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Creamy Polenta With Wild Mushrooms
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MySignatureDish #CollectiveBias

This recipe is my new favorite! I am hooked on this creamy polenta with wild mushrooms, goat cheese and pistachios. I am making it on the average of once a week! A bit crazy, I know, but it is so delicious I can’t get enough of it. Creamy, locally ground polenta, earthy wild mushrooms sautéed in garlic, crunchy toasted pistachios, peppery arugula, and tangy goat cheese all come together in this vegetarian one bowl meal. I’m in love!

Easter is around the corner so I treated myself to a new piece of Calphalon Signature™ Nonstick Cookware – for me, it’s better than an Easter basket! I brought home a nonstick 12″ omelet pan with a lid. I popped into Macy’s to look for something new to wear on Easter Sunday and ended up in the housewares, (read-kitchen) section. I can’t help myself I love bringing home new “stuff” for my kitchen. Calphalon Signature™ Nonstick and Stainless Steel cookware is available at Macy’s online too.

Before I share the recipe and my favorite kitchen tip I want to make you aware, this cookware combines nonstick convenience with stainless steel cooking performance and durability. It’s perfect for pan sauces and gravies, as well as sautéing, searing and browning. This special nonstick surface is so durable I can even stir with metal utensils. Unheard of with nonstick cookware. It also comes with a lifetime warranty. Score! Okay now that you know how awesome my new pan is here is my top tip for making food preparation painless and fool-proof.

Ingredients for Creamy Polenta

I find cooking or baking so much easier if I have all my ingredients measured out and within reach before I start to cook. One reason I find this a reliable step, if I happen to be out of a needed ingredient I know before I start the cooking process. Have you ever found yourself half-way through a recipe and discovered that you are missing a critical component of your recipe? Nightmare! Perhaps you only have 1/4 cup when you need a full cup, agony! I also admit I like using all these cute little bowls! You can see I’ve measured out all the necessary items for my polenta dish.

Topping Ingredients

The recipe is below but here are a couple more tips for making my most-liked one-dish meal. While the polenta is cooking, toast the pistachios, put them back in the cute little dish, next sauté the garlic and mushrooms together. You can do all of this in the same pan. When the polenta is finished you will be able to serve this elegant and exceptional meal simply by layering it all together in the bowl.

Now to surmise:
1. Measure out all ingredients before beginning to prepare any recipe.
2. When using two or more liquid ingredients add them all to the same measuring cup – who wants multiple dirty dishes?
3. Add any dry ingredients, chopped veggies, etc., that go into the recipe at the same time into the same prep bowl! Yep less is more when it comes to those cute prep bowls!
4. This is the time to put your multi-tasking skills to work. While waiting for something to boil or simmer move on to another step that can be done ahead of time – in this recipe toasting the nuts while waiting for my polenta to cook makes everything come together about the same time.
5. Keep the ingredients together near the area you will be using them. All items that will be used at stovetop, next to the stove. All items for garnishing near your plating area, etc… You get this – you’re smart!
To make the polenta first add the liquid and butter and bring to a boil. Slowly whisk in the polenta and lower the heat.

While the polenta cooks toast the pistachios. Don’t leave the kitchen during this step or you could have burned nuts! It takes about 10 minutes to toast the pistachios. Shake your pan occasionally.

Next, sauté the garlic just until it’s about to brown then add mushrooms.

It’s impossible for me not to snag a couple out of the pan while I wait on the polenta to complete the cooking process. Any mixture of wild mushrooms will work with this recipe. Don’t you love those little shimiji’s?

Clean up is a cinch as my new pan goes into the dish washer. Gourmet meal and quick and easy clean up. You can thank me later…Happy Easter!
Creamy Polenta With Wild Mushrooms
Ingredients

2 cups each milk and water

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup each polenta and grated parmesan

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 packages wild mushrooms

2 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/2 cup toasted pistachio kernels

Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions

Bring milk, water and butter to boil in a large pot.

Slowly whisk in polenta, then lower heat and cook for 20 minutes.

Stir in parmesan, yeast and salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large skillet, add garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

Add mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Season with salt and pepper.

Place polenta in bowls, then divide mushrooms, arugula, goat cheese and pistachios equally over the top.
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March 25, 2016
Spring Chili Cook-off
Spring is here – or so says the calendar. In North Carolina we are still wearing our jackets! I don’t mind though, beautiful, glorious sunny days with clear blue skies and cooler temps is fine with me. Summer heat will be here before we know it! Spring time signals renewal. Since we moved into our new home in October watching all types of flowers pop up in the yard has been something I look forward to every day. The daffodils came up in abundance, along with crocus and hyacinths sprinkled around our yard. It’s a surprise everyday to see what will peek up through the soil. This time of renewal has me mindful of what I wrote about back in January. Making these three changes – personally.

Laugh more – considerably more!
Practice the mindfulness of yoga daily – it offers a feeling of being grounded.
Revitalize The Orange Bee

I am happy to say that I am successful in this endeavor – so far! In my efforts to revitalize the Orange Bee I decided to take a look back. I went to March of 2011, which was the first year I started my blog. The two posts that caught my eye most were for Chocolate Cake, why of course, and Lucky #5. That chocolate cake still looks delicious to me but that photo – not so delicious! Don’t judge me! I was using a point and shoot back then – thank heavens for a newer, bigger, better DSLR! Lucky #5 is about a chili cook-off. You know Texans love their chili! I may not be a Texan at this time, as I live in the east, but I do still love a big bowl of chili!

Now on to the chili cook-off. It was my first and I remember all the preparation leading up to the big day. I tested my recipe several times before feeling I’d mastered it and had a bowl of chili I felt worthy of a cook-off! All of my work paid off because I won 1st place that day. If you’re interested click here and you can see how surprised and happy I was! I have never shared that recipe and I won’t now. After all who shares their prizewinning recipes with the masses? I shall not but I will share the recipe for that Deep Dark Chocolate Cake and I’ll likely bake one this week too.

If you do read my old post about the cake, I am happy to say I no longer even think about throwing Cheez-Its, Twinkies or Fig Newtons into my grocery cart. In a post soon to come I’ll be writing about what happened after my hubby and I watched “Forks Over Knives”! If you haven’t seen this documentary – do…it’ll make more sense when you read my story about it! Now, go bake a cake!
Deep Dark Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups brewed coffee, at room temperature

2/3 cup canola oil

2 large egg whites

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions

Preheat oven to 350*. Coat 2 9′ round cake pans with cooking spray. Cover the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl, whisking well. In a separate bowl combine coffee, oil, egg whites, vinegar, and vanilla, whisking well. Combine coffee mixture with flour mixture, whisking until smooth. Divide batter evenly between the two prepared pans; tap pans on work surface to break air pockets.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes come out clean. 30-35 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of cakes; invert cakes onto cooling racks. Remove parchment if necessary and cool completely before icing.
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March 21, 2016
National Pancake Day
Hey y’all it’s National Pancake Day! My radar is resounding “Pancakes for Dinner”. These tender stacks spread with butter and drizzled or drowned in syrup are referred to by many names. Pancakes, hotcakes, flapjacks, griddle cakes, and crepes – depending on where you hail from.

photo compliments of Dixie Allan

When will you eat pancakes today? Where will you put away a plate of hotcakes today? I’d love to hear all of your ideas! If you are going to grab your flapjacks “out” here are some deals and freebies brought to you by Fortune Magazine. My hubby and I will be going to a local diner for pancakes bigger than our heads! Chances are we will share a stack because they fill up an entire dinner plate! Pancakes for dinner – yes, count me in.

I’ll take mine plain and simple with a bit of butter and pure maple syrup. My kids always begged for me to toss in a handful of chocolate chips – which I obliged them. Pancakes are pretty delicious with blueberries or bananas and pecans too! When we have them at home I like to make the batter from scratch, heat up my syrup and have them with a side of fresh berries! Here’s my recipe below if you choose to enjoy your flapjacks at home today.

However and whenever you dive into your plate full today be sure to savor each bite and smile!
Pancake Batter
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed

Additions like nutmeg, cinnamon, or ginger may be added to your liking.
Instructions

Preheat griddle to 375*F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the milk and vanilla.

Whisk the butter into the milk mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and whisk until a thick batter is just formed.

Brush some melted butter griddle over when it has reached desired temperature.

Using an ice cream scoop ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet, to make a pancake. Take care to keep them evenly spaced apart.

Cook, until bubbles break the surface of the pancakes, and the undersides are golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Flip with a spatula and cook about 1 minute more on the second side.

Serve immediately or transfer to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.

Repeat with the remaining batter.
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March 8, 2016
Chocolate Breakfast Bars
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #LoveDoveFruits #CollectiveBias

Chocolate for breakfast? Why, yes please! Wouldn’t you want to eat chocolate for breakfast if you could have it in this dark chocolate breakfast bar? I mean, dark chocolate, fruit, nuts, oats, it makes breakfast on the go an easy option! Definitely a smarter indulgence than a donut! I used DOVE® Chocolate Fruit & Nut blends in these bars and threw in a few cacao nibs for some extra crunch. They satisfy my sweet tooth and taste super indulgent!

My hubby takes a grab and go breakfast every day except Friday. He loves these bars for breakfast but he also digs them for a late night snack. Actually I do too – with a big glass of ice cold milk.

When I ran to Walmart to grab some paper products I saw this special display of DOVE® Chocolate Fruit and Nut products, it’s only up for a short time this month. The display caught my eye right away because I saw DOVE® Dark Chocolate Strawberry & Cocoa Almond and I knew those would pair wonderfully with my bars. Upon closer inspection I got a little carried away seeing that there are also, DOVE® Dark Chocolate Blueberry & Vanilla Cashew, DOVE® Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Honey Roasted Almond and DOVE® Dark Chocolate Cranberries
DOVE® Dark Chocolate Blueberries, DOVE® Dark Chocolate Cherries, DOVE® Roasted Almonds covered in Milk Chocolate, DOVE® Roasted Almonds covered in Dark Chocolate. I wanted ALL of them for crushing those mid-afternoon snack attacks! Dove – you had me at dark chocolate covered almonds!

These bars come together quickly and are ready to enjoy about an hour after being prepared. I’m loving them with the DOVE® Chocolate Fruit & Nut goodies” incorporated but you know what I might like even better? Creating a medley in a bowl and grabbing a handful for a snack! These little gems are helping me stick to my goals of choosing indulgences that are better for me!

The best thing about these breakfast bars, besides the fact that they are super delicious is they are easily adaptable. Which DOVE® Chocolate Fruit & Nut product would you put in these bars? Here’s a link to a coupon so you can get a “deal” on any of these yummy chocolate fruit and nut mixes – remember they will be in a special display at Walmart. Good for you dark chocolate, nuts and fruits – I call it snack perfection!
Chocolate Breakfast Bars

Recipe Type: Breakfast/Snack

Author: Linda Walbridge
Ingredients

2 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cup toasted whole wheat berry flakes

1 cup pistachios

1/4 cup cacao nibs

1 package DOVE® Dark Chocolate Strawberry & Cocoa Almond

1/2 cup DOVE® Dark Chocolate Covered Blueberries

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
Instructions

Line the bottom of a 9×13 pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine oats, cereal, nuts and DOVE® Chocolate Fruit & Nut products.

Stir to combine.

In a 2 quart saucepan, combine the brown sugar, honey, vanilla, butter, peanut butter and salt.

Bring to a boil and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, over medium high heat until it reaches 220* on a candy thermometer.

Immediately pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are coated.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press into the pan using your fingers.

Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Cut into bars before serving.
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March 7, 2016
Chocolate Avocado Pudding
Oh man – I am so excited about this pudding recipe. Not only is it rich and creamy but it’s made in the blender and then chilled! Super easy with a decadent chocolate flavor. At the spice shop where I log in a few hours a week we sell a type of cocoa called Black Onyx Cocoa Powder. It’s the ultimate “cocoa powder”. You can tell by the color of the pudding how deep and dark this cocoa is!

I love this recipe for it’s ease of preparation but also it’s versatility. I used coconut flavored almond milk but you can substitute whole milk, coconut milk, or soy milk. For a twist on the flavor instead of coconut extract, which I used, try almond, vanilla or cherry! Another option would be to add a bit of cinnamon or a spoonful of peanut, cashew, or almond butter. Actually the options are endless. How are you going to switch it up? I’d love to hear your ideas on how to transform this perfect pudding!
Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Author: Craig Van Laanen – Savory Spice Huntersville, N.C.
Ingredients

2 ripe avocados

1/2 cup black onyx cocoa powder

1/2 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup almond milk

1-2 teaspoons coconut extract
Instructions

Slice avocado in half and remove the pit.

Scoop out the fruit and add it to a blender or food processor.

