Crab-Stuffed Poblano Chiles with Mango Salsa

Spicy - check
Sweet - check
Cheesy - check
Delicious - double check

Ingredients:
Salsa:
1 cup chopped peeled fresh mango
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

Stuffed Peppers:
4 tbsp fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 15-oz container ricotta cheese (I used low fat)
1 14-oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
8 oz fresh crabmeat
4 poblano chiles

Yields 4 servings.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients for the salsa in a bowl and mix well. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

To make the stuffing for the peppers, process 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese with next four ingredients (through ricotta cheese) in a food processor until smooth. Place into a bowl and mix in the crab and artichokes.

Cut the chiles in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Try to cut them in a way that will give you deep halves rather than shallow halves (makes them easier to stuff).

Stuff the halves with the crab mixture and place on a baking sheet. I lined mine with parchment paper just to make cleanup easier. You don't have to use the parchment paper, but if you don't it would probably be a good idea to spray your baking sheet with cooking spray. Once all the peppers are stuffed, sprinkle remaining 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese over top.

 Bake for 30 minutes, or until tops begin to brown. I ended up broiling mine for about 5 or so minutes at the end to crisp and brown the tops. Make sure you keep a close eye on the peppers if you use the broiler. I've learned the hard way that things burn all too easily when broiling is involved....

Serve with chilled mango salsa.

Source: Cooking Light

Jalapeño Feta Dip

Jalapeño and cheese...enough said. Sounds like a good combo to me! The first time I had this dip, my sister had made it for a party. We both could not stop eating it; it's so good.

Ingredients:
Two 8 oz blocks of feta cheese
Two bulbs of garlic
Olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
6-10 jalapeños, depending on size and desired level of heat
      *Note - I've made it with 3 large jalapeños and this time with 10 small. I
        think it's better this time - not ridiculously spicy, but just enough of a
        kick. If you're not sure, start with a few and add additional peppers
        until you reach the level of hotness that you like.
Freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice the stem end of the garlic bulbs off, to expose the cloves. Be careful to try and keep them in one piece. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil.

Lay your peppers out on a rack or baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Place both the peppers and the garlic into the oven. Bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

In the meantime, break up the feta bricks in to a bowl.

Once peppers and garlic have cooled, peel the skin off the peppers and dice into small pieces. Add to feta crumbles.

Holding the garlic sliced side down over the feta and peppers, you should be able to squeeze the roasted cloves right out of the bulb.

Add lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and a little freshly ground pepper.

Pressing with a fork, break up garlic and mix everything together.

Serve with pita chips or crackers. YUM!

 

Source: Adapted from a recipe found on How Sweet It Is blog

Kung Pao Chicken

I've come to realize the importance of setting aside time to plan meals/shop for groceries for the week. I've also come to realize that it's hard to do this during the summer, when we're traveling pretty much every weekend. Busy summer = no time to plan = meals thrown together at the last minute = blog fail (hence the reason for my serious lack of posting lately). This week I'm attempting to get back on track. If it doesn't work, I'll see you in October (kidding....hopefully).

While this recipe for Kung Pao Chicken was good, if you like it spicy, it might not live up to your expectations. It was all Kung, and not a whole lot of Pao. In the future, I'll probably kick up the heat a little, either by doubling the red pepper flakes or jalapeño, or maybe even adding in a little Sriracha.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp bottled minced ginger
1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 chicken breasts, about 5 oz each, cut into bite-size pieces
1 large red pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup snow peas
1 jalapeño, diced

2 servings of your favorite rice

Yield: 2 servings

Combine first six ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until sugar and corn starch are dissolved. Set aside.

Heat sesame oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until it begins to soften. Add in the garlic and stir for a few seconds.

Add in chicken, and saute until chicken begins to brown (about 3 to 5 minutes). Pour the water/soy sauce mixture into the pan and bring to a boil.

Add in the peppers, snow peas, and jalapeño. Cook until vegetables just start to soften and sauce becomes thick.

You could serve this as a meal by itself, or over rice. You could play around with the veggies you use. You could top with red pepper flakes or hot sauce - lots of options!

Source: Adapted slightly from this Cooking Light recipe.

