Rosemary Home Fries

Posted on May 20, 2013 by jgisvold

I think these potatoes are quite possibly the best potatoes I’ve ever made. I like my potatoes crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and Bobby Flay knows how to do that. You boil the potatoes in water first until the potatoes are fork tender. Then you cook them in a skillet until brown with some of that olive oil infused with rosemary. Total yum. I’m going to make my potatoes this way from now on. If you can’t find some pancetta use peppered bacon. I had mine with an egg on top.

Do any of you like to watch the Cooking Channel? I found this recipe while watching Bobby Flay’s show called Brunch at Bobby’s.

Recipe from Bobby Flay

Rosemary Oil:

1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup fresh rosemary leaves
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

HOME FRIES:

One 1-inch-thick piece pancetta, diced
3 large russet potatoes, cooked in salt water until tender, cooled and diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Pinch red pepper flakes
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
For the oil: Combine the oil, rosemary, garlic and some salt and pepper in a blender and blend for 2 minutes. Let the oil sit for 30 minutes, and then strain through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Set aside 1/4 cup, plus more as needed, for the home fries, and reserve the rest in an airtight container for another use.

For the home fries: Heat 1/4 cup of the rosemary oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until golden brown and crisp. Transfer to a plate.

Add more rosemary oil to the skillet, if needed. Add the potatoes in one layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook the potatoes, pressing the firmly with a spatula, until they are golden brown and crusty on the bottom. Turn the potatoes over, and repeat, adding more rosemary oil if needed. Stir in the parsley, red pepper flakes, reserved pancetta and cheese and serve from the pan.

Cauliflower “Rice”

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jgisvold

I’ve read about people replacing rice with ground up cauliflower so I decided to give it a try finally. It still has that cauliflower taste to it, but if you are looking to replace carbs in your diet this a good way to go. I don’t know if I can continue eating cauliflower because when I ate this with Trader Joe’s Mandarin orange chicken, I ended up having an asthma attack. Right after that, I googled can cauliflower cause asthma attacks and sure enough it was listed as a food that can cause that. I’ll have to ask my doctor about that when I go there next time.

If you don’t own a food processor, then this might be quite difficult to make. You just pulverize the cauliflower in a food processor until it looks like rice. The next thing I want to try making is the cauliflower pizza crust. That looks fantastic.

The best part about this is you can count it as 0 points plus per 1 cup.

Update: 4/2/2012 – WARNING: Cauliflower makes your house smell horrible! My house reeked this morning.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

Directions:

Break up pieces of the cauliflower so that they can fit easier into the food processor. Pulse the cauliflower until it resembles rice.

Hibachi Recipes

Posted on December 14, 2012 by jgisvold

Wow, it’s been a really busy week here. I had two potulucks at work. Both were right after each other. I brought a pasta salad with bacon, cheddar, and tomatoes in it for one and Buffalo chicken dip for another. Lot’s of cooking this week. I really didn’t make anything new either. Had some Lasagna soup earlier this week and that lasted for a couple of days. So here you are with 3 brand new recipes in one post. Lucky you!

Recently, I went to a Hibachi restaurant for a friend’s birthday party. Ben and I don’t normally eat at those types of restaurants because they’re really expensive. It’s super easy to make everything at home. All it takes is a little time and love. The restaurant we go to starts off their meal with a bowl of mushroom soup. The soup is good and flavorful, and it doesn’t have much to it. Just a special type of broth, some sliced mushrooms, and scallions for decoration. It is so divine.

Mushroom soup recipe from Carrie’s Cooking

Mushroom Soup

Print recipe

Ingredients

1/2 stalk celery
1 small onion
2 carrots chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
3 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
1 cup sliced mushrooms
8 cups water

Directions

Step 1
In a large saucepan or stockpot, combine the celery, onion, carrot, ginger, garlic, and a few of the mushrooms. Add chicken bouillon, beef bouillon, and water. Place the pot over high heat, and bring to a rolling boil. When the mixture reaches boiling, cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 45 minutes. It can cook for longer than 45 minutes (sometimes I leave it on for a couple hours), you will just need to add more water if too much water evaporates.
Step 2
After it's cooked for at least 45 minutes strain the cooked soup and discard all of the vegetables, leaving the broth. Serve the broth with sliced mushrooms and sprinkle french friend onions over the top

The way they serve each course there is kind of confusing to me. Next they give you rice with this really good sauce called Yum Yum, sauce. I’d rather have my rice and protein together. Then you also get to chose if you want any noodles. The noodles are so good… Probably because they use a lot of butter and MSG.

