Elle's New England Kitchen

This was a lot of fun, and something I definitely want to keep doing. Having some ingredients put in front of me that I didn’t choose, and trying to come up with something edible was a great exercise for my brain. And I surprised myself. Not only did I come up with something edible, but it was delicious, too!

Here’s what I started with…

First, I rubbed the steak with one of our favorite rubs. (Remember, in Chopped, you get full use of the pantry!) Let that sit for a few minutes.

Trader Joe’s sells boxes of frozen, cooked Jasmine rice. I pulled one of those packets out and heated it up—I think there’s about 2 cups in each packet. Then I took about 4 or 5 of the figs and chopped those up with kitchen shears. I roughly chopped about 1/4 (maybe a little more) of the sweet and spicy pecans, and tossed both of those things into the rice. Then I threw in a couple handfuls of gorgonzola—about 1/2 cup. A little salt and pepper, about 1/4 tsp cumin, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar were added next. This is the mixture I stuffed the sweet peppers with.

Those baked at 350 in a slightly oiled pan for about 15-20 minutes. Turn on the broiler for an extra few minutes for some color on the peppers.

Now for the gorgonzola garlic butter. Get some butter to room temp, toss in some crumbled gorgonzola. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, add a couple cloves chopped garlic and let it slowly sauté. When that’s done, spoon it into the butter, leaving the oil behind. But looking back, I could have easily added that oil to the butter as well.

Broil the steaks for about 11 to 12 minutes. Turning them over every couple of minutes, and when they’ve reached the desired doneness, remove from oven and let them sit for about 5 minutes.

Serve the steaks with the gorgonzola butter and the peppers on the side.

I’m definitely going to keep this up. It’s good to get the creative juices flowing, and leave the safety of recipes behind. Even more fun when you’re presented with ingredients you may not necessarily choose yourself.

The next time I do it, I’ll see what my husband picks up for ingredients, and then post them just like I did here. If any of you want to participate, let me know, then when you post what you came up with, I’ll link them in my post. Sound good?

And they have nothing to do with each other, but I've been meaning to post them for a while now. I took a look at my last post this morning and almost fell off my chair when I realized it was posted last Wednesday! That's almost a week! Where has the time gone? I guess part of it is because my husband had a three day weekend last week. We were busy with a day trip (zoo) on Friday, and then the hours and days seemed to flow together and before you know it, it's Tuesday.

I hate that the summer seems to be flying by. And what do you see in every store? Summer stuff on clearance, and big displays of back to school stuff. God, I used to hate that when I was a kid. It always gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Summer went fast enough, and to see retailers pushing it in our faces made me so mad, hehe. I always feel badly when my kids have gotten down to their last one or two weeks of summer, and you can just see it in their eyes. It's looming ahead and they know it. Poor kids, hehe.

Anyway, the recipes. One is for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It's the one I always make, and my kids love it--it's really moist and nice and chocolatey. But I call it "Chocolate Bread" for the benefit of my two youngest kids. They don't know they're eating a healthy dose of a green vegetable, but I do. My two older kids are sworn to secrecy. They don't mind that it's in there--they love the bread! This one was found in the Food Network Kitchens book. They add cinnamon and cloves, but I prefer it without. And so do the kids, in fact. So I've gotten rid of them. Tossed 'em to the curb. (The spices, not the kids.) This also makes two loaves. I love recipes like that, especially with a big family. We can make one loaf disappear just by looking at it. And it also freezes well, so you can put one away for later, too. Also, I think you could substitute plain yogurt for some of the fat in this and it would be great. I'm going to try that this week, and I'll let you all know how it goes. If you want to add the spices (1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a pinch of cloves), sift them into the dry ingredients.



This one is posted for Ben at What's Cooking? for his I Love Baking bi-weekly blog event. Send him your baked goodies!




Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
adapted From Food Network Kitchens
Makes 2 loaves

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (NOT dutch process)
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups zucchini, unpeeled and shredded
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (they call for finely chopped, but I like to leave some larger chunks, too)



1 Heat oven to 350°.
2 Butter and flour 2 loaf pans.
3 Whisk the flour with the cocoa and baking soda in a medium size bowl.
4 Beat butter and sugar in a medium bowl with a mixer on med high until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
5 While you're mixing, drizzle in the oil, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk.
7 Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
8 (Like this--flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour) Scrape the sides of the bowl when needed.
9 Fold in the zucchini and chocolate.
10 Divide batter into the 2 pans.
11 Bake until tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes.
12 (be careful, the tester may look chocolatey from the chocolate in the bread--don't over bake) Cool in pans on rack before removing and slicing.





The next recipe is so simple, you don't even need a recipe. Its from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. If you're not reading that blog, you should be! Amazing food, gorgeous photos, wonderful writing--it's got it all. The recipe is for Lori's Skillet Smashed Potatoes.

You take small potatoes, boil them for a bit, then drain and smash them with the bottom of a glass or a custard cup, and then cook them in a skillet until they're all crunchy and golden brown. A sprinkle of coarse salt and whatever else you like, and you're done. (Herbes de Provence is so good on these...) (hahaha! Spell checker thinks I should change "Herbes" to "Herbies!" Doesn't sound very sophisticated that way, does it?)

They are SO freaking delicious. Like candy. It's hard for me to leave them alone before we even sit down to eat. "What? No, really, we only had ten potatoes to start with! Uh-huh. It looked like more? Way more? Well, what do you know, I'm doing the cooking!"

Go check out the recipe at Heidi's blog and please, please try these. You won't be sorry!

Prepare for Potato Porn...

After being boiled and smashed.

And shown here, with a grilled steak...

Bonus recipe!!!

This couldn't be simpler. Get these in the oven, after less than 5 minutes of prep, then get to work on your chicken and it should all be done at about the same time.

Oven Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

1 lb fingerling potatoes
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper
herbes de provence (optional, and you could also use your favorite herb blend instead)

Heat oven to 425°.
Wash potatoes. Dry on paper towels and put them on a baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Add garlic to the potatoes, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and herbs if you're using them. Toss to coat, really getting the garlic mixed in well.
Cook for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

Ok, so they're not the prettiest things ever...but they sure do taste great! I've been making oven baked sweet potato fries for a long time. One thing's for sure--it's nearly impossible to get them crispy, but I have learned a few things:

a) They get crispier if you don't use foil. They just stick to foil, so use an oiled rimmed baking sheet.
b) Don't try to cook them on parchment (and this is probably the only time I'll say something negative about my beloved parchment paper). They end up as nothing but a soggy mess, lying in puddles of sweet potato juice. Nothing you'll want to eat, trust me.
c) The broiler helps, but you've got to watch them carefully. After the cooking time is up, I usually switch the broiler on to low, and give them a few minutes. This helps.

The method I usually use is to season them first with cumin, chili powder, garlic and onion powder, and sometimes, some adobo. Always coarse salt and pepper, but you decide--it's all up to you.
Toss them with olive oil and all the spices, then bake them. Good stuff.

But last week, I read Lori's post at Made Healthier, about Baked Garlic Fries. What? Toss them in oil and garlic after cooking? Genius! So naturally, I wanted to try it with sweet potatoes. Me likey! It worked great, like I knew it would! Here's my take on her recipe:

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Garlic Fries

Preheat oven to 400°.
You can either peel your potatoes, or give them a good scrubbing, which is what I did. Oh, and I used 3 sweet potatoes this time.
Cut them into wedges or like fries.
Put them on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive or vegetable oil, coarse salt and pepper.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes, flipping the fries over at the halfway point. When time is up, see if you want to turn the broiler on for a few minutes, but watch them carefully if you do.
About 10 minutes or so before they're done, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over low to medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add in about 3 (or more or less, depending on what you like) garlic cloves that you've chopped. Be careful not to burn the garlic, you just want to soften it, take the raw "edge" off, and flavor the oil.
Toss the baked fries with the garlic and the olive oil, and add more salt to taste.
Serve them now!
See? They won't win any awards for being beautiful, but they are delicious just the same.