Category: Recipes

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Entrées Featured Recipes

Portobello Mushroom and Creamy Clam Sauce Dinner

Portobello Mushroom and Creamy Clam Sauce Dinner | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: Easy
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So hearty and delicious!

Here is an easy seafood recipe!


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients


PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM AND CREAMY CLAM SAUCE DINNER:
– 2 pounds clams in shells, rinsed clean
– Water, for boiling
– 1/4 cup butter, unsalted
– 3-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
– 1 cup fresh portobello mushrooms, sliced
– 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
– 1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, to taste
– 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Directions


PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM AND CREAMY CLAM SAUCE DINNER:
1. Steam clams in pan of shallow water until they just begin to open.
2. Drain water, reserving a few tablespoons, and set clams aside.
3. In the pan, melt butter and cook over medium heat until light brown.
4. Add garlic and cook until just beginning to turn golden.
5. Add mushroom and cook on medium heat until just tender.
6. Add cream, garlic salt, and pepper.
7. Deshell clams and add to mushroom mixture along with a few tablespoons of clam juice.

 

Enjoy! Let me know what your favorite summer seafood dishes are in the comments below!

Categories
Entrées Featured Recipes

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chicken Salad Sandwich | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Easy and versatile!

One of the easiest sandwiches to make, perfect for tea parties. You can use different types of nuts and different fruits.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH:
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 cup cooked chicken, shredded
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds or walnuts
  • 1/4 cup celery, chopped
  • 1/4 cup grapes or apples, chopped
  • 1/4 cup house greens (optional)
  • 4 slices bread, sourdough or wheat as desired

Directions

    CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH:
  1. Mix mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, and garlic together.
  2. Add to shredded chicken, nuts, celery, and fruit, mix until well incorporated.
    3. 3. Layer sandwich mixture and greens onto bread.


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Categories
Bread Hors d'œuvres Recipes

Copycat Recipe: Trader Joe’s 5 Cheese Greek Spiral

Copycat Recipe - Trader Joe's 5 Cheese Greek Spiral © 2019 ericarobbin.com | All rights reserved.

Copycat Recipe - Trader Joe's 5 Cheese Greek Spiral | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 6-8
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

A winner!

I love this cheesy, flaky pastry spiral called Trader Joe’s 5 Cheese Greek Spiral.

So I decided to have my own try at making it. And it turned out spectacular! It’s super easy to make too! The perfect snack, perfect appetizer. Light, yet fulfilling, crispy, with a gooey center.

And after a few experimentations, I’ve decided that any cheese you have on hand will work just as well which is the best part if you do not have access to the listed cheeses (namely Kasseri and Kefalotyri) that are more commonly found in specialty cheese shops. I tried it with a combination of cheddars, parmesan, and different blue cheeses, all so yummy!


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    COPYCAT RECIPE – TRADER JOE’S 5 CHEESE GREEK SPIRAL:
  • 1/2 cup gouda, shredded
  • 1/2 cup kasseri, shredded
  • 1/2 cup kefalotyri, shredded
  • 1/2 cup semi-hard cheese, shredded, I used a sharp white cheddar
  • 1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled, any type, I used Bayley Hazen Blue
  • 1 package of puff pastry sheets, thawed, I used Pepperidge Farm
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon water

Directions

    COPYCAT RECIPE – TRADER JOE’S 5 CHEESE GREEK SPIRAL:
  1. Roll out pastry into a rectangle shape onto lightly floured surface, cut in 1/2, lengthwise
  2. Sprinkle cheeses over pastry.
    3. 3. Roll, then place as a spiral shape onto greased pan.
  3. Mix egg and water, brush egg mixture over pastry spiral.
  4. Bake at 350-400 degrees F (176-204C) for about 15-25 minutes, until deep golden brown and cooked through.


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How does it compare? Trader Joe’s (left), mine (right).

Mine turned out a little puffier. The taste is there though!

Another time it did settle to a more wrinkly finish. I also tried making some cut pinwheels which had a caramel, crispy cheese texture and more defined, bit of a saltier taste as a result. Very good as well and the pinwheels would make a more easily shareable appetizer.

IMG_3535Copycat Recipe - Trader Joe's 5 Cheese Greek Spiral © 2019 ericarobbin.com | All rights reserved.

Let me know if you give this one a try and what cheese you used in the comments below!

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Categories
Beverages Featured Recipes

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a Watermelon Margarita!

Watermelon Margarita | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Refreshing!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! How are you celebrating today? I think we’ll enjoy this refreshing drink along with watching Three Amigos, the movie. So hilarious!


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    WATERMELON MARGARITA:
  • 1 large watermelon, seedless, cut/cubed (5 cups) to yield about 2 cups juice
  • 2 dozen limes, juiced (about 2 cups juice)
  • Tequila (about 2 cups)
  • Splash Cointreau orange-flavoured triple sec liqueur
  • Ice, to desired cut
  • Salt for rimming glasses

Directions

    WATERMELON MARGARITA:
  1. Mix watermelon juice, lime juice, tequila for a ratio of 2:2:2 oz as desired
  2. Add just a splash of Cointreau
  3. Shake or blend with ice
  4. Pour into rimmed glasses with lime juice and salt

I hope you have a wonderful day, be sure to share you recipes and activities of the day in the comments below!

Categories
Featured Recipes Side Dishes

21 Garlic Stir-Fried Anchovies

21 Garlic Stir-Fried Anchovies | Erica Robbin

Stir-Fried Anchovies | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

21 cloves of garlic, that's right!

Stir-fried anchovies are an amazing Korean dish and so easy to make. The saltiness from the anchovies really seasons and flavors the nuts well. It’s delicious served over rice.

And of course, 21 cloves of garlic is special all in itself.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    STIR-FRIED ANCHOVIES:
  • Almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or sunflower seeds , unsalted
  • Dried anchovy, 12 ounces
  • Dried shrimp, 4 ounces
  • 21 fresh garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 tablespoons fish sauce (soy sauce as substitute)
  • 5 tablespoons honey
  • Granulated sugar (optional)
  • Sesame seeds

Directions

    STIR-FRIED ANCHOVIES:
  1. In a pan, over medium heat, combine anchovy and shrimp to dry (about 1 minute until crunchy).
  2. Continue to cook and add each ingredient one at a time, stirring until well heated through: garlic, fish sauce, nuts, honey (and optional sugar), and sesame seeds.
  3. Serve over rice.


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I hope you enjoy!

ROM AMERICA Korean Middle Size Dried Anchovies 12 oz (340g) Anchovy for Soup Stock, 볶음멸치

Haitai Red Dried Cooked Small Shrimp, 4 Ounces

*Some links may be affiliates which means I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase using them at no additional cost to you. If you choose to use them I would like to say thank you and I appreciate the support!
Categories
Ensalada Featured Recipes

Watermelon Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Watermelon Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Easy and refreshing.

Here is a super easy and refreshing salad, perfect for summer.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    WATERMELON SALAD WITH POMEGRANATE VINAIGRETTE:
  • 2 cups watermelon, cubed
  • 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, cubed
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
  • Drizzle pomegranate while balsamic vinegar (or use balsamic vinegar and pomegranate seeds)
  • Drizzle olive oil
  • Sprinkle of salt (optional)
  • Squeeze of lime

Directions

    WATERMELON SALAD WITH POMEGRANATE VINAIGRETTE:
  1. In a medium bowl, toss all ingredients together.


Watermelon Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Let me know what spring/summer salad ingredients you most enjoy in the comments below!

Categories
Desserts Featured Recipes

Pumpkin Lavender Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love pumpkin! My sister grew the one I used in this recipe and I was so excited to make so many recipes with it.

I also had some lavender from my garden and wanted to combine the two, so here is what I came up with.

The lavender is barely there which I thought was just right. It added just a bit of depth into the traditional pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, to which I also added coconut sugar and spices for a perfectly rich fall treat!

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

Pumpkin Lavender Chocolate Chip Cookies | Erica Robbin

Gardening © 2019 ericarobbin.com | All rights reserved.

Pumpkin Lavender Chocolate Chip Cookies | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 2 dozen, large size
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Much like traditional pumpkin cookies with chocolate, but with just a hint of lovely lavender.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    PUMPKIN LAVENDER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1/2 cup granulated coconut sugar
  • 1 egg, room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup fresh pumpkin (3/4 cup canned pumpkin)
  • 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream infused with lavender
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts, hazelnuts, or pecans (optional)

Directions

    PUMPKIN LAVENDER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (177 C)
  2. Mix butter and sugars until smooth.
  3. Add beaten eggs, mix completely.
  4. Mix in vanilla, pumpkin, and lavender infused whipping cream.
  5. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt. Then add to wet mixture.
  6. Then fold chocolate chips and nuts.
  7. Using medium-sized cookie scoop (for large cookies), drop balls onto cookie sheet prepared with parchment paper (or greased) 2 inches apart.
  8. Bake 10-13 minutes, or until just lightly golden.


Categories
Featured Recipes Zuppa

Garden Medley Soup

Garden Medley Soup | Erica Robbin

Garden Medley Soup | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 2-4
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Garden harvest.

Happy National Homemade Soup Day!

It has been so fun to garden this year. I have had the honor to be able to grow and harvest two seasons worth in a single year, being both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

I chose quite a few types of things to grow and since it has been harvest time for many of the vegetables, I decided to make a soup incorporating all the variety that was ready.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    GARDEN MEDLEY SOUP:
  • Any vegetables you have, I used carrot, jalapeño, serrano, garlic, beet, okra, tomatoes, onion, and kale
  • Olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 2-4 cups broth, vegetable or chicken, depending on preferred taste and consistency
  • Garden herbs, any variety, I used a bit of thyme

Directions

    GARDEN MEDLEY SOUP:
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 C)
  2. Toss vegetables, wine, salt, pepper, and oil in large baking dish, cover, and cook until vegetables are tender (about 30-45 minutes), may have to remove kale early.
  3. Remove from oven and combine with broth over stove.
  4. Add herbs as desired, cook through.

Garden Medley Soup | Erica Robbin

Garden Medley Soup | Erica Robbin

Garden Medley Soup | Erica Robbin

Let me know what vegetables you are starting to harvest from your garden and what your favorite soup is!

Categories
Entrées Featured Recipes

Samgyeopsal

Samgyeopsal | Erica Robbin

Samgyeopsal | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Easy and delicious¡

Samgyeopsal is one of those recipes that looks and taste complex, but it actually isn’t difficult to make. It’s a traditional Korean dish and the flavor mostly comes from the pork, which caramelizes as it cooks, giving it a depth of flavor. Even though the star ingredient is fried pork, Samgyeopsal also taste surprisingly fresh with all the crispness of the vegetables you wrap with it, like a lettuce wrap essentially.

Just make sure you get the correct pork though because that makes the biggest difference.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    SAMGYEOPSAL:
  • 3 lbs pork belly (not tripe), cut into bite-sized pieces
  • Lettuce leaves, bib or Boston variety is best
  • Garlic, sliced, either raw or lightly cooked in leftover pork fat
  • Jalapeños, sliced
  • Kimchi, can lightly fry in pork grease
  • Sesame seeds for garnish

    • BEAN PASTE:

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • Sesame oil
  • Sesame seeds
  • Bean paste (see photo below)

Directions

    SAMGYEOPSAL:
  1. Fry pork belly and discard fat while cooking in shallow pan until golden brown and cooked through. Garnish with sesame seeds.
  2. Lightly fry garlic and kimchi in pork fat (optional).

    3. BEAN PASTE:

  3. Mix garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and bean paste together.

    4. ASSEMBLY:

  4. Layer pork, garlic, jalapeños, kimchi onto lettuce, top with bean paste mixture, fold and enjoy!

Bean Paste | Erica Robbin

Categories
Desserts Featured Recipes

Easy Fruit Crisp

Easy Fruit Crisp © 2019 ericarobbin.com | All rights reserved.

Easy Fruit Crisp | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 2-4
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

An easy dessert or snack.

You can use any type of fruit, whether apples, varieties of stone fruits, or berries.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    EASY FRUIT CRISP:
  • Fruit, any variety such as apples, stone fruits, berries, diced
  • Oatmeal, I prefer rolled oat variety
  • Butter, optional
  • Brown sugar, optional

Directions

    EASY FRUIT CRISP:
  1. Place all desired fruits into a pan and top with oatmeal, butter, and brown sugar.
    2. 2. Bake in oven at 350 degree (177 C) for about 15-20 minutes, until tender.

    *This crisp is great served with ice cream or whipped cream.


Easy Fruit Crisp © 2019 ericarobbin.com | All rights reserved.

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*Some links may be affiliates which means I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase using them at no additional cost to you. If you choose to use them I would like to say thank you and I appreciate the support!
Categories
Desserts Featured Recipes

Lavender Petha

Lavender Petha | Erica Robbin

Winter Melon | Erica Robbin

Winter Melon | Erica Robbin

Winter Melon | Erica Robbin

And the gourd is back! With a candy recipe!

Lavender Petha | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: Several pieces
  • Difficulty: Advanced
  • Print

And the gourd is back! With a candy recipe!

Put your recipe here. Tip: use ordered and unordered lists, headings, images, and links to improve the look of your recipe. You can also use special tags to format notes, ingredients, and directions.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    Lavender Petha:
  • 1 large petha fruit (winter melon), peels, cored, and cut into 1×2 inch chunks
  • Water for soaking and cooking
  • 4 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions

    Lavender Petha:
  1. Soak petha and baking powder in either a large pot or plastic zip-lock bag overnight.
  2. Drain petha and lightly rinse.
  3. Bring petha and fresh water to a boil and cook on high heat for about 20-25 minutes.
  4. Drain petha pieces.
  5. Dissolve sugar and 1 cup fresh water in pan over high heat.
  6. Add petha and continue to cook until water continues to evaporate and petha pieces start to form a nice, slightly thicker coating.
  7. Refrigerate petha in syrup along with lavender sprigs overnight.
  8. Return petha, syrup, and lavender sprigs to the pan and continue to cook on high heat until syrup becomes thick and sticky.
  9. Remove petha pieces and allow to dry several hours on baking rack, plastic wrap, or parchment paper.
  10. Store in an air-tight container or bag.

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Categories
Featured Recipes Zuppa

Spicy Winter Melon Soup

Spicy Winter Melon Soup | Erica Robbin

My sister has been growing what we thought was a watermelon. Maybe an Ali Baba. Something yummy and sweet.

Winter Melon | Erica Robbin

Well so we thought.

It started growing bigger, like a long, Tic Tac shaped melon, then developed this white dusting, chalky, waxy coating on it.

We were so looking forward to eating it.

A nice, juicy, sweet, red, crisp watermelon.

We cut it open, nothing sweet at all.

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Instead we got a light white, green spongy, fibrous tasting of a faint cucumber which turned out to be a Winter Melon.

Winter Melon | Erica Robbin

Winter Melon sounds glamorous, it’s actually a wax gourd. A very flavorless one. It actually goes by a lot of names and you’re not supposed to eat it raw and it’s pretty much flavorless on its own.

However it does take on the flavors of whatever you cook it with so I made a spicy soup out of it and it turned out quite delicious!

Spicy Winter Melon Soup | Erica Robbin

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

We thought this was a nice red, juicy, sweet watermelon, instead we got this surprise.


Credit: ericarobbin.com

Ingredients

    GARDEN MEDLEY SOUP:
  • 4 cups chopped Winter Melon, small cubes
  • 1 cup cooked pork belly, cubed
  • 4-6 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 white onion, diced
  • 2 stalks scallions
  • 3-5 peppers, chopped, I used Serranos and Mad Hatters
  • 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • Garden herbs, any variety, I used a bit of thyme

Directions

    GARDEN MEDLEY SOUP:
  1. Cook Winter Melon in water over med-high heat for 20 minutes, drain.
  2. Simmer Winter Melon, pork belly, broth, onions, peppers, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, oregano, pepper, salt, and white over med-low heat for about 15 minutes until all vegetables are tender. I will say it does taste more flavorful the next day.

Have you ever tried this gourd? Have you ever grown an incidental vegetable that you didn’t know what to do with? Let me know what interesting harvests you have come across in the comments below!