Chris' Recipes

Bon Appetite!

Fajitas!

Written By: Chris - Jun• 15•12

Fajita’s are healthy and delicious.  It’s a go-to dish I make often.  Usually when I have left over steak on hand in the fridge!  We typically eat ours served as a salad, but also have tortillas stuffed with the wonderful ingredients from time to time herunterladen.

Thanks to Wikipedia: fajita is a term found in both traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisines commonly referring to any grilled meat served as a taco on a tortilla.  The term originally referred to the cut of beef used in the dish which is known as skirt steak.  Popular meats today also include chicken, pork, shrimp and all cuts of beef.  In restaurants, the meat is often cooked with onions and bell peppers.  Popular condiments are shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, cheese and tomato herunterladen.

To my good luck, I happen to have some left over cuts of meat.  One was a meaty bone-in pork chop and the other a piece of grilled filet!  I’ve always got onions in the pantry and typically keep a bag of the small sweet yellow, orange and red peppers on hand because they keep longer than the large ones Download videos from platforms!

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 Onion
2 Garlic cloves
1 Packet of your favorite Fajita Seasoning pack oldie musik for free! (why not keep it simple?)
14-16 small sweet orange, yellow and red peppers (or large peppers to the equivalent)
Cilantro (bunch – or to your liking)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds meat (boneless or cut off the bone, skinless chicken breast, steak or peeled and deveined shrimp)

Lettuce for salad, or topping in taco’s
flour tortillas
1 lime, juiced, for topping
Sour cream, for topping
Salsa, for topping
Guacamole, for topping if you have it or like it uni due semesterticket herunterladen!
pico de gallo, for topping if you are a fan – I’m not!
Hot Sauce, for topping
jalapeno pepper slices, for topping
shredded Cheese, for topping

Start by cutting the onion in half and then sliced lengthwise.  Start to caramelize in the oil.  Slice a half a dozen or so chicken tenderloins into small strips and add them to the cooking onions, season with salt & pepper and saute until cooked through.  Add smashed garlic Download free app to movies.

While the chicken is cooking, slice the other meats and set aside.  Clean peppers and remove the seeds .  Slice them into small julianned pieces about the same size as the meat cuts ballerspiele gratis downloaden.

Over high heat, continue to add the cut meats and peppers while tossing and turning quickly as to not over cook.  You want the meats warmed through, but just long enough to soften the peppers slightly.  Season with salt & pepper herunterladen.

In a small dish, prepare the seasoning packet per the instructions mixing it with water.  Add the chopped Cilantro (fresh herbs make everything taste better!) Quickly toss the mixture and cook just a few minutes until the sauce thickens.  Serve immediately Download sims 4 on laptop!

We enjoyed this meal with a nice Williams Selyem Pino Noir wie kann man bei sims 4 sachen downloaden!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

 

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Grilled Artichokes

Written By: Chris - Jun• 14•12

In California, we can find Artichokes on the menu’s all over as a side dish, or an appetizer.  In Minnesota, it’s not as common to see in a restaurant but we can find them while in season at the grocery store.  So the last time Bill and I were at Trader Joe’s, we spotted some “unusually shaped” artichokes… They were round and not oval as we typically have seen.  I assumed that they can’t be that much different and brought them home mdr sachsen app!

We had recently enjoyed dinner with friends at a favorite stop in Rutherford, CA and shared the Grilled Jumbo Artichoke as a starter!  We should always order extra, because it’s just not enough fortniteen gratis epic games!  I was inspired to try to duplicate the terrific great grilled ones we had recently eaten as we had always grown up with them boiled or steamed with a side of butter ältere office versionen herunterladen!

