Grandma Beverly's Refrigerator Pickles

My grandparents had a huge vegetable garden so homemade pickles were part of every summer.  In the past week I have picked 6 cucumbers and it looks like I will have tons more soon!  What better way to keep cucumbers from going to waste than to make homemade pickles?  Here is my Grandma Beverly's recipe for homemade refrigerator pickles.

Grandma Beverly's Refrigerator Pickles

 Ingredients

• Cucumbers
• Garlic cloves
• Onions
• Fresh Dill
• Mustard seeds
• White vinegar
• Salt
• Sugar

Procedure

Clean quart sized canning jars and lids in hot water.  Make sure to use an unused lid because you need it to make a seal with the jar.  This recipe makes enough liquid for one quart sized jar.  Clean cucumbers and trim off the ends.  You can leave you cucumbers whole or slice them into any size that you like.  This time I did a mixture of spears and slices.

Pack each jar with 2-4 garlic cloves, 1 small onion sliced, fresh dill, mustard seeds and cucumbers. Set the jar on top of a towel.  Mixing a glass container with boiling liquid on top of a cold counter top can cause the glass the shatter.  The towel will reduce the temperature difference.

Mix 2 cups of water, 3/4 cup of white vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp salt.  Bring to a boil and pour into the jar over all of the other ingredients.  Fill the jars almost to the top (leave 1/4" of space at the top).  Cool too room temperature and then refrigerate.

Pickles are ready to eat in 24 hours and will last up to a year in the refrigerator.

For one quart sized jar, I used 3 1/2 cucumbers that were originally about 6" long.  Unfortunately grocery store cucumbers will not work for this recipe because of their waxy skin.  Homegrown cucumbers work the best.  I used 4 garlic cloves (cut into large pieces), 1 small onion sliced, and 5 sprigs of fresh dill.  I didn't measure the mustard seeds but I would guess about 1 tsp.  This is one of those recipes where adding "some" is a measurement.  It's a hard recipe to mess up so don't stress too much about the details. 

You can experiment with the amount of onion, garlic, dill and mustard seed to see how much you prefer.

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Brown Sugar Salmon with Grilled Asparagus

Now I know that I had salmon with zucchini and broccoli on the menu for tonight, but I forgot all about the asparagus that I got for part of last night's meal.  So tonight I made the Brown Sugar Salmon with grilled asparagus.  

Today is the first day of many where it will be over 90 degrees.  No way am I cooking inside!  I put my salmon and asparagus on the grill at about 350 degrees for almost 15 minutes and dinner was done!  The best part about grilling is that there is very little mess to clean up afterwards.

Grilled Asparagus

Snap the ends off the asparagus.  Lay asparagus over foil.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Grilled over medium heat for 10-15 minutes.

Brown Sugar Salmon

Top salmon with the zest of one lemon, salt and pepper.  I've made this with lime zest before and it was just as yummy.  Any citrus zest would go well with salmon.

Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the salmon.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  The brown sugar will melt into a glaze.

Grill on foil over medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Steak with Mediterranean Grilled Vegetables

Last week when I told the hubby that I wanted to branch out more in the food we were eating he said, "What?  Like steak?"  I realized that we really don't eat red meat anymore!  It wasn't a conscious decision .  I usually buy my chicken and fish in bulk at Costco but I rarely buy any red meat in large quantities.  I try to plan my meals based on what I have on hand so steak never comes to mind.  In fact, if I need meat from the regular grocery store I usually have to go back at the end of my trip because I've forgotten to stop in the meat department.

So I decided that this week we are having steak!  I had zucchini, eggplant and a bell pepper from the garden and I figured that grilled vegetables would go great with steak. 

I used this recipe for Mediterranean Grilled Vegetables.  Instead of the Kraft brand salad dressing I used a different brand that happened to be on sale.  For my vegetables I used zucchini, eggplant, bell pepper, red onion, and mushrooms.  I marinated them in a plastic bag (makes for easy clean up!) for about 30 minutes.  I grilled them on top of foil on a grill that was set around 350 degrees.

Confession time:  I forgot that I was running low on aluminum foil.  So I tried to squeeze my vegetables on a piece of foil that was too small.  What a bad idea!  Veggies spilled over the edge of the foil and through the grates.  I'm pretty sure that I lost half of my red onions.  But the rest tasted great so I guess it turned out alright in the end.

