Potluck Panini Party!

Happy middle-of-the-week everyone!  This past Friday, Mike and I played hosts for an awesome build your own panini party!  It was fun, creative and because we had guests bring some panini ingredients and side items, it was pretty cheap: )  How do you throw your own Potluck Panini Party?  Well I'm going to tell you!

Step 1: Decide what panini ingredients you want to purchase. Mike and I bought a 1/2 lb of 3 different deli meats (turkey, chicken and ham), 2 different kinds of sliced cheeses (swiss, mozzarella and we already had sharp cheddar slices on hand), pesto, a jar of roasted red peppers (to make roasted red pepper spread, see recipe at the bottom of the post) and bread (Italian)!  Oh and I also had some onion and green pepper that I sliced up for the sandwiches. It doesn't really matter what ingredients you pick...just pick your favorites.  I would recommend getting a fairly hearty bread.  Our Italian bread didn't quite hold up when we grilled the sandwiches.

Step 2: Figure out what awesome friends you are going to invite.  Yes, they have to be awesome.  You can't have a great party without great friends: ) It might also help to set a date and time for the party too!

Step 3:  Decide what to ask your guests to bring.  I always try to give my guests some choices for what they want to bring and keep in mind that everyone is on a budget these days.  One guest I asked to bring feta cheese ( It's her favorite so I knew she would be happy to bring it ) and some zuchinni.  Another friend of mine (actually, a couple) I asked to bring a side dish.  They brought a delicious broccoli, bacon and seeds dish! YUM!  And finally I asked yet another guest to bring a dessert (strawberry cheesecake! Man my friends have great taste: ). 

Step 4:  On the day of the party, prepare all your ingredients.  I sliced my onion and green pepper, tossed them in some oil, salt and pepper and sauteed them over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  I knew the onions and green peppers would not cook on the grill inside the sandwich.  I placed the slightly cooked veggies in a pretty bowl and put a serving spoon with them. I also spread out the cheese slices on a gorgeous little tray. I made my roasted red pepper spread and put that in a serving dish as well.  Then I spread out all the food and serving dishes on my counter.  When the zuchinni arrived, Mike sliced them super thin (about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick) and I tossed them in a small (less than a teaspoon) amount of oil and some salt and pepper.  These I didn't cook because zuchinni cooks relatively quick, especially when sliced so thin.  Oh and don't forget to decorate your dining table too!

Step 5:  When all your guests show up, start having a great time!  Have your guests assemble their panini's (no rules here, whatever they want!) and when everyone has theirs assembled, put the panini's on a preheated (350 degrees) griddle. Don't have a griddle? Use a large, flat pan over medium heat.  We also brushed a little olive oil on the outside of the bread so that it was nice and crispy.  Use a fairly heavy cake or pie pan to press the panini's onto the griddle.  When all paninis are cooked on both sides, serve them up and enjoy!

My panini party spread....

After we all ate dinner, the boys went out to play pool and the girls stayed in and played card games.  It was a blast!

Oh yeah!  The recipe.....

Roasted Red Pepper Spread

1 16oz jar roasted red pepper, drained
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 cup plain breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

Place roasted red pepper in a food processor.  Use garlic press and add garlic (or chop garlic and add it) to red peppers.  Add the rest of the ingredients and process until the consistency is similar to basil pesto.  Spread on paninis and enjoy!

Easy Enchiladas

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to write a quick post with my enchilada recipe.  Well, I say my enchilada recipe but its mostly a recipe I learned from a friend of mine a long time ago.  I did, however, make a few changes.

Easy Enchiladas- makes 8 enchiladas

2 lbs ground beef

4 cups sharp cheddar cheese

2 cans kidney beans, drained

1 white onion
taco seasoning to taste (equal parts cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder with a little bit of cayenne pepper and oregano mixed in)

8 large flour tortillas

1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce

1 can cream of mushroom soup (condensed)

1-2 small cans enchilada sauce (mild, medium or hot depending on your tastes: )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Dice onion.  Brown beef in large skillet with desired amount of taco seasoning, add onion when meat is about halfway browned.  Drain beef and mix in kidney beans.  Spoon 1/8 beef/kidney bean/onion mixture onto tortillas.  Sprinkle cheese on beef mixture, about 1/4 cup.  Roll tortilla around contents and place in 9x13 baking dish.  Repeat process until all tortillas are filled and pan is full.  In a small bowl, combine tomato sauce, cream of mushroom soup and enchilada sauce.  Pour sauce evenly over enchiladas.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, top with remaining cheese and bake for another 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Breaded and Baked Pork Chops

I decided the best way to start this post was to show a picture of the wonderful meal I'm going to write about: ).  Breaded and baked pork chops, garlic and herb rolls and roasted veggies!  I already posted the recipe for the roasted veggies but here are some more beautiful pictures of them.

