Wasabi Beef Fajitas

I have never used wasabi, so wasn't sure what to expect. After looking it up and seeing it is called Japanese horseradish, I thought I'd try it. Most of the ingredients I had on hand. Since starting to try new things, I have amassed several items that before I would have considered unusual.

I wasn't sure how Corey would feel about them. I knew he would like the meat/vegetable part, I was worried about having coleslaw on his fajitas. But he took one bite and I heard him say yum. He said he didn't know what it was but it was good. It was good. This is a keeper.

Wasabi Beef Fajitas

1 large sweet red pepper, juilienne
12 green onions with tops, cut in half lengthwise
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Lb beef stir fry strips
2 tsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp prepared wasabi
2 tsp minced, fresh gingeroot
1 tsp minces garlic
8 (8inch) flour tortillas, warmed
1 cup coleslaw mix

In a large skillet, stir fry red pepper and onions in 1 Tbsp oil for 3 minutes or until tender, remove and set aside. In same skillet, stir fry beef in remaining oil for 5 minutes or until no longer pink. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, soy sauce, wasabi, ginger and garlic until well blended, pour over beef. Bring to a boil, cook and stir 2 minutes or until thickened. Return red pepper mixture to pan, heat through. Spoon 1/2 cup mixture down center of each tortilla, top with 2 Tbsp coleslaw mix. Fold one side of tortilla over filling and roll up.

**Next time I will buy a fresh cabbage and shred it myself.

Pan Fried Salmon with Beurre Rouge

As I mentioned in a previous post I earn points on Swagbucks. I earn most my points by watching videos. The videos are short clips, usually only a couple minutes long. I watch the ones in the food category. The title of the video caught my eye, Pan Fried Salmon with Beurre Rouge. It sounds like a fancy French meal.

I went to the website that the clip came from to look up the recipe. It seemed pretty easy with few ingredients, so I was willing to give it a try. Corey really likes fish but just frying it with a shot of lemon juice has to be getting boring for him. This recipe was not just another piece of boring fish. I didn't use salmon, I just used some Tilapia and cheap red wine. Corey loved it, he said I needed to say it tastes exquisite. He wants it again but with salmon and a better wine. This would be a nice recipe for a quiet dinner for two.

Pan Fried Salmon with Beurre Rouge

1 Tbsp shallots
4 Tbsp red wine
8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
salt (to taste)
white or black pepper (to taste)
lemon juice (optional)

Mince the shallots. Measure out the wine and cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces, set aside. Place a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and wine. Bring to a simmer and reduce the liquid by about two thirds until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Turn heat to the lowest setting and whisk in butter one piece at a time to slowly form the emulsion. Once all the butter has been incorporated season with salt and pepper. You may want to add a few drops of lemon juice to brighten the flavor, if needed. Monitor the sauce while you cook the fish. Keep the sauce warm to the touch and whisk often to keep from splitting. You may need to turn the heat off and on to keep at the correct temperature.

**This recipe comes from rouxbe.com.
**Beurre Rouge means red butter.
**For a Beurre Blanc use white wine instead of red.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

A couple nights ago Corey asks for some sweets. I haven't been keeping my baking cabinet stocked like I used to, so wasn't sure if I had ingredients to make anything. Then I remembered I still have about half a bag of chocolate chips from another recipe I tried last week. So I searched for a chocolate chip cookie recipe.

One of the links on the search page was for allreicpes.com. The title was The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. How could I not try them if they are "the best". I printed out the recipe, and off to the kitchen I went. I wasn't sure if they would really be the best, I mean they were just the basic ingredients you find in pretty much all chocolate chip cookies.

But after reading over the instructions one thing caught my eye. It calls for dissolving the baking soda in hot water. I have never made cookies that say to do this. Could this be the secret to why they are the best?

