TLC In The Kitchen

Well, today was an unexpected day off from work. Unfortunately, it was because I had two sick kids. One was sneezing, coughing and blowing her nose every 30 seconds and the other was throwing up. Lovely, what a way to start the day.

Since I was going to be home all day, I decided to be productive. I got all the dishes washed and put away. The laundry was also caught up. Everything was picked up and vacuumed, swept and wiped off. Someone please let me go to work!!!

Actually, it wasn’t that bad. It felt good to get everything caught up. Then I decided to start on dinner. I made a delicious pork stew and while that was simmering, I started a batch of French bread, roasted some chicken breasts for future use, pulled together a nice salad and made a chocolate cake. I love to cook and don’t always have a lot of time to do it, so it was nice.

I am also a multi-tasker, thus the bread raising while the stew simmered and the cake baked. You could smell all the yummies inside and outside the house. I also roasted some garlic to make a spreadable cheese for the fresh bread. I got carried away and made another spreadable cheese with homemade green olives in ricotta. Delicious!

Here’s a few of the recipes I made today:

Mandarin Orange and Spinach Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 pound baby spinach
16 oz. can of mandarin oranges (drained)
1/4 small red onion
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Rinse the spinach and dry well. Drain oranges and add to spinach in a large salad bowl. Finely mince the red onion. In a small mason jar, combine the onion, orange juice concentrate, vinegar, olive oil and salt. Shake well to mix. Just before serving pour the dressing over the salad and mix well.

Roasted Garlic Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

3 whole bulbs of garlic
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup ricotta cheese

Cut the tops of the garlic. Place on parchment paper or wax paper with a layer of foil underneath. Pour the olive oil over the garlic and sprinkle with a little salt. Roast in a 350°F over for about 1 hour until the garlic is soft and caramelized. Allow the garlic to cool before trying to work with it.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and salt. Turn the garlic bulbs upside down and squeeze out the soft centers of the cloves. Pour in any leftover olive oil from the foil. Using a fork, mash and mix the cheese and garlic together. Allow the spread to come to room temperature. Serve with fresh bread or crackers.

Green Olive Ricotta Spread

Ingredients:
1/2 cup green olives (pitted) I used homemade cracked Greek olives
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Finely chop the green olives. Mix with the ricotta cheese and the pepper. Allow the spread to come to room temperature. Serve with fresh bread or crackers.

It turned out to be a great day. It was topped off with a delicious, nutritious meal. And who doesn’t like that?