We always have tons of yogurt in the house. Little containers of Tillamook Vanilla, Strawberry and Peach, as well of large containers of vanilla or honey for smoothies and plain yogurt for Indian-ish and Mexican-ish dishes.

So, when I saw Alton Brown make Yogurt Cheese on a Good Eats recently, I immediately went rummaging through my kitchen drawers looking for cheesecloth (I just knew I had some somewhere). Because — wow! Cheese from yogurt, you say? That’s sounds so fun.

After locating the cheesecloth and blending my yogurt and herbs together, five hours later I had this easy and tangy yogurt cheese spread. I used a seasoning blend that I had on hand, but fresh herbs could easily be used in this recipe. Chives, thyme and rosemary would be good. So would shallots, chives and tarragon — the possibilities are quite endless!

The secret is in separating the whey from the yogurt. The whey is the watery liquid that is strained from the yogurt, leaving the creamy, thicker yogurt cheese when you are done. Give this one a try.

Herbed Yogurt Cheese Spread
1 quart plain yogurt (low fat)
4 big cloves of garlic or 8 little cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp dried herb seasoning of your choice (I used Penzey’s Fox Point Seasoning — or you could also use a combination of fresh thyme, rosemary, chives or whatever herbs you’d like)
A dash of cayenne pepper

In a mixing bowl, add the garlic, lemon juice, chives and seasoning mix (or fresh herbs) to the yogurt and combine. Place mixture in cheesecloth (I doubled mine up), set over a colander, set over a large bowl.

Then, wrap the ends of the cheesecloth up over the yogurt to cover.

You will see it start to drip right away.

Weight the top down with a saucer and can on top and place in refrigerator for 4-6 hours.

When it is done draining, the consistency of the yogurt should be like cream cheese and you there will be a fair amount of liquid down in the bottom of the draining bowl.

Discard liquid and add salt and pepper to the yogurt cheese, to taste. Use the spread with crackers, vegetables, on baked potatoes or what-have-you. It’s creamy and very flavorful — and good for you too!

This last week here in Portland has been cold and rainy. A few nights ago, jwa and I even contemplated using the last of the firewood. We considered it briefly, but decided it was cozy enough lazing on the couch watching the Daily Show and the Lost finale with the cats (they make surprisingly good lap and leg warmers).

Feeling the need for more warmth and a little comfort while the rain pounded the roof and the basement collected a little bit of water, I decided to whip up a pot of asparagus risotto. It’s a very good dish but it can be tricky to time it right. Ideally, you want to make it in the Spring, when asparagus is in season, but when it’s too hot, the last thing a person wants is a big bowl of hot, heavy rice. Thankfully, we live in western Oregon, where except for one typically weird week towards the end of Spring/early Summer, it can be counted on to be cold and rainy until July. Excellent.

My other reason for posting this recipe is to participate in Kevin’s Asparagus Aspirations event over at Seriously Good. It seems that there are a lot of asparagus fans with food blogs out there. Check out his site for some serious asparagus inspiration!

Asparagus Risotto
Loosely based on a recipe in The Rice Bible by Christian Teubner.
12-16 asparagus stalks, depending on size (large, thick stalks use less, medium-sized use the whole 15)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced shallots (I did not have shallots, I used 2 green onions, chopped instead)
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup dry white wine or amber beer
3 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 green onion, diced (both white and green parts)
1 tbsp butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cook asparagus in 2 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until the asparagus is bright green and a little tender. Drain and reserve cooking liquid.

Add the asparagus liquid to the chicken stock and heat in a pot, bringing to a simmer. Meanwhile, heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pot and sauté the shallot (or your onion of choice) until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add the rice and coat with the oil. Next, add the wine or beer and stir until absorbed.

When the alcohol is absorbed, start adding the stock/asparagus liquid in 1/2 cup increments. Stir frequently, adding more liquid just when the previous bath is absorbed.

When the risotto is almost done, add the asparagus with the last bath of liquid. Stir until it is creamy and the rice is tender, but still with a little bite.

Add the Parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate. The risotto should be even creamier now. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Sometimes, I also add a pinch of cayenne pepper here. Finish with the tablespoon of butter and mix until it is all melted.

Garnish with a little diced green onion, more black pepper and extra Parmesan cheese.

Once Upon a Feast came up with a great theme for his month’s Sugar High Friday — Ginger. Ginger is a very fun ingredient, as it can be in spicy, savory dishes or sweet (and a little bit spicy) dishes. It’s versatile!

