Caprese Salad

This is an easy one but still worth mentioning. You can't go wrong with fresh basil from the market, heirloom tomato's, fresh mozzarella, and some good olive oil.

Salmon Cakes

Mmnn... this freeze really well, we have a bunch just waiting to be cooked. You can too!

1. Cut 1 lb. of salmon into 2-inch cubes and either chop or blend in the food processor depending on the consistancy you like.

2. Combine the salmon with 1/2 cup ground cracker crumbs, 1 egg, 1 tsp dry dill, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1/3 cup finely chopped red pepper, and 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions, mix well. Season with salt pepper and cayenne, and then form the mixture into 3-inch patties about 1-inch thick.

3. Wrap the patties individually in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month. Cook in a frying pan for about 3 minutes each side or until brown. Don't overcook. These cook pretty quickly.

4. Serve with sauce, 1/4 cup mayonaise, 1/3 cup sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp prepared horseradish, 1tbsp lemon juice, a few dashs of hotsauce (tapatio is what i use, not that nasty tabasco stuff.)

Caribbean pork Roast

ooh... 2 slow cooker recipies in one day. This is a favourite around here, just make it.

1. Obtain yourself a pork roast of about 2-3 lbs, and trim it of any excess fat. On all sides of the meat make small slits and insert slivered ginger, garlic and whole cloves. About a total of 6 cloves of garlic, slivered, a good 2 inch sized piece of ginger, which should also be slivered, and 20 whole cloves.

2. Combine 2tbsp brown sugar, and 1tsp dry mustard together and rub all over the roast. Next place the roast in your oven set to broil and brown the roast on all sides, about a total of 15 minutes. I turn the roast every 5 minutes or so, but don't wait any longer than 5 minutes or you'll burn your roast.

3. While browning your roast combine 1 finely chopped serrano, jalapeno or scotch bonnet (choose depending on how spicy you like it), 1tsp each salt & pepper, 1/2 cup rum, and zest & juice of 1 lime.

4. Remove the roast from the oven and place in slow cooker, pour rum mixture over the roast, and cook on low 10-12 hours, or high for 5-6 hours.

5. Excess liquid from the slow cooking can be mixed with cornstarch disolved in cold water to make gravy if you want. We haven't had much excess liquid with this recipie and haven't really bothered with this.

Slow cooker Ribs n' beans

Oh, boy a new recipie. I hope someone out there is finding these usefull. A couple of weeks ago we made this ribs and beans recipie, it orginally called for pork ribs but we used beef ribs without too much trouble. Drain off the fat as much as you can through-out, that's my only complaint with this recipie, but it's tasty and filling.

1. Brown 3 lbs of ribs on all sides in a skillet. Transfer to your slow cooker and drain off the fat from the skillet.

2. Saute 2 onions, finely chopped and 4 stalks of chopped celery in the pan until soft. Add 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped, 1-2 chopped jalepeno's, 1tbsp chili powder, 2tsp cumin seeds, 1tsp each salt and pepper and cook, stiring, for 1 minute. Stir in 28oz canned (including juice) or fresh tomato's, 10oz chicken broth, and 1 cup of red wine. Bring to a boil and simmer until the liquid has reduced by 1 third, 10-15 min.

3. Pour sauce over ribs in the slow cooker. Add 1 cup of dried pinto beans, cooked and drained, or 1 19oz can of of drained and rinsed pinto beans. And cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.

Chicken Enchiladas

We've been busy over the last week cooking and freezing. So busy we had to give away some food to make more room in the freezers! I've never made Enchiladas before, but this recipie is really easy, and i think with a few tweeks it'll become a staple around here. I think this recipie made about 12 Enchiladas, and we're full after 2 each. We don't have a pan that fit all 12 Enchiladas at once in the oven, so you'll need to adjust your amounts of sauce and chicken accordingly when you're preparing the pan.

1. In a pot or deep pan saute 1 onion until tender.

2. Add 2 tablespoons garlic, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. ground cumin, 4 tblsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tblsp. cocoa, 3 tblsp. flour (I used ground quinoa), and stir for 1 minute.

3. Add 4 cups of chicken broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30minutes. Remove from heat.

4. While you're waiting for the sauce you need to prepare some chicken. We used some chicken breasts that we cooked, around 4 in total. You can use rotiseree chicken as well if it's easier, just make sure you've got a total of 3 cups worth, and shred or chop it up a bit.

5. Add 1 cup of sauce to the 3 cups of cooked chicken and mix well.

6. measure out 2 cups of shredded cheese and chop 1 bunch of green onions.

7. Divide the chicken mixture, onion and cheese among all your tortillas (8 inch tortillas work good).

8. Place some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, just enough to cover the bottom.

9. Fill each tortilla with it's portion of cheese, onion and chicken, roll it up, and place it seam side down in the pan.

10. Spoon the remaining sauce, cheese and onions over the Enchiladas.

11. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350F. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Barbecue

Oh the barbecue is a wonderful thing.

French Toast

Last weekend I made up a big batch of French Toast -- add a bit of vanilla, fresh ground cinnamon, and yum! We served it with some syrup and the leftover mascarpone cheese from our Mushroom Soup recipie -- the mascarpone was to die for!

The remaining french toast I froze for later. Just separate each piece with waxed paper or saran wrap and pop the stack into a ziploc freezer bag -- but make sure you squeeze out as much air as possible. No one likes burned toast, especially freezer-burned toast!

The Best Brie

Last week we finally took the time to check out the Marin French Cheese Company in Peteluma, California. It's only 30 minutes from our place, and we are kicking
ourselves that we didn't check it out sooner!!!

They have a great selection of cheeses, and other food &
wine accompaniments -- perfect place to stop and pack a light picnic on your way to Point Reyes National Seashore!

Jonathon tried a combination of brie & heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. The crackers we had on hand had cracked black peppercorns in them - YUM!!

Blackberry Attack

We combed the blackberry bushes down the street from our apartment and managed to pick a solid 2 pounds of berries. Not a huge amount for the die-hard berry pickers out there, but pretty good considering they're just down the street. Did I mention they're free. I made some Black&Blue Compote out of these combined with our blueberries from the market, it's cooling on the counter, give it a try, super easy and very tasty.





Black & Blue Compote

In a pot combine 3 cups of blueberries, 3 cups of blackberries and 1 cup of water, cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.


Uncover and add 1/4cup brown sugar, 2/3cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup and 1/4tsp salt, and return to a boil. While you're waiting for this to boil combine 1 tblspoon of corn starch with 2 tblspoons water and then add it to the pot.


Simmer until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes and remove from heat. Add juice from 1 lemon.

This can be served hot or cold on yoghurt, pancakes or whatever you can think of. It makes about 5 cups of sauce. Try less sugar too, I used less than 1/2 of what the original recipie called for and this is about as sweet as I can handle.

Olive Ranch

We toured a small Olive Ranch, Terra Bella Vista Olive Oil Co., on the west side of Rohnert Park this week. If you're ever in the neighbourhood I can't recommend a visit enough! Doug and Judi are great hosts and the tour is free! It's very educational and their oil is amazing to taste!.

Here's a link for their info.

Check out this view from their property.