Jan 4, 2012 | Healthful Eats
It’s a new year and that means people all over the world are gearing up to be the very best they can be. Instead of just focusing on weight loss in 2012, some of us are focusing on better overall health. That’s why the Virtual Potluck Bloggers have teamed up with Bob’s Red Mill (BRM) and California Olive Ranch(COR) (like this GrooVy Foody did back in December for their “Bake a Better Holiday”) to bring you “A Tasty and Healthy New Year Challenge.”
Each week the VP participants will cook up their fabulous BRM/COR Healthy New Year offerings and GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO WIN A BOB’S RED MILL/CALIFORNIA OLIVE RANCH PRIZE PACKAGE! (See details below.)
Virtual Potluck’s January 2012 mission
Duration: 4 weeks during January 2012
Challenge: To develop, inspire, create – 1 recipe per week for a 4-course meal, over course of month’s time
Ingredients: 1 new California Olive Ranch Olive Oil paired with 1 fresh Bob’s Red Mill product every week (see schedule below)
Participants: Virtual Potluck Members at 12 blogging outposts around the country
Week 1: Appetizer – Hard White Whole Wheat Flour – Arbequina extra virgin olive oil
Week 2: Side Dish – Grande Whole Grains Blend – Miller’s Blend extra virgin olive oil
Week 3: The Main Event– Quinoa Grain – Arbosana extra virgin olive oil
Week 4: Dessert – Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Everyday Fresh California extra virgin olive oil
(Some may branch off from this schedule, so don’t be surprised to find different pairings or different types of dishes.)
The Virtual Potluck Bloggers
A little extra focus on health is always in fashion over at Diabetic Foodie where Shelby whips up culinary creations that won’t spike your blood sugar but still taste divine.
Warm Herbed Goat Cheese with Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Breadusing the Arbequina and Hard White Whole Wheat Flour. I made the pita bread dough in a bread machine, then rolled it out in individual rounds and baked it. It was so much fun to see it puff up in the oven. Once it puffed, it stayed puffed – even after it cooled – so when you sliced it in half, there was already a built-in pocket (no trying to peel the two layers apart and then tearing the bread as with store-bought).For our second week, Shelby has set out to dazzle you with her sumptuous Onions Stuffed with Grande Grains, Currants and Pine Nuts and week 3 brings a hearty Quinoa and Lentil Chili.
Over at
Not Rachel Ray‘s, our resident Rachel has whipped up quite an assortment of recipes for her Healthy New Year including:
Dessert: Yogurt Tart in a Whole Wheat Crust
The “Miss” of
Miss in the Kitchen used Bob’s Red Mill Hard White Whole Wheat Flour to make blinis topped with homemade ricotta, fresh rosemary, pine nuts and a good drizzle of California Olive Ranch Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil, it sounds fancy doesn’t it? Well, it’s super easy and will be the appetizer that is totally impressive to your guests!
Looks like Nelly (our newlywed) over at Cooking With Books, has some scrummy treats in store for us this month:
Our resident Celebrity Chef, Jay DuCote of
Bite n’ Booze (He was on MasterChef, did you catch him?) put together
Elk Sausage and Black Bean Soup. Jay made a roux for the soup with BRM whole wheat flour and COR Arbosana olive oil.
“I made whole wheat bread with the flour and an amazing pesto with the oil. I also, drizzled the oil on the bread before constructing. This was one of the best wheat breads I’ve ever made and the oil was also very flavorful.”
Any meal with family or friends deserves an appetizer that really kicks things off. This Olive Oil Flatbread from Matt at Thyme in Our Kitchen is easy to make and can be adapted to fit any health goal. The flatbread is made with Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour and the fruity Arbequina 
olive oil from California Olive Ranch. Toppings on this heart healthy version include caramelized shallots, roasted egg plant and fresh spinach. It’s drizzled with a cilantro chutney and of course a bit more olive oil. Week 2 saw Matt whipping up Curried Whole Grain Pilaf with Bacon, Mushroom and Cabbage and in Week 3 he wowed with Quinoa Cakes with Walnut and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette.
Susan at 30AEats brings us a Sundried Tomato, Kalamata Olive and Basil Pesto Focaccia. Since Susan’s whole family works in healthcare (so they know health!) she solicited input from her husband and daughter to come up with this recipe, “My daughter is a huge fan of pesto, and we all adore kalamata olives, we came up with our Sun-dried Tomato, Kalamata Olive and Basil Pesto Focaccia. . . I paired it with a beautiful salad of local greens from my Seaside Farmer’s Market. I also used the Arbequina drizzled on top as a dressing.”
