Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Almond Loaf

I’m done with school! Well sort of, I do still have my final exams, but those will not fail me regardless of how badly I do. So I consider myself DONE, which I am thankful for because I have terrible senioritis and was getting to the point where I just wanted to get Cs in my classes (the bare minimum) to pass. I don’t know how people manage to do undergrad for more than 4 years, and believe me, I know plenty. And then grad school?! If I had to go to grad school for business, I’d be screwed.

To celebrate me being almost done with school, I’ve been baking. Baking vs. studying for my finals? Baking definitely won out. This Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Almond Loaf Recipe caught my eye because I do love white chocolate. And I love it especially with raspberries. The pictures I took pre-baking turned out so beautiful. The end result turned out to be moist and had a wonderful nutty, lemony, white chocolate raspberry flavor. This would be awesome for breakfast (or snack) and great to give away to friends. This is also great to mail to your loved ones (which is what I’m doing with most of this loaf).

Chicken Curry with Dried Apricots

Lately, I've been experimenting with thai cooking, which often involves a lot of curries. No curry dish ever tastes the same; there is green curry, red curry, curry powder, some dishes use coconut milk, etc… and the options are endless! I’ve tried to cook curry chicken maybe 4 times all completely different recipes… and this was by far my favorite curry recipe and is going right in my recipe collection. This had a touch of sweetness from the dried apricots and coconut milk, heat from the red thai curry paste, and nice freshness from the cilantro. This was such a great balance of flavors, because quite frankly sometimes I think curry can be overwhelming flavor-wise. This was quite saucy which I loved because it tasted fabulous spooned over brown rice (would be delicious over couscous as well!)

I cooked this meal for myself and two of my friends, and we polished off EVERYTHING. Usually when I cook there are plenty of leftovers, but with this we couldn’t help ourselves to get seconds and a bit more for some thirds… and I thought about licking my plate to get all the yummy sauce. I didn’t lick my plate this time… but there’s no telling what I would have done if I was by myself.

Blackened Tilapia and Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

My friend Stef and I arranged to have a pedicure a while back and we planned on having lunch beforehand and I of course offered to make us some lunch. I wanted to use stuff I had on hand because I didn’t feel like making another trip to the grocery store. I checked out the fridge and saw all the veggies and defrosted fish that needed to be used up asap.

I was inspired to do the blackened tilapia, because during my spring break in Florida, all I ate when we went out were fish sandwiches made with blackened fish. It was delicious, but I always feel guilty blowing $13 bucks on something I can easily make at home that tastes better, is healthier (no white bread or French fries at my house!), and much cheaper. And it’s getting hot in Wilmington and people are starting to go to the beach, so light and healthy is the theme of this meal.

I made this a second time because I decided it was blog-worthy and so I could accurately measure the spices and ingredients I was using. This is again very simple and quick (I don’t usually like time consuming things unless it’s the weekend or I’m celebrating something real special).

I just threw together this salad with the ingredients I had on hand and it has spinach, strawberries, chopped broccoli florets, and walnuts. Since I have gotten my immersion blender (my favorite appliance), I make salad dressings all the time. If you do not own an immersion blender, just use your blender. I almost cannot stand the store bought dressings anymore, the consistency is different and the flavor is almost too acidic (citric acid maybe?). It takes 45 seconds to throw the ingredients into a cup and blend into a salad dressing. This will even keep in the fridge really well. My favorite one so far is my honey balsamic vinaigrette.

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette:
-clove of garlic
-tablespoon of spicy brown mustard
-1-2 teaspoons of honey
-¼ cup of balsamic vinaigrette
-3-5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

First, only put the first four ingredients into the cup or blender. Blend well to make sure the garlic is fine. Slowly, drizzle in the olive oil until it is the consistency you like.
I often buy tilapia from the frozen section in Costco, because the price is right. I keep the tilapia in the freezer and when I know I will be cooking with fish, I will just defrost a couple filets the night before. For people leery of cooking with fish, it is much easier than cooking a steak in my opinion, and much quicker than cooking chicken. Tilapia is ready when it flakes when you stick a fork in it and often takes no more than a few minutes if cooking in a saucepan.

