Delishytown
Cooking is fun. Eating is funner. I cook, photograph and write these recipes.
Everything I post on this blog I make from scratch using fresh wholesome ingredients.. I've been cooking since I was a little kid.
My recipes are based on trial and error, along with studying cookbooks, family recipes, blogs and cooking shows.
Some of the veggies and herbs I use are grown in my garden. Yay sustainability!
I'm working on making my yard into an edible landscape. It's really fun to go out in the garden and pick your veggies for dinner!
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Beans are sprouting!
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…via TheDamnМushroom…
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The Quarreling Book written by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Arnold Lobel (1966).
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TOKYO (by kikuzumi)
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Union Square, NYC… TGIF!
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Round Up Resistance? Resist Round Up!
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mini cup cakes
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8 posts tagged holiday
Margarita Chicken
Happy 4th of July Everybody! We made this chicken yesterday, and it was delicious! I love having a holiday in the middle of the week, it makes me feel like I’m on vacation in my own house. I can’t wait to see fireworks later on! Yayy!
This is easy to do but you can’t walk away from the grill for very long, it can flare up and burn when you’re not looking. I grilled this for about 45 minutes turning every few minutes and sprinkling with orange juice at first, instead of water, to quell any flare ups. I started adding the sauce after the chicken cooked for about 15 mins on both sides with a few flips of each side. I baste with the sauce for more than half of the cooking time, about 25 minutes, it gets very caramelized and coated with sauce if you do it this way.
Make the marinade for the chicken. Combine 2 inches or so of fresh grated ginger root, 4 garlic cloves minced or grated, the juice of 1 orange or tangerine, juice of 1 lemon, 1 shot, (or 2,) of Tequila, 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tblsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tblsp ancho chili powder, 1 tsp ground coriander, , a shake of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Coat all chicken pieces, (I bought a free range, organic chicken, cut up) Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so.
For the sauce I buy my favorite bottled sauce and doctor it up with 1 shot added tequila, 1/2 cup organic ketchup, 1 tbls cider vinegar, and 3 tblsp molasses.
Turn the grill on to med high. Oil a paper towel with vegetable oil and rub it on the grill so the chicken doesn’t stick. Grill for 45 minutes, turning frequently and keeping the lid covered for most of the time. Chicken is done when there is no longer any pink inside, the juices run clear, and it firms up, or when an instant read thermometer reads 170. Le the chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving.
I might make bbq chicken pizza with the leftovers. Yum!
Bing Cherry & Apple Pistachio Crisp
My Mom used to make Apple Crisp all the time when we were growing up. I think it was her way of getting us to eat more fruit and oatmeal, but we loved it. Brown sugar, vanilla, apples, salt, butter and cinnamon? Name something not to love about this.
This is a variation on my Mom’s recipe, with cherries added because they were on sale at the store yesterday, and crushed pistachios because I love pistachios. This came out so delicious that I couldn’t stop eating bite after bite. Yum!
Pre heat oven to 350. Butter a casserole dish.
Peel and slice 3 Granny Smith apples. Squeese the juice of 1 whole fresh lemon over the apples. This becomes part of the sauce and also helps prevent the apples from browning.
Pit 1- 2 cups bing cherries. I don’t have a cherry pitter, so I just used a paring knife and went around the pit of each cherry. This took only about 10 minutes. It sounds like a tedious job, but to me it was fun, and delicious because you get to eat as many cherries as you can while you perform this task.
Mix the cherries with the apples & lemon, along with 1 tsp vanilla, sprinkle of cinnamon, 1 tsp corn starch, and a bit of salt.
Shell some pistachios, about 1/2 cup. Crush them with a mortar and pestle of food processor into big crumbs.
Mix the pistachios with 1 cup oatmeal, 1/4 c butter, 2 tsp sugar, 1/4 c brown sugar, dash of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp kosher salt. I use my hands, freshly washed, to combine the butter with the oatmeal, pistachios and spices.
Bake for 25 - 30 min at 350 until bubbly and sweet. Serve over ice cream for a real treat!
Pistachio Cranberry Snowball Cookies
I love pistachios, they’re my favorite nuts of all time. These cookies are so yummy and quick! And they have a “snowy & red & green” theme, which is so pretty and Christmasy.
In a food processor combine 3/4 cup organic powdered sugar, 1 cup organic butter, 1 tsp salt and pulse till combined. Add 1 cup ground pistachios, 1/4 cup dried cranberries and pulse a few times till combined. Now add 2 to 2 1/2 cups organic all purpose flour and pulse just a few times till a bit of a dough ball forms, but most of it is still crumbly. It’s important not to over process the dough or your cookies will be tough.
Now turn the crumbly dough onto a floured work surface and knead together a few times till it all comes together, being careful not to overwork the dough.
Form the dough into a rectangle and place it in a plastic bag in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Cut the rectangle into small squares and round out the edges of your squares to make balls. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes till cooked.
Dust with powdered sugar on all sides.
Merry Christmas!
Here’s a drink my beautiful friend Holly makes, along with her instructions:
Hot Rum Knot
‘Tis the season of giving, and I’d be downright selfish not to share my holiday cocktail recipe with all of you! Go get yourself some Pear Cinnamon Cider from Trader Joe’s, heat it up til you see steam, but not so it boils, pour in a 6-8oz mug, then add a jigger of Spiced Rum (I use good ol’ Captain Morgan’s) and serve! Practically instant holiday cheer! For a little added decadence I think a drop of caramel syrup in this would be sublime, and for absolute INDULGENCE top it with a dollup of fresh homemade whipped cream! YUM!!!! Happy Holidays!!!! ♥
Roasted Pumpkin Soup I brought a bowl of this soup to my next door neighbor and she loved it! She said it sort of reminded her of pumpkin pie. I think that’s because of the cinnamon and nutmeg in it. This dish is more savory than sweet, though. The only sugar in it is the natural sugar from the mini pumpkins I roasted. Bonus: Roasting the sugar pumpkins and lids in the oven makes cute little bowls. This is a great dish for a dinner party. Here’s how you make this fancy looking, yet easy soup: Cut the top off 4 mini pumpkins. Scrape the stringy stuff from the lids and the insides of the pumpkins. Pick the seeds out of the stringy stuff. The stringy pumpkin goo really has lots of flavor, so add it to a small stock pan (you will be straining this liquid into the soup) along with some chopped celery and about an inch of fresh ginger, 2 cups water, and some salt and pepper. Simmer on low while your pumpkins roast in the oven. (I don’t like to throw out any ingredients that will help develop the flavor of the final dish.) Spray the inside and out of the pumpkins with canola spray. Bake the pumpkins and lids, cut side down, on a lightly oiled baking sheet in a preheated 350 oven for 45 minutes or until tender. When they are cool enough to handle, scrape the pulp from the lids and insides of the pumpkins. Meanwhile: When the pumpkins come out of the oven, Reduce the oven to 250. Toss the reserved pumpkin seeds with olive oil, smoked paprika, ancho chili powder and salt & pepper. Spread them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 250, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour till they are nice and crunchy. for the soup: In a soup or stock pot, saute 1 chopped onion, 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger root, 1 small shallot, 1 chopped small potato, 1 chopped large carrot, in 1 tablespoon butter over low heat until softened and fragrant. Add the pumpkin pulp, vegetable stock you made, and about 2 cups organic veggie or chicken broth. Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes until it starts to dissolve. Puree the mixture in a blender in 2 batches for safety. Stir in salt and pepper to taste and more stock to thin the soup if necessary. Fill each shell with some of the soup, add a small swirl of plain yogurt, a bit of chopped cilantro, and sprinkle of the pumpkin seeds on top. Serve with the lid off to the side. Yum!!
Sweet Potato Empanadas in Ancho Chili Cream Cheese Pastry
I brought these to a party last night and they were a big hit.
I never made pastry crust until recently because I thought it was so complicated. Not true! Using the food processor makes it very easy. It comes out flaky and fresh beyond any pre-made crust you might buy at the Piggly Wiggly. Remember that if you over process, it’ll make the dough tough. So go easy on that pulse button.
The hardest thing about making your own pastry is having the will power not to eat too many empanadas.
For the Cream Cheese Ancho Chili pastry crust:
In a food processor combine 1/2 cup cold butter with 1/2 of an 8 oz package cream cheese, 1/2 tsp chili ancho powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Blend them together till creamy.
Using the pulse button on the food processor, slowly mix in 1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour or whole wheat flour, whichever you prefer. Pulse till it forms big crumbs being careful not to overmix. Add 2 tablespoons ice cold water and just pulse till it becomes crumbly dough, but not to the point of forming a ball. Remove to a clean, floured work surface, knead it a couple times to bring it together, form it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
While your pastry rests:
Chop 1 small onion and saute in a large skillet in 1 tblsp olive oil. Add 2 sweet potatoes, and 1 red potato, cut into small cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Once the potatoes are mostly cooked, add 1 cup cooked organic chicken, cut into small pieces, thighs or breasts, whichever you prefer.
Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup chicken stock. Season with a pinch of celery salt, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp chili ancho powder, a pinch of cinnamon. Add 2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped, ½ cup seedless raisins, ½ cup chopped black or green olives, 3 cloves garlic, minced, 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro, 1/4 cup chopped green onion. Let this mixture cool completely.
Pre-heat the oven to 375
Cut your dough ball in half. On a floured work surface, roll your dough, flipping and turning, adding more flour as needed to prevent sticking. Roll 1/4 inch thick, cut with a circle cutter. Fill the center of the empanada with the cooled chicken mixture, fold in half and pinch the edges together, pinching & flipping the edge over as you go around the half circle. I might have to film this to show everyone how I do it. You can also just crimp the edges with a fork.
Place the pastries on a buttered cookie sheet. Poke the top of each one with fork marks.
Scramble 1 egg with a tblsp of water. Brush the top and sides of the pastries with the egg wash.
Bake for 10 - 15 minutes till golden brown and heated through.
Serve with salsa or yogurt cilantro dipping sauce. the yogurt dipping sauce I made is similar to a Greek Tzatziki type sauce. I mixed 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt with 1/2 cup low fat sour cream, 1 crushed garlic clove, the juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt & pepper, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro.
Thanksgiving Dinner
I’m so excited for Thanksgiving! So far we have 15 people coming for dinner. Our basic menu is pretty traditional, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. My friends bring hors’dourves, drinks and dessert.
I make the basic dinner, turkey and a few sides, including fresh cranberry relish, with orange juice and orange zest. My favorite part of the whole meal is the BBQ turkey on the grill, with BBQ sauce. It’s yummy! I’ll post that one later this week.
There are certain dishes that you just have to have or it wouldn’t seem like Thanksgiving. For me, it’s the green bean casserole. For my hubby it’s the cranberries in a can, where you lay it on a plate and slice a big circle of it.
We have some guests who don’t eat meat. So, the only meat I cook that day is the turkey and the bbq turkey on the grill. Everything else is vegetarian.
If you’ve never cooked a turkey before, it’s easy!
In order to brine the turkey, you’ll need a big cooler that’ll fit the turkey and a lot of ice. I keep it outside overnight. It stays colder outside than if it was in the kitchen. And, with lots of ice in the cooler, we’ve never had any problem with the turkey going below the 40 degree food safety temp as it brines.
Here’s the basic way to do a brine.
Stir 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt into a small pan of hot water. Dissolve in 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup honey, and a 1/2 cup maple syrup. This is the basic salty sweet. Let it cool down. Now add some spicy, savory things, you don’t have to but I like to add lots of flavor. I use a tblsp or so black peppercorns, fresh sage leaves, 1 or 2 bay leaves, some fresh lemons and tangerines cut in half and squeezed, and a bunch of fresh garlic cloves, smashed open, no need to peel.
Let this mixture cool completely before pouring it anywhere near your uncooked turkey.
Make sure to scrub the kitchen sink or the slop sink in the laundry area before messing around with the uncooked bird. Take the turkey out of it’s wrapping, place it in the sink. Look around inside the cavities in front and in back for all the little packets of gizzards and such. Take those out and set aside for the gravy. Rinse the turkey with cold water and put it in the big cooler. Pour a big bag of ice over it, (I use bagged ice because it has a clean taste. Ice from your freezer might have picked up refrigerator smells.) Add the sauce pan full of salt & sweet and stir it about. By now your hands should be freezing cold. That’s good. That means you’re brine is cold enough to be safe.
Cover the cooler and place something heavy on the lid so critters who come into the yard can’t mess with it.
The next morning remove the turkey from the brine, dry it with a couple clean kitchen towels, cover it with butter, add some sage and aromatics in the cavity, I usually use some onion, garlic, an orange cut into pieces, an apple cut into pieces, and some fresh garlic. I don’t stuff the turkey with the stuffing anymore. In order for the stuffing to get to 165 the turkey would be way overcooked and dried out.
Roast your turkey covered with foil for 20 minutes per pound till an instant read thermometer says it’s 165-170 in the thickest part of the breast. I usually cook mine for about 3 hours, uncover for the last 30 - 45 minutes so the skin gets crispy .
Happy Thanksgiving!
