Category Archives: Side Dish

Super Bowl Appetizers

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Quick Post: I don’t care much for football, but I do like making appetizers! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Guacamole Ingredients – adapted from Alton Brown

  • 3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

Directions –

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

Restaurant Style Salsa ingredients – adapted from The Pioneer Woman

  • 1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
  • 2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies) *I drain these*
  • ¼ cups Chopped Onion
  • 1 clove Garlic, Minced
  • 1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
  • ¼ teaspoons Sugar
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • ¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
  • ½ cups Cilantro (more To Taste!)
  • ½ whole Lime Juice

Directions –

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

I know this looks gross, but I assure you – if you love blue cheese you’ll love the taste of this!
Buffalo Chicken Dip ingredients –

  • 1 skin-on, bone-in chicken breast, roasted and shredded
  • 1 – 8 oz package of cream cheese at room temp
  • 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
  • 1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese
  • 1/2 blue cheese dressing
  • 1/2 cup Frank’s Red Hot

Directions –

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in a 8×8 inch baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with celery sticks.

Black Bean Confetti Salad

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Quick post: This salad is tasty and super healthy for you. I thought of adding seeded/de-ribbed jalapeno to this, but I chickened out. I did add red onion to this, and those can be quite “spicy” sometimes – especially raw. It adds a nice bite to the mix, but if you like more heat add more cayenne pepper. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Black Bean Confetti Salad – adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This works equally well as a small salad–even tossed with salad greens for more
bulk–or alongside salsa fresca for scooping up with a tortilla chip.

  • 2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and well-rinsed
  • 4 bell peppers, a mix of colors, chopped into a small dice
  • 1/2 super-large or 1 medium white onion, chopped into a small dice
  • Juice of one lime
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon honey
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
  • Optional: If you’re the kind of person who loves cilantro, it’s a great match for this salad.

Directions –

Mix beans, bell peppers and white onion in a large bowl. In a separate, smaller
bowl, whisk remaining ingredients into a vinaigrette. Ideally, you’ll have a 1/2
cup of dressing. Pour it over the bean mixture, toss it well and adjust
seasonings to taste.

Steak and Potatoes

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Happy New Year! There has been lots of cooking and baking going on, so hopefully over the next few days I will put some posts together to share. I have tried quite a few new recipes over the past couple of weeks and some trusty old stand-bys. Yesterday, I checked Publix online for their weekly deals and saw “top loin” for sale – aka London broil. I have never purchased this up until now, but my mom used to prepare this cut when I was a kid so I was familiar with the name…that’s it! Luckily, TasteSpotting is an awesome website to use when I’m in the need for inspiration. I came across two new recipes via one link – I love when that happens. I have used this blog successfully in the past for new recipes, so I knew this blogger wouldn’t let me down.

The steak had great flavor, and it would have been even better on a more expensive cut of meat. There is not a lot of fat marbled throughout top loin, so it wasn’t the most tender steak. Maybe next time I will look for a marinade with some kind of acid to tenderize this cut. The potatoes were so simple to put together and so tasty. I picked up a bag of those tiny, multicolored potatoes that Publix carries now for this dish and they worked out perfectly, and the skin is super thin, and became delightfully crispy when roasted. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

*Parmesan Garlic Potatoes – adapted from Let’s Dish

  • 1.5 lbs. of potatoes, cubed
  • 2-3 TBSP of olive oil
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions –

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 9×13 inch glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Arrange potatoes in prepared pan.  Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with garlic, parsley flakes, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Toss to coat potatoes evenly.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  Stir once half-way through baking time.

*Marinated London Broil – adapted from Let’s Dish

  • 1 flank steak or London broil – about 3 pounds
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce ( *I used low sodium)
  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 2 TBSP ketchup
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped (*I omitted this)
  • *I added about a TBSP of McCormick grill seasoning

Directions –

Mix ingredients for marinade in shallow pan or zip-top bag. Score meat on both sides in a diamond-shaped pattern.  Add meat to marinade and cover or seal. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Remove meat and broil or grill to desired doneness, 10-15 minutes. Let meat rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain and serve.

