Fabulous Food Friday: Almond Crusted Halibut

In just one short week I will be at my 20 year high school reunion. I can hardly believe it has been that long already! Sooo in order to reverse the damage done from eating so well on vacation, I've decided to ease up on the goodies for a bit (at least until the reunion is over!)

All that to say that this recipe was a brilliant choice for Mother's Day, but not one I prepared recently due to the carbs involved.

This year for Mother's Day, Dan asked me to pick a Halibut recipe and he would prepare it for me. I chose Almond Crusted Halibut (my favorite!) and to his credit, he only needed help a couple times!

Almond Crusted Halibut

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup dry white wine

• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

• 2 tablespoons minced shallots

• 1 sprig fresh thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter - chilled, cut into tablespoon-size pieces

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• salt and pepper to taste

• 6 (6 ounce) fillets halibut

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

• 2 t vanilla powder

• 2/3 cup minced blanched almonds

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Make beurre blanc: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine wine, vinegar, shallots, thyme and bay leaf. Boil until liquid has evaporated. Stir in cream, and boil until liquid is reduced by half; decrease heat to low. Whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time, adding each new piece before previous one has melted completely. Do not allow sauce to simmer, or it may separate.

2. Strain sauce through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Stir in chives, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep warm by setting bowl in a larger container of hot water.

3. Preheat oven on broiler setting. Pat fillets dry, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Heat oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute halibut fillets for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned, and just cooked through. Transfer to a baking sheet, and cool 5 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together bread crumbs, almonds and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Brush tops of fillets with egg, and spread with almond mixture.

5. Broil fillets 1 to 2 minutes, or until browned (watch closely - every broiler has its own personality!). Place fillets on individual plates, and spoon beurre blanc around it.

Fabulous Food Friday: Sweet Potato Muffins

Today's Fabulous Food Friday is brought to you by the color orange and the word YUM!

This week I have been taste testing recipes from a new blog I discovered called Heavenly Homemakers. Every one of them has been delicious and as a side bonus, I've been using up things that we already have on hand. I'm sure I'll be posting more of our favorites, but you should check it out for yourself. Really good information on eating healthy...so you know I'm a huge fan!!!


This morning for breakfast I was excited to try out the Sweet Potato Muffins...not only because I needed something to feed the kids, but more specifically I needed to use up the sweet potatoes that were sprouting in my pantry!


Soooo...before you begin mixing the ingredients for the muffins, take your sweet potatoes and wash, poke and bake them in a 400 degree oven for about 50-60 minutes. I baked 5 which will give me enough for 2 batches!

Sweet Potato Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour2 t. baking powder
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 egg
1 cup mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup milk
3 T. melted butter



Topping:
3T Sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice) or brown sugar
1 T. butter, softened
2 T. chopped nuts (optional)
In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
Sure

they may look yummy, but the real test is my kids reactions:

"wow" "yum" and "mom these are so tasty!"

I even got a hug from Zander after breakfast as he was thanking me for making such good food! Yay!!
While the muffins were baking, I decided to make up a batch of Mango Salsa before my precious mangoes turned rancid...Nothing worse than slicing open a juicy mango only to discover it has gone bad. Not to worry though, I got to them just in the nick of time! Bring on the mango madness!

Sadly I don't really have a recipe, I go by what tastes good to me...but here are the ingredients:
2 Mangos, red onion, cilantro, garlic and juice of 1 lime



My last orange item up for grabs is a strawberry-peach smoothie that really hits the spot for breakfast lunch or dinner...we had it for dinner tonight and I'm quite pleased to say that my kids with their mighty vegetable radar didn't suspect a thing!

Yep, that thar is spinach in ma blender!

Add a fancy umbrella and a dash of nutmeg and they will never suspect that they are drinking spinach...paper umbrellas are very sneaky!

Fabulous Food Friday: Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I scoured the blog for this recipe, because I swear I'd posted it already, but it was no where to be found. I did however, find it posted on Facebook, so I'm really only half losing my mind!

These pancakes are great with syrup, but try them with Raspberry Butter for an extra yummy treat!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

1 cup cottage cheese

6 large eggs

pinch of salt

2/3 cup flour

1 tbsp oil

Combine in a blender and poor on a greased griddle. My Grandma Swanson used to make these when we stayed over, now I make them. Our kids love these so much that I have to double the recipe! Enjoy!

