I love curry.  There is an Indian restaurant in Baton Rouge that an old roommate used to bring me to and I just loved it.  I took my now hubby there and lucky for me, he loved it too.  I don’t know why we don’t cook it more often, I think we’ll have to change that.  This meal came together really quickly and was pretty healthy for you (and cheap too!).  The vegetable base it called for was a little tricky to find (I found it at Albertson’s) and a bit on the pricey side, but if you can find it I think it’s worth it.  It’s basically vegetable bouillon but you can tell that it has a bit more richness and seasoning to it.  But if you can’t find it, regular vegetable bouillon should do the trick.  I also added peanut butter, which was NOT in the recipe.  Gotta love my husband, he didn’t even bat an eye when I said “I think peanut butter would go nicely in this!”  He taste-tested and agreed with me!  But that’s your call.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Lentil & Spinach Curry

Lentil & Spinach Curry
Recipe adapted from Food and Whine

Ingredients:
2 cups lentils
3 cups water
2 tsp vegetable base (I used organic Better Than Bouillon in a jar)
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-5 tsp curry powder, depending on your taste (we like a lot!)
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp sugar
1 10 oz. frozen spinach, cooked and drained
1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 spoons peanut butter (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Rinse lentils in cold water, then combine with 3 cups of water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once it comes to a boil, add the vegetable base and stir in.  Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.

While that’s cooking, heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add the onions and garlic, cook until soft.  Add the grated ginger, let cook for a minute before adding the rest of the spices.  Once fragrant, add the spinach, crushed tomatoes and lentils (I didn’t add all of the lentils, probably about 3/4 of them).  Add salt, pepper and peanut butter (if desired) and mix in well and allow to heat through.

Serve over rice, with some naan if you have it!

As you know I have a deep love for my crockpot, so I figured why not try to make my spaghetti in there?  When I make meatballs, I like them to cook in the gravy a long time, that way they aren’t all tough like they are if you cook them in a skillet first.  A slow-cooker seemed the perfect solution for this, and it worked great.  You simply dump all the ingredients into the slow cooker and mix it up well, assemble your meatballs and plop them into the sauce and let it cook.  Couldn’t be easier.  I’m thinking this would be easily assembled the night before even.  I’ll definitely be cooking them this way more often (well as often as he lets me!).

Slow-Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs

Slow-Cooker Spaghetti & Meatballs
My own recipe

Ingredients:
Sauce
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
4 small cans tomato sauce
2 small cans tomato paste
A couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/4-1/2 cup red wine (optional)
1 tsp white granulated sugar
4-5 fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 1-2 tsp dried Italian seasonings)
2-3 fresh stems of thyme
1 tsp oregano
2 bay leaves
seasonings to taste:  Tony’s, garlic and onion powders, salt, red pepper flakes
Meatballs
1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

spaghetti noodles for serving

Method:

Spray the crockpot dish with nonstick spray.  Add all of the sauce ingredients to the dish, mix well.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the meatball ingredients just till mixed.  Don’t over mix, or they’ll be tough.  Place them into the crockpot, sinking them down into the sauce.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  When done, taste for seasoning, remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs, then serve over pasta.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, it was really simple and delicious.  The cookies were so soft and fluffy, I’m embarrassed to say they are almost all gone.  Of course I only ate a few, I DID have two three-year-olds here.  And some hungry men in the family.  I used French Vanilla instant pudding, but I think it would be fun to play around with different flavors, see what you can come up with!

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
Recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 3.4 oz. package instant pudding mix, I used French Vanilla
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add in the eggs, vanilla and pudding mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Add the dry ingredients to those in the mixer and mix until well-incorporated.  Add in the chocolate chips, mix well and drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie pan covered with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Bake 10-12 minutes, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

I spotted this recipe on Pinterest recently and didn’t take long at all to decide to make it.  It was definitely my kind of crockpot recipe, just throw it all in there, turn it on and go on about your day!  Despite having finely chopped the veggies, once it was done they were still a bit chunkier than I had in mind, so I simply used my immersion blender and puree’d them up.  Perfecto!

Seriously, this was so delicious and simple, and really budget friendly so I have a feeling it will be gracing our table often.  We had the soup with a side salad, but I’m betting a grilled cheese sandwich would be great also!

Crockpot Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Crockpot Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
Recipe from 365 Days of Slow-Cooking

Ingredients:
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced onion
1 tsp dried oregano, or 1 tbsp fresh
1 tbsp dried basil, or 1/4 cup fresh
4 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 cups half and half, warmed (I used fat-free)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:
Add all of the ingredients through the bay leaf to the crockpot (which has been sprayed with nonstick spray).  Cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours, until the vegetables are soft.

