Camera Conundrum & Other Food Stuff

The other day, I was having a grand old time in the kitchen and was pretty stoked that I might actually be able to take some decent photos of my creations since it was still light out. Then I turned my camera on, took a picture, and nothing happened. It got stuck, powered on, like this:



Part of me was extremely annoyed. And then I thought “hey, maybe this is a blessing in disguise”. Now I will HAVE to get a new one, and I’d just need to convince Ian to let me spend some serious dough a fancy SLR. It seems to be the cool thing to do amongst my friends these days. I feel left out.

So then I was stuck taking fug-o pictures with my camera phone. And it was starting to get dark.

First of all, it was a tough job, but someone had to do it. There were about two glasses left in the growler I’d picked up the day before at Home Brew Mart. It wasn’t going to last any longer, so I was forced to drink it. I’m disappointed that you can’t really tell how pink it is..






SOUR WENCH (blackberry beer…mmmmm)






Then I had to use a bunch of strawberries I had so I made ice cream. Plus I was antsy to utilize those cool cartons I got a few weeks ago. The ice cream was ok, nothing I’d urge anyone to make. But it looked pretty:




Lastly, I tried out a Red Lobster copy cat recipe of their Cheddar Bay Biscuits. OMG. YUM! This is probably the 4th or 5th one I’ve tried and it is by far the closest thing I’ve come to the real deal. Really easy to do also (recipe below). I meant to have them with a big salad but was pretty lazy by the end of all this. A biscuit-only dinner with ice cream for dessert is well rounded, no?




It took me till bedtime to come up with the genius idea of taking the battery out of my camera to see what would happen. Low and behold, it turned off. When I put the battery back in, all was well again. Therefore, I will not be getting a new camera any time soon. Or ever. Who knows.


CHEDDAR BAY BISCUITS



Yield: 12 servings


Biscuits:
2 ½ cup Bisquick
4 Tbsp cold butter
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ cup milk
¼ tsp garlic powder


Butter Glaze:
3 Tbsp butter
½ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp dried parsley flakes


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease or line one cookie sheet with parchment; set aside.


Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter (I just used 2 forks). Don't worry about mixing too thoroughly; there will be small chunks of butter in the mix about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.


Drop ¼ cup portions of the dough onto the lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 13–15 minutes in preheated oven until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.


While the biscuits are baking, melt butter is a small bowl in the microwave. Stir in garlic powder and dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread the garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the freshly coated biscuits. Makes one dozen.

Tooty Fruity Homemade Fruit Leather

I just wanted to say TOOTY. Can’t help it if that’s how I feel.

But I have been experimenting with homemade fruit leather. I can’t believe how easy and good it is. A perfect snack.

There are tons or recipes out there so I won’t really go into it. Plus, I don’t think I actually followed one – just threw a bunch of fruit (strawberries + kiwi + banana) into a saucepan, with a little water, juice of something citrus, and a tiny dash of sugar. Let it all simmer for a while, mash it up, simmer, puree in a blender, simmer some more until it’s thick-ish. Then spread it out onto a saran-lined pan, or two, or three, and let it dry out in an oven set to as low as possible (mine only goes to 170), for around 8 hours.

My first attempt was overnight. Which would have been fine if stupid me didn’t put it in early, around 8 pm, forcing me to get up around 3 am to check on it. Why do I have such idiotic moments sometimes? Anyway, on Saturday I was home, and awake the whole time to check on it, which was much better. The trick is to spread it out thicker than you’d think on the cookie sheet. My first try came out a little crispy on the edges cause it was too dried out. Leather = Thick! This last batch was a super success.

Ready to dry out:

So when it’s done, I just cut it into squares and put it on wax paper to store in a baggie. It really does come out like a store-bought fruit roll-up, only sans preserves. Score!

Can’t Be Beets Cookies

Oh yes they can! They CAN be beet cookies. I know because I can taste the damn beets in them! *Barf*

I’m only mentioning this recipe because someone who likes beets, would likely enjoy these cookies. I actually think they end up more like whoopie pies. In fact I took them to work with me and people were fairly positive. I don’t know – they were ok – but I really, really think beets are icky. They taste like dirt no matter what you do to them. This is proof that even sugar and chocolate and frosting can’t disguise a beet. Oh well. It was worth a try. Next time I’ll probably be giving away my beets so let me know if you like ‘em!

I would post a picture of the final product but it isn’t pretty, nor appetizing in the least. That was my fault though, not the cookie.

Although this was neat – the insides were not what I was expecting. These must be a different sort of beet. Zebra beet?



I got the recipe from Be Wise Ranch, under their page of suggestions by ingredient. Helpful for someone like me who receives produce in their box and doesn’t know what to do with it. So much for thinking anything in a cookie would be good. Shame.

Rollo Pretzel Turtles

Maybe I'm the only one who's never seen this before? Apparently there are "recipes" all over the Internet and Ian even said he's had them! I don't care though -- the theory still excites me. Pretzels + Rollo's + Pecans? Yes please!

Put your oven on a low temp (like 250 or so) and line a baking sheet with foil. Use mini pretzel twists and put a Rollo candy in the middle. Bake for 3-5 minutes until the Rollo's are softened. Pull them out, and squish a pecan half right on top. You could also use peanut M&M's, mini marshmallows, pretty much any fun thing you want on top! Move the foil with candies onto a rack to cool, and enjoy.

Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls

nom nom nom.

I made these for my friend Jennie's book swap get together and they were a big hit! Great as a vegetarian appetizer. I might try them with some meat next time, served up with a nice salad for dinner.

*My recipe note - the package of egg roll wrappers I found in the store only came with 20 and I had a lot of leftover filling that I didn't know what to do with. Next time I'll get more wrappers, or have a back-up plan for the excess insides...

Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls
Yield: 24 eggrolls

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 total)
Salsa for diping

In a large bowl, combine everything but the egg roll wrappers. Mix well to blend. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place ¼ cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in water or beaten egg and lightly brush on the edges of the free corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking. Serve warm with salsa.

shown with salsa (not my photo)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Outrageous Carrot Cake

I made this carrot cake for Easter and it turned out amazing! It'd been a while since I busted out my mad cake decorating skills so I gave it ago. I was happy with how it turned out, but consensus was, I must work on my carrots so they don't look like pee-pees with green pubes.

Outrageous Carrot Cake

Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 eggs
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups canola oil
2 ½ cups finely grated carrots (about 6 carrots)
2 (8oz) cans crushed pineapple in juice, well-drained, large pieces chopped
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts, if desired

1. Evenly space 2 baking racks in oven. Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray bottom and sides of 3 (9×2-inch) round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper; spray parchment with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into medium bowl.

3. In large bowl, beat eggs and sugar at medium speed 1 to 3 minutes or until thickened and slightly lighter in color. Beat in oil at low speed. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Stir in carrots, pineapple, coconut and 1 cup walnuts until blended. Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake 25 minutes; turn and reverse cake pans. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and cake pulls slightly away from sides of pan. Cool in pans on wire rack 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack; remove parchment. Cool completely.

4. To make frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl at medium speed 3 minutes or until blended and smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar; beat at low speed 1 minute or until blended and smooth.

5. Place 1 cake layer on serving platter or cardboard round; spread with 1 cup frosting. Repeat. Top with remaining cake layer; spread top and sides with thin layer of frosting. Coat sides with another smooth layer of frosting; spread remaining frosting on top. Press 11/2 cups walnuts onto sides of cake. (Cake can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, or 3 weeks ahead and frozen. To freeze, place cake in freezer until frosting is firm; wrap in plastic wrap, then heavy-duty foil. To defrost, place in refrigerator overnight; remove wrapping. Serve at room temperature.) Refrigerate leftovers.

Meant to Be - The Demy and I

This fairytale begins last week when I received an email from Key Ingredient saying that there has finally been a new release of the Demy Digital Touchscreen Recipe Reader. And get this – it was to come out on Friday, April 16th at Sam’s Club – yeah, my BIRTHDAY!! I knew it was destiny.



Now, tracking this bad boy down was not as simple as one would imagine. First of all, I couldn’t find it online. Second, when I called Sam’s Club in San Diego I was told they do not carry it. And lastly, when I emailed corporate sales, I was assured once more that Sam’s Club does not carry this product right now. Huh? What? Why? No!!!!!!!!!!! It cannot be…

Because I’m a dork, I am a member of a “Demy Owner” chat group even though I don’t yet own one. There, I saw that someone else got theirs on 4/16. Whahhh, but what about me? Next on my agenda was to contact Demy/Key Ingredient. They responded almost immediately saying they weren’t sure why I was having trouble with Sam’s Club but that Costco was carrying it too. OMG, even better!

So I am here to share, that just now, I made a dreamy purchase and will soon be the proud owner of this nifty little device that I’ve become obsessed with over the last 6 months. All this time, I’ve been storing, organizing, and loading my recipes on to the Key Ingredient website so that when this day came, I’d be ready to load onto my Reader. **Happy Dance!!**

I don’t think I mentioned that my b-day gift from Ian was a beautiful flower arrangement, with a card saying that a 6.75 qt Le Creuset French Oven was on its way to my doorstop.. So yeah, I feel a little guilty treating myself to this latest gadget after the spendy b-day gift. But I’m telling you, the possibilities are endless. Can’t wait!

Here are some of the features, in case you’re interested in knowing more about it:

Kitchen-safe touchscreen recipe reader that holds your personal recipe collection in one compact device.

7-inch touchscreen with an intuitive graphical navigation interface, and adjustable font size.

Holds approximately 10,000 recipes

Preloaded with the Costco Way Cookbook, which includes 500 recipes.

An additional 250 recipes pre-loaded (total recipes included are 750)

2 screen protectors

Includes 3 printed cookbooks from Key Ingredient to add to your collection

The Demy only takes up as much space as a 5 x 7 card. Still need more space? Stand your Demy on end. The screen flips automatically, and it only takes up the space of a 3 x 5 card!

The splash-resistant design and sturdy plastic exterior make it easy to clean. Spills easily wipe off the sealed touchscreen with a damp cloth.

Small text can be tough to read. Tap Demy's "Font Size" button and enlarge text until your eyes are comfortable.

Making a brunch or a complex holiday meal? Simply find each recipe you want and add it to your Short List. They'll be waiting for you on a short list that you can easily flip through as you cook.

The Demy comes with three built-in timers! No need to juggle cooking times. The Demy timers will notify you with flashes and tones as each cooking time expires.

Don't remember how many quarts are in a gallon? The Demy's conversion tool will quickly convert your portions from one measurement to another.

No need to make the emergency trips to the grocery store or delay meal time for one missing ingredient. Quickly access a list of ingredient substitutions that will save the day.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

PW Cinnamon Rolls

I’d been craving a good cinnamon roll ever since the crappy one I had in SF. Actually, it was before that and I was even more disappointed after the crappy one.

I saw a clip of Pioneer Woman making hers on a TV show and they looked TDF. I decided I would attempt this from scratch (me and dough don’t mix well, usually). This recipe was in the cookbook I had and is actually very easy. Beware though – it makes a crap load of rolls. 3 pans worth even after halving it. This is where coworkers and hungry fireman come in handy.

Is “halving” a word?

Pre Icing:


Post Icing/Smothering:

The verdict – TOO gooey. And it takes a lot for me to say something is too sweet, rich, gooey, etc… I will definitely make these again because they were fun and simple, but I will cut back the butter and sugar for sure (and probably the icing as well). Plus, that will make them healthy, right? I also forgot I was cutting the icing in half and added too much coffee and maple. It was kinda strong.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

King Cupcakes

My friend April brought these to Momma-C’s baby shower and they were SO good! Then she posted the recipe on her blog and I got to make them myself. Whohoo! I don’t have a mini muffin tray so I had to make them standard size. Which was fine, but for whatever reason, I just feel like having the itty-bitty bites makes them taste better. Or maybe tiny just means I can eat more and not feel so bad? I asked for a mini tray for my b-day… If I get one, I’m making them again, right away, since Ian took the last batch to work and I only got one. *tear*

FYI – “King” just means that it’s a mild banana cake with peanut butter frosting. Get it? Like the King’s fave? Uh huh.

CSA

I was super excited to finally pick up my first CSA box last night! If you aren’t yet aware, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. There are all sorts of local farms offering programs that make it easy for us to eat nutritiously, organically, adventurously and cost-effectively. I just love the idea of getting quality produce that is chemical-free and straight from my neighborhood farm.

