All posts filed under: recipe

Raspberry Lemon Martini

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How great is this cocktail?  It’s so great that you just might forget that there is any alcohol in it and maybe drink it way too fast and then wonder where you left your shoes!  I found the recipe for this Raspberry Lemon Martini on my friend Lori Rice’s blog during the week and I knew I had to make it immediately!  The color was bright and springy and I just happened to have come home that day with a carton of beautiful raspberries and a bag of lemons! It was serendipity!  It was so easy to prepare, so tasty and delicious, that I actually heard myself mumbling “yum, yum, yum” as I drank it!  I really did drink it too fast, but I was at home, so it was all good–I just couldn’t remember where I put my shoes… As with any cocktail, you’ll want to choose the freshest ingredients and use a good quality spirit.  I used Grey Goose for this one.  It comes together so quickly that you’ll be enjoying this one outside on your patio in …

How to Roast a Whole Chicken

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It’s a little bit odd that this is the first time I’ve written about roasted chicken. I make it when company comes over. I make it when the Husband comes home from a business trip (it’s his favorite)! I make it for New Year’s Day, then I make it again for Easter. Really, is there anything more satisfying than a perfectly roasted whole chicken?  Golden brown, crispy skin with a perfectly juicy interior; it is comfort food at it’s finest, yet it can be a perfectly elegant centerpiece of a “fancy” dinner. Seriously, bringing a well-roasted, plump chicken to the table is a beautiful thing. It’s like the Thanksgiving Turkey without all the anxiety! The Husband brags about this chicken to his friends and colleagues, and I admit, it makes me smile…a lot! There’s no sweeter feeling than when someone you love enjoys something you’ve made so much! I learned the method of cooking this chicken from a Barefoot Contessa episode many years ago and I’ve made it so many times I could make it …

Quinoa and Black Bean Stuffed Poblano Peppers

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There are lots of reasons that you are going to love this dish!  I love it because it’s a healthy, meatless, dish that can stand on its own, but at the same time, it can also be a great side dish for your favorite protein.  What I love most about this dish is that it is SPICY!  I love spicy food, but I didn’t want the dish to be all about the heat.  What I wanted to do was create lots of flavor to compliment that heat!  So, to do that, I tucked little bits of heat into each component, layering flavors and spice, creating an end result that won’t leave you breathing fire or reaching for the nearest glass of milk! Typically, when you see a poblano pepper, it’s in the form of a chile relleno that you find at your favorite Mexican restaurant.  The chile is stuffed with cheese, dipped in batter and deep fried.  Now, I don’t have anything against foods that are filled with cheese and deep fried, but realistically, that’s just not going to …

Seared Black Cod with Meyer Lemon and Caper Relish

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Hello.  My name is Tracey and I have just learned to properly sear seafood.  There, I said it.  It’s a little embarrassing, given the time I’ve been cooking seafood, but that’s what it’s all about, right? Learning new and better ways of doing things!  While watching cooking shows, I would often think, wow, that’s a beautiful sear on that fish! Why doesn’t my fish look like that when I do the same thing?  Well, I finally figured it out.  I simply wasn’t leaving the fish in the pan long enough to get that nice golden sear.  I have since discovered that my sense of timing is very, very off.  For instance, when I think I’m doing something for 2 minutes, it’s actually more like 45 seconds.  I blame the digital age–it’s messing with my attention span!  Or perhaps it has something to do with the way food television is edited!  Whatever the reason, to solve this, I’ve started using the stop-watch feature on my phone to time myself.  I tried this with scallops first because I …

Triple Berry Overnight Refrigerator Oatmeal

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I never miss breakfast.  I think of my weekday breakfast as my one chance to do something good for myself. A meal that has the potential to be so totally virtuous that it can cover up a multitude of lunchtime sins (in which I have been known to indulge)! During the week, I don’t need variety–I just need something relatively fast and healthy that will give me the energy to get through the morning.  In the colder months, I make oatmeal every day–the stovetop kind, dressed up with nutmeg, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts and blueberries.  I love this breakfast. But once it starts getting towards the warmer months, cold cereal is usually on the menu.  In the summer, I make a mega-mix of very grown-up cereal:  Shredded Wheat, Grape-Nuts, raw rolled oats, raisins and walnuts.  It’s a pretty intense amount of fiber, but that’s how you know you’ve grown up–you start thinking about things like fiber! I had been pretty satisfied by my winter/summer weekday breakfast lineup, but then I started seeing this recipe from The Yummy Life for “Overnight No-Cook …

Cucumber Basil Gin Martini

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Last weekend, we had to make an emergency run to the liquor store to replenish our gin stash! I can’t believe we actually allowed ourselves to run out completely and I have to admit, I was a little panicked about it! Off we went to the store with the intent to replace our old standbys–Hayman’s Old Tom Gin, Hendricks and Plymouth; but, what we left with was a new discovery: Citadelle Gin. Citadelle is a French Gin and like my favorite Hendrick’s, it is both floral and herbal and very smooth! The inspiration for this drink came from a sake-based cucumber-basil martini that I enjoyed just recently at a sushi restaurant. I didn’t have any sake at home, but I knew that the flavors would be perfect with the botanical notes in the Citadelle gin!  The weather is getting warmer, so you must put this drink in your spring and summer cocktail arsenal!  It is light, refreshing, herbaceous and so delicious! Perfect for a garden party!       Happy Weekend!

“Dark and Stormy Cocktail” and taking time to “Look at the Flowers”

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Last week, I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. I won’t elaborate on the details in order to protect the innocent, but trust me, it sucked.  The husband was out of town for the week on a business trip and as luck would have it, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  The icing on the cake was the morning (3:50 last Thursday, to be exact) I was trying to catch a few precious moments of sleep, when I heard the distant, plaintive chirp of the smoke alarm.  Have you ever noticed that smoke alarm batteries only die in the wee hours of the morning? Of course, the dying smoke alarm was located on the highest ceiling of the house, which meant that I had to go out to the garage in my pajamas and get the Giant Ladder.  Normally, I never even touch the Giant Ladder–the shiny, clean 5-footer is more my speed, but there I was, in my robe and slippers, precariously perched about 15 feet off the ground …