Author Archives: cookingwithcandi

Palisades Peach Muffins

Posted on August 17, 2013 | 3 comments

All these amazing fresh peaches from Palisades, Colorado and I am going to use them in something yummy , comforting and delicious. Part of life out here in Colorado is all the time outdoors with lots of biking and hiking. I don’t worry so much about all the calories and I have to say  with all the exercise I do out here I do indulge a wee bit more than I normally would. These muffins aren’t cloyingly sweet although I did sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top, which do add a bit of sweetness but not too much. The muffins themselves are really moist due to the buttermilk, and by all means you can use regular milk. I had low-fat buttermilk in the house and wanted to use it. These muffins would also be just delicious with blackberries, raspberries or blueberries. Who could resist these peaches though . It’s peach time for sure.

This recipe as is made 16 rather large muffins and all you need is a large bowl and a muffin tin. I didn’t use my electric mixer , this one you can do by hand.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour , I like King Arthur unbleached .  I love their products.

1 teaspoon salt (regular table salt)

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups dark brown sugar packed lightly

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs ( room temperature please)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups buttermilk,  I used low-fat buttermilk but feel free to use regular milk

4 nice size peaches ( use organic because we are keeping the skin on) if you’re using berries you will need about 3 cups. Dice the peaches into small pieces but not too too small.

Granulated sugar for sprinkling on top, I used raw turbinado sugar . You can use either.photo (2) photo (3) photo (4) photo (5) photo (6)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar , allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Then fold in the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon gently. I use muffin cups and spray the whole muffin tin with cups. I really heaped the batter into the cups, they were very full. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar or just regular granulated sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, I would check on them after 25 minutes. I cooked for a full 1/2 hour.

Enjoy!

3 Comments

Posted in Baked Goods, breakfast, Breakfast Food, dessert, fruit, muffins

Tagged , ,

Corn and Tomato Soup – no cream

Posted on August 15, 2013 | 4 comments

DSCN0358DSCN0382DSCN0381The corn is so delicious right now that I had to make this soup. I was going to save this recipe for the Fall but I used the fresh Olathe corn at the market now and couldn’t wait to share. When the corn is not as fresh and sweet you can definitely use frozen . I used fresh tomatoes from the farmers market and fresh Olathe corn ( local in Colorado) but I happen to know Long Island has particularly good sweet local corn. So while the getting is good and you can get fresh vegetables please do so. Farm to Table here we go again.

I made this soup for dinner as an appetizer. I think it would be good cold but I prefer it warm.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 shallots , coarsely chopped or 1 large one

1 teaspoon kosher salt ( more to taste)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper ( more to taste)

3 1/4 cups corn, or 1 lb. bag of frozen corn thawed it’s approximately 5 – 6 ears of fresh corn

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian

2 beautiful medium size tomatoes, seeded and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces*

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn

Directions:

In a large dutch oven ( Le Creuset) type of pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, salt and pepper, cook stirring occasionally until shallots are soft, app. 5 minutes. While this is going on cook up the corn as follows.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and just cook corn till it turns yellow for 1-2 minutes, then I throw into an ice bath to stop the cooking. When corn is cooled down cut kernels off cobs.

Place the cooked shallots, corn and chicken stock into the blender.

Pour the corn mixture back into the pot. Bring the mixture to a low simmer , cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, just to heat through.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the tomatoes and basil, let it cook for another 10 minutes or so.  Taste for Salt and Pepper.

Ladle into soup bowls and serve!

*to seed the tomatoes, cut them in 1/2 horizontally and using a small dessert spoon, scoop out the seed and discard. The seeds make the soup too watery.

4 Comments

Posted in Healthy Cooking with Candi, Uncategorized, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

Tagged ,

Farmers Market to Table Gazpacho

Posted on August 11, 2013 | 1 comment

photo (9)DSCN0375DSCN0378

Delicious fresh vegetables from the local farmers market went into this gazpacho. This time of year you must take advantage of the awesome selection of fruit and vegetables at your local farmers market. In Colorado there is so much local produce it would be a pity not to . I bought the tomatoes , cucumbers, peppers, garlic and red onion all from our local farmers market. Whole Foods also sells many local products which is so amazing. I don’t want to preach and there are so very many foods that I am particularly fond of that come from very foreign shores ( shrimp for one) . It’s just quite the thing to put food on your table from your own garden or at least from one within 100 miles of where you live. Farm to Table . Simply put it’s the best .

