Shrimp, Goat Cheese, Pineapple Quesadillas amd Chocolate Pudding

Tonight I had my beloved ex-coworker, Stephanie, over for a long over-due dinner. Since I want dinners with friends to be more about spending time with them and not stressing out in the kitchen (I did a little of that anyway), I choose recipes I’ve made before. I actually made a version of this approximately 10 days ago, but with mango. After a taste test, the pineapple is definitely the winner.

On the side was a basic summer salad of cucumber, tomato, corn off the cob, fresh basil and lemon juice.
Inside the quesadilla:
goat cheese
shrimp (cooked in cayenne and lemon juice)
red onion
pineapple, chopped (and blotted dry!)
cilantro

For dessert, I had to stand up to Stephanie’s key lime pie cheesecake, so I made homemade chocolate pudding.

This wasn’t exactly as easy as the boxed version, but it wasn’t impossible.

I found the recipe on Cooking Light magazine online. I cut the recipe in half, but here is the full version.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups 2% reduced-fat milk (I used 1% and everyone survived)
3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten (not easy to half)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Place egg yolks in a bowl. Gradually add hot milk mixture to egg yolks, stirring constantly. Return milk mixture to pan. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until mixture is thick, stirring constantly. Remove mixture from heat, and add chopped chocolate and vanilla extract, stirring until the chocolate melts. Spoon pudding into a small bowl. Place bowl in a large ice-filled bowl for 15 minutes or until pudding is cool, stirring occasionally. Remove bowl from ice; cover and chill.
Since I did not have whipping cream on hand, I substituted Greek yogurt mixed with lemon zest, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Nice bite to it. Stephanie was kind enough to leave me the bottle of red, so now I get to enjoy it with some online TV!

Blueberry Pancakes & Chicken Sausage

It had been too long since I’ve had breakfast for dinner. Except last night when I had a goat cheese omelet. Or maybe I have it all the time. I don’t know, don’t worry about it, I just like it. Pancakes are the best because they use things you usually have on hand anyway.

The ingredients in this version were:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar (I mixed mine with some cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
drizzle of vanilla

I had no idea how these were going to be because the flour was strangely pillowy and airy, but they were delish. I may or may not have had 4. The trick is to warm the oven, then keep the finished pancakes on a baking sheet inside while you cook up the rest of the batter.

Sweet Italian sausage and pancakes with powdered sugar, butter and maple syrup.

Things are not looking good on the Hulu front tonight. Monday night doesn’t leave us a lot of Tuesday viewing possibilities. (Besides the Bachelorette, which obviously I watch while it’s happening).

Salmon with a Summer Salad

I covered a lot of ground today. Though there are multiple farmers markets close by, Evan and I decided to drive out to Eastern Market to do some produce shopping and get lunch. If you’ve never been, Eastern Market is a big indoor/outdoor market with everything from clothes and jewelry to produce to crepes (!) to art.


My favorite part: all of the samples!

The jewelry by Enise has awesome stuff, but I ended up with starfish earrings from a different stand.

Then there is our beloved crepe man. We actually went to Eastern Market on Saturday as well, and had crepes then too. Yesterday I had the banana, strawberry, nutella.

Today I went with the turkey, spinach, tomato and gouda.

We did the math and I’m pretty sure he makes like $4K a weekend…$7 crepes, 1/min for at least 6 hours on Saturday and Sunday.


Love all of the DC art, but original art is just soo expensive. Fun to look at, none the less!

Dinner tonight was actually pretty stellar. Wild Alaskan salmon was on sale at Whole Foods so I made my sweet & spicy salmon, which takes 3 minutes to make and 9 minutes to broil. Boom. While it was cooking, I cut up a cucumber, vine ripened tomato and bell pepper (all from the market) and tossed them with some homemade vinaigrette and feta cheese. And leftover risotto to finish. -- The vinaigrette was a mixture of: olive oil, balsamic, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic and salt and pepper.

