Father’s Day Brunch

Posted on June 18, 2012 by fmadmin

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day yesterday.  I didn’t get to see my dad, he lives in Puerto Rico, but I got to spend the day with my other two favorite dads: my husband and my father in law.  Father’s Day is always a very relaxing day for everyone involved, especially for me since I’m doing all the “cooking”. 🙂

I love serving brunch for any type of celebration.  To me, brunch can be very simple and elegant at the same time.  My recipe for serving brunch is to have one “main dish”, fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, something sweet and something salty.  Since we are in the middle of watermelon season, I knew they had to be in our menu.  Along with pineapples and cantelopes, summer fruit has been amazing this year.

The main dish was Dad’s favorite: Egg Casserole.  I love the short list of ingredients and the fact that it “cooks itself” in the oven.  Win Win.  I made a couple of changes to the recipe.  I only add half the sausage and half the potato rounds.  Also, I brown fresh mushrooms with the sausage instead of using canned mushrooms.  We can’t have brunch without dad’s other favorite, the cinnamon rolls.

After filling up our bellies, it was time for a nap.  Then it was time for swimming, feeding the chickens and the fishes.    Father’s day was a success, both dads seemed to enjoy their day of eating and relaxing!

How did you spend Father’s Day?

Do you have a special recipe just for Dad?

 

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Color of the day: Green

Posted on June 15, 2012 by fmadmin

It’s been a “green” kinda day around here.  This morning I finally got the courage had fresh spinach at home to make a green smoothie for breakfast.  It seems like lately, everyone has been talking about these green smoothies.  I read another green smoothie post by Eating Bird Food in which she made the “green Elvis”.  A green smoothie with spinach, bananas and peanut butter.  Once I saw peanut butter on the ingredient list, I was sold!  This was my breakfast after a 2.74 mile run and it kept me full until lunch time.

 

Lunch consisted of a visit to the corner store.  Usually, I get one of these wraps: chicken pesto, chicken goat or “veggie the greek”.  I almost always get some of Cynthia’s freshly made soups.  But today, was a green day.  I ordered the Greek Salad.  Oh my!  They were so many toppings!

 

Greek Salad from the corner store, Downtown Plant City, FL

 

Tonight’s dinner consisted of steamed candy corn, Kale chips, roasted butternut squash, avocado and grilled grouper.  I was planning on a spinach salad, but I saw we had kale at the market and had to get it.  If you’ve never had kale, you should try it.  It is by far the easiest and tastiest green leafy vegetable to cook.  According to webmd, kale is full of Vitamins A, C, and K along with important phytonutrients making it a “powerhouse” vegetable.

To make “kale chips” all you need to do is wash the kale, tear it off the thick stems, put them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  This time, I drizzled juice from 1/2 lemon over it before putting it in the oven.  I like to broil mine for about 10 minutes, or when they start turning brown.  And that’s it.  It’s really crunchy and it melts in your mouth.  If you need more details, here’s a good kale chip recipe.

Have you had a green smoothie?  

Do you like Kale?

 

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Orange marmalade pork chops and mushroom rissotto

Posted on June 14, 2012 by fmadmin

Anytime we get mushrooms at the market, I make sure to grab a couple to bring home.  Lately we’ve had two kinds: button and baby bella mushrooms.  To me button mushrooms are the first mushroom we are introduced to.  You’ll usually find these in your pizza or in your salad.  Baby bella (short for Portabella) is a darker more flavorful mushroom which is usually cooked/grilled/baked in balsamic vinegar.  I’ll have to do another post on grilling these with Parkesdale’s Balsamic Vinegar dressing. 🙂

Mushrooms are great in salads, spaghetti sauce or just cooked by themselves with Troyer butter.  For last night’s dinner, I used the button mushrooms.  I finally got the courage to try and make risotto at home with Arborio Rice.  I’ve made “risotto” with orzo pasta a few times before and called it risotto.  But to make authentic Italian Risotto, one must use Arborio.   Arborio rice is easy to find, I just picked it up at our local Publix.  The thing about making risotto is that you need to stir it constantly until all the juices are absorbed and keep adding more juice until the rice is “al dente”.  It’ll continue to cook once you remove it from the stove.  While cooking it last night, I couldn’t help but think of Chef Ramsay and his Hell’s Kitchen show.  If there’s one thing I learned from Hell’s Kitchen, then it would be “risotto must flow like lava.”

Wanna make a quick sauce to glaze over your pork chops, chicken or fish?  Grab a jar of marmalade!  A while back I read a post from Closet Cooking about Pork chops in a balsamic fig sauce.  At the time, I didn’t have fresh figs at home, but I did have our No Sugar Added Fig Jam.  Ever since that day, I think all of our pork chops have had some kind of “jam sauce”!  Last night, was no different.  I sprinkled some Everglades Seasoning on both sides of  the pork chops.  Added the pork chops to the chopped onions on the pan and cooked them until they were done.  Once I removed the pork chops from the pan, you can use wine/sherry/balsamic vinegar to deglaze your pan and add a heaping tablespoon of your favorite marmalade/jam.  Last night I used our Palmalito Orange Marmalade.  Cook until reduced by half and drizzle over your meat.  Gourmet in minutes!

This was the first time I used the Orange marmalade and my husband mentioned it had a slight bitter taste.  I’m thinking it might be from the orange peel in the marmalade.  Everyone ate it, even the kids!

Do you often modify recipes? Are you successful?

Do you like mushrooms?

 

 

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