I did some home work on the odd-shaped veggie and learned a lot more than I expected!  The variety I picked up are called “Carciofi Romaneschi – Large, round artichokes”

Artichokes, are the immature flowers of a member of the thistle family.  They apparently are one of the nicest things about winter in Central Italy; they appear in December and accompany them through the beginning of spring, in April herunterladen. They also come in a tremendous variety of shapes and colors, from tiny delicate ones well suited for being eaten raw, to purplish green medium-sized Morellino artichokes, to Carciofi Romaneschi, the large round artichokes, which are what I bought and have since learned are ideally suited for stuffing.  Who knew ringtone downloaden android? I grilled them and they were great! 

No matter which variety you select, you have to do so with care because a fuzzy choke is a tremendous disappointment.  A good artichoke will feel firm and solid when you pick it up bildschirmschoner windows 10 herunterladen. It shouldn’t “give” if you squeeze it gently, nor should it feel light. If it does, it probably has air (and fuzz) in its heart.  Once you have selected your artichokes and gotten them home, stand them in a vase with water until you’re ready to use them.  They tend to toughen with time Download world of warcraft for free.

Ingredients:
2 large artichokes
1 lemon
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Garlic cloves
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Clean the artichokes by rinsing them well.  Typically I would remove the top third and trim the leave tops to remove the thorn, but these didn’t really have any and we don’t eat the outside of the leaf anyways… so save yourself the work Rental contract for download free of charge!

Slice them in half lengthwise and scoop out the hairy choke with a spoon.  (I used a paring knife to cut just above the heart and easily remove the hair)

Bring the cleaned artichokes to a boil (lightly salted water – like you would for pasta) and add the juice squeezed of half of the lemon.  Cook to soften them, at least seven to minutes.  Depending on the size and weight of them, you may need to boil them for longer.  You need to cook the flesh and they must turn from bright green to pale ältere nvidia treiber herunterladen.
Wisc together the olive oil, smashed garlic, lemon rind & juice from second half and salt and pepper to taste whatsapp backup drive herunterladen.
Remove artichokes from boiling water and shake off the access water.  Brush each side liberally with olive oil dressing.  Be sure to brush and season the inside of the artichoke as well.
When the grill is hot, place the prepared artichokes on the grill over medium heat.  (they will flare up – but I like this for the browning and grill marks on the artichoke!) I also prepared a steak and shrimp skewers for dinner that night.  Season the shrimp and steak with salt and pepper and Use the same olive oil dressing to dress the shrimp.
 
Start to grill the steak along with the artichokes first, so that once is cooked to your liking to can set it aside to allow it time to rest while you continue to cook the artichokes (turning for roughly 7 to 10 minutes) and the shrimp.

Set steak aside to rest (sip on your wine and enjoy the view of the back yard…).  Once the artichokes are about half way through the cooking time, add the shrimp skewers to the grill.  They cook quickly over high heat and only need to be turned once.  (find entire recipe for the shrimp in the blog)

Remove from the grill and either serve them as is, or with a variety of condiments including mayonnaise, aioli, or melted butter.

We enjoyed this meal with a side salad and a nice Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon!
Cheers!
~Chris
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Thai Broccoli Salad

Written By: Chris - Jun• 12•12

My friend Eileen has brought over a Broccoli salad a couple of times which includes a firm Tofu – that I just love!  Recently, I was hungry for it and happen to have a lot of Broccoli on hand, so I thought I would give my version of the salad a try.   Since I do not typically buy or eat Tofu and did not wish to go out to get some, I decided to omit it from my recipe.  I do however really like it in her version that she picks up from Byerly’s or Lunds grocery store herunterladen.

I’m very pleased with how this dish turned out, but might increase the volume of dressing the next time.

Ingredients:

6 Cups of Broccoli florets
2 Carrots
1/2 Cup Red Pepper
1/2 Red Onion

Dressing Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
2 Tablespoons Dark Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Hot Water
1 Tablespoon Sweet Red Chili Paste
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
2 Tablespoons Splenda
1/3 Cup chunky Peanut Butter
1 Garlic clove, smashed

Start by blanching the chopped broccoli in boiling water for about 2 minutes until tender, but still crisp.   Reserve the hot water by scooping out vegetables with a slotted spoon and place into a colander under gently running cold water to stop the cooking process dateien von wetransfer herunterladen.

