Chicken with Fried Caperberries

I have long wondered what to do with these caperberries. They are a funny little food. Salty and ovoid like an olive, but nothing like them in texture. A customer came by and said that they slice and fry them, so I thought that would be really nice to do with chicken. They provide the perfect salty pop!

Chicken with Fried Caperberries

2 tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 onion, roughly chopped

1 sm bunch basil, roughly chopped

1 tbsp fresh tarragon

8-10 sliced caperberries

3 tbsp Garlic Olive Oil

1 lb diced chicken

squeeze of lemon

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil to medium high. Spread the caperberry slices around and let them simmer around. Let them brown lightly on each side. About 1-3 minutes each side. Toss in the onions and herbs.

Stirring occasionally, let it cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add the rest of the olive oil and the chicken. Stir to distribute and cover. Cover and simmer. Stir occasionally, it should take about 10 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes and stir. Cover and cook 2 minutes. Finish off with a squeeze of lemon and serve.

Shrimp with Coconut Sauce

I could have made regular Coconut Shrimp. But that would have been normal. And I hate frying things on my stove top. Splatter burns hurt! So I grabbed a package of pre-cooked shrimp from the grocery store and that was that!

Call this the quickest weeknight meal ever.

Shrimp with Coconut Sauce

1 pkg frozen fried shrimp, or the fresh cooked ones from the grocery store
1/3 cup Peach Jam
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flake*
4 tbsp White Coconut Balsamic
2 cloves garlic, ground to a paste (1 1/2 tsp)

Cook or warm up your shrimp according to the package directions. Stir the sauce ingredients together and taste. Add more of whatever you want, red pepper flake would be great in this! Garnish with a little extra coconut and serve!

* If all you have on hand is sweetened coconut, go ahead and use that, but toss in a bit more garlic paste to balance it out. It can get really sweet really fast!

Asparagus and Proscuitto Pizza with Pecans

We have been craving pizza. But not gooey pizza. Little individual make your own pizzas. With pesto, and salty things, and.... well, whatever I had in my fridge.

This is for one small pita pizza. Double or triple it for a full size pizza.

Asparagus and Prosciutto Pizza

1 pocket-less pita (I like whole wheat)

1 tbsp Meyer Lemon Olive Oil

2-3 tbsp Trapanese Pesto sauce* available in store

a handful of shredded mozzerella

2-3 spears asparagus thinly cut on a diagonal

a handful of pecans

Plain Sea Salt, to taste

1 slice prosciutto, torn into small bits

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the crust with the olive oil and spread the pesto over the top. Arrange everything evenly but leave off the prosciutto. It gets too crispy.

Sprinkle with the salt and bake for about 5-7 minutes. Check it at five minutes, if the cheese is browning, you're done.

Scatter the prosciutto across the top and serve.

Apple Cider Cakes

And so ends Better Breakfast Month. I have had plenty of fun with these. And there are so many more ideas I have! There should be more breakfast in the coming months. But dinners will start again soon!

These little cakes are a cross between a muffin and a cupcake. It is eggless, so it doesn't rise very much at all. So it's kind of like a little dense hockey puck of a cake. But it is moist and full of the best cider flavors. Great for breakfast, or a little afternoon pick me up.

I made this in a cupcake pan, but it would work very well in as a round or square cake too. If you would like to have something that rises more, substitute in 2 eggs for the apple sauce.

Apple Cider Cupcakes

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup Apple Cider
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup apple sauce
5 tbsp Vanilla Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 350degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray it with oil.

Stir the cider, applesauce and oil together until smoothly combined. In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the batter evenly over your pan filling each well no more than 3/4 full. If you have extra batter, a couple mini muffins will never go to waste.

Bake about 30 minutes, a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. These may take a little longer, the applesauce makes them supremely moist!

Cider Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
2 pkg (8oz each) cream cheese
3 tbsp apple cider

Blend the butter and cream cheese together. Stir in the cider and then slowly incorporate the powdered sugar.

Top off with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.

Honey Vanillla Cornbread with Balsamic Berry Compote

I was going to make a corn pancake, but I don't have a cast iron skillet. Now I know this is silly. Food blogger without essential cooking tools...

Anyway, since the recipe for corn pancakes and cornbread is extremely similar...cornbread for breakfast!

Honey Vanilla Cornbread

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Vermont Maple Sea Salt
2 eggs
1 cup water or milk
1/4 cup Vanilla Olive Oil
1/4 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x9 pan for thicker cornbread, you can use a 9x13 if you want it nice and thin.

Stir together the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. When the oven has come to temperature, stir the dry ingredient mixture into the wet slowly. Mix gently to just combine. Do not over mix the batter, it should be just moistened and still a little lumpy.

Turn the batter into your pan and bake immediately 20-40 minutes. Shorter time for a larger pan, longer for the smaller. The very edges should start to pull away from the pan and be browning. A toothpick inserted in the center of the pan should come out clean.


Balsamic Berry Compote

1 1/2 cup mixed berries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbsp Raspberry Balsamic
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp water

Place all the ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer together to reduce about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep it from burning. You can serve this right out of the pan, or toss in the fridge overnight and it will gel up a bit more like a loose jam. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Pear French Toast

This is a basic french toast. You can scale it up or down for as many people you need it for. If you want to cut back on your cholesterol, use just egg whites. This is great for breakfast, brunch, lunch, a snack, dinner, another snack...

Cinnamon Pear French Toast

3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp Cinnamon Pear Balsamic
10 slices bread

Whisk the eggs, milk and Balsamic together in a large bowl. One at a time, dip the bread in and let it soak for a few seconds on each side.

Heat a large pan or griddle up to medium low and cook the toast gently until it is browned. Flip and do the other side. 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve warm with powdered sugar or syrup, or more Balsamic!

Pumpkin Alfredo

I know that this isn't breakfast, but it is related to my recent pumpkin waffles. I had a half can of pumpkin left over and I needed to use it up. So, what to do with a half can of pumpkin? I thought about making pumpkin-cider donuts, but I am saving that for my husband's birthday. And if I make it now, I have to come up with something else for him. So I looked around the fridge and noticed some sour cream. So there we have it, Alfredo!

Pumpkin Alfredo

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spices
1 pint mushrooms
1/4 cup White Wine Jelly
2 tbsp Salonika Olive Oil
1 pkg pasta, any kind
Himalayan Pink Salt
Black Pepper

Heat the olive oil to medium in a high sided saute pan. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of the salt. Stir to coat with the olive oil and cover. Let them cook for about 6-7 minutes.

While the mushrooms are reducing themselves, cook your pasta in lightly salted water. When it is done, rinse in cold water and set aside in a large bowl.

After the mushrooms have reduced well, add the wine jelly and the spices and the pepper. Stir around and then stir in the sour and heavy creams.

Let that simmer for 1-3 minutes. Now stir in the pumpkin, making sure that everything is well combined.

If you have a large enough pan, pour the pasta into it and toss. If you don't, let it cook for another minute to fully heat the pumpkin too and then pour the sauce over the pasta.

*If you don't have wine jelly, substitute with regular wine and add 2-4 minutes to the cooking time to simmer off the alcohol.