Slurp-tastic Herb Noodles

I recently tried this recipe from Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks. I love pretty much all kinds of curry regardless of where they’re from or how spicy (or not) they are. This one calls for either green or yellow curry paste—I tried green, which I’d never cooked with before, and I’ve eaten it for at least three meals in the past week. I think you could say I liked it.

4 oz thin, dried spinach pasta
1 cup coconut milk (light is fine)
Scant 1 tbsp green or yellow curry paste
1 1/2 cups lightly flavored vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt (more or less depending on the saltiness of your broth)
6 oz tofu, cut into small cubes or pieces
1/4 cup chives, minced
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped (I left out the cilantro)
1/4 cup basil, chopped just before using
Pinch of crushed red chili peppers (I used a lot more than a pinch--I like a little kick)

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. This is eventually going to be the pot you cook the pasta in.

In a separate large, thick-bottomed pot, bring 1/4 cup of the coconut milk to a simmer, mash and stir the curry paste into the coconut milk so there are no lumps. Now add the rest of the coconut milk and the vegetable broth and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and stir in the tofu. Taste and decide if you need to add more curry paste or salt—if you do want to add more curry paste at this point, make a slurry by combining the additional curry paste and a bit of the broth, working any lumps out—add this to the pot.

Back at the pasta pot, salt the water generously and cook the pasta per package instructions. Drain.

Just before serving stir the chives, cilantro and basil into the curry pot. To serve, place a nice helping of noodles in the center of each bowl and finish with a ladle of the curry and tofu along with a tiny pinch of crushed red chili peppers.

Pumpkin Banana Nut Bread

I love pumpkin and banana bread, but I’d never considered combining the two into one very luscious bread. Then my friend Erin (hi E!) sent me this yummy recipe from Nestle Toll House’s All-Time Favorite Cookie and Baking Recipes cookbook and the rest, as they say, is history!

4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (15-oz) can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar (either light or dark will work)
1 cup (about 2 medium) mashed very ripe bananas
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt in med. bowl. Combine pumpkin, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, bananas and vegetable oil in large mixer bowl; beat until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture; stir in nuts.

Spoon into two greased and floured 9x5-inch loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 2 loaves.

Both Erin and I leave out the walnuts, but I think I might add them next time I make the recipe just to mix things up a bit.

Two-Bean Tamale Pie

Here is another lovely recipe from another lovely blogger—Leslie over at Definitely Not Martha.

Leslie notes that her recipe was stolen and lightly modified from Better Homes and Gardens.

I like this dish for three reasons:

1. It’s quick and easy to make.
2. It’s spicy hot.
3. I think it might actually be good for me.

1 tbsp oil
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (I love garlic so I threw in four or five cloves)
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 can kidney beans, rinsed, drained and slightly mashed
1 can pinto beans, rinsed, drained and slightly mashed
2/3 c vegetable juice (Leslie used 1 cup fresh salsa instead and so did I—the hot stuff)
1 (4-oz) can diced green chili peppers, not drained
1 box corn muffin mix
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (I left this out)

1. Grease a 9x13 glass pan (I used a cake pan that wasn’t glass and it didn’t seem to matter). Set aside. In a large skillet, cook green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add chili powder and cumin. Stir.

2. Add kidney and pinto beans, vegetable juice, and chili peppers and stir. Heat through. Dump into 9x13 pan and smooth out evenly.

3. Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare corn muffin mix according to package directions.

4. Add cheese and cilantro, stirring just until combined. Spoon cornbread mixture evenly over the top of the bean mixture. Bake, uncovered, for about 25 minutes or until golden. Leslie grated a little more cheese over the top of the pie before baking so I tried it too. Highly recommended.

Root Beer Brownies

I tried this recipe from Nicole Weston over at Baking Bites last Saturday after another lame shopping trip (will they ever make cute pants for short people??). Somehow brownies always soothe. And, with the addition of root beer, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Once I sampled the brownies I realized I couldn’t taste much of the root beer (except when I was washing them down with leftover root beer from the Mug bottle), but it definitely added a certain something. These brownies are moist and dense and seem to get better the longer they sit around. Unfortunately, they're all gone now but I get a feeling I haven't seen the last of this recipe.

2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
6-oz chopped bittersweet (or semisweet) chocolate (1 cup)
3.5-oz chopped white chocolate (1/2 cup)
4 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
8-oz root beer (no foam!)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 9-in square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. (I don't use a sifter because I hate them. I put the ingredients in the food processor instead.)

