Today it was an absolutely gorgeous day here...sunny with temps in the mid-60s. It's a drastic change from the nasty, damp, cold weather we've had most of the last couple weeks here. I decided it would be a perfect evening to grill something for dinner, so this afternoon I put together a quick marinade with a southwestern theme. We had Southwestern Marinated Grilled Chicken with steamed fresh broccoli florets sprinkled with fresh lemon zest. Youngest son ate dinner with us this evening so I baked some sweet potatoes for both hubby and him to have with their dinners. It was a quick and easy dinner.
The marinade I put together for the chicken was super simple -- it was 1/4 cup olive oil, the zest and juice of 1 lemon, the zest and juice of 1 lime, 2 large cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon roasted cumin, 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon ground Chipotle pepper. I love zesting and using the rinds of lemons and limes -- that's where all the flavor really is...and besides, "a rind is a terrible thing to waste"! ;-) I placed all of the ingredients in a gallon size Ziploc bag and added the boneless chicken breasts (that I had pounded thin) and marinated them for about 4 hours before hubby grilled them.
For our special "Oscar Night" dessert, I decided to take a stab at making cannolis. Not too long ago, one of my regular blog readers and I discussed recreating them (to be both wheat and sugar free) because both of us really loved cannolis. When I was growing up, there was a little place on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, that I used to go to every single time I got into town during the summers. They made some of the absolute best cannolis I have ever eaten. The biggest challenge in recreating cannolis without wheat or grains is the tube shaped crusts that the ricotta filling gets piped into. So, I decided to forgo the idea (for now) of trying to make a crust that I could form into a tube shape (the crusts are usually wrapped around cannoli molds and deep fried until crispy). So, I decided to make crust "disks" to pipe the ricotta filling onto instead of into. These are more like...."cannoli bites". The end result is the same...the presentation is just a bit different. The purpose of the crust is to hold the filling and I accomplished that task! My initial attempt at making the crust was good -- it's not 100% where I want to be yet...but it is an awesome start and both hubby and I enjoyed them and thought they were great. I topped the cannolis with chopped Green & Black's 70% cacao chocolate bar as well as a few salted roasted pistachios. It is still a work in progress...but I'm getting there. I am calling these Holy Moly Cannolis -- because when we tried them...the first thought was "holy moly...it's cannoli"....LOL. I snapped a picture of our dinner and my Holy Moly Cannolis. Enjoy!
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| Voila! |
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| BOOM! |
And now, I would like to present..."Holy Moly Cannolis"...
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| Ta-da!!! |
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| Voila! |
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| BOOM... |
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| KA-BOOM!!! |
Oh no!! Please don't tease me like this!! I saw the 'Holy Moly Cannolis' title, looked at the yummy picture, and was all ready to run to the kitchen to make them, as cannolis are one of my favorites! But - alas, no recipe .
ReplyDeleteHubby and I have recently gone 'Wheat Belly' friendly which is when I discovered your blog. The recipes we've tried so far have been wonderful! I've made the Ricotta Choc. Chip cookies, Chicken pot pie, Cinnamon Spice Muffins and a few others. Tomorrow we're going to try the Almond/Flax/Parmesan pizza crust. Thanks for all of the yummy recipes!!
LOL, Andicrafts! I promise you this isn't a tease -- think of it as more of a "preview" instead. I would like to make the crust recipe one more time and try a couple little tweaks. You know how the shells are supposed to be "very" crispy -- mine are "crispy" -- I also want to see how the crust does wrapped and on the counter for a couple days (as in, does it get soggy, etc.). I am testing how this crust does as well as trying one more experiment before I post -- hope to do that within the week! :-)
ReplyDeleteDitto what Andicrafts said! I am looking forward to this recipe. I think you were considering using coconut in the crust? There is a pie in the WB cookbook that has a coconut crust that is quite crispy, makes me think it's something similar to what you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
WOW ... Looks great!
ReplyDeleteAnticipation is keeping me waiting! :-)
Thanks, Darlene! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cybersis! :-)
ReplyDeleteWould it work if you turned a muffin tin upside down and draped your circles over the bottoms? It would make a sort of cup/bowl for the filling.
ReplyDeleteHi Trudy -- that's a great suggestion -- but the batter I made is loose and that wouldn't work -- I am hoping to do another "test drive" on it tomorrow. So far, the crusts I made Sunday have stayed crispy which is good -- but I want to try another variation to see if I can improve it a bit. By the way -- what flavor do you prefer in your cannolis? I used orange in this batch, but I have seen recipes for other flavorings as well. :-)
ReplyDelete