Nourish
Friday, July 18, 2008, by Leigh Anne
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For this week’s Friday Favorite I thought I’d share a Wilkes’ Family birthday tradition -and it does involve a recipe too!
As you know, my baby turned fifteen last Sunday.
I thought as my children got older that some of our family birthday traditions would begin to seem too silly -that they would think they were ”too old”, but I was wrong.
Our birthday person’s day begins with the whole family standing outside of their bedroom singing Happy Birthday. We stand outside the room because the doorway has been covered in crepe paper. After being awakened by our melodious strains the birthday person gets to jump through their doorway, tearing down the crepe paper.
They then return to their bed and they are served their favorite breakfast on a tray. Tessa chose Overnight Waffles with strawberries, whip cream and Cinnamon Syrup. She also wanted Sugared Bacon.
We didn’t get a picture of Tessa in bed this year but here’s one from several years ago.,..
This was during her “cherry phase” - note the cherry pajamas and the cherry hat hanging on the bed.
Years ago family friend, Merill Watts, shared his Overnight Waffle recipe with us and it has truly been a family favorite ever since. It is the ONLY waffle recipe we make and probably ever will make.
The only trick with it is you have to remember to make it the night before (thus the name Overnight Waffles). It has yeast it in and it raises overnight. This is actually a benefit as it makes prep work in the morning so much easier. All you have to do is add in some eggs and baking soda in the morning and you are ready to go!
Overnight waffles are best cooked in a Belgian waffle maker - it is deeper than a regular one.
We love them covered in fresh berries, whip cream and homemade cinnamon syrup but they are great just with plain old maple syrup too!!
I promise, you are going to love these!!
1/2 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast
2 cups milk, warmed
1/2 cup butter (1 cube), melted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. granulated sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Use a big mixing bowl (the batter will rise to double its original volume.) Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes. Warm the milk on the stove (I just add in the butter so it is melting as the milk warms) Be careful not to let the milk boil or get too hot. You don’t want it to kill the yeast when you add it into the yeast mixture.
Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar and flour to the yeast mixture and stir until smooth and blended (can use a hand beater to get rid of the lumps if needed, I usually don’t need to.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the eggs, add the baking soda, and stir until well mixed. The batter will be very thin. Pour about 1/2 to 3/4 cup batter into a very hot waffle iron. Bake the waffles until they are golden and crisp. This batter will keep well for several days in the refrigerator. Depending on the size of your waffle iron this makes about 6-8 waffles.
Popularity: 54% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008, by Leigh Anne
One of my favorite things to do in all my “free time” is browse food blogs. You can get quite lost out there in food blog land as you click from one link to another. One night I stumbled across a new blog, Creating Post It Notes. I’m not sure how I got there but I copied off this recipe to try out.
Jim is out of town this week so it was the perfect time to make it. With the new diet he is on for his Meiners Disease he can’t eat pasta and the girls and I LOVE pasta so I took advantage.
This recipe is definitely a keeper - we all loved it. Even my big college boy Clark loved it - he ate up all the leftovers for lunch today (although he did pick out most of the sun-dried tomatoes!)
I used a corkscrew pasta (fusilli) and used pancetta bacon but you could use regular bacon just as easily. I grilled the chicken breast but any leftover cooked chicken would work.
After our morning in the Emergency Room I needed quick, easy and yummy and this was it! Enjoy!
Pasta with Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
1 pkg. fusilli pasta, cooked al dente
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, cut up
1/4 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2-3 slices bacon, chopped (or pancetta)
2 cups cooked chicken breast, diced
4-5 Tbsp. pesto
Parmigiano reggiano cheese, shaved
sea salt
cracked pepper
Boil pasta in a stock pot for 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Heat a skillet over medium high heat and cook bacon or pancetta. When halfway cooked, add the olive oil and garlic. Saute for 30 seconds. Add the cooked chicken. Add the pasta and sun-dried tomatoes. Toss to coat. Add the pesto, using more or less dependig on your taste. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove skillet from heat and stir in the parsley. Shave parmigiano reggiano over top.
Popularity: 55% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Friday, July 11, 2008, by Leigh Anne
This week we celebrated my mom’s 78th birthday - sorry, mom I had to tell! You should be proud to be 78 and look so good!
Isn’t she a cutie!
Yes, I know, we look alike!
To celebrate I fixed her and my dad dinner - here’s the menu…
Fast Fire Flank Steak
Crash Hot Potatoes
Broccoli Salad
Garlic Knots
Orange Ice
Orange Poppyseed Cookies
The Fast Fire Flank Steak is this week’s Friday Favorite - it is a standard here at the Wilkes’ house. If you ask any of the men at my house what their favorite dinner is - Flank Steak would be in the top two choices for all of them, if not the top choice. Throw in some kind of potato and they are in heaven! Being married to a boy from Idaho I am always looking for a new potato recipe to try. The Crash Hot Potatoes is a recipe I found over at Pioneer Woman - an awesome blog I love.