I cut the recipe in half and made it in my usual big cookie style. Corey waited patiently while they baked. While still warm he ate a piece. I told him they were called "the best". He agreed, he said he thought they were the best he has ever had. So of course I had to taste. I must say that they were great. I didn't have any nuts to add, but will add some next time. And there will for sure be a next time.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans. Bake for about 10 minutes until edges are nicely browned.

Creamy Dijon / French Dressing

Corey and I have been trying to eat healthier. Sometimes it is hard. We are not on any diets, just making small changes to better our health. Over the past couple months I have been doing a lot of reading online about food. I have been trying to make better decisions based on what I have learned. So as part of our eating better plan, I have started making our salad dressings. I purchased squeeze bottles to store them in. I only make one or two at a time, so that they don't go bad.

Over the twelve years we have been together occasionally we would have what we called "Big Salad Night". I would prep all the lettuce and toppings. We would have a nice variety of items, carrots, celery, radishes, cucumbers, bacon bits, croutons, cauliflower, cheese, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, and sometimes spinach. There would be enough that we would have small salads with lunch and dinner the next day. We both love vegetables so this was an extra chance to get an extra helping or two of vegetables. However, this week for our "big salad night", Corey decided it should now be called "Epic Salad Night". So after prepping all our vegetables, I made two dressings. French, which is my favorite. I have made this recipe several times. I also made a Creamy Dijon. This was the first time I made it. It was good, but does have a tang to it.

French dressing

3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and white pepper to taste

Put all in blender mix until well blended.

Creamy Dijon

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Put all in blender mix until well blended.

**These are both Rachael Ray recipes.
**After some of my reading I used canola oil instead of olive oil. It is supposed to have the same health and heart benefits, but costs way less.
**In the French, if you don't have white pepper on hand, just use black pepper. I use black and it turns out fine.
**These recipes would be super easy to double or even triple depending on the size of your family.
**As you can see by the ingredients photo, I don't use real mayonnaise, I used the generic version of Miracle Whip.

Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

This is another recipe that I found while browsing Pinterest.com. It caught my eye so of course I had to check it out. It originates from pastryaffair.com. This recipe does take a couple hours. You are making the bread so have a long rise time, then a short rise time right before baking. You will need to plan a little to be sure it will be ready if you are serving it with a meal.

I served mine with some spaghetti. It made the perfect side item. Mine though could have been called fall apart bread. When flipping and removing the pan it broke in a few places. When Corey came to the table I think he pulled off three or four pieces before he even had one bite of the spaghetti. Mine turned out a little dark so next time I will watch it a little better. There will for sure be a next time.

Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/3 barely warm water
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cup all purpose (or bread) flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast and water. Let sit 5 minutes until yeast is foamy. Mix in the olive oil, salt and flour. If you have a stand mixer, attach the dough hook and knead 5 to 6 minutes, or until elastic. If doing by hand, knead on a lightly floured surface until elastic, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until double in size. In a small bowl combine butter, garlic and parsley, set aside. Punch down dough. Tear off small pieces of dough, coat in the butter mixture, and place in the bottom of bundt pan. Repeat until you have one layer of dough balls. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese. Continue layering the dough balls and cheese until you have 3 layers. Cover with a clean towel and allow to sit until double in size, 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot with a side of marinara or tomato sauce.

**After dinner I wrapped the remainder for later. A quick 30 seconds in the microwave, just to warm. Served with a little spaghetti sauce as my evening snack.
**I think I will do this one again next week when I make lasagna.

Coconut Pineapple Clusters

I found this recipe in the All You magazine. In case you're not familiar with All You, it has several recipes, cooking tips, fashion tips, miscellaneous articles I would say mainly geared toward women. The big reason most people I know who get it buy it is for the coupons. It always has several coupons every month. This is not a regular magazine stand purchase, it can only be found at Wal-Mart or through ordering a subscription. Anyway, I have found several recipes over the last several months since I have started receiving the magazine.

