I wont even bother to post the recipe since there are so many easily found online. Don't make the mistake I did. Start out with 1/2 or 3/4 of a tub of frosting. If you make the "dough" too soft, the balls slide right down the lollipop stick once you dip them in the chocolate.
Dear OnlyBurger,
Thank you for a grilled-onion-cheddar-laden burger complete with handcut fries. You made my workday. I've missed you! I promise not to stay away so long next time.
Seriously, if you haven't checked out onlyburger, do yourself a favor next time you have a hankering for a burger but don't want to sit down in a restaurant. Today was the perfect day to take advantage of an outside lunch! They take phone orders and you can always find them via their website and twitter.
Make this tonight and devour it tomorrow with some corned beef and cabbage. This is the easiest bread ever. If you don't have buttermilk, you can sub regular milk. Just measure out the 2 cups and add 2 tbsp of vinegar to the measuring cup. Allow to sit 5 minutes. It will curdle. Then add it to the recipe as specified! It's soooo good.
Irish Soda Bread (adapted from allrecipes.com)
Makes one loaf
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup of raisins
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Add raisins. Mix just until moistened. Stir in butter. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.
I made cupcakes for my daughter's first birthday. It was important to me for her first bite of dessert to be not only homemade, but from scratch. I used Martha Stewart's, "Yellow Butter Cupcakes" recipe with a modification. I couldn't find cake flour so I used all all-purpose flour. The cupcakes, while being very good, weren't what I had in mind. They were somewhat dense and didn't resemble yellow cake. They were closer to white cake. Oh and I should have trusted my intuition when I read in her recipe to fill muffin cups. I know better then to go over 2/3 full...I ended up with less then 36 but that's okay.
I made two icings for these cupcakes and the combination of the two was DIVINE. First I made a raspberry buttercream and a basic cream cheese icing. The cupcakes were a hit and I had lots of fun decorating them. I did have to refrigerate them both to harden slightly before piping them. It was a little warm in the kitchen. I also had quite a bit of the raspberry buttercream leftover. After taking "frosting shots", I ended up throwing out about 1.5 cups. This cupcake was devoured by the birthday girl. Well worth the effort :)
Since becoming a Northern Durhamite a couple of weeks ago, I've become painfully aware of our limited takeout options within a 4-5 mile radius. Don't get me wrong, we like living further out, but I do miss the plethora of options I had being closer to city center. Where we are now, we have several options for fast food, sandwiches, mexican and take-out chinese, but that's it.
Driving home this weekend I noticed a sign for a new retaurant next to Chik-fil-a in the old Bull City Deli building (prior to that I think it was a Schlotzsky's). I was intrigued and not two days later read the restaurant opening report at Carpe Durham. Last night, I dropped in to grab some take out. I noticed the signs advertising a take out window, but didn't see it set up just yet.
The decor is nice; a peachy stucco interior, filled with booths, soft Italian music playing. The lighting is soft, but bright enough to see your food. It felt very much like a family Italian restaurant to me. It's run by an Italian family and all the staff that I encountered was extremely friendly (especially Karen the bartender). While sitting at the bar, waiting for my food, I could hear only Italian being spoken in the kitchen – a good sign.
There are many vegetarian options and a lot of eggplant dishes, if that's your thing. For dinner, it's mostly pasta, brick oven pizza, panini, seafood and chicken. They also have a nice selection of salads. If you're a beefeater, this isn't the place for you. I found the pasta options to be priced kind of high for it not being freshly made pasta, but they do have a "make your own" section where you can customize pasta and sauce and add on homemade sausage or meatballs (not available last night).
I selected "Pasta Della Nonna" which was fettucine with ham and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce. For the hubby, I ordered spaghetti with pesto and sausage. I tacked on two side salads with the house Basil-Chianti vinaigrette (for an extra $3.50$3.25).
The food was great. Everything was well seasoned. The pasta was cooked perfectly. The only complaint I have was portion size. The pasta dishes were definitely entree size, but not enough to have leftovers for lunch (which is what I'm used to from the nearby Pomodoro). The salads were honestly really pitiful for $3.50$3.25. 5-6 pieces of cut up romaine, 4 slices of olive and cherry tomato, some red onion, a few pieces of roasted red pepper, a couple of baked pizza dough squares and a slice of cucumber. This isn't local organic produce or anything so I really expected more lettuce for the price. The ingredients were great, as was the dressing.