Before roasting.... (my pan may have been just a tad overloaded...oops!)

After roasting : )

And yes, they tasted even more delicious than they looked!  Anyway...moving on to the pork chops.

I decided this recipe would be an especially good one to post about because it gives me an opportunity to share some helpful tips for breading meat.  The best way to bread meat is to set up a standard breading station.  What is a standard breading station you ask?  Good question!  A standard breading station consists of 5 parts, as illustrated below:

If you are left handed and feel more comfortable setting up your station in reverse (right to left), that is just fine.  I find that pie pans and round or 8x8 cake pans work best for the middle three parts of the station.

Raw product:  This is pretty self explanatory. . .just your raw meat in a pan (or on a plate), trimmed and ready to be breaded.

Flour:  This step in the process helps the breading stick to the meat.  I usually add salt and pepper to the flour but you can also salt and pepper the meat before breading it.  Either way works just fine.  Your goal for this part is to get just a thin coating of flour on the meat.  Shake off any excess flour.

Egg wash:  This is a combination of eggs and a liquid.  I use milk but you can also use water.  Usually about 2 tablespoons liquid per egg.  Whip the two together with a fine wire whisk and you're good to go!

Seasoned bread crumbs:  A good ratio for seasoned breadcrumbs is about 1 to 2 tablespoons of seasoning per cup of breadcrumbs, depending on how seasoned you want your final product to be.  You can use whatever spices and herbs you like but some excellent standard seasonings are: oregano, basil, onion powder, garlic powder or salt, salt and pepper.  Also grated parmesan is a great addition.  Quick tip: because this breading station is set up for baking your product, it is okay to season the breadcrumbs.  If you want to fry your product, you can use the same breading station except the seasoning in the breadcrumbs.  Salt breaks down the frying oil so you don't want any seasonings in your breading.  Season the meat instead: )

Final product:  Again, self explanatory. This should be your finished product on the pan you want to bake it in.

Tip for breading:
     The easiest way to bread any product (whether for baking or frying) is to keep one dry hand and one wet hand.  The dry hand (for me it's my right hand) picks up the raw product, dredges it in flour and sets it in the egg wash pan (preferably without getting the hand wet...duh).  The wet hand (again, for me it's my left) coats the meat in the egg wash and deposits the product into the breadcrumbs (preferably without touching the breadcrumbs).  Then use the dry hand again to coat the meat in the breadcrumbs and place it on the baking pan. Why do all this?  Have you ever breaded anything before?  If you try to use the same hand for all tasks, you end up with a clumpy, gooey mess all over your fingers! You basically end up breading your fingers and I'm pretty sure that is not the goal.  If you're not used to doing this, it can take a while to remember to switch hands but the effort is well worth it: )

Alright already!  Enough breading station talk....lets FINALLY get to the recipe: )

Breaded and Baked Pork Chops (Italian-style)

4 pork chops
1.5 cups panko bread crumbs
1.5 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) milk
enough flour to dredge meat in
salt and pepper to taste for flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Set up standard breading station.  Using the wet hand/dry hand method, bread the four pork chops.  Place pork chops in oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until cooked all the way through.

Garlic and herb rolls

Pre-made Dinner roll of your choice
2-3 tbsp melted butter or margarine*
1/4 tsp each of the following seasonings
- oregano
- basil
- garlic powder
- paprika
- whatever other seasoning you like

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine seasonings and melted butter.  Let sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, to allow flavors to mingle.  If butter solidifies, remelt it in microwave.  Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the rolls with flavored butter.  Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, or until roll is warm and begins to brown.

If I had been thinking properly when I made the rolls, I would have sprinkled some fresh, chopped thyme on top....ooops! Oh well...

*If using butter, you must clarify the butter before brushing it on the rolls.  Clarifying butter removes the water and milk solids from the butter, leaving just the butterfat.  Why do this?  Unclarified butter will burn on top of the rolls within minutes, before the rolls can even heat up.  How do you clarify butter?  Here's what my Professional Cooking book suggests:
Method 1
     Melt butter in heavy saucepan over moderate heat
     Skim the froth from the surface
     Carefully pour off clear melted butter, leaving the milky liquid at the bottom of the saucepan
Method 2
     Melt butter in heavy saucepan over moderate heat
     Skim the froth from the surface
     Leave the pan on the heat and continue to skim the froth from the surface as it forms.  The water at the bottom will boil and gradually evaporate.
      When the butter looks clear and no longer forms a scum, strain the butter through cheesecloth.

