Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday #2: The MOST POPULAR RECIPES from the Food Blogosphere

Welcome! I got to thinking about the competition between our top recipes since we started this blog, which was just almost 2 months ago. Our blog is just a "baby" blog at this point, and it has been a lot of fun for us. {Back to my original thought on top recipes...} This got me curious about other Foodie bloggers and what your top recipes are out there in the Foodie Blogosphere. So I decided to ask Foodie friends to share your most popular recipe so far for today's Make a Food-"e"-Friend party.

NOTE: I am leaving the linky lists open indefinitely so that new foodie bloggers who want to share theirs can do so whenever they "find" our party. I am posting a button to the sidebar where this party can be easily accessible for new foodie friends who want to post their most popular recipe and also for the rest of us to be able to check back for new recipes or find the ones that interested us when we're ready to try them out.

Now, for the FREE FOOD:

Foodie friends who do not blog... Browse the links and see if there are any free food offers that interest you.

Foodie blogger friends... Link your food-related giveaways. Who doesn't love free food?

If you are linking a giveaway, make sure you use the permalink to the actual giveaway blog post. Anything besides blog giveaways will be deleted, and it must be obvious in the name of your giveaway prize that it is food-related. You also need to include when the giveaway ends since this post will remain open indefinitely. Important: Please be sure to copy and paste the following in your food-related giveaway or free food coupon post (if the post has already been written, just update it to add this) to help Foodie readers make other Food-"e"-Friends and find other great FREE FOOD offers:

This offer was shared at Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday at The Saturday Evening Pot. Join the celebration among Foodies of our love for food.

We are running a giveaway of an Award-Winning Baking Cookbook:

For details, please see our original giveaway post. It ends April 1st.

Your giveaway or free food coupon offer...
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Recipe Potluck link-up:

Foodie friends who do not blog... Enjoy looking through the recipes. Relax and have a little "me" time. Be sure to get a pen and paper to note any recipes you find that you want to come back to later to try.

Foodie blogger friends... Link one of your great recipes!
If we have a theme, we will announce what that theme will be for the
next week. Otherwise, link whatever type of recipe you'd like. An
index of all previous MaFF Monday recipes can be viewed through a link
at the bottom of any MaFF post.

To link up, locate the one you want to share that is already written. Important: Edit your blog post by adding the Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday button (get the code from the sidebar) or by copying and pasting the following in your recipe blog post:

This recipe was shared at Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday at The Saturday Evening Pot. Join the celebration among Foodies of our love for food.

This will allow everyone who wishes to join in to enjoy all of the great
recipes and blogs that participate and will be especially helpful
during the weeks we have themed potlucks when people may be interested
in finding more of that type of recipe.

If you need further guidance on linking a recipe, please see our step-by-step guide.

Last week, I shared that in the beginning, our top recipe was Paradise Shrimp over Jasmine Rice. Then we participated in another linky party, Soup-a-Palooza, and the Slow Cooker Italian Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup quickly surged to the Number 1 spot! I'm curious to see if it holds that spot over the long haul. Since these are not new recipes, I will just share them through the links to the original posts above (as opposed to writing the recipe again in this post).

And now, for your most popular recipe....

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Raspberry and Carob Chip Pancakes

This is The Lucky Wife's new favorite breakfast.  She says she would eat it every day if she could.  Look for a blog soon, written by her, on carob.  {UPDATE: Check out Carob: Chocolate's Fraternal Twin and a Healthier Alternative for more about Carob.}

Personally, I don't care for the carob (or chocolate)/raspberry combo.

(Note: Our surprise recipe this week will be the final side dish for our February focus for Saturday recipes.  We decided to serve this one today instead of the February side dish, so stay tuned for that one sometime this week...)

