A nice little spinach salad

Hello Bloggers.  Since spinach is in season these days I thought I would offer a little salad idea.  It is good because it has one of my favourite ingredients...bacon!!
The salad itself is only made up of spinach, 4 or 100 bacon slices ( you decide) and hard boiled eggs.  you can add an 8oz can of artichokes but I don't because I am not a big fan. The dressing is what brings everything together.  Combine the following ingredients in a blender or use a wand and then refrigerate:
1cup olive oil
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
This makes a lot of dressing.  I usually cut this in half.  I took a picture but it is late and I just want to go to bed.  So, whoever makes this can upload a pic of it.  Hope you enjoy.  Don't be slacking on posting!!! We need to keep this alive!!!

Pasta with olives, spinach, and tomatoes

This is a recipe that is quick and feeds a lot of people. The key is that you need to use good olives. I buy a little barrel of kosher green olives that taste sort of like the ones you get in Spain. The olives take the place of any meat you would add to the pasta. You won't miss the meat at all. Otherwise, you will need:

1 lb of pasta

4 oz. of good green olives, chopped

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved

6 oz. of fresh baby spinach

4 cloves of garlic, diced

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup of pine nuts

red pepper flakes

parmesan cheese

Saute the garlic and olives together in the olive oil until the garlic is tender. Cook the pasta as directed in salted water to al dente. Add the tomatoes and cook an additional 3 minutes. Add the spinach when the tomatoes are tender and cook until wilted. Add the cooked pasta and one ladel full of the pasta water. Top with pine nuts, parmesan cheese and dried red pepper flakes.

Mushroom Egg Bake

Hey bloggers!  This is a good and tasty way to use up mushrooms either bought or freshly picked in the wild.  All you need is a pan that can be used on the stove as well as placed in the oven without catching on fire.  (We don't want our kitchen looking like Andy's after the maple candy bit)
In a pan saute a large chopped onion and two or three garlic cloves in olive oil or butter.  Then add sliced mushrooms.  For four people you need alot of them because this really cooks down.  After cooking the mushrooms, push them to the side of the pan and add a teaspoon of flour and a cup of white wine.  Stir out the lumps.  Cook the wine until all the alcohol evaporates.  To this mixture you can add a couple cayenne peppers and then take them out before serving if you like to add a little kick.  Once the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked, make a hole in the mixture and crack an egg into it.  I used four eggs so therefore you need four little holes of course.  Sprinkle eggs with salt and place in the oven.  I used the grill for 5 minutes and they were ready.  Garnish with toasted bread drizzled with olive oil, dried garlic and parsley.  This recipe comes from a chef here named Karlos Arguinano.  (Funny guy but not as funny as the Johnson twins)

Super Bowl Party

Well... our team didn't win the Super Bowl, so our entire household is experiencing a mild depression. However, we did have a great time with lots of our friends last night. We had about 60 people over for Macaroni and Cheese, Cole Slaw, Hot Dogs, and Wings. The Hot Dogs were the best part. We had a "Hot Dog Bar" with fixins like cheddar cheese, jalapeno peppers, olives, sauerkraut, bacon, crushed potato chips, pickles, relish, 3 different mustards, hot dog chili, and a few others. It was great for a party because we could prep everything ahead of time. So, once the party started people could eat whenever they were ready. Not gourmet... but good!

Andy's Sweet and Smoky Green Beans

Molly, the kids, and I were over at Andy's last evening for some dinner and to meet up with Mom and Dad. Of course I wanted to see where the maple candy incident had taken place so he gave me a tour of his kitchen...see photo above (see his Maple Candy Blogpost for full details). Its not as bad as it looks, because now it gives all of his recipes a sweet, smoky taste. Spanish tortilla, sardines, homemade pepperoni, and fresh green beans were on the menu. As we were snacking in anticipation of our parents, I found the green beans oddly delicious.

"Andy, what's in the green beans?"

"Salt and butter!"

"No sugar?"

"Nope, just beans, salt, and butter."

"Seriously? Nothing else? They're really good!"

I thought for a while and wondered why my best friend and brother would not share, what seemingly, was a simple recipe. After a few more tastes, I was able to use the Johnson palatte to pull out the special ingredients. Hidden between the sweet, fresh, green, and smoky of the beans was the faintness of crystallized maple candy. This oversight of the dishwasher allowed for a small amount of the crystallized maple candy to remain in the small crevice around the edge of the pan. The beans absorbed the sweet, smoky goodness and made for a wonderful side dish.

Moroccan Cured Lemons

These are a great accent to any rice, pasta, or meat dish that needs a little citrus flavor.

Ingredients:

5-6 lemons

Approximately 1-2 cups of Kosher salt

Peanut oil or sunflower oil

Directions:

Thoroughly wash and dry the lemons and then make 4 lateral cuts down the lemon as if you were cutting into 1/4 wedges. It is important not to cut completely through the lemon as they work better and look better whole. Take an attractive and sealable glass jar and place a handful of salt on the bottom. Jam as much salt as possible into each of the lateral cuts of the lemons and then place them into the jar. After each lemon is added, sprinkle an excessive amount of salt on top of each one. Once all lemons have been added to the jar, take a large wooden spoon and smash the lemons down so that juices fill the bottom 1/4 of the jar. Add dried peppers, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, or any other aromatic that would flavor the lemons and leave to rest on the counter for one week. Juice should slowly fill the jar and cover the lemons. After about a week, add additional lemon juice so that all lemons are covered and layer a small amount of the oil on top to prevent oxygen from getting in. Wait a total of 3 weeks, or until the lemons become soft, before using. These can be left on the counter indefinitely and function as a color accent as well.

To use:

Remove the lemons from the brine and scoop out the pulp and discard it. Thinly slice the rind and add to any recipe that calls for a little citrus. Beware...they do pack some salt, so go easy on additional salt in your recipes. These go very well with chicken and rice dishes!

Quesada

This is a really nice dessert which originates from Cantabria, Spain.  It is definitely filling and is usually cut into small squares because it is so rich.  Hope you like it.  This calls for a plain yogurt or a lemon flavoured yogurt and then the milk, sugar, and flour are then measured in the yogurt cup.  Here in Spain, the average yogurt is 125 grams (4.4 ounces) so anything around that size will do.
All you have to do is beat together the following ingredients:
3 eggs
1 plain or lemon flavoured yogurt
2 yogurt cups of milk
2 yogurt cups of sugar

1 yogurt cup of flour

7 fl ounces of cream ( a little over 3/4 cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

4 Laughing Cow cheese wedges (This is the second recipe that calls for this cheese.  Oh how it makes me laugh)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a pie pan with butter.  Bake for one hour.  This is much tastier at room temperature so I would wait for it to cool before eating! Buen provecho.

How to make maple candy

This was my first foray into the magical world of maple sugar, otherwise known as maple syrup, maple candy, and maple sap. I have been wanting to try this for a number of years, but the opportunity never arrived. I was forced to live vicariously through my brother who managed to boil down about 2.5 pints of syrup last year. I have to admit that this was supposed to be a recipe for maple syrup, but. . . Anyways, the recipe follows.

Ingredients:
5 gallons of pure maple sap

Directions:
Convince one of your neighbors that tapping their maple tree will be in their best interest and that it actually will not hurt the tree. Start by checking the tree, drill holes, hammer in taps, tubing, buckets, calm the neighbor, yada yada, etc. Place the tree sap into a large pot or two. Boil the sap for about 8 hours, or until the sap is decreased 40:1 (yes that is right, 8 hours or 40:1). After the 8 hours, you will have about 1.5 pints of "almost syrup." At this point you can put all of the liquid into a smaller pot in order to accurately measure the temperature of the liquid. For syrup, you need the temp to be approximately 220F. For candy. . . well, I'll explain later in the recipe.

Now is the important part. Place the smaller vessle on the stove on HIGH. Then go upstairs to kiss your babies, read them a story, and tuck them into bed. Afterall, it has taken 8 hours to get to this point - what could possible go wrong in ten ^&*$@!* minutes?

When the fire alarm goes off and the digital voice starts saying "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE", run downstairs and put the fire out. Don't relax yet, your work is not done. Place the burning pot on the counter and turn the gas stove off (otherwise the flames do not go away).

Warning: this is not a good time to taste or touch the product. It will be incredibly hot!!!

Now, clean the hell out of your stove and all other affected appliances. After you are finished, you can take stock of the product you have produced. It should be approximately 0.25 pints of useless, gummy, sticky, chewy, candy with the faint taste of burnt tree bark.

Enjoy. You earned it. And remember, never take your eyes off of the pot.