Fabulous Food Friday: Raspberry Butter

I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman's blog...don't you just love her? She is a food blogging super star!

Pioneer Woman's Raspberry Butter

2 sticks of butter

1/2 cup raspberries

powdered sugar (optional)

Make the berry butters: in separate batches, whip 2 sticks of butter at a time on high using the whisk attachment. Switch to paddle attachment. Add either raspberries or blackberries. Turn mixer on low for only about five seconds, just long enough for the berries to begin to mix in/break up, but not so long that it turns into a mess. Clean mixer bowl and attachments and repeat with other kind of berry.

With each batch, turn mixture out onto a long sheet of plastic wrap set over a long sheet of foil. Use the wrap/foil to roll the butter into a cylinder: first seal the plastic wrap around the cylinder, then secure the foil around it. Twist the ends, gradually applying more pressure as you twist in order to make the cylinder taut.

Once it's a nice, neat cylinder of foil, place into the freezer for 30 minutes in order to quickly solidify it, then transfer it to the fridge until you're ready to use it. Butter should be nice and firm.

NOTE: You can add a little sifted powdered sugar to the butter to make more of a sweet spread for bread and muffins! For French toast, though, the maple syrup makes things sweet enough.

Raspberry butter on a warm stack of Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Yummy melted goodness!

Fabulous Food Friday...

...has moved to my Paper Capers blog...check it out!

Fabulous Food Friday

Wow! It has been ages since I have done a Fabulous Food Friday feature. This one has been in the works for a while. I have been super excited to show you the new bento lunch boxes Andy brought back from Japan...I haven't had much luck finding them locally (except online) and I am so glad I asked him to look for some, cause he (and Taly) found some great ones.

He also brought back some rice molds, dividers and picks to add to my growing bento collection:

Rice molds, sandwich cutters (found at Target and Uwajimaya) and lots of fun containers

Sauce containers and fun food picks

Since Natalie is really the only one who currently takes a lunch to school, she was treated to some fun lunches lately. She wanted me to leave all the labels and stickers on the boxes so all her friends could see that they came from Japan!

Here are my first attempts at bento lunch making:

Carrots and cheese and mini peanut butter and honey sandwiches cut like little flowers, rice with soy sauce.

This bento contains a hard-boiled egg, whole wheat tortillas, humus, carrots and strawberries

Here we have a rice bunny with a carrot nose, edamamme, apple slices and cottage cheese with a cherry on top
This one has a sticky rice ball with nori face and carrot nose and strawberry hat with edamamme, whole wheat Ritz crackers, cheese and pepperoni slices.

Although I am having tons of fun with these lunch ideas, I am really feeling good about the food she is eating. Not just pb&j all day every day...no convenience/processed food either...it's all healthy food.

One of my favorite things about this type of lunch is the fact that I am not using one single disposable lunch bag. I hate the thought of all that plastic wasted every day. I also have stopped putting juice boxes in their lunches. If you think about it, that is not only more expensive to purchase, but it really adds up to more garbage. It really hit me this year as I have been around the school more and seen how much really gets thrown out. Fortunately, Natalie's school has an amazing recycling program, but I feel better knowing I am not contributing to all the garbage...just wash and use over again!

Fabulous Food Friday

It has been ages since I've posted a recipe...how crazy is that? Anyway this yummy chilli recipe is supposed to be just like the chilli you get at Wendy's restaurants. I've made it several times and it always tastes great...so guess what we're having on Super bowl Sunday...

Super Bowl Chilli

2 lbs ground beef 29 oz kidney beans 29 oz pinto beans 29 oz tomato sauce 1 cup onion, diced 1/2 cup green chile, diced 1/4 cup celery, diced 3 medium tomatoes, chopped 2 teaspoons cumin powder 3 tablespoons chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper 2 teaspoons salt 2 cups water

Brown the ground meat in a skillet and drain fat. Using a fork, crumble the cooked meat. In a large pot, combine beef/turkey and remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes for 30 minutes.
Makes 12 servings.

Fabulous Food Friday

Do you still have turkey leftovers, are you getting tired of turkey sandwiches?

