Mussels Oreganata

We had guests for dinner last night, our neighbors Scott and Christine came over for a visit and dinner. Casting about for an appetiser, my husband suggested I make Mussels Oreganatta, a dish we first had at a local restaurant. Gerry, the chef there was testing appetiser recipes, and being such a foodie he said he knew he could count on us for some feedback. They were delicious!

We started with the Mussels Oreganata, and served grilled streaks, risotto and salad. For dessert we had fresh strawberries over angelfood cake with whipped cream. It was really good.

Mussels Oreganata

1 package mussels - probably about a lb

4 Tb Olive oil, divided

2 Tb Garlic, minced

1/2 Dry white wine

1/2 C Dry breadcrumbs

2 Tb Butter

2 Tsp fresh oregano, or 1/2 tsp dried

1/3 C Parmesan cheese, grated

In a medium skillet over medium heat, warm 2 Tb or olive oil and add garlic. Cook briefly then add the wine and bring to a simmer. Add the mussels, discarding any open ones which do not close when pressed. Steam until the mussels just open then spoon them out of the pan and set aside to cool, reserving the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, toast the breadcrumbs in the butter and the oil, and add the oregano and cheese. Add enough reserved mussel cooking liquid to form a moist but still crumbly mixture.

When mussels are cool enough to handle, open them all the way, removing and reserving half the shell and loosen the mussel in the remaining shell so it is disconnected. Top the shells with the mussels with a spoonful of the breadcrumb mixture pressing to form a mound. Place mussels in a shallow, rimmed pan or baking dish.

If you are making these ahead, they may be refrigerated at this point.

Preheat a broiler (or a toaster oven) and toast the mussels until heated through and golden brown and serve immediately.

Julie Languille - busy wife and mom, owner

Dinners In A Flash - Easy Dinner Recipes and Online Dinner Planning

Easy Recipe for Cream of Any Vegetable Soup

I love universal recipes that work in a variety of seasons with a variety of ingredients. If you learn 10 recipes by heart that can each be made 10 different ways, that is 100 recipes. Adapt them to the season and the ingredients will be the best and your soup will be amazing!

Cream of Any Vegetable Soup

Serves 4 - 6

1 Onion, chopped

2 Leeks, white part only, washed and chopped

2 Tb Butter

2 Tb Flour

3 C Milk

3 C Vegetables (your choice) - onions, asparagus (save the tips to garnish), cauliflower, etc.

1/2 C Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the onion and leeks in butter until softened. Add the flour and cook over medium heat for a minute. Add milk and the vegetables and simmer until vegetables until tender, 5 - 20 minutes. Stir in cream and bring back to a simmer. Transfer to a blender and puree. Season to taste and serve.If it is too thick, thin with a bit of milk or water. If to chunky for your taste, you can press it through a strainer.

Julie Languille - Busy wife and mom and owner

Dinners In a Flash (dot com) - Easy Dinner Recipes and Dinner Planning

Note: An emersion blender works really well here.

Convenient Conversions for Easy Recipes

Have you ever happened across a recipe from a cookbook from the UK you were dying to make, but the measurements were Metric? Well here is a conversion chart. It also decodes the gas marks for ovens.

Liquid Measures

Volume             Metric

1/4 tsp             1.25 ml

1/2 tsp             2.5 ml

1 tsp                 5 ml

1/2 TB              7.5 ml

1 TB                  15 ml

1/4 C                60 ml

1/3 C                75 ml

1/2 C               125 ml

2/3 C               150 ml

3/4 C               175 ml

1 C                   250 ml

1 1/4 C            300 ml

1 1/2 C            350 ml

1 pint               500 ml

Solids

Flour  1 C = 160 g

Sugar  1 C = 200 g

Brown Sugar 1 C = 175 g

Powdered Sugar 1 C = 130 g

Butter 1 TB = 15 g, 1 stick = 115 g

Gas Marks

1/2 - 1 = 250 - 275 degrees Fahrenheit

2 = 300 degrees Fahrenheit

3 = 325 degrees Fahrenheit

4 = 350 degrees Fahrenheit

5-6 = 375-400 degrees Fahrenheit

7 = 400 degrees Fahrenheit

8-9 = 450-475 degreed Fahrenheit

Julie Languille - busy wife and mom, owner of

Dinners In A Flash dot com - Easy Dinner Recipes and Online Dinner Planning

Easy Recipe - Crab Cakes with Lemon Aioli

Crab cakes make a simple, fast and easy yet elegant dinner. Serve them over lightly dressed greens. The succulence of the crab is simply delicious and very satifying. This recipe is not one of those that is overwhelmed with too many binding ingredients. The crab is really the star and the simple dipping sauce lets the crab flavor shine through. Make extra and pop some in your freezer. When you’re ready to cook them, they go straight into the saute pan without needing to thaw them.