Blackened Tilapia (makes 4 filets)

-3 tablespoons smoked paprika (this is different than regular paprika)
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 tablespoon onion powder
-1 teaspoon ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-4 filets of tilapia
-Lemon

In a small bowl combine all of the spices. Press a heaping tablespoon of the spice mix onto each fillet so that both sides are liberally coated. Allow the fish to sit for 15 minutes at room temperature prior to cooking.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is almost smoking, add the fillets and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Sprinkle with lemon juice and transfer the fillets to serving plates. And again test the middle with a fork, if there is some resistance or does not flake then just cook for another minute or so!

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

Kath loves unusual recipes so when I saw this had figs and goat cheese (her favorite), I knew I had to try this. And guess what, it was her favorite dish on her birthday so I did her proud.

This was a fun appetizer to make (and eat). This is typically something I would get excited if I saw this on a restaurant menu. I love the combination of slightly sweet and savory, and this is perfect with the crunchy baguette, slightly sweet figgy jam, and the creamy goat cheese on top. This is perfect if you want a fun appetizer or need something exciting to bring to a party. This appetizer so unique and fancy that people will be asking you all about it. Here is the recipe for the Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini.

I have a confession to make; I didn’t even use figs in this dish. Oops…. The Piggly Wiggly or the other grocery store didn’t have the dried Black Mission figs that this recipe called for, so I substituted dried dates. I know dates are much sweeter, so I used a dry red wine instead of the Port that the recipe calls for. My point is, substitutions are okay, even though I’m sure this would have been delightful with the figs that this is supposed to have. If you REALLY wanted to cheat, the grocery store even sells already made fig jam…. This would probably work great as well. I like to make my own jam because then I can control how savory I want to make it, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, I understand.

If you are worried about leftover jam, the extra jam is great in savory grilled cheeses, quesadillas, or chicken dishes. This is a crowd pleaser (or family pleaser in my case), but if you want to make someone feel fancy schmancy, give them a fig and goat cheese crostini.

Mom's Favorite- Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Kath’s birthday cake was a Chocolate Hazelnut Cake which is from the Bake or Break blog. Kath loves anything with chocolate and hazelnuts… who doesn’t? This wonderfully rich treat is made with dark chocolate and an entire container of Nutella. Yuuuum. Needless to say, I sampled lots of the batter. This cake is very easy to turn into a showstopper, because the chocolate ganache and hazelnuts cover up any imperfections there might be.

I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of Kath blowing out her candles... (she was the food photographer for the night, not I). But next blog will be the birthday girl's fav dish of the night which were the fig & goat cheese crostinis.

Kath's Birthday Celebration!

This weekend we celebrated Kath's 20th birthday, and we ofen do a family dinner with a cake in celebration. This year I spent a big part of the day cooking up a feast for my darling sister. She is a lot like me and gets very excited about food and loves to try new things. I knew I wanted to do Italian, but no pasta.

I chose to do a sidecar martini drink, a fig and goat cheese crostini, roasted beet and goat cheese salad, tomato vegetable casserole, pork with sweet onion marmellata, and a chocolate hazelnut cake. So I probably did spend too much time cooking in one day… but everything turned out delicious and Kath loved it so it was all worth it! Of course, Kath is a great photographer, so that is how I got all these beautiful pictures.

I did have a favorite; mine was the Tomato Vegetable Casserole. I have a mandoline slicer, which made making this a cinch. If you don’t have one, you can get one for about 10 (or more, mine was on sale) bucks at a Bed, Bath, & Beyond. With a mandoline you can make perfect extremely THIN slices of onions, potatoes (ideal for gratins), sweet potatoes (those are a bitch to cut by hand). So if you do not have not have one let me know, that might be a fabulous Christmas gift idea. This tomato casserole is so beautiful and honestly so tasty! You can for sure make this without the mandoline; it might just take a bit longer for the prep time.

We all had different favorites, so the next blog will be my mama's favorite, which of course was the chocolate hazelnut cake. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter!