Pantry Revisited

This week Margaret chose pizza strudel in our Ellie Kreiger group.  We get our recipes from the Weeknight Wonders book.   i do not know if it is just my taste buds this week but I have not made anything this week to rave about.  this strudel was just okay to me.  however, my DH thought it was quite tasty.   I think it needed a little more flavor.  But it was easy to prepare for sure.  I forgot to spray my pan with non stick spray and I had a little trouble getting it off the pan in one piece but it finally let loose.   check out our website if you want to see how the others in the group liked it.  Ewellie.wordpress.com It was filled with spinach and tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese.

Thank goodness my friend Margaret reminded me that tomorrow was Wednesday.   It was my pick this week and I chose this chicken dish of Donna Hays.  first you cook the chicken in a spicey mixture of soy sauce, chicken broth, anise star, cinnamon stick and chinese wine.  Then you take the chicken out of that and refry it in peanut oil.  i used olive oil instead.  mine burned just a tad as it was frying.  Then you slice up the chicken and serve it over steamed greens.  The closest thing I had in my refrigerator to steamed greens was some fresh zucchini.   That is what I served it with.   The chicken was tasty but I really could not taste the spices very much.   if you want to see what the others in the group did with this recipe check out our website at WWDH.blogspot.com.    Better yet, buy the book On the Shelf by Donna Hay.  her recipes are easy and delicious.

I am running just a day late in posting this.  I was so excited to make this healthy salad for us this week.   It was so pretty in Ellie's Weeknite Wonders cookbook.  Kayte chose it for our group.  the flavors blend very well together and did I mention it is healthy?  It is watermelon mixed with fresh sugar snap peas (I had never eaten these raw before), feta cheese, grape tomatoes, red onion, fresh mint and feta.   the dressing is just olive oil and lemon juice, topped with salt and pepper.  We did really enjoy this salad.

Those of you who truly know me know it would be hard for me to resist a good brownie.   I have indulged in dark chocolate ones, brownies filled with nuts, brownies with peanut butter swirls, and some with toffee.  Dorie Greenspan does it up right with her version that is chock full of dried cherries and rich semi-sweet chocolate.  No nuts in these.  For those of you who love oooey gooey goodness, this is the one.  The only problem I had with these is they were hard to slice evenly because of the gooeyness.  Is gooeyness a real word??  If not, it is for purposes of this blog post! wouldn't one of these be great with a glass of ice cold milk?   check out the other bakers at tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com .    And grab a copy of Dorie's book Baking with Chez Moi .   Lots of wonderful desserts in her book!

For those of you who love salmon and pasta, this is a great dish and very easy preparation!  I did not use smoked salmon but rather substituted fresh.   As most of you know due to my shellfish allergy I rarely eat fish of any kind.  However I did try this dish.   I liked the lemon flavor that came through and the dill but this was not my favorite dish.   I probably will not make it again.   Chandler said he would give it about an eight a scale of 1 to 10.   He loves salmon and was very surprised I prepared it for him!   All in all I'm glad I tried it.   Check out our website to see how the others liked it.  We do not post the recipes here as we would prefer for you to buy the book.   Come join us and cook with us!   The ingredients were smoked salmon, pasta, capers, green onions, lemon juice, fresh dill and fresh Mint, plus olive oil.   Oh my dish is missing the capers because when I opened them they were not sealed. ...