Due to a QUICK trip to LA last weekend, I never got around to getting groceries this week, so we were winging it all week, in terms of meals. I had to stay late at school on Wednesday, so I didn't have much energy to come up with something brilliant to eat for supper. Luckily, I found some inspiration in the unlikely place of the lounge fridge. What did I see? Nachos and dip.
Whenever I feel the need for some dip, (and who doesn't feel this urge every once in a while?), I reach for my favorite dip recipe. Actually, "recipe," is a strong word. This is a very customizable recipe, if you want. But, I personally think it is best served in something that everyone can sit around and eat out of together :-) (And following the recipe is a funny clip from Jimmy Fallon about the beauty of dip at Super Bowl parties. :-)
The Dip
1. Brown 1 lb. hamburger and add taco seasoning according to packet directions. Add 1 can refried beans (or slightly mashed pinto beans in my case). Spread in the bottom of a 9x13 or equivalent pan.
2. Mix 1 c. sour cream with 1 c. mayo and spread over meat mixture. (I've also used ranch and plain yogurt, which is good as well.)
3. Spread chopped green onions and shredded cheddar cheese on top, as desired.
4. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.
5. Spread shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and/or salsa as desired on top. Serve.
Jimmy Fallon: It's called dip, not scoop!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Saucy!
When we were in Barcelona, we fell in love with tapas. (Which, when spoken audibly sounds a lot like "topless" we've learned. That's not what we fell in love with. :-) We loved the Spanish meal of appetizers so much that we did our best to recreate some of them at a picture party we hosted. Then, when a Groupon popped into my email offering 50% off at a tapas restaurant in Scottsdale, I was all over it, like a monkey on a cupcake, as a friend would say.
Last weekend, we finally decided to try out this restaurant, called Iruna. When we got there, Steve says the following to the waitress: "We're accustomed to European tapas. How does this compare to that?" I love that we can say that :-) While the ordering and presentation style was a bit different, the food was just as good. Ben adored the Manchego cheese with jamon, and we all really liked the Romesco sauce that came on several dishes, including asparagus and the trout. The tangy, crunchy red sauce prompted us to spend a chunk of time trying to identify the different ingredients in it.
Oddly enough, I'd had a Martha Stewart recipe for this sauce for quite a while, but since I didn't exactly know what it was, hadn't ever tried it. Luckily, our tapas trip enticed me to try it. Before I started, I looked up a different recipe on Allrecipes just to have a comparison and to see what others had said about it. I ended up going with the Allrecipes version, which turned out excellently, but I'm sure either works fine. I topped roasted vegetables with it, and I've read that others have used it as a dipping sauce for a variety of things, including bread, fresh veggies, etc. Hope you like this tangy sauce! :-)
Romesco Sauce
6 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 red bell pepper, quartered
12 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 c. olive oil
kosher salt to taste
1 slice bread
1/2 c. toasted whole almonds
2 T. red wine vinegar (up to 1/2 c. to taste)
1/2 t. Spanish paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease baking sheet. Place tomatoes, red pepper and garlic cloves onto prepared baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with soem of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, allowing to cool for 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooling, bake the bread slice on one of the oven racks until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.
2. Scrape the vegetables and and pan juices into a food processor or blender. Break the bread into pieces and add to the food processor, along with almonds, vinegar, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Puree until finely ground, then drizzle in the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Season to taste with additional salt if necessary.
Last weekend, we finally decided to try out this restaurant, called Iruna. When we got there, Steve says the following to the waitress: "We're accustomed to European tapas. How does this compare to that?" I love that we can say that :-) While the ordering and presentation style was a bit different, the food was just as good. Ben adored the Manchego cheese with jamon, and we all really liked the Romesco sauce that came on several dishes, including asparagus and the trout. The tangy, crunchy red sauce prompted us to spend a chunk of time trying to identify the different ingredients in it.
Oddly enough, I'd had a Martha Stewart recipe for this sauce for quite a while, but since I didn't exactly know what it was, hadn't ever tried it. Luckily, our tapas trip enticed me to try it. Before I started, I looked up a different recipe on Allrecipes just to have a comparison and to see what others had said about it. I ended up going with the Allrecipes version, which turned out excellently, but I'm sure either works fine. I topped roasted vegetables with it, and I've read that others have used it as a dipping sauce for a variety of things, including bread, fresh veggies, etc. Hope you like this tangy sauce! :-)
Romesco Sauce6 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 red bell pepper, quartered
12 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 c. olive oil
kosher salt to taste
1 slice bread
1/2 c. toasted whole almonds
2 T. red wine vinegar (up to 1/2 c. to taste)
1/2 t. Spanish paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease baking sheet. Place tomatoes, red pepper and garlic cloves onto prepared baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with soem of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, allowing to cool for 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooling, bake the bread slice on one of the oven racks until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.
