oh well…

I missed a day. My goal this month was to post every single day. And with only four posting days to go, I missed one. As Brandon’s kindergarten teacher says, “Oh well. I messed up.”

We had “girls’ night in” (since it was rainy & cold & we didn’t want to go out) at my sister’s with my mom & my girls. Lots of yummy appetizers, including homemade coconut shrimp and good wine (for the grown ups!). We watched Enchanted and painted the girls’ fingers & toes. We had a great time! Olivia (my four year old) planned the entire evening. Needless to say, when I got home I knew I hadn’t posted yet, but I was ready for bed & completely forgot.

So I leave you today with the recipe for coconut shrimp, better (& healthier) than any restaurants!

Coconut Shrimp

SHRIMP: 28 large shrimp (~1 ½#)

1/3 c corn starch

3/4 t salt

1/2-3/4 t ground red pepper

3/4 c flaked sweetened coconut

3/4 c panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400°.

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact. Rinse in cold water; drain on paper towels until dry.

Combine cornstarch, salt and red pepper in shallow dish; stir with a wisk. Place egg whites in a medium bowl and beat with mixer at med-high until frothy. Place coconut & panko in a shallow dish & mix.

Dredge shrimp in cornstarch, dip in egg, dredge in coconut/panko mix. Place on baking sheet coated with Pam. Lightly coat shrimp with Pam. Bake at 400°, 20 minutes or until done, turning after 10 minutes.

MARMALADE SAUCE: 1/2 c orange marmalade

2 t stone-ground mustard

1 t horseradish

Dash salt

Mix thoroughly, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow flavors to come together.

Salmon, Turnips, & Chard...oh my!

Okay, so it doesn’t really sound that inviting I guess! But, wow! Was it good!

I recently signed us up for Farm Fresh Produce, a local organic farm delivery service. You can choose to “opt out” of any of the vegetables or fruit available if it’s something you don’t like. I decided that we’d try everything at least once, except beets. We grew those when I was a kid &I know I don’t like them!

Last Thursday was our first delivery. Our box was chock full of fresh fruits & veggies! Artichokes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, pears, apples, oranges, celery, lettuce, turnips, and red chard. Oh my!

I've never had turnips or chard (well, not that I know of) so I thought, here goes nothing!

So tonight we had the BEST dinner: salmon, turnip au gratin, and spicy swiss chard.

I found this great recipe for Turnip-Parsnip Gratin in Cooking Light last November. I even tore it out, because I knew I wanted to someday try it. I didn't have parsnips, so I used some white potatoes instead. My tip: don't pre-cook the turnips! I think they'd be fine just sliced & baked. I pre-cooked mine & they got a bit mushy. Also, I didn't do individual gratins; just all in the 9x13 together.

We had the gratin last night with london broil, and the leftovers were just as fantastic tonight with the salmon & chard.

On to the chard recipe...I grew up eating beet greens & spinach that my mom would boil & I'd add red wine vinegar too. I know, it sounds so gross! But my mom doesn't like greens & my dad isn't exactly gourmet. So when I got the chard I knew I'd mostly likely like it, but I wanted to try something different. I searched "chard" on the Cooking Light magazine website & found Spicy Swiss Chard with Lemon. Delish! I would totally make this again. Great with the salmon. My two big kids tried it & my husband even ate it!

And lastly, my salmon. No real recipe, just how I cook it:

1) coat your saute pan with olive oil
2) put enough slices of onion in the pan to keep the salmon from touching or it will stick (the salmon)
3) put your salmon on top of the onions
4) sprinkle the fish with kosher salt, black pepper, lemon juice, & garlic
5) cover the pan & cook on medium until the fish flakes, approximately 15 minutes

* I buy half a salmon usually, & cut it skin-side down into 3" wide pieces

Enjoy! Oh, and the cute St. Patrick's placemats were made by my mom :)

gifts

Today was our last day of MOPS for the year (back in January). So it was Moppet teacher appreciation day. I was planning on making chocolate dipped pretzels for gifts. Sounded great in my head--I even bought a kit to make them--but when it came down to it, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out & how exactly the kids would be able to help.

So on Saturday my friend Tanya mentioned making "turtles" by melting a Rolo on top of a waffle pretzel & smooshing a pecan on top. Fabulous! The kids peeled the wrappers off the Rolos for me & put them on top of the pretzels. We baked them for 4 minutes at 350 & then I added the pecan since they were still warm. I let them cool on the parchment I baked them on for a few hours & then bagged them up.Yum! Thank you Tanya!

