Mom's BBQ Brisket

I'm originally from the Kansas City area and if there is one thing I really miss (other than my family of course) it's the good barbecue. Growing up my mom always made a really good and tender BBQ brisket, it's great for feeding a group and seemed to be what we would always have when we had company over. It has to cook awhile but it's very hands off, freeing you up to cook the sides or do some last minute cleaning. Just like my mom, I love making and enjoying this meal with friends, or it works  if I just want to cook once and have food for the two of us for an entire week. You can eat the brisket on it's own or make a sandwich out of the meat.

My mom decided to prepare a brisket before driving down from New Jersey to Lake Norman on our vacation last week. It worked out perfect because the last thing any of us wanted to do after flying or driving down and getting settled into the house was cook. It freed us up to go out on the boat and still have a delicious dinner prepared. We had the brisket with these easy grilled polenta cakes and grilled asparagus. Keep reading for my mom's Kansas City BBQ Brisket recipe.

Spinach, Mushroom, & Onion Frittata

Happy Friday! I thought I would leave you with something you could whip up for brunch this weekend. As I mentioned in this veggie egg scramble post, I think breakfast is a great way to fit vegetables into your diet as well as use up some extra veggies you have on hand. That is what I did with this frittata that I made at the lake this past week. I used spinach, mushroom, onion, and pepper jack cheese to give it a little kick. I used a dozen eggs since I was feeding 8 people, it was enough for everyone with a couple leftover slices. You can easily scale this down to 3-4 eggs (which is what I normally do). Just like any omelette or egg scramble you can use any variety of vegetables and/or meat that sound good to you.  The recipe is below and have a nice weekend!

Grilled Polenta Cakes

I made these grilled polenta cakes while on vacation, and for most of the group it was their first time trying polenta. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, hopefully they weren't just being nice and they really did! We had it along with some of my mom's famous brisket (I'll be posting that recipe at some point) and grilled asparagus. It was fun playing on a real grill all week as opposed to my grill pan indoors. These were really easy and I'll be making them, or another variation again soon, since I already bought a tube of polenta at the store today. Keep reading for this easy recipe that works as an appetizer or a side dish.

We're On Vacation!

We're on vacation with my family at Lake Norman in North Carolina and we're having a blast skiing/wakeboarding, playing on the water, and relaxing.

And we're of course grilling and cooking up the good food below.

Asian Cajun Scallops

More seafood! This time it was sea scallops, which are great for a weeknight dinner since they cook so quickly. A lot of scallop recipes call for a butter sauce, but since we had a butter sauce the night before I thought it was best to opt for something different. I decided use some of my beloved Sriracha sauce, since I can't get enough spicy food. I'll warn you now, these are spicy, so reduce the Sriracha if you can't handle the heat.

One tip I have when cooking scallops is to have all of your side dishes ready when when you are going to throw the scallops in the pan since they cook up so quickly and you do not want overcook them, they become too chewy. Slightly under cooked scallops are better than over done scallops. Once the outside turns opaque it usually only takes a few more minutes to cook them, but feel free to cut one open if you are nervous about having them turn out too under cooked. Keep reading for the recipe.

Grilled Swordfish with Balsamic Brown Butter

This weekend we picked up some swordfish steaks at the seafood market. And since I can't seem to get enough of my grill pan these days, I decided to make grilled swordfish with balsamic brown butter sauce. I was inspired by this recipe on epicurious. I scaled it down to 4 servings, so my husband could have 2 servings for dinner and I could bring the extra for lunch tomorrow. I served the swordfish with a garlic and corn couscous, which I'll follow up with the recipe another day. We also felt very adventurous when we ventured from red wine to white tonight. I think this is the first bottle of white we've ever had with dinner, it was Cielo Pinot Grigio. Pinot Grigio seems to be the only white wine we can get into, and this is an inexpensive bottle that was crisp and fresh, perfect for the hot weather we had today. Keep reading for the recipe with my adaptions.

Prosciutto, Brie, & Fig Panini

I know I just posted a panini recipe, so please forgive me for the repetition. My excuse is I wanted to finish up sharing how I used the rest of the fig paste from my fig crumbles. It was another panini and another very satisfying lunch. This time I used prosciutto, brie cheese, and fig paste. There's no need for me to even write up a recipe. It's that simple and that good. Just throw the three ingredients onto some sliced french bread and put it in your panini grill. Once again if you don't have a panini press, you can put it on a grill pan or regular stove top pan and press down with a spatula or lid.

We went to the shore again this weekend, and enjoyed some gorgeous weather. We also made another stop at the fish market so expect some more seafood recipes this week.

Veggie Breakfast Scramble

Egg scrambles or omelette's are a great way to load up on veggies and get your day off to a healthy start. It's also a good use for any vegetables you want to use up before they spoil, which is what I was doing the morning I made this for breakfast. This egg scramble was packed with good stuff; avocado, tomato, onion, corn off the cob, and mushrooms. You can really throw whatever vegetables and/or meat you want into the egg scramble. To make it healthier you can use only egg whites, but I like to use a combination of whole eggs and egg whites. You can also always throw the egg scramble inside a warmed tortilla to make a breakfast burrito, yum! Keep reading to find out how to cook up this easy and nutrient filled breakfast this weekend.

