An Inspired Kitchen

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This dip takes the best elements of the beloved Buffalo Chicken Wings appetizer and adds cheese to make it over the top nummy.  I softened some cream cheese, added Frank’s Red Hot sauce, shredded some roasted chicken, added blue cheese dressing and cheddar cheese and topped it all with some more cheddar and blue cheese so it could melt and bubble on the top. You can make this the day before and refrigerate before you bake it.  I served it with Pita chips and some veggies.  Great munchie for Super Bowl or any party!  Click here for the recipe….

Chocolate Chip Nutella Bars

I know I should probably be posting some healthy, low calorie meal because it’s the new year and all, but I couldn’t resist sharing these over the top delicious bars with you!  I love hazelnuts and Nutella is one of my favorite things ever because it brings chocolate and hazelnuts together into a wonderful, delicious and creamy chocolate spread all in one!  These Chocolate Chip Nutella bars are so good with the soft, buttery bars, and subtle crunch of the chocolate chips and toasted hazelnuts.  Great combination!  Click here for the recipe….

Roasted New York Strip Steak with Garlic Herb Crust

Yorkshire Pudding

Roasted PotatoesRoasted Brussels Sprouts Roasted Parsnips

For Christmas dinner last year I made a roasted New York strip with garlic herb crust and served Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips, and roasted Brussels Sprouts ~ a very British Christmas meal.  It’s very important to allow the beef to come to room temperature before you roast it, and I like to season it several hours ahead of time.  I always try and make whatever I can ahead of time, so I cut the Brussels sprouts the day before and refrigerated them.  Several hours before dinner, I parboiled the russet potatoes, peeled and cut the parsnips and made the Yorkshire pudding mixture.  The trick to making great roast potatoes is to use some of the beef drippings along with some solid shortening that you add to the baking tray.  You also need some beef drippings for the Yorkshire pudding, so I like to add solid shortening to the beef as it roasts to get more drippings so I can use it with the other side dishes.  Another trick is to place the muffin tin with some of the beef drippings in the oven until it is smoking hot and add the Yorkshire pudding batter.  This results in fluffy and high Yorkshire puddings.  Timing is everything with this meal.  The beef is best when it is allowed to rest on the carving board for at least 20-30 minutes, about the time it takes to make the Yorkshire pudding and other vegetables.  I used my favorite cheat and bought very good quality home made demi glace to make the gravy.  After I got the roast out of the oven and onto the carving board, I placed the baking tray on the stove top and then sprinkled a little flour, cooked it for several minutes and added some red wine to get all the browned bits up and then poured the demi glace in the pan.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce to medium.  Taste for seasoning and add more salt or pepper and beef broth if the gravy is too thick.  Roast the other vegetables until they are nicely browned and place in serving dishes and you are ready for a fabulous special Christmas dinner!  Click here for the recipe….

Crystallized Ginger Cooked Dipped in White Chocolate

The molasses and crystallized ginger in these cookies along with the powdered ginger, really makes the cookies moist and full of great ginger flavor.  I love this recipe.  To decorate the cookies for Christmas, I dipped the cookies in melted white chocolate and used colored frosting to make the holly decorations, but the cookies are delicious without the white chocolate.  These cookies freeze well but make sure you allow the white chocolate and frosting to fully harden before you place them in a container to freeze.  Click here for the recipe….

                                                              Mince PiesMince pies get a bad rap because they are often called mincemeat pies and that is not such a great inference.  They can be traced back to the 13th century and they were made with meat, suet, fruits and spices and people erroneously think they still have meat in them. This is a hard fact to wrap my head around but I found a factoid that states that 370 million mince pies are sold in the UK over the Christmas period annually, with the average Brit eating 27 mince piece each!  People in the U.S. have barely heard of them.  There is also a tradition of making a wish while you eat the first mince pie of the season and it is also considered good luck to eat 12 mince pies in 12 different houses on each of the 12 days of Christmas!  That’s a lot of mince pies not to mention visiting lots of people houses! Mince pies are wonderful memories for me and my British mom and grandmothers made them every Christmas and I have been making them for years and have passed the tradition on to my niece with my Granny’s recipe.   We make the filling in late November and allow it to macerate in the refrigerator for several weeks before making them.  I love getting out the scale my grandmother used to use and measure the dried and candied fruits and citrus peel, raisins, currants, golden raisins, brown sugar, grated butter and apples.  Then you add cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, mix it all up and pour brandy over the filling.  I store it in a plastic container in the refrigerator for several weeks so the flavors can develop and then spend an afternoon making them just before Christmas.  My mom has the best pie dough recipe and it has a touch of vinegar and an egg which makes it the perfect texture.   You will need a mince pie baking tray and they are a little hard to find because they are more shallow than cupcake tins, but you can find them on Amazon.  The traditional pies have a flat rounded bottom.   My mom thinks it’s a sacrilege that I cut out little stars and press them on top of the filling.  She has always cut circles and makes 3 little slits in the top, but I like that you can see the filling.  We both agree they have to be sprinkled with sugar after they are baked.  I serve them with all the Christmas desserts and heat them in the oven and make a hard sauce and custard to serve alongside.  Hard sauce is just powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, cream and brandy and can be made several days ahead and stored in the refrigerator.   We always make the traditional British Bird’s custard from the tin and my niece and nephew are pros at making it before we serve it to really take the rich pies over the top!  Click here for the recipe….

Asian Stir Fried Vegetables with Basil

I needed a side dish the other night to go with some teriyaki chicken I was making and went to the fridge to see what I had on hand.  Mushrooms, asparagus, left over half bag of shredded cabbage, and I always have onion and garlic on hand is what I found.  I sautéed the onion for 4 minutes to get it a little brown and added the sliced mushrooms and garlic and sautéed until they got a little color on them and then added the asparagus and cabbage and cooked for a few minutes before I added soy sauce, fish sauce, and hoisin and cooked it until the asparagus was al dente.  I roughly chopped some fresh basil and quickly tossed it before I put it in a serving dish.  Cilantro or parsley would work if you don’t have basil on hand.   Great quick side dish and got to use some of the veggies in my fridge before I had to throw them away.  Click here for the recipe….

Roasted Chicken Breast with Red Peppers, Onions, Tomatoes and Rosemary

This chicken dish really brings out the sweet caramelized onion and red pepper flavors and can be on the  table in under 30 minutes.  Start by sautéing the chicken in an oven proof pan until lightly brown on both sides and remove to a plate.  Add the onions and red peppers and lightly brown the onions.  Add the cherry tomatoes, garlic, rosemary and some balsamic vinegar and nestle the chicken among the vegetables and roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  I served it over orzo pasta, but it would also be good over couscous, rice, or quinoa.  Click here for the recipe….

Ancient Grain and Super Seed Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Apples, Walnuts and RaisinsThis oatmeal is packed with lots of grains, seeds and nuts and is a great way to start a healthy day.  The experts say that oats contain soluble and insoluble fiber which they say helps lower cholesterol and stabilize blood glucose levels and this combination provides a great variety of minerals, antioxidants and vitamins like contains thiamine, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, selenium, and iron all in one bowl!  Wow!  All that in one cup of food!  I buy whole grain rolled oats, steel cut oats, quinoa flakes, amaranth flakes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, toasted sliced almonds, shelled hemp seeds, ground flax seeds and chia seeds in the bulk section and mix them all together and store them in an airtight container.  I make this oatmeal mixture like I would make regular oatmeal but borrow a great addition from my friend Laura and add chopped apples and walnuts or pecans and sprinkle cinnamon in the oatmeal while it cooks.  I also like to add raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries or dried cherries.  You can make it with water, milk, almond milk or a mixture and it is very satisfying and keeps you full for quite a while. I like to save a little bit of the chopped apples, nuts and raisins and sprinkle it on the oatmeal for a satisfying textural crunch. I serve it drizzled with a little maple syrup.  Click here for the recipe….

Burgers with Green Tomato Chow Chow Chutney

Green Tomato Chow Chow Chutney

These southern inspired burgers are delicious and such a nice deviation from traditional hamburgers with the addition of the fabulous green tomato chow chow.  Chow chow is a southern side dish of various pickled vegetables and this one features green tomatoes. There are a myriad of wonderful spices that go into the chow chow like celery seeds, dill seed, mustard seeds, turmeric ~ which give it that wonderful yellow glow, and cayenne for a little hit of heat.  The onions and tomatoes are cooked with the spices and the addition of vinegar and sugar brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes which you cook all together. You add half of this cooled mixture to the ground beef to make the hamburger patties, and top it off with simply dressed collard greens and a toasted sesame bun.  You could make the chow chow several days ahead and keep in the refrigerator.  Delicious!  The oven fries sprinkled with a little Old Bay spice make it a nice dinner.  Click here for the recipe….

Moroccan Spiced Turkey and Chickpea Chili with Lebnah Cheese and Chermoula

The spices in this chili are wonderfully sweet and exotic with a little kick of heat from the Aleppo peppers.  The eggplant melts down and the chickpeas give the chili a lot of body.  The garnish on the chili is wonderful and I wouldn’t omit, but if you don’t have the time, the chili will still be delicious. It also has a dollop of Labneh cheese which is a Middle Eastern cheese made from strained yogurt.  You can substitute Greek yogurt, or mascarpone cheese if you can’t find Labneh.  The chili really gets the base of its flavor from Ras el Hanout which is a Middle Eastern spice mix and there are hundreds of variations. It has cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, cumin, paprika, mace, nutmeg, peppercorn, turmeric, dried rosebud, lavender, ajawan seeds and even more spices in some recipes.  You can usually find the blend at a gourmet store or Amazon, and it’s worth searching out because it often has rose petals and lavender which give a really wonderful subtle flavor.  I like to serve the chili with toasted Middle Eastern flat bread or you could use naan bread.  The chili is also garnished with chermoula which is a fresh and pungent sauce that is often served with fish and is made with cilantro.  This simple version does not have all the spices it can often have but really brightens the finished dish and adds beautiful color and texture.  Click here for the recipe….