Sorry For Not Posting the Past Two Weeks!!! Just got back from Europe yesterday!

Lunch on the Riverfront in Porto!!

Port and Chocolate tasting!

Bottoms up!

La Boqueria- Open market in Barcelona

A poor picture of Mercado San Miguel!

More Boqueria!

Sorry for the lack of posts the last two weeks! I was in Madrid, Barcelona, and Porto for an end of summer vacation with my boyfriend.  I got to enjoy some amazing food while on my trip and picked up some recipe inspiration along the way.  A few of favorites things were... the Port tastings in Oporto! They give you the first few for free, which was a nice change from Napa.  Madrid was wonderful and I really loved el Mercado San Miguel. They have wine tastings, oysters, seafood tapas and a million other goodies for only a few Euros each.  It was great to get to try so much food and wine from many different vendors.  Plus who doesn't love starting out lunch with champagne and fresh oysters.  Lastly, Barcelona had one of the most amazing open air markets I have ever seen! It is truly any chef's dream and it is a great place to a get a great meal on the go, especially the fresh fruit juices. If any of you foodies are visiting one of these cities in the future, make sure to stop by these wonderful places- great food and great prices.

Squash Mash with Onions and Bacon

This is a variation on the Squash- Carrot Mash I posted a few weeks ago.  I got the idea for this recipe from one of my most recent cookbook purchases:The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook.  It’s a great cookbook because it provides wine suggestions for each of the recipes and also provides some tutorials on how to make their favorite seasonings and sauces.  This cookbook would make a great gift for any cook interested in learning more about wine and food pairings.


Ingredients
1 butternut squash (peeled, with pulp and seeds scooped out)
2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
2 tablespoons soy milk
½ yellow onion (sliced)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette
10 slices of bacon or turkey bacon
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Prep Time: 20 minutes                   Bake Time: 45 minutes                  Oven Temp: 375 F

1.  Peel butter nut squash and remove pulp and seeds.  Cut squash into inch long cubes.
2. Place squash cubs on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper.
3. Pour coconut oil over squash cubes.

4. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until cooked through.
5. While the squash cooks, sauté onions in coconut oil over medium heat.  After 5 minutes add balsamic vinegar and cook until the onions are slightly translucent.
6.  Remove onions from heat and set aside. 
7.  Place bacon strips on wire rack on top of a baking sheet.  This makes the bacon way crisper because the fat drips off onto the pan below.   Rub raw bacon strips with tablespoon of brown sugar.
8.  Remove squash when it’s cooked through and put bacon in the oven to cook for 10 minutes or until desired crispness.
9.  While bacon cooks, make squash puree in food processor.  The puree should be made in small batches and add ½ tablespoons of soy milk to each small batch.  It’s important to keep the vent of the food processor open so that steam can escape.  Just hold a paper towel over the open vent to prevent a mess.
10.  Remove bacon from the oven and dice into small pieces. 
11.  Add onions and bacon to squash mixture.

Serve as is or add diced cheese. 

Sriracha Kale Chips

Kale chips have become more popular in the past few months after being featured on The Martha Stewart Show and in Gwyneth Paltrow’s new cookbook.  You can buy them at the health food store and at some gyms but it is WAY cheaper to make them yourself.  Plus you can experiment with many different flavors!

Ingredients

1 bunch of kale
1-3 teaspoons of sriracha (depending how spicy you want the chips)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon coconut oil
½ teaspoon garlic powder

Oven Temp: 300 F                  Prep Time: 10 minutes                   Cook Time: 17 minutes

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
2. Wash kale and cut into 1 ½ inch long ribbons, removing branches as you go.  Removing the branches makes the kale chips less bitter and allows them to pick up the flavor of whatever you use to season them.
3.  Mix all wet ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Place half of the kale ribbons in a large Ziploc bag or Tupperware.  Add half of wet ingredient mixture. 

5. Seal bag and shake vigorously.
6. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread kale ribbons on baking sheets so that none of them overlap. 
7. Sprinkle ribbons with garlic powder and bake in the oven for  15-17 minutes.
8. Repeat the same process with the rest of the kale and wet ingredients.

Variations
You can also make these chips without the sriracha and substitute with an additional teaspoon of vinegar and one teaspoon of garlic oil.  I would suggest trying sesame oil as well!

Sriracha Vegetable Stirfry

Ingredients
1 medium size eggplant cut into ½ inch cubes
1 red onion sliced
1 green bell pepper cut into ½ inch cubes
2 jalapenos diced
2 large florets of broccoli cut into bite size pieces
4- 6 tablespoons sriracha
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil

Prep TIme: 15 minutes               Bake Time: 25-30 mins                   Oven Temp: 350 F

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Wash and cut all vegetables.  Place cut vegetables in a large bowl.
2. Toss vegetables with oil and sriracha.
3.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spread vegetables evenly across the baking sheet.
4.  Cook vegetables for 25-30 minutes.  Make sure to agitate once or twice during the bake time so that they are all exposed to even heat and cook at the same rate.
5.  Serve alongside grilled chicken or beef, preferably with a  glass of water because it’s hot!

Slow Cooker Beef

I did it again! Forgot to take a picture before I started eating this delicious meal!!

This is another one of my slow cooker experiments.  The house smelled wonderful when I came home to this fully cooked meal.  You can serve the stewed beef on its own with a side salad or over rice.


Ingredients
2 pound chunk roast
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 green bell peppers (julienned)
½ red onion (julienned)
1 can fire roasted stewed tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon coconut oil

Prep Time: 10 minutes                   Cook Time: 5 hours (longer if you use a larger roast)

1.  Melt one teaspoon of coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. 
2. Sprinkle chunk roast with garlic salt, cayenne pepper and paprika.
3. Brown chunk roast in pan. About 30 seconds on each side.
4. Remove roast from pan and set aside.

5. Empty can of stewed tomatoes into the crock pot.  Place bell peppers, crush garlic, and red onion on top of tomatoes. 
6.  Place chunk roast on top of vegetables.  Pour tablespoon of red wine over the chunk roast.
7.  Cook on low for 5 hours.


Save your leftovers! I only had some tomatoes left over but I ended up mixing the tomatoes with some turkey sausage which I served over zucchini noodles.

Variation on an old favorite- Fig or Plum Almond Tart

A beautiful rustic tart, a perfect summer treat!

I accidentally left Zanatto’s (the nice grocery store) without the mascarpone I needed to make my Fig Almond Tart.  By the time I realized this, Zanatto’s had closed and my only option was Safeway.  I went to Safeway even though I KNEW they wouldn’t have what I needed.  Standing there in the cheese aisle, I decided to google mascarpone substitutes.  Most of them required double boilers and other complex processes.  Rather than stay up half the night making a sub-par mascarpone, I grabbed some whipped cream cheese and whole milk ricotta and called it a day.  I kept the same recipe I used before hand with two substitutions. Instead of the 1/3 cup mascarpone, I used 1/6 cup ricotta and 1/6 cup cream cheese.  I also decided to use peaches and figs, instead of just one fruit.  I think the recipe turned out better with these two substitutions.  The cream cheese brought a whole new flavor to the recipe that really complimented the almond paste.  If you’ve tried the first version, I suggest you try this new one too so you can decided what you like better.  Enjoy!

P.S. This substitution is what lead me to create the Strawberry Almond Chocolate Tart seen last week here.