Marinated Grilled Veggies

My husband and I had a friend in town, and as part of effort to eat out less, we decided to cook a dinner at home. I got some steaks from the local meat market (the only decent thing there is the meat, everything else sucks) and he stopped at the store for some fresh peppers and mushrooms. I threw together this quick marinade, waited for 30 minutes, then skewered the veggies and sent them out to the grill with my husband and his friend. While they were out there, I threw together a drizzle sauce for the steaks and a crepe batter, which is currently sitting in the fridge. These recipes will follow this post.

Marinated Grilled Veggies

Ingredients:
6 small or 3 medium red potatoes, halved or quartered
1 quart white button mushrooms, stems removed
2 green peppers, cut into big strips
2 red peppers, cut into big strips
2/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice (I had a meyer lemon to use!)
4 gloves garlic, finely minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Direcitons:

Boil the potatoes until tender, strain and cool.

Place the prepared veggies (including the potatoes) into a bowl or ziploc bag. Prepare the marinade in a separate bowl by mixing all of the remaining ingredients (vinegar through salt and pepper) and whisk well. Pour the marinade over the veggies and cover. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes is up, skewer the veggies and baste in the marinade one more time before putting on a medium-high grill.

Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender and charred. Continue to baste with the marinade as needed. Serve warm with the remaining marinade on the side. I know I had to prevent my guest from eating it with a spoon.

Possible veggie substitutions: Squash, zucchini, broccoli

Thanksgiving Wrap-up: The Sides

I made our 3 favorite sides this year for Thanksgiving. Green bean casserole, Twice-baked sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. Technically there was stuffing, but we’re not discussing it right now. I’m also not going to give you my mashed potato recipe, not because I don’t like you, but because it is too easy. Boil potatoes, mash, add good stuff. Serve immediately.

We’ll finish up this Thanksgiving mayhem with the post about my delicious Turkey, then we’re moving on to Christmas planning. You know what that means… COOKIES!

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:
1lb fresh green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups french fried onions
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

This will go into the oven after the Turkey comes out, and increase the temp of the oven to 400.

Put on some music and prepare to stand at the counter for a while. Set a pot on the stove to boil, then start snapping the ends off the green beans. Then, cut the green beans in half length wise, also known as the French cut. It takes forever, but a trick is to find the seam in the green bean and cut down that. VERY CAREFULLY.

Toss the green beans in the boiling water and boil 1-2 min or until soft. Mix with 1/2 of the french cut onions, salt and pepper. Bake 25 minutes, then place the rest of the french onions on top, bake 5 more minutes.

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions:
While you’re baking the turkey, you can bake the sweet potatoes. Clean the potatoes with a veggie brush, then use a fork to poke holes in the 8-10 times each. Place the potatoes directly on the rack above the turkey if you can, next to it if you can’t fit a rack above it. They might drop some sugar on the bottom of your oven if there’s nothing underneath them. Bake for 1 hour or until soft.

Right near the end of the Turkey baking time, mix the butter, brown sugar, and syrup together in a saucepan and cook on low heat until melted and uniform in color. Take the sweet potatoes and slice them into 1/2 in thick slices and place in a baking dish. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and place them in the oven about the same time you put the green bean casserole in there. Bake for 20 minutes, remove and let cook for 10 minutes before serving.

Local Product Feature: Red Gold Tomatoes

As you probably know, I love local products. I’ve got a weekly produce delivery which is all organic and often local (when available) from Door to Door Organics and a bi-weekly dairy delivery which is hormone and antibiotic free from Calder’s Diary. I’m tantalizingly close to local organic meat delivery too, details on that soon. Buying local is important to me because it allows me to both support local businesses as well as reduce my carbon footprint by decreasing the “food miles” I consume. You won’t often get me evangelizing about all things green, but this is a movement I can get behind.

One of my favorite foods by far is tomatoes. I love them fresh, sliced on a sandwich or burger, I love cherry tomatoes in my salad. I drool over those plump, red fruits (yes, fruit) in the grocery store and add them to my delivery whenever possible. Unfortunately, there are a few inalienable truths about tomatoes.

