If you don’t know much about where they come from and only see propoganda videos, it’s pretty interesting to see what most people don’t get to see.  Anyway, details on that another day and back to the egg salad!  Currently, I love how egg yolks contain choline, which is important for everyone but especially pregnant women and nursing mothers.  It helps to reduce the risk of brain and spinal cord defects in the baby.  And you pregnant women thought only folic acid and omega 3′s were extra important!

I lightened up this egg salad  with Greek yogurt.  If you like that idea, check out my Sonoma Chicken Salad!  I still like to add a little bit of mayo for flavor, though I use the organic olive oil version – tastes spectacular.  No, I do not make my own and I don’t think I use it enough to be interested…yet!  To lighten it up even more, you could toss some of the yolks, but I kept them in for the nutrients.  Also, some people chop up a ton of onions for their egg salad, and to me that ruins it.  Too many crunchy onions and after I’m done eating- I still eat far more than I would have just to get rid of the onion taste in my mouth.  It sticks around forever!  However, a hint of the onion is nice so I slice up the green part of green onions and put a little in there for balance.  Personally, I don’t use the stalky white part of the green onion because it gives more of the onion crunch that sticks with me all day.

I was in the mood for a nice and classic egg salad.  Nothing fancy, but a great classic done my way.  Easter is coming up… what are you going to do with your leftover eggs?

I was going to town on this after making it by dipping cucumber slices in the bowl.

Hey!  You may be here to see who the allbarstools.com Le Creuset giveaway winner is!  Random.org picked #35…congratulations Christine!!!

Anytime I’m either in Italy or at an authentic Italian restaurant with meat and gravy over polenta (either roast or rabbit), my mouth instantly waters and I want to order it!  Luckily, either my Dad or husband always orders it, so I can try something else equally delicious and we can all share.  During our Vegas trip last month – one restaurant has a fantastic appetizer portion of rabbit and gravy over polenta and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Because I have a freezer in our garage full of cow, I decided to go ahead and throw this together.  I’m sooo glad that I did since we loved it and I know what I will be doing with a few more of those roasts in the freezer!  As a kid, I didn’t like the traditional American style roast with potatos and carrots.  I like it now but still prefer the Italian style most days.  I made it with extra liquids on purpose for some leftover gravy to share over more fresh polenta!

If you’ve read this post, Easy Purple Polenta Meal , then you’ll know my son finds purple foods intriguing and will eat it.  I would’ve made this with purple polenta but unfortunately, I couldn’t find the Bob’s Red Mill blue cornmeal this time!  That resulted in my son not eating this when I know he would have had the polenta been purple!  Urggghhhh!  Next time I see it, I’m buying a few of them.

Ingredients:

• 3 shallots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 TB butter
• 5 lbs bone-in chuck roast (or whatever roast you have on hand)
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth (less if you want less gravy)
• 1 cup dry red wine (I used a Chianti)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 16 oz mushrooms
• cornstarch for gravy (or whatever method you prefer) -about 2 TBs dissolved in about 1/4 cup of water
• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I used roughly ground cornmeal which takes longer, but you can use the fine ground stuff as well)
• 4 cups chicken broth + 2 cups water, more or less
• parmesan or pecorino romano

Method:

• Set crockpot to low (8 or 10 hours)
• Add olive oil to bottom of crockpot and then add garlic and shallots
• Add broth, red wine, herbs and tomato paste, stir
• Heat butter on stovetop pan and sear all sides of roast, (salt and pepper roast)
• Add roast to the crockpot
• Mid-day, if you are able to come home, add mushrooms – I did this about 4 1/2 hours into cooking so that the mushrooms didn’t get too tiny, omit this step if you can’t come home and just add the mushrooms
• For the thick-cut cornmeal, about an hour and a half prior to serving, I like to soak fora half hour, it seems to make cooking time go by faster without having to stand around and stir for quite as long.  Then, one hour prior to serving, set heat to medium and stir with whisk.  When bubbles start to form, turn down heat until the bubbles are minimal- continue stirring with a wooden spoon almost constantly.  When the mixture becomes tough- keep adding little bits of water at a time.  Continue cooking and stirring until coarseness of the grain goes away and it starts to pull in from the pan.  I think the thicker-cut cornmeal has a better texture, but you have to cook it long enough so that it’s not grainy!
• For the finer-cut cornmeal, similar instructions but it should only take 30-40 minutes
• Season polenta with grated parm or romano or both, and invert onto a plate (or do it like I do, just serve out of the pot so I don’t have to do another dish!)
• When meat is done, remove from the crock pot and put on a plate
• Slowly stir in cornstarch mixture with a whisk or spoon until desired thickness of gravy is formed.  I’m lucky, my mom was over this day and makes the best gravy ever, she did this part for me!  When done, return meat to crockpot.
• Serve the meat and red wine mushroom gravy over the polenta, top with more grated cheese if you wish!

