Easy & Elegant Creamed Spinach

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I don’t know about you, but I tend to shy away from the traditional breakfast. I’m not a fan of something sweet in the morning, far preferring the savory, even if that means a slice of cold pizza. I have often been known to put pesto on top of my scrambled eggs, or to eat a healthy serving of vegetables in the morning. That brings to mind one of my favorite breakfast side dishes that is equally good (and probably more appropriate) for dinner, namely creamed spinach. This is a fast and easy, not to mention delicious and company worthy, vegetable side. The longest part of the entire process is thawing the spinach. Once that’s done, this is little more than tossing a few things into a pan and heating through. It goes well with eggs, as shown here, is wonderful topped with thick slices of peppered bacon, and good when slathered onto a thick slice of toasted rustic bread. You’ll never look at creamed spinach the same way again.

Easy & Elegant Creamed Spinach

1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, drained & squeezed dry
1 T. butter
1 small Melissa's shallot, minced
Pinch of kosher salt
Few gratings freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Few gratings whole nutmeg
¾ c. heavy cream
½ t. freshly grated lemon zest
2 T. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add shallot and sauté, 3 to 4 minutes, until translucent. Stir salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg into the shallot mixture; carefully pour in cream. Increase heat to medium-high and cook until cream begins to simmer. Continue cooking about five minutes, until mixture thickens. Stir in lemon zest, spinach, and Parmesan cheese. Heat through about two minutes and serve.

This serves 2 to 4 depending upon your love for spinach.

 

Black Grape Compote

If you'd like dazzling deliciousness at one of your holiday parties this season, you need look no further than this decadent, easy, make-ahead dessert. All it takes is a little advance preparation, and you will have an unforgettable dessert that your guests will be raving about. This grape compote is an amazingly delicious topping for ice cream, pound cakes, and even blintzes at brunch. It's simple to put together, keeps for 5-7 days when covered and stored in the refrigerator, and only needs a slight warming before use. If you want to make it sinfully delicious, drizzle a bit of dark chocolate syrup on top and your guests will swoon.

Black Grape Compote

Adapted from epicurious.com

2 star anise pods
3 cups Melissa’s Organic Black Grapes
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Pinch of cinnamon

Pinch of cloves
1 T. unsalted butter
 
Bring star anise, grapes, sugar, lemon juice, and spices to a boil in a large skillet, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until grapes burst and mixture is syrupy, 10-15 minutes. Discard star anise; whisk in 1 tablespoon unsalted butter. Cool.

PRINT RECIPE

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Scallops with Lemon Butter

Those of you who love scallops in the same way that I do already know how easy they are to prepare. Tender, sweet, and delicious, scallops make an impressive and elegant meal in about ten minutes time. I keep a bag in the freezer just for times when I really crave them, which is more often than I care to admit. The only advance planning required is to thaw them in the fridge overnight. 

This is the recipe I use most often, and it serves one because the picky Mr. O-P doesn't care for scallops. It can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc. depending upon the number of people you are serving, just be sure to increase the size of the pan. The sauce is delicious and excellent when served over rice (We always end up with way too much rice from Chinese carry out, so I freeze it for such occasions.) or angel hair pasta.

Scallops with Lemon Butter

4 sea scallops

1 Tablespoon canola oil

Pinch of Old Bay seasoning

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon capers

Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Dust both sides of scallops with Old Bay seasoning. Carefully place in hot pan and saute on each side until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Carefully drain off excess oil, if any, and turn off heat. Drop in butter and capers, and squeeze in the juice from the half lemon. Shake pan to blend ingredients. Salt and pepper, to taste. Serve at once, garnished with parsley.

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 Foodie Friday

Brandied Mushroom Sauce

“Meat with the burnt top,” is how my oldest son, then ten, used to refer to one of his favorite meals. It was my simple version of Salisbury Steak that was, essentially, seasoned ground chuck, formed into patties, and lightly breaded using an egg wash and Italian breadcrumbs. From there I would sear them on each side for about five minutes until the breading got very crisp, and then partially cover the pan with a lid to allow them to cook through. The topping would be a simple gravy, usually leftover from a previous night's roast beef dinner that I would pull from the freezer, thaw and heat.

This young man turns 31 today (Happy Birthday, Christopher!), so in his honor I give you a more sophisticated version with this elegant but easy Brandied Mushroom Sauce as the topper. The recently picky Mr. O-P declared it delicious, and he was right. It has been years since I last made this dish, and I was struck by how tasty it was and how quickly it came together.

Both patties and sauce can be made the day ahead. In fact I find the patties benefit from being in the fridge for 30-60 minutes prior to cooking anyway. They'll sizzle when you first drop them into the hot pan (in which you have melted a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil), but the advance chilling allows them to hold onto their breading and their shape.

