French dip sandwiches

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Just thought I'd share with you another one of our quick meals. This is so easy, probably as easy as a frozen pizza, depending on how you make it. I like warm sandwiches better than cold cuts. Always have, always will. Especially when the cheese is melting onto the sides and the bread is nicely toasted.

With the French dip sandwiches we usually make, I just buy a loaf of Italian or French bread, deli roast beef, sliced provolone, a can of au jus (or beef broth), and an onion (optional). Toast the bread, then add a think layer of roast beef and provolone cheese, toast again open-faced. Heat up the au jus. If using onions, slice and saute the onions until tender. Top them on your sandwich, dip, and enjoy.



You can also use swiss or mozzarella, hamburger buns, rolls, regular bread. You can make it a panini. You could also go fancy and do a beef roast and have slow cooked, shredded beef instead of deli roast beef. This recipe looks really good. I may have to try it that way. But you would also need more prep time for that. One of the first lines in that recipe is, "These aren’t your standard deli-sliced roast beef French dip sandwiches"...so there ya go!

Not your typical pizza

I LOVE goat cheese. In fact, I just love cheese.

One of the easy meals we do on a regular basis is "homemade" pizza. When I have extra time, I'll make the crust, but when I don't (which is common), I buy the refrigerated dough in a tube. We usually do toppings like pepperoni, mushrooms, red peppers, green peppers, ham, pineapple, corn (if we want to feel like we're back in Venezuela), and of course, cheese. The toppings are all based on what's available in the kitchen.

In October, we went to San Diego for the weekend to visit Brad and welcome him home to the USA (from Afghanistan). We went to his friend's house and discovered she was practically a gourmet chef. We had delicious gourmet food, including pizzas on the grill! (I definitely want to try this.) One of the pizzas was fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese, among other things like a grilled rack of lamb with spicy brown mustard sauce, wine, and Italian sausage on rolls with sauteed veggies.

So, I recreated this pizza a couple months ago when Amy visited, adding baby arugula, and again enjoyed the mix of flavors--sweet, salty, and peppery.

There's really not much of a recipe. For the crust, I used the refrigerated dough. I flattened it out on wax paper, let it sit for a few minutes. Then, I put some corn meal on a Pampered Chef stone, and put it in the oven to cook for a couple minutes. I took it out before it started browning and brushed it with olive oil. Then I added the toppings: dried figs quartered, prosciutto sliced, and chunks of goat cheese. I threw it in the oven for about 15 minutes. When I took it out, I threw on some baby arugula and enjoyed it!

Back to cheese...because I'm a nerd who loves the dairy section of the food pyramid, I have read about it on the web. I can't believe how MANY types of cheese there are. I want to try to make my own cheese. I heard ricotta is not hard to make. Maybe yogurt too. ...This summer?

Asian noodle salad

I made a very tasty Asian Noodle Salad the other night. It was fairly quick, healthy, and refreshing. Chopping up the veggies was really the only time consuming part.

I made it almost exactly as the recipe shows, except I used cole slaw mix instead of the cabbages (since I had it on hand). I also added celery and used whole wheat spaghetti noodles.

*Tip: Go easy on the dressing! We put too much on the first time we ate it, and decided that less is more, since there are so many flavors in there!

It's that time of year!

Looooove Girl Scout Cookies. These are our absolute favorites.

Baked Brie

This is an easy, tasty, and attractive appetizer that I've made to bring to holiday parties or when people have come over.

Baked Brie
Ingredients:
8 oz round of brie
1 can of crescent rolls
about 1/2 cup of cherry preserves (could use other kinds if desired)
about 1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 egg, beaten (to use for brushing the dough and giving it a shiny, crispy finish)

Unwrap the brie out of the package. The white rind on the outside of the cheese is typically eaten, and doesn't taste like much. (FYI "It is pale in color with a slight greyish tinge under a rind of white mold" -Wikipedia) Gross to think it's actually mold, but it's delicious. The cheese, that is.



Leave the rind on. Yes.

Then wrap the cheese round in crescent rolls. I used wax paper to unravel the crescent rolls, pinched together the individually cut rolls, and then had a sheet of crescent roll dough. Chop pecans and put in center of dough. Scoop the preserves and put on top of pecans. Place cheese round on top of preserves. Wrap dough around the cheese. Place the wrapped round seam side down on a sheet pan (I also used parchment paper for less clean up on the pan.)

I had extra dough, so I used cute pie cutters that I have to make leaves and place them on top. You could probably cut out any shapes you want with the extra dough.

Make an egg wash (egg whisked with a pinch of water) and use a brush to brush the dough all over.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees (or until golden brown and heated through).

Perfect Roast Chicken

I have made this recipe a handful of times, and love it every time. It's great for making when you have guests, because it's seems impressive, but it's actually pretty easy. It's also great for this time of year. At first, it was very intimidating to roast a whole chicken, but I eventually got used to man-handling the raw chicken. I actually don't mind raw meat too much. Some people can't stand touching it.

Perfect Roast Chicken
Recipe from Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise (I use 4-6 tsp already minced garlic)
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks (can use more if you love carrots)
1 bulb of fennel (of decent size), tops removed, and cut into wedges
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables

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There's also a video of her making it on YouTube:

Veggie Tostadas

I have always had a love for Mexico, ever since my parents told me stories of both living there, then I studied Spanish in high school and college, then I studied abroad in Cuernavaca my sophomore year of college.

My mom loved TJ Maxx, and in case you didn't know, you can find awesome cookbooks there. I have found Martha Stewart cooking books that are originally $40 for only $9.99. My mom used to go and just browse, and she found 2 really good Mexican cookbooks there. One is a Williams & Sonoma Mexican cookbook, a little fancy, but beautiful. Another one (this one), is my favorite. It has beautiful pictures, and a really long introduction with pictures of Mexico, street vendors, fruits, veggies, describing regional cuisines, cooking techniques, eating customs, street food descriptions, definitions and pictures of certain ingredients like all the different peppers and spices, special utensils used, and holiday foods. If you ever come over, you'll have to look at it. I love it. This recipe is from that book.

Vegetable Tostadas

(from "The Mexican Cookbook," Marlena Spieler editor)

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

(Tostadas:)

4-8 soft corn tortillas

4 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil

*or you can just buy already made tostadas...some grocery stores carry them, others don't

2 potatoes, diced

1-2 carrots, diced

3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped (I have a jar of already minced garlic, and it's just 1 tsp=1 clove minced...it's so much easier and your hands won't smell of garlic for hours!)

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 tsp mild chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

3-4 ripe tomatoes, diced (I have also used 1 can of diced tomatoes and it was fine...around here, it's been all about saving time since we are both in school and don't have much of it!)

4-8 oz green beans, blanched and cut into bite size lengths (I have used about 1 cup of frozen cut green beans and it was fine)

several large pinches of dried oregano

2 1/3 c. cooked black beans, drained (I usually use 1 can of black beans, drained)

8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

3-4 romaine lettuce leaves, shredded/chopped

3-4 scallions, thinly sliced (optional)

To make the tostadas, heat the oil in a pan/pot and pan fry the tortillas until crisp. Keep watch over them, as it is easy to burn them. You will need to flip them a couple times in the oil to get it evenly fried. I usually fry them in a small pot (to avoid a mess of oil on the stove top) with about 1 1/2 inches of oil in the pot.

Be watchful of them, because if you aren't, this could happen:

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet (about 1-2 tbsp). Add the potatoes and carrot and cook for 10 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic, red bell pepper, chili powder, paprika, and cumin. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the bell peppers have softened.

Add the tomatoes, green beans, and oregano. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and form a saucelike mixture. The mixture should not be too dry; add a little water if necessary.

Preheat the broiler to medium. Heat the black beans in a pan with a tiny amount of water and keep warm. Reheat the tostadas under the hot broiler. Spread the beans over the hot tostadas, then sprinkle with the cheese, and top with a few spoonfuls of the hot vegetables in sauce. Sprinkle each tostada with lettuce and scallions and serve immediately.

A slightly quicker version: Add the black beans into the vegetable mixture, heat through, then just top the vegetable mixture on the warm tostadas, top with cheese, lettuce, scallions, EAT and enjoy. :)