Posts Tagged ‘cooking’

Tropical Dream Cupcakes

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

So I had this idea for a cupcake, I had been tinkering with the idea of strawberry cupcakes with Malibu butter cream frosting. I decided that the last time I had a strawberry cupcake it was too strong and fake tasting.  Today was the day I decided to come home and give this recipe a try.  I have to say I LOVE THEM!!!

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Cupcakes

1          Strawberry boxed cake mix
1 c.     Pineapple (used crushed in natural juice, I got about 1/4 cup of just juice out and put the fruit in the mini-processor)
1/3c.  Oil
3         Eggs

Mix and bake as per box instructions.  I didn’t want there to be stringy pieces of pineapple in my cupcakes so I used the food processor to get more of a puree.  I am sure you could do this either way.

Once the cupcakes are cooled frost!

Frosting

6 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 c. of Coconut flavored rum (may take more or less)
1 tbl of clear vanilla
1.5  sticks of butter at room temp
Pinch of salt

Beat the butter with a mixer slowly add powdered sugar alternating with the liquid. I actually started with 4 cups, 1 stick and 6 TBL of rum but it wasn’t enough for the 20 cupcakes (yeah this time I didn’t get 2 dozen).  If you thought that wasn’t going to be enough I would use 2 lb sugar, 2 sticks of butter, the same run & Vanilla and do the rest of your thinning with milk. 

Now frost those bad boys and ENJOY!!

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Lemon Ginger Sorbetto

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Last summer I made Lemon Ginger Sorbetto probably for the same reason I am making it now.  I needed a lemon and had to buy an entire bag.  :D   Last year I worked so hard scraping the freezing concoction every 30 minutes while this year I cheated and used the ice cream maker.  Gotta love technology.  This is a very refreshing and pallet cleansing dish.  Even my mom liked it!

Really what you need:

1 Cup Sugar
6 Tbl Honey
3 Cups Water
1 Cup Lemon Juice (about 8, but you can measure and I filled in with the bottled stuff)
2″ peice of ginger

What you need to do:

Boil/heat water so it will dissolve the sugar.  Add the honey.  LET IT COOL!  Meanwhile grate the 2″ piece of ginger into a nice little square of cheese cloth.  TWIST, TWIST and TWIST to squeeze out 1 TBL of ginger juice.  Once the hot liquid is cool (and by cool I recommend putting it in the fridge till it’s COLD)  stir it all together and dump into your ice cream maker (follow its instructions) OR put into a shallow dish and scrape with a fork every 30 minutes.

So what’s really fun to do?  Hollow out several of the lemon halves, make nice thin strips of lemon peel with a few and save your self a slice or two.  Freeze the 1/2 lemons to make cups and serve your sorbetto in that with a lemon twist and mint leaf on the side.

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Banana Paletas

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Last summer I discovered Mexican Popsicles, Paletas while watching TV.  There was a restaurant that sold them in any flavor you wanted.  Funny that place is in Nashville, TN.  Las Paletas.  When it’s hot out everyone wants something cool and refreshing but what I discovered was that fruit bars and diet ice cream bars were not all the healthy and were loaded with calories.  So I thought I would give this Paletas thing a try. 

So easy! You will be glad you took the time to make them.  I actually have 3 or 4 molds so that I can make a big batch of them all at once.  Today let’s explore Banana Paletas.  Bananas are a good source of potassium which is probably important as you wear yourself out working in the blazing heat.

Here is all you need:

Popsicle mold (4-6)
2             ripe bananas
1/4 c     Sugar
1 t.         Vanilla
1 c          Milk  (I used 2% cause that is what we like)

Today  got lazy and put it all in the blender. 
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Sometimes I just mash them in a measuring cup and stir until sugar is dissolved. It’s really hard to credit this recipe to anywhere because everywhere has it.  So you are asking yourself  “Where is the Tammy addition?”  Well it’s actually in the assembly of our paletas.  What goes with bananas? Chocolate and Peanut butter.  So fill the molds about 1/4 full then drizzle in chocolate syrup and softened peanut butter (about 15 seconds for a tablespoon in the microwave).  Add more paleta mix and drizzle again if you like.  You will not be disappointed.

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Strawberries and Chocolate Shortcakes

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

So I am really far behind.  I can’t really come up with a reason except that I just lost my motivation.  Suddenly things are picking up around here and instead of doing something constructive I am going to give you a special treat!

I love strawberry shortcake and since NOW is the time to get your fresh strawberries it just felt like a good idea to seek out a recipe for chocolate short cakes.  You know nothing goes better with strawberries than whipped cream and chocolate.  After making adaptions twice to a recipe I found in FOODTV magazine I finally think I found one worthy of sharing.  Next time I will add both baking soda and powder to see if I can get a little lighter taller version.  Warning it looks like devils food but is dense. 

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Beef Vegetable Soup

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

With KLT living most of the time in Nashville cooking has just about come to a halt around here.  Why cook for just me?  Who wants to eat left overs for weeks on end?  This has really lead me to research cooking for the purpose of preserving.  Most importantly freezing.  This has been a great adventure and at least I make an excuse to cook which is something I love and most importantly I actually eat.  So Beef Veggie Soup sounded like a good idea to work in before the weather breaks and it becomes too warm for soup. 

I started with a large arm roast, yes it was some Charlie.
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Season with salt and pepper (or steak seasoning) and brown on both sides using an oven safe pan. 

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Add you basic vegetables used for making stock  Onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and seasonings (bay leaves, more salt and pepper, tyme you pick the mix) and water.  Place lid on and put in oven (350 degrees) until meat is tender, depending on size an hour.  This one was probably in the oven 2 – 2.5 hours.  WARNING:  Your house will smell totally awesome and cause hunger.  ;)

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Strain out veggies and unfortunately discard (feeding them to the dogs is an option) reserve the stock this is the base of your soup. Place meat on plate and cool. Once cool shred the meat or cut into chucks as you prefer. In our soup it’s shredded. Now to make the soup. Here is where your imagination can run wild adding your vegetables. I had an entire bag of frozen mixed veggies that needed a use otherwise I would be cutting veggies at this point. But add what you like. I added extra corn and green beans because those are my favorites. You can also cube potatoes and even add a few tomatoes. Today it’s just the mix, a potato or two and the beef. Noodles of your choice would also be a great option, even barley is nice. Bring your broth/stock to a boil and add veggies, noodles, potatoes and cook until tender. Add your shredded beef and serve.

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To store for use later after the soup is cool, I waited until the next day. Place in vacuum seal bags, seal and freeze flat. To serve thaw (place in a bowl of hot water until breakable) and place in pot on med – low heat until warm.

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Irish Carbomb Cup Cakes

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Well Deb over at Smitten Kitchen posted this Irish Carbomb Cup Cake recipe  she had made these for a friend.  Well KLT and I just LOVE IRISH CARBOMBS!!!  So of course I have to make these cup cakes.  Now I don’t want to ruin it for you but I was disappointed in the over all end product.  The cake part is great, the ganache is really wonderful and the Baileys Irish Cream frosting is AWESOME!  I just feel that the flavors are not evenly distributed enough.  KLT however likes the hidden surprise of ganache.  So what’s in store for Tammy?  I have 2 thoughts on this matter 1) try to incorporate this into a brownie and 2) make a bundt cake, cut across middle, make mote and stuff with frosting, replace and top cake with ganache — possible to just serve with a Baileys whipped cream on the side. 

So here it goes
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The cupcake

1 cup Guinness
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Bring  stout and butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth and cool slightly. Blend  flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl, set aside. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. This made a really dark looking batter and it was thicker than a regular box mix.  Fill muffin cups and bake 350 degrees ~17 minutes.  Test with cake tester, done when it returns clean.

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Once the cupcakes are cool you can start the ganache, but the ganache does need time to cool before putting into the cupcakes.  Ganache needs to be cool enough and firm enough to put into a pipping bag.

The ganache filling

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Place chocolate into a heat proof bowl.  Heat cream to a simmer and pour over chocolate, stir until smooth.  Add butter an whisky stir until smooth. Let cool

Prepare the cupcakes for ganache.  Using an apple corer or small cookie cutter cut out the center leaving 1/3 of the cake in the bottom.  This is comical because if you have ever aerated your lawn these little plugs look familiar.

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Here are my cupcakes some with the holes and others waiting their turn.

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Once ganache and cupcakes have cooled it’s time to fill them.  Fill the hole with ganache with the aid of a pastry bag, don’t have one Sandra Lee says just a zip top plastic bag with the corner snipped off. 

Now you are ready for Frosting.  This frosting SMELLS very strong, taste wonderful but is not strong.  Just a warning if you were thinking about taking them to work. 

3 to 4 cups confections sugar (sift if using older bags of sugar, I don’t bother with new bags)
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (believe me I went heavy)

Using your electric mixer is easiest, mix the butter and sugar until smooth drizzle in Baileys. 

Frost your cupcakes!!! Now enjoy!!!

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Ahhhh Garlic

Friday, February 6th, 2009

I am annoyed at every grocery retailer in town. REALLY ANNOYED! I love garlic and I love to cook with garlic. Now of course there are many garlic options in the grocery store you can buy whole cloves of garlic peeled and in a jar, it’s a great convenience but they tend to go bad prematurely and are a bit expensive. There are even glass containers of already pressed/minced garlic and they come mostly packed in oil. This is a nice substitute to have around and has a pretty good shelf life. Then there is the “FRESH” garlic and the root of all my anger. Every store in town that I purchase garlic from has ripped me off by selling me crap that is growing. When I pick garlic out I tear back some of the paper and look for little green nubs protruding from the cloves this tells me that the garlic is growing and will taste bitter which is not at all what one is looking for in their cooking. I will even smell the head of garlic looking for the foul smell of garlic going bad. So I am relatively picky which one would think comes in pretty handy, but in fact it does not. I have gotten home many times and within two day had my garlic turn to crap. In my last garlic adventure my local Kroger didn’t have any bulk garlic so I bought one of those “organic” packages that contains 3-4 small heads of garlic. HAHAHAHAHH! Upon opening the package I found that two of the heads were molded. I did return this package to the store for a full refund.

And that brings us to the day I bought an OMG amount of garlic. My local warehouse club had these very large packages of garlic upon inspection I found them to be nice tight heads of a fairly decent size, they smelled good and they didn’t appear to be growing. It was ~$3 or so which didn’t seem like to much to pay if I could actually get some decent garlic for a change. But what does one do with this much garlic?

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Well step on is to google for proper methods of preserving garlic. Wow! That was a learning experience. First interesting find is that storing garlic in oil is a no-no. Garlic contains bacteria and olive oil is not acidic enough to prevent growth. You can store in oil short term in the fridge but this is not the type of solution we are looking for. You can pickle – ewe! Then there is freezing, roasting, and drying which in fact are the options I have chosen.

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Guinness French Onion Soup

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

I love French Onion Soup and have tried many different variations and even tried it at many different restaurants. Over time I have resolved that there are certain things that I prefer. Like toasted bread instead of fresh, I also like to cut it into cubes and place it in the bottom instead of floating a slice on top. My cheese of choice is Monterrey Jack. I do have some ideas that I would like to try once I have a fancy cheese outlet.

Ingredients:

Guinness Beer – most of one bottle
Onions, sliced or julian which ever makes you happy
cloves of garlic – 4 cloves chopped, pressed which ever is easier
Salt & Pepper to taste
reduced sodium beef broth and chicken broth, for this batch 3-4 small cans work well
Monterrey Jack cheese – shredded
French bread – cubed and toasted
Worcestershire – just a couple dashes, adds a smokey flavor
Pinch of oregano – 1/2 teaspoon (or to taste)
Canadian Steak Seasoning – 1/2 teaspoon (do to lack of other spices)
1-2 bay leaves
butter and oil for cooking onions
1 tablespoon of flour for thickening

So start by cubing up your bread and tossing it in the oven to toast. My tip is to leave the oven door open to help you keep an eye on the bread and avoid burning them.

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Now for the onions, I really enjoy using different types. White, yellow and sweet are the varieties available today. Stay away from the red onions, they turn a very funky color and are not very appealing to the eye.

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Slice, julian or what ever you like with the onions. Toss them, garlic, 1 tbl of butter and 1 tbl of olive oil, salt, pepper, and steak seasoning into a stock pot and cook until they are caramelized. Be sure to get those brown bits off the bottom of the pan they are the flavor! Once caramelized, stir in flour until absorbed by oil and butter then add 1/2 – 3/4 of a Guinness Beer. I have tried this with more and it is a very strong beer taste, reducing the amount of beer seems a bit better. This will help deglaze the pan, let this cook for a few minutes until bubbly.

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Now add your broths, bay leaf, Worcestershire and taste. You may need to add salt and pepper at this point.

Here are our bowls ready and our cheese grated.

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Assemble your goodness into an oven safe bowl (I am not sure that the ones here are so they were only briefly under the broiler therefore they were not that golden). Place them on a broiler safe sheet and place under the broiler until bubbly and golden brown.

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Now grab a spoon and enjoy!

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Christmas Day FOOD and lots of it

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Yes my post are all kinds of “out of order” and I apologize now.  I also will make it a New Year’s Resolution to get my butt back in gear and start cooking and writing again for my loyal readers. 

Christmas this year was without a doubt different and probably not one of our favorites.  I do however predict that in several years when we are standing in our OMG HUGE house with every family member and every friend we can stuff in there to enjoy Christmas us looking at each other and saying “remember in 2008 when we spent Christmas alone in that crummy apartment”.  We have each other and that’s enough!  I did pick us up an cute little fiber optic tree, sad cry from the normal “Tammy”  decorations.

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But it’s Christmas and I am pulling out all the stops for comfort and pure gluttony.  I started Wednesday by prepping for the sausage dressing and assembly of the breakfast casserole. 

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