My Own Test Kitchen

Almost Hands-Free Risotto

2011-10-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

My aunt always used to make risotto and I remember watching her stand over the stove, drink in hand, stirring and adding liquid for what seemed like forever. But the end result was always worth it. As an adult, I had never made risotto until recently because I'm not a big fan of anything that requires me to stand and stir for long periods of time (I know, I'm lazy, and probably have cooking ADD).

Then I was watching America's Test Kitchen one day and they introduced me to the "almost hands-free" risotto. As usual, I was skeptical. It went against everything I knew about risotto. But again, as usual, I was wrong and ATK was right. One of these days you'd think I would start trusting them, seeing as they test recipes hundreds of times...

Almost Hands-Free Risotto

Start to finish: 45 minutes

Makes 4 main dish servings

3 1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 cup water

1 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 1/3 cup arborio rice

2/3 cup dry white wine

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3/4 inch pieces

1 cup frozen, shelled edamame

salt to taste

First you will want to prepare your asparagus. Trim the ends and cut the stalks into 3/4 inch pieces. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch them for 1.5-2 minutes. This will lock in that beautiful green color and make them crisp tender.

Have you ever noticed that when you blanch asparagus, the water turns green? I figure that some of that green must be good flavor so I actually saved this water and added chicken bouillon to make my 3 and 1/3 cup of broth and then another cup for the water. You don't have to do that, but if you don't, you will need to bring the same amount of broth and water to a boil in a large sauce pan. This is the liquid you'll be adding to the risotto and it needs to be hot.

Next, heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the onions are softened but not browned, 4-7 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Next, add the rice and stir around until the edges of the rice are translucent around the edges. This takes a couple minutes.

Deglaze the pan with wine and stir until fully absorbed, another couple minutes.

When the wine is absorbed, add all but 1 cup of the broth blend.

This goes against everything we know about risotto, but just do it and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pan and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring only twice during cooking. Watch the progress below.

At the beginning...

After 5 minutes

After 10 minutes

After 15 minutes

After 20 minutes add the edamame and 1/2 cup of the remaining broth mixture. Stir gently until the risotto becomes creamy, about 3 minutes.

This liquid should be very thick, starchy and almost fully absorbed.

Next, throw in the asparagus and the parmesan cheese.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand, covered, for 5 minutes.

Add salt and pepper if you think it needs any. If your risotto gets too stiff, use the remaining broth to loosen it up.

Serve either vegetarian style:

Or with a nice sauteed chicken breast:

Super Duper Birthday Ice Cream Cake

2011-10-19T19:58:00.000-05:00

A couple years back, my dad asked for an ice cream cake for his birthday. The cake we had was so amazing that everyone in my family started requesting an ice cream cake for their birthdays. Now it's become kind of a tradition. If it's your birthday (Father's and Mother's Day have now also been incorporated) you get to choose what kind of ice cream is in the cake. This cake is easy to put together and can go with any ice cream you choose. This particular one was made with banana split ice cream but we've also had it with strawberry, neapolitan, cookies n cream, mint chocolate chip, tin roof sundae... you really can't go wrong.

Super Duper Birthday Ice Cream Cake
Start to finish: a few hours
Makes 8-10 servings

1/2 a standard carton of your favorite ice cream
1 bottle of hot fudge topping
1 box Jiffy white or yellow cake mix, prepared as directed (makes one layer)
1 container whipped cream
Pretty toppings (will vary based on ice cream, in this case I used bananas and vanilla wafers)

First, mix the cake mix per the directions.

Pour it into a non-stick spring form pan. It's important you use a spring form pan so that you can easily release the cake later.

Bake it as directed. Let it cool. Release the spring form sides to reveal the cake. You will see it is domed. We're going to shave this off so the cake is level.

Put the sides back onto the pan. Make sure they are clasped around the base. Pour the bottle of hot fudge into the middle of the cake and spread it evenly with an offset spatula. You may need to microwave the jar for 30 seconds to 1 minute so that it pours out easily.

Stick this in the freezer until the hot fudge has firmed up. I say give it an hour. If you have a deep freeze that's even better. It freezes better.

About 10 minutes before you are ready to take the cake out of the freezer, set out your ice cream to soften. When it is very soft and moldable, go ahead and place half a carton of it onto your cake.

Again, use your offset spatula to spread it evenly.

Put this back into the freezer until it is rock hard (probably another hour). When it's properly frozen, spread an entire carton of whipped topping over the top.

Are you drooling yet?

Sprinkle the cake with the toppings of your choosing. Crumbled cookies always make a delicious topper, but depending on the ice cream, you may want to use fresh fruit, or if you're feeling festive, colored sugar and/or sprinkles.

Put the cake in the freezer until you are ready to eat it. Set the cake out for 10 minutes before removing the spring form edges.

Even though you will be tempted to dig in right away, don't forget that technically the birthday boy/girl should get the first slice ;-)

Corn Chowder

2011-10-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

Fall brings a lot of foods back into my life that had been given a rest during the warm summer months. One of those foods is soup. Ok, so soup is kind of a category of foods, but nonetheless, as soon as fall comes I tend to get a little soup crazy. I have actually been wanting soup for quite some time but refuse to make it unless it's less than 80 degrees outside. I don't know about you, but I don't like my food to make me sweat, and if you eat soup when it's over 80 degrees outside, you will undoubtedly be sweating by the end of your bowl.

Corn Chowder is the perfect "kick off to fall" soup because you ideally want to make it while fresh corn, in the husk, is still available. This recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated, and they have yet to let me down.

Corn Chowder
Start to finish: 60 minutes
Makes 7 servings

8 ears of corn
1 onion, chopped
4 slices of bacon, chopped into bite size pieces
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup flour
5 cups water
3/4 pound red potatoes. cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup half and half

The first thing you'll want to do is bake your bacon. Never baked bacon? See how I did it here.

While it bakes, take a knife to the ears of corn and start stripping the kernels off. This is going to get a little messy. Try not to let corn fly everywhere. When you're done transfer the corn to a bowl and set aside.

This next step was a lot of hard work, and it didn't yield what I thought it would, so I'm not sure if I would do this again. You may try it and have better luck than I did.

Take the back of a butter knife and scrape away any remaining pulp on the cobs into a couple of paper towels.

Ring the pulp out, leaving the juice at the bottom of the bowl. Discard the pulp.

Given this last picture you can probably guess why I doubt the worthiness of this step. Maybe I am just a really good corn shucker and there wasn't much pulp left to scrape. The recipe says you should end up with 2/3 cup of juice. Clearly this didn't happen here. If you go through this step when you make this soup, let me know if your efforts yield a better result.

At this point your bacon should be baked. Pour all rendered bacon fat from the bottom of the sheet pan into the bottom of a dutch oven and turn the heat to medium.

Add the onion, thyme, salt, and pepper. If there's not enough bacon fat to go around, add in a tablespoon of butter for good measure. You are going to be making a roux a little later.

While you are waiting for your onions to soften, chop the potatoes.

Once the onions are cooked down, but not brown, add in the flour and cook that for about 30 seconds. Next, deglaze the pan with some water.

Add in the rest of the water and bring the whole thing to a boil. Once boiling, add the potatoes and corn.

Leave the soup uncovered until the potatoes have softened. This takes about 15 minutes.

Once the potatoes are cooked, pull 2 cups of the chowder out and let it cool for a couple minutes. Then process it in a blender until smooth. Not chunky at all. This is going to further thicken your soup.

Return the puree to the chowder and add in the half and half, bacon, and reserved corn juice.

My husband wants me to warn you that this soup may not be as thick as a "traditional" chowder. He reminded me only at least a half dozen times that my soup was a little on the thin side. But gosh darn it, it's tasty and that's all that matters!

I got this great idea from 100 Days of Real Food to individually jar and freeze the leftovers. Perfect for work day lunches!

Easy Wheat Pizza Dough

2011-10-14T07:51:00.000-05:00

If you've been following my blog a while, you have probably put together that I like pizza. I make it almost every week. Never the same pizza either. I love to experiment with sauces, toppings, crusts... pizza can be anything you want it to be.

However, one thing I haven't done until now is make my own crust. I always just use a store bought package. This is certainly not because I like store bought mixes. Every kind we have made is never crispy enough, but the reason I keep buying them is because pizza is one of those go-to quick and easy meals. If you make your own crust it's no longer quick because you have to let it rise. This means planning ahead, which is not something I do when I am making pizza...

But it just so happened that I was craving pizza on a weekend, so I had plenty of time to make up some dough. I really liked this dough because it is made with whole wheat flour, it turned out crispy, and the recipe makes two pizzas worth of dough so you can freeze the second batch and have something ready for any weeknight.

Wheat Pizza Dough
Start to finish: 90 minutes
Makes 2 pizza crusts

1 tsp sugar
1.5 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour

In a medium bowl (or oversized measuring cup), dissolve the sugar into the warm water. Mix the yeast into the water until dissolved. Let this stand until it starts to foam, about 5 minutes. Then stir in the oil and salt into the yeast mixture. In another bowl, mix together the flours.

Pour the yeast mixture into your mixer bowl. Turn the mixer on with the dough hook attachment and start incorporating the flour.

Once the dough is well mixed, turn your mixer on the 2 setting and knead for a couple minutes, or until the dough forms a ball.

Oil your hands and coat the dough ball on both sides before covering the bowl with a towel and letting it rise for an hour.

The dough should have doubled in size after an hour.

Punch the dough down and cut it into 2 equal pieces. Freeze one of the pieces for future use and get ready to make a crush from the other piece.

For this pizza I oiled a small cookie sheet and spread the dough with my fingers until it covered the bottom. Start from the middle and work your way out.

Let the dough rest while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Pre-bake the crust for 10-12 minutes before taking it out and loading it with toppings.

Bake the pizza for 7-10 more minutes, until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.

Making your own crust takes a little more time, but it's way better than anything you can buy at the store. What's your favorite kind of pizza?

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have been eating a lot of muffins for breakfast lately. They are easy to make, they're portable, and if you microwave them for 10-15 seconds they taste freshly baked every time. They also go really well with my morning coffee!

Recently while roaming the baking aisle at the grocery store, I stumbled upon cinnamon chips. Immediately my mind went to muffins. So, I augmented my favorite apple muffin recipe and out came these delicious Apple Cinnamon Muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Start to finish: 45 minutes
Makes 18 muffins

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup 1% milk
1 golden delicious apple, chopped into tiny pieces
1/2 bag Cinnamon Chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prep your muffin tins with non-stick spray. Whisk together the sugar and oil. Add in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the applesauce and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Then incorporate the dry mix into the wet mix.

Last, pour in the milk.

Peel and chop the golden delicious apple into tiny pieces.

Then fold the apples and cinnamon chips into the batter with a wooden spoon.

Fill your muffin cups almost all the way to the top.

Then bake them 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool them on a wire rack but make sure and taste test one while it is still warm :-)

I personally think these muffins are best when reheated in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. It remelts the cinnamon chips and makes them gooey and delicious. If you're not sure how you're going to eat 18 muffins, don't worry, they refrigerate and freeze well.

Chicken Tetrazzini

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

I loved chicken tetrazzini growing up. But the chicken tetrazzini we used to have...came from a box. Sad to say my grown up tastes do not allow for many pasta dishes from a box, except the occasional macaroni n cheese. Hence why I haven't had chicken tetrazzini in years.

It must have been fate when I watched Giada DeLaurentis make the ultimate chicken tetrazzini from scratch. Her version, however, included lots of butter, whole milk, even cream. I decided I would try to lighten it up just a bit.

Chicken Tetrazzini
Start to finish: 70 minutes
Makes 9-12 servings

16 oz shredded chicken
8 ounces whole wheat linguine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup white wine
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cup 1% milk
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

This recipe has a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps so I find it less stressful if I pull them all out at the beginning and do any prep work ahead of time. This means chopping the onions, garlic and parsley; measuring the pasta, chicken, liquids, cheese, and peas.... you get the picture. Also preheat the oven to 450 and spray your casserole dish with olive oil spray. Trust me, if you get everything ready, this casserole will come together in a snap.

Start by bringing a pot of water to boil and cooking your linguine just short of al dente. If you slightly undercook the pasta it will keep cooking in the oven and soak up some of the sauce.

While that's working, saute the onions, garlic and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of thyme in one tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.

Once the onions are translucent, add the wine and simmer until it reduces down to almost nothing.

Transfer the onion mixture to your casserole dish. Add the chicken and peas at this point.

In the same pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour, allowing it to cook off for a minute.

Then whisk in the broth, milk, remaining thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Add more salt if you want.

Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring the heat down to a simmer and whisk until the sauce thickens, like this:
Don't let the sauce thicken too much, because it will thicken up more in the oven.

Add the linguine to the sauce and combine the two.

Then add the pasta to the casserole dish along with the parsley. Mix it all together and distribute it evenly along the casserole dish.

In a small bowl, mix together the parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle this mixture over the entire casserole. Spray the top of the casserole with olive oil spray to help with browning.

