Sweet and Spicy Green Beans

We needed a side dish and had some fresh green beans, but I wanted to add a little something to them. I just get sick of the same old steamed green beans after awhile. I found this recipe and it was so good! Definitely a keeper!

3/4 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. garlic chili sauce
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. canola oil - I used olive oil

Arrange a steamer basket in a pot over boiling water, and steam the green beans 3 to 4 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, garlic, garlic chili sauce, and honey. Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the green beans, and fry for 3 to 5 minutes. Pour in the soy sauce mixture. Continue cooking and stirring 2 minutes, or until the liquid is nearly evaporated. Serve immediately.

Au Gratin Potatoes

Potatoes + cheese = delicious! These were surprisingly easy to make, but they do take awhile to cook, so you definitely have to plan in advance to make them. We didn't have any cheddar cheese though, so I used 3 slices of Muenster and 3 slices of Colby.

4 russet potatoes, sliced thin
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 1 quart casserole dish. Mix together the potatoes and onions and place in the prepared casserole dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste. In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Pour cheese over the potatoes, and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake 1 - 1-1/2 hours in the preheated oven.

Beet Salad

We love beets! Almost as much as we love asparagus, so we eat them pretty often. Well we get sick of just eating them the same way all the time so I tried to spruce them up a little. Here's what I came up with.

One can sliced beets
1 stalk celery, chopped
4-5 radishes, sliced
handful chopped parsley

Dressing:
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the veggies and dressing together and you have a quick and easy salad.

Lemon Orzo Salad

I love Orzo...such a fun little pasta. I wanted a cold pasta salad and just sort of threw this together. It was delish!

1/2 pound cooked orzo
1 lemon, juiced
3-4 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Cook orzo according to directions and cool. Into a bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon. (Use half a lemon if you don't want too much lemon taste). Whisk the lemon juice while streaming in 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the parsley, salt and pepper. Add the cooked orzo to the bowl and toss.

And done...very easy!

Cucumber Salad

For as long as I can remember, this was always a side dish at Christmas dinner. I'm not sure if it's a Polish thing or what. Of course we don't just eat it at Christmas, but that's where I first remember seeing it. It's pretty simple and a nice summer side salad. This all depends on how many cucumbers you're using and how much sweet, sour and creamy consistency you like. I never measure anything for this, but here's something to sort of follow.

2-3 medium cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1-2 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 - 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. salt
dried or fresh dill to taste

Mix together everything in a bowl. Let sit in fridge for about 20 minutes for everything to come together. Enjoy!

Parsley-Basil mashed potatoes

We wanted something different than regular old boring mashed potatoes, so I decided to make use of our little herb garden and put in some fresh basil and parsley. They were even better the next day since the herbs had sort of infused into the potatoes.

Veggie Fried Rice

So, Jim was perusing All Recipes and came across this chicken fried rice recipe. He decided to leave out the chicken and just use veggies...with some minor changes and substitutions of course. It was so yummy. We have a ton left over since he didn't cut the recipe in half (6 cups of rice is quite a bit), but I'm sure we'll polish it off in the next few days.

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 large carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 small zucchini chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4" - 1" piece of ginger, minced
6 cups cooked white rice
2 eggs, scrambled
1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft, then add the 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, zucchini, garlic, ginger and stir-fry another 5 minutes. Then add rice and stir thoroughly. Finally, stir in scrambled eggs and 1/3 cup soy sauce, heat through and serve hot.

Spicy Hoisin Glazed Eggplant and Summer Squash

Jim came across this recipe, and since we had some eggplant (and summer squash) on hand, we figured we'd give it a shot. Hoisin sauce is soy-based and regularly used in Chinese dishes, as well as stir-fry recipes. So while I may have had it in a Chinese dish sometime in the past (who knows), we've never gone out and bought it and used it to cook with at home. Let's just say that hoisin has a distinct flavor and I wasn't really too fond of this dish. Jim on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed it. (We didn't have the cilantro, so we just left it out...we're not huge fans of it anyway, so no big loss).

1 tablespoon canola oil

1-inch piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon red chili flakes

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 medium eggplant, ends trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices, lengthwise

6 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic and red chili flakes and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the hoisin, vinegar and soy sauce until combined and then strain, reserving the sauce.

Heat grill to high.

Brush eggplant (and summer squash) slices on both sides with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the slices on the grill and grill until golden brown and slightly charred, 4 to 5 minutes. Brush with some of the glaze, turn over and continue grilling just until cooked through, brushing with more of the glaze, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Remove from the grill and brush with the remaining glaze. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with the cilantro.

Sauteed Corn and Red Peppers

We needed a side dish and had some frozen corn, half of a red pepper and some onion. So I decided to throw it all together and it turned out pretty good.

1-2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed in the refrigerator

1 small onion, diced

1/2 -1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tsp. garlic powder

salt and pepper

In a non-stick skillet, heat the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but not smoking Add onion and and pepper and saute, stirring, until tender but still crunchy. Add corn and continue to cook until tender. Stir in garlic powder and cook for another minute or so. Season with salt and pepper.

Roasted potatoes

I like to make roasted potatoes every now and then as a side dish. It's pretty simple. I just wash and cut up a few potatoes, but them on a baking sheet, add olive oil, salt and pepper, and whatever herb I'm feeling that day. For the ones in the picture below, I just added dried basil. You could use anything though; chili powder and cumin is good. I cook them at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. Delish!

Roasted lemon-garlic asparagus

We LOVE asparagus, but plain old grilled and steamed was getting boring, so I decided to add a little flavor to it.

For regular roasted asparagus (which we probably make 1-2 times a week) I just use olive oil, salt and pepper.

1 bunch fresh asparagus, washed*
2-3 cloves finely minced garlic
1 lemon, zested
freshly ground pepper
kosher salt
olive oil to coat
lemon wedges (cut from the zested lemon)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet. Add garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper to taste, and enough olive oil to coat the asparagus. Using your hands, just sort of mix everything together on the baking sheet until the asparagus are well coated. Cook for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your asparagus. I find that thinner ones take about 15 minutes. When they come out of the oven, squeeze a little lemon juice on them and voila...yummy asparagus.

*Cut/break/snip the ends off the asparagus (hold asparagus, one at a time, in your hands near the cut end and snap it like kindling. Mother Nature saw to it that the asparagus breaks in just the right spot).

Black Bean Salad

I found this recipe on the Food Network website, but I didn't have all the ingredients I needed. I made do of course, and it turned out quite delicious.

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of frozen corn
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. hot sauce
1 lime, juiced
2 tbsp. vegetable or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl. If making this right before dinner, let it sit out on the counter for about 15 minutes as to let the corn defrost. The frozen corn will keep a chill on the salad. I made it a few hours in advance so I just popped it in the fridge and the corn defrosted in there.

The two ingredients I didn't have were the bell pepper and the red onion. I left the bell pepper out completely, but used a vidalia onion instead of the red. The sweet vidalia worked just fine. Enjoy!