Awesome Recipes!

Daisy Cutter Martini

Ohhh! I love cocktail experiments! This is one of them! I Googled “St. Germain” and “Chartreuse” because I had them both on hand, and hell, they sounded like a good combo! This is the recipe it found (on Facebook of all places)…

Mint, for muddling & garnish
1oz Vodka
.5oz St. Germain
.5oz Dry Vermouth
.5oz Yellow Chartreuse  

Muddle 1/2 of the mint, then mix all liquors together in a martini shaker, shake over ice, pour into martini glass, and garnish with remaining mint.

I made mine sans the mint since I had none on hand…not sure if you need it but it might be a nice additional touch!

Christmas Sangria

I am a big fan of Cooking Light recipes. This is one of them.

I made this for Christmas and made it punch style instead of in individual glasses. I garnished each glass with a mini candy cane. Not only was it pretty but also delicious! The blood oranges are a nice touch.

Here is the recipe:

Blood Orange Sangria from Cooking Light

oh my

I haven’t updated this in a while! I should! I have a lot of new things to add!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Veggies

This was a random throw together of ingredients one night that turned out to be a really delicious meal.

I had Whole Wheat Rotini Pasta on hand and decided to give it a try with the veggies I had in the fridge.

Recipe - 2 Servings:
1/2 box of spiral pasta
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch of asparagus, chopped
1/2 of a yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced
4 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
Red pepper flakes and black pepper to season to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil for sauté purposes, divided
Basil for topping 

Directions:
Boil pasta
Heat oven to 350
Add asparagus and tomatoes to glass pan with a drizzle of olive oil, place in oven for 10 minutes
Meanwhile, sauté olive oil, garlic, bell pepper, and onion until onions are translucent and start to soften
Take asparagus and tomatoes out of oven and toss with the rest of the veggies
Drain pasta and add to veggies, season to taste
Add cheese and stir together
Plate and top with basil, sprinkle with cheese, and enjoy! Yum!

Carrot Soup & Arugula Salad!

This is the first post of many to come tonight. Seth and I have been cooking a lot more than we used to it seems, and we try to try out a new recipe every week! Yay! Now I just need some updated kitchen utensils…

Onto the Carrot Soup:

Seth and I were grocery shopping at Whole Foods one evening when I just told him “I want carrot soup!” not even knowing if I liked carrot soup, considering the only kind I think I have ever had is at Root Down, which is their red curry carrot soup with apple chutney. Hmm… need this to be simple! So simple carrot soup it is, courtesy of Cooking Light, typical :)

The recipe can be found here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1880029

We ended up making a really awesome salad with it as well. 

A Whip-Together Arugula Salad (2 Servings):

1/2 box/bag of Arugula
2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
2 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 small-sized bunch of champagne (reddish, tan colored) grapes
a drizzle of homemade strawberry vinaigrette  

So yummy!

The strawberry vinaigrette recipe can be found here and is great to use leftover strawberries (we divided this recipe by like 8 to make it for 2 servings): http://www.vinaigretterecipe.com/recipes/StrawberryVinaigrette.htm

Pretty and delicious!

Black Bean Burgers with Mango Salsa

I forgot to take a photo again! Ah! I was too hungry!

But anyway, I borrowed the recipe from Cooking Light, where I borrow a lot of my recipes from…they turned out great! Very yummy! Except I would use less shallot in the salsa and use more jalapeno in the burgers next time! ;) (And maybe I will remember to take a photo, too!)

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1973642

Look I took a photo! This was the 2nd time we made these in 3 weeks…they are really that good! :) The 2nd time around though, I made them sliders! Very cute and a lot easier to eat!

Caramelized Cauliflower with Pasta

So last night I was in the mood for pasta, but not tomato sauce. So I searched for something new and came across this recipe: http://www.skilletdoux.com/2008/12/cauliflower-pasta.html

It is a nice new variation on pasta complete with cauliflower, cavatappi noodles, butter, saffron, mint, and parmesan. Quite tasty. The mint sounded a bit odd to me in the dish, but it turned out to be a great pop of flavor in addition to the garlicky cauliflower. 

No photos this time, it was late when it was all made and we were hungry so didn’t snap a photo…bummer, but next time!

Bread Pudding

I’ve really been craving some lately…the best I have had was Kahlua bread pudding…anyone have a healthier version recipe they would like to share? ;)

Lemon Ricotta Cookies

This recipe was found online by my dad, who saw Giata make these cookies while he was watching Food Network one afternoon. Since I am the baker of the family he asked if I could make them, so I did because they sounded delicious. The recipe made a LOT of cookies so Seth took the extras to work the next day and they were all gobbled up in about an hour, and many compliments later.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lemon-ricotta-cookies-with-lemon-glaze-recipe/index.html

Cinnamon Rolls

Seth & I made these on Christmas Eve and saved them for Christmas morning breakfast…they were quite the task to take on but it was worth every minute of work! It is a good thing we made them the day before otherwise our present unwrapping time would have been used making cinnamon rolls instead :)

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1924693