Category Archives: Side Dish

Cheesy Orzo

Posted on by

0

Quick Post: I really enjoyed this and I seem to have a thing for orzo pasta side dishes when I need something to go along with fish. I modified this more than I usually do for a first attempt with the addition of peas and lemon zest. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Cheesy Orzo – adapted from Food Network

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 box of vegetable stock
  • 2 cups orzo pasta
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano or Romano
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • the zest of half a lemon
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Direction:

Preheat a 8 inch pot with a tight fitting cover over moderate heat. Add butter, onion and garlic and saute for 2 or 3 minutes. Add broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in orzo and return broth to a boil. Cover pot and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until liquid is absorbed and pasta tender. Remove lid and stir in frozen peas and cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon zest. You favorite fresh herbs may also be stirred into the orzo or rice to strengthen the flavor even more.

Crustless Quiche and Garlic Bread

Posted on by

1

This is what happens when I have no desire to go grocery shopping and when I have no clue what sounds good. This is a first for us all, but I have had regular quiche before…yeah – normally brunch fare, but I was out of options! I also wanted to use the other ciabatta loaf I made and a giant container of salad needs to be used up. Quiche brings life to leftover cheese, meat and veggies – it’s a fridge cleaner-outer 😉 The master recipe is really helpful because it also gives ratios of veggies, cheese and meat – you don’t want your pie dish to be too full. I used my deep dish pie plate and it worked out perfectly. For our quiche I used leftover bacon, cheddar cheese, and broccoli. I was careful with the salt because of all the cheese and bacon.

Verdict: This was so tasty – a perfect combination! I’m really happy with how it turned out and my husband didn’t disown me for making quiche for dinner. I did remind him that he likes “brinner” and he agreed. Besides, can you go wrong with bacon and cheese on anything? Not in this house you can’t. Even my picky 5 year old enjoyed eating this and my 8 year old had seconds. The garlic bread was super garlicky – take it easy on the cloves if you’re not a fan. I used five huge cloves for this and probably only 1/4 cup of olive oil. The kids enjoyed the flavor of the bread too and I am still tasting it! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Crustless Quiche Master Recipe – adapted from Food Network

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
  • 9-inch glass or ceramic pie pan

Custard:

  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Freshly grated nutmeg
  • Pinch cayenne or paprika

Fillings:

  • 2 to 3 cups prepared vegetables, such as braised leeks, broccoli, sauteed onions, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, tomatoes
  • 4 ounces, or about 1 cup grated or crumbled cheese, such as Cheddar, goat cheese, Gruyere, Parmesan, fontina, provolone, mozzarella, Gouda, solo or combined
  • 1 to 4 tablespoons minced herbs, such as parsley, chives, tarragon, basil, dill, rosemary, marjoram
  • 3/4 cup chopped crisp bacon, diced ham or salami
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, optional, this is good to use with vegetables that release liquid during cooking, such as zucchini and spinach
Directions –

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For the pan: Brush pan with the soft butter and sprinkle the grated Parmesan evenly on top.

Whisk the half-and-half, eggs and yolks in large glass measuring cup. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, cayenne or paprika to taste. Spread half the desired filling evenly in the pan, top with about half the cheese; repeat with remaining filling and cheese. Pour the custard over the fillings. Top with more herbs or cheese as desired.

Bake until the quiche is just set in the center, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a rack before serving.

Garlic Bread Ingredients – adapted from King Arthur Flour

  • 1 medium head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled (about 15 medium cloves)
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • pinch (1/16 teaspoon) of salt
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • snipped fresh parsley, for garnish (optional)
Directions –
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the loaf lengthwise and prepare the topping by combining all ingredients but the parmesan and parsley together. Spread generously all over the bread. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmesan and parsley. Cut, serve and enjoy!

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms

Posted on by

5

Meat and potatoes – every red-blooded, American man’s favorite combination, right? Well, this meal was meant for the hubs Father’s Day dinner…we and our lazy butts never got around to going to the store. So, better late than never! He requested filet mignon, roasted shrimp cocktail and roasted garlic mash. The mushrooms are for me, however because the man doesn’t eat fungus! I’ve never had steak and sautéed mushrooms so now is good a time as any.

