Pistachio Pesto and Happy Birthday to my Momma!

I would first like to say Happy Birthday to the most wonderful woman in my life - my MOM!!  Living far away from home means many, many missed birthdays and celebrations.  AND I am bummed I am missing this one!  

(circa 1983)

My mom is my best friend.  We talk on the phone every day... if not twice or three times a day.  We share successes and failures... we laugh and cry... we trade recipes and advice.  I couldn't have asked for a better mother!  So Happy Birthday MOMMA!!  I love you, I love you, I love you!

--- 

One thing both my mom and I love is PESTO!!  I think it is one of the first things my mom showed me how to make.  The recipe is simple: food processor, leafy herb, some kind of nut, cheese, garlic, lemon and olive oil!  PRESTO PESTO!!!

This pesto uses fresh basil, pistachios and manchego cheese (one of my favorite cheeses!!)  Also, it has lots of fresh lemon making any dish you add it to taste like SUMMER!!  When the weather is cold outside isn't it nice to have some fresh flavors to perk you up??

PISTACHIO PESTO

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup dry roasted pistachios, unsalted & shelled
• 1/2 cup good olive oil
• 1 cup Manchego cheese, grated
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• zest and juice of one large lemon
• red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Place basil leaves, pistachios and olive oil in a food processor and blend, scraping down sides with a spatula.
2. Add Manchego cheese, garlic, zest, lemon juice and continue blending until pesto is smooth.  Add additional olive oil if pesto is too pasty.
3. Season mixture with a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste and blend again.
4. Use pesto right-away, refrigerate or freeze for future use.  Enjoy!  

I Heart Bacon!

With Valentine's Day right round the corner nothing says "I love you" like bacon... am I right?  Well at least in my house that is true.  Bacon is one of Joe's favorite foods and mine too for that matter.  It is the ultimate indulgence! We don't eat it often (for obvious reasons) which makes it a treat when we do! 

When I spotted heart shaped bacon on Pinterest I knew I would be getting my bacon on!!  The concept seemed simple enough.  Take a slice of your favorite bacon and cut it in two and shape it like a heart.  

I kicked the whole concept up a notch with a tasty maple-dijon glaze that sends these heart shaped bacon cuties over the top!  The sweet maple and spicy dijon pair perfectly with the salty bacon.  ((My mouth is watering right now writing this!!))

Be warned -- the bacon shrinks quite a bit while baking and doesn't stick together all that well.  You could try to pin it together during the baking process with a tooth pick (something I didn't try) but all in all I think whoever you make these for will get the heart shaped picture! 

BACON HEARTS

WITH MAPLE & DIJON GLAZE

Adapted from Ina Garten & The Paper Mama

Makes: 6 bacon hearts 

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bacon
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon of dijon mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Cut bacon slices in half.  Arrange slices into heart shapes onto a baking rack on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until bacon begins to turn brown.
3. In a small bowl, combine maple syrup and dijon and set aside.
4. Remove pan from oven carefully (the pan will have some hot bacon grease in it) and brush bacon hearts with glaze.  Return to the oven and bake for an additional 5 to 7 minutes until bacon is crisp.
5. Transfer bacon to a paper towel lined plate to slightly cool.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Enjoy!!

Mean Green Salad

I just love a good salad.  There is something about eating a big bowl of green that makes me feel healthy and refreshed.  With all of the snacks and sweets from this past week I felt like my body needed a green reboot!

So I cleaned out my veggie drawer picking out everything green: snow peas, green onions, pears, kiwis, limes and avocados!  AND what salad is complete without a little crunch so I topped it off with some pistachios.  GREEN SUPREME!!  

Green truly does mean healthy.  Avocados alone pack some powerful nutritional benefits.  They give this salad a nice creamy finish that stands up great to the spicy green onions, sweet snow peas and pears, tart kiwis, and nutty pistachios.  

