Archive for the category ‘Food’

Sweet Potato Mush

By Brit

I tried to make sweet potato fries again today. I’ve never had too much luck with sweet potato fries. They always turn out mushy and well, I love crispy on the outside fries. There’s nothing better than a fry with a crunchy outside and an unbelievably yummy inside that’s just the right amount cooked. I’ve mastered regular baked potato fries. I make them at least once a week, even if they do take at least an hour and a half to make each time. Sweet potato fries have just alluded me for so long. I don’t want to fry them. I want to bake them so I can feel less bad about eating a ridiculous amount of them.

The potatoes I made on Saturday look fantastic, but they were mushy, almost burned and not really appetizing at all.

Sweet Potato Fries

Ohhhh, and here’s the burned potatoes …

Sweet Potato Fries

They don’t look half bad, but they’re not what I want. So, my question is: What recipe do you use for crispy sweet potato fries?

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This entry was posted on February 21st, 2010 under Food.

Smithwick’s Beef Stew

By Brit

A few days ago, I received an amazing dutch oven from one of my friends and I decided I would use it to make a meal for my valentine. I was going to make beef bourguignon, but I forgot to get bacon. I made beef stew instead. It was the first time I’d made beef stew and I kind of came up with my own recipe. None of the recipes I found online really worked for me, so this is my Smithwick’s Beef Stew.

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Smithwick’s Beef Stew

1 1/4 pound stew beef, cut into chunks
4 cups beef broth
2 bottles Smithwick’s beer (pronounced smit-ick’s, lest you order it at an Irish pub and sound like a complete fool)
1 bag baby carrots, cut in half
1.5 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into fourths
palmful thyme
palmful parsley
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes
salt and pepper

Combine flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover the pieces of beef in flour mixture and put into a dutch oven with olives oil, half at a time, on medium-high heat. Brown the pieces and put on a plate. Continue with second half of beef pieces. Once the second half has been browned, place those on the plate as well and pour one bottle of Smithwick’s into the dutch oven to deglaze it. Let simmer for a few minutes.

Pour the four cups of beef broth into a crockpot. Add the browned beef, baby carrots, potatoes, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves to the crockpot.

Once the beer has simmered for a few minutes, pour it into the crockpot. Add one more bottle of beer to the crockpot. Stir and cover.

Cook on low for 7.5 hours. Add the fourth cup of instant mashed potatoes and stir to thicken stew. Cook an additional 30 minutes on high.

Enjoy with homemade french bread.

The first time I had Smithwick’s beer, I called it Smith-wick’s. APPARENTLY, that’s one of the worst things you can do in an Irish pub. It’s pronounced smitt-ick’s. Don’t make my mistake. Smithwick’s is a dark lager, that’s not as heavy as Guinness, but tastes absolutely amazing. I highly recommend it.

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This entry was posted on February 15th, 2010 under Food.

Simple, Hearty Pasta

By Brit

I went downstairs to make paninis for lunch and the bread was moldy. Awesome. I made this instead.

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Simple, Hearty Pasta

handful pasta
handful broccoli, steamed
small handful pine nuts
handful parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pasta cooking water, reserved

Cook pasta according to directions. Toast pine nuts over low heat, stirring constantly. Add broccoli, pine nuts, cheese and reserved pasta water once pasta has been drained. Stir together, sprinkle with more cheese and enjoy.

It seems like I haven’t done any cooking lately, but I’ve done quite a bit, just nothing to write home about. I’m making dump cake tonight, hopefully it’ll make me feel a bit better.

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This entry was posted on February 12th, 2010 under Food.

My First Cupcakes

By Brit

This was my first attempt (ever!) at cupcakes. I made the cupcake itself and homemade frosting, and they were fantastic, FANTASTIC. I win, seriously. I told my dad and he was like, where the hell did you learn to do all this. I must just have some MAD SKILLZ. Ok, I’m done.

The recipe is from Playing House, and you should go check out some more recipes there! I haven’t found one thing that didn’t look amazing. I randomly happened across the picture of these cupcakes on her flickr (she posted them in PW’s new photo assignment) and found the recipe and it was OVER.

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This entry was posted on February 9th, 2010 under Food.

Pizzadillas

By Brit

Pizza + Quesadilla = THE BEST IDEA EVER! Ok, they weren’t like the best thing I’ve ever eaten, and they were ridiculously similar to Firehouse Pizzas (only cooking in a pan on the stove and with 2 tortillas).

Ohdeeoh, the awesome kid’s blog of Apartment Therapy, featured pizzadillas yesterday, and well I made them today. I adapted the recipe and well, I’d make them again, ’cause I have leftover pizza supplies.

Pizzadillas

tortillas (we used A2 Corn Tortillas, YUM)
pizza sauce
ricotta cheese
toppings

Spread the ricotta on each of two tortillas, place toppings on each and cover (lightly) with the pizza sauce. Place on a hot greased pan (I used PAM spray) and cook until the filling is warmed.

Note: The tortillas I used were small, so they fit perfectly in the pan, you might have to halve the tortilla for it to fit.

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This entry was posted on February 3rd, 2010 under Food.

Now This is It!

By Brit

This is what the cookies from last night were supposed to look like …


Pictures like this are why I need to actually cook during the day … just for that natural daylight. It’ll never ever happen, but things look so much better in this light! Can I just say YUM about 5000 times? Yeah, ok, I am. I only had one today (I can’t really tell you why), but I’m about to have about 3 more for dinner (oh and some pizzadillas … oh yeahhh).

