Quick and Easy Vegetarian Puff Pastry Pinwheels- Cheesy Kale- So Yummy!

I love to experiment with different things in the kitchen and today was an idea that originally went bad.  I won't go into that little fiasco, it will be a recipe video for another time when I figure out how to do what I want to accomplish.

Anyway, in the middle of my experimenting with puff pastry, I decided to make pinwheels.  Something pretty with flavors that would work well together, but not your average run of the mill spinach or as weird as leeks or kohlrabi.  I wanted to use something that the majority of people already have in their kitchen.  That's how I thought of kale.  It's as common as carrots in today's world.  If you eat salad, you probably eat kale.

Making puff pastry from scratch would have taken FOREVER so I opted not to do it this time.  In hindsight, I could have just done a batch of croissant dough because, in my opinion, it's pretty much the same thing and it's actually cheaper to make it yourself.  If your only experience is croissants out of a can then I hate to break the news but you are seriously missing out.  On that note, I actually bought a box of pre-made puff pastry dough to save time and because most people do not make their dough from scratch anyway.  I caved.  This time.  :)

I could go on about these cheesy pinwheels forever.  They are SO good and so easy that I really hope you will give them a go and let me know what you think.  Video recipe is included at the bottom.  Hopefully one of these days I'll come off with the money to buy a video camera instead of using my iPhone to do recipe videos... we'll see about that plan.

Vegetarian Puff Pastry Cheesy Kale Pinwheels

INGREDIENTS

1/2 sheet of purchased puff pastry dough

2 green onion tops, chopped

1 medium clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups wilted kale

3/4 cup of your favorite cheese

egg wash

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and follow the instructions on the video.  These take less than an hour to make and are SO worth it!  

    

Crispy Skin Pan Fried Salmon- Quick and Easy Recipe

I adore salmon but don't eat it as often as I used to.  I guess you could say I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to salmon or you could say I'm just downright picky.  Farmed raised and wild caught are not the same in my brain.  I prefer wild caught which also means that the price tag attached to it can be a little much for my food budget.  Farm raised runs about half of the wild caught pricetag of at least $12.99 a pound, often higher.

That's why we actually consider salmon to be a treat in our house.  In turn, that means cooking it in one of the most tasty ways I know how.  Pan frying the salmon and turning that beautiful silver skin crispy as possible.  The flavor and texture of crispy salmon skin is fantastic and if you have never had it, you should really try this recipe.

Not only is it downright delicious, it's actually easy and surprisingly fast.  Fish can always be cooked quickly when you need a quick meal.  This particular salmon dish takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish.  Now that IS quick for fresh food.

Prep time: 5 minutes     Cook time: 8 to 10 minutes     Yields:  2 servings

Something to watch out for when you are working with fresh salmon:

Salmon has small bones in it that I call pin bones.  I'm not sure what the technical name is for these small bones but any time you purchase a fresh salmon fillet, you are going to want to check for these little bones.  Sometimes the butcher has removed all of them but sometimes they may miss one or two so you will want to pull them out.  That will usually require either tweezers or pliers.  They won't kill anyone if you miss one but they are not a pleasant thing to find in your mouth when you are eating your salmon.

Little "pin" bones that were in the salmon.

Ingredients for Crispy Skin Pan Fried Salmon

• 1, 8oz. skin on salmon fillet
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
• Salt and pepper to your taste

How to Put it all Together

Place your salmon on your meat cutting board skin side up.

Using a sharp kitchen knife, cut scores into the salmon every 1/2 inch to 1 inch that are approximately 1/4" to 1/2" deep.  Do not cut all the way through the fish.  This scoring keeps the salmon skin from curling up and also gives you more surface area for seasoning.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper and the dried rosemary.  Be sure to get some of the seasoning inside the scores that you cut into the fish.  It will taste fantastic when it's done.

Heat the olive oil and butter in either a cast iron skillet or a heavy bottomed frying pan.  Your stove should be set on medium high heat.

