Recipes

First off, be sure to check out the recipe for Crunchy Noodle Salad on today’s Barefoot Contessa. It’s pictured above and my mouth is already watering. You can find the recipe by clicking the link I just dropped. I’m actually going to the store shortly to grab the ingredients I don’t have on hand. Other recipes from this episode are: Blueberry Sauce, Asian Salmon, and Lemon Yogurt Cake (Are you kidding me? YUM!)

This sounds absolutely awesome.

Barefoot Contessa is one of those shows that seems to sometimes fall through the crack in Food Network’s lineup. Other celeb chefs seem to be so “out there” and sometimes delightfully over-the-top that Ina Garten (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa) seems really tame by comparison.

As a matter of fact, I only recently started following her shows! But after just one episode I was totally hooked. Not only is it like visiting with a favorite relative, her recipes are amazing. They have a very unique quality to them and reflect Ina’s classiness and grace. I can’t quite explain it, it’s something you’d have to see for yourself.

Something else that strikes me is how relaxing it is to watch Barefoot Contessa. Her episodes have the same effect that Nigella Lawson’s do - you find yourself so kicked back and relaxed you’re extra sorry to see them end!

If you haven’t familiarized yourself with the Barefoot Contessa yet, today would be a great time to do so - this sounds like it’ll be a great episode.

Ina Garten’s Cookbooks are also very special. I’ve been a fan of them for a long time - even if I was a little late to her television shows. Pictured above is one of the best: Barefoot Contessa at Home Everyday Recipes Youll Make over and over Again
.

From the Publisher:

For Ina, its friends and family-gathered around the dinner table or cooking with her in the kitchen-that really make her house feel like home. Here Ina offers the tried-and-true recipes that she makes over and over again because theyre easy, they work, and theyre universally loved. For a leisurely Sunday breakfast, she has Easy Cheese Danishes or Breakfast Fruit Crunch to serve with the perfect Spicy Bloody Mary. For lunch, she has classics with a twist, such as Tomato, Mozzarella, and Pesto Paninis and Old-Fashioned Potato Salad, which are simply delicious. Then there are Inas homey dinners-from her own version of loin of pork stuffed with sauted fennel to the exotic flavors of Elis Asian Salmon. And since Ina knows no one ever forgets what you serve for dessert, she includes recipes for outrageously luscious sweets like Peach and Blueberry Crumble, Pumpkin Mousse Parfait, and Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. Ina also lets readers in on her time-tested secrets for cooking and entertaining.

Get the inside scoop on everything from what Ina considers when shes designing a kitchen to menu-planning basics and how to make a dinner party fun (heres a hint it doesnt involve making complicated food). Along with beautiful photographs of Inas dishes, her home, and the East Hampton she loves, this book is filled with signature recipes that strike the perfect balance between elegance and casual comfort. With her most indispensable collection yet, Ina Garten proves beyond a shadow of doubt that there truly is no place like home.

Other Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks:

Barefoot Contessa Family Style Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook Secrets from the East Hampton Specialty Food Store for Simple Food and Party Platters You Can Make at Home

Barefoot Contessa Parties!: Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Fun

Ina Garten has also taken her “Barefoot Contessa” brand of delicousness to other products, such as the ones below. Like Rachael Ray, Emeril, and Paula Deen, everything with the Barefoot Contessa logo on it is as good as it possibly gets.

Barefoot Contessa 3-pc. Chocolate Chunk Blondie Pan Gift

Description: Blondies are better with big bits of chocolate mixed in! This gift includes the best Chocolate Chunk Blondie Mix, a pan that is perfect for baking bars and a silicone spatula. Tied with Ina’s signature ribbon, it is a gift every “sweet tooth” will love.

Barefoot Contessa Set of 2 Sinful Hot Chocolate Mix

Product Description: Rich and smooth, chocolaty and so sinfully delicious. Nothing is better on a blustery cold day than a steaming cup of hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. This mix is incredible, made from only the finest chocolate. Along with top-selling cookbook author and Food Network star Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, Stonewall Kitchen has developed this line of specialty foods. With this collection of Ina’s favorites, you can make her delicious recipes in minutes. How easy is that?

Barefoot Contessa Set of 2 Contessa Blend Regular Ground Coffee

Product Description: From Ina Garten: “I created this blend of the best Columbian coffee with a hint of cinnamon. It was by far our biggest seller at my store. I hope you love it!” Along with top-selling cookbook author and Food Network star Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, Stonewall Kitchen has developed this line of specialty foods. With this collection of Ina’s favorites, you can make her delicious recipes in minutes. How easy is that?