By the way…excuse my picture- I meant to take a beautiful shot of how the meat fell off the bone and demonstrate how tender it was…but then our stomachs got the better of us and we ate all the good stuff in no time.  This picture is the last we could salvage of the meat!  It still smelled divine though…

Pineapple Cashew Chicken Salad With Greek Yogurt

One of my favorite salads my mom makes is a version of this one – I looked all over the place for a similar recipe but couldn’t find one- so I have no idea where it originated.  Anyway, I changed everything but think it’s interesting that I couldn’t find anything similar online!  That’s almost impossible nowadays!  This chicken salad is just awesome- it’s got lots of different flavors but remains fairly light yet filling.  When I get a craving for this stuff I’ll eat it all within a few days myself and never feel gross.  I love this stuff!  Everyone eats this differently, but I like to use TONS of cabbage per bowl and sprinkle with lots of shredded coconut and cashews.  For this version, I used both mayo and Greek yogurt.  I love the taste of mayonnaise, but not the nutrition facts!  I didn’t want to lose the mayonnaise flavor though so in this case, decided to keep it in. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped up chicken- I use rotisserie- my mom prefers chicken breasts boiled in broth
• 1/4 cup mayo- I use organic Spectrum regular
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogut
• 3/4-1 tsp curry, depending on if you’re sensitive to too much
• 2/3 cup pineapple bits
• 1/2 cup mandarin oranges
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 1-2 bananas
• unsweetened coconut
• cashews
• shredded green cabbage – I buy the bag, but don’t get the kind mixed with carrots and red cabbage!

Method:

• Mix Greek yogurt, mayo and curry
• In a separate bowl, mix together chicken, pineapple, mandarin oranges and celery
• Pour the yogurt mixture into the chicken mixture, reserving  a little to see if it’s all necessary.  Some people like more dressing on their salad than others.  Also, if you boil the chicken breasts, they’re likely to get drier and then you may need to add more yogurt mixture.
• To serve, put desired amount of cabbage on bottom of bowls, top with chicken salad, and top that with some coconut, chopped banana and cashews. 
• Don’t add the banana until serving time – or it will get brown and mushy.  I also don’t add the coconut or cashews until serving either but there won’t be nasty goo like with the banana if you accidentally add them or have leftovers!  I like to mix it all up and then eat it. 

Healthy Gluten Free Pasta With Greens

I couldn’t believe it.  I sat this pasta down in front of my husband, who is an avid bolognese eater and avoider of vegetables, and he snarfed it down.  Whoah!  Happy dance, I got my hubby to eat his veggies again:)  First I want to talk about the pasta itself.  I used De Boles Gluten Free Multi-Grain pasta with brown & white rice flour, amaranth and quinoa.  I wouldn’t say the pasta itself was the best consistency, but that’s because I cooked it too long.  It was fine though, it just wasn’t al dente, which is my fault but the box said cook 6-7 minutes and I checked it at four!  It was already past al dente but not cooked so long it was mushy.  So – if you do buy this pasta- remember to check it often and before the four minute mark as mine was past al dente!  Also, if you’ll notice, the pasta did not stick together – it broke up into grade-school goulash.  I don’t mind this but when the pasta strand isn’t long and cool looking, my son isn’t intrigued to eat it.  I sort of felt like mom went ahead and cut it up for me so that I don’t have to twirl and get myself messy. 

