Cucumber Salad + Grilled fish and stuffed mushrooms

A few nights ago (could I tell you how many? no. I have been working quite a bit lately. My shift is over at 10, and most nights it's midnight when I get home....this makes me tired. But once on one of my days off is when this was) We grilled some fish and stuffed mushrooms. We also had a few cucumbers that my parents gave us from their garden, and although it is pretty much the most unhealthy way to eat cucumbers, I think it is delicious.

Cucumber sauce
1 c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. sugar
1 T. vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced cucumbers
(I added tomato wedges, and if I liked raw onions a lot, I would maybe add them too. A nursing home I used to work at made a salad with the tomatos and onions in it, and it was good)

Mix up the sauce, it will be grainy because the sugar hasn't dissolved yet.

 

Slice up the cucumbers and tomatoes

Add veggies (fruit?) to the sauce and let it sit for a couple hours so it's not gritty

 

Here's how I made the mushrooms....didn't take many pictures, and I don't have exact amounts of things because I was winging it. Removed the stems of some baby bella mushrooms and washed them. Mixed up about 1/3 of the 8 oz chunk of cream cheese, a little dried minced onion (because I am lazy), about 1 clove minced garlic, a few T. panko bread crumbs, 1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese, some salt and pepper. I mixed that up really well, then spooned about 1 T into each mushroom. Then, I sprinkled a little Panko and shredded Parmesan cheese to the top and smoosh them down a bit. I made a little pan out of aluminum foil a few layers thick, added some butter squares and some minced garlic, then place the mushrooms in a single layer on the bottom so they won't tip. Then, grill them until the mushroom is cooked to your liking. (I think this really works better baked in the oven, but Tom insists on grilled things a lot, so that's what we did.)

 

We had some fish from my parent's pond I decided to cook somehow. We didn't have any lemon juice, or lemon pepper seasoning, or usual fish seasonings I could think of, so those options were out. We did have some orange juice though, so I decided to try it. This was another thing Tom thought we should grill. I made another little pan from a few layers of aluminum foil, cut up some margarine and layed the fish on top of that.

 

 

Then, I squeezed some orange juice all over the fish.

 

 



We had some supreme salad seasoning from forever ago, so I decided to use that....not sure why. It looked good though.

 

Then, I passed the fish and mushrooms off to Tom....and here's our finished meal.

 

 

 





We all thought it was pretty good....well Tom doesn't like cucumbers or mayonnaise-y sauce, so he didn't like that, but I think it's good. We both wished we would have made some more mushrooms. And I think the next time we grill fish, I will use Walleye, or something with bigger filets, so they aren't little pieces that break up. And I need to read the label of the salad seasoning to make my own version because it ended up being really good!

Quilt for Baby Cael

Taking a break from food posts...



 

Here is the project I have been working on in my free time and while Elsie was at Grandpa and Grandma Fowler's house. My brother and his girlfriend are having a little boy due in October, and I made this little quilt for the little guy.

 

It started out as a blanket for a little girl, because we were all pretty sure it was a girl, but a late u/s revealed it's a boy! I'm excited about that because him and Abbott can be little buds when they go to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

 

I purchased all of the fabric at Wal-Mart, because, well, I'm cheap, and I got the oil changed in our car there a while ago and had time to kill, and I liked these colors. The solid green was an old duvet cover that we used to use though. The colors are all really bright and fun, and I really like how it turned out.

 

I just used a random patterning of 4x4 and 4x8 pieces. I maybe wish there was some sort of repeating square pattern, but it's a little late for that now :)

 

 

Here are some more pictures:

 

Chevron backing, hand-stitched binding and quilting

 

Hand-stitched name and little deer (he's going to be a little hunter!)

 

All of the colors/prints used, binding is the same fabric as the solid green.

 



Can't wait to give it to them and to meet the little guy!

Balsamic Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Pizza

This week's pizza was inspired by a sandwich I used to make in California. I used balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a little garlic to marinate the chicken for about 1 hour. I used 1 breast for this pizza. After it was don't marinating, I sautéed it on the stove until it was done. I've found that if you cook it with the lid on, the chicken stays pretty juicy.

While the chicken was cooking, I worked on roasting a red pepper on the flames of the stove. Get the skins all black, let them cool a bit, then peel all of the skin off. You can also do this with your broiler, but since we have a gas range now, that's what I used.

