The Super Bowl Party Spread

February 9, 2013 by

It was kind of a last-minute decision to host a small Super Bowl party. But I’m nothing if not resourceful in the kitchen, so it came together in a snap. So, without too much planning or investment, we’ll whip up a Super Bowl Party with a menu of fast, easy recipes dictated mainly by what’s on hand.

First, I took inventory of things in the fridge and pantry that could be used – vegetables for a veggie tray paired with the Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Dip Mix, pickles and cream cheese (we’ll get to that combo later), salsa, hummus, pretzels, nuts and crackers – and lots of beer, liquor and wine.

To make this a true Super Bowl Party, though, we still needed a trip to the store. On the list: wings, mayo for the Fiesta Party Dip, chips, shrimp, lunch meat, and such. Only when we walked into the Dollar Store to get some extra wine glasses, as ours keep breaking for some reason, did we realize the list also included lots of snacky-snacks and candy. Pixie Stix and wax sodas would make a good addition to the Rolos and chocolate-covered mints I had, and the Twizzlers we loaded up on at Quaker Steak the night before.

That combination became a super-frugal Candy Buffet when guests first entered the living room.
The Snacky-Snacks came together on a platter of pretzels, 
iced animal crackers, pistachios and Fiddle Faddle caramel popcorn.
OK, now what’s any party – especially one centered around a game – 
especially one especially for The Big Game – without the Ultimate Snack: Chips & Salsa? 
So, in a handy serving platter spotted at the Dollar Store:
the salsa from the pantry with blue tortilla chips and, by request, Cool Ranch Doritos. 
On the Veggie Tray: green peppers, celery and carrots that needed to be used up anyway. 
I filled the last quarter of another Dollar Store platter 
with French Bread slices from the grocer’s bakery.
 The Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Dip is, as you’d guess, pretty darn simple to whip up: 
2 tablespoons of the spice blend stirred with
1/4 cup mayo and 3/4 cup sour cream. 
After much internal debate, I agreed to also share the Sabra Supremely Spicy Hummus,
thinking an extra dip could help cut down on the expanding cracker collection in my cupboard.

Now, this isn’t a common Super Bowl Snack; 
in fact, it’s not really a common combination of foods at all.
I’m not sure what to call it other than my uncle’s nickname of “Amish Sushi.”
You start by spreading cream cheese onto a slice of ham 
(the softer the first and the thicker the latter, the better.)
(Sorry, but that calls for a: “That’s what she said.”)
If I haven’t made this dirty enough already, you slap a pickle on that.
Wrap the whole thing up – like sushi – then slice off sections.
Maybe it still sounds strange, but once you try one, you can’t stop.
 
And now, the Star of the Super Bowl Spread: The Wings.
Not sure what to call the sauce other than 
“Special Super Bowl Sauce,”
but I can show you how it started:
That’s some A-1 Steak Sauce, Sriracha, Open Bit BBQ, Worcestershire, Apple Butter, 
Mango Chutney, Teriyaki Marinade, horseradish, Fish Sauce, minced garlic, 
and – what you don’t see – plenty of additional spices and seasonings and salt and pepper.
As if that wasn’t enough food, we also thawed some shrimp 
and stirred up some cocktail sauce of ketchup and horseradish.
Then I started baking Peanut Butter Cookies, a family favorite of my BF
and his brother, who would be there. All in all, we put together quite a spread.
In the center sat my little splurge of a centerpiece: a $2.99 mini daffodil.
Nacho, unsure what to think of this sudden surge of cleaning, cooking and company, 
hides under the table until he recognizes a friend he can snuggle up to on the couch.

 And let’s not forget the liquor to wash it all down. The list was quite extensive, 
since we were playing a Super Bowl Drinking Game, so we made our own Drink Menu.

Super Bowl 2013 Drinking Game:
During the Super Bowl, drink when:
1. You hear the name “Harbaugh” – which is any mention of either head coach.
2. Either team scores any points.
3. Colin Kaepernick does his “Bicep Kiss”
4. You see a half-naked girl on a GoDaddy commercial.
5. Ray Lewis is seen praying, crying, or screaming (for any reason).