I decided to do a trial run the large box, every two weeks with Be Wise Ranch. They had the most convenient pick-up location for me on the way home from work but I’ve heard great things about many other programs as well.

Here’s what I got this week:

4 avocados
4 oranges
3 grapefruit
4 pounds strawberries
8 carrots
1 head broccoli
6 small red bell peppers
2 bunches asparagus
1 bunch cilantro
1 bag spring mix
2 more heads of lettuce varieties
1 bunch of dandelion greens
1 mysterious bag of unknown roots…

Only weird thing to me is the dandelion greens, but hey – we’re being adventurous right? I’ve found that you can cook them up like chard or something so I’ll have to give it a try. Oh, and as for the mystery bag, I think they’re probably radishes but I thought radishes were more round.

What do you think? Please confirm that these are radishes, por favor…

Overall, I’m very happy with the contents and look forward to using up all our goodies and having fun in the kitchen with ingredients we wouldn’t have ordinarily tried. I’ll update again after we’ve gone through it all and can attest to the quality, and the size of box for the two of us. It’s a LOT of food, especially greens, but I’m hoping I’ll just be motivated to eat better so that it doesn’t go to waste.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

SF Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these sugar-free chocolate cupcakes over the weekend. I was going to dinner with my family and since my aunt always has to watch us eat dessert, I thought I'd try out these SF cakes for her.

They weren't amazing and yet I still ate two. Imagine that. The cake was what you'd expect for using Splenda, but something was weird about the frosting. It was super tangy. I don't think you'd want to make these unless you HAD to. Catch my drift? It's not like they're "healthy" or anything, so given the choice, I'll stick with the real sugary stuff.

I actually don't know what my aunt thought of them since I left before she found room in her tum tum to try. I suppose in a world where you are unable to indulge in the sweetness, maybe they tasted amazing? Or not. I'll have to report back.

Good news is, I got to play with my cheap-o camera and had a little fun. I changed some settings and managed to get this picture:

I realize I am no pro but hey, I think the pic looks sort of fancy for someone with zero skillz!

**Update** Talked to my aunt and the official consensus is that these are gross. LOL. So, I wouldn't recommend you try them, as they look better than they taste. Maybe I'll take Helena's suggestion and try again with a different sweetener, like the agave necter.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Beater Blade

I don't think this is actually all that new anymore but if you are a proud owner of a KitchenAid Mixer and you do not have this already, you need one NOW!

Actually, now that I'm on the website, I see that there are many different ones for a variety of stand mixers! Neat-o Frito!! Check out the BeaterBlade.

I was introduced to this nifty attachment back on my first day of cake decorating class. I think at that point in time, I'd only ever used my mixer for baking about twice and knew the annoyances my instructor spoke of with the standard beater attachment -- how sugar and other dry ingrediants get stuck at the bottom of the bowl and you have to keep turning the thing off and on to scrape it down?!?! Yes! So annoying! So much for letting it run right?

Not with this little do-da. The rubber blades are constantly scraping the sides of the bowl, all the way down to the very bottom, picking up all those sugar bits. It's amazing. My second favorite kitchen fun thing after the grater piece that goes on the food processor. What? Grating cheese is fun!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Personal Chefs?

I came home the other night to dinner on the table and thought the event was worth sharing with the world. He’s picking up cooking skills and recipes at the fire station and coming home to recreate meals he’s had at work. I could get used to it very easily.

So on this particular night we had a shrimp salad. Pretty easy. Just grilled shrimp on top of mixed greens (mostly cabbage, which was fun) with a little fresh basil, cheese, avocado and Italian dressing. Ian says he was missing some special sauce that was used on the shrimp and in place of the Italian dressing but he had no idea what it was… I’ll report back when he figures it out. Anyway, we had this with garlic bread and wine. I was happy.

But look how Ian and his friend even set the table and lit a candle and everything! Impressive…

And then they prepared meat for the following day. I like to photographically document things like this. How cute are they? Slaving away in the kitchen….

And in no time, it was back to the man cave for Call of Duty. LOUDLY I might add.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Racist Enchiladas

I’ve now tried both of Pioneer Woman’s enchilada recipes so I thought I’d give my little review and declare a winner.

Tester #1

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas!

