Spicy Sausage and Creamy Polenta

I freakin' love polenta! I know I've mentioned this before and in fact posted a blog some time ago with nearly the same recipe- Polenta and sausage. But I didn't have any photos of that meal - so thought it was worth revisiting.

Polenta is versatile and can be so tasty; and in this current economy - it's easy on the wallet! Serve it soft and creamy or let it form into a base you can top for little appetizer or even use as bread for a sandwich!

Look for more recipes for polenta coming soon to keep you fat and happy!


Polenta
2 cups liquid (either water, milk or broth)
1/2 cup polenta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup goat (or other) creamy cheese

Whisk the polenta into the liquid slowly. Stir often over medium low heat. As the polenta begins to thicken you will add another 1& 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup at a time.

This could take up to an hour. When the polenta is complete (taste it, is it still gritty? You may need to add slightly more water)
Remove from stove. Add in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of goat cheese (or other creamy cheese) and fresh ground pepper. (feel free to use more cheese!) Serve.

Tomato Sausage Sauce
2 or 3 hot Italian sausages
1/2 cup chopped onions
4 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped artichokes
1/2 cup chopped olives (use a mixture of good deli olives)
basil, handful of fresh or 1 tbls dried

Start by cooking the sausages, over medium heat in a 2-4" deep pan. Turn a few times. Once those are nearly done, add the chopped onions and sautee for 5 minutes. If you have dried herbs, add them now. Add the garlic and sautee for another minutes (don't add the garlic with the onions or it will burn). Add 1 can of diced tomatoes (use your wooden spoon to scrape all the great cooked on bits off the bottom of the pan, almost like you are deglazing). Let that cook until hot and bubbly. Add in 1/2 cup chopped artichokes hearts and 1/4 cup of chopped olives. If you have fresh herbs, add them now. Salt and pepper to taste

Serve over the polenta, grate fresh Parmesan cheese over the top.

Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream

It's now fall as of yesterday but my interest in ice cream continues even as the sun fades sooner.

The mango flavor hits you the moment the ice cream enters your mouth, then the coconut flavor comes through, coating everything with the hearty coconut milk flavor. Exactly the reason this would make a really perfect ending to a spicy Tai meal!

This is not my creamiest ice cream I've concocted; the blended mango- while pureed smooth- allows for the tiniest ice crystals to form (similar to a sherbert but on a much less scale). The coconut milk does add a layer of heaviness that I wasn't expecting; you could cut the coconut milk in half in you prefer. Try to choose a ripe mango- one that is soft and juicy; I do give directions on what to do if your mango is hard.

Enjoy the fall weather with this pretty mango ice cream, it will give you a reason to make a spicy dish and to be fat and happy!

Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream
1 cup cream
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup milk
1/2 can of coconut milk (1 cup)
1 mango, peeled and cut off the core in large pieces
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar

mango was hard, had to steep the mango in the milk, then blend it with sugar.

Add all the milk in a pot along with 1/4 cup sugar. If your mango is hard, add it to the cream. Bring just to below a boil, turn off heat, place a cover on and let steep for about 15 minutes. Remove the mango from the milk, place in the blender and puree until smooth, cool. If your mango is quite soft, skip adding it to the cream and go straight to the blender step.

While the milk is warming, whisk together the yolks and 1/4 cup sugar until the yolks turn a fluffy pale yellow. Now, temper the eggs by add a cup of the warm cream to the eggs, one at a time. You're bringing the eggs up the the temperature of the cream slowly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Once you've tempered the eggs, add them to the pot and turn the heat on to medium low. Stir until the the liquid starts to thicken and coats the back of a wooden spoon (if you run your finger across the back of a spoon you can see a line drawn through the custard.) Do not boil though.

Now cool the cream by placing in bowl (or simply use the pan its in) and then place that in a larger bowl of ice and water to cool. Stir often. Once the cream is cool, add to your ice cream maker along with the mango puree and follow the manufacturers instructions.

Chocolate Bubble Cookies

This cookie was a mistake. I was attempting to make a chocolate lace cookie, but they came out like a little chocolate brownie (not even close to a lace cookie.) So I rolled them in sugar and made them into little bursts of chocolate. In my book, that's called success! Who wouldn't like a little round bubble of brownie?

So it wasn't what I intended to create- but these little brownies bites are fabulous . They can be easily overcooked so you need to watch them closely; otherwise you'll have a dry brownie on your hands. If that happens, you can always freeze these and make them into chocolate bread pudding (adaption in the face of error is what makes a someone good in the kitchen.)

It's a pretty quick mix up, but the rolling in sugar takes an extra step. Don't let that stop you- these are worth the trouble of rolling or just add some sugar in a bowl and toss them rather than roll.

As my motto goes - eat your mistakes and be fat and happy!

Chocolate Bubble Cookies
melt
1/2 stick+ 1 tbl butter
add 6 Tbls cocoa

add 2 Tbls cream
add 1 egg

Mix in
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar (+ some for rolling)
3/4 cups flour

Use your smallest cookie scoop. Drop onto a plate of sugar, roll around so the round cookie is covered in sugar and place on lightly greased cookie sheet pan.
Bake (375 degrees) for about 8 to 12 minutes; I found that taking them out just before they get a hard shell to them was best. I do suggest trying a pan with just one or two first to find the right baking time for your oven so these don't get overcooked and dried out.

Citrus Grilled Fish with Parsley Dressing

Fish is one of those foods we are trying to eat more of, but it can easily get 'boring'. To me, grilling gives a great deeper and heartier flavor to fish. The problem is many of the lighter flaky fish would just fall apart on the grill - so your limited to the tin foil pouch.

I saw this idea in a photo and immediately jumped on it. Layering thin slices of oranges and lemons directly on the grates with the fish on top keep the fish just off the grills while still getting all the benefits of the grill.

This works great, giving the fish a hint of citrus, a hit of grill flavor and keeps the fish together. I served these on a bed of couscous and sauteed onions and zucchini with a drizzle of Parsley Dressing. Do try this for a great new way to grill fish- it'll be one more day of eating healthy and being fat and happy!


Citrus Grilled Fish

1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 fillets (like Tilapia)
Olive oil

Drizzle olive oil and black pepper on the fish and let them rest. Slice the orange and the lemon in round, relatively thin slices. Rub oil on your grill; once the grill is ready, place the oranges and lemons directly on the grates. Place your fillets on top of that. In the meantime, make the parsley dressing (recipe below).

Fish is done when it turns opaque.

Parsley Dressing
chop 1 cup of parsley
chop 1 tbls fresh oregano (or dill, or basil)
Juice 1 lemon
1 tbls of olive oil
Fresh ground pepper.

Mix the ingredients; enjoy.

Featherweight Bread

Bread is quickly becoming a new favorite item to bake, especially when I keep getting turned on to these very simple recipes. Now there is no need to make a trip to the store for bread; I can have a loaf put together, baked and in my mouth in about 1 to 2 hours!

Nearly every recipe on my blog is something I've created, but this bread recipe and the English Muffin Bread both came from my friend Carolyn. - Thanks for helping me be fat and happy C!

Proof:
2 packages of Yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup water (warm to 100-130 degrees)

Mix together, then let cool:
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup butter (8 tbls)

Mix dry ingredients together:
2 tsp salt
5-6 cups flour - add one at a time

Stir above ingredients together and incorporate the dry, adding the flour little by little

Knead 2-4 minutes, then let rest for about 5minutes. Divide in two parts. Roll each into a rectangle 12 " long x 8" wide. Roll up, pinch seam on bottom of loaf.

Grease baking sheet, sprinkle with cornmeal. Place loaves on sheet and let rise for an hour. Bake until lightly browned. You can brush with a beaten egg white for gloss and shine.

