Elements » tomatoes

Spinach and Eggs Baked in a Tomato Cup

Sheila — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:39:21 +0000

Hello everyone When Katie from What Katie’s Baking asked me if I would be a guest blogger for her while she was on vacation, I was honored! I love all her tempting and mouth-watering recipes, and I always look forward to seeing the next thing she’s baking.

Anyway, I had a hard time deciding what to post for her, but I finally decided on something that I think not only looks beautiful on your plate but also tastes great!

It’s a spinach and cheese mixture that’s stuffed inside a cored out tomato and baked with an egg on top.

Every bite is packed with flavor, and it’s a meal we certainly plan to enjoy again and again.

To get the recipe for spinach and eggs baked in tomato cups

(recipe adapted from: Recipes from my Mom), head over to What Katie’s Baking, and find out how to make this scrumptious meal for yourself. Hope y’all have a great day!

Wilted Lettuce and Onions

Sheila — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:09:38 +0000

When I was a young girl, my parents had a garden, and I used to love to pluck ripe tomatoes from the vine, use my t-shirt to rub off any dirt, and then eat that warm, juicy mater whole…just like you would an apple. I’d get tomato juice and seeds all over me, but who cared!

I also loved to grab an ear of corn out of the garden, shuck it, and it eat raw…right there in the middle of the corn patch.

And don’t even get me started on raw peas. Oh man…raw peas have always been like candy to me. Seriously. Picking peas and shelling was always my favorite, and goodness knows me and the rest of my family would eat so many of the raw peas while we were shelling them that we had very little leftover to freeze or cook. But that was fine because raw peas was the absolute best thing in the whole world…that and fresh strawberries from the strawberry patch.

While I’ve always loved raw vegetables and salads, one of my favorite meals that my folks would prepare during the summer with fresh greens from the garden was wilted lettuce. Here’s a picture. I served mine with hard boiled egg halves and tomatoes.

All ya do is wash and dry the lettuce (or whatever kind of greens you happened to have planted), put them in a bowl and then scatter some thinly sliced green onions over them. Then you just heat some oil (or bacon grease) in a pan until it starts smoking and then very carefully pour the hot oil over the lettuce and onions to wilt it.

You wouldn’t think that warm, wilted lettuce would be good, but it’s actually quite wonderful.

It’s something you really have to just try for yourself. Tasting is believing!

When I made myself wilted lettuce and onions yesterday for breakfast, I was singing the “Mmmmmmmmm” song while eating. Do you do that? When whatever it is you’re eating is exceptionally delicious you go “Mmmmmmmmmmm” in the middle of a mouthful? I do! Singing the “Mmmmmmmmm” song means the meal is heavenly…at least in our house anyway.

Wilted Lettuce and Onions

Recipe Source: This is a family recipe. My folks made it all the time when I was a kid, and my Dad’s side of the family makes it too. Other Southern families make it. My family doesn’t have a written-down recipe. It’s just something they’ve always made.

Yield: Enough for 2 servings

Ingredients:

4 oz. romaine hearts (you can use any other kind of lettuce and/or greens that you like)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil (or you can use bacon grease)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Wash the lettuce, and then pat the leaves dry with papers towels.
Wash the green onions, dry them with a paper towel, and then slice them thinly.
Arrange the lettuce in a serving pan. I put mine in a glass pie pan.
Sprinkle the sliced green onions on top of the lettuce.
Heat the olive oil in a small pan until it gets very hot. When the grease starts smoking, it should be at the right temperature.
Remove the oil from the heat, and then very, very carefully drizzle the hot oil over the lettuce and onions to wilt it.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: Garnish with tomatoes and hard boiled egg slices.

Note: It’s very important to make sure your lettuce and onions are dry because pouring the hot oil over wet greens will make the oil pop up and possibly splatter onto your skin. It’s also very important to use extreme caution when your oil is heating on the stove. Don’t leave it unattended, wear glasses (or goggles) when pouring the hot oil onto the lettuce, and be extremely careful when you’re pouring the hot oil onto the lettuce.

Mango Mint Pasta Salad

Sheila — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:00:17 +0000

There are times in the summer we just don’t feel like cooking but we still want something to eat that’s big on flavor and nutrition. Pasta salads usually fit the bill. They’re easy to throw together, they’re light, and they’re also quite tasty.

And somehow, mango and mint not only complement each other in terms of taste, but the combination is also quite refreshing.

