When you have leftover Kale...

Sizzlers! Since I've been trying extra hard to be good and cook at home every night, I bring you a new recipe. I know I've been gung ho about squash, but tis the season!

After the last squash recipe, I had some leftover kale and decided to use it or lose it. 

Butternut Squash with Lacinto Kale and Almond/Walnut Parmesan

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 bunch Lacinto Kale

1/4 cup slivered or roughly chopped raw almonds

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1 TB Olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, minced finely

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 Butternut squash

THIS IS HOW WE DOOOO IT:

-Preheat your oven and roast your squash at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until tender, then set it aside to cool. Some prefer to roast the squash and then peel and cube, others peel and cube raw, then roast already cubed. I'll let you make the call. 

-In a pan, saute your garlic until fragrant, add your parsley, give it a nice little toss around with the garlic 

-Mix your almonds and walnuts with olive oil and salt, toss to coat

-Add your nut blend to the garlic/parsley to give the nuts a toast

-When you're satisfied with the toastiness of the nuts, add the kale, allow it to turn bright green, then add the squash. Toss the mixture together lightly, lower the heat and you're ready to rock!

-Serve the dish with a sprinkle of Grana Padano or Parmesan. You won't be disappointed. 

And there you have it. Delightful, easy, healthy and perfect for a chilly fall night. 

Lots of restaurant reviews coming up for you! For now, take it easy and Happy Thursday!

Chimi...changa? No. Chimichurri.

Hola amigos. I leave tomorrow. tomorrow. I can't even.

This week is recipe heavy, but I need to leave y'all with some stuff to do! I'll be posting from my trip, but recipes are always fun to try out. I love tweaking them to my personal taste and making them special just for moi. Try it out, lemme know, just don't burn the house down. 

So we all know I ain't scared of red meat. I've been making steak on Sundays lately since I love waking up early, having a delightful breakfast, and taking my sweet sweet time at the grocery store. 

For this particular meal, I wanted a juicy steak and some veggies. I decided on lemon parmesan roasted zucchini and opted to make a super zesty chimichurri sauce that I was literally licking from a spoon. 

To make your steak, please reference my Meathead Friday post. 

View fullsize

Now that you're a steak samurai, we can get on with it. 

CHIMICHURRI SAUCE:

I love this stuff so much. It's garlicky, zesty, a little spicy and I love how GREEN it is. You can put it on roasted veggies, chicken, salmon, spoon it into your mouth; I won't judge. I did it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

-3 fresh garlic cloves

-1 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems removed

-1 bunch cilantro, stems removed

-1/2 cup red wine vinegar

-1 shallot, roughly chopped

-1 jalapeño, dice and remove vein and seeds

-1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

-3/4 cup of good olive oil

-1 tsp salt. I'm a snob and use celtic sea salt, I also prefer Maldon salt to regular 'ole NACL (table salt for those of you who slept through Chemistry class).

WHAT YOU DO:

- You have two options here. If you're in a hurry, go for option 1. If you have time, go for 2. 

OPTION 1: Combine all ingredients, give it a quick swizzle, and let sit for 20 minutes. 

OPTION 2: Combine all ingredients in a food processor (I use my Nutribullet) and give it a swirl. It should be smooth. 

-If you went with option 1, do option 2 after the 20 minute infusion period. 

AND YOU'RE DONE. Taste it, add whatever you think may be missing. Some like to add more heat, you might need a bit more acid by way of more vinegar, or more salt. Whatever tickles your pickle. 

For the zucchini:

- 3 whole zucchini, scrubbed and chopped into matchsticks. You can slice in rounds if you feel like it. 

-Preheat oven to 350

-Juice of 1 lemon

-1 tsp salt

-1 tb olive oil

Mix liquids together and add in zucchini to coat with the mixture. Once they are well coated, spread them on your baking sheet and pop in the oven. After about 12 minutes, once you can tell they're cooked through, sprinkle with parmesan/pecorino/hard cheese of your heart's desire and broil for about 2 minutes to melt and brown the cheese. 

VOILA. #NOMCITY. 

I hope y'all love these and try them out for yourselves! Let me know! It's always so lovely to hear from y'all in the comments. 

Aloha for now, I'm off to the island but will be back next week! 

Chicken Wing Wednesday

I have to admit something to y'all. I can be a scaredy cat. Fine. I AM a scaredy cat.

I know, it's embarrassing. So, one of my fears is chicken. I will hug and squeeze and pet live chickens, but when it comes to raw chicken meat.... not so much. 

I seldom cook chicken for the sole reason that I don't like touching it, and I always overcook it to a tough and nasty consistency. Notwithstanding, I like a challenge so I have recently been conquering my distaste for cooking poultry by roasting a whole chicken. Some of you might be asking yourself, "why doesn't she try searing up a chicken breast first instead of going for the whole enchilada?" Because I like to go big y'all. (Remind me to tell you the story about when I had to hook a live worm for the first time. No, it wasn't 1996...it was like 3 months ago.)

A few weeks ago I roasted a chicken and quite honestly, I surprised myself. It was literally finger lickin' good. So here's how it goes down:

BOW CHICKA WOW WOW CHICKEN:

- 1 whole chicken (I go all granola here and get the free-range, hormone free, raised in a chicken mansion with daily relaxing aromatherapeutic massages)

-1 bunch of your choice of herb, (the legal kind...or not, whatever I'm not here to judge). I like to use Sage or Rosemary. 

