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Asparagus & Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese (& Toasted Almonds) Recipe

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

This is a recipe that was inspired by the Main Street & Garden Cafe in Soquel, CA.

They change their menu all the time to suit their freshly grown goodies from their garden out back and this is one that we got to try.

You actually serve this asparagus salad cold after blanch the asparagus for about 1 minute.

To see how the Main Street & Garden Cafe’s salad looked, check out this link.

Shaved Asparagus & Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Recipe

  • 1 bunch Asparagus, sliced at an angle (See photo above)
  • 1 basket pint Strawberries, sliced
  • 1/4-1/2 cup Goat Cheese
  • 1/4-1/2 cup Toasted sliced Almonds

Sherry Vinaigrette:

  • 1 -2 garlic cloves, chopped/minced
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sherry wine vinager
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Blanch Sliced Asparagus First:

  1. Bring water to rolling boil. Prepare a bowl of ice water, with ice cubes (I leave this in the sink).
  2. Drop Asparagus in and cook for about 1 minute.
  3. Remove asparagus from boiling water using tongs and drop them into the ice water bath.
  4. Leave the asparagus in the water until it is cool.

Make dressing. Then combine Asparagus, strawberries, goat cheese, and toasted almonds. Put dressing on salad right before serving.

How to Toast Sliced Almonds
Preheat oven to 170F degrees. Put Almonds on a cookie sheet and bake for 15minutes.

Posted in Home Cookin', Salad | 3 Comments »
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Baked Fish Tacos & Mexican Inspired Dinner Party Recipes

Monday, June 25th, 2012

I now have a ton of posts to update for you but have been traveling for business and pleasure as of lately and I have been too darn busy! I actually feel guilty about the lack of posts I have kept up with. We have been writing ‘Blame it on the Food Blog’ for almost three years now! It has been a highlight in my life.

Well, we had this Mexican Dinner at our house within the last month with our Gourmet Group. If I haven’t explained this before, we have a Gourmet Group (some call it Dinner Club) with 5-6 couples and we rotate hosts each month. When the dinner is at your house, you choose the menu and email out the recipes to your friends to make. We have covered a decent amount of creative menus in one year.

For this dinner, we were inspired by a recent trip to visit friends in Arizona who made us delicious fish tacos with red cabbage slaw and served store-bought Refried Black Beans along side. They purchased these amazing Refried Black Beans at a gourmet market in Flagstaff that are from a Restaurant in Sedona called Elote Cafe.  The beans were so amazing that we bought the Elote Cookbook from the restaurant Elote online immediately (as I searched google over to find the recipe and couldn’t).  We read in the ingredients that Rice Oil was used to make the beans and that theses are actually vegetarian refried beans. I looked at Whole Foods for Rice Oil but couldn’t find and it and John finally found some at Staff of Life in Santa Cruz, or you can order Rice Oil online.

Here are the recipes below to have your own Fish Taco Feast … not really a Fiesta, more of an Americana Feast with Cilantro, Peppers, & Spices in some interesting recipes below:

  • Appetizer: Jalapenos Wrapped in Bacon & Grilled (Ok, fine, they were actually ‘Atomic Buffalo Turds‘, embarrassingly good)
  • Baked Fish Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw
  • Refried Black Beans from Elote Cafe
  • Potato Salad with Caramelized Onions & Roasted Chile Vinaigrette
  • Cinnamon Churros with Mexican Chocolate Dipping Sauce (they turned out great)

For Recipes ->

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Posted in Dinner Party Menu, Home Cookin' | 3 Comments »
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Lotta’ Deviled Egg Recipes

Friday, April 6th, 2012

Our favorite of all of these deviled egg recipes was the Greek deviled egg and the runner up was the Chipotle deviled egg.

To be honest the traditional recipe for deviled eggs is also great.  My Gram always added sweet pickle relish and some of its juice, and a pinch of sugar to her deviled eggs (and egg salad).

Make sure you check out how to boil and peel the eggs for the best results here.

Happy Easter … as we head off to a Passover Party tonight!

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Posted in Appetizers, Home Cookin' | 1 Response »
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Adult Sleepover Themed Dinner Party

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

*Photos from my iphone with my olioclip fisheye lens.

