Reuben Sandwich

A good Reuben has warm cheese and delicious dressing. My husband got me hooked on Dorothy Lynch. I've always liked french dressing, but this stuff is incredible. I can't get enough.

Homemade bread seals the deal.

Reuben Sandwich
Butter
Rye Bread
Swiss cheese
Pastrami
French Dressing
Sauerkraut

Spread butter on rye bread. Build sandwich with Swiss, Pastrami, dressing, sauerkraut. Grill to perfection.

Steamed Buns With Chives

My mom has been trying to teach me how to make mantou and stuff buns for three years now, but she has not had a chance to because we live so far apart (especially when we lived in Alaska). Last week I found this recipe on love and olive oil and it looks so good, I had to try it. I think my mom would be proud.

You can make these yummy soft buns with any filling. My mom likes five spice tofu with chives, but unfortunately I only found smoked tofu, which is a little strong. I filled half with the chives, and half with dumpling filling (beef & tofu). Bill likes the meat buns :)

Meat. Yum.

Steamed Buns With Chives
Makes 20 buns

filling (for 10 buns):
2 cups chives, finely chopped
1 piece of flavored pressed tofu, finely chopped
1 oz mung bean noodles, cut to pieces
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

dough:
1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp honey
2 1/4 tsp quick rise yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup almond milk

Asian chives are larger

Soak the mung bean noodles for half an hour. Mix together chives, tofu, mung bean noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil.

In a small bowl, mix together warm water, honey, and yeast. Let it sit for five minutes, until bubbling. Mix flour and salt in the stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture and almond milk. Knead with dough hook for five minutes. Dust with with flour and hand knead a couple times until smooth. This is a very soft dough. Let it rise in an oiled bowl for an hour or until doubled.

Divide dough into 20 pieces and cool in the refrigerator. Take four pieces out at a time. Roll each pieces out and fill with 2 or 3 spoonfuls of chive mixture.

Gently gather dough together while lightly pull upwards. Press dough together to ensure seams are closed. Keep in refrigerator until ready to steam, or freeze to enjoy later.

Line the steamer. (My steamer came with the rice cooker). Steam in rice cooker for 30 minutes, or the time to cook one cup of rice. If frozen, cook for 45 minutes, or the time to cook one and a half cup of rice.

If you've cooked them but can't eat all of it, they can be refrigerated and reheated in the microwave. Easy lunch!

Turkey Meatball Sandwich

Some things seem difficult until you actually do them. For me, having a pet is one. Now I have two cats. Cooking is another. I like taking on a challenge, but I'm still intimidated by recipes with a long list of ingredients. Making meatballs always seem magic to me. How do they taste so good??

Answer: lots of herbs. Don't mix too much. Just the right amount of bread crumbs so it holds together, but not too dry.

Now that I've made them a couple times, I realized it's simple enough to throw together for a weekday dinner. Get all the ingredients together. Mix in a bowl. Coat it with bread crumbs (this makes a nice crunch that my husband loves). Bake. Done.

But you gotta have good sauce. I love marinara sauce. I'm still experimenting, but this easy marinara sauce is pretty good. Scoop a big heap of it on the meatballs.

Add some grilled mushrooms.

Top it off with cheese. Don't forget the cheese.

Broil in the oven for two minutes or until melted. Add the top back on.

Turkey Meatballs

Makes 15 meatballs

1/2 lb ground turkey

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, defrosted

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 egg

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs, divided

2 tbsp olive oil. 

Mix ground turkey, spinach, Parmesan, egg, and spices in a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and mix. Make 15 golf ball sized meatballs. Roll each meatball in the remaining bread crumbs. Drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil on a baking pan. Place the meatballs in the pan. Drizzle the remaining olive oil on top of the meatballs. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Easy Marinara Sauce

Makes 1 1/2 cups 

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

14.5 oz (1 can) diced tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

Salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Add onion and garlic and cook for three minutes, or until softened. Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix in oregano and basil. Cook on medium low for thirty minutes. Stir occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Turkey Meatball Sandwiches

Makes 4 sandwiches

4 large dinner rolls
1 1/2 cup Easy Marinara Sauce
4 turkey meatballs

4 button mushrooms, sliced and grilled

4 slices provolone cheese

Assemble sandwich: cut roll into half. Add a spoonful of marinara sauce. Then stack the sandwich with meatballs, more marinara sauce, mushrooms, and cheese. Broil in the oven for two minutes or until cheese melted. Put the other half of the roll on top.

Chickpea and Mushroom Soup

Chickpea and Mushroom Soup

Makes 2 servings

1 tbsp olive oil

6 oz Portobello mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 slice of bacon

1 can (16 oz) chickpeas, drained

2 tbsp parsley, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 tbsp brandy

Salt & pepper

2 slices of Swiss cheese

Cut up Portobello mushrooms.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium high. Saute mushrooms with garlic cloves for five minutes. In another pan, fry a slice of bacon until crispy. Add to food processor with chickpeas, parsley, shallots, garlic and mushrooms.

