Zesty Basil Butter Sauce for Grilled Fish

This sauce will make your fish! Use Mahi Mahi, Salmon, Grouper or Flounder

Grilled Fish
4 pieces of fish filets (about 1-1/2 lbs)
olive oil
garlic salt and pepper
Drizzle fish with olive oil, season well and grill in a hot grill pan or an outdoor grill for about 3-4 minutes per side. Do not overcook. Remove to a platter and drizzle with the basil butter sauce, Garnish with lemon slices and a sprig of basil.

Zesty Basil Butter Sauce
6 T butter
1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 T lemon juice
salt and pepper (about 1/4 t each)
3 T chopped fresh basil  (from your herb garden)

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant and cooked.
Add the remaining ingredients. Heat through and pour over the fish.

(note: garlic pieces look bigger than they were in this photo. You want minced.)

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Frappuccino

Cool, refreshing and low cal.

Frappuccino
                       
In a blender combine:
1 C double strength coffee
1 C milk
2 C ice
3 T sugar ( or use Splenda)
vanilla, a dash
cinnamon, a sprinkle
(optional 2 T chocolate syrup for Mochaccino)
Give it a whir until nice and frothy, and the ice is combined well.
Pour into a mug and drive right past Starbucks.

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Come for Coffee!

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

This recipe makes two loaves; one for you and one to freeze, or take to work or give away.

divide batter between two bread pans.

Remove from oven when the sides pull gently away from the pan, and it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing.

Serve plain or dust with powdered sugar

Or glaze with a lemon glaze, 1 C powdered sugar, 2-3 T lemon juice, 1/2 t vanilla.

Start the coffee and enjoy a slice!

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
1 package white cake mix  (can use yellow if that's what you have)
1 package instant lemon pudding mix
1 C water
4 eggs
1/2 C canola oil
4 t poppy seeds

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs and oil. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds to combine. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in poppy seeds.
Pour into 2 greased 9X5 in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing. Let cool and glaze if desired.

tip: I like to store two slices in  sandwich bags to freeze and take a bag out as I want them.

Linking to A Stroll Through Life

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How to Make Perfect Roast Chicken

This is the LBD (little black dress) of dinner recipes. It's great comfort food dinner for two or the family, and you can dress it up for company by just changing the accessories (sides). This is a recipe you should know from memory to have in your repertoire. It's the perfect home cooked dinner to enjoy often. I make it at least once a month.

Perfect Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken, about 4 lbs.
1 lemon, pierced all over with a knife
A bunch of fresh herbs, your choice ( parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) 
2 T soft butter
salt/seasoned salt and pepper


Rinse the chicken and remove the bag of giblets, dry the skin well
Stuff the cavity with the lemon and herbs
Tuck the wings under and truss (tie together) the legs (sometimes I don't truss)
Rub the skin all over with buter
Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. I often use seasoned salt.


Preheat oven to 425. Put the chicken on a rack in a small roasting pan. I use my favorite cast iron roaster. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and roast for 15 minutes per pound. A 4 lb chicken would cook an additional hour. Remove from oven. Press down on the lemon with a spoon to release the juices. Let rest 10 minutes while you make gravy, or just serve with the pan juices. Carve and serve.

Gravy For Your Mashed Potatoes
Add 2 T flour to the drippings in the pan. Stir to cook and let brown about 2 minutes. Add 2 C water and 1-2 crushed chicken bouillon cube. Whisk constantly until thicken. Taste and add more S&P if needed.

                                                        

                           

Also Good With:
Baked sweet potatoes- put potatoes in the oven for the last 45-60 minutes, Cut open and top with  butter and brown sugar 
Fresh green vegetable
           or
Mashed potatoes
Glazed carrots
          or
Stuffing- omit herbs and lemon and stuff with 2C saved stuffing. Recipe HERE. I make a big batch of homemade stuffing, and freeze the rest in 2C amounts in freezer bags. Flatten the bags, and stack in the freezer.