Of course, this is Sugar High Friday, so I went with the sweet option. In addition, ginger is very good for the digestion, which makes it a great choice for a dessert theme.

While looking for a recipe, I came across this one from Gourmet Magazine and immediately knew it was what I would be making. jwa gave me a crepe pan a few years ago and I am always looking for things to cook up in it — mainly crepes. I also, have never made dessert crepes before. I’m usually more of a savory crepe kind of girl. I’m really glad I didn’t let that stop me from trying this recipe because it was wonderful!

Oh and using a whole fresh pineapple? So very easy! The original recipe called for canned but as I was walking through the grocery store, I thought What the hell? I strolled through the produce section, while the Maui Gold pineapples mocked me. Ha! I showed them.

Honey-Ginger Pineapple Crepes
For crepes: (Makes 4)
1/2 cup milk (2% or whole)
1 large egg
1/2 cup AP flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp confectioners sugar

For pineapple sauce:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 pineapple or 1 20 oz can of pineapple chunks
1 1/2 tsp minced, peeled, fresh ginger
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tsp crystallized ginger

Vanilla ice cream

Blend all of the crepe ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into a container, cover and chill at least 2 hours, to overnight.

Brush a 10-inch nonstick skillet (or crepe pan) with oil and heat over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. You can also use non-stick spray here. Holding skillet off heat, pour about 1/4 cup batter, immediately swirling and tilting skillet to create a thin, even layer. Return the pan to heat and cook until crepe is golden around edges and dry in center, about 45 seconds.

Flip the cre‪pe carefully and cook until golden, about 15 seconds. I actually use a spatula to lift the edge of the crepe up and use my fingers to flip it. Sure, it’s hot but it seems to work better for me than just trying to flip with a spatula.

Transfer to a platter and keep warm, covered. Make more crepes in same manner.

Pineapple

Slice the ends off the pineapple. Stand upright on a cutting board and slice off the outer covering in strips, getting as much of the brown skin off as possible. Turn pineapple on its side and cut into circular slices. Cut each slice in half and cut out the core. Then slice into small chunks. Easy!

You will have about twice as much pineapple as you need. Use half for this and eat the rest for breakfast in the morning.

Now to make the sauce
Heat the butter in a nonstick skillet or over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté pineapple until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer pineapple to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add ginger to skillet and sauté also, stirring frequently for about 30 seconds.

Add the honey and juice and simmer until mixture is syrupy, 3 to 5 minutes. Next, return the pineapple to honey mixture and simmer, stirring, until it’s all hot and bubbly.

Spoon a bit of the pineapple mixture over half of one crepe, then fold in half. Repeat with remaining crepes.

Pour remaining pineapple mixture over folded crepes. Top with vanilla ice cream and a few chopped, crystallized ginger pieces. Thanks again to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for hosting this event!

Tagged with: shf & sugar high friday

If it were sunny and warm again, I would be wanting a light, cool, pasta salad for dinner. That is, if it wasn’t 60 degrees, cold, grey and rainy. But that’s okay — I actually prefer cooler weather. I also don’t mind a pasta salad for dinner when it’s not Summery out. Besides, a pasta salad that isn’t cold is really just a bowl of hot pasta. Yeah. So there.

Spinach Pasta Salad
2 cups spinach leaves
1 small handful basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
salt & pepper
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup feta cheese
dash red pepper flakes
1 package cooked pasta — fusili works well, so does rigatoni
10-12 chopped kalamata olives
1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained well and quartered
2 tomatoes chopped
1 yellow bell pepper diced

Add washed spinach and basil leaves to your food processor along with the garlic and parmesan. Pulse until broken up and stream in the olive oil and it’s a nice pesto-like consistency. Salt & pepper to taste. Transfer to a large bowl.

Combine the spinach pesto with the olives, tomato, artichokes, beans, red pepper flakes, feta and bell pepper.

Add the warm, cooked pasta and toss to combine it all. Cool down in the refrigerator or serve warm immediately, with flatbread and a glass of red wine.

Pickled onions. Tillamook Cheddar. Toasted onion bun. Crispy, golden oven fries. Now, this was a meal. I sometimes like to add different combinations of ingredients and make interesting turkey burgers. These puppies had sautéed onions, spinach and smoked paprika. They were excellent.

Yukon gold potato wedges were roasted with some extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt and Trail Dust seasoning and magically turned into a crunchy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside accompaniment for this epic burger. Make your own, won’t you?

