Scrumdeliocious

Eat The City: Pupusas, Yuca, and Tamales Oh My!

2010-04-30T15:09:00.012-05:00

So we didn't cook this week, burn out don't you know, but that's okay because it gives me a good starting point for a new feature on the blog. We eat out at least once a week, (I know, I know) but we always try to make it fun and different. So I've decided that I want to highlight a few of the places, and dishes, that we try here in the Greater Dallas area. Hopefully it will inspire you local readers to get out and try more eclectic eats. Even if you're not in the area, I bet you can find similar places in your area.

So lets start of with something super fun. Last weekend we stopped at a small hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran restaurant called Pupusas Mama Tita in Carrollton. They specialize in a wonderful dish called pupusa. I can hear you all now, "Pup-wha-sas??" I know it sounds odd, but it is heavenly. Most of you have probably heard of gorditas, even if you don't remember them immediately. Taco Bell turned them into a household word a few years ago. Yo quero Taco Bell. They're one of the places I have no fear of encountering beef, because there is nothing made from beef in the entire place. Anyway, gorditas are like thick tortillas that are usually wrapped around some sort of filling, similar to a soft taco. Pupusas are like gorditas only the filling is actually cooked inside the dough. So imagine a thick tortilla full of cheese and other yummy goodness. It's incredible.

Since the menu was in Spanish (the clientel is most Spanish or Salvadoran) we asked the guy behind the counter about them. He told us about each pupusas and once he was done I simply said "Yes." He said "What" and I said "Yes, we will take one of each." So we sampled all six of the non-beef flavors they had. There was Queso (a delicious white cheese), Revueltas (shredded pork with cheese), Frijol y queso (beans and cheese), and then three special ones. One made with cheese and zucchini, one made with cheese and a Salvadoran flower, and one made with shrimp. Oh man I'm drooling just thinking about them. They were all so delicious. I mean I really can't pick a favorite. Okay, okay, if you push me I can, but I'll need to sample them all again just to be sure. I might even need to try them a couple of more times. :o) Pupusas are served with a slaw made of cabbage and jalapenos and a wonderful, yet mild, hot sauce. Both have great flavors and work well with the dish.

We also ordered Yuca con chicharron (Yucca root with pork). Despite what you may think about Yucca, if you've ever even heard of it before, it is similar to a potato in texture. Fried they are like large, delicious french fries. I especially like to dip them in the hot sauce. The chicharron is amazing. It's like little chunks of a pork pot roast. The meat is so tender and just melts in your mouth.

To top off our evening of decadence, we ordered two tamales. One is a Tamal de gallina (chicken tamale) which is served in a banana leaf. It's full of a shredded chicken blend that has a perfect flavor for tamales. The other was a Tamal de elote solo (corn tamale). It's like the most delicious cornbread you've had wrapped in a corn husk.

We actually went back the next day (I know, how scandalous!) and order everything again plus an order of Tamales de elote (2), which are the corn tamales with cream and cheese. The cream is slightly sweet and almost gives the dish a dessert feel. The cheese is a slice of hard cheese that blends nicely with the cream.

Run, don't stop, over to Pupusas Mama Tita or Google Salvadoran food or pupusas to find a place close to you. Trust me when I say that you will not regret it. Open your mind, open your palate, and enjoy a new experience. You may find a new favorite.

Don't You Forget About My Delicious Caramelized Onion & Sausage Pizza

2010-04-18T09:54:00.016-05:00

Now that we will all spend the rest of the day with flashbacks to The Breakfast Club in our heads, let me start this post by thanking all of you for sticking around. I must apologize for the lag in posting, but I work a high stress day job and we've come into my busy time. Meanwhile, Shorty has just been promoted at work (Yay, Shorty!!) and is taking on new responsibilities and demands. We talked last night and both agreed to try and post more frequently. With that being said Shorty and I have continued our game and have been cooking like crazy. In addition, we've made several non-game related, but super delicious, dishes and we even had some special guests help out in the kitchen. We love you guys so keep checking back with us. There is a lot of fun, yum-tastic stuff coming your way.

Now lets get to cooking, because I'm starving!!! Okay, at this point I am pretty sure that Shorty has put a curse on my dice. I got the Food Network, again, and while I watch it constantly, I would like a little diversity, otherwise I should just call this the Food Network Blog. Um, yeah, no. Scrumdeliocious is so much more Charlie and Chocolate Factory, which I love more (it's my favorite book ever) than Food Network. Plus my mom just gave us some more cookbooks, which takes us up to 63 now! Wowzers! So anyway, Giada had a whole episode of Giada at Home that was devoted to the cheesy, bready, gooey goodness that is pizza. All of the recipes sounded fantastic, but I opted to make her Caramelized Onion, Sausage, and Basil Pizza. Pardon for a moment while I wipe the drool from my chin. This was simple, fun to make, and most importantly...AMAZING!

Start by cutting up your onions. I used two yellow onions and sliced them up loosely so that they were long onion pieces. Put olive oil and butter in your pan and toss those onions in. You will be crying your eyes out, but it will smell heavenly. Speaking of crying here's a little music to listen to while your onions cook down. Ella Fitzgerald - Cry Me a River

Okay now that you're weeping like 30yr old fan boy who just found out that William Shatner won't be attending the local Star Trek convention, lets make a cocktail. This lovely creation is a simple screwdriver (vodka and OJ) with frozen blueberries tossed in rather than ice. YUM! If you haven't tried frozen blueberries then I suggest you drive to the market and get some blueberries. I don't care if it's 3am, there is a market somewhere that is open. Buy them frozen if you fear freezing them yourself. They pop in your mouth and texturally feel like luscious ice cream.

So while your onions caramelize away, lets turn to our pizza dough. As you all know, I have made pizza dough from scratch on this site before, so you know I can do it. With that in mind, I hope you will forgive me, because I am using the generic dough from Wal-Mart this time. I just needed speed and, honestly, they ended up tasting about the same. I'm actually quite a fan of "semi-homemade" cooking. I do it all the time. Lets be realistic here, often it's cheaper and, seriously, why reinvent the wheel every time you want something to eat. Imagine, you've just come home from a long day and you want a certain dish, but you don't want to spend eight hours cooking it...so don't! Replace as many parts with pre-made options as you can and you'll find soon that you're eating like a king/queen, but without the work and without the cost. Plus, if you don't tell anyone you cut corner they will think you slaved away over a hot stove just for them and you can use that adulation to get the dishes done. Yay! Enjoy the little rewards!

Roll the dough out on a pan. It doesn't have to be pretty unless you want it to be. I'm sure it's probably the struggling artist in me trying to justify myself to the masses, but I personally think my abstract shapes are more fun than perfect squares or circles. "This pizza is done in the style of Picasso. See how the cubist shape forces the cheese to the forefront thus expressing the pain and sadness of being blue cheese in a world full of stinky cheese haters." Set the flatten dough out and let it contemplate its inner being while we turn back to our onions.

Now that they are good caramelized you want to throw the sausage into the same pan. I used Bratwurst and removed the skins. Toss it in and break it up. I tried to continually stir, as Giada suggested, but found it ended up cooking faster when I covered the dish and let the steam do its thing. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper.

Of course, we need a little more music to accompany us on. So, following the theme of art, Picasso and the creation we are making, here is Josh Groban - Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) which is a tribute to the amazing Vincent Van Gogh. I saw Van Gogh's Starry Night in person at the MOMA once and it was... breathtaking. It's a large piece and you can see the paint sticking out from the canvas in thick mounds. It was incredible. Hmm, did I mention that I am the King of the Random Thought? Well now you know. hehe

When the sausage is done (make sure there is no pink), set your mixture aside. Now spread some olive oil all over your dough. Hopefully this will help it feel better about its misshapen form. In this pizza olive oil will serve as your sauce. Yup, you heard me. There is no tomato or cheese sauce involved in this pizza. I realize that I've just lost half of my audience with this statement, but trust me, the final product is sooooo good. Look how beautifully it glistens.

Spread your onion/sausage mixture on the dough. I tried to give it an even coat so that no part of the dough felt exposed except for the edges. I figured I had already put this poor dough through so much that I might as well hide its shame at being store bought. Once you have everything nice and even, sprinkle on your cheese.

You'll notice that we are using a type of blue cheese rather than the traditional "pizza cheese." For those of you who are haters of anything beyond cheddar and mozzarella, please trust me again. You stayed with me past the store bought dough revelation and the olive oil as sauce revelation so what's one more variation from the norm? Right? Hello? Hey now you, yes you, the one with the big curly hair and flannel nightgown, I can see your mouse heading towards your favorites button! Now just stop right there and hear me out. Just because the cheese is stinky doesn't mean it is bad. If that were the case there would be a lot of bad babies out there, because WHEW! But babies aren't bad, well except for that one that threw a can of green beans at my head in Wal-Mart, but I guess he was technically a toddler at that point so, no, no babies aren't bad and neither is this cheese, if you just give it a chance. Please???

Now into the oven our masterpiece goes and in a few agonizing minutes, we can eat it. Look how delicious it looks up close. Oh so good! I must admit that I forgot to put on the basil, but it didn't need it in my opinion. Okay so here's the breakdown, I think I would cook the crust a bit first before putting all the toppings on. I found the center pieces to be a bit soft and saggy. Otherwise it was incredibly delicious. The flavors blended wonderfully, in fact, you couldn't even tell it was a stinky cheese. Also, it reheats well so you can plan on some yummy leftovers and plenty of inquisitive coworkers when you take this in for lunch.

Thank you again for sticking around during our posting lag and for seeing me through to the end of this random and chaotic post. Perhaps I should drink fewer screwdrivers with blueberries before attempting to write these things...Nah! I hope you've had some laughs, heard some good music, and learned a new, delicious recipe you'll try out. I'll leave you with the song from this post's title Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me.

Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad

2010-04-15T17:52:00.005-05:00

Again, I'm behind with my post... As much as I love cooking and taking the photos, it just seems that the posting part gets away from me... I spend all day on a computer at work, and by the time I get home, staring at a computer screen is the last thing I want to do... So today...I decided to do my blog at work! :-) Just kidding...or am I...????

My recipe this week came from the book Ten: All the Foods We Love and Ten Perfect Recipes for Each by Sheila Lukins. I really love the concept behind this book, but must admit I was a bit scared when I pulled it off the shelf, because there is a crown roast on the front cover, and from what I hear, those aren't cheap!

Regardless...the recipe I did this week was Zuni Roast Chicken. According to the book, this recipe came from a restaurant, and is the juiciest chicken ever; I promise--it didn't disappoint. I started by preparing the whole chicken by patting it dry, sticking some sage and thyme under the skin near the breasts and thigh (and I added some dill and basil that a coworker gave me from her herb garden; so fresh!!!), and then generously coating the outside with coarse salt and black pepper.

The poor chicken looks so helpless!!! But delicious...none the less. Now comes the hard part: stick it in the fridge and let it sit for 2-3 days. I know...I know...you want chicken NOW...and you would think salting the chicken would pull all of the moisture out (at least I did) but that is definitely not the case. This process results in the must succulent chicken I have ever had...at home OR out and about.

--THREE AGONIZING DAYS LATER--

Okay...the chicken looks...dry... Ew. Oh well...I followed the directions, so I'm hoping for the best! Now before we get the chicken in the oven, we need to start our bread salad. I'm sure you're wondering what the heck bread salad is... Well...it's salad, with bread. But the bread is deliciously scrumptious!

First lets start by soaking a handful of currants in some warm water and red wine vinegar. Oh, you don't have currants either? That's okay...I used raisins...they came all the way from California just to be a part of my dish. Wasn't that sweet? And did I mention--preheat your oven to 475. That's hot!

Now get a loaf of day-old bread (I found a loaf of day old ciabatta bread on the Wal-Mart discount shelf...I love that day-old bread shelf...) and cut it into cubes. The recipe says to cut off the crusts, and to be a little more rustic with your shaping of the bread...but I was being lazy and went with cubes. Toast them up under your broiler just long enough to get some color, and add them to a bowl. Like my bowl? It's a Wal-Mart find, too!

I proceeded to drizzle my bread with a vinaigrette I whipped up with olive oil and white wine vinegar. Now...let's start some real cooking. Get your chicken out of the fridge, and pat it dry. If you have a roasting pan that's stove-top safe, preheat it there. If not, stick it in the over to preheat for a good 10-15 minutes. You want the pan hot enough so when the chicken touches it the skin sears and forms a nice crust. I don't think mine worked like that...but I tried! Stick the bird in the oven.

While Foghorn roasts, get a pan started over medium heat, and toss in some pine nuts.

WATCH THEM CAREFULLY--or you (just like every Food Network chef...and myself) will burn your first batch. Move the pan constantly, and when they finally begin to turn golden brown...pour them over the bread! Burnt pine nuts and no bueno. I don't have picture of my cooking the pine nuts because I was scared I'd burn my second batch... Now chop up some green onions (whites and greens) and saute them in olive oil with some garlic...because everyone love garlic! Once those have slightly wilted, add them to the bread mixture. If there's any left over oil in the pan, toss it in as well.

Now drain the currents and add them to the bread mixtures and toss it all with about half a cup of chicken stock, salt and pepper, and give one of the cubes a taste. Yum--it's like sitting at an Italian restaurant and dipping good bread in the olive oil on the table. If it's not...fiddle with the spices until it's perfect. Oh...and somewhere around this time, I turned my chicken over so the other side could crisp up. Pour the bread mixture into a baking dish and put on the top shelf of your over while the chicken continues cooking (30 minutes or so). Cover with foil if you're afraid the bread will get too dark.

Once the juices on the chicken run clear, it's safe to come out of the oven. Go ahead and turn the heat off too, but leave the bread in there...you want it to be all warm and crispy when you eat the salad. I know it's temping to dive right into the chicken, but let it rest. You don't want to cut into it right now or the juices will escape.

Ok--5 minutes have passed--take the bread out and layer it with some nice field greens. Aren't we fancy tonight! But seriously...you don't want iceberg lettuce for this salad. Any sort of mixed green will work nicely, and adds a peppery flavor to this combination.

That's basically the whole recipe. I think I may have missed a few minor details, but I'm tired of writing, and thinking...so here's the finished product:

This chicken was so juicy and delicious. The only down side was that so much chicken was wasted (I hate picking little bites of meat off of little bones). So next time, I'll probably try this technique on chicken breasts instead of the whole bird. I can only imagine the joy a boneless chicken breast with this flavor will bring me... You should definitely try it!

~Shorty~

Where's the Beef???

2010-04-06T16:51:00.003-05:00

Note: This post is not for the Vegetarian. Keep that in mind before scrolling down.

Okay, as many of you may have noticed, we have never featured beef on this site. Even though I love vegetarian dishes, neither of us is a vegetarian, as should be apparent by the chicken and fish dishes we have featured. So here's the deal... I'm allergic to beef. Yup, you heard me right. My body can't process it. I can hear your gasps of disbelief, but it's true. I'm from Texas and I can't eat cow. To make it even weirder, I worked on a ranch in my early 20s as an honest to God cowboy. I worked the cows all day, but I couldn't eat them.

Now before you feel sorry for me you should know that I can make almost everything beefeaters eat in poultry, pork, seafood, or vegetarian options. It's actually not bad, there are so many options and I've become good at making things work. In fact, I have beef eaters who can't tell the difference between my vegetarian dishes and real beef. Remember, it's all in how you season and cook. So, needless to say, you will never see me make a beef dish on here. Sorry, but if the game pulls a beef option I will either rework it so I can use other options or I will roll again.

Wait, wait, don't go away!! We will do our best to accommidate all types of eaters here at Scrumdeliocious. I said that "I" would never make a beef dish, but Shorty LOVES beef. He makes beef dishes regulary, I just don't eat with him. So if you're a beef lover, just be patient. I'm sure Shorty will find a way to sneak something up here soon enough. In fact, the image is from his most recent evening with his best friend. They had a sudden hankering for steak and eggs so they grilled up a man sized portion of beef and fried up three eggs each. My arteries hurt just looking at it, but he swears it was delicious.

