Four Bean Salad

Recently I went to a dinner at a friend’s house where everyone brought sides to go around the main course, and it was there I discovered this awesome bean salad. Now, I know some of you will say this is old news, but to me it’s not and I had to make one of my own and share. I love the flavors of the balsamic mixed with sugar. It’s not too sweet and not too bitter. Just perfect.

There are lots of things you could add into a salad like this, such as onion and bell pepper, but I just wanted to keep this simple so it’s strictly beans and dressing. And really, you could use any combination of beans you’d like.

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 can green beans, drained and rinsed

1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup EVOO

1/2 tsp salt

Combine the beans in a large bowl. Whisk vinegar, sugar, oil, and salt until sugar dissolves.

Pour vinegar-sugar mixture over beans and toss well to coat.

Cover and refrigerate over night. Stir several times.

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Cajun Chicken Fritters with Cajun Aioli

These fritters were super yummy, and the best part is with all these flavors you could easily swap the meat out for crab or shrimp or any other fish you like. The aioli definitely made this dish so don’t forget to whip up some and refrigerate for a bit while you’re making your fritters.

Cajun Chicken Fritters

3 or 4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 eggs, separated

1 cup buttermilk

1 T butter, melted

1 tsp srirachi or other hot pepper sauce

1-2 tsp cajun seasoning

1 1/2 tsp liquid crab boil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chopped bell peppers (any colors)

Cooking oil

Cajun Aioli

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 T grain mustard

1 tsp cajun seasoning

1. Whisk ingredients for aioli together and refrigerate. *This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, depending on how much you like.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder.

3. In another bowl combine buttermilk, butter, slightly beaten egg yolks, hot pepper sauce, cajun seasoning, and crab boil.

4. Stir to combine the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture. Add in peppers, garlic, and shredded chicken.

5. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and then fold into the chicken mixture completely.

6. Heat cooking oil (about 1 inch) in a dutch oven or heavy skillet, and drop chicken mixture by spoonfuls into the oil, about 4 at a time so they have room to cook and don’t stick together. Flip and cook until golden brown. Drain on paper towel-lined plate.

7. Serve with cajun aioli and something creamy and crunchy like cole slaw.

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Bacon Cheddar Potato Cakes

Use your leftover mashed potatoes to create a new side dish full of flavor and crunch. These are really good!

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

4 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 egg

1 tsp onion powder

salt & pepper, to taste

EVOO

1. Combine all the ingredients and form 2 oz. patties.

2. Heat EVOO in skillet over medium-high heat and cook each potato cake for about 4 or 5 minutes on each side until golden brown. *Cook about 3 or 4 at a time so they don’t stick together and you can easily flip them.

3. Drain on paper towel.

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Mini Apple Tarte Tatins

This was a twist on a recipe I’ve been meaning to do for some time. Lately I’ve not been turning out the best stuff- it’s like I’ve lost my mojo. I know, right? How does that happen?? So needless to say I’m not very motivated by lengthy recipe directions. Originally I meant to make an Apple Slab Pie, which was on my menu for the month, but instead I decided to do these cute and easy little tarts.

1 sheet puff pastry

3 apples

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter, divided

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon sugar

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Peel, core, and cut apples into 3 rings. Toss with cinnamon sugar and set aside.

3. Roll out thawed pastry sheet and cut into 9 equal squares. Wrap each apple ring.

4. Get skillet over medium heat and put in sugar and 1/2 the butter. Bring to light boil and caramelize into a syrup.

5. Place apples smooth side down into caramel syrup and cook a few minutes.

6. Melt remaining butter and mix with vanilla. Pour evenly over the upsides of the apple tarts (the side where the pastry is folded under).

7. Place whole pan into oven for about 30-45 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and apples are tender.

8. At this point you could carefully flip each tart over and give it about 10 more minutes in the oven to get some of that caramelized syrup on the top side, or spoon it over the top from the bottom of the pan.

9. Serve top side up where the folds have baked up a little. Serve with ice cream if desired.

Marinated London Broil

 

This is an awesome steak marinade. I doubled the recipe for the London Broil, but ordinarily it’s enough for 2 to 3 steaks. You should have all these ingredients on hand, and once you try it I bet you’ll never use another marinade recipe again. This marinade is good for all kinds of steaks.

Steak Marinade

1 T EVOO

1 T Worcestershire

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 T soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp yellow mustard

1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Place marinade and steaks into a container and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Marinade steaks over night if possible, but at least for an hour. Steaks also cook best when they are at room temperature, so keep this in mind when marinating and preparing for cooking times. Discard extra marinade or throw it into a saucepan with some mushrooms. Awesome!

