Category: Food

Broccoli: Simple and Fabulous

Sadie2 Comments

I love broccoli.  Usually I think it’s best if it’s simple.  I recently needed to bring a vegetable side dish to a friend’s house for dinner.  I went back and forth between a few different options.  It’s always tricky picking a dish for a pot luck.  I don’t really know what other people are bringing, I don’t know if the host or certain critical mass doesn’t like a certain ingredient, and in this case I didn’t even know how much to make.

After hemming and hawing over a few different options I decided to keep it simple stupid: roasted broccoli.  I checked the food network website because this was something I could picture Ina Garten making.  That’s the funny thing when you’re a Food Network fan, when I’m thinking about certain dishes, I can usually pick a chef from the line up that probably has a recipe that I want to use for it.

Ina had a good looking recipe for roasted broccoli with garlic and parmesan.  Bingo.  I was eating this broccoli like candy, and so were my friends.  So easy, so quick, do delicious.

Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Broccoli

From Ina, scale the amounts to fit the size of your group

Ingredients

  • Broccoli crowns rinsed and cut into florets
  • minced garlic cloves (about 1 clove per serving)
  • olive oil
  • salt, pepper, crushed red pepper to taste
  • Parmesan cheese, grated, about 1/3 cup per every 3-4 servings

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 425.  Line cookie sheets with foil.
  2. Combine garlic with about 1/4 cup olive oil and pour mixture over broccoli.  Toss broccoli so it is coated with oil (add oil if needed) and pour out onto baking sheet(s).
  3. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Roast broccoli in oven for 20-25 minutes.
  4. Remove broccoli when edges of florets start to get brown.  Toss warm broccoli with parmesan and serve.

Raspberry Almond Cream Cheese Bars

Carrie3 Comments

Ingredients

1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 c. flour
2/3 c. sliced almonds
1 small jar of raspberry jam
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl.  Add the flour and mix well. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture in a separate bowl.

2.  In an ungreased 9×9 non-stick pan, pat the cookie mixture evenly on the bottom of the pan.  Cook crust for 10-15 minutes and set aside.

3.  In a bowl, combine softened cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk.  Mix together until well blended and smooth in texture.  Poor this mixture over cookie crust.

4.  Mix the raspberry jam up in the jar with a tiny bit of warm water until it becomes slightly syrupy in texture. Spread raspberry jam over cream cheese mixture.

5. Add sliced almonds to the reserved 1 c. cookie mixture until combined. Crumble this over the cream cheese/raspberry swirl layer.  Cook in the oven for 25- 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Sadie2 Comments

First I want to wish best of luck to those in New Jersey and New York.  I hope everyone will have power and get back to their normal lives as soon as possible!

This is a simple post.  Pumpkin bread is delicious.  This is a recipe I have had years of success with.  If you are having house guests or need a hostess gift for something in the next month, made this bread.  If you are not having house guests, or do not need a hostess gift, make this bread.  Enjoy the pumpkin season!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Makes 2 9 x 5 loaves, recipe from Epicurious

Ingredients

  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare two 9 x 5 loaf pans with parchment and nonstick spray.
  2. Combine flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. (you can substitute the multiple spices for pumpkin pie spice if you have it.)
  3. Wisk together oil and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, then the pumpkin.
  4. Add dry ingredients in slowly.  Add in chopped walnuts if you want.
  5. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.