Two Friends Cook

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

2012-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

These cookies were pretty much some of the best cookies I've ever made. I made them for the family Christmas party and then for a New Year's Eve party. Delicious, all the way around. And the great thing is it's a basic chocolate cookie recipe that I just modified by adding peppermint chips, so you could just make chocolate cookies or modify them again by adding something else. I've been thinking of trying coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, etc. I made them the first time using white flour, and the second time using whole wheat flour, and I'm told you can't tell the difference at all.

Recipe adapted from Dine & Dish
1 1/4 cups butter softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Andes red peppermint chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix into the creamed mixture.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake 9 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will be soft and still look slightly doughy.
Let set and cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then remove from sheet onto wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Coconut M&M Cookie Bars

2011-11-27T07:56:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of the awkwardly cut Coconut M&M Cookie Bars I made for Thanksgiving. Very simple, and the red and green M&Ms make it kind of festive. This is a very coconutty recipe, so you should definitely enjoy coconut if you're going to make this. The recipe comes from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth. I love making cookie bars, because they're so easy.

Coconut M&M Cookie Bars (adapted from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth)

Ingredients
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups M&Ms (red and green for a holiday feel)
Note: I didn't measure the coconut and M&Ms, and just added them by sight.

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x13 glass pan.
Melt butter in medium saucepan, remove from heat and let cool slightly.
In a large bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together melted butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined. Blend in flours. Finally, mix in coconut and M&Ms.
Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Mini Cinnamon Muffins

2011-09-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

I bought these really adorable mini muffin pans a couple weeks ago at Home Goods, and I figured a holiday is a great day to bake. It can be hard for me to find the time and the energy to bake. And I don't think it's that baking is terribly time consuming, unless you're making a bread. I think it must just be a combination of clean-up and the fact that I don't really eat baked goods. Anyway, so these muffin pans were cute, and I was going to make mini apple muffins, but seeing as how I didn't want to peel and core apples, I found this recipe instead (through FoodGawker, of course).

I substituted whole wheat flour (because I didn't want to open our white flour and hey, this is healthier, anyway, right?) and almond milk (because we don't keep regular cow's milk anymore). I thought the muffins were pretty good, maybe a little too dry (because of the whole wheat flour or the almond milk or perhaps overmixing?), and I would probably add a little more cinnamon and maybe a little nutmeg too next time. Also, they came out perfect looking. I was quite pleased with the lovely round muffin tops.

Mini Cinnamon Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup almond milk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease mini muffin pans or line with mini cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Melt butter in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds.
In another bowl, beat together the butter, eggs, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.
Drop the batter into the pans, about a tablespoon for each muffin.
Mix together sugar and cinnamon for the topping and sprinkle mixture over the top of each muffin.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until muffin tops bounce back or a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Breakfast Potatoes

2011-09-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

I am a really big fan of three-day weekends. I decided to do a relaxing/super productive Labor Day, part of which included making a good breakfast at home. Normally during the work week I have a scrambled egg or a bowl of cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I eat at my desk when I get to the office. However, since I had today off, and that giant bag of russet potatoes, I decided I would make some breakfast potatoes and an egg after this morning's session at the gym.I've always made skillet breakfast potatoes before and I'm never satisfied with them, so today I decided to do them in the oven. Best decision ever. I didn't have to keep an eye on the potatoes, and I could just let them bake while I showered and folded laundry. Such multi-tasking! It was a perfect weekend breakfast, and I have leftover potatoes that will probably be terrific for breakfast tomorrow too! Win!

Breakfast potatoes
3 russet potatoes
1 red bell pepper
1/2 of one giant onion
paprika
salt
black pepper
Cube the potatoes. Cut the onions into wedges. Dice the bell pepper.
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, and add onions and potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Toss together and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, tossing once at the 10 minute mark.
At 20 minutes, pull out the baking sheet and add the red bell pepper and toss together. Stick back in the oven and broil for 3-5 minutes. Serve with an over easy egg on top.

Tuna Melt & Fries

2011-09-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

It was just me for dinner tonight, and it's slim pickings in my fridge this week. I'm not really a huge fan of tuna salad, but it's cheap and easy to throw together. I used some leftover tuna salad from Tuesday night, and made a tuna melt. To make my meal a little more fun, I made some homemade French fries.

For my tuna salad, I mixed a can of tuna in oil with diced green bell pepper, a little mayo, a little Dijon, and some ground black pepper. I've almost given up dairy (haven't dropped butter yet, and still indulge in cheese occasionally), but I'm doing a pretty good job. For this tuna melt, I used two Veggie Cheddar slices. It doesn't melt as well as real cheese, but it's not a bad substitute, in my opinion.

I sliced up a russet potato for my French fries, tossed them in olive oil, garlic powder, and Frank's red hot sauce. Baked for 15 minutes or so, and then broiled for a few minutes at the end to make them crispy. In other news, I've been on potato overload this week, and I think after this week, I'm going to have to avoid white potatoes for a couple weeks. Note to self: Don't buy a giant bag of potatoes.

No BS Cookie Dough

2011-08-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Some friends of B and I's hosted a dinner last night, and while I was in the kitchen watching the wife through together an impromptu tziki sauce (yum), I noticed a funny little note taped to the inside of her cupboard. For her (now) husband's birthday she had given him a batch of homemade cookies every month for a year, with little month pull tabs to count off every time the batch was made.

And that made me think... I love cookies and wish that I had a good go to recipe that was simple and didn't require a lot of ingredients, so that whenever the mood struck me I could just whip up a batch.

This morning I set off to my local coffee shop, which has the best vegan cookies I've ever had (ok, the only vegan cookies I've ever had), and while I didn't get one (they also have the best breakfast burritos I've ever had, and those always win out) it got me to thinking what I would want my go to cookie dough to taste like. And then I remembered a time that I made honey based cookies instead of brown sugar based cookies. And then I was sold on my go to cookie dough.

I'm not a big fan of brown sugar. I think that it is a really over powering flavor, and also I hate that it dries out so fast and makes it had for me to keep a stock pile for on the fly cooking. So here's a new recipe for cookie dough for you all to try.

Please note that when your reading the recipe I've included measurements of everything because... we'll baking is a science... but I didn't exactly follow all of them. As our cooking together experience goes on you'll learn a few things about my measuring techniques, especially that I don't like to measure some ingredients (like extracts, spices, anything especially tasty, ect). So I'll include all measurements for those of you that like to stick by the rules, but will also indicate when I think you should just pour till it feels good, for those of you that like to blaze your own path.

No BS Cookie Dough

2 1/2 c. Flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp or till it feels good Vanilla Extract

1 c. White Sugar

2 tbs Honey ( I used clover, but bet any would be good)

1 1/4 c. Butter (I used salted, as this is what I had. But if I had used unsalted I may have added 3/4 tsp Salt)

6 0z or till it feels good Your choice of Mix Ins ( I used M&Ms to beat a craving, but you could use just about anything, as the cookies have a very soft taste and wouldn't overpower nuts, fruit, chips, ect)

Preheat oven to 380. Cream together butter, sugar and honey. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add the flour and baking soda. Mix in your mix ins.

Place teaspoon sized balls of dough about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart (these cookies don't spread much, so don't be too worried about it). Bake for 10 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through.

Yields about 50 small cookies.

Reboot

2011-08-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

There are those in this Internet world that don't believe that cheese makes everything better.

To those I say, please leave this blog. Please leave now.

Carrie is right to say that we've been away for too long, cooking but not blogging. Cooking glorious things and then scarffing them down before we could take a picture. But that's all about to change.

I've got pretty lofty plans for Christmas for the fam this year, and they include a pretty little book with a whole bunch of glossy pictures of food that would make your mouth water. And it turns out that it's already August, so... I should probably get started on that.

So here we go. Let's get to cooking.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

2011-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Katy is visiting for the week, and I took her to the Sunday farmer's market where we found squash blossoms! We picked some up to experiment with and made it to go along with last night's dinner. We stuffed the blossoms with either goat cheese or an herbed havarti and for a few of them I added a little bit of prosciutto. Then we dipped them in an egg wash and rolled them in corn meal and fried them each blossom in a inch or so of olive oil for about 15-30 seconds, each blossom. They turned out delicious! The corn meal gave it a nice crispy crust but then it was soft inside, and the goat cheese ones were especially, deliciously gooey. The blossoms were a little more than I would spend on a regular basis, but definitely an interesting curveball to throw at a (small) dinner party.

Coconut Milk-Chile Corn on the Cob

2011-07-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I made coconut scones, and then I had all this leftover coconut milk. So of course, I went straight to FoodGawker, as I always do, and found this recipe for corn on the cob cooked in coconut milk seasoned with chili powder. Done. I love corn on the cob, and it's summertime so it's delicious right now. I picked up a package of already husked corn from Trader Joe's, marinated the corn for about an hour in about a can of light coconut milk, some heavy dashes of chili powder, a little salt, a little black pepper, then popped it in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. It was a hit with me and my roommates. So if you're getting a little bored with your boiled corn on the cob or grilled corn on the cob, I highly recommend this recipe.

Food Find: JaxKitchen

2011-07-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

I do still exist, and Sarah Michelle does too. And sometimes I even cook. And I she sometimes does too. But I didn't make the items in this picture above. That's a Snack Slate from JaxKitchen, where I ate a few weeks ago with my friend Vanessa. This was the most delicious little board of food ever. And dinner was pretty good too, but the Snack Slate was probably my favorite part of our meal. I'm hoping I'll make it back to blogging recipes and my cooking adventures soon. JaxKitchen is a local Tucson restaurant, and it's also got a sister restaurant called The Abbey, which has delicious corn hush puppies with a pepper jelly.

Carrie: ICBC Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

For this week's Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Lauren chose Thanksgiving leftovers. However, I didn't have any Thanksgiving leftovers, and it would have been weird anyway because my family chose an untraditional Thanksgiving dinner of seafood, egg rolls and assorted vegetables. But! As it turned out, I found this turkey meatball recipe with cranberry sauce that I wanted to make because I needed to review these fusion brands appetizer spoons for work (Kitchenware News & Housewares Review), and it sounded like a good recipe. The thought behind it is good, but I thought the turkey meatballs were too dry and I didn't like the cranberry sauce. Oh well. The appetizer spoons were cute.

Herbed Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry Sauce (adapted from Pink Parsley)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped (I didn't use any celery since I didn't have any)
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 egg (Pink Parsley suggest subbing 1/4 cup pumpkin puree for the egg)
2 Tbsp fresh oregano, minced (I used dried)
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced (I used dried)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2/3 cup orange juice
1 shallot minced (I didn't have any shallots)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook until softened about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl combine the celery and onion, turkey, bread crumbs, egg, oregano, poultry seasoning, parsley, salt and pepper. Gently incorporate with your hands. Form the mixture into meatballs and drop onto your cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until cooked through.

Prepare the cranberry sauce while the meatballs are in the oven. Combine orange juice, shallots, cranberries, and sugar in a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat until the cranberries pop and the mixture begins to thicken.

Serve the meatballs with the cranberry sauce.

Carrie: ICBC Pudding

2010-12-02T20:35:00.001-08:00

The secret ingredient a couple weeks for ICBC was pudding. I don't actually like pudding, so I didn't eat any of this pie, but the Tuesday night dinner crew finished off the whole thing so I feel safe recommending it. The preparation was super easy too, which is another big plus for it. I'm going to put it on the Tuesday night dinner dessert short list. I found the recipe on FoodGawker, and it comes from chaos in the kitchen. One of the reviews of the pie was that it was pretty sweet, so you could probably take the sugar down just a notch.

Chocolate Pudding Pie (from chaos in the kitchen)
1 pie shell, prepared and baked
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
5 Tbsp flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
2 Tbsp butter, chopped
1 tsp vanilla

Combine milk, egg yolks, sugar, salt, flour and cocoa in a cold saucepan. Stir thoroughly to combine.
Turn heat to medium, stir constantly until thick but do not boil.
Once thick, remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla. Let mixture cool slightly and pour into baked pie shell. Chill. I served it with a spoonful of Cool Whip. Enjoy!

Chicken Pesto Sandwiches

2010-11-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

I bought a jar of pesto last weekend, thinking it'd be good for a couple meals. I used it in the beginning of the week tossed with some pasta, chicken and portobello mushrooms. Then I used it last night after zumba to make these delicious chicken pesto sandwiches. I was going to cook the chicken in my grill pan, but was feeling lazy and concerned about how long that would take, and it was already after 8 p.m. Instead I cut the chicken up into bite-size pieces and quickly browned it in a saute pan with some olive oil. I spread some jarred pesto onto one half of a kaiser roll, some chicken on the other half, a slice of havarti cheese over the chicken and cooked it under the broiler for a few minutes, to melt the cheese and toast the bread. The havarti melted beautifully over the chicken. I then added a little sliced red onion and marinated artichoke hearts, and had a delicious chicken pesto sandwich for dinner with a side of curly fries.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2010-11-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

I didn't know what to make for Tuesday night dinner this week so Rory suggested a broccoli cheddar soup. I love soup, so I immediately went to FoodGawker (I know, I'm so predictable) and found a recipe from Annie's Eats. Perfect! I am really loving her blog. I doubled Annie's Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe for the Tuesday night crew, and I think it came out pretty terrific. Could possibly have been a tad bit thicker (but that's my fault, as I thought I needed more broth and then didn't account for the additional broth in the roux. But the flavor was excellent. I also forgot to buy carrots, so there are no carrots in my soup. It's fine without carrots. It's definitely a keeper. I also served baked chicken with a Dijon and lime sauce and kale chips.

ICBC Pumpkin

2010-10-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

This is the first time probably since this Iron Chef Blogger Challenge started that I've actually cooked an ingredient during the week it was selected. Blanca, our newest Iron Chef, chose pumpkin as the secret ingredient, perfect for the season! For my secret ingredient recipe, I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blog sites, Annie's Eats. Annie makes a lot of amazing looking baked goods, and also has a lot of really accessible recipes for the type of cooking I like to do, simple, homemade stuff. Here's a link to her recipe, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.

