Quinoa Fruit Salad

I have lost 10 pounds since last May. It's tough changing a 50 year old body that refuses to give up anything. Being able to work out again after knee replacement definitely helped as well as making changes to what I eat. I used to take frozen low cal entrees for lunch each day but they didn't seem to do the trick. Too much salt and not enough protein or veggies. So I decided to make my own soups and salads to take instead. Quinoa seemed like an obvious choice for my salads. While a grain, quinoa also packs a good deal of vegetable protein so I don't get that mid afternoon craving and can make it to dinner without snacking. With that being said, here is a delightful quinoa salad that is loaded with flavor.

Serves 8

3 cups cooked quinoa
3 cups sliced strawberries
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sliced fresh pineapple or mango
8 large basil leaves sliced into ribbons
juice of 2 large limes
zest of 1 large lime
3 tbsp honey

Place the quinoa, fruits, cranberries, almonds and basil leaves in a large bowl. Mix the lime juice, zest and honey together and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

These have everything I like in a cookie. They are crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. They don't require refrigeration before baking and I almost forgot, they have chocolate in them. I think these would be wonderful in an ice-cream sandwich. I would double the recipe and make them with a large cookie or smallish ice-cream scoop. Looking forward to doing that this summer.


Makes about 4 dozen

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, ½ cup at room temperature and ½ cup melted
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the ½ cup room-temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cocoa to the melted butter,whisk to combine and then add to mixer bowl. Mix until well blended. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until creamy. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.
Use a 1-inch cookie scoop to drop dough in rounded tablespoons on a parchment- or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until edges are firm. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for minute, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Fourth of July

I haven't made ribs for a while so I think I'll make them for the 4th. They happen to be my family's favorite, Christopher loves them most of all. He will put away a whole rack if I let him. I'll serve baked beans, macaroni salad and a big bowl of watermelon as the sides. For dessert I'll make pound cake, cut the slices in the shape of stars and serve it with fresh berries and whipped cream. This will be the perfect end to a fun filled day of pool parties and fireworks. The recipes for my holiday feast are posted below. Happy 4th Everyone!

Lightened Up Macaroni Salad

With the 4th rolling around, it's time to haul out the bbq offerings. I have an old recipe for macaroni salad that must have been my grandmother's. It calls for a lot of mayo and I wanted to see if I could swap out a good portion of it for greek yogurt. I'm happy to report that it worked beautifully.



Serves a crowd

1/2 pound of whole wheat or multigrain pasta, cooked and cooled
3 hardboiled eggs, peeled and chopeed
1 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup diced dill pickles
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3/4 cup of shredded low fat cheddar cheese
1 cup fat free plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup light mayo
1/2 cup pickle juice
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
pepper

In a small bowl whisk together the yogurt, mayo, pickle juice, mustard and pepper. Set aside. Place the pasta, eggs, celery, bell pepper and cheese in a large bowl and toss to combine. Pour the dressing over all and fold it into the salad. Serve cold.

Sour Cream Buttermilk Pound Cake

I have this great idea for a Memorial Day dessert. I'm going to cut star shapes out of pound cake and then assemble it on the plate with fresh strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. It should look very festive. I haven't decided yet if I will be sandwiching the berries between 2 stars or just use one per plate. I guess it will depend on how many stars I will be able to cut out. I couldn't decide on a sour cream or buttermilk pound cake. So I thought why not use both? I have an extra long loaf pan for mine. However,you can either fit this into a bundt pan or 1 loaf pan and 1 mini loaf pan.

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3 cups sugar

6 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all purpose flour
zest of 1 large orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325. Spray your baking pan with baking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and soda together;set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, whip the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the zest and the vanilla. Add half of the flour to the bowl. Follow with the sour cream and the buttermilk. Finish with the remaining flour. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 90 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 60 minutes. When the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, it is done. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely. To form into stars. Cut the cake into 3/4 inch slices. Use a cookie cutter to cut the shapes. Save the trimmings to make a small trifle or cake crumbs for another dish.

BBQ Baked Beans

BBQ season is just around the corner. YIPPEE!!!! This recipe began as my mom's. However she mixed ketchup,mustard, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar to make a basic bbq sauce. I'm not a fan of overly sweet bbq sauce so I opted to use my favorite bottled sauce instead. OK, I know you're going to ask so I'm just going to tell you. I use Stubb's Original bbq sauce.
Serves 14

4 15oz cans of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 large onion diced
1 large bell pepper diced
3 cloves of garlic diced
2 bottles bbq sauce
bacon
in a well greased baking pan put the beans, onion, bell pepper, garlic. Mix well. Pour in the bbq sauce and mix again.
Lay slices of bacon over top. Cover with foil
Bake at 300 for 3 hours.
after 2 1/2 hours remove foil and conitnue baking
Serves 10-12

Baby Back Ribs

We make ribs a lot throughout the summer. I found a great deal on babyback ribs in the store today so we'll be eating like kings tomorrow. We'll be partnering these ribs with corn on the cob, Cole slaw, Watermelon and Buttermilk Brownies for dessert.

You'll find pictures of my rub and some of the steps at the bottom of my blog.

Rub(enough for 2 racks of ribs)
1/2 cup of light brown sugar packed
3 tablespoons Montreal Steak Seasoning
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon each of dried thyme,cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of chipotle chili powder
Put all rub ingredients into a small bowl and mix well.

