The day when we all lose an hour of sleep but know spring is right around the corner! The day when we believe winter is finally behind us and sunshine is right around the corner! The day when we start to dream about shorts and bathing suits and we start to eat healthier meals…
Menu inspired by Daylight Savings: Spring time dinner
Antipasta- green beans, roasted red peppers, artichokes, mozzarella, & salami; marinated with garlic, mustard, vinegar and salt/pepper for taste
Broccoli Rabe- cant go wrong with GREEN veggies! Sauteed with extra virgin olive oil and garlic
Roasted Chicken- chicken thighs (bone-in) seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, salt and peppers; roast @ 425 degrees for about 35-40 minutes until skin is crispy. Tip- use a cast iron pan if you have one. Chicken will cook to perfection.
Not only was the plate colorful but it was delicious, filled with lots of veggies and it was easy to make! Now the question is- WHERE ARE YOU SPRING?! Mother Nature says- Right around the corner!
My husband and I always stay in on New Year’s Eve; One for the fact that I barely can stay up till midnight to see the ball drop and two for the love of having an excuse to make a “fancy” dinner! December 31, 2012 was no different…
Menu was set with crab cakes being the main attraction. I built the meal around them; prosciutto wrapped asparagus, home made tomato bruschetta, and asian slaw all accompanied the baked crab cakes.
Crab cake recipe:
1 pound lump crabmeat
1/4 cup low-fat mayo
1 cup dry bread crumbs
3 scallions chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
pinch cayenne
salt & pepper for taste
Combine the crab meat, mayo, bread crumbs, scallions, parsley, cayenne, salt and pepper. Shape into patties and lightly coat with the more bread crumbs.
In a frying pan with a little but of olive oil, cook the crab cakes about 2 minutes on each side till golden brown. Then transfer them to the oven (375 degrees) for about 5 minutes, serve hot.
The asian slaw was a perfect match to the crab cakes. The slaw was light in taste and let the crab cakes’ delicate meat be the center of attention. Of course being New Years Eve we paired the dinner with a touch of the bubbly- Cheers!
I originally created this blog to carry on the traditions that my family instilled in me from a young age; gathering everyone around the dinner table for a home cooked meal. What better way to continue to contribute to my Sunday Night Dinners blog then to have my dad (aka “pop”) share his Sunday Night Dinners with you all!
One thing you will notice with my Pop’s Sunday Night Dinners is that they are very creative. He takes a simple recipe and always puts a twist on it to make it his own. You will see this with his Turkey Chili Dinner he made the other week; made with a twist and love.
Recipe:
- ground turkey meat
- black eyed beans
- crushed tomatoes
- large onion
- chicken broth
- yellow and orange peppers
- aleppo chili
- chipotle chili
- one dried chili de arbol (very hot)
- salt and black pepper for taste
Cook onions with olive oil for 3 minutes; and then garlic for 1 min. Add turkey and cook until no longer pink; approximately 4-5 minutes. Add peppers and dried chilies and cook for about 2 minutes; then add in black eyed beans and crushed tomatoes and a cup of chicken broth. Bring to boil and then reduce heat, uncover and cook 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro and you have “Hot Turkey Chili” to keep you warm during the cold winter nights.
Thanks Pop for wanting to share your recipes and for making my blog a father/daughter collaboration! More to come….
Been wanting to make the most quintessential Sunday Night dinner since I started my blog; Spaghetti and Homemade Meatballs, and this past Sunday Night was the perfect time to make it.
A dinner party on a cold wintery night was the backdrop for pulling together this hearty, warm, stomach-filling, off your diet kinda of meal. The only recipe that I thought of to use for making meatballs from scratch was from Frankie’s Spuntino’s cookbook. I am bias to this recipe as I have had the pleasure of dining at his restaurant as well as good friends with the person that lives next to Tony- the inspiration for the secret ingredients in making these meatballs perfect. The secret is out: pine nuts and raisins that provides texture and the right amount of sweetness to compliment the meat and pecorino cheese.
