Iowa Sweet Corn

Most of you who know me, know that I LOVE my veggies! But, my very favorite is corn on the cob. Remember that time my lovey bought me corn on the cob for our anniversary, and I was in high heaven?? Well that's how much I love corn!!!

I don't know about you, but when I think of Iowa, I think of CORN! I've never been to Iowa but I can imagine miles and miles of corn fields, playing hide-and-seek in between the rows, and enjoying crisp sweet corn on a warm summer day sitting on a screened-in porch with some sweet tea! Well, back in May, Steve's Aunt Margo and Uncle Pat took a road trip across the country from Iowa, touring National Parks, and we were lucky enough to have them spend a couple of nights with us! Pat raved about their sweet corn and described it as so tender and sweet that you can pull a cob right off of the stalk and eat it right then and there! Steve doesn't like corn (I know, crazy huh!) but he said the only corn he will eat is Iowa sweet corn. It MUST be good.

Well folks, today on our front porch was a package from Aunt Margo and Uncle Pat...and inside that box was a very special treat. You guessed it! A dozen sweet corn cobs, freshly picked on August 15th, yes TWO DAYS AGO, from Iowa!!! I can hardly contain myself!!!

I immediately de-husked them and oh my, they are gorgeous! I wrapped them in foil and put them on the BBQ for 20 minutes and OH MY GOSH, you wouldn't believe the delightfulness of this corn!!! Best. Corn. Ever. 

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

I wanted to do something different with my over-ripe bananas besides make boring old banana bread, so I decided to go for banana chocolate cupcakes! I used a recipe from The Cupcake Project which also includes a home-made Macadamia nut butter frosting. I just used store bought cream-cheese frosting because I think its the yummiest frosting EVER. I also used semi-sweet baking chocolate instead of dark chocolate just because I already had it on hand. Next time, I think I will try the dark chocolate.

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 8 oz dark chocolate, melted

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, flour, and baking soda. Add vanilla and mashed bananas. Stir in melted chocolate. (To melt chocolate, I used a pot of boiling water with a metal bowl sitting on top and let the chocolate slowly melt in the bowl).

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F. Cool completely before frosting.

Makes 18 regular or 36 mini cupcakes.

I also tried a new frosting method. Instead of just smoothing the frosting on with a knife or a spatula, I spooned the frosting inside a baggy and smooshed it all down to the bottom. I cut off the tip of one of the corners of the baggy and ta da! home-made icing bag! So I just slowly squeezed out the icing from the tip of the baggy and made a spiral pattern on the top of the cupcake. Pretty!

Black Bean and Rice Stuffed Peppers

Some of you have asked for my other stuffed pepper recipe and here it is! I prefer this recipe over the last one, but they are both delightful!

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 cup white rice, cooked
• 4 medium green onions sliced (1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbls vegetable oil
• 2 Tbls lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large bell peppers cut lengthwise, seeds removed
• 1 roma tomato diced

Heat grill. Mix beans, rice, onions, cilantro, oil, lime juice, garlic and salt together. Fill peppers with mixture. Wrap each half in a piece of foil (stuffed side up, duh), making sealed packets. Allow a little space in the packet for circulation and expansion. 

Grill for 15-20 minutes or until peppers are tender. 

Grilled Salmon and Stuffed Bell Peppers

This dinner is mostly prepared on the BBQ which is a nice treat for a warm summer evening. It's also a little bit more time consuming than most of my dinners and also involved many ingredients which can be a bit overwhelming. But, don't worry - its totally worth it!

These recipes are from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine.

Grilled Salmon with Feta topping:

• feta crumbled
• fresh squeezed lemon juice
• fresh dill
• olive oil
• salmon fillets
• coarse salt and ground pepper

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, dill, olive oil and feta. Gently mix and put in refrigerator.

Heat grill over medium high. Clean and lightly brush salmon with oil (I use PAM grilling spray). Brush salmon with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap salmon in foil and place on grill about 6 minutes and flip for 6 more minutes. Check salmon - should be opaque.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers:

First of all, did you know Quinoa is pronounced, keen-wah? Yeah, me neither! Also, I halved the recipe below because I was only making this for S and I and didn't need 4 bell peps.

• 1 cup traditional Quinoa  (I used Trader Joes)
• 2 cups water
• 4 large green bell peppers
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1-28oz can tomatoes, coarsely diced, reserve juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1-12 oz jar Mexican salsa
• 2 Tbsp dry sherry
• 10 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded

Cut bell peppers in half, lengthwise. Place in a BBQ safe baking dish. I used a small foil pan.

In a saute pan, saute onion and mushrooms in the butter. YUM! Add the diced tomatoes (reserve the juice). Add the crushed garlic and salsa. Cook over medium for 10 minutes. Add sherry and simmer for 10 more minutes. Fold in quinoa.

Fill peppers with quinoa mixture. This will use about half of the mix. Thin remainder with reserved tomato juice and pour around peppers. Sprinkle mozzarella over peppers. Bake (or grill) at 325 F for 30-35 minutes.

Plate the meal and put the feta over the top of the salmon! 