MEAN GREEN SALAD

Ingredients 

• 2 avocados
• 3 kiwis
• 2 pears
• 1 1/2 limes
• 1 1/2 cups snow peas, sliced
• 1 green onion, white and green parts thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup pistachios 
• Lime-Apple Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine 2 cups of water with the juice of half a lime.  Using a melon-baller, scoop out the flesh of the pears, placing the pears in the acidulated water. (This will help prevent the pears from browning.)
2. Scoop out the flesh of the kiwi and avocados and place in another bowl and combine with sliced snow peas and green onions. Add in the pear and lime-apple vinaigrette, then gently toss together.
3. Place salad onto serving platter and top with pistachios.  

LIME-APPLE VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine vinegar, lime juice and honey in a small bowl.  Slowly whisk in olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Salted Avocado Lime Cookies

The avocado is a tricky fruit.  It's never ripe when you need it and then it's too ripe when you don't.  What is a girl to do?  Now, I love avocados.  Who doesn't??  They are creamy and luscious and earthy.  They tone down even the spiciest of tacos and heighten the most plain of salads.  

Joe and I were planning on serving walking tacos at our Super Bowl party this past weekend.  However with the abundance of other snacks we pulled the taco plug leaving a bag of perfectly ripened avocados with no purpose.  A few are destined for a fruity, citrusy salad (which I will be posting about later) but I wanted to expand my avocado horizons.  What to make?  COOKIES!! 

This recipe combines some of my favorite flavors: lime and salt with a hint of creamy avocado.  I also played around with the piping shapes making stars AND roses.  If you are not a master piper - not to worry - these cookies are very forgiving. 

SALTED AVOCADO LIME COOKIES

Adapted from Created By Diane

Ingredients

• 1/2 large avocado
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• zest of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• kosher salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, cream together avocado, butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar until smooth.  Mix in lime juice, lime zest and vanilla.  Then slowly add in flour mixture until everything is completely incorporated.
4. Place cookie dough into pastry piping bag fitted with a star tip (1M or 2M).  Pipe cookies onto sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Then top with a nice sprinkling of kosher salt.  (See how to pipe rose shaped cookies below!)
5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are golden around the edges.  Enjoy!

***MAKE SURE TO LIKE 'WENDY SEE WENDY DO' ON FACEBOOK!!*** 

 

Buckeye Balls and a Guest Post from Follow the Wife

We are in for two treats today here at Wendy See Wendy Do: the wonderfully talented Libby from Follow the Wife is guest blogging AND she is sharing a tasty recipe straight from her mom’s kitchen!

Follow the Wife is a great resource for all soon-to-be and wish-they-still-were brides!!  Libby has great tips on how to change your last name, fun ideas for bridesmaid gifts, DIY wedding projects and much more.  Including some delicious recipes!  So without further ado… Take it away Libby!!

---

Hello Wendy’s wonderful readers. I could not be more excited to be guest posting today. Wendy has been dazzling me with such amazing and delicious recipes and I’m honored she thought of me. Since I got married in May, I’ve been getting more creative in the kitchen thanks to the supply of new cooking tools I received at my shower. I’m also cooking a lot more now because I have someone to cook for. Pre-wedding it was grilled cheese and salads every night. But now I go to work on hearty beef stews, creamy risottos and, my favorite, mac and cheese. 

I’m a pretty good cook, but for this task I needed a little help. So I turned to the one person who could really help me hit this blog post out of the park: my mom. Wendy asked me to share a family recipe and my mom’s famous Buckeye Balls were the first thing that came to mind. She’s been making them for as long as I can remember—in fact, she got this recipe from a friend before I was even born and they have been a staple at every holiday gathering since then. 

You probably recognize the Buckeye as the Ohio State University mascot. The Ohio Buckeye is the state’s tree and on it bloom these nut-like capsules that have inspired today’s tasty treat. My family has no connection to Ohio or its famed university, but we do love peanut butter, which is the main ingredient in Buckeye Balls. 

Susan's Famous Buckeye Balls

Recipe from Follow the Wife

Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 12 oz of creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 lb of confectioners sugar 
• 12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 tbs of Crisco

Directions

1. In a food processor or stand mixer blend the peanut butter and butter till creamy. Add the vanilla and sugar and gradually pulse. If the mixture is too thick slowly add a few teaspoons of water. Once combined, roll into teaspoon-sized balls and set them in the refrigerator for about an hour to chill.
2. Melt the chocolate and Crisco in the microwave on high for one minute, stirring every 10 to 15 seconds. Using a spoon, dip the peanut butter balls in the melted chocolate and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Drizzle remaining chocolate over the Buckeye Balls and refrigerate again to allow the chocolate to harden. Enjoy! 

Super Bowl Recap

Wow... what a weekend.  The Super Bowl was quite a game...at least what I saw of it which wasn't much!!  Joe and I packed around 25 of our friends into our Wicker Park condo for the game.  

The invite asked guests to bring their favorite brew and we would provide all of the Super Bowl snacks.  ((I may have gone a little bit overboard!))  PINTEREST overboard!  There were so many great Super Bowl inspired treats pinned over the last few weeks I couldn't resist.  I am happy to say that all were loved by my friends.  

Here are a couple of favorites:

Football Deviled Eggs: These cuties gets their laces from zesty chives.  It was a little time-consuming (and frustrating at times) but everyone loved them!  

---

Mini Caprese Bites:  I will definitely make these bad boys again!!  I love how these Trader Joe's mini heirloom tomatoes add such a fun pop of color!!  This was a big crowd favorite!

---

Football Iced Cupcakes:  Now I am not a baker so I used a box mix for these sweet treats.  However I did make my own chocolate buttercream for the icing.  I find homemade buttercream sets up much better than the store bought kind!

---

Individual Seven Layer Dip:  I think this was by far the snack that received the most compliments.  Everyone kept saying, "why haven't I thought of this?"  That's exactly what I thought when I spotted it on Pinterest last month.  I would recommend these for any party! 

---

Veggie Cups:  This was another crowd-pleaser and so easy to put together.  I think it will be a staple for my shin-digs from now on!

---

Baked Spinach Dip Mini Bread Bowls:  This was my favorite bite of the night!!  It was pretty simple to make and sooooo yummy to eat!!  Again, another staple on my party menus from now on!!

What did you make for Super Bowl this year??

Mini Twice Baked Potatoes

HAPPY FRIDAY AND HAPPY MINI TWICE BAKED POTATOES!!

Can you tell I am still on my mini Super Bowl kick?  Well, I am!!  We are just days away the big game and I am gearing up for our party this Sunday!!  So far on the menu I am planning to have Mini Pizza Bites and Baked Bean & Corn Muffin Bites along with other tiny delights including Mini Twice Baked Potatoes.

These little starchy nuggets are filled with tangy sour cream, smoky bacon, sharp cheddar and fresh chives... everything you love about loaded baked potatoes in one scrumptious bite!!  

PLUS these bites are the PERFECT MAKE-AHEAD DISH!!  Whip them up the day before, pop them in the fridge and then cook them up the day of your event.  I mean, who wants to be slaving away at the stove when you have a ton of your favorite people over??  Not me!! 

MINI LOADED BAKED POTATOES 

Adapted from Laura's Best Recipes

Makes 25 bites (give or take)

Ingredients

•  1 pound tiny potatoes (about 25 or so - I got mine at Trader Joe's)
•  1 tablespoon olive oil
•  salt & pepper 
•  2 slices of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
•  4 tablespoons sour cream
•  1 tablespoon fresh chives, finely diced
•  1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.  
2. Toss potatoes in olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper and bake on a sheet pan for 20 to 25 minutes until easily pierced with a tooth pick.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
3. With a small knife cut off the top 1/4 of each potato, discarding the top.  Then using a melon baller or a small spoon scoop out the inside of the potato, making sure to the keep skin intact, placing potato flesh into a small bowl.  Using a fork or a masher, combine potato with bacon, sour cream, chives and cheddar.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Once combined, place potato mixture into a pastry bag or ziplock bag and cut off the tip of the bag.  Pipe potato mixture into potato skins, making sure mixture is slightly mounded at the top.  Place potatoes in a greased baking dish. 
4. If you are making this dish ahead of time, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until ready to cook (up to two days in advance).  Make sure to bring potatoes back to room temperature before finishing off.
5. Bake potatoes at 400ºF for 15 to 20 minutes until tops are slightly browned and potatoes are heated through.  Serve immediately or at room temperature.  Enjoy!