Lentil Tacos

I love meat. I really do. It's delicious. However, sometimes I decide to give the animals a break and have a vegetarian meal. Note: I do not want hippie food. I do not eat hippie food. Hippie food is lame. These lentil tacos have a ton of flavor; you won't miss the meat. Promise.

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried brown lentils, rinsed
1 package (2.25 ounce) taco seasoning
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, finely chopped (use half for less heat) - I didn't use this time but if you have, it really adds a nice flavor
2 teaspoons adobo sauce - same note as above
8 taco shells
toppings: shredded lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onion, garlic and salt until onion begins to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Add lentils and taco seasoning. Cook until spices are fragrant and lentils are dry, about 1 minute. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Mix sour cream, chile and adobo sauce in a bowl. Uncover lentils and cook until mixture thickens, 6 to 8 minutes. Mash with a rubber spatula. Spoon 1/4 cup lentil mixture into each taco shell. Top with 2 heaping teaspoons sour cream mixture, lettuce, tomato and cheese.

Pete's Breakfast Sandwich

In honor of Father's Day, as well as the recent passing of Jimmy Dean, it was a no-brainer when it came to deciding what recipe to feature next. This sandwich has been a staple in the Burnett household for as long as I can remember. Pete used to be the only one that would eat it, because of course, he "created" it, but both Jan and I both have grown to love it. We request it for breakfast whenever we go home, even though it grosses Sally out. Don't leave out the mayo - it is the best part!

Happy Father's Day to the most rad dad around, Pete Burnett! Love you!

Ingredients:
Jimmy Dean sausage (Hot is the Burnett preference) - RIP JD!
Eggs
Mayonnaise (Pete will only eat Blue Plate)
White bread (preferably cheap store brand)
Butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown sausage in pan. Drain and set aside. Scramble eggs in same pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. On one side of the bread, spread with butter. On the other side, spread with mayo. Fill with egg/sausage mixture and grill in pan until buttered sides are brown. Slice and serve.

Broccoli Slaw

I had an impromptu rooftop bbq the other night and was on the hunt for a quick side. Potato salad? Takes too long. Macaroni salad? Mayo Glop City. I went to my lovely neighborhood market, Brooklyn Fare, to take a look at their pre-made sides and found a great looking broccoli slaw. I had seen the bagged mix in the grocery, but I had never had it before. I was so suprised to realize how yummy it was that night on the roof. I picked up some broccoli on yesterday and found an easy recipe tonight. With my trusty food processor, whipping this up was super simple and even though I plan on eating tomorrow with my lunch, I took a bite to taste..... yum yum! Try this as a new side this summer for something different.

Ingredients:
2 heads broccoli
1/2 cup golden raisins (Feel free to improvise here; cranberries or currants would be excellent substitutions)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
3/4 cup slivered almonds (or whole almonds that have been roughly chopped)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper

Shred the broccoli in a food processor, using the grater disk. In a large bowl, combine the shredded broccoli, raisins, red onion, and almonds.

Whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, salt, and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Pour the dressing over the broccoli mixture and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt or pepper, if needed.

Allow to sit for 30 minutes (or an hour in the fridge) so the flavors can mingle.

I read in some of the recipe reviews that some people added bacon....mmm.....bacon. Just passing on the suggestion.

Roasted Eye of Round

Eye of round was on sale today at the grocery, so I decided to pick one up for dinner. I have never made it before but I found a simple recipe online that looked easy enough. It turned out to be a bit more medium than the usual rare I prefer, but that's my fault for cooking it a bit too long. Don't worry - I wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't worth it - definitely a tasty EASY meal that I would make again. Use the leftovers for a french dip sandwich the next day...if there are any!

Ingredients:
Roast:
1 eye of round beef roast
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Gravy:
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ketchup
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Place eye of round beef roast in roaster or pan uncovered. Season heavily with salt, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper.


Roast in oven for 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Do not open oven door or the heat will be lost.

Allow the roast to sit in the oven for 20 minutes per pound. A lot of the reviews for the recipe suggested letting it sit 1.5 hours even if it was on the smaller side. This was a mistake on my part. I don't like brown meat. I like red meat. Very very bloody red meat. But hey, beginner here with roast - I'll get it next time! But take this as my warning. I would stick with the 20 min rule if you like a more pink roast.


Gravy:
When roast is done, remove from the pan and make a gravy with the juices by adding gravy ingredients from above. Stir ingredients right in the pan the roast was cooked in (on top of the stove), scraping up the flavorful bits from the pan. Cook over low heat until thickened, adjusting seasonings to taste. A teaspoon of beef bouillon may be added for extra flavor if needed. If the roast didn't have much in the way of drippings, add a tablespoon of butter to the gravy.