Bake about 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

I sprinkled some chives over the top, which you can see burned. If you want to make the dish pretty with some chives, wait until after you cook it :-)

Depending on how hungry you are, divide this casserole into either 9 or 12 servings. Serve with a nice salad.

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

2011-10-08T07:50:00.001-05:00

If anyone is still reading this blog after my extended absence (aka laziness) over these last couple weeks, I love you so. I could make lots of excuses for you as to why I haven't been blogging but you don't want to hear about my crazy job, my vacation, the multiple culinary failures that made me doubt myself...No, you just want to get to the cookies!

Now, if you think the combination of chocolate and bacon sounds disgusting, you would be very wrong. So very wrong. Bacon is becoming a very popular ingredient in desserts. Any by popular I mean in the big fancy restaurants that we don't have here in Cow Town USA. Here the only restaurant getting behind the bacon craze is Denny's.

Why should they get to have all the fun?

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Makes 18 cookies

5 strips bacon
1 cup plus 3 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter (feel free to substitute up to 3 tbsp applesauce...but they will still be bacon cookies no matter how much butter you use)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate chips

First we are going to bake our bacon. In my opinion baked bacon is way better than microwave bacon or skillet fried bacon, mainly because the excess fat bakes off the meat, leaving your bacon super crispy and way less fatty.

Turn your oven up to 400 degrees. Place a cooling rack inside a foil lined cookie sheet. Lay 5 slices of bacon across the grates.

Bake these for approximately 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Also turn the vents on before you open the oven door because the fat will smoke at 400 degrees.

When it is done, it should look like this:

And in case you are curious, this is all the fat you leave behind.

I thought about subbing this for the butter in the recipe but the recipe calls for solid butter, not melted, so I just tossed the bacon fat.

While your bacon is baking, prepare your dough. In a medium bowl, toss together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In your mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugars.

Then add the egg and extract. Beat that together and then incorporate the dry ingredients.

Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips and the bacon which you will finely chop after it comes out of the oven. Oh and also, when your bacon is done, turn the oven down to 350 before you bake the cookies.

Spoon these by tablespoon onto a cookie sheet. Give these cookies plenty of room to grow because they spread out nicely.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges just start to brown.

After they sit for a couple minutes, scoop them onto a cooling rack. I don't have anything else to say about these cookies, except...

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Bringing new life to leftovers: Taco salad

2011-09-12T09:23:00.001-05:00

With just two people in the house, no matter what I make, I always have leftovers. And sometimes I get sick of eating those leftovers all the time. So every once and a while, I will take my leftovers and turn them into something else. Today I took leftovers from my taco dinner last week and turned them into a lovely taco salad.

Taco Salad
Makes one serving
Start to finish: 5 minutes

3 oz leftover taco meat
1/2 oz of shredded cheddar
5 tortilla chips
1 small tomato, diced
2 cups lettuce, chopped
1/4 cup chunky salsa
jalepeno slices (optional)

The assembly of this is pretty straight forward. Microwave the taco meat for 30 seconds.

Add the meat and cheese to the lettuce you will have chopped up into bite size pieces.

Don't forget those crunchy tortilla chips. Crumble them up into bite size pieces for added crunch.

Mmm it looks good already doesn't it?

For some added color top this salad with tomatoes. Then for extra spice add jalepenos and the salsa of your choice. Using salsa as your dressing will be just as flavorful as regular dressing with a fraction of the calories,, making this salad healthier than some.

Such a delicious way to revamp leftovers, and it will probably take you less time to make than it did for me to make this post. Enjoy.

Pickled Peppers

2011-09-09T08:52:00.000-05:00

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...ok I'll stop. I don't know if you've ever had something pickled that wasn't a pickle, but I'm here to tell you, everything is better pickled. Even green beans. Oh how I love my Aunt Connie's pickled green beans. But I digress.

I have eaten many jars of pickled bounty so I figured it was time I finally learned how to pickle things myself. But of course, I didn't want to invest in all those fancy canning contraptions. I also didn't want to buy a dozen mason jars. So, I searched. And searched. I finally came across a recipe that didn't require you to "can" your pickles the old fashioned way. I also found enough people online who said you didn't HAVE to use glass jars that I decided my plastic jar would suffice (but if you have mason jars on hand, by all means use those).

Pickled Peppers
Makes 2 large jars
Start to finish: 1 week (15 minutes prep)

1 lb peppers (I used Italian peppers but any pepper will do)
2 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp black peppercorns
2 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 bay leaves
4 cloves of garlic

Cut the peppers into rings that are about an inch thick.

Bring all the other ingredients to a boil in a saucepan. When the liquid starts to boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.

While that is going on, place your peppers into your container of choice.

After 5 minutes, pour the pickling liquid over the peppers.

Cover tightly with a lid and let the container cool on your counter.

Once it's cooled, put it in the refrigerator for A WEEK! Yes, a week. You have to let those pickling juices do their work! I must also put a disclaimer here that because these are not pickled the official way, you have to keep them in the refrigerator. These are not the kind of pickles that you can keep on the shelf. Unless you like botchulism. But if you keep them in the fridge you'll be fine.

Good Ol' Fashioned Tacos

2011-09-07T08:30:00.000-05:00

When was the last time you had just a plain old taco? I'm talkin' ground beef, lettuce, cheese, maybe a little salsa, all in a crunchy taco shell. Nothing more, nothing less. Tacos are such a simple meal, but I think because they are so simple, that people are always looking for ways to jazz them up. You can get all kinds of tacos these days. Fish tacos, chicken tacos, vegetarian tacos, soft tacos, taco salad...they add avocados and switch up cheeses... the taco has a major identity crisis these days. So, in honor of the taco and all its greatness, I decided to make just plain old tacos, which is not to say they are boring, just under-appretiated.

Beef Tacos

Start to finish: 30 minutes

Makes 4-6 servings

1 lb lean ground beef

1 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp onion flakes

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 cup water

1 box Old El Paso Taco shells

lettuce, cheddar, and salsa for topping

Brown one pound of ground beef in a large skillet that has been put over medium-high heat. While the meat is browning, mix all the spices in a small bowl and chop your lettuce into strips.

When the meat is browned, drain the excess fat through a colander.

Return the meat to the pan and add the water and seasoning. Stir until everything is intermixed.

Bring the mixture to a boil and it should thicken into a meaty sauce rather quickly, couple minutes tops.

That's it! Throw in some refried beans and some chips and salsa, and dinner is READY!

