A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Copycat Recipe: Joe's Crab Shack Harvest Bay Mahi Mahi

 

 One of the great things about things about cooking restaurant-style food at home is being able to customize it.  I love this entree, Harvest Bay Mahi Mahi, a firm-fleshed white fish covered in rich Alfredo sauce mixed with sauteed shrimp and mushrooms,  from Joe's Crab Shack but I've always wanted more: more sauce, more shrimp, more mushrooms!!!!!  Viva la shrimp and shrooms!  Since I don't have a district manager looking over my food cost reports, that's easy to do without sacrificing any of the integrity of the original dish, not to mention, being able to shave a few butter and Alfredo sauce calories here and there without sacrificing that luscious mouth feel and rich taste.

Here's How I did it, step by step, and with photos:

Creamy Vegetable Soup for the Crock-pot/Slow Cooker

 I love soup. I particularly love cream soups, although I often feel guilty for eating them.  There's something ultimately wintery and comforting about soups with creamy heartiness that feels so good and yet so decadent.  But.  Using a trick I learned from a Pinterest recfpe for creamy chicken chili, creaminess doesn't have to equal loads of cream, flour, and butter. It's amazing what cream cheese can do in a slow cooker to transform a simple vegetable woup into a creamy feast on a cold winter's day.

Creamy Crock-pot/Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Ingredients:

• 4 medium Yukon Gold (or russets or red-skinned) potatoes
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup carrots, julienned
• I cup celery diced
• 1 mdium onion, diced
• 1 red or green sweet pepper, cut into strips
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 14.5 oz can Kidney, Pinto, or Navy Beans
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 15.5 oz can chicken broth
• 8 oz pkg light cream cheese
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:

In heavy-bottomed skillet over mdium heat, saute garlic and onion in olive oil.  Add celery and pepper and saute for 3-3 minutes.  Add all  to crockpot along with rest of vegetables, beans, and spices.  Pour over chicken broth and lay cream cheese on top.  Cook on high for 2 hours and hten turn to low for 6-8 hours. Stir to mix cream cheese.

Makes 10 cups.

Nutrition per 1 cup serving:  Calories:    167;   Protein:    6.3;    Carbs:    16;    Fat:     6;       Fiber:     4.2;    Weight Watchers Points:      3

 

 

Baked Mostaccioli w/ All Day Slow Cooker/Crockpot Meat Sauce

 

 There's nothing like pasta, the ultimate comfort food, to feed a small army of company at the holidays.  It's tasty, it's easy, and it can usually be made ahead, all pluses in my book so that I can serve a delicious meal to my friends and family but also be able to relax on the day of and during the party instead of running myself ragged, cooking. 

Traditionally at New Year's Eve, I make a big lasagna, but this year I went to the same song, different verse, choosing to created a Baked Mostaccili dish instead. 

Several of my guests plus friends on Facebook asked for the recipe, so this is it:  Glenna's Baked Mostaccioli for a Crowd.  Even though the recipe easily serves 8-10, it can easily be cut in half for a family dinner or can be made as a whole and split into two separate baking dishes, freezing one for later. 

   

Celebrating with Baklava

 

 While the entire rest of the food blogosphere posts nice diet recipes for at least the first week of the new year, I'm going to go radical and tempt your tummy with step-by-step photos of how to make the sublime, baklava, my favorite densely rich, sweet, and decadent treat that's a pastry I can only describe to the unititiated as a cross between a bar cookie and candy.  Or as simply "the most yum in a bite I know of!" It's created from layers of paper thin pastry dough brushed with butter and filled with pistachios, walnuts, and almonds, along with warm spices and soaked in honeyed syrup.

Baklava can be traced back to the "cradle of civilization", Mesopotamia (the modern Iraq area), in the thousands B.C. but its most commonly associated with the Ottoman Turkish Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries whose capitol was Constantinople (modern day Instanbul, Turkey).  I'm pretty confident you can consider that a dessert must be good if it's been around for 5,000 years, don't you?

I'll admit that I assumed baklava would be difficult, or at least complicated. to make but the truth is delightfully that it really isn't. There a lot of steps, but most of them are all about the layering of pastry and filling.   For anyone experienced in working with phyllo dough I would consider this easy to make, and even for those who've never worked with phyllo before, I would still say it's only a low medium in difficulty.  The key to the recipe is in the steps and preparing the work space.  Some baklava makers create the pastry first and then make the syrup while baking so that it remains hot. I make the syrup first and set it aside while I make the pastry so that even though the syrup is close to room temp when poured as the final step, the baklava is so hot it quickly soaks in.  Having a little counter space is the only clincher to working with phyllo dough because it's easier to lay it out, then move it in towards you to butter and stack.  You'll see what I mean as you read through the recipe and see the photos.

Cod (White Fish) Patties with Home-made Tartar Sauce

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin, Colleen, made salmon patties for her family for dinner and let me blog them. They were so inviting in the photo I suddenly had a craving.  Fish patties is one of those things that are quick, easy, and tasty, but I usually I forget to make them unless something reminds me. 

Thanks, Colleen!

I do have a can of salmon in the cupboard, along with a few cans of tuna and crab, but I also had some cod fillets in the freezer that sounded yummy too.  This is my recipe for fish patties or fish cakes as they're also called. Mine has a few more bells and whistles than Colleen's but only because I was playing with a much milder fish that needed a little kick in the gill to rev the flavor up.

7th Annual World Bread Day: Primitive Painted Farmhouse Boule

Welcome to the 7th Annual World Bread Day, sponsored by Zorra Kochtopf.  I love the thought of breaking bread together, and if not all together, then at least baking bread together globally.

For my selection, I chose my favorite every day bread, Farmhouse bread, the recipe given to us and taught by Faith Brockoff during a class Auntie Miranda, Ann, and I took at War Eagle Mill for Auntie's birthday a few years ago.  It's a wonderfully crusty, eggy, bread that's easily adaptable by using all-purpose white flour, white whole wheat flour, or a 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat.

To decorate it, I simply took cake decorating colors and paint brushes from my cake decoating supplies and primitively painted on a deep red sunflower encircled by vines and leaves. I used the paste food coloring straight out of jars, occaisionally tipping my brush lightly into a small cup of water to thin it.

 I love the way the browning crust turned the colors from  bright and shiny to a deeper, more antiqued look on the bread.  And best of all, we have fresh warm bread to eat, slathered in real butter and sweet fall pumpkin butter, to devour with dinner.

After October 17th, click here to be linked to Pinterest to see all the breads baked around the world for this event:  7th Annual Wrold Bread Day

Good & Good For You: Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

 

 I've been making Sweet and Sour Mushrooms for years but I added one "secret" ingredient this time that made Gene say "Oh YEAH! THAT'S the stuff!"  The secret ingredient?  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce. We eat it on everything: steak, pork chops, chicken, meatloaf, and even toasted walnuts, but the Sweet and Sour Mushrooms are truly out of this world:  tangy, sweet, spicy, the taste trifecta. 

Lazy Sunday Morning: Classic Quiche Lorraine for Breakfast

After all the rain and thunderstorms last night followed by a late night of movie-watching and gloriously sleeping in to a chilly fall morning, eggs seemed to fill the bill of fare this morning.  Not just any eggs, not plain scrambled or even the richness of dipping toast into the rich yolks of fried eggs over easy, but the cheesy, bacony goodness of the classic Quiche Lorraine.  With pre-cooked bacon and previously rolled pie crust in the freezer, shredded parmesan in the fridge, and a couple of green onions in the crisper, it took less than five minutes to beat the eggs along with the other ingredients and pour them into the pie shell--so worth it this morning! 

Good & Good For You: Colleen's Salmon Patties

 
Thanks to my cousin, Colleen for this recipe and great food pic.  I love cod/haddock/tuna/salmon patties. Don't know why I don't make them more. I think it's easy, at least in mind, to get stuck in the beef/pork/chicken-centered dinner mode.  But fish patties are a great alternative meal.  These can be baked or fried. To me, Colleen's method of baking them is easier, less calories, and they all come out done at the same time, no frying and trying to keep warm while waiting for the rest to finish. 

Such a lovely meal--thanks, Collleen!

Good & Good For You: Creamy Tomato Soup

 

 After such a long hot summer, fall is a welcome relief!  With fall, come the cravings for great fall foods:  pumpkin and apple dishes, warm chewy breads, and thick soups.  Two of my favorites are leftover from grade school:  beef vegetable soup with peanut butter sandwiches and creamy tomato soup with grilled American cheese sandwiches. 

Campbell's or Progresso?  I could do that but for just a little bit more time I can have creamy tomato soup from my  pantry that still has tomato-y goodness but with a much more complex herby fresh taste I yearn for as an adult.