Panko Crusted Salmon over Swiss Chard Quinoa

Inspired by watching the Barefoot Contessa and wanting to make use of some of the goodies from my 1/20 Urban Acres haul, I came up with this delicious combo!

The panko crusted salmon is 100% Ina Garten, and the recipe can be found here. Basically, you just spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on the top of the salmon, and sprinkle on top a mix of panko, olive oil, and fresh herbs. Then you put it skin-side down in a hot skillet to get the skin crisp, and then stick the skillet in the oven to finish. So easy, so yummy and perfect with the quinoa. It's crunchy, kind of spicy (thanks to the Dijon mustard), and just plain delish.

For the quinoa, I wanted a creative way to use the Swiss chard I had in my basket. Here's the Robin original recipe:

• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 bunch chard, stems removed and chopped finely, leaves torn or chopped into medium sized pieces
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. thyme (dried is fine, fresh is better)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (1 clove)
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
  

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add onion, chard stems, salt, pepper and thyme and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add garlic and cook an additional minute.
   
3. Add chard leaves and cook an additional 1-2 minutes or until leaves begin to wilt.
   
4. Stir in quinoa until well blended, turning heat up to medium/high.
5. Pour in 1/2 cup white wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed by the quinoa, about 30 seconds. Stir in 1 3/4 cups chicken broth and apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

The best thing about this recipe is that you can use any sturdy leafy green (spinach, kale, mustard greens, etc.) in place of the chard, and it's just as delicious! It also keeps well in the fridge and is just as good reheated the next day.

Robin Original: Cranberry and Kale Salad

Seeing this salad on my table this Christmas made me very proud. Not only was it healthy, it was also freakin' delicious! It's super-easy to make too, and the red and green color scheme made it feel special and Christmas-y.

1 bag cranberries
2 bunches kale
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
2 tbs. honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. salt
2 lemons

Add the cranberries, orange juice, sugar, and 1 tsp. of salt to a pot, and bring it to a boil. Bring down to a simmer, and let it cook until the cranberries are soft (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in honey, and put in the cranberry mixture into the fridge to get cold. (This step can be done 1-2 days in advance, by the way).

While the cranberries are cooking, wash the kale, and then cut out all the stalks. Take the remaining leaves and slice them thinly. The easiest way to do this is to take 4-5 leaves, roll them up like a cigarette, and then slice them thinly while they're in the roll. It's hard to explain, but super-easy to do. There's actually a video here that will give you a better idea. Thank you, Aarti.

Once the kale is all sliced up, but it in a large serving bowl. Juice the two lemons on top of it, drizzle the olive oil over it, and sprinkle 1 tsp. kosher or sea salt over it. The next step sounds weird, but you then want to stick your (clean, of course) hands into the kale and massage it. Yes, that's right. Massage it. Again, watch the video above for a better explanation, but you want to knead the olive oil and lemon juice into it until it begins to break down and turn a really gorgeous emerald green color, like in the picture above.

Once the kale is properly massaged, take 1/2 of the (now cold) cranberry mixture and stir it into the salad to make a "dressing." Then put the rest of the cranberries into a nest in the center of your salad. And there you have it! A gorgeous, healthy and delicious alternative to the usual ho-hum side salad. Your guests will love it.

Real Simple: Baked Spinach and Pea Risotto

I am still in shock at how good this recipe turned out! I saw it in my Real Simple a couple of months ago and kind of wrote it off as a bad idea, but when I saw that a blogger friend of mine tried it and liked it, I decided to give it a whirl.

Holy, geez was it delicious.

And it couldn't have been more simple. Get it? Simple? Because it's from Real Simple? Not funny? Okay, I'll move on.

I made the recipe almost exactly as indicated, sauteing some shallots (I added a couple of minced garlic cloves and about a tsp. of dried thyme as well during this step) and then adding white wine, broth and rice before popping it in the oven. It took me less than 10 minutes to put it together, and once it's in the oven you get to walk away for 20 minutes. Once it's done baking, you just stir in cheese, peas and spinach, and BOOM - risotto! Sure, maybe it's not exactly authentic risotto, but it's close enough to be super-delicious, and on a week night, I'd rather have that time back to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and watch the Vampire Diaries than stand in front of the stove stirring and adding broth, stirring and adding broth, stirring and adding broth...

