Grilled Chicken Curry Risotto

Sometimes I come up with things in my head that are amazing. And other times I think... "why would I even think of putting those ingredients together"?  I was a little skeptical of this dish because normally when I mix Italian and Thai foods, it's a disaster.  This however, was not a disaster.  I'm always amazed when I think, "wow, I'd totally make this again... in fact... I WANT to make this again!"  That's what I thought for this meal.  It's delicious and it actually works together! I can't wait to make this again.  Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Curry Risotto

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Chicken:

1 1lb package or chicken tenders or 4 chicken breasts
poultry seasoning
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp red curry paste
1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Risotto:

1 cup arborio rice

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbsp red curry paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, sliced into matchsticks

1 cup chopped broccoli

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
For the Chicken:
In a glass container, mix the coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce and seasoning.  Add the chicken and coat.  Let sit in marinade for an hour. Remove from marinade and grill until chicken is completely cooked. 

For the Risotto:

In a medium sized sauce pot, bring veggie or chicken stock to a boil, then turn down to a simmer to keep warm.

In a large saucepan, heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat and add garlic and curry paste.  Stir and cook about 2 minutes.  Add the rice and stir to coat with oil.  Saute until it turns a golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add white wine and stir.  Add coconut milk and stir until absorbed  Add 1/2 cup of the broth and stir continuously until it absorbs.  Repeat this step until the rice is plump, but still has a bite.  You don't want it to be mush. 

Meanwhile, heat the grill to a medium heat.  Place the veggies in a grill pan and grill until soft. 

Mix the veggies into the risotto and add salt and pepper to taste.  Plate risotto and serve chicken over the top. 

Autumn Turkey Burgers

I'm new at this burger making thing.  I never made them before we got our grill.  I feel like I want to make them at least once a week now.  There are so many different delicious things you can add to a burger to make them even more delicious.  The past few times I made burgers, they had about 30 ingredients in them.  They all turned out okay, but these... these burgers were amazing... and totally blog worthy.  We had a friend over when I made them (which is strange because I don't normally make new things for company... ha) and afterwards he told me that I needed to open up a restaurant.  That's always awesome to hear. 

Anyway, once again... I create a fall version of something amazing already.  The turkey burger.  These were probably in my top 3 burgers I've ever had... I'm not a huge burger eater anymore, but I've been to some awesome places for burgers.  The top place for a burger is in Jerome, AZ.  Uh... I always called it Ghost Burger, but I just Googled it and apparently it's called the Haunted Hamburger... anyway, whatever it's called, it's awesome.  The views, the city, the burger... it's a pretty unique experience.  

Back to my burger.  It's delicious and very easy to make.  Goes very well with sweet potato fries too! Enjoy!

Autumn Turkey Burgers

Serves: 4-6 (6 small patties, 4 larger patties)

Ingredients:

Burgers: 

1 1/4 lb ground turkey breast

1/2 cup chunky apple sauce (I didn't have apple sauce so I just cut an apple into chunks and boiled it in about an inch of water for 30 minutes until soft and mashed it)

1 tsp poultry seasoning or whatever you have

1/2 cup cooked wild rice

2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

hamburger buns (we used ciabatta rolls)

Toppings such as lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion

Maple Dijon Mustard:

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients except turkey, buns and toppings.  Mix well and add the turkey.  Mix to incorporate, but do not over mix.  Form into patties and grill on a hot oiled grill for about 5-6 minutes per side.  

Serve on buns with a dollop of Maple Dijon Mustard and favorite toppings. 

*adapted from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/apple-maple-turkey-burgers-with-maple-dijon-sauce-recipe/index.html

Pumpkin Oreo Truffles

Tis the season, where I add pumpkin or apple to literally everything I make. I love it!

These truffles (normally called balls, but I'm trying to be all professional here) are heroic.  My normal Oreo Truffles are raved about wherever I take them.  I went to a picnic this summer and brought a double batch (that's over 100 truffles) and they were literally gone in less than 5 minutes.  Not joking at all. They are amazing and if you need to make friends, make these. 

Anyway, I wanted to fall up my Oreo Truffles and I thought, why not make them pumpkiny?  So I used the Golden Oreos and added pumpkin and spices.  These seriously taste like fall exploded into your mouth.  They are pretty amazing and a nice little snack to take to your autumn pot lucks.  I feel like they have gotten better since sitting in the fridge for a day.  The spices have really come alive and you can really taste the pumpkin.  I'm excited to share these... but for now, the whole batch sits in my fridge all for me!  Oh yay! Enjoy!

Fall Oreo Truffles
Serves: 25 (if you limit yourself to 2... which you won't)

Ingredients:
1 package of Golden Oreos
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon, plus more for sprinkeling
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
6 squares of white chocolate candy coating

Directions:
In a good blender, blend up the Oreos until fine. Do not over blend, mine took about 5 seconds. 

In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and pumpkin.  Add spices and stir.  Stir in the cookie crumbles and mix until the dough can form a ball.  Place in a sealed container and freeze for an hour up to overnight.

Roll the mixture into balls.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 second increments. Dip the balls into the chocolate and place on parchment paper to harden.  Sprinkle with cinnamon before completely hardened.  Enjoy!  Store leftovers in fridge. 

