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.