Well, let me come to your rescue! Today I'll be showing you how to use phyllo dough to turn ordinary leftovers in to an extra special meal that tastes as impressive as it looks.

Don't be afraid of the phyllo!!! If you've never used it before there are a few things to keep in mind.
• It's found in the freezer at the grocery store (near the pie crusts and frozen desserts)
• It will need to be thawed in your refrigerator overnight
• It dries out fast, so wrap up the unused phyllo and keep in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

To start out, remove enough phyllo dough (I used about 4 sheets) and store the rest in the refrigerator. Starting with the bottom layer, brush on melted butter (or use cooking spray) until you have layered all the layers with butter.

Next spread on your leftovers. I put mine in rows, starting with the mashed potatoes, stuffing and then turkey.


Over the leftovers I added a sauce too keep it moist. Sauce: 1 cup sour cream combined with 4-6 T Dijon mustard. I used Sara Lee Garden Pepper Trio Dijon Mustard with jalapeno peppers and it was yummy! Next, fold over top and bottom edge and brush on an egg wash over entire exposed surface. This will keep it from drying out while you are working and it will help "stick " it all together.

Using a sharp knife, cut the phyllo starting at the leftovers all the way to the edge of the phyllo. Do this all the way down on both sides (about every inch to inch and a half). Now you have strips which you can fold over towards the center, alternating sides. (my camera batteries went dead, so I don't have a photo of this step!)

When all the strips have been folded into the center, brush over the entire top of the phyllo with the egg wash.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes and you're done...

Now pair with some leftover cranberry sauce and a salad and you've got dinner!

Fabulous Food Friday

Yesterday afternoon I decided to take a nap (because I was one of the crazies who got up at 5 am to shop!). Before doing so I grabbed a few handfuls of Cheeze-it crackers. When I woke up from my nap I had a horrible migraine and I really felt it was from the all the salt intake from Thanksgiving, but then I looked at the ingredients in the crackers and MSG was listed. Since MSG is linked to migraines I will blame my troubles on the crackers.

Since I was hugging the toilet all night, I didn't get back to update my blog with a Fabulous Food Friday...so here it is:

Last Wednesday was Zander's preschool Harvest program and feast...see him giving a thumbs up when he finds us in the audience!!!

After lots of cute songs, we headed over to the feast where we had fruit salad, corn bread, pumpkin pie and pumpkin "s'mores." We dished up Zander's plate and set it at the table to hold his place while we got food for the the other kids. When we got back to our table Zander's plate was gone...and of course, there were no more "s'mores left, which made Zander sad.

I went into the kitchen to ask for the recipe and told Zander we would make them at home.

Pumpkin S'mores
1 C. cool whip
1/4 C. Canned Pumpkin Pie Mix

Graham Crackers (I found gingerbread flavored crackers)

Mix cool whip and pumpkin pie mix. Spread on crackers and top with crackers. Freeze until ready to eat. Tasty!

So easy...the kids will love to make them!

Fabulous Food Friday

A Cookbook Review:
A few months ago I heard about a new cookbook coming out that secretly includes vegetables in ordinary, everyday foods, undetectable by kids. I was ready to buy it then, but it wasn't being released until October. Then I saw that the author, Jessica Seinfeld, was going to appear on the Oprah show. I tuned in, and like many other viewers, couldn't wait to get my hands on Deceptively Delicious.

As soon as I was able to, I went to the Borders bookstore to pick up my copy. I was not surprised one bit to learn that it had already sold out. What did surprise me was when I asked to be put on the waiting list and the manager told me she wasn't sure if they would be getting in another shipment. Are you kidding me!!! The author appears on the Oprah show, the book sells out in half a week and you aren't sure if there are more on order?...somebody needs to clue her in on the "Oprah effect."

I had better luck at Barnes and Noble. No, the cookbook wasn't in stock there either, but I was able to be put on the waiting list and a week later I got my book!

There is another book out there called "the Sneaky Chef" which has good reviews as well, but it isn't as stylish (love the retro cookbook vibe) or as well organized. Plus the author of Deceptively Delicious is the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, star of my all time favorite comedy series...and their three kids are the exact ages of mine right now, so what's good enough for the Seinfeld family is good enough for mine!