Gluten Free Pumpkin Dump Cake

When I was little, Dump Cakes always made me giggle.  To be honest, they still do.

My mom made a dump cake when she was pregnant with me and went to deliver it to the new neighbors.  She tripped over a cord in the garage and dumped the dump cake all over the driveway.  That's how I thought the name was invented.  I really thought I was part of the beginning of dump cakes.

It's finally cooler in the evenings now and I've been in the mood for fall weather and food since June.  I love fall so much.  It's cool and delicious.  And all of the October beers come out and they are amazing as well.  

I decided to start my fall cooking adventures out with this pumpkin dump cake.  Made it gluten free too by using a gluten free cake mix.  I used Hodgson Mill which, unless you Dr. it up, tastes like corn bread.  You can use your favorite gluten or gluten free cake mix though.  If you go with Hodgson Mill add some sugar and vanilla to the recipe to make it sweeter. Or add sweetened coconut milk.  The recipe is pretty sweet though so you might be good.  

This was delicious.  A perfect start to fall!  Not too pumpkiny, and you couldn't even really tell it was from a can.  My dump cake was really runny (sorry, I still think dump cakes are humorous) because I replaced the eggs with apple sauce... at least that's why I think it was so runny.  But runny or not, the taste is super good! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Dump Cake
Serves: 10-12

Ingredients:
1 15oz can organic pumpkin (or you can use 1 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin)
1 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 eggs, beaten (I used 1 3/4 cup of applesauce mixed with 2 tsp of baking powder as egg replacement... apples are fall too so it just added to the awesomeness)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 box gluten free yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter, melted (I used 1 stick and 1/2 cup coconut oil)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350

Spray a 9x13 baking pan lightly with cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, coconut milk, sugar, syrup, eggs or applesauce mix, and spices.  Stir to combine.

Sprinkle the entire box of cake mix on top, followed by the chopped pecans.  Pour the melted butter evenly on top. 

Bake 45-50 minutes until center is set and edges are lightly browned. 

Grilled Ratatouille Risotto

It's September... What???? It's September? Uh... my last post was in July... where did August go?

I'll sum up my month of August in 5 words and that'll probably explain why I haven't posted in so long. 

Job * House * Puppy * Vacation * Grill

Yep, we like a challenge.  I got a nice job, we bought a house, got a little puppy Lucy, took a "Vacation" to Minnesota and bought a grill.  I know, a grill probably isn't significant to most of you, but it is to us. We've been grilling every meal since we bought the thing and LOVE it! Not as much as our new puppy though.  Let's talk about her...

 Here is Lucy.  She also goes by Goose, Megusta and Gustavo

 Here is Lucy eating her bone. She's a foodie like her mom and only goes for the best.

 Here is Lucy playing in the garden.  She prefers cherry tomatoes. 


She is the love of our lives.  And time consuming... very time consuming, which is the biggest reason for my lack of posting in the last month.  Pretty unfortunate because we've had some awesome postworthy meals.   Like this one... I was going through our fridge and really wanted ratatouille since it's fall (90 degrees out, but still fall).  Since we grill everything these days, I was going to create grilled ratatouille and since Nick always complains that ratatouille isn't filling enough for a meal, I wanted to add a starch and voila... we got grilled ratatouille risotto.  Um it's pretty much the most amazing thing ever and with grilled focaccia... awesome!!!  This would be an awesome thing to grill on a nice cool fall evening... with a nice glass of Cabernet. YUM!  I would definitely put this in the top 5 most awesomest meals I've created category.  Hope you enjoy!

Grilled Ratatouille Risotto

Ingredients:

For the Risotto:

1 shallot, thinly chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine + more for drinking (I actually used red this time, a cab)

4 cups of vegetable broth (here is the homemade recipe)

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil or grapeseed oil

*This is the base to all of my risottos

For the grill:

1 eggplant, chopped into about 2 inch squares

1 zucchini, chopped

1 yellow squash, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

10 basil leaves, roughly chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 pieces of foccacia bread, optional but very delicious

Directions:

Preheat grill to about 400. 

In a medium sized sauce pot, bring veggie broth to a boil, then turn down to a simmer to keep warm.

In a large saucepan, heat a drizzle of oil over medium high heat and add shallot and garlic.  Stir and cook about 2 minutes.  Add the rice and stir to coat with oil.  Saute until it turns a golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add white wine and stir.  Add 1/2 cup of the broth and stir continuously until it soaks in.  Repeat this step until the rice is plump, but still has a bite.  You don't want it to be mush.  After the broth is all soaked up, add the pad of butter and Parmesan cheese and stir until cheese is melty. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Meanwhile... In a large mixing bowl, add grilling veggies except for the tomatoes, the basil, the balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Give everything a quick toss and transfer to a grilling basket.  If you don't have a grilling basket, get one. They are awesome!  You could probably use foil, but you should probably just buy a grilling basket, they are like 10 bucks. 

Transfer grilling basket to the preheated grill and close the lid.  It should take about 15 minutes for everything to be nice and smokey.  Toss every few minutes to make sure everything is evenly cooked/charred. However you like it.  Towards the end, add the tomatoes and cook for another few minutes.  You can toss a piece of bread on the grates for a couple of minutes too to get nice and toasty.  

Enjoy and tell your friends!!