Pineapple & Apple Spring Rolls with Vanilla Honey Sauce

I'm pretty sure everyone has something they like to do when their mind is restless and they just need to get to a more settled mental place... tor me that's cooking. Not just any cooking mind you; whenever I am feeling stressed or frustrated I often find myself in the kitchen cooking something brand new. It always works at putting my mind at ease, and sometimes results in something super delicious (Mac & Cheese Cups ... and now my Pineapple & Apple Spring Roll).

So, there has been this package of spring roll wrappers just sitting in our fridge, starring me dead in the face, just challenging me to make something delicious - well jokes on you spring rolls. Since I hate food shopping, and because it was 11 pm when I started this task of mine, I decided to use what we had in the house. I knew I wanted to make a sweet spring roll because I plan on making a savory one in the next few days and we didn't have any of the ingredients I needed in the house. What we did have in the house were some fresh apples and a pineapple, so the choice was very easy.

For the Rolls:  (I only made 2 rolls but this will probably make around 6):

1 large wedge of pineapple, chopped

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp cinnamon sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp coconut flakes

1 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp chopped walnuts

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

I started by chopping up pineapple and apples - make sure to peel the apples. 

After you chop up the fruit, add 1/2 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tbsp cinnamon sugar, and 1 tbsp of vanilla extract. 

Next you should take 1 tbsp of butter and melt it in a pan. 

As your butter is melting, add about 1/2 - 1 tbsp of fresh grated ginger. I added 1/2 tbsp and I think I would add some more next time so that the ginger flavor comes through better.

After the butter is melted, add your fruit to the mixture. At this point I decided I wanted some crunch in my rolls so I also chopped up some walnuts and added those to the pan. 

As the fruit begins to soften, about 2 minutes, add a little brown sugar and coconut flakes to the pan.

Let the mixture cook for another two minutes, and then remove from the heat to cool off. As the fruit is cooling, heat some canola oil in a separate pan.

As your oil heats, and once your fruit has cooled a little, you need to make your rolls. 

Use about 2 tbsps of filling, and place it diagonally in the center of your roll. From there you should fold up the bottom, then fold the two sides in, moisten the top corner (using egg or water), and finally roll up the roll (there will be instructions to follow on the back of the spring roll package).

Your oil will be hot enough at this point, so place the roll into the pan.

You should allow the rolls to cook in the oil for about 2 - 3 minutes, turning as needed. Make sure that the oil doesn't get too hot - mine got a little too hot so the first roll got crispy on the outside too quickly. If your oil is too hot the rolls will crisp on the outside and not be completely cooked all the way through. Once the rolls are brown and crispy on the outside you should remove them from the pan.

As the rolls cool down you will have time to make your dipping sauce.

For the Vanilla Honey Sauce:

3 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp orange marmalade 

1/4 tbsp cinnamon sugar

Mix it all together and you have your quick & yummy dessert!

My Fatty Girl Portion :)

Normal Person Portion

The pineapple and apple go really nicely together, and the flavors are elevated by the vanilla and the coconut. The sauce is simple, but really pairs nicely with the roll. This dessert is great if you are in a time crunch because you can make up the mix ahead of time, and then just fry them right before it's time for dessert. Also, being a family of chocolate lovers, this is a nice change of pace from your typical heavy chocolate cake. I plan to modify this recipe to incorporate some other fruits, so stay tuned!

Sweet Potato Fries

The other night my mom, Jordan, and I decided (aka my mom decided and we agreed - remember that Italian guilt I mentioned?) to go to this musical in Schenectady called "Ragtime." One of my mom's bribing tools was to treat us to Aperitivo prior to the show. Aperitivo had just changed their menu around, and although they removed the Matchstick fries (which I may never forgive them for), they added Sweet Potato fries with a Bacon Aioli ... this was my inspiration for today's blog.

Side note, we sat through half of the musical and then left because the first act was an hour and a half of torture and we still had an entire second act to go. I am not proud that we left, but it was purely to keep our sanity.

Moving on... I've never made sweet potato fries before, but I can say with confidence that they will now be one of my go to side dishes. This recipe is super quick, easy, healthy, and pretty yummy.

For this recipe you will need:
1 large sweet potato
Cinnamon Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt (optional, if you use it don't use regular salt)
EVOO

Start by pre-heating your oven to 450 degrees and peeling the sweet potato.

