French Onion Risotto

I got this from Lauren's blog as well.

I have to admit that I didn't love it. I liked it, but just can't go on raving about it. BAJ agreed, thinking that either I don't know how to properly make it (certainly a possibility), risotto just isn't his thing, or the risottos I've made just haven't been his thing. I don't know what it is, either, but any of those are real possibilities. I don't think I've ever had risotto made by someone else, so can't be sure if I like risotto or not.

I digress...

Perhaps the problem is the addition of white wine instead of sherry.

This certainly SMELLED good as it cooked, and it was surprisingly easy to make (one hears such horrors about making risotto, but it really wasn't bad at all). But I have to admit to being disappointed (especially since Lauren loves hers so much!)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of any combo of beef broth and water (I used a can of broth (1-3/4c and the rest water)
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• Half of a large onion, thinly sliced
• Fresh thyme I used dried
  
• 2 tablespoons sherry, to taste I used white wine because I needed to use it up or throw it out...
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• Provolone or cheese of your choice, optional

In a medium saucepan, bring broth and water to a boil. Simmer on a low-medium heat.

Heat butter and olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add onion and cook 3-4 minutes until tender.

Add rice, stir, and cook 1-2 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup broth mixture. Cook on a low-medium heat. When almost all the liquid is absorbed, add the next 1/2 cup. Continue adding broth, 1/2 cup at a time.Before adding the last 1/2 cup broth, stir in thyme and sherry. Cook with remaining broth until rice is done. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir in cheese, if using.Makes about 4 small portions.

French Onion Chicken Casserole

I got this one from Lauren's blog.
I also got the side dish from her (French Onion Risotto).

This was super duper easy to make... I used regular soup mix... I figured that I had it and wouldn't go buying specific French onion mix--gotta be the same, right?

I only used 2 breasts so I only used 1/2 an onion and ended up baking for about 20 minutes or so. The chicken came out so moist and tender... YUM! I just wasn't super excited about the sauce. It was good, but in small doses for me. I thought it was way too salty, and I don't love me some salt. BAJ, on the other hand, really enjoyed it.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
• 2 Tbs plain flour
• Packet of french onion soup
• 1 large onion
• 1 Cup water
• 2 Tbs sour cream or plain low-fat yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (180 degrees C)

2. Put the soup mix and flour into a ziplock bag, add the chicken breasts and shake it to coat them. Save the excess flour mix.

3. Heat some oil in a pan, or spray it with non stick cooking spray - and add the chicken and cook until browned all over. Turn them often, but carefully cause it will take off the coating if you aren't!

4. Take the chicken out, and put it in a casserole dish.

5. Add onions to the pan. Stir constantly over heat until onions ar soft.

6. Blend the saved flour mixture into a cup of water, and add it, to the pan with the onions and bacon. Cook for a couple of minutes, then pour over the chicken in the casserole dish.

7. Cover, then cook for about 35 minutes, or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken, and stir in sour cream/yoghurt, then replace chicken in the gravy. Serve!!

"Fried" Tomatoes

Fried tomatoes is one of my go to summer meals. I love it, and I love to eat it outdoors. My mom makes it with some kind of white sauce, which I have not been able to a. find online, b. replicate, or c. get the recipe from her.

So I found a recipe on allrecipes, which I can't seem to locate there now. So I'll have to type it out here at some point, just not right now.

I found yellow tomatoes at the farmer's market and couldn't resist them, so I used one yellow and one red for this. It turned out pretty good for both kinds!

I served it with Parmesan pasta of one kind or another by Rice a Roni or the like, since I had no potatoes for the traditional mashed potatoes side dish. It turned out to have the perfect creaminess to accompany the tomatoes.

Hoisin Glazed Chicken Breasts

From Cooking Light, originally here

Ingredients

1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon bottled minced fresh ginger
Cooking spray
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 lime wedges

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients. Remove 2 tablespoons of hoisin mixture, and reserve to brush on cooked chicken. Line a shallow roasting pan with foil; coat foil with cooking spray. Place the chicken on prepared pan. Brush 2 tablespoons of hoisin mixture evenly over chicken; broil 5 minutes. Turn chicken over; brush with 2 tablespoons of hoisin mixture. Broil 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Spoon reserved 2 tablespoons of hoisin mixture over cooked chicken. Serve with lime wedges.

This was a pretty standard Cooking Light recipe, I'm finding. They really love using garlic, ginger, and hoisin sauce, but it works so I'll keep doing it. This was really easy to put together, especially since the sauce really lends itself to not measuring.

I served it with brown rice. I wanted to serve it with broccoli on the side, but discovered all I had in the freezer was broccoli stir fry, which was pretty good too. (It just now occurred to me that I have fresh broccoli in the fridge. WOOPS!)

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Originally found here.

I've never made pulled pork before, but was looking for something that wouldn't require much of my time the day before the party. I decided on this, and we were very happy with the results.