The ingredients that went into this worked really well together – it was pesto-ish without actually being pesto and/or having to make pesto.  I’m going to diverge for a moment.  Did anyone watch the Top Chef episode where Fabio’s dish had too much pesto according to the judges?  I about fell off my chair.  How can you have too much pesto?  I love a good pesto so much I would bathe in it.  Mmmmm, you can  dish up too much pesto for me any time Fabio!!!   My only problem with making pesto is that basil is expensive and  pesto uses a lot of basil but when I try to grow it I kill it.  How do I kill basil when it grows like a weed?  Good question, it’s pretty sad.  I think maybe plants are aware of my negative additute about watering them.  I go to water them and try to talk and give love and it feels fake -really I feel a little ticked off knowing that this thing is going to die on me before producing squat.  Self-fulfilling prophecy.  Anyway – the chard (I used rainbow) brings a bite to the pasta dish but it’s negated by the balsamic vinegar and parm.  The crunch of the toasty pine nuts perhaps offsets any of the possible pasta consistency problems.  My husband ate it:)  Really, I’m talking it down, it was fabulous!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box De Boles Multi Grain Pasta
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 bunch rainbow or Swiss chard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (or as much as you’d like)
• 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes – I used grape, but they were more tart than I would like – so I picked around them – (if you want to add them, toss in olive oil and salt and roast in oven at 350 until wilted- about 15-20 minutes)
• 3/4 cup more or less freshly grated parmiggano reggiano
• Olive oil
• 1 bunch basil, coarsely chopped - about 3/4 ounce
• 1 bunch parsley coarsely chopped – about 3/4 ounce
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Start water on the stove, adding salt optional
• Sautee fennel in olive oil on medium-high heat about 10 minutes – add chard and cook down until softened, continue cooking together – about 10 minutes or until fennel becomes more see-through and turns a little golden adding olive oil when necessary
• Add garlic and shallots cook a few minutes- and add a shot of balsamic vinegar - add pine nuts and  allow to toast a little
• When water starts boiling – add the pasta but check often – drain and add olive oil to pasta so it doesn’t stick
• Add parsley and basil, cook down – about 1-2 minutes
• Add pasta, more olive oil, salt, pepper, parm and tomatoes – toss well and serve – serves 2

Purple Polenta

Regarding the Food Network, I like to eat more like Giada, but today I feel more like a mix between Sandra Lee and Rachael Ray.  This meal is semi-homemade and takes about 30 minutes!  One of the reasons it’s so quick is because I used a bottled sauce.  It’s awesome though, Mother Earth Organic Tomato Basil imported from Italy.  I would not use most bottled sauces as they really are not very good.  If you can’t find Mother Earth Organic (at Whole Food’s and locally in the health section at Hy-Vee), Lucini’s Creamy Tomato Ricotta sauce is excellent as well!  I also like to make my own sauces but it’s just hard to find the time sometimes!  Of course, if you have the time, make your favorite sauce!  This was so good the first time that I had to make it twice in one week just so I could take a picture of it and post!  The first time I made it I used the remainder of the local American Italian Heritage Society’s sausages, which are amazing but alarmingly full of fat.  I swear it’s 50%.  I can’t stand chewing on fat and end up spitting it into my napkin.  So, the second time I made it (pictured), I bought the sweet Italian turkey sausage made without hormones or pesticides.  Much healthier!  However, with less fat, I do prefer the flavor of the good stuff the local Italians make!

If you’ve never made polenta before, don’t be intimidated because it’s super-easy.  But done right, it’s a little time consuming.  You can buy regular corn meal, but I like to buy the medium to course grind corn grits which just takes a little while longer to soften, but it brings a different texture dimension to the polenta.  Also, you can make your polenta with just water, but I prefer to use chicken broth.  It only adds a little bit of flavor, it won’t taste like chicken broth, but what it adds always goes with what I’m making!  By the way, I like my polenta soft, not hard.  Most people think polenta comes in tubes that you slice and fry.  I’ve tried that before and didn’t like it at all!  You can make your polenta soft, and then you can fry the leftovers the next day if you want!  It tastes a million times better than the store-bought tubes.  Part of my reasoning for making it purple (using blue cornmeal) other than the usual added antioxidants in colorful food, is that my son lately will eat purple food.  It’s funny, he won’t eat carrots or peppers, but will happily munch on purple carrots or purple peppers, which are milder than the green variety.  Sure enough, he chowed on this meal, but won’t eat yellow or white polenta!  My husband and I like to drizzle extra virgin olive oil (I’m partial to evoo from Spain) on top of most of our Italian dishes, and it’s really cute because our son will wait eagerly for his olive oil drizzle before digging into his food.  However, he still steals my plate and eats my food because it’s most always better than his…even though it’s exactly the same.

Ingredients: (for 3, double for 4-6 people)

• 1 cup blue cornmeal…yes it is called blue, but it looks purple to me!  Lavender to be exact.  Lavender Polenta doesn’t sound very good though.
• 3-4 cups chicken broth or water, for simplicity, I buy the 4 cup boxed organic chicken broth and usually use most of the box.
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano – the imported real stuff tastes better than regular Parmesan (without the reggiano behind the name)
• Olive oil
• 1/2 jar (Mother Earth Organic tomato basil sauce) jar sauce
• 3 turkey Italian sausages – sweet or spicy
• 1 TB butter
• salt to taste
• lemon basil or basil – lemon basil is delicious- it’s basil that tastes like a little lemon rind flavor found its way in, that’s what I used, again from the farmer’s market

Method:

• Boil 3 cups chicken broth, whisk in blue cornmeal, add butter and reduce to simmer.  This needs to be babysat, constantly whisking and stirring the mixture which will bubble.  If it gets tough to stir, add a little more chicken broth
• Meanwhile, on a skillet  on medium-high with a little bit of butter or butter spray, brown the edges of the sausage, continue cooking for about 10 minutes, remove from heat and slice sausage and return to skillet - until sausage is cooked through and browned nicely on the sides.  If there there is liquid leftover from the sausage that doesn’t cook down, just drain it
• (remember to stir polenta) reduce sausage skillet heat to low and after a couple of minutes add the sauce, rip up some lemon basil or basil leaves, about 7-10 and stir in with the sauce
• After about 30 minutes of the polenta cooking – do a taste test and make sure that it has softened – it shouldn’t be crunchy but it still has some depth to it, turn off the heat, add1/3-1/2 cup parm, a drizzle of olive oil (1tsp-1tbsp), salt to taste
• Serve polenta on plate and top with desired amount of sauce with sausage, top with freshly grated parm and drizzle with olive oil. 

My favorite way to eat polenta is with rabbit and gravy but it’s very time consuming.  I’ll make sure to post a recipe for that eventually.  From many of my friends, I get asked to make some less “healthy” things – see, this would qualify even though it’s healthy!  They’re basically asking me to sometimes not bake foods with scary sounding ingredients:)  Well, I hope this is less scary for you!

Photo by Roland A Manarin

Say hello to my hand!  Excuse me, above is my first “hand shot” so I was excited about it - it was fun!  I have more fun taking photos of the pictures when my brother is the one doing it and not myself.  If you read my last post, you’ll know that this is a recipe using Saucy Mama’s Parmesan Garlic Marinade.  With my Italian roots, I get extra excited about the Italian stuff, and also extra picky.  This marinade is surprisingly (to me) tasty!  An excellent Parmesan garlic flavor, just what it says!  It also had a sort of creamy Caesar dressing kick most likely from the anchovy in the ingredients.   And, I like that it’s a marinade rich in flavor, and not a heavy sauce meant to drown your pasta.  Delish!  I usually make my own sauces, but they can be time consuming and this is so much easier AND good.  Yay!  One of my favorite dishes at the best Italian restaurant in Omaha, Pasta Amore, is their light and flavorful Chicken Picatta.  Now, I am going to try to emulate that soon, but this recipe is inspired by that delicious picatta.  This is more of a merging of chicken picatta meets Saucy Mama’s Parmesan Garlic Marinade, and it works beautifully!  Oh, and be sure to look below to comment for the giveaway!!!

Saucy Mama Parmesan Garlic Marinade

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb chicken breasts, sliced thin (4 pieces)
• 1 roasted red pepper (I prefer Roland brand…not because every other man in my family is named Roland, but because of the flavor) 7.5oz bottle
• capers
• 1/2c or more Parmesan Garlic Marinade (Saucy Mama!)
• juice of 1 lemon, squeezed

Method:

• You may need to butterfly the chicken or pound it between sheets of parchment in order to make it thin.  I started with 4 already thin breasts and pounded them down for a bit with a utensil not meant for flattening meat, but I seem to have lost my meat pounder.  Meat pounders work much much better, fyi.
• Cover the chicken with Parmesan Garlic Marinade and allow to marinate in the fridge at least 10 minutes
• Pre-heat a pan on medium-high heat, add olive oil and allow to get hot, add chicken and cook 2-4 minutes on each side, the thinness of the chicken allows it to cook much faster.  Make sure you don’t overcook so the meat isn’t tough.  It’s a perfect soft and flavorful chicken breast when cooked the right amount of time.
• Slice the roasted red pepper into thin strips
• Remove the chicken when done and set aside
• In the same pan, add 1/2 cup marinade and the juice of one lemon, allow to boil, and then reduce heat to medium-low and allow to thicken, just a few minutes – taste test the sauce, if it’s too lemony for you, add more marinade and vice versa.  I like the strong lemon flavor much like a picatta
• Plate the chicken, pouring desired amount of sauce on chicken/plate and equally distribute pepper strips and some capers on each dish

