Category: Dinner

If I can't reach for a pan, I will reach for my voice. If I can't reach for my voice, I will reach for whatever the journey provides me.

12/18/2017

It's been an incredibly long hiatus. Not from the kitchen, but from this place here, in front of my keyboard, writing down my musings about what feeding others means to me and sharing them with the universe.

I suppose we all have times in our lives when the rhythm of things is lost, or at the very least, suspended. We find ourselves, looking out the window to capture a quick view of the path ahead, only to find we're only on a completely different journey. Feeling that whatever distance we've traveled was wrong, we immediately get busy fixing it! But it wasn't wrong. No journey is wrong.

What we all need to remember that we're always traveling somewhere. No one is ever really still, or for that matter totally in control. And I want to be more present. I want to not feel bad that I haven't blogged in months. Instead, I want to focus on how fulfilled I am with beautiful food before me, and a sauce that is just waiting to be created quietly forming in my head. Happy with the fact that since my last post on November 6, I literally created another 30 or so recipes.

So now, at the peril of trying to create the perfect message, something that usually keeps me from finishing a message in a timely fashion, I will keep this short. Will this post include some photos of my food and a couple recipes? Of course. Will it stir your soul and transform you? That is up to you, I'm realizing. Mine is only to share whatever journey I'm currently experiencing, and always hoping that of where I am helps awaken something in you, I'm on the right path after all.

Quick Brownie Bites with Chocolate
Amaretto Buttercream Frosting

You've passed them a million times at the supermarket bakery and thought, "boy, this would make dessert fast." And you would be correct. The bling element, and the part that will not ruin your reputation for serving gorgeous food, is the generous dollop of frosting swirled on top of each of these chocolate gems. There is no recipe to download because the only secret is to add about a tablespoon of amaretto, 1 T of unsweetened chocolate powder, and a pinch of salt to your usual buttercream recipe. Yum.

Chicken with Apple Bacon Gravy and White Turnips
Over Cardamom Rice Topped with Pea Shoot Salad and Chili Balsamic Vinaigrette

Serves 4 / Click here to download printable version

Of course I'm following the shortest recipe with the longest. But these flavors deserved to be shared. This recipe is so "me!" Sweet and savory and colorful, it celebrates fresh ingredients and traditional flavors. This one can be downloaded or review the recipe below.

Ingredients
Method

16 oz. chicken breast cut into 2 ½ inch chunks
2 small Fuji apples cut into thin slices
6 slices of thick cut bacon
½ C chicken stock
¼ C white wine such as Pinot Gris
¼ C white onion, chopped finely
2 C pea shoot micro greens
3 T julienned red pepper
2 T chili balsamic, such as Olive Crate brand
3 T plus 2 T mild olive oil such as Kores Olive Crate brand, divided
½ t coriander powder
½ t cardamom powder
Pinch of good cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t corn starch mixed with ¼ C water
4 T butter
½ C jasmine rice and ¾ C water

Brown bacon, leave drippings in pan, chop bacon and set aside.
Slice apples and toss them with 1 T oil and set aside.
Thoroughly wash and trim the white turnips, cutting all but 1 ½ inches of the green off. Slice in half lengthwise, toss with 1 T oil, and generously season with salt and pepper. Place on baking sheet, dot with butter, bake in 425 degree F oven for 30 minutes.
Right before serving toss the pea shoots with the 2 T oil, chili balsamic, a little salt and pepper and the red pepper. Set aside for no more than 10 minutes.
Bring water, rice, cardamom, cinnamon and about ½ T salt to a boil, then cover, put over very low simmer and cook 10 minutes with burner on simmer and 10 minutes without heat. DO NOT remove lid. Keep lid on until you serve.
Pat chicken dry and set aside. Make sure meat is nearly at room temperature to insure even cooking. When ready, heat 1 T oil with the bacon drippings to very hot. Add the chicken lowering heat right away to medium high and sear on both sides. Remove chicken from pan and cover with foil. Deglaze pan with wine, let simmer for 2 minutes. Add the stock, the apples and about 1 to 1 ½ T salt and about 1 t pepper, along with coriander powder. Let simmer for about 3-4 minutes while apples soften. Then return the chicken to the pan, and let simmer for about 4 minutes or so until chick is done. Don’t overcook. Add the bacon, stirring in at the last. Add the slurry of cornstarch and water at the end to thicken sauce. Serve over the rice and top with the pea shoots, and arrange roasted turnips on the side.

©Recipe and Photo Copyright Camine Pappas, 2017. All rights reserved.

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Start To Finish, This Sunday Was Full of Decadent Food

2/23/2016

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My kitchen receives the blessing of the morning sun and I eagerly open the blinds to let those rays pour in like a flood of healing waters. Drinking up the warmth is just the perfect beginning to my day. Sundays with morning sun are almost too wonderful to describe, and hard to top. Unless of course you're planning to make something delicious!

The fruit you see here is the way I like to start my day and it's made all the more wonderful when you just make it simple. Fresh cut pineapple, red pears, navel oranges and bananas. Toss with a tiny bit of sugar and grab your favorite chair by the window for a few moments of bliss.

That is, until the buzzer goes off and the breakfast casserole emerges. Isn't this gorgeous? And SO, SO, SO easy! If you have a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread you're on your way to creating brunch Nirvana. A dab of Greek yogurt with the eggs helps create low calorie richness. And be sure and heat up your maple syrup so you don't spoil the warmth of this toasty treat.

Sooner or later, the sun rises to the top of the sky, and my warm kitchen fades into the late morning. Chores must be done. Clothes folded. Pantries cleaned out. But soon it will be time for dinner and I've been saving some items from previous dinners to become a delicious and sinful end to this 7th day of bliss.

Cheese. Pasta. Bacon. I could end here and you'd be happy. But let's just add some photos and let the drooling begin. Especially when you know that nested at the bottom of this veggie, bacon cheese sauce are beautiful and rustic mushroom raviolis. Yeah, I know. Makes you swoon, eh?

Isn't this a great way to start and finish a Sunday? For that matter, wouldn't this be a great way to start and end every day? I think so. And I can't wait for a new day, more sun, and more inspiration.

RECIPE: Cinnamon Raisin Bread Breakfast Casserole

Serves 4 to 6 - Click here for Printable Version

Ingredients
Method

8 slices of Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Raisin Bread, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 T butter
1/3 C heavy cream
5 eggs
½ t nutmeg
Dash of kosher salt
1 t vanilla extract
Syrup and/or powdered sugar for serving

Butter the bottom and insides of a small glass baking dish, about 9 by 9. Arrange the cubes of bread in the dish. In another bowl blend the eggs, cream, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg and whisk well to combine. Pour all over the bread. Push the bread down into the eggy mixture. Let sit on counter for about 30-45 minutes.

Place the dish in the center of a preheated 375 degree F oven and cook for 35 minutes. Remove, let cool for just a few minutes. Cut, cover with your favorite syrup or just powdered sugar.

RECIPE: Mushroom Ravioli and Vegetables
with a Bacon Cheese Sauce.

This was on the fly, so it makes enough for 3 people. Just double to make it for 6!
Click here for a printable version.

Ingredients
Method

9 mushroom ravioli (I buy the fresh pasta in the dairy section. You can buy any kind of stuffed ravioli.)
3 mini orange peppers, julienned
½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved
½ C thawed frozen corn (do not cook)
1 t fresh rosemary chopped finely
¾ C grated Mozzarella cheese
6 slices of bacon, cooked
1 T sunflower oil
Dash of liquid smoke
1/3 C heavy cream
¼ C chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Handful of fresh, flat leaf parsley to garnish

Cook bacon. Drain, cool, and rough chop. Set aside. Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the ravioli until done, about 4 minutes. They will float to the top when done. You can test by cutting an edge to see if it is soft. Drain. Set three ravioli in each of three large pasta bowls.

Wipe out the saucepan that you cooked the bacon in, but don’t get rid of the little pieces of flavor at the bottom. Heat it again, add oil, then add the tomatoes, peppers, and corn, with a little of the salt. Sauté for about 4 minutes until the peppers are soft. Add the stock and the liquid smoke, and lower heat. Cook for about 2 minutes. Now add the heavy cream, and the cheese (you can do more cheese if you like!), stir, add the bacon and combine.

Cover the ravioli with the cheese sauce, garnish with parsley, and serve.

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Don't be square, circle around to an easy, colorful dish even with leftovers.

5/8/2015

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I just returned from a long business trip, so you can imagine just how empty my fridge and pantry had become in my absence. Then when I threw out all the leftovers that my husband didn't eat -- because he went out with his friends almost every night -- it was positively impoverished looking. (Ron said he missed me, but I wonder?) So when it was time for dinner the first night in my kitchen, I had to do some creative thinking. The resulting success was a combination of some leftovers I was able to keep, and some warmed up hamburgers simply cut into cubes to look dressier.

After some quick thinking, I came up with this meal: Cheesy Stuffed Mini Peppers with Latin Cubed Burgers and a Fig Ginger Port Wine Reduction. Seriously, it's rice, cheese, peppers, burgers, dried fruit and grape juice. Hello! You can impress with the right title!

So first I combined the cottage cheese, Pecorino-Romano cheese, goat cheese, rice, egg and some seasoning. (I added the rice because as I was creating it, the mixture got too thin and I needed another binder. Enter left over white rice.)

By cutting the ends off the little peppers, and coring out the white pith, I had a nice little vessel for my cheesy creation.

Now for some dressed up sauce to make it look like I SPENT. ALL. DAY. -- Cutting up some candied ginger and packaged small dates, which I warmed in butter, I had the perfect base for the rest of the port wine I had in the back of my pantry, (thank goodness!) which I let reduce down to a lovely, sweet and flavorful sauce.

Good heavens. I didn't even have any meat in the house. Just some Sriracha Burgers I had made weeks before and put in the freezer. Zippidy-doo-de-frost in my microwave and they were ready to eat. I just took a knife and cut the round edges off so they were square and stacked them for drama, and I was set. Hello happiness!

Phew. Time to head to the supermarket.

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what I'm making right now...

If I can't reach for a pan, I will reach for my voice. If I can't reach for my voice, I will reach for whatever the journey provides me.

Quick Brownie Bites with Chocolate
Amaretto Buttercream Frosting

Chicken with Apple Bacon Gravy and White Turnips
Over Cardamom Rice Topped with Pea Shoot Salad and Chili Balsamic Vinaigrette

Start To Finish, This Sunday Was Full of Decadent Food

RECIPE: Cinnamon Raisin Bread Breakfast Casserole

RECIPE: Mushroom Ravioli and Vegetables
with a Bacon Cheese Sauce.

Don't be square, circle around to an easy, colorful dish even with leftovers.

Meet the Cook...

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what I'm making right now...

If I can't reach for a pan, I will reach for my voice. If I can't reach for my voice, I will reach for whatever the journey provides me.

Quick Brownie Bites with Chocolate ​Amaretto Buttercream Frosting

Chicken with Apple Bacon Gravy and White TurnipsOver Cardamom Rice Topped with Pea Shoot Salad and Chili Balsamic Vinaigrette

Start To Finish, This Sunday Was Full of Decadent Food

RECIPE: Cinnamon Raisin Bread Breakfast Casserole

RECIPE: Mushroom Ravioli and Vegetables ​with a Bacon Cheese Sauce.

Don't be square, circle around to an easy, colorful dish even with leftovers.

Meet the Cook...

Archives

Categories

Home

RECIPES

BLOG

Connect

Quick Brownie Bites with Chocolate
Amaretto Buttercream Frosting

Chicken with Apple Bacon Gravy and White Turnips
Over Cardamom Rice Topped with Pea Shoot Salad and Chili Balsamic Vinaigrette

RECIPE: Mushroom Ravioli and Vegetables
with a Bacon Cheese Sauce.