Flan Almendrado (Almond Flan)

Whenever we go out for Mexican food, which is quite often, the meal is always ended with a piece of flan. So it was a no-brainer for me to make flan for an outstanding end to our Cinco de Mayo dinner. If you've never had flan, I strongly, strongly encourage you to try it. Like, now. It's a silky smooth egg custard with a burnt sugar syrup. The best part about flan - it is so easy to make!

I always use the same recipe - why change it up if you've already got a winner?!? Of course the recipe is from one of Austin's best gourmet Mexican restaurants, so that helps a lot. Try it and I know you'll love it too!

Flan Almendrado

adapted only slightly from Fonda San Miguel Thirty Years of Food and Art cookbook

3/4 c sugar

2/3 c blanched, silvered almonds

1 1/2 (14-oz) cans sweetened condensed milk

1 c whole milk

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oven rack in middle position. Put sugar in a round 9-by-3-inch nonstick cake pan. Using heavy oven mitts or tongs, place pan directly over medium heat to caramelize the sugar. Heat until sugar liquefies, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Do not touch the melted sugar - it will cause serious burns. When the hot liquid in the pan is a golden brown, remove from heat and set aside on a rack to cool and harden.

In a blender or food processor, process almonds until they are fairly finely ground. Add condensed milk, whole milk, eggs, yolks, and vanilla to almonds. Process until well blended. Pour custard mixture over prepared caramel. Place the cake pan in a larger, deeper pan (I use a roasting pan) and pour about an inch of hot water around the cake pan to make a water bath. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the flan is set in the center and no longer jiggles. Remove from oven and cool on a rack at room temperature. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour.

To serve, run a knife or thin spatula around the edge of the flan to release it from the sides of the pan. Place a 10-inch (or larger) serving platter on top of the pan. Turn the platter over and gently remove the cake pan, leaving flan on the serving platter. (If the flan doesn't easily come out, place the cake pan on the stove over medium-low heat for 30 seconds to 1 minutes to just barely melt the sugar. Try inverting the cake pan again, and the flan should come right out.) Using a flexible spatula, scrape up as much of the caramel as possible from the bottom of the pan and pour over the flan. Cut into triangular wedges and serve. Makes 8 to 12 slices.

Read more...

Spinach and Boursin Mac & Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese, and I've almost convinced myself that this recipe is healthy as it contains spinach and uses whole wheat pasta! Even better, Finley ate it all - including spinach. Praise the Lord! Finley has developed a nasty habit of separating anything green from the rest of her food and then refusing to eat the greens. So getting her to eat spinach is a major feat!

Spinach and Boursin Mac & Cheese

8 oz whole wheat rotini (or other short pasta)

1 T butter

1/2 white onion, diced

2 heaping T flour

1 1/2 c whole milk

1 (5.2-oz) pkg Shallot & Chive Boursin cheese

1/4 c grated parmesan

1 (10-oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry of excess moisture

salt and pepper, to taste

1/8 t ground nutmeg

3 T walnuts, finely chopped

3 T panko breadcrumbs

1 1/2 T grated parmesan

2 t olive oil

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain. Preheat broiler.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, saute onion in butter until onion is soft. Add flour and stir to coat onion. Let cook one minute. Add milk and whisk constantly to prevent lumps. Let sauce simmer 1-2 minutes, or until thickened.

Lower heat to medium-low and stir in Boursin a little at a time until melted. Take pan off of heat and stir in parmesan, spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Carefully stir in cooked pasta. Pour into a greased casserole pan.

In a small bowl, stir together walnuts, panko breadcrumbs and parmesan. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and mix well. Sprinkle topping evenly over casserole. Broil about 5 minutes to toast topping. Watch carefully since each broiler is a little different and the topping can go from toasted to burned quickly.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish or 4 as a main dish

Read more...

Goat Cheese in Basil Oil

I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats, which is a great cooking blog in my humble opinion, and I knew I had to make it for one of my mom's weekly board meetings. You see, my sweet husband doesn't like goat cheese so I knew I couldn't make it for him. Too bad because it would be a spectacular starter for a romantic meal at home. But alas, I digress. Luckily I had another option where I could make it and take it and have it be appreciated - by someone other than myself! I love the simplicity of the recipe yet it looks, and tastes, very gourmet. And the vividness of the basil oil just screams springtime to me!

Here is a link to the original recipe, which I meant to follow exactly but accidentally combined the parmesan into the goat cheese. Hence why my version of the recipe can't be called Parmesan Crusted Goat Cheese with Basil Oil. Anyway, other than putting the parm in with the goat cheese, I followed the rest of the directions.

One word of warning: garlic. Raw garlic is pretty potent stuff and for me the two cloves of garlic were too powerful. (I woke up in the middle of the night burping garlic. Not cool.) So the next time I make it, I think I'll omit the garlic or substitute roasted garlic for the raw stuff. But if you like raw garlic, then the original recipe probably will be right up your alley!

Read more...

Celery and Parmesan Salad

Whenever I make Italian food, I will serve a Caesar salad or a salad with a red wine vinaigrette. But I needed some thing new tonight because I was growing bored with the old stand-bys. I remembered a recipe from Ina Garten's newest cookbook How Easy Is That? that I thought could be exactly what I was craving.

I really enjoyed the crispness of the celery with the tart lemon dressing and the large slices of shaved parmesan made it all absolutely divine. It seems like a very gourmet salad but all the ingredients were easy to find, "normal" ingredients. Between the two of us, Andrew and I polished off the entire salad! I think this salad would make an elegant starter when serving any kind of heavy meal because, even though it's packed with flavor, it's a really light salad. I will definitely be making this one again!

Celery and Parmesan Salad

recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?

1/2 c good olive oil

2 t grated lemon zest

1/4 c plus 1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)

2 T minced shallots

1 t celery seed

1/2 t celery salt

1/2 t anchovy paste

Kosher salt and pepper

5 c thinly sliced celery hearts, tender leaves included, sliced as thinly as possible and on an

angle (about 12 stalks)*

4 oz chunk aged Parmesan cheese

2/3 c toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

Whole flat-leaf parsley (I accidentally omitted this)

At least one hour before you plan to serve the salad, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, 1/4 c lemon juice, shallots, celery seed, celery salt, anchovy paste, 2 t salt and 1 t pepper. Place the celery in a mixing bowl and toss it with the remaining 1 T lemon juice and 1/2 t salt. (Even though these ingredients are in the dressing, believe me - this step makes a difference.) Add enough dressing to moisten well. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the flavors to develop.

When ready to serve, arrange the celery on a platter, shave the parmesan onto the celery with a vegetable peeler, then sprinkle with walnuts, parsley leaves, salt and pepper and serve immediately.

*it really helps to use a mandolin to slice the celery - it provides evenly sliced celery in a fraction of the time.

Read more...

Nutella Crepes with Berries

There are several of my friends that all had children around the same time and we started a play group when our kids were just a few months old. Every now and then we get together without the kids for a moms night out and we always have a great time! At our last dinner, we went to a new restaurant/wine bar and we ordered a bunch of appetizers and split them. When it came time for dessert, we were all drawn to their Nutella Crepe with Berries, so we ordered one...and then another one. It was a fabulous end to a great meal! Since that night, I've often thought of that wonderful dessert, so I decided to re-create it tonight. And it was just as good as I remembered!

I used my mother-in-law's crepe recipe but you could easily substitute store-bought crepes if you're in a pinch. Also the components of this recipe can be made ahead of time and then assembled just prior to eating.

Nutella Crepes with Berries

for the crepes

3 eggs

1 3/4 c milk

1 c all-purpose flour

1/2 t salt

2 T sugar

1 T vegetable oil

non-stick spray or melted butter, for greasing the pan

for the filling

10 T nutella

for the berries

2 1/2 c fresh berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or an assortment of the three)

2 T sugar

2 T water

For the crepes: In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients and blend well. Stir it with a spoon to make sure there aren't any lumps. The batter will be thin and smooth.

Put an 8-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick spray (or brush with melted butter). Pour about 1/4 c of batter into the pan and quickly swirl it to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. (You want the crepes paper thin.) Cook for about 30-45 seconds, or until the edges just start to turn golden. Flip the crepe and cook an additional 30 seconds. Slip the crepe onto a plate and repeat with remaining batter. You should get 10-12 crepes. (I always use pieces of wax paper between the crepes so they don't stick together.)

For the berries: In a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, add 1 1/2 c berries, water (or port wine would be a great substitute for the water!) and sugar. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Lower heat and cook an additional 8 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly.

For assembly: Place a crepe on your work surface. Spread about 1 T nutella on half of the crepe. (I only put Nutella on half of the crepe because it's pretty rich, but if you're feeling decadent, by all means, spread it over the whole thing!) Roll the crepe up and slice in half width-wise. Spoon on some berry compote and enjoy!

Read more...

Golden Lemon-Olive Chicken with Couscous

I saw this recipe on an episode of Rachael Ray's new show Week in a Day and it looked so good that I immediately went to the computer and printed it off. I finally got around to making it for dinner tonight and it received mix reviews. I thought it was good and a nice change of pace from more traditional American dinners. To me, it was fun to throw a more exotic dish into our normal dinner rotation.

My husband was not a fan of it though. He thought it was too citrus-y and that the other flavors were muddled because of the strength of the lemons, which I don't disagree with but I guess I just like lemons more than he does! Since it was a split decision, I probably won't make it again, but I still wanted to pass it along in case others want to try it for themselves.

Read more...

Quick Quesadillas

Usually I prepare Finley's lunch during her nap so that it's ready to go when she wakes up. Her first word after waking up is almost always "eat!" Well today she woke up early and I hadn't had any time to plan, much less prepare, her lunch. So I was in need of a quick lunch for Finley and me. I looked at the odds and ends that we already had in the fridge and decided on quesadillas - and they turned out great! I can't wait to make them again tomorrow for lunch! What makes this quesadilla so scrumptious is the flavor of the onion and chive cream cheese, so don't skip it. All in all, a great easy lunch - almost no prep time, quick cooking, got some veggies in and I already had every ingredient.

Quick Quesadilla

butter

flour tortillas

onion and chive cream cheese

sliced or shredded cheese (I used muenster)

deli meat (I used smoked turkey)

spinach (or another green - arugula, romaine, kale, etc.)

In a pan over medium heat, melt butter. Let it get good and hot before you start cooking the quesadilla or else the tortilla won't get very crispy. Spread a tortilla with a thin layer of cream cheese. Over half of the tortilla, top with cheese, meat and spinach. Fold over to create a "sandwich" and carefully slip into the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese has started to melt and flip over. Continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes and remove from pan. Cut into wedges and let cool slightly before eating.

Read more...