Rice Krispie Treats

I found yet another awesome recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog for some rice krispie treats that were made with brown butter and sea salt.  I am so fortunate to have such an awesome helper in the kitchen and these turned out really yummy!  They were also super easy to make and not very messy either!

YUM!

Dutch Apple Pie

We've still got loads of apples in our apartment so I decided to embark on my first ever apple pie.  I was given some good advice by my friend Susy that store bought  crust is easier in such small Manhattan kitchens and tastes just fine.  So really, the pie was quite simple.  I prefer the crumbly top of a dutch apple pie (probably cause i looooove sugar-ask me about my song) so I found a recipe online.  Really so simple!  My only note was that I used all different types of apples instead of just one and thus they all cooked at different times and some were still a little firm.  But guess what, the pie still tastes GOOD!

SUCCESS

Apple Cranberry Crisp

We went apple picking in upstate New York this weekend and now have a surplus of apples in our kitchen.  Even if I eat an apple a day, there will still be plenty.

Last night I baked a yummy apple cranberry crisp with a granola-like topping.  I got the recipe from another blogger that writes for her blog Smitten Kitchen (thanks for the tip Lydia!).  The scent of the crisp baking in my oven was really unbelievable.  The blogger recommends serving this cold with yogurt and I tried it for breakfast this morning.  It was really tasty!

What apple treat will I make next?

Momma's Noodle Kugel

Well, it's that time of the year-Jewish New Year!  I haven't gone to temple in a long time for these holidays, but I sure do enjoy the traditional Jewish foods.  My mom always used to make the most AMAZING kugel and I really just adored it.  Thankfully when i moved into an apartment in Boston that had a kitchen she sent me the recipe.  Turns out it's really simple to make.  I make it every year and brought it to my cousin Shai's this past Friday.  Not sure the Israeli's at his house really understood the idea of a sweet noodle pudding, but i was happy with it nonetheless!

YUM! YUM! YUM!  Thanks Mom!

Ingredients:
12 oz broad egg noodles
1/2 cup and 2tbs sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed and undiluted)
1 large apple, cut into slices
raisins (though i don't often add these)

Cook noodles according to package instructions.  Drain and toss with 1/2 cup sugar.  Mix together margarine, sour cream, cottage cheese, vanilla, cinnamon and orange concentrate.  Stir in apple and noodles.  Turn into a 13x9x2 inch greased baking dish.  Sprinkle with remaining 2 tbs sugar and raisins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.  My mom's special tip was that after she drains the noodles she used the large boiling pot to toss the noodle with the sugar.  If you add the margarine next it will melt in the warm noodles.  This way you can toss everything in the same pot you boiled the noodles in.  Less dishes are a great thing when you live in a dishwasher-less apartment!

See, isn't it simple?  Momma knows what's best!

Swirled White and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last Friday I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies.  Cooking is something that Luke has been helping me with, but baking, baking I can do!  I must have been needing some comfort food, so ofcourse I thought of chocolate chip cookies right away.  After looking at recipes online, I decided to go with the Nestle Tollhouse recipe that is on the back of the chocolate chip bag.  The only difference is that I used swirled chocolate chips and I added some oatmeal.  I made sure not to overbake the cookies so that they were nice and chewy.  Let me just say that these cookies were so tasty that I proceeded to eat so many that my stomach hurt.  I actually had to end up throwing half of the batch away so that I wouldn't lose any more control and eat the cookies in one sitting.  oops!

Weekend in DC

I went to DC this weekend for a family get together with my bro and his lovely fiance Lydia, my parents and all of my grandparents.  I did not do any cooking while there (and haven't done anything too fancy lately because Luke has been in San Diego for work), but I was lucky to enjoy some awesome home-baked desserts.

The first treat are something that my family fondly calls "Stingers".  I believe they have an official German name that I'm not going to even try to spell.  So these are my Oma's (aka Grandma in German) specialty cookies that she brings any time we see her.  They are just blissful.  I don't really know how else to describe them.  Oma is the best baker!

The second treat was a peach and berry pie that Lydia baked in honor of the grandparents' bdays.  Lydia also has a blog (which she actually update frequently...ooops) and she often writes about her amazing cooking (check it out here).  This pie was amazing and the crust was perfect.  Bravo, you will make a wonderful addition to the Leff family!

Shrimps on the Barbie!

Last night we had some friends over for a backyard BBQ.  It was pretty exciting when I realized that I'd have the opportunity to actually throw a "shrimp on the barbie" with an Aussie.  These were yummy!

Scallops in a honey soy glaze

It's been awhile since I've blogged, and I think I just got lazy in posting what I've been making.  Oops!
I made these scallops about a month ago, but only today uploaded the photo.

I marinated these scallops in a honey soy glaze and then cooked them in a pan.  I served them with a nice light salad.  This was dinner in minutes!

Vegetable Spring Rolls

One of my favorite things that Luke makes is spring rolls, so tonight he instructed me while I made them.  We've made them together before, but tonight it was all me!

You can really put anything inside these spring rolls, but tonight we had napa cabbage, bok choy, onion, and carrots.  I have learned with my cooking ventures that sometimes the chopping of the ingredients take longer than the actual cooking.

