I Can Cook That | Food and Beverage Recipes

Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce

I’m on a slight mussel kick at the moment. I can’t stop thinking about Eulogy’s beer mussels, Bona Cucina’s mussels in white wine, and most recently, a mussels in red sauce I had back in college. I found a recipe for Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce in an old Cooking Light I thought I’d try. I was hoping for a slightly spicy dish, so I altered some of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 bag mussels, scrubbed and debearded
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain, and keep warm.

I wrote in my paella post how to clean and debeard mussels. It’s not terribly complicated, but it took me a while to be ok with debearding. Once the mussels are cleaned and debearded, you can begin cooking.

Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Chop your onion, garlic and bell peppers.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the bell pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.

Remove the tomatoes from the can, reserving the liquid. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, liquid, and wine to the pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add mussels, increase the heat to medium and cover.

Cook for 7 minutes or until the shells begin to open. If any do not open, throw those out; do not eat them. Add the pasta to the same pot and mix to coat with the sauce.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

When I first tried this, I didn’t add any cheese. And there was a little something just missing. It was ok, but somewhat bland.

I’d add a bit more spice next time. Maybe more red pepper flakes, or even a few drops of hot sauce.

My boyfriend suggested adding Parmesan cheese, and it did really help the flavor of the dish, so be sure to add some at the end!

This could be a really stellar recipe with a few modifications. What would you add to change this from a three star recipe to a five star recipe?

Yum

Angel Hair Pasta with Mussels in a Red Pepper Sauce

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 bag mussels, scrubbed and debearded
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain, and keep warm.
Clean and debeard the mussels.
Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Chop your onion, garlic and bell peppers.
Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
Add the bell pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.
Remove the tomatoes from the can, reserving the liquid. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, liquid, and wine to the pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add mussels, increase the heat to medium and cover.
Cook for 7 minutes or until the shells begin to open. If any do not open, throw those out; do not eat them. Add the pasta to the same pot and mix to coat with the sauce.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

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Thirty Minute “Paella”

I absolutely love paella: rice, saffron, seafood… what isn’t to like? If I could, I’d eat this amazing dish once a week. Traditional paella takes a good hour at least to make, so it would be quite the task to make it all the time. However, I found a paella-like dish from Cooking Light that can be made in 30 minutes! My parents and sister recently went to Spain and brought me back some amazing, but vague, spices. One was just labeled as “paella spice” and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 a white onion, chopped

2 chicken sausages, cut into pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound large shrimp
2 cups uncooked rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon “paella spice” (sub in 1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron for this)
1/4 teaspoon paprika, smoked would be ideal
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen green peas
the juice of 1/2 a lemon juice

Using a Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pan, head the olive oil over medium-high heat. Chop your onion and sausage.

Add to the pot and cook, stirring, for three minutes.

Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and stir in to the other ingredients.

Add the rice, water, oregano, salt, paella spice (or saffron), paprika, black pepper, and chicken broth.

Mix so that the rice is coated in the liquid.

Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in the peas, and squeeze with the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

So, traditional paella has that nice crispy bottom where the rice has started to stick to the pan. Twenty minutes obviously won’t give you that result. But the rice turns out fluffy and has the flavoring of not only the saffron/paella spice, but also the smokiness of the chicken sausage and a subtle fresh seafood flavor of the shrimp.

The little bit of citrus really enhances the dish. It brings out all of the flavors and adds such brightness to the rice.

I am so impressed and pleased with how this turned out. For just thirty minutes of your time, you can have a paella-type dinner prepared!

I kept the tails and shell on the shrimp so that they could soak in the liquid while cooking the rice. It helped so that the shrimp wouldn’t overcook. Also, I think it makes the paella look a bit more authentic. 🙂

If you are a bit squeamish about it, feel free to use deveined shrimp. I’d suggest not adding them to the pot until the rice is about half way cooked, so as to not overcook the shrimp.

I wish I could figure out what exactly was in the “paella spice” I had because the flavor was really amazing. Saffron, tumeric, spanish paprika? Sigh. Who knows. But if you come across any pre-made paella mix, be sure to buy it and try this dish! However, I do think that using saffron would make a really solid substitute.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

We recently had a baby shower for one of my co-workers. She’s a big chocolate fan, so I went in search of a super chocolately cupcake that I could make for the shower. Lauren’s Latest had a great recipe that incorporated dark chocolate and cocoa powder, perfect! I used an altered buttercream recipe from my Guinness Cupcakes so that I could have a white icing that I could dye blue. She is having a boy so I went with a duck theme!

Cupcake ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

12 oz dark chocolate

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used light)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup low fat sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buttercream ingredients:

1 stick of butter, softened
3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Milk, as needed to get to desired consistency

4-5 drops blue food dye

So I did something that is typically a big no-no in baking. I took Lauren’s recipe and multiplied it by three to make 24 cupcakes. And (thankfully) it turned out a-ok! So feel free to use my multiplied version. Be sure to check out Lauren’s page though to see how beautiful hers came out, especially with that chocolate icing, yum!

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a small pot, melt the butter and chocolate over medium low heat, stirring until smooth. When combined, remove from heat and allow to cool.

While the butter and chocolate are melting / cooling, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and flour in a large bowl.

Mix to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla.

Make a well in the dry mixture.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well.

Mine overflowed. Oops@

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients as well as the cooled butter-chocolate mixture until just combined.

Add half of the mixture to the cupcake tins (the recipe makes 24 so you will have enough batter for 24 cupcakes). I use an ice cream scoop to at least attempt to divide the batter evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a middle cupcake comes out clean.

Allow to completely cool before decorating.

To make the icing, use a hand mixer to beat butter until smooth. Add half of the sugar and beat until smooth. Add other half of the sugar and repeat. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk to thin and beat until smooth. (Note: be careful to not add too much, a little bit of milk goes a very long way!)

I added 4-5 drops of blue food coloring to get a light blue color. The icing became water for my ducks.

How cute are these?

I used a pastry bag to add the icing, but you can also put the icing into a plastic zip lock bag and cut off one of the bottom corners to squeeze the icing out. It doesn’t have to be perfect (mine definitely aren’t!), the ducks splashing makes ripples in the water 🙂

I ordered the ducks and the sprinkles from The Bakers Confections, which you can buy on Etsy.

You’re probably thinking, super, they are adorable. But are they tasty?

They sure are! The double chocolate makes it a really nice dense cupcake, fully of chocolately flavor. The sour cream keeps them nice and moist.

My cupcakes were snatched up in minutes, so I think they were a hit!

Thanks to Lauren for posting such a fantastic cupcake recipe!

English Blackberry Pudding

Recipes can tell you a lot about the time period in which they were written. I have always been interested in how recipes change over time to meet tastes, availability and personal income. A few months ago, I went to an event at the Historical Society of Philadelphia about a Civil War era cookbook they found within their documents. The cookbook, written by Ellen Emlenwas written around 1865 and is really well organized, especially for the time. Mrs. Emlen, a Philadelphia housewife, put a lot of time into the cookbook, organizing it into thirteen categories including over 200 recipes.

Some of the fun facts that I learned:

If you think Americans have a sugar problem now, you should see some of the amounts of sugar that used to go into recipes! Most recipes would have to be altered to include less sugar to make palatable to us today.
Despite their not so wallet-friendly prices now, oysters used to be “poor man’s food” in nineteenth century Philadelphia. The Delaware River used to be teeming with them! Because of that, there are some ridiculous-sounding recipes for things like “how to pickle 1,000 oysters”
It’s quite amazing how some things haven’t really changed. There is a recipe for eggnog in the book that is comparable to today’s recipe.
The affluent families of Philadelphia (Mrs. Emlen included) really had a thing for saffron. So many dishes include it in the ingredients!

The event was really interesting and we all were given a copy to take home with us! (Expect some posts including adaptations of her recipes in the future). I also picked up another book while I was there, 35 Recipes from “The Larder Invaded”, which also included historical recipes from local Philadelphians. I used a recipe from that book for this Blackberry Pudding, with a few slight changes.

I’m sure some of you just looked at that photo and thought to yourself “that is NOT pudding.” It’s actually an English pudding. Although in the U.S., pudding is usually a milk-based custard type dessert, pudding in the United Kingdom can be used for any sweet dish after dinner (think: Christmas pudding or “figgy pudding”). So, this recipe is actually more of a bread or cake.

Ingredients:

1 pint almond milk, plus more for glaze

3 1/2 cups flour plus more for dredging the blackberries

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine to make dairy free

2 heaping teaspoons baking powder

1 pint blackberries

powdered sugar

To make this recipe a bit more my own, and bring it into the 21^st century, I decided to try this with Vanilla Almond Milk. I thought it might add a nice extra flavor to the whole dessert. Feel free to use normal milk.

Beat the eggs together until light.

Add the almond milk and flour and mix to combine. Add the melted butter, salt and baking powder and mix to combine.

Wash the blackberries and dredge in flour.

Add the blackberries to the pudding and mix to combine.

The original recipe wanted me to put the batter into a pudding tin (I have no idea what a pudding tin is) and then place that in a pot with some boiling water and cook it this way, replenishing the water when needed, for 3 hours. Yep. Not happening.

Instead, I preheated my oven to 350, added the batter to some Pyrex bowls (I used one medium and one small to use all the dough) and baked them for 40-50 minutes.

Because I have a ridiculous sweet tooth, I decided to add a little bit of a glaze to the top of the dessert. Combine 2 parts powdered sugar to 1 part milk. (I made 1 tablespoon powdered sugar to 1.5 teaspoons almond milk).

So how was it? Delicious of course! Look at that beauty!

I was a bit afraid of how this would turn out because I messed with the method of preparation. But it looks fine to me! I enjoyed the glaze on top to give it an extra pop of sugary goodness. The blackberries were nice and tart, so it was a good contrast. I was really happy with the almond milk in it as well!

Best thing about this recipe is that it can easily be adapted to include any kind of berry you choose. It’s a wonderful base recipe to let your creativity run wild.

I actually had a really hard time taking these photos; I kept trying to eat the pudding!

English Blackberry Pudding

A traditional English pudding made with blackberries and drizzled with a simple glaze

Course Dessert

Cuisine United Kingdom

Keyword Blackberry, Cake, Dessert, English, Pudding

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 5

Servings 6

Author Kaitlin @ I Can Cook That

Ingredients

1 pint almond milk plus more for glaze
3 1/2 cups flour plus more for dredging the blackberries
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine to make dairy free
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1 pint blackberries
powdered sugar

Instructions

Beat the eggs together until light.
Add the almond milk and flour and mix to combine.
Add the melted butter, salt and baking powder and mix to combine.
Wash the blackberries and dredge in flour.
Add the blackberries to the pudding and mix to combine.
The original recipe wanted me to put the batter into a pudding tin (I have no idea what a pudding tin is) and then place that in a pot with some boiling water and cook it this way, replenishing the water when needed, for 3 hours.
Instead, I preheated my oven to 350, added the batter to some Pyrex bowls (I used one medium and one small to use all the dough) and baked them for 40-50 minutes.
Let cool.
To make the glaze, combine 2 parts powdered sugar to 1 part milk and drizzle over the pudding while it cools.

Stuffed Peppers

I have been a part of a food swap for about 6 months now, and I am already running low on ideas. As I was frantically looking for an idea, I realized no one had made stuffed peppers yet, win! Stuffed peppers are a perfect, hearty meal for relatively little cost. They are pretty adaptable and can honestly be made with whatever you want. To make vegetarian, sub in beans or just omit the ground beef all together.

Ingredients (this makes 10 stuffed peppers)

10 peppers

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

3 onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

2.5 lbs ground beef

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

1 can diced tomatoes

½ teaspoon each of basil, oregano and parsley (dried)

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper, to taste

5 cups cooked rice

½ cup grated Parmesan

Cut off top of peppers, removing the seeds and membranes. Dice the edible parts of the tops of the peppers.

Add the whole peppers to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from water and set aside.

Add the butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, diced peppers, and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add the ground beef, stirring to break up the meat.

Cook until browned. Add the Worcestershire, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree, stirring to combine.

Season with oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cooked rice and parmesan cheese.

Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkling with more parmesan cheese if desired.

Because I made these for a swap, I froze the peppers at this stage.

To cook, thaw completely then bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes.

I hope they like them!