Onto the giveaway!!!  As mentioned in my previous post, the giveaway is 4 bottles of Saucy Mama’s (spicy hot) Lime Chipotle Marinade.  Just leave a comment below and to double your chances you can also comment on the Asian Cornhusker Salad.  Depending on the amount of comments, I may just split it up and choose 2 winners that will receive 2 bottles each.  To make it fun you can tell me what you might make with the Lime Chipotle Marinade, but if you’ve already done that on the corn recipe, well, just say whatever you feel:)  I will choose a winner or two via random.org next Wednesday, August 19th.

Update!  Random.org picked #17 and #21 – Congraulations Tony and Ingrid!

Disclosure:  I was provided free product from Barhyte Specialty Foods

Photo by Roland A Manarin

The Nebraska classic, if you’ve been here (or surrounding states), then you should know what a Runza is, and then you’ve most likely experienced peer pressure to have one!  Unless you’re a vegetarian or have celiac disease, then I sure hope you’ve tried one.  Speaking of…I’m a little embarrassed that I was trying to talk a guy I know with celiac disease AND he’s also a vegetarian to try a Swiss Cheese Mushroom Runza.  Momentary lapse of memory I guess.  Just wasn’t thinking or being sensitive at the moment.  I literally forgot and felt pretty stupid about it!  Although…sometimes, foods are just so good or such a part of your history growing up that it’s amazing that others close to you haven’t experienced it! 

What is a Runza?  It’s basically a hamburger, cabbage and onion casserole encased in some great homemade bread-either plain, with cheese or swiss cheese and mushrooms.  It’s sort of a man’s man kind of yummy hot encased beef sandwich or alternatively the hangover cure.  If Zane Lamprey came to town I’d take him to Runza the next day!  Runzas are the only food I missed from home the first few times I traveled far away.  I sort of grew out of my Runza cravings after college, but every so often I have to have one.  My personal favorite is Swiss Cheese Mushroom…NO KETCHUP!  My husband used to eat the cheese ones with ketchup which drove me nuts because it tastes like meatloaf when you add ketchup (not a meatloaf fan unless it’s fancy…sorry).  Anyway, I got a Runza bake recipe from some friends that love this particular recipe….but then I changed it.  I’ll give you both recipes, so you’re aware.  And if you want some actual Runza copycat recipes, you can just google it and plenty show up.  I felt like doing a slightly healthier and difficult version of a casserole but with puff pastry.  I’m trying to get over my recent puff pastry obsession since it’s not so healthy, but it continues…

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs turkey meat (or hamburger or bison/buffalo)
• 1/2 can organic cream of mushroom soup (I specify organic here because the contents in the regular cans need some nutriontal help, if you do not care, use a whole can of regular soup.  To be honest, the organic version just doesn’t taste as good.)
• 1/4 cup beef broth
• 1 medium cabbage, finely chopped, hard core removed
• 1 pint white or baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1 frozen puff pastry package
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped (I like to use sweet yellow or Vidalia)
• 6 slices swiss cheese, roughly 6oz
• butter for cooking cabbage, a few tablespoons more or less
• 1/2 tsp salt, more or less to taste

Method:

• Remove puff pastry from freezer and set out to thaw according to package instructions
• Cook cabbage and onion on stove top in large pan with butter over medium-high heat, roughly 15 minutes or until cabbage starts to wilt and become see-through.  Add garlic and continue cooking until cabbage is completely soft and cooked through
• Add cream of mushroom soup, set cabbage mixture aside in a separate bowl
• In the same pan over medium-high heat, cook mushrooms and beef broth until mushrooms are tender, salt to taste, set aside in a separate bowl
• Pre-heat oven to 375, grease 13x9x2″ pan
• In the same stove top pan over medium-high heat, cook turkey until done, add salt
• On a floured surface, roll out one sheet of puff pastry until it covers the bottom of the 13x9x2″ pan, lay it on the bottom of the pan
• Spread hamburger evenly on top of puff pastry sheet
• Layer with cabbage mixture
• Then add mushrooms
• Layer evenly with cheese
• Roll out the other pastry and set on top
• With a knife, make a few slits in the pastry to allow air to escape
• Bake roughly 25 minutes or until brown.  All ovens are different and puff pastry is testy, so make sure to check top of pastry while cooking because it may burn

This is a yummy, fancy version of a Runza.  However, it still isn’t too fancy and neither are Runzas!  The ingredients to my friends’ recipe are: 1 lb hamburger, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 medium cabbage, cumin, 1 crescent roll package, 1 onion, American cheese slices.  These ingredients are not authentic style Runzas either, but damn good according to known Runza lovers.