For Week 2 Susan made Whole Grain Quinoa Tabouleh With Peppers and for Week 3 Grande’ Grains Jambalaya.
Tara over at Foodie just took on a new promotion at work that’s keeping her busy — but not too busy to take part this challenge! Watch as she wows you with Prime Rib and Shrimp Whole Wheat Fried Ravioli. Look for Tara’s second week entry of Grande Whole Grains with Spinach and Serrano Ham and the Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa with Ribeye and Roasted Brussels Sprouts she just cooked up for week 3 .
Week 4
A Tasty and Healthy New Year Challenge Giveaway
Each week, the VP bloggers will challenge you to find (and use) the secret code word of the week, posted in the contest tab labeled “Virtual Potluck” on the California Olive Ranch Facebook page.
Each blogger will pick a single winner per week to receive a pack of the featured products from Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch.
That’s right- four weeks, 12 winners each week! That’s like 48 chances to win! The more blogs you visit the more chances you have to win~ so what are you waiting for?! Let’s get cooking (and eating!) A Tasty and Healthy New Year!
For more information on how you can win– visit the sites listed above!
Nov 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today is the day — it’s the first day, of the first event, for Virtual Potluck.
Don’t know what a Virtual Potluck is?
It’s good times, good friends and plenty of good food (or at least recipes), shared — potluck stylie (to borrow from Jamie Oliver‘s lexicon. Luv Jamie!)
The quick and dirty on us and our events is this — 100 became 20 then narrowed to 13 and finally settled at a dozen — how appropos!
A dozen passionate food bloggers linking up a network of posts, tastes and Tweets just for YOU! (Want the long version — check out the link up top for the complete Virtual Potluck story.)
Today’s event features a variety of recipes, recommendations and chit chat about Abrams Books cookbooks. To get in on all the fun visit the host page (Donna Currie of Cookistry) for today’s VP event. It will link you to each and every participating blog and give you sneak peak at what they’ll sharing with you today.
Join us at the Virtual Potluck!
But wait! That’s not all. Like every good party — it’s not just about the food, it’s about the mingling. So join us on Twitter hashtag #virtualpotluck throughout the day to whet your appetite, get your recipe card filled and your drink refreshed!
Head on over and meet my friends ~ I’ll be happy to make the introductions.
See you at the potluck!
Sep 30, 2011 | Comfort Food, Emeril's One-Pot Cooking Party, Soups and Stews
This is the last post of the cooking party before I announce the winner of the Cookbook Giveaway tomorrow. I know that we’ve been sort of Emeril-centric around here the past few weeks but we also had some awesome giveaways! After tomorrow’s announcement (and one more recipe peek to round it out) we’ll be back to diving into an exotic variety of food, most of which you can cook in 30 to 45 minutes or less.
In fact, I’ve been saving up pics of some fabulous dinners we’ve had in between and before Emeril mania started around here, so keep an eye out for tons of great new recipes!
Now, without further ado, Emeril’s Red Beans and Rice (supposed to be Soup but I just couldn’t bring myself to put the rice in the pot and instead served it atop a nutty brown rice.)
PREP: Jalapenos, red kidney beans and short grain brown rice
This is Emeril folks and this dish is, traditionally, a dish with a wee bit of heat. While I like and can take a little heat, mostly in the name of flavor, because of heartburn issues — I took this down a notch (sorry, Em!) The way to reduce the heat in this dish, while still retaining the flavor is this: I changed the chorizo for kielbasa sausage, removed the seeds and ribs from the jalapenos and skipped the Louisiana hot sauce. This made the dish mild enough to bypass the heartburn but flavorful enough to enjoy.
Bringing the beans to "simmer n' soak" to soften and de-gas
PREP: Chopping & assembling ingredients in slow cooker
PREP: Add the beans!
Swimming in broth
A finished dish of red beans and kielbasa, Emeril-style, topping rice:
Red beans and rice -- sooo nice (Kudos to anyone who notices)
Sep 29, 2011 | Emeril's One-Pot Cooking Party, Quick and Easy Meals
The opening of Sizzling Sillets: A message from Emeril
OK, so I’ll admit it — with going out of town for my birthday and looming writing deadlines, my Emeril Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders posts have been lagging. With all of the prep required in most of these dishes and/or lengthy cooking times, it’s been hard to get all my posts in BUT fear not, I found a solution!
Simplify.
For all you busy working moms out there, that want to cook these delicious dishes but maybe don’t have the time necessary to execute the big and fancy versions of Emeril’s dishes, I say don’t give up — simplify. So today, though I cannot give you Emeril’s recipe (you’ll need to order the book — available now at your local bookseller) I can tell you how I used his ingredients (well, most of them) and tweaked his recipe a bit to suit my needs.