And, as an eco-friendly reminder for any party – especially one with a drinking game:

Filed Under: Food, snacks+apps Tagged With: , , ,

Sunday Eve Picnic: Mini Wine & Cheese Party

January 28, 2013 by
Today became “Use Up All the Gift Cards Weighing Down Your Wallet” Day.
Fueled by a scrambled egg/bacon/English muffin breakfast from The Shore Restaurant followed by a couple of West End Tavern Bloody Marys, we headed to Great Northern Mall.
First stop: DSW, where I stretched a $25 gift card (and then some) into two pairs of brown heels on clearance.
Next: Best Buy, where I lumped three gift cards toward a Magic Wand scanner.
Then: When starting to feel almost shopped-out, a quick stop by Starbucks cleared out the few dollars left on my Starbucks gift card with a Skinny Vanilla Latte. For the record, the taste difference between this and the Caramel Macchiato is as massive as the caloric gap.
Last stop: A tour through World Market, where a gift card more than pulled together a mini wine & cheese party for a Sunday evening picnic on the rug.
For less than $12, we present: Smoked Salmon Pate ($3.99); Sesame Water Crackers ($1.49); Sweet Mustard ($1.99); Spicy Sausage ($1.49); Tomato & Basil Cheese ($1.49); and Jalapeno Jack Cheese ($1.49). Paired with a $16 bottle of Cline Cashmere wine.
What a spread! The only thing I’d do differently is buy two of everything and turn a snack into a feast.
I noticed that the can of salmon pate didn’t expire for another 4 years, and the other foods were equally packaged to last, no refrigeration required. My plan is to restock, and prepare the classiest supply of long-term, protein-packed survival food you’ve ever seen.
Forget tuna and beef jerky – I’m going out in style, like this:
Filed Under: Around Town, Food, shopping, snacks+apps, wine Tagged With: , ,

“Double Treat” Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 27, 2012 by
I don’t need bookmarks in my cookbooks. They naturally fall open to the most oft-used pages, guided by oil stains and batter splatters and clouds of flour.
The page where this Double Treat Cookie recipe is located is one of these.
  
These come from the one and only Church Cookbook: the blue-covered “Brethren Favorites From Yellow Creek” compiled by members of Yellow Creek Church of the Brethren in Goshen, Indiana. I received my own copy of it (at last!) on my 23rd birthday by my mom.
It didn’t happen right away, but over the years, page 85 has become stained with grease and splotches of dough from various stages of mixing.  (You’re probably beginning to understand, now, why my sister doesn’t like me baking in her kitchen – or, at least, leaving behind the aftermath of my baking.)
I think my go-to chocolate chip cookies are still the chocolate chip pudding cookies (four pages before this recipe in the same cookbook), but I think the pudding mix starts to bring back bad memories of overabundant Amish Friendship Bread starters….More recently, my common chocolate chip cookie craving is accompanied by a peanut butter hunger. And those times call for these cookies.

Double Treat Cookies

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (2 sticks butter)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1 package (12 oz) chocolate chips
1 cup chopped peanuts, optional (I’ll pass, thanks.)
Beat together shortening, sugars, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
Blend in peanut butter. Add dry ingredients.
Add chocolate chips (and peanuts, if you wish.)
Shape dough into small balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet (of course, I always use a silicone baking mat.) Flatten with the bottom of a glass that’s been dipped in sugar. Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes.
Makes about 4 dozen.

Filed Under: cookie recipes, dessert recipes, Food Tagged With: ,

AFB Chocolate Coconut Cream Cake

May 21, 2012 by
If you don’t know what Amish Friendship Bread is, then you didn’t grow up in the Midwest. If you’ve never had the daily task of “squishing” the bag, I’m not going to try to explain it to you. Just read this description from Friendship Bread Kitchen.
FBK is the ultimate site when it comes to AFB – even though the public posting of the supposed-to-be-secret original starter recipe probably tore a whole somewhere in the universe. But after one loaf of the original recipe loaf of AFB, you’ll get sick of the same ol’. Discovering this site – with hundreds of recipes to turn that gooey goop into the fanciest of cupcakes, muffins, scones, pancakes and other carbalicious delights – turns a tiresome pattern into a master chef experiment. 
So during my AFB starter possession, every time I saw a sale on Jell-O (one of the required ingredients in any AFB variation), I’d grab a few. And once I was stocked up on vanilla and chocolate, I’d go more exotic – or, in this case, tropical.
I give you:
Amish Friendship Bread Chocolate Coconut Cream Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 small boxes of coconut cream instant pudding
1/2 cup coconut flakes
Glaze
1 cup chocolate chips, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup coconut flakes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325° F. I don’t know why this always is always the first step in a recipe, because it’s never the first thing I do.

