Ballpark food Part 2: Pittsburgh Fries

This past weekend we were in Pittsburgh and to celebrate the UPitt win, we went to the fattest restaurant in southside. One very appealing and delicious fat dish caught my eye, the fries covered in buffalo sauce, topped with a little Parmesan cheese and served with blue cheese dressing. OMFG.

So In order to celebrate Game 2 of the World Series and cheer on my boy Torres on the Giants, I recreated this to accompany our burgers...

3 Sweet potatoes

1/2 cup red hot

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

"blue cheese" dipping sauce..

3/4 cup Blue cheese (I had Gorgonzola, just as fat and just as good)

2 cups Greek yogurt

1/4 packet of ranch dressing packet (yea I cheated)

1 tbsp mayo (yea CHEESE AND MAYO in one post)

For the blue cheese dressing:

Mix in all ingredients except cheese, whisk well then add in the cheese and mix a little more

I also cut up celery to the go with the blue cheese and it was thebomb.com.

I've blogged about sweet potato friesto in a previous post, so I will keep it short. Wash the potatoes really well, slice them into steak fries size, spread on to cookie sheet and drizzle very lightly with olive oil. Bake on 425 for about 30 mins.

Once they are out, pile onto a plate.

 Lightly heat up your buffalo sauce in the microwave and drizzle allll over the fries. Lightly sprinkle some parmesean cheese on top and serve. Ignore the steam rising from the pile of goodness on the plate.

Ummm whats for dinner?

So on my way to the gym the other night I was talking to Alex and mentioned that we should have leftovers for dinner, his reply : ummm you mean the salmon cakes and I said  yea, we'll make them into salmon cake sandwiches...... Alex: oh I took those to work for lunch today. So yea, no lefites, no dinner ideas, no time.  I started to look around, I had leftover chili in the freezer, some frozen corn and polenta I had seen a recipe very similar to this so I went with it, last minute.

1 tube polenta
about 2-3 cups chlii
1 1/2 cups corn
1 tbsp chopped green onions (for topping)

I was thinking cheese would go well but instead made a 'sauce' for the top..

1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbsp margarine/butter
4 tbsp salsa verde (you could use any salsa)
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
and lots of texas pete.

This took about 3 mins to prepare, it took longer to make the sauce. Preheat the oven to 375. Karen gave me a GREAT polenta tip and that was to cut it using the egg slicer, or polenta slicer as I like to call it. Cut the tube into thirds and just slice away..


Before




After

This gets the polenta into very pretty, even  and thin slices. It has changed my polenta life.  Moving on..place your polenta into you baking dish....I started to cover it in chili then remembered to take a pic..

After you cover in chili add more corn (my chili had a little corn in it already)

Pop it in the oven for about 20 mins, everything is fully cooked so you really just want the flavors to blend. If you are adding cheese which I'm assuming most people would, I would add it between the polenta and chili layer and a little over the corn

While that was baking in the oven, I added my sauce ingredients to a microwave safe bowl

Then just cover with a towel and place in the microwave for about 1 min, take it out, whisk it up a bit, then put it in for another few mins.  Once the polenta dish comes out, Pour the sauce all over the top.. The sauce reminds me of the creamy/fat sauce that you get on some mexican dishes at a restaurant. It added good flavor.

Top with green onion, then serve...We put it on lettuce to make it a fake taco salad...

River and Range Burger

This is a burger that Alex and I saw on a menu at a restaurant in Chapel Hill. We didn't order it because I immediately recognized that I had all the similiar ingredients at home and we would just  make it ourselves.  This is a bison burger with smoked salmon and Herbed cream cheese(well greek yogurt).

1lb Ground Bison
1 onion minced
Few slices Smoked Salmon
Hamburger buns
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Franks Red Hot

For the Herbed "Cream Cheese":

1 tbsp Dill
some Lemon Juice
salt/pepper
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon capers
1 clove crushed garlic

Alex is the burger man, I was in charge of the 'cream cheese' and mincing the onion. For the cream cheese mix all the Herbed cream cheese ingredients to taste. I keep saying cream cheese, its really not but you get it.

For the hamburger meat in a mixing bowl combine the minced onion, defrosted meat, and seasoning and mix well. Alex always uses this mix of ingredients and the burgers are the bomb.com. Form into patties and throw them on the grill. I don't know how to grill hamburgers and if Alex weren't home I would probably just bake them in the oven on 400 for about 20 mins.

Add the cream cheese to the bun, layer the salmon (the "River" part of the burger), add lettuce if you like, we had no tomatoes but that would've made this even better. This is a great mix of flavor and if you don't like smoked salmon you should probably just make the "Range"(bison) part of the burger and leave off the salmon because the burgers are that good.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls Ups Part 2 of Calzone ingredients

I had A LOT of meat sauce and veggie filling left over from the calzones from Friday. Early the next week I made Spinach Lasagna roll ups. There are a bit more labor intensive than things I typically make however because I already had the fillings ready to go it wasn't too bad.

Ingredients: Veggie Filling & Meat Sauce from Part 1

One box of Whole Wheat Lasagna

You want to prepare the assembling station.. Veggie Filling, meat sauce and empty casserole dish to the right.

Add about 1 cup or 2 of the meat sauce to the bottom of your empty casserole dish .

Next, boil your lasagna about 5 pieces at a time. This helps with the timing when assembling. I add plenty of salt to my boiling water and drop in my lasagna.. You want a really deep pot bc it makes it easier and the lasagna pasta doesn't curl up. If you don't have one, just do less pasta at a time.

Boil pasta for about 7 mins then gently remove with tongs onto a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb excess water. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of veggie filling and spread over cooked pasta.

Gently roll up, not to tight or else you will break the pasta. It doesn't have to be perfect. Then place upright into casserole dish... It looks so fancy and fabulous

The minute I take all the pasta out I drop another 5 pieces into the pot and begin to assemble the cooked pasta pieces.

Do this again...

And again...like a factory line..

Now pour your meat sauce ALLLLL over this yummyness. In between the rolls etc..

Bake on 425 for about 30 mins.

Then EAT!!! I had to add both pictures because  I couldn't decide which one looked more delicious.

Friday night Calzones Part 1

We invited our friends over for a 'calm' little evening of calzones and jenga (not kidding.) The calzones were delicious however this posts' pictures will get progressively worse as I consumed more and more red wine throughout the night, BUT this was a realllly good meal and will actually has a part 2 to follow using the same two calzone fillings  in a completely different way.  So don't judge by the final picture, because the picture sucks.

I made two fillings, a veggie filling, and a meat filling with a side of mushrooms and had everyone make their own calzones. Keep in mind these measurements are meant for two meals, so you would want to half this recipe if you truly plan on making the calzones.

1 tube Pillsbury pizza crust (this makes four large calzones)

2 cups mushrooms (optional)

Veggie filling
8 cups fresh spinach (turns into about 4 cups once its chopped)
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 cup thawed broccoli
salt and pepper to taste

Meat Filling/Sauce
10 Hot Italian sausages
5 Jars Pasta sauce (I used one jar of plain marinara then added crushed tomatoes and made my own sauce but you could just use all jars)
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic

Cook the water out of the mushrooms. To do this, add the mushrooms to the pan, and cook on medium high for about 7 mins, stirring occasionally.

In your pan add the garlic/onion and saute until tender, then add the sausages. (remove from the casing)

Mix and chop the sausage cooking the sausage about 1/2 through.

 Then add the sauce directly into the same pan with the meat. If making your own, add basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

I had stopped by my parents house after work so my mom sent me home with one of her last batches of her garden tomatoes so I added all of them to the sauce as well.

Cover and simmer on low for about 15-20 mins stirring occasionally.

While the meat sauce was cooking, I made the veggie filling.

To your mixing bowl add 8 cups of spinach (you may want to chop this up in batches.. if your bowl is too small)

Chop up your spinach, add in your feta, Greek yogurt, garlic and mix together thoroughly. Do not add your broccoli in yet. (its gets too smooshy if you add it in too soon)

Once the veggie filling is mixed well add your broccoli and gently fold it in. Mix Nicely.

Now this is where the pictures get terrible/non existent.

Unroll the pizza crust and cut into four rectangles. Pour filling on half of the calzone. If using the meat sauce be sure to use a slotted spoon to strain out the extra liquid.  You can mix and match. For my calzone I did veggie with a very little bit of meat sauce. For the boys it was heavy with meat sauce. Add in mushrooms if you want.

That was the last of the assembling pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination. Fold over the remaining dough and bake at 375 for about 20 mins or until golden brown, lets be serious I really don't remember how long.  This is the final product. Again really bad picture, but really good food.

See look how happy and full they look!

Stuffed Pork Loin

Well even though the Quinoa was enough protein for me, Alex was coming back in town finally so I knew a meat-less meal would be just plain evil. I took the 1/2 cup leftover spinach dip and a handful of mushrooms to stuff a pork loin.

If you don't have leftover spinach dip you could just as easily use a handful of fresh spinach and cheese of your choice. This is a really simple thing to make and looks/tastes like you worked all day on it.

Take your pork loin, and cut it in half almost all the way (similar to a french baguette)

before

after

Salt and pepper the meet then spread your filling and add whatever other veggies you want, I added more mushrooms....



Be sure not to over stuff because you will have to fold the other half of the pork back over. Alot of times when folding back over I use the long side of the knife to hold the stuffing in place as I fold. Once folded over secure with a handful of toothpicks...

Bake on 350 for about 20-25 mins

Serve with a side of risotto quinoa :)

Spinach & Mushroom Cups/Dip

One of my favorite things is Spinach. I'm always drawn to the Spinach dips at restaurants but hesitate to order bc of how fat it tends to be. So I decided to do my version of the dip and I adapted it to Karen's artichoke cups and it was the bomb.com .

4 cups fresh spinach (or two cups very tightly packed)

2 cups plain Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon Mayo

1/4 cup Parmesean cheese
1/4 cup Gorgonzola Cheese
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 cup chopped mushrooms

Salt and Pepper

24 Wonton wrappers


The first thing I did was chop my veggies.  I chopped up the spinach with my salad choppers..

Then finely chopped the mushrooms . I had bought pre-sliced mushrooms but I still wanted them smaller.

Then combine the Spinach, mushrooms and all the remaining ingredients

I spooned a little bit into each wonton wrapper. As Karen mentioned in her post its best to let the wonton wrappers sit out for a bit, it makes it easier to push them down into the mini muffin pan without tearing the dough.

Bake on 350 for about 16 mins.

You could also just bake the dip on its own topped with additional cheese. I had leftover filling which I will be using for my stuffed pork loin later this week!

** I have made these a few times since my initial post, I recommend putting the wonton wrappers into the mini muffin pan, brushing a bit of olive oil over the ends hanging out, bake on 350 (with no filling) for about 6 minutes, then take them out, spoon in your filling and bake for another 8 mins.