A recipe to get in before that fresh spring asparagus is only a memory...

Fresh asparagus is still going strong and so far the bundles we have gotten from the market have been excellent! Tonight's dinner, Chicken-Sausage and Asparagus Sauté over Cheese Grits, is a recipe for two servings, however you could easily scale it up (or down) if you need more servings or if you would just like a plate for yourself. There are many different varieties of cooked chicken sausages to choose from these days - for tonight's dish, we used a spicy version that we picked up from Costco a few weeks ago. To give the sausages a deeper flavor, we first sliced them into thin ovals and then caramelized them in a thin layer of olive oil. Because we want some of that developed flavor left behind, we scooped out the sausages with a slotted spoon and used the remaining oil and any drippings to soften a bit of red onion. Jeff is more akin to like the dish if the onions are chopped, but if the texture of sliced onion is not an issue for you, halve and thinly slice the onion instead. To the onions, sliced asparagus, flavorful fresh thyme and a little water are added to gently steam the asparagus just until it is crisp-tender. To brighten up the flavor, fresh lemon juice is stirred in, followed by the chicken sausage to warm back up. While we were waiting for the asparagus, we also had a pot of broth on the stove coming up to a boil. Grits were soon drizzled into the bubbling broth and the grains quickly swelled and thickened within just a few minutes. For a creamy, tangy finish, we stirred in fresh crumbled goat cheese just as we removed the grits from the heat. Served by spooning the generous veggie and sausage mixture on top of the pool of grits, this dinner, done in just about 20 minutes, kept our forks quite busy until our plates were quickly cleaned! Recipes Chicken-Sausage and Asparagus Sauté over Cheese Grits

Now here's a way to get that spinach in...

If you're a fan of making dinners ahead of time and stashing them in the freezer to pull out for those hectic nights, you may want to try out these Spinach-Feta Turnovers I made for dinner tonight! Wrapped inside a golden blanket is a mess of chopped onions and garlic cloves that have been softened in a couple tablespoons worth of olive oil. To those vegetables, a healthy dose of thawed frozen spinach is added. Now, I know I've mentioned this trick before, but in case you haven't seen it, I like to use our potato ricer to squeeze out the excess liquid from the spinach. I just find it less messy and more efficient that using a towel or pressing the spinach in a colander. To add a salty bite, a couple cups of crumbled feta is added along with a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to brighten up the flavors. You don't have to add the dash of cayenne, but it brought added interest as there is a ton of spinach being used. If you like the spinach and nutmeg combination, a few fresh grates from a whole nutmeg might be nice. You will use both sheets of puff pastry that are included in the package (I love the newer Artisan Puff Pastry from Trader Joe's - all butter!) - once stretched out, each piece is divided into quarters and filled with a heaping mound of the spinach mixture. A light egg wash around two edges and the pastry is folded over to create tidy triangles. You will get 8 hearty servings from this - you can cook all of them at once, or do as we did and wrap four of them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. You can then pull them out as needed and have a freshly baked turnover - you will just need to add 5 or 10 minutes to the total baking time. With their buttery, flaky enclosures, these appetizing turnovers really hit the spot this evening with a light salad on the side. Recipes Spinach-Feta Turnovers

How can one go wrong with cupcakes?

It won't be just an ordinary Wednesday Treat Day tomorrow for Jeff's co-workers... this week's treat is all about cupcakes! Because it is not quite the best time for fresh strawberries in the market, I used a local batch of delicious strawberry jam for our first recipe - Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes. The "shortcake" part of these cupcakes is a light and moist vanilla-scented cake. If you're feeling especially extravagant, I think the addition of a vanilla bean, instead of the extract, would add a sweet boost. There really isn't anything too unusual or tricky about the preparation of these - the only things I would note would be to allow the eggs and milk to be at room temperature so the batter is silky smooth and not curdled. I do have to say though, other times where recipes have called for this and I missed it, the resulting baked good turned out just fine. The frosting for these is just a basic butter and confectioners' sugar frosting - however, be sure to add a pinch of salt (fine popcorn salt works well) to help cut the sweetness. This is where your jam comes into play - add enough to give the frosting that fresh hint of strawberries and a light pink hue... add tablespoon by tablespoon until you get the taste and consistency that you like. I think I went a little heavy with the jam and the frosting lost some of its smooth texture, but I decided to stay with flavor over looks! If you do find some especially tasty fresh strawberries, top each cupcake with a whole berry that has been fanned out. If you're a big fan of those chocolate cupcakes with a creamy filling inside, you may wait on those strawberry cupcakes and give these Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling your attention. While these cupcakes are a bit more fussy preparation wise, that extra work paid off in the texture department. While the above were light with a tighter crumb, these chocolate guys are a bit more tender, airy and almost spongy (in a good way though). The reason? Cake flour and taking the time to separate the eggs and beat the whites until they were stiff and glossy. Before adding the whites, the rich chocolate batter was thick and fairly dense - however, as soon as those whites were folded in, the batter flowed beautifully from a spoon. I do have a note on this process - be sure to just stir in a small portion from the whites into the batter to help lighten the base. This will make folding them together much easier and help not deflate all the air you put in the whites. Once the chocolate-y cupcakes had baked and cooled, a fantastic filling is combined by beating together butter, confectioners' sugar and a secret ingredient... Marshmallow Fluff! We love that stuff (remember those Fluffer Nutter Bars?) - while I'm sure Marshmallow Creme would work fine, it just isn't the same to me! This mixture is placed into a pasty bag and then plunged into the bottom of each cupcake (hence why these have no cupcake liners!). A quick squeeze from the bag and they are filled! While you could fill them from the top, you will be frosting these with a shiny and decadent chocolate ganache, so you want to leave yourself a nice, smooth top. You could stop there, but I know I wouldn't be satisfied unless it had that classic squiggle on top! This simply comes from thinning a bit of the leftover filling with cream and pipping it out with a small plain tip. Sweet, without being too sugary or cloying, I'm afraid these might not even leave the house in the morning if Jeff has his way! Recipes Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling

Veggie-packed pasta dish...

We're back again with another speedy dish for our dinner tonight - I think the warm plates filled with this Two-Pea Pasta with Ricotta and Tarragon were on the table in just under 30 minutes! Feel free to use whatever short pasta you have on hand - the original recipe called for gemelli, but we used a tri-color fusilli as that was already in the pantry. To keep this a one pot dish (hurray for less dishes!), the crisp sugar snap peas and green peas are added in two stages to the pasta near the end of its cooking time. Once those ingredients have finished cooking, the water is drained away (though a 1/2 cup worth of the starchy liquid is first reserved) and they are placed back into the pot to finish up the sauce that goes with them. A couple knobs of butter, creamy ricotta cheese and the star ingredient, fresh tarragon, are tossed in to melt down into a sauce. As is, with the ricotta, the sauce will be too thick, so add a few splashes of that reserved pasta water to thin it out to your liking. If you've never had fresh tarragon before, you may want to start out with a tablespoon or so and then add more if you feel it needs a boost. With its slight anise flavor, it can quickly dominate the dish if too much is used - however, don't let that scare you off as it brings such a bright and fresh flavor, especially when used with chicken. Filled with spring flavors, this zesty pasta dish, with it's myriad of colors (thanks to those colorful twists of pasta!), is one I can see making for us quite a few times when we need a speedy dinner. Recipes Two-Pea Pasta with Ricotta and Tarragon

A different take on meatloaf...

We didn't have many recipes this week since we were gone on vacation, but we did still manage to squeak out 6 new ones. Out of those few, our favorites were those Toffee and M&M Monster Cookies and that tasty Cheesy Polenta and Egg Casserole. I do have one sad note... I'm sorry to say that the lawn mowing season has officially began at our house. I actually don't mind it that much, but I did not miss it at all over the winter! The prepartion for tonight's dinner, Tex-Mex Meatloaf-Cheddar Pie, seemed to go well, but when I was reading through the directions again, something just didn't seem right. The recipe that I had printed out only baked this dish for 20 total minutes and that didn't seem nearly enough time for a thick meatloaf. I went back to the website where I got the recipe and it had been changed to a total cooking time of 45 minutes! While I caught it before it even hit the oven, it meant dinner was going to be a little late tonight - oops! This interesting twist on meatloaf has you begin by lining a large pie pan with roasted red bell peppers. If you are using a jarred pepper, be sure to let them drain well and you may even want to pat them dry with a paper towel. I didn't do this right away and the moist peppers just wanted to slump down - they stayed in place better once I had patted them with the paper towel. A blend of shredded Mexican cheeses is scattered on top of the peppers. The meatloaf itself is just a basic combination of lean ground sirloin, breadcrumbs, a couple eggs, parsley, and for that Tex-Mex flare, chunky salsa. I let Jeff pick out the salsa at the market so he could have some input to the recipe and he choose this habanero salsa with roasted tomatoes and cilantro from Frontera (a Rick Bayless product). He did ask for my opinion, so I steered him to this brand - we have actually had the chipotle version before and while he did enjoy that, he said he wanted something a bit more spicy. Well, he got what he wished for... man does this stuff have a fire-y kick! While part of the salsa is used inside the meatloaf, the rest of it is spread over the top as you would with ketchup. Before the meatloaf has completely cooked, another dose of the shredded Mexican cheese blend is scattered on top and allowed to melt. The meatloaf was very moist, thanks to the addition of the spicy salsa inside - we also found that the texture allowed it to slice and present quite well after giving it the 15 minute rest. I did find that even cooking it for 45 minutes total, as you can see, the center was still a little pink... next time I would probably use a meat thermometer to test it. I didn't know if the peppers would actually adhere to the meat, but they grabbed on pretty well! Recipes Tex-Mex Meatloaf-Cheddar Pie

One monster of a cookie...

Have you ever wanted a large, crunchy (yet not dry), over-the-top cookie packed with fun and tasty mix-ins? Well then, look no further than these outrageous Toffee and M&M Monster Cookies that I made before we left for our Disney trip. Since we were bringing the pups down to the farm so they had some familiar faces watching them, I wanted to bring a treat with to say thanks. Big, thick and a fantastic crisp/chewy texture, these cookies pack a wallop of peanut butter flavor thanks to the generous addition of 1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter. Creamy peanut butter would be fine, but I know I wouldn't want to miss out on the extra nutty crunch the chunky peanut butter added. With just a touch of flour, the majority of the dry ingredients are simply old-fashioned rolled oats. Because of this, it is highly recommended that you allow the assembled cookie dough to rest for at least 30 minutes to give the oats a chance to absorb some of the moisture from the butter. You could probably throw whatever bits and pieces of chocolate or candy you want in these, but we choose bittersweet chocolate, toffee bits and full-sized dark chocolate M&Ms. Because I wanted them to look a little extra special, I did fuss and arrange the M&Ms on top of the dough, rather than just mixing them in with the other ingredients. We did divide most of the dough into 1/4 cupfuls, which produced beautiful and massive bake-sale worthy cookies, but we also did scoop out a few cookies with a heaping tablespoon worth (as seen as the smaller cookie in the above photograph) to freeze and save for us. I kept the smaller unbaked dough pieces in the freezer while we were gone and have been baking them off since we got back - we enjoyed the last while writing this post. With brown sugar in the dough, the cookies already had a small, but noticeable caramel flavor in the background, but with the addition of those crunchy toffee bits, that flavor was brought out even more for a wickedly good treat. We did think that one of the best advantages to this recipe is the fact that the dough is easily mixed by hand so you don't need a mixer (a great recipe if you have little helpers around!). Recipes Toffee and M&M Monster Cookies