Slim Sloppy Joes by Peg Cochran

My husband generally prefers food that is quick, uncomplicated and easy to eat. (And he has to have mint jelly with his lamb--go figure!) This recipe for Skinny Sloppy Joes fits the bill--without too big a caloric hit. This is a super fast meal that is likely to be a favorite with kids as well. Perfect for the night you'll be dying Easter eggs and/or making up those Easter baskets and don't have time to fuss at the stove!

If you must have beef in your sloppy joes, you can substitute lean ground beef for the turkey.

Oddly enough, the town where I come from in NJ sells a sandwich called the Sloppy Joe (a few surrounding towns sell them as well) but it's nothing like the standard recipe. It's three pieces of rye bread, ham or turkey--your pick, cole slaw and homemade Russian dressing. They are to die for! I'll post that recipe another time!


Skinny Sloppy Joes

1.25 lbs lean ground turkey (1 package)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
2/3 cup corn kernels
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar or Splenda
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Hot sauce to taste
Whole-wheat hamburger buns

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add ground turkey and break into crumbles. Cook until no longer pink. Remove turkey from skillet and drain any liquid.

In the same skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 3 minutes.

Return the turkey to the skillet and stir in the remaining ingredients (except for hot sauce and buns). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Add hot sauce to taste.


Serve on whole-wheat hamburger buns with the toppings of your choice.

Toppings:

Chopped onion
Pickle slices
Low-fat grated cheese
Sliced olives
Lettuce
Tomato slices

Banana peppers

Jalapenos (my favorite!)

POISSON A L'OSEILLE (FISH WITH SORREL SAUCE)

by Sheila Connolly

I confess:  I am agriculturally challenged.  I simply cannot make things grow.  Or they grow, but in stingy amounts, barely enough for one hearty meal.  When we moved into our current house, I built a raised bed (yes, with mine own hands), ordered topsoil, attended an organic gardening class, shaped raised rows, and planted potatoes, thinking that if Irish peasants could do it, so could I.  I did get potatoes, but if I'd been a peasant I would have starved to death in short order.

There is one exception.  I have a sorrel plant in my garden, which just keeps chugging along, summer, winter.  I can't remember where it came from, although I suspect someone gave it to me.  A few times a year I whack off a few leaves and use them in a dish. My plant doesn't mind.  It actually spreads, little by little.

Most people probably have never eaten sorrel, or seen it in a market.  It's not to everybody's liking, because it's somewhat sour and astringent.  But it goes nicely with fish, particularly if you cut the sharpness with cream.  This is the simplest recipe I know, if ever you should stumble upon a bunch of sorrel and want to try it.

WARNING: This is an old-school dish, heavy on the cream and butter.  I have another one for a lighter sorrel sauce for salmon, but I still have to find it.

Choose a sturdy white fish  Note:  fresh flounder would work, but I've found that the previously frozen type that we find in stores turns to mush when you cook it.  Go with cod, hake, or haddock, which holds together much better.

Cod filet

Poach your fish:

1½ lbs. fish filets

4 Tblsp butter

2 Tblsp finely chopped shallots

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

Salt and white pepper

1½ cups water, fish stock or dry white wine

In a pan wide enough to hold your fish in one layer, melt the butter and gently sauté the shallots until soft.  Add the thyme and bay leaf to the pan.  Lightly salt and pepper your fish filets on both sides, then lay in pan over the shallots and herbs.  Pour your liquid around it.  Bring it to a simmer, cover and cook on low until the fish is done and flakes easily. Place the fish on a platter, cover lightly with foil, and keep warm until you're ready to assemble your dish.

Mushrooms (optional):

While the fish is poaching, slice and briefly sauté mushrooms of your choice.  I happened to find a nice batch of fresh oyster mushrooms, so I used those.

Sauce:

Strain the poaching liquid from your fish through a fine sieve into a large (1 quart) saucepan.  Bring it to a boil over high heat and cook until the liquid is reduced to about half a cup (really intensifies the flavor!).  Lower the heat and pour in 2 cups of heavy cream (I warned you!), stir, and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the sauce is reduced to about 1½ cups.

Take ½ lb. fresh sorrel, wash well, trim out the central stalk, and slice the leaves into shreds.  In a small skillet, melt 2 Tblsp. butter and quickly cook the sorrel (it will reduce in volume) for a couple of minutes.

Make a beurre manié (hey, it's easy):  place 2 Tblsp. butter in a small bowl and let it soften, then add 2 Tblsp. flour and mash together (I use the back of a spoon) until it forms a smooth paste.  That's it! It's a handy thickening agent for any stew or sauce that seems a bit watery.

Whisk the beurre manié into the reduced stock-cream mixture and simmer, whisking, until it has thickened (2-3 minutes—this cooks the flour).  Add the sorrel.  Taste for seasoning.

Lay your fish filets on a plate and pour some sauce over them.  You can serve the dish with rice or potatoes (I couldn’t resist these tiny new potatoes at the store), with a green vegetable or salad on the side.

P.S.  My horseradish has survived its first winter.  Now what do I do with it?

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Oh, my dear, dear friends ... it is that time of year again:  ice cream season.

Not that there's a part of the year during which ice cream is unwelcome.  But the weather starts heating up, ice cream starts tasting better and better.

A good friend of mine recently sent me a Facebook link to a recipe for salty caramel banana ice cream.  It looks pretty darned amazing.  But I can't quite resist the urge to monkey around with ice cream recipes.

(Ha - see what I did there?  banana? monkey?)

So I played around a bit, and landed on this.  It reminds me of bananas Foster, but with the banana and Foster bits already in the ice cream.  I also made it vegan.  Ish.  I actually used some butter.  But if you wanted to make it truly vegan, you could easily swap out the butter for a bit of vegan margarine.

Use REALLY ripe bananas

Bananas sliced and added to melted butter

Bananas, browned and caramelized

You could also jazz this up a bit:  I made a simple fudge sauce.  Peanut butter sauce (or peanut butter fudge sauce) would also be yummy.  A waffle cone?  Heaven.

Welcome to ice cream season, my dears!











Bananas Foster Ice Cream

1 1/2 Tbs. butter
2 - 3  very ripe bananas, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 1/2  Tbs. dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1 Tbs. good vanilla

6 oz. silken tofu (light is fine)
1 c. milk or milk substitute (soy, rice, almond, coconut, whatever)
1/2 c. coconut cream*
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat; meanwhile, combine the salt and sugar.  Add the bananas.  Cook about 1 minute, then sprinkle with the salt/sugar mixture.  Flip the bananas and cook, moving around occasionally, until the bananas begin to brown at the edges and translucent in the middle.  Deglaze the pan with the vanilla, and then remove from heat.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine coconut cream, tofu, and 1/2 c. milk substitute.  Puree until thick and creamy.  Transfer to a medium bowl.  In the food processor, add sugars, cinnamon, bananas, and remaining 1/2 c. milk substitute.  Puree.  Mix the two purees together.

Chill this mixture in the refrigerator (covered) for at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours.  Process in your ice cream maker.

And enjoy!

~~~~~~

Wendy is the author of the Mysteries a la Mode. Visit her on the web or on Facebook. She also writes the Pet Boutique Mysteries under the name Annie Knox; you can follow Annie on Facebook, too!

March Madness Popcorn Treat

It's Final Four time and plenty of readers are going through March Madness. Woo-hoo! You (or someone you love) have watched dozens of basketball games. You are hungry for more. And if you are planning to watch basketball this weekend, you need appetizers.

[Cue: Roar from crowd!!!]

Easy-peasy is my attitude when it comes to appetizers for a sports-hungry group. Do the least amount possible. Chips and dip, cut-up veggies (for those who are health conscious), a cheese platter, and...

Dah-dah-tada! 

Parmesan dusted popcorn.

[Cue: More cheers!]

I adore popcorn, at the movies, as a snack at home, and nowadays, it's so easy to make with Orville Redenbacher's (and other popular brands) and a microwave.  [Tip: Listen for when the popcorn slows down. That's the time to take out the bag so the popcorn doesn't overcook.]













PARMESAN POPCORN

Ingredients:

Your favorite popcorn, four cups (popped)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Mix the cheese and spices. Sprinkle over popcorn when it's warm. Toss with tongs. Serve.

How easy is that!!!!


Other appetizers to consider:

Cleo's Chicken Wings
Riley Adams' Bacon and Tomato Dip
Avery's Caprese Salad on a Stick

(AND DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUR RECIPE INDEX ON THE RIGHT)

NEW FEATURE

Every few weeks, I'd like to give you a snippet of why I'm a paid author and not an employed chef, so I'm going to post a couple of lines from my current book. I hope you enjoy.

From CLOBBERED BY CAMEMBERT:

“I thought I’d seen a ghost,” Matthew said.

“It wasn’t Chip.” I popped off the lid of another Tupperware box of decorations we’d lugged from The Cheese Shop. “Chip lives in France, not Providence.”

“He was blonde, broad-shouldered, and fast.”

“So are you.”

“I’m telling you, the guy could run. What if it was him?”

I blew a stray hair off my face. “My ex-fiancée is not loping through the Winter Wonderland faire in the middle of February. Last I heard, he hated winter.” And hated me, but that was water over the falls.

“I worry that he’ll hurt—”

“It wasn’t him. We have tourists. Lots and lots of tourists. One looked like him, that’s all.” A fog of breath wisped out of my mouth. I buttoned my pearl-colored sweater and tightened the gold filigree scarf around my neck to ward off the morning chill. Wearing corduroys, a turtleneck, and extra socks beneath my boots weren’t doing the trick.

Every year, in celebration of Providence’s Founder’s Day, the Village Green transformed itself into a Winter Wonderland faire. Farmers, vintners, and crafters from all over Holmes County and beyond joined in the weekend fun that would officially start on Friday evening. It was a tourist draw in a season when tourists should have been scarce. Overnight, small white tents with picture windows, peaked roofs, swinging doors, and fake green grass floors appeared. Twinkling white lights outlined each tent.

I stood in the middle of ours and removed glittery wedge-shaped ornaments from the decoration box. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Okay, Miss Touchy.” A grin inched up the right side of my cousin’s handsome face. He could be such a joker. He plucked another taste of what I called ambrosia—he’d already eaten three—from a small platter of cheeses that I’d brought to sample while we worked. “Hungry?” He waved it under my nose. “Mm-mmm. This is a delicious cheese. What is it?”

“Zamorano. A sheep’s cheese from Zamora, Spain. Sort of like Manchego. The milk comes from Churra sheep.” I’d eaten my fair share as an early morning snack.

“It’s nutty and sort of buttery.”

“Your new favorite,” I teased.

                “How’d you guess?” He slipped the cheese into his mouth and hummed his appreciation. 

* * * * *

You can learn more about me, Avery, by clicking this link.

Chat with me on Facebook and Twitter.

And if you haven't done so, sign up for my mailing list

 so you can learn about upcoming events, releases, and contests!

ALSO...DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY ALTER EGO
DARYL WOOD GERBER?

"Like" Daryl's page on Facebook and "follow" Daryl on Twitter.
She doesn't say all the same things I do.
And pretty soon she'll have some fun news to share!

You'll hear that first in Avery's newsletter!

Say cheese!
*********************

Fat-Releasing Cake?

I have been counting calories in an attempt to shed some weight.  Yes, I know I posted a cookie recipe last week.  That was an unfortunate two day setback that I justified in a hundred different ways.  If you don't have a treat now and then, you won't stay on the diet.  If you don't eat normally during your diet, you will eat everything in sight after the diet and gain it all back.  Okay, that's not completely irrational.  One of my friends told me about the time she finished a liquid diet and zigzagged down the street eating every piece of fried chicken she could find.

Besides, those cookies are great.  They may be my new favorites!

So then, I happened to see an article about dieting mentioned on the cover of my mom's large print Reader's Digest.  I expected the same old thing, but there's an interesting new twist.  They analyzed years of weight-loss studies and came up with their own diet.  They put a bunch of their staffers on the diet with great success.  A dozen staffers lost 151 pounds in three weeks! The book about it is about to come out.  They claim there are foods that help us lose weight. They're calling them "fat releasers."  Music to my ears!

I hear you out there saying, sure -- iceberg lettuce and bird seed.  Wrong.  Well, maybe not completely, but there are some other foods that are especially good for us, too.  Like dairy.  They cite a study that indicates nonfat milk after exercise and again one hour later helps us retain muscle and shed fat, while strengthening bones!  Hmm.  They even advocate small amounts of walnuts and chocolate!  Perhaps of particular interest to many of you, red wine is a fat releaser, too.  Wow, permission to eat great food!

In The Diva Digs Up Dirt, there's a muffin recipe that makes use of walnuts ground into flour.  (I'll be posting it eventually -- it's my favorite muffin recipe ever!)  I'd been thinking about flourless cakes for Passover and it suddenly dawned on me that there are a lot of fat releasers in a flourless cake.  Eureka!  Chocolate, walnuts, and eggs.  It's all good!  (Okay, so there's still sugar, but you gotta live, right?)
  
Now this may not be exactly what Reader's Digest had in mind, but here's my stab at a fat releasing cake.  It turned out to have a nice light crumb.  Naturally, there's no sugary frosting and no butter except to grease the pan. 

Warning: this cake is bittersweet.  My mom is in love with this cake because it's not super sweet.  If you're one of those people who thinks cakes are generally too sweet, you'll love this.  If you prefer a sweet cake, you may want to double the sugar.  On the other hand, if you would generally rather lick off the frosting and leave the cake, it's definitely not for you. 

By my calculations, a small to average slice would run 150 to 200 calories.

What's your favorite weight loss tip?  

Fat-Releasing Cake

 

1 9-inch springform pan

1/8 tablespoon butter for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups walnuts
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
8 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 cup hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso
6 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease the springform pan. 

In a food processor, combine the walnuts with 4 tablespoons sugar and the salt, and pulse until the walnuts are tiny (don't let it become gummy like walnut butter).

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in short bursts, stirring in between.  Set aside to cool.

Boil water and stir coffee or espresso into it.  Set aside.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the egg yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar until thick (about 2 minutes).  Add some of the walnut mixture, the cooled chocolate, and the water gradually, alternating until they are all combined. 

Beat the egg whites until stiff enough to hold a peak.  Fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it.  Fold in half of the remaining egg whites, then the other half.  Pour into pan and bake 40 minutes or until the center is firm.

Serve with strawberries as a garnish.

Sexy Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

 

That got your interest, didn't it?  Lovely Joan Swan is our guest today.  Joan is a triple RWA® Golden Heart finalist and writes sexy romantic suspense with a paranormal twist.  Her debut novel with Kensington Brava, FEVER, released February 28, 2012.  Her second novel, BLAZE, follows in October, 2012.

In her day job, she works as a sonographer for one of the top ten medical facilities in the nation and lives on the California central coast in beautiful wine country with her husband and two daughters.

FEVER is currently available for sale, to be followed by BLAZE in October.  I can't imagine that they'll be able to top the FEVER cover!

Dr. Alyssa Foster will admit to a bad boy fetish…

But when she finds herself face to face with a convicted murderer with determination for freedom and an eye on her as his get out of jail free card, Alyssa knows she’s in deep trouble…. Not just because Teague Creek is a prisoner desperate for freedom, but because his every touch makes her desperate for more.

A man with a life sentence has nothing to lose…

Teague Creek has one shot at freedom, but his plan to escape with a hostage develops a fatal flaw: Alyssa. On the run from both the law and deadly undercover operatives who know of his strange abilities, he needs to avoid trouble, but every heated kiss tells him the fire between them could be just as devastating as the flames that changed him forever.

Joan is very kindly offering a copy of FEVER to one lucky reader.  Just leave a comment here today to enter!

In addition, you can enter her giveaway of either a COLOR NOOK or KINDLE FIRE!  Enter here: http://joanswan.com/giveaways/blog-tour-ereader/

Welcome, Joan!

A big thanks to Mystery Lover’s Kitchen for having me over.  I’m a follower and a big fan, sharing many of their luscious recipe posts Twitter while wishing I had time to try more of them out myself!  So I’m exciting to be there to share one of my own.

Not much eating goes on in my debut paranormal romantic suspense, FEVER.  My hero and heroine are too busy running—from cops, undercover operatives, private investigators.  Who has time to eat?

Though, during a breather at a mountain cabin, my hero makes breakfast.  Blueberry pancakes are on the menu, so I thought I’d bring you an awesome blueberry pancake recipe, along with a few tips for perfecting your own pancakes. 

But first…a little excerpt from that section of FEVER:

“How could you possibly…?  Where did you get all this…?”  Alyssa’s stomach rumbled so loud it drowned out the still-sizzling griddle.  She put a hand over her belly, her cheeks pinking to a beautiful hue.  “Oh, my God.  I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw this food.”

Teague sat and forked steaming pancakes onto his plate.  Alyssa set her brush on the counter and pulled out a chair.  She heaped two ladlefuls of scrambled eggs onto her plate, plucked up four strips of thick-sliced bacon then started in on the pancakes.

 “Eggs,” she mumbled around her food.  “Where did you get eggs?”

“They’re powdered.  You’ve got to be damn good and hungry if you’re eating those without noticing.  Your eyes are about times the size of your stomach.”

She pointed at the dark circles embedded in the hotcakes.  “What are these?”

“Blueberries.”

She smirked at him.  “These can’t be from a powder.”

“No, those are from the freezer.  You don’t get out much, do you doctor?”

“Ha-ha.”  Alyssa clopped off a chunk of butter and slathered it over the cakes, gushed on syrup and butchered them as she tried to cut them into bite-sized pieces.  Then she heavily salted her eggs.  Once the preparations were done, she started eating.  Or rather devouring. 

With a strip of bacon in one hand, her fork in the other, she started a two-handed method of eating Teague had never seen outside a firehouse.  A lopsided grin pulled at his lips as he watched. 

She flicked and absent glance his way.  “What?”

He chuckled, reached across the table and wiped a smudge of syrup from the corner of her mouth with his knuckle.  “You look like a chipmunk hording for winter.”

She scowled.  “Mind your own food and leave me alone.”

Once she’d demolished the quadruple stack of cakes, she reached for more. 

“For a doctor, you aren’t very heart healthy.” 

She looked up at him through her lashes with a don’t-start expression.  “At the moment, the longevity of my life based on my diet isn’t among my top concerns.”

Her quip brought their reality into focus and punched a hole in Teague’s distraction. He set down his fork and started clearing the table.

“Hey.”  Alyssa grabbed the edge of the bowl holding the scrambled eggs.  “I’m not done with that.”

He set it back down, shaking his head.  “You eat as much as two of my biggest firefighters.  You’re going to make yourself sick.”

Teague’s Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

Dry Ingredients:

·       2 cups all purpose flour (you can also divide this among all purpose and cake flour)

·       ½ teaspoon salt

·       ½ teaspoon baking soda

·       ½ teaspoon baking powder

·       2 Tbsp sugar

·       1 teaspoon cinnamon

·       ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Other ingredients:

·       2 large eggs

·       1 ½ cups buttermilk

·       3 Tbsp warm melted butter

·       1 cup blueberries

·       Cooking spray or vegetable oil

METHOD

Step 1

·       Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

·       In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the buttermilk. *Perfect pancake tip #1*

·       Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine with whisk.

·       Mix only until the batter just comes together.

·       Whisk in the melted butter.

·       Do not over-mix! *Perfect pancake tip #2*

·        

Step 2

·       Heat a flat griddle or large pan. *Perfect pancake tip #3*

·       Spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray or brush with vegetable oil. *Perfect pancake tip #4*

·       Ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle to the desired size *Perfect pancake tip #5*

·       Sprinkle the blueberries into the pancake on the griddle. *Perfect pancake tip #6*

·       Flip when cooked on that side *Perfect pancake tip #7*

·       Cook another minute or two

·       Serve hot

Perfect Pancake Tips

1.     Use a large whisk to mix the ingredients until the dry ingredients are just mixed in. The large whisk allows for more air to be whipped into the batter resulting in light and fluffy pancakes.

2.     Don't overbeat the batter or you will have flat, tough, chewy cakes. If you have time, refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes before you start cooking the pancakes.

3.     Heat the griddle until drops of water dance and evaporate immediately. If your griddle has a temperature control, heat it to 375 degrees F.

4.     Using butter in your batter and cooking spray on your pan will result in a golden brown, buttery pancake without any burning.

5.     Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter onto the hot griddle. Pour quickly, keeping at least a 2" space between each pancake. 

6.     Wait to add blueberries until the batter has already been poured on the griddle - this will keep them from bleeding into batter.

7.     Let the pancakes cook until the edges start to look dry and bubbles form on the uncooked surface. Don't move the pancakes before this, because they will just break apart. Handling the pancake too much with make it tough.

8.     Use a long handled spatula and carefully slide it under each pancake. Using your wrist, quickly flip the pancakes.

9.     Serve with melted butter, real maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

If you weren’t counting calories, what would your all time favorite breakfast be?