Greek Style Vinaigrette (Red Wine)

Just like the other dressing recipes I have posted, I love this one.  It's difficult for me to dislike a dressing (as long as it's made correctly).  I'm a junkie.  This one in particular is one of my favorites because we grew up on a similar version.  My favorite way of having it is on a tomato-cucumber-onion salad with feta, Kalamata olives, and hot Greek peppers.  But, it's also great on meat and for dipping bread in - I have a great recipe for Greek Artisan Bread, too!

Ingredients:
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2 tbs honey
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp mustard seed (or- don't tell my grandpa- but hot Chinese mustard works well too)
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs each salt and pepper

Blend all ingredients except oil in blender or food processor until well mixed. slowly add in oil, blending the entire time on high, to prevent the dressing from separating.

Photo Credit: Unknown

Whenever I make the dressing it always separates a little bit because the garlic floats to the top.  Just swirl it around or shake it (if you have a lid for the bottle) and it mixes easily.

Note: When I use high quality vinegar, I don't add honey to this recipe, mostly because when I grew up on it, honey wasn't used.  However, honey does take the bite out of the dressing, particularly if you are using a cheaper quality vinegar from a grocery store.

Also, growing up, my family always used one part vinegar to two parts oil.  It does calm the bite down, but also doesn't give quite as much flavor, has more calories per serving, and is more expensive to make.

This recipe is very similar to my Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe, and the two can be used in place of each other in most recipes.  This recipe turns out more spicy than the other because of the ratio of garlic and spice to the ration of "liquid" ingredients.  It can be adjusted if you like the flavor but not the heat.

Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Busy Mama Recipes



I love this dressing. Its one of my favorites because I can use it for so much. Green salad, tomato salad, chicken salad with fruit, and pasta salad. I can soak meat in it before cooking. I can glaze squash or protein with it. Sometimes I serve it with bread and it makes a great dipping "oil". I love having it with cheese and crackers too. I like to use it on this pasta recipe.  Its a very basic, common go to dressing. Its one of the most popular dressings, next to ranch and bleu cheese, here in the US. (My recipe for a spicy honey Dijon dressing is here).

Ingredients:
2 cups balsamic vinegar
3/4 cups olive oil, grapeseed oil, or blend oil (I love evoo in this one)
3 tbs honey or brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs spicy, smooth dijon
1 tbs dried thyme or parsley
1 tbs each salt and pepper

Blend all ingredients except oil in blender or food processor until well mixed. slowly add in oil, blending the entire time on high, to prevent the dressing from separating.

Note: the higher quality the balsamic vinegar, the less honey you use. The honey is there for sweetness and to get rid of the "tangy bite" in what should be a fairly smooth dressing.

Coffee Creamer Without the Crap

Update 11/12/2013:  First, I want to say thank you to all of my readers and followers!  This recipe has had over 1000 views in less than a year and hundreds of repins on Pinterest.  I couldn't be happier!  Thank you:-)  I also wanted to add a few holiday recipes to the blog and decided to update this one with Egg Nog Creamer.  I made it this morning, and it was fabulous.  It tasted so much better than the kind at the store.  The recipe variation is at the very bottom of the list..  

Busy Mama Recipes




I was making coffee at my house this morning, wishing I had an espresso machine. Oh well, Santa is forgiven... this year... ;-)

When I worked at Allyson's Kitchen, I drank a ton of coffee each day. I worked long days cooking, catering, cooking classes, etc and we had an espresso machine. So why not? I had the most amazing drinks there. Part of the reason was our house made coffee creamer.

We made different kinds depending on the season. They all turned out great. They are very easy and don't have all of the chemicals that the store bought creamer does.

I always used equal parts dairy and sweetened condensed milk. Working for a restaurant we had access to different sizes of condensed milk. The only ones in the grocery store are 14 ounces, but it works.  Most of the time the other milk was whole milk. But using half and half, 1%, non fat, soy, whatever will also work. Just depends on your preference. Also, some flavored milks or other milk, like coconut milk, can give a very yummy flavor.

