FFwD: Hummus

This recipe came at the perfect time! We had a BBQ on Saturday and I was looking for appetizers. It was a super easy recipe, the only thing I changed was I added extra-virgin olive oil to thin it out and also drizzled on top.

I can't wait to make it again, maybe with roasted garlic or kalmata olives, or a combination of both! I have leftover tahini (the only tahini was in a pretty good sized can) and a very versatile recipe.

Everyone enjoyed the hummus, it was especially good with pita chips and carrots!

Yummy goodness!

FFwD: Spicy Poached Pears and Peach Melba

Well, I am still having issues plugging my phone into the computer and downloading pictures... so I emailed myself a couple so that I could at least post something! The peach melba was excellent, it tasted so good on ice cream (the hubby liked it also, which is a plus)!

The spicy poached pears were amazing, so flavorful and made the whole house smell awesome! I halved the sugar and water, but kept the spices the same, the flavor was really concentrated. I ate them over some plain Greek yogurt and it was blissful!

I am still playing catch up, but hopefully will get back into the swing of things. Can't wait to see everyones stuff this week!

FFwD: Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

Woohoo, I am actually posting on Friday! This weekend will be catch up on everyone's blogs weekend, can't wait to see what sort of yummies everyone has cooked/ baked! But onto these tarts, they were so good! I made a few changes, I added some squash, roasted both the squash and tomatoes, and made one big tart. I used a kalmata and garlic tampenade (I was going to make my own, but ran out of time). Wow, this was definitely a repeat, both hubby and I thought it was awesome! Can't wait to make it again!

My pretty slices all ready to roast!

Pricked the heck out of the puff pastry

Ready to be warmed up, so diagonal!

All cut up and ready to eat!

So yummy!

FFwD: Lemon Barley Pilaf

I had not used barley before for anything other than beef and barley stew, so I was excited to try this. It turned out really good, I had a good amount of liquid, so I decided to treat it like risotto and add in some Parmesan cheese, it added a great taste and thickened it up nicely!

I will definitely use barley like this again, such a quick and versatile recipe!

FFwD: Make up Roundup

Well, it has been a couple of weeks, and they have been some crazy weeks! We are finally moved, the weekend we moved, it was the hottest yet and we lost electricity for over 2 days. Yeah, we felt like we were going to spontaneously combust! I have been cooking, but havent' gotten to blog, so today is a make-up day. First up is the Seaweed Sables... they were OK. My husband was not a fan. There was a definite seaweed aftertaste, I think if you like sushi, then these might be for you!

lots of seaweed!

Mixed together

Fresh out of the oven

The next recipe is corn pancakes, not these were really good! Super easy (I had a little helper!) and quick. I also made a squash version also that was also great!

My little angel and his funny face!

Sizzling away in the pan

All kinds of yummy corn goodness!

My final recipe for today was the crunchy ginger cucumbers. One of my coworkers gave me some beautiful cukes from his garden and they worked perfectly! I knew I would like this, but I didn't realize how much, the cukes and just perfect with the ginger, vinegar, and a touch of red pepper. Really refreshing!

Yummy homegrown cukes!

Lovely!

Well that is it for today, I plan on making this weeks recipe this weekend, so hopefully I will link that in a couple days! So happy to be back, hope everyone is doing good, I have missed the blogging and interaction with everyone!

FFwD: Lime, Honey and Beet Salad

This was a great salad! I love fresh beets and the little hint of lime with the chives was just perfect. I roasted the beets, peeled the skin, and added everything else. Ended up sitting in the fridge for a couple days (made on Friday, didn't eat till today). The salad was just perfect for the BBQ tonight, great with grilled chicken! Happy Father's Day to everyone!

Sorry, not the best picture, but the salad looked really nice!

FFwD: Olive Oil Ice Cream

Since I flaked on last weeks recipe, I really wanted to do this weeks and that went double because it was Olive Oil Ice Cream! That really intrigued me. I don't have an ice cream maker, so I googled it and found the process to make it without an ice cream maker! A bit more time consuming, but well worth it! The recipe calls for a fruity olive oil, I was pretty sure my olive oil was a bit too peppery and my search for an infused olive oil turned up empty at the grocery store, so I infused my own. I used lemon peel and vanilla bean, it was so easy!

As the oil was cooling, I put together the cream mixture, tempered the eggs, and whisked away.

Once everything was the appropriate consistency, it all went into a ice bath to cool down in preparation for the freezer!

Once everything was cool, the bowl went into the freezer. Every 30-40 minutes, I took the bowl out and mixed it vigorously, breaking up the ice crystals. Here is what it looked like after about 2-3 hours:

It was really good, rich, complex and super satisfying! I already have some ideas of additions and adaptations! We had it for dessert the other night and every night since. I totally forgot to take a nice presentation picture, so here is the bowl with quite a bit eaten!

Yummy!