Corey has been asking for sweets a lot lately. When I saw this recipe the picture looked good. Reading over the ingredients, I was a little nervous about trying it. I just couldn't imagine rice blending well with the other ingredients. But trust me, it does. I opted to not drizzle but add the chocolate chips before baking. They turned out good. They remind me of a coconut macaroon but with a hint of pineapple.

Coconut Pineapple Clusters

1 1/2 cups Minute White Rice, uncooked
1 package (14 oz) flaked sweetened coconut
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 can (8oz) Dole Crushed Pineapple, well drained
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare rice according to package directions. Cool. Combine all except chocolate chips in bowl, mix well. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper and lightly sprayed with non-stick spray. bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, remove cookies to wire racks. Cool completely. Melt chocolate chips according to package directions. Pour chocolate into a resealable plastic bag. Snip off a corner with scissors or a knife to make 1/8 inch hole, drizzle chocolate over cookies.
Can use left over rice. If desired, chocolate chips do not need to be melted and drizzled over cookies, can be added to the batter before baking.

**I think next time I make these I will leave out the lemon juice and add some of the pineapple juice in its place.
**Be sure you drain the pineapple really well. I didn't drain enough and the mix was a little runny.
**Don't forget the spray, they are a little sticky.

**After eating on these a couple days I must say, if you are like us and cookies last several days, you may want to cut the recipe in half. On day three the rice has become hard and we have both decided this isn't a cookie for us. The day I made them they were pretty good, but I am now going to be throwing about half of them away.

Classic Belgian Waffles

This is the second waffle recipe I have posted. I made the first recipe and Corey liked it. But I just kept thinking I should look for others to mix it up a little. I decided to search for Belgian waffles. They seemed like a popular choice. I found a couple recipes that didn't seem too difficult. Although they both claimed to be "classic" Belgian waffles, they were slightly different in ingredients.

I decided to try the recipe from foodnetwork.com. It comes from Emeril. Everything it called for I had on hand, well sort of. I don't keep cake flour but the substitution for it is, take your one cup measuring cup, put 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in, then fill the rest of the way with all purpose flour.

This is a three bowl recipe, and as much as I hate doing dishes I was gonna make these this morning. They actually came together pretty quickly. The smell was like an angel food cake. They even had a different look to them then plain waffles. Finally time to taste them. Since I'm not a breakfast eater, especially at 5 am, this job was left up to Corey. He took the first bite and said they were good, but just waffles. I was a little upset. I dirtied three bowls, the mixer, a whisk and a spatula for just waffles. I said, aren't they lighter and airier then other waffles. He took another bite, he seemed to be savoring this bite, not just a quick chew and swallow. Then another bite, to which he said, these are different, much better, please make my waffles this way from now on.

So I guess the time and extra dishes were worth it. Happy Anniversary and Valentines Day, glad you enjoyed your meal.

Classic Belgian Waffles

2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 cups milk
non-stick cooking spray

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturers instructions. In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a second bowl use a wooden spoon to beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the vanilla extract, melted butter and milk to the yolks and whisk to combine. Combine the egg/milk mixture with the flour mixture and whisk until blended. Do not over mix. In a third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter. Do not over mix. Coat waffle iron with non-stick spray and pour enough batter in the iron to just cover the grid. Close and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

*I cut this recipe in half.
*I separated the eggs and started beating the whites while I was working on the other ingredients. By time I got to the folding in part of the recipe, they were ready.
*I just served with a little maple syrup. But several of the suggestions were to serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

I'm sure by now pretty much everyone knows about Pinterest.com so I won't bore you with the details of it. When I first started hearing people talk about it I just ignored it, thinking it wouldn't be something I would be interested in. When I did decide to check it out I thought it looked like a mess. But then one day I came to my blog and checked my weekly stats. There it was Pinterest.com. My curiosity got the best of me and I clicked it to see why it was on my stats. Someone had "pinned" one of my photos to their board. Then I noticed it had been "repinned" by someone else.

