Grinch Muffins for Christmas

Hi! Its been a while since I have posted. Were you thinking I was attacked by zombies? Little Liam joined our family in late August and since then I have been busy adjusting to life as a mama of two. Pregnancy was hard and draining and now there is this new little guy who demands even more of my time. Most days I find it hard to find time for sleep let alone time to blog so I do kind of feel as if I have been attacked by zombies. Many days I am the walking dead so I have put much of the "me" activities on hold, promising to return to them when I have time.

I have eased my way back into the kitchen over the last 3 months, starting basic with things like my famous pulled bbq chicken and moving into things that are more "advanced" ie require chopping and maybe even mixing! Now that the holidays are here I have tried to attempt to add some fun back into menu planning so when I got the chance to host the holiday party for B's preschool class today I jumped at the opportunity to make something just a little different.

I had my heart set on serving both a healthy and festive snack since we would be doing cookie decorating at the end of the day and I must say I really love how the Grinch Muffins turned out.

2.5 C flour
1.5 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon 
1 C unsweetened applesauce
1 ripe banana
1 bag of prewashed baby spinach

Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tins

Blend together spinach, banana and applesauce until smooth (I did this in my food processor). Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl and fold in the liquids until everything is mixed well. Fill muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While muffins cool prepare fruit:
Strawberries (slice top off)
Bananas
Clementines
Yellow raisins
You can also add an additional slice of kiwi for the face if you want to offer more fruit.

The muffin recipe was adapted from A Little Nosh and The Green Forks

Becky's Grilled Potatoes

Katie here!  My escapades in grilling this summer continues with this fun take on potatoes.  My husband recently commented that we should maximize grilling out to keep our kitchen cool during the DC heat waves.  So I went in search of some easy way to cook potatoes on the grill instead of using our oven.  Luckily I remembered a great way my sister Becky would make potatoes.  This recipe can be made with or without dairy and has room for improvising.

Baking potatoes
Earth balance, butter or olive oil
Onion, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut slices in the baked potatoes.  The slices should go almost all the way down in the potato, but not all the way through. Microwave the potatoes for 5 minutes. Place each potato on a piece of foil, large enough to wrap the potatoes in.  Place small slices of the earth balance or butter in each of the slits, or if using olive oil drizzle alittle bit in each slice. Season with salt and pepper. Stick a slice of the onion in each slit.  Place the remaining onions on top of each potato.  Wrap tightly in the foil.  Place on grill over medium high heat.  Cook for at least 30 minutes. 

Grilled Lamb Chops and Veggies

Katie here!  It's summer and the grills are being fired up all over town.  Honestly I have been alittle weary of using the grill in the past. I love the results but was scared of manning the grill on my own.  My husband is an excellent grill master and over years past has cooked everything that I prepped. I recently was taken under his guidance to learn the ends and outs of grilling.  This week I tackled one of our go-to-tasty meals.  Super easy and really healthy.  My Son devours lamb every time we cook it, so needless to say this meal was a huge hit.  American chops may be bigger in size, but the little New Zealand chops have more powerful flavoring. I used indirect heating on the grill to cook the chops with low heat at the beginning to get the sear marks since the lamb fat tends to make the grill flame up and char the chops.  The veggies were cooked on direct heat.

Lamb Chops:
1.5 lbs lamb chops
5 large sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
Sea salt
Olive Oil

Veggies:
2 medium size zucchinis, thickly chopped
pint of cherry tomatoes
15 - 18 large mushrooms
sea salt
olive oil

Mince the rosemary.  Generously coat the chops with olive oil.  Sprinkle sea salt and rosemary on chops and rub to blend in the flavors.  For the veggies, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.  String on a skew for cooking (if using a wooden skew, soak in water before hand). Heat grill to medium high heat (I had it around 400 degrees).  Place the veggie skews on the direct heat burners.  Cook the veggies for 10-15 minutes until tender, turning once.  Cook the lamb chops for approx. 5 minutes, turning once to sear on a low flame. If the grill starts flaming up, move chops away from flame.  Turn off burner under chops and cook using indirect heat from the veggies burner for approx. 10 minutes, until desired wellness is achieved.  Remove chops from grill, cover with tin foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

Banana Bread Cookies

The baking problem continues and so I have something to post.

I have gotten to the point where I MUST HAVE cookies daily. Im not talking about an oreo either. I want the real deal. Bakery style, homemade, decadent in some way that cant be good for my health. Thankfully I have found these banana bread cookies which make me feel a bit better about my eating habits because they contain oats, bananas and whole wheat flour which makes me feel as if I am eating something that could at least be claimed is healthy when its really just a butter and chocolate delivery device.