Toss in remaining ingredients.

Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally.

Add a bit more milk to achieve your desired consistency.

The pudding can be served right away or chilled until ready to serve.

Garnish with toasted almonds, pecans or walnuts, or toasted coconut.
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February 25, 2016
Have You Fallen In Love With Yoga?

I am in love with yoga – are you? Are you a devoted yogi? Have you never attended a yoga session? Yoga is so much more than a “workout” or a date with “meditation”. I’ve participated in my share of group exercise classes, everything from Zumba to step to circuit training but the one class that I cannot live without is yoga. It’s more of a focused choice to say, “I cannot live without it”, I choose to make it a part of my fitness routine.

This week in my yoga practice we have been practicing “heart openers”, you know with it being February and Valentine’s Day and all. Heart openers are achieved by a series of poses where by we gently fold our shoulders back and down, we press our chests open and forward and up. Poses with names like “camel” and “Supta Baddha Konasana”, a reclining , bound pose, also “cobra” and “extended side angle”. Sounds intriguing – right? Well, let me tell you, these poses open up the chest, the airways and the heart, healing ones mind, body and spirit. These heart opening poses actually release the stress and tension we hold in our chest.

A thought that was offered to help us focus on opening our hearts in our practice this week was of a lotus flower. It was said that, a lotus flower only blooms in muddy waters. Our thoughts and feelings are often muddy or muddied by outside forces, but we have the ability to be like the lotus and bloom in spite of the mud.

Water color by: Claudia Tremblay

All of that said to get to what you need to know – The Benefits of Yoga- or why you should fall in love with yoga!

There are numerous benefits to practicing yoga. Let’s start with creating strength, awareness and harmony in ourselves, something for everyone! If you’re a mature woman, like me, or a millennial or somewhere in the middle there is a reward for each of us. We can all expect to experience increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, and improved respiration, energy and vitality. If you are in the first category, let’s just say, “over 50” and you are starting to experience aches and pains from arthritis, lower back pain or chronic pain in general, yoga offers a way to innately address these issues. Incorporating meditation and breathing technique offers all of us mental clarity, calmness, centers our attention and sharpens our concentration – tell me if you do not need any of those benefits, because if you don’t, I’d like to know your secret.

art by: SkyBlueWithDaisies

I am in love with yoga because I reap the rewards. It’s an hour a few days a week that I am unwilling to give up for myself. If you’ve not tried yoga, or tried it once and thought it was silly, or have a preconceived idea that you can’t hit the poses, you are silly – give it a real try. I mean attend a yoga practice regularly, you may not strike all yoga poses like other yogis in the class, but who’s looking? I am in love with yoga because it makes a vast difference in my day to day demeanor, my thought process and the way it makes me feel physically.

Start today – February is the ultimate month to begin your yoga practice, I mean with all those hearts posted in shop windows and Valentine’s Day celebrated and all that jazz…just go fall in love!

February 18, 2016
Can I Diversify My Blog Successfully?

A few posts back I talked about how glad I am to see 2016 arrive! A new year always spurs me to consider new ideas, change things up a bit, DIVERSIFY! This year the thought I am most focused on is my blog and the need or more precisely the want to diversify it. I hit a giant roadblock last week however, when I was infiltrated with a substantial amount of malware. Hackers suck and so did this set back! Now I am more than ready to get on with it.

You may laugh at this; the first time I heard about a blog, a little over 5 years ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was! Laughable in this day and age. I was immediately intrigued with blogs and began to google them to find out what all the fuss was about. What I quickly discovered was “I want to blog”! The segment on TV talked about how if you want to blog you need to choose a topic that you can easily write about for at least one entire year. Hmmmm…I answered that question right away…FOOD! I jotted down several months worth of ideas for recipes or food related posts I could tackle, figured out how to get a blog up and running and so it began.

The date my blog went live was January 4, 2011. Since that date the vast majority of my posts have been food or bee related. Recipes, the bulk of which I think it is safe to say are sweet; cakes, pies, cookies, brownies. It’s not difficult to determine that my favorite food is of the sweet variety. Not beneficial for my health but true none the less. Although many people find “bees” interesting those are not my most visited posts. Do I want to stop writing about food and bees? No, no, I want to continue to write about both. So you may be asking,”why do you want to diversify?”.

Here’s the deal. There are thousands of food blogs out there in the blogosphere. There is a place for each and every one of us too. Blogs about bees…not so many but a fair number. Here’s the catch – I feel a pull to write about life and lifestyle.

There, I said it. Who will my musings be of interest to? I can’t answer that question today. I have an inkling who they may be – maybe YOU or if I’m charmed perhaps I’ll acquire a few new readers! I might want to write about yoga, or birds, or my latest book crush, or some brilliant thought that passed through my head. Motherhood, being a wife, an empty nester or why I like oil pulling.

I want to challenge myself to be a more creative writer, to not get weighed down by restrictions on my blog. Looking back, in the beginning my photos were pretty pathetic. I was using a point and shoot camera. I’ve since acquired a great camera and feel my photos are vastly improved. Now I’m ready to work on the content. So…here I go again. Same song-second verse. Now….hmmm what to tackle first? I’m open to suggestions…fire away! See ya’ soon!

February 15, 2016
Have YOU Been Hacked?

Hey everyone! A little over a month ago my blog was hacked. A royal pain in the ass! I went through the logical steps to get it cleaned up with my server and tech girl. Everything seemed to be clear and I was off and running after being off line for about 2 days. No biggie – I mean I was pissed that someone thought there was something to be gained by busting into my site and messing it up but it was fixed pretty quickly so I moved on. Until about 8 days ago when I discovered that I could not find any of my media. I immediately contacted my tech girl, who is great! She stopped what she was doing and checked out the blog and reported that it still looked clean. BTW, we’d installed some secondary protection after the first hacker attacked. But this was the beginning of my nightmare. Have YOU ever been hacked?

I’m not going to go into detail because the purpose of this post is to first, make you aware of what happened and secondly, to apologize to anyone who this might have negatively affected. I still do not understand precisely how my blog was infected with 2400 malware viruses – bots. I do not like bots! What I do understand is that these viruses completely screwed up my site for over a week, caused me sleepless nights and a boatload of bucks to have it manually cleaned up. Today I think I am safe. I now have even more ongoing protection on my blog to hopefully prevent this from recurring.

I can tell you I drank plenty of wine in the evenings as I wrung my hands wondering how and when this mess would be cleared up and I could begin to blog again.

I have some exciting news to share with you in my next few posts. I hope that you haven’t been too discouraged, that you are willing and happy to be back and hang with me! If you see that google still has me “blacklisted” – you know, when you see “this site may have been hacked” under The Orange Bee in your search engine – rest assured I’ve done all I could to clear and clean up this crap. Don’t be scared – come back soon – that warning will be removed in a few days – Google will of course have to check out the clean up – as they should. If you’ve ever experienced a serious hack job or even a small one I’d love to hear all about it. I definitely will understand!

It’s all good now and I am elated to back at my desk, writing and visiting with you. Now in celebration of my nightmare having ended, I think I’ll go have a glass of vino!

February 12, 2016
In Search Of Oma’s Tea Cakes
I’ve started a new project. Collecting family recipes. My family is super small. I am an only child, my Dad, also an only child and my Mom, one sibling. Not an abundance of aunts, uncles or cousins. When I was a little girl we didn’t see much of my Mom’s side of the family. It required traveling quite a distance. Not something my family of 3 did often. But on a few occasions I remember visiting my great grandmother, who was called Oma, in Schertz, Texas. It was her recipe for Tea Cakes that got me started on this whole project and a series of unlikely but fitting events that propelled me to try and nail it! More on those events another time!

Oma, German for grandmother, traveled to the United States from Germany when she was but a tiny girl, around 3 years of age. Her name was Augusta, it means majestic! The home I remember was a rambling, white home with a wrap around porch, a garden and chickens and sheep. Her home is now recognized by the city of Schertz as a historical landmark. She lived to be 102! I hope I’ve got some of her genes!

Tea Cakes are the one “food” I remember from my visits as a small child. In my memory they were the size of salad plates and were kept in a large clear glass cookie jar. At this time I am investigating to try and find her original recipe. In the meantime my Mom came up with this recipe and tells me it is decidedly close to Oma’s recipe.

I remember a tender, cake like “cookie” with a crisp edge and bottom. I tried her recipe for sugar cookies first as my memory thought it was a sugar cookie. While very good, it was not the “cookie” I recalled. That’s when my Mom said, “I bet it is her Tea Cakes you remember”. Turns out she was right.

