I have loved spinach since I was an infant – just ask my mom, I was about the one baby in America who was disappointed when Gerber discontinued their creamed spinach jarred food.  It is still one of my favorite veggies.  It’s healthy and delicious.  Of course when you combine it with cheese and wrap it in filo dough, it becomes significantly less healthy – but even more delicious!  I personally love spanikopita, even if they are not the healthiest of treats.  I think this would make an excellent homemade appetizer – and they really are quite easy.  It would be even easier (and also healthier, probably) if you wanted to buy premade filo dough cups and put the spinach filling inside.  The recipe actually can be made for dinner-sized spanikopita instead as well, in case you (like me) can’t get enough spinach.  Instead of folding them into tiny triangles, don’t slice your filo dough, and fold them into larger pockets.

Spanikopita – adapted from Rachel Ray

Prepare a baking sheet by spraying with olive oil and preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Saute onion for 5 minutes over medium heat until translucent.  Add drained spinach and seasonings to the skillet.  Remove entire mixture to a bowl, and add crumbled feta.  Add in egg and sour cream and mix well.  Remove phylo dough from its package, and make sure to keep it covered under a damp tea towel lest it get dried out and unworkable.  For appetizer size spanikopita, slice each sheet of phylo dough into thirds.  Place a tablespoon of spinach mixture onto one end of the strip of phylo dough.  Working quickly, fold one corner of the phylo dough over the spinach, forming a 45 degree angle at the end of the strip.  Now fold the covered spinach pocket downward in alternating angles until you have formed a triangular packet.  Place the packet onto the prepared baking sheet.  Repeat until you have used all of your spinach mixture.  Coat the tops of all of the spanikopita with a spray of olive oil.  Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the pockets are lightly browned and crisp.  Enjoy!

Ok so I am combining two ’30-while-30′ dishes into one post because that’s how we enjoyed them.  I think this actually makes a really good breakfast combination – the sweetness of the french toast can be a little overwhelming, but with the spicy sausage by its side it was just about perfect.  I fell in love with cinnamon bun french toast at a little cafe in Wayne, PA called ‘Nudy’s’ – it’s not what you think, it’s actually a very sweet little gourmet breakfast cafe with a lovely outdoor seating section and to-die-for eggs benedict and french toast.  My favorite dish has always been the cinnamon bun french toast – it’s super healthy, obviously, but absolutely delicious.  We once drove from Philly 40 minutes each way just to have this for breakfast.  (As I write this from New England, I am debating driving 5 hours just for cinnamon bun french toast.  It’s that good.)  This recipe was a close-enough approximation – it’s not quite the same, mostly because I used those cinnamon rolls that come out of a tube from the grocery store, so the french toast pieces were very small.  However, they did have the flavor pretty spot-on.

I made turkey sausage because my husband loves all manners of breakfast sausage however I never know exactly what goes into most commercially available sausages so I nearly never order it or buy it when I’m out.  One thing is for sure, I’m sure that long list of ingredients contains some things that are not all good.   I figured making my own I would know exactly what went into it, and therefore would also know that it’s not sooooo bad for me.  It basically just requires a package of lean ground turkey and some spices, and poof you have breakfast sausage.  I personally added more spices than the recipe called for and it was delicious.  If you really wanted to fuss with casings and whatnot, be my guest, but we figured making sausage patties was the way to go.

Cinnamon Bun French Toast

Adapted from Pillsbury.com

• 1 tube of ready-to-bake cinnamon buns
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cups milk

Bake cinnamon buns according to package directions.  Let buns cool, then slice in half crosswise.  Beat together eggs and milk.  Dip each cinnamon bun half in the egg mixture, allowing it to sit for several seconds to absorb.  Cook over medium heat until the slices appear golden.  Drizzle with frosting and enjoy!

Turkey Breakfast Sausage

Adapted from Judy, via allrecipes.com

• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well.  Create small patties.  Cook over medium heat until all the pink is gone from the meat.  Enjoy!

Well, I did it!  I finished all the items on my list the day before I turned 31!  Yes, I know, I haven’t blogged about them all yet – mostly because I would have had to put up 7 postings in one day which just seemed silly.  But, I did cook all the items on my list.  Look for a smattering of posts over the next few days as I finish blogging about all of my items.  Special thanks to my family for eating all of my experiments, and my fabulous husband who just got me a new super-awesome camera lens to help make my photography even better (see above photo!).

Lessons learned: It turns out, is rather hard to figure out in August what you want to eat all year long.  But, it did feel pretty awesome to finish them all.   Also I’m pretty sure I gained about 10 lbs over the past 2 weeks eating all of it.  My next few posts will be decidedly healthier, so I don’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe!