We'll definitely go back, but probably for lunch or perhaps a special occasion. I'm curious about the pizza. The little breadsticks that came with the entrees were nice and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I can't see dropping $40 for take-out (entrees and salads only) on a regular basis. I think Pop's definitely has them beat for dinner (food and selection).
I had heard about these morsels called Oreo balls/truffles from my friend Melanie about a year ago and when racking my brain about what to make for coworkers this year, they popped into my head. Originally I was going to make peppermint bark popcorn, but instead decided to make 2 kinds of oreo truffles. I made plain with chocolate candy coating, drizzled with white almond bark (chocolate) and sprinkled with sea salt. I also made a peppermint version. It turned out absolutely devine. I think the peppermint might be my favorite. The all chocolate version is just soooo rich.
Peppermint Oreo Truffles
Makes 3 dozen (depending on ball size)
Ingredients:
1 bag original Oreo cookies
1 8 0z. package of cream cheese, softened (you can nuke it in a bowl for about 30 seconds to achieve this)
4 peppermint candy canes
3/4 package of white almond bark
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
Directions:
Crush candy canes in food processor until small. Place a strainer over a bowl and sift out the dust/finer peppermint pieces. Wipe out food processor and dump oreos in. Process until there are no chunks. Add cream cheese and peppermint extract and process until a nice sticky dough forms.
It's up to you, but I find it a little easier at this point to refrigerate the dough for an hour before rolling out the balls. Roll them in your palms about the size of a quarter and place them back in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Melt almond bark either in the microwave or in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler method). Once it is melted all the way, stir in the finer dust of the crushed peppermint.
Working with a spoon and fork, lower an oreo ball into the melted chocolate and coat evenly. Shake off excess and place on waxed paper. Repeat with a few more and sprinkle with the coarser peppermint before the chocolate has set. Allow to set at room temperature or speed up the process in the fridge. Trim away any excess chocolate with a knife once chocolate has hardened. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (because of the cream cheese).
I'm sure everyone knows who Paula Deen is. I'm convinced she has millions invested in butter. The woman cooks with one thing in mind, FLAVOR. Calories and fat grams are not things she's heard of. I remember seeing her speak about her style of cooking once and she noted that her family owned restaurants and so they always cooked with flavor, and not your figure, in mind. That being said, I'm quite proud of taking one of her recipes and actually making it less healthy.
I made her recipe with 1 omission and 2 additions. I omitted butter. Instead I chopped and cooked a 1/2 lb. of bacon and poured all the grease and the bacon into the mix and I added one beaten egg. The casserole had great flavor and a thick, almost custardlike texture. It was so rich and yummy.
I did this to turn this side dish into a main and I totally intended on serving it with a huge healthy salad to balance it out. Turns out my lettuce wasn't feeling any love and despite having been purchased only 2 weeks ago, took a turn to the dark side.
Instead I made fried okra for hubby and I had green beans. Arteries be damned.
Wow, has it been a month since I've posted here? Goodness. Well I could say I've been busy readying for the holidays and whatnot, but that would be a lie.
I used to look forward to cooking over the weekend and do you know what my beloved Sunday cooking has become? A cheese plate. I honestly don't know where time disappears to these days, but I want to say that with the cooler weather and shorter days, I've just grown lazy. All I want to do is snuggle up with the family and drink wine and eat cheese.
Pathetic. Yet comforting.
How does the change of seasons effect you?
This was my first go at an old recipe. I've never eaten Shepherd's pie, but I've seen it. I know it usually has peas and is made from lamb. This was not traditional, but was extremely tasty. My hubby informed me that it's usually also made with cubed meat and has more gravy. If you like it that way, adjust the broth and flour amount and use cubed meat.
Shepherd's Pie
Makes one pie (4 large servings)
Ingredients:
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 carrot, sliced thick
1 celery stalk, sliced thick
4 large shallots, chopped
4 oz. button mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup beef or vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Bring medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving about 1/2 to 1 cup water. Add 1 tbsp butter and adding back cooking water, mash until smooth. Whip with a spoon until light and fluffy. Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, shallots, thyme, rosemary and a pinch of salt. Cook 10 minutes. Add ground beef and mushrooms and saute until beef is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Break up any chunks and salt and pepper to taste. Add flour and stir well to combine. Cook another 2 minutes. Add broth and cook until thickened, another minute or 2.
Dump meat and vegetable mixture into a 9 inch pie plate and level. Pile mashed potatoes on and smooth to edges with a spoon. Using a fork, create fun little ridges with the potatoes. Break up 2 tbsp butter and spread evenly over top. Bake in oven 30 minutes. Broil until potatoes are lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
I got my weekly crap bundle of coupons in the mail yesterday and in it is an insert for Domino's. Apparently they've got this dessert now, 2 of them for $3.99. Has anyone tried it? I think It's worth ordering the pizza to try it out. Hmmm easy dinner tonight! I'll report back tomorrow :)
Friday night I got take-out from Backyard BBQ Pit #2. While this restaurant is not my idea of a great place to dine-in, the take out was GREAT! They have an extensive selection, the food was hot, good and extremely reasonably priced.
We got 2 small BBQ plates which come with 2 sides and hushpuppies. Between the two plates we had well over a pound of barbeque, homemade baked mac and cheese, homemade collards (not from a can), black eyed peas and green beans. All of the sides were fantastic. The mac and cheese was amongst the best I've had out in the area. It was filled with gobs of cheddar, no slimy velveeta sauce. The portions of barbeque were huge and more then we could finish. My husband wasn't wild about the sweeter sauce that came on the side (he prefers vinegary), but I thought it was great on the 'que.
All of this for $12 made one of our cheapest "date nights" on the couch ever.
It was bound to happen. The FDA is warning not to eat Nestle Toll House prepackaged cookie dough (cooked or raw) and Nestle is recalling it due to E. Coli. Link here. Turns out our moms were right heh.
What's the best meal you've had this week?
Mine was from last night. Yes, I actually cooked! I sauteed some spinach and shallots and set them aside. Then I sauteed some thinly sliced chicken breasts (just salted and peppered), threw fresh cream, basic and crushed garlic in with them and let it reduce down a little. I piled the chicken on top of the spinach and poured the basil cream sauce over it all. Them I steamed some fresh haricot verts from the farmer's market and sauteed them with more shallots and a little lemon juice and garlic.
For date night on last Friday, we ventured to George's Garage. I was craving seafood, and knowing our remaining date nights are dwindling, we opted to spend more then usual. While I love Blu, the menu is rather limiting to me these days due to my restricted diet and my distaste for oysters.
It was early (5:30ish) and it was nice and quiet, relatively empty save for a few of the after work folks at the bar. We were seated, given our menus and told the specials by our fantastic waiter, Patrick. Seriously he made our seemingly average experience extraordinary. We opted for our appetizer and entrees from the specials menu.
For our appetizer we ordered a seafood platter. This consisted of fried calimari, two seared large sea scallops and two jumbo sauteed shrimp. My hubby ate most of the calimari and one of the shrimp. I ate the scallops, the other shrimp and a few pieces of the calimari. My only complaints about our entire meal stem from this dish. The scallops and shrimp were almost room temperature. Other then that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The cocktail sauce and tartar sauce were fantastic. The tartar sauce differed from the typical mayo-based, relish over-run stuff you're used to. It was creamy and filled with what seemed like a mild minced onion or perhaps even some celery. I loved it.
For my entree I ordered the pan seared red snapper served over shrimp lemon thyme risotto. The snapper was tastefully seasoned, perfecctly cooked and served on top of a generous pile of arborio rice with healthy chunks of shrimp. The risotto was a little off in it's texture, not the creamy stuff I'm used to, but it was still very tasty. This entree was a steal at around $12!
My husband had the NY strip with mushroom jus. It was served with homemade fries and broccoli. He said it was fantastic. For dessert we shared bread pudding (he'd never had it) with caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream. Typically I order chocolate desserts, but this was completely satisfying and I also thought it was a steal at only $4.
As I mentioned before, the entire experience was lifted to another level by a fantastic, informative waiter, who urged us to ask for him by name when we returned post-baby. That, we will definitely be sure to do!
This is adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe to what I had on hand and to be healthier. You could use any cheese and nut combination. I really liked the addition of green onions. We really also liked the mustard cream sauce (also adapted).
Bacon wrapped chicken with cheddar and almonds
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup sharp cheddar, grated
1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
4-6 slices turkey bacon
1 tb olive oil
2 tb butter
2 tb flour
1 1/4 cup skim milk
2 tb grain mustard (I used my dear friend Joyanna's spicy wintertime mustard)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Pound chicken breasts thin between plastic wrap. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Cover the breasts with cheese, onions and nuts in equal amounts. Roll each one up and wrap each roll with a piece (or 2) of turkey bacon. Secure with toothpicks. This was the most tedious, pain in the ass part of the process because trying not to cross contaminate is such a pain. I think I washed my hands like 8 times!
Preheat oven to 375. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken on all sides for a total of 5-6 minutes. Place chicken on small baking sheet in oven and cook for 10 minutes more.
In the same skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Stir in milk slowly and whisk until smooth. Next stir in mustard and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to warm until chicken is ready. Remove toothpicks from chicken and cut in half. Pour sauce over chicken.
I love an easy meal that you can prepare ahead of time, and then just pull out of the fridge, plug in and leave as you're walking out the door for the day. I'll let you know how this turns out once we eat it!!
Edit: The beef stew was great, but I ended up skimming a good amount of fat off the top of the pot and added at least a tsp of salt!
Hearty Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Makes 4-6 servings
Ingredients:
1 large celery, sliced thick
1 large potato, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced thick
1 lb. stew cut beef
1/4 c flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
2.5 cups water
2 cubes beef bouillion
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat water and bouillion to boiling in pot or in microwave. Stir to dissolve bouillion.Combine flour and spices in a large bowl. Mix in beef and toss well to coat. Pour into bottom of slow cooker.
Cutting up the veggies is the most time consuming part of this meal.
My food blogging has tapered off in recent weeks. This is due to my intolerance for standing for long in one spot and I do apologize. I haven't been cooking much at all. Nor did I really cook last night, but last night's dinner brings up a subject I thought I'd talk about today that sees a lot of action in my house – food recycling.
What do you do with your leftovers? Do you take them as originally eaten for lunch the next day or do you remake it into something else?
Often we just bring our leftovers for lunch. I do love a hot, home cooked lunch! Last week you saw that I made pork chops and black bean soup. Last night, when I decided again that I didn't feel like cooking, I surveyed the contents of my fridge. I dumped the sliced pork chops into a small sauce pan. Then I drained most of the liquid off the black bean soup and dumped the beans, onions and carrots into the pot. I sprinkled garlic and chili powder in the pot and heated over medium heat. Next I grabbed a can of whole green chiles and roughly chopped them. I poured all this into two flour tortillas with some shredded cheese and rolled them up. I topped off our green chile pork burritos with lettuce and black olives. Dinner was done in under 10 minutes.
While this isn't recipe-worthy because it was made with leftovers you wouldn't have (unless you cooked exactly what I cook, when I cook it), I thought it prompted a worthwhile topic for discussion. So tell me, do you recycle food?
This concoction was made up from searching my pantry and fridge last night. I didn't have time to marinate the chops and I didn't feel like baking them. This turned out fantastic and was super easy and quick. The chops were moist and I loved the combination of the buttery tapenade with the natural flavor of the pork. Of course, you have to like olives and artichokes...
Pork chops with Olive Artichoke Tapenade
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
6 quarters of marinated artichoke hearts (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice (I use the bottled stuff)
1/2 cup pitted black olives
4 boneless pork chops
kosher salt
crushed black pepper
Directions:
Combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor and chop. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Heat a grill pan or frying pan over medium-high–high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper liberally over both sides of the chops. Place in hot pan and cook 3–4 minutes, flip and cook 3–4 minutes on other side. Remove from heat and allow to sit at least 5 minutes before slicing against the grain and covering with the tapenade. Enjoy!