In a large mixing bowl – for the sake of reminiscing, I recommend using vintage Pyrex – add the ingredients above. Yeah, directions aren’t really necessary for this recipe.

Grease two 8 x 8 pans, or line cupcake tins with liners like I did. Pour the batter evenly into whatever pans you’re using.

Bake for one hour – or, like, half that – until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While it’s cooling, mix the glaze. I made mine thicker, like a frosting. Once the cake cools, frost it up and top it off with coconut.

Filed Under: cake recipes, dessert recipes, Food Tagged With: , ,

BBQ Chicken Pizza

May 11, 2012 by
Dinner Idea #1: Fettuccine Alfredo with seafood…but no butter means no alfredo sauce.
Dinner Idea #2: The boyfriend suggests BLTs. Again. Promptly vetoed with a scowl.
Dinner Idea #3: Pizza, the constant fall-back. He suggests Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza. But no ranch means no chicken bacon ranch pizza.
Dinner Idea #3.5: Sticking with the pizza, but how ’bout BBQ Chicken Pizza? Chicken, BBQ, crust, cheese, veggies – check!
Chicken BBQ Pizza
Filed Under: chicken recipes, dinner recipes, Food, pizza recipes

Seafood Pizza

April 23, 2012 by
Seafood Pizza:
shrimp + scallops + crab + bacon + red onion + garlic + white asparagus + jalapeno hollandaise
Filed Under: dinner recipes, Food, pizza recipes, seafood recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pistachio Cupcakes with Pink Champagne Frosting

April 6, 2012 by

My new boss is crazy about her birthday. One birthday celebration lasts until the next birthday. That kind of partying calls for the fanciest of cupcakes, especially when the birthday girl loves cake as much as I do.

I know she loves her birthday, and I know she loves cake. But there was one small problem: I wasn’t sure what kind of cake. With aspirations of fanciness, I couldn’t settle for just chocolate. So, through Facebook, I sent her boyfriend on a covert op to find out, and he reported back the results: pistachio.

I found a lot of easy recipes for pistachio cupcakes, using white cake mix and pistachio pudding. That might cut it for some, but where’s the fun in that? I was raised to bake from scratch, and this festive occasion was certainly no exception. I want to bake pistachio cupcakes from scratch.

Some made-from-scratch recipes for pistachio cupcakes use pistachio extract or pistachio oil, and I don’t even know where to find those. I was considering substitutions until I finally tracked down this recipe that incorporates ground pistachios and almond extract, which tastes nutty just the same.

So, Pistachio Cupcake Recipe from Scratch, here we go. The directions for baking these cupcakes start from the top down, with this recipe for Pink Champagne Frosting, which I found paired with pistachio cupcakes here.

I recommend starting the frosting before you start making the cupcakes. The very first task is simmering 1/2 cup of champagne to reduce it to a couple tablespoons, making your champagne extract. I used Dibon Brut, but a rose would probably be nice. There, you have homemade champagne extract to sub into the frosting recipe, ’cause I dunno where you’d find that in a store.
how to make champagne exxtract for pink champagne frosting

 

 

But wait — you’ve just popped a bottle of champagne only to use half a cup, and you know it won’t keep. What to do? This is actually smart planning by the baker, because this way you can sip some bubbly while you bake. You also need to cook then chill the first few frosting ingredients, so you can work on the cupcakes while the frosting cools and you throw back a few.
Here’s the full recipe for Pink Champagne Frosting (of course, you can make it any color you want.)

Champagne Frosting Recipe:

  • 2 1/2 sticks butter
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/3 cup half + half
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons champagne extract
  • 1/2 tablespoon vanilla

In a saucepan, whisk half + half, extracts and flour until the lumps disappear. (Instead of half + half, I mixed heavy whipping cream and 2% milk after teaching myself the substitutionality of dairy.) Then, heat the saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until it boils. Keep whisking and cooking until it thickens. Remove from heat and stick in fridge.

