Monday – Raspberry & Roasted Garlic Grilled Chicken

Tuesday – Stuffed Squash Blossoms with Golden Tomato Gazpacho

Wednesday – Salsa Verde Chicken with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings

Thursday – Cornmeal Molasses Pancakes

Friday – Golden Tomato Sauce with Ricotta Gnocchi

The Preparation Shortcuts:

1. Make the salsa verde chicken stew while you’re roasting that raspberry chicken. Alice says it will keep for two days, so we’ll just serve it up on Wednesday after whipping up the dumplings.
2. Make the golden tomato sauce while you’re busy working those tomatoes for gazpacho. It will store great in the fridge until Friday, and if you want to make extra for later, just store it in the freezer for a golden winter meal in a few months.
3. Serve your cornmeal pancakes with a fresh raspberry sauce, or toss a few leftover raspberries right into the batter for another dimension and to use up any leftover raspberries from the chicken on Monday.
4. Freeze extra pancakes for easy breakfasts during this busy back-to-school season.

The Shopping List:

2 large rotisserie chickens
1 bunch scallions
2 lemons
1 orange
1 pint buttermilk
2 ounces soft chevre
1 ounce cream cheese
4 ounces Parmigiano
16 ounces ricotta

Pantry Items:
rice
flour
cornmeal
baking powder
baking soda
eggs
butter
milk
onions
garlic
red onions
horseradish mustard
worchestershire sauce
molasses
honey
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
chicken broth
salsa verde
evaporated milk
paprika
nutmeg
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Garden Items:
golden tomatoes
basil
cilantro
squash blossoms

Last week from Food for My Family:

Lemongrass Scallops and a Nakano Giveaway
Babble-icious:
Quick Breakfast: Ham & Cheese Croissant Rolls
Spice it Up: Cajun Alfredo Sauce
Labor Day Picnic Fare: Ideas for Your BBQ Menu
9 Ways to Save When Dining Out as a Family
Chili-Lime Deviled Eggs: A Classic, Twisted
Smithfield Blog:
Make-Ahead Meals: The How and Why
One Deal, Five Meals: Spiral Ham

We eat quite a bit of food with a Southeast Asian flare around here. Sometimes I make it; other times I seek it out and purchase it, but either way, we’re no stranger to the flavors or the fantastic smells that cooking with rice wines and vinegars, teeny, tiny chili peppers or lemongrass and ginger bring.

I was recently asked to try out Nakano’s Seasoned Rice Vinegar and to give a lucky reader the chance to do the same. I agreed, seeing that Nakano’s Natural Rice Vinegar was hanging out in my cupboard already. It seemed like a great opportunity to try what else they had to offer, and I decided to give the Red Pepper variety a spin along with some delicious scallops and a bit of lemongrass. Start by chooping up your lemongrass, ginger and peppers (wear gloves to protect yourself from the long-lasting burning that can come from chopping hot peppers).

Start by chopping up a bit of lemongrass, ginger and a Thai pepper or two depending on how hot and spicy you like your scallops.
Add your marinade ingredients to a shallow bowl or plate: rice vinegar, lemongrass, ginger, 1-2 Thai peppers, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Give your sea scallops a bath in the marinade, only 2 minutes per side. Longer marinating times with scallops can make them mushy, so don’t over-marinate.

Over medium-high heat get a bit of canola oil heating in a pan. Place the scallops in and cook for 2-3 minutes until they form a nice crust on one side.

Flip and cook for 2-3 minutes on the second side. Remove the scallops from the pan and set aside.

De-glaze the pan by adding the marinating liquid to the pan. Continue to cook the sauce over medium heat to reduce for 5-7 minutes.

When the sauce is thick and reduced, it’s time to eat.

Serve the scallops on their own or over rice and vegetables, using the reduced sauce to pour over the top. These were delicious and the perfect complement to the red Thai curry we served them alongside (recipe to follow). So, while you’re waiting for me to get going on that recipe, I hope you enjoy this one, and a little giveaway to go along with it.

All in all, I love the idea of the seasoned rice vinegars, but I have to say I’ll stick to the Nakano Natural variety. I’m a purist, and ingredients that read: “rice vinegar, water” are just what I am looking for, no sugar or other sweeteners needed.

Enter the Giveaway:

One winner will receive a $25 Visa Gift Card and bottle of Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar to try, along with a coupon and recipe booklet for even more ideas.
1. Tell me what your favorite recipes with rice vinegar are. If you haven’t used it before, tell me which ones you’ve seen that have caught your eye.

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily on Twitter and tweet the following. Then come back and let me know you’ve tweeted!
Enter to win a $25 Gift Card and bottle of Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar from @FoodforMyFamily: http://bit.ly/9E1UUv
3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. I’ve been working on asking reader questions and looking for feedback, so it’d be great to have your input there as well!


Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. CT on Friday, 9/10. Winner will be chosen using Random.org and notified by email. In the event that the winner doesn’t respond to the email within 48 hours, I’ll choose a new winner.

Disclosure: I was given the Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar for this recipe and compensated for my review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Monday – Grilled Peach and Haloumi Salad

Tuesday – Indian Sweet and Sour Chickpeas Spinach Roti

Wednesday – Oven-Baked Zucchini and Tomatoes with Feta Cream

Thursday – Mediterranean Bean Salad and Chicken Gyros

Friday – Pasta Primavera

The Preparation Shortcuts:

1. Make extra chickpeas for both the sweet and sour chickpeas on Tuesday and the bean salad on Thursday.
2. Greek seasoning can be made ahead and kept in the freezer until ready to use.
3. Make Thursday extra quick by grilled chicken ahead of time and doing a quick reheat either in the oven with a bit of broth or in a foil pan on the grill the same way.
4. Any and all leftover vegetables and arugula can be tossed into the pasta primavera on Friday. It’s the perfect wrap-up meal, using any leftovers.

The Shopping List:

2-3 chicken breasts
3 bell peppers of various colors (orange, yellow, red), chopped
1 knob ginger
1 bunch green onions
1 head broccoli
1 bunch cilantro
4 peaches
3 lemons
baby arugula
tamarind
2 Indian bay leaves
6-8 pitas
8 ounces Greek yogurt
8 ounces heavy cream
4 ounces Parmesan cheese
8 ounces feta
1 pkg (250g) Le Bedouin Haloumi

Pantry Items:
oat flour
millet flour
brown rice flour
white rice flour
tapioca flour
xanthan gum
barley
garbanzo beans
white beans
sun-dried tomatoes
garlic
white onion
white wine
white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
honey
coriander
cumin
onion powder
garlic powder
cardamom pods
black peppercorns
cloves
cornstarch
salt and pepper
parsley flakes
cinnamon
nutmeg

Garden Items:
basil
parsley
oregano
thyme
mint
cucumbers
tomatoes
carrots
zucchini

Last week from Food for My Family:

Chicken Empanadas for a Long Goodbye
On Smithfield:
Getting Into a Back-to-School Morning Routine
On Babble:
Portabella Rosemary Caprese Skewers
Individual Caramel Bourbon Peach Pies
Eataly in New York Opening Next Week!
Chili’s $50 Gift Card Giveaway for Back-to-School!

I made chicken empanadas this weekend because it seemed like a good idea and like a good way to say goodbye, even if it’s only a temporary goodbye. A chicken filling full of love, hugged by a flaky crust. Tears optional. Lime juice recommended.

Our friends are moving. To Scotland. Scotland seems awfully far away from Minnesota. So, as I sat here last week contemplating the length of 12 months and what on earth I would do without Jen at happy hour and Halloween and New Year’s Eve and all those days in between and tried to determine how I could possibly justify trekking over a giant body of water – maybe to bring you all a haggis recipe, perhaps – I asked Matt and Jen if I could possibly bring them dinner this past weekend. They agreed.

This is the dough blade on my food processor. It makes doughs like this one easy and fuss-free.

My favorite parts about this particular dough adapted from Laylita are that it comes together easily and is easy to work with once it is together. Start with flour.

And butter slices.

Add in one whole egg and some cold water and pulse until it comes together.

When it’s nice and crumbly, we’re done. Keep in mind that you do want a few chunks of butter in there. We aren’t looking for uniform texture. Those chunks will make the dough flaky later.

Form a ball shape and stash it in the fridge to rest while you make your filling.

Toss a few diced onions and two to three chilies into a pan with a bit of heated oil.

Add in the spices and honey…

… and cook it down until the onions are tender. This is where I want to try it because it suddenly looks all hot and spicy.

To our onion, sauce-like mixture we will add shredded chicken.

Green olives.

Hard-boiled eggs. The Argentinean recipe told me so. I can’t argue.

Mix it all together, and we’re ready to stuff.

Start by rolling out your dough. I like the uniformity of rolling out large sheets of dough and cutting them with a cookie cutter or a round lid or container.

Place a small amount of filling in each circle. These circles are about 4-5 inches across, and I used 2-3 tablespoons. You want to leave a decent edge around the sides to seal and fold to prevent anything from spilling out.

Fold the empanada in half and press to seal.

You can roll over here and press with a fork, or you can just seal with a fork. For mine, I rolled the chicken empanadas over, and then because I was making caramel bourbon peach pies from the dough as well, I simply pressed those with a fork so they would look different and I could tell them apart.

Not pictured because I was melting in the heat of Matt and Jen’s kitchen: Beat an egg yolk and brush it on before baking so your empanadas get a brown glossy look across the top.

While my empanadas baked in the house, Ole stayed outside and grilled steak and chicken fajitas and the rest of us sat around and pretended that no one was leaving, that we’d all be there again or perhaps at Kevin and Leslie’s house or in my own dining room, that summer would last forever.

And when dinner was ready, we ate outside in the cooling summer evening, silent. I’m not sure if they were silent because they liked the food or because we knew it wouldn’t last, despite the fact that we’d bid the Sno’Laughlins farewell earlier this month already and here we were again, trying to extend the time before the inevitable parting.

And after we ate, well, Matt invited us out to one last farewell dinner the night before they depart. That was last night. The final goodbye. And here we are, at the end of summer and the beginning of a year of emails and Skype calls. From there, all that’s left is to say hello again in 12 months. That is, unless I can weasel my way to Scotland before then. We’ll miss you both! In fact, I miss you already. Have a fantastic time!

Monday – Easy Beef-Stuffed Eggplant

Tuesday – Best Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Wednesday – Eggplant Parmigiana Sauce with Pasta

Thursday – Zucchini Meatballs

Friday – Buffalo Chicken Pizza

The Preparation Shortcuts:

1. Make extra eggplant stuffing. Actually, I ended up with plenty, but you can make extra if you need to. Simply save, heat with a few extra herbs and tomato sauce and your Wednesday dinner is complete.
2. Grill extra chicken when you’re making chicken salad for the buffalo chicken pizza.
3. Save money by buying some ground beef in bulk for both the eggplant and the meatballs.
4. We love doing pizzas on Friday night with all the leftover vegetables and meats from the week. Make your pizza dough ahead of time and freeze so it’s always ready to go.

The Shopping List:

2 whole fryer chickens or 3 pounds chicken breasts
3 pounds ground beef
1 head napa cabbage
1 bulb ginger
4 limes
6 small eggplants
fish sauce
1 bottle Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce
1 bottle ranch dressing (or make your own!)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
6 ounces Parmesan cheese
8 ounces cream cheese

Pantry Items:
flour
yeast
salt
sugar
eggs
bread crumbs
peanuts
garlic
onions
grape seed oil
olive oil
fish

Garden Items:
basil
cilantro
mint
carrots
shallots
tomatoes
zucchini

Last week from Food for My Family:

Lemon Frozen Yogurt
Over on Babble:
Egg Recall List for Wright County Egg Salmonella Outbreak Expanded
Buffalo Burgers with Blue Cheese Spread and Celery Slaw
Salmonella Outbreaks and Latest Egg Recall News
On Smithfield:
Benefits of Gardening

Maybe I named this recipe for lemon frozen yogurt the “Yogurt of the Gods” because it has Greek yogurt in it, which instantly makes me think of Greek mythology, or perhaps it was birthed out of how heavenly it tastes. Still, though, there’s a chance that I named it that because my kids have been watching The Lightning Thief, reading the Percy Jackson books and pretending they can control massive amounts of water like any true son of Poseidon could.

Maybe it’s a combination of all three, melded into the fact that I am having a hard time writing a post today after a week with a migraine. Turns out, the perfect cure for post-migraine brain drain is simply sweetened yogurt with a hint of lemon. It’s easy to throw together, and the outcome is a perfect creamy treat just screaming to be covered with summer berries, a fresh peach sauce or nothing at all.

The ingredient list here is simple: strained/Greek yogurt, sugar, a lemon (a bit of both the rind and the juice). Nothing fancy, and nothing too involved either. Simply mix them all together or have a kid do it for you.

Sticking the tongue out of the side of your mouth improves your ability to mix.

And when they’re all mixed up, simply stash it in the refrigerator to make sure it’s nice and cool. When it’s been in there for an hour or more, it gets plopped in the trusty ice cream maker to freeze.

I’ve plopped fresh raspberries on top of this. I’ve drizzled honey over the top. I made an ice cream sandwich for the kids out of those wafer cookies for a snack one day. It’s sweet and tangy perfection in a bowl.

This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Frozen Yogurt in his book Perfect Scoop.

Monday – Sausage and Broccoli Breakfast Frittata

Tuesday – Zucchini and Almond Pasta Salad

Wednesday – Grilled Chicken and Broccoli Slaw Wraps

Thursday – Mint Pesto with Zucchini and Feta

Friday – Flatbread Pizza with Sausage and Zucchini

The Preparation Shortcuts:

1. Brown extra sausage on Monday and store in an airtight container for Friday’s pizza.
2. Shred the broccoli stems after using the florets on Monday so it’s ready to go for Wednesday.
3. Serve the zucchini and almond pasta salad with grilled chicken, making extra for Wednesday’s wraps.
4. While slicing zucchini for the pasta salad, also take the time to dice a few for Thursday’s meal so it’s ready to go.

The Shopping List:

1 1/2 pounds Italian sausage
1-1/2 to 2 pounds chicken breasts
1 red bell pepper
1 bulb fresh ginger
2 lemons
4-6 flatbread rounds or pitas
1 package rice paper wrappers
8 ounces fresh mozzarella
8 ounces Parmesan cheese
4 ounces cheddar cheese
6 ounces feta

Pantry Items:
olive oil
miso
rice vinegar
maple syrup
sesame oil
canola oil
almonds
pine nuts
garlic
pasta
salt
black pepper
eggs
milk

Garden Items:
basil
mint
zucchini
yellow summer squash
broccoli
red onions

Last week from Food for My Family:

Mediterranean Bean Salad and Chicken Gyros
How Your Pantry Can Save You Money: Impromptu Pantry Meals on Smithfield
Summer Berry Dutch Baby Pannekoeken on Lifetime Moms
On my beloved Babble:
10 Ways to Save Money on Groceries
S’mores à la Carte
The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
10-Minute Hand Pies