Kitchen Adventures 9.2

Everyone loves a good party, right? I know I sure do! My friends and I like to gather and celebrate things, be it a big event like some one's birthday or a going away party or a sporting event. So, of course, we had to get together to watch the Super Bowl between the Packers and the Steelers. I made sure to wear my green sweater to urge the Pack on to victory, and I guess it worked! :) It was a good game, but we always end up socializing so much half the time we're not even paying attention. We just like each other too much I guess. :)

For any party, you have to have good party food. Snacky finger-food items are a must-have. In my binders of recipes I have an entire section for this type of food that I don't get to break into very often, so I deliberately planned to make some items from this section for the party. And I'm sure glad I did, because they were hits!

I took three things to the party. Of course we had too much food, because everyone else brought that much as well. Better to have extra than not enough, though! Two of the recipes I made are from Rachael Ray's magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray. The other one is something my sister told me that is super quick and deceptively delicious and addictive. Hope you are able to use them at your next gathering!

Baked Potato Bites (from Every Day with Rachel Ray)

Ingredients:

4 red potatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds and patted dry
1/2 c. olive oil
Salt
1/2 lb. bacon
1/3 c. sour cream
1/3 c. cream cheese
1 T finely chopped chives (I omitted these b/c I couldn't find them at the store)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degree. Toss the potato rounds in the olive oil, coating all sides. Place the potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet and season with salt. Arrange them in a single layer. Bake for 25 minutes, flip them over, and bake for another 10 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
2. While the potatoes are baking, cook the bacon until crisp and then crumble it; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together the sour cream and cream cheese until smooth.
3. Arrange the potato slices in a single layer on a plate or serving dish and top each round with a spoonful of the cream mixture, some bacon bits, and chives. Serve warm.

Cheesy Corn Bites (from Every Day with Rachael Ray)

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
1 egg
1/2 c. frozen corn kernels
48 scoop-shaped tortilla chips
Chopped chives, for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, pepper jack cheese, egg and corn.
2. Arrange the chips in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Spoon 1 T. of the cream cheese mixture into each chip. Bake until the filling sets, about 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with chives and serve warm.

Tortilla Roll-ups

Ingredients:

Tortillas, any size or kind (flour are better than corn for this)
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
Taco seasoning

Directions:

Stir the softened cream cheese until it is smooth. Shake in taco seasoning to taste. Do this in stages so it does not get too strong. Spread the cream cheese mixture onto tortillas, making a thin layer of cheese on each tortilla. Roll up the tortillas, then slice them like a sushi roll.

This picture includes a couple of each item. Yummy!

Kitchen Adventures 9.1

Oh goodness, it's been almost a month since my last post! Gracious. February has been a busy month to say the least. We had lots of snow at the beginning of the month, busy weekends all month, beautiful weather in the middle of the month, and a big hurdle finally jumped. The combination of everything has kept me away from my computer and my blogging. Fortunately, it has not kept me away from my kitchen. When recently asked about my hobbies, cooking and baking are always at the top of my list now. It's a great stress reliever, and it's also a way I give of myself to others. For example, someone asked me to make him brownies since he had a bad day yesterday. Even though I was exhausted, I quickly whipped up a batch (I luckily had a box mix on hand) and they made his day. It's just part of my personality; I have to care for people. One way I do that is through food.

And though I care about people and love making food for them, I also have to eat. And boy, do I love eating! Good thing my metabolism can still keep up with this love. :) I love making a large dish at the beginning of the week and having it for dinner the rest of the week. Mainly, this is because my week gets busier as it goes and it's much faster to heat something up instead of making another meal later in the week. I do mix it up every now and then, though.

This recipe is one I made almost a month ago at the onset of the big blizzard to start February. My sister had made it and gave it good marks, so I figured it would be delicious. However, after making the dish and then speaking with her again, I realized I had made a small but significant error. The recipe calls for egg noodles. It means the kind you find in the pasta aisle. However, I think I must have combined ingredients from another recipe and thought I needed frozen egg noodles, like you find in chicken noodle soup. Like I said, small mistake with significant consequences. This dish was still delicious, but I'll have to try it again sometime the way it is supposed to be made! Also, perhaps I'll try it when I get married someday (whenever that is in the distant future) as it's called "Husband's Delight" and since I have no husband to delight I can't know if it's really good. Just kidding, of course. Perhaps I should call it "Myself Delight" since it filled my belly wonderfully. :)

This is a recipe that came from the binder my aunt made for me several years ago. I'm glad I have this recipe source; it has provided me many a delicious meal.

Husband's Delight

Ingredients:

1 pkg. egg noodles (NOT the frozen ones!)
26 oz. spaghetti sauce
8 oz. softened cream cheese
2 lbs. ground beef
8 oz. sour cream
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook the noodles and place them in the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish. Beat the cream cheese and sour cream together, then spread this mixture over the noodles. Brown the meat and drain the grease, then add the spaghetti sauce and stir together. Pour this over the ingredients already in the baking dish. Sprinkle (liberally) with shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

It should turn out like lasagna without all the layers. Mine, obviously, was different since I used frozen egg noodles, but it was still delicious.

Kitchen Adventures 8.5

Social networking and information sharing are now an integrated part of our culture. Everything has a Facebook page, website, or newsletter it seems. I subscribe to several daily food emails, and these typically have a weekly themed newsletter that also includes highlighted recipes. This recipe is one I got from my Food Network weekly newsletter. I like this newsletter, and feel that is balances out my other newsletter, which is recipes submitted by "regular people" rather than the celebrity chefs on Food Network. It's nice to use those "celebrity" recipes too, though.

I liked this recipe and it was something different than I would normally make. This recipes was also a lesson in reading directions for me. Normally I will read an entire recipe before starting the cooking or baking process, but sometimes I just get so excited I only look at one step at a time. This got me in trouble this time as I did not use a large enough skillet and forgot to add a key ingredient until the very end. The nice thing about cooking, though, is that you can make that mistake and it will still turn out well! It taught me a good lesson, though, and from now on I plan to read the entire recipe before beginning my adventure. Also, you may substitute regular pasta for the whole wheat pasta, but it was nice to feel like I was being somewhat healthy while eating this. :)

This is from the Food Network Magazine via a Food Network email newsletter.

Penne with Vodka Sauce

Ingredients:

Kosher salt (I didn't use this)
12 oz. whole wheat penne pasta
1 28 oz. can whole plum tomatoes
1 T. butter
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 c. vodka
2/3 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
Handful fresh basil leaves, torn, plus more for topping (I used dried basil and it worked fine)

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boiling. Add the penne and cook according to the directions. Remove 1/2 c. boiling water, then drain. Empty the tomatoes (drained) into a bowl and crush with your hands. (You could always buy crushed tomatoes, but this was actually a pretty quick step.)
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet (really, sue a large one)over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vodka, tomatoes, and salt to taste. Return the pan to the heat and simmer, still stirring, until the alcohol cooks off, about 7 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and cook until the sauce thickens, about 3m inutes. Stir in the parmesan and basil.
Add the pasta to the sauce (I added the sauce to the pasta that I had returned to the large pot as my skillet was not big enough) and toss to combine. Add in the reserve boiling water if necessary to loosen the sauce. Serve topped with more parmesan and basil.

This dish had a "tang" to it. I'm not sure if it was the sauce, the whole wheat pasta, or the combination. Either way, it was good!

Kitchen Adventures 8.4

Sometimes I end up making things for my main dish that other people, especially people with families, might make as a side dish. Since I don't have anyone else to please with my cooking, though, I can do whatever I want. :) This next recipe is one of those dishes.

I feel like this one could be a side, or a main dish, depending on the person and the menu. It is very simple and fairly quick to make, so if you're in a pinch for something fast for dinner it is a good one to try.

This recipe came from the binder that my aunt put together for the women of our family several years ago. I have gotten some great recipes form this binder, as have other members of my family. Family recipes are the best I always say! This is also a recipe I would classify a semi-homemade. Sandra Lee would approve I think. :)

Italian-Style Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (7.5 oz.) mac & cheese
1 c. Italian-style bread crumbs
2 T. butter

Directions:

Make mac & cheese according to box directions. Transfer to 7"x11" baking dish. Melt butter in microwave safe bowl, then add the bread crumbs and toss to combine. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of mac &cheese. Just put enough on top to coat; you do not need to use them all if you have extra. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Like I say, quick and easy. :)

Kitchen Adventures 8.3

Once again, I have a backlog of recipes. This happens often, I know. Fortunately, nature threw me a big excuse to blog with a massive winter storm yesterday and today. We had thundersleet last night, regular sleet, snow, crazy winds, and blizzard conditions. I went outside to take pictures and could only stay out a few minutes before my fingers got cold, and I was wearing good gloves! Suffice it to say, it's reaaallly cold here. I saw someone posted that it's colder in Oklahoma than some parts of Alaska. Now that just seems wrong to me, but so it is. On the positive side, I did not have to go to work today and I have the day off again tomorrow. The roads are nowhere close to clear, and I live right by the university, so hopefully they will be able to make progress tomorrow. It's been a great blessing for me, though, as I had things I needed to work on and now I have a weekend in the middle of my week to get them done! I also came down with a cold yesterday, so recovering at home is much better than being miserable at work or taking sick days.

The first recipe I'll share in my "weekend in the middle of the week" posting is a delicious cake I made for my friend Sally's going away party. I have known Sally almost three years and she just left last weekend (good timing on her part!) to join her boyfriend in Seattle. We will miss her here, but we know she'll have a wonderful life in Seattle! Anyway, I saw this recipe as a highlighted item in my Mixingbowl.com newsletter and decided it was just too delicious to pass up. It also helped that I had several of the necessary ingredients on hand that I would normally have had to buy as specialty items. I took the leftovers to work and one of my students said it was the best cake she has ever had. I don't know that I would go THAT far, but it's pretty close. :)

As a note, this is a pretty rich cake. Small slices will definitely be enough!

One-Bowl Chocolate Cake with Espresso Cream

Ingredients:

Cake--
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. water
2/3 c. oil
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. flour
3/4 c. cocoa powder

Cream Filling--
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. instant espresso powder

Chocolate Glaze--
1/2 c. whipping cream
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. (My mom always cuts out wax paper and puts it in the bottom instead. I should have done this as my layers stuck to the bottom.) In a very large bowl, whisk together the first seven ingredients for the cake until well combined. Add the flour and cocoa powder, and whisk until smooth. Divide batter between your prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, baking until the top springs back at the touch. Cool on wire racks in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on racks. I had to let mine sit longer than 10 minutes, so remove them whenever they seem ready to come out of the pans.
For the espresso cream: In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, sugar and espresso powder until blended.
Place one cake layer on a plate, then spread the espresso cream over that layer. Place the other layer on top of the cream mixture.
For the glaze: Bring the whipping cream to boiling in a saucepan over medium heat. Immediately remove from heat. Add the chocolate, but do not stir it in. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then stir it until it is smooth. Let it cool for 15 minutes, then pour over the top cake layer when thickened. Chill the cake for at least 30 minutes, then serve.

This may seem like a tricky recipe, but it is actually very easy. The results will be worth the effort!