I recommend making the cupcakes now while this cools. We’ll come back to the rest of the frosting directions at the end.

Now, for the cupcakes, the first step is to ground the pistachios, which I bought shelled to save some work. As you can see, my method for grounding nuts is the same way I crush ice: with a Ziploc bag and a hammer. Good aggression release, too. If you don’t need to release any aggression, you could always buy ground pistachios to start with, but I like having extra pistachios, extra coarsely ground, to top the cupcakes.
Tackle the rest of your baking prep work now, too: heat the oven to 350 and line cupcake tins with adorable papers, like these from Paula Deen (and she’d be proud, because together, these two recipes use almost a whole box of butter.)
a balanced diet is a cupcake in each hand paula deen cupcake liner
You’ll have several different bowls going to stir up your ingredients for pistachio cupcakes, so clear some space. Here’s a list of all the ingredients you’ll need to make room for:
Pistachio Cupcake Recipe from Scratch:
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/3 cup ground pistachios
The first bowl is for dry ingredients. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into this one.
flour salt dry ingredients for baking pistachio cupcakes from scratch
In bowl No. 2, whisk milk and egg whites. Of course, I only use free range, hormone-free brown eggs (right from the coop when I can) and milk just as fresh, local and natural in jugs I can return to be refilled. Keep that in bowl #2.
eggs and milk baking pistachio cupcake recipe
 Now get bowl No. 3 (the dirty dishes are stacking up in your mind,  I know, but it’s worth it),
beat the sugar and butter for about 3 minutes, till creamy.
pistachio cupcake ingredients
Beat the ground nuts and almond extract into this bowl with the sugar and butter.
pistachio cupcake nut
Now, you alternate ingredients from the three bowls you’ve collected. Into a fourth and final bowl, beat in a third of the dry ingredients, then beat in a third of the milk mixture, then a third of the nutty butter, and so on, until it’s all mixed together. Keep beating for a couple minutes to make sure it’s good and blended.
Spoon the batter into your prepared cupcake tins, between 1/2 and 2/3 full. Pop into your heated oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cupcakes are springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let them cool while you finish whipping up your cooled frosting.
Start by beating the butter and sugar 5-7 minutes until it’s fluffy and glossy. Take your cooled mixture from the fridge and add it to this. Beat 5 minutes. Add color, if you want, and frost. I added red and blue food coloring to make the frosting purple, my boss’s favorite color. Because this is such fluffy frosting, I packed it into a Ziploc bag, nipped the tip, and used that to pipe the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes.
To finish, I ground some extra pistachios to sprinkle on top. The green and purple look really springy, great for an early April birthday.
Ta-da: Purple Pistachio Party Cakes.
pistachio cupcakes with pink champange frosting from scratch
So, you’re dying to know: What did she think? She was speechless. But maybe that was because her boyfriend orchestrated her birthday, down to the flavor of the cupcakes, all the way from Afghanistan. When it came down to the cupcakes, though, her reaction was simply one word: Perfect. She snapped this delicious picture of her Purple Pistachio Birthday Cupcake, before swiftly devouring it.pistachio cupcake recipe from scratch with pink champagne frosting
Filed Under: cupcake recipes, dessert recipes, Food Tagged With: , , ,

Banana Beer Bread

March 10, 2012 by
When I need to get rid of brown bananas, I think banana bread. When I think bread,
I think beer. Why not banana beer bread? What a lesson to be learned.I found this recipe for Vegan Banana Beer Bread here. Is beer really vegan though? I mean, I guess it’s more vegan than the milk and eggs it replaces in the banana bread recipe, but still, I’m skeptical.

No matter. On to baking…

I’m not usually this organized. But the fact that I could comfortably fit all seven ingredients,
plus the dishes for making this recipe, onto my tiny little counter for one photo shoot, is impressive.
Of course, the first step is setting the oven to 350 degrees.
Then mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) in one bowl.
Into the second bowl goes the other ingredients: half a stick of butter…
…and a mashed banana. The browner they are, the mushier they are,
so they’re easily destroyed with a fork. Good aggression relief, too.
Next comes the best part: das Bier. All I have in my fridge, still, is
Great Lakes Christmas Ale (stocked up for my own Christmas in July.)
I take several swigs off the top, then pour about 3/4 of a bottle into the dough.
Stir it up and stick it in.
Only one empty bowl to clean while the bread bakes for an hour.