Summertime Dessert

This is my idea of a summertime dessert:

Rosemary On Demand

I planted a big rosemary bush on our back patio because I use rosemary often in all types of chicken and fish dishes and roasted  red potatoes are just not the same without rosemary! It's pretty easy to go out back and cut off a few sprigs when I need it, but what's even easier is having them on hand in the kitchen. So I clipped some pieces and put them into small bottles in my kitchen window. They are cute decorations and make it easier for me to remember to use my rosemary! 

Fish Tacos

The fish man at the grocery store convinced me to get a couple of Mahi fillets and said they were GREAT for fish tacos! I'd never cooked Mahi before but because it was Fish Friday (buy one get one free) I decided to go for it!!! And boy o boy I am glad I did. These are probably the best fish tacos I've ever had. The type of fish really makes a difference and Mahi is an excellent choice! I used a marinade recipe from a brochure at the seafood counter and made my own "slaw" topping and special sauce. You've gotta try this one!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• Mahi fillets
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Roasted red peppers - about 1 tablespoon chopped (from a jar)
• lime zest
• Iceberg lettuce
• Alfalfa sprouts
• Carrots
• Raddishes
• Avocado
• Raw red bell pepper
• corn tortillas

FISH: In a small bowl, combine oil, lime juice, cilantro, 1 tsp cumin, and chili powder. Place fish in shallow dish and pour marinade over fish. Let stand 30 minutes.

Remove fish from marinade and place fish on broiler pan sprayed iwth non-stick cooking spray. Broil 4 inches from heat until fish flakes easily. (Tip! While broiling, open oven to first notch (so it stays open by itself. This helps prevent fish from burning and smoking up the entire house but does not effect cooking.)

SAUCE:

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, more lime juice, more cilantro, remaining cumin, roasted red peppers, and lime zest and salt and pepper to taste.

SLAW:

I chopped up iceberg lettuce very finely and added alfafa sprouts, finely chopped carrots, radish, avocado, red bell pepper. Squeeze some lime over the top and add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Mix up gently as to not squash the avo and ta da!

Break up fish and divide among tortillas. Top with sauce and slaw and DEVOUR!

A Cookie Inside a Cookie!

Once again, I found a delightful recipe from my favorite food blog, Buns in my Oven, and put it to the test! The original recipe calls for regular chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Double Stuf Oreos, but I thought that might be a bit much, so I used the chocolate chip recipe sans chocolate chips and Single Stufd Oreos :) Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. These cookies were sooo freaking good. Especially warmed up. The next time you're in the mood for a whopper of a cookie, try these because they're easy to make and sure to satisfy your craving!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Picky Palate

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 package Oreo cookies – I used Double Stuf

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to the wet mixture and combine thoroughly. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for 15 minutes to make it easier to work with and to keep the dough from spreading when baking.

Using a cookie scoop place one scoop of dough on top of an Oreo cookie. Place another single scoop on the bottom of the Oreo to create a cookie sandwich. Seal the edges together to completely close in the Oreo.

Place the balls of cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 9-13 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Pork Lettuce Wraps

I was going through my freezer trying to plan the week's dinners and found a butt-load of porkchops that I needed to use. I wanted to cook them all and then eat various pork dinners over the course of the week. So, I cooked the chops in a crock pot with an asian marinade and the first night we had pork chops, rice and applesauce. The next night I decided to get creative and use the asian marinade as inspiration to make pork lettuce wraps. I used P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps as a guide (I mostly ignored the procedure but used the ingredients).

Crockpot Pork Chops (from Food.com recipe)

• 6 pork chops (1/2 inch-3/4 inch thick)
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 Tbls minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp ginger (I didn't use this)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I don't really like soy sauce so I only used 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• black pepper
• I also added a couple of Tablespoons of honey and a splash of sesame oil

Mix all ingredients, put chops in slow cooker and pour mixture over chops. Put on the low setting and cook for 7 hours.

Lettuce Wraps:

• water chestnuts
• mushrooms (i used brown baby bellas)
• yellow onion
• minced garlic
• iceberg lettuce
• leftover pork  (After the pork was cooked in the crock pot, I shredded the leftover pork and let it sit in the leftover sauce in the fridge overnight

Lettuce Wrap Sauce:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbls soy sauce
• 2 Tbls rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbls ketchup
• 1 Tbls lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp sesame oil 
• 1 Tbls hot mustard (I just used a cheap dijon)

In a saute pan, heat up 1 Tbsp vegetable oil and then add minced water chestnuts, mushrooms, garlic and onions and saute. Add rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil (I used less soy sauce and more sesame oil), sugar, water, lemon juice, ketchup, and hot mustard to the pan and saute into the vegetables. 

Add the pork into the mixture and let absorb the flavors. 

I washed and set out the iceberg lettuce and shredded some carrots as a topping. Put the pork on a dish and serve family style!

Homemade gifts

Steve and I went to visit our friends in Santa Ynez a few weeks ago and I wanted to bring something that we could all share. Rather than the usual wine or beer, I decided to bake some breads! I wrapped them in some twine and made some cute tags with some craft stuff I had around the house. This idea really got me thinking how easy and fun it is to make home-made gifts! Not to mention it makes our house smell SO good!! So instead of the usual Christmas gifts this year, ya'll might be getting some baked goods!!