Tomato & Asparagus Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Spring is still in my air here in Houston and I continue to find vegetable dishes that are packed with flavor. This is such a great salad with so many fresh flavors.  If you make the vinaigrette ahead, you could have this on a weeknight, but I think it is special enough to serve at a luncheon or a dinner party. I just love all those colors.

That's all I have to say about this... it's just good.  Today, I'm working on putting together a few menus for a catering job so I'm looking for inspiration for what to serve at a baby shower.  Have any bite size favorites you would like to share?

 From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

Tomato & Asparagus Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette
Adapted from Peace Meals, Junior League Houston
Recipe Notes
You might gasp a little when you see the price tag on champagne vinaigrette.  There seem to be varieties that are expensive.  I bought the most inexpensive jar and it has lasted me a long time so it turned out to be a good investment.  Unless you like your salads drowning in dressing, you will also have plenty left over to use for another salad or to make this again.  Blanching is simply cooking a vegetable in boiling water for a few minutes to bring out it's color and then shocking it with cold ice water so that the cooking stops.  If you would like an in depth refresher, click here.
Ingredients
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 cup Champagne vinegar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
coarse salt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
dash of sugar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
for the salad:
1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed and cut on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, any color, halved
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Step by Step
Crush the garlic clove with the side of a knife blade.  The the clove (leaving it in one piece) to a mixing bowl.  Add the vinegar, pepper, and a dash of salt; allow to sit for 30 minutes.  Remove and discard the garlic.  Whisk in the mustard and sugar; slowly add the olive oil, whisking constantly to emulsify.
Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Blanch (see note above) the asparagus for 1 to 2 minutes.  Drain and rinse under cold water.  Combing the asparagus and tomatoes in a medium bowl.  Add the cheese and toss with desired amount of the vinaigrette; season with salt and pepper.  Cover and refrigerate for up to four hours.  Toss again before serving and adjust the seasonings as needed.  

Store extra vinaigrette in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Serves 6-8.

Snickers Ice Cream Pie

picture via Real Simple

Anybody in the mood for an extremely easy dessert recipe? It's just crazy the work I put into some things in the kitchen and then a recipe like this comes along that is refreshing and decadent and so darn easy.  If you have any love for caramel or Snickers, I'm going to go ahead and wager that you will love this.

Oh yeah, and why is it that I don't have a picture of the final product? I made this for a co-workers birthday and it was gone just as soon as we had it sliced.

From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

Snickers Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients
2 pints Dulce de Leche Ice Cream (my favorite brand is Haagen Daaz
14 Snickers Fun size bars, unwrapped and cut into thirds (about 1 1/2 cups total)
Step by Step
Soften ice cream by leaving it out for 30 minutes to an hour or microwave each pint for 10 to 20 seconds.  Line an 8 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.  Let it hang over the edges.

Arrange chopped Snickers in the bottom of the pan.  Press ice cream gently into the pan.  Freeze until firm, about 6 hours. Pull overhang of parchment paper to invert snickers pie onto a plate and slice immediately with a sharp knife.

Spring Vegetable Pasta with Mushroom Butter Sauce

To the best I can tell, it is pretty much spring around these here parts.  We have had beautiful weather and I sure hope it stays that way.  This is pretty much one of the freshest pastas I have ever made with so much flavor.  A co-worker shared this recipe with me (thank you, Christy!) after going to a cooking class and I just had to try it.

I usually do not like my pasta to be bothered with any sort of vegetable, but the long ribbons that you make out of carrots, zucchini, and squash intrigued me.  The ribbons were so delicate and soaked up the mushroom butter sauce to just melt in your mouth.

From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

Spring Vegetable Pasta with Mushroom Butter Sauce

Recipe Notes

The original recipe called for pappardelle pasta.  This is basically a skinny version of lasagna noodles, but I could not find it so I used fettucine.  Use whatever you can find.  If you are unfamiliar with leeks, they are really just a larger version of a green onion.  Wash them well and slice just the white part.  See picture above. 

Ingredients

1 lb. fettucine or pappardelle pasta *see recipe note

2 zucchini

2 yellow squash

2 carrots 

1 cup chopped white button mushrooms

2 leeks, washed and sliced *see recipe note

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 lemon, zested and juice

Step by Step

Peel carrot with vegetable peeler and throw away outer layer.  Continue to peel long ribbons of carrots and set aside.  Peel squash and zucchini into long ribbon pieces, stopping at seeds.  Make long strands one side of squash until you hit seed.  Then, rotate to another side and repeat until all sides have been peeled; set aside.

Saute leeks with butter on medium heat, 4-5 minutes until translucent.  Add garlic and continue to cook until fragrant, 2-3 minutes.  Add mushrooms and wine and cook an additional 10 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mushroom butter sauce can be covered and stored in the refrigerator up to one week.  Boil pasta according to directions on packaging in a large pot of salted water.  When pasta has 3 minutes left, add ribbons of vegetables to pasta and cook together.  

Drain pasta and vegetables and place in a large bowl.  Pour butter sauce on top and mix to combine.  Serve immediately. 

Makes 6 servings. 

Italian Wedding Soup

I don't know what all of a sudden happened and made me go into a soup obsession.  Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was receiving this jewel, but nonetheless, they seem to be on tap a lot around here and I seem to just find great recipe after great recipe.

You might not have jumped on the band wagon when I made this one, but let me tell you, I would be willing to wager you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like this Italian Wedding soup.  The only argument I can see against this is if you are vegetarian and I would encourage you to make this the dish you go non-vegetarian on just once in your life.

Contrary to what you might first assume, this soup has nothing to do with any Italian marriage  tradition, but is actually a mistranslation in the Italian language and refers to the fact that meat and vegetables go well together.

