Quick and Easy Fajitas

I didn't want to cook the other night, so I decided to see if I could make fajitas in the microwave. This was so simple!

1. I had some rare roast beef, so I cut it in strips and layered it in the bottom of the oval mold.
2. Than I ut up:
   1/2 red pepper
   1/2 yellow pepper
   1/2 Walla Walla sweet onion
3. Layered the veggies on top of the meat
4. Seasoned with DAH Green Onion and Roasted Pepper Savory Herb Blend
5. Covered the mold with the Octagonal Silpat®
6. Microwaved on high for 3 minutes
   

Summer Salad Sensations

Summertime brings an abundance of produce whether you visit your neighborhood market, frequent your local farmer's market, or step outside to your own garden. An amazingly simple way to make an elegant salad is to make individual Parmesan crisp salad bowls.

The size of the bowl is determined by the size tray you use to form them.  The illustration is of one made over the Flexipan® round tray (8 oz). You can also use any Flexipan® muffin tray (4 oz or larger). 

Place tray of choice upside down on counter.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place Silpat® on PBS.

Use 1/3 C to shape 4 oz bowls, 1/2 C for 8 oz, 

Make mounds of Parmesan shredded cheese and spread them out in a circle on the Silpat®.  You can use the pastry cutters as a guide to insure a perfect circle.

Bake at 350° for about 10-15 min. (13 minutes in my oven) until they just begin to brown.

Remove from oven.

Immediately take rounds off the Silpat® with the polyamide spatula and shape them over the back of the muffin tray wells to form bowls.

When you are ready to serve salad, place bowls on salad plates and fill with salad greens and grape tomatoes or other fresh garden veggies. I added fresh cucumbers from my garden.

Drizzle with your favorite salad dressing and serve. Here's a fresh vinaigrette made from our DAH products:

Vinaigrette

3 T DAH Balsamic Vinegar

1 T DAH Hot and Sweet Mustard

1 garlic clove crushed in mortar and pestle

1/2 C olive oil

DAH Sea Salt to taste

You can also use this method to make Parmesan crisps, a tasty alternative to crackers. Just use 1/2 T portions and cook for the same length of time. Add chopped walnuts to these for added flavor.

Berry Good

Luscious berries are one of the perks of this time of year. While enjoying fresh fruit in season is amazing, nothing brings back the taste of summer as much as freezer-fresh berry desserts in the middle of winter. Berries frozen within hours of picking capture peek flavor for later enjoyment.

Freezing berries is as easy as pie with the non-stick Demarle Silpat®.  

5/6 of the half flat of raspberries easily fit stem-side down on the large Silpat®/PBS (which was perfect because I wanted to eat the rest!) 

Two trays of strawberries, in turn, and my project was almost complete. 

Once frozen, the berries easily roll up in the Silpat® and can then be funneled into freezer bags.

Filling the freezer bags is easier than it looks in the picture.  Doing it with one hand while holding a camera in the other guarantees spills, at least for me!


I also hand-picked berries of similar size off the Silpat® to package for strawberry pies.



This is the easiest process for freezing berries I've ever done. Try it; you'll like it!

Healthy Choices

I usually post recipes, amazing monthly specials, or tips about product use. Today I want to highlight my last Demarle Host family. Jenn and Trey Bonner are health coaches with TSFL, a physician-endorsed weight loss program that promotes lifestyle change along with a diet regimen. After losing an amazing 187/110 pounds on a journey that started almost two years ago, Jenn and her husband Trey now dub themselves "Half the couple." They are passionate about helping others take the same path they chose toward a healthy lifestyle.

Because Jenn and Trey have come to focus on making healthy eating choices, they avoid junk foods, shop for fresh veggies, and were eager to hear about non-stick Demarle products that do not interact with food during the cooking process. We used my Demarle products to prepare a salmon dinner at their house. They were amazed at the flavor of food prepared in Kosher-certified pans and the easy clean up afterward. The vibrant green broccoli prepared in the microwave with no water added was also a big hit.

Photo Credit: L Wallace

When Jenn unmolded the mandarin orange cake from the Sunflower mold, she said, "That doesn't look real!"  I laughed and asked her what she meant. "It looks like food that's been sprayed for filming a commercial," she said. The carmelized sugar sheen of baked goods in Demarle's "chef's secret" is almost too good to be true. 

Trey fell in love with the DD stainless that has no brads on the interior cooking surface to catch food and harbor germs.

This weekend, Jenn hosted her own Demarle Party and invited others who are on the quest for health to discover the Demarle Difference.

Six-year-old Ava insisted on helping fill the square savarin tray with turkey meatloaf. This is exactly what Demarle does best—

bring families back to the kitchen for easy, healthy meals.

Trey ordered his DD stainless with the May Stainless Extravaganza Special offering a 58% discount on the combined sets. Jenn is excited about getting the knives that are included with the sets.

Their hostess rewards will get them started with an array of Demarle Flexipans®, Flexitrays®, and Silpats®.

The day after the party, Jenn emailed me to say:

Kristi,

I am getting ready to cook lunch and my first thought was “I can’t wait to get my Demarle products!”

Trey and Jenn will be hosting another party soon for those who could not come to this one.

It is a thrill to walk alongside these champions of healthy living with the value that Demarle at Home brings to families.

Hockey Puck Soup

I love to make home-made soup, especially during the winter months. Not only does it warm my tummy after filling the house with tempting aromas, there is much to share or save for later. True comfort food. One of the things that sold me on Demarle products was the idea of  freezing leftovers in the trays, and then storing them in freezer bags. It is so much healthier than using plastic ware that leeches chemicals into foods upon reheating. My favorite is the Round Tray, which holds six 8-ounce portions. The frozen bricks resemble hockey pucks, hence the nickname "hockey puck" soup.

Here's how you do it:

1. Place Flexipat tray of choice on the medium perforated baking sheet.
2. Fill wells with soup.   
3. Cover with the medium Silpat®
4. Place in freezer until portions freeze.
5. Remove from freezer and uncover.
6. Immediately pop out the frozen hockey pucks and place in a freezer bag.
7. Store hockey pucks in freezer.

To reheat, microwave a hockey puck in a bowl covered by the octagonal Silpat® or warm in DD stainless on your stove top over medium-low heat.