{Guest Post} Blackeye Pea Salad

The wedding count is down to a week! And once again, because I have been volunteered to cut and fold the program pamphlets (among other tasks), I rely upon another brilliant guest post to make up for my absence! 


The beautiful and talented Megan over at Pip and Ebby contributed this wonderful and tasty looking Blackeye Pea Salad. It's a beautiful melody of colour and flavour and meant to be enjoyed on these hot summer days. Her picture with the tortilla chips alongside inspire a great midnight snack, especially if leftovers happened to survive. 


Megan became a blogging friend almost instantly, to the point where I would actually consider her more of a blogging sister than a simple friend. She has some of the most amazing photos and recipes and I always find something I add to my "must cook" list. If you haven't before, NOW is the time to go check her stuff out. 


Thanks so much to Megan for her recipe and comments. You are amazing! 

Blackeye Pea Salad

I feel so honored to have been asked to do a guest post on Jeff’s blog! I have been a reader of his for quite some time. I love his humor and the versatile food that he writes about. Every time I visit here, I giggle at a story or I am intrigued by a history about food.

Jeff (and Jeff’s fiancé), I am very happy for you for your upcoming marriage! My family and I wish you both the very best! I am so glad to know you in blog-land, and thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your awesome blog for one tiny day.

It is summer-time, and that means I am in my typical salad-loving mindset. I adore salads and salsas, and especially food that can be considered both of those things at the same time.

This salad is super easy to make, and it is versatile, which is something very important to me. I love foods that can be salads, salsas and sandwich fillers all at once.

In a medium bowl, combine:

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

Two 15-oz. cans blackeye peas

Add:

¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Mix well.

Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving. Serve as a salad or a salsa with crackers and/or chips.

I wish you and fiance a happy and fulfilling marriage, Jeff! Enjoy your day!

Banchan - Korean Spinach Salad (Sigeumchi Namul)

 

Even with a hectic life right now, I haven't lost the desire to cook. Today I was itching to make something out of the ordinary, something with some pizzazz to it. The soon-to-be bride requested that I do something with the large Costco size bag of spinach in our fridge, so that's what I set out to do!

Banchan isn't actually the real name of this dish. A banchan is actually several different types of foods served in small bowls alongside a larger rice dish. There is a wide variety of dishes that can be served alongside the rice, each with their own unique way of being cooked or served. I guess it can be compared to eating a fajita in a restaurant. You simply add ingredients to your tortilla and away you go!

This particular dish is actually referred to as Sigeumchi Namul, which translates into a blanched spinach dish with a garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil. And just like people prepare their fajita toppings differently, there are several different versions of how to make a Sigeumchi Namul Banchan.

For the sake of my uneducated and unexplored self, I will simply refer to this dish in my house as Spinach Banchan. Make sense? I hope so, because I don't want to have to try to pronounce Sigeumchi Namil everytime my fiance wants me to remake this dish.

And ask me to remake it she will. For such a simple dish (cooked in under 5 minutes), I was not expecting the burst of flavour that went alongside it! The spinach soaks up all the sauce and your first bite is actually juicy and flavour-packed. It is completely different than any salad you will have had before!

I unfortunately don't have any sesame oil or sesame seeds, so I had to adapt this recipe a bit to suit what I had in my larder. However, it worked out so well I may just keep this recipe and not bother with any other adaptations! Also, as a word of warning, spinach shrinks a lot, so adjust accordingly. This meal was just enough to feed the two of us. I should also mention that I wanted to add this wonderful garlic chili paste I have (called gochujang), but I am currently out of stock and had to adjust for that as well.

I hope you like it!

Spinach Banchan

Spinach - 4-6 massive handfuls
Soy Sauce - 2 Tbsps
Fish Sauce - 1 tbsp
Chili Sauce - 1 tbsp (omit and replace if you have gochujang)
Garlic - 1 tbsp, minced

Start with bringing a large pot to boil on the stove. Add the spinach and stir in for about 30 seconds to 1 minute or until blanched and the spinach is starting to wilt. Remove from the stove and drain, then place the spinach in cold water. Drain again after a few minutes, then squeeze out all of the water. Place in a bowl and separate the spinach leaves.