The sauce is a combination of various recipes I've tried over the years and I think this is perfection. Any cut of beef will benefit from this lovely addition.

Brandied Mushroom Sauce

1 slice lean bacon

1 medium clove garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

6-8 large button mushrooms, sliced

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons Brandy

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon Jameson beef soup base

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely minced

In small sauté pan, cook bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon, crumble, and set aside.

Add butter and garlic to skillet with drippings.  Sauté for one minute, stirring constantly to prevent the garlic from burning..  

Add mushrooms and pepper, and simmer until mushroom liquid begins to evaporate.  Add brandy and continue simmering until almost evaporated.  Stir in water, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and soup base, and boil until thickened slightly.  Pour in cream and stir to blend.  Add reserved bacon and parsley.  Serve atop your favorite slice of beef.

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Teriyaki Tenderloin

 

When, at long last, we sold our old (and I mean this literally, it was 121 years, built in 1892) house, we received a surprisingly and most welcome gift in the mail from Mr. O-P’s sister. Now anything marked Omaha Steaks is going to get my attention, but the contents of this box really bowled me over as we received two Chateaubriand and a cheesecake.  What a treat!  Beef tenderloin is a favorite of us both, and for years I’d buy one to serve to Mr. O-P on his birthday.  Eventually though, with the rising price of, well, EVERYTHING, it would have been cheaper to buy him a new PC than the tenderloin, so that’s when we started going out.  But I digress…

I remember when I was a little girl my mother used to serve tenderloin of beef at special dinner parties.  She used this simple recipe from our favorite series of Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks back then (the same where appeared the delicious recipe for Creamy Ham Towers), Make Ahead Meals.

Here is the recipe as it appears in the book.  Nothing could be simpler.  As the Chateaubriand was smaller than the size of tenderloin in the recipe, I baked it for 20 minutes. 

I served it with roasted Brussels sprouts and slices of crusty French bread.  Delicious!

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"Champagne" Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

 Easy and delicious, this salad is going to be one of the most tasty that you will ever serve.  It was one of my contributions to last week’s luncheon at my dad’s house and received thumbs up all around.  The secret ingredient is the Champagne Grapes. These little gems, now in season, lurk beneath the greens just waiting to explode in your mouth with sweet, juicy deliciousness.  Everyone at the table, upon first bite, remarked about what a delicious salad it was, and then tried to figure out what made it so good and unique.  While the toothsome not-too-sweet raspberry vinaigrette certainly helps, the grapes are the real star.

Easy to assemble and customize to your own taste, here is my favorite combination of ingredients.  I don’t measure, just toss everything into a bowl until, as my grandmother used to say, “It looks right.”

Spring Greens

Thinly sliced red onion

Toasted walnuts, broken into pieces

Grated jack cheese

Champagne Grapes

Raspberry Vinaigrette

1/3 cup raspberry vinegar

¼ - ½ cup sugar (to taste)

½ teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon seasoned salt

¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

3 drops hot sauce

½ cup canola oil

Whisk together the first seven ingredients until combined.  Slowly pour oil into the mixture, whisking constantly to emulsify.

  

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Seasonal Sundays

Hearts of Palm Salad with Olives and Bacon

I’ve spoken before of my love for jarred roasted red peppers.  I consider them to be a pantry staple and really should get to writing up a blog post about my version of pantry staples, because you can add to that list Hearts of Palm.  Having these on hand will never leave you in a lurch.  A jar of these will give you a delicious dip, tasty soup, and inspire a variety of salads, so you will never be caught off guard when unexpected guests drop by.  I like to keep a dish of this marinated mixture in the fridge to add to a salad whenever I make one.  It is so delicious and so unusual that you will feel quite special any day of the week.  It is very versatile, so you can toss in, as I often do, some quartered artichoke hearts, a tablespoon of capers, or anything else that will take to being marinated.  Use this concoction as a garnish, serve it alone on a lettuce leaf as I’ve done here, or use it as a mix-in for a salad.  Très elegant!

Hearts of Palm Salad with Olives and Bacon

1 (14.8-ounce) jar Melissa’s hearts of palm, drained and sliced

1 (.7-ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix

(I use Good Seasons Mild Italian)

1/3 champagne vinegar

4 tablespoons water

1/3 cup canola oil

4 oz. button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered

1 (8-ounce) jar green olives, sliced

1 (6-ounce) can sliced black olives

1 English cucumber, cubed

3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Romaine leaves

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dressing mix, vinegar, and water until well blended. Whisk in olive oil. Add hearts of palm and mushrooms to the bowl, and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.

Before serving, sprinkle cubed cucumber, green olives, black olives, and bacon over the salad.

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