Another perk is you don’t really need to follow a recipe. You just make some pasta, run cold water over it so it can chill down, wash and dice everything else, and then toss it all together with your favorite dressing.

The dressing I made took me about 2 minutes to makes, and it sure did taste great! It’s an Italian dressing called Aunt Trish’s Salad Dressing (from The Pioneer Woman). If you haven’t tried Aunt Trish’s dressing, I strongly urge you to do so. It’s wonderful!

Anyway, here’s the list of ingredients I put in my salad. There’s really no need to measure anything. Don’t you just love recipes where there’s no measuring required! I know I do.

Mango Mint Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

cooked pasta
fresh mangoes, cut
fresh mint, finely chopped
onions, diced
tomatoes, diced
red bell pepper, diced
fresh spinach, diced
zucchini, diced
garlic cloves, diced
Aunt Trish’s Salad Dressing (from The Pioneer Woman)

Prosciutto and Fig Jam Pizza and Stylish Blogger Award

Sheila — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:13:28 +0000

About a month ago, we went to a lovely pizza place, Coal’s Artisan Pizza, here in Louisville and enjoyed a wonderful dinner! Their appetizers and pizzas are fantastic, the beer selection is great, and we can’t wait to go back!

Their pizza dough which is baked in a 1,000 degree coal-fired oven, is perfect! And their most interesting pizza, in my opinion, was made with prosciutto, fig jam, a balsamic vinegar reduction, mozzarella cheese and Gorgonzola cheese. While Kemal and I highly recommend their pizza and will be their loyal customers, we wanted to create our own prosciutto fig jam pizza at home…one with a different spin. Why?

Well, first of all, Kemal and I both prefer our pizzas made with goat and/or sheep cheese because he’s lactose intolerant and I’m allergic to casein which is the protein found in cow cheese. We do eat pizzas cow cheese, but we always pay the price after doing so. No fun! So we decided to try their prosciutto fig jam pizza with cheeses that wouldn’t upset our tummies, although we did thrown on a little bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It was such a small amount though that it didn’t bother us.

The other reason we wanted to make this at home was because we love hot and spicy foods, and Kemal wanted to see how this pizza would taste with a hot chipotle garlic taco sauce mixed with the fig jam.

And finally, the third reason is because we wanted some veggies on the pizza. We chose green onions and sliced Kumatos…a very sweet type of tomato which is brownish-green in color.

Anyway, we made two pizzas because we wanted one leftover for the next day, and oh my gosh…you wouldn’t believe how incredibly delicious the pizzas were!!

The fig jam and taco sauce combination was perfect! The sweet combined with the hot and spicy was perfect, and we’ll definitely be making this pizza again!!

We made our own crust, but certainly if you’re in a hurry, you can just add the toppings to a pre-made crust. Give a try sometime and see what you think. I’ll bet you’ll love it!

Before I give you the recipe, I just wanted to thank Katie at What Katie’s Baking for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award. I always look forward to reading Katie’s blog because she features such great recipes and content. Actually, both times she’s nominated me for awards, I’ve wanted to nominate her blog. Can you nominate person who nominated you? I’m not sure, but she certainly deserves the awards.

Anyway, I’m honored to accept the stylish blogger award, and in doing so, I need to tell you seven things about myself. Here we go.

Seven things about myself:

I don’t believe I’ve ever cooked with sweetened condensed milk. (Or at least if I have, I don’t remember doing so.) I don’t have anything against sweetened condensed milk so that’s weird that I haven’t cooked with it, right?
I guess I’m old-fashioned in some ways because I’m not into text messaging. I’d much rather talk with someone over the phone or shoot them an e-mail.
I love hanging out at the swimming pool in the summer. It’s like my favorite thing!
I’ve never been to a tanning bed before. I’d much rather get my tan at the pool.
I really enjoy mowing the grass…but only with a push mower. I don’t like riding lawn mowers. Something about pushin’ that mower is fun for me, and since I live in an apartment, I don’t get to mow grass anymore. *wah*
I love carrots, and I once at so many of them for months at a time that my skin turned orange.
I don’t pluck my eyebrows.

I’m passing the Stylish Blogger Award on to:

I hope you’ll check out their blogs and see what great content they have consistently.

Anyway, thanks so much again, Katie! I really appreciate it!!

