Welcome Back To Blogging With Chocolate Chip Cookies

          Now that the spring semester is almost over and I have taken my anatomy lab life can get back to my favorite hobbies. Some of my favorite hobbies are knitting, cooking, gardening, and baking. Let me tell you this, anatomy is a class that was sucking all the life out of me and was a super hard to remember all of the bones, muscles, and nerves. Sometimes to get through the memorization of them items, I needed to come up with some R-rated mnemonic to remember things.

         Last night while the husband was on an overnight snow machining trip far up North in the Paxson and Valdez area for one last trip of the season. The 2014-2015 season is  the first year that we have had to travel 3 to 4 hours one direction to find some snow to ride on. The Anchorage area has only had 20 inches of snow.  But, back to the original story, while he went snow machining I decided to try a new recipe that I had thought up.

Sorry about the picture, it is from my iPhone. 

Dark Chocolate Coconut Chip Cookies
1 stick of butter (softened)
1 8oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 bag of dark chocolate chips (can use any chip or chunk)
1/2 cup coconut (I didn't measure, just dumped until I liked the look)
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

         Cream together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl. Once combined, put the eggs and vanilla in the bowl next, mixing them with the butter mixture.  Add the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt in the mixture and combine until well mixed. Finally add the coconut and chocolate stirring them until mixed in the dough.  Bake at 350 for 12 - 15 minutes until light golden brown.  I used a cookie scoop and flattened them down because they do not spread like regular cookies.  Makes about 30 cookings using a cookie scoop. They turned out moist and tender cookies that go great with a big glass of milk.

Lazy Sunday Of Football and Trying A New Recipe

Today has been a balmy 32  degrees Fahrenheit in Alaska and where I grew up in North Dakota it was -22 Fahrenheit with the wind chill of -57 below., BURR!! I spent today going to the gym and trying out a new recipe.  The original recipe was found on Pinterest.  Here is the link to the original Jambalaya. I have modified it for healthy substitutions.

Peggy's Healthy Jambalaya
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
1 red pepper cut
1/2 jalapeno
4 Turkey kielbasa, sliced
1 28oz can of Crushed tomatoes in the heavy sauce
2 chicken breast
2 cups of brown rice
4 cups of Chicken broth (I like mine a little soupier than normal, and you can use less)
3 teaspoons of Cajun Seasoning
Frozen Okra

Chunk the chicken, brown it, and remove and set aside

Put the Peppers, onion,  and kielbasa in the pot with a tbsp of canola oil. Cook until they are tender.

Put the chicken back in the pot and add the rice. Stirring it around so that the rice gets coated.
Then you put in the chicken stock and Cajun seasoning in and let it simmer for 45 min.

Once it has simmered for the time allotted, add the tomatoes and okra, stir together. Let it simmer

It turned out AMAZING, and it froze well for a leftovers.   

Butternut Squash Risotto and Pesto Salmon

        Sorry guys, I realized today that it has been almost six weeks since the last blog was put up. What better way to avoid doing homework, than finding and creating new recipes. Maybe I was a little overzealous this semester to take nine credit hours. The end is in sight, will be finishing my certificate in Pharmacy Technician and applying for nursing school in February.

       With the leaves changing, temperature getting cooler, and everything is coming up pumpkin.  Mentioning homework, II did a twist on a pumpkin sage risotto. I made mine with butternut squash and dried sage.  The risotto paired well with my silver salmon that I caught two weekends ago. Going to get a little off topic for a minute, but I am very proud of the salmon. It was caught out in the ocean when my husband and I went out for our halibut charter with Saltwater Safari in Seward, Alaska.  The pesto for the salmon is made in my food processor.

        The risotto would be great paired with chicken, fish or pork as a side dish. I made the serving size about 2/3cup, yielding about 6 servings.  In the recipe, you will need 1 cup of butternut squash puree. There are two ways that you could cook you squash for the risotto. A person can boil the chunks of cut up squash in water until tender or toss the pieces with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and sage (baking at 450 for 20 minutes).  Once the squash is done put a little more that a cup of cooked squash in blender or food processor with a little bit of chicken stock until a thick puree.

yummo

Butternut Squash Risotto
4 cups Chicken stock
1 cup butternut squash puree
2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic (I run the cloves over a micro plane or chopped
1/2 sweet onion
1 cup arborio rice
1 tbsp of dried sage (more or less depending on taste)

onions and garlic saute in pan 

Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup parmesan  cheese (use the real stuff, not the stuff you put on pizza)

In a large saucepan heat the broth and squash until hot.

In another large pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add onions, garlic, and rice until the rice is coated with the oil. Takes about 3 to 5 minute. Place a ladle of stock in the pan, constantly stirring until all the liquid is absorbed.  Add the sage to the mixture. Then continue adding ladles of stock and stirring the risotto until the stock is absorbed. Do this until all the stock is gone, and the rice is tender to the tooth. The process will take about 30 minutes from start to finish.  At the end just before service, stir in the parm cheese.

On to the salmon
Pesto Baked Salmon
1/4 cup of pesto (I used my recipe)
2 salmon filets
2 tbsp olive oil
Tin Foil

Preheat the oven to 425. On the tinfoil put the olive oil and salmon down, then cover it with the pesto mix. Seal the foil, place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy

3 Bean Hotdish and Golfing

On this Sunday, we had a little bit of an adventure. It started out with me prepping my favorite bean dish and taking it over to his mom to warm it up for supper while we are out on our adventure.  I got my recipe from my dad's sister and have tweaked it to my favorite beans!

3 Bean Hotdish
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 lb ground beef

3/4 c brown sugar

1 can Bush's baked beans (any flavor)

1 can chili beans

1 can butter beans 

Chopped onion

1/2 c ketchup

1 tsp mustard

Brown the bacon 

Pull off and drain on paper towel

Brown burger and drain. In a bowl combine all the beans, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, bacon, hamburger, salt, and pepper. Mix well

Put in oven safe dish and bake at 350 for an hour. 

Before supper, we were enjoying a nice sunny day after 3 inches of snow.  We decided to hit the driving range for a couple of buckets of balls. I have to say that I am completely out of shape for a golf swing.   But here are some fantastic pictures.  

Walnut Pesto

Final product

I LOVE pesto!! But, cannot stand the stuff that is in the jars at the grocery story. I have a ton of basil growing in a pot in my kitchen right now and put it to good use.  With this recipe, you will need a blender or food processor with a powerful motor. Interesting fact, you do not need to have basil for pesto. A person can use spinach or arugula.

Homemade pesto
1 1/2 cup packed basil leaves
1/2 cup packed spinach
1/3 cup walnuts
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 cup light olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
lots of pepper

Yumminess, in progress 

Put the basil, spinach, walnuts, garlic, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese in your food processor pulsing until coarsely chopped. While the processor is going, slowly add the olive oil from the top until it is the consistency you want. I leave me a course chop, but you could make it as smooth as you like.  Pour into jar, covering with a thin layer of olive oil. This will last in the fridge for about a week.

Smoother it on everything and enjoy!

Happy New Years!!

Happy New Years to all the people in blog land.  I have decided to start the year off right and get a new tattoo! It all began when my little brother entered college; I told him that when he finished college that I would go get new ink done with him. Well, college didn't work out for him, and he entered Job Corp for Welding. The deal changed at that point to he needed to complete the program and had a full-time job for six months before I would get one with him. He did it, when my mom and little brother came up for the Christmas Holiday from North Dakota we went to Eagle River Tattoo. Turns out getting a tattoo is on my mom's bucket list, so she got one too.

Mom's New Lady Bugs courtesy of
Matt @ Eagle River Tattoo

My tattoo in memory of my dad. Courtesy of Matt @Eagle River Tattoo 

My ink is AMAZING!!! The signature in my heart is my dad's name that was found on my kindergarten graduation card that I got in 1991. That card was 22 years old; I am lucky that my mom kept things like that. I walked in with an idea and no drawings. Described what I would like, and it came out a million times better than expected.

After the ink, it was finally time to eat our New Years dinner.  Before we had left for the tattoos, I had put the ribs I had bought from Costco in the roaster to cook on low. I wish I had taken a picture of them before they were devoured by the three of us, they were fall off the bone good! We also had Alaska King Crab and potatoes.

The sad point in the night came when I would have to say goodbye to my mom and little brother. I had gotten used to them being around, and house being noisier than when it is just me and the cats while the fiancee is on the slope working.  But, the countdown has already begun again because they will both be up here before the 7th of June for our wedding!!

Bruschetta Chicken

A couple weeks ago I was craving Italian food and didn't want to go out to the restaurant to get it. So, I used my noggin and came up with bruschetta chicken. 

1 container of Grape tomatoes

1/4 onion

2 cloves of garlic

Olive Oil

4 skinless chicken breast

Smoked provolone cheese

red wine

salt 

pepper

balsamic vinegar 

10 basil leaves

Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts, set aside.

In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm olive oil. Add chicken, cover pan, and cook for about 10 minutes. Flip chicken breasts and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked thoroughly 

While chicken is cooking, in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute,\. Add tomatoes, red wine and continue sautéing until tomatoes skin starts to soften/wrinkle, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the basil. 

Once the chicken is done, top the tops of each chicken breast with 1 slices of smoked provolone cheese. Pour tomato mixture on top. Cover pan with lid once more and let the mozzarella melt. 

Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes and Blueberry Sauce

Downside to living in Alaska is not getting quality, tasty, and  fresh fruit. This summer I discovered a company that only comes to Alaska from California with a truckload of fruit every three weeks. The first order I got was a case of blueberries, blackberries, 1/2 case of peaches and 1/2 case of plums.  The peaches were the size of softballs and were extremely juicy.  With that fruit that I received I have eaten a bunch of it and canned some plums, made blackberry jam, peach bbq sauce, and plum sauce.  I have recipes for them to follow in future blogs. 

It has been very rainy and cloudy here, perfect for a great breakfast. I found a couple recipes and used them for inspiration. 

Blueberry Sauce

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 C Orange Juice

1/4 cup of warm water

3/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Dash of Vanilla

1/4c extra cold water

2.5 T cornstarch

Juice of 1 Lemon

Put the blueberries, OJ, water, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon in a pot. Bring to boil and simmer for a couple minutes. While it is simmering, combine the cornstarch and water. Once that is combined, pour in while stirring, and simmer until thick. Take off the heat and put the juice of one lemon in it. 

Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes

2 C buttermilk
2 large eggs

2 T butter, melted

3.5 lemons zested

1/3 cup poppy seeds

Juice of one lemon

2 C flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt

In a large bowl pour the buttermilk, eggs, butter, poppy seeds, zest of lemons, and juice of one lemon. Whisk them all together. Then add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt into the bowl. Combine all of them.  Heat the griddle or pan. Makes about 15 pancakes with a 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day to all. Thank you to those who have served in the Armed Services.

In exciting news I traded in my 2008 Chevy Cobalt for an amazing new vehicle for me. I got a 2011 GMC Terrain AWD it rides like a dream and has a lot more room.

Watch out world it has warmed up a lot here in the last couple days. It has been in the 70's, I had forgotten what that felt like after 232 days. I have been busy planting flowers and grilling everything possible on the grill. I also created a new recipe with inspiration from two salads. One was a Grilled Corn Orzo Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette and Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Now for the long anticipated Salad. I am having a hard time coming up with a cool and funky name for it...
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced
1 cup orzo, uncooked
2 ears sweet corn
1 avocado, chopped
¼ small red onion, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped basil

Dressing
½ cup olive oil
honey (can use however much you want) I think I used 2tbsp
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon chili powder (Next time I will use a little bit more)
Salt & pepper

Cook orzo in a large pot of salted, boiling water until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.

Shuck corn then grill for 5-6 minutes, rotating every minute or so to evenly char on all sides. Let cool slightly, then cut kernels off the cob.

Combine cooked orzo and corn kernels avocado, red onion, olives, feta and basil in a large bowl and stir to combine.

For the dressing: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine or you can put it in blender. Pour over salad and toss to coat. Serve chilled, or at room temperature