I developed this recipe about a dozen years ago. It’s been featured in two cookbooks, FamilyFun Cooking with Kids and Reflections Under the Sun, and I will be making it on Channel 12 NBC Valley Dish with Tram Mai next month (4:30 PM, Wednesday, June 3rd). The thing I love about it is how quickly it comes together and how, with just a itty bitty bit of planning, you can get it on the table in about 10 minutes. How is that possible? Make the marinate in the morning before you head out the door, (it literally takes less then 5 minutes to do) throw in the chicken, cover and refrigerate. When you come home, get the water for the pasta boiling while you drain the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes and stem/string the peas (or purchase them already stringed in the bagged lettuce area of your supermarket), steam or blanch the peas in the “pasta water” – before you add the pasta to it. Once you throw the pasta in the salted water, you get busy browning the chicken – and by the time you’re done reducing the sauce and heating it all through, the pasta will be ready – hopefully you’ve gotten one of the kids to set the table, because dinner is ready!

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Graduation was wonderful! We stayed at the Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, which was beautiful. Had a celebratory dinner at J Bar after the big event, which was beyond delicious. Went back to the girls’ house for a dessert party after dinner, which was the perfect way to end the night. Then the next day, we were able to spend a relaxing morning with our graduate at the resort pool and then had a fun lunch at Frog & Firkin (a University of Arizona hang-out) before heading back to Phoenix.  All in all – a momentous and memorable weekend!  To keep with the theme of relaxation and ease, here’s an “easy-breezy” and versatile dish that can be used as an impressive appetizer or a quick dinner. To make it a meal, just toss with cooked linguini or spaghetti and add garlic bread.

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A photographer, I am not! I know this, and I accept it. And if you stop by here often, then I am guessing you know and accept it too.  Sometimes I just can’t get the correct light, or unable to correct the light and color in Photoshop. I’ve never taken a Photoshop course and really only know a couple quick tricks out of the whole big program. Marissa and I signed up for a community college photography night class five years ago, when she was a senior in high school. We quickly discovered that the instructor wasn’t really organized enough to teach. Being the great example- setting mom that I am, after only two very disappointing classes, I turned it into girls-night-out for shopping and dinner instead. Hmm?

Imagine this blog without food pictures, even mediocre pictures. Hard to do, at least for me. So I take on average between 6 and 10 shots of each picture I want to feature and hope for the best. That didn’t work out so well for today. I took 9 different shots of this broccoli last night. Then we had it for dinner.  This morning, I downloaded the photos and every single one is out of focus! It sure didn’t look that way in on the camera screen last night. Please forgive me, I still want to post the recipe because it was really good, but I won’t go to the store to buy more broccoli just to get a focused picture.

On a happier note; at the same time that Maris and I signed up for the photography class, we also signed up for a weekend watercolor class. I think there were five other women in there and Maris and I were, by far, the youngest… and the least talented! I mean, we were awful! And please keep in mind, that my son, Connor is a great artist! That is one of his many watercolors above, which he did when he was 11 years old. We came home each week with our pitiful “art” and I do not know how he kept a straight face. But we stuck with it! And we had fun. It helped that our instructor was very sweet and encouraging even though it was obvious that neither of us was getting any better. If you’re interested in seeing my talented son’s artwork, you can check out some of his work at this link. Most of the art posted there is done with a Pen Pad and his computer. Plus there is are a few photographs of some of his oils as well. Hope you enjoy the broccoli and the art.

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When I went out the garden to pick the mint needed for this recipe, I found this very welcome and sweet little guest, funny how simple joys can just make your day! My goal for the past month or two has been to cook with lemons everyday.  I know you’re probably sick of hearing about how many lemons I have, but believe me, I’m more tired of trying to use/get rid of them!  I took about 50 pounds to cooking class last night and plan to do the same tomorrow night when I begin my 3-week series at Les Gourmettes. Just the thought of all of them is wearing me out… the solution? Tonight, I’m going to fire up the Jacuzzi and make cocktails using up several lemons, that will get me geared up to keep going! This is a great cocktail if you have a little leftover champagne or as in my case, you have a split lying around unused. I’m using Absolute Citron, but any unflavored or citrus flavored vodka is fine. If you’re not lemon-rich, buy lemon sorbet at the grocery store and you’re all set.

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One of my favorite songs by The Killers is All These Things That I’ve Done. The chorus, “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier” is my favorite part and was used in a Nike advertisement during the last summer Olympics (Click here to watch). Hence the title:  I’ve got sole…  My niece, Raina, had a post on her facebook page, right before Easter, that totally cracked me up…  ”I’ve got ham, but I’m not a hamster.”  I really did laugh out loud at that one!