Hope there’s something good on Hulu tonight!! Happy Monday Eve

Shrimp, Zuc, Pea & ‘Shroom Risotto

Tonight, I actually have a reservation at 8:30 at a fine Italian restaurant in Eastern Market (Acqua al 2) with a group of girls for a friend’s going away dinner. Though this fine “Italian” dinner that I am reporting on now is homemade, as I plan to order a dessert and glass of wine at the restaurant. Though I’m sure dinner there would be delicious, I’m ballin’ on a budget over here. Not to mention, I don’t usually eat dinner past 7 pm. 

This risotto is an example of why Trader Joes is essential. The from-a-box mushroom and herb risotto is delicious and leaves room for me to throw in whatever I want.

Shrimp, zucchini and peas were sautéed in a separate pan then added in.
I added:

1/2 zucchini
1/2 cup peas
shrimp
shaved Parmesan cheese
diced tomato
basil (didn’t need it- the risotto had enough flavor by itself)

Salmon Orzo Salad

It’s a wonderful thing when everything in your refrigerator comes together and makes a delicious ‘salad’ and leaves you with heaping extras. I just kept opening the fridge and adding things in.

Contents:

1/2 box of orzo, boiled for 9 minutes
1 can salmon (my first experience with canned salmon, I’m a fan)
cucumber, diced
tomato, diced
red onion, finely chopped
one green onion
goat cheese
a little fresh basil
a little fresh dill
capers
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
lemon juice from half a lemon
salt & pepper

It would have been just as good with half of the ingredients, but if you don’t use it- you lose it! (Especially when it comes to fresh vegetables).

I know everyone is as excited as I am to see what drama goes down on The Bach tonight. Bachelorette watching/wine sipping parties really improve Monday nights. Unfortunately, my aggressive workout today has left my stomach hurting (a weird reaction, but I think the workout is to blame) so I will go curl into a ball until its party time.

Shrimp, Goat Cheese & Mango Quesadillas

Happy father’s day to all. I had great father’s day-ish weekend. Evan’s dad came to town and took us to dinner and the US Open, where we followed around Evan’s old golf buddy, Webb Simpson. It’s amazing how good a hot dog can taste after walking up and down hills for 5 hours! But Congressional Country Club isn’t a bad place to find yourself…

(picture from website)
Tonight’s dinner was shrimp, goat cheese and mango quesadillas dipped into some salsa verde. Cilantro would have been a great addition if I had it, but I hate buying a bunch of herbs when I only need a few sprigs. Regardless, these were tasty!

flour tortillas
shrimp, halved
cayenne
lemon or lime juice
goat cheese
muenster (or jack – for melting purposes)
diced mango
diced red onion

Cook the shrimp in butter with cayenne and lime juice until done. Slice in half and stack everything into the quesadilla. Coat pan with butter and cook quesadillas until cheese is melted.

Vegetable Pasta in Marinara

I lucked out yesterday and saw a house near my school was giving away lots of free stuff in their yard. I borrowed a friend’s car and loaded up:

A little white frame and shelf…

A chair (a wee bit dirty but that’s what slipcovers are for)

And a super cute side table! Unfortunately, I wasn’t this lucky when I played our annual faculty/staff bingo game at school this afternoon. But getting out of work early did mean I got to make a run to Trader Joes and load up. For dinner, I used whatever I had in my fridge and threw it into this pasta.

Ingredients:
1/2 wheat, 1/2 regular angel hair pasta
1/2 a zucchini
1/2 a yellow squash
red onion
marinara sauce
fresh basil
muenster cheese

Including a side salad with homemade vinaigrette. I am now limiting myself to one dessert of Greek yogurt, frozen berries, chocolate chips and a little almond butter before I cut myself off from snacking all night. I find it helps to quit the snacking if you brush your teeth. And it does NOT help if you watch Food Network – especially Guy’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

B.E.L.T.

When you bake two loaves of bread in a day, your hands are pretty much tied when it comes to making dinner. You’re going to make a sandwich. My other options were French toast, bread pudding or bread crumbs, and none of those seemed appropriate.
So a BLT it was. And who doesn’t love fried eggs in strange places?

To make this sandwich extra special – and sort of reminiscent of my new favorite sandwich, Summer House, at Jetties – I spread basil pesto mixed with Greek yogurt onto one slice of bread and Grey Poupon on the other.
After dinner, I settled into to watch some trashy TV. The Bachelorette? Real Housewives of OC? Perfect. They’re so bad, they’re good. Judge my television choices if you must, but you know you have embarrassing tv addictions too…

Let’s Bake Bread

My tradition of going to the Palisades Farmer’s Market for their delicious Belgian waffles continues.