FFwD: Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

This was quite a rich recipe! Pretty easy to whip up though. I decided to do a mix of the Nutella tart and the double banana. I put a layer of Nutella on the bottom, then the caramelized bananas and finally the chocolate ganache. I skipped the bananas on top, just wasn't really feeling them. The tart turned out very good!

Tart dough ready for oven!

If you notice, I made a big tart to take to a BBQ and a little tart for hubby and me to try last night. Well, in my infinite wisdom, I forgot that the little tart would cook quite a bit faster. Yeah, it burned and I ended up throwing it away.

Caramelizing the bananas

These were a great idea in concept, but mine turned into a mushy banana mess of butter and sugar caramely goodness! Totally worked out, just spread it on the bottom!

Ganache

The ganache was really easy to make, I did it all in one pot! It was funny, I was stirring it and eating Swiss Chard chips at the same time hoping that no Swiss Chard fell in the ganache!

Final yummy!

So, we ended up eating slices out of the big tart, luckily the BBQ today is with family and they don't care! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

FFwD: Provencal Olive Fougasse

Wow, what a crazy week! It has been non-stop between trying to put a contract on a new house, work, and the usual running around, I can't believe it was been almost 2 weeks since I blogged! Luckily I had time the past couple days to get some cooking in, yesterday and today have been bread days. Between this recipe and the brioche dough for next weeks TwD:BwJ, it has been a flour covered week. I don't have a stand mixer, so both recipes were made by hand.... Let me tell you, the brioche was a challenge (more on it next week)! This weeks recipe was this wonderful thin olive bread, it was so good and after the brioche, pretty easy to make!!! Seriously my hubby and I could not stop eating it! It was not hard to mix by hand, just a bit sticky, especially after adding the olives and lemon zest. I used pitted kalmata olives and they were a great addition.

Yummy olives, lemon zest, and rosemary!

After overnight resting in the fridge

Rolled out, cut, brushed, sprinkled with salt, and ready to bake

Baked and ready to eat!

So yummy, served it with Dorie's Lazy Person's Chicken and dinner was a success!

FFwD: Coconut Friands

I am a big fan of coconut; macaroons, pina coladas, pretty much coconut anything. I was really pleased that this weeks recipe not only had coconut, but was super easy! I couldn't find any unsweetened coconut, so I used sweetened and cut the sugar way down.

Batter and muffin tin

The batter came together quickly and these little nuggets of joy were in the oven in about 10 minutes. A little bit later and after some cooling, I had a nice little bite-sized snack before dinner! Hubby even liked them too!

Yummy little coconut nuggets!

FFwD: Sardine Rillettes and other stuff

Before I get into this week's recipe, please forgive a little tangent. It has been an interesting cooking couple of days. I have been very motivated to cook (probably due to the fact that I am finally over the killer cold for the last 2 weeks!), so I have been in the kitchen having adventures. Wednesday was clean out the freezer day, amazing what you find, and Greek inspired chicken wraps. Since all I had in the freezer was a tray of chicken thighs, deboning them was challenging. I saved the meat close to the bones and made chicken soup today. Thursday was steak day, sounds innocent right?

Well, except for the small fire, everything was great! I was using the broiler for the steaks and the smoke detectors were going crazy (not unusual for me and the broiler). I got sick of trying to run back and forth trying to silence them, an interesting feat considering the vaulted ceilings, I had already knocked one off the ceiling and ended up batting at it like a piñata and finally climbing up a ladder and disconnecting it, when I decided to give up on the broiler and finish the steaks on the stove top. Opened the oven door, flames came rolling out, so I quickly closed oven door. Ughhhh....turned off everything, peeked in the oven window, pan still on fire, OK, looked over and found some cake flour on the counter, thought awesome, I can take care of the fire and not ruin the steaks! Opened oven door, pulled out rack, doused pan in flour, and presto! Fire was out. Figured out it was not actually the steaks on fire, but the marinade that was on pan, perfect, scraped flour off steaks, threw them in a skillet and poured myself a big glass of wine. During the whole event, my darling son was playing in his room and it didn't even faze him. Steaks turned out good; hubby said that the flour actually made a gravy that was really tasty.

Luckily today has not been that interesting. Made some lemon curd for a recipe next week, made chicken soup with leftover bones, attempted to put together a Greek pie for dinner, ended up being a Greek quiche (just a pointer, don’t thaw phyllo dough in the microwave no matter what the box says), and made the Sardine Rillettes.

Everything but the sardines and lemon

All ready with some Triscuits!

 I wasn't sure about the Sardines after the first bite, but had a couple more and ended up liking it! Probably won't be a regular on the menu (hubby was not thrilled), but I am definitely less intimidated by them now!

FFwD: Asparagus with Bits of Bacon

Asparagus + bacon = awesome! I love asparagus, love bacon, so this was a great side dish for me! It was super easy, whipped it up in about 10 minutes this afternoon. I used walnut oil and cooked the onions a little bit, just a soften and then proceeded to stand at my counter and eat half of it. Yeah, turned out to be a great mid afternoon snack (I believe it balanced out the three handfuls of Cadbury Mini-Eggs that I ate for the other snack)!

