Recipes

Last Updated ( Friday, 17 August 2007 )

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What the Tag?

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Tuesday, 31 July 2007

A recent post on a Cooking Light Forum says:

My parents are coming to stay with us for a week in August. We see them maybe once a year or so, and even less often do they actually get to stay in our home so I can cook. Often throughout the year I say "Wow, my father would love this...." and then it's time to put together a menu.....and I've totally spaced on what it was that my father would have loved. - Jewel.

Jewel you are not alone! I'm always finding the perfect recipe for this or that but then can't think of anything when the actual event happens - like dessert for dinner parties.

Jewel's post continues:

I've got to learn to write these things down!

I have a different suggestion for Jewel and everyone else who wants a way to organize their recipes to fit their lifestyles and their own personal needs. I'm talking about Tagging.

If you've tried Project Foodie Recipe Track & Tag you know it's an easy way to keep track of recipes from multiple cooking magazines (and soon other types of publications). But Tracking is only half the story – Tagging helps you organize your recipes based on your own personal needs so you have all the information in one place and so you can look at the recipes in whatever way you want.

Such as…

– Recipes for company? Tag - company
– Recipes for the holidays? Tag - thanksgiving or hanukkah or christmas or ...
– Recipes for the garden bounty? Tag - zucchini or tomatoes or garden or …
– Recipes the kids like? Tag - kidfriendly

The possibilities are endless since tags are not predefined – they are whatever word or word groupings you want them to be.

In Jewel's case she could add a father (company or WOW) tag to any recipes that she'd like to serve to her father. Then when Dad actually comes to visit all she needs to do is click on the father folder at the left of her list of recipes she is tracking and voilà all the recipes she thought her father would enjoy are listed for her to choose from!

Sure, all of the Track & Tag recipes already have tags such as main, sides, desserts and so forth but by adding your own tags you can personalize and organize the recipes so they are easy to find for whenever you want them...

I created Track & Tag to solve this and similar problems with finding recipes. I've been using it for a while and although many more things are planned it's already really helpful. I encourage everyone to try it out and once you have, let me know ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) what you think so it can be improved and made even better.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 31 July 2007 )

On our plate - Cooking with the market

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Saturday, 28 July 2007

As I've talked about in previous posts, I've been trying to choose what we're going to eat based on what's seasonal and fresh at the market. While I've been doing OK, it's not easy. So, I've enlisted help! Starting this week, Foodie Chris will be helping me pick recipes that are seasonal and scrumptious. We're calling this "On our plate". The choices will be presented on the Project Foodie front page each day along with notes on what's great about the dishes, variations that can be tried, and ideas on what to serve with the dishes. I hope you'll find this an interesting and useful addition to the Project Foodie line-up.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 28 July 2007 )

Shame on me - Late Dinner Sin #3

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Thursday, 26 July 2007

You know the phrase - it goes something like - "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on you". Well, today it is "Shame on me". Not following? Let me explain.

A while ago I posted "Oops - dinner is gonna be late" which listed a bunch of my dinner preparation mistakes that resulted in late dinners. My hope was to learn from the past, yet today I committed Late Dinner Sin #3:

3. You glance at the recipe in the morning to confirm you have all the ingredients. But when you start cooking in the evening Step 2 says "Marinate 8 hours". Result: Going out for dinner.

Sadly, not only did I glace at the recipe this morning but I also went shopping for all of the necessary ingredients. Yet, somehow (perhaps because I didn't fully read the recipe), this evening when I went to prepare it I was assaulted with "Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight" at the end of the first paragraph in the recipe. Gee - not only did I commit Late Dinner Sin #3 but I did it nearly perfectly!

If you're interested our luscious dinner tonight was going to be "Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Fontina Cheese Strata" using Swiss chard from the farmers market and the remains of my garden's yield of Walla Walla onions.

Sigh - looks like we're going out tonight! At least I know what we're eating tomorrow night...

Cooking from the garden - creamy penne pesto

Recipes

Written by foodie pam

Sunday, 22 July 2007

I've been cooking from my garden for the past couple of weeks with the basil and parsley doing particularly well. In my continuing quest to use this bounty, this week I experimented with a new version of an old favorite - "Penne in Creamy Basil-Walnut Sauce" from Cooking Light. This variation uses milk, white bread and walnuts for an interesting twist. If you like pesto this "creamy" variation is a great recipe to try. The walnuts are a nice change from pinenuts and the milk soaked bread ads an interesting texture. The basil is the most important ingredient here though, and nothing beats using basil picked only moments earlier. I modified the recipe just a bit by adding sautéed cremini mushrooms and by topping the dish with a few diced, freshly picked, cherry tomatoes. Small changes but the tomatoes in particular really made the dish stand out.

As great as this dish was, my parsley and basil are constantly producing more and more and I'm always looking for new uses. So if you have any favorite pesto variations then please, please share!

Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 July 2007 )

Why Recipe Track & Tag?

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Friday, 20 July 2007

The hunt begins... Just a sampling of my recipe stash.

Last week I announced Project Foodie Recipe Track & Tag which lets you easily keep track of recipes from your favorite cooking magazines and personalize them so you can quickly find your recipes. Today, I thought I'd share with you my motivation for creating Recipe Track & Tag.

Why Recipe Track & Tag? Each month I spend hours going through cooking magazines and cookbooks picking out recipes I want to make. I dog-ear the pages for recipes that look good and I cook many of them. I have the best intentions to keep track of theses recipes but ultimately life happens and the next thing I know the recipes are lost never to be found again! Where are they? Some are hidden in piles of cooking magazines and books in my house or possibly even in my car, some are left at friends or relatives houses, and sadly some are even accidentally thrown out. I call this "recipe oblivion".

I've wasted hours trying to find recipes that are in "recipe oblivion". Usually the hunt goes something like this:

I start by trying to remember where I last saw the recipe and when that doesn't work I ask myself when I first cooked it. If it was hot when I cooked it then I reason that "the recipe must have been published in the summer". What year I ask myself? "Hmm it was probably last year". That means it would be in the June, July or August issue from last year. Next I try to figure out which magazine the recipe was in thinking "it was a pretty quick dish so it probably wasn't Gourmet - so I'll start with Cooking Light June of last year." But after searching all of those issues I typically still won't have found the recipe. Sometimes that's because even though I cooked the recipe in the summer the recipe actually came out in the spring. Or maybe I really didn't cook it in the summer. Or maybe the recipe really was in Gourmet. Or maybe I just missed it when looking through the issues (the first 10 times!). Sometimes I even recruit Husband to help in the hunt and sometimes I simply never to find the recipe. UGGGG!

So, what is the solution? I've tried lots of different schemes to keep track of my recipes including recipe cards, lists on my computer and actually tearing the pages out of the magazines. I still lose the recipes. At one point, I even bought software to keep track of recipes. But re-entering the recipes was tedious. These days some websites will let you keep track of their recipes or re-enter other recipes but it's a pain to go to multiple sites and/or re-enter recipes. What is needed is a single place to keep track of recipes from any magazine, any cookbook, or simply anywhere! And that is exactly what Project Foodie is doing! We are providing a single destination to easily keep track of all your favorite recipes. We're still working on improving and adding to Recipe Track & Tag so you will see changes happening over time. But give it a try and let us know what you think… help us help you by shaping the system to your needs. Necessity is the mother of invention and Project Foodie is what I needed to invent to help with all my lost recipes, hopefully it's what you need too.

Last Updated ( Friday, 20 July 2007 )

Oh Ice Cream - my heart belongs to thee

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Sunday, 15 July 2007

Today is National Ice Cream day and July is National Ice Cream month. But who needs an official day or month to know that ice cream is the perfect treat? Certainly not me. In fact, Ice cream and I are lifelong friends. Ice Cream has been with me through summer heat, spring rain, and even freezing winters. No matter what I’ve been doing or where I’ve been Ice Cream has always been close at hand. We met when I was a baby and my parents discovered a spoonful of Ice Cream put a smile on my face. But Ice Cream didn't stop there; no Ice Cream had many ways cunning ways of getting close to me to nurture our relationship. After little league softball games Ice Cream would ensure all the team members had a great celebration even if we lost the game! In grade school, Ice Cream would hide between two cookies forming a wonderful handheld treat that I could enjoy in the middle of the school day. During summer break, Ice Cream would hitch a ride on a musical truck and frequently stop by my neighborhood to say hi. And a couple of times during visits to see my older brother, Ice Cream even took over control of my sister-in-laws car forcing her to drive to the nearby Ice Cream parlor.

Over the years Ice Cream was very successful in getting me addicted well before I even began working at an ice cream shop in high school. Initially, my mother thought that working in an ice cream shop would sever me and Ice Cream. Perhaps she though being covered in the sticky remains of all the ice cream I served would cause me to grow tired of Ice Cream. How wrong she was! No matter how covered my arms were from scooping ice cream cone after ice cream cone for hours on end during busy summer weekend shifts I still craved Ice Cream - and since it was now only an arms reach away I could easily indulge. Fortunately, my wrists didn't like scooping the frequently very hard Ice Cream and alas I was forced out of the ice cream store.

I thought I might lose touch with Ice Cream when I went to college since I moved to one of the coldest spots in New York state where it was frequently no more than 20 degrees below zero when I walked to my 8am classes. Yet Ice Cream still found me - with the help of two buddies named Ben & Jerry that is. Later Ice Cream cultivated friendships through the sharing of an amazing dessert with chocolate Ice Cream sandwiched between two hot homemade chocolate and peanut butter chips topped with hot fudge and whipped cream appropriately called “The Ice Screamer”.