Last night I stayed up WAY too late making the tags for the gifts. I gave them to the girls at my table too. And I'll be bringing some to work on Wednesday as well. I'm pretty proud of my tags! I did a search on Splitcoast for "ski slope dsp" (designer series paper) from Stampin' Up. The basic design was a card. Fortunately I had the stamp too!

Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potato Wedges

Let me first say, I don't like Sweet Potatoes. Or yams. Period. Not baked, not in a pie (well, I've never tried that), not canned, not fresh, not in that nasty sounding Thanksgiving dish smothered in marshmallows & brown sugar.

So when Brandon was a baby, my mom came upon this recipe & made it. Try it, you'll like it, she said. Ummm, no I'm not because no I won't (there comes a point in your life when you realize there are certain foods you just plain old don't like).

Brandon, on the other hand, being 10 months old & open to eating anything we would let him, devoured these yams. And I will admit, they smell AMAZING. Like fall.

Okay, I'll make them. And I'll try them. And they came out beautifully, and my house smelled wonderful. And then I took a bite and said, Gah! They taste like sweet potatoes! (Okay, don't ask what I thought they'd taste like. Maybe more like they smell. And I certainly expected a better texture.)

So why am I sharing this recipe, you ask? First of all, I'm the only weirdo I know that can't stand yams. And everyone I know who's had these, loves them. Including Abbie & Olivia (Brandon seems to take after me!).

Well, I made them again today for Abbie. And my house smells like fall! I pulled them out of the oven and thought, they look amazing. And they're not all mushy looking this time (see my note below). I'll try one. And I liked it!

****

Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potato Wedges

1/4 c butter
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
4 lbs sweet potatoes or yams

Peel & cut potatoes into wedges. Melt butter in a small saucepan & sugar thru ginger, stirring well. Add cinnamon stick & simmer for 5 minutes, stirring. Toss with potatoes.

Place potatoes on a jellyroll pan (you need the edges so that the sticky sauce doesn't drip into your oven) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes, stirring halfway.

Best served immediately, but they can be reheated under the broiler.

***Note: Pull potatoes from the sauce so there isn't too much liquid on the pan or you will have a sticky pan that takes forever to clean. Also the sauce will make the wedges "boil" instead of bake so they will get kind of mushy.You can then freeze the remaining sauce &; use it again!

Pumpkin Pancakes

A while back I mentioned making pancakes in fall shapes with my cookie cutters. A tip I'd read about in on of my magazines, rather than buying pancake molds. A fine idea, except the pancakes kind of stick in the more intricate shapes. I don't know if it's any better/different with the actual molds.

This morning I made them again, this time with hearts, pumpkins, and leaves. I don't recommend the leaves! They came out nicely, but were a pain to clean afterwards. I only made a few today, because it takes longer & I had four hungry beasts waiting on me :)

But regardless of what they looked like, they sure were yummy!

I used Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake mix. Yum! I prefer my mom's recipe for pumpkin waffles, but these were just as tasty. The main difference I noticed is that the mix makes very thin waffles. Tasted good, but thin. The pancakes were nice, & honestly I've never made my mom's pumpkin waffles into pancakes, but you could.

Mom's Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups Bisquick (light works fine)
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp oil

Mix & pour into your waffle maker. This batter is a bit thicker than regular waffle batter, but cooks up about the same.

Broiled Orange Marmalade Salmon

1/2 c orange marmalade
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t ground ginger
4 6-oz salmon fillets (I use a half salmon sliced into 4+ strips)

Combine marmalade thru ginger. Brush half marmalade onto the salmon steaks, broil for 6 minutes. Brush remaining sauce onto fish & broil an additional 2 minutes. Enjoy!

I served ours with asparagus & fresh linguini tossed with a bit of butter & parmesean. My kids couldn't eat enough!

Making Sorbet

This layout is from this last summer, when we went to my mom's house to make some ice cream! Actually, strawberry sorbet. Super easy:

Make ½ recipe for Cuisinart

2 c water
2 c sugar
4 pts. strawberries, sliced (2 pts. ~ 2 lbs. berries)
¼ c fresh lime juice
½ c light corn syrup

Bring sugar and water to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, without stirring, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Cool completely.

Put strawberries and lime juice into food processor and puree. When sugar syrup has cooled completely, add to strawberry puree. (Can be refrigerated overnight now if desired.)

Add corn syrup and stir well. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Sorbet is quite soft after churning but firms up after freezing.

(Sorry for the random lines in my layout; I can never get them to look nice when I scan them.)