A note on taco shells. Did you know that it is possible to consume whole grain corn? Yes, corn, like wheat, is considered a whole grain when the whole kernel is used. For more information on how this works and what to look for, see this lovely post from one of my favorite blogs, 100 Days of Real Food.

In the meantime, allow me to recommend Old El Paso Taco Shells, which among its four ingredients, includes ground whole kernel corn.

I hope you enjoy your simple taco dinner! I know I did.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

2011-09-05T16:01:00.000-05:00

I know I have been clamoring over summer for a while now, but my true love is fall. Cool days, warm flavors, hearty food. That is fall to me. My husband will tell you that I have been dying for a bowl of soup since July, though everytime I have deemed it seasonally inappropriate. But now it's September, which means two things: I can finally pull out my fall decorations (my house gets kind of lonely between 4th of July and Labor Day) and I can start putting pumpkin puree in just about anything I see fit.

These muffins have a whole wheat twist to the version I have made in previous years. I got the original recipe from Ellie Krieger. She had already lightened them up quite a bit but I took them one step further.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Start to finish: 45 minutes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup milk with 2 tsp lemon juice)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk together the dry team: flours, spices, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. You're probably thinking to yourself, wow, that's a lot of spices! Way more than what the recipe would normally call for. I don't know about you, but with the exception of pumpkin pie, I find that pumpkin-things often lack that pumpkin flavor. And seeing as pumpkin really has no flavor, it's the spices that often lead us with more to be desired. So, I kicked it up significantly. It's pretty much impossible to overdo it with cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie blend when you are making pumpkin anything, so have no fear.

In another bowl, whisk together the wet team, starting with molasses and sugar. When those are mixed together, add the oil and one egg. Then add the pumpkin, vanilla, and the second egg.

Whisk the flour mixture into the wet mixture in two batches, alternating with the buttermilk.

Spray your muffin pan with cooking spray. Remember these are muffins, not cupcakes, so those cupcake liners you pulled out can go back in the cupboard.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins. The tins will be pretty full but that's ok. You'll just get bigger muffins.

Bake these for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Pop them out of the tin and let them cool on a rack.

If you're like me and can't eat 12 muffins before they go bad, wrap them individually in saran wrap and freeze them in a ziploc bag. Take them out as needed and microwave them for 10-15 seconds in the wrap. They will taste just as good as when you baked them!

Chicken Paillards

2011-09-02T07:53:00.000-05:00

Is there ever an end to what you can cook when your protein of choice is chicken? It's quite possibly the most versatile item in your kitchen. This recipe is so easy and flavorful that it's perfect for a busy weeknight meal.

Chicken Paillard
Makes: 4 servings
Start to finish: 20 minutes

2 very large chicken breasts, or 4 small ones
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 Tbsp fresh Thyme or Rosemary, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp flour
more salt and pepper

You might be wondering to yourself, what the heck is a chicken paillard? It's a fancy french term for when you saute meat that has been pounded out very thin. Sounds way better than "flat chicken" doesn't it?

All kidding aside, start by taking out a full work day's worth of frustration by pounding this chicken until it can be pounded no more (about 1/2 inch thick). If you use two large breasts, cut them in half.

Salt and pepper each side liberally.

Next, chop your herbs. The great thing about this dish is that what herbs you use are completely up to you. Any will do. Today I used rosemary, parsley and oregano. Thyme and basil would also be good. Just roll with what you have on hand.

Heat your oil and skillet over medium-high heat. Then dress the chicken breasts with the chopped herbs and lemon zest.

When the pan is nice and hot, lay down the chicken and brown them on each side for 3 minutes.

When the chicken is browned on each side, turn the heat down to medium so it doesn't burn and cook another minute or two, or until the chicken measures 165 degrees. Plate these under some aluminum foil while you make your gravy. Mmmmm gravy...

Melt one tablespoon of butter in the skillet you cooked your chicken in. Whisk in the flour and let it cook for a minute. Then add the chicken broth. Continue whisking constantly until it thickens and starts to resemble gravy.

Once it has thickened, take it off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve this alongside a grain and vegetable...

Or do what I did and serve it over a nice salad!

Super cool corn trick

2011-09-01T07:23:00.000-05:00

This is not a recipe at all, but when I saw this at my bestie's house this weekend, I HAD to share.

Tis the season for corn on the cob. But gosh darn it, corn is hard to butter isn't it? The butter is so swishy sloshy, and even if you use one of those corn dish things, more melted butter ends up in the bottom of the dish than on your corn.

So, imagine my excitement upon learning this trick. Imagine this: I'm standing there in my friend's kitchen, watching every thing get spread out for dinner, and someone cries, "Don't forget the buttered bread!" At first I was confused as I watched them slather a thick layer of butter on a simple piece of sandwich bread. This feast certainly did not warrant it.

Then someone explained to me that they use it to butter their corn! Yes, you heard me right. They use the butter bread to butter the corn. You cradle the bread in your hand like you would a hot dog bun, and then twirl your corn cob around.

Genius! You get so much butter on the corn it's ridiculous. I was so impressed I had to spread the word. Think it's weird? Try it next time you have corn and then we'll see who's laughing.

Pasta Ponza

2011-08-28T17:18:00.000-05:00

Hello my loyal followers! I am so sorry for slacking last week. Between being out of town, being sick, then being out of town AGAIN, I didn't exactly get much cooking done last week. I'm still feeling a little under the weather but I got sick of laying around and wallering in my sorrows so back into the kitchen I went!

I actually made this dish a while ago, but am just getting around to blogging about it. As the tomatoes roast in the oven, they make their own flavorful sauce that you then mix in with pasta. I adapted this recipe. It probably would have been fabulous just as written but as you may have noticed, I am kind of a know it all, and I have to put my own twist on everything (probably why I also added chicken to this recipe).

Pasta Ponza
Makes 4 servings
Start to finish: 45 minutes

8 ounces yellow or orange cherry tomatoes, halved
1 large heirloom tomato (or another 8 ounces of red cherry tomatoes), chopped
1/4 cup capers
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
8 ounces whole wheat penne pasta
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 lb chicken breasts
flour for dredging + salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and then start prepping your tomatoes. Halve the cherry tomatoes and chop the heirloom tomato in large chunks.

If you're wondering what makes a tomato an heirloom tomato, besides their hype, they are funny lookin' on the inside. They looked good at the farmer's market so I figured, why not?

Toss these tomatoes with the capers, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Top with breadcrumbs and seasoning.

Put this concoction in the oven for half an hour. While they are roasting, boil the water for your pasta and get started on this chicken.

The chicken in this recipe is quite simple. I pounded out about a pound of chicken breasts to an inch thickness, just so they would cook evenly. I coated them in salt and pepper and then in flour.

I heated up a few drizzles of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, then browned the chicken for about 4 minutes on each side.

Now, you could cook this chicken up in a variety of ways. Afterall, you're just going to slice it over the top of your pasta. I did this because I really think this method adds a lot of flavor, and it's not difficult at all. When your chicken is done, plate it and cover it with aluminum foil so it can stay warm while you finish your dish.

Right about now, your timer should be going off on your tomatoes. If the breadcrumbs are not brown after 30 minutes, turn your broiler on and let them sit for a couple more minutes.

Simply spoon this make-shift sauce onto the pasta that I know you cooked to al dente and drained, right? Don't leave any of the syrup-like tomato juice at the bottom of the pan. That's where the flavor is!

Next, add the Romano and parsley, and toss it all together.

Last but not least, slice the chicken and sprinkle it on top.

I have to be honest, I did not think this meal would be anything special because the ingredients are so simple but WOW. (That's the word I kept muttering as I ate this bowl and it takes a lot to render me speechless). But don't take my word for it!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

2011-08-22T07:16:00.000-05:00

Good barbecue is so subjective, and it's all based on the sauce. If you've got a good sauce, you could slather it on just about any cut of meat and make it taste good. If you don't have a good sauce, nothing will save you. But what constitutes a good sauce? Ask any cook and he/she will tell you something different, especially as you travel through different parts of the country. Not only that, but some people will argue that different types of meat warrant different types of sauce.

I have tried about five different sauce recipes for my crock pot pulled pork sandwiches and I think I have landed on one that it worth sharing. Like I said though, good barbecue is in the eye of the beholder, so you will have to judge for yourself.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Makes 6-8 servings

Start to finish: 8 hours

2-3 lbs pork roast (shoulder is traditional, pork loin is leaner)

1 large onion, quartered and separated

1.5 cups ketchup

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1.4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp liquid smoke

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

6-8 Hamburger buns

pickle slices

Place the roast in your crock pot with the onion pieces.

Mix together the ingredients of your sauce in a medium bowl.

Pour the sauce over the pork. (it will be thin as far as sauces go but the liquid will be absorbed by the pork)

And then just put the lid on and let it cook on the LOW setting for 8 hours.

Now, I don't know about you, but I can never leave something in the crock pot for exactly 8 hours. Chances are I am doing this before work and the time between when I leave and when I get back is more like 9-10 hours. In my old crock pot, this would make everything dry and overcooked. But, no more. Not with my new crock pot.

I registered for this when I got married. You can choose to program it for a desired amount of hours, and then when that time has elapsed, the slow cooker switches over to warm. You can also insert a thermometer and program it to stop cooking once the desired temperature is met. No more over-cooking! Best crock pot ever.

Now, that being said, I personally think the meat keeps cooking a little even after it changes to "warm" so I will often shorten the cooking time by half an hour or so to compensate. So, if you have a programmable slow cooker, try 7.5 hours.

When you get home, that smell in the air is your beloved pork roast. Take the lid off and shred the meat with a large fork.

There will be juices at the bottom so make sure you incorporate all those into the shredded pieces.

You are not probably ready to eat as soon as you get home, so pop the lid back on and let the pork sit on warm until you are ready to sit down to dinner. This extra time will allow the juices to soak up into the meat.

When it's time to eat, pile your meat onto a hearty bun that won't turn into soggy mush and top with pickles.

I served these sandwiches with fries and salad. Baked beans would also be good.

Tomato Pie

2011-08-19T08:35:00.000-05:00

Wait wait wait. Don't be turned off by the name Tomato Pie. I have thought long and hard about a new name for this, because every time I tell someone about my Tomato Pie people are automatically turned off because they think pies should be sweet. But I really can't think of what else to call it. I could call it deep dish pizza, but it's really not at all, so I hate to call it that. This is my Nana's recipe and this is what she always called it so I will continue to call it that as well. Just humor me and try it before you pass any judgement, because it's amazing deliciousness.

Tomato Pie
Makes 8 servings
Start to finish: 60 minutes

1 refrigerated pie crust
1/3 cup pesto
2 medium sized onions, sliced
6 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
6 large roma tomatoes
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup romano cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 dozen fresh basil leaves
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Start by rolling out your refrigerated pie crust into a greased deep dish pie pan. Pre-bake your crust as directed on the package, though don't let it brown very much.

Chop the onions into half-rings and mince the garlic.

Bring one tablespoon of oil up to medium high heat and then add the onions, garlic, salt, pepper and one teaspoon of the Italian seasoning. Brown them to the early stage of caramelization.

When the pie crust is out of the oven, spread pesto across the bottom. Then pile on the onions. Slightly pack them down. (Make sure your oven is now set to 450 if it wasn't already when you pre-baked your crust)

Sprinkle on the three cheeses and another teaspoon of seasoning.

Layer on the basil leaves.

Next, slice your tomatoes.

Now, there has been some trial and error in this department so allow me to explain what to do and not do. First of all, I tried making this with a mixture of regular and Roma tomatoes. Don't do this. Use only Roma tomatoes. They are meatier, with less liquid, which will keep your pie from becoming soggy. Second, it's probably best that you quarter your Roma tomatoes into wedges. You will see that I cut mine into half inch slices. This is very pretty BUT, when you go to cut your pie it becomes a disaster as it is difficult to slice through the tomatoes. If you do wedges, they are narrow enough that you can cut slices without ever having to actually slice a tomato in the process. Go figure, my Nana's recipe instructs you to do wedges and use Roma tomatoes. Silly me for thinking I knew better.

But I digress. Once you have sliced up your tomatoes, layer them in a pinwheel type pattern, starting at the outside and working your way in.

Sprinkle the last teaspoon of Italian seasoning over the top.

Bake this pie for 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Depending on how long you pre-baked your crust, it may be done. If not, turn on your broiler and watch it until the pie is golden brown. The tomatoes should show signs of wrinkling.

As tempting as it may be, you need to let this pie cool so that it can set up. If you slice it too soon, just like any other pie, all the insides will ooze out.

Eat this just like you would pizza.

Look at those beautiful layers.

Fish Tacos

2011-08-17T10:31:00.001-05:00

Over the last year or so, I have been making a concerted effort towards trying new foods and re-trying foods I grew up hating. Through this adventure I have successfuly tackled the following: mushrooms, tomatoes, pork, broccolini, asparagus, nectarines, clementines, tangelos, black beans, cauliflower, parsnips, refried beans, kiwi, anchovies and tofu.