Raspberry and Carob Chip Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 batch boxed pancake batter (we used Gluten Free Bisquick)
• 2 tablespoons Carob chips (can substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Cooking Directions:

1. Prepare pancake batter as directed on box. Fold in carob chips and frozen raspberries. (Note: We have found that putting the raspberries in the batter frozen helps them to hold their shape and texture. Thawing the raspberries prior to adding them to the batter causes them to fall apart.)
   
   
2. Heat medium sized non stick skillet over medium low heat. Once heated, pour approximately 1/2 cup pancake batter in skillet. Cook until golden brown on first side (bubbles will appear over surface of batter) and flip. Pancake is finished when both sides are golden brown and pancake is fluffy. Makes 4 large or 6 small pancakes. Recipe can be doubled.

Recipe URL (for SEO coding): http://recipeseo.com/recipe/8m9nU

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 3 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 5 Stars

The Well-Fed Son (4 years old) - 5 Stars

The Well-Fed Daughter (6 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (5 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

We've shared this recipe at Friday Potluck @ EKat's Kitchen, I'm Lovin' It Fridays @ Tidy Mom, Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap, It's a Keeper Thursday, This Week's Cravings, and

Garlic Lime Shrimp over Pasta

Well...you guessed it, another variation of a classic to keep us in line with food sensitivities.  We found  a recipe a while back for lemon pepper shrimp over pasta.  We loved it.  After going on the elimination diet to pinpoint food sensitivities, two of the main ingredients in that dish were out.  Lemon and Pepper.  Shrimp boiled in plain salted water over plain pasta sounds yummy any day, right?  Sure.  So I did some brainstorming after looking at the list of foods that we could have unlimited amounts of at any time.  I seem to have a habit of that.

I wanted citrus and I wanted a kick.  I came up with this.  I originally thought of having the base of the cooking liquid be chicken broth and just accent it with lime juice, but at the last minute I decided to be a purist and go with straight lime juice and garlic, with no diluting.  Lime is not as pungent as lemon and I thought the chicken broth would cause the finished product to be weak in the flavor area.  Also, the idea was for the pasta to be on the dryer side and not swimming in liquid.  It was a hit.  The Well-fed Son is a noodle nut....and shrimp is his favorite meat.  There's an automatic winner for you.  The cool thing about this is we are keeping in line with a "clean diet" and not sacrificing one ounce of flavor.  Enjoy.

Garlic Lime Shrimp over Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 8-ounce box spaghetti style pasta (can use wheat, whole grain, or rice pasta)
• 1 pound extra large, peeled, de-veined and tail-off shrimp (20 to 25-count)
• 5 fresh limes (cut in half)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• (to taste) salt

Cooking Directions:

1. Boil pasta until cooked, drain cooking liquid and rinse with cold water to stop cooking process. Place drained, cooled pasta in large mixing bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil and coat pasta thoroughly. (This will prevent pasta from sticking together.)


2. Heat large, non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Add oil and garlic.


3. Using a set of tongs, take a half of a lime and place between handle (V-shaped shaft). Grab the hinged end with one hand and the opened end with the other. Close the set of tongs, squeezing the lime half and releasing juice into skillet. Repeat process until 4 of the 5 limes have been juiced. Reserve the last lime. Saute garlic in lime juice for about one minute.


4. Add shrimp. Saute shrimp until cooked. Season with salt to taste.


5. Pour shrimp and broth over cooked pasta and combine thoroughly. Squeeze remaining lime over finished product. Serve immediately. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Recipe URL: http://recipeseo.com/recipe/w7YV5

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 4 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 4 Stars

The Well-Fed Son (4 years old) - 4 Stars

The Well-Fed Daughter (6 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (4 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday

Welcome to our first Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday!

Thank you for your patience while we evolved from starting out as Foodie Friday. We are new bloggers, and as with any new life experience, there is a learning curve. We are definitely learning as we go and having fun along the way.