This dinner party theme may sound a bit, well, kinky I guess.  I mean, there were homemade jello shots and adult snow cones  being consumed by adults in pajamas. This couple goes all out when they host. You can be assured every detail will reek with the theme of the dinner. I’ve told Sarah many times that she could have been (still can) one of those bloggers with all of the dinner party ideas and custom kid’s birthday party winners, that you pay for because they are so brilliant.

Do you know the blog hostesses out there, the ones that tell you that you don’t have to worry so much about the house being clean for a party and it really doesn’t have to take you that much time to get ready for the guests.  Yea right!  If I started a list of the details (I don’t want to give away all of her secrets) and number of dishes and perfect touches attended to by Sarah, the hostess, you would immediately know it will take you hours and hours to prepare for a party like this, even when your guests are chipping in by bringing some of the food. However, each one of their dinners are so awesome, fresh, and exciting that I feel inspired to step up and strive for the same, even if it takes me many, many hours!  See, creativity is an important skill and we creative folk get extreme enjoyment out of life when we get to express it.

If you aren’t creative in coming up with themed dinner party ideas:

  1. First define an overall idea (Rustic Italian, Fall Harvest, Family Favorites, Chinese New Year etc..)
  2. Then ask an artist friend for tips to tie all of the details together!

The Details:

  • Guests wear pajamas! (or sweats, which is the best part)
  • Homemade Flavored Popcorn
  • A Bed Sheet as the Tablecloth
  • Snow Cone Machine
  • Homemade Corn Dogs
  • Muffin Tin Pizzas (thought these were fabulous for a luncheon, served with a salad)
  • Homemade Fruit Juice Jello Shots
  • Cheese Fondue + Bacon (brought my family recipe, see below)
  • Sausage Cheddar Balls
  • S’mores Pie

Bacon+Cheese Fondue Dip Recipe

You can serve this in a bread bowl or a Fondue pot.  It is easy to make, fast and you can do it in the microwave.

  • 4 Slices of Bacon, cut into 2″ pieces
  • 2 T flour
  • 1 C milk
  • 1 garlic clove, halved
  • 8 oz. Monetery Jack Cheese, shredded (2 C)
  • 4 oz. Cheddar Cheese, shredded (1 C)
  • 1 t. dry or prepared mustard
  • 1/2 t. Worcestershire Sauce
  • dash hot-pepper sauce
  1. Cook the bacon. Crumble and set aside.
  2. Put bacon drippings in a glass, microwavable bowl. Stir in the flour, add milk and garlic, stir until smooth. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes until thickened, stirring once. Discard garlic.
  3. Stir cheeses into milk mixture. Cook on medium (50% power) 4-6minutes until smooth, stirring once. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire, pepper sauce, and reserved bacon. Mixture will thicken as it stands.  Makes 2 Cups.

Serve in round bread or Fondue pot. Remove top of bread and hollow out leaving a 1/2″ shell.  Serve with bread cubes, vegetables or chips.

Posted in Dinner Party Menu, Family Favorites, Home Cookin' | 1 Response »
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“Valentine, Don’t Pout,” Have a Stout Brownie

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

If you are or your valentine is a chocolate lover, these Stout Brownies will knock your socks off (and your valentine’s)!

Who knew the secret to brilliant dark chocolate fudgey sauce was chocolate and butter?

John has made this recipe the last two weekends and both times people kept coming up to me at parties asking if I was the baker. Sadly, no I didn’t make them, John did.  Needless to say, these brownies will now permanently go into the, impress your friends recipe box.

If you get Bon Appetit, well, the recipe is in this months mag that has the fried chicken drum stick on the cover. This recipe does take a bit of time to make and you should definitely use the foil.

Chocolate-Stout Brownie Recipe

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Posted in Desserts, Home Cookin' | No Comments »
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Year of the Dragon Chinese Dinner Party Recipes

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

It’s still not too late to celebrate the year of the Dragon.  The Year of the Dragon Dinner Menu Recipes were all put together by a friend of ours who is a master at the recipe compilation for parties.

The year of the dragon started on January 23, 2012 and it will end on February 9th, 2013.

These recipes are tried and true for an entire meal at home with friends (thanks Aubri!).  Aubri is the web recipe guru, probably why she is such a web-savy asset at Facebook. She knows how to find the winner recipes as tried by many viewers.  The egg rolls with the mustard sauce are the bomb! We put the mustard sauce on everything.

Each menu item has a symbolic meaning.

And, don’t forget the oranges because they represent wealth and good fortune!

Year of the Dragon Chinese Feast Recipes:

Mango Pudding Recipe
8 servings
  • 3 mangoes
  • 2 1/4 c water, divided
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1 T unflavored gelatin
  • 1/4 c whipping cream
  1. Coarsely chop 2 mangoes. Dice the remaining mango.
  2. Combine coarsely chopped mangoes and 1/4 c water in a blender; process until smooth. Press puree through a fine sieve over a bowl; discard solids.
  3. Bring 3/4 c water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add sugar to pan, stirring until dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining 1 1/4 c water. Sprinkle gelatin over water in the saucepan; let stand 1 minute. Add the mango puree, stirring with a whisk. Pour the mixture evenly into each of 8 (6-oz) ramekins or custard cups. Cover and chill overnight or until set. Top evenly with diced mango.
  4. Place cream in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Serve with pudding. [I might add some vanilla and powdered sugar, but it’s up to you.

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Soup Swap • A Party for Food

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

We were invited to a SoUp sWaP party last weekend which was a lot of fun AND we came home with six different soups to fill our new chest freezer with (+ one extra that we made).  We had to face it, soups are healthy and are perfect for the winter, to get one back to healthy eating.

Each person invited makes:

  • 6 quarts of soup (4 cups in a quart, 32 ounces • About a large pot full)

Tips:

  • Label the soup and include an ingredient list (for those folks with food allergies and dietary restrictions)
  • Apparently, cream soups don’t break down well when frozen, and potatoes don’t fare well either. So you may want to test your soup with a deep freeze.
  • Freezing the soup before the party is a pretty good idea so that it stays cool while you eat and chat at the gathering.
  • Nice labels can make a difference on how desirable your soup is (of course). You could put dried beans or a rosemary sprig on your label or get fancy with designed and printed labels.
  • Have a good Story about your soup ready to go

At the Party:

  • Each Soup Swapper presents their soup with a story (the more appealing, the better = marketing).
  • Each guest is given a number and you go around the room and pick one soup each time until you have the number of soups that you came to the party with.
  • Can have a contest on the first and last soup chosen OR have folks bring canned foods for charity

Check out this blog for SoUp sWaP TipS.

Soups that Freeze from Soup Chick

Thanks for introducing us to this & inviting us Santa Cruz – Life of the Mouth Blog – Gluten Free: http://lifeofmymouth.blogspot.com/

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John’s Sweet Potato, Sausage, & Greens Soup Recipe

Friday, January 20th, 2012

It’s winter, it’s cold, it’s finally raining … brrrr..

On Sunday I am going to a Soup Swap at a food blogger’s house in Santa Cruz. You bring 6 quarts of frozen soup and the recipe to swap with others.  So I’ve been thinking a lot about soups and we also just got a huge chest freezer that we need to fill up.  Soup is the best thing to freeze and eat on weeknights.  This soup is hearty and healthy.  We served it with varied toasted bread slices topped with cheese, spinach, and tomato, broiled to deliciousness.

John’s Sweet Potato and Greens Soup Recipe

  • 1 c. canned pinto beans (or white beans)
  • 2 qt. chicken broth (or veg. broth)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 large celery stalks (optional)
  • 2 cups chopped greens or kale (any, or mixed) cooked to soft with olive oil/lard but don’t brown
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 large bell pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno, chopped
  • 1 1/2 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled, and cubed in big chunks
  • 1/2 to 1 lb. Polish sausage, sliced 1/4″ (or any sausage you have in the freezer)
  • 1 tsp. thyme
  • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Cook the greens in olive oil or lard in a saute pan first, until soft (don’t brown). Combine beans, chicken broth and bay leaves. Simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours until beans are soft. Remove bay leaves when beans are cooked.

Saute the celery (if using), garlic, onion, bell pepper in oil until onion is translucent.  Add sauted veggies to beans and simmer for 15 minutes. Then add the sweet potatoes and sausage.  Simmer 10-20 minutes or until the potatoes are barely tender. Stir in the thyme, red pepper, and pepper; simmer 10 minutes.

Posted in CSA Food Box Recipes, Greens, Home Cookin', Soup | 1 Response »
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