- 1 preheated oven to 450

-6-7 roughly chopped cloves of garlic (another anti-vampire recipe...you're welcome again)

-Veggies of your liking. I recommend carrots, beets, potatoes, corn, turnips, anything roastable. (yep,that's a word...to me!)

-Salt. I always cook with "Celtic Sea Salt". Sounds majestic, no? Well, I believe it has more flava and it's also apparently better for you. Buy it here. 

-Lemons. I go wild here. 2-3 lemons, washed, sliced, and ready to rock. I also set aside one whole lemon to squeeze over the bird. A lemony bird bath.

GET 'ER DONE:

-Stick your hand down into the nasty chicken cavity and pull out all the crazy things they stuff in there. Gag a little maybe. Wash the chicken WITH WATER, not soap you sillies. THEN wash your hands furiously with scalding hot water and soap #fordays.

-Rub salt all over that bird. Cut some small holes in the skin, shove garlic down there and whatever herbs you're using. Crack some pepper on there as well. (repeat obsessive hand wash)

-Place  3-4 lemon slices and remaining garlic in the cavity. Place your lemons wedges all over the bird. (hand wash)

-Now, if you want to be naughty (it IS "why not Wednesday" so go ahead) put a few little slices of butter on top of the skin. (hand wash)

-Place your veggies all around the birdie. Squeeze the lemon over errrrrthang. And sprinkle your veggies with some salt as well. (hand wash)

-I like to add a dash of veggie or chicken broth to the bottom of the pan to avoid sticking. This is up to you, different strokes, different folks. 

Finish it off with a final hand wash (your hands may or may not be raw by now) and then proceed to obsessively clean and sanitize all surfaces for fear of salmonella and bird flu.

SO IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:

Beets & Corn (and probably Salmonella since it's raw)

When your oven is at 450, pop in the bird, and let it roast at 450 for 20 minutes. After the 20 min, lower the temp to 375 and go for about 1.5 hrs. Your meat thermometer should say the meat is 165 degrees. When you think it's done, pop it out and let her rest. She's tired and hot. If you think your veggies need to go longer (usually not the case) then transfer them to a sheet and roast for however longer you may need. 

VOILA. Chicken mastered. 

#nomcity

The grocery had the weeniest corn, so I'm not happy with what happened here. Also, I'd like to point out that I did not cook a mutant chicken, the neck is just resting next to a leg. I realize how that sounds, but there's nothing I can really say/do to make you feel better right now other than to say....

Spring.Sprang.Sprung.Sp...aghetti.

You've already learned that I like the foods. Now I get to show you my food love. 

I made this dish a while back; it reminds me so much of Springtime, even though Houston has most recently been like "sauna time" or "I can't even decide what climate I want to emulate" time. 

That being said: I give you linguine con crema di basilico e parmiggiano reggiano. Say whaaaa? I just spoke Italian to you. #Nomcity.

oh yes.

If pasta is your "thang", then look no further. And here's how it's done folks:

INGREDIENTS:

-Some fiiiiine linguini. If you go outta the box, that's cool, but if you use something fresh (ahem Central Market has fresh hand-made pastas) then you'll notice a significant taste 'bump'. 

-2 Bunches 'so fresh and so cleanclean' Basil.

-1 Carton heavy whipping cream. (um yeah, you thought this was going to be 'skinny'? Get outta here)

- 2 or 3 cloves fresh garlic (See?! This recipe is vampire proof too. I'm always lookin' out for ya)

-1 Plastic box thingie (the smaller one) of Gran Padano cheese. You can sub fresh grated parmesan or reggiano but TRYYYYY not to use Kraft powdery stuff, k? 

PROCEDURE/SCIENTIFIC METHOD/THIS IS HOW WE DOOOO IT (to be sung to the melody of Montell Jordan's song, because duh). 

-Separate your cream into halves, and put half in a saucepan and start to simmer. NOT boil. You don't want it to clot or break, because then you're in trouble and I can't save you. 

-While the water for your pasta is getting hot, put your garlic, and basil leaves into the food processor. Add a drizzle of olive oil (a LIGHT drizzle, just enough to make a 'paste' of your garlic and basil). 

-Cook your pasta, I do it a little al dente style because it's mo' bettah. 

-Add the cream that was NOT in the pan to your food processor 'paste'. Let it blend and become smooth (operator).

-THEN. Add your basil/garlic/cream concoction to the simmering cream in the pan. Make sure you slowly incorporate it in, and here is where you can add your salt/fresh cracked pepper to taste. 

-Add a robust (love that word) handful of your cheese to the sauce, and stir stir stir. 

-Once the sauce is BARELY bubbling, you're good to go. (HINT: If your sauce become TOO thick, add a tablespoon at a time of your pasta water till you reach the perfect saucy consistency)

-Pour the sauce over whatever amount of pasta you choose to eat, sprinkle the remainder of the cheese on top, and VOILA. You can even be super fancy and add a basil leaf for garnish. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you cook, you must have music. (And probably a side glass of wine) Otherwise it tastes bad. It's science. SO head on over to Spotify and make a playlist. I'm a HUGE fan of listening to the Rat Pack and oldies while I cook. It works. Promise. Here's a link to my "Starred" list on Spotify. From there, you can browse around my other lists; #holla.

Actually, I lied. Check out THIS Starred list which looks #weaksauce right now but give me a week and your mind will be blown. #trustme

And now you know. If you make this recipe, let me know what you think!! And as always, feel free to leave your questions, comments, concerns.