My love of Ice Cream grew even more when I met Husband and found he to loved Ice Cream (clearly a sign Husband was the perfect man!). But sadly these days Ice Cream and I don't see each other very much. Oh don't get me wrong I still love Ice Cream but not the fat. Luckily, Ice Cream introduced me to some close cousins - Frozen Yogurt and Frozen Soy Milk. They aren't quite as rich as Ice Cream but since they are in the Ice Cream family I've grown to love them. I've even recently started making my own Ice Cream Cousins thanks to Peggy Fallon's new Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts cookbook that has a wonderful assortment of frozen yogurt, frozen soy milk, frozen ice milk and light sorbet recipes. But today, in honor of national ice cream day, I'm going back to my good friend Ice Cream for a little reunion - just to see what the first frozen love of my life is doing these days...

Last Updated ( Sunday, 15 July 2007 )

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No more lost recipes!

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Thursday, 12 July 2007

Do you lose track of recipes you've picked out from cooking magazines? Have you accidentally cooked the same terrible recipe because you forgot you tried it before? Are you cooking the same old recipes because you forgot about or lost track of new ones you picked out? Are you missing great recipes that you wanted to cook because they're buried in a pile of magazines somewhere? I know I have done all of these things - it's frustrating, it's annoying and it wastes my time! That's why I'm really excited to announce that Project Foodie is here to help with our new Recipe Track & Tag.

Project Foodie recipe Track & Tag lets you easily keep track of recipes from your favorite cooking magazines. The recipes are easy to find. You can view them by individual magazine issues, by specific categories or by searching for an individual title. But best of all you don't need to re-enter recipes and recipes from multiple magazine publishers are available, in one single place. As of today you can keep track of recipes from Cooking Light, Bon Appétite, and Gourmet magazines. We'll have Food & Wine recipes available soon and many others in the near future.

Track & Tag is more than a recipe box. You can also personalize the recipes you've tracked. You can rate recipes, add public comments, add personal notes and most importantly add "tags". What is a tag? Well, a tag is a word or phrase that describes a recipe. Tags help you organize and categorize your recipes so that you can find the recipes you want quickly. For example, let's say you've picked out several recipes from the most recent issue of Cooking Light as recipes that you want to try. If you tag these recipes with "try" then when you look at the recipes you've tracked you can easily find all of the recipes you want to try because they'll be grouped together under the "try" tag. Tags allow you to describe recipes the way you see them! Even better, when a new issue of a magazine comes up, you can look at that issue's recipes on Project Foodie and easily tag the recipes you're interested in.

Each recipe can have as many tags as you want and you can change the tags whenever you want. Going back to one of the recipes you tagged as "try". What happens after you've cooked it? If you liked the recipe maybe you'll want to tag it as "favorite". You also may want to add other tags to the same recipe such as "quick-n-easy", "husband-favorite", "kid-friendly", "hot&spicy", "cheesy" and so forth. If you hated the recipe you could mark it as "DoNotMakeAgain" so that you'll never accidentally make it again! Add as many tags as you want. What about a tag for "DinnerWithBobAndMary" so that you don't cook the same thing twice when your friends Bob and Mary come over? In fact, the more tags you add the more personalized your recipe plate will be and the easier it will be to find what you want to make.

Track & Tag is just the beginning of the solutions to your daily food problems that Project Foodie plans to provide. I invite you to give Track & Tag a try and let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what other things you want so that we can make Project Foodie into the food destination you're craving. We have many new features planned to make Track & Tag easier to use, but it's so useful already that I thought everyone should get a chance to start using it.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 July 2007 )

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Savory Corn Muffins

Foodie Talk

Written by foodie pam

Tuesday, 03 July 2007

I enjoy lots of types of bread and muffins but corn muffins hold a special spot in my heart. I'm not sure what it is about them but sometimes I just get a craving for a batch of hot fresh corn muffins. Having grown-up on "Jiffy" corn muffins my passion grew enormously the first time I made my own from scratch corn muffins. I immediately said good-bye to "Jiffy" and never looked back.

Last night my corn muffin appreciation grew even more when we tried a savory variation that included fresh corn kernels, red bell peppers, chili powder and jalapenos. The recipe we used is "Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins" from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". Now I'm wondering what other variations I can make... So if anyone has a favorite corn muffin variation they love let me know...

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 July 2007 )

Leftover Tuesdays: Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

Recipes

Written by foodie pam

Monday, 25 June 2007

Save Recipe: Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

Grilling is always a favorite in the summer and lately we've been grilling every weekend we can. Saturday, Husband made grilled chicken coated with our favorite local barbeque sauce from Sam's BBQ. The sauce is a really great tangy sweet that so beats anything you can get at the grocery store.

