A dinner well done

A wile back I was watching TV, one of my favorite food shows was on, Barefoot Contessa. She was making these scallops, which looked pretty good. Then later of that week, my mom bought some of those large scallops. I have never made scallops before, so that was the recipe I made. It was really great! The scallops had a really nice flavor, and were just the perfect dinner. My favorite part to any meal is the carbos though, or in this case, the rice. Now, I know what your thinking, rice? Wow this girl must be more blonde than we thought. But seriously, this is the best rice ever. My Persian aunt taught me how to make rice the way that she was taught as a child. It is sort of a project, but you will be amazed at how great your rice is. The key to amazing rice is to use long grain Basmati rice. Then you put it is a bowl, and rinse it under water until the water that you drain is clear. You take a large pot and fill it with lots of cold water and season the water with salt. Add the rice to the cold water and bring it to a boil. Now this is a very crucial part. You boil the rice just until it is done, but not completely done. If you don't check it for a wile, and the rice gets over cooked, and the water looks murky. . . then the end result will be gummy, not fluffy and amazing. So once your rice is tender, take it off the stove and drain the rice in a colander. Take your pot and drizzle some oil on the bottom, then add the drained rice. Cover the pot with a clean dish towel, the cover tightly with the pot lid. Return to the burner, and turn it to low. Let it steam for about 10 min, or more. When it is done steaming, the rice is fluffy, and perfect. The bottom will be crispy, almost like fried rice. So yummy! Before my aunt taught me this, my mom used to make minute rice. After trying the real stuff, I won't let my mom make minute rice anymore! The Basmati is just so fragrant and delicious! So this rice combined with the Scallops was completely divine!

Sorry my rice directions are so scatter brained. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away : D

Scallops Provencal
Barefoot Contessa

1 pound fresh bay or sea scallops
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour, for dredging
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup chopped shallots (2 large)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, cut in 1/2If you're using bay scallops, keep them whole. If you're using sea scallops, cut each 1 in half horizontally. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss with flour, and shake off the excess.

In a very large saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over high heat until sizzling and add the scallops in 1 layer. Lower the heat to medium and allow the scallops to brown lightly on 1 side without moving them, then turn and brown lightly on the other side. This should take 3 to 4 minutes, total. Melt the rest of the butter in the pan with the scallops, then add the shallots, garlic, and parsley and saute for 2 more minutes, tossing the seasonings with the scallops. Add the wine, cook for 1 minute, and taste for seasoning. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Phylo Tomato Tart

This post is very long overdue. Because of my baking frenzy, this post was delayed, but I'm excited to finally share it with you. the Noble pig suggested this recipe for easter, and it looked so yummy, I knew that I would make it. I have never worked with phylo dough before, and when I went to the grocery store to get it, the idiots that worked there were no help. I asked the manager where I could find the phylo dough. He was like "The what?" I told him that It was like a pastry dough in thin layers. He was completely befuddled. I was like well, where do you keep the pastry stuff. Then he told me that he wasn't sure. Then I asked him where the sushi rice is. Again, he didn't know. How is he manager and not know where anything is!? Well evidently, I found the dough after inspecting every freezer shelf in the whole darn store. Gee thanks price chopper. But I must say that it was totally worth it. I made it on easter day, with the help of my beloved easter gift. A baking mat! Yay! Now my mom won't yell at me for using so much parchment paper! The phylo dough was like nothing I have ever worked with before. It was thin like tissue paper. I used a mandolin to cut my onions and tomatoes thinly and precise.










You have to brush each layer of phylo with butter, and sprinkle it with cheese. Then you layer the top with cheese, tomatoes, onions and a sprinkle of thyme.After you bake it, the phylo gets crispy and golden brown. I don't know what it is, but this tart tastes so amazing. Its crazy that simple ingredients yield such a stunning result! It was so good, that after the first one came out of the oven, I made another one. Tee hee hee.
Everybody loved it, and it was gone after like 5 min. I still have a lot of phylo left, so I'm going to make this again, and again. : D

Filo Tomato Tart
The Noble Pig
adapted from Sunset Magazine

**Cut tomatoes very thin so juice evaporates while baking, or dough will be soggy.**(use a mandolin)

7 sheets filo dough, thawed
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
7 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 cup very thinly sliced red onion
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
8 Roma tomatoes, cut into 1/8-in.-thick slices
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray paper with cooking-oil spray. Lay 1 sheet filo on paper and brush lightly with a little melted butter. Sprinkle all over with 1 tablespoon of Parmesan. Repeat layering 5 more times (with filo, butter and Parmesan), pressing each sheet firmly so it sticks to sheet below. Lay the last filo sheet on top, brush with remaining melted butter, and sprinkle on remaining 1 tablespoon Parmesan.

Scatter onion across filo, top with mozzarella, and arrange tomato slices in a single layer, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with thyme and salt and pepper to taste.

Bake until filo is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Foodie blogroll + Yogurt cheese

So I just joined the foodie blog roll. Have you joined yet? Well if not, I would. Why you might ask? Well, Its a really cool blog roll just for us foodies! It also might get you a bunch of new readers, and you might just stumble upon a couple of new blogs yourself! There are three conditions, first is that your blog has to be at least a month old with 5 posts. Second is that your blog must be 80% food. Third is that you have to put the blog roll somewhere on your sight where people can see it! So if you want to join this awesome blog roll, click here.. . .
What does baking Blondie do at 12 at night? Well, she makes yogurt cheese of course. I mean, what else is there to do when your bored and just had lots of caffeine? lol : ) I saw this recipe on Elle's New England Kitchen, and was then inspired to try it. It just sounded really cool. So at the grocery store I had to pick up some yogurt without gelatin. So I had trouble finding low fat yogurt without gelatin. All either had gelatin, or pectin. So the only one that I could find was Activia. Now you too can regulate your system in 2 weeks! Lol. So that night I decided to give it a try. I wanted to use basil in it.You are supposed to use a cheese cloth so that the water will drain out wile it sits in a colander, but I didn't have one. So I used multiple coffee filters instead. Hehe. Let me tell you, it was not pretty. So, Elle tells you that you can be really creative in this recipe, I decided that I might as well stick to the recipe, instead of making drastic changes.I got the basil from Svens basil plant.So you add flavorings, then as I said, put it in a cheese cloth(or a coffee filter, if your stupid like me) in a colander in a bowl, so that it can drain, turning into a cheese of sorts. Caffeine starting to wear off, I tucked my future cheese in the fridge with care.You wait overnight, and Poof! Instant Yogurt cheese! How cool!This had a really fresh taste to it, and was really creamy. I especially like how it was sort of fun to make. It was almost like an experiment to me. I was like. . .is it going to work? How will it be? I'm not going to lie, I was excited. I really need to lay off the caffeine lol.


Lizzie's Yogurt Cheese (savory version)
Elle's New England Kitchen

32 ounces (2 lbs) Lowfat plain yogurt

Herbs of your choice (I typically use oregano and basil, but a mix of your favorites, or even a blend like herbes de provence or a cajun or italian spice mix would work, about 1 tablespoon of each)

Minced garlic (optional, to taste - I like about 4 - 6 cloves)

Sea or kosher salt (about 1 teaspoon)

Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Chopped sundried tomatoes (optional)

Chopped kalamata (or your choice) olives (optional)

In a large bowl, mix together yogurt, salt, pepper, herbs, and whatever optional ingredients you want. You can also do the mixing right in the yogurt container.

Prepare a large strainer over a pot to catch the water from the yogurt. Line the strainer with cheesecloth, making sure that it overlaps the strainer and can be pulled up.

Drape the excess cheese cloth over bowl.

Let sit over night in the fridge.