In order to add the fruits and veggies in a way that is undetected by kids, Jessica recommends pureeing them ahead of time and having them ready in 1/2 cup , pre-measured snack sized ziplock baggies. Here is what I have pureed so far —from top to bottom: red pepper, yams, pumpkin, mixed veggies , cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini and spinach. It only took a little over an hour to make all of these and now I am ready to add them to their food...shhh. Make sure they don't see you doing it!

Last Saturday, for breakfast, we enjoyed pancakes with pumpkin and for lunch the kids had mac and cheese with mixed veggies. They had no idea and ate up every last bite. This week I made cheese tortellini w/vodka sauce (with hidden zucchini and cauliflower).

And today I made red potatoes with eggs...Can you guess what's in them?

Cauliflower again! They couldn't tell and they cleaned their plates and then some. I am continuing to offer veggies on the side so they get used to eating them as part of a healthy meal, but it's also nice to know that they are getting an additional dose of vitamins and minerals in their other food as well. For the record, my kids are usually pretty good about eating fruits and veggies (they have been known to fight over broccoli before, as long as it's not cooked), but I love the idea of giving them even more!

This week I am going to try some of the recipes for baked goods (with spinach or zucchini)...that will be the real test. Now, if I could just get them to stop sneaking the Halloween candy!

Fabulous Food Friday

Before you get any bad thoughts in your head...no, we are not serving up babies for Fabulous Food Friday!!!

Yesterday my sister Andrea came over and spent the day with me. It was nice to have some company as Dan was working at the college all day. It was also great to see my nephew, Brandon...he gets cuter every time I see him and is crawling all over (army crawl style!)

Anyway, we spent some time looking at recipes in magazines and decided we wanted to cook something yummy for dinner. I suggested potato pancakes. I have Horst Mager's recipe book with all the delicious German cuisine from the Rhinelander restaurant and loved the potato pancakes when I made them years ago. Last night we made them as the main course, but they are traditionally a side dish.

Potato Pancakes
2 pounds russet potatoes
2 small onions
2 teaspoons salt
3 whole eggs
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons finely minced chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Peel potatoes and grate (I use the food processor). Dice onions very fine. Combine eggs, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Use a wire whisk to mix into a batter.

Squeeze excess water out of potatoes and add to batter. To test for salt, cook a small portion of batter and adjust to taste. (I found that the 2 t was a bit salty, so I would reduce a bit of salt). Pour liberal amount of canola oil into a skillet. Heat oil almost to the smoking point. Take a ladle of batter and put into the hot oil. Press it down to make a fairly thin pancake. Cook pancakes on both sides until golden brown. Remove from skillet and place on paper towel to drain off excess oil. Serve as a side dish with applesauce and sour cream.

NOTE: our sour cream was past the point of eating (it was multicolored!) so I used a dill dip and it was really, really good with the potato pancakes.

Fabulous Food Friday

Caramel Apples

Ingredients:
2 packages (14oz each) caramels
1/4 cup water
8 medium apples, such as McIntosh, Gala, or Fuji
sticks for apples

In slow cooker, combine caramels and water. Cover and cook on high for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until caramels are melted, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, line a baking pan with wax paper; butter the paper. Wash and dry the apples.

Insert a stick into stem end of each apple. Reduce crockpot heat to LOW.
Note: If the caramel does happen to scorch, put it through a mesh strainer and discard any dark particles. Put the sauce into a saucepan or back into the cleaned slow cooker and keep warm while you dip the apples.

Dip apple into hot caramel; turn to coat entire surface. Holding apple above pot, scrape off excess accumulation of caramel from bottom apple. Place coated apples on prepared wax paper in pan. As you near the bottom of the pot, use a spoon to spoon hot caramel over apples. Put the pan of coated apples in the refrigerator to set thoroughly. Use caution if children are helping; the crockpot will probably be quite hot to the touch and the caramel could scald.

Makes 8 caramel apples

Fabulous Food Friday

Pork Chops with Apples...Anyone remember the Brady Bunch episode where Peter walks around saying "Pork chops and applesauce"? Well, when you eat this dish, you have to say your S's like he does!

This was our dinner last night, brought over by my friend Debbie (who spoiled us with three hot meals while I was recovering from surgery!)

