Thai Cabbage Salad

Eat, Pray, Love is one of my favorite girly movies to watch. It's about a woman named Liz who embarks on a multicountry adventure to break out of her humdrum and sad life. Liz's friend does not quite understand why such a drastic step is needed. She illustrates her point in a conversation about food. Liz asks "What did you have for lunch today?" Her friend casually replies "Just a salad." This is continued with Liz having a rather dramatic and long winded point about how people are made to live life more passionately than eating "just a salad." We have all had days where lunch is "just a salad" but I think we should fix that.

This is a crazy good salad. It is very healthy and definitely not boring by any stretch of the imagination. The flavors blend really well together and it can be served either cold or at room temperature. This salad is made with napa cabbage which is a bit more tender than regular cabbage. I like to top it with sliced grilled chicken, but any protein would make this a delicious meal.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon Thai chile paste

1 lime

1/3 cup vinegar

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

 1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 Napa Cabbage, chopped well

3 carrots, diced

 Begin the dressing by combining the chile paste as well as the zest and juice from the lime. Stir this together well.

Add in the remaining ingredients and mix really well until it's well  combined. If you prefer this a little sweeter, add in a teaspoon of honey.

Add the chopped cabbage into a very large bowl and add in the carrots. Then pour over the dressing and stir until all the leaves get some of the dressing

 I like to let this sit for about a half an hour to let the flavors meld. It is perfect timing to make this salad and then grill up a chicken breast to go along with it. I hope you try this out instead of "just a salad" some time!

 Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

"It's not sour, I really like it." my 8 year old voice said after taking a huge bite of rhubarb in a friend's backyard. Meanwhile my jaw resisted chewing the super sour and crunchy vegetable. I took a sip of water to help dilute the face I was trying so hard not to make. My friend was doing the same thing. Childhood rhubarb eating contests are a very serious thing. "How can anyone eat this? It's so sour." I thought to myself as I chewed through the pain. Little did I know that baking that gross plant can make a fabulous pie.

Rhubarb is a very misunderstood vegetable. It was often used to add bulk to more expensive fruits and to be used as a thickener. Strawberry Rhubarb pie is one of my favorites with its varying textures and fruity sauce. It's also very easy to temper the sourness of the Rhubarb. It can be found at most grocery stores in the produce section next to the celery. You may need to ask, and you will be glad you did!

If you read along with my last post, you will understand my quest for the ability to make really good pie crust. However, once I had the ability I realized that pie crust is actually not my favorite thing. It's like climbing Mount Everest and not even liking the few. That is a bit of a dramatic comparison, but you understand. It is not traditional, but I like to put a streusel topping on the top of this pie. It adds a nice sugary crunch and a pretty homey look. 

Ingredients

1 pie crust, get my recipe here

1 lb of fresh or frozen strawberries

1 thick stalk of rhubarb

1 lemon

1 cup of white sugar, divided

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

Topping:

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

First, clean and chop the rhubarb. Take all the stems off the of the strawberries and wash them well. 

Place the rhubarb in a pan with about 1/3 of a cup of water and 3/4 of the sugar. Let this boil until it is tender and the mixture has thickened. 

 This is what the rhubarb should look like when it is done. Sick and sour to begin with and ooey gooey fruity in the end.

 Slice the strawberries in half, making them all about the same size.

Use the zest of the lemon and the remaining sugar. Then add the juice from the lemon and the cornstarch.

 Then add in the rhubarb mixture. It should be a little runny. Don't worry the cornstarch will do its job in the oven.

 I bake the pie crust at 350 for about 10 minutes just to make sure it doesn't get too soggy. Poke the raw crust with a fork so the steam won't build up and cause pillows in your crust.

While the crust is baking, combine all the topping ingredients together. If it is a bit dry, just add a small splash of milk.

When the crust is very lightly golden brown, add the pie filling.

 Then dot the top of the pie with the streusel topping.

Bake the pie at 350 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes or until the top has a bit of a golden crust. 

 

This looks like a much more palatable rhubarb eating contest!

 Perfect Pie Crust

 I have terribly patient parents. When I think of the number of times I tried to make something and it didn't work out I just shake my head in amazement. Pie crust is one of those things. I had this idea that I could make really good pie crust and I chased it for a really long time.

 It would always start with out sweet neighbors giving us some peaches. I would run to the cookbook cabinet, stand on a chair and pull out our trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. You know it was the best one we had because it was securely bound together with duct tape. This was the older orange colored version with cute 1960s models who had big hair. I really, really loved that book. Every time I would follow the instructions and the pie crust would fall apart. One time I got it into the pan and I couldn't even get a knife through it. 

Along my cooking adventures I found a few tips and a really good recipe. This one comes from Just Get off Your Butt and Bake. She has tons of really good baking recipes, but this one is my favorite.Not only is this crust delicious, it mkaes enough for 2 double crusted pies. I take the extra pie dough and freeze it for another day. I modify it a bit by adding mostly butter instead of shortening. I think it adds a nice buttery flavor to the crust. 

Ingredients

4 cups of flour

2 tablespoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of salt

 1 cup of butter

3/4 cup shortening

1 tbs vinegar

1 egg

1/2 cup cold water

Place all the dry ingredients into a large Tupperware bowl with a very secure lid.

Add in the butter and shortening cut into small pieces. Cut this into the flour mixture until it looks like small peas. 

Place the lid on the bowl and shake until the mixture resembles wet sand.

Combine the egg, vinegar, and water into a bowl and mix well. 

Toss the flour over the wet mixture. Do not try to form it into a ball or stir it.

Securely fasten the lid on top and shake, shake,shake!