We'll go ahead and start with our "FREE FOOD" link-up by announcing a new way to enter our current giveaway, for Rosie's Bakery All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed No-Holds-Barred Baking Book:


The additional and easy way to enter is to leave a comment to the original giveaway post telling us which of the recipes from this sampling you would want to try first if you won the cookbook:

Apple-Cranberry Tart

Banana Custard Pie

Black and Whites

Brownie Cheesecake

Butterscotch Cinnamon Icebox Cookies

Caramel Apple Casserole

Chocolate Fruitcake

Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie

Chocolate-Crusted Peanut Butter Pie

Cold Fudge Sundae Cake

Desert Island Butter Cake

Extra Extra Fudgy Brownies

Fresh Blueberry-Muffin Breadfast Cake

Harvard Mocha Cake

Hermits

Honeypots

Nectarine Synergy

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Orange Pecan Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Peaches 'n' Cream Custard

Sour Cherry Fudge Cake

Truffle Souffle

Walnut Dream Bars

They sound so decadent, it would be a hard choice for me if I didn't love, love, love chocolate/peanut butter combos so much! That makes my choice easy PEASY: the Chocolate-Crusted Peanut Butter Pie. But wait! I guess I cannot enter the giveaway,which means, if I'm truly lucky, The Chef will get me a copy of my own. (hint, hint!) ;) (I would much rather be able to win it since it is a $50+ value!)

And now... link up your FREE FOOD offers...
The Scoop: Who doesn't love free food? If you are a Foodie looking for free food, just click on the links below to see the details of each offer. We allow blog giveaways and coupon offers for free food only. If you are linking a giveaway or coupon, make sure you use the permalink to the actual giveaway blog post and please include the following in your food-related giveaway or free food coupon post (if the post has already been written, just update it to add this) to help Foodie readers make other Food-"e"-Friends and find other great FREE FOOD offers:

This recipe was shared at Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday at The Saturday Evening Pot. Join the celebration among Foodies of our love for food.

Anything besides blog giveaways will be deleted, and it must be obvious in the name of your giveaway prize that it is food-related.




And now it is time for the recipe potluck. This week, I have enjoyed watching a battle between three of our recipes as they compete for the top recipe spot! We participated in another recipe link-up event, and the recipe we linked there was wildly popular, so much so that it passed the recipe that had been the obvious favorite right from the beginning. I decided it "deserved" to be shared here after holding the Number 1 spot for so long:

Paradise Shrimp over Jasmine Rice

It is definitely a big family favorite for us. I hope that you will try it and enjoy it as much as we do. And now for your recipe links... I'd love to see what recipe has been the most popular on your blog, but you can share anything you'd like. Please be sure to include the following in your recipe blog post so that everyone can enjoy all of the great recipes and blogs that participate:

This recipe was shared at Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday at The Saturday Evening Pot. Join the celebration among Foodies of our love for food.

List of all recipes from previous MaFF Mondays > >

Whiskey-Glazed Carrots

EAT YOUR CARROTS!! Who didn't hear that when they were seven?  I did.  And most of the time, I would.  The old trick of feeding it to the dog under the table didn't work for me because we did not have pets in the house.  A dog's place was in the yard.

Generally, carrots are a Ho-Hum vegetable.  There is nothing exotic about them.  Their claim to fame is being recognized as Bugs Bunny's favorite food that he often kept in a cigar holder in the breast pocket of his "Suit".  Other than that, they are orange, sweet and extremely good for you.

I get sick of steamed carrots.  I get tired sometimes of the carrots in pot roast.  Sure, they are good, but one can only eat pot roast but so much.  So I became determined to get some sort of cool variation going with them.  This was the end result.  I used to steam carrots and then toss them in butter.  Good but boring.  I then came up with idea of adding brown sugar to them to make "Sweet Carrots".  But being a foodie, I still wasn't satisfied.  Then I came up with the idea of a whiskey glaze.  The sourness of the whiskey adds an interesting flavor to the sweetness of the brown sugar.

I don't drink whiskey or any alcohol for that matter, but I love the flavor element spirits, beer and wine can add to a dish.  So enjoy.  And don't worry....... you'd have to eat about 20 lbs of these to get a buzz.

Whiskey-Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds raw carrots (peeled and sliced into coins)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter (we use Earth Balance soy-free dairy-free buttery spread)
• 1/2 ounce whiskey
• 1.4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil

Cooking Directions:

(NOTE: It is imperative that you have all ingredients pre-measured and ready to use. You must move quickly and monitor heat to ensure that the pan does not get too hot. An overly hot pan will cause brown sugar and butter to burn and will ruin the dish.)

1. Steam or boil raw carrots until tender. Drain and set aside to cool.


2. Heat large non-stick skillet (I use a 12-inch skillet) over medium heat. As pan is warming to temperature, add butter and oil. (NOTE: If you add butter to an already hot pan it will immediately turn brown and result in a scalded taste and terrible appearance. By adding the small amount of oil, you increase the smoke point of the fat in the butter and further prevent burning.)


3. Immediately after butter/oil mixture is melted, add brown sugar. Using the back of a wooden spoon, spread brown sugar evenly in the butter.


4. Add whiskey. As soon as whiskey is added, the pan will sizzle loudly.


5. Add carrots and toss in glaze. Season with salt and remove from pan immediately.

Recipe URL: http://recipeseo.com/recipe/Jrjd5

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 5 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 5 Stars

The Well-Fed Son (4 years old) - 5 Stars

The Well-Fed Daughter (6 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (5 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

This recipe has been shared at Foodie Friday, Meatless Mondays, Tuesday Night Supper Club, and Melt in Your Mouth Monday.  Visit these blogs for more delicious recipes!

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Foodie Friday Giveaway and Recipe Link-Ups #1 (Feb 18, 2011)

Welcome! Thank you for joining us for our first blog-hop, originally named Foodie Friday. As we were planning for our first Foodie Friday, we realized that another food blogger is already doing a Foodie Friday and there are other Foodie Friday events as well. We did not want to appear as though we were trying to copycat someone else's idea (because we certainly were not!) so decided to rename ours.

We chose Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday, because even as new food bloggers we have already begun finding Food-"e"-Friends, and it has been fun roaming the food blogosphere, seeing other blogs and finding common interests aside from the one that brings us all together at first: FOOD!

So what is a Food-"e"-Friend, exactly? Shouldn't it be "Foodie" Friend?
Good question. And it is, in fact, the same general idea, but it goes a little further. I consider an e-friend a person I have probably not met "in real life," someone I have interacted with only online. Our first experience with e-friends was during the time when we were in the process to adopt The Well-Fed Son. We "met" some other adoptive families through our adoption agency's online forum and also through a Yahoo adoption group. Some of these e-friends were a tremendous source of information, support and encouragement to us throughout the adoption process. We didn't know any other families in our area who were adopting with whom we could interact in this way, so we learned a lot then about the value of these types of friendships.

Will we meet to link up again this coming Monday, since it is just a few days away?
That is really completely up to you. I was not sure how everyone would feel about linking up again so soon, so I will be here to link a recipe with anyone else who wants to participate again that soon (giveaway link up will also be included again). We enjoy finding new recipes and the way I feel about it is... the more, the merrier. It's not a whole lot of work since we can use recipes that have already been written and posted, and we'll leave it open for any type of recipe you'd like to share for now. I'd love to get into some themed potlucks eventually, but we'll keep it basic for now.

Okay... now that we have that special announcement out of the way... on to our first and only "Foodie Friday":

FREE FOOD

The Scoop: This is a place to link your food-related giveaways.  Make sure you use the permalink to the actual giveaway blog post.  Anything besides blog giveaways will be deleted, and it must be obvious in the name of your giveaway prize that it is food-related.

Update:  We will also allow food-related coupons that are for FREE Food.  If you have a food-related giveaway offer that is different from these two types (giveways or coupons) that you would like for us to consider allowing you to link, you may contact us through the Ask The Chef form.

2) RECIPE POTLUCK BLOG-HOP
The Scoop: Link your best recipe! We will start out with any type of recipe. When we decide to have a theme, we will announce what that theme will be for the next week. An index of all Foodie Friday recipes will be compiled on our Make a Food-"e"-Friend (MaFF) Monday page.

If you are here as a non-blogger visitor to check out some great recipes, welcome! We hope you enjoy what is shared here and please feel free to get involved and make some food-"e"-friends by interacting through the comment section below each recipe at the different blog sites.

Guidelines for Linking a Recipe

1- Write your recipe blog post or locate the one you want to share that is already written. Copy and paste the following somewhere in your blog post: "This recipe is featured in the (date) Foodie Friday Recipe Potluck, hosted by The Saturday Evening Pot." After you have put the text into your blog post, be sure to highlight the (date) text and insert the Friday date for the blog hop in which you are linking the recipe. This will better enable your readers to locate the specific blog hop your recipe is featured in if they would like to find other great recipes. This will be especially helpful during the weeks we have themed potlucks.

If you would like to include the Foodie Friday button, just use the code underneath the button in the sidebar, although, this is not required.

2- Post the permalink to your recipe in the "URL" field. To get the permalink, click on the title of your blog post, highlight and copy the URL for that post at the top of your webpage.

3- Put the name of your recipe in the "Name" field.

4- Take a few minutes to check out some of the other recipes and be sure to leave a brief comment for other participants. It's a lot of fun to see all of the recipes that people choose for blog-hop events, but it's much more fun when participants take a few moments to make new friends and interact with each other about what has brought us all together in the first place... again, our love for food. And who isn't blessed by knowing someone else has enjoyed what they have shared? :) That's a part of what true friendship is all about!

*(Our blog was initially created to share our favorite recipes with others, so if any of the recipes you share become family favorites, we may ask to feature them as a future weekly recipe.)

Since we needed to announce the change from Foodie Friday to Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday, we will link our recipe here instead of sharing the full recipe here. This week, we are sharing one that has already been one of our recipes served, Pecan-Encrusted Tilapia.  This is one of my all-time favorite recipes created by The Chef!

Our Top Soup-a-Palooza Picks

If you have a great soup recipe you think others would enjoy or if you like to find new soup recipes to help warm you up on cold winter days, you will want to take a peek at the Soup-a-Palooza blog event we participated in today. It has been fun to see all of the taste-bud-tempting soup recipes that have been shared throughout the day, over 150 of them so far. We thought it would be fun to share our top picks (keep in mind recipes can be submitted through Sunday, February 20th):

The Chef's Top Picks:

5) Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup (#113) by From the Little Yellow Kitchen

4) African Chicken Peanut Stew (#34) by Bibberche

3) Coconut Chicken Curry (#13) by GOODLIFE eats

2) Spinach, Tomato and Lentil Soup (#112) by Aggie's Kitchen

and... drum roll, please!

1) Thai Chicken Soup (#142) by My Sweet and Savory


You will notice that we have three of the same top picks, but I could not stop with just 5!


The Lucky Wife's Top Picks:

7) Napa and Pork Ball Soup (#70) by Engineer and an Oven

6) Roasted Eggplant Soup with Goat Cheese (#138) by Chaya's Comfy Cook Blog

5) Tuscan Chickpea Soup (#102) by Mouth from the South

4) Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup (#113) by From the Little Yellow Kitchen

3) Spinach, Tomato and Lentil Soup (#112) by Aggie's Kitchen: so many recipes, not enough time... (had to include that part because I could not have said it better myself!)

2) Crockpot Steak Soup (#67) by Gray Cardigan

and... drum roll, please!

