Mini S'mores Pies

There are certain foods that are must haves during the summer, and I think s'mores is definitely on that list. But if your weather has been anything like we've been experiencing in the DC metro area, you probably aren't barbecuing. Rain, rain, go away! So instead try these individual s'mores pies.

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 dry milk powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 stick of butter melted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Toss the dry ingredients together with your hands until completely mixed. Combine butter and heavy cream then pour over dry ingredients and mix with your hands until the mixture holds together.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees,

3. Coat muffin tin with nonstick spray and press in graham cracker crumbs to make a cup shape.

4. Bake for 5-7 minutes until golden.

5. Run a knife carefully around the edges to loosen and then turn over on to a cooling rack.

Pudding Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 box My T Fine chocolate pudding mix
• 2 cups milk

Follow the directions on the box!

Fill the graham cracker cups with pudding and chill to set. Then top with mini marshmallows....here's the fun part: get out your kitchen torch and have at it! Warning: marshmallows are highly flammable so you might have to blow out a small fire.

Truffled Farro Salad

Being the resident foodie at work, people tend to ask me what I'm having for lunch. One day I had a conversation that went a little something like this:

"What are you eating?"

"Farro"

"Pharaoh?"

"No..."

vs

Ingredients

• 1 cup farro
• Handful of arugula
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms (a variety of wild mushrooms would be delish)
• 2 tbs butter
• 1 tbs truffle oil
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 bunch asparagus
• dried thyme
• 1 medium onion
• 1/4 cup parmesan chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• handful of walnuts
• salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven 350.

Place farro in a pot and fill with cold water until covered by 1-2 inches. After 20 minutes drain the farro.

Add the same amount of water back to the pot and add a dash of salt. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. If there is any leftover water after cooking you will need to drain.

While the farro is cooking cut asparagus spears on the bias in thirds. Toss with enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake asparagus on a foil lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice until tender.

Slice mushrooms, but not too thinly. Think 4-5 pieces for a larger cremini. Chop the onion.

Heat 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil in a pan on medium and cook the onion for 3 minutes. In a bowl mix your mushrooms with the truffle oil, then add to the pan with the butter. Cook for 5-10 minutes then sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Make sure you don't cook the mushrooms for too long. You want them tender but still with body.

Remove from heat and cool in a bowl. Add cooked asparagus.

Place farro into a mixing bowl and add your arugula. When you mix it in, the arugula should wilt. Set aside to cool.

When farro and vegetables reach room temperature, you can combine them.

Add cheese and parsley then mix.

Toast handful walnut halves in your mushroom pan to toast, chop, and top each serving.

Shout out to my hunnie for inventing this one!!

Seared Salmon on a Bed of Lemon Feta Quinoa

After a one and a half hour drive home I arrived to a beautifully cooked dinner by my hubby. I know --lucky girl. And what was even better, it was DELICIOUS. But...there is always a but...I don't take kindly to my sous chef trying to climb the ranks to head chef. That's my territory! So I got a little competitive.

Enter: my daydreamed dinner. People might dream of the beach, I dream of what to cook next. This meal needed to be more delicious than the last.

Ingredients:
Salmon
Lemon
1/4 cup Baby Zucchini
3 Tbsp Red Onion
3 Tbsp Red Pepper
1 Garlic Clove
1 cup Non-fat Yogurt (or whatever plain yogurt you have on hand)
Fresh or Dried Dill
1/2 cup White Quinoa
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
White Pepper
2 oz Feta
Fresh Parsley

After that list...do you still want to make it? :) And as always, these measurements aren't exact science because I just don't measure.

1. Rise (well) your quinoa to remove the bitterness. You can also soak it, but it's not necessary. Put it in a pot over medium heat with a cup of water, pinch of salt, and half the garlic clove. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook covered for 15 minutes.

2. While your quinoa is cooking it's time to chop your onion, peppers, and zucchini. Chop it fairly small...think about a chunky salsa. Heat up a stainless steel pan to medium-low a little closer to the low side if you have a gas stove. Add about a teaspoon or two of extra virgin olive oil so that it will lightly coat the veggies. When you start to see color on your zucchini, add the other half of your garlic clove, but make sure that it is minced. You want to get your veggies soft, but not mushy. They need to hold their shape.

3. If you're a superstar, while all of that is on the stove, go ahead with your yogurt sauce. This one is simple. Grab a bowl, toss in your yogurt, add a TON of dill (so it makes your sauce look almost green), add a dash of white pepper, and a little more than a dash of garlic powder, and finish with a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

4. Your quinoa should now be cooked. Remove from heat and set aside still covered for 5 minutes. Take your veggies out of the pan too and put them in a bowl. Set aside.

5. Take the same stainless steel pan and heat it up -- this time to medium (gas) or medium-high heat (electric). Add in your olive oil (not extra virgin!!! we need a higher smoke temp). Salt and pepper the rinsed and patted dry salmon. I used coarsely ground pink himalayan salt from TJs and coarsely ground pepper. When your oil is shimmering, put your fish down flesh first. Cook until the fish releases naturally, then flip to the skin side to finish. When you take it out of the pan, let it cool slightly and the skin should be crisp and peel right off.

6. Remove the garlic clove from your quinoa and fluff it. Add some ground black pepper, lemon, feta, and fresh chopped parsley.

7. Time to plate! Put a dollop of your yogurt on the plate and swirl with a spoon until you get a nice circle. Add a mound of quinoa, gently place your salmon on top, and spoon over your "salsa."

