Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wednesday Fun #76 - I Don't Make That

Ack! Once again the time difference and Chinese studies have interfered with me getting this posted at a reasonable time. Sorry.

Last night we were trying to decide what to have for dinner. Do we order in (always a challenge here), go out, or do I make something. In the end, I made burritos. But, there are many food items that I just don't like to make and rather go out for. Pretty pastries or other complex desserts come to mind.

Granted, if we all had the money, we would probably prefer to go out most of the time or have our own cook, right? But, in general, what meals/food items do you prefer to have out?

Monday, March 23, 2009

Bananas brulee

The other night Puck and I were watching Iron Chef America, Battle: Figs!, and Mario Batali made a fig brulee. At the judging table, he commented sort of offhand, how it was good with bananas too.

Puck looked over with an unholy gleam in his eye (if you've met Puck, you know the one I mean), and I knew this dish would be appearing in la Casa de P&P in the near future. Sure enough, tonight he trotted out to the garage for the propane torch. Wow. Can I just say, YUM!

Bananas brulee
Peel and split a banana the long way
Sprinkle it with sugar
Torch it to golden, caramel perfection

Puck thought it would be even better with a dusting of cinnamon on the banana before the sugar was added, and I think he's right. I also think it should maybe be served with a teensy scoop of good vanilla ice cream. But for a 2-ingredient, 30-second dessert that's 90% fruit, this is phenomenal. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Chicken & Corn Summer Chowder

This is my first recipe post and I've been sitting on this soup for awhile now, I didn't know if I'd be breaking rules by posting soup in the breakfast month. However, Big D has now had this soup and has demanded that I post it to Recipeeps.

I keep reading Tweets, Facebook statuses and Blogs about spring arriving in the Midwest, so I thought perhaps you'd all like to try this chowder that we make year round here! It's not nearly as heavy as the chowder's I'm used to having back home. I'm a soup lover and this one is now in my top ten!

2 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 Tablespoons flour
1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 cups chicken broth
4 cups shredded cooked chicken (from a 2 ½ - 3 lb. roasted chicken)
3 cups sweet corn (approx kernels cut from 3 ears of corn)
¼ - ½ cup heavy whipping cream

Topping:
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped
1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
2 limes, cut into wedges
Freshly ground black pepper


In a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, cook bacon until fat renders and meat starts to brown. Add onion, reduce heat to medium, and cook until soft (about 3 minutes). Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring, until flour smells cooked (you should get a whiff of baked piecrust) but hasn’t started to brown (about 3 minutes).

Add potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to keep mixture simmering and cook until potatoes are barely tender (about 5 minutes). Add chicken and corn and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and stir in cream to taste. Heat through (about 2 minutes).

Serve in soup bowls, garnished with tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, fresh lime juice, and pepper to taste

Saturday, March 21, 2009

7 Layer Bars

Made these for a party last night and I was shocked at how much folks loved them. Despite being one of Wog's favorites and tasty, they are so simple, everyone back home has this recipe type of recipe. But, if you don't here you go. Super easy.

1 - 1 1/2 c crushed graham crackers (about one package of crackers out of a box)
1/2 c melted butter.

Pat this onto bottom of 9x13 pan. Will be a very thin layer, don't worry.

On top of crust put ingredients in this order
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. butterscotch chips
1 c. flaked coconut
1 c. chopped nuts (I use walnuts, but nuts altogether are optional)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk poured/spooned over the top. You do NOT have to evenly spread it, but try to avoid putting a lot right at the edge or the edges will be hard to get out of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 30 min.

The first bar you take out will probably crumble a bit, but after that you should be able to take them out no problem.

Cool website - Hungry Girl

Found this cool site today that takes fatty, high-calorie meals and makes them into slimmer, tasty alternatives. It looked good, check it out.

http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/index.php

Thursday, March 19, 2009

That OTHER easy, yummy, fancy-seeming pork recipe

The other day while menu planning, I thought, "Oh, I want to make that seems-fancy-but-isn't-hard pork chop recipe on Recipeeps! The one with the black olives and capers!" So I dutifully pulled up the "pork" tab and found Allknowingjen's Boneless Pork Chops in a Shallot-Fig Reduction Sauce. Now, the ingredients didn't quite match up with what I'd been thinking, but whatever. Put 'em on the grocery list and move on.

Then I went to make the recipe and realized that - delicious, and wonderful, and highly recommended though her wonderful dish is - I had actually been thinking about THIS recipe from my Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2002.

