Friday Night Dinner for One - Parmesan Tomatoes

Brown sugar baked asparagus, fried spatzle, and parmesan encrusted tomatoes.


Asparagus

Wash, snap off ends, lay on cookie sheet with edges.
Place pats of butter on top, sprinkle with brown sugar.
Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.


Parmesan Crusted Tomatoes

1 cup white flour
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic granules
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
12 slices tomatoes, sliced 1/2 inch thick (3 tomatoes)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Combine flour, onion powder, granulated garlic, salt and pepper.
2. Mix well.
3. In separate bowl combine panko and Parmesan.
4. In third bowl combine eggs and mustard.
5. Take slices of tomato and dip in flour, dust off excess.
6. Then dip in egg mixture, letting excess drip off.
7. Finally dip in parmesan/panko mixture, pressing parmesan mixture onto slices for good coverage.
8. Repeat until all slices are breaded.
9. These should be stored in a single layer dusted lightly with extra crumbs.
10. Heat olive oil in non-stick frying pan, over medium-high heat.
11. Place 3 slices (1 order) in pan, and let cook about 1 1/2- 2 minutes on each side, until just golden brown.
12. Don't flip too soon or parmesan mix will fall off.
13. Serve.

Friday Night Dinner for One - Georgian

As if the husband didn't have enough reason to want to come home, he now gets to drool over the sight of one of our favorite meals from when we were in Russia.


Khalia (spicy stew)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb beef chuck boneless cubed 1/2"
3 tb olive oil
3/4 c beef stock
3 ea onions, chopped fine
2 ts tamarind concentrate
2 1/2 tb tomato paste
1/2 ts paprika hungarian hot
1/4 ts fenugreek ground
3/4 ts coriander seeds, crushed
1 ts tarragon dried
salt
1 1/2 ts black pepper freshly ground
3 ea garlic cloves minced fine
3 tb cilantro leaves chopped
1/4 c walnut pieces finely chopped
1 tb sugar or honey

Directions:

Heat the oil over med-high heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add the beef, onions, and garlic and cook while stirring for 12-15 minutes. Combine the hot beef stock, with the tomato paste and the tamarind concentrate in a bowl and allow to stand until all of the tamarind concentrate is dissolved. Add this mixture to the beef as well as all of the other ingredients, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Be sure to stir occassionally. Add stock as needed if the liquid reduces too much. Add the sugar and walnuts and simmer for 15 more minutes.

Khachapuri (cheesy bread)

2 c	flour
¾ ts	baking soda
¼ ts	salt
½ c	feta cheese "or"
¼ c	roquefort cheese
1 c	grated mozarrela ( or
	Georgian suluguni cheese )
1	egg beaten
1 ts	unsalted butter

In a medium bowl, beat in 1/3 cup flour with oil. Add yogurt and mix well. Then stir in 1/3 cup more flour. Sift cornstarch, baking soda and salt and stir in flour mixture. Gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft but not sticky dough. Lightly dust with flour and cover with a kitchen towel and let rest at room temp, 1 to 2 hours. If using feta, soak in water 10 minutes and drain and crumble. In a medium bowl mix feta or roquefort and mozarella and egg. Shape cheeses into 2 medium balls and set aside. Divide dough into 2 portions and roll each into a ball. On floured surface flatten each ball into a 7 inch round. With floured hands gently rotate dough and pull into a 10 inch circle, 1/4 inch thick. Be careful not to tear dough. Pat each cheese ball into a 5 inch circle on center of dough. Gently roll up edges of dough hold in cheese. Twist ends to hold together. Brush top of bread and cheese with melted butter. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 40-50 minutes at 350, or until golden brown. Lightly brush top of bread with butter and let bread stand for 5 minutes. Use a serrated knife to cut bread and serve warm.

Friday Night Dinner for One - Scallops

I hereby declare Friday nights as "learn to cook again" nights. And you, dear readers, get to hear all about it.

Tonight's menu ~ Pasta with pan seared shrimp and scallops. Dessert of Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bar.

Outcome ~ Dinner was excellent. I personally don't care for scallops, but on a whim picked some up at the store today. The husband loves them, and I figured it would be a good thing to know how to cook them for when he gets home. Despite not caring for them overall, the dish turned out very tasty. I made up the sauce as I was cooking, and thankfully I didn't waste my money by turning the scallops into something burned or mushy. Dessert, on the other hand, was not good at all. I got one of these bars the other day at Starbuck's and immediately decided to find a recipe. I thought I found a good one, but not so much. The frosting is runny, and the cake is way too heavy. There will be tweaking in the future, for sure.

Pasta with scallops and shrimp

Dry scallops with a paper towel.
Melt 2-3 tablespoons butter in a pan.
Add a generous dash of garlic powder, a pinch of dried parsley and a dash of white wine.
Saute shrimp and scallops in mixture until scallops are springy, and browning on the ends.
Pour contents of pan onto pasta, add another pinch of parsley.
Done!

Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup diced dried cranberries
6 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks
½ tsp baking powder

Frosting

4-ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup diced dried cranberries

Drizzled Icing

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening


1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Make cake by beating butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, ginger, baking powder and salt and beat well. Gradually mix in flour until smooth. Mix 3/4 cup diced dried cranberries and white chocolate into the batter by hand. Pour batter into a well-greased 9x13" baking pan. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake is light brown on the edges. Allow cake to cool.

3. Make frosting by combining softened cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. When the cake has cooled, use a spatula to spread frosting over the top of the cake.

4. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of diced cranberries over the frosting on the cake.

5. Whisk together 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and shortening. Drizzle icing over the cranberries in a sweeping motion or use a pastry bag with a fine tip to drizzle frosting across the top of the cake.

6. Allow cake to sit for several hours, then slice the cake lengthwise (the long way) through the middle. Slice the cake across the width three times making a total of eight rectangular slices. Slice each of those rectangles diagonally creating 16 triangular slices.

Makes 16 bars.