Friends Food Family

Breakfast for Dinner - Garden Vegetable Frittata

It's only Wednesday and I kept thinking it was Thursday, looking forward to Friday. Boy, was I off...by a day! After eating at 8 PM last night, Jeff and I were looking for a quick and easy dinner. Jeff mentioned eggs and I said, "Let's do breakfast for dinner!" 

When we were growing up, my mother would periodically have french toast, pancakes or egg in the hole (an egg that is fried in the middle of a piece of bread) for dinner. Sometimes, it is nice to have something non-traditional. Breakfast is usually quick to make and no one ever complains. There are always complaints at dinner especially when you suggested, say, chicken and the response is, "we had that last night!" 

As we were deciding what kind of eggs to cook, we took a walk out to our garden. Nothing better than some fresh cherry tomatoes and a green pepper along with some thyme and parsley. In the refrigerator, we had scallions (that needed to be used), portobello mushrooms, fingerling potatoes (from dinner the other night) and some sliced ham. I suggested we make a frittata. Years ago, I would make a frittata with fresh tomatoes, zucchini and parmesan cheese. With all the ingredients available, I knew we could have dinner in about 30 minutes. 

For those who don't know what a frittata is, it is similar to an omelette, but you allow the mixture to cook without disturbing the eggs. You begin by cooking the frittata on the stove and finish the dish under the broiler to brown the top. A frittata is great because you can put any ingredient you want into them. It's one of those "you can throw in the kitchen sink" meals, quick and easy!

Ingredients for Frittata:

8 eggs, whisked together

2 tablespoons of water

2 cups of shredded cheese (most typically parmesan, we used cheddar for this)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 tablespoon of fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon of fresh thyme

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, using only 1 cup of the cheese and put aside. Save the other cup of cheese to be sprinkled on the frittata at the end of the cooking process.

Vegetables for the Frittata - 

We used:

10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

6 scallions, cut into 1/2 inch slices using both green and white

1/2 green pepper, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

2 large portobello caps, sliced in 1/2 and then cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 cup of cubed ham

5-6 fingerling potatoes (pre-cooked), cut into quarters

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to broil.

2. Preheat a large frying pan that is also oven-proof over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

3. Once hot, add the peppers, scallions and portobello mushrooms, cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften.

4. Add the tomatoes, potatoes and ham, cook for an addition 5 minutes. 

5. Pour the egg mixture into the frying pan, making sure all the vegetables are covered.

6. Do not stir, allow the eggs to become firm and the sides will brown slightly, about 5 minutes.

7. When the egg mixture seems firm, yet slightly wet on the top, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and place under the broiler until slightly golden and bubbling, about 3-4 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, cut into wedges and serve.

 

If you don't have the ingredients we used, be creative...

1. Zucchini and tomatoes with feta cheese

2. Mushrooms and spinach with bacon

3. Peppers and onions with some sausages

4. Thinly sliced potatoes with onions and thyme

 

The sky's the limit...we'd love to know, what kind of frittata you would create?

Basil Rubbed Pork Chops with White Peach-Blue Cheese Salad and Toasted Walnuts

There are upsides and downsides to having a food blog. The variety of food we serve on a regular basis is amazing. We have tried so many different recipes from American and Italian to Asian and Greek...and everything in between. Jeff and I make so many different recipes that sometimes it is hard to keep track. Our family will say it is wonderful because they try so many different types of meals, dishes and desserts. The downside is that we might only try the recipe once or we haven't had time to post the recipe and lose track of it. For the 350+ recipes we have posted, there are probably another 100+ that we haven't completed.

Last week, my daughter was reminiscing about a recipe we made last summer that had grilled peaches and blue cheese. I was saying to Jeff that I don't remember blogging about the dish, but I remember it vividly because it was delicious. But now, where was the recipe?

Last night, we were looking for pork chop recipes when Jeff opened Bobby Flay's Grill It Cookbook and low and behold, Basil Rubbed Pork Chops with Nectarine-Blue Cheese Salad and Toasted Pine Nuts. YES, we found the recipe and it won't get away this time. Looking at what we had available in the house, white peaches were going to have to make due as well as some toasted walnuts VS pine nuts since the last of the pine nuts made pesto for Ravioli with Chicken and Pesto. 

This is such an easy recipe since there is no marinading time and everything was ready for the grill in 15 minutes. The olive oil and the basil rub keep the pork chops moist and flavorful. NOTE: Make sure to cover them with foil and let them rest before serving. As for the white peaches, they were amazing and the toasted walnuts and honey complemented the blue cheese. Pork, peaches, honey, blue cheese - what a delicious combination.

Truthfully, I could grill peaches and serve them with honey and walnuts anytime. Since I have grilled peaches on my mind...just a little side note - Wouldn't grilled peaches with honey and toasted walnuts taste amazing with a scoop of ice cream? OK, discussion for another blog!

Looking for something easy for dinner? Here's your shopping list:

pork chops, peaches (or Nectarines), blue cheese, basil, honey, walnuts

Tell me what you think? Now that I have captured the recipe, this is a keeper!

Adapted from Bobby Flay's Basil Rubbed Pork Chops with Nectarine-Blue Cheese Salad and Toasted Pine Nuts.

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops - 1 inch thick
16 basil leaves, thinly slice half of the leaves, 8 left whole/8 sliced into ribbons
4 tablespoons of olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
4 white peaches, halved and pitted
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons of honey
1/3 cup of chopped walnuts, toasted

 Preparation:

1. Bring a charcoal grill or gas grill to high heat.

2. Take 8 of the whole basil leaves and rub the chops on both sides. Brush the chops with 2 tablespoons of oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If they are around 1-inch thick, cook for about 3 minutes a side. Remove from grill, tent loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

3. Coat the halved nectarines with rest of the oil. Set cut side down on the grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until caramelized but not blackened. Flip and cook for another minute or so, until slightly soft.

4. Plate the chops. Place two nectarine halves on each plate and top with blue cheese, walnuts, and thinly sliced basil. Drizzle with the honey.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Dig in and enjoy!

The Urban Legend of the $250 Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This is a story that every woman will appreciate. 

I am a multi-tasker, Jeff would say I have attention deficit disorder. I start mini projects all through the day. I may not completely finish them in one given time frame, but by the end of the day, I have completed everything I started. 

So, I started last Saturday afternoon checking the statistics of this blog, Friends Food Family. It was the end of 4th of July weekend and there had been quite a bit of activity with fans searching for cook-out and dessert recipes. One of my busiest blog posts is the Chocolate Oreo Cookie Trifle. As I was looking at the search page (for where my article shows up), I noticed a chocolate chip cookie trifle. I clicked on the link and landed on a blog article of a woman who made a chocolate chip cookie trifle with vanilla pudding along with blueberries and raspberries. She had made these delicious looking chocolate chip cookies and I figured I would get the recipe. She said it was her favorite Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but when I clicked on the link, it took me to the Neiman Marcus website...no cookie recipe.

I googled "Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe" and a number of recipes came up, along with "these are the $250 Chocolate Chip Cookies". I started laughing. Do you remember the story that traveled around the internet? It was about a woman who asked for the chocolate chip cookie recipe from a major department store. They tell her it is two fifty, she thinks it's $2.50 and the store charges her credit card $250.00. She gets mad, can't get her money back and vows she will share the recipe with everyone. If you would like, you can read the e-mail, The Cookie that cost a Bundle.

For some reason, I always thought it was Mrs. Field's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. So, I had to look up the real story. It takes on all different versions and people involved but Mrs. Field's does end up being one of the people connected with the $250.00 recipe scam.

Well, I had made these cookies years ago when I got the e-mail and thought I would make them again. I adapted it slightly from the original using light brown and dark brown sugars, Symphony Bars with Almonds and Toffee Bits and a few less nuts.

