BigLittle Get Together

Last night we had a little Virginia Beach reunion and we hired the wonderful ladies of BigLittleNYC to cater the dinner. Oh and it was Halloween themed of course. First course: Ghostly cauliflower soup with with cranberry "blood" and puffed cumin and cardamon rice "maggots"with micro basil. This course was paired with an oaky Rioja called Muga Blanco.

Second course: Crispy Skin Chicken Breast with sorrel and roasted romanesco and garlic bat wings with garlic and ginger puree. Honestly, I was cutting my chicken with a butter knife. I've never had chicken this juicy before! This course was paired with another Spanish wine called Clos Lojen - fruity and light, like a Beaujolais.

Carrot souffle with maple vanilla vegan ice cream and candied puffed rice. Soooo good. I despise dessert wine so for dessert we had two pairings. A bigger Rioja called Beronia Gran Cru and a sherry called Alvear Oloroso Asuncion. Seriously, I love Oloroso now- especially the hazelnut finish that lingers and lingers. I'm going to have to go buy more of that stuff!

Polenta Lasagna

Ok, so this isn't my photo. I took a photo on my phone, email it to myself and then deleted the photo. When I checked my email though...nothing. Bummer. Anyhoo - I made this a few days ago and had leftovers today for lunch. It was still yummy!

Ingredients

• 1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced zucchini
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (16-ounce) tube of polenta, cut into very thin slices
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Mix 2 tbsp marinara sauce with water into an 8-inch square baking dish to cover bottom, and set aside.
• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in beef; cook. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add marinara sauce; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.
• Arrange polenta slices over marinara in baking dish, and top evenly with half of beef mixture. Layer zucchini over mixture; layer spinach over zucchini. Repeat 2 more times. Sprinkle with cheese on top.
• Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Navy Bean Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can of white beans
• 1 can Chicken Stock and fill it about 5 - 6 times with water
• 2 cups leftover ham (diced)
• 2 teaspoons parsley
• 1 cup of diced onions (about 1 small onion)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, diced
• Salt and pepper
• 
  

1 Add diced onions and let them sweat it out for a few minutes in a pot. Add chicken broth and water.

2 Add the ham and beans and seasoning. Cook on low for about 1 hour until the soup is cloudy. Serve. Perfect on a rainy or cold day. :)

Chicken Apple Sausage over Lentils w/Garden Salad

This dinner is super yummy and healthy and can be made two ways: the easy way or the hard way.

SAUSAGE HARD WAY:

Make your chicken apple sausage (Directions here)

SAUSAGE EASY WAY:

Buy it already made. Gourmet sausage can be found in the meat section of your grocery store. I cut mine up and saute in a frying pan with a little olive oil.

LENTILS HARD WAY:

Buy dried lentils and cook them. Directions found here.

LENTILS EASY WAY:

Buy them already cooked. Trader Joe's sells them this way. So does Key Foods. Microwave them for 3 minutes and add to your pan of sausage.

SALAD HARD WAY:

Make a Lentil salad from scratch here. Spoon on top your sausage/lentil mixture.

SALAD EASY WAY:

Buy it already made. They sell it where they sell all the hummus. It will say "Lentil Garden Salad" on the container. After I make my plate I spoon this on top. It makes it very pretty and adds more texture and acid.

Garnish with Alfalfa sprouts. Just buy those. Don't grow them.

The choice is yours. Dinner in 10 minutes or...like 5 hours.

Crustini

Snack time is a callin' and this hits the spot!

To make this, you'll need:

French Bread or any type of baguette

olive oil

herbed goat cheese

Sage Honey

Salt and Pepper

Just cut the bread into slices and top with EVOO, then salt and pepper, then goat cheese, then drizzle with sage honey. Toast. Done. Amazing.

Soft Taco Bake

This doesn't look nearly as appetizing as it tasted, but it's stupid easy to make and delicious.

To make this you'll need:

Ground beef

Refried beans

Chopped tomato with green chilies (canned)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Soft Taco shells

1/2 c Cheese sauce (like salsa con queso or Velveta)

Taco seasoning

Sour cream

Directions:

Brown the ground beef in a pan and add the taco seasoning with a little bit of aqua. Turn off heat and set aside. In a baking dish (preferably one you make lasagna in) take soft taco shells and place on the bottom of the pan. (I cut my shells so I could arrange the round shells to fit a rectangle dish).

Put in some ground beef (it won't cover every space). Use the refried beans and the canned tomatoes to fill in the space. Top with shredded cheese. Add a layer of taco shells, repeat. Pile that sh#t as high as you like or like me, until I run out of ingredients. Top the whole thing with the cheese sauce (not a lot - like 1/2 a cup). Cover in foil and bake at 350 for 30 min. Serve with sour cream (optional).

Also optional: For a kick you could top with hot pepper slices. Or shred some lettuce and add a little green garnish.

Beef "Stir Fry" with Chinese Noodles

Sorry for my hiatus. I've been really bad about keeping this updated. I'll try to be better at that, folks. :) Funny thing is I'm taking photos of my food all the time - I just forgot to blog about it!

So, here we have a yummy beef dish. I call it a stir fry because it has all the makings of one but the way I prepared this was I actually roasted the veggies in the oven first.

To make this you'll need:

4- 5 cups assorted veggies (I used cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, celery, tomato, onion, carrots)

Beef Cubed (You know the stuff you see for stews - I took that and diced it up much smaller)

Ponzu Sauce

Chopped Garlic

Olive Oil

Stir - Fry Sauce (Unless you want to make your own, I just bought some)

Chinese Noodles (I got mine in the produce section. They were already cooked and I just reheated with boiling water but they sell dry ones too. Either are fine)

Directions:

Roast the veggies first. I put one tablespoon of EVOO and try to coat as much of the vegetables as I could. Sprinkled with salt and pepper and then blasted them for about 25/30 min at 450. (I like them to brown). After you cut up your meat into tiny bites sauté it in a pan with garlic and Ponzu sauce. When the meat is almost done cook the noodles and the turn the heat off the meat. In a big bowl combine veggies, meat and cooked noodles. Add a little stir fry sauce and mix. Everything is hot so the stir-fry sauce will get hot too. (It was kinda hard for me to separate the noodles - they like to clump together. I tried to separate them as I was mixing in the stir-fry sauce).

Enjoy!