I once told someone that I did not like mayonnaise, and they told me ‘that’s because you’ve never had homemade mayonnaise!’  That was the inspiration behind adding this item to my list of things to make – and man were they right.  Mayonnaise actually is very simple to make, yet very tasty and delicious – definitely adds a special something to a run-of-the mill sandwich.  In fact, I had the best ham sandwich of my life today, all because of homemade mayonnaise!  I honestly do not think I will go back to storebought after this – it just can’t compare.  The flavors are much more vibrant than the greasy slimy stuff that comes out of a shelf-stable jar.  I would imagine it will make a fantastic potato salad, tuna or chicken salad, and maybe it will even win me over for cole slaw.  That one I’m still not sure about.  Maybe it will be on my 31 things to make when I’m 31…just kidding.  Another pointer – this also involves raw eggs, so if you are a germ-a-phobe like me, use pasteurized eggs!

Mayonnaise

From Alton Brown, via The Food Network

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk, salt, mustard powder and sugar.  In a separate container mix together the lemon juice and vinegar.  Add about half of the lemon juice and vinegar to the egg yolk mixture.  Scrape the egg yolks into your food processor (if you are muscle-y and tenacious, you can use a whisk and make this by hand – but I’m not!) and turn on the food processor.  Drizzle in a few drops of the oil, until the mixture lightens in color a bit.  Then add about half of the oil in a thin steady stream.  Add the remaining lemon juice and vinegar next, and finally finish up by drizzling in the remaining oil.  Let sit for about an hour so the flavors meld.  Then spread on your favorite sandwich.  Enjoy!

Eggs benedict has been a favorite breakfast item of mine for years, but it always seemed way too complicated to make at home.  In case you have never tried this out at your local breakfast stop, Eggs benedict consists of canadian bacon and poached eggs atop an english muffin, topped with hollandaise sauce.  To some extent, it is a challenge - I definitely had to learn how to poach eggs, and also how to make hollandaise sauce for this recipe, however man was it worth it – I think it may have been tastier than it is at the local diner.  As with a couple of my dishes on my 30-while-30 list, I actually made this twice over the last year, yet am blogging about it in the 11th hour, as the first time the hollandaise sauce was far too difficult - I first used my go-to chef Alton Brown’s method but A) making a homamade english muffin?  Really?  and B) honestly who at 8 in the morning has time to move a skillet on and off of a warm burner for several minutes at a time all while whisking?  Not me. 

So, instead, I did some searching and came up with this much easier way to make hollandaise sauce.  It took me about 5 hands-off minutes with my trusty food processor.  It was just as delicious, however, as my first try.  I used pasteurized eggs to increase the food safety aspect of this dish, as the sauce is not really cooked.

The other secret to making a delicious eggs benedict is making a well-poached egg.  This took me a few attempts to figure out, but I finally seem to have a good method.  The way that worked best for me is to start a large deep saucepan of water simmering – not boiling – over medium heat.  I added some vinegar to the water, which helps the outside of the egg whites to come together faster so that your poached egg doesn’t turn into egg-drop soup.  I cracked an egg into an individual bowl, then slid that into a ladle.  Then I slowly lowered the egg in the ladle into the simmering water bath and gently let the egg slide out of the ladle.  It takes about 2-3 minutes to get a soft poached egg, such as you would likely want with eggs benedict. 

Now that I’ve finished blogging about this, I think I may actually go make it for breakfast again.  It’s that good.

Eggs Benedict

(Hollandaise sauce from Elise via Simplyrecipes.com)

• 4 english muffins
• 8 slices of canadian bacon
• 8 eggs to poach
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 stick of butter, salted
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

In a small saucepan, melt the stick of butter over low heat so that it doesn’t boil off all the moisture in the butter.  To make the hollandaise sauce, place egg yolks and lemon juice in a food processor or blender.  Turn it on and combine until the mixture starts to appear slightly lighter in color.  At this point, slowly drizzle in the melted butter.  The mixture will thicken up and your hollandaise at this point is done!  Start a large at least 3 inch deep saucepan of water heaing with a small amount (2-3 tablespoons) of vinegar.  When it just barely starts to simmer, reduce the heat – you want tiny bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pan, not a roiling boil here.  Lower each egg gently into the water bath - I use a ladle for this, and gently slid the egg of when it was already in the water bath.  Poach for about 2-3 minutes for a soft egg yolk, longer if you want firmer egg yolks.  To assemble your finished product, split english muffins and lightly toast.  Fry canadian bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until it starts to appear browned.  Layer an english muffin half at the bottom, topped wtih a slice of canadian bacon, a poached egg, and a tablespoon or two of hollandaise for a delicious (easy!) breakfast, and Enjoy!

