Apple Dumplings

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Georgina

Apple Dumplings

Happy Friday!

I’m back from vacation and I had an amazing time! Hopefully I’ll do a post soon with pictures and details 🙂 So last week was a week I was scheduled to pick up my CSA but as you know, I was on vacation. My aunt and uncle picked it up for me and I told them to help themselves and I would take whatever was left. So I don’t have my bi-weekly CSA post ready yet 😦 and might just combine with the next week. But in the mean time, feast your eyes (and bellies!) on these beautiful and delicious Apple ‘Dumplings’.

They require a little bit of work, but the outcome is worth it. I promise.

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening or butter
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups shredded, peeled cooking apples (3 to 4 medium); Golden delicious, Rome, Granny Smith or Jonathan apples

Instructions:

Sauce:

In a large saucepan, combine 2 cups sugar, water, butter, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to boiling. Boil 10-15 minutes; set aside (should be a liquidy syrup consistency)

Dough: In large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt. Using pastry blender, cut in shortening or butter until pea-sized clumps of dough form throughout. Make well in center of dough and add milk all at once. Stir just until moistened. Knead dough on lightly floured surface 10 to 12 strokes or until nearly smooth- don’t over kneed it. Roll out to 12×10-inch rectangle (I found I needed a little extra flour and to wet my hands before this 🙂 )

Filling:

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon; set aside. Sprinkle apples evenly over dough. Sprinkle with sugar mixture. Roll dough into spiral, starting from a long side. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into twelve 1-inch thick pieces (a serrated knife works best). Place in a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Pour sauce over dumplings. Bake in a 350 degree oven about 50 minutes or until golden. Cool 20-30 minutes before serving.

Yeah- soooo good. And not drenched in a frosting or glaze, which I really really liked.

What do you think? Pretty right? Give it a try and come back and tell me how yours turned out! I love to hear from my readers.

xoxo

Asian Cobb Salad

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Georgina

Asian Cobb Salad

Happy Friday!! I am currently, as we speak, on vacation!! I’ll be back Sunday and will reply to comments and messages then as well as hopefully share some of my trip! 🙂 Now about this salad…

First of all- a disclaimer for all my photography friends. I’m aware these photo’s are grainy as *bleep!* . My ISO was cranked WAYYYY up since these pictures were taken basically by moonlight.really though…

I desperately need an artificial lighting solution. I can’t just be waiting around for the absolute perfect natural light every time I make something I want to blog. I live in Wisconsin. C’mon. In the winter that would mean I had about 20 seconds of a shooting window. Soooooo if any angel investors want to buy me one of these……that’d be cool. joking.

But main point of this story is that I don’t want to hear one comment about blurry, grainy, ISO pumped up, photos. Thanks.

Now back to the fooood!

Super healthy, beautiful, delicious, quick, and satisfying, salad. You could add or remove anything your heart desires. Thats the beauty of salads. Soooo versatile.

Ingredients:

Salad:
5 cups chopped romaine lettuce ( or your favorite kind of lettuce)
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges in light syrup, drained
1/3 cup shredded chicken
1/3 cup grated carrots
1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
1/4 cup sliced green onions

Sesame Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic, tiny minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Instructions:

To make the vinaigrette, mix together rice wine vinegar, garlic, sesame oil, sugar, ginger, soy sauce, and lime juice in a small bowl; set aside.(you can adjust the amount of garlic depending on your preference)
To assemble the salad, place your greens in a large bowl; top with arranged rows of mandarin oranges, chicken, carrots, avocado, eggs and green onions.
Serve with sesame vinaigrette and eat it up!

Does any one know what could be causing that red line in the bottom right of this picture on all of my photographs?

Isn’t it pretty! This would look great on a tablescape for a party of some kind. And the sesame dressing is deeeelcious and could be used for so many other things!

Thanks so much for checking out the blog!

xoxo

Creamy Tomato Spaghetti with Shrimp

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Georgina

Creamy Tomato Spaghetti with Shrimp

Hi my fellow foodies!

Man I can’t believe how fast summer is going. I’m off on vacation starting TODAY!!! YAYAYAY I will hopefully have lots of pictures to share when I come back and hopefully a few fun food items too.