I made some sauce with about 2 T. basil paste, 1/4 of the red pepper, 1/4 c. olive oil, and about 2 cloves of garlic. Blend until it's the consistency you'd like. We need a new blender, and about 1/2 of mine got out of the blender pitcher, but I made it work. It ended up being a little like a red pepper pesto sauce.

For the crust, I decided to try Bobby Flay's pizza crust. I don't think I let it raise long enough, and the car wasn't quite hot enough, but it still turned out alright. (I only made 1/2 the batch).

Cut up chicken, roasted red peppers, and break up some Meunster cheese

Spread the sauce on the crust (I needed a little more than I ended up with)

 

Add the chicken, peppers, and Meunster cheese (I had a "helper")

 

Add some Mozzarella cheese (My "helper" continues to try to eat the dough and cheese)

 

 

Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes

 

This was pretty good. Tom even said it was good, but he wanted more sauce on it.

 

 

 

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs

 

 

 

 

A few nights ago, we decided to grill because it was such a nice evening. Tom wasn't so sure about it when I told him I was making kabobs, but I made them anyways, and he grilled them. They were delicious.

I used a couple chicken breasts cut into chunks. Marinated them in teriyaki sauce, a little olive oil, and some minced garlic for about 1.5 hours.

Then, I cut up a pineapple, green pepper, and some mushrooms. I added a little teriyaki sauce to the mushrooms for a little flavor. (I forgot to take a picture until I was halfway done making the kabobs)

I soaked some bamboo skewers in water for a little while to prevent them from burning when grilled, and then I made the kabobs.

Then, I gave them to Tom to grill, and he did a pretty good job. He added BBQ sauce on his which I thought would be really weird, but it was actually pretty good with all of the other flavors.

 

Grilling season is almost over, but very soon I can start making soup again, so I am pretty excited about that!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Mini Pizzas

It's pizza Sunday! I was feeling a little lazy today, so we used our convenience food that we buy for lazy days. These little pizza are super easy! I used to work at a pizza shop in Ames, Iowa, and these pizzas were inspired by a pizza they sold there. And we had the ingredients, so I decided to try them.

You'll want to start with a pizza pan, cookie sheet, or pizza stone. I like to have cornmeal on the bottom of my pizzas and it makes them not stick to the pan. So, I threw a little cornmeal on my cookie sheet, then opened a can of homestyle biscuits and pressed each one flat on my pan.

Then, add a little swirl of honey mustard and alfredo sauce.

Put on some ham. I also used a little bit of Meunster cheese because I thought it would be good, but I'm not sure you can even tell it's on there, so it's probably not necessary.

Then top with cut up chicken strips (I used a microwaved frozen chicken patty cut into cubes)

Top with Mozzarella cheese

 

Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.

And they're finished!

 

I thought these were pretty good, and would have been even better if I had made better sauces. I didn't have honey, so I just used corn syrup, and dijon mustard would be better than plain yellow mustard. Also, my small batch of alfredo didn't turn out like it usually does, mostly because we didn't have any Parmesan cheese so I used Mozzarella and the texture was weird. Overall, pretty good.

Zucchini Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Think carrot cake, and banana bars. That's what I was going for with these bars. I like how banana bars are dense with frosting, but these would be more carrot cake-y because of spices added. I didn't really feel like looking for a recipe, so I used the zucchini brownie recipe as a base, omitted the cocoa, and changed a few things to make these healthier zucchini bars.

Prepare the pan with shortening and flour



Applesauce, Agave nectar, sugar, and vanilla

Add dry ingredients, zucchini, and walnuts

Spread in the pan

The remnants of the huge zucchini I used to make these bars

Baked for 30 minutes

Cream cheese and butter

Add powdered sugar and vanilla, then beat until it's smooth

Spread on the bars

Finished zucchini bar

The bars turned out heavy than I would have liked, I think it may be due to using the Agave nectar instead of regular granulated sugar. I bought this nectar a loooong time ago and figured it was time to try to use it up. I think I read once that it's not even any healthier than granulated sugar, but I need to research more about it. I would assume it would be more cake-y if you used frozen shredded zucchini thawed out like what happens with the zucchini brownies. Overall, they were still pretty good!

Here's the recipe

Zucchini Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 c. applesauce (or 1/2 c. oil)
2/3 c. agave nectar (or 1 1/2 c. sugar total)
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Frosting
1/4 c. butter or margarine (room temperature)
8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, mix applesauce, nectar, sugar, and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir into mixture. Fold in zucchini and walnuts. Spread into pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until bars spring back. Let cool completely. Mix frosting ingredients until smooth and spread on bars.