Pork Chops and Apples

6 Pork Chops
6-8 Apples (peeled, cored and sliced)

Pan sear pork chops until brown on both sides. While pork is searing, place apples in the bottom of a casserole dish. Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 t cinnamon and 2 T butter (sliced) on top of apples. Place pork on top of apples. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with rice.

Fabulous Food Friday

Alyssa's Apple Bread

oven 325, bakes in about 1 hour and 10 minutes

3 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 cups chopped, pared, cored apples (about 3-4) (this puts to good use that darned apple/peeler/corer slicer thing you got at a Pampered Chef party years ago and never used!)
1 cup chopped pecans

topping:
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to slow 325. Grease and flour two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pans (or I use those mini loaf pans)

2. Stir together the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla in medium sized bowl until well mixed.

3. Combine the flour, soda and cinnamon on piece of waxed paper, and then then stir into liquid ingredients until just evenly mixed. Stir in the apples and pecans. The mixture will be very thick and gloppy.

Divide between the loaf pans.

4: Prepare the topping: combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small cup, and sprinkle over the loaves.

5: Bake in preheated slow oven at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes, approximately. Check it carefully with a tester inserted in center comes out CLEAN. Make sure it's done. Sometimes in my oven they take longer than the time specified. Make sure they are done. Nothing worse than raw middle.

Let the breads cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges of the pans. Remove the breads from the pans to wire racks to cool.

The breads are better the second day. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or foil and store at room temperature.

This is easy to make with ingredients always on hand. It's so good. People will beg you for the recipe. Then you will give it out, and it will appear at every single function you attend there after, and then you get sick of it. Don't hate me, I told you so.

Fabulous Food Friday

What's for Lunch?

Part III

...BENTO!!!

What is a bento lunch? It's my latest obsession!!! This past year, I have discovered the art of bento lunch making...I have not yet attempted one, but they really intrigue me and as soon as I am over my cold I plan to make a trip to Uwajimaya.

According to Wikipedia...

Bentō (弁当 or べんとう, Bentō) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. While bento are readily available at convenience stores and bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya) throughout Japan, it is still considered an essential skill of a Japanese housewife to be able to prepare an appealing boxed lunch.

Bento can be very elaborate, aesthetically pleasing cuisine arrangements. Often the food is arranged in such a way as to resemble other objects: dolls, flowers, leaves, and so forth.

There are many reasons to like bento (enviro-friendly reusable containers, healthy homemade meals, creative culinary outlet), but when I saw these Hello Kitty bento lunches, I was amazed. Funny thing is I actually own a Hello Kitty rice mold. I bought it when Natalie was little for using as a jello mold. I had NO idea...now where did I put that?




Here are some of the most elaborate Bento lunches I have ever seen. While I can appreciate the art form that is "molded" rice, I'm not sure I will ever go this far! But is sure is neat...




Are you thinking to yourself..."Now that is rediculous...who would spend the time making such elaborate meals for a school child?"

Not me, but in Japan it is a great honor to make such a carefully crafted meal for your child. I think I am more likely to create some of the bentos shown at the top of this post, but these other lunches sure would earn you the "Mother of the Year Award" at our school!

Okay now let's talk about all the fun stuff...Bento accessories: I found all these items on ebay...haven't bought any yet. I'll have to see what I can come up with from my trip to Uwajimaya.

Sauce Containers: Too sinkin' cute!

The monkey container is for peanut butter or any other thick sauce, dip or spread. It comes with a banana handled spoon for spreading...the others are used for soy sauce or salad dressing. Isn't that cherry one so cute!

Food Dividers

These are used to prevent food from touching/leaking on to the rest of the meal. Paper cupcake containers can be used, but part of the idea behind bento lunches is to eliminate disposable waste (see footnote below)**, so I may try our silicon cupcake liners.

Punches and rice molds

Paper punches are used to cut the nori (dried seaweed) which can be used to "decorate" your food. The other photo shows some examples of rice molds.


**Much of the trash we generate comes from the packaging on the food we buy, and lunch foods are no exception. In fact, it has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.


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Here are some resources that may be helpful if you are interested in creating your own bento lunch.

Bento lunches, Lunch in a Box, Bento boxes and accessories, Laptop Lunches, Cooking Cute
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