Crab Cakes with Lemon Aioli

1 lb Lump crab, picked over and squeeze dry of excess water
1/2 C Bread crumbs
1/2 C Mayonnaise
2 Green onions, sliced
2 Tb  Butter
2  Tb Olive oil
1/2 C  Mayonnaise
1 Tb Lemon juice
2 Tsp Grainy mustard

Combine crab meat and other ingredients gently. Separate into 8 patties pressing them firmly to hold together. May be frozen at this point or sautéed in butter and olive oil until lightly browned on both sides and heated through.

Whisk together mayonnaise, lemon juice and mustard to serve with cakes as a dipping sauce.

Julie Languille, busy wife and mom and owner

Dinners In A Flash dot com - Easy Dinner Recipes and Online Dinner Planning

Unexpected Asparagus

Have you ever eaten asparagus raw? If you can’t imagine crunching down on a stalk, imaging tasting in sliced crosswise into cross section about the size of a pea. They are surprisingly sweet, and delightfully crunchy. I tossed them in with my salad tonight and they were wonderful.

Easy Unexpected Asparagus Salad

1/2 bundle Aspagus, pencil thin

3 cups Lettuce

1/2 C Pecans, toasted

1/2 C Grapes, halved if large

2 tsp Stone ground mustard

3 Tb Olive oil

1 Tb Lemon juice (if fresh or vinegar)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

Cut away two to four inches of the asparagus stems depending on how fresh they are and cut them crosswise in quarter inch slices. Combine vegetables and toss to combine. Whisk together mustard, lemon, salt and pepper and then drizzle in the oil whisking briskly to emulsify. Toss with the salad and serve.

Easy Recipe for Crepes

Yum. Thin, delicious crepes, hot out of the pan and filled with delicious toppings. We made these fresh for breakfast this morning and they were delicious. Crepes are also a great easy dinner recipe filled with savory fillings like sauted spinach, mushrooms and cheeses.

For breakfast we topped them with powdered sugar, lemon juice, butter and jam.Also try them with peanut butter, brown sugar, and/or nutella. Beyond delicious!

Here’s the easy recipe:

Crepes

2 eggs

1/2 C Milk

1/2 C Water

1/4 tsp Salt

2 Tb Sugar

1 C Flour

2 Tb melted mutter, plus more for oiling the pan.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, water, sugar and salt. Stir in the flour and whisk until smooth., then add the melted butter. Heat an 8 or 10 inch skillet over high heat, add butter and swirl to caot the pan. Add about 1/3 cup of batter, let set for a moment, then swirl to coat the pan, tilting the pan so the batter spreads. Cook until set on one side then flip over. Cook for a brief minute more, then flip out onto a plate. Top as you like, roll or fold according to your preference and serve.

Julie Languille, busy wife and mother and owner

Dinners In A Flash Dot Com - Easy Dinner Recipes and Dinner Planning

Easy Recipes for Prosciutto Appetisers

My friend Agustina is finally going to come over this weekend to see my house and try out our new deck. This will be our first time entertaining in our new home and I am excited that they are coming. I was thinking what to serve and thought might do three simple appetisers made with prociutto; Prosciutto with Grissini, Prosciutto Wrapped Melon and Dates with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto. Thy these and let me know what you think. As a fourth choice, you migh consider prosciutto wrapped asparagus.

Prosciutto with Grissini

Grissini are Italian breadsticks. Thin and crispy, the breadsticks really highlight the buttery flavor of the prociutto.

12 Grissini

6 Slices Prosciutto, halved crosswise.

Wrap prosciutto around one end of each breadstick, overlapping to make it stick and leaving the over half of the breadstick exposed to work as a convenient handle. Stack on a platter until serving time.

Prosciutto Wrapped Melon

1/2 Cantloupe, cut into 1 inch cubes

3 oz Prosciutto, sliced paper thin

Wrap melon chunks in prosciutto and chill until serving time.

Dates with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto

12 Medjool dates

3 oz Prosciutto, sliced paper thin and halved crosswise

3 oz Goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pit the dates, slice them open and stuff each with 1 TB goat cheese. Close the dates, wrap it with prosciutto, securing with a toothpick. Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil and bake until heated through and prosciutto is crispy - about 8 minutes.

Julie Languille, busy wife and mom, owner

Dinners In A Flash dot com - Easy Dinners Recipes and Dinner Planning

Easy Recipes - Penne with Vodka Sauce

This recipe is divine and it comes together in a flash.

Penne with Vodka Sauce

1 lb Penne pasta

2 Tb butter

1/4 lb Pancetta, chopped

1/3 C Vodka

1 1/2 C Spaghette sauce

1 1/2 C Cream

1/4 C Parmesan cheese, grated

Start a pot of water to boil for the pasta, salting it gently. When the water boils cook the penne according to package directions, then drain and reserve. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and melt butter. Cook pancetta until crisp, then add vodka and stir to cook off the alcohol. Add spaghetti sauce and cream, and heat gently until heated through. Add to drained pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Julie Languille - busy wife and mom, owner of

Dinners In A Flash dot com - Easy Dinner Recipes and Dinner Planning

Easy Recipe for Cheesy Polenta with Tomato Sauce

This easy recipes uses pantry ingredients and comes together in just minutes. Kids love the flavor, because with a starch base, tomato sauce and cheese, it is similar to pizza. Polenta is readily available at the grocery store all prepared and packaged in tubes. Polenta is a healthy whole grain food, it is gluten free and as is in the tube it has no fat. This recipe can be a main course served with a salad, or a very hearty and flavorful side dish.

Cheesy Polenta with Tomato Sauce

1 Tube prepared polenta - 18 oz

2 Tb Butter

Salt to taste

1 C Spaghetti sauce

1 C Grated cheese - cheddar, mozzarella, or Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the polenta into half inch rounds. Melt butter in a large, oven proof skillet until the foam subsides. Salt the polenta lightly and cook on one side until slightly browned. Flip the polenta slices over and top with spaghetti sauce and grated cheese. Place in the oven and cook until the chees is melted the sauce is bubbly and the polenta is heated through - about 10 minutes. Alternately, you can cover the pan and finish the polenta on the stove.

Julie Languille - Busy wife and mom, and website owner

Dinners In A Flash dot com - Easy Dinner Recipes and Dinner Planning

Easy Recipes for Sauteing

We’re in the process of building a house right now (don’t get me started) and my ovens aren’t wired yet, so I am limited to stovetop cooking which has given me a lot of time to perfect the art of sauteing a protein and creating a pan sauce. Here is some of what I have learned.

Pans

Non-stick pans seem to retard the caramelization. I don’t get as much pan browning, nor do I get those tasty crusty bits in the pan to deglaze and flavor my pan sauce. I love my stainless steel all clad pan. It heats evenly and well, doesn’t stick and I can swirl sauces and toss food in it if I like. It also doubles nicely as an omelet pan. Cast iron is inexpensive, conducts heat really well and evenly, but it is really heavy and unless you are a weightlifter, tossing food or swirling sauces will be really hard, next to impossible.

Saute pans / skillets typically come in two shapes, round being the more popular although I have seen oval which is nice for poaching fish or asparagus. Also, they typically come in two styles of sides, rounded sloping sides, best for tossing food and making omelets, and the more upright, straighter sides. The straight sided pans give you more flat surface area for cooking and work better for swirling sauces.

Size Matters

Of course, it always does. Be sure to choose a pan with plenty of room for the food you intend to cook, to avoid crowding. A crowded pan doesn’t brown food well, and the brown crusty deliciousness is where much of your flavor comes from. It is precious. If you don’t have a pan large enough, cook your food in two or more batches. I slightly undercook my first batches to allow for carry over cooking while it rests. When the first batch is ready, I cover it loosely with foil to keep it warm, but prevent steam from softening my prized and flavorful brown crust.

Fat

The type of fat you use is related to the temperature at which you plan to cook your food, and personal preference.

Butter

I prefer butter, because I love the flavor. The problem with butter is that the milk solids burn at high temperatures leaving unattractive, and bad tasting black specks in the pan and on the food. You can prevent this by clarifying your butter first. You can also buy ghee (Indian style clarified butter) at the grocery store or make your own. To make your own, melt butter until milk fats separate, then pour through coffee filters or paper towels to strain. You can also let the butter brown a bit before straining which imparts amazing flavor and even make it possible to convey more butter flavor while actually using less butter. This is called a beurre noisette in classic French cooking terminology and is basically means brown butter or hazelnut butter, because brown butter imparts a nutter, delicious flavor. Have I mentioned it is my favorite? Well, it still is.

Olive oil

Healthy, good, fast and flavorful olive oil is a great choice especially for Italian or Mediterranean dishes. It is perfect for sweating onions and garlic as the basis of a sauce, but for sauteing, it works well for all but the highest temperature cooking, at which point it may begin to smoke.

Lard

Good news! Lard from healthily raised pigs (as opposed to mass-farmed antibiotic fed pigs) actually contains a large proportion of healthy fats and is actually better for you than that cruddy margarine they tried to pass off on us back when I was a kid. Lard also brings a lot of flavor to the party, and really, cooking is about bringing flavor to the party.

Vegetable / Canola / Peanut Oil

These all work just fine and a neutral in flavor. Yeah, neutral, whoop. Peanut oil is good for deep frying.

Nut oils  - Hazelnut, walnut almond

Taste amazing, but are not for frying. Put them in your salad not in your pan. Drizzle them on finished dishes for a big splash of yum.

Preparing to cook

Choose your pan and your oil and get them heating. Decide whether you will pound your protein to even out its thickness and to tenderize it, or roll with it as it is. To pound, place between layers of good plastic or in a ziplock bag and pound with a mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet (not hot) until evenly thick to your liking. Pat your protein dry and season it. You can dredge it lightly in flour if you like. This increases the crust factor, and helps to keep juices in. Take care not to over coat it though or it will get gummy. Try using wondra flour, it is so fine, it is never gummy.

Now We’re Cooking

When the pan is nicely hot add your protein and be rewarded with a satisfying sizzle. If no sizzle, it is better to back it out of the pan and wait until it it hot. Watch for the oil to just begin to shimmer, and test the heat with your hand several inches above the pan so you know it is hot. Don’t burn yourself.

Cook the first side until you have that gorgeous crusty brownness that we have been talking about, then flip it over and repeat. Here’s the trick, when the second side is almost brown, you need to test for doneness. I do that by poking gently with my tongs and judging the resistance. Is it squidgy like raw meat or partially squidgy? You may need to reduce the heat, or alternately you can finish the dish in the oven. Other, more scientific people use a thermometer, which is indeed the safest way to roll, but by the time I find my thermometer, I may have missed the perfect moment of doneness which would be bad. I am a poker.

When the food is done to your liking, remove it to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Pour off any cooking fat and add liquid to deglaze the pan (scrape up those good crusty bits). You can choose wine, stock, juice or a gazillion other things depending on your choice of flavoring. Balsamic vinegar is good too. Scrape up the browned bits, increase the heat and reduce the sauce.

Thickening You Sauce

You can relying on simply reducing your sauce of course, or you may add cream, or butter and flour mixed together (beurre manie “kneaded butter” in the fancy French culinary terminology), or a roux (fat, usually butter cooked together with flour) or a slurry of corn starch and water mixed together. For the thickening agent to do its job, the sauce needs to be simmering and if your thickening agent includes flour you’ll need to cook it at least a minute per tablespoon of flour added to cook off the raw flour taste. If you use cream to thicken, simmer more gently to reduce.

Finishing Flavors

At this point you may add any additional flavor to your sauce such as capers, or if you are using a red wine as a sauce base, you might consider a hint of jelly of bring the fruit forward again. Balsamic vinegar is also really good here or a splash of lemon juice. Taste your sauce, and correct the seasoning. If desired, add a knob of butter and stir like a mad woman for a couple of minutes to emulsify.

Serving

Plate your food and drizzle your masterpiece sauce over top. Pass any extra sauce at the table.

Bon Apetit!

Julie Languille

Dinners In A Flash - Online Dinner Planning Database with 1000s of Easy Dinner Recipes