Roasted Zucchini with Pesto

Have you tried pesto?

September is still harvest time. It sounds wonderful and feels so country.  Our local farmers' market should be as large with as many alternatives of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. One best thing about this whole thing is the opportunity to learn making food from scratch, from what is available.

Here's a recipe suggested by Your Smart Kitchen Blog.

Ingredients

• 2 Zucchini, chopped into 1 inch chunks
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• Extra-virgin Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Pesto
• Oregano
• Sea Salt
• Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Mix olive oil, pesto, oregano, garlic, sea salt and pepper in a small bowl. Coat each chunk of zucchini with the mixture and spread out on a baking sheet. Roast till browning (about 6 minutes) and then flip the zucchini pieces over and let roast for another 7 or so minutes until then are tender. Serve warm with other delicious sides.  

Source : Your Smart Kitchen Newsletter

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Wraps

Try this sweet and spicy chicken wrap. We have tried this many times and it became one of my family and friend's favorite foodie requests every time. Perfect for your holidays.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup finely chopped seedless cucumber
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into thin strips
• 1 cup thick and chunky salsa
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 (10 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves

Directions

1. Mix together the mayonnaise, cucumber, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and black pepper in a bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat, and cook and stir the chicken breast strips until they are beginning to turn golden and are no longer pink in the middle, about 8 minutes. Stir in the salsa, 1 tablespoon of honey, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have blended, about 5 minutes.
3. Stack the tortillas, 4 at a time, in a microwave oven and heat until warm and pliable, 20 to 30 seconds per batch.
4. Spread each tortilla with 1 tablespoon of the mayonnaise-cucumber mixture, top with a layer of baby spinach leaves, and arrange about 1/2 cup of chicken mixture on the spinach leaves.
5. Fold the bottom of each tortilla up about 2 inches, and start rolling the burrito from the right side. When the burrito is half-rolled, fold the top of the tortilla down, enclosing the filling, and continue rolling to make a tight, compact cylinder.

Chicken Parmesan Rotini Primavera

This is another recipe I got for the Your Smart Kitchen Newsletter that I know you all will love. This was a discovery of a college student who was eager for a meal and looking to spend a little bit of time in the kitchen came up with this tasty meal on the fly.

   
Ingredients

• 1 2 Chicken Breasts, cleaned and cut into tenders
• 1/4 cup Cheez-Its, crushed
• 1/2 cup Croutons, crushed
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 1 Egg
• Rotini Primavera Pasta
• Tomato Based Sauce
• 1 Zucchini, chopped
• 1 Summer Squash, chopped
• 1/2 Onion, chopped
• Basil
• Oregano
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Beefsteak Tomato, chopped
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea Salt & Pepper

Directions   

Mix the Cheez-Its, croutons and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the egg with a tad of water. Dip the chicken tenders into the egg, coating fully, then place in the large bowl, covering the chicken with the dry mix completely. Place the chicken in a pan that has olive oil heated to a medium high. Cook on each side till crisp and browned.

Heat up the Tomato based sauce at a medium-low heat adding the beefsteak tomatoes. In a large pan saute the zucchini, summer squash, onion and the garlic. Add the basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Mix the saute into the sauce and maintain a low heat till serving.

Boil water for the pasta, adding a bit of olive oil to avoid the pasta sticking. Cook the Rotini Primavera for 9-12 minutes till Al Dente. Fill the base of the plate with pasta, placing the chicken over the top and scooping the sauce over the entire plate. Cover with Parmesan cheese.

Easy to prepare meal your family will love.

Video on How to Make Your Own Bratwurst Sausage

It's Bratwurst season and you may want to try making your own brats in your own kitchen! I've never tried this, though, but I might any of these days. Go ahead here's the video.

Like the usual way of making sausages or chorizo, making bratwurst is the same and requires 1 key piece of equipment before, a meat grinder. So if you're decided, make sure you also are ready with these things: 


1. You’re a true culinarian and want to impress your friends.
2. You’re a mercenary-for-hire and the bodies are piling up.3. You’re extremely bored and wanted to know if it was possible. Anyways, just do it and enjoy your sausages with your favorite beer! Get that Brats! :)     

                                 

Kinds of Sausages

Chorizo, bolognese, andouille, linguisa/linguica, keilbasa, are among the sausages that we perhaps encounter almost every time, but what are all of them? If you want to know other kinds of sausages, or at least the most frequently used ones for menu purposes, here's my list.

Don't get overwhelmed!

* Bangers (British Sausages)
* Italian Sausage
* Bratwurst
* Summer Sausage
* Salami
* Andouille
* Liverwurst
* Braunschweiger
* Pepperoni
* Polska Kielbasa or Polish Sausage
* Wiener/Frankfurter (hot dog)
* Bauerwurst
* Bierwurst or Beerwurst (Does not contain Beer)
* Bockwurst
* Chorizo
* Head Cheese
* Loukanika Sausage
* Blood Sausage or Blood Pudding or Black Pudding
* Weisswurst
* blutwurst
* boerewors
* boudin blanc
* boudin rouge
* chaurice
* chipolata
* chourico (Portugese!)
* cotechino
* Goetta
* scrapple
* haggis
* kishke
* knackwurst (knockwurst or knoblauch)
* kolbasz
* landjager
* lap cheong
* linguica
* linguisa
* longanisa
* loukanika
* medisterpoelse
* merguez
* mettwurst
* morcilla
* pickled pork (pickle meat or Creole pickled pork)
* pinkelwurst
* potato korv
* Sujuk
* tocino
* Toulouse sausage

Well and whew!

Don't Ever Boil Your Bratwurst Sausage

It's sausage time, it's bratwurst time!

Like many Bratwurst Day fans, I am now preparing for a brats week! Did I say week? My griller is now waiting, my coals at the corner. Before anything else, there's one thing I'd like to share - don't ever boil bratwurst!  

Parboiling is good, though, in fact you see recipes that call for it. What they actually mean to (or ought to) say is simmered in beer or water, usually with chopped onion added.  Simmering means bringing the liquid to the temperature at which steam rises from the surface, but not so hot that it bubbles.  Boiling will cause the casings to burst. Most understands boiling is to water..... so you have to make these things clear.

Also, you may see or hear the term "brat fry". The term is technically a misnomer.  Bratwurst can be pan fried, and you may see recipes that call for it... My family likes pan-fried bratwurst.  Nevertheless, at a Wisconsin "brat fry", the bratwurst are cooked on a grate over charcoal, usually on a kettle grill...that is how we are cooking our brats on my Bratwurst week.

I'm thinking of something refreshing to match the brats with this new-fangled drink that I found online. This is a classic Wisconsin recipe - a favorite accompaniment to grilled bratwurst, especially while tailgating at a Badgers, Packers, or Brewers game. 

You need:

1 Cooler
3 Bags Ice (cubes)1 Case Beer

Simply:

Remove cans from recyclable cardboard holder.  Place cans in cooler, intermingling with ice cubes.  Chill 45 minutes and serve. There's much more that goes into serving Kevin's bratwash than simply intermingling just any beer and ice into just any cooler.  Pick up essential points and tips on proper technique at Kevin's beer page.(I got this recipe from him).

Happy Bratwurst Day!

Have You Tried Pasta Pomodoro?

Generally, the word "pomodoro" means "tomato" in Italian. Pasta Pomodoro is therefore a dish that primarily contains pasta and tomatoes. Angel hair pasta is the most common type of pasta in Pasta Pomodoro, and it typically has other ingredients, such as olive oil and seasonings. Pasta Pomodoro is high in starch and low in fat. 

Ingredients

• 1 lb angel hair pasta
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 Roma tomatoes
  (if you have fresh tomatoes from your garden, use those)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 can low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• Parmesan cheese
• Crushed red pepper
• Sea Salt
• Pepper

Directions

Cook pasta for about 8 minutes till al dente and drain. Add a splash of olive oil to the boiling water before cooking to avoid any sticking.Chop the onion, mince the garlic and dice the tomatoes. Add olive oil to a saute pan over high heat and saute the onions and garlic till slightly browned. Reduce heat to medium-high and stir in tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and chicken broth. Bring to simmer for around 8 minutes.

Serve More Than Just Refreshing Fruits

Summer Ideas for Lunch Simple Serve premixed frozen fruit salad with any lunch or eat a whole peach, nectarine, or plum (look for plain fruit with no added sugars or sauces). Don’t forget the napkins!  Moderate Slice fruit and serve with peanut butter on whole wheat toast. Nectarine or strawberries are fantastic summer options to jelly! Summer Ideas for Snacks   Simple Wash and serve a colorful bowl of stone fruit, berries, or other favorite fruit “as is”.  Moderate Wash and slice a variety of fruits and serve with low fat yogurt for dipping or chunk up melon and stone fruit, serve in martini glasses with a spring of fresh mint or grill melon or pineapple slices and serve up next to any meal as a side or dessert. Freeze berries into 100% juice and serve in ice tea or water. No matter how you like your refreshments served, go for it anyway. After all, it's SUMMER!

Modern Bread Pudding Ideas

If everyone loves bread pudding, then everyone knows of its sweet history as stale bread soaked in milk, sugar, butter, fruits and seasonings then bake to form  luscious bread pudding!  While old-fashioned bread pudding is already making a great come-back along with today's reborn of traditional foods, either of its sweet or savory versions can be easy to make.

Making luscious bread pudding is one of the simplest and easy to prepare desserts even a newbie can cook right away. Since we are now in the modern times, why not make a blend of new ingredients cooked the old-fashioned way?

Here are my new-fangled modern bread pudding recipes:

Fruit Cocktail Bread Pudding 

Ingredients

• 5 cups bread cubes, or torn into pieces
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, not margarine
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cans fruit cocktail, drained and cut into tidbits
• chopped nuts, optional
• Whipped cream, optional

Directions

In a mixing bowl, beat together sugar, butter and cinnamon with an electric mixer for 1 minute, or 3 minutes by hand. Add eggs and beat until blended. Fold bread cubes and fruit cocktail tidbits into the creamed mixture then pour into crock pot. Cover and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours or on High for 3 to 4 hours. You may top with crushed nuts or whipped cream topping if desired. Serve warm or cold.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 loaf bread, cubed or torn into pieces
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cups white-chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups toasted pecans, crushed

Directions

Prepare chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl, set aside. In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until simmering. Pour hot cream over the chocolate chips, whisking until the chips dissolve. Whisk sugar into the mixture then the milk, eggs, and vanilla to form a custard base. Add the bread cubes into the bowl, gently mixing to coat bread cubes with the custard base. Set mixture aside to allow the bread to soak for an hour. Toss once in a while so bread is thoroughly soaked into the custard base. For the meantime, heat the oven to 325 degrees, and grease a baking dish.

Toss the pecans into the soaked bread mixture, then pour the mixture into the baking dish. Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove foil and increase the heat to 400 degrees. Continue baking for 10 minutes longer or until the top of pudding has lightly browned. You may top your bread pudding with whipped cream. Serve warm or cold.

Which Peach Cobbler Is Best

If you enjoy peaches, then you are always excited about the National Peach Cobbler Day. I always make sure we have a basket of peaches for that national day so everyone in my house eats peaches.

There has been a question as to which cobbler is best, the American or the English peach cobbler?
This is a question I always have a hard time solving. In the United Kingdom (England), cobbler is usually a meat dish made into a type of casserole and I first tasted this with my English and Irish mother. American cobbler is typically a dessert consisting of fruit filling and batter that when baked, rises into a dumpling. From the way these two famous cobblers are cooked also sounds the way they tastes. Perhaps it depends on your personal preference as to which cobbler is really for you.

For the American cobbler, there are many different types of fruit cobblers. You can make one that includes apple, blackberry, mango, cherry, rhubarb, pear, and of course peach. Well, I wonder if there will someday be an Apple Cobbler Day or a Cherry-Rhubarb Day. Anyway, since I am a sweet lover, my pick is the American cobbler.

Because the pie crust is mostly not homemade and the peaches are usually canned, I find making peach cobblers a lot easier that I can make 6 pans of peach cobbler for National Cobbler Day. There are two types of cobblers that you can enjoy, one with a biscuit crust topping and the second using a pie crust. Since my kids enjoy making biscuits in our Dutch oven, a peach cobbler with a biscuit topping is always our pick. Yes, my kids make peach cobblers.

Although me and my husband prefer the pie crust, we were forced to shift to the biscuit type as there is nothing as enjoyable as eating what your kids make. It really comes down to your own preference or how you were taught to cook cobbler, and we want our kids to know that.

Happy Peach Cobbler Day!

The Yearly Pancake Day

If you look at the Christian datebook, Pancake Day is marked the English name for "Shrove Tuesday" before Ash Wednesday. This passion of pancakes began with the old tradition of a day of pancake distinguished throughout the world beginning in England. It is a day celebrated on different dates in different countries associating the beginning of Lent, a period of fasting and abstinence.

Not just for a religious purpose, pancakes are charming and delicious treats. Since it has a significant day itself related to a religious belief, cooking pancakes at home renders all Pancake days as a perfect day to bond with the whole family. It is a day shared by children and parents everywhere along with all forms of tasty pancakes on the table. With the many pancake cookbooks we have today, every home cook can get as much ideas on how to make her Pancake Day for the whole family a good start for the Lenten season.

Even if you're not so fond of pancakes, poor tasting pancakes does not have to stop you from having a flipping good time every year. The key to perfect pancakes is understanding the science behind them. With the potential combination of right ingredients that you can add to your pancake, you will get that pancake taste that can stimulate your taste buds in your tongue.

Happy Pancake Day!

New England Clam Chowder Day

Today is National New England Clam Chowder Day. My grandmother who used to live in the clam chowder country Massachusetts never missed to call us days before the National New England Clam Chowder day, just to remind us for our bowls of chowder on that day. Perhaps it was how we all got used to the same custom every January 21st, and mind you I truly became a chowder fanatic. If you like cheesy soups, you sure will adore a New England chowder with lots and lots of cheese!

I have been a cheesy chowder admirer myself and I can't remember any National Chowder Day without so much of these dish on the family table. I don't know but perhaps its how the most famous varieties of chowder today originally came from a plain “fish stew”, made of fish and vegetables, that has hooked me up.

Here's my favorite chowder recipe that has been my family's favorite too for as long as I can remember. I first got this recipe at Better Homes online which I modified a bit with more amounts of cheese. You can make one for you too. here we go.

Ingredients:

- 1-1/4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup skim milk
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 6-1/2-ounce cans minced clams
- 1 cup shredded American cheese (4 ounces)

Procedure:

In a 2-quart saucepan combine water, bouillon granules, carrots, peas, green onions, and pepper. Heat and bring to boil. In a separate pan, stir together milk and cornstarch, then mix stir into vegetable mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for one more minute. Stir in undrained clams and the cheese until cheese is melted. If desired, you can add more cheese.

Serve in your favorite white bowls. Makes 4 servings.