September 3rd, 2010 by Angie
This is an easy vegetarian pasta dish made with jarred roasted red peppers. You can use the real thing and roast your own peppers, but I opted for a shortcut here, especially since I found a great deal on imported roasted red peppers. I created this mainly for my son. He is a pasta fanatic, and crazy about olives. He isn’t crazy about spaghetti sauce though, and leaves most of the sauce on his plate, so I used a red sauce that was nutritious and would stick to the noodles well. It was a hit with him and my husband. I found my son the next morning eating it straight from the fridge, before I could even get in the kitchen and make him something for breakfast. I guess he already knew what he wanted.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. We are going to Cocoa Beach tomorrow to attend a charity surfing event. The waves here have been huge because of Hurricane Earl. We are hoping Earl dies down and isn’t a threat to our friends to the north, and thankful we were spared from this first big hurricane of the season by a good sized cold front. Have a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: olives, pasta, red peppers
Posted in Italian, Vegetarian | 12 Comments »
September 2nd, 2010 by Angie
Jagermeister, or Jager as we call it, and mussels are just heaven. I know you all have a bottle of Jager in your fridge. If you don’t, your going to have to pick up a small bottle to try these. I got this idea when I was searching for mussel recipes and found a copycat recipe for Carrabba’s mussels that called for a licorice flavored liqueur. I didn’t have the name brand it called for, but I did remember, I do have a licorice flavored liqueur, Jager. We had it left over in the back of the fridge from several years ago. I don’t know what the deal is with college guys and Jager shots, and Jager bombs. I was never in to it, but of course my husband was. It’s a little strong for me. I find it much better now for cooking. Jager is not only licorice flavored, but also has 56 herbs, fruits, roots, and spices including citrus peel, anise, poppy seeds, saffron, ginger, juniper berries and ginseng. We had these delicious little guys with a salad and some french bread. The french bread was essential to sop up the yummy Jager butter sauce in the bottom of the bowl.
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Tags: mussels
Posted in Seafood | 13 Comments »
August 31st, 2010 by Angie
This is a great pork tenderloin with the most delicious peach and almond compote flavored with vermouth. The photo of this dish doesn’t do it justice. It is surprisingly good. I adapted this recipe after seeing it on the Today Show. The Scotto family shared this and two other scrumptious peach recipes perfect for summer. You can find the two other recipes at the link above. One was a warm pasta salad with peaches, heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella and the other was a blueberry peach cobbler with Prosecco vanilla zabaglione. The marinade for the pork was very easy to put together. I put the spices in a mortar and pestle first to help release some of the flavors. You can definitely skip this step if you don’t have a mortar and pestle though. Be careful not to marinate the meat for too long, the vinegar will start to cook the pork. In the original recipe, it said to cook the pork loin in the skillet only, but my pork was already seared, and the internal temperature was not where it should be, so I finished it in the oven. While it was cooking, I made the peach compote. For the potatoes pictured, I just used olive oil and some of same spices (thyme, rosemary, sage leaves, salt and pepper) that were used in the marinade. I then roasted them at 500 degrees until crispy. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: almonds, peaches, Pork
Posted in Pork | 18 Comments »
August 30th, 2010 by Angie
Here is a quick and easy mango salsa recipe that’s a perfect addition to grilled meats. I served this with grilled pork chops. It is really great with fish and perfect with chicken too. I used tomatoes in my salsa, but you could substitute cucumbers instead. Red Peppers would be another great addition to this recipe.
Yesterday was our anniversary, and because it landed on a Sunday, my husband made reservations for Saturday night at Enzo’s Italian restaurant near our home. We have read great reviews of Enzo’s over the years, but have never visited. When we first came to Orlando, we made reservations for a Valentine’s day dinner at a restaurant that has since closed, Lee’s Lakeside. It also had rave reviews. While the setting of the restaurant was amazing, it was located in our downtown and lakefront, the food and service on our visit was absolutely horrible. I thought the restaurant reviewers for the newspapers here were completely out of their minds, and we have since steered clear of most of their recommendations. That was a big, big, mistake. I am so disappointed that we have not visited Enzo’s sooner. It was the best service experience and food I’ve had since we visited Nobu’s in Manhattan. The setting is on a lake, and the restaurant is an older home transformed into a restaurant. The backyard is a beautiful garden where they also hold many weddings. The atmosphere is both romantic, family, and just plain warm and inviting. My husband and I both had a seared yellow fin tuna with lemon risotto. My son, yes he came along too, had the ravioli. One thing I love about these type of restaurants now that I have a kid is that they can get pretty noisy. Everyone starts talking over each other, and children’s voices get lost in the loud conversation. Before we had him, this really annoyed me, so in retrospect, I may not have enjoyed their busy atmosphere as much before. For dessert we had the most amazing almond cake with fresh berries and my son had a chocolate moose ice cream that he devoured.
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Tags: bell peppers, cilantro, mangos, tomatoes
Posted in Condiments | 11 Comments »
August 27th, 2010 by Angie
ThinkFood is a cookbook that features 50 brain-healthy recipes from bloggers around the globe and is published by Posit Science. I had mentioned it in a previous post a few months ago, and was so happy yesterday when I finally got to see the book, and hold it. It was so exciting! The Thinkfood cookbook is now for sale here. You can still sign up for the recipe of the week, in which you will receive an email copy of each recipe for free here. This is a very important book to me because it is the first book I have been published in! All recipes are beautifully photographed. Please head over to my facebook page to enter this giveaway. For extra entries, you can retweet this:
@EclecticRecipes Thinkfood Cookbook Giveaway! http://bit.ly/afEPxJ
Just be sure to leave an extra entry in the comments on facebook for your extra entry.
Thanks for participating in the giveaway!
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Posted in Cookbook | No Comments »
August 26th, 2010 by Angie
Here is another delicious and easy quinoa salad recipe. This one has black beans, mangos, green and red peppers, red onions and cilantro. It’s a great salad for summer. I have really fallen in love with quinoa. I have tried other grains, but quinoa is my favorite. The next new one I wanted to try was farro, but that will require a special trip to Whole Foods.
My son also started day care this week. Well, gym daycare at least. I guess you could also call it kiddie gym. He stays in there all of an hour. On our first visit, he was overly excited, and had real tears when we left. I think he wanted to stay all night. On the second visit, he had a toddler tantrum when it was time to go, but settled down when he knew he could come back the next day. The third time was just as bad. We are going again tonight for a yoga class, and anticipate the same tantrum when we go to leave. I don’t know why we took so long to get back into going to the gym since I had our son, but am happy we are back to going again. I already feel better, and hope I can shed a few, post baby weaning pounds pretty fast. All my baby weight fell off pretty fast. However, after weaning, I started putting on the pounds, fast. It was something I was unprepared for, so I have a little work to do. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: black beans, green pepper, mangos, onions, quinoa
Posted in Salad, Vegetarian | 21 Comments »
August 24th, 2010 by Angie
This is my version of Rachel Ray’s, “You won’t be single for long vodka cream pasta.” In my version, I added Italian sausage, because my man, or any man I would have interest in, couldn’t be won over with a solely vegetarian dish. The first dinner I made for my husband wasn’t this vodka cream pasta, but it was a similar dish, a spaghetti at my mother’s house. It obviously easily won him over. I believe in the power of a good pasta to win a man’s heart. I remember making everything that night, but I had forgot to make garlic toast. I was about to serve him when my mom came in, and was seriously concerned that I had not prepared garlic bread. She made me make the garlic bread first before serving the pasta. I’m not sure if this sealed the deal or not. I think it was just icing on the cake. Since then, I have been more conscious of details at dinner. It’s the little things that make the difference. This weekend we will be celebrating our 16th anniversary, not wedding, I’ve always said that means nothing to me, but the anniversary of the day we started “going together.” You know that time where you were too young to actually date, you just spend all your free time together on the phone and together in between class and at lunch? Over the years, I’ve done some pretty silly things in order to spend more time with him, and I don’t regret one decision. I’ve enjoyed every minute we’ve spent together. Happy anniversary Babe, and hopefully this will keep you hooked another 16 years. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: basil, cream, Italian sausage, pasta, Pork, tomatoes, vodka
Posted in Italian, Pork | 14 Comments »
August 22nd, 2010 by Angie
Here is my easy recipe for tandoori chicken. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, because you are supposed to use skinless chicken, and we always have these hand. You can also use boneless skinless thighs, or bone in chicken, just make sure to remove the skin before placing it in the tandoori marinade. You should also prick the chicken with a fork, or put slits in the chicken so that the marinade can get inside the meat. I liked stabbing the chicken with a fork better, you can take out some aggression, and it creates more areas for the marinade to enter. This is also the first recipe I created for my blog. I have since removed it, because I didn’t have a photo. Back then, I didn’t realize the importance of food photos, I just started off using my blog as a place to store my recipes. It’s amazing what has happened in a little over a year. I hope this year, I can learn as much as I did last year, about blogging, photography and cooking. For this chicken, I used a new Greek yogurt, Voskos. Thanks to Voskos for sending me some samples of your products. They were all great! Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Chicken, greek yogurt
Posted in Chicken | 11 Comments »
August 19th, 2010 by Angie
Here is a quick and easy way to make tomatillo, or salsa verde, in the oven. I was reminded of this great recipe a few week ago when Amy, from She wears many Hats posted it on her blog. Before making my own salsa verde, I had only had it in a few restaurants and out of a can. I really despised that green sauce. It wasn’t until I made my own, I knew just how wonderful salsa verde can be. We’re lucky here in central Florida, we can find many Hispanic ingredients, like tomatillos, easily all year round. In the recipe below, I roasted the vegetables. You can also place the vegetables under the broiler, you could grill them, or you can go the traditional route and boil them. It’s all a matter of preference. In my version, I left in the seeds of the jalapenos for more heat, but feel free to remove them, or use chipotle peppers instead. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: cilantro, garlic, onion, tomatillos
Posted in Condiments, Spanglish | 15 Comments »
August 17th, 2010 by Angie
Here is a great way to enjoy the classic dish of rice and beans as a salad. This would be a perfect dish to take to a picnic, or just enjoy it as we did as a main dish. I created this dish as another one of my budget weeknight meals. I found some chipotle canned corn that I added to this. You could also use fresh corn or regular canned corn, and then add a few chipotle peppers, chopped and their juice. I also added red and black beans, and lots of fresh cilantro. It was very tasty, and since my son loves rice so much, it was perfect for him too.
Don’t forget about the McDonald’s giveaway. You can go to my giveaway page here and in addition to entering the giveaway, you can also pledge family time you spend with your kids. For every second pledged, McDonald’s will pledge 1 penny to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: black beans, corn, green peppers, red beans, rice
Posted in Salad, Spanglish | 8 Comments »