So now I was a little more interested. I guess it was starting to click with me, pin something that catches my eye, someone sees it and repins, and so on. I could look for recipes by seeing photos of the finished item. Although it seemed a mess it was an fairly organized mess. I could search food and see a variety for foods without trying to do random keyword/ingredient searches.

I don't go there everyday but I do check it out a couple times a week. While scrolling through the food pages I found a few that seemed like things Corey and I would like. This recipe is one of them. It comes from RachaelRaymag.com.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a shallow dish, combine cheese with paprika and parsley, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake until fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

**I'm not a fish eater so this meal was for Corey. He hated it and told me to never make it again. He said the Parmesan didn't go well with the fish. All the other comments I saw said it was good. So I guess it's one of those thing either you love it or hate it. If you make it I hope you enjoy it more then Corey did.

Gelatin flavored Cookies

I have tried a recipe before using a bagged cookie mix, adding cherry gelatin and chocolate chips to make chocolate covered cherry cookies. So I was thinking, I could used pretty much whatever flavor gelatin I wanted to make a flavored cookie.

I got several bags of cookie mix a few months ago on sale and on a triple coupon week. I used the oatmeal and chocolate chip bags, but still had a couple bags of sugar cookies in the pantry. I knew I had a couple boxes of gelatin in the cabinet but couldn't remember what flavors. The first box was strawberry banana. I turned the sugar cookies into strawberry banana cookies, and they tasted pretty good.

Fast forward a few days. My Foreman grill arrived and in the recipe booklet it gave instructions for cookies. Of course I had to give it a try. Back to the pantry for that last bag of sugar cookie mix. Open the cabinet to see if there was any more gelatin pushed behind my baking ingredients. One small box of raspberry gelatin, just what I needed.

I turned on the grill and started making the batter. Instead of small cookies, I make a big cookie and cut it. So I was thinking I would do the same thing with the grill. I gently sprayed the baking plate and the upper plate. Poured in the batter and waited. It didn't turn out pretty, guess I didn't get quite enough spray on the upper plate. But it tasted good.

It did overflow a little but not too bad. Since it could only be spread to the sides of the pan and not as flat as I usually spread it was a little thicker then normal. It looked like a little cake but I knew it was a cookie so we were calling it a cakie, cake plus cookie.

Gelatin flavored cookies

1 bag Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 small package sugar free gelatin (you pick the flavor)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Drop on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees about 8 to 10 minutes.

**On the Foreman, mix ingredients. Drop in heated baking plate of grill. Cook 6 to 8 minutes on medium.
**If you want a big style cookie, separate into two portions. Spread first half in baking plate. Remove and repeat with second half.


**Warning**The following picture isn't pretty (but it was tasty).

Waffles

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Things have been a little crazy around here. Hopefully things will get better soon and I can get back to trying new recipes. Anyway, I have been participating in a program called Swagbucks**. I earn the points and redeem them for Amazon gift cards. I finally saved up enough to replace my George Foreman grill. I got the one with the waffle plates. The first morning I just used some pancake batter from the day before to make Corey a waffle. He said it was alright but I should look at other recipes.

So of course I searched online for waffle recipes. I just needed the basic recipe. I figure I can add stuff to it if I could just find a good base. I found a pretty simple recipe that called for ingredients that I already had on hand. The following day he loved the waffles.

Waffle batter

1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 beaten egg yolks
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites beaten stiffly

Mix all the dry ingredients. Combine yolks and milk. Stir into dry ingredients. Stir in oil and mix. Gently fold in beaten egg whites, do not over mix.

**This recipe made enough batter to last me all week. I just store it in a bowl with a lid in the fridge and stir before each use.

**If you have never heard of Swagbucks and would like any information, I would be glad to help, goldengirl971@yahoo.com. If you are interested in sighing up and would like to use my referral link, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/MDGILL5671