Grilled Sweet Potatoes

It's that time of year when anything made with squash, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes seems to hit the spot. These sweet potatoes cook quickly and are a nice combination of sweet and savory. This recipe is adapted from The Family Chef cookbook.

Ingredients:

two sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" disks

fresh thyme, rosemary, chopped fine

salt, pepper

1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 c orange juice OR soy sauce

Mix sweet potatoes with other ingredients. Heat up the outdoor grill nice and hot. Turn down to medium as you place the sweet potatoes directly on the grill. Turn after 5 minutes and cook 5 minutes more. If you don't like them a little blistered, then check the grill often. Cover with foil to keep warm. Serve with chicken, fish, or a grilled veggie plate.

Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

I love crispy pizza crust and it seems like when pizza is delivered, it always has soggy or doughy crust. No matter how you try to crisp it up in the oven, it doesn't seem to work.

Our friends, Tom and Mia,shared a simple

pizza/salad/wine dinner with us while

our kids were at football games.

I dug this recipe out of my old recipe box and thought I would give it another go. I also had another inspiration from a Food Network cooking show. (While walking on the treadmill at the gym, I watch the cooking shows--an oxymoron if ever there was!) The cook on the show made pizzettas--very thin pizzas. I used my pizza crust recipe and it turned out great.

Recipe for Pizza Crust:

1 1/2 cup flour (divided)

1 (1/4 oz) package dry yeast (quick rising)*

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup water, heated until hot

1 T olive oil

parchment paper

*Very important that the yeast package says "quick-rising"

Whisk 3/4 cup flour with yeast and salt. Add water and oil gradually. Add the remaining 3/4 cup flour. If too dry, add 1 T water. Place dough in a clean bowl sprinkled on the bottom with flour. Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough. Cover with a warm, damp tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Knead the dough to soften it up before rolling out. If you want to make one pizza, roll the dough out as one piece. If you want to make "pizzetas", divide the dough into three sections. Roll the dough into a ball, then place it on a large square of parchment paper. Add a little flour to the dough so that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Press the dough down to make a large circle, then start slowly rolling it out from middle to edges. Keep doing this until you end up with a very, very thin crust. (Remember it will still rise a little more.) You can slide the pizza and parchment paper onto a cooking sheet or place in a shallow baking pan (still on the parchment.)

To make Olive Tampenade/Pecorino Cheese Pizzetas:

Spread olive tampenade (store bought--can find near refrigerated pestos) on pizzeta, drizzle a little olive oil, then add thinly sliced pecorino cheese on top.

To make Pizza Margherita:

Top with sliced Roma tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle some parmesan, salt, pepper (You will add mozarella during the last 10 minutes of cooking.)

To make Spinach, Sun dried Tomato, and Feta Pizza:

Drizzle olive oil lightly on crust, then top with sauteed, slightly wilted fresh spinach, sliced sun dried tomatoes, and feta cheese crumbles.

Before cooking pizzas or pizzetas, let rise for 7 minutes after you have topped them. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Add mozarella if desired and bake for 10 minutes more. The crust should be crispy and delicious!

Shrimp and Grits

A couple of years ago, I visited Charleston, SC and not only loved the city, but mostly the food which was simply divine! The signature dish was shrimp and grits, unbelievably delicious. This is a version from Whole Foods website. Unlike most recipes for shrimp and grits, this one has less fat and no cream. My husband deemed it blog worthy. (Not every I recipe I try makes it to this blog. It has to be something we enjoyed enough that we would definitely make again.) This recipe serves about 4-5 people.

Recipe:

3 slices bacon

1 cup grits (I used yellow)

3 cups water or chicken broth

salt, pepper

1 small yellow onion, sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 bell peppers sliced thin (I used one yellow, one red)

1/2 to 1 lb. shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 T lemon juice

2 tsp hot sauce (like Tobasco not salsa)

Cook bacon in a wide skillet. Remove bacon and leave some of the grease in the pan but set aside 1-2 T to use later in the recipe. Bring 3 cups water with 1 tsp salt (or substitute chicken broth) to a boil in a deep pot. Add grits, stir well, and lower heat to medium or med. high. Cook for 5 minutes (or according to package directions.) Stir often and you may need to slightly cover with a lid to keep the grits from popping up at you. When done, cover tightly with the lid and set aside.

Cook garlic, onions and peppers in skillet in bacon grease until very soft and wilted. Add a little salt and pepper. Remove pepper mixture from skillet. Add the rest of the bacon grease and cook the shrimp with a little more salt and pepper. After the shrimp is cooked through, put the pepper mixure back in, add the lemon juice and hot sauce. Mix well. For each plate, place a mound of grits topped with the shrimp mixture. Crumble the bacon on top.

I boiled the grits in water but my husband and I agreed that the grits could use a little more flavor. So, next time we're going to use chicken broth instead. I served this meal with a green salad. It was very filling. Make sure you include a little Southern hospitality with your meal!

Super Fast Stir-Fried Rice

You know those nights when you've just walked in the door after your kid's soccer game or football practice or whatever and you want to feed them something quick but healthy. You want to get some vegetables in those growing bodies too. This is the perfect thing! My new secret is this new already cooked brown rice called "Minute Ready to Serve Brown Rice" and you buy it in the grocery aisle with the rest of the rice products. It must already be selling like hotcakes because when I went back to my H-E-B to purchase more, they were out. They sell "flavored" rice just like this, but I got the plain kind for this recipe. Stir-fried rice is great when you have some leftover cooked chicken, pork, steak or shrimp from a previous meal.

Recipe:

Two packages Minute Ready to Serve Brown Rice (each package comes with two individually wrapped containers)

oil (whatever you prefer--grapeseed, canola or olive)

toasted sesame oil (optional)

soy sauce

frozen peas

chopped carrots

chopped white onion or green onion or both

can also use other veggies like broccoli or asparagus cut up small

2 eggs

cooked chicken, beef, pork, or shrimp (optional)

Coat a wide skillet with oil and heat to medium or medium high. If you like, add a little bit of toasted sesame oil for flavor. Saute the carrots and onion until soft. Add the peas and any other veggies you want to use and cook for a little bit or until done. Push the vegetables over to the far side of the skillet. Whip the eggs with a whisk then pour into the empty side of the skillet. Quickly stir the eggs until done, breaking them up into small pieces. Add 2-4 individual packets of the rice (don't have to precook it). Mix all together in the skillet and cook until the rice is heated thoroughly. Douse with soy sauce. If the rice gets too dry, then add a little more oil.

Wa-la -- you're done! And hungry people can be fed.

Favorite Cookbooks

Check out the new slideshow below my profile. These are all my favorite cookbooks. If you want to order one from Amazon, you just click on the cookbook.

The Family Chef is my newest cookbook and so far, I love it. The Barefoot Contessa can do no wrong. Her recipes always turn out well. Fonda San Miguel is like an art book because the photos are as beautiful as the restaurant here in Austin.

I will be talking about paninis soon because I live for my Breville panini press! Simple Italian Sandwiches is my panini bible. The Healthy Kitchen and The Omnivore's Dilemma will keep you from straying down the wrong path too often!

Finally, Stop and Smell the Rosemary has some really great recipes from the Houston Junior League.

Jewels' Delicioso Arroz on Pollo

Just love my new cookbook, The Family Chef by Jewels and Jill Elmore. Finally something new to do with chicken! I know arroz con pollo has been around for a while, but I've never actually had a recipe to try. Plus this has brown rice which is much better for your family than white rice.

It really helps to have a paella pan with a lid. I use mine for countless things because it's roomy and wide and will fit across two burners. Plus it goes straight from the stove to the oven without having to mess up two pans.

Here is the recipe with a few changes or additions from me:

Serves 6

2 chicken breasts with bone and skin, each cut in half (ending up with 4 pieces)

2 or more chicken thighs (this way you have light and dark meat covered for those picky people)

salt, pepper, cumin, paprika

grapeseed oil for browning

1 onion diced

2 shallots diced

2-4 cloves garlic diced

2 1/2 cups brown rice

4 cups chicken stock (or water and chicken stock mixed which is what I did)

small handfull of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Season the chicken pieces liberally with salt, pepper, cumin and paprika

Heat pan (high med. heat). Add a couple of glugs of oil to coat the pan. Place chicken in pan skin side down first. Brown both sides. Remove chicken and set aside. Lower heat. Add onion, shallots, garlic, and rice and saute for a minute or two. Add stock and stir. Place chicken back in pan, skin side up, spoon stock over the top of each piece, and cover with a lid or foil. You can either simmer on the stove or put in the over at 375 degrees (what I did). Cook about an hour.

Check on the rice to make sure it doesn't dry out too soon and spoon broth on top of chicken halfway through. After removing from oven, let stand for a few minutes. Sprinkle parsley over the top. Serve with a beautiful crisp salad. Enjoy!