I marinated the steak for 30 minutes in a plastic bag (see below for recipe).  I usually try to buy rib-eye steaks because they seem to be tender and are usually a decent price.  My grocery store typically has rib-eyes off of the bone so if you buy the ones on the bone you may have to cook them a little longer.

 After I cooked the vegetables, I turned the grill on High and waited until it got to 400-450 degrees.  I like to cook steak over high heat for a short amount of time.  I did 2 minutes on each side and then a final 2 minutes on the first side (6 minutes total) and it ended up medium.  I usually let it rest off of the grill under foil for about 5 minutes before we eat.  Tonight I just let it rest naked.  I hate when I run out of things like foil!

 Steak Marinade

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 tbsp cracked black pepper
• 1/2-1 tbsp garlic powder 

Preparation

Mix together in a plastic bag.  Marinate steaks for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator.  Dispose of marinade after cooking. This made enough to marinate 2 large rib-eye steaks but you can increase the recipe as needed.

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Week of June 25, 2012

This week is another short week for us.  We flew home from Nebraska on Monday so Monday night was one of those grab-whatever-you-can-find-that-counts-as-dinner nights.  Last night the hubby took me out for a nice dinner for my birthday.  I had sea bass with a lemon butter sauce that was delicious!  I'm definitely going to figure out a way to recreate the recipe at home!

My inspiration for this week is my vegetable garden.  This year we planted a little bit of everything and last night we had our first "harvest".  So far this week I have 2 zucchini, 2 cucumbers, a small head of broccoli, an eggplant, a tiny bell pepper and some lettuce to use.

Wednesday:  Grilled steak with Mediterranean Grilled Vegetables
Thursday:  Brown sugar salmon with zucchini & broccoli
Friday:  Grilled chicken with salad

Not a super exciting menu planned this week but I'm looking forward to all of the fresh veggies!  I have a really easy steak marinade that I'll share with you too.  It gives the meat a lot of flavor quickly.

Lemon balm & rosemary

 Earthtainers

Grapes

 Zucchini

 Lettuce

 Squash

 Garden in the front yard with butternut squash, musk melon, ghost peppers, strawberries and cucumbers

What's on the menu at your house this week?

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Cilantro Quinoa Salad with Tuna

The hubby and I just got back from a trip to Nebraska for his family reunion.  Needless to say I am behind in my weekly meal planning.  Tomorrow is my birthday (yay!) and we are going out to dinner.  I promise that I'll post my meal plan later this week.

In the meantime, here is another quick and easy quinoa salad recipe.  I originally made this with tiny pasta but I decided to try it with quinoa after my quinoa salad last week.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 1 Sweet bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 Red onion, chopped
• 1 Cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• Ranch dressing
• 1 can of tuna fish, drained

Preparation

Cook the quinoa according to the directions.  Quinoa is made just like rice in a 1 part dry quinoa to 2 parts water or chicken broth.  You can either make the quinoa the day before and refrigerate it or run it under cold water after it is cooked to cool it down quicker.

Chop up all of your veggies and cilantro into whatever size piece you like.   Mix together your veggies, quinoa, tuna and enough ranch dressing to coat everything and you're done!

Keep refrigerated and serve cold.  Makes 4 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

It's OK to Fake It

I know that yesterday I shared how to alter a recipe but that was nothing compared to tonight!  Tonight's dinner was an much easier version of Cooking Light's Glazed Chicken and Szechuan Noodle Salad with Sesame Broccoli.  In fact, I'm not sure that I can really say that I even followed the original recipe.  As you become a more confident chef, try making your own versions of recipes.  The more you experiment the quicker you will learn what you like and don't like.  Be careful not to go to any extreme with a recipe because it usually ends up in the trash with delivery pizza on it's way.

 

For tonight's dinner I took the flavors of the original recipe and simplified it.  Instead of chicken thighs (I'm not a fan of dark meat), I used chicken tenderloins that I chopped into bite sized pieces.  I have a well stocked kitchen but I don't usually have things like hoisin sauce.  So I decided to keep the ginger flavor and sprinkled some dried ground ginger on my chicken before I cooked it.  

The sauce has a lot of ingredients and I'm sure tastes wonderful.  But I wouldn't know because I faked it.  I had some Asian-style dressing in the fridge and added the soy sauce, peanut butter and lime juice.  I figured that all of the flavors were similar and that I didn't need to stock my kitchen with ingredients that I will never use again.

