New Discovery!!

McCormick has recipe cards with the premeasured seasonings that you need for the recipe. They sell for about $2. I tried one of the recipes. It was good and really easy. I needed to add a few other seasonings to make it perfect... but what a great idea and how easy!! It is also good if you don't have a lot of seasonings.

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)

I found a way to prepare the yellow rice in a really easy way!! I use a prepackaged yellow rice (in a long, gold, foil pouch)- I used 2 packs of the yellow rice and one cup of regular rice. Cook it in the rice cooker adding 1.5 x as much water, add frozen peas and carrots (about a cup) and add a little bit of salt.

I cooked the chicken separately and mix it with the rice.

This recipe is about 6 servings

Chicken recipe:

Need: Paprika, Garlic powder, Thyme, Pepper, and black pepper, ground cumin, and fresh garlic (2 cloves)

1 to 1.5 lbs chicken (I like white meat so I use breasts, but dark meat is ok too), 1/4 cup flour, salt, olive oil, 1 bell pepper (red or green), 1 onion, 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, and 1/2 cup white wine

mix the dry seasonings with the flour and sprinkle about 1/4 of the mixture over the diced chicken. Heat the oil in a saute pan and brown the chicken on both sides. Remove the chicken and use the same pan to saute the bell peppers and onions until the onion is clear. I use a food processor to puree the onion and green pepper. If you use fresh garlic cloves, you can add them to the processor to make them smooth. (I ALWAYS use the crushed garlic I buy in the produce dept because I don't like chunks of garlic and it is easier than peeling and smashing garlic on my own.) If you do puree, just pour the mixture into the pan and heat it up. This process will help any small pieces of onions to basically melt away. Add the Tomatoes and white wine and bring to a boil. Add the remaining spice mixture and add the chicken back in cooking over low for about 10 minutes (to finish cooking the chicken).

When the rice is done cooking mix the chicken and sauce to the rice and mix together.

This dish can be served with the traditional tomato, onion, cucumber salad.

Thinly slice onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Whisk together red wine vinegar and canola oil. Pour over the vegies and serve. YUMMY!! Of course I don't eat onions but my husband loves them.

Bruschetta (Italian pronunciation: [brusˈketːa]

So my question... is bruschetta the bread or the topping? Who knows, but it is yummy!

Mine is simple.

For the bread, I like sourdough bread, but it can be any dense french style breads.

Slice the bread into finger size pieces. I brush mine with a garlic butter and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in a 350 oven until golden brown. Let cool unstacked to maintain its crunch texture. If you want to avoid butter, you can brush the bread with garlic olive oil.

For the topping slice Roma tomatoes in small pieces. Add fresh Basil cut into thin strips (using kitchen scissors works best). I like a lot! Add Olive Oil to coat and dash of Balsamic Vinegar. We recently had some with minced fresh garlic (which tasted fabulous but left me feeling insecure about my breath). Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Let it marinate for about 10-15 minutes before serving for a fuller flavor.

What can be said about this dish? It has a great wow factor without much work!

A Great Salad

There are a few things that I always love in salad, but it is the unexpected things and the mixture of flavors that work together to make a salad great... recently I made the most delicious salad, I was one happy camper.

The salad contained my salad staples:

Lettuce (different types)

Spinach (make sure it is washed well, there is nothing worse than taking a bit and tasting the dirt- even in prewashed spinach)

Broccoli slaw

Cucumber

Then I added a few "surprise" ingredients.

Blueberries

Avocado

Bruscetta topping (Roma tomatoes and fresh basil)

Mix all the usual ingredients, add blueberries and avocado.

In a separate bowl mix together diced Roma tomatoes, and sliced basil leaves. Add a little bit of olive oil to coat the mixture and a dash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Let the flavors marry for about 15 minutes and then add to the salad.

Finally, my favorite dressing is a balsamic vinegarette that is so easy. Use one of the italian dressing mixes that you can buy in the grocery store and it is easiest if you have one of their foolproof cruets that give you a line to show you how much vinegar, oil and water. Fill the cruet with the dressing mix, and balsamic vinegar to the WATER line. Then add olive oil to the oil line (if you don't have the cruet, it is about 1/3 oil and 2/3 balsamic vinegar. It is wonderful! Toss all the ingredients together and serve after about 10 minutes. If you want a little crunch, you can add some almond slices.

The combination of balsamic vinegar, basil, and blueberries make for that lovely mixture of sweet, acid, and savory that is heavenly!

Food from Morocco

Recently we went to a local Moroccan Restaurant. Holy Cow, it was delicious! I am looking forward to trying to recreate some of the tastes that we experienced. I can't wait to figure it all out.

Roasted Bell Pepper Salad

Green bell peppers were on sale so I used red and green. If red bell peppers aren't too expensive, you can use two red bell peppers.
You will need
2 Bell Peppers
Onion
Red wine vinegar
Oil
Avocado
Salt and pepper
Place washed bell peppers on the burners of a gas stove and blacken. Keep turning them until they are black. Rinse and peel off the blackened portion. Cut into slices. Slice Onion and avocado. Mix Oil and vinegar. Toss together and add salt and pepper to taste.

Boliche Mechado

Boliche Mechado is a Cuban Pot Roast with Spanish Chorizo. I had it the other night when we went to a really yummy Cuban restaurant the other night in Downey and had this dish. It was so good and I thought, I need to figure out how to make it. So, today I tried it and it was really yummy. It wasn't the same, but, it was good none the less... and my husband liked it. That is the real test.
I used a cut that was labeled Pot Roast. What kind of cut exactly, I'm not sure.
You will need:
Pot Roast
Crushed Garlic
Lime juice
tomato sauce
beef broth
cumin
oregano
bay leaves
red wine
salt
onion
Potato
bell pepper (1 red, 1 green)
Smear crushed garlic on the beef and pour a little lime juice (both sides)
Let it marinate for about 30 minutes. Generously cover with cumin.
Puree the bell peppers and onions in a food processor to make sofrito
Cut beef into strips and add salt.
Heat oil in the bottom of the pot and brown the beef (be careful not to let the garlic burn). Cut the chorizo into slices (on an angle) and saute in the pan. Add beef broth, tomato sauce, red wine, and the sofrito cover the meat completely. Add oregano and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for about two hours. Cut potatoes into bite size pieces and add to the pot. Add more beef broth if needed to make sure the potatoes are completely covered in liquid. Raise the temperature and bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature and continue to cook until the potatoes are fully cooked.
Serve over rice.