I ended up making two dozen muffins, and still had batter left over. The muffins are pretty delicious, and I love the surprise of finding the cream cheese in the center. There's a little too much clove in it, so I would probably recommend taking the clove down to a 1/2 teaspoon or 3/4 teaspoon. But the cream cheese balances the spice in the muffin nicely. And overall, I would say the effort behind the recipe isn't too bad. For a little bit of bragging, I made these muffins in the morning before I went to work.

Here's a link to La Monica's Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Pumpkin.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Roasted Tilapia with Potatoes and Lemons

2010-10-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

For Tuesday night dinner last week, I found a really simple but tasty looking recipe in the October issue of Real Simple. I am a huge fan of this magazine. It always has really handy tips, excellent personal interest stories, and delicious but simple recipes. For instance, this roasted tilapia I made for dinner. This was probably one of the easiest meals I've thrown together. It all goes in the oven, and you just need to give it time to bake. I served it with some sauteed green beans and steamed broccoli and squash on the side, but you could just as easily throw together a nice green salad to serve on the side.

Roasted Tilapia with Potatoes and Lemons (from Real Simple)
1 pound red potatoes, halved
1 lemon, thinly sliced
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
4 6-oz skinless tilapia filets
1/2 teaspoon of paprika

Heat oven to 400 degrees. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes, lemon, thyme, 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer. Roast, tossing once, until the potatoes begin to soften, about 20 minutes.
Toss the olives with the potato mixture; nestle the fish in it. Drizzle the fish with the remaining oil and season with paprika and 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.
Continue to roast until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp and the fish is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

ICBC: Cooking Stock

2010-10-24T22:07:00.001-07:00

When I saw that chicken/vegetable/beef stock was the secret ingredient some weeks ago, I got very excited, because I have so been looking to make soup. I chose to combine the secret ingredient with a Tuesday night dinner meal, and served some minestrone soup for dinner a couple weeks ago. Minestrone is probably one of my favorite soups. What I particularly like about this soup is that it has a nice variety of stuff in it, and it feels like a good healthy soup. Of course I've never made minestrone, so I went to my favorite site FoodGawker, and browsed through minestrone recipes until I hit upon one that I liked the looks of.

Here's the link to the minestrone soup recipe I based my dinner off of, from Disgustingly Good.

I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except I think I quadrupled it. It was a good soup, well-liked by all my dinner attendees, and it was really nice and fresh. I think to make it healthier and heartier, I would try a more veggie-filled minestrone next time, perhaps something with kale or spinach too. Either way, a delicious soup recipe for the coming winter (as though Tucson gets that cold).

Carrie: ICBC Buttermilk

2010-10-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ages ago, I started this entry, and then got too lazy. Now I'm finally going to finish it. Several weeks ago, the secret ingredient was buttermilk and I decided to make drop buttermilk biscuits for a Tuesday night dinner. I found this recipe via FoodGawker, and it's a Cooks Illustrated recipe adapted by Two Peas and Their Pod. The biscuits were easy to prepare and quite delicious, especially with a little honey on top.

Drop Buttermilk Biscuits (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.

Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Form small balls of dough and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12-14 minutes.

Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Ice Cream Pie

2010-09-16T07:28:00.001-07:00

This ice cream pie recipe comes courtesy of Gimme Some Oven, and I think I found it via FoodGawker. Anyway, it is the easiest dessert I've ever made, probably, and was delicious. It's a fun dessert because it's really easy to customize however you want. All you need is a half gallon of ice cream, one 9-inch graham cracker or cookie crust, and your favorite toppings (cookie crumbles, nuts, candy pieces, etc). Let the ice cream thaw just slightly, then put about a 1" inch layer of ice cream on top of your crust, add a light layer of toppings, then another layer of ice cream, then another layer of toppings. Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer until ready to eat. I made this Tuesday morning and served it at Tuesday night dinner. This ice cream pie was made with a graham cracker crust, French silk ice cream, fudge-striped chocolate cookie crumbles, and pecan pieces. I think this might have to be a new go-to dessert.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Roasted Chicken & Then Some

2010-09-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

For this week's Tuesday night dinner (pita pizzas was last week, but it took me forever to upload the photo), I had my sister to pick up a store-made roasted chicken and then Whitney and I made a bunch of sides to go with it. Homemade mashed potatoes with russet potatoes, organic 2% milk, a stick of butter and some buttermilk as well as garlic powder and kosher salt, buttermilk biscuits, baked zucchini fritters, sauteed green beans tossed in soy sauce and an unfried green tomato. And that little pile of red sauce on my plate was Sriracha. Yummy!

Tuesday Night Dinner: Make Your Own Pita Pizzas

2010-09-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

For Tuesday night dinner this week, we did a make-your-own pita pizza night. It was a lot of fun, not a bad dinner for a big crowd, even if I could only make four pita pizzas at a time. I liked the interactivity of it, the way everyone could make their pizza to their own preferences. Here are some suggestions for hosting your own pita pizza night.

pitas-whole wheat or white
pizza sauce
pesto sauce
chopped broccoli
sliced bell pepppers
sliced onions
caramelized onions
black olives
mozzarella
feta
pepperoni
Italian sausage
sun-dried tomatoes
zucchini

ICBC Tomatoes

2010-09-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

So one of the secret ingredients recently were tomatoes, and I wanted to do something that was at least a little original. I make plenty of marinara sauce, and I can make a pico de gallo, and I can make a bruschetta, but what's something I've never done? So I of course went straight to FoodGawker and discovered fried green tomatoes. Of course! So genius. I found some green tomatoes at the Sunday St. Philips Farmer's Market last weekend, and I chose an unfried green tomatoes recipe I found via FoodGawker. I actually really liked them. We dipped them in a little ranch, and it was a fun and new side. And my sister who doesn't really like tomatoes said she liked the green ones a lot more.

Unfried Green Tomatoes
2 green tomatoes, sliced
1 cup panko crumbs
1 cup shredded Italian cheese
sprinkle of cayenne
pinch of ground black pepper
dash of salt
1 egg

Slice the tomatoes. Beat the egg. Blend cheese and panko with spices. Dip a slice of tomato into the egg, then the panko and place onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet. After you finish all the tomato slices, spray them with an olive oil cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. They should be crispy and lightly browned. I dipped the unfried green tomatoes in ranch dressing.

Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

2010-09-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

For Tuesday night dinner, I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman for spicy roasted chicken legs. They were delicious, easy to prep, and cooked in the oven for 30 minutes. They came together pretty quickly, actually, and I always appreciate that on a Tuesday night. It also helped when they came out delicious. I would definitely make these again. The drumstick was always my favorite part of the chicken when I was a little kid, too. They're the most fun to eat.

Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs (recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman)
16 chicken drumsticks
stick and a half of melted butter
juice from 1-2 lemons
spices (I used cumin, chili powder, cayenne, kosher salt, oregano)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter into a bowl. Add juice from lemons to the butter. Season the butter and lemon juice mixture with your choice of seasonings. Taste to test. Mine wasn't spicy enough but it's up to you how you want to do it. I added tons of chili powder, and hints of cayenne, cumin and oregano. Rinse the chicken legs. Set up baking sheets with baking racks on top. Take tongs and dip each chicken leg into butter, lemon juice and spice mixture. Coat the chicken leg and place it on a rack. Repeat with all legs. Brush the legs with the excess butter/juice/spice mixture, and then season each leg again with your spice mix. In my instance, I just sprinkled more chili powder on top. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, if you think it needs a little additional crispiness, throw it under the broiler for an additional couple minutes. Enjoy!

Tuesday Night Dinner: Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs+Veggies

2010-09-02T06:33:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday night, I chose a really simple recipe for roasted chicken legs from The Pioneer Woman, and then made a few different veggie side dishes (plus a failed attempt at cauliflower-potato mash that's not pictured).

Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

Iceberg Salad with Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Crispy Bacon

Steamed Broccoli and Yellow Squash

Grilled Red Bell Pepper, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Onions

Tuesday Night Dinner: Broccoli Fettucine Alfredo

2010-08-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

I've only made alfredo a couple times, and with each effort, I think it gets increasingly better. This alfredo sauce was pretty good, and made for a satisfying Tuesday night dinner (and leftovers). I found the recipe through FoodGawker, and the recipe itself is on A Cozy Kitchen. I added the broccoli myself. I love broccoli in my fettucine alfredo.

Broccoli Fettucine Alfredo (recipe adapted from A Cozy Kitchen)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
2 Tbsp cream cheese
1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
4 cups cooked fettucine
broccoli crown, chopped

Cook fettucine according to directions. Prepare a pot of boiling water for the broccoli and cook a couple minutes until desired tenderness. Set pasta and broccoli aside. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute one minute. Stir in flour and cook for 30 seconds. The butter and flour thicken together, and then you gradually whisk in the milk until fully blended. Stir constantly and cook 8 minutes or until mixture is thick and bubbly. I would recommend using a whisk here to stir. Add in cream cheese and cook for 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup of the Parmesan. Toss pasta, broccoli and alfredo sauce together and top with extra Parmesan cheese.

Carrie: ICBC Blackberries

2010-07-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago the secret ingredient was blackberries. I'm actually not overly fond of blackberries; of all the berries, it's probably my least favorite. However, a couple days after learning what the secret ingredient was, The Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for blackberry cheesecake. It seemed a little like fate to me. So last weekend when I decided to go on a cooking frenzy, I decided I wanted to make the blackberry cheesecake. However, I didn't make it through everything I wanted to make for my cooking frenzy and held off on the cheesecake until Monday night so I could serve it for dessert at Tuesday night dinner. The cheesecake ended up being absolutely delicious. It's definitely a win, and the blackberry sauce looked so pretty on top. I also finally used my springform pan that I got last year from Whitney, and it was amazing. Oh my goodness. It was pretty cool just popping the cheesecake out of the springform.

Blackberry Cheesecake (adapted recipe from The Pioneer Woman)
For Crust
one box of nilla wafers
one stick of butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla

For Filling
three 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 whole eggs
1/2 cup of sour cream

For Topping
2 cups of blackberries
1/2 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place wafers into a food processor and pulse into crumbs then add melted butter and vanilla and pulse until combined. Pour into a 10-inch springform pan and press crumbs into the bottom. If it comes up on the sides a little, that's okay.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add sour cream and mix again. Pour mixture over the crust, smooth the top and bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes. Turn off oven, open oven door and allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven with the door opened for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

For the topping, add all the ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour the topping over the cheesecake and allow it to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Mini Cheesecakes

2010-07-22T21:59:00.001-07:00

I didn't actually eat one of these mini cheesecakes, but the reviews of them came back positive. I made these for the neighbors and brought it over to them the night of their housewarming party. I like individual-size desserts for parties because there's no need to slice anything, and people can just hold it in their hands and eat it. I thought these were especially cute and adorable as well as relatively easy to make. I'd make them for a party again for sure.

Mini Cheater Cheesecakes (Recipe from Delish)
18 vanilla wafers
2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with cupcake liners and drop a vanilla wafer in the bottom. In a bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Fill the liners 2/3 full with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 17 minutes. Top each with fruit of choice.

Carrie: ICBC Puff Pastry and ICBC Goat Cheese

2010-07-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

When puff pastry came up as the secret ingredient, I found a recipe for a caramelized onion tart on Annie's Eats that looked delicious. In case I've never mentioned it, I absolutely love caramelized onions. Then I never got around to actually using puff pastry, and goat cheese came up. And I realized I could combine two secret ingredients into one recipe. I kind of winged this one, and I'm not sure that was the best idea. The flavors were good, but the texture in the middle of my pastry was all wrong. The edges puffed beautifully, but it was too squishy in the middle. I followed Annie's instructions to bake the tart for 25 minutes...and I just realized that I had two sheets overlapping just a little on one cookie sheet and that's probably why it needed longer. Ohhhh. Haha. But anyway, caramelized onions and goat cheese tart is definitely a winning combination. The onions are nice and sweet and the cheese is just a little salty. Loved it.

How to Caramelize Onions
Slice some yellow onions. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet. Turn the stove to medium heat to let the oil heat up a little, then add the sliced onions. Let them cook over medium heat without stirring them around too much. They'll turn tender and brown a little. They should be really tender and all a beautiful golden brown color. And they'll taste delicious.

Carrie: ICBC Lemon

2010-07-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

So a long time ago someone chose lemons as the secret ingredient for Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, and I even found a recipe I wanted to make with lemons as the starring ingredient, and then I never got to it for a long time. Friday night, I finally did. It was a long week at work, and I wanted to do something fun on Friday, but couldn't figure out what that was. I'm trying to minimize the drinking this month, so instead of going out, I decided to make a feast. I got too tired and only ended up making two dishes instead of four, but it was still pretty fun. This was one of those dishes.
The pasta was pretty delicious, but tasted very strongly of lemon. I couldn't decide if it was too lemony or not, but everyone else who ate it seemed to enjoy it. And I have to say, the leftovers the next day might have been even more delicious. What is especially nice about this pasta, though, is that it makes a great summer pasta. The sauce is very light, and the vegetables make it feel so bright and fresh. I strayed from the recipe for a few ingredients, using what I had on hand instead. Below is my adapted version. The original recipe is at Dreamy Dish.

Lemon Pasta (adapted recipe from Dreamy Dish)
two boxes of whole grain bow-tie pasta
zest and juice from three lemons
several cloves of garlic
a big bag of spinach
five or six Roma tomatoes
two small broccoli crowns
1 pint of heavy cream
1 cup 2% milk (mostly because I ran out of cream, but I also figure this kind of lightens the recipe)
couple tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh grated Parmesan

Heat a saucepan on medium heat. Add olive oil and garlic, and let the garlic cook for a minute. Add cream, milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes. The sauce will thicken. If it curdles, stir the mixture and it'll become smooth again.
While the sauce is simmering, prepare your pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
After the sauce thickens, keep it on medium heat and add the pasta to the sauce. Let that cook for two minutes, then add spinach, tomatoes and broccoli. Toss it all together. I like my spinach slightly wilted, which is what I aimed for here. Pour it into a serving bowl and top with fresh grated Parmesan.
Serves about 10.