Breakfast for Dinner

2010-04-04T19:27:00.005-05:00

Ok...so who doesn't love breakfast? Especially when you can have it for dinner! I love eating breakfast for dinner...because normally breakfast is such a rushed meal, but when you have it for dinner, you can to relax and enjoy the goodness...

This week, well--last week, I ended up with another blog...and I've put off writing my entry as long as I could. You see, I'm actually in the process of cooking THIS week's meal, so this post must be done! This post comes from Breakfast-And-Brunch-Recipes.com. The site consists mostly of quiches and casseroles it seemed, so I just picked a basic one and went with it. After reading the ingredients, there was no way it could turn out bad.

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and prepared a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.

In my skillet, I began browning a pound of Italian sausage. Normally I would buy the links from meat cooler at the back of the store and cut them open when I got home, but I was feeling cheap, so I went with the breakfast sausage variety--you know, the 1-pound tube of sausage you find in the cheese cooler? Yeah...that one. This brand was sage flavored though, so it sounded good to me. I also added a chopped onion to saute with the meat, even though the recipe says to add the onion in raw, at a later point in the recipe.

While that cooked up, I prepared the rest of the dish--I combined a bag of frozen hash-browns, a can of cream of mushroom condensed soup (I love the sound condensed soup makes when it plops of of the can...**SCHPLOOP**), 1 cup of sour cream, and about 2 cups of cheddar cheese. Now you're supposed to mix this all up, but I kept making a mess, and had to transfer everything to a bigger bowl... Silly me, guess my eyes were bigger than my bowl...or something like that...

Now that everything is mixed up, I put it in my baking dish. It looked kinda lonely, so I added some mozzarella on top. Ah...much better. Cheese makes everything better...

After baking for 30 minutes, I took it out and added some french fried onions to the top. These remind me of Thanksgiving and green bean casserole (which I HATE) but I added them anyway. They aren't really that bad...it's the green beans that gross me out. :-)

15 minutes later...it's ready to eat! Well, it's ready to come out of the oven anyway. Let it sit for about 10 minutes so all the gooey goodness can come together and make the dish delicious.

Yum-o! Wait...where are the eggs, you ask? You can't have breakfast casserole without eggs, you scream... Well, I wondered that too...but after eating every last bit of this recipe (that's right, we didn't throw any leftovers away this time) I could care less about the eggs! Eggs are for the birds! (bad joke, I know...)

-Shorty

Vegetables in a Cobbler?? Well, Why Not?

2010-03-30T23:36:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I'm a week behind again. I have been sick for over a month. I got over bronchitis only to get better and immediately succumb to the worst allergies, EVER!! Thankfully, I'm almost back to normal and it's time to get caught up. So here I sit with my cup of tea (I'm a huge tea drinker. I have about 20 flavors on hand at any given time.), a waiting book, some great music, and a post I haven't been looking forward to doing. Not because I'm tired of sharing with you wonderful people (There are people out there, right? I hope. Hello?), but because it was just so lackluster it bores me to even think about it again.

So last week I had a cookbook again. I was initially excited because of the title, The Church Supper Cookbook - A Special Collection of Over 375 Recipes from Families and Churches Across the Country. It made me think of those wonderful little spiral bound capsules of great regional and family recipes that you can pick up in small towns across the country. This, however, was not one of those.

Now what, you may ask, is a vegetable cobbler and why does it sound oddly repulsive. Well that's because you're instantly thinking of the deliciousness of a sweet cobbler such as peach or blackberry. Clear your mind of those images. Jiggle your head around if you have to so that they'll go away. (Please note that it is not my fault if you do this at work and suffer mockery. It was merely a suggestion not a command.) Okay now that our minds are clear... wait what were we talking about again? I think I cleared my mind a little too much, not that that's terribly hard for me. Oh yes, a vegetable cobbler is a savory version which has the same basic principle of something baked in a dough. Here's how it went down...

Grab yourself a bag of frozen, mixed veggies. Most of you will probably use the same mix I did which is the generic, and cheap, blend of carrots, peas, corn, and green beans. Now heat those puppies up in some broth on the stove. I used chicken broth, but it can easily be made with vegetable broth for a vegetarian spin.

This won't take terribly long so it's best to get started on your dough mixture. Throw your flour, corn meal, baking powder, and seasonings into a mixing bowl and beat in eggs and milk or broth. I used a mix of broth and milk so that I could use up my leftover broth. It'll look a little grainy when it's all blended, but that's okay, it's the cornmeal.

Once your veggies are heated up simply pour them into a greased pan, juice and all. I know this seems odd, but the moisture will actually bake off so don't toss the juice. Now spread your batter across the top of the vegetable mixture. It will be a little difficult to spread because of the juiciness of the veggies. Just do your best. Okay that's it. Throw it in the oven for 20-25 minutes and wait.

Hmmm, lets see... This week I'm feeling a bit country. I suggest Lee Ann Womack's I May Hate Myself in the Morning which has a wonderful old country vibe and, of course, my new country song of the moment Lady Antebellum's Need You Now. I hope you enjoy. Now back to our cobbler.

After the allotted time, pull it out of the oven, sprinkle it with cheese, and toss it back in to let it melt.

And your done. Yup, that's it. That's the whole thing. To add a little more too it, Shorty, whipped up a bag of Ore Ida Steam and Mash potatoes he picked up for a buck at Wally World. They're super simple to make and a nice compliment to a dish, or in this case they made the dish. I personally mixed everything together because the cobbler was so bland and dull.

I know I'm supposed to make everything sound yummy and wonderful, that is a part of the food blogger's creed, right, however, I don't feel right pimping dishes that just don't cut it. I have made similar dishes before that were fantastic so don't write this one out completely. Perhaps someone can take it and really crank it up a few notches. If you do, let me know what you did.

Vegetable Cobbler

4        Cups cooked mixed vegetables (limas, peas, string beans, corn, and/or carrots)
1 1/2 Cups stock
1        Teaspoon oregano, dill-weed, or thyme
1/2     Teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
2         Teaspoons baking powder
1         Teaspoon salt
1/2      Cup cornmeal
2         Eggs, beaten
1         Cup milk or broth
1/4 - 1/2 Cup grated sharp cheese

Grease 9" x 13" dish. heat vegetables in stock and pour all into greased dish. Stir together pepper, baking powder, salt, flour, cornmeal, and oregano, dill-weed, or thyme. Add eggs and milk or broth, and mix until well distributed. Spread batter over vegetables. Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Immediately after removing from oven, sprinkle with grated cheese.

Whew, we made it threw this post. Trust me, my next one will be much more yum-tastic.

Yes! We Have No Bananas, No Bananas Today...

2010-03-23T14:04:00.107-05:00

...because we used them to make Vietnamese Baked Banana Cake! As I've mentioned before, I hate to throw out food. so when my bananas get ripe I always end up making banana bread. This isn't a bad thing by any means since I love banana bread. However, I found this new recipe over at Almost Bourdain that made me drool instantly and decided to try it, instead of my old standard, the next time. So I waited, and waited, for my bananas to reach the right stage. Of course, I waited longer than suggested, but one can only sit watching bananas ripen for so long before a shower is needed.

At this point I must mention that I used six standard bananas rather than the twelve finger bananas the recipe requested. Hey it's six of one, half dozen of the other, right? I also didn't have the correct sugar, but I learned via the wonder that is the internet, that I could throw standard sugar into my super-duper food processor and make it into the sugar I wanted. The was extremely simple and took almost no time so don't let it stop you from making this dish if you can't find the sugar the recipe requests.

I sliced the bananas on the diagonal and placed them in a bowl. Then once the sugar was blended fine, I sprinkled it on top of my bananas and tossed it around a bit. Be gentle with the bananas. They are the innocent victims of your ceaseless hunger here so don't toss them around to much. Once everything looked good, I covered the bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes is a long time to wait in Peanut Land, unless of course there's music...and what do you know, there was!!! Now I'm sure I've expressed how diverse my music tastes are so you won't be surprised that I pulled out a mixed bag of sounds including (These will open YouTube videos): James Morrison - Precious Love, Robin Thicke - Everything I Can't Have, and Mozart - Dies Irae. I guess these three aren't that diverse really, but I hope you enjoy the music anyway. Remember dancing, while cooking, is best done without shoes and with the music up really loud, unless your baking a souffle.

Okay back to cooking! While we're waiting for the bananas lets get the rest of our cake started. Toss your eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and butter into the mixer. Once they're good and mixed up we'll add our flour and mix well. The batter just looked so luscious! I wanted to just dip my fingers in and eat it raw, but no, I can't. I must be good.....for now.

So I took the cover off my bananas and they were swimming in a pool of liquid. Apparently they thought they were on holiday, but my stomach said otherwise. Seriously though, don't worry, this fluid is okay. The sugar will react with the bananas and cause this to happen, so it's a good thing.

We're going to fold the bananas into the mixture so you'll want to remove the mixer from the bowl. Remember we are not here to abuse these poor innocent bananas who have offered themselves up to apease the Rumbling Belly God. Simply dump the bananas, and liquid, into the mixture, and using a spatula, fold the batter over the bananas. I think I may have covered mine up a bit more than the blogger I'm following, but my poor bananas looked cold and I couldn't have them shivering.

Whew, we're almost done with the hard stuff. Pour this gooey mess into your pan. It is okay at this point to drool as you contemplate the yumminess heading your way. Pop the pan in the oven and wait for an hour. I must admit that I turned off the music and watched TV during this break. This is a great time to sneak in those shows that have been piling up on the DVR.

I think I took mine out a little early, but the toothpick came out clean and our oven is a nightmare. It's electric and has a short somewhere so that the back half of the oven cooks hotter than the front. When you put a pan in you either have to turn it half way during baking or just deal with one side being black and crispy. Anyway, I took it out and look at how wonderful. Don't you want to just dive in with a fork??? But you can't. Nope. Not for another hour! Yikes! I guess I should have mentioned this at the beginning, but this cake has to cool on a rack and then it goes into the fridge for an hour. What kind of sadomasochist came up with this dessert?? You want me to wait when my whole house smells like warm, delicious bananas?? ARGH!!!

Needless to say I waited. I was a good boy. I even waited extra for Shorty to get home so he could relish the deliciousness with me. The cake was good. Extremely dense, though, so a small piece is more than sufficient. Shorty compared it to a solid bread pudding. The flavor is definitely similar and I love bread pudding. We both enjoyed it, but, frankly, I don't think I'll wait next time. It was a little odd eating it cold when my taste buds were screaming for warm bananas. I'm envisioning a future version that's served warm with a nice lemon sauce to really bring out the bread pudding quality. Yum, yum, yum!

Wicked Cool Chowdah!

2010-03-20T12:00:00.008-05:00

Although I'm not a Northerner by birth, I love the North, especially the North East. I spent several years in NYC and NH, before coming back home for family. I found I really thrive in the cold and have my fondness for their seafood, in all its many forms, knows no bounds. So when I ended up with Clam Chowder this week for our game I was ecstatic and, honestly, a bit nervous. I've always thought chowder or chowdah, as the New Englanders call it, would be difficult to make. I was amazed at how wrong I had been.

First, I must take a moment to celebrate the breaking of my curse. I actually ended up with a cookbook this week instead of TV! Yay!!! Actually, I was super excited until I saw my cookbook. I had to do a few days of serious bicep workouts before I could even pick it up. It's this ginormous thing called The New Best Recipe and it's 990 pages of recipes and other cooking advice. Great book, but wear your back brace when you pick it up! Oy!

Now the recipe calls for 7 pounds of fresh clams, but lets get real. I can't afford fresh clams and I don't have the time to boil and shuck all of them. Thankfully, this book also lists substitutions and workarounds. To replace 7 lbs of clams all you need is four cans of minced clams, in juice, and two bottles of clam juice. So much simpler and cheaper.

Okay, lets start by draining our clams. You want to reserve the juice in a separate bowl. Combine it with the bottles of clam juice and a cup of water so that you end up with 5 cups total. One word of warning - clams stink when you first open that can. Peeeww!!

Cut up your bacon and fry it in a large stockpot. Once the fat is rendered toss in the onions and let them cook down until they're softened. At this point I would like to get serious for a moment. *Puts his arm around your shoulder* It's okay to cry when cutting onions. We all do it. Heck even I do it. You heard me. I turn into a drooling, sniffling, weeping baby when I cut onions (and watch chick-flicks) and this does not make me less of a man. Sniffle.

So hopefully you've had your music cranked up and you are working like a fiend, because this process is going to move wicked fast. I will be honest here, I didn't read the recipe fully before getting started and I got caught here. Once the onions are cooked down a bit you're supposed to add the flour and then a minute later you start adding the clam juice. This is immediately followed by the potatoes, which I didn't have chopped up. So I had to act quickly.

I whisked in the flour and then my clam juice while I turned up the music, this day it was T-Rex's I Love to Boogie, and let the beat push me through chopping up four potatoes super-duper fast. (Please try to avoid chopping up fingers at this point. Safety first, even if you are lost in the pulse of the music and the fear of failure because you didn't read ahead.) Now add those potatoes and let them cook until soft. Breathe. You're caught up again. For two seconds. Unless you forgot to add your Thyme!

Whew, okay it's been about 10 minutes. You will be able to tell when the potatoes are ready, because they will soften. I was able to cut mine with the whisk I was using. Once they are ready you're going to add your clams, cream, and seasonings. I didn't have parsley so I just tossed in a tiny bit of salt and some crushed black pepper. (Yum, I love pepper) Now stir that in well and let the pot simmer, but not boil. That looks so delicious I could almost stick my face into it right now. (Please don't do this, it will burn. Trust me.)

Once it begins to simmer you remove it from the heat and serve immediately. I actually waited about ten minutes or so, because Shorty was making some super yummy cheese sticks to accompany the dish. You know, I always thought clam chowdah, chowder, was going to be more difficult, but this was wicked simple and, surprisingly, ready in less than a half hour. This would be a great dish for an inexperienced cook or for an unexpected dinner party, because it's so easy to make if you have the ingredients. Plus it's wicked delicious!!!

Oh and just so you know, this reheated wonderfully. I had it in the fridge for several days in a Tupperware container just tossed it in a small pot on the stove to heat it back up. The book said the clams would toughen up, but I found they still had a nice texture and taste. In all this was a delicious soup that provided more than one meal. So if you're single or have a small family, you might consider making this as a "multi-meal" dish that serves as dinner one evening and as lunch for a few days.

(For those non-New Englanders, wicked it a adjective used to express a great like of something. It's similar to great, good, or cool, but more extreme.)

New England Clam Chowder

4 cans (6.5 ounces) minced clams, juice drained
           & reserved, along with 1 cup water &
           2 bottles (8 ounce) clam juice
4         slices (about 4 ounces) thick-cut bacon,
           cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1         large Spanish onion, chopped medium
2         tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2   pounds red potatoes (about 3 medium),
           scrubbed & cut into 1/2-inch dice
1         large bay leaf
1         teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves or
                                                    1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
                                         1         cup heavy cream
                                         2         tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
                                                    Salt and ground black or white pepper

Fry the bacon in an empty stockpot, or Dutch oven, over medium-low heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.
Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the flour and stir until lightly colored, about 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in the reserved clam broth.
Add the potatoes, bay leaf (which I left out), and thyme and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the reserved minced clams, the creams, parsley (left that out too), and salt (if necessary) and pepper to taste
Bring to a simmer, but do not boil.
Remove the pan from the heat, discard the bay leaf, and serve immediately.

Can't talk...must cook...

2010-03-19T20:59:00.009-05:00

So it's not quite time for another weekly challenge, but I've been cooking all week, and taking pictures, and I need to share them with someone!

For St. Patrick's day, I took some advice from a coworker of mine, and made cake balls. I could go into detail about how it's done, but I'll just let you check out Bakerella's Blog. This dessert is really her domain. These are so amazingly delicious...and so easy to make. You should go buy a cake mix right now and make them. I'm not kidding...go now!!!

