Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

I’d never made an actual risotto before I attempted this recipe a month or so ago. In fact, I’d never even eaten much less prepared butternut squash before. But, I mean really, how could it be bad? Butter? Yum! Nuts? Yum!! Squash? Yum!!! And please, all of the risottos I’ve had were about the richest and fabulous things I’ve ever eaten.

Despite all of this evidence pointing to it being a potentially successful meal, I have to admit I was a little nervous to actually attempt it. People always say risottos are delicate and difficult to create correctly. And really, according to the name, it always seemed to me that single malt scotch should be delicious, like malted milk shakes and butterscotch candy, but I’ve tasted a $200 glass of scotch and it does NOT taste like that. More like rubbing alcohol. So really, who even knows if this butternut squash would live up to the promise of its name?

Regardless of my worries I trudged on. I peeled and chopped the squash as was directed and roasted it on a cookie sheet.

And to my delight, it absolutely lived up to its name! In fact, Jonas (my 2 year old) ate it like candy right off the cookie sheet straight from the oven. He loved it.

I then moved on to the actual risotto part of the recipe. In general, I try to stick with the rule that the first time I use a recipe, I follow it exactly, with no substitutions. This time, however, I decided to take a risk and switch out the pancetta for Italian sausage, which I browned before I began the risotto and set it aside to add when I put in the butternut squash. I also omitted the saffron, just because I didn’t have any and hadn’t worked with it before.

Cooking the rice and cheese was actually much easier and more soothing than I expected. It was time consuming, but relaxing; just a stir and a pour here and there for about 45 minutes.

After the rice was sufficiently cooked I mixed in the sausage and the butternut squash and voila! I absolutely loved it and ate the leftovers for days. The ungrateful, bland-paletted children, however, were another story. Can’t please everyone, I suppose. Someday they will love their mother’s gourmet cuisine, right?

Last night I made Eggplant Parm. I got started late and it took awhile (I’m slow) and I managed to burn my hand on the oven. Regardless, I thought it tasted great. The kids, on the other hand, were interested in nothing but garlic bread. Boo.

Anyway, it’s a good recipe and is considered ‘healthy’ because there’s no frying of the eggplant involved.

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants
1 container of Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1 container of shredded parm
3 cups of shredded mozzarella
2 jars of marinara sauce

Process:

Peel eggplants and slice them into quarter-inch thick rounds. Soak in a bowl of water for 10 minutes (to reduce the bitter taste of the seeds). Dry with paper towels. Set up two bowls, one with 2 egg whites and 1/2 cup water (whisked together) and one with breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup parm mixed. Dip each eggplant round first in the egg white mixture and then in the breadcrumbs and lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Broil eggplant until toasted on each side. Layer first marinara sauce, then eggplant, then cheese in a casserole dish until you are out of eggplant. Top with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degree for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and marinara is bubbly.

Couldn’t be easier, right?

I’m going to let you in on a secret, just between the two of us, and only because you’re a faithful elizabethnewlin.com reader.

Come a little closer… just lean in a bit and keep your voice down. That’s right, you’re cool. Nothing exciting here to see, People, keep moving.

Ok… I’m going to give you the recipe for Party Potatoes. SHHHHHHH! I said keep it down!! Act a little more nonchalant! Good lord, you want the whole world to know?

Party Potatoes is an age-old Disbrow Family recipe. Mom/Grandma Jackie only makes them on holidays and special occasions and gave me the recipe when I got married, with the expressed instructions that I was NOT ALLOWED to bring the dish to any occasion at her house.

They may not look like much, but I regularly bring Party Potatoes to Tolar/Newlin family events, alongside various other ‘gourmet’, billion-ingredient dishes, and the one that is gone first is always: Party Potatoes.

So I’m sharing this recipe with you, because Mom/Grandma Jackie Disbrow does not read blogs. However, you are officially sworn to NEVER BRING THIS DISH TO A DISBROW FAMILY OCCASION. Do you hear me Internet? Because I am not joking. Use this recipe for your own personal taste bud joy, but do NOT upstage the Jackie. Because I will cut you. Don’t cross me.

It’s very simple, People:

1/2 white onion – chopped
1 can condensed cream of celery soup (undiluted)
4 oz cream cheese
3/4 package frozen potatoes O’Brien
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the first three ingredients and microwave them for 3ish minutes (until the onions are clear). Stir with frozen potatoes and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Cover with cheddar and bake until cheese is melted.

Yep, it’s that easy. Take it to Thanksgiving Dinner and let the praise roll in.

I want to a dinner party this weekend. We had this idea that we could mimic the show Iron Chef and pick and ingredient that everyone would have to use in the different courses. We chose lime as our main ingredient.

Debbie made ceviche:

(YUM!)

Laura P. made a yummy salad with a lime vinaigrette and limed veggie skewers. Laura T. made a tomatillio lime salad and a cilantro lime pesto.

I did a Tequila Lime Chicken Pasta:

And we finished it off with four lime desserts made by Danielle, Jessica and Laura P.:

There were, of course, margaritas, limeade, lime sherbet smoothies and even Pepsi with Lime for beverage choices.

It was a totally fun experiment, but I think we learned that there’s a reason why people usually balance the flavors of their meals a little better. By the third bite of the evening, the only thing I could taste was lime. In fact, I may have had my fill of lime for the month.

Next time, Mexican, maybe.

The Lime Gals:

Laura T., Jessica, Debbie, Danielle and Jackie, Laura P. and Me! (Yes, I realize Laura T.’s eyes are closed, but mine are closed in the other one we took and it’s my website, ha!)

Since my last post was so heated and controversial, I thought I’d transition to something calming to everyone: quiche (right? No one has any blood boiling opinions on eggs and crust, do they?).

I made a quiche last weekend for Easter brunch and I thought it turned out well. I was thinking of posting the recipe, but I realized that it’s less of a recipe and more of a map of how to get from A to Quiche. Really, quiche is four parts, and as long as you have those four parts, it’s tough to screw it up. The four parts are: Crust, Filling, Cheese and Eggs. You can interpret these in many different ways and it will still come out yummy. Mine went like this:

Crust – Pillsbury Crescent Rolls dough pressed into a greased pie tin.

Filling – Asparagus, onion and red potato chopped and sauteed in olive oil until tender.

Cheese – Ideally grated Gruyere (a cup or so), but a nice swiss works almost as well.

Eggs – 5 eggs beaten with about 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a 1/4 cup of skim milk.

I put the filling into the pie tin filled with crescent roll dough, top with cheese and then pour the egg over top until it’s full. I don’t always use all of all of the ingredients. Then I bake it at 375ish until the middle isn’t liquid anymore (jiggle it to tell). The top will be a bit brown.

You could do a zillion variations on this. Make it southwestern by using green chilies, red peppers and sausage as the filling and a pepper jack cheese. Maybe toss in a blue cheese and add ham for the filling. You could also use a premade pie crust or make one from scratch. Or if you like your quiche eggier (my version’s on the creamy and cheesy side) omit some of the cheese and cream and add a few more eggs.

Try out a quiche. I find them classic, creative and perfect for brunch!

One of my favorite easy, healthy recipes is Asparagus and Lemon Chicken with Rice. It is all healthy, basic ingredients and literally takes about 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped
Salt and pepper
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red pepper, minced
1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup white wine
3 cups cooked rice

Preparation:

Cook chicken in skillet with olive oil over medium high heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown. Add the garlic and red pepper. Add the asparagus and cook for 1 minutes. Stir in zest and wine and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 3 minutes. Serve over rice.

Jason and I had decided not to do anything huge for the big VDay this year, but I was still determined to have a nice dinner. Monday I planned out a three course menu and shopped for all of the ingredients. Tuesday morning I woke up with a 101 fever and raging case of the ‘Don’t let that food get within 10 feet of my nostrils or I will totally hurl on you’ Flu. It was a date killer because not only could I not eat, I couldn’t prepare the meal without severe injury to the sanitary nature of our kitchen.

And then Jason got the flu too. So we had to reschedule a couple of times and ended up doing the third course on a different night from the first two. But we did eventually eat our gourmet Valentine’s Dinner.

Course one: Baked Brie with Roasted Garlic, Crackers and Apples

I used this same recipe, except I wrapped the Brie in puff pastry before I baked it.

Course two: Soothing Chicken Lettuce Wraps, ala PF Chang’s’

For this course I used a recipe I found online. These were my favorite and I plan to make them again this week for a Project Runway viewing party I’m having. YUM!

Course three: Chocolate Fondue

This one is an old standby at our house. It takes literally 10 minutes to prepare from start to finish. I buy a bag of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips, pour them into a small sauce pan on the stove set to medium low and add a couple of tablespoons of milk and a little bit of Baileys. Stir constantly until it’s all melty and good. Pour the chocolate into a ceramic fondue pot with a candle to keep it warm. Serve with strawberries, angel food cake bites, bananas and green apples (and marshmallows too, if you like).

It’s still early enough in the year that I’m making a conscious effort to stick to my New Year’s resolutions. In the spirit of my ‘cook at least four nights a week’ resolution, last night I tried this new recipe from Martha’s little FOOD magazine. It was easy and we loved it.

Ingredients:

1 Pork Tenderloin
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup peanuts, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Mix soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar and set aside. Boil rice, 2 cups of water, a bit of salt and a tablespoon of butter (optional) and then turn to low and cover to simmer for 25 minutes. Cut pork tenderloin into smallish strips. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over med high heat. Saute 1/2 of pork and ginger until pork is cooked through. Repeat with 1 more tablespoon oil and rest of pork and ginger. Meanwhile, boil green beans until just underdone. Then saute red bell pepper, green beans and last tablespoon of oil on high until red bell is tender. Add pork, peanuts and soy sauce mixture. Stir together and then serve over rice.

Whew, it was a full weekend and I have tons of stories. First of all, I attended a house warming party for one of my clients, who is also a good friend. Ryan and Amanda sold their old house with me back in October and we bought them a newer, larger house with a much better layout for them. I hadn’t been in it since they had moved all of their stuff into it and done quite a bit of repainting. Even though it was a really nice house to begin with, it was a major transformation. The master bedroom has been a sickly mint green before. I think the new toffee color was an excellent choice:

It was really fun for me to get to see them enjoying their house and to know I was a part of the process. I am so glad that it has turned out to be everything they wanted.

In addition, it was a totally fun party.

There was tons of yummy food. I made stuffed mushrooms that I had been determined to get a picture of, but completely forgot, again. Regardless, here is the quick recipe (I got it from my mother in law and this was the first time I had tried it, but believe me, I will make them again):

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients -

20ish mushrooms
8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 jar of Hormel bacon bits
2 tablespoons diced chives
Butter to grease dish

Preparation –

Wash mushrooms and pull out stems to create cavity in center. Place mushrooms in buttered baking dish. Soften cream cheese in microwave. Mix cream cheese, bacon bits and chives. Spoon cream cheese mixture into mushrooms and bake at 350 degree for 15 minutes or until mushrooms are brown.

So over all, it was a great time. My favorite part of this business is being positively involved in people’s lives.

And there were even cute babies at the party! How’s this for a parting shot:

Check back this week for updates on my Willow District open house, a haunted house story and even a new listing or two!

It’s been a wild weekend here at the Newlin house. The quick rundown is:

1. I held a poker party Friday night at our house. We played Texas Holdem with a $10 buy in. It was very fun (except for the fact that I did not win). I meant to take pictures of the food so I could post all of the new recipes I used, but in the chaos of getting everything done on time I forgot. Here’s a quick one, however, that is my new favorite easy cheese appetizer:

Baked Brie with Garlic

Ingredients:

Brie (I bought a 2.2 lb one imported from France from Costco)
2 heads of garlic
Drizzle of olive oil
2 loaves of long skinny French bread

Preparation:

Slice the top of the heads of garlic off. Drizzle them with olive oil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or so. Remove roasted cloves from the head and mash together in a small dish. Place Brie in a glass pie plate and bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted. Serve with sliced French bread. Spread garlic on bread and then cheese.

2. The kids have been sick again, again, again again again. I know it’s just the season, but man do I hope we’re almost through with all of this. Ben had strep throat and Gray had the usual (pink eye and ear infections). I’m feeling a bit like it’s all my fault because last week was the test run for a new day care center we are doing twice a week. I have gotten to the point where I need some time a couple of days a week to get stuff done without the kids. But then of course, they immediately came home with stuff. I swear, parenting is 50% guilt.

3. My sister ran in the PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Marathon and kicked serious tail. It was her first marathon, though she was a world-ranked swimmer in high school and college. She ran 3:41 and ran 10 minutes faster during the second half than the first half (which tends to mean that she went out too slow and could have done the whole thing faster). I’m just amazed at what a natural athlete she is.

Anyway, this week has been crazy with the sick kids, but the antibiotics have kicked in and I’m back in the saddle now!