Spryte's Place

Orange Cranberry Bread

2011-11-21T14:31:00.000-05:00

I love Orange Cranberry Bread and Muffins. Tangy, tart and fresh. A perfect start to the day!

I found this on allrecipes.com.

Orange Cranberry Bread (slightly adapted)
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon grated orange zest
12 oz fresh cranberries
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cup white sugar
2 egg
1 1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease & flour two 9x5 loaf pans or line them with parchment paper.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add orange zest and orange juice. Mix well.

In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir flour mixture into orange juice mixture, until just combined. Fold in cranberries and nuts.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake at 350F for 50 - 60 minutes.

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Cream together butter & sugar & eggs.

Add orange juice.

And orange zest.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir into orange mixture until just combined.

(it did get a little more stirred before I added the cranberries & nuts)

Fold in cranberries & nuts.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pans and bake at 350F for 50 - 60 minutes; or until pick comes out dry.

That's it!

This was wicked good! A nice bright, tart, tangy flavor and very moist. I've been dying for Orange/Cranberry baked goodies and this totally satisfied that craving!

I like that it makes two loaves. One to eat and one to share (or to throw in the the freezer for later!) I brought the extra loaf to work and it got very favorable reviews! I also like that it uses the whole bag of fresh cranberries.

This is definitely a keeper!!

Lamb Meatball Curry

2011-11-14T13:49:00.001-05:00

I found this recipe while browsing TasteSpotting. It's from the Cookin' Canuck blog.

Lamb is something I'm not very experienced with and I'm not entirely sure I like it. Well, sometimes I LOVE it!! But other times it's a little too, umm... I don't know... lamby...

I love lamb kebobs from Baba D's, and gyros... but other than that... I've never really eaten it. And even when eating the kebobs that I really do love, there's a touch of an under-flavor that I'm not wild about.

Anyway. I saw this recipe and decided that I wanted to make it.

This is also my first from scratch curry. I've made plenty of curry recipes before, but they all have included an ingredient with 'curry' in the name. This recipe has no such ingredient! Yay me!

Lamb Meatball Curry

for the meatballs

1 1/2 lbs ground lamb
1 tbsp minced green chili
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (I just grated ginger & garlic)
1 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt
for curry sauce
1 cup chopped onion paste
1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 cups tomato puree
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp garam masala
1 1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tbsp kasuri methi (fenugreek leaves)
1/3 cup cashews (blanched and turned into a paste*)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
Salt

Mix all meatball ingredients. Form into meatballs. Mine were about 1.5 inches. Place meatballs on baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to a day.

Preheat oven to 400F. Bake meatballs for 20 minutes.

For the sauce... heat ghee & oil in a thick bottom pot. Add onion, ginger and garlic paste and cook them until all the liquid in the paste evaporates. Stir frequently, cook slowly on medium heat.

When the paste turns golden brown add cumin powder, salt, turmeric, cayenne pepper and coriander powder. When you add the dry ingredients it starts to burn quickly so stir it all together to mix well and add tomato puree.

Cook the puree until the sauce begins to thicken.

Then add cashew paste and cream, and cook some more. You will see oil on the edges then add garam masala and kasuri methi (fenugreek).

Mix it together and throw in all the meatballs (also the drippings in the baking dish).

Turn the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for a nice 6-8 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok... so make mashed potatoes for the meatballs. This would be a really good use for leftover mashies. I've never used mashed potatoes as a binder before and I have to say, I'm a fan.

Mix up all of the meatball ingredients

Roll into meatballs.

Cover with plastic wrap and into the fridge!

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes.

Now to make the sauce.

I ground my cashews, but they didn't really turn to a paste. It was kind of powdered, but it could pinch it back together. It seemed to work out fine.

So, heat ghee & oil, add onion, ginger & garlic paste.

Cook slowly, stirring frequently.

I was afraid of burning it and stopped short of golden... but I did get the excess moisture evaporated.

Fragrant bowl of spices.

Into the pot!

Plus tomato sauce.

Cook until it starts to thicken.

Add cashews & cream.

Cook some more and add fenugreek & garam masala and stir.

Now add your beautiful cooked meatballs plus any drippings to the sauce.

Gently stir them in, until everything is well coated and simmer for 6 - 8 minutes.

Now they're ready to enjoy!!

I served them over couscous.

They were really tasty. I loved the sauce. There was that lambyness... that I'm still not sure that I love. Jon enjoyed these too.

Would I make them again? I think if I used half beef/half lamb I would have enjoyed them more.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

2011-10-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

The weather is finally cool... really cool... we might get snow tonight!! I know that makes lots of you groan... but I'm wicked psyched!! I LOVE snow!!

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. A chance of snow after midnight. Snow accumulation around an inch possible. Lows around 30. East winds around 5 mph. Chance of snow 50 percent.

I love seeing that little snow icon in my weather window! This is my favorite time of year!

It gets dark early... I can't wait to go back to standard time... it's cold and the chance for snow! What makes those nights even more perfect?

Baking something delicious of course!!

Ok... well... enough with the weather report!

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Penzey's. This recipe is from the Thanksgiving 2011 catalog, page 37.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 C plain pumpkin puree, (I used fresh)
1/4 C evaporated milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 2/3 flour

Streusel topping:
2 TBLS flour
2 1/2 TBLS white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TBLS butter

Preheat oven to 375F.
Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg. Mix pumpkin with evaporated milk and mix in with butter/sugar mixture. In a separate bowl whisk together, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin batter, until just combined. Don't over stir.

Spoon into 12 standard sized, greased or lined muffin cups.

In a small bowl combine streusel topping ingredients with a fork until the topping is about the size of small peas. Sprinkle evenly over muffins and bake for 18 - 22 minutes at 375F.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cream together butter and brown sugar.

Beat in egg.

Mix pumpkin with evaporated milk and add to butter/sugar mixture.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt & spices.

Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture, until just combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups.

Mix up streusel topping.

Sprinkle evenly over muffins.

Bake at 375F for 18 - 22 minutes.

These came out wicked good!!!

Moist, tender muffins... with the sweet, buttery, cinnamony streusel topping...

The streusel topping really puts these muffins over the top!

SO GOOD!!!

I made these for a staff meeting at work. Everyone said they really liked them! I also gave one to my morning bus driver and a lady who gets off at the same stop as me every day. They both also told me how much they loved them!

This recipe is definitely a keeper! If you try no other pumpkin recipe this fall, try this one!! You definitely won't be disappointed!

Happy Birthday Chica... and a review...

2011-10-24T02:09:00.002-04:00

Today my baby girl is 19 years old! The time has certainly flown by. It seems like just yesterday she was born. It was the wee hours of the morning and I didn't sleep at all after her arrival. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was perfect. I had never known I could love someone so much, until that very moment.

I asked Tawny what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday this year. She requested an almond flavored cake, that was decorated with bright pink and bright lime green. That was actually the same cake she requested last year. But last year, I had a hard time tinting the frosting and instead of bright colors, ended up with something more suited to a baby shower. She gave me a do-over.

Even though she requested that cake, I knew she loved those big cupcake shaped cakes. You know the ones... they look like a big cupcake!

Anyway... I needed to buy a pan.

This pan.

I could only find this at Michael's, since I waited until the last minute to buy one... but they wanted $35 for it!!! I could buy it for $20 on Amazon... AND get free shipping. I was really bummed about such a big price difference. But I was shopping with my friend Erin, and this caught her eye!!

Edible Cake Tattoos??!!! And in fun brightly colored animal prints!!! Those would be PERFECT!!!

They're by Duff Goldman, the Ace of Cakes at Charm City Cakes.

Duff has a whole line of stuff to make cool cakes at home! He has loads of Buttercream Fondants, Fondant Cutters, all kinds of Decorating Icings and Gels and Flavored Sprinkles, plus lots of other cool cake stuff. The clerk at Michael's even said that Duff's buttercream fondant is totally yummy... unlike that Wilton fondant.

I would definitely be considered a cake novice and honestly, was a bit nervous that I couldn't make the cake look cool, even with step by step decorations. But I knew Tawny would think this cake was awesome... so I decided to give it try.

For this cake, I had to bake two 8 inch cakes and two 6 inch cakes.

I opened the Edible Cake Tattoo package and this is what was inside.

They almost looked like fabric strips.

Time to frost the cakes.

Remember, when it comes to cakes, I'm definitely a novice. This time, I decided the cakes were flat enough to just use as is... but the next time I try this, I'd definitely trim the cakes so they were flat. I did trim one of the 6 inch layers. But I was worried if I trimmed the cakes, I'd need to trim the tattoos and I wasn't sure if I'd end up just making a huge mess.

I definitely could have trimmed them, the tattoos would have fit and after working with them, I feel pretty confident I could have easily trimmed them, without making a mess, if needed.

Place the tattoos on the cake.

They go on very easily. You do have to be gentle with them, because they will tear easily, but not so easily, if that makes sense.

There's a white border around each tattoo where the print ends. On white frosting, it totally blends in. But where the seams meet, you'll want to trim it down to the print, so you can't see the seams on the cake.

Tattoos applied!

Time for decoration. I used Duff's Icing Pouches.

The consistency of these pouches was a little thinner than I would have liked. Also, it was impossible to get the first two or three inches of icing that came out of the pouch mixed. So you definitely don't want to start out directly on the cake.

Once I got the feel of it, it was ok. But I think next time, I'd make my own icing, so I could control the thickness. Actually... only if I can get those vivid colors. I have a REALLY hard time with that. Plus, with my own frosting, I could use a much wider variety of decorating tips. I have a pretty nice set of tips, but you can also get a pretty nice set from Duff!

With my slightly rounded cakes... and trying to get the hang of the thinner than I like icing... this is what I ended up with.

I think it's a pretty decent likeness... especially for someone who just doesn't have much experience with cake decorating.

It's hard to tell in the picture... but those are zebra, tiger and giraffe candles. I found them over the summer and knew I would use them on Tawny's birthday cake. They just happened to fit in perfectly!

So how does all of this stuff taste you ask?

Not bad at all!

Well... I tried some of the extra tattoo when I trimmed it. By itself, it almost doesn't taste like anything. Everyone liked the pink icing from the icing pouch. I didn't try Duff's cake mix or butter cream icing.

I was a little worried that while cutting the cake, the tattoos would kinda drag and pull, but they sliced perfectly. And when they adhere to the frosting, you really don't even notice any tattoo taste or texture. They kinda become part of the frosting. They're pretty cool!

I have to say I'm very excited about Duff's line of cake decorating products. Stay tuned for Spryte's Adventures in Fondant... coming to a computer screen near you...

As for you Tawny.

Happy Birthday bonita chica! You have grown into a lovely, talented, strong young woman, who is loved very very much. I'm so proud of you. I love you pretty girl!! Happy Birthday!! Love, Mom ♥

Crescent Chili Cheese Dog Boats

2011-10-12T16:13:00.000-04:00

So it was October 4... but my kitchen calendar was still on September.

I bought some crescent rolls over the weekend and had planned to make these, just not on a stick.

Bob was walking through the kitchen and said, "mum, you should make those, but without the rolls" I told him that I was making them... but with the rolls, just no sticks. Weird that he'd ask for them on the day I planned to make them. I hadn't mentioned my dinner plan to anyone.

Then Jon happened through the kitchen and said that I should make those but add chili. Again, weird, because I didn't tell anyone what I was making.

Oh! That sounded really good!!

It's usually a 50/50 guess if Bob will want chili on a chili dog and that day, he passed and asked if he could just have hotdogs with cheese.

Lilly is eating a vegetarian plus fish diet these days, so they didn't fit the bill for her either.

Tawny is away at school. She probably would have had one, but would have asked if I'd only put half a hotdog in hers.

Anyway... what seemed to be totally kid friendly food... and only Jon and I wanted any of it!

Crescent Chili Cheese Dog Boats
1 package crescent rolls
4 hotdogs (your favorite kind)
1 can of chili (or your own homemade)
shredded cheddar cheese

Carefully unroll the crescent rolls. Separate the dough into 4 rectangles and pinch the seams through the middles closed.

Spoon a little chili onto each rectangle. Top with a hotdog and then some cheese. Pull all the corners of the dough towards the center and pinch to seal. They won't close all the way... add more cheeses to the opening.

Bake in an oven preheated to 375F for 12 to 15 minutes. Until dough is golden.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what you need.

Carefully unroll the dough to make 4 triangles and pinch the center seams to seal.

Add some chili.

Add the hotdogs.

Some shredded cheese.

Pull the corners toward the center and pinch to seal.

I noticed they were lookin' a little empty... so I decided they should have more cheese.

That's better!

Then into the oven for 12 - 15 minutes, until the dough is golden and everything is heated through.

These were so easy!

Mmmmm... melty, cheesy, chiliy goodness... wrapped in crescent dough!

Win!

I think the October recipe is Garlic Stuffed Olives baked in some kinda dough. I'm not typically an olive fan, with the exception of Erin's Olive Cheese Balls OMG DROOL... so I probably won't be making the October recipe. But maybe I'll change the calendar in a timely manner and November will have a cool recipe. We'll just have to wait and see!

Pumpkin Mudslide

2011-09-26T15:49:00.000-04:00

It's finally fall! My favorite season! Hmmm... maybe my favorite season is winter... I'm not sure, I just know that I love fall! Gone are the hot humid sweaty sticky days of summer and they're replaced with cool days, cooler nights, leaves changing color and the smell of fireplaces burning in the evening.

It just makes me want to inhale deeply, close my eyes and say "ahhhhhhh".

My sister, Jeannie has a cocktail for every occasion. She made Pumpkin Mudslides this weekend... what sounds more perfect for fall than a Pumpkin Mudslide?

Pumpkin Mudslide
Equal parts
Pumpkin Spice Schnapps or Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur
Kaluha
Vanilla Vodka
Splash of milk (however much or little as you like)

Shake with ice and enjoy!!

The first one I tried had Pumpkin Spice Schnapps.

The second one had Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur.

These are both wicked good!! But if you make it with Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur, it really does taste just like pumpkin pie!

I highly recommend you give this a try in the very near future!!

Happy Fall!!

Root Beer Cookies

2011-09-21T12:01:00.002-04:00

Hey look who it is! I'm back twice in one week!

I bookmarked this recipe about a year ago. It's been just sitting in my favorites, patiently waiting for me to finally decide it was time to make them.

I'm not sure how I happened to browse to it. But I found it on a Betty Crocker blog, who noted it was from the Minneapolis Star Tribune Food Section.

My son Bobby LOVES root beer. He drinks gallons of the stuff. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to make them.

Root Beer Cookies slightly adapted
Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flat root beer
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons flat root beer
2 teaspoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Cream together, butter and sugars. Add eggs and mix. Add root beer, root beer concentrate and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture, until just combined.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375F for 9 - 11 minutes. Cool on rack.

For icing, whisk together all ingredients and spread over completely cooled cookies.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, first what you wanna do is make the root beer flat.

I poured it into a glass and just stirred until most of the bubbles were gone.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Cream butter & sugars, add eggs, then rootbeer, rootbeer concentrate & vanilla.

Mix in flour until just combined.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 9 - 11 minutes at 375F.

Cool on racks.

To make icing whisk together all icing ingredients and spread over cookies. I think next time I might leave out the butter. I think the icing would look a little smoother without it.

These cookies were really good! I wasn't sure what to expect from a root beer flavored cookie. I've only had root beer or root beer flavored candy; but never a baked good.

For the concentrate... since I was having a hard time finding it, I was going to just cook down some root beer until it was a thick sticky syrup, but since I had never seen the concentrate, I wasn't sure if that would work. Now I think it would have been totally fine. So if you're having trouble finding the concentrate, you could try to just cook it down from root beer.

Before icing the cookies, I tasted one. I wanted to see how much root beer flavor was in the cookie itself, because I was thinking they might be better with a vanilla glaze to make them root beer float cookies. The cookie itself had a mild root beer flavor, so you do definitely want to use the root beer icing. I was a little nervous about the icing too. I tasted that on its own and it was really strong. I was afraid it would ruin the cookies, but it was really perfect! They totally taste like root beer cookies!

If you wanted to try to make a rootbeer float cookie, I think maybe you could swirl the root beer icing with a vanilla icing. I'll have to experiment with that the next time.