Brioche and Sausage Dressing

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Wow – this was more work than I anticipated…brioche takes time, especially the recipe I ended up using. If there is anything I have learned this year it’s plan ahead. I thought I did a pretty good job until I realized the brioche I needed could take up to 4 days to make if I chose. This is baking in the oven now, and it smells divine! I’m hoping that it is worth all the extra effort I put into it.

Update: Wow – was this ever tasty! Be sure to use a good quality butter when making this bread, because it is such an important component and flavor in this. The dressing was so flavorful and moist, and I am happy to report that it was completely worth the head ache and effort to make. I will not forget the lesson I learned this Thanksgiving about planning. Next time this is on the menu, I will be sure to bake it off or just start it a week before it’s needed. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

briochea

*Basic Brioche – The Bread Bible

Dough Starter –

  • 2 TBSP room temperature water
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
  • 1/2 cup (2.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg

*Make the starter one to two days ahead. In a mixing bowl, add ingredients and mix until very smooth. Cover with plastic wrap.

Flour Mixture –

  • 5.5 ounces all-purpose flour
  • 2 TBSP sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
  • 1/2 tsp
  • 2 eggs
  • 8 TBSP room temperature butter

1. Combine first four ingredients and pour on top of the starter, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

2. Using a standing mixer, add eggs and mix on low speed for about a minute until evenly moistened. Raise speed to medium and beat for two minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with an oiled rubber scraper, then continue beating for five minutes longer or until the dough is smooth and shiny but very soft and sticky. It wont pull away from the bowl completely.

3. Add the butter one TBSP at a time until all incorporated. The dough will be soft and sticky. Lightly oil top and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Chill – refrigerate for one hour, then gently deflate with rubber spatula, then return it to the refrigerator for another hour.

5. Deflate/Chill – turn the dough out onto a well floured surface. Press or roll into a rectangle, flour as needed. Give the dough a business letter turn, brushing off excess flour. Rotate 90 degrees so the closed side faces left. Make a second business turn and round the corners. Dust it lightly on all sides with flour. Wrap loosely but securely with plastic wrap and place in a large ziploc bag. Refrigerate of at least six hours and up to two days.

6.  Shape/Rise – remove from fridge and gently press down to deflate. Roll/press into a 7 1/2″ by 5″ wide rectangle. Roll down from top in three turns, being sure to brush off the excess flour. Place seam side down in a prepared 8×4 inch loaf pan pressing down firmly. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until the dough reaches the top of the pan – about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack on the lowest position of the oven and place a baking stone or a baking sheet on the rack.

8. Glaze/Slash/Bake – glaze the top of the loaf with a mixture of one egg yolk and a splash of cream or milk. Slash the top of the loaf 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep lengthwise down the loaf, making sure to leave 1″ at each end. Set on hot stone and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees.

9. Cool – un-mold loaf to cool on a wire rack at least two hours before cutting.

dressing

*Sausage Brioche Dressing – adapted from Food Network

  • 1 brioche loaf, cubed into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 pound pork breakfast sausage
  • 4 celery ribs, halved lengthwise and cross cut into 1/4-inch pieces
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup chopped sage leaves
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

Directions –

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Spread the brioche on a baking sheet and put it in the oven until lightly toasted, about 10 minutes. Set aside in a large bowl.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the sausage and break it into pieces with a spoon. Cook until browned, then transfer it to the bowl with the brioche. Add the celery to the sausage drippings and cook until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes. Put the sausage into the brioche bowl. Stir in the stock and sage and mix until the brioche absorbs most of the liquid. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

dressing2

Transfer the dressing to a 13 by 9-inch baking dish and cook, uncovered for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake until golden brown on top, another 20 to 25 minutes.