Creamy Summer Pea Salad

Creamy cheese pieces, fresh vibrant peas, crunchy bacon.... I love this creamy summer pea salad. When I first saw this recipe I adored the colors white, yellow, grass green, light purple... its like a little rainbow. Okay rainbow is taking it a bit too far. But it really is a beautiful dish. 

Summer is a great time for salads and bbqs and picnics. All the of these seem to holler for sides like potato salad or macaroni salad. This creamy delightful recipe fits right in that list and is a nice pleasant trade for the one of those traditional standbys with half the chopping and half the amount of time. It contains mayo like most other potato and macaroni salads so you have to be careful about leaving it out and about, but it has wiggled its way into my summer dinner rotations and even my 5 yr old told me he liked it. 

This creamy Summer Pea Salad side dish recipe from Love Bakes Good Cakes, modified, feeds 2-4 people. 

Ingredients:
2 pieces of crunchy cooked bacon, chopped or crumbled
8 oz of frozen peas, defrosted and drained of excess water
1/4 cup of diced cheddar cheese (1 or 2 extra thick slices) 
1/4 cup diced mozzarella cheese (1 or 2 extra thick slices) 
2 small shallots, finely diced
1/4 cup mayo, reduced fat or whatever you have on hand
Salt and pepper to taste (at least 1/4 tsp each)

3 Step Directions:
1. Defrost the peas in warm water. I threw a small bag of peas in warm water and weighed out 8 oz - turned out to be 3/4ths of the bag. I put the rest in the fridge to use on a chef salad later in the week. 

2. While peas are defrosting bake/cook your bacon unless you are using leftovers from something else. 

3. Chop, measure, and drop everything else into a medium sized bowl and store in the fridge unless everything else is ready. Combine the peas as soon as they are defrosted. Stir in the cooked and cooled bacon. You don't want to melt the cheese. 

Cheers to all those great summer dinners with family and friends. Salad would taste great along side burgers, steaks, hot dogs, sandwiches, chips, and/or sliders of any kind.

Stephanie

Smoky Bacon Baked Mac & Cheese

Happy Wednesday to you. This recipe is a gem that you'll definitely want to try!  I made it for the first time a week before Thanksgiving and then again just a few weeks ago. It works great as a potluck bring along, side dish or a main dish. This is comfort food at its best. 

Smoky cheese + smoky bacon + crunchy topping 

+ creamy whole wheat pasta = delicious!

Most people are looking for something healthy and light during the beginning of the year, but most people I know have kiddos. Kids love mac & cheese.  I love mac & cheese. On the family front, pasta is a great place to introduce a new veggie and or a new type of cheese to your kids or your hubby. Think of it as a delicious food exploration lesson versus the diet killer that it could be. But yes if you are on a diet serve this as a side dish with some grilled chicken, fish, or a burger sans the bun and a grilled/roasted vegetable. This recipe has some serious flavor and some serious calories hence me only making it once a month or so. 

Serves 3-5 as a main dish 

Prep + cooking time: 25- 35 minutes

Recipe lighted up and adapted from

Shugary Sweets 

(a fun blog with beautiful pictures)
Posted in collaboration with other bloggers at Whats Cooking Wednesday

Ingredients:
half of a box of veggie or whole wheat short dry pasta (approx 5-7 oz)
2 Tbs butter + 1 1/2 Tbs melted in a separate dish via microwave
1 1/8 cup of 1 or 2 percent low fat milk
1/4 cup of whole wheat white flour
3/4 cup of half and half
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 lb of smoked gouda or smoked cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
1/4- 1/2 lb of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
*optional I have added 3 cups of blanched broccoli into it before right before baking and worked out great
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of panko bread crumbs (depending on the size of your baking dish - you want the top completely covered - you'll use more if you have a rectangle sized dish). 
4-6 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled (I usually just make bacon earlier in the week and save some of it for this later)

Directions:

1. Cook half of a box 1 minute short of the al dente cooking time of veggie shell pasta or your favorite whole wheat small cut dry pasta. Then drain it. Should end up being 6-7 minutes but do check your own box directions.

2. While pasta is cooking preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a baking dish with nonstick spray or some butter to prevent sticking.  

3. While pasta is still cooking make the cheese sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat in medium sized- large pot. Then add the flour. Let it cook for a minute. Keeping the heat on medium add in the milk and half & half. Whisk it until the sauce begins to thicken. It should be boiling but not hard. Should take about 3-5 minutes for the sauce to get the consistency you want. Remove the entire pot from the heat and add in rest of the cheese sauce ingredients after it it is thickened. Trust me. Doesn't work well the other way. Add in the pepper, dry mustard, and grated or shredded cheese last. Once the cheese is melted you are done with the sauce almost. Taste it carefully - don't burn yourself. Add salt here if needed.

