Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chive Pesto

This is a good side for chicken, or whatever else. The chive pesto is delicious.


Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chive Pesto
From: Bon Appetit

Ingredients

1 3/4 pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup packed chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped pine nuts of walnuts
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange potato halves in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast potatoes about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

3. While the potatoes roast, combine 1/2 cup chives, parsley, nuts, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse into finely chopped. Gradually add olive oil and pulse until it's incorporated. Transfer pesto to a small bowl and add lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Transfer potatoes to a platter and toss with half of the pesto. Top with extra chopped chives and serve with remaining pesto.

Tomato Soup

Soup! All I want to eat these days is soup!

This tomato soup recipe is based on one served at Nordstrom's. Apparently dried basil, not fresh, is one of the keys here. Additionally, you can opt out of the cream for this soup; it's still good without it. I recommend making grilled cheese to go with it.

Tomato Soup
Adapted from: Serious Eats

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, sliced
3- 28oz cans whole peeled Roma tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon crushed dried basil
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large, heavy saucepan heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and onion and cook until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add basil and cook until the vegetables are completely softened.

2. Add tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, or 45 minutes if time permits.

3. Allow soup to cool slighty and use an immersion blender to blend the soup. Stir in cream and season with salt and pepper. 

Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Dip

I don't have a very good track record of writing posts in a timely fashion, but this recipe comes just in time for Superbowl Sunday, and it's definitely a melted-cheese loving, greasy-food eating crowd pleaser. This recipe comes from a friend of my mom's. It gets eaten so fast that I don't yet have a picture of it fully baked.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

12oz chunky blue cheese dressing (Marie's is recommended, but I can't find it anywhere, so I use Ken's)
8oz cream cheese
3/4 cup Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce (regular Buffalo, not hot sauce)
6 chicken cutlets
8oz Colby Jack cheese, shredded
Fresh blue cheese, crumbled (optional)
1 large bags of Scoops (or any kind of chip will do)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saute pan, cover the chicken cutlets with just enough water to cover them and cook on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. Let the chicken cool, then shred it and mix it with the buffalo sauce.

2. In a glass 8x8 pan, spread the cream cheese. Spread the blue cheese dressing over the cream cheese and crumble any fresh blue cheese on top.

3. Spread the buffalo chicken over top of the cheese layers, and top with shredded Colby Jack. Bake for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

I've been relying on Martha's recipes quite a bit lately. Particularly for her pie crusts, now that I've officially broken up with Mark Bittman's pie crusts. It wasn't him though, it was me. They were too flaky and hard to deal with. Much like most of my former boyfriends.

Chocolate Pecan Pie
Adapted from: Martha Stewart

Ingredients

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole pecans
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 9-inch pie crust, such as this one

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in lowest position.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together (don't whisk) eggs, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Set aside.

3. Using a double boiler, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate. Gradually add melted chocolate into egg mixture and stir together. Pour filling into prepared crust. Arrange pecans in one layer over filling.

4. Bake for 50-60 minutes, rotating the pie once halfway, until filling is set. It may still be a little jiggly in the center. Let cool for at least 4 hours, or overnight, before serving.


Ready to go:

Sweet Potato and Turnip Gratin

I learned a few things about myself while making this recipe. For one, I did not know the difference between parsnips and turnips. I used the parsnips from my CSA thinking they were turnips. Secondly, when I made this again with actual turnips, I found that I don't like turnips. I made this a third time tonight with just sweet potatoes. The parsnip version was a hit on Thanksgiving, and I enjoyed the sweet potato only version, so this recipe is apparently pretty flexible with whatever your choice of root vegetable.

Sweet Potato and Turnip Gratin
Adapted from: Martha Stewart

Ingredients

3 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
1 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In an 8x8 square baking dish, arrange a single layer of turnip and sweet potato rounds, overlapping slightly, and alternating between turnips and sweet potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and repeat to make 3 more layers, sprinkling with salt, pepper, and flour between each layer.

3. Dot the top layer with butter pieces and slowly pour wine and broth over the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are easily pierced with a knife.

4. Increase temperature to 425 degrees. Sprinkle cheese over dish and bake for another 15 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown.



Layered and dotted with butter:

The best part of any gratin:

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard

I had lentils for I think the first time a few weeks ago, and I fell for them, hard. This was my first venture into cooking them and it went well. My first CSA vegetable pick up came in from Lancaster Farms and there were several sweet potatoes, so I was looking for a way to use them when I stumbled upon this recipe.

This recipe involves a lot of chopping, and it's not the prettiest to look at in the end, but it's flavorful and well worth the effort. It also makes a good bring-to-work lunch.

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard
From: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth, as needed
4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 pound Swiss chard, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup chopped scallions, for garnish

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, curry powder, and jalapeño. Stir together and cook for one minute. 

2. Stir in 4 cups of vegetable broth, sweet potatoes, lentil, and bay leaf. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 25 minutes, partially covered. (If the lentils start to seem dry, you can add some more stock).

3. Stir in chard, salt and pepper, and cook for another 30-45 minutes until the lentils are tender and the chard is cooked.

4. Just before serving, stir in the cilantro, lime zest and lime juice. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve. 

Simmering:

Plus chard:

Broccoli and Cheddar Mini Quiches

There's going to be quite a few bite size/hors d'oeuvre type recipes coming up after all that bridal shower cooking. I do love me some bite sized foods though. Particularly anything that contains both broccoli and cheese.

Note: Makes about 24 mini quiches

Broccoli and Cheddar Mini Quiches
Adapted from: The Local Cook

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup chopped green onions (white and light green parts only) or chopped onion
2 cups broccoli florets (cut small)
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

2. Melt butter in a pan and sauté broccoli florets and chopped onion until softened.

3. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and mix in the broccoli mixture and cheddar cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tops start to turn slightly golden brown.