A special thanks to my brother Tony (Roland), who took the picture above.  And congratulations!  For trying to quit smoking.  I hope this attempt will be your last and that Takako’s husband has stinky breath only from garlic, onion or morning.  I’m proud of you!

Photo taken by Takako Yazaki

I called my sister in law, Takako, to see if she could help me make spicy tuna rolls.  If you’ve read the miso soup recipe, you’ll know she’s from Nagasaki, Japan and knows her Japanese food of course!  She informed me that spicy tuna rolls are American and she had no clue how to make them but she’d be willing to help me out!  I already knew that most of the popular rolls were American but for some reason thought that the spicy tuna were a Japanese original but…nope!  However, I don’t care, I still love this roll and figured it would be much cheaper to make it at home.  Having Takako there while making these rolls gave me the courage to eat raw fish at home.  Now, of course I bought the fish from a reputable fish market in Omaha and made sure it was sushi grade tuna first (should be at over $25/lb).  But that still didn’t calm my nerves!  Yep, these rolls were delicious, just as good or better than many restaurants’ versions!  That didn’t stop me from thinking my stomach hurt later that night…which some wine fixed.  You see, the alcohol in the wine killed anything the fish may have had in it!  Okay, I realize this is all absurd, but I’ve just never eaten raw fish that I have prepared before and so it was a tad bit nervewracking.   I think the alcohol really just killed my nerves.  Either way, my stomach felt fine later that night.

This recipe comes from the two of us working together adding this and that until it suited our tastebuds best.  If you like yours extra spicy, go ahead and add more sriracha!  This version was spicy enough to feel the heat, but not spicy enough to kill the tastebuds. 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound sushi grade tuna…ahi or yellowfin
• 1 Tb mayonnaise
• 2 tsp sriracha (a Thai hot sauce, it should be in the Asian section at your grocery store…if not, you can probably just use Tabasco or a Mexican hot sauce but it won’t be quite the same)
•  2-3 Nori sheets, depending on how much fish you want per roll
• 1 lemon wedge
• scant 1/4 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar (the back of the bottle should imply that it is good for sushi rice)
• 2 cups cold sticky rice, brown rice would be best.  Takako said to make sure that you use cold rice, never use warm or hot or it messes with the fish!
• 1/8 of avocado, sliced lengthwise (optional)

Method:

• In food processor or blender, add tuna, mayo, sriracha, and juice of squeeze lemon wedge.  Pulse until mostly pureed but not pasty (pasty if fine if you’ve gone too far), refrigerate until ready to put on Nori
• With the side of a spoon, cut rice vinegar into the rice, you want to be gentle or you’ll ruin the integrity of the rice.  If it seems too liquid, just wait a bit and it gets dryer fast
• On a bamboo sushi mat (or just on a plate if you don’t have the mat, it’s fine) place a sheet of Nori and enough rice to cover, don’t smash the rice down with the back of a spoon (like I tried to do), gently pat it down with the side of the spoon.  Leave a 1/2 inch border at the top (where you are going to aim your roll, so that’ll be the end of the roll)
• Put sushi in the center horizontally (parallel to the 1/2 border on top, but mid-way through the roll)  We made two rolls so used half of the tuna, but if you want to make three rolls, use 1/3 of the tuna mixture, I’d recommend you put avocado in them if using less tuna…or just put avocado in them anyway, yum!
• If you’re adding avocado slices, place them on top of  the tuna.
• Carefully and firmly start to roll the Nori at first almost folding the roll in half, squeeze gently and continue to roll slowly and tightly, firmly pressing as you go along.  The bamboo mat will make it easier to roll but if you think you won’t make these much, I would wait to buy one
• Slice to desired width carefully with a sharp sharp knife
• Repeat, if you’re making 2 rolls, you will have some leftover rice

Enjoy!  Hey, did you notice the cool purple carrots?  I couldn’t resist them at the farmer’s market (another Black Sheep Farm’s special) knowing that pretty much anything purple is going to deliver some great antioxidants.  If you’re curious how they taste, they’re not too different than your regular carrot, yet slightly less sweet.  The carrot flavor is 100 % there and they’re fresh and delicious.  You just rinse them and eat.  If you peel them, the purple comes off and the inside is white or orange…the above pictured are white inside.  Nifty little fact:)  My toddler even gnawed on one for awhile, and he won’t eat the orange variety.  Hmmm, maybe I should buy some more purple stuff?