Hibachi Noodles from Best of the Veg

Hibachi Noodles

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Ingredients

Japanese dried noodles
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
8 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon chili sauce
2 tablespoons semesame oil

Directions

Step 1
Cook noodles according to package directions.
Step 2
In a jar combine remaining ingredients and shake well.
Step 3
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sauce to the pan with the noodles. Toss the noodles around in the sauc e for 2 minutes and Serve.

Homemade Yum Yum Sauce

Yum Yum Sauce

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Ingredients

1 1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Directions

Step 1
Using a fork or a whisk, blend all ingredients together thoroughly until well mixed and the sauce is smooth. Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Every recipe I thought, was pretty similar to what I was served at the restaurants. If you want to make these recipes at home it’s good to have some Asian ingredients stocked up in your fridge. I like to keep my fresh ginger in the freezer and I take it out to use it whenever I want. These are some ingredients I recommend that you keep on hand.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Posted on December 3, 2012 by jgisvold

Don’t let brussel sprouts scare you. I was scared to try them at first, and so was my husband. They stink while cooking in the oven, but in the end they still taste good. This is a really easy recipe to make if you are curious about trying brussel sprouts for the first time. Just a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cook them in the oven at a high temp for awhile and they taste amazing. They’re so cute too, almost remind me of little baby cabbages. I’m sure bacon would make them taste even better.

I am horrible at trying to get a vegetable in every day. I try to do that at dinner time, and I’ve been trying lately to get a new one in every week. Roasted broccoli is also good this way.

Servings: 6

Calories: 109; Total Fat: 7 grams, Carbs: 10g, Fiber: 4g, Protein: 4g

Recipe from Ina Garten

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

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Ingredients

1 1/2 poundsouts brussel sproiuts
3 tablespoons good olive oil
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Step 2
Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt ( I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.

Gazpacho Soup

Posted on July 26, 2012 by jgisvold

I first tried gazpacho when I was on my honeymoon in Jamaica. The soup was presented in these little wine glasses and it was delicious. It almost reminds me of eating salsa with a spoon, although the soup is blended and salsa is kind of chunky. Gazpacho is an easy way to use up all those summer tomatoes that are growing in your garden. This soup freezes well too. I didn’t have any storage containers to freeze food in, but luckily we had some freezer bags. I need to buy some more storage containers sometime soon.

For Christmas last year, my friend got me this great recipe book for canning and preserving foods called Preserving the Harvest. There’s so many great recipes I want to try for homemade BBQ sauce, ketchup, preserved lemons, and different types of jams. This gazpacho recipe is from this book.

Servings: 10 (1 cup)

Calories: 93, Fat: 3g, Carbohydrates: 16g, Fiber: 3, Protein: 0

Ingredients:

6 medium tomatoes, peeled, cored, and chopped
5 cups of vegetable juice
2 medium cucumbers
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh dill (I used a tsp of dried dill)
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1. Combine all ingredients and toss until the vegetables are evenly coated with oil, vinegar and herbs.

2. Pour into two 1 1/2-quart freezer containers. Seal, label well, and freeze for up to 3 months.

3. To serve, thaw in the refridgerator overnight and store chilled.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Posted on June 3, 2012 by jgisvold

I’m trying to watch the Next Food Network Star right now, but my dog keeps on whining. His friend is at the vet getting stitched up because he doesn’t like getting a hair cut from Ben. Guess, we’ll just have to go and get him a hair cut at one of the pet places from now on. Anyways, I love Food Network Star. I’m really liking team Alton. He has a lot of unique people on his team. The one with the interesting hair cut I like so far, sorry I don’t really know his name. I don’t think I’d ever qualify for that show, because I’m not good with coming up with my own recipes. There’s thousands of recipes out there, and who needs 10 different versions of chicken pot pie? That’s why I like to search for most of my recipes.

These tomatoes are slow roasted in the oven, giving them a sweet taste. No oil needed to roast these either so they’re very low in points. You can season them with whatever spices you like too. They almost taste like candy. I’ve roasted other vegetables in the oven before, like carrots, onions, and potatoes. Onions are my favorite because they come out tasting very sweet, kind of like these.

