O.G.

My friend Doug told me I had to blog about the Olive Garden. I felt like copy/pasting that old woman's blog about her town's new O.G., but I didn't want to plagiarize. So -fine. Here it is. The O.G. has a steak flat bread out now. It's an app and it's new. It's good.

I tried to order something healthy: grilled chicken. Man, this chicken was not healthy. Look at all that creamy pasta and cheese. FML! Plus the Chelsea location is like 3 times the amount of a regular O.G. Double OY!

Billie's Cupcake Strikes Back

I blogged about them once, but this place is amazing. We ordered more cupcakes the other day - an assortment for a coworker's birthday. The banana and carrot cake were a big hit. I heart cupcakes.

Easy Baked Eggs in Polenta Cups

 I love cooking things like this. Super cute presentation, stupid simple to make. And delicious!

Ingredients:

One package already made polenta (I chose plain, but you could grab an herbed one too)

Cooking spray
6 oz grated Gruyere cheese
6 eggs

1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes (optional)
Salt and pepper

Make it:
Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Slice the polenta forming small disks. And place them at the bottom of muffin pan. Some disks may be too large to fit. You'll need to trim them down. Crack open an egg and place on top. Sprinkle with gruyere cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until eggs are set. I didn't want all eggs so I chose to do a few without an egg and roasted tomatoes instead. I used more cheese on these to hold them together.

Brown Coconut Rice with Black Beans and Cilantro

Next time you're making a side dish, make it something better than plain brown rice - make it coconut rice with black beans and cilantro. Hells yes.

Ingredients:

1 tsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light
2 cups cooked brown rice
(I used the packet that you microwave in 90 seconds but I didn't microwave it)
1/2 cup lite coconut milk
1/4 cup water
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 garlic clove, crushed
dash salt
3 tbsp cilantro

1/2 lime juice

Directions:
In a medium sized heavy pot add butter and garlic. Cook for one minute and add coconut milk, rice, water, ginger, garlic, and salt. Cook over low heat. Cook till all liquid evaporates. Fluff with a fork and toss with cilantro and lime juice.

Chesapeake Bay Style Shrimp

Made this awhile ago and just now getting around to posting about it. I thought I would be entertaining last weekend and our company cancelled, so I made these yummy guys and got to eat them all. I was in a shrimp coma afterwards.

Ingredients:
BIG shrimp. Nothing smaller than 31/35 (31 to 35 shrimp to a pound) I used 21/25 cause I couldn't find what I wanted: U/10s!!
1/2 stick Butter
2 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning (or more if you want it - I used LOTS!)
Parsley

Make it:
I bought my shrimp frozen (cleaned with tail on) and let it defrost. Then I melted my butter and added the Old Bay. Tossed in shrimp. Coated everything well. Sprinkled with parsley. I ate mine immediately but you could chill these bad boys and eat them later too. Mmm...I love me some Old Bay. Reminds me of home!

Royale

Royale is known for their burgers (pictured above). Simple, classic and fresh. And not that expensive either around $7 a pop. Add a side of shoe string fries and you're doing all right. So, what does my dumb self order? Well, look below...

...a freaking awful salad. I've had this salad before there and it was better. First of all, it's supposed to be arugula - it wasn't. The chicken was really thin and flavorless and the salad was way overdressed. I had a pool of dressing at the bottom of my bowl and it was really vinegary. Kind of disappointing that they can't stay consistent on how a salad should be considering they only have 2 on the menu to begin with.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Found this on Wishful Chef's blog and decided to make it. Came out pretty good even though I was missing the tomato paste. They are really light too - not greasy and won't weigh you down.

1 pound ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, finely diced
1/4 cup shallot or onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste (didn't have so I used chopped cherry tomatoes)
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste


Preheat oven to 400° F. Lightly grease a sheet pan with oil and set aside. In a bowl, mix all ingredients together thoroughly with your hands. Roll into about 12 meatballs and place on pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes or until cooked through and not pink in the middle.

Kale Salad with Oranges and Cashews

Found this on eatliverun and made it without avocado and cashews instead of almonds. Makes one giant salad (with leftover dressing).

Ingredients:
1 bunch lacinato kale (“dinosaur” kale”), washed and roughly chopped
2 juicy oranges
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sliced toasted almonds
pinch of sea salt
pinch of black pepper

Directions:
First, make the dressing. Combine the juice of one orange with the olive oil, pinch of sea salt and pepper. Shake or stir until very well combined. Set aside.

To assemble the salad, peel the other orange and separate the sections (peeling off the white pith as best you can). Chop orange sections roughly and place in a bowl with the kale and cashews.

Drizzle about half the dressing over salad and toss well to coat. Enjoy now or stick in the fridge and eat later (this salad will stay good for a couple days in a covered container in the fridge). Dressing will stay good in a sealed jar for a about a week.

Sesame Ginger Shaved Beef

This was easy and delicious. Doesn't look like it, but it was.

Ingredients:
6 oz. Shaved Beef Steak
Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

Recipe for Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette:
1 cup sesame oil 

1/2 cup rice vinegar 

2 tablespoons chopped ginger (fresh or in a jar) 

1 tablespoon soy sauce 

1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds 

Directions: Toast sesame seeds in a dry, hot skillet just until they turn brown and begin to pop. Be careful not to burn them. In a food processor blend vinegar, ginger, soy sauce and sesame seeds. Slowly blend in sesame oil until emulsified. 

Poor the vinaigrette on the meat and let cook on low heat. You'll need tongs to pull the meat apart and cook properly. I served mine with sauteed spinach and brown rice.

Georgia's BBQ

Fried Chicken is good. It's really good after a long day after the beach and it's amazing when you don't have to cook it!!! I've had a bunch of fried chicken in NYC and I still love Georgia's in the LES.