Once the olive oil and butter are hot, place your salmon in the pan skin side down.  You should hear a bit of sizzling when the fish hits the oil.  Season the other side with salt, pepper and rosemary to your liking.  Remember not to go too overboard with the dried rosemary because that herb can go from pleasant to annoying really quick if you use too much.

Now here's the hard part... don't touch it.  Set your timer for four minutes and walk away.  This is the key to getting that crispy skin.  After four minutes, take a peek at the underside of the fish and if you think it needs to be darker, leave it for another minute.

Once the time is up and you are satisfied with the way your salmon skin looks, turn it over and cook the other side for 4 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillet.

After that amount of time, your salmon will be done.  The skin will be crispy and buttery.  The inside will be moist and flavorful from the rosemary.  You'll send me flowers because I shared this wonderful salmon recipe with you and you are wondering how you ever ate salmon any other way for your entire life.  Trust me, I know that feeling.  :)

This fish goes well with almost any side.  Rice, potatoes, fresh vegetables, asparagus... the opportunities are endless to make that perfect salmon dinner.  I served it with smashed potatoes, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and homemade wheat bread and it was a fantastic dinner that I will hopefully be making and enjoying again very soon.

Cooking Basics- How to Make Really Good Tasting Scrambled Eggs

Keeping Scrambled Eggs Simple

Sometimes the simplest things in life can be tweaked to the point of difficulty. Scrambled eggs are a good example of this. There are recipes everywhere for the perfect scrambled egg. The problem is that once you start bombarding this once simple dish with fifteen exotic ingredients, it somehow loses what it originally was and people forget the simplicity of it all and how good simplicity can actually taste.  Keep it simple.

The most important ingredient in scrambled eggs is the eggs. The fresher the egg, the better the dish will be. I have my own chickens in my back yard so I am lucky enough to have just about a never ending supply of the freshest eggs available. The eggs that I used for this recipe were laid sometime yesterday afternoon. You can't get much fresher than that!

If you don't have your own chickens, the best place to purchase freshly laid eggs is your local farmers market. You can expect to pay approximately $3.00 per dozen depending on your area and, believe me, it's worth every penny. Fresh eggs are more nutritious, have less cholesterol and create a much creamier texture scrambled eggs. The color might be a bit different in a fresh egg but that's a good thing because they haven't been sitting around long enough for the color to fade and the nutritional value to go out the window.

This recipe makes enough scrambled eggs for two people.

What You Need to Make Scrambled Eggs

1. 3 fresh chicken eggs
2. 2 teaspoons butter (do NOT use margarine, it is not even close to being the same thing)
3. 1/4 cup of milk or cream (I do admit that cream in scrambled eggs is even more amazing)
4. pinch of salt
5. pinch of pepper
6. cheese- optional and really good!
7. fresh cherry tomatoes- optional and again, really good!

How to Make Really Good Tasting and Simple Scrambled Eggs

You'll need a pan to cook your eggs in. If you pan is non-stick then you really won't need any butter. If you pan does not have a non-stick coating, you'll want to have a couple of tablespoons of butter to keep the eggs from sticking to the pan. Put the pan on the burner, add the butter if needed and set the temp to medium heat so the butter can melt while you are beating the eggs. If you don't use the butter, wait a few minutes before heating the pan up.

Crack your eggs open into a bowl and add the milk (or cream). I always poke the egg yolks to break them but that's optional. Next, as my grandmother used to say, you'll want to whisk the tar out of them. The purpose of whisking is to not only blend the milk and the eggs together, you want to do it fast enough to actually beat air into the eggs. This helps make them fluffier during cooking.  There's a video on the sidebar that will show you how to easily beat eggs in a bowl.

If you are using the non-buttered pan, now is a good time to turn on the heat. Add your salt and pepper to the eggs and beat them some more!