I have had a curiosity about making Beef Wellington since I started watching the fantastic show Hell’s Kitchen, cause they seem to serve it every night for dinner, and it NEVER, EVER comes out right.  It perplexed me, because it seems to constantly elude the cadre of inept chefs for the entire season.  I figure, if I made something night after night, I would eventually get the hang of it.  What is so darn tough about making a Wellington?  I went searching for a Gordon Ramsay approved recipe so that I wasn’t somehow cheating and making something pared down.

Well, turns out, it actually is kinda hard to make Beef Wellington.  For starters, it takes a while to make it.  And, also when you bake it all the juices come out of the tenderloin, which made my pastry soggy.  To boot, mine was definitely overdone…but, nonetheless, it was delicious.  Gordon Ramsay would have kicked me out, that’s for sure.  And the picture came out kinda crappy.  But, well, I had to photograph it at 8pm which was when we were eating it for dinner!  Oh well. 

Beef Wellington

Adapted from Gordon Ramsay, The F Word

Ingredients:

• 2lb Beef tenderloin
• 1lb mushrooms
• 4 slice proscuitto
• Grainy mustard
• One sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 2 Egg yolks

Brown the tenderloin in some oil in a heavy skillet.  Remove the tenderloin to a cutting board and cool.  Rub the tenderloin with the grainy mustard.  Coarsely chop your mushrooms, and place into a food processor.  Process until a smooth puree is formed.  Place the puree into a skillet and cook on medium until the moisture evaporates and the mixture thickens.  Lay out some saran wrap, enough to cover the tenderloin completely.  Lay the proscuitto slices in the center of the saran wrap, slightly overlaying eachother.  Spread the mushroom paste over the proscuitto slices.  Lay the tenderloin on top of the mushroom and proscuitto and wrap tightly in the saran wrap.  Let sit in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to set up the wellington.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In the interim, roll the thawed pastry sheet into a thin layer large enough to cover the tenderloin.  Beat the egg yolks with about 1 tablespoon of water to form an egg wash, and coat the pastry edges with the egg wash.  Unwrap the tenderloin from the saran wrap.  Place the rolled meat onto the center of the puff pastry, and fold the pastry over the tenderloin, pressing the edges.  Coat with the egg wash.  Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes for a medium-well done Wellington.  Enjoy!

For me, gnocchi always seems like a dish that is way to involved to make, particularly when one can pick up passable store-made gnocchi to whip up for dinner.  This recipe, however, changed all that.  I found this recipe on thenaptimechef.com, and clearly as it’s something a busy mom can make during precious naptime, I figured I who have no kids could make it easily enough.  Plus, it made my 30-while-30 list so really I had no way around this one.  Let me tell you even though it’s one of the easiest recipes I’ve made these gnocchi tasted like something out of a fine Italian restaurant.  I sauteed the gnocchi in olive oil and served with a nice marinara sauce that I whipped up in a pinch as I had run out of jarred sauce.  It was a hit in my household, and I highly recommend giving it a whirl.

Ricotta Gnocchi 

From thenaptimechef.com

• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
• 1 cup flour, plus more for dusting hands and working surface
• Pinch of salt

Combine cheeses and flour into a large bowl – the mixture will seem dry at first, but keep on mixing the ingredients until well combined and it forms a dough.  Dust your hands and countertop.  Roll a handful of dough into a long tube, about 1/2 inch wide.  Cut the gnocchi at 3/4-1 inch intervals.  Lay in an individual layer and refrigerate until cooking time.  To cook – bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and immerse the gnoochi in the water for 3-4 minutes, or until they float.  I followed this with a quick saute in olive oil to lightly brown the outside of the gnocchi.

I will warn first off that this recipe contains uncooked Tuna.  Ceviche is basically, for lack of a better description, pickled raw fish.  I personally a not weirded out by raw fish – sushi is one of my favorite foods – but nonetheless, if you are weirded out by raw fish, you may want to give this one a pass.  I would buy your fish on the same day you plan to make the ceviche.  Make sure you’re careful to use extremely fresh fish from a reliable fish source.  Also be very careful to handle the tuna properly – keep it refrigerated, wash your hands, and make sure your kitchen is clean! 

