Mission

Celebrating the delights of good healthy everyday food and special treats! Sharing recipes, information, and experiences.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Easy Way to Have Money Donated to Share Our Strength

Just a quick note today.   If you make Yahoo your homepage, a donation will be made to Share Our Strength, dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America.  No brainer...just do it!  Click here.


From the Share Our Strength Website

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Recipe for Smoky Tomatillo Sauce




My friends make the most amazing herb sauces to go with grilled meats.  One is a cilantro flavor bomb and the other is an amazing lime and tomatillo sauce.  I need to get the recipes, but in the mean time, I came up with my own flavor bomb-if you love cumin, you’ll love this sauce.  We had it with grilled pork chops the other night and it was amazing!  The ground nuts add a pleasant twist!

Time: 5 minutes plus chilling time
Yield: 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:
  • 1 can, 12 oz, whole tomatillos, drained
  • ½ cup cilantro leaves
  • Juice of ½ lemon or lime
  • 2 tsp smoked cumin (I’m sure it would be good with regular cumin too)
  • ½ cup roasted almonds
  • Salt to taste


Method:
  • Place all ingredients in food processor and process until well combined.
  • Chill for one hour before serving.


I’m gazing at the left over sauce and coming up with all kinds of ideas to use it.  I’ll let you know my favorites!  Do you make any herb sauces?  Please share!


Printable Recipe

Monday, June 27, 2011

Recipe for Red Wine and Garlic Portabellas Over Whole Wheat English Muffins


When we had friends visiting recently, I pulled a bunch of stuff out of the fridge for a pot luck lunch.  I had some portabellas that needed to be used and came up with this recipe.  Everyone loved it and insisted I write it up for the blog, so here you go!  This is a rich and filling veggie dish that works for lunch or dinner.  I’m also going to try the mushies on top of whole wheat pizza sometime.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Recipe for Mediterranean Crunch Salad



Here’s a healthy and hearty salad that serves a crowd.  It is modified slightly from a Whole Foods recipe.  I used chard instead of kale and made a basil-feta dressing instead of just dressing it with red wine vinegar.  It definitely needs the dressing for my tastes.  This keeps well for several days in the fridge.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Recipe for Azwain Seasoned White Beans with Roasted Red Peppers and Salmon





Mr. ELEB asked for "something light" for dinner the other night.  We're both doing pretty good with our diet and exercise plan after the excesses of the recent trip and this meal, adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe, hit the spot.

Friday, June 17, 2011

PICTURE THIS: Tommy Bahama Sliders

Beef, touch of bacon and cheese, guacamole, perfect buns.
From Tommy Bahamas, Wailea, Maui-the best happy hour nibbles and pours.
Tommy Bahama Wailea

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Recipe for Strawberry Chocolate Oat Smoothie




It is widely accepted that oats help lower cholesterol. High cholesterol runs in my family and mine has been up over acceptable levels in the past so I usually have oats as part of my breakfast several times a week.  I love overnight oatmeal but sometimes I want something different.  Could I incorporate oats into a smoothie? Why yes, yes I can!  And you can too.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Corn on the Grill




Old and new worlds come together in the best ways sometimes.  This past week we have been fortunate to have some “old” friends visit from San Francisco.  Everyone has now gone home except our one friend Olivia who leaves today.  The first night when everyone started arriving, we did a sunset picnic down on the beach.  It was a rare cloudy evening, so not much in the way of sunset but the clouds provided a beautiful sky once the sun had set and was reflecting its rays from beyond the horizon.  For Olivia’s last night, our “new” friends here on Maui, Jennifer and Ryan (and their dog Chimi), hosted us at a pool side sunset barbecue.  The sunset was amazing, as was the food. 



Monday, June 13, 2011

Book Review: "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches" by Susan Russo, Photography by Matt Armendariz (and recipe)


As you can see, the full title of Susan Russo's new book is "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches, Recipes, History, and Trivia For Everything Between Sliced Bread."  And it is just that-a chunky, little book chock full of sandwiches made from just about every ingredient imaginable and nuggets of trivia and history for your reading pleasure.  