They are, by the way, delicious. Martha deserves an award for these. So give them a try.

1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large mashed banana ( I freeze my bananas when they start going brown so I used a frozen one that I defrosted and it worked fine)
1 C rolled oats
1 1/2 C chocolate chips
1/2 C of chopped nuts (I used pecans but original recipe called for walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375
Whisk together flours, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. In another bowl (I used my stand mixer) mix together sugars and butter until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing until combined. Mix in banana and flour mixture until it is combined and then add oats, chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop cookies out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 12-13 minutes. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake: Tastes like summer!

Its strawberry season again and one of my new favorite Memorial day weekend traditions is hitting up the berry patch to pick our hearts out. This year we spent a blustery morning with the entire clan while we were visiting B’s grandparents in Rehoboth. We ended up with a nice haul and I immediately began thinking of how to best put them to use. The result was a delicious Memorial Day Salad, a batch of strawberry Rhubarb syrup and a couple the positively scrumptious strawberry rhubarb cakes.

I am a huge fan of the strawberry rhubarb combination and with my addiction to baked goods haunting over this pregnancy  I decided to give a coffee cake a try. I found this recipe for Rhubarb upside down cake and decided to change it up a bit to fit my needs and boy am I glad I did. It was absolutely delicious! 

Topping:

4 tbs butter

½ C flour

¼ C sugar

Salt

Cake:

1.5 sticks of butter, melted

1 ¾ C sugar

1 ½ C flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

Salt

2 eggs

1 C plain yogurt

1/2 lb rhubarb, cut into ½ inch thick slices

1 lb of strawberries sliced

½ lemon, juiced

Toss rhubarb and ¾ c of sugar in a deep pan an heat on low for 10-15 minutes or until the rhubarb begins to cook. Add strawberries and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes allowing the mixture to break down and thicken. Set the fruit aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 and begin to make the topping by stirring together the ingredients until it resembles small crumbles.  Butter your pan of choice, I used a bunt baking pan but the original recipe used 9 inch rounds. Dot the entire pan with small chunks of butter (about 4 tbs worth) and then pour your strawberry rhubarb sauce over the butter. The sauce layer should be about 1 inch thick across the bottom of the pan. The remainder can be set aside to drizzle over the cake or other treats later.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and 1 ½ tsp of salt. In a separate bowl add the remaining stick of softened butter and cup of sugar mixing until pale and fluffy. Add in lemon zest and juice and eggs continuing to mix throughout the process. Begin to incorporate flour and yogurt in small batches until smooth. Spread evenly over the fruit mixture and carefully run a knife back and forth through the cake and fruit in a zig zag motion to add a swirl effect. Add crumble topping over the batter and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cook for about 10 minutes. Tap the edges of the pan or run a knife around to loosen the cake before inverting it on a tray.  

Dijon and Apricot Roast Beef Sandwiches

When I was in the middle of party planing a few weeks ago I was looking for a preggo friendly finger sandwich to go along with our nursery rhyme theme. I had it in my head that I wanted to use "this little piggy had roast beef" as a food tag line so I decided a hot roast beef sandwich would be just the thing to try. As you know, I am a huge fan of Amber's Ham Biscuits so I wanted to mimic that sweet and savory flavor profile with a little twist.

The result was the most delicious hot roast beef sandwiches I have ever made. Granted, I rarely purchase roast beef so this was no big accomplishment, but they really were amazing. If you are looking for a fun finger food to serve at your next party I would definitely recommend giving these babies a try!

1 lb roast beef (I love the Boar's Head brand)
1/2 lb thinly sliced Havarti cheese
1 large (or two regular) packages of Kings Hawaiian Rolls
2/3 C Apricot jam
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C dijonaise (half and half mixture of dijon mustard and mayo)
1/4 C finely chopped shallots


Preheat the oven to 325. Mix the jam and nuts together in a small bowl and the dijonaise and shallots in another bowl. Slice the rolls in half and spread the jam mixture on one half of the roll and the dijonaise mixture on the other. Place a slice of cheese on each piece of bread and a couple of layers of roast beef in the middle. Reassemble the sandwiches and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the rolls are golden brown on the top.
These sandwiches can be assembled up to a day ahead of time and then thrown in the oven right before serving which is awesome because I am always a mess the morning of an event.

Truffled Deviled Eggs

A few weeks ago I had the honor of hosting a super cute baby shower for one of my nearest and dearest friends G. She is a super classy and timeless kind of chica so we decided to honor both she and her (gender yet to be determined) bump with a classic nursery rhyme themed shower. Since I am a sucker for a theme we decided to name all of our food items after different nursery rhymes. One of my favorite menu items from the day were these DELICIOUS truffled deviled eggs that I whipped up
the night before the shower and then quickly piped out the morning of. If you are a truffle lover you should definitely give these bad boys a try.

