Kelly's Wine & Food Blog

Saturday Morning Baking

kellyscooking — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:15:59 +0000

I try to buy food in season most of the time, but the beautiful hue of the blueberry display at Whole Foods this week was calling my name. The $2.99 sale price was the final enticement. So home I went with my organically grown Chilean berries. I sampled a few, plump and sweet, just like I like them. What to do, what to do… Watching muffins being made on a cooking show this morning sealed the deal. My recipe is easy, uses only natural ingredients and you have fresh muffins in about 30 minutes. The result, a yummy moist muffin filled with juicy blueberries.

Check out the archives for this recipe if you’re interested. Next stop for me, pulled pork in the slow cooker…

Until next time, happy eating.

When The Kids Choose The Menu

kellyscooking — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:28:50 +0000

Last night my daughter made a dinner request for tonight’s dinner, mini hamburgers, baked potatoes, and arugula salad. She said “I feel like I need something hardy.” So thanks to my daughter, we enjoyed a fun family dinner that everyone enjoyed. I substituted a wild mushroom veggie burger for myself and omitted the cheese from my potato, but still super yummy. My husband and I enjoyed a glass of 2008 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. A fruity wine that went well with a veggie burger.

Wishing you a fun family dinner. Until next time, happy eating.

Happy New Year

kellyscooking — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:02:47 +0000

Saying goodbye to 2011 with yummy food. We started the morning with herb infused hash brown, scrambled farm eggs and homemade buttermilk biscuits. Lunch is kids choice ( knowing my children it will probably be sushi). I’ve planned a seafood medley for dinner with Alaskan crab legs, jumbo gulf shrimp, corn, and sunrise medley potatoes. I’ll accompany it with a super greens mixed salad of red and green swiss chard, tat soi, arugula, and spinach. A nice glass of French Champagne, voila new years eve dinner. Whatever your new years eve food plans are, I hope you make them fun and make them yummy, and that you are surrounded by those you love the most.

I’m very happy and blessed to have a wonderful husband and children to share my life with and of course to also share great meals. Wishing you and yours a safe and happy new year. Happy eating.

Cafe Martin Catering

kellyscooking — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:21:33 +0000

As you all know, I love baking cookies. There’s nothing like the scent of fresh-baked cookies to make your mouth water. I’m taking my cookie obsession on the road this weekend. I’m partnering with my friend Linda and selling allergen-free cookies at New City Schools’, Craft Out Loud event. Linda and I are both parents of children with food allergies. Our hope is to give those in attendance information about allergy-free living while providing tasty gluten-free, peanut free, and tree-nut free treats. Hope to see you there.

http://www.craftoutloudstl.com

Until next time, happy eating.

Loving Good Wine

kellyscooking — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:43:16 +0000

Friday evening with good friends and yes great wine. What a way to start the weekend. One of our friends brought a bottle of 1997 Musigny Grand Cru, Jacques-Frederic Mugnier. One sip, I closed my eyes and savored the flavors exploding in my mouth. I immediately looked over to my friend and said thank you. This wonderful wine was filled with all the things I love about red Burgundies, ripe cherries with the right amount of spice and a hint of smoke. Pinot Noir at its finest. This was a special treat that I was happy to savor with family and friends.

Our simple meal vegan chili, and beef chili with cornbread.

Until next time, happy eating and happy drinking.

Dinner in a Jiffy

kellyscooking — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:13:55 +0000

Our going out to dinner plans last night fell through, so I needed to come up with something quick and easy from ingredients I had on hand for supper. We had a package of wild mushroom ravioli in the frig so I used that as my starting point. I sautéed baby bella mushrooms in olive oil and cracked black pepper. Next, I lightly sautéed a bunch of arugula until it barely wilted. I tossed the heated ravioli in olive oil and placed it on top of the arugula. Finally, I finished the dish with sautéed mushrooms and fresh shaved parmesan cheese. Very yummy. I’ll definitely adding this to my fast food repertoire.

Until next time, happy eating.

Vacation

kellyscooking — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:08:45 +0000

We just returned from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina; what a treat. We hiked, swam, ate fresh local produce, and enjoyed some wonderful bottles of wine. The rental house was great with an amazing views and more importantly a great kitchen. It was stocked with all the things a cook needs to make a special meal. I was particularly impressed with the All-Clad cookware. Food cooked evenly and I got a great seer on vegetables as well as meats. I’ve been cooking at home with the pots and pans we received as wedding gifts eons ago. Though they’ve held up great and are very good, I’m planning to add a few pieces of All-Clad to my collection.

I’ll part with a wine suggestions from our vacation. A to Z Pinot Noir from Oregon. At under $20 this is a bargain buy for a pinot. It’s filled with notes of cherry and herbs. Its earthy with much restraint that makes it pleasing to the palate. And best of all, its widely available.

Until next time, happy eating and happy drinking.

Crawfish Mac-n-Cheese

kellyscooking — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:06:32 +0000

My daughter loves mac-n-cheese and she loves crawfish. For her birthday dinner she asked if I could combine them and make crawfish mac-n-cheese like the seafood mac-n-cheese we get from the freezer section of Whole Foods. I’m always up for a food challenge, so of course I told her YES! The result, a wonderful cheesy feast that both kids and adults will love.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a try:

Ingredients:

1 lb of Louisiana Crawfish tails (peeled)

1 lb elbow macaroni( or whatever shaped pasta you prefer)

1 stick (plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cup of mixed Italian cheeses

2 cups of half-and-half

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray a 2 1/2 quart caasserole dish with cooking spray

Boil the noodles in a large pot of salted water until tender, about 7 minutes. Be careful not to overcook. Drain well and return noodles to the cooking pot

Melt the stick of butter. Stir into the macaroni. In a large bowl, mix the cheeses together. Add the half-half, two eggs, two cups of the cheese mixture, and the crawfish to the macaroni. Season with salt and pepper. Mix together well. Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and dot with butter.

Bake for 35 minutes or until you see the edges bubbling.

Serve hot. I recommend a side salad and nice crisp Austrailan Sauvignon Blanc.

I’d love to hear what you think. Until next time, happy eating.

Baking With White Chocolate

kellyscooking — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:33:07 +0000

Today I needed a sweet fix, so I baked white chocolate cookies. The creamy vanilla flavor of the chips makes for a yummy cookie. If you’d like the recipe, let me know in the comment section. I have say, they are a nice change from regular chocolate chip cookies.

Have a great day. Happy eating.

I’m Back…Let’s start with salad two ways

kellyscooking — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:28:21 +0000

It’s been a crazy spring with lots of activities and not much time to write. Thank goodness summer’s here.

I hadn’t done any meal planning today so dinner was created by ingredients on hand. I always have pasta in the pantry so I knew that to be a good starting point. For salad one, I topped rigatoni noodles with one of my favorite summer mixes, grape tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olive oil. Seasoned with a little kosher salt and fresh ground pepper this makes a really good and easy pasta salad.

I raided the fruit basket for salad two. I diced plums, apricots, nectarines, and a mango. Mixed together these flavors made a nice summer medley.

Of course no dinner’s complete without a nice table wine. Ok, maybe nice is an over statement. But I did have a chilled bottle of Columbia Crest Two Vine Vineyard 10 white wine. For about 6 bucks this is an easy on the wallet and an easy to drink fruit forward white table wine.

Glad to be back. I hope to share some wonderful food experiences this summer. Until next time, happy eating