Polenta with Gruyere Cheese

Written By: Chris - Aug• 13•13

Don’t knock it until you try it! I’ve seen polenta numerous times on cooking shows and became quite curious. I hadn’t observed any dishes being prepared in step by step type of segments, rather have seen it more often on the shows that are the competition type and I’ve only been able to observe it in short, divided parts of the preparations. According to Wikipedia, Polenta is cornmeal (grits! I love grits!) boiled into a porridge and eaten directly or baked, fried or grilled microsoft outlook 2010 for free. Polenta is an Italian word, derived from the Latin for hulled and crushed grain.

Some time ago I purchased some Polenta already prepared in a tubular type of package from the grocery store and served it simply sliced and warmed. I didn’t really know what it was at the time and neither liked or disliked it. I just thought it wasn’t very exciting and thought it was bland download ipad books. I have eaten it out in a creamy form under an entrée where it was good, but had not made the effort to look into it more. When we visited the Brazilian Grill recently, they served Polenta in fried little sticks and it was actually one of the few things I enjoyed that night download napster mp3!

Those little sticks inspired me to pick some up in the raw at the grocery store and do a little research… First, I guess I didn’t realize it was corn and not a grain or pasta. It is cooked by simmering in a water-based liquid for a long time, sometimes with other ingredients and eaten with them once cooked. After reading the package, it connected that Polenta is not only served as a soft, thick mush, but can also be left to set, then baked or fried. It can be topped with sauce of any type, much like you would use on pasta and save the file.

The directions said to use water, but I have an abundance of homemade chicken stock in the freezer, which makes everything taste more flavorful so I went with that. I’ve also prepared “cheesy” grits a few times recently, so I decided to wing it with items I had on hand, and added some Gruyere. I had a bit of concern that it may not set up, but fortunately it worked perfectly! These are great! I encourage you to give them a try orgel noten herunterladen kostenlos!

Ingredients:

4 Cups Chicken Stock, homemade is best vob insisted!
1 1/4 Cup Polenta
1 Tablespoon Better than Bouillon, Chicken flavor
3/4 Cups Gruyere Cheese, shredded

In a deep pan, heat stock to a boil and gradually stir in grits. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Stir frequently for about 30 minutes or so. The package recommends a long-handled wooden spoon because the Polenta will spit and splatter and could cause burns. I used my dutch oven and had to turn the heat very low, since the pot gets very hot musik downloaden macbook pro.

Spray a deep medium-sized bowl with non-stick cooking spray (or use oil) and pour in the cooked Polenta. Allow it to sit for ten minutes on the counter to set up before inverting on a flat plate. I’ve since seen it done in a prepared jelly roll or cookie sheet and cut into cubes youtube videos mit safari herunterladen.

Once you unmold it, it should hold it’s shape. You can cut it into slices and serve hot Download Italian songs for free.

Top with sauce. I made cubed chicken with a mango curry sauce treiber für samsung s7 herunterladen.

If you haven’t added cheese, I would recommend adding a couple of tablespoons of butter once cooked and top it with shredded cheese of any type, depending on the flavors of your sauce.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

Caprese Salad with Creamy Goat Cheese & Toasted Walnuts

Written By: Chris - Aug• 12•13

I’m often inspired to prepare dishes based on something I’ve seen others make, or from something we’ve ordered out to eat. More often it’s a dish I’ve seen prepared on television because I’m hooked on the Food Network channels. Recently during a segment on the morning “Today Show” Giada de Laurentiis was talking about a variety of fresh tomatoes because they are in season. She was giving simple ideas of how to use some and I’m always looking for new dishes. She prepared this unique and simple caprese salad. Since Bill and I both LOVE goat cheese and never get tired of caprese salads, this was a must! I didn’t write down a recipe, rather just winged it based on what I remembered and ingredients that I had on hand download ebay invoices! Fresh basil is in season and the meatiness of the walnuts adds an interesting and flavorful twist!

I can’t remember exactly what she called it, but I believe she used the word “impilato”, which means “stacked” in Italian. I like to use “vine on” tomatoes or would recommend the Big Boy variety, which are a long time garden favorite microsoft office 2013 for free in full.

Ingredients:

Two large Ripe Red Tomatoes, on the vine
4 oz Download vaillant app. Goat Cheese
2 to 3 Tablespoons Half & Half, or heavy cream
2 Tablespoons fresh Basil, julienned
2 Tablespoons fresh Mint, julienned
1/2 to 2/3 Cup Walnuts, toasted
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

In a small non-stick saucepan, dry toast the walnuts over medium low heat, tossing frequently until browned and toasted on all sides. Chop herbs and slice tomatoes into four large, thick slices amazon music herunterladen stoppen.

Cream together the goat cheese and half and half until smooth herunterladen.

Start by placing a large slice of tomato on a plate. Next spoon some of the goat cheese and continue with layers until ingredients are used up. I placed the rounded tops upside down and along side. Sprinkle with toasted nuts and chopped herbs word herunterladen mit key.

Drizzle with Olive Oil and season with salt & pepper. Serve Immediately herunterladen.

We enjoyed this as a side dish to dinner along side of some simple grilled chicken that has been glazed with similar flavors.

Salt and pepper two chicken breasts. Drizzle with a generous portion of seasoned olive oil. If you don’t have flavored oil, you can add seasonings and mix until well blended download maps for free.

Grill chicken over medium high heat for six to seven minutes per side or until cooked through Download 365 apps.

It went well with the corn bread stuffing and a glass of NUMMY Plump Jack Syrah eür 2018 elster herunterladen!

Cheers!
~Chris

Posted in Grilled, Recipes, Salad, Side dishes , Caprese Salad, caprese salad with goat cheese, Goat Cheese & Toasted Walnuts, PlumpJack Syrah | 1 Comment »

Quinoa Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

Written By: Chris - Aug• 09•13

Quinoa Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

The nice thing about Costco is that they have such great produce at a value. The downfall, is that you have to come up with dishes to use up all the fresh veggies before they spoil! I’m still on my Quinoa kick, so I created this dish based mostly on what I had on hand herunterladen!

Have you tried any Quinoa yet? Well, you may not have known that although it is cooked and eaten like a grain, quinoa is technically a seed, and is related to spinach, chard and beets. It grows best in mountainous regions, ten thousand feet or more above sea level, and thrives in poor soil (hmm, so do grapes and we love wine!) and it likes thin air. Quinoa stalks are three to six feet tall, and each plant can produce up to a cup of seeds! The seeds are round, about the same size of millet or sesame seeds and come in a rainbow of colors, from red to purple to green to yellow. I’ve only seen the red and yellow – off white really so far in our stores, but had purple in Napa! They say that the quinoa that is most commonly found in stores is the off-white color. You can look for quinoa in the bulk section of natural food stores, or in the organic section of conventional supermarkets film download van youtube mac.

This salad is fresh and delicious and I love the crunch from the pine nuts and sweet sugar snap peas!

Toast the pine nuts in a dry non-stick saucepan over medium low heat, tossing frequently until golden brown on the edges germanys next topmodel spiel kostenlos downloaden.

In a small saucepan of boiling salted water, simmer the peas until bright green and crisp-tender, about 1 minute herunterladen.

Drain and rinse with cool water. Spread out on a large plate to cool, then pat dry 3d modelle kostenlos downloaden. Cut the peas on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces.

In a small saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until all of the broth has evaporated and the quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes herunterladen. Uncover and fluff the quinoa, then transfer to a large bowl and let cool to room temperature. I used some cool refrigerated left over quinoa from the night priors dinner instagram für windows downloaden.

In a bowl, combine the oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the cran-raisins man don't annoy you for free full version.

Add the pine nuts, onion and herbs to the quinoa with the dressing and stir gently download kompass. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature video from tvthek.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

Posted in Appetizer, Recipes, Salad, Side dishes , Quinoa, quinoa and pine nuts, Quinoa with snap peas | Comments Off

Mozzarella Caprese Salad with Egg & Avacado

Written By: Chris - Aug• 08•13

Fresh Basil is in abundance and so ’tis the season for Caprese salads! Caprese is a simple salad, made of sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, seasoned with salt and olive oil. In Italy, it is usually served as an antipasto, which means that it’s a starter. Around our house we prefer ours with balsamic vinegar and I sometimes add garlic. For a recent gathering, I added a twist to the usual by using some other items that I had on hand. I was inspired to make this dish by my friend Jen who had served it previously at one of her gatherings. It’s so simple, yet delicious download videos from arte mediathek!