Fortunately, Grandma likes it too! It was a another hot day here in Portland so I made some cool, refreshing orange ice for dessert but did heat the house up to bake some orange poppyseed cookies- ice cream and cookies - yum!
The next time you have a BBQ give the Fast Fire Flank Steak a try - I think you’ll like it!
Fast Fire Flank Steak
LA Note: This meat must be marinaded for at least 3 hours so plan ahead. I marinade the meat in a large Ziploc baggie.
1 flank steak, about 1 1/4 lbs.
1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
2 scallions, sliced 1/8 inch thick
1/4 tsp. green pepper (I usually don’t put this in)
oil for brushing
Score flank steak 1/8 inch deep on both sides at 1 inch intervals. Mix all ingredients except oil for brushing together, pour over steak and rub into both sides. Marinade at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Brush grill with oil. Cook for 3 minutes each side for rare, 5 for medium, 7 for well done. Thinly slice against the grain.
Popularity: 64% [?]
Categories: Friday Favorites, Nourish, Recipes
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Thursday, July 10, 2008, by Leigh Anne
A few years ago I read the book Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
It was about a woman, named Julie who decided to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking, in one year - 365 days in her tiny New York apartment. She blogged and cooked her way through the year - accomplishing her goal and then wrote a book about it. In fact I never knew what a blog was until I read her book!
Being the “foodie” that I am, I enjoyed the book and recommend to all of you other “foodies” out there!
Well, her book got me thinking….if I were to cook every recipe in a cookbook, what cookbook would it be??
One of my favorite cooking shows on the Food Network is the Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten. I own almost all of her cookbooks and have loved everything I have ever made from them. So why not cook my way through her cookbooks? (there are currently 5 of them with one more to come out this fall)
Although I thought this was a great goal - I didn’t really do much about it until one day I discovered a new blogging group - the Barefoot Bloggers. Each month various members of the group select two of Ina’s recipes for the group to try. Each blogger cooks or bakes up the recipe and then blogs about it on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.
Well, I figured this was the perfect way for me to work on my goal of cooking my way through Ina’s cookbooks! So I joined the group. Although I won’t be doing it in 365 days - we’re only doing 2-3 recipes a month!
Since this is the 2nd Thursday of July I am sharing with you my first “Barefoot Blogger” recipe - Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread which was chosen by Cooking with Kids.
I decided at the last minute to make it for dinner Tuesday night (since I only had two days left to post I figured I better get with it). Since I didn’t want to make another trip to the store that day I used green chilies instead of jalapenos. I knew my kids would like it better that way too. For the cheese I used a blend of cheddar/jack cheese because that is what I had in the freezer. I also didn’t have any green onions so I used some fresh chives right out of the garden and they worked great.
It is a mild cornbread and my favorite part of it is the crisp cheese topping!
One recipe down and lots more to go!
Head over to the Barefoot Bloggers to check out some of the other Barefoot Bloggers or even join up yourself!
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
from Barefoot Contessa at Home
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease the pan
8 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts, plus extra for garnish, 3 scallions
3 Tbsp. seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don’t overmix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Popularity: 56% [?]
Categories: Barefoot Bloggers, Nourish, Recipes
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Summer is finally here in Oregon - we have actually had two days over 90 degrees for the first time this summer.
What goes better with hot days than ice cream?
We are an ice cream loving family.
Growing up there was always a freezer FULL of ice cream, in fact at one time we had a freezer in the garage totally dedicated to ice cream. That was the year my sister worked at Baskin Robbins and they let them bring home all their mistakes - fortunately she made a lot of mistakes!
Monday night I dug out the countertop Cuisinart ice cream maker to celebrate the arrival of summer and to make treats for family night (a regular Monday night occurrence at our house). We had a short lesson and an activity which was weeding the vegetable garden for 30 minutes. Believe me the kids were thrilled!
The best part of family night though is the treats! I was in charge this week.
In preparation for summer I had recently purchased the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream & Dessert Book so Monday was a perfect time to try it out.
I have been on a malted milk ball kick recently.
My favorite treat has been a bowl of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream with crushed up Whoppers on top - yum! So I decided to combine the two and make the Vanilla Malt Chip ice cream. The recipe calls for chocolate chips but I used crushed Whoppers instead.
I started with their Sweet Cream Base #1 -
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minutes more. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
Makes 1 quart.
To make the malt flavor I added 1/2 cup malt powder and 2 tsp. vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into the container and start the ice cream maker. Mine shuts off automatically when the ice cream is finished.
