Roasted Broccoli

Roasted Broccoli with Pampered Chef Rub

chefjennylyn.com

Broccoli
Olive oil
Pampered Chef Rub (I used Garlic & Herb)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cut broccoli crowns from stalks, and rinse thoroughly.  Toss with olive oil and Pampered Chef Rub.
Spread broccoli on Medium Bar Pan, and bake 15 minutes or until crisp-tender.

I often tell people how good the Pampered Chef rubs are on vegetables, but I think it will be helpful to show exactly what I do.  First, choose which Rub you'd like to use.  I'm doing steak with a mushroom fettuccini, so Garlic & Herb seems more appropriate than, say, Buffalo.  Behind my bottle, you can see that I used the 5" Santoku Knife from the Forged Cutlery Collection and the Large Cutting Board to prep my broccoli.

I rinsed the broccoli in a Stainless Mesh Colander and tossed it with my Rub and olive oil in a Stainless Mixing Bowl.  This took place at approximately 6:20 p.m.

I got the perfect amount for the Medium Bar Pan, one of my favorite pieces in the Stoneware Collection.

15 minutes later, I had perfectly crisp-tender broccoli with excellent flavor.  When you're doing a couple of recipes that do take thought, it's great to have a healthy side that just goes in the oven without any measurements, etc.  That's the beauty of the Pampered Chef Rubs - all of the measuring is done for you!  My pan is on the Cooling Rack, and I have a Large Serving Spatula to dish it up.

Here are the other recipes in the picture:
Creamy Mushroom Fettuccini
Filet Mignon with Chive-Horseradish Butter

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Creamy Mushroom Fettuccini

Want to know something about me?  I love recipes.  I have four three-ring binders full of them in my kitchen, and I have a fifth binder of to-dos.  The beauty of recipes is that they don't expire, so there's no pressure to try that pasta dish that looked pretty good... tomorrow.  This was in my to-do binder, and it immediately earned itself a spot as a keeper.  Enjoy installment 2 of the "You can do Valentine's Day at home" collection!

 

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccini

chefjennylyn.com

9 oz. refrigerated fresh fettuccini
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
16 oz. sliced mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp. salt, divided (1/4 and 1/2)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 white wine (I sub chicken stock.)
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup)

Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil; swirl to coat.
Add onion, mushrooms, garlic, 1/4 tsp. salt, and pepper.  Sauté 12 minutes or until mushrooms are browned and have released their liquid. Add wine and thyme; cook 2 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally.  Remove pan from heat.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Once drained, add mushroom mixture, 1/2 tsp. salt, half-and-half, and Parmesan cheese to pan, tossing to combine.  Serve immediately.

* This is from Cooking Light, but I tweaked a few things.  More mushrooms, more onion, and more garlic, specifically.

 

 

I've shown this before, but this is the quickest way to coarsely chop an onion.  Cut one end off, keeping the fuzzy end.  Then slice it down the middle.  I'm using the 5" Santoku and the Large Cutting Board, my two most often used tools.

Slice the onion into strips, and then slice across, ending at the fuzzy spot.  You'll end up with small, dices pieces, and you won't even have to chase slippery onion around the cutting board.  Safety first!

I never get sick of seeing the Garlic Press do its thing.  You don't have to peel the garlic!  If you're not cooking with fresh garlic, you're missing out. It's ridiculously inexpensive, and it adds so much to every recipe!  Garlic is going into a Pinch Bowl here.

I like to combine ingredients that are going at the same time during prep because it makes things a bit more efficient when the heat is up, and you're adding things in stages.  So just grind the pepper right on top of the garlic.  Looking around, I've got the mushrooms in a Stainless Mesh Colander, the onion in a 1-Cup Prep Bowl, the oil in a Mini Easy-Read Measuring Cup, and my garlic mixture in a Pinch Bowl.

I've found that keeping the Mini Mix 'n Scraper handy for adding ingredients is awesome!  This thing fits right inside my Prep Bowls, Pinch Bowls, and Measuring Cups, so I don't fumble around trying to get things out while what's in the pan continues to cook.  (You can burn garlic in hot oil really quickly while you're trying to get the onion to pour from its bowl.)