Points Plus: For 2 cups of cherry tomatoes it’s 2 points. That’s not bad for all those tomatoes.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Directions:

Cut cherry tomatoes in half and place them in a casserole dish or on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and
sugar. Roast in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Kale Chips

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jgisvold

I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately. My latest culinary adventures have been blood oranges and kale. Blood oranges are beautiful on the inside. I tried making my own marinade with blood oranges and after I cooked the chicken it wasn’t very flavorful when it was done. I think the chicken needed to marinade more, than just 1/2 an hour.

Kale chips are like a healthier alternative to potato chips and I was surprised at how good they taste. They smelled kind of funny baking away in the oven but in the end they were nice and crispy. Ben said it was like eating a dried out leaf. I guess that’s a good way to describe it. Eating Kale chips is a good way to eat your greens! You can get Kale greens at the Wal-Mart supermarket.

Kale is high in beta carotene, Vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, and Zeaxanthin.

Servings: 2 about half of the bowl
Points Plus: 2
Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients from Anne Burrell

1 large bunch Tuscan kale
Extra-virgin olive oil (I used two teaspoons
Kosher salt
Pinch crushed red pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Remove the tough lower stems of the kale. Toss the kale generously with olive oil, salt and crushed red pepper.

Lay the dressed leaves in a single layer on a sheet tray (use more than one if you need to!) and place in the oven. Roast the kale or until the leaves are crispy, 30 to 35 minutes.

Serve as a snack or side dish.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Posted on October 9, 2011 by jgisvold

Well… it’s getting to be that time of year again. The amount of natural light is very limited and I have to figure out my light box all over again. If you’re wondering how I set mine up, it’s kind of like the light box found at this link. You’d think after taking so many pictures I’d have that figured all out?? It’s completely dark out by 7:40 and pretty soon it’s going to start at 5:00. Sad, very sad. Why can’t Winter be like summer and it still be light until almost 9 pm outside?

On to the potatoes… these potatoes are probably the best potatoes I’ve ever had. They’re chuck full of bad things like butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon. Which… I don’t even plan on trying to make a low fat version of this. It wouldn’t be the same. I left out the bacon because I didn’t have any in the house and I almost should have gone to the store to get some. With the bacon in these potatoes, they would have been a meal all by its self. I pretty much ate these as a meal all by itself too. I can’t wait to have them for left overs tomorrow for lunch. The skin gets so crispy and with the salt on it, it almost tastes like a potato chip.

Thank you to the Pioneer Woman for the recipe. I’ve been finding so many recipes from your shows that I’ve really liked so far and hopefully Food Network keeps you on for a second season. It’s already starting to get slim on Saturday mornings because they start showing shows like Chopped at 11:30 am in the morning. I’d rather see more cooking shows.

Ingredients from Ree Drummond

8 baking potatoes, washed
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 sticks salted butter
1 cup bacon bits (fry your own!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup Cheddar or Jack cheese (or a mix of both), plus more for topping
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3 green onions, sliced
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Rub them with the canola oil and bake for 1 hour, making sure they’re sufficiently cooked through.

Slice the butter into pats. Place in a large mixing bowl and add the bacon bits and sour cream. Remove the potatoes from the oven. Lower the heat to 350 degrees F.

With a sharp knife, cut each potato in half lengthwise. Scrape out the insides into the mixing bowl, being careful not to tear the shell. Leave a small rim of potato intact for support. Lay the hollowed out potato shells on a baking sheet.

Smash the potatoes into the butter, bacon and sour cream. Add the cheese, milk, seasoned salt, green onions and black pepper to taste and mix together well. (IMPORTANT: If you plan to freeze the twice-baked potatoes, do NOT add the green onions.)

Fill the potato shells with the filling. I like to fill the shells so they look abundant and heaping. Top each potato with a little more grated cheese and pop ‘em in the oven until the potato is warmed through, 15 to 20 minutes.

Zenith Salsa

Posted on August 21, 2011 by jgisvold

This is quite possibly the best salsa ever. My brother and I would request a jar of it, every time from my Aunt. At my bridal shower, my aunt finally gave me the recipe and I was so happy. I made a batch of it today, and it tasted like I remembered it, way back when I was a kid.

Most of the time when I make salsa, I was trying to just throw together my version of it and not really going by a recipe. Half of the time, I would not be happy with the results. Maybe it was because, I didn’t use enough salt or not enough spices? Who knows?! Now, I don’t need to try coming up with my own salsa recipe anymore. This is the only one I need. I did get a lot of other recipes at my bridal shower, that I will be trying and they will be making an appearance on my blog soon.