Chocolate Chip M&M Blondies

2010-07-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

For the dessert at the bridal shower, I decided to make something really super simple. I'm really just not a dessert kind of gal, and the simpler the dessert, the better in my opinion. So I made these delicious chocolate chip M&M blondies and served them with some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Not fancy by any means, and I probably could have selected something that would have matched the rest of the menu a little better, but in my opinion, the blondies were still delicious.

Chocolate Chip M&M Blondies (recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup mini M&Ms

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.
Whisk flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. In another bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar. Stir until smooth. Add in the egg and stir. Next, stir in the vanilla until smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir until the ingredients are combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and M&Ms. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 23-25 minutes.

Greek Orzo Pasta Salad

2010-07-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

For Suzie's bridal shower, I made this Greek orzo pasta salad, a recipe I found through my beloved FoodGawker. The recipe can be found at My Baking Addiction. It was a really delicious, light pasta salad, a perfect lunch and summer salad.

Greek Orzo Pasta Salad (adapted from My Baking Addiction)]
For the Pasta Salad
one box of orzo
cucumber, diced
four Roma tomatoes, diced
one diced red onion
one diced red bell pepper
one diced green bell pepper
one package of crumbled reduced fat feta

For the dressing (these measurements are all to start, I actually ended up adding a little more dressing because it looked a little dry)
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1 heaping tsp of Dijon mustard
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper

Boil orzo according to package directions. Combine vegetables, feta and orzo. In a small mixing bowl, combine ingredients for dressing and mix well. Pour over pasta salad mixture and chill for at least an hour.

Bridal Shower Menu

2010-07-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

I hosted a bridal shower today for my friend Suzie who is getting married next month. As with most parties, it was delightful to me to have the opportunity to plan a menu. I decided to choose something simple, that would look nice but be easy to prepare. I chose to create an antipasti platter, roasted garlic hummus, Greek orzo pasta salad, and a fruit platter. There were M&M and chocolate chip blondies with ice cream for dessert. I was going to make the hummus myself but got too lazy. Oh well. I did make the pasta salad and the blondies.

The antipasti platter consisted of Genoa salami, hard salami, Wisconsin provolone, white cheddar, pepperoni, antipasti olives, roasted red peppers and marinated artichokes.

Look for coming entries with recipes for the pasta salad and the blondies.

Tuesday Night Dinner Enchiladas

2010-07-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

My sister requested enchiladas for dinner this week, so I made a pan of black bean and cheese enchiladas and a pan of my chicken and sour cream enchiladas. The black bean and cheese just used regular shredded Mexican cheese, two cans of black bans, and almost a whole large can of enchilada sauce. The sour cream and chicken enchiladas follows my original recipe, but I've modified it a little by seasoning boiled and shredded chicken breasts with cumin, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper. I also added some sliced white mushrooms this time, which Scott said added a nice earthiness to the flavor. I served the enchiladas with a basic tossed salad and corn.

Spinach with Crispy Garlic Chips

2010-07-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

I was looking for a side dish recently for dinner and stumbled across this recipe on The Pioneer Woman. My sister and I both like spinach well enough, and we love garlic so it seemed like a quick, simple option. Spinach isn't really my favorite lettuce, but it's so good for you.

Ingredients
one bag of spinach per two people
four or five cloves of sliced garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Slice your garlic cloves thinly. Throw the sliced garlic into a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil, then turn the stove on. PW teaches that if you let the oil and the garlic heat up together, your garlic is less likely to burn. Stir lightly and let the garlic brown. After garlic browns, remove it from the pan and let it rest on a paper towel-lined plate. With your stove on medium-low, add the spinach and let it wilt in the oil and heat. Stir gently and season with salt and pepper. Remove to plate and top with garlic chips.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Baked Pasta

2010-07-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

For the Tuesday night dinner before I went to Denver, I made a baked penne in a mushroom and Italian sausage marinara and topped with shredded cheese. There was also salad and garlic bread, as always. The marinara was amazing, and Scott put this dinner in his Top 10 favorite dinners. I took the time to make the marinara the night before, letting it simmer for an hour and a half and then sit in the fridge all day Tuesday. This is probably what made the sauce that much better, giving the flavors the time to truly meld together. I don't really remember what I did exactly and I never measure my marinara anymore. Crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, plenty of minced garlic, salt, pepper, a few pinches of white sugar, maybe a hint of crushed red pepper flakes. I do love a good red sauce.

Carrie: ICBC Eggs

2010-07-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

I chose eggs as my Iron Chef Blogger Challenge ingredient a few weeks ago with dreams of making fancy baked eggs in individual-sized dishes. Search baked eggs on FoodGawker and you'll know what I'm talking about. Then I started realizing that I'm a little lazy most days when I get home from work, and I saw this recipe for Egg Salad on Simply Recipes, and I'm pretty fond of egg salad, so that's what I made for ICBC Eggs instead. One day I'll get to those baked eggs.

Carrie's Egg Salad (adapted from Simply Recipes)
three hard-boiled eggs
curry powder, to taste
diced celery, to taste
light mayo, to taste

Hard boil the eggs, dice them, and combine with celery, mayo and curry powder to taste.

Tip: Once, ages ago, I found the trick to perfect hard-boiled eggs on another food blog. If I could find it for you, I would. But you take room temperature eggs, cover them with water in a pot, bring to boiling, turn off the heat, cover the pot and eggs, and let sit for exactly 12 minutes. Take them out and place in cold water to cool down until you can peel them. Perfect, hard-boiled eggs.

Carrie: ICBC Spinach

2010-06-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I tried to make spinach and feta turnovers-basically, spanakopita. It worked alright that time, but I had a hell of a time trying not to tear my phyllo dough. I tried again for ICBC Spinach and ran into the same problem. My turnovers were also a little bland this time, probably due to my constant issue of underseasoning food. But if you're a fan of spanakopita and you want to make life harder on yourself, this is the way to do it.

Spinach and Feta Turnovers
(Recipe from Pinch My Salt)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of butter
2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 package frozen spinach, drained and squeezed dry
4 ounces crumbled feta
1 egg, slightly beaten
dash of fresh-grated nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
20 sheets phyllo dough
1/2 cup of butter, melted

In a small skillet, saute onion in butter over medium heat until soft. Add garlic, cook for 30 more seconds and remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, combine spinach, feta, egg, onion and garlic, nutmeg, pepper and salt. Stir until well combined.
Remove one sheet of phyllo from stack (cover the remaining sheets with a damp cloth to keep from drying out) and lay it on a work surface. Brush entire sheet with a thin layer of melted butter. Place another sheet on top, brush with butter and repeat two more times (you will have four sheets stacked with a layer of butter on the top sheet). Cut this stack in half lenghwise with a knife.
You now have two long rectangles of phyllo in front of you. Place about 2 Tablespoonfuls of filling on the bottom right side of one of the rectangles. Fold the bottom left corner up and over the filling so that the bottom edge is now even with the right side. Continue folding up and over until you end up with a triangle. Brush triangle with melted butter and place on a baking sheet.
Repeat this procedure with the other phyllo rectangle.
Repeat steps again using the rest of the dough.
Bake in preheated oven, 375 degrees, for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Yields: 10 turnovers (in theory)

Becky: ICBC Spinach

2010-06-22T07:10:00.001-07:00

Spinach-Stuffed Pork Roast

Ingredients:
-1 (2-2 1/2 pound) pork tenderloin
-1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
-1/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
-1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
-2 tablespoons canola oil
-1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

-Cut tenderloin horizontally lengthwise about 1/2-inch (1.2 cm) from top to within 3/4-inch (1.8 cm) of opposite end and open flat.
-Turn pork to cut other side, from inside edge to outer edge, and open flat. If one side is thicker that the other side, cover with plastic wrap and pound until both sides are 3/4-inch (1.8 cm) thick.
-Squeeze spinach between paper towels to completely remove excess moisture.
-Combine spinach, breadcrumbs and cheese in bowl and mix well.
-Spread mixture on inside surfaces of pork and press down. Roll pork and tie with kitchen twine.
-Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat and brown pork on all sides.
-Place in oval slow cooker and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Serves 4 to 6.

I picked this recipe out from this little book that I got from Borders called 365 Easy Slow Cooker Recipes. This was a new experience for me because I had never cooked pork tenderloin before. Usually I only stick to pork chops when it comes to pork, with the exception of cooking a pot roast one day. I had heard though that pork tenderloin is very healthy and delicious, so I decided to give it a try.
My only complaint with this recipe was that even with the kitchen twine, it was still difficult to keep the spinach stuffing in the tenderloin. Also, I replaced the canola oil with coconut oil instead. I had heard that canola oil is pretty much a marketing scam, so now I usually stick to olive oil and coconut oil. All in all, I'd have to say that the recipe was pretty good! As usual, my crockpot cooked the meat so that it was perfectly tender. The stuffing was pretty tasty too. It did have a very strong, robust flavor to it. I do think though that I'll only cook pork tenderloins on occasion though since it was rather expensive. I think it was worth it though! And it did last awhile too...I had leftovers for the next couple of days.

Becky: ICBC Anchovies

2010-06-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

This recipe was prepared at the launch of Measure Up – the Government’s latest initiative in the fight against obesity – by Lucio Galleto and Logan Campbell of Lucio's Italian Restaurant.

Ingredients

500g Orecchiette pasta
1/2 head broccoli
120 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic chopped finely
5 anchovy fillets
2 red hot chili finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan (optional)

Preparation

Prepare the broccoli by removing the flowerets, and discarding any larger woody part of the stems, slice the remaining stems thinly.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, blanch the broccoli flowerets and stems for about 4 minutes, then drain with a slotted spoon and plunge into ice cold water, drain again and set aside.

Throw the orecchiette into the still boiling water and cook for one minute less than the stated cooking time on the packet.

In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large non stick pan on a low heat. Add the garlic, chili and anchovies, sauté for 3 minutes being very careful not to burn the garlic, then add the broccoli, mixing delicately with a wooden spoon, season to taste. Drain the pasta and add to the pan, reserving a little of the cooking liquid.

Stir well to coat the pasta, adding a little of the pasta cooking water to make a creamy sauce.

Serve immediately – parmesan may be grated on top if preferred.

I found this recipe online at SBS.com. As usual, I did make a change to the recipe...I used elbow macaroni instead of the orechiette, figuring that it wouldn't make much of a difference. I already had some elbow macaroni left over from making mac and cheese for my daughter, and I thought it could come into use for this recipe.

I actually really enjoyed this recipe! I remember for a long time I was pretty turned off by the idea of anchovies. When my older sister was in high school she used to work at a Pizza Hut, and she always used to tell me how much she hated it when customers ordered anchovies on their pizzas because she thought they were gross and slimy. But of course this was way back when I was a picky eater. Now, as an adult, I'll try pretty much anything. I can see what she meant...they were a little slimy to handle being packed in olive oil, but to me they were just another type of fish. They added a very strong, distinctive taste to the pasta that I actually really enjoyed...kind of a salty, garlicky taste. What surprised me was that my 19-month-old daughter actually liked it! Of course she didn't eat any of the chili pepper pieces, but she loved the pasta and the broccoli...Not sure how she'll feel when she'd older though and I tell her that I fed her anchovies when she was a baby! Haha. Definitely a good recipe though!

Becky: ICBC Strawberries

2010-06-17T07:39:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Tiramisu

Ingredients:
-3/4 lb. (1 1/2 cups) Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
-3 tablespoons powdered sugar
-3 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur, divided
-1/1/2 cups heavy cream
-1 pint strawberries, rinsed and hulled
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1/4 cup orange juice
24 sponge ladyfingers

Directions:
In medium bowl, whisk Mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the orange liqueur until well blended. In large chilled bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat heavy cream until soft peaks form; gently fold whipped cream into Mascarpone misture until blended. In blender or food processor, blend together remaining liqueur, strawberries, sugar, and orange juice to a smooth puree. Pour strawberry mixture into shallow bowl.
Dip 12 ladyfingers in strawberry mixture to coat; arrange in a 9-inch square glass dish, side-by-side, in 2 rows touching. Spread 1/2 of the strawberry mixture evenly over rows. Spread 1/2 of the cream mixure on top. Repeat with remaining ladyfingers; arrange over cream layer. Spread with remaining strawberry mixture. Spread with remaining cream, smoothing top with spatula. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
To serve, cut into 9 squares. Place on dessert plates and dust each with cocoa powder; top with a sliced fanned strawberry.

Since this was my week to pick an ingredient, I decided to go a little all-out. This recipe was taken from the Best of the Best from Colorado Cookbook, by Gwen Mckee and Barbara Moseley. All in all, this recipe was a little pricey. For instance, the Mascarpone cheese, orange liqueur and the ladyfingers were all over $5, plus I had to go to a specialty Italian market to get the ladyfingers, but it was all well-worth it in the end because it was AMAZING, and it looked beautiful when it was all ensembled.
I did cut the recipe in half though, because I figured that if I didn't it would be way too much for me, my husband and daughter to eat and that too much of it would go to waste. If there was a party that we were going to, however, I would definitely make this to bring along. I also goofed up a little in making this. I realized too late, after I had already ensembled the whole thing, that I had forgotten to add the granulated sugar to the strawberry mixture. I was afraid that it wouldn't taste as good, but I really don't think it made that much of a difference because the whipped cream was already very sweet. Or if it did, it was still delicious. It tasted a lot like the strawberry shortcakes that my mom used to make when I was a kid. All in all, I definitely recommend this recipe to serve at a party if you want to go to a little bit of extra effort in getting all the ingredients. Putting it all together was very easy though. In my cookbook, it noted that this recipe should get rave reviews from guests, and I can definitely see (and taste) why!

Oreo Cupcakes

2010-06-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

Oreo Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cake:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

For the frosting:
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp. whipping cream
3 tbsp. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 tbsp. Oreo cookie crumbs

For garnish:
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the brown sugar and continue beating until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated, being careful not to overmix.

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.

To prepare the frosting, in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the cookie crumbs with a spatula.

Scoop the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe frosting decoratively on top of the cupcakes. Garnish with Oreo cookie halves.

---REVIEW---

Really. There are no words.

Oh. Except I made my own buttermilk. And it is not for the faint of heart.

Recipe from here.

Carne Asada

2010-06-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Carne Asada

2 pounds flank or skirt steak
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Marinade:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed (best to lightly toast the seeds first, then grind them)
1 large handful fresh cilantro, leaves and stems, finely chopped (great flavor in the stems)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

Additionally (and missing from the original recipe) 2 Corona beers

METHOD

1 Lay the flank steak in a large non-reactive bowl or baking dish. Combine marinade ingredients and pour the marinade over the steak. Pour in a beer (take a few sips for ourself). Make sure each piece is well coated. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight at least.

2 Preheat your grill over medium-high flame (you can also use a cast iron grill pan on high heat for stove-top cooking). Brush the grates with a little oil to prevent the meat from sticking. Remove the steak from the marinade. If you are cooking indoors, you may want to brush off excess marinade as the bits may burn and smoke on the hot pan. Season both sides of the steak pieces with salt and pepper. Pour on the 2nd beer throughout the cooking process. Grill the pieces for a few minutes only, on each side, depending on how thin they are, until medium rare to well done, to your preference. You may need to work in batches. Remove the steak pieces to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal.

---REVIEW---

Ok, so when I first looked at this recipe I was like "What the what?". EVERYONE that grew up even knowing what Carne Asada was knows that you have to cook it with Corona. Who wrote this recipe out? Someone from Boston? Come on.

Seriously though, it makes a huge difference when you add the beer. It makes the steak taste like it is supposed to; Arizona Summers, backyard BBQs and... well... mexican food. Hah.

I didn't brush of ANY of the cilantro or marinade when I put the steak on the grill and it made it taste, and smell, awesome. While cooking be sure to keep the hood of the grill down so that the meat stays moist. ALSO be sure to cut it THIN across the diagonal (that picture up there... the slices are too thick!). Otherwise, your just eating pieces of steak.

Recipe found here.

Pioneer Woman Red Velvet Cake

2010-06-11T15:11:00.001-07:00

For a BBQ Brandon and I had... in May.... I made Pioneer Woman's Red Velvet Cake. I know that the usual me would transcribe the recipe for you all, but I'm not home (working from an office space YAY!) and thus... can't.

Just buy the cookbook, you won't regret it.

---REVIEW---

I've been living in Denver for a while now... and I haven't let the "Mile High" get me down. I've thought "I don't need high altitude directions! I'M A BAKER! Get out of my face with your extra flour and water!".

Consider me schooled. This cake sunk. HARD. I pulled it out of the oven at 10pm and it was completely concave. And the BBQ was the next day. And I MAY have freaked out for a minute.

Oh Sarah Michelle, how do you fix a problem like this? You pick yourself up by your bootstraps and let gravity do it's job. That's right. I just flipped the cakes over and let them set so that the big gap was on the bottom. Don't judge me. Nobody knew.

I also made the icing on the cakes, which was SUPER fun. Make icing. Do it.

A friend of mine said that the cake was a little salty-er than normal, but he said that he didn't mind it. Neither did I. I had a piece for breakfast EVERY MORNING the next week.

Bikini what?

Also. Doesn't this piece of cake look like a SHARK! YES, yes it does.

ICBC- Anchovies

2010-06-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

Green Goddess Dressing

So, do you know what happens when you don't blog about what you cook right away?

You lose the recipe. You can't find it online. And you're only sure of what was in your dish by the color.

Hm.

Doesn't matter anyway. Everyone thought it was runny guacamole anyway...

I think it was avocado, sour cream, anchovy paste, water, something something....

Carrie: ICBC Black Beans

2010-05-30T10:09:00.001-07:00

I'm several weeks behind in ICBC, and it's been a combination of laziness and cheapness. But a few weeks ago, I chose black beans as my ingredient. It's a pantry staple for me, and I thought it'd be interesting to see what people came up with. Sarah Michelle made Black Bean Brownies and Becky made a Turkey Chili with Black Beans. Michele also prepared a chili recipe.

So for black beans, I decided to make a black bean and corn salsa. I was hosting a smaller dinner on Friday night, and I thought a salsa would help tide us over until dinnertime. Measurements of spices are inaccurate since it's all been by taste. In the end, I think it was a pretty good salsa. I would definitely make it again.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa
one can of black beans
about 3/4 of a package of frozen corn, thawed
three tomatoes
two small cloves of garlic
jalapeno, to taste
1/4 of a red onion
1/4 of a bunch of cilantro
juice from half of a lime
salt
cumin

Combine ingredients and stir together. Add salt, cumin, jalapeno, cilantro and lime to taste.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Beef and Broccoli

2010-05-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

I was really stumped this week as to what to make for dinner, so of course, I took my usual route of browsing food blogs for recipes and dinner ideas. When I search for Tuesday night dinner ideas, I tend to look for fast and easy recipes, party recipes, or budget recipes. I made my way to Steamy Kitchen, a beautiful site by a food blogger who actually just released a cookbook recently. She had the most delicious looking picture of beef and Chinese broccoli with noodles that I just couldn't get out of my head, so I knew I had to make that for dinner. I also thought it'd be a good choice because we rarely eat beef at Tuesday night dinners. It was the best decision. I've discovered a recipe that I could probably pretty easily slip into a regular rotation, and it was just so so delicious. At least, that's what I thought, and I think most everyone else agreed.

Broccoli Beef noodle stir fry (adapted from Steamy Kitchen)
1 pound flank steak, thinly sliced (Jaden recommends beef sirloin)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons dry white wine, sake, or Shaoxing wine (I used white wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch (I used corn starch)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 pound fresh or 10 oz dried noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
1.25 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound Chinese broccoli or common broccoli, cut into bite-size chunks or florets (I used Chinese broccoli that I did not bother cutting)
freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together soy sauce, oyster sauce, and wine. Add sugar and whisk until dissolved. Stir in corn starch until smooth. Add sesame oil and beef and marinate for at least 20 minutes.

Prepare noodles. You can use any kind of noodles here, just prepare according to package directions, but don't quite cook them all the way so you can finish cooking them in the saute pan at the end.

Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and stir fry garlic until fragrant. Add the beef and stir fry until tender, just a couple minutes. When you cook the beef, you should cook the slices in a single layer in your pan so it cooks evenly and creates caramelized bits. When the meat is finished, transfer it to a plate and add a little more oil to the pan. Add the broccoli and toss it so it's coated with oil. Pour in a 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium low and cover with a lid. Cook until tender, 3 to 5 minutes and transfer to the same plate as the meat.

This is where I strayed from Jaden's recipe just a little. I tossed my noodles in the saute pan, added oyster, soy sauce, and chicken stock to taste, and tossed it around a little to flavor it and finish the cooking process. I chose to serve the noodles separate from the beef and broccoli so people could have an option of noodles or rice.

Perfect Picnic Sandwiches

2010-05-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

My favorite sandwich at my favorite Tucson sandwich place is the Bart's Bag at Beyond Bread. It's Brie, turkey, red onion, lettuce, and tomato with honey mustard and mayo on a baguette. I get it almost every time I go to Beyond Bread and have been faithfully eating this same sandwich for years. A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I went to see the outdoor movie in the park and I made us sandwiches and pasta salad and brought strawberries. This is my homemade version of an adapted Bart's Bag and it was amazing. Perfect picnic sandwich.

Perfect Picnic Sandwich
baguette
spinach
tomato
red onion
brie
turkey
honey mustard
mayo

Slice the baguette in half and spread mayo on one side, honey mustard on the other side. Place turkey, then brie, then spinach, tomato and red onion. Enjoy!

Tuesday Night Dinner

2010-05-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuesday night dinner collage

Salad of spinach, broccoli slaw mix, shredded carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes.

homemade garlic bread

Spaghetti noodles tossed with garlic, diced tomatoes, and zucchini.

Baked tilapia with lemon and dill

Garlicky Baked Shrimp

Carrie: ICBC Garlic

2010-05-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

For Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Garlic, I settled on this Garlicky Baked Shrimp recipe I found on Gimme Some Oven. The recipe is originally from Real Simple. It was delicious. Outstandingly delicious. I couldn't sing the praises of this recipe enough. And it was so easy.

Ingredients
shrimp, peeled and deveined
white wine
panko bread crumbs
melted butter
minced garlic

Peel and devein the shrimp. Toss with minced garlic and a couple tablespoons of white wine. Melt butter in a small bowl and then mix in panko bread crumbs. Put shrimp in single layer on a baked dish and spread panko bread crumbs on top. Bake in a 425 degree oven until shrimp is cooked through, roughly 12-15 minutes. If desired, broil the last couple minutes to crisp the bread crumbs on top a little more.

Carrie: ICBC Eggplant

2010-05-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited to receive my e-mail from Sarah Michelle and find out that the secret ingredient is eggplant. It's a vegetable that receives a lot of love in this house, so I was also excited to see what else I could do with it. I stumbled across this Real Simple recipe for Eggplant Lasagna with Herbed Ricotta and Asiago, and I adapted it for my own time and budget purposes.

Ingredients
3 medium eggplants, sliced into thin discs
olive oil
garlic
3 eggs
3 cups of ricotta
dried basil and oregano
salt and pepper
two cans of crushed tomatoes
two cans of tomato sauce
shredded mozzarella

Prepare marinara sauce. Dump crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce into large pot, season with basil, oregano, salt and pepper. (You could sub out the basil and oregano for an Italian seasonings spice mix too.) Simmer on medium-low while you prepare the eggplants.

Slice the eggplants into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices. Dehydrate them on cookie sheets by sprinkling with salt, washing off the salt, and patting them dry with a clean cloth.

Prepare cheese filling by mixing ricotta with eggs and seasonings.

Place some marinara sauce in the bottom of a baking pan, then eggplant, then ricotta, and repeat. Top it off with shredded mozzarella. (This recipe requires two baking pans. I used a 13x9 and an 8x8.) Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is slightly browned and bubbling.

Becky: ICBC Black Beans

2010-05-04T07:39:00.001-07:00

Swanson Turkey, Black Bean and Corn Chili

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 3/4 cups Swanson® Chicken Broth (Regular, Natural Goodness™ or Certified Organic)
1 cup Pace® Thick & Chunky Salsa
1 tablespoon sugar
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (16 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

Directions
Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepot over medium-high heat. Add the turkey, onion, chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper and garlic powder. Cook until the turkey is well browned, stirring often.
Stir the broth, salsa, sugar, beans and corn in the saucepot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

This was a recipe that I came across online on allrecipes.com. Ironically though, even though this was a Swanson chicken broth recipe, I did not use Swanson chicken broth. Instead, I used some chicken bouillon granules that I had on hand and dissolved them in water to make my own broth, since I'm cheap and didn't want to spend extra money lol. I also used this hot habanero salsa I had in my fridge instead of the Pace kind. Also, since I've been trying to lose some excess weight, I used Stevia instead of the sugar, which is an artificial sweetener that is supposed to actually be good for you, unlike aspartame or any of the other unhealthy artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas.

This recipe turned out to be really good! Even my husband liked it, which really surprised me since he typically doesn't like turkey. The only thing was that I could tell that it had artificial sugar in it. Stevia is really sweet, and I could definitely taste the sweetness in the chili. Regular sugar you probably wouldn't notice as much, so unless you're watching your diet, I say use regular sugar instead. I also liked the hot habanero salsa because it gave the chili a nice kick :) Plus, this was really easy to make, and quick too!

Sarah: ICBC Garlic

2010-05-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Julia Child's French Onion Soup

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup olive oil

3 lbs onions, halved and sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, minced very fine

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 cups dry white wine

6 cups beef stock or chicken stock (the beef will make a darker, more robust soup)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 ovenproof soup bowls

12 toasted slices of French baguettes, 1/2 inch thick

2 cups Swiss cheese, grated

3 teaspoons Parmesan cheese, grated

In a large saucepan over medium heat melt the butter and oil together.

Add the onions, garlic, and sugar. Saute until slightly colored, stirring occasionally (don't stir too much - you want them to brown), for 7 minutes.

Add the white wine, raise temperature to medium high, and bring to a boil.

Lower temperature back down to medium and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the stock, raise temperature to medium high and bring to a simmer.

Lower temperature to low and simmer *uncovered* for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes).

At this point you can freeze the soup for reheating later (after thawing).

To serve at this point, continue with steps: first, preheat your broiler.

Ladle the soup into the ovenproof soup bowls (6 of them).

Place two slices of toasted baguette onto the top of each soup bowl.

Sprinkle each serving with 1/3 cup of Swiss cheese, then 1/2 teaspoon of Parmesan cheese.

Place soup bowls onto a baking sheet and place in oven under preheated broiler.

Broil until the cheese melts (watch them carefully - depending on your broiler and how far the rack is from the heat, it can take anywhere to 45 to 90 seconds or so).

Serve immediately.

---REVIEW---

So... let's get real for a minute here. We're all friends. You can take it.

I've never loved anything more than I love french onion soup. Ever. In my life.

This soup... was not my favorite french onion soup. I am not saying that this is the fault of Mrs. Julia Child, it is the fault of whoever decided that beef broth should come in 4 cup containers instead of 6, and didn't think the mention it on the container.

The soup was OK with 4 cups, but not as rich and full bodied as I would have hoped. Also, maybe this had something to do with the fact that I bought the cheapest bottle of white wine I could find... at Target.

Don't judge me.

Also, I thought you all needed to know EXACTLY HOW MUCH 3LBS OF ONIONS REALLY IS. A lot. A lot a lot.