I was the lucky and happy recipient of an “over-purchase” of fresh fillet of sole and banana leaves after Wednesday night’s cooking class at Les Gourmettes. That meant that Thursday’s dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes! Fresh banana leaves are available at Asian markets, and are very inexpensive, give them a try!  The leaves tear easily, so it is important to quickly pass them over an open flame to make them more pliable and easier to handle. The exposure to heat brightens them and releases the leaf’s natural oils and fragrance. When steamed, the leaves tend to loose their vibrant green color and turn a darker shade of olive green. Click here to make the chipotle mayonnaise, if you don’t already have some on hand.

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On Saturday, I’ll be serving a pre-Easter brunch to the hardworking people in my husband, Dave’s, office.  It’s a CPA firm and Easter usually falls during the crunch time of tax season, so these people need a break! This recipe is on the menu. I confess, I totally ripped it off out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. They sell these cute little “breakfast pigs in a blanket”.  The Williams-Sonoma version uses Aidell’s chicken-apple sausages. While I did fine Aidells sausages at Costco and was planning to use them, I spotted some mango-chicken sausages and decided to go that route… happy I did because – Yum!

So here are your choices… purchase from the catalog and pay $48.50 (that’s with shipping) for 24 “pigs”…  or… make mine, and pay less than $25 for the pastry and sausages and you will wind up with 60 – as in “six- zero”  little pigs!!!

I know what you’re saying to yourself right now…. “I do not need Sixty Pigs, even if they do cost $1.58 less per piece.”  Oh yes – You do!!!  These are delicious, easy, and so great to have on hand in your freezer.  That’s right, you can bake and serve some now and freeze the rest for later. Of course, you can always cut the recipe in half, and use just one package of puff pastry and find another and smaller (meaning a smaller quantity then sold at Costco) package of sausages. But once you get into the roll of putting these together, it takes no time at all and you’ll feel rich and wise with the knowledge that you have these little gems stocked away. They can go directly from the freezer to the oven -at the ready for a quick cocktail appetizer or as a fun breakfast, any day of the week. Finally, I call for whole-grain mustard, because I like it, but if you only have regular Dijon, that works too.

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On Sunday, my friend and neighbor, Ronnie had a party to introduce and welcome new neighbors to “the hood”.  She made this colorful fresh and flavorful salad that we all went crazy for. It is inspired by a recipe she found in a cookbook by Rick Rodgers. I had two servings, and would have had a third if I could have gotten away with it! The original recipe called for 3 ears of corn to be roasted on a grill. This simple take on that uses frozen roasted corn kernels found at Trader Joe’s.  One medium cob of corn yields about 3/4 cup of kernels. So that is convenience item number one.  And here is number two … a new way to freeze and store chipotle peppers. As you know, chipotle peppers are sold in cans and they are packed in adobo sauce. The sauce is just about as good as the peppers themselves, spicy and smokey and just so addictive. I can’t think of a time when you would use an entire  7-ounce can of the peppers, generally recipes call for just a few peppers and then you have the rest of the can to deal with.  In the past I have  placed the remaining peppers on a small greased baking sheet, frozen them, then removed the frozen peppers and placed them in ziplock bags to freeze. But now… I have an even better way. In the majority of recipes the peppers are very finely chopped, so why not freeze them that way? First place all the remaining peppers and all the adobo sauce left in the can in a food processor and puree it. Next, carefully spoon the puree into the little holes of an empty garlic cube package. What is a garlic cube package, you ask. In a prior post, I told you how much I love to use the minced garlic cubes sold at Trader Joe’s. My freezer is full of them… so I reuse those empty containers and now I always have chipotle cubes on hand too.  One chipotle cube equals about 1/2 chipotle pepper.  Plus they pop out just as easily as the garlic does.

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This quick and delicious vegetable side dish just screams “Mediterranean” to me. I love every single distinct flavor here. I served this with the mahi-mahi from yesterday’s post, but it just as easily compliments pork or chicken as it does fish. And it takes literally, only about 7 minutes to put together, well OK – depending on your knife skills! So sharpen your chef’s knife and have a wonderful weekend!

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You know how devoted I am to Costco, but we all know the problem with Costco… sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomaches! That was the case with a 3-pack of Boursin cheese I bought a while back. I needed the first package for a specific recipe and the second package followed when I put it on a cheese tray a few weeks, no problem. But the 3rd package… it has been in the fridge for a long time and I looked at today and saw that the “use by” date is tomorrow! What to do? Well, what I am going to do is give you the easiest and quickest appetizer of all time… OK, maybe not of ALL time, but pretty darn quick!

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This recipe was requested by the mother of one of my former (all grown-up now) students to be placed on the blog. We made this fresh and full-flavored bruschetta during a summer session several years ago. It thrills me when people put in requests for specific posts. Moms, you know what I mean, every night you have to think of something to feed your family, sometimes it comes to you easily and other times, you struggle. Same here! The people who request items most often, are my own two darling kids. Marissa usually asks for something specific and Connor… well Connor usually wants chocolate or bacon! So to appease him, you have the option of garnishing these tasty toasts with crumbled bacon… there you go Connor, your request was not denied! Oh, and that gorgeous yellow tomato in the picture below… from my garden…I’m just a little proud of it!

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