1) African Chicken Peanut Stew (#34) by Bibberche

These top picks are based on what sounded interesting or good based on our person likes/dislikes. For example, I have only eaten eggplant once in my life and would love to try a new recipe with eggplant. What better way than in a soup, I figured? We love trying recipes from other types of cultures, hence, the inclusion of the African Chicken Peanut Stew, Napa and Pork Ball Soup, Coconut Chicken Curry, and Thai Chicken Soup. One of my favorite foods is steak, and I'm a big fan of lemon flavor in dishes. We enjoy hummus also, so I thought the chickpea soup would be interesting to try as well.

We now have some new recipes to try out over the next few weeks and will report back with our thoughts after we've had a chance to taste-test them. With over 150 soup recipes, there is surely something for everyone at today's Soup-a-Palooza.

Slow-Cooker Italian Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup

Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers.  We are excited to offer this week's surprise recipe as a part of this event, which is sure to bring you lots of other great soup recipes from around the food blogosphere.

We love soup during these cooler winter months.  This soup recipe is one of The Lucky Wife's favorites.  It was inspired by, of all people, Emeril Lagasse -- not the complete soup, mind you, but a key ingredient: kale.  I had never heard of it, much less eaten it.  It was several years ago, but I remember watching Emeril make a kale soup with sausage in it.  I believe he used Polish sausage.  That intrigued me, and many years later with culinary school behind me, I ventured into creating something with kale. 

I remember eating a "Tuscan white bean" soup at a restaurant and thoroughly enjoying it. Being a foodie, I attempted to recreate it.  I did not come close to reproducing it down to the letter, but my end result was good.  I made a white bean, tomato and Italian sausage soup.  It wasn't until later I added kale into the mix. The deep green color added a complimentary color to the soup (the deep green really brought out the bright white of the beans and red of the tomato), and the earthy flavor helped balance the pungency of the sausage, tomatoes and garlic.  It is also a great way to get more leafy green vegetables into your family's diet.

Slow-Cooker Italian Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds bulk Italian sausage (we use turkey)
• 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, liquid included
• 2 14.5-ounce cans Bush's white beans, drained
• 5 to 6 cups chicken broth
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 5 cups kale greens, chopped

Cooking Directions:

1. Brown turkey and garlic together and drain excess grease.
2. Place in large 5 to 6-quart crock-pot.
3. Add beans and tomatoes.
4. Add chicken broth until completely covered by at least a half inch. Stir thoroughly.
5. Add kale and fold in until kale is completely moist. Cook on low approximately 6 to 6.5 hours or until kale is tender. Makes approximately 8-10 servings.

Recipe URL: http://recipeseo.com/recipe/3Pi8j

*NOTE:  This recipe has been reviewed by Nutritionist, Suzzanne Meyer, who specializes in food sensitivities.  This recipe is free of the following: corn, dairy, eggs, gluten, nuts, oatmeal, potato, soy, wheat, and yeast.  It is low in salicylates and moderate in amines.  Please see her legal disclaimer.

Please also note: You will need to make sure the ingredient brands you use are completely free of any food that is problematic for you. 

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 4 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 5 Stars

The Well-Fed Son (4 years old) - 4 Stars

The Well-Fed Daughter (5 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (5 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

Find more great recipes at Tip Me Tuesday, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Recipe Roundup, Feasting in Fellowship Friday, Sunday Showcase

LOVE food?... Foodie Friday Starting This Friday

What is a foodie, you may ask?

Dictionary Definitions:

1) food·ie, [foo-dee]

-noun (Slang)
a person keenly interested in food, especially in eating or cooking.


2) foodie or foody (ˈfuːdɪ)
— n , pl -ies
a person having an enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food

3) n. someone who is interested in foods, cooking, and the latest food and restaurant fads.

Urban Dictionary Definition:

A person that spends a keen amount of attention and energy on knowing the ingredients of food, the proper preparation of food, and finds great enjoyment in top-notch ingredients and exemplary preparation.

A foodie is not necessarily a food snob, only enjoying delicacies and/or food items difficult to obtain and/or expensive foods; though, that is a variety of foodie.

From Wikipedia:

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.

So my question is... who isn't a foodie?