Quin (my new roommate who is as obsessed with food as I am) agrees, these piping hot, doughy waffles are killer. After admiring gorgeous loaves of bread at various bakers stands, we decided to go home and bake some bread. Quin has a little more experience in the baking bread department, I followed her lead.
Microwave the milk, water, honey and butter until the temperature is around 120-130. Then add in the yeast.

Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients with mixer on low.

Let rise in a warm place, covered for about an hour.

Spread into a rectangle, then roll bread into a log.

Let rise more in the bread pan, before baking at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Ohh man fresh bread smells amazing.

This recipe is from Baking Illustrated The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker for America Sandwich Bread.

Farmer's Market Scramble & PB+B Smoothie

I got really lucky in the Farmer's Market department. One quick bus ride and I'm at the large, Dupont Farmer's Market, a short drive away and I'm at the Palisades mini-market that has the best Belgian waffles in the world, or a downhill walk away from the Glover Park Flea Market/Farmer's Market. This past Sunday, I patroned the Palisades market and found these vibrantly colored (super cheap!) summer squash and zucchini.

I sautéed the veggies in a little butter before adding in two whisked eggs into the pan. Once the eggs were cooked, I topped it with feta cheese and s&p. So good I made it two days in a row!

On the side of my veg scramble, I had a slice of Dakota bread from Great Harvest - which I discovered is right next to my school :) - topped with a drizzle of local honey.

To cool off, I made a peanut butter and banana smoothie.

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tbsp peanut butter
drizzle of vanilla extract
pinch of salt
honey
dash of cinnamon
ice cubes

Sunday Surprise: Pizzeria Paradiso

This weekend felt very utilitarian. While I managed to do laundry, babysit, work out, garden and make it to the Farmers Market, I didn't do much playing. So Sunday afternoon, after a brief tennis match, Evan surprised me by offering to take me to Pizzeria Paradiso for dinner :) This place never disappoints. One round of draft beers, followed by the "Crostino Formaggio di Capra" - toasted homemade bread topped with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and prosciutto di Parma.

We split the Atomica pizza: tomato, salami, black olives, hot pepper flakes, mozzarella. Their crust is what makes their pizza so amazing. Something that can really only be achieved with a wood burning oven.

We finished off the night by watching my new favorite show: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I had heard of it before, but this was the first time I'd seen it. Jamie's mission is to improve food in school cafeterias, fast food restaurants and educate the public of cities around America. This season he is tackling Los Angeles. It's clearly an uphill battle but he keeps fighting the good fight. Very inspirational, but not the show to watch before bed as my mind would not shut off. It's on Hulu, in case you're interested!

Fish Tacos with Yogurt Sauce

It’s strange to me that when I think back to high school and most of college, I could care less about cooking. I just didn’t do it. Though I’ve been exposed to home cooking my entire life, from the family dinners every weeknight growing up (that I so took for granted), to holidays at my Grandma’s house where she spent (and still spends) most of the day cooking away for Christmas dinner or Easter brunch. I know that’s where I get my appreciation for good home cooked meals, it just took a bit of maturity to really get it. 

Most days I run my dinner plan by my mom first to see what she thinks, or what side dish would go well with a certain dish. Just like yesterday when I said “I want to make fish tacos….what was that yogurt sauce you used to make?” Here it is!

Fish Tacos

Sauce

1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 TBS mayonnaise
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Juice of one lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

Tacos

Juice of 1/2 lime
2 TBS canola oil
1 lb firm white fish (I used Tilapia)
salt and pepper
6 or so corn tortillas
2 cups shredded cabbage or slaw mix
1 large tomato, chopped

1. Mix together all ingredients for sauce

2. For tacos: Preheat broiler or grill

3. Combine lime juice and oil and spoon onto fish

4. Fry tortillas

5. Cook fish on greased pan for approx 10 minutes or until done

6. Break fish into chunks

7. Assemble tacos--top with sauce, cabbage and tomatoes