1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1/4 chopped green peppers
2 Tbsp. chopped onions
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1 head of lettuce
1 bag of baby spinach

Melt butter - add seeds and brown slowly. (Don’t leave them unattended even for a second!) Cool.

Add cheese and mix well. Set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients, except for the lettuce and baby spinach. Just prior to serving, toss the lettuce and spinach with dressing and 3/4 of the seed mixture. Sprinkle more seeds on top right before digging in.

I’ve been experimenting a lot with different salads lately. There’s just no excuse to go the tomato/lettuce only route! The options and variations are absolutely endless and I’ve found that working your way through them is deliciously entertaining!

What would you get if you crossed a chocolate chip cookie with a pie, then spread homemade whipped cream on top and sprinkled miniature chocolate chips over the entire production?

Besides ME at your side, you’d get Paula Deen’s Chocolate Chip Pie. Click the link for the recipe.

I make her Whipped Cream all the time. I serve it in my coffee, on top of hot chocolate (topped off with a drizzle of chocolate syrup), and on top of pie. It’s also a perfect combination with pudding. Spread some of the whipped cream in a small bowl or dessert dish…making sort of a nest, then add your favorite pudding (you can never go wrong with chocolate, but vanilla’s amazingly good, too). Finish it off with another dollop of the cream on top.

It’s as angelic and heavenly as Dolly Parton’s voice…and that’s saying something.

Paula Deen’s beautiful smiling face and sparkling blue eyes caught my attention at the checkout a coulpe of days ago - so into the grocery cart she went. It was the April 1, 2008 issue of one of my favorite magazines, Good Housekeeping’s quick and simple.

Her beautiful face is also inside the magazine (in an adorable picture with her husband, Michael Groover), along with a really great article/interview. As if that weren’t enough to make any Paula Deen fan want the magazine (hey, the cover alone was enough for this one), there are three SWEET Paula Deen recipes inside that’ll make you flip. The first one, as well as the first one I’m going to make, is “Southwest Georgia Pound Cake.” I love pound cakes to distraction. My favorite recipe calls for sour cream, but this one sounds pretty amazing in its own right - it calls for heavy cream along with the cast of regulars: Butter, sugar, vanilla extract, etc.

Another of the Paula Deen recipes they feature is “Tassie Cups with Lemon Curd Filling,” and you have to see the picture. They’re gorgeous! They’ll make beautiful little desserts for spring and summer.

Last, but not least - it features chocolate, so how could it be least?! - Paula Deen’s recipe for “Dummy Fudge.” With just 5 ingredients, it’s one of the most uncomplicated fudge recipes imaginable. Plus, it’s from Paula Deen, so you know it’s going to be extraordinary!

As if the magazine knew I wouldn’t stop until I’d tried each and every one of these recipes, the magazine has a great section on burning calories while you clean your house. It tells how many each chore burns along with how long you have to keep on keeping on. Fascinating (and important!) stuff.

Finally, the issue has an article called “Health by Numbers.” I lost track of the things I read that I didn’t know. While an issue is on the newstands, I don’t like giving anything away - because I want them to be able to sell as many as possible, especially when they feature Paula Deen…so they’ll see that she sells well and feature her again and again! But I thought this little gem was too important and timely to NOT pass along. According to this article (which sites its source as Mayo Clinic) - it takes 15 seconds of hand washing in order to kill sickness-causing germs. A perfect way to time yourself, the magazine points out, is to sing Happy Birthday in your head. It’d be an awesome trick to teach your children, as well. So many just throw their hands under the running water for 2 seconds and run off, wiping their hands on their clothes!

But if they were to make a game of it…a healthy game, at that….maybe they’d stick around and actually get ALL 10 fingers clean!

It’s a great issue, front to back - just look for the smile.

There are a few episodes and recipes that can only be called CAN’T MISS on today’s Food Network. I won’t be able to be pried away from the set during the following shows for the following reasons!

A.M

Boy Meets Grill (Bobby Flay) - Green Rice (Ingredients include: chicken broth or water, roasted poblano peppers, stems, 1 roasted jalapeno pepper, cilantro, Kosher salt, vegetable oil, 1 Spanish onion, 4 garlic cloves, peeled and 1-1/4 cups long-grain rice.)

P.M.

Tyler’s Ultimate - Roast Turkey, Avocado and Bacon Sandwich (Ingredients include: thyme, tarragon, unsalted butter, turkey breast, Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, bread, fontina cheese, avocado, lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, maple bacon, lettuce, and butter.)

Good Eats - French Toast (Alton begins with a custard mixture of half-and-half, eggs, and honey - I’m already drooling!)

