Week 66: Italian Tortellini Pasta Salad

This was a tasty, refreshing, and EASY pasta salad. Another one that would be good for picnics or barbeques because it doesn't have a mayo base. This could also be made with pasta, but I'm not sure I'd want to give up that yummy tortellini!

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1 package refrigerated cheese tortellini
2 packages frozen chopped spinach
1 can black olives, sliced
1 package turkey pepperoni, slices quartered
4 cups grape tomatoes, halved
parmesan cheese
1 bottle Italian dressing

DIRECTIONS
Cook the tortellini according to package directions, and let it cool. Defrost the spinach and squeeze out all the moisture. Toss all ingredients together.

Voila!

Week 65: Cold Farro Salad

I am always in search of wonderful new grains to use in the kitchen. I love making cold salads that I can keep in the refrigerator and eat for lunch throughout the workweek. Quinoa has been a standby ever since Costco started selling large bags of the organic stuff for a great price. A couple of weeks ago I saw that the same brand was selling farro in bulk at Costco, so I snatched some up. I didn't really use a recipe, but just threw some stuff in there that I already had in the fridge, and I knew would work. The finished product was a grain that was nutty and chewy, which was great with cold, crisp vegetables. I enjoyed this with cheese; some days goat and some days feta.

Year of Yum Rating: 3 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1 cup farro
3 cups water
bell pepper (I used the miniature ones from Costco that come in bags with red, orange, and yellow), diced
1 seedless cucumber, diced
olive oil
lemon
salt
pepper
cheese if desired

DIRECTIONS
Cook the farro according to package directions. It called for 3 cups of liquid to one cup of dry farro. I put some salt in the water while it was cooking. I also ended up with extra water in the pot after I deemed the farro to be done, so I just threw it in a strainer.

When dicing the peppers and cukes, I scraped the "guts" out of the cucumber even though it was seedless. I didn't want my salad to get too wet and soupy.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon, and add olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Toss with the farro and veggies. Let chill in the refrigerator before serving.

Week 64: Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onion, and Smoked Salmon Pizza

Listen up. This pizza is somethin' special. Something I would be proud to serve to dinner guests. Not to mention the fact that this is the only dish I've had that has made me think that I just might have a future with a fish that is not out of a can.

This pizza features SWEET caramelized onions, SALTY goat cheese, SMOKY salmon, PEPPERY arugula, and (get ready for this...) SOUR lemons. Wow.

Next time:

-More lemon...I want some in EVERY bite
-I made sure to leave plenty of crust on the outside to hold on to when eating the pizza, but every bite that didn't have toppings made me sad. Handle shmandle.
-Something I did right = get premade crust from Papa Murphy's, and just baked the pizza on that cardboard circle it comes on. I'll definitely do that again.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 batch of pizza dough
salt, for sprinkling
4 oz smoked salmon, sliced
olive oil
fresh arugula
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 lemon, sliced thin (we used a meyer lemon)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 500°F with pizza stone or thin baking sheet on the bottom rack (unless your crust is already on a handy-dandy cardboard disk).

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté for one minute. Add brown sugar. Continue to sauté for 10-15 minutes until the onions are soft, sweet, and brownish. Remove from heat.

Sprinkle some salt on the dough and then distribute the toppings: arugula, caramelized onions, goat cheese, prosciutto, and lemon slices. Put the pizza in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until desired doneness.

Week 63: Tuna & White Bean Salad

This was SO easy to make, as well as being a convenient, refreshing, and yummy source of protein. Abby and I noticed that this was also our first "seafood" dish that we've made. Neither of us are big seafood fans, but I do enjoy canned tuna! I ate this as leftovers two other times the week we made it, and it was still delicious.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
2 6oz cans of tuna, drained (oil-packed recommended)
1 15oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 12oz jar roasted red peppers, drained and roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons capers
zest 1 lemon, grated
1 tomato, sliced (optional)
Juice of 1 fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
toasted bread, for serving

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the tuna, beans, red peppers, capers, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, oil, salt, and black pepper. Pour the vinaigrette over the tuna mixture and toss. Serve on the toasted bread, topped with a tomato slice.

Week 62: Greek Chopped Salad

Lately I have been craving a good, fresh salad. The only thing is that sometimes salads are hard to eat, especially if you want a little of everything in each bite. My solution was to find a good chopped salad. Everything is chopped in to little pieces so you can get all those great flavors on your fork at one time.