Whoa! That was a long one! Okay done now...hope you enjoyed it!

Quick After Dinner Post

I just had an amazing mostly-homemade meal and I had to share it with my readers.  No original recipes this time...I finally got around to reading my July/August copy of Food Network magazine and found my dinner inside!

My husband and I made this recipe from the magazine and it was amazing!  Mike played grill master and I was queen of the knife and cutting board.  By the way, if you have a significant other and you don't already cook together...start!  Mike and I have wonderful nights in cooking dinner together: ) 

Anyway...back to the recipe.  I actually changed very very little in it.  Mainly I used around 2 teaspoons of minced garlic instead of one and ground red pepper instead of red pepper flakes.  Also, I picked shallots over red onion and used chicken breasts instead thighs.  After having made the recipe, I don't think I would change anything else!  It was fantastic!  Well, mike wasn't a huge fan of the grilled romaine but I was amazed I even got him to eat half a serving.  He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

I also think this recipe could be easily altered to work with different flavor profiles.  You could try changing the vinegar, herbs and/or vegetables used.  I was thinking of making this dish next time with green onions, sage and maybe rosemary(?) instead of shallots, oregano and red pepper.   I would also reduce the amount of garlic.

For dessert, we made ice cream sandwiches (another idea from the magazine).  We bought small cake doughnuts and light mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Not the most healthy dessert to follow up a healthy meal (oops...) but it was so good!!!  We used the tips from the magazine and they made it so easy! (1) Put the "bread" (in our case, doughnuts) in the freezer for a little while before cutting and/or assembling the sandwich.  (2) Use hard ice cream. (3) Freeze the whole sandwiches for about an hour before eating.

Well I just had to share this great meal.  I hope you can try it an enjoy it sometime: )

How-to: Onions and Garlic

I don't know about you guys but I used to have the worst time dicing onions.  It took forever, my cuts were never even...ugh!  I hated cooking with them for a long time.  Those days are over though!  I now know how to dice an onion and I'd like to pass that knowledge on.  One note: this technique does work and is quick but it may take a little while to get the hang of it: )

Start by cutting off the non-root end of the onion. 

Then set the onion cut side down and cut in half, through the root.  Make sure that part of the root is still attached to both halves of the onion.  The root holds the onion together while you make the remaining cuts.  Peel both halves of the onion.

Place half of the onion on the cutting board so that your first cut (where you cut the non-root end off) is facing you and the second cut (where you cut the onion in half, through the root) is face down on the cutting board.   Here is the most difficult cut (at least I think).  What you want to do here is make a couple evenly-spaced cuts parallel to the cutting board.  How many you make depends on how big you want your dice to be.  The bigger your dice, the less cuts you need.  Be sure to not cut all the way to the root.  Again, the root is holding the whole thing together and its a lot harder to dice an onion that is falling apart: )

I made two parallel cuts because I wanted a medium dice.  Unless you have a really large onion, 3 cuts is probably the most you're going to need at this stage, even for a small dice.

 Now you want to make evenly spaced cuts going across the top of the onion, perpendicular to the root.  They should be spaced the same as the previous set of cuts, so that your dice is even.  There are two things to be careful of here.  One, don't cut the root!: )  Two, start your cuts toward the middle of the onion so that you don't chop off the sides.

Once you've made the perpendicular cuts, you need to make evenly spaced (again, same spacing as previous cuts to ensure an even dice) cuts parallel to the root.  Stop your cuts just short of the root.

                                     
 Now you have a diced onion: )  Well, half of the onion is now diced.  Obviously, repeat the process for the other half of the onion.

Okay on to some tips for mincing garlic!

To peel the garlic: Place the garlic clove on your cutting board.  Use the flat side of a large knife and place it on top of the garlic clove.  Strike the knife with the heel of your hand (as shown above).  This will split the outer covering and make it easier to peel. Peeling garlic is still a pain though.

The main problem with mincing is that the garlic likes to stick to the knife.  It's so frustrating!  There are two ways to combat this.  One, buy (or use if you already have one) a santoku knife (pictured above).  The groves in the santoku knife help prevent sticking.  Two, wet the blade of your knife before you start cutting your peeled clove.  

To mince:  Mincing is just a word for "roughly chopping really really small".  Basically, I just cut the clove into slices, cut the slices into strips and cut the strips into really fine pieces.  Your cuts definitely don't need to be even for garlic...yay!

I hope all this made sense.  Let me know if you have any questions: )

Dairy Free Quiche

Hello!  So yesterday and today I have had to stay off my feet because I recently got a tattoo on my left foot.  Here's some pics of my new culinary tattoo. . .

So anyway, because I have had to stay off my feet, I figured I should write a blog.  But what to write?  This week I've made mostly easy recipes, last weekend I was on a float trip and I'm not going to blog about cooking hamburgers and hot dogs on the camp grill (especially when I didn't make the hamburgers).  So I settled on the dairy free quiche I made for my in-laws last week.  A little background real quick, my brother-in-law is an ovo-lacto-pescatarian (vegetarian who eats fish, eggs and dairy) and my sister in law is lactose intolerant.  Needless to say, I had a bit of a challenge figuring out what to make that both my in-laws could eat.  So I decided to make dairy free quiche for brunch one day: )  Here's the recipe!  (Basic recipe that I added to can be found here)

Dairy Free Quiche - makes 2, 9 inch quiche

- Dairy free frozen pie dough (if you can find one. I couldn't so I made one crustless quiche for my lactose intolerant sister-in-law and one quiche with crust for the rest of us)

- 9 large eggs

- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

- 3.5 cups unsweetened almond milk

- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

- 2 teaspoons salt

- 10 oz package frozen spinach

- 3/4 cup onion, chopped

- 1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed

- 3/4 cup mushrooms, chopped

- olive oil (enough to cook veggies in)

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease one 9 inch pie pan (for the crustless quiche) and set out frozen pie dough for other quiche. Cook mushrooms, onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are tender.  Add spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Beat one egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and frothy.  Add flour and beat until combined.  Add remaining eggs and beat until frothy and mixture has increased in volume by about a third.  Gradually add milk, nutritional yeast and salt and beat for 2 more minutes.  Stir in spinach, onion, mushroom and garlic mixture.  Pour into prepared pans and bake for 40 minutes or until quiche is no longer jiggly. 

Well I hope you enjoy the quiche as much as we did!

Veggies, Chicken Pasta and Wine

Hello again!  Two blogs in one day...I'm on fire!  So this past Sunday I decided to make Angel Chicken Pasta (recipe to come later in this blog) and was looking in my fridge for ideas for a side.  I wanted something fairly healthy to pair with the pasta and what did I happen to have in my fridge?  A bunch of uncooked, diced up veggies I had leftover from making veggie kabobs at my BBQ!  Awesome.  Roasted vegetables it is: )  Even more awesome, the chicken pasta recipe included wine so guess what the Hubby and I did while fixing dinner?  Lets just say I love to cook with wine...sometimes I even put it in the food: )

The wine may or may not have made it to dinner...oops.  Also, the beautiful wine coasters and jeweled decorations are courtesy of my awesome sister Audra.  Great birthday present sis!


Veggie Kabobs 

Your favorite veggies, diced or cut large enough to skewer on a kabob stick
Olive oil (how much you need depends on how many kabobs you are making, I made 22 kabobs and used about a half cup of oil)
2-3 garlic cloves
Your favorite herbs and spices


Instructions
The day before you want to make the kabobs (or at least several hours before), mince the garlic and add to olive oil.  Then add any seasonings you want to the oil.  I used some thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper.  Let the oil sit with seasonings overnight to flavor the oil.  Assemble the kabobs.  I used butternut squash, zucchini, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, and pearl onions.  I put roughly equal proportions or each veggie on each kabob.  (Actually, the wonderful hubby assembled the kabobs for me, I just did one example and he did the rest)  Using a silicone basting brush, brush the flavored oil onto the assembled kabob.  Grill kabob until veggies begin to brown and are heated through.


Roasted Veggies


Your favorite veggies, large dice (I added turnips and shallots to the leftover butternut squash, bell peppers and zucchini)
Your favorite herbs and spices (I used thyme, garlic salt and ground cayenne pepper)
Olive oil (enough to lightly coat veggies)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss cut up veggies in olive oil in a large bowl.  Sprinkle herbs and spices over veggies and toss again.  Arrange veggies on baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 45 min, or until veggies are cooked through and browned.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Roasted veggies on the left and Angel Chicken Pasta on the right.  Sorry, the plate is a little messy.  I forgot to take a picture until I had already cut up the chicken and mixed up the pasta and sauce.



I also have an idea for the leftover cooked veggies.  Honestly, they don't reheat too well and I hate to waste food...what to do?  Well the reason they don't reheat too well is because they get mushy...mushy veggies?  Ugh!  Who wants those?  I thought about this for a while and finally had a sudden burst of inspiration.  Pureed veggies would make a great base for a spaghetti sauce!  So I pureed the veggies with some tomato sauce and later this week I will make a spaghetti sauce from that. I will let you all know how it turned out: )

Oh!  I almost forgot the recipe for the Angel Chicken Pasta.  It is actually a recipe from Allrecipes.com.  You can find it here.  It is a great recipe but I do make a few small changes.

1) Double the amount of sauce.  It is a great sauce and you will want a lot; )
2) I use 1 can condensed golden mushroom soup and 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup.  This is only because I am not a huge fan of mushrooms.
2) I use half the amount of wine and replace the other half with water.  You can also use all wine or all water depending on your personal tastes.  I feel using the full cup of wine gives the sauce too much wine flavor and it overpowers the other flavors of the dish.
3) I also flatten and tenderize the chicken before placing it in the baking dish.

I hope these recipes work as well for you as they have for me: )  Enjoy!

Bell Pepper Dice-up

Bah!  I'm a bad blogger. . . I promised last time that my blog would include instructions on the easiest way to dice a bell pepper and an onion.  Well, I have the bell pepper instructions but for once in my cooking life, I did not dice an onion recently and therefore could not take pictures.  Craziness!  Anyway, sorry faithful readers...I can only fulfill half of my promise.

Start by getting out your cutting board and favorite knife.  Personally, I use my chef knife to do all my chopping, dicing and other knife activities, but you should use whatever knife you are most comfortable with.  Also, if you find that your cutting board slips on your counter, put a damp washcloth underneath.  Your cutting board definitely won't slip anymore: )


Cut the top of the pepper off, like this:

If the whole top of the pepper comes off, stem and all, that is okay too.  Next, place the knife on the top of the pepper and slice in between two of the "veins" (white pith that attaches to the center of the pepper).

Repeat until you have cut between all the veins.

Then cut the pepper pieces into equal size strips, then cut across the strips into an equal size dice.  Make sure to keep your fingers curled under and your thumb tucked behind your fingers so you don't cut yourself.  I cut the pepper pieces into a large dice because I was using the peppers in a roasted veggie dish.

Hope this helps!  I know when a friend showed me this technique for dicing bell peppers, it made the process a lot easier/faster!


Also, big thanks to my wonderful husband Mike for taking the pictures: )

Veggie Burger Bliss

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend!  Thank you again to everyone that has served/is serving our country: )

I had a bit of a challenge this past weekend.  I wanted to throw a rockin party where I could utilize my grill and new fire pit to their full potential.  That would not usually be a challenge...except that I have several vegan and vegetarian friends.  I don't know if you realize this but BBQ cookouts are not exactly vegan/vegetarian friendly.  What to do, what to do? Hmmmm...tofurky?  No.  Vegan "chicken" drumsticks?  I don't think so.  Grilled tofu and cauliflower?  Too smelly.  Wait!  I know!  Veggie burgers!  I've been wanting to try and make veggie burgers...this is perfect!  Anyway...enough silliness, on with the veggie burger recipe. This recipe is based on a Food Network Magazine recipe in the June 2011 issue.


Blissful Veggie Burgers, Makes 8 burgers

1.5 cups cooked barley
 olive oil (enough to cook veggies in)
1 cup medium dice onion
3 small stalks celery, med. dice
1 red bell pepper, med. dice
kosher salt, to taste
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
3 tablespoons barbecue sauce (if you're serving vegans, make sure the sauce you use is vegan friendly!  I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (again, make sure its vegan friendly, I believe most chili garlic sauce is: )
2, 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt, pepper, parsley, thyme and oregano to taste


Saute celery, onion, red bell pepper and pinch of salt in olive oil until golden brown, 12-14 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes longer.  Place veggies, breadcrumbs, barbecue sauce and chili garlic in food processor and pulse until combined and finely ground.  Here you would normally add 1 cup barley and black beans to the food processor and pulse again until combined and finely ground.  Unfortunately, my food processor is not big enough, so I removed the veggies, pulsed the black beans and barley together and then combined with the veggie mixture in a bowl.  After combining all ingredients, add the other half cup cooked barley and your seasonings.  Form into 8 patties and grill (I used my griddle because my grill was full of hamburgers and hot dogs).

Serve with your favorite hamburger buns ( I found vegan ones for the vegan friends) and condiments.  I put provolone cheese, romaine lettuce and some basil pesto on my veggie burger.

So what was the result of my foray into vegan cooking?  Well...they tasted fantabulous (yes I needed a fake word to describe their ridiculously awesome flavor) but the texture wasn't firm enough.  They were slightly mushy and I don't think I could have grilled them even if my grill wasn't full of meat: (

So again, what to do? What to do?  I talked to one of my lovely and wonderful vegetarian friends and between the two of us we came up with a couple ideas for future endeavors.
1)  Instead of pulsing some of the barley with the black beans, add all barley, whole, after everything else is combined
2) Add some steamed potatoes to burger mixture.  Starchy potatoes would probably yield the best results.
3) Do not rinse the black beans.  My wonderful friend had an excellent point that the liquid the beans come in has starch in it and would help thicken the mixture.  I will definitely still drain the beans because I don't want a lot of the starchy liquid.

I will try these changes and let you all know how they turn out.

Oh!  And I promise next blog will be about the easiest way to dice onions and bell peppers.

Chocolate Cookie Dough and Apple Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Hello again!  The semester is finally over and I am going to get back on track with this blog!  I tried out two of my new recipes this week and I think they are pretty fantastic.  I forgot to take pictures, of course (sorry!  I am going to try to be better about that: ).  Anyway...here we go!

Chocolate Cookie Dough- makes 4 dozen cookies

3 and a half cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 sticks margarine or salted butter ( I use salted butter)
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs
4 and a half cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 pkgs 3.4 oz instant chocolate pudding mix
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt


Cream together margarine/butter, brown sugar and vanilla.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler pan or in a metal bowl sitting over boiling water.  Beat in eggs and melted chocolate.  Make sure to let the chocolate cool (but not set) before combining it with the batter or the hot chocolate will cook the eggs (no one wants scrambled eggs in their cookies!: ).  With a wooden spoon, mix in flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt.  I found that after a little while it was easier to mix the dough with clean, wet hands.


I think this dough would probably be fine on its own, but mixing in things is so much more fun!  When I made the dough this week I divided it in half and made two different varieties.  I put slivered almonds and butterscotch chips in one and macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips in the other.  Both delicious!  You could also try walnuts, pecans, dark chocolate chips, whatever you want!

Okay, on to recipe number two!

Apple Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin

fresh rosemary

fresh thyme

salt

pepper

2 granny smith or your preferred baking apples ( tart apples work the best ), cored and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 small red onion, diced medium or julienned

1 box pork stuffing

The night before you want to make the tenderloin, rub fresh rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper on the tenderloin and let sit overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare stuffing as directed on box and let cool.  Saute onions in a small amount of olive oil and let cool.  Mix stuffing, onions and apples together and set aside.  Butterfly the pork tenderloin (don't know how?  This video should help!  Either method will work.  I used the first).  Place stuffing mixture in the pork tenderloin and fold.  Place in a baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Reserve any extra stuffing (I had a bunch).  Bake for 45 minutes, remove from oven and place extra stuffing mixture around tenderloin.  Bake for another 45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the tenderloin is 165 on an instant-read thermometer.

Enjoy!
 




 

Bored and decided to blog: )

Wow!  What a beautiful day here in Virginia (I'm in Virginia right now visiting my husband who is here for 14 weeks to take a class for his job).  Its 80 degrees and gorgeous!  So what did we decide to do?  Grill!  Lucky for us, the hotel Mike is staying at has two gas grills, two tables and some chairs on a lovely little covered patio behind the hotel.  The property even backs up to a pretty little forest: )  Perfect!

So what did we make for our alfresco meal?  Turkey smoked sausage sandwiches with green peppers and onions! Here's how. . .

Cut one package turkey smoked sausage (or your personal favorite similar product) and cut into four pieces.  Then cut each piece in half lengthwise for easier grilling.  Cut 1 green pepper (large dice or medium size strips, whatever you want) and one half small white or yellow onion (again large dice or strips) and place on a large piece of aluminum foil.  I cut 1 tablespoon salted butter into four pieces and placed them among the green peppers an onions.  Also, I sprinkled some seasoned salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder on the veggies to give them a little kick.  For an even bigger kick, add some cayenne pepper, chili powder or your favorite spice: ).  Fold up the foil to create a veggie packet you can stick on the grill.

Now time to heat up your grill and get cooking!  The veggies will take a little longer to cook than the sausage because the sausage is already cooked and really just needs to heat up and get those gorgeous grill lines: ).  About 5 minutes after you put your veggies on, put your cut up sausage on the grill.  Cook both until desired doneness is reached.  Remember to check on the veggies periodically and give them a little stir to mix up butter and seasonings.  Shortly before sausage is done cooking, place buns (hamburger, hot dog or sub buns all work) on grill to toast them a little.  Then assemble sandwiches (we put some ketchup on ours) and enjoy!  Makes 4 sandwiches.  Simple and delicious...just the way we like food: ).

Hope anyone that tries this recipe on a nice spring day enjoys it as much as we did!  I really need to start remembering to take pictures of what I'm making...process and final product.

One final note...well question really....would anyone benefit from a how to blog about cutting up veggies?  For me, the hardest veggies to learn how to cut efficiently were onions (dicing them specifically) and green peppers.  I would definitely post pictures with this blog....let me know!

Ham and Beans!

Hello!  Sorry it's been a while since I last posted.  I wish I had a good excuse.  Alas, no.  I have just been lazy.  Anyway, I made ham and beans with cornbread a couple weeks ago and meant to post the recipe.  Better late than never I guess: ).  This recipe makes about 5 or 6 servings.

Ingredients
- 20-25 oz hickory smoked ham (I buy a 40 oz pkg hickory smoked boneless ham and use 1/2 to 2/3 of the package)
- 2 cans pinto beans (drained)
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1.5 tsp chili garlic sauce (can be found in the Asian section of a supermarket)
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1-2 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste
- cornbread


Method
    Place ham in a large sauce pot or a stock pot.  Cover with water then add an additional cup of water.  Add all other ingredients except for beans.  Place pot over medium to medium-high heat and cook until water reduces down and no longer covers the ham.  Add beans and another cup or so of water.  Cook down again until ham and bean mixture is desired consistency, similar to canned ham and bean consistency.  The overall cooking time is probably around 1.5-2 hrs. Serve over cornbread and enjoy!


I hope this recipe makes sense.  If not, you can always leave a question in the comment area. Also, if you have any recipe requests or general cooking questions, feel free to leave a comment!

My Big Fat Greek Kitchen

This week for some reason I have been wanting Greek food.  Don't know why, could be something to do with making insane amounts of Tzatziki sauce at work.  Anyway, this Greek craving prompted the making of turkey gyros Monday night.  I had never made them before but had made the Tzatziki sauce (obviously) and had seen coworkers make gyros so I figured I could wing it.  Luckily, I was right!  So here is the recipe. . .it was a little difficult to write because I just made it up as I went along.  Hopefully it makes sense: )

Whitney's Turkey Gyro Pita Sandwich Thingys

Ingredients:
  1 lb thin sliced turkey (I used just plain oven roasted turkey from my grocery's deli)
  4 pitas 
  2 or 3 teaspoons Greek Seasoning (buy from store or see below)
  Tzatziki sauce (see below or buy from store: )
  Spinach (enough for 4 pita sandwiches)
  Feta cheese
Yield- 4 pita sandwich things
Method:
  Preheat oven to 300.  Place a skillet over medium-high heat (or use a griddle set to 200-250) and add about 2 or 3 teaspoons olive oil to the pan.  Here you could either season the turkey with the Greek seasoning then add it to the hot pan or add the turkey to the hot pan and toss with seasoning.  I chose the latter, but I'm pretty sure it will turn out the same either way.  While turkey is cooking, stick pitas in the warm oven.  It should only take a couple minutes to get the pitas warm.  Toss turkey a couple times while cooking.  Cook until turkey is slightly browned.  
  When turkey is done it is time to assemble the pita sandwich thingys!  Put warm pita on the plate, spread desired amount of tzatziki sauce on the pita.  Layer spinach, turkey and feta cheese over sauce.  


You can either eat them open-faced with a fork like this:

 (Sorry for the awful picture and the shadow of me holding the camera)

Or you can fold it taco style and eat it like a sandwich thingy: )  Like this:

(I made a rather large pita sandwich and had  to hold it down: )


Okay now for the Greek Seasoning.  
Note:  This is just what I use as Greek seasoning.  There are many different spice combinations that will work for Greek style seasoning.  Google is an excellent resource if you would like to play around with your own combinations.  Also, zatar seasoning is another type of Greek seasoning that would work great.


Greek Seasoning
  Equal parts:  Onion powder, cumin, pepper, oregano and garlic salt.  I probably added a little more oregano and garlic salt than the other spices.  You can either make this in bulk ahead of time by mixing everything together and storing in an airtight storage container (great seasoning mix for other dishes, btw) or just sprinkle the different seasonings on the turkey in approximately equal amounts.  I, again, chose the latter: ) 


Tzatziki sauce
   1 cup plain yogurt
   1/4 cup very finely diced red onion
   1/4 cup very finely diced cucumber 
   1.5 teaspoons dried dill
   .5 teaspoons dried basil
   1.5 teaspoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients together and let chill for an hour or so before using.  You can use it right away, but the flavors fully combine and it tastes a little better after chilling for a while.