Plus, we had mad sides - all bangin'. The potato salad is chunky and not too mayonnaisey.  The baked beans are great and the corn bread is GRILLED, son! We also got fries. Like 10,000,000 fries. We ate like 3. They were good too.

Baba Ganoush

So, I didn't have baba ganoush (which is a spread made primarily from eggplant and tahini) but I did order lunch from them the other day at work. Verdict? Well, at the time - I thought it was pretty good. Although they were 20 minutes late delivering my lunch. How rude! The rice with almonds was tasty and the hummus was tasty. The salad was a throw away and the dressing was gross. The chicken was okay but looked like everyone else's and they ordered different chicken dishes. The kicker for me was the garlic sauce. Holy hell. I felt like a dragon breathing garlic on everyone the rest of the day - it was awful! I either ate too much of it or they made it too strong. (Probably the first part). Would I order from them again? Maybe for the hummus...

Baked Maple-Mustard Glazed Salmon

This was so freaking easy to make. Literally took 30 seconds to make the topping and then I just threw it in the oven. I really enjoyed the sweetness and the mustard together. Salmon isn't cooked that often in my house, but with dishes like this it will be.

Ingredients

2 6-oz. salmon fillets (thawed, if frozen)

2 tbsp maple syrup

1.5 tbsp coarse-grain mustard

1 tbsp light brown sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°

Lightly coat shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place fillets, skin side down, in baking dish.

Whisk together maple syrup, mustard and brown sugar in small bowl.

Pour over salmon.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes with fork.

Bacon-Sauteed Kale

Kale is good and good for you. I made mine with turkey bacon and it was a big hit. I didn't do this, but you could serve this for breakfast with potatoes and eggs. Word.

1 bunch Lacinto (or curly–whatever) kale, tough stems mostly removed and leaves chopped
1/4 of a medium onion, chopped
4 or so slices of bacon (I used turkey bacon), diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp Olive oil if using turkey bacon
1tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Do it:
Fry bacon over medium heat in a large skillet. Add onions and saute until they are translucent and soft–4-5 minutes. (Note that if you’re using turkey bacon like I did, things will be lacking in the fat department and therefore dry–add a bit of olive oil as needed.)

Add kale and continue to saute, stirring often, until kale is wilted, dark and heated through, which should only take a minute or two. Season mixture with crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Add 1/2 c water and vinegar, let cook for about 20 minutes.

Cowboy Steaks

I was cooking steaks for dinner the other night and I thought to myself, let me do something special to them so I can blog about it and make Michael Friedman happy and off my case. Well - here you go, sir. POST LOCKED!


Ingredients:
2 pounds porterhouse steak (If you got 'em. I used some massive sized shell steak)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:
Combine garlic, chili powder, salt, oil and pepper in a small bowl. Mix until it forms a thick paste. Rub paste over the entire surface of the steak. Wrap steak in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours. Preheat grill. Grill steak over as high a heat as you can for 2 minutes. Flip and continue grilling for 2 more minutes. Move to a cooler part of the grill or reduce heat to medium. Continue grilling until done. About 4 minutes.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Potatoes

Found a version of this on The Two Bite Club's blog and made it my own. Delish!

Ingredients
1½ lbs brussel sprouts

1 small bag of potato medley (red, purple and white potatoes)
about ¼ cup olive oil
dried rosemary, about ½ teaspoon
dried thyme, about ½ teaspoon

powdered garlic, about ½ teaspoon
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°. Wash brussel sprouts and peel off any loose outer leaves. Cut off the stems, but not too much so all of the leaves fall off. Cut each on in half lengthwise.
Wash the potatoes and cut each in half. If you have really large potatoes, you may have to cut them in quarters. They should end up being about 1 to 1¼ inches in diameter after they're cut.
Place the cut brussel sprouts and potatoes into a large bowl. Toss with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper until thoroughly coated.
Spread the bowl contents out in a single layer onto a baking sheet. Make sure that most of your potatoes are cut side down so they brown up nicely. Roast for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and stir around with a spatula. If you see any loose leaves from the brussel sprouts that have become very brown, you can pick them out. (Although, they're my sous chef's favorite part!) Return to the oven and roast for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Zoe's Easy Croque Monsieur

My lovely friend Zoe took a page from her French upbringing and made me Croque Monsieur. It's so simple and easy to make this way and paired with a salad- it's a perfect meal.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Gruyere, grated
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 slices bread
3 ounces baked Virginia ham, sliced but not paper thin
2 fried eggs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Take bread slices and top each one with about half a cup of grated Gruyere cheese, add slices of ham to each, and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned. Remove and top with a fried egg. Make sure that yolk is runny! Serve hot.

Zoe paired her Croque Monsieur with an arugula and leek salad. Also in the salad: green apple and toasted pine nuts. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and EVOO.

Baja Pork Stir Fry

Found this gem in Cooking Light and then I made it my own. This recipe serves four people and each serving is only 221 calories. Served with 1/2 cup Trader Joe's Chimichurri Rice and make it 341 calories. Still unbelievable.

Ingredients
1/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1/2 red onion, cut into wedges
1/4 cup baby carrots
1/2 cup julienne-cut green and red bell pepper
1/4 cup baby carrots
1/4 cup water chestnuts
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Preparation
Combine first 4 ingredients. Sprinkle pork with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; toss. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil; swirl. Add pork, and cook for 3 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove pork from pan; keep warm.
Heat pan over high heat, and add remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil, and swirl to coat. Add onion, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the bell peppers, water chestnuts and carrots; stir-fry for 1 minute. Return pork to pan, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in broth mixture, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and stir in tomatoes. Sprinkle with cilantro.