It was seriously delicious. I made it as a main course with a salad on the side, but it would be great as a side with rotisserie chicken, or even some sauteed shrimp or scallops, as well.

I think next time I'll throw in some mushrooms with the shallots, as I like any excuse to eat mushrooms, but other than that, I thought it was great!

Cornbread Casserole

So, a coworker of Mike's made this for a pot luck they had at the office, and it was so good I had to get the recipe so I could make it myself.

Usually I like to screw around with recipes to make them even better, but I seriously don't think this can be improved. It is fluffy, sweet and cheesy and turns out really moist - I think it's the sour cream. This is a must-try recipe, and will be great with chili when it's not 105 degrees outside.


Cornbread casserole

Grease 13x9 in. pan with oil or butter and heat oven to 375.

Mix together:

• 2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 can corn
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs

Pour all ingredients into pan and bake about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. Then try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting.

Everyday Food: Beer-Braised Sausages and Warm Potato Salad

This is my favorite recipe right now. We've been eating it once a week for a couple of months now. It's really inexpensive, and REALLY yummy.

Since we've been making it so much, I've found a couple of things that I think make it even better. First of all, we always use either chicken sausage or turkey sausage. They work really well, and don't dry out at all. I like mild Italian in this recipe.

The major thing I do differently is that instead of just plain red wine vinegar on the potatoes, I use this vinaigrette recipe from Ina Garten. But instead of champagne vinegar, I use white wine vinegar. I still use the flat Italian parsley, though. It adds a nice touch of freshness.

Allrecipes.com: Banana Muffins II

We had a bunch of bananas that were on the verge of going bad, so I decided that I wanted to make some banana muffins to use them up. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and I figured that the four and a half star rating probably made it worth trying.

Yum, yum, yum. Very easy recipe, and very quick to put together. A lot of these recipes involve the electric mixer, but this was very easy to put together by hand. I loved it, and so did Miller and Mike. The only complaints came from Miller when he was done with his muffin because he wanted more :)

Melissa d'Arabian: Crispy-Skinned Chicken a l'Orange

This sweet/savory chicken dish was really easy, although it did dirty a saute pan, a ceramic dish for the oven and a cutting board. However, the dishes were totally worth it, because this was delicious and turned out exactly as promised - a sweet, sticky and citrus-y glaze over really moist chicken. My husband kept stopping while he was eating to tell me how good it was, if that tells you anything. I believe we'll be having it again in very short order.

I served it with roasted broccoli (toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and stick under the broiler for 10 minutes) and brown rice cooked in our handy-dandy new rice cooker.

Giada De Laurentiis: Stracoto w/ Porcini Mushrooms

Otherwise known as fancy Italian pot roast, this recipe is amazing. It takes a long time to cook, but it's very hands off. This is a great recipe if you've got people coming over for dinner and you don't have a lot of time during the day to get something going.

I always add some carrots and potatoes for the last hour of cooking time in the oven, and then it becomes a true one-pot meal (other than the blender, which is totally an optional step, although the sauce it makes is pretty amazing).

Barefoot Contessa: Turkey Meatloaf

I tried for years to figure out a way to make turkey meatloaf that wasn't too dry, didn't have that creepy "cakey" texture and didn't require you to use dark meat turkey to give it some flavor. I should have just gone directly to Ina Garten.

This turkey meatloaf recipe is perfect. I have made it four or five times, and it has been consistently great. Moist but not loose, substantial but not dense - perfect.

It's not the most elegant-looking meal, but it's a crowd pleaser for sure. The only suggestion I would make is to use Manwich sauce instead of ketchup on top to up the flavor-factor, but that's a very minor quibble.

Cooking Light: Spicy Beef and Barley Soup

If you're looking for an easy, healthy and YUMMY weeknight recipe, I highly recommend this spicy beef barley soup, conveniently made in a crock pot. It takes just a few minutes to throw all the ingredients together in the morning, and when you get home, your house smells great, and after you heat up a little crusty bread to go with this (you'll want it to soak up the broth), you've got a hearty, healthy dinner.

I actually don't have any commentary on how to improve this recipe, because it's great as-is. I cut this out of a Cooking Light in 2007, and we still pull it out and make it fairly regularly. That's when you know a recipe is great :)

***I posted this awhile back, and recently I tried it without doing any of the browning/sauteeing that is in the directions. I just threw everything raw in the crock pot together. Guess what? The recipe was every bit as good! Woo hoo! Makes an easy recipe even easier.

Real Simple: Chicken and Pepper Stew with Olives

When I saw this recipe in Real Simple, I had to try it, because it contains two ingredients that I absolutely love - olives and golden raisins. However, I was a little concerned, because looking at the recipe, I just wasn't sure this was going to come together in an appealing way.

Well, there was no need to be concerned, because this recipe really turned out amazing. The peppers, olives and golden raisins all come together to make a super-tasty sauce that was really good over cous cous. I think maybe next time I'll put it over polenta, as the cous cous got a little lost under this hearty stew.

I think the most important part of success in this recipe was the olive selection. I used Mezzetta pitted Kalamatas, and they were perfect. Salty, garlicky, but not overwhelmingly so. I would highly recommend them, and really most Mezzetta products in general. I was pretty much obsessed with their pickles when I was pregnant. They are amazing.

My one quibble with this recipe is that it really isn't a weeknight recipe as advertised. Even though I halved the recipe (which still made 4 big servings, and thus some really yummy leftovers), it still takes quite awhile to brown all that chicken. That part alone took me the better part of half an hour, since I wasn't using a super-huge pot and I could only do about five pieces at a time.

But overall, if you like olives, peppers and golden raisins, this recipe is a must-try. Just wait until a Saturday when you have a little more time to do it.

Real Simple: Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder

I made this for Superbowl Sunday this year, and it was a big hit at our house.

For us, it's definitely a weekend recipe, as even though it takes just a few minutes to get it ready for the crock pot (10 minutes), it takes forever to finish cooking. But I guess if we didn't have curious and hungry dogs (a bad combination) to worry about, we could start it in the morning and come home to an almost finished dinner on a weekday.

One recommendation I would make is to add a thinly sliced onion to the crock pot when you start cooking. The onions soaked up all the yummy sauce and tasted amazing. The rest of the recipe I followed verbatim. I chose not to use the five-spice powder as I forgot to get it at the store and I didn't have any on-hand. I didn't miss it, but you might want to try it. It could make a great recipe even better.

Martha Stewart: Chipotle Chicken and Rice

It's only fitting that I would start my new blog with a Martha recipe, as she is my hero. I especially love her Everyday Food magazine, because the recipes are really easy, and I can honestly say I've never tried one that didn't turn out to be at least pretty good.

The latest one I tried is the Chipotle Chicken and Rice. You can find the recipe here.

This is a great recipe for this time of year, when there's nothing better than curling up with a bowl of something warming when it's cold outside. The flavor of the chipotles really comes through, spicing up the recipe with its distinctive, smoky flavor.

It's also makes for a good one-pot weeknight recipe, as long as you can start as soon as you get home. The actual hands-on time is minimal (the 20 minutes listed on the recipe is pretty accurate), but it takes a long time to actually cook (about an hour and a half).

It's pretty spicy (which I really like), so if you don't want to feel the burn, I would recommend scraping the seeds out of the chipotles. That way you'll still get the smoky flavor but without the heat. Its also nice to serve it with a dollop of sour cream, as that help to cut the heat.

I would also recommend (especially if you're doing this on a weeknight and you're low on time) draining a can of low-sodium diced tomatoes and using that instead of the chopped whole tomatoes. I like to stick with fresh when I can, but I have tried this recipe both ways, and I couldn't tell the difference.

The bottom line is - if you're looking for a warming, spicy bowl of comfort at the end of the day, this is a great recipe to try.