The Nifty Foodie

Am I the only person who is shocked that Christmas just passed? I can’t believe it. Neighbors are taking down lights, and our tree looks SO empty without gifts under it. My favorite holiday is over, and crazy enough, it’s time for a new year. 2012.

Time to take the shrink wrap off of the new planner and get used to writing “2012″ on papers/emails/etc. This is just crazy.

Also crazy…sometime in 2012, my 4 year blogiversary is happening and my 3 year wedding anniversary is happening too. WHAT?

It’s a lot to look forward to, but before everyone rings in the new year, I just wanted to share with y’all the top 10 posts of 2011.

10. Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream – This was my first time making SMBC, and I swear, if you haven’t tried SMBC before, just do it. Please?

9. Pecan Pie Macarons – Gotta love macarons. These were really a huge favorite for Thanksgiving, and the star shape (which was a happy accident) made them super cute and festive!

8. Restaurant Style Queso Blanco – This is it. The ultimate queso blanco. If you’re as addicted to queso as me, you’d understand how wonderful it is to FINALLY have a recipe for this!

7. Strawberry Cream Cake – I’m actually glad I compiled this top 10, because I sort of forgot about this cake. Since it’s currently strawberry season in Louisiana, I think I MUST make this cake again. Yum!

6. Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Truffles – This is the recipe that made my year, basically. I still can’t believe I won that recipe contest, and I’ve been told by a few friends who made this that these little truffles were a hit at their holiday parties! So happy to hear that!

5. Banana Nutella “Ice Cream” – Two ingredient “ice cream”. It’s basically awesome and couldn’t be any easier. Your food processor does all the work!

4. Grilled Corn Grits – I can’t be from the South, and not have a post about grits. I promise you if you make this, your hips may never be the same again, but your taste buds will tell you it’s completely worth it!

3. Easy Pasta Salad – My first (and so far, only) vlog. I might get the courage to make one again, since you guys seemed to like it so much!

2. Cooking For Kids – The infamous post. Yup, who’da thought that a soda cupcake would get so much response from you guys (both good and bad)…yikes!

1. S’mores for a Shower – Nutella S’mores. I can see why you guys loved this one so much. I’m sort of craving s’mores right now, actually.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year with your family and friends, and thank you so much for reading The Nifty Foodie! See y’all in 2012!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate y’alls support during Project Food Blog so far. You better believe I was jumping in my chair when I saw that I get to compete in round 2! So, thank you very much. You guys are the best!

Round 2′s challenge is called The Classics.
Ready to tackle a classic dish from another culture? Pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post.

So, with absolutely no clue what to do, I went to my local library and picked up 4 books. 3 of them were Asian inspired and the other one, which was a direct opposite, featured German cuisine. Not exactly sure why I picked that one up, but heck, why not? I flipped through pages and pages, bookmarking some recipes, but none of them felt like it should be the dish for this challenge. I walked away from the books for a while, feeling pretty bummed. What dish was I going to make?

I wanted to find a recipe that was different, featuring ingredients that normally make me turn the other way. I ended up finding this dessert recipe featuring couscous. Can you believe I’ve never tried couscous before? I was intimidated by it..completely.

This recipe also has sour cream, which is an ingredient that does not appeal to me at all. I rarely use it in recipes, because it’s a personal food aversion of mine. So, why not go all out with an ingredient I’ve never tried and an ingredient I really don’t like? Challenge enough, no?

I’m sure you want to know where this dish is from. Ultimately, I ended up going to a whole different continent for this challenge: Africa!

The dish is called Caakiri, which is a yogurt based couscous dessert, originating in Western Africa. The dish tastes a lot like rice pudding, but with a very different texture. I found the dish to be a little too tart for me, probably due to the high amounts of yogurt and sour cream. However, more sugar seemed to help that issue.

Couscous and yogurt mixture pictured.

The best thing about this dish was that the ingredients weren’t too hard to find, and it introduced me to couscous. I’m pretty sure I’m going to make this grain again really soon.

