Bing Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe from CalCherry

So I bought too many cherries for me to eat all by myself before they might go bad so I had to figure out something to do with them! I tried to get my hubby to eat them with me, but he doesn't care much about fruit. Oh well, we get cookies instead :) I googled bing cherry cookie recipes and this is the one I picked.

My first batch of cookies I made WAY too large! Oops! The second batch was a better size, but they still didn't look anything like the picture on the webpage (shown to the right). They just never came out exactly right. The cherry jam would run over the sides while cooking and they just didn't look quite right.

I must also say I wasn't a fan of the whole cherry on top either so next time I think I will puree the jam before using it. Other than that the cookies tasted pretty good, the cookie dough makes for a yummy simple buttery cookie.

Ingredients:
Cherry Jam
1 pound bing cherries, washed & pitted (about 2 cups)
1/8 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 cup sugar

Cookie Dough
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

Directions:
Jam
Combine cherries and water in a small pot and simmer over low heat until fruit is tender, about 10 minutes. Add lemon juice, zest, and sugar and stir gently until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes, stirring on occasion, until thick and syrupy. Pour into a shallow bowl and cool, or alternately refrigerated until jam is set. This can be made a day ahead.

Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour and mixed until combined. Form dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on ungreased cookie sheet. Using your thumb make an impression in the center of each ball. Fill each cookie with cherry jam, making sure each has a cherry in the center. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the dough is set and lightly browned. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Makes 2-3 dozen

My Goal For August - Cleaning Out My Pantry!

As I look into my pantry I see all kinds of pasta, rice, barley, lentils, canned beans, canned vegetables, sauces and all other types of wonderful food. The bad part about all this food is I forget about a lot of it before it expires and it goes to waste. My goal this year has been to be less wasteful, but I haven't done such a great job of it lately. :(

So my goal for the month of August is to only create dishes that include something I already have in my pantry. I will look to the pantry each week for inspiration for my meals...this I should have been doing all along! My problem is I love browsing blogs and websites for new recipes and that leads me to buying more food that I don't necessarily need. From now on I will only search for recipes that include some of the current ingredients I have. Wish me luck! :)  

Chicken & Zucchini w/Parmesan Couscous

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Chicken & Zucchini Salad recipe (link online no longer works)

This was pretty yummy I must say, but I realized afterwards that it's very similar to my chicken piccata recipe. The pecans & couscous give it a bit of different taste though. Either way both taste great!

Ingredients:
1/8 cup & 1 tbls olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
2 skinless chicken breasts
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced (I used white, but I would have preferred red)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

I served this over Parmesan Couscous (follow directions on the box)

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together 1/8 cup olive oil and lemon juice; season with salt & pepper. Add zucchini & onions; toss to coat, and let marinate while cooking chicken.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat remaining tablespoon oil over medium heat. Season chicken with salt & pepper. Cook chicken until golden brown and opaque throughout, about 6 minutes per side. Remove chicken, cover and keep warm.

Add zucchini mixture & onions to the warm pan and saute for a few minutes, about 3. Remove from heat. Cut up chicken into strips and toss with zucchini mixture, onion, pecans and parmesan. Serve on top of couscous.

Serves 2

Cherries

I didn't realize until last summer how much I really like cherries. I think I always associated cherries with the maraschino cherries that you get on top of sundaes and I'm not a fan of those. The bing cherries on the other hand our delicious! The only downside is the pit in the middle and that's why I think everyone should have a cherry pitter, they're awesome!

I know there are many types of cherries and I plan on trying new ones soon.

Fish Fry At The Lake

Every summer my family heads to the lake for some boating, fishing, skiing, tubing and all other kinds of camping fun! Yes, it's really hot this time of year but that's what the water is there for. Plus we do have nice air conditioned campers to sleep in :)

I don't think I can remember us ever going to any other campground than Big Mineral on Lake Texoma. This location is great b/c it has a large sandy beach (not rocky or dirty like other locations) where the kids can play and the waters stay shallow for a long ways before getting deep. I have 6 nieces and 1 nephew so this is very important!

The campgrounds do get very crowded on the weekends, but my parents and/or one of my brothers always goes early (around Thursday) to get our favorite spot! We usually claim 2 or 3 spots depending on how many of  us will be there, set-up all our stuff and call it home for a few days. This past weekend was the least crowded I have ever seen the place, I guess b/c of the heat & low waters. WE NEED RAIN!

A tradition my mom has is to always have a fish fry, usually on Saturday night. In the past we would sometimes catch enough fish to have a fresh fish fry, but that hasn't happened in a while so my mom always makes sure to bring some frozen fish. She is always prepared for anything! Bandaids, medicine, sunscreen, tons of food, just anything you could ever need a the lake. If you forgot to bring anything, I can bet that she has what you need. I love my mom :)

So the fish fry started and then something horrible happened...my camera battery died. So no pictures of the actual meal, but here was our setup!