But everyone really liked these. At first I was thinking.... "yeah, they're good, but I probably won't make them again." It was mostly the novelty of them. But they really are good! And they're really different. They're be great for a cookie exchange. Something than the same old sugar/chocolate chip/butter cookie.

If you like root beer, I highly recommend you try these!

Hotdogs & Beans aka Saturday Night Supper

2011-09-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

Hiya! I know last time I was here, I said I'd be around more, then I promptly fell off the face of the Earth! As it turned out I had an unexpectedly, unbelievably hectic summer and did almost no cooking at all. Just ask my family... they'll totally back me up on the no cooking thing!

Anyway, I'm back! I think. I kinda hesitate to say that again. But well, here I am!

Soooo.... I was out on Saturday at Market District in Robinson to see FoodTV's Aarón Sanchez do a cooking demo and get him to autograph his new cookbook. He's totally my favorite Chopped judge.

That was a fun time. Aarón commented on how well stocked the grocery store was. While I was in line waiting for an autograph, I noticed they do have a very well stocked meat department.

I wasn't looking for Python... but if it hadn't been $30 a pound, I definitely would have tried some!

But after the demo, I figured in this extremely well stocked grocery store, it would be easy for me to find Root-beer Concentrate and Malted Milk Powder. I needed them for a couple of new recipes I wanted to try over the weekend. Those aren't really unusual ingredients. But do you think they had either of them? No. They didn't.

But on my way out of the store, I noticed they had B&M Brown Bread!

That instantly made me think of Saturday night suppers growing up. I say suppers, because back then, that's what we called it. I don't think I really use that word anymore, now it's always dinner.

Anyway, growing up just outside of Boston, hotdogs and beans was a very common Saturday night supper in our house. I don't really remember actually having Brown Bread... but definitely remember the hot dogs & beans. Mum always boiled the hotdogs. I know many of you are totally cool with that... but I don't ever want to eat a boiled hot dog again. Fried, grilled, baked, microwaved, just not boiled. I really have no reason for this, other than boiling meat just seems wrong.

But not being able to actually recall consuming the Brown Bread prompted me to give Mum a call this morning to ask if we had it. She said that she never made it, but that my sister and I probably had it at Grammy's house. When we were little, Saturday night was date night for my parents, so we spent most Saturday nights with Grammy & Grampy. I only remember steamed clams (drool), HeeHaw, Lawrence Welk and All in the Family... so I emailed Jeannie to see if she remembered the Brown Bread. She didn't either. But Jeannie's not a big bread eater to start with. So I have no idea why Saturday Night Suppers popped into my mind at the first glimpse of B&M Brown Bread, but it did!

I snatched the can off of the top shelf and headed over to the baked bean section. Of course I had to have some B&M Baked Beans to go with the Brown Bread. Do you think they had any B&M Baked Beans? Nope! Not a single can! So I grabbed a can of Giant Eagle brand and headed for the checkout.

I opted to fry the hotdogs in butter. Definitely no boiling of hotdogs in my house!

Then browned the buns in butter too.

Meanwhile, I heated up some of that B&M Brown Bread in the toaster oven.

Serve it with a bowlful of baked beans and a nice warm slice of brown bread and it's ~~dinner~~ supper time!

Yum...

Beans on brown bread! My favorite part of ~~dinner~~ supper!

So it was a nice nostalgic Saturday Supper, followed by a movie night.

I had leftover beans & brown bread for breakfast on Sunday too!

Are you from New England? Did you have Saturday Suppers of Hotdogs & Beans & Brown Bread?

Sonic Fritos Chili Cheese Wrap

2011-06-28T15:45:00.001-04:00

Hey there! Remember me? Spryte... from Spryte's Place...? I mostly post about what's going on in my kitchen? Yes!! THAT Spryte! I knew you'd remember me eventually!

Sorry for my long absence.

While I've been gone, we bought a new (to us) house and moved up the hill from our old house. So I have a new kitchen. There's great light for pictures. But I'm still kind of getting used to it.

We're also fixing up our old house to rent. So that takes up ~~a lot~~ most of our spare time. And in addition to that, I started a new job! Unfortunately, I work a later shift that gets me home more than an hour later than I used to. Plus I take the bus to work, so I can't stop at the grocery store on my way home anymore. Now I have to plan my menus a week at a time and only go grocery shopping once a week. Dinners haven't really been very blog-worthy, mostly quick meals, that I've already blogged about.

So that giant pile of ~~reasons~~ excuses is why I've been MIA.

Anyway... my posting will be a bit sporadic for a while longer, but I'm hoping to be back on track in the kinda near future.

So anyway.... here I am, with a nice customer service story and a quick delicious copy-cat recipe!

I use a lot of flour tortillas, as you've probably noticed. I used to mostly use Mission Flour Tortillas. But my local Giant Eagle grocery store stopped carrying them and now only sells their own brand. I gave them a try, mostly because they were the only ones available. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I liked them as much or more than Mission brand. They are thinner and more pliable. But, there was a problem. The plastic zipper that closed the bag malfunctioned. It pulled away from the plastic, so there was no way to reseal it. And it didn't just happen with one package, it happened with several. So sent an email to company and let them know.

A couple weeks later, I got a phone call from their rep. He said that they had done some testing and couldn't duplicate the problem. I told him I understood and actually, even though I'd had 5 or 6 faulty packages, the package I had at the moment was working just fine. He asked if it was ok if he sent me some gift cards. What was I gonna say? No?? So of course I said, "yes". Then he said he'd also like to send me a few packages of tortillas for my trouble. I also accepted that offer.

In a couple of days, I got $20 in Giant Eagle gift cards. That was cool and very quick. Then a few days after that there was a package on my front porch (cuz I have a front porch now!) I had forgotten all about the tortillas and was impatiently waiting for some used paperbacks I ordered from Amazon. The box was a little big for paperbacks, but I figured there must be packing in there. When I picked up the box, it was WAY too heavy to be two paperbacks and I couldn't imagine what was in there.

I opened it up and discovered a whole case of Giant Eagle Flour Tortillas!

A case is 18 packages of 6 flour tortillas each!! That's a lot of tortillas!

I don't want to freeze them, because I think frozen bread products never come out of the freezer as good as they went in. I know many disagree and they are free to try to trick me with thawed bread products, but until that day, that's how I feel about freezing that kind of stuff.

So first thing, I gave away a bunch!

The day before the tortillas arrived, I made Easy Skillet Chili, so Tawny suggested I make Sonic Fritos Chili Cheese Wraps!

I LOVE those things!!!

In addition to these.

You'll need these.

Your favorite chili, Fritos, and shredded cheese. I used Colby/Jack.

Warm your tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds.

See how thin it is!

Place some shredded cheese on the tortilla.

Add some Fritos.

Then some chili.

Now roll it up!

Enjoy!

Normally I would never neatly cut a Fritos Chili Wrap... but a picture with a big bite out of it is just not very pretty!

What would have made this Fritos Chili Cheese Wrap better?

A Route 44 Cherry Limeade of course!!!

Giant Eagle, thanks for the awesome customer service!!!

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

2011-03-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to make more cakes from scratch. Jon likes cakes from a box mix. They are his preference. So when there's an 'occasion' I typically make what he requests.

But we had friends over for dinner this past weekend and it just happened to be Drew's birthday. So I decided to make them my cake guinea pigs. Actually, there really is no shortage of volunteers for this position, but it's easier when they come to my house.

With St Patrick's Day coming up, I went with the Guinness Stout Chocolate Cake and frosted it with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe. I used a different frosting than the one included with the recipe, so I've left out that part. The Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting recipe is from Food.com

Chocolate Guinness Cake
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar (I used granulated)
3/8 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F
Pour the Guinness into a large sauce pan. Add butter and heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa and sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add to sauce pan and mix well. Add flour and baking soda and whisk until smooth.
Pour into a greased, parchment paper lined 9 in springform pan. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack.
Move to cake plate and top with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 TBLS butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
3 - 4 TBLS Bailey's Irish Cream

In a medium bowl, blend together cream cheese, butter, and Bailey's. Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing well until it's all incorporated. Use immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First you need some Guinness. Jon doesn't care for Guinness, so it's not something we keep on hand. We picked this one up at Smokin' Joe's.

Even though he doesn't care for Guinness, he took one for the team and finished it for me, since I only needed a cup.

Pour one cup of Guinness into a large sauce pan with the butter. Heat until butter is melted.

Turn off heat when butter is melted.

Whisk in cocoa

I used Dutch Process Cocoa from Penzey's.

And sugar

I didn't have superfine sugar, so I used granulated. It seemed to work out fine.

Whisk together eggs, sour cream & vanilla

Whisk that into the chocolate stout mixture

Then whisk in the flour and baking soda until smooth

Line a 9 in springform pan with parchment paper and butter the sides

Pour cake batter into prepared pan

Bake at 350F for 45 - 60 minutes

Cool in pan on wire rack until completely cooled

No worries about the grand canyon around the edge, it will get covered with frosting.

Move to cake plate and top with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

If you look at the two previous pictures, you'll notice that the middle of the cake has sunk a bit. It probably could have cooked a few more minutes, but the pick came out dry, so I took it out. I'm pretty new to this cake from scratch thing.

Anyway...

A few tablespoons of Bailey's from a mini and you still have a little left for later.

Beat butter, cream cheese & Bailey's until well combined. Beat in powdered sugar.

Top the cake with a generous covering of the frosting.

I have to say... this frosting is amazingly delicious!
LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!

So the middle definitely could have been done more.

I typically don't care for chocolate, but I had a small piece and it's delicious!

You get just a hint of the stout flavor.

Very thick, rich, moist decadent cake.

I really can't recommend it enough. Everyone really loved it!

Bubble Pizza

2011-02-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

I'd seen Bubble Pizza floating around the interwebs and it's been on my list of 'things to make' for a little while now.

I needed something to feed my pack of teens, plus Jon & me on Friday night. I also didn't want to spend a fortune on it. Then I remembered Bubble Pizza.

Bubble Pizza
2 (12 oz) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 (14 oz) jar of pizza sauce (Or your own homemade pizza sauce)
1 lb ground Italian sausage, cooked & drained
1/4 lb sliced pepperoni
1/4 lb bacon, cooked drained & diced (microwave bacon is perfect for this)
1 1/2 - 2 C shredded mozzarella/provolone cheese blend
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F.
Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Open canned biscuits and cut each uncooked biscuit into 4 pieces and put them into a large bowl. Toss with pizza sauce until well coated. Add sausage, pepperoni and bacon and mix well. Pour into greased baking dish. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cut up the biscuits in to quarters and place in a large bowl.

Add pizza sauce

Toss until well coated

Stir in the cooked sausage, bacon and pepperoni

Ok... that's not very pretty, but pour it into the greased baking dish and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

I missed the timer and this was a little more cooked than intended. But I like my pizza cooked well anyway!

I made the Meat Lovers version

And I made one with Pepperoni & Pepperonicinis

I'll be honest with you. The dinner reviews were kinda mixed. No one disliked it. I think one or two kids did like it. But everyone mostly thought it was just ok. I was a little disappointed, because it sounded like a fun easy dinner. And it DOES feed a lot! I doubled the recipe to make two different kinds, but we had about a full pan left, between the two of them. And my crew can really roll through pizza! So this really does feed a lot. One pan will definitely satisfy 4 teens & 2 adults.

But the good news is, it's an awesome room temperature leftover! So much tastier that way!

If I knew I had a swarm of hungry teens descending on the house later, this is definitely something I'd make ahead and cut into squares for their arrival.

So there ya go. Not a fail... and it made a very nice comeback as a leftover!

Finally ~ A Recipe Index!

2011-02-24T16:05:00.000-05:00

It's taken me a couple of weeks, but I finally finished putting together a Recipe Index for Spryte's Place!

No offense blogger, but the tags & search that come with blogger, aren't really user friendly for the readers.

You can now click the Recipe Index button at the top of the right column.
Over there and up a little ~~>>

I hope that makes browsing Spryte's Place a little easier when you're looking for something specific.

Now I can get back to putting put recipes.

Enjoy!

Kidney Bean Relish

2011-02-14T14:32:00.000-05:00

I was at my sister's house for Thanksgiving last year. On the appetizer table, I was surprised to see Kidney Bean Relish from Century House in Peabody, MA. I love that stuff! We get it every time we go there. Which is pretty often. I love the Mussels Margueray... the Steak Tips are great too... as is the Lobster Pie! Actually... I noticed online they are pretty well known for their breakfasts. I'll have to give that a try next time I'm in town! Anyway... they used to serve the Kidney Bean Relish with Crackers free, at every table. It's not free anymore, actually it's not even on the menu. But you can still order (and pay for) it, which we always do. But you can also buy it in their Epicurean Shoppe, which boasts, "delightful selection of our most delicious dishes, oven-ready to take home, lets you have a healthy home-style meal in less than a half hour!" If you've picked up the Kidney Bean Relish, it won't even take that long. You just have to remove the lid and enjoy. But since I no longer live anywhere near Peabody, I had to try to recreate it. And I think I have it pretty close!

Kidney Bean Relish
1 (16 oz) can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1/2 C sour cream
2 TBLS red onion, finely chopped
2 TBLS thousand island dressing
1 TBLS +1 tsp prepared horseradish
1 small clove garlic, grated
2 shakes of Tabasco sauce
1 or 2 shakes worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients, gently so you don't crush the beans. Refrigerate several hours, overnight is best. Enjoy on buttery crackers.

That's it! So easy & tasty!

Press Drop Cookies (that's Spritz Cookies to the rest of the world)

2011-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

These are cookies that are made with a cookie press. I've had a few different styles of cookie press over the years, but I have to say my absolute favorite is the old style one my mom had. I ended up getting this beautiful tool on eBay a couple years ago.

My first cookie press was the ratchet style.

Then I had a couple of electric ones.

I hated the electric cookie press and to a lesser degree the ratchet style. The dough from the ratcheted press never seemed to come out at a consistent rate. The electric ones were even worse. I like the nice even turn of the screw from my vintage press.

Anyway... these cookies have been on Mum's Christmas Cookie trays for as long as I can remember. I know, you're saying, "Come on now Spryte, it's almost Valentine's Day." But really, even though I've only made these cookies at Christmas time, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to make them throughout the year this year!

The cookie discs are definitely usable for the whole year!

The only problem is I tend to forget which cookie discs I actually have. None of the discs from my previous presses are interchangeable and sometimes I end up looking for a disc from the past.

These are my current discs.

Of course there's the star for cheese straws and the little spikey line thing for bar cookies.

I have all the suites from a deck of cards. I could be making these every time we have friends over for an evening of cards & food.

The hearts and flowers would be great for Valentine's Day.

Butterflies & flowers are good all spring and summer, plus tea parties or bridal showers, or the Cookie Table at a wedding.

The dog, well.. maybe you could make some as a gift for your dog walker or vet... or those hard working people at the humane society.

The camel... hmmm... ummmmm... ok... I know! Hump Day! Everyone needs special cookies for Wednesday right?

I've been making these my whole life and I know this will sound dumb, but I only found out they were called Spritz Cookies within the past couple of years! Mum always called them Press Drop Cookies. So that's what I call them!

Press Drop Cookies
1 C shortening
3/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp extract (almost is my favorite)
2 1/4 C flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375F
Cream together shortening, sugar, egg and extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into shortening & sugar mixture until completely blended. I always color the dough. So when it's thoroughly mixed, add food coloring and mix until desired color is reached. Select a shape, load dough into barrel of cookie press. Press cookies out onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Decorate with jimmies or colored sugars if desired. Bake at 375F for 7 - 10 minutes. Cool on racks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So cream together shortening, sugar, egg and extract. I almost always use almond, but really, you can use whatever you like! Lemon, peppermint, rootbeer, coconut, butter... it's totally up to you... ya know... just typing this out kinda makes me wanna change it up a little next time!

Mix in the flour mixture.

Time for color!

Green, Red & Blue

I was making Green for Christmas trees, Red for Poinsettias, and Blue for ummm.. for some reason I was thinking they were going to be Stars.. but they turned out to be diamonds... so Blue Diamonds! (aren't there Blue Diamonds in Lucky Charms?)

It takes a lot of mixing to get the colors worked through the dough.

But it does eventually get blended.

Insert your disc of choice.

Load the barrel with the appropriately colored dough.

Screw down the press until dough is firmly packed in the barrel.

I find 1/3 of a turn to be the perfect amount for this dough.

You can sprinkle with sugars or jimmies or other decorations if you like.

Bake at 375F for 7 - 10 minutes and cool on racks.

Enjoy!

These are definitely one of my kids favorite cookies. They'll be pretty psyched to see them pop up throughout the year.

Hey! I just thought of another occasion for the diamond shaped cookie!!

Yellow, Red & Blue Diamonds...

Go Steelers!!

Carrot Cake

2011-02-03T09:00:00.018-05:00

This has been sitting in my big pile of things I need to post since September. But since today is National Carrot Cake Day, I decided I should dust it off and get it posted!

I'll start by saying, I'm not really a Carrot Cake fan. It's not something I'd typically select of my own volition. I might select a Carrot Cake Cupcake, if my only other choice was Chocolate. But it's just not really ever going to be one of my top choices.

I was trying to be all stealthy to find out my friend Erin's favorite kinda cake for her birthday. So I asked her husband, who in turn asked her and told me it was Carrot Cake. Heck, I coulda done that! Ok... so it ended up not being so stealthy, but at least I found out. I don't know if Jon would know my favorite cake either. Actually, since I mostly don't really care for cake, he'd probably come up with something like, "Is this a trick question??" Jon... what's my favorite cake?? Let's see what he says. And you can't ask if it's a trick question!

Anyway... I needed to find a Carrot Cake recipe for Erin. I asked my sister Jeannie and she provided me with her go-to Carrot Cake recipe. She thinks it's a McCall's Cooking School Recipe.

Carrot Cake
3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb carrots
1 C butter, softened
1 C light-brown sugar, packed
1 C granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 TBLS grated lemon peel
2 TBLS grated orange peel
2 TBLS lemon juice
2 TBLS orange juice
1 C walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 C seedless raisins (I'm pretty sure I left these out)
1 - 2 C walnuts, coarsely chopped (I added this to the stick to the frosting)

Lightly grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans. Whisk flour with baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

Wash and peel carrots; grate on medium grater, or use coarse blade of food processor. Should measure 4 cups.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In large bowl of mixer, at high speed, beat butter and brown and granulated sugars, occasionally scraping side of bowl with rubber scraper, until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition until smooth and light.

In measuring cup, combine lemon and orange peels and juices. At low speed, beat in flour mixture, in fourths, alternately with lemon-orange mixture, in thirds, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, about 1 minute.

With wooden spoon, stir in grated carrot, 1 cup of nuts and raisins, mix well. Turn into prepared cake pans; spread evenly. Bake 50 - 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 20 minutes, to cool slightly.

Gently loosen edge of cake with a spatula. Turn out of pans onto a rack. When cakes are completely cooled, frost layers of cake with cream cheese frosting. Press chopped walnuts around sides of cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting from allrecipes.com
2 (8 ounce) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 C butter, softened
2 C sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Wash and peel carrots; grate on medium grater, or use coarse blade of food processor. Should measure 4 cups.

In measuring cup, combine lemon and orange peels and juices.

In large bowl of mixer, at high speed, beat butter and brown and granulated sugars

I totally wish my mixer had a dome light

Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition until smooth and light.

Now alternate adding the flour mixture then the juice mixture until it's all mixed in.

Add the carrots, 1 cup of nuts and raisins, if you used raisins.

Pour into greased cake pans; spread evenly

Bake 50 - 60 minutes at 350F or until pick comes out clean

Cool on racks.

Mine did stick a little, but this moist cake stuck back together nicely.

Whip up the cream cheese frosting.

When cakes are completely cooled, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Not very pretty is it?

That's why I decided to chop up a couple more cups of walnuts to stick to the sides of the cake!

Voila!

A gazillion times better!

This was definitely a moist and tasty cake. The texture was excellent. But it was a very citrusy cake. Obviously right? With all that lemon & orange zest & juice! Even though I almost never eat Carrot Cake, when I think of it, I think of a spicy cake... lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, I dunno, more spices. This cake definitely didn't have it. But it was still a delicious cake. Just not really what I was thinking when I thought about Carrot Cake.

Now the frosting... WOW!!! LOVE LOVE LOVED the frosting. It wasn't wicked sweet. It was more cheesy like cheesecake! Sooooo yummy!!!

Today is National Carrot Cake Day! Wanna change it up from the spicy kinda Carrot Cake... or all those Carrot Cakes that have pineapple in them? Give this one a try! All that citrus really brightens up a dark cold winter day!

Super Bowl Food!

2011-02-02T10:00:00.001-05:00

Super Bowl Sunday is fast approaching! Have you put together your menu yet?

I haven't! I'm such a procrastinator!

I do know there will be wings on the menu... but other than that, I guess I should start thinking about it!

Here's a sampling of some of our favorite football foods.

Number One favorite has to be wings.

Chicken Wings & Wing Sauces
Three really hot sauces, wings & a blue cheese dip.

(Wow! That's an old pic!! I'll have to take a newer one to update that post.)

Roasted Asian Chicken Wings
Sticky & delicious!

Honey Curry Wings
Not spicy... also sticky & delicious!

Sausage Balls
These savory little bites disappear quickly!

Buffalo Chicken Dip
Creamy & tangy... good hot or cold.

Empanadas
Spicy little meat pockets.

Baked Rachel Dip
Creamy cheesy flavorful dip on little rye toasts.

Baked Jalapeno Poppers
Cheesy, spicy, delicious and not fried!

I'm sure a couple of those will be gracing our table as well!

So what are your favorite football foods?

Go Steelers!!!

Banana Bread Cobbler

2011-02-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

These were sitting on the counter.

Tawny wanted me to make Banana Pudding Pie but I didn't have any heavy cream.

My friend CaSeYmOm had posted about Banana Bread Cobbler that she'd made and how good it was. Then everyone started making it and posting about how good it was. I decided that would be the perfect use for my very ripe bananas. CaSeYmOm found this recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens 9x13 The Pan That Can cookbook, page 378.

Banana Bread Cobbler
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 medium bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

1. Grease a 13x9 baking pan or baking dish;set aside. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. In a medium bowl stir together the 1 cup self rising flour and the granulated sugar;add milk, melted butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Spread evenly in the prepared pan or dish. Top with sliced bananas.

3. In a large bowl combine oats, brown sugar and the 1/2 cup self rising flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/2 cup butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle mixture over bananas. Bake uncovered, for 25-30 minutes or until browned and set. Cool in pan or dish on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Makes 12 to 18 servings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mix up the 1 cup self rising flour, granulated sugar, melted butter, milk & vanilla.

Pour that into the greased 9x13 pan.

Top with sliced bananas.

Combine oats, brown sugar, 1/2 cup self rising flour, walnuts, cut in 1/2 cup butter, until crumbly.

Sprinkle evenly over sliced bananas.

Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until browned & set.

Cool 30 minutes, top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and enjoy!

Everyone LOVED this! My husband almost never eats bananas, but tried and loved this. Ryan wasn't sure if he'd like it, so he requested a small piece, but he loved it too! Tawny & Lilly loved it! Bob isn't a fan of this kinda thing so he just passed on it. I thought it was awesome! This is so fast and easy and it's a nice alternative to banana bread for those ripe bananas!

Actually, I think I might try the oat topping from this on my next banana bread! Stay tuned!

Brandy Alexander

2011-01-31T14:57:00.000-05:00

Today is National Brandy Alexander Day!

Who proclaims these days? I have no idea! But I was checking out the upcoming food holidays yesterday and thought... "What's a Brandy Alexander?"

I knew it was a cocktail. I knew I had some brandy. Maybe I could make one!

Brandy Alexander
1 1/2 oz brandy
1 oz creme de cocoa
1 oz half & half

Fill shaker half way with ice. Pour all ingredients into shaker. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
Enjoy!

I even made this myself! Typically Jon is the bar master our house. But I read about it, checked to see if we had everything, then just set out to make it!

It's pretty tasty! Happy National Brandy Alexander Day!

Old School Grilled Cheese Sandwich

2011-01-27T10:00:00.002-05:00

I love to make fun grilled cheese sandwiches, with different kinds of cheeses, herbs, veggies anything really to make it interesting.

But sometimes I just want an Old School Grilled Cheese Sandwich. For me, that's white bread and white American cheese. Not that orange, processed, individually wrapped American cheese stuff.
Actual American Cheese... from the deli.

That's what I made tonight.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
2 slices white bread
2 or 3 slices real American cheese
butter, room temperature

Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Place one slice of bread, buttered side down in a skillet over medium heat. Top with cheese slices. Cover with remaining slice of bread, buttered side up. Cook until golden and flip. When golden on both sides, remove from pan and enjoy!

Real cheese

Buttered white bread

One slice, buttered side down and topped with cheese

Cover with remaining slice of bread, buttered side up

Flip when desired level of golden goodness is reached

For me this could be right up until almost burned

When the other side is a golden match, you're done!

Now when I mention the Old School Grilled Cheese Sandwich, most people instantly want a bowl of tomato soup with it. I've never had tomato soup with my grilled cheese. My mom never made it. So tonight I called her to ask her why. She said, back then she really wasn't much of a soup fan. I can remember her making turkey & rice soup after a turkey dinner, but really no other soups from scratch. We did have a selection of Campbell's soups in the cabinet. Most chicken noodle or chicken and stars, that kinda thing.

So I never had tomato soup. It seems like something I would like. I love tomatoes, tomato sauces, ketchup, most anything you can do with tomatoes. But so far, I've never tried a tomato soup that I liked!! And I only started trying tomato soup as a tomato loving adult. So it really is disappointing that I haven't found one that I like.

The Old School Grilled Cheese Sandwiches of my youth were most likely served with chips... on a paper towel!

Anyway... I thought the Old School Grilled Cheese Sandwich was deserving of it's very own post!

So there you have it!!

Old School Grilled Cheese!!

Knorr Spinach Dip

2011-01-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

This is another one of my very favorite dips!! I remember first making Knorr Spinach Dip more than 10 years ago. I was staying with my friend Debbie and I think we made it for a party. We liked it so much, we made some more and just kept it in the fridge to snack on at will! Which really isn't such a great idea, because it's completely irresistible! It's really easy to eat an entire bowl!

Whenever I make this dip I think of Debbie.

Knorr Spinach Dip
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 container (16 oz) sour cream
1 C mayonnaise
1 pkg Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
3 green onions, chopped

Combine all ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours. I usually serve this in a hollowed out loaf of round bread, with slices of baguette.

This is what you need.

Stir the mayo and sour cream together.

Add the Knorr Vegetable Soup mix, spinach, water chestnuts and green onions.

Stir that all together & chill at least two hours.

Serve in a hollowed out bread bowl.

I couldn't find a round one, so I used a football shaped Olive Oil Bread.

I like to serve this with sliced baguettes, but you can serve it with crisp veggies or whatever you like!

This is definitely a favorite in my house. Ok... I KNOW Tawny & I love it. I'm not entirely sure about everyone else. But I haven't had any complaints. Honestly, I like to make little sandwiches out out it.

If you're having a tea party, you could totally use this to make little creamy tea sandwiches.

Or, it would be perfect for your Super Bowl Party!

Go Steelers!!!

Potato Leek Soup

2011-01-20T15:59:00.000-05:00

Do you ever plan meals around a small component of the meal?

Yesterday, my pulchritudinous friend, Erin posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. Wait, what? What the heck is pulchritudinous? Well, sometimes I worry that I use the same words over and over, so I consult the thesaurus to mix things up a little and occasionally learn a new word in the process. I was going to call Erin my lovely friend. Which she is, inside and out. But for fun, I decided to peruse other words for lovely. There's quite a selection actually and most of them would have been perfectly acceptable substitutes for lovely. I knew all of them, except pulchritudinous. Ya know how your brain kinda picks out letters, even when jumbled and can come up with the right word? Well, since my brain had never come in contact with the word pulchritudinous, I think it converted it to putrid. Not very flattering, when you're looking for a substitute for lovely. So I had to look it up. It means physically beautiful. Erin is more than that, but I decided to use it today anyway, because maybe some of you don't know what pulchritudinous means, and if you read it somewhere, I wouldn't want you thinking it's putrid, since it's quite the opposite. Ok. English lesson over.

So my lovely (yeah, I went back to lovely, it really does describe her better than pulchritudinous) friend Erin, posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. This was kinda late to mid afternoon and up until that time, it was looking like dinner was going to be FFY (Fend For Yourself) at my house. But Beer Bread wormed its way into my brain and I HAD to make it. But I couldn't just make Beer Bread for dinner, could I? Well, I'd be totally cool just eating it for dinner, but if I'm going to claim I'm making dinner, I should make more than just beer bread right?

So I was trying to decide what would go great with Beer Bread. Someone had mentioned Broccoli Cheese Soup. That sounded kinda good, but it just wasn't clicking. So I was in my car, on my way home trying to think of what to make and Potato Leek Soup popped into my head. That did sound good. But I'd never made it before so I wasn't really sure what goes in it. I decided it couldn't be much more than potatoes, leeks, maybe some chicken stock, a little cream... I'll just wing it and headed to the grocery store.

Making Beer Bread from scratch is wicked easy and wicked delicious. But I had a mix in the cabinet that was a gift that I wanted to use up. So I grabbed the Beer Bread Mix & Penn Brewery St. Nikolaus Bock.

You know when you shake a beer and then open it, it kind of explodes? Well, that didn't happen with the beer. But it DID happen with the Beer Bread Mix!!! I opened it and was the floury mix sprayed all over me and the kitchen! I think it was only a couple tablespoons worth. But what a mess!! I still just added the whole bottle of beer and baked according to the directions and it came out fine. It was tasty. But homemade is definitely the way to go. I thought I already had beer bread on Spryte's Place, but I can't find it anywhere! I know the recipe I've used in the past is from that little minx, Donna over at My Tasty Treasures. Her recipe does not disappoint!

Anyway... I put that into the oven and started on the soup!

Potato Leek Soup
2 leeks, sliced
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 qt chicken stock
1/4 C butter
2 C half & half
salt & pepper
chives (to garnish if desired)

Slice & rinse the leeks very well, they're good at hiding sand! In a stock pot, saute the leeks in the butter. Add grated garlic and cook a minute or two. Add chopped potatoes, chicken stock salt & pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in half & half. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with snipped chives and enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what you need.

Saute those beautiful (pulchritudinous) leeks in butter.

Add grated garlic.

Add chicken stock & potatoes and salt & pepper.

Bring to a boil.

Add half & half & simmer for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with chives and enjoy with a nice thick slice of beer bread!

This was a really tasty and delicious soup!

Bob wasn't interested in trying it, but Jon & I really enjoyed it. I definitely prefer thin soups, but this had a creamy silky texture and a savory delicate flavor. It was the perfect vehicle for my beer bread!

Go Steelers!!

Stuffed Peppers & Stuffed Pepper Soup

2011-01-19T16:01:00.000-05:00

Tawny LOVES Stuffed Peppers. Whenever she has them at school, she always sends me a text message about it. And she loves that Stuffed Pepper Soup will always be on the menu the next day.

I only made them once, a long time ago, in the crockpot. And I used Poblanos instead of Bell Peppers... but I have NO idea what I stuffed them with.

I think the reason I've never really made them is because Jon hates peppers. He loves the smell and even likes the flavor. It's a texture thing with him.

Anyway...

I decided to make Stuffed Peppers. I also planned to make a big enough batch to have leftovers, so I could do a follow-up with Stuffed Pepper Soup!

Stuffed Peppers
6 bell peppers
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 small cans V8
2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce
worcestershire sauce
Italian herbs
tomato paste
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil
3/4 C long grain white rice
1 1/2 C water

Preheat oven to 350F.
Cook rice in water according to direction on rice package.
While the rice is cooking, slice the tops off of the peppers. Discard stems & seeds. Place peppers into a casserole dish, cut side up, so you have pepper cups. Dice pepper tops and saute in a large skillet with a little olive oil and diced onions and minced garlic. Add ground beef, and continue cooking. Stir in cooked rice. Add a few shakes of worcestershire sauce, one can of V8, one can of tomato sauce, a big pinch of Italian herbs and some salt & pepper to taste. In a separate bowl combine remaining tomato sauce & V8, a big squirt of tomato paste, a big pinch of Italian herbs and some pepper. Spoon meat & rice mixture into bell pepper cups. Pour sauce over filled peppers. Bake at 350F for about an hour. Baste occasionally with sauce.
Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preheat the oven and cook the rice according to directions.

Gosh darnit!! This was a perfect chance to use brown rice without my family knowing it and I totally forgot! Actually... Tawny would happily eat brown rice... my non (limited)-veg eaters tend to be my less adventurous eaters in general. Not that brown rice should be considered adventurous... but dealing with picky eaters can definitely be an adventure...

Anyway... preheat oven... cook rice...

Then start with a pile of peppers.

Slice off the tops.

Set the pepper cups aside in your casserole dish.

Chop the pepper tops.

I saved some of these to add to the soup... but diced up about 3/4C to add to the stuffed pepper filling.

Saute the diced peppers, onions and garlic in a large skillet.

When they start to get soft...

Add ground beef.

When that's mostly cooked, add cooked rice.

Then stir in 1 can V8, 1 can tomato sauce, a few good shakes of worcestershire sauce, Italian herbs and salt and pepper.

See how easy it would have been to hide brown rice in there??

Now fill your pepper cups.

Mix up the remains cans of V8 & tomato sauce with a big squirt of tomato paste, a big pinch of Italian herbs, salt & pepper.

Pour the sauce over the peppers and bake for an hour.

That's it!

It doesn't look as pretty sitting all alone like that

It looked happier, all warm and cozy in the dish with it's oven-mates.

However, they were wicked tasty!

Tawny said the ones at school are cooked in more sauce. She loved these, but I think I would prefer the 'more sauce' version! I'm definitely a gravy kinda girl.

I knew only Tawny, Ryan and I would be eating these. I made 6 because I wanted two left over for soup and one for my co-worker Ed.

Ed really liked his pepper too. He made mashed potatoes to go with it! Why didn't I think of that?? I wanted to make them again right away, just to serve them with mashed potatoes and more sauce!!

But Tawny's back at school, so I'd be stuck eating them all myself! Although when Ed returned my containers, he did say I could refill them and bring them back! hehe

Ok... now on to the soup!

I didn't really ask what the soup was like that Tawny enjoys at school. If it was thin or thick... What else might be in it. I just kinda winged it from the leftovers. There are no measurements for this. But I'll give estimations as I go.

So I started with my two Stuffed Peppers that I saved.

Actually... I started with some of the leftover pepper tops. I cut them into strips and sauteed them with some diced onion.

When those were a little soft, I squeezed the filling out of the peppers into the pot and added 6 cups of veggie stock.

Then I sliced my empty pepper cups.

Oh yeah, Tawny did say there was lots of rice in the soup. Since the filling didn't seem like it would make the soup particularly ricey, I added a quarter cup of uncooked rice. (if you happen to have some cooked rice, you could totally add that instead... or maybe you don't like a lot of rice and it's just fine the way it is!)

My soup was pretty thick, kind of more like a chili consistency... so I added some more veggie stock to thin it out a bit.

I also added a palm full of crushed red pepper flakes to give it a little heat.

That's it!

So when she tried it, Tawny said she liked it to be thicker. Since it's soup... I purposely tried to make it thinner than it was at the start. So I would have been ok without adding the extra stock.

This didn't feel like a homemade croutons on top kinda soup... so I just served with no topping, because I couldn't think of anything else. But at school, Tawny enjoys oyster crackers with her thick stuffed pepper soup. Oyster crackers would have been good, if I'd had any!

Even though it was thin and lacking in oyster crackers, she loved that I added the crushed red pepper for heat (hmmm... maybe Pitt Greensburg can take a lesson... hehehe)

While it was cooking, Jon thought it smelled great and wanted to try some. He only has a spoonful; but he enjoyed it! He was surprised that the peppers didn't offend him as much as he expected.

I also brought some soup to work for Ed. He liked that too! He was surprised by the heat, but liked it. It was just mild and not in any way over-powering.

So these two meals were made specifically with Tawny in mind, but I'm sure she won't read this post.

So there ya go!

Stuffed Peppers two ways!

Oh yeah and Go Steelers!!

Sausage Balls

2011-01-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hey! Happy New Year!!!

I hope your holidays were merry!

At my Gingerbread House Decorating Party, the activity itself took up an overwhelming majority of horizontal surface in my small house.

You might have noticed that I LOVE to feed people. There's no way I would invite people over without serving food & beverages; but this time, there would definitely not be any place for anyone to actually sit to eat. So I decided to serve only appetizers that could be eaten from a napkin or a toothpick.

Jeannie's Little Quiches would be perfect... hmmm... but little time for making all the little ones, since I procrastinated the menu until the very last minute. So I made her quiche in a 13x9 pan and cut it into little squares. Totally do-able on a napkin. Plus some dips... some olives/cornichons/onions/marinated mushrooms... what else?

Ah!! Sausage Balls!!

Growing up, every Christmas Eve was open house at our house. Our family and friends would come and go all evening. I can remember Auntie Louie and Uncle Bert (titles earned by being close friends to my parents) teasing my sister and I that we should get to bed so Santa would come...

Oh wait... sorry for the detour...

Sausage Balls... my mom made Sausage Balls for our Christmas Eve open house. I don't know if she made them every year or only once or twice. But they stand out in my mind. When something from my youth stands out so prominently like that, I get a little afraid that the recreation of it can never live up to my memory; but the Sausage Balls did not disappoint!

It's a 3 ingredient recipe, courtesy of Bisquick!

Sausage Balls
2 C Bisquick
10 oz Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1 lb Sausage

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix all ingredients until very well combined. Form into 1.5 inch balls.
Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Enjoy!

This is all you need.

You can use whatever sausage you like. I went with Sweet Italian.

Mix all ingredients until very well combined.

The best tool for this is your hands.

Roll them into balls.

Bake on trays for 20 minutes at 350F.

That's it!

Why did I wait so long to make these?? They were so easy and so delicious!!

They totally lived up to my memory!

Ugh... I'm sitting at my desk, typing this, I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch, I'm looking at an apple... and all I want is some Sausage Balls!!

These were definitely a hit!! Bobby LOVED them. They disappeared quickly! I'll definitely be making them again soon. Super Bowl's coming up, they'd be PERFECT for that!!

If you loved these from your past or are just learning about them today, I highly suggest you give them a try!

Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-24T08:30:00.003-05:00

Gingerbread Houses have become a family tradition for me. Most of my family started doing them many years before I did, because I moved across the country when I was 20 and totally missed out on the beginnings of it!

This is a long one... grab a cup of cocoa get cozy!

It started out with my Auntie Mary. My sister used to work Sunday mornings at the local coffee shop. While she was working, my Auntie Mary would watch my nephew Damien. If you're a long time reader of my blog, you met Damien back in my Chilaquiles post.

Anyway... Damien spent Sunday mornings with Auntie Mary and Uncle Joe, and with my cousins Annie and Frank, who are a few years older than him.

One Sunday morning, Auntie Mary thought it would be nice to bake cookies with the kids. Definitely not anything unusual for Auntie Mary. But on this particular Sunday, she decided it might be fun to make a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate.

And so there begins the tradition!

She made the first gingerbread house for the kids to decorate. Apparently, it was a success, because she's been doing it every year since!

She started inviting other little cousins over and it grew and grew until she was making more than 50 gingerbread houses a year!

She also started making a gingerbread manger every year for my grandmother; and my cousin Annie always goes all out on her house making it part of a big winter wonderland scene!

Anyway... when I moved back to Massachusetts, she invited me to bring Tawny and Bobby over to decorate and we were totally hooked!

I love to decorate houses with Auntie Mary whenever I'm in MA. But now I also do them with my kids and our friends and their kids too!

First... you need gingerbread houses.

This is Auntie Mary with a few houses she made!

She uses the Wilton Gingerbread Recipe.

Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe
5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups unsulphured molasses
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven 375°F. Thoroughly mix flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Melt shortening in large saucepan. Cool slightly. Add sugar, molasses and eggs; mix well. Add four cups of the dry ingredients and mix again.

Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining dry ingredients by hand. Add a little more flour, if necessary, to make the dough firm. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out house pieces with Wilton Gingerbread House cutters or with the attached templates

Bake 6-10 minutes for small to medium size cookies and 10-15 minutes for large cookies.

If you're not going to use your gingerbread right away, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate. Refrigerated dough will keep for a week, but be sure to remove it 3 hours prior to rolling so it softens and is workable.

Royal Icing - to assemble houses and for decorating
3 level tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
6 tablespoons water

Beat all ingredients at low speed for 7-10 minutes (10-12 minutes at high speed for portable mixer) until icing forms peaks.

Yields 3 cups of icing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've only made them from scratch once. I have to say, I get intimidated working with dough... but once I get started, I always wonder what I was worried about!

Thoroughly mix flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Melt shortening in a saucepan.

Add sugar, molasses and eggs; mix well.

Add four cups of the dry ingredients and mix again.

Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining dry ingredients by hand.

I cut the dough into sections and wrapped it, so it didn't dry out while I was cutting.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness

I cut templates from a thin plastic cutting board to use as cutting guides.

Click Here for template to roof and sides.

Roof is the rectangular piece. Side is the square piece.

Click Here for template to front/back.

You can cut your own house pieces free hand. You can use the Wilton cutters too. The Wilton cutters do make a bigger house so you will get fewer houses per recipe.

Cut out your pieces.

You will need two of each shape for one house.

Bake at 375F for 10-15 minutes.

Cool on racks.

I cooled them overnight so they had a chance to harden up a bit before assembling the houses.

I had some extra dough... so there are a few cookies too!

Now for assembly!!

This is MUCH easier with an extra pair of hands!

Make the royal icing and use it as glue to hold all of the pieces together. Try to wait about an hour before you put the roofs on. It gives your foundation a chance to harden.

Start with a strip of icing on the bottom of a front/back piece and attach it to your base. I used heavy paper plates for bases this time.

Apply icing to the side and bottom edge of a side piece and attach it to the front/back piece.

Now attached the other front/back piece.

Then the other side.

Auntie Mary adds little candy canes to the corners. I did it when I made them from scratch... but this year I was very short on time... so I cheated and used kits. That only cuts out the baking. You still have to assemble. But I left out the candy canes this year.

I like them both ways... but the candy canes don't really fit the kit pieces.

Some pieces might need to be trimmed at bit to fit together better.

Put together all the bases... then you can start adding roofs.

Not bad for a first time! (don't mind the miscellaneous condiments)

That's the batch I made from scratch last year.

And these I assembled from kits this year.

Now invite your friends and family. Have everyone bring candies to share for decorations... and let the fun begin!!

These are random shots of gingerbread house decorating at my sister's house with Auntie Mary and with my family and friends at my house.

Gingerbread houses make memories that last a lifetime!

Thank you Auntie Mary! I love you!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

2010-12-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

Yup... I said Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

This recipe showed up on my Facebook news feed from The Cooking Channel last week. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make them! Jon wasn't quite as excited as me, but he definitely wanted to try them!

Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies
12 oz bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1/2 C reserved bacon fat, chilled
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
2 TBLS bourbon liquor
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces dark chocolate 65-percent or higher cocoa content, chopped into small pieces

In a large pan, cook the diced bacon until the bacon pieces are golden and crisp. Remove the bacon pieces from the fat and drain on a paper towel. Strain the fat through a fine sieve and measure out a 1/2 cup bacon fat and chill the bacon fat until it congeals and is set.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Beat the butter, chilled bacon fat, granulated sugar, light sugar, dark brown sugar, bourbon, and vanilla, in a large mixer bowl, until it is well combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the cooked bacon pieces and chopped chocolate bits. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets at least 3-inches apart.

Bake in the oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Keep in a dry, airtight container for up to 5 days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few notes. I had drippings from 2 pounds of bacon chillin' in the fridge when I first read this recipe. So I knew I'd be making it very soon. When I cooked the 3/4 of a pound that the recipe calls for, I definitely didn't have 1/2 cup of drippings from it. It might have been close, I didn't measure, but I'm sure it would have come up short. So if you're gonna make these... have a some bacon with breakfast... then maybe make some BLTs for lunch... then fry up the bacon for the cookies... just to be sure you have enough fat. *shudder* Is sounds so gross when you call it fat instead of drippings! But FAT is definitely what it is!! If you spill some on your recipe, it becomes see-through and a little slippery! These are definitely ~not~ heart-healthy cookies. But they are definitely cool every once in a while!

The starring ingredients for these cookies, ladies & gentlemen, I give you Bacon & Chocolate!

Dice up your bacon and get it into the frying pan.

Chop up that chocolate and set it aside.

I only used 7oz of chocolate because those bars were 3.5oz each. But the cookies were definitely not lacking in chocolate flavor for the missing ounce.

Drain your bacon pieces (and try not to eat them all)

I don't keep paper towels in the house... so I used a paper bag.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream together chilled bacon fat & butter.

Beat in sugars.

I didn't have any dark brown sugar, so I just added a little bit of molasses.

Beat in vanilla and bourbon

I used Fighting Cock Bourbon

I like to buy the little airline sized bottles of booze and usually pick them by if the bottle is cool... or if I like the name.

Fighting Cock... yeah... I'm immature... but I had 2 tablespoons of bourbon when I needed it! Plus 2 extra tablespoons that Jon sipped while I baked cookies!

Beat in eggs one a time.

Ugh... that left me with one egg from an 18-pack! I hate that! Now I have that big box in my fridge with one egg in it! At least we roll through eggs in my house. So it shouldn't be in there, takin' up all that space for long!

Ok... now gradually beat in flour mixture.

When that's well combined, stir in cooked bacon pieces and chocolate bits.

Now drop by spoonful onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Now bake for 9 - 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on wire racks.

That's it!

So when you tell people you're making Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies the reaction seems to be either "Hell yeah!!" or "WHY would you do that???".

Jon and I tried them first.

My initial reaction was that they are too chocolatey. I really don't care for chocolate. But you totally get the bacon flavor. The bacon pieces are a little chewy, so it's kind of an odd texture thing, but not off-putting. At least not to me. I think I might have liked this cookie if it had craisins (dried cranberries) instead of chocolate. I also wished a little more of the bourbon flavor was in the baked cookie. It made the batter smell amazing!!

Jon thought they were interesting. But he did eat a few of them. So I guess not bad!

Lilly was one of the "WHY would you do that???" reactions and really didn't give the cookie a fair taste and didn't like it.

Bobby didn't like it. But he doesn't like dark chocolate, so I didn't expect him too.

Tawny & Ryan thought they were weird.

I brought some to work. My co-worker Bill says he's never met a cookie he didn't like. These didn't change that! He also brought some home for his kidlets to try. He gave them to two of kids without telling them what they were, but that there was a special ingredient in them. His teen daughter knew immediately bacon was the ingredient. Both liked them. His other teen daughter tried them after being told what was in them and didn't like them. Her boyfriend didn't even want to try them.

My boss George liked them. He said you could taste the bacon. My co-worker Ed was another one of the people with the "WHY would you do that???" reaction, but did give them a fair taste and didn't like them.

Jon also brought cookies to work. His co-workers, Jamez, Carrie and Matt all liked them. His boss Lester thought they were odd, but brought one home for his wife to try. She didn't like it. Jon's co-worker Linda LOVED them and brought some home to her husband who also LOVED them!

So it's really a split. But I guess you get that with any kind of cookie right?

If you love bacon and you love chocolate you should definitely try these! If nothing else, they are are interesting conversation starter!

Latkes ~ A Chanukah Guest Post!

2010-12-02T14:16:00.001-05:00

Hey there! Long time no see!

Sorry for the slowness of new posts... it's a busy time of the year... plus I'm kind of a slacker!

Anyway... It's Chanukah and being raised Catholic, I really don't know that much about it. So I googled Chanukah foods and pretty much only came up with latkes, sufganiyot and rugelach.

Now my mom and uncle make kick ass potato pancakes... but unless there's a vat of boiling oil involved, I typically fail miserably at fried potato type foods. You might remember from such posts as Fried Potatoes ~ Why do you mock me?

So I decided to ask Russ. He's one of Jon's friends from way back in his Mother McCree's Garden band days. If you clicked the link... my husband is the one in the dress!! I'm not really sure why he was wearing a dress, but anyway... that's him.

Russ is a talented and creative guy. If you check out Sugapablo.com, you can see for yourself! He also seems to know his way around the kitchen. So I asked if he'd like to do a Chanukah guest post for me and was VERY excited when he said yes!!

Without further adieu, I give you Russ Schneider!

Latkes

Chanukah! First the dry stuff: What are us silly Jews celebrating?

From Wikipedia:

"The miracle of Hanukkah is described in the Talmud. The Gemara, in tractate Shabbat 21, focuses on Shabbat candles and moves to Hanukkah candles and says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, and miraculously, that oil burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready)."

So in addition to lighting a ceremonial menorah to commemorate such "miracles", my Jewish ancestors, in their infinite wisdom (after all, us Jews brought the concept of a day off to the world) somewhere along the way decided that another way to celebrate the holiday was to gorge ourselves on foods cooked in copious amounts of olive oil. That's right! We eat greasy, greasy foods!

Most emblematic of Chanukah foods here in the West is the simple latke (or potato pancake for all you "goys"). Simple enough to make, however you will still find symbols of wretched evil in markets across this country in the forms of pre-packaged boxed mixes or frozen yellow hockey pucks. In yiddish, we say "Feh!"

Here's how simple it is to make the real thing. Don't be tempted by the evil instant crap! Many Bothans (well, Jewish Maccabees) died to bring you this information!

Now…ingredients!

Potatoes

Onions

Flour

Eggs

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

"But wait!", you cry in fear…."you didn't tell us how much of each!" Yeah, you're right. See, exact amounts are USELESS when it comes to latkes. Latkes depend on a delicate balance of moisture in order to properly form the pancake without it being dry or mushy. But don't worry, I'm here for you!

First, peel and grate as many potatoes as you're willing too cook. Don't worry about making too much as you can never have too much! You may use a processor if you like, but if you want to truly understand why your grandmother was such a strong person, use a hand grater. Kind of potato matters not, and you can have fun trying different kinds, like Yukon Gold, or even Purple! I've even made Sweet Potato Latkes and they were AWESOME!

Now here's the MOST IMPORTANT PART! Take the grated potatoes and soak them in a large bowl with cold water. Why? This will help remove the starch and prevent the latkes from being soggy. This is where many a Jewish suburban housewife messes up and earns scorn from her mother-in-law. Soggy latkes make people sad! Chanukah is a happy holiday!

Drain the grated potatoes and squeeze them dry. Pass some paper towels over them to get them as dry as you can. Put them in a big mixing bowl. Now mix with them about a 1/4 cup of grated onion in for every two potatoes you grated. Just for a little flavor. Salt and pepper to taste.

Now comes the part where you need to be as brave as the Maccabees! The flour and egg! This is where your latkes will succeed or fail! Start with enough beaten eggs to coat our potatoes. Then add what you think would be an equal about of flour. Mix. Gently but firmly. The mixture in the end should be not too wet, but not too dry. If it's too wet, add a little more flour. If it's too dry, add a little more egg. You'll know you have it right when you can start making loose balls with it in your hands.

When you think you have it right (and you might not, don't be afraid! if your pancakes start to bust up on the grill, you can adjust…potatoes are cheep!) get a frying pan or griddle ready (I use a non-stick two burner griddle). Get it nice and hot and put in enough oil for what they call "shallow pan frying".

Once hot (you can always test by putting your finger in there, but…) take a table spoon and start spooning potato mixture on to your pan. Use the back of the spoon to make nice little round patties (see photo of me doing it!).

Once you see little golden brown edges of yumminess start to creep up from the bottom, see if you can use a spatula to gently flip the latke over to the other side. Each side should be rather dark brown (NOT BLACK) as you want to make sure the egg in the mixture is cooked all the way through. (stupid salmonella)

Once nice and brown on each side, transfer to your serving platter and bring to the table for all to admire. Bask in the glowing praise! You've earned it!

Now, serving suggestions!

Traditionally it goes that a latke is served with either applesauce or sour cream. From what I can tell this depends on what European country your Jewish ancestors fled from. If they fled from around Germany, serve your latkes with applesauce and a nice lager. If they fled from Russia or thereabouts, serve with sour cream and ice cold vodka.

Should you wish to be non-traditional though, you can always do what I did last year and serve with malt vinegar and a Cranberry Lambic from Sam Adams (see photo - the bowl is filled with Matzo Ball soup, but that's another article). :)

Happy Chanukah!

Yay!!!!

Russ... thanks so much!!! I learned new things about Chanukah/Hanukkah! Hmmm... why the two different spellings? I found that all over the interwebs too!

Anyway... with your directions, maybe I can master the latke/potato pancake!

And... it looks like Russ might grace us again with his presence with a big bowl of Matzo Ball Soup! Hmmm? Hmmm?? Whadya think?

Thanks again Russ!! You totally ROCK!

Happy Hanukkah!!

Teriyaki Chicken

2010-11-14T21:45:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make Teriyaki Chicken from scratch.

I love that stuff. But everytime I've ever made it, I've used bottled teriyaki sauce.

After making my own, I'll never use the bottled stuff again!

You'll need a batch of Teriyaki Sauce & Marinade
Chicken Breast Fillets

I always use my FoodSaver marinator for marinating! I LOVE it!

Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes up to a couple of hours.

I cooked the chicken on a grill pan on the stove.

I really need a hood/vent for my stove. It gets wicked smokey in the house when I use the grill pan!

Brush with reserved marinade. (not marinade that had raw chicken in it)

I fillet the breasts so they're pretty thin and cook pretty quickly.

That's it!!

Serve it with some Fried Rice and steamed Sugar Snap Peas and it's dinner time!!

Teriyaki Sauce & Marinade

2010-11-14T21:30:00.004-05:00

This teriyaki sauce is wicked easy and wicked good!!!

I'll never buy bottled teriyaki sauce again!!

This recipe is slightly adapted from allrecipes.com.

Teriyaki Sauce & Marinade
2/3 C mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1 C soy sauce
4 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/3 C brown sugar
7 cloves garlic, grated
1 TBLS minced fresh ginger
1 dash cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste

Bring mirin to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and brown sugar. Add garlic, ginger, cayenne, and black pepper; simmer an additional 5 minutes. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

This is what you'll need...

Bring mirin to a boil...

Whisk in remaining ingredients...

Simmer 5 minutes.

Store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.

How easy is that??

This is wicked good and wicked easy!! I'll never use bottled teriyaki sauce again!!

Miso Soup

2010-11-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

I LOVE Miso Soup! It's total comfort food for me. One sip and my eyes close, my lips curl into a smile, I say, "mmmmmmmm" and all the stress of the day melts away.

Miso Soup is also super insanely easy to make!!

This recipe is slightly adapted from Michelle Chen's recipe on allrecipes.com.

Miso Soup
2 tsp dashi granules
4 C water
3 TBLS miso paste
1 (8 ounce) package firm tofu, diced
1 sheet of nori (dried seaweed), cut into strips
2 green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
additional water to hydrate nori

In a small bowl combine nori strips with enough water to cover them. When they are re-hydrated, drain off excess water.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine dashi granules and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and whisk in the miso paste. Stir in tofu and dashi strips. Add green onions to the soup. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes before serving.

This is what you need

I cut a sheet of nori into strips and just put it into some water to rehydrate it. I didn't want it to soak up all of the broth of that soup by placing it in still dry.

A quart of water & dashi granules

3 tablespoons of miso paste

You can get this in the refrigerator section in your Asian market. It keeps forever in the fridge!

Whisk the miso paste into the dashi broth and bring to a boil.

Add tofu, green onions and seaweed and simmer a few more minutes.

It's ready to enjoy!

This would have also been great with a very thinly sliced mushroom or two!

Comfort food that only takes a few minutes!

What are your favorite comfort foods?

Microwave Apple Crisp for One

2010-11-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

Tawny went off to college a few months ago. One thing I've noticed, is that she hates to hear when I'm making her favorite foods when she's not home.

She is learning to use her little dorm-sized microwave for more than just heating stuff up. Which is pretty much all we use it for at the house. But she still misses some of her favorite foods.

I was recently making an Apple Crisp and thought that Tawny would be bummed she'd be missing out.

Then I wondered if it could be made in the microwave, so she wouldn't have to miss out!

So I consulted my friend the internet. There were a lot of recipes... I decided the closest recipe to what I was looking for was this one from food.com, formerly know as RecipeZaar. I did change it a little, because I can't imagine apple crisp that doesn't have spiced apples in it!

Microwave Apple Crisp for One
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
2 TBLS brown sugar
2 TBLS quick-cooking oats
1 TBLS flour
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 TBLS butter, melted
1 TBLS cinnamon/sugar mix (like you'd use for cinnamon toast)

Place thinly sliced apple in a 1.5 - 2 cup sized ramekin. Toss with cinnamon/sugar mix. My mix usually has a little nutmeg in it too. Combine remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl, until well mix. Stir in melted butter and pour over spiced apples.
Cook in microwave on high 2 - 3 minutes, or until apples are tender. Let it rest for a few minutes and the topping will get crispy.

My pics have double apples, because I like a mix of apples in my baked apple desserts and I was also trying another microwave single serve apple crisp recipe at the same time. The other was a dismal failure that I won't waste your time with.

MacIntosh & JonaGold Apples
I think it's a JonaGold. I always use MacIntosh, but I always change up it's companion/s.

Peel, cut & toss with cinnamon/sugar

Mix remaining dry ingredients.

Stir melted butter into topping mix.

Pour over apples in ramekin.

Microwave on high for 2 - 3 minutes, or until apples are tender.

This was so good!!! Not quite as good as Mum's Apple Crisp, but definitely a worthy substitute.

You don't have to be a college student, longing for home cooking to enjoy this! It's perfect if you just want a little something. It's made from stuff I think most people would usually have on hand and it only takes about 5 minutes to make!

Want to make it a little extra special? Add some whipped cream or ice cream!

It's just not fall without Apple Crisp!

Onion Dip

2010-10-27T21:30:00.003-04:00

At first I thought it would be stupid to blog about this. I mean who hasn't made onion dip with sour cream and onion soup mix?

But then I decided to just put it up here anyway.

Onion Dip reminds me of my dad. He passed away when I was 19. I never really got to cook for my dad. I did make Potato Salad that he enjoyed. Actually, potato salad and my dad reminds of a story about him. One day when I was in high school, I was skipping school with my cousin Sue. I know. I know. You're stunned that Spryte ever skipped school! Shhhh... don't tell my mom... or my kids... thankfully, my kids don't read this! Anyway... my mom dropped me off at school. I met my cousin Sue at the front door and we walked back to my house. I decided I wanted some Potato Salad and whipped up a batch. We just finished making it and getting everything cleaned up when we noticed my dad's car pull up! Uh oh! Dad worked for the town and often came home for break or lunch. So Sue and I rushed to my room and intended to quietly wait him out. He had no reason to suspect anyone was home, so we figured it would be cool. We heard him come in and open up the fridge. Then he said, "Oh! Potato Salad! Hmm... it's still warm..." Then he says, "Peg??" The potato salad was still warm and he guessed that I was there! SHIT! Knowing I was busted, I just said, "yeah dad?" He asked if I'd just made potato salad, so I told him I did and encouraged him to have some. Then he asked why I wasn't at school. I mumbled something about teacher conferences, trying to play it off like I was supposed to be home. He just said, "oh" and had some potato salad. Yes! He bought it! Home free! He finished up his potato salad and was leaving to go back to work. He was half way down the walk. I was standing in the door waving goodbye and he turned back to look at me and said, "Peg. You can't snow the snowman." BUSTED! He knew all along. But that's all he ever said!

Anyway... lots of times when I'm making something, I'll think to myself that my dad would have really liked it, like he enjoyed the potato salad that day.

So why does onion dip remind me of him?

Back in the olden days, when I was a kid we only had one TV. When there's only one TV... guess who decides what you watch? Yep... Dad. (except when M.A.S.H. was on... Mum's favorite) We'd watch old TV shows like The Untouchables, Baretta, Dragnet or those old John Wayne war movies or westerns. The movies I could totally do without... but all the old gangster movies and The Untouchables... I LOVED that! I still do!

Anyway... you're still wondering what this has to do with onion dip. It's simple.

Dad's favorite TV snack. I can't picture him watching TV without a bowl of onion dip in front of him.

When he would settle down on the couch to watch TV, Mum would whip up a bowl of Onion Dip and grab a bag of Ruffles.

So... incase for some reason, you've never tried it, here's the recipe!

I'm not usually a slave to brand names, actually just the opposite. But for this, it's Lipton Onion Soup Mix and Ruffles Potato Chips. ALWAYS

Onion Dip
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
16 oz sour cream

Mix until well combined. Serve with Ruffles Potato Chips.

So that's it! I make it often. My kids love it. I love it. It always reminds me of Dad.

Oh... and if you're gonna skip school... and you make potato salad... and someone comes home... take it with you! Don't leave it in the fridge... the warmth will give you away!

Ranch Burgers

2010-10-20T21:30:00.002-04:00

I make these all the time. I'm not really sure why it never occurred to me to blog about them.

I got this recipe from my friend Lauren. Many of you know her as StarryBugg. It's a Hidden Valley recipe.

Ranch Burgers
2 lbs ground beef or turkey
1 to 2 Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing & Seasoning Packets
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
8 hamburger buns
Your favorite burger toppings

This time I used beef, but these are equally delicious with turkey!

Add dressing mix.

Add shredded cheese.

Mix it up.

Make patties

It's grillin' time!

Even though these are stuffed with cheese... we add more!

Top with your favorite burger toppings.

You can change up the shredded cheese to whatever kind you like.

I LOVE these made with ground turkey.

Perfect for tailgating & cookouts!

If you haven't tried them yet, you're missing out!

Whitney's Broccoli Salad with a Tangy Twist

2010-10-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

I had this the first time at my friend Whitney's house. For my long time readers, you might remember her from my wine tasting parties last year.

I instantly LOVED it!

She often includes it if we're going to dinner at her house, because she knows we all love it. When we plan a weekend's worth of meals when our families play together at her lake cottages, I always suggest she make that.

It's so yummy!

Recently I attended at potluck meeting at Bob's school. His section of the alphabet had to bring either a side dish or salad. I instantly thought of Whitney's Broccoli Salad.

She'd told me what was in it, but I didn't have the actual recipe.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until the very last minute. So I looked it up online. I've heard people mention how much they love Broccoli Salad, so I figured the recipe would be easy to find. And it was.

But, being Whitney, she always puts her own special twist on everything.

All the recipes I found for this salad called for raisins. But Whitney uses craisins! I don't have the slightest desire to even try it with raisins, because craisins are just perfect in it!

These quantities are approximate.

Whitney's Broccoli Salad
2 bunches of broccoli, florets
1/2 C craisins
1/2 C bacon, cooked & crumbled
1/4 C red onion, diced
1 C cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C cole slaw dressing

Toss all ingredients except dressing until well mixed. The toss with dressing until it's evenly coated.
This filled a 13 x 9 pan.

Chop the broccoli.

What to do with these?

Makes me kinda wish I had a bunny.

They're great for soup.

Or roasted... or sliced in stir fry... or grated in slaw or salad...

LOTS of stuff! Don't let all of those vitamins & fiber end up in your compost pile!

The Broccoli is ready!

Toss in Diced Onions.

Craisins (Whitney's tangy delicious twist!)

Bacon

Cheese

Toss until well mixed.

Add the Cole Slaw Dressing.

I used T. Marzetti Slaw Dressing. It's wicked good and I had to make this right after work, wicked fast, to bring to the pot luck. But you could totally make your own dressing. (and I'm sure it would be almost just as fast... but this was WAY easier for me!)

Toss to coat!

That's it! How easy is that?

Lots of you probably already know, since this is a popular salad.

But I urge you to try it with CRAISINS next time you make it!

You'll never go back to raisins!

Thanks Whitney! This is for you!!

Can Openers!

2010-10-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't done many equipment posts.

I posted about my Big Ten Inch and my awesome BIG Deep Sink.

Wait... now that I think about it... I also posted about my KitchenAid Food Processor, but not my KitchenAid Mixer, or the awesome Meat Grinder attachment.

Anyway...

This isn't a post about an awesome tool. Just one you need. Well... I guess if you ONLY use fresh foods, you might not need one. But I often have occasion to open a can!

I've never had an electric can opener and really don't want one. It seems like a time you might really need a can opener is when there's no electricity. We had a manual can opener for years that I never had a problem with. But Jon hated it. He said it was hard to use. So sometime during spring, I bought a new one. He loved it, I hated it. I kept using the old one, while he used the new one.

Within the past week, I couldn't use either one of them. I almost considered trying to hack into the can with one of my awesome knives... but then I came to my senses. I pried open whatever I was trying to open, didn't cut myself and vowed to get a new can opener the next day.

So that's what I did.

I went to Target at lunch on Friday and started trying out all of the can openers. Unfortunately I couldn't actually open cans with them. That would have been ideal. I just tried turning the handles. They ranged in price from about $7 to about $20. I kept comparing to see if it felt like they'd really grip the edge of the can. But I had no way to tell if it would actually cut.

I got this one. It was $10.

It opened those cans just fine.

I guess time will tell.

What kind of can opener do you use?

What do you like about it?

What don't you like about it?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Coffee Frappe

2010-10-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

That's pronounced Kawfee Frap.

It's not a Frappé (frappay)

A frappe is a thick milkshake containing ice cream. It doesn't have to be coffee flavored, but that's my favorite. I grew up in the Boston area, and it seems not everyone calls them that.

Nowadays, you get frozen coffee drinks and they are often called frappé (frappay). But those are coffee blended with ice; not thick milkshakes with ice cream.

You can really make one with just milk & ice cream.

But this is the grown up version!

Premium coffee ice cream
milk
coffee syrup
espresso powder
coffee liqueur

If you're not in New England, good luck finding coffee syrup!!

I usually pick some up every time I visit mum. You can probably get it online too!

Throw everything in the blender and blend!!

Yours doesn't have to be coffee... it can be whatever flavor you like!

Now enjoy!

A Snack by Jon

2010-10-11T14:53:00.000-04:00

When I'm outta town, Jon has to fend for himself.

He was thoughtful enough to take step by step photos of one of his snack creations during my last trip.

So I thought I'd share it here.

Step one.

Separate the marshmallows from the frosted oat pieces in a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Step two.

Throw away the frosted oat pieces, because even though they're frosted, they might contain some vitamins, minerals or a little bit of fiber!

Step three.

Pour a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles.

Step four.

Combine Lucky Charms Marshmallows with Cocoa Pebbles.

Step five.

Mix well.

Step six.

Add toasted Cherry Pop Tarts.

And it's Snack Time!

And he claims he doesn't cook!

Baked Rachel Dip

2010-09-29T13:54:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for something different and easy to make for a football snack.

I found Cathy's recipe from Noble Pig for Reuben Dip. But I was looking for something with no red meat.

So I decided to make it into Baked Rachel Dip, using Butterball Turkey Pastrami!

Baked Rachel Dip
1/2 pound diced turkey pastrami
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup sauerkraut, drained well
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
cocktail rye bread

In a medium bowl, combine turkey pastrami, cream cheese, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, sour cream, ketchup and mustard. Transfer to a greased, 1-quart baking dish.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, until heated through and bubbly. Serve warm with cocktail rye bread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drain sauerkraut.

I really liked that this recipe only calls for a cup of sauerkraut. I bought one 8 oz can and had no leftovers to deal with!

Cut turkey pastrami.

Mix it all up up (except the rye bread)

Then into the oven for 30 minutes until it's heated through and bubbly!

How easy is that??!!!

Ok... dip isn't so pretty to look at... but it tastes sooo good!!

I've tried Reubens a couple of times and never really cared for them. I like all of the ingredients on their own, but together, it just doesn't do it for me.

Maybe I'd like a Rachel? I don't know. But in dip form, this totally rocks!!

It's wicked fast and easy and everyone LOVED it!

Need a quick easy appetizer? Definitely try this!

Baked Jalapeno Poppers

2010-09-24T15:53:00.000-04:00

So last Friday I opened my email and the Daily Dish email from allrecipes.com was Jalapeno Poppers. Nice! I'll check it out. I only actually open a handful of those Daily Dish emails. If the dish doesn't seem appealing, I delete it, unopened. Maybe I lose out on some winners that way. But I get a lot of daily recipes, so I pretty much only open the ones that instantly seem interesting. (I do have a TON of appealing Martha Stewart Cookie of the Day emails saved!)

So last Friday was Jalapeno Poppers I!

That got an instant open. 4.5 Stars & 238 Reviews! Ohhhh and they're baked!! This is looking good! After reading all of the reviews, with everyone's changes & comments, I decided I would definitely be making these for the Steelers game!

This reflects my version of Jalapeno Poppers I

Baked Jalapeno Poppers
2/3 of 8 oz package cream cheese,softened
1/3 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 C pepper-jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 TBLS Chipotle Tabasco
12 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 egg, beaten
splash of water
1 1/2 cups finely crushed corn flake cereal
1 - 2 tsp Penzey's Arizona Dreaming Seasoning
Olive Oil mist

Cut & seed Jalapenos; place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake 15 minutes at 325F. This is just to take the crunch off them. Allow to cool to room temperature.
While they're cooling, combine cheeses, mayo & Chipotle Tabasco.
Crush cornflakes. I did this in my KitchenAid food processor until I had fine crumbs. Mix Arizona Dreaming Seasoning with cornflakes.
Fill cooled jalapenos with cheese mixture. Whisk egg w/water and brush the tops off the filled peppers. Sprinkle seasoned cornflake crumbs over each pepper. Lightly spray peppers with olive oil.
Bake at 325F for about 30 minutes. Serve plain or with dipping sauces of your choice!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slice jalapenos lengthwise & seed.

Be sure to wear gloves for this part. You'd be surprised at how hot jalapenos can be, especially if you touch your eyes or some more delicate areas!

Lots of the reviews said that the peppers were a little too crunchy when prepared according to the original recipe and some people blanched them to get around that. For whatever reason, that just felt weird to me, so gave them a little pre-bake.

Mix up the cheeses with mayo & Chipotle Tabasco.

Pipe the cheese mixture into the cooled jalapenos.

Honestly, this was a little thick to come through a baggie. I would have been better off with an actual piping bag. But going slowly, the baggie worked out ok.

Whisk up the egg with a little water.

And brush it onto the filled jalapenos. I did about 5 or 6 at a time. You want the egg wash to be nice and wet to hold the crumbs.

Season the crushed cornflakes with Arizona Dreaming.

Sprinkle your seasoned cornflake crumbs on top of the egg-brushed poppers. Again working in batches of 5 or 6 peppers at a time.

At this point, I put my tray of poppers into the fridge. Because I had an hour or so before the game. You could even put them in the freezer if you were working ahead for a future party.

Time to bake them. Preheat the oven to 325F. Lightly spray each pepper with olive oil.

I have both of these oil misters. I got them at Sur La Table

I LOVE them!!
The white one on the left has a little filter on the tube, so you can put herbs or spices in your oil and they don't clog up the sprayer. The one on the left comes in 4 fun colors and is a little cheaper. Both work great and I use them ALL the time!
Ok... end review of oil misters! Back to the poppers!

After you mist the poppers with oil (for fun you could use garlic oil or bacon oil or chile oil or cilantro oil... you get the idea!) pop them into the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.

The topping is nice & crunchy!

These really came out awesome and will be definitely show up on the Football Menu at my house often!

The cheese didn't leak out. They were wicked easy to make. They can be made ahead of time. The topping is crunchy, the filling is creamy and a little spicy. I served them with ranch dip. But a berry dip might be nice too!

Definitely a winner!

What's on your football menu this week?

It's-Its ~ the San Francisco Treat!

2010-09-22T21:15:00.001-04:00

So Jon has been asking me to make It's-Its for him for probably over a year. I'm kind of a slacker... or procrastinator.

I like to try to recreate the foods he remembers.

Anyway... what's an It's-It you ask?

If you're not from the Bay Area, you probably have never heard of them. I know I hadn't.

An It's-It is a Chocolate Covered Ice Cream & Oatmeal Cookie Sandwich.

It's-It
Oatmeal Cookies
Vanilla Ice Cream (or any flavor you like)
Chocolate

That's all you need.

Unfortunately I missed that they were covered in Dark Chocolate, so mine ended up being covered in Milk Chocolate. But they still turned out yummy.

Since I was making them at home, I used Homemade Oatmeal Cookies and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. And since Jon loves chocolate, I made some with chocolate ice cream too. But I only have one ice cream maker... so only the vanilla was homemade!

First, get the chocolate melted.

Now you have to work kind quickly.

Warm melty chocolate & cold ice cream, don't play nice out in the hot kitchen.

So start with cookies, flat side up.

Top with a big scoop of ice cream.

Top with another cookie.

It helped that these cookies were pretty flat and chewy, so they didn't snap when I pressed everything together.

Now into the melty chocolate...

This super fast action shot is kinda blurry...

That came out way better than you thought it would, didn't it?

Ok, it came out way better than I thought it would!

Working with warm chocolate and ice cream was a little more challenging than I anticipated.

I did a couple of vanilla... now time for some chocolate.

And into the chocolate.

Ok... two of each.

Now quickly into the freezer!

Fast forward a couple of hours after dinner...

Ok... some leakage definitely occurred.

It kinda looks like it has a tongue!

At a couple/few hours... these were still kind of a melty tasty mess.

But Jon definitely liked them.

But, the next day, after sitting over night in the freezer, the remaining It's-Its were much better looking. And they held together when you ate them!

Less leakage...and neat and tasty!

Jon considered this a win!

If you're longing for this San Francisco treat, you can totally make it at home!

Oatmeal Cookies

2010-09-22T14:02:00.000-04:00

So I needed to make some Oatmeal Cookies to make a frozen treat that Jon remembered from his childhood.

I LOVE my sister's oatmeal cookies, so I asked her for the recipe. She sent it. Months went by before I actually got around to making the frozen confection from years gone by and her recipe was languishing in my work email inbox.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I decided it was time to indulge Jon's wish. But alas, I was at home with no access to Jeannie's Oatmeal Cookie recipe. *sigh*

What to do...

Look for another online of course!

I chose this Excellent Oatmeal Cookies recipe and made a couple small changes. Should be good with Excellent right in the title right?

This reflects my changes (notice I dropped the Excellent from the name?)

Oatmeal Cookies
1 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 C quick cooking oats

Preheat oven to 325F.

Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix in oats until just blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Cookies should be at least 2 inches apart.
Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok... you know the drill...

Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.

Whisk up the other dry stuff (flour, baking soda, salt)
And mix that in.

Mix in the oatmeal.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Bake at 325F for about 12 minutes... cool on rack.

These came out very thin. (Jeannie's are much fluffier) But they were very chewy. I enjoy a chewy cookie. But Jon likes his crisp.

Were these excellent? Ummm I'd say they were ok. To be fair, I did omit cinnamon. I didn't want a cinnamon oatmeal cookie. I also omitted nuts. I would have added walnuts, but I'm out of them. (how the heck does that happen??) Nuts definitely would have made them better, but I don't think excellent.

Flat chewy oatmeal cookies turned out to be just the thing I needed to grant one of Jon's food wishes.

Stay tuned for homemade It's-Its!

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

2010-09-15T21:15:00.000-04:00

Back when I thought the worst of the summer heat had finally retreated, we had a week of gorgeous weather in the 70s... but then, much to my dismay, the sweltering 90+ degree days came creeping back! YUCK! Thankfully, we're back in the 70's again!

But during the last scorching week, I decided to make some ice cream!

Jon bought me an Ice Cream maker a few years ago. I've only used it a couple of times. You might remember the Espresso Ice Cream I made last year. It was WICKED good!!

Anyway... this time I went with straight up vanilla.

What better recipe to choose for this endeavor, than an Alton Brown recipe!

Serious Vanilla Ice Cream
2 C half-and-half
1 C whipping cream
1 C minus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 TBLS peach preserves (not jelly) (I omitted this)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (see note below) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove the hull of the vanilla bean, pour mixture into lidded container and refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.

Freeze mixture in ice cream freezer according to unit's instructions. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Once the volume has increased by 1/2 to 3/4 times, and reached a soft serve consistency, spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: If you do not have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, remove it from the heat. Do not let it boil.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok... so I thought I could double this recipe and it would fit in my ice cream maker, but it didn't quite fit!

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat.

I omitted the peach preserves. I was afraid of little peach chunks... so I just decided to leave them out.

I had to whisk the heck outta this to break up all of the vanilla pulp.

Also, I no longer have a functional thermometer. So I just made sure that it didn't boil.

Let it cool a bit and pour it into a covered container.

Then into the fridge overnight to cool and let the flavors get all blendy.

Fast forward to the next day...

Pour it into your ice cream maker.

This is where I found out that I couldn't really do a double batch. I could have done an extra half batch.

Follow your ice cream maker instructions.

It's getting thicker...

And thicker...

In the machine, it will only get to soft serve consistency.

Pour it a container with a cover.

And back into the freezer for at least an hour... several hours would be better!

I scream! You scream! We all scream! For Ice Cream!!

This was some seriously delicious vanilla ice cream!! And it was so easy! Also a perfect base for all kinds of add ins!

I'll definitely be making some variations of this!

Oh yeah... that leftover unfrozen ice cream that didn't fit in the ice cream machine? I kept it in the fridge and used it as a base for Milk Shakes! YUM!!!!

Meatballs

2010-09-02T21:15:00.001-04:00

Tawny loves meatballs. She loves homemade meatballs. There is no way to sneak a frozen meatball past her lips. She knows. She always knows! Lots of people say they know... but lots of those same people really don't. They can be tricked. But not Tawny.

She left for college last week and Spaghetti & Homemade Meatballs was on her list of dinners she'd like me to make before she leaves.

So I made homemade meatballs.

They really aren't much work. I have no idea why, more often than not, I resort to frozen meatballs. Well, yeah I do. They are WAY faster on a work night. But that's no excuse for using frozen more often than homemade. I could take a little time on the weekend, make my homemade meatballs then freeze them and store them in the freezer in FoodSaver bags. Then they'd be just as easy as frozen wouldn't they?

Ok... I'm done arguing with myself.

Homemade Meatballs! They are easy and can be just as convenient as frozen!

Most of these measurements are approximate.

Meatballs
2 lbs. ground beef (or beef/veal/pork combo)
1 medium onion, grated
3 - 4 large cloves of garlic, grated
2 TBLS Italian herbs
1 C Parmesan/Romano/Asiago blend, grated
2 C bread crumbs
1 C tomato sauce
1 egg
salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients until well mixed.
Roll into balls. I usually do 1 inch meatballs, but these are 2 inch meatballs. Place on wire rack in a baking sheet with sides. Bake at 350F 20 - 30 minutes, depending on how big you make your meatballs. You just want them to be cooked through. Now they're ready to eat! I always simmer mine a in a pot of sauce after I take them out of the oven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mix it all up!

Roll into balls.

I usually like to make 1 inch balls. Then they fit perfectly in a Meatball Sub. Tawny wanted big meatballs. So these are big. I guess they'd be nice cut in half in subs. Anyway... this time I made big ones, at least 2 inches.

Bake them until cooked through.

I don't know why I started baking them. My mom always cooked her meatballs IN the sauce. Most of the recipes I see online call for frying them. I remember baking them when I first moved out on my own. It started as just baking on a baking sheet. But I think the little puddle of grease around them grossed me out, so I started baking them on a rack.

If I was going to make a big batch and freeze some for later. This is where I'd stop and flash freeze them, then put them in vacuum-sealed bags.

Now into the pot of sauce!

They're ready to serve with whatever you like!

Enjoy!

Narcisi Sangria

2010-09-01T21:20:00.002-04:00

Ok, this is kind of a cheater sangria, since it's already sangria ready to drink from the bottle.

I started with a bottle of Narcisi Sangria.

I found that in my wine cabinet. My mom bought it for me when we went out to Narcisi Winery for a little wine tasting.

I added some Brandy & Fruit.

A couple of nectarines, some raspberries, an orange and an apple.
(I LOVE nectarines!)

Mix it all up and let it rest overnight in the fridge.

Add some nice cold gingerale... and it's cocktail time!

The Narcisi Sangria is really delicious right out of the bottle... but if you can add more spirits & fruit, why not right? Cheers!

Berry Sangria = FAIL

2010-09-01T21:15:00.002-04:00

I had high hopes for this Berry Sangria. But it was a miserable FAIL!

While up in Pymatuning, Whitney and I snuck off to Wilhelm Winery for a little wine tasting. Whitney had some of their Edelweiss at The Naked Grape and really wanted to pick up some more. She also grabbed a bottle of their Fredonia. I tried a Riesling that was ok and also their Blueberry and Blackberry wines.

I decided that Blackberry would make a great Berry Sangria. The fruit wines only come in the small bottles, so I bought two.

Some gorgeous berries...

Some Brandy & Blackberry Wine

I didn't have any clear soda... but I did have some cold Prosecco...

Bubbly and delicious... should be great right?

O.M.G. YUCK!!!!

I really don't know what went wrong with it. The ingredients were all tasty on their own, but combined... total YUCK.

We couldn't even choke it down... it got poured into the sink... all the beautiful fruit wasted.

Oh well... can't win 'em all!

Footlongs are Fun!

2010-08-31T21:15:00.005-04:00

Need a quick easy fun dinner?

How about Footlong Chili Cheese Dogs?

A long time ago, Jon noticed that the footlong hotdogs and the footlong hotdog buns each have 6 per package. Nice! No leftover weird sized dogs or buns.

Use your favorite chili... or use my Easy Skillet Chili whatever you like!

I bought some footlong hotdogs & buns.

When I got them home I was thinking I didn't have anything big enough to cook them on. It was a gazillion degrees outside and there was no way I was going to grill them. Then Jon reminded me that I have a nice cast iron griddle! YAY!

They fit on there just fine!

Fry them up in a little butter!

Load them into some footlong buns...

Add some chili...

Add some cheese and it's dinner time!!

These were SO good! I make Chili Cheese Dogs pretty often, but these ROCKED!

They stay together really well. I think the footlongs are a little skinnier than the hotdogs I typically have at the house. So all the filling stays put!

Cook up some fun and have Footlong Chili Cheese Dogs for dinner!

Jon's Cocoa CocoNut Cereal Bars

2010-08-29T21:15:00.002-04:00

Our friends Jeff & Whitney invite us up to their place on Lake Pymatuning every summer. Whitney and I try to put together a weekend menu and do most of the prep before we head up to the lake.

When I was thinking it over in my head, I realized that there wasn't a chocolate dessert. I don't really care for chocolate, but pretty much everyone else loves it.

Jon made this recipe up standing in the kitchen as I was headed out the door to pick up everything I needed for my share of the cooking.

He's the brains in this operation (ummm recipe) I'm the muscle (I did the work!)

Jon's Cocoa CocoNut Cereal Bars
1 box Cocoa Pebbles (the small box I think it's 13oz)
1 bag mini-marshmallows
1/4 C butter
9 little bags (1.5oz) Coconut M&Ms (about 2 cups)

Melt the butter in a big pot. Add marshmallows and stir until coated. Cook over medium low heat, stirring until all marshmallows are melted. Pour in Cocoa Pebbles and still until well coated in marshmallow. Fold in Coconut M&Ms. Pour into a parchment paper lined or non-stick 13x9 pan. Press firmly. Cool. Cut. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I started by opening all those bags of Coconut M&Ms.

Then it's your basic cereal bar recipe!

Melt the butter...

Add the marshmallows...

Stir...

Until melty...

Add cereal...

Stir some more...

Add M&Ms...

Fold them in...

I try to do that as gently as I can. I don't want to mush up the M&Ms since the marshmallow is still warm.

Press it into a 13x9 pan...

Cool... Cut... Enjoy!

If you like Chocolate and Coconut... you'll love these!

Bubble Gum Bomber

2010-08-26T21:15:00.005-04:00

This is a wicked fun little cocktail that tastes just like Bubble Gum!

Jon & I found the recipe on one of those liquor gift sets. It had 99 Bananas, Mr Boston Triple Sec/Grenadine, a couple of shot glasses and a bunch of recipes.

Bubble Gum Bomber
1 1/2 parts 99 Bananas
1/2 part triple sec
splash of grenadine

Shake over ice and strain into a martini glass.

Enjoy!

My beautiful friend Erin enjoyed it!

I hope you do too!!

Three Bean Casserole aka Bean Shot

2010-08-25T13:20:00.000-04:00

My friend Susie brought this to a potluck a long time ago and I had to have the recipe. She just called it "Three Bean Shit". Her title definitely doesn't describe it. So one day at work, she rattled off the recipe while I wrote it down. Tawny was just a toddler at the time, so I wrote the title like this...

Susie's Three Bean Sh*t

Well sometime in my kitchen, I got that paper wet and parts of it blurred, including the title.

I was making it when Tawny was probably in the 5th grade or so and she looked at the recipe. She said, "Bean Shot? That's a weird name." My asterisk had blurred to look kinda like an "o". She still calls it Bean Shot. I renamed it Three Bean Casserole for the blog because I try to get a G rating around here.

Without further adieu...

Susie's Three Bean Casserole aka Three Bean Shit aka Bean Shot
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. bacon chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 can (15oz) pork n beans
1 can (15oz) lima beans
1 can (15oz) kidney beans
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dry mustard
2 Tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste.
(do not drain the juices from your cans)

Preheat oven to 350F
In a large skillet, cook ground beef, chopped bacon & onion. Drain.
Move meat mixture to a large baking dish along with all other ingredients.
Stir until well mixed.
Bake 45 minutes at 350F.
Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is wicked easy and can totally be done ahead of time!

Chop your bacon and onions.

Toss it into a skillet with the ground beef, when cooked through, drain fat.

Add beans.

Add them juice and all.

Add remaining ingredients.

Mix well

Now bake at 350F for about 45 minutes. You could also just cook it in a dutch oven over a fire!

We served it up with some haluski, broccoli salad and grilled chicken!

This is wicked good! It's awesome at a BBQ or potluck... make it on gameday for tailgating or for the crowd at your house... It's beefy bacony baked beans... like baked beans on steroids!

Try this! You won't regret it!

Steak & Cheese Subs

2010-07-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

So it's been a bazillion degrees here in Pittsburgh this summer. And I really hate the heat. Hot & Humid for as long as I can remember... that makes for a cranky cranky Spryte.

It's Sunday, hot and humid as usual. I had to come up with a dinner plan. I had chicken in the fridge and I really wanted to make Fried Chicken. Tawny probably really wanted me to make it too. It's her FAVORITE dinner. But the thought of standing over an iron skillet, filled with 350 degree oil did not sound appealing at all!

Jon and I were at the grocery store... wandering around, trying to figure out what to make for dinner. He noticed that the footlong hotdogs are 6 to a package and so are the buns! I was kinda thinking footlong chili cheese dogs, but he wasn't really into it. I really wasn't either, cuz I really wanted fried chicken.

He kept tossing out suggestions and I kept shooting them down. I just wasn't feelin' it!

Finally he suggested CheeseSteak Hoagies. That's Steak & Cheese Subs where I'm from!

I had never made Steak & Cheese subs before. Well, not with actual meat. Only with Steak Ums. I'm not really sure what those are, but they are SO greasy & gross, I vowed NEVER to use them again!

I found some thin sliced round steaks, we grabbed those, checked out and headed back outside into the steamy weather for our walk home from the grocery store!

Steak & Cheese Subs
Round Steak, thinly sliced, then chopped
Yellow Onion
Provolone
Salt & Pepper
Sub Rolls

*you can totally add other stuff... and I did for Jon & Tawny & Ryan (Ryan is Tawny's boyfriend) But I like them simple!

So I started with a big package of sandwich steak...

Sliced it up thin...

Then hit it with some double knife cross cutting action to make the pieces even smaller...

And into a hot skillet with a bit of oil...

Intermission time...

Ya know what's wicked funny? While I was making these, just at about this point, Jon was perusing Facebook on his phone and noticed his friend Noah was in Philly at Geno's! I instantly asked if he was going to Pat's too! As it turned out he was on his own little CheeseSteak Taste Tour in Philly, while I was making them at home! Crazy right? He also went to a place called Tony Luke's. Based on Noah's pictures alone, I'd choose Pat's. Geno's had the SKIMPIEST cheesesteak I've ever seen in my life! But, if I ever get the chance to go to Philly, I'll definitely try them all!

Anyway... back to my Steak & Cheese Subs!!

Jon doesn't like onions... the skillet above is actually just for him...

But now I'll skip forward a bit...

Everyone else really likes onions... so after making Jon's sammie, which you'll see at the end, I tossed some thinly sliced yellow onions into the skillet.

Mmmm... the sizzle and instant onion aroma when they hit the skillet...

Aren't they gorgeous? I wish I could make this a Scratch-n-Sniff post, because that smelled amazing...

Then added the steak...

Mmmm... onions & steak... cooking together happily in the iron skillet...

Now to portion out the meat & onions and top with some provolone cheese slices to start melting...

Jon like his roll slathered in mayo...

So I topped that with the gooey melty cheesy steak...

Plus black olives & pickles, lettuce & salt & pepper...

Actually, Tawny's & Ryan's were pretty much the same, except they had onions, but no mayo.

Mine is just meat & cheese and salt & pepper!

These were wicked good!! I spent a good bit of time proclaiming my awesomeness after I finished these!

The only thing that would have made them better?

Homemade Sub Rolls!

I really want to try baking my own bread and am often inspired by these Bread Baking Goddesses!!

Natashya at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies
Heather at girlichef
Danielle at Cooking for My Peace of Mind

Whether you bake your own sub rolls or go with some nice bakery rolls... if you love Steak & Cheese, I highly recommend this wicked fast, wicked easy, wicked yummy sub!

Morgan's Veggie Patties

2010-07-25T21:45:00.006-04:00

Every once in a while it occurs to me to make a meatless meal. I'd like to do it once or twice a week, but in actuality it only happens more like once or twice a month.

I saw Guy Fieri make these on Guy's Big Bite and they looked wicked tasty, so I decided to give them a try! Plus when I looked up the recipe online, it had a 5-star rating with 85 reviews. Looks like a winner!

Morgan's Veggie Patties (slightly adapted)
2 oz olive oil
3 TBLS diced red onion
2 TBLS diced black olives
2 TBLS diced red bell peppers
1 tsp diced jalapeno
1 1/2 TBLS diced garlic
1 TBLS diced artichoke
4 oz black beans, drained
4 oz chickpeas, drained
4 oz white beans, drained
6 oz rolled oats
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBLS minced fresh parsley leaves
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp ground sage
2 TBLS seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg

In a medium saute pan over medium heat, add 1-ounce olive oil and all raw veggies except beans. Saute until translucent. Remove and cool.

In a large bowl, partial mash beans.

Add veggies to beans and mix thoroughly. Add all dry ingredients along with the egg. Thoroughly mix all ingredients and form into 4 patties, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In saute pan add 1-ounce olive oil, and cook patties 2 to 3 minutes per side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saute all raw veggies except beans, in olive oil, until translucent. Then cool.

In a large bowl, partially mash beans.

Add veggies to beans & mix well.

Add all dry ingredients and mix well.

Form into 4 patties & refrigerate for 30 minutes.

(I doubled this so I had less leftover beans, that's why I have 8 portions)

Cook 2 - 3 minutes per side in hot, oiled skillet.

Garnish as desired & enjoy!

These were great on whole wheat buns, but would also be great in a pita or on a bed of greens!

I'm also submitting this for Meatless Monday! and

Brats in Beer with Sauerkraut

2010-07-21T21:45:00.002-04:00

Grill season is in full swing. What's your favorite thing to grill?

I can never choose. Anytime I fire up the coals, the kids usually want burgers & dogs. But I usually want to grill some chicken or steak or veggies or pork or shrimp... See my problem? I can't choose!! So typically, the minimum that ends up on my grill is burgers & dogs, plus at least one other protein.

One Jon's often requested grilled foods is Brats.

I didn't grow up eating these and honestly, I'm not a big fan. I'm not really sure how or why I started making them like this.

But Jon & our friends seem to really like them!

Brats in Beer with Sauerkraut
Brats
Sauerkraut, mostly drained
Beer
Onion, sliced
salt & pepper
Sausage Rolls (nice ones!)
Mustard (the good stuff!!)
Mayo (if you like)

Make a bed of sauerkraut in the bottom of a grill-safe pan.
Top with some sliced onions, then brats.
Top brats with more sauerkraut & sliced onions.
Sprinkle with a little salt & pepper.
Cover with beer.
Let that rest in the fridge for awhile (until the coals are ready)
Put the pan on the grill. If the beer is boiling too much... move it to a cooler part of the grill, so it doesn't totally boil off. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Pull the brats out of the sauerkraut and place them on the grill to get some nice grill marks on them. Serve them in a sausage roll that has really good mustard and mayo in it... add some of the sauerkraut & onions and enjoy!

I like to use little foil loaf pans for this. They each hold two brats plus kraut nicely.

Ok... looks like I added the beer before topping with kraut... but in hindsight... adding the beer last would be better!

Now to get the coals ready.

That's Jon's job. I hate to do it and I'm not very good at it. It takes me forever!

Coals are ready... on to the grill they go!

They are sharing the grill with some Ranch Turkey Burgers.

Steamy...

Ok... ready for some grill marks.

I moved them to the other grill... because that's where I had room!

One opened up a bit...

Time to get the sausage rolls ready.

Jon prefers Mr. Mustard for his brats... and he like mayo too.

That's it! Ready to eat!

That probably would have looked a little better cut in half! But I assure you... if you love brats... you'll love them like this!

Islay's BBQ Ham Sammies

2010-07-19T21:30:00.004-04:00

So the guys at work give me a hard time because I often complain about Pittsburgh. Don't get me wrong, I love living here, but it's definitely my #2 choice. I grew up in the Boston area and then lived near San Diego for quite a few years. By far Boston is my favorite! San Diego is a good place to vacation. But if you love rain and snow and changing of the seasons, it's definitely not someplace you want to live.

Most of my complaining is missing regional foods. I miss all the food in Boston. Pizza, Italian food, Seafood, even the Chinese food is different... try getting chicken fingers anywhere in Pittsburgh. I know you're thinking you can... but that's because you don't know what they're like from a Chinese restaurant in Boston... deep fried in that fluffy batter... so good... even cold outta the fridge the next day... oops... I'm getting off track here... and of course I miss the Mexican food of SoCal!

Anyway... I always say if I left Pittsburgh, there's no food I'd really miss. I would miss MadMex's Insane San Francisco Wings... and Mike & Tony's gyros... but really... that's about it for food.

They wanted me to try something uniquely Pittsburgh and suggested the Isaly's BBQ Chipped Chopped Ham Sandwich.

I decided it was time to give it a try.

First to get a little more info about it, I consulted my friend the internet.

There I discovered that Isaly's Chipped Chopped Ham is "hammier". Yup... that's right "hammier". I'm not sure what it's supposed to be more hammier than. It's definitely hammier than ice cream or roast beef or broccoli... but if it's supposed to be hammier than other ham... well... I don't get it.

hammy(er)

You're supposed to heat the Chipped Chopped Ham with Isaly's BBQ sauce. I found the BBQ at the deli of my local Giant Eagle. I had planned to get Original flavor and Spicy flavor. Unfortunately they only had original. So original it was!

I smelled the BBQ sauce when I opened it... and instantly it reminded me of Spaghetti-O's sauce, which I think is revolting. I was describing the smell to Jon, saying it smelled like sweet tomato sauce... he picked up the other jar and started to read the ingredients... The first two ingredients... Tomato Puree & High Fructose Corn Syrup... to be followed by more corn syrup a couple ingredients down. Well... at least it smells like what's in it!

I took a little taste... and it was WAY too sweet for my liking. I was thinking this might turn out to be a pizza night... even though the best pizza is at Wakefield House of Pizza on Tuttle St in Wakefield... unless you want Sicilian.. then you have to go to Morena's on Broadway in Wakefield... oh... sorry... getting side-tracked by the foods that I miss again!!

So I tossed the Isaly's Chipped Chopped Ham into a skillet. Then added the sauce. The salty ham did improve the taste of the BBQ sauce, but not really enough that I'd actually want to eat it. So then I poured in a big dollop of Jack Daniel's Honey Smokehouse BBQ sauce in an attempt to make it more edible.

That made it much better!

Yay! Dinner, while not authentically Pittsburgh, was at least not a fail.

It turned out to be pretty yummy.

So there's still not really much food I'd miss if I left here. Even though this turned out yummy, it's unlikely I'd make it again. I prefer my ham smoked and slathered with mustard!

Summer Stone Sangria

2010-07-18T22:06:00.001-04:00

There was no sangria last week. Well... I did make one... but it was a FAIL... but this week definitely more than makes up for it!

Summer Stone Sangria!

It's summer time and what would be a perfect addition to sangria?

Summer Stone Fruit!

I'm still working through my wine cabinet. This week I pulled out a Fat Cat Pinot Noir.

Summer Stone Sangria
1 (750 ml) bottle Fat Cat Pinot Noir
2/3 C Slivovitz (plum brandy)
1 C Apricot Nectar
2 Nectarines, sliced
1 Black Plum, sliced
1 Red Plum, sliced
1 Black Velvet Apricot, sliced
1 big handful Cherries, sliced
Ginger Ale

Mix all ingredients except ginger ale and refrigerate several hours to overnight.
When ready to serve, pour over ice and top off with ginger ale!

Enjoy!!

Chop up all of the fruit.

Mix it with the wine, apricot nectar and slivovitz and refrigerate.

This was DELICIOUS!

I was a little afraid it would be too strong with the Slivovitz... or too winey... since I'm not a wine fan in general...

It was great straight... and great with ginger ale!

I loved it!

Definitely a winner!!

Refreshing Grapefruit Sangria

2010-07-07T21:43:00.000-04:00

So the 4th of July weekend sangria for the Summer of Sangria started out to be a Limey Citrus Sangria. At least that's what I thought when I was putting it together.

First, I realized that I have a cabinet full of wine! Jon and I don't drink wine, but when people visit, they often bring some along. Since I typically have cocktails for the evening already planned, it usually ends up in the cabinet. There are also some leftover from previous wine-tastings in the cabinet.

So I started there. I wanted to use up the wine I have, instead of shopping for more wine. Makes sense right?

From little under-appreciated wine supply I selected a big bottle of Barefoot Moscato. That was definitely a leftover from a Moscato wine tasting.

My original train of thought was since moscato is sweet, I'll have to tart it up a bit. And I LOVE lime, so I figured I'd go citrus, heavy on the lime. I couldn't wait to try it!

I snuck a taste just before I put it into the fridge and thought it was great! Typically, that taste is usually way too winey for me. But not this time, limey & tart... but it didn't stay that way!

~~Limey Citrus Sangria~~
Refreshing Grapefruit Sangria
1.5 liter Barefoot Moscato
1 C Key Lime Rum
1 12oz can Limeade concentrate, thawed
1/2 medium pink grapefruit, sliced, then quartered
1 orange, sliced, then quartered
1 lemon, sliced, then quartered
2 limes, sliced, then quartered

Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and refrigerate several hours to overnight.
Pour over ice and enjoy!

Sounds pretty limey right?

I'll tell ya what, if you invite grapefruit, be prepared to step aside, because grapefruit is definitely the life of the party!

It went into the fridge limey, but those juicy pink grapefruit quarter slices really took over.

Also, I had planned to top off the glasses with 7up, but it was already such a light sangria, that I ended up just pouring it over ice.

The tart grapefruit flavor was a total surprise and it was so refreshing on a really hot 4th of July!

This is definitely a keeper!! But now I have to find that Limey Citrus Sangria I was trying to create. I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Oh yeah... I totally forgot!! I never told you how the Summer of Sangria came about!

The BakeSpace Wine Club of course!!

The Wine Club had slowed down a bit, but DD kick started it and dubbed June & July Sangria!

I decided to extend that and make it a Summer of Sangria! Starting out with my Memorial Day Tropical Sangria, since Memorial Day is really the unofficial first day of Summer right? And ending with Labor Day weekend!

Check out all of the other Sangria recipes at the BakeSpace Wine Club Sangria section... and keep checking back all month!

So stay tuned! I have a Limey Citrus Sangria to concoct and a cabinet full of wine that needs to get used up!

Dying for Lasagna!

2010-06-29T21:15:00.002-04:00

I was on the phone with my sister on Father's Day and asked her what they were doing for dinner. Apparently they had a meat sauce cooked up for a lasagna that never got cooked, so even though it was wicked hot, they were making lasagna.

As soon as she said that... I wanted some! I would have gone to her house for dinner, but it's a 10 hour drive.

So I just kept craving it.

But even though it was wicked hot here too, I couldn't hold out for cooler weather.

I wanted lasagna! I was able to wait almost a week before I made some!

There's no specific recipe for this. None of the amounts are exact.

I imagine it's pretty much how my mom made it.

Lasagna
1 box lasagna noodles
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 lb Italian sausage (I used both hot and sweet)
24 oz ricotta cheese
3 - 4 C shredded provolone & mozzarella cheese
1/2 - 1 C shredded asiago/parmesan/romano cheese blend
1 egg
a couple palm fulls of Italian seasoning
1 medium onion, diced
several cloves of garlic, minced
salt & pepper
6 - 8 C Spaghetti Sauce, your favorite recipe or prepared sauce

Brown ground beef & sausage in a pan with onions & garlic. Drain off fat, add a palmful of Italian seasoning and some salt & pepper to taste; add spaghetti sauce and simmer.

While that's simmering, boil lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box, rinse in cold water.

In a bowl, combine ricotta, provolone & mozzarella (reserve 1 - 2 C provolone/mozzarella), asiago/parmesan/romano cheese blend, egg, a palmful of Italian seasoning and some salt & pepper. Combine well.

Now the noodles, meat sauce and cheese mixture are all ready to be assembled.

Reserve 1 - 2 cups of meat sauce. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a lasagna pan. Top that with a single, overlapping layer of noodles. Then evenly spread half of the meat sauce over the noodles. Next evenly spread half of the cheese mixtures over the meat sauce. Top with another layer of of overlapping noodles and repeat. When you get to the top layer of noodles, cover with reserved sauce and reserved cheese. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 - 20 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!!

So that's the jist of it.

Now when I was making this lasagna, I was totally yackin' on the phone with my sister. I was VERY excited because I found out that my schedule WILL allow me to attend my cousin Annie's wedding in August. Unfortunately Jon's schedule isn't going to allow him to go with me, but Tawny & Bobby will definitely go too. In addition to that, my cousin Charlie will be there WITH his daughter Nadia! I was VERY VERY excited! Can't wait to go to the wedding, can't wait to see Charlie, can't wait to finally meet his beautiful daughter in person, can't wait to see everyone who will be at Annie's wedding!

Sooo... excited and blabbering on the phone equals not paying too much attention to what I'm doing in the kitchen!

I was taking pictures, but totally forgot the onion and garlic with the meat.

So brown up the sausage & beef, with onions & garlic.
(Wanna add peppers or olives? Go for it! Toss in whatever you like!)

Drain and add sauce. I used canned sauce this time.

At this point I realized I forgot the onion & garlic, so I added onion & garlic powder with the Italian seasoning.

Let that simmer.

Boil your noodles according to the directions and don't forget to add salt to the water!

Mix up your cheeses!

Rinse the noodles in cold water.

Time to assemble!

Now into a 350F degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Pull it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 15 - 20 minutes. If you cut it too soon, the pieces will slide apart.

Take that time to throw some garlic bread in the oven and toss a big garden salad!

Now it's dinner time!!

Mmmmmm.... big meaty cheeses pieces of lasagna!

Jon likes it even better the next day.

Four minutes in the microwave and it's time for wicked good leftovers!

Sometimes it's worth being in a wicked hot kitchen when you just have to have some lasagna!!

Release the Kracken Sangria!

2010-06-28T21:15:00.006-04:00

It's the Summer of Sangria at Spryte's Place and I'll be putting up a new sangria recipe every week.

This week's selection I'm calling Release the Kracken Sangria!

I wanted to make a red sangria with rum. Most of the recipes I looked at called for white rum.

BORING!

I LOVE The Captain! Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum. I thought the spice would add a nice twist to the Sangria.

I typically have a few rums in the liquor cabinet, but I ran out the door to buy wine and totally forgot to double check.

So Hector and I got to the liquor store and I decided I'd just pick up some Captain Morgan's just to be safe. It's not like we wouldn't use it anyway.

But we got to the rum section and I started thinking that a fruity white rum might be good too.

Then we saw it.

The Kracken Black Spiced Rum

Jon really wanted that one and I have to admit, spiced rum with a sea monster on it is pretty appealing.

Since I grabbed wine on the cheap... I splurged the couple extra bucks for The Kracken!

And when you say the name, you can't just say "The Kracken"

You have to really roll that "R" with a Scottish accent... like Sean Connery or Groundskeeper Willy.

The Krrrracken!

I have no idea why... that's just the way it always sounds in my head!

Anyway... back to the Sangria!

Release the Kracken Sangria!
2 bottles (750ml) Cabernet Sauvignon
1 C The Kraken Spiced Black Rum
1 C orange juice
2 nectarines, sliced
1 black plum, sliced
1/2 pint of raspberries
1 orange, sliced (plus one for garnish)
1 lime, sliced
lemon-lime soda

Pour all ingredients except lemon/lime soda, into a large pitcher and refrigerate for several hours.
Add some ice to wine glasses, pour in wine mixture and top off with lemon/lime soda.
Enjoy!

That's it!

So we shared this with Erin & Andrew.

Unfortunately, I have to say, this is not a favorite Sangria.

The reason?

It mostly tasted like wine and well... I don't really like wine!

I love Sangria, but wine... not so much.

This recipe definitely isn't a fail. I'll try it again. Maybe I'll double the orange juice next time. Or add some triple sec.

Now if you actually enjoy red wine, you definitely should give this a try!

See ya next week with a new Sangria for Summer of Sangria at Spryte's Place!

Chicken Pinto & Corn Enchiladas

2010-06-27T21:15:00.001-04:00

Enchiladas, like quesadillas are so versatile.

You can roll up whatever fillings you want in them.

For these, I used the leftovers from my Pinto Bean & Corn Chicken Quesadillas.

First of all... if I'm using flour tortillas are they still enchiladas?

I have no idea. I usually use corn tortillas, but I had a bunch of small flour tortillas to use up. So that's what I used!

No recipe here either, just using up leftovers.

To start, pull out your leftovers.

Shredded chicken and beans, corn and green chiles.

Toss them together.

A big bowl of shredded colby & pepperjack cheese.

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with enchilada sauce.

Homemade or store bought, whatever you have.

Now it's time to assemble the enchiladas.

Grab a small flour tortilla and sprinkle a little shredded cheese down the center.

Then top the cheese with the chicken mixture.

Roll it up.

Place it seam side down in the baking dish.

Do that until the pan is full or you run out of fillings.

Now cover them with more enchilada sauce.

And top with more shredded cheese.

That's it.

Now bake for about 30 minutes at 350F, until cheese is all melty and everything is heated through.

Mmmm.... doesn't that look delicious??

Pinto Bean & Corn Chicken Quesadillas

2010-06-24T21:15:00.004-04:00

Quesadillas are one of my go to dinners when I need something fast.

How easy is it to fold some fillings into a tortilla with some cheese and heat it?

More often than not, when I make quesadillas, I do kind of a Quesadilla Bar. But I wanted to try something different.

To start, I made a different version of my Smoky Mexican Chicken, by just doing it in the crock pot. I needed much less liquid in the crockpot. And since the liquids don't cook down and concentrate, it turned out to be a much more mild shredded chicken. So it was even more versatile AND convenient, because I just threw everything into the crock pot and went to work.

There are no real measurements here, I was just kinda winging it. Tweak it to your family's preferences.

Pinto Bean & Corn Chicken Quesadillas
Large flour tortillas
Shredded chicken
Pinto beans, drained & rinsed (about a cup)
Corn (a big handful or about a cup)
Onion, diced (1/2 - 3/4 of a smallish onion)
Garlic, minced (a couple of cloves)
Green Chiles, diced (a couple spoonfuls)
Lime Juice (about a tablespoon)
Cumin (a big pinch)
Salt & Pepper
ColbyJack & PepperJack cheese, shredded

In a skillet saute onion & garlic until tender. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 of a can of pinto beans. Or about a cup, if you're starting with beans you cooked from dry. Add a couple big spoonfuls of diced green chiles, and a handful of corn. I used frozen corn. You can use fresh kernels, canned, whatever you have on hand. Add lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper.

Cook until heated through.

Ok filling is ready!

Cover half of a large flour tortilla with cheese.

I put colbyjack on the bottom.

Top that with shredded chicken.

Then then bean mixture.

Top with some more cheese.

I used pepperjack this time to spice it up a little.

Now fold it in half.

This time I cooked them in a hot, lightly oiled, cast iron skillet, instead of my Foreman Grill.

Give it a couple minutes, until it gets nice and golden, then flip it.

Cook on that side until it's nice and crispy and golden and you're done!

Cut it into 3 or 4 pieces.

I love them with guacamole and salsa.

We really liked the pintos in the quesadillas. I'll definitely be making these again!

You know what makes the PERFECT dinner?

A Quesadilla paired with Tortilla Soup!

If you're looking for a nice little collection of Tortilla Soup recipes... check out girlichef's Tortilla Soup Challenge by clicking the badge below!

Find some new Tortilla Soup recipes or add your own to her list!

I had leftovers of chicken, the bean mixture, beans, corn, and green chiles... see what I did with them tomorrow!

Curry & Chips Omelet

2010-06-23T15:15:00.000-04:00

Let's say you were at Piper's Pub watching the USA vs Algeria football (soccer) match. You ordered some Curry & Chips to snack on, but were too wrapped up in the game to eat them. At the very end of the game, in stoppage time, Donovan swoops in and kicks the ball into the net for a game winning goal for USA! Woohooo!!!

Yikes! You told the boss you'd be in by noon and it's noon now. You're gonna be a little late already so you ask the bartender for a to-go box to take your Curry & Chips home for later.

Long afternoon at work, but all's well because USA is on to the second round!

It's so hot and you need a dinner plan. You have some leftover Curry & Chips from Piper's Pub, but that's not really enough for dinner... or is it?

How about a Curry & Chips Omelet?

Get out your leftovers from Piper's.

Pour the curry into a small sauce pan to reheat it. Or you could do it in the microwave.

Whisk up some eggs with a little milk and salt & pepper; then pour them into a hot non-stick skillet.

Foraging... can't have an omelet without cheese. Well, I guess you can, but I don't want one like that!

Found some muenster.

Break up your leftover chips and put them on top of the cheese

Let's add some more cheese while we're at it!

Close it up

Slide it onto a plate and top it with hot curry and it's dinner time!

Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-06-22T21:15:00.001-04:00

Jon LOVES Peanut Butter Cookies and I totally thought I had some on here. Bob and I made some not too long ago. At least it seemed liked not too long ago, but now I think it must have been quite a while, because they definitely aren't here!

Jon also likes his cookies crisp. But he's really the only one who does. So these are also crisp... just for Jon. (hoping for awesome wife points here)

Peanut Butter Cookies
2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
1 1/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
additional sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Beat butter and peanut butter together until well combined. Add sugars and beat well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture.
Form dough into one inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. (If the dough is too soft to roll, put it in the refrigerator for an hour.) Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Gently press each ball with the tines of a fork to make criss-cross marks in each cookie.
Bake at 350F for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool on rack.
Enjoy!

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Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Cream peanut butter, butter, sugars, vanilla & eggs.

I used extra chunky peanut butter.

Mix in flour mixture.

Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.

Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.

Gently press with tines of a fork.

Bake at 350F for 10 - 12 minutes.

It's cookie time!

Actually, I think I baked these while Jon was at band practice or jam night or something. So he didn't even have any until the next day. But we all sampled them to make sure they were ok!

Crispy... peanut buttery... lots of peanut chunks from the extra chunky peanut butter... Just how he likes them!