Once everything is in the pan, I switch to the Mix 'n Scraper, my favorite tool for cooking.  This thing is a great size for most jobs, and it won't melt when it's left in the hot skillet.  I'm using the 10-Inch Skillet from the Executive Cookware Collection, and the 8-Qt. Stockpot is behind it.  Here's a tip for a recipe where you need a pasta boiled and added to another mixture.  Start the pasta water while you do everything else, and then move it to a large eye of the stove when it's time to really get going.  If you begin with cold water when you actually need to be cooking the pasta, you're going to be waiting a really long time.

The mushroom mixture cooks for 10 minutes, so I use that time to prep the rest of my ingredients.  Stock and half-and-half are in Easy Read Measuring Cups, Parmesan is in a Measuring Cup, and thyme is in a Measuring Spoon.

You should smell this.  Beautiful!

Fresh pasta only cooks for a minute, so this recipe comes together very quickly once the mushroom mixture is done.

While the pasta cooks, I get everything ready to pour in once it's drained.

The pasta drains in a Stainless Mesh Colander, and then everything is added back to the big, hot pot, and it's stirred together to become a delicious dish that pairs so well with beef that it's scary.

For the steak seen in the first picture: Filet Mignon with Chive-Horseradish Butter
And the broccoli: Roasted Broccoli (with Pampered Chef Rub)

 

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E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464

Filet Mignon with Chive-Horseradish Butter

 

Today is February 6th.  Valentine's Day is one week from tomorrow.  For a lot of people, that means a crowded restaurant, an overpriced meal, and sense that you've been herded in and out like cattle.  The solution?  Cook at home, friends!  A very nice meal can be prepared at home for a reasonable price, and you don't even have to tip at the end!  I'm all for really good food in my own house, so here's one of my favorite steak recipes.

 

Here are the other two recipes shown:

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccini

Roasted Broccoli

 

Filet Mignon with Chive-Horseradish Butter

chefjennylyn.com

 

5 tsp. butter, softened

1 tbsp. prepared horseradish

1 tbsp. minced fresh chives

4 beef tenderloin steaks

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil (for brushing steak)

 

Combine butter, horseradish, and chives in a small bowl; refrigerate 20 minutes.

 

Brush steaks with olive oil, and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.

 

Heat grill pan over medium-high heat.  Add steaks to pan, and cook 4-7 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.  (This soooo depends on the thickness of your steak!) Scoop butter mixture onto each steak.

 

I cut the butter into small pieces using a Quikut Paring Knife, and it's softening in a 1-Cup Prep Bowl.  I'm mincing chives with my favorite knife, the 5" Santoku from the Forged Cutlery Collection.  Here's a great tip on mincing, slicing, and dicing: When you get to the end, just let it go.  Don't try to get every last bit, or you'll be much more likely to cut yourself.  For those of us who are simple home cooks, no one expects heroism.  This is how I've used great knives without falling victim to the blade.  I have no problem throwing out twenty-five cents worth of green onion tops.  As always, I'm using the Large Cutting Board for all of that beautiful surface area.

I love that the shape of the Measuring Spoons is such that they get down inside spice bottles, horseradish bottles, etc.

Let's just take a moment to admire this beautiful meat.  Scroll to the bottom for a breakdown of what this meal cost to prepare, but for now, is this not the thickest steak you've ever seen?  To be honest, I like to buy filet as an entire tenderloin, and then I cut the steaks myself, but the store was out of tenderloins, and I had to buy pre-cut.  If I'd had it my way, the total ounces here would have been six steaks, not four.  Oh, well.

One thing I love about the Large Cutting Board is that one side has wells, and the other doesn't.  Once I've finished my vegetables and non-meat items, I can flip it over for beef preparation.  Notice I said NON-MEAT items - Don't do meat and then flip... obviously.  I brushed the meat with olive oil using my Chef's Silicone Kitchen Brush (hidden by my hand), and I had my olive oil in a Prep Bowl.  Then a sprinkle of Pampered Pantry Salt and Pepper with my Bamboo Grinder Set, and I'm ready to go!