Ingredients:

3 or 4 Vine-Ripe tomatoes, sliced thin
2/3 Pound Fresh Mozzarella, (equal amount of slices as tomatoes)
3 Avocados, ripe and sliced thin
4 Eggs, hard boiled and sliced thin
2 Green Onion, sliced
20 Fresh Basil Leaves, julianned
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
2/3 to 1 Cup Balsamic Vinegar, reduced to 1/2 Cup
Coarse Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Pour the balsamic vinegar into a saucepan and place over moderate heat. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady small simmer and allow the vinegar to reduce slowly. It takes about a half an hour or so, to lose roughly half of its original volume and the vinegar will start to appear syrupy. Be sure to watch it closely internet explorer 10 kostenlos downloaden für windows 7. Remove from heat and set aside to cool before drizzling on salad.

Meanwhile, slice the cheese, tomatoes, avocado and eggs.

Layer alternating slices of tomatoes, sliced egg, avocado and mozzarella onto a shallow platter. Add the chopped onion and basil and drizzle the salad with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper to taste brennprogramm kostenlos downloaden!

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

Posted in Appetizer, Recipes, Salad , Avacado, balsamic, basil, Caprese, Egg | Comments Off

Spinach & Basil Pesto

Written By: Chris - Aug• 02•13

Ok, so we’ve all heard that spinach is healthy. Most everything you read on the Internet refers to spinach for the Super Food, calling it the healthiest food of all time. I loved Popeye growing up and he made himself super strong by eating spinach! I am always trying to incorporate the best ingredients into our diet. I didn’t necessarily know that it contains dietary fiber which helps in digestion, prevents constipation, controls blood pressure (good for Bill) and curbs over eating (good for both of us, who knew!). I’ve learned that it also helps protect against inflammatory problems, cardiovascular problems, bone problems, and cancers at the same time! I also didn’t know that spinach has a number of antioxidant properties and is the highest vegetable protein around! One cup spinach = 12% DV protein. We’re not getting any younger and so anything we can do to improve our health, I’m in!

The bright green vibrant-looking spinach leaves are appealing to the eye and because I know that it’s nutritious, I tend to buy it in bulk. The problem is that I assume it is going to go to good use and all get eaten, but it often doesn’t. I hate to waste food, so I created this pesto using up some of a big bag and incorporated some of the wonderful, fresh Basil that’s growing rapidly out on my porch feuer und flammen video kostenlos downloaden!

You can add this pesto as a topping to fish, chicken or pork or add it to a pasta dish like I did for a quick and easy meal. You may wish to omit the Parmesan cheese and then add it once thawed. It’s super simple and delicious. It has a mild, fresh taste; so next time you have too much spinach give this a try herunterladen!

Ingredients:

5 Cups Fresh Spinach
1 1/2 Cups Fresh Basil
3 Tablespoons Onion
4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Cup EVOO
Pine Nuts
Salt & Pepper

Rinse the spinach and basil

Place all ingredients into food processor and process, drizzling the olive oil down into it until it comes to a fine sauce/paste. Stop the processor from time to time and scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary herunterladen.

Taste and adjust seasonings and use immediately cannot be downloaded at this time.

I tossed the pesto with some spinach infused pasta and topped it with freshly sautéed shrimp and scallops. Garnished with a bit more Parmesan cheese and it was delightful with a glass of nummy Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon alexa app download switzerland!

You can transfer the remaining into a container and top with a thin coat of olive oil to prevent the top of the pesto from discoloring. It will keep for weeks in the refrigerator. This sauce is also good for freezing. Use ice-cube trays, or small containers ebook downloaden wie geht das.

To assemble the dish, cook pasta according to package directions in salted water. Do not drain.

To prepare the shrimp and scallops, season each with salt and pepper on both sides. Sear them by heating two teaspoons of oil (you can add butter if you like too, some chefs recommend searing in oil only and omitting the butter, but I like the flavor.) in a very hot skillet. If you choose to use butter, you do not want it to burn, so heat it with the oil until it just begins to brown and smoke free pdf gratis herunterladen.

Gently add the scallops to the skillet cooking one and a half minutes on each side. They should have 1/4 inch golden crust on them, while still remaining translucent in the center. DO NOT overcook them windows 1809 manuell herunterladen.

Toss the pesto with the cooked pasta and top with the cooked shrimp and scallops.

Enjoy free pc games to!

Cheers!

~Chris

Posted in Basics, Recipes, Sauces , Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Spinach & Basil Pesto, Spinach Pesto | Comments Off

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Chris' Recipes

Polenta with Gruyere Cheese

Caprese Salad with Creamy Goat Cheese & Toasted Walnuts

Quinoa Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

Quinoa Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

Mozzarella Caprese Salad with Egg & Avacado

Spinach & Basil Pesto

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