Recipe for Couscous with Roasted Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives

This is one of my favorite dishes and with my brother coming home tomorrow it's the perfect time to make it. In our family food is love and we haven't seen my brother in a month so my mother and I are making a nice dinner for his homecoming. I am going to make grilled steaks, israeli couscous and corn chowder and my mom is bringing a salad and dessert.

I first discovered this recipe on the website www.smittenkitchen.com and have made it several times since. The first thing you do is roast the tomatoes with whole garlic cloves in the oven. The whole house smells like an Italian Cucina and the results are lovely. It is very healthy as well because it's made with couscous which is high in fiber. Honestly, it's a meal in itself and whenever there are leftovers I stash away enough for lunch the next day. Once you've made this, it will be a dish you will want to make over and over again.

Pearl Couscous with Olives and Roasted Tomatoes
Gourmet, September 2002
Makes 6 servings

For roasted tomatoes and dressing:

2 pt red grape or cherry tomatoes (1 1/2 lb)
3 large garlic cloves, left unpeeled
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For couscous:
2 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 1/4 cups pearl (Israeli) couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Roast tomatoes and make dressing:

Preheat oven to 250°F.
Halve tomatoes through stem ends and arrange, cut sides up, in 1 layer in a large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pan. Add garlic to pan and roast in middle of oven until tomatoes are slightly shriveled around edges, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on a rack 30 minutes.

Peel garlic and puree with oil, water, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes in a blender until dressing is very smooth.

Make couscous: Bring broth to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan and stir in couscous, then simmer, uncovered, 6 minutes. Cover pan and remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes.
Spread couscous in 1 layer on a baking sheet and cool 15 minutes. Transfer couscous to a bowl and stir in remaining ingredients, dressing, roasted tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Beyond

Ever had one of those days where you don't eat breakfast and end up eating lunch that holds you over until the next day? I had one of those days today. My husband and I took our daughter, Meredith out for lunch today. She had done wonderfully on her report card, so we wanted to treat her to a nice lunch. We decided to go to Rosa Mexicano at the National Harbor in MD. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and enjoyed the sunny day.

We started out with the best guacamole dip that they make fresh at the table. It's probably the best guacamole and chips I've ever had. It had big chunks of avocado and it was equally balanced with tomatoes, jalapenos, hold the onions please and cilantro on top. A squeeze of lime and we were ready to dip and eat. For father's day I bought Steven the Molcajete they serve it in and it came with the recipe. So, I will highlight homemade guacamole with the recipe in a future blog.

For lunch, Steven had the Con Queso Hamburger, Meredith had the cheese quesadilla and I had the Carne Tacos (pictured above) which is a grilled skirt steak marinated in guajillo and pasilla chiles, garlic, cumin and black pepper, topped with melted Chihuahua cheese. The meals are served with a side of rice, refried black beans and different salsas. By the time we finished we all vowed we would never eat again. I imagine we will all be stuffed until later on tonight and will crave this meal again and again.

Mamma Mia

This is a picture of my mother making a wonderful dinner for me and my family. She is the most beautiful woman I know. She's giving, caring and loves to cook for people. We all benefit from her gift of cooking because it's comforting and good for our souls. I feel very fortunate that I have my mother and appreciate all of the love she puts into each of her meals. Going to my mom's for dinner is high on my list of things that I love to do. Every time I go I come away feeling loved and spoiled. Everyone needs to have a mom like my mom.

She made the most tender pork tenderloin I think I have ever had. The meat was so tender when you picked up a piece it fell apart on your fork. She told me she browned it and seasoned it and then added cream of mushroom soup, worcestershire sauce and a touch of wine and put it in the oven to slow roast at 275 degrees. It was fabulous!!! She served it with buttery mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, corn on the cob and a caesar salad. She wanted to cut up a watermelon but we were all too stuffed to eat it. Thanks Mom, we love you!!

By the way for those of you who are not familiar with the history of worchestershire sauce it was in 1835, that Lord Sandys, a nobleman from the county of Worcestershire, England, commissioned a pair of chemists - John Lea and William Perrins - to duplicate a sauce he had acquired during his travels in India. Their finished product, however, proved to be anything but pleasing. Disappointed, they banished their brew to the cellar. There, the sauce lay forgotten until the pair stumbled upon it two years later. Before they discarded their concoction for good, they took one last taste. Much to their surprise, it had matured like a fine wine - exhibiting a savory aromatic scent and a wonderfully unique taste. Lea & Perrins Original Worcestershire Sauce was born. It wasn't long before Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce made its way onto dining cars and passenger ships, and into hotel dining rooms and restaurants.

According to the Lee & Perrins website, genuine Worcestershire Sauce must contain the following ingredients:

vinegar
molasses
sugar
soy
anchovies
tamarind
shallots
garlic
red onion
salt

The key to making a good sauce is to age it before eating. I'd rather just buy some Lea & Perrins and not mess with a masterpiece.

Recipe for Taco Seasoning

I decided to make tacos tonight and when I went to find the Taco Seasoning packet in the pantry it was gone. I must have used it before the move and didn't remember. I had already cooked the meat and bought all the other stuff to go with it so I had to come up with something. I went online and found a recipe for Taco Seasoning and it turned out really good. It tasted like the real deal with less salt. So from now on, rather than buy the standard Taco Seasoning, I'll make my own and save a buck.

I cooked the meat and cut up lettuce and served it on the plate with grilled jalapeno, a tortilla, and cheese on top of the meat. On the table I put out sour cream and salsa. Cilantro would be a nice addition to this dish.

Recipe for Taco Seasoning

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Makes enough for 1 lb of meat.

Beer on a Hot Day

Steven and I ran out to do our usual Saturday errands. While he was off shopping at Best Buy I decided to stop by World Market to get a bottle of wine or beer for dinner. There was a tasting going on so I tried the Pinot Grigio which was a little weak for my taste. I wandered off and headed to the beer section which is overwhelming to say the least. They have this one area where you can make your own six pack with a plethera of different beers from around the world. After looking around I finally decided on this Dogfish Head beer because the alchohol level was higher by 4% of the regular. Less beer = less calories. It was fantastic and gave me the punch I was looking for in less time.

Here we have another interesting beer from the fine folk at Dogfish Head in Milton, Delaware. Raison D’Etre is brewed with Belgian beet sugars and green raisins and is sure to be a unique experience. As the bottle says, this beer pours a deep mahogany color that is very opaque, with red tones shining through as you bring it to the light. Producing about 1/2 inch of very light tan head that settles very quickly. The aroma is intriguing, prune and raisin scents are nicely rounded off with gentle roasted malts and a slight smell of alcohol. The flavor of this beer is very different. Tastes of raisins or plums and a very strange sweet flavor surely influence by the beet sugar used in this brew, a bit of malt seems to round off the flavor but it is rather difficult to place the flavors in this ale. Simply divine and it made Steven fun, which is always nice in the kitchen. :-)

Recipe for Calypso Salad

Summer is not my favorite season, but I will admit that I do like grilled foods. I love to grill anything I can get my hands on. Especially veggies. Dinner tonight was a Calypso Salad. My neighbor's father passed away so I volunteered to bring dinner over and ended up making extra for us tonight. It was the perfect meal, low in carbs, loaded with veggies and fruit. A perfect summer meal.

Recipe for Calypso Salad
Makes 4 servings

2 chicken breasts

3 T Soy Vay (or any terriyaki marinade)

4 cups lettuce mix

1 celery chopped

1 small roasted red pepper

1 tomato diced

1 avocado

1 cup of pineapple chunks

4 T Asian Salad Dressing

Marinate chicken breast in marinade for at least a half an hour. Grill chicken for about 20 minutes or until done. In a bowl, add lettuce, celery, roasted red pepper, tomato and Asian Salad Dressing. Toss to coat. Divide salad among 4 plates. Slice chicken for bite size portions and add to top of salad. Peel and seed the avocado and cut into chunks, add to the salad. Place pineapple chunks to garnish.

I Need a Fix

The journey begins. I need to fix my eating habits. One step at at time, one meal at a time, one day at a time. I've decided to join the food troups and start journaling my food. Maybe if I put it in writing, I won't make so many bad choices. Today wasn't so bad. I started out with a bowl of oatmeal with toppings, and then I took my daughter out for sushi and ended the day with a flatbread bmt, bag of baked lays and fresh pineapple. I have been following some other bloggers who are doing South Beach and they make it look beautiful. If they can do it, so can I.