Sarah: ICBC Bananas

2010-04-25T20:09:00.001-07:00

Banana Nut Bread

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) softened unsalted butter

2/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs

3 very ripe bananas

2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 cup toasted walnuts (put them in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter your loaf pan.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together butter and sugar with a mixer on high until smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, add eggs one at a time, beating till combined. Add bananas and mix till combined (the mixture will look curdled). Reduce speed and add flour mixture in 3 batches alternatively with the buttermilk, starting and ending with flour. Mix until smooth. Add nuts.

4. Put in loaf pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

---REVIEW---

I've never made an official bread before, so I was really excited to make this, and even more excited when it came out well (I was worried as it is not a high altitude recipe). It even tastes awesome. Take that high altitude.

My first banana recipe was "Baked Banana Chips", which I actually made during the challenge week, but didn't take a picture of because they didn't come out. I didn't bake them for long enough, but feel free to give it a try yourself with this recipe.

Bread recipe from "Gourmet Today".

Creamy Chicken Pasta with Asparagas

2010-04-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 oz macaroni

6 oz frozen asparagus (You'll find an 8 oz bag, just don't use the bottom of the spears)

3 tbl spoons flour, divided

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup grated Parmesan Romano cheese

1/4 teaspoon paprika

Olive oil for cooking chicken

1. Rinse chicken, pat dry and cut into bite size pieces. Combine 2 tablespoons flour, salt, pepper and parsley in a plastic bag. Add chicken and shake till coated.

2. Cook noodles according to package. Cook asparagus according to package.

3. Cook chicken in a frying pan with oil. Set aside. Cut asparagus into bite size pieces.

4. Melt butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Cook on low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually whisk in milk. Whisk in cheese and stir until thickened. Stir in paprika. Stir in asparagus. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Pour sauce over noodles and chicken.

---REVIEW---

This is an old-y but good-y in my house. It was a staple when we lived in LA. Usually it has frozen spinach instead of asparagus, but I think I like it this way more.

From "The Everything College Cookbook".

Sarah: ICBC Black Beans

2010-04-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Black Bean Brownies

1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish.
2. Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a blender; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.

---REVIEW---

Now, I know what you're thinking.

"Sarah Michelle, get out of my face with your hippy-dippy California ways. Black beans go in tacos, not brownies."

But I'm telling you. Try it. You get to make it in a BLENDER! COME ON! How fun is that!

So this recipe subs black beans for flour, which I think is a pretty cool idea (as a most of the time pescatarian, I'll take all of the protein I can get), and changes the texture of these brownies completely. They're really smooth, kind of like fudge, which was interesting. I wasn't crazy about them (but I don't like brownies anyway), but my brownie loving friends loved them.

Found here.

Sarah: ICBC Eggplant

2010-04-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Eggplant Curry with Saffron Rice and Naan

Eggplant Curry

2 large eggplants

1 1/2 cups white mushrooms

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 bunch scallions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 fresh red chile, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

14 oz can chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 400. Wrap each eggplant in aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour, or until soft. Unwrap and let cool.

2. Cut the mushrooms in half and set aside.

3. While the eggplants are baking, heat the oil in a heavy pot and fry the mustard seeds for 2 minutes, until they begin to sputter. Add the scallions, mushrooms, garlic, chile and fry for 5 minutes. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, and salt and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop out the soft flesh. In a mixing bowl mash the flesh roughly with a fork.

5. Add the mashed eggplants and chopped fresh cilantro to the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Serve immediately, garnished with a cilantro spring.

Saffron Rice

I winged it. I combined regular white rice, a dash of olive oil, some saffron threads and a handful of raisins (my grocery didn't have goldens, and cashews were $7 per container) in my rice cooker, and cooked as usual.

Naan

2 cups unbleached white bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 oz active dry yeast

4 tablespoons lukewarm milk

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

1 egg

2-3 tablespoons melted ghee or butter, for brushing

1. Sift flour and salt together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, cream yeast and milk together. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Add the yeast mixture, vegetable oil, yogurt and egg to the flour. Combine the mixture using your hands until it forms a soft dough.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed for 10 minutes, or until it feels smooth. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to it's highest setting, no lower than 450.

4. Turn out dough back onto floured surface and knead for another 2 minutes. Divide into 3 equal pieces, shape into balls and then roll out into teardrop shapes about 10 inches long, 5 inches wide and 1/4-1/3 inch thick.

5. Place on a preheated baking sheet, bake for 3-4 minutes or until puffed up.

6. Broil at highest setting for a few seconds to brown the tops. Brush with ghee or butter and serve.

---REVIEW---

I made a lot (and I mean a lot) of subs in the curry, including using a jalepeno, chipotle pepper powder and some not so ground spices. The rice also had a few subs, as my grocery is a bit on the under-stocked side. The naan seemed to have way too much yeast in it, as it was more like regular bread then flat naan.

But... everything tasted good! The curry especially. And everything was easy, even though there seem to be a lot of steps. I didn't do a good enough job of measuring out spices before hand, and it didn't hurt the recipe at all that I took some extra time between steps.

Please take note that Saffron is SUPER expensive. Like $14 for a small bag of threads. But it also takes something like 2000 flowers to harvest enough threads for one bag. So maybe it's worth it. I think it's worth it.

Found in "The Best Ever Indian Cookbook".

Becky: ICBC Eggplant

2010-04-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Sicilian Grilled Eggplant
This recipe was taken from the George Foreman the Next Grilleration Great Grilling Recipes

1 medium-sized eggplant
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 c. fresh ripe tomato, diced
1 T. fresh garlic, minced
1 T. fresh parsley, minced
1/2 t. salt
1 t. black pepper
2 T. Asiago cheese, shredded

Clean, peel and cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch thick slices. Arrange the eggplant slices on a double-thickness of paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Rinse the salt away and pat dry. Sprinkle each slice with pepper.
In a small saucepan, combine the tomato sauce, tomato, garlic, parsley, pepper and salt. Heat through and simmer for 10 minutes. Keep warm.
Set the Temperature to 350F to allow the grill to preheat. Place the eggplant slices in the grill in a single layer and set the Timer to 8 minutes. When the Timer beeps, check the eggplant with the tip of a knife. It should be tender when done.
Place on a large serving platter and grill any remaining slices as directed above. When all the eggplant slices are grilled, gently pour the tomato sauce over the slices and top with the shredded cheese. Serves 4.

First of all, my computer is not letting me attach my pic to this message. Boo! I have been having problems with my computer lately because of a virus, so I'll try again whenever I can get a chance to use another computer.
To be totally honest, I was not a fan of this recipe for one reason: way too much pepper! When making the sauce, I used the whole teaspoon of pepper that the recipe called for, but when I was sprinkling the extra pepper on the eggplant slices, even just 1/2 of a teaspoon seemed like too much to me, so I only used the half. All that pepper made the slices pretty difficult to eat, to be honest. I was done after about 2, and they left me craving something sweet. I was also planning on giving some of this to my daughter for lunch, but it would've been too spicy for her. I thought that it was a little odd that the recipe called for so much pepper. It's probably all in preference though. I'm sure some people like a lot of pepper in their food, but not me. If I ever make this again I'll probably just use 1/4 to 1/2 of a teaspoon in the sauce while just sprinkling 1/4 of a teaspoon on the slices. Another possibility as to why I didn't much care for this recipe could've been because of the whole tablespoon of garlic. Although I love garlic, a whole tablespoon just seems like a lot for just 4 servings worth of sauce. Usually I measure 1/8 of a teaspoon per clove, so that's 24 cloves of garlic! At least I don't have to worry about any vampires in my kitchen lol. I still think it was the pepper that was the main problem here.
I did a couple other things differently as well. For one thing, I used a teaspoon of dried parsley instead of the tablespoon of fresh because I had forgotten that I had no freeze-dried parsley left, which I always use for fresh. I really don't think it made that much of a difference. I also bought a wedge of asiago cheese since you can't buy it shredded, and I cut little pieces to put on each slice instead, and that worked fine as well. As I said before though, I was a little disappointed in this recipe. I have a bunch of slices left over but I probably won't eat all of them. Hope everyone else enjoyed their recipes a little more than I did this week!

Correction: I just read on my jar of minced garlic that 1 clove equals 1/2 a teaspoon, so I was a little off. Someone once told me that 1 clove equals about an 1/8 of a teaspoon and I never thought to double-check until now. Good to know! However, 6 cloves of garlic for 4 servings still seems like an awful lot to me.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

2010-04-21T23:00:00.001-07:00

I had leftover condensed milk from my banana cake recipe, so I searched FoodGawker and discovered Condensed Milk Pound Cake. I love pound cake, and I love sweetened condensed milk, so I figured I'd give this recipe a try. The cake's delicious. Sweet, moist, and actually I think improved over the course of a few days. Click here for a link to the recipe, from Blue Ridge Baker.

Carrie: ICBC Banana Cake

2010-04-15T07:33:00.001-07:00

Jen W. chose bananas for this week's challenge, and since my latest obsession is FoodGawker, I headed there to find a banana recipe. I stumbled upon this Banana Cake recipe from My Kitchen Snippets, and decided that's what I would make. Recipe success! The cake was moist and delicious, despite my fears that my batter was too lumpy (which it probably was) and me being just shy of a cup of sugar. Oh well. Still tasty.

Recipe
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
4 Tbsp condensed milk
4 mashed bananas
1 tsp vanilla or banana essence
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 8" x 8" square baking pans. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. Beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix until smooth. Mix in mashed bananas, vanilla and condensed milk. Slowly add flour mixture and blend until smooth. Pour batter into baking pan and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. (I can't actually tell you if 50 minutes is how long I baked it, because Kevin put my banana cakes in the oven while I was plating dinner, and he didn't set the timer so I set it later but I'm not really sure if it was accurate because I don't know actually know how much time had already elapsed. I can tell you the cakes were in the oven for at least 30 minutes.)

Tuesday Night Dinner: Breakfast for Dinner

2010-04-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

For dinner earlier this week, we did something a little different and had breakfast for dinner. I made a baked French toast, Southwestern egg casserole and served them with bacon and corn tortillas. I really liked the Southwestern egg casserole and I'll be posting that recipe soon.

Becky: ICBC Ugli Fruit

2010-04-10T08:01:00.001-07:00

This is not my main recipe of the week, but this is just a little concoction that I made which I think is worth sharing. I've recently been on this new diet because I'm sick and tired of the extra weight I've gained around my tummy since I had my daughter. One of the requirements of this diet is to make a protein shake for breakfast every morning with the following ingredients:

Protein powder (I got the uflavored kind, which was not a smart move. It tastes really bad unless I add some vanilla extract or cocoa powder to my smoothie to sweeten it up.)
Liquid (either water, unsweetened almond milk or unsweetened soy milk. I use the soy milk.)
1 handful of fruit of your choice (I obviously used Ugli fruit)
1 Tbsp. or tsp. of ground flax seeds or whole chia seeds (I use the chia)
Veggies of your choice, as much as you want (I always use spinach leaves because you can't even taste them at all when they're all blended up)

Additions:
A sprinkle of kelp powder, which is recommended but not mandatory. It smells awful but you can't taste it when it's blended up, and it's really good for you too.
1 tsp. of cocoa powder. Ugli fruit taste a lot like an orange, and I love the combination of chocolate and oranges.

Blend it all up! This Ugli smoothie I made was actually pretty good. It did sorta taste like a chocolate orange candy, only less sweet. One thing that I would change though: I dug out sections of the Ugli fruit and tossed them into my blender, but as a result I got pieces of the "skin" around the sections floating around in my smoothie, which was kind of annoying. Next time I think I'll just squeeze out some juice instead, which should be easy because Ugli fruit is really juicy. Other than that, it was good.
I actually add the chia seeds after I blend everything else and pour it into a glass. Otherwise they stick to the sides of the blender and more of them end up getting washed down the drain than in my body. I know the color of the smoothie is pretty un-appealing, and obviously it's not as sweet and sugary as the smoothies you would find at, say Jamba Juice, but I've actually grown to really love these smoothies. They're filling, too! I wouldn't think that just a smoothie for breakfast would fill me up, but they do, and I also feel as though I have more energy in the mornings as well. I still have my sugar-free lattes in the morning too though, can't give those up lol. Anyways, some of these ingredients are pretty pricey, but I definitely recommend these smoothies to anyone who either wants to lose weight, feel healthier or gain some more energy. Actually, I recommend my whole diet that I'm on right now. Feel free to email me if you want to learn more about it! :)

Tuesday Night Dinner: Coconut Curry

2010-04-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

I made a chicken coconut curry and a tofu curry for this week's Tuesday night dinner. Didn't love the consistency and the spice level in either curry.

Becky: ICBC Shallots

2010-04-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

For the shallot recipe, I made a french dip sandwich.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp dry sherry (optional)
2 10 1/2 cans beef consomme
1 10 oz. bag romaine lettuce blend
1/3 cup balsamic vinaigrette
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 whole-grain rolls, split
4 portions lean roast beef, thinly sliced (about 1 lb.)
1 tsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning
8 cherry peppers

Directions:
Place a large skillet over medium-heat, add olive oil and heat for one minute. Add shallots and saute 2 minutes. Add flour and saute 2 more minutes. Whisk in sherry and cook for 3 minutes.
While whisking, slowly pour in beef consomme. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce heat to low and simmer.
Place salad greens in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette, toss to coat and season with black pepper. Divide into 4 salad bowls.
Set out 4 dinner plates. Place a roll and a ramekin (or small cup) on each plate.
Divide roast beef into 4 portions. Use tongs to dip a portion of roast beef into warm au jus sauce, place inside roll and sprinkle with steak seasoning.
Fill ramekins with extra au jus sauce for dipping. Place 2 cherry peppers on each place. Serve and enjoy!

