Empanadas and Awards

This is the second installment of Blogger Finds. Blogger Finds is my little way of honoring some of the blogs that I visit and the wonderful dishes that their authors create and share. When you see a link to another blogger’s site please visit them, they are some of the best and they have some wonderful dishes to share.

This month I tried Black Bean and Corn Empanadas from Cheryl of Cooking, Dunkin Style. Cheryl, in addition to having some great meals, has an adorable puppy that you don’t want to miss on Tuesdays. Anyway, back to the empanadas, these are so yummy and very easy to make. My husband and kids just loved them. My husband would eat them daily if I would make them. The idea of using puff pastry is so smart and such a great way to get away from frying them. Thanks again Cheryl for sharing with all of us bloggers.

The recipe as it appears on Cooking, Dunkin Style.
(Any changes made will be in red)
1/2 onion, diced1 can black beans, drained

1/2 can corn, drained (you could use a whole can I am just not a fan of corn)

2-3 breasts of chicken, poached in water, and diced into cubes I cooked mine quick in my fry pan.

2 whole canned chilies, diced 1 can

salt and pepper
1 tsp Bandia Spice
1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1 cup Mexican blend cheese I didn’t add cheese, I forgot

1/2 cup Cotija cheese crumbled (you can get this just about anywhere) Again, no cheese

2 jalapenos peppers, seeded and minced No Jalapenos, I would if the kids were older.

1 tbl onion powder I didn’t add this

1 tbl chives

1/4 cup tomato based salsa of your choice

2 tbl lime juice

2 tsp Franks Red Hot Didn’t add, too hot for the kids.

Salsa Verde (to taste)

1 package puff pastry I used two boxes.

Poach (mine-not poached) your chicken breasts, remove from pan, cool and dice, then place in a large bowl.Add in the beans, corn, salsa, and remaining ingredients. Mix well, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper. Add salsa verde by the spoonful until it is at the level of taste you desire.

You don't want this mixture loose and moist; keep it on the dry side. You can adjust any of the above ingredients or seasonings.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and use pan spray on your baking sheet.Place your room temperature puff pastry into a floured surface; roll it out a bit until the seams integrate. Cut into 4 pieces.

You are going to fold them into triangles, so place several tablespoons of your filling in the middle of each piece.Using your finger and a small vessel of water, dip your finger and run it around the edge of the pastry.Fold over and using your fork pinch and seal the edges.

Cut several holes in the top for venting. Brush each empanada with a bit of vegetable oil (I sprayed mine) and bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until golden brown and puffy.

Awards
This month I was the proud recipient of two awards. The first from Culinary Wannabe and the second from Savor the Thyme. So now I will pass these awards on to other deserving bloggers.

From Culinary Wannabe the award below. Culinary Wannabe, I was very honored to receive this award from you as you have been visiting my blog almost from beginning. Your comments and your visits are must appreciated. Thank-you!

This award is for:
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

I would like to pass this award to Sara of Sara's Kitchen. Sara has also been a regular at Foodie with Little Thyme since the beginning. She always has kind words to share and has an expansive cookbook collection. She makes some very beautiful dishes too.

The next award from Savor the Thyme. Savor the Thyme, you are so creative I’m honored that you thought of me and included me in your sisterhood, Thank-you. Savor the Thyme always has some fun contest she is hosting. Right now a Peeps contest. Make sure you enter.

This is an award to share with other so… the awards goes to.
A Southern Grace
Adventures With the Woods
Ciao Chow Linda
Elra's Baking
Finding La Dolce Vita
munch+Nibble
Rtemis
Rubber Slippers in Italy
Shortbread
Two Peas in Their Pod

And the guidelines for passing this award, I think and hope?
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 people whose blogs you enjoy.

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person who has nominated you for the award.

Thanks to all of you guys for having great blogs.

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

It’s Barefoot Bloggers Time. Barefoot Bloggers are a community of bloggers who twice monthly make and share recipes from Ina Garten’s cookbooks. The recipe for this month was selected by Anne of Anne Strawberry, who has chosen Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts. I, for some reason, was not excited to make this recipe. Maybe it’s the 80 degree weather we’ve been having combined with baking at 425ºF? But with my husbands pushing, and assitance, I made these. WOW, these are so yummy. I love, love, love, that I used the lemon juice instead of the thyme. The lemon juice was a nice complement to all the cheese and made it taste more springy. I cut back on cheese where I could, I didn’t want to consume my full day of caleries in one little tart. I would make these again and make them the exact same way I did last night.

Her recipe: As always my changes will be in red.
Ingredients:

1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
Good olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves I omitted the thyme and used fresh lemon juice.
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler Omitted the Parmesan.
4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet) I used French Goat Cheese and Dill Havarti Dofino.
1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices I put several slices on each.
3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

Directions:
Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with the second pastry sheet to make 4 circles in all. Place the pastry circles on 2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Sauté for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.

Using a sharp paring knife, score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each round, staying inside the scored border.

Place 1/4 of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Crumble 1 ounce of goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil, squeeze lemon juice over tart, and sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter 4 or 5 shards of Parmesan on each tart.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. The bottom sheet pan may need an extra few minutes in the oven. Serve hot or warm.

Cheesecake Brownies

I love sugar and so does our kitty Stretch. I’ll start by telling you a little about Stretch. Stretch came into our lives in November as a birthday gift for our two-year old daughter who loves anything kitty. Stretch is one of those kitties that makes you love her because she is so determined and so bad. If Stretch wants to do it, Stretch does it. Stretch and I are constantly at battle over two things, the birdcage and the kitchen counter. She will not stop pestering our birds; although now I think they like to see her get in trouble. It’s a little bit like Sylvester and Tweety Bird. The other thing she does that irritates me to no end is getting on our kitchen counter. She has run of the whole house. All I ask of her is that she not get on the counter. I will say that she is getting at little better about getting up on the counters, but just a little bit.

Last night I decided to make some Cheesecake Brownies out of my “I Love Sugar” cookbook because well…I love sugar. I had all the ingredients in my refrigerator so that was a bonus. You guys should make these brownies. They are so good and such a showstopper. Make them, eat a few, run a few extra miles then give the rest away.
So, I made my brownies, all under the very watchful eyes of Stretch. I was so proud of her. She never even tried to get on the counters the entire time I was in the kitchen. I thought to myself, maybe Stretch has finally figured out the rules. I do get that when I’m cooking fish she just can’t help her little kitty self. Sugar… not a kitty thing? Well as you can see, Stretch loves sugar too. My brownies are so pretty and like all good bloggers I needed pictures of them.

See her little nose in the picture?

Now, see her in time out?

Cheesecake Brownies from “I Love Sugar” cookbook
Ingredients:
¾ C butter
3 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa
1 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup All-purpose Flour

Cheesecake Mix
1 C Ricotta Cheese
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease an 11x 7inch pan.
Melt Butter in a medium saucepan, remove from the heat, and stir in the cocoa and sugar. Beat in the eggs, then add the flour and stir to mix evenly. Pour into the prepared pan.

For the Cheesecake mix, beat together the ricotta, sugar, and egg, then drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture over the chocolate mixture. Use a metal spatula to swirl the mixtures lightly together.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until just firm to the touch. Cool in the pan, then cut into bars or squares.

Italian Pound cake

I’ve been craving pound Cake and just had to make one. I’ll go on record now and tell you that by no means is this a low-cal dessert. Also, if you use organic products, it could be expensive. The calories and the expense are well worth it though. This pound cake is extremely moist and buttery. The older it gets the better it gets. I love it a few days after it’s made with a good cup of coffee for breakfast.

Recipe from: “Italian Family Cooking Like Mama Used to Make” cookbook

Ingredients:
3 C all purpose Flour
21/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 C Butter (room temp)
2 C Sugar
5 extra large eggs
1 cup Milk I used buttermilk
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

Directions:
Adjust oven rack 1/3 from bottom of oven and preheat to 350ºf. Grease a 10x 4- inch tube pan. Dust lightly with flour.
Mix together all ingredients and bake for 1 hour or until cake is light brown and tester comes out clean.
Cool in pan about 5 minutes then remove from pan and invert onto cooling rack. Let cake cool before transferring to cake plate.
I move mine straight to the cake plate to cool. When just slightly warm I glaze and sever. Everyone loves warm pound cake!

Glaze:
Powdered Sugar
Vanilla Extract
Milk
Lemon Juice

Mix until a smooth thick glaze is formed. Pour over cake and serve.

Farfalle with Broccoli

This time of year I look at and cook a lot of different fish recipes. This is one from Giada that I really wanted to try because it looked fast, easy and very tasty. If you guys don’t have any of Giada’s cookbooks, go grab one. Not only do they have wonderful recipes but also they are full of great tips.

The tip from this recipe page, in short, for convenience of entertaining prepare pasta earlier in the day then just reheat. Cook Pasta until al dente, scoop out of the pot into a colander and save the water. When ready to serve reheat the water, until boiling, add the pasta back to the water for 1 minute. Stir gently with wooden spoon to loosen, then toss with sauce and serve.

I love this tip. I never thought to reheat pasta in this fashion. This dish turned out very yummy and was easy to prepare and cook. My husband asked what I was making with anchovies and reminded me that he does not like anchovies. Well, he ate two servings for dinner and took some with him for lunch today. We had a big green salad with this dish, making this a perfect dish for the start of spring. For those of you that have young children or doubting husbands, no worries, the anchovies dissolve. They won’t even know they are in there.

Farfalle with Broccoli
Recipe from “Everyday Pasta” by Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:
1 lb Farfalle Pasta
2 heads of broccoli, trimmed to florets (4 cups)
¼ C extra-Virgin Olive Oil
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped I used 5 because they were the last from the head
5 Anchovy Fillets, Chopped
¼ tsp Red Pepper flakes
½ tsp salt I omitted the salt since the anchovies are so salty and the pasta water is salted.
½ tsp ground Black Pepper
I added a bit of white wine. Just because that’s how I roll.
½ C freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salt water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes add the broccoli florets to the pasta, stir and cook for another 4 minutes. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water. I didn’t time my pasta I just cooked it until it was al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the Olive Oil and butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, anchovies, red pepper flakes and wine, and cook for 5 minutes. Add broccoli, pasta, salt and pepper and toss. Add some of the reserve pasta water, if necessary, to make a light sauce. Transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese.

The following are a few pictures of spring flowers blooming in our yard.

This is Cross Vine on our fence.

I don't remember the name of this flower. It pops up every spring in our flower bed and I'm always happy to see it.

Happy Spring!

Polenta

A few people have asked what my chicken Piccata was sitting on.
I didn’t mean to keep it a secret. I just didn’t really think about it. You may already have your own favorite polenta recipe, but if you don’t, then here is mine. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 C Enriched Yellow Cornmeal
2 C Cold Water
6 C Water
1 Tbls Salt

Directions:
Start the 6 cups of water boiling in a large saucepan. Pour the cornmeal into the remaining 2 cups of cold water and stir with a fork until a paste is formed. Add salt to the boiling water then add your corn meal paste stirring constantly until it returns to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until smooth and very thick. If you should have a lump appear push it against the side of the pan to dissolve. You will know your polenta is finished cooking when your wooden spoon can stand upright, unsupported in the middle of your pan.
Add cheese or tomatoes and serve.
This makes a lot and good pancakes when fried in the morning.

Coconut Macaroons

Need a quick, easy, and nice looking treat to deliver to friends, family and even the mailman on St. Patrick’s Day? Then here’s one.

Coconut Macaroons
yield 36
Stir together in large bowl until combined.
2/3 c Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Egg White
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
1/8 tsp Salt

Now stir in until blended:
3/12 C Flaked Sweetened Coconut

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 325ºF until golden brown, 20 to 24 minutes. Let stand for a minute or two and then remove to rack to cool. I added a drop or two of green food coloring for St. Patrick’s Day. These would also be cute with some jelly beans for Easter. Make these they taste like Spring.