Amazing (and super healthy) Salad!

So 2012 it’s nice to see you on the blog. I need to recap 2011 and maybe one of these days I’ll have some time and internet connection in order to do so. Since the move – it’s been almost 6 months! – I’ve been quite busy and while I did manage to keep reading, my baking and blogging has suffered. Anyways, to start the year off right I thought I might share a few delicious recipes that I’ve gotten out of my Real Simple magazine.

When I first saw this recipe I thought that’s just strange but then Iwas seduced by the terms butternut squash and chickpeas! I have and unhealthy love of chickpeas in almost any form, including straight out of the can! Anyways, I braved up and tried it with a few modifications and it may be one of my new favorite salads. This thing was deliciouse and filling and pretty and healthy – that’s a combination that really can’t be beat. The spice from the tahini was offset nicely by the sweetness of the squash. 

As for my modifications, I did not use chicken or pita chips on my salad, and I added an avocado, which was delicious. I highly recommend giving this salad a try in the near future. Here’s a link to the original recipe and a copy of it right here:

Chicken, Squash, and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing via Real Simple

• 1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds)—peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 12 ounces romaine hearts, cut into strips (about 9 cups)
• 1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 cup pita chips, broken
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425° F, with the racks in the upper and lower thirds. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the squash with 2 tablespoons of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast on the bottom rack, tossing once, until tender, 25 to 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the chicken on a second rimmed baking sheet and coat it with 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil; season with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Roast on the top rack until cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool slightly, then slice.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, oregano, the remaining tablespoon of oil, ⅓ cup water, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Divide the lettuce among plates; dividing evenly, top with the squash, chicken, chickpeas, pita chips, and chives. Serve with the dressing.

db: Croissants

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Oh croissants how I had such high and lofty hopes for you and then they came crashing down in about the span of 8 minutes. When I first got the challenge this month I was pretty excited. I love bread making and was really excited to try out croissants because I love them and because I had never quite been able to talk myself into the challenge.

I studied the recipe and gathered all of my ingredients and started out. I ended up doing it over 2 days instead of trying to cram everything into 12 hours. I mixed and rolled and waited patiently for what I knew was going to be one of my better challenges. I flattened that butter stick and started rolling and folding, rolling and folding. Finally I heated my oven, cut and shaped the dough, and placed them on the cookie sheet. I was ready – I knew I was only about 15 minutes away from amazingness. And then came minute 8. I was sitting there and all of sudden those rolls were smelling heavenly and then they were smelling a little too much and then to my horror they weren’t smelling so heavenly and buttery, but rather they were starting to smell burnt.

I grabbed the first pan out the oven and put the second in and only baked them until they turned golden on the outside, but they weren’t really cooked through on the inside. After all of the excitement died down, I went to my handy shelf of cookbooks and started researching. I found a recipe that was almost exactly what I had used except for one little difference – a 135 degree oven differential! Not sure if the temp on my recipe was a mistake or not, but I was not happy.

Anyways, I took them and shared them the next day with some nutella (this stuff covers all sorts of baking blunders) and the flavor got good overall reports. The flaky layers weren’t there though so I thought that was a let down. I think the under baking had something to do with this but not sure since I’m not familiar with laminated doughs.

Will I make croissants again – sure. I for sure won’t be using the same directions though. That I can promise.

The beginning of the dough - lots of waiting after this stage.After rolling out the first time.ButterReady to begin rolling the butter into the dough.Ready for the too hot ovenRight before I burned all the good stuff outThe first batch - the tops don't look terrible, but the bottoms could have been used as weapons.Under baked and unevenly browned, but at least they didn't break any teeth.

db: Frasier

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

I’m late again, but late is better than never these days. In my defense I couldn’t really post till late last night anyways because I just finished making my frasier yesterday and didn’t taste it till late last night. Can we say just how awesome this thing was. A perfect summery dessert that wasn’t too sugary or heavy on the stomach. I pretty much loved this challenge and will definitely be using this recipe again in the future. My only change was not to use almond paste on top because I don’t care for it, but other than that change I stuck to the given recipe. For something that looked complicated it was surprisingly easy and everything turned out well. I’ll be posting pics later tonight when I can get them off of my camera.

Taco Pizza

Ok here is a little know fact about me: I don’t really care for pizza at all. I just don’t care for the tomato sauce – I don’t even really like spaghetti either. I love a good fresh tomato, but I just can’t take much of the sauce; yes this even includes ketchup. However, given my general dislike of pizza one of my favorite restaurants is California Pizza Kitchen. I LOVE this place. I mainly love their Thai Crunch Salad – I mean this thing is life changing. I digress though – I also like their pizza because they don’t all have tomato sauce on them. In fact they have lots of other ingredients and quite a few of their pizzas don’t have any traditional sauce on them. That’s where the taco pizza comes in. This recipe is from Tasty Kitchen and is complements of Ree aka The Pioneer Woman. This one is definitely a must try if you like tacos and the idea of pizza. It got really good reviews in our house to be sure and there were no leftovers either. As for changes I just used my own dough recipe made out of the miracle flour aka King Arthur Flour Perfect Pizza Blend – completely worth the investment because the dough doesn’t shrink back up as you roll it out.

Here is a link to the recipe I used and some pictures of everything.

Tasty Kitchen Taco Pizza

The flour used to make the miracle pizza crust.

Heating up a can of black beans with some taco seasoning mixed in - this will be the "sauce"

My crust half baked with beans and cheese.

Finished baking and ready for the rest of the toppings.

Lettuce, tomatos, cilantro, spicy sour cream - Almost there I just forgot the chips.

All finished and ready to eat this deliciousness.

 

 

 

db: Baklava with homemade phyllo dough

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Wow June was a crazy crazy month and it seems like July might end up being just about as crazy. I did manage to get my baklava made during June, however it has taken me almost a week to get the post up. I had good intentions to do so earlier, but due to a crazy allergic reaction episode and then starting a new job all while studying for the GMAT and planning a week long trip and a serious move I think my good intentions got thrown by the wayside. Anyways, on to the challenge.

When I first looked at the challenge I was definitely worried. I’ve made baklava before and it wasn’t terrible, but my own phyllo – that had me worried. I don’t always have a good track record with rolling dough and I don’t have much rolling space, but  I determined to do it and if I found myself in a last minute emergency situation I could always pull out the store bought dough. I read other people’s advice and decided to use 00 flour instead of all purpose, which ended up being amazing. Overall, the whole dough rolling experience was a great one. I now feel better about my dough working skills and am confident that I could take on other pastries with a fair chance for success.

As for the overall evaluation of the baklava, I would honestly just use store bought dough the next time. While the homemade route was a neat experience, I think I prefer the machine rolled dough because it is lighter and thinner. I would consider using the dough recipe in the future however if  I decided to attempt a strudel of some variety.

I chose a traditional filling of pistachios, almonds, and walnuts, with sugar and cinnamon. I also used clarified butter to make my layers crisper (not sure if that’s really a word or not) and then I used a honey, water, sugar syrup for the top. All of my liquid was soaked up nicely by my baklava. All of my taste testers seemed to really enojoy this challenge, and I know I throughly enjoyed mine with my afternoon tea and one the first rainy days we’ve had all summer. If you want the recipe or have any questions let me know and enjoy the photos.

My dough that managed to make 20 sheets.

The rolling process used LOTS of flour and took about and hour and a half.

After rolling each sheet, I then cut the edges to fit a 9x9 square pan.

Clarified butter waiting to go between the layers. The thicker layer at the bottom is actually the fat. Clarified butter, also referred to as ghee, is healthier than just regular butter.

I used five sheets of phyllo with butter on every 2 sheets and would then do a layer of the nut mixture.

Cut and ready for baking - I was getting excited by this point.

Got my syrup all ready to be poured on the baklava.

Done baking and ready for the syrup bath.

After adding the syrup, I let it sit for a few hours until everything was soaked up.

Getting ready to enjoy the yumminess! Look at all those layers.

db: Marquise on Meringue

 The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Finally I remember to meet the posting deadline for daring bakers – I’m so proud of myself. This month’s challenge was very interesting. After last month’s mousse adventure I was less than thrilled to see the words “frozen mousse” and even less likely to read the word meringue. I had already said that I did not like the texture of mousse and there is something about meringue that is just a little weird and it’s raw eggs. I am not one of those people who won’t eat raw cookie dough because of the eggs, but I’m not a fan of eating a lot of raw eggs. Anyways, I digress.

The marquise was fairly easy to make although if I didn’t have a stand mixer I would have been very upset while trying to make this dessert. The caramel sauce and spicy nuts were also pretty straightforward as was the meringue. No big problems or surprises throughout the process which is always a good thing. I used a recipe for 1/4 of the original amount and I can’t imagine how much I would have had if I’d made the whole recipe. I would have run out of freezer space for sure and we would be eating marquise of months. Having said that though, if you need and inexpensive dessert that looks fancy and can be stretched to serve a crowd then this might be your go-to recipe for a warm weather dinner party.

After making my meringue, I plated 2 little pillows on a plate and pulled out my handy torch. I now think I could make baked alaska, but that is for another time and place. I drizzled my torched meringue with caramel sauce and placed a few of my sugared pecans on top. I then cut into my marquise, coated in cocoa powder and placed it on top of my meringue pillows. To finish it off I topped it with another pecan. I knew for sure that even if it didn’t taste good it sure did look pretty. After my first bite I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was an extrememly rich dessert without being to sugary sweet or heavy on the stomach. And the meringue underneath was almost marshmalloy like goodness which helped cut the sweetness of the dessert.

So all and all a good challenge month and with the leftover marquise, we enjoyed a marquise and graham cracker sandwich the following night. I’m even thinking of toasting a marshmallow and making a “summer smore” !

Frozen marquise thawing so that I could cut it.

Plate before adding the marquise.

With the marquise

The humble beginnings of the “summer smore”

db: Maple Mousse in a Bacon Bowl

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

This post should also be entitiled “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!” I’m behind on the reveal – I know this. I kind of got busy last week and then just forgot and by the time I remembered I was out of town and didn’t have a computer and then when I got back in town I forgot again. Oops.

Anyways, I made maple mousse and attempted to make a bacon bowl which ended up more like a bacon disk. Oh well, it was tasty regardless. This challenge for surprisingly easy, however, I wouldn’t do this again for a few reasons. The first is that I’m not a big mousse fan – it’s a texture issue for me. The second thing is I don’t like maple all that much. Everyone who did eat it seemed to enjoy it though so I guess I could label this a success.

Hello Monday

So since I’ve found myself with some time on this lovely Monday I decided to blog about something. The crazy part – I don’t realy have a whole lot to say so here is a list things of some stuff I’m loving right now and some stuff I’m looking at and thinking about:

1. A new snack obession. Seriously I didn’t know the goldfish company could hit it out of the park like this. These things are crazy goood and pretty inexpensive when on sale:

2. I want to sew one of these:

3. And one of these:

4. Might try baking these

5. Currently working on this!

Recipes from this week’s menu

Ok here are two of the recipes for some of the weekly menu items.

Mexican Cassarole 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground beef
• 1 package of taco seasoning mix
• 1 can of black beans or any beans would work; drained
• 1 small sleeve of yellow rice
• 1 can of cheddar cheese soup
• 1 can of rotel

Directions:

1. Cook yellow rice according to directions on package.
2. Brown ground beef; drain off fat and then season with taco seasoning mix and a little water.
3. Put beef into a 9×13 casserole dish and top with black beans.
4. Stir cheddar cheese soup and rotel into cooked rice and then spread over the meat and beans.
5. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
7. Serve with sour cream and avocados.

 

Sticky Chicky

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of chicken wings
• 1 stick butter; melted
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together and pour of wings in a pan.
2. Marinate 3 hours to overnight.
3. Bake at 275 for 2 – 3 hours.

Serve with rice.

What We’ve BEEN Eating…

I know I haven’t been quite on top of things as far as the weekly menu planning goes – hence the slightly different title for this entry. Oh I’ve planned the menus and shopped and even prepared and enjoyed a few of them. I just had a slight rebellious streak towards my blog (and I’ve been crazy busy for the past 2 weeks – seriously not so sure about the big girl job thing these days!). I would share last weeks menu with you now except that I threw it away in a moment of cleaning up paper and we were so busy we didn’t do so good sticking to it. Except for the Brussell Sprout Salad which was awesome good – I’ll definitely share the link to that one. Oh and if you go the farmers market and look at the price of brussell sprouts you might think it is an expensive salad – not at all though. We got about six servings from the salad and had enough brussells left over to roast some later in the week and all together I think the salad costs about $8 (that’s $1.33 per serving people!).

So on to this weeks menu:

1. Cumin Crusted Pork Chops (no worries this won’t show up on next weeks lists – we made it last night)
2. Chicken with Olives – another PW amazing dinner; my dad doesn’t like olives and he says this tastes good
3. Mexican Cassarole - I think I’ll include the recipe here for you tomorrow.
4. Sticky Chicky – a new favorite
5. Pizza and Salad
6. Ronnie Ribs
7. Pancakes – I added these as I was typing bc Sunday night is always good for either fresh popcorn or pancakes.

And because I semi promised at the beginning Pineapple Brussell Sprout Salad