Failed Flatties: The importance of following directions

So today I learned a good lesson. I would see myself as a decent cook, able to follow most any recipe and come out with good-great results. I am, however, lacking in the baking area. For me, there is much to learn still. Today I made biscuits to go along with dinner as well as to have for home made biscuits and gravy in the morning. I used a very tasty recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com and The Neely's. The recipe says to make the biscuits 1" (one inch) thick. No idea how thick I actually made them, but definitely not 1"...and I thought they would rise. Well, they rose a little, but not to an inch thickness. Anyway - to all you out there learning to cook, follow the directions (especially when baking...)to a T!

Panera at Home

Do you love to eat at semi-expensive restaurants like PaneraBread for breakfast, but are sometimes frustrated at the high-dollar price you have to pay for a simple sandwich? Inspired by their breakfast sandwiches, I decided to try my own at home. At first I was hesitant because I don't have one of those really cool panini style sandwich griddles. However, what I realized this week is that I have an iron-cast, two-sided griddle for the stove top. One side of the griddle is flat for making things like eggs and pancakes and the other side is a grill-style. I became inventive and used the grill-style top and a handy-dandy spatula. I prepared my ingredients, cooked eggs, cooked the meat, and opened the ciabata sandwich style bread (purchased at wal-mart). Once I had all of the ingredients ready I first prepped the bread by putting it on the griddle inside-face-down to get a nice toast, and a warmth on the inside of the bread. I put the sandwiches together, cranked the heat up to just above medium and put the sandwiches on one at a time. I gently smashed the sandwiches down using a metal spatula. This heated the sandwiches up but also gave them those nice grill marks. I did this on both sides of the sandwich.

Enjoy some delicious home-made (cheaper) breakfast sandwiches at your pleasure!

Tasty Tacos

So - one reader already commented that the picture I took makes my tasty tacos look not so tasty - I hope that you do not agree. First, let me give credit where it is due. I recently watched Taco 101 on Food Network's program "Good Eats". Afterwards, being a fan of mexican and hispanic foods, I was inspired to try making the traditional Mexican tacos instead of our American Tex-Mex version. The tacos were so tasty! I did everything from the home-made taco seasoning to frying the soft corn tortillas to make our own crispy shelled tacos. For taco options we cut up and mixed up roma tomatoes and tomatillos, wal-mart's "fresh, homemade style" salsa from the fresh vegetable section (this particular salsa was very tasty and slightly sweet which added a delicious flavor to the tacos and a contrast to the spiciness), queso fresco, shredded lettuce, guacamole, and sour cream. Even my slightly picky eater here at home dived in and gobbled them up!

Enjoy the tasty tacos and check out the recipe at Food Network's website. Look up tacos and then go to the left hand column and select the show Good Eats. As we say in Spanish - Buen Provecho!

Decadent Desserts: 3, 2, 1

Mark and I have both apparently been on a dessert kick here for a little while. Mark recently made a chocolate box with chocolate mousse, topped with strawberries and whipped cream for Rachel's Ladies' Bible study. I made a chocolate espresso and vanilla trifle, and some home-made ice cream pops. Mark and Rach will have to post later about the chocolate box because I, unfortunately, did not witness the making. I will describe as best as possible and post pictures soon. The actual chocolate box was its' own container for the dessert. It was approximately 8x8 and about 2 inches tall. The chocolate was firm but then and decadent. Inside the box was a hidden surprise of velvety chocolately mousse. I say hidden inside because when you see the pictures all you see is the box and strawberries. The mousse was thick enough to hold halved-strawberries covering the mousse. All around the outside rim of the dessert was a beautiful, thick whipped cream. This was topped of course with a beautiful mint leaf in the middle.

The dessert I made was much more simple and one of my favorites to do. A trifle consists of well- three (or more) parts. 1st - some type of cake base. Whether you choose a typical box cake, brownie or angel food cake (for something lighter). Then you want some type of pudding and/or fruit. For a healthier version of the trifle you can do yogurt and fruit - this also makes for a beautiful dessert as well. Anyway - at this point I feel like I'm rambling. So here what I did for the most recent trifle: Chocolate/Vanilla cake - dripped espresso over the cake - then pudding, then whipped cream, heath bar - then the layers all over again.

Sweet 'n' Simple

Shortcake, anyone?

I (Rachel) made this dessert last night and thought I would share since it's so incredibly simple! Mark probably would have made it completely from scratch, however, I was on a time crunch! The credit for the bread goes completely to "Bisquick Mix". If you buy a box, directions are on there for the shortcakes!

The topping was just as easy! I had some strawberries & blackberries that needed to be used so I cut them up in a bowl, added a little bit of warm water and put about 2 tablespoons of sugar- then I let it sit until I was finished! You can use more or less sugar (or none at all) depending on your taste! It's perfect for summer- finish it off with a dollup of cool whip & voila! You've got a lovely sweet and simple dessert.

Bon Appetit!

Sweet Sips and Breakfast for Champions

Hey all - this is Terri - I'm the dark-headed one in the picture. Anyway - so today I wanted to tell you about my Breakfast for Champions and the sweet drink I made. My breakfast was very simple but also very healthy. I started with about a half cup of plain vanilla yogurt- on top I cut up three strawberries and added some blueberries. This is also delicious with some granola sprinkled across the top. For my breakfast side I had a half bagel with cream cheese.

This afternoon I made some delicious lemonade. I picked up the current edition of Food Network Magazine and tried out the regular lemonade this past weekend. Today I made blue-berry lemonade - well it was supposed to be blackberry - but I had blue-berries and miss read. ANYWAY - here's the lemonade in the latest Food Network Magazine:

1. 2 cups simple syrup (made by 1 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 cup water- bring to boil, constantly stirring until all sugar is melted)

2. handful of black berries (or blue berries)

- muddle the berries in the simple syrup

3. 2-3 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice; for personal touch I also did the juice of one lime

4. 2-3 cups of water

5. stir it up, add some ice and take a sip

This makes about half a gallon and my teenage girls here have loved it!

I'll post later about the shaped ice cream pops and shaped jello jigglers we made this afternoon!

In the words of the great Paula Deen - I'm wishin' you love and best dishes, from my kitchen, to yurs

-T

Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts

Adventure #2:

Mark woke up this morning and wanted to make doughnuts (we already have the frier out from the previous two days- so why not?)...Here goes! Terri even came over to help out-

We used biscuit cutters to cut the dough, maybe we'll have to invest in some sort of "doughnut" cutter?? Know where we can get one??

COMMENTS:

--It really was quite simple, and didn't take that long- the hardest part was cutting them and then finding space in our kitchen since it made a ton of doughnuts! It's a pretty cheap recipe, too, considering we didn't have to go purchase anything specific for this recipe- our kitchen was stocked with everything we needed!

WHAT DID WE THINK???

Amazing. Exactly as the title says : Crispy & Creamy. We had to force
ourselves to stop eating them! Please see the link below where you can make your
own doughnuts

...giving credit where credit is due: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/crispy-and-creamy-doughnuts/Detail.aspx

"Popcorn" Fried Chicken

So, here goes. Our first post and first try at blogging our adventures in cooking...

Mark made the batter without a recipe for this, so we'll give you a general idea of what he did~


DIRECTIONS:

You'll need two mixtures: One wet and one dry...

Wet mix consisted of milk, eggs & mustard.

Dry mix consisted of flour, thyme, ginger, oregano, paprika, salt & pepper.

--Cube some boneless skinless chicken (about 1 i nch each) & dip in the wet batter, then the dry & repeat.

We used a frier (350 degrees), dropping them in for 3 1/2 minutes (approximately)...


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What did we think???

The fried popcorn chicken was SO delicious extremely moist but perfectly crunchy on the outside. We dipped ours in regular Ranch, but I'm sure it would be good dipped in anything of your choice, or no dip at all!!! This is a great alternative for eating out with the kids! Fry up some homemade french fries while you're at it and you've got a great meal!