Recipe for Banana Beer Bread

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 bottle beer

Results of Banana Beer Bread Recipe:
Apparently, as the original recipe states, the type of beer does matter. I’ve seen other similar recipes call for dark beer specifically, where this one recommended wheat beer. Christmas Ale is not a wheat beer, in fact, it’s pretty darn dark. A little too dark for this recipe, I think, even though I didn’t put in the entire bottle it called for.

I had problems with this baking evenly – which very well could be blamed in part on an oven that heats unevenly. But the crust of this bread was getting crispy while the insides just stayed gooey.

Once the insides settled, they tasted good, but I just couldn’t proudly present a loaf that looked burnt. So I cut off the too-done bottom and flipped the bread over to serve. It seemed more like a coffee cake this way, but still a little heavy on the beer — and this is me talking.

Recommendations for next time: Use a light beer, and no more than 3/4 of a bottle of it. Worth another shot.

Filed Under: Food, snacks+apps Tagged With: ,

Homemade Eggs Benedict

February 25, 2012 by

Now that my boyfriend learned how to make hollandaise sauce for Valentine’s Day, this was inevitable. Quick — word association: You hear “hollandaise,” you think _________. Yes, Eggs Benedict.

It meant a quick trip to Nature’s Bin for milk and English muffins. Only one option for each: fat-free skim milk straight from the farm, and organic whole-wheat muffins with flaxseed. A little more expensive than I like to get, but knowing I’m not polluting my body is worth the extra dollars.

Here’s the lineup, from bottom up: English muffins, organic spinach, Black Label bacon, sliced avocados, sliced roma tomatoes, all topped off with poached eggs (free range brown, of course) and drizzled with whole-wheat hollandaise. Served with bowls of mixed fruit (strawberries, blueberries and grapes) and organic green tea.

How’s that for an easy, healthy start to the day? As soon as my boyfriend posted this picture on his Facebook, a friend commented that they’d pay $12 for this at a restaurant.

So, who wants reservations at B&B Cafe?

Filed Under: breakfast recipes, Food Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cracker Munster Pork

February 25, 2012 by

Or: Why I Use the Cookbook in My Head More Than the Cookbooks on My Shelf.

I’ve been utterly addicted to Pinterest lately – the recipes, the craft ideas, the dream wardrobe I’ll never own. It feeds into my exploding collection of curated recipes. Between the cookbooks, the shared recipe cards, the food magazine cut-outs and the weekly foodie email newsletters, I probably have enough recipes to feed a family four times a day for the next four years.

How many of these recipes have I actually tried? A few dozen, perhaps.

It’s not unlike my library, where I keep buying books upon books upon books, from classics to journalism to scripts before they hit the big screen. How many of these have I actually read? A fraction. Does that stop me from buying more and more to fill up boxes in my mom’s attic because I can’t even fit my entire library in my life? Not for a second.

It must be the collector addict in me — not even the baker or the avid reader. Sure, baking and reading will happen with all these books and cookbooks laying around, but it is the collection that drives me, not the function of my collections.

When it comes down to it and I’m in the mood to experiment in the kitchen, chances are I’m not even going by a recipe. I’m taking what I have and throwing it in the pot.

Last night, with a surplus of fancy recipes looking on in jealousy, I experimented with the recipes in my head. I ended up with what I’d like to call Cracker Munster Pork, with quinoa.

I don’t know if you can even call this a recipe, so let’s just say in five easy steps…

Cracker Munster Pork

1. Coat pork chop in 1/2 tablespoon melted butter
2. Dredge in a mixture of crumbled Wheat Thin crackers and about 1 tablespoon flour.
3. Quickly fry in skillet for a few minutes on each side, enough to create a crust.
4. Then transfer to the oven and continue baking at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
5. Add slices of munster cheese on top and bake another 5 minutes until cheese melts.

Who needs fancy recipes when you can make up a hodgepodge dish that’s delicious?

Filed Under: dinner recipes, Food, pork recipes Tagged With: ,