I heated a skillet over medium and added about a tablespoon of olive oil.  Once it was hot, I added my "ginger" chicken along with a tablespoon of soy sauce.  When the chicken was about 3/4 of the way cooked, I added some sliced peppers.  I didn't have carrots on hand but I had peppers that I needed to use.  Don't be afraid to substitute vegetables to prevent wasting food.

I added the sauce to the pan with the chicken and peppers and heated everything through.

 Instead of Szechuan noodles (what are those anyways?) I used regular spaghetti noodles.  I mixed them with my chicken/pepper/sauce mixture.  And that's it - finished!

For the broccoli I did follow the recipe because it was so simple.  It made a great addition and is an easy way to jazz up boring old broccoli.

 A lot of times I use recipes as inspiration for easier meals.  While recipes are a good way to learn cooking techniques and flavors, don't feel obligated to follow them.  Have fun adapting recipes and making them your own!

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Salmon with Mango Kiwi Salsa and Farro

Have you ever looked at a recipe in a magazine or cookbook and thought it looked amazing?  But then you disregarded it because the recipe looked too intimidating.  Why?  When I was planning my meals for this week I realized that I immediately looked at recipes and was thinking about how to alter them before I had even decided that I wanted to make that recipe this week. 

This past weekend I received the latest issue of Cooking Light in the mail.  There were so many recipes that I wanted to try!  So Sunday night I sat down to plan my dinners for the week.  Here is one recipe that I picked (and altered).

Cedar Plank-Grilled Salmon with Mango Kiwi Salsa

 

 Grilling on a cedar plank is on my bucket list, but it's not going to happen this week.  Don't be intimidated by cooking methods!  I'm making the recipe as is other than I'm grilling my salmon on foil rather than a fancy cedar plank.  Last night I put my frozen salmon in the refrigerator to thaw and mixed up the salsa.  When I was ready to cook tonight, the meal only ended up taking 15-20 minutes to prepare.

If you don't  feel comfortable grilling salmon yet, you can pan fry, bake or broil it.  Just because Cooking Light grilled theirs on a cedar plank doesn't mean that you have to also.  Grilling on a cedar plank will probably give your salmon more flavor but it certainly wasn't lacking by skipping that step.

When I grill salmon, I put the salmon on top of foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  I don't usually buy salmon with the skin on so if anything sticks it's going to be the meaty part.  I heat the grill on High to about 400 degrees and then put the fish on.  I turn the side where the fish is to Low so that it cooks indirectly.   I've found that if I leave all the burners on High then my fish gets charred on the bottom.  This is especially true if you use any sort of marinade or rub that has sugar in it.  The salmon normally cooks for about 15 minutes but it will depend on the thickness of your pieces.  I peek into my biggest fillet with a fork to make sure it is cooked all the way.

To go along with my salmon, I made the Mango Kiwi salsa that the original recipe called for.  I made it last night because I had the extra time.  Salsa always seems to taste better the next day once the flavors have a chance to come together.  I used a fresh mango but frozen mango would be a good alternative if fresh mangoes aren't in season.  I seeded my serrano chile and the salsa didn't have any heat.  I've actually never used a serrano chile before and was expecting it to be really hot!  Next time I would either leave the seeds in or use a jalapeno. 

I served the salmon over a bed of lettuce from Terri's garden along with farro.  If you haven't tried farro then you're missing out!  It's a whole grain that is pretty high in protein.  It's similar tasting to brown rice but has more texture.  You boil and drain it just like pasta and tonight I didn't add anything extra.  The hubby always eats his food in order of least favorite to favorite.  He's a meat lover but whenever I make farro it's always last on his plate.

Tomorrow night I'm going to make an altered version of Cooking Light's Glazed Chicken and Szechuan Noodle Salad with Sesame Broccoli.  Sounds fancy but don't shy away:  I'll show you how I altered this recipe!

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Week of June 18, 2012

How did I plan my meals for this week?

This week is a short week for me because the hubby and I have plans for later in the week.  With Father's Day on Sunday, that means that I only had to plan 3 dinners:  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday:  Cilantro Quinoa Salad with Tuna

Tuesday:  Cedar Plank-Grilled Salmon with Mango Kiwi Salsa and farro

Wednesday:   Glazed Chicken and Szechuan Noodle Salad with Sesame Broccoli

After my Quinoa Salad post on Sunday I was really craving quinoa.  I took a recipe that I made for pasta salad awhile ago and replaced the pasta with quinoa for dinner on Monday night.  Over the weekend I got my new Cooking Light magazine and that gave me my inspiration for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to tweak the recipes some so I'll share my changes later this week.