Preheat oven to 250
Place a rack of ribs on a long piece of heavy duty foil. Make sure it is long enough to completely wrap the ribs in. Sprinkle a 1/4 of the rub on each side of the ribs and rub in well. Wrap the ribs up in foil and place on a jelly roll pan.
Braising Liquid
1 cup good pale ale
1 cloves of garlic diced
1 tablespoon each of liquid smoke, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, honey
Put all ingredients in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Open one end of the rib foil packets and pour half of the liquid into the open end. Place the ribs into the oven and let them braise for 3 hours. Remove the ribs from the oven, open one end of the foil packets and pour out the liquid. Remove the ribs from their packets and place a rack in the center of a clean jelly roll pan that had been lined with foil or a silpat. Coat both sides of the rack with your favorite bbq sauce. Place under the broiler or on the bbq until the ribs are browned on the top. Cut them apart and serve.

Cook's Notes- I gave up bbqing my ribs years ago when I realized that the term bbq refers to the smoking process the ribs go through at a professional ribs joint. I was never able to completely control the heat on my grill which led me to burn the sauce that I put on my ribs. So I opted to use the oven and have never been disappointed since.

Father's Day

Father's Day weekend is a heavy hitter around here. My husband and youngest son, Ryan, both have birthdays a few days before. If that weren't enough, our daughter moves back home from college that same weekend. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull off anything this year. I hosted a retirement party last weekend, attended Ryan's high school graduation on Tuesday and left town for Oregon on Wednesday. Did I mention I am still teaching so somewhere between all of that I was prepping sub plans for 3 days. After arriving home late last night(we drove from Oregon to San Diego in 14 hours)I am sitting here now almost prepped to pull off a birthday/Father's Day dinner at 6! I'm keeping it simple and making some tried and true family favorites tonight. We're having Linguini with fresh clam sauce, garlic/ herb bread, Ceasar salad and Coconut Cake for dessert. I've reposted all of the recipes below. I hope you were able to spend Father's Day with your loved ones this year.

Old Fashioned Coconut Cake

My husband, Bjorn and our youngest son, Ryan both have birthdays this week. We will be traveling to Oregon to bring our daughter home from her first year in college later in the week so we are celebrating birthdays and Father's Day today. Bjorn and Ryan both love coconut cake. I have tried many coconut cake recipes over the years but have never found one that has been just right. Boy, do I sound like Goldilocks here! I think this is recipe number 4 and I have high hopes for this one. First of all it is an old southern recipe that I have made a few changes to. Thank goodness one can find unsweetened flaked coconut these days. I don't wish having to crack open a fresh coconut and preparing the flesh on anyone let alone myself. Been there, done that and it wasn't pretty.

Here are a couple of things I recommend for this cake. Do buy unsweetened flaked coconut. I found Red Mill at Sprouts(a health food store). I also used cream of coconut(found in the liquor aisle), coconut extract and coconut milk(found in the asian food aisle). I've included a picture of these items.



4 cups flour, sifted
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
6 eggs, separated
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
Filling:
Unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cups sugar
1/2 cup cream of coconut
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup coconut milk, for soaking cake layers
1/3 cup of coconut milk for sponging on the cake layers
Marshmallow Frosting
1/3 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tsp coconut extract
pinch of salt

Whip the egg whites until stiff and set aside. Sift flour, baking powder and soda together. Cream sugar and butter, add egg yolks. Add flour and milk alternately, then fold in well beaten egg whites. This makes 3, 9 inch layers. Bake 350 F in moderate oven for 30-35 minutes.




Filling:
Mix flour and sugar in a sauce pan before adding butter and coconut milk and cream of coconut. Cook to syrup. Add grated coconut after syrup has cooled. Reserve some coconut to sprinkle on top of cake. Sponge each cake layer with more coconut milk before spreading filling.

Marshmallow Frosting
Stir the water, sugar, cream of tartar and salt together in a small saucepan. Hook a thermometer onto the side of the pan and boil without stirring until the temperature reaches 240 degrees. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff. Pour the hot syrup in a thin stream over the whites beating constantly. Continue to beat until the frosting is thick and glossy about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the coconut extract. Frost cake and top with remaining coconut.

Linguini and Red Clam Sauce

I was so excited to see fresh clams at the fish counter today. Immediately I thought of my dad. He loves Linguini in Clam Sauce. Cherry tomatoes are in season so I decided to combine the best of both worlds. Serve with a green or Caesar salad and you'll make everyone very happy.

Serves 6

3 pounds live clams in their shells, scrubbed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 stems oregano,leaves stripped and chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons of butter
8-10 basil leaves torn
black pepper

Bring water to a boil for the pasta and season it with enough salt to taste like sea water. Cook the pasta until it is almost al dente. While the water is coming to a boil, heat the olive oil in a large pot with a lid over medium/high heat. Add the anchovy paste and stir to combine. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, oregano, parsley and pepper. Saute until the tomatoes burst and the onions are soft about 8-10 minutes. Add the wine and reduce for 2 minutes. Melt the butter into the sauce and add the clams to the pot. Cover with the lid and cook clams until they open about 6-7 minutes. Remove any unopened clams and add the pasta to the pot. Toss the linguini with the sauce, add the basil, and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Garlic and Herb Bread

When I serve seafood I make this twist on garlic bread. The addition of green onion and lemon zest enhances the taste of the clams in my linguini with red clam sauce.

Serves 8-10

1 large french bread
3 cloves garlic
1 stick softened butter
2-3 large green onions, cut into chunks
zest of 1 large lemon
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Cut the bread into slices but stop just before cutting all the way through the loaf. In a food processor place the cheese, green onions, garlic and lemon zest. Process until all is finely ground. Add the butter and procees again until it all comes together into a paste. Spread some of the herb butter between each cut of in the bread. Wrap the loaf well in foil and place in a 450 oven for 12-15 minutes or until heated through and cheese and butter is melted. Serve immediately.