Thirty minutes before serving, melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat, then add the butter.  Stir constantly for 5 minutes, then add one cup of the hot soup to this roux.  Once all mixed, add another three cups.  Whisk until smooth, then add all of this back to the crockpot.  Add the Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half and your seasonings.  Taste for seasoning and add extra seasoning or extra basil and oregano as needed.  Cover and cook for another thirty minutes on LOW before serving.

If needed, you can use an immersion blender and puree.

Crawfish Etouffee

Last week we had a crawfish boil, and I always look forward to cooking something yummy with the leftover crawfish tails.  Unfortunately, we were all piggies and I only had about a cup of leftover tails!  I needed something that could stretch so I went to the classic dish, Crawfish Etouffee.  Somehow, despite eating it millions of times, I had never made it myself.  I looked through some of my favorite Southern cookbooks for the perfect recipe and found it in My New Orleans by John Besh.

Chef John Besh with James

Chef Besh is one of my husband’s favorite chefs.  We were fortunate enough to meet him at a food blogger conference last year and I must say he is the most down-to-earth nice guy, we just loved him.  He even took a few minutes to talk hunting with James!  His recipe was pretty easy to make and the end results were great.  We ate some over white rice and some over some leftover fried catfish.  If you’re using leftover boiled crawfish, save the seasoning until the end because your tails might already be spicy.  I also added a little cornstarch mixed with cold water in for thickening, as James likes his etouffee to be fairly thick.  Next time you find yourself with some crawfish tails, here’s the one to try!

Crawfish Etouffee
Recipe adapted from My New Orleans

Ingredients:
3 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp flour
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
half a red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 small tomato, seeded and diced
1 quart seafood stock
3 tbsp butter
1 lb. peeled crawfish tails (or however many you have!)
2 green onions, chopped
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco sauce
salt, pepper and creole seasoning to taste
white rice for serving
cornstarch for thickening, if needed

Method:
In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the flour to make the roux and stir constantly so it doesn’t stick or burn.  You want the roux to reach a deep brown color, similar to a paper bag.  (A silicone spatula works great for reaching in the corners of the pan.)   Once the roux is browned, add your onions and cook until they have softened and caramelized.  Next add in the celery, bell pepper, garlic, thyme, cayenne and paprika - cook until soft and fragrant.

Add the tomatoes and seafood stock to break up the roux and increase the heat to bring it to a boil.  Once it’s reached a boil, decrease the heat and let simmer for five minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t stick.

Lower the heat and stir in the butter, then the crawfish tails, green onions, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces.  Taste for seasonings, then season with salt, pepper and creole seasoning as desired.  If you want your etouffee to be thicker, mix a tablespoon of cornstarch with a small amount of cold water and add it to the pot, then increase the heat.

Once done, remove from heat and serve hot over rice.

Louisiana Crawfish Boil

]]> http://cookingwithchristen.com/2012/04/30/crawfish-etouffee/feed/ 0 christenandjames etouffee 004 IFBC Saturday 113 Easter 031 http://cookingwithchristen.com/2012/04/27/caesar-salad-dressing/ http://cookingwithchristen.com/2012/04/27/caesar-salad-dressing/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:35:04 +0000 christenandjames http://cookingwithchristen.com/?p=2166 Continue reading →]]> In the MOM’s  Club I’m in, we do lots of potlucks.  It sometimes gets hard to think of something new to bring, often I just end up doing pigs in a blanket or something, things that the kids will eat too.  But frankly, the kids rarely eat anyway, they are too busy playing.  So when my friend Tiffani hosted the April potluck, I decided to bring one of her favorites, caesar salad!

This was really easy to make, though I did make some adaptations to the recipe I followed.  I added one egg yolk, a splash of milk and some parmesan cheese.  Just because it isn’t Caesar without it!  It came out really good.  I do have one piece of advice.  If you do use the anchovies, you will not use them all.  Just throw the rest away, do not try to make another batch of dressing days later.  Trust me.    But everyone seemed to really like it and asked if I would post the recipe, so here ya go, ladies!

Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing
Recipe adapted from The Food Network

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 anchovy fillets
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup milk

Method:

Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely puree’d.  Pour into a tupperware and keep cold.  When making a salad, place romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, croutons and some dressing in a ziploc bag and shake until  well mixed.  You can also add chicken to make it a meal.

I have a couple of green bean recipes I always cook, but I just wanted something different this time.  It’s fun to mix it up sometimes!  After a little search on allrecipes.com, I landed on “Dad’s Pan-Fried Green Beans.”  It sounded easy and delicious, and it really was.  The flavors were so deep and delicious, all that was left at the end was an empty plate!  I’m sure you could fix this with frozen green beans, but if you find some on sale, you can’t beat fresh!

