Dishes to Bring to an Outdoor Party.
My apologies for not posting as regularly as I would like lately. Work has gotten the better of me and I just have not had enough free time to get to everything. I am still cooking away and trying new recipes and accumulating them to put on, so I will be back to it when I get the time again. In the meantime, since it is coming up on that outdoor party and barbecue time of year where you may be going to different places, here are 36 recipes from Bon Appetit for great dishes that you can bring to any outdoor party as your contribution. You will find all kinds of great ideas listed here that can make a great addition to any buffet or party. Check it out!
Leftovers That Don’t Taste Like Leftovers – NYT Cooking.
We all have leftovers from meals that we make and 9 times out of ten you have a hard time figuring out just what to do with them. Sure you can bring them for lunch but to try and turn them into another piece of a meal or main dish for dinner can be tricky. The New York Times Cooking has tried to help out with that with 65 recipes that make use of leftovers for all kinds of occasions and dishes. You can find some new ways to make use of those items you don’t know what to do with with just a bit of this inspiration. Check it out!
it has been a long day after a long weekend and I have been going non-stop since 5:30 Am here with work, plumbing problems, the dog barking at the plumber for hours and all kinds of other fun stuff. I was pretty sure I would never be able to get to blogging today but I calmed down, got all my work done, got the plumber done and the dog asleep so I actually have time to do a short post. it is actually perfect that I have this really easy side dish recipe to offer up today. Mexican rice goes well with not just Mexican style meals but with nearly any type of meal you could make and I made some last week when I made chicken tostadas for dinner and we have used the leftovers for other meals since then. This particular recipe comes from The New York Times and uses ingredients you are likely to have around your home so you can put it together easily.
Mexican Rice
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
2 cups canned tomatoes(or use fresh tomatoes)
1/2 cup bell pepper (green, yellow, red or orange), roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 heaping cup long-grain white rice, rinsed
Blend the garlic, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion and jalapeno, salt and chicken broth or water together in a blender until the mixture is a mostly smooth puree. There will be a few small pieces of onion and pepper throughout, which is fine. In a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat the vegetable oil. Add the white rice and toast the rice until it absorbs most of the oil and begins to smell nutty. Add the blended ingredients to the rice and stir gently with a wooden spoon to prevent breaking up the rice too much and bring it to a light boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible and cook the rice undisturbed for 17 minutes. Let the rice sit for another 10 minutes before serving.
I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned because I had some fresh ones on hand and I liked the fresh taste they provided to the rice. The jalapeno added a nice little touch of heat to the rice but the simplicity of the dish is what makes it perfect to do as a side dish with some quick Mexican meals during the week like tacos, quesadillas, tostadas or burritos. I think the rice would go nicely with a steak, pork chops or some chicken as well because it is so easy and versatile. it’s a nice recipe to be able to pull out when you want an easy side dish to make for nearly any type of meal so you can just use some simple ingredients and put it all together.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your meal!
Our Best Irish Recipes – Bon Appétit.
St. Patrick’s Day is under 2 weeks away so now is a good time to start planning out some of those great Irish recipes in advance of the day that is everything Irish. Bon Appetit has put together 18 recipes that are Irish-inspired recipes to help you celebrate the day with great drinks, corned beef and fun desserts. Check it out!
Monday is typically my busiest day of the work week as I get a lot of my projects for the week and have several that start and are due on each Monday so I don’t get a lot of time to blog on Mondays anymore. that being said, as I take a brief break from writing for work I get the chance to write for fun and thought I would share this really easy recipe I tried recently for some homemade oven fries. I have tried a few oven fries recipes in the past and have had mixed success with them, but so many of them seem to use a lot of oil in order to get the fries nice and crispy, something I have been trying to avoid doing when I can. I came across this recipe recently on Food52.com from Patricia Wells for a recipe she calls “fake frites.” The recipe seemed deceptively easy and simple to me so I was not quite sure if I was going to be happy with the results, but I was pleasantly surprised by what came out.
Fake Frites (Oven-Fried French Fries)
2 pounds baking potatoes, such as Idaho russets, peeled and cut into thick fries, about 3/4-inch by 3 inches
2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt or Kosher salt, to taste
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Bring 1 quart of water to a simmer in the bottom of a steamer pot or in a Dutch oven or large saucepan with a steamer basket insert in it. Place the potatoes on the steaming rack or in the steamer basket and place the rack in the steamer. Cover the pot and steam the potatoes just until a knife tip inserted in a potato comes away clean, about 10 to 12 minutes. The potatoes should not be cooked all the way through or they will tend to fall apart.
Transfer the steamed potatoes to a bowl and drizzle them with the olive oil. Carefully toss the potatoes to make sure they are all coated with the oil. The potatoes can be prepared to this point several hours in advance of using them. Just them aside and let them sit at room temperature.
With a large slotted spoon, transfer the potatoes in a single layer to a nonstick baking sheet. Discard any excess oil or liquid that is in the bowl. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake, turning the potatoes so they brown evenly, until the potatoes are crisp and deep golden brown, about 10 to 20 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and season them generously with salt and serve immediately.
It sounds too easy to be true but this might be the best oven fries I have tried yet. The trick for me seemed to be in preparing them ahead of time and letting them sit at room temperature for an hour or two. The potatoes dried out a bit even with the oil on them and this really helped to make sure they got nice and brown and crisp in the oven. you do need to make sure you flip them halfway through baking, and I flipped mine at the 10 minute mark and by about 15 or 16 minutes total cooking time they were done perfectly. Of course fries go well with just about any meal – hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, fish, meat loaf, ribs, chicken, you name it – and this one is easy enough to make any time. 2 pounds of russet potatoes might only be 3 potatoes (depending on how big they are) and you get plenty of fries out of the recipe. I’ll be making them again (perhaps even tonight) and they are a great go to when you don’t want to oil fry potatoes or don’t want bagged fries or have them around.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Potatoes can be a really versatile side dish besides being great for mashed potatoes or your standard baked potato. There’s nothing wrong with using one of the old stand-by recipes or even just boiling up some potatoes for a really simple side dish but with so many different things you can do with potatoes I am always trying to come up with something just a little bit different to jazz up a meal. This is especially true if I am making a meal for a special occasion and want something different as a side dish that really stands out on its own. When I made the New York strip steaks for Valentine’s Day this past week, I knew I wanted to make potatoes with the steaks and mashed potatoes or even fries seemed like a good option, but I had seen this recipe just recently on Food Network for a pan-fried fingerling potato with leeks that looked like it would be perfect to go with a steak. They also had a nice honey-lemon coating on them that made them perfect and the recipe seemed really easy to make so I had to give them a try.
Pan-Fried Honey-Lemon Fingerling Potatoes and Leeks
Salt
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1 leek, halved, thoroughly washed and sliced up to the pale green part
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley
1 lemon, zested
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Gently add the fingerling potatoes and poach the potatoes for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the potatoes, cut the potatoes in half and dry the potatoes thoroughly.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt the butter and add the leeks and season them with salt and pepper. Saute the leeks until they are softened, about 8 minutes. Remove the leeks to a separate bowl and set them aside.
In the now-empty skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Put the fingerling potatoes cut-side down in the pan and cook the potatoes until they are golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Flip the potatoes and repeat the process on the skin side of the potatoes, cooking them for about 5 to 6 minutes to brown them nicely. Add the leeks back to the skillet, drizzle the vegetables with the honey and cook them for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Sprinkle the vegetables with the parsley and the lemon zest. Season the vegetables with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve.
It’s a very basic dish that gives you some great results. You do want to make sure the potatoes are completely dry before you put them in the skillet so you can brown them nicely and get that great crunch to them on the outside while they stay soft on the inside. The addition of the leeks is great for the dish to give it that subtle flavor that leeks have. Just remember leeks can be pretty gritty so you need to clean them thoroughly before you use them. The honey and lemon just added the final push to the dish to give that hint of sweetness that was perfect. I don’t often buy fingerling potatoes because they tend to be quite expensive compared to other potatoes for a small amount, but I did find them on sale so it was perfect timing for this dish. I think you could do this dish well with other potatoes as well as long as you cut them small enough so they poach nicely and fit well in the skillet. The potatoes went perfectly with the steak and they would be great for any beef, pork or poultry side dish.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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