Last night I made the salsa for the salmon recipe so that tonight all I have to do is grill the salmon and cook the farro.  Any thing you can prep ahead of time is a huge time saver later in the week. 

Luckily I had a lot of the ingredients already along with chicken and salmon in the freezer.  Grocery shopping only took me about 10 minutes because all I needed was fresh vegetables.  Having a well stocked pantry and freezer cuts down on both trips to the grocery store and time spent shopping.

What's on the menu at your house this week?

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Quinoa Salad

I've had a lot of requests for some quinoa recipes so here's a quick, easy and healthy one.  For those of you who don't know what quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is it is a whole grain that is gluten free and high in protein.  It's a great alternative to pasta or rice and cooks just as quickly.  I love making cold salads with quinoa so here's one version.

Ingredients

• Cold cooked quinoa
• Sweet bell peppers
• Red onion
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Balsamic vinaigrette 
• Fresh herbs:  Basil, chives and parsley

Preparation

Cook the quinoa according to the directions.  I usually make 1/4 cup of dry quinoa per serving.  Quinoa is made just like rice in a 1 part dry quinoa to 2 parts water or chicken broth.  You can either make the quinoa the day before and refrigerate it or run it under cold water after it is cooked to cool it down quicker.

 Chop up all of your veggies and herbs into whatever size piece you like.  I usually remove the inside of the tomatoes before I chop them but you can leave them intact.  I had fresh herbs available but it's not necessary if you don't have any. 

 

Mix your quinoa, veggies, herbs and dressing together and you're done!  Keep the salad refrigerated in between meals.

 

 

Just like pasta salads, there are so many combinations for quinoa salad.  You can add whatever veggies (or meat/fish!) that you have in the fridge along with your favorite salad dressing.

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

 

Spinach and Cheese Quiche

Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?  Quiche is a really easy way to either have breakfast for dinner or use up extra eggs before they go bad.  I found this recipe for spinach and cheese quiche online.  My friend Suzie was looking for easy vegetarian meals to make for dinner.  With a little guidance and a little improvisation, she whipped up this quiche!

Here are the directions from the website with my own pictures.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (we used 16oz of spinach but it's good for you so what's a little extra?)
• 1 1/2 cups grated Gruyère (we used shredded Swiss instead)
• 1 9-inch unbaked pie shell (we used a pre-made pie crust in a rectangular foil pan - a quiche doesn't have to be round - right??)
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1 1/2 cups milk 
• Salt and pepper
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer, stirring. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool. 

Sprinkle onion mixture, spinach and Gruyère over bottom of pie shell.

 Beat eggs and milk together, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Gently pour into crust

 

Bake quiche for 40 to 45 minutes, until set and nicely browned. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

 

Happy Cooking!

Jenny

Cherrios and Hot Dogs

Cheerios and hot dogs.! That is what Suzie told me that she and her husband had for dinner on Thursday night.  What!?!  Without any meal planning Suzie said that dinner has become a source of tension in their home.  Long work days, numerous trips to the grocery store each week or an empty refrigerator make dinner time a dreaded event for them.  When a few of my work friends and I heard that we knew that an intervention was necessary!

Stephanie, Terri and I all share a love cooking and make dinner almost every night.  So we decided to hold the first get together of what we've decided to call the "Cooking Club."  This afternoon we each planned a meal that could be split into numerous dinners and also easily frozen.  With a little guidance, Suzie made a dinner herself to add to the list of meal options.

  We sent Suzie home with enchilada lasagna, vegetarian black bean chili/soup, turkey spaghetti sauce, quinoa salad, and spinach quiche.  Along with those meals, we set up a calendar for the next 2 weeks along with a grocery list.

Terri hosted this afternoon and we had such a great time cooking together!  She has an incredible garden and her own chickens.  After a few hours of cooking we raided her garden and took home lots of homegrown goodies.  In less than 4 hours, we made almost 2 full weeks worth of meals.  If you struggle with ideas or cooking confidence, try joining up with some friends and see what you can create.  This afternoon we talked about everything from how to caramelize onions to how to crack an egg to what different herbs taste like.  It's amazing how much you can learn!

A good taste tester is always needed!

  

Duke!

 Terri & Suzie picking blueberries

 Terri's chickens

 Suzie discovering lemon balm

 Terri has a mural on the side of her house - how cool is that??