There were a lot of chopped salad options, but I knew the search was over when I found this recipe because I love pretty much all of the ingredients typically used in Greek foods. Onions, olives, feta, lemon juice, yum!

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

(I struggled with this rating. It was a truly GREAT salad, but I couldn't decide if I should rate it in only the SALAD category, or if it was fair to compare it to other foods. If I had to choose between this salad and, say, macaroni and cheese, it would be a REALLY tough decision...)

INGREDIENTS
2 Romaine lettuce hearts, chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 (6 ounce) jar pitted kalamata olives
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 cucumber, sliced
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 lemon, juiced
ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large salad bowl, combine the Romaine, onion, olives, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and cheese.



2. Whisk together the olive oil, oregano, lemon juice and black pepper. Pour dressing over salad, toss and serve.

Kristen's Baby Shower

This is the food that Mom, Mara, and I made for Kristen's baby shower this past weekend. The menu included:

Fruit Salad (in cups on a cute cupcake tree)
Pizza Bites (with a slightly-different filling...more veggies)
Stuffed Mushrooms
Grilled Prosciutto-Wrapped Asaparagus
Caprese Salad Bites
S'mores Whoopie Pies

It was all delicious, and I definitely had more than my fair share of snacks!

Week 61: Veggie Kabobs and Whoopie Pies

Today Mara and I wanted to test a recipe we found for S'Mores Whoopie Pies for this weekend's baby shower we're hosting. It's irresponsible to eat Whoopie Pies for dinner, so I planned on grilling kabobs to start us out and give us energy to bake. The kabobs didn't require a recipe, but here's how we did it...


Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
Mushrooms
Bell peppers, various colors
Grape tomatoes
Yellow onion
Potatoes
Tofu, extra firm
Extra virgin olive oil
Soy sauce
Lemon juice
Sea salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS
Mix the marinade in a large bowl. I just poured in a few glugs of EVOO, several shakes of soy sauce, juice from half of a lemon, and freshly ground pepper.

Cut the veggies and tofu so they're all about the same size. Put them all in the marinade and mix it all up so everything's coated.

Once the grill is ready (I had it on medium-low), skewer those veggies, sprinkle with sea salt, and put on the grill. They're done with everything has that good grill-charred look.



NOW...these whoopie pies (courtesy of Brown-Eyed Baker). I'm not much of the baker, but I was fortunate enough to have great helpers. After I messed up the flour step of the recipe TWICE, I asked Abby to be in charge of looking at the recipe and telling us what to do. These actually turned out to be pretty good, but very rich. We also thought they didn't have an extremely strong s'mores flavor. If we didn't know that this was the inspiration, we might not have recognized it. Also, the marshmallow filling had quite a bit of shortening, and my mouth definitely picked up on that.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
For the Graham Cracker Whoopie:
1½ cups graham flour (I couldn't find this at the two grocery stores I tried, so I looked up a substitution online. For each 1 cup of graham flour called for in the recipe, you can use 2/3 cup white flour, slightly less than 1/3 cup wheat bran, and 1.5 teaspoons wheat germ. I wonder if I also could have used whole wheat flour here...)
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Classic Marshmallow Filling:
1½ cups Marshmallow Fluff (or other prepared marshmallow cream, which will do in a pinch)
1¼ cups vegetable shortening
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (or solid chocolate, finely chopped)
½ cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together both flours, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and the buttermilk and beat until combined.

4. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, baking soda, and vinegar. Add the milk mixture to the batter along with the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the vanilla and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until completely combined.

5. Using a spoon, drop about 1 tablespoon of batter onto one of the prepared baking sheets and repeat, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes each, or until the cakes begin to brown. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool on the sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

6. Make the Marshmallow Filling: In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the Marshmallow Fluff and the vegetable shortening, starting on low and increasing to medium speed until the mixture is smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, add the confectioners’ sugar and the vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes more.

7. Make the Chocolate Ganache Filling: Put the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat just until it bubbles. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate in the bowl and let it sit for about 10 minutes, until the chocolate is melted. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until smooth. Allow the mixture to rest at room temperature until firm enough to spread, about 2 hours. You may also refrigerate the mixture for about 30 minutes, until it is firm enough to spread, stirring every 10 minutes.

8. Assemble the whoopie pies: Pipe or spread (whatever your preferred method) a layer of chocolate ganache filling onto the flat side of one of the cakes. Using the same method, top the chocolate filling with the marshmallow filling. Top it with another cake, flat-side down. Repeat with the rest of the cakes and filling.