Apple Butter
02 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in General Food
So, we decided to go apple picking on Friday in Tehachapi. Needless to say, we ended up with a huge amount of apples. So far, I have made an apple crumb cake (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/apple-coffee-cake-with-crumble-topping-and-brown-sugar-glaze-recipe/index.html) without its brown sugar glaze. I also made some apple butter that I plan on freezing. I might even make some more of it because it came out so delicious! Next time I will use a food processor though. Cutting all these apples took me 2.5 hours!
I followed a recipe on allrecipes.com that I found with a TON of awesome reviews. I changed some things based upon what the reviewers were saying and I think it came out amazing.
The original recipe is here: All Day Apple Butter
Here is mine, based upon this one.
5lbs of red and green apples, peeled, cored and diced into tiny squares (It was about 4 apples per pound, I think)
2 cups of white sugar
2 rounded teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Put all the apples into the insert for a slow cooker. In a smaller bowl, mix the sugar, spices and salt. Pour the spices over the apples and mix thoroughly. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours. Turn it down to low and cook for another 9-12 hours. The longer it cooks, the more concentrated it will taste. I cooked mine for a total of 14 hours. You can store it for at least 6 months in the fridge in an airtight container. It stays indefinitely in the freezer. I am storing mine in Ziploc Twist n Loc 2 cup containers. This recipe gave me 4 of these.
I hope some of you get to make this because it is super easy and super delicious. I have already had it on toast for breakfast this morning and also, on a turkey and mozzarella sandwich for lunch. 
Apple Butter start!
Apple Butter finish!
Pulled Pork
27 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in General Food, Meals!
Today I thought it would be good to make some pulled pork shoulder. If you make pork shoulder, you gotta have BBQ sauce and buns and coleslaw to go with it, so I made those too! After finding a plethora of recipes this morning, I went to the store and got my supplies.
When I got home, I started the bread rising. I used a recipe for hamburger buns that I will for sure make again. I found the recipe months ago when I was reading food blogs with Flipboard on my iPad. The buns were light and fluffy, even with whole wheat flour subbed for half the regular flour. The recipe can be found here: Hamburger Buns and I can’t say enough about how many things I have learned from this website. They have a lot of really helpful, basic recipes that I have been trying lately.
Homemade Hamburger Buns (Makes 8 buns)
From thekitchn.com
1 tablespoon active-dry yeast
1/2 cup (4 oz) warm water
1/2 cup (4 oz) milk (2%)
1 large egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or a large bowl, if mixing by hand), stir the yeast into the warm water and let it sit until dissolved. My mixer’s dough hook couldn’t reach the water/yeast mixture so I stirred it by hand.
In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil, sugar, and salt. Add this to the yeast mixture and stir until combined. Add all the flour and stir until it forms a shaggy dough. Knead at low speed (around 2 on my Kitchenaid), or by hand against the counter, for 10 minutes. The finished dough should be smooth, feel slightly tacky, and spring back when poked.
Cover and let the dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about an hour.
Dust your work surface with a little flour and turn out the risen dough on top. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape each into a tight ball. I ended up with 9 rolls because some of mine were a little smaller Transfer the balls to a baking sheet and let rise until they look puffy and hamburger-sized, roughly 30-40 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.
Bake the buns until golden, 15-18 minutes.
Let the buns cool to room temperature before slicing and using. They are best if eaten within the next day or two, but will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week.
Additional Notes (from the original post):
• For Whole Wheat Buns – Substitute 1/2-1 cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour and prepare the recipe as usual. The texture of the buns will be a bit more dense, but still very delicious and burger-worthy. – I followed this suggestion and they turned out awesome.
• Doubling the Recipe – Double all of the ingredients except for the yeast. To make even more buns, it’s best to prepare separate batches as the dough becomes too cumbersome to work with easily.
• Freeze Buns for Later – Wrap the buns in aluminum foil and then store in an air-tight container or freezer bag. Let them thaw in their packaging overnight on the counter. Foil-wrapped buns can also be thawed more quickly or re-warmed in a 300°F oven for about 10-15 minutes.