I’d never made beef enchiladas before which is why I thought I’d try it this way. Using the ground beef though? I don’t know…not my favorite thing. Fine for tacos, but I didn’t care for the texture in the enchiladas. It was kind of mushy when all was said and done. Maybe it’d be better with shredded beef? I also think less sauce over the top, combined with baking it longer would have helped… Ah well. Not quite perfect in my book.

Tester #2 – WINNER!!

White Chicken Enchiladas

These were so friggin good! *Ignoring the ridiculously high fat content, please*. I tried to hide the sour cream going into the sauce since Ian thinks it’s so grody... He saw me though, didn’t say a word, and ate it anyway like a good boy. Then agreed they were way better than the last recipe and went back for a big second helping. Major success.

This time it’s just this way – in the world of enchiladas, my world as it is now, white reigns supreme…In the kitchen stadium….

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Soup

4 T butter
1 lg onion, chopped
1 medium leek (white only, chopped)
1 lb can of pumpkin solid
4 cups chicken broth
1 t salt
½ t curry powder
¼ t nutmeg
¼ t white pepper
¼ t ginger (ground)
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half

Melt butter, add onion and leek; cook 5 minutes until tender
Add pumpkin, chicken broth and spices
Bring to a boil
Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes; remove bay leaf
Put in blender to cream (food processor or emerssion blender work well too)
Add in half and half

This soup recipe is something I picked up from Ian’s step-mom. She serves it most years at Thanksgiving and I just love it so much that I make it a few times throughout the year for us to enjoy on our own. I got a ambitious last night and made my pumpkin solid fresh. It was a little labor intensive…not sure if I’d do it again but if you’re curious, here’s how:

1. Start with the little pumpkins (I read those are tastier). I ended up using two and put all of it in the soup
2. Cut the tops off and split them in half
3. Scoop out the inside gunk
4. Cut the pieces again so they’re quartered
5. Put them on a baking sheet…don’t oil or anything…leave em’ plain
6. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until fork tender
7. Peel off skin and put pieces into food processor to puree. You may need to add some liquid.

*I don’t think I baked mine long enough because the skin did not just peel off nicely! It was a PITA. I may try this one more time before I throw it in the “I tried…not worth the effort” category but we shall see. Try the soup though!! It’s really yummy with the can stuff.

After they come out of the oven, they are just slightly golden brown

Puree the pumpkins...

Leek, onion and garlic.. Oh! I forgot to mention above that I added garlic ;)


Everthing simmering away before I blended it up and added the cream.

Ta-da! Serve with fresh crusty bread for dipping.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Conquer the Cake

I signed up for a series of beginner cake decorating classes at "Do It With Icing" with my friend Verlee. So far, so good! As it stands, icing the cake is by far the hardest part...decorating it is pretty straight forward when you have all the right tools. Yes, it's all about the tools; tools = $$$ lol. We're half was through and I feel like I've learned a LOT, especially in the way of general cake baking, splitting and filling. Who knew it could be so involved?

This week we did a rectangle and boy was it tricky getting around those corners! To start with, I made a good pan investment so it'd come out nice and square. The key is also to bake it so it doesn't puff up too much in the middle. Tricks - lower oven temp, bake longer, and use these wet strip things (pictured below..find them at Michaels) around the outside edges. Worked like a charm!



Here is is after it got it's pretty icing layer. Ok, so maybe I haven't perfected "even-ness" yet but it's hard, man.



Meet Andy!!



See Andy's insides:



I'll leave you with a picture of Cake #1 from last week...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = Goodness

I wanted to make my dad a cake yesterday for Father's Day since we were also celebrating his 55th birthday. His love of all things peanut butter/chocolate (and mine!) lead me in a quest for a delicious choco-pb cake recipe. Low and behold, my quick google recipe search pointed me to one of my favorite foodie blogs, Smitten Kitchen. You can just go here for the recipe and lots of pictures so I don't have to clutter my blog with the words. (There are a lot -- this was a day-long process, at least for me!)

I'll just say that the Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze was a big hit with my family. Oh, and we were super bad and had it with the best ice cream ever -- Baskin Robins' Peanut Butter and Chocolate. MmmmMmmmm good ol' diabetes in a bite worthy!!

PS - I think mine came out relatively pretty as well and I haven't even started my cake decorating class yet!! Oh, the potential! hehe