FFwD: Crab and Grapefruit Salad

Crab and grapefruit... not the first combination that comes to mind, but surprisingly good! Instead of an appetizer, I turned this into a dinner salad for hubbie and me. Added some spinach and avocado and served with some bread and butter! Turned out to be a very enjoyable light dinner. I believe that it will definitely be in the summer dinner rotation with different variations (maybe shrimp, because the crab was kinda expensive!).

Before crab

With crab and dressing!

FFwD: Cocoa Sables

After a wonderful vacation week where someone else cooked, I am back to cooking and baking! The Irish Soda Bread earlier this week was a huge hit, so much so that my hubbie requested it again! This time I made two loaves, one regular and one with an additional 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, oh my gosh, it is amazing!!! I have to post a picture!

Yummy!!!

I love cheese bread, so I am super excited to be able to make it!! 

Anyway, back to the wonderful cookies we made this week. This is the first time I made sables or any kind of shortbread, it was surprisingly easy. The dough was really crumbly, but I was able to roll it nicely in the plastic wrap into logs.

Chocolaty goodness!

After putting them in the freezer for awhile, they were ready to cut! I did some pretty uneven rolling in sugar and started cutting. The only issue I had was that my knife kept catching on the big (didn't quite cut them small enough) pieces of chocolate and breaking the cookies!

Ready for oven

End result, not the prettiest cookies I have made, but so yummy! Not too sweet, super chocolaty, perfect for a decadent snack!

FFwD: Saint-Jermain-Des- Pres Onion Biscuits

Yummm....onion and biscuits.... These were very yummy and relatively easy to make, I had a little trouble with the dough (a bit sticky) and my biscuits did not puff up very much, but they tasted awesome! We used them for breakfast this morning, and they were really great with scrambled eggs and cheese!  

FFwD: Cheese Topped Onion Soup

Oh, yum! I love cheese topped onion soup and was super excited to make my own! Everything started good, I used my handheld mandolin to make short work of the onions and everything went into my dutch oven and sweated away....and away.....and away. After a hour and half, the beautiful onions were still white, so even though Dorie said not to, I upped the heat (had to have dinner sometime!). About 45 minutes later, the onions were done and everything else went into the pot. The soup turned out amazing! I used some left over White Loaf bread (from TwD:BwJ) that I had in the freezer and topped it with Gruyere. We don't have any oven proof single serving bowls, so the soup went into a larger bowl. Both my husband and I loved the soup, it was hot and kinda sweet and the bread and cheese just made it! Definitely a do over, but next time I will start the onions a little earlier!



All ready to be chopped!



Wow, that is a lot of onions!



Bowl full of goodness



Ready to eat!

 Alright, now onto trying to frost a birthday cake!

FFwD: Mussels and Chorizo

I was so looking forward to this dish, I mean mussels, chorizo, garlic, wine, tomatoes...what is there not to like!?! I spent half an hour debearding and scrubbing the mussels, had the sauce bubbling nicely away and the bread freshly out of the oven. Put the mussels in the sauce, covered and waited.



Sauce bubbling nicely!



After being covered for about 10 minutes

 After about 5 minutes, I checked, the mussels didn't really look open, so back on the cover for about 5 more minutes. At this point, it is past dinner time (running a bit late today!), so off came the cover and into bowls everything goes. If you notice, the mussels still aren't really open. Started to pry into them and realized about 75% of the mussels are still half-raw. My husband, the consummate supporter, thought long and hard about diving in anyway, but since neither of us knew if raw mussels or half cooked mussels were OK to eat, everything got scrapped. I realized I had put the wine in too early, so there was not enough steam to cook them, if I had left them in for a bit longer, probably would have been fine. Oh, well, lesson learned.

Ended up eating the bread with some pepperoni, cheese, wine, and a nice salad. It was funny, but having that simple dinner ended up being very French like for us since reminded me of the time my husband and I were on the French side of St. Maarten on our honeymoon and the last time I was in Paris. It turned out to be a really nice dinner anyway!

FFwD: Nutella Tartine

I love Nutella, I grew up eating it and have passed that love unto my son! I was a little hesitant about mixing orange marmalade with Nutella, but thought what the heck, trying new things is the whole point of this group! I had a couple leftover slices of my white loaf from Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia, so I thought perfect! I could not find bitter orange marmalade, but found a combination orange one. And I was lazy and used the toaster instead of the broiler!



Cast of characters (walnuts instead of hazelnuts)



About 3 minutes later, I had a great afternoon snack!



Lovely with some strawberries!

 I thought is was pretty good, but do not think I will be eating the combination of the orange marmalade and Nutella to often. I saw some cherry preserves, and I think that would be really amazing!