This is a great time to use the "Count Up" feature on the Clock/Timer.  When the pan is sizzling and the vent is running (Side note: Turn on the vent fan.), you don't want to be tracking how long something has cooked.

Cook on one side.  Flip.  Finish.  Boom!  I'm using the Chef's Tongs here because they're gentle with that tender, beautiful meat, and they won't melt in my hot pan.

 

It only seems right to show the steak one more time since that last picture was so smoky.  Let me break down what this meal cost to prepare at home.  This is enough for four servings of everything.

 

Beef Tenderloin: $9.99/lb.  I spent $23, but my steaks were crazy thick.

Horseradish: $1.12

Broccoli: $2.99

Pasta: $2.38

Mushrooms: $5.00

Onion: $1.00

Chicken Stock: $.89

 

Everything else was on-hand (olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, etc.), so the grand total was....

 

$36.29 for four people = $9.07 per plate.

 

*** If you order a grill pan from me, I'll pay your shipping.  Happy grilling!***

(Contact me directly for this offer at the phone or email below.)

 

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E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464

 

 

 

 



Dak Bokkeum (Korean Stewed Chicken)

 

 

A good Korean recipe is a sure win in my kitchen.  When Cooking Light featured an article in which a Korean woman shared some of her recipes, I was thrilled.  Then I made this, and I was even more thrilled.  This is true Korean food that's made with a healthy dose of gochujang (Korean chile paste), and it's delicious!  Do you enjoy ethnic food?  Are you attending an international potluck soon?  Are you seeking to woo a special Korean man?  Make this.

 

Dak Bokkeum (Korean Stewed Chicken)

chefjennylyn.com

 

1/3 cup gochujang (Korean chile paste)

1 cup sliced green onions

2 1/2 tbsp. lower-sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp. minced fresh garlic

2 tbsp. minced peeled ginger

2 tbsp. dark sesame oil

1 tbsp. brown sugar

3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

 

2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced into strips

1/3 cup water

 

Rice or Asian noodles to serve

 

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir in chicken.  Cover and marinate 30 minutes.

 

Bring 1/3 cup water to a boil in a 4-qt. pot.  Add chicken mixture, and bring to a simmer.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.  Uncover, and simmer 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.  Serve over rice or Asian noodles.

 



 

When you're talking about slicing a cup worth of green onions, it's nice to have a good knife.  Enter: 5" Santoku Knife from the Forged Cutlery Collection.  It's my favorite, as you probably already know if you've ever read one of my posts.

All of my prepped ingredients are on the Large Cutting Board.  I've got Adjustable Measuring Spoons, the Easy Read Measuring Cups, an Easy Read Mini Measuring Cup, standard Measuring Spoons, a Kitchen Scraper, and a Vegetable Peeler working hard.

The Measure-All Cup is a Pampered Chef staple.  This thing is amazing!  Load it with a sticky ingredient, pop it out, and scrape it off.  I'm using the Skinny Scraper and the Classic Batter Bowl on this mixture.

Stir all of those beautiful ingredients together, and add the chicken.  This is one of those times I'm really glad the Batter Bowl includes a lid!

Don't skip the 30 minutes to marinate the chicken.  Trust me on this - totally worth the wait!

I'm using the 4-Qt. from the Executive Cookware Collection.  Also, I'm assuming you know this, but put the lid on when you want to bring water to a boil.  It significantly reduces the wait!

 

Notice how the Classic Scraper gets all of that marinade off the sides of the bowl.  Love my scrapers! I can almost taste this through the computer screen...

 

Let me make a couple of quick notes about this recipe.  One: It's spicy.  Two: It doesn't make enough to serve a crowd, so double the recipe if you're inviting company for dinner.  Three: Tell me if you make this!  Four: Enjoy.