Prosciutto and Fig Jam Pizza

Adapted from: Coal’s Artisan Pizza

Chicken Saagwala

Sheila — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:17:56 +0000

The first time we tried chicken saagwala (chicken in a creamy spinach sauce) was at our favorite Indian retaurant…Little India Cafe. It was just heavenly!! The owner of the restaurant told us that instead of making it with cream, they make it with homemade yogurt. One of these days, we plan to try making homemade yogurt ourselves.

Anyway, the chicken saagwala was so good we wanted to learn how to make it ourselves, and we found out it’s actually very easy to prepare. Kemal has made it twice now in the past two weeks, and both times we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it! Here’s a couple of pictures of it.

It goes great with naan or aloo naan, and the bread helps cut the heat from the spiciness of the dish. Rice will do the same, but oddly enough, we didn’t serve it with rice either time we made it. We probably will next time though.

If you like your Indian food less hot and spicy, just cut way back on the red chili flakes and chili powder.

Speaking of hot and spicy, do you sometimes enjoy meals which set your mouth on fire? We do, but not all the time.

Chicken Saagwala

Adapted from: Petrina Verma Sarkar About.com Guide

Red Pepper Potato Soup

Sheila — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 03:43:59 +0000

Even though Spring officially arrived about a week or so ago, it continue to be quite chilly. It’s not bitterly cold by any means, but chilly enough that we’re still wearing our winter coats.

And blustery chilly days and nights means we enjoy huge pots of soup to warm us from the inside out.

Kemal is the master of soups and stews, and the red pepper potato soup he made is perfect in every way! It’s a hearty soup filled with chunky pieces of vegetables and lots of potatoes.

There’s nothing wrong with vegetable soups with lots of broth and small pieces of veggies; I like those kind of soups too. But some days you want thick and chunky with rich, bold flavors that make you oooh and aaaah with every bite. And that’s exactly what this soup does!

It’s a spicy soup. It doesn’t set your mouth on fire, but it certainly has a kick.

Anyway, give it a try sometime and see for yourself how beautiful it is and how mellow it’ll make you feel after eating a bowl. It’s such a soothing soup it’s like soaking in a hot tub with fragrant bubbles. It’s truly that good!

Red Pepper Potato Soup

Ingredients:

3 red bell peppers, sliced
1 orange bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
7 small potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 green onion, diced
2 medium yellow onions, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
16 garlic cloves
20 baby carrots
1/2 cup olive oil
2 qts. water
1 cube vegetable bouillon
27 oz. chicken broth (you can substitute with vegetable broth if you prefer)
2 tsp. coriander
1 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Peel and slice the potatoes.
Peel the garlic, leaving the cloves whole.
Fill a large pot with 2 qts. of water, and then add the bouillon cube, garlic, carrots, and potatoes to the water, cooking on medium high, stirring occasionally. You’re going to cook them until they’re soft. (Don’t drain the water.)
While the potatoes, carrots, and garlic are cooking,
Wash and slice the peppers.
Then peel and dice the yellow onions.
Wash the green onion and tomatoes, and then dice them as well.
Set the diced tomatoes aside, and then fry all the onions and peppers uncovered on medium heat in 1/2 cup of olive oil.
You’ll want to fry the vegetables until they’re soft and until the skins of the peppers start getting darker.
Then add the can of petite diced tomatoes, as well as the diced fresh tomatoes.
Stir in the coriander, paprika, chili powder, and red pepper flakes, and cook for a few minutes more.
Cover the fried vegetables, and let them cook a little bit more (a couple of minutes) with the heat turned off.
Add the chicken broth to the potatoes, carrots, and garlic. Don’t drain the water off the potatoes.
Then add the fried vegetables and olive oil to the pot with the potato mixture.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm.

Chicken Gyros on Homemade Soft Wrap Bread

Sheila — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:57:41 +0000

We love gyros! Kemal says gyros are basically a Greek version of the soft taco, and he’s right.

Gyros are oftentimes made with lamb, but they’re also sometimes made with chicken or veal. The meat is wrapped in a soft bread with tomatoes, onions, and a cucumber-yogurt sauce called tzatziki sauce.

In the middle East, gyros are called shawarmas, and sometimes they’re made with goat meat, as well as lamb, chicken, or beef.

Anyway, the best gyros we ever had were made at a local Lebanese grocery store in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, the deli part of the grocery store no longer exists. That’s a pity because the food was amazing! The meat was spiced just perfectly, and it was so good we asked the cook if they sold the spice mix at the store. He said no…that he just ordered a small amount to use for the gyros he made, but he was kind enough to give us a small container of it to take home.

