To Taste: Spicy Fish Tacos & Mexi-Risotto

Posted by Erin L. in To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with avocado, cheddar, chicken stock, cooking, dinner, fish, garlic, green onion, lime, recipe, risotto, romaine, sazon, shallots, sriracha, summer, sweet peppers, tacos, tilapia, to taste, tortillas September 1, 2009

One of my favorite quick & economical meals is Spicy Fish Tacos. Acme offers frozen Tilapia fillets in single portions at $1.00 apiece, so my freezer is always stocked with the easy to defrost packets. Summer hosts the best vegetables so fresh avocado, grape tomatoes, romaine, & green onion were mandatory additions! I had a bit more time on my hands on this quiet Sunday evening, so I had no qualms spending a bit more time in the kitchen pairing it with a Sweet Pepper & Cheddar Risotto. Thank goodness for Dre, my handsome kitchen assistant, as he took on the tiring task of continually stirring the rice.

Spicy Fish Tacos w/ Mexi-Risotto

Spicy Tilapia, Grape Tomatoes, Romaine, Green Onion, & Flour Tortillas

Spicy Fish Tacos & Mex-Risotto:

Spicy Tilapia Fillets – Marinated in Sazon, Sriracha, Garlic, Shallots, & Lime Juice, Pan-Fried

Flour Tortillas

Mexi-Risotto – Red, Orange & Yellow Sweet Peppers, Cheddar, Garlic, Shallots, Chicken Stock, & Arborio

Quickie: Whipped by Potatoes

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie, To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with balsamic, basil, butter, chicken, cooking, cusinart stand mixer, garlic, herbs, mashed potatoes, milk, olive oil, parsley, potatoes, recipe, shallots, snow peas, to taste, whipped September 1, 2009

I LOVE LOVE LOVE mashed potatoes, but not the starchy process of peeling, chopping, & boiling the tubers. The best parts are using my prized Cuisinart Stand Mixer and, of course, eating them!

Whipped Potatoes w/ Fresh Herbs via my Cuisinart Stand Mixer

I kept the rest of my dinner quick with the entree & side:

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Breast – Marinated in Italian Salad Dressing & Balsamic Vinegar, Pan-fried

Fresh Snow Peas – Sauteed w/ S&P, Shallots, Garlic, EVOO, & Butter

Whipped Potatoes – White Potatoes, Whipped w/ S&P, Lemon-Thyme, Parsley, Basil, Garlic, Shallots, Milk, & BUTTER! in my Cuininart Stand Mixer

A tall glass of Dr. Dre-2O

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Breast, Sauteed Snow Peas, & a Mountain of Whipped Potatoes

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Breast, Sauteed Snow Peas, & Whipped Potatoes

Weekend Update: Asian Edition – Part 2

Posted by Erin L. in Family-Style, To Taste ~ Recipe, Weekend Update and tagged with bok choy, chicken, chopsticks, dinner, ginger, Japanese eggplant, mushrooms, Philadelphia, recipe, rice, sesame, snow peas, to taste August 4, 2009

Thursday, I made a visit to my favorite (bc it’s close & I’m lazy) Vietnamese supermarket, aptly named Asia Market. Philly’s Washington Ave is lined with your choice of Asian markets, shops, & restaurants directly perpendicular to the famous Italian Market. I was certainly excited on this visit as now that I have a BlackBerry (aka my Frankenberry), I can look up all the crazy products encountered on my Asia Market excursions! This time was a quick trip for familiar dinner items for Friday night & some kitchen staples: Shallots, Fresh Ginger, Snow Peas, baby Bok Choy, Japanese Eggplant, & some chopsticks.

I had “plans” for a Friday night at home, cooking dinner & enjoying some TV/relaxation. A quick Google search for “chicken bok choy recipe” brought me to Food & Wine’s Ginger-Sesame Chicken w/ Mushrooms & Bok Choy, and thank goodness I had some fungi in the fridge! I always interpret recipes into my own taste, so I omitted the red peppers, prepared the baby bok choy on the side, & added my own splashes & dashes to the sauce. This recipe will def stay in my back pocket, especially for the brown sauce! I finished the meal with some white rice & good laughs via The Love Guru.

Ginger-Sesame Chicken w/ Mushrooms

Baby Bok Choy

Leftover Lightning! Turkey Taco!

Posted by Erin L. in Leftover Lightning!, To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with cooking, leftovers, lettuce, Philadelphia, recipe, romaine, sour cream, sriracha, taco, to taste, tortilla, turkey, turkey taco July 30, 2009

Ground Turkey & Rice Stuffing from my Grilled Stuffed Peppers, jazzed up w/ Sriracha

Last Lonely Whole Grain Tortilla

Dollop(s) of Daisy

Lots o’ Shredded Romaine

Coulda used some Fresh Salsa or Chopped Tomatoes… but otherise, LEFTOVER LIGHTING!!

Leftover Lightning! Turkey Taco!

Quickie: Grilled Stuffed Peppers

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie, To Taste ~ Recipe, via Blackberry and tagged with brown rice, dinner, garlic, grill, grilled, ground turkey, Italian spices, olive oil, parmesan, recipe, red bell peppers, red onion, soy sauce, sriracha, stuffed peppers, summer, to taste, tomatoes, turkey bacon, Worcestershire July 27, 2009

Grilled Stuffed Peppers

red bell peppers, ground turkey, turkey bacon, brown rice

tomatoes, garlic, red onion

soy sauce, Worcestershire, Sriracha, olive oil, Italian spices, & Parmesan

Grilled Stuffed Peppers via Blackerry

Check out my Flickr for some better, non-BBerry shots of my Grilled Stuffed Peppers!

“Recipe” after the jump…

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First & FAIL: Pesto

Posted by Erin L. in To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with basil, cooking, fail, flair, garlic, mint, olive oil, parmesan, pesto, pine nuts, recipe, recipe notes, thai basil, to taste, win July 2, 2009

It took 24 hours to ponder my first blog post before I realized it shouldn’t take so much thought… I just needed to start cooking for it to come to me & it did!

Monday night I dove into my first experience making homemade pesto; seemed easy enough. I’ve been so excited to start an herb garden to kick off the first summer with our big patio & my Siam Queen Thai Basil went wild! Well, I went a bit wild too… with the garlic. You’ll find in my food ventures that I’m not big on following recipes (will explain my philosophy in its own post soon enough!) & for once, my absentmindedness paired with a disregard for proportions turned into an initial flop.