Step #1

 After you should cut the potato in half, and then cut into roughly 1/4 of an inch - 1/2 an inch slices (depending on how thick you like them).

Step #2

 I put all of the pieces in a bowl, drizzled with EVOO, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and cinnamon sugar.

Step #3

You should lay all of your fries on a parchment paper lined pan, and bake in the oven for roughly 20 - 25 minutes depending on how thick the fries are.  (During the cooking process you may want to turn the fries once or twice so that they cook evenly).

Once the fries are cooked, remove them from the oven, let them cool for about 5 minutes, and then enjoy!

Step #4

I served my fries with a side of ketchup, and just a quick garlic mayo. For the garlic mayo I simply used some chopped garlic, tiny bit of lemon juice, and mayo. I enjoyed the mayo but my brother wasn't a huge fan so make it with caution :) I had fully intended on recreating a bacon aioli but Jordan was starving and I was already busy cooking the fries and the steak for his steak sandwich - but please stay tuned for my bacon aioli attempt!

I would also like to take this opportunity to update everyone on the Max and Maddie progress. In case you're not familiar, my parent's demon cat Maddie has still not taken a liking to my adorable cat Max, even though they have been living together for about two months now. I think there may be some light at the end of the tunnel (ironically just in time for me to move out)...

1 month ago

Today... even though shortly after this picture was taken she woke up and attacked him.

Romano Cheese Crusted Chicken

So I've decided it was time to get back into the kitchen - mostly because my sister hasn't sent me my photos from the places we ate in the city yet. My mom was working late tonight so I decided to whip something up for my dad and brother to eat when they got home. I decided I would make just a quick no fuss chicken recipe, and ultimately decided on romano crusted chicken. I've never made this dish before, but I looked at a couple different basic recipes for it, and decided to add a few ingredients to make it more unique.

I honestly would cook ten times more, but I just truly hate grocery shopping... like down to my core, and tragically the grocery shopping situation in Niskayuna has just gotten worse - thanks to Shop Rite. The big talk of the town is the new grocery store they just put in St. James Square, which is down the street from my house. I couldn't even get my morning Starbucks because the parking lot was completely full with shoppers, due to the "double coupon" deal (which I told my mom I took advantage of but really I didn't because I just wanted to get out of that place) ... the madness needs to stop!

Alright, enough with my ranting...

The ingredients you will need for this recipe are:
Grated romano cheese
All purpose flour
2 eggs
One package of thinly sliced chicken (my package had 8 pieces)
1/2 - 3/4 stick of butter
Cayenne pepper
Pepper
Garlic salt
Dried parsley
1 1/2 lemons
2/3 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
EVOO

Start by tenderizing the chicken between two pieces of parchment paper - on both sides.

Tenderized Chicken

Romano cheese, flour, & egg (the scissors and calculator were not used in this dish...)

After I washed off and tenderized the chicken, I got three bowls and filled them with the dredging ingredients -
1) all purpose flour
2) 2 eggs
3) romano cheese mix

(That's the order I dredged them in)

I decided to "spice up" the cheese by adding garlic salt, parsley, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

After all of the pieces were dredged I heated a pan with some EVOO on medium heat, and fried the chicken, two at a time, until it was golden brown.  I fried about 8 pieces, so halfway through I added some fresh EVOO so it wouldn't burn.

As the pieces came out of the skillet I transfered them to a baking pan. While cooking the chicken you should also preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 After all of the chicken is completed you can begin on the sauce. To start, begin melting the butter in a skillet.

As the butter begins to melt, squeeze in the lemon juice. Once all of the juice is extracted,  add the whole lemons into the skillet for more flavor.

Finally, add the parsley, wine, and chicken stock. Let the mixture come to a boil and then remove it from the heat. Pour the sauce over the chicken, cover with foil, and bake in a 350 degree oven for roughly 20 minutes.

Obviously I poured myself a glass - I clearly was not going to open a brand new bottle of wine and only use some for the sauce...

Mmmm delicious!

 I decided to serve the chicken with some spaghetti and homemade sauce that was left over from the night before. I actually incorporated a little of the liquid from the chicken into the red sauce to tie in the flavors.

And there you have it... a quick and tasty meal! I'm going to assume it's tasty because my dad and brother both went back for thirds.

Kelly creepin' on my amazing meal....

Quick Asian Chicken Stir fry

One of the nice things about being at my parent's house is that there's always food in the fridge, and it's always a surprise - so it can be fun to open it up and on the spot decide what to make. After rummaging around for a bit I decided that I would just do a quick stir fry/fried rice... I guess it was kind of a hybrid... I don't like labels. 

To start, I grabbed some Uncle Ben's white rice and used 1/2 cup of rice, 1 1/3 cups of water, brought it to a boil, and then let it simmer for roughly 20 minutes. As the rice was cooking I started on the chicken.

I am a very inpatient cooker, so when cooking anything in the pan I usually dice it up first so it cooks faster. I know that if I were to cook it whole and then slice it the meat would be juicier, but honestly as long as you don't overcook the meat I think it still turns out fine. 

After I diced up the chicken I added soy sauce, garlic salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, and ginger. I mixed everything up together, and then I put the chicken into a nonstick pan with just a little bit of EVOO and started cooking it on medium heat.

Also, whenever cooking chicken I always cover the pan. This helps the meat to cook faster - which I love. 

While my chicken started to cook, I quickly diced up some red onion, and washed off some snap peas. Fried rice is great because you can pretty much add whatever veggies or meat you want to it. Sometimes when I make fried rice/stir fry I add diced squash and zucchini, pretty much whatever I have in the fridge. 

I waited for the chicken to appear cooked (I don't want to add veggies to the pan while I can still see raw chicken, so I just waited until both sides were white... the chicken was still a little pink in the center) and then added the veggies to the pan.

I re-covered the pan and let everything continue to cook. By this time my rice was done cooking, so I scooped out the rice and added it to my chicken and veg. 

After I added the rice I also added a little bit more soy sauce, and some more of the seasoning I had used on the chicken. This helps to add more flavor and tie everything together. 

After adding more seasoning, mix everything together and just let it cook for another minute or so. 

Dump everything into a bowl and poof! - lunch is served! This is a very healthy and still filling lunch. If I had more time I would have used brown rice instead of white, and I would have preferred to use low sodium soy sauce, but I had to work with what I had. 

Whenever I am super hungry and low on time I love to make a quick fried rice with chicken or beef. One thing I recommend everyone to keep in their kitchen is the bags of Uncle Ben's rice. Uncle Ben's makes these little packages of rice, sold individually, that take 90 seconds in the microwave to cook. Whenever I don't have 20 - 30 minutes to make rice, I will just use a package of the vegetable rice and then add the meat to it. It cuts back a lot on the time and tastes just as good!

Sunday Night Dinner

One of my favorite things about being home is having family dinners. Although you never know what you're going to get, or what's going to come out of Uncle A's mouth, it's still such a great time. This Sunday we all had dinner together and it was, yet again, another great meal. Along with the original five of us, Uncle A joined us for dinner, as well as Chris (Kayla's boyfriend), who fled Manhattan for the weekend, and as a result had his train cancelled on both Sunday and Monday.... thanks Irene.

For dinner we prepared stuffed veal, cauliflower gratin, beef meatballs, buttery spinach, tortellini, broccoli rabe, tomato sauce, and creme brulee. Yes, my family eats a lot - food equals love.

Although most of my mom's recipes are originals, or family recipes, the veal was inspired by a Food Network one by Catherine Scorsese "Stuffed Breast of Veal." The only difference was that we used Gruyere cheese instead of Locatelli.

I wont bother retyping the recipe, but I strongly recommend you check it out because it was amazingly delicious and super tender.

My mom and I have both made many different variations of meatballs, and this time we used just ground beef, egg, parmesan cheese, and day old Italian bread. Although these were tasty, I really prefer meatballs that are half beef and half veal - I feel that the taste and texture are much lighter and more "airy."

For the broccoli rabes we did a simple saute with garlic and evoo, and for the spinach we again did a simple saute in some garlic, cream and lots of butter. The way I prefer to cook is simple, but still great flavor. I love vegetables, and therefore I feel if you cook them correctly you don't need to mask their flavors with cheeses, etc (although I heart cheese).




Note: These two dishes can be done towards the end of the overall preparation because neither take very long to cook.


The main star of the night was, hands down, the cauliflower gratin. For this we used the following ingredients:
Cauliflower
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup of gruyere cheese, grated
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, grated
Breadcrumbs
Nutmeg
s + p




We began by boiling the cauliflower for 5 to 7 minutes until it was cooked, but still firm. While the cauliflower cooked, we started melting about 1/2 a stick of butter, and added flour to it to create a roux (you should add about 3 tablespoons of flour, and stir it together with the butter for about 2 - 3 minutes).

Next, add 2 cups of hot milk to the roux, and whisk the mixture until it comes to boil and becomes thick. Once thick, remove from the heat and add the cheeses (1/2 cup of each), s+p, and nutmeg (just a little for seasoning).

Using a baking dish (roughly 8 x 11) pour some of the cheese mix into the pan, add the cauliflower, and add the rest of the mixture over the cauliflower. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and more cheese and butter, if desired.

The gratin will bake at a 375 degree oven for roughly 20 - 30 minutes.

Look at how creamy and delicious is looks - I can't believe I'm going to say this, but after having cauliflower gratin, I prefer it to potato gratin. Even though it's still smothered in cheese, it just feels healthier - it's all in my head but whatever.

Obviously Rutherford family dinner is not complete without fresh tomato sauce. This time instead of using sausage my mom used some of the extra ground beef. I think I prefer having sausage in my sauce, but they are both very different flavors - it just depends if you want a more mild sauce or if you prefer the intense flavor of Italian sausage. Regardless of what you use, always cook the meat before adding it into the sauce - this ensures that you won't end up with raw meat in your sauce - not a crowd pleasure. One of these days I will dedicate a full post to my homemade sauce, but for now I'll just go through the basics - canned tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, ground beef, and lots of TLC.

I should mention that as all of this wonderful cooking was happening, hurricane Irene was wreaking havoc all over the neighborhood.

We will be cleaning leaves out of pool for the rest of the week.

Well maybe not havoc... but things still got pretty messy.

Our neighbors spent the whole day today sawing this tree apart.

So one of the things we were super excited for was Jordan's (my littler brother) creme brulee. Here's something you need to know about my brother and sister.... they are both pyros. Seriously, anything fire related they get giddy over. So, when they found the creme brulee kit in the kitchen cabinet it was game, set, match.

As my brother began making the creme brulee, my mother started setting the table.

Where there's food - there's Kelly.

So for the creme brulee Jordan used:
1 c of heavy cream
1 c of milk
1/4 vanilla bean, split
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/4 c sugar
brown sugar

Heat heavy cream, milk, and vanilla bean in a pot with the vanilla bean, and let the mixture come to a boil. Remove from heat and let the mixture steep for about 10 minutes, then scrape the bean seeds into the mixture.

With a mixer, combine the eggs and sugar, and gradually add the cream mixture. After everything is incorporated, strain and skim the foam off of the top.

Lay out ramekins into a big baking pan, add about 4 oz of mixture into each one, and then pour water into the baking pan so that it goes about half way up the ramekins. Bake the creme brulee for 25 - 30 minutes in a 325 degree oven.

Remove and let cool for a bit, sprinkle with brown sugar and use the blow torch to create the caramelization on top.

Something you need to know about Jordan, aside from the fact that he's a pyro, is that he has a very methodical mind, and in theory, would make a great baker because he follows directions to a T. Unfortunately there was either something wrong with this recipe, or he just didn't let it cook long enough, because the brulee never set, and it was just too watery...

Too cocky for his own good - they looked great, but they were a big watery mess underneath... jokes on you J. 

Make sure to cook the creme brulee long enough so that it is basically set before you take it out of the oven.

Kelly still wanted some...

As the wine flowed at dinner the conversation got more and more hilarious... I'm not sure what Uncle A said to Chris, but clearly it was something borderline inappropriate.... or completely inappropriate.

Chris and Uncle A enjoying some wine with their cookies... who needs milk?

For the pasta, all we did was boil some tortellini, and serve the sauce over it - quick and simple.

Also, I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of it, but my mom used the left over ingredients from the veal, put everything into a baking dish, added some more cheese on top, and baked it quick in the oven as an additional side dish. It really helped to tie everything together - even though it reminded me of eating what the dog eats - fyi, my mom makes our dog fresh chicken, brown rice, sweet potatoes and carrots for dinner. Diva dog.

I can't stress enough that my family cooks way too much food, all of the time, and a lot of the things I wrote about just now can be stand alone dishes. If you're in a rush, meatballs are quick and easy to make, and pair great with just a simple red sauce and some pasta. If you have more time I definitely recommend the veal, it was a little on the fatty side, but it was so great. 

 Kelly will literally beg until there isn't any food left on the table, and everyone has left the kitchen... gotta respect her dedication.

Until next time!