 I used tuna as I have plenty of experience eating it and working with it.  The recipe I found on the website for Every Day with Rachel Ray - and it really came out pretty darn awesome, if I don’t say so myself.  I made it as part of a fancy celebratory dinner we had and frankly it made me feel like I was at some kind of swanky restaurant.  I didn’t make may modifications to this one – first, I didn’t make nearly as much of it, as we were using this as an appetizer sized portion.  Also, I don’t particularly like coconut milk, so I omitted that entirely.  As that was the bulk of the sauce, I decided to leave the remaining ingredients in the original amounts so that I would have enough sauce to coat the fish.  The important part is the acidity, so make sure you don’t tone that down, as that’s the part that ‘pickles’ the ceviche. 

Tuna Ceviche

from Every Day with Rachel Ray

Combine all ingredients (except for the garnish!) in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Tada!  You’ve made ceviche!  Enjoy.

Ok in the home stretch now!  3 days to go, and then I will be 31.  I really think I’m going to finish all of these things on this list!  This soup has a very nice backstory – it’s one of the things my husband made for me for our first Valentine’s day together.  This started our proud tradition of not going out on Valentines day – it’s just so…hokey.  Instead, we got dressed up and he picked up ingredients for a fancy 3 course meal in – turns out, 2 of the 3 courses were bright green (both of them delicious as well – in case you’re wondering the other one was salmon with scotch bonnet pepper sauce – I’ll have to blog about that one some day too) and we have fond memories of eating this green soup on that chilly winter evening back in 2005.

I personally love bisque, however the pound of butter per bowl is a little much for my stomach usually.  This bisque has – wait for it – absolutely NO butter.  Yep, that’s right, no butter.  The avocado provides all of the creaminess one needs in a bisque, and is much, much healthier than butter.  Some people who have reviewed it complain it is too bland; I will agree, it is a bit on the bland side if you follow the recipe to a tee.  I added much more lemon juice than called for and also some extra salt and pepper.  The other thing I did was to add some extra shrimpiness by boiling the shrimp tails in the chicken broth before I used it.  I also pureed the base after it was made, before I added the shrimp, as I personally think a smooth green soup is more tasty looking than a lumpy green soup.  Enjoy with some crusty french bread on its own, or you can try it as an appetizer as well.

Avocado Shrimp Bisque

From William via allrecipes.com

Slice avocados in half, and discard pits.  Remove avocado flesh and chop coarsely.  Remove shrimp tails and chop shrimp coarsely.  Place chicken broth and shrimp tails into a small sauce pan and simmer on low for about 10 minutes.  Strain shrimp tails out of broth.  Combine avocado meat, broth, milk, lemon juice and onion in a small sauce pan and heat through thoroughly but not quite to a boil.  Remove heated broth to a food processor, and puree.  Place pureed soup back into the sauce pan and add chopped shrimp.  Enjoy!

So until I took on this 30-while-30 post, I had never canned anything.  I was rather intimidated by the whole process, mostly because I didn’t understand how it worked.  However, making preserves was enough of an impetus for me to figure it out.  I will caveat this with you absolutely do NOT have to can these preserves – in fact, they are so delicious you likely will finish them in a very short period of time, and therefore not need to can them – however, it’s a really fun treat to pull homemade preserves out of the pantry, say for a tea party with a friendly co-blogger.   It is very, very easy to make your own preserves – basically you just boil fruit with some sugar and voila – preserves. 

When I tackled this process, I figured if I am taking the time to make my own preserves, I would go off the beaten track and make a flavor I couldn’t find at my local grocery purveyor.  Ginger peach preserves sounded just about perfect – particularly because they do not include pectin, and I am still a little intimidated by using pectin.  I cut the amount of sugar in the recipe by over half, and also omitted the allspice because I just didn’t think the recipe really needed it.  It came out absolutely fantastic – the spice of the ginger goes very well with the sweet peaches, and add that little something extra to make this spread stand out.  These preserves happen to go absolutely perfect with Beth’s orange chocolate chip scones.  Try it, you will not be disappointed.  They also go very well with crumpets, english muffins, on vanilla ice cream, and nearly anything else. 

Ginger Peach Preserves

From Mirj via food.com

• 3 lbs peaches
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

In a pot of boiling water, drop peaches to cook for about 1 minute, or until the skins loosen.  Remove from the boiling water and immediately immerse into a waiting ice bath.  Remove peach skins and chop into small uniform pieces.  Add the peaches, sugar, ginger, and lemon juice to a thick bottomed skillet and cook for about 30 minutes or until the mixture appears thickened.  Cool and enjoy!!

If you plan on canning these preserves – I found this guide to be particularly helpful.  I processed (boiled) mine for 15 minutes in the jars.  Good luck!