Doesn't it look yummy?
I love a good quiche or frittata for dinner with a nice peppery arugula salad so I had chosen to cook up Emeril’s Leek and Bacon Quiche in a Potato Crust (on page 93) and purchased all the requisite ingredients early in the day (or rather sent the hubby/personal assistant to the store to gather the ingredients) but then, as always — life happened. Clients called with issues, editors emailed with last minute rush deadlines (a good freelancer never turns down work!) and before I knew it — it was 7pm and I still need to cook dinner. Since my little one has an 8pm bedtime — this posed a problem — but not for long.
Inspired by Emeril ~ The Bacon, Leek Quiche-Frittata
While a quiche is delightfully more fluffy and light and a bit more uptown than a frittata — I get just as much satisfaction from eating a frittata as I do quiche and let’s face it, folks, most of us are a bit more downtown or east of town than uptown. (HA!) So I adapted Mr. Lagasse’s recipe to suit me, by employing a few easy steps:
- First, quiche takes so long to cook because it is essentially a custard — which means a considerable amount more liquid than a frittata (some frittata’s are made with only egg and no other liquid.) In order to cut the cooking time, I cut the milk, cream and sour cream down to a simple 1/8 cup of cream to 7 eggs.
- Next, since I would be making this in a deep dish skillet instead of a spring-form pan and would therefore be unable to fully execute the potato crust ~ I cut the amount of potatoes in half from 2 pds to 1 pd.
- Then, with red potatoes, freshly scrubbed and skin on, I popped them in the processor on grate and in seconds had shredded potatoes suitable for hashbrowns. I did this and hand cut the leek and Thyme leaves, while broiling the bacon in the oven and blending the eggs, cream and salt and pepper in the blender.
- Next, I heated the skillet with oil and added the potatoes frying them crisp, so that they would stand up to the wetness of the egg during the cooking process and still allow me a semblance of a crust.
- Pulled the crisp bacon from the oven, added the leeks to a saute pan with butter until soft, while turning the potatoes to ensure crispness on both sides.
- With the bacon and leeks cool, I added them to the egg mixture, arranged the crisp potatoes to cover the bottom and a bit of the sides of the pan and slowly poured in the mixture to the pan, so as not to disturb the layout of crispy potatoes.
- After the egg mixture began to set a bit on the bottom (4 to 5 minutes) I popped the whole thing into the oven on broil for 2 to 3 minutes, watching it carefully. As it puffed, but before it turned golden, I topped with 3 oz of grated white cheddar cheese and gave it another minute under the broiler.
- Removing the golden delight from the oven let it rest for a few minutes and then cut and top with fresh sliced green onions, a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and salsa, if you like. I served it all with greens and a balsamic vinaigrette.
Voila! By 7:30pm we were eating a scrummy and satisfying (even for a 3 yr old) dinner and by 8pm my little one was safely tucked in bed dreaming of the day’s adventures.
Moral of the story ~ Don’t give up on cooking for your family ~ there’s always a way to simplify!
Happy Eating!
Sep 26, 2011 | Emeril's One-Pot Cooking Party
Image via Wikipedia
We’re in the final week of the Emeril One-Pot Cooking Party over here, folks and if you haven’t had the chance yet to make it over to some of my fellow bloggers in the party, then you should scoot on over and increase your chances to win Emeril’s new cookbook, Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders , which goes on sale tomorrow! (SEE Contest Rules and “How to Enter” below.)
In this final week, I still have many posts to get to you all. I have been cooking up a storm but behind on posting due to my 40th birthday, which took me on an out-of-town adventure that made me feel 20 again! (Thanks to that hubby of mine!)
As we’ve been cooking our way through Emeril’s dishes some of the other bloggers and I have become rather chummy, because well, what’s not to like about a fellow foodie! There are 20 of us in all and I encourage you to make your way around to all of us but a few of us have really stuck by each other throughout this one-pot journey.
Some of my new favs include:
Wanna test your Emeril knowledge? Check out this quiz:
Here’s another new Emeril recipe that I can share! (Thanks to Morrow for allowing us to pre-release a few of these recipes.)
Wok-Seared Duck Salad photo courtesy of William Morrow
Wok-Seared Duck Salad
This recipe was inspired by a Thai dish called laap, which is made with minced or ground chicken, fish, pork, or duck and seasoned with the wonderful flavors of chiles, ginger, fish sauce, and citrus. I decided to use the same flavors with a seared duck breast and make it into more of a main-course salad. This is a refreshing take on northern Thai street food.
