the Great Cooking Magazine Challenge

Today, I am joining my friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), for her Great Cooking Magazine challenge. If you are like the both of us you have a pile of cooking magazines laying around because there is a recipe or two that you just have to try. Suzy challenges us once in a while to open them up and try those recipes we've bookmarked. Please click HERE to go to her blog and see her entry as well as the other's participating.

Last night we had a date night meal at home so it was a great time to use the new wine themed plates that Jayme & Scott gave me for Christmas. What is date night at home? Well for us it is me choosing all the activities, LOL! Actually, I make an effort to set a nice table and prepare a nice meal while Jeff opens a bottle of good wine. Then we went bowling for 3 games (on the Wii) before sitting down to watch the movie "I Hate Valentines Day".
The napkin rings and napkins were also a gift from Jayme & Scott.
I really like the wine plates, one plate features Venice...
and one Paris.
I had planned on showing a new chicken recipe we tried on Friday night but I'll save that one for later. Because yesterday, I received my March 2011 issue of Food Network magazine and it is labeled Pasta, Pasta, Pasta! The Italian Issue with a photo of Pea-Prosciutto Sauce over ravioli on the cover. This issue is going to end up dog-eared because I love pasta! The cover photo looked great and I had all the ingredients in the house so I chose this recipe to highlight.
Their website is still showing the Jan-Feb 2011 issue so since it is not yet online, I couldn't link the recipe. This recipe is one of many in an article titled Super Easy Pasta Sauces.

Pea-Prosciutto Sauce
Food Network Magazine March 2011

Cook 4 ounces chopped prosciutto in a skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until crisp, 4 minutes. Stir in 3 sliced garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Ladle in 1 cup pasta-cooking water and simmer until reduced by half, 4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and simmer until thickened, 3 minutes. Toss with 1 pound cooked ravioli, 1 cup blanched frozen peas and some chopped parsley. Top with grated parmesan.

My notes: To lighten the sauce I used 1 tablespoon olive oil instead of 2. In the same issue of the magazine was an article on lightening up alfredo sauce by using low-fat milk and low-fat neufchatel cream cheese. So instead of using the heavy cream, I used 1/4 cup skim milk and 2 tablespoons of the low-fat cream cheese. It was a great substitution and the sauce still had a rich, creamy taste. We served the sauce over our favorite frozen butternut squash ravioli (YUM!). I also didn't have parlsey on hand so that was omitted. Recipes like this that only use a TB of tomato paste makes me thankful I started buying the tubes of paste.

For dessert I pulled out the December 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine and made

Espresso Chip Meringues by Giada De Laurentiis. You can view the recipe by clicking on the titled link.
If you make 12 like the recipe says mine were huge - about 2 1/2-3 inch diameter.

Marsha - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, we will definitely be making this one again! Thumbs UP to the espresso meringues, I like the sweet taste and airy texture.
Jeff - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, he had a 2nd helping. Thumbs Down to the meringues, he'd rather have a real cookie as he thought this one was like eating styrofoam, LOL! Just means there are more for me to enjoy.

Baked Flounder

Per the American Heart Assoc. recommendations we have been trying to eat more fish in our dinner rotations. Last night, I tried a new recipe for Baked Flounder in Lemon Sauce from Cooks.com.It was quite good even though I had an oops moment when making the very simple recipe.

Keeping it real...Jeff grabs a non matching glass and I leave the lens cap on the table :) We are such low fuss diners!


Baked Flounder with Lemon Sauce
from Cooks.com

2 lb. flounder fillets
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 c. melted butter
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. grated onions

Cut fillets into serving size portions and place in a well greased baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over fish. Bake at 350 degrees (20-25 minutes). Serves 6.

My notes: To lighten the recipe I only used 1/4 cup melted butter and I used my new Hungarian Sweet Kulonleges Paprika from Penzeys.com. My OOPS moment came when I didn't put on my reading glasses and put in 2 TB of onion instead of 2 tsp - it still was good but maybe a little overpowered by the onions. I will definitely be making this one again and actually put on the glasses.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Valentine's blend

A few weeks ago my friend, Debbie (Mountain Breath), did a beautiful tablescape post highlighting her new cardinal dinnerware. You can view her post HERE. In the post, a tin of Valentine's Blend chocolate and rosebud tea was shown so I asked her what it tasted like since I couldn't imagine the taste combination. She said it was hard to explain and so she sent me some, Thank you, Debbie! It's cold today so I used my tea set that my sister brought me home from Japan several years ago. The cups don't have handles so it's nice to cradle the warm cup in your hands to warm up.The taste is hard to describe, I smelled the chocolate more than I tasted it and spied the rosebuds in the leaves but can't say their flavor was overwhelming either. It was a great tea to break my usual green tea with lemon habit and I definitely will have it again. While I drank my tea I snacked on my new favorite cocoa roast almonds. They don't have any more calories or fat than plain almonds so they are a healthy treat that tastes a teensy bit decadent.


Marsha - Thumbs Up to the tea & almonds.
Jeff - hates tea but Thumbs Up to the almonds.

Interesting story, I grew up in a family that always had afternoon tea. As kids when we got off the school bus our farmer dad was in the house for his afternoon break and mom had tea ready with a homemade treat. We started young by having tea with milk and sugar which was mostly warm milk with a splash of tea and we later graduated to a cup of tea with a splash of milk. I don't think I had straight tea until I was a married adult which is how I usually drink it now. Oops, I got off topic - the story here is how much Jeff wanted to impress my parents the first time he met them. He arrived at our home just as tea was being served and mom poured him a cupful. He hated tea and tried to force it down and thought the milk and sugar made it even worse. Just as he got half a cup down, dad warmed it up by filling the cup back up again! He finally managed to drink it all and politely declined more but let me know later to never invite him over at tea time again :)

Parmesan Baked Walleye...

