Pizza! Pizza!

I love pizza.  It’s one of my most favorite meals — it could even be considered one of my food groups.  (Pizza & brussel sprouts)

For our first prosciutto meal, I made pizza.  First, I took a plain, fresh dough from Trader Joe’s and let it rise, per the instructions.  I tossed it a few times and spread it out over cornmeal. I made the pizza sauce by mixing some oil, minced garlic, herbs and tomato paste and added mozzarella, Parmesan, prosciutto (of course!),  black olives and some caramelized red onions.

This is one of my go-to quick and affordable meals and I highly recommend making it for yourself.  My most favorite pizza uses the TJ’s crust, garlic and olive oil “sauce,” caramelized onions, prosciutto, mozzarella, and brussel sprouts.

When you try this out, it’s very important to let the dough rise before you use it and also that you don’t over cook it.  (If you do, it becomes hard as a rock!)

The finished product

I love, love, love prosciutto so this special ingredient was very welcome.

YUM! Prosciutto!

From Wikipedia…Prosciutto is a dry-cured ham that is usually thinly sliced and served uncooked; this style is called prosciutto crudo in Italian and is distinguished from cooked ham, prosciutto cotto.

I bought “prosciutto piccolo” which, according to eHow, translates from Italian means “little prosciutto” or “little ham.” The only difference between prosciutto and prosciutto piccolo is prosciutto is cured with bone while prosciutto piccolo is not. Even though the procedures are the same for curing ham in Italy, each region has its own specific standards. Prosciutto piccolo is a traditional Italian meat that is delicious when wrapped around fresh fruits and vegetables or served in a sandwich.

Fascinating. And delicious.

Cooking with prosciutto? Here are some great recipes!

• Pear, prosciutto and asiago pasta
• Spring Pasta with Prosciutto, Peas and Zucchini
•  Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca
• Pizza!

This is the second time we’ve made fried plantain chips and they were pretty good!

Fry, baby, fry!

Brandon removed the plantain peel with a knife, which is a task in itself.  Once they were cut, we threw them in some boiling canola oil and waited until they floated to the top.  We split the plantain chips into a few batches and put coarse sea salt on them as soon as they were done frying.

Paired with some ground turkey tacos, these plantain chips were good.  Unfortunately they didn’t keep well for my lunch the next day.  While the plantain chips were fun, they were also a lot of work.  Next time we’ll probably just be lazy and have tortilla chips.

The full meal deal

Caribbean Plantain & Hash

Our first plantain meal was Cooking Light’s Caribbean Pork & Plantain Hash.  It was good, however, we used much less-ripe plantains than we were supposed to, since that’s what they had at MacPherson’s.  I would recommend to use ripe plantains for this meal.  I would also recommend against eating a raw plantain.  They taste horrible.  It’s a very overwhelming starch that turns your entire mouth dry.  No good.

Anyway, try this dish, but with ripe plantains… (We added red beans and rice and it was very tasty!)

The full meal.

Ooooh… Plantains!

Week 5: Plantains!

From Wikipedia:

Plantain tends to be firmer and lower in sugar content than “dessert” bananas. Bananas are almost always eaten raw, while plantains tend to be cooked or otherwise processed, and are used either when green or unripe (and therefore starchy) or overripe (and therefore sweet). 

Here we go…

ACK!  I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted!  I’m officially a week behind.  (Only in posting, not in cooking and enjoying…)

For our fourth and final mint meal, we made Steamed Mussels with Cardamom, Orange and Mint from Cooking Light.  Man, it was good.  We enjoyed the mussels with a baguette and some steamed asparagus.

Brandon and I love to visit the Pike Place Market on the weekends and this past weekend we stopped in at Pike Place Fish and MarketSpice for ingredients for this meal.  Brandon picked up the mussels while I picked out the cardamom.  I didn’t realize there were options for cardamom– pods, seeds, ground– and of course didn’t write down which one we needed.  So, I bought a little of each!  Cardamom is a new spice to me and it’s quite good– and quite expensive.  I have plenty of extra, so expect it to reappear in a few weeks as one of our new ingredients.

I highly recommend this recipe and mint as a very versatile, delicious and healthy (maybe?) ingredient to use in your cooking!  ENJOY!!

Mint Meal 4: Mussels

Yummy, yummy Greek salad

Our third (but really second…) mint meal was a delicious Greek salad.  We also had potatoes and chicken (with oregano and salt and pepper) with the Greek salad.

My Greek salad dressing making skills needed some assistance, so I took to the internet for some tips.  I found the perfect and uber-delicious dressing mix on the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog.

The dressing included:

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil  Duh! Hadn’t crossed my mind before…
• 2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar I usually use way too much vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Sugar (more To Taste)  Didn’t think of this either
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced  A first on the garlic too…You’d think I’ve never made Greek salad before…
• 6 whole Kalamata Olives (extra), Chopped Fine  Genius! Why hadn’t I thought of this?!
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1 whole Lemon, For Squeezing

I HIGHLY recommend the Pioneer Woman’s Greek salad.  It’s so, so good!!

PLEASE NOTE: I did not include lettuce in my Greek salad like the Pioneer Woman does, but I’m sure it’s delicious with or without the lettuce.

It’s the middle of winter, but there is no better time to grill a steak and enjoy a refreshing summer salad.  I found the recipe on the Whole Foods website and discovered a really great recipe database.

Flank steak and Thai summer salad

The steak marinade included:

• Lime juice
• Hoisin sauce (instead of fish sauce)
• Reduced-sodium soy sauce
• Sugar
• Chopped shallot

The summer salad included:

• Baby bok choy
• Radishes
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Fresh basil leaves
• Fresh mint leaves
• Fresh cilantro leaves

It was so, so good!  We paired the steak and salad with some potatoes and the whole meal was quite tasty as leftovers.  Expect this to be a regular on our menus once the weather warms up!

My most sincere apologies for my delay in mint meal postings.  Never fear, we’ve been eating mint– and loving it– everyday!  (I don’t know if this counts of not, but these are two of my most favorite things and they just happen to be mint!)

My favorite daily doses of mint

Week 4: MINT

The next adventure ingredient is… MINT!  Thanks, Krissie for the suggestion!

I realized that I’m not really a fan of delicata squash (or butternut squash), so this week’s ingredient is VERY welcome!

We’ve got some great ideas for this week… Check back soon!