4. Add the sauce to cooked pasta or vise versa depending on which pot is biggest. Stir to coat the pasta with the cheese sauce and carefully pour the hot mixture into the baking dish. 

5. Top the baking dish with crumbled cooked bacon, panko bread crumbs, and last but not least a bit of melted butter to give that great golden yellow color. 

 6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes uncovered. 

Enjoy!
Stephanie

Homemade Creamed Corn - Easy Side Dish

Howdy. Thanks for stopping by here is another Rachael Ray inspired recipe! I am almost half way to my goal of 30 new recipes in 30 days. Growing up I had creamed corn here and there. It was one of the canned staples that my parents bought. It was comforting, creamy, and unknown to me full of unnecessary icky processed junk. Parents do what they have to, right. Anyways I think making it homemade is better for you and tastes better. Disclaimer this is not the best homemade creamed corn recipe I have ever made, but it is the easiest AND it uses frozen corn unlike my other recipe. Frozen corn is a bit more cost effective, time saving, and perfect for when all the yummy summer corn is gone. Try this side dish with tacos, burgers, or just some grilled cheeses. This is a lightened up version of the recipe found in the magazine Everyday issue October 2012. Enjoy! 

Homemade Creamed Corn

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 - 12 oz bag of frozen corn
1 jalapeño, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 Tb butter
1/2 Tb flour
1 Tb oil
3/4 cup of half and half

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

2. Put corn in a large oven safe skillet and roast for 25-30 minutes

3. Saute the shallot and jalapeño in oil & butter until softened approx. 3 minutes. 

4. Pull the corn out of the oven. Add the melted butter, shallot, and jalapeño to the corn. Sprinkle the flour over everything and stir and let it cook out another 2-3 minutes on the stove. 

5. Add the half and half and cook another 3-5 minutes until its thickened. 

before

after

Enjoy this sweet and slightly spicy creamy side dish. 

You don't need a rely upon canned creamed corn 

from my kitchen to yours

Easy Braised Veggies in a Cream sauce (recipe 5 of 30)

Hi again. Check out this picture. 

This is my new favorite side dish and recipe #5 in my adventure to do 30 new Rachael Ray recipes in 30 days. It's exciting to try new things and a stretch to consistently blog. I have to tell you about the amazing veggies we had last night. Confession #2,037 I do admit to hiding my favorite veggie (spinach) in recipes to make sure my family eats them. Last night, nothing was hidden. There was no where's waldo veggie or hide and seek veggie game going on. (Can you tell I have a 4 yr old?) It was clear that the veggies were the star of the show. This elegant dish was the best thing on my plate. 

I previously thought the recipe was a winner from the moment I snatched it from an October 2012 issue of Everday, but by changing it up I got to use my second favorite veggie (brussel sprouts) in a new exciting way. My son didn't even grimace when he saw them (the brussel sprouts) on his plate. I don't know why brussel sprouts have gotten a bad rap. I think they are great. You will too after you give them a short dip in some lovely cream and cheese. Trust me. 

This dish looks elegant, but seriously it works with any normal sort of menu you probably already make like burgers, fish, chicken, steak, pork chops, or meatloaf. It's elegant enough for company, quick enough for a school night, and packed with nutrients. I might be in love with this new cheesy creamy side dish. 

Note: If you haven't ever worked with fennel before you have nothing to fear. Fennel is super easy to work and is similar to a large onion, an onion that won't create tears. When you first start cutting, cut them in half so you can find the core at the base of the oval shaped bulb. The core is small. I just make a couple of small cuts to get the core out, most of the time in the shape of a triangle. Chop the fennel into long ribbons almost in a v shape, and separate the layers. Give it a quick wash in a bowl and you are good to go. The fennel's common licorice smell is evident when the vegetable is eaten fresh, but milds considerably after cooking.

Easy Braised Veggies in Cream Sauce

Prep time: 3-5 minutes, Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves 3-4 (but in my house its 2-3 servings)

Ingredients: 

1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, organic

1/2 Tbs olive oil or bacon fat 

2 fennel bulbs, quartered, cored, sliced approx 1/2 inch think

scant 1/3 cup of half and half

4 oz or half a small block of jack cheese, sliced, diced or shredded

1 cup of fresh brussel sprouts, trimmed, about 5-7 of them

1/4 tsp salt 

additional salt & pepper to taste

1. In a large skillet with a fitted lid, melt the butter and oil/fat together over medium high heat. The oil helps the butter to not burn. Letting the butter brown just a little tiny bit wouldn't hurt the veggies either if you are a fan of that yummy nutty brown butter trend thats been everywhere on pintrest. 

