A Very Dirty Martini

The first dirty martini I ever drank was called a 'Dirty Bird'. I enjoyed this bird at the local bar. I was hooked. Loved the vodka with the olive brine, perfect. I have found through many, many experiments I prefer a very dirty martini. The dirty being the olive brine.

Through my research I stumbled upon something called Dirty Sue. This is a twice filtered olive brine mixer for your martini. A great choice instead of stealing the bathwater from your olives leaving them on dry ground to rot.

I have not done as much research on the vodka. I have just figured out the measurements I prefer. As I research I will update the recipe.

2 oz vodka
1.5 oz green olive brine or Dirty Sue
.25 oz dry vermouth (or less, not too much!)

Mix in a shaker with ice. Pour into a chilled martini glass with 3 skewered olives.

Lemon Curd

Since we are Costco members we often end up with ridiculous amounts of any given item. Today that item is lemons. When life hands you lemons, make lemon curd! Here is the original recipe I adapted my recipe from.

INGREDIENTS

Zest of 3 lemons, next time I am going to try it with the zest from all the lemons used for juice.
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 sticks butter, cubed

METHOD

Whisk together zest, lemon juice, sugar and eggs in a heavy sauce pan. Add the butter and cook over medium heat. You cannot walk away from this. You must stir the entire time with your wisk. You want the mix to thicken and bubble. I had to turn up the heat, and stir the entire time. Once it is done I strained it through a mesh sieve into a large glass measuring cup. This removed the zest and the little bit of cooked egg.

Serve with angel food cake, or shortbread cookies.

Spinach Frittata

Frittata's are one of my favorite breakfast foods. I like to fill mine with vegatables with a hint of meat. Sorry I didn't take a picture of this one.

INGREDIENTS

8 eggs
half an onion, more or less to your liking
1 cubed baked potato
4 strips cooked bacon
1/3 cup, about, cooked and chopped spinach

METHOD

Heat 12 inch oven proof skillet. Add olive oil and onions, sautee until soft. Add potato, spinach, bacon and salt and pepper. Heat mix and add beaten eggs. I pull the edges in to let the egg mix get to the bottom of the pan. Then I move the veggies around so they are evenly spread about the pan. Bake in the oven, 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the top of the frittata is cooked.

Thai Style Halibut in a Coconut Broth

This recipe was emailed to me by a friend. Thai seems to be my new favorite type of food so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this recipe from Ellie Krieger. I didn't change very much from the original recipe below.




INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 shallots, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)- I used vidalia onion
2 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste*, or 2 teaspoons curry powder
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup light coconut milk- I added almost the whole can
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon, plus more for seasoning
4 (6-ounce) pieces halibut fillet, skin removed- I used a different fish, can't remember what
Steamed spinach**
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice, for serving

*Available in the Asian section of most supermarkets
**Steam or microwave 5 cups of washed baby spinach for 2 minutes

METHOD

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer until reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes. I reduced it even more, I wanted it to be thicker.

Season the halibut with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Arrange the fish in the pan and gently shake the pan so the fish is coated with the sauce. Cover and cook until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 7 minutes.

Arrange a pile of steamed spinach in the bottom of 4 soup plates. Top with the fish fillets. Stir the cilantro, scallions, and lime juice into the sauce and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Ladle the sauce over the fish and serve with rice.

Cheese Cake Supreme

This is the best cheese cake ever. It is so light you may even think you are eating something good for you! This receipe is from Mary Meades Magic Recipes. I LOVE this cookbook, it is old, but great!

For the crust:

Combine then press into a 9 inch spring-form pan.
3/4 package zwieback cookies, crushed in your blender
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar

For the filling:

Add to your blender-
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks (SAVE THE WHITES)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Turn on your blender and mix, then add in pieces, 1 pound of soft cream cheese. Beat your egg whites until just stiff then fold into your cream cheese mix. Pout over your crust and bake at 325 degrees for an hour or until the center is set.

I know many people say to cook your cheese cake in a water bath. This recipe usually doesn't crack on me. I also normally top this cheese cake with blueberries so if it does crack it isn't a big deal. If you do choose to cook your cheese cake in a water bath make sure to wrap the spring form pan tightly with foil, if you don't water will seep in and ruin your cheese cake.

Eggs Benedict

We love sauce, gravy, dip, whatever you want to call it, we love it! Why not have sauce on your morning eggs?

INGREDIENTS

eggs
English muffins
ham or Canadian bacon

METHOD

Wanting to use what we had in the refrigerator we used ham instead of Canadian bacon which is called for in the original recipe. We heated the ham on the stove so all the components would be nice and warm.

You will need to poach your eggs. There are many different methods to poach an egg. Some say to add vinegar, some say not to. I do add vinegar to the water, then before slowly adding the egg I stir the water to get it going in the same direction. This helps the egg to stick to itself and not become a big mess of egg in the pan. I also try to roll the egg from top to bottom so the egg doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. How long you poach your egg for depends on how done you want it. I cook mine for about 4-5 minutes, I like the white done and the yolk runny.

Toast your English muffins, we like the Stop & Shop brand. Layer on your ham, then your poached egg. Top this with your Hollandaise sauce, enjoy immediately!


Happiness Hollandaise
from Mary Meade's Magic Recipes

INGREDIENTS

1 stick of butter
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of Tabasco sauce
(We buy salted butter so I don't add the salt, if you buy sweet butter add the salt.)

METHOD

Melt the butter to just bubbling, do NOT brown. Add the yolks, lemon juice and Tabasco sauce to your blender. Cover and blend together, remove the middle piece to your blender and stream in the hot butter. You want the butter to be hot, if it cools too much you will not get a nice thick sauce. I know this because that is what happend with this batch of sauce.

Hawaiian Pizza

Most people don't like to let food go to waste, I try to be one of those people. We had left over ham and some left over pineapple, what came to mind? Hawaiian pizza of course! As it turns out this is the topping of choice for my cousin Elizabeth. Friday night is usually pizza night here. Dough is made fresh in the bread maker and rolled thin. Next a moisture barrier on top of the rolled dough, some olive oil, spread with a rubber brush. Then a simple sauce of crushed San Marzano canned tomatoes, these are a MUST! Top this with mozzarella cheese to your liking. Since this was going to be a Hawaiian pizza I added some chopped pineapple and ham. We also tried adding a bit of blue cheese. We didn't really care for the blue cheese, it took over the delicate flavor of the ham and pineapple. Bake your pizza at 425 degrees for about 14 minutes, be sure to check your pizza so it doesn't burn. Enjoy!