Note: this recipe is halved from the original source and it still made PLENTY!

Caakiri
Source: The Congo Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 cup couscous
• 2 cups water
• pat of  butter
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 can of crushed pineapple, drained

Directions:

1. Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Add couscous, butter and salt. Stir, cover and remove from heat. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Then stir and let couscous cool.
2. Combine all of the other ingredients in a bowl.
3. Add couscous to yogurt mixture and add sugar to taste. Serve warm or cold.

It’s very rare that we go out for Italian food. While I absolutely LOVE Italian cuisine, the hubs isn’t a really huge fan and totally has to be in the right mood for it. When I was thinking of a new recipe to try in the house, I thought, well, why not make the hubs’ favorite dish: chicken parmesan?

However, I really despise frying. Everytime I try to fry something, I can’t quite control the oil and it either ends up undercooked or burnt. Plus, I end up burnt too from the oil splatters..it’s a crappy situation. Oh yeah, and since I’m trying to lose weight, well, frying isn’t in my vocabulary for the moment.

So, I found a Cooks Illustrated recipe, which really has never steered me wrong when it comes to baking food dishes that are traditionally fried, and I tried this. It really didn’t take that long to throw together, and the hubs really enjoyed it. Yay!

Lighter Chicken Parmesan
Source: Cooks Illustrated 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup), plus extra for serving
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 tablespoon water
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 ounces each), trimmed of excess fat and sliced into cutlets
• 2 cups tomato sauce , warmed (see below)
• 3 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil

Tomato Sauce

• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 4 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 4 teaspoons)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves
• Table salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Pulse the tomatoes in a food processor until mostly smooth, about ten 1-second pulses; set aside. Cook the garlic, tomato paste, oil, and pepper flakes in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the tomato paste begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the pureed tomatoes and cook until the sauce is thickened and measures 2 cups, about 20 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside until needed.
2. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Combine the bread crumbs and oil in a 12-inch skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 10 minutes. Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and cool slightly; when cool, stir in the Parmesan.
3. In a second shallow dish, combine the flour, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together. In a third shallow dish, whisk the egg whites and water together.
4. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top, and spray the rack with vegetable oil spray. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dip into the egg whites, and finally coat with the bread crumbs, Press on the bread crumbs to make sure they adhere. Lay the chicken on the wire rack.
5. Spray the tops of the chicken with vegetable oil spray. Bake until the meat is no longer pink in the center and feels firm when pressed with a finger, about 15 minutes.

Summer officially started last Monday. However, being in Louisiana, we’ve been feeling summer-like weather since May. With the heat index hitting 110 degrees sometimes, we wanted to throw a summer party that was most definitely indoors!

I watch entirely too much Food Network. If it wasn’t for Food Network and reading food blogs, I’m fairly certain my husband and I would be living off of Hamburger Helper and take-out. One of my favorite shows lately has been The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Every show has a theme, and it features the cooks/hosts on Food Network and their favorite eats in that theme. So, when Foodbuzz emailed about this month’s 24×24 proposals, I figured it would be a fun party to feature the best things our families have eaten! Thanks so much to Foodbuzz for sponsoring this party!

To come up with the menu, I sent out an email to our families asking for their favorites in each category.

• On the Grill (recipes that are done on the BBQ)
• Dangerously Cheesy (major cheese in a dish)
• No Utensils (finger foods/apps)
• Keep it Comfy (comfort food)
• Frozen Treats (any dessert from the freezer)
• Mix it Up (a food that requires using a mixer—doesn’t have to be a sweet)
• Louisiana’s Best (Louisiana food)
• Cold and Colorful (like a salad or cold app with lots of veggies or fruit)
• Under the Sea (favorite seafood dish)
• Classic American (with 4th of July approaching, tell me a dish that screams American)

After getting many responses, here is the menu we came up with:

Drinks:
Strawberry Lemonade
Strawberry Daiquiris

Appetizers:
Cheese Fondue with Vegetables/Bread*
Bruschetta*
Boudin Balls

Entrees:
Steak Skewers with Chimichurri, Onion Cheese Sauce and Compound Butter*
Spicy BBQ Shrimp Skewers*