 

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Shop Online 24/7 at pamperedchef.biz/jennylyn

E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464

 

 

 



 



How to Cut a Watermelon

It's October, and there are still watermelons in Houston, Texas.  I'm here helping my sister and her husband, as you may remember from recent posts, but here's something new: One of my duties is being the official watermelon cutter.  While I was preparing the latest melon, I decided to share my cutting method with you.  Slicing a watermelon is super simple for some people.  For others of us, it's kind of intimidating... until now.

Step 1: Slice the melon in half.

This just makes the thing more manageble, and that's important when you consider the size of your knife and the fondness you have for keeping your fingers intact.

Step 2: Slice the end off of one half, and turn the melon on its fat end. (For a base)

Here, I'm using the Large Cutting Board with the juice well side facing up.  Notice what I'm not using... layers of newspaper.  That's the 7" Santoku Knife from the Forged Cutlery Collection, by the way.

Step 3: Follow the curve of the melon with your knife, and slice the rind away, one piece at a time.

That's right - Get in there, and enjoy not wasting all the pink stuff.

See what you end up with?  A huge, pink mountain of delicious watermelon.

Step 4: Slice the mountain in half, and dice it however you see fit.  Then do the same with the other half.

We all have our own preferences.  I prefer small pieces of watermelon I can easily fit in a bowl, but you might be a fork and knife kind of eater.  This is where you can get crazy and do whatever you want!

Step 5: Repeat with the other watermelon half.

It's this easy.  Notice in this picture how the Large Cutting Board has caught the juice.  You know what else this piece did?  It kept my watermelon from sliding around!  That's pretty important because this knife is huge and sharp.  Again, I used the Large Cutting Board, the 7" Santoku Knife, and that huge bowl that held everything? That's one of the Stainless Mixing Bowls.

Enjoy your October watermelon if you're in Houston!  If not, I trust that you'll keep this post for Memorial Day, 2014!

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Call me up: (205) 585-2464

 

 

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

I doubt I'm the only person whose heart flutters a bit when she sees a nice pile of perfectly roasted potatoes on her plate.  I mean, who doesn't like hot, delicious, perfectly seasoned spuds?  Add some cheese to the equation, and we're talking heavenly!  My sister and I enjoy sharing recipes with one another, and as much as we appreciate a main dish suggestion, we find ourselves indebted to one another over a successful side.  I mean, side dishes are tough!  You can spend a ton of time and energy on them, and what if they're failures?  (This is where I still find myself mourning the butternut squash bread pudding that cost a fortune but tasted horrible... the one that my dad specifically asked me to never make again... the one that taught me a magazine can make a picture look pretty all day long, but pretty doesn't always translate to edible.)  When Betsy told me she'd found a potato dish she knew would be a steady repeat for her, I was sold.  Now it's in my arsenal, and I'd like to extend it to yours.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

chefjennylyn.com

4 cups cubed Yukon Gold potatoes
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. pepper
4 tbsp. Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Rub your stoneware with a little bit of olive oil to make sure that beautiful, delicious cheese doesn't stick.  Let's not leave any of it behind, friends.

Cube the potatoes to about 3/4-inch on all sides.  Place them in the dish.
Pour remaining ingredients over the potatoes, and mix everything together, making sure potatoes are coated well.
Bake for 30 minutes.  Then stir everything up, and bake another 15-25 minutes, letting them get golden and crispy.
Add a dusting of sea salt if you'd like.

* From one of Betsy's favorite blogs, What's Gabby Cooking.

 

I'm still at her house, so I had my sister helping on this recipe.  She measured the paprika into a Pinch Bowl while I cubed the potatoes.  She's using a spoon from the Measuring Spoon Set here.  I love how short this ingredient list is because it means I don't have to feel guilty getting help from someone who just had a baby!

Dicing potatoes!  These are on the Large Cutting Board, my favorite cutting board ever!  It has a large surface area, and then it goes right into the dishwasher.  Let's not even get started on its non-slip grippy sides.  Ok, so I'm using the 5" Santoku Knife, which is obviously covered in potato starch, and I'm putting my finished pieces in a Stainless Mixing Bowl.