Take a look at this beauty. This was incredibly tasty, although definitely not a low fat meal. More of a treat from time to time or could be something impressive to make for the in-laws or any guests you may have. You can experiment with different ingredients. I’m a sucker for basil especially in the summer time so I garnished mine with it. Deeeelicious. Hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb medium raw shrimp, shell removed
¾ lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon hot chili flakes
½ teaspoon dried basil, or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil(I prefer fresh)
1 garlic clove, minced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup dry white wine
½ cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan to serve

Instructions:

Put the tomatoes, onion, chili flakes, basil, garlic and butter in a heavy pan , season with pepper.
Add the wine and cook over med/high heat until mixture is soft and most of the wine has evaporated. You will have about ¼ cup liquid remaining in the pan.
Peel shrimp and dry on paper towels. Lightly season shrimp with salt and pepper and saute in 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium/high heat, just until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Cook pasta in salted water with 1 tablespoon olive oil, according to the package instructions until al dente (tender but firm to the bit). Rinse, Drain and set aside.
Once the sauce has mostly evaporated, stir in the cream and add the shrimp. Warm through gently for 2 minutes.
Toss the pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and fresh basil and serve!

Doesn’t it look good?! Yummmmmm. Give it a try and let me know what you think! Thanks for taking a look around the blog!

xoxo

Lemon Thyme Baked Chicken

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Georgina

Lemon Thyme Baked Chicken

I am a sucker for anything with lemon, or garlic and love chicken so naturally I want to put them all together! This is a reallllly simple and delicious meal. It’s easy and quick enough for a weeknight but also tasty and ‘fancy’ enough for a weekend or dinner party with friends.

You could use whatever pieces of chicken you wanted. For this recipe I had skinless chicken breast pieces on hand, so I used that.

*Warning if you use pyrex or glass, it takes a little scrubbing to get the baked bits off the side when you’re done, but you can either use foil or get a good arm workout in for the day. 🙂

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup of chicken broth
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 lbs skinless chicken breasts or however much chicken you want to make
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
Two sprigs of fresh thyme
2 lemons cut into wedges

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute, making sure not to burn the garlic. Add the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, and thyme leaves to the pan. Pour the mixture into the baking dish. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Place the chicken in the baking dish along with the lemon wedges and the two sprigs of thyme.

Place into the oven and bake, basting occasionally, for 30-40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the oven and let the meat rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Drizzle the pan sauce on top of the slices of chicken and serve. Enjoy!

A before shot

After baking- and so pretty!

Such great fresh flavors with this. Fresh and tasty and easy. I can see myself sitting out on my non existent porch by our non existent fire circle eating this with a glass of cold Chardonnay. Ahhhhhh, see ya! I’m going to go day dream about that now.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy!

xoxo

What is in my CSA?- Week 2

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Georgina

Hi friends! I seriously cannot believe that it’s almost freaking July. Are you kidding me?!?!? I mean once 4th of July happens summers zooms by and it’s the dead of winter before you know it. I need to soak up what’s left of summer!

I am going on vacation in a little under 2 weeks! Can.NOT.wait. We’ll be going to Beaver Island, Michigan. It’s heaven on earth. We have been going since I was a little kid (a few years off here and there) but I can’t wait to carry on the tradition when I have kids of my own. While it’s not every one’s cup of tea, I love it. It’s secluded and there not much to “do” but there’s so much to do! If you know what I mean. I’m so excited to go! But back to the reason for this post!

So, this week (really last weeks) CSA box, could be summed up in one word: LETTUCE! Holy moly- lots of lettuce. But I loved it because I could eat salad for the rest of my life and be a happy camper 🙂

Here is what we got in the box this time:

– 1 bag salad mix
– 1 lb Asparagus
– 1 bunch Dill
– 1 bunch Cilantro
– 1 bunch Green Garlic
– 1 bunch mini Bulb Onions
– 1 head Red Romaine Lettuce
– 1 bunch Rainbow Chard
– 1 bunch Spinach
– 1 head green Leaf Lettuce

Bananas not included 🙂

So as you can tell- a sh*t ton of lettuce!!! I knew I couldn’t juuuust eat salad with it.