To cook the London Broil, get a large skillet really hot and sear both sides of the meat for just a few minutes. Deglaze pan with some red wine (about 1/2 cup). Then take the meat and place under the broiler until done (if needed).

White Bean Turkey Chili

This is a super easy, healthy, and yummy chili. All you have to do is prep the meat and a few veggies and the slow cooker will do the rest for you.

1 lb. ground turkey

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 lb. dried navy beans, soaked and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and diced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp tarragon

1 tsp pepper

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup white wine

1 cup heavy cream

1. Saute garlic in some EVOO. Add ground turkey and cook until browned and crumbled.

2. Add meat and the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot.

3. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

This was awesome! One of the truly authentic recipes I’ve been able to make. I served this with my Thai Dragon Noodles but you can easily serve this with rice and it would be fabulous. I also love the fact that it’s a slow cooker recipe so all the work was done for me. All I had to do was enjoy the aroma

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

salt & pepper

6 green onions, sliced (all of it)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 T EVOO (or sesame oil if you have it)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

4 tsp cornstarch

1/3 cup water

sesame seeds

1. Spray inside of crock pot with cooking spray. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and salt and pepper them, stirring to cover each piece evenly. Place into bottom of slow cooker.

2. Combine onion whites, garlic, honey, ketchup, oil and red pepper flakes. Stir well. Pour over chicken. Cook on low 4 hours, or high for 2.

3. In a small bowl dissolve the cornstarch into the water. Add to crock pot and stir in well. If you’ve been cooking on low then turn heat up to high. Cover and allow to cook another 15 to 20 minutes, or until sauce begins to thicken some.

4. Spoon chicken over rice or noodles and top with sesame seeds and scallions (green part of onion).

5. Enjoy!

This recipe is featured at Simple Supper Tuesday!!

Mother’s Day 2013

Thai Dragon Noodles

These noodles are super yummy. You can adjust the heat as much or as little as you want. They went great with my Honey Sesame Chicken and gave me an awesome idea for a Pad Thai recipe (coming soon)! You can use lo mien noodles, or even regular linguine if you’d like, but for an authentic dish try these Thai rice noodles.

8 oz. Thai rice noodles

2 T butter

2 eggs

1/4 tsp red pepper

1 1/2 T brown sugar

3 T soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil (optional)

1 T Sriracha (rooster sauce)

2 green onions, sliced (all of it)

2 T fresh cilantro, chopped

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. In small bowl mix together soy sauce, the brown sugar, sriracha, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.

3. Heat skillet up with the butter and scramble the eggs with the chopped whites of the green onions. Reserve the scallions (green bits) for later.

4. Take eggs out of skillet and set aside. Put sesame oil into hot skillet and do a real quick pan fry of the noodles. Combine eggs and sriracha sauce into the skillet with the noodles.

5. Sprinkle top with scallions and cilantro before serving.

Southwest Chicken and Corn Chowder

You probably are thinking this would be a great recipe for the Fall and I agree, but the weather here has been cold and rainy for nearly a month, so it feels pretty Fall-like. Besides, comfort food is welcome in my house anytime of the year and I’d bet you’d agree if you try this lovely chowder. Just serve with some crusty bread and enjoy.

1 T EVOO

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, sliced thin or diced

1/2 cup celery, sliced thin or chopped

1 small to medium potato, peeled and cubed

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 mini bell peppers, red & orange, chopped (optional)

jalapeno pepper, minced

4 pieces turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

3 cups chicken broth

 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2 T flour

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

2 tsp southwest seasoning*

salt & pepper

1. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss with southwest seasonings. *This is just a combo of chili powder, chipotle powder, and paprika. Cook in EVOO in skillet heated over medium heat.

2. In soup pot place the chicken broth and the chopped carrots, onion, garlic, jalepeno, bell peppers and celery. Allow time to soften and simmer in broth before adding the chicken, corn and potato. Cook for at least 20 minutes.

3. Fry up your bacon, drain and crumble into the chowder pot. Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Taste.

4. Using a small whisk, combine the flour with the heavy cream in a bowl to make a roux. Add to the chowder and stir in well.

5. Let simmer another 20 minutes or more until potatoes are tender and all the flavors are combined.

I will share a few secrets with you: First, I used the crock pot, in stages, which made the chowder awesome. If you have the time I’d recommend this. Just follow the recipe with longer cooking intervals. After several hours the chicken is extremely tender and the overall flavor is amazing. Also, I used leftover chicken from my Chicken Enchilada Pasta Bake since there was so much leftover and I didn’t want to waste all that chicken or fantastic flavor. If you have any leftover dishes in your fridge, don’t be afraid to dig your hands into it and find a way to use it.