Homemade Granola

This is a fabulous recipe that can be tweaked to your preferences pretty easily. I had accidentally added too much honey once and then ended up pressing it onto a cookie sheet and made granola "bars" of a sort. It turned out tasty if not aesthetically pleasing!

Napa Valley Cabernet Burgers

A yummy from the grill that will impress one and all from Bon Appétit-July 2003. You can view the complete recipe online at: Epicurious.com

NAPA VALLEY CABERNET BURGERS
750-ml bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
1/4 cup minced shallots
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (15% fat)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Vegetable oil
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated extra-sharp white cheddar cheese
4 4 1/2-inch squares focaccia, cut horizontally in half
8 large tomato slices
2 cups arugula

Boil wine and shallots in medium saucepan until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 20 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon butter and brown sugar; whisk until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Mix remaining 8 tablespoons butter and rosemary in small bowl. Set aside.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Mix beef, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup wine-shallot mixture in bowl. Form meat into four 5-inch squares or rounds. Brush grill rack with oil. Grill burgers until brown on bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn burgers and brush with wine-shallot mixture. Continue grilling burgers until cooked to desired doneness, turning and brushing occasionally with wine-shallot mixture, about 4 minutes longer for medium-rare. Sprinkle with cheese after last turn and grill until cheese melts.

Spread cut sides of bread with rosemary butter. Grill, cut side down, until golden, about 2 minutes. Arrange bread, grilled side up, on plates. Top bottom halves with burgers, then tomatoes and arugula. Cover with top halves of bread.

Enjoy!
~Marta

Rosemary Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These were pretty good (nobody complained anyway), I think I would increase the amount of rosemary next time, but that's just me. If you like a lot of garlic, certainly add as much as you want.

The recipe says to make them "wetter" than you think they should be because they will continue to absorb liquid and could become too dry by the time you serve them. They're not kidding! Don't skip that part - especially if you won't be serving them immediately. Oh and if you notice the slow cooker in the photo... it's only there to keep the finished potatoes warm during the travel and waiting to eat time (yep - made them for a pot luck). Which brings me to my next point. I tripled this recipe, so if you don't need to feed 12 people, just divide the ingredients by 3...

Fennel Dusted Chicken with Browned Butter and Capers

This is a chicken dish that I made last week using fennel seeds... never would have thought that would work (much less taste good) but it did and it was delicious and dead-easy. Check it out over on my blog (shameless self-promotion alert!)... Make it Bake it Buy it Fake it

Try it... you might like it!
-Steph

Creamy Caraway and Apple Chicken

Looking for a chicken recipe to make for dinner... and definitely not wanting to go to the store, I went searching through my plethora of cooking magazines and special editions and happened upon an interesting one from America's Test Kitchen 30-Minute Suppers (Winter 2010 edition). I am ashamed to admit I have never had anything with Caraway seeds, so I was curious.

America’s Test Kitchen: 30-Minute Suppers, Winter 2010 edition, is stock full of terrific-looking recipes to get delicious, nutritious dinners to the table quickly. The magazine is comprised of 96 tear-out recipe cards that are divided into sections: poultry, vegetarian, pork, pasta, beef, lamb, seafood and salad. These recipes are no-fuss fare, but each one still has a casual elegance about them that goes beyond your regular weeknight meal. Alas, not available on line. I bought mine at CostCo in February.

I only made one substitution of 2% milk instead of the heavy cream. Didn't have any on hand.