Homemade Oreos

I need to get these out of my house, they're far too good to eat just one or...five.  The cookies and the filling both come from Smitten Kitchen.  I made brownie roll out cookies that were delicious on their own but lacked pizzazz so I decided to make them into oreos by filling them with the cream that Deb used for her homemade oreos.  

I'm off to feed them to the kids playing outside!

No Knead Rye Bread

So I'm probably the last food blogger out there to finally try no knead bread.  I got Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as a Christmas gift and this is the first time I've put it to use.  What have I been waiting for!?  This is seriously good stuff and it's so easy.  

Now I'll have to make bread all the time.  So much for that low carb diet.  

Now that's better: Moroccan STEW

Remember yesterday when I told you about that Moroccan chicken and lentil salad?  Well I was sort of luke warm on it and I regretted not just making that Moroccan stew from Gourmet magazine.  So today I heated up about a 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and a cup of chicken stock and threw in that "salad" I made yesterday.  And voila!  Moroccan chicken and lentil STEW, now that's more like it.  

Moroccan Chicken and Lentil Salad

I've been meaning to make this Moroccan Stew with Quinoa since I saw the recipe on Gourmet magazine's website a couple weeks ago.  I had some cooked chicken thighs in the fridge so I decided to make a chicken and lentil salad with lots of the same flavors.

Shredded chicken thighs, french lentils, roasted carrots and onions, green olives, chives, garlic, lemon juice and a bunch of spices: paprika, cinnamon, cumin, ground ginger, chili flake, salt and pepper.  This was good but not the best salad I've made - I'm sure the warm stew is great and I still plan on making it soon, maybe a veggie version.

It's also possible that I can't really enjoy this salad because I'm just too stuffed from eating this delicious beast of a breakfast sandwich:  

Tony Luke's broccoli rabe, egg and cheese topped off with lots of hot sauce.  Oh my, this is good stuff.  Tony Luke's - they're more than just cheese steaks!

Balsamic Glazed Tofu

After the excessive amounts of pork I ate yesterday I was in need of a light, meat free dinner.  I decided on balsamic glazed tofu with white beans and kale.   

I used the dry fry method for cooking the tofu then deglazed the pan with a mixture of balsamic, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper.  For the beans and greens I cooked some red onion in a pan then added a big bunch of kale, salt, pepper and some of the balsamic mixture.  After the kale cooked down for a few minutes I added the white beans just until they were heated through.  I tend to use tofu only in asian dishes, this was a nice change. 

An Easter Feast

I'm stuffed.  Holidays at Ron's parents house usually involve a lot of food.  Today we had this feast for lunch and dinner:

Ron made a really tasty ham that didn't make it to the photo (with this Simply Recipe glaze) and the kielbasa with sauerkraut.

The stars of the buffet where Ron's Mom's pineapple stuffing, it's SO good with the ham and Ron's sister's german potato salad.  Warm potatoes with mustard and vinegar and lots of bacon:

How could that be bad?  Oh I made those deviled eggs too - Ron picked up the jumbo eggs by mistake and EVERY one had a double yolk.  You can see the two yolk holes if you look closely at the picture.  Weird right?  And they were even the free range organic kind - not like they added some crazy chicken twin making hormone.  

I made a couple of desserts, the first was an attempt at a lemon tart that tasted really good but didn't firm up right.  As we drove over to New Jersey the strawberries started to fall into the lemon curd and shift to one side or another depending on which way the car was turning.  I kept having to spin it around in my lap to keep it looking even.  

I got the recipe for the tart and curd from Half Baked.  I don't think I whipped the curd long enough in the double boiler.  This was great when I got home and threw it in a bowl, crushed up the crust and ate the whole thing with a spoon, it didn't look quite as pretty as when I started but it sure was yummy.

My second dessert was more successful, a really really great carrot cake from Smitten Kitchen: 

Ron's mom wouldn't let us leave without lots of leftovers, so we'll be eating Easter ham and carrot cakes for days.  Bummer, huh?

Black Bean and Roasted Vegetable Quinoa

Everyone knows about quinoa by now right?  It's definitely a super food - it has twice the protein of a regular cereal grain and less carbs, it's loaded with fiber AND it's a complete protein.  It also takes less time to cook then rice or barley, you can throw it into boiling water for about 20 minutes and drain it like you would pasta.  For this dish I was inspired by this greek style quinoa salad that my mom made and raved about.  I didn't have chickpeas or feta on hand but I did have black beans and queso fresco so I decided to put a mexican spin on it.  

I made a light vinaigrette with lime juice, olive oil, a drizzle of honey, some chili powder, salt and pepper.  I roasted a red pepper, an anaheim pepper and sliced red onions in the oven until the peppers were charred and the onion was soft.  Remove the skin from the peppers and chop them up.  Toss the vinaigrette, quinoa, roasted peppers and onion, some chopped scallions and crumbled queso fresco together.  I topped mine with some pepitas.  This is a perfect salad to make on a Sunday and bring for lunch all week long.   

Next I'm going to try quinoa for breakfast - something like this 101 Cookbooks Recipe.