We still have some of that seasoning mix, and last night Kemal made some chicken gyros that were incredibly delicious!!

All he did was cut some chicken breast into small, thin pieces, seasoned it with the special spice that was given to us, and then he fried the meat in olive oil. With the chicken, he also fried some diced onions and sliced red peppers that were seasoned with the special spice as well.

When we run out of the spice mix that was given to us, we’ll have to improvise. If you click here and then scroll down to the heading “Spice Mix,” you can learn how to season your meat if you decide to try making some gyros yourself.

Then the meat and veggies were served in a soft wrap bread that I made specifically for the gyros.

The soft wrap bread is a King Arthur Flour recipe that I found featured at What Megan’s Making. As soon as I saw her photos of the bread, I knew I had to make it myself. And I knew this bread would be perfect for our gyros!

The way the bread is made is very unusual, not only because it’s made with instant mashed potato flakes, but also because it uses a technique that I’m not familiar with. Part of the process is stirring boiling water and flour together, letting it cool, and then adding the remaining ingredients to that mixture.

I followed the recipe exactly except I added garlic powder to the dough, and the potato flakes that I used also had garlic in it. I used dry active yeast and used less boiling water as instructed in the recipe.

After I rolled the dough out, I baked the bread in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven instead of frying them. I greased my baking pans with just a little olive oil and baked them until they started browning on the bottom. Then I flipped them and let the other side brown. Since they were so thin, it didn’t take very long at all for the bread to be done on each side. I didn’t time it but I think the total baking time was less than 10 minutes.

So if you make this bread yourself and bake it the way I did, make sure you watch your bread like a hawk. You don’t want it to burn up in there.

After the bread finished baking, I just stacked them on a plate and covered them with a clean kitchen towel.

Anyway, the soft wrap bread has a beautiful flavor, and if you eat a piece of bread without anything on it, you can taste the potato in it. Yummmmmm!!! I’ll definitely be making these soft wraps again!

Finally, after we served the meat and veggies in the bread, we topped each gyro with some homemade tzatziki sauce. We made it by finely dicing half of an English cucumber and then mixing it into some Greek yogurt. Then we stirred in some dried mint and garlic powder. Talk about yummy!!!

Anyway, we sure did enjoy our gyros last night,

and I think next time we’ll make them with lamb. I’m hardly waiting!!

Pomegranate Mango Salsa Salad

Sheila — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:14:52 +0000

Is it a salsa? Is it a salad? I wasn’t sure so I called it a salsa salad. LOL!

What I am sure about is that every single bite is heavenly! We had ours with tequila limed rubbed tilapia, spinach pkhali, and lepinje, and it matched perfectly with everything.

But even though it made a wonderful accompaniment, I could eat this by itself for breakfast, lunch, or dessert!

Give it a try, and get ready to fall in love with the fabulous flavors of summer!!

Pomegranate Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

5 oz. pomegranate seeds (anvils)
1 mango, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 green onion, diced
1/4 of a bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
lime juice to taste
salt to taste

Instructions:

Wash the tomatoes, green onion, and parsley.
Then dice the tomatoes and green onion, and finely chop the parsley.
Remove the anvils from a pomegranate(s). (I’m not sure exactly how many pomegranates you’ll need to get 5 oz. of anvils because I was unable to find any pomegranates at the store. I was, however, able to find some fresh anvils for sale so I bought 5 oz.)
Peel and dice the mango.
Mix all the fruits and vegetables together.
Add salt and lime juice to taste
Serve chilled.

Tabbouleh and Parsley Vegetable Broth (One Recipe Makes Both a Soup and a Salad)

Sheila — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 06:10:32 +0000

Tabbouleh is a very popular Middle Eastern salad that’s made with bulgur wheat and lots of parsley.

It’s also delicious with some fresh mint but I didn’t have any on hand unfortunately.

It’s a very healthy salad that Kemal and I very much enjoy.

And it’s also very easy and simple to make.

It makes a great accompaniment to any meal, but it also makes a wonderful meal in and of itself.

Of course, if you’re like us, you’ll want some fresh bread from the oven to go with it.

The other great thing about making tabbouleh is when I make it, not only does the recipe make the salad, but the water that was used to to boil the tabbouleh makes a lovely parsley vegetable soup.

So you have no waste and you get both a soup and a salad from one recipe. How cool is that!