(But AKJ's is really, really good, and I didn't regret making it at all! You should make it, too. Or, you know, this one. *grin*)


Pork Medallions with Olive-Caper Sauce

1 lb. pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbl. olive oil, divided

1/2 c. dry white wine
1/2 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. coarsely chopped pitted kalamata olives (regular black are ok, but probably less intense)
2 Tbl. capers
2 Tbl. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


Cut pork crosswise into 8 pieces. Place each pork piece between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of pork with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow bowl. Dredge pork in flour; shake off excess flour. Heat 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of pork, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove pork from pan, and keep warm. Repeat procedure wth remaining 1 1/2 tsp. oil and pork. Return pork to pan. Add wine and broth; bring to a boil. Stir in olives and capers; cook 4 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Yield: 4 servings.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Oven-Easy Omelet aka Egg Bake

This is another recipe I got from my mom, but it's infinitely easy to adapt. In fact, I don't know the last time I actually looked at the real recipe (other than now!). In case you were ever at a GAW when we made individual Egg Bakes, yeah, this is it.

1 1/2 c. shredded Swiss cheese
1 1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
2 Tbl. flour
6 slices bacon, fried & crumbled OR some ham OR some sausage
3 Tbl. diced fresh red peppers OR 2 Tbl. cut-up canned pimento
2 Tbl. parsley leaves (opt.)
8 large eggs
1 c. milk

Heat oven to 350F. Toss together cheese & flour. Spread cheese mixture in bottom of greased 8" baking dish or casserole. Scatter bacon, pepper, and parsley over cheese. Beat eggs and milk together. Pour egg mixture over ingredients in baking dish. Bake 30-45 minutes (depending on size/shape/depth of dish) until puffed and completely cooked. Serves 6.

This can also be made in small loaf pans, especially if you want to let people choose their own toppings. Also, faster cooking!


Now, FYI, in my head, the recipe for Egg Bake goes more like this:

Mental Egg Bake
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Put a LOT of shredded cheese (various kinds or just Cheddar) in bottom of greased pan; stir in big spoonful of flour so cheese doesn't stick together. (Don't forget the corners if it's a square pan!)
  3. Toss on sliced mushrooms and/or cooked bacon and/or ham chunks and/or diced bell peppers and/or diced onion and/or any other food you might put in an omelet. (Good way to use up ends and bits of leftovers or homemade pizza toppings!)
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together some eggs with quite a bit of milk. Pour over cheese and toppings. Realize you didn't mix together enough eggs/milk since most of the topping is still sitting there high and dry, so mix together a few more eggs with some milk. Add to dish.
  5. Stick in oven for what seems like a long time because it always smells good and makes me hungry well before it's ready!

Wednesday Fun #75 - It's Not Just For Food...

While looking through and old cookbook the other day I found a recipe for something I used to LOVE to make as a child that isn't food. What was it you ask? A Crystal Garden of course.

Did any of you make these when you were young? They're so much fun!

Hence, today's fun post of what non-food items do you have recipes for? Super salty and safe for kids to eat Play-doh maybe? A good recipe for big bubbles? Finger paints? Do share!

Crystal Garden
4 T salt
4 T water
4 T laundry bluing
1 T ammonia

Combine ingredients and pour over some pieces of coal, brick or clean stones in pan. (We always used charcoal, and a disposable pie tin works well for the pan.) Sprinkle a FEW drops of various food coloring over the mix. Do not disturb. In a few hours, tiny, colored crystals will begin to form and will continue to grow for a few days.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Coffee Cake

Finally broke down and called my mom for this wonderful recipe. This is my simplified version as I hate mixing dry ingredients separate and then adding them to wet. Throw it all in at once I say! Turns out just fine!

This makes a 9x13 pan.

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Beat this till creamy and then add:
2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1 c. sour cream

Filling/Topping:
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp all spice (optional) (or any other spice you like. Cloves and or nutmeg are also good to add IMHO)
1/2 c chopped nuts (optional)

Put 1/2 or a bit more of batter in a greased 9x13 pan. The batter will be rather thick, so you will have to spread it out.
Put 1/2 of filling on top of batter. Then place rest of batter in the pan (again, a bit tricky to spread) and top with remaining brown sugar mix.

Bake for 30 min at 350.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wednesday Fun #74 - Tricks of the Trade

Brown sugar here is CRAZY expensive. So, imagine my surprise when I ordered some brown sugar from the commissary in Japan only to find it packaged in wax paper and a cardboard box! (C&H brand). I mean, shouldn't it always be put in an airtight package to prevent it from turning into a block?!? Sheesh!

When it did turn into a hard block, I placed the brown sugar in a Ziploc along with an unpeeled, but scored in 2-3 places, apple for two days. Voila! Soft brown sugar again.

I remember learning this trick in 7th grade Home Ec (The class was actually called "Foods" and was a requirement for everyone. I still have the cook book.)

Anyway, this got me to thinking, what other tricks have you used in the kitchen to possibly save some food item, clean baked on grease, whatever? Feel free to post them as a response or in a seperate post with the tag "Tips and Hints".