Lemon Surprise!

I love lemon, especially in the spring and summer. It's so light and fresh tasting. I love lemon cake, and have made box mix lemon cakes before, but wanted to try a more "from scratch" version. I found this recipe, it is one of my Great Aunt Hazel's, she was a champion baker - so I assumed it would be good. This cake is de-lightful! I made it into cupcakes, as I figured they would be easier for the backyard party I made them for.

Ingredients:
One box lemon jello
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix (GF)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2+ cups powdered sugar
juice of two lemons
lemon zest

Directions:
Dissolve one package of lemon jello in 3/4 cup water. Add 4 eggs, beat 2 minutes. Add one package yellow cake mix, beat 2 minutes. Add 3/4 cup oil, beat 2 minutes. Pour into cake pan or muffin tin, bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes for a 9x13 cake pan or about 18 minutes for cupcakes.

Mix 2 cups powdered sugar with the juice of 2 lemons. When cake is still warm, poke holes in it and pour/spread the lemon glaze into the holes. After cake has cooled, add some additional powdered sugar to thicken glaze and frost cake with it. Top with lemon zest.

Chicken Tandoori

I love chicken, but get sick of making the same old recipes. I think I found this one in Food Network magazine...but I can't be sure. It has great flavor and is really easy to do. It can be served alone with rice or with a simple yogurt sauce. Both are delicious.

Ingredients:
4 to 6 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp.vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. plain or Greek yogurt
1/2 small red onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tsp. tomato paste
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. paprika (or hot paprika)
juice of 1 lemon
S/P
cooked rice for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven broiler. Make shallow cuts in the chicken with a sharp knife. Toss chicken with lemon juice and salt in a large bowl. In a food processor, pulse 2 Tbsp. plain yogurt, the vegetable oil, onion, garlic, tomato paste, coriander, cumin, paprika and salt to make a paste. Toss the chicken in the mixture and let marinate for 15 minutes.

Place the chicken on a foil-lined broiler pan. Broil, turning once until slightly charred and cooked through. (The more sauce/paste that is one the chicken the longer it will take to "char" - mine didn't really "char", but the chicken was cooked through and the paste was hot!).

 Yogurt sauce:
Mix 1/2 cup of plain or Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro and sprinkle with salt and paprika.  This sauce is good on the chicken and the rice.

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Pineapple and Peppers

I originally got this recipe from Rachael Ray, but I've modified it a little. I love pineapple and this recipe really has a great, unique flavor. 

Ingredients:
1 cup of gluten-free chicken broth
EVOO
4 boneless pork chops
S/P
1 large can of pineapple rings, quartered
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1 orange pepper, cut into chunks
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
juice of 2 limes
few dashes of tabasco or spicy sauce
3 Tbsp. honey

Directions:
Heat some EVOO in a large saute pan, season the pork chops with S/P and add to the skillet. Cook until done. Transfer to a plate. Add a little more EVOO to the skillet, add the pineapple and bell peppers and cook until crisp-tender and the pineapple is browning at the edges, 3 to 4 minutes.

Transfer the peppers and pineapple to the pork plate. Lower the heat under the skillet to medium high heat and add 1 cup chicken stock, teriyaki sauce, lime juice, tabasco, and honey. Cook until reduced by about half. Add the pork and peppers and pineapple back to the pan to reheat through. Simmer for 5 minutes.

I served it with couscous with scallions (for GF I'd recommend quinoa or rice)

Review: The Blue Door Pub

Oh my gosh. I love burgers so much, and this place served me the best burger of my life! I highly recommend checking out the Blue Door, if you like burgers - you'll love it.

Here is their website: http://www.thebluedoorpubmn.com/

They specialize in a MN favorite - the stuffed burger (the cheese is INSIDE the burger) - Genius. Luke sampled the "Blucy" which is a bleu cheese stuffed burger and I had the Luau - which was stuffed with mozzarella and Canadian bacon and topped with pineapple. Again, genius.

We had really good service, though we did have to wait for awhile to get a table. It was a Friday night and the restaurant is small - so be prepared to wait.  However, the food was served pretty quickly for the amount of customers they had in the queue. 

The only "disappointment" (and I can't even really call it a disappointment) was the fried pickles.  They were still good.....just not up to the standard set by the Chatterbox Pub. You really can't go wrong with pickles. 

Here are some fabulous pics of the food:
Fried pickles

Luau burger:

The blucy

Review: Beirut Restaurant

I love, love, love Middle Eastern food. Luke and I used to go to Jerusalem's in Minneapolis all the time.....until we rediscovered Beirut Restaurant. Luke's family used to go there frequently when they visited Minnesota - and it is amazing. The restaurant is located on Robert Street in West St. Paul, here is a link to their website:

http://www.beirutrestaurantanddeli.com/

We usually go there for dinner when Luke's dad is in town, and I try to get everyone to go eat there when they visit us. I crave their hummus...and their tabouli is so fresh and the best I've ever sampled. Here are some photos from our most recent trip there. The white sauce in the cup is garlic, lemon and oil -mostly garlic - and it is Luke's most favorite thing in the world.

Lulu's shawirma sandwich:

My shish ta'ook (chicken) kabob:

Luke's kafta mishwe kabob:

Veggie Lasagna

This is such a rich and delicious lasagna, I think I actually like it better than meat lasagna with red sauce. It is a really pretty meal as well, all the vibrant colored veggies and the rich cheeses and cream sauce. So yummy.

Chunky Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients:
1 box gluten-free lasagna noodles
3 cups chopped veggies (broccoli, red pepper, green pepper, carrots, spinach, etc.)
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 Tbsp. rice flour
2 cups milk
1 egg
2 cups shredded mozzarella
3 Tbsp. butter

Directions:
Cook and drain noodles. In a large bowl, mix chopped veggies with salt and pepper. In another bowl, mix ricotta, Parmesan, parsley and egg. In a 2 qt. saucepan, melt butter, add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Stir in flour, stir continuously stir until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in milk, boil stirring continuously for one minute.

Layer noodles in pan, spread 1/2 of cheese and egg mix on top, layer with noodles. Spread 1/2 of veggie mix, top with 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Layer again with noodles, spread with remaining cheese and egg mix, layer again with noodles, spread remaining veggie mix.

 Pour milk sauce evenly over top and sprinkle the last cup of mozzarella on top.

Bake uncovered for 40 minutes until hot in center and veggies are soft. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Cinco de Mayo

I ususally don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo...but on this May 5th I was craving a margarita, so I decided to just go with it. When Jennie and I lived together we would make margaritas every Wednesday night, along with homemade pizza.....we would drink a whole pitcher of margaritas while watching Lost and wonder why we were even more confused than the average viewer. I have since cut down on margarita consumption....as the calorie count is way too high. But they are so good, and I make a mean one, I must say. So, on May 5th I made margaritas, guacamole and black bean burritos.  'Twas good.

For the burritos, I used one can of black beans, drained and rinsed and then I mashed them in a saucepan with a Tbsp. of EVOO. Once they were heated through, I added some salt and then spread them on a tortilla (gluten-free). I then added shredded jack cheese and rolled them up. I would recommend grilling them at this point on a grill pan or skillet....but I was impatient so I just microwaved them.....I had already had some of my margarita:)

My guacamole recipe is really quite simple. I mash 3 ripe avocados, dice one tomato (I use roma) and then juice half a lime, a splash of tabasco, 2 pressed cloves of garlic, a dash of cumin, a lot of salt and a dash of cayenne. Yummmmmm.

The Festival of Nations

Each year I attend the Twin Cities Festival of Nations at the St. Paul River Centre.  This year I went with Luke and my sister Lulu and our friends Courtney and Gus. We had a blast, as usual.  We go for the food, but enjoy walking through the shopping area as well. This year we sampled many delights, and posed for some photos as well.

My falafel sandwich from the Palestine booth:

Luke's American Indian fry bread taco:

Lulu's Egyptian hummus:

This is the "Viking in a blanket" from the Norwegian booth....it's a sausage wrapped in lefse, as much as I love both lefse and sausage....I don't recommend this:

Lulu's chicken adobo from the Philippines:

Luke's Polish sausage with kraut and mustard:

My cream horn from the Czech and Slovak booth:

Lulu's Swiss Frosty Kaffee:

Luke's French Eclair:

and Lulu's Dutch Cream Puff:

and here are the pics of us being awesome in front of stereotypical cultural cutouts.

Lulu:

Luke and I:

Courtney and Gus (whose food consumption was not documented on camera):

Luke and Lulu:

and my personal favorite:

Here is the website for the Festival of Nations, I highly recommend attending next year - I know I'll be there!
http://festivalofnations.com/