Drinks and Appetizers

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from posting to the blog, since I started school. But things should be less hectic this week and the next, with my all day class now over.


This past Friday, I had some girlfriends over for drinks at appetizers at my parents house. We had originally planned to do it outside, but it started to rain so I moved everything into the basement instead.


On the menu was:

Shrimp Cocktail with cocktail sauce and a yogurt aioli

Tomato, mozzarella, and basil skewers, dressed in olive oil and balsamic

Cold Spinach and artichoke dip

Turkey sausage stuffed with red pepper, and feta

Assorted cheese, brie with raspberry preserves and crackers

Lemoncello with sparkling water and blueberries

Wine




I made everything far in advance so that I could get ready and relax with my friends when they came over.

I bought a big bag of frozen shrimp at Costco and defrosted them.

To make the yogurt aioli, I combined
½ cup of mayo
½ cup of yogurt
1 tbsp of maple syrup
2 tbsp of mustard
And turmeric

I served this along with cocktail sauce.



For the basil, mozzarella, tomato skewers, I marinated the tomatoes in olive oil and then on tiny skewers I arranged them. It was a really easy alternative to a salad, and very convenient to eat.

For the spinach and artichoke dish, it was very simple. I cut up veggies for the crudite, and cut a hole out of a sour dough round bread loaf.

To make the dip, I combined 1/2 cup of reduced fat mayo and 16oz of sour cream with a packet of frozen spinach and Knorrs spinach dip seasoning packet. I love this stuff, its sooo easy to make and delicious (Not to mention addicting). Sometimes we serve it with tortilla chips, but the left over bread was perfect for scooping out the dip.



I wanted to spice up the usual cheese and crackers. So along with cheddar, I selected Brie at the cheese shop. I love the combination of the nutty Brie, with sweet preserves. I used raspberry here, but blueberry, or rhubarb would be delicious.

Aside from just wine, I also made a cocktail. I normally make Sangria, because its easy and delicious. This was a recipe I recently saw on "Giada's Cooking at Home" and it looked interesting.

I combined 1 bottle of lemoncello with sparkling water and blueberries.

The drink was a bit too strong for me, and tasted similar to a lemon drop, but I think with a little less lemoncello, and the inclusion of lemonade it could be wonderful.



Here’s a look at the spread:


More postings to come this week

Banana Bread

Tonight I made banana bread for my family. My Dad loves bananas, but is unfortunately allergic to them raw.

I made this for him to take to work, as a nutritious convenient breakfast. For only 180 calories per serving, it is definitely a healthy and delicious way to start the day!

I let the bananas ripen until they were covered in dark spots and so sweet that the smell of them mashed, wafted through the room.

First I added the sugar and butter to the blender. I then mixed this until creamy and incorporated the egg, banana, and vanilla.

The result? A beautiful yellow batter, that tasted as good as it looked. It was slightly chunky when I put it in the oven, but came out moist and delicious.

I used apple sauce instead of yogurt (Because we didn't have this on hand). I really think that's one ingredient that's interchangeable.

Yum!


Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light:

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Nutritional Information
Calories:187 (21% from fat)
Fat:4.3g (sat 2.4g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.3g)
Protein:3.3g
Carbohydrate:34.4g
Fiber:1.1g
Cholesterol:40mg
Iron:1mg
Sodium:198mg
Calcium:20mg

Rhubarb blueberry pie, with crumb topping.

In celebration of the 4th of July, I adapted my strawberry rhubarb crisp into a rhubarb blueberry pie. We had two frozen pie crusts in the freezer, so it was easy to convert the recipe into this.


To start, I rolled the pie crust out and baked it for 15mins, then let it cool.


I then chopped up the rhubarb and combined with the blueberries in a large bowl.



Next I combined the fruit, with the lemon, sugar and other dry ingredients.


I then added the crumb topping and baked until bubbly and golden Mmmm

Here is the complete recipe:
For the filling:
1/2 pint blueberries
1/2 pound rhubarb, large dice (CAUTION: the leaves are poisonous! only use the red)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch (this can be found in the Asian aisle, or you can use corn starch)
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Mix together the blueberries, rhubarb, sugar, tapioca starch, cinnamon, all spice, salt and lemon juice. Mix well and pour into invididual buttered ramekins.

For the crisp:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoon cold butter, cut into small peices (Leave in fridge til last minute)
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt


Preheat Oven to 375

Mix together brown sugar, oats and flour. Add the cut up butter and using a pastry blender (or cold hands), cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resemebles the size of peas. This will take approximently 5-10mins, be patient. Mix in the cinnamon and salt.

Sprinkle the mixture evently over the fruit mixture. Bake until the filling is bubbly and top is brown, about 30minutes.

The Inn at Little Washington Cookbook

I love thumbing through cookbooks, and imagining I had endless amounts of ingredients on hand. Spices are super expensive, and in my tiny apartment, Sapphire is a luxury I can't afford, but a girl can dream right?

Today I stumbled upon the paramount cookbook. "The Inn at Little Washington" was delicious, a feast for the eyes and the stomach. I honestly wish I could afford to recreate most of these dishes but I cant imaging serving caviar to a group of 20 somethings, instead I placed stickers on the dishes that sounded too good to be true (or recreated), theres definitely some I can afford to try out in my kitchen, both literally and figuratively.

To give a little history, the Inn at Little Washington is the oldest Inn in America, and one of the lone 5 star restaurants/hotels in the area. The rooms start at $400 a night, and an extra surcharge of $250 added for the weekends. Dinners begin at $175 per person, minus tip/beverage.



I know it sound ridiculous, but after a long time perusing through this cookbook, I'm not only intrigued, but transfixed upon the idea that some day I will stay and eat atThe Inn at Little Washington, the name may sound quaint but the bill will be quite the contrary!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! Hope everyone is enjoying a great bbq and the gorgeous weather.

To celebrate, I made a strawberry and blueberry pie (red, white and blue). While I waited for it to cook, I stumbled upoon the US Citizens test on MSNBC.

I am fascinated with this test. It is pretty hard, and they say that most Americans wouldn't be able to pass it, but in order to become a US citizens, immigrents need to perform very well ( I believe 80% or higher, but dont quote me on that).

When working in the Chicago school district, many of my colleagues had parents from Mexico & Europe & we constantly talked about this test. So I was really excited when I got the chance to take a bit of it online. I scored a 60%, not something I'm particularly proud of considering I was born and raised here, and have taken US history twice. In this case, ignorance isnt bliss...its just plain ignorance.

Happy 4th...test your own knowledge here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25461301/?GT1=43001

Lobster

This week I moved back to NY from Chicago. It was a whirlwind of a week, moving out here on Tuesday, moving into my new place on Wednesday and Thursday and then heading out to Montauk for the 4th of July weekend on Friday. Busy but fortunately very productive.


When I came home my Mom surprised me with my favorite meal. Lobster.
There's a lobster farm 15mins from our house, where you can pick out your lobster in huge pools, and they are all caught locally. It's amazing how huge they get.


To cook them she just steamed the live lobsters in a big pot of boiling water. Whole lobsters are very messy, but alot of fun. My mom cracked open the tails with a big butcher knife, and then we cracked the claws, and scooped out the inner green gunk (which I love) This is one of those "work for your food" type of things. But unlike crabs, which can be tedious, the reward of a big hunk of lobster meat is much more substantial.

I then dipped mine in butter, and had some roasted veggies. Mmm, the perfect way to start the week.