After a total time of about 5ish minutes, pour the eggs into the pan. Here's where your test of patience comes into play. Do NOT stir the eggs. You'll need to wait a few minutes and let them start to cook first. Turn the heat down to medium/low.

After waiting a few minutes, give the eggs a little, gentle stir. You should see that the eggs have started to cook and firm up. Wait a few more minutes, adjust the heat if needed and let them cook uninterrupted. That's one of the keys to fluffy eggs. You beat them when they are raw, not when they are in the skillet.

After about 10 minutes and between 3 and 5 quick, gentle stirs the eggs should be just about done. You don't want them browned. You want them to look solid, soft and a little bit glossy.

Right at that moment, it's decision time. Do you want to eat your eggs plain or do you want to add a few yummy ingredients to them? This time, I chose to add two things to my fluffy, yummy scrambled eggs. Fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden and some shredded cheddar cheese.

If you choose to have your eggs plain, cook them just a few seconds longer, put them on a plate and enjoy! For any added extras, now is the time to add them. I just tossed in the tomatoes after quartering them, gave it a quick stir and put the cheese on top. Turn the fire off and put a lid on it for a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt.

After the cheese has melted, the eggs are ready to enjoy! Or devour. No one could have ever guessed that plain jane scrambled eggs could taste so darn good!

How to Make a Tasty, Quick and Easy Tomato Relish

This is one of my recipes that I originally posted on HubPages when I first started posting recipes on that site.  The photos are blah but they will have to do for the moment.  I'll be remaking this recipe as soon as the tomatoes in the garden are ready.  Honestly, I can't WAIT.  I love this relish.

Nothing pleases my pallet more than a relish that has an intriguing flavor that jumps off the taste buds and causes me to fight back the urge to just yell out the word YUM. This relish does exactly that. The apple cider vinegar in combination with the garlic and onion creates a taste bud experience that is so amazing that it can only be described as a sour sweet experience that is more pleasing than candy that doesn't leave you feeling like you are going into sugar overload. It screams summer and is a light relish that will not weigh you down in the summer heat.

The tomatoes should be as fresh off the vine as possible. Since it is tomato season, I made this lovely relish with one of our first tomatoes off the vine in the garden. You will want to choose a type of tomato that is juicy for the best experience with this recipe. A drier tomato will work but you will not experience as much of the tomato flavor and juice texture. So when dicing your tomato, be sure to cut it over the dish so all of the juice will fall into the mixture.

Fresh tomatoes out of last year's garden.

It is quick and easy to make. The second longest part of making this is dicing the tomato and onion. The longest part is allowing it to marinate in the fridge long enough for the flavors to meld and create the pure and utter heavenly flavor. Just the scent of this lovely relish will tempt you while you are putting it together but you have to be patient.

The amounts I am listing are enough for 2 people, depending on how it is served. Be forewarned though, it's good stuff so you may very well run out quickly! 

Ingredients for the Tomato Relish

• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons freshly chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon or 5 leaves of fresh basil
• fresh ground pepper, to your taste
• salt (sea salt) to your taste
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons of olive oil

How to Put it Together

1. Dice the tomatoes and onions into large squares. Chop the basil if you have chosen to use fresh (and it is much better if you do) and chop the garlic into small pieces.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. It is easier to use a bowl that has a lid. If your bowl doesn't have a lid, make sure you have plastic wrap to close the top off once you are finished mixing the relish.
3. After you have mixed all of the ingredients in the bowl, either cover with plastic wrap or put the lid on the bow. Put the relish in the fridge for at least 3 hours to allow all of the flavors to meld together. Longer is better and overnight is ideal. Yes, it will be difficult to wait that long but the wait is worth it.
4. Serve this with a hard crusty bread, crackers or top your favorite mixture of leafy greens for an unbelievable salad. It's a versatile relish that can be used for so many things so be sure to try it in as many different ways that your imagination can come up with.

There is seriously too much yummy there.  :)