Asian steak

Once I thought about being a vegetarian. Once. But just walk by any steak house, or an afternoon party where they are grilling a good ole steak. The aroma itself is so mouth watering I can hardly keep myself from jumping over the fence and grabbing a steak right off the grill.

What other flavor makes you want to commit a breaking and entering crime- or is that a crime of the stomach? Maybe cookies in the oven or maybe a fresh cherry pie but I'm not even those can compare with a classic steak on the grill!

This is a fun marinade that's super tasty. Watch the flames and the flare ups with this marinade though.

6 Tbls soy sauce
2 Tbls walnut oil
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 Tbls ginger powder
2 Tbls sesame chili oil
Fresh black pepper

Mix all ingredients in dish (about 4 inches deep). Add the steak, marinade for 1 to 4 hours. Grill or pan sear and finish in the oven.

Biscuit Egg Sandwich

Breakfast is a fabulous meal; often overlooked and often shunned at after about noon. This I don't agree with. What's wrong with a green chili smothered burrito at 2am? Or a little mint frittata for dinner?

This one could take a few minutes to put together - if you're going to make the biscuits from scratch. It takes me about half an hour to mix up biscuits and bake them. You could also buy those can ones- you know, the paper canister that POPs open.

In the photo, I served this atop the spinach and yellow pepper salad, which is more of a brunch item, but it's good.

Make the breakfast sandwich day or night, eat it with a fork and knife, fat and happy you'll be - with an egg in your belly.

Biscuit Egg Sandwich

Biscuits
eggs (one per sandwich)
parsley pesto
Roasted yellow pepper (1/2 per sandwich)

It is important to have all of these ingredients ready before assembling the sandwich. First, get the biscuits in the oven. Then, while the pepper is roasting (see my tips on how to roast peppers), mix the parsley pesto if it's not already made. Now, once the biscuits are out of the oven then you can start the egg. Keep the pan on medium so you don't over cook or fry the egg, place a little butter in the pan and crack your eggs in. Top with a little salt and pepper.

Keep your yolks runny even if you don't think you like runny eggs (start with over easy and work your way to sunny side up)- it's important for the sandwich. While the eggs are cooking, split open a biscuit, add a spoonful of parsley pesto and 1/2 of the roasted pepper. Now top with the runny egg and serve immediately with a fork. That is one outstanding biscuit egg sandwich.

Black Pepper Ice Cream

You probably read the title and said "what the..? Black pepper in ice cream?"

Sure, why not!? Continuing on my ice cream infatuation, it's gettin' a little crazy here.

This is classic mix of spicy meets sweet, and it works quite well. Of course you can overdo it the pepper here, so do be careful to not take it too far.

I think what might be harder to imagine is what to serve the black pepper ice cream with. It can stand on its own as just a small scoop, served with say a chocolate martini. When pairing this ice cream, it needs to be a simple item - like a pound cake (try grilling it!) or a very simple dense chocolate cake would work well. I also think that it would blend well with a cherry pie.

This is going to be an adult ice cream rather than one for the kids. Serve it at your next dinner party as just scoops on spoon. It will be a great conversation getter and you'll be looking fat and happy!


Black Pepper Ice Cream

2 cups cream
1 cup half and half
1 cup whole milk
1 vanilla bean
1 1/2 tsp fresh finely ground black pepper
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

Add the cream, vanilla bean, milk and pinch of salt in a pot. For the vanilla bean, you will need to split the bean in half and scrape out the paste-like inside. Add this to the milk along with the bean casings and the black pepper. Bring just to below a boil, turn off heat, place a cover on and let steep for about 15 minutes. Then whisk together the yolks and sugar until the yolks turn a fluffy pale yellow (this is going take about 5 or 6 minutes, just keep whisking! You're building muscle!) Now, temper the eggs by add a cup of the warm cream to the eggs, one at a time. You're bringing the eggs up the the temperature of the cream slowly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Once you've tempered the eggs, add them to the pot and turn the heat on to medium low. Stir until the the liquid starts to thicken and coats the back of a wooden spoon (if you run your finger across the back of a spoon you can see a line drawn through the custard.) Do not boil though. Remove the vanilla bean casing and either discard or save to use for other purposes.