Ingredients:

1 cucumber or 2 – 3 Kirby size cukes, halved and seeded , but don’t peel . If not Kirby cukes you can use a hothouse cucumber. Go organic, because you are eating the peel.

2 yellow bell peppers, cored and seeded. Of course you can use red bell peppers, but not green.

4 tomatoes , use what you can find. I went to local farmers market for mine . If you use plum tomatoes use 4.

1 red onion

3 garlic cloves, minced or throw them into the food processor along with vegetables

3 cups Spicy V8 or use regular tomato juice

1/4 cup champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar

1/4 cup good olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

*1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno depending on how spicy you like it, remove seeds from jalapeno

* cilantro, chopped is a nice touch for garnish

*avocado cut up is also nice garnish

*shrimp is also a nice garnish

Directions:

I cut up cukes, tomatoes, bell peppers and red onions into app. 1 inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor with steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not make baby food, don’t over process.

After each vegetable is chopped up combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic ( if you haven’t already) , juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. It’s a good idea to chill for a while, the longer it sits the more the taste develops.

The second night I added shrimp and avocado.

20130809-090155.jpg

20130809-090221.jpg

1 Comment

Posted in Raw, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

Tagged , ,

Summer Tomato Pasta

Posted on August 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

Went for a 5 hour hike yesterday and got hit with hail, mud and cold temps, and did I mention at least 10 claps of thunder? We did get down safe and sound but there was no way I was going food shopping for dinner nor was I heading out the door to dinner. What’s in the kitchen? what’s in the pantry? Beautiful organic tomatoes , pasta , olive oil and garlic. That’s all you need. Honestly after 5 hours of hiking I didn’t really care about the calories. Delicious comfort food is what we needed. Enjoy!

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

photo (2)photo (3)

Actually this pasta shouldn’t only be for the summer b/c you can make it all year, and I do. It just seems to suit the summer best, because it’s so light in it’s taste. It can be made with fresh tomatoes from thegarden, farmstand, supermarket, etc. Oftentimes I use a package of baby plum tomatoes, or the cherry tomatoes; it doesn’t really matter which ones you use. This couldn’t be simpler, and it tastes awesome the next day cold out of the fridge.

INGREDIENTS:

4 CLOVES GARLIC (MINCED)

3/4 CUP OLIVE OIL

1 LB. FRESH TOMATOES, OR A PACKAGE OF BABY PLUM TOMATOES, OR A PACKAGE OF CHERRY TOMATOES IN THE NET BAG WORKS JUST FINE. OBVIOUSLY THE FRESH ONES ARE MOST SWEET AND DELICIOUS IN THE SUMMER.

1 PACKAGE OF THIN SPAGHETTI,WHATEVER YOU PREFER 

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large frying pan. When oil is hot, add garlic and then shut…

View original post 255 more words

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Summer Blueberry Cake

Posted on August 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Re-blog Monday, and what could be better then a wonderful summer blueberry cake made with fresh beautiful blueberries. This cake is amazingly easy and so delicious. This was originally blogged last August and for those of you who weren’t following me yet here you go. Enjoy those delicious blueberries.

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

I just keep finding new recipes for blueberries. I love blueberries and they are so abundant right now and in peak season. I love them right out of the containers, and I love them in muffins, pies, cakes and cobblers. Here is another delicious cake which you can freeze and a few months from now when fresh blueberries aren’t really around ,you will bring back that summer day that you baked this. I cut this in 1/2 , 1/2 for now and 1/2 for when I return in the winter. You can always make this with frozen berries but I have never done so. To me it’s all about cooking with fruits and vegetables that are seasonal.  There really is nothing like fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, and I can’t get enough of them . This is a fairly easy cake to bake. I baked it for 45 minutes, and the…

View original post 417 more words

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Burnt Broccoli

Posted on August 3, 2013 | 5 comments

photo (4)photoWhile I’m on the broccoli rant I just want to say that this is one of my most favorite side dishes ever. I discovered it a long time ago in the Italian Restaurants on Long Island which are very popular for this sort of thing. I am pretty sure this recipe started out quite by accident but it caught on and is super popular back east, we even put it on our pizza! Once we started spending so much time out in Colorado I was missing my native food so just started to make it myself. All you need is some broccoli, salt and pepper, olive and oil, a very hot oven, and yeah a smoke detector that doesn’t keep going off. This is really delicious and sort of fool-proof.