Verdict: Yum! Great sides, great steak…and we didn’t spend even one third of what it would have cost at a steak house! I love that 🙂 Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Roasted Garlic Mash Ingredients – adapted from Food Network

  • 1 head garlic
  • Olive oil
  • 2 pounds red potatoes, washed well and quartered
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
Directions –

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Slice off the very top of the garlic head. Drizzle head with olive oil and wrap in foil. Place on a sheet tray and bake until tender and fragrant, roughly 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the cloves and mash with a wooden spoon.

Place potatoes in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender and drain. Mash the potatoes until smooth.

Meanwhile heat butter and cream until butter melts. Add the roasted garlic and potatoes and mash all together.

Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Sautéed Crimini Mushrooms – 

  • 8 ounces crimini mushrooms (aka baby Portobello) cleaned and sliced
  • 2 TBSP unsalted butter
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 small shallot, minced
  • 4 TBSP dry red wine
  • fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt to taste
Directions –
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and butter. Add mushrooms, shallot and garlic; then cook 15 minutes until evenly browned and tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste then add wine and deglaze the pan. Cook down for a few more minutes until the pan is mostly dry. Add a little more unsalted butter to taste, if desired.

Honey Cornbread Muffins

Posted on by

1

Quick Post: I made these to go with our Grilled Pork Chops. They were yummy, slightly sweet and not annoyingly crumbly – if that makes sense. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Honey Cornbread Muffin Ingredients – adapted from Food Network

  • 1 cup yellow cornmeal
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 stick butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • Special equipment: paper muffin cups and a 12-cup muffin tin

Directions –

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Into a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the whole milk, eggs, butter, and honey. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Place muffin paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. Evenly divide the cornbread mixture into the papers. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden

Pico de Gallo

Posted on by

11

I haven’t made this in a long time – which is probably due to the fact that there is no short cut to making this. There is lots of chopping, dicing, and mincing involved; thankfully it’s totally worth the effort. This recipe comes from one of my favorite bloggers – The Pioneer Woman 🙂 She knows her stuff and she is a home cook just like me – no formal training is required when you have a love for food and a desire to try out new techniques. I have come a long way in 8 1/2 years of marriage. In the beginning, I used a lot of boxed meals, frozen and prepackaged stuff – I had to start somewhere, right? Thankfully, my husband wasn’t raised around a lot of fabulous cooks, so he didn’t know what he was missing out on! 😉 I could never go back to that kind of cooking and those fuss free, easy stuff. I get such a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment out of giving my family the very best.

Anyway, this turned out perfectly and wasn’t too spicy when we added it to these tacos. By itself though, it has quite a kick! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Pico de Gallo – adapted from The Pioneer Woman

  • 5 whole Plum (roma) Tomatoes
  • ½ whole Large (or 1 Small) Onion
  • 3 whole Jalapeno Peppers
  • Cilantro
  • Lime Juice
  • Salt To Taste

Directions –

Chop jalapenos, tomatoes and onions into a very small dice. (Leave seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico). Adjust amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature. Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.

Squeeze the juice of half of one lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again.

Creamy Orzo

Posted on by

2

This was a great side dish for the tilapia we had last night. I bet it would be a great compliment to chicken or even a beef main course. It is an easy recipe to throw together, and there are no specialty or uncommon ingredients in it. Hopefully the leftovers are nearly as tasty because this makes a lot!

Creamy Orzo – adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

  • 1 pound orzo
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, juices drained
  • 1 1/4 cups whipping cream
  • 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions –

Bring a heavy large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the orzo and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic, and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until they are tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in the cream and peas. Add the orzo and toss to coat. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the Parmesan to the pasta mixture and toss to coat. Stir the pasta mixture until the sauce coats the pasta thickly, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to maintain a creamy consistency. Season the orzo with salt and pepper, and serve

PW’s Crash Hot Potatoes

Posted on by

0

Quick Post: Who doesn’t like potatoes? I knew I wanted to serve potatoes with this dinner and I didn’t want to make mashed potatoes. They take a long time and they make a mess of dishes. I remembered seeing this post at The Pioneer Woman’s site a long time ago and decided that it was time to try a new recipe out. These take more time than I anticipated because the cook time for a whole, uncut potato is much longer than I thought. It took a good 25 minutes until these medium sized potatoes were cooked through enough to smash easily. Baking them with the olive oil made these nice and crispy – I bet cheese and crumbled bacon would be an excellent addition. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Crash Hot Potatoes – adapted from The Pioneer Woman

  • 6 Yukon Gold potatoes
  • 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Kosher Salt To Taste
  • Black Pepper To Taste
  • Fresh herbs, chopped (optional)
Directions –
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.)

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Baked Beans

Posted on by

0

We had some friends over this weekend and what’s easier than hamburgers for the adults and hot dogs for the kids? We were in charge of those and they were in charge of some sides – but then I remembered this recipe for baked beans. M loves these and they are so easy to throw together. I made a half recipe’s worth of them or else we’d have over four pounds of these to eat up! It made the perfect amount and our friends were happy to take some home with them. Because of the scaled down amount, they only took about 40 minutes and it all fit nicely in a 11×7 inch baking dish. Having all that length is ideal so there is lots of space for the bacon and fried onion topping (yum!). The addition of crushed pineapple sounds weird but totally works in these – so unless you’re allergic or hate pineapple don’t leave it out. It’s also important to find a really good barbecue sauce and I have discovered Stubb’s recently and what I love is that I can read all the ingredients. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Baked Beans – 

  • 4 – 16 ounce cans of baked beans
  • 1 -20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, drained
  • 1 cup good BBQ sauce
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 TBSP yellow or brown mustard
  • 6 ounces of French’s fried onions
  • 5 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions –
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In large bowl mix together beans, pineapple, molasses, BBQ sauce, mustard, 1/4 of the bacon and 1/4 of the onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour beans in a 13×9 inch baking dish and sprinkle with remaining bacon and onions. Cook in oven for 1 hour or until the beans are brown and bubbly. Serve warm.

Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus and Tomatoes…(my 100th post!)

Posted on by

1

This was simple and so flavorful. I also love that it can be served warm, cold or at room temperature. It would be perfect for picnics, potlucks, or parties because it makes so much too. Parmigiano Reggiano is a must for this and the vinaigrette is light and a perfect complement to this salad. We ate this alongside this tilapia dish, which I am going to have to make much more frequently!  Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus and Tomatoes – adapted from A Big Mouthful

  • 12 oz. orzo
  • 1 bunch fresh asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbs. fresh parsley, minced
  • Kosher salt
  • Fresh ground pepper
  • Grated Parmigiano Reggiano*
Directions –
Bring 2 large pots of water to boil.  Add a big pinch of salt in each.

To one pot, add asparagus and blanch, about 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your asparagus.  Place blanched asparagus in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and keep them green.

To the second pot, add the orzo.  Cook per package instructions.  When tender, drain and place in a large bowl.  Add blanched asparagus and tomato halves.

Mix olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl.  Stir into orzo and vegetables.  Stir in parsley and grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

This can be served warm, room temperature or cold.

Spring Green Risotto

Posted on by

0

I needed a side dish for my salmon in foil, so I immediately thought starch and vegetables, and this fits my needs perfectly because this risotto recipe is two sides in one. I came up with this by combining two risotto recipes that I found on FoodNetwork.com. I liked that Ellie Krieger used asparagus, peas and spinach and far less ingredients than Ina Garten’s; but I like that Ina uses butter, lemon zest, and more parmesan. I think I came up with a good mix of healthy with a little added richness by using more cheese, a little butter and brightness from the lemon.

This is definitely more fussy than the average rice recipe – but it’s not at all difficult to manage. Mine probably took more than 30 minutes, but it turned out great. Obviously, I left out the peas and spinach because once the asparagus was added, there was no room in my pan for anything extra. The lemon zest is a must to brighten up the flavor of the risotto or it would be a one note dish. I was tasting it before adding the zest and I was a disappointed because it was a little bland. The lemon woke up the flavors – even M noticed something different. He did like it though, which is always appreciated since he can be really picky and hard to please at times;) Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Spring Green Risotto – a mix of these two recipes

  • 1 TBSP butter
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
  • 1/2 cups white wine
  • 5-6 cups chicken stock
  • 1 pound thin asparagus, steamed and cut into 3/4″ pieces
  • 10 ounces frozen peas (not enough room in the pan…maybe next time)
  • 1 TBSP lemon zest
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1-3 cups baby spinach (oops!)

Directions –

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add wine
and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper and simmer, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing the broth to be absorbed before adding more, until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes.

Add the spinach and peas and cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot. Stir in the Parmesan, lemon zest and more broth if the risotto seems too thick.