1 – Fresh winter tomatoes…. suck
2 – Sometimes, canned tomatoes are just better for things, like when you need stewed tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes, even tomato paste
3 – They go bad quickly, especially because you’re not supposed to refrigerate them (something about the sugar making them grainy)

Most of the winter I’ll spring for a few romas and then stick to canned tomatoes, which of course are all grown all over the world.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Red Gold Tomatoes are an Indiana based company which sources tomatoes from the midwest, including Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. The company sent me some more information about the farms which grow the tomatoes, which include the following:

AcMoody Farms, Inc. Union City, MI
M Forche Farms, Inc. Blissfield, MI
Iott Farms, Inc. Deerfield, MI
Iott Ranch & Orchard Petersburg, MI
Janssen Brothers Farms, Inc. Monroe, MI
KD&A Tomatoes Coldwater, MI
Lievens Bros. Farms, Inc. Petersburg, MI
Morrin Farms, Inc. Erie, MI
Stanton Country, LLC Sherwood, MI
State Line Farms Morenci, MI

Of course, now comes the test. Do they hold up to my standards? How well do they cook? What do they taste like? What’s with the bright yellow label?

I can answer a few of these questions now, and over the next few weeks I’ll be using a few additional products.

Tonight after my fairly successful Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken adventure, I wanted to use up the rest of my goat cheese. I decided to pull out the can of Red Gold Tomatoes with olive oil and garlic to create a basic tomato sauce and provide a base for the goat cheese, which I can serve over some leftover pasta from the other night.

I heated up my skillet and tossed in the can of tomatoes.

The first thing I noticed was the texture (visual) of these tomatoes. Most canned tomatoes don’t hold up too well after canning, but these held a good firm shape and looked a whole lot like I’d diced them myself. Excellent first impression.

I roasted the tomatoes over medium heat with a pinch of salt and pepper, but this specific variety of tomatoes came with a bit of spices already so I did not want to add much. I cooked off most of the liquid and softened the tomatoes. The wonderful aroma that the simple can of tomatoes provided even peeked my husband’s interest.

Since I’d already eaten tonight, I put the sauce on top of some leftover pasta from yesterday and topped that with some goat cheese. Of course, I had a little bite on the side before I put it all away. I was not disappointed in the slightest. The cooked texture of the tomatoes was exactly what I like and the flavor was very robust.

I’m looking forward to trying a few other varieties of Red Gold Tomatoes. So far I have not seen a tomato paste product by this company, so I’ll have to see if that exists at all. Can’t live without tomato paste. They also have a ketchup, which is sitting in my cupboard and I’m eying it suspiciously. I’m a Heinz girl through and through, but I’ll try anything for the love of food and local.

Roasted Squash

Ever hear of a delicata squash? Me either. I got one in my Door to Door Organics delivery a few weeks ago. I love squash because it is fairly versatile and, even better, it lasts forever in the fridge. It is also known as the Sweet Potato squash, which I find moderately confusing because I feel like the butternut is more sweet potato than the delicata, but I’ll let it slide.

Either way, the delicata squash is very good, and you could do a lot with it. I need to get my hands on some more.

Roasted Squash

Ingredients (makes 2 side dishes)

1 cup squash cut into small pieces, and really any squash or even pumpkin will work well for this recipe
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the skin and seeds from the squash and discard (or roast the seeds if you’re feeling adventurous!) Cut the squash into bite sized pieces and put in a bowl. Add the olive oil and spices to the bowl and coat evenly.

Place on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake 20 minutes, then turn over and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

Quick Caramelized Onion

I’m not going to lie, this burger was amazing. It wasn’t a new and innovative recipe, it wasn’t even all that creative. But it was good, and the picture turned out well, so you get to see it, along with a quick caramelized onion recipe which will add a sweet touch to any recipe.

Quick Caramelized Onion (served on top of a burger with goat cheese on a slimwich bun)

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, sliced into thin, even rings or slices
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onions and sugar and coat. Cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes or until the onions are soft and golden browned. The longer you leave them, the sweeter they will be.

Onions beginning to soften

Sausage Stuffed Peppers

This recipe was inspired by an appetizer on the menu at Roast here in Detroit. We had this dish on my birthday and I’ve been kind of dreaming about it since. This is my best attempt at a copy, but it isn’t perfect by any means! I hope you like this. Remember, you can change the peppers for something with less of a kick and still get great flavors.

Sausage Stuffed Peppers with feta cheese and yia yia sauce

Ingredients

Sauce –
4 fresh roma tomatoes finely chopped or 1 can crushed tomatoes
1 small onion, quartered
1 tsp fresh garlic
1 bay leaf
1.5 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions for the sauce – Throw this all in a sauce pan and simmer for at least an hour. Remove the onion and bay leaf before serving.

Chopped tomatoes with a bit of chopped onion, because I had extra and I like onions and I put a bit in the sauce, not necessary!

Peppers –
2 pork sausage links
6 banana peppers or similar pepper, medium to large sized (I had 5 smallish banana peppers and 1 large poblano pepper to use tonight)
Crushed red pepper

Feta cheese

Directions

Carefully remove the stems from the peppers and gently scrape out the seeds from the inside. Set aside.

Cut the sausage casing and remove the meat. Mix with a bit of spices, of your choice. My sausages were mild, so I added a bit of crushed red pepper, but you’re welcome to add anything… garlic would be great, but you knew I’d say that.

Gently stuff each pepper with sausage.

Heat the indoor grill on the stovetop on medium high heat. Place the peppers on the grill pan and cover with aluminum foil. Turn every 3-4 minutes and cook until 165 degrees, which is a safe cooking temperature for sausage.

Serve the peppers immediately with sauce and feta cheese.

Pictureless Post: Tomato Vodka Sauce

I fail as a blogger today, and I am posting without a picture. But it was so good, I absolutely must share this amazing recipe. I had a handfull of gorgeous roma tomatoes from Door to Door Organics and I wanted to make a sauce of some kind, and I had some gnocchi (store bought, I have not yet mastered gnocchi) I wanted to eat. So I decided to go with a fresh tomato sauce to keep the meal light. I served some pan seared chicken breast along side.

So, close your eyes (well, keep reading, but then close your eyes once you’re done), and imagine some fluffy gnocchi with a light and refreshing tomato sauce on top. The tomatoes are diced into small pieces and have been cooked through, keeping the flavor but eliminating the texture of the fresh tomatoes.

I hope you trust me on this one. It was really, just that good.

Fresh Tomato Vodka Sauce

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

4-5 roma tomatoes, diced
2 shallots, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp oregano, freshly crushed
2 tsp basil
1 tsp garlic powder
salt, pepper to taste
1 cup vodka, divided
EVOO

Directions

In your pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for 30 seconds, or until aromatic. Then add the tomatoes and spices, cooking on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup vodka to the sauce, cook for 5 minutes or until the vodka has completely cooked off (i.e. it does not smell like vodka anymore). Add the second 1/2 cup of vodka and repeat. Serve immediately.

Hot Pepper Mystery

Today I received about 1lb of hot peppers. 2/3 of it came in my Door to Door Organics delivery and the remainder came from my husband’s coworker’s garden.

The problem: I can’t ID peppers, and I’d like to go in knowing the approximate heat contained in each. I tried to group them based on which looked similar to one another.

So, dear readers, here is your challenge. Identify the peppers, and their approximate heat level. Bonus points for recipes which will best make use of the peppers.

Thanks in advance!

Groupon: Door to Door Organics

Been itching to try Door to Door Organics? Here’s your chance! Groupon (Detroit) is offering $33 of delivered organics for only $16! New customers only, so here’s your chance to check out this amazing service.

Click Here for Groupon Detroit!

Zucchini Crab Cakes

I have a confession. I am the worst Marylander ever. Not only do I not like crabs (though I have gone crabbing, I just ate chicken for dinner that night) but I am also not a fan of Old Bay seasoning. I don’t know why, most of its ingredients you’ll see me cooking with (from Wikipedia):

“The seasoning mix includes mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaf, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and ginger.”

I’m not a huge fan of cloves or allspice, so that is likely the problem.

In any case, I decided to make this recipe anyway, with my own spice blend. These are delicious and vegetarian friendly!

Zucchini ‘Crab’ Cakes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced onion

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (omitted) OR
Stephanie’s Spice Mix (1/2 tsp garlic, black pepper, paprika, 1/4 tsp celery seed, cayenne pepper, salt)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup EVOO (for frying)

Directions:
Mix the zucchini, butter, and egg in a large dish. Add breadcrumbs, minced onion, and spices. The recipe calls for 1 tsp of old bay, but adjust as you’d like.

Mix well and form into patties. Dredge in the flour.

Heat the oil in a deep fry pan to medium/med-high heat. Place the patties in the oil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Serve immediately and enjoy!