Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Lemon

I’m certain that most of you have roasted fresh broccoli at least once.  Roasting is one of my favorite ways to prepare just about any vegetable and I enjoy it during the summer months as much as I do during the cooler times of the year.

As you know, I’m in San Diego right now and several days before we left on our trip I was going through the refrigerator to try use up what was in there.  And  there it was.  One head of broccoli hiding underneath the bag of carrots and a few stray Granny Smith apples.

I just couldn’t leave it there to die a slow painful death.  I also knew my husband would in no way be enjoying it while we were gone.  So, I heated up the oven and set to work.

As you know this is quite easy.  There is no way to mess this up.  Absolutely no way.  And, I also know (because of my general kitchen optimism), that you have a lemon, garlic cloves and olive oil handy.  So with that, let’s begin.

Cut your head of broccoli into florets.  Those really big florets should be cut in half, so that the florets are pretty uniform in size.  Rinse them under cool water and pat dry.

Toss the broccoli with 2 cloves of sliced garlic, 1/2-3/4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Adjust seasonings according to your preferences and taste.

While the broccoli is in the oven, zest half of one lemon and juice that half too.  Save the other half for something else, such as, garnishing your iced tea.

Once you remove the baking sheet, toss the broccoli with the lemon juice and the zest.  Instead of serving on a small platter, a place a single serving onto individual appetizer plates.

I think this makes a great side dish especially when entertaining since there are so few ingredients.  You may also want to add crumbled feta or even toasted pine nuts to the finished broccoli.  That sounds really good too.

You know, roasted broccoli would also be great served alongside some brown rice.  That’s something I’d probably make myself for lunch.  I try to always keep brown rice in my (slightly disorganized) pantry.

Note to self…organize the pantry when I return from my trip.

So, how about you.  How do you normally serve roasted vegetables?  And, what are your favorites to prepare using that method?

Roasted Broccoli

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1/2 -3/4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

zest and juice of half of a lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the broccoli and pat dry.  Cut into florets.  Toss with 1/2 to 3/4 tbsp of olive oil, depending on the size of the head of broccoli.  Toss broccoli with sliced garlic and Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Roast broccoli for 20 minutes, checking half-way through to ensure that garlic isn’t browning.

Remove broccoli from the oven and transfer to serving platter.  Toss with fresh lemon juice and zest.  Serve immediately.

Serves: 3 to 4 as a side dish

Avocado Salsa + San Diego

Will you allow me one last recipe featuring my beloved Mexican food?  Oh, thank you.  I promise I’m going to talk a little bit about this lovely avocado salsa in a minute, but first a few words (and a couple of photos) about two of my favorite spots in San Diego.

This is the view from Birch Aquarium near the campus of UCSD.  It overlooks La Jolla Shores and you can see the heart of La Jolla (also known as the jewel of San Diego County) in the distance.  If you look carefully in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo you’ll see the surfers sitting on their boards.

Pretty, no?

I’ve spent a lot of time at Balboa Park over the years…visiting museums, watching live theatre at the Old Globe and even a 5K race or two (I just made myself giggle when I typed that).  The San Diego Botanical Garden is in the background and as you approach it, you walk along this huge man-made pond, where Koi fish swim in and around the lily pads.  I love to visit this part of the park and on the weekends you’ll see several brides being photographed here, all manner of street performers and it also makes for terrific people watching.

Now, I’d like to have the attention of all the avocado lovers out there.  The kind who wish they had a big tree that carefully shed her wonderful fruit just when you were in the mood to make guacamole.  Yes, I had such a tree in the courtyard of a house I lived in while attending San Diego State (Go Aztecs!).  Free avocados taste really good because well, they’re free and I didn’t have a large food budget back in the college days, as I’m sure many of you can relate.

I remember the first time I saw avocado (in guacamole form), I was probably 10 and we had just moved from New York to San Diego.  We were sitting in a little outdoor cafe in the middle of Old Town San Diego and I’m fairly certain I wanted know part of that guacamole.  Chips?  Yes.  Gaucamole?  No, thank you.

But over the years I have grown to love avocado, especially when it is being transformed (table side) into guacamole and then gets scooped up by a still-warm tortilla chip.

Love. Love. Love.

Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2 – 3/4-inch cubes

1 large or two small Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/3 cup red onion, minced

1 small jalapeno, seeds removed and minced

Kosher or coarse salt

Method

Place first 4 ingredients into a bowl.  Add salt to taste and gently toss to combine.  Serve immediately.

Have a wonderful couple of weeks everyone!  I’ll be trying to check in periodically, but if you don’t hear from me or I’m not responding to comments it’s because I’m being serenaded by a live Mariachi band, while sipping a margarita on the rocks with salt.

More likely, I’ll just be catching up with good friends and family over a glass of wine.

Egg Salad Sandwich + Packing

We leave tomorrow for San Diego and today is the day where I try to put the finishing touches onto two backpacks and my own carry-on bag.  The three suitcases have been packed and we are nearly ready for our trip (though I don’t think we’re going to be ready for the 5:30 am alarm clock). Oh, that’s going to be rough for all of us.

 Yes, we’ll be leaving before the sun comes up.  The youngest has already requested to take his blanket, which is code for he hates being woken up.  And, so does his Mom.

When I told the littles that we’d be stopping to change planes in Baltimore they asked if we’d be staying to watch an Orioles game.  Unfortunately the answer was no (though I reminded them they’d be attending a Padres game) and we’d simply be changing planes.  I find it funny how they relate most things to baseball.

Although I rely on all manner of entertainment for both of them for when we travel  {lots of new books to read, card games, plus puzzle books}, I  will also use some electronic entertainment  including several new apps I downloaded for them. And, one for me.

Even I need some distraction on the plane, so I purchased a new sudoku book, a softcover version of Bossypants by Tina Fey and several magazines.  As you probably already guessed, I’ll be mostly occupied with keeping my kindergartner occupied.

After packing, I wandered into the kitchen to make Sugar Dish Me’s egg salad using Duke’s light mayo (thanks, Heather).  I’ve had my eye on this post for a couple of weeks because of the way she preps the egg yolks.

I have complete confidence that her photos will compel you to make this for lunch today.

My husband hovered over me while I made our lunch and asked me questions while I moved through the steps.  It looked that good.  He is a huge egg salad (and deviled egg fan) so I knew he’d be more than happy to eat one of these sandwiches.  Or actually two.

I know you’ll love Heather as much as I do.  She injects her fun sense of humor into every single post.  She’s a great story teller and regularly posts delicious recipes and lovely photos as well.  Wander over to her site for the complete recipe and her pretty photos.

Oh and one last thing.  Heather was kind enough to send a couple of awards my way recently and when I return from our trip, I will thank her properly and post them.  I’m a little slow on these things.

 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I do appreciate it!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

This week has just flown by.  I had a list written out as long as my right arm and I’ve been frantically working my way down it before we leave for San Diego.  For some reason I like to add all manner of household chores to the pre-trip list {I’m not sure why I do this}.  Things like give the dog a bath.  Wash out the vegetable drawers in the refrigerator.  Put away the winter clothes and hopefully find partners for the mittens and gloves.

I’m not sure why I do that before a trip, but I sure wish I could recapture the way I traveled when I was in my 20′s.  Just pack everything 2 hours before leaving for the airport.  Bed unmade.  Breakfast dishes on the counter and a half-filled mug of coffee in the bathroom.  Those were good times.

Truthfully I’m not too sure how to transition from my packing rituals to these tasty tacos. But here it goes.  Those delicious citrusy black beans have made several appearances this past week and this is their last hurrah!   Today’s recipe is super simple (I’m too busy working on that list for anything too complicated) and involves roasting sweet potatoes, which I adore.

I think that most of our country’s sweet potatoes are grown right here in North Carolina, so in a way this little recipe combines a little bit of the South with one of my favorite type of cuisine:  Mexican.

I gave this little sweet potato a good scrub before chopping him into fairly uniformly sized pieces.  I wanted to leave the skin on, but feel free to peel your sweet potato before roasting if you prefer.  And, you’ll only need 1 sweet potato for this recipe.

Drizzle about a 1/2 tablespoon of good quality olive oil over the chopped sweet potato.  Add a couple of pinches of Kosher (or coarse) salt and then toss to combine.  I used an oven-proof skillet (or use a baking sheet) and place into an oven which has been preheated to 400 degrees.  Roast for about 20 minutes.

Here’s that beautiful chopped sweet potato after it came out of the oven.  It’s possible that I stood there with my fork “testing” a few pieces to be sure they were done.  But, I’m not going to admit that here.

To assemble your tacos, you’ll need 4 corn tortillas.  Use about 1/3 cup of of the citrusy black beans and then divide the roasted sweet potato among each of the 4 tortillas.  A sprinkle of finely chopped red onion (scant 1/4 cup total) and some fresh, flat leaf parsley.  I used a small sprig of fresh parsley for each taco.

To pick up the citrus flavors in the black beans, I garnished both plates with a couple of wedges of fresh lime, but that is completely optional.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into uniform-sized pieces

About 1/2 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

4 corn tortillas

1 1/3 cup of citrusy black beans, click here for recipe

A scant 1/4 cup of finely chopped red onion

4 sprigs of fresh flat leaf parsley, stems discarded

wedges of lime, optional

Method

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cut sweet potato into approximately 1/2-inch dice  (uniformity is the key here).  Toss with the olive oil and 1 or 2 pinches of Kosher salt.  Place into an oven-proof skillet or onto a baking dish and roast in preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

To assemble tacos:  place 1/3 cup of the black beans down the center of each corn tortilla.  Divide the still warm roasted sweet potato among the 4 tortillas.  Sprinkle with the red onion and top each taco with the leaves of 1 sprig of parsley.  Serve with wedges of lime if desired.

Serves: 2 (2 tacos per serving)

Thanks for indulging me and my love of Mexican food with this week’s recipes.  I’ve got one very simple salsa recipe to share tomorrow and a few of my favorite sites in San Diego too.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever been given a cookbook as a gift and several years goes by without making a single recipe?  This is the case with a cookbook my brother gave me a few years back called The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans.  I’ve poured over this book on several occasions but just never baked anything from it.

You would think playing around with a cookbook that features chocolate chips, not to mention swoon-worthy photos throughout, that I’d have prepared at least half the recipes by now.  Well, I had to start somewhere.

And the recipe for banana-oatmeal chocolate chips cookies is what I picked.  The combination of bits of ripe banana mixed into a chocolate chip cookie batter sounded entirely too good to be true, especially for the banana bread fans in our home.

The finished cookie had a soft, cake-like texture and at one moment you felt as though you were enjoying a bite of banana bread and then the next moment it was like a rich, chocolate chip cookie with a touch of vanilla and cinnamon.  My husband gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.  And those don’t come too often.

First things first.  In a small bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cup of flour with 1 tsp of baking soda and a 1/4 tsp of salt.   In you stand mixer, beat 6 tbsp of unsalted butter f with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Next, add 1 large egg and 1 tsp of pure vanilla (no fake vanilla, please) extract and mix until blended, about 1 minute.  Mix in 1 cup of oatmeal and 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Now you’re ready to add the cut up bananas (2 ripe ones) to the batter, mixing with a large spoon until they are evenly distributed.

You’ll want to incorporate the banana into the batter so that some of the pieces are mashed, but most are still visible (see my little arrow above).

Drop dough using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon (about 3 level tablespoons for each cookie) onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet or line your baking sheets with parchment paper and then butter the paper as suggested in the recipe.

I just know what you’re thinking right now.  Do I have any ripe bananas so I can make these cookie Sunday afternoon?  I sure hope you do.  Your taste buds will thank you.

Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe taken from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup oatmeal (not quick-cooking)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 bananas, cut into 1/4 – to 1/3-inch pieces

Method

Position a rack in the middle of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper. *

In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together; set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended, about 1 minute.  The mixture may look slightly curdled.  On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated.  Mix in the oatmeal.  Mix in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.  Use a large spoon to mix in the banana pieces, mixing just until they are evenly distributed and some of the pieces are mashed but most are still visible, about 20 seconds.

Use a tablespoon to drop heaping spoonfuls of dough (about 3 level tablespoons each) onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 3 inches apart.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the edges are lightly browned and the tops look dry, about 18 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cookies can be store in a tightly covered container, layered between sheets of wax paper, at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Yield:  30 cookies

*Kitchen Note:  I used a Silpat to line my baking sheets as opposed to buttered parchment paper.

Coriander Rice

I am interrupting my posts on preparing tacos because maybe you’re on the hunt for a side dish to accompany all of the tacos your presumably making.  While you may like a more traditional Spanish rice recipe, I spent some time on epicurious the other day and found a little gem called coriander rice.  It was published originally by Gourmet in April 1997 and looked simple with good reviews.  I made two minor changes and replaced the long-grain rice with basmati rice and used chicken broth instead of water, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

If you’ve recently purchased fresh cilantro (coriander), this is a great recipe to use it up.  I just hate when those innocent little herbs, languish away at the bottom of the vegetable drawer (underneath half of a red onion and a few stalks of celery.  Just depressing.

Oh, and if you’re not a coriander {cilantro} fan, just substitute flat-leaf parsley.  The flavor will of course be a little different, but I think you’ll end up with a nice side dish just the same.

 

Here’s what you need to get started…2 garlic cloves that you’ve thinly sliced, 1 cup of basmati rice  and 1/3 cup of freshly chopped coriander.

Add 2 cups of chicken broth to a pot that has a tight-fitting lid.  Next, add 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of olive oil and the sliced garlic.  Bring this mixture to a boil.

Now you’re ready to add 1 cup of basmati rice to the broth-garlic mixture.

Once you’ve added the rice, give it a good stir and set your tight-fitting lid (You remember that you need that lid, right?) onto your pot, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.  Now’s the time when you can put the finishing touches on your main course, check your WordPress stats or clean out the veggie drawer.

After the rice has cooked for 20 minutes, carefully remove the lid (a lot of steam will be released so be careful) and add 1/3 of a cup of chopped coriander to the pot.  Use a fork to fluff the rice and toss with the coriander.

Don’t forget to taste the rice and adjust the seasonings with salt and black pepper, if needed.

I reserved a whole leaf to garnish (but only for this shot).  I like a pretty garnish, but not too much.  Less is more in the garnish department for me.

 

You can view the original recipe on epicurious here.

Coriander Rice

Recipe adapted from Gourmet (as featured on epicurious), April 1997

Ingredients

2 cups of chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 cup Basmati rice
1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander sprigs (wash and dry before chopping)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

In a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid bring chicken broth to a boil with salt, oil, and garlic. Stir in rice and cook, covered, over low heat 20 minutes, or until water is absorbed and rice is tender. Fluff rice with a fork and toss with coriander and salt and pepper to taste.

Yield:  3 cups

Chicken and Black Bean Tacos

Thanks for stopping by today on another rainy day here in North Carolina.  I’m savoring my second cup of hot coffee after being woken up by the most spectacular thunder storm at 5 am.  I must tell you I’m not a 5am, go for a jog and have quiet time before the littles arise type of gal.  I’m more of a 7:30 girl, who stumbles out of the bed and hopefully pulls something nutritious together for their lunch boxes and makes sure everyone looks presentable before they walk out of the door, which includes no milk mustaches and toothpaste down the front of a shirt.

I am simply not a morning person, though I wish I was.

So, did you make your citrusy black beans yesterday?  Are they at least on your list of things to try?  If they are, you’ll be able to make these little tacos for an upcoming meal.  I think they would go just perfectly with a cold Sol beer.

Today, I’m going to share how I put these together.  This is a what you see, is what you get type of recipe.  In fact, I didn’t even include a recipe in today’s post.  So if you’ve made the black beans, there isn’t really much else to do and we can go ahead and get started.

 I poached a 1 lb package of chicken tenderloins using this technique.  It took just a few minutes to poach them and another couple of minutes for them to cool slightly, so I could shred the chicken with a couple of forks.

I had enough shredded chicken to put together about 10 small tacos.  Depending on how much chicken you use, you may get a couple less.

I bought the corn tortillas from a small Mexican restaurant in our town and brought them home (still warm).  I started with the shredded chicken as the base to hold the citrusy black beans.

Next, I added some black beans a little chopped red onion.

I love fresh cilantro, so I added some after the black beans and red onions.  Now, I know there are quite a few of you who don’t care for cilantro (it’s ok we can still be friends).  This seems to be one of those herbs that people either really love or just hate.  If it’s not for you, leave it out.  Maybe you’d prefer some avocado in your tacos?  That would be delicious too and a pretty pop of green on your plate.

A squeeze of fresh lime was all these needed before we sat down for dinner.

For the junior members of the household, they fixed there own tacos with just shredded chicken, freshly grated cheddar cheese and a little mild salsa.  The cilantro and red onion was all a little too much for their taste buds.

See you again tomorrow…