When Caesar Met Pancho

We had this little delight last night in an effort for a cheap, delicious dinner that is easy on the tum tum. This is one of Tony's creations, a traditional Caesar salad with a South Western twist.

Ingredients:

2 French Chicken Breasts (skin optional)
2 ears of corn
2 tomatoes, sliced
polenta croutons
1 heart of romaine lettuce, chopped
Ancho aioli

Dressing:
1/2 egg yolk
1 lemon, juiced
2 small cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon anchovies, finely diced
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup olive oil
2 T canned Hatch chilies (if hatch chilies are not available to you substitute green chilies)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper



Directions:

1. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle corn cobs with salt, pepper, sugar and drizzle with oil.
2. Grill chicken over high heat for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked. Grill corn for 3 minutes on each side, until corn begins to caramelize.
3. Allow corn to cool and cut from cob. Allow chicken to rest at least 10 minutes and slice.
4. Place egg yolk, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, anchovies and Worcestershire in bowl and whisk. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until dressing has thickened. Add green chilies and cheese and season to taste.
5. Toss greens with dressing and serve with sliced tomatoes, croutons, chicken and a little extra cheese.
6. Drizzle with ancho aioli and fresh cracked pepper for garnish.
7. Serve with garlic bread.

*serves two, enjoy with a refreshing glass of Riesling.

My Favorite Muffins

This a really simple and versatile muffin recipe. I make them all the time with different fruit, spices and extracts. Over half the butter is replaced with apple sauce, but the taste is far from low fat.


Ingredients:

5 T butter (softened)
7 T applesauce, un-sweetened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 milk (or soy milk)
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup fruit
1 T flour
2 T sugar


Directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Cream butter, apple sauce, and sugar
2. Add egg and mix with any extra flavoring (spices, extract, zest)
3. In a separate bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Add half the flour and mix, then half the milk, mix, the rest of the flour, mix and the end of the milk, mix.
5. In the bowl that had the sifted flour add the fruit and toss with 1 T flour.
6. Mix fruit with batter and portion into 12 muffin tins with cups.
7. Top muffins with 2 T sugar.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until tops are a light brown and spring back to touch.

serve with a cup of fresh coffee.... waking up was never sooo good!

Some of my favorite variations...

Razz-ma-Tazz Muffins: add 1/2 t vanilla, 1/2 t orange extract, zest of 1/2 orange, 1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg, and 1 cup of raspberries and blackberries.

Apple Spice Muffins: add 1 t vanilla, 1/2 T cinnamon, 1 heaping T pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 t ground ginger, 1 cup small diced apples peeled and "marinated" in orange juice. (after dicing apples put in a small bowl with orange juice to prevent from browning, drain off excess juice when ready to use). optional frosting: instead of sprinkling muffins with sugar make a festive pumpkin frosting by whipping 2 T butter, 2 T cream cheese, 3 T canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 t vanilla.

Bountiful Blueberry Muffins: add 1 t vanilla, zest of one lemon, 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.

* after a day or two store in air tight container in refrigerator, warm up under broil and top with some butter... simply amazing.
















pictured: apple spiced muffin with pumpkin frosting

Super Sausage Pie of Love

This is a combination of a couple recipes with a few of my own special twists. It is soooooo good and easy, everyone deserves a slice. I am still thinking about how good it was.... YUMMY YUMMY IN MY TUMMY!




*Pre heat oven w/ pizza stone @ 500

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
2 packets of dry active yeast
1 t salt
1 t sugar
1 1/2 cup luke warm water

1/2 t olive oil

Pizza Topping:

2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 t chopped rosemary
1/2 t crushed red pepper
1/2 t kosher salt

3 links hot sausage, casing removed
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup wild mushrooms, use your favorite variety (we used crimini, chantrelle, shitake and oyster mushrooms), sliced
1 t sugar
4 T brown sugar
1 lemon, zested
1 3/4 shredded whole milk mozzarella
chopped green onions or parsley (for garnish, optional)


To make the pizza crust...

1. Mix the wheat flour, white flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Gradually add the warm water and knead. Once the dough starts to form into a sticky ball, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until firm and smooth.
2. Add 1/2 t olive oil to the bowl and return the dough ball to the bowl and roll around so that the bowl sides and dough are lightly coated with the oil.
3. Cover in plastic and let rise for about 1 1/2-2 hours on the preheating oven to keep dough warm.
4. Once you have allowed the dough to rise punch down and cut in half to form two balls.


Never trust a round pizza....

1. Heat skillet over medium heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil, heat and brown sausage, remove with slotted spoon.
2. Caramelize shallots in remaining sausage grease, and add a little more olive oil if necessary. Cook about 7 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Cook about one more minute and set aside.
3. Caramelize mushrooms in same pan. Once mushrooms begin to soften add brown sugar,the zest of one lemon and 1/2 of the rosemary.
3. Return sausage and onions to pan and mix.

4. Spread out one of the pizza dough balls on a lightly floured surface. work in half of the dough seasoning, red pepper flakes, Parmesan cheese, rosemary and salt. Press down with hands and form into 10-12 inch pizza circle.
5. Remove hot pizza stone from oven and sprinkle with cornmeal. Transfer pizza crust to the pizza stone.
6. Drizzle crust with olive oil. Top with half of the cheese and sausage mixture.
7. Bake each pizza 10 minutes, or until crust is brown and cheese is bubbling.
8. Drizzle pizza with olive oil, and a little truffle oil if available. Garnish with chopped green onions or parsley.




*makes two pizza's. Serve with a hearty Italian red wine.

Rise and Shine!!!

This recipe is an ode to where we are from, and where we live.... We call it the "Yankee Cowboy Hash". Perfect for a lazy start to anyones day!!

Yankee Cowboy Hash:

Ingredients:

2 Medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, diced
1 Medium crisp apple, diced
1 sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
1 sprig of mint, finely copped
3 T corn or vegetable oil
1 t truffle oil (optional)
2 T brown sugar
1 T maple syrup
salt and pepper

2 strips of bacon, diced (thick sliced bacon if available)
1/2 white onion, diced
2 links of sausage, casing removed (homemade green chile and venison sausage, if availble)
1/8 C veal stock
2 eggs
green onion and chives, finely sliced


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Mix apple, potato, brown sugar, maple syrup, herbs and oils. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Saute bacon over Meduim heat until slightly brown. Add onions and caramelize, about 3-5 minutes. Add sausage and break apart with spoon, cook till brown.

Remove potatoes from oven and add to skillet. Allow potatoes to brown in skillet. Add veal stock and reduce.

Served with fried egg and mimosa.

*serves two

Meet the Bunnys

Hi all!!!

Welcome to our new blog....

We are Nina and Tony and we love to cook!!! Nina is a long time food lova, and Tony is the chef man. We decided to start a blog in order to document all of the fabulous food we eat and create (mostly Tony creates), in order to share with the world all of our fabulous recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.