Wheat Berry Salad with Pineapple and Cranberries

 The first time I tried wheat berries I thought they were just another new grain to experiment with in the kitchen.  I loved their chewy texture and what I assumed could only be their whole grain goodness.  Exotic right?  I was a bit embarassed to realize I couldn't put one and one together.   Turns out wheat berries are just the  whole grain form of wheat before any processing occurs.  Duh right? They look like thick, short grains — similar to brown rice and they're packed with fiber and goodness since the wheat still retains the germ and bran and other goodness.  

Ten by Sheila Lukins is a fun concept for a cookbook. Lukins (author of the Silver Palate Cookbook) compiles what she considers to be the 10 best recipes in various categories including dips, veggie soups, roasts, steaks, burgers, ribs, chicken, stews, fish, leafy salads, vegetables, pastas, grains etc.  There is even a category specifically dedicated to corn and to asparagus--10 asparagus recipes is happiness indeed.  The pictures are few and far between which makes it hard to pick up unless you are in a "reading" mood rather than a "browsing" mood but the recipes I've made so far have all been pretty fantastic.  

This recipe combines the chewiness of the wheat berry with the sweetness of pineapple and cranberries and the clean flavors of cukes and parsley.  I say that because it sounds like something I should say but confession time....I do not think parsley tastes clean or good.  I feel guilty because you always see cooks throwing fresh parsley on everything.  It's kind of required if you cook it seems.  

When I make this again, I'd opt for a bit of mint and a little bit of green onion to balance the sweetness. I adapted the recipe by reducing the sweetness (pineapple and cranberries) and increasing the cukes and wheat berries a bit. It was still a little sweet for me.  I think the green onion would add the perfect counter to the sweetness.

Parsley is lovely to look at though. 

Wheat Berry Salad with Pineapple and Cranberries

Adapted from Ten by Sheila Lukins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c wheat berries

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup diced hothouse cucumber

3/4 cup diced pineapple

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

2 tbsp chopped parsley

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Lettuce for serving

Directions:

1. Rinse wheat berries in colander.  Drain and add to a large bowl and cover with cold water by at least a couple of inches.  Let soak overnight. 
2. Drain wheat berries in colander thoroughly.  Transfer to a large pot, cover with water by three inches and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered until wheat berries begin to soften, about 15 minutes. 
3. Add a 1/2 tsp salt, and cook uncovered until tender, about 45 minutes. Drain in colander and rinse with  cold water.  Let drain thoroughly.
4. Add pineapple, cukes, cranberries and wheat berries to a large bowl. 
5. Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil and parsley and drizzle over wheat berries bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Toss and let stand for 20 mins at room temp before serving on a bed of lettuce. 

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

Is it true that farmer's market season will soon be over?  I'm enjoying the produce hoarding while it lasts.  Every week I head over and pick up my juicy Palisades peaches, fresh sweet corn on the cob and of course, now that they are in season, fresh roasted Hatch green chiles. 

Except.

Yes, except that this past weekend  the line for the chiles was atrocious and they couldn't roast them to keep up--Coloradans love their fire roasted Hatch chiles it seems.  The options were to either skip green chiles for a week or figure out another plan.  Since going without chiles even one week wasn't really a true option at any point, I picked some up at the grocery store and tried this roasting business myself. 

I'm fairly embarrassed to admit it was so very easy.  Super simple easy.  Super deduper easy.  My whole life I've labored under the conviction that chiles had to be roasted by those super cool guys who put them in the large cylindrical bingo cage and spin them while they roast.  

But alas, these can be done at home.

Throw them on a grill preheated to high and just toss them around every couple of minutes.  Literally.  No oiling them, no laying them evenly across the grates.  Grab a pair of tongs and toss, toss, toss.   Remove when charred and place in plastic bag.  Tie tight and let steam so peels will slide right off. 

When the chiles are cool you can slide the skins off, remove the stem and seeds and rinse to clean.  Then you just dice them up.  The hardest part by far is the cleaning and you still have to do that with the roasted ones you buy at the market.  Even better is the cost savings--roasted chiles at the farmer's market are $3.50/lb.  Home roasted chiles are $.99/lb.  I'll still end up supporting the man that spins them at the market because I always want him to be there happily spinning and fragrancing the air with roasted chile goodness, but $.99/lb is the kind you buy to dice up and store in baggies in the freezer for your winter green chile feasts. 

When you buy chiles each week though, it becomes a challenge as to what to make next.  I've made omelets, chicken green chili, green chile tortilla soup, quesadillas, and about a zillion other things I could think of.  This weekend I was craving enchiladas.  

I threw some chicken on the grill, shredded it up and mixed it with diced chiles, grated cheese and a bit of enchilada sauce.  Roll filling inside of a corn tortilla....

Gratuitious Boston Terrier shot. 

Pour enchilada sauce into bottom of baking dish, add enchiladas and top with enchilada sauce and some more green chiles because these are green chile enchiladas.  You might opt for the medium or mild chiles if the spice level is a bit higher than your taste buds like.  I used hot chiles and these were on fire.  In that delicious green chile way of course. 

Top with more cheese

Bake for 20 minutes and serve.   I'd never had green chile enchiladas before they are a little reminiscent of chili rellenos.  How bad can that be right?

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded chicken

1 1/2 cups dice green chiles

2 cups shredded cheese

1 can (28 oz) green chile enchilada sauce

corn tortillas (room temp)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. In a large bowl, mix together shredded chicken, 1 cup green chiles and 1 cup of the shredded cheese.  
3. Add 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce and mix well
4. Spread 1 cup enchilada sauce across the bottom of an 11x7(ish) baking dish
5. Spread a heaping spoonful of chicken filling down the center of a tortilla.  Roll sides up and place seam side down in prepared baking dish.  Repeat until all filling is gone. 
6. Top with 1 cup of sauce and remaining 1/2 cup of green chiles.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over top
7. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is bubbling. 

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

I have a friend at work who used to bring me these zucchinis from her garden.  Now that I'm back at this job, I walked into my office the other day and found a zucchini on my table.  I gratefully accepted because who doesn't love home grown produce?  

This one was a little on the bigger(enormous really) side so while a I grilled a few slices, the rest went into the food processor for shredding and became an obviously super healthy vegetable chocolate loaf.  Okay so while not the healthiest food out there,  there was gobs of zucchini and just a bit of sugar in the loaf.  

I love that you can still see streaks of green in the loaf. Chocolate + zucchini = summer happiness.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

Ingredients:
1/4 c canola oil

1/4 c greek yogurt

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 c shredded zucchini
1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c mini chocolate chips (or regular)

Directions:

1. In a mixer, combine oil, yogurt, sugars and vanilla. 
2. Mix in eggs one at a time and then add shredded zucchini. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder. 
4. Slowly add this dry mixture into your wet mixture. 
5. Mix until just combined. 
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Pour batter into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 50-65 minutes, or until done

Grilled Peaches and RolyPoly Cake

Hopefully you've all had your share of grilled veggies and fruit this summer because grilled produce is awesome.  Some of my favorite grilled fruits are our Colorado colossal super fantastic Palisades peaches that I pick up EVERY weekend at the local farmers markets when peaches are in season.  They are phenomenal all by themselves but when you need a little variety because you've been eating peaches nonstop for weeks, throwing them on the grill is a great way to mix it up.  I've been using the Tyler Florence "recipe" I posted eons ago--a drizzle of oil and some fresh rosemary.  A few minutes per side on a medium high grill and voila, you are good to go. 

The same recipe can be turned into a nice clean summery dessert with a little help from greek yogurt. Of course, this recipe works without the rosemary--I just fell in love with the peach and rosemary combo so always throw them together if I'm grilling peaches.  I served these after the Tandoori chicken I made so thought it would be nice to incorporate a little eastern flavor into the dessert as well......mmmmm cardamom and honey.

For the yogurt you simply mix 1/4 tsp finely ground cardamom(or you could use cinnamon) and 1 tsp vanilla extract into 2 cups of greek yogurt.  I tend to like my food less sweet so I opted for no honey in the yogurt itself, but if you are sugar peeps, drizzle a big glob of honey into the yogurt.  Mix well, and spoon onto warm grilled peaches  Drizzle with honey and serve.

A little Peanut turned not so little this year...5!!! Oh I'm so weepy.  And again, instead of humoring her aunt with a princessy girly cake, she's decided to love bugs...rolypolys in particular.  Since I'm a believer in encouraging what people love, I thought a rolypoly cake might be fun....that is until I realized that no one in all of internet land had ever posted a photo of a rolypoly cake they'd made.  Or at least I couldn't find one.  Crikey.  Turns out it wasn't so hard with a little chocolate fondant and a loaf cake.  

Yes, the cakes are getting lazier over the years.  I might just stick a candle in a Sara Lee pound cake and call it good next year.  Just kidding Peanut. 

Happy Birthday little Peanut.  You are this auntie's favorite 5 year old superhero. 

Puppies always know how to get in on the action.

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kabobs

The longer you go between posts, the harder it is to get back to blogging.  I have to admit to loving a little break over the summer.  Work has been exhausting, weather has been dreadfully hot and I've been lazy.  I'm sure the three are inextricably tied together. 

But alas, I fired up the grill and cooked up some indian fare.  I'm pretty sure I don't cook indian nearly often enough.  I saw a bazillion great looking recipes online and on Pinterest, but in the end, I need to justify my unnecessary cookbook collection so I grabbed American Masala off my bookshelf.  Every time I make something from a cookbook I wish I had more time (or the dedication required) to crack them open more and experiment with all of the recipes. 

This recipe for tandoori chicken taught me that tandoori chicken is not naturally colored red.  Shocking right?  You could add red food coloring if the red is important to you.  I also thought this version was pretty fascinating in that it was one of the few I've seen that included an onion (blitzed completely in the food processor) as a major marinade ingredient.  

All in all, it was fantastic and as it turns out, chopped cold tandoori chicken is also pretty tasty thrown on top of a regular 'ole green salad for lunch the next day. Definitely a recipe keeper. 

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kabobs

adapted from American Masala by Suvir Saran

For the chicken:

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp paprika

3 large chicken breasts (about 2.5 lbs) cubed into 1 inch pieces

Mix spices spices and lemon juice together in a large bowl.  Add chicken.  Stir and let sit for 30 minutes in refrigerator.

For Marinade:

1 small red onion, roughly chopped

4 large garlic cloves peeled and smashed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger

1/2 cup greek yogurt

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 teaspoon garam masala

pinch of cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

¼-½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it)

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

Place marinade ingredients into food processor and pulse until smooth.  Pour over chicken and let marinate in fridge for 8 hours or overnight

To prepare chicken, soak skewers in water for 30 minutes

Heat grill to medium-high

Thread chicken onto skewers

Grill for 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through, turning halfway through