A Food Network show I’ve fallen hard for is Ultimate Recipe Showdown - great stuff. Tonight’s episode (after back to back Good Eats - always fun!) will focus on Cookie Recipes….also always fun! See the sidebar to the left for the cookies that’ll be made. I’ll be getting all kinds of familiar with the Pineapple Cheesecake Bar and Radical Rob’s Chocolate Chip Cookies recipes soon. I’ll let you know how great they are.

Coffee Lovers: Here’s a post just for you.

Just how trustworthy is my coffee knowledge? Well, let’s see…..my kitchen, my clothes, my vehicle, my computer desk, my living room chair and my cats all smell like coffee. Yeah, there you have it - I’m not an expert, I am THE expert. You’ve heard of basketball coaches, football coaches, labor coaches, and even life coaches, right? All hail the Coffee Coach!

I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about the AMAZING Toddy’s Cold Brewed Coffee Maker before on this blog - but when something’s so perfectly wonderful, you just can’t help wanting everyone to know about it.

In 1964, as a chemical engineering graduate of Cornell, Todd Simpson developed and patented a cold brew system that, using regular coffee beans, creates a superior-tasting cup of steaming HOT coffee. And, with 67% LESS ACID than coffee made by conventional hot brew methods, it’s easier on sensitive stomachs. Many people who had to abandon coffee because of stomach discomfort have been able to fall in love with coffee all over again! I don’t know about you, but the words “less acid” mean an awful lot to me!

The Toddy coffee maker makes this possible because it extracts the coffee bean’s delicious flavor while it eliminates much of the acidity. In the process, it produces a bold, super-smooth coffee that can be served one cup at a time.

The Toddy brewer is also VERY ideal for making tea - served hot or over ice. And, yes, I am indeed the Tea Coach as well as the Coffee Coach. I’m one caffeinated Kentuckian, and you have no idea how much a caffeinated Kentuckian can get into.

For less than $40, you will receive: A Brewing Container with Handle, Glass Decanter with Lid, Reusable Filters (2), Rubber Stopper (1), Instructions & Recipe Guide. You’ll also want very, very much to order at least one bag of Toddy’s coffee beans while you’re on the site. You CAN use other beans with the system….and achieve smashing results. But for that initial experience, I’d love for you to use either the Americana beans or the Toddy Blend (I heart the Toddy Blend.).

When we first ordered the Toddy System, I didn’t know what to expect. My coffee maker and I had a great thing going and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the new kid in town. But I read the instructions and followed them to the letter - even if my coffee maker and I were snickering behind Toddy’s back. The snickering ended before the coffee cup even reached my lips - the bold, intoxicating aroma nearly took me to my knees. Then, when I tasted it, I was totally blown away. I would say that it reminded me of Coffehouse coffe, but I’ve never tasted Coffeehouse coffee this good.

I can talk all day about how amazing it is, but you’ll never know until you try it for yourself. This will be the smartest purchase you’ve made in years. While you’re at it, you might want to get a second one - Mother’s Day isn’t that far away, after all! Cllick on the coupon below to save more money:

See the front page of Buttermilk Press for some delicious recipes from Toddy’s website.

Apparently everyone’s getting Summer Crazy! I’ve had 6 inquiries this week ALONE about the Ice Cream Maker e-Book I used to sell from this blog and site!

It was a huge seller, and I took it down for one reason only - Several times someone would order the e-book (and the sales page says again and again that it’s an e-book…that you will not receive anything in the mail), then send me nasty e-mails saying they haven’t received their cookbook in the mail yet and they “demand” their money back.

Frankly, life’s too short and I’m far too sensitive for such nastiness - so I took the sales page down! BUT, I’ve put it back up because it’s a great, fun collection of homemade ice cream maker recipes and many more people knew what they were doing than didn’t!!!

In all, there were only 4 or 5 (out of many) who somehow missed the big picture. Actually, one e-mail was kind of funny. A man shot me an angry e-mail insinuating that I’d taken advantage of his wife - that she was upset because she’d ordered a cookbook and I “refused” to send it to her. I sent him a nice response along with apologies and a link to the salespage - I told him that if he read it and didn’t “understand” that it was a download of printable recipes, I’d send him the money back….which would bascially give him a free collection of recipes.

He responded with an….”I’m SO SORRY for my angry e-mail. Apparently the wife doesn’t know what an e-book is. I need to watch her when she’s online as closely as I do my kids. Forget the money back. It wasn’t your fault.”

Priceless!

Anyway, the e-book (which I can’t claim to have written, by the way) is available once more. IT IS AN E-BOOK, which means you receive the collection on your computer - not in your mailbox or on your front porch. From your computer, you can print out as many copies as your Ice Cream loving heart desires. Then, you and your family can enjoy them all summer long….summer after summer after summer.

Here’s the link to the page detailing the e-book: 131 Ice Cream Maker Recipes

I bought a great little recipe book as I was checking out at the grocery store a few days ago. It’s from Better Homes and Gardens and is titled “Heart Healthy Living: Lower Your Cholesterol.” My cholesterol and I get along just fine, but after I flipped through the pages and saw the AMAZING recipes, I put the little book in its rightful place…my shopping cart!

It’s less than $5.00, in fact I think it was only $4.00. But it features 35 recipes that, in my opinion, are each worth the little bit of money paid. They’re fresh, healthy, beautiful, and look incredibly delicious - who in the culinary world could ask for more?!?!

The recipe below is on page 55 and it’s as in the mood for spring and summer as I am, so we’re combining our resources to make it happen. If you include kiwifruit in your fruit used for this recipe, there’d be enough green to make this a perfect dish on St. Patrick’s Day.

FRUIT SALAD WITH LIME TOPPING

1/2 cup light dairy sour cream
1/3 cup fat-free or light mayonnaise or salad dressing
2 TBS powdered sugar
1 tsp. finely shredded lime peel
2 TBS lime juice
1 TBS fat-free milk (optional)
6 cups assorted fresh fruit (mango, raspberries, kiwifruit, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, star fruit….)

In a small bowl, combine the sour crem, mayonnaise, powdered sugar, lime peel, and lime juice. If you want the sauce to be a little thinner, stir in the fat-free milk.

Divide the fruit among serving bowls or plates. Spoon the creamy mixture over the fruit.

Sounds amazing!

For more information on treating your heart as well as you want it to treat you, you should visit HeartHealthyOnline.com. You can never be too informed about good heart health, but you can certainly be woefully under informed.

Also, I highly recommend this little recipe book. A few of the other recipes are:

Tex-Mex Spinach Omelet - featuring a corn-pepper relish

Hash Brown Potato Cakes

Crab Cake Salad

Lemon Chicken

Penne with Vegetables

Three Cheese Manicotti

And more! You can probably find it in your grocery store near the check-out section. If not, the web site I told you about above might have a place you can order a copy.

Today’s Food Network line-up makes my Kentuckian heart skip a couple thousand beats. Yeah, that good.

First of all, early this morning on Boy Meets Grill, Fried Chicken is the star of the show. Sign me up for any show where Fried Chicken’s center stage!

On Everyday Italian (the 4:30 pm episode), Giada will make pancakes with ricotta. I love pancakes almost as much as fried chicken, so I’m completely on board for that. Also, I love cooking with ricotta - whether it’s lasagna, manicotti, or stuffed pasta shells…it’s one of the most agreeable cheeses in the world. I can’t wait to see how she uses it with pancakes!

Immediately after this Everyday Italian, the Barefoot Contessa has an amazing sounding episode featuring Mac and Cheese, Peach Raspberry Shortcakes, and Radishes with Butter and Salt. Talk about beckoning to Spring.

As if that weren’t enough, Rachael Ray is even dedicating one of her 30 Minute Meals episodes to Bluegrass Burgers today. She’ll be making Kentucky Burgoo Burgers and Southern Succotash and Julip Sweet Tea. On the 30 Minute Meals right after the Kentucky one, she’ll feature Mac and Jack Salad and BBQ Chicken Burgers with Slaw - in her own words, “Yum-o!”

On Throwdown with Bobby Flay there’ll be more…. (wait for it, wait for it)…. Fried Chicken! The recipes will be Hattie’s Southern Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken with Ancho Honey, and Sauteed Swiss Chard with Red Onion and Serrano Chile Vinegar.

The 11:00 Good Eats ALSO features Fried Chicken! In between Bobby and Alton are my much-beloved and anticipated Ace of Cakes episodes. This is one of the most entertaining and enjoyable shows on the Food Network, I just wish there was a new episode every night. These lovable and talented people are the most entertaining people on television.

Great day on the Food Network - don’t miss a minute!

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cups green peppers, chopped
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
2 - 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 cup chopped onion
1 large can tomatoes
1 large can kidney beans, drained
1 tsp salt

Brown the ground beef, drain.

Add the remaining ingredients to the beef. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

Optional: During the last 10 minutes, you can add a little fresh cilantro to the dish. Some people like to serve Chili Con Carne with a tablespoon of sour cream on top along with chopped green onion. I love to serve Pico de Gallo alongside my Chili Con Carne. But then again, left to my own devices, I’d serve Pico de Gallo alongside everything.

This is a dish you just can’t go wrong with.