Comfort dinner

In need of some fatty goodness, I turned to a Southern fave - fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and of course, to counteract the fat, buttered peas. I made sure to make the potatoes extra fatty by adding sour cream and cheese. They were luscious.

For the chicken, I relied on boneless, skinless tenderloins which I marinated in buttermilk for most of the day. They were then THRICE dredged in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne. Then pan fried in a relatively small amount of hot peanut oil/butter. Delish.

COOKIES!

I needed cookies and I needed them fast and I didn't want to look up any recipes, so I just relied on the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli chips package. Cream 1 c butter with 1 c white sugar and 1 c brown sugar. Add 2 tsp vanilla and 2 large eggs. Mix thoroughly. Meanwhile, mix together 2 1/4 c flour, 1 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Add gradually to butter mix. Add 2 c semisweet chips. Add nuts, if desired (ALWAYS desired by me). Mix. Drop by tbsp-full on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes. I had to let them rest on the parchment for about 3-4 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack. And Miss Daisy, as usual, had her eye on this giant rack of cookies. She got to lick the chocolate-free beaters.

We like tacos. A lot.

Tacos are a dinner staple in our house. They are easy. They are filling. They can be healthy (ish) although not generally the way we eat them. They are a go to meal. We almost always have the necessary ingredients. R likes them. I like them. You see where I'm going here. We eat them a lot. Probably every other week, and given my new plan to start shopping on a monthly basis for groceries starting in the fall, it may bump up to every week because they are so easy.

Cook onions/peppers. Cook meat (ground beef usually, we call them fajitas if it is non-ground beef or chicken). Heat tortillas. Top with toppings. Inhale.

Peppers and onions are pretty, no?

Buns of Joy

Ok, so luscious cinnamon buns will NOT lead to a toned new you, but they will induce slight euphoria and make your morning a bit brighter. And even better that I was able to bestow the gift of cinnamon buns as a surprise on several coworkers!

This recipe comes from the little cookbook that came with my Kitchenaid, which I inherited from my Dad, when he upgraded to the bigger model. First, you make a sweet yeast dough - mix two packets of yeast with 3/4 c warm water. Meanwhile, heat one stick of butter, 1/2 c sugar, and 3/4 c milk in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Begin mixing the yeast and water with 3 eggs and 5 c AP flour, then add the milk mixture (allow it to cool slightly). Mix with the dough hook for about 3 minutes, slowly adding another 1/2 c to 1 1/2 c flour, until the dough forms a smooth ball that clings to the hook and cleans the bowl. Continue mixing another 2-3 min. Remove from the hook, knead by hand a few times, then put into a greased bowl, covered with a clean towel, and place it somewhere warmish to rise for an hour.

While it rises, you can make the cinnamon filling. Mix 1 stick of softened butter, 1 c of brown sugar, 1/2 c white sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 c to 3/4 c chopped nuts.

Once the rising is done, roll out the dough ball to a big rectangle (the recipe says 10 inches by 30 inches, mine is usually more like 12 x 24, I get lazy) and spread the cinnamon filling. Roll up the dough longways, then slice in 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch rounds. Place in a greased baking dish and allow to rise, covered with a dish towel, for another hour.* Then bake at 350 deg for 30 minutes (start checking at 25 min though, my huge buns were done at 30).

While baking, you'll want to prepare a glaze. Now, you can go fancy and make a caramel glaze. I do not, however, think that is necessary and instead opt for a plain powdered sugar glaze - 2 c powdered sugar, a few tbsp milk, a teeny dash of vanilla - just whisk until it is spoonable. Pour, ooze, dribble, whatever over the warm buns.


*At this point, I typically let it rise for about 20 to 30 minutes, then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to bake the next day. I then take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temp (or at least slightly warm up) before popping in the oven - you may have to add no more than 5 minutes to the baking time if you let it warm up for 15 minutes or more.

More Nutella love....

Ok, seriously, my love for Nutella knows no bounds. It goes on and on. This weekend, despite having eaten a Nutella sandwich earlier in the week, we decided to make Nutella ice cream. Or gelato. Whatever. I don't care. It was delish either way. I followed the Giada recipe except I didn't have whole milk, so I used 1 c cream, 1 c half and half, and 1 c skim milk. It came out v. v. creamy and luxurious.


1) I love my ice cream freezer. Here it is churning away.







2) I love ice cream period. This Nutella version was possibly one of the best ice creams I've ever had. The only way I'd improve it is to put some toasted almonds in it. THAT would be an unstoppable combo.