Anyway, before I tell you how to make it, I just want to encourage you to use your produce scraps to make vegetable broths. Just throw them in a pot of water with some spices, let it simmer, and then either enjoy the broth immediately or freeze it for later.

Okay…you ready to do some cookin’?

Tabbouleh and Parsley Vegetable Broth (One Recipe Makes Both a Soup and a Salad)

Recipe Source for the Tabbouleh: I based my recipe on the tabbouleh which is on the menu at Shiraz Mediterranean Grill. I don’t know how they make their tabbouleh nor do I have their recipe. But I do know the main ingredients of their tabbouleh and that’s what my recipe is based on.

Ingredients to make both the Tabbouleh and the Parsley Soup:

1/2 cup bulgur wheat
1 1/2 qts. water
1/2 of a bunch of fresh parsley (Make sure you keep the stems of the parsley. You’ll be using them for the parsley soup.)
1 vegetable bouillon cube
3 tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste
lemon juice to taste

Instructions on how to make both the Tabbouleh and the Parsley Vegetable Broth:

Boil 1 1/2 qts. of water on high heat.
Reduce the heat to medium, and then add the bulgur wheat, vegetable bouillon cube, 1 tbsp. of olive oil, the parsley stems you cut off, and about 1 tsp. of salt.
Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the buglur wheat is soft but still somewhat firm (similar to cooking pasta).
After the bulgur has cooked, remove it from the heat and remove the parsley stems. (I used a slotted spoon to remove the stems.)
Now you want to find a glass bowl and a sieve to drain the liquid off the bulgur.
Hold the sieve over the bowl to drain the liquid off the bulgur. That’s your parsley vegetable broth.

Just add a little bit of salt and pepper to it if you like and enjoy! If you don’t want to eat it immediately, you can always let it cool and then freeze it in plastic freezer containers.

The next thing you want to do is run cold water over the bulgur wheat.
Let the water drain off it.
In the meantime, wash and finely chop the parsley.
Wash and dice the tomatoes.
Peel and dice the onions.
In a large bowl, mix together the bulgur wheat, parsley, onions, and tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in 1 tbsp. of olive oil and lemon juice to taste. However much lemon juice you use is up to you. I think I used 2-3 tbsp., but use however much you like.

Asparagus and Italian Sausage Pasta

Sheila — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 06:10:23 +0000

Throughout the work week when we’re busy and don’t have time to do a lot of cooking, we like to throw together a pasta very quickly. We always make extra so we have leftovers for the next day. What about you? Do you like having leftovers?

Here’s the pasta Kemal made for us last night. It was wonderful!!!

Asparagus and Italian Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

4 Italian sausage links (we used chicken sausage)
1 bunch asparagus
1 zucchini, sliced
4 large tomatoes, diced
8 oz. dried pasta (I used tri-color fusilli)
2 small onions, diced
1/4 cup + 1 tsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. chili powder
black pepper to taste
1 tsp. salt
3 quarts water
freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnishing the top of the pasta

Instructions:

Step One: Prep Work

Wash and dice the tomatoes.
Peel and dice the onions.
Wash and slice the zucchini.
Wash the asparagus and then cut off the the bottoms of the stalks (I usually cut 1 1/2 inches off the bottom) because this part is tough and not very tasty.
Grate the Parmesan cheese and then refrigerate it until you need it.
Cut the sausage patties/links into bite-sized pieces.

Step Two: Cook the Sausage and Vegetables

Fry the sausage in 1/4 cup of hot olive oil (between medium and medium high heat).
When the sausage is about halfway done, add the onions and fry for a few minutes.
Then add the zucchini and asparagus, cooking until the sausage is done and the vegetables are soft but still a little firm.
Stir in the chili powder and black pepper, and then add the diced tomatoes, cooking just for a few minutes so the tomatoes can get warm.
Then cover the sausages and vegetables with a lid so they’ll stay warm, and set them aside.

Step Three: Cook the Pasta

On high heat, boil about 3 quarts of water in a large pot.
When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium high, and then add the pasta, 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. olive oil, stirring occasionally.
Cook the pasta until it’s tender but firm.
Drain the water off the pasta.

Step Four: Assemble the Pasta

Place the pasta in a large bowl or on a large serving dish.
Pour Italian sausage and vegetable mix on top of the pasta.
If you want, you can decorate the outside of the pasta with some of the asparagus tips.
Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.