A cup of crushed Whoppers can be added the last couple of minutes, after the ice cream has thickened, right before the ice cream maker shuts off.
I like my ice cream a little harder so I put the container into the freezer for a while for it to firm up after the machine shuts off.
One of my kids doesn’t like Whoppers so I actually didn’t add them into the ice cream but just sprinkled them on top of the individual servings - that way she could have hers “plain”.
So if you don’t have an ice cream maker but want to give my Malted Milk Ball Ice Cream a try just buy yourself a pint of Haagen Daz vanilla and crush up a few Whoppers and you are good to go! It won’t be quite as “malty” but it’s a close second.
Happy Summer!
Popularity: 50% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Friday, July 4, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Happy Fourth of July!
We are enjoying the holiday in Mazanita at our beach house. I love spending the Fourth there - complete with fireworks over the ocean and a parade. They throw candy from the floats except for the guy that owns the crabbing boats - he throws crab legs!
Some of our neighbors will be joining us at the beach for the holiday and we will be serving this week’s Friday Favorite for dessert. So onto this week’s favorite….
I have learned that one of the easiest ways to teach your children a skill is to pay someone else to do it!
I spent years teaching other woman’s daughters to sew - most of these women were seamstresses themselves.
There are some children that are just better taught by someone other than their mother! My youngest daughter is one of them. It only took me a few hair pulling, screaming matches to figure it out! (That was me pulling out my own hair not hers and both of us raising our voices a bit!)
So several summers ago I enrolled Tessa in a summer baking class. Someone else needed to teach her to bake.
She loved the class and now is she is as good a baker as I am.
Each day, in class, they would make a new type of cookie and bring home the recipe and samples. The samples were always in some type of cute packaging. The teacher believed in one of my life lessons - “It’s all in the presentation!”
Some were almost too cute to eat, although we never let that stop us.
The one cookie she made that summer that we have made over and over again is Butterscotch Blondies. It is a bar cookie so it is a perfect cookie for the summer - quick and easy.
Although we have enjoyed these cookies many, many times I have never actually made them. Tessa is the official Butterscotch Blondie baker at our house - no one else is allowed!
So if you are looking for a non-chocolate bar cookie this recipe is perfect. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Butterscotch Blondies
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, blending well. Stir in butterscotch chips and nuts, if desired. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until top is golden brown and center is set. Do not over-bake. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.
Popularity: 47% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Friday, June 27, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Sticky Coconut Chicken is definitely a Wilkes Family Favorite. It is one of our favorite ways to grill chicken in the summer. We really don’t call it Sticky Coconut Chicken at our house though.
We call it “Tar” Chicken. It earned it’s nickname from the sauce that you put on the chicken - you cook it until it is almost as thick as tar!
I don’t know where this recipe came from. It’s been in my recipe collection for years and it is a good one. The recipe calls for chicken thighs which is what I use all the time. Not only does it make it an inexpensive meal to serve and a great one for parties but the dark meat makes them nice and moist.
The chicken is marinated in coconut milk with some ginger and red pepper flakes. You can control how spicy it is by the amount of flakes you add to the marinade and to the sauce.
Watch the sauce closely as it thickens - it can go from “just right” to “burned” very quickly. (Believe me, I have burned it more than once!) I usually cook it in a frying pan so the liquid level is shallower and it cooks faster that way. You want it thick but not so thick that you can’t spread it easily - not quite as thick as “tar”!
After glazing the chicken we like to pour the extra glaze over our rice - yum!
I always serve it with rice - last week I used a brown basmati rice from Trader Joe’s.
Sticky Coconut Chicken or “Tar” Chicken
6-8 boneless chicken thighs
3/4 cup canned coconut milk (I usually am cooking about 10-12 thighs so I just use the whole can)
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Marinade chicken in coconut milk, ginger, pepper and red pepper flakes at least one hour. Grill on barbecue.
Chili Glaze:
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Bring above ingredients to a boil over high heat and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened. 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your pan. Glaze both sides of chicken and serve.
Popularity: 49% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Strawberry season is in full swing here in Oregon - despite the lack of sunshine the first part of the month it looks like we’ll have a great crop. Our little strawberry patch out in the garden is going crazy! Now if we can just keep the mean old black crow away!!
Tessa and I made 3 batches of strawberry jam today and still have lots of strawberries to pick! My kids are spoiled and will only eat homemade jam with their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so we really have to stock up each summer.
One of our “first strawberries of the season” recipes is Strawberry Pizza, a sure sign that strawberry season is here. It is from my favorite cookbook - Portland Junior League Portland Palate.
I never have trouble finding the recipe because it is the dirtiest page in the cookbook - a true sign of a great recipe!
The pizza is made with a sugar cookie type crust, a layer of cream cheese and then strawberries and glaze on top - kind of sounds like the Strawberry Pie from last week - just in a different form! Guess I have a thing for strawberries and cream cheese.
The crust ends up being a bit fragile so it can be a bit messy to eat. I just use my pizza cutter to slice it up. Enjoy!
Strawberry Pizza
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
Filling:
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Topping;
1 cup fresh strawberries, mashed
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
8 - 10 strawberries sliced.
Crust:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and butter. Form into a ball with hands and press into a 14 inch ungreased pizza pan (I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone)
Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.
Filling:
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and lemon juice. Spread on cooled crust.
Topping:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine strawberries, sugar and cornstarch. Simmer until thick and glossy. Cool. Spread on top of cream cheese filling.
Cut fresh strawberries crosswise to make rounds that resemble pepperoni, place on pizza and serve (I actually sliced mine the other way - oops!)
Popularity: 40% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Since I had a partial bottle of Key Lime juice still in the refrigerator left over from the Key Lime Cake last week I decided to try a new key lime recipe - you can never have too many key lime recipes!
This recipe is one I found on Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats- a food blog I enjoy. The cookies are a bit of work as you need to make the key lime curd first but they are worth it. I made the lime curd the night before and just kept it in the refrigerator overnight.
My cookies weren’t quite as thick as the ones in the picture on Good Eats. Next time I think I will add a bit more flour. The directions say the dough should be stiff but not dry and I don’t think mine was quite stiff enough. But they tasted great! Just the right amount of lime tartness.
Key Lime Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup key lime juice
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups prepared key lime curd, recipe below
1 cup powdered sugar, for sprinkling.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and the lime juice, and mix well.
In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to butter mixture until incorporated. Dough should be stiff but not dry. Shape into 1 inch balls, press thumb into center of balls to make an indentation, being careful not to press through to the bottom. Fill indentations with about 1 Tbsp. key lime curd.
Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool.
Key Lime Curd
3 eggs
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup key lime juice
1 tsp. key lime zest (I didn’t have a fresh lime so didn’t add this)
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the remaining ingredients, whisking continuously for approximately 8-10 minutes or until it becomes a custard. Remove from heat and continue whisking for another 1-2 minutes.
Allow to cool and then pour into a container and refrigerate. The curd will thicken considerably as it cools. Makes approximately 2 cups.
Popularity: 38% [?]
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
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Friday, June 13, 2008, by Leigh Anne
The baseball team of choice at our house is the Seattle Mariner’s. Well, if you have been following baseball at all lately you know that the Mariner’s aren’t doing too well - in fact they are doing terrible but we still love them! We’ve been attending Mariner’s games up in Seattle at Safeco Field for years .
O.K. - those of you who really know me know that I’m not much of a sport’s fan. In fact, the only games I like to watch are ones my children are playing in. But my boys - all three of them are HUGE sport’s fans and I mean HUGE!
I do agree to go along to the Mariner’s games once or twice a year, as long as I can take a book, - yes, I read at baseball games! I mainly agree to go because I get to go to the beautiful city of Seattle, eat Fish ‘n Chips on the pier, visit Pike Street Market and I get to eat Mariner’s Fries!
I go to baseball games for the food and for a baseball stadium Safeco Field has pretty good food. One of the first things you smell when you enter Safeco Field is the amazing aroma of garlic fries. They are so good and so garlicky!
This week’s Friday Favorite is my version of Mariner’s Fries. I made them on Memorial Day along with Oprah’s Favorite Turkey Burgers (they are so yummy!!) I made my own fries but you could easily just use frozen french fries too.
The first time I made these I didn’t put the garlic and parsley topping on all the fries thinking one of the girls might not like it, but I was wrong. They loved them and I ended up adding the reserved fries in with the rest. In fact when Cali saw me writing this blog post she said - “You need to make those again!”
Oven Roasted Fries
Non stick vegetable oil spray
2 pounds unpeeled russet potatoes, scrubbed, cut lengthwise into wedges
2 Tbsp. canola oil
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss potato wedges with canola oil in large bowl. Sprinkle potato wedges generously with salt and pepper; spread in single layer on prepared baking sheet. Roast potato wedges until tender and brown in spots, turning occasionally, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add Garlic and Parsley Topping
Garlic and Parsley Topping
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 cup garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian Parsley
Heat oil in heavy small skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic, saute until golden and beginning to crisp, about 1 minute. Using slotted spoon, transfer garlic to small bowl, cool. Mix in parsley. Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
Popularity: 45% [?]
Categories: Friday Favorites, Nourish, Recipes
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