But there is one thing I have refused to try (or re-try I should say) and that is fish. And by fish I mean the entire food group. From shrimp to lobster to tilapia, I stay away from it all. Why is that, you ask? Well, I have several childhood memories, one involving me choking on a piece of catfish, one involving me getting sick after eating shrimp, and one involving my parents LYING TO ME about what calamari was and then after they came clean I was horrified. So, I just don't eat fish. The smell alone makes me want to gag and the thought of it entering my mouth sends chills down my spine.

On the other side of the spectrum, my husband loves fish. He orders it almost every time we go out (probably because I refuse to make it at home). He has begged me, countless times, to "just take a bite" and I always refuse. But this blog is all about testing and learning to cook new things so when my husband sent me a recipe for fish tacos, I said to myself, "You've already eaten tofu and God knows how weird that was so fish can't be any worse."

I combined several recipes found online to create this meal. The marinade came from Bobby Flay, though the cooking method and garnishes were based off other recipes I saw online. The crema was adapted from Allrecipes.

Hind sight 20/20, I am so glad he suggested this meal because now I can add one more food to my repertoire: Mahi Mahi. Without further ado, I am proud to present to you my fish tacos.

Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos
Makes: 4 servings
Start to finish: 1 hour

For the marinade:
1 lb Mahi Mahi
1/4 cup canola oil
juice and zest from 1 lime
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp salt

For the crema:
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/4 cup reduced fat mayonaise
zest and juice from 1 lime
1 jalepeno pepper, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried dill weed
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

For assembly:
8 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup cilantro
2 roma tomatoes, diced

Mix all marinade ingredients together in a bowl and toss the fish to coat. Cover and let it sit in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

While the fish is marinating, put together your crema. Just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until everything is well incorporated. I'd never had crema before this meal and I have to tell you, I wish I could spread it on everything. It's tangy but spicy at the same time. It really brightens up the whole meal.

This can go sit in the fridge with your fish. You should have just enough time to put together your garnish tray before the fish is done marinating. Julienne the red cabbage, dice the tomatoes, and lightly chop the cilanto, though don't chop it too much. We are treating it like lettuce in this meal.

By now, your fish should be done marinating. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. I did not put any oil in the pan because the fish is already coated in it. Lay your filets down in the heated skillet and let them brown for 90 seconds. I sprinkled them with some salt because previous reviews online had said there wasn't enough salt in the recipe.

After 90 seconds, they should be nice and browned on one side so flip them over and start watching the temperature. Don't forget to salt the other side.

If you don't have a meat thermometer, cook for another two minutes or so. I just stuck in my thermometer and waited for the temp to rise to 145 degrees. I don't know from experience but I have been told overcooked fish has a nasty texture so try not to do that :-)

Let your filets rest for several minutes before shredding them with a fork.

At this point, I'm thinking, "Eh, looks like chicken. This may not be so bad."

Be sure to heat up your corn tortillas in the microwave for 10-15 seconds so they don't crack on you when you're trying to eat your taco.

Besides the traditional garnishes, I served my fish tacos with cilantro-lime rice, mexican corn, and upon request, some chips and salsa.

I thought this was a pretty damn good meal, and coming from me, that means alot.

Pork Fried Rice

2011-08-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

I love takeout fried rice, but it is super hard to make at home if you don't have a personal hibachi chef in your pantry. I have tried many times and the flavor is always off. It just doesn't taste the same. However, I am stubborn so I keep making it again and again. When I made this, I was more just trying to use up miscellaneous ingredients than anything else, and what I ended up with was quite delicious! Maybe all this time I've just been trying to hard? Makes you wonder.

Pork Fried Rice
Makes 4 main course servings
Start to finish: 30 minutes

2 pork loin chops
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup instant brown rice
1.75 cups water
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 eggs, scrambled
3/4 cup frozen diced carrots
3/4 cup frozen green beans, cut into small pieces
3-4 green onions for garnish

Bring 1.75 cups of water to a boil and cook the instant brown rice as directed. When it is done, set it aside.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Season your chops with salt and pepper before laying them in the skillet. Brown on each side for three minutes, turn the heat down to medium and wait for the chops to come up to 145 degrees.

Remove from heat and let them rest for several minutes so the juices can redistribute. When they are cooled, chop them into bite size pieces. Go ahead and chop your carrot and green beans as well.

With the leftover oil still in the pan, add in a teaspoon of oil and bring it up to medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and saute for one minute. Add another teaspoon of oil with the vegetables and saute for two minutes. Then add the final teaspoon of oil when you add the rice and pork. After you toss everything around and let the rice brown for a minute or two, add the soy sauce.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and cover the skillet while you scramble your eggs.

When you're ready to eat, add the egg to the rice and top with green onion slices.

This is really a one pot meal so make sure you put a heaping serving on your plate. Egg rolls would be nice here, wouldn't they? Maybe next time...

New Look

2011-08-14T13:29:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here. I wanted a layout that was more clean, bold, and easy to read. What do you think? Leave your comments below.

Spinach Alfredo Pizza

2011-08-12T08:00:00.002-05:00

As you devour your Chicken Caesar Pasta leftovers, you are probably wondering what the heck you are going to do with all that extra spinach in the fridge. The answer, my friends, is Spinach Alfredo pizza.

Spinach Alfredo Pizza
Makes one pizza
Start to finish: 30 minutes

Your favorite pizza crust (could be a pre-made crust, store-bought mix, store-bought dough, or maybe you are brave and make your own dough from scratch)

For the sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup 1% milk
1/2 tsp flour
1/4 cup marinara sauce

For the pizza:
1 packed cup fresh spinach
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4-1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese OR 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella + 1/2 cup fresh mozzarella pearls
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Prepare your pizza dough as instructed. Prebake your crust for 7-10 minutes, or until it has just started to brown on top.

While your crust is pre-baking, you will have time to make what I am going to call "Pink Alfredo Sauce". It's a Katie original. Watch out.

Melt your butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.

When it is completely melted, stir in the parmesan.

Whisk in 1 tsp flour into your milk, then whisk the milk mixture into the sauce pan. Turn the heat up to medium-high and keep whisking until the sauce thickens up. It should only take a couple minutes.

Once the sauce is thickened turn the heat off and add the marinara sauce to it. It should be... pink. :-) Ok so maybe it's orange but pink sounds prettier. If you prefer plain old alfredo sauce just double the butter, milk and cheese, omitting the marinara sauce. All the cool kids use pink sauce though so you have been advised.

Assuming you have pulled out your crust by now, cover it with the pink sauce.

Then layer half of your spinach and the fresh mozzarella pearls.