Spicy Greens Turkey Burger
1 small onion, diced
1 handful spinach leaves, chopped roughly
1 tsp olive oil + a bit more for brushing
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 lb ground turkey
salt & pepper
Onion buns, toasted
Microgreens — or any favorite lettuce
Sliced tomato
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Ketchup
4 slices Cheddar cheese — or any cheese you are in the mood for — there’s no bad cheese for this — all cheese is delicious. (mmmmmm…cheese….)

Saute the onion in the oil until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add the paprika and continue to stir until it becomes very fragrant and the onions darken. Add the spinach and toss, until spinach wilts. Remove from heat and let cool.

When onions are room temperature, combine with ground turkey. Form into four equal burgers. Heat a grill pan and lightly brush the tops of the burgers with olive oil. Salt and pepper each one and place oil-side down on the hot grill pan.

Meanwhile, get your toasted buns ready. Slather with a little mayo and mustard of your choice, then lay down the lettuce of your choice. I am really liking microgreens lately. They are so little and cute! After the greens, top with a huge tomato slice.

Give the burgers about 5-6 minutes (or more) per side, depending on the thickness of your burgers. You’re shooting for about 165 degrees after the cheese meltage. I typically place the cheese on the second side when the temperature reaches 160-162. Then, I lid the pan, let the cheese melt for a minute or so and by the time that occurs — I figure the burger’s at 165 and ready to go.

You will now want to get your plate ready with your oven fries and pickled onions. Oh and a beer. Perhaps a nice MacTarnahan’s ale. Or, whatever your beverage of choice may be. Place your burger atop the bun and enjoy. Add ketchup if desired. Oh, try to drip the burger juices down onto the fries. There you go — excellent.

Simple, Crispy Oven Fries
3-4 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 8 wedges, each potato (Slice in half lengthwise, then quarter that into wedges)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
Optional: 1/2 tsp Trail Dust or other seasoning mix of your choice

Preheat oven to 425. Toss potato wedges with olive oil, salt and seasoning. Spread out onto a cookie sheet and cook until crisp and golden, 20-25 minutes. Serve with the burger.

Pickled Onions
This recipe is from Eating Well Magazine
1 small onion, halved and sliced into thin rings (red or a sweet, white onion will work)
1 cup red wine vinegar
2 allspice berries
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, and berries in a microwave safe measuring cup or small bowl. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until boiling. Add the onions and toss to coat.

Put it all together for one hell of a tasty dinner.

Oh and yeah, if you haven’t guessed, it’s cold again now.

Last week, I caught The Big Chili episode of Good Eats and I remembered again why I love Alton Brown so much. I laughed so hard in so many spots in this episode — and the chili looked pretty good too. It’s the best kind of Good Eats episode as well, with characters, costumes, accents and a plot! Whee!

From the episode, while buying ingredients at the store:

Grumpy Gus the Cowboy (played by AB): Well, there it is, Rusty. It’s the secret ingredient of lazy chili chefs everywhere. Now you could go spending an hour slicing and dicing various vegetation. But I say why not just crack open the lid on your favorite hot salsa? This here is my favorite. It’s made in New York City, so you know it’s good.

Rusty: Imported!

Grumpy Gus: That’s right, imported.

Ha! But hey, that’s a great idea. Salsa in chili. The original recipe is here — check it out and try it sometime. Instead of making that exact recipe, though, I opted to just use just a few of AB’s ideas in my chili because, well, I kind of like to fancify my chili with beans, various vegetation and things of that nature. Sorry, Alton.

I used chicken breast instead of stew meat (so it took less time and I didn’t need a pressure cooker). I also added some canned tomatoes, I diced an onion, and added the aforementioned beans. But no tofu. Yee-haw.

Big Chicken Chili
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized cubes
1 tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable, peanut or canola oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 white onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 bottle ale (I used a Newcastle we had in the fridge)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 chipotle pepper with 1 tsp adobo sauce
10-15 crushed tortilla chips
1 16 oz can fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup salsa — any kind you like (I used my Charred Tomato Salsa Borracho, because I had some leftover — buy hey, store-bought works fine!)
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Garnishes: Cilantro, sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped tomato, avocado

Add the tablespoon of oil to a heavy soup pot and brown the chicken (in batches if needed). Remove from the pot and set aside. Add the other teaspoon of oil and add the onions, bell pepper, chili powder and cumin. Sauté until the vegetables are soft and the spices are fragrant — about 3-4 minutes.

Add half a beer (”middle of the road ale”) — drink the rest. Not all at once, while you finish the chili, Rusty! Use the cooking-beer to deglaze the pot. Use the drinking-beer to refresh your parched throat. Then add the salsa, canned tomatoes, tomato paste and chipotle and adobo. Stir. Add the chicken back into the pot and crush the tortilla chips on top. Give it another good stir.

Cover and simmer your chili for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

Give it a taste and adjust any seasonings. Add the frozen corn kernels and the beans. Simmer for about 10 more minutes and then grab a spoon! It’s done.

As far as garnishes go, I like cilantro, cheddar cheese and sour cream. But other “possible service options” include avocado, chopped tomato and olives. Quail eggs? Not so much.

Well, I kind of dropped the ball on this one. See, this month Wine Blogging Wednesday paired up with Is My Blog Burning to create “Fabulous Favorites Festival” — awesome. Except, I was looking for an announcement for IMBB26 and when I didn’t see one, I just assumed it was coming up later in the month. Oops. It was actually due Friday, May 19th. And it wasn’t just IMBB26 but it was WBW21 too. This combined event was hosted by evil-genius-mastermind Lenndevours and it’s such a great idea that I hope I am able to sneak in right under the wire.

The instructions were to either pick a favorite wine and create a meal to go with it or to pick a favorite dish and choose a wine for accompaniment. My thing being mainly the food, I decided on the latter scenario.

With that in mind, I made an asparagus and goat cheese tart, which I paired with an 2004 Argyle Chardonnay. I love making puff pastry tarts and asparagus just seemed like the logical choice, since it’s in season right now. For the wine, I looked a few miles south to the Argyle winery, in the Dundee area of the Willamette Valley. We’re quite fond of them as we’ve gone to a wine tasting dinner that they did here in Portland, where we had a great time. A few bottles of wine will do that. We also came away from this dinner with a new-found love for the term “knucklehead”.

My dish and wine settled on, I went to work.

Asparagus Goat Cheese Tart
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
5 oz goat cheese, room temp
3 oz gruyere or similar cheese, shredded
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
zest from 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch asparagus, washed
1 tsp olive oil
sea salt & black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine goat cheese, zest, garlic and tarragon. Mix to combine. I found a fork was the best tool for this. A whisk just trapped the goal cheese in between the tines, creating a sort of goat cheese jail. However you mix it, do so and set aside..

Roll out your puff pastry sheet until it is a bit bigger — around 16 inches by 10 inches but it doesn’t have to be exact. Score an edge around the pastry, with a knife, about 1 inch from the edge. You don’t want to cut all the way through, just make a border. Then, prick the interior of the rectangle with a fork to keep it from puffing up as much as the outer border.

Bake in a 400 degree oven until lightly golden. Then, place little crumbles of your goat cheese within the border of the tart. Don’t try to spread it too much as it’ll pull pieces of the puff pastry off — I learned the hard way. You can pat it down a little though. It’ll all melt a bit and flatten down in the oven anyway, so don’t get too invloved with constructing a uniformly flat goat cheese bed. Next, sprinkle the grated cheese over the goat cheese.

Trim asparagus spears so that you remove the tough ends, but also wind up with spears about the same size as the tart interior. Sneaky! Arrange the asparagus in a single layer over the cheese, alternating direction so it looks pretty.

Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and return to the oven for about 20 minutes, or until asparagus is tender.

Let cool a few minutes and cut gently, into six pieces. Serve with the wine of your choice and enjoy. We liked the Argyle chardonnay as it was very cold and crisp and went well with the tart.

Thanks again to Lenndevours for hosting the Fabulous Favorites Festival!

Tagged with: IMBB26 and WBW21.

I love trying all of the new ice cream and sorbet recipes with my new ice cream maker — his name is Pierre, by the way. Pierre makes very tasty ice cream. This recipe is from my one ice cream book, “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book.” See, it’s ultimate — that’s really all I need.

This recipe relies on sweetened, condensed milk, much like the low-fat vanilla ice cream recipe I posted about earlier. The fun part with this one, though, is that you can play around with it quite a bit. Want Mexican Chocolate? Add some cinnamon and almond extract. Or, how about some espresso powder? Oh, or toasted walnuts during the final few turns in the machine. The possibilities are endless, I tell you!