Everyday Salad

So…an everyday salad.  Sounds silly to post a recipe for any old salad since you can throw any vegetable in it and make a decent salad.  But this one…it never fails, it’s simple, you don’t have to go to a specialty store to make it and it’s budget friendly!  It’s a sort of copycat recipe from an old restaurant called Little Roma- a couple of Croatian brothers ran it and made this salad either as an entree or starter salad.  I have been in the mood for it lately, and since the restaurant shut down a couple of years ago (they’re running a Greek place now) – I decided just to make it for myself, and it’s every bit as good as I remember it.  They used iceberg mixed with whatever greens they had, but I just use the lettuce picked from my Dad’s garden along with the farmer’s market specials.  However, this salad is great because it’s easy to find these ingredients in winter as well!   When I’m not making this salad, I usually get carried away having fun throwing all kinds of different veggies, fruits and nuts into my salad…sometimes sprinkling gomasio with seaweed on it as well.

I snack all day long, I basically never stop eating.  I decided with having to be in a swimsuit coming up, that I could stand to lose a couple of pounds.  Literally, just a couple, and after not even a week of replacing one snack a day with this simple salad (I’m not sick of it yet!) and not eating a half a bag of Vic’s Popcorn (light/half salt) at night hanging out with my husband watching something on TV…I’ve already accomplished it!  Oh, and I do not measure it and make a pretty darn big bowl.  If I buy an average organic mix in the plastic container at the grocery store, I probably use about a half to third of it.  In the picture above, much of the vegetables fell to the bottom after mixing.  Some people would call this salad a meal, but unless there’s lots of protein and something else on the side, this could only satisfy me for a snack.  It is a big salad though so it may fill you up.  I think Elaine would classify it as a big salad as well.

Ingredients:

• lettuce, mixed greens, baby greens
• tomatoes, I prefer around 4-6 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered 
• seedless cucumber, a couple of inches worth, chopped up
• yellow or vidalia onion, finely minced (about a half of a ring slice, or a half of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon)
• sliced black olives, I buy jumbo ones and slice them myself, about 5
• green pepper, finely chopped – about 1-2 teaspoons, I just use the size of 1 or 2 fajita sized pieces
• extra virgin olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• parmesan, romano or little feta bits

Method:

• Chop up all of your veggies
• Put that lettuce in a bowl, add the veggies, sprinkle with salt and pepper
• drizzle with olive oil and red wine vinegar
• freshly grate some cheese on top – or sprinkle the feta
• mix, enjoy!

I don’t see any point in measuring out my olive oil or counting calories.  I did it after college for awhile and it didn’t do me any good.  Plus, for a semester of college I studied in Valencia, Spain.  They probably fed me about a half a cup of olive oil daily…or more!  It was wonderful and I actually lost weight there practically drinking the stuff and not trying in the least!  Well, now that I think about it, I also lived with an 85 year old lady we called, “abuela” and she tried to feed me mystery meat one too many times so I always requested vegetables, sardines and tortilla Espanola.  She called me, “la de las verduras.”  Had I lived with a different family, I still think the same would hold true because for the most part, processed foods weren’t popular at the time.  Their frozen vegetable mixes are much better over there by the way.  In Spain, they just ate good food and didn’t worry about calories or diet products.  Well…I take that back, I did meet a few young women who existed on Coca Cola and cigarettes, but for the most part, just live and eat and have fun!  You also learn that same lesson traveling to Italy.   Okay, sorry, I’m diverging much too much. 

Back to the salad: my mom prefers it with garlic salt.  My son likes to sit on my lap and pierce everything with a fork and feed it to me.  This takes forever so I try to make this as a snack after he naps, but he does have fun and every so often eats a lettuce or spinach leaf while he’s at it.  If he can have fun with my salad and get a little taste here and there, even better!  I’d also like to mention the raw onion in there.  I typically only like cooked onions, especially caramelized onions.  The crunch and strong flavor of raw onion and the aftertaste and breath are not appealing to me, but by mincing just a little bit of onion in there, the crunch and flavor blitz doesn’t happen and the flavor is nicely distributed throughout.  If it weren’t for those Croatian boys, I’d never have put raw onions in my salad.

Shepherd's Pie With Red Wine

If I see Shepherd’s Pie on the menu anywhere (or something like it) I have to order it!  It’s the ultimate in comfort food with a nice bonus of vegetables.  Unfortunately, it’s not on too many menus in Omaha so I’m forced to make it myself.  Luckily, I found an amazing recipe from Saveur which I’ve tweaked to suit my needs…  as usual.  This recipe calls for lamb – making it shepherd’s pie, but if you don’t want to buy it for any reason, you can substitute ground beef and call it cottage pie!  That’s yummy too.  I love cooking with different meats, in fact, on Father’s Day we had some delicious braised goose with polenta, but we gobbled it up before I could take a picture so I thought I’d make lamb this time.  For a little fyi, I bought some grass-fed lamb at the farmer’s market, and it actually doesn’t taste any better than the lamb at the grocery store.  Interesting since the grass-fed beef is about a million times better than the grocery store versions (I’m talking no added hormone version).  I will continue to buy the grass-fed regardless since it’s better for you, but this lamb was really no different.  Depending on the cut of lamb you buy, you may have to do some major fat-cutting!  Lamb can be pricey, so it’s just more work cutting out fat if you buy a fattier piece.  I can’t stand chewing on fat so I’ll work forever cutting it off if I have to.  If anyone knows of a good butcher in Omaha, let me know!

This kind of food makes my husband happy.  However, this takes forever to make and makes quite a mess!  If you’ve got small kids, I suggest a babysitter or definitely some help before attempting!  In this case, my mom was around to help.  We started at nap-time and then when my son woke up, my mom entertained him so I could keep cooking.  Otherwise, I don’t think I would attempt making anything this time consuming!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 2 lbs lamb (any cut that’s on sale, cut into 1/2″ cubes)
• 1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 3/4 cup beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 15oz can chopped San Marzano tomatoes, drained
• 2 Tb flour (or if you’re gluten-intolerant, just substitute what you normally would to thicken gravy)
• 1 Tb finely chopped FRESH rosemary leaves, fresh rosemary makes a huge difference here!
• 1 tsp thyme, dried, 1 TB fresh if you have it, I didn’t
• a few dashes of nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 2-3 large russet potatoes, depending on how much you want, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 cup half-and-half or 1/2 cup chicken stock to lighten up the mashed potatoes

Method:

• Pre-heat non-stick casserole dish to medium-high on stove-top (I use the same oven-safe kind so I don’t have to dirty up 2 dishes, but use a pan if you don’t have a transferrable pan)
• Add enough butter to coat and brown lamb – you’ll have to work with 1/4 to 1/3 of the lamb at a time, removing to a bowl to brown up the next batch.  Add more butter as necessary, remove all lamb to bowl
• Add onion, shallot and carrots to pan and cook until onion is see-through and browns a little, about 5 minutes
• Return lamb (and all juices) to pan and add flour, whisk for about a minute.  You can also coat the lamb w/ flour first if you want to or if you forget the flour, just add it when you add the juices, it’ll all work out
• Add beef stock, wine, rosemary, thyme and nutmeg, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cover about 2 hours, until lamb is tender – yours may cook much faster, so keep checking.  stirring occasionally. 
• Remove cover from pot, add tomatoes, keep simmering until thickened, about 35-40 minutes.  Remove from heat and add peas, add salt and pepper to taste, transfer to 2 quart casserole dish
• Pre-heat oven to 375
• Cover potatoes with water in a separate pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes, drain, return to pot.  Add half and half (or chicken stock if you’re making it lighter) and a few tablespoons of butter and mash with a potato masher.  Add salt and pepper to taste
• Top lamb mixture with mashed potatoes, here’s your opportunity to make those potatoes pretty.  I used 2 instead of 3 potatoes in the picture above, so more of the lamb mixture juices bubble over to the potatoes.  Yummmmm.  Slice thin slivers of butter on top of potatoes - about a tablespoon or two
• Bake until the potatoes turn golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes

…a little note about the potatoes, it’s prettier when you use three potatoes, but the last time I made this with three and had leftovers, I ended up getting a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy basically.  So, this time I made it with two instead of three for leftover’s sake.  It would’ve pictured even prettier had I used 3 but of course, I wasn’t thinking of looks, just of the flavor.  I need to remember that I have a food blog and it needs to look pretty, not just taste yummy.  It takes me awhile to learn my lessons but trust me, it’s goooood!