Rosemary Dinner Rolls yield: 1 dozen Prep time: 35 min total time: 1 hour ingredients 1 package yeast 1/4 cup warm water 3 cups flour 2 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp minced rosemary 3/4 tsp salt (add more) 2/3 cup warm milk 1 egg 1/4 cup canola oil 1 egg 2 tbsp milk directions: In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Place the flour, sugar, 2 tsp rosemary, and salt in food processor; pulse until blended. Add the warm milk, egg, and yeast mixture. Cover and pulse 10 times or until almost blended. Gradually add oil until dough pulls away from sides. Process 2 minutes to knead dough. transfer dough to a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide and shape into 12 balls. Roll each into a 15" rope. Wrap dough around itself to form a coil. Tuck end under; pinch to seal. Place 2" apart on parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. brush with egg wash, sprinkle with rosemary, and bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes. Bacon blanketed turkey yield: one turkey prep time: 1 day, 1 hour ingredients: Turkey 1-2 cups salt fresh poultry herbs 1/2 pound bacon 1/2 pound butter root vegetables (carrot, celery, apple, onion) directions: 1-2 days before thanksgiving, wash the bird inside and out. Place in plastic bag and rub entirely with salt. Put in fridge to brine. Place root vegetables in roasting pan and top with roasting rack. Rinse off the turkey. Mix chopped herbs with butter and spread all over turkey. Inside, out, and under skin. weave bacon strips over breast of turkey. Form a foil sheild for use to keep turkey from burning in oven. Roast the turkey at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn heat down to 375 for the rest of the cooking. Black-bottom banana Cream pie yield: 8 prep: 30 min (plus chilling) total time: 3 hours Ingredients: 10 ounces shortbread cookies 1/4 tsp salt 5 tbsp butter 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate 2 cups whole milk 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 4 egg yolks 1 tbsp rum 1 cup heavy cream 1 tbsp vanilla 2 bananas 1 tbsp powdered sugar directions: process cookies with a pinch of salt until finely ground. Add melted butter and pulse until incorporated. Transfer to a pie place and press evenly into bottom and up sides. Freeze pie shell. Place 2 oz. chocolate in a small bowl and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together milk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk in the egg yolks over medium-high heat until custard boils and is very thick, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Measure out 1/2 cup and add to chocolate. let sit for a minute. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 2 tbsp butter into custard in the saucepan. Stir in the rum and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, stir the chocolate custard, then stir in 1 tbsp cream and vanilla. Remove the pie shell from the freezer and spread the chocolate custard across the bottom. Refrigerate to firm. Cut bananas into 1/4" thick slices and cover chocolate layer. Spoon rum custard over bananas, smoothing the top. REfrigerate for two hours to set. Whip the remaining cream and powdered sugar until it forms soft peaks. Spread on top of custard and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or until serving time. Shave chocolate curls onto top. Wild rice stuffing with cranberries yield: 8 servings total time: 1 hour 15 min. ingredients: 1/4 cup butter 1 onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, minced 3 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 cup wild rice 1 cup long grain brown rice 1 cup dried (or fresh) cranberries 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 1 tsp dried thyme (or 1 Tbsp fresh) 3/4 cup toasted, chopped almonds (any nut) 1/2 cup chopped green onion directions; melt 1/4 cup butter in large pot over medium-high heat. add onions and garlic and saute until tender, about 4 minutes. add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add wild rice. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Mix in brown rice; cover and simmer until rice is just tender and most liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes longer. Stir in cranberries, parsley, and thyme into rice. Cover and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes longer. Mix in hazelnuts and green onions. Season with salt and pepper. Baked brandy-cranberry sauce
yield: 3 cups prep time: 10 min total time: 1 1/2 hours ingredients: 4 cups cranberries 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup brandy directions: preheat oven to 300 degrees. in a baking dish, mix cranberries, sugars, and brandy. Bake one hour stirring often It was freezing cold today, and I didn't have to work. To me, that means only one thing for dinner: a piping hot Moroccan chicken. For our wedding, my mom gave us a beautiful tagine, and I have been anxious to use it ever since. Today is the day! I first made Moroccan chicken from an amazing recipe in cooking light. I will post that another day, because I actually like the spice mix in that recipe better than this one, but this is absolutely worth having. Today's recipe is courtesy of Meal and Spiel. Moroccan Chicken Yield: 4 servings Prep time: 30 min Total time: 1 hr. 30 min Ingredients
directions: (If you do not have a tagine, just use a stock pot or dutch oven).
Tonight for dinner: Kraut Burgers. My mom grew up in Nebraska, and a big mid-west meal is the kraut burger (aka: cabbage burger). I have been eating these since I was tiny, I have always loved them, and the first time paul had them, he fell in love. I will admit the love was lost at one point when paul and I tried the fast food version: runza. He didn't mind it, but to me, that is NOT a kraut burger... homemade is better. So what is a kraut burger? Let me get one thing straight: there is no sour kraut! My in-laws, who are german, believed that there was sour kraut and refused to believe how good these are. don't be fooled. A kraut burger is three basic ingredients: bread dough, ground beef, and cabbage. I also add onion, garlic, butter, and salt, but the base is always the same. Kraut Burgers yield: 10 burgers prep time: 45 min total time: 1 1/2 hours ingredients:
directions:
As the weather is getting colder, the meals are getting hotter. The grocery store had pork tenderloin on sale this week, and for me, that only leads to one thing: pozole. Pozole is a mexican soup that is 100% delicious and warming. my mom was first served this soup when she visited friends in arizona. She loved it so much, she brought the recipe home and made it for us. We instantly fell in love. There are a lot of variations on pozole, but most of them consist of a tomato-based base, but I prefer a spicy, chicken-broth based base, so I do not add any tomatoes. My mom does, though, and it is delicious. there are three things that bind all pozole recipes: pork, hominy, and green chile. As far as the pork goes, I buy what is on sale, but I will admit the best i have ever tasted was made with boneless short ribs (yum). hominy is a corn/maize that has been treated in an alkaline mixture. Grind it up and you have maza (used for tamales... yum yum yum). I love it because it is like big, dense kernels of corn that have been soaked in salt. Finally, I always used canned green chile, but if you have access to fresh, use it! I then remove the pork, and cook the onions and garlic. I don't want them to compete with the green chile, so cooking them does mellow their sharpness. After this I throw everything in the crockpot and let it sit for as long as it takes for me to dig in. Tip: always top pozole with lime and cilantro, but it is also great to add avocado and tortillas. Green chile pork pozole yield: 4 servings total time: 1-8 hours ingredients:
directions:
I recently decided that I need to 1. get into shape (in terms of running) and 2. stop eating so much sugar. The running, not going so well. The eating, easy... considering I do not have much a sweet tooth. Because of the sugar cut, I am not eating bread, and sometimes that does make it hard to find good things for dinner. I came across this recipe for blt salad with sunny side up eggs in a cooking light magazine, so I gave it a try for dinner tonight. I made a few adjustments, and it was delicious! another GREAT THING About this salad: oven roasted tomatoes. I did not have any cherry tomatoes (like the recipe calls for), so I just used tomato wedges. The other change I made: half romaine, half spinach. Which wilted beautifully with the warm egg. BLT salad with eggs sunny side up yield: 4 side servings, 2 main dish servings total time: 18 min ingredients:
directions:
recipe from cooking light Living in the dead center of the country and no where near water, it is incredibly difficult to find good, edible, or anything that might resemble sushi. That is why Paul and I make our own sushi at home. It's much easier than it sounds, but I will admit it's not near as beautiful, which is why you will not see any pictures of the actual rolls (however, we are getting better with practice). Also living in Nebraska, it is very hard to find fish, let alone fish that is fresh and safe enough to serve raw, so Paul and I buy Krab. Krab is made with white fish that is cooked, colored, cut, and marinated to resemble crab. When I first heard of the stuff, I was very against it because, to be honest, I would prefer my fish not be colored and cut to resemble something else, but the truth is, it does taste good, it has a good texture, it's safe to use, and it's available!
California Rolls Yield: 8 rolls (about 4 slices each) prep time: 20 min total time: 2 hours ingredients:
directions:
Since Paul and I's wedding, we have spent hours, upon hours, organizing all of our wedding gifts, and among those gifts are a couple of fantastically unique cook books. All of paul's family is from Oregon, so I was thrilled with a friend of paul's mom gifted me the junior league of Portland's very own cookbook: From Raindrops to roses. My mom has ranted about the Colorado cache cookbook my whole life, which was compiled by the junior league of Denver, so I knew this cookbook was a true treasure. I knew I wanted to make dinner using this cookbook, but I wasn't sure what to make, and most of the recipes required seafood. For those of you who have not ventured to north platte, the seafood here is not only abysmal, it is no where to be found. therefore, it took me a while to decide on a recipe, but finally I chose to make the cinco de mayo cilantro grilled chicken and peach and tomato salad with cilantro lime vinaigrette. By the time I finished cooking, it smelled so good and we were so hungry, we ate before we could get any more pictures of the chicken. But rest assured, I will make this again, and I will take pictures this time. beyond the pictures, this truly was a fantastic meal. The two flavors went well together and bonded on cilantro. It was light, refreshing, but also filling. YUM! Cinco de mayo cilantro grilled chicken yield: 4 servings prep time: 1 1/2 hours cook time: 15 minutes ingredients: 4 chicken breasts, boned and skinned 1/3 cup olive oil (I would use less next time) 2 limes, juiced 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper directions:
recipe courtesy of junior league of portland Peach and tomato salad with cilantro lime vinaigrette yield: 8-10 servings prep time: 20 minutes Ingredients: Vinaigrette: 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Salad: 4 large peaches (we used frozen and it worked great) 3 large heirloom tomatoes 1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (we omitted this) 2 small celery stalks cut into 1/2" pieces (I would use less and smaller) 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, plus sprigs for garnish Directions: Vinaigrette: whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl (I used a small Tupperware and shook the ingredients together). Salad: Halve and pit peaches. Cut halves into quarters. Remove core and stem end of large tomatoes; slice into 1/2 inch rounds. Arrange peaches, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and celery on a serving plate. Sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper. Coarsely chop cilantro leaves; add to vinaigrette. Pour over salad and garnish with cilantro springs.(I would let the tomatoes marinate in the dressing for at least 20 minutes to let the flavors soak in). Recipe courtesy of junior league of Portland |
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October 2016
AuthorAlways experimenting in the kitchen. Categories |