I’ll share this recipe as it is wonderful. Sweet enough, with a hint of almond, one of my favorite extracts, yielding that crisp edge and bottom. It is the perfect combo of soft, tender and crunchy. I have been eating them for breakfast with my hot coffee, for dessert with a glass of ice cold milk and as a snack just because I can!

If and when I obtain Oma’s actual recipe I’ll do a comparison of the recipes, bake a batch of her originals and report the results. Do you have memories of a favorite family recipe that you can’t get your hands on? What foods are in your memory bank that your grandmothers, great-grandmothers or older family members kept on hand? Share your recollections in the comments section – it’ll make me smile!
Dropped Tea Cakes

Serves: about 3 dozen
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 1/8 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 cup buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions

Heat oven to 375*F

Cream butter, gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer.

Add eggs, beating well.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda and nutmeg, add to creamed mixture, alternately with buttermilk, mixing well.

Stir in almond extract.

Drop dough by large tablespoons onto a lined cookie sheet. (use parchment or silicone liner or grease)

Bake at 375* for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool on racks.
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February 1, 2016
Vadouvan Chicken Meatballs Win $500.00
The big game is lurking….I am super excited because the Carolina Panthers are playing in this Super Bowl. Since we moved to North Carolina a little over 2 years ago, I’ve been attempting to turn my man Dan into a Panthers fan. This year I figure he’s finally on board. He was lucky enough to be invited to both of the play off games down in Charlotte which definitely played into my scheme and made him a believer.

On Super Bowl Sunday there must be a variety of snacks leading up to and during the game. I wanted to serve some healthier snacks this year so I put my thinking cap on and got a little help from al fresco all natural chicken meatballs. Here’s the scoop on al fresco, they make chicken sausage, patties, grillers, meatballs and breakfast sausage that taste delicious and have 50%-70% less fat than traditional pork and beef products—and they’re 100% all natural and gluten-free. I ask you,”whats not to like?”.

In 2016 I have also set a goal for myself in the kitchen to try more curries, middle eastern and asian foods, I guess you could say I am ready to explore more”exotic” foods. Here was my opportunity. Instead of making the usual suspects swedish or sweet and sour meatballs, I elected to try the al fresco chicken meatballs in a Vadouvan Soubise. I went waaaay out on a limb with this dish, as Vadouvan is a French derivative of masala. Flavorful with a mixture of onion, shallots, garlic, black mustard, cardamom, fenugreek and cumin, it’s actually very mild. Soubise sounds rather exotic – right? Soubise is an old-school French sauce classically made by pureeing softened onions with béchamel. I lightened up the traditional Soubise by using half and half instead of cream and modernized it with the addition of Vadouvan.

You’ll have plenty of time for watching the game as this dish comes together quickly and will easily keep warm in a crock pot. If snacking isn’t your thing but you want to provide an easy and healthy dish to nosh on during the game serve the meatballs and the sauce over a bowl of rice. Either way using al fresco pre-cooked Caramelized Onion Chicken Meatballs is the way to go. Healthy and tasty!

Oh ! here’s a little something you’re gonna like…al fresco is sponsoring a Game Day Appetizer Blitz where you could win $500.00 and a years worth of al fresco products. Seriously, just click on the link above, vote for your favorite of 4 recipes and submit. Don’t wait – click and enter today. The contest is on for about 36 more hours. READY…GO!!!! Good luck!
Vadouvan Chicken Meatballs

Author: Linda Walbridge
Ingredients

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 medium carrots, thinly sliced

4 celery stalks, sliced

4 scallions, sliced

2 cups half and half or cream

1 package al fresco chicken meatballs (caramelized onion flavor)

2 tablespoons Butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 teaspoons Vadouvan Curry
Instructions

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add carrots, celery and scallions, in that order.

Saute until crisp tender.

Remove vegetables from skillet and set aside.

Melt butter in same skillet and when it foams add the chopped onions. Cook and stir frequently until onions are soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in the cream and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Carefully pour the mixture into a blender or food processor.

Add the Vadouvan.

Blend until well mixed.

Pour the mixture back into the same skillet.

Add meatballs and heat until meatballs are warmed all the way through.

Add sautéed veggie mixture to skillet and stir to blend.

Keep warm and serve as an appetizer or serve over a bowl of cooked rice.
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January 28, 2016