Hillbilly quiche

So, I decided to start watching Paula Deen again, after taking a very long break from her show. She wasn't really bugging me, but I just got tired of seeing her and Michael having romantic breakfasts in their bathrobes. It kind of gave me the willies. But anyways, I started DVRing new episodes and on Saturday, I watched an episode all about breakfast. I skipped over the grits/sausage/egg parfaits, as grits horrify me, and the omelettes were fascinating in their strangeness. The hash brown breakfast quiche, however, did catch me eye, and I embarked on making it Sunday morning with ingredients at hand. I'd purchased a few bags of frozen hashbrowns during an acute craving a few weeks prior, so randomly, I had those in my freezer.

First, you mix 3 c of thawed hash browns with half a stick of melted butter, salt, and pepper. Press into a pie dish.







Bake at 450 degrees for about a half hour until crisp and golden. I ended up turning the broiler on to get it nice and brown. Allow the crust to cool slightly before filling.






Meanwhile, prepare the filling. 3 eggs, 1 c of half and half, crumbled breakfast meat of choice (bacon), veggies of choice (today, one small sauteed onion), and about 1 c of shredded cheddar cheese. I also added salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Pour filling into crust, reduce oven temp to 350 degrees, and bake until the egg is set, about 30 minutes.




Inhale. Beware, dogs apparently like this too. Daisy found her way onto the counter and ate some. :(

More spinach

I've been on a roll with spinach lately - first, the pasta pesto with spinach then spinach dip. This morning, I needed a quick appetizer so I defrosted 1 10 oz box of chopped spinach and mixed that with one egg, 1/4 c grated parmesan, and about 2 tbsp prepared pesto. Then I spread that on a sheet of puff pastry I'd rolled out slightly (mainly to press out the seams). Slice, bake at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes (until v. brown and crisp) and voila - v. fast app.

Nutella revisited

I know I've blogged of the goodness of Nutella before. But I so enjoy the lovely chocolatey-hazelnutty spread, I need to speak of it, and it's goodness, in a sandwich again. Spread lovely Nutella between two pieces of bread (any bread - if you are feeling virtuous, use a multigrain - I however just used some Italian bread I had picked up at Whole Foods recently). Butter both sides. Toss onto a hot griddle. Fry up - slice - sprinkle with powdered sugar. Slam.

Sunday wafflings

No, we aren't politicians. HaHAHAHAHA! I'm SOOO FUNNY! We weren't switching positions on important issues of the day, we were making breakfast.

I started out making waffles using the luscious Williams-Sonoma mix I'd picked up at some point. I only had half the amount of mix as I'd already put in water and butter, then realized the batter was ever so slightly too runny (ok, it was the consistently of soup, NOT batter) so we had to improvise with more flour, soda, baking powder, and an egg. But the resulting waffles came out well, although, in the future, ALWAYS LOOK AT WHAT SIZE MEASURING CUP YOU ARE USING, especially if you are overtired from too much sangria the night before.

Chocolate Heaven

On Saturday, we also had a chocolate cheesecake. It was delicious. It was also insanely rich, so we made lovely whipped cream to cut the richness. First, make a chocolate cookie crust with 30 chocolate wafer cookies and a half stick of melted butter. Press into a spring form pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 5-7 minutes (keep an eye on it, it will burn).

Next, the filling. Melt 8 oz bittersweet chocolate and allow to cool. Mix 1/2 c of sour cream, 1 tsp of coffee powder, and 2 tsp of vanilla in a bowl. In a stand mixer, cream 3 8z packages cream cheese and 1 1/4 c sugar until smooth. Slowly add 1/2 c cocoa powder. Then the sour cream mixture. Then the chocolate. Then three eggs. Pour into the cooled crust and bake at 300 degrees for 50-60 minutes until the center is slightly jiggly. Allow the cake to cool at room temp, then refrigerate until cold and set.

I highly recommend serving with whipped cream, it really is so rich and dark, the lighter topping really adds a nice element to it. V. v. tasty. Miss M, please correct any of my measurements and ingredients, I'm doing it from memory!!

Ladies' Night...

Mr. R headed down to Cincy on Saturday night, so Miss M, Miss L, Daisy, and I had a lovely Ladies' Night in his absence, featuring the classic Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix Spinach Dip, homemade pizzas, SANGRIA (mmm), and lovely rich chocolate cheesecake. Yum.

We made the Barefoot Contessa pizza dough which is a reasonably good dough. It was a bit tough this time around, I think something was off with my gluten. Mix yeast, honey, warm water. Add flour. Mix on dough hook until Kitchenaid motor wants to die. Knead by hand a bit. Let rise. Divide. Let rise again. Then(again, I heart Ina) let it rest in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

For toppings, I bought regular old mozzarella and Italian cheeses, but also some fresh mozzarella. I roasted some cremini mushrooms, red onion, and red peppers at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes as well. I also had some boring pepperoni, but that was almost an after thought topping. In my infinite wisdom, I forgot to buy or make any red sauce, but we improvised with leftover pesto and just rubbing the dough with garlic.