Chicken, Fig & Blue Cheese Panini

I love my panini maker, I'd say it's one of the wedding gifts we have gotten the most use out of. It's great for making sandwiches a little more exciting, it makes them taste better, trust me.   In my quest to use up the fig paste I still had from these fig crumbles, I made a chicken, fig, and blue cheese panini, and it was a great combination.  The blue cheese really complements the sweet fig paste. Keep reading for the recipe.

Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks

After a long day at work and a long workout I was looking for a meal I could throw together in 15-20 minutes tonight. Luckily, I remembered the Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks recipe that I have been meaning to try. I mean Ree said her readers owe it to her to make this recipe, so really it was the least I could do.  I followed the recipe almost exactly, that's right I used all of the butter and all of the cream this time, and it was so worth it. The plan was to have some leftover for our lunches tomorrow, but we couldn't resist eating too much tonight and we're going to have to make alternative plans for lunch. Next time I make this (and there definitely will be a next time) I might add some broccoli or mushrooms to get some extra veggies in. You should make this sometime soon.

Stacked Tomato, Onion, and Corn Salad

It's that time of year when I can always find fresh tomatoes and sweet corn the cob at the farmers market. They both taste great on their own, but you'll see me cutting the corn off of the cob and throwing it in a lot of dishes this summer. Tonight I decided to make this simple and refreshing stacked tomato and onion salad that allows you to enjoy the flavors of both. 

Le Mans, Camping, and a Birthday Celebration

We went to Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT this weekend to celebrate our friend Danny's birthday. The American Le Mans Series (car racing, not birthing classes) was there so we had a fun weekend of watching car racing, looking at all sorts of cars (that Danny seemed to have an unlimited knowledge about), camping, and enjoying good beer, good food, and good company.

The Racing

The car that almost hit me.

The Birthday Boy

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

I had a lot of leftover fig pasted from the Fig Crumbles I made last week, and I definitely wasn't going to  let it go to waste. One use I found for it were these easy fig and goat cheese crostinis, which make for an easy appetizer. Usually when I make these, I use a fig compote made of chopped dry figs (1/2 cup), red wine (3/4 cup), granulated sugar or brown sugar (2 Tablespoons) , and a couple pinches of thyme, but I figured the fig paste was a good substitute since I had it on hand.

Ingredients (choose how much you need based on how many you would like to make/serve)
Baguette
Log of Goat Cheese
Fig Compote or Fig Paste
Olive Oil

Directions
Slice baguette and brush both sides with olive oil. Toast bread on a grill pan over medium high heat (2-3 minutes each side) or for bake about 6-8 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven, turning half way through.

Once baguette slices are toasted, smear goat cheese onto crostini and top with fig compote or fig paste.

Linguine with Clams

To top off my week of cooking seafood, I have some linguine with clams for you. I wanted to go light with the sauce and also use up some food in my pantry. Which resulted in this light and simple sauce that has a bit of a spicy kick (I would have added more red pepper, but my husband can't handle the spice like I can).  So add the crushed red pepper according to your preferences. I also only had whole wheat linguine on hand so that is what I used, but normally for this meal I prefer regular pasta. Keep reading for the recipe.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! I'm going camping, what are you doing?

Baked Flounder with Cilantro Butter

I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating America's birthday. We had a nice weekend at the Jersey shore and capped it off with a pit stop at the seafood market on our way home, which is why I posted Curried Mussels yesterday, baked flounder tonight, and linguine with clams later this week. This flounder was a quick an easy meal to start off the work week (so happy it's a short one), and dinner received rave reviews from my husband.

I served the flounder with grilled zucchini and onions; slice zucchini, cut onion into wedges, drizzle veggies with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook on the grill pan for about 15 minutes (turning occasionally) or until tender. Keep reading for the flounder recipe.

Curried Mussels

Nothing beats a big pot of mussels for dinner. One of my favorite restaurants in NYC is Markt, they have excellent mussels and an excellent beer selection. I think at one point we were almost going there once a week, and we have also managed to get my family hooked. Probably because the mussels remind us of one of our favorite restaurants when my parents lived in Paris (can't think of the name). I usually order the mussels with curry and cream at Markt, which is why I made these curried mussels for dinner. They turned out great, and there's nothing like sopping up the sauce in the bottom of the pot with slices of crusty french bread. Keep reading for the recipe, which was adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table cookbook.

Grandma's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baking is in my blood, my grandma and my mom are both fantastic bakers. Growing up we always had delicious cookies, brownies, cakes, and pies from scratch. My mom was always making these chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and I was always sneaking bites of the raw batter.

My husband has been begging me to make him these chocolate chip cookies for awhile now, so I did today. The only problem was that my mind was clearly already at the beach for the weekend, because I completely left out the granulated sugar! All along I was thinking that I was missing something and the dough consistency was a little off, but didn't figure it out until after I baked them. Oops. Despite this major slip up they actually still taste okay, they're just not as chewy. I definitely recommend doing it my grandma's way and including all of the ingredients, but if you are looking to cut some sugar I proved you can.  Keep reading for the recipe and have a Happy Fourth of July weekend!