Charcuterie Nachos for National Wine Day...The BEST snack with WINE!

Add this one to my big list of GIRL DINNERS.  I have so many recipes that I make for myself when Mr. Devilish Dish is away, like Asian Chicken Salad and Dumpling Dinner.  In fact, I have been considering adding a search category on here for both GIRL DINNER and CHARCUTERIE BOARD, and this would qualify as both.  Like any charcuterie board, any thing goes.  Pepperoni? Sure.  Olives? Go for it.  Same for nachos.  That is our favorite use for Mexican ingredient leftovers.  In fact, last night we made an amazing pan of nachos using leftover charro beans, diced carne asada steak, guacamole and pico de gallo. This recipe is a delicious match up of both ideas, and ideal with a couple of glasses of crisp white wine.  Simply pick a bag of your favorite thick kettle-style chips (Sea salt or Truffle work great) and add all of the tasty things you might share on a charcuterie board.  You are only limited by your creativity.  I'll let you in on a little secret.  I had planned to enjoy this by myself when Mr. Devilish Dish was out of town, but I would up preparing it on a night he was home and he loved it.  So much for my girl dinner category tab lol. 

A salty snack, with a little tang and sweetness too.
This is the ideal girl dinner, with a glass of 
crisp white wine.

Here is what I used, but the topping ideas
are endless.  I've added a list of suggestions below.

Spread the potato chips on a baking sheet. 
Top with pieces of prosciutto and brie cheese.
Broil under a low broiler.

Drizzle with balsamic glaze.

Such a good snack or light meal.

CHARCUTERIE NACHOS

1 bag kettle-style potato chips (sea salt or truffle work well)
1 package prosciutto
1 small package brie cheese (peeled and diced)
balsamic glaze for drizzle

Place your potato chips on a baking sheet.  Tear the prosciutto strips into small pieces and sprinkle over the potato chips.  Top with diced pieces of brie cheese.  Place in the oven under a low broiler until cheese is melted and prosciutto is starting to crisp a little bit.  Drizzle generously with a balsamic glaze before serving immediately.

Other topping ideas:

sliced olives
pepperoncini pepper rings
fig or apricot jam
pepperoni slices
salami slices
mozzarella or goat cheese

hot honey

Enjoy,

Cucumber Caesar Salad

I started this blog in 2011.  Hard to believe I've been at this on and off for 15 years.  I stand behind the recipes 100%.  Not so much by all of the pictures though.  Looking at some of my older posts, the pictures were so bad.  The lighting in our kitchen was so bad until we remodeled a few years ago.  The technology of the camera in cell phones has certainly improved.  In no way do I pretend to know what I'm doing, I just  love to create, cook and share. A while back Mr. Devilish Dish bought himself this fancy new cutting board.  It's enormous and he insists on leaving it out on the kitchen counter.  Really because there is no way to store the thing, but he justified it by saying, "It will make a nice background for our food pictures." And he's right.  So then he had another idea, and suggested, "Why don't you make some of your favorite recipes that have already been blogged and update the pictures?"  We made a list of some of our favorites that I have been wanting to re-share but have been too embarrassed by the poor photo quality.  His first suggestion was baked beans, followed by, "That way I can smoke something ribs this weekend and you can make baked beans."  Which is pretty much how he wants all of our weekends to go, but I get tired of baked beans and potato salad so I am constantly trying to come up with new and interesting side dishes to accompany his selection of smoked meat.  This Cucumber Caesar Salad is amazing.  It's all the regular ingredients of a good Caesar salad, minus the Romaine Lettuce.  Crisp cucumbers are substituted for lettuce, making this an ideal side salad for a plate of hot and spicy barbecue.  It really did hit the spot next to the ribs and baked beans, because I got that last batch of baked beans a little spicy.  If you're looking for a fun alternative to a traditional Caesar Salad, or an ordinary cucumber salad, then this is it!

A refreshing twist on a
traditional Caesar Salad.

CUCUMBER CAESAR SALAD

For the Dressing:

1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
1 teaspoon good quality Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise

For the Salad:

1-2 large English cucumbers, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 package Caesar-style croutons

(Optional: you could easily make this salad a meal by adding grilled chicken or shrimp)

Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor and process until minced.  Add the anchovy paste, mustard, lemon juice and mayonnaise.  Process to create a smooth dressing.  Refrigerate if not using immediately.  When ready to serve, toss the dressing with the cucumbers, Parmesan cheese and croutons.

Enjoy,

Banana Cold Foam for Coffee

We are coffee drinkers around here!  Mr. Devilish Dish even makes his own homemade vanilla syrup for my coffee in the morning.  So when the Devilish Nephew's sweet wife sent a text and said, "Do either of you know how to make cold foam for coffee?" we were ON IT.  Typically I just make a latte in the morning or a vanilla cold brew, but I'm no stranger to a good cold foam so Mr. Devilish Dish and I went to work.  We immediately bought some bananas so we would have some ripe, flavorful ones to work with.  After a little trial and error, we had perfection.  I'm not gonna lie, this is delicious.  Probably not my morning drink of choice before work, but a little banana cold foam on top of a small afternoon pick-me-up cold brew is an afternoon snack all on its own.  A really tasty treat to add to our home coffee bar menu.

Such a tasty topping for your favorite
coffee beverage.

BANANA COLD FOAM FOR COFFEE

1 very ripe banana
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of sea salt

In a small blender or food processor, combine the banana, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and salt. Blend until smooth.  You can save this in the refrigerator for later and re-froth when ready to use, or use immediately.  To serve, pour a glass of your favorite cold brew coffee and top with a few tablespoons of the banana cream foam.  

NOTE: We used a hand-held frothing wand to get this extra foamy and frothy.

Enjoy,

 

Breakfast Charcuterie Board - Just in time for Mother's Day

You know the memes and jokes about breakfast in bed for moms on Mother's Day?  Dad and the kids make an enormous mess in the kitchen for mom to clean up.  I'm not saying moms don't want breakfast, they just want to take is easy for one day.  Well what some of us want is a dark, cool hotel room and a glass or two of wine and not having to wipe any noses or make any decisions.  But we will all settle for a hearty, beautiful breakfast or brunch board featuring minimal mess and easy clean up.  Not only is this ideal for a Mother's Day Brunch, but this board idea would easily work for a bridal or baby shower, and of course a morning tailgate.  Football season will be here before we know it.  Go ahead and bookmark this now to enjoy with gameday mimosas.  When I made this board, I made it only for Mr. Devilish Dish and I, and we actually enjoyed it for dinner on a chilly Sunday night.  It's not quite as full as I would make a board were I feeding a crowd or taking it to a tailgate, but you get the basic idea for the breakfast/brunch theme.

This fun board works great for any
Mother's Day breakfast or brunch...

I tried making homemade biscuits until
I realized my baking powder was expired...
UGH.

This was more of a mini-board for the two
of us.  I would pile this thing FULL for 
shower or morning tailgate.

I love the idea of having jellies for a sweet biscuit
topping and ham and cheese for a savory option.

We added some fried bacon and also some cubed
up cinnamon rolls, but mini muffins would be
cute too.  The sky is the limit!

BREAKFAST/BRUNCH THEMED CHARCUTERIE BOARD IDEAS:

Bacon
Scrambled Eggs
Cinnamon Roll Bites
Biscuits
Ham
Cheese
Assorted Jellies
Honey
Assorted Fruit

OTHER THINGS TO INCLUDE:

Honey mustard or other "savory biscuit toppings"
Mini pancakes or waffle sticks with syrup
Fruit skewers
Mini donuts or donut holes

Mini muffins
Yogurt
Sausage patties or links
Mini quiches
Breakfast sliders


The ideas are endless.  Think of what you enjoy for breakfast and pile it on!

Enjoy,

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

 I love a good Homemade Blue Cheese Salad Dressing.  I especially love Mr. Devilish Dish's version.  And I definitely love a good creamy blue cheese dressing with buffalo wings.  But sometimes I just want to enjoy a salad with a tangy vinaigrette-style dressing. This blends the best of both worlds.  A tangy, vinegar-based dressing with crumbles of delicious blue cheese.  Not only is this zesty dressing delicious over salad greens, it would be so good drizzled over a big platter of grilled vegetables.  We love to enjoy this dressing with a salad alongside a juicy steak.  You'll love this too, especially if you're looking for that familiar bite of blue cheese, without the heaviness of a creamy-style dressing.  Lighter, tangy-er and perfect for spring and summer salads, and a great twist for a traditional wedge salad too!

A tangy, tasty twist on a traditional
creamy dressing.

Just a handful of ingredients for this
delicious dressing.

Blend everything together in a blender.
If you prefer a chunkier dressing,
stir in the blue cheese AFTER blending.

Enjoy over a salad, grilled vegetables
or even a wedge salad.

Save a few blue cheese
crumbles to top your salad!

 

BLUE CHEESE VINAIGRETTE

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup good quality olive oil

Place everything in a blender and blend until smooth.  If you want the chunkiness of the blue cheese crumbles, blend everything except the blue cheese, and then stir it in afterwards.  We saved some extra blue cheese crumbles to top our salad too.  Refrigerate until serving if not using immediately.

One Pan Dumpling Dinner

 I've told you before, I'm all about girl dinner.  I don't just mean truffle fries and champagne.  Although I am not opposed to that dinner anytime, anywhere.  To me, girl dinner is eating all of the things I never get to enjoy that my husband doesn't like.  Typically that is any recipe that contains either sesame oil or cilantro or both.  Two ingredients he cannot stand, which happen to be two ingredients I love.  It's baseball season, so he's at a lot of games in the evenings which is fine by me.  Elli the dog and I snuggle on the couch and I usually have some kind of needlework project going on.  Several actually.  I almost always make my Asian Chicken Chopped Salad when he's away from home, because it has sesame oil and cilantro in it.  Another favorite of mine is my Asian Dumpling Salad.  It is a tasty salad tossed with cooked dumplings.  This simple one pan meal is kind of a take on that dumpling salad.  It features frozen pot stickers in a delicious thick and sticky sauce.  The hot and heartier version of the salad.  And, I used sesame oil of course.  I was out of cilantro or I would have added some of that for garnish at the end too. 

One Pan, zero mess to clean up.
The perfect girl dinner.

Don't worry about the amount of ingredients.
Almost everything gets stirred together
into one bowl.

Arrange the frozen dumplings into an oven-safe
dish that has been greased with sesame oil.

Pour the sauce mixture over and bake.

Add the cornstarch slurry.

Return to the oven and cook until the sauce
has thickened.

Garnish with sliced green onion,
chopped cilantro and/or sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

ONE PAN DUMPLING DINNER

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 bag frozen potstickers (your favorite flavor, I used chicken)
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
green onions, cilantro, and/or sesame seeds for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease an oven-safe skillet or baking dish with the sesame oil.  Arrange the frozen dumplings in a single layer in the pan or baking dish.  (I bought a very small bag that had only 9 dumplings in it.  Look for a slightly larger serving bag.) In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and the 1/2 cup water.  Pour this mixture over the dumplings.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Whisk together the cornstarch with the remaining 2 tablespoons of water.  When the dumplings have baked for 20 minutes, remove from oven and pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan and stir in to the sauce.  Return the pan to the oven, uncovered and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.  Garnish with sliced green onion, chopped cilantro and sesame seeds before serving.

 

Crawfish Etouffee - It's National Crawfish Day!

It's National Crawfish Day, and if you've never enjoyed a crawfish boil you have been missing out.  The Devilish Nephew used to live in Houston, and that was my first real experience with a boil.  Houston has an amazing take on Cajun cuisine because they also have the Vietnamese flavors, not to mention the Texas philosophy of "make everything bigger and spicier."  There is a huge debate between Louisiana and Texas over who has the best crawfish technique, and I don't want to start a war.  I love both, but that Tex-Orleans style has my heart.  We typically have crawfish shipped here overnight at least once or twice per season and do a boil in our backyard.  What to put in a crawfish boil is as heavily debated as how to make chili.  Everyone has their own techniques and secrets and everyone staunchly believes theirs is the best.  That's the fun of cooking, especially something as regional as crawfish or Cajun food.  While you can't get fresh crawfish out of season for a boil, you can get packaged crawfish tail meat year round.  That's when we love to make Crawfish Etouffee.  It's a thick, rich gravy-like stew featuring the "trinity" of Cajun Cuisine: celery, bell peppers and onions.  You can use crawfish or shrimp and it is served over rice.  The main difference between gumbo and etouffee is the color of the roux.  Gumbo is known for its rich dark roux while etouffee uses a lighter "peanut butter" roux.  If you're not familiar with making a roux, then this recipe is great for beginners.  You simply cook your flour in melted butter until it has the look and almost consistency of peanut butter.  After that everything goes in one pot like soup or stew.  It really is simple, but oh so flavorful cooking!

Everyone has their own version of Etouffee,
just like their own way to boil crawfish.
This is one of our favorites!

We actually made this for Fat Tuesday.
Can you believe I didn't even get a 
picture of the roux?  I was too busy making
all of the other things while Mr. Devilish Dish
made the Etouffee.  It's so simple,
you won't miss the step by step pictures.

Mr. Devilish Dish's company is headquartered
in New Orleans.  They ship us an authentic
King Cake every year.  We enjoyed quite the
feast on Fat Tuesday.  He got the baby in his
slice of cake which means he has to provide
the King Cake next year.

CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 stalked celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
3 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 (14 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 cups water
1 pound crawfish tails
1/2 cup sliced green onions
cooked white rice

Heat a heavy-bottom pot over medium heat.  Melt the butter and whisk in flour.  Continue whisking until mixture is smooth, thick, and the color of peanut butter.  Stir in celery, bell peppers, and onions.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Stir in minced garlic, bay leaves, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder, onion power, Worcestershire sauce and parsley.  Stir in tomato sauce and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let simmer for 10 minutes.  If sauce seems too thick, thin out with a little more water or chicken stock.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Add crawfish tails and cook approximately 3-5 minutes or until they are heated through.  Remove bay leaves and stir in the green onions.  Serve with rice and hot sauce.