For this blog I am going to include the link to Frank and Tony’s recipe to pay tribute to coming up with the deliciousness recipe.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/29105-frankies-meatballs
Dinner was paired with spaghetti, homemade garlic bread and lots and lots of red wine! Everyone enjoyed and left full and happy!
Bon Appetit!
Freezing temps, gusty winds, chills through the body means it is time for some stick to your ribs sunday night dinners. I have always wanted to make Braised Short Ribs and when my friend was visiting I knew she would appreciate the meal; a foodie just like me.
The meal started with a Romaine Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Vinaigrette. The Blue Cheese paired perfectly with the hearty ribs; helps to cut through the richness of the ribs. A side of winter veggies of roasted squash and brussel sprouts rounded out the stick to your ribs dinner. Paired with a delicious bottle or two of Sonoma wine the meal was a complete success for warming the body and filling our bellies on a cold winter night.
Recipe: (Serves 4)
Salt and pepper 8 beef short ribs then dredge them in flour; set aside. In a dutch over, over medium cook pancetta (diced) until crispy and rendered. Add olive oil and brown the ribs on each side; 1-2 minutes on each side and then remove. Add onions, carrots, and shallots to pan and cook 2 minutes. Pour in wine (2 cups of red wine); bring to a boil and then added in broth (2 cups of beef broth) and salt/pepper to taste. Add the ribs till they are submerged, add thyme and rosemary springs, cover and place into oven at 350 degrees for 2 hours; then reduce heat to 325 and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Ribs will be falling off the bone and ready to eat!
ENJOY!
A couple of weeks ago I was expecting to start making chili or meatloaf but with the sun shining the only dinner I can think of to enjoy was seafood! Winter is right around the corner and shrimp wont be a main ingredient again for a few months so when I saw how delicious and fresh they looked in the seafood department I couldnt resist.
Shrimp kebabs marinated in beer:
1 lb shrimp- if the store has clean shrimp I highly recommend spending the few extra dollars so you dont have to peel and devein and saves you time.
In a dish I added a stout beer, minced garlic, salt, pepper and the shrimp. I put it in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour. The longer the better. During this time I soaked the wooden skews so they didnt burn on the BBQ. When shrimp was ready I started to add the cut up red and yellow pepper, onion, lemon with the shrimp.
On the BBQ, it only takes about 10 minutes, keep an eye on the shrimp. You dont want them to become tough.
Summer asparagus and roasted potatoes along with a nice white wine rounded out “summer-winter time” dinner.
When “Zone A” and Sunday Night Dinner Collide you get a “Franekstorm” feast for two!
With the pending storm I had to think about a dinner where we will have left overs and something hearty to keep us warm in case we lose electricity. What came to mind was my dad’s roasted chicken that he said is a full proof recipe- will always come out crispy and juicy! DONE!
Roasted Chicken:
Whole chicken- ask butcher to remove the backbone
Day of cooking, wash, pat dry and season with salt. Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours uncovered. An hour and a half before cooking, take the chicken out and let it sit to bring to room temperature for 1 hour. During this time place a cast iron pan in the oven and pre-heat to 500 degrees; I also seasoned the chicken with black pepper, paprika, some more salt and olive oil. Final 30 minutes, place the chicken on the cast iron, breast side up. For 30-40 minutes (keep an eye on the chicken and baste with its juices to keep it from drying out. Like my dad said it is a full proof recipe. The chicken was crispy and juicy and we did have left overs :)
I accompanied the chicken with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts (my favorite vegetable, so happy it is fall).
You dont have to wait for storms to collide to enjoy this dinner. Enjoy!
Nothing like winding down the summer with a slow, cooked rotisserie chicken. While my husband minds the grill, we work together to create a dry rub to season the chicken and then let it rest for at least an hour. Our dry rub includes anything we can get our hands on in our home- garlic, paprika, cumin, dry mustard, cinnamon, white pepper, granulated onion, salt and pepper and fresh herbs from the garden. EASY, that is all it takes to prep the chicken and then the rotisserie does all the labor for 3 hours (4.5lbs chicken) for a crispy skin on the outside and juicy meat on the inside.