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This entry was posted on February 3rd, 2010 under Food.

Milk Chocolate Cookies

By Brit

Late last night I realized that I had EVERYTHING to make chocolate chip cookies, so I made them. I used the mixer Ginny got for me on SUPER clearance at Target a few weeks ago and I was off. The cookies turned out fantastic, even if I did, um, almost kill the mixer in the process.

Warning: 800 pictures (ok, not that many) follow … which normally isn’t my thing, but I just HAD to show how this cookie scraper works!

Ginny also gave me this while going through her kitchen drawers. She told me the name of it, but hell if I can remember. It’s a cookie scraper to me, and honestly, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it. I tried it out tonight. It worked like a charm. Or, you know, like two teaspoons.

First, you dip the curved edge (the side without the moving parts) into the cookie dough, and get a huge glob (of course! who likes small cookies?!).

It looks all fancy when it’s on the scooper, and all that jazz.

Then, with your thumb, you push down the move-y part …

And, magically the cookies fall perfectly off …

And you do it 3072498273498273423 times …

And you have that many piles of cookies. Really, the thing is pretty awesome. I could dip, scoop, and smush the cookies off with one hand while I was taking pictures with the other. It was also a whole lot cleaner than using two spoons. I don’t know if I would have gone out and bought the tool, it’s very unitasker, but you know, it’s awesome because it was Ginny’s and now it’s mine.

The only cooking tip I ever got from my mom was that when you made cookies (or brownies, or anything that was cut up and put into a container) if you put a piece of bread into the container with the baked goods, it kept them fresh and moist longer.

The bread, takes all of the dry air and becomes quite stale. It looks weird, and I always get strange looks, but honestly, it keeps the cookies fresh for a lot longer than they would be in a regular container.

The cookies are ridiculously good. I finally have tweaked a few recipes into one good recipe and they are aaaaamazing.

Even the bottom is good, not burned and oh-so-tasty. (Please don’t notice that chocolate chip that magically fell from the cookie when I turned it on the pan because I don’t have any cooling racks).

Milk Chocolate Cookies

3 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
2 teaspoons hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Soften the butter and cream together with both sugars. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and salt. Mix. Combine the hot water and the baking soda, until dissolved. Add in the flour and chocolate chips.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, watch carefully.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

I should probably also mention that NO MATTER how good vanilla extract smells, you should never, EVER taste it. EVER.

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This entry was posted on February 3rd, 2010 under Food.

Tomato-Lentil Stew

By Brit

I found this recipe on Budget Bytes (one of my new favorite websites!), and I had to make it. I can’t remember ever having lentils before, but I’ve really been trying to branch out with the foods I’ve been eating. I actually kind of LIKE green onions (please don’t tell?) in some things, and I’m really liking this new trend. So, I guess this week’s new food was lentils. YUM. The stew was fairly fantastic. I did have to half the recipe though, it made SO MUCH and Matt (as of yet) is still maintaining that he doesn’t like lentils so I’m the only one eating it, which I am definitely ok with.

Tomato-Lentil Stew

1 can diced tomatoes
2 stalks celery
1/2 bag frozen corn
1 cup lentils
1 tablespoon garlic
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon hot sauce

Add lentils to 2 cups of water, boil. Once boiling, turn the heat off, cover and let sit for about 20 minutes.

Soften the celery and garlic, add the tomatoes (including juice), corn and spices. Let simmer.

After the lentils are softened, pour the entire contents of the pan into the simmering tomato mixture. Smush the lentils to break them open (or, you could use an immersion blender; however, I am not cool enough to own one).

Serve very warm with cheese and tortilla chips.

Serves 6. Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes.

YUMMM!

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This entry was posted on February 1st, 2010 under Food.

Molten Marshmallow Cake

By Brit

This is amazing, so amazing I made it two nights in a row. I can’t say much more than that since I RARELY have desserts and I’ve eaten every bite of this both nights.


Molten Marshmallow Cake

1 cups milk chocolate chips
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅓ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large marshmallows

In a pot over low heat, melt chocolate chips and butter. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in flour.

Fill 4 buttered and floured ramekins halfway with batter. Press a marshmallow into the center of the batter in each ramekin. Spoon remaining batter equally over the marshmallows, covering completely.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the tops are puffed and cracking, about 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool for 3 minutes. Run a small knife around the inside edge of each ramekin, and turn upside down to release the cake. Place cakes right side up on plates and dust with powdered sugar. Serve warm.

Serves 4.
Recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen.

NOTE: I think these would be perfectly amazing if you added a tablespoon or so of pie filling (raspberry or strawberry) or maybe even some jam instead of the marshmallow.

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This entry was posted on January 31st, 2010 under Food.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

By Brit

Yesterday (Friday) was Matt’s birthday. We spent the day doing pretty much nothing, other than him making me fall in love with Udon. UGH. It was amazing, maybe even more so than sushi. Holy crap, I didn’t just say that. Never mind.

Anyways, we went to dinner with Matt’s parents and since they were driving up from Toledo and since they were bringing 10 (yeah) 2-liters for Matt (because I forgot to buy them this week when they were on sale), I decided I’d be making his cake this year. I went through a few different cakes and finally decided on one that I had put into my MacGourmet a few weeks ago: Molten Marshmallow Cakes. It was amazing.

I’ll post the recipe in a few days, ok, maybe later today, but you’ll just have to believe me for now … These were amazing (amazing enough that I’ve been asked to make them AGAIN later today for his friends that are in town).

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This entry was posted on January 30th, 2010 under Food.