Miso Dressing

So as I am testing recipes from My Father's Daughter, so far I have made 3 things and they have all been great! Including this dressing. It is so tasty, I can't stop eating it on things - my favorite is on top of a poached egg on an English muffin instead of a Hollandaise, I didn't put a piece of bacon under the egg like you normally would for an Egg's Benedict although I could have. I think I was mostly thinking of a breakfast vehicle for the sauce! Yes, it is that good! My husband is not as big of a fan, he doesn't like a lot of soy sauce or sesame oil - and this dressing has both so it wasn't a big surprise but those are two ingredients I love and in fact crave soy sauce every once in awhile. So I did make a few substitutions to the original recipe simply because I didn't have them on hand but I still think it turned out great.

Miso Dressing
1/3 cup roughly diced Vidalia onion (I used a sweet yellow onion from my CSA because that is what I had)
1 tsp garlic minced
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp white miso (if you get the little tubs that are quartered it is half of the miso in the container)
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp mirin (I didn't have mirin so I substituted Marsala- but it was a dry Marsala and generally you should substitute a sweet Marsala for mirin so I added a tsp of sugar)
2 tbsp water (now that I read the recipe I am not sure I added water... must thin it out a bit but I liked the consistency of mine so if you don't want the recipe to pack a too powerful punch and maybe be a little runnier than add the water but I obviously thoroughly enjoyed mine even if I did miss this step)
Large pinch of kosher salt
A few fresh grinds of black pepper
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp veggie oil
1. Put all but oil in food process and pulse until smooth. While blender is going slowly stream in oil.


I bought this dressing container at Crate & Barrel I love it, I have pretty much stopped buying dressing at the grocery store all together because I have this little baby. I have to say though that this dressing would be better in just a reused empty glass bottle, it is a little thick for this pour spout. But I used the last one I had available on another one of her recipes from the book (a good for you seed topping mixture for oatmeals, yogurt etc) so I just put it in my usual container. For other thinner dressing though this thing is a must own!

The perfectly poached egg on muffin, would have been even better with maybe a slice of Canadian bacon a la Egg's Benedict style, or maybe even with some sprouts or a slice of fresh from the garden tomato, so good. I am thinking I am becoming a more savory breakfast person versus the sweet...

What kind of breakfast person are you?


Happy 100th Post!!!!

YAY!

I find this very exciting, yet at the same time when you see the RSS followers at only 12 it is a little anticlimactic. I mean I know I have more followers with google friend connect but still, 12 it's a little depressing :-)

Bento Lunch
This was Miss Molly's lunch for today, and I found out that instead of doing a lunch every Friday I now "get to" (and yes I really mean get to) make Molly a fun lunch everyday!

This is Molly's new bento box closed, I have wanted this one FOREVER, and it matches her cute lunch box as well.

She had in the bottom tier two small sandwiches with fruit leather flowers, some cherry tomatoes, and carrot "coins," And in the top container some fantastic Rice and Bean Chipotle Chips from Costco, and some shredded wheat. She ate the whole thing (at daycare they eat all day long so it isn't like she just sits there and eats it in one sitting.) I have to think of snacks and stuff too!

This was her labor day lunch, PB&J with a cheese octopus -notice the breakage in the cheese, it is getting to it's last legs it isn't as pliable anymore (fruit leather spots and smile and sugar candy eyes)! Cherry tomatoes on a pick, and more of those great chips; thanks Grandma Carter for giving us some.

Steakhouse Dinner

For tonight's dinner I finally got to make Steak Diane, with garlic mashed potatoes, and a fabulous salad of mixed greens, pecans, shallots and chunks of goat cheese. The basis for this dinner was supplied by my favorite meal planning site Relish.  I will provide the recipes like always because I have noticed whenever I cook no matter where the recipe comes from I change it to suit my family's needs. This dinner takes me back, I can remember this being one of my mom's favorite things to order when I was younger (wasn't this the one where they would light it on fire at the table?) Relax everyone, this one didn't require a flambe.

Steak Diane

4 beef tenderloin fillets (4-ounces each)

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
4 shallots , finely chopped
1/2 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 sprigs Italian parsley, chopped
1. Season steaks with salt and pepper. Cook steaks in butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 5 to 8 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from pan and keep warm.

2. Saute shallots in skillet 2 minutes over medium heat. Add beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and Dijon, stirring well 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute more. Serve sauce on top of steaks and top with fresh parsley.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
4 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1in chunks
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil
 
1. Cut up potatoes, put them in a pot and fill it with cold water, drop in the garlic cloves too!
2. When the potatoes are fork tender, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, strain the remainder of the water.
3. Put the potatoes back into the pot to keep the warm, and proceed to mash and alternate the cooking liquid with mashing until it is the right consistency.
Things to add in to help with texture and taste:
Salt & Pepper to taste
Touch of Milk and/or butter
1-2 tbsp of sour cream/ or plain yogurt
 
Goat Cheese and Pecan Salad
3-4 cups of mixed greens
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 minced shallot
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
Prepared Dressing (for recipe click here)
1. Mix all together in bowl (careful not to "cream" the goat cheese you still want it in chunks)
 
Either my daughter is working up a hunger at daycare playing with her friends, or she really LOVED this dinner, she stayed at the table the whole time and practically cleaned her plate.


Linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, & Tasty Tuesday!

BEST DINNER EVER!

So tonight my husband isn't feeling well, a tummy bug is being passed around the house from daycare, but Molly is finally back to 100% and she showed it tonight at dinner. The child ate a HUGE dinner, and she sat there for the whole time. She never does this, usually she sits for about half of the time that Brian and I actually eat. This time she sat there the whole time. AMAZING! She had several helpings of the bread, TWO helpings of salad, and all of her pasta. This was sooooo tasty if you are looking for a really great meal you have found it, try this and I guarantee you will love it.  And I finally got to use my fancy pancy salad dressing mixer! (see add to the right to check it out!)

Shout out to Relish, for the recipe on the salad and pasta.

And if anyone tries this at home I have to hear back on if you liked it!

Orecchiette with Prosciutto and Breadcrumbs
10 oz orecchiette pasta (I couldn't find any at my local store and didn't want to go to a specialty store so I just used the bigger shells)
1/2 cup of olive oil, divided in half
8 slices of prosciutto
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to directions, (salted boiling water) Saute prosciutto till crispy in half of the olive oil.
2. Remove the bacon, then add the remainder of the oil and the bread crumbs, garlic, and parsley. Stir constantly so they don't burn, and get them a golden brown (you will smell the most wonderful buttery garlic toasty goodness at this step)
3. Drain the pasta (reserve a little water to help the shells not stick together) put the pasta in your saute pan that you have been using. Add a little water (maybe 1/4 cup) and the Parmesan cheese. Let the water be sucked in by the pasta (this is another reason why it is so important to salt the pasta water) I didn't have to add any salt to the recipe because the bacon and Parmesan and the salt in the pasta water was more than enough. Toss back in the bacon then transfer to dinner plates and top with the crumbs.

The salad and the amazing dressing I have talked about before, go here for the recipe.

You know you have been blogging awhile and constantly taking photos of your food when your 2 year old daughter insists on you taking a picture of her plate before she starts eating. So here you go Moll's here is your picture too!

She got started on her bread before I got to her pic! The bread recipe is one from my mom, and it takes me back only instead of using a french bread loaf I used a baguette. It has a little butter, garlic powder, Parmesan Reggiano, and dill on top and then broiled until cooked through.

Linked to Family Food Fridays, Boost My Blog Friday, Friendly Friday Follow,  & New Friend Fridays Fresh Clean and Pure Fridays ! Also linked with Susieqtpies recipe swap click here!

Spring Time Salad

So since today was so lovely in the end I decided we need something to go along with it. We had a mixed green salad with yellow peppers, tomatoes, feta, and an apricot horseradish dressing. On top were baguette crouton/crustini and our grilled flank steak. I am really not that huge of a fan of beef and/or steak but one of my families favorite is flank steak, seasoned, and sliced thin against the grain it is lean and flavorful. It is also good warm or cold, so it is brilliant in salads. My husband was incredibly trepidatious when sitting down to eat this dinner but he commented several times throughout that it was very good. Molly did a pretty good job with dinner, she is getting better with salads she ate the meat well, tried the yellow pepper and at first seemed into it and then spit it all back out. She always loves tomatoes, and I made a fresh fruit salad to go with it that she ate a TON of. She loves blueberries, I like to call them brain food, she can eat as much of them as she wants as far as I am concerned.

So my obsession with bento has only intensified. I was looking at blogs about bento for kids all day today as well as trying to figure out what to buy to get started with Molly's lunches. I realized today that this isn't just appealing to me. Two years back I saw an advertisement in one of my magazines for a book on lunches called Lunch Lessons. The cover was so appetizing. Now this was before Molly, and I was really looking for some ideas to jazz up my lunch and my husband's lunch. At the time he was still eating lunch downtown everyday and it was costing an arm and a leg, I had had enough and wanted to save money by making him pack a lunch. As a teacher myself with less than thirty minutes for lunch it has never been feasible for me to "go out" for lunch as it were so I always packed a lunch. I just wanted to make it more appeasing to Brian. I love leftovers for lunch, but the only way I can get Brian to eat leftovers is if they are made into something completely different a la Robin Miller on the food network. So I asked for this book Lunch Lessons as a Christmas present and I read it cover to cover in the following day and a half. Even back then the idea of bento looked fabulous to me, but for another reason. Anyway I am guessing that the idea behind this present movement is to make really good for you food look incredibly appetizing for your young child, particularly if they are a picky eater. Also to make every day of opening up their lunch box an adventure to see what cool new thing mom put in your lunch box today. I also think too that if you had a totally awesome lunch (but still very healthy and good for you) and the kid next to you had a Twinkie for instance that at this point your lunch is too good to give up and trade for the heinous Twinkie. At this point Molly is a great eater, she isn't what I would consider picky and she is two and only takes a lunch box to daycare on Fridays for "fun." So you might ask, why then Nickey are you taking the time to cut out flower shapes in your cheese, and making the lunch look so nice for a two year old that could care less? Well, honestly I am thinking of it from Molly's perspective. This whole lunch box thing is totally new to her and she LOVES it! On Friday she is so stoked to take her lunch box to daycare to see her friends, and according to the fabulous Ms. Laurie at daycare they talk about all day Thursday in preparation. She carries it all by herself and refuses help because she is so attached to the "idea" of it. Now granted when we very first started doing this –taking a lunch- Molly was maybe 16 months old and the lunch box was almost as tall as her but even then she refused help and would muscle her little way from the car door to the front door caring her pink Barbie lunch box. See I was told about this lunch box adventure a little late in the game, and at the last minute rushed to Target to see if they had any lunch boxes left after the "back to school" rush only to find this one and only girly lunch box. I didn't really want my little girl's lunch box memories and photos to be of this cute blonde headed little girl dressed all in pink carrying a gigantic Transformers lunch box, that just didn't seem right. So my only choice at the time was Barbie, I went with it.
Honestly what kid wouldn't love opening up their lunch box to see their cheese cut into butterfly shapes, or their sandwich cut into shapes, and cute little toothpick forks to use etc.? It makes eating your lunch fun, why wouldn't you want to do that for your child? So I bought some bento type boxes (fairly easy ones at this point because I don't want to spend too much money on something that might not pan out) and some fun cookie cutters and toothpicks. So expect some bento picks to be coming soon. I also think it will help with my creative juices for lunches for Brian and me as well. See some of my favorite blogs (on the left hand side here) to see some really awesome ideas on what this could look like –another lunch and bentoblogy- are my favorites right now.

Lunch Lessons as a book was not what I was expecting, I wanted lots of great and colorful ideas for lunches which is kind of what the book cover suggests. Instead it is a great read on school lunches today and how some areas are fighting back. There are some recipes and suggestions at the back of the book but no pictures, for all my reading I LOVE cookbooks with full glossy pics! So I would give this probably two and half to three forks. Three forks for the content itself, not necessarily as a "cookbook."