You’ve watched over your steak on the grill in hopes of getting it to your desired doneness. You’ve patiently waited while it rests and redistributes all of its juices. Then finally it’s the moment of truth…time to carve.

I was full of pride (and relief) when I made that first incision into this Sweet & Spicy Grilled Steak. A perfect medium rare! I can’t take all of the credit, I did have a little help from a pretty cool meat thermometer. OXO recently sent me their digital meat thermometer to try out and I ended up really loving the thing. Read on to hear what I liked so much about it and what makes this steak taste so incredible (hint…roasted cumin!).

(...)
Continue reading "Sweet & Spicy Grilled Steak with Tomato Relish" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/sweet-spicy-grilled-steak-with-tomato-relish/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Baked pasta – seriously??

I know that for a lot of folks the weather this week has been an absolute scorcher. But here in San Diego, we’ve kind of been experiencing the opposite (but not at all severe) phenomenon…it’s actually been a bit cold and blustery. In fact, I nearly turned the car around as I was taking my kids out to the Wild Animal Park – the fog was dense and drizzly on the way out there and my duo are still pretty little. Fortunately, the sky cleared up and we had a blast with the flamingos, meerkats and gorillas.

The brisk, gray weather put me in the mood for a good spinach lasagna, using the basil pesto I recently made. The recipe, from the back of a package of shredded cheese, uses no-boil noodles so it was actually easy to prepare on a weeknight. Although you can’t really see it in the photos, the pesto is prominent throughout the lasagna layers and full of flavor. There’s a fair amount of spinach in there as well so you can feel good about getting your veggies in.

(...)
Continue reading "Spinach-Pesto Lasagna" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/spinach-pesto-lasagna/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Teriyaki burgers. Sweet onions. Spicy mayo. Hawaiian rolls. Pineapple.

Is your mouth watering yet?

This is my kind of burger: medium-rare, grass-fed (Food Inc. opened my eyes), eighty-five percent lean beef bathed in homemade teriyaki marinade.  The idea for the burger comes from the back of my favorite brand of hamburger buns, King’s Hawaiian. A local restaurant we like to go to, Jake’s, uses these buns and now they’re all I use too (yes, I’d prefer they’d do away with the HFCS and preservatives but for now I’ll give them a pass, they’re so good). They’re sweet and fluffy and provide the perfect backdrop for a highly flavorful burger.

(...)
Continue reading "Teriyaki Burgers" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/teriyaki-burgers/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Once, a few years ago, my sisters and I ran into Wolfgang Puck in Vegas. Or at least we saw him. We were having a late lunch at one of his restaurants, Trattoria del Lupo, at Mandalay Bay, and I noticed him from afar. He was just sitting by himself, at a table right in the front section of the dining room. In fact, he was seated so prominently that I doubted for a moment whether it was really him. But it definitely was. I must have been staring (in fact, I know I was) because as we were leaving the restaurant, he acknowledged me with a warm smile.

The recipe for these Braised Short Ribs was the first of Wolfgang Puck’s that I’d ever tried. It came from the back of his packaged beef stock and was uncommonly good. The short ribs, braised for 2-1/2 hours in the stock and Cabernet Sauvignon, were fall-off-the-bone succulent and full of flavor. Don’t get me started about the intoxicating, earthy aromas that wafted throughout my house all afternoon.

Chef Puck recommends serving these short ribs over noodles or mashed potatoes. I, of course, turned mine into panini (see the recipe over on my other blog, Panini Happy, later this week).

(...)
Continue reading "Braised Short Ribs" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/braised-short-ribs/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I wasn’t looking for any kind of packaged spice mix when I went grocery shopping  for ingredients to make chicken fajitas. I usually prefer to just use what I have in my spice drawer at home (which is pretty robust, by the way – one day I’ll post about it!). But I noticed a McCormick display promoting a new product with unusual packaging (see left). It was called Recipe Inspirations and it had six little pre-measured seasoning compartments (let me stress that I’m not being paid in any way to blog about this product). Coincidentally, one of these packets was for a marinade for Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas.

On the back of the packet they provide a little recipe card and – unlike most spice blends – they actually give you the measurements for each spice. I’m guessing their hope is that you’ll want to make the fajitas again, and next time you’ll buy full bottles of the seasonings. The former marketer in me finds that kind of brilliant.

I didn’t need to buy pre-measured spices, but since the packets only cost a little over a buck I figured I’d pick one up and give their fajitas recipe a try. It was tasty! Fajitas are kind of a go-to weeknight meal in our house, we have them pretty often. I’m a fan of citrus-marinated chicken, so the lime and orange juices in this recipe really worked for me. I normally would have made fajitas with fresh garlic and cilantro, but the dried seasoning approach wasn’t bad either. And it definitely was a timesaver.

(...)
Continue reading "Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/garlic-lime-chicken-fajitas/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I’m an Auntie! My sister and her husband welcomed their first child, a baby boy, earlier this week (with a rather quick labor for a first child, I might add – just 6 hours!) and we’re all overjoyed. They just brought him home from the hospital yesterday, so now the real fun begins. The “new guy” is just 11 weeks younger than my own little man – our family holiday gatherings will forever have a new “energy” with these two little boys running around!

My nephew is actually among a huge wave of births going on among my friends. There have been at least eight new babies since October (three just in the last week) and another five or six friends are due before June. It’s incredible! Everyone gives each other a lot of support, which is especially appreciated in those early days when you’re a zombified mess from lack of sleep. A number of fantastic ladies brought over homemade meals after I had my son in December and I’m excited to have the opportunity to “pay it forward”.

Which brings me to baked pasta…and this wonderful Shrimp with Orzo recipe, from inside the wrapper of a can of crushed tomatoes.

(...)
Continue reading "Shrimp with Orzo" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/shrimp-with-orzo/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I’ve done what I used to think was the impossible, a feat reserved for only the superhuman among us. With the exception of our regular Saturday night take0ut, as of tomorrow I will have cooked dinner at home every night for the past two weeks.

Between activities, errands, a second infant and witching hour (do all children receive the memo on this one during delivery??) I’d been cooking two to three nights a week at best. Meal planning never worked for me, as I struggled to decide what to make – just thinking through a menu takes a lot of time I usually don’t have. A few weeks ago I finally decided to try those weekly menus and shopping lists you see in some food and lifestyle magazines, like the Grocery Bag feature in Everyday Food and the Real Simple Recipe Shopping Lists. For once I’m glad to have the decisions made for me! I just buy all the ingredients and make all the dishes on the menu, even the ones I’m not sure I’ll totally like. The ingredients in both magazines’ menus are seasonal and take relatively little hands-on prep time; the Everyday Food ones, in particular, tend to be rather economical too. I save my “big fancy meals” and most baking for the weekend when I have more time and an extra set of hands (my husband’s) to watch the kids. I should have started this long ago.

In the spirit of getting mid-week dinner on the table, I wanted to share this incredibly quick, easy and tasty recipe for a Fiesta Chicken Soup that comes from a carton of chicken broth. I suppose it’s called “Fiesta” as it’s similar to a Mexican chicken tortilla soup, with the zing of lime juice in the broth along with the flavors of jalapeño, cilantro and avocado. The way I prepared this soup actually wasn’t so quick, as I made my own chicken stock and grilled some organic chicken. But for nearly as good results in under 20 minutes you could easily use a good quality ready-made stock and rotisserie chicken.

(...)
Continue reading "Quick Fiesta Chicken Soup" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/quick-fiesta-chicken-soup/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Food blogging is an amazing pastime for someone like me who loves to celebrate holidays. It seems like there’s always some kind of special occasion happening in the world, and along with it usually comes special food. We’ve just come off of Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day cooking; this week you’ll now find a lot of us food bloggers are turning to Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras. It never ends (and for that I’m grateful).

(...)
Continue reading "Red Beans and Rice" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/red-beans-and-rice/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Once upon a time, years ago, we had a good friend over for dinner. It was the first time we’d ever hosted her so I wanted to roll out the red carpet, so to speak, with a delicious, hearty pasta carbonara. I’d never made it before, but it was pasta – how hard could it be?

And then I got to the last step where I was to add the sauce made of cheese, heavy cream and eggs. And serve.

Ummm…did this recipe get cut off? It wants me to serve this tossed in raw egg? I’m not gonna do that! That’s not safe! Not to mention disgusting! I’ve gotta serve something right now. Aaaahh…what do I do??!

(...)
Continue reading "Fettucine Carbonara" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/fettucine-carbonara/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Is there anything more homey than a big ol’ broccoli casserole? Perhaps it’s a sign of my “settling down”, now that I’m married with two kids and live in the suburbs (when did this happen?) but I’ve rediscovered casseroles in the past year or so. You’ll almost never see one on a restaurant menu but so many of us grew up with them on our dinner tables at home. When that shallow 13 x 9″ dish comes out of the oven, with errant strands of cheese baked onto the sides, I just know I’m in for a treat.

I’d actually describe this casserole as “mac & cheese with broccoli”.  Steamed broccoli is tossed with spiral-y fusilli pasta in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce, topped with Parmesan and baked to bubbly deliciousness.  I’m pretty sure I found this recipe on the side of a package of broccoli florets, although unfortunately I forgot to save enough of the original package to know for sure. Two good things I do know: 1) it tastes great alongside ham and 2) even a two-year-old will eat it.

(...)
Continue reading "Broccoli Cheese Pasta Casserole" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/broccoli-cheese-pasta-casserole/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh