Rice Salad with Sushi Inspired Flavors- A Great Use for Leftovers

I love rice salads for quick summer suppers or side dishes.  They are filling enough to be satisfying, but not too heavy for a hot day.  With temperatures in the triple digits on a consistent basis here this summer, cold suppers really hit the spot.

The dressing for this recipe is based on the sushi ginger dressing recipe from the Quinoa Salad in Canning for a New Generation.  I used some vegetables from the fridge that are commonly found in sushi rolls- cucumber and avocado- and paired them with the complimentary flavors of green onion, wasabi, and nori.  I used leftover cold salmon as the protein, but smoked salmon, shrimp, lump crabmeat, and tuna steaks would all work nicely in this recipe. Feel free to adjust the protein and vegetables around to use what you have on hand.  Shredded carrots, thinly sliced cabbage, and edamame would all be great additions.

For the Dressing:

•1/3 cup pickling liquid from a jar of sushi ginger

•1/3 cup minced sushi ginger

•1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

•2 Tablespoons tamari, or soy sauce

•3/4 cup olive oil

•a small handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

•Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, whisk together the pickling liquid from the sushi ginger, the minced ginger, and Dijon mustard.  Add the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking to combine.  Stir in the cilantro.  Season to taste with the salt and pepper.  Set aside



•3 cups cooked rice, cooled

•2 leftover cooked salmon fillets, cubed (or use 1- 1 1/2 cups shrimp, crabmeat, etc.)

•1 cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced

•4 green onions, sliced

•1 avocado, cubed

•1 teaspoon wasabi, or more, to taste

•4 sheets nori, cut into 1 inch squares

Add the rice, salmon, cucumber, green onions, avocado, and wasabi to the bowl with the dressing.  Toss very gently with a spatula taking care not to smash the avocados.  Add the nori and toss gently to combine.  Chill for at least an hour before serving to let flavors combine.

Shrimp Pasta with Artichokes and Sun Dried Tomatoes

There used to be a pasta dish at a certain un-named Italian-style chain restaurant that I just loved.  It was all I would order.  It had shrimp, chicken, artichokes, tomatoes, and a spicy cream sauce.  The problem is, after I began cooking and experimenting more in the kitchen, many meals from restaurants didn't taste quite as good as they did before.  (Plus, when you work in the world of chain restaurants you get the inside scoop on their "secret recipes"- often times frozen cooked meats, canned, powdered, and bagged sauces, etc)

Wade and I try to dine at locally owned places these days, and luckily there have been some great additions to the restaurant scene around here the past few years.  We have a Middle Eastern kebab place, a great family-owned Italian restaurant, a TON  of fantastic Mexican restaurants, a couple good places to eat sushi, and even pho. Still, I find myself craving this pasta from time to time.  This is how I recreate it at home, using spinach from our garden, sun-dried tomatoes I put up last fall, and a creamy homemade white wine sauce with a touch of cayenne pepper.  Sliced grilled chicken can also be added.

•1 box whole wheat penne

•1 Tablespoon butter

•1 Tablespoon olive oil

•1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed

•1 medium onion, finely diced

•4 cloves garlic, minced

•1 cup white wine

•1 pint half and half (heavy cream makes a richer sauce, but I try to keep it light)

•2 Tablespoons parsley

•3/4  teaspoon cayenne pepper

•1/2 teaspoon oregano

•Salt and pepper, to taste

•1 14 oz can artichoke heart quarters, drained

•a large handful sun dried tomatoes, sliced (about 1/3 cup)

•10 oz. box frozen spinach- squeezed dry, or several large handfuls fresh spinach, chopped

•Parmesan cheese, for serving

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and olive oil in a large pan. Add the shrimp.  Cook for a few minutes, until the shrimp are all pink and cooked through.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.



Add the onion and garlic to the pan.  Cook, stirring often until the onions are slightly browned.



Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half .  Mix in the half and half or heavy cream.  Add the cayenne, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Cook until slightly thickened.



Add the spinach, artichokes, and sun dried tomatoes.  Heat through.  Toss with the cooked pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

Shrimp Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

For Mother's Day we had my parents over for a barbecue.  We went with an Asian theme for the day by having Korean barbecue ribs, which we wrapped in leaves of lettuce and served with chili sauce, a quinoa salad with a ginger dressing, and shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce.

Wade made the meat with a recipe from Steve Rachlin's Planet Barbecue.  That is a wonderful cookbook filled with barbecue recipes from all over the world.  It gets used a lot at our house in the summer.  The quinoa salad recipe is from Canning for a New Generation by Liana Kristoff.  The dressing is made with some home canned sushi ginger and the pickling liquid.  It pairs nicely with the cucumbers and tomatoes in the salad.  And it's just cool to home can your own ginger.  It makes a nice project for the middle of winter when there isn't much else around to can.  The spring rolls are our own creation using some vegetables we had on hand.  Wade made up the recipe for the peanut sauce, which would be great in a stir fry as well. I forgot to take a picture of the sauce, but I'll post one next time we make it.

Mom loved everything and we had a great Mother's Day.

•Spring roll wraps, about a dozen.
•3 cups fresh spinach leaves
•2 cups very finely shredded cabbage
•2 carrots, shredded
•3 green onions, sliced
•1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
•a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
•salt, to taste
•1 Tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
•1/2 pound shrimp, cooked and split in half

For the Peanut Dipping Sauce:
•1/2 cup coconut milk
•1 cup peanut butter
•handful of fresh cilantro
•1 teaspoon fish sauce
•1 1/2 Tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
•1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
•2 cloves garlic

Fill a pie dish with warm water.  Set aside. Set the spinach leaves aside.  Mix the cabbage, carrots, green onion, bell pepper, and cilantro together in a bowl.  Salt to taste and toss with the oil.

The spring roll wrapper is there.  It's just hard to see since it's clear.

Dip a spring roll wrapper in the water for about 30 seconds, to soften.  Place on a cutting board.  Top with a few slices of spinach in the middle of the wrapper.  Place a few tablespoons of the vegetable mixture on top of the spinach.  Top the vegetable mixture with 4 shrimp halves.

Fold the bottom of the wrapper up over the filling, tuck in the sides, and roll up.  The wrapper with stick to itself.  Repeat until the vegetables are gone.

Blend all of the ingredients for the sauce together in a food processor.  Serve alongside the spring rolls.

Bacon and Scallop Pizza

March seems to be passing me by at a ridiculous speed.  Between two trips up to the mountains to meet up with Wade's family, out of state guests, and several trips to Denver I seem to have accomplished nothing this month on the blog or on my thesis.  Hopefully that will change for the remainder of the month.  Wade has taken up most of the cooking the last couple weeks and this is my favorite dinner that he has made recently.

We eat a lot of pizza.  There is a really good pizza restaurant in our tiny town that is known all around for having really good food and my parents like to meet us there for dinner every week or so.  I also delivered pizzas for about a year when I was in college.  So, you'd think I'd be pretty tired of it by now,  but this is a pizza I don't mind having at home because it is out of the ordinary and so good. I made the crust and Wade finished up the rest of the pizza, which adapted from this Paula Dean recipe.  The crust is the best pizza crust you can possibly make at home: Jay's from Allrecipes.

We enjoyed this dinner for a relaxing midweek movie night.

•1 recipe of your favorite pizza crust,  I like this one
•1 cup pizza sauce- we used some that was home canned last summer
•1 cup sour cream
•4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
•1 12 oz bag frozen sea scallops, thawed
•4-6 cloves fresh garlic, minced (adjust to your taste)
•2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
•1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
•1-2 tablespoons butter, melted
•2 Tablespoons dried parsley
•1 teaspoon oregano
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350.

Dust a pizza stone with cornmeal and pat out the dough.  Bake the dough for 5-7 minutes, until the top is just slightly browned.

Cook scallops in a skillet over medium high heat until the excess moisture is evaporated.  Set aside.

Mix the pizza sauce and sour cream together.  Spread over crust.  Top with bacon pieces and scallops.  Top with both of the cheeses.

Brush the edges of the crust with melted butter.  Mix the parsley, oregano, salt, and garlic powder together.  Sprinkle over the edges of the crust.  Sprinkle any remaining herbs over the rest of the pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is fully baked and the cheese on top in browned and bubbly.

Wade's Homemade Sushi

Wade made sushi for New Year's Eve.  He's been making it for years, first learning how in Japanese club during college.

You really don't need too many ingredients to make sushi at home.  You'll need seafood sheets, called nori, short grain rice, rice wine vinegar, and sushi grade fish, vegetables, or a combination.  The exact amounts will depend on how much sushi you want to make.

Cook some short grain rice in a rice cooker.  About 3 cups cooked rice will make a large amount.  Add rice wine vinegar to the rice until it sticks together nicely.  Depending on your rice this will take about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of vinegar.

Place a sheet of nori on a bamboo sushi rolling mat, or a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap if you don't have a mat.  Pat down some sticky rice on the bottom section of the nori.

Top with the fish and vegetables you want.  Don't add too many though, or the sushi will be too big and will fall apart more easily.  We used sushi grade tuna, cream cheese, and cucumber.  You can add just about any combination you like.  We have used tempura shrimp, imitation crabmeat, asparagus and avocado before.  Feel free to experiment.

Using the mat, roll up the sushi roll tightly.  Slice with a very sharp knife and serve with wasabi and pickled ginger.

Crock Pot Manhattan Clam Chowder

There is nothing like a nice pot of soup on a cold day.  It's especially nice if you come home to a house that smells like someone has been cooking all day.

I love using the crockpot year round because it makes it so easy to have a good meal after a long and hectic day, but I especially love using the crockpot in the winter because hearty, cold weather soups and stews always taste the best when they have been simmered all day long.

A while back Wade and I were at a restaurant and had bowls of New England clam chowder.  I told him about the Manhattan version (my favorite of the two) which is made with a tomato and garlic base, carrots, celery, onion, and smokey bacon.  Yum!  Wade had never heard of this version. and I hadn't eaten any in years, so I knew that we would have to have some this fall or winter.  I adapted my recipe from Emeril.  It cooks up especially nice in the crockpot.  Serve with a loaf of warm crusty bread and butter.

•4-5 strips lean bacon, chopped
•2 medium onions, chopped
•1 teaspoon celery seed (or a few stalks of fresh celery, if you have it)
•1 carrot, peeled and diced
•1 1/4 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
•4 cloves minced garlic
•3 bay leaves
•1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
•2 teaspoons dried thyme
•2 Tablespoons dried parsley
•1/2-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
•2 cups chicken stock
•1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
•2 10 oz cans baby clams in their own juice, undrained
•Salt and pepper, to taste- go light on the salt since the clams are already quite salty

Cook the chopped bacon in a skillet until it is slightly crispy. Drain on paper towels.  Mix the drained bacon pieces and all of the remaining ingredients together in a crockpot.  Cook on low for about 8 hours, until the potatoes are cooked through and the onions are translucent.

Two Family Recipes for a Housewarming Party

After several month of work Wade and I were finally ready to have our housewarming party.  Everybody came over in the afternoon and enjoyed three different kinds of sangria (made by my Mom) and several different appetizers.  We had Reuben spreadwith pumpernickel toasts, shrimp spread with crackers, brownies, tortilla roll-ups, and little smokies with barbecue sauce.  I'm not sure where the recipes for the shrimp spread and tortilla roll-ups came from originally, but my family has been making them for get-togethers forever.  Wade absolutely loves the shrimp spread, so I usually make it every couple months for when we just do a snacks-for-supper night and watch movies.

Shrimp Spread

•8 oz cream cheese, softened

•1/2 cup sour cream

•1/4 cup mayo or miracle whip

•1 cup cocktail sauce

•2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

•2 4.5 oz. cans cocktail shrimp, drained

•3 green onions, sliced

•1 or 2 finely chopped tomatoes (I used yellow tomatoes)

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, and mayo or miracle whip together until smooth.  Spread into the bottom of a pie dish or a 12" platter.  Layer the remaining ingredients in the order given.  Cover and chill until serving time.  Serve with crackers.

Tortilla Roll-ups

•8 oz. cream cheese, softened

•1 small onion, chopped

•small can (4 oz.) green chilies, undrained

•small can (4 oz.)of chopped black olives, undrained

•Several flour tortillas

Combine the cream cheese, onion, green chilies, and olives in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Spread 1/4" thick on tortillas.  Roll up tightly.  Cover loosely and refrigerate for several hours.  Cut into 1/2" slices and serve.