Now cool the cream by placing in bowl (or simply use the pan its in) and then place that in a larger bowl of ice and water to cool. Stir often. As I always say, if you need to make the ice cream immediately, add it to your ice cream machine and follow the manufacturers instructions. If you can wait a day, place the custard mixture in the refrigerator for the night, and then continue with your ice cream machine after that, using the manufacturers directions. Allowing the cream mixture to sit overnight helps the ice cream to become slightly smoother and creamier! Enjoy!

Mocha Java Ice Cream

Chocolate and Coffee mixed in an Ice Cream! Yum. I'm not sure anything more needs to be said. It's been mentioned before that I'm completely into ice cream this summer and it appears this obsession is may be carrying into fall. Nothing wrong with that.

This chocolate coffee ice cream may be taking over as our favorite ice cream so far. It's a perfect ratio of chocolate to coffee and the creaminess is sensational.

Like I said earlier, there isn't anything more to say except that it's SUPER FANTASTIC. If you don't try any of my other other great ice creams, at least make this one. It's fat and happy at it's best!


Mocha Java Ice Cream
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbls cocoa powder (use a good powder, like Scharffen Berger)
1 Tbls finely ground coffee beans
2 Tbls espresso (or really strong coffee)


Add the cream, milk, cocoa powder, ground coffee, espresso and 1/2 the sugar in a pot whisking everything together. Bring just to below a boil, turn off heat, place a cover on and let steep for about 15 minutes. Then whisk together the yolks and the remaining sugar until the yolks turn a fluffy pale yellow- it's worth the time it takes. Now, temper the eggs by add a cup of the warm cream to the eggs, one cup at a time. This is bringing the eggs up the the temperature of the cream slowly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Once you've tempered the eggs, add them to the pot and turn the heat on to medium low. Stir until the the liquid starts to thicken and coats the back of a wooden spoon (if you run your finger across the back of a spoon you can see a line drawn through the custard.) Do not boil though.

Place the bowl in a larger bowl of ice and water to cool, stir often. If you need to make the ice cream immediately, add it to your ice cream machine and follow the manufacturers instructions. If you can wait a day, place the cream mixture in the refrigerator for the night, and then continue with the ice cream machine after that. This helps the ice cream to become slightly smoother and creamier!

Spicy Gazpacho

Have you heard the stories about people leaving boxes of garden vegetables (mostly zucchini, I think) on their neighbors doorsteps because they have so much the don't know what to do with it?

Come drop the box !! I live in the city and pay through the nose for some of this stuff!

Lets say you woke up to find a box of tomatoes at your door, ripe ones that are only going to last a day or two. What are you going to do with all of them? After your done chuckin' a few at your neighbor, pull out the trusty blender and make soup!

My version of Gazpacho is below. The traditional Spanish version tends to have some day old bread tossed (after soaking in water) but I don't usually have day old bread cuz we are bread hounds at our place. Feel free to use a Cuisinart instead of a blender and throw in any extras of what ever you have around, like celery or extra peppers. I make mine pretty spicy (this last batch I used 2 whole cayennes, arriba!) so adjust the peppers to your liking. I don't always take the skin off the tomato, although I think it's better. If they are ripe enough, you can often just peel most of the skin off without going through the boiling-process hassle.

Serve this along side a good hunk of bread and you've got a great lunch or light dinner meal in minutes. And you'll see, that you can even be fat and happy with soup!

