Day #3 - Pinterest Week

I know you have been waiting for day #3 of Pinterest Week.  
Drum roll please….Day #3 is….

Garlicky Swiss Chard and Chickpeas
from:  Foodie Crush

Garlicky Swiss Chard and Chickpeas


I cooked this up as a yummy side with some marinaded flank steak and a baked sweet potato. 

Sweet potato secret:  Sprinkle some cinnamon on top.  Mmmmmm...It's hard to decide if it a dessert of part of the dinner.

The verdict:  Pin It!










Both DD#2 and DH voted this the best swiss chard recipe ever - even better than the ones I've made with bacon - what?!  Although, both agreed that adding a little bacon would not have hurt this recipe, either.  :-)

Cooking the chard in chicken broth helped make it nice and tender and mellow tasting.  The garlicky flavor and the salty feta really made it pop.  Definitely a do-over!

Changes I made:

• I used one large bunch of Swiss Chard instead of two (That Sunday night shopping trip left us with sad pickin' in the chard department.)  
• Because a big pile of chard cooks up to nothing, I added a big box of baby spinach to make enough to serve 4.  If you want enough to serve 4, get 2 bunches of chard like the recipe calls for.  It will look like a ton, but - I promise - cooks down A LOT.
• I used some of the stems.  You can see the little red beauties in the top picture above.  I really hate to waste them and they taste really good if you cook them right.  I cut them on the diagonal and added them to the pot.  It calls for the chard to simmer for 15 minutes in the broth and that is plenty of time for those skinny jem-bright stems to get to just the right barely soft texture.

If you've never tried Swiss Chard, this is a great starter recipe.  Mild chard flavor that lets the other bold flavors shine through.  

So 3 new Pinterest experiments in 3 days and 3 wins!  I'd call that a success!

Another new Pinterest adventure tomorrow…Until then!

Pinterest Week Continues...

And the Pinterest fun continues...

Tuesday's Pinterest Feast:

Lemon Rosemary Basil Chcken
from:  Tidy Mom

Sorry about the blurry photos - we were in a hurry to serve up because it smelled so amazing!

The verdict:  Pin It!  

This dish uses chicken tenders in a quick, sweet-tangy, lemony marinade that tenderized the chicken and left the, normally blah tenders with some serious flavor.






Changes that I made:

• I used 2 Tbsps of olive oil instead of 4
• I used a bit more lemon juice - cuz my lemons were big and I didn't want to waste the extra couple Tbsps.
• I used more garlic and rosemary - 4 cloves of garlic instead of 3 and 1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary from the garden
• I rushed the marinating a bit.  I think that it would have been even better if I had given it 45 minutes or so.

For the side, I made up a quick zucchini sauté inspired by my time in Italy:

Sauteed zucchini with mint

• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 4-5 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 4-5 large mint leaves, thinly sliced 
• Olive oil (about 1-2 Tbsp)

1.  Heat oil over medium heat in a non-stick pan.  Add garlic slices and sauté until lightly golden brown and fragrant.  Remove garlic from pan, leaving the flavored oil. Be careful that you do not burn the garlic or you will have to start over with a clean pan because burnt garlic is very bitter.

2.  Add the peppers to the garlic-flavored oil in the pan and sauté until just beginning to soften.

3.  Add zucchini slices to the pan and allow them to lightly brown on one side before turning them over.  Continue to sauté until the zucchini are just past crisp-tender.

4.  Remove to a serving platter.  Sprinkle with coarse salt, and sliced mint.  

If you are really lucky, you have a great friend who brings you finishing oils from New York City and you can drizzle your zucchini with that - and boy was it good!  Thanks Jill!

 

It's Pinterest Food Week in the Feasts and Fabrics Kitchen!

I avoided joining Pinterest - for about a second - and then gave in and have spent many hours happily perusing and pinning.  But what do you do with all those pins once you pin them???

 Welcome to Pinterest Food Week at 

Feasts and Fabrics! 

Every day this week I will be making a dinner that I found on Pinterest linking you back to the original blog post.  I'll let you know if it was worth pinning and any changes I made to the dish.

Monday night's Pinterest Feast:

White Beans with Spinach and Sausage
From:  It's My Side of Life

The verdict:  Pin it!  Sooo delicious!  This dish went together in a snap and there was hardly any clean up. 

Changes that I made:  

• I used Andouille sausage in place of the kielbasa called for in the recipe.  (Wegmans was strangely out of kielbasa when we went shopping this week.  Ok.  we were shopping at 8 pm on a Sunday night so maybe not so strange.  Have I mentioned that Hubby and I are both night people?)
• I used a bit of oil in the bottom of a dutch oven to brown up the sausage slices and then added the chicken broth and garlic.  I didn't add any more oil.  
• I added a bit more spinach and tomato than the recipe called for.

I made some quick toasted cheese with a hearty multigrain bread and some shredded provolone.  Popped it under the broiler until the cheese just started to look bubbly and a tiny bit browned.  Perfect for dipping in the broth.

Who knew beans could taste so good?!!!  So…I'm calling it a Pinterest success!  

Recent Pinterest fail:  Do not write on your washing machine with dry erase markers - no matter how much you want to remember not to put your giraffe-print shirt in the dryer.  It might take you a couple hours to get the marker off.  Just saying…

Pinterest successes?  Failures?  Clue us in to what to pin next!