As yummy as the chicken was though, a whole chicken for two people is a lot and after a dinner and lunch I'd had my fill. This left us with quite a bit of chicken for Leftover Tuesdays which is being hosted this month by fellow bay-area blogger Dolores at Culinary Curiosity. Now I know chicken can be adapted to many different variations but I wanted to redress the chicken into something different enough from the original dish that that it wouldn't feel like leftovers. This ruled out many of my initial ideas such as a salad, sandwich, etc.

I also wanted the meal to be a one-dish meal that was quick and easy. One of my favorite one-dish meal categories is Mexican food so I decided to make a variation of Enchiladas. I used one of my long-time favorite lunch meals, Black-Bean Burrito Bake from Cooking Light, as the starting point. This recipe works really well for lunch but it isn't really very filling for dinner so working the chicken into this recipe was a great solution.

This recipe is really easy to make since the only cooking happens in the oven and the prep is minimal. After 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes of cooking we were enjoying our tasty meal that had such a minimal resemblance to the original grilled chicken that it absolutely didn't feel like leftovers....

Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

1 whole chipoltle chile
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 cups grilled chicken, chopped
15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn
4 whole 8-inch tortillas
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop chile and combine with sour cream. Let sit 10 minutes. Place about half of the beans in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add chicken, chopped beans, remaining beans, corn to sour cream mixture. Spoon 1/2 cup filling down the center of each tortilla. Roll-up tortillas and place them seam side down, in an 11x7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread salsa over tortillas; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 June 2007 )

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Beets - great tasting - dirt?

Recipes

Written by foodie pam

Thursday, 21 June 2007

I've been trying to eat new (to me) things so when I saw beets at the farmers market I just had to try them. I've had beets at restaurants before but I’ve never actually made them into anything myself. After a bit of searching Husband found a nice beet salad recipe from Bon Appétite that uses both the beet roots and the greens. The salad is accented with orange wedges and red wine vinegar. I was skeptical at first but with only a bit of Husband nudging agreed to try it - after all we already had the beets so I couldn't really say no now...

Turns out beets are easy to prepare and the salad was great. In this recipe the beets are roasted in the oven, wrapped in foil, for about an hour. After cooling the skins easily slip off and you are left with ready to eat beets. We had both red and golden beets. I tasted each before putting them in the salad and only found small differences. Husband describes the flavor of beets as tasting like "Dirt" which he apparently ate a fair amount of as a child! I'm not sure I'd describe the flavor as dirt, but either way they tasted great. As for the salad, the mixture of red wine vinegar, oranges and beets was wonderful with both sweet and tangy flavors. If beets are in season where you are I'd recommend give them and the salad a try - it's a nice, tasty change from the plain old garden variety green salad....

Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 August 2007 )

Pam's Parsley Pesto, Pine nuts, Parmesan, Portabella and Pepperoni Pizza!

Recipes

Written by foodie pam

Saturday, 16 June 2007

Save Recipe: PPPPPPPizza (Pam’s Parsley Pesto, Pine nuts, Parmesan, Portabella and Pepperoni Pizza)

My garden produced the first harvest of parsley earlier this week - a nice broad flat-leaf variety that has a strong flavor. It's great for pesto and made a quick easy meal on pizza. When I told husband I was going to make parsley pesto pizza he immediately replied with pine nuts parmesan, portabella and pepperoni please! So that's how came to have PPPPPPPizza.

All fun aside this was an excellent pizza. The parsley was picked just a few minutes before giving the pesto a very strong flavor that really complemented the portabella and pepperonis. As I was making the pizza Husband called to say he would be late but instead of turning the oven off I decided to let the pizza stone heat up more and left it on. As a result, the pizza heated really quickly and came out nice and crisp. Of course, it's really hard to ruin pizza when you put pepperoni on it but I think the parsley pesto was really the star in this pizza. Looks like I may have to update my list of top pizzas because this one was a really winner:

PPPPPPPizza (Pam's Parsley Pesto, Pine nuts, Parmesan, Portabella and Pepperoni Pizza)

About 2 cups of parsley
1 ounce of parmesan cheese, grated
3 T pine nuts
4 T olive oil or more to get spreadable moist pesto
1 Large Portabella mushroom, sliced
15 or so pieces of pepperoni
4 ounces mozzarella, shredded
Pizza crust or pizza dough

In a small food processor blend parsley, parmesan, and pine nuts. Add oil and blend until mixture is spreadable and somewhat moist.

Sautee sliced portabella.

Spread pesto on pizza crust. Sprinkle mozzarella over pesto. Top with portabella and then layer pepperoni on top.

Preheat oven to 525 degrees with pizza stone so that the stone is thoroughly heated. Bake pizza 6-8 minutes until cheese has melted and pepperonis have cooked.

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Last Updated ( Friday, 22 June 2007 )