2. Scrape the vegetables and and pan juices into a food processor or blender. Break the bread into pieces and add to the food processor, along with almonds, vinegar, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Puree until finely ground, then drizzle in the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Season to taste with additional salt if necessary.
Saucy!
When we were in Barcelona, we fell in love with tapas. (Which, when spoken audibly sounds a lot like "topless" we've learned. That's not what we fell in love with. :-) We loved the Spanish meal of appetizers so much that we did our best to recreate some of them at a picture party we hosted. Then, when a Groupon popped into my email offering 50% off at a tapas restaurant in Scottsdale, I was all over it, like a monkey on a cupcake, as a friend would say.
Last weekend, we finally decided to try out this restaurant, called Iruna. When we got there, Steve says the following to the waitress: "We're accustomed to European tapas. How does this compare to that?" I love that we can say that :-) While the ordering and presentation style was a bit different, the food was just as good. Ben adored the Manchego cheese with jamon, and we all really liked the Romesco sauce that came on several dishes, including asparagus and the trout. The tangy, crunchy red sauce prompted us to spend a chunk of time trying to identify the different ingredients in it.
Oddly enough, I'd had a Martha Stewart recipe for this sauce for quite a while, but since I didn't exactly know what it was, hadn't ever tried it. Luckily, our tapas trip enticed me to try it. Before I started, I looked up a different recipe on Allrecipes just to have a comparison and to see what others had said about it. I ended up going with the Allrecipes version, which turned out excellently, but I'm sure either works fine. I topped roasted vegetables with it, and I've read that others have used it as a dipping sauce for a variety of things, including bread, fresh veggies, etc. Hope you like this tangy sauce! :-)
Romesco Sauce
6 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 red bell pepper, quartered
12 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 c. olive oil
kosher salt to taste
1 slice bread
1/2 c. toasted whole almonds
2 T. red wine vinegar (up to 1/2 c. to taste)
1/2 t. Spanish paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease baking sheet. Place tomatoes, red pepper and garlic cloves onto prepared baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with soem of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, allowing to cool for 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooling, bake the bread slice on one of the oven racks until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.
2. Scrape the vegetables and and pan juices into a food processor or blender. Break the bread into pieces and add to the food processor, along with almonds, vinegar, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Puree until finely ground, then drizzle in the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Season to taste with additional salt if necessary.
Last weekend, we finally decided to try out this restaurant, called Iruna. When we got there, Steve says the following to the waitress: "We're accustomed to European tapas. How does this compare to that?" I love that we can say that :-) While the ordering and presentation style was a bit different, the food was just as good. Ben adored the Manchego cheese with jamon, and we all really liked the Romesco sauce that came on several dishes, including asparagus and the trout. The tangy, crunchy red sauce prompted us to spend a chunk of time trying to identify the different ingredients in it.
Oddly enough, I'd had a Martha Stewart recipe for this sauce for quite a while, but since I didn't exactly know what it was, hadn't ever tried it. Luckily, our tapas trip enticed me to try it. Before I started, I looked up a different recipe on Allrecipes just to have a comparison and to see what others had said about it. I ended up going with the Allrecipes version, which turned out excellently, but I'm sure either works fine. I topped roasted vegetables with it, and I've read that others have used it as a dipping sauce for a variety of things, including bread, fresh veggies, etc. Hope you like this tangy sauce! :-)
Romesco Sauce6 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 red bell pepper, quartered
12 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 c. olive oil
kosher salt to taste
1 slice bread
1/2 c. toasted whole almonds
2 T. red wine vinegar (up to 1/2 c. to taste)
1/2 t. Spanish paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease baking sheet. Place tomatoes, red pepper and garlic cloves onto prepared baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with soem of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, allowing to cool for 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooling, bake the bread slice on one of the oven racks until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.
2. Scrape the vegetables and and pan juices into a food processor or blender. Break the bread into pieces and add to the food processor, along with almonds, vinegar, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Puree until finely ground, then drizzle in the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Season to taste with additional salt if necessary.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Kisses for Cupcakes!
On Thursday, as I finished preparing ingredients for the meal I was cooking for friends the following night, (chopping, cooking beans, etc.), I checked to see if I could do anything in advance for the dessert I was making. I opened up the cookbook, and realized I was missing a few key ingredients, namely cream cheese. Since I refused to go out to buy ingredients, I looked for something else that might suit.Since I'd been jonesing for chocolate lately, this recipe for Brownie Kiss Cupcakes (recipe and photo from Taste of Home) caught my eye. I had all the ingredients on hand, so I was good to go. I mixed everything up but the baking powder that night (it was a VERY thick batter) and put it in the fridge. The next day, I mixed in the baking powder, put them in muffin tins and plopped in the left over Christmas Hershey's Kisses, and put them in the oven. As I was making Mexican Bean & Barley soup, I kept trying to smell the soup to see if it needed anything additional, but all I could smell was the brownie cupcakes, and they smelled amazing! They turned out that way too :-) Dense and chocolatey from all the cocoa, with a nice melty chocolate kiss in the middle for fun as well! Next time you need a chocolate break, this is the ticket!