While the buns were rising, I cut up the onions and got the tomatoes ready for the pulled pork shoulder recipe I was following. The recipe can be found here: Pulled Pork Shoulder I decided to use a basic recipe to start out with and when I got the hang of making it, I would try something new. I changed two things when I made it today. First, I didn’t use carrots because I thought it would be a waste. We probably wouldn’t eat them after they had cooked for 3 hours so they would have just gotten thrown away. Secondly, I added chili powder to the dry rub. I did 1tsp of cumin and 1tsp of chili powder instead of 2tsps of cumin. Cumin is one of those spices that is very strong and I don’t like a lot of it in anything I eat.
Shredded Pork Shoulder
Adapted from thekitchn.com
3.5 pound pork shoulder, bone-in
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into wedges
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 12-ounce beer (I used Blue Moon Honey Wheat Ale because it looked tasty)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Trim the pork shoulder of any thick layers of fat. Mine had barely any fat on it so I just left it all. Combine the brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the pork all over with the spice mixture. Make sure you get it in all the little nooks and crannies. Let the pork to sit out for 30 minutes. (This was just enough time for me to bake off the hamburger buns)
Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the pork on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the pork from the pot. Add the onions, garlic, tomatoes, and beer. Bring it to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to bring up any browned bits.
Return the pork to the pot. Cover and put in the oven for 3 hours or so, checking once or twice, until the meat is extremely tender and pulls away from the bone easily or reaches around 200F. My bone ended up being a tiny shard of a bone so it came out pretty easily. I made sure to check the temperature of the meat before I took it out, just to be sure. Shred the pork in the pot, using tongs to separate the meat from the fat. This worked pretty well for me but toward the end, it was easier to take the meat out and put it on a cutting board to get the fat off and shred it. If you do it this way, just add it back to the pot when you are done shredding it. I threw away the bone but you could just as easily use it for some kind of soup or something if you are so inclined.
While the pork shoulder was bubbling away in the oven, I started on the barbecue sauce. This recipe came from Bobby Flay and Foodnetwork.com. I used only the sauce recipe on this page: BBQ Sauce I have to say that I was disappointed in the sauce at first. While it cooks, it is really thin and chunky. I didn’t want it to be that way. The flavor was really good but I did change a couple of things in this one as well. First, I had a bunch of stewed tomatoes so I used those instead of diced tomatoes. Second, I decided to blend the mix to make it semi-smooth. I had used the food processor to do the onions for this recipe anyway so I thought it would be a good idea to throw it in there to get it the consistency I wanted. I also put the very first jalapeno from my garden this year into this recipe!
First Jalapeno!
BBQ Sauce:
Adapted from Bobby Flay
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 large yellow onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 (15-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and jalapeno and cook until soft. I burned mine so I had to swap out pans! Be careful with this step! Add the fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes and juices, vinegar, honey, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce, and cook until the sugar has completely melted and the sauce is slightly reduced and thickened. The sauce never really reduced down and it filled my house with vinegar gases! I cooked it for a good 2 hours and it reduced, it just never got thick. If you are looking for a thick BBQ sauce, just pulse it a few times in the food processor and put it back in the pot to keep it warm. Season with salt, to taste.
Finally, while everything else was simmering away and the buns were cooling, I made the coleslaw. I wanted a pretty basic traditional recipe for this and it turns out, Bobby Flay has one! Coleslaw
I adapted this recipe by changing up the amounts of mayonnaise and sour cream. I don’t like to use that much mayo in anything I am making so I cut that and added a little more sour cream to the mix. I think it came out pretty awesome! It worked perfectly with the pork and the BBQ sauce.
Coleslaw
2 bags shredded coleslaw mix (without dressing)
1/2 cup best-quality mayonnaise
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 tablespoons grated yellow onion
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons celery salt
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, onion, sugar, vinegar, mustard, celery salt, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and then add the cabbage mixture. Mix well to combine and taste for seasoning; add more salt, pepper, or sugar if desired. I don’t like it to be too sweet so I didn’t add any more sugar. It did need a touch more salt and pepper though.
So here it is finally completed. I couldn’t wait to eat at this point, after smelling it all afternoon so the first shot is a little blurry. I loved this and I would absolutely make it again. Next time, I would mix the pork with the BBQ sauce AND the juices/onions it cooked in, I think. Even though there are subtle changes I would make or add to each recipe, they are still delicious the way they are!
Carter’s plate:
Poppy-Tarts!
24 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
I have been wanting to make pop-tarts for a really long time and today in the IRC, people were talking about making them. They inspired me to get off my butt and try it. I found quite a few recipes but I decided on the one at SmittenKitchen.com Her recipes are generally awesome so I had lots of faith in this one as well.
I followed the directions pretty much exactly. I agree with adding some whole wheat flour to the crust next time. It would make them hearty and a little more healthy as well. I didn’t chill the dough between mixing and rolling them out but the dough was perfect. I also decided to egg wash the tops of them and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top of each tart.
I HIGHLY recommend baking up the leftover crust edges with cinnamon and sugar (I used vanilla sugar). They are so delicious that I can barely stop eating them!
Pics!
Bagels!
25 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in The Bakery! Tags: Bagels, weights
I was making bagels from Serious Eats and I noticed that the grams and ounces were off. When I measured the ounces, and switched my scale to grams, it was not the same as the recipe. Since I have friends in Australia, I figured I would remeasure everything and put up the correct gram measurements.
Bagels!
Adapted from Serious Eats:
19.25oz [548g] bread flour (3 1/2 cups)
1/4oz [10g] instant dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons; or 1 envelope active dry)
1/2oz [17g] sugar (2 tablespoons)
1/2oz [7g] salt (1 teaspoon)
12 ounces hot water (1 1/2 cups, 120°–130°F)
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup (I don’t use the malt syrup because I cannot find it here)
Add the bread flour, yeast, sugar, and salt to a mixing bowl. Turn the mixer on to mix it up a little, then add the water slowly. Let it mix until it just comes together then mix it for 5 minutes on medium speed. I don’t have a food processor so I figured out a way to make the mixer work for it.
Transfer the dough ball to an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rest for an hour or so (longer doesn’t hurt it), until it doubles in size. Once that happens, fill the pot with water and then add the syrup to it. Set it on the stove to heat up and by the time you have the bagels shaped, it should be boiling.
Work the dough on a floured surface. I usually form it into a log and cut it into 10 equal(as equal as I can get them) pieces. Then I roll each piece out into a rope and wrap it around my hand to form a circle. Then roll it on the cutting board until it comes together. The diagram in the original recipe is a really great way to learn how to do this.
When all the bagels are shaped, start cooking them in the boiling water for one minute each, turning them halfway through. I usually take them out and put them onto a kitchen towel. While they are still wet, I put on whatever toppings I want (minced dried garlic or onion, sesame seeds, salt) and put them on the pan to bake. I bake them at 400F for 15-20 minutes and I do not flip them over to get them brown on the bottom. They always end up completely browned nicely.
They are delicious bagels and I love that serious eats shared it with us!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
10 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in The Bakery! Tags: cream cheese, cupcakes, frosting, gunnar, marzipan, penis, red velvet, vanilla bean
The photos at the end of this post could be construed as NWS for many people. Do not look if you don’t like seeing penises or if you are at work.
Yesterday was Gunnar’s (my brother in law) birthday. He requested red velvet for his birthday cake flavor. I had never made it so I spent the morning looking around for a good recipe. I lean toward cupcakes instead of cake because they are self-serving sized. I found a few that looked good but ended up settling on Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting because I have made a bunch of different cupcakes from her site and they have all come out pretty awesome.
The only change I made to the recipe was to add an extra 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the mix. I added more chocolate because in her notes, the author mentions that the cupcakes were not chocolatey enough for her. I figured, if they weren’t chocolatey enough for her, chances are I would want it to be more chocolatey as well. The cocoa powder seemed to make it a little too dry though. They tasted pretty perfect but maybe if we do liquid chocolate or add a little more butter to the mix, it will make them more moist. I will definitely make them again! The frosting, as usual, was amazing. I used the baking soda and baking powder version for mine instead of cream of tartar.
Chockylit wrote an extensive post on the difference between the two at the link above. I highly recommend reading it! I will post the recipe here for ease of use though.
Recipe courtesy The Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 36 cupcakes / 350 degree oven
3-3/4 cups cake flour
1/4 cups cocoa (I used 1/2 cup total in mine)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder or 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
3/8 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
3 teaspoons vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 ounce red food coloring paste
2-1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder (or cream of tarter), and salt into medium bowl.
Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring in small bowl to blend.
Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well fluffy, 3 minutes.
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition, about 30 seconds.
Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions.
Scoop into cupcake tins and bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Cool in pans 10 minutes then remove and finish cooling completely on racks.
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
12 ounces or 1-1/2 packages of Philly cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar
seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours. (I ended up letting mine sit
for at least 2 hours to get it soft enough)
Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment (I sifted the 4 cups of sugar into a bowl. I only needed that
much for the frosting.)
Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy.
Add 4 cups of the sugar and beat until combined.
Add vanillas and beat until combined.
Add more sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.
While the cupcakes were cooling, I went to work on the decorations for the cupcakes. I had gotten some marzipan for stars on my 4th of July cupcakes and had some leftover. I took a bit of that and shaped 36 small penises out of it. They looked adorable but I thought some needed to be different colors. Originally, I was going to make them a peachy flesh tone but the food coloring mixed with a little vodka I used for paint made them look like they were coming from the Jersey Shore! I colored 9 that color, 9 a darker color, and left the rest almond paste colored. They were a HUGE hit. Everyone thought they were hilarious.
Cupcake batter:
Baked cupcakes:
Penises:
Completed cupcakes!
Cupcakes!
17 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in The Bakery! Tags: chockylit, chocolate, cupcakeblog, cupcakes, peanut butter
I asked Carter what to bake today because we were running low on Snickerdoodles. He said the guys at the rig really liked the vanilla cupcakes with Reese’s peanut butter cups in the middle I made a while back. I decided to check outto see if she had a good chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling. It turns out that she does! The recipe she had was for a rich chocolate cake and ganache with a peanut butter filling. I was looking for something a bit lighter in the cake department. I didn’t want to have the guys eating really rich cake and not having any milk to wash it down with. I found another recipe for devil’s food cake and chocolate buttercream on her website. So, I made those cupcakes and frosting and added the peanut butter filling from the original recipe.
I took the peanut butter recipe from this one: http://cupcakeblog.com/?p=41
And the cupcakes and frosting from this one: http://cupcakeblog.com/?p=10
The cakes came out perfectly light and chocolatey. I used Hershey’s cocoa and I know that is like, sinful to say but, I really like Hershey’s chocolate. For the frosting, I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa. It made the frosting have a greyish brown tint but it tasted so damn good. There was just enough frosting to do all 24 cupcakes and the 6 mini ones I ended up making as well. Next time, I will use a little more than the 1/4 cup of milk it calls for. Carter said he liked that the frosting was pretty stiff so I didn’t add any more this time. It didn’t end up as shiny and smooth as I wanted it to be. Since I don’t have much experience making cupcakes and frosting from scratch, I tried to follow the directions exactly as they were written.
The peanut butter filling was super easy and came out tasting JUST like the filling for a Reese’s peanut butter cup. I didn’t measure out my milk for that because in the blog, Chockylit says that she should have added more milk to make the filling more smooth and soft. I just eyeballed it until it looked like it would be delicious and soft.
Once the cupcakes were cool, I used an apple corer to take the center of the cupcakes out. Don’t go all the way to the bottom of the wrapper, just take off the top and some of the middle. I don’t bother putting the top back on to cover the filling because it just gets covered with frosting anyways! 
I put about a teaspoon or so of the peanut butter filling into each cupcake and topped it with a lighter coating of frosting. Then I used a mini Mini Reese’s peanut butter cup. They came out adorably awesome. I tasted the pieces of them as I went along but I haven’t tasted them all together yet. I can’t imagine they won’t be delicious though!
Pictures!
I highly recommend anything you find on her website. I have made the cherry vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, Horchata cupcakes, and the 3-vanilla cupcakes. I also did the chocolate cupcakes with the strawberry chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese buttercream. They all have been pretty amazing despite my newbie tendencies. They don’t look as nice as the ones on her website but they taste amazing! Looks will come with practice for me.
Thanks to Chockylit and her wonderful blog!!
BBQ Chicken Pizza
17 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in General Food, Meals! Tags: BBQ, chicken, grilled, pizza
Since I had made pizza at my inlaws’ house on Monday night, I had an extra pizza dough here to use this week. I get it from Fresh and Easy and it really tastes homemade. I decided to go with BBQ Chicken Pizza because it has been a long time since I made it last and I am much better at making pizzas now than I was the last time I made it.
BBQ Chicken Pizza
2 Chicken breast halves
1/4 bell pepper, sliced thin
1/4 red onion, sliced thin
handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar/jack cheese mix
3/4 cup barbecue sauce of your choice
1 ball pizza dough
Slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally so they cook faster on the grill. Drizzle with a little oil to prevent sticking, and then sprinkle with Montreal Steak Seasoning. (Salt and Pepper would work for this step as well.) Grill the chicken until cooked through (Mine takes about 15 minutes on medium heat, flipping halfway through)
While the chicken is cooking, slice the vegetables and get everything ready on a board to take out to the grill.
Once the chicken is off the grill, turn it back up to high and clean off the excess spices from the chicken. Just before you put the dough on, turn the heat down to medium. Dice the chicken and mix it with a tablespoon or two of BBQ sauce to prevent it from drying out.
Roll out the dough and brush one side lightly with oil. This will stop it from sticking to the grates. Flip it on to the grill and let it cook until it is golden in color. This will not take very long, around 2-5 minutes depending on your grill. Brush the top side with lightly with oil and flip the dough over. Working relatively quickly, put some BBQ sauce on the pizza, then layer on the cheese, diced chicken, peppers, onions, and cilantro. Turn the heat to low and close the lid of the grill. Let the cheese melt and the vegetables become tender. They won’t cook completely because there is no heat source on the top. This works out fine for us because we don’t like to have cooked veggies on top of our pizza.
To get the dough turned over and also off the grill, we use a big pair of grilling tongs. They work pretty well in conjunction with a big grilling spatula.
Here is the finished product:
Pork tenderloin and grilled vegetable salad
15 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in General Food, Meals! Tags: balsamic vinaigrette, couscous, pork tenderloin, vegetables
I was watching the food network this morning and Bobby Flay was cooking up something that looked delicious. It was a Pork Tenderloin Gyro and a Grilled Vegetable Couscous salad. I thought it looked good so I made a list of supplies and went to the store. Unfortunately, my regular grocery store was closed because the power was out 
I had to hit up the Albertsons nearby. Not only did I pay more than I thought was necessary but I also ended up with sub-par produce.
I have never made pork tenderloin before and it is one of those things that I was unsure about trying. I know that everyone eats their pork at medium rare now but seeing it that way always freaks me out. When I was a kid, pork was cooked until it was white. I consulted the newly updated USDA website and they did indeed say that pork tenderloin can be cooked to 145F safely. With my thermometer in hand, I started my first pork tenderloin meal.
The recipes can be found here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pork-gyros-with-yogurt-tomato-sauce-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/toasted-israeli-couscous-salad-with-grilled-summer-vegetables-recipe/index.html
It turns out that I followed the wrong recipe for the couscous salad. I watched the Mediterranean episode this morning. When I did the search on the iPad for the recipes, I just searched for “grilled vegetable couscous.” He made a couscous grilled vegetable salad with lemon-balsamic vinaigrette but I made the recipe above. LOL @ not paying attention when doing a search. (I wondered why I remembered a shallot being in the dressing but it wasn’t on the list. I bought one anyway in case I had just missed it. Now I have a spare shallot!)
Couscous:
Pork Tenderloin:
Yogurt-Tomato sauce:
The Whole Meal:
I grabbed Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon for the “dry red wine.” I am not a drinker at all but I know the merits of red wine in a marinade. I consulted Google for an article about a dry red wine and the first one recommended was a Cabernet. I decided to grab the Cupcake Vineyards one because I liked the name. Apparently, it is pretty good (according to Carter, who had a small glass after dinner). yay red wine!
The yogurt sauce was interesting to make. It had the essence of tzatziki sauce but with different hints of flavor from the capers and tomatoes. We chose to use baby spinach in the gyro to make it even more healthy.
Since I had never made couscous, I bought two 10oz boxes. The recipe said a pound of it so I thought I would need both. When I got home, I read the instructions on the box and it said that one box is 5 servings. I used one box and only the 2 cups of stock (The store didn’t have low sodium vegetable stock, so I used low sodium chicken stock instead.) instead of the stock and water.
All in all, I think it came out pretty good. I would have liked to have marinated the pork for longer than the 4 hours the recipe calls for. It had a good flavor but overnight would have been so much better. It easily fed 5 people with at least half of one of the tenderloins leftover. (I am thinking of doing a pork fried rice with the leftovers.) I really liked the couscous. I couldn’t find the Israeli one at the store but the small one was tasty anyway. I was a little worried that I had undercooked the pork but according to a million websites, I was right on target at 144-145F. The half we didn’t eat was slightly pinker than I would like it to be so when I eat the leftovers, I will just heat it up a little.
I took half the meal to my MIL’s house so she wouldn’t have to struggle with cooking tonight with her injured hand. They haven’t called to tell me if they liked it or not. Carter said he just isn’t a fan of pork but he really liked the yogurt-tomato sauce and also the couscous. I think if I had marinated the pork for longer, it would have had better flavor. I might try it again with chicken instead though. I don’t know if that would be weird with red wine.
I am going to go enjoy some of the new Jell-o that I found and also possibly some snickerdoodles from last night’s baking spree!
Easter cupcakes
20 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in The Bakery! Tags: cupcakes, easter, garden, party, vegetables
I offered to make cupcakes for the guys at Halliburton plus the guys out at the rig that Carter is currently working with. I told him to just pick whichever ones he wants out of the books and I will make them tomorrow and Friday for him. Since Friday is his birthday and its kind of sad that he has to work, I figured this would be a nice thing to do for it.
I have started gathering my supplies for this endeavor. I have never tried to make these fancy cupcakes in two batches before but it can’t be that hard, right?! I have made these particular Garden Party cupcakes before but I had Carter’s help with them. I don’t remember them being that hard to make, just that they took a bunch of time. I have set aside the entire day tomorrow (Thursday) to work on them. I went to CVS Pharmacy to get most of the candies. They have the best selection by far. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds were found at Cost Plus World Market. The only thing I couldn’t find today were the Kellogg’s Green Fruit Streamers. I have a sad feeling that they don’t make them anymore. Fresh and Easy had most of what I needed besides the candy. Albertson’s was my last stop for a few odds and ends.
Everything:
Closeup of the various candies:
Progress update tomorrow! So today I noticed that I didn’t have any white taffy. The AirHeads I had were all colored and I didn’t pick up any mystery flavored ones yesterday while I was out. I figured Albertson’s would have at least the loose ones. I was wrong. I tried RiteAid and CVS as well and no one had any. I bought a bag of Tootsie Rolls that I thought were white but they turned out to not be. I just dipped the red radishes into white chocolate instead and that worked out really well.
I started getting everything set up and counted out after I baked the cupcakes this afternoon.
I doubled the amount of corn flakes the recipe called for. That was not necessary.
Doubled the amounts of all the candies needed as well.
I started with the signs. Thats 8 pieces of Cinnamon Graham Crackers for two sets of the cupcakes. On the side of the cutting board, you can see that I have already shaped the gum pieces to the best of my ability. I don’t recommend using WinterFresh gum because it was very brittle. Something softer is much better.
Once the signs were chilling in the fridge, it was time to make the colored frosting and get all the bags ready to go. I doubled the recipe for each of the required colors. This was completely unnecessary and I ended up throwing away most of it The regular recipe makes more than enough to do two sets of the cupcakes.
Once the signs are solid, it is time to write/draw on them with frosting.
Shovels are done as well!
With the signs finished, I worked on frosting the cupcakes. I used Double Stuf Chocolate Creme Oreos for the topping. I used pretty much the entire bag for all 48 cupcakes. I think next time I will stick with the Famous Chocolate Wafer cookies. The creme filling in the Oreos was a little messier than I would have liked but of course, they taste better.
The lettuce was an interesting project. I wanted to use the green frosting in the bag after I made the lettuce. I decided to just take some out of the top of the bag. Next time, I will definitely remember to leave some green out of the bag to melt and pour over the corn flakes. This was another portion of the instructions that just didn’t need to be doubled. I had way too much leftover.
After I cleaned up a bit, I started working with the candies. Unfortunately, there were cookie crumbs everywhere, even though I wiped everything down. I just went with it because by this time I had been working for 2.5 hours already and hadn’t started the hardest part yet 
I used the good green candy (Jolly Rancher Chews) for the lettuce centers at first. Later I traded them out for Green AirHeads because the Jolly Rancher Chews look much better as the pea pods.
The bowl at the top right of the cutting board was used to heat the Jolly Rancher Chews for 10 seconds at a time in the microwave to make them easier to mold. My hands were super sore after this and I highly recommend keeping the candies warm to keep them soft. Also, use a silpat or parchment paper so they don’t stick to whatever you are rolling them on.
Starting on the red radishes. As I said earlier, I didn’t have any white candy to work with so white chocolate was the answer. I think they still came out awesome.
Working on carrots. I think the orange AirHeads were easier to work with than the orange Starbursts. Both look good though. The recipe is easier to follow if you use the Starbursts because that is what they recommend. Once I shaped the small and large carrots, I coated them in cinnamon to make them look dirty.
I used a pair of kitchen shears to cut some of the green chews into strips for the tops of the carrots. Once I got enough, I rolled them to make them smooth.
The last of the green chews went to make pea pods. These are probably my favorite of all the candy vegetables because they are so darn cute!
Completed. I am hoping to have them in baskets tomorrow but if I can’t find it, the cookie sheets will have to do!
I enjoyed making these but they were a lot more work than I remembered them being. I think the key to something like this is to have someone helping you shape the candies into veggies. That is the most time consuming and also the most difficult part. It is also the most rewarding when people see them They are definitely worth the time and effort that you put into them I will add everyone’s reactions to this post tomorrow!
Happy Easter!
Asian Chicken Salad
03 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in General Food, Meals!
I couldn’t think of anything new to make for dinner tonight. I asked Carter to choose something for me to make and started listing things: Meatloaf? No. Meatballs? No. Pasta? No. Roasted Chicken? No. Grilled Chicken? No. Then he said why not Chinese Chicken Salad? So I went to the store and got a chicken, mandarin oranges, and almonds. Now that I know how to roast a chicken, I can’t justify buying an already made one from the store so I got a raw one. I stuffed some butter, garlic and lemon thyme under the skin, salt and pepper on the outside, and chopped some carrots, celery, and onions into big chunks for in the pan around the chicken. Fresh and Easy has some amazing quality meats with no hormones and all that good stuff PLUS they don’t give you all the gross organs inside the chicken. It comes already trussed and ready to bake! I started it at 400F for the first 15-20 minutes then lowered the temp to 375F. It roasted for about an hour and a half before it reached 165F.
While the chicken was baking, I got the salad ready. I used a highly modified version of This Recipe
Ingredients for the salad:
1 head iceburg lettuce, chopped or shredded (however you like it)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
4 medium carrots, grated
5 green onions, chopped
20 Wonton skins, sliced and baked
1 cup Dole Mandarin Oranges in juice, drained (one single serving cup)
a handful of sliced almonds
Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Toss til combined.
Ingredients for the dressing:
6 tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
3 teaspoons brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons hot chile paste
1.5 teaspoons ground ginger
5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Mix all the ingredients in a jar and shake it til it is mixed nicely. I had to use a spoon to break up my peanut butter because I keep it in the refrigerator. It will be super thick. If it is thicker than you like, you can add a touch of water to it, like I did.
When the chicken finished, I let it cool for a few minutes and then broke it down to get rid of all the bones.
As the chicken was cooling and being broken down, I baked some wonton skins that I had sliced up in the 375F oven for 10 minutes. This gave me fantastic crispy wontons without having to deep fry them!
To put the salad together, I layered the salad mixture on the plate, then added however much chicken Carter and I wanted. After the chicken, came the oranges and almonds, sprinkled randomly around the plate. I put the wonton skins around the outside of the plate so they wouldn’t get soggy with the dressing. It turns out that this is probably not necessary because the dressing is so thick. Finally, the dressing got drizzled on top and it was done!