Truffled Deviled Eggs
1 dozen eggs
5 tbs mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp truffle oil (I used white truffle oil)
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp freshly chopped chives
4 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled
Salt and pepper
paprika

My foolproof way of boiling a great egg: Bring a saucepan with eggs covered in at least an inch of water to a boil. Once you see the water boiling (Im usually a little late on this) turn the burner off, cover the pan with a lid and set the timer for 12 minutes. When the timer goes off rinse the eggs with cold water to cool them quickly and you are finished!

Peal the eggs and slice each egg in half lengthwise. Set whites aside and use a fork to break yokes up in a large mixing bowl. Add other ingredients to the egg yokes and mix well. Place mixture into a gallon ziplock bag and refrigerate until you are ready to plate your eggs. Set your egg whites up on a serving tray and then cut one corner of a ziplock bag off with a pair of kitchen sheers. Squeeze the yoke mixture through the hole into your egg white shells and sprinkle with paprika and you have one trufflerific egg!

Old Bay Chicken - Crockpot

Katie here! Okay I'll say it about this meal - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!  I found a pin on Pinterest for the "Ultimate List of Slow Cooker Recipes" by the blogger Hodgepodge.  So I bit and found an Old Bay recipe for chicken. I'm originally from Maryland and well....I literally start drooling when Old Bay is mentioned. When I say that this was easy, it is an understatement!  We had the chicken as is, but I think it would also be tasty as a sandwich with maybe some coleslaw on it.  I typically purchase frozen organic boneless chicken thighs from Costco and keep them in the freezer for emergency dinners.  This recipe is great for a fix it and forget it dinner.  Below are my exact measurements for the recipe.

2 lbs of frozen boneless and skinless chicken thighs
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 of a large onion, roughly chopped
2 tbsp of Old Bay seasoning

Throw all of the above ingredients in a slow cooker.  Toss to coat.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken with fork once done.

Spring Cleaning - Where to Donate

Katie here!  I recently moved and the months leading up to putting our house up for sale I did a massive purge.  It was insane to see what my Husband and I had been living with for all these years! Items pre-marriage to tons of post marriage accumulations.  Over the years we have held yard sales and given majority of our items to Goodwill. The drop off at Goodwill is just so easy!  But as I started to accumulate odds and ends I wanted to explore other charities in the area too.  Here is a list of charities that I have donated to over the years.  Maybe there are few items laying around your house that you weren't sure whether to trash it or where would the appropriate new home for it be.

Food for Others - Located in Merrifield VA, they collect food for unemployed and low income residents in the NOVA area, among other services.  We all need to clean out those cupboards every once and a while!  Instead of throwing out that unused baby formula or jarred foods, drop them off here, as well as other canned goods, etc., taking up space in the cupboards.  Drop off is quick and easy. Just pull up to their loading dock.  They will weigh the food and give you a donation slip.

Suited for Change - A Washington DC based organization, they help low income women by providing counseling and clothing for career and employment development.  I use to be an auditor and had to wear suits everyday.  Once I left public accounting I had no need for the suits.  Drop off is easy.  They have literally curbside pick up.  Check out their website for their next drop off location.

OneSight - Got out-to-date glasses?  We had 10 pairs! This organization will give your glasses to those in need in poor areas across the world.  For some individuals this could lead to employment opportunities that were otherwise unavailable. OneSight has many drop off locations, such as, Target Optical (in most Target stores), Sears Optical, and Sunglass Huts.  I dropped mine off at Target.  And they will give you the tax donation slip as well. Click on the OneSight link to find a donation center near you.

Falls Church Community Service Council - Got furniture?  This organization provides human services to the poor or disadvantaged in the Falls Church area.  They work with a coalition of churches and human service organizations.  We donated two large couches and a desk to this organization.  They will come to your house to pick up the items. They also accept food, diapers and house supplies.

The Human Society - We have an adorable chocolate lab. And let's be honest she is spoiled.  We have a ton of toys that she has out grown or become disinterested in over the years.  Instead of just pitching them we donated all of her gently used toys, puppy supplies that she had out grown, old bedding, and old towels.  They also have a thrift store that sells household items to help support the centers. I dropped the goods off at the Fairfax Administration Building.

Vietnam Veterans of America - Once we moved into our new house we had a bunch of items that the previous owner had left and some household items that just didn't work in the new house.  In addition we had several bags of clothing to donate.  This organization will come to your home and pick up the items for you. Just go online to schedule a pickup date and leave the items in the front of your house the day of pickup.  They will leave you a donation slip on your door. 