Big, beautiful pile of potatoes... sign me up!

Potatoes are in the Square Baker, and other ingredients are measured into the Easy Read Mini Measuring Cup, the 1/4-Cup from the Measuring Cup Set, and a Pinch Bowl.

Grab your Mix 'n Scraper, give everything a good toss, and you're done!  Get ready for your house to smell delicious and for your dinner to be divine.  Enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Toffee Pie

Do you enjoy gooey things? Do you enjoy chocolate? Do you enjoy homemade desserts that don't break the bank? Do you enjoy nodding "yes" repeatedly? Ok, so here's the deal. I have good friends who send me recipes and blogs that make them think of me. When Holly forwarded me a recipe from Very Culinary, I made not only the cookies she suggested, but this pie, too. I mean, the picture looked great, and the ingredient list was short. Short enough, in fact, that I had everything on hand. I whipped this up for a party, and the rest is history. A massive headache (and about ten pounds) later, I decided this had to be shared with the world. Here I am a year down the road, and I finally made it with pictures.

This is one of those recipes where you can make the base and add whatever you have available. In today's case, I had toffee pieces begging to be used, so I went with more toffee than chocolate chips. Also, I'm not huge on nuts, but the original recipe calls for a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans. Bottom line: I use one cup of chocolate/candy and ditch all nuts. I'm writing the recipe the way I adapted it, but the original, along with a bunch of other great stuff, is over at Very Culinary.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

chefjennylyn.com

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs, well-beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips, toffee pieces, or whatever else you like

1 unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients, and place in pie crust. Bake 40-45 minutes.

Yes, that's all.

You know how I always go on and on about prep work? Well, a couple of days ago I was in a hurry making my favorite chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing, and I decided to skip this step. For the first time ever, I made the mistake of using baking powder instead of baking soda. How, you ask? Well, I grabbed and poured things as I went instead of carefully reading my ingredient list and getting measurements together at the beginning. When my cupcakes didn't rise, I felt sick to my stomach. All that time and energy, and they weren't right! They were edible... Heck, they were still delicious, but they weren't as good as they could have been. I won't make that mistake again. I'm utilizing the Measuring Cup Set, the Measuring Spoon Set, the Easy Read Measuring Cups, and the Cutting Board here.

To save on dirty dishes, I beat the eggs in a Stainless Mixing Bowl and add everything to them after they're beaten. Perhaps that seems obvious to those who have baked a while, but it was a novelty when I realized I was dirtying one less bowl by doing this. See the Stainless Whisk? It never gets things stuck inside! Nor does it rust. Or bend. Or come apart. Or change at all. I allow the butter to melt in the 1 1/2-qt. Saucepan from the Executive Cookware Collection while I prep everything else. The Mini Mix 'n Scraper is in the pan, and notice it's not melting. Ah, I love our Silicone Scrapers!

This is Clean Jenny's Pantry Day. I finished off a bag of mini chips, a bag of regular chips, a bag of chocolate chunks, and a bag of toffee pieces. Hi, I'm Jenny, and I'm a genius.

How about this?!?! Don't you just want to eat all the batter? Trust me - it's good. I took my frozen crust from its foil and placed it in the Deep Dish Pie Plate because I needed Stoneware results and a beautiful presentation. If you've never used stoneware, let me tell you that you're missing the boat. This crust is going to be perfectly baked and flakey all around because of this dish's even heat distribution. I could go on and on, but it would take a long time to tell you just how fabulous this stuff is. The Mix 'n Scraper gets every bit of batter out of the Stainless Mixing Bowl to prevent waste, and then, well, I "clean" the scraper myself.

I really am thankful to have found this recipe. It's good to have a go-to in your arsenal that can easily be thrown together with basic staples. This is assuming, of course, that frozen pie crust is a staple in your house. It's not? Well, that's just a bad life choice.

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E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464