August 2010 Cooking Light

Between Sister K and I, I think we are going to cook through the whole issue of Cooking Light for August.  On Sunday night, I made husband M the Spicy Corn and Crab Chowder.  He liked it so much that he requested this dish with lobsters over the requisite New England Clam Chowder I usually make.

If you are going on any weekend long vacations this summer, be sure to check out the magazine’s 1-Cooler, 1-Weekend Getaway feature.  Both sister K and I really want to do this some weekend.  We are going on a beach vacaction for a week together later this summer, but it will be for a whole week.  I think we’ll definitely be trying out at least a few of the recipes in this feature though!  And no, we do not work for Cooking Light- we are just obsessed!

-m

Last 5 Books I Have Read

In between pregnancy and baby development books, I’ve tried to fit in some fun reading.  Here are the last 5 books I have finished:

1. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry- Set in crowded, poor Bombay, this book explores the story of a family struggling to take care of their aging father.  I believe I found this book via this list of books to read before you die.  Kind of a sad book, but an interesting read about modern day India and family culture.

2. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See- I thought this book was excellent, but I would not mark it as a light summer read as it has a bit of depressing story line.  Two Shanghai sisters are sold off from their family in desperate times and are forced to move to Los Angeles.  Through a very difficult journey, they are able to stay together and build a life together.

3. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks- This is a typical Nicholas Sparks novel set in a beachtown of North Carolina.  It was a cute, light read, but I felt pretty silly when my boss came over to my desk one day and commented that his 14-year old daughter was reading the same book (apparently Miley Cyrus is starring in the movie edition of the book).

4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson- I finally got on the bandwagon and read the first of Stieg Larson’s trilogy.  It was very interesting to read and I was captivated through the whole book.  I find it interesting to see that this book captures a male and female audience alike…I see a 50/50 split between men and women reading this on the bus.  I currently have the next two books in the series on my hold list at the library (I am something like 450th in the queue for The Girl Who Played With Fire!)

5. House Rules by Jodi Picoult- Definitely not one of my favorite Jodi Picoult books.  It is about a teenage boy with Asperger’s and his mother and brother.  I found two of these three characters (mom and the kid with Asperger’s) to be extremely annoying.

I am now in search of a good summer read in anticipation of the vacation we are taking in August- any suggestions?

-m

Easy Grilled Chicken Salad

I bet you can already guess what magazine I cooked out of tonight.  I cooked Easy Grilled Chicken Salad from my August Cooking Light, of course!   This recipe was super easy to make (hence the name) and really, really, really good (yes it gets three reallys).

I made a couple of exchanges in this recipe because I already owned some items and I wanted to save some money while I was grocery shopping. First, I replaced the celery with cucumber because I really don’t care for celery.  I didn’t know how it was going to taste, but it ended up being really good and sort of reminded me of taziki sauce a little.  I ate this right away.  I would say if you were going to make this for a meal ahead of time, the cucumbers may get soggy and ruin the salad.  The next replacement I made was that I switched the chopped pecans to chopped almonds.  Finally, I used a little bit of regular onion instead of green onion.  In the end, I think the changes I made were really good.   I ended making on 1/4th the recipe because I was making it for just myself.  You should try some variations of it yourself and tell me how it goes.  The chicken salad is placed on a bed of baby spinach and I also served it with a steamed summer squash.  MMMMmmmm!

Enjoy!

-K

Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Once again, I decided to try a recipe out from my new August Cooking Light.  Tonight, I made Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach.  This is a side dish but my roommate and I doubled the recipe and made it for 2 meals.   I have never cooked with quinoa and I didn’t even know where to find it in the grocery store (which is rare because I know everything in my grocery store).   I had to call my mom to ask her where she would find her quinoa.  Apparently I was pronouncing it wrong (pronounced KEEN-Wah.)  I eventually found it in the organic sections (where would we be without super moms!)

Roasting the garlic is pretty easy- just peel some of the papery skin off and then cut it half (so you are basically cutting every piece of garlic in half.)  Next, wrap it in aluminum foil and bake for an hour at 350 degrees.  The recipe it pretty simple and besides the hour it takes the roast the garlic, it is pretty quick.   It was so good that I ate my serving for tomorrows lunch!   Oops!

I used an onion instead of shallots because I already had one, and the garlic bunch in the picture is not a whole one because the whole one is in the oven during this picture.   I also used Pecorino Romano cheese instead of parm because I like it better.

Enjoy!

-K

Whole Wheat Pasta with Edamame, Arugula, and Herbs

Tonight, my roommate and I made a recipe from the new August Cooking Light.    While in a rush to the grocery store I looked at the Cooking Light and picked out the recipe Whole-Wheat Pasta with Edamame, Arugula, and Herbs.  It was pretty easy to make- just a lot of herb chopping (basil, parsley, and thyme.)

Start boiling the pasta water before doing anything else and cut up everything else in the meanwhile.   The edamame only takes about 3-4 minutes to heat up.  Make sure you read the whole recipe on the link before you start making it!   The recipe makes 4 pretty large portions so we got dinner and lunch for tomorrow out of it.

Enjoy!

-k

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

I got my new Cooking Light on Friday and found a lot of recipes I wanted to cook.   I have been having problems with getting motivated about cooking lately, so I was happy I finally found something that interest me.   Tonight I am going to be making Summer Squash and Corn Chowder with tomato brushcetta on fresh toasted French bread for the side.

It was delicious!!  You should make it, but crank the A/C up because it can get hot in the kitchen especially in the summer.

I am turning 25 this coming weekend so stay tuned to hear about my birthday.

Enjoy

-k

-K