Brownie Kiss Cupcakes
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
9 Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped
Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. In separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Combine both mixtures. Fill greased muffin tin (or use muffin papers) with batter, about 2/3 full. Place an inverted Hershey's Kiss into the top of the batter of each cupcake. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Creamy + Puffy = Cream Puffs!
As a kid, my health-conscious mom had a food pyramid posted on the fridge at some point. My "I've been working up a farmer's appetite in the field all day" dad added his own base to the pyramid. Under the original base of grains on the old food pyramid, he had penciled in the most important category that had apparently been inadvertently left off of the list: the Donuts, Pancakes, and Cream Puffs category. :-) Cream puffs are one of Dad's favorite desserts, and therefore something we had occasionally as a treat and something I learned to make.I didn't think this was anything unusual until I began making them for friends after I got out of college. I got rave reviews, and people thought they were so impressive! Even better, they're SO easy with Grandma's recipe, with just 4 ingredients. Hence, when my friend Steve decided it was time to learn to bake, he wanted to learn to make cream puffs. So, tonight, he made them while I "supervised." They turned out marvelously!
Here's Grandma's recipe:
Cream Puffs
1 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sifted flour
4 eggs
(pinch of salt, optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat water and butter in medium saucepan until boiling. Stir in flour. Keep on burner, stirring constantly until mixture forms a ball (about 1 1/2 minutes). Remove from heat. Cool 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time until smooth and velvety. Drop from spoon onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake until they appear dry, about 30-35 minutes. Cool. Store in dry place so they don't get soggy. Cut in half. Fill with pudding, whipped cream, or a combination. Best eaten fresh. Yield: 8 large or 12 small puffs.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Love me some Colbert!
That Stephen Colbert. I'm pretty sure he is the definition of sarcasm and irony (and my parents will verify that I know a thing or 2 about sarcasm, particularly around age 14). Check out this clip from an episode in which he back-handedly describes why some politicians have no familiarity with the life of Jesus and how he told us to help the poor. Enjoy the satire :-)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat | ||||
| ||||
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Holiday Baking
As stated previously, I did quite a bit of holiday cooking this week. My favorites are the simplest ones. I'm always a bit skeptical of recipes that have 5 ingredients or less, as some cookbooks like to promote, because I usually end up adding all the seasonings they have apparently deleted, or something else along this line. However, with the following two recipes, simplicity makes these the best ever. The first thing, shortbread, is something I began making several years ago because I often heard of it around Christmas but hadn't had it, so I found a recipe and tried it. Turns out, they're amazing! Not necessarily super-attractive (I had to jazz them up with cookie cutters and sprinkles), but it makes a beautiful dough (you'll understand if you make it) and they are SO good, SO simple (3 ingredients!) and a little unhealthy. :-) But hey, it's the holidays! (By the way, these are way, way, better than sugar cookies.)
Scottish Shortbread
2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar, packed
4 1/2 c. flour
Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugar together. Add 3 3/4 c. flour and mix well. Sprinkle board with remaining flour, and knead dough for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll the dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips or cut out shapes. Prick several times with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Yield: 3-4 dozen
The second simple sensation (man, I love alliteration!) is toffee. For some reason, the image that remains in my mind is from when I made this at home a few years ago. We broke it up and put it into a big Grinch mug (yeah, that's how we roll), and ate it up while we played Settlers of Catan, a family favorite :-) While candy might seem complicated, it only assumes you can do one thing: boil stuff. And that is really all there is to this: boil 3 things together until it gets to 285 degrees (use a candy thermometer), spread it in a pan, put chocolate chips on top, sprinkle nuts on top, and done! Give it a shot! It's definitely a Christmas classic in my house now!
Super Easy Toffee
2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
2 c. chocolate chips
1 c. finely chopped nuts
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Combine butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Heat until butter has melted, bring mixture to a boil. Stir occasionally while mixture boils, until it turns a dark amber color, and reaches 285 degrees on a candy thermometer. [Watch carefully.] Immediately pour into prepared pan. Spread into pan with spatula. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and allow to warm 2-3 minutes. Spread melted chocolate over toffee with spatula. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of chocolate and press down so they don't fall off. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours. Remove foil, break into pieces and store in airtight container.
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