Later that week, I decided to revist a household favorite: pasta bake. Now we never really follow an exact recipe for this...it's basically noodles, meat, sauce, and cheese all thrown into a baking dish and baked to bring it all together. And normally, we pre-cook the noodles, but this time I wanted to see if we could make it work with using raw noodles.

I had Peanut put some frozen chicken breasts on the stove to boil so they'd be ready when I got home. Chop those up, and throw them in your pan. Then a box of fun noodles (I used multi-colored noodles because I was using a white sauce and didn't want the final dish to resemble soupy mashed potatoes). Also, throw some cheese in there.

Now pour a bottle of pasta sauce over your creation, and add enough hot water so that the noodles are just covered...and mix it all up with a fork! I decided we needed more cheese, too...so on with the mozarella and parmesean!

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the pasta comes out tender. Let it cool for about 5 minutes; that will let the sauce get thick and cheesy. Let me just say...IT'S SO GOOD! I was so happy with how the pasta came out so perfectly. And if we had used canned chicken, there would have only been one dish to clean up. The great thing about this recipe is that you get to pick your sauce, your meat, and your pasta (avoid spaghetti though, I doubt that would cook right)...so it's different every time!

Even my little man Chester wanted some!!!

Quickfire Challenge - Cheese Sticks

2010-03-17T15:58:00.002-05:00

So last Friday (my day off for the week) I was watching the Rachel Ray show, and she had chef Rocco DiSpirito on as a guest: he made baked fried cheese! Talk about comfort food!!! And the best part...there were 3 main ingredients!!! I had to try this recipe as soon as humanly possible...

So I got my ingredients together; string cheese, egg whites, and bread crumbs. Chances are most of us have these three things already in the house. His recipe says to beat the eggs until foamy, but peaks haven't formed (I beat them a little too long, but oh well...) He also calls for Panko bread crumbs, but I couldn't find any at Wal-Mart that day, so regular bread crums would have to suffice.

Now roll a cheese stick in flour, shake it off, dip it in the egg whites, and roll them in the bread crumbs. Stick them on a baking sheet with a rack, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Now...resist the temptation to devour the molten mozarella...the joy delivered by molten cheese is not outweighed by the pain induced when you burn the roof of your mouth... Ok, it's been 30 seconds, now you can eat!!!

How easy is that?!? These were so good...and will definately be made again and again... I have a feeling they would go really well with the spicy tomato sauce I made in my Dollar Store Delights post.

You can find Rocco's complete recipe here.

When I Think of Hummus, Veggies, & Goat Cheese I Think of?

2010-03-15T13:17:00.007-05:00

Why pizza, of course! What? You don't? Well, truthfully, neither did I, until we started playing this game. I'm a week behind again. I've been battling the flu, so please forgive me. Anyway, I ended up with TV again, what is up with that, and this time I had Grill It! with Bobby Flay. I'm not a huge Flay fan, but his Grilled Pizza with Spicy Hummus, Vegetables, Goat Cheese, and Black Olives recipe sounded really interesting, especially since I've never tried grilling pizza. Now we have an actual outside grill, but it was raining this week when we made it so I substituted and it worked wonderfully. Plus it will hopefully show you that you can make something this elaborate from your apartment kitchen too.

To start this dish you either need to have a package of pre-made pizza crust or you'll need to make your own. I followed the one Bobby Flay listed on the recipe and let it rise in my laundry room while the dryer ran. What? I was multi-tasking and the laundry room was the warmest room at that moment. So either my dough will smell spring time fresh or my laundry will smell like a bread factory. Either is fine with me!

While the dough is rising I made my hummus. This is actually much simpler than I thought it would be initially. I threw two cans of drained chickpeas into the food processor with all the required ingredients and then I turned that puppy on. Wheeeee! Food processor, oh how I love thee!

Now once you grind up all the chickpeas you'll need to add olive oil until it emulsifies. I actually used more than the recipe stated because I thought the hummus was still a bit lumpy looking.

Your hummus should have a nice texture and seasoning. If you feel it needs a bit more then salt and pepper to taste. If you feel it's over seasoned then... ummm... start over, because I don't think you can unseason. If you figure out to please let me know. We could make a fortune off that tidbit of information. So at this point you can either leave the hummus to wait in the food processor or transfer it over to a bowl like I did.

My best advice at this point is to keep Shorty away from the hummus by any means necessary. You will need enough to cover your pizza and he will begin dipping everything - spoons, stale biscuits, chips, crackers, fingers - into it that he can find. Who knew that he liked hummus so much?

Okay now since it was raining I broke out my George Foreman grill and prepped my veggies. I used a standard purple eggplant, a zucchini, and a red bell pepper. I sliced the eggplant and zucchini down the center and removed the center of the bell pepper. Aren't they pretty all laid out nicely?

At this point, you'll want to place them on the grill. Initially, I left it open, but decided I would go ahead and close it to see if it worked better. You'll need to be aware that due to the size of the eggplant it will get most of the quick grilling by doing this because the lid will press down on it. I actually ended up removing the eggplant first so that the others could grill more completely. Once they are grilled to your liking, remove them and chop or slice them to your preference. I must apologize for my cutting board picture. I tried to make it look all pretty, but really, it had just seen some serious abuse. Even still the veggies look delicious.

I took a quick moment to clean my grill and prep it for the next step. I advise you to do the same or you may regret it in the end, and no one should live with regret. I know I have enough of it already. Like that one time I posted a picture of my dirty cutting board on my food blog, oh wait that was this post wasn't it? Le sigh!

But I digress... So I went to the laundry room and took out the dough. (I left the laundry for Shorty to fold. I hate folding.) It had doubled in size and looked pretty. I just couldn't take it rubbing its perfection in my face so I punched it!

Wait! Wait, before you call the police and report me for dough abuse you should know that this is the next step. See the dough likes it rough, kind of like me... oh wait this isn't that kind of blog. Forget I said that!!! So, um, now where were we? Oh yes, roll your dough out. Since I am making it on the indoor grill I tried to go for a longer shape. Once I had the shape down I slathered some olive oil on both sides and tossed it on the grill.

You can close the lid and it will toast up nicely. I flipped it once it looked about half way done to me. I wanted to make sure it looked good on both sides. See the pretty grill marks? While that's grilling cut up your goat cheese and crumble it.

Goat cheese has a strong flavor and might not be for everyone, but remember the Scrumdeliocious motto: Try everything at least once! If you survive, and still hate it, then wait a few years and try it again. If you keep this mindset you might be surprised by what you discover a taste for. As a kid I hated broccoli and now I can't get enough of it. Okay, lets get back to our crust.

Your crust should be nicely grilled by this point so pull it off the grill and lay it out on a good working surface. Now, if you haven't eaten it all already, you should grab your hummus. Spread it evenly on the crust while trying desperately to avoid the urge to just pick the whole thing up and devour it whole. Note: I believe that strange red blur, in the photo to the left, is the spatula that I'm using to spread the hummus. Of course, it could just as easily be the ghost of some great Italian chef who is angry at me for bastardizing pizza in such a way. I'll let you decide once you try the final product.

Now grab those veggies and layer them on the hummus. This is your pizza so you can feel free to sprinkle as many or as few as you want. Do try to remember, though, that a variety of color is going to make it look more delicious so spread out your purple eggplant, green zucchini, and red peppers. See isn't that pretty?

Gasp!!! I forgot the scallions!!! Looking at this picture reminds me that I forgot to mention them, just like I forgot to grill them initially while cooking this dish. I had to go back and grill them separately. Apparently, I'm a secret hater of scallions. Who knew? What isn't a secret is that I hate olives. Blakk! So I left them off. Hey at least I can say I've tried them several times to make my determination.

Sprinkle on your goat cheese and, since we didn't use an outside grill, pop the pizza in the oven to heat it through. Shorty sprinkled his with a little extra cayenne pepper before he put it in the oven. Goat cheese doesn't really spread when it melts so don't use that as your determining factor on when it is done. I left it in for about five minutes, which seemed to be perfect.

Yum! Yum! I wasn't sure I was going to like it but all the flavors blended beautifully. I took a few pieces to work and received rave reviews. (Hi Jill *waving hand frantically*) I think I will definitely make this one again.