2 tablespoons uncooked jasmine rice
1 tablespoon minced fresh red Thai bird chile
2 magret duck breasts (about 12 ounces each) or 1 ½ pounds other domestic duck breasts
1/3 cup minced shallot
1 ½ tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
¼ cup fish sauce (see page 213)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 ½ teaspoons palm sugar or light brown sugar
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
½ cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup fresh basil leaves
1 medium head of red leaf lettuce, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
2 cups bean sprouts
1 cup julienned red bell pepper
1. Heat a wok over medium-high heat and add the rice. Toast the rice, shaking the wok constantly, until all the grains have turned golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the rice to a mortar and set aside to cool. Once the rice has cooled, grind it using a pestle until it reaches a sandy consistency. Alternatively, grind the toasted rice in a clean spice grinder. Place the rice in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Place the chile in the wok over medium-high heat and cook, shaking the wok, until lightly colored and fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Remove the chile from the pan and add to the bowl with the rice.
3. Using a paring knife, score the fatty side of the duck breasts by making shallow cuts in a diamond pattern; this allows the fat to render more easily. Place the duck breasts in the wok, fatty side down, and cook over medium heat until the skin is golden brown and slightly crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the duck breasts to a cutting board, slice them into thin strips, and return the strips to the wok. Add the shallot and ginger and stir-fry over medium-high heat until the duck is just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer the duck from the wok to the bowl with the rice and chile and set aside.
4. In a small bowl, combine the fish sauce, lime juice, orange juice, and palm sugar and mix well. Pour the mixture over the duck and toss until well coated. Add the cilantro, mint, basil, lettuce, bean sprouts, and julienned red pepper and toss to combine.
5. Serve the salad immediately.
4 servings
Emeril’s Cookbook Giveaway!
Here it is, what you’ve all been waiting for — how to get your hands on Emeril’s new book (if you want to guarantee you get it, head on over to pre-order it for yourself). To win your free copy, comment below telling me which of the Emeril recipes GroovyFoody has previewed that you just can’t wait to make! To increase your odds of winning — get a second entry by tweeting the link to this post and posting the link in the comments section below. Wanna stack the deck in your favor? Check out the other 19 Emeril One-Pot Party Bloggers (listed above or to the right) and enter to win on their sites as well.
That’s all there is to it.
Winner will be chosen by random drawing by my precocious 3 year old. Contest is open to US residents only, and will be open from now through midnight, pacific time, October 1.
Full disclosure: For my commitment to this blogger cooking party, I received a copy of this cookbook, as well as a set of Emeril – by zak! Table Art 7-piece Flame-Shaped Serving Bowls, and Emeril Seasoning; a $50 grocery reimbursement and Emeril cookbooks upon completion of the party. The top performing blogger, as selected by T-Fal, will be awarded an Emeril by T-Fal Slow Cooker.
Warm Herbed Goat Cheese with Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Breadusing the Arbequina and Hard White Whole Wheat Flour. I made the pita bread dough in a bread machine, then rolled it out in individual rounds and baked it. It was so much fun to see it puff up in the oven. Once it puffed, it stayed puffed – even after it cooled – so when you sliced it in half, there was already a built-in pocket (no trying to peel the two layers apart and then tearing the bread as with store-bought).For our second week, Shelby has set out to dazzle you with her sumptuous Onions Stuffed with Grande Grains, Currants and Pine Nuts and week 3 brings a hearty Quinoa and Lentil Chili.
Over at Not Rachel Ray‘s, our resident Rachel has whipped up quite an assortment of recipes for her Healthy New Year including:
If you know Theresa over at Food Hunter’s Guide to Cuisine you know she hunts down and serves up with the best of ’em. For this challenge, Theresa baked up fresh whole wheat bread from scratch for her Caprese Bruschetta.
“I made whole wheat bread with the flour and an amazing pesto with the oil. I also, drizzled the oil on the bread before constructing. This was one of the best wheat breads I’ve ever made and the oil was also very flavorful.”
olive oil from California Olive Ranch. Toppings on this heart healthy version include caramelized shallots, roasted egg plant and fresh spinach. It’s drizzled with a cilantro chutney and of course a bit more olive oil. Week 2 saw Matt whipping up Curried Whole Grain Pilaf with Bacon, Mushroom and Cabbage and in Week 3 he wowed with Quinoa Cakes with Walnut and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette.
Tara over at Foodie just took on a new promotion at work that’s keeping her busy — but not too busy to take part this challenge! Watch as she wows you with Prime Rib and Shrimp Whole Wheat Fried Ravioli. Look for Tara’s second week entry of Grande Whole Grains with Spinach and Serrano Ham and the Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa with Ribeye and Roasted Brussels Sprouts she just cooked up for week 3 .