After I had chopped all the veggies, I got some oil heated up on the fry pan and cooked the veggies.  I then added soy, rice wine vinegar, garlic, rice cooking wine, ginger, and sesame oil to season the veggies.  Once these were all cooked we took them off the heat to cool.

Rolling the springs rolls is pretty fun, there's many different ways you can roll them and make them look very pretty.  Now the classic way to cook spring rolls is to fry them, but seeing as to how I'm watching my figure, we baked these in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.  We even had two dipping sauces, one sweet/spicy and one salty!  YUM!

Beef Stir fry with Noodles

Last night I recieved a cooking lesson from Luke. I was craving an asian noodle dish, so lo and behold that is what we created. I have found that it's much easier to cook when you have all of the ingredients in the house (living close to Chinatown also helps).

We started with the chopping of the veggies and the beef. While we did this we put some water on to boil Then we marinated the beef in some yummy asian sauces like soy, rice wine, sesame oil and oyster sauce. We got the frying pan really hot and then cooked the beef. Then we took the beef out of the pan.

Next we threw the veggies into the fry pan (note, we do not have a wok which is unfortunate). We added some soy and oyster sauce to the veggies and stir fried them til they were nice and tender.

Ok, so then we put the egg noodles into the boiling water for about three minutes, just until they fell apart from the balls they came in. Once this happened we drained them and put them under cold water immediately.

The final step was lightly frying up the noodles and adding the beef and veggies. The outcome was super tasty and quite light. Definitely not as salty as takeout chinese.

Seared Tuna with Soy Mustard Vinaigrette

Tonight I received a cooking lesson from Luke so this is sort of a joint post. Luke taught me how to sear tuna and it turns out this is very simple. The key is buying fresh fish and not cooking it for too long. We seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and then made a light vinaigrette. The vinaigrette had soy, lime juice, dijon mustard, ginger and a little bit of vegetable oil.

We sliced the tuna and then put it on some green beans which we stir fried with some soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, garlic and chili paste.

This meal was super quick and super yummy. It was fresh and light. I love tuna!

Salmon with a Cherry Tomato Balsamic Reduction

Luke's out of town this weekend, so I had to go it alone in the kitchen. So I'm going to make a bit of a confession and say that I've actually cooked salmon before, so this isn't entirely a new recipe.

I found a nice salmon steak while grocery shopping and decided that I could make that for my meal of the week. I started off by making the cherry tomato and balsamic reduction becasue the salmon cooks so quickly. This really just means I heated up the tomatoes an balsamic vinegar...sounds fancy though, right? Then

I pan fried the salmon because that's really the simplest way to cook it.

I was most nervous about plating the meal because Luke usually gives me helpful pointers. Well, you be the judge, how does it look? If it's any consolation, this meal was super easy, super delicious and cooked in no time!

Memorial Day Trip means no cooking!

Well because Luke and I went to Milan, Italy last weekend for the holiday, I was not able to cook.

I was however, lucky enough to get the opportunity to eat some amazing foods. I even documented the phenomenal pizza we had. So there you have it...a yummy meal that I did not cook, but did enjoy!

Filet of Beef with Tomato-Bean Salsa

Tonight was my second attempt at cooking dinner for Luke. I decided this time I would try something completely new to me, cooking beef! The recipe was simple...beef tenderloin and a salsa on the side. Unfortunately, beef tenderloin is the most expensive cut of meat, so I made a recession friendly decision to cook with beef sirloin that we had in the freezer.

I started by preparing the salsa. This salsa consists of pinto beans, tomato, cucumber, avocado, red onion, basil, and red wine vinegar. We added a few extra spices to flavor it up a little. Easy and tasty.

Next, I got the pan nice and hot with oil for the steak. I added some lime juice to the steak and then put it in the hot pan to cook. About 7 minutes later the steak was medium rare and ready to serve. As you can see the meal was very quick and easy and very tasty.

I can't believe I had never cooked steak before, it is so simple! It's even easier than chicken because you don't have to worry about not cooking it enough and getting sick.

I was very happy with this meal. The hearty steak paired with a fresh bean salsa was a nice contract.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 20 minutes
Rating: A

Chicken Milanese

On Sunday evening I prepared my first meal for Luke.  I was a bit nervous, but also quite excited to finally cook for the chef!  With my handy Weight Watchers cookbook in hand, I embarked on cooking Chicken Cutlet Milanese and a salad of romaine with a balsamic vinaigrette  and corn on the cob.

I have to say that this meal was quite easy to prepare and took very little time to prep and cook.  Really just a simple egg wash and cornmeal breading of the chicken followed by a pan fry and voila! 

Luke was helping as my sous chef in case anything got out of anything got out of hand, but thankfully, I did well on my own!  And let me just say that this yummy chicken tasted scrumptious....just like fried chicken and only 5 WW points!  What a way to begin my weekly cooking experiments.

Grade: A

Level of Difficulty: 1

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 large egg white
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 4 (1/4) pound chicken breast (or turkey) cutlets
• 4 tsp olive oil

Directions

1. Whisk together the egg white and lemon juice in a large shallow  bowl.  Mix together the cornmeal, Parmesan and the salt and pepper in another bowl.
   
2. Dip each cutlet into the egg white mixture, the coat with the cornmeal mixture, pressing lightly so it adheres.
3. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the cutlets in batches if necessary, and cook until browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side
4. ENJOY!