. Turn the heat on low, and stir the eggs until they look frothy and yellow, but not yet scrambled. The egg should coat the back of a spoon. **Don't even THINK about omitting the eggs in this dish. That is where the magic happens! I promise, you will not regret it.

5. Drain your noodles and crumble your bacon. Dump the noodles into the same serving bowl with your veggies. Pour eggs over noodles and toss to coat. Stir in 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, ½ tsp. oregano, ¼ cup chopped fresh basil and your bacon. Don’t feel tempted to add much, if any, salt. The bacon and Parmesan add plenty on their own. Toss well and serve!

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum!

            I must say that 99% of my favorite desserts include extreme amounts of chocolate. On a dessert tray, my eyes don’t even register the apple tarts, New York cheesecakes, or crème brulees. Chocolate or bust, I say! So, this recipe is quite a departure from my usual desserts. There can only be one reason why I love this cake so much: RUM.  Rum and I go way back. I can’t pass a See’s candy counter without buying a piece (or three) of rum-chocolate nougat.  I look forward to Haagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream in the summer, and on my 21^st birthday, my uncle’s gift to me was a big bottle of Bacardi. (My mom asked me to give it back to him, which I did, only to discover later that he had hidden it in my bedroom…so, of course, I kept it squirreled away in a boot in my bedroom closet…I still have that bottle of rum in our pantry). Anyway, rum is delightful, and so is this cake. Better still, it’s low-fat! What more can you ask for in a dessert? Low in fat, soaked in rummy goodness?! Yes, please!

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

½ cup chopped toasted pecans

½ cup milk

¼ cup dark rum

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup applesauce

2 eggs

Glaze: Combine ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup butter, 2 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. rum. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook 5 minutes until thickened.

For cake:

Steps:

1.     Grease bundt pan. Add pecans to bottom of pan. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, milk, rum, oil, applesauce and eggs. Pour into pan, and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan.

2.     Drizzle prepared glaze over cooled cake. Use it all! It will soak into the cake and give the bottom ½ inch a syrupy rum flavor.

A Walk on the Healthy Side

Contrary to my previous posts, I generally cook quite healthy, especially since I don’t just cook for myself. I also feed my husband, Shawn, and his health is important to me. Once a week, I try to cook some kind of fish. Usually, I switch between salmon, tuna, and tilapia. If I just can’t get in the mood for fish, I try to do a vegetarian meal instead. (Vegetarian recipes coming soon)! My husband would probably eat spaghetti, pizza, and lasagna every day of his life and be completely happy, but that is a lot of red meat. So, I came across this fish recipe in Cosmopolitan magazine of all places. (seriously, if you ignore all the smutty articles and full-page lipstick ads, the recipes are darn good). Best of all, on a weeknight, you can make this lovely fish AND the sides in under 20 minutes.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.     Put a pot with 1 inch of water and 3 cups of broccoli florets on the stove. Cover the pot and allow broccoli to steam until bright green and tender. (Should be ready in 12 or so minutes).

2.     Meanwhile, peel 2 lbs. sweet potatoes and cut into chunks. Place in a microwave-safe bowl with a tbsp or two of water and microwave until tender, about ten minutes. Mash the potato chunks with ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup honey. Cover to keep warm.

3.     In a small bowl, mix together 1 ½ tsp. paprika, ½ tsp each salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Coat 4 tilapia fillets in spice mixture on both sides.

4.     Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a sauté pan and place fillets in pan. Tilapia cooks very quickly! Once it has lost its pinkish-gray color and appears golden, it’s ready. 2-3 minutes per side.

5.     Drain broccoli and season with lemon-pepper.

**Note: In this photo, I used a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower and made a quick cheese sauce. However, I usually serve this with plain steamed broccoli. I just needed to get rid of a pesky head of cauliflower for this shot.

I Think I'm in Love!

   During my college years, I worked full-time as a manager at a video store here in Las Vegas. Right next to our store was a pizza shop. Every day, they would crank up those ovens and the smell of dough and garlic sauce would waft into our video store. More than once, I had customers leave their movies and walk out, unable to resist that smell. After a few months there, I didn't notice the smell anymore, plus, I made sure to be buddy-buddy with the employees, which earned me my fair share of free pizza and cinnamon sticks. So, the torture was minimal.You would be amazed to know how many people order a pizza by phone and never come to pick it up. Most of those tragically homeless pizzas came directly to my co-workers and me. I must say, after working there for more than four years, I thought I would never crave pizza again. I swore up and down that I had had my fill. Now I think, oh, you silly goose. No one can resist melted cheese and warm pizza dough. If you can...we can't be friends.