We enjoyed a nice meal of fried fish, hushpuppies, french fries and chicken strips for the kiddos that wouldn't eat the fish...they're missing out! 

Then we enjoyed a nice evening relaxing under some shade. We have a nice canopy set-up w/lights for the evenings.

Then off to bed after drinking a couple beers...

Unique & Beautiful Artwork

So I know this is completely unrelated to anything to do with food, but I just had to share this with you. My friends mom Charlsa (AKA ChaCha) is wonderfully creative and creates some wonderful paintings, as well as other pieces of art. Her niche is with vibrant & unique paintings (especially fish), but she's very versatile and can do just about anything!

Her paintings can be seen at MoreAboutCharlsa and she's open for commission work. Just give her a description of what your looking for or show her a picture and she'd be happy to make your paintings come true!

Here are a couple pieces she did for me:

Zorba's Greek Cafe in Plano

This place is POPULAR...on a Saturday night at least! There was a little bit of a wait and the tiny hallway makes for an uncomfortable one, but at the same time it was some great people watching :)

Hmm what should I choose...decisions, decisions!

Oh yes, the sampler platter of course! One thing about me is I love a variety! I wanted to try a little bit of everything so I picked the Zorba's Platter (Gyros and tzatziki, chicken souvlaki, Mousakka, broiled sausage and pita). YUM! 

The atmosphere at this place is great, people kept yelling out OPA which was entertaining. The only downside is how crowded this place gets and how close the tables are together.

Zorba's is BYOB so make sure you bring your favorite wine...we sure did!

Queen of Sheba in Addison (Ethiopian-Italian Cuisine)

They start out by washing your hands with water and lemon....

Then on to the food...

I went with a couple of my friends and we shared this dish which has a little bit of everything. For the life of my I can't remember what it was called, but it had variety of meat and vegetable dishes...a nice sampler plate. 

You receive no utensils here, you eat everything with a sponge like bread. The bread was a little sour for my taste, but my friends sure liked it! It was definitely an interesting and enjoyable experience that I recommend. 

Honey Cornbread Muffins

Recipe from the FoodNetwork

So I made my Louisiana catfish dish again b/c I absolutely enjoyed in last time, but this time I decided to make some cornbread with it! I've had trouble making it in the past b/c it turned out too dry or too bland. I'm the type of person that likes my cornbread a little bit sweet...okay I know some people don't like it sweet, but I think it's delicious that way! I have finally found the PERFECT recipe. It's moist, it's sweet (but not too sweet) and super simple to make.

On a side note, when you go to preheat your oven please make sure there is nothing inside there already! Yes, I speak from experience. From time to time I throw my pots and pans in the oven when I don't have time to wash them to get them off the counter tops (especially if someone is about to come over). Well this time I actually left a couple cooking utensils inside of a pan (why I have no idea) and well...the handles melted :( Okay go ahead and laugh, I deserve it!

Ingredients:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
2 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey (I used agave negater & a little less than 1/4 cup)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Into a large bowl, mix the cornbread, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In another bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, butter and honey. Add the we to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Place muffin paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. Evenly divide the cornbread mixture into the papers. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden (about 12 minutes in my oven).

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from AllRecipes.com 

These were easy to make and pretty tasty! I really liked the crumbly crust it made.

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tsp cornstarch

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Jalapeno Garlic Tilapia by Johnny Carino's

All I have to say is YUM! Johnny Carino's is better of course, but I have a feeling their's is even higher in calories than mine! Eek!

Ingredients:
2 (4 ounce) tilapia fillets
1/2 cup white flour
2 ounces butter
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 cup diced jalapeno
1 cup chopped de-stemmed spinach (or 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed)
6 ounces heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
5 ounces angel hair pasta
1/4 cup diced grape tomatoes
Lemon pepper
Salt
Fresh parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:
Prepare the pasta as directed on the box while completing the below instructions.

Melt the 2oz butter in a skillet on medium heat, then add the garlic. Sprinkle each side of the tilapia fillets with salt & lemon pepper (to taste), then dredge the tilapia in the flour and add to the skilled w/melted butter. Cook fillets about 3 minutes on each side or until they are fully cooked and flaky. Move the tilapia to a place and cover with foil.

Add the jalapenos, spinach, heavy cream and 1/4 cup butter to the empty skillet and heat all ingredients on medium-high heat. Let mixture come to a boil and then remove from the heat to thicken. Add salt and lemon pepper if desired.

Add the pasta to a bowl or plate, top with spinach/cream mixture, add tilapia and sprinkle with cheese (if desired) & diced tomatoes.

Tip: To make this a spicy dish just leave in some of the jalapeno seeds, otherwise just wash them off.