Homemade Pancake Mix

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with store-bought pancake mix. However, are you aware of how easy it is to make your own at home? This recipe makes 16 pancakes; you can store the dry mix in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda

Liberté at Sofitel Philadelphia’s Chestnut Ravioli

I am lucky to live in such a food city. Everywhere around me, there are restaurants that deliver seemingly effortless food with beautiful presentation. Twice a year, center city hosts Restaurant Week, with pre fixe meals at many restaurants around the city. Recently, Center City District and Philly Homegrown compiled a free recipe book of meals offered during Restaurant Week. I would love to take the time to make each and every one of these recipes, but for now, I’ll start with Liberté at Sofitel Philadelphia‘s Chestnut Ravioli. The chestnut ravioli is served on top of a sweet potato puree, drizzled with a sage cream sauce, and topped with pancetta and crispy sage. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect winter meal?

Ingredients:

Ravioli –

2 lasagna sheets of fresh pasta (in Philly, try By George in Reading Terminal)

1 handful of sage leaves, chopped

4 egg yolks (reserve the egg whites)

6 ounces chestnuts, cooked

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Salt, to taste

Sauce –

1 handful of sage, chopped

1 pint heavy cream

2 ounces white wine

Sweet Potato Puree –

1 large sweet potato

1 tablespoon butter

Garnish –

4 slices panectta or bacon

sage leaves

olive oil

Begin to preparing your chestnuts. Using a paring knife, cut an X into the flat side of each chestnut. There are a few layers in a chestnut so don’t be afraid to cut pretty deep into the chestnut.

This is so while cooking, air can escape and the chestnuts wont explode. Add the chestnuts to a pot of unsalted boiling water. Boil for 15 – 20 minutes.

Remove the chestnuts from the water and allow to cool enough to be handled. (They will begin to peel back after being removed from the water.

When cool enough to touch, peel the shells off of the chestnuts.

Take 1/2 of the chestnuts and roughly chop.

Add the other 1/2 of the chestnuts to a food processor (I used a magic bullet) and blend until finely chopped.

Add the egg yolks, chopped sage and maple syrup to a medium bowl, mixing to combine. Add all of the chestnuts to the mixture.

Place one lasagna sheet on a floured surface. Add about 1 teaspoon of the chestnut mixture 6 times, spread evenly apart. With the reserved egg whites, brush around the filling.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the second lasagna sheet a bit more so that it is slightly larger than the first piece. Carefully lay the sheet over the first one making sure that there are no air bubbles. Using a ravoli stamp, press down around each filling.

Use a knife to cut around the ravioli stamp. Inspect the edges of the ravioli to make sure they are sealed (you can just use your fingertips to seal any edges that need to be closed). Set aside.

To make the sweet potato puree, peel a sweet potato and add to salted boiling water. (You can cut it into smaller pieces to make it cook faster… I honestly don’t know why I didn’t. Weird.)

Cook until fork tender (about 10-15 minutes). Pour out the water and add the sweet potato back to the pot over low heat. This will remove the rest of the water that might still be in the sweet potato.

Use a ricer to mash the sweet potato. Add the butter and mix to combine.

Add the puree to a plastic zip lock bag and set aside.

To make the sauce, add the white wine to a small pot. Bring to a boil. Stir in the cream and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the chopped sage and cook until the cream reduces by half.

To make the garnish, add the pancetta to a saute pan over low heat. Place a smaller pan on top while the pancetta cooks so that it can’t curl up.

When the pancetta is crispy, remove from heat. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the sage leaves and cook until crispy.

Bring a salted pot of water to a low boil. Add the ravioli and cook for 3-5 minutes. Drain.

To assemble, take the zip lock bag of sweet potato puree and cut off one of the lower corners. Pipe two thin parallel lines of sweet potato puree onto a plate. You want them about ravioli width apart. Add the ravioli in between the two lines and spoon the sauce over the ravioli. Top with pancetta and crispy sage leaves.

I’m pretty sure I used every pot and pan in my place to make this dish. As I was making it, tasting each part, I was a bit worried about how this would all turn out. Chestnuts, sweet potatoes, cream, sage and pancetta?

The flavors were FANTASTIC. Wow. It was a lot of work but I am so happy with how it turned out.

My sweet potato puree was a bit too chunky for my liking, but oh well.

This recipe is usually an appetizer, but I thought I’d make it into a meal by adding 3 to a plate instead of one.

Champagne Risotto Primavera

I still have some prosecco sitting around after New Years Eve that I don’t want to go to waste. It’s already open so there’s really no way to save it. I usually use leftover wine in my risotto, so why not use sparkling wine instead? After all the food I ate in the past week, I thought I should probably incorporate some vegetables into my risotto as well. I adapted a Weight Watchers recipe to incorporate the sparkling wine.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup uncooked arborio rice
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup champagne, prosecco, or other sparkling wine, divided
1 cup frozen edamame, thawed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
fresh parsley, chopped

Continue reading Champagne Risotto Primavera

A Look Back at 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years Eve! I have just come back from a wedding to ring in the new year, the perfect way to end 2011. This past year has been filled with many wonderful people, experiences, and of course, food. As I continue to progress in my cooking, I have a few blog-centric goals for 2012:

1. I hope to become more comfortable making up my own recipes more often.

2. I want to further develop my photography; I have made leaps and bounds from where I began, but I still have a long way to go!

3. Despite my love for pasta and baked goods (which is going nowhere), I hope to make more healthy choices in my ingredients during the year.

Looking back at the posts I created during the year, I wanted to share some of the most popular recipes on my blog in 2011 (by page views).

10. Jalapeno-Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

9. Hummus & Vegetable Pizza

8. Garlic & Rosemary Smashed Potatoes

7. Creamy Asparagus Soup with Prosciutto

6. Green Bean Casserole with Mushrooms

5. Mushroom Mac & Cheese

4. Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Bacon, Egg & Toast Cups with Spinach

2. Salted Caramel Brownies

annnnd the most popular recipe of 2011 is:

1. Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

It is so fitting that my most popular post was a pumpkin recipe 🙂

Many thanks to everyone who checks in on this blog every now and then! I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!

Rose-Scented Berry Prosecco

New Years Eve is a great time to add a little bit of glitz and glamor to your life. I, naturally, feel the need to do that to my drink. This is actually a take on a local restaurant’s delicious champagne option. I hope I remember it correctly, but when I first had this drink at Farmicia in Old City Philadelphia I fell in love. It’s such a girly drink so I had to save it for a special occasion.

Ingredients:

Rosewater

Blueberries

Prosecco

Add about 1/2 teaspoon rosewater to the bottom of a fluted glass. I apparently do not own any champagne glasses (who knew?) so I actually made mine in the martini glass with a bit more rosewater.

Add blueberries or any berry of your choice to the glass. If you’re using a traditional glass, three should be plenty.

Open your sparkling wine and pour into the glass, filling to the top.

Enjoy 🙂

I absolutely love the smell of rosewater. The taste can only be described as what you’d expect a rose to taste like (sorry). The berries add a nice little touch too; I love saving them for last!

I’d suggest adding rosewater to taste. I am very fond of it, so I might have a heavy hand with it. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and work your way up.

Have a wonderful New Years!

Spice Rubbed Salmon with Lemon-Garlic Spinach

If you’re like me, you can never have too many salmon recipes. If I could, I’d eat salmon every day, so I prefer some variety with how it’s prepared. Cooking Light had a recipe that incorporated some really interesting spices: coriander, cinnamon, cumin and paprika. I was excited to see how this would turn out. The recipe also pairs the salmon with a wilted spinach, one of my favorite sides.

Ingredients (this makes one serving)

Salmon:
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon paprika
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 5 oz salmon fillet
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
Cooking spray

chopped cilantro, for garnish

lemon wedges
Spinach:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 large handfuls uncooked baby spinach
zest from one lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
the juice of half a lemon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. To prepare the spice rub, combine the salt, cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and pepper in a bowl.

Rub the mixture evenly over the salmon.

Thinly slice your onion. Add the onion to a baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Add the salmon on top of the onions. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until flaky.

When there is about 5-10 minutes left on the salmon, prepare the spinach. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.

Add one handful of spinach.

Cook for one minute, stirring. Add the remaining handful of spinach and cook for 4 minutes or until wilted, stirring frequently.

Add lemon zest and salt. Stir in juice and remove from heat.

Serve the salmon with the onions and spinach.

Sprinkle salmon with cilantro. Serve with lemon wedges.

You’d think all of those powerful spices would overwhelm the salmon. Not at all. The flavor was fantastic!

I can’t even describe it. But my taste buds did a little dance.

The lemon added a nice tanginess to the spinach, which was a great contrast to the sweet caramelized onions.

I think the next time I make this, I will check the salmon after 15 minutes of cooking. The salmon was slightly overcooked for my liking. Past that, this recipe is a definite keeper!

Grilled Rosemary Swordfish with Vegetable Couscous

I apologize for the lack of posts! Like many, I’ve spent the past week doing a whole lot of eating, but not necessarily cooking. My parents gave me a nifty panini pan for the stove which also doubles as a grill pan. I wanted to test it out, so I decided to try Cooking Light’s Rosemary Swordfish on Vegetable Couscous.

Ingredients (this makes one serving so multiply as needed):

1 teaspoon olive oil’
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 (5-ounce) swordfish steak
1/2 carrot, diced
1/2 zucchini, diced
3 Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
the juice of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 uncooked couscous
Salt and pepper, to taste

Continue reading Grilled Rosemary Swordfish with Vegetable Couscous

Sugar Cookies

I am always so excited to make sugar cookies. To be more precise, I’m actually really excited to decorate the cookies. (Mind you, I’m awful at it. A 6 year old would beat me by a mile in a cookie decorating contest). But it is so fun to see the cookies transform from flour, sugar, and butter into cute little Christmas trees, snowmen, and candy canes. I used a traditional sugar cookie recipe from Cooking Light.

Ingredients:
Cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 11 1/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
10 tablespoon butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons skim milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Decorations:
Cookie cutters
Sprinkles
Other edible decorations

Add the flour, baking powder and salt to a medium bowl, stir with a whisk.

Add sugar and butter in a large bowl, beating with a mixer until combined.

Add vanilla and eggs.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Mine looked very very crumbly. So if yours looks like this, don’t panic.

Add the mixture to a large piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly.

Refrigerate for an hour. Unwrap the ball after an hour. Preheat the over to 375. Split the dough in half, rolling out out half of the dough on a floured surface.

Using any cookie cutter you have, cut out shapes and place on a cookie sheet two inches apart lined with parchment paper.

Repeat with remaining dough. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes or until lightly browned along the edges. Cool on pans for 5 minutes then remove and place on wire racks.

When completely cooled, prepare the icing. Combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk stirring until smooth. I added the icing to a squeeze bottle (like a ketchup bottle) but you can also add it to a ziplock bag and cut off one of the bottom corners to make piping easier. Decorate the cookies however you like.

Allow to dry overnight.

Hehe. Aren’t they fun? You can use whatever you want. I happened to be a bit, well, sprinkle happy.

Oh yeah, they taste pretty darn good too 🙂

Snickerdoodles

I am back in cookie baking mode. This time around, I’m going the more traditional route. First on my list, classic snickerdoodles.

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Continue reading Snickerdoodles

Review of Serve from American Express

I have a confession to make. I am always (and I mean always) the girl at the table of 6 who has to use a card. It’s not like these group dinners are sprung upon me, but for some reason I never have the foresight to go to an ATM beforehand. So when it comes to splitting the check, my friends and I have to write a novel on the back of the check showing how we want everything broken down and on which card. Servers must hate seeing us seated in their section. Apparently I’m not the only cash-less jerk out there because American Express now has a service, appropriately named Serve, that helps eliminate the 14 credit cards at the end of a meal. I was given the opportunity through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program to try out Serve (and obviously I’m the perfect candidate).

The even better part is that Serve is hosting a contest to win $100 deposited into your very own Serve account! Stay tuned for a chance to enter this contest!

So, what is serve?

Serve is basically a digital source of funds that you can easily transfer to and from friends, family, or anyone else. Need to pay an electrician? If they have Serve, you just transfer the funds right over. Did the holiday shopping for your parents? Request the exact funds needed and it will transfer from their account to yours. For me personally, this tool is best used for my sorting of bills when out with friends.

It’s best to think of this service as a prepaid card. You can link it to a credit or debit card, or just deposit money into it using MoneyPak.To send and receive money, it works like an e-mail. Through your Serve account, just send the money to the recipient’s e-mail account they used to set up their Serve account. The recipient then confirms the transfer and it is finished! You receive a confirmation e-mail, and they receive their funds. (Note: the money transfer must be accepted within 7 days) To receive money, the sender can e-mail you through their account, or you can request an amount by sending a request to their e-mail.

Because it is a part of the American Express family, your money is protected by American Express’ technology and security. Even better, Serve sends you a card that can be used anywhere American Express is accepted.

Serve has an app for iPhone, Microsoft phones, and Androids, allowing you to make these transfers while sitting in the restaurant. Transfers can also be done online by signing into www.serve.com. Lastly, Serve can also be used through the prepaid, reloadable card.You can even withdraw cash from ATMs (for a fee starting in January).

Signing up for Serve is free. Services included in the free account include:

Person-to-person money transfers
Purchasing online and in stores with the Serve card
Reloading your account through a checking account
The first ATM withdraw a month

Getting cash from an ATM after using your first free withdraw a month will cost you $2.00, plus whatever the ATM might charge you for using it. If you want to fund your Serve account with a credit card, you’ll be charged 2.9% of the amount transferred plus $0.30 for each transfer.This card is also perfect for college kids that need money transferred. You can make sub accounts that you can control how much money goes in and when.

There are plenty of other really cool features (including using it to track collections/donations, donating to charities, etc) within Serve, so be sure to check out the site. Their “How Serve Works” section is particularly helpful.

How was my experience?

I went out with my boyfriend, my sister, and her boyfriend. My sister and I each signed up for a Serve account (which is free, plus they give you $10 to start!) and headed out for dinner.

I did some research beforehand to make sure our restaurant choice accepted American Express, in the off chance that our cards would arrive in time for us to use them. This was surprisingly easy! I had about five restaurants in mind, and all accepted Amex. (You can tell I don’t have an Amex card myself…) I ended up choosing one of my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia: Koo Zee Doo.Koo Zee Doo is a Portuguese BYOB in the city run by a husband and wife. David Gilberg is the chef while Carla Gonçalves makes the desserts and amazing bread brought to your table. The restaurant has an open kitchen so you have the opportunity to actually watch the chef prepare your meal (which I love). Koo Zee Doo is the phonetic spelling of the Portuguese word for “cooked” and also refers to a traditional Portuguese dish Cozido á Portuguesa that is a meat and vegetable dish found throughout Portugal.

The menu is awesome, ranging from the tame (Steak topped with a fried egg) to adventurous (braised chicken gizzards). They also offer a 5 course chef’s tasting menu that I have not tried (yet). I know this is a review of Serve, but I had to mention how wonderful this restaurant is. If you are ever in Philadelphia, I strongly suggest checking this place out.

As expected, our meal was wonderful. The food is served family style, so the four of us got two main dishes (the steak I mentioned as well as their special of the day: Lamb Stew) and two appetizers (braised chicken gizzards and Potato & salt cold croquettes). Despite being way too full, we had to try some of the amazing desserts as well (a chocolate hazelnut bread pudding and a coconut tart with chocolate whipped cream).

After our meal, we began the fun that is check deciphering. This bill was easier than most because of the family style serving, so we basically cut the check down the middle for each couple. My sister transferred the appropriate funds to my account while we sat at the table and I was able to accept and see the money in my account before paying.My card had amazingly come in the mail, so I just handed the server the one card which paid for everyone. I think Serve works best when using the card in tandem with the transfers. If the card had not come, my sister would have still transferred the money to me, but I would have had to use a separate card and the actual charge would have been on that separate card. The server, unbeknownst to her, had just dodged a bullet of dealing with two to four different credit cards with our scribble on the back of the check. The only criticism I have is that your name is not printed on the front of the card. When the popularity of this card picks up, I think that might make it very difficult to easily determine which card is yours.

Giveaway: So here’s the part you’ve all been waiting for. You can win $100 to be credited into your own Serve account! (You obviously would need to sign up for Serve to receive the $100. Click the link below for official rules for this giveaway) To enter, just comment below by midnight on 12/25/11.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a $250 stipend to try Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive a $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found here: https://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/4622317-win-serve-dollars-giveaway-official-rulesGood luck!