I am always looking for new ways to invent the wheel . What I mean by that is even though I have at least 4 great blueberry crisp and cobblers in my repertoire I am always looking for the next best thing in terms of a recipe. Maybe this one will be the one that’s the best one — sort of a FOMO feeling. In any event this is the crisp I made the other night and it was totally delicious and it will go into the rotation and because it has no white sugar it attracted my eye. It does have plenty of brown sugar though and it’s totally delicious and the Ben and Jerry’s vanilla ice cream didn’t hurt any either. Go out and snag some of those delicious ripe blueberries in the market now.  Somehow it’s just not the same when they are frozen.

It’s as easy as can be and makes for a very yummy dessert after a savory dinner.

*you can freeze this if you’d like to take advantage of the ripe blueberries. Just fully defrost before cooking.

*leftovers were even better than the first night!

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons Corn Starch, divided 2 for dish and 2 for berries

2 Tablespoons brown sugar plus 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound fresh blueberries

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3 Tablespoons chopped nuts–I used chopped pecans but you can use walnuts too or omit the nuts all together

2 Tablespoons Cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

Coat an 8″ square glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray –I used Bakers Aid — I like it for baking. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons cornstarch evenly into the bottom of the dish.

Combine remaining 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 2 Tbsp. Brown sugar, vanilla and blueberries in a large bowl toss and place in prepared baking dish.

Combine flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed) 1/4 cup rolled old-fashioned oats, nuts, cornmeal, salt  and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor, pulse twice to combine. Add cold butter pieces and pulse about 5 times or until the mixture resembles a coarse meal like substance and everything is mixed together.  Spoon topping over blueberries, packing down lightly. Bake at 375 degrees or until filling is bubbly and topping is a golden brown.

Serve warm with frozen yogurt or ice cream.

We have been on a roll of eating out lately and as wonderful as all the food is we just wanted a night home with no take-out and some home-cooked food.  I decided to try this recipe and it came out perfectly. I so seldom use the broiler to cook but it worked out so well I must pass this one on. Sheet Pan cooking has become one of my most favorite ways to cook for so many reasons most obviously the speed in which everything cooks together in one pan!!!! So amazing.

The whole prep , cook and plate was under an hour! Actually way under an hour. Simple ingredients and pretty light in the calorie department. Give this one a try soon — you’ll thank me for it. A most amazing week night treat and a beautiful dinner for friends and family any day of the week. 

This is what I did. You’ll need a large rimmed sheet pan.

Happy Cooking.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic –app. 3 cloves garlic

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 lb. raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined ( remove tails)

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 medium zucchini, cut on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices

1 medium size yellow squash, cut on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices

1 Lemon, cut into quarters

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, divided

1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt – I used almost a teaspoon ( mix well with salt and pepper and give it a taste)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

I used a pouch of Jasmine Rice — you can cook up whatever kind of rice you’d like. I had a pouch in the house and the Jasmine Rice is so delicious not to mention how easy the pouch is. For 2 people 1 pouch for 4 people 2 pouches

Directions:

I sprayed the sheet pan with Pam Cooking Spray.

Preheat the oven on the broiler setting with oven rack at least 6 inches from the heat.

Stir together the olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of fresh thyme in a small bowl. Place Shrimp and Tomatoes in 2 separate bowls. Combine zucchini and yellow squash in a third bowl. Toss each with one-third of the oil mixture.

Heat a rimmed baking sheet in the oven for 2 minutes. Add zucchini, squash and lemon quarters (flesh side up) to hot baking sheet and bake until squash begins to soften, about 5 more minutes. Add the tomatoes after the initial 5 minutes and bake for another 5 minutes until tomatoes begin to burst. Stir in Shrimp and bake until shrimp are cooked through and zucchini is tender and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Squeeze juice from the roasted lemon over veggies and stir to combine.

Cook rice according to package directions. Divide rice, shrimp and veggies among your plates. Top evenly with remaining thyme if you wish. Yummy!!!!

By now you all know how very much I love Sheet Pan Meals. It makes for delicious dinners and easy clean-up and that’s always a win win for me. This was very easy to assemble and cooks in under an hour. Oven to Table in under an hour is my kind of meal. Of course you can substitute other veggies if you don’t like peppers. I finally got Joel to eat cooked peppers and onions and I try to use them as often as possible. It’s amazing to me that it took him this long to start to enjoy vegetables but I couldn’t be happier. He also eats Brussel Sprouts as well! I think Brussels would be good here as well as Broccoli ( but he won’t eat Broccoli) . I served over Brown Rice and it was just perfect. I used 1 Tablespoon of Sriracha which gives it a little hint of spicy.  I wouldn’t omit it because all the flavor of this recipe is in the honey/chili combo. You can put a little less Sriracha if you like.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

6 smallish chicken thighs–bone in , skin on

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 red bell pepper, cut up into medium sized pieces — see photo

1 yellow bell pepper, cut up as above

1 green bell pepper, cut up as above

1 red onion, cut up as shown in photos, medium sized pieces

Sauce:

1/4 cup Honey

1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Sriracha or any hot chili sauce you like

Juice of 1 lemon

5 cloves of garlic –minced

Pinch of Kosher Salt

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Spray a large sheet pan with non-stick spray

In a bowl , whisk the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place 1/3 of the sauce in a gallon size plastic bag  and add the chicken. Squish around the sauce till it’s all over the chicken and place in fridge for about 30 minutes or longer.

Cut up the veggies and place in a bowl. Pour 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil over the vegetables.  It’s a little oil for a lot of vegetables but it works. You’ll be using the sauce on the veggies.

After 30 minutes–transfer the chicken to the sheet pan and roast just the chicken for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes remove the chicken from the oven and arrange veggies around the chicken (see photo). Drizzle the remainder of the sauce over the vegetables and the chicken. Mix with a spoon.

Return to oven and bake for about another 15 minutes, my chicken was done at this point because I had smallish thighs . I removed the chicken placed on a plate and covered with aluminum foil. I continued cooking the veggies for another 10 minutes because I like them cooked well. When veggies were done to my liking I removed from the oven and added chicken to hot baking sheet and mixed veggies up with a spoon over the chicken. I served over rice, quinoa or anything you’d like.

*You will have to experiment with cooking times for veggies and chicken depending on the size of your chicken thighs and your oven.

It’s hard to believe that it’s that time of the year again!  Today is the first day of spring and I am ready to post my Passover Recipes once again. Passover and Easter fall out over the very same weekend this year and I am sure most of you are starting to think about what you’re going to make . I will direct you to my Passover recipes that shouldn’t be missed. If anyone has any thing that they feel I must add to my repertoire I would love to see it. Please email me and let me see it– I am always on the lookout for new recipes especially for the Holidays. I have a few new recipes that I tried out last year that will be coming out on the blog in another few days. Stay tuned for them. I will also be posting some of these delightful recipes in the next 2 weeks.

Chocolate Bark Surprise

Cathy’s Popovers for Passover

My family always loves to see the same old recipes on the table and honestly so do I. The dishes bring a sense of family, nostalgia and tradition .  It brings memories of my Mother and Grandmother cooking in the kitchen and of all of us eating together at the Seders.

Make some memories of your own and keep Cooking with Candi. Enjoy and Happy Passover and Happy Easter to all of you.

These are my standard hits and just put the name in the search bar or hit Passover Recipes or google the name of the recipe and cooking with candi.

Enjoy!

Let’s start at the beginning:

1. Homemade Chicken Soup with Not so Homemade Matzo Balls
2. Passover Popovers
3. Traditional Ashkenazi Charoset
4. Chicken Marbella
5. Bree’s Slow Cooked Skirt Steaks
6. Slow Cooked Brisket
7. Happy New Year Brisket–perfect for any holiday any time
8. Old School Meatballs ( sweet and sour)
9. Un-stuffed Cabbage–probably one of my all time favs in place of sweet and sour meatballs
10. Apricot Honey-Mustard Chicken
11. Honey Roasted Chicken
12. Peach Farfel–a must!
13. Karyn’s Cranberry Apple Crisp for Passover– a must have for every table you can even serve it as dessert
14. Chocolate Bark Surprise
15. Grandma Regina’s Farfel for Passover–my Grandmother lives on in this recipe and it is always on our Seder Table– a little difficult but totally delicious if you get it right!
16. Judy’s Apple Matzoh Kugel for Passover
17. Spinach Souffle for Passover– so very easy –Vegetarian/Dairy side dish
18. Passover Cobbler
19. My Favorite Macaroons–Traditional Style for Passover
20. Julie’s Brownies for Passover
21. Marcy’s Matzo Crunch Candy — most amazing dessert!