The season coming to an end means cooler days and some of my favorites will go into “hibernation” till next year- corn, tomatoes and basil. So I decided to make my corn, walnut salad and fresh caprese salad to round out the Labor Day dinner.
Sunday Night Dinner didnt require that much labor but a delicious dinner nonetheless that was made with love!
Garlicky, peppery, finger-licking ever so good chicken wings. Sometimes that is all it takes to make a delicious and easy Sunday Night Dinner.
Every time we make these wings we add new ingredients to change it up a bit. This time we kicked it up a notch with Sriracha as well oyster sauce. Not only did the wings come out amazing but its a great go-to recipe; YOU can make it your own with any ingredients you have on hand.
We typically get around 3lbs of wings (should serve 4-5 people but without sides up to 2 people) and should marinate at least 3-4 hours if not longer.
Marinade: put all into a freezer bag along with the wings (flip bag a few times while marinating)
1/2 cup lite soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons ground pepper
We added 2 tablespoons Sriracha and 2 tablespoons oyster sauce.
When ready fire up the BBQ (in our case an electric one) and let the wings and the heat work their magic. Depending on the BBQ it should take about 30 minutes. Once ready start enjoying the sticky, tender, savory wings!
Remember to have lots of napkins handy. Enjoy!
For the last two days I’ve had a headache that would not go away. So when I was trying to figure out what to make for Sunday Night Dinner I knew it had to be easy and stress-free.
The first thing that came to mind was seafood, but what kind of seafood. I needed something that did not take that much time to prep and could use ingredients found in the house to pull it all together. CLAMS! They just need to be steamed and can add anything you want to the broth for flavor. Experiment and make it your own.
I used what I found in the fridge so this made me “happy as a clam”. Always love making a great dish while using leftovers!
I started with sauteing onion, chorizo (thanks to my brother for bringing it over), garlic, tomato, wine with some butter. I let the broth cook for a bit to burn off the alcohol. Once bubbling I adding in the clams (1 1/2 dozen) and covered it for about 8-10 minutes till the clams opened. “Happy as a clam” that all the clams opened :)
I served the clams over couscous with a side of garlic bread to soak up the yummy broth. With the dogs days of summer upon us this was a perfect Sunday Night Dinner bursting with flavors that was light and perfectly filling.
Enjoy!
What better way to celebrate the Olympics then to make All-American burgers. Tonight’s Sunday Night Dinner was team work between my husband and I seasoning and cooking together.
We used turkey meat along with fresh herbs to lighten up dinner without losing taste. Chopped chives and fresh oregano from the garden went into the patties along with salt and pepper for taste. Grilled up the burgers for about 20 minutes (varies depending upon thickness) to get a nice char on them.
We dressed up the burgers with white onion, tomatoes, fresh basil (a nice fresh twist to the sandwich) with a smear of dijon mustard (try Maille mustard you wont be disappointed!).
A juicy, tasty, and healthy burger paired with a salad and accompanied with your favorite cold beverage (mine- Brooklyn Summer Ale) you have an all-american dinner to celebrate the Olympics!
Now that the humidity has subsided we were able to enjoy dinner on the balcony with a nice breeze and tasty BBQ. Nothing screams summer time then BBQ chicken, a cold beer, a relaxing atmosphere with great company (my husband).
We put a chili-lime rub on the drumsticks and chicken breasts and let them sit for about an hour. During that time I chopped up cucumbers, tomatoes and onions for my shepherd’s salad. It’s a great cool compliment to the warm juicy chicken and couscous.
Note- Couscous only takes 5 minutes to cook and is delicious. I highly recommend adding to your Sunday Night Dinners.
The chicken (bone-in) takes about an hour on the BBQ so make sure to coordinate with when you want to eat. This is one of those dinners that is just that simple! When the chicken is ready, pile on the sides and start enjoying!
BBQ’ing always helps to slow you down; so while the summer is still here, try to take a moment and enjoy your Sunday Night Dinner Al Fresco.