Now back to what's important... how good this is.  The chicken meatballs are baked with fresh bread crumbs, two cheeses and added to simmer with chicken broth, wine, tiny star pasta, vegetables, fresh spinach and a little dill.  This is good when it's cold, I imagine it would be perfect for someone under the weather and I enjoyed it all week for lunch.

In conclusion, I will try to help you understand the gravity of how much I love this soup by telling you that I'm not sure I will ever be able to make any other type of vegetable soup or chicken noodle soup ever again.  This is a perfect blend of the two and just hits the spot.

From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

Italian Wedding Soup
Adapted from Ina Garten
Recipe Notes
I could not find regular chicken sausage.  I found a variety that was blended with spinach and feta and I thought those flavors would be fine.  If there is not ground chicken, you can have a butcher ground chicken breasts for you, but you might not have realized it's in most grocery stores.  I'm not a fan of washing the mini food processor if I don't have to so I've come up with a bread trick for fresh bread crumbs.  Any time I have a few pieces left over from a loaf, I pop them in a freezer.  I take the bread out for a few minutes and then grate it with a cheese grater.  The almost frozen bread makes perfect crumbs.
Freezer Note:  Double the recipe of the meatballs so you can have two batches.  For the batch you are not going to use, place on parchment paper an inch apart and freeze for one to two hours.  Wrap tightly in saran wrap and place in a freezer bag.  Freeze for up to two months.  When ready to use, thaw overnight in the refrigerator for one hour.
Ingredients

For the meatballs:

3/4 pound ground chicken

1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed

2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs *see recipe note

2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

3 tablespoons milk

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the soup:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup minced yellow onion

1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

3/4 cup diced celery (1 large stock), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

10 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup small pasta stars (or any other small pasta)

1/4 cup minced fresh dill

12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. Using a teaspoon, make mini meatballs and place about 1 inch apart.  (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside. You can also freeze unbaked meatballs at this point for use in a later soup. 

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

thank you FPC.

You might have noticed that my banner got a little face lift. Thanks to the wonderful stylings of Allison, it looks much better. Allison is a co-owner of Frontier Paper Company, which makes amazing paper products that really live up to their tagline... notably fresh paper goods. Each project is custom and dreamy. Check them out if you haven't. Thanks, Frontier Paper Company! And I hope to meet the other co-owner, Libby, soon!

How cute is this invitation for a Valentine's Day party? I'm in love...

a taste of: New Orleans

When it came time to pack our bags for a weekend trip to we had planned months in advance, I was excited, but the planner in me was a little nervous.  I'm one of those who likes to know exactly what we are doing every minute of a trip because I don't want to miss out on anything.  I love going with the flow but also don't like to leave things to chance and end up missing out on something you must see or eat in a town.  

We went to New Orleans with our great friends, Adam and Jennifer, and it just so happens that they enjoy a good meal as much as we do.  And just like any true tourists would do, we went equipped with an amazing list of things to do, thanks to a few great friends who pulled through the day before we left.  But if you have ever been to New Orleans (or know us), you might be able to guess that 95% of this list was places we had to eat.   And boy, did we eat.  I thought I would share my favorites so if you happen to find yourself headed that way, you wouldn't miss the good stuff.  If you can believe it, we ate a lot more but these were the absolute best.  I'm sure we still missed other great places... what are you favorites?

First off was breakfast at the Old Coffee Pot in the French Quarter.

Eggs benedict with scrambled egg whites on top of spinach and artichoke hearts with hollandaise. mmmm... definitely put this on your list for breakfast.

We walked around the French Quarter and I happened upon a little treasure...

A cookbook store chock full of vintage cookbooks

Some shelves sorted by state...

Could have spent hours in here...

To know me is to know my obsession with olives and all things pickled.  That would help explain my obsession with muffulettas (however, I do order it without the bologna or "lunch meat" that is usually in these... ham, salami or turkey only please).  Central Grocery Co.  is one of the places I had been dying to go since a fellow muffuletta lover, Adam, had told me about the "home of the original."  If you have any sort of love for these sandwiches you must go.  Amazing.

The. best. cupcake. I. have. ever. had.

Seriously, and I know that is a strong statement from someone who doesn't shy away from a cupcake, but seriously this was heaven.  A dense brownie cupcake, peanut butter frosting and crushed Reese's Pieces on top.  The sad news is that this place was losing their lease the next day and would be closing.  They are hoping to find a new place to set up shop so google Kupcake Factory if you are in town and see if you can find this little jewel. 

Fried shrimp po-boy and turtle soup from Mother's.  Such a great lunch and worth the wait that that was wrapped along the block. 

This was as much about the experience as it was the amazingly fresh oysters.  Felix's is a  great little dive with guys shucking oysters at the bar. 

Now this was serendipitous to say the least.  For some reason we all seemed to be craving pizza after lots of cajun food and determined not to have the plastic tasting pizza on Bourbon Street, we asked a few locals, checked Yelp and found Cafe Angeli.  This pizza was just too good not to share. 

And of course, we had to go to Cafe Du Monde twice for beignets.  There's just not much more to say than these are the absolute best. 

Another great little find thanks to Yelp,  Little Dizzy's.  We were looking for one last great meal and we definitely found it.  This little place is in an old bank building, which was not only a fun little setting, but a very unexpected place to find reasonably priced, great cajun food.  I had shrimp grillades over cheesy grits and the fried chicken got rave reviews from the boys. Would definitely go back here. 

Last, but not least...

After much testing, I would like to weigh in on where I found the best Bloody Mary in town.  The Court of Two Sisters.  And those pickled green beans, oh those pickled green beans. 

So this is my first post of restaurant recommendations when traveling and while I going to keep on with the cooking, I will occasionally share the good food I come to find when I am out and about.  Have any must eat recommendations for New Orleans?