Low-fat Chocolate Ice Cream
2 cups milk (2% or fat-free)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
1 can sweetened, condensed milk (low-fat or fat-free)
1 tsp vanilla extract

To start, bring the milk to a simmer in a heavy pot. Whisk in the cocoa (I like Droste) and return to a gently simmer. Let it heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until it’s all melted. Slowly pour the hot, chocolatey milk into the beaten eggs, whisking constantly, so as not to curdle the eggs.

Return the whole mixture to the pan and put over low heat. Stir until it thickens slightly. Don’t let it boil or you will scramble the eggs. And no one likes chocolatey scrambled eggs…

Remove from the heat and pour through a strainer.

Stir in the vanilla extract and sweetened, condensed milk. Chill overnight.

Freeze in your Pierre, er, ice cream maker according to the instructions. When done, the ice cream will be soft serve consistency.

Place in a container and freeze a bit longer. Put some plastic wrap right down on the surface of the ice cream, right under the lid, to protect it from whatever else you might have going on in your freezer.

Then — get a spoon.

I know the latest IMBB sung the praises of stale bread but really, can this be done too often? No. And, of course, the quintessential stale bread feast is French Toast. Add some nuts and fresh berries and you have one great breakfast. Add some mimosas and bacon for a truly decedent brunch.

Strawberry-Almond French Toast
1/2 to a full stale baguette (or other stale loaf of bread) — ours was a half a 2-day old French baguette from New Seasons
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 pint of fresh strawberries, washed and sliced
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds (or other nuts — I used walnuts as I had no almonds)
Maple Syrup

Slice the baguette into 1/2 inch thick pieces. When I know I am going to make French Toast, sometimes I even slice the bread when it’s fresh and then let it dry out already sliced.

Next, make your egg-milk mixture. If you use a whole loaf, you might want to add a bit more milk and perhaps even another egg. Add beaten eggs and milk together, along with the sugar, vanilla, and almond extract. Whisk to a frothy incorporation.

Pour mixture into a baking dish or some sort of dish that can accommodate the bread slices. Speaking of which, add the bread slices and let soak for about five minutes on each side.

Heat a skillet and add the butter. Melt over medium heat. Add slices of your bread but don’t crowd the pan. The bread needs its space, man. Let your French toast cook on each side until golden and a nice crust forms — about 4-6 minutes per side.

Lay 3-4 slices out on each plate and serve with the berries, nuts and warm maple syrup.

This — this was excellently tasty. I was a little cautious when I read through the recipe, which called for chipotle peppers, cherries, ketchup and assorted spices, but after all, it was in the June/July issue of Eating Well* and…well, they’ve earned my trust.

This is also a nice recipe for the summer months. You can cook it outside or in a grill pan. Either way, there’s minimal indoor heat (no oven) being used. In the hot Summer months, I envision this with a creamy jalapeno potato salad and roasted corn on the cob.

Regardless of the sides or season, it made for a wonderful meal. Go make some now — you won’t regret it!

Cherry-Chipotle Grilled Chicken
1 cup fresh or frozen cherries (pitted, if needed)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup cherry preserves
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Garnish: 3-4 green onions, chopped

Stir the cherries, broth, preserves, ketchup, vinegar, chipotle and thyme in a bowl. Add the chicken and marinate two hours to overnight.

Preheat a grill pan or outdoor grill. Remove the chicken from the marinade and grill until no longer pink inside, 8-10 minutes per side. When I made this recipe, I only used two chicken breasts, as there were only two of us. So, I divided the marinade and used half for the raw chicken and half for the sauce. Mainly, this was because I had way too much marinade for just two chicken breasts.

Pour the marinade (what you used for the chicken or unused extra marinade) into a pan and bring to a boil. Bring to a simmer and reduce for about 12-15 minutes. When chicken is done (165 degrees), remove and plate together, covering with foil. Let rest. Slice each breast and fan out onto plates. Pretty.

Serve with sauce drizzled on top. Garnish with chopped green onions. Excellent.

* Someday, I will post my Cooking Light vs. Eating Well rant. I used to love Cooking Light magazine. Now? Meh. It’s like 1/4 recipes and 3/4 “lifestyle magazine”. Pfffttt. If I wanted that, I would go buy Self or Shape or any number of those kinds of magazine. I want healthy and tasty recipes! Enter Eating Well! Everything Cooking Light used to be (back in the much fabled “day”), but with better images and great recipes. Ha! It’s a mini-rant. More to come someday.