capers...

The more I cook with capers, the more I become a fan. Which is intriguing for two reasons: 1. I hate olives. 2. The Boser's middle name is Capers. Tehe.

Tonight's dinner consisted of two caper-fueled dishes: Tilapia with Walnut-Caper Brown Butter and a side salad with my all-time favorite dressing, Lemon-Caper Vinaigrette. Nommers.

The Walnut-Caper Brown Butter was a new dish for me. I found the recipe on Kitchen Daily (which is now a part of the Huffington Post). The recipe suggests chicken, but it was perfection with the Tilapia. Tilapia is great. It's super healthy for you, and you can get a big bag of frozen fillets for pretty cheap. Win win.

Here's our Walnut-Caper Brown Butter bubblin' on the stove:

Nom nom nom.

Here's the recipe, if you want to make it yourself. In other news, I highly recommend you make it yourself.

A field green side salad with carrots, cucumber slices, and my lemon-dill vinaigrette was the perfect accompaniment. I neglected to take a picture of the awesomeness, but this creamy dressing will quickly become a staple in your salad arsenal.

Here's how you whip it up:

Combine the following ingredients in a bowl:

1/4 cup of mayo or miracle whip
2 T. wine vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. olive oil
1 T. capers (juice or minced in a food processor)
pinch of black pepper

Whisk all ingredients and sprinkle over your salad greens.

Make it happen.


Loves and Hugs,

Rachel Elise

gluten-free cookie shake...

Since finding out about my gluten sensitivity in October 2011, I've done a lot of research on gluten-free eating. Far and away the weirdest food that I've discovered can potentially be a no-no is ice cream. ICE CREAM. I really don't understand how they do it, but if you look at a lot of ice cream labels, you'll be out of luck if you're avoiding gluten.

Luckily I live in Texas and a lot of Blue Bell flavors are gluten-free, but I still love making homemade ice cream in my Cuisinart maker.  Before you write off making your own homemade deliciousness, you have to check out the 2-Quart Cusinart Ice Cream Maker.

Cuisinart 2-Quart Ice Cream Maker

The maker comes with a cylinder core that your freeze in your freezer... no messing with the salt and ice and all the things that are a hassle with making your own batch. Just freeze the core for 24 hours, mix your ingredients, chill in the fridge for an hour, dump them in the maker, and wait half an hour. IT RULES. The softest, creamiest ice cream in the world. And I always know that it's 100% gluten-free.

Because of the growing awareness of gluten-related health issues, along with some kind of bizzaro fad diets, you can buy a gluten-free version of just about anything. But I'm a sucker for ice cream (duh... I'm writing about homemade ice cream in February), and milkshakes are my main weakness. Yet even with the popularity of gluten-free, when it comes to a cookie/oreo shake, you're on your own.


So this afternoon I whipped up this little guy with my Cuisinart Hand Blender.

nom nom nom.

In addition to the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, I highly recommend their Hand Blender. It comes with a mini-food processor attachment, an immersion blender attachment, and a whisk attachment. Totally useful and versatile while using minimal cabinet space.

Cuisinart Hand Blender Set

Here's how I made my shake:

I crumbled two Enjoy Life Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies into the measuring cup that came with my hand blender. Then I added in a cup and a half of homemade vanilla ice cream (using the "Simple Vanilla" recipe from the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker instructional booklet). I added in half a cup of milk and let my immersion blender go to work.

Delicious.



Loves and Hugs,

Rachel Elise

P.S. This was the first time I had tried the Enjoy Life cookies. They are really delicious and have a fantastic texture, but are pretty pricey for the number that came in the box.

sushi night...

Last night was sushi night for me and the Boser. We got a fire going in the fireplace, watched new episodes of our favorite NBC Thursday comedies (aka all of them), and pigged out on sushi. It was a pretty excellent evening.

Over the summer, my sister took a sushi-making class and passed her knowledge on to me. Would you like for me to pass the knowledge on to you as well? Okay, okay. Calm down. You don't have to beg.


1. Pick your ingredients.

Regardless of your sushi filling choices, you'll need calrose rice (preferably the Botan brand), rice vinegar, and nori, or seaweed.

You can pick up all of these ingredients in the Asian food section of your grocery store, or, if your grocery store has a sushi cart where you can buy pre-made sushi, they probably have the ingredients on display over there as well.

Then choose what fun stuff you want to go inside. The Boser and I usually opt for vegetarian sushi at home, because the two of us couldn't eat a whole tuna steak in a timely manner. (If you do want to go with tuna, get a sushi-grade tuna steak from the butcher at your grocery store. Only use it for sushi if you buy it still frozen, or if the butcher thawed it that day. Use the same day as thawing.) We did avocado, jalapeno, cream cheese, and cucumber last night.


2. Prepare the rice.

Cook the rice several hours before you plan on making your sushi. You want the rice to have time to cool on the counter at room temperature. Putting it in the fridge will make it hard, though I have refrigerated it in a pinch (aka when I always forget to make it early) and it's not bad.

I usually make four rolls, which is plenty for the Boser and I to share. Here's the recipe for the rice:

Cook 1 1/2 cups of rice in 2 cups water, as directed on the package. When rice is done cooking, add in 1/4 cup of rice vegar 1 1/4 tablespoons of sugar, and a couple dashes of salt.

3. Make your sushi!

Cut up your veggies/meat/etc in thin strips. Lay out a piece of nori on a bamboo sushi mat (you can pick this up at the grocery store for a few bucks) and a pat a thin layer of rice onto the nori, covering all but 1 inch at the top and bottom. You'll want to wet your fingers during this process to keep the rice from sticking to you.

Place your cut up ingredients in the center of the nori/rice, in a line going all the way across the nori. Using your sushi mat, roll the bottom of the nori up over the ingredients. Unroll the mat and keep rerolling a little furthur each time until the whole piece of nori is wrapped up. Use a serrated knife to gently saw through the roll to cut it into pieces.

You just made sushi! Yay! :)

Hugs and loves,

Rachel Elise

P.S. I stocked up on fabric today. Woohoo!