Process until smooth.

Add the mixture to a medium pot with chicken broth. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stir occasionally. Stir in the brandy. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving bowls, then add Swiss cheese while soup is still hot. Wait 5 minutes before serving.

This soup is full of flavor! Cut the bacon if you want a healthier version.

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup

In an effort to make up for the amount of food I ate over Thanksgiving, I'm going to post some healthier meals. Also, because I haven't been in the kitchen for a week--thanks to the delicious leftovers from the holiday meal--this is from a couple weeks ago.

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup

Makes 4 servings

1/2 head cauliflower

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

2 cups sweet potato cubed

1 tbsp rubbed sage

5 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Salt & pepper

1/4 grated Parmesan

Wash and chop cauliflower. 

Season with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Same with the sweet potatoes, only now season with sage.

Puree roasted vegetables in a blender or food processor with chicken broth. You may have to do it in two batches. Add the Greek yogurt. Then return the soup to the stove or cheat like me and use the microwave. Season with salt and pepper, and top of Parmesan.

Serve it with a side salad. This is an Arugula and Romaine salad with Strawberry dressing. Topped with Anadama bread croutons. My husband gave it an A+!

Impromptu Pizza

This pizza recipe is really easy. I woke up this morning thinking, it'd be nice to have some pizza but can we fit it into our schedule today? Then I was encouraged by the ingredient list for the pizza dough--only five ingredients! I can make it before church! I mixed all the ingredients together, kneaded the dough in our stand mixer, and let it rise while we were at church. When we got back, the fun began!

Basic Pizza Dough from The Kitchen Bible
modified with what I had on hand
3 2/3 cups bread flour
4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups tepid water
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine flour, yeast and salt. Mix until combined. Add water and oil and mix until a ball forms. Knead for 6 minutes with dough hook, while adding more flour until the bottom stops sticking to the bowl. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic. Let it rise until doubled. This is a soft and sticky dough. You will need to dust it and your hands with flour when handling it.

Once we got back, I punched down the dough and divided them into two boules. My pizza tossing still needs work, but I managed to stretched to dough out without rolling or breaking the dough.

The sauce is also simple. But I found the pizzas came out too saucy. Next time I will save half of the sauce.

Simple Pizza Sauce
15oz tomato suace
3 oz tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
dash of onion powder
dash of garlic flakes
dash of ground pepper

Mix ingredients in a medium size saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

Olives are only allowed on half of the pizza

Top the pizzas with your favorite ingredients! We made a Hawaiian one with ham, pineapple, black olives, and shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

The second pizza we topped with spinach, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, and crumbled feta.

Bill says, "Mmm, cheesy goodness."

We love having pizzas for lunch or dinner! They're fun and tasty. With some preparation, we had two pizzas within an hour. Plenty of leftovers for the coming week. Needless to say I have pizza recipe books on my wishlist. Pizza stone has also been recommended to us. Perhaps I will need to get one.

How do you like to top your pizzas?

'Tis Pumpkin Season!

The luncheon this weekend was a great success. The pumpkin cheesecake was a hit and the pumpkin gorgonzola tart was "good enough to sell"! Too bad in all the frenzy, I forgot to take pictures. So I will include a picture of the pumpkin from which we took a chunk out for the tart...the "front"side is still carvable though!

I also got two sugar pumpkins. Making a pie or cheesecake from a sugar pumpkin is terribly easy. I'm glad I decided to try it. The flavor is amazing. As this was my first time making a cheesecake, I had some leftover filling, perfect for mini-cheesecakes in the middle of the week. I will have to remember to take pictures when I make those.

The pumpkin gorgonzola tart was a modified version of Squash and Gorgonzola Tart from The Kitchen Bible.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
8 tbsp cold butter, diced
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp iced water, as needed
1 lb pumpkin, peeled and seeds removed
olive oil, as needed
14 oz baby spinach
2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/8 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp rubbed sage
4 oz Gorgonzola, crumbled

Cut butter in flour and salt mixture until it resembles corn meal. Add water until all the flour is moistened and form it into a thick disk. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll it out for a 8 inch tart pan (I used a pie pan). Chill for 30 more minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake about 15 minutes. Lift off the parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes more.

Slice the pumpkin into thick slices and spread on a baking sheet. Toss with 1 tbsp oil. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender. Cook the spinach and 2 tbsp olive oil in covered saucepan for about 4 minutes, until wilted. Drain and let cool. Whisk the eggs, egg yolk, cream, Parmesan, and nutmeg together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle salt and sage on pumpkin slices. Squeeze the spinach dry. Spread it in the pastry shell, and top with the pumpkin and Gorgonzola. Pour in the custard. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the custard is set. Cover with foil if top is too brown. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

I can't wait to have our friends over for lunch again!