Starting this Friday, we will have a Foodie Friday blog post every Friday that will include free food. And who doesn't love free food?! Foodie Friday free food will actually be food-related giveaways from the blogosphere. Also on Foodie Friday, you can attend our recipe potluck, a blog-hop event. If you have a food blog or ever blog about your favorite recipes, you can link them here. If you don't blog about food but love food and finding new recipes, come check it out each Friday.

Squash and Goat Cheese Casserole

I love to watch cooking shows.  A few years ago, PBS was showcasing some local chefs where we live.  One chef made a squash dish very similar to this one, but I did not like the end result.  So I once again took the same basic concept and personalized it.  I grew up eating sliced squash soaked in milk, dusted with flour and pan fried.  With maybe a few onions thrown in the mix. Good, good, good!  But I had never had it any other way except steamed with no flavor in a vegetable medley that you get with your steak at a sit-down restaurant.  

When I first made the recipe, I added sweet onions before the squash and added some chopped walnuts in at the end to give it some crunch.  I think the walnuts gave it a real nice earthy flavor that balanced the acidic taste of the goat cheese.  But after repeated meals, the Well-Fed Family decided that simple was better in their eyes.  Often being a culinary school graduate, you can easily get sucked into the notion of  "the more I do to it the better it will be".  WRONG.  Good food, in my opinion, showcases the main ingredient with added flavors that compliment the main ingredient.  The additions should not overpower the main ingredient.  

For instance, you hear your bud say, "Man, I make the best dang baby back ribs you ever put in your mouth."  So he invites you over and you try them.  Sure, they're good... if you like unscrewing the top off a jar of barbecue sauce and chugging it.  The point is the ribs are good ONLY if you like the sauce that they are drowning in. My goal as a cook is to create dishes that have a unique combination of flavors that are balanced, inviting, but not overwhelming.  You can make any burnt piece of meat taste good if you dunk it in enough A-1.  I want to not burn the meat and only have the sauce or marinade present because I like it.  Enjoy.

Squash and Goat Cheese Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds yellow squash, diced in 1-inch chunks
• 3 strips bacon (we use turkey bacon), diced
• 1 tablespoon butter (we use Earth Balance soy-free dairy-free buttery spread)
• 4 ounces soft goat cheese
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (if using turkey bacon)

Cooking Directions:

1. Heat 10-inch deep covered skillet over medium-low heat. (Add oil if using turkey bacon. There is not enough fat in the bacon to prevent charring.)
2. Add diced bacon. Brown bacon slowly until crisp, rendering out fat.
3. Add squash and toss to thoroughly coat with bacon drippings.
4. Add butter and stir. Cover skillet and reduce heat slightly.
5. After about 5 minutes remove cover and mash squash slightly with a whisk. Replace cover. Approximately every 10 minutes thereafter, remove cover and mash squash with whisk. Monitor level of liquid in skillet. You do not want squash to become too soupy. If too much liquid is being produced by stewing, remove skillet cover and allow liquid to evaporate.
6. When squash has almost reached the consistency of chunky applesauce (there still should be some defined chunks of squash), remove skillet from heat.
7. Add goat cheese and stir in with whisk. The cheese should melt and be fully incorporated and should result in creamy appearance to the squash.

Recipe URL:  http://recipeseo.com/recipe/fIQ18

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 4 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 5 Stars

The Well-fed Son (4 years old) - 5 Stars

The Well-fed Daughter (5 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (5 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

Find more great recipes with this one at:





My Sweet and Savory

Lime Squares

This recipe is an adaptation of the Tart Lemon Squares recipe from our giveaway baking cookbook, Rosie's Bakery All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed No-Holds Barred Baking Book.  We use lime instead of lemon a lot due to a pretty strong sensitivity to amines for the Well-fed Son.  It gave the bars a milder flavor, thus, the deletion of the descriptor, "Tart," used in the original recipe name.

