Category — Recipes

One important lesson quickly learned by the summer students these past few weeks… it takes a bit more effort to not only eat healthily but also to cook healthy. That may seem obvious to most adults… cruise through the drive-thru window vs. grilling a burger yourself – obvious. But how about throwing fat and juicy T-bone on the grill vs. grilling vegetables? A bit more effort with the vegetables, but effort well worth it, not only for the fabulous color and flavors – but also for your heart and soul!

Feel free to tweet and add to this recipe all you want. I would have included zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, etc., but those were already on the menu of the day in a variety of other vegetarian dishes. So scour the farmer’s market or pluck from your own garden and heat up the grill – enjoy!

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Luckily none of my students are (or need to be) on a low-carb diet. We had an entire day of breads and sandwiches. Focaccia, quick bread, biscuits, cookie sandwiches, and these yeast dough cuties. If you don’t have time to make your own dough, you can purchase frozen dough at the grocery store or fresh dough from a store such as Trader Joe’s. The knots are fun to tie and with a little practice end up looking very “restaurant quality” professional. Just be sure to have fun with it! As you can see in the picture below, the teen boys in this week’s class did – great job guys! And that’s my fabulous son/assistant, Connor, lurking in the background.

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Apps are all the rage these days, so I’ve decided to create one of my own! OK, so not the sort of app that you’re thinking of, although that would be terribly cool of me too. No, “apps” – as in appetizers.

On the Friday of each summer “teen week”  class, the students help to create the menu they will cook and serve to their guests. Three of the ten students requested mashed potatoes this past week.  Mashed potatoes in June? Hey, I love mashed potatoes, after all, I’m 100% Irish!  But in the 100+ degree heat of the summer – not so much. The potatoes would generally be the side dish to something too heavy and hot for such sweltering temps. On the other hand, how can I ignore the request of 30% of the class? How could I get the mashed potatoes to stand on their own? Turn them into an appetizer, of course … brilliant!

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Another recipe from our “carb-heavy” Bread and Sandwich class last week. This is my basic biscuit recipe that has been jazzed up in a very savory way with the addition of basil and Parmesan. To make regular flakey biscuits, just omit those two ingredients. It is important to not twist the biscuit cutter when cutting out your biscuits. When you do that, you’re sealing the outside edges and preventing them from becoming as flakey as they can be. And be sure to roll (or in this case, pat) them out on a surface that has been “floured” with powdered sugar instead of flour… that little subtle difference is what makes them extra special.

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Each Thursday this summer during kids’ classes, the menu is vegetarian. It’s a healthy note to end each series of classes. And by Thursday, all the students are well versed in slicing and dicing. The past two weeks it was also a nice and colorful note because on Wednesday the theme was ‘breads and sandwiches”.  Talk about a monotone plate – all white, beige, and brown – didn’t turn out to be as eye-appealing as one might wish for. This pretty “confetti” speckled side dish would help brighten up any old dull sandwich plate.

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No doubt you have noticed by now that I generally “start from scratch” with most of my cooking. I do so for many reasons:

#1 – I love to cook, and cooking is therapeutic for me.

#2 – I like to know exactly what I’m getting so I don’t like to get my stuff from cans with tons of preservatives.

#3 – It’s healthier.

#4 – It’s what I do, I’m a cooking teacher, after all! That is why this recipe goes against “how I cook”.

Let’s get my run down on this recipe:

#1 – purchased cooked chicken – check.

#2 – pre-shredded cheese blend – check.

#3 – processed garlic cubes – check.

#4 – canned creamed soup – check. 

#5 – canned and chopped green chilies – check.

OK, so two of those items I am an advocate for… the rotisserie chicken and the garlic cubes – love, love, love them both. But the canned soup!?! That is nearly forbidden in this house! And I don’t often pay more just to have my cheese already grated for me – wasteful and sometimes it seems a bit dried out to me. The canned green chilies – sometimes, but I prefer to roast and peel them myself – have superior flavor!  All that said, this is still a great recipe. It tastes good, looks good, and is quick and easy.

A quick note: Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Anne Lyons! Annie, I’ll see you this afternoon to celebrate your special day – so your “real” birthday post will be tomorrow, with pictures and all! Until then, I love you and HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!! xoxo

The theme of one of our kid’s cooking classes this week was “Mexican”. For dessert, we made these chunky quadruple chocolate cookies. What made them “Mexican” was the inclusion of Ibarra chocolate, which can be readily found in Arizona grocery stores.  If you live elsewhere and your store doesn’t have an expansive Hispanic section, Ibarra can be purchased online. What makes this chocolate special is the distinct cinnamon flavor. It is imported from Guadalajara, Mexico and the ingredients are sugar, cocoa nibs, lecithin, and cinnamon. It is primarily used to make hot cocoa or in baking. Ibarra is not often eaten like a candy bar because its undissolved granulated sugar makes a rough and gritty texture. Each package contains six 3.1-ounce chocolate tablets. Another fun aspect of these treats is the dipping of each cookie into three different chocolate glazes, making them extra festive and decadent. Muy Bien!

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Along with yesterday’s cherry crumble post, we made this fall-inspired “pancake” for Monday’s breakfast-inspired cooking class menu. Cherries may remind us of summer and apples more of autumn, but luckily apples are around all year long. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I placed this on the menu (way back in March when I sent out the registrations-schedules) for the summer classes. I have a very similar recipe I call the Magic Pancake Basket which uses a strawberry topping after the pancake comes out of the oven… that would have been more summer-like. Oh well, apples or strawberries – this morning treat is a winner every single time.

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For Monday’s cooking class, our menu was “breakfast”.  The luscious ending to our meal was a cherry crumble. To me, cherries are the epitome of summer. As soon as I see them appearing in the market, my eyes and taste buds light up, especially for the Rainier cherries! Unfortunately, Rainiers are not yet in season or readily available here, so we used Bing cherries today. Either variety is wonderful and oh so very pretty in this summertime dessert.

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Boneless skinless chicken breasts – convenient, practical, readily available from your freezer… and boring! Seriously, sometimes I’m so sick of trying to think of new and exciting things to do with chicken breast, I nearly swear them off. But when I am honest with myself, I know that I really do like the convenience, availability, and practicality of the staple known as boneless, skinless chicken breasts. So instead of swearing them off, I decided to “fancy” them up a bit, after getting some inspiration from this lovely recipe: instant pot frozen chicken breast.

Enjoy.

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