Happy Pi Day!

2010-03-14T23:52:00.004-05:00

Nope, that's no typo...today is March 14...as in Pi (3.14)!!! So happy Pi Day to you all! And there's no better way to celebrate than with pie!!!

This week the challenge led me to the television show Chopped. I decided to give it my all, and use all of the ingredients provided for one of the courses. The secret ingredients provided for the dessert course included celery, blood oranges, frozen pie dough, and jaggery.

Now...how can all of these things come together into a pie, in honor today's spectacular holiday??? Well, the answer seemed quite simple to me. I love strawberry-rhubarb pie, and celery has a similar consistency to rhubarb...so there you go, my own creation: Strawberry Celery Pie! Sounds delicious, right...? Maybe not...but hey, this is Chopped, Scrumdeliocious style!

I began by zesting and juicing the blood orange. I added some about a cup of chopped celery to a sauce pan with the orange juice, and a few tablespoons of shredded jaggery. The idea was that the celery would absorb the citrus flavor, and soften sligthly to give my pie a less crunchy texture.

And now for a quick lesson in jaggery. Jaggery is an unrefined sugar cane product that is sold in solid bricks, and used primarily in Indian and Asian cuisines, so I was afraid it would be hard to find, but we have a large Asia supermart near by, and they had plenty of it available. I shredded my jagery cake for ease of use, and the sweet smell of molasses filled the kitchen. I think I might use jaggery in place of brown sugar the next time a recipe calls for it!

While the celery simmered, I chopped up 2 pints of strawberries, and threw them into a bowl with a cup of shredded jaggery, and a tablespoon of orange zest. I added the celery and tossed to combine. I poured the mixture into the pie dish that I lined with the frozen pie crust, and finished it with a lattice top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. The pie looks great!

As for the flavor...well...it's definately a strawberry pie, but I can still taste celery. Maybe simmering it longer on the stove would have removed some of that flavor, or added more of the citrus. I'm still very proud that I made this pie all on my own! No recipe to read from! Maybe next time I'll attempt an appetizer or entree...

Maybe...

Rediscover Leftover: Guinness Beer

2010-03-13T23:29:00.002-06:00

Shorty's cake recipe didn't use as much of the Guinness Beer as we had anticipated so we had leftovers. Although he likes beer, he's not much into the dark lagers and I'm not into beer at all. We couldn't just toss it aside, though, so we decided to have some fun and make Irish Car Bombs. I had only had them once before so I was definitely game for the adventure.

Shorty dug out the Irish Cream and poured a couple of shots. The remainder of the Guinness was poured into two pint glasses. Each ended up being about half full. (Hey, I'm an optimist at heart!) The object here is to drop the shot glass full of Irish Cream into the pint full of Guinness and then slam the resulting concoction. Shorty swears they taste like beery chocolate milk. I didn't notice a flavor as much as a texture. The drink was smooth, like the beer, initially and then creamy once everything mixed. In the end, it definitely added a little zaniness to our cooking experience.

Beer and Chocolate

2010-03-13T20:17:00.027-06:00

It almost sounds like the title of a B-Movie, doesn't it? Perhaps...but it's also the two main ingredients in my challenge last week: Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake.

This weeks recipe came from the blog "The Kitchn." There were a few other recipes that sounded interesting on the site, but with St. Patrick's Day so close, I couldn't resist going with the traditional holiday treat. That and we had Irish cream in the house, did someone say Irish Car Bombs?!

After that little side adventure, I proceeded to add 1 cup of Guinness to my sauce pan, along with 10 tablespoons of butter; simmer on low until the butter has melted completely, then remove from the heat and whisk in 3/4 cup cocoa powder, and 2 cups sugar. I then added a mixture of sour cream, eggs, and vanilla...and my friends, this made the beer curdle (or at least I think that's happened). Regardless, I trudged on and added 2 cups of flour and 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. The batter was pretty thick, and I attribute that to mixing alcohol with dairy. However, the smell was deep and chocolaty, and made me forget all about the small lumps I kept running into.

Pour the batter into a buttered springform pan lined with parchment paper, and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes, or until the cake passes the toothpick test.

Now for the best part: the icing! 1 block cream cheese + 1/2 cup heavy cream + 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar = **insert your own overwhelmingly delicious adjective here**

Whip that up until nice and fluffy and spread it over your cake, which you have now removed from the pan and let come to room temperature. I however, did not let it cool that long, and the icing got a little melty in the center. But I'm so glad I didn't wait, because the cake turned out heavenly! The icing was decadent, and the Guinness brought up chocolate flavor without losing it's own murky, mysterious character. I'm not much of a fan when it comes to dark lagers like Guinness, but this cake is definitely a keeper.

Rediscover Leftover: Sweetened Ricotta Cheese

2010-03-12T13:55:00.004-06:00

So I ended up with quite a bit of leftover sweetened ricotta after making my Tomato Ice Cream and, as Shorty and my waistline will attest, I hate to throw food away. Now I won't lie, I was tempted to just squirt it straight from my make-shift pastry bag into my mouth, but I'm trying to be creative here. You can not imagine the willpower it took though, that stuff is delicious! I finally decided I'd just set it back in the fridge and figure it out later, but then Shorty pulled out some frozen blueberries to snack on and it hit me. I tossed a cup of frozen blueberries into a bowl and then covered them in the ricotta. Okay, just remembering how delicious it truly was is making my knees quiver. Shorty mixed it up a bit and sprinkled cinnamon on top of his mixture. This actually added just the right amount of warmth to the flavor. Definitely give this one a try.

I would also like to mention that keeping fruit in your freezer is a good idea. It keeps the fruit from going bad quickly and it ensures that you will always have some delicious fruit on hand for any strange culinary experiments you may come up with on a whim. We use them for smoothies and often just as quick snacks. Frozen blueberries have a creamy texture and wonderful flavor when eaten straight from the freezer. Yum.

To-may-to, To-mah-to

2010-03-09T23:17:00.011-06:00

No matter what you call it I bet you never expected to see a tomato used in this manner.

I'm a week behind on my part of the game from last week (it was one of "those" weeks), but, thankfully, I had time Sunday to finally get in the kitchen. So last week I pulled TV, again, and ended up with Iron Chef America. As Shorty noted, Food Network was running an Iron Chef-a-thon that weekend so we found ourselves with a challenge within our weekly challenge. Unfortunately, my secret ingredient ended up being one of my least favorite fruits, the tomato.

So I have to make something interesting from a tomato. Hmmm. Well I watched the episode, but I didn't really groove on their recipes so I decided to have some fun. We have a running joke about Iron Chef (Japan and America) and the ice cream machine. They will turn anything and everything into ice cream. So I thought to myself "Shorty got an ice cream machine for Christmas so why not?" Thus it was determined that I would make tomato ice cream. Yes you heard me correctly: Tomato Ice Cream.

With my laptop in hand, I actually found a recipe online that only needed a little tweaking to fit my needs. It even lists out the recipe for tomato paste, which I detailed below.

First, I chopped up a large can of whole tomatoes (Yes, yes I took them out of the can first! You make a mistake one time and....um... forget that last part.) and threw them into a frying pan on medium heat. The goal is to cook off the liquid until you have a paste consistency. Congratulations, you just made tomato paste! Of course, I could just as easily use a can of pre-made tomato paste, but then what kind of super cook would I be then. (This is code for: "I didn't have that on hand so I was forced to go this extra step.")

With that out of the way lets start our actual ice cream. In your KitchAid mixer... What you don't have one?? Bless your heart! Listen to me carefully, "Sell everything you own and purchase one, RIGHT NOW!" We can wait for you. Trust me, you will not be sorry. In fact, a certain supercenter beginning with a W and ending in a T is now selling them for 100 dollars. Go get it! (Please note: The previous statement was not paid for and I have no affiliation with either KitchenAid or the Wall of Mart, but seriously, go now. Your kitchen is this close to having a little piece of Heaven in it.) So now that you have your new mixer handy, you want to throw in your egg yolks and sugar. I regret that I am a bad blogger and neglected to photograph this part.

Now grab a thick bottomed sauce pan and chase the cat out of the kitchen! (Please don't actually do this. It might ruin your good cookware.) So put the pan on medium heat and throw in your tomato paste, cream, and milk. Since we only use 2% milk in our house I opted for a 50/50 ratio of cream and milk to compensate for the lack of milk fat. Let this mixture begin to boil until it comes to a good boil. Remember you're trying to integrate the tomato flavor into the milk and cream so it may take several minutes. I found that mixture took on a slight orange/pinkish color as it really came together.

Looks....um...yummy? Right? Err, yeah not so much, but be patient. Take a cup of this creamy mixture and pour it slowly into the egg yolk/sugar mixture. You want this to blend fully. Now take another cup and do the same thing. Repeat a third time. You are tempering, or slowly raising the temperature of, the egg mixture by doing this process. If you just dump the two concoctions together it will flash scramble your egg yolks and you'll have a lumpy mess. At this point everything should be equally warm so you can combine them fully over the heat. Bring the mixture back up to a boil and stir. You should notice that the custard begins to thicken. Yup you just made a custard. Yay, you!

Place a thin meshed strainer over a bowl and pour that puppy into it. You're trying to strain out all the big chunks and seeds. Now chuck the solids (I'm sure they could be used for something, but, ugh, did they look gross), stir in a shot of triple sec, and let the liquid cool. I put mine in the fridge to let it chill out for a bit.

While we wait lets crank up a little music and dance around the kitchen. Don't look at me like that, I know you all do it. Personally, I'm listening to a little Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. She has such a throwback (1950's) sound. What??? You haven't heard of her?? Google her now! We have time. Anyway, trust me when I say that the music/dancing thing really makes a fun thing, cooking, so much more fun and definitely causes custard to cool faster. (This last statement has not been proven, but I certainly didn't notice the time pass while I was singing loudly off-key and sliding around on the tile floor in my socks.)

Well look at that, our custard is chilled and ready for the Ice Cream maker. This is Shorty's pride and joy so I had to call him in for assistance while I did this part. I poured the custard into the machine and waited patiently for it to churn up some cold, creamy wonderfulness. *Since each machine is different, please follow your manufacturer's specifications for your machine.*

Now since I don't really care for tomatoes I wanted to add something to it, and hopefully help the flavor should I really dislike it. I batted around several ideas and finally decided to create a Ricotta Cheese swirl. Yum! The person who created ricotta is my hero. I dumped a container of ricotta into the KitchenAid (please clean it first or don't blame me for what you are about to create) and added in some sugar and vanilla. Now don't put to much of the latter. You want to accent the flavor of the ricotta not drown it in vanilla. Turn on your mixer and whip these guys into yumminess. Once it's good and blended put it into a pastry bag or, in my case, a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off.

Okay, your ice cream should be done so lets have a look.

At this point it's more soft serve than anything so you'll need to put it in another container and freeze it again.

I took a freezer safe container and put scooped in enough ice cream to create a nice layer. Then I took my make-shift pastry bag and squirted out some ricotta. I wanted to do it this way so that I could spread the ricotta nicely rather than just dropping spoonfuls in and having random lumps of sweet cheese. Cover the ricotta with another layer of tomato and repeat until all your ice cream is in the tub.

Put the lid on the container and put it in the freezer. While you wait consider dancing around the kitchen some more or perhaps make a yummy dinner dish to eat before your ice cream. Shorty posted a great spinach artichoke pie a few weeks ago. Mmmmm, flashbacks. So now after a few hours have passed, and you've made and eaten cheesy veggie lusciousness, you can serve up the deliciousness that is Tomato Ice Cream with a Ricotta Cheese Swirl.

Doesn't that look beautiful?? It's actually a sweet flavor. The only drawback is that the ricotta crystallizes a bit and while this didn't bother me because it's still yum-tastic, you can always use marscarpone or another sweet cream cheese instead. You will probably have left-over ricotta, but don't fret I have a use for that too.

Here is the primary recipe I used. My alterations are as follows:

* 2 cups of 2% milk
* 2 cups of heavy cream
* Instead of lemon juice and a shot of vodka I poured in a couple of shots of triple sec, which is an orange flavored liquor.
* I used no olive oil or balsamic vinegar.
* I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh.

For the ricotta mixture:

1 15oz container of ricotta
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 cup sugar

Beat until well blended. You can add more or less sugar/vanilla based on your personal tastes.

Iron Chef: Eggplant!!!

2010-03-05T14:08:00.006-06:00

This is Shorty again with another exciting installment of IRON CHEF: SCRUMDELIOCIOUS!!!

So while Peanut ended up with Iron Chef tomato (a fruit he despises) for his challenge this week, I not only ended up with Iron Chef also (thanks to Food Network's Sunday night Iron Chef-A-Thon), but of all ingredients to use...I get EGGPLANT!!! Now...it's not that I hate eggplant, because that's completely untrue. But what are the chances that I would chose that as my secret ingredient, only days after cooking eggplant parmesean on a complete whim?! Now what do I do?!?!? Not only that..I had to go to three different grocery stores to find the stupid vegetable!

Ugh...but enough ranting...on to cooking...

I wanted to make something simple this week. The challengers on the Iron Chef episode (Shook/Detolo VS Cat Cora) wrapped a piece of cod in thinly sliced eggplant and cooked it under the salamander. Not very exciting, but it sounded simple and delicious. Plus, as luck would have it, I had recently purchased a bag of frozen tilapia so the decision was made.

I began by carefully slicing the eggplant as thinly as possible. Now I know you're wondering, "Why not just use your mandolin, Shorty?" and the reason is: our mandolin doesn't slice very thin. It's great for potatoes au gratin and what have you, but there's no way to adjust the thickness. So, on with the knife. I think I did a pretty good job, all things considered!

Next, I wrapped the tilapia loins in the eggplant, drizzled them with olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

After about 15 minutes under our less than impressive broiler, they were ready to eat! All in all, it ended up being a rather boring dish, but even still it was pretty yummy.

Now, while I was going for simple and easy this week, I couldn't stop with eggplant-wrapped fish; that's a cop-out. So I decided to get some help from your friend and mine, Pioneer Woman. Her recipe for baba ganoush was just begging to be made, so here's a quick run down of how that went:

Roast the eggplant under your broiler for 30-45 minutes, turning occasionally to get all sides--you know it's done roasting when you can hardly turn the eggplant anymore for fear of it falling apart on you.

Once cool enough to handle, scoop the innards into a bowl, and add the following: garlic, lemon juice, tahini, parsley, and kosher salt. There are exact measurements, but I really just eyeballed everything. And, we didn't have lemon juice, so we subbed with orange juice (and it still turned out pretty dang good!).

Now mix...and eat with whatever you can dip in it.

That's what I call a great meal that showcases eggplant!

Dollar Store Delights

2010-02-26T11:32:00.010-06:00

This is Shorty coming at you again. So this morning on my way to work, I stopped by the 99 Cents Only store to pick up a few things for work like dish soap and sponges, and noticed they had huge, beautiful eggplants in the produce section - 2 for a dollar!!! I've never been a big fan of eggplant, and I've NEVER cooked it at home, but how do you pass up that deal?!

I searched online for a recipe idea, trying to avoid the obvious Eggplant Parmesean, but in the end, that's whaat I decided to go with. I figured..."eggplant parm should be easy enough to whip up!" Let me warn you know...that is NOT a dish you can just "whip up"... While delicious, we didn't end up eating until 9:45pm last night.

Regardless...as this is a random post, and not part of the blogging game we're playing, I'm going to try and make it short and sweet:

I began the dish with the sauce. Saute some...er, lots...of chopped garlic in a sauce pan with some olive oil, then throw in about a cup of chopped black olives, and a few spoonfulls of capers. Sounds good already! Then I added 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes, and some basil, salt, and pepper. I should have used fresh basil, but I had dried on hand, so it worked just fine. While that simmers, mix up a tub of ricotta with about a cup of parmesean cheese; set aside. After the sauce has simmered for 10 minutes set it aside, the comes the hard (or at least tedious) part...

Once the eggplant was all sliced, I set up my batter stations: flour, egg wash, and seasoned breadcrumbs (all enhanced with salt and pepper, of course).

Fry the eggplant in about an 1/8 inch of oil (I used a combination of olive oil and canola oil) until golden brown on both sides. Remove and drain on paper towels. Once all of the eggplant is done, you finally get to build the dish!

Alternate between sauce, eggplant, ricotta mixture, and mozerella until you've used everything, making sure to top it off with the mozerella, and even more parmesean. Now...bake at 350 for around an hour. Once golden brown on top, remove from heat and let sit for about 20 minutes before slicing.

Looks good, doesn't it?

Tastes even better!

OMG! I'll definately be making this again, and I can't wait to eat these leftovers... I hope it reheats well!

Tonight's Winning Numbers Are...

2010-02-25T21:20:00.008-06:00

Well, apparently we're lazy bloggers...we played our new food game for the first time last Sunday...and we're just now getting around to posing about it! Shame on us, I know! Also, Peanut has come down with a nasty cold, and since he's the one who is really "running the show" our blog has taken the back burner. So...tonight, I'm going at it solo! Well...he's on the couch watching American Idol, and coaching me through the blog process. So let's get started...

My winning numbers were 1-8-288. That brought me to "Taste of Home: Winning Recipes" and I had a choice between Spinach Artichoke Pie and Cheesy Zucchini Saute. As I'm a huge fan of spinach artichoke dip, I had to go with the pie tonight.

I prepared my pie dish by brushing it with olive oil and coating it with bread crumbs, just like preparing a cake pan with butter and flour.

Next, I sauteed some mushrooms in some olive oil. Once they were tender, I added the spinach, artichokes, bread cubes, and cheddar (can't go wrong with cheddar!), pimientos, eggs, and garlic powder.

Spread it into the pie dish, sprinkle with more cheese, and bake for about 30 minutes. It doesn't get more simple than this!

While delicious, I must admit that the artichokes made the dish a little salty, but it was a good dish all around.

Peanut's winning numbers were 3 and 12. That led us to "Down Home with the Neely's" or "Big Daddy's House". While I'm sure Peanut would have a lot to say about either one of these shows...let me just put it this way--the hosts are annoying! However, that's how the dice fell, so we went with what sounded the best: the Neely's "Rustic Apple Tart". And best of all, it was so easy to make!

We cored, peeled, and sliced 2 Granny Smith and 2 Golden Delicious apples, and tossed them with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, and kosher salt.

Then we rolled out a frozen pie crust large enough to cover the bottom of a 12-inch cheesecake pan. While that's not really the norm for making a tart, we figured baking it in the pan would be an easy way to keep things round and uniform.

We laid the apples in a pretty little spiral pattern, then folded up the outside of the dough. Aww...how rustic!

Finally, we brushed the entire thing with melted butter. So Paula Deen, but so delicious! Time to bake!

Once the tart came out of the oven, we brushed the entire thing with melted peach preserves. Mmmmm...that really made the flavor pop!

The only criticism I have about the tart is that it probably could have baked just a little bit longer. The crust wasn't quite golden enough, and the apples were still a little crisp. But that didn't stop me from loving the end result.

Games in the Kitchen

2010-02-20T14:10:00.008-06:00

So we've just begun this blog and already we've decided to take it in a new direction. Although we cook almost everyday, we found that we weren't photographing and blogging about our basic meals. So we decided to spice things up a bit. We will continue to post the random leftover creations and new recipes throughout, but now that we have a direction for the blog, we'll work a little harder to make sure our pictures and posts actually make it on there.

The other day I came across a couple's blog dedicated to re-creating recipes from their massive cooking magazine collection/subscriptions. We don't receive any magazine subscriptions, but we do have quite a large cook book collection (that continues growing, thanks to my mom's generosity). Since it's about time they got some use and since I can't get enough of other blogs and the Food Network, we decided to us them to create a new game for ourselves. Each of these categories (cookbooks, food blogs, Food Network) has been assigned a number set: 1/4-Cook Books, 2/5-Food Blogs, 3/6-Food Network. We'll let a simple little dice, and the help of a random number generator found at http://www.random.org to determine our stomachs' fate...

Each category has it's own set of rules:

Cook Books - If the die lands on 1 or 4, we'll let random.org tell us which cookbook to use (we have a total of 40, so far) counting from left to right. Once the book is chosen, we will input the number of pages into the generator, and the resulting page number will be our launching point. Multiple recipes on one pages means we get to have a choice in the matter :-)

Food Blogs - If the die lands on 2 or 5, we'll follow the same principle as with the cookbooks and random.org. We have our favorite blog sites numbered in a spreadsheet and then we'll either break the recipes down by alphabetical order or use the creator's category list. (Shorty wants to simply create the blog's most recent recipe, but I want more diversity.)

Food Network - If the die lands on 3 or 6, we get to watch TV!!! Just kidding...but this is, in my opinion, the most difficult option. Random.org will select a number from between 9 and 24 to determine from which time slot we must pick a recipe. (Early AM on the Food Network is normally used for paid programming and other silly infomercials, so we've left out the time slots 1am-8am). Once a slot has been decided, we'll skip ahead to the next occurrence of that time slot on the cable listings, and see what's on the menu. If two half-hour cooking shows happen to fall into that slot, then we get lots of options! We can pick any one of the recipes being made on either show. If a one-hour show, like Iron Chef or Chopped fall there, we'll challenge ourselves to create a new recipe with "today's secret ingredient." However, if a show such as Ace of Cakes or Unwrapped is on we'll skip to the next day's options since those types of shows don't lend themselves to this type of game.

We're both excited about this new idea and have already made our first selections. We decided that Shorty and I would both play separately to increase the fun and recipe opportunities. So look for a new post tomorrow detailing today's cooking adventures, and hopefully excluding any reports of visits to the local hospital! Now lets get cooking!!!

Mustard in a Muffin????

2010-02-11T11:03:00.011-06:00

I am an avid reader of many food blogs, especially those involving baking since that is one of my dream jobs. Anyway, I was perusing the Cupcake Project and I ran across this fascinating recipe. The writer of this blog is so creative and this recipe is a fine example. When Shorty heard the "secret ingredient" he was determined to make it. He's a huge fan of odd ingredients. So here you have it:

MOM Muffins (Maple Oatmeal Mustard)

Since we borrowed the recipe from another blogger you can find it here:

Maple Oatmeal Mustard Muffins

Shorty did make an alteration in that he used regular, vanilla flavored yogurt instead of the Greek yogurt. It fit our finances better and we are all about doing things on the cheap. :o)

Now I know the idea of mustard in a muffin is throwing some of you off, but they look delicious don't they? Actually, I was a little leary of the mustard as well, but Shorty had faith. I'm glad he did. These are delicious!!! They're like a hearty bran muffin with a wonderful maple glaze on top. Mmmmm!

The muffins have a rich, warm aftertaste that I can only attribute to the mustard. They also have a unique texture due to the mustard seeds which reminded me oddly of nuts or poppy seeds in other muffins I've eaten. We will definitely be making these again!

Rediscover Leftover: No Leftover Left Behind

2010-02-07T13:16:00.006-06:00

Several days ago Shorty made this wonderful squash soup with cornmeal dumplings on top. I really felt it was more of a stew than a soup. It was hearty and full of lots of chunky veggies. Drool! Anyway, the leftovers found their way into the fridge and, sadly, we kept overlooking them. Tonight we decided we had to correct this oversight, but neither of us really wanted it again. Then he announced that he was going to throw it in the blender and make a creamy soup. Blender? Creamy soup? Bring it on! I love it when he gets all creative and decides to play. So I let him do his thing and was surprised at the result.

I came into the kitchen to find that not only was the soup now thick and creamy with just the right amount of chunkiness, but he had also fried up some spicy Italian sausage and warmed up some ready made dinner rolls (hey, sometimes you've got to bring a little of that semi-homemade in when you don't have a lot of time.) We filled our bowls, mixed in the sausage, and dug in. Let me just say..... Yum! Shorty added a hint of rosemary to the soup and it was perfect. This was one time when a good dish was better as a leftover. Sadly, we're still new to the food blog world and our bowls were empty before we remembered photos. :o(