This is about what your crust should look like. I ended up adding another tablespoon of water, but it may depend on the humidity that day.

Form the dough into a ball and chill this for about an hour. Do you see all the little bits of butter? That's where the yummy lives.

After the dough has chilled, separate the dough into four pieces. This recipe makes enough for 2 double pie crusts. Roll up the other quarters of dough in plastic wrap and freeze it for another day of pie.

Take one of the quarters and dust a counter, the dough, and a rolling pin with flour.

Roll the dough out making sure to rotate it so it will not stick to the counter.

To place the crust into a pie plate, fold it into a quarter. It is much easier to transfer this way!

Then unfold the crust.

You can bake this blind by using pie weights or beans and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Check back on Thursday for my delicious Strawberry Rhubarb pie!

Chile Lime Beef and Peppers

Spring is here! Or at least it was for a few days. On the calender it is officially the spring season, but Mother Nature has a few disagreements about the actual temperature.  She also has some confusion about snow fall and raining ice. I did not check in with her about the weather before planning my grocery list for this week. That was a bit of a mistake. 

I had spring grilling ingredients all ready to go and the snow started to fall. A plan "B" was desperately needed. This dish reminds me of a bowl you can order at Chipotle restaurants. It's one of my favorite places as you can customize and add anything you want to your order. This is very similar to my favorite combination. The lime adds a lot of brightness and flavor while the chile powder and cumin add a nice smokiness, but very little heat. If you wanted to make this more spicy a few spliced jalapenos would be nice added to the pepper mixture. 

Ingredients

3 limes, divided

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 lb sirloin tip steak (or other cut you prefer)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chile powder

2 cups of chopped peppers (fresh or frozen)

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped and divided

2 cups of white rice, cooked

salt and pepper

Take the sirloin or the cut of your choice and place it in a medium deep dish.

Zest one of the lines over the top of the beef. Combine the juice of two limes, vinegar, and olive oil and pour over the meat. I let this marinate for about six hours turning occasionally.

Take the meat out of the marinade and dry it off with a paper towel. reserve the marinade for the sauce later on. If the meat is too wet it will boil, not brown. Then sprinkle over half of the cumin and chile powder as well as a few shakes of salt and pepper. 

Place the meat season side down in a preheated skillet and season the opposite side. This is a very thin cut of meat so it only take a few minutes to brown each side. When both sides are browned, take the meat out of the pan and let it rest under some foil while you make the sauce. 

Pour in the remaining marinade and boil for a few minutes. Boiling the liquid kills all the germs it may have been contaminated with by the meat. If you still feel weird about it, make two batches of the marinade and add in the second one here. Once this has reduced a bit, add in the peppers and cilantro. If you are using fresh peppers, you may need to add in a few tablespoons of water.

While the peppers are cooking, slice the beef into bite sized pieces. 

This is a great place to use leftover rice! If you are doing this, just heat it up a bit. Add in the juice of one lime and about 2 tablespoons of the cilantro. Mix this really well and enjoy the confetti affect.When you are ready to serve, place a serving in the bottom of a bowl.

When the peppers are tender and hot, top the rice with the beef and pepper mixture. Make sure each bowl gets a bit of the sauce as well. Take that, Mother Nature!

Fluffernutter Bars

 I never know what to say when people ask me what my hobbies are. A lot of people in the area are runners,  mountain climbers, crafters, sewers, and cycling enthusiasts. Sometimes I play a silly game of my own although it's not athletic in the slightest. Take a butter knife with a thin smear of peanut butter. Then  see how many mini marshmallows can be  picked up with it. That's not really a hobby you want to brag about after someone tells you they just climbed three mountains that morning. Regardless, it is a terribly fun and delicious game.

It reminds me of a scene from the movie The Brave Little Toaster. The whole gang is at a junk yard and the mean magnet man picks up everything it can, including the lamp and vacuum. Both are beloved characters. As I was playing this game the other day I decided these happy little marshmallows probably needed a better destiny than the end of a sticky butter knife. But for it to have a great end result, peanut butter would surely play a part in it. 

These bars are inspired mostly by the sandwich, the Fluffernutter. It's a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme. If you wish, the fluff can be used instead of the mini marshmallows but it does brown differently. I like that golden crust mini marshmallows develop on the tops of them, it tastes like a fire roasted mallow.

Ingredients

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

3/4 cup peanut butter - smooth or crunchy 

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla exact

1 cup of flour

2 cups of mini marshmallows

 Combine the softened butter and peanut butter until they are blended well. Then add in the sugars, mixing well after each addition. Finally, add in the egg and vanilla extract.

 Slowly add in the flour and mix only until it is just combined.

Spray a 9X9 pan very well with non stick spay. Those little marshmallows explode with stickiness!

Spread a bit more than half of the dough in the pan. Squish the dough so that it covers the edges of the pan a bit.  Making a crust for the bars helps keep in the sticky part that could otherwise prevent you from getting them out.

Sprinkle in 1 cup of the marshmallows. Try to spread them out a bit so each bite gets the same amount of deliciousness. 

With the remaining dough, take small pieces of it and flatten it in your hand. Then place this in a layer over the top of the marshmallow layer. Pressing gently, fuse the pieces together to make a second cookie layer. 

Bake this in a 350 degree oven for about 30 to 40 minutes until the edges are browned and the center is set. See the marshmallow lava creeping through?

Sprinkle over the second cup of marshmallows and put it back in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes. They should only puff up and get gooey, not browned. If the marshmallows brown, they will become rock hard after they are cooled. 

Perfect and ooey gooey!

 Serve these up with a tall glass of milk or coffee. I would highly recommend serving these right away to a group as they are not nearly as good once they have cooled completely.