Finally I get around to blogging our Valentine's dinner experience at Magnolia Grill. I'll try to make it worth the wait. It's funny that this comes just shortly after the announcement of the Barker's nomination in the Outstanding Restaurant overall category for the James Beard Awards (more info here). I regret to tell you I didn't take my camera, therefore, no photos accompany. I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I'd been looking forward to this dinner for two weeks (actually more like two years). We had an early reservation and the restaurant only had a handful of tables filled when we arrived around 5:30. It was filled with natural light and the music was low. The ambiance was relaxing. We were seated at a half-booth. This is one of those long benches that line an entire wall, where they throw table after table alongside it and flank the other side of the table with chairs. I experienced similar seating in Panciuto in Hillsborough (also a fine dining restaurant). I have to tell you, it's my least favorite seating setup. It's not as intimate as I'd like, and fellow diners can't help but look at what's on your plate with curiousity (since they're a whopping 2 feet away), myself included.
The host pulled out the table for my husband to sit down and then pulled out my chair. It was a nice touch. An extensive menu was placed in both of our hands and the hard selection began. For me, I'm limited with cheeses and seafood (not for much longer though), so it was a bit of an easier choice, but had I not been, I would have taken much longer to make my selections. The only complaint I could muster about the entire dining experience was that we waited quite awhile for our server to come and offer drinks initially. After that, she was top notch.
For my first course, I selected the smoked Eden Farm Berkshire pork belly in Sorghum-bourbon glaze on baby butterbean fondue with red mustard greens and pickled turnips. When this arrived, I was pleasantly surprised with not only the presentation, but the portion size. It was substantial for $10. I've never had pork belly before and I expected it to be mostly a big slab of fat, but it was quite meaty. It had a very subtle smoked flavor that was so well balanced with the sweetness and acidity of the bourbon glaze. The butterbean fondue reminded me slightly of the mashed peas I ate while in London. They were a nice accompaniament, both color and texturewise to the rest of the dish. The greens and turnips were minimal in comparison to the forementioned components but added lovely texture, color and subtle flavor to this excellent starter.
My husband had the cannellini bean soup with Carolina shrimp, apple bacon, escarole and roasted peppers. I tasted it and while it was very very good, I was happy to have all of my first course to myself !
For my second course, I ordered the grilled Maine scallops in red wine essence on couscous carbonara with oyster mushrooms, roasted root vegetables, apple-smoked bacon and arugula. I am not even slightly exaggerating when I say these are the largest scallops I have ever seen. There were two of these monsters on my plate, which again was beautifully presented. They must have totalled near a half pound together. They were the most perfectly cooked scallops I've ever eaten. They weren't gritty, or even slightly chewy. They were seasoned to perfection. Their perfect texture was well complimented with the meaty oyster mushrooms and the earthy root vegetables. The couscous was also a welcome punch of texture. It was the largest couscous I've ever had (the grains about half the size of barley). I also adored the red wine essence that graced this dish. It was a perfect dish and I ate every bit of it.
One of the things I really appreciated about the experience was that the server knew all of the dishes well, and she offered information about how things were prepared and made sure we were okay with them. For example, she mentioned that the scallops were grilled and just slightly translucent in the center and wanted to know if that was okay with me. For my husband, who ordered the grilled Berkshire pork rib chop in Bourbon jus on cornmeal spatzle with sweet potato, turnips, country ham and southern greens, she noted that they typically served this medium rare (reddish-pink) and inquired if that was acceptable to him. He opted for medium, which was perfect to his liking and he too ate up every bit of his dish.
The food was served warm, not hot, perfectly cooked. They pay attention to such small details here, that you definitely feel the difference between eating here and somewhere else that also uses fantastic local ingredients, like Piedmont. For example, when returning from my visit to the ladies room, I found the napkin I had left balled up on the table, refolded. It's small touches like this that make the extra money spent feel worth it. For two courses for the two of us, and a bottle of Pelligrino, the bill totalled out around $75. Add tip to that and we topped out around $100. I look forward to going to Magnolia Grill again for a special occasion in the future. It was the perfect dining experience.
Yesterday I slow cooked black bean soup. I soaked the beans (a 1 lb bag) overnight. I drained and poured them into my new gigantic crock pot. Then I chopped up an onion and about 2 carrots and added them to the pot. I added 7 cubes of chicken boullion, a tbsp of ground cumin, and about 8 cups of water. I cooked it on low for 8 hours and then added a tbsp of garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, and cooked on high for another hour. Sorry there are no photos and I didn't document exact amounts, but these spices were right and the beans were cooked perfectly!