This recipe came from my Eating For Life cookbook, by Bill Phillips. Inside this cookbook is lots of healthy meal options for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, shakes and desserts. This recipe was in the Dinners chapter, although I made this for lunch instead. I also cut this recipe in half because it was only me and my daughter eating while my husband was at work.
I did make some changes to this recipe. For instance, I used beef broth instead of consomme, because it was all they had at Super Walmart and from what I understand, I really didn't think that beef broth was really that much different. I also bought a red bell pepper because I didn't see any cherry peppers there either.
Looking at this recipe, I thought it seemed rather plain, but it actually ended up being pretty delicious! The au Jus sauce made my kitchen smell yummy while it was simmering on my stove-top. I also really liked the extra flavor that the steak seasoning gave the roast beef. The salad was a little bland though, but that's only because I prefer heartier salads with lots of stuff in it. I'm not a huge fan of just lettuce and dressing. Also, I'm not a huge fan of plain red peppers, but I still ate about half of mine just because lately I've been trying to eat healthier. I would definitely make the sandwich again though!

Carrie: ICBC Shallots

2010-03-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

My picture's not that great, but that's what happens when I forget to take the picture before we start serving. I decided to make green beans with shallots and pancetta for this week's ICBC ingredient. Green beans are one of our favorite vegetables in this house, and I make them pretty often. Normally what I do is saute them with onions and garlic and soy sauce for seasoning, so I figured shallots would be a good sub, and that pancetta would go nicely with them. It's a simple, uncomplicated side dish, and I think green beans are an easy, tasty way to incorporate vegetables into your meal.

Green Beans with Shallots and Pancetta
green beans
shallots
sliced pancetta
salt and pepper
(I can't offer much in the way of measurements in the green beans, something around five handfuls using a small girl's hand, and then I just added the shallots and pancetta proportionally to that.)

Set a pot of water to boil and drop green beans in boiling water until just tender but still a little crisp. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil into a wok or saute pan and let heat up. Add pancetta and let the pancetta brown and crisp. Then add shallots and let them brown. After the shallots brown, add green beans and toss everything together to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until desired tenderness.

Tilapia with Lemon and Dill

2010-03-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

So this week my friend Katy came in to visit us. Katy, like my roommate, doesn't eat meat, but does eat seafood. My sister, who also lives with me, doesn't eat shrimp. Fish then is one of the more affordable lean proteins we can all agree on. I found this recipe for tilapia with lemon and dill over at For the Love of Cooking. It's delicious. And really so easy to throw together. I recommend serving it with a side of roasted asparagus for a light meal.

Tilapia with Lemon and Dill (from For the Love of Cooking)
three tilapia fillets
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
a few sprigs of torn dill
a tsp or two of lemon zest
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine the above ingredients and marinate the fish for 2-4 hours. (Due to time constraints, I only marinated for about an hour and I thought it was fine.)

Juice two lemons and after marinating, add the lemon juice to the fish fillets. In a glass dish sprayed with cooking spray, place the fillets and pour the lemon juice over them. Add a few more sprigs of torn dill and place a thick pat of butter on top of each fillet and season with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in the oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, until fish is flaky.

Restaurant Find: Zona78

2010-03-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've never posted a restaurant find for any restaurants in Tucson, but in case any of you ever come here, and I'm not around to entertain you, I want you to know about one of my favorite Tucson spots. I am going to introduce you to what I believe to be the best tomato-basil soup in the city, though my other half of Two Friends Cook might disagree.

Zona78 is a restaurant that first opened in 2003, and they offer gourmet pizzas, some Italian dishes, and a great selection of starters and salads. They also offer this Roasted Tomato-Basil soup, made with local tomatoes and topped with their fresh toasted croutons. The soup is made with what I'm sure is a fair amount of cream, and I just find it amazing. When I think of going out to eat soup, all I think about is Zona78's tomato-basil soup. No joke. At lunch, you can get a grilled cheese and soup. Oh my goodness.

I also recommend this salad. For a long time, I always ate pizza from Zona78, but one day I tried their Chop-Chop salad. It's a delicious mix of contrasting flavors that work really well together. It's crunchy, a little sweet, and a little salty. Salami, pears, pecans, a fresh pear vinaigrette, amazing. Also, I'm thinking this fulfills my Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Pear, right? I ate pears, at least.

And, finally, this is Zona78's Tuscany pizza, and what their menu touts as their bestseller. It's a loaded pizza for sure, with Italian sausage, portabello mushrooms, fennel, roasted garlic, Zona's homemade mozzarella, and kalamata olives. I hope I didn't miss anything. It's a good pizza, though I didn't care for the fennel, and Aaron didn't care for the sausage. Still, pretty delicious. You can also opt for a whole wheat crust.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers

2010-03-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

Part of the fun of Tuesday night dinner for me, honestly, is seeing the different meals I come up with. I try not to repeat meals too often, and I'm proud to say I don't think I have. I made a vegetarian version of these bell peppers with white beans stuffed with orzo and a veggie mixture of sauteed zucchini, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and onions and all tossed in a fresh marinara. The meat version is the orzo and veggie filling with Italian sausage. And on top was just a little shredded cheddar cheese. As an appetizer, we had a mozzarella and fresh tomato bruschetta and roasted asparagus.

Sesame Noodles with Fried Tofu and Garlicy Soy Sauce Green Beans

2010-03-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

I was going to an event Friday night, and therefore needed to come up with a dinner that I could throw together quickly. As is not unusual, I turned to one of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. Ages ago, she posted a recipe called Simple Sesame Noodles. They take about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes to boil some spaghetti noodles. For a little protein, I cooked some tofu and for some veggies, I made some green beans. Fast, easy dinner, and totally delicious. Win.

Recipe (sesame noodles from The Pioneer Woman)
box of spaghetti noodles
firm tofu, cut in cubes
couple tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 lb of green beans
one small diced onion
2 cloves of minced garlic
4 whole green onions, sliced thin

For Sesame Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp pure sesame oil
4 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp hot water

Cook noodles according to package. Drain and set aside in a bowl. Throw green beans into pot of boiling water and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Drain green beans. Heat olive oil in skillet for tofu and olive oil in another skillet or wok for green beans. Throw tofu cubes into skillet and let brown on all sides, until golden. Add onions to wok for green beans and cook until translucent. Add green beans and garlic and toss together until green beans are tender. Season with soy sauce, to taste. Whisk together ingredients for sesame sauce and toss over cooked spaghetti. Toss noodles together and top with sliced green onions.

Restaurant Review- Fogo de Chao

2010-03-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

For the second night of restaurant week dinner date extravaganza Brandon and I headed out to Fogo de Chao for all the meat we could eat. This is really one of the best deals on restaurant week, since a three course dinner for two costs only $50 during this week and I can’t even imagine how much it would cost regularly.

For those of you that haven’t been to a churrascaria before, let me explain. You sit at your table with a small green and red token, while men in silly pants walk around and serve you delicious meat until you explode.

First Course:

Salad Bar- You know… lettuce, veggies, bread, dressings, chicken salad, cheese and sliced meats.

Cheese bread- Warm yummy bread stuffed with warm yummy cheese. I don’t know what more you could want.

Review: Ok, so maybe you’re not impressed at the sound of a salad bar, but this one was amazing. There are over 30 different items, and each one of them was amazing. I even know a certain VEGAN that likes to come to this STEAK HOUSE for the salad bar. Def try the basil salad dressing. The bread was also great. I’ve had this at another Brazilian place that I like to frequent and didn’t enjoy it, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Main Course:

Meats- Picanha, Filet Mignon, Beef Ancho, Alcatra, Fraldinha, Costela, Cordeiro, Frango, Costela De Proco, Lombo, Linguica

Side Dishes- Crispy polenta, garlic mashed potatoes, caramelized bananas.

Review: Holy meat, Batman. As a past pescatarian, I was a bit overwhelmed by the huge slabs circling around my head. I was especially partial to the lamb (my first time ever having lamb), the chicken cooked in bacon and the filet mignon cooked in bacon. But, above all that… let’s talk about the crispy polenta. What if we lived on a beach and ate crispy polenta everyday? We’d be queens, that’s what.

Dessert Course:

Key-lime pie

Turtle Cheesecake

Review- As far as dessert go, these were alright. Not amazing and life changing, not gross and soupy.

Drinks:

Xengu beer

Pino Noir

Tuesday Night Dinner: Vodka Sauce

2010-03-03T06:34:00.001-08:00

For dinner this week, I decided to make pasta with vodka sauce, using the recipe Sarah Michelle used for Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol. Dinner was delicious, and I served it with Trader Joe's turkey meatballs on the side, garlic bread, garlic cheese bread, and a salad with romaine, spinach, cucumbers, artichoke quarters, sundried tomatoes, and sunflower seeds. If you were wondering, this is an easy meal to make for a large party of people.

Restaurant Review- Zengo

2010-03-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the first of my two-in-a-row restaurant week dinner dates. Tonight Lani, Amanda and I headed out to Zengo, a Japanese Mexican restaurant in north downtown. In long, Zengo is a restaurant that mixes Japanese and Mexican food elements in order to create a new awesome fusion cuisine. In short, it was amazing. Here’s what we had:

Appetizers:

Angry Zengo Sushi Roll- Spicy Yellowfin Tuna, avocado, sesame-chipotle rouille, wasabi tobiko

Kobe Chorizo Quesadilla- Roasted corn, Oaxaca cheese, salsa verde, crema, avacado-tomatillo pico de gallo

Reveiw- The quesadilla was just a little overly spicy for me, but was still enjoyable. We all LOVED the sushi.

Main Course:

Pan Roasted Herbed Chicken Breast- Oaxaca mashed potatoes, shimeji mushrooms, baby bok choy, achiote-truffle sauce

Achiote Barbecued Salmon- Daikon-wasabi potato puree, broccolini, warm bacon ponzu, chipotle egg sauce

Review- The girls really loved the Salmon, and while it was very well cooked, I wasn’t crazy about the sauce. I really liked the chicken, and would probably have said that I loved it if I hadn’t already had so much chili sauce lately.

Dessert Course:

Chocolate Passion Fruit Mousse

Orange and Yuzu Custard with Pistachio Ice Cream

Mango Sorbet & Fresh Fruit

Review: Amanda really loves chocolate mousse. Lani really loved the mango sorbet. I really loved the pistachio ice cream and the crust on the custard. It turned out that I liked parts of each of the desserts, but wasn’t crazy about any of them as a whole.

Drinks:

We each had a glass of wine, one Roja, one Pino Grigio and one Riesling. I don’t know the names of the specific brands we got, but they were all very good.

Mushroom Alfredo

2010-03-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

For dinner tonight, I decided to throw together a mushroom alfredo for me and my sister. When using mushrooms, I always use brown mushrooms or baby bellas. They just taste better to me. I found this recipe online from a blogger and the entire meal came together really quickly. My sauce was a little thick, but otherwise delicious. Only a few years ago, I never cooked, and it occasionally surprises me now how much I love it. And how often I go grocery shopping and think, I could do that myself.

Mushroom Alfredo
spaghetti
package of sliced brown mushrooms
one small diced onion
three cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper
half stick of butter
1/4 cup of flour
2 or 2 1/2 cups of milk
1/3 cup of heavy cream
handful of Parmesan cheese

Prepare spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Drizzle and toss with a little olive oil to prevent noodles from sticking.
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms and saute until tender. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over mixture. Add flour and toss to coat. Add milk and cream and stir until sauce thickens. When sauce thickens, add a handful of Parmesan cheese and stir as it melts in. Remove sauce from heat and serve over spaghetti. Sprinkle a little more Parmesan on top.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Spaghetti Squash

2010-02-27T21:34:00.000-08:00

So, I've never made spaghetti squash before. Ok, lets be real, I've never made any kind of squash before. Beginners Tip: I was very surprised at how much spaghetti came out of the squash, so buy a small one.

Turns out it is super easy. 400 degrees for an hour, cut it open and scoop.

I really just threw a whole lot of spices on this. Made some rice pilaf from a bag, broiled some asparagus.

Upon finishing cooking this I realized that it was completely vegan, which I thought was pretty cool.

Tasted completely vegan. I'm sure that this could have been great with a sauce, and plan to cook it again sometime soon.

Cake Balls!

2010-02-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

Box of cake, made as per box (I used Strawberry cake)

Container vanilla icing

1 bag white chocolate chips

1. Bake cake as per box, let cool completely.

2. Crumble cake in a large bowl. Mix with container of icing.

3. Roll cake/icing mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Pop them in the freezer for about an hour so that they stick together a little better.

4. Melt chocolate in microwave. Roll balls in melted chocolate. Set in a glass pan and put them in the fridge.

---Review---

When I found this recipe online, it called for Red Velvet cake. While I am sure that Red Velvet cake is very lovely, I love pink cake. Megan and I used to make pink cupcakes in college, and eating any form of pink cake makes me the happiest girl on the block.

As you can guess, these are just about the best dessert ever. And they're super easy to make.

I'd say you can use any kind of cake you want. Use your favorite. Roll it in whatever chocolate you love the most.

Try to only eat one ball at a time.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2010-02-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

24 oz cream cheese

1 lg can of chicken

1 cup Franks hot sauce (must be Franks)

1/2 c Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing

1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese

1. Combine cream cheese and chicken in a bowl. Heat in microwave and mix till combined.

2. Add hot sauce and cheese. Mix. Heat in microwave till cheese is melted.

3. Add dressing.

--Review--

The first time I had this dip I almost died from it's pure deliciousness. There are very very few things I like more than buffalo chicken, and this dip allows me to scoop buffalo chicken with tortilla chips. Best thing ever.

I made this for the Super Bowl party that I went to, and it was a big hit.

Turns out I'm not the only person that likes the idea of buffalo chicken on a chip.

Recipe from a friend.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol

2010-02-27T20:29:00.000-08:00

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup vodka
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 box Whole Wheat pasta (really doesn’t matter what shape)
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 basil leaves, rolled together and chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
fresh cracked pepper and salt

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil. Add onions, garlic and crushed red pepper cook until onions are translucent about 5 minutes. Pour in vodka. Cook 3 minutes. Pour in tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Set aside.

3. After sauce has simmered for 20 minutes, whisk 1 tablespoon of sauce into cream to temper it. Slowly stir tempered cream into the tomato sauce. Add cooked pasta to the sauce. Stir to combine.