Minted Mashed Peas/Soup

Nothing says spring like a beautiful sharp green. I should know this as my name does mean the green of spring. I really do get all giddy when the first flowers begin to push through the ground and we get that vibrant color budding on trees. To celebrate the coming of spring, and those spring holidays, Passover and Easter, I thought I would post one of my favorite easy peasy spring green recipes.

Minted Pea Soup seen here

The first time I served these peas up was to the Mr's family a couple of weeks ago at our Seder dinner. That night I used my original recipe for Minted Mashed Peas which has a much thicker mashed potato consistency and they were found to be an overwhelming success. The dish resembles baby food a bit (which is actually where I got the idea from) but it is absolutely delicious and will surly brighten up any table year round. I froze my extras and used it a week later as this amazing Easter pea soup by adding additional fresh mint and chicken stock. The soup works great as a starter to a nice meal or as a pairing with a spring salad or sandwich.

Original Minted Mashed Peas
2 bags frozen peas
1/2 onion, chopped
1 C Mint, chopped
1/4 C parsley, chopped (optional)
1 C Chicken Stock
1/2 C butter
4 Tbs EVOO
S&P

Heat 2 tbs EVOO and 2 tbs of butter in a large pan. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add one bag of frozen peas and season with salt and pepper. When the peas are warmed through pour the mixture into a blender or food processor. Add fresh herbs and slowly add stock until you have achieved a thick soup like texture. Return the original pan to the range and heat the remainder of the EVOO and butter together in the pan. Add second bag of peas and season with salt and pepper. When the peas are cooked through smash them with a potato masher, fork or wooden spoon to break them up a bit. Pour the pureed mixture into the mashed peas and mix everything together. Serve or refrigerate.

Spring Pea Soup

Add
1 C fresh mint
1 Quart good chicken stock
S&P

Add additional chopped mint and chicken stock to the recipe above. If you prefer a less chunky soup you can omit the smashed pea step and just blend the entire batch together. 

Shamrock Cinnamon Buns

I fully realize that we are well past St. Patrick's Day here but I am going to claim pregnancy brain. I never got around to posting this super fun and easy luck o' the Irish treat that I took over to a friend's house for brunch mainly because I can't seem to remember to write posts these days. I have finally started cooking on a regular basis again but I can't seem to get my act together to remember to photograph and post... probably because I usually inhale the food before it even hits the plate.

Anyway. I know this is super late but I loved how they turned out so I figured I would share for those of you who like to plan for next year. I realize that Pillsbury cinnamon buns don't really count as as a recipe but they were too cute not to post and you could always substitute our real Tangerine Pistachio Sticky Buns for the store bought ones if you are feeling extra crafty in the kitchen

1 roll of cinnamon buns

green food coloring


Unroll each individual cinnamon bun so that it is a long strip of dough. Form the dough strip into a shamrock shape making 4 small loops and one tale (the stem). Pinch tightly together to ensure each roll keeps its shape and then bake in a glass baking dish as directed on the packaging.

When the buns are out of the oven mix food coloring and frosting in a Ziploc sandwich bag until the desired color has been achieved. Cut the corner of the bag and use it to pipe the icing out onto the hot buns.

Provencal Leg of Lamb

Katie here!  After a few months off from having a baby I'm excited to be back in action again!

With Easter on the way I thought I would share one of my favorite Leg of Lamb recipes.  It is so easy and packed with flavors.  It comes from the Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That? cookbook.  Highly recommend this book.  Tons of tasty recipes to enjoy.  This dish is always a crowd pleaser and people think you spent hours slaving in the kitchen, when in fact it is a fix it and forget type meal. I served it with steamed green beans and boiled red potatoes.

6-7lb bone in leg of lamb - fat trimmed
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
9 cloves of garlic chopped (don't be scared by this amount.  It isn't garlic heavy in the taste)
1 tbs fresh rosemary leaves chopped
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
3 lbs red tomatoes, cored and thickly diced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
1 large onion sliced
4 sprigs Thyme
2 sprigs Rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place the leg in a large roasting pan, fat side up.  Combine the mustard, 1 tbs of the garlic, the rosemary, balsamic vinegar, 1tbs salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Spread on the lamb.  Place the tomatoes, olive oil, 1/4 cup of honey, onion, remaining garlic, 2 tbs salt and 2 tsp of pepper in a bowl and toss.  Put the mixture around the lamb in the pan and add the sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme.  Drizzle the lamb with the remaining 1/4 cup of honey.

Roast for 20 minutes.  Turn heat down to 350 and roast another 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until meat registers at 135 degrees on a thermometer.  Place lamb on cutting board and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  Serve lamb with tomatoes and juices.

Dairy Free Vodka Sauce

Homemade vodka sauce is the most delicious thing ever and I have been craving it in my dreams. There are a lot of things that I dont eat these days but I would say the two biggest would be I dont eat a lot of meat (unless its hidden in a dish) and dairy has become my friendenemy.  I love dairy, and I crave it night and day, it just makes me terribly sick. Some things are worse than others, milk and icecream are basically out of the question but butter or a slice of cheese are still within my limits.

Lucky for me I happen to have an arsenal of dairy free experience from my nine months as a dairy free nursing mom. One of my favorites is this dairy free vodka sauce. It tastes just like the original, creamy, thick and delicious without any of the heartburn or reflux after so I am one happy camper. I served this up at a play group party a couple of weeks ago and since everyone seemed to love it (even the kiddos) I figured I should get on posting it soon. If you are not dairy free you can always substitute the coconut milk back out for regular cream or whole milk and continue on your way.

2 tbs of EVOO
1 C of good chicken stock (you may want more or less)
1/2 onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1 tbs tomato paste
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I use fire roasted)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste- I used less this time since I was serving to toddlers)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 c vodka
1/2 c So Delicious Coconut Creamer Original flavor- I purchase this at Whole Foods
1 box of your favorite pasta
1 package of fresh basil, chopped

Heat oil in the bottom of your sauce pot. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes until they are golden brown. Add tomato paste and garlic and continue stirring for about 2 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and vodka and bring the heat up to medium-high stirring to mix the flavors. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 10 minutes while frequently stirring to ensure that the alcohol has time to cook off. Reduce the heat to low and add the cream.

While making the pasta sauce bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta as directed. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce with the chopped fresh basil. Toss and then slowly add chicken stock to the mixture until the sauce is the consistency you would like. The stock adds a bit of flavor while also helping to thin out the sauce.

Kids In The Kitchen

Kids in the Kitchen is one of my favorite JLW events of the year. I have been volunteering with the organization since 2009 and have not missed a year. Granted, I am a foodie at heart and I love kid events so its right up my alley but I really do think its fun for the entire family. So if you are looking for plans this weekend please join us at the Junior League of Washington's Kids in the Kitchen on Saturday, March 2nd (10:00 AM - 2:00 PM) at the YMCA National Capital (1711 Rhode Island Avenue, NW).

This FREE event will have activities galore for kids of all ages including cooking activities, yoga, sports games, unique demonstrations, guest chefs and nutritional experts. It aims to empower youths to make healthy lifestyle choices and help reverse the growth of childhood obesity and its associated health issues. 

Some of my favorite activities from past years include a vegetarian meal station where local chefs provided recipes and prepare kid friendly vegetarian meals for you and your family to taste. The ever popular obstacle course that lets the kids blow off some steam and of course the chef hat decorating which little B just loved last year. 

Table: A Restaurant Review

It has been months since we have had a date night and it is definitely my doing. It's hard to desire to take your wife out on the town when she spends most of her time flip flopping between getting sick and complaining about the life being sucked out of her. With the worst of the first trimester behind us, a sitter swap and a new restaurant in our sights we decided to venture out for the evening last weekend.

I know I no longer get out much anymore but I must say that Table was amazing. I felt just like I was in a friends cozy kitchen that had been dropped into a modern urban setting. I loved the completely exposed open kitchen.  You literally feel like you are on the set of an amazingly talented chefs cooking show as the line whips up deliciously comforting food steps away from you. It was so inspiring to see how cool, calm and collected the line worked throughout the dinner service. It was almost like dinner theater to me!

The food was absolutely delicious. The Mr and I shared the scallop appetizer, followed by a pork belly and clams dish and the wild boar bolognese and finished up the meal with the pumpkin bread pudding which now of course has me itching to make one of my own. Every bite was superb and while I would go into more detail about the actual items consumed I feel it would just be a tease since the "hyper seasonal" menu is sure to change before you read this post.

One last interesting note is that the menus were all hand written in pencil which will allow them to update as frequently as needed. In theory I love this concept but I found it to be a bit cumbersome in practice. The cursive was difficult to read at times so I found myself asking a lot more questions about items than I would usually have to. I will say that since that night I did go get my eyes checked and maybe that was actually the real issue at hand. 

I would definitely recommend Table as a great place to have your next date night. While I did see one family who was brave enough to bring their toddler aged children in for a meal I would say this one is definitely better left up to the adults.