red or green?: March 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Sugar Snap Peas & Peppers

This recipe is so easy calling it a "recipe" may be a stretch. Fresh as possible spring sugar snap peas, good extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and jarred sweet/hot cherry peppers for a bit of heat quickly sauteed for a few minutes, and you are good to go. The dish is delicious and so beautiful on a white plate.

Sugar snap peas are a healthy way to add color, taste and nutrition to your diet. Their edible pods mean they are quick and easy to prepare. SF Gate says:

A 3-ounce serving of raw sugar snap peas provides 50 milligrams of vitamin C, more than half the recommended daily intake for that antioxidant nutrient. It is also a rich source of some B-complex vitamins, giving you nearly half the niacin and one-tenth of the folate you need each day, boosting your intake of these nutrients that help your body convert food to energy. It gives you one-fifth of the vitamin K you need, ensuring that your blood clots properly and supporting your bone health. Boiled sugar snap peas have 40 milligrams of vitamin C and about the same amount of niacin, folate and vitamin K as raw sugar snap peas.

Give this dish a try. You will be glad you did.

Sugar Snap Peas & Peppers
(serves 6)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb sugar snap peas, cleaned and trimmed
1 cup jarred sweet/hot cherry peppers cut into bite-sized pieces (I like the Trader Joe's brand)
sea salt

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peas and saute until crisp-tender. (approx 3 minutes). Add the peppers and saute another minute. Season with salt and serve.

It is Spring Peas Week at Food Network's Sensational Sides roundup. Do you have a favorite peas recipe to share? Please list (or link) in the comments below. And be sure to check out the other delicious sounding recipes from my blogger friends and Food Network.

Taste with the Eyes: Succulent Fresh Fish and Spring Produce
Devour: Crowd-Peasing Recipes Using 3 Varieties of Spring Peas
Creative Culinary: Spaghetti with Pea and Pine Nut Pesto
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Pasta with Spring Peas & Pancetta
Red or Green: Sugar Snap Peas & Peppers
Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Peas and Cottage Cheese Curry
The Mom 100: Sauteed Vegetable Frittata
FN Dish: 5 Ways Peas Are Better with the Italian Treatment

best,

diane

napa farmhouse 1885

red or green?

California Girl in Taos

MoseyLove
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I have started sharing my newest blog "California Girl in Taos." Please visit and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Pasta with Kale, Garlic & Calabrian Chile

Ok, so I know spicy chile, garlic and kale pasta is not your typical Easter side dish fare but just imagine it paired with roast beef, or lamb or turkey. Gorgeous color, fresh taste, loads of flavor. It just shouts spring to me. Best of all you have a delicious main dish for your vegetarian friends. Happy Spring everyone!

The key to this dish is Calabrian Chile paste. I love the Silanfunghi brand of chile paste and used to buy it by the case at NapaStyle, Michael Chiarello's store, and catalog. They are "rebranding" and not taking orders at this time, so I have found other brands on Amazon. I am pretty addicted to this sauce and always have a number of jars in my pantry. Try the chile drizzled on pizza, or eggs, or vegetables of any sort. It is spicy but not "stupid hot" as my husband likes to say. I shared a recipe this week for Sauteed Broccolini With Garlic and Chile On Toast over on my Napa Farmhouse 1885 blog. The broccolini also features the chile sauce. You should give it a try too.

Pasta with Kale, Garlic & Calabrian Chile
(serves 6)

6 oz kale leaves, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces
extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 cup pine nuts
2-3 heaping teaspoons Calabrian Chile Paste. ( I like the Sil brand)
sea salt
black pepper
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
16 oz tubular pasta, cooked according to the package directions

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Stir in the kale and 1 cup of water. Cover pan and allow kale to cook until crisp-tender. (about 4-5 minutes). Remove cover and saute kale until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, the garlic, pine nuts and a pinch each salt and pepper. Cook for 1 minute. Add 2 tablespoons chile paste and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

Add the hot, cooked pasta to the skillet and stir to combine. Taste and add the additional tablespoon chile paste if you want a spicier dish. Generously top pasta with cheese and serve.

It is Easter Sides Week at Food Network's Sensational Sides roundup. Do you have a favorite side dish recipe to share? Please list (or link) in the comments below. And be sure to check out the other delicious sounding recipes from my blogger friends and Food Network.

The Lemon Bowl: Roasted Asparagus and Tangerines with Toasted Almonds
Devour: Have a Hoppin’ Easter with These Remixed Brunch and Dinner Dishes
Creative Culinary: Deviled Eggs with Lemon Zest, Capers and Chives
The Mom 100: Spring Greens Salad with Kohlrabi and Golden Beets
Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Vanilla Pudding with Fruit Jam Topping
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Sauteed Broccolini With Garlic And Chile On Toast
Red or Green: Pasta With Kale, Garlic & Calabrian Chile
Big Girls, Small Kitchen: Fennel & Cherry Tomato Salad with Toasted Pistachios
Healthy Eats: 5 Spring Sides for a Healthier Easter Feast
Taste with the Eyes: Butter Lettuce Cups with Fried Goat Cheese, Green Apple, Meyer Lemon Cream
The Wimpy Vegetarian: Creamy Feta and Asparagus Casserole with Orzo
FN Dish: 5 Side Dishes That Are More Important Than the Easter Ham

best,

diane

napa farmhouse 1885

red or green?

California Girl in Taos

MoseyLove
please follow me on Facebook

I have started sharing my newest blog "California Girl in Taos." Please visit and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Spiced Gingerbread Cake

I first posted the recipe over on my Napa Farmhouse 1885 blog back in 2009. Some of my favorite food bloggers guest-hosted the site for a Thanksgiving roundup. My blogger friend Theresa Loe submitted this post. Since then, it has become one of my favorite cakes and I make it year round. The spicy ginger flavor is perfect for a blog about spicy food. Enjoy!

Holiday Spices Evoke Memories, By Theresa Loe

"They say that the sense of smell is closely tied to the memory portion of our brains. Various aromas can immediately take us back to recollections of our past. I’ve experienced the way a perfume will remind me of someone from long ago or how the aroma of certain foods reminds me of the kitchen from my childhood.

When I smell the spicy aroma of ginger, it immediately makes me think of holiday preparations as a little girl helping my mother make gingerbread. Growing up, our kitchen was a hustle and bustle of activity for weeks before Thanksgiving (and all the way through Christmas). The whole house was filled with the wonderful aromas of ginger, cinnamon and allspice.
My mom loves to, bake and she passed that love on to me. As a little girl, I always had the important job of measuring these spices and stirring the ingredients when she was making something delicious. While other households only made pie, we were making gingerbread cake, gingerbread cookies, bread puddings and spicy pies with extra ginger and cinnamon.

During these baking sessions, I learned many important culinary trade secrets. But more importantly, I built a closeness with my mother that I don’t think we could have forged any other way. Baking gave us common ground for intimate mother/daughter talks and I soon realized that it was those moments in time I cherish the most. As a kid, you think you will grow up to remember the movies, toys, and games played with friends. But in reality, it is the unplanned moments with loved ones that touch our hearts and remain as snapshots in our memories. Having a strong fragrance like ground ginger associated with those snapshots creates an even stronger spot in our memory banks. For this reason, I do a lot of baking with my own children. I’m hoping to create new memory snapshots.

The close bonds my mother and I forged many years ago still exist between us today. No matter what differences we have had, we can always come together to share a recipe. It is no wonder that the smell of ginger reminds me of a warm, inviting kitchen filled with holiday sweets and my mother’s love!

Although most people only associate ground ginger with gingerbread, there are many other
wonderful ways to enjoy the spice. Below is a recipe for gingerbread cake that we like to make each year."

Gingerbread Cake
This recipe is a spiced up version of traditional gingerbread cake. When you bake it, it fills your home with all the aromas of the holidays.

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup hard-packed dark brown sugar
1 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground coriander
1 cup boiling water
Whipped cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, and molasses until creamy. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder baking soda and spices. Mix well. To the butter mixture, add the flour mixture alternately with the water, stirring well until combined. Pour into a greased 8-inch square baking pan. Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool ten minutes before removing cake from pan. Set on wire rack to cool completely. Serve with whipped cream
.
About Theresa....Theresa Loe gardens and cooks with her husband and two young boys in Southern California. She is also a locally syndicated newspaper garden columnist, author (The 2009 Herbal Calendar, Tidemark Press) and freelance writer specializing in utilizing fresh-from-the-garden ingredients for food and decorations in the home. She blogs at http://www.gardenfreshliving.com/ which is a place to learn about organic gardening and fun ways to bring the freshness of the garden into our everyday lives.