A sampling of some of the other recipes in the book:

Apple-Cranberry Tart

Banana Custard Pie

Black and Whites

Brownie Cheesecake

Butterscotch Cinnamon Icebox Cookies

Caramel Apple Casserole

Chocolate Fruitcake

Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie

Chocolate-Crusted Peanut Butter Pie

Cold Fudge Sundae Cake

Desert Island Butter Cake

Extra Extra Fudgy Brownies

Fresh Blueberry-Muffin Breadfast Cake

Harvard Mocha Cake

Hermits

Honeypots

Nectarine Synergy

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Orange Pecan Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Peaches 'n' Cream Custard

Sour Cherry Fudge Cake

Truffle Souffle

Walnut Dream Bars

Lime Squares

Ingredients:

BASE:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (we used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour)
• 2 teasoons Xanthan Gum (needed due to use of Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour)
• 1/4 cup confecioner's sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 8 pieces (we used Earth Balance soy-free dairy-free buttery spread)
• 1 egg white for glazing

 TOPPING:

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (we used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose flour)
• 1.5 tablespoons grated lime zest
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• (for sprinkling) confectioner's sugar

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease 8 inch square baking dish with butter spread.
3. For the base, process flour and confectioner's sugar in a food processor for several seconds. Add butter and process until dough comes together, 20 to 30 seconds.
4. Press the dough gently and evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Glaze with egg white, using basting brush. Coat very lightly as dough will brown very quickly due to use of butter substitute.
5. Bake base on center oven rack until lightly golden, about 15 minutes (maybe longer, depending on your oven). Place base in refrigerator for approximately 15 minutes to cool completely. Keep oven on.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the topping: Gently whisk eggs in medium sized bowl until lightly mixed. Add the remaining topping ingredients and continue to whisk gently until they are blended.
7. Pour the topping evenly over cooled base. Bake until top is set and golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
8. Sprinkle surface with confectioner's sugar (a light dusting) and cut into squares with a sharp knife, that is dipped in hot water and wiped dry before each cut. If you plan to keep longer than one day, keep in air tight container and refrigerate or freeze to preserve crispness of base. Makes 9 to 12 bars.

Recipe URL:  http://recipeseo.com/recipe/Q995r

NEED ANY OF THE TOOLS USED?

Family ratings:

Rating scale

1 star - Feed it to the dog

2 stars - Surprise your neighbor

3 stars - Definite keeper

4 stars - Looking forward to leftovers

5 stars - Clean plate and nap time!  Are there enough ingredients left to make it again soon?

The Chef - 3 Stars

The Lucky Wife - 3 Stars

The Well-fed Son (4 years old) - 4 Stars

The Well-fed Daughter (5 months old) - Mommy's Baby Girl (3 Stars)

*Rate it yourself in the comments!

For more details on our giveaway, go here.

Sauteed Asparagus with Cashews

 

I do not care for asparagus.  But the Lucky Wife and the Well-Fed Son love it.  I improvised one night in a effort to do something a little different.  I honestly did not know how it would turn out.  The family was pleasantly surprised.

Sauteed Asparagus with Cashews

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches asparagus
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• (to taste) salt

Cooking Directions:

1. Place large stock pot with salted water on stove.
2. Trim ends of asparagus and cut each stalk in half. (I keep the rubber bands on the bunch. I move one rubber band down toward the bottom of the bunch and the other I move to upwards toward the top. I cut the entire bunch in half. The results are two bunches each still wrapped with a rubber band.)
3. After the water comes to a boil drop each bunch, with the rubber band in place, directly into the boiling water with a set of tongs. Blanch asparagus in boiling water for approximately 2 minutes. Remove from water and place on paper towel to drain.
4. Heat large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
5. Add oil.
6. Remove rubber bands from asparagus and add to skillet. Saute asparagus for about 2 minutes.
7. Add cashews and season with salt to taste. Combine thoroughly.

Recipe URL:  http://recipeseo.com/recipe/g1Thy