I got these on sale at the grocery store and they are so much better than shredded mozzarella. When you bake them they melt into these gooey cheese pockets that are perfect on your pizza. If you can find them, I would use them instead of every day shredded mozzarella.

The only thing about using the pearls is that they won't completely cover your pizza. So if you use them, you will need to "fill in the blanks" with the parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle the rest of your spinach on top. Finish it off with a teaspoon of Italian seasoning.

Bake your crust until it is crispy and the cheese has completely melted, about 7 minutes.

Slice and enjoy, preferrably with a glass of white wine. This is not your every day beer pizza. It is special, and therefore deserves something with a little more class.

Chicken Caesar Pasta

2011-08-10T08:00:00.003-05:00

I was working from home the other day, Food Network humming in the background, and I caught the tail end of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. By tail end, I mean the last 2 minutes where she puts together her meal presentation and devours it in front of you.

I love Rachael Ray, but after being on air for 10 years, sometimes she has to get a little creative. I mean, how many 30 minute meals can one person come up with? This one was a doozey- Chicken Caesar Pasta. I am a fairweather salad fan but stick a Caesar Salad in front of me and it will be toast in 30 seconds. Something to do with the dressing, cheese, and croutons that make it barely resemble a salad....

So, if you take the amazing taste out of the salad and you slather it over some pasta, I can't imagine how this flavor combo could get any better. I hadn't seen her make it, but I knew it had to be delicious so I found the recipe and whipped it up for dinner this week.

You can find Rachael's (we're on a first name basis) original recipe here. I have slightly altered it to make it more convenient and slightly lighten it up.

Chicken Caesar Pasta
Makes 4 servings
Start to finish: 30 minutes

2 8oz chicken breasts
8 tsp homemade or store bought pesto

8oz whole wheat spaghetti
9oz fresh spinach
4 anchovies
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
juice from one lemon
1/2 cup shredded Romano cheese
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup water

I hope you have prepared yourself for an explosion of Caesar flavor, because that is exactly what you'll get by making this recipe.

You have two 8oz chicken breasts in front of you, but this recipe makes 4 servings. The way we are going to approach this is by pounding out the chicken to a half inch thickness.

Then slice the breasts in half to make two pieces, for a total of four.

Salt and pepper each side of the chicken breast and then spread one teaspoon of pesto on each side. Alert your grill master that the chicken is ready and you are done with this portion of the meal (if you lack a grill master these could probably be cooked in a non-stick skillet or baked in the oven, but I have a grill master so I cannot attest to how they turn out).

Put on a pot of water for the pasta. Boil til al dente. Save 1/3 cup of the pasta water before draining.

Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is thoroughly heated, turn the heat down to medium and add the anchovies. Cook these until they melt into the oil, which will take a couple minutes.

Side note: I can already hear you saying, "Ew, anchovies." Stop. Do not fear anchovies. If asked, 95% of Americans will say they don't like anchovies. If you ask them if they like Caesar Salad, 95% of of them will say, "Mmmm I love Caesar salad!" If I am the one breaking this to you, I am sorry, but that salty deliciousness in Caesar dressing that you can't quite put your finger on is anchovies. So, in the most simplist of explanations...Caesar lovers = anchovie lovers. Do not try to substitute or omit this ingredient. Just accept that you love anchovies and and move on.

When your anchovies have melted, turn the heat to medium-low and add the garlic and Worcestershire. Start grabbing spinach by the handfuls and placing them in the skillet. When they look half wilted (not wilted but HALF wilted) remove the pan from the heat. The reason why I emphasize half wilted is because they will continue to wilt a little bit after you stop cooking them and I personally don't like overly wilted greens. They are slimy and well...not green.

Pour the greens into a bowl with your cooked, drained pasta. Squeeze juice from one lemon over the bowl and set aside.

Crack open an egg and separate the white from the yolk. Only the yolk is necessary in this recipe. Beat it up until it's just a liquid.

In a small bowl whisk in the hot-but-no-longer-boiling-hot water into the egg. Whisk furociously until the two are intermixed or you will have scrambled eggs.

Stir in the egg mixture with the pasta/greens.

Add the cheese and toss.

Slice your perfectly grilled chicken breasts on the diagnal and place over an individual serving of pasta.

All hail Caesar.

Mini Whole Wheat Cake Donuts

2011-08-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

If you're wondering what my favorite breakfast food is, it's donuts. Cake donuts with white icing and rainbow sprinkles. I know, super healthy right? That's why I never eat them. And that's why when I do eat them they are oh so good.

If you told me that I could make donuts semi-healthy and have them still be delicious, I'd be all over it.

Enter, the donut pan. It's this fabulous muffin-like pan that allows you to bake cake donuts. Not fry. BAKE. What's better is that there are 12 donuts to a pan. These mini donuts allow for portion control (assuming you can hold yourself back to two or three). If you're a fellow guilt-ridden donut eater, you need a donut pan STAT.

Finding a donut pan was not nearly as difficult as finding a donut recipe. Most donut recipes are traditional and of the few donut pan recipes in existence, I have found several that just didn't do it for me. I even bought donut pan mix at World Market and didn't like it. So, when I say I have THE donut pan recipe for you, trust that it is tried and true. PS-I made them with whole wheat pastry flour this time and they were still amazing.

Mini Donuts
Makes 12 mini donuts
Start to finish: 30 minutes

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
4 Tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted. Do not let this mixture get too hot! Just warm enough to melt the butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Whisk until well combined.

Pour the batter into the donut tins.

The batter will be pretty thin but that's ok.

Bake these for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let these cool in the pan for a couple minutes and then invert the pan over a cooling rack. By tapping the pan with a wooden spoon, the donuts should release rather easily. If they are stuck on the rim, run a toothpick around the edges to loosen them up.

Once these are cooled it's time for the fun part! Dressing the donuts.

Topping Suggestions:

powdered sugar

powdered sugar + cinnamon

powdered sugar mixed with milk to make icing + rainbow sprinkles

melted chocolate mixed with milk to make icing + chocolate sprinkles

Put your topping choice in a bowl and coat the donuts like so:

Now get ready to drool over several consecutive pictures of delicious, guilt-free, donuts.

Fried Green Tomatoes

2011-08-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is quite possibly the corniest and most cliche thing ever, but I recently watched Fried Green Tomatoes for the first time. What? You haven't seen it? Well, it's a cute movie. And it made me want to try making my own fried green tomatoes.

I have had fried green tomatoes before, but I had never made them. Until now.

