Cilantro and Lime Salad with Chicken

This salad is from the Nordstrom Cafe Cookbook. The salad is served in the Nordstrom Cafe and is one of my mom and I's favorite salads and we always make excuses to go out to Norfolk to get it! It is so fresh and delicious but very filling and satisfying. We've had the cookbook for a while but kept put off making it had home because it looked a little daunting because of the long ingredient list. We had an over abundance of cilantro so we knew that we had to make it- and it turned out to be pretty simple! We ended up making the vinaigrette a few days ahead and just kept it in the refrigerator and then assembled the rest of the salad the night we wanted to eat it. 

Chipotle-Lime Vinaigrette

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons pureed chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup canola oil

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 ears corn, shucked and grilled or boiled

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked and julienned

1 1/2 cups diced plum or cherry tomatoes

1 pound mixed baby greens

2 cups grated jack cheese

1/2 cup chopped roasted red bell pepper

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup toasted salted pumpkin seeds

fresh cilantro for garnish

lime wedges for serving

Chipotle-Lime Vinaigrette

In a blender or a food processor combine the vinegar, lime juice, garlic, chipotle chile, honey, and salt and process until thoroughly combined.  Gradually add the canola oil in a steady steam. Add the cilantro and pulse or process to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Lime and Cilantro Salad with Chicken

To assemble the salad, cut off the corn kernals from the cob (you can also you frozen corn if its off seasons! ). Add the chicken, tomatoes, greens, cheese, and bell pepper*.

Top with pumpkin seeds and fresh cilantro and serve immediately with vinaigrette.      

*To roast red pepper, roast over a grill or a gas burner, about 2-3 minutes on each side, turning once black marks appear. After roasted, let rest until cool, and then slice, deseed, and chop. 

No Knead Bread

This is the first time I've made this type of bread and it turned out great! It was super easy and surprisingly few steps! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has been wanting to make bread but has been reluctant to do so because of the amount of time it takes. The no knead aspect of this bread allows for most of the work to be done over night and eliminated the second proofing, making it less difficult- but it is still a very tasty, crusty bread. 

I found the recipe for this on a blog called Simply So Good, she has great directions and tips. 

No Knead Bread

3 cups all purpose flour (good quality works best- like King Arthur) 

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Instant of Rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and mix until it comes together, it will not be neat/smooth, but don't worry. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours. Overnight works great because you can just go to bed and resume work in the morning.

This is what the dough will look like after resting for 12 hours 

Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is preheated, place a cast iron pot with a lid (or any pot that will sustain 450 degree heat) in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. While the pot is in the oven, turn the dough onto a well floured surface and shape into a ball. Make sure there is plenty of flour as the dough will be rather wet and sticky (and this is okay!). Cover the ball with plastic wrap and let rest while the pot heats. After the 30 minutes, remove the pot from the oven and drop the dough in, being careful, as the pot will be extremely hot. Also, be sure to keep the oven door closed as you are doing your dough transfer as to keep the oven at 450 degrees. Put the lid on and place in the over for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack. 

I wanted to try the bread plain for the first go round, but this bread lends itself to add ins such as nuts, fruits, herbs, and cheese. I think tomorrow I am going to try a Cheddar-Chive variation and a Dried Cranberry-Orange variation. I will post about how they turn out!  

There is nothing better than a slice of fresh bread with a bit of butter and some good jam! Now I can't wait for spring to roll around so that we can start making our own jams again! 

Vanilla Raspberry Lollipops

A cold, snowy day inspired me to finally try making lollipops. I was stuck at home (it did snow a fair amount, and I'm not too fond of driving in the snow/ice) and had all the supplies on hand. It ended up being relatively easy, as far as candy making goes! 

I modified a recipe from Martha Stewart: 

- lollipop molds (or a non stick mat such as a Silpat)

- 2 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 3/4 cup water 

- 2/3 cup light corn syrup

- 3 drops raspberry flavored oil

- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

- food coloring, if desired

- vegetable oil to spray molds

If using lollipop molds, spray lightly with vegetable oil, making sure to get into all of the creases. If you are not using molds, just use a non stick mat such as a Silpat, no oil necessary.

Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy bottom saucepan, and place over medium-high heat. If sugar crystals start to form on the sides of the pan use a pastry brush dipped in cold water to brush down the sides. Use a candy thermometer and cook the mixture until it reaches 310 degrees, the hard crack stage. When using your thermometer, make sure it does not touch the bottom of the pan as that will skew the reading. 

Remove from heat, and pour sugar mixture into a heatproof measuring cup with a spout (anything that is heatproof and has a spout for pouring will do the trick, its just not really feasible to pour from the saucepan). Add the raspberry flavor, vanilla, and food coloring if desired and stir with a wooden skewer or chopstick. Pour immediately into the molds or onto the Silpat in circles of desired size, then immediately place lollipop sticks into sugar. 

**If you have never worked with hot sugar before, I would recommend enlisting the help of a friend to place the sticks as you move onto the next lollipops. The sugar mixture will cool rather quickly, so it is crucial that you work quickly and efficiently. Another way to help manage your time is to make sure that you have all of the items you will need set out in advance before you start. 

Afternoon Tea

It's always been a tradition to have tea, whether for special occasions, while exploring other cities, or just at home with family and friends. My best friend, Gabby, will soon be going back to Indiana, where she is in a PhD program for Classical Studies, so I wanted to have tea before she left. 

On the menu was Pistachio Raspberry cupcakes (I made minis this time because there were a few other items, but I think the concensus was we prefer the regular size ones), cream scones, and currant scones. 

My sister Emily helped me make the scones and we had a variety of loose tea - English breakfast, blueberry, and apricot! 

Here are the recipes for the two scones. The cream scones are smaller, but you could cut the currant scones into rounds instead of triangles if you wanted them to be smaller as well. 

I like to serve my scones with lemon curd, raspberry preserves, and Devanshire cream. 

Cream Scones

Currant Scones

Dimple Stitch Cashmere Hat

The cold weather and my new found post-college free time had me thinking about getting back into knitting. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make, so I just started looking at the yarns that we already had in our yarn stash and found this gorgeous pink cashmere. 

While looking for patterns I found this beautiful pattern on the Purl Bee blog that I absolutely loved and did not look too terribly hard! I love the Purl Bee blog- it is the blog for the knitting/sewing/craft store called Purl Soho in NYC. Coincidentally, we were taking a trip to NYC to visit my cousin Meghan this winter and a stop by Purl Soho was on the list of things to do, so I was extra motivated to start knitting!  

I ended up finishing my hat in the hotel in New York the night before we went to Purl Soho, and I was glad I did because it ended up being freezing cold and snowing that day! I was a little reticent to wear it out in the city as I have a history of loosing beloved homemade hats in New York cabs (to my defense I was much younger), but I was just extra careful and my hat has made it home safely and been put to good use during our chilly winter. 

That day we went to Purl Soho, and it was just as wonderful as I remember. I got an early Christmas gift of soft merino wool- which I will be using to make my next project- and had a lovely time just looking around at all of the different projects and yarns. We also had a lovely tea prior to going to Purl Soho at the Harney & Sons Tea Shop. It worked out perfectly because they were literally a block away from each other, and the tea was delicious. Harney & Sons was mostly a tea shop, but they had a small tea room in the back where we stopped in a had scones, tea, and macaroons, the perfect afternoon treat on a cold winter day. 

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Is there anything better than crisp fall weather and autumnal foods?! From apple crisp to pumpkin pie to a bowl of Mom's chili? Fall has definitely got me in the mood to make seasonal recipes and I have been trying my hand at a variety of homemade pasta recipes so when I found this Butternut Squash recipe on the 100 Days of Real Food blog I knew I had to give it a try. I adapted it a bit (mostly because I just wanted to use ingredients I hand). The blog is really neat, it explains how to cut out processed foods, etc. I don't know if I am committed to giving up processed foods completely, but I have really been trying to use more whole, unprocessed foods and cook with seasonal produce etc. 

Dough

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• a few teaspoons water (as needed for consistency) 

Filling 

• 2 1/2 lbs butternut squash, cooked
• 1 tablespoons melted butter
• zest of 1 large orange
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (if you can't find it you can you cream cheese)
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste  

Sauce

• 1/2 cup butter
• chopped pecans
• dried cranberries or cherries 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the butternut squash lenghwise, remove seeds and place cut side down on a greased baking sheet or parchment paper on a baking sheet and cook until fork tender-- cooking time will vary depending on the size of the squash but anywhere from 30 min- 1 hour.  

Mix the flour and eggs together in a food processor or knead by hand (If the dough resembles little pebbles when you finish pulsing it, add water by the 1/2 teaspoon until it forms a ball). Once the dough starts to form a ball, turn out onto a floured surface and knead by hand until the dough is not sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes. 

While the dough is resting, make the filling by combining all of the filling ingredients. This can also be done a day in advance and refrigerated.

Roll out the dough either by hand or with a pasta machine, if using a pasta machine, setting #4 is a good thickness. Place the pasta sheets on floured baking sheets and fill with spoonfulls of filling, making sure to leave space in between each. Brush the space in between the filling with an egg wash (egg beaten with a bit of water) so that it is sure to stay sealed. Using a ravioli criper or a knife and then a fork to crimp the sides, cut and seal the raviolis. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil raviolis until al dente, about 4 minutes. 

For the sauce: Melt 1/2 cup butter in a pan over medium heat until brown, add chopped pecans and either dried cranberries or cherries. Pour over raviolis and serve immediately. 

Salted Caramel Covered Marshmallows

These (and the ones that we dipped in chocolate, not pictured because they were all eaten before a photo could be taken) are probably the most time intensive thing I've made thus far. The process includes making homemade marshmallows, homemade salted caramels, then cutting each into strips and wrapping them into logs and then slicing them into the sizes you see above.

Here are the recipes for the respective steps. Separately, making the marshmallows and the caramel are not that difficult, you just have to be sure to follow the directions and be patient.

Homemade Marshmallows recipe from Ina Garten

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

With a sieve, generously dust an 8 by 12-inch nonmetal baking dish with confectioners' sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top, and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.

Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares. Dust them with more confectioners' sugar.