Category — Recipes

I’m running behind in every aspect of my life. As a result I’ve got a quick salad for you, just in case you’re in the same boat.

Broccoli Slaw with Creamy Citrus Dressing

Dressing
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Zest from 1 grapefruit
1 tablespoon grapefruit juice
1 tablespoon red pepper jelly
2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup mayonnaise

Salad
1 package broccoli slaw
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dressing: Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, honey, zest, grapefruit juice, jelly, mustard, and garlic together in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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Today’s post marks number 1,500. Fifteen hundred times that I’ve made an entry here!

It would seem appropriate to celebrate such a feat with a cake, cupcakes, or some sort of dessert. But no, instead we shall celebrate with a slow cooker chicken recipe. Not as exciting, but easier and healthier too.

You can use either frozen or raw chicken breasts for this recipe. I used frozen, as you’ll be able to see in the photos to follow.

Slow Cooker Honey-Soy Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Sriracha
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 green onions, sliced on the diagonal

Cooked quinoa or brown rice
Lettuce leaves

Place the chicken in a slow cooker and season with salt and pepper.

In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, honey, vinegar, tomato paste, garlic, Sriracha, sesame oil, and onion powder.

Pour over chicken and cook on LOW for 3 hours if using raw chicken and for 4 hours if using frozen chicken.

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I found this cake on Pinterest. I made it for the first class of my three-week series of cooking classes at Les Gourmettes. It was a brunch menu and the cake was a hit.

The recipe makes one cake. In some of the photos, there are two cakes since I needed to make two for the class.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cake
2 ¾ cups flour, divided
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup cold tap water
1 egg, room temperature
Filling
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½  tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla Maple Glaze
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake: Place 2 ¼ cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer and blend together until combined.

Heat the milk and butter together in the microwave until the butter is melted. Add the cold water and test the mixture to be sure it is not too hot but just warm to touch, test on your wrist as you would a baby bottle.  Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture.  Add the egg and just enough of the remaining 1/2 cup of flour to make a soft dough. The dough will be ready when it gently pulls away from the side of the bowl and has an elastic consistency.  On a clean surface that is just lightly dusted with flour, knead the dough for about 3 minutes.

Form a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise for 30 minutes.

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By far, our favorite tapas while visiting Barcelona were jamón ibérico and patatas bravas. If you’re interested, you can read more about jamón ibérico HERE.

And if you happen to have $630 to spare, you can purchase a whole bone-in jamón ibérico de bellota (the highest quality of jamón ibérico) HERE. If you go to that extravagance, I hope and pray that you’ll invite me over!

When we had our Spanish party over a week ago, we did not have jamón ibérico. I could not find it, so we had to settle with prosciutto. Prosciutto is delicious in its own right, but a sorry substitute for the fabulously famous Spanish ham.

Luckily, we did not have to settle when it came to the patatas bravas (brave potatoes) – they were just as good as those we enjoyed in Spain. What makes them so tasty and crispy is the double-frying of the potatoes along with the spiciness of the pimentón sauce.

You’ll use two varieties of pimentón; smoked sweet and smoked hot. Both are easy to find and well priced at Home Goods or Amazon.

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If you’re anything like me, you have a variety of open olive jars in your refrigerator. And if so, then this recipe is for you!

I had partial jars of stuffed olives, pitted olives, black olives, green olives, and olives with the pits still inside. Any and all of those can be used here.

So clean out your fridge and make a great addition to a tapas bar at the same time.

Tapas Bar Olives

16 ounces of a variety of olives
3 long slices of orange peel
4 fresh bay leaves
1 small hot red pepper, cut into thin circles
Olive oil

Place a third of the olives in a large jar with a tight-fitting lid. Add an orange peel strip, a bay leaf, and a couple of pepper slices to the olives.

Top with another third of the olives, another bay leaf, and a few more pepper slices.

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This easy and super pop-pop-popular tapa has only three ingredients and takes only a couple of minutes to throw together.

Sometimes the Spanish chorizo can be difficult to find. I found it at Cost Plus World Market.

Chorizo-Filled Dates Wrapped in Bacon

Spanish chorizo sausage, casing removed
14 Medjool dates, pitted
7 slices thick-cut bacon, halved crosswise

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Make an incision on one side of each date and remove the pit. Discard the pits and set aside the pitted dates.

Cut the chorizo sausage into 14 little sticks about twice the size of the pits you removed.

Tuck a chorizo stick into each date and pinch the dates closed. Wrap a half strip of bacon around each date and secure with a toothpick.

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On Saturday night we had our Spain Reunion Dinner.

Peggy & Jim and Lorraine & John plus Dave & I spent a relaxing evening drinking sangria, nibbling on tapas, and dining on my paella.

I’ll share recipes with you all week. I shall begin with the star of the evening – the paella!

Begin this recipe the day before to marinate the chicken overnight. Up to 4 hours before serving, brown the chicken and cook the onion, garlic, and tomato base in the same pan. You can finish the dish when your guests arrive by bringing the base back up to heat and taking turns stirring as you enjoy your tapas and sip sangria.

A couple of disclaimers before I get to the recipe. I forgot to add the peas. I had a bag of fresh peas in the fridge and just forgot, much to the dismay of my husband, who loves peas. Sorry!

And the final photo was taken at the dinner table which was outside, in the dark, and I should have used a flash. Oh well, it will have to do.

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Along with Arugula & Strawberry Salad with Chèvre, Pistachios and Horseradish-Maple Vinaigrette and Pomegranate Molasses Leg of Lamb and Lemon-Limoncello Meringue Pie I made this scrumptious potato dish for our Easter supper.

One quick tip:  When shopping for leeks, look for a leek with as much white as possible. The white and pale green portions of the leek are the only parts used, so try to get the most bang for your buck. I found these two perfect leek specimens at Trader Joe’s.

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Tomorrow night we’re having Peggy and Lorraine and their significant others over for a dinner of tapas, sangria, and paella. We’ll exchange photos and basically relive our dreamy trip to Barcelona. Plus, I have to put my money where my mouth is when I assured them that my paella is superior to what we had in Spain.

Here is the recipe for one of the many tapas I’ll be serving.

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Instead of my usual Silk Transfer Easter Eggs, I went another route this year. On Pinterest, I found Cocktail Napkin Easter Eggs.

I hard-boiled 9 eggs and used the technique explained HERE for the first eight eggs. Then on a whim, I tried another technique and ended up with the egg above. I love the end results and will show you how to do both.

Plus I’m putting up links to all of my Easter recipes as listed on the Complete Recipe Index – over there on the left if you are still trying to figure out what to make.

Cocktail Napkin Easter Eggs

8 to 12 white hard-boiled eggs, cold
Printed paper cocktail or lunch napkins
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Open the napkins and separate the printed top layer from the plain second layer if the napkin has two layers. Discard any plain sheets.

Cut each napkin into four squares, along the folds.

Dip a small pastry brush into the beaten egg white and use to adhere and apply a square onto the front center of an egg.

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