Right
now Whole Foods and my local Safeway is featuring Ataulfo mangoes, also known as champagne
or yellow mangoes, in their stores. Mango is my very favorite fruit, in fact I eat one or more every day!! The health benefits are many including preventing the deadly cancer, clears the skin, lowers cholesterol, alkalizes the body, improves sex, helps diabetes, improves digestion, boosts the immune system and one cup of sliced mangoes supplies 25 percent of the needed daily value
of vitamin A, which promotes good eyesight and prevents night blindness
and dry eyes. WOW!! Hard to believe these little innocent looking fruits can do all these wonderful things for us!!
There are a lot of foods that can be considered decadent, I think,
but slow braised beef short ribs have to be near the top of the list, for me. Beefy, hearty and oh so scrumptious, these unassuming looking slabs of
meat cannot be overstated. I don’t know why I don’t make them more often,
but 2 or 3 times a year they find their way into my repertoire with a
bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and a few other ingredients. About 6 hours later, I’ve got
fall of the bone juicy pieces of steaming beef ready to be
paired with almost anything and the residual jus from the pot is like
liquid gold. As perfect as they are simply accompanied by my creamy
mashed potatoes, as in my December 3rd post. I recently was inspired to step it up!
With all the running around our doggies do.......well Bandit does, Moose, not so much:-0 they need a treat now and then. I like to find healthier options for our pups, and they are easy to make at home. I choose ingredients that "I" want my pups to snack on, and ensure that they get all the right nutrients. I want to have total say over the recipe! There are some basics to follow when playing "Doggie Chef"! Avoid- Cheese, milk, dairy products, chocolate, macadamia nuts, walnuts, onions, liver (in large quantities), raisins, grapes, salt and sugar.
I just realized how good Oreo cookies are! I haven't had them for many years until just recently when I made those Oreo truffle cake balls and now these heavenly brownies. My pregnant sister-in-law has been requesting desserts to satisfy her sweet tooth cravings during pregnancy so I helped her out by making these the other day especially for her!
Of course, we couldn't let her get away without leaving a few behind for us to enjoy! These were seriously good. Moist brownie layer with finely crumbled Oreo cookies mixed with cream cheese and then finished off with a layer of melted chocolate. The only part you need to bake is the brownie layer, so these are pretty quick to put together.
Oreo Truffle Brownies
-courtesy of www.chef-in-training.com
I am super extra excited today. I just love the Surprise Recipe Swap because I like finding new recipes and trying them out, for not only Wee Bear and I, but YOU! This is our third month and third swap! If you want in, the details are at the end of the post, just click the SRS button! We always post on the 20th of the month, hence, why I didn't post yesterday. In
the meantime, let’s talk about who I am blogging about this month! Her name is Michelle and she has this sweet blog called Michelle's Tasty Creations!
This recipe isn't as much trouble as it looks and most of it can be
made the day before. It is a wonderful main course for a dinner party,
one in which you will surely impress your dinner guests. I would
suggest though that you make it for a group of close friends. This is
definitely not for elegant entertaining...you want to be able to get at
those little morsels next to the bone and the picture won't be dainty,
but definitely worth the effort. Wee Bear does not like to deal with bones, so, this time I de-boned for him. I did not ballantine/gallantine this time, which would be tedious with a cornish game hen, but, do-able. I cut the meat off the bones after roasting and this time, he made sure he got every bite and then some! The
stuffing is to die for and can definitely be served with something else
such as turkey, quail or duck.
How would you like to make something that your kids/grand kids will love? Better yet, how would you like to get the kids into the kitchen to make their own lunch/dinner and have fun doing it? My long time friend Jane, did just that with her grand children. They had a great time!
Hearty, robust and delicious! This salad has everything you have dreamed about in a Greek salad, tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, bacon, hearts of palm and Calamata olives. It is one of my go to lunches....minus the onion strings! I did those for a twist. Not an original idea, they actually serve a chopped salad at our club with the onion strings on top. I admit, I give mine to Wee Bear.....I think he loves that I do that.
Wee Bear loves my Chicken Marsala. Marsala is Italy's most famous version of fortified wine and it makes an outstanding sweet sauce! Chicken Marsala (at least this recipe, which I have whittled down into a very simple process) is hard to screw up. Chicken breasts can easily be pounded thin with a kitchen mallet and are a snap to saute in the pan. Cooking this dish comes down to basically making the sauce - a pan sauce made with sweet imported Marsala wine and butter. Don't over think it!!
The other day I whipped up a batch of these Chocolate Chunk cookies. Our nephew was flying in from California, and I thought they would make a nice snack when he arrived. These are for serious cookie connoisseurs! A friend of mine, Mojdeh, gave me this cookie recipe a
few weeks ago, she got it from a friend who made it from Saveur magazine. They're absolutely over the top delicious!! And they were one of Saveur's top 150 recipes.
They're basically 9 ounces of rough chopped chocolate in between three layers of cookie dough...........trust me, you will die and go to heaven with the first bite! Ed, our nephew said, "they are moist and fudgy like brownies, layered with chunks of
chocolate, with a slight crisp outside!" And they are! Moist and tender inside, and so marbled that
every bite contains the consummate balance of sweet dough, melting
bittersweet chocolate, and crystalline salt.....mmmm You can't miss with these!
JJ and I found this woman in Scottsdale that makes and sells homemade doggy treats that the pups just LOVE! The one they go crazy for is her Peanut Barkin' flavor...mmmmm! They jump with excitement every morning after their potties, for a cookie. Since this woman lives in Scottsdale and I am in Seattle (although she does ship) I have been wanting to try my hand at making something homemade for them. I receive weekly emails from a website called Doggy Loot and this is where I learned of this recipe I am featuring today.
Pumpkin & Fruit Treats
-adapted from DoggyDessertChef
This tomato and cheese tart was incredibly simple to make, and it
tasted so fresh! When I first told Wee Bear I was making a tomato tart, he
gave me a funny look and said: “That doesn’t sound very good.” But when
this came out of the oven, he was singing a different tune. It was more
along the lines of “That smells amazing.” And the morning after the dinner? I believe the words that came out of his mouth were: “Where is the left over tart from last night?” Suffice to say, this recipe is a winner – cheesy pastry, melty cheese, and warm summer tomatoes – you can’t
beat it!
This is one of those recipes that once tried, is immediately
incorporated into your own repertoire. It's what you want when you want a
crisp, roast potato, only better!