Spicy Gazpacho

Depending on your blender, you may need to blend the ingredients in separate batches, which is okay. It's all going to to end up in the same place. When pulsing, you want to achieve a very soupy texture while keeping a fine dice at the same time.
In a Blender or Cuisinart, pulse to finely chop:

1 cucumber (leave the skin on, chop into large pieces)
2-3 peppers, use a variety if you have them: I like sweet banana and red bell, again large chop
1 small red cayenne pepper (use less if you prefer a milder soup)
About 1/2 cup olive oil - use this just to help achieve the consistency you prefer
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup pomegranate Balsamic vinegar (regular balsamic is fine too!)
lemon (1/2 juiced)
salt

Pour that into a bowl. Add to the blender and pulse to finely chop:

2 garlic cloves, rough chopped
1/2 small onions, rough chopped
1 lb peeled tomatoes (roughly 2-3 large tomatoes), rough chopped
1/2 cup of parsley
1 Tbls of paprika

Add to the cucumber mixture and stir. Place in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour. Enjoy!

English Muffin Bread

I'm a huge fan of bread, carbohydrates and all! Sure, when I'm 'watching my weight' I do tend to curb the carbs...but seeing how this is the last weekend of summer - it's no holds barred!! My favorite foodie friend Carolyn emailed me this super easy English muffin bread she used to make at her B&B (I hear this was an outstanding B&B in Michigan and am so sorry to not be able to enjoy it) and I had to have it. It's completely simple to mix with just one rising.

This bread is fabulous with jam, great toasted with butter and a good texture for a sandwich. It really looks and tastes like an English muffin, which I prefer toasted - but Dave loved this bread just plain.

Because I only have mini bread pans, I cut the recipe down and ended up with 3 mini loaves...there's 1 left and they came out of the oven just an hour ago! I'm always looking for a super simple bread recipe for those days when you just need bread; this is a keeper. You're going to love this in the winter when it's snowing and you just can't get to the store for bread. I know I'll be making it again, and I'll be fat and happy while doing it! This is my halved version below (if you double this, you will use 2 full-size loaf pans). Also, you can mix this is a Cuisinart if preferred, just pulse until it comes together.

English Muffin Bread
2 cups flour
1 package of yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda

mix with a fork

Warm (to activate yeast, about 100 degrees):
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water

Pour warm milk into flour, mix with the fork until it's all blended together - dough will be sticky.
Add:
1/2 cup flour
mix together.

Separate into either 3 mini or 1 larger loaf pan. Cover with a kitchen cloth and let rise for about 1/2 hour. Bake until top begins to brown; I used a temperature of 375 degrees.

Lesley's Watermelon Pirate Boat

My good friend Lesley was having a very special birthday, and all she has wanted for this birthday was a Pirate-themed party. Heck, why not? We all love the Captain, or at least a handle of captain! And who said adults can't have theme parties anyway?

I needed to do something super fun for this party and was struggling with ideas of what pirates even eat? Besides gruel and scallywags. Not sure where this idea came from, but I decided to make a pirate ship out of a watermelon. Again, Dave thought I was a bit out of my mind.....talk about a theme...

I've done basic bowl and baskets out of watermelons before, all filled with fruits and mainly used as centerpieces. But a pirate ship? Even I was slightly worried I was getting in a little deep...


I rode my bike to the store, strapped the watermelon on the back of the little fold up and hoped for a smooth ride home.

So you can judge for yourself regarding how it turned out - the photos do a pretty good job of showing the ship. All in all, I think it came out pretty decent! There's sails, cannon ports and a plank! I named it the 'Black Lorch' - scribed it into the tail side of the ship and Lesley christened it by taking it into the water.

At some point the 'Black Lorch' was tested for float-ability. I guess they didn't notice that the port windows were all open, sending the ship to its near death. It was like watching Titanic all over again. Luckily a brave shipmate dove down and saved it- though the edible watermelon and grapes weren't so edible after that. One of the funnest party favor, decoration, gift ideas yet. This could be a super hit with a kids party too!

It's all trial and error- just know that the errors will probably show! But you'll quickly find that most of the fun just comes from the cutting, slicing and scribing and seeing faces light up in amazement - now that's being fat and happy!