Chicken Soup For Two
Save all the bones and the carcass and put into a medium stock pot. Add enough water to cover, about 4-6C. Add a little salt and bring to a simmer for at least an hour. Remove all the bones and add a chopped celery stalk, carrot, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and cook until vegetables are tender. Add about 1C noodles and cook an additional 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

If there are just the two of you for dinner, you'll have lots of leftover chicken for sandwiches the next day. Or you can make Poppy Seed Chicken Salad, or chicken enchiladas, or chicken tetrazzini, all in previous post.

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Cathy's Curry Chicken

a.k.a known as cool curry chicken. My good friend Cathy introduced me to this delicious dish, so I've renamed it in her honor. It's a wonderful dish for company because you can prep it ahead of time and then just pop it into the oven. It's so easy to whip together. I cut the recipe in half when making it just for the two of us and have leftovers for another meal. Serve it hot over rice and cold or at room temperature the next day (hence the name cool).

Cathy's Curry Chicken  
6-8 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 stick butter
1/2 C honey
1/4 C Dijon mustard
2 T yellow mustard
1 T curry powder
1/2 lime, juiced and rind grated
1 t salt
1 clove garlic, minced

Arrange chicken breasts in single layer in a 9x13 casserole. Cut in half lengthwise if very large.
Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Pour over chicken.
Bake @ 350 for 35-45 minutes, basting once or twice.

Enjoy!
Rita
Links: Ekats Kitchen, Funky Junk Interiors

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Pav Bhaji Recipe

Pav Bhaji is a recipe native to Maharastra and is a very popular Indian street food in Mumbai and Pune regions. Pav Bhaji is a combination of “Pav” which means bread in Marathi and “Bhaji” meaning mixed vegetables.

The origins of the Pav Bhaji goes back to the glory days of the textile mills in Mumbai when the mill workers used to have lunch breaks too short for a full meal, and so a light lunch was preferred. That is when food vendors replaced the roti and rice with bread/bun called as Pav and all the veggies were amalgamated into one spicy concoction called the 'bhaji' or mixed vegetables.

Pav Bhaji Recipe Ingredients

• Potato - 4
• Cauliflower – 1 cup (grated)
• Carrots – 2 (chopped into circles)
• Beans – 1/2 cup
• Cabbage – 1 cup (chopped)
• Green Peas – 1/2 cup
• Onions – 4 (finely chopped-3 for the bhaji and 1 for garnish)
• Tomatoes – 3 (finely chopped)
• Ginger garlic paste – 2tbsp
• Capsicum – 2 (finely chopped)
• Green chilies – 4
• Cloves – 3
• Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder – 2 tsp
• Garam masala – 1 tsp
• Bhaji Pav masala – 3 tbsp (available in most indian grocery stores)
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Lemons  – 2 medium sized
• Butter – 5 tbsp
• Asafetida or Hing – 2 pinch
• Salt – 2 tsp
• Sugar – 1 tsp
• Chopped Coriander Leaves for garnish
• Pav or bun – as required (you can use the hot dog buns if you are abroad like in the USA)

Pav Bhaji Cooking method

1. In a vessel boil the potatoes, mash it and keep it aside.
2. In another vessel containing some water add carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, beans and peas. Bring the contents to a boil.
3. Take the vessel of the heat and transfer the contents into a blender. Grind the vegetables coarsely with little water and set it aside.
4. In a pan add 5 tbsp butter, asafetida, chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste and chopped capsicum. Keep stirring the contents gently until the onions turn translucent pink.
5. Now add chopped tomatoes, green chilies, pav bhaji masala, red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, cumin seeds, cloves and asafetida. Mix all the contents and simmer for 10 mins.
6. Add the coarsely grinded mixed vegetables from step 3, salt, sugar and mix well. Simmer for another 6-8 minutes.
7. At this stage add the mashed potatoes and mix well. Cook for another 8 minutes. While it cooks, use the back of a slotted spoon to mash the ingredients. Mash to a course texture. If required you can add another tablespoon of butter into it.
8. Now add juice of 2 lemons and mix well. Take the pan off the heat and now the bhaji is done.
9. In another pan or tava, melt a big dollop of butter. Since the pav or bread or bun in the center and put then on the tava facing inwards.
10. Turn them around after a minutes and let the outside turn golden brown.
11. Now take the pav or bun on a serving plate, add the Bhaji and garnish it with copped coriander leaves. Put some chopped onion, a piece of lemon and serve hot.

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