FYI on Sangria - I heart it - probably too much, it just goes down too easy for me - bottle of red wine, 1/4 to 1/2 c of harder liquor (pref brandy, but SoCO and others work as well), 1/4 of sugar or more, slice up some fruit (orange, lemon, lime, peach) and allow the flavors to meld together as long as you'd like. Before serving, throw in about 3/4 liter of club soda or seltzer and enjoy. I've made white sangrias as well, also lovely, but I love a good red wine sangria. Yum.

Ain't no party like an Ina party

Ok, in case it wasn't ABUNDANTLY apparently, I love Ina Garten and I love her Barefoot Contessa recipes even though they usually involve too much salt and/or dressing where applicable. But I adjust. And digress. Anyways. Friday night, Miss M came rolling into town, so I prepared a modified version of the BC's Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwiches and Pasta Pesto and Peas salad! Hooray!

First, I had to make the pesto sauce. R enjoyed the fact that so much mayo was involved in this meal - mixed store-bought pesto (I was lazy) with mayo, more cheese, a squeeze of lemon, and a box of spinach. Mixed with a pound of pasta, a cup or so of frozen peas, and off we were.




For the sandwich, I cooked up about 3/4 lb of chicken tenderloins, 5-6 strips of lovely bacon (mmm, bacon) and sliced up some roma tomatoes, toasted up a big ol' loaf of ciabatta bread and assembled a ginormous sandwich. I spread prepared Caesar dressing (again, lazy) on one side of the bread, mayo on the other, then layered the toppings on. It made a big sandwich.



Put the salad and sandwich together, it was quite a meal!

Nigella's Perfect Pav

So, as you know, I heart Nigella Lawson, she is so beautiful and lovely to watch on TV, very soothing and her show is very beautifully produced. A calming show. Anyways - one dish I'd seen her make, I believe on Nigella Bites, for her family, was a pavlova - a dish with a meringue base, topped with whipped cream and fruit of some sort. I'd wanted to make it, but it always fell back in my brain as a possible dessert option. But at the end of last week I FINALLY remembered I'd wanted to make it, so yesterday, I took a stab, following a recipe from Nigella's Forever Summer. cookbook.

First, heat the oven to 350 degrees while you make a meringue - whip egg whites, add sugar, a touch of cornstarch, a touch of vinegar. Mound on a parchment lined baking sheet.






Next, load the baking sheet into the oven and immediately drop the temp to 300 degrees. This shocks the meringue. Bake for 60-75 minutes until the sides and top are quite crisp, but the center feels like it will be squishy. (A paraphrase of her technical description). Leave the pav to cool in the oven with the door open.

Whip up 1 c of whipping cream (I added sugar, more on that later, unsweetened whipped cream grosses me out) and once the pav is cool, invert the meringue onto a flat serving dish, and mound the whipped cream on top. Then, top with berries or other fruit of your choice (Nigella recommends the more sour fruits - passionfruit in particular, I opted for strawberries and blueberries, am v. dull) and serve!

Notes - I definitely over-sugared at each step. The base and cream were WAY too sweet for my taste, although R loved it and probably would have run around the house like a screaming 3 year old if I'd let him eat more. Luckily, my strawberries were quite tart, or else I'd have barely been able to eat the dish. That said, I did enjoy it. I would definitely make again, and who knows, I may opt for more exotic fruit! As you can see in the picture, in the base, you get the crispy outer edge of the meringue, but the middle is squishy, almost like a marshmallow, but much nicer tasting. V. lovely, a much lighter dessert option for summer!

Dinner on the Barbie

For a lovely summery evening, I prepared a lovely summery meal of Tequila Lime chicken and black beans and rice. For Ina's TL chicken, you marinade chicken breasts (I use boneless, skinless because that's what I usually have on hand) in tequila, OJ, lime juice, chili powder, garlic, salt, pepper, and in my case, some cayenne in place of a jalapeno, b/c I have problems operating peppers. Marinate as long as possible, then grill. Delish.


For my black beans and rice, which is actually more like black beans, onions, peppers, corn, and rice - saute two onions (chopped) in a small amount of olive oil over medium heat until softened, then add one chopped bell pepper, 3-5 garlic cloves (minced), some cayenne or red chili pepper flakes, LOTS of cumin (at least a tablespoon, more, I happened to run out), salt, pepper, and 2 cans of rinsed and drained black beans. On a whim I tossed in a big handful of frozen corn kernels. This was also quite tasty. If I'd had a can of diced tomatoes, or some fresh plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, I'd have thrown that in as well, towards the end of cooking. Serve with rice, although it is good plain, or in a salad.