I served it alongside my spatchcocked chicken. Super yummy.

Ingredients:

Broccoli ( at least 1 head for 4 people)

Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Olive Oil – you’ll want to start out with app. 2 tablespoons of olive oil, I like to use my hands and make sure that the broccoli is covered enough. If not enough oil it will just dry out and burn out. On the other hand don’t let it swim in oil.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

I spray a cookie sheet with Pam cooking spray, cut up broccoli into smallish pieces ( see photo) cut off any very thick ends. Pour some olive oil* over the broccoli and with clean hands get oil over the broccoli, sprinkle well with salt and pepper.  Put tray in oven for at least 40 minutes, then turn oven up to 500 and keep broccoli in for another 10 minutes. Everyone likes varying degrees of burnt broccoli , if you’ve never had it you’ll have to figure it out for yourself. This is very yummy.

*Don’t overdo the olive oil, just make sure that there is oil all over the broccoli, not swimming in it. That being said, you’ll need enough to crisp it up and for flavor, so don’t skimp on it either.photo (10)

5 Comments

Posted in vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

Tagged

Vicki’s Rockin’ Raw Broccoli Salad

Posted on August 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

photo (8)photo (12) photo (13) photo (11)

Hummingbirds swarming feeders

Hummingbirds swarming feeders

finished product with nuts and avocado

finished product with nuts and avocado

I am always so happy when a reader submits a recipe to me . If the recipe appeals to me  I will try and  make the recipes as soon as I can from when I receive them which isn’t always easy. I did make this one and lost some of my photos on my camera. and had to make it again and re-do the photos which ended up OK because this is such a delicious healthy salad choice I was happy to eat it again.  This one comes from Vicki and I want to thank her so very much for this delicious raw salad. Super healthy and tasty. While it might not be for everyone ( Joel ) I really enjoyed it. This was how I did it. And again thanks Vicki and keep Cooking with Candi. This also couldn’t be any easier,  I put the whole salad together in 15 minutes from start to finish. Now that’s a salad you can get behind.

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli, chopped or thinly sliced ( I used my food processor but you can do by hand and just chop small thin pieces )

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. sherry vinegar

1 heaping tbsp. stone ground mustard

1 scooped out avocado , cut into chunks

1 handful chopped raw almonds ( Vicki leaves her almonds whole and just throws them into salad, whichever you prefer)

Directions:

I used about 3/4 of a head of broccoli this particular head of broccoli seemed super huge, I think ordinarily you would use 1 whole head .  I chopped it in my food processor. In a separate bowl I whisked together the oil, vinegar and mustard. Pour the dressing over the broccoli, and right before serving add the chunks of avocado and chopped nuts , mix and serve.

*this was very tasty when dressing sat on broccoli and had time to seep in . I would add dressing at least an hour before serving. Then right before serving add avocado . If time allows, if not it was just fine.

Leave a comment

Posted in Raw, Salad, salad dressing, vegan, vegetables

Tagged , ,

Orzo with Lemon Shrimp and Spinach

Posted on July 31, 2013 | 4 comments

photoDSCN0367DSCN0363DSCN0372DSCN0384DSCN0390By now you all know how very much we love shrimp. It comes in handy to have an ex-shrimp monger on hand to clean and devein my shrimp. I love cooking it but not so much cleaning and deveining it. Joel not only obtains the best shrimp around but he really does do a great job of cleaning and deveining. ( I think it’s in his DNA) In any event we make a pretty good team when it comes to shrimp dishes.
So now on to this delicious dish. I didn’t feel like grilling and this dish was calling out to me. I saw Giada de Laurentiis make a shrimp scampi on her show and she made it with arugula , it looked so awesome and light I figured I’d do it my way and make it with spinach even though I knew Joel wouldn’t eat the spinach. Our friend Drew was over and he loves spinach so we ate Joel’s spinach, once again it’s his loss. This dish was pretty easy to pull together once shrimp was prepped. Not a whole lot of ingredients, and whole thing took about 1/2 hour.  This dish was very light in flavor and a perfect summer night meal, doesn’t have to be served super hot , can be room temperature. Thanks again to Giada for the wonderfully inspiring recipe.

*once the shrimp is prepared this dish is a snap. Have your fish store clean and de-vein your shrimp for you.

Ingredients:

Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup olive oil

zest of 2 large lemons ( try to use organic if you’re zesting and eating the peel) and scrub those lemons well

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice ( from the 2 large lemons you just zested)

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest and lemon juice, salt and pepper until smooth and set aside.

Ingredients:

1 lb. orzo

1 lb. shrimp , I used large under 10’s, peeled and deveined  ( you can have fish monger do this )

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 large shallot , chopped

app. 1 more teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup dry white wine ,  ( I used what I had on hand)

6 ounces of spinach , I used baby spinach, use whatever greens you like. Giada used arugula .

Directions:

Cook orzo according to directions. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.

Place shrimp in a bowl and sprinkle with kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper . Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped shallots and cook until soft for a few minutes. Add the shrimp, cook shrimp until they turn pink and are just cooked through depending on the size of your shrimp. When shrimp is cooked through remove the shrimp from the skillet. Increase the heat to high and add the 1/2 cup of wine, allow to boil up and scrape up all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, cook for another minute or so until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Then add orzo to the pan along with the vinaigrette and the spinach and let it wilt down.  I added most of the reserved pasta water , you’ll use as much or as little as you need, I used whole cup of reserved pasta water. Add the shrimp back in and toss well until all the ingredients are well coated. Serve up and enjoy.

4 Comments

Posted in pasta, seafood, shrimp

Tagged , , ,

Cold Asparagus Soup

Posted on July 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here is my re-blog Monday . The asparagus is still beautiful and plentiful and what a delicious way to enjoy it. I love cold soups , and this one tastes just as good warmed up. Go for it, step out of the box just a little bit. This is a wonderful lunch soup and a lovely beginning to any meal. A nice piece of crusty bread and a beautiful cheese wouldn’t hurt any either. Enjoy! and enjoy this beautiful summer .

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

I am still super obsessed with local beautiful sweet asparagus. I found Long Island asparagus today and bought a bunch of it. Joel is away for a few so no problem making it and having to think of something else to make for him. I am planning on enjoying this soup in the fridge for a few days. Super easy, I saw Mark Bittman (love) on the Today show a few weeks ago and saved the recipe for local asparagus. Am psyched and this recipe is super healthy , low-fat and super super easy to make. It literally took no time at all. The cooling down takes some time but I don’t see the harm in eating it before it really chills out do you? Hope you’ll check out some local produce and get the asparagus while the getting is good. I mean you can make this all year round, but its super delish now. I actually ate it…

View original post 282 more words

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

OMG Apricot Bars

Posted on July 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

I was with a friend last night who told me how very much she loves these bars and that they were one of her favorite recipes on my blog. I have never re-blogged this recipe and these bars are nothing short of A-Mazing. Original post was August 2011. Oh yeah , these are the real deal so enjoy them!

cookingwithcandi's avatarCooking with Candi

These bars are nothing short of a-mazing! They are the most perfect, delicious treats–great to take on a hike, great for after a ride on your bike…ok, enough Dr. Seuss. Just go ahead and bake them–it is not difficult. I woke up early this morning and decided to bake them and one hour later, they were finished and out of the oven. They remind me of a yummy, soft granola bar. If you don’t like apricots, substitute cherries and cherry preserves, blueberries and blueberry preserves, etc. (I’m not sure if I would use fresh blueberries. Just stick with the dry version of the fruit and the matching preserves.) Thanks to Giada for the inspiration on this one!

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

1 large jar of apricot preserves (I used an 18 oz jar of apricot/pineapple preserves because that’s what I had in the house. You can use a 13 oz jar of…

View original post 293 more words

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized