My Sister - the Other Cook in the Family!

If you talk to our mom, she will say the cooking "gene" skipped a generation in our family. Her father was a chef and my sister and I both enjoying cooking and trying new recipes, but my mom doesn't get the fascination.  She loves to eat what we cook though....let's leave it at that!
Anyway, our family gets together all the time....and most of the time we are eating!  Recently we grilled some chicken and veggie kabobs brushed with a glaze my sister made.  We also had corn on the cob and some potato salad a friend of mine made (wish I could take credit for that!).
But the stars of the show this night was the salad and dessert.

My sister bought all the ingredients for the salad: Romaine lettuce, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and a baguette that she made croutons out of.  I made a quick dressing of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  This was completely awesome.  A different take on a bread salad I make, without the lettuce.

Then sis made an amazing dessert....a plum and peach pie, her version of a Cooking Light recipe.  It was very good, made with spices such as nutmeg and all spice.  Of course we had this warm with vanilla ice cream. : )

I plan on posting more recipes and menus we make together.  This could become a sister cooking blog before we know it!

Yummy!

Nigella's Crustless Pizza

It must be a record! Tried something new again tonight....a recipe I adapted from Nigella Lawson's latest cookbook, Nigella Kitchen. She called it "Crustless Pizza" but my family and I thought it was more of a cross between a deep dish pizza and a quiche. This may sound a little odd...but it is very good! And very simple to make also...especially when you don't know what to do for dinner.
All you really need is egg, flour, milk, a little salt and some cheese. From there, you can add more of your fave veggies, meats, etc...or you can leave it as is! I added pepperoni to mine, along with some extra Parmesan cheese.

Here's my adapted recipe:

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C flour
1 3/4 C milk (I used fat free, could sub with any you have)
Salt to taste
1 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese (or any kind you want!)
1/4 C grated Parmesan, plus extra to grate on top
Chopped veggies and/or fresh herbs
Sliced pepperoni/ham/salami...your favorite or what you have on hand!

Preheat over to 400 degrees.

Mix eggs, flour, milk and salt until smooth. Stir in 1 C cheddar cheese and the 1/4 C Parmesan (and add'l veggies or herbs, if using). Pour into a greased 9 inch ovenproof pie dish. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes (check that it's cooked through), then top with rest of cheese (both kinds) and pepperoni. Cook another 3 to 4 minutes or so, until top cheese is melted and it's a little brown.

Let cool for a few minutes, then cut into wedges like a pie.

We devoured this! It was barely enough for the four of us (Hubby and I, Ty and Zoey) so if you have more people, double and make two!
Served this with a simple romaine salad, with tomatoes, avocado and croutons. E.V. olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing.

Flank Steak on the Grill

So this was a new one for me. Can't believe I haven't tried Flank Steak before...but we don't eat a lot of meat, and when we do it's always tri-tip! But I've made the vow to try one new thing a week, so this week it's Flank Steak! My husband says, "It doesn't sound very good, Flank?"...he's always saying stuff like that, but I just ignored him. Ha! But we all really liked it...not sure if I loved it like I do the tri-tip, but it was nice to mix things up.
I made up a nice spice rub of:
1 tsp. Cumin,
1 tsp. each garlic and onion powders
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper
1 tsp. coriander (or more if you love it like me!)
Ground red pepper (to taste...depending on how spicy you want it)
Put this all over the 1.5 lb steak, both sides.
Medium-high grill to start, then after seared meat, turned it down to med then low.
It only took about 10-12 min to cook, turning over a couple times. This was to about medium, still a little pink inside.
Let this rest for about 5 min., then sliced it ACROSS the grain. This is very important, as it could be tough if you don't slice it this way.

Served this with green beans I roasted in the oven with evoo, salt and pepper, then finished with a little lime juice. Also made a box of Jiffy Corn Muffins...but I like to doctor these up, and I added honey, some regular flour, extra baking powder and a little more milk.
All in all, a very nice meal eaten outside on the patio with the family!