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Avocado Chopped Salad Two Ways: with Grilled Shrimp or Potato Gallette – And Grillin’ Season Continues!

June 15, 2011 in Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Entrees

Potato Galette Avocado Salad Square

Potato Gallette Avocado Chopped Salad

I grew up in heat. Lots of heat. Giant blow-dryer heat. Cook-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk heat. Skin-sticks-to-the-chair heat.

They say in Tucson, “it’s a dry heat,” so it feels cooler. I disagree. If it’s 115 out, it’s hot, hot, HOT.

We kids used to do odd things to keep cool in the summers. We ran through the sprinklers. We laid in the shady carport so our bare stomachs could be against the cool smooth cement playing Go Fish.  We drank lemonade all day long. We rode around town at night with all the car windows rolled down. Sometimes we ate banana splits for dinner. And we ate tons and tons of cold salads.

One of my favorites is the simplest chopped salad you can make: cool, creamy avocados paired with ripe tomatoes and tart grassy green onions. All tossed with a light Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette. This is a salad that just screams “SUMMER” in your mouth, and on your plate.

Grilled Shrimp Avocado Square

Avocado Chopped Salad topped with Smoked Paprika Grilled Shrimp

 

It’s also a healthy take on potato salad for the June Daring Cooks challenge and the potato version makes for a perfect Meatless Monday treat.

So, let’s summarize: easy, cool, refreshing, healthy. Summer conquered!

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El Charro’s Chilaquiles: Easy Mexican Casserole for Meatless Monday

June 13, 2011 in Entrees, Vegetarian Entrees

Simple, layered, delicious chilaquiles.

I fell in love at first bite when Donna first took me to her own all-time favorite restaurant, El Charro, the famous family-owned Mexican cafe in my birthplace, Tucson Arizona. When Donna visits her family there, they’ve been known to stop at El Charro directly from the airport, and ever since visiting there for the first time in 2003, I can see why. This is both as regionally authentic as it gets AND cooking from the heart of family traditions. And it’s now my favorite, too. (Seriously. It’s that good.)

A Belated Birthday Bash

We had started a new tradition not long before the visit photographed here: every visit would include a “birthday party” for me, so as to make up for some lost time – hence the sombrero of honor and carrot cake with candle. Donna’s favorite dish is carne seca, a dish that involves slowly drying beef in the open air (a tradition that is often a matter of contention for the Tucson health department). I’d be hard pressed to choose only one favorite, but it would probably be a toss-up between one of several varieties of enchiladas or their chilaquiles.

Since we just shared some of our own enchiladas, I’d love to pass on this very easy, very flexible recipe for chilaquiles, which happens to be a great fit for a Meatless Monday. This is also a bit of a hat tip to our former incarnation as Fab Frugal Food, as it is extremely inexpensive and a great way to use up old, stale tortilla chips.  Read the rest of this entry →

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Hazelnut Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers -70′s Retro Recipe Healthified and Dedicated to the Greatest Husband on the Planet

June 1, 2011 in Gluten Free, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Entrees

Quinoa Peppers Square

Hazelnut Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

We ate a lot of tacky food in the 70′s, and stuffed bell peppers are in the Tacky Foods Hall of Fame. Ground beef, Velveeta cheese, Worchestershire sauce. We’re talking serious tackiness. But, hey!, what can you expect from people who wore leisure suits and platform shoes?

I decided to remake this classic from my early married life in the late 70′s. Healthier. And yummier. Cooked with love in every bite.

I cooked my weight in stuffed peppers as a newlywed, thinking my sweet groom loved them. He ate them, smiled and hugged me every single time I dished them up. Then one day my culinary prowess was ripped like a rug from under me.

“So what do you cook for Jim?” my mother-in-law questioned.
“I make stuffed bell peppers a lot,” I proudly proclaimed.
“And he eats them?” her stunned reply.
“Oh yes, every bite!” I came back.
“But Jim HATES bell peppers,” she said, stumping me completely.

Turns out, I am the luckiest woman on the planet. I am married to Jim Kelly, who is a person who commutes from celestial worlds each morning to make my life an earthly bliss. Not just because he wakes me every single morning of my life with silly songs he sings in my ears. And not just because I have never once done laundry in 34 years (as of last week!). Mostly because he eats every single bite of every single dish I have ever made, some of them nasty or weird beyond words. And yet he raves about every single bite. What would I have done for these 34 years without him? Jim loves me deeply, completely. He loves me more than food. Imagine!

I dedicate these delish-i-fied stuffed peppers to YOU, Jim, my eternal sweetheart. Here’s to our eternal honeymoon!