Pan-Fried Green Beans

Pan-Fried Green Beans
Recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh green beans, ends trimmed
3 tbsp soy sauce (I used Tabasco brand)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp white granulated sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp minced garlic

Method:
Place the green beans in a pot with one inch of water.  Bring to a boil, cover and cook for five minutes.

While that’s cooking, stir together the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small bowl.  Drain the green beans, then heat the sesame oil.  Add the green beans and garlic, cook for about a minute, just until the garlic is toasted.  Add the soy sauce mixture, toss to coat and allow to cook for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened and reduced.

Transfer the beans to a serving dish and drizzle the remaining sauce over them before serving.

I took my daughter and her little BFF to a cupcake bakery in our town.  While I’m not one to get a big cupcake, I am one to get the chocolate hazelnut pop-tarts they offer!  They are amazing!  I think it is all in their crust, it’s buttery and flaky, oh so good!  I was telling my dad how wonderful they are and he found me a recipe for Nutella pop-tarts.  It’s basically a cheater recipe because it uses store-bought pie crust dough, so it isn’t quite as good as the local bakery.  But it’s still darn good!  These are so quick and easy, perfect for a last minute dessert or breakfast.  I’m going to try soon making my own dough, but for now these satisfy the craving nicely.

Nutella Pop-Tarts
Recipe from The Jelly Shot Test Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 package refrigerated rolled pie crust (in a box by the biscuits)
1 cup Nutella hazelnut spread
powdered sugar
milk
vanilla
sprinkles

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Unroll a pie crust and cut the rounded edges off, then cut into rectangles (a pizza cutter works well here).
• Place a dollop of Nutella on half of the rectangles, then cover with the other rectangles.  Seal edges with your fingers, then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork.
• Repeat process with the other pie crust.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, until turning golden.
• Allow to cool completely, then make a glaze with powdered sugar, very little milk and a splash of vanilla.  Top with sprinkles.

This cake was so easy to make, I didn’t end up using fresh strawberries, I used frozen as the recipe called for.  But it made a truly delicious, moist cake and I already knew I’d love the buttercream icing, I’ve made it many times before.  I hope you enjoy this as much as our friends did!

Strawberry Cake with Fresh Buttercream Icing

Strawberry Cake with Fresh Buttercream Icing
Cake recipe from Paula Deen, see post on icing here.

Cake
Ingredients:
1 box white cake mix
1 (3-oz) pkg strawberry flavored instant gelatin
1 lb. package frozen strawberries, thawed and puree’d
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9-inch cake pans.

Mix the gelatin powder and the cake mix together.  Using a mixer, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth.  Pour equal amounts into each pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Set aside on cooling racks.  When fully cooled, ice with desired icing.  Here is my buttercream icing:

Buttercream Icing Recipe seen on Confections of a Foodie Bride, originally from Williams-Sonoma Yields

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
5 tbsp milk (I used 2 percent)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
pinch of salt
1 tsp meringue powder

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and with the paddle attachment (scraper if you have it), beat on low until the ingredients are just mixed.  Turn the speed up and whip the icing until it’s light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  If you don’t have the paddle scraper, then you will need to stop once to scrape the sides and bottom.

Strawberry Cake with Fresh Buttercream Icing

I needed a dessert for an event recently and started looking through my bookmarked “to-make” recipes and landed on this one.  Yum!  It was pretty easy to make, the only hard part was spreading the crust part on the top and bottom.  I suggest spraying some nonstick spray on your fingers and then doing it, works much better!  Also, the two chocolate bars didn’t quite cover the whole dish, so I am going to make it three chocolate bars.

S'mores Cookie Bars

S’mores Cookie Bars
Recipe from Lovin’ From the Oven

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 king-sized Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars
1.5 cups marshmallow fluff (the jar kind, not regular marshmallows)

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in the egg and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, graham cracker crumbs and salt.  Add to the bowl with the butter mixture and blend well.
• Divide the dough in half and press one half of it down into the bottom of a greased 8×8 casserole.  It helps to spray your fingers with nonstick spray to do this.  Break the chocolate bars into pieces and place over the top of the dough, covering completely.  Spoon the marshmallow fluff in, spreading to cover the chocolate (it’s easy if you spray the back of the spoon with nonstick spray also!).  Press the remaining half of the dough into flat squares and cover the top of the casserole.
• Bake 30-35 minutes, or until turning golden.  Cool completely before cutting and serving.