In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce and garlic. Once well stirred, add to the spinach. Massage the mixture into the leaves but don't squeeze the liquid out. You want the leaves to be well coated with the sauce. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

{Guest Post} Pasta with Lump Crab, Vegetables, & Citrus-Thyme Beurre Blanc

This is my first ever guest post! As the wedding day draws near (2 weeks!), I find that I have less time to try out new recipes and to blog about them. So I reached out to a few good blogging friends to give me a hand.

Peggy, formerly of the blog My Boyfriend Likes It So It Must Be Good, and My Fiance Likes It So It Must Be Good,  has come out with her latest blog simply titled, Feeding Andy. Why the drastic name change? It's because she recently got married! Many happy wishes to Peggy and Andy! She is a brilliant and beautiful writer who is currently working away at culinary degree and churning out some amazing looking recipes. Andy is a lucky guy!

And now I am as well. Peggy, you are absolutely amazing! This is a beautiful looking pasta and a perfect summer meal. I'm going to have to track down some crab meat. Make sure you visit her blog for the Beurre Blanc recipe!

Thanks again Peggy!


 

Pasta w/ Lump Crab, Vegetables, & Citrus-Thyme Beurre Blanc

First of all, I want to say a big congratulations to Jeff and his new bride!  I’m completely flattered to be guest posting here today and I want to thank Jeff immensely for thinking of me.  Jeff and I have been following eachother’s blogs for quite some time now and I couldn’t be happier for him!

Since love is in the air, I wanted to post about something special.  I recently got married, myself, so I know how crazy a time this can be.  Crazy times call for quick and easy recipes.  But that doesn’t mean they have to lack in flavor, right?  Right!  For easy and quick, I almost always turn to pasta.  You practically look around, pull some vegetables together, maybe a protein (but you don’t have to!), a quick butter sauce – and bam – romantic, quick, and easy dinner in no time!

Ingredients:

Citrus Thyme Beurre Blanc, warmed

1 lb. spaghetti noodles

2 carrots, fine julienned

1 leek, julienned

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

8 oz. lump crab meat

1 jalapeno, sliced (seeding is optional)

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Since the beurre blanc is very temperature sensitive, you’ll want to make it right before you’re ready to mix the pasta. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti noodles to al dente. 

While the spaghetti is cooking, you can sauté your vegetables.  Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan under medium high heat.  Add carrots, leeks, garlic, and jalapenos.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add crab meat and stir until warmed.  Take off heat and set aside.

 

You can now start making your beurre blanc. 

Drain pasta and toss with vegetables and beurre blanc.  Top with parmesan cheese and you’re in business!

It’s not too light and not too heavy.  Just the way a summer meal should be. 

Again, thank you Jeff and a very huge congratulations to ya dude!

Súpa Heilsu

I am fighting off illness. With the wedding drawing nearer, I'm doing my best to keep my health up. The last thing I need is a runny nose down the aisle or laryngitis while saying vows. With all the stress of organizing and planning, it would be easy to fall into disrepair.

Two friends of ours are also getting married (this Saturday actually!), and have been sick for the last two weeks. After going out for some Indian food with them, I'm afraid that their illness may have been an assault on my immunity.

I was then just finishing at work my the relieving co-worker came in. She had been ill for a week, and proceeded to cough right in my face! Not even a hand over the mouth! The attack on my health definitely weakened some barriers with that one.

Then I find out that Kim over at Cravings of a Lunatic has also been feeling under the weather lately. So now I'm afraid that I will get the sympathy sickness from her! Hopefully she's feeling better today!

So to battle this onslaught, I wanted to make myself a nice chicken dinner, and follow that up with a homemade chicken soup. Somehow, the chicken that I had thawing turned out to be just the carcass with no meat to be found. Alas... but it was straight to the soup recipe for me then! Instead of making my traditional chicken soup, I threw in as many healthy ingredients as I could.

For this recipe I'm going to skip how to make chicken broth and skip to the rest. If you need to find a good broth recipe, you can look at this one here.

I was stuck looking for a better name for this soup than "soup of health", so hoping to channel some of that healing energy I looked up which countries were the healthiest. Iceland seemed to be the resounding winner, so I dub this, súpa heilsu.


Súpa Heilsu

Butter - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 4 cloves, minced
Ginger - 1inch stock, peeled and grated
Onion - 1, diced
Celery - 2 stalks, chopped
Carrots - 2, chopped
Jalapenos - 2, diced
Spinach - 6 cups
Chicken - 2 breasts, shredded
Chicken Broth - 6 cups
Quinoa - 3/4 cup
Salt - a healthy pinch
Pepper - 1 tbsp
Sage - 1 tsp
Rosemary - 1 tbsp
In a large stock pot, melt some butter over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots and jalapeno and cook until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add the spinach and stir into the mixture until they have wilted in size. Add the chicken broth, the quinoa and the spices. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for a half hour. You can set and simmer for longer, but the quinoa may dissolve.

Serve hot and may you be healthy!

White Chicken Lasagna

Euro cup is on! Are you watching any soccer? Living in North America, Soccer doesn't really make an appearance on the television during the regular season unless you have it ordered in. The only time that it appears regularly is during important championships, such as the Champions League, the Euro Cup and of course, the World Cup.

It's sad being that soccer was my favourite sport growing up. It's such a great sport to play, especially as a young kid! I never felt bad about asking my parents for soccer fees when my friends that played hockey or football often had to ask for an arm or a leg.

Are you watching any of the Euro cup?

Unfortunately this dish doesn't have anything to do with soccer. It was made not only because it would be a delicious dinner, but also because it promised some great leftovers for lunches. The original recipes comes from the lovely and talented Megan over at Pip and Ebby. The only difference I made was to cut down on the cheese a fair bit. We have wedding season around the corner and I didn't need any extra help packing on the pounds!


White Chicken Lasagna

Lasagna Noodles - 9

Onion - 1, chopped
Garlic - 4 cloves, minced
Flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - a healthy pinch
Chicken Broth - 2 cups
Milk - 1 cup

Mozzarella Cheese - 2 1/2 cups, grated
Parmesan Cheese - 1/2 cup
Ricotta Cheese - 1 cup

Basil - 2 tbsps
Oregano - 1 tbsp
Freshly ground pepper  - 1 tbsp

Chicken - 2 cups, shredded (I just used leftovers, but you could also get a rotisserie chicken)
Spinach - 1 10oz pack, thawed and shredded
Artichokes - canned, diced
Parsley - 2 tbsps

Start with cooking the lasagna noodles. Bring a large sauce pan filled with water to a boil and add the noodles. Boil the noodles for about 8-10 minutes, then drain and cool in cold water.

In a separate large skillet, heat some olive oil over medium high heat, then saute the onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Add the flour and salt and stir until well coated. Add the chicken broth and the milk and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir in the 2 cups of mozzarella and a 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese. Add the basil, oregano and black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a large casserole dish (9x13) with cooking spray, olive oil or butter.

Add the first layer. Start with -

•  A third of the sauce, three of the lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese and chicken
• Three lasagna noodles, spinach and artichokes and a third of the sauce and a 1/2 cup of mozzarella
• Three lasagna noodles, the remaining sauce, parsley, and Parmesan

Okay... I think that covers everything. Don't be afraid the change the order of the ingredients, as long as you have sauce and noodles in each layer. Cover with foil and cook in the preheated over for about 40 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the top is lightly golden. 

Eggplant Bruschetta Bites

I'll try to refrain from the continuous countdown until wedding day but the excitement is building! 

27 days to go!

I think we are down to trying to get a bunch of small things done now, most of the larger tasks have been knocked off the list. I can't believe how much effort a wedding is! In the future, I will advise my kids to get into the wedding business, because they will make me a fortune... or at least buy me nice things.

This last weekend was my bachelor party, and the final large hurdle before tying the knot. I was fortunate to have so many good friends and family come to attend! Except for the best man... making me wear this delightful pink dress...

 At least it helps show off my legs.

We first went to the shooting range to blast away with some pistols, a revolver and some rifles. A perfect activity for this dressed up bachelor! Except for the one shell casing that went down my open bodice, it was actually a really great time! I was hoping all my video game experience would improve my aim, but alas, I wasn't the best shot there. I think that honour may actually go to my half-blind father who blasted eight shots into one spot. Extremely impressive!

We continued our adventures to a neighbourhood pub, enjoyed some nachos and beer, and played some Olympics with mini golf, pool shots, virtual golf and race car driving. I got a hole in one at the mini golf!

We finished off the night at Aussie Rules, a dueling piano bar. It's like karaoke, but the pianists blast out the song and the whole audience joins in the singing. It's a great place and full of high energy! We actually met up with the fiance's party at this point to share the fun. We both have people that we wanted to celebrate with and I'm happy I got to finish the night with the future wife!

These Eggplant dishes were actually from before the stag party, but I'm afraid that I'm losing opportunities to do as much blogging as I'd like. They actually got mixed reviews, but I wasn't quite as happy with them as I could be. I think next time I'd make more of a basil spread or pesto to mix, and melt mozzarella cheese on top instead of the feta. I'd also consider adding a balsamic dressing to drizzle over the top.  We'll just have to see what sort of creations the future holds I suppose!


Eggplant Bruschetta Bites

Eggplant - 1, large - cut into 1/2" slices
Tomato - 2-3, sliced similarly to eggplant
Feta - 1/2 cup, crumbled on top
Fresh Basil - sprinkled on top

Cut the eggplant into 1/2" slices, sprinkle with salt, and leave on paper towel for about a half hour.

Preheat the BBQ to medium-high heat.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the eggplant slices and add to the grill. Cook for about 3-5 minutes until light golden grill marks appear and the eggplant is firmer. Remove from the grill, then add the tomato, feta and basil. You can make a sandwich version of you want, or leave them open faced.  Place on the BBQ again and grill until the tomatoes are softened and starting to break down and the eggplant has dark grill marks, about 10 minutes.

Remove and serve immediately.

Let me know if you'd change this recipe around also! As mentioned above, I think some balsamic could knock this recipe up a few notches.

Experiencing Dandelions

After making my dandelion salad last week, I wanted to discover more about this particular food item. First appearing as a basic weed, I really was surprised about the nutritional background of this plant! Here's what it's all about.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

History: The dandelion, or Taraxacum officinale, actually has occupants on all continents, even the Antarctica.  However, they were introduced to North America by colonists and explorers from Europe. Dandelion seeds are able to spread over large distances and grow in even the harshest terrains. This means that this little flower will grow almost anywhere!

The healing benefits of dandelions have been marked by generations across the globe. Arabian philosophers, Welsh doctors and Roman healers all have documented the use of the dandelion. In fact, the dandelion was used in traditional Egyptian and Chinese medicines for thousands of years. Some believe that dandelions were brought over to the United States on the Mayflower for their medicinal benefits (and to fight scurvy).

 Here are some of the dandelions benefits!

• Excellent source of vitamins A, C and K
• Good sources of calcium, potassium and iron (even more than spinach!)
• treats liver and kidney problems
• fights jaundice, scurvy, arthritis, diabetes and gallstones
• possibly assists in helping to fight cancer
• helps menstrating women by controlling hormones and water buildup
• Fights acne and helps with skin care

Basically this common outdoor weed has some healthy benefits if consumed! Dandelions have been used around the world for a variety of reasons, including Canada where Dandelion roots are actually sold medicinally as a diuretic, the UK makes a popular soft drink called Dandelion and Burdock, and Poland pulls a honey substitute from the flowers.

Interestingly enough, the United States FDA still states that Dandelions are a weed and that there are no proven health benefits...

My Perspective: Before knowing the health benefits, I admit that dandelions were a weed. I had never tasted them before, and was frankly nervous. However, after doing some more indepth research, dandelions are pretty much a powerhouse of nutrition.

It's all about disguising or manipulating flavours to make dandelion greens tastier. They are naturally bitter, so it's all about finding sweet flavours to go along with them. Overtime, you may actually come to crave and enjoy the bitterness (sort of like arugula or kale). With all the healthy benefits though, a healthy dandelion salad once in awhile would be extremely good for you!

Have you ever cooked with dandelions? Would you? How would you serve them?