Balsamic Glazed Vegetables

I don’t remember where I found this recipe (somewhere on the interwebs), but the original recipe called for regular balsamic vinegar.  I’ve made these veggies a couple times now, with regular balsamic and white balsamic...I definitely preferred them with the white balsamic.  You can use all different veggies in it, so it’s a great recipe for using up random veggies in the fridge.  I also like it because I always make brussel sprouts exactly the same way, and they’re great, but it’s nice to have at least one other way to prepare them.  Alrighty…here we go…

Ingredients

1 ½  - 2 lbs of your choice of carrots, brussel sprouts, yellow squash, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini (I used 1 lb brussel sprouts, 4 medium-large carrots, ½ head of cauliflower)

½ cup water

½ cup white balsamic vinegar (or regular balsamic vinegar)

1 tbsp butter

salt & pepper

Have I mentioned that I grew up under the rule of having
green, orange/yellow and white veggies with every meal?

Instructions

Place the veggies in a pan with the water and vinegar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Remove the lid and turn the heat back up.  Allow the water to boil away and the vinegar to reduce and glaze the veggies, about 5-7 minutes.  When the veggies are glazed, add the butter to the pan and turn veggies all around to coat.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.

All ready to serve with venison cube steaks
(thanks to my "little" brother, the deer slayer).

enjoy!

 ~ j

Veggie Sides

I missed my recipe last week, but in my defense I was out of town for the better part of the week…and that’s my only excuse.  So here’s a recipe to make up for last week, and I'm planning to post another later this week.  In my book, that will still keep me at a recipe a week.  :)  And have you noticed my new white, square plates?!  They were a Xmas gift from mother-in-law, and I think they make my food photos look so much nicer…I love them!

I cooked a bone-in ham a few weeks ago for the first time.  I’m not going to bother with that “recipe,” because I did nothing but follow exactly what the plastic wrap on the ham told me to do (325 degrees F for 10-12 minutes per pound of ham).  But I thought I would share the sides I made to go with the ham.  These are very basic veggie side dishes that you could put with just about any meal, and you can definitely change up all the amounts of ingredients to your own tastes…in fact, I don’t even give measurements here on my mashed potato recipe, because I have no clue what I do (and this time I was just scraping the bottoms of containers for whatever was left in them).

Colorful!

Glazed Carrots

Ingredients

4 large carrots - washed and cut into bite-size pieces

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

Instructions

1)  Steam carrots to desired softness.

2)  Melt butter and sugar in pan, add carrots and sauté until evenly coated.

Brussel Sprouts with Garlic

Ingredients

1 lb (I think) Brussel sprouts - washed, trimmed and cut in half

2 tbsp olive oil

4 large garlic cloves, minced

Salt & pepper to taste (optional)

Instructions

1)  Heat oil in pan over medium heat, add garlic and sauté for a minute or two. 

2)  Add brussel sprouts cut sides down, also add salt and pepper if desired.  Sauté for a few minutes, until cut side is just starting to brown, then stir sprouts around (not worrying about what side is down).  Cover pan with lid and continue to cook until you reach desired softness (I prefer mine crunchier, Squatch prefers his a bit mushier).

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Potatoes, washed and cut into small pieces

Whole garlic cloves

Milk

Sour cream

Butter

Parmesan cheese

Fresh or dried herbs of your choice (basil, oregano, parsley, chives, etc…)

Salt & pepper

Instructions

1)  Boil potatoes and garlic cloves in large pot of salted water, until potatoes are very soft.

2)  Drain water from pot, then add milk, sour cream, butter and parmesan cheese.  Mash with a potato masher or hand-held electric mixer.  Mix in herbs and salt & pepper.

enjoy!

 ~ j

mashed sweet potatoes

Wow. It has been a while since I posted anything.  Can we say slacker?  I had a good reason for a while, we were packing up our house, moving, and then remodeling our kitchen.  But the kitchen remodel has been done for a few weeks now, so I have no excuses. I am back on the wagon with this really easy and delish side dish.  Makes around 6 servings.

What you need:
4 sweet potatoes
3/4 c milk
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp brown sugar
dash cinnamon
salt to taste

What you do:
Bring around 6 cups of lightly salted water to boil, while the water is boiling peel and cube the potatoes into dice sized pieces. Add potatoes, boil for 20 minutes or until fork tender.  Drain water, mash potatoes slightly (i used a hand mixer but you could certainly use a stand mixer) add butter and all sweeteners and mix some more, then slowly add milk until it is the desired consistency, you may need a little more than 3/4 cup but I found that was about right for the amount I had. Serve warm!

 These were very good and I will definitely be making them again. Look for more recipes soon! I have a few stored up, many without pictures but I am going to post them anyway bc they were so good.

Enjoy!
-Hayden

Cherry Skillet Chicken with Risotto

This cherry chicken recipe came from a cookbook full of recipes for preparing ahead of time and freezing in bulk.  I actually prepared the cherry chicken dish months ago, so I'll give instructions for the way I made it (freezing and cooking).  The recipe called for dried cherries, but I used cherries that I had "marinated" in port wine (they were left over from making chocolate covered cherries).  I drained all the liquid from maraschino cherries, replaced it with port wine, and let them soak for weeks (a trick I learned from my mom for making chocolate covered cherries).  The chicken can be served over pasta, rice or even on a salad.  I tried it over pasta, but definitely prefer it over the risotto.  I love risotto, and it's such a great side dish for so many meals.  I used to be very intimidated by risotto, but when I actually decided to make it I realized it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had feared.  This is a very basic risotto recipe, you can certainly get much snazzier with it.

Cherry Skillet Chicken
Ingredients

my frozen meal

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup port wine marinated maraschino cherries (or 1/3 cup dried cherries)
(1/3 cup hot water, if using dried cherries)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup tbsp port wine from cherries
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
For cooking:
2 tsp olive oil

Instructions for preparing & freezing
1)  Flatten chicken breasts by laying each between two sheets of wax paper and pounding to 1" thick with either a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.  Place chicken into a 1-gallon freezer bag.
2)  If using dried cherries, put into a small bowl and cover with hot water.  Let stand for 5 minutes.
3)  Add to freezer bag with chicken:  cherries (if using dried cherries, drain water and add cherries to the bag), chicken broth, vinegar, port wine sugar and salt.  Seal and gently shake bag to mix ingredients and distribute cherries.
4)  Freeze.

Instructions for cooking
1)  Completely thaw in refrigerator.
2)  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken and cook until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes each side.
3)  Reduce heat to medium-low, and pour cherries and juice over the chicken.  Cover and simmer about 12 to 15 minutes.


Risotto
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
4-5 cups hot chicken broth
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
assorted fresh or dried herbs (I used oregano, parsley and basil)

Instructions
1)  Heat olive oil in a large pot.  Saute onion in oil until translucent.  Add rice and stir until grains are all coated with oil.  Add wine and stir constantly on medium heat until wine is absorbed.
2)  Add 1 cup hot broth, stirring until liquid is absorbed.  Continue cooking for about 20 minutes, adding the broth 1 cup at a time and stirring almost constantly.  The rice creates its own creamy sauce, adding more liquid makes it creamier...so add liquid to desired texture.
3)  Remove from heat, stir in cheese and herbs, and serve immediately.

enjoy!
 ~ j

Spicy Cauliflower

It's been a while since I've posted.  I've been in a food rut. UGH.  Been making a lot of my old standby's and pantry meals.  We are moving soon and we are trying to use up a lot of what is in our pantry so we don't have to move it.  So I'm pulling this one out of the vault.  I made it a few weeks ago and forgot to post it.  Don't forget to email us your favorite recipes to try and post here at hayjucook@gmail.com

A side dish. This might be the first side we have posted.  I love cauliflower, but struggle with ways to make it 'more fun'.  Don't get me wrong, I like it raw, steamed, plain, or with a little butter, but sometimes you wanna spice things up a bit.  So for this easy recipe, I added a few asian-esque things and served it with pan seared venison that also had an asian-inspired sauce (yes, we eat a lot of venison in this house).

What you need:
1/2 head of cauliflower- steamed
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 cloves garlic- minced
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (we like sriracha brand)

What you do:
Heat oil up over medium or medium high heat.  Add garlic to infuse into the oil.  After about 30 seconds add pre-steamed cauliflower and saute for a few minutes adding in the hot sauce at the last minute.  Easy as pie!

Enjoy!
-hayden

note: I thought I had a picture saved of this, but I wiped my computer last week and must have only saved the blog folder that contained the recipes. Hopefully they are still on my camera.  Whoops.  Use your imagination for now!

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

I LOVE cranberry sauce.  I've combined a few different recipes to come up with the mixture I always make.  One of the challenges for me of posting my recipes online will be measurements, I don't measure anything (except when I bake).  So feel free to tweak measurements any way you please.  I usually go heavier on the spices myself.  I also like my cranberry sauce thick and more jellied, so I mash the heck outta' those berries!

Look!  There's my cranberry sauce!

Ingredients:

1/2 c water

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ginger

1 orange, zested

1 (12-oz) package cranberries

Instructions: 

1) In a medium saucepan, combine water, orange juice, sugars, spices and orange zest (everything but the cranberries).   Heat on low, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

2) Add the cranberries and bring to a boil.  Cook over medium heat until the berries pop, about 10 minutes.  Mash the berries with a spoon (or fork or masher) to pop any unpopped berries.  The more you berries you pop, the thicker the sauce will be.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer up to 10 more minutes (the longer you simmer, the thicker it gets).

3) Remove from heat, pour sauce into a bowl and chill until serving time.  The sauce will thicken more as it cools.

enjoy!
 ~ j