Julianne the red onion, red pepper and carrots, but do not cook the carrots Download iphone ringtones for free!

Julianne style cutting (is also called a “matchstick”) type of cut that makes a long thin strip.
-A chef’s knife is good to use (or a santoku knife) and avoid serrated knives, which “saw” through food navigation app herunterladen.
-Peel the skin from the vegetable if necessary.
-Trim away any root or stem parts of the vegetable.
-If the vegetable is round like a potato or carrot, cut it in half and lay it cut side down on the board tomtom stem download. This will keep it from rolling.
-Cut the edible part of the vegetable into slices about 1 inch long and cut these slices into even very thin strips sellercentral rechnungen herunterladen.

Blanch the onions and then the peppers for one minute each.  Blanching the red onion helps take the sharp onion flavor out, while leaving a nice sweet mild onion hint to the dish Download lazarus for free.

Wisc all of the ingredients together for the dressing download codesys.

Once you have drained and shaken all of the water from the blanched vegetables, toss them with the dressing scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber scraper.  Mix until all of the vegetables are evenly coated and refrigerate until cool through out download star trek online!

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

 

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Chicken Hotdish

Written By: Chris - Jun• 03•12

This dish was created completely with what was on hand in my fridge and pantry… It’s been in my “to Blog” bin and now that I’m getting to it, looking at the images is making me very hungry!  This is a good one and I encourage you to give it a try!  I continue to use low fat and fat free ingredients and you would never know this was relatively healthy.  I don’t make a lot of “hot dishes”, but every time we enjoy one – I find myself wondering why not?  They are very tasty and remind me of something that I grew up on as one of my aunts used to make a hot dish similar!.  I love the chips on top!  Even more, because I chose the baked ones download for free!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Onions, Carrots and sweet Peppers
1/2 Cup Red Peppers
1/2 Large Onion
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Cups broasted Chicken, Chopped
2 Garlic cloves
2 Cups Broccoli
1/2 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 Cup low-fat Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Goat Cheese
2 Tablespoons Creme Fraiche
1 teaspoon Lemon juice
1 Can of fat-free condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Cup softened Cream Cheese
2 Tablespoons Fajita dry mix
Salt & Pepper
1-1/2 Cups Crushed Baked Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream Chips

So I started this dish by looking at what I had on hand in the fridge.  There was a broasted chicken with about half of the meat remaining on it, I had about a cup’s worth of sauteed sweet peppers and onions and a very large package of broccoli.  That is how this dish began.  There was also some of the odd items including the remaining tablespoon of goat cheese, creme fraiche and cream cheese (which was mixed with fajita mix – because this is what I stuff my Jalapeno peppers with for the grill!) Since I was trying to clean out the fridge as we were leaving town… it worked out well to create a hotdish hörbuch illegal downloaden!

I wanted to add additional onions and peppers, so I started by sauteing additional vegetables and garlic in the olive oil Christmas for free.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the soup with the other creamy ingredients and the broccoli.  Add the “warm” vegetables and mix until everything is blended and melted together.  Stir in the chicken that you have removed from the bone and skin and chopped into bite sized pieces Download android auto apps.

Pour entire mix into an oven proof dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread the mixture out and cover with aluminum foil diploma duo.

Bake in a convection oven 350 covered for 25 minutes or so.  I wanted to make sure the dish was cooked through and was hot and bubbly… so I turned up the temp to 400 for an additional 15 minutes herunterladen.

Remove the foil and top with with crushed chips

Broil for 4 to 5 minutes until chips start to brown

The bites are hot, moist and delicious and you get to enjoy the texture of the vegetables along with both white and dark meat of the chicken navcore downloaden!