I halved this recipe because I only had enough tomatoes from my garden, which was about 4 pounds. If you’re wondering 2-3 pounds of tomatoes is about 1 quart. I used my food scale to figure out how much I needed. Still waiting for all the rest of my tomatoes to turn red.

P.S. I don’t know why it’s called Zenith Salsa.

Ingredients from my Aunt Carol

4 quarts of tomatoes

2 green bell peppers

5 jalapeno peppers

3 1/2 cups of chopped yellow onion

2 tablespoons of cumin

3-4 tablespoons of garlic powder

1/4 cup of canning salt (I used kosher)

Directions.

Peel the skin off the tomatoes after they’ve boiled in water for a minute. The skin will come off very easily. Chop all the ingredients and mix them in a large pot. Cook on low for 1-2 hours. It will thicken, the longer it cooks.

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

Posted on August 20, 2011 by jgisvold

I haven’t done much canning yet this year. I think canning is a stupid name for it anyway. Why do they call it canning when you’re putting all your produce in jars? Shouldn’t it be called jarring? My tomatoes are still turning color and I get some every now and then that are ripe enough to pick. I don’t really want to can just a little bit of tomatoes at time ya know?

I’m kind of still confused about the whole process of canning. What if you want to make some pickles and put them in jars? Most recipes for pickles, just require mixing your sugar vinegar and cucumbers in a bowl and storing them in a container. Do you even have to boil the jars in water then if you want to store the cucumbers in the jar? Hmph?!

We had some cucumbers in our garden and the neighbor lady across from us was nice enough to give us some of her cucumbers. Ben likes to call pickles ruined cucumbers. I like to call them delicious! I found this recipe on the tasty kitchen blog and now I can’t wait to have some burgers. These are just good to snack on too.

Ingredients from Tasty Kitchen

7 cubes Sliced, Unpeeled Cucumbers
1 cup Sliced Onion
1 cup Slice Green Peppers
1 cup Cider Vinegar
2 cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Celery Seed
1 Tablespoon Salt

Directions

Mix everything together cold and store in covered container in refrigerator. It’s best to allow it to sit for about 5 days so the flavors can mingle. These keep for months

Greek Salad Sandwich

Posted on March 4, 2011 by jgisvold

Chickpea Mixture

1 cup canned chickpeas
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

Onion Mixture

1 red onion thinly sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
coarse salt and peper

Feta Cheese Mix
3 ounces of crumbled feta
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
In a food processor, combine 1 can of canned chickpeas, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 1/4 cup of fresh parsley. In a small bowl stir together red onion, olive oil, salt and pepper. In another small bowl combine feta cheese and olive oil. Spread chickpea mixture on 4 slices of rustic bread. (I used sour dough). Top with thinly sliced cucumber,
thinly sliced tomatoes, onion mixture. Spread feta mixture on four slices of bread.

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I am so proud of myself. I believe this is the 3rd serving of veggies I’ve had in a week. I think that you’re actually supposed to have 3 servings a veggies A DAY. We only have about 1 serving a week, pretty sad right? Sometimes we’ll have potatoes, but I don’t really consider that a veggie. More like a starch. Our favorite is canned french style green beans.

This sandwich is loaded with veggies. Red onions, tomatoes, chickpeas, and cucumbers. I think I could eat this sandwich every day for lunch. It is very filling and very tasty. Not your normal every sandwich like peanut butter and jelly and tuna salad.

Ina Garten’s Hummus

Posted on March 3, 2011 by jgisvold

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons water or liquid from the chickpeas
8 dashes hot sauce

Directions

Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it’s minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste, for seasoning, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

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I’m addicted to hummus now. I’ve been finding lots of different hummus recipes to try too. There’s a black bean hummus recipe in the last issue of Cooking Light’s magazine and I want to try making hummus made with edamame. I bought a big frozen bag of it last week at Sam’s Club. Hummus is good with pita chips and any kind of veggie. I like carrots. It’s a good way of getting more veggies in and I’ve been meaning to eat more veggies lately.

I’m not a big fan of veggies. I think during the week I’ll have at least one serving and that is it. I take my gummy multivitamin at night. I hope that you’re as excited for getting more veggies into your diet like I am because there’s going to be a lot of posts about veggies coming your way.