Jim even smaller

Jim Kelly - Greatest Husband on Earth

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Goodwiches: On Hearty Veggie Wraps and Healing through Food

May 20, 2011 in Entrees, Gluten Free, Healthy Fare, Uncategorized, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Entrees

The New York Goodwich: A Nutrition-Packed Veggie Wrap

We set out to start blogging more authentically, and, specifically, focusing on how food and cooking became a form of bonding for us as we got to know each other as a birthmother and daughter. Most mothers and daughters don’t have to “get to know each other” as a deliberate act – it unfolds over the course of a lifetime, and much of that unfolding involves nurturing and literally nourishing one’s child. And naturally, much of that takes place in the kitchen. So for Donna and I, it was (and still is) a  template for the way we’ve been making up for lost time.

And really, sometimes, we’re just going to share some recipes because they’re just plain good, no backstory required.

But here’s the thing: if we’re going to be talking about authentic writing + food, there’s more to that equation than just the love and nurturing and connecting. Yes, we all absolutely do connect with one another through food, and we all have emotional connections with food because of that. And most of the time, in most ways, this is a beautiful thing. But emotional connections are imperfect, as is anything in this imperfect world, and therefore, our relationship with food itself is not always going to be healthy.

This is a part of my (Anne’s) story that I haven’t talked about much publicly, let alone in a food blog platform. What? Talking about eating disorders on a food blog? Aren’t food blogs supposed to be about the awesome FOOD, along with fabulous photography and engaging writing? Why bring up such an uncomfortable topic?

Well, I bring it up because it underscores what a revelation it was to me, truly, to be connected with someone who loves food and relates to it in much the same way I do, as it was when I met my birthmother. To have that love for food be transformed into something not shameful, greedy, indulgent in the worst kind of pejorative (because the latter was the way I felt for decades), well, it has been nothing less than life-changing.

I will give you the Cliffs Notes version, rather than the Lifetime Movie of the Week version, but in a nutshell: Read the rest of this entry →

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Carol’s White Enchilada Recipe – Three Generations of Rolled Cheesy Deliciousness on a Plate

May 16, 2011 in Entrees, Vegetarian Entrees

The Ultimate Sour Cream Enchiladas: Carol's White Enchiladas

Sometimes when I miss my mom, I make enchiladas.

No, not the red-sauced cylinders with spiced ground beef inside.  They are white. They are ooey and gooey. They are rich and decadent. They just scream out “MOM” from the very first bite.

Carol created this recipe over a period of 30 years, making slow baby-step changes as time went on until they became the perfect creaminess with a spike of green chiles and green onions just to wake up your mouth while you are moaning with pleasure from the sheer rich gooeyness of her signature dish.

When I was tall enough to let my elbows rest on the counters without a step stool, Carol taught me the secrets of her famous White Enchiladas.

Don’t skip frying the tortillas until they’re soft, Carol insisted, or your tortillas will turn to mush when baking. The green onions have to be sliced thin, Carol cautioned. The sour cream must be fresh, Carol warned.

She was right, of course, about all of it: the most perfect comfort foods have a warm, filling feeling, with just a touch of something different to make them your own.

A delicious dish, like a delicious life, has a harmony of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The joyful as well as the bittersweet, in every bite, in every day life.

This recipe is the one thing my children must help make before taking flight from the Kelly nest. This is the signature recipe from my side of the family, and all children must make it and swear an oath to teach it to coming generations.

The generations to come may not be able to meet Carol, but they will know her a little better through her enchiladas.

– posted by Donna

P.S. from Anne: This was another recipe that Donna emailed to me in our early getting-to-know you, getting-to-know-all-about-you phase, and in that email she had explained the origin of the recipe via her own mother. And as you might well guess, this is now one of my very favorite recipes when I want something savory and indulgent. I use rice flour for the sauce to make it gluten-free, which works very well. It is one of the first dishes Donna and I made together, a nod to my biological family and to my birthplace – Tucson, Arizona.

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Reborn in the Kitchen: Savory Parmesan Crusted French Toast Anytime 24/7

March 28, 2011 in Entrees, Vegetarian Entrees

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Savory Parmesan Crusted French Toast with Roasted Tomato Garnish

As a young bride I made French Toast at least three times a week. The whole time I was cursing and berating myself for not paying enough attention to what my mom was doing in the kitchen and for not learning from her while I had the chance instead of grumbling while making the family salad. So, when I was forced to feed myself and my new hubby, I turned often to breakfast for dinner. Again and again. Bread soaked in custard – who can screw that up? So, over and over again I soaked bread and slapped it in a pan and then slathered it with butter and syrup. It was a mainstay, and my sweet eternal companion choked it down, smiled and loved me anyway.

But in the last ten years, I have been culinarily reborn. I have become adventurous, yes, even daring in the kitchen. My latest food fetish is savory French Toast. Why not savory? Really, is French Toast required to be soaked in sugary syrup or piled with sugar and fruit and whipped cream? Bread soaked in custard is pretty much a blank canvas, so why not paint it with savory flavors?

I wrote a little French Toast cookbook a few years ago, and I made a cheddar crusted French Toast, which was yummy, but tricky to get just right on the crust without burning the cheddar. So, I don’t hassle with that very often.

Recently I discovered THE CURE: Parmesan cheese!  ((Parmesan is the chocolate of the savory world. Parmesan, like chocolate, cures so many things, does it not?))  Like a ray of sunshine beaming down with angelic choirs singing, Parmesan has refreshed my culinary soul once again!

Parmesan makes the perfect crust for French Toast, because it is a hard cheese. It makes more of a crunchy “crust” than, say, soft melty cheddar. I made this delicious savory version with a little roasted tomato garnish. You could use marinara instead. Either way, this makes an almost effortless dinner -perfect for busy Meatless Mondays!

We here at FFF are no strangers to turning sweet breakfast foods into savory dinners: remember our cornbread waffle chili stacks?

I love the new food trend of making savory oatmeal – featured in a post on Blogher.  Hey! If folks can make savory oatmeal, I say – Why Not Savory French Toast?!

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Celebrate the new season: Spring Pesto Soup

March 23, 2011 in Appetizers, Gluten Free, Healthy Fare, Vegetarian Entrees

Spring vegetables with the rich flavor of pesto

This tastes like the essence of early spring, fresh and bright yet somehow also rich, with the nuttiness of the freshest pesto melded in. It was inspired directly by one of my favorite cookbooks of recent years, “Cooking for Isaiah” by Silvana Nardone. I present it here with some variations in the vegetables, the addition of pine nuts and some optional Parmesan, with a different cooking technique, but the essence is her inspiration, reminding me of the lovely Provencal soupe al pistou.

I already have no doubt that this is an immediate staple dish, to be replicated this time every year, as often as possible. It’s also a great phase one recipe for low carbers, and is easily vegan; the original had no dairy anyway, I just threw a bit in since I like my pesto this way -  it is just as delicious without. Read the rest of this entry →

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Accidental Enchiladas – Flavorful Flat Cheese Enchiladas Recipe in Five Minutes Flat for Meatless Monday

March 21, 2011 in Entrees, Gluten Free, Vegetarian Entrees

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No need to do drive-thru with this fabulous new enchilada recipe – in FIVE MINUTES – TOPS. Yes, you read that right. Enchiladas in five minutes flat. And that includes grating the cheese.

I was making quesadillas the other day for my son and it occurred to me (Ding! Ding! Ding! Light bulb above head goes on!) that the same technique would work for getting enchiladas done in just minutes. It’s not often that I discover new dishes by accident. And, when I do, they are usually just ho-hum. But. These are a definite home run! I don’t know why I didn’t think of this years ago. Now the words “easy” and “enchiladas” can be in the same sentence!

All you do is spray a corn tortilla with oil and then lay it in a hot skillet for a few seconds. Turn it over and top one half with grated cheese. Then fold it over once and cook until cheese is melted. Fold it over again and then you have a nice little enchilada triangle. Then, just dunk it in or drizzle it with your favorite easy enchilada sauce and sprinkle on your favorite southwest garnish (cilantro, green onions, etc.) and – Dinner is served!

Happy Meatless Monday, Everyone!

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Make Our Lasagna “Cupcakes” with Ricotta Frosting and Basil Sprinkles. Then, Sit Back and Wait for the Cheers!

March 14, 2011 in Entrees, Vegetarian Entrees

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Lasagna Cupcakes with Ricotta Frosting and Basil Sprinkles

There is no better feeling as a home cook than having your kids clap their hands when you bring dinner to the table. I had this happen for a few dishes when my kiddos were little, and that always made my day. My whole week!

Tell them you are having cupcakes for dinner, then just sit back and wait for the cheering to begin!

Lasagna Cupcakes is one of those dishes that will bring cheers. You will hear cheers and clapping when you make these little cuties. And, don’t tell them how easy they are to make – just let them keep thinking you slaved all day long. Better yet, have kids join in the fun of making this simplified lasagna. Kids as young as 4 can help layer the ingredients in the muffin tins. Studies universally show that cooking and eating dinner with your kids results in happier, healthier kids – lower rates of depression, suicide, obesity, and much less likelihood of using drugs and alcohol. Really, shouldn’t we all be cooking with kids every day?

To simplify this recipe, I used round wonton sheets, making these a quick and flavorful dinner that is a snap to get on the table pronto – less than 20 minutes prep time. A perfect easy family dish for Meatless Monday!

And really:  ricotta “frosting” with basil “sprinkles.” What’s more fun than that for dinner?

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Meatless Mardi Gras Recipe: Portabella Etouffee for Meatless Monday

March 7, 2011 in Entrees, Gluten Free, Uncategorized, Vegetarian Entrees

Portabella Etouffee

 

I’m a big fan of New Orleans cuisine. I honestly can’t think of a Creole or Cajun classic that I haven’t liked. If I had to pick only one, just ONE, though, it would have to be shrimp or crawfish etouffee.  So with only a few more days left until this year’s Fat Tuesday Feast, I wanted to see if I could concoct a vegetarian version for Meatless Monday. I had a hunch that portabella mushrooms might be a good match.  Read the rest of this entry →

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