HERE IS WHAT I DID WITH THE GOODIES:

Salad mix- nothing too creative here. Just really yummy tasty salads
Asparagus- Used it to make this delicious zucchini pasta dish (See below!)
Dill- I put some in a salad one night (very good) and then I made a really yummy dill and lemon baked tilapia very low fat and fresh and delicious! I just prepped the fish, sprinkled garlic powder, chopped dill, and one of the mini bulb onions from the box, on top and baked in a 375 oven for about 1o minutes.
Cilantro- This is one of the those things you either love or you hate. Personally I love it. There wasn’t a ton of this so I made a black bean/corn salsa. Similar to this previous post of mine!
Green Garlic-Now that I know what this stuff is, I’m obsessed! This week you could definitely see that this is a baby garlic plant. The bottom totally looks like a mini baby head of garlic. So interesting! I used some of this in the zucchini pasta dish (see below) and then I also used it in an omelet.
Mini Bulb Onions- Truth time: besides the one I used on my fish dish mentioned above, I ate these raw. I love onions and have since I was born, they tasted soooo good. Not inventive I know, but I’m being honest 🙂
Red Romaine Lettuce- This was such a beautiful color. And it was delicious mixed into some of the salads we had!
Rainbow Chard- I sauteed this up with some shaved brussel sprouts and fresh lemon juice. Along with a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar at the end. I thought it was delicious, though I’ll admit, a little off the wall.
Spinach- Primarily I used this in my morning smoothies. I also put some of it in a salad. I was a little surprised by this because it looks nothing like the spinach you buy in stores. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that usually the spinach in stores is baby spinach but had they not provided a list of what I got, I’d have no idea what it was.
Leaf Lettuce- BLT’s. I used my lettuce as the bread and didn’t use mayo ( I hateeee mayonnaise) It was amazing and tasted like summer in my mouth!

That’s pretty much it! With the first box we got I was very confident that we would have been fine getting an every week share but after this box, I’m not sure I could have eaten that much lettuce in just one week! I’m pretty content with my EOW share. Here is the recipe for the super healthy zucchini pasta with dairy free pesto!

This week’s CSA Recipes:

Zucchini Pasta with Creamy (Dairy Free) Pesto:

For the Pesto:

2 avocados, skin and pit removed
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup of fresh basil leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/3 cup of Olive Oil

– Add the avocados, garlic, basil, and lemon juice to a food processor and blend well.
– While the food processor is on slowly add in the olive oil until emulsified (fully incorporated so where the oil won’t separate after sitting).
– Set aside.
*you could also add any nuts to this, pine nuts, walnuts etc… I didn’t because I didn’t have any.

For the “pasta” part:

1 small onion, diced
2 stalks green garlic (could some more onion), roughly chopped
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, cut on the bias into 2 inch pieces
1 cup organic corn kernels
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 zucchini (depending on size), use a vegetable peeler to slice thin ribbons of the zucchini, do this until you hit the seedy center.
Olive oil (or any oil of your choice)

Instructions:

– In a large saute pan(or just a pan with tall sides) heat about a tablespoon of your oil until hot and add in your onions and green garlic. Cook until softened (about 5 minutes).
– Add the asparagus and stir to combine.
– Add the zucchini ribbons and stir to combine, then top your pan with the lid and let it steam for about 5 minutes until the zucchini is softened and reduced in size.
– Toss in the corn and tomatoes and heat through.
– Add in about 1/2-1 cup of the pesto and stir until everything is coated. You can use as much or as little of the pesto as you want.
– ENJOY!

I loved this dish. Jake didn’t care for it. He said it tasted “green”….. no idea what that means but as a veggie lover I can assure you it tastes great! I’m currently doing a detox type of program where I’m eating gluten, dairy, and soy free so this dish was great. I was lovvvving the dairy free pesto. SO GOOD!

Whew! Another week down and I’m definitely loving the abundance of fresh veggies around the house. Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully you were inspired or learned something 🙂

xoxo

Check out week one here!