4.Stir in basil and Parmesan cheese. Stir to combine. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.

---REVIEW---

Love it. Eat it every day. Recipe from Jen Lula of Jen Loves Kev.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Spaghetti Squash

2010-02-25T19:50:00.001-08:00

I was kind of excited when Erica chose spaghetti squash. It's a squash I've never tried cooking, but have always been kind of intrigued by the thought of it. I was not in love with how long I had to roast it in the oven, but I think there are some microwave options out there. So, in order to crack open your spaghetti squash and make it easy to take apart, you throw it in a 400 degree oven for at least 45 minutes to an hour. When it's finished, you can cut it in half, dig out the seeds, and then pull at the squash with a fork to removed the strands of squash. I have to say, it did produce plenty of "spaghetti."

I was originally going to make a spaghetti squash gratin recipe I found this morning, but then was too hungry to wait another 30 minutes while it baked. Instead, I tossed my squash with a smear of butter, in bacon grease, with thinly sliced bacon, shrimp, a little lemon juice, thyme, salt, minced garlic and red chili flakes. It was okay. My sister liked it and said she would eat it again. I could probably be persuaded to try it again covered in a nice marinara or as the gratin. On the side, I served some sauteed garlic green beans. It totally does look just like pasta! Tricky squash.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Peanut Butter

2010-02-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'd like to apologize that I don't have a pic of this recipe. I totally spazzed and forgot to take one :( However, both me and my husband can confirm that this recipe was amazing and definitely worth trying :)

Indonesian Peanut Chicken

3 to 3 1/2 lb. cut-up broiler-fryer chicken
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 cut water
1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet or 4-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook chicken in oil about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides. Cover and cook over low heat about 20 minutes or until juice is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Remove chicken from skillet with tongs.
3. Drain all but 1 tablespoon dripping from skillet; heat over medium heat. Cook onion in drippings, stirring occasionally, until tender; reduce heat. Stir in peanut butter, chili sauce and red pepper. Gradually stir in water, stirring constantly, until peanut butter is melted.
4. Add chicken. Spoon sauce over chicken. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered about 5 minutes, spooning sauce frequently over chicken, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with peanuts and bell pepper.

I got this recipe from Betty Crocker's Big Red Cookbook, and I have to say that it turned out to be a delicious dinner. I've noticed that with Indonesian cooking, the flavors are usually both spicy and sweet at the same time, and the same held true for this recipe. The peanut butter made the chicken sweet, but the chili sauce and red pepper gave it a certain kick. I did screw up a little while preparing this recipe though. When the time came to add the ground red pepper, I actually added the chopped red bell pepper. I didn't realize this until after I had sprinkled the peanuts into the skillet. I added the ground red pepper and stirred it in the best I could, and I really don't think the outcome of the recipe made much of a difference. The red peppers cooked in the sauce tasted just as well as if they had just been added for garnish. I also cooked a cup of white rice on the back-burner and served the chicken on top of the rice, another suggestion that was made in this cookbook. Anyways, one way I could tell that my husband really enjoyed this recipe was the fact that he didn't add tabasco sauce to the chicken, and he ALWAYS adds tabasco sauce because chicken is never spicy enough for him. But this time he said that the peanut sauce was so good that the Tabasco sauce was unnecessary. I only wish my daughter could've tried this but babies can't have peanut butter until they're 2 years old because by that time they're less likely to develop an allergy to it. I think she was pretty happy with the mac n' cheese she got though :) Anyways, definite thumbs up! :)

Restaurant Find: La Traviata

2010-02-22T21:09:00.001-08:00

On my last day in Austin, I had to be rebooked on a later flight due to the record snowfall in Dallas. I hate traveling in the winter. The later flight did however give me the time to enjoy a nice sit-down lunch by myself at La Traviata, a charming little restaurant in downtown Austin. It was only about half a mile from the convention center so I walked my not dressed warmly enough self to the restaurant and was seated at a tiny table near the door and a window looking out over Congress. I mentioned on my personal blog how nice it can to dine by one self. Especially when the meal is as delicious as mine was at La Traviata.

This was my Caesar salad, which is in theory, a pretty simple salad. However, the sherry vinegar and anchovy vinaigrette made it spectacular. I really like Caesar salads. They're simple salads, lettuce, Parmesan, croutons and dressing. But the sherry vinegar added such a nice bite. I've got to try making a homemade Caesar dressing myself one day.

For my entree, I waffled for a bit between dishes, but eventually settled on this Calamari alla Puttanesca. I love seafood, and I really love calamari. I also thought this pasta was delicious. The sauce had a terrific bite to it, and the calamari was spectacular. Calamari is tricky, oftentimes coming out just a tad bit too chewy. But mine was perfect. And while the dish looks like one of great substance, it never felt too heavy, an excellent thing in a midday meal. All in all, a very satisfying meal for one.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Peanut Butter

2010-02-18T21:06:00.001-08:00

I don't really like peanut butter. I'm crazy, I know, but we've had this discussion before. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Not good. So I definitely was a little like oh...peanut butter...when I saw the secret ingredient. I thought about baking, but then decided to see what else I could find. And boy, am I glad I chose not to bake because I haven't loved a recipe this much since ICBC Bacon. I found a recipe on Love and Olive Oil, one of my favorite cooking blog sites. Their Tofu Noodle Toss with Taylor's Kick-Butt Peanut Sauce was so easy to throw together and completely delicious. Just as good the next day for lunch too. Make it. Now. I promise you won't regret it. There are no measurements for how many noodles or veggies, so it's kind of like an estimation game. But that also means it's pretty hard to screw it up. It's a recipe with a fair amount of wiggle room, I think, and that's a good thing.

Tofu Noodle Toss with Taylor's Kick-Butt Peanut Sauce
noodles (I used whole wheat spaghetti)
firm tofu, drained and cubed
veggies (I used eggplant, asparagus, green beans, red bell pepper, red onions, and green onions)
olive oil
kale, rinsed and stems removed

For Peanut Sauce (for 4-5 servings)
2/3 cup peanut butter
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons garlic salt (which I didn't have so I minced three cloves of garlic and added a pinch of salt)
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Sriracha chili sauce, to taste
water, if necessary to thin sauce

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a hot pan and brown tofu cubes. Place browned cubes on a plate lined with a paper towel.
Add another tablespoon of oil and cook veggies until tender. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add a couple more tablespoons of olive oil, add kale, and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until greens are tender. Remove to a serving dish.
To make peanut sauce, combine all the ingredients except for water to a microwave safe bowl and mix well. Microwave for 40 seconds and stir until smooth. Add a little water if sauce looks too thick. Move tofu and veggies back into the pan, add noodles, then peanut sauce and toss until well coated. Serve atop bed of kale.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol

2010-02-18T05:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a couple weeks behind, I know. I'm juggling a lot, but these are getting done, I swear! For this challenge, I made shrimp in white wine and then tossed it with some pasta and diced tomatoes. I'd give you a recipe, but I didn't really use one. I peeled some shrimp, threw it in a pan with olive oil, cook till they were pink, then added some butter, minced garlic, and white wine. Let it simmer and the wine reduce, then toss it all with thin spaghetti and a can of diced tomatoes. It was good. I don't really know if the wine added anything or not, but while the shrimp was cooking in it, I thought you could get drunk off the scent.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Seafood Feasting

2010-02-17T06:37:00.001-08:00

Because I am the nicest friend ever and because I figured these would be easy meals, I basically made two dinners last night. I made this Real Simple recipe for Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes as well as a pasta tossed with shrimp and diced tomatoes. And because one of the girls is allergic to shrimp and two of the girls don't even eat shrimp, I separated out some pasta and tossed them a separate vegetarian pasta with diced tomatoes, a little bit of eggplant, and some asparagus. I also roasted asparagus. The salmon was delicious, and the tomatoes were okay, probably better if you like tomatoes. And the best part of the recipe was that it all happens together in the oven. See upcoming future post for my pasta, which I combined with Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol.

Baked Dover Sole & Sauteed Green Beans and Mushrooms

2010-02-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

For a quick, easy, and healthy dinner, I highly recommend this one. I'm craving seafood for some reason this week, and so last night I picked up some Dover sole from the store as well as fresh green beans, cremini mushrooms, and a red onion. It was so easy to put together, and everything cooked really fast, which was also a plus given how late I'd gotten home.

Season the fish with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, making sure to cover both sides. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Mince two cloves of garlic. Wash the green beans and put them into boiling water for a couple minutes. Remove from boiling water and dunk into bowl of ice water. Heat olive oil in a wok or skillet. Saute onions until they get a little brown and tender then add green beans and mushrooms. Add the garlic a few minutes later and toss the vegetables together. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until green beans are tender.

Restaurant Find: Cedar Door Bar & Grill

2010-02-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

I was on a business trip last week, Tuesday through Friday, in Austin, Texas. Austin is one of those cities I've always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, the weather was dreadful and it being a working trip didn't make it a terribly exciting trip. But, you always have to eat, and I always enjoy a good meal. I had dinner by myself on my first night in Austin, where I had this delicious bowl of spicy tortilla soup and then a couple delicious chicken tacos.

I've become a big fan of soups, and maybe one day I'll remember to introduce you to my favorite tortilla soup in Tucson, but for now, this is a good one in Austin at the Cedar Door Bar & Grill. I really liked the spiciness that the poblano peppers added, and the chicken was so so tender. Tortilla soups are interesting because you can find them made a number of different ways. Sometimes they're real brothy, with just a few avocado slices, tortilla strips, and cheese. But in my opinion, the best soups have some substance to them. Veggies, shredded chicken, fresh avocado slices. This was definitely one of substance.

I love tacos. I mean, really, is there a more fun food than tacos? And they're so varied. These chicken tacos were delicious. They were stuffed with a marinated grilled chicken, caramelized onions that added a touch of sweetness, roasted poblano peppers for a kick, and a tomatillo salsa. I also squeezed a little lime juice over them. It was the most amazing mix of flavors, and so balanced with the onions and the peppers, the lime juice and the salsa.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol

2010-02-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

Flounder with Mushrooms and Wine

-1 pound flounder, sole or other delicate fish fillets, about 3/4 inch thick
-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/8 teaspoon pepper
-1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine
-1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
-1/3 cup sliced leeks
-1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
-1/4 cup sliced almonds
-1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. If fish fillets are large, cut into 4 serving pieces. Arrange in ungreased square baking dish, 8 X 8 X 2 inches. Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Melt butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook mushrooms and leeks in butter, stirring occasionally, until leeks are tender. Stir in wine. Pour mushroom mixture over fish. Sprinkle with almonds and cheese.
4. Bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.
4 SERVINGS

This recipe came from the Betty Crocker's Big Red Cookbook. Since most of my recent recipes have been chicken dishes, I decided to try a fish recipe this time. I thought this recipe sounded particularly appropriate because I currently have plenty of white wine in my refrigerator. I had also never tried leeks before so I was excited to make this.
I chose sole for the fish fillets because I could not find flounder at the grocery store where I always shop. The only complaint I have about using sole is the fact that it breaks so easily. When I was done baking the fish, it was impossible to take the fillets out of the baking dish without them crumbling into pieces. Also, I only had slivered almonds on hand so rather than spend extra money to buy sliced almonds, I just used the slivered onces instead.
All in all I do recommend this recipe. It was very easy to prepare, and fast as well. I had no idea that leeks were in the onion family and that they separate into rings when you slice them. I always imagined leeks to be solid and to have a bland taste, so I was surprised to find that they were so similar to onions in taste and texture.The white wine also gave the fish a very strong, distinctive flavor. I enjoyed it, although my husband on the other hand wouldn't even try it because he doesn't like seafood, among many other foods. I would definitely make this dish again for myself, however :)

Tuesday Night Dinner: Pizza Party

2010-02-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

In order to accommodate changing schedules and not lose any of our regular Wednesday night dinner party members, we switched dinners to Tuesday nights. This week was our first Tuesday night, and it was quite the event. We made eggplant chips, five pizzas, and sundaes for dessert. In case you were wondering, eggplant chips for 15 is a bad idea because it goes on for quite some time. And pizzas for 15 is only a good idea if they all fit in your oven at once. Otherwise, you eat 30 minutes later than originally intended.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge- Cream Cheese

2010-01-31T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix (and ingredients required by package)

3 1/2 cups of milk

8 oz of cream cheese

2 tubs Cool Whip

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

1/2 stick of butter (softened)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Combine milk, butter and cream cheese in a mixer until there are NO lumps. Add in milk, instant pudding and Cool Whip. Mix until completely combined (will be a bit soupy). This will be your frosting.

2. Cover frosting in bowl with foil and but in the refrigerator.

3. Make cake according to package in 2 round pans. Let cool slightly.

4. Melt chocolate in your microwave, pour melted chocolate onto one side of each of the cake halves and spread evenly. Let cool completely.

5. Pull out your icing, which is still going to be a little soupy. Pour some icing onto of one of the cake halves, onto of the chocolate you poured on. Put the other cake on top of the icing, chocolate side down. Ice cake completely.

6. Refrigerate cake. Don't let sit out, as icing will likely to bad.

----REVIEW---

When I heard that this battle had to do with cream cheese, I automatically thought of Dirt Cake, which is one of B's favorite desserts that I make. In the spirit of pushing the envelope, I decided to take elements of Dirt Cake and turn it into an actual cake.

Be careful when pouring on the icing, you should end up with A LOT left over (which I would suggest you use to make real dirt cake). I poured on way too much and spent the next 30 minutes scooping goop off of my counter and cake plate.

The next time I make this I am going to try to get the "icing" to be a bit thicker. I am thinking of adding LESS milk and maybe crushed up Oreos. Also, I think I will make the icing and let it sit over night before making the cake.

Thoughts?

ALSO- it's not a strange picture angle, for some reason my cake is very lean-y (even though the layers are perfectly lined up).

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Nutmeg

2010-01-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

Spinach-and-Cheese Puff

Ingredients:

- Butter for baking dish

- 3 packages of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)

- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half

- 3 large eggs

- 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

- Coarse salt and pepper

- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

1. Preheat oven t0 350. Butter a shallow 1 quart baking dish.

2. In a large bowl combine spinach, half-and-half, eggs, 1 cup cheese, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and nutmeg. Stir to combine.

3. Spread evenly in baking dish. Top with remaining cheese.

4. Bake until set and top is golden, 30-35 minutes.

---Review---

Have you even had Gruyere cheese? It's like heaven in your mouth. While cooking this my sister Samantha and I must have eaten at least a handful each. I know it is pricey, but buy it, and buy lots of it, because you're going to need to eat at least a cup before you even start on cooking.

When I heard that nutmeg was a secret ingredient, my inner baker jumped up and down and did a back flip. Thoughts of cookies danced through my head and I smiled for three days straight.

Then I met up with Becky, who had picked the secret ingredient and she told me she was planning to make A REAL DINNER using nutmeg. I was completely floored. You can do that?

I did some searching and came up with the above recipe. I am the happiest clam that my household has discovered this SUPER easy, SUPER tasty dish. Even my extreme workout and dieting sister ate thirds.

Recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Cream Cheese

2010-01-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

There are some obvious choices when the ingredient cream cheese comes up, like cream cheese frosting, but then my obsessive stalking of other cooks' blogs came in handy because I thought of this recipe instead. I'm a pretty big fan of spinach artichoke dip, and this looked like a particularly fun twist. It's an artichoke bread, basically artichoke dip baked into the bread, by Kevin over at Closet Cooking. I'd say this recipe gets an A, especially when Jake bit into it and went "This is awesome, Carrie!" I probably could have left it in the oven a little longer so the cheese on top could brown a little more, but I was so so hungry, and it still tasted delicious. Be warned, though, it's very, very filling.

Artichoke Bread
4 oz. cream cheese
1 14-oz can artichokes
2-3 green onions, sliced
few cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
big handful of mozzarella plus some to sprinkle on top
slightly smaller handful of Parmesan plus some to sprinkle on top
half of a loaf of Italian bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cream, artichokes, green onions, garlic, mayo, sour cream, mozzarella and Parmesan together in a bowl. Hollow out your bread just a little bit to stuff the artichoke cheese mixture in it. Spread it in the bread and top with more cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese melts and turns golden brown.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches

2010-01-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

I forgot to take a picture before I dug into my sandwich, so this photo is actually Jake's half-eaten sandwich. I roasted eggplant, zucchini, onions, red bell peppers, and mushrooms for Italian sandwiches topped with capicolla, salami, provolone, pepperoncinis, black olives and red wine vinegar. Scout made sweet potato fries to go along with our sandwiches and we started with an appetizer of artichoke dip bread, post to come sometime later this week. We had a few different desserts as Scout's been on a bit of a baking frenzy. Dinner just keeps turning into a feast every week. It's pretty amazing.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Nutmeg

2010-01-21T21:15:00.000-08:00

Since Arizona is apparently under siege from wind, rain, potential snow, and the right conditions for a tornado, it seemed like a good night to bake banana bread. And I'm busy the rest of the weekend. This week's challenge was nutmeg, so off to google search I went. For the Love of Cooking is one of my favorite cooking blogs because her recipes are healthy and simple, the perfect recipes for the home cook. I found a recipe for Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts and since I'd been wanting to make banana bread for some crazy odd reason, it made sense that I turned it into my ICBC recipe. My sister and I decided the banana bread is delicious. I'd give you a roommate review too, but the roommate doesn't like fruit, especially bananas. I think I would definitely make this recipe again.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (adapted from For the Love of Cooking)
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips
*The recipe also called for toasted walnuts which I don't really care for and ground cloves which I didn't have, but I don't think the bread suffered very much from the missing ingredients.

Grease and flour a loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, mash bananas, egg, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and butter and mix thoroughly. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips to the batter (I just eyed this) and pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until knife poked into center of loaf comes out clean.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Creamy Tortellini

2010-01-21T06:42:00.000-08:00

So for last night's Wednesday night dinner that was so packed with people we had to bring out a second table, we had fried eggplant chips, salad and creamy tortellini with spinach and tomatoes. Here's a link to the tortellini recipe because I need to leave for work. It was all delicious, by the way. Click here for recipe.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bacon

2010-01-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Remember that EPIC fail? (OF COURSE you do! It's right below this post!) I think it would be very correct to say that I have bounced back with a vengeance.

I was excited about this challenge but also a little worried. I rekindled my Pesca-tarinism at the beginning of January, so regular bacon was out of the competition for me. Luckily Brandon and I have discovered a pretty good like of "fake" meat products that has rather yummy tasting bacon.

I usually shy away from Rachel Ray recipes for the simple fact that I cannot afford to stock a pantry like she does. 24 ingredients for make one dinner? YEAH RIGHT.

I got her magazine for about 2 years while living in LA and while I collected and ogled many of the recipes she has put together, I rarely attempted.

This salmon recipe was part of one of her mag's features called "5 Ingredients", and as you have gathered only had 5 ingredients. Well, 6.

Salmon, Bacon and Tomato Packets.

4 Salmon fillets

3 cooked strips of Bacon, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup of Ranch dressing

1/2 cup of Feta cheese ( I don't like Feta, so I used Queso Fresco)

1/2 cup of diced tomatoes

Pepper for seasoning

1. Fire up your grill. It needs to be really hot when you start to cook (I heated mine for like 15 minutes).

2. Grab 4 pieces of tin foil and put one salmon filet on each piece. Fold up the sides of the tin foil so it looks like a box without a lid.

3. Put 2 tablespoons of Ranch dressing on each filet, try to cover evenly. Distribute bacon evenly over filets. Do the same with the cheese.

4. Put the packets on your grill and close the hood. Let cook for 8-11 minutes, until opaque all the way through.

5. Take off grill, top each filet with 2 tbs of tomatoes.

---Review---

I served this with Uncle Ben rice pilaf (the kind that you microwave for 90 seconds in the bag) and roasted asparagus (put asparagus on some tinfoil, douse with some olive oil, season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings, cover with more tinfoil, put on the grill for about 15 minutes, top with a little more salt and pepper, serve).

To say the least, this fish was delicious. Seriously, I don't even like fish that much and I would eat this everyday.

The recipe was super easy to follow, and everyone (we had my sister and our fried Dan over) loved it.

Make it now.

Sarah: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

2010-01-20T10:15:00.001-08:00

First off- I am sorry for falling so so behind on these challenges. I am working very hard to catch up, but life is really crazy at the moment. I'll be caught up soon, promise.

Second off- I'm calling defeat. This was an EPIC fail. I am not going to even give you the recipe.

I made this iceberg lettuce, ruby red grapefruit, pasta, shrimp concoction for family dinner last week. I can only play that they let me cook again.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bacon

2010-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

I was pretty excited to see bacon as our secret ingredient of the week. Bacon's delicious, in my opinion, and it's so so versatile. I lucked out and this recipe for Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille was posted on Hot Off the Garlic Press. It was really simple to put together and the end result was delicious. Oh my gosh, I have found a new favorite potato recipe. Make it. Now. I promise you'll love it. I can't pronounce it, but I don't even care.

Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille
1/2 diced onion
2 cloves garlic
4 or 5 Yukon Gold potatoes
spinach leaves
three pieces of cooked and crumbled bacon
1 Tablespoon of flour
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons of butter
shredded cheddar cheese

Slice the potatoes.
Melt the butter in a pan and then add onions and garlic and a pinch of salt. Saute until translucent. Add tablespoon of flour, cream, and milk and whisk together. Cook over medium heat to a boil to thicken sauce. Remove from heat.
Grease muffin tin. Add a spoonful of sauce to each muffin cup, then layer in a few potato slices. Add spinach, bacon and cheese, then another spoonful of sauce, more potato slices, and then another spoonful of sauce and top with shredded cheese.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sauce should be bubbling and cheese should be slightly browned, potatoes should be tender.

Wednesday Night Dinner: A Feast

2010-01-13T21:03:00.001-08:00

We had a feast of a dinner this week. I bought a roasted chicken from Safeway and paired it with sauteed green beans made by Scott, a creamy baked potato thing for the Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Bacon, salad, homemade bread by Suzie and homemade hummus by Shelby. It was all pretty spectacular. For dessert, I made apple tart using a recipe from The Pioneer Woman. And I just want to say that this was a really fun Wednesday night dinner. Nights like these are part of the reason I host this week after week.

Becky: ICBC Brie

2010-01-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

For this week's challenge, I actually prepared 2 recipes. The first recipe, which is listed below, was taken from http://www.hub-uk.com/foodpages04/recip0158.htm.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and medium chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3/4 cup apple cider
4 ounces Brie cheese, rind removed and cut into chunks
4 medium chicken breast halves, on the bone with skin (2 lbs.)

In Heat oil in medium size nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook until very tender, about 8 minutes. Add apple, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/4 cup cider; cook until apples are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly. Stir in Brie. Divide stuffing into 4 equal portions.

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Run fingers under breast skin to separate from flesh. Put 1/4 of the stuffing under the skin of each breast; press gently to distribute filling evenly. Season chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place in 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish.

Bake in 400ºF oven until no longer pink, 35 minutes. (180ºF on instant - read meat thermometer). Remove chicken to platter; keep warm.

Prepare sauce:
Skim fat from baking dish. Scrape drippings into small saucepan. Heat over medium heat. Add remaining 1/2 cup apple cider; cook to reduce by half. Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spoon over chicken.

Although the chicken turned out to be good, I was a little disappointed as well. For one thing, I think it would've been better if I had gotten boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of the ones that were on the bone. Cutting a slit in each breast and filling the slits with stuffing would've been better in my opinion. The reason why is because I found that when the brie cheese melted in the oven it actually stuck to the skin. I never eat the skin when I eat chicken breasts so I feel as though I missed out on the yummy flavor of the brie cheese. In fact, I wouldn't even know that this recipe even had brie cheese in it if I hadn't made it myself. Instead the chicken tasted predominantly of the onions and the thyme. So although this chicken was good, it still didn't reach my high expectations. I also think that this recipe called for too much onion.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to take a photo of this recipe and I couldn't find one on the internet. But trust me, I did cook it! :)

This was the second recipe I prepared:

1 small wheel Brie cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 package slivered almonds

Microwave the Brie for 30 seconds, just until warmed through. Saute almonds in butter until slightly browned.

Pour almonds over warmed Brie on a pretty plate and serve with warm chunks of French bread.

I got this recipe from http://www.recipegoldmine.com/appbrie/brie-almond-appetizer.html. As stated above, I was a little disappointed in my previous recipe so I decided to try again with this simple appetizer recipe. It was delicious with the french bread! One thing that I think would've tried though is to add a little bit of almond extract to the brie. I think it would've given it more of a sweet, nutty flavor, but unfortunately I didn't have any almond extract on hand. Other than that this recipe was very tasty!

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

2010-01-07T05:14:00.001-08:00

I know, I know. I'm a little behind in posting this. I really liked the ingredient Lauren chose, but the holidays, they seep into you and keep you busy (even when you're really not). But here is grapefruit, and I swear I'm doing brie on time.

I found this Grapefruit Yogurt Cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and decided it would be a terrific way to utilize grapefruit. It was either this or a granita, and the granita involved being around for three hours, and that probably wasn't going to happen. So I picked up some really gorgeous grapefruit from Sunflower, at a steal of a price, and made this cake last night. Wednesday night dinner and a cake? I'm a rock star, I know. The cake wasn't too bad. Upon first bite, I was a little unsure, but it grew on me. Everyone else really enjoyed it too. In fact, we may have eaten 2/3 of the cake in about 10 minutes.

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake (Smitten Kitchen)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 extra large eggs
3 teaspoons grated grapefruit zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

For glaze
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeeze grapefruit juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the veggie oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining tablespoon of sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Place it on a baking rack over a sheet pan, and while the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and grapefruit juice and pour over the cake.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Sherried Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

2010-01-06T21:26:00.001-08:00

I made The Pioneer Woman's Sherried Tomato Soup for dinner this week along with grilled cheese sandwiches. It was delicious. I really love tomato soup and grilled cheese. It's an excellent combo. This photo, by the way, was taken after I dropped my camera in my tomato soup bowl. Well done, Carrie.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

2010-01-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

BBQ Pork Salad with Summer Fruits and Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
4 cooked pork chops, sliced
8 cups mixed greens
2 nectarines, cut into 12-wedges each
1 grapefruit, segmented
2 avocados, cut into wedges
16 cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon salad oil
2 tablespoons slivered, toasted almonds
salt and black pepper

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/8 cup salad oil

1. For the vinaigrette: In a blender, combine all ingredients except oil. Blend at medium speed for one minute. Next, with blender at medium speed, pour oil very slowly into blender. Add salt and pepper.
2. For each serving, toss 2 cups greens with 2 tablespoons dressing, top with 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 sliced pork chop, 1/2 avocado, sliced in wedges, 1/2 nectarine sliced in wedges, 1/4 grapefruit segments. Drizzle with more dressing and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

At first I wasn't sure what kind of recipes I could find with grapefruit. I looked through my cookbooks but none of the recipes really sparked my interest all that much. Then I googled "grapefruit recipes" and discovered this recipe on Allrecipes.com. Even though this recipes probably wasn't the best choice for this time of year (for one thing, nectarines are not in season), I still chose it because it had a lot of ingredients that I love, like grapefruit and avocado. The fact that it has pork in it also made it a good main course dinner.

I was presented with some challenges. As I said, nectarines are not in season so I ended up using canned peaches. I wasn't sure what kind of salad to use for the mixed greens, but I finally settled on a mixed fresh herb mix.

All in all, I really enjoyed this salad. My husband wouldn't try it because he doesn't like grapefruit, avocado, pork or tomatoes. My husband is definitely a lot pickier than me when it comes to food lol. I wish I could've used fresh nectarines, but canned peaches were a good alternative. The dressing was fantastic. My husband even tried a little of the dressing and he agreed with me.