2. Brown the fennel and sprouts together in the butter over medium high heat. Sprinkle on the salt. Cook for approx 5 minutes letting bits of them get good and golden (carmelized). Stir often. 

3. Lower the heat to low and add in the half and half. Scrap up the brown bits. Stand back a little as the cream will bubble up and create steam. 

4. Cover the skillet and simmer for 8-10 minutes on low. Stir every 3 or 4 minutes. Near the 7 minute mark sprinkle on the chopped or shredded jack cheese and recover the skillet.  As soon as the veggies are fork tender and the cheese is melted, it is ready to serve. 

5. Taste for salt and pepper. Garnish with the green fronds if your fennel bulbs came with the large celery stalk like ends. 

Easy Yummy Warm Side Dish

Perfect for Fall. Perfect for school nights. 

Enjoy!

From my kitchen to yours

Bobby Flay's Southwestern Potato Salad

Thanks for sticking around and reading my blog. I didn't disappear just took a few days off.  My dad is visiting. Yay!  I love visitors. It means lot of cooking but so much talking and fun afterwards, and it eliminates desire to run over and boot up my laptop. But I do have some good stuff to share with you. You'll love this twist on the plain ol' potato salad. Its time for your taste buds to wake up from those warm weather casseroles and soups. 

The weather has been warm and beautiful. Warm for Arizona is high 70 low 80s. My dad is from Washington State so this has been a treat for him. The last two nights we have grilled outside, which means I get to try fun summer time recipes, a few months early. For the rest of you, who are still in the winter season (ie... don't live in the desert) please keep reading because this side dish is awesome! 

So with some grilled sausages I made my take of Bobby Flay's Southwestern Potato Salad. The original recipe comes from his mesa grill restaurant recipe cookbook. Can be found easily at the local library or amazon. Click here to preview it. As with most things, I did have to cut the heat back for my little one, and in this case since Mr. Flay LOVES heat and all things spicy, I cut the heat by more than half and added my own touches. It had such great flavor, color (that you sadly cannot tell from the photo), and the few sweet things add balance to the heat.  Besides the yummy southwestern flavors I have to appreciate the fact that there is no eggs in this recipe, since I know a few people who are allergic to eggs. 

Serves 4-6 

Prep time is 15 minutes + 1 hr cooling. 

Can be made ahead several hours or up to 1 day. SO if you are doing this as a side dish for bbq-ed burgers or hot dogs/sausages this potentially could be a 10 minute easy dinner.

Ingredients:

approx 2 lbs ( I was shy 1/4 lb) small red potatoes

1 Tbs kosher salt

1/2 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

3/4 cup prepared mayo+

2 Tbs Dijon mustard

2 Tbs lime juice

2 Tbs orange juice

1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder

1 Tbs smoked sweet paprika

1/8 tsp cayenne/red pepper

2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/4 or one handful of chopped cilantro

3 green onions (green and white parts), thinly sliced

1/4-1/2 medium red onion, very finely diced

1 tsp garlic powder *

1 cup of frozen corn, defrosted **

* I didn't want to eliminate the wonderful taste of garlic from the recipe, but I though biting down on fresh garlic as the original recipe called for would increase the heat, I was trying to limit. Roasted garlic is mild and would be an awesome flavor choice.

+ orginal recipe was a full cup. mashing some ripe avocad and cutting this down further would also taste good & be heathier

** Once the sweet summer corn starts hitting the market, grilled corn would rock in this dish. Crunchy green celery and red radishes would be good in this dish too. 

Making it 

1. Put the potatoes in large pot with cold water and 1 Tbs kosher salt. Bring to a boil over medium or high heat for 10-15 minutes until potatoes are tender but NOT falling apart. 

2. While potatoes are cooking, stir together everything else listed above except for salt and pepper. Taste and then add salt and pepper. Taste again. I did the seasonings and mayo first so I could whisk it throughally. 

3. When potatoes are tender. Drain the water. Let the potatoes cool slightly. Cut into diced pieces. Gently stir the pieces into the sauce and prepared vegetables. 

4. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid, and cool in the fridge for at least an hr. 

Enjoy this summer time favorite!
From my Az kitchen to yours