Jeff & I are trying to eat healthier so instead of the usual fried fish I tried a new recipe for Parmesan Baked Walleye. I served it over wild rice with onions, mushrooms & peas. While I love my dining room sometimes it is fun to eat in the family room so we recently added a bar height table for two. Perfect for playing gin rummy too! You'll start to see this table a lot as I look forward to starting to join in some of the table setting memes that are out in blogland.

Parmesan Baked Walleye

1 lb walleye fillets
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (I use shredded)
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 TB dried parsley
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper

Mix together the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper. Cut fillets into serving size pieces, dip into mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. Coat with the parmesan/crumb mixture and place fish in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Bake uncovered in a 500F degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until fillets are opaque and flake easily.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup...

I have a nasty cold this weekend and soup was the only thing that even sounded good to me today. I had to check what I had in the fridge and cupboards to decide what I could make and I saw a butternut squash and sage leaves that both needed to be used before they went bad. Then, I googled for a low fat version of butternut squash soup since most recipes include cream or half and half and I am trying to eat healthier in 2011. I found this recipe on KansasCity.com

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
as copied from the KansasCity.com website
Makes 6 servings (about 7 cups)

4 cloves garlic, not peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 butternut squash, about 2  3/4 pounds
1 small to medium sweet yellow onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced about 3/4 -inch thick
4 to 6 sage leaves, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus additional pepper to taste, divided
1 (32-ounce) carton vegetable stock
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 10- by 15-inch jelly roll pan with aluminum foil.

Place the unpeeled garlic cloves on a 6-inch square of aluminum foil. Drizzle about 1/2 teaspoon olive oil over garlic; bring aluminum foil up over garlic to make a packet. Set on edge of aluminum foil-covered pan.

Using a large, heavy knife, cut off ends of squash. Peel using a vegetable peeler. Cut squash in half, remove and discard seeds. Cut squash into 1 to 1  1/2 -inch cubes. Place squash in a mixing bowl. Add onion and carrots. Drizzle vegetables with remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and sage leaves; toss to coat vegetables evenly. Spread in a single layer on prepared pan.

Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes; stir squash and carrot mixture, then continue roasting 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are very tender and golden brown. (There is no need to stir the garlic.)

Allow roasted vegetables to cool slightly. Spoon roasted vegetables into blender or work bowl of food processor. Carefully open garlic packet, allowing steam to escape. When cool enough to handle, gently squeeze roasted garlic out of skin and add the garlic to the vegetables.

Blend until smooth. (Add a little of the vegetable stock if needed so blending is easy. Work in batches as necessary.) Spoon puree into saucepan.

Blend in vegetable stock and rubbed sage. Season to taste with pepper. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until hot and steamy.

My Notes: I didn't have any vegetable stock so I used fat free chicken stock. I also think you can never have enough sage or garlic with butternut squash so I roasted 6 cloves of garlic and used at least 10 sage leaves. The vegetables weren't roasted to my likening at 375 degrees so I ended up putting them on 425 for an extra 15 minutes. I also used the stick blender to puree the soup.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - refused to even taste it and had a meatball sandwich for dinner instead :)

Sunday breakfast...banana french toast

My sister, Tammie, emailed me this recipe back in 2006 - wow, took me long enough to pull it out of the "to try" file!She originally got the recipe from the March 2006 issue of Readers Digest magazine but changed out the bread. I made it using her subsitution of blueberry bread.

Banana French Toast
recipe from Tammie S.

8 slices of raisin bread (we used blueberry bread)
2 medium bananas, cut into 1/4" slices
1 cup milk
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees, if preparing the same day. Place four slices of bread in a buttered 9 x 9 baking dish. Top with bananas and the last four slices of bread. Blend milk, cream cheese, eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Pour over bread. Let stand 5 minutes or refrigerate overnight. Bake 40-45 minutes (50-55 if refrigerated) until set and top is toasted. Let stand 10 minutes. Cut french toast into diagonal halves; dust servings with powdered sugar if desired.

My notes: I baked it the same day as making it so let it stand 5 minutes - next time I would maybe let it stand 10 minutes so more of the custard soaked into the top layer of bread. I used a blueberry cobbler bread (Grandpa's Oven brand) and forgot the powdered sugar dusting but it was still very good.

We will make this again and try different variations of it as well - blueberry bread with fresh blueberries rather than bananas, raisin bread without fruit and plain bread with strawberries.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

cranberry chili sauce...

Shortly before Christmas I found this recipe for cranberry chili vension sausages on the blog, Everyday Gourmet. Since I had an abundance of vension sausages in the freezer I used the recipe to make a crockpot of sausages for Jeff's extended family Christmas and it was very good. I forgot to take a photo then but I used the same sauce on meatballs for a New Year's eve gathering with friends and quickly snapped a shot of them still in the crockpot.This recipe is a "keeper" because it is semi-homemade and quick to put together as well as very tasty.

Cranberry Chili Sauce for Sausages or Meatballs
from the blog, Everyday Gourmet

Ingredients

* 2 cans (14 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
* 2 bottle (12 ounces) chili sauce
* 1 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 4 lbs fully cooked homestyle sausage or meatballs

Directions

* In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the first six ingredients; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add sausages; cook for 20-25 minutes or until hot, stirring occasionally. Yield: about 30 servings.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP