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

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’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

Does the thought of a pile of crispy fried shrimp immediately conjure up images of a chain restaurant all-you-can-eat $9.99 buffet? Yeah, I have a hard time shaking that association too. But don’t hold it against these poor little shrimp! There’s a reason “endless shrimp” is such a crowd pleasing draw – once you start popping these things in your mouth, it’s really hard to stop.

(...)
Continue reading "Crispy Fried Shrimp" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/crispy-fried-shrimp/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Every so often food items will curiously appear in our fridge and pantry. Items that I didn’t buy. A tub of spreadable butter. Individually-wrapped American slices. A jar of Reese’s Creamy Peanut Butter. Diced peaches in syrup. It’s not that I really have anything against these products, but in our almost three years of marriage my husband has come to understand that if he would like to eat such foods he will need to purchase them at the grocery store himself. And so he does.

So it was a little bit out of character for my husband when he came home the other day with sugar snap peas.

(...)
Continue reading "Caesar Salad with Sugar Snap Peas" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/caesar-salad-with-sugar-snap-peas/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

When green beans are on sale for a mere 88 cents a pound, as they were this week at my local Ralphs, you can be sure I’ll be cooking some with dinner. I usually just steam them or sauté them with a little garlic, but when I found this fresh and flavorful-sounding recipe for a cold green bean side dish inside a package of feta cheese I was eager to try it.

(...)
Continue reading "Green Beans with Feta and Dill" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/green-beans-with-feta-and-dill/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

If the carrots of my childhood had been prepared with a sweet vanilla glaze like these ones, you can be sure I would have eaten them much more willingly than I did! These little cuties get to roll around with a vanilla bean in butter and honey (and a touch of white wine vinegar) until they’re tender and showing off a gorgeous caramelized glow. Even with the glaze, the natural sweetness of the carrots still shines through. It’s a fast and easy side dish that we enjoyed this week with a nice rib eye steak. I’ll be putting them alongside roasted chicken, ham, lamb or just about anything from now on.

(...)
Continue reading "Vanilla Glazed Baby Carrots" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/vanilla-glazed-baby-carrots/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I’ve seen other pasta dishes that are similar to this one, with thinly sliced caramelized onions intertwined with spaghetti. It’s almost as if they’re in camouflage, their lithe lankiness assimilating amongst the pasta.  My husband, alas, is no fan of onions so I usually end up choosing recipes where they’re not too prominent. But then I thought about that Jessica Seinfeld cookbook where she hides butternut squash in mac & cheese so the kids won’t know they’re eating vegetables. This recipe sounded so enticing and the onions had a rather stealth presence…perhaps my better half would enjoy the dish so much he wouldn’t mind?

(...)
Continue reading "Whole Grain Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes & Pecorino Romano Recipe" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/whole-grain-spaghetti-with-cherry-tomatoes-pecorino-romano-recipe/

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh