New Recipes!

I have just added 3 new Healthy Recipes!

T.V.P. and Lentils
Taya's Saffron Chicken with Coconut and Plantains
Curried-Herbed Turkey Breasts

I had the honor of having our friend David Oliphant bring his lovely wife, Taya to my cooking class on Thursday. They mentioned that they were looking for some new saffron recipes so I was able to develop this one for them. It's healthy- it uses coconut oil AND saffron!...and it tastes terrific!! Let me know what you think, guys!

I have also added an incredible Orange Chicken and Gruyere Turnover to the "In a Hurry?" page.

Have fun with these and let me know if you have any comments or questions!

Devil's Food Cookies

When I was growning up my twin sister and I used to spend summers with our grandparents. My maternal grandmother, Mimi who had twins boys later in life used to make the most delicious Devil's Food cake on the planet for my uncles. I've really tried to recreate that cake but the closest I've come to that delicious stickiness is with these Devil's Food Cookies...they're amazingly! Here's to you Uncle Stevie!!! Enjoy!!

1/2 cup shortening



Uncle Stevie with his beautiful wife and of course, Foxy Lady.

1 cup sugar                                                                

2 eggs, beaten

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla extract

~21 large marshmallows

For glaze:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/4 cup milk

2 T. butter

For cookies: Mix the shortening and sugar in one bowl; thoroughly combine. Add the eggs and blend. In another bowl mix the flour, soda, salt and cocoa. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and stir until just blended. Wrap in Saran Wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 min. Take the dough out and roll into small balls (~1" in diameter). Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 7 min. Pull the cookies out of the oven and place the halved pieces of marshmallow on top of each one. Put back into the oven and bake for another 2 min. Allow the cookies to cool on a cookie sheet for 2 min then on a cooling rack for 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile melt the chocolate morsels on top of a double boiler; add the milk and butter and stir until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Spoon the chocolate onto the tops of each cookie and allow to harden before serving.

Requests

Since this blog went online last week I've heard from many of my good friends and family who have all been extremely supportive and very helpful! Special thanks goes to my second daughter, Jessy. Had it not been for her this site would not exist! (She was triple-tasking as she taught me how to navigate and set up this blog...which shouldn't surprise me but it does!)

Thank you so much for all your time and kind words of encouragement!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I am working as hard as I can to get as many of your requests online as soon as possible. Please be patient with me this week. I promise there are many more "Healthy Recipes", Quick Chicken recipes, Cookies and much, much more to come!!

Every summer I am fortunate enough to teach a cooking class for the youth interns at our church. This year the theme is Cajun food and because Bubba and I are from New Orleans it's been very easy and even more fun for me!! I will be posting many of those recipes soon as well. 

Please don't hesitate to post questions or comments when necessary!

I'll leave you with a picture that my oldest daughter, Jenn just sent me...apparently Ainsley LOVED making those oatmeal cookies this weekend (a dream come true for me) and wanted to wear her mama's apron shopping!!

Endive with Blue Cheese and Candied Pecans

The outside rim of this platter has the endive with goat cheese (instead of blue cheese) and toffeed cashews (instead of the candied pecans) that were bought instead of hand made to save some time. There are also picked beets on this platter topped with Rondel Herb Cheese, decorated with the tip top of the beet that was cut off in order to stabilize them on the platter. The platter has always been a BIG HIT!!

3 heads of Endive, stem removed, separated and cleaned

4 oz. blue cheese (or any soft cheese)

1/2 lb. pecans

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

Make a simple syrup w/ the water and sugar by combining both ingredients in a heavy-bottomed small saucepan. Stir the sugar water until the sugar completely dissolves. Pour the pecans into the simple syrup and stir to coat completely. Pour the pecans out onto a jelly-roll pan that has a cooling rack on top. Cool completely.

Arrange the Endive leaves on a platter. Pinch off a little of the blue cheese and roll it together to form a small ball. Place the cheese on the whitest portion of the endive leaves. Top w/ a candied pecan.

*

Homemade Pasta is easy...especially if you have a pasta maker. My first was a hand crank like this:



Hand Crank Pasta Maker

 

Then I got an attachment to my Kitchen Aide which is much easier!
















Even if you just roll out the pasta with a rolling pin, fresh pasta is VERY rewarding!

Homemade Pasta

3 cups of flour

3 eggs, beaten

Form a well in the center of the flour. Pour the eggs into the well and slowly (with a fork) begin to pull the flour into the eggs. Continue grabbing the "wall" of flour into the eggs until all of the flour has been incorporated. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough becomes "elastic" (easy to stretch). Wrap the dough in some Saran Wrap and let it rest for at least 10 minutes or up to an hour.

Uncover the dough and divide into 8-10 balls. Flatten each ball and run it through the pasta maker twice on the lowest (widest) setting. Adjust the pasta maker to the next setting and run each disk through again. Continue running the disks through until the dough is completely stretched. (I usually stop at #5 because I like my pasta to have a bit of thickness.)

Heat a large pot (preferably a pasta pot) filled with water to boiling; add 2-3 T. sea salt. Add the pasta and cook until just softened. It doesn't take long. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried.

Drain and mix into the rest of the dish just before serving. This way the pasta will absorb some of the sauce from your dish!

*The dish shown at the top of this page is just some basic meatballs, mushrooms and a little beef broth that has been thickened with a cornstarch/water slurry.

Basil Goatcheese Cheescake

12 leaves of basil, minced

1 (15 oz) container Ricotta cheese, room temperature

1 (4 oz) container of plain, soft goat cheese, room temperature

16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 T. Kosher salt

½ tsp. black pepper, finely ground

1 small egg, scrambled

Mix all the cheeses together with a mixer. Add the seasonings, basil and egg and blend thoroughly. Pour into a 6” springform pan. Wrap the outside of the pan (not the top- only the sides and bottom) with heavy foil and then place into another 9” pan. Pour boiling water into the 9” pan and place into a 350 degree oven. Bake for ~45 to 1 hour or until the center still jiggles slightly (like Jell-O). Take the cheesecake out of the water bath and let it come down to room temperature. Place into the refrigerator to cool. Bring it back up to room temperature before serving.

I served this w/ an Arugula pesto:

1 large handful of Arugula

6 oz. pine nuts

Salt and pepper

½ cup (or more) olive oil

Blend together and pour into a squirt bottle to make decorative patterns on the cheesecake. Also good over roasted vegetables. 



Peanutbutter Cookies

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt                                                                          
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1 T. Milk

In one bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl mix sugar, shortening, peanut butter corn syrup and milk. Blend the dry and wet ingredients together; roll the dough into a cylinder shape, wrap in Saran Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 min.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice the dough in 1/4" cuts and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool for 2 min on cookie sheet and then remove to cooling rack. Enjoy!