I must begin the recipe with a warning: If you are on a low or no carb diet, TURN AND RUN. NOW. To make this single pizza, you will need 2 pounds of pizza dough. (I know, yikes)! For those of you with the guts to go for it. I am in love with this super-thick crusted masterpiece:

Sicilian Style Pepperoni Pizza

On a greased cookie sheet, stretch out 2 lbs. of pizza dough. (You can buy pre-made dough, but it is also super easy to make in a bread machine). Spread 1 to 1 1/2 cups marinara over dough. Sprinkle with oregano. Cover sauce with 10 slices of provolone cheese. Cover cheese with 2 oz. pepperoni. Now, here is the secret to the perfect crust. Bake at 18 minutes in a 500 degree oven. (This is the only recipe I make that asks me to crank up the temp that high--it's worth it)

Let stand for five minutes before cutting into squares.

Sometimes, only pastries will do!

    Most women have some kind of cleaning schedule throughout the week that they follow to keep their house looking tip-top and to preserve their precious sanity. A little here, a little there, and everything stays clean. Rather than create a schedule, I, during a brief moment of insanity, decided that ALL CHORES must be done on Friday afternoons. So, for about three hours every Friday, my calm exterior falls apart, and I become a human tornado, racing through my house armed with bleach, dusters, vacuum attachments, microfiber cloths, and a killer playlist on my ipod. I have this routine down to a fine art. I haul in the 5 or 6 bags of groceries from the car, drop them on the counter, and RUN up my stairs to move laundry from washer to dryer, scoop the cat box, and throw my tumbleweed of curly hair into a ponytail. On my way back down, I run a vacuum over the stairs. Then, I put away the groceries, wipe down all the counters and kitchen sink, vacuum downstairs and mop the tile. By then, load 1 of 2 is tumbled-dry and laundry folding commences. By the time my to-do list is checked off (and yes, I still make one every week, even though the routine NEVER changes), I am droopy, hungry, and ready to devour a snack. I look around my sparkling kitchen and think, "You know what would mess up all this clean? PASTRIES!" Sometimes, even a clean kitchen can't compete with rolling out buttery pastry dough and filling it with a creamy, tangy, delectable filling. (It's the same kind of "I don't care" moment that I experience when I have sugary, syrupy French Toast for dinner and still need dessert two hours later). So, on this Friday, I pulled a sheet of puff pastry from my freezer, let it thaw for an hour or so (the perfect amount of time to catch Project Runway on my DVR), and set to work. Making homemade pastry is so easy and just as good as the bakery stuff. First, I rolled the sheet out until it was a very thin rectangle. Then I used a pizza cutter to cut it into 4 squares. I put these squares on a baking sheet. To make a filling, I softened a block of cream cheese and added sugar, vanilla and lemon zest, along with 1 egg until I got the desired sweetness. (I think plain old cream cheese makes everything better, so I didn't use much sugar, but if you love the sweetness of a cream cheese frosting, add more)! I spooned 2 big tablespoons of this filling into the center of each square and folded two opposite corners over it until they overlapped. Seal these with water, or your delicious creamy filling could become a disastrous, creamy puddle all over your baking sheet. This could be your last step, but I decided, since it had been a long week at work and I was so fabulous, that I deserved cherries with my cheese danish. I popped open a jar of cherry pie filling and scooped a dollop (don't you just love that word)? on either open end of my pastries. Now, I dreamed this up as I went along, so, I guesstimated the cooking temp and set my oven to 350 degrees. Then I popped them in the oven and stayed nearby, checking them every 5 minutes. I think 12 to 14 minutes was all mine needed, but make sure the pastry is puffed and golden before pulling from the oven. Allow to cool, or your pretty little tongue could get scorched. (I won't tell you how I know that...) I enjoyed one as quickly as I could and as my glazed-over eyes began to clear, I saw the globs of cream cheese filling on my counters, the bits of flaky pastry on my kitchen floor, and the dirty dishes in my sink....Sigh...I think I need another pastry.