It may be worth making extra tzatziki sauce and Greek seasoning.  I definitely made way too much tzatziki sauce and therefore needed something to make to use the leftovers. Because I was still craving Greek food, Tuesday night I made Gyro burgers.  Add Greek seasoning (as much or as little as you want, depending on how much you want to flavor the burger), 1/2 cup finely diced red onion, 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1-2 tsps crushed red pepper flakes and some finely crumbled feta cheese (how much, again, depends on how much you want) to 1 pound ground beef or turkey.  Form into 1/4 pound patties and grill (I used my griddle because it is WAY too cold outside for the actual grill).  When patties are close to being done, top with a slice of mild cheese, I used swiss, and cook until melted. Top with tzatziki sauce and spinach and sandwich between two whole grain buns.  Excellent!

You can also add other vegetables and/or cheeses to your gyros or gyro burgers.  Romain or iceburg lettuce (or just about any other leafy green) would work instead of spinach.  You could add diced tomatoes or peppers as well.  Its up to you!

Again, let me know if you have any questions: ).

Altering a Recipe, Level: Easy

Most anyone can follow a recipe.  But what if you don't like certain aspects of the recipe?  What if you want to make the recipe a little healthier?  Altering a recipe can be daunting.  It can be difficult to know which parts of the recipe can be changed without causing disastrous results.  At least, it was for me when I first started cooking. Can I use a different meat, cheese, vegetable, amount or add in a different spice?  Will those changes work with the other components of the recipe?  Will changing one ingredient necessitate a change in or addition of other ingredients?  Why even bother thinking about this? Screw creativity, I'm just going to cook the recipe as is!  Maybe you don't have these thoughts when you want to change a recipe, but if you do...here is my advice: ).  

My example recipe is from Campbell's kitchen.  Here is the original. . .

Beef Taco Skillet
1 pound ground beef
1 can (Campbell's) Condensed Tomato Soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
6 flour tortillas (6 inch, cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef over medium-high heat, pour off any fat.  Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas, heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in cheese and serve.


I made this recipe, as is, several times before I tried to change it.  I think this is a good idea.  Why?  Making a recipe allows you to get to know the recipe and its flavor profile.  I feel this makes it easier to alter, even if you just make it once.  Anyway...back to the original recipe.  It was great!  Easy, quick and tasted pretty darn good too.  Why did I want to change it?  I felt it could be made healthier without losing flavor.  Luckily, I was correct: )

First Alteration Attempt
I decided the first change that needed to be made was the meat.  Ground beef has great flavor, but even extra lean ground beef isn't as healthy as ground turkey.  At first, I tried just changing that and nothing else.  Straight substitution.  The result was fine, but the flavor was seriously lacking.  I made a mental note of the lack of flavor for the next alteration attempt.

Second Alteration Attempt
I decided to use a taco seasoning packet to flavor the turkey.  I made the taco meat as per the directions and then followed the rest of the original recipe.  This version of the recipe was over-seasoned.  The flavor of the salsa was completely overpowered by the taco turkey.  Also, I realized that the flour tortillas could probably be substituted for whole grain tortillas. 

Third Alteration Attempt
For the third alteration attempt I decided that I liked the idea of using taco seasoning for the turkey, but didn't want to use a whole packet of taco seasoning.  Instead, I just used spices from my spice rack to make my own version of taco seasoning.  I happened to know what spices are normally in taco seasoning because I make taco seasoning at work a lot.  Had I not known, Google is an excellent resource for figuring out what is in different seasoning groups: ).  Also, for this attempt at the recipe I used the whole grain tortillas instead of flour and I used half the amount of cheddar cheese.  This version was a definite success.  The meat was seasoned but the salsa and tomato soup flavor not overpowered.  The whole grain tortillas were actually better than the flour ones because they didn't end up at all mushy.  The missing cheddar cheese was not noticeable.


Directions for the Turkey Taco Skillet




1 pound ground turkey
about 2ish tablespoons homemade taco seasoning (proportions below)
1 can (Campbell's) Condensed Tomato Soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
6 whole wheat tortillas (6 inch, cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown turkey over medium-high heat with taco seasoning, pour off any fat.  Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas, heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in cheese and serve.

Taco Seasoning
4 parts chili powder
4 part cumin
2 parts dehydrated onion (or .25 parts onion powder)
2 parts garlic powder
1 part oregano
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part salt
a little bit of black pepper
Note:  You can use this taco seasoning recipe (which is similar to my work one) or you can do what I do, which is just shake different seasonings over the meat until it smells right: )

Another general note:  If you want to just play around with spices in the kitchen and are a little intimidated, there is an easy way to figure out if a spice will work in a dish.  It may seem (and look) a little ridiculous but I like to hold an open spice jar over the dish that I am making and smell them together.  If they smell good, I add the new spice in (in small amounts, tasting as I go).  If they smell bad, I skip that spice and try another one.

Questions?  Let me know!  I'll try to check the comments everyday: )