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Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese with Asparagus

by mj on March 28, 2013

For some reason my craving for macaroni and cheese has been escalating. Maybe it’s because of all the wonderful mac & cheese recipes I’ve been seeing online lately. But the one that pushed me over the edge was Zsuzsa’s stovetop Creamy Macaroni and Cheese. When I first saw her picture, I knew that was the mac & cheese I wanted to eat. Her recipe looked fabulous and the video she provided in the post was a great tutorial on how to put all of the components together for a creamy outcome. You definitely need to check it out.

For this recipe I used Zsuzsa’s for the most part, but purely out of habit I ended up making the béchamel (white sauce) the way I normally do. I added a couple of herbs to the dish because I love herbs, and then cut back a bit on the cheese. For the finishing touch and to create a complete meal for Bobby and me, I added my Simply Asparagus dish which you’ll find later in this post. Each plate was served with a serving of macaroni and cheese and about 5 to 6 spears of asparagus. We cut the asparagus into bite size pieces and ate a piece with each bite of mac & cheese. It is quite tasty!

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Avocado, Orange and Cucumber Salad

by mj on March 14, 2013

I don’t remember when I discovered that a dinner salad could be more than iceberg lettuce and bottled dressing, but WHEW- I’m so glad I finally did! Of course I do have to say that there was a time when iceberg lettuce was the only lettuce you could find at the grocer, thus its past popularity. But now let’s ponder this question. Does a dinner salad really have to have lettuce at all? Actually – No.

A dinner salad can be just about anything you want it to be. It can be made with just a few ingredients or a whole host of ingredients, none of which are lettuce. The main thing I enjoy about making a salad is incorporating different textures and flavors, and – in my opinion – the fewer the better. This salad is representative of the type of salad that Bobby and I love to eat. It only has three main ingredients – avocado, orange, and cucumber, and the dressing (if you can call it that) is a little lime juice, some sea salt and a dusting of red chile powder. It’s a refreshing little salad that makes a great brunch, lunch or side at dinnertime.

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Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic and Herbs

by mj on March 4, 2013

I think by now you know how much I love garlic, but you may not know how much I love potatoes. I could eat potatoes almost everyday. I love them mashed, smashed, roasted, au gratin, as hashbrowns, and in a variety of soups. I guess the only way I don’t like potatoes is as French fries. Those I can take or leave. This winter organic potatoes have been really cheap, so we’ve been eating a lot of potato dishes. This roasted garlic mashed potato dish is one of our favorites.

It’s a very quick and easy dish for us because I always have a bottle of roasted garlic infused oil in the pantry and jar of roasted garlic in the fridge. So what better way to use the garlic and some of the oil than in mashed potatoes. Add some fresh herbs for color and another layer of flavor, and you have yourself a bowl of gourmet mashed potatoes with very little effort.

If you don’t have the garlic oil or roasted garlic on hand, not to worry. In the Kitchen Notes I explain how to get both in 20 minutes, which is about the time it takes to cook and mash the potatoes. Also, if you aren’t a huge garlic fan, but do like “a little” garlic, this recipe is still for you. Just cut back on the amount of garlic or replace the garlic-infused oil with extra virgin olive oil or butter. And if you don’t like garlic at all, just omit it altogether. The buttermilk and olive oil alone make this a very tasty bowl of mashed potatoes.

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Sauteed Mushrooms with Onion and Spice

by mj on February 2, 2013

This spicy mushroom dish makes a great side for just about anything. You can serve it with another vegetable, pretty much any meat, or over rice or a creamy polenta. It’s also a very quick and easy dish to throw together. It takes longer to chop the vegetables than to cook the dish. There are four basic ingredients – mushrooms, garlic, onion, and bell pepper – and then a little bit of spice. The spices can be changed to better complement the other components of the meal. It’s a simple little dish with a burst of flavor in every bite!
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Black-eyed Pea Chipotle Dip

by mj on January 18, 2013

Whenever I think of black-eyed peas I remember the time, way back when in grade school, when me and my three older siblings had to shell 5 bushels of black-eyed peas that we had picked at my granddaddy’s farm. Do you know how many peas are in 5 bushels? A lot! By the time we got to the last bushel we were so giddy that we started shooting peas at each other and having contests to see who could shoot a pea from its pod the farthest. Needless to say, the kitchen floor soon became covered with peas. When our mother came into the kitchen, let’s just say she wasn’t too happy, but we sure were having fun!

This black-eyed pea dip is one of those pleasant little surprises you get when you throw a few things together and end up with something very special. Last week I had some black-eyed peas that I had set aside before making Skippin’ Jenny. On a whim, I threw some of the peas into a blender, added a few other ingredients and pureed it into this dip. It was so tasty! I ate some with chips and saved the rest for the next day for Bobby. Well, you know how soups are better the next day? Well, so is this dip! I no longer tasted black-eyed peas with chipotle. All of the ingredients had blended together to provide a very unique and delicious flavor. It was so good that I used the rest of the peas to make another batch. I can’t wait to take this dip to a party! But in the meantime, I’m sharing it with you.

It’s easy, it’s quite different, and it is absolutely delicious!
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Sweet Kabocha Pudding

by mj on December 19, 2012

A few days ago I roasted a Kabocha squash with the intention of making a soup; however, when I tasted the pulp it was so sweet, I decided that I wanted to make a dessert. But what kind of dessert do you make with squash? As I was tasting the squash and thinking about how creamy it was, the squash spoke to me….pudding. Oh how I love pudding! So there you have it. Kabocha squash pudding was born.

The main ingredients for this pudding are squash pulp and almond milk. A little maple syrup is used as the sweetener and agar as the gelling agent. Because I used agar, the texture isn’t the same as pudding made with eggs and milk, but it is still very creamy and smooth. Bobby grabbed a pudding from the fridge thinking it was butterscotch. He took a couple of bites and then said “I have no idea what I’m eating, but it’s damn good!” Need I say more?

Because I only used 1 cup of pulp to make this pudding, I still had 2 cups left to make a small batch of Kabocha and Fennel Soup. A completely different use of the Kabocha and oh so good!

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Coconut Rice with Pickled Peppers

by mj on December 10, 2012

Some of the leftovers from Thanksgiving were a few pickled cherry bomb peppers. I had intended to put them on a relish tray with olives and marinated feta but totally forgot about the relish tray. A minor holiday mishap. The other night when I was making coconut rice, I decided to throw a couple of the peppers into the rice at the last minute. WOW! Coconut rice just got taken to a whole new level!

My coconut rice recipe has always been a few diced vegetables and rice cooked up in coconut milk and finished off with lime juice and cilantro. For this recipe, I replaced the lime juice with minced pickled peppers. Bobby and I both agreed this was the best coconut rice I had ever made. It’s a very easy rice dish to make because everything gets thrown into the pan and cooked. In 20 minutes, you have a delicious little rice and vegetable dish and a very festive looking dish at that.
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Grits and Green Chile

by mj on November 30, 2012

Grits and green chile is the ultimate fusion of southern and New Mexico cuisine. It’s creamy, spicy, and cheesy, and definite comfort food. It takes about 15 minutes to make and has only 5 ingredients, two of which are water and salt. You can’t make an easier or more comforting breakfast, lunch or dinner. With this dish, I have turned many people who disliked grits into grits lovers!

Ever since I discovered green chile back in the 70′s, this has been our favorite cool/cold weather breakfast. Bobby wasn’t that big on grits, but once he tried them with green chile, he became hooked and this is now one of his most requested breakfasts (right alongside Huevos Rancheros). I make grits and green chile at least once a week from fall to spring. It was a standard breakfast on camping and backpacking trips, and is a regular request from our houseguests. And, like my Mushroom Garlic Soup, it’s a great dish to ease the common cold.

Even if you think you don’t like grits, please give this dish a try. You will be converted – I guarantee it! And for those of you who don’t know what grits are, fear not – check out the Kitchen Notes.
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