Sides:
Crawfish Fettuccine
Macaroni and Cheese
Vegetable Skewers*
Grilled Corn
Lettuce Greens with Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Desserts:
Strawberry Cake*
Assorted Cupcakes
Cinnamon Crumb Apple Pie
Fresh Berries with Ice Cream

* recipes will be featured in the blog in future posts

I will admit, I’m still getting the hang of entertaining for a large number of people. Despite doing a lot of prep, I felt fairly stressed in the last hour. Since the party was for family, though, I had loads of help at the last minute. Whew!

The fondue was an absolute hit. I was nervous to make this myself, but this recipe came together beautifully! I served the fondue with day old po’boy bread, carrots and broccoli.

We purchased the boudin balls at a local joint, since they are pretty much my husband’s favorite. The bruschetta was a lighter alternative to the other appetizers. I was super excited to use basil from our garden for this dish!

I need to thank the hubs for braving the sweltering disgusting heat to cook up this magic on the grill. The steak, especially was a real winner to family!

We made 3 sauces available for people to dip/cover their skewers in: a chimichurri, onion blue cheese (not pictured) and a worchestershire chive butter. The chimichurri ended up being a huge hit (and I used parsley from the garden for it)!

Here is some lovely grilled corn that survived a few flare-ups on the grill.

Here is a semi-decent picture of the crawfish fettuccine before everyone digged in. The hubs’ parents made this dish and it was delicious. Perfect flavor with a little Louisiana kick!

This is some macaroni and cheese that is my mother-in-law’s favorite. It was definitely pretty tasty (not to mention, cheesy).

After enjoying some serious eats, we waited a good while before putting out desserts and just chatted, watched TV and played some games.

I will say the desserts were absolutely amazing.

Fresh berries (and ice cream, not pictured)

Strawberry Cake (inspired by a local bakery). I would have just purchased one, but I had no idea an 8″ cake was over $30. What the heck?! I guess I’m just used to baking my own cakes to realize how expensive cakes have gotten!

This was a welcomed surprise. A local cupcake bakery occasionally has giveaways on Twitter, and I won some cupcakes! They were seriously delish! Thank you Sweet Wishes Cafe!

Here is the cinnamon crumb apple pie. This is one of those frozen pies you can find in the grocery store, but has quickly become a favorite with my hubs’ family.

Of course, our puppy was very excited to get all of the attention she got at the party, and thanks to my mom, she tried a piece of steak for the first time. I think she enjoyed it.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a party without family! Here are some pictures of our family.

It was a great time to be had by everyone, especially in the milder indoors. Thank you so much to Foodbuzz again for the party! Everyone had a blast!

I love meatballs and spaghetti. It’s one of my childhood favorites, but it’s not a regular on the dinner menu since I’m a huge pasta lover and it’s not exactly diet friendly. I was thawing ground turkey with absolutely NO idea on what to make. I wasn’t in the mood for burgers or tacos, so my husband brought up meatballs and spaghetti. Since he’s not much of a pasta fan, this was a surprise to me, but man, hearing that brought on a huge craving. I had to make it!

I’m all about shortcuts on a weeknight, so I bought canned marinara. I mixed Classico’s Cabernet Marinara with Target brand’s Three Cheese and just spiced it from there.  For the pasta, we used Ronzoni’s Smart Taste pasta.

As far as meatballs go, here is my recipe, which is a definite winner…even my husband loved them! I adapted it from a recipe I found on Aimee’s Adventures, which is a W/W friendly recipe website, and it came out wonderful!

Turkey Meatballs
adapted from Aimee’s Adventures

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground turkey breast
• 1/2 cup italian breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. Form into appx. 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet.
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until fully cooked.

The Skinny - per meatball, Makes 22-24 meatballs (calculated at 22 meatballs)

Calories: 50.2
Fat:  2.6 g
Fiber: 0.1 g