Next, just slice and serve with the delicious gravy. Don't be upset by the lack of color on my plate below. It's not pretty, I know, but it's summer - and I have decided I need to eat fresh sweet corn with as many meals as possible.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken

I had some chicken pieces I needed to cook tonight, but no recipe. I looked for one in a hurry at the end of the day that I had all of the ingredients for so I would not have to make a trip to the store. Eureka! Compliments of myrecipes.com, Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken to the rescue! I didn't follow my usual format because frankly, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out ----and I was busy cooking some sides as well. Turned out to be a fantastic dinner that I would definitely repeat again! The mix of sweet and spicy is super tasty. The only thing I would change is doubling up on the honey/vinegar mix at the end. I served with a fresh sweet corn saute and some good ole southern fried cabbage.....yum yum.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I used 1 t. because I love cayenne pepper)
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used a 3.5 lb. package of chicken pieces)
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side. (Since I used bigger pieces than thighs, I did 10 minutes on each side instead. Raw chicken = Yuckfest 2000)

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well.

Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Curried Chicken Salad

We recently had a pot luck at work this past Friday to kick off the beginning of summer...or well, when it starts to feel like summer at least. I decided to bring Curried Chicken Salad, that I served in small pita halves. Everyone loved it! I tripled the recipe below to make roughly 30 pitas. But if you use the recipe given here, it will be an excellent lunch for at 2 days at least. Feel free to serve on top of greens or in a pita like I did.

Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts (roughly 1 lb.)
1/2 cup light or regular mayo
1 t. honey
2 t. curry powder
1 t. ginger
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion (both green and white parts)
I like to add a little more variety here:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup red seadless grapes, halved (not pictured)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (not pictured)

Place the chicken breasts in a pot with enough hot water to cover them. Simmer gently, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, never letting the liquid boil. Make sure the chicken is done by slicing it in half to make sure it is no longer pink. When the chicken is done, set it aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken and green onions and mix well.
When chicken is cool enough to handle, tear or cut into bite-size cubes and mix with mayo mixture. Add a little more mayo if you want until the salad is the consistency you want. Last, add the green onion. Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Pickled Shrimp

I was recently invited by a lovely couple I know over to their new apartment for Easter brunch. Like a good Southern girl, I know that you never show up empty handed to a party. So I decided to make Papaw's Pickled Shrimp. This is a very common dish down South, but no one in New York has even heard of it. It's a simple appetizer that looks very elegant when displayed in any sort of glass or crystal serving dish.

My plan on Easter was to attend a Baptist Church in downtown Manhattan, run back to Brooklyn to pick up the shrimp and then be a bad Baptist and drink mimimos with friends all afternoon. However, little did I know that the people of Mariners Temple Baptist Church do not kid around when it comes to Easter Sunday service.. At around the 3 hour mark, they were still goin strong...and I was LATE to brunch. So unfortunately, I had to sneak out of church early, forego the trip to Brooklyn to retrieve the shrimp and just proceed uptown, grabbing a bottle of Prosecco along the way. The brunch was fantastic, and I got stuck eating the entire serving of pickled shrimp all by myself over the next days, which I totally loved. Poor me, I know. Next time, I promise to share.

Ingredients:

3-4 lbs. cooked, peeled shrimp

3/4 cup vinegar

2 1/2 T. capers and liquid

2 dashes Tabasco

3 or 4 pods of garlic

1-2 onions, sliced and separated into rings

1 1/3 cup salad oil

2 1/2 t. celery seed

2 t. salt
8 bay leaves

few dashes of Lea & Perrins

The first thing I did was go ahead and just slice the onions thinly for rings, as well as peel a few cloves of garlic.


I decided not to post the pics of the whole shrimp de-heading process because, well, they just aren't pretty. Unlike most people, I like de-heading the shrimp. So, if you ever need any help decapitating these yummy little monsters, give me a call. Once de-headed, I threw these fellows into some boiling water (I added a little Old Bay because I have it), and cooked for only 3 minutes. They don't have to be fully cooked, as the pickling process will continue to cook them even further. I drained them immediately, and then I peeled and de-veined them, leaving the tail on.

The next, and final step, just involved mixing all of the ingredients and then adding the shrimp and onions to the mixture. I added in some peppercorns as well, from a suggestion from my pal Mary Margaret. The shrimp need to marinate in this at least overnight to achieve the full pickeld flavor.

I decided to serve these in a cute Mason jar from The Container Store so that the dish would travel well, but really anything clear would do. You'll need a slotted spoon for serving. Yum Yum!