Greek-Style Burgers/Fries

And now we're caught up to the recent dinner:

Greek-style Burgers with Feta Aioli with Baked Fries

Greek Dinner Salad

Not many tweaks to this one--just some extra seasoning, per usual. I tossed in some Greek seasoning with the fries, and that was about it. New posts the rest of this week will be a little slow because of derby practice, but stay tuned!

Homemade BBQ-Topped Chicken

A while ago I posted a recipe for my favorite homemade BBQ sauce. It was my go-to recipe...until now. A co-worker sent the following BBQ recipe to me, and it won the top sauce recipe in our house: Spiked Barbecue Sauce. The flavors in this were amazing; the grated Granny Smith apple at the end may look out of place, but I would recommend sticking to the recipe. I would have liked a little more heat to this, so if I'm brave next time around, I may add grated habanero pepper to this in place of the jalapeno. I basted some seasoned chicken breasts with the sauce and grilled to juicy perfection.

Sides included baked beans (of the Bush variety) and church-style, lemon-thyme roasted potatoes (if you're a Southern Living subscriber, this came out of the April 2010 edition): Preheat even to 425 degrees. Peel 1.5-2 lb. baby Yukon gold potatoes; set aside. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil and 1.5 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat about 3-4 minutes, or until the butter is slightly browned. Toss in the peeled potatoes and toss gently until coated. Pour the oil/potato mixture onto a lightly greased baking sheet; roast approximately 45 minutes, stirring twice. Meanwhile, lightly whisk together 1-2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, 3-4 tsp. fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Once the potatoes are roasted, toss with the lemon-thyme mix and serve immediately.

Pork Chops with Chipotle Marinade

Okay, quite a few recipes this time around--a lazy weekend slowed me down on updating posts.

First up, pork chops with chipotle marinade. Super simple: mix about 1/2 c. chipotle mustard (or chopped chipotle chilies in adobe sauce if you're lucky enough to find some in your grocery store), 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice, 1 medium sliced yellow onion, two crushed/peeled garlic cloves, some salt and pepper. Slice 1.5 lb. pork tenderloin 3/4 inch thick and season with salt and pepper; drop marinade and pork into a large Ziploc bag and let chill in the fridge at least 2 hours. Then heat some canola oil in a grill pan on medium heat and grill until the tenderloin slices are just slightly pink on the inside.

I served these with lemon-mustard asparagus: boil 1 lb. asparagus tops (just bend the stalks until they naturally break) in salted water for about 3 minutes; drain and rinse with cold water; set aside. Toast 1 Tbsp. mustard seeds in large skillet over medium heat until fragrant (about 3-4 minutes). Meanwhile, whisk together 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard, 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste; add cooled asparagus to the saute pan with the seeds and add the lemon-mustard sauce. Saute for approximately 4 minutes; serve immediately.

The other side is a spring-y salad I like to throw together in a pinch: just slice a variety of tomatoes (the more colors, the better this will be; if you can get your hands on in-season heirloom tomatoes, go that route), add some thinly sliced red onion, and toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Please Stand By...

Wow, it's been a few days. I've had to step away from the blog due to a little vacay to Florida and a hair-brained notion to lace up some skates and try out roller derby. The latter consumes at least three days out of the week for practices, so my cooking schedule has to be readjusted. And we haven't quite figured out how to do that, mainly because I've only been trying derby out for a week, so it's a new adventure. And also because I spend much of the time after practices icing down sore muscles; a growing collection of bruises that are covering my hips, hands, and knees; and trying to nurse a tailbone that's received way too many falls. (And holy crap y'all, if you ever run across a girl who says she's been a roller girl for more than a year, you better not piss her off, because she will kick your ass. Not that I know from experience--I'm just throwing it out there as free advice.) But we'll be back over the weekend with some new recipes...stay tuned!

Bleu Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Buffalo Sauce

We're a house that loves our chicken wings, so this Bleu Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Buffalo Sauce seemed like a good alternative to the original. And it was...with a few tweaks, as usual. Before stuffing the chicken per instructed with the bleu cheese mix, I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I also added some extra Tabasco sauce to the "Buffalo" sauce (I assume it's called that because it does consist of the basis of traditional Buffalo sauce: garlic, salt, hot sauce and butter). And this is the first time I've used panko breading--I highly recommend it.

Sides included zesty lemon asparagus and kicked-up new potatoes:

Zesty Lemon Asparagus
-Clean about 1 lb. of asparagus and remove the ends by gently bending the asparagus until the end snaps off.
-Steam the asparagus for about 5-10 minutes until fork-tender.
-Meanwhile, brown 2 tsp. sesame seeds in 1 Tbsp. butter over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. Tabasco. Serve over the steamed asparagus with lemon slices.

Kicked-up New Potatoes
-Clean about 1 lb. new potatoes and slice 1/4-inch thick.
-Dry off the slices with a paper towel, then season with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce to taste.
-Heat 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat; add the sliced potatoes and saute until brown on both sides; reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to saute (total saute time is about 25 minutes, so you can time it to the baking of the chicken).

Meet my editor, who likes to sit beside the bed while I type out this blog and look disapproving and bored:

Steak and Eggs

Way behind, y'all. Last night's dinner was a little blah, so I'm reverting back to Friday's dinner: steak and eggs blindfolded over cheese grits.

The husband was in charge of the steak, because he's patient with the grill. I haven't learned to stop myself from continuously turning the meat and trying to flatten it against the grill thinking it will cook quicker. And it does, but the result isn't that great. Anywho, he did a quick marinade of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces, along with the usual seasoning (salt, pepper and seasoning salt). He let the steak sit out at room temperature in the marinade for about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I moved to the eggs blindfolded over cheese grits. To be honest, the result of this was just "eh." I've become a big fan of grits, but there's a thin line between a lump and something delicious. This bordered on the lumpy side. Instead, if we make this again, I'm going to use the grits base of our favorite shrimp and grits recipe--it's creamy, rich and perfectly seasoned. The eggs were, I admit, a bit tricky. The iced cubes in the skillet do work--it quickly drops the temperature and holds the shape of the egg pretty well, so just go with it--we had an initial "huh?" reaction as well, but it was a nice little trick.

I just served our version of steak and eggs with a house salad.
Later today: bleu cheese-stuffed chicken with Buffalo sauce, zesty lemon asparagus, and kicked-up new potatoes.

Fish with Caper Salsa Verde/Pan-Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa

This week may be a Cooking Light week--actually, I know it will be that type of week. The meals are usually pretty flavorful, and they're a quick fix on a weekday. And since I was feeling pretty crappy last night, you get two posts for the price of one--yay you!

First up, last night's Halibut with Caper Salsa Verde. Our grocery store was out of (or maybe never did have) halibut, so I thought I would go with cod. White fish is white fish, right? Yeah...not so much. Turns out I have alzheimer's when it comes to using cod in recipes. Because I've used it before, and it does not hold up well at all. It's great if you can hide the chunky pieces (i.e., in a fish taco or as a panko-breaded fish sandwich), but it definitely does not make for a pretty presentation on its own...although it's still totally edible. So, lesson: find the halibut! As visual evidence of the icky presentation of cod, I now present the following:

The caper salsa verde on this was great--we omitted the anchovy paste because, well, it's kinda hard to find anchovy paste in these here neck of the woods. But use it if you have the means to find it in your area. If you're not familiar with capers, I'm going to try to describe what they are without referring to Wikipedia or a dictionary, so you may want to cross-reference your resources. Anyway...capers are simply the buds of a prickly bush, usually found in a briny substance. They're small, but they're packed with flavor and particularly good paired with fish and can be found in chicken picattas in restaurants. Give them a shot if you've never tried them before--they're really essential to this salsa.

I also made some roasted fennel with this, which is very mellow and ah-maz-ing. I'm a roasted fennel virgin, but this was simple--just preheat the oven to 400 degrees and toss 1/4-inch slices of fresh fennel (remove the outer layers of the fennel bulb first before slicing) with one Tbsp. of olive oil and bake for 12 minutes; then toss with 2 tsp. shredded Asiago cheese and bake another 12 minutes. Congratulations, you've achieved perfection.

A salad with homemade ranch was another side--to make the ranch, I just mixed some light mayo, sour cream, milk, chopped fresh chives, a splash of distilled white vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. If you have buttermilk, the taste is better, but regular milk is a quick substitute.

Okay, NEXT....pan-grilled pork chops with grilled pineapple salsa. The husband told me this tasted good, but with a stubborn head cold lingering, I honestly couldn't taste anything except a bit of the pineapple and the heat of the jalapeno in the salsa.

At any rate, this was a simple meal that, once started, took 25 minutes. First up (after prepping the onions, pineapple and jalapeno for the salsa), I started one cup of jasmine rice (my rice of choice, but use whatever you want here) and 2 cups of water on boil, then covered and reduced the heat to low, cooking for 25 minutes. After covering the rice, I put down the red onions and pineapple slices on our grill pan. (Tip: cooking spray is not the ideal "oil" to use on a grill pan; you're more likely to end up with burned cooking spray than a flavorful grilled food; I use canola oil to coat the pan instead.) I let the pineapple/onions go for about 6-7 minutes on each side, or until grill marks were apparent. I pulled those off the heat and set aside to cool while I added some more canola oil to the heated pan and put down the pork. While those cooked on one side for about 6 minutes, I made the salsa as directed, then flipped the pork to cook another 6-7 minutes. By that time, the rice should be finished--just fluff and serve.