Tag Archives: onion

Recipe: Corn Salad by Melissa McKinnon

Posted on 21 August 2013 | Leave a comment

photo-21Ingredients:

  • 1/3 c. mayonnaise
  • 1/3 c. sour cream
  • handful of fresh basil and cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 ears of sweet corn, husked, scrubbed, and kerneled
  • 1/2 small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 3 radishes, finely chopped
  • 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and cubed

Instructions:

  • Chop herbs and whisk together with mayonnaise, sour cream, salt and pepper. (If vegan, dairy-free, or you just don’t like mayo: substitute mayo with vegannaise and corn milk for the sour cream–after cutting off kernels, run flat edge of knife down ears of corn to release the sweet milk.)
  • Clean vegetables.* Cut kernels off of corn (discarding the cores), and chop other vegetables to desired sizes (I like the radishes and onion to be fairly tiny and the cucumber and avocado to be a little bigger, personally).
  • Toss vegetables into dressing and mix. Serve with sprigs of herbs as garnish, if desired.

*Note: All vegetables are raw in this dish–no cooking required. So, it’s a fast dish with fantastic colors and flavors. Since everything is raw, make sure you use the freshest produce possible and clean everything well. This salad is a great alternative to potato salad or coleslaw at a picnic or as a “salsa” on top of curried chicken and rice. Serves 6 to 8.

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Spring Produce Basket and Weekly Meal Plan

Posted on 21 April 2012 | Leave a comment

This Week’s Basket from Milk and Honey Organics Included: Baby Spinach, Broccoli, Star Ruby (red) Grapefruit, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Curly Parsley, Cameo Apples, Peaches, Hurricane Creek’s Bibb Lettuce, Chef’s Greenhouse Tomatoes, Parisi Onion Mix, and Parisi Beets with Greens. Some baskets also included Kiwi.

This Week’s Menu Plan (via PepperPlate.com):
 Recipes from This Week’s Meal Plan:

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Weekly Basket and Meal Plan

Posted on 21 January 2012 | Leave a comment

This Week’s Basket from Milk and Honey Organics included: Kale and Sweet Onions (with Tops) from Parisi Farms, Limes, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Plum Tomatoes, Blueberries, Romaine Lettuce, Bananas, Hamlin Oranges, Cauliflower, Hass Avocados, and Arkansas Black Apples.

This Week’s Meal Plan (via PepperPlate.com):

 Recipes from this week’s meal plan:

Bon Appetit!

~Melissa

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Recipe: Organic Veggie Omelet

Posted on 2 April 2011 | Leave a comment

Organic Veggie Omelet with Homemade Hearty Sourdough Toast

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

  • organic olive oil (mist or about 1 tsp.)
  • 1 medium organic carrot, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 c. organic red onion, diced
  • 2 large organic silver mushrooms, chopped
  • 8-10 organic grape tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
  • 5 organic eggs
  • 1/4 c. organic whole milk
  • salt, pepper to taste
  • 2 oz. of your favorite cheese (we used gouda with mustard seed)
  • 2-4 Tbsp. fresh organic parsley leaves, chopped
  • 2-4 Tbsp. fresh organic cilantro leaves, chopped

Instructions:

  1. Spray omelet pan with organic olive oil. Heat to medium heat.
  2. Add chopped veggies and sautee for 5-7 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, beat eggs and milk together with salt and pepper.
  4. Reduce heat to medium low and pour eggs over veggies.
  5. Add cheese and let cook through for 5-7 minutes. (Tip: Run your spatula along the outside edge of the pan to release eggs from edges of pan; tilt pan towards released edge so the liquid egg on top runs under the portion your loosening.)
  6. Fold in half or scramble.
  7. Top with freshly chopped cilantro and parsley.
  8. Serve hot.

Not seen: Fresh hot coffee and my friend Shannah! So good to hang out with her! When I plated our breakfast, Shannah remarked, “Yum! That looks like something I’d see on a blog I read.” She was referring to my blog. So, of course, I had to take a picture. 🙂

After our brunch, I met my friend Jan at the gym for her first post-baby workout! She was so excited to finally be released to workout and I was so excited to have my workout buddy back! 🙂 Now for some chicken and black bean chili in a leftover sourdough bread bowl and off to run Saturday errands before Bryan wakes up for our evening meal.

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Recipe: Creamy Parsnip, Potato, and Carrot Soup

Posted on 12 February 2011 | Leave a comment

I followed this recipe for Creamy Parsnip with Ginger Soup from my meal plan, using my parsnips from this week’s basket. However, I made a few slight changes, of course. The carrots and red onion gave it a beautiful color and it’s so smooth and creamy! Yum!

Here’s my version:

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. olive oil in 6 qt. stockpot over medium heat. Peel and chop 7-8 small parsnips, 2 large carrots, 1/2 red onion, and 4 large garlic cloves and add to pot. Sautee for 7-8 minutes, until golden brown.

Add 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. each ground cardamom and allspice (I used pumpkin spice because I didn’t have any allspice), 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper and a pinch or organic raw sugar. Stir into vegetables and cook for 1 more minute.

Add 3 c. chicken broth (or 3 c. water and 3 bouillon cubes), and 4 small, peeled and chopped organic white potatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes (or until root vegetables are tender).

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Ladle half of the soup mixture into a blender and liquefy. Add 3/4 c. organic reduced fat milk to this half. Repeat, adding 3/4 c. milk to this second batch as well. Pour into serving dish and top with freshly cracked black pepper and the green portion of one scallion.

Bon Appetit!

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In the Kitchen with Mom

Posted on 24 December 2010 | 3 comments

Me & My Beautiful Mom!

Mom and I made a special dinner for Grandma, Dad, Bryan and Jordan last night. We found super thick, boneless pork chops at the grocery store for a great price. Then we paired it with a squash medley and sweet carrots. Yum! I love cooking with my mom! We both learned how to cook by sitting on the kitchen counter, watching our moms. Some day, we’re going to write a cookbook together!

We started by rubbing 1/2 tsp. of the Sweet & Spicy Rub on each of the pork chops.

Sweet & Spicy Rub Recipe here.

Heat pan with 2 Tbsp. olive oil and 1 Tbsp. butter until melted. Then add pork chops and cook till golden brown on each side (about 5-6 minutes).

Next we sliced 4 zucchini, 2 yellow squash and 1 onion and put in 2 different pans with olive oil, butter, sea salt, and cracked pepper. We cooked over medium low heat with lids on till soft and lightly browned.

For the carrots, we steamed about 3 c. of baby carrots. Then we drained them and added 2 Tbsp. butter, a pinch of salt, 3 Tbsp. brown sugar, and 2 Tbsp. orange marmalade. Fold together till melted and all carrots glazed.

Sweet Carrots and Squash Medley

We served the pork chops with my homemade Cranberry BBQ Sauce (recipe from Whole Foods).

Cranberry BBQ Sauce recipe here.

Bon Appetit!

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Recipe: French Onion Soup by Melissa McKinnon

Posted on 5 November 2010 | 4 comments

We had a catering last week that included a salad bar. There was about 6 cups of shaved onions leftover from the salad bar. They were ready to be tossed and I thought, “What can I do with that many onions?!” Then it hit me, French Onion Soup! I’d never made it before, so I thought it was worth a shot. Turns out, I was right. I didn’t follow a recipe. I just followed my nose. Yum! Check it out below:

French Onion Soup by Melissa McKinnon

Serves 10

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups shaved onions (about 6 medium onions, finely sliced)
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper
  • 1 Tbsp. dried basil leaves
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Worchestershire Sauce (I used Lee & Perrin’s Thick Sauce)
  • 1/3 to 1 c. Shiraz (or favorite red wine)
  • 4 beef boullion cubes
  • 5 c. water
  • 10 slices Provolone cheese
  • 10 slices of French bread (and butter to spread on top of each slice)

Instructions:

Slice onions as thin as you can slice them. I would recommend cutting each onion in half or quarters before slicing, so they don’t get too stringy as they cook down.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in Medium Stockpan over Medium heat. Add onions, salt, pepper and basil, and reduce. It helps if they’re able to brown just slightly, bringing out the natural sweetness of the onions in the caramelization process. Once it reaches this point, add wine and Worchestershire. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, allowing the onions to soak up the wine flavor. Then add boullion cubes and water. Make sure the cubes are fully dissolved and transfer to crockpot.

Cook onion soup for 4-10 hours on low.

Crockpot of Onion Soup

Ladle 3/4 c. into 10 serving bowls. Meanwhile, butter and  toast slices of french bread (I broiled mine in the toaster oven for 2 minutes).

The Toast is Ready for the Soup

Place one slice of toast in each bowl and cover with 1 slice of Provolone cheese.

I let my cheese hang over the edges of the bowls. You can use shredded if you like and just top the bread.

Broil on low for 2-3 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

The one cup Pampered Chef glass storage containers are the perfect size.

I served mine with salad and a slice of french bread with butter, thyme and garlic salt.

Dinner is Served!

This is a great make-ahead recipe. To reheat, place in toaster oven on bake at 300F for 5-10 minutes. Bon Appetit! ~Melissa

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