Taco Cake

 In our family, we've recently been talking about palindromes like Tacocat (and Madam, I'm Adam).  This Taco Cake isn't a palindrome, but it was a fun dessert we made for Cinco de Mayo.  While my girls continue to tease me that my favorite food is chicken, it's actually tacos . . . and taco cake!  I pinned this on Pinterest a long time ago and it's actually one of the rare times that our version met and exceeded our Pinterest expectations (#nailedit!).

It's more of a method than a recipe . . . make a cake flavor of your choosing in one cake pan (we used a boxed yellow cake recipe).  Take a white frosting (we used a canned frosting) and dye it a pale yellow (a couple drops of yellow food coloring).  Cut the cake in half, stand it on the sliced ends and put a generous layer of frosting in the middle to stick it together.  Frost the outside of the whole cake with the pale yellow frosting.  

 

Make the taco fillings.  We used crushed Oreos for the ground beef, red m&ms for the tomatoes, coconut dyed green for the lettuce, and sliced orange jelly candies for the cheese.  We sprinkled it over the middle of the taco cake and were so happy with how realistic it looked!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Recently, Thai red curry is a flavor we can all agree on and all enjoy.  I'll post soon the revised red curry stir fry that's in regular rotation, but this soup is something a little different.  I only have a mini chopper, not a full food processor and can just barely fit it all in there to make the paste that becomes the soup base.  Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients - I bought some of these pastes at a grocery store (Stater Bros) and made 3-4 batches of soup with them but you could chop your own ginger, cilantro and lemongrass and add it to your food processor.  

The amount of heat is determined by the chilis in the garnish more than the red chile paste or red curry paste and we liberally add Sriracha at the table.  If you're gluten free, just use a GF soy sauce alternative.

Word of warning:  You'll wish you had made a double batch!

Ingredients:

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 T fresh ginger (or ginger paste)

1 T lemongrass paste

2 T red curry paste

2 T fresh cilantro (or 1 T cilantro paste)

1 T red Chile paste (or 2 red chiles, chopped)

2 T coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

1 lime, zested and juiced

1 T soy sauce

4 cups chicken stock or broth

1 can coconut milk

2 cups shredded chicken

7 oz rice noodles

For garnish:

4-5 green onions, thinly sliced (both white and green parts)

1 green chili (sliced, seeds removed)

1 red chili (sliced, seeds removed)

Chopped cilantro

Combine garlic, onion, red pepper, ginger paste, lemongrass paste, red curry paste, cilantro (or paste), and coconut oil in a food processor and process until a paste forms.

While you are making your paste, start boiling water for the rice noodles.

Add paste to a medium pot and fry it for a couple of minutes, just until fragrant.

Add chicken stock and coconut milk and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes.  While soup is simmering, cook noodles according to package directions and drain.

Add shredded chicken.  Add soy sauce, lime juice and zest, and rice noodles to the soup.  Top with garnishes and serve.

Blueberry Ice cream

We haven't made ice cream in ages but we've consumed more than ever during the last year #thankscovid19.  I was making a lemon bundt cake last weekend and thought that blueberry ice cream would go well with it.  The recipe is super simple but it was delicious.  

Blueberry Ice Cream

from Taste of Home

4 cups blueberries

2 cups sugar (or less depending on how sweet your berries are)

2 T water

4 cups half-n-half

Combine the blueberries, water, and sugar in a large saucepan on the stovetop and cook until the sugar is dissolved and the blueberries are softened. Transfer to a food processor or high quality blender and blend until smooth.  An optional step is to strain the mixture to remove the skins.  My Vitamin blender got it pretty smooth, so I didn't do this step.  Refrigerate until cold.  Mix with the half and half and put it in your ice cream maker.

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks

We had a lovely Easter together this year although it was another "unusual" holiday.  We sold our desert condo where we've spent many holidays together (usually Christmas Eve, often Thanksgiving, and sometimes Easter) and were packing up and moving all weekend.  Our Easter dinner was at a restaurant but we made these cute cupcakes to share with friends before we headed out to the desert.  I made a lemon cupcake with vanilla frosting and had lots of helpers volunteer to decorate. 

The second dish / main recipe is in the theme of "chicken is mom's favorite food."  I marinated these overnight with ingredients I had in the kitchen and the garden and my husband grilled them up - they were a big hit and will be on regular rotation around here, especially now that the weather is warm!  We put them in a cast iron skillet after searing the outside but you can grill them any way you like.

Ingredients:

Chicken drumsticks (about 8)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 T dijon mustard

1 T chopped garlic

1 T fresh rosemary, chopped

1 T fresh sage, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put drumsticks in a glass baking dish or a large ziplock bag.  Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and whisk.  Pour over the drumsticks and marinate 2 hours or overnight.  Grill at medium heat (400 degrees) for about 30 minutes, flipping every 5-7 minutes.  Internal temperature should reach 165 degrees.

Chicken Marbella

Even if you don't love one of of these ingredients, the sum is greater than the parts and I promise this is what you want to eat!  My family really liked it and I liked how easy it was to put together and how I could refrigerate it a day or so before and pop it in the oven on the night that we were going to eat it.  You don't need much by way of side dishes . . . maybe some bread to soak up the marinade and a green vegetable?  Let me know in the comments if you liked it and if you have any favorite Ottolenghi recipes that I should try next.

Chicken Marbella (serves 6)

from Ottolenghi Simple

2 dozen chicken drumsticks skin on and scored 3 or 4 times to the bone 

5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2T fresh oregano, picked, plus extra to serve

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil

1 can pitted green olives

1/4 cup capers, plus 2 tbsp of their juices

10 Medjool dates, pitted and quartered lengthways

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp date molasses

salt and black pepper

Place the chicken in a large bowl and add all the remaining ingredients, except for the wine and date molasses.  Add 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Gently mix everything together, cover the bowl and leave in the fridge to marinate for 1-2 days, stirring the ingredients a few times during the process.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Spread the chicken drumsticks out on a high-sided medium baking tray, along with all the marinade ingredients. Whisk together the wine and molasses and pour over the meat. Place in the oven and cook for 50 minutes, basting two or three times, until the meat is golden-brown on top and cooked through.

Remove from the oven, transfer everything to a large platter, sprinkle over some thinly sliced oregano leaves and serve.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

My daughters tease me all the time that chicken is my "favorite food."  It's actually tacos (duh!) but we eat a LOT of chicken on weeknights.  In my quest to change it up and still make a healthy meal everyone will eat, I tried this recipe recently and we all enjoyed it.  The ingredients are super simple and probably in your pantry and refrigerator - enjoy!

Lemon Rosemary Chicken (serves 4)

from Little Spice Jar blog

Ingredients: 

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lbs total)

1 1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

3 T butter

3 T lemon juice

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 chicken broth

1/2 T fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 T fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more/less to taste)

2 tsp honey

Heat the oven to 415 degrees.  Combine 2 T butter with the lemon juice, garlic, broth, herbs, and honey in bowl and microwave it in 30 second increments until the butter is melted (or you can do this in a saucepan on the stove).  Set aside.

Heat the remaining tablespoon butter in a large oven proof skillet.  Sprinkle the chicken with the lemon pepper seasoning.  Brown the chicken in the melted butter, about 2-3 minutes per side.  Pour the melted butter lemon mixture over the chicken and place in the oven for 13-17 minutes or until cooked through (internal temperature of 165 degrees).

Citrus Blueberry Muffins

Winter is the time for citrus in So. California.  The kumquat trees are dripping with orange fruit and the girls pick more every day.  Today I saw some lemons that had fallen to the ground when I was running so I rescued a couple and then picked a few oranges off our own tree and wanted to make some muffins.  After glancing through my shelf of recipes books, I couldn't find anything like the idea I had in my head so I used an Alton Brown "Old-School Muffin" recipe as the basis for these.  The citrus was subtle but good and the blueberries were a nice addition.  

Instead of using the citrus juice in the recipe, I used the peel of the lemon and orange and put it in the food processor with the sugar until it looked like this: 

I maybe should have pulled them from the oven a couple of minutes sooner but they were delicious!

Citrus Blueberry Muffins

makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:

1 lemon

1 orange

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup plain greek yogurt

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup blueberries

Step 1:  Peel the zest of one lemon and one orange with a vegetable peeler (trying not to get too much of the white pith).  Combine with 1/2 cup sugar in a food processor or mini chopper and pulse until well combined.

Step 2:  Put that citrus sugar in a bowl and add vegetable oil, plain greek yogurt, 1 large egg, and 1 egg yolk.  Whisk together until smooth.

Step 3:  In a different bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  

Step 4:  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (don't overmix).  Add  blueberries.

Step 5:  Put batter into a greased muffin tin (makes 1 dozen) and bake in a 375 degree oven for 18 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

 

Baked Chicken Fingers

I found this draft of a post from last fall.  We spent 3 months on the Big Island after a 14 day quarantine to get out of the So Cal Corona madness for a little while.  The photos above are from some of our quarantine diversions.  After those first two weeks, we were waking up early (4:45am) to do online school and work and going to bed right after sunset (before 7pm), but we made the most of all those sunny afternoons! I'm missing the island, our friends, and living in a more "open" state right now - I'm not going to lie.  

This was one of my new recipe hits that I made over and over while we were in Hawaii . . . I haven't made it since but I should make a batch for the kids' lunch while they're doing school from home next week.  It's another recipe that approximates a deep fryer and take out food while being slightly healthier.  

I would make some dipping sauces to go with them and my two best ones were ranch dressing with a few squirts of sriracha and basil pesto with a scoop of mayo.
 

Oven Baked Chicken Tenders

1/4 c. flour

1 egg

1 T water

1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1.5 lbs chicken tenders 

Heat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil.  I like to place a cookie cooling rack on top of the cooking sheet so that the tenders are not directly on the foil because I think they cook more evenly this way.

Make one shallow dish with the flour, another shallow dish with the egg lightly beaten with the tablespoon of water, and a third shallow dish with the breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese mixed together.

Coat each piece of chicken with the flour, dip in the egg mixture, and roll in the breadcrumb mixture.  Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

New Year's Resolution

Do you make a New Year's Resolution?  Usually I have a theme or intention for the year and don't make specific resolutions but this year I was inspired by Big.  She is super goal oriented and on Christmas Eve, she read me a list of about 10 of hers . . . a few of which she's already made happen (like getting her Etsy shop up and running).  I was inspired by how she read through the Bible in a year and one of my goals this year is to do the same.  21 days in and so far so good.  

One of my other goals is to make some different recipes instead of the same old standbys.  It's easy to just make the same rotation over and over so that the girls don't complain about what's for dinner, but we all need to branch out a bit and try some new things.  My initial idea is to take something they like and make a different version.  I saw a recipe for a Moroccan Tagine that looked delicious and I thought that a tagine is basically a chili (right?).   Everybody ate some of it - it was a little too spicy for Little and Big didn't like the texture and I had leftovers for days.  

I like how it has lots of flavor, lots of vegetables, and you can easily omit the cooked chicken and double the chickpeas to make it a vegetarian main dish.  I used the harissa from Trader Joe's instead of just a paste so that may be why mine was a little spicy . . . but I added even more to my dish.  I served it with naan bread and you could also serve it over rice or cous cous.

Moroccan Chickpea & Chicken Tagine (recipe from Half Baked Harvest by Tieghan Gerard).

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped

1 T grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes

2 T harissa paste

2 tsp smoked paprika

3/4 tsp ground cumin

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 (14 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 cup cooked chopped or shredded chicken

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, for serving

Instant Pot Instructions:

In the Instant Pot, combine onion, ginger, garlic, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes, harissa, 1 cup of water, the spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.

Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.  Use a quick or natural release.  Open the pot and put it on saute.  Stir in lemon juice, chickpeas, chicken, and simmer on low until the protein is heated through, about 5 minutes.  Add more water to thin if needed.  Top with cilantro to serve.

Stovetop Instructions:

Heat 2 T olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.  Add the onion, ginger, garlic and cook until fragrant 3-5 minutes.  Add the carrots and bell pepper and continue cooking for about 5 more minutes or until the carrot is softened.  Add tomatoes, harissa, 1 cup of water, the spices, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir, cover, and cook until the tangine has thickened and is stew consistency (about 15-20 minutes).

Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice, chickpeas, and chicken and cook until the protein is heated through, about 5 minutes.  If it's too thick, add more water.  Serve with cilantro on top.