I was delighted to be able to review this book.  I bought one of my sons her first book "Recipes Every Man Should Know" so I was pretty sure this one was going to be an enjoyable read too.



Friday, June 10, 2011

PICTURE THIS: Menu from Eleven Madison Park, NYC

Four course meal, pick one ingredient from each row and be wowed
by what the kitchen prepares for you!  A new
experience in ordering food-I liked it!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Recipe for Poached Eggs over Spinach and Salmon with Pureed Roasted Red Peppers


If you read yesterday's blog post, you know we had breakfast for dinner last night using the pureed roasted red peppers I made.  This would of course also work for brunch or a morning breakfast.  Eggs, salmon, spinach, red peppers, a little dill and a squeeze of lemon-yum!  I had mine just on the bed of spinach and found it very filling.  For Mr. ELEB, I piled his on top of toasted whole wheat English muffin halves. Good either way!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Recipe for Pureed Roasted Red Peppers


A large bag of red peppers have been sitting in my fridge for a few days now.  When I saw Kalyn's Roasted Red Pepper Dip with Feta and Mint, I was inspired to roast a few (and threw the rest in the freezer-I'll let ya' know how that turns out).  On the menu is breakfast for dinner, poached eggs over spinach and salmon (I'll write it up and post it) and I don't want to do a Hollandaise sauce.  I'm going to use pureed roasted red peppers, instead.



Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Recipe for Asparagus Soup Seasoned with Zatar



Ever heard of Zatar?  I've seen it mentioned in receipes but hadn't found where to buy it until I got the wonderful opportunity to stop by a Penzy's Spices retail store in Menlo Park, California during our recent trip to San Francisco.  I learned about Penzy's when a friend gave me a selection of Barbecue spices from them a few months ago.  I really like the spices and have gazed longingly at Penzy's wonderful selection of products online.  So when I found out there was a store in Menlo Park, I added it to our agenda.  Well, my agenda.   Mr. ELEB visited a running shoe store while I browsed and shopped to my heart's content.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Buon Appetito from Eat Little, Eat Big, Foodbuzz, and Barilla Tortellini




Clockwise from top left:  Prosciutto Wrapped Pesto Tortellini with
Asparagus; Shaved Asparagus with Tangy Vinaigrette, Parmesan and Pine Nuts; 
Tortelloni Frittata; Crema Moka with Crispy Tortellini.



La Specialita' della Casa:
  • Prosciutto wrapped pesto tortellini with asparagus
  • Shaved asparagus dressed with a tangy vinaigrette, Parmesan cheese, and pine nuts
  • Tortelloni frittata with sausage and spinach, topped with marinara sauce and basil
  • Crema moka-layers of chocolate and coffee flavors with a crunchy tortellini surprise


Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Sweet Auburn Curb Market, Atlanta, Georgia


Pulled pork taco and barbeque chicken taco from the Sweet Auburn Barbeque food truck, mmm mmm good! 

I took a couple of days out of this recent trip to attend my first blogging conference.  It was in Atlanta where my kids live.  I hated to give up two days of our time there to go to a conference but they were at work anyway.   So while Mr. ELEB amused himself at the golf course and the symphony, I learned more about the blogging world at BlogHer Food, 2011.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Quick and Easy BBQ Rubbed Skirt Steak


It's funny sometimes how we end up where we do.  Like this skirt steak.  I stumbled across an online discussion about cooking skirt steak.  The original poster (OP) was frustrated because the skirt steak had turned out very tough.  She/he got alot of feedback about marinating methods, cooking time, cutting across the grain, and the general consensus was that it is an amazing cut of meat and the OP must have overcooked it, apparently THE cardinal sin when it comes to skirt steak.

So I'm at Whole Foods later in the day and see a couple of beautiful pieces of skirt steak just calling my name.  Had I not read the discussion, I probably would have walked right by but the conviction of those touting how amazing this cut is prompted me to say "what the heck, I'll give it a try".   I'm very happy I did.