Monday, June 30, 2008

Pineapple Ham Salad

I told you I would give you a recipe for the rest of that ham steak and here it is. This is so delicious and colorful, it is perfect for Summer.




The recipe. I got this from an old Taste of Home magazine.




You will need a tortilla or a pita, whichever you prefer. I would have preferred pita bread, but I didn't have any.




You need some pineapple, the leftover ham, lettuce and mayo.




You also need some carrots and some honey mustard.




Chop up your ham.




Chop up your carrot.




Measure out some pineapple.




Get all the pretty colors together in a bowl.




Add in the mayo and the honey mustard.




Give it a stir!!




Grab a tortilla or a pita and line it with some lettuce.




Then add some of the salad.




Roll it up, and serve. The tortilla didn't keep the dressing in so well, so I think a pita pocket would have worked out better. It was still fabulous. The crunch of the carrots with the tenderness of the ham went really well together.

I'd like to thank everyone who is giving me a Thumbs Up on Stumble Upon. I have noticed more traffic coming from that site and I really appreciate the encouragement and I am so glad people enjoy this blog!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Steamed Smoked Ham and Egg

This is the last of the steamer recipes for a while. I really love my steamer so I will be breaking out again soon I am sure. It is just such an easy way to cook!








I broke this recipe into a single serving.




Here are your ingredients, this is so easy and so tasty.




For this recipe I get to make toast and I get to butter it using the butter I keep in my new favorite thing, my butter crock. This thing is awesome. You load it up with one stick of butter and then fill the crock with 1/3 cup of cold water. You turn the butter holding side upside down and set it inside the crock of water. The water creates an air tight seal and you can leave your butter out on the counter. Granted, you can leave your butter out on the counter ANYWAY but I will be darned if this thing isn't the cutest idea. Ok back to the recipe.




I did not use fresh spinach so I got to skip the blanching process.




I used my cute little pyrex container which I first sprayed with a little PAM. I added a little salt to the spinach also.




I admit that I have never bought ham before, I just never even thought to. I am strange like that about my shopping for meat, I stick with what I know, I need to get better about that. I will have a recipe to use the leftovers of the ham steak in my next post!




Cube it up.




The recipe calls for Cayenne, but I wanted to use this chili pepper instead because I love it.




Of course you need your egg too.




drop in the ham and break the egg over it.




sprinkle with your desired chili powder and drizzle some cream over it. I also hit it with a little bit of salt.




Pop it in the steamer for 6-8 minutes and toast up some bread.




This was DELICIOUS and so satisfying. I love eggs, I love dippy drippy egg yolk. I should have got a picture of when I pierced the yolk with my fork because the golden yellow goodness spreading over the other ingredients just made me smile.




I will definitely be making this again!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Steamed Garlic Chicken with Cucumber and Grapes

I am back with some more STEAM heat! Several folks commented that the chicken looked raw in the last post. You can always brown it up before steaming if you think that is more aesthetically pleasing. I am doing some more steamed chicken today.




The recipe came from the Steam Cuisine cookbook.




I made the full sauce recipe but only one chicken breast. I will tell you what I did with the leftover sauce later. For now, lets grab some ingredients.




Delicious garlic. Get it minced up with a knife or in your garlic press.




Season a chicken breast with some salt and pepper.




Add the garlic and put it in the bottom level of your steamer. It is important that if you are cooking with a multi-tiered steamer that you put the meat on the bottom so it doesn't drip down over your other food. Get this guy steaming!




While it steams, we need to chop up a cucumber.




The smaller you chop the faster it cooks.




Grab some grapes. Tell the dogs you are so sorry but grapes are bad for them and then make a mad dash when one goes squirting off the counter. It is inevitable!




Cut them in half.




Add them to an additional tier of your steamer and set aside.




Now we need to make our sauce. I am not promoting Ms. Ray here at all, it just happened to be on sale and I wanted to give it a try.




Get some chicken broth and cream in a sauce pan and get it cooking over a low heat, you don't want it to boil.




Grab some delicious tarragon and add that to the sauce also.




In the last couple of minutes of cooking, add the cucumber and grapes to the steamer.




Separate an egg as we want just the yolk.




Remove the sauce from the heat and whisk in the egg.









Grab your veggies off of the steamer and stir those into the sauce. I made the full batch of sauce and then the next day I pureed the leftovers and it made a delicious creamy soup!




I had some leftover carrots in the fridge so I just threw those in the microwave with a little pat of butter and a drizzle of honey.




The meal was tasty, healthy and so easy. I have one other steamer recipe coming up for you this week. I hope you are enjoying these!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Steamed Chicken with Spicy Raisin Sauce

I bought an electric steamer a couple of years ago but did not use it much. I found a cookbook called "Steam Cuisine" recently and there were several good recipes in it that I want to share. Steaming is a very healthy way to prepare food and it is so simple. You don't have to buy an electric steamer, you can use bamboo steamers or a simple steaming basket that can be picked up for very little money. Lets let off some steam!












This is my steamer, I love it. It has other tiers that can be added on top of the first for steaming veggies and meats for different lengths of time.




Here are the ingredients for your sauce. yep, that is Rachael Ray on my chicken stock. The rest is butter, raisins, cinnamon and red wine.




To season the hen you need, cinnamon, lime and paprika.




Put those three things together in a bowl and mix them up.




Your hen should not have giblets inside so just give it a rinse and pat it dry.




Cut it in half down the middle.




Season it with the spice mix.




get it in the steamer and then we start working on our sauce.




Get all of the sauce ingredients in a pan but leave out the butter.




This probably wouldn't have looked so odd if I had used red grapes, but I just didn't have any!




when the sauce has reduced stir in the butter. Grab your chicken from the steamer and you are ready to plate.








This was REALLY good. I had never steamed chicken before and it turned out so juicy and delicious. I served it with more cole slaw, but it would have been great with rice or mashed potatoes.





I have more steamer recipes coming up this week!