Then, when I was at the farmer's market last week there was a man selling green tomatoes! Perfect. Except later, as they started to turn red on my window sill, I would find out these were not actual green tomatoes, just unripened regular tomatoes. Rookie mistake. I will find real green tomatoes (an heirloom variety) before the summer is over. But that is another post.

Fried Green Tomatoes
Makes 6 fried green tomato slices
Start to finish: 15 minutes

2 green tomatoes
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup + 1/2 cup white all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp canola oil (assuming you use a small pan

I must say I was shocked that something so delicious could be so easy to make. The instructions are simple. Set up a dredging station with three plates. In one plate, combine the cornmeal, flour, salt and pepper. In the second plate, pour the milk. In the third plate, pour the remaining flour.

Slice your tomatoes half an inch thick. You should get about three slices per tomato. Salt and pepper them generously. Coat the bottom of a medium skillet with canola oil and place over medium-high heat. Because of the size of my pan, I only needed about 2 tablespoons of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.

Coat the tomatoes in flour, followed by milk and cornmeal mixture.

Place them in your skillet and let them sizzle, undisturbed for 2 minutes. You want them to get golden and crusty. Turn them over and repeat the process.

At this point, they are ready to eat. What a great side item for just about any meal or appetizer! You can probably make these faster than I could type this post.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

2011-08-04T08:09:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together. It's one of those classic combos where the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts.

It was a craving for this combo that led me down the road of chocolate peanut butter cake. This cake has an insanely deep chocolate flavor. It's tender and moist and the peanut butter frosting cuts through the richness. It's pretty much the best thing I've ever made, dessert wise. Even better, dare I say, than my Suzy Q Cake. In fact, I'm rather sad as I write this because there is no more left and I have this sudden craving for chocolate and peanut butter.

I adapted the chocolate cake recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. She makes a three layer cake but I wanted a simple 9x9 cake so I adjusted accordingly.

Chocolate Cake

Makes 12 servings

Start to finish: 90 minutes

1 1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa (dutch process if you can actually find it)

1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup sour cream

1 cup water

1 tbsp + 1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Whisk in the oil and sour cream. The batter will be very crumbly. Don't judge me for my extremely messy Kitchen Aid Mixer.

At this point start slowing adding in the water, still mixing away.

Next add the vinegar and vanilla. Last but not least beat in the eggs.

There are two ways you can go about baking this. If you're going for presentation, go ahead and coat two square or round cake pans with butter and cocoa and pour the batter in. If you are looking for the easy way out, pour all the batter into a 9x9 square pan.

Can you tell which route I took? Once the cake is poured, sprinkle peanut butter chips over the top. Doing this at the end instead of mixing them in will prevent them from sinking to the bottom.

If you went with two pans, bake for 30 minutes. If you went with one, bake for 45, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

This cake fell a little in the oven, but have no fear. I think this has less to do with the recipe and more to do with the fact that a few minutes into baking I discovered I had extra batter left in the mixing bowl and poured it into the middle. Not recommended.

Take a moment to bask in the chocolate-y-ness. If you went the double layer cake route, let the cake cool for several minutes and then turn them out onto the rack much like we did here. If you did what I did, just leave the cake in the pan and let it cool.

While your cake is cooling, you have plenty of time to make this amazing icing! I looked and looked and looked for a good peanut butter frosting recipe. I wanted it to be fluffy and creamy, but not too sweet. I wanted the peanut butter, not the sugar, to take main stage. I think I have struck a balance here. If you want to ice a double layer cake, I would double this amount. Make as is for a single layer cake.

Peanut Butter Icing
Makes enough for one single layer cake
Start to finish: 5 minutes.

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1 Tbsp of milk, more if needed
2/3 cup powdered sugar

3 ounces of chocolate or Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, broken into pieces

Cream the butter and peanut butter together until it is a little fluffed up. Start adding in the powdered sugar a bit at a time until well incorporated. Add the milk if the mixture gets too thick.

Beat on high for three minutes or until the frosting looks like this:

Are you salivating yet?

Spoon all the icing onto the center of the cake and use an icing spreader to smooth it out evenly across the cake.

Sprinkle chocolate pieces over the top. Or Reeses if you have them :-)

If only I had a piece right now... *contemplates going into the kitchen and making this again*

Mother Nature Hates Me: My continued struggle with gardening

2011-08-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

When I tell other gardeners all the problems I have had this season, their reaction is laughter mixed with amazement. No one can believe that I could encounter so many problems with one garden in one season.

When I talk to my mother, it has become a big of a saga. Every conversation starts with, "What happened to your garden THIS week?"

I think my soil must have been treated with radiation.

The last time we approached this topic, I was optimistic that things would turn around. If by turn around you mean my plants haven't died, then yes, we've had quite a turnaround. Otherwise, it's still one thing after another.

We'll start with the tomatoes. Forget that I've still had two tomatoes come up with end rot since I treated them (quite an improvement I might add). Last week I had several tomatoes start to turn red. I watched them slowly ripen all week. Then, on the morning that one was finally ready to be picked, I went outside and discovered this:

What I can only assume was a squirrel, helped himself to a heaping hunk of my large, beautiful, roma tomato.

How did he get inside do you ask? I mean, I have a protective fence around the whole plot and my tomato plant is caged. Well, it looks like he chewed threw the wire here:

and used his acrobatics to climb into the middle of my tomato plant and devour the biggest tomato on my plant. At least have the decency to carry the tomato off with you or eat more than just one corner. Don't leave it hanging there for me to discover in horror the next day. Good for nothin' squirrels.

But that's not it. Remember that cucumber I showed you in my last gardening post? I was so excited to have a cucumber that actually made it past the blossoming stage. And then it grew like this:

Apparently this is caused by poor pollination, aka not enough bees. Another thing that is completely out of my control.

I remained optimistic though as I had started to see clusters of itty bitty cucumbers pop up.

Then... I went out of town on a business trip. For four days. And I didn't remind my husband to water the garden. He certainly didn't think to do it himself. Did I mention it was over 100 degrees everyday? The result is me coming home to an almost dead garden.

I was able to somewhat revive the plants with a good soaking, but the clusters of itty bitty cucumbers had long shriveled up and died.

I am seriously beginning to wonder if my money would have been better spent at the farmer's market. To date, between soil, plants, seeds, fertilizer, and end rot spray I have spent over $60 on this garden. This doesn't count any sweat equity or what watering in this dreadful heat has done to my water bill. And what do I have to show for it? So far, 4 tomatoes, 2 peppers, and 1 deformed cucumber. Well, there was the lettuce and the herbs, those turned out pretty good. Maybe next year I'll only plant things that are idiot proof, like herbs and lettuce. Yah, that sounds like a plan.