1700 Miles of Cooking

Chocolate Bread Pudding

1diane — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:13:31 +0000

Still testing the recipes that came with my new crock pot. Did I mention I got a new crock pot? I got Fagor 3-1 cooker. It is a rice cooker, slow cooker, and pressure cooker. I have not braved the pressure cooker yet. I tried the Chocolate Bread Pudding recipe that came with the booklet. It turned out great and would work in any slow cooker and it was delicious and made for a good breakfast the next day.

1 cup butter

1/4 sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup chocolate milk

1/4 cup strong coffee

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chunks)

4 cups stale bread – ripped into bite sized pieces (the recipes says cut into cubes, but I could not see the logic in that)

In a bowl, beat the butter, sugar & cinnamon with a mixer. Add the eggs and beat until fluffy. Mix in the chocolate milk, coffee, raisins and chocolate chips. Fold in the bread. Pour into slow cooker and set the heat to low. Cook for 5 hours. (The recipe also calls for 1 cup of pecans, but I didn’t have them and don’t really like nuts in my food so I left them out.)

Tuna Steaks seared Himalayan Salt Block

1diane — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:17:35 +0000

I got a Himalayan salt block for my birthday so I decided to break it in on the person who gave it me by cooking their birthday dinner on the salt block.

This is not one of those things you can do on the spur of the moment. The block has to be heated up slowly starting at low heat and gradually increasing heat until it is hot enough to cook on – this took about 40 minutes for me. Once the block was hot it was just like cooking on anything else.

I marinated the tuna in honey, soy sauce, garlic and dijon mustard. Then I seared the tuna for about 4 minutes a side. The tuna tasted lightly salty, a nice accompaniment to the meatiness of the steaks. Everyone was satisfied with the taste of the fish. I would do a couple of things differently next time, mainly adding a layer of aluminum foil under the stone. As you can see from the picture, the juices are just dripping off the side of the block. It made a pretty big mess on my stove, but I didn’t care – it was yummy!

Pasta with roasted vegetables and shrimp

1diane — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:47:32 +0000

This is such an easy recipe and a real crowd-pleaser. Chop vegetables into bite sized pieces. I used zucchini, tomatoes, and onion. Preheat oven to 375 – and start a pot of water to boil for pasta. Put vegetables on a cookie sheet with garlic and olive oil. Roast vegetables for about twenty minutes. Add shrimp and feta or blue cheese and return to oven until the shrimp are done. Toss over pasta. I also added pesto to this and it was delicious.

Shrimp and Fig Kebobs

1diane — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:14:23 +0000

This is probably the last of the fig fun for the season: what a short but glorious season it is. This was super simple. Skewer shrimp and figs on pre-soaked wooden skewers (so they don’t char) drizzle with honey and bleu cheese then bake at 350 until the shrimp are done. It really couldn’t be more simple. If you can get your hands on some fresh figs – do it! It is an entirely different animal than the fig newton cookie (which I also love).

Chicken with Caramelized Onions and Figs

1diane — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:54:53 +0000

More fun with figs. This was a tasty one.

1 medium onion slice

1-2 cups of figs halved

2 lbs chicken breast

1 cup broth

1 cup wine (I used white, but I think it would be equally good with red)

2 tbsp of fresh rosemary

Pre-heat oven to 325. Spray non-stick spray on a casserole dish and add chicken breasts and start them cooking. Put onions in a saute pan with a tablespoon of butter and cook until lightly browned. Add figs, rosemary, broth, and wine.

Let the sauces simmer until it thickens a bit. Add sauce to the chicken and continue cooking until the chicken is done. I served it rice and with some fresh asparagus.

Crab, Mango and Avacado Salad

1diane — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:41:07 +0000

Savannah summers can get pretty hot and steamy so this was a welcome alternative to having to cook and create heat in the kitchen. I threw together this salad and it was delicious.

Mix together:

1 pound blue crab

3 avocados, cubed

1 mango, cubed

1 jalapeno

about 1/4 cup of lime juice

salt and pepper to taste.

I served this on a bed of fresh spinach with a bottle of pinot grigio. A tasty summer dinner!

FIGS!

1diane — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:03:25 +0000

The figs are ripe! So far I have been gnoshing on them and making salads – I will post recipes as I create them – if I don’t eat them all first

Two salads so far: grilled figs, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with bleu cheese (or goat cheese, I just had bleu cheese on hand) and enjoy.

The second salad was similar only I added grilled chicken and didn’t grill the figs. I also used bleu cheese dressing to enhance the bleu cheese flavor:

The only other fig product in the works is a vodka/fig infusion – no picture of that – I will try to snap one later – the vodka infusion is going on at a neighborhood pub http://www.barfoodsavannah.com/

Grilled Portobello with Roasted Red Peppers and Goat Cheese

1diane — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:08:04 +0000

This tasted so much better than the picture looks. I haven’t quite figured out the macro setting on this camera Regardless – this was a yummy vegetarian dinner. I marinated the Portobello mushroom in soy, ginger and garlic for about 45 minutes. The roasted red peppers I made ahead of time. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees, slice pepper in half and de-seed. Sprinkle with olive oil and cook until skin begins to blister. Remove from oven and put in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. When pepper has cooled remove skin. Heat Grill and cook Portobello until warmed through (about 10 minutes) serve with roasted red peppers (sliced) goat cheese and top with spinach. I put mine in a whole wheat sandwich round and served alongside wild rice and a side salad. Definitely a good summer dish and a nice alternative to meat. I will do this throughout the summer I am sure – you could do the peppers on the grill for that matter – just depends on how much time you want to spend outside. Its been unseasonably hot here so far this year so I opted for the cooler indoor temps and only grilled the mushroom. I think the next time I do this I will top with basil and see how that changes the flavors up a bit.

Smoked Salmon, Pesto & Goat Cheese Pizza

1diane — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:58:44 +0000

I had this pizza idea rolling around in my head for a couple of days and finally had time to try it out last night for dinner. I made the crust using my usual recipe of 2 cups flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 1/4 cup olive oil, 3/4 cup of milk. Blend together and form in to a ball. Let it rest for 5 minutes and then transfer to a greased pizza pan – press to fit pan. Put in a preheated oven (400 degrees) and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and top with the good stuff. I made the pesto from my basil plant. I grabbed about 12 large leaves and put in them in a blender with a handful of pine nuts a tbls of garlic, about a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and olive oil. I used this as the sauce for the pizza then topped with shaved onions, goat cheese, smoked salmon and mozzarella cheese. I returned to the oven for about 13 minutes and then ate it enjoying every glorious bite of deliciousness. This is my new favorite combination of toppings and I loved the summer flavor of the pesto sauce. YUM!

Catfish Tacos!

1diane — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:31:15 +0000

Despite the argument that catfish is inedible because they are bottom feeders and eat poo…I love it deep fried and in a taco. Soak catfish fillets in milk for about an hour – this will remove the “fishiness” and keep the fish moist. Cut the fillet into cubes. Coat in a mixture of flour, pepper, and old bay seasoning…deep fry. Serve with taco toppings. We had fresh avocado slices, greek yogurt, cheese, and salsa…Yummy!