These cookies were delicious. They were chewy with a slight crunch, they had that oatmeal nutty flavor and the bittersweet and milk chocolate gave it that wonderful chocolaty richness.

After I was done making the cookies, packaging them up and cleaning the kitchen, Jeff asked how I happen to find the recipe. I told him the story of how I was looking up some statistics to the blog...yada, yada, yada...and he said, I bet you don't even know what the numbers were. Ah, he thinks I became distracted, "6200 this month", I rattled off without missing a beat. Well, I'll admit, it probably wasn't the exact number, but it was close. (wink, wink)

The exact number was 6340. Who says I can't multi-task! Get distracted and make a batch.

Adapted from Cooks.com, Neiman-Marcus $250 Cookie Recipe.

Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups of butter
2 cups of granulated sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of dark brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
4 cups of flour
5 cups of oatmeal
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of baking soda
24 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips (4 cups)
2 (4 ounce) Symphony Bars (we used the toffee bits and almonds type), grated
2 cups of chopped pecans

Preparation:

1. Measure oatmeal and process in blender to a fine powder.
2. Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add the bittersweet chocolate chips, grated chocolate and nuts.
5. Spoon tablespoon sized balls onto cookie sheet. You can also use an ice cream scoop for larger cookies. Make sure you flatten them slightly.
6. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 375°F.

Makes 9 dozen cookies.

Blueberries and Cream - Blueberry Ice Cream

July is National Blueberry Month. Local farm stands and grocery stores are starting to stock freshly picked blueberries as the season has begun. We have a farm near us, C.N. Smith Farm, where we normally pick our blueberries. Next weekend, we will head over to grab a few batches for this season's blueberry recipes.

Over the holiday, we had a few guests come over for lunch and dinner. We decided to make some ice cream and Lemon Vodka Sorbet and Blueberries and Cream Ice Cream were on our list. We thought it could be the amazing pairing of two cold treats.

One of the best kitchen gadgets we purchased, in the past few years, is an ice cream maker. When our friends, Sharon and Bryan arrived, Brian thought the ice cream machine was the neatest thing. He had never seen the process of making ice cream. Because our machine is open at the top, you can taste the ice cream while it is setting. This is always fun when there are guests around...everyone gets a spoon and a taste.

The initial part of making the blueberries and cream ice cream, making the puree, was easy. I would suggest making it the night before as it takes about an hour, with cooling time, and the mixture can refrigerated overnight. Adding the cream and lemon juice and the mixing in the ice cream machine means another 30 minutes. If you can give the ice cream 2-3 hours to set in the freezer (after mixing) you will be ready to go. 

After cleaning up dinner, we sat down to finish the evening with our blueberries and cream ice cream. I was laughing as I was trying to decide on how to tell you what our friends thought. So, here it is...

Comments and Reviews: (From the first batch!)

"Amazing!", "Probably the best ice cream you've ever made!", "Better than real blueberries!", "Will you make more?"

We hope this inspires you to try making a batch of ice cream. Not only is it easy, the process is entertaining and the results are delicious! Or should I say Blueberri-lious!

This recipe was adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Ice Cream Cookbook.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries

3/4 cup of water

1 cup of white sugar

1 cup of heavy cream

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Place the blueberries, water and sugar in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Once it has come to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 minute.

2. Remove from heat and allow the flavor to blend together, about 30 minutes.

3. Transfer the mixture to a food processor, blend until smooth, about 1 minute.

4. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 3-24 hours.

5. When ready to make the ice cream, add the cream and lemon juice to the chilled blueberry puree. Mix to combine.

6. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

7. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe container and cover tightly. Freeze until firm.

Scoop and enjoy!

Homemade Fresh Strawberry Sorbet

Over the past few weeks we have been on an ice cream making spree. It started with Double Chocolate Ice Cream and progressed to Strawberry Sorbet, Pineapple and Fresh Ginger Sorbet and Blueberries and Cream Ice Cream. Last night (4th of July), we finished the evening mixing Lemon Wild Tea Vodka Sorbet, which was amazing and we created a new Lemon Mar-tea-ni...get it?

Please bear with us as we are going to post some quick and easy ice cream and sorbet recipes which are created with fresh ingredients and an electric ice cream maker. Let's start with the recipes. We have two wonderful ice cream cookbooks which we have been using as guides for our icy creations. The first is Ice Cream by Shona Crawford Poole. This has easy recipes for both sorbets and ice creams. We love the creative combinations of ingredients which are used to enhance the fruit flavors. For example - Pineapple and Fresh Ginger Sorbet - cool pineapple with a ginger bite and the Lemon Vodka Sorbet which we "kicked up a notch" using Wildberry Tea Vodka. The second book is Williams-Sonoma Ice Cream. This book had the Double Chocolate Ice Cream and Blueberries and Cream Ice Cream recipes. If you are going to start making homemade ice cream, consider investing in a few good cookbooks. They give you great ideas for ice cream and sorbet combinations. 

The Fresh Strawberry Sorbet recipe was adapted from the Ice Cream Cookbook by Shona Crawford Poole.

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh strawberries

Freshly squeezed juice of one orange, we also added the rind of half the orange

1 cup of white sugar

Preparation:

1. Hull the strawberries and puree them with a hand blender or food processor.

2. Strain the mixer through a sieve.

3. Add the orange juice, rind and sugar to the strained mix. Place the mixture in the refrigerator allowing the flavors to develop for about an hour or two.

4. Place the strawberry mixture in the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions. 

5. Put in a container and place in the freezer to allow the mixture to firm completely.

This strawberry sorbet was amazing. It is very light and refreshing. It tastes like cool fresh strawberries. One night after the sorbet was made, my son, Stephen, was looking for the freshly chopped strawberries to make a strawberry shortcake. When he couldn't find the mixture, he grabbed the shortbread, added the sorbet and topped it with fresh whipped cream. He thought it tasted better than the real strawberry shortcake.

Our family is fortunate, they get to try so many different combinations of food. Someday we may find that strawberry shortcake actually tastes better with strawberry sorbet. 

Pineapple Peach Mango Salsa

Summer is here (in New England) and we love all the fresh fruit that is available around this time of year. There are so many more choices for salads, desserts and salsas. A few years ago we came upon some fruit salsa recipes, but once you get the basic recipe down, it's easy to create your own.

I knew we were grilling scallops for dinner and I wanted something refreshing to go with it. I arrived at the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items and peaches were on sale. They were next to the kiwi and before I knew it, I had a pineapple, mango, peaches and kiwi in my cart. A red bell pepper, purple onion and a bunch of cilantro and I was ready to go.

When creating a fruit salsa, it's a combination of fruits and vegetables. There is normally a pepper and onion added to balance the sweetness and acidity of the fruit. I use a red bell pepper, since it is sweeter (plus, I like the color) and a red onion because I like the raw flavor over the white and yellow onions. I also try to put a citrus fruit in the recipe to help preserve the salsa.

Here is my Pineapple Peach Mango Salsa

1 pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 mango, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

3 kiwi, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

2 peaches, pitted and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 red bell pepper, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 of a large red onion, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup of olive oil

Rind from 1/2 of lime

The juice of 2 limes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

A pinch of salt...to taste

Mix all ingredients together and let them chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This helps the flavors to meld together.

Here are a few things you can use the Pineapple Peach Mango Salsa with:

1. Tortilla Chips - Better than regular salsa, especially when it is warm outside, this is very refreshing. It complemented our Zen Sangria. My sister, Karen, joined us and with every chip she dipped she would say, "This is amazing!"

2. Jasmine Rice - We make the rice plain and then add a few heaping tablespoons at the end to give the rice some subtle fruit flavor.

3. Side Dish - Use with seafood and chicken dishes. The night we made this salsa, we grilled scallops.

4. Quinoa - Cook the quinoa according to directions and then add to the dish, similar to the rice.

It's fun to be creative with fruit salsas...what is your favorite? And how do you like to serve it?

We would love to hear from you!