I used a small cut of pork butt. It was three pieces, which the butcher at Shop Rite suggested when I told him I wanted to make pulled pork (when he showed me the pork butt I should use, I balked and said, "Um, there's only two of us.")

I also used a can of root beer (Shop Rite brand!) and store bought creole seasoning (because I had it).

This is definitely a keeper in our house. In fact, I will probably be making it the next time we have a big party, we liked it that much!

your favorite cut of pork (shoulder, butt, whatever you like)

8-12 ounces of root beer (some girls use Coke)

spices (I used Emeril's essence)

your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Dinosaur)

Put pork, root beer and seasonings in the crock pot and cook on low for 7 hours. Drain the crockpot, and add the BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 30 more minutes. Remove from the crock pot and shred, adding more BBQ sauce if you like. Serve on sandwiches!

Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes, Part 2

I frosted them with store bought icing, and they were outstanding. The cake was divine, and since it was so darn easy, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to use a box mix.

The cake with store bought icing was clearly good enough for Baby SBF's first taste of cake:

Cat in the Hat Cake

I am by no means an artist. In grade school, I drew an Easter bunny that came out looking like a camel.

When we started to plan The Boy's first birthday party with a Dr. Seuss theme, I found this on the internet and though, "Hey, she said it was easy. That's what I'll do." But then time got in the way, and that plan went out the window.

We then decided we would cut a cake in the shape of The Cat in the Hat's hat. In the middle of the night before the party, I decided it would be way too much and way too easy to screw up, so decided instead to frost the cake white and draw on the hat.

Somehow, my little plan worked, and here's what came out:

Who wants a $50 gift card???

I found a contest!! WOOHOO.
It's for a $50 Target gift card.

Check it out here
and please say that Christina from feistybaby.blogspot.com sent ya!

Spaghetti Sauce

Things happened last night, and dinner didn't get started until 6:30. So I went looking for something fast... I found ravioli in the freezer, so that was dinner.

I did, however, have the cooking urge, so I sought out a pasta recipe for the stovetop. I found one, but actually made some of my own modifications!! I CAN do it!!!

Original recipe found here

1 med. onion
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 can (28 oz.) whole tomatoes & puree I used crushed tomatoes
1 c. water
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. basil
1 bay leaf

Chop finely in blender: onion, carrot and celery. Chop garlic the same, but separately. Saute onion in oil until tender. Add garlic, carrot and celery and cook until tender. Add tomatoes, water, salt, pepper, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Pour through a food mill (optional). Discard solids. Simmer 15 minutes. Will thicken if chilled overnight.

I added in a frozen cube of red wine, a can of tomato paste, and some oregano in during the tomatoes step. I didn't measure at all. I found it to be a bit too salty, but BAJ thought it was fine. I did, however, add way too much water. I didn't food mill it, but I do wish I had chopped my carrot thinner. In short, the flavor was decent, but I probably should have added more tomato paste to thicken it up after adding too much water.

Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Birthday Cake and Frosting

Recipe originally found here

The cake was very very good, and I will for sure make it again. The frosting, through no fault of the recipe, didn't turn out so great. I think the problem was that I substituted for powdered sugar (from here). The frosting turned out grainy and just plain yuck. I also added 2t of raspberry extract, just to try it out. I definitely got some of that flavor, but BAJ said the frosting was flavorless.

Picture of my poor sad wimpy frosted cuppie coming soon.

No cooking in these parts

We are without stove/oven for awhile. It conked out in the middle of making dinner for my parents on Thursday. It seems the computer went haywire, and will cost $150 to replace. It also might not fix the problem, so it looks like a new one is in the works.

We went to a few stores and finally decided on a range at Sears. For some really really stupid reason, the warehouse that ships to our town is out of stock. If we lived one town over, we could get it. How stupid???

So now we either have to wait until this warehouse has them again (luckily, they are holding the sale price for us), decide on another range, or go to a different store.

It can never be easy, right?

One Pot Thai

This came from my new cookbook from Food and Wine Magazine, One Dish Meals.

I liked that it was so veggie filled. I'm not a huge fan of radishes, but they worked in this dish. It's a recipe that calls for ground pork, but ground turkey was on sale, and that's what I used. It was pretty good and I'll probably make it again, but we're not RAVING about it.

Cleanup was nice, though, since it technically only used a skillet and a cutting board (although I didn't use a large enough skillet at first!)

Fried Tilapia

This was a recipe for Fried Catfish from ATK. I wasn't sure if I would like catfish, and tilapia was on sale, so away we went.

It was pretty good, although not delicious. It was a little bit too much of the SAME for me to eat a whole filet. I served with corn on the cob and McCain's steak fries.

Catch up

Wow, it's been a while.

First, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! My little boy is only 26 days away from being one. Absolutely unreal.

I went away for awhile to Colorado for some work type stuff. It was an awesome trip, but after being cooked for, cleaned up after, and not having to do any domestic stuff for a week, I had a hard time adjusting and we went out to eat a bit more than normal.

I HAVE been cooking, but haven't yet uploaded any pictures, so those are coming soon.

I've decided to take a hiatus from TWD. Money is tight right now and I just don't have the energy for baking at this time. We'll see if I can manage it again in the fall... hopefully I can because I really enjoyed being part of the group.

Skillet Shrimp and Sausage

Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine, June/July 2008
Also can be found here

The only change I made was to use brown rice instead of white.

This was pretty good, but I did run into some problems. Perhaps because the rice was toasted first, perhaps I just didn't cook it enough, but it was very very hard. Disgustingly so. We really liked the flavor of the sausage (our first go with apple chicken sausage..yum!) and the dish overall was good. I look forward to trying it again as a freezer meal, but will cook the rice for a lot longer than the recipe suggests.

TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

First, please let me apologize for my EXTREME tardiness here. I kept starting to make them after our son was in bed, but by the time I would have started and finished, we never could have enjoyed them. Better late than never, I suppose!

This week's Tuesday was hosted by Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook.

Anyway, as I was making these, BAJ said, "Who puts RAISINS in brownies? You're such a weirdo." He did appreciate that I was flambeeing, although the flame was rather teensy.

When I added the raisins to the brownies, it smelled just like Raisinettes... my favorite!!

So I'm very excited for these to come out of the oven... 32 more minutes until sweet chocolatey, raisiny, gooeyness!

**Update!**
The center didn't quite... bake. It was runny and gooey alright, but not done. I gave it more time, for probably 75 minutes total time, and we decided to eat them. Despite the center being on the underdone side, these were REALLY good. The raisins were a delightful touch--nice and squishy. The flavor was really good too. They weren't as difficult to make as some of the other Dorie creations I've made either. I'll probably make these again!!

Here's the recipe

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) I used it
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum I used Puerto Rican Gold rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Chili Mac Salad

From June/July 2008 Everyday with Rachael Ray

Can also be found here

1/3 cup fresh lime juice 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro 7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper 4 ears corn 2 cups elbow pasta 1 red onion, half finely chopped, half thinly sliced 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder 1 pound lean ground beef One 15-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice and cilantro; whisk in 6 tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the corn until just tender, about 3 minutes; transfer to a cutting board. Return the water to a boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente; drain and transfer to a large bowl. Cut the corn kernels from the cob and add to the pasta.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and chili powder and cook until the onion begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a colander and drain well.
4. Add the beef mixture to the pasta; season with salt and pepper. Add the kidney beans, tomatoes, sliced onion and vinaigrette and toss to dress. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with the cheese.

I used a pound of ground turkey and only half a red onion. I also served the kidney beans on the side and used dried cilantro. I used bowtie pasta. Finally, I only bought three ears of corn at the store, so that's what I used.

Overall, this was a pretty good recipe, but not for a dinner. A lunch? Maybe? A side dish for a BBQ? Absolutely. But it just wasn't RIGHT for a dinner meal for some reason. It was good, it was easy, but it just seemed to be missing something.

Baby SBF liked his meat and pasta mixture!

"Fried" tomatoes

Recipe coming soon.

I can't seem to find where I found this online right now, but this is supposed to be an appetizer, but we always have it for dinner. The other day, I got a big thing of HUGE tomatoes and had to make one of my all time summer favorite meals.

It was great with those big ole tomatoes, as well as fresh steamed green beans and mashed potatoes.

My first tag!! YIPPIE!!

I was tagged by my good buddy, Lauren over at La Cucina di Lauren! My first time!

The rules:
Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing ten years ago?
Drinking. Heavily. And illicitly. Ten years ago, I was a sophomore in college. By this time in the year, I was probably sitting on the beach in the hopes of for once being darker than my mother (who has a much deeper complexion). I was working at Fantasy Island in Beach Haven and dating someone very wrong for me.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
1. Play with my son!
2. Go to Picture People with the girls
3. Make the TWD recipe for the week
4. Make dinner
5. Watch another episode of Lost

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. Chips and Salsa
2. Cheese and crackers
3. Ice cream
4. Cupcakes
5. Combos

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. All of these are house related! Gut and renovate our 1960's kitchen.
2. Install central air
3. New deck
4. Level and de moss ify our backyard
5. Make the layout of our bedroom make sense

Places I’ve lived:
1. Waretown, NJ
2. Newark, DE (college)
3. Edison, NJ (several apartments across town)
4. North Brunswick, NJ
5. Piscataway, NJ

Jobs I’ve had:
1. Babysitter
2. Waitress at Chi Chi's and Bennigan's
3. Old Navy
4. Arcade employee
5. McDonald's
6. High school Social Studies teacher

TAG! You’re it...
1. Erica
2. Kayte
3. Rachel
4. Julia and Tyler
5. April

Coffee Giveaway

Happy birthday to Marc! (Not my Marc, another one).

His wife is celebrating his birthday with a coffee giveaway! Go check it out and wish Marc a happy birthday here!