I like my coffee not so sweet. If you like sweeter, you can add a sugar or simple syrup to your creamer (or stevia, whatever your preference). You can also buy the bottle of flavored syrup (like the kind they use at coffee shops) and add a little of that to your creamer.

Basic Sweet Cream:
14oz sweetened condensed milk
14oz milk of your choice

Mix together well and store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.

More variations include:

Coconut Creamer: use coconut milk or add 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Vanilla: add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. You could also use vanilla soy milk.

Mexican Mocha: add cinnamon and a little cocoa powder

Almond Joy: add cocoa powder, almond extract, and use coconut milk (or coconut extract and almond milk)

Cherry Almond: cherry syrup and almond milk

Black Forrest: cocoa powder and cherry syrup

Vanilla Honey: add vanilla bean paste and local honey. Add cinnamon too- this is one of my favorites.

Raspberry White Chocolate: raspberry flavoring and some white chocolate powder or melted white chocolate. I would suggest not adding sugar to this one.

Hazelnut: add hazelnut extract

Snickers: hazelnut extract, caramel or caramel flavor, and cocoa powder

Peppermint mocha: peppermint extract and cocoa powder

Creme de Menthe: add spearmint extract

Salted Caramel: add caramel sauce or flavor and sprinkle sea salt and sugar on top.

French Vanilla: add hazelnut extract and vanilla bean paste

Pumpkin Spice (my favorite): on stove top, heat up 1/8 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), 14oz sweet condensed milk, 2tbs brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Mix well. It will turn out like a thick sauce. Add that sauce to 14oz of milk and mix well. You may choose to add more milk because this is one of the sweeter recipes.

Italian Sweet Creme: add vanilla and almond extract
EggNog: Use eggnog for the milk and add nutmeg to the top

Stuffed Chicken

Mmm...

My kids love chicken, cheese, and sometimes don't eat their vegetables; which is why this recipe is perfect *Evil Genius Laugh*

I'm making this for dinner tonight.  After I'm done I'll post the pictures for easier directions.

You'll need:
About 8 chicken breasts
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 onion, cut into half circle slices
1 1/2 cups chopped spinach, kale, or swiss chard (leaves only)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 cloves garlic
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
juice and zest of one lemon
salt and pepper
3 tbs total of dried herbs (I like oregano, basil, and parsley)

Cut the chicken breasts in half, horizontally, lengthwise, but leave a "hinge" so it's still attached.  When you're done, it should look like one big, flat, chicken breast (lol).

Take a little of each of the veggies you cut up, and place them lengthwise on the chicken.  Roll the chicken up and place it in a casserole dish.  Repeat the same thing with all of the pieces of chicken and arrange in a casserole dish.  They should all touch each other.  If they don't, add more!  :-)

In a small bowl or blender, mix together about 4 tbs olive oil, the juice and zest of one lemon, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, the dried herbs, and garlic.  Paint the mixture all over the chicken.

Bake for about 1 hour on 365.

Since the chicken has veggies in it already, you don't need lots of sides.  Just potatoes, rice, or salad with bread is good.

My kids love it.  And I like it because they really have no choice but to eat the vegetables:-)

ADDITION:  I made this dish tonight, only I used cheddar instead of feta and added asparagus.  I served it with Pasta Primavera (click for recipe).  My seven year old step son helped me make everything and he had a lot of fun.  Cooking that involves kids is always great because it teaches them about food, nutrition, and how to cook.  Love it.

Fruit Salad with Healthy Dressing

I used to make this all the time at Allyson's.  I miss that place so much.

Anyway... these are pretty basic guidelines for a typical fruit salad with a yummier dressing than marshmallow stuff or whipped cream.

Mix together:
1 cup strawberries
2 bananas
1 cup blueberries (NE Oregon: use huckleberries.  Western Oregon, use blackberries!)
1 tart apple, cut into cubes
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

In a small bowl, mix a Fage Greek Yogurt with Honey (you know, the little personal ones) and a teaspoon of cinnamon.  I like to use the 2% yogurt but Fage also makes a 0% milkfat kind.

Drizzle the dressing on the fruit salad and toss together.  It is sweet just like whip cream, but the cinnamon makes it just a little different.  Plus, the yogurt has tons of protein and less processed sugar than whipped cream or Cool Whip.

You can keep this salad in the fridge for a day but you will need to drain excess juices off before serving.

How to Hard Boil an Egg- The Right Way

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This is another that seems silly to some, but useful to others. (Seriously, one of my friends once tried to hard boil an egg in the microwave... did not work.  Another boiled eggs for 45 minutes to make sure they were done.  Oh boy...)

When I worked at Allyson's Kitchen, I thought I knew how to boil an egg.  Duh.  I mean, it's freaking boiling an egg.  How hard is that?  Unfortunately, I was incorrect:

We had an over abundance of eggs for some reason, and a catering event.  Obviously: Deviled eggs.  So, I began the process to make tons of eggs to get started.  I put eggs in a pot, set them on the stove, and turned the burner on.  My plan was to bring them to a boil, let them boil for 10 minutes, then put them in cold water.

"Okay, but do you really know how to boil an egg?" Allyson asked me.  And of course I'm thinking in my head "Yeah.  Duh."  But she is the best cook I know, and an amazing teacher, so I asked her how, and I'm so glad I did.

She gave me these instructions:

1. Wash the eggs.  (Wow.  I had never done that.  Seriously, it seems so obvious.  I wash produce before using it.  Eggs are worse because they came out of a chicken once... bleh.  I couldn't believe after all those years, this was news to me.)

2. Put the eggs in a pot and fill it with cold water.  (That part seems obvious.  If the water is too hot it can crack the eggs, so make sure it's cold!)

3. Bring the eggs to a boil. (Okay, I was still on the same page there.)

4.  Once they are at a roaring boil, take them off the heat and cover for 12 minutes.  (This is where she lost me).

5. Put them in the fridge and let them cool completely before using them.

I asked her why.  Why was her way better than mine?  They both accomplished the same thing: a boiled egg.  She told me that when it's done this way, there is no gray area, so the eggs are much prettier when they are made into deviled eggs, egg salad, or sliced and served with salads.

This photo is an example of what I mean.  Yellow yolk, no gray:

Pretty huh?  Now here is a photo I found online (credit: sizzleeats.com) that shows the gray area when you keep the egg on the heat for too long:

Weird, huh?

Presentation is important.

*I saw a tip on Pinterest that said if you boiled eggs with baking soda in the water, that the peel comes off easier.  I have never tried it, so I have no idea if it's true.  By the sounds of the comments, it works!

How to Properly Zest an Orange

This probably sounds stupid to some people.  They are thinking, "Duh, grate the orange.  Done."  NO.  It's harder than you think!

Once, when I worked at Allyson's Kitchen, I was making a big batch of soup (probably a few gallons) for the cafe.  It was some sort of Curried Carrot soup- or something very similar.

Anyway, the recipe called for the zest or two oranges, and I only had one.  To problem solve, I just grated that dang orange reeeeaaaaly well.  I thought I was genius- I was wrong.

You know that white stuff underneath the peel?  The stuff that looks like fake snow?  That stuff is called pith, and it's evil.  Well, not evil- it's actually healthy for you and has lots of health benefits- but it's bitter as crap.

From only one orange I ruined the entire batch of soup.  One orange.  No joke.  I learned my lesson big time.  Every cooking class I helped with after, I mentioned this story so people know what NOT to do.

So, to properly zest an orange, use a fine zester (I love my Microplane Zester that I got at Macy's for around $15.  It's "grate" for cheese too... haha) and zest one layer, then pick up the zester and begin in a new spot.  Don't go over spots twice, as if you were grating hard cheese.  There are only a few millimeters between sweet and evil bitterness.  Be careful!

There are a few recipes on my blog that you will need to zest an orange, like Orange Rosemary Shrimp and Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce.  Don't worry.  As long as you are careful, there's no reason to fear ruining anything:-)