Stuffed Flank Steak

This past Sunday, Clay and I hosted a Mother's Day dinner for our moms. We had good company, good drinks, and great food! I found this recipe in a cookbook I have - Katie Brown's Weekends. We made a couple minor ingredient changes - including the addition of bleu cheese - crucial! Other than that, we didn't change much. You could definitely play around with the ingredients you use to stuff it though - there are a million options.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Flank Steak
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 zucchini, cut into strips lengthwise
6 oz button mushrooms, sliced thinly
1 1/2 red peppers, roasted and cut into strips
1/4 cup Bleu cheese
Kitchen twine
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (The original recipe calls for these amounts of herbs. I just eyeballed it and probably ended up using more)

Start by laying out your flank steak on a pan you can use to transport it to the grill. The flank steak needs to be butterflied (cut in half parallel to the cutting board almost all the way through). This is a little tricky to do yourself, and if you choose to go this route, be VERY careful. An easier option is to have the butcher at your grocery store do it for you.

* Tip - if you do ask your butcher, ask them to butterfly it width-wise, like a book, instead of lengthwise like mine was. This will make it easier to keep your stuffing inside the steak. You can make it work either way though.

Saute the zucchini and the mushrooms in a pan with a little olive oil until just tender. You don't want to cook them all the way here, because they'll continue to cook when you put the steak on the grill. You really just want to make them soft so they're easier to arrange on the steak.

Sprinkle the inside of the steak with salt and pepper, then begin by laying the zucchini as the bottom layer.
(Got a little help from the hubs one this one while I took the pics :) )

Next, arrange the mushrooms over the zucchini.

Then, top the mushrooms with the red peppers.

Finally, sprinkle the bleu cheese over the red peppers.

Fold the top layer of the steak back over the stuffing. Use the string to secure the edges of the steak and keep the stuffing inside while grilling.We used several pieces of string across the width, and also a couple across the length of the steak too.

Trim any extra string just above the knots. Rub the top of the steak with the chopped parsley and thyme. You can also add some salt and pepper here if you'd like.

Place the steak on a preheated grill, and cook for about 15 minutes on each side, or to your desired level of doneness. Cooking time will vary based on the size and thickness of your steak. Be careful as you flip the steak so as not to lose any of the deliciousness inside.

(We doubled up on the recipe.)

Remove from grill and allow to cook for a few minutes.

Cut and remove the string. Slice either into strips or into portion-sized sections, and serve.

Margarita Cupcakes

Margaritas just happen to be one of my favorite drinks, so you can imagine my excitement when I came across this recipe for Margarita cupcakes. I made them recently for a party and they were a hit! I have to admit I enjoyed licking the bowl after making them too. :)

Today, we're going to a Cinco de Mayo party, so I thought these would be the perfect treat to bring! The first time I made them, they were delicious, but I thought they could use a little bit more of a lime punch, so this time I added more lime juice and zest (as reflected in the measurements below). Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
Zest and juice of 2 limes
4 tbsp tequila, divided
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (I used lowfat)

Tequila Lime Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter
2 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp tequila
Pinch of salt

*One note about the icing - I made it according to the measurements listed here, and ended up with a lot of extra icing. I think this is because I whipped the butter for several minutes, aerating it and making it very light and fluffy. If this is how you like your icing, you could probably get away with using 2/3 or 3/4 cup butter rather than the full cup, making the same proportional adjustment to the sugar.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes at medium-high speed.

Set mixer speed to low and mix in the eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure mixture is well-blended.

Mix in the lime juice, lime zest, vanilla and 2 tbsp tequila.

 

The mixture will look almost curdled. Don't worry - this is normal.

With the mixer on low, add in the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with buttermilk in between each batch.

 

After the last batch of the dry ingredients, mix until just combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and give it one last stir by hand.

 

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners, and divide the batter between the 12 cups.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until tops of cupcakes begin to turn a golden color. (I checked mine after 30 minutes, and they weren't quite done, so I baked them for 5 more minutes. Baking time may vary by oven, so you'll just have to keep an eye on them.)

Let cupcakes cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then move to a cooling rack. Brush the tops of the cupcakes with the remaining 2 tbsp tequila.

While the cupcakes are cooling, time to make the frosting! Begin by placing the butter in the mixer bowl and whip at high speed for 3-5 minutes. Gradually add in the confectioners sugar. I would suggest reducing mixer speed to low, or you will end up with a big mess. As you can see from this picture, I learned that the hard way. Everything in the near distance ended up with a light dusting of sugar...woops! (Our dog, Chance, was loving it though...)

 Scrape the sides of the bowl, and add in the lime juice, tequila and salt. Mix thoroughly until light and fluffy.

I used a piping bag and tip to frost the cupcakes, but you can just as easily use a frosting knife or the back side of a spoon to spread the frosting on top of each cupcake.

Sprinkle the cupcakes with a light dusting of lime zest if desired.

 Top each cupcake with a lime wedge, and you're done!

Source: Brown Eyed Baker