Saturday, December 12, 2009

Gingerbread People!


Gingerbread People!
Originally uploaded by L.TON
Ahh, November was an ephemeral month. Between constant exams and then Thanksgiving, it was a whirl wind of a month. Gone before I even knew it and now it's almost mid December...

You would have thought that I would have blogged SOMETHING over the holiday break. I hosted Thanksgiving for those that didn't go home along side my friend Christopher. It was an intense experience. Photos of Thanksgiving will eventually be retroposted...

Paul & Conrad, two of my fellow alums from CCSU currently reside in the Wriggly area. Perfect! Paul hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I ended up with an epic Kelly Green Scottish wool sweater (everyone, be prepared to see me in the following months mozying around the Armour Academic Center in it). I'm not going to lie, I kind of love it! Pictures will be posted via Paul's Flickr, but in the mean while, check out his website: http://www.pauloctavious.com/

Great dishes included a spin/art dip, meatballs in a cream of mushroom/sour cream/heavy cream mix, peppermint mojitos and Rick Bayless inspired Eggnog!

Anyhow, my little dish to bring was some gingerbread men. Gingerbread cookies have always been a little tricky for me, either I bake too long and they are crispy critters or take them out too soon and they don't harden up quite right and fall apart.

This time, I have perfected the timing (I am going to say my recent successes in cookies is due to the fact that I've got a gas stove) and they came out quite tasty. When eaten without the Royal Icing, the sweetness is subtle and the spices' interactions with one another make a perfectly seasoned cookie! With each spice kind of coming out as you chew the cookie- Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Yum!!

Add the Royal Icing and well..... that just speaks for itself. Shena got creative with the decoration and put on some suspenders and ties for these little guys.

Now, you are wondering: WHAT IS UP WITH THAT GIANT SIZED COOKIE? Well, all of my cookies came out the same: 4" gingerbread boys (like those three little fellas there). But, I just had to make a giant cookie, so there he is, 9" of towering, giant sized, Gingerbread Man. Hand drawn stencil and cut out with a knife. I'm not going to lie when I say I kind of feel like it was a masterpiece of a gingerbread man.

Once again, I snaggled the gingerbread recipe from SimplyRecipes. Love Elise's Blog. For royal icing, I used the classic "Joy of Cooking" for a perfect icing.

Few notes: Baking time = essential, so pay close attention!

I am to impatient when it comes to making cookies, so I used straight-out-of-the-fridge butter rather then RT. So To soften up the butter faster, I cut up the butter into .25 in cubes and threw it into the mixer (with paddle attachment) to let it whip around while I prepped everything else.

Note that the flour is sifted twice, once BEFORE you mix in your spices, and sifted again to incorporate spices.
Royal Icing- if you've never worked with it before, know that it dries out wicked fast! So when you aren't working with it, cover it up. I put a damp tea towel over the bowl.


Gingerbread Cookies


ingredients

1.5 sticks (or .75 c.) butter (at RT)
.5 c dark brown sugar, packed
.5 c unsulfured molasses
1 egg

3.33 c sifted, AP flour
.75 tsp b.soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
.5 tsp ground cloves
.5 tsp ground nutmeg
.25 tsp ground black pepper
.5 tsp salt

instructions

1. To your mixer bowl (paddle attachment), cream the butter. Add sugar & beat until fluffy

2. While that is creaming and beating, sift together all your dry ingredients.

3. To mixer, add egg and molasses and mix until super fluffy

4. After your wet mixture is really fluffy, slowly add your dry ingredients, a little bit at a time until a nice dough ball forms.

5. Divide into 3rds and wrap in plastic wrap. chill for at least 1 hour or overnight (I did over night).

::one hour or overnight later....::

6. Preheat oven to 350F, take dough out and let warm for 5-10 minutes.

7. Roll out to ~1/8 inches thick. If the dough seems too sticky then a. maybe you are impatient and didn't let the dough chill for 1 hour or b. you just have a wet dough, so as you roll out, sprinkle on some flour.
NOTE: I also found this easiest to do on wax paper, making it easier to flip over and roll in case it got a little sticky.

8. Use your cookie cutter or stencil and cut out your gingerbread people.

9. Place cutouts on to an ungreased cookie sheet, and put in the middle rack of the oven.

10. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until golden ish brown and slightly crisp looking, let cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to wire rack to finish cooling.

11. Decorate with Royal Icing (recipe as follows).

makes about 18 gingerbread people, and 1 giant sized one
Royal Icing

Royal Icing is made with either meringue powder or egg whites. You can substitute regular egg whites for powdered egg whites. If you are going to use regular egg whites, I suggest to do what I did, use the microwave! Heat up the mixture such that we can zap out the bugs that might be present in the albumen!

ingredients
2 egg whites
2 tsp lemon juice
3 to 4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1. In a GLASS mixing bowl, whip egg whites, lemon juice and 1 c. of powdered sugar together.

2. Place in microwave for 10 seconds

3. Whip mixture again.

4. Microwave for 20 seconds

5. Whip again.

6. Microwave for 20 seconds.

7. Whip again. Do this until you have reached a temperature of 160F (use a candy thermometer!).

8. Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, whipping between additions until you have nice stiff peaks form. If they don't form after adding 3 cups, keep adding sugar until they do. I actually did this by hand, wow, I am spoiled with a Kitchen Aid mixer!!

makes ~3 cups icing

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich

November has been a very quiet blogging month. I don’t think I can truly say that I live in Chicago. Maybe instead I will tell everyone that I lived at Rush University Medical Center, specifically at either cubby numbers 9 or 11 in the library of the MedCenter during my 12 months here in Chicago.

After weeks of exam after exam, Thanksgiving break is around the corner and thankfully for the BTN students, a mini break from exams too! With an easy, *almost* study free weekend, I broke out the cookie sheets and gave my Kitchen Aid mixer a bit of exercise.

Of course, John Y. is also visiting me during his driving from CA to CT (I seem to be the landing pad for many of these West Coast to East Coast road trippers!). He is an avid cookie eater and ice cream fan, so I concocted pretty much a No-Fail cookie recipe. I know it’s a pretty bold statement to make: No-Fail, but these are pretty yum.

My sister and I seem to always make it a point to go to Diddy Riese, an amazing ice cream cookie shop in Westwood when I am in town. One of those times, earlier this year included John . I was astounded that we had never thought to go there sooner together (see photo caption). No Diddy' Riese's in Chi, so I made my own amazing Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches!

It’s a basic chocolate chocolate chip cookie, but instead of using the regular semi sweet chocolate chips, I used white chocolate chips. Also, I opted not to add chopped nuts this time, but the recipe can easily accommodate the addition of some nuts. My roommate, Dave, isn’t the hugest fan of nuts, so in an attempt to have him eat some cookies, I left them out.

The resulting cookie is soft and chewy, which makes it a perfect candidate for making ice cream sandwiches. I haven’t quite made the dive for the ice cream Kitchen Aid attachment yet, so just popped in some Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I know some of you readers out there are haters of the Ben & Jerry’s (and of course for legitimate reasoning) but lets just say, the B&J’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough blows the Häagen-Dazs’ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough out of the water. :] Usage of the cookie dough ice cream, as John stated “Isn’t that like eating chicken and eggs at the same time?” All I could reply back was “Like a Southwestern Omelet!”

Also, the cookie is perfect to be consumed as is, sans ice cream. Rich, chewy and soft, it is a great solution to any girl in need of a chocolate fix!


Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter, softened (8 tblspn)
.5 c white sugar
.5 c brown sugar, packed

1 egg beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbl spn milk

.25 c cocoa powder

1 c flour
.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking powder

instructions


1. preheat oven to 350F
2. cream together butter and sugars
3. in a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla extract and milk
4. add to creamed butter/sugar mixture and mix well, add cocoa powder
5. in another bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda
6. add to moist ingredients in 3 portions, mixing well between each dry addition
7. aliquot out onto an ungreased cookie sheet: 1 tablespoon sized dollops (it should be a relatively stiff and fluffy cookie dough)
8. bake 10-12 minutes until firm
9. let cookies cool to room temperature
10. make sandwich of cookie, ice cream, cookie
11. consume with utter happiness!

yields 18 cookies or 9 ice cream sandwiches!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Thyme & Sage Brined Chicken


Thyme & Sage Brined Chicken
Originally uploaded by L.TON
It's been nuts at school with some kind of exam going on every week. Last week was terrible, having two huge midterms (I will miss you S.P Kwan), I had nothing but time for books and eating at the hospital's Au Bon Pain and Trader Joe's rice and bean burritos. I can easily say that I hope I don't have to do a marathon of eating ABP for a while... and by a while, I bet it will happen in about 3 or 4 weeks when we begin to prepare for finals. TJ's rice and bean burritos, I am still a fan... I do have to try and get there sometime soon and restock my supply though.

So in the craziness of midterms, I haven't been able to properly feed myself. Sunday, Jen F. took me on an excursion to "The Burbs". We went to Skokie and to the most amazing asian grocery store ever! It was huge! Aisle of rice noodles, an entire corner devoted to all sorts of kim chee, and rice cookers! Asian pears are in season, so I stock piled.

I bought a plethora of produce, chicken, and other asian yummies that I wouldn't have been able to get elsewhere (I sense me trying to create Bun Bo in the near future....) So thank you Jen F. for a fun Sunday and the most ultimate grocery experience! I feel whole again, with a fully stocked fridge and a fruit box full of bananas, asian pears, apples and a pineapple.

Since I am at RUMC at least 10 hours a day (sadly, I am not exaggerating), it's hard to come up with something that is quick and easy. So when I get back home at 8 or 9 or 10 at night, I really want to be able to put something together and have something halfway decent. This AM I got up early enough to package away all the chicken I bought and thought to myself, "Well, if I can brine turkey, why not chicken?" and that is how it led to this great creation that I let brine all day long while I was at RUMC, came home, tossed some veggies into a pan and let bake! Most of these roasted chicken recipes call for some kind of starch element, such as potatoes. I had yucca root on hand, and used at as my starch instead of the usual Yukon gold. I also tossed in an apple. The apple added the slightest bit of sweetness and lots of moisture. Has anyone noticed a trend? I like to add apples to savory things.

Brining the chicken yields an amazingly moist and tender chicken packed with flavor and a near "melt in your mouth" delightfulness. Your brining ratio is up to you, depending on how salty you want your end result to be.

I've also like to make a note that I've gotten MUCH better at proportions. This recipe is made for about 2 servings (Lisa sized of course!) so I had some for dinner, and will be toting the rest tomorrow with me for lunch. Yum!

Thyme and Sage Brined Chicken

ingredients

for the brine:

2 tblspn salt
1.5 c water
2 tsp chopped thyme
5 sage leaves coarsely chopped
.25 c chopped red onion

1 chicken quarter, cut into drumstick and two parts

For the roasted veggies:

.5 c yucca, 1 inch cubes
1 apple, 1 inch cubes
.5 yellow bell pepper, cubed
.33 red onion, cubed
1 tomato, wedged and cut in half
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil

instructions

1. In a 1 quart zip lock bag, mix all brine ingredients together and shake well, making sure the salt is dissolved.

2. If you have a particularly muscular chicken leg, I highly suggest cutting down the drumstick and slightly pulling the meat away from the bone, sort of like if you were to butterfly a chicken breast.

3. Add the chicken to the zip lock bag.

4. Let brine all day in the fridge (I assume you can let it brine for 1 hr minimally, but I wouldn't know.. my chicken sat in brine from 815AM until 730PM)

(time elapses to dinner time)

5. Preheat oven to 450F
6. Toss all veggies and garlic in olive oil and S&P.
7. Place in a small pan
8. Remove chicken from zip lock bag, rinse in the sink
9. place skin side down onto your veggies
10. Cover in foil and bake for about 20 minutes
11. Flip over chicken, so it is skin side up. Cover again in foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
12. Remove foil, turn on the broiler to high to golden up the skin.
13. Consume!!!

yields 2 Lisa sized portions OR if you are some hungry dude, I am sure you could eat the whole thing. After all, it's only a quarter of a chicken.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Bison Stir Fry over Brown Jasmine Rice


Bison Stir Fry
Originally uploaded by L.TON
Back home in Connecticut, somewhere between Buttonwoods Farm (best ice cream EVER) and my house, there is a Bison Farm. All summer long Andrea, Vaughn and I discussed doing from scratch, homemade burgers (condiments & buns included) and using Bison as the protein. But before I knew it, summer came and went and I was packed to the brim in my little Corolla and making my way to the Windy City! Our homemade burger endeavors never came to fruition. Bummer.

I'm also not going to lie when I say I've been wanting to try bison for quite sometime. It's a red protein and it has less fat, calories and cholesterol then chicken! I've had just about everything else: rabbit, venison, veal, quail, squab, ducks, turkeys, what ever, but the Bison! It's eluded me FOREVER.

So I thought I was going to get to fulfill the dream of having Bison when I was in Colorado. For some reason, I was under the impression that there was a bounty of Bison everywhere! And that when I got to either Boulder or Breckenridge, I would be stuffing my face in a nice, delightful, tasty, Bison Burger. That was a Fail alright!

Christel was like "Lisa I don't know why you thought that there would be Bison here." I don't know either Christ, I sure don't.

Anyhow, with a craving for red meat, on the hunt for some quality beef, I stumbled across this fridge full of South Dakota Bison at the local Whole Foods. The stars aligned just right and that was it. It was love. Today was the day. I was finally going to have some Bison.

I did an overnight marinate of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic, chopped basil, brown sugar, agave nectar, chili flakes, shallots, splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Then with a myriad of veggies: mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, red onion, & red bell peppers, I sauteed them up in olive oil, garlic, crushed fresh ginger, and a splash more of soy sauce (salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste of course).

Over all success: I'd rate pretty high. It's hard to screw up a stir fry... unless the Salt Lady came and fell right into your dish... but thankfully, that didn't happen! Bison itself, if you gave me beef stir fry or bison, I wouldn't have known the difference. Next time, I am going to have to try to just as it, grilled with some sea salt and cracked pepper.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Peanut Butter Cookies


Organic Peanut Butter Cookies
Originally uploaded by L.TON
Ellen and Jonatha came to visit me this past weekend. Ellen is allergic to nuts but not peanuts and Jonatha's boyfriend is allergic to peanuts but not nuts. Jonatha loves peanuts but never gets to eat them because the boyfriend is allergic to peanuts.

Peanuts- fun fact, they are not a nut! They are actually a legume meaning they are part of the bean family! So that's how Ellen is allergic to nuts but not Peanuts.

These cookies, first out of the oven might seem the slightest bit dry (I thought so, but the girls did not) but the next day, and the day after, and the day after, they are SOOOOO GOOOD. I sent some out to a friend via USPS on Monday AM after baking them up on Sunday night. USPS Priority 3 day mail is not always 3 day priority. I have not yet heard back how they fared through transit.

They also came out in the perfect consistency and density to make into ice cream sandwiches. They were especially tasty with the chocolate ice cream I currently have on stock: Trader Joe's Ultra Chocolate Ice Cream. Yummm!!!

Side note, I used organic peanut butter. If you have ever used all natural or organic peanut butter, it is much runnier in consistency then regular peanut butter, so I adjusted in my recipe for the Organic Peanut Butter. Make sure to stir the jar well before measuring out.

Peanut Butter Cookies

ingredients
1 stick butter, soften
.5 c sugar
.5 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

.75 cup organic, creamy peanut butter

.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 c + 2 tblspn all purpose flour (if you are using regular PB, omit the extra 2 tblspn AP Flour)

instructions

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. cream together butter, sugars, and vanilla.
3. add egg and mix together well
4. add peanut butter, mix well
5. in a separate bowl, whisk-mix together flour, salt, and baking soda
6. mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients in 3 portions
7. make slightly smaller then golf ball sized balls of dough
8. place on ungreased cookie sheet
9. ::smoosh smoosh:: criss cross with forks across the dough ball
10. bake for 10-13 minutes, until it turns slightly golden brown. Also, I like to rotate the sheet halfway through baking time
11. Enjoy with milk and ice cream!

yields approximately 18 cookies, 2.5-3 inches in diameter

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Whole Wheat Semolina Pasta


Whole Wheat Semolina Pasta
Originally uploaded by L.TON
I've been obsessed with two different things in the kitchen as of late. 1. Pumpkin everything (I bought a giant cooking pumpkin) and 2. Homemade pasta.

After making a semi-successful Pumpkin Ravioli (yum filling, crappy dough), I refused to NEVER EVER roll pasta dough out by hand EVER AGAIN. On an afternoon run downtown, I cruised past a store that happened to have one in stock, so for $16.99 (plus the 10.25% chi/IL tax) I picked up a great little pasta roller.

With a mixture of whole wheat flour, all purpose and semolina, I concocted a little ball of pasta dough (and surprisingly proportioned for just 2 people!!!). An easy to put together recipe, longest part is letting it rest, and cranking it through the machine, some yummy, healthy homemade pasta!

Note: this only makes about .75 lbs ish of pasta (I am guessing), you can easily double this recipe

Also Note: I used my Kitchen Aid stand Mixer, dough hook attached, on low

Whole Wheat Semolina Pasta

ingredients

0.5 c AP flour
0.5 c whole wheat flour
0.5 c semolina flour
0.25 tsp sea salt
2 large eggs,
2 teaspoon olive oil

instructions

1. combine dry ingredients
2. make a well
3. in a separate bowl, beat the eggs and olive oil together,
4. pour into well
5. mix slowly until a dough ball forms, knead for another 3-4 minutes
6. if needed, add 1-2 teaspoon water to make dough ball
7. once dough is together, wrap in plastic
8. let rest for 2 hrs in the refrigerator
9. roll it out! Let the ball come up to room temp, cut in half, and roll into desired thickness and shape. In the photo, I rolled out to dial number 5, fettuccine cut ** if it is a little sticky, dust flour as needed **
10. put in pot of boiling water, boil for 4-5 minutes.


makes ~0.75 lbs pasta.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Turkey & Beef Meatballs


Turkey & Beef Meatballs
Originally uploaded by L.TON
So I had the most ridiculous craving for meatballs and pasta today. Highly usual as that is not a typical Lisa food to eat.

Perhaps it was Shena's talk of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" that sent me into a "I want to make meatballs and pasta" mode. Or maybe because during my Pharmacology lecture, instead of paying attention to the blah blah blahs of cholinergic or adrenic receptors and the Autonomic Nervous System, I was surfing the internet for recipes on making quinoa anything, pasta anything and shoes. (I justify by saying I read ahead for this lecture....)

Stumble upon a little Alton Brown and my favorite go-to recipe blogger, Elise, Simply Recipes 5 o'clock rolled around and class was done for the day and I was off to the grocery.

I fused both recipes together plus my own here, there's and maybes. I went with a mix of ground turkey and grass finished ground beef (90/10). I added chopped apples, which actually makes the meatballs super moist and adds the slightest hint of sweetness.

The recipe I am going to post makes a lot, so you might want to consider halving it. Even though I recognize I am only cooking for myself, I still haven't learned to portion for two and end up making enough food for the entire Dugger Family.

I didn't have time to make sauce from scratch and instead took 1 jar of regular pasta sauce and doctor-ed it up with some sauteed green bell peppers, onions, garlic and a can of stewed sliced tomatoes. You don't have to, but it gives me the false sense of gratification that I sort of "made my own sauce."

Since everything needs to be minced, if you have a handy chopper, that is a great tool to make this process go a bit more efficiently. The longest part of making these meatballs is the prep.

Turkey & Beef Meatballs

ingredients
1 lbs ground beef, 90% lean
1 lbs ground turkey
1 c minced cremini (baby bella) mushrooms (~1 package)
1 c. minced sweet yellow onion (~1/2 large onion)
1/2 c. minced carrot (~1 medium carrot)
1/2 c. minced apple

3 eggs

3 cloves minced garlic
2 tblspn chopped, fresh basil
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1.25 c. bread crumbs (seasoned)
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp tarragon
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp fresh, cracked pepper

2 tblspn olive oil

instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F

2. Dump everything but the olive oil into a large bowl and start mixing it. I'm lazy, so I put everything into my stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mixed on low until everything is uniformly mixed, ~ 5 minutes

3. Form golf ball sized balls

4. Rub olive oil on each ball

5. Place on a cookie sheet

6. Bake for 25-30 min.

After you bake, they are technically done.... so you can proceed forward to the eating part but I did a little more...

7. To my doctored up sauce, I dumped in the meatballs and let them simmer in the pot for another 30 minutes.

8. Serve over your favorite pasta noodle!

yields ~40 golf ball sized meatballs

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nuts

Once again, I start this blog post of "I haven't posted a recipe in a really long time...."

As most (I think) you know, I have relocated to the Windy City (aka Chicago) doing an accelerated 9 month MS program in Biotechnology at Rush University Medical Center. But enough about all of that, back to the important stuff. I ended up in an amazing apartment that has a kitchen that is awesome to cook and bake in! Gas stove and a giant island? Yeah! Plenty of space to knead dough and roast turkeys!

So while I should be studying for my first big pharmacology exam, I decided to bake some cookies instead. How studious of me! Baking is just an edible form of science, at least that's what I keep telling myself and fuels my neurons!

Adapted from this chocolate chip cookie recipe, I made modifications to fit the ingredients I had on hand. I added some Chai Latte Powder (from Trader Joe's) which adds a nice, very subtle chai spiciness to it and the addition of chopped mixed nuts with some dried cranberries adds great textural elements. The nuts and chai are completely optional. For the nuts, I used Trader Joe's "Simply the best Trek Mix".

Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nuts

ingredients
1/3 c. organic sugar
1/3 c. light brown organic sugar
1/2 c. earth balance soy garden buttery spread (or just 1 stick of butter will be fine)
1 lrg egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. organic AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1 scoop Trader Joe's Chai Latte mix (optional)

1 c. chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped mixed nuts (optional)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-Using a mixer (hand or stand), mix sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl until "fluffy".

-Mix in the rest of the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips and mixed nuts, until well mixed

- Mix in chocolate chip cookies & nuts until evenly distributed in the batter. NOTE: It won't be super stiff cookie dough.

-Drop tablespoon sized balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

-Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown

-Let cool until firm, remove and finish cooling on wire rack.

Consume with lots of milk!!!

yields about 18 cookies in about 20 minutes

Friday, August 14, 2009

Mango Salsa


Mango Salsa
Originally uploaded by L.TON
Wow! Amazing! Me blogging two recipes in one week? Absolutely unheard of!

One of the perks of my job is [generally] every Tuesday during the summer, the Muttart's put on Taco Tuesday. It's a great summer time activity that gets all the girls together along with Jeff and Matt (poor guys!) for lots of laughs and really good turkey tacos.

A food I developed quite the love for while living in Santa Barbara, CA was Mango Salsa. It seems to me that it is a lot less common salsa concoction here in the Northeast. One Taco Tuesday, I thought to myself, hmmm... why don't I make some? And so I did! It turned out to be quite the success with pretty positive feedback :]

Although it is a salsa with fruit in it, it is not a fruity salsa by any means. In all actuality the mango adds a nice distinct yet subtle flavor and texture to the salsa, but it is still very salsa-ey and not a sweet tasting salsa by any means. I used jalapeño peppers in this salsa. If you ever wonder how to determine the "hotness" of a jalapeño pepper, this is a great method . Scientifically proven? No... but a genius culinary trick? Definitely.

Current photo of the salsa was two days after I made it, when I brought the extra to Amos Lake for us to enjoy on the boat while we took turns on the seadoo and wakeboard. Not going to lie when I say it was even better two days after I made it.

The recipe I am posting makes A LOT of salsa so you might want to consider halving the recipe. It also keeps for about 3-4 days before it gets mushy and gross. In general, I would say this is a simple and easy to make recipe. Perfect snack food for the summer!

Mango Salsa

ingredients
2 Mexican mango, ripe but not mushy
1 (colorful) bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1 cucumber (or 2 pickling cucumbers)
1 jalapeño, seeds and pith removed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1.5 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 lime (about 1.5-2 tbs of lime juice)
1 tspn fresh black pepper
1 tspn kosher salt

materials
knife
cutting board
bowl

1. peel the mangos. Cut into slices about 1/4 inches and dice.
2. dice bell pepper, red onion and cucumber. With the cucumber, you can leave the skin on or off. I prefer to leave the skin on as it adds a nice bit of textural element to the salsa.
3. mince the jalapeño. Don't touch your eyes! it might burn.
4. toss all the vegetables together along with the cilantro.
5. juice the lime right on top of the mixture followed by the vinegar, salt and pepper.
6. toss together until well mixed.
7. let flavors meld together for at least 30-45 minutes. The longer the mixture sits together, the more the flavors will develop.

makes about 3 cups? Just a guesstimate

Monday, August 10, 2009

Lemongrass Ginger Grilled Chicken Wings

So much like my last post, I haven't posted a recipe in well over 1 month. With all the much needed summer fun going on, there's been a lot of time to cook but no time to blog!

One favorite summer activity has been is going out on Amos Lake and doing "Sunset BBQs" on the boat. After an hour or two of wake boarding, a much needed grill session is always in order!

Changing things up from the usual burgers and hot dogs, I brought over some wings in this concocted marinate that I've modified from a recipe my mom frequently utilizes. So here is the closest anyone will ever get to getting one of my mom's top secret recipes!

I'm also dedicating this blog post to Cat N., a friend of mine from Santa Barbara. She was always my biggest fan! Thanks lady! :] Also, props to Emily B. for snagging my camera in the nick of time to snap a perfect picture of the wings grilling on the boat!

If I actually had to give this a name utilizing all the ingredients, it would be a VERY long title, so I'll just call these "Lemongrass Ginger Grilled Chicken Wings". Beats out any Asian Teriyaki chicken anytime if you ask me!



Lemongrass Ginger Grilled Chicken Wings

NOTE: Since this is a marinate that you are concocting and I never really measure (I did this time, but accidentally tossed out that paper with the approximations) there is quite a bit of flexibility so you really can't go wrong!

ingredients

4-5 lbs chicken wingettes (or you can just leave the wings whole, your choice)

.25 cup Oyster Sauce
3.5 tbsp Mushroom Soy Sauce (or dark soy sauce)
2.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
.25 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp spoon red chili flakes
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
1.5 tbsp minced Lemongrass
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

materials

1 gallon zip lock bag
1 mixing bowl
1 spoon


1. Taking all the ingredients (except for the chicken), mix them together in the bowl.
2. Put washed wings into the zip lock bag.
3. Dump marinate into bag.
4. Zip bag up
5. Proceed to massage and mix, coating the wings well.
6. Let marinate for at least 30 min, but the longer the better. Marinate overnight for best results.
7. Grill! As you grill, baste with excess marinate. Makes it extra tasty.

Makes enough wings for 5-6 people to enjoy on a party boat while sippin' on some Coronas with limes :] !

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Giant Birthday Cupcake


Giant Birthday Cupcake
Originally uploaded by L.TON
So I realized I haven't posted in a while in general or really post a recipe at all. So let's remedy that.

June is the month of birthdays. One of my best friends, Kristina, was turning 23 (okay, so its come and gone by now). Anyhow, she is not an avid cake eater by any means unless it is Funfetti.

We both have fond memories of late night all nighters where I would bake us a pan of funfetti cake and we would eat that all night drinking cokes to stay awake to study. So in celebration of her 23rd birthday, I thought to make her the ultimate Funfetti Cupcake.

Here I used 2 boxes of Pilsbury Funfetti cupcake mix, 1 can of funfetti frosting, and topped it off with a homemade whipped cream cheese frosting.

You'll also want to make this delightful Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting first, so that you can let it set in the fridge

Giant Birthday Cupcake

Materials:
3 8 inch, round pans prepped with parchment paper
1 10-11 inch glass bowl (that can be used in the oven), coated with Pam or other non stick spray
Stand or Hand mixer
Aluminum Foil
Parchment paper

Ingredients:

2 boxes of cake mix (flavor of your choice)
ingredients to make the mix (eggs, water, oil)

1 can frosting (flavor of your choice)

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:

-1 pint (or 2 cups) of heavy whipping cream
-1/3 cup light agave nectar (if you do not have agave nectar, you can use 1/2 cup regular white sugar)
-1 tbl spoon vanilla extract
-1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1. Into a stainless steel or copper bowl, cream together the agave nectar, vanilla extract and cream cheese until well mixed.

2. Turn your mixer on medium and slowly add the heavy cream. As the cream and sugar cheese mixture whippes together, it should start looking like whipped cream. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

3. refrigerate for 1-2 hrs until stiff. This is especially important if you are using the agave nectar because the whipped cream is a little looser.


The cake:

1. Prepare the cake mix according to box directions. I make one box at a time to ensure that I do not over mix. It IS possible to over mix with box cake.

2. Fill each of the 8 inch round pan 1/2 of the way with batter. Pour remaining batter into the glass bowl.

3. Bake at 350F until tooth pick comes out clean for the 3 8inche pans. The glass bowl will take a bit longer. Once I take the rounds out, I turn down the temperature to 325F to prevent burning and bake until the toothpick comes out clean (almost 1 hr).

4. Cool on wire rack

5. While the cake is cooling, prepare the "foil wrapper". Roll out strips of parchment ~ 2.5 - 3 inches wide. Fold accordion style about 1/2 inch. Do the same with the aluminum foil

6. Layer the cakes and frost with can frosting. You can skip frosting the top because that is going to be topped with the whipped cream cheese frosting

7. Put a thick layer of canned frosting around the sides of the cake. This will help the parchment wrapper stick to the cake. Slowly wrap the folded parchment around the cake. Repeat with the foil.

8. Take your whipped cream cheese frosting out of the fridge and divide. Using food coloring (I used gel), lightly mix in the color of choice.

9. frost the top with color A, followed by color B. repeat until you have a "stacked" look.

10. Garnish with sprinkles or colored sugar if desired.

Serves 15

Monday, May 25, 2009

Eggrolls


Eggrolls
Originally uploaded by LTizzle

Most people on Memorial Day have foods that include hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, and watermelon. In my family, not so much. Our picnics usually consist of my mom making amazing steaks marinated in this sauce that I can't even explain, wings (some of you have had the pleasure of having) also marinated in amazingess, vietnamese style coleslaw, some kind of noodle soup spring rolls, and lettuce wraps.

Today, my mom's feature was Eggrolls. My mom made a filling of pork and shrimp, carrots, glass noodles, rehydrated mushrooms, onion, garlic, and of course fish sauce. I would post the recipe, but once again, she likes to be all top secret about it... or just not tell me the proportion for each ingredient.

Deep fried goodness, my mom's eggrolls are extremely satisfying. They can be eaten plain or wrapped in a roman lettuce leaf and dipped in a sweet fish sauce for a touch of tang and sweetness.

I swear, one day I will post one of my mom's amazing foods.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Mango Coconut Mint Panna Cotta

Shannon and I were headed to Boston for a weekend with Andrea. Of course there was going to be a dinner party! Andrea made amazing white potato pizza with scallions and caramelized red onion and rosemary and a great feta veggie pizza.

Since I was going to be a nice weekend, I thought I would try my hand at panna cotta, which translates to "cooked cream". Boy oh boy is it ever. I added a splash of peppermint extract to mine. I've gotten mixed reviews about the mint flavor, so it can be something that is up to your digression.

I also opted to leave mine in the ramekins, although they pop out rather easily. Ramekins are not a requirement. In the photo, I poured the panna cotta mixture into a small bowl we use for eating rice (about 1 cup bowl)! Martini glasses also make a great looking panna cotta.

Mango Coconut Mint Panna Cotta

2 medium sized mangos
4 tbl spn OJ
1 1/4 c coconut milk*
1 c. half and half
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 c sugar
1 1/2 packet gelatin
1/4 tsp peppermint extract (optional)

*I left the can of coconut milk unshaken and scooped off the white coconut milk floating in the can

1. peel and chop the mango. Reserve 1/4 cup for garnish (optional) With an emulsifier or blender to make a mango purree. strain through a sieve to get all the stringy bits out
2. In a small bowl, mix the OJ and gelatin
3. in a stainless steel 1 quart pot, whisk together coconut milk, half and half and sugar on medium heat until very hot but not boiling.
4. in a separate bowl, mix together yogurt and mango puree
5. When the milk mixture is very hot, turn off heat and whisk in gelatin until the gelatin is dissolved followed by the mango puree and yogurt mixture.
6. whisk well together. If you have an emulsifier wand, you can even use that to make sure everything is well blended together
7. pour into ramekins.
8. chill for about 1 hour and sprinkle remaining mango. cover and chill over night!

makes about 12 1-cup ramekins 2/3 of the way full.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Mayoless Tuna Sandwich with Avocado

It felt nearly like summer this past weekend. Andrea, Andy and I hit up the beaches armed iwth wetsuits and surfboards. Of course all that beach activity is going to make us hungry!! So I packed tuna sandwiches which I pazazzed up quite a bit. I hate hate hate mayonnaise, so I made it mayo less with the magic of avocado.

Andrea suggested next time to add Parmesan cheese and one minced up egg.

Mayoless Tuna Sandwich

your choice of bread ( I bought whole wheat rolls)
1 can tuna, drained
1 shallot
1 celery stalk
1 avocado
~1 tsp red chili flakes
Romaine Lettuce
Tomato Slices
cheese (optional)
S&P to taste

1. Mix up the tuna so that all the chunks are broken up.

2. Finely dice shallot and celery stalk, mix in with tuna

3. Cube up the avocado and mash, mix in with tuna, celery and shallot.

4. Mix in red chili flakes, S&P.

5. Compile sandwich [ bread, lettuce, tuna mixture, cheese, tomato, lettuce, bread ]

Makes enough for 3 sandwiches.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Alligator Cake


Alligator Cake
Originally uploaded by LTizzle
My friend Lisa Daigle is having her 25th birthday. For the past few years, I have always managed to make her a cake (except for when I went off to California). It all started with a chocolate cake, plastic dinosaurs and a chocolate cupcake volcano... the rest is Lisa/Lisa history.

Anyhow, this year for Lisa's big quarter century she decided the best way to celebrate growing up was of course to go to Midevil times in New Jersey!! What a better way than to go to a prepaid dinner where you get to eat with your hands, watch sword fights and live jousting???

So this year's cake is a Dragon, you know to go with the theme. This is my first cake (I thought I should practice). It ended up looking like an alligator that was poorly frosted. Yes, I ran out of frosting. I was about a cup short of how I would have preferred to frost but with all else considered, I think it came out pretty good.

I'll be posting more dragon/alligator cakes as they come up. When this series is done, I'll post the final recipe and pattern :]

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Homemade Wontons


uncooked wontons
Originally uploaded by LTizzle
My mom is an amazing woman. If any of you have ever had the luxury of eating some of her food, you know that I am not lying when I say it is BOMB. This past weekend was awesome where my mom spent some time cooking up a storm. Here are some shots of the Wontons that we made together.

Sadly though, I can't post the recipe. My mom is very secretive of her food and how she prepares it so she already vetoed the idea of telling me all the magic that she uses to prepare. Too bad! So sad! You can take a peek with pictures and drool instead. You'll just have to just come over one day for lunch instead.

I forgot to take a final picture of what the soup looks like all together but in a big bowl, you have your broth, egg noodles, wontons, scallions/cilantro mixture to top it off with and some fried red onions and happiness ensues.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Peanut Butter Brownie Drop Cookies

Shannon and I decided to have a girl's night, watch a movie and bake cookies. When Shan and I bake, usually she makes up the batter and I end up actually shaping the cookies, putting them in the oven and... most importantly remembering to take them out in a timely fashion.

If you are a fan of brownies, especially the edges, this is the recipe for you. Each cookie tastes like a brownie edge. These are super rich cookies, so you don't want to make them too big!


Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Drop Cookies

1 bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniratures
3/4 c. (or 1.5 sticks) of butter
1.5 c. granulated white sugar
3/4 c. cocoa powder (dutched procces or not, doesn't matter)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. ap flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
walnut halves for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with either parchment paper or lightly grease and dust with flour. Remove wrappers from Reese's cups and cut each cup into 4 peices.

2. Melt butter in a large sauce pan on low heat. In a bowl, mix together sugar and cocoa powder. Add a third at a time to the melted butter incorperating well each time. Make sure you sit in well or else your cookies will end up with a grainy texture from the sugar.

3. Remove from the heat and add eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, salt and baking soda, followed by the peanut butter cups and optional walnuts.

4. Drop onto cookie sheet in heaping teaspoons, and top with a piece of walnut (optional). bake 10-12 minutes or until it is set and the edges are firm. You really have to watch these cookies because they can over bake in a second. Cool slightly on the sheet then transfer to wire rack.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Walnut Cookies!

I am going to do a lot of oatmeal recipes considering how my mom bought a plethora of instant oatmeal.... why, I don't know considering how I only make 1/4 cup of oats every morning for breakfast.... with the amount of Quaker Oats she bought in bulk, its going to take me a year! Hence, lots of oatmeal related recipes!

They are cakey and crumbly all at the same time, dense, but not too dense. I think I need to fiddle with the recipe just a bit more, but currently how they stand, my dad enjoys them quite a bit. I added a touch of nutmeg which adds a nice spicy delightful flavor to them.

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Walnut Cookies

1/2 c. butter (soften)
1/2 c. brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 c. granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. oat flour (I just took the oatmeal and food processed it until fine)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 c instant oatmeal

3.4 oz dark chocolate, chopped (one half of a large Hershey Bar) 0r 3/4 c. chocolate chips
3/4 c. chopped walnuts

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F, prepare your baking sheets with either parchment paper or non stick spray

2. cream butter and sugars, add vanilla extract and egg until well blended together

3. mix in all dry ingredients.

4. drop one oz. balls of dough onto your sheet. I use a small ice cream scoop to make uniform cookie balls.

5. bake for 15-18 minutes until slightly golden brown around the edges

6. cool on wire rack

makes ~2 dozen cookies

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Two Cheeses and a jar of Cheesy Ragu Sauce Mac n Cheese

I wanted to make a breaded mac n cheese to use up the rest of my ricotta and mozzerella I had laying around.. but ever since college, I have always LOVED the Ragu cheese sauce in the jar... so here I combined them together, topped with buttered up bread crumbs and voila!

instant meal for the next 4 days!

Two Cheeses and a jar of Cheesy Ragu Sauce Mac n Cheese

For the Sauce:
1 jar Ragu Double Cheese Sauce
1/2 lbs. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tsp corn starch
1.5 cups Ricotta cheese
2 tbls butter (I use Earth Balance buttery spread though)
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup diced ham

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1. Toss the Mozzarella cheese in the corn starch until well coated. It will help prevent stringy cheese when melting.
2. In a pot, melt the butter and turn to medium heat. Add the mozzarella, ricotta, and milk. Stir to prevent the bottom from scorching
3. Stir in Ragu Cheese Sauce
4. Throughly heat through, add ham.
5. simmer for 6 minutes, stirring every minute

For Noodles:
1 lb dried elbow noodles
pinch of salt
3 quarts water

1. Boil water, add pinch of salt
2. Add noodles, cook until al dente
3. Strain


In a 13 x 9 baking pan, pour in the noodles followed by the sauce mixture. Stir until cheese sauce is evenly distributed in the pan.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Make bread crumb topping in the mean while


For Topping:
2 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 tbls butter (or Earth Balance)

1. Melt butter in a pan then toss bread crumbs until evenly coated
2. After noodles and cheese sauce has been baking for 25 minutes, remove foil and evenly distribute bread crumb mixture.
3. Bake another 10-15 minutes, until crumbs are golden brown.
4. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Serves 9 hefty portions

Monday, April 6, 2009

Vegan Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

I've had a cooking frenzy lately. Maybe its being confused with spring fever.

I adapted this recipe from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World".

I love the extra butteriness of the coconut milk and the nice refreshing quality the peppermint adds. Its like eating a thin mint girl scout cookie!

For the Cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1.5 cups chopped up Oreo Cookies

For the Vegan "Butter Cream" Frosting
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine (I used earth balance buttery spread)
3.5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup chopped Oreo Cookies
Extra Oreo Cookies to garnish


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Sift together all dry ingredients.

In your mixer, mix together coconut milk, water and vinegar and let sit for 2-3 minutes
Add sugar, extract, and oil and mix until foamy.

In two batches, add dry ingredients and mix. Depending on how thick your coconut milk is to begin with, you may need to add a tablespoon of water at the end. Mix until there are no lumps. Add chopped up Oreo Cookies.

Pour into liners 3/2 of the way full. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.

DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN UNTIL THE 15 MINUTE MARK HAS PAST OR ELSE YOUR CUPCAKES WILL DEFLATE.

Cool on a wire rack. Follow by frosting with Vegan "Butter Cream" Frosting

Frosting:

Beat together the shortening and margarine until well mixed together
Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing well.
Add extracts and coconut milk. Beat together until mixed well.*
Fold in Oreo pieces.

Dollop onto cooled Vegan Mint Chocolate Cupcakes!

*If the frosting seems thin, add more powdered sugar and refrigerate for 20 minutes before frosting.