Here Fishy Fishy...Cake

Burgers are extra popular in the summer, but not everyone wants to eat meat. So instead, how about a tasty fish cake?

Ingredients:

• 3 tsp unsalted butter, divided 
• 1 tsp olive oil 
• 1 medium uncooked onion(s), minced 
• 2/3 cups panko 
• 1lb (rinsed) white fish such as tilapia, swai, hake, sole (don't use expensive stuff here) 
• 2 large eggs, beaten 
• 1 Tbsp sherry (dry or sweet) 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard 
• 1 1/2 Tbsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise 
• 1/4 cup(s) fresh parsley, fresh, minced (or a mix of parsley and dill) 

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray; set over medium heat. Melt 2 teaspoons of butter in skillet. Add onion; cook, stirring frequently, until onion turns translucent and start to caramelize, about 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in panko; cook, stirring frequently, until toasted, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, grind up fish. Place fish in a large bowl. Add onion mixture, eggs, sherry, salt and mustard; mix well.

Add mayonnaise and parsley; mix well again.

Working with wet hands, form eight 3-inch cakes, about 3/4-inch thick; place on a metal baking sheet, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour to help cakes stick together while cooking.


Coat a very large skillet with cooking spray; set over medium heat. When skillet is heated, melt half of the remaining butter and add 1/2 tsp of olive oil. Place a batch of cakes in skillet in a single layer and cook until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes per side; remove to a serving plate and cover to keep warm (or place in a 200°F oven to keep warm). Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Tested and Approved: Siggi's Skyr

Greek yogurt is all the craze these days, but what people have been overlooking is skyr. What is that you say? It is the traditional yogurt of Iceland that is made by incubating skim milk with live active cultures. This incredibly creamy and satisfying yogurt has 2-3 times the protein count of standard yogurt, which makes it a very healthy choice.

So onto my edible adventure. Josh was a fantastic house-husband this weekend and took it upon himself to go to the grocery store. He returned home with an unfamiliar yogurt -- Siggi's. The packaging was sleek and eco-friendly, which appealed to marketing-Lea and my general concern for the environment. We tried the vanilla flavor and to my surprise when we opened it I saw actual flecks of vanilla bean. Now, when have you seen that recently besides in your ice cream? Another point for Siggi's! The taste was just wonderful, not a hint of artificial flavoring. They actually only use milk from cows that are let out to pasture and are free of growth hormones. Ding ding! Oh yeah, and to sweeten they use agave nectar which has a favorable glycemic profile. Folks we have a winner!

I can't wait to try more of Siggi's products and I recommend you also hop on the bandwagon. Check out their website and read how this skyr came to life.

A Not-so Mat-zo Passover: Recipe 2

Here's a recipe for your last morning of Pesach. You're sick of eggs at this point; you've had them scrambled, fried, hardboiled, on matzoh, next to matzoh, etc. Now it's time to punch up the flavor with every Jew's favorite: lox.

The smokey goodness shines through in this lox dill frittata. Enjoy it with some fruit or even a side salad for a filling (and healthy) lunch.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz lox
• 2 eggs
• 6 egg whites
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbs fresh chopped dill
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 garlic clove
• bag of baby spinach
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350. Chop spinach and mince garlic.

2. Heat oven-proof skillet to medium-low. Add oil and let warm until shimmering. 

3. Add spinach and garlic and cook until spinach is wilted, adding the dill for the last minute. Remove from pan and press out water.

4. Beat eggs until fluffy with milk. I like to use a milk frother to get it extra fluffy. Add in lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

5. Spray pan with olive oil. Now add in layers, the spinach/garlic, lox and then pour over the egg mixture.

6. Cook without stirring for 4-5 minutes then place in oven and cook until set, about 15 minutes.

7. Slide frittata out and cut like a pizza.

Don't have spinach? Arugula is also a great green for this dish. 

Hope you all had a meaningful Passover. Slavery is still practiced all over the world, and on this day I am thankful to be free enjoying delicious food. Until next time...

A Not-so Mat-zo Passover: Recipe 1

Matzo = constipation. It just does. But goyim love it because it's a "giant cracker!"

No. It's just a giant stomach ache. Here is a Passover recipe to keep things moving. I'll try and do a series this week.

Take that Egyptians!

Roasted Acorn Squash on a Bed of Mashed Purple Potatoes
This recipe is a a do-what-you want kind of thing. I'm just going to give you the ingredients to work with.

• 1 acorn squash or butternut
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• crumbled feta
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• purple potatoes
• butter
• milk
• vegetable stock
• protein (I like seared shrimp for this one...I know...very kosher)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In the meantime, cut your squash in half, place on baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. When the oven comes to temp, roast for about 25 minutes until it is just tender, but will hold together when you spoon it out.
2. Get a pot of water boiling so that you can make your mashed potatoes. I'm not going to instruct you further on this one, I trust you can handle it!
3. Cut up your pepper and onion and saute it in some olive oil with the garlic. You'll want to go medium low on this one to bring out the sweetness and keep your garlic from burning. **Wait on this step until your squash is almost done**
4. Take your squash out of the oven and let it cool slightly so that you can spoon it out and cut it into chunks.
5. When your pepper/onion mixture is almost soft, add chicken stock so it just barely covers the bottom of the pan. We aren't trying to drown the food here. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the squash.
6. Get a bowl and layer some mashed potatoes, squash mixture, perhaps some seared shrimp or chicken, and finally crumble over some feta.