Roasted veggies

Recipe #14: Oven Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus

For Valentine's Day this year we decided to go to Sunday brunch instead of a dinner. But, I still wanted to make a tasty meal on V-Day instead of going through our normal Monday routine of eating pork burritos at Cafe Rio. So, I made these tasty roasted vegetables using what I had on hand. I only had russet potatoes, so I reduced the cooking time by about 5 minutes, because I once heard that red potatoes need to cook longer than russet potatoes.

The reason I chose this recipe was because it featured my favorite herb, rosemary. 

The vegetables were a nice complement to my simple pan-fried honey balsamic chicken (recipe coming later).

This message brought to you by my recent purchase.

Recipe #12: Neopolitan cupcakes
Recipe #13: Golden Brussels Sprouts.

Matt and I have a rule that every time we go to Costco we make a stupid purchase. In the past, the stupid purchases have been treats of some sort. Ex: cream puffs, frozen cookie dough, a case of muffins, a frozen cheesecake sampler, and the case of Tootsie Pops that currently resides at my desk.

But today, we really outdid ourselves, and purchased something I've been wanting for years.

Here we are together. Isn't she lovely? I only wish I had this beauty when I baked 12 dozen mini-cupcakes as Christmas gifts.

Naturally, I had to break in my new toy by making a batch of cupcakes. Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I made some Neapolitan cupcakes--vanilla/chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

The cake part is from two box mixes--one chocolate, one vanilla. Using a boxed mix in a new mixer is sort of lame, but I was feeling a little lazy. I was more excited about making some frosting!

This may sound conceited, but my frosting is the shiznit. There's nothing special about it, but whenever I make it people ask for the recipe. I think it's because they're used to the canned frosting.

My recipe is based on this one, but I usually end up adding one more cup of powdered sugar. 

For the strawberry frosting, I just added about 3/4 cup of pureed strawberries to my trusty buttercream recipe and an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and the result was a smooth strawberry frosting that tasted like strawberry ice cream. I contemplated adding some strawberry JELL-O to give it the strawberry flavoring. The Utard (Utahan? Utahite?) in me likes JELL-O with a little vodka in it. (Fun fact: JELL-O is the official "state snack" of Utah.) If it's good enough for Bill Cosby, it's good enough for me. But, in the end I decided to go all purist on these cupcakes, and used real strawberries. 


I wrote this recipe out myself, so forgive me if it sounds like a third-grader wrote it.

Strawberry Buttercream
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream (I think this is about right; I just sort of poured some in until I liked the consistency)

1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pureed strawberries

Cream butter using mixer. Slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add the cream, the vanilla, and strawberries. Mix well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more cream or powdered sugar until it is the consistency you like.

After Matt ate five cupcakes (this is not an exaggeration), I decided to make some dinner, since it's not acceptable to eat cupcakes for every meal. Besides, everyone knows cupcakes are a breakfast food.

As my dinner sidedish, I decided to try my hand at cooking some Brussels Sprouts. Brussels Sprouts, or B.S. as I like to call them, get a bad rep at the dinnertable. Many a child has whined about eating them, but I actually think they are pretty tasty. Plus, you can pretend you're a giant eating heads of lettuce while eating them. No, I'm not drunk right now. 

I read up a little about B.S., then decided on this basic recipe: Golden Brussels Sprouts. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on mine while they were cooking in the pan, because I like to live dangerously.

The result? Tasty B.S. with a carmelized side, sprinkled with fresh parmesan. I accidentally cut mine the wrong way, so they looked like little roses.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe #11: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Christmas, my mom made the most amazing red velvet cake. So, I took the recipe she used (from Cook's Illustrated), and made them into cupcakes. While they tasted delicious, they looked horrible. They didn't raise for some reason, and were completely flat on top. A couple were even a little sunken in. Luckily I'm a frosting lover, so I just swirled on a ton of cream cheese frosting, and no one noticed, or if they noticed, they were all too polite to say anything about it. I even checked my baking soda and made sure it wasn't expired.

 

All of the comments I received about the cupcakes were positive, but the real affirmation came when people went back for a second (or third, or fourth) cupcake.

Superbowl snacks: BBQ Chicken Sliders and Potato Skins

Recipes #9 and 10:  BBQ Chicken Sliders and Potato Skins

It's not a secret that I don't really care about football. Our team, the Panthers, finished last in the conference, so I tuned out long ago. But, what I do care about is food, especially football-watching food. I love the type of food eaten during games, aka "bar food." This includes the following: chicken wings, nachos, onion rings, potato skins, cheese fries, chili cheese dogs (yes, Tiff, I will eat a chili dog during a game), dips of all varieties, pizza, etc.

So, planning a Superbowl menu was a challenge, because I wanted to make/eat it all. Since it was just Matt and I, I had to limit it to a couple items, barbecue chicken sliders, potato skins, and margaritas (those were for me; Matt had beer).

I know I'm supposed to be using other people's recipes (and not my own) for the purpose of this blog, but calling the chicken sandwiches a recipe is a stretch--it's basically just chicken and sauce on a bun. So, here's my version. I always use Sweet Baby Ray's sauce, because it's my favorite.

BBQ Chicken Sliders
Ingredients:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 
• 1 can of chicken broth
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp of "jarlic" (jarred garlic--feel free to use fresh if you want)
• 1 cup of barbecue sauce(or more, depending on your preferences)
• Dinner rolls, hamburger buns, or whatever you want to use to eat your meat

Directions:

Cook chicken breasts, broth, salt and pepper, and garlic in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Drain liquid off chicken, and shred. Add BBQ sauce to your liking. Put on a roll/bun. Eat.

I basically follow the same recipe for pulled pork, but instead of broth I use a can of Coke. The acids in the Coke break down the pork and make it really tender, and the sugars caramelize and give it a nice sweet flavor. I haven't tried Coke on my chicken.

For the potato skins, I followed this recipe, and served them with ranch dressing instead of sour cream:
Potato Skins

For the margaritas, I followed the directions on the bottle of margarita mix (Costco brand).