Rainbow Chard with Bacon and Shallot

Lately I have been cooking rainbow chard with bacon, shallot and a little bit of chicken stock. It is very quick to make and is a good side dish to almost any meal. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh rainbow chard, washed and chopped as desired
2-3 slices of bacon, chopped
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 oz of chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

Saute bacon and shallot in a skillet on medium high heat for about 2 minutes until bacon starts to get brown. Add chard and chicken stock, stir, reduce heat to medium low and cover with a lid. Let cook for 5 minutes. Chard is ready to eat. Salt and pepper to taste if needed. I usually don't need any more salt since bacon and chicken stock have plenty.

Valentine's Day favorite

Every Valentine's Day I am awaiting for Fran's dark chocolate heart with caramel inside. It is my all time favorite this time of a year. Never tried? Do.

Party Food - Baked Hot Chicken Wings and Pigs in a Blanket

Big event happened this week in Seattle - Seahawks went to the Super Bowl and won it. I decided to make hot chicken wings and pigs in a blanket for the show last Sunday. Both came out delicious. Here are the recipes.

Baked Hot Chicken Wings

 
Ingredients:

3 lbs of chicken wings cut into segments

1/2 cup of white flour

2 tablespoons of canola oil

Franks Wing Hot sauce

Canola oil spray

Salt and Pepper to taste.

 
To serve:

2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 3-4 inch strips

2-3 celery sticks, cut into 3-4 inch strips

Blue cheese dressing

Franks Wing Hot sauce

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl using your hands rub chicken wings with flour and oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Spray the baking sheet with an oil spray and layer chicken wings on it. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, turning chicken once.

2. Take wings out of the oven and using tongs dip each wing piece into Franks sauce. Put chicken wings on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and bake at 400 F for another 15 minutes, turning chicken once. Take chicken out.

3. Serve with celery and carrots. Use Franks sauce and Blue cheese dressing for dipping.

Pigs in a Blanket

Ingredients:

12 oz of uncured beef hot dogs (ended up using only 6 out of 8 in the package), cut in half

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (Aussie Bakery brand)

1 egg

Flour

Canola oil spray

Preparation:

1. Defrost pastry in the refrigerator for about 3 hours. Preheat oven to 450 F. Dust the table with flour and then using a rolling pin roll the dough out to desired size. Cut the dough into rectangular strips ( almost the same length as half of a hot dog) and then wrap each hot dog with one. Layer hot dogs wrapped in a dough on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with an oil spray.

2. In a small bowl beat and egg and rub an egg wash on each pastry. Bake hot dogs in the oven for about 20 minutes. Take out and eat. Some prefer having them with ketchup. They are tasty either way.

As always I encourage moderation. So enjoy a small plate of these delicious nuggets!

Cooking with Oregon Fresh Black Truffles

While in Rome last September I saw fresh black truffles in the market for sale but did not buy them. Since that time I have been thinking I should have. We had a kitchen in our hotel and could have cooked them for dinner.

So when I got back to the states I started looking for fresh truffles to buy. And this week I did. I decided I wanted Oregon truffles and found a website that sells them. I bought 3 oz of Oregon Fresh Black Truffles for $60 from Oregon Mushrooms.

Truffles are very easy to eat. You wash them under cold water, pat dry and then shave or like I did - slice them thinly and put over fettuccine with some Parmesan cheese, butter, salt and pepper (picture at the top). Simple meal but flavorful. We had a little bit of truffles left so we had them with eggs this morning.

Seattle Aquarium - fun for adults

This weekend we went to Seattle Aquarium. My two year old had fun but I had even more fun than he did looking at beautiful fish and octopus. Here are my iPhone instagrams of Spotfin Lionfish and Clown Fish.

Thanksgiving Cooking - Sweet Poppy Bread

So nice to have mom around for Thanksgiving. She made this sweet poppy bread this year. Will need to learn the recipe.

Thanksgiving Cooking - Cranberry Quince Sauce

A new recipe this Thanksgiving - the Cranberry Quince Sauce. I thought fresh cranberries and quince preserves I made would go well together and they did. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

15 ounces of fresh cranberries
1 cup of quince preserves (recipe is here)
juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon of orange zest
1/2 cup of white sugar
few drops of vanilla
1 cup of water

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a pot, stir and bring to a boil. Boil on medium heat for about 4 minutes until most of cranberries pop. Reduce heat and simmer on medium low for another 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so. Taste for sugar and add more if needed. Take off the heat and let cool completely. Store in a refrigerator.

This is how my Thanksgiving table looked like.