In a small bowl, melt together chocolates and butter, stirring frequently until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until well combined. Blend in cooled chocolate mixture. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by half of the root beer. Stir in the rest of the flour mixture, the remaining root beer and the vanilla. Scrap down the sides of the bowl well and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 26-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with only a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

When brownies have cooled, wrap them up well and store them overnight before serving.

White Bean and Chicken Chili

I found this recipe in a recent issue of Bon Appétit—it’s one the magazine reprinted from JW’s Food & Spirits in Grand Haven, Michigan. Although I planned to make it Sunday night, I forgot to defrost the chicken so it had to wait until Monday. After throwing the first few ingredients in with the olive oil, I realized the chicken needed to be cooked (duh). Luckily that was no big deal since chopped chicken is pretty easy to whip up in a pan on the stovetop.

I will warn you that if you’re not a fan of spicy food, this really is not the chili for you. The jalapeños add a lot of flavor—you definitely don’t want to leave them out.

OK, away we go!

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapeño peppers, from a jar
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 (15-oz) cans Great Northern beans, drained
1 lb cooked chicken breast, chopped
1/2 cup half and half

Directions

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium high heat. Add celery, onion, bell pepper, and jalapeño and sauté until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes.

Add garlic, chili powder, and cumin and sauté 1 minute.

Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.

Add beans, chicken and half and half. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and enjoy. (I left out this part—it is plenty seasoned without salt and pepper.)

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

This recipe is tricky because it’s so simple. You ever have one of those cooking/baking moments? You know, when you look at a recipe and it looks so easy to make? And then you’re in the middle of making whatever it is and something you never even thought of happens that complicates the entire dish? Yeah, that happened to me with this recipe from Favorite Brand Name Cookies (Publications International, Ltd.).

The recipe is only four ingredients—flaked coconut, mini semisweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. You mix everything, slap little dough balls on a cookie sheet and bake them. Easy enough, right? Well, almost. I had two problems. The first was that these cookies break apart easily when they’re not cooked. Getting them out of the spoon and on the cookie sheet was a bit more difficult than I would have liked. Then you have to flatten them with the back of a spoon which sometimes causes them to separate. But even though both issues were nuisances, the major issue I had was with greasing the cookie pans. Or, in my case, not greasing them. I usually ignore greasing pans because most types of cookies I make don’t really need to be baked that way. It turns out macaroons really need to be made on greased cookie pans (or greased aluminum foil—that’s what I usually line my pans with). You could also use parchment paper as my friend and co-worker Ashley suggested. If you don’t use any of these techniques, you will spend quite a bit of time peeling macaroons off your cookie sheets or aluminum foil and breaking some of them in the process. Which you don’t want to do because they taste like Mounds bars and that rules.

Consider yourselves warned. Now, on to the recipe!

2 ½ cups flaked coconut (I used generic sweetened coconut)
2/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Combine ingredients and mix until well blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Press dough gently with back of spoon to flatten slightly. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cookies stand on cookie sheets 1 minute. Remove cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

Chili Chicken Tacos

Hmm. I'm beginning to think I need to branch out. This is yet another Martha Stewart recipe that I tried. But you know what? There's a reason she's got so much dough (am I funny or what?). If even your jacked up recipes taste good, you've got skills. Lucky for me, this recipe wasn't at all jacked up and the result was spicy, tasty, yummy grub.

One of the best things about cool/cold weather is that the slow cooker makes a comeback. There are so many different things you can make in the slow cooker and the three reasons this quintessential kitchen item rules are (1) it's about the easiest way to make a meal, ever, (2) any kind of meat you cook in it comes out moist, tender and falling apart and (3) the smell from the slow cooker makes your house smell awesome. Well, unless you cook a lot of broccoli in there. Which I never have.

This particular recipe is from Everyday Food and gets two large thumbs up from my husband. Enjoy!

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6)
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup prepared tomato salsa, plus more for serving (optional)
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 tablespoon chili powder
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 hard corn taco shells
Cilantro, shredded cheese, lime wedges, and sour cream, for serving (optional)

In slow cooker, combine chicken, garlic, salsa, chiles, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and teaspoon pepper. Cover; cook on high, 4 hours (or on low, 8 hours).

Transfer chicken to a serving bowl, and shred, using two forks; moisten with cooking juices. Serve in taco shells, with toppings, if desired.

A couple of notes:

*I left out the salt. You don't even miss it.
*I used corn tortillas instead of hard taco shells. That’s how I like my regular tacos so it tasted great to me. I always heat up the tortillas in the microwave or fry them in a little oil on the stovetop—I like them better when they’re a little warm.
*I decided against the cilantro, cheese and lime and instead went with avocado and sour cream. My husband decided to use just avocado. The chicken gets so spicy that you don’t really need many toppings to add flavor.