We enjoyed this dish with a nice Knights Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon animal crossing new horizons designs herunterladen.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

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Shrimp & Scallop Ceviche with Citrus

Written By: Chris - May• 29•12

Following a recent dining experience out, I decided that I would like to serve Ceviche as the first course at a dinner that I was to be hosting in Napa for friends.  We had recently eaten Ceviche as a course served at a wine dinner event just prior to our trip.  While in the Valley and on a mission for ingredients, I hadn’t really put much consideration into “how” the wonderful Ceviche we had eaten may have been prepared.  I only recalled that it was absolutely delicious!  I wondered “how hard could it be after all” diablo 3 free download full version german pc?

Ceviche is basically any form of seafood marinated in citrus.  In regards of your choice of citrus, lime or lemon are the most commonly used, but you can use any fruit juice that has some acidity, including pineapple, grapefruit, orange–or any combination of these.  As you may be aware, I’m not as experienced with sea food but I thought I would give it a try.  After reviewing an assembly of others recipes and on-line instructions, I was able to assemble my own recipe.  I was on a hunt for great fresh shrimp and diver scallops… herunterladen. These are not inexpensive ingredients, but hoped that by finding the freshest ingredients that my dish would be worth it while leaving a nice first impression updates über getaktete verbindungen herunterladen!

Listed below you will find my recipe and instructions.  Now, although the majority of my guests reported that they enjoyed it… I am not sure if they were just being polite or actually telling the truth because  I didn’t love, love, love it Download bf2 for free in full version. 🙁

I will tell you that I will try it again and won’t give up until I’ve reached the succulent flavors I now seek!  Spending some additional time researching others process – I believe that I simply should have strained the Ceviche more prior to serving it.  I also would use WAY less limes and will substitute with more orange kostenlos spiele für iphone herunterladen!

Ingredients:

10 large Shrimp (peeled and deveined)
8 large Divers Scallops
4 Limes (I used the zest, skip that on the lime!)
1 Lemon
1 Orange
1/3 large Red Onion
1″ Fresh Ginger, grated
1/2 Jalapeno Pepper
Cilantro leaves to taste
1 large English Cucumber, peeled and deseeded
2 Roma Tomatoes, deseeded
Kosher Salt

I also later learned that our original preparation at the event had been assembled by “flash grilling” the scallops.  The menu listed it as served with an orange citrus marinade….  So mine is good, just not as great as I hoped and I recommend that you cut back on the limes (omit the lime zest all together) and use more orange instead google street view deutschland download kostenlos chip!

The way to provide even marinating (and “cooking”) of the shrimp and scallops – is to make sure all of the pieces are cut about the same size.  The smaller the pieces, the quicker it will finish, but be sure not to cut them too small download icloud complete folder!

Place the cucumber, onion, ginger and cubed shrimp and scallops in a medium-sized clear glass bowl and cover completely with the lemon, lime and orange juices as well as the zest moorhuhn 3 for free.

Allow this combination to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or so covered with plastic wrap merge dragons.
Stir in the jalapeno pepper and refrigerate until about 15 minutes or so just before you wish to serve it.

The length of time you marinade the proteins in citrus really depends on the quantity, quality, and your personal tastes.  If you are making a small amount sashimi grade fish, it would be perfectly acceptable to marinade for only minutes.  Since I made a larger batch, I decided to marinate it longer (and for up to about three hours) Download free coloring pages.

The shrimp and scallops will have turned white from the opaque color they started from.  This means that the citrus juices have “cooked” them and can now be drained of the citrus.

Just about 15 minutes prior to serving, remove from the fridge and stir in the tomato and some of the Cilantro.  If you prefer, top with avocado and olive oil.

 

We served in small wine glasses which is what we had on hand in the rental house.  They looked pretty.  We divided the Ceviche between